Muhsin Ibrahim

By Sumayyah Auwal Ishaq

The 6th edition of the Kaduna Economic and Investment Summit (KADINVEST) has commenced this morning in Kaduna with Governor Nasiru Ahmad, El-Rufa’i, Minister of Water Resources, Eng. Sulaiman Hussain Adamu, Emir of Zazzau, Amb. Ahmad Nuhu Bamalli, Khalifa Muhammadu Sanusi II, among others, in attendance.

The theme of this year’s summit is “Towards a Knowledge-based Economy”. The Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbanjo, SAN, will serve as Special Guest while His Highness, Khalifa Muhammadu Sanusi II, serves as the Guest Speaker. Other speakers will include Prof. Celestine Monga and Prof. Benedict Oyeh Oramah.

By Muhammad Sabiu

The Plateau State government has debunked reports making rounds that two luxurious buses had been set ablaze in Jos.

The report indicated that 2 luxurious buses conveying about 156 Igbo passengers had been set on fire.

This is coming a few days after violence erupted, which saw about thirty people killed.

The violence led to the imposition of a 24-hour curfew in the Plateau State capital, Jos.

Debunking the purported story, Mr Lalong, in a statement signed by his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Dr Makut Simon Macham, said it“is purely the handiwork of crises merchants mischief-makers who want to create panic and instigate violence and fear among the people.

He added: “For the avoidance of doubt, the security situation in Plateau State is very much under control as security personnel have been deployed to all parts of Jos to enforce the 24-hour curfew still in force, as well as to ensure compliance with the dusk to dawn curfew in Jos South and Bassa LGAs.”

By Muhsin Ibrahim

The Argentinian star’s bonus contains $PSG Fan Tokens, a cryptocurrency created by and dedicated to the club. The French League 1 club, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), signed Lionel Messi after a long, successful career at FC Barcelona.

PSG did not clarify what percentage of the deal included the chips. However, reports indicate that they received a “large number” of them. Socios.com issues the token.

According to Le Figaro, a famous French daily newspaper, fan tokens are a cryptocurrency that allows holders to vote on mostly minor decisions related to their clubs.

The 35-year-old Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salam, alias MBS, initiates more radical changes in the kingdom hitherto known for its conservatism and strict adherence to Sharia.

In addition to barring loudspeakers from amplifying prayers and sermons at mosques and turning down the volume during calls to prayer, the Saudi government announced that shops, restaurants and other enterprises do not have to close anymore during prayer times. A government was reported to have declared that “Those days of inconvenience are now over.”

The MBS initiated liberalisations continue to reverberate around the kingdom while dissents are silenced.

According to two Saudi human rights groups, “When a little-known religious leader penned an online article criticising the decision by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, he was arrested, and his once-active Twitter account went silent.”

It is also reported that the government fired “many” Imams for not following an official directive to preach against the Muslim Brotherhood, which MBS-led Saudi Arabia has designated as a terrorist group.

A year ago, the government stripped the religious police of their powers to arrest people. Around the same time, women were granted the right to attend sporting events while removing gender segregation at restaurants, other events.

Sarah Dadouch of The Washington Post concludes thus, “Mohammed is rewriting the longtime power-sharing arrangement between the ruling family and the clerical establishment — a partnership that created the kingdom. Islam has remained a cornerstone of Saudi identity; the kingdom is the birthplace of the religion and hosts its two holiest sites in Mecca and Medina. The king’s official title is the custodian of the two holy mosques.

In some quarters, fears abound that the fabric of the kingdom is now 4unravelling. But those fears are rarely shared anymore, lest there be more arrests.”

A short video clip purportedly showing the trio of DCP Abba Kyari, bare-footed, greeting current and former governors of Borno State, Prof. Babagana Zulum and Sen. Kassim Shettima has gone viral on Nigerian cyberspace. Some people, including news media, allege that the two high-ranking politicians were at Kyari’s residence for a “solidarity visit” over his travails in recent days.

You may recall that super cop Abba Kyari was suspended by the Nigeria Police Commission over his alleged collaboration with Abass Ramon, aka Hushpuppi, and six others, in a $1.1m international fraud conspiracy.

An unsealed 69-page court document shows that DCP Kyari was under investigation by the FBI for his alleged link to Hushpuppi, who had pleaded guilty to fraud in a United States court in California. Subsequently, the FBI declares Kyari wanted and reportedly requested the Nigerian government for his extradition. However, he denies all charges in a Facebook post.

A Borno State government official confirmed to The Daily Reality that the video is neither new nor recorded at Kyari’s residence. Instead, it was taken at the house of the former governor, Kassim Shettima.

Looking more closely at the news on the television behind the trio, one can see the story about the release of the disgraced actor and comedian Bill Cosby. That happened on June 30, 2021, which means more than a month ago.

Moreover, the framed photo on the floor, beside a standing AC and behind Kyari, has Shettima and Zulum in it.

Conclusion: the video is FAKE as it loses its context. In other words, the video is, content-wise, genuine, but it is from an entirely different event, not the one flying on social media.

Following Sahara Reporters’ publication of Afenifere article wherein the famous migration of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) from Mecca to Medina was likened to that of Sunday Igboho, many Muslims on social media sever ties with the controversial online news medium.

Many Muslims describe the comparison as horrendous, awful and disrespectful. Sanusi Lafiagi, a lecturer of Islamic Studies at the Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Kwara State, criticises the article, adding that Sunday Igboho is “NOTHING compared to Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ)”.

The Muslims hurt by the article’s publication register their anger by “unliking” and “unfollowing” Sahara Reporters social media handles. The Daily Reality has been following the development closely and can confirm that Sahara Reporters has already lost several thousand fans.

Although the media house has tendered an apology and deleted the report from their website and all other social media handles, thousands continue to protest. Online petitions are being signed, hashtags created, and protest-themed profile photos added.

Pakistan Telecommunications Authority has, again, on Wednesday banned the popular video-sharing platform TikTok for the “continuous presence of inappropriate content on the platform and its failure to take such content down”.

Pakistan banned the platform for the same reason the first time in October 2020. However, TikTok assured the authorities that it would take measures to censor the contents deemed inappropriate. Days later, the ban was lifted.

Pakistan, an Islamic Republic and seen as conservative by many, blocked the app for the second and third time based on complaints from its citizens and under its Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016. This current ban is reportedly the fourth. However, India blocked the app for reportedly political-cum-diplomatic reasons.

In Nigeria, a social commentator, Muhammad Ubale Kiru, recently criticised the app for promoting “immorality” among northern Nigerian youth. A post he wrote on Facebook went viral in the region’s cyberspace. In reaction to Kiru’s post, several people called on the Nigerian government to ban the Chinese-origin app.

Since 2020, gun violence surges across U.S. cities. President Joe Biden describes the shooting surge as an “endemic” and promises to do everything within his power to end it.

As Newsweek reports, the Fourth of July weekend was the most violent in the United States so far this year. According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), which compiled data from cities across the country, “233 people were killed in the U.S. and hundreds more injured — from 5 p.m. Friday through Monday”.

The GVA data adds that the organisation is still gathering more information, indicating that the casualties figure can be much higher.

Mass shootings have a long history in the U.S. The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is, as they call themselves, “America’s longest-standing civil rights organisation”.

The powerful organisation advocates for people’s rights to own firearms, making it easier to procure guns in the United States. President Biden and his Democrat party are expected to challenge the NRA, which the Republicans largely back.

The All Poets Network (APN), in collaboration with the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) and Akweya Radio, organise one-day poetry writing workshop at the Department of Theatre and Performing Arts, Faculty of Communication, Bayero University, Kano. Dr Ola Ifatimehin, the head of the Department, will facilitate the workshop.

Engausa, a hybridised English-Hausa language, is used by many Hausa speakers in northern Nigeria. The language is gaining momentum, especially on social media. However, writing poetry in the same language is usually unconventional or even unwelcomed.

Announcing the workshop, Khalid Imam, the curator of APN, describes Engausa poetry as “a type of poetry which combines English and Hausa words in its expressions. It borrows from the vocabulary and cultural expressions of both languages to create imagery and tonality that colours and beautifies poetry in fresh modes.”

Dr Ifatimehin said that when he began writing such poetry, he was surprised to see that “so many people found it quite fascinating and some started writing as well.” He added that although there had been debates around it, it is catching on. Dr Ifatimehin disclosed to this reporter that “we have recently gotten funding to do an anthology”.

The Daily Reality is the first online news medium in Nigeria with a dedicated section on Engausa. Therefore, the company has promised to support this avant-garde movement and other creative writings in Engausa. The event will take place on 10th July 2021 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.

Record temperatures in British Columbia, Canada, and US cities, including Oregon, have resulted in the death of hundreds of people. The temperature reached up to 49.6°C (121.3F) on Sunday in parts of Canada, breaking a decades-old record.

The Oregon State Police said the state medical examiner’s office had received reports of 63 deaths. However, the heat is expected to subside by the weekend in most US cities.

The death toll is more devastating in Canada. According to a CNN report, at least 486 sudden deaths have been reported across the western coast of Canada near the US border.

“The 486 deaths currently entered represent a 195% increase over the approximately 165 deaths that would normally occur in the province over a five-day period,” British Columbia Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe said in a statement.

Experts warn against associating this directly to the climate change the world witnesses. Others say the two are connected like lung cancer is to smoking. They added that other parts of the world, too, see unpredictable weather conditions.

So far this year, northern Nigeria has recorded a low rainfall. As most farmers depend on the rain in the region, they expressed concern over the situation. Nigeria may face a food shortage as a result.