News

By Muhammadu Sabiu and Auwal Umar

Nigeria has received 31 tonnes of humanitarian help from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), including food and other necessities of life.

According to the UAE’s news agency, the assistance has been delivered to help Nigerians, primarily women and children, who were harmed by the recent floods that ravaged 34 of the country’s 36 states.

Dr Fahad Obaid Al Taffaq, UAE’s ambassador to Nigeria, said, “This is part of the UAE’s solidarity with Nigeria and its people in facing the impact of the floods and the casualties and material damages they caused.

“It reflects the close relations between the two countries and the leading role of the UAE in extending a helping hand to countries affected by natural disasters and the effects of climate change worldwide, including throughout Africa.”

This year, Nigeria saw the worst floods in ten years, which have been attributed to excessive rain and the discharge of the Lagdo dam in neighbouring Cameroon.

Over 600 people were killed, and 1,546 were injured by floods that occurred last month.

By Muhammadu Sabiu

Four brothels along Azikiwe Street, Mile 2 Diobu in Port Harcourt Local Government Area of Rivers State have been ordered to be sealed down by a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt.

After the federal government sued Cool Breeze Hotel and Royale Hotel, who were named as defendants, the court issued the order.

In order to execute the court order, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons was in Azikiwe Street on Friday with assistance from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps and court representatives.

Before the brothels were sealed off, their residents were evicted.

While granting an ex parte application from NAPTIP, the court also ordered that the brothels stay closed for 30 days while NAPTIP’s investigation is still ongoing.

The case was postponed until December 5, 2022, to allow for the investigative report.

On October 29, 2022, a team from the Nigerian Navy, NSCDC, and NAPTIP raided the Cool Breeze and Royale brothels. During the raid, some girls were rescued, including young girls who had been “forced” into prostitution. Suspected traffickers were also detained.

Nwamaka Ikediashi, the NAPTIP Commander in Rivers State, promised that after the investigation was finished, the accused would be brought before a judge.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

Comrade Yasir Abubakar, a 400 level law student of Bayero University Kano, has been elected the National President of the Law Student Association of Nigeria, LAWSAN.

The LAWSAN Electoral Committee, LECOM , declared Abubakar winner after he polled 30 votes in the election of the national executives of the association held at Swiss Spirit Hotel, Porthacourt on Friday night

Abubakar polled 30 votes to defeat his closest rival, Ann Lyam Iverem of Bingham University, Nasarawa, who polled 26 votes.

All efforts to reach the president-elect of the association as at the time of writing this report were futile.
However, Abdullahi Farouk , BUK LAWSAN President happily confirmed the development to the Daily Reality on Saturday morning.

According to Farouk, the victory is well deserved and they are grateful to God and Law students all over the country for the confidence in Abubakar.

He said: “We are extremely elated, It is a well deserved victory, because Yasir Abubakar has done his best, over the years he has served the association in different capacities, he has travelled across the regions and he has acquired all the skills necessary to steer the association to a greater height. We are grateful to God and the entire LAWSAN for reposing confidence in Yasir Abubakar. We assure you that you won’t regret choosing us.I pray that Allah make it easy for him to discharge his shouldered responsibilities effectively and efficiently”

By Sumayyah Auwal Ishaq

With less than 48 hours to the end of his five months tenure as the Acting Vice-Chancellor of the Kaduna State University (KASU), Professor Abdullahi Musa Ashafa, has continued to receive commendations for remarkable successes recorded during his brief tenure as the Chief Executive of KASU.

During a mini-ceremony organized by the Kaduna State University’s Alumni Association (KASUAA), the Chairman of KASUAA, Alhaji Abdulhadi Abdullahi said that Prof. Ashafa has performed wonderfully well in the last five months. “The five months was like 5 years. It was like the tenure should not come to an end”

The University’s Advancement Director, Professor Bashir Ali commended the outgoing Vice-Chancellor for his achievements and leadership style. Prof. Ali prayed to God Almighty to grant Prof. Ashafa success in his future endeavours. An alumnus, Dr. Philibus Audu said “The success story which KASU has become under the leadership of this quintessential scholar, enig­matic and energetic personali­ty is worth celebrating”.

In his own remarks at the event, the outgoing Acting Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ashafa said even though he had a very challenging tenure, he will remain thankful to Allah Almighty for everything. He said “As young people, remember to challenge yourself, face challenges to solve challenges. Remain kind, and never settle for being anything less than your best and the best you have learnt from our KASU. Thank you for your ideas, support, and most importantly, for sincere wishes and prayers. Allah knows best how to handle our situations and to Him we all defer our affairs”.

By Abdulhalim Ishaq Ringim

Yes, there’s about N2.73 trillion outside bank vaults. This figure represents 85% of the N3.23 trillion in circulation. However, it only represents 6.5% of more than N49 trillion that is in circulation.

Now, let’s consider Nigeria’s unbanked population which stands at 64 million according to World Bank’s “The Global Findex Database 2021: Financial Inclusion, Digital Payments, and Resilience in the Age of COVID-19” report.

What financial intelligence, as a matter of specificity, does the CBN have regarding the magnitude of the money circulating within this highly populous unbanked system. If we were to assume all the N2.73 trillion is in the hands of these unbanked population, then the amount of money on a per capita basis would be about N42,000. Is that too much?

But we all know this assumption is far from reality because the banked population also hold cash for transactionary and precautionary purposes(as in the case of emergencies). So let’s extend our assumption by adding 50% of the banked population to the unbanked population and let the final figure be the number of people who hold cash either because they are unbanked or because of other purposes as transactions and precautions. The per capita cash amount would reduce to N28,000. Is that also too much?

For the hoarding claims, economically speaking, what is the incentive of hoarding cash in Naira considering the continuous devaluation and inflationary trend that has been wiping the value of the Naira against the dollar when there are various hedging options available? Does the CBN have any tentative intelligence that suggest massive hoarding or is this just another trial and error policy?

But let’s also assume there’s indeed hoarding and some people are holding suspicious money. Have the CBN thought of the possibility that the hoarders might now be forced to consider hedging options by flooding the market with money in exchange for hedging-compatible commodities? Have they considered the inflationary tendencies of such an eventuality? Check Dr. Adamu Tilde’s most recent post to appreciate the happening in real world markets. Is the recent sharp rise of the dollar value also a consequence of such tendencies?

The risk of counterfeiting has always been present. The CBN confiscated N64.7 million and N56.8 million in 2019 and 2022 respectively. Compared to the money in circulation, are these figures significant enough to evoke the need for a currency redesign?

If it is for the purpose of managing inflation and ensuring the CBN contractionary monetary policies become more effective, then let’s assume they succeed in mopping up most of the cash outside banking vaults. Is it increased money circulation that actually causes inflation or increased money supply? Isn’t the CBN culpable in the expansion of money supply through their unhealthy tendencies of printing money for government spending via ways and means? What are they doing about the money supply? What is the government also doing about deficit spending and the projected budgetary deficit for the coming year?

Is our inflation strictly a consequence of the Demand-pull Effect(caused by an increase in money supply or credit with commensurate increase in demand for goods and services and resultant price increases) or is it a consequence of a combination with the Cost-push Effect as a result of increase in Oil prices and other commodities(mostly as a result of global events plus local events e.g insecurity, oil theft, floods etc) that is gradually rippling and causing increase in the prices of production process inputs? Does the CBN also not think that the hike in the prices of commodities as a result of the consequence of hedging(possibility of which has been painted by Adamu Tilde in his recent post) would also contribute in aggravating the Cost-push as a result of hikes in production process inputs?

What is the CBN tackling exactly?

Abdulhaleem Ishaq Ringim writes from Zaria.

By Muhammadu Sabiu

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Zamfara State has lamented that thousands of permanent voter cards (PVCs) are yet to be picked up by their owners in the state.

The State Residence Commissioner, Professor Saidu Babura Ahmed, said the 2023 elections would be different from others because plans have been made for a free and fair process.

He made an appeal to traditional leaders, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and other stakeholders to give necessary support to the Commission.

He said that the commission had made sufficient preparations in response to the inflow of internally displaced people to ensure that they would exercise their civic duties, noting that polling places will be built in locations where they would feel safer exercising their right to vote.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The Economic Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has reacted to the ruling of the Federal High Court committing EFCC Chairman to prison for contempt of court.

The Federal High Court sitting at Abuja had ordered the arrest and detention of EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, on Tuesday.

In reaction to the development, EFCC Spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, in a press release on Tuesday, described the ruling as shocking. He argued that the the ruling casted aspersion on the person of their chairman

“This ruling is surprising as it creates a wrong impression of the person of the Executive Chairman of the EFCC as encouraging impunity. As far as the relationship between the EFCC and the judiciary is concerned, The Executive Chairman, Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa has been an apostle of rule of law, due process, and close collaboration between the two institutions in justice administration ” He said.

The commission added that owing to error in the ruling, the commission will embark on a legal voyage to set aside the ruling of the court.

“Taking into cognizance the procedural lapse in the contempt proceedings the commission has initiated a process to set aside the entire contempt proceedings and committal of the Executive Chairman for contempt.” He added

By Uzairu Adam Imam

To combat fake news and safeguard society from its adverse effects, Nigerians have been advised to check for elements of credibility in reports and consult media platforms with proven integrity in sourcing for news and information.

A lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, Kano State Polytechnic, Mallam Aisar Fagge, made the submission during a one-day workshop organized by the popular online newspaper The Daily Reality.

The lecture themed “Fake News on Nigerian Cyber Space: The Role of an Ideal Journalist” afforded young journalists the opportunity to understand the challenges of contemporary journalism practice.

Mallam Fagge said, “It is said ‘seeing is believing’ but not anymore. With Deepfake [and other apps], people can easily manipulate videos, pictures, etc. Thus, we need to dissect pieces of information before sharing them,” he stated.

He also called on the general public to examine stories critically before believing or sharing them with other people.

He further noted that fake news could be countered by applying the “technological, journalistic and pedagogical approaches among others.”

He noted that the nature of social media has made journalism more tasking and placed more responsibility on journalists, which behooves them to protect the image of journalism and not allow quacks to run them out of business.

Journalism educators, practitioners from conventional media and online newspapers as well as the students of Mass Communication from Kano State Polytechnic and Bayero University, Kano attended the event that took place on Sunday, 6th November, 2022 at the Centre for Research in Nigerian Languages, Translation and Folklore, BUK New Site.

By Muhammadu Sabi’u

One of the strongest opposition parties in Kano State, the New Nigerian People Party, has reacted to the alleged involvement in the looting of a huge amount of money by some three Nigerian governors.
 
Recall that the news alleging that three currently serving state governors are being watched for attempts to launder money by paying employees’ salaries under the table resurfaced a few days ago.
 
Reacting to the allegation, a Deputy Public Relations Officer of the NNPP in Kano State, Hon. Musa Nuhu Yankaba, hints that one of the governors in question is Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State.
 
In an interview with Premier Radio Kano, he said, “If he [Governor Ganduje] refuses to come out and clear himself, we, as natives of Kano State and members of an opposition party, will not accept that, and we will expose him, so as to tell the people of Kano all that is going on and for proper action to be taken.”
 
Despite all these, the anti-graft agency, the EFCC, did not reveal the identities of the three governors involved in the scandals.
 
However, the chairman of the EFCC noted in an interview that two of them were from the North, and the third was from the South of the nation.
 
He added that information at the agency’s disposal showed that the three governors had come up with strategies to inject the money into the system by paying their state employees’ wages on a table-payment basis.

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The students of Federal University, Lokoja, FUL, are not finding it easy as they are confronted with the accommodation problem.

Weeks after the university resumed academic activities, following the suspension of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU strike, many students are stranded. Many are yet to find a place to live.

The tenancies of most students had expired during the ASUU strike. However, the continuous stay of some students whose tenancies expired had led to quarrels between them and their landlords.

The problem of accommodation in Nigerian universities is not peculiar to FUL students. However, the students are devastated as the school has no functional hostel on the two campuses.

The Daily Reality spoke to many students of the institution who were mainly afraid and sought to speak only on the grounds of anonymity.

A student said many of the departments had been moved from the Adankolo Campus of the institution to the main campus at Felele, and students were asked to begin lectures there in January. According to her, the students can not afford accommodation on the two campuses and are still writing examinations on the Adankolo Campus. She also said landlords are unwilling to take part payments for the remaining months in Adankolo Campus.

Other students narrated their ordeals of living with friends and relatives pending when they get accommodation.

It was also gathered that the flood, which ravaged many parts of Lokoja, is another reason accommodation has become more complex and expensive.