Blog

  • UK Parliament suspension: Johnson wins in court

    A High Court in London has rejected a suit challenging Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament for five weeks ahead of Queen’s speech on 14 October.

    But in Parliament things don’t look for Johnson as reports said Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour and other parties have agreed not to Support PM’s General Election demand before EU Summit.

    The Mail Online reported that Labour will block Boris Johnson’s plans for an early General Election until November after entering into a pact with the SNP to stop a No Deal exit.

    According to the newspaper, Jeremy Corbyn held a secret meeting on Thursday with Ian Blackford, the Scottish nationalists’ Westminster leader, to agree an election should only be held after Britain has secured another Brexit delay from the EU.

    Mr Corbyn believes he can derail the Prime Minister’s plans to hold a vote on October 15, forcing him to seek another delay to Brexit.

    The Labour and SNP chiefs agreed to October 20 at the earliest, The Telegraph reported, although Mr Corbyn’s advisers have told him to go for November.

    The Prime Minister is being frustrated by Mr Corbyn, who along with Mr Blackford, has repeatedly called for a general election over the last two years, only to back off with October 31 looming.

    Mr Johnson is expected to go for broke on Monday and call for a general election again after he was slapped down in the Commons this week.

    It comes after yet another atrocious day for the Prime Minister on Thursday, with his younger brother Jo Johnson resigning from the cabinet and Johnson being heckled by the public on the campaign trail, where he made the desperate statement that he will rather die in the ditch than delay Brexit beyond 31 October.

    The legal challenge against Johnson’s planned suspension of parliament was filed by remainer campaigner Gina Milla.

    The court said the case could still be taken to the Supreme Court for a final appeal.

    Johnson announced at the end of August that he would suspend parliament from mid-September to mid-October, just before Britain is due to leave the European Union on Oct. 31, so the government could announce a new legislative program.

    That prompted campaigner Gina Miller, who defeated the government over another Brexit issue two years ago, to bring a legal challenge. She was later joined in the process by former Prime Minister John Major and opposition political parties.

    Miller told reporters outside court that parliament should be sitting during such a crucial time for Britain’s democracy, and she would not give up the fight.

    “The Supreme Court has penciled in Sept. 17 for the appeal hearing,” she said. “My legal team and I will not give up the fight for democracy.”

    Miller’s lawyer, David Pannick, argued on Thursday that comments from Johnson showed an important part of his reasoning for the prorogation, or suspension, was that parliament might say or do something that impeded the government’s Brexit plans.

    The legal challenge has lost some of its impact after lawmakers voted this week to force Johnson to seek a three-month delay to Brexit rather than leave without an agreement on Oct. 31, a move that is likely to lead to an election.

    Separate legal challenges to Johnson’s Brexit plans are also being heard in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

  • Buhari mourns former Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe

    President Muhammadu Buhari has condoled with the Government and people of Zimbabwe over the passing of the founding father and former President, Robert Mugabe, at 95.

    The President, according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, in Abuja on Friday, commiserated with family members, friends and political associates of the late political activist.

    President Buhari noted that Mugabe fought for the independence of his country from colonial rule and lived most of his life in public service.

    According to him, Mugabe’s sacrifices, especially in the struggle for the political and economic emancipation of his people, will always be remembered by posterity.

    He prayed that the Almighty God will grant the soul of the former president rest and comfort his loved ones.

  • Tribunal upholds election of Sen. Oduah

    The Anambra State Election Petition Tribunal has upheld the election of Sen. Stella Oduah as the Senator representing Anambra North in the National Assembly.

    Sen. Oduah who is now the Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Appropriation in the Senate, floored the APGA candidate, that of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and 18 others to win Anambra North Senate seat.

    Oduah polled 113,989 votes, the APGA candidate polled 59,937 votes while Mr Nelson Onubogu of the APC polled 11,995 votes.

    The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate in the election, Chinedu Emeka had challenged the election, alleging that Oduah was not qualified,

    The petitioner also alleged that there were electoral malpractices which influenced the victory of the two-term Senator.

    He went on to accuse the Senator of still being a member of APGA as at the time of the election, adding that part of the process contravened the Electoral Act

    In its ruling challenging the victory of Oduah, the Tribunal held that the allegations against her and against the Election process could not be substantiated.

    Justice Esther Haruna. said the petitioner failed to prove his allegations beyond reasonable doubt and therefore ruled that Oduah was validly elected.

    In a related development, the tribunal also affirmed the election of Valentine Ayika of the PDP, representing Anaocha, Njikoka and Dunukofia Federal Constituencies.

    Ayika’s election was challenged by APGA candidate, Dozie Nwankwo.

  • NACETEM identifies barriers to innovation in Nigeria

    National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) has identified lack of technology information and qualified personnel as top innovation barriers for Nigerian firms.

    NACETEM is an agency of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Science and Technology that provides critical knowledge support in the area of Science, Technology, Innovation (STI) management for sustainable development.

    Dr Abiodun Egbetokun, Assistant Director of Research in NACETEM said the report was based on a survey jointly carried out by NACETEM and Centre for Innovation Indicators (CesTII).

    CeSTII is South Africa’s policy research institute which performs national studies on R&D and innovation on behalf of the Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology.

    Egbetokun said the survey, done at the South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council in Pretoria, South Africa, reviewed the innovation performances of the two countries.

    Egbetokun said uncertain demand, difficulty in finding cooperation partners were other challenges facing the firms.

    He said the starting point to improving on the innovation challenges was to understand the nature of the problems in manufacturing and service firms.

    “Our comparison tells us that funding-related issues are crucial in both Nigeria and South Africa in manufacturing and services alike.

    “But, with such old data that we have in Nigeria, for instance, it is difficult to design the right interventions because what the data tells us may already be yesterday’s story.

    “So, we need to be more serious about data collection and curation.

    “This is one aspect where, with the right amount of resources, NACETEM is well positioned to deliver the goods,’’ he said.

    He recalled that Data for the survey was drawn from the South African Business Innovation Survey (2008) and from the Nigerian Business Innovation Survey (2010).

    “Both surveys were conducted using the OECD’s Oslo Manual, allowing for international comparability of data. GDP data was sourced from Statistics South Africa and Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics”.

    Egbetokun said some innovation challenges were time-invariant, citing lack of funding as an example.

    He said, “innovation is a costly affair, mostly because it is risky and no firm can precisely tell a prior whether it will succeed or fail.

    “This remains true irrespective of how old the data that indicates that problem is.

    ” What needs to be done in this case is for government to underwrite some of the risks involved in innovation.’’

    He recalled how most of the technologies underlying the iPhone were the results of heavy government investment in research and development.

    “In effect, what Apple simply did was to couple these results into a new product.

    “This is what the innovation economics call recombinant novelty. Such things cannot and do not occur where firms have to bear all the financial risks themselves.

    Egbetokun said innovation thrives where there are redundancies – that is, slack resources that could be diverted into innovative efforts.

    “That is why companies like Google allow employees to take up to 20 per cent of their paid work time off to work on personal projects,’’ he said.

    Egbetokun said Gmail, for instance, came out of such redundancy.

    “In Nigeria, firms have to struggle to provide their own electricity, water, security, haulage, etc.

    “By the time they are done with all of these, they barely have any resources left to do much beyond their usual production runs.

    “Moreover, our bureaucracy is a killer; from multiple taxation to lack of protection for strategic sectors. One can count several areas where simple interventions can make a lot of difference.

    “Government simply needs to wake up to its responsibilities – it’s that simple,’’ he said.

    In addition, he said it would take the country many years of intentional efforts to come out of dependence on importation of technology.

    “We should start talking seriously about how to move from where we are to where we need to be by developing our local innovation.

    “An innovative economy is not cheap but that does not mean it is unattainable; we only have to be willing to develop the requisite resources for it, beginning with a deliberate effort towards an educated citizenry.

    “Today, we have too many children out of school, and too few of those in school learning any skill relevant to our development challenges in this century.

    “How can we possibly become an innovative country like that?

    “So, in addition to providing the kind of interventions, already highlighted above, we need to be more aggressive in human capital development,’’ he said.

    NACETEM and CeSTII are responsible for the production of science, technology and innovation indicators.

    The research carried out, focused on how the productive sector of the economy fared, particularly in relation to the creation and application of knowledge.

  • Iran says to release seized British oil tanker “soon”

    Iran has said that the seized British-flagged oil tanker, Stena Impero, would be released in the coming days, official IRNA news agency reported.

    Legal procedure concerning the British oil tanker is about over and “we hope it will be released in the near future,’’ Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, was quoted as saying.

    Iran detained the Stena Impero on July 19 on the allegations that it violated the maritime regulations while passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

    Last Wednesday, Iran released seven crew members of the oil tanker.

    The Iranian officials have ruled out any link between Stena Impero’s case and British seizure of the Iranian supertanker Grace 1 off the coast of Gibraltar.

    The Grace 1, renamed as Adrian Darya 1, was released by the Gibraltar authorities on Aug. 16.

  • ‘Daughters of Chibok’ wins big at Venice Film Festival

    Kachi Benson’s film, ‘Daughters of Chibok’ has won best virtual reality story at the 76th Venice International Film Festival.

    The film is a story of the April 2014, abduction of 276 female students from Government Secondary School, Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria.

    Following government negotiations with the terrorists, 107 of them were eventually released. But 112 remain missing.

    The Virtual Reality (VR) documentary, which also had its premiere at the festival, tells the story of Yana Galang, whose daughter was among the kidnapped girls.

    ‘Daughters of Chibok’ represented Nigeria and Africa, alongside 12 other Virtual Reality (VR) films selected from around the world.

    The film’s director, Joel Kachi Benson in his acceptance speech, said, “With this VR film, all I wanted to do was to take the world to the women of Chibok.

    “Who five years after their daughters had been kidnapped, are still living with the incredible pain of their absence.

    “I felt it was wrong for us to forget or even doubt and move on,” he said.

    Benson, who runs a virtual reality film studios, VR360 in Lagos, also shared more thoughts on the award on his instagram page @kachibenson.

    He wrote, “I still can’t believe this. It’s like a dream….our VR film #daughtersofchibok won a Lion Award in the VR category of the Venice biennale!!!!! Somebody tell me it’s a dream!!!!”

    In 2018, Benson made his first Virtual Reality film, ‘In Bakassi’, a short film that captures the plight of children living with PTSD in Internally Displaced Persons Camps in the northeast region.

  • Guber Poll: Sen. Diri Wins Bayelsa PDP Primary

    (FLOWERBUDNEWS)  Sen. Douye Diri has emerged the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Bayelsa governorship election fixed for Nov. 16.

    Diri pulled 561 votes to beat his rival Mr. Timi Alaibe who got 365 votes in primary held on Tuesday at Gabriel Okara Cultural Centre, Yenagoa.

    Declaring the result, Gov. Darius Ishaku of Taraba, Chairman, Party’s Electoral Committee for the state, said Mr Keniebi Okoko came third with 142 votes.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 21 governorship aspirants contested to be the party flagbearer.

    Diri was a member of the House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019, where he represented the people of Yenagoa/Kolokuma/Opokuma federal constituency of the state.

    He was later elected as the Senator representing Bayelsa central senatorial district during the 2019 general election. (NAN)

  • Attacks On Nigerians In South Africa Absolutely Unacceptable, Unreasonable–Osinbajo

    (FLOWERBUDNEWS) Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says attacks on Nigerians in South Africa are absolutely unacceptable, reckless and unreasonable.

    Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement in Abuja, quoted the vice president while fielding questions from reporters on Tuesday in Kano on the xenophobic attacks against Nigerians in South Africa.

    The vice president said the violence was reckless, unfortunate, and against the ideals South African leaders fought for.

    Osinbajo recalled the role Nigeria played in pulling down apartheid in South Africa.

    According to him, the recent attacks are condemnable.

    “It is very sad and very unfortunate that the lives and livelihoods of Nigerians living in South Africa are once again being destroyed with such wantonness and with such carelessness and recklessness.

    “It is unfortunate because Nigeria and Nigerians invested a great deal in the pulling down of apartheid.

    “Besides, these acts of bigotry are entirely contrary to the very ideals that all the great South African leaders, including the present president fought for, and for which many gave their lives.

    “President Muhammadu Buhari has already spoken about this; and obviously we are very concerned and certainly intend to take this up with the authorities in South Africa in order to ensure that this sort of thing does not repeat itself.

    ” This is absolutely unacceptable and unconscionable,” he said.(NAN)

  • EEDC Invests In Power Infrastructure In Imo, Promises Improved Supply

    (FLOWERBUDNEWS)  Enugu  Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) says it has completed two major projects worth over N200 million to improve power supply in Imo.

    This is contained in a statement  on Tuesday, issued by its Head of Communications, Mr Emeka Ezeh.

    He said that the projects were in line with the company’s committment to improving the socio-economic state of the Southeast region.

    “The projects are a dedicated 33KV line constructed for an industrial customer and Oguta 33KV double circuit line. Both lines will radiate from Egbu Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) Station,” he said.

    According to him, the industrial 33KV line has a route length of about 38 kilometers, and is designed to improve availability to the industrial customer, while the Oguta 33KV line with double circuit has a route length of about 11 kilometers, and will feed new Owerri, Port Harcourt Road and Onitsha Road axis.

    He stated that the second Oguta 33KV feeder, which fed the Oguta, Ogbaku and Mgbidi axis, would alleviate the poor supply situation experienced by customers within the area.

    Ezeh also disclosed that the investment was informed by the frequency of power interruption  in new Owerri.

    He said that the new line, which was free from “line loads” and less prone to interruption, would serve to stabilise supply availability in new Owerri and its environs.

    According to him, customers served by these newly commissioned projects will experience improved supply.

    He also reassured customers of the company’s commitment toward improved service deliver.

    Ezeh encouraged them to reciprocate this by ensuring they pay their electricity bills and  avoid energy theft and meter bypass.

    He encouraged them to safeguard all electricity installations serving them.

    The company commended the Imo  government and the TCN for their support in ensuring  the projects were actualised.(NAN)