Lekan Balogun on Friday received his staff of office as the 42nd Olubadan of Ibadanland from Seyi Makinde, the Governor of Oyo State.
The ceremony was graced by Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. Governor of Kano, Ekiti, Ondo state, National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),
Other dignitaries in attendance were the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III; the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi; the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar; Emir of Kano, Olugbo of Ugbo Kingdom, Oba Fredrick Obateru Akinruntan; and Ambassador of Republic of China to Nigeria, Cui Jiauchun, among many prominent personalities.
At a time, Balogun became the gubernatorial candidate of one of the major political parties in the country, the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe.
The military coup of December 1983 kept him and others out of active politics for 16 years.
He later re-emerged on the political scene with his election as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1999.
Giant tortoises, like this one at a breeding centre on Santa Cruz Island, are found only on two remote groups of tropical islands. Photo: Rodrigo BUENDIA / AFP Source: AFP
A new species of giant tortoise has been discovered in the Galapagos after DNA testing found animals living on one island had not yet been recorded, Ecuador's environment ministry said.
Researchers compared the genetic material of tortoises currently living on San Cristobal with bones and shells collected in 1906 from a cave in the island's highlands and found them to be different.
The 20th-century explorers never reached the lowlands northeast of the island, where the animals live today, and as a result, almost 8,000 tortoises correspond to a different lineage to what was previously thought.
"The species of giant tortoise that inhabits San Cristobal Island, until now known scientifically as Chelonoidis chathamensis, genetically matches a different species," the ministry said Thursday on Twitter.
Galapagos Conservancy said in a newsletter that the Chelonoidis chathamensis species is "almost certainly extinct" and that the island had in fact been home to two different varieties of tortoise, one living in the highlands and another in the lowlands.
Located in the Pacific about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) off the coast of Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands are a protected wildlife area and home to unique species of flora and fauna.
The archipelago was made famous by British geologist and naturalist Charles Darwin's observations on evolution there.
There were originally 15 species of giant tortoise on the islands, three of which became extinct centuries ago, according to the Galapagos National Park.
In 2019, a specimen of Chelonoidis phantastica was found on Fernandina Island more than 100 years after the species was considered extinct.
The study by researchers from Newcastle University in Britain, Yale in the United States, the American NGO Galapagos Conservancy and other institutions was published in the scientific journal Heredity.
They will continue to recover more DNA from the bones and shells to determine whether the tortoises living on San Cristobal, which is 557 kilometers long, should be given a new name.
A Yaba Magistrates’ Court in Lagos has remanded for 30 days a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) driver, Mr. Andrew Nice, over his alleged involvement in the death of his passenger, Oluwabamise Ayanwole.
The Court made the order following an application by the Police.
Police counsel, Yetunde Cardoso, who filed the application premised it on a four-count charge of alleged murder, sexual assault, misconduct and interference with a corpse.
Bamise, 22, was found dead last Monday on Carter Bridge, Lagos Island — nine days after she was declared missing after she boarded Nice’s vehicle.
Zondo headed a three-year investigation into graft.Photo: Phill Magakoe / AFP Source: AFP
Raymond Zondo, whose three-year investigation detailed rampant corruption under former president Jacob Zuma, was Thursday named chief justice of South Africa's apex court.
Zondo was already deputy chief justice, but his promotion to the top spot on the Constitutional Court came after lengthy, televised interviews last month with other leading candidates.
"The chief justice stands as the champion of the rights of all South Africans and bears responsibility for ensuring equal access to justice," President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement making the announcement.
"I have every confidence that Justice Zondo will acquit himself with distinction in this position."
Zondo takes office on April 1, as his investigation into Zuma will be preparing its fourth and final report.
The Constitutional Court has taken an unflinching stance on forcing Zuma to comply with Zondo's investigation. When he refused to testify in July 2021, the court ordered him jailed for contempt.
One hundred and sixty-eight Nobel Laureates, including Nigeria’s Prof. Wole Soyinka, have called for an immediate halt of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
The Nobel Laureates, in an open letter, voiced their support for the Ukrainian people and the free and independent state of Ukraine as it faced Russian aggression, The New Indian Express reported.
Anti-war demonstrators and Ukrainians living in the U.S. protest against Russia's military operation in Ukraine in Lafayette Park on February 24, 2022 in Washington, DC. Photo credit: Anna Moneymaker Source: Getty Images
Stating their position
They said:
“In a move that recalls the infamous attack of Germany on Poland in 1939 (using similar tricks of feigned provocation) and on the Soviet Union in 1941, the government of the Russian Federation, led by President Putin, has launched an unprovoked military aggression — nothing else but a war — against its neighbor, Ukraine.
“We choose our words carefully here, for we do not believe the Russian people have a role in this aggression. We join in condemning these military actions and President Putin’s essential denial of the legitimacy of Ukraine’s existence."
According to them, there is always a peaceful way to resolve disputes, saying that the Russian invasion blatantly violated the United Nations Charter, which says, 'All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.'
The Nobel Laureates said the Russian invasion would stain the international reputation of the Russian state for decades to come and that it would pose barriers to its economy and inflict hardships on its population, PM News added.
They added that the sanctions imposed would restrict the ease of movement of its talented and hardworking people in the world.
Despite that the world has witnessed the deployment of five different generations of mobile technology since the 1980s, 5G network is the most controversial among them.
The controversy was said to have been propounded by some conspiracy theorists who latched on the global COVID-19 pandemic to find a nexus between the virus and the 5G shortly after the commencement of its deployment.
The head of online, NCC, Dr. Omoniyi Ibietan and other panelists after a panel discussion at the AfricaNXT 2022 in Lagos. Source: Original
According to them, 5G radiation weakens the immune system, thus making the body vulnerable to COVID-19, adding that the deployment of the technology would make people more susceptible to cancer
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Thursday, March 3, put the record straight inLagosduring a panel session at the ongoing 2022 AfricaNXT technology conference.
The panelists, who x-rayed the theme: “Moving Forward Steadily: Socio-Economic Significance of Deployment of 5G Services,” emphasised the need for Nigerians to tap from the opportunities from the network to boost their economy.
The panel was moderated by NCC head of online, Dr. Niyi Ibietan, who also gave insights into why Nigerians should understand the benefits of 5G network.
Speaking during the panel session on the misconception about 5G network, the head fixed networks and converged services, Anthony Ikemefuna said the biggest giver of electromagnetic waves and the biggest source of energy in the world is the sun.
He said the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) came up with a document that says that the safe range of electromagnetic exposure is 10W/m2.
Ikemefuna said:
“The microwave is 3W/m2. Hair dryer is 1W/m2. The smartphone is 200mW/m2. And then the 5G radio is 0.159w/m2. So, if you start looking at it empirically, from the available information, your 5G radio is safer than your cellphone.
“So, as of today, there is no evidence to show any negative impact on human health associated with radiation from 5G network. Apart from the World Health Organisation and the ICNIRP, the UK and also the Institute for Engineering and Technology have come out to say the same thing.”
He added that 5G network would be advantageous to the nation, saying that it would engender unique latency, improved transparency in governance, increased GDP and job creation.
According to him the goal of the deployment is to “have a flexible network that is adaptable to various uses.”
Ikemefuna said 5G technology offers an extremely low latency rate, which is the delay between the sending and receiving of information.
He said from 200 milliseconds for 4G, “we go down to 1 millisecond (1ms) with 5G. The network is even faster than the brain, which processes information at 10 millisecond.
Ikemefuna added:
"Everyone will benefits from 5G, including the older people. He stressed that with the technology; there would be fibre-like connectivity, which will usher in new wave of creativity in the country."
In his contributions, the team lead, Nigeria Office for Developing Indigenous Telecoms Sector (NODITS) at NCC, Babagana Digima, said that 5G technology would enhance mobile broadband and boost it by offering 200 folds increase in mobile speed.
He said with 5G, there would be something for everybody, saying that the network would accelerate both broadband and narrowband internet speeds, which are currently, low in the country.
Digima also noted that the NCC was not too stringent on rollout because of the commercial nature and benefits the service would offer. He said already, about one billion devices that would support the 5G network would be made available in 2022.
The head, space services, NCC, Aliyu Usman, on his part, said the 5G network is smarter than the previous generations of technologies, stressing that it would impact several sectors of the economy significantly.
Usman said agriculture, education, security and health sectors would benefits the most from the network, calling on startups and the technology ecosystem to use 5G to create more innovations.
He maintained that the license confer 10 year tenure and a minimum of five sites for the licensees to deploy.
Usman noted:
"The commission would make the 5G spectrum available to the winners of the license within six months, which commenced from February 24, 2022, the deadline for the payment of the license fees.
"The NCC is working with the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) to develop a risk management framework, which would see that the commission creates a market for ethical workers.
"Vulnerability test and security design architecture for the technology would also feature in the risk management framework."
Also speaking on the subject matter, the senior manager, NCC, legal and regulatory service, Dr. Muhammed Sule-Yusuf, said Nigeria was the first country to launch the network in Africa and the country has earned $547 million in spectrum auction.
He, however, said risk of 5G technology would start when the services become effective in the country.
Sule-Yusuf added that there should be a balance between the tech speed and the technology itself, noting that Nigeria is ready because of the efforts the NCC has put in place.
He said:
"Four issues would play out when deployment comes to the fore, these include liability, data protection and privacy, cybersecurity and taxation.
"Efforts must be channeled to ensure that cybercriminals do not benefit from the technology, stressing that in the 5G era, there would be need to protect peoples’ data to avoid litigations."
It was reported that he also examined what the continent needs to be reckoned with among the comity of nations in terms of technological advancement.
He said the NCC's key strategic objective is to leverage the rare assemblage to deepen engagement with the telecom consumers, innovators, businesses and the general public on the promises of 5G networks and its attendant or associated services.
