After over two weeks of stay in London, United Kingdom, President Muhammadu Buhari arrived at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, on Thursday evening. The President had travelled to London on March 30 for a “routine medical check-up”, according to presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina. However, Buhari’s “short rest” at the Abuja House in London has been marred with the #HarassBuhariOutOfLondon protest organised by Reno Omokri, an ex-aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan. A counter-protest or a solidarity protest was soon organised in support of the Nigerian president in what could be described as absurd drama. Buhari has been criticised for his medical trips abroad despite the huge amount allocated to the Aso Rock clinic annually. Details later

The federal government says the issuance of new SIM cards will resume on April 19. Isa Pantami, minister of communications and digital economy, made this known in a statement released by Femi Adeluyi, his technical aide (information technology), on Thursday. In December 2020, the government suspended the activity as it embarked on an audit of the subscriber registration database. Pantami announced that the country is set to implement a revised national digital identity policy for SIM card registration, adding that the national identification number (NIN) is mandatory at all levels. “The policy includes guidelines on new SIM Acquisition and Activation, SIM Replacement, New SIM Activation for Corporates and Internet-of-Things/Machine-to-Machine (IoT/M2M), amongst others,” the statement read. “The possession of a National Identity number will be a prerequisite for each of these categories. “For the corporate registration, institutions will be required to appoint a telecoms master (at the minimum of an executive management level) to provide the operational Primary NIN representation. The telecoms master will also be responsible to ensuring that the users provide their NINs to serve as a secondary NIN. “For IoT/M2M activations, SIM security protocols would be implemented on the SIM profile to ensure that SIMs can only be used for point to point data services specific to the URL they are working with. All other services will be barred. “In the event that a data only service is particular to individual use (eg home car tracking, WiFi, MiFi services, etc), the standard NIN registration process will be followed. A telecoms Master will also be required for corporates requiring IoT/M2M activations. “The full details of the requirements for each class of service will be made available in due course.” Pantami further directed the Nigerian Comunications Commission (NCC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to ensure that the provisions of the policy are strictly followed by all operators and subscribers. “The revised policy will ensure that operators conform to the required standards for biometric capture,” the statement added. “The guidelines in the Policy have been painstakingly developed and while they are thorough, it should be noted that they have been developed that way in national interest since the SIM is essentially a national resource. “The implementation of the Policy will commence on Monday, 19th of April 2021. The issuance of New SIMs and other suspended activities will resume on the same date, as long as verification is done and the guidelines are fully adhered to.”

AN eight-year-old boy has been reportedly killed by lightning in the oil-rich Imiringi community in Ogbia local government area, Bayelsa State. The victim, identified as Stephen Akanam, a native of the nearby Kolo community, according to sources, was residing with his aunty at Imiringi. He was reportedly struck by lightning Wednesday evening during rainfall while playing football with his mates in an open field behind a popular bar in the area. A source who spoke anonymously said such an incident had never happened before in the community. The deceased, according to a source, was indoors all through the afternoon until the evening when he went out to play. ”A woman rushed to the house to tell us that our brother is dead. I could not believe it and rushed to the scene. “Upon sighting him on the ground, we rushed him to Christ the King Hospital and he was confirmed dead on arrival,” he lamented. Contacted, the state police public relations officer, Asinim Butswat, said the incident has not been reported at the Kolo Divisional Headquarters that is covering the area.

Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Alh Lai Mohammed, has said that the negative comments and reports Nigerians are making about the country led Twitter to make Ghana its headquarters in Africa rather than Nigeria. He said it was expected that Twitter would make Nigeria its hub given the fact that there were over 25 million Twitter users in Nigeria against the 8 million in Accra. Speaking on Thursday to journalists in Abuja, the minister said the media were always putting out negative reports that dented the image of the country. He added that it was those reports that discouraged the organisation from coming to Nigeria which is the largest country in Africa. Mohammed said one of Twitter’s reasons for choosing Ghana was because they obeyed the rule of law and they championed democracy amongst other reasons. He said the EndSARS report was one of the reports that gave Nigeria a terrible image but “We thank God that the reports from the US have justified that no one was killed.” The Minister said most times the media exaggerate issues in the country, making it look like hell where no one should live. He hoped that this would serve as a lesson to all Nigerians. Mohammed said if Twitter had come to site its African headquarters in Nigeria, it would have created job opportunities and visibility for the country. He said criticisms were okay but the reports should be fair and Nigerians should be patriotic while making criticisms.

The Federal Government has apologised to Nigerians over the current power outages and shortages in various parts of the country. This was caused by the breakdown of some National Integrated Power Plants (NIPP) supplying electricity to the national grid, the Federal Ministry of Power explained in a statement on Thursday. Aaron Artimas, who is the Special Adviser to the Minister on Media and Communications, listed the affected plants to include Sapele, Afam, Olonrunsogo, Omotosho, Ibom, Egbin, Alaoji, and Ihovbor. He noted that while the Jebba Power Plant was shut down for annual maintenance, the Shiroro Power Plant has water management problems. Seven other integrated power plants – Geregu, Sepele, Omotosho, Gbarain, Omuku, Paras, and Alaoji – are experiencing gas constraints. Artimas decried that the condition of the plants has drastically affected power generation, leading to effectively minimising the national grid. In a series of tweets on Thursday, the Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, regretted the unfortunate situation and offered his apology to all affected Nigerians for the inconveniences the power shortages have caused. He, however, assured Nigerians that the ministry through the appropriate agencies was working assiduously to rectify the technical problems affecting the plants, as well as making effort to resolve the gas issues to the others. The minister stated that the national grid would be restored to its previous historic distribution peak of about 5,600MW of electricity achieved earlier in 2021, so as to relieve Nigerians from the current harsh climatic conditions and restore full economic activities. See the minister’s tweets below: I sincerely regret the recent Power outages across the Nation and the difficulties it has brought with it, and wish to assure my Fellow Nigerians that everyone involved is working assiduously to restore the National grid to its previous historical levels and exceed that. — Engr. Sale Mamman (@EngrSMamman) April 15, 2021 Seven other integrated Power plants, namely Geregu, Sepele, Omotosho, Gbarain, Omuku, Paras and Alaoji are experiencing gas constraints while the Shiroro hydroelectric power plant has water management issues. — Engr. Sale Mamman (@EngrSMamman) April 15, 2021

After rigorous academic selection processes, Professor Nnenna Oti, has been announced as the new Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO). Until the announcement of her appointment, Tuesday night, Oti, who hails from Ebonyi State, was the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) of the institution. She is to replace Professor Francis Eze, whose tenure will expire soon. The Pro-Chancellor/Chairman of the institution’s Governing Council, Prof. John Offem, announced her as FUTO’s new helmsman. Offem said she emerged with 75.5 points to defeat her closest rival, Prof. Ikechukwu Dozie, who scored 69.7 points, and five other candidates who scaled through the interview and other hurdles. According to the pro-chancellor, 29 applicants indicated interest in the number one seat of the institution. He hinted that after the initial screening process, seven were chosen for the final round of selection that saw to Oti’s emergence.