General News
Women to Watch in GMB’s Govt
The outgoing administration of President Goodluck Jonathan boasts of an array of influential women, who command much respect even among their male counterparts, according to the Punch.
Apart from the President’s wife, Dame Patience Jonathan, who pundit said was always interested in official matters and those who get elective and appointive positions,
it was said that the influence of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; and the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, made Jonathan’s administration popular.
The Punch said that that the two ministers currently head sensitive ministries in Jonathan’s government.
Likewise, the inauguration of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s new President on May 29 will throw up another set of influential women. Some of the women were believed to have invested their energy in the March 28 pre-election campaigns in which the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate won.
The women, parading what may be described as robust credentials, braved all odds to contest in elections like their male counterparts to represent the people of their various political constituencies or districts.
A few of them, according to observers, will wield a lot of influence in the incoming administration by the virtue of their positions as the wives of the President or vice-president, while others will hold sway because of the offices they occupy in the APC executive committee.
Aisha Buhari
The 44-year-old wife of the President-elect, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, will automatically become the country’s new First Lady on May 29 after her husband’s inauguration.
The Adamawa State born cosmetologist attended the famous Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Administration.
According to the Punch,Though some people have described the member of the United Kingdom Vocational Training and Charitable Trust and the International Health and Beauty Council as an introvert, she is said to be a consummate politician and strong believer in the project Nigeria.
The alumnus of the famous Carlton Institute of London and the Academy Esthetique Beauty Institute of France did tell everyone during the pre-election campaigns that her husband, if elected, would give women opportunities to contribute to the development of the country.
Hajiya Buhari demonstrated her passion for the development of Nigerian women at a campaign rally recently in Edo State, where she assured women that her husband would initiate policies that would guarantee their improved living standard.
She said, “I am here to let Edo women know that when my husband is elected into office as President, insecurity, the girl-child trafficking, the plight of the widows in the South-East will be looked into.
“There must be a cultural design that can accommodate the widow. A design that would make the girl-child comfortable wherever she is in this country.
“The portion of the girl-child is to have a high standard and moral society for her to live in, get married, have children, train them and also mould them to become future leaders.”
Dolapo Osinbajo
Little was known about Dolapo Osinbajo until her husband emerged as the APC vice-presidential candidate.
The grand-child of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, is the leader of the Ladies Fellowship of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Jesus House Paris, Banana Island, Lagos.
Described as humble and submissive wife by those who are close to her family, she supported her husband in 2007 to establish “The Orderly Society Trust,” a non- governmental organisation dedicated to the promotion of Christian ethics and orderliness.
While others sought political offices to touch the people’s lives, Mrs. Osinbajo yearned for a different avenue to reach the larger society, especially the poor. She therefore wrote and launched a book, “They Call Me Mama.”
She said the drive to write the book came from her experiences with some “street boys and men in Lagos State.” According to her, she aims to use the proceeds from the book to sustain her efforts in getting the street urchins off the roads and into homes. Mrs. Osinbajo said, “My weekly visit to the boys in their hideout under the bridge for several years has filled me with unforgettable stories. Reminiscences of these times are the focus of this book. Our original meeting spot which was lovingly referred to as ‘Under’, today; it has been transformed to the Muri Okunola Park.
“To me, they are beloved children and they call me ‘Mama.’ They are lost, but can be found. That was why I was compelled to write the book and I dedicate the book to everyone who is lost.”
Remi Tinubu
The senator representing Lagos Central is an educationist, administrator, philanthropist and Officer of the Order of the Niger. She was described as exemplary First Lady of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007 during which period she founded the New Era Foundation; a non-profit organisation, dedicated to youth development, girl-child education, women empowerment and inspiring youths to excellence.
It was believed that Tinubu’s re-election into the senate in the just concluded general elections would make her become more influential in the next government as she may head one of the sensitive committees in the upper legislative chambers.
As a senator, she hosts a quarterly town hall meeting with her constituents to render accounts of her stewardship and obtain feedbacks on their developmental needs. To date, she has sponsored three bills to provide Social Security for Elderly Citizens; seek the Amendment of the Labour Act to enhance employment opportunities for women and a bill to provide Special Economic Assistance to Lagos State in view of its status as a former capital city and the commercial capital of Nigeria.
Abike Dabiri-Erewa
The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora Affairs, is also considered as a force to reckon with in the forthcoming administration.
The dexterity with which she coordinated the APC presidential campaign alongside a senator-elect, Dino Melaye, had endeared her to the party.
Dabiri-Erewa was first elected into the House of Representatives to represent Ikorodu Constituency of Lagos State in 2003 and re-elected in 2007. She also won re-election in 2011.
The former Chairman, House Committee on Media and Publicity, had sponsored a number of significant bills that were passed by the Parliament, including the Freedom of Information Bill; a bill for an act to ensure full integration of Nigerians with physical disabilities and eliminate all forms of discrimination against them; the Nigerian Infant Health Welfare Bill (ensuring every child under five receives free medical care); Nigerian Diaspora Commission Bill; a bill to repeal Nigerian Press Council Bill and replace it with the Nigerian Press and Journalism Council Bill (strengthening the NPC and promote responsible journalism and protect the welfare of journalists in Nigeria).
Dabiri-Erewa did not contest for any elective office in the just concluded general elections; observers are of the opinion that her performance as Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora as well as her activities during the APC campaign will earn her an enviable position in the incoming cabinet.
Hajiya Ramatu Aliyu
The President-General of the Global Women & Youth Empowerment Strategy will no doubt command much respect in Buhari’s administration by the virtue of her position as the APC Woman Leader.
Like her woman colleagues, Ramatu Aliyu, sunk herself in APC’s activities to ensure that the party wins the last presidential election.
Aliyu demonstrated her commitment to the party by mobilising the electorate, especially women, to collect their Permanent Voter Cards.
“The collection of the PVCs represents a veritable instrument to ensure that the people, to whom power resides, exercise their franchise in the legitimate pursuit of free choice and popular sovereignty,” Aliyu had said in a statement in Abuja.
Having capitalised on the numerical strength of Nigerian women, the APC Woman Leader told the women before the election that without the sacred power to vote in a democracy, they could hardly effect the change which they desire for the sake of their collective happiness and fulfilment.
He said, “Nigerian women constitute over 50 per cent of active voters during elections in the country. It is therefore, important that they avail themselves of the historic opportunity offered by the exercise to strengthen their electoral value and consolidate their demographic advantage, especially as we approach the 2015 general elections.
“Accordingly, I call on Nigerian women to rise in unison and ensure their active participation in the exercise. They should troop out en-mass and ensure that they collect their PVCs so that their votes will not only count but make the difference during elections.
“I urge that in the prevailing circumstance, our women should reaffirm their faith in democratic change and strengthen their resolve to enthrone good governance rooted in popular franchise, free and fair elections and robust democratic engagement.”
Aisha Jummai Al-Hassan
Though the Independent National Electoral Commission declared that the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Mr. Darius Ishaku, won the Taraba State governorship election, the APC candidate in the poll, Senator Aisha Alhassan, has demonstrated that she is a force to reckon with.
Alhassan’s popularity grew after she defeated three male aspirants to clinch the APC governorship ticket at the party’s primary held at Jolly Nyame Stadium, Jalingo, amid heavy security.
If Al-Hassan had won the Taraba State governorship election, she would have become the first woman to be elected governor in the political history of the country.
Al-Hassan, a lawyer by training, rose to become Taraba State’s Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice. She was appointed the Chief Registrar of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, on December 17, 2003.
After she retired from service, she won election on the PDP platform to represent Taraba North Senatorial District in 2011, but defected to APC to seek the latter’s governorship ticket ahead of the 2015 general elections.
NLNG and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) have commenced the construction of a research and innovation centre at Rivers State University, aimed at strengthening indigenous capacity in computer and electrical engineering.
The NLNG Research and Innovation Centre for Computer and Electrical Engineering (RICCEE), which was inaugurated yesterday, is the company’s largest Human Capital Development Institutional Strengthening project to date.
The centre is expected to provide specialised training, advanced research facilities and technological solutions for challenges in Nigeria’s energy and industrial sectors.
It will also house a professorial chair and operate as a research and development centre where industry-focused solutions, particularly for NLNG, can be developed and potentially commercialised.
Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, NLNG’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Adeleye Falade, described the project as a strategic investment in the country’s future and evidence of the company’s commitment to sustainable human capital development.
Falade, who was represented by NLNG’s General Manager, External Relations and Sustainable Development, Sophia Horsfall, said the facility would improve the university’s ability to produce highly skilled professionals while ensuring that research responds to industry needs.
He said the centre would also help bridge the gap between academic knowledge and practical industry requirements by creating opportunities for researchers and professionals to work together on innovations with commercial and developmental value.
Felix Omatsola Ogbe, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, represented by the Director, Capacity Building, Abayomi Bamidele, said the project marked an important step in advancing the Board’s Human Capital Development objectives.
According to him, the centre is part of the Board’s Institutional Strengthening Programme, which seeks to build lasting partnerships with higher institutions through infrastructure that supports teaching, research, innovation and practical skills development.
Ogbe challenged the centre to emerge as a hub for discovery, creativity and technological advancement, where students can develop innovative ideas, researchers tackle real-world problems and industry can find reliable research and development partners.
The Vice-Chancellor of Rivers State University, Prof. Isaac Zeb-Obipi, said the project aligned with the institution’s 2026–2030 strategic plan, particularly its focus on research collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurship.
“We envisage the Centre as a world-class hub where researchers and students can develop practical solutions to engineering and technological challenges, where university-industry collaboration can flourish, and where innovative ideas can be transformed into useful products, technologies and services,” he said.
The centre will occupy about 9,336 square metres within the university and include specialised laboratories for electronics and signal processing, robotics and embedded systems, software engineering, and digital forensics and cybersecurity.
The facility will also feature solar energy provisions, energy-efficient lighting and other environmentally responsible systems designed to reduce operating costs and support reliable research activities.
RICCEE is one of NCDMB’s Institutional Strengthening Projects designed to improve learning institutions through modern infrastructure, research facilities, technical equipment and training aligned with industry needs.
General News
NITDA Seals Strategic Deals with Goose FL and Fireflies AI to Power $1 Trillion Digital Economy Vision
In a significant step toward expanding Nigeria’s tech footprint on the global stage, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has signed strategic Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with Canadian tech companies Goose FL and Fireflies AI.
The signings took place during the Nigeria–Canada Investment Forum and the Nigeria Investment Economic Conference in Toronto, Canada, witnessed by NITDA’s Director-General, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi.
The strategic partnership centers on three core pillars designed to accelerate the nation’s digital roadmap:
- Expanding Financial Inclusion: Developing innovative technology solutions to broaden access to digital financial services and create sustainable economic opportunities for underserved communities.
- Deploying Local AI Infrastructure: Establishing indigenous Artificial Intelligence infrastructure and services to strengthen Nigeria’s internal capacity to build, manage, and benefit from AI technologies locally.
- Building a Stronger Digital Economy: Driving long-term economic growth through strategic global partnerships, technology transfer, innovation, and digital capacity development.
This international collaboration directly aligns with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s vision to grow Nigeria into a $1 trillion economy by 2030, anchored by innovation, digital technology, and human capital development.
By forging key global ties, NITDA continues to position Nigeria as a rising leader in the digital economy, ensuring that emerging tools like AI deliver real, tangible value for local citizens and businesses.
Anambra State Government says it is exploring partnerships with the Federal Government and other stakeholders to extend digital connectivity to underserved rural communities across the state.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Anambra State ICT Agency, Mr Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata, disclosed this during a virtual media engagement with journalists on Thursday.
Agbata said rural connectivity remained a major challenge because telecommunications operators were often reluctant to invest heavily in communities where network deployment might not be commercially viable.
He said the state was willing to explore opportunities to leverage Federal Government infrastructure and the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) to extend connectivity to underserved communities.
“We understand what digital inclusion means because we are dealing directly with these communities,” Agbata said.
According to him, the objective is to ensure that rural residents are not excluded from the benefits of digital government and the wider digital economy simply because of where they live.
Agbata said the effort formed part of the state’s broader digital transformation agenda, which is targeting deeper digitalisation of government services and a more digitally enabled business environment by 2030.
He said the second phase of the agency’s digital transformation agenda would focus on e-governance, digital infrastructure, smart government and the use of emerging technologies to drive development.
“My core vision is that we would have digitised every single government entity in Anambra State,” he said.
The ICT boss said the digital transformation agenda would extend beyond government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to businesses and residents across the state.
He said the agency was already developing websites for government MDAs and transforming them from mere information platforms into channels for delivering government services.
“We are building websites for all the MDAs. We are also automating them to be able to carry out services and give government support and government services through their websites,” he said.
Agbata said the initiative would reduce the need for citizens to physically visit government offices to access basic services.
He said the Smart Anambra platform had already demonstrated growing demand for remote access to government services.
According to him, the platform recorded about 14,000 visits between July 9 and July 29, averaging approximately 700 visits daily, despite limited publicity.
He said the data indicated that residents were interested in accessing government services online, including applications, permits and identification-related processes.
“What the data is already showing us is that we really need to build a system that allows people to actually get government services remotely,” Agbata said.
He explained that the objective was to allow residents to initiate processes online, complete forms remotely and only visit government offices where physical presence was eventually required.
This, he said, would reduce the time and cost citizens spend travelling to Awka or other government offices to access services.
Agbata said services in areas including hospitals, schools and other government processes were being connected to Smart Anambra.
Anambra Targets 2030 for Digital Government
Agbata said the state’s 2030 target was to deepen the digitalisation of government services and create an environment where businesses could increasingly operate within the formal digital economy.
He said the agency was working with the Ministry of Commerce to promote the formalisation of businesses, particularly SMEs and businesses operating in major markets.
“One of the biggest challenges that we have is that SMEs are not formalised enough,” he said, adding that the agency was exploring partnerships to address the challenge.
The ICT agency boss said the transformation would be gradual because major government initiatives required the necessary approvals and resources.
On the possibility of making Anambra completely paperless, Agbata disclosed that the State Executive Council was already operating a paperless system.
He, however, said the entire civil service might continue to operate a combination of digital and paper-based processes for some time because of the complexity of government operations.
“What might happen is a dual situation,” he said, adding that selected MDAs could be used as pilots for deeper digital transformation.
Agbata also disclosed that the Anambra State ICT Agency had commenced the deployment of a locally trained artificial intelligence (AI) system to automate its operations and explore applications in governance, revenue management and public-sector productivity.
He explained that the agency did not develop a frontier large language model from scratch because of the huge computing and financial resources required.
Instead, he said, it adopted an open-source model, modified it and was training it for specific local use cases.
“We have started doing our own local AI system. It is an open-source system, so we didn’t build our own frontier model. We basically looked at open source and modified it, and we are training it,” Agbata said.
He said the system had already been deployed to automate the agency’s operations end-to-end.
“We have used it to automate our agency end-to-end. Everything that we do now is currently automated,” he said.
Agbata said the agency was exploring how the model could be applied across other areas of government to improve productivity, address revenue leakages and strengthen governance.
He said the AI initiative formed a major part of what he described as the agency’s “2.0” phase following his reappointment by Gov. Chukwuma Soludo.
According to him, the second phase would build on achievements in infrastructure, capacity development, e-governance and smart government while placing greater emphasis on AI and emerging technologies.
Agbata also said the state’s free public Wi-Fi initiative remained operational, stressing that the programme was introduced before the electioneering period.
“The free Wi-Fi didn’t start as a political thing, a campaign thing. It started way before the campaigns,” he said.
He explained that the strategy was adjusted during the campaigns to enable residents to follow the governor’s activities and participate in live engagements while on the move.
According to him, existing Wi-Fi locations, including facilities at the state Secretariat, remain operational, although occasional downtime occurs, particularly during periods of adverse weather.
“There are downtimes now and then because with the rains and all of that, these things have their uptime and their downtimes, but it is still very much available,” he said.
He disclosed that there were currently no plans to establish additional Wi-Fi locations, noting that existing sites were still providing services.
Agbata said the state would continue to develop digital skills and education programmes, including Smart Schools and other capacity-development initiatives.
He also called for stronger collaboration among government, technology companies, telecommunications operators, local technology manufacturers and other stakeholders to accelerate the state’s digital transformation.
He cited the procurement of about 2,000 computers supplied by indigenous technology company, Zinox, as an example of the state’s engagement with local technology providers.
Agbata said the agency would remain open to partnerships capable of supporting Anambra’s technology agenda.
He said the ultimate objective was to build an Anambra where residents and businesses could increasingly interact with government digitally, while technology becomes a central driver of economic development across the state.
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