News
Leo Stan Ekeh and the Price for Success

By Adesh Kalpesh
Recently, there has been a sudden burst of corporate blackmail aimed at one of Africa’s most illustrious entrepreneurs, Leo Stan Ekeh.

Leo Stan Ekeh
Most appalling is the pettiness and clear lack of intelligence displayed by the clique of blackmailers and their hirelings.
It got me thinking about how much premium Africans place on their brightest and best, especially those who by sheer dint of hard work, tenacity, courage to dare the odds, have chiselled their way from the lowest nadir of their enterprise to the top of it.
Leo Stan, as he’s simply called, is in this class of rare African achievers. And he did it in the mentally-engaging and knowledge-demanding Information Communications Technology, ICT, turf.
I knew Leo Stan decades back in his undergraduate days at the Panjab University, Chandigarh, one of the oldest universities in India established since 1882.
At that time, there was a sizeable sprinkling of African students in India and Panjab University was no exception.
I had a good number of Africans at that time as friends and acquaintances. But young Leo Stan was special. He was gregarious, affable and outgoing.
It was easy to notice him in a crowd: rangy and endowed with gift of presence. Besides his imposing height, you could tell from the manner he got going with the cosmopolitan university community that he’s cut out for the big stage.
Most people knew him as Leo Stan; only a few knew his full name, Leonard Stanley Ekeh.
He was a man on a mission whose genial and studious disposition tells you he was not there just to add to the number.
The quest for knowledge and a burning desire for self-discovery drove him into the hallway of adventure. He soon distinguished himself both socially and academically to earn the respect of fellow Africans and recognition from the university authorities.
In no time, he was leader of the African students’ contingent in Panjab and instantly became their voice in the university community.
At that time, India had already become the breeding ground for outliers. Graduates from Indian universities got straight employment at Microsoft, Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange and other top corporations across the United States and Europe.
Some others got straight into entrepreneurship and made a success of it.
Such was the high profile of Indian universities noted for their lavish infusion of numerate skills into their curriculum.
It was therefore no surprise to me when many years after, the name Leo Stan became a household name in Africa ICT ecosystem.
The man I once knew as a restless, zesty African student has turned his energy to creating values, creating wealth and jobs for many.
Rather, what has come to me and perhaps others who knew him and have followed his life’s odyssey from India to United Kingdom and back to Africa, as a surprise is the desperation by his own people to pull down the man who gave Africa a voice in the global ICT space, an area where India has become a global force. India has created tech billionaires in this century.
The Shiv Nadar family, Azim Premj family, Jay Chaudhry, Byju Raveendran among others make up this list of worthy Indians. Some of these entrepreneurs just like Leo Stan and many others across the world built their businesses from the scratch. Indians can tell their story.
They praise them for their industry and stellar example. They don’t blackmail them for being successful or try to pull them down.
These tech entrepreneurs play critical roles as enablers of India economy. For this, the government and the people protect them. This is what is lacking in Africa.
Those who show capacity to create wealth through entrepreneurship are often left to the vagaries of jealous competitors and atrocious blackmail from those who are failing and even those who have failed in their businesses.
Trying to link Leo Stan and any of the companies associated with his name to unhealthy corporate governance smacks of desperation and primitive show of disrespect for a man whose collateral is integrity.
Any African who plays big in the Africa ICT marketplace knows that without integrity, you cannot have as much as a handshake with global brands like Microsoft, Apple, HP, Samsung, among others.
It’s the nature of ICT. Here, the game is not measured by the depth of your pocket.
It’s a function of trust, your capacity to make your word your bond. This must reflect on how much of technical competence you have, enough to keep your technology and service ready, functional and available.
Leo Stan had long established all this and it’s to his credit that Microsoft, Samsung, HP, Apple and others have not only established strong technical presence in Nigeria which has led to knowledge transfer to young Nigerian techies, but has also created thousands of direct and indirect jobs across different demographics and human resource cadres.
So, why blackmail such a man? Why try to pull him down just because he has succeeded where many failed?
Success is not served on a platter. For a man who has built a world-class African brand, Zinox, as a counterfoil to the dominance of exotic brands, national and continental garlands ought to be his reward, not a blizzard of unintelligent blackmail.
At the twilight of last year, President Muhammadu Buhari conferred the prestigious National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) award on Leo Stan, Oba Otudeko, Aliko Dangote, Tony Elumelu and other distinguished Nigerians.
This is how to reward your best. India has similar reward system, a roll call of national honours.
It’s to encourage those who have helped to build the society through industry, service and philanthropy.
Shiv Nadar, for instance, holds the Padma Bhushan award for “distinguished service of a high order”. Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in India.
My long stay in Africa has exposed me to the treachery in corporate Africa. Corporate blackmail is everywhere in the world but it’s how institutions of government handle it that makes all the difference.
African governments must do more to protect their shining stars in entrepreneurship.
In spite of the rash of blackmail against Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon and other mega-corporations., the US government still finds a way to protect them just so they will keep them going and protect millions of jobs allied to them.
Nigerian government must strive at all times to protect the likes of Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Tony Elumelu, Leo Stan Ekeh, Oba Otudeko and others. These are genuine African brands who have shattered all ceilings and erased all stereotypes about the capacity of Africans to do great things.
Hilary Hinton, more popularly known as Zig Ziglar, the American inspirational author and salesman, once made a poignant statement which should be a soothing balm for successful people.
He said: “You do not pay the price of success, you enjoy the price of success.”
Leo Stan and all those who have been and are being blackmailed should ‘enjoy’ the discomfort of blackmail while it lasts. As we say in India, let the problem build you, not break you.
- Mr. Kalpesh writes from Accra, Ghana
News
Trump Threatens More Strikes in Nigeria

President Donald Trump has warned that the United States could carry out further military strikes in Nigeria if Christians continue to be killed, reigniting a sensitive debate over religious violence and foreign intervention in Africa’s most populous nation.

President Donald Trump
Trump made the remarks in an interview with The New York Times, published on Thursday, while responding to questions about a US military strike carried out in Nigeria on Christmas Day.
At the time, the US military said the operation targeted Islamic State militants in north-west Nigeria and was conducted at the request of the Nigerian government.
Nigeria, however, described the operation as a joint counterterrorism effort, stressing that it was aimed at armed groups designated as terrorists and “had nothing to do with a particular religion”.
“I’d love to make it a one-time strike,” Trump was quoted as saying. “But if they continue to kill Christians, it will be a many-time strike.”
Pressed on comments by his own Africa adviser that extremist groups such as Islamic State and Boko Haram have killed more Muslims than Christians in Nigeria, Trump acknowledged that Muslims were also victims but insisted that Christians were being targeted disproportionately.
“I think that Muslims are being killed also in Nigeria. But it’s mostly Christians,” he said.
Trump has repeatedly raised alarms about the safety of Christians in Nigeria, beginning in late October when he warned that Christianity faced what he described as an “existential threat” in the country. He has accused Nigerian authorities of failing to adequately protect Christian communities and has openly threatened US military intervention if the violence continues.
Nigeria has firmly rejected claims of systematic persecution of Christians. The government maintains that the country’s security challenges are complex and largely driven by insurgency, banditry and criminal violence rather than religious targeting.
With a population of more than 230 million people, Nigeria is almost evenly divided between Christians, who are concentrated mainly in the south, and Muslims, who predominate in the north. Islamist insurgencies, particularly Boko Haram and its offshoots, have plagued parts of northern Nigeria for more than a decade, killing thousands and displacing millions.
Nigerian authorities have repeatedly pointed out that militant attacks have claimed the lives of both Muslims and Christians, arguing that framing the violence along religious lines oversimplifies the crisis and risks inflaming tensions.
Following Trump’s earlier threats, the Nigerian government said it was willing to continue cooperating with Washington in combating terrorism but rejected language suggesting that Christians alone were under threat.
The latest comments are likely to strain diplomatic relations further, as Nigeria balances its partnership with the United States against concerns over sovereignty, security cooperation and the portrayal of its internal conflicts on the global stage.
News
OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Health

OpenAI maker of ChatGPT is rolling out a health-focused feature to the generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool that’s used by nearly a billion users.

Named ChatGPT Health, the new feature aims to provide users with health and wellness information. This, as health is one of the most common ways people use ChatGPT, according to OpenAI.
In a blog post, Microsoft-backed OpenAI says de-identified analysis of conversations show that over 230 million people globally ask health and wellness-related questions on ChatGPT every week.
ChatGPT Health will also “securely” connect medical records and wellness apps to ground conversations with a user’s own health information, making responses more relevant and useful.
“Designed in close collaboration with physicians, ChatGPT Health helps people take a more active role in understanding and managing their health and wellness – while supporting, not replacing, care from clinicians.”
According to OpenAI, health information is often scattered across portals, apps, wearables, PDFs, and medical notes making it hard to see the full picture, and people are left to navigate a complex healthcare system on their own.
“ChatGPT Health builds on these so responses are informed by your health information and context. You can now securely connect medical records and wellness apps – like Apple Health, Function, and MyFitnessPal – so ChatGPT can help you understand recent test results, prepare for appointments with your doctor, get advice on how to approach your diet and workout routine, or understand the trade-offs of different insurance options based on your healthcare patterns.”
According to the company, ChatGPT Health is designed to support, not replace, medical care, adding that it is not intended for diagnosis or treatment. “Instead, it helps you navigate everyday questions and understand patterns over time – not just moments of illness – so you can feel more informed and prepared for important medical conversations.
“To keep your health information protected and secure, Health operates as a separate space with enhanced privacy to protect sensitive data. Conversations in Health are not used to train our foundation models. If you start a health-related conversation in ChatGPT, we’ll suggest moving into Health for these additional protections.”
OpenAI adds that access to ChatGPT Health has started with a small group of early users to learn and continue refining the experience, adding that users with ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, and Pro plans outside of the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the UK are eligible.
“As we make improvements, we plan to expand access and make Health available to all users on web and iOS in the coming weeks.
“Medical record integrations and some apps are available in the US only, and connecting Apple Health requires iOS.”
News
Kaspersky Shares AI Cybersecurity Predictions for 2026

Kaspersky experts outline how the rapid development of AI is reshaping the cybersecurity landscape in 2026, both for individual users and for businesses. Large language models (LLMs) are influencing defensive capabilities while simultaneously expanding opportunities for threat actors.

Deepfakes are becoming a mainstream technology, and awareness will continue to grow. Companies are increasingly discussing the risks of synthetic content and training employees to reduce the likelihood of falling victim to it. As the volume of deepfakes grows, so does the range of formats in which they appear.
At the same time, awareness is rising not only within organisations but also among regular users: end consumers encounter fake content more often and better understand the nature of such threats. As a result, deepfakes are becoming a stable element of the security agenda, requiring a systematic approach to training and internal policies.
Deepfake quality will improve through better audio and a lowering barrier to entry. The visual quality of deepfakes is already high, while realistic audio remains the main area for future growth.
At the same time, content generation tools are becoming easier to use: even non-experts can now create a mid-quality deepfake in just a few clicks. As a result, the average quality continues to rise, creation becomes accessible to a far broader audience, and these capabilities will inevitably continue to be leveraged by cybercriminals.
Online deepfakes will continue to evolve but remain tools for advanced users. Real-time face and voice swapping technologies are improving, but their setup still requires more advanced technical skills. Wide adoption is unlikely, yet the risks in targeted scenarios will grow: increasing realism and the ability to manipulate video through virtual cameras make such attacks more convincing.
Efforts to develop a reliable system for labelling AI-generated content will continue. There are still no unified criteria for reliably identifying synthetic content, and current labels are easy to bypass or remove, especially when working with open-source models. For this reason, new technical and regulatory initiatives aimed at addressing the problem are likely to emerge.
Open-weight models will approach top closed models in many cybersecurity-related tasks, which create more opportunities for misuse. Closed models still offer stricter control mechanisms and safeguards, limiting abuse.
However, open-source systems are rapidly catching up in functionality and circulate without comparable restrictions. This blurs the difference between proprietary models and open-source models both of which can be used efficiently for undesired or malicious purposes.
The line between legitimate and fraudulent AI-generated content will become increasingly blurred. AI can already produce well-crafted scam emails, convincing visual identities, and high-quality phishing pages.
At the same time, major brands are adopting synthetic materials in advertising, making AI-generated content look familiar and visually “normal.” As a result, distinguishing real from fake will become even more challenging, both for users and for automated detection systems.
AI will become a cross-chain tool in cyberattacks and be used across most stages of the kill chain. Threat actors already employ LLMs to write code, build infrastructure, and automate operational tasks.
Further advances will reinforce this trend: AI will increasingly support multiple stages of an attack, from preparation and communication to assembling malicious components, probing for vulnerabilities and deploying tools. Attackers will also work to hide signs of AI involvement, making such operations harder to analyse.
“While AI tools are being used in cyberattacks, they are also becoming a more common tool in security analysis and influence how SOC teams work. Agent-based systems will be able to continuously scan infrastructure, identify vulnerabilities, and gather contextual information for investigations, reducing the amount of manual routine work.
“As a result, specialists will shift from manually searching for data to making decisions based on already-prepared context. In parallel, security tools will transition to natural-language interfaces, enabling prompts instead of complex technical queries,” adds Vladislav Tushkanov, Research Development Group Manager at Kaspersky.
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