General News
Buhari’s Presidency: What Nigerians Want
Mohammadu Buhari is being sworn-in today as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.
According to Daily Independent, Nigerians are hopeful. Dashed hopes are revived and dead visions are revamped. There is anticipation of his sterling performance in office.
Without doubt, Buhari is assuming the Presidency on the pedestal of personal integrity and cannot afford to disappoint the people at this critical period in the nation’s chequered history.
Nigerians are not interested in what happened in the past. They already know the story. What they want is change, not as a slogan, but as a practical impact on their lives.
At each stage in a nation’s history, challenges arise, which sometimes serve as a justification for people’s clamour for new leaders.
This is the basis under which Buhari was elected, and he should therefore set out to address those challenges immediately.
On three previous occasions, he canvassed for votes from Nigerians and was rejected. Now that he has recorded an overwhelming victory on his fourth attempt, he needs to remember that he got the votes on the ticket of his avowed uprightness and his promised capacity to perform. So, Nigerians will take no excuse for non-performance.
We recognise that the President has a herculean task of restructuring and re-engineering the entire Nigerian polity.
But restructuring also needs to go hand-in-hand with social and economic programmes to address the issues of unemployment and infrastructural decay in the country. We counsel him to scrutinise and internalise his political party’s manifesto and start implementing it immediately. Our understanding is that his campaign promises were rooted in the manifesto and people expect him to run with it.
Valuable structures are broken down across the country and he must begin to fix them immediately. These were his campaign promises.
To gain and retain the trust and confidence of Nigerians in him, he would have to work tirelessly and selflessly as if each day is his last. Nigerians are an appreciative people if they perceive sincerity in their leaders. That is why the decisions of government must be based on merit and in the best interest of the country. We enjoin Mr. President to re-read his victory speech of March 30, 2015 where he projected some of his programmes.
Taking him for his words, Buhari assures Nigerians that he will fight corruption which distorts the economy, destroys our national institutions and character, and worsens income inequality. To this end, he has promised to declare his assets and liabilities for the purpose of transparency and accountability. He will do well to fortify existing anti-corruption agencies. He also promised to tackle the hydra-headed Boko Haram.
The new President has pledged a just and principled governance where there shall be no bias against any Nigerian or favouritism for anyone on the basis of ethnic, religion, gender or social status. Nigerians heard all these words which he spoke of his volition and without prodding, after he was declared winner of the presidential election. We expect him to stick to these words. This is an opportunity for President Buhari to write his name not just in gold but also, and more importantly, in the hearts of all Nigerians.
The job of reconstructing a tottering nation is enormous but wherever he starts from is a good starting point. We wish to remind him of a few areas among many that he might need to consider for urgent attention.
Buhari should urgently tackle the issue of power generation, which has dropped abysmally from 4,000 megawatts to less than 2,000 megawatts. Nigerians are tired of hearing the same recycled story that attempts to heap the crass inefficiency of government on unscrupulous oil and gas pipelines vandals. If reviewing the power reform policy is the antidote for this perpetual darkness in Nigeria, let him do it.
Another worrisome area is the backlog of salaries being owed workers by government, both state and federal. No explanation can justify the non-payment of salaries. If government is demanding commitment, probity and accountability from its workers, it should pay salaries promptly, because a happy work-force is a productive work-force. Buhari has indicated his willingness to maintain regional cooperation with Chad, Niger and Cameroon. He also needs to fashion a way of addressing the threats of former militants in the oil-producing areas who want a fairer share of the oil wealth of their region.
Today, unemployment is biting hard in the country. Buhari has pledged to embark on a massive programme of industrialisation, including building railways, improving roads, ports, and crumbling infrastructure. T
hese could be other ways of creating jobs. But these laudable programmes may be hampered by lack of funds, due to the low global price of oil. The President will urgently have to start diversifying the economy. This is one method of curbing the current financial strait traceable to the unforeseeable disappointment from the oil sector.
Government should slash unnecessary expenses. The past government was busy upgrading its presidential fleet without recourse to the economic realities of the country.
This is unfortunate, considering the global trend, which recommends that public officials should reduce the cost of governance and bring down the plush lifestyle of public officers. The number of the presidential fleet is outrageous and paints a picture of waste and insensitivity to the economic outlook and plight of impoverished Nigerians.
We notice that huge resources are wasted, as new governments customarily abandon laudable capital projects embarked on by former administrations. This is not economically viable for the country.
Credit should go to the government which completes a project and the one which conceives and starts it. For example, Jonathan’s administration recently began the concession of the Nigeria Railway Corporation to make the rail transport system in the country more vibrant. It is imperative for Buhari to ensure policy continuity in this regard.
These are the expectations of Nigerians from the Buhari Presidency. We, at Independent Newspapers Limited, wish Mr.President a fruitful tenure.
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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