General News
Clinton Blames Nigerian Leaders for Boko Haram, Other Ills
Bill Clinton, former United States President has blamed religious violence in Nigeria to poverty and wastefulness of her leaders.
He particularly accused Nigerian leaders of squandering the country’s resources and mismanaging money realised from oil.
Clinton, who spoke at the 18th Annual ThisDay Award for Teachers in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, noted that the country could have invested her earnings from oil in other entrepreneurial endeavours rather than squandering it.
He also charged Nigerian leaders to harness the “staggering” intellectual and organisational ability in the country which her citizens exhibit in every country of world where they are immigrants and to bring such to bear at home in order that the country could realise her potential for greatness.
“One of the people on my trip with me today who unfortunately could not come up here because he had to go visit his family is a young Nigerian-American named Nnamdi. He is an all proquarter back footballer for the Philadelphia Eagles. He’s a wonderful man; he does great work in America for poor kids in Arkansas City and he became a friend of mine.
“His parents have PhDs, his sister has a PhD; he often says ‘I’m the failure in my family and I only have a university degree and I play football.’ My point is: there are Nigerians who are like this all over the world.
“What you have to figure out is how to keep those people in Nigeria and how to ensure their success leads on into the rest of the country,” he said. Clinton also said that the country must evolve a national policy that would make local governments tackle poverty at the grassroots.
“Prosperity is heavily concentrated in and around urban areas. So, you have all these political problems and now violence problems, religious differences and all the rhetoric of Boko Haram, but the truth is the poverty rate in the North is three times greater than what it is in the Lagos area.
And to deal with that, you have to have both powerful stake in the local governments and a national policy that work together,” the former American president added. Clinton also said that the country must do more to alleviate the extreme poverty in the North to halt the wave of bombings, shootings and kidnappings by Islamic extremists. He said that poverty remained the main driver for the attacks and needed to be addressed by strong local and Federal Government programmes.
“You have to somehow bring economic opportunity to the people who don’t have it. You have all these political problems and now violence problems that appear to be rooted in religious differences and the all the rhetoric of the Boko Haram and others, but the truth is the poverty rate in the North is three times of what it is in Lagos,” he said.
Clinton advised that Nigeria must not take a “divide the pie” approach toward attacking poverty.
“That appeared to be a subtle reference to the endemic corruption that envelopes government and private industry in the country. It’s a losing strategy, the former president said.
“You have to figure out a way to have a strategy that will have share prosperity.” He advised Nigerian leaders to pay more attention to agriculture and education of her citizens to be able to actualise her potential on the African continent.
Chinonso Akujobi, former staff of Access Bank in Lagos, has been remanded in Ikoyi prison after she was arraigned on a five-count charge bordering on stealing to the tune of N294.5m.
Akujobi who is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was arraigned before Justice I.O. Ijelu of the State High Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos.
EFCC alleged that Akujobi stole the money between January and December 2025 while under the employment of Access Bank Plc.
As stated in one the charges, the defendant stole the money through unauthorized payments from the general ledger of Access Bank to her account number 0036668871 with the name Chinonso A., Uchechi A. and Florence A., thereby committing an offence of stealing, contrary to Section 280 and punishable under Section 287 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
The defendant pleaded “not guilty“ to the charges when they were read to her.
In view of this, S.M.Yabo, prosecution counsel, asked the court for a trial date and also prayed for the remand of the defendant in a Correctional centre.
Justice Ijelu, thereafter, adjourned the case till October 8, 2026, for the hearing of the bail application and the commencement of trial.
The Judge also ordered that the defendant be remanded in the Ikoyi correctional Centre.
The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) says the flight captain of the VMO Aero aircraft that landed on a roadway near Asaba Airport in Delta State told investigators that the observer pilot mistakenly identified the paved road as the runway before touchdown.
The bureau disclosed this in a preliminary report released on Thursday on the June 10 incident, which prompted the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to ground the private jet.
The aircraft had seven people on board, including the pilot-in-command (PIC), second-in-command (SIC), an observer pilot, a cabin crew member and three passengers.
According to the report, the aircraft was cleared by Air Traffic Control (ATC) to approach Runway 11 at Asaba Airport after the crew requested a right orbit.
The crew initially discontinued the approach, executed a missed approach and repositioned for a second landing attempt.
NSIB said the crew reported that the aircraft’s navigation systems indicated it was correctly established on the published RNAV Runway 11 approach.
“The PIC and SIC reported that the observer pilot identified the paved surface ahead as the runway,” the report stated.
However, the observer pilot gave investigators a different version of events.
According to NSIB, he said the aircraft remained inside cloud until late in the approach and that the Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) repeatedly issued “TERRAIN, TERRAIN, PULL UP” alerts.
He also said he observed a telecommunications mast directly ahead and instructed the flight captain to abandon the approach and climb immediately.
The bureau further disclosed that a cabin crew member reported that one of the passengers became concerned after overhearing discussions among the pilots and asked whether one of them was undergoing training. The passenger was reportedly reassured that all three pilots on board were experienced captains.
NSIB said no abnormal events were reported in the cabin before touchdown.
The aircraft eventually landed at about 8:57 a.m. on an under-construction paved roadway near Asaba Airport instead of the designated runway.
The bureau said its investigation into the incident is ongoing, while the preliminary report highlights conflicting accounts among the cockpit crew over the circumstances that led to the erroneous landing.
European Union has warned Meta Platforms Inc. that it could face a significant financial penalty unless it changes what regulators describe as the “addictive design” features of Facebook and Instagram.
The European Commission issued the warning in preliminary findings released on Friday, saying Meta had failed to sufficiently address risks posed by its platforms, particularly to children and vulnerable users.
The Commission said features such as infinite scrolling, personalised content recommendations and automatic video playback were designed in ways that encouraged excessive engagement with the platforms.
EU Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, said protecting the physical and mental well-being of European citizens should be a priority for social media companies.
The Commission said Meta should consider introducing design changes, including disabling autoplay and infinite scrolling by default, providing effective screen-time reminders and adjusting recommendation systems to reduce the focus on maximising user engagement.
The findings were issued under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which sets obligations for major online platforms to address risks associated with their services.
Meta, however, rejected the Commission’s conclusions, saying it disagreed with the findings but would continue engaging with European regulators.
The company said it had already implemented measures aimed at protecting younger users, including Teen Accounts that allow parents to manage screen time limits and restrict access during night hours.
The EU said its investigation, which began in 2024, found that existing time-management tools on Facebook and Instagram could easily be bypassed, while parental controls required technical knowledge that limited their effectiveness.
Regulators also expressed concerns over children’s nighttime use of the platforms and the possibility that features such as Reels and Stories could encourage compulsive behaviour.
If the Commission’s preliminary findings are confirmed, Meta could face a fine of up to six per cent of its annual global revenue under the DSA.
The warning comes as the EU steps up efforts to strengthen online safety measures for children, with an expert panel established by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expected to present recommendations on protecting minors online.
Several EU member states, including France, have also supported discussions on restricting social media access for children, following Australia’s decision to ban users under 16 from accessing social media platforms.
Meanwhile, the Commission is continuing a separate investigation into whether Meta’s recommendation algorithms create “rabbit hole” effects by directing users towards increasingly extreme content.
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