DD
MM
YYYY

CATEGORIES

PAGES

DD
MM
YYYY

spot_img

CATEGORIES

PAGES

Home Blog Page 3997

Nigeria’s SSS Charges Emefiele with Illegal Possession of Firearms, Hours After Court Ordered his Release

By
Samuel Nwite
-
0

Hours after the court ordered the immediate release of embattled former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, the State Security Service (SSS), has filed a fresh two-count charge of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition against him before the Federal High Court in Lagos.

According to the suit document, the SSS accused Emefiele in the first count of possessing a single-barrel shotgun (JOJEFF MAGNUM 8371) without a license, which is an offense contrary to Section 4 of the Firearms Act, Cap F28 Laws of the Federation 2004, and punishable under Section 27 (1b) of the same Act.

The second charge accused him of being in possession of 123 rounds of live ammunition (cartridges) without a license, which is a violation of Section 8 of the Firearms Act Cap F28 Laws of the Federation 2004. This offense carries a punishment outlined in Section 27 (1)(b)(il) of the same Act.

The fresh charges are a setback to Emefiele’s freedom, which was believed to have been sealed by the rulings of two other courts. Justice Bello Kawu, in delivering the judgment on Friday, ruled that the arrest, detention, and interrogation were in direct violation of the existing judgment and orders issued by Justice M. A. Hassan in Suit No. FCT/HC/GAR/CV/41/2022.

Justice Hassan had ruled that “the continuous harassment, threat, intimidation, restriction of free movement and abuse of the rights of Godwin Emeffele, governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, over trumped-up allegations of terrorism financing and fraudulent practices, etc., by the 4th Respondent and their officers are vindictive, unwarranted, abrasive, oppressive and same constitute a flagrant breach of his rights to personal liberty, the dignity of the human person, right to policy-making powers freedom of thought, conscience and religion and movement as respectively provided and enshrined under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as Amended) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act and, therefore, unconstitutional and illegal”.

The judge also held “that the 4th respondent acted wrongfully and illegally in instigating the president of the federal republic of Nigeria against Mr. Godwin Emefiele in respect of the exercise of his statutory duty relating to the issuance of monetary policies and directives in the interest of national security and economy”.

Based on this previous ruling, Justice Kawu granted an order of injunction directing and mandating the Respondents, particularly the DSS to forthwith release Emefiele from any arrest or detention.

Emefiele was arrested in June, hours after was suspended by Nigerian President Bola Tinubu. He has been in SSS custody for over a month since his arrest for investigative reasons.

Tinubu had earlier, during his presidential campaign, accused the former central bank governor of trying to scuttle his winning chances with the naira redesign policy. This has bolstered the belief that the president is being vindictive and efforts by the SSS to incriminate Emefiele are politically motivated.

This is happening years after the secretive service failed to arrest and charge Ibikunle Amosun, the former governor of Ogun State who was exposed for illegally stockpiling firearms and ammunition amid raging insecurity, during his time as the state governor. Amosun, who completed two terms as Ogun governor, serving eight years in office, was found in possession of 1,000 AK-47 rifles and four million rounds of live ammunition.

A statement issued by the SSS spokesman Dr. Peter Afunanya, on Thursday, acknowledged the latest turn of events.

Count one of the fresh charges reads; “That you, Godwin Emefiele, Male, of No. 8 Colorado Street Maitama Abuja, on or about the 15th of June 2023, at No. 3b Iru Close, Ikoyi, Eti Osa Local Government, Lagos State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, had in your possession one (1) Single Barrel shotgun (JOJEFF MAGNUM 8371) without a license. You thereby committed an offense contrary to Section 4 of the Firearms Act, Cap. F28 Laws of the Federation 2004, and punishable under Section 27 (1b) of the same Act.”

Count two: “That you, Godwin Emefiele, Male, of No. 8 Colorado Street Maitama Abuja, on or about June 15, 2023, at No. 3b Iru Close, Ikoyi, Eti Osa Local Government, Lagos State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, had in your possession One Hundred and Twenty-Three (123) Rounds of live ammunition (Cartridges) without a license You thereby committed an offense contrary to Section 8 of the Firearms Act Cap F28 Laws of the Federation 2004 and punishable under Section 27 (1)(b)(il) of the same Act.”

It is not clear, given the latest twist of the matter, if the SSS will obey the court order and set the former apex bank head free. The case is yet to be assigned to a judge.

Elon Musk Reveals Twitter Cash Flow Still Negative Despite Positive Expectations

By
Ojukwu Emmanuel
-
0

CEO of Twitter Elon Musk has revealed that Twitter’s cash flow remains negative due to a nearly 50% decline in advertising revenue and a heavy debt load, despite his positive expectations.

Responding to a Twitter user who suggested options on whether he should make the microblogging platform more of a public utility or a business meant to generate cash flow, Musk said, “Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else”.

Twitter’s recent decline in cash flow is however not meeting Musk’s expectations who in March this year, said that the company had a shot at being cash flow-positive next quarter, as the social media platform has been aggressively cutting costs.

Following Musk’s takeover from Twitter last year October, about 50% of the platform’s top 1000 advertisers have paused advertisements on the app. The resounding sentiment was that brands were wary of content on Twitter, and therefore brand safety and suitability under the leadership of Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” was necessary.

In a bid to improve its cash flow, Twitter reduced its non-debt expenditures to $1.5 billion from a projected $4.5 billion in 2023, helped by cutting its cloud services bill by 40% and closing one data center. It has also laid off thousands of employees.

Musk also revealed that Twitter faces annual interest payments of about $1.5 billion as a result of the debt it took on in the take-private deal.

Making ads more relevant on the platform is one of Twitter’s main focus. While speaking at an investor’s conference in March this year, Musk made the disclosure that Twitter earns 5 to 6 cents per hour with users spending a combined “130 million hours of their time per day” on the platform. He further noted that the company could increase it to 15 to 20 cents.

Luring advertisers on Twitter is critical for Musk, after many fled in the early months after his takeover of the social media platform. In a bid to improve Twitter ads revenue, Musk appointed Linda Yaccarino, an NBC Universal executive with deep ties to the advertising industry to succeed him as Twitter’s CEO.

Following Yaccarino’s appointment, industry insiders applauded the move made by Musk to hire an extremely savvy and skilled leader which they revealed signals a positive change for Twitter.

They stated that the former NBC Universal executive completely understands how important it is to put valuable products on the market so that advertisers have an active and engaged audience to reach.

On resuming her duty as Twitter’s CEO, Yaccarino in June, told investors that Twitter plans to focus on video, creator, and commerce partnerships, and is in early talks with political and entertainment figures, payments services, and news and media publishers.

Just recently, Twitter began sharing advertising revenue with select verified users with large followings, with some of the initial $5 million in payouts going to far-right influencers.

This act has attracted tech giants who have embraced Twitter’s creator economy, especially with considerable headwinds gathering in the traditional advertising marketplace. Twitter is now trying to draw more content creators to the platform.

Seychelles Cites Drug Trafficking, Cyberfraud As Reasons for Banning Nigerian Tourists

By
Samuel Nwite
-
0

Seychelles’ decision to close its ports of entry to Nigerian passport holders has stirred criticism, prompting the country’s Vice President Ahmed Afif to offer an explanation on why the tourist island made the decision.

The East African country announced it is tightening immigration policies for Nigerians, citing drug trafficking and cyberfraud as reasons.

Afif told reporters on Thursday that the travel restriction does not include Nigerians with diplomatic passports and active work or residency licenses issued by the island nation, according to NAN.

“For the others, the government will keep its eyes open and SEBS (Seychelles Electronic Border System) will analyze much more to find out what reasons they are coming, for example someone who is coming for a holiday for only one day. We have to ask questions because it is strange and we have seen that happening,” Afif said.

The matter was brought to light last Saturday, after a Twitter user shared a purported visa rejection by Seychelles, on the ground that the applicant is a Nigerian.

“We regret to inform you that your application has been denied, as per immigration regulation, for now, we are not accepting any Nigerian passport holder for holiday purposes,” a screenshot shared by the Twitter users reads.

In his explanation, Afif said that the decision was taken to stop the influx of Nigerians coming to the Island to commit fraud and carry out drug deals. He said that there were many instances where many Nigerians said they were coming for holidays but only for one or two days.

“When we checked the payments made for them to come to Seychelles, it is from only one source. This is for different people coming on different days which shows an organized syndicate,” he said.

The Vice President added that in recent months, particularly, the administration has seen a tendency that has been deemed as dangerous for border control and the economy, due to criminal activities happening in the country.

“We have seen a clear link between this with certain people from Nigeria. In the past two weeks, for example, 13 people coming from Nigeria have been arrested when entering Seychelles because they were carrying drugs into the country,” he said.

With the rising number of arrests and convictions recorded, Seychelles is trying to figure out how to hand over to the appropriate Nigerian authorities any Nigerians who have been convicted there.

Afif said the situation is putting businesses in the country at risk, and cannot be allowed to continue.

“In one case, 62 Nigerians who said they were on holiday used false credit cards, and the money was never credited to the accounts of these establishments. These establishments have lost money. These people spent free holidays in the country at the expense of the establishment owners and there is nothing that can be done for them.

“There are other online scams originating from Nigeria. We have seen that these people are also coming to Seychelles and doing those scams. We do not have a problem with Nigeria or its people though we do not tolerate such criminal activities in our country,” he said.

Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, off East Africa, with booming tourist centers that have become a go-to place for pleasure-seeking travelers from around the globe. Placing a ban on Nigerian tourists raised dust about the island’s diplomatic relationship with Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy.

Speaking on how the immigration policy targeting Nigerians was revealed, Afif acknowledged that there is a communication gap, but noted: “It should be noted that the information that was circulated was not official, coming from a system, and it was done in a non-coordinated manner.”

He also spoke on the steps Seychelles is taking to address the situation. Afif said Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tourism, Sylvestre Radegonde, will be meeting with the Nigerian ambassador for Seychelles to discuss the matter.

How to handle Nigerians caught in cyberfraud or drug trafficking on the island is understood to be among the issues to be discussed.

Lesson from Threads: Do Not Scale A Product Until You Can Attain Product-Market FIt and Able to Retain Customers

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
-
1

This is the rule: do not begin to scale a business until you have attained a product-market fit. A product-market fit is essentially reaching an equilibrium where what you offer as a product or service is what customers want. Simply, after you have launched that product, you have improved on it to the point users love it.

This is important in business since it is not always a given that the first version of a product will meet the core needs of the users. So, you have to modulate, and using the feedback received, improve the product.

Cutting the phases by launching and scaling with massive media blitz, promotions, advertising, etc will only get users to the platform, but once you cannot retain them, the vision begins to struggle. In other words, when the buzz ends, that product must deliver value to users. And where the value does not exist because there is no product-market fit, wahala dey.

Can you think of a case study? Meta’s Threads. The microblogging platform was launched, but before it could attain a product-market fit, to deliver differentiated value to users (uniquely from Twitter), it was scaled.  Today, that buzz has faded and most users have gone. Imagine, if they have restricted access to the first 10,000 people as bigtech does, bake the products better with feedback, and then launch it. Of course, unlike a startup, they do not have to worry about wasting money on adverts since Meta’s bank account is huge and the blitz was largely free.

Meta failed Launch 101!

Money does not solve most fundamental growth problems; product improvements do! Work hard to understand your customers and do all to retain them before you begin to spend on massive scaling.

Never try to scale a business until you can retain customers. That customer retention is a validation of your business hypothesis via product-market fit.

A growth playbook which begins when a company cannot retain customers wastes resources. You are likely going to onboard customers, but the day that marketing or promotion blitz stops, the customers will move.

Build. Pursue product-market fit. Then Scale.

Yet, Twitter’s challenges remain: “Twitter owner Elon Musk revealed on Saturday that the platform still has a negative cash flow after a 50% decline in advertising revenue and a “heavy debt load.” Advertisers left the platform when Musk took over last year, but he said in April that “almost all of them” had returned or were planning to come back. Although Musk previously predicted that Twitter would be cash flow positive by June, he tweeted that “July is a bit more promising”for increased ad revenue. Twitter rolled out a new policy allowing creators on the site to pocket a portion of ad revenue they make from ads posted in replies to their tweets.”

Life and Value in a Moneyless Society

By
Mutiu Iyanda
-
1

People have always placed value on what they exchange and receive because exchange, as a social contract, improves the lives of the giver and receiver in many ways. Prior to the use of bank notes and credit as forms of money, most transactions were carried out through the exchange of owned goods or services for lacking ones. This tradition endured until the world entered the modern industrial era, which prioritised the use of advanced technologies. 

However, this advancement, which does not abandon the use of water, energy, and fuel in the production of paper bank notes and coins, has resulted in mixed benefits for humanity. The world is paying the price for minting notes and mining coins. Several studies have found that the production and use of bank notes and coins emit a significant amount of CO2. This is the environmental cost of having money instead of barter and resources sharing. And, if we are truly serious about resolving the effects of overusing natural resources, we need to reconsider how we prioritised money as the only means of obtaining the necessary value in life. 

We need to think about a society where everyone’s needs are met without the need for money. We need to see it as a matter of urgency to embrace sustained communal resource sharing to reduce efforts expended on depleting natural resources towards satisfying interest in holding bank notes and coins. By embracing the benefits of shared resources while also managing their challenges, everyone can reap the rewards of a more collaborative and efficient world. In other words, efforts towards going cashless across ages, races, and continents should be vigorously pursued while we cheaply produce what we want without deploying sophisticated technologies to diminish natural resources to the extent of causing greater environmental damages.

We work for money because we want to achieve certain social and economic interests. We want our family members, colleagues at work, and friends to see that we are better off when we are at social gatherings with the materials, we have acquired from working tirelessly. Sometimes, situations like this push people with low incomes to feel unwelcome in society and think that life is meaningless. In a moneyless society, there are many ways to achieve sustained success and fulfilment. We do not really need money to make a positive impact on others or find fulfilment in our careers or personal lives.

To reduce the chase for money towards psychological and emotional fulfilment, we need to embrace universal basic income, which provides “a periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all on an individual basis, without means-test or work requirement,” that helps families stay afloat and also reduces inequality in our society. The cash payment should be done electronically. When this happens, we will not only save the planet, but we will also protect ourselves from the effects of carrying bank notes and coins around.

1...3,9963,9973,998...8,096Page 3,997 of 8,096

© Tekedia. All rights reserved.

Term & Privacy

© Tekedia. All rights reserved.

Term & Privacy