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Buhari Scolds “Ungrateful Nigerians” As Unionist Calls for Mass Protest Over Hardship

By
Samuel Nwite
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0

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that Nigerians do not appreciate what they have, which compared to neighboring countries where their citizens eat one meal a day, is much better.

The president said this while speaking during a project inauguration in Kano on Monday, amid growing outcry by Nigerians over economic hardship that his administration has been blamed for inflicting on the country.

‘‘We have a great country but we do not appreciate it until we visit our neighbours and other countries where the preoccupation is for people to have one good meal a day,” Buhari said.

“When I fly by helicopter, the number of high-rise buildings I see and the amount of development on the ground are fantastic. We thank God. We thank God. We thank God.”

Buhari’s statement, which was shared by the presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, comes after the former Chairman of Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Oyo State and Convener of All Workers Convergence (AWC), Andrew Emelieze, accused the present government of debasing the country with its policies and programmes.

Emelieze said that in a statement on Sunday, decrying the current state of livelihood in Nigeria. The labor leader said it is obvious that protest is inevitable in Nigeria now, because the last seven years of Buhari has been suffocating Nigerians.

Citing the current issues of fuel and naira scarcity, he said that Nigerians have become overly disappointed in Buhari and are regretting while they voted him to power. He said issues of insecurity and poverty have made people completely lose hope that Buhari’s administration will do something good.

“Our people have been choking under Buhari. Everybody is fed up, frustrated and totally disappointed in Buhari, such that the feelings of our people is that this government is cursed that it cannot do anything good. The major fear now is, can a government that has failed in all ramifications conduct successful general elections?

“It is the general view of Nigerians that Buhari has disappointed the masses. The country has been moving from one confusion to another, as if Buhari is an author of confusion.

“Our people are dying in cold blood for lack of national security. Many more are dying of poverty and in some cases suicide has been a way to escape the torture in Nigeria. Mental and the general health of Nigerians are badly affected and most of the deaths in Nigeria are as a result of social pressure. Lots more of our people are abandoned on the streets homeless and destitute, dying unnoticed by the Nigerian state, and their death unrecorded,” he said.

Touting the protest as a way of forcing the government to the peoples’ suffering, Emelieze urged the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and TUC to rise up and confront the administration over issues such as fuel and naira scarcity.

“Nigerians are left with no other option but mass protest until the government stops the mass sufferings of the Nigerian people. Nigerians, rise up now and protest against naira and fuel scarcity as well as the prevailing high cost of living. Say no to fuel price hike. Say no to electricity tariff hike. Say no to the high cost of living. Say no to killings everywhere.

“We are all feeling the pain, do not wait for anyone to mobilise you; organise from wherever you are. From Monday, January 30, 2023, let us swoop on the streets and refuse to be intimidated. This protest is a moral responsibility of everyone to rescue Nigeria. The AWC supports all calls by Nigerians and the civil society movement to begin nationwide protest immediately everywhere in Nigeria,” he added.

Buhari’s administration has continued to give itself a pass mark even as Nigerians keep groaning under the weight of economic hardship. It is not clear if the labor unions will heed the call for protest, which will have adverse effect on the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) during the forthcoming election.

Pimp Business Registration; The court cannot enforce illegality

By
Stanley Alieke
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0

A lady reached out to me on Instagram some time ago that she needed me to help her incorporate a business and she also briefed me to help her take up legal action against some of her clients that she rendered services to and they ended up not paying her or paying less than what they bargained for.

I enquired to know the kind of business she is into and she told me that she is a pimp and that she runs a large pimping conglomerate in Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria. Her plan at that moment is to go fully legal with the business by incorporating it with the corporate affairs commission so as to give her business some legal credence and certification.

For those who do not know what a pimp is, a pimp is a person who controls prostitutes and arranges clients for them, taking a percentage of their earnings in return, ie, pimping business is a business where a person who is called the pimp has several prostitutes in his or her employ, arranges the prostitutes to meet and have sex with clients, the pimp get paid by the clients out of which the prostitutes are paid from and the pimp keeps a percentage of the payment.

This kind of business is illegal and criminal in Nigeria; prostitution is illegal and a crime in Nigeria, therefore, pimping or arranging prostitutes is also a crime and illegal but the lady was obviously ignorant of this fact.

I advised the lady that the pimping business cannot be incorporated because of its illegality and criminality. By the way, while incorporating a business, you are expected to fill in the objectives of the business or what the business will be into or the services the business will provide or be providing; that which the CAC goes through and ensures that the business you are into is legal according to the Nigerian laws and if it is found that there is any form of illegality, they will decline to approve the registration of the business. Illegal businesses cannot be incorporated or registered by the CAC.

As for her asking me to institute an action on her behalf because some of the clients she gave her prostitutes refused to pay or refused to pay the agreed sum. I enquired more about this and she told me that she is sometimes contacted to send her girls (the prostitutes) to new nightclubs for “club activation” or new nightclub opening or for her prostitutes to act as strippers in the nightclub and entertain guests. They will agree on a price which sometimes run into millions of naira to be paid to them but after the event, the club owners or the promoters will refuse to pay her their dues.

Unfortunately, as it is, she cannot go to court over this to recover her debt because the deal leading to the debt was an illegal transaction and you cannot use the court to enforce an illegal transaction or contract. The general principle is that the court will not enforce a contract, which is illegal or contrary to public policy.

Analysts Expect Apple to Post First Year Over Revenue Decline Since 2019

By
Ojukwu Emmanuel
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0

Analysts expect tech giant company Apple to post its first year-over-year revenue decline since 2019’s March quarter when it reports earnings on Thursday.

The iPhone maker is expected to post quarterly earnings of $1.94 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of 7.6%. Revenues are expected to be $121.21 billion, down 2.2% from the year-ago quarter.

These analysts predict that Apple will post a decline in earnings on lower revenues, due to the fact that the company faced disruptions in one of its biggest factories (Foxconn) in China, which was rocked by violent protests by employees over pay and conditions.

The rare worker unrest came after employees took to social media to air their grievances over what appeared to be a delay in bonus payments.

Taiwanese firm Foxconn later apologized for what it called a “technical error” which caused a discrepancy in pay from what was promised to staff.

The company said in a statement: “At present, the park is continuing to actively communicate with the employees affected by the wrong information, explaining that the salaries and bonuses of all employees are paid in accordance with company policies”.

Foxconn’s factory was also negatively impacted by a Covid-19 outbreak that led to workers fleeing the facility as the company moved to control the outbreak through isolating infected people.

Following the upheavals that rocked the company, it couldn’t build enough of its high-end iPhones when its primary assembly facility in China was shut down for weeks during Covid lockdowns, as it is now trying to make up for a shortfall in staff that is threatening the global iPhone supply.

Analysts estimate that the Zhengzhou factory accounts for more than 70% of Apple’s global iPhone production, highlighting the Cupertino-based giant’s reliance on China as a manufacturing hub.

They disclosed that the protests that rocked the company, will likely have a negative impact on Apple’s revenue.

Also, analysts at Evercore ISI stated that iPhone demand could be affected by 5 million to 8 million units in the December quarter, mostly at the high-end of Apple’s smartphone range, which would negatively impact revenue by $5 billion to $8 billion.

This spurred the tech giant to issue a rare warning to investors, explaining that production issues would result in lower shipments than previously anticipated.

Meanwhile, in a recent publication on Tekedia, Apple Scored the Biggest Quarterly Market Share in China, despite Covid 19 disruptions and the recent economic downturn.

According to Counterpoint research data, Apple accounted for nearly 24 percent of China’s smartphone sales in the last three months of 2022.

Meanwhile, the company saw lower demand for its latest generation of iPhones than it had projected earlier this year.

My individual LinkedIn Journey and why launching 9ja Cosmos changes things.

By
John Mc Keown
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0

Some of you may have noticed a change in my behaviour and content on LinkedIn recently. I’ve had a few DMs about impact from various connections.

Surprisingly most comes from people who tune into my content from time to time, but I actually don’t know well, and never met.

So I am going to set out what has had to change and why.

 

I’m over twelve years on LinkedIn.

My primary interest used to be finding new ‘intrepreneural’ salaried leadership opportunities in the West African Market, predominantly Nigeria.

I wasn’t hugely interested in building a network out beyond current and former colleagues, and industry contacts.

My mission was to ‘hammer’ my feed into shape so it would be telling me things that I need to know about… breaking opportunities, cutting edge technologies, major geo-market shifts.

Just because a contact’s skills and experience suggested a fit didn’t guarantee they would usefully contribute to my feed. The content a lot of people produce isn’t topical in the context of what their profile says about them.

As my feed began to lose focus, I found I had to ‘unfollow’ a lot of people.

Since releasing the first Web3 Top Level Domain in the world. (.9jacom for Nigeria), and the brand 9ja Cosmos – focus has had to change.

Reach has since risen in importance. I therefore need to pivot how I spend my time in order to achieve more reach.

Changing to Creator Mode.

The first shift was with my profile by changing to creator mode.

Where it previously said a catchy single line that summarized me, this has been replaced to ‘Talks about #web3, #nigeria, #datatransport, #fmcgmanufacturing, and #telecommunications’

Content: I will still write to assist build the Tekedia Institute Content Library, however, there will be a visible shift towards Web 3 and issues beneficial to 9ja Cosmos. I will still delve into other areas covered by my ‘Talks about’ hashes from time to time.

I will still provide sporadic insights as comments on other people’s posts. It is only fair. I think its unreasonable for members to expect traction with their content and no quid quo pro by themselves engaging with the posts of others.

I won’t be servicing comments I make on third party posts as long though. Once a comments I make on a third party post gets to be a few days old, it’s likely I won’t get to reply or even see additional comments made on it.

Tagging: A few people have become a bit bemused with tagging engagement lately. So I will set it out:

My Tagging: I tag people because I think they will appreciate what I am tagging them into. More often it is my own posts. Very occasionally, it might be a third party post or a comment I made on one.

Nobody is obliged to react or comment. Those that choose to comment, I would prefer they engage with the content rather than thanking me for the tag. While I appreciate the politeness, it may obscure a topical comment from someone else. NB –  A tag is never targeting someone, or suggesting aforementioned content is making a point about them.

Tags aren’t organised in any specific order, and I don’t tag the same people all the time. A second year STEM student could randomly appear in the list in front of a government minister, conglomerate leader, or senior professor. I try to keep my tag choices relevant, but it isn’t an exact science. I rarely tag people below 1st degree. I know notifications tab can be overwhelming for those with more mature networks. If it is getting too much, please just message me rather than abruptly disconnecting, unfollowing or ranting in the post thread.

Your Tagging: The LinkedIn Algorithms are changing all the time, and one of the things they need to do as more people join, and as networks get bigger, is  they need to balance load from notifications and other automated activity.

It is getting increasingly harder for content to get reach passively. When I started, a post from  a 300 contact network owner was guaranteed to reach even their second degree contacts. Now, even a 10k network is no guarantee of traction with even first degree contacts without taking active steps.

RELEAVANT AND TOPICAL tagging will improve traction and I, like most people on here, will be ok with getting a tag. One of the benefits of creator mode is that I am making it clear the hashtags I am interested in, starting with web3 as the top priority.

When I get copied into content outside the scope of my hashes, it will have the expected effect (or lack thereof). So with #web3, #nigeria, #datatransport, #fmcgmanufacturing, and #telecommunications as my hashes, if I get tagged on something to do with real estate, insurance policies, or Brazilian hair, its predictable how that will end.

I also tend to ignore content that is too ‘human’, personal or vague. If I want to see drama, I can always turn on African Magic and close LinkedIn (though that’s probably never!).

Content also needs to be sufficiently exclusive to the claimed topic. I’ve seen a lot of short posts claiming to be about web 3 project planning, how to get your next web 3 job… how to build web 3 communities… how to produce ‘great’ web 3 content… etc etc etc.. and its so vague it could be applied to chocolate making, or fashion entertainment. pretty much anything.

I can’t be wasting my time with stuff better filed under ‘The Ministry of No Sh** Sherlock’. Definitely don’t end such posts with … ‘you can thank me later’… heard of bulls and red flags?

As long as its discriminant, tagging should be fine.

LinkedIn Network Development:

Since the advent of ‘Creator Mode’ new invitation recipients with the feature active, are immediately added to the inviter’s network as someone being followed. This is irrespective of whether they later choose to accept the invitation or not.

I follow ONLY companies I have worked for, had contractual dealings with, or some other kind of engagement. I don’t ‘follow’ individuals. I will be increasing the frequency with which I dump people with temporary follow status from me, moving forward. The window for connection acceptance before I withdraw invitations will be reduced drastically. This again, is just a time management and network efficiency measure. There is no need for content to be showing up in my feed when the reciprocal route for exposure of my own content, is not available to that authors profile.

Podcasts:

I will be pulling back from attending all and any podcasts. There just isn’t enough time in the day. Those that see value in including me as a panellist, doing interviews, or otherwise giving me a platform upon which to talk about my experience with launching 9ja Cosmos; with the Handshake Ecosystem, and generally around where Web 3 domains are going, maybe something that can be arranged. As a general attendee, I will be cancelling those already agreed for 2023, and not agreeing to any further.

There may be some more tweaks later in the year. I will see how it goes. However, 9ja Cosmos has fundamentally changed the way I operate, and how my LinkedIn engagement happens has to move with the times!

Thanks to those who have stuck with me through the years!

ChatGPT May Kill Google in Two Years – Gmail Creator, Paul Buchheit

By
Samuel Nwite
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1

As ChatGPT wave garners momentum, the belief that it poses a big threat to Google is rapidly growing. Gmail creator, Paul Buchheit, is one of the believers that the web search giant doesn’t stand a chance when the AI-powered chatbot is fully developed.

Buchheit said ChatPGT has the potential to destroy Google in two years at max. He said Google’s downfall will come from the depletion of its search-based revenue, which is the most profitable part of the tech giant’s business.

“Google may be only a year or two away from total disruption. AI will eliminate the Search Engine Result Page, which is where they make most of their money,” Buchheit wrote on Twitter, adding that “even if they catch up on AI, they can’t fully deploy it without destroying the most valuable part of their business!”

His assessment is based on the quality of responses given to queries by ChatGPT. The chatbot imbibes GPT-3.5, a large language model released last year, to generate answers and authentic-looking responses to queries about all topics. It also enables users to accomplish tasks such as creating poems, composing college essays and writing code.

“The way I imagine this happening is that the URL/Search bar of the browser gets replaced with AI that autocompletes my thought/question as I type it while also providing the best answer (which may be a link to a website or product),” Buchheit said.

ChatGPT set off an alarm when it was launched in November 2022, racking up more than one million users within its first month. The AI-powered machine has triggered concern across sectors, putting educators on high alert as its widening impact threatens critical thinking. But Google seems to be the only company in the tech industry being rattled by the chatbot.

Microsoft made a whopping $1 billion investment in OpenAI, ChatGPT’s parent company, in 2019, and has increased funding early this year with additional investments worth billions of dollars. Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI includes deal to incorporate ChatGPT with its search engine, Bing.

Google, which reportedly issued “code red” following the unprecedented rise of ChatGPT, has been exploring ways to deal with the chatbot’s emergence. CEO Sundar Pichai is said to have reached out to the company’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin to help accelerate AI projects at Google. The company is reported to be also working on plans to “demonstrate a version of its search engine with chatbot features this year” and is developing more than 20 AI products to seemingly counter ChatGPT, per New York Times.

Financial Express reported that more details of the plans are expected to be revealed during the upcoming Google I/O 2023 developer conference.

But ChatGPT is grappling with shortfalls impeding its reliability. It only has information of events that took place post 2021. OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman said the chatbot cannot be trusted at this time because it is still prone to misinformation and biases. But it recently announced that it’s working to expand ChatGPT, creating a professional version that will correct its lapses.

However, Buchheit said ChatGPT’s abilities pose existential threat to Google, and will potentially kill it just as Google did to Yellow Pages, a dominant pre-internet business.

“The old search engine backend will be used by the AI to gather relevant information and links, which will then be summarized for the user. It’s like asking a professional human researcher to do the work, except the AI will instantly do what would take many minutes for a human,” he said.

“One thing that few people remember is the pre-Internet business that Google killed: The Yellow Pages!

“The Yellow Pages used to be a great business, but then Google got so good that everyone stopped using the yellow pages. AI will do the same thing to web search,” he added.

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