Chinese Chipmaker, Cambricon Technologies, recorded a 358% surge from its IPO to stay at 295 yuan at the Star Market, on Monday.

Cambricon, backed by Alibaba Group Holding among others, is the second high-profile chip maker to list on the domestic market in less than a week. China’s biggest chip manufacturer, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), listed Thursday on Star with 53 billion yuan ($7.58 billion), marking the biggest IPO in China in a decade according to SCMP.

Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited develops and distributes software products. The Company produces terminal intelligent processors, cloud intelligent chips, accelerator cards, intelligent computing cluster systems, and other products. Cambricon Technologies also produces computer peripheral products.

Cambricon’s gain on Monday puts its capitalization 85 billion yuan, while SMIC has a capitalization of 587.1 billion yuan. The duo are pushing to bring Chinese semiconductor industry to the fore in the wake of a trade war between the United States and China that has impacted the global growth of Chinese telecom companies.

Cambricon was founded in 2016 by two brothers, Chen Yunji, 37, and Chen Tianshi 35, to produce AI chips for smartphones. The company has since become a big name in the semiconductor industry, producing chips used in millions of smartphones.

Huawei and Alibaba are its major clients, spurring the company to a potential competition with SMIC.

But analysts believe the growth is expected to slow in the near future due to increasing research and production cost. Yan Fan, an analyst at China Merchant Securities, said expenditure will erode the company’s earnings in three years.

According to the brokerage, it is expected that the chipmaker will lose about 482 million this year and 380 million yuan in 2021. It posted a 1.18 billion yuan loss in 2019, according to the IPO prospectus. But that was before the recent push by the Chinese government for more semiconductor manufacturing.

The US trade relationship with China has deteriorated that companies from the South Asian country have been denied rights to purchase US made chips.

Huawei, which leads the global 5G rollout was ousted from the United States last year on national security concerns. Against the backdrop, the Chinese company had the capacity to lead other companies in the business of 5G deployment until the United States government announced in May, that semiconductors in the US, including TSMC will no longer sell chips to Huawei.

The development is leading many countries who initially had stood up to the US pressure to boycott Huawei to reconsider their stand. It is also paving the way for Sweden’s Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia to lead the way in 5G technology.

On Tuesday last week, the UK government announced that it is dropping Huawei from its 5G plans, citing the US ‘chips ban.’ Without access to the US semiconductor market, it will be difficult for the company to live up to its 5G obligation.

The Chinese government has been working to minimize its dependence on foreign semiconductors, and to limit the impact such bans would have on its telcos. At the wake of the ban by the United States, Huawei employees had gone to produce alternatives to the American semiconductor parts. But that has not yielded the needed result because the semiconductor manufacturing takes time, and the US is ahead in the industry.

Christopher Ford, Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and non-proliferation, told reporters in May: “If one wants to be working in the area of the very best chips, the chips that have the most computing power packed into smallest space, it is necessary to use US design tools right now because we have a commanding comparative advantage in that area.”

Chinese companies could no longer use US design tools due to the trade agreement the two countries signed earlier in the year, which forbids China from stealing technology ideas from the US. Therefore, the situation has left Huawei’s survival hanging on the ability of China’s semiconductor companies to produce enough of the 5G infrastructural components.

China has a $1.4 trillion New Infrastructure initiative, designed to see a Chinese company lead globally in 5G roll out, and Huawei is at the center of it.

Recent apathy toward China sees the initiative falling apart and Huawei has been at the center of the controversy. As the US pressures its Western allies to cripple China’s 5G global leadership, as it would impact Western influence around the world, Huawei may find success in developing countries if the Chinese semiconductor industry ups its game.

Sometime in June, I put up a post on my WhatsApp status, advising my male contacts to beware of breaking up relationships that could land them in hot soup. I used the case of a viral false rape allegation, which was cooked up by a female Twitter influencer to get back at a man that turned down her sexual advances. I made it known that many women are using false rape allegations to get back at men, for some wrong doings, or to blackmail them.

To tell you that, that post didn’t go down well with most of my feminist friends will be the greatest understatement of the year. Some told me I was insensitive to women affairs. Others told me I forgot that I am a woman and should always stand by women irrespective of the situation. There are then those that blocked me and the ones that muted my status.

Well, I have one answer for them, and that is, “I am a human before I became a woman.”

For now, I don’t want to go into how feminism is destroying humanity. Maybe soon, I will address that and maybe also give reasons why the movement is misdirected. But for now, let’s focus on the causes and effects of false rape allegations.

The major reason for the increase in false rape allegation is feminism. Sorry to say this, feminists do not believe that women are wrong in any way. The movement seems to be more interested in men’s extermination than in women empowerment. Feminists cannot wait to hear another woman shout, “rape” before they pounce on the accused. They don’t listen to reasons nor hear the accused side of the story. As far as they are concerned, the accused is guilty.

Let’s forget about what causes this rampant false rape accusations and focus on effects it has on the victims.

You must have heard about the story of Izu Madubueze, who committed suicide recently because he was falsely accused of rape. Late young and vibrant Izu and other young men were accused by a Twitter influencer, Nanichi Anese, as rapists. Izu reached out privately to Nanichi to find out who he raped but the lady insisted that his ‘victim’ wants to remain anonymous. She made the allegation more public and even revealed that Izu is disturbing her to reveal his accuser. Well, when this young man could not bear with the pain and the judgment of people, he took his own life.

The death of this young man aroused suspicion and people started digging deep. Izu’s phone was checked and old chats in his phone revealed that Nanichi has asked him out before but he declined. More digging revealed that Nanichi claimed that his accuser called the rape “non-physical sexual assault”. But then damages have been done.

The case of Izu is just one in many. Some fight it out with legal battles but not many could handle that. Some falsely accused persons have lost their jobs, faces and integrity. These malicious accusers have really killed more than we can count.

Another major problem that can arise from all these false allegations is that we may be unable to know and help true rape victims. The way it is going now, very soon all rape allegations will be treated as false. The complaints of true victims may be treated as hoaxes. This means that what these feminists are doing today will backfire on women in the near future. Funny enough, they don’t know the damages they’re causing us.

Let us advise our sisters, daughters, wives and mothers. Let women stop using rape allegations as weapons to fight men. It kills not just men, but all humanities. Besides, if anyone is raped, the person should understand that going to the media to announce it will not bring him or her justice (remember the Dakolo vs Fatoyinbo case).

Finally, it’s high time justice is given to people who were falsely accused of anything – be it rape, witchcraft, fraud, misappropriation of fund, etc. Most of the time, cases like this are waved off and people expect those affected to heal and let go. But I believe those that accused people wrongly should be made to dance to the tune of the music they have been beating.

The tragic demise of promising Nigerian Air Force (NAF) officer, Tolulope Arotile hit the news last week, generating a lot of interest and stirring emotions mixed with outrage, sympathy and misinformation.

Tolulope was the first Nigerian helicopter fighter pilot, and was nationally celebrated for cracking the glass ceiling.

However, there have been insinuations that she was murdered, and calls for investigation into her death have been ringing thus for many days now.

Consequently, the Nigerian Air Force launched an investigation into the events that resulted in her death. The preliminary investigation report signed by IBIKUNLE DARAMOLA, Air Commodore, Director of Public Relations and Information Nigerian Air Force, shed light on the circumstances leading to her death.

Read the full report below:

On 14 July 2020, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), and indeed the entire Nation, was thrown into mourning as a result of the death of one of our shining young stars in the person of Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile, the NAF’s first female combat helicopter pilot.

Her unfortunate demise has elicited an overwhelming outpouring of condolences, prayers and support to the NAF as well as the Arotile Family. This has no doubt been so, not just for Tolulope’s outstanding accomplishments at the tender age of 24, but also because of her sterling personal qualities of excellence, hard work, dedication to duty, confidence and courage, which endeared her to her superiors, subordinates and peers in the Service.

Unfortunately, because of the peculiar circumstances of the incident that led to her death, a rash of falsehoods, innuendos, conspiracy theories and the likes have been propagated in the public space, especially on Social Media. The NAF sincerely hopes that the findings of the just-concluded preliminary investigation into this unfortunate and painful incident will address the misinformed issues raised in the Social Media on the tragedy.

Moreover, while it would have been ideal for the entire investigation to be concluded before details on the incident are released, the NAF, in sensitivity to public concerns occasioned by the spread of false information, appreciates the imperative to provide more clarity at this very difficult moment. Please note that the details being revealed today have already been communicated to the Arotile Family, who ideally should be allowed to mourn their daughter and sister in peace, but for the unfortunate nature of the sad occurrence.

In line with the normal procedure in the Nigerian Air Force during such occurrences, an investigation was immediately instituted to formally determine the circumstances of the incident. Accordingly, the preliminary investigation has revealed the following details:

The Late Flying Officer Tolulope Arotile, a Squadron Pilot at the 405 Helicopter Combat Training Group (405 HCTG) Enugu, attached to the Air Component of Operation GAMA AIKI in Minna, having recently completed her Promotion Examinations, was in Kaduna awaiting deployment for her next assignment. During this period, she stayed with her sister, Mrs Damilola Adegboye, at Sabo Area in Kaduna, visiting the NAF Base whenever necessary.

On 14 July 2020 at about 10.55am, Late Flying Officer Arotile received a phone call from her colleague, Flying Officer Perry Karimo, a fellow helicopter pilot from the 405 HCTG, who wanted to discuss arrangements for their return to Enugu, requesting that she comes to the Base so that they could work out the modalities.

Subsequently, at about 10.58am, the Late Arotile placed a call through to Squadron Leader Diepiriye Batubo, the Group Operations Officer (GOO) of 405 HCTG, who was in Minna at the time, to clarify issues regarding her deployment. It must be highlighted that the call FROM Flying Officer Karimo as well as the one TO the Squadron Leader Batubo both took place before 11.00am, over 5 hours before the incident which led to her death.

Flying Officer Arotile was later conveyed from Sabo to the NAF Base Kaduna by her sister, Mrs Adegboye, where the Deceased dropped her phone for charging at a house in the Instructor Pilots’ Quarters belonging to Squadron Leader Alfa Ekele. Her elder sister later dropped her off at the Base Mammy Market at about 4.00pm, where she proceeded to photocopy and laminate some documents.

It was while she was returning from the Mammy Market at about 4.30pm that 3 of her former schoolmates at the Air Force Secondary School (now Air Force Comprehensive School) Kaduna; Mr Nehemiah Adejoh, Mr Igbekele Folorunsho and Mr Festus Gbayegun, drove past her in a Kia Sorento SUV, with Registration Number AZ 478 MKA. It is noteworthy that Messrs Adejoh, Folorunsho and Gbayegun are all civilians who live outside NAF Base Kaduna, but were on their way to visit one Mrs Chioma Ugwu, wife of Squadron Leader Chukwuemeka Ugwu, who lives at Ekagbo Quarters on the Base.

Upon recognising their schoolmate, Arotile, after passing her, Mr Adejoh, who was driving, reversed the vehicle, ostensibly in an attempt to quickly meet up with the Deceased, who was walking in the opposite direction. In the process, the vehicle struck Flying Officer Arotile from the rear, knocking her down with significant force and causing her to hit her head on the pavement. The vehicle then ran over parts of her body as it veered off the road beyond the kerb and onto the pavement, causing her further injuries.

Flying Officer Arotile was subsequently rushed to the 461 NAF Hospital Kaduna for treatment, while Mr Folorunsho (one of the occupants of the vehicle) who is also an Accident & Emergency Nurse at the St Gerard Catholic Hospital Kaduna, administered First Aid.

Flying Officer Arotile was confirmed dead by the On-Call Doctor at the 461 NAF Hospital at about 4.45pm on 14 July 2020, as a result of the head injuries.

The trio of Messrs Nehemiah Adejoh, Igbekele Folorunsho and Festus Gbayegun were immediately detained at the Air Provost Wing, 453 Base Services Group Kaduna as investigations began. They were subjected to Toxicology Tests at the 461 NAF Hospital but no traces of alcohol or psychotropic substances were found in their systems. It was however discovered that the driver of the vehicle, Mr Nehemiah Adejo, did not have a valid driver’s license.

Traffic Officers from the Kawo Police Station and the Kaduna State Police Command as well as Road Traffic experts from the Federal Road Safety Corp were also called in to provide support during the investigation.

Having carefully considered the foregoing, the preliminary investigation concluded that:

The death of Flying Officer Arotile was caused by blunt force trauma to the head and significant bleeding resulting from being struck by the vehicle.

Being a civil case, the matter will be handed over to the Nigeria Police with a view to further investigating and charging the suspects to court in accordance with extant laws.

The Nigerian Air Force, being a highly professional and disciplined organization, will not join issues with any individuals or groups regarding the spurious allegations of ‘foul play’ espoused in some quarters. Suffice it to say that Flying Officer Arotile was a pride of the NAF in whom the Service had invested massively in terms of resources, time and energy. Consequently, it is ludicrous for anyone to even remotely insinuate malevolent intent on the part of the Service against one of its most prized assets.

Furthermore, it is extremely sad and disheartening that, rather than allow the Arotile Family and the Nigerian Air Force to grieve for our dearly departed Tolulope in peace, many have chosen to politicize her death, while others are using the incident to push meritless, misguided ethnic and religious agendas.

The Nigerian Air Force wishes to implore everyone to respect the sensibilities of all those who have suffered most by this loss, those who really knew Tolulope – her family, her friends and her Nigerian Air Force colleagues. It is of absolute importance that the memory of this Fallen Hero and our precious child is not tainted by the propagation of misplaced sentiments and wild shenanigans.

Before I end this august address, may I respectfully, on behalf of the Chief of the Air Staff, the entire personnel of the NAF as well as members of the Arotile Family, express my profound appreciation to all those who in one way or the other have shown concern, support and sympathy over this unfortunate incident.
Thank you for your attention.

IBIKUNLE DARAMOLA, Air Commodore, Director of Public Relations and Information Nigerian Air Force.