Connect with us

Featured

Ignore Critics with Selfish Ambitions and Ulterior Motives – Presidency

Published

on

The Presidency has urged Nigerians to count the blessings that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had brought to the country’s economy rather than listening to voices of critics with selfish ambitions.

Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, stated this in a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday.

According to him, the federal government is still working hard to ensure that every citizen can feel the change for which they massively voted in 2015.

“We are only saying that we must learn to pause and count our blessings.

“The loud voices of critics with selfish ambitions and ulterior motives should not be a veil that keeps Nigerians blind to the many ways God has blessed us and improved our lot through the Buhari administration,’’ he said

The presidential aide, who listed the achievements of the Buhari administration in the last three years, recalled that in 2017, the World Bank had ranked Nigeria among the top 10 reforming economies in the world.

He said that this was clearly in recognition of the thorough and rigorous growth and development-oriented economic policies of the administration.

“Today, investors and business men and women from around the world can arrive in Nigeria and get their visas right at the airport without any hassle.

“This is just one of the many reasons why Nigeria has advanced 24 steps in the global ‘Ease of Doing Business’ rankings of the World Bank.

“The government is spending more on infrastructure than previous administrations, despite earning barely half of what the country earned from oil between 2011 and 2014 when the product was selling for an average of $110 per barrel.

“The latest GDP figures show continuous growth after the Buhari administration successfully brought the country out of recession, with virtually all sectors of the economy now on the rebound, and significant progress recorded in agriculture,’’ he added.

Mr Shehu disclosed that the Buhari administration had also ushered in significant progress in agriculture, where output had risen in local production, saying “Nigeria is now importing 80-90 per cent less rice than in previous years.’’

He also noted that fertiliser plants had been resuscitated with prices of the commodity dropped significantly, adding that more young people were going into agriculture, being able, for the first time, to see farming as a viable endeavour.

“Has anyone heard of the Graduates-in-Agriculture Scheme in several states of the federation, a self-driven, government-assisted programme by which our young men and women are stopping their endless wait for white-collar jobs and creating wealth for themselves and the nation?,’’ he asked, rhetorically.

The presidential media aide also observed that power generation and distribution had more than doubled since the inception of the Buhari administration in 2015.

He said: “In his address at the 10th Bola Tinubu Colloquium a week ago, the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo reported that the Buhari administration has put in place “an audacious Social Investment Programme to the tune of N500 billion, the largest pro-poor programme in our nation’s history, and the largest social safety net, at least in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“This was despite the fact that by 2015, oil prices fell by over 50 per cent and our production also fell from over 2 million barrels a day to less than 700,000 barrels a day, sometimes even 500,000 barrels in 2016.

“We have seen today the empirical evidence of the successes of this programme, and all of that is evident for us to see and listen to several testimonies and stories.

“200,000 jobs for undergraduates employed under the N-Power programme, 300,000 more waiting to be employed; they have been pre-selected; over 7 million children being fed daily in 22 States so far; beneficiaries of micro-credit loans going to about 300,000; and almost 300,000 households benefiting from conditional cash transfers.’’

According to him, in line with campaign promises, the Buhari administration is spending trillions of naira to build railways, roads and ramp up power supplies.

Mr Shehu also quoted the vice president as saying: “In 2014, when oil was at between 100 dollars and 114 dollars a barrel, the actual releases for capital for three ministries – Power, Works and Housing – then they were three separate ministries, was in total N99 billion; while Transportation got 14 billion, and Agriculture got 15 billion.

“I am talking about actual releases, not budgeted, what they actually got.

“Let us compare that with capital releases to the same ministries in 2017, when oil price was between 50 dollars and 60 dollars per barrel, N415 Billion for Power, Works and Housing, N80 Billion for Transportation; N65 Billion for Agriculture; totalling N560 Billion, in a time when we were earning at least 50% less than we were earning in 2014.’’

The presidential aide, however, cautioned that “these comments should not be misconstrued as denying that there is more that needs to be done, as the current administration is relentless and determined to continue in its task of continuously improving the lot of Nigerians.’’

He said: “We are only saying that we must learn to pause and count our blessings.

“The loud voices of critics with selfish ambitions and ulterior motives should not be a veil that keeps Nigerians blind to the many ways God has blessed us and improved our lot through the Buhari administration.’’

(NAN)

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Featured

Military Releases Pictures, Names of Soldiers Killed in Delta Community

Published

on

By

The Defence Headquarters has released the list of 17 military personnel killed in an attack in Delta State. 

The military personnel were killed last week in Okuama, a community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State after a peace mission.

Days after the gruesome murder, the Defence Headquarters said 17 personnel including the Commanding Officer of 181 Amphibious Battalion, two majors,  one captain, and 12 personnel of the battalion.

“May The Souls of the Departed Rest In Peace,” the Nigerian Army wrote on its X handle alongside a photo collage of the personnel on Monday evening.

The Defence Headquarters gave the names of those killed as:

– Lt Col AH Ali, the Command Officer, 181 Amphibious Battalion, Nigerian Army.

– Maj SD Shafa (N/13976)

– Maj DE Obi (N/14395)

– Capt U Zakari (N/16348)

– SSgt Yahaya Saidu (#3NA/36/2974)

– Cpl Yahaya Danbaba (1ONA/65/7274)

– Col Kabiru Bashir (11NA/66/9853)

– LCol Bulus Haruna (16NA/TS/5844)

– Lal Sole Opeyemi (17NA/760719)

– LCpl Bello Anas (17NA/76/290)

– LCpl Hamman Peter (NA/T82653)

– LCpl Ibrahim Abdullahi (18NA/77/1191)

– Pte Alhaji Isah (17NA/76/6079)

– Pte Clement Francis (19NA/78/0911)

– Pte Abubakar Ali (19NA/78/2162)

– Pte Ibrahim Adamu (19NA/78/6079)

– Pte Adamu Ibrahim (21NA/80/4795).

Continue Reading

Featured

Glo 1 Cable is the King of Telecoms

Published

on

By

By Eric Elezuo

Available data and recent happenings have proved that it is not by coincidence that leading telecommunications company, Globacom, is the market leader, not only in provision of telecom services, but in being proactive to foresee future occurrences. This is exemplified in its ability to remain running even as acclaimed major networks have temporarily packed up as a result of the main one cable malfunction a few days ago in Nigeria, and some African countries.

Globacom’s Glo 1 submarine cable has literally remained the only hope for internet users covering both banking and browsing usages.

The GLO-1 (Globacom-1) submarine communications cable, which came on board in 2009, is a cable system along the west coast of Africa between Nigeria and the UK, owned by Nigerian telecoms operator Globacom, under the dynamic leadership of Africa’s pride, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr.

The submarine cable system is 9,800 km long, and became operational in 2011 with a minimum capacity of 640 Gbit/s.

A project of Globacom, Nigeria’s 2nd largest telecoms provider, total capacity of the system is now advertised as 2.5 Tbit/s. The cable’s link to Ghana was turned up in April, 2011, meaning that Ghana subscribers are part of the millions still enjoying uninterrupted network experience, the failure of main one, notwithstanding.

It would be recalled that massive internet outages was reported in Nigeria following damage to international undersea cables supplying the country with connectivity.

But Glo was not affected, a testimonial that Nigeria should celebrate the brand as against other networks that buckled under the weight of the underwater cable failure, the humongous money they are making from Nigerians notwithstanding. Those also goes to show that they don’t believe in the country.

Reports show that telecommunications companies and a number of banks which rely on the affected cables for internet services were affected by the outage, and will continue to be partially or completely out of service for the next five weeks if reports emanating from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is anything to go by.

According to reports, the damage affected major undersea cables near Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire and has led to internet downtime across West and South African countries.

The undersea cables affected are the West Africa Cable System (WACS), the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, and SAT3.

However, Glo 1, owned by Nigeria’s leading digital services company, Globacom, was not affected by the damage and has continued to operate normally. Data users, internet service providers and financial institutions which run on Glo 1 have continued to operate normally.

Industry analysts believe the sturdy nature and resilience of Glo 1 International Submarine Cable is the reason the damage did not affect the cable.

It would be recalled that the Glo submarine cable system Glo 1, made a historic landing in Alfa Beach, Lagos, Nigeria, in 2009. The landing marked the beginning of cheap bandwidth which in itself translated into many possibilities in the Information and Communications sectors of the Nigerian economy.

The project jointly executed by Globacom and its partners, Alcatel Lucent gave and continues  to give Nigeria lead in telemedicine, eCommerce and egovernance among other practices that transform economies.

Then, the Executive Director, Human Resources, Mr Adewale Shangowawa, noted that with the landing of the Glo1 submarine cable, Globacom has scored another first and as well has taken a bold step to give Nigeria the lead in the magical broadband revolution in Africa.

The 9800km cable from Bude in UK, connects Nigeria to the rest of West Africa and the UK. It has landing points in Nigeria, London and Lisbon in Portugal. It is deploying 16 branching units to connect countries in West Africa.

The ED added that globally, the tradition is for a consortium of telecommunication companies to team up to set up a submarine cable network to enhance their connectivity and bandwidth capacity. Globacom became an exception to the norm.

Glo is the first single telecommunication company in the world to own its submarine cable. The high capacity Glo 1 optic fibre cable brought functional direct connectivity between West Africa, the UK and the rest of the world. The 9,800 km long cable provided huge capacity on its 2-fibre pair system. The Glo 1 cable also made available excess bandwidth to all the cities connected to the cable.

This will translate into much faster and more robust connectivity for voice, data and video. The cable will connect 14 West African countries through the branching units to the rest of the world. It will boost economic activities in the region, create job opportunities and serve companies in Europe and Africa.

Facts of the submarine cable landing included that Glo 1 provides connectivity from Lagos to Bude in United Kingdom through fibre optic cable laid undersea.

The cable which is of the 32 STM 64 type has virtual infinite capacity and therefore offers sufficient capacity for traffic for the Globacom’s mobile, fixed, and internet telecommunication services.

Last September, the $250 million Glo-1 cable system landed initially in Lagos and in Accra in Ghana. With 2.5 Tbps of capacity, the Glo-1 cable has been ready for commissioning since July 2010.

Mike Adenuga Jr., Globacom’s chairman, while describing the $250 million project, said the Glo-1 cable will provide Nigerian user’s two benefits: become part of the competitive telecom landscape and make broadband access and long-distance voice service more affordable.

As a company with unparalleled vision, and proactive initiatives, Glo in 2018, and in a bid to boost its data services and remain preferred data services provider with clarity and reach, commenced upgrading its undersea cable, Glo 1 capacity by 100G.

Bisi Koleoso, a deputy chief operating officer, Technical, then, which explaining the process said that, in addition the company as well is investing in equipment for more path redundancy for the Glo 1 in case of fiber cut. In 2024, fibre cut occurred, and Glo is still up and running.

“As the innovation leader in Nigeria’s telecom space, Globacom is committed to ensuring that Nigerians were not left behind in the march to a digitalised world.

“We have invested massively in new technologies to introduce these products which we believe will redefine business, social and personal pursuits,” the DCO had said.

The visionary company did not stop there however. Consequently, on April 8, 2011, it followed up the launch of the sub-marine optical fibre cable, Glo I Submarine Cable, which gulped a whopping $800 million, thereby making it the first telecommunication company to build such a high-capacity optic fibre from the United Kingdom to Nigeria with the rolling out of the Glo 2 submarine cable. The submarine optic fibre cables was designed to connect Lagos directly to Southern parts of Nigeria.

The submarine cables was programmed to “contain three fiber pairs. Fiber Pair 1 (Express) will connect Lagos directly to Southern part of Nigeria with terrestrial extension to existing terrestrial backbone.

“Fiber Pair, also known as Omnibus 1, has eight branching units to offshore oil stations and communities. Fiber Pair 3, otherwise called Omnibus 2, contains two switchable branching units southward Africa.”

The Glo II Submarine Cable would boost overall socio-economic development of the Niger Delta, and offer greater bandwidth for local ICT business to flourish and provide backup for the terrestrial fibre route from Port Harcourt to Lagos.

The company further explained that Glo 2 will equally be much more reliable as far as fibre cut is concerned, assuring that Globacom “has put in place workable plans to scale up the network for the future and innovation in products.

A statement on the effect, read in part: “We plan to initiate new data analytic tools to capture subscribers’ experience in real time and also take pre-emptive actions to improve the network. Also new sites would be rolled out into rural areas, banishing digital divide between cities and villages….to increase capacity by giving a congestion-free network and superior quality in voice data. We also plan to swap old equipment in other states with better quality ones, so that our subscribers can have better services.”

Glo’s invincibility in the telecommunication world is nothing short of insightful leadership, clear cut vision and the passion to put customers first in all its undertakings. This is not forgetting that it has done everything to project Nigeria’s ingenuity in the field of telecommunication,  and by extention other fields.

Glo is flourishing under the leadership of the spirit of Africa, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr., and the Executive Vice Chairman, Mrs Bella Adenuga-Disu.

Continue Reading

Featured

Glo Unveils Korrect Predict Lottery Service, Rewards Subscribers with Cash, Airtime

Published

on

By

A new product, Glo Korrect Predict Lottery has been unveiled by telecommunications services provider, Globacom. Under the new service, any sports lover on Glo network who successfully predicts the final outcomes of football matches played across the world will be rewarded with fantastic cash prizes and free airtime.

“Sports Prediction Market has witnessed significant growth over the years, with a projected value of over $155 billion globally by 2024 and that, the growth is driven by the proliferation of smartphones, increase in online betting platforms, as well as increased sports viewership and adoption of technology”, Globacom said in a statement In Lagos.

This trend, the company explained underscored the unveiling of the new service Korrect Predict lottery, which it said, will give subscribers the opportunity to win cash gifts from predicting match results accurately.

According to Globacom “Subscribers will receive 2 football matches daily for them to predict the correct scores after which those who accurately predict the outcomes of their preferred matches will win amazing prizes from Glo”.

To subscribe to Korrect Predict, you will either dial the USSD Command *7023# or send the keyword “KPRD” to the shortcode “7023” to subscribe to the daily plan costing just N50 or send the keyword “KPW” to the shortcode “7023” to subscribe to the weekly plan of N150. Upon successful subscription, you will receive an SMS with a link to access the service”.

For the first active subscription when they select any of the daily, or weekly auto-renewal plan, Glo said subscribers will enjoy free trial, adding that “This means that a new subscriber can activate the service at no cost for the first twenty-four hours, after which he or she will then be charged for the next renewal cycle. Subscribers who do not want to be charged after the free trial and buy offer will have to cancel their service renewal before the twenty-four hours elapse by dialing the USSD command for deactivation”.

Glo Korrect Predict provides access to two daily predictions on football matches across Africa, Asian, American and European Leagues including Asian League, English Premiership, Italian Serie A,Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, French Ligue 1 and Portugese Primeira Liga and it can be accessed by all Glo subscribers via SMS, USSD, and Web.

To subscribe to the daily plan costing just N50 subscribers will either dial the USSD Command *7023# or send the keyword “KPRD” to the shortcode “7023” or send the keyword “KPW” to the shortcode “7023” to subscribe to the weekly plan of N150. An SMS with a link to access the service will be sent to the subscribers upon successful subscription.

Continue Reading

Trending