The report that the United States Mission in Nigeria has taken bold steps to bolster democracy in the country by defending free and fair elections is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
The Guardian reports that the United States Mission in Nigeria has taken bold steps to bolster democracy in the country by defending free and fair elections.
The spokesperson of the mission, Jeanne Clark, at a town hall meeting organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) in Kano State, yesterday, said that fighting corruption and defending credible elections are central to U.S. government’s action plan.
“The U.S. is taking bold action in supporting free and independent media, fighting corruption, bolstering democratic reforms, as well as advancing technology for democracy and political process,” she said.
According to Clark, getting things done in a democratic setting is not always easy, as democracy is messy and hard that no one would get all they want.
The newspaper says that African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO) has said that Dangote Oil Refinery would reduce importation of petroleum products production into the continent by as much as 36 per cent.
Besides, the organisation expressed confidence that the success of the project could incentivise the rise of similar projects across Africa despite the current focus on energy transition.
The Secretary-General, African Petroleum Producers Organisation, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, said in an interview that the refinery would be supplying over 12 per cent of Africa’s demand when it becomes operational.
Ibrahim stated, “To appreciate the impact that the Dangote refinery is going to have on African economies and especially on the supply of petroleum products, and to some extent the conservation of scarce foreign exchange, a look at some statistics on the continent’s petroleum products demand and supply is in order.
“Currently, Africa’s daily petroleum demand is 4.3 million barrels per day (mbd). Of this volume, 57 per cent is produced locally (on the continent) while 43 per cent is imported. When Dangote is fully operational, the percentage of Africa’s products imported shall drop to 36 per cent. This is even as the total volume of products demand rises to 5.4 mbd.”
The Punch reports that the Nigerian Government has announced plans to partner Egypt in the areas of technical support in the transmission and distribution of electricity in Nigeria.
The Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, announced this during a meeting with the Egyptian Ambassador to Nigeria, Ihad Awad, at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Power in Abuja.
Aliyu in a statement issued by the power ministry, stated the partnership would boost the development needs of both countries by improving electricity supply, including renewable energy in Nigeria and Egypt.
The statement read in part, “Aliyu further stated that the anticipated areas of cooperation between Egypt’s Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy and Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Power may include provision of technical support in transmission and distribution networks.”
Others include “smart-grid and the promotion of renewable energy system in the electricity sector both on-grid and off-grid.”
The minister told his guests that the Federal Government was committed to seeing that Nigerians received efficient power supply.
He informed the meeting that the government signed a power project deal with Siemens AG, a German- based firm in 2019 and that the deal brought together Nigeria’s Ministry of Power, Bureau of Public Enterprises and Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.
The newspaper says that the Federal Government on Wednesday said it was working to establish three modular refineries in each of the oil producing states, particularly in the Niger Delta region.
Going by the plan, the government would have to establish about 18 refineries in the country’s six major oil producing states in the Niger Delta including Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Edo and Cross River.
It said the objective was to halt the illegal artisanal refining activities going on in oil producing areas and its impact on residents in the affected locations.
The Minister of State for Environment, Chief Sharon Ikeazor, disclosed this in a statement issued by her ministry in Abuja.
She said, “In a bid to find alternative sources of livelihood for artisanal refiners and to encourage them to disengage completely from their illegal activities, the Federal Ministry of Environment in collaboration with the Office of the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs and other critical stakeholders, are working on the establishment of three modular refineries per state in the oil producing areas as a pilot scheme to engage them (artisanal refiners).
The Sun reports that the Senate has passed the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) Bill 2022 following the consideration of a report by the Committee on Aviation.
The Chairman of the Committee, Smart Adeyemi (Kogi West) said the bill, which was passed on Wednesday, seeks to repeal NAMA Act 2010 for the purposes of providing effective air navigation services in Nigeria.
He said that the bill is one of the six Aviation Executive Bills referred to the Committee by the Senate which are related to crucial matters of regulation, training, management, and safety of the Aviation Industry.
He said that the Act establishing NAMA came into effect on May 26, 1999, and has been in operation for twenty-two years but that the amendments to the 2010 Act are geared towards aligning the Agency to meet new operational requirements in the industry as stipulated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
“The issues that surround the Bill are significant in ensuring safe air travels and are part of efforts at enhancing the health and profitability of the overarching aviation sector and public benefit,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has said that commercial motorcycling around the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos has been prohibited and the entire axis declared safe.
ThisDay says that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has alerted members of the public about how a cybercrime group has perfected a New Year scheme to deliver ransomware to targeted organisational networks.
The new ransomware uncovered by security experts has been categorised by the Nigerian Computer Emergency Response Team’s (ngCERT) advisory as high-risk and critical.
The NCC explained in a statement that the ngCERT advisory, in its receb5 release, said the criminal group had been mailing out USB thumb drives to many organisations in the hope that recipients will plug them into their PCs and install the ransomware on their networks.
While businesses are being targeted, criminals could soon begin sending infected USB drives to individuals. Describing how the cybercrime group runs the ransomware, the ngCERT advisory said the USB drives contain so-called ‘BadUSB’ attacks.
The BadUSB exploits the USB standards versatility and allows an attacker to reprogram a USB drive to emulate a keyboard to create keystrokes and commands on a computer. It then installs malware prior to the operating system booting, or spoofs a network card to redirect traffic.
Numerous attack tools are also installed in the process that allows for exploitation of personal computers (PCs), lateral movement across a network, and installation of additional malware.
GIK/APA