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Tag: Lagos State

  • Ambode approves expansion of CodeLagos

    Centres increased to 648

    Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode has approved the expansion of the CodeLagos initiative to give more access to Lagos residents. 

    This expansion is targeted at increasing the reach and scope of the project by setting up more coding centres across the State.

    Announcing the commencement of the new session of CodeLagos in Primary and Secondary schools, Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh in a statement on Tuesday confirmed that the CodeLagos in-School programme for the new session has started in 648 schools across the 6 Educational Districts in the State.

    “So far, over 60,000 Lagos residents from different parts of the State have been trained through the In-school and Out-of School pathways of CodeLagos. For this new academic term, we have increased our In-School centres from 337 to 648, and 226 of these schools are government schools.

    “In a bid to expand the programme, we have also reached out to NGOs and religious organizations to partner with the State Government to establish Coding centres by opening their facilities for the coding classes.   We have received good feedback from many organizations and we will commence training in these centres soon,” he said.

    Read Also: Ambode comes to grief

    Emphasizing that CodeLagos classes are totally free, Bank-Olemoh said that the programme will continue to train students in Scratch, Python, Mobile App development, Oracle’s Alice and Greenfoot, as well as Blockchain Technology, depending on their level.

    “One of the key success factors of this program is the robust training and incentivization for ICT teachers in participating schools, who are trained to deliver coding lessons to their students.”

    “Recently, 563 new CodeLagos facilitators were trained in preparation for this new term and have been deployed to deliver coding classes to students. A total of 1,005 CodeLagos facilitators have been trained and deployed to centres since the inception of the programme in 2017,” he said.

    Besides, the Special Adviser disclosed that plans are in advanced stages to host the first ever CodeLagos Hackathon Finale in November 2018. This month-long competition, which commenced on October 2, is open to all computer programmers in the State and designed to encourage Lagosians to solve everyday problems we encounter using technology.

    Bank-Olemoh added, “We’re inviting contestants to provide solutions to problems in these areas: Health, Transport, Environment, Energy, Education, Fintech/Finance as well as Environment.”

    At the grand finale scheduled to hold on the 1st of November, 2018, 10 teams of programmers will slog it out for the grand prize of N2million.

    He said the progress of the CodeLagos programme can be tracked on www.codelagos.org.

  • Nigeria needs leader who understands its complexities – Tambuwal

    Sokoto State governor and Presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) Aminu Tambuwal on Saturday said only a candidate that understands the complexities of the country can deliver it from challenges.

    The governor who spoke during a visit to the Lagos State PDP Secretariat, told party members that the country is highly complex to be managed by politician who is not well grounded on developments in the country.

    He added that if he becomes the President next year, the country would be turned around by providing basic necessities for the people.

    According to him, the country could no longer lag behind in the comity of nation, urging the PDP to elect a candidate that would deliver in the dividend of democracy.

    Read Also: 2019: I’ll do a lot of things differently — Tambuwal

    He said: “This time around we must get it right by ensuring that the party field a candidate that can defeat the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019. We must bring someone who can revive the country and must be someone the people can trust.

    ” As former Speaker House of Representatives, what we did still speaks volume. I shall give each and everyone in this country a sense of belonging. That is to say, we will all work for the development of the country.

    “We will all put our head together to restructure the country. We must carry everyone along to achieve unity and development. The party must elect a candidate that can effective combine our strength to win the 2019 election, ” he said.

  • Re: Lessons to be learnt from the Lagos guber saga

    The governorship primary in Lagos State is come and gone, a clear winner emerged as the peoples-backed choice of the party emerged.

    By this time next year, all things being equal, we should be getting used to addressing Babajide Olusola Sanwoolu as his Excellency, the executive governor of Lagos State.

    His emergence and the ouster of Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, in the gubernatorial primary, as the state chief executive should serve as good lessons to all those who aspire to high offices and those who are enamoured of, and desperate about such offices.

    As I had said and observed previously, it is only those who know God that can allow themselves go through high offices without losing their essence. All those who allow public offices to go through them oftentimes miss their steps and stumble from one blunder to another. Lesson number one.

    Lesson number two is to be imbibed with such humility as to remain focused, humane, disciplined and dedicated to seeking public good, such that in and out of office, they remain the same, sane and normal human beings they were before being elected or appointed to high offices.

    Third lesson is to acquire the ability to decipher between genuine advice and grovelling sychophancy. Sycophants and bootlickers are common features in the corridors of power. who are ready to lick the sputum of anyone who happens to be in power, and who when the man of power falls, as he must, due to his bunglings which they aided and abetted, the sycophants and the bootlickers will be the first to transfer their allegiance to the new guy enjoying the spotlight. If Governor Ambode has not experienced this already, it is a matter of time before he learns that lesson.

    Babajide Sanwoolu for now seems to be in tune with the reality of life. His quick recognition of the premium and primacy of the party, as his promise of making the people the cornerstone of his administration gives hope that he will succeed in office, when elected.

    The third lesson is never to use the instruments of power to pursue personal, vindictive or vengeful agenda. Only people who are given to uncontrollable anger and who delight in cuddling hearsay and crass falsehoods new born babies to be coveted, fail in high office assignments; because attributes of positive engagements are not common but they are like certain flowers who only grow in limited gardens. When you are seized by uncontrollable anger, the first casualty is rationality; the reason why people in high offices go before television screens and lose their composure and ‘misjive’ in manners unbecoming of their present high station in life.

    The fourth lesson is that any venture pursued with too much desperation does not end up in glory, because it tears the fabric of sanity in the human mind and makes the possessors behave irrationally as if their lives depended on their vain pursuits. When such people fail in that misadventure, they become human wrecks and go into oblivion or even go to the extreme of committing suicide.

    Fifth, those who goad leaders to their downfall and ruin must reckon with the existence of Almighty God, who pays wages of sin in more devastating manner than any mortal can inflict. Conscience, in the main, kills such people faster than we reckon with; but the few whose hearts are blocked by the devil not to be moved by their perfidy, spend their lives in the mystery of sundry mishaps and ill health on which they waste enormous sums of money needlessly or become objects of ridicule for wining with Paul today and shamelessly shifting to dine with John the next day.

    Sixth lesson is to accord God His proper place in the affairs of man. Betrayal of trust and perfidy are not of God and those who revel in them and delude themselves of being smart, must think of their likes in the Holy Book whose lives and careers ended in ignominy.

    All said, the Lagos contest in the APC confirms the widely held belief that when Lagos sneezes, the whole country catches cold. Mercifully, the cold was not allowed to degenerate to hay fever that could have been contagious for our polity. For this, Governor Ambode, after initially holding out as if he had the resources and willpower to successfully confront the party and the people; and Babajide Sanwoolu, who appears groomed to understand the nuances of what social contract with the people entails, deserves this columnist’s kudos.

  • LASG assures of safety in Oshodi, environs

    Chairman of Lagos State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit (TaskForce) Mr. Olayinka Egbeyemi, a Chief Superintendent of Police, has assured members of the public adequate safety around Oshodi and its environ.
    Egbeyemi dispelled rumour especially on social media that movement around Oshodi and its environ was no longer safe thus creating fears in innocent members of the public.

    Read Also: LASG, firm partner on 750 housing units

    He pointed out that every where around Oshodi is calm and that security officers of the Agency are fully on ground to forestall any attempt by any miscreant or hoodlum to cause mayhem around Oshodi area and its environ.
    While enjoining members of the public to continue with their lawful businesses, the Chairman warned that any miscreant  or hoodlum caught formenting trouble around Oshodi and any other part of the State would be seriously dealt with in accordance with the law.

  • Technology firm launches app that locates advertising targets on internet

    Technology Company, Dochase, has developed computer application software that is capable of locating consumers of certain kind advertisement on the internet and delivers it to them.

    Dochase is co-founded by two young Nigerian programmers, Chibuike Goodnews and Saint Germaine Onwukeme.

    “Over the years, we have discovered that 75 percent of media spending, especially on adverts is wasted, and this is because the advertisers are probably advertising to people that have no connection with what they want to project. You are probably advertising diaper to everybody in the society, whereas diaper is supposed to be advertised to nursing mothers,” Goodnews said.

    He said nursing mothers visit sites and consume media that talk about taking care of babies and how to handle infant issues. He said through the key words they use in their search; the technology can get insight of all the people who fall within the group of nursing mothers and push the diaper advert to them on those places they spend their time on the internet.

    He said when adverts are pushed out on the internet without identifying or having insights of the people the advert is intended for, it gets wasted.

    “We now looked at how we can solve all these things. We saw that a major way to solve it is let’s apply data to it. That is, we harness data of people who fall within that expected potential customer of each product and target them,” he said.

    Read Also: How innovative technology is driving retail industry

    He explained that while Nigeria probably has about 45 million people on the internet, “you cannot be advertising to 45 million people. You need a fraction of those people who are your direct and potential customers. And how do you know them, you need to get their insights. And that’s why we developed this technology that use data to bring out those kinds of insights,” he said.

    He explained that with the huge number of people on the internet, the technology is able to take it down to those people who have the potential to buy the products.

    He said an aspirant for instance who wants to reach people in his constituency in Lagos State, won’t need to advertise in Delta or the entire country because such advert will be misplaced.

    “We break it down, using our parameters to target only Lagos State.  For brands, it can be used to do media buying by getting insight of who should be your customers and creating campaign that will appeal to those people and using the right media that those people consume,” he explained.

    He said the technology can also categorize people into those who have the potential to do shopping, those who are likely to travel and other such groupings.

    “For somebody who has the potential to travel, you will be able to target your advert to them. For somebody who is doing real estate, you should be able to target people who have the potential to buy homes,” he explained.

    He said the technology is a win-win for all those involved in the chain.

    “Some media houses’ sources of revenue are dwindling. Some are moving online. This technology locates the niche people that are consuming your product. If the site is dedicated to probably real estate, the person that is targeting real estate will pay you more because he is targeting niche customers, that is real estate customers. Then the real estate publisher is earning more because he is getting more adverts that is targeted at specific people that his content appeal to,” he said.

    Onwukeme, on his part, said it is regrettable that a good number of publishers in Nigeria and Africa are still operating on the old form of media buying and media sales, while Europe and America are moving into programmatic.

    “Publishers need to understand that when you open up your website, which is like a piece of land you sell every day, you have 10,000 people that visit your website, so you have 10,000 people you can optimize.  Using Dochase, it helps you to open your inventory to multiple sources, whereby as we know the benefit of a free market, people tend to compete and get the best benefit,” he said.

    Dochase started its programmatic business two years ago as a Nigerian business, now becoming a programmatic influencer in Africa. It recently represented Africa in the global gathering of advertising technologies including Google, Facebook, LinkedIn which held in Germany.

  • APC NWC endorses result of Lagos guber primary

    Chairman of the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Clement Ebri on Wednesday endorsed the result of Tuesday’s governorship primary election of the party in Lagos state.

    Mr Ebiri thus endorsed Babajide Sanwo-Olu as the winner.

    Read Also:Lagos APC primary fine, Oshiomhole tells Buhari

    Sanwo-Olu won the primary with 970,851 votes while Governor Akinwunmi Ambode got 72,901 votes.

     

  • Reps endorse Sanwo-Olu for Lagos governor

    House of Representatives members on the platform of Lagos State All progressives Party (APC) yesterday endorsed former Commissioner for Establishment, Training and Pensions Babajide Sanwo-Olu for governor.

    The legislators described him as a hardworking, competent and result-driven technocrat and politician, who will take Lagos to a horizon of progress.

    Led by the House Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, the legislators visited the Ikoyi resident of the aspirant to decorate him with the insignia of endorsement.

    The legislators include former Head of Service Yakubu Balogun, former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Rotimi Agunsoye, Bisi Ayinla Yusuf, Jide Jimoh, Jide Benson, James Faleke, Taofeek Adaranijo, Ayodeji Joseph, Setonji Bamgbose, and Wole Diya.

    Gbajabiamila described the endorsement by the “community of friends” as the last pre-direct primary endorsement by a crucial political structure that has its taproots across the constituencies.

    Noting that the forum had earlier endorsed Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, he explained that politics is dynamic. In his view, the governor was endorsed then because he had no rival.

    Gbajabiamila said: “This is the last political structure that is lending support to Sanwo-Olu. We needed to take our time, look at issues dispassionately and deliberate extensively. We had endorsed the governor before. He has done well in infrastructure development. But, politics is dynamic. We have sat down. Governance is not just about infrastructural development.

    “The GAC had spoken. I was at the meeting. There was no dissenting voice in GAC. Sanwo-Olu is a man of rich pedigree; he has intimidating credentials. He has a lot of experience. We are going to support him at the primary tomorrow (today).”

    Gbajabiamila spoke on the imperative of party unity, saying that the party will not be divided after the primary.

    He added: “We have one party. We don’t want a divided party. Whatever is the outcome of tomorrow’s primary, our party will remain united. We believe in Sanwo-Olu, his capability. We believe he will take Lagos to a higher level.”

    An excited Sanwo-Olu thanked the legislators, promising to endow the office of governor with honour and responsibility, if elected.

    He said: “A vote for me is a vote for taking Lagos to a higher, bigger and better level in health, education, environment, direct foreign investment. While others are playing low, we are playing high. The party will respond to them.

    “I feel elated. I feel tomorrow should be today. Our people will make a right choice.”

  • Ambode attacks Sanwo-Olu in battle for APC ticket

    Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode yesterday attacked his opponent in today’s All Progressives Conngress (APC) primary, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, declaring him not proper and fit to lead the state.

    In a swift reaction, the former Commissioner for Establishment described as “shameless and untrue” the allegations made against him.

    Ambode also raised security alarm on todays’s shadow poll, alleging recruitment and arming of thugs.

    He spoke at a news conference at the Government House in Ikeja.

    Ambode urged the party leadership to have a re-think about Sanwo-Olu.

    He said: “Now the truth is this, the aspirant that is being put up to compete against us is a not fit and proper person. This is the truth, party leaders and party members have been misled to belive that he is a better candidate than myself. It is also known that he does not have the competence to do what he is being propelled to do.

    “We believe our leadership should rethink because the truth is this: I will not stand here on the mandate of Lagosians and allow our great party, APC to fritter away the opportunity to put in somebody that opposition will easily take out because of credibility. So I appeal to all our leaders, they should have a rethink. This is not about myself; it is about the greatest opportunity that APC stand to take the progress of Nigeria to a better place.”

    On why he made that assertion, Ambode alleged that Sanwo-Olu was arrested and detained for spending fake dollars in a club in the United States, and was also on rehabilitation at the Gbagada General hospital.

    Ambode denied planning to leave the APC because of opposition from party leaders. “I am a full blown member of APC and I am going no where,” he declared.

    He urged National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole and the party leadership to allow the tenets and principles of democracy by creating a level playground for all the aspirants at the direct primaries.

    “I plead with them to do the right thing and make the process credible,” Ambode said.

    He said reason must be allowed to prevail in the greater interest of APC, a party that is known for true democratic values and principles, adding that he stands for the Buhari/Osinbajo ticket and “we must not allow somebody who can’t sell that ticket to jeopardise our chances in the state”.

    ”In the last three and half years, Lagos has witnessed tremendous improvement in security and infrastructural development and with our performance we have brought in more members to APC. We want a clean contest, allow everybody to be part of the direct primaries and not just some people,” the governor said.

    He decried the political tension over the governorship primary, which he said had heightened insecurity and fear in the last two weeks.

    ”The current political situation has caused palpable tension and unnecessary fears among law abiding Lagosians. Security reports available to the State Government indicate that there is an ongoing recruitment and arming of political thugs to disrupt the tranquil atmosphere of Lagos State, in the guise of holding primary election.

    “As a responsible government that has invested so much in enhancing security of lives and property in the state to enable Lagosians pursue their lawful endeavours, we will not allow any disruptive elements to cause panic or wreak havoc that will affect the progressive strides which Lagosians are known for. This is more so that we have the assurances of our party leaders to conduct free and fair primary elections for aspirants into the various political offices.

    Ambode added that “It has become imperative to put every stakeholder on notice, especially the Federal Government and Security Agencies, to take more than a passing interest in the development in this State that has hitherto been adjudged as the safest city in Africa.

    He warned that the state government would do all within its powers in collaboration with relevant security agencies to protect citizens and insulate them from any condition that may breed insecurity or the breakdown of law and order in the State throughout the primaries, campaign and election periods.

    The governor urged Lagosians to be calm and go about their normal businesses and advised criminal elements “in their own interest, not to forment any trouble in the name of politics or under any guise, as the full wrath of the law will be brought to bear on any law breaker.

    ”Without being immodest, after three and half years of remarkable performance in bringing growth and development to our dear State, I have humbly expressed my intention to seek re-election in order to consolidate on the giant strides that we have recorded for our dear State and our great party, APC. This is why I once again seek the support of every party member in tomorrow’s primary election. We shall overcome,” Ambode said.

  • Labour strike: There is total compliance – NLC

    Shuts down Lagos state secretariat, chase bank workers out of office

     

    Civil Servants working at the Lagos state Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja could not gain access into their offices on Thursday as the in and out gates to the secretariat were shut and blocked by officials of Labour Unions  that commenced a 7-day warning strike over the government’s foot-dragging on a new minimum wage for workers.

    The Labour unions who were said to have arrived the premises as early as 5a.m. on Thursday morning blocked the in and out entrances of the secretariat stopping workers who came for the day’s work from gaining entrance into the premises.

    The action is to enforce compliance on the strike called by the trade unions on the unresolved issue of minimum wage for workers.

    Parked conspicuously in front of both gates were branded vehicles of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and Trade Union Congress, TUC and other affiliate unions to NLC and TUC with Labour officials and civil servants who had reported for the day’s job on standby. There was no going in or coming out of the premises.

    Speaking with reporters, the Lagos state chairman of NLC, Comrade Idowu Adelakun said the strike is long overdue, adding that “everybody is prepared for the strike.”

    Read Also: Minimum wage: Meeting with labour not deadlocked – Minister

    He further disclosed that they will not leave the premises until around 2pm. and that they will register their presence in the premises for the seven days duration of the warning strike to ensure that no destruction of property and compliance.

    Asked if their presence at the secretariat was to enforce compliance, Adelakun said, it is to ensure that some bad people don’t take advantage of the strike to go inside the premises and start spoiling government property.

    “When we call strike like this and we are not here some people may decide to go inside and start spoiling government property and as leaders we are responsible enough.

    “All this properties are our properties, if people destroy them today they are still going to use tax payers money to rebuild them, so that is why we are here as leaders to make sure that the protest is peaceful and make sure no way for people to do otherwise.”

    Justifying the strike Adelakun said, “The Federal Government set up a committee on minimum wage in 2017, even Minister of Labour promised that by September they would start paying and September is gone, the tripartite committee has not been able to come up with any report, if we don’t fight now when are we going to fight? He queried.

    He disclosed that the Labour officials have monitored the banks and sent workers out from their offices, Coca Cola and many companies around Alausa were not allowed to open for business.

    “We only have skeletal services in hospitals because of the nature of their work, there is a total compliance”, Adelakun said.

    Describing the minimum wage of N18,000 as slave wage, he said the constitution stipulates a review of minimum wage every five years and the review is long overdue. “N18,000 minimum wage cannot take you anywhere in today Nigeria”, he said.

  • Workers’ strike paralyses Lagos judiciary

    The court rooms of the Lagos State Judiciary were shut to adjudication of cases as workers stayed away to observe the nationwide strike called by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to press home their demand improved minimum wage.

    As a result, lawyers and litigants who came to the courts were turned back at the gate by security guards keeping watch over the court premises.

    The NLC and TUC are asking for N50,000 as against the present N18,000  as minimum wage for workers in the public and organized private sectors across the country.

    The premises of the High Court of Lagos State, Ikeja was quiet like a grave yard on Thursday.

    All the doors of the court rooms were chained and padlocked by workers to prevent proceedings from taking place.

    The Chief Registrar, Mrs Taiwo Olatokun who arrived Ikeja High Court could not gain access to her office as the main door of the administrative building was also put in chain and padlocked.

    Mrs Olatokun stood by the main gate and was seen discussing with some heads of departments of the judiciary. They left when it became clear that workers were not going to open the offices.

    However, the security men spread out all over the premises of Ikeja high court to ensure safety of properety.

    None of the officials of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) were on ground to answer media enquiries on Thursday.

    The Nigeria Labour Congress had on Wednesday directed all its members and affiliate unions to commence a nationwide strike yesterday after a stalemated meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige.

    The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said the industrial action would commence due to the refusal of the Federal Government to reconvene the meeting of the tripartite national minimum wage committee to enable it to conclude its work.

    He said, “In compliance with this mandate, all workers and private sector at all levels across the country have been directed to comply.

    “All public and private institutions, offices, banks, schools, public and private business premises, including filling station, are to remain shut till further notice.