The Nigerian government has declared Zamfara State, North-West of the country as a no-fly zone.

The government has also banned all mining activities in the State, all in a bid to check and curb the activities of bandits and criminals in the State.

National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Major General Babagana Monguno disclosed this to State House Correspondents on Tuesday, at the end of a meeting of the National Security Council, chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Redouble their efforts
According to the NSA, President Buhari is worried about the current security situation of the country and has therefore, charged the military and all other security agencies to redouble their efforts.

He said: “Of course the President still remains concerned about the level of security which seems to be cascading for the worst. Given the fact that we have a new organisation with new Service Chiefs, the President has charged all of us to redouble our efforts especially in view of the occurrences of the last couple of weeks.

“The predominant issues raising concern for the entire nation remain kidnapping, banditry and of course terrorism in the North-eastern part of the country. Apart from that we’ve also had issues with farmers and herders which has also resulted in some unpleasant ethnic situations.

“The President has approved, based on our recommendation, the imposition and enforcement of a ban on all mining activities in Zamfara State with immediate effect until further notice. He has also approved that Zamfara State be declared a no-fly zone with immediate effect.

“I need to stress also that there are individuals in this country who have assumed a status that is beyond what they should be and intelligence at my disposal and all the disposal of other intelligence heads have revealed that there are certain individuals and entities who are making capital out of insecurity especially kidnapping. This is a situation that has to be brought to an end and I am sending a warning to anybody who is hiding beneath some status, either official, traditional or religious, to cause disorder, will have himself to blame because the government is very serious about this, we cannot afford to continue to lose lives.”

Military Assets Deployment
Monguno said the President has also directed the Minister of Defence and the National Security Adviser to deploy massive military and intelligence assets to restore normalcy to the State and the entire North-West zone of the country.

The NSA also used the occasion to warn all mischief makers to desist, as they have been placed under security watch and would be decisively dealt with if they continue their nefarious acts that are detrimental to the unity and progress of the nation.

He said: “All non-State actors that have been causing problems for the innocent people not just in Zamfara State or the North-West zone but also the North-East, South-South and other parts of the country have been placed under surveillance by the intelligence agencies.

“We’ve heard a lot of reports coming in, collusion with people from all walks of life. While the federal government is not averse to the application of non-kinetic means to resolve this problem, I need to make it very clear that the federal government will not hesitate to apply to the fullest its kinetic means to restore normalcy to the country.     

“No sovereign nation will tolerate a group of non-State actors to bring it down to its knees and render the State in a state of panic, apprehension, mistrust or disorder therefore, both the defence and intelligence organisations have been charged that while we look forward to having a peaceful non-kinetic measures resolution, we will not allow this country to drift into State failure.”

Reclaim all areas
The NSA further said that with effect from Tuesday March 2, the new Service Chiefs have been given directives by the President to reclaim all areas dominated by bandits, kidnapers and other criminals.

“In doing so, I have also asked all the intelligence agencies to collapse all their efforts unto one platform so that with the convergence of efforts, we will be able to give the required intelligence to the operational elements of government,” he said.

Monguno however said, based on constitutional provisions, every Nigerian has the right to live peacefully in any part of the country but if he/she ferments trouble, the law will take its course.

Lateefah Ibrahim

The Telecommunications operators in Nigeria have recorded the loss of 4.28 million active subscribers in January 2021, according to latest industry statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission,(NCC).

The data showed that the telcos lost an additional one million subscribers above the 3.3 million subscriber loss recorded in December as the industry recorded 199.86 million GSM users in January.

The four telecoms service providers also recorded zero porting activities, following the NCC’s directive in December for the telcos to suspend sales, registration and activation of new SIM cards, hindering porting activities as well.

Further breakdown of subscriber statistics showed that Airtel lost the highest number of subscribers in January.

The telecom dropped by 2.21 million subscribers from 55.64 million subscribers in December to 53.42 million customers.

MTN followed with a loss of 1.72 million subscribers. It had 80.76 million subscribers in December, but the figure fell to 79.03 million in January.

Globacom lost 245,627 subscribers, recording a total of 54.59 million subscribers as against 54.84 million GSM users in December.

9mobile, which had 12.98 million users in December 2020 lost 173,567 subscribers in January with a total of 12.80 million users.

Airtel was the country’s second largest operator with 27.25 per cent of market share.

MTN, however, remained Nigeria’s largest mobile network operator with 39.54 per cent market share.

Globacom replaced Airtel as the second largest with 27.32 per cent market share, while Airtel followed with 26.73 per cent market share.

9mobile remained the fourth operator with 6.41 per cent market share.

Unsurprisingly, Nigeria’s tele-density dropped by 2.25 per cent as the number of subscriptions dropped from 204.52 million in December to 200.21 million in January.

Broadband penetration fell to 42.93 per cent from 45.02 per cent in December as broadband subscriptions dropped from 85.94 million in December to 81.94 million in January.

Nigeria’s mobile Internet subscribers decreased by 2.97 million in January, with the total number of users dropping to 150.89 million from 153.87 million in December 2020.

The Internet subscriber data revealed that MTN’s mobile Internet subscriber base reduced the most again in January, with a loss of 1.37 million. Its subscribers dropped from 65.35 million in December to 63.98 million in January.

Airtel, followed with a loss of 1.25 million Internet subscribers. The telco recorded a total of 40.03 million consumers in January, against 41.28 million consumers in December.

Lateefah Ibrahim

As Nigeria gets set to resume the roll out of the Digital Switch Over project soon, the country’s Information and Culture Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said that the key to the project’s success remains rich and attractive content.

The Minister stated this on Tuesday in Abuja during the maiden meeting of the Task Force on the DSO project.

“The success of this project is hinged on content. If the content is right, the 24 million TV households in the country will embrace it. If the content is wrong, they will not. There is no better way to say it.

Even the purchase of the Set Top Boxes by Nigerians will depend on the richness of the content offered. Before now, we either gave out the boxes free or at subsidised rates. But now that the project is being commercially-driven, the sale of STBs will depend on the content.”

Indispensable
According to the Minister, based on conventional wisdom, sports, especially football and particularly the English Premiership and Champions League; entertainment, especially Nollywood/Kannywood movies; news, both local and international, and children’s programme, including cartoons, are indispensable.

“If we are to get Nigerians to buy in to this project. Therefore, the issue of content must be taken seriously for us all to tap into the great opportunity offered by this project to help popularise the local football league.

We can work with the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) to have their weekly matches shown live. I have no doubt that they will be willing to work with us in this regard.”

True essence of the DSO
Alhaji Mohammed urged the DSO committee to ensure massive publicity for this project as he explained that millions of Nigerians were still unaware of the true essence of the DSO and the opportunities therein.

“Recently, a newspaper article on the DSO said Nigerians would not be willing to buy STBs because of the cost, forgetting that the cost of the STB will be offset in the end by the non-payment for weekly or monthly subscription, which is a key selling point for the DSO.

To prevent this kind of disinformation, we need to widely inform and educate Nigerians on the project. Finally, we have kick-started the process of implementing the Audience Measurement Scheme, which is critical to the success of the DSO project.

Once this scheme is ready, all content owners and channels will now be able to get commensurate benefits for their efforts and creativity.”

The Nigerian government had recently released 9.4 billion for the continuation of the DSO roll out project across the remaining 31 states of the federation.

Lateefah Ibrahim

Major General Lucky Irabor’s appointment as Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, has been confirmed by the Senate.

Tuesday’s confirmation of the appointment was sequel to the consideration of the report of Senate committee on Defence which screened the appointees.

Others whose appointment were also confirmed include, Major General Ibrahim Attahiru who was confirmed as the Chief of Army Staff, Rear Admiral Awwal Gambo, confirmed as the Chief of Naval Staff, & Air Vice Marshal Isiaka Amao,confirmed as the Chief of Air Staff.

Child Right Acts
The Senate also on Tuesday, passed an amendment to the Child Rights Act 2003, to ensure better protection of children.

Senate’s amendment of the Child Rights Act was sequel to the consideration of the report presented by it’s committee on women affairs.

The amendment is to prevent any person with rape conviction or other immoral considerations, from working with children & child related organisation.

Lateefah Ibrahim/COV/EDWIN.