The Federal Government has inaugurated the Inter-Ministerial Committee on 2022 Democracy Day celebration.

Speaking while inaugurating the Committee, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, emphasized the importance of the commemoration of the Democracy Day as a period of reflection on the gains of democracy in the country.

He stated that the annual Democracy Day would provide a platform through which the heroes of the nation’s democracy would be celebrated and the scorecard of this administration clearly enunciated. In his words:

“The celebration of the Democracy Day provides an opportunity to remember the contribution of the heroes of Democracy in Nigeria, some of whom paid the supreme price to restore Democracy in the country. It also affords the Government an opportunity to showcase its achievements in dealing with myriads of challenges in the social and economic sectors confronting the nation”.

In order to ensure successful execution of the celebration, the SGF inaugurated the following nine Sub-Committees: Church Service Sub-Committee; Juma’at Sub-Committee; Protocol Sub-Committee; Venue and Entertainment Sub-Committee; Medical Sub-Committee, Security Sub-Committee, Parade Sub-Committee, Media and Publicity Sub-Committee; and Secretariat Sub-Committee.

Some members of the Sub-Committees who attended the inauguration included: The Honourable Minister of FCT, Mohammed Musa Bello ; Honourable Honourable Minister of Defence, Maj Gen Bashir Salihi Magashi (rtd); Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Inspector- General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba; Commandant, Brigade of Guards,Brigadier General Muhammed Takuti Usman, among others.

First Lady of Nigeria, Dr. Aisha Muhammadu Buhari has commended female political aspirants, calling on Nigerian women to draw inspiration from their courage and support them to win their chosen positions. She was speaking during a Summit for Political Aspirants organized by the All Progressives Congress (APC) Women Leader in collaboration with the Office of the First Lady of Nigeria, on Saturday 14th May 2022, at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja.

Mrs. Buhari stressed that the coming election provides a unique opportunity to assess women’s readiness to change the course of history in Nigeria’s Political terrain, and therefore needs to persevere and strive to approach the political ground with sincerity and decorum, and not allow themselves to be marginalized anymore. She charged them to shun violence, jealousy and hatred for one another and believe in themselves, love themselves as well as believe and commit to the party ideals.

“I would like to draw our attention to the need to increase our participation in governance, especially at the state and local government levels. This is important in making ourselves relevant as partners in progress and development,” she added.

She further urged the ruling APC to consider and implement the 35% affirmative action in the party constitution by taking all necessary steps in ensuring that women’s aspirations are fulfilled. While commending the party leadership for supporting women over the years, she charged them to believe in women and show them more solidarity.

She also expressed the belief that the summit will make a difference in the political landscape of the country and promised to support all women aspirants through the electoral process.

Earlier, the APC Women Leader, Dr. Betta Edu commended the First Lady for the support she has been giving women and urged her to do more, especially at the edge of the primary elections. She said the essence of the summit was to garner moral support for female political aspirants and there was no better person to do this than the mother of the nation.

The National Chairman of the APC, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu was represented at the event by Hon. Emma Eneukwu, Deputy National Chairman South, APC, who delivered a goodwill message on behalf of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC.

Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has unveiled Nigeria Internal Security and Public Safety Alert System, (NISPSAS) mobile APP, designed to mitigate security challenges and other disaster owing to climate change in Nigeria.

The launching was held in the ministry’s headquarters, Abuja, the Minister said the innovation became imperative in stemming the tide of insecurity in the country. He added that the new app would stimulate intelligence gathering and prompt response to emerging security threat, with a slogan which he coined “See something Do N-Alert”, in the usage of the new mobile App that has been upgraded recently to meet with current security challenges in the country.

Aregbosola, in his words said the government has committed and shall continue to commit unprecedented amout of resources to addressing security with personnel and equipment, but the good news is that government is winning, even though there are still occasional flashes of heightening, the figures continue to go down as more criminals are apprehended and others are deterred, just as peace continue to return to hitherto troubled area.

Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Shuaib Belgore, in his welcome remarks, stressed the need for deployment of ICT in fighting insecurity and its various dimensions, such as terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and others, hence the need for the innovation of this security alert system.

In his tribute, the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammad, congratulated the Ministry of Interior for the new initiative, he added that the platform would go a long way in the fight against insecurity, he however, assured that his ministry would collaborate with Interior Ministry in showcasing the mobile app to the general public for participation, as he said security is the concern of everybody.

It was a very colorful ceremony with the former Minister of Interior, Dambazau Bello in attendance, others are the Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment, representative of the Head of Service of the Federation, Permanent Secretaries of Special Duties, Science, Technology and innovation, Controller and Commandant General’s of Agencies and Directors of the Ministry.

The overseeing Director in the office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs (MNDA), Mr. Alfred Abah has noted that his excellency President Muhammadu Buhari has continue to demonstrate the willingness of his administration to improve the living conditions of the people of Niger Delta region particularly in the areas of policy enactment, investment, infrastructure and economic development.

Mr. Alfred Abah made this statement during the opening ceremony of the Technical Committee meeting of the National Council on Niger Delta (NCND) held in Calabar, Cross River State, between Wednesday 11th – Friday 13, May, 2022.
The Director explained that the approval of the Strategic Implementation Work Plan (SIWP) by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) is another dynamic step taken by the Government to drive development in the region.

Speaking further, the chairman of the committee said that the Technical Committee is made up of 53 members which membership cuts across Ministry’s Departments and Agencies (MDA’S), at the states and Federal level, Development Partners and Stakeholders with the mandate to prepare all documents and Memoranda for consideration and approval of the council.

According to Mr. Abah, “the council is structured to function within the thematic areas of infrastructure development, environmental preservation, human capital development, monitoring and evaluation, economic recovery and growth plan are the key focus areas that the council would deal with”.

“The council is also an avenue to discuss and strengthen the working relationship between various stakeholders on policy issues that would set the region on the path to sustained peace, infrastructural and socio-economic development.”
“Our core responsibility at this session is therefore, to review the level of implementation of the resolutions of the 4th NCND held in Rivers State, Port Harcourt, in December, 2020, as well as consider memos submitted and come up with feasible and actionable recommendations for council consideration and approval, and also finalize preparations for the 5th National council scheduled for later, in the year,” he said.

The Director disclosed that the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs (MNDA) and the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) have harmonized all the different Development plans in the region into a single regional development strategy which will help to synchronize and galvanize the intended rapid and uniform development of the area.

Mr. Abah who acknowledged the tremendous support of the Honourable Minister, Minstry of Niger Delta Affairs, Sen. Godswill Akpabio and the Hon. Minister of state, Sen. Omotayo Alasoadura for their untiring efforts towards improving the situation of the region and for making the meeting possible, also expressed his appreciation of the interest shown by participants and hope that their wealth of experience and knowledge would chat a better format for future NCND meetings.
The chairman said that, “the bane of the Council, has been that of the implementation of its resolutions, we must drive people to implement the resolutions and if we are able to deal with it exhaustively, we would have dealt with the issue of development to a great extent in the region”.

In his goodwill message to participants of the Technical Committee on NCND, the Head of Service, Cross Rivers State, Mr. Timothy Ogbang Akwaji said the Niger Delta Region which is blessed with Petroleum and Gas deposits, Minerals that drive and sustains the Nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has for decades been in the news either as the goose that lays the golden eggs or as a region experiencing the storms of environmental consequences of oil exploitation and exploration.

The region is rift with issues begging for attention, in this regard we need to set an agenda for positive and result oriented discourse, the council must embrace the coming on stream of renewable energy being orchestrated as panacea for climatic change mitigation. Conversations on the Niger Delta question should not be limited to oil mineral exploration and exploitation but the focus should be on how to navigate economic survival for the people.

Mr. Akwaji who commended the harmonization of the two action plans of the ministry noted that “the Federal Government have facilitated growth and development in the region over the years, such support has not really translated to concrete development in the area”.

He therefore urged that, council’s resolutions reached at the meeting are pushed for implementation, to achieve the desired benefits for the region and the people. He said that there should be a parameter of ensuring that all component states are accorded a sense of belonging in the scheme of things.

…Warns of vulnerability to new Android trojan apps

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) wishes to alert telecom consumers and members of the public on an ongoing cyber-vulnerability that allows a nearby hacker to unlock vehicles, start their engines wirelessly and make away with the cars.

The fact that car remotes are categorized short range devices that make use of radio frequency (RF) to lock and unlock cars informed the need for the Commission to alert the general public on this emergent danger, where hackers take advantage to unlock and start a compromised car.

According to the latest advisory released by the Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT), the Cybersecurity Centre for the telecom sector established by the NCC, the vulnerability is a Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attack or, more specifically, a replay attack in which an attacker intercepts the RF signals normally sent from a remote key fob to the car, manipulates these signals, and re-sends them later to unlock the car at will.

With this latest type of cyber-attack, it is also possible to manipulate the captured commands and re-transmit them to achieve a different outcome altogether. “Multiple researchers disclosed a vulnerability, which is said to be used by a nearby attacker to unlock some Honda and Acura car models and start their engines wirelessly. The attack consists of a threat actor capturing the radio frequency (RF) signals sent from your key fob to the car and resending these signals to take control of your car’s remote keyless entry system,” the advisory stated emphatically.

However, the NCC-CSIRT, in the advisory, has offer some precautionary measures or solutions that can be adopted by car owners to prevent falling victim to the attack.

According to the cyber-alert unit of the Commission, “When affected, the only mitigation is to reset your key fob at the dealership. Besides, the affected car manufacturer may provide a security mechanism that generate fresh codes for each authentication request, this makes it difficult for an attacker to ‘replay’ the codes thereafter. Additionally, vulnerable car users should store their key fobs in signal-blocking ’Faraday pouches’ when not in use.”
Importantly, car owners in the stated categories are advised to choose Passive Keyless Entry (PKE) as opposed to Remote Keyless Entry (RKE), which would make it harder for an attacker to read the signal due to the fact that criminals would need to be at close proximity to carry out their nefarious acts.

The PKE is an automotive security system that operates automatically when the user is in proximity to the vehicle, unlocking the door on approach or when the door handle is pulled, and also locking it when the user walks away or touches the car on exit. The RKE system, on the other hand, represents the standard solution for conveniently locking and unlocking a vehicle’s doors and luggage compartment by remote control.

Additionally, in a related advisory, the NCC, based on another detection by CSIRT, wishes to inform the general public about the resurgence of Joker Trojan-Infected Android Apps on Google Play Store. This arose due to the activities of criminals who intentionally download legitimate apps from the Play Store, modify them by embedding the Trojan malware and then uploading the app back to the Play Store with a new name.

The malicious payload is only activated once the apps goes live on the Play Store, which enables the apps to scale through Google’s strict evaluation process. Once installed, these apps request for permissions that once granted, enable the apps to have access to critical functions such as text messages and notifications.

As a consequence, a compromised device will subscribe unwitting users to premium services, billing them for services that do not exist. A device like this can also be used to commit Short Messaging Service (SMS) fraud while the owner is unaware.

It can click on online ads automatically and even use SMS One Time password (OTPs) to secretly approve payments. Without checking bank statements, the user will be unaware that he or she has subscribed to an online service. Other actions, such as stealing text messages, contacts, and other device data, are also possible.

To avoid falling victim to the manipulation of hackers deploying Joker Trojan-Infected Android Apps, Android users have been advised to avoid downloading unnecessary apps or installing apps from unofficial sources. The NCC also wishes to advise telecom consumers to ensure that apps installed from the Google Play Store are heavily scrutinized by reading reviews, assessing the developers, perusing the terms of use and only granting the necessary permissions.

Conclusively, the NCC recommends that unauthorised transactions be checked against any installed app. Indeed, any apps not in use should be deleted while users are also advised to ensure that a device is always patched and updated to the latest software.

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, has congratulated the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, on his appointment as the Chairman of the 2022 World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Forum by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Danbatta described the choice of the Minister as chair of the Forum as a worthy recognition of Nigeria’s leadership role in the global digital economy ecosystem, noting that Nigeria has continued to hold a front-row seat in the promotion of information and communication technology (ICT) as a driving force for national development since the assumption of office of the Minister.

“On behalf of the Board, Management and Staff of the Nigerian Communications Commission, I want to express our profound delight and congratulations to the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, on his well-deserved appointment by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to chair this year’s WSIS Forum”, Danbatta stated.

“The appointment did not surprise us at NCC, given the important role the Hon. Minister has been playing in driving fundamental digital economy policies, being implemented by agencies under his supervision, in order to boost the diversification policy of the Federal Government,” the EVC said.

“We are, therefore, happy to associate with the Minister on this feat, as it means greater recognition for Nigeria. The appointment is an indication that the world has continued to take notice of the giant strides of Nigeria’s digital economy under the supervision of the Minister.

The NCC will continue to do everything within its regulatory mandate to further support the Federal Government’s drive for ubiquitous, affordable and accessible digital services across all nooks and crannies of the country,” Danbatta said.

Following consultations with various stakeholders, the ITU recently notified the Minister via a letter, of his appointment as the 2022 WSIS Chairman.

The ITU is orgainsing the WSIS 2022 Forum in collaboration with other agencies with the United Nations with a focus on “ICTs for Well-Being, Inclusion and Resilience: WSIS Cooperation for Accelerating Progress on the SDGs”.

As has been noted elsewhere, the appointment of Prof. Pantami has given Nigeria, and indeed, the African continent, the unique role of coordinating the activities of the WSIS in its 20th year, following the WSIS Phase I meeting which took place in 2003.

The WSIS Forum 2022, which will be attended by several high-level stakeholders, including Cabinet Ministers from ITU countries, will serve as a key platform to discuss the role of ICTs as a means to bolster the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals targets. The discourse will take place in the context of the mechanism for follow-up and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UNGA Resolution A/70/1).

The WSIS Forum also provides an opportunity to track the achievements of WSIS Action Lines in collaboration with the UN Agencies involved and provides information and analysis on the implementation of WSIS Action Lines since 2005. The Forum aims at enhancing cooperation, partnership, innovation, exchange of experiences and good practices in ICTs for sustainable development across the world.