NEWS UPDATE : Nigerians blast Buhari govt for banning sale, buying of bitcoin, other Cryptos

 

Nigerians on social media have strongly condemned the ban issued to Financial institutions against having any crypto or facilitating payments for crypto exchanges.

 had reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, on Friday instructed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), other Financial Institutions (OFIs) and Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs) as well as local financial institutions against having any transactions in crypto or facilitating payments for crypto exchanges.

The apex bank gave the directive in a letter to all DMBs, OFIs and NBFIs dated February 5th.

Reacting, some Nigerians accused the Buhari led administration of issuing directives aimed at killing the country’s economy.

Here are some comments DAILY POST gathered on Twitter;

@Lucasscot_101, “Buhari rate farming over crypto. He wants all of us to go back to subsistence farming or animal husbandry.”

@adetolav, “Protests – Ban, Import restricted items – Ban, Social media – try to ban
Crypto – Bans can’t be the only tool that a government or regulator knows how to use. Especially not in a interconnected global economy.”

“How can a govt enjoy frustrating his own people, simply cos his fulani roaming herdsmen don’t understand how Crypto works? I just can’t explain how I’m feeling right now.”

@Dj_switchaholic, “If the ban on crypto by CBN is true ehn, it points yet again to the ill informed, backward, poverty promoting dinosaurs leading us. Use your time to investigate and close accounts sponsoring terrorists in the country if you don’t know what to do.”

@Omojuwa, “The biggest opportunity by far, for wealth creation for Nigeria and especially its young population, is embedded in the thinking, technology and innovation behind cryptocurrencies and its appurtenances. Someone is desperate to ensure this poverty lasts through this century.”

@Mrodanz, “Buhari loves cattle currency, not crypto currency.”

@dammiedammie35, “How can you ban crypto transactions in 2021 !! A currency that’s growing our economy little by little.People are making money legitimately.Doubling their money and taking care of their families with it!They just want us to suffer! Our government hates progress!! It’s saddening.”

@Realolaudah, “Crypto currencies that the whole world is tending to? That billionaires like Elon Musk & Jack Dorsey are speculating on? Some dinosaur in @cenbank will come & give a blanket ban, because he simply doesn’t understand why ownership of a virtual currency should constitute wealth.”

@Toberry15, “Nigeria is currently running at a public debt of over 31 trillion naira, but crypto banning is top tier in the government scale of preference, what a country.”

@Toluolugbenga, “Dear CBN,You can stop platforms from using the banking system for crypto transactions. But do you know what’s called Peer to Peer?Do you know what’s called DeFi, decentralized finance.You can remain backward but you would not drag us back.”

@daddynomso, “Nigeria’s Dream is to Kill the Youths, Frustrate their dreams to be successful. Every year there is a new Policy to destroy the Youths, Several companies run on Crypto will be destroyed, online transactions will be ruined & this gives Orgasm to CBN & Emefiele. Agents of Pain.”

BIAFRA : Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala set to make history at WTO

 Having survived the murky waters of politics in Nigeria, where her mother was kidnapped to send her a message, and rising to number two at the World Bank, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala should have no trouble dealing with international trade negotiators in her new job at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).   MONEY BEST SITE

The 66-year-old will be the first woman and the first African to occupy the position.

Despite recently taking out US citizenship, she revels in being Nigerian and is fiercely patriotic - flaunting her African identity in her African-print tailored outfits.

She told the BBC in 2012 that she had in fact adopted such attire as a working mother of four to do the school run, an easy answer for a smart look - and a thrifty one at that, given she estimated each outfit cost around $25.

The Harvard-educated development economist is seen as a down-to-earth, hard worker, who told BBC HardTalk in July that what the WTO needed was a shake-up .https://saviournicodemus.blogspot.com

"They need something different, it cannot be business as usual for the WTO - [they need] someone willing to do the reforms and lead."

Reform in Nigeria

During her 25 years at the World Bank, she is credited with spearheading several initiatives to assist low-income countries, in particular raising nearly $50bn in 2010 from donors for the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank's fund for the poorest countries.

But it is her reform agenda in Nigeria in which she takes real pride - especially the two times she served as the country's finance minister under Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan.

One of her greatest achievements was leading a team which negotiated a whopping $18bn debt right-off in 2005 for the country, helping Nigeria obtain its first ever sovereign debt rating.

The country's debts had dated back to the early 1980s, and had ballooned to more than $35bn due to penalties and late fees during the 1990s.

Her economic reforms had a far-reaching impact and saved Nigeria at a critical period, according to prominent Nigerian economist, Bismarck Rewane.

This included de-linking the budget from the oil price, allowing the country to save money in a special account when oil prices were high.

"It was this buffer that ensured Nigeria's economy survived between 2008 and 2009," Mr Rewane told the BBC.

Ms Okonjo-Iweala had given up a well-paid job at the World Bank and left her family in Washington, where her husband works as a neurosurgeon, to work in Nigeria, where unlike other ministers she did not have a large domestic staff or fleet of cars.

In fact she even liked doing her own cooking when she could, with cowtail pepper soup being a favourite, a Financial Times interview revealed in 2015.

No-nonsense approach

But her reforms and especially her crackdown on corruption in the fuel sector, where some powerful importers - known as marketers - claimed huge sums of money in subsidies from the government for fuel they had not sold, came at personal cost.

Her mother, Kamene Okonjo - a medical doctor and retired professor of sociology - was kidnapped from her home in southern Nigeria in 2012, aged 82.

Kidnapping is common in Nigeria, where it is a lucrative criminal enterprise and families often pay up as the security services do not often find those abducted.

The then-finance minister said the kidnappers had first demanded her resignation and then a ransom.

But she says she refused to do either.

"I knew that the largest vested interest that I had recently offended in my anti-corruption work was an unscrupulous subset of the country's oil marketers," she said in her account of the event.

Mrs Okonjo was released within five days in unclear circumstances, but her daughter's no-nonsense approach may have come to bear in the matter.

One of her sons - Uzodinma Iweala, author of the 2005 novel Beast of No Nation - has said of his strict upbringing: "My mum is a very powerful woman. She knows how she wants things done, and if you don't it her way, you are in trouble."

Biography

• Born 1954 in Nigeria
• Studied at Harvard 1973-76 and earned a PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1981
• Spent 25 years at the World Bank, rising to the No.2 position as managing director (2007-11)
• Twice Nigerian finance minister - 2003-2006 and 2011-2015 - and the first woman to hold the post
• Served briefly as foreign minister in 2006, also the first woman to do so
• Sits on the boards of Twitter, Standard Chartered Bank and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI)
• Nominated by President Mohammadu Buhari as candidate for director-general of the WTO in June 2020

• I can take hardship'

  Her drive may come from her knowledge of real poverty. She lived with her grandmother until the age of nine as her parents were abroad getting their education.

  "They were gone for almost a decade before I really saw them and knew them. I did everything a village girl would do, fetch water, go to the farm with my grandmother all the chores, I saw what poverty meant, to be poor at first hand," she told the BBC in 2012.

  Her experience as a teenager during the Biafra civil war of 1967-1970 crystallised this.

  Her Igbo parents lost all their savings during the conflict as her father, a renowned professor, was a brigadier in the Biafran forces.

  "I can take hardship. I can sleep on the cold floor anytime," she said.

• But always quick to laugh in interviews, she added: "I can also sleep on a feather bed."

  This determination and independence helped her as she took on other reforms in Nigeria - like her decision to reveal the amount of money allocated monthly to local authorities for things like the construction of roads and the running of rural schools and clinics.

  Economist Pat Utomi said Nigerians had not realised how much regional administrators were receiving.

  "But she came up with the idea of publishing them and basically embarrassed a lot of people," Prof Utomi told me.

  She also introduced a system that helped to remove thousands of fake workers and pensioners from government payroll.

  But when the government decided to remove a fuel subsidy in 2012, things did not go well.

  Ms Okonjo-Iweala said the subsidy was unsustainable as it was costing $8bn a year, and encouraged corruption.

  However, the government was forced to back down after nationwide protests - the subsidy was only removed earlier this year, with the government promising to keep the price capped.

  And some believe while her reforms in Nigeria were good they have not been long-lasting.

  'Like running a household'

  But Nigerian women's activist Josephine Effa-Chukwuma says Ms Okonjo-Iweala's career is so much more impressive given how little respect women can be shown in Nigeria.

  "She made women proud that a woman in a patriarchal and misogynistic country like Nigeria could hold her own and perform creditably contrary to what detractors thought," she told the BBC

  "She was honest, transparent and accountable - virtues not often found in public office-holders in Nigeria."

• The economist, who also serves on Twitter's board of directors, as chair of the Gavi vaccine alliance and as a special envoy for the World Health Organization's Covid-19 fight, has joked before that women seem to be less corrupt.

  "Women tend to be more honest, more straightforward, more focused on the job, and bring less ego to it. I don't know if it's a feminine instinct but running an economy is sometimes akin to running a household," she told the Independent in 2006.

  And women are also on her agenda at the WTO.

  In her job application, she said: "It should also be responsive to the challenge of facilitating the greater participation of women in international trade, particularly in developing countries, where greater efforts should be made to include women owned enterprises in the formal sector."

  Ms Effa-Chukwuma says this all bodes well for the WTO: "We trust her to deliver on the job and ensure that developing countries benefit from international trade."

Nigerian Army Frequently Kills Civilians In South—Nnamdi Kanu

 

Kanu claimed that the British government empowered the Fulani against the country by allowing the Arabic inscription in the Nigerian Army emblem.

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has said that the Nigerian Army kills defenceless civilians from the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria to further populate Fulanis in the country.

Kanu described the Nigerian army as a "Fulani ethnic militia" assigned to assist the bandits and terrorists in perpetrating evil across the nation.

The IPOB leader said this in a statement by the group's media and publicity secretary, Emma Powerful.

"HQ Nigerian Army is nothing but a Fulani ethnic militia structured and tasked to aid Fulani bandits and terrorists from across the Sahel to subdue and conquer Nigeria's indigenous populations the same way Uthman Dan Fodio, that lying demon from Senegal, deceptively and successfully conquered and completely emasculated the now impoverished Hausa race," Kanu said.

Kanu claimed that the British government empowered the Fulani against the country by allowing the Arabic inscription in the Nigerian Army emblem.

The statement partly read, "Look very carefully at the Nigerian Army logo. The same Arabic-Islamic inscription that adorned the war standard (banner) of Uthman Dan Fodio was what British colonialists adopted as the motto of a supposedly secular national army. British-Fulani satanic alliance to render all indigenous peoples in Nigeria as useless as they did to the Hausa did not start today.

"The Arabic text on the Nigerian Army logo is, "NASRUNMINALLAH" which means "VICTORY COMES FROM GOD ALONE". The motto was that of the great jihadist, Uthman Dan Fodio, Head of the Sokoto Caliphate inscribed by the British under Lord Lugard."

"Now you know why the Islamic Nigerian Army specialise in killing unarmed civilians in the South. It has always been part of their broader game plan: to reduce non-Fulani populations in the Middle Belt and South whilst opening the north's borders to rapists, kidnappers, murderers and bandits from across the Sahel.

"How many times have you heard the army opened fire on Fulani civilians in Sokoto or other parts of Arewa core north the way they frequently do in the East, Middle Belt and Western parts of Nigeria? Think, for goodness sake, think!

"Remember how Fulani youths repeatedly mobbed and tried to assassinate President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. His campaign posters were destroyed and set ablaze. Not a single shot was fired, but common Buratai had his way blocked by Shiite protesters made up of Hausa, Gwari and Nupe youths in Kaduna, and he ordered the army to open fire. 

"At the end of this civilian killing spree, over a thousand people lay dead. Today, Buratai is walking about freely because he is Fulani enjoying the protection of the United Kingdom Government, the real owners of Nigeria and Nigerians."

NIGERIA : Fake soldier, NSCDC personnel arrested in Jos

 

The Special Task Force, Operation Safe Haven (OPSH), said it arrested Mahmud Mohmmed and Nuhu Ochofo, for impersonating as a soldier and personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), respectively in Jos.

Maj.-Gen. Chukwuemeka Okonkwo, the Commander of the task force, made this known while parading the suspects on Friday in Jos, NAN reports.

According to him, the suspects, the suspects use their fake identity to commit crimes in the state.

Okonkwo revealed that the duo were arrested around Rayfield community of Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau.

He said the fake soldier was wearing full military uniform, while the other was caught with fake identity card of the NSCDC when men of the force apprehended them.

The Commander also paraded 18 other suspected criminals who were arrested for armed robbery, gun running and local militia group.

“This series of arrests are in line with the directive to operation accord II.

“Some of these suspects are gun runners, armed robbers, members of militia groups and some were arrested over impersonation.

“This to ensure the safety of lives and property of citizens and to assure law-abiding Plateau citizens that we will continue to work towards their safety,” he said.

He urged residents of the state to provide useful and timely information to security agencies when they suspect criminal movements of persons in their vicinity.

Suspected IPOB members torch Ebonyi Police station

 

Suspected members of the proscribed Indigenious People of Biafra(IPOB) on Thursday attacked the Onicha Divisional Police Headquarters in Isu community.

The hoodlums, it was gathered, struck around 3:25pm.

They allegedly set ablaze one of the buildings in the station and four patrol vans.

Police spokesperson, Loveth Odah, confirmed the incident.

Idaha said one Police officer sustained matchete cut injuries from the attack.

She said:”Today being 4/02/2021 at about 0325hrs hoodlums suspected to be members of the Proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) attacked Onicha Divisional Headquarters, Isu in Onicha L.G.A of Ebonyi State, set ablaze the left wing of the Division and four (4) patrol vehicles”.

“This followed threats by the Proscribed Group who are alleging that the Police were protecting the Fulani Herdsmen who they accused of being responsible for the killing of one of their members *Nwite Njoku ‘m’”.

“One Policeman sustained machete cuts injuries during the attack and he is responding to treatment in the hospital”.

“Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police Ebonyi State *CP Aliyu Garba psc+* took on the spot assessment tour of the Area and met with the stakeholders in the Community to seek ways with the community in carrying out the investigation on the matter”.

“The CP while assuring the general public, particularly the residents of the State of his continues commitment to the protection of lives and properties, urges all to remain law abiding as normalcy has totally return to the Area”.

set police station ablaze in Ebonyi

 

Four patrol vehicles were also said to have been burnt during the attack.

Loveth Odah, police public relations officer (PPRO) in Ebonyi, said the attackers claimed that the police were protecting Fulani herdsmen alleged to have killed one of them.

“Today being 4/02/2021 at about 0325hrs, hoodlums suspected to be members of the Proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), attacked Onicha Divisional Headquarters, Isu in Onicha L.G.A of Ebonyi State, set ablaze the left-wing of the Division and four (4) patrol vehicles,” she said.

“This followed threats by the proscribed group who are alleging that the Police were protecting the Fulani herdsmen who they accused of being responsible for the killing of one of their members, Nwite Njoku ‘m’.

“One Policeman sustained machete cuts injuries during the attack and he is responding to treatment in the hospital.”

Odah said Aliyu Garba, commissioner of police in the state, has assured that the perpetrators will be brought to book.

Ebonyi has witnessed a surge in fatal incidents in the past week.

Three police officers were confirmed dead on Wednesday, following a road accident that occurred along the Abakaliki-Enugu expressway.

The officers were returning from a peacekeeping mission necessitated by a communal crisis in Ezza-Effium, Ohaukwu local government area of the state, which left eight persons killed.

BIAFRA : Police man injured as suspected IPOB members torch Ebonyi stations

 

Two police divisions in Ebonyi State have been attacked by hoodlums suspected to be members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra.

While the attack on one of the police divisions in Isu in the Onicha Local Government Area occurred Thursday afternoon, the other attack at Achiagu in the Ezza North Local Government Area took place on Thursday night.

A policeman in Isu reportedly sustained injuries while a section of the station and four patrol vehicles were burnt by the hoodlums.

The police in the state had on Thursday night confirmed the attack on Isu police division in a statement released a few hours before the Achiagu incident.

As of the time of filing this report, the police had yet to confirm the Achiagu attack as calls to the mobile of the police spokesman in the state, DSP Loveth Odah, didn’t connect. However, the statement signed by Odah blamed IPOB for the attack on Isu Police Division.

Odah said the secessionist group had, prior to the attack, threatened the police for protecting herdsmen who allegedly killed its members.

She said the Commissioner of Police in the state, Aliyu Garba, had visited the area and met with the stakeholders with a view to arresting the perpetrators.

The statement reads, “Today (February 4, 2021) around 3.25pm, hoodlums suspected to be members of the Proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra attacked Onicha Divisional Headquarters, Isu in Onicha LGA of Ebonyi State, set ablaze the left wing of the division and four patrol vehicles.

“This followed threats by the proscribed group who are alleging that the police were protecting the Fulani herdsmen who they accused of being responsible for the killing of one of their members, Nwite Njoku. One policeman sustained machete cuts during the attack and he is responding to treatment in the hospital. The CP while assuring residents of the state of his commitment to the protection of lives and property urges all to remain law-abiding as normalcy has totally returned to the area.”