WHO RUNS THE WORLD?- MARK ZUCKERBERG!

Berlin Germany Feb 25

 2016 was Mark Zuckerberg's 'Year of running'. The CEO of Facebook pledged to run 365 miles in 2016.  He continued to jog in every City visited and past iconic landmarks surpassing his 365 mile target.  Below are some more of his pictures as gotten from his Facebook page

Barcelona, Spain Feb 21

Beijing China March 17

Lagos Nigeria, 

Rome Italy, August 29

FG PROPOSES TO OPEN ICT UNIVERSITY IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2017

The Federal Government has proposed to open an Information and Technology University sometime in the first quarter of 2017. This will be done in conjunction with the Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission. It will also help earn foreign exchange for the country Adebayo Shittu, Minister of Communications, disclosed this on Monday, the 26th of December 2016 in Abuja while speaking at a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) forum. “By the grace of God, in the next three to six months, we should have established in Nigeria an ICT university which will be first of its kind in Africa. “This is with the sole purpose of providing training environment and training facilities to make the industry have enough skilled manpower in various sub sectors of the ICT sector. “I am happy to say that we already have what is called the Digital Bridge Institute which is for short term training programmes in six locations across the country and we hope to transform this institute into the ICT University of Nigeria. “I am already talking to a lot of operators at the international level, Facebook, Motorola, Ericson, all of them. We are encouraging them to come and adopt the university campuses as their own.

“They can bring in money and bring in faculties and a lot of logistics to assist in training Nigerians and we can now export these trained skilled facilitators to African countries to work,” said Shittu

You can read the full story on Pulse Tech

RIVERS STATE FIRST LADY SHARES LOVE STORY WITH GOVERNOR NYESOM WIKE ON THEIR 17TH ANNIVERSARY

Rivers State First Lady, Justice Suzette Nyesom-Wike shared her love story with her husband Governor Nyesom Wike on Facebook. In celebration of their 17^th wedding anniversary yesterday, the beautiful First Lady, who is not shy of PDA with her hubby, recounted how she met her husband while in the University and their journey so far.

"It's funny how life sometimes takes us where we never plan or expect to go. For three years, we sat in the same lecture rooms and halls but never passed a word between each other. It was only after I chanced upon his law note books in the possession of a mutual classmate that everything changed.

At that time, the law books in our library were expired and in most cases not available and we had to find other means to report our Nigerian case law. Most of us resorted to copying from others who had lawyer friends they visited in chambers and while there, used their law reports/books.

Thankfully, the situation is different today as not only has our Governor completed the long, abandoned building of the Faculty of Law, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, but he has also furnished it and equipped the law library with modern books, law reports and even e-resources. The current students there are lucky to benefit from this upgrade as theirs is now a standard Faculty of Law.

It surprised me then, to realize that he was indeed a serious minded student and not as I had earlier perceived. His notes were up to date as he took time to report more cases than were cited by our lecturers, which necessarily meant better grades if you can put them all down in your answer sheets during tests and examinations.

I immediately coveted that notebook and pleaded with my classmate to loan me the book after she had finished, promising to return it in two days. She refused. Another request with the promise to return it in one day as I was prepared to sit up all night copying those cases, was declined . My last plea to photocopy the notebook and return it immediately fell on deaf ears. She told me to seek the permission of the owner, with the belief that I wouldn't dare.

And of course, she was right to think that as she knew that we had never once spoken to each other. At that point, I inquired from her, his name. She replied simply: "Wike". I wondered how odd that name sounded as I'd never heard it before. I also wondered how to approach him as I believed that he disliked me as much as I did him.

But the desire to have that fully loaded note book was too strong. I could not give up without at least, making an attempt. As he passed by us, I called his name as I had just learnt: "excuse me, Wike". He froze and I noticed his shock and disbelief. I started putting my words together, expecting him to scowl at me, thinking in his head - "Oh! So you have decided to talk to me now that you need my notebook eh?'

He didn't let me complete my request. He caught the drifrt so fast and he spoke to our mutual classmate, telling her to give me his note book after she had finished with it and he walked off. It was now my turn to be in shock! After I recovered, I started putting the heat on our classmate to give me the book asap.

One borrowed book led to another and yet another borrowed book and soon after, we became friends. I got to see the hardworking, focused, studios and serious minded person he was and still is. Before Iong, there was a marriage proposal. I declined as I didn't see myself as the marrying kind but he wouldn't give up.

He said to me that the moment he first set his eyes on me when he joined us in our second year out of the more than five years I was in that institution, he knew already that I was going to be his wife. That got me even more confused. Having noted all the qualities I had noticed in him, I knew that he was a man with very great prospects or potentials for success, as I'd told him then.

I therefore decided to accept his proposal and took a chance, believing that he would make me a happy woman. Today, the 19th of December, marks the 17th year we have been together as a married couple. He is a man that has exhibited excellent taste .... no wonder he chose and continues to choose me .

He promised to give me the world at that time but he has given me much more than I could have ever asked for. Our three adorable children are a testimony to that fact and I can't tell you enough, how fulfilled I feel.

Please permit me to use this medium to share some of the life lessons I have learnt in these past 17 years of marriage, especially in reaching out to encourage our youths who have skewed perceptions about marriage.

You have to make the right decision about your marriage. I made a decision to become a happy wife 17 years ago, by contributing to build a happy marriage. I learnt that marriage in itself doesn't make you happy. You have to make your marriage a happy one. Marriage is not what you get. Marriage is what you bring, what you give and what you do.

There is no perfect marriage or perfect couples. Rather, when two imperfect friends honour and celebrate each other, they are empowered to build up a great blossoming marriage with flourishing children.

Marriage, it has been said, is likened to an empty box that couples should labour to fill up with all the good things they want in their marriage - friendship, understanding, respect, love, etc. Love does not come packaged with any marriage. Love is in people and people put love in marriage. People infuse romance in marriage. Same thing with all the other values.

A couple must practice the art and form the habit of giving, loving, serving, forgiving, rewarding, praising, and just keeping the marriage box full always. If you take more out and put less in, the box empties out.

Let us challenge ourselves to work harder at achieving happier marriages. It will lead to more harmonious homes and communities and eventually a more prosperous and peaceful Rivers State. That is how powerful and endowed married couples are.

I recall, after we became engaged, attending a conference at Christ Church in December, 1996 where Selwyn Hughes, the initiator of the daily devotional called "every day with Jesus" featured and spoke to the young ones (at that time) about marriage. I bought his book then titled: Marriage as God intended.

Rev. Mossy Madugba authographed the book on his behalf and on my request as it wasn't possible for me to meet the author after the occasion. He wrote these words on the first page - "Blossom where you are planted". Indeed, I can say without any fear of any contradiction, that by the grace of God, I have blossomed and will keep blossoming where the Lord, God has planted me.

Today, on this occasion of our 17th marriage anniversary, I celebrate my hardworking classmate, friend, lover and husband .... Nyesom Ezenbunwo Wike CON. We have been through thick, thin and thinner but just like old wine, it keeps getting better with time.

Happy 17th Marriage Anniversary to you, my love. May we forever stay young in each others eyes."

Happy wedding anniversary to His Excellency and the amiable First Lady. Here are some of the pictures

CBN SET TO LEGALISE BITCOIN

CBN and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Commission (NDIC) have set up a committee to study the trending digital currency, Bitcoin.  Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, Managing Director of the commission revealed this at the 2016 Workshop for Financial Correspondents in Kaduna.

The theme of the workshop is “Economic Recession and the Nigerians Banking Sector: Opportunities, Challenges and the way Forward”.

He said “We will look at its advantages and disadvantages, what it means for the payment system and what it means for safety and security of customers.

“We will also look at what it means for money laundering, anti-corruption, crime and measurement of money /near money instrument for the economy.

 According to Ibrahim, in Europe and the United States, it had gained traction and some of the leading banks in Europe had also adopted their own versions of bitcoins.

“Some of the central banks have also adopted it and are seriously doing everything possible to bring in the emergence of this invisible products.

“If you are a subscriber, you only know yourselves and they give you a bit of the bitcoin and in some countries, you can convert it to cash.

“You can make payments with it because it has been recognised and one of the famous ex-chief executive of Barclays PLC, Antony Jenkins, have joined the group’s board of directors,” Ibrahim said He said that a lot of Nigerians had already started patronising bitcoin, stressing that ‘it had started to creep in and nobody could stop it. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority or banks. Nobody owns or controls Bitcoin and everyone can take part. Its promoters aver that it is more resistant to wild inflation, devaluation, import policies, currency fixing and corrupt banks. It is a true floating currency whose value is determined by demand and supply

MMM launchs in Kenya and Ghana, another ponzi scheme NNN opens in Nigeria

Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox (MMM) has replicated its service in Kenya and Ghana. The scheme which is highly popular in Nigeria surfaced in Nigeria’s neighbor approximately 48 hours after its activities in Nigeria was suspended for a month. Wife of Chuddy Ugorji, a leading MMM Nigeria promoter, wrote an open letter to participants, seeking to calm frayed nerves. Some Nigerians however see the launch in other countries merely few hours after the freeze in Nigeria as a problem.   Meanwhile, it seems Nigeria is a ripe ground for ponzi schemes as a new scheme NNN has been launched. It operates similar to the frozen scheme with an offer of 35% return on investment

WHY PORT-HARCOURT NEEDS CAMEROUN’S RECENTLY LAUNCHED TRAVELER APP

Arnold Niji a 27 year old Engineer launched the Traveler mobile application in October. The App uses data, GPS and motion sensor technology to improve passenger safety, monitor driver speeds and emergency responses. According to its founder, the App is a response to the high number of accidents and the inability to control the drivers and to contact hospitals and families of victims.  More than 20,000 people died on Cameroon's roads between 2010 and 2015. Passengers can use the app to report passenger overcrowding, road issues and traffic incidents. All information is sent to a central database. For bus passengers, at the onset of their journey, they enter the company name, vehicle number plate and destination. In the event of an accident, if a user indicates it in the App, the App then notifies all emergency contacts of people travelling on the same bus and also automatically alerts hospitals of their location. Like Cameroon, we face similar problems in Nigeria. Port-Harcourt is no exception. According to statistics from the Federal Road Safety Corporation (FRSC), an average of 15 people died daily in road accidents across Nigeria in 2015. 5,440 Nigerians lost their lives in road accidents across the country in 2015. The good news is that with such an App, the death toll can be reduced. Here are reasons why we need an App like that in PH. Terrible road infrastructure- Yes, the Governor should be commended for working on some roads but fact is the roads could be better. Lives are still lost regularly via road accidents. Pot-Holes, ditches, un-tarred roads, flooded roads and bumpy roads are common things we have to deal with on a daily basis. Over-speeding is common- Nigerians are notorious for over-speeding perhaps partly because there are no checks for it. The recent effort by the FRSC to introduce speed limiters is facing numerous challenges, some of them of the Agencies making. Drivers still drive recklessly with little or no penalties. If you have ever driven in Port-Harcourt or had to undergo a journey in this town, you will understand what i mean. Prayer seems to be the temporary solution- Ever entered a bus and a Pastor or passenger gets up to pray for the safety of the journey, even when you didn’t ask or don’t feel like? Sound familiar? I suspect it’s not entirely because of how religious we are as a country but also because almost every Nigerian knows that to survive a road trip in the country is a function of God’s grace. From bad roads, to defective vehicles, to driver’s recklessness and over-speeding, journeying from one place to another in Nigeria is definitely a herculean task Tardy emergency responses- No one needs to remind us of how essentially non-existent our emergency response units are. Save for Lagos state, where the emergency units response tries somewhat, most other cities include Port-Harcourt have zilch emergency response time. The App will be able to notify them of any road accidents and hopefully they will be able to get ont he road in time to rescue victims.

YAHOO ACCOUNTS HACKED - HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO PROTECT YOURSELF

Over a billion accounts on popular mailing company Yahoo have been hacked . In a statement personally addressed to account users, Bob Lord, Chief Information Security Officer of the giant tech company disclosed that Yahoo recently discovered a data security issue that may involve users’ Yahoo account information. This is the 2nd breach Yahoo it is recording. Yahoo alerted users in September 2016 about a breach.

An unauthorized third party, in August 2013, stole data associated with a broader set of user accounts. They have been unable to identify the intrusion associated with this theft. Information stolen include names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (using MD5) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. The stolen information did not include passwords in clear text, payment card data, or bank account information. Yahoo is taking some measures to ensure users are not affected but in the mean time here is what you can do as a security measure- Change your passwords and security questions and answers for any other accounts on which you used the same or similar information used for your Yahoo account. Review all of your accounts for suspicious activity. Be cautious of any unsolicited communications that ask for your personal information or refer you to a web page asking for personal information. Avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from suspicious emails. Yahoo also recommends using Yahoo Account Key, a simple authentication tool that eliminates the need to use a password on Yahoo altogether.

TRENDING- PANIC AS MMM FREEZES ACCOUNTS IN NIGERIA FOR ONE MONTH

Nigerians involved in the Ponzi Scheme, Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox (MMM) have been thrown into confusion as the alleged Ponzi scheme has frozen accounts of its participants in Nigeria for one month. This will last from December 12 to January 12. During that period, none of the participants who are due to get help will be able to. They will be unable to get their 'Mavro' ie withdraw funds deposited with the mandatory 30% interest. 

People have taken to social media to talk about this development, some laughing at partticipants

According to the operators of the scheme in a message sent to all subscribers, the measure was put in place due to the heavy workload being experienced by the system in the New Year. 

This comes after the MMM founder reportedly wrote an open letter to the FG. It may be too early for doubters to say 'I told you so' but it definitely should serve as a caution to new participants

GOLDEN GLOBES 2017 NOMINATIONS ARE OUT

La La Land with Ryan Gosling (suprising to see him in a musical) in the lead role leads the film nominees with a total of seven mentions, followed by Moonlight with six. For TV, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story leads with five. Game of Thrones as well as This is Us also has nominations. Mel Gibson seems to be back in the main stream with one Best Director Nomination. Surprisingly, highly rated and popular TV Series Power did not receive any nominations

The 74th Golden Globe Awards will be hosted by Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon and will air live on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017 on NBC. You can see the full list of nominations here

Some of the nominations are below

Best Motion Picture - Drama

Hacksaw Ridge

Hell or High Water

Lion

Manchester by the Sea

Moonlight

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

20th Century Women

Deadpool

Florence Foster Jenkins

La La Land

Sing Street

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama

Casey Affleck - Manchester by the Sea


Joel Edgerton - Loving


Andrew Garfield - Hacksaw Ridge


Viggo Mortensen - Captain Fantastic


Denzel Washington - Fences

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama

Amy Adams - Arrival

Jessica Chastain - Miss Sloane

Ruth Negga - Loving

Natalie Portman - Jackie

Isabelle Huppert – Elle

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

Colin Farrell - The Lobster

Ryan Gosling - La La Land

Hugh Grant - Florence Foster Jenkins

Jonah Hill - War Dogs

Ryan Reynolds – Deadpool

Best Animated Feature Film

Kubo and the Two Strings

Moana

My Life as a Zucchini

Sing

Zootopia

Best Television Series - Drama

The Crown

Game of Thrones

Stranger Things

This Is Us

West world

Best Television Series - Comedy or Musical

Atlanta

Black-ish

Mozart in the Jungle

Transparent
Veep

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama

Rami Malek - Mr. Robot

Bob Odenkirk - Better Call Saul

Matthew Rhys - The Americans

Liev Schreiber - Ray Donovan

Billy Bob Thornton - Goliath

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama

Caitriona Balfe - Outlander

Claire Foy - The Crown

Keri Russell - The Americans

Winona Ryder - Stranger Things

Evan Rachel Wood - Westworld

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical

Quantrell D. Colbert/FX

Anthony Anderson - Black-ish

Gael Garcia Bernal - Mozart in the Jungle

Donald Glover - Atlanta

Nick Nolte - Graves

Jeffrey Tambor - Transparent

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Comedy or Musical

Rachel Bloom - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Julia Louis-Dreyfus - Veep

Sarah Jessica Parker - Divorce

Issa Rae - Insecure

Gina Rodriguez - Jane the Virgin

Tracee Ellis Ross - Black-ish

APPLE TV APP IS NOW OUT FOR APPLE PRODUCTS USERS

Good news for Apple users! Apple’s new TV app is now out on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.  for everyone in the US. With the App users will have a single platform to access TV shows and movies and also help you keep track of your favourite shows and programs from your history. Its only available for now in the US so sad news for Nigerian users.

Apple’s TV app however has one flaw. It doesn’t feature videos from all of the biggest services like Netflix. The TV app is being released as part of iOS 10.2 and tvOS 10.1, both of which are now available. The iOS update also includes new emojis. I do hope the TV App will be introduced soon to Nigeria. Maybe that may be a reason to trade in my life savings for the iPhone7

PH TRENDS

Here are some of the topics that trended in PH on social media last week

#Riversrerun-

The Rivers legislative re-run election was one of the major trends in PH last week on social media. Social media definitely shaped the elections as different developments were discussed on different platforms mainly twitter. Among the numerous aspects of the election that trended was the picture of voters escorting their votes to the collation centre

#BlackSoot and ‘Kpofire’

This was definitely a big one last week Friday and all over the weekend. Reports of soot covering people’s cars and houses were trending on social media.

 I had noticed some in my house but had initially chucked it to the usual dust accompanying the harmattan. The Rivers State Ministry of Health addressed the issue via a Press Release stating it was investigating the incident.

Elderly Man hawking doughnuts

This also caught the attention of Rivers Residents thanks to On Air Personality with 92.3 Nigeria Info, MaryAnn Okon. The picture of a middle aged man dressing neatly and hawking doughnuts in Uyo got people retweeting the pic with word of commendation for the gentleman. It also got us re-inspired that people still believe there is joy in an honest day’s labour no matter how bad our society seems to have become.

How social media might make or mar Rivers re-run election on Saturday

The Rivers re-run election is to hold on Saturday 10^th December. With several postponements due to violence and insecurity, the stakes are high for the two major political parties in the up-coming elections. Rivers State residents and indigenes are also eager to see the elections finally come and go peacefully, so that normalcy can return to the state. While the 2015 election was popularly believed to have been decided, dominated and directed by social media, it is yet to be seen how much influence will social media will have this Saturday. Here are 3 ways we believe social media will feature in Saturday’s re-run elections.

Monitor vote counting process- Social media will play a role as a watchdog to keep the integrity of the electoral process. As witnessed from the 2015 elections, it may not be strange to see people monitoring the vote counting at the various units and posting the results on social media even before the traditional media or INEC declares results. This should be treated with caution as only INEC can officially declare results.

Keep oneself engaged while at the polling booths- Selfies have become the norm. It may not be out of place to see voters take selfies of themselves at the polling booths and post it for followers to see. Also while waiting for accreditation, voters may decide to amuse themselves with hilarious content readily found available on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and You-tube

Live updates of activities of different polling units- One thing to expect on Saturday is Voters’ providing news and information surrounding the elections through messages, pictures and videos on social media platforms like Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook  and Instagram. The danger with this is that propaganda pictures or videos might be put out there by opposing parties to confuse voters and achieve dubious aims. It will be wise to take information on social media with a pinch of salt and verify as much as possible from official channels.

ASIA TOWN IS PH's MOST POPULAR RESTAURANT, SAYS TOUCH PH

Food is serious business. So much so that Touch PH has delved into the business of food. Touch PH last week released a list of the 5 most popular restaurants in Port-Harcourt. Asia Town was ranked as the most popular restaurant. Jevinik came a close 2^nd with Red Coral, the swanky restaurant on Peter Odili road PH, following.

This was done through a simple survey using the snowball sampling, a non-scientific sampling technique to select people who participated in the survey. The selected 63 persons were asked to mention their top three restaurants in Port Harcourt that come to mind. These persons named 35 different restaurants 188 times. The top recurring 5 were obviously picked to make the list.

We know PH people love their food and some of you may be up in arms at the result if your popular bole and fish, isi-ewu or native soup joint was not mentioned. Touch PH stated that the result of the survey uses popularity to rank and not other indices like quality of food, ambience, customer service, location, pricing, etc. The ranking was also based solely on restaurants and not Bukas, joints or fast food places. Also on the list were Charcoal and Spice in 4^th position and Spice Route ending up in 5^th.

For the full article and list of other restaurants check here

DATA PRICE HIKE MAY STILL BE IN THE OFFING- MTN IN SUPPORT OF DATA HIKE

The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Mr Ferdinand Moolman yesterday appealed to the Senate at the Senate hearing on Data price floor in Abuja, to consider the Data price floor as set by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC. He pleaded that data price in Nigeria is among the lowest in the continent. The MTN CEO also attributed the inability of telecom operators to access forex, inflation and activities of the unlicensed providers of “over-the-top” telecoms services (OTT) as factors contributing to the losses recorded by licensed Mobile Operators

Moolman said, “MTN looks forward to the cost study as confirmed by the NCC, and remains committed to working with the Regulator and Industry to ensure fair value and fair competition in the Nigerian market”.

With this representation at the Senate hearing, it becomes clearer that MTN and some other large mobile operators may be in subtle support of the data hike. The reason is that it will increase revenue for their business in the long run. NCC’s initial excuse, that the new price floor is to ensure better competition and help smaller operators, has been brought into question. NCC owes Nigerians a duty to come clean on who exactly it is protecting- the average Nigerian or the telecommunications companies

You can read the original story from the Vanguard Newspaper

CORPERS IN ABUJA, LAGOS CAMPS RECEIVE FREE WIFI. WHAT ABOUT PH?

NYSC members in Abuja and Lagos orientation camps now have 24/7 access to free internet. Courtesy Wifi.com.ng, the service will last for the NYSC orientation camp period of 24^th November to 14^th December, 2016. Wifi.com is a subsidiary of Tizeti,  a Lagos-based ISP company that provides internet access using wi-fi in partnership with various upstream bandwidth providers 

According to Chief Operating Officer of Tizeti  , Ifeanyi Okonkwo, “We wanted to give young people who will be spending 3 weeks in the NYSC orientation camp an opportunity to experience wifi.com.ng’s internet service at high speeds.”.

This is commendable but i wonder when the orientation camp in Rivers State, home to Port-Harcourt city which is believed to be the commercial hub of the South-South and one of the major cities in Nigeria, will benefit for this kind of service. Youth in this region need access to such services to change the narrative from oil to other productive areas.