Around 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed and 2,700 wounded while fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine, a South Korean lawmaker said Monday, citing information from Seoul’s spy agency.

Seoul has previously claimed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent more than 10,000 soldiers as “cannon fodder” to help Moscow fight Kyiv, in return for Russian technical assistance for Pyongyang’s heavily sanctioned weapons and satellite programmes.

Over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had captured two North Korean soldiers, releasing video of the injured combatants being interrogated and raising the possibility of a prisoner swap for captured Ukrainian troops.

“The deployment of North Korean troops to Russia has reportedly expanded to include the Kursk region, with estimates suggesting that casualties among North Korean forces have surpassed 3,000,” lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters after a briefing from the spy agency.

This includes “approximately 300 deaths and 2,700 injuries,” Lee said, after a briefing from Seoul’s National Intelligence Service.

The soldiers, reportedly from North Korea’s elite Storm Corps, have been ordered to kill themselves rather than be taken prisoner, Lee said.

“Notably, memos found on deceased soldiers indicate that the North Korean authorities pressured them to commit suicide or self-detonate before capture,” he said.

He added that some of the soldiers had been granted “amnesty” or wanted to join North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, hoping to improve their lot by fighting.

One North Korean soldier who was about to be captured shouted “General Kim Jong Un” and attempted to detonate a grenade, Lee said, adding that he was shot and killed.

The NIS analysis also revealed that the North Korean soldiers have “a lack of understanding of modern warfare,” and are being used by Russia in a manner leading to “the high number of casualties,” the lawmaker said.

– Soldiers captured –

Lee — speaking for South Korea’s intelligence committee in parliament — said in the coming year US president-elect Donald Trump, who has previously tried to woo North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, “may push for dialogue… once again”.

He also said Kim may “weigh the possibility of a visit to Russia in the first half of this year” after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in late 2023.

In a post on social media platform X Sunday, Zelensky said: “Ukraine is ready to hand over Kim Jong Un’s soldiers to him if he can organize their exchange for our warriors who are being held captive in Russia.”

There would “undoubtedly be more” North Korean soldiers captured by Kyiv, he added.

“For those North Korean soldiers who do not wish to return, there may be other options available,” said Zelensky.

Ukraine, the United States and South Korea have accused nuclear-armed North Korea of sending more than 10,000 soldiers to help bolster Russian forces.

Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang has acknowledged that North Koreans have been deployed to fight against Ukraine.

The two countries have boosted their military cooperation since Russia launched its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

On a visit to Seoul this month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington believed Russia was expanding space cooperation with North Korea in exchange for its troop contribution in fighting Ukraine.

Washington’s top diplomat said the United States also believed Russia “may be close” to formally accepting North Korea’s status as a nuclear power.

The video posted by Zelensky of the interrogation of the two North Korean prisoners of war shows one lying in a bunk bed and the other sitting up with a bandage around his jaw.

One man can be heard speaking to a Ukrainian official through an interpreter, saying that he did not know he was going to fight in a war with Ukraine and that his commanders “told him it was just training”.

In translated comments, one of the men says he wants to return to North Korea.

The other says he will do what he is told but, if given the chance, wants to live in Ukraine.

AFP

n 22 August 2024, Olukayode Ariwoola, the penultimate Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) retired from the bench and transitioned into a published author. At a well-attended event in the Abuja, the former CJN beamed at the public presentation of his autobiography. Published under the title Judging with Justice*, the book was ghost written by Olanrewaju Akinsola (the author better known as Onigegewura).

 The story reveals the son of a doting and committed dad who appears to take family and his faith seriously. Judging with Justice is a deeply personal story of a judicial figure whose rise to the highest office in his country’s judicial grease pole was as improbable as his route was unusual. The author is quite open in his disclosures about his health, including open heart surgery in London in 2016.

Olukayode Ariwoola became a lawyer at 27 and a judge at 38. In the eleven years that separated his enrollment at the bar from his elevation to the Bench, Olukayode Ariwoola worked first as State Counsel in Oyo State from where he resigned into private legal practice. That stint of his professional career began in Ibadan, the state capital, under the tutelage of Ladosu Ladapo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) who twice ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

After one year of practice under the Senior Advocate, Olukayode Ariwoola chose to set up his own legal practice in Oyo, not far from his beloved natal community of Iseyin. At the time, there were only five lawyers in the city. Making ends meet was difficult and his clients were mostly reluctant litigants, many of whom had to improvise in order to find the currency for transacting business with a lawyer. He stuck with it and in 1992, the year after Oyo State was split in two to produce Osun State, got propelled to the office of a judge of the High Court of Oyo State by what from his narration surely was a stroke of providential happenstance. In the cohort of six new judges, Olukayode Ariwoola was the youngest by all of nine years.

After 13 years as a judge of the High Court, Olukayode Ariwooola got elevated to the Court of Appeal in November 2005. The major actors in his elevation to the appellate Bench included Aloma Mukhtar, who would later rise to become the first female Chief Justice of Nigeria; Bola Ige, a former Attorney-General of the Federation; and Bolarinwa Babalakin a former Justice of the Supreme Court. None of these three shared the same origins with Olukayode Ariwoola. Aloma Mukhtar came from Kano; Bola Ige and Bolarinwa Babalakin both came from Osun State.

After six years on the Court of Appeal, Olukayode Ariwoola ascended to the Supreme Court in November 2011, where he served for another 12 years before becoming the CJN. In all, his judicial career spanned nearly 32 years, including two years and two months served as CJN. All his judicial elevations (except his preferment to the office of CJN) occurred in the month of November.

Judicial autobiographies, especially in common law countries, are far from easy to confection. The balance between achieving a captivating narrative and preserving the mystique of the high judicial office is hard. The temptation to deodorize the tale can be tantalising. Judging with Justice wrestles valiantly with this dilemma and not always successfully.

The author offers about the Supreme Court that it is “more than a court of law. It is the tradition that the Supreme Court is regarded as a court of policy.” Having said this, the book offers no insight as to how the Supreme Court on which he sat for 13 years or the office of the CJN which he occupied for over two of those years, articulated or advanced this idea of the Supreme Court as a court of policy. If anything, the court did the opposite under him.

The best that can be said of the book and about its author is that they chose to be economical with any indication of a coherent judicial philosophy. Entirely in keeping with this, the author writes with what appears to be some pride that he never “had any cause to write a dissenting opinion be it at the Court of Appeal or at the Supreme Court.” He spent a combined18 years in both courts.

The author, nevertheless, drops hints of inspiration. He counsels, for instance, that “a judge must not frequent social events where litigants and lawyers congregate.” Those who read this may wonder whether he remembered it when he showed up in Port Harcourt in November 2022 to serenade politicians (many of whom had cases before his court) in their quest for electoral victory in elections that were then impending.

Many who were witness to Olukayode Ariwoola’s tenure as CJN will wonder when he came to what he claims in the book to be his long-held belief “that the judiciary is an independent and separate arm of government and should not be regarded as an appendage of the Executive or the Legislature”. The disposition of his entire term appears to have been the very opposite of these sentiments.

Judging with Justice is littered with a few more examples of warm and comforting shibboleths. Yet, it is what the book omits that is most telling.

The author thanks “God for the privilege to have been instrumental in the appointment of people into positions of responsibility”. As CJN, he sure had a lot of practice at this. He also claims that he always “ensure(d) that the persons to be nominated are credible, qualified, and people of proven integrity.” His record as CJN will show this claim to be worse than bogus.

At the end of his narration, the author tells with pride his achievements as CJN. Among these, he lists attainment at the beginning of 2024 for the first time in the 70-year history of the Supreme Court of full judicial establishment size of 22 (including the CJN). He also points to the appointment since 2023 of new judges to the various courts, including the Court of Appeal, the Federal High Court and the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory.

In Judging with Justice, Olukayode Ariwoola is punctilious in listing all the people whom he processed for appointment in that frantic sequence of judicial elevations that occurred during the year preceding his retirement as CJN. He takes fulsome paternal pride in the fact that his son – also named Kayode Taslim – “is a jurist like Judge Taslim Olawale Elias he was named after”, but omits to disclose that it was him, the father, who appointed the son to the role of judge (with no need for the helping hand of a Holy Ghost). He did not stop there, he also appointed his own daughter-in-law as judge, as well as the daughters of the President of the Court of Appeal; of the Chief Judge of High Court of the FCT; the daughter of his predecessor in the office of CJN; the wife of the Minister of the FCT; and many more high-up insiders too numerous to mention.

Judging with Justice missed an opportunity to show how a judiciary of sons, daughters, wives and even a few mistresses, meets the standard of “credible, qualified, and people of proven integrity.” He may have been closer to the mark if he had chosen to title the book “A Convenient Memory.”

A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

• Olukayode Ariwoola, Judging with Justice: The Autobiography of Hon. Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, GCON, The Chief Justice of Nigeria [As Narrated to Olanrewaju Akinsola, (Onigegewura)], (Lagos, Asco Publishers, 2024)

The Lagos State Police Command has uncovered a new trend of kidnapping, dubbed ‘Constructive Kidnapping’, where unsuspecting ladies are lured by kidnappers posing as internet friends and lovers.

This sinister scheme has already ensnared 16 ladies from various parts of the state, who were fortunate to be rescued by the police command, the command revealed.

In another shocking case, a 15-year-old girl was rescued after allegedly conspiring with her boyfriend to demand ransom from her parents, pretending that she had been kidnapped.

For the ‘Constructive kidnapping, the kidnappers’ modus oparandi according to the Commissioner of Police Lagos State Police Command, CP Olawale Ishola, who briefed journalists weekend, on the command’s breakthrough between September 2024 and January 2025, was as cunning as it was ruthless.

The kidnappers as gathered, begin by tagging their potential victims as friends on social media platforms, establishing a false sense of acquaintance. Once the victim’s guard is lowered, the kidnappers invite them to Lagos, often under the guise of a romantic rendezvous.

These kidnappers according to the command would send substantial amounts of money, up to N500,000, to their victims, as well as cover their flight expenses to Lagos.

Upon arrival, the unsuspecting victims are taken to five-star hotels, where their phones are seized, and money transferred out. The kidnappers then contact the victim’s relatives, demanding ransom and threatening to them if their demands are not met.

According to the CP, ” It is Constructive kidnapping because you have a scenario where a lady is lured from her safe space to Lagos by a group of boys or a single individual. They make it enticing by sending a business-class flight ticket, N500,000, and booking a luxurious five-star hotel. The victim feels like they’ve ‘arrived,’ unaware that it’s all a ruse.

” I’ve rescued at least 16 ladies from this trap. As soon as they arrive, the kidnappers mess the ladies up, seize their phones, transfer their money, and contact their relatives to demand more ransom, threatening to kill the victim if their demands aren’t met. It’s termed ‘constructive’ because the victims unwittingly walk into the trap set for them. However, we’re always one step ahead.”

He, therefore, warned members of the public, especially ladies to be cautious when interacting with strangers online, advising members of the public to say something when they see something.

Similarly, the command boss also explained how a 14-year-old girl with an undisclosed identity who was reported to have been kidnapped, was traced to her boyfriend’s abode, with a baby.

According to CP Ishola, ” On January 8, 2025, a complainant reported that her daughter Anuoluwapo Victoria, 15 years left home to an unknown destination, that on January 9, 2025, she received a phone call and an account was sent for her to pay ransom for the released of her daughter.

“They have been sending money to the account until we were able to apprehend her and her boyfriend on Friday night. She was with a baby”.

[Vanguard]

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said Jimmy Carter was the only leader outside Africa who visited Sani Abacha, the late military dictator, solely to plead for his release from prison.

Obasanjo stated this in a tribute to Carter, the late American president, who passed on December 29, 2024, aged 100.

The tribute, titled “Jimmy Carter: The Departure of a Titan”, was read during a memorial service held on Sunday at the Chapel of Christ the Glorious King, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, Ogun state.

Obasanjo was arrested, tried, and sentenced to prison by the Abacha junta in 1995 over alleged involvement in a failed military coup.

Obasanjo narrated how Carter visited Nigeria and got Abacha to release him (Obasanjo) from prison, and he was placed on house arrest.

He said that although many others intervened to seek his release, Carter was the only one who had visited Nigeria solely for that purpose.

“President Carter was one of my foreign friends who stuck their necks out to save my life and to seek my release from prison. On President Carter’s visit to Nigeria, he got Abacha to agree to take me from detention to house arrest on my farm. But that did not last for too long,” Obasanjo said.

“Many other friends and leaders intervened, but President Carter was the only non-African leader, according to my information, that paid a visit to Abacha solely to plead for my release.

“I would remain ever grateful to all who worked for my release from Abacha’s gulag. Abacha ensured that I would not be released. Within a week of his death, though, I was released by his successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who also facilitated my going around Africa and the rest of the world to thank all those who worked for my release.”

Obasanjo further said he was surprised when Carter told him that Ted Turner, CNN founder, had offered to take care of him and his family upon his release.

“I was touched and moved to tears. I immediately went to Ted, who expressed to me the same sentiment that President Carter expressed,” Obasanjo said.

The elder statesman said he and Carter shared some similarities, including their military backgrounds and being born into farming families that instilled discipline in them.

“He beat me though in one respect; there was a road to his settlement, and there was no road to my village. We walked to every place or, at best, we were carried on bicycles,” he said.

Obasanjo said he would miss Carter, “a great and true friend but I know we shall meet again in paradise”.

Speaking during an interactive session with young African leaders at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library OOPL during the weekend, Obasanjo said his refusal to keep quiet on national and international issues landed him in detention during Abacha’s tenure.

[TheCable]

This piece is one of the technical notes that I used in some seminal conversations before now, one of many others that I consider should be shared, in spite of its seminal tone, for the benefit of public managers-learners who are spread all over the nooks and crannies of Nigeria and beyond, and for public education, In penning this contribution, I am interested in a sort of agenda setting that has the capacity to generate discourse around public cum civil service institutional reformulation and its framework of relevance especially in a postcolonial context like Nigeria. All across the world, public administration serves the purpose of outlining and concretizing the administrative agenda that allows the state intervene positively in the lives of the citizenry. This therefore places a huge responsibility on the public service—and the public administration scholarship and communities of service and practice—to get up to speed in outlining a pathway that will transform the professional endeavor into a sturdy representative of state activities and responsibilities to the people. Like every other endeavor, public administration must necessarily respond to the multiplicity of events, circumstances and occurrences that have come to define the world in the twenty-first century.  

Public administration has come a long way since its first documented formation, with the rudimentary but fundamental beginning in the ancient pharaonic Egypt through to the high political intrigues and engineering feats of the Roman society to the exigencies of the industrial revolution of the nineteen century. In the twenty-first century, and all across the world, public administration is even more challenged by current circumstances shaping not only national administrative imagination but also international and global relations. In the first place, public administration is today immersed in what has been called a VUCA environment. This implies that public administration and its processes, procedures and institutional operations must be factored into an environment that is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The VUCA world implies the myriad degrees of shocks, threats, cynicism, turbulence and challenges that governments all across the world must have to respond to in order to design and formulate policies that will resonate with the yearnings of an increasingly politically sophisticated citizenry. The VUCA environment is aggravated by what has come to be called a polycrisis, a fundamentally complex situation as a result of many crises, conflicts and complex issues reinforcing and complicating one another in sequences that aggravate any existing circumstances that humans and states find themselves. In such a situation of a polycrisis, the overall consequences and impacts of the complex crisis is greater than the sum of all the variables making it up. For example, poverty in the world today is now a function of climate change, economic recession, natural disasters, bad governance and political instability.  

Within a VUCA environment, policies and their trajectories and dynamics cannot be considered as simplistic and linear endeavors. This is compounded by the fact that the status and role of the public manager, as the administrative and policy craftsman, has kept changing: (a) the ‘I am directed’ rule-oriented bureaucrat (public manager 1.0), (b) business-oriented and performance-focused manager (2.0), and (c) networking and relations-focused collaborator (3.0). This transition reflects the transformation of thinking about public administration and the public service from Max Weber to Woodrow Wilson and from the new public management (NPM) to the idea of new governance. The VUCA environment within which the twenty-first century public manager is expected to effectively and efficiently function is further complicated when it is considered from the perspectives of a postcolonial context like Nigeria. Africa is often considered as the most difficult administrative context in the world. And that is essentially because the organic maturation of public administration had been disrupted not only by colonial rule but also postcolonial consequences of a logic of extraction. This therefore implies that public administration and the public manager in Africa must not only anticipate and preempt current and recurrent challenges that ails governance on the continent, but must also be conversant with emerging trends and paradigms shifts that are determining the trajectory and possible directions that public administration is taking in the evolving fourth revolution and knowledge society mediated by digital and destructive technologies, from the blockchain and robotics to enterprise resource planning and big data.

Trend analysis therefore becomes a necessary and inevitable tool for prospecting for patterns, scenarios and variances in order to determine future prospects and achieve strategic decision-making. Trend analysis rely essentially on empirical and historical data and evidences to determine, monitor and forecast short- or long-term institutional changes that could constitute downtrends or uptrends for any particular endeavor. In public administration, it involves gathering historical and current data on emerging trends that could get the public managers to make decisive and evidence-based strategic decisions that would get the public service to perform more effectively and efficiently for better service delivery. This serves the purpose of empowering the public managers and public administration scholars and experts to gather valuable insights on how far public administration practices have come, the emerging developments that are shaping the practices, and the future prospects in the profession. It also enables public managers to generate crucial understanding of performance metrics that could keep pushing the boundaries of the operational functionality of the public service for optimal performance and productivity.

The most recent source of polycrisis all over the world was the COVID-19 pandemic that decimated millions of lives across the globe and facilitated in its wake what is now called the “new normal” in terms of human social relations, societal dynamics and structural cum institutional realignments. Humans have been forced to reassess normal patterns of doing things at some professional levels. We now work from home, adapted to a blended educational schedule, attend conferences and symposia virtually, and so on. In economic, social, political and even spiritual terms, there are now dramatic transformations that were instigated by the precarious developments of the COVID-19 pandemic. The new normal is enabled by digital and other new technologies and the new information dispensation to disrupt the usual dynamics of social, cultural and professional lives. The pandemic triggered a deluge of challenging situations for public administration and the public service to deal with. This can be likened in a sense to the administrative challenges that the Nigerian Civil War posed to Nigeria’s public service and those we now call the “super permanent secretaries.”

The COVID-19 pandemic struck most governments and their public administration dynamics at this critical service delivery point. And the tragedy of the pandemic is that it caught the entire world at varying administrative stages and phases of the normal. This is even worse for the third world countries, and Africa especially. Before the COVID-19 lockdown, the Nigerian public service system had been afflicted by a bureau-pathological protocol defined by a collusion between what we all know as the “Nigerian factor” and some damaging systemic debilities. The tragedy of the pandemic and of Nigeria’s unpreparedness for it has presented the public service system with a unique opportunity to reflect on and rethink its governance and administrative policies. And so, with the sudden transformation of the way we look at work and the workplace dynamics, the public service had to forcefully embrace what used to be the staple of administrative conferences and forecasting.

The transformation of the workplace, as part of the key reform for preparing public administration to manage the fourth industrial revolution especially in Africa, demands the deployment of human resource management to achieve performance and productivity. The transformation of the workplace and work ethics gives the public service the capacity to recruit a global workforce and create incentives that increase employee loyalty and commitment, and collaborations that generate productivity. This gives room for the achievement of a better work-life balance deriving from freer time and flexibility to work. It also crucially facilitates the acquisition of “twenty-first century literacies”: (a) interpersonal skills: facilitation, empathy, political skills; (b) synthesising skills: sorting evidence, analysis, making judgements, offering critique and being creative; (c) organising skills: group work, collaboration and peer review; and (d) communication skills: better use of new media and multi-media resources. The smart public manager must also factor into the mix the unique cultural and sociological demands that the emergence of the Gen Z, Gen Alpha and Gen Beta are bringing or will bring into the constitution of the workplace as a technology-enables space with its own peculiar generational dynamics. No conscious public manager will ignore the demands of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in making the workplace more broad-based and strategic.   

Apart from the immediate need for flexible and remote work protocols that transformed the workplace and its dynamics, the imperative of open government suddenly got a new lease on life. Since the emergence of the new public management and the managerial revolution that drove it, the objective has been to achieve a government that is FAST—flatter, agile, streamlined and technology-enabled. And one way to do this is not only to install a performance management system, but to also facilitate an open government framework that allows for the co-creation of values through citizen engagement. For instance, a flat government demands that the distance between government and the citizens be decreased through the deployment of digital technologies and the social media and mobile technologies that increase the participation of citizens in administrative and decision-making processes. Open government therefore increase transparency and accountability in government decision making, remove red tape and hierarchies, and enable cross-sectoral collaborations.

The open government initiative also makes possible an open data platform that governments across the world are deploying to further facilitate citizens engagement and interactions with the policies of government. Through emerging communication and information technologies, governments make available data and information that the citizens can use. Tracking and mapping systems also help the citizens to interrogate government’s expenditures and decision dynamics. Open government and the open data initiatives are made possible by the right to information legislation that makes it imperative for the government, through its MDAs, to share critical information about its processes and procedures with its citizens. the open government partnership plays a crucial role in grounding the significance of the public-private partnership. This is achieved through a networked dynamic that open government and its deployment of communication and digital technologies make possible. The government can now draw the private sector into a governance space for tackling challenging administrative and governance issues that the government or the private sector could never tackle on its own.

The idea of open government and its potentials for making public administration more effective inevitably raises the specter of cybersecurity with regard to the value of big data, data sovereignty and how this could be compromised. For example, data sovereignty gives a government the control over sensitive information and data that its public administrative institutions and processes require to function effectively. It also prevents these data and information from unauthorized access or information mining and misuse that could compromise the significance and values of these data and information. Hence, governments need to manage the circumferences of its data sovereignty by monitoring and anticipating data breach and vulnerability. Public managers will therefore be tasked with the imperative of thinking more strategically about the critical relationship between open government, open access to big data, administrative efficiency and the threat of data breach through cyber-attacks. This inevitably demands the significant role of cybersecurity professionals who can anticipate and deal with cyber-threats as they emerge.

The reforms that will shape public administration of the future will be determined significantly by the capacity of public services across the world to leverage digital, communication and information technologies to both create strategies and be strategic. Creating a strategy, on the one hand, is a process of translating a plan into a set of results. On the other hand, however, being strategic is a competence that involves critical thinking. The two point at the urgent need for the public service to generate strategic thinking required for the change management that will move the institution forward into more optimal functionality and productivity. Both must be channeled institutionally to the most central process of strategic decision making. Creating strategies and being strategic in administrative decision-making demands the deployment of new thinking and developments in decision science.

Decision science has become a critical field that has integrated cognate developments from artificial intelligence, organisational psychology, systems thinking, machine learning, probabilistic modeling, scenario analysis, big data analytics, and many more to become a key area that the public service must buy into to push forward its policy intelligence that strengthen decision-making. Modern policy making that has taken cognizance of decision science will most likely possess nine fundamental features: (i) forward-looking; (ii) outward-looking; (iii) innovative, flexible and creative; (iv) evidence-based; (v) evaluation; (vi) review; (vii) joined-up; (viii) inclusive; and (ix) learned lessons.

Artificial intelligence plays a critical role in decision science and strategic decision-making for the public administration of the future. AI possesses a huge significance for the objective of making the public service an efficient institution for democratic service delivery that optimize democratic governance. AI not only makes possible the digitization of crucial data and information, it simplifies routine and tedious tasks, and fast tracks data analysis. It is also inevitable in facilitating the open government and open data aspiration that transform public administration. However, in deploying AI in public administration, the public manager must factor the multiple ethical and legal concerns, especially in terms of human rights issues that links AI to labour issues and industrial relations.

The last fundamental trend that public administration must factor into its reform is the emergence of a flexible, updated and up-to-date curriculum that benefits from the contemporary discourses on public administration, current administrative practices, and also feeds administrative education and training. The curriculum will feature syllabus on artificial intelligence and its critical significance, the role of new technologies in public service efficiency, human resource management and the new workplace, the imperatives of open government, etc. The curriculum, for example will explore the relationship between the public service and commercial/market tools, analysis, techniques and models for gathering commercial data that will enhance the effectiveness of the public service in terms of project management, asset and facility management, outsourcing, contract awards, and so on.     

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has criticized Apple for what he described as arbitrary rules and a lack of groundbreaking innovation.

The Facebook founder disclosed this on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast expressing his frustration with Apple’s practices, particularly its approach to device compatibility and its developer ecosystem.

Zuckerberg acknowledged Apple’s initial impact on the tech industry, particularly with the invention of the iPhone.

However, he argued that the company has since failed to deliver significant innovations.

“On the one hand, [the iPhone has] been great, because now pretty much everyone in the world has a phone, and that’s kind of what enables pretty amazing things. 

But on the other hand, like you’re saying, they have used that platform to put in place a lot of rules that I think feel arbitrary and feel like they haven’t really invented anything great in a while.

It’s like Steve Jobs invented the iPhone and now they’re just kind of sitting on it 20 years later,” Zuckerberg said.

He also noted that iPhone sales are struggling due to slower consumer upgrades, as newer models offer minimal improvements over their predecessors.

“I think year over year, I’m not even sure they’re selling more iPhones at this point. I think the sales might actually be declining. Part of it is that each generation doesn’t actually get that much better,” he stated.

Criticism of Apple’s business practices 

Zuckerberg accused Apple of profiting by imposing a “30% tax on developers” and restricting third-party device compatibility.

“So how are they making more money as a company? Well, they do it by basically, like, squeezing people, and, like you’re saying, having this 30% tax on developers by getting you to buy more peripherals and things that plug into it,” he said.

• He specifically criticized Apple for limiting connectivity with third-party products.

“You know, they build stuff like Air Pods, which are cool, but they’ve just thoroughly hamstrung the ability for anyone else to build something that can connect to the iPhone in the same way,” Zuckerberg added.

Privacy and security debate 

He disclosed that Apple always defended its restrictive policies by citing consumer privacy and security concerns.

“There are a lot of other companies in the world that would be able to build a very good earbud. But Apple has a specific protocol that they’ve built into the iPhone that allows AirPods to basically connect to it. And it’s just much more seamless because they’ve enabled that, but they don’t let anyone else use the protocol. 

If they did, there would probably be much better competitors to AirPods out there. And whenever you push on this, they get super touchy. And they basically wrap their defense of it in, well, if we let other companies plug into our thing, then that would violate people’s privacy and security,” he said

Zuckerberg, however, dismissed this justification, arguing that Apple could address these issues through better protocols.

“It’s insecure because you didn’t build any security into it. And then now you’re using that as a justification for why only your product can connect easily,” he said.

Ray-Ban glasses integration hurdles 

Mark highlighted the challenges Meta faced in integrating its Ray-Ban Metaglasses with Apple devices.

“We basically asked them for the Ray-Ban Metaglasses that we built. Can we basically use the protocol that you use for AirPod and some of these other things to just make it so we can as easily connect? So it’s not like a pain in the ass for people who want to use this. 

I think one of the protocols that they’ve used, that they built, they basically didn’t encrypt it, so it’s like plain text. And they’re like, well, we can’t have you plug into it because it would be insecure. It’s like it’s insecure because you didn’t build any security into it. 

And then now you’re using that as a justification for why only your product can connect in an easy way. It’s like the whole thing is kind of wild,” Zuckerberg said.

He further claimed that removing Apple’s “random rules” would significantly benefit Meta’s business.

“If Apple stopped applying its ‘random rules,’ Meta’s profit would double,” Zuckerberg asserted.

[Nairametrics]

Naija News that the Joint Committee said the proposed ₦9 billion capital budget for the mining sector in the 2025 budget was too poor.

They stated that the allocation was drastically short of the investment required to position solid minerals as the cornerstone of economic diversification.

The Ministry had proposed a capital budget expenditure of ₦531 billion, but it was cut down to ₦9 billion.

The Chairman of the Joint Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals, Senator Ekong Sampson, expressed the committee’s displeasure with the proposed allocation.

Sampson stressed that without substantial investments in exploration and other critical areas, the potential of solid minerals to drive the transition to green energy would remain unrealized.

In the same vein, the Co-chairman and House Committee Chairman on Solid Minerals, Gaza Gbefwi condemned the reduction of the proposed ₦531 billion 2025 capital expenditure proposal to N9 billion.

He described the reduction as a disservice to the sector. He highlighted that the solid mineral sector was crucial for generating revenue beyond oil.

“As a House, we will not allow the future of generations to be compromised because of misplaced priorities. We, as elected representatives, understand the urgent need to diversify our economy, and no sector holds more promise in this regard than solid minerals. If we miss this opportunity to invest today, future generations will not forgive us,” Gbefwi said.

In his remarks, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, said his ministry has performed efficiently in line with President Bola Tinubu’s policy of diversification of the economy.

He highlighted attracting foreign investors and surpassing projected revenue for the ministry as an achievement of his administration.

Alake decried the reduction, stating it was unacceptable. He sought the Committee’s help in reviewing the budget for the ministry.

“We have not only succeeded in attracting global attention to Nigeria’s mining sector, but we have also seen an increase in revenue, despite receiving only 18% of our 2024 capital budget. In our budget proposals for 2025, we estimated over ₦531 billion for capital expenditure but was allocated a mere ₦9 billion.

“This is unacceptable, as it will hinder any significant investment in exploration, which is crucial for generating the geo-data that will attract major players. We seek the support of the National Assembly for a radical upward review of the budget,” he stated.

In a unanimous voice vote, Chairman of the Joint Committee, Sampson, announced the committee’s resolution to reject the proposed 2025 budgetary estimates, suspend further screening of the ministry’s budget, and invite the Ministers of Budget and National Planning, as well as Finance, to make a case for an upward review of the mining sector’s budget allocation to ensure the nation fully maximizes the potential of its mineral resources.

[NaijaNews]

Nigerian sprinter, Divine Oduduru, has finally opened up on his six-year ban from athletics, noting that he still has his own side of the story to share even while he has attempted suicide four times.
Oduduru was banned in October 2023 over doping violations after the Athletics Integrity Unit said there was “overwhelming evidence” against the former world junior silver medallist.

The violations were possession of prohibited substances and attempted use of a prohibited substance or method.

Although he didn’t test positive, Oduduru’s case was linked to that of team-mate Blessing Okagbare, who was banned for 11 years for doping in 2022.

Over a year after the pronouncement, the Nigerian athlete broke his silence and promised to shed more light on the incident.

“Thanks to everyone, to my lovely fans who have been supporting me right from the beginning of my career. I know a lot of you have been waiting to hear from me about the issue that happened,” he wrote via Instagram on Friday.

“I have been quiet all this time due to my mental health. I attempted suicide four times just wanted to end everything because all these things that happened are still a shock to me.

“After all these years of sacrifice, I will be granting interviews and I am working on coming live on Instagram to tell my side of what happened,” he said.

He holds personal bests of 9.86 seconds for the 100m and 19.73 seconds for the 200m.

The 28-year-old is a two-time Nigerian national champion and also a four-time NCAA champion while running for the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

[Leadership]

Operatives of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested seven suspects for allegedly killing two uber drivers in the Lekki and Ajah areas of the state.

The State Commissioner of Police, Mr Olarenwaju Ishola, confirmed this on Saturday while briefing newsmen on the recent achievements recorded by the command.

He said that the police arrested a four-gang and a three-gang syndicate for allegedly killing two drivers in separate incidents.

Ishola said that the police apprehended a four-gang syndicate: Emeka Akwara, 19; David Segun, 21; Samuel Ariori, 21; and Lukman Ariori, 19, who murdered a Uber driver.

“On Jan. 9, the suspects ordered for an Uber at Chevron in the Lekki area – en-route Obalende. On getting to Obalende in a lonely area, they robbed and killed the driver by stabbing him multiple times in the neck, unfortunately they were unable to snatch the vehicle.

“With the intervention of good Samaritan and passerby, two suspects were immediately apprehended and handed over to police and further investigation led to the arrest of other two fleeing suspects.

“The deceased corpse was deposited in the Morgue at Mainland Hospital Yaba and a Toyota Camry Big Daddy. AGL 650 HN and Knives were recovered from them, ” he said.

According to him, investigation is ongoing.

In the same vein, CP Ishola said that on Sept. 12. another three-man syndicate: Edmond Julius, 34; Abdullahi Umar, 32; and Saturday Oke, 40, was arrested for killing another Uber driver, Oluwaseyi Fowler.

“Arrested suspects confessed that they kidnapped the driver at Ajah area of Lagos, murdered and robbed him of his Toyota camry.

“They sold the robbed Toyota camry car to their criminal receiver. They led the police to recover the decomposed body of the deceased and said Toyota Camry, ” he said.

According to the police boss, the suspects have been charged to court.

He advised drivers involved in uber, taxify, Lag ride and others to be wary of their passengers.

“If possible do not carry more than one passenger at a time and insist such a fellow is searched and make him sit at the front with you.

“This is just the third of its kind reported or detected in three months. We don’t know how many that have happened, ” he said.

According to him, the command is going to summon all drivers in such activities to give them some security tips for precautionary measures.

(NAN)

The Nigerian Air Force airstrikes on Saturday mistakenly hit operatives of the Zamfara State Community Protection Guard, ZSCPG, vigilantes, and some residents of Tungar Kara community in Maradun Local Government Area, Zamfara State, following a raid by bandits in the area.

DAILY POST gathered that the incident, which claimed at least 20 lives, occurred shortly after the bandits fled the scene.

It was also learnt that local vigilantes and residents, who had mobilized to defend their community, were caught in the strike. So far, 16 bodies have been retrieved, with the final death toll still uncertain as rescue efforts continue.

The airstrike, intended to target the fleeing bandits, instead devastated the community, leaving behind a trail of grief and unanswered questions.

Residents of Tungar Kara are now calling for an investigation into the tragic error and for support to be provided to the affected families.

The military authorities have yet to issue an official statement on the incident, but the tragedy underscores the challenges of combating insecurity in Zamfara State.

[DailyPost]