Nigeria has been listed among African countries whose citizens can now apply for qualified teacher status through the Teaching Regulation Agency in the United Kingdom, from February 2023.

Other foreign countries which the offer extends to include Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Singapore, South Africa, Ukraine and Zimbabwe.

A publication early December on the UK government’s website, by its Department for Education, announced the application for interested non-UK nationals.

According to news report, Applicants do not  necessarily require initial teaching qualifications as the country offers a training programme for the potential migrants.

The notice read, “From February 1, 2023, teachers who qualified in the following nine countries (listed above) will also be able to apply to the QTR through the TRA.

“This change is part of the launch of a new service.

“Teachers from all eligible countries will have to show they meet a consistent set of criteria for the award of the QTS. Over time, this route will be opened to qualified teachers from every country outside the UK.

“To apply for assessment – only QTS, you do not need a formal teacher training qualification.

“However, you must have: a minimum of two years teaching experience, a first (bachelor’s) degree from a UK or non-UK university, an English language qualification which is the same standard as a grade four General Certificate of Secondary Education, a maths qualification which is the same standard as a grade four GCSE to teach children aged three to 11 in primary school, a physics, chemistry or biology (science) qualification which is the same standard as a grade four GCSE.”

Achumie Rex, The Head of Department, Voter Education and Publicity of the Independent National Electoral Commission, on Wednesday, alleged that some politicians were making frantic efforts to manufacture the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machine and hack into the commission’s server ahead of the 2023 general election.

He added that there would be simultaneous registration and voting on election days as he reaffirmed the electoral umpire’s commitment to a free and fair general election in 2023.

Rex made this statement  at a two-day workshop for civil society organisations on Voter Education, organised by the Transition Monitoring Group and supported by the USAID.

Fielding questions from participants shortly after delivering a paper titled: ‘Technology and 2023 election commission’, Rex revealed that INEC was working round the clock to ensure that the integrity of its server was maintained during and after the elections.

He said, “There is no room to hack into INEC server,” adding that “politicians are doing everything possible to get into the INEC server or even to manufacture BVAS, but unfortunately for them, INEC is three steps ahead of their plots.”

Allaying fears of network problem that would make BVAS work effectively at the rural areas, he said that BVAS was built on dual basis — “online and offline”.

Delivering his paper, Rex said, “At the moment, Nigerians are gradually bidding farewell to the dark days when the voter register was infested with foreign names and those days when election results were announced while voting was still ongoing.

“Apart from voting, results management is easily the most critical aspect of election administration. While voting is an open and public activity, results management is usually run by a few election officials, mostly outside the glare of the public. Thus, there is need to promote transparency in this in the best possible way.

“Other innovations that seem to have enhanced the system include biometric voter registration, computer-based registration of voters, online pre-registration, the Permanent Voter Cards with chips, creating online portals for candidates, observers and political party agents, amongst others, which have all gone a long way in standardising Nigeria’s election management system,” he said.

He expressed optimism that with the introduction of various technology into the country’s election management, which, according to him, had boosted citizens confidence in the process, citizens participation in the elections would “hit at least a 50% voter turnout mark.”

In his remark, the chairman of the TMG, Auwal Musa, who was represented at the workshop by Miriam Menkiti, said the workshop was part of its one-year project tagged ‘Strengthening civic advocacy and local engagement (SCALE) project’.

He said that the aim of the workshop “is to achieve the desired outcomes in improving quality of elections in Nigeria by ensuring that citizens are adequately and effectively mobilised and sensitised in order to actively participate in elections in Nigeria.”

The Federal Capital Territory Administration’s Department of Development Control agents bulldozed the properties of real estate developers in Abuja, and they have since demanded justice for what they have called illegality.

During the operation in Katampe Extension, Bwari Area Council of Abuja, which began last week and is still going on this week, buildings and other facilities in various stages of construction were destroyed.

Dr. Charles Nwakanma, the CEO of Ideal Grace Consulting Limited and the project’s primary developer, claimed that the victims had invested over N8 billion in the 55.59 acre plot’s development over the previous four years.

His Lawyer, Jerry Edemeka, told journalists that the properties had several structures raised on them above the second storey before they were brought down.

He said, “We decided to engage the FCTA in view of the fact that we are development partners. Look, this property has been approved. We are not doing anything unduly. We have followed the due process, got the due approval, paid all the duel fees, mobilized to site as per the conditions contained in the building approval.

“So, what is this mindless and terrible demolition of a place that due approval has been obtained about? Where is this coming from? It is a very sad chapter in the history of land and housing development in the FCT.”

Abioye Adesina, the interim director of urban and regional planning at FCTA, responded to a request for the land administration department to record the exact size of the property granted by the minister of the FCT, Mohammed Musa Bello, by saying that investigation determined that plot to be

3173 exists in Katampe Extension District, Cadastral Zone B19 and covers an area of 55.22 hectares, designated for mixed use comprehensive development.

“Furthermore, the detailed survey carried out also revealed that plot 3173 covers the area of 55.22 hectares. In view of the above, it is recommended that the actual size covering an area of 55.59 hectares be reflected on the title documents accordingly, please”, Adesina said.

A bill to outlaw the usage of the well-known social media platform Tiktok in the nation has been introduced by senators from the United States.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio of the Senate Intelligence Committee, one of the bill’s supporters, claimed that the app was more than simply a tool for making films and that the Chinese government used it extensively to collect sensitive information from Americans.

“This is about an app that is collecting data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day,” he wrote in a statement shared on Tuesday.

He added, “We know it’s used to manipulate feeds and influence elections. We know it answers to the People’s Republic of China. There is no more time to waste on meaningless negotiations with a CCP-puppet company. It is time to ban Beijing-controlled TikTok for good.”

The proposed legislation, in general, is aimed at protecting “Americans from the threat posed by certain foreign adversaries using current or potential future social media companies that those foreign adversaries control to surveil Americans, learn sensitive data about Americans, or spread influence campaigns, propaganda, and censorship.”

However, the bill mentions TikTok and its parent company, Bytedance, as well as other subsidiaries of the company, as social media platforms of particular concern.

The new bill follows a flurry of actions already taken by Republican-led states. States like Texas, South Dakota, and Maryland, have all moved to restrict the use of Tiktok on government-owned devices.

Similarly, the US military, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security have all restricted the app from operating on their computer devices.

Former president Donald Trump issued an executive order to prohibit the app until it was sold to an American corporation just before the end of his administration. The order was contested in court, and the current Biden government later overturned it.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has accused some politicians of buying Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and financially inducing voters to harvest their Voter Identification Numbers (VIN).

The chairman of INEC and National Commissioner, overseeing the FCT, Nasarawa, Kaduna and Plateau states, Mallam Mohammed Haruna, said this in Abuja, during the launch of the #YourVoteMatters project by NESSACTION, an election observer group, on Monday.

The commission also claim two persons have been recently convicted for illegal possession of PVCs in Sokoto and Kano states.

The project was supported by the International Foundation for Electoral System (IFES); the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Haruna stated, “We are aware some politicians are more or less buying the PVCs. If you collect the PVC and then you sell it out or allow someone else to have it, you are aiding illegal possession of the PVC which is an offense in our Electoral Act.

“Some of you are aware that only recently, INEC managed to convict two people who were found guilty of illegal possession of PVCs in Kano and Sokoto. So, I urge people to connect their PVCs, keep them safely, and make sure that on election day, you go out and cast your votes because, of course, without your PVC you cannot vote.”

The Executive Director of NESSACTION, Eniola Cole, said that the project scheduled for implementation in the FCT, Nasarawa, and Plateau states, would provide logistics and give incentives to communities with low PVCs collection rates.

She said it aims to assist INEC in increasing the number of PVCs collected ahead of the 2023 general elections as well as the voters mobilized on election day.

Cole said, “We implore the general public to take advantage of the timeframe set by INEC for PVC collection at the Commission’s LGA offices nationwide from December 12, 2022, to January 5, 2023, and at the 8809 Registration Areas from January 6, 2023, to January 22, 2023, including Saturdays and Sundays.

“The public can, through dedicated channels, inform us of their location in order to receive support including the PVC collection buses and community outreach activities to be conducted at the local level in each state by our community mobilization officers.”

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has arrested one Michael Owerekwe, an importer of counterfeit Super Delicieur Cooking Margarine.

The agency’s acting director-general, Mrs. Monica Eimunjeze, said in a statement on Monday at the NAFDAC office in Lagos that Joseph Rapoluchukwu, a distributor of the forbidden potassium bromate tablets, had been detained on December 5, 2022.

Eimunjeze warned Nigerians to be wary of the dangerous products.

She said that 115 cartons of potassium bromate tablets with a street value of N28,750,000.00 were found on Rapoluchukwu when NAFDAC officers raided a warehouse in the Apongbon area of Lagos Island.

Speaking on Monday at the NAFDAC office in Lagos, acting Director-General Monica Eimunjeze of the organization stated that Joseph Rapoluchukwu, a distributor of the forbidden potassium bromate tablets, had been detained on December 5, 2022.

She added, “Also discovered in (Rapoluchukwu’s) warehouse was a counterfeit EDC Bread Improver, packed in sachets with a fake NAFDAC registration number of 01-4242, valued at N300,000.

“Owerekwe, at the point of his arrest, upon seeing the operatives, he destroyed his mobile phone so that the evidence will not be traced to him,” she added. He also fought the operatives but was instantly overpowered, arrested, and taken into custody.

“He confirmed that he did, in fact, import 400 cartons of the product from Dubai via an online group purchase and cleared them at Onne Port, Port Harcourt. He claimed that the shipment was delivered to him by a clearing agent, whose name he did not yet disclose.

“He also admitted to distributing the product to markets across the country.

“Preliminary examination of the product showed that the actual manufacturer’s name was not written, but produced for a company in Indonesia.

“The public is urged to keep an eye out for these harmful products anywhere in the country and to report any suspected fake, counterfeit, or unwholesome product to any nearby NAFDAC office.”

“Owerekwe, at the point of his arrest, upon seeing the operatives, he destroyed his mobile phone so that the evidence will not be traced to him,” she added. He also fought the operatives but was instantly overpowered, arrested, and taken into custody.

“He confirmed that he did, in fact, import 400 cartons of the product from Dubai via an online group purchase and cleared them at Onne Port, Port Harcourt. He claimed that the shipment was delivered to him by a clearing agent, whose name he did not yet disclose.

“He also admitted to distributing the product to markets across the country.

“Preliminary examination of the product showed that the actual manufacturer’s name was not written, but produced for a company in Indonesia.

“The public is urged to keep an eye out for these harmful products anywhere in the country and to report any suspected fake, counterfeit, or unwholesome product to any nearby NAFDAC office.”

The current revision of the 1999 Constitution, according to the National Assembly, is doomed to failure because the state Houses of Assembly haven’t voted on the modification measures that have been passed and sent to them for approval.

Separately, Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila and President of the Senate Ahmad Lawan pleaded with Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai to persuade their respective state legislatures to take up the measures.

 Lawan and Gbajabiamila made the plea in Abuja on Monday at the second edition of the Distinguished Parliamentarians Lecture Series organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies.

The 9th National Assembly had budgeted N4bn for the Constitution review, N1bn for each of the four years of its lifespan.

 El-Rufai, in his remarks as chairman on the occasion, urged the National Assembly to enact a series of laws concerning security, education and the economy among others.

The governor listed the seven interventions he wanted from the National Assembly.

 He said, “First is state and community policing. I think we are all clear now that the current policing system is broken. It does not work for Nigeria. And Nigeria is the only federation in the world with one centralised police system. I think this National Assembly can enact the state and community policing system that prevents the abuses of the past and takes into account the challenges of the present.

“Secondly, Value Added Tax has become a major source of survival of this country. This year NNPC has not paid a penny to the Federation Account. We have taxes, particularly Value Added Tax. The fact that VAT is not on the Exclusive List, is a major source of concern for the fiscal health of the federation. I think it is something that this National Assembly can do something about in its last six months.”

He also made a case for making 12 years of education free, adding that “This country can never make progress without educating everyone.”