Tag Archives: Use

18 Carat Gold Toilet Named “America” Available For Use In New York Museum

Posted on by
2

The Guggenheim Museum in New York makes available for use a toilet made of solid gold. The 18-carat bathroom fixture is an artwork by Maurizio Cattelan, now available for public use in the Manhattan museum.

The Italian artist is known for his controversial installations and contempt for the art world. At his first solo exhibition, Cattelan closed the gallery and left a sign on the door that said “Back Soon.” In 2011, after hanging his remaining works in the atrium of the Guggenheim, the fifty-five-year-old artist announced his retirement.
But the gold toilet, entitled “America,” represents his comeback. Cattelan, like an aging action hero, returns to condemn the world.
“America” is inspired by Marcel Duchamp, who signed a urinal and presented it as an artwork at the Armory Show of 1917. Ninety-nine years later, Cattelan’s toilet seems to advertise the poverty of the artist’s imagination and the Biblical wealth that the museum commands.
Read More: CNN

Emefiele Does Not Use Private Jets– CBN

Posted on by
1

The Central Bank of Nigeria on Saturday denied reports that the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele and members of his family flew private chartered jet to the burial of his mother.

The apex bank in a statement issued by its Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr Isaac Okoroafor, said neither the governor nor any of its top official had engaged the services of chartered private jets since 2015.

It said while it had been a practice for its governors in the past to use private chartered jets when embarking on urgent national assignments, such practice was stopped by Emefiele when he assumed office in 2015.

It said Emefiele had taken the decision in response to the economic downturn which the country was suffering and also in line with the cost cutting stance of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The CBN in the statement said the governor and his family members flew a commercial Arik flight from Lagos to Benin for their mother’s burial.

The statement reads in part, “The Central Bank of Nigeria has, for several years in the past, used private and official chartered flights in making urgent travels to meet needs in remote, not-easily- accessible locations or in cases where timing might be critical to matters of urgent national importance.

This practice was in place long before the assumption of office of the current Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele.

“In fact it is on record that the past two CBN Governors actively used chartered private jet services to meet urgent national assignments.

“However in 2015, in response to the economic downturn and the cost-cutting stance of government, Mr. Emefiele ordered the stoppage of the use of chartered flights by the Bank.

“Since then, neither Mr. Emefiele nor any of the Deputy Governors has used the services of private chartered flights and the CBN has not paid a kobo for private jet services.

“Mr Emefiele and indeed other principal officers of the CBN have religiously maintained the modest disposition of using regular flights, including doing several trips by road to and from different parts of the country.

“It is also important to note here that no private jet was used by Mr. Emefiele, his immediate family, or indeed other principal officers of the Bank during the burial of Mr Emefiele’s mother.”

Credit: Punch

Court Slams Zuma For Use Of Public Funds To Renovate House

Posted on by
19

South Africa’s top court on Thursday delivered a damning verdict against President Jacob Zuma, saying he flouted the constitution over public funds used to upgrade his private residence, sparking immediate calls for him to be impeached.

Zuma “failed to uphold, defend and respect the constitution as the supreme law of the land,” Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng said in a strongly-worded ruling from the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg.

The court judgment came as Zuma fights back against separate allegations that a wealthy Indian family influenced ministerial appointments in a scandal that has rocked his government.

Zuma has also been battered by the country’s sharply declining economy. But he retains a strong grip on parliament through his dominant leadership of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, and any impeachment bid looked unlikely to succeed. The so-called “security” upgrades at Zuma’s rural homestead, which were valued in 2014 at 216 million rand (then $24 million), included a swimming pool, a chicken run, a cattle enclosure and an amphitheatre.

“The president must personally pay the amount determined by the national treasury,” Mogoeng said on Thursday.

Read more:

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/court-slams-president-zuma-for-use-of-public-fund-to-renovate-house/

Nigeria May Regulate Use Of WhatsApp, BBM, Skype, Facebook

Posted on by
Reply

The Nigerian Communications Commission is considering a framework for the regulation of over-the-top services in the Nigerian telecoms market.

Over-the-top services, otherwise known as OTT, are services carried over the networks, delivering value to customers, but without any carrier service provider being involved in planning, selling, provisioning, or servicing them.

OTT services are offered through Internet communication.

In Nigeria, the most common OTT services are WhatsApp messenger, BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook, and Skype which are classified under social media applications.

In other words, telecom operators such as MTN, Etisalat, Glo, and Airtel lack direct control or influence over WhatsApp messenger, BBM, Facebook or Skype.

Internet telephony and live streaming are also part of OTT services.

The growth of OTT services is encouraged by the access to 3G and 4G networks which offer mobile broadband and high speed IP data.

A report, ‘An Overview of Provision of Over The Top [OTT] Services’ published recently by the Policy, Competition & Economic Analysis Department of the Nigerian Communications Commission, says OTT services were becoming a threat to the traditional telephone network operators.

This development, the report said, is a global issue.

The threat, according to the NCC report, comes from the fact that Internet telephony is not only cheap, and free in some cases, but it also offers many features previously unavailable with telephones, therefore making it more attractive to consumers.

And unlike the traditional telephone network operator, the operators of Internet telephony don’t pay tolls for their services.

Besides, the report said since telecom operators such as MTN, Etisalat, Glo and Airtel do not have control over WhatsApp, BBM, Facebook and the rest of the social media applications, they (the telecom operators) cannot do not generate revenues from services offered through these applications.

Credit: PremiumTimes

Boko Haram: FG Urged To Ban Use Of Veils

Posted on by
1

A human rights activist in Sapele, Delta State, Mr James Idoghor, has called on the Federal Government to ban the wearing of veils across the country, noting that hoodlums were perpetrating crimes with them.

Idogho, who expressed concern over the inability of the Federal Government to find the over 200 missing Chibok girls, and the continuous killings and unleashing of mayhem on innocent citizens, particularly in northern parts of the country, said, “Most of the perpetrators of the heinous crimes usually wear veils to disguise their gender and motives.”

Adding that, “No democratic country will tolerate any religious norm that has turned dangerous to the precious lives of her citizenry. This government should not pay deaf ears to the cries of her citizens. People are dying in their dozens by the day. The wearing of veils must be stopped.”

Credit: Vanguard

Aisha Buhari Urges Students To Use Education For National Development

Posted on by
1

The Wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, on Monday in Abuja called on Nigerian students to use education as a tool for national development.

Aisha, who was represented by the Wife of the Senate President, Mrs Toyin Saraki, said this when the Chairman, Advisory Board, President’s School Debate Nigeria (PSDN), paid her courtesy visit at the Presidential Villa.

“I am exceedingly proud of the young citizens that have taken education as a way forward for the national development,’’ Aisha said.

She said the students, through education, were empowered and had enabled them to represent Nigeria in Singapore for a debate.

“You have done so well and made Nigeria proud. I am proud of you and hope that other young Nigerians will look at your achievement and emulate,’’ she said.

She urged other students in the country to emulate the example, to make the country a great nation.

The president’s wife commended the organizers and students for doing well at the Singapore debate competition, adding that “we hope to celebrate your progress, productivity and success in the next years.

Read More: dailyindependentnig

U.S. Indicts Borno Govt. Over Use Of Child Soldiers

Posted on by
Reply

Despite efforts by Nigeria’s central government to combat human trafficking and servitude, the Borno State government in the country’s north east, plagued by Boko Haram insurgency, actively supported the recruitment of child soldiers in the last one year, the United States government has said in its latest report on human trafficking.

The report, released Monday, praised the Nigerian government for its efforts at fighting trafficking and ranked Nigeria in its Tier two category – the same rating the country received in 2014.

The report however criticised the Borno government headed by Governor Kashim Shettima for supporting a group involved with the recruitment and use of child soldiers in the fight against Boko Haram insurgency.

It noted that although Mr. Kashim had “warned the CJTF that the recruitment and use of child soldiers was prohibited”, “state government support for the group continued”.

Civilian Joint Task Force, CJTF, is a local vigilante group assisting the Nigerian military in the fight against Boko Haram.

Mr. Shettima was on President Muhammadu Buhari’s entourage to the U.S. last week, and attended talks between President Buhari, U.S. President Barack Obama and secretary of states, John Kerry.

The Department of States, which authored the trafficking report, said while Nigeria remains a main hub for trafficking in persons internally and externally, the government in the last one year continued to take stringent steps to curtail the menace.

“Nigeria is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Nigerian trafficking victims are recruited from rural and, to a lesser extent, urban areas: women and girls for domestic servitude and sex trafficking and boys for forced labor in street vending, domestic service, mining, stone quarrying, agriculture, textiles manufacturing, and begging,” the report noted.

“Young boys in Koranic schools, commonly known as Almajiri children, are subjected to forced begging. Nigerian women and children are taken from Nigeria to other West and Central African countries, as well as to South Africa, where they are exploited for the same purposes.

Nigerian women and girls are subjected to forced prostitution throughout Europe. Nigerian women and children are also recruited and transported to destinations in North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, where they are held captive in the sex trade or in forced labor.”

Read More: premiumtimesng

Use Your Offices To Change Nigeria’s Bad Image, Adeboye Tells Osinbajo, Ambode

Posted on by
1

The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adeboye has charged Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State to use their new offices to change the bad story about Nigeria.

He spoke just as Osinbajo and Ambode assured Nigerians that God would make peace to reign in the country with the advent of the new administration.

The trio spoke at the Seventh Edition of the Excel Programme of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, organised by Apapa Family of the church at the Tafawa Balewa Square, TBS, Lagos, with the theme; “Riding on the Wings of Change.”

In his sermon, Pastor Adeboye urged political office holders to use their position to change the story of Nigeria, just as he assured that Nigeria will continue to march forward with the present crop of leaders.

Credit: vanguardngr