Author: Sodiq Mojibola

Policymakers, IT experts, and industry leaders have called for urgent action to close the digital divide that continues to exclude rural Nigerians from the country’s economic potential. At Nigeria’s First Rural Connectivity Summit held in Lagos, alarming data of over 80 million Nigerians still underserved with electricity, while over 20 million of the population still find themselves in unserved regions without any form of access to connectivity. The summit, organised by Business Metrics Limited on Wednesday, rallied industry experts for a forward-looking dialogue to address barriers associated with digital connectivity in rural areas and recommend sustainable solutions while making actionable…

The authorities at the University of Lagos have reacted to the alleged increment of its students’ fees, insisting that the new development aimed at removing hidden costs. In an exclusive interview, a senior principal official of the university, who does not want to be quoted, said the new total payable fees displayed on each of the students’ portals, contains all legitimate fees and levies charged by the institution, including those earlier charged separately by the various departments and faculties. READ ALSO: UNILAG Int’l Week hosts global voices on how Africa can lead in AI The source, a member of the…

Nigeria’s former Ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Michael Omolewa, an emeritus professor of the history of education at the University of Ibadan, has urged the government to rethink its approach to basic education, insisting that education should not only be inclusive but also integrated to unite skills, culture, and civic values. Speaking at the Adunni Foundation’s maiden Basic Education Torchbearers Awards (BETA)  event in Lagos, Mr Omolewa described education as the foundation of true independence and national progress. The Adunni Foundation, a social impact organisation on Tuesday honoured the torchbearers of Nigeria’s basic education,…

The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) has condemned what it described as an attack on press freedom in Imo State, following a violent mob assault on Uchechukwu Olebara, a journalist with Radio Maria 106.7 FM, Owerri and the prevailing culture of impunity allegedly aided by the state government. On Monday, 13 October, Mr Olebara was assaulted by operatives of the State Environmental Monitoring and Compliance Unit. Efforts to seek justice, according to CJID, have further exposed the depth of impunity against journalists in the state. In a statement signed by the Deputy Director, Journalism Programme at CJID, Busola…

Nigerian tech expert and Founding Partner of Future Africa, an investment company focused on building and scaling digital economy businesses, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, has accused Western countries of “committing crimes against humanity” by allegedly restricting sales of chips to other countries of the world. The allegation is coming at a time when both the United States of America and China are engaging in tough contests over sales of semiconductors (chips), which are said to be “integral to the global economy and a vital component of advanced technologies.” Recently, American lawmakers called for broader bans on sales of chipmaking tools to China, revisiting the…

Tension is mounting across Nigeria’s universities as non-academic staff join the wave of agitation over unmet government promises. Members of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) on Thursday staged nationwide protests to demand the full implementation of agreements signed with the Federal Government in 2022. The National Joint Action Committee (JAC) of NASU and SSANU had after a meeting on 6 October issued a circular directing all branch leadership in the universities and inter-university centres throughout the country to convene a  joint congress in their respective campuses…

Nigeria has recorded 168 deaths from Lassa fever in the last nine months, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has confirmed, warning that the current death rate is higher than the same period in 2024. An update of the outbreak released by NCDC reveals that cumulatively as at week 38 (15 – 21 September), 168 deaths have been reported with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 18.5 per cent, which is higher than the 16.9 per cent CFR recorded the same period in 2024. Though, the number of new confirmed cases in week 38 is the same…

Barely eight months into its operation as a niche newspaper, the Managing Editor of DevReporting, Christiana Alabi-Akande, has emerged the overall winner of the 2025 Female Reporters Leadership Programme (FRLP) of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ). Mrs Alabi-Akande beat 11 other fellows to emerge the winner based on her leadership programme initiative and a compelling story on the plight of sexually abused children in Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre. Her two-part story entitled: “INVESTIGATION (I): In Nigeria’s ‘megacity,’ poverty, extortion deprive sexually abused children of justice,” and “INVESTIGATION (II): In Lagos, police extort families of sexually…

Political experts, academics, and civil society leaders have renewed calls for the restructuring of Nigeria’s justice system as a decisive step towards tackling corruption, describing it as a malignant tumour steadily weakening the nation’s values and institutions. The call was made at an international conference on anti-corruption themed ‘Politics, Governance, Probity, Religion and Corrupt Behaviour in Nigeria’, organised by the University of Lagos Faculty of Social Sciences in collaboration with Pan-Africana Strategic and Policy Research Group (PANAFSTRAG) and Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC). Speakers at the conference argued that corruption has remained a cankerworm in Nigeria for decades, eating…

The authorities in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital, have stepped up health security measures in the state following the resurgence of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). According to the World Health Organization (WHO),  28 suspected cases have been reported in the DRC, including four health workers since 20 August when the first case was recorded. The deadly virus has reportedly claimed 15 lives in less than three weeks.  To prevent the disease from crossing into Nigeria, Lagos announced the activation of the Incident Management Structure (IMS) of its Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC).  READ…