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Senators Move to Sack GEJ over Corruption, Budget Implementation
At last count, 63 senators have signed up to the plan to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan in the Senate, upper legislative chamber over alleged high level of corruption and poor implementation of the national budget since 2011.
The senators are also peeved by “gross disregard” of the legislature at both the federal and state levels.
Punch Newspapers reported that one of the arrowheads of the move to remove Jonathan in the Senate showed her correspondent the list containing the signatures of the senators.
The source said eight Peoples Democratic Party senators were among the signatories to the planned impeachment notice.
There are 109 members in the Senate.
An All Progressives Congress senator from the North-West zone, who asked not to be named,told our correspondent that the lawmakers’ major grouse was the President’s handling of the economy and political affairs of the country.
The senator cited poor implementation of the national budget since 2011, alleged high level of corruption and “gross disregard” of the legislature at both the federal and state levels as topping the list of lawmakers’ anger against Jonathan.
Asked whether he realised that the process of impeachment could be tedious and cumbersome, the senator said, “ We know and we are prepared to show the President that we have responsibility to the people and the nation in general.
“We are prepared to lay the impeachment notice anytime from next week. Meetings are already being held.”
Senator Ibrahim Musa (APC Niger North) confirmed that there were moves by some members of the Senate to initiate impeachment proceedings against the President but failed to give details.
“I think there is something like that but I don’t have the details, it is still coming as a rumour,” Musa said.
But The PUNCH learnt that the impeachment move against the President had really gained momentum with the APC senators mobilising themselves to carry out the exercise anytime from next week.
Investigations by our correspondent revealed that some PDP senators, who were initially at the forefront of the struggle, had retreated following the intervention of the senate leadership and the promise of automatic tickets by the party.
It was learnt that the PDP senators had been pleading with their APC colleagues to hold on till next week pending the outcome of the moves by the senate leadership to ensure the realisation of the automatic tickets agreement they had with the PDP and Jonathan.
An APC senator told our correspondent on condition of anonymity that the impeachment letter contains the signature of both the APC and PDP senators.
He explained that the letter could not be laid on the floor of the senate because some PDP senators appealed to them to delay the action.
He said, “The truth of the matter is that the impeachment notice would have been laid if not for our colleagues in the PDP who pleaded with us to delay the process pending when the senate leadership would come up with the result of its efforts at securing automatic tickets for them.
“In any case the process had started but if we submit the letter now, the signatures of the PDP senators will be there and the party might want to use that as an excuse to deny them their automatic tickets.”
The PDP senators contacted by our correspondent on the issue declined to make comment.
However, one of them who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the process of impeachment had not been suspended.
Presidents John Dramani Mahama of Ghana and Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria have celebrated the Chairman of Globacom, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr., on the occasion of his 72nd birthday.
In congratulatory messages, both leaders praised Dr. Adenuga’s outstanding contributions to the economic development and growth of both Ghana and Nigeria. They commended his remarkable entrepreneurial spirit, resilience, and commitment to excellence.
President Mahama described Dr. Adenuga’s life as “a shining example of vision, resilience, and extraordinary accomplishment.” He noted that through his entrepreneurial endeavors, Dr. Adenuga has not only built enduring businesses but also contributed significantly to the socio-economic advancement of the African continent.
He noted that Dr. Adenuga’s leadership and philanthropic endeavour remain a beacon of inspiration for generations across Africa.
Also President Tinubu stated that Dr. Adenuga’s humility and diligence have enabled him to succeed in various sectors, including banking, telecommunications, oil, and gas. He praised Dr. Adenuga’s innovative approach to business, citing Globacom’s pioneering per-second billing, which expanded telephony and digital access to millions of Nigerians.
“In addition, Conoil has proven that an indigenous firm can compete with international oil companies, fostering energy independence and security for our country.” He added.
President Tinubu who expressed the gratitude of Nigerians to Dr. Adenuga for his immense contributions to the country’s progress and prosperity, also commended him for extending his investments to other African countries and Europe, “a bold effort which earned you well-deserved honours as Commander of the Legion of Honour (France) and Ghana’s Companion of the Star of Ghana”.
Most online services and apps require the user to create a password. Chances are many of those passwords are not being used daily and due to this overabundance, there’s a high probability that many of the passwords are being reused.
Poor password management is compounded by a reliance on common combinations of names, dictionary words and numerals. Not only are these passwords relatively easy to decipher, but if a cybercriminal gains access to a password on one site, that could result in access to a plethora of other sites.
People are urged to create unique, random passwords to counter the vulnerability posed by using the same password multiple times. However, password creation and management can be an arduous task.
To tackle the burden of password creation and management, people might be tempted to use large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Llama or DeepSeek to generate their passwords.
The appeal is clear. Rather than struggling to come up with a strong password, users can simply ask AI, “Generate a secure password” and get an instant result.
AI produces strings that look random, which helps avoid the human tendency to create predictable, dictionary-based passwords. But appearances can be deceptive, AI-generated passwords may not be as secure as they appear.
Alexey Antonov, Data Science Team Lead at Kaspersky, tested this by generating 1,000 passwords using some of the more prominent and trusted LLMs including ChatGPT (from OpenAI), Llama (model from Meta group), DeepSeek (newcomer from China).
“All of the models are aware that a good password consists of at least 12 characters, including uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. They report this when generating passwords,” says Antonov.
“In practice, though, the algorithms often neglected to insert a special character or digits into the password: 26% of passwords for ChatGPT, 32% for Llama and 29% for DeepSeek. While DeepSeek and Llama sometimes generated passwords shorter than 12 characters.”
In 2024, Alexey Antonov developed a machine learning algorithm to test password strength and found that almost 60% of passwords can be cracked in under an hour using modern GPUs or cloud-based cracking tools.
When applied to AI-generated passwords, the results were alarming, they were far less secure than they appeared: 88% of DeepSeek and 87% of Llama generated passwords were not strong enough to withstand attack from sophisticated cyber criminals. While ChatGPT did a little better with 33% of passwords not strong enough to pass the Kaspersky test.
“The problem is LLMs don’t create true randomness. Instead, they mimic patterns from existing data, making their outputs predictable to attackers who understand how these models work,” notes Antonov.
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has introduced a crowd-sourcing initiative aimed at providing more accurate statistical information and data to policymakers and the general public.
According to a statement issued by Folorunso Alesanmi, head of Public Relations, the initiative, which commenced several months ago, involves compiling daily price data from a wide range of sources.
These include open markets, supermarkets, neighbourhood shops, bulk and discount stores, street outlets, and large retail shops.
Data collection has been conducted across all 36 States, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and every senatorial district.
However, the Bureau clarified that price data gathered through crowd-sourcing differs from the data used in computing the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
While CPI data is collected at specific, pre-determined outlets during the second and third weeks of each month, crowd-sourced price data is gathered randomly from different respondents daily.
By leveraging the power of crowd-sourcing, the Bureau has been able to gather a vast amount of data that offers a more nuanced picture of price trends in the economy.
“We are thrilled to release our first price data compiled through crowd-sourcing. This initiative represents a major step forward in our efforts to harness the power of technology and innovation to improve the quality and timeliness of our statistical data,” said Prince Semiu Adeyemi Adeniran, Statistician-General of the Federation and NBS CEO.
The newly released data offers insights into the prices of essential food items commonly consumed by Nigerians, such as local rice, white beans, white maize, garri, yam, and more. It provides a daily snapshot of food costs.
The NBS plans to update this data on a daily basis, offering entrepreneurs, policymakers, and researchers a valuable tool for monitoring price fluctuations and making informed decisions.
The data is accessible to the public through a dedicated dashboard, where users can view, analyze, and download it in real-time—enhancing transparency and accessibility.
“To this end, the agency has implemented a range of quality control measures, including data validation and verification processes, to ensure that the data is reliable and trustworthy,” the statement added.
The release of this crowd-sourced price data underscores the NBS’s commitment to innovation and collaboration.
By working with citizens and embracing technology, the Bureau aims to provide more timely and accurate statistics to drive economic growth and development
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