News
Federal Govt kicks off training for two million IT jobs in June

The Federal Government is set to offer six months of free training to youths to fill two million job vacancies.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has also approved N120 billion to revive technical education.
Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, spoke during the third Ministerial Press Briefing, organised by Minister of Information and National Orientation Mohammed Idris in Abuja.
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, also gave an account of his stewardship.
Alausa said: “We have almost N120 billion and the President has approved it for us to move this agenda forward.
“This programme will be launched probably in the month of May.
“Today, based on UNESCO data, there are 650,000 vacancies in software development methodologies, about 280,000 vacancies in cyber security, and about 160,000 vacancies in IT automation.“
Another 150,000 vacancies in AI and machine learning, about 120,000 vacancies in cloud computing, and about 60,000 vacancies worldwide in national language processing.
“Add that together, we have almost two million job vacancies out there.
“So, what we’re doing with Digital Training Academy is working with trainers that will offer six- months of training to young engineers.
“We, as a government, will pay for their internet services, pay for their certification- Cisco certification, End of Career certification, and Google certification.”
Alausa said the strategy would give Nigerians new digital skills needed to stand out in the world.
He added that the training would be launched on or before June.
The minister said the Federal Ministry of Education was putting measures to encourage Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to meet the areas of needs.
He said this would be done through the Digital Training Academy (DTA) to give students skills in service industries.
Alausa reiterated the commitment of the government to return 10 million out-of-school children to the classrooms.
He said the ministry was working on a new strategy to increase access, improve quality and enhance education systems for foundational learning.
Alausa said between now and 2027, the government will reconstruct 195,000 classrooms across the nation.
“With regards to infrastructure, between now and 2027, we will need to raise 195,000 classrooms across the nation.
“We will install 28,000 toilets, and 22,900 boreholes across other schools in the country.
“We will construct about 7,000 new classrooms and provide learning and teaching materials by organising 103 million textbooks,” he said.
Alausa hinged the current proliferation of universities on the increasing pressure being mounted by lawmakers.
He said almost 200 bills were pending in the National Assembly for the creation of universities.
Alausa explained that renewing the capacities of existing institutions was more important than establishing new ones.
According to him, there is no need to put pressure on the president to establish new universities.
“We must focus on our capacities. We need to stop this from happening. There’s so much pressure on the president.
“We have to at least be sensitive to it as well. They (lawmakers) are passing a lot of bills.
“Today, there are almost 200 bills in the National Assembly. We can’t continue this.
“Even though we have a lot of them, the capacity for a university to admit is not there.
“What we need to do now is to rebuild the capacities so that we can offer more viable courses to our citizens,” he said.
The minister added that the enrollment rate was not commensurate with the recent number of universities.
“If you look at the entire enrollment together, the one per cent of private universities account for just 7.5 per cent of total undergraduate enrollment.
“The total number of undergraduate enrollment today is just about 875,000, which is at least fairly low.
“We have universities with less than 1,000 undergraduate students, and there’s this intense demand for more universities to be opened.
“We have to stop that,” he said.
He added that several key proposals had been put forward to address education sector challenges.
He added that the Tinubu Administration has committed N40 billion to the abandoned National Library of Nigeria project.
The minister said work on the library project would soon commence, adding that this would support academic and research needs.
Others who attended the briefing include Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to the President, Mr. Bayo Onanuga; Special Adviser on Public Communication and Orientation, Mr. Sunday Dare, and Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Publicity and Special Duties, Mr. Tunde Rahaman.
Heads of agencies in the Ministry of Information and National Orientation – News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Voice of Nigeria (VON), National Orientation Agency (NOA) and Federal Radio Cooperation of Nigeria (FRCN) – were also there.
News
2027: Hurdles Before The Coalition, By Emeka Monye

The 2027 presidential election in Nigeria is shaping up to be a crucial contest between the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and a potential coalition of opposition parties. Several hurdles need to be overcome for the opposition coalition to succeed.
The political class is already preparing for this quadrennial event, holding consultations, meetings, negotiations, among other contending factors.
The ruling party, The All Progressive Congress, appears to be the most beautiful bride at the moment as members of other opposition parties have been courting the party, in a gale of defections, in what many political pundits and analysts described as a political tsunami.
While the APC seems to be enjoying the foray of defections by other party members into their fold, the main opposition party, The Peoples Democractic Party, PDP, appears to have lost its steam in the run of play.
The once dominant party is plagued by a series of internal crises which many political analysts believe will be the party’s undoings.
The once largest political party in Africa and oldest in Nigeria since it was created in 1998 by some elder statesmen, is now a shadow of itself, living in past glory and trying to win its way back to national prominence.
Already, some past and present leaders of the party have been consulting, negotiating, discussing, even though they have agreed yet, all in a bit to wrestle power from the stronghold of the Bola Tinubu-Led APC at the centre.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Former Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 General elections, Peter Obi, former Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai, among other bigwigs, are believed to be in talks with one another of how to build a possible coalition to edge the ruling APC in the power game.
Although, no concrete decision has been reached by the major actors, their negotiations and their inability to reach a consensus remain critical factors that might endanger the birth of a viable coalition.
Factors like who will step down for who as the realignment begins, remains a major issue, taking into consideration their individual experiences, exposures, skills, knowledge, capacities and egos.
Except this issue is resolved in the run up to the 2027 presidential polls, it will be a mirage for them to unseat the Tinubu-Led government.
While the running party is busy strategizing ahead of the 2027 presidential polls, the other parties are still grappling with their internal crisis.
Some analysts believe that Atiku’s past experience as Vice President under the regime of Olusegun Obasanjo, might give him an edge, while others think Peter Obi’s popularity in the South could bring a geographical balance to the ticket.
For them to form a strong force against the APC, then, they must find common platform and agree on a candidate, which might be challenging given their different ideologies and interest.
Other factors which some political analysts have highlighted that may pose as a stumbling block agents the coalition is the timing. The time between and 2027 is quite a short time for the coalition to gather and make the desired impact.
This of course, is no brainer. Any merger of alliance must be arranged within a reasonable timeframe to be effective. Also, the coalition will have to convince the Nigerian voting public of its purpose and demonstrate a clear vision for the country’s future, particularly in the area of addressing the economic misfortunes of majority of the people. Another hurdle that would be staring the coalition in the face remains the issue of power rotation.
While the south believe it’s that turn to complete their second term in 2027, the north on the other hand argue that they have been short-changed in the governance structure of the country – in terms of number of years – since the return of democracy in 1999.
Out of the total 26 years, the north has ruled for 11 years, with the south 15 years. The issue remains a key factor that would affect the coalition to birth.
The coalition, must as a matter of urgency, decency decide on this unwritten agreement about rotating power between the North and the South, potentially present a southern for one term to allow the South to complete its own two terms for the office of the president.
In conclusion, the coalition, if it really wants to win power in 2027, must make a compelling case for itself, highlighting its unique strengths and vision, rather than just criticizing the incumbent.
It needs to differentiate itself and show Nigerians that it has a better alternative.
Emeka Monye Is A Journalist And Works With ARISE NEWS.
News
Mauritania’s Tah succeeds Adesina as 9th AfDB President
Tah was elected to succeed Adesina after rounds of voting conducted by the AfDB Board of Governors during the Bank’s Annual Meetings held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

Mauritania’s Sidi Ould Tah has been elected as the ninth president of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) as Nigeria’s Akinwumi Adesina prepares to bow out.
The Bank announced his election on its website on Thursday.
Adesina’s 10-year tenure will end this year and Tah is expected to assume office on September 1, 2025.
Tah was elected to succeed Adesina after rounds of voting conducted by the AfDB Board of Governors during the Bank’s Annual Meetings held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The Board comprises finance ministers and central bank governors from the Bank’s 81 member countries.
News
JUST IN: Appeal Court Affirms Okphebholo as Edo Governor

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has affirmed Monday Okphebholo as duly elected in the September 21, 2024 Edo Governorship polls, as it affirms the decision of the Tribunal which on April 2 dismissed the petition of Asue Ighodalo of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for lacking merit.
A three-man panel of the Appeal court, presided over by Justice Mohamed Danjuma, restated the position of the Tribunal which held that the PDP failed to provide sufficient and credible evidence to substantiate their claims of electoral malpractice, irregularities, and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
The panel held that the PDP failed to provide sufficient and credible evidence to substantiate their claims of electoral malpractice, irregularities, and non-compliance with the Electoral Act.
The Appellate Court agrees with the Tribunal that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) Machines which the appellants tendered were merely ‘dumped’ as they weren’t demonstrated to prove overvoting.
This the Court held after it earlier expunged the 133 BVAS machines admitted in evidence at the Tribunal stage of the Governorship tussle.
Ighodalo and the PDP were further faulted by the Appellate Court for failing to tender the voter register to prove overvoting.
The Court further adds that BVAS extract doesn’t constitute items with which to prove overvoting. It says the documents tendered by the PDP at the Tribunal did not, on their own, prove overvoting, non-holding or cancellation of elections at the polling units.
To further puncture the case of the PDP, the panel says the 19 witnesses called by the appellants during the Tribunal hearing didn’t help their case.
It says the majority of them did not witness what they spoke about. Moreso, it adds they were insufficient to prove irregularities in polling stations at over 4,000 locations.
Nigeria’s electoral body, INEC, had declared Okpebholo the winner with 291,667 votes, against Asue Ighodalo of the PDP who garnered 247,274 votes.
-
News2 days ago
Taraba: Parents, school owners slam WAEC over midnight exams
-
News2 days ago
Betta Edu Congratulates President Tinubu On His Two Years In Office
-
News2 days ago
JUST IN: Appeal Court Affirms Okphebholo as Edo Governor
-
Business2 days ago
“Only 37% of Nigerian roads are in good condition ” – MAN
-
Entertainment1 day ago
BREAKING: Segun Arinze Re-elected AVOA President
-
News2 days ago
Mauritania’s Tah succeeds Adesina as 9th AfDB President
-
News1 day ago
2027: Hurdles Before The Coalition, By Emeka Monye