FIRS establish gender desk to boost equity, inclusive governance

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Tuesday established its Gender Desk and Women Network (WoN) to promote gender equity and inclusive governance.

Speaking at the inauguration in Abuja, the Chairman, FIRS, Dr Zacch Adedeji, according to NAN report described the establishement of the desk as a declaration of the service’s resolve to embed equity at the heart of its operations.

Adedeji, who was represented by Dr Dick Irri, the Coordinating Director, Medium and Government Taxpayers Group (M&GTG, FIRS) said the initiative would help to drive inclusive public service.

He said that it would place gender equality as a constitutional right, and as a strategic imperative in governance, especially within the Nigerian tax system. 

DR JUMOKE ODUWALE AT THE 2025 MINISTERIAL PRESS BRIEFING (VIDEO)

The event took place at the Radio House, Abuja on 4 March 2025

Taraba varsity lecturer writes Tinubu, calls for ban on open grazing - Punch reports

President Bola Tinubu

A lecturer at Taraba State University, Professor John Ajai, has called on President Bola Tinubu to urgently review Nigeria’s commitment to the ECOWAS Transhumance Protocol and fast-track the enactment of a national law banning open grazing across the country.

Punch reports that Ajai made the call in an open letter addressed to the President on Sunday, where he warned that the country was facing a “defining moment” that demands bold executive action to protect national sovereignty, security, and unity.

According to him, the ECOWAS Transhumance Protocol, which was originally intended to facilitate pastoral mobility across West Africa, has worsened insecurity, encouraged violent land occupation by armed groups, and undermined Nigeria’s territorial integrity.

Every bite of ultraprocessed food will increase your chance of an early death, major new study says

As you add more ultraprocessed foods to your diet, your risk of a premature death from any cause rises, according to a new meta-analysis of research involving more than 240,000 people.

“We looked at the risk of a person dying from eating more ultraprocessed foods between the ages of 30 and 69, a time when it would be premature to die,” said study coauthor Carlos Augusto Monteiro, emeritus professor of nutrition and public health in the School of Public Health at Brazil’s University of São Paulo.

“We found that for each 10% increase in total calories from ultraprocessed foods, the risk of dying prematurely rose by nearly 3%,” said Monteiro, who coined the term “ultraprocessed” in 2009 when he developed NOVA, a system of classifying foods into four groups by their level of processing.

Trump took the US economy to the brink of a crisis in just 100 days

Donald Trump spent his first 100 days back in the Oval Office driving an economy that the world envied to the brink of crisis, risking America’s reputation as a financial safe haven and fostering fear among voters who’ve lost confidence in his leadership.

Americans were desperate for relief from high grocery prices and bought into Trump’s promise to make America affordable again in November 2024, partly out of nostalgia for the pre-pandemic economy of his first term.

But the president deliberately and singlehandedly adopted policies that are almost certain to spike prices even more; that could lead to shortages; and that have CEOs and small businesses dealing with chaos and the possibility of a recession.

Women’s toilets not for transgenders, UK watchdog says

Photo: Shutterstock/baona

Britain’s equality watchdog has advised that trans women should not be allowed to use women’s toilets following a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court on the legal definition of a woman. 

The Equality and Human Rights Commission issued interim guidance for organisations in response to five judges ruling earlier this month that a woman is legally defined based on their sex at birth.

The decision was hailed by gender-critical campaigners and has been welcomed by the government as providing “clarity”, but transgender people have expressed concern that they will be discriminated against.

Trans women “should not be permitted to use the women’s facilities” in workplaces or public buildings such as shops and hospitals, the EHRC said.

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Understanding violence is the first step towards changing attitudes. Riccardo Cuppini

LAST week, I observed that the insecurity situation in the country is very bad. And it will remain that way as far as we can see into the future. This is because those whose duty it is to solve the problem are hardly doing anything worth talking about, beyond meetings, photo-ops and the regular platitudes that we are fed with. I am not surprised.

This is because the architects of the problem may have no solutions to proffer. That is also why, whenever a political strategy is devised, those who formulated the strategy more often than not do not pause to ponder the variables that will spin out of control. The insecurity we are bedevilled with at present is the fallout of a political strategy with variables that have gone out of control, as they would.

Some men don’t know they have children somewhere

Chukwuneta Oby

One of the stories that struck me recently was about a young girl who gained admission the university last year but had to abandon her studies a few months later because she got pregnant. When asked who was responsible for the pregnancy, she claimed she couldn’t say for certain, as two young men were involved, and it all happened on the night of the famous party usually organised on university campuses to welcome freshers.

According to her, the first young man seduced her before the party and had sex with her, while the second sexual encounter happened after the party.

While we are busy pulling the ears of the girl-child on the need to close her legs more, may we also extend the same energy to the boy-child, who still feels that dipping his ‘something’ into every available hole is his birthright.

The CBEX SCAM

We have as a people experience what we would call historic bitterness with Ponzi schemes. “Once bitten, twice shy,” they say. But at this point, we at SEB think it should rather be a situation of “forever shy”.

Recall the following:

MMM (Mavrodi Mundial Moneybox): Originating in Russia, it collapsed in the 1990s and resurfaced in various countries, including Nigeria, before crashing again.

Bernie Madoff's Scheme: One of the largest in history, it defrauded investors of billions before unraveling in 2008.

Bitclub Network: A cryptocurrency-based Ponzi scheme that operated globally before its collapse.

Spitzedersche Privatbank: A 19th-century scheme in Germany, promising high returns but ending in fraud.

Well , we came by this article captioned "CBEX scam: Folly of Greed", courtesy, Punch Newspapers, and we thought it wise to bring you up to speed with its submissions to perhaps, disabuse the minds of many about the Ponzi scheme menace in our society.

Two thirds of our communities under herdsmen’s control — Benue Royal Father

Attacks by armed herdsmen in Benue state date back to 2011 when they invaded communities in Gwer West Local Government Area, which has since spread to about 20 out of the 23 Local Government Areas of the state.

The incursions led to the sacking of several communities and the displacement of countless victims of the attacks. Presently, the dreaded armed marauders have succeeded in not only sacking these communities they have also occupied many of them while the locals are left languishing in Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camps spread across the state.

Inside Nigeria’s morgues where humans, rodents compete for body parts

A private morutary at Finija, Satelitte, Lagos. Photo: Chijioke Iremeka

For years, suspicions of ritualistic activities perpetrated by corrupt mortuary attendants have haunted grieving families whose loved ones were returned without vital body parts. But in a chilling twist that reads like a horror script, this investigation by CHIJIOKE IREMEKA uncovers a grotesque reality: in some poorly maintained mortuaries, alongside suspected human atrocities, ravenous rats feast on corpses, gnawing away at their dignity

What was meant to be a solemn farewell turned into a heartbreaking morning of chaos for the family of late Mrs Angela Nyam, whose remains were deposited in a morgue at the old site of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Plateau State.

Early in the morning, precisely at 7 a.m., a quiet crowd assembled at the hospital’s mortuary along Murtala Mohammed Way, preparing to accompany the late Nyam to her final resting place at the Evangelical Church Winning All, Rusau village.

The Benefits for Men of Having Female Friends

Did You Know? Having Female Friends as a Guy Comes With These 8 Massive Perks

By now, it’s clear that the age-old debate about whether men and women can be friends has been settled. Not only are guys perfectly capable of maintaining female friendships, but those friendships come with some serious perks you probably don’t want to miss out on.

If you don’t have many female friends, fret not — you’re definitely not alone. Lots of men feel discouraged from pursuing these friendships because they’re afraid of catching feelings, or they subconsciously believe that getting too close to women outside of a romantic context somehow threatens their masculinity.

“Culturally, many of us are taught that men and women can’t be ‘just friends,’ which creates this subtle pressure or assumption that attraction has to be part of the equation,” says Jenny Maenpaa, LCSW, a licensed therapist in private practice. “On top of that, some men may worry about how others will perceive the friendship — or even struggle with emotional vulnerability, which female friendships often invite in a very genuine way.”

Marketing Analytics Africa Set to Redefine the Future of Marketing in Africa

Marketing Analytics Africa Set to Redefine the Future of Marketing in Africa Source: Original 

Marketing Analytics Africa (MAA) is proud to announce the return of its annual marketing conference scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 24th, 2025, at the Landmark Events & Conference Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. This year’s conference, themed “Marketing in the New Economy: Data-Driven Success in Challenging Times”, reflects the urgent need for African marketers, businesses, and policy leaders to evolve with the digital era and economy and reshape Africa’s marketing future.

According to Victor Ojeakhena, the Co-Founder/CEO of Marketing Analytics Africa, the Africa Marketing Technology and E-commerce Conference (AMTEC) is an annual marketing event that brings together thought leaders, executives, marketing innovators, and data strategists from across Africa to explore the latest trends, tools and tactics in martech, e-commerce, data intelligence, and customer experience optimisation, all essential for thriving in today’s economic landscape.