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Femi Adesina blasts Olisa Metuh over his comments on new INEC boss, says they are laughable

Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina has reacted strongly to the statement made by Olisa Metuh, the PDP National Publicity secretary at a press conference yesterday where he, Metuh, said his party was rejecting the appointment of Mrs Zakari as INEC boss because of her closeness to President Buhari.

In a statement released last night, Femi Adesina said other than gathering boring reporters at his press conference, Olisa Metuh has nothing new to say and that his party's rejection of Zakari's appointment is laughable.

"We have noted with regret, the latest tirade against President Muhammadu Buhari issued today by the PDP’s Spokesman, Mr Olisa Metuh. Other than boring reporters at his press conference with a rehash of baseless allegations of inaction against the President, Mr Metuh clearly had nothing new to say apart from his charge of nepotism and partisanship in the appointment of the Acting INEC Chairman, which also lacks any factual foundation. President Buhari certainly did not “overrule” Prof. Attahiru Jega in appointing Mrs Amina Zakari as the acting INEC Chairman, as Mr Metuh alleged. Prof. Jega’s purported handing over to another Commissioner cannot be construed as an “appointment” because only the President has the constitutional authority, which he exercised to appoint Mrs Zakari as acting Chairman of INEC.

Contrary to Mr Metuh’s allegations, President Buhari’s appointment of Mrs Zakari as acting INEC Chariman was based entirely on merit, her vast experience in the internal operations of INEC and the President’s commitment to affirmative action in support of gender equality, because, apart from being fully qualified for the position, Mrs Zakari was the only woman among the six Commissioners considered. Due Process was certainly followed in Mrs Zakari’s appointment.

Mr Metuh’s spurious claims of her appointment having been influenced by “personal relationship with the Presidency” and a Governor in the North-West “to pave the way for the APC” at election tribunals should be disregarded by the public. The allegations are nothing but falsehoods contrived by Mr Metuh to unjustly denigrate a President popularly elected by Nigerians to undo the damage done to the nation by years of PDP rule. His claim that the PDP has rejected Mrs Zakari’s appointment is also laughable after he had admitted that the right and power of the President to make such appointments cannot be questioned,” the statement read

Outrage as Twitter reveals only 49 of its 3,000 US employees are black

Twitter only has 49 black employees out of 2,910 staff members in America. The 35 men and 14 women account for just 1.7 % of the firm's US operation, which is 93.8% white or Asian. It represents a stark lack of progress since last year, when senior executives promised to boost their number of African American staff from 2 %.

Slamming the figures, released in a compulsory Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) report on Wednesday, Rev Jesse Jackson said people are 'becoming intolerant' of the stilted progress.

'Black people are greater users of the product and capable of doing the jobs, but there has not been an adequate commitment to hire, train and maintain black people,' the civil rights leader, who is spearheading calls for diversity in tech, told

The number of Hispanic employees also fails to reflect the proportion of Latino users, and of America's Latino population.

27% of black adults use the site, and 25 % of Latinos, compared to 21 % of white users, according to the Pew Research Center.

The Rev Jesse Jackson, president of the Rainbow/Push Coalition, who has long campaigned for tech companies to be more transparent about their lack of minority employees, told the Guardian that black people are “becoming intolerant” of Facebook and other Silicon Valley companies’ lack of progress in making their offices more diverse.
The stark lack of black employees comes despite the company’s repeated pledges to make its staff better reflect the diversity of its 302 million users and as Twitter actively exploits its large number of minority users to bring in more advertising revenue.

He said that at the moment, Twitter is benefitting from black people’s love of its medium, which often leads to black issues trending worldwide – without paying enough back to the community. “They hire people they know, they trust and like,” Jackson said. “We’re not in that the circle.”

“It appears that the tech companies seem to treat it as a public relations issue rather than addressing the actual problem. African Americans use social media more than others, the corporations continue to build and profit from that, so it is especially problematic that they do not have an employee base that in any way reflects its users. They have really failed on this.”

Despite appearing to do little to increase the diversity of its employees, Twitter is actively exploiting its large number of minority users to secure more advertising dollars. The company has appointed a “multicultural strategist”, Nuria Santamaria, tasked with helping advertisers directly target Twitter’s minority groups.

It comes a month after Rev Jackson slammed Google when figures revealed black people account for just 2 per cent of the tech giant's workforce.

The Guardian.

Wow! Check out a road in Akwa Ibom state after heavy rain

This is Atiku Abubakar Way (road) in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State this morning Thursday July 2. It's one of the major roads in Uyo which has been rendered impassable after heavy rain. The drainage system in this country is something the government needs to look into seriously.

70-yr-old and infant baby among rape survivors treated in Lagos by Mirabel Centre

The first sexual assault referral centre in Nigeria, Mirabel centre, opened its doors to victims of sexual assault. A 10-month-old baby girl and a 70-year-old woman were among a total of 737 survivors of rape and other forms of sexual assault treated and offered psychosocial support free of charge. The baby was sexually molested by the father, while the 70-year-old woman was raped by a boy that ran errands for her in the neighbourhood.

Making this and other revelations yesterday in Lagos, Managing Partner, Partnership for Justice, Mrs. Itoro Eze-Anaba, said the increase in reported cases of sexual violence, particularly, child sexual abuse has become a major concern in the country.

Photos: Miley Cyrus pictured passionately kissing a woman in a parking garage

22 year old Miley Cyrus who recently came out as bisexual, was spotted passionately kissing 24 year old blonde Victoria's Secret Angel Stella Maxwell during a break from filming her new music video outside The Palm Beverly Hills in Hollywood.

Miley threw her arms around Stella while the stunning blonde cupped Miley's bottom with one hand while they kissed. More photos after the cut..

Killers of ex-FUTA VC remanded in prison (photos

The driver and security guard who killed former Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Akure, Professor Albert IIemobade, have been remanded in prison till September 18th.

The men, Daniel Ita and Olayemi Bamitale, who confessed to killing the academician, were arrested while they tried to sell off his car. A Chief Magistrate sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital today ordered that the accused men be jailed in Olokuta Prison while the case awaits trial. More photos after the cut...