Buhari said this in his nationwide broadcast to Nigerians to mark the nation’s 61st Independence.

Former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan were Buhari’s predecessors.

“Since coming to power, this administration has tackled our problems head-on in spite of the meagre resources.

“No government since 1999 has done what we have done in six years to put Nigeria back on track.

“We shall continue to serve the country: listen to all and protect our democracy and country,” the President stated.

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The presiding judge, Justice Polycarp Hamman, gave the order while ruling on the matter.

Recall that Amannah Peace and three others representing sacked workers from the Polytechnic formerly known as Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori, had dragged the Rivers State Government to court for unlawfully sacking them.

Justice Hamman, who ordered that the 217 workers be reinstated, also mandated the authorities to pay all their outstanding salaries.

Speaking to newsmen outside the courtroom, one of the lawyers for the sacked staff, Courage Nsirimovu, said it was clear that the Rivers State Government erred in its decision.

Nsirimovu advised the Rivers State Government not to appeal the judgement.

“Every party had the right to appeal. The moment court has said they should be reinstated, the status quo is that right now, they are employees of Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic. Any person that harasses them will have to face the court for contempt proceedings,” he said.

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Pantami, who disclosed this at the 10th edition of the Nigerian Internet Governance Forum organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission held in Abuja, added that government was working to ensure that the average price of broadband goes down to enable low income earners afford it.

“There is a lot to be done in terms of broadband penetration because as it is today, in rural communities, only 10 per cent globally have access to fixed broadband infrastructure.

“Because of this, we are working to ensure that broadband infrastructure is accessible and affordable in the rural communities. It is for this reason that most of our policies are arranged to address the challenges that make the internet expensive.

“Average price of broadband in 2019 was 1200 per linear but now has dropped by more than 50 per cent, it is around 500.

“To me this is not sufficient. We must continue to work to ensure the average price of broadband goes down so that low income earners can afford it.

“In addition, we have been addressing the issue that increases the cost of production. Before now the charges for RoW was 6000 per linear metre now has dropped by more than 98 per cent, some states charge as low as 145.

“One of the issues preventing our service providers from lowering the price of broadband.

“Also, Mr. President has directed the office of the Nigerian Security Adviser to give protection to all ICT infrastructures for free. This lowers the cost of production.

“We are also engaging with the ministry of finance, Governors Forum and the Federal Economic Council to address the issue of multiple taxation and we have recorded tremendous success.” Pantami said.

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Buhari disclosed this in his nationwide broadcast to Nigerians to mark the nation’s 61st independence.

The President said, “Social media is a very useful platform that has enabled millions of Nigerians to connect with loved ones, promote their businesses, socialise, and access news and other information.

“However, recent events have shown that the platform is not just an innocuous platform for information dissemination.

“Rather some users have misused the platform to organise, coordinate, and execute criminal activities, propagate fake news, and promote ethnic and religious sentiments.

“Following the suspension of Twitter operations, Twitter Inc. reached out to the Federal Government of Nigeria to resolve the impasse. Subsequently, I constituted a Presidential Committee to engage Twitter to explore the possibility of resolving the issue.

“The Committee, along with its Technical Team, has engaged with Twitter and have addressed a number of key issues. These are National Security and Cohesion; Registration, Physical presence and Representation; Fair Taxation; Dispute Resolution; and Local Content.

“Following the extensive engagements, the issues are being addressed and I have directed that the suspension be lifted but only if the conditions are met to allow our citizens continue the use of the platform for business and positive engagements.

“As a country, we are committed to ensuring that digital companies use their platform to enhance the lives of our citizens, respect Nigeria’s sovereignty, cultural values and promote online safety.”

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Head of Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan, briefed State House correspondents after the FEC meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Yemi-Esan said that the annual leave would henceforth be calculated based on working days instead of calendar days.

“We presented a memo on the revised Public Service Rules (PSR); and we are all aware that the PSR is an old important tool in the public service; it is what governs the actions of public servants at work.

“The last time these rules were revised was in 2008; and so, we recognise that the revision was long overdue.

“And so, we put everything that we got to ensure that we did the vision; these rules ideally, are supposed to be revised every five years.

“But this has taken more than that for us to get the revised PSR 2021.’’

“We set up different committees to look at what we got; and finally, a technical committee that consisted of permanent secretaries serving and retired and directors were put together to look at the zero draft that we got.

“After they reviewed it, we took it to the National Council on Establishment.’’

“Those revisions have been done; and so, we brought it to FEC this morning for approval and we got approval for it.

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