Issue #3
Hello there!
We heartily welcome you to the month of October.
Today we will be looking at Nigeria’s eNaira woes and the conviction of a celebrity sex offender.
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Let’s get down to business now!
CBN Postpones eNaira
In an unforeseen twist today, the CBN has announced the postponement of the much-anticipated Central Bank Digital Currency, the eNaira.
The disclosure was made by Mr Osita Nwanisobi, the apex bank’s Director of Corporate Communications in Abuja.
Why did they postpone it?
Nwanisobi explained that the Central Bank took the decision in consideration of other activities lined up to commemorate the day. The CBN had previously fixed the date of the launch to coincide with the independence consideration.
“The CBN took the decision to postpone the launch, which had been initially planned to coincide with the Independence anniversary, in deference to the mood of national rededication to the collective dream of One Nigeria,” Nwanisobi noted in a statement.
On the readiness of banks and other financial institutions in the financial ecosystem for the launch of the eNaira, he reiterated that eNaira was a journey, explaining that not all bank customers were expected to commence transactions on the day of the launch.
Lawsuit over the eNaira
It’s not clear if the postponement is related to the lawsuit but Nairametrics reported that a cease and desist notification has been sent to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) concerning the use of the name “eNaira.”
“For this reasons, our client has approached the Federal High Court in Suit No: FHC/AB/CS/113/2021 between ENAIRA PAYMENT SOLUTIONS LIMITED vs CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA to seek a restraining order including an order to restrain CBN from proceeding in the launch on 1st October 2021,” the Notice stated, adding that in the interim, the CBN was being warned to cease and desist from using or purporting to use the name eNaira for its product or in any other way.
R.Kelly gets life imprisonment
Superstar R&B singer, R Kelly has been found guilty of using his superstar status to coordinate a scheme to sexually abuse women and children over the course of his musical career.
In the trial, eleven accusers - nine women and two men - took the stand over the searing six-week trial to describe sexual humiliation and violence at his hands. After two days of deliberation, the jury found the US star guilty on all nine charges he was facing. Sentencing is due on 4 May 2022 and he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
How did he get involved in this?
The jury found Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was the ringleader of a violent and coercive scheme that lured women and children for him to sexually abuse.
The singer - most famous for the hit songs I Believe I Can Fly and Ignition (Remix) - was also found to have trafficked women between different US states.
Along with eight counts of sex trafficking, Kelly was found guilty of racketeering - a charge normally used against organised crime associations.
During the trial, prosecutors detailed how his managers, security guards and other entourage members worked to assist him in his criminal enterprise.
The court also heard how Kelly had illegally obtained paperwork to marry Aaliyah when she was 15 in 1994, seven years before the singer died in a plane crash.
The certificate, leaked at the time, listed Aaliyah's age as 18. The marriage was annulled months later.
Her 1994 debut album, Age Ain't Nothing But a Number was produced and written by R. Kelly.
Many of the allegations heard in the trial were first laid out in the 2019 documentary Surviving R Kelly.
Victims were sometimes selected from his concert audiences or were enticed to join him after being offered help with their fledgling music careers after chance encounters with the singer.
But after joining his entourage, they found that they were subjected to strict rules and aggressively punished if they violated what his team had dubbed "Rob's rules".
To read more about this story, check it out on the BBC.
Meanwhile, we would like to read your thoughts about R Kelly’s sentence. Tell us in the comment section or shoot us an email.
What we are reading/watching.
Read: In a newly released report, WHO employees have been found guilty of perpetrating sex-for-jobs scandal as hundreds of aid workers rushed into remote villages in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. World Health Organization Says Its Staff Perpetrated 'Harrowing' Sexual Abuse In Congo
Read: In the gory thriller that has swiftly become a smash hit on Netflix, competitors play children’s games for huge cash prizes … and if they lose, they die. Can you stomach it? Squid Game: the hellish horrorshow taking the whole world by storm
Watch: In this video, the narrator digs into the slippery slope fallacy, which assumes that one step will lead to a series of events that lead to an extreme— often bad— scenario. Watch how this oft-repeated fallacy is debunked.
Watch: Is there a more direct approach to spotting lies? Watch as Noah Zandan uses some famous examples of lying to illustrate how we might use communications science to analyze the lies themselves. The language of lying — Noah Zandan
This newsletter was written while listening to Peru by Nigeria’s Fireboy DML.
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