What was 2013's Technology of the year?

2013, your end is in sight, and it's time to
start taking stock of the last twelve
months.

Today, we want your pick for the
discovery, tech, or invention of the year. Maybe you'll choose something that was
invented or discovered just this year.

Or perhaps something that became widely
available or whose usage finally took off.
Or you could take a historical look and
tell us what invention future generations will call the one that defines the year.

Make your call and then tell us in the
comments just why your pick deserves to
be 2013's tech of the year.

CBN Governor Forced to Leave Over Leaked Letter

SaharaReporters has learnt that Nigeria's Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, will be forced to leave his post in March, 2014, two months before the formal expiration of his tenure.

Two sources at the Presidency and a source at the Central Bank disclosed to
SaharaReporters that Mr. Sanusi has been
ordered to proceed on a post-retirement
leave in March.

According to all the sources, the early exit
for the CBN henchman is occasioned by Mr. Sanusi's recent leaked letter to President Goodluck Jonathan detailing the theft of close to $50 billion in oil proceeds by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Last week, Mr. Sanusi revised the figure of
missing funds down to $12 billion, but the
damage to the Jonathan Presidency is
considered massive.

It was also gathered that Mr. Jonathan has concluded plans to speedily replace the CBN governor whom the president believes set out to embarrass his government.

"[President] Jonathan thinks that Sanusi
Lamido Sanusi has been making erratic
pronouncements recently calculated to
demean the office of the President," said a
source in the Presidency.

Presidency officials accused the CBN
governor of leaking a private letter written
to President Jonathan in which Nigeria's
chief banker complained about fraud
perpetrated by officials of the NNPC and
the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke. Ms. Alison-
Madueke is extremely close to the president and is believed to be the arrowhead of Mr. Jonathan's corrupt schemes, especially in the oil sector.

Additionally, one of the sources at the
Presidency told SaharaReporters that,
although Mr. Sanusi's allegations were
substantially accurate, the CBN governor
was forced to back down from the more
damaging aspects of his claims after the president's associates threatened to make
an issue of his reckless spending and
philandering.

"Once Sanusi found out that the Presidency
was determined to deal with him, both
through the media and by instigating the
EFCC to look into his spending habits, he
was willing to retreat and to accept an early departure," said our source.

Shortly after the CBN governor was
effectively blackmailed and brought under
control, he appeared before the Nigerian
Senate and reversed his position, claiming
that the NNPC was only unable to reconcile $12 billion of crude oil sale earnings.

It was shortly after Mr. Sanusi's Senate
appearance that President Jonathan
ordered that the CBN governor's retirement
should be fast-tracked. Mr. Sanusi, who is
believed to nurse an ambition to become the
next Emir of Kano, had publicly stated that he does not intend to stay for another term.

Real Madrid To Test Chelsea Resolve with Hazard Bid.

Real Madrid are set to test Chelsea's resolve with a bid for Eden Hazard.

The Daily Star says France legend
Zinedine Zidane, a sporting director at
Real, tracked Hazard's development at Lille with interest.

The Belgian made a £32m switch to
Stamford Bridge last summer but now
Zidane wants him at the Bernabeu.

He has recommended Hazard to Real chiefs with a view to a move, according to sources in Spain.

Madrid are so keen to land Hazard they
would reportedly be willing to let Angel Di
Maria join Chelsea in a cash-plus-player swap deal.

Iheanacho Makes Man city Transfer Stalls

FIFA U-17 Best player winner Iheanacho has opted out of a transfer to Manchester City because he will only get cash in January 2015.

On signing for the English Premier League
millionaires, Iheanacho is to get 250,000
pounds, his father will pocket 350,000
pounds, while the Taye Academy in Owerri will receive 300,000 pounds.

According to mtnfootball.com, the most
valuable player of the recent U-17 World
Cup in the UAE signed a contract with City
at the weekend after passed a medical in
Madrid, Spain, with City chief scout Gary
Worthington in attendance.

However, both he and his father, James
Iheanacho, who accompanied him to Spain, were shocked to learn that they will not be paid any cash by the EPL side till January 2015, when the youngster would have clocked 18.

This has now forced the Iheanachos to
explore the possibilities of the boy opting for
Portuguese champions FC Porto, who have
also tabled an offer for him and were at a
time favourites to land the highly-promising
forward.

His mentor at Taye Academy, Kennedy Echenwere, said the Eaglets star is currently in Lagos and has decided to
follow his heart and join FC Porto.

"Kelechi is in Lagos now, he has decided to
join FC Porto and not Manchester city,"
Echenwere told Brila FM on Tuesday.

Iheanacho senior said the family are still
trying to persuade the youngster to join
Manchester City.

Several efforts to reach the player on phone were unsuccessful as he did not pick up his call.

STRIKE AGAIN: College Lectures On Strike

The Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) has embarked on an indefinite strike in order to "salvage the institutions from total collapse.

" The strike was called on Monday, leading to the suspension of academic activities at the Federal Colleges of education nationwide.

The lecturers are concerned over the
Federal Government's Integrated
Personnel Payment System (IPPS) as well
as on the decaying infrastructure in the
colleges. The strike came soon after
university lecturers ended a long-drawn industrial action that lasted nearly six
months.

An official of COAESU, who does not
want to be named because he was not
authorised to speak, said the union went on
strike because it appeared this was the "only language that the Federal Government understands."

"Our colleges are rotting away; no befitting
libraries, hostels, lecture halls and other
structures. The books in our libraries today
are outdated," he said. The official said
colleges of education needed adequate
funds for transformation to enable them provide the expected services to the nation.

"Another vital issue which COEASU wants
government to address is the implementation of migration on its junior staff to the IPPS system…. COEASU wants government to stop the implementation of IPPS on the colleges of education because it will disrupt its progress," he said.

He said "colleges of education as teacher-
training institutions have unique features
different from that of universities. We have
teacher training and teaching practice
programmes which are basic instruments for producing qualitative teachers but government is not allocating funds for these
programmes.

" The official added that colleges of
education are sponsoring their products for
such programmes out of their salary
allocations, and that if the IPPS was
implemented these programmes would
automatically be wiped out from the system.

Wenger Told to Cough up Big for Cabaye

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is reviving his bid for Newcastle United midfielder Yohan Cabaye.

But the Daily Mail says Arsenal have been quoted a staggering £22million by
Newcastle.

Wenger is after another creative talent in
the centre of Arsenal's midfield and Cabaye can leave if they north London club
match Newcastle's valuation.

They will be rivalled by PSG, which may explain why the price has shot up.

Moyes Warned REUS buyout clause Hiked up

Manchester United have been warned Marco Reus' buyout clause has been hiked
up by Borussia Dortmund.

The Daily Mail says United have been
warned that David Moyes’s main transfer
target Reus will cost up to £40million.

Midfielder Reus had a £29.4m buy-out
clause in his contract at Borussia Dortmund.

But it is understood the situation has changed since Bayern Munich activated a similar clause to snatch Mario Gotze last summer.

The Barclays Premier League champions
will now have to break their transfer record
to sign the 24-year-old.

Rodgers Adamant Liverpool can Upset Man city.

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers insists they have no reason to fear going to Manchester City this afternoon.

City have won every game at home in the
league this season but Rodgers watched Bayern Munich beat them 2-0 in the Champions League in September.

He said: "We go there with no fear. We
outplayed them last year, home and away.

"We had two draws and we should have
won both games. But we will go there with
every respect for them. I believe with the
squad they have, it is their title to lose.

"We will go there and be aggressive. We
had 23 shots on goal against Cardiff. They
will have seen from the Cardiff and Tottenham games that we can score goals."

Presidency Plan to Spend N2.3bn on Transport in 2014.

A breakdown of the 2014 appropriation bill submitted by President Goodluck Jonathan through the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has revealed that the presidency plans to spend at least N2.3 billion on transportation next year.

The proposal is contained in the 2014 appropriation bill submitted by President
Goodluck Jonathan through the Minister of
Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to the
National Assembly last week.

A breakdown of the figure showed that the
State House would require the sum of N1,
219, 612, 417 for what it called Local
Travels. International travels and transportation will gulp N1, 159, 240, 600.

For the whole year, the Presidency intends
to spend N200 million for the provision of
foodstuffs/catering supplies while it also
plans to expend another N162,556,500 on
meals and refreshments.

For honorarium and sitting allowances, the
Presidency has budgeted a princely sum of
N320 million for that purpose just as it has
set aside the sum of N33.8 million for the
office of the Vice-President to take care of
his foodstuffs and catering supplies as well as meals and refreshments in the year.

Under the arrangement, N23.8 million will
go for foodstuffs and catering supplies
while the balance of N10 million will be
spent on meals and refreshments in the
office of the second in command.

In the same vein, the Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is expected to spend the sum of N568,859,940 on honorarium and another N51, 403,464 on meals and refreshments within the fiscal period.

A scrutiny of the budget proposals however
showed that the Presidency shied away
from making any provision for the controversial Security and Exchange
Commission, SEC, whose head, Arunma
Oteh, has been embroiled in a ceaseless war with the National Assembly.

The lawmakers had vowed not to approve
any budget for the commission until Oteh
was removed but President Jonathan
ignored them and their resolution.

In the same vein, the Federal Government made the same yearly provision of N150 billion for the National Assembly but did not give any breakdown of the sum.It is not clear if the NASS would be in a hurry to pass the budget given the furore that attended the presentation of the document.

Controversy had mounted to the extent that
President Jonathan had to back out of the
presentation and later sent the Finance
Minister to represent him.

US, UK mute on Controversial President Letters

United States and the United Kingdom have maintained sealed lips on the letter from former President Olusegun Obasanjo to President Goodluck Jonathan.

In the letter which has been a major subject in the political scene, Obasanjo accused Jonathan of training a killer squad.

He also accused him of promoting ethnic
agenda, embarking on political vendetta by
putting 1,000 politicians on his watch list and not showing enough commitment to the fight against corruption.

Although Jonathan had refuted the
allegations, the two world powers said they
had nothing to say about the issue.

Inquiry made to the UK High Commission in Nigeria showed that the country was not
willing to comment on the letter which had
generated a heated debate.

"Thanks for your text and e-mail. This is a
matter for Nigerians and not something we
would wish to comment on," says the
spokesperson of the UK High Commission,
Mr. Rob Fitzpatrick.

The US view was not any different.

The Information Officer, US Embassy,
Abuja, Rhonda Ferguson-Augustus, said
her country had nothing to say about it."Thank you for your question. In response,
as this is an internal matter of Nigeria's, we
have no comment," she said.

David Moyes can see similarities between Adnan Januzaj and Ronaldo.

Manchester United boss David Moyes can see similarities between Adnan Januzaj
and the first years at the club of Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo.

While Moyes fought shy of comparing the
two, it is an obvious reference point for what could be achieved by Januzaj. "Some people need to realise this is a young
talent," said Moyes.

"At the moment they are kicking him but it is right, they also kicked Ronaldo and look at the player he went on to be.

"Adnan will also go on to become a great
player in time.

"At the moment the job is to make sure he is
able to play."

PSG are eager to tempt Mata away from Chelsea.

PSG are chasing Chelsea midfielder Juan Mata for the January market.

L'Equipe says PSG have Mata high on their shopping list.

Mata may have had enough of the
substitutes bench after another failed outing
at Arsenal on Monday night, completely sitting out the 0-0 draw at the Emirates
Stadium.

OBJ's Letter: Al-mustapha Challenges Obasanjo to Public Debate Over Allegations.

The former Chief Security Officer to late Head of State, Sani Abacha, Hamza Al- Mustapha, has responded to the allegations by former president Olusegun Obasanjo contained in his famous letter to President Goodluck Jonathan that he (Al- Mustapha) was released from prison to help the president train assassins to eliminate opposition politicians.

Speaking to the Hausa Service of the Voice
of America, VOA, monitored in Abuja on
Wednesday, Mr. Al-Mustapha challenged
the ex-president to a public debate on the
allegations he raised.
Mr. Al-Mustapha said he was away in
India receiving treatment for injuries he
sustained while in detention during the
administrations of Abdulsalami Abubakar
and Mr. Obasanjo when he heard of the
allegations via a letter published exclusively by PREMIUM TIMES.
"I read Obasanjo's letter and subsequent
comments by Nigerians, I would have
responded immediately, but I was away in
India receiving treatment," he said. He also
said although his name was not mentioned in
the letter, he was sure the former president was referring to him. "If he has anything to
say on me, he should mention me directly or
even challenge me and not make allusions,"
Mr. Al-Mustapha said.
The former presidential security chief
challenged Mr. Obasanjo to publicly ask
him anything. He promised to provide OBJ
with answers. Mr. Al-Mustapha swore that
the allegation that he is being used by Mr.
Jonathan to train assassins is false.
According to his words, he has always been in the vanguard of coming to the aide of people from the north to be recruited into the military and para-military agencies.
The official added that he would therefore never involve himself in anything that would hurt the region. "Perhaps it is Obasanjo and his cronies that are planning what he was insinuating," he added. Mr. Al-Mustapha also said he had decided
to forgive all those who had a hand in his
incarceration when he was being tried for
the murder of Kudirat Abiola, wife of the
winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential
election, Kudirat Abiola. He was initially convicted for the murder by a Lagos High Court but was discharged and acquitted by the Court of Appeal.
He lamented that some people, including
Mr. Obasanjo, failed to accept that fact
and still harbour fears about him and what
he knows about them. "I urge everyone to pray for Obasanjo to accept my challenge for a public debate so that the truth will come out," he said.

T-MOBILE uses Facebook as A Gateway Drug..

Anyone who has taken a middle-school
health class knows that drug dealers always
lurk, offering free samples of crack or PCP
to children to get them hooked and turn them
into paying customers. Apparently the good
people at T-Mobile were paying attention in those classes. On Monday the company announced that
GoSmart, a T-Mobile subsidiary specializing
in low-cost, prepaid phone plans, would offer
free access to Facebook and Facebook Messenger to all customers, even those who
don’t have a data plan. For T-Mobile, the
deal has the potential to get people used to
using their phones for Internet, then convince
them to migrate to a full data plan.
GoSmart’s monthly plan with unlimited voice and text service costs $30; adding 5GB of
high-speed data costs an additional $15 per
month. Facebook has been interested in such an
arrangement for some time as a way to
encourage increased use of the service
among people who can’t afford costly data
plans. When Mark Zuckerberg announced
Internet.org, an effort to increase global access to the Internet, one of the core
principles was to exempt such services as
Facebook and Wikipedia from data plans in
low-income countries. The exact terms of the
agreement between the companies aren’t
clear. Not everyone loves the idea of Internet
providers cutting deals with content
companies to provide advantages to some
services in reaching customers. Advocates of
net neutrality fear that offering preferential
treatment will quash innovation; Facebook’s next competitor won’t get free access to
GoSmart customers. But regulators in the
U.S. generally think that mobile providers
should be given wider leverage than physical
broadband providers to experiment with
plans like this because wireless Internet is so young. In any case, the deal offers further evidence
that T-Mobile is pushing the envelope when it
comes to offering novel services in order to
lure more customers to its network.

The Dollar will never fall to Bitcoin..

“A significant benefit of bitcoin in the eyes of
many in the bitcoin community is its
assurance of a stable base money supply. …
The rate of new bitcoin mining is similar to
the mining rate of precious metals such as
gold or silver. … This means that bitcoin is largely inflation-proof. Time and experience
may prove it to be a more stable store of
value than many fiat currencies.” Last month, several people appeared before
a U.S. Senate committee to defend bitcoin,
among them Patrick Murck, general counsel
of the Bitcoin Foundation, responsible for the
quote above. You can hear in Murck’s
testimony that jingling sense of Silicon Valley certainty that comes with the knowledge that
this technology, unlike all the others, will be
immune from the ravages of historical
experience. Bitcoin is an extraordinary innovation. It also
will never replace the dollar or the euro, what
Murck refers to as “fiat currencies.” Fiat will
win over bitcoin for the same reason it won
over gold, silver, and copper in early modern
Europe. Central banks, too, are a form of technology. Like other technologies, they’ve
improved with iteration. Since the
establishment of Sweden’s Riksbank at the
end of the 17th century, central banks have
been trying out new strategies, watching
each other and copying what works. Fiat currency is not a unstable relic, waiting
to be replaced with an innovation that
prevents inflation. Fiat currency is a highly
adapted tool. Inflation isn’t a bug. It’s a
feature. There’s a fight as old as money over who
gets to determine what money is—the state or
the market. Generally, states claim the right
to make money. Whether they can hold on to
that right depends on how good they are at
making money, but they have gotten better at it over time. Before central banks, kings minted coins,
offering the public good of a verified metal
content in exchange for a bit of seigniorage,
an extra bit of value over the cost of the
metal. When they debased the metal or
demanded too much seigniorage, merchants figured it out and either melted the coins
down or hoarded more reliable ones. Early banks issued credit in the form of
private notes. This created both good and
bad inflation. Credit grew with local
economies, but sometimes outpaced it in the
hands of an improvident bank. State-run
central banks took over this function, in part, because it was a good privilege to have as a
sovereign. It was also good for markets to
have a sound but growing source of money. Money does three things. It serves as a unit
of account; you can quote prices for common
goods in dollars, as can all the other people in
America. It serves as a store of value, as
with the dollars in your bank account. And it
serves as a medium of exchange; your grocery store takes dollars—and so do you,
from your employer. Bitcoin, like gold and silver, is finite, making
it a good store of value. And it exchanges
well—magnificently, in fact, far better than
gold. The way that the bitcoin protocol uses
distributed computing power to verify
transactions at a distance is an innovation that has been wanting since the first bills of
exchange were offered in the long-distance
Mediterranean sea trade. Bitcoin is a store of value and a medium of
exchange. It’s like really awesome gold. It’s
not, however, a unit of account. Your mother
cannot quote you the price of eggs in bitcoin.
This is not just a question of waiting long
enough for your mom to get around to using bitcoin. The state has tremendous power over
the unit of account. It pays government
contracts in the unit of its choosing. It
collects taxes in that unit, too. The
psychological weight of this power can last
for centuries. Medieval Europe still accounted for its variety of coins in Roman
units. Modern Europe uses the metric system
because Napoleon wanted it so. It’s not clear
why any state would choose to give this up. The Internet beat up publishing and a couple
of other industries. It’s having a harder time
so far against the state. A currency is an
asset with an army. Bitcoin has no army. And central banks have had several
centuries of using this power to experiment
with inflation. Sometimes it has worked.
Often it has not. Inflation is not inherently
good or bad. Bad inflation, as when a king
wants to lessen debt, is bad. Good inflation helps money supply grow with the
market. You can’t generalize about fiat
money any more than you can generalize
about countries or companies. Some are run
well. Others aren’t. What matters is not the
power to inflate but how it’s used. The fiat currencies that have survived longest are run
by stable democracies, with slightly differing
views on interest rates but a rough consensus
on innovations in sound money management. In his testimony, Murck suggested that
bitcoin will provide a stable base of money
supply, “making a small central bank or
currency bloc accountable if they poorly
manage their portfolio, while at the same time
ameliorating the economic effects of the central bank’s mismanagement.” This is a
fine idea. So fine, in fact, that it has already
been happening for a long time, with mixed
results. People who live under poorly managed
currencies already collect dollars and
euros. The dollar, for example, has always
been particularly popular in Argentina. Now bitcoin is popular there. The dollar has failed to inspire Argentina to take care of its peso.
Bitcoin will fail, too. Bitcoin is a fascinating, elegant way to
confirm financial transactions. That’s not
nothing. It should make Visa, American Express, and PayPal nervous. But it will not keep Janet Yellen up at night. Nor should it.