Supreme Court in Brazil has suspended the operation of social media platform, X in the country.
TalkJudith reports that this comes after Elon Musk ignored the court’s deadline to name a new legal representative for X.

Presiding judge, Alexandre de Moraes in his ruling on Friday, ordered the immediate, complete, and comprehensive suspension of the operation of X in the country.

The judge told national communications agency to take all necessary measures to implement the order until X complies with all court orders and pays existing fines amounting to $3.28 million.

Also, Moraes declared that the court would impose a fine of $8,900 on anyone who uses technological subterfuges like virtual private networks (VPN).
The judge revealed that speech has been spread through X and is harming Brazil’s democracy.

Moraes said, “We have a right to defend fundamental rights. Those who violate democracy, who violate fundamental human rights, whether in person or through social media, must be held accountable.”

Before this, the judge had in April this year, ordered the suspension of dozens of X accounts for allegedly spreading disinformation.

Reacting to the court’s order, Musk accused the judge of violating free speech for political purposes.
X tweeted through its official handle, tweeted “Power to the people in Brazil and everywhere else”.

The Federal Government says it plans to invest 800 million dollars in the construction of substations and distribution networks as part of the Presidential Power Initiative, PPI.

This is contained in a statement issued by Mr Bolaji Tunji, the Special Adviser, Media and Strategic Communication to the Minister of Power in Abuja on Sunday.

Tunji said the Minister of Power, Mr Adebayo Adelabu said this during a tour of the TBEA Southern Power Transmission and Distribution Industry in Beijing, China.

He said the minister was in Beijing for the China-Africa Cooperation Summit.

Adelabu said that the investment would be divided into two lots: 400 million dollars for Lot 2, covering Benin, Port Harcourt, and Enugu Distribution Companies (DISCOs) franchise areas, and 400 million dollars for Lot 3, covering Abuja, Kaduna, Jos, and Kano DISCOs franchise areas.

The minister expressed concern over the rejection of power by Electricity Distribution Companies, DISCOs, which recently led to a reduction in generation capacity from a peak of 5,170 megawatts by 1,400 megawatts due to their inability to manage the supply.

He said that in spite of the setback, the government aims to increase power generation to 6,000 megawatts by the end of the year.

Adelabu reaffirmed the government’s commitment to collaborating with world-class organisations like TBEA to realise President Bola Tinubu’s vision for the power sector.

”Especially in the areas of transmission and distribution of the entire power sector value chain as well as Nigeria’s renewable energy segment.”

Adelabu said that Nigeria had in 1984 generated 2,000 megawatts, and it took over 35 years to add another 2,000 megawatts.

He said under the current administration, power generation increased from 4,000 megawatts to 5,170 megawatts within a year.

The minister, speaking on the problems in the power sector which had hindered industrial growth, said this was due partly to the fragility of the Transmission and distribution infrastructure which had become old and dilapidated.

“This has led to a historical epileptic supply of Power to households, industry and businesses.

“More than 59 per cent of industries in Nigeria are off the grid. They did not see the national grid as reliable and dependable. So a lot of them now operate their own captive, self-generated power, ” he said.

Nigerian government moves to invest $800m in power sector

The Federal Government has been urged to consider selling the state-owned refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna in order to finance the development of modular refineries.

The Crude Oil Refiners Association of Nigeria has urged for the sale of the refineries, asserting that this is the only solution to the ongoing fuel crisis plaguing the nation.

Eche Idoko, the Publicity Secretary of CORAN, raised concerns regarding the Federal Government’s investment of over $1 billion in the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery. Unfortunately, despite six delays, the refinery has still not commenced production.

He said, “We are not asking for free money. The government should set up an intervention fund in which people can access credit. So, it’s not free money. There are a lot of intervention funds in the agricultural sector,”

“The $1.5bn spent on the Port Harcourt refinery could be used to develop 10 modular refineries to be able to produce PMS of a minimum of 10,000 barrels per day. That is about 100,000 barrels a day.

“And if you have 100,000 barrels per day, at least, with the Dangote refinery, you would have solved that problem. We would actually have enough to begin to export,”

“The low-hanging fruit is simply to empower the modular refineries.

“A modular refinery takes an average of 12 to a maximum of 18 months to set up. This administration can identify and select from the modular refineries that are already on stream to support them.

“Right now, we have about 15 of them – five are operating but not producing PMS; the other 10 are at various stages of completion. If the government supported these 15 modular refineries to produce PMS, in about 12 months or less, they would have solved this problem of fuel scarcity, rather than say, you are putting money into the Port Harcourt refinery, Warri refinery, or Kaduna refinery.

“That was why there was a particular administration that tried to sell those facilities. Most of them are obsolete.

Technology has changed. I would have said that the government should sell them off. We know that the issue of fuel crisis is a serious issue, but do we have a solution to it now? We don’t have a quick-fix solution other than what is being done right now, which is importation.

“But that is simply not sustainable. For how long can you continue like this? And so, what we are saying is that give yourself a target of the time to completely wind down the importation of petroleum products. Bring stakeholders like the modular refineries and the traders together. We will all put our heads together and then work out a scheme.”

“Saudi Aramco is a purely private-loaned entity. It has shares, it has boards, it runs as a private entity. In the United States, in all the countries where you are seeing self-sufficiency in their refineries, the private sector takes the lead. All the government does is to create an enabling environment to provide support.”