Author: Chief Editor

Sergio Ramos broke down in tears, saying leaving Real Madrid was one of the most difficult moments of his life as he bid farewell on Thursday after 16 years at the club. The defender played 671 games for Real Madrid and will be remembered as one of the club’s greatest ever players, having won five La Liga titles and four Champions Leagues. The 35-year-old, who struggled for fitness and form last season, was unable to agree an extension to his contract and will become a free agent on July 1. Ramos and Real Madrid president Florentino Perez delivered short speeches…

Paris Saint Germain striker Neymar, the world’s most expensive footballer, will not play for Brazil at the Tokyo Olympics, but veteran Daniel Alves did make the squad announced Thursday. Neymar’s PSG teammate Marquinhos, who also landed a gold medal in Rio five years ago, is another name not on coach Andre Jardine’s list. Former Barcelona star Alves, now with Sao Paulo, missed the ongoing Copa America owing to a knee injury. Jardine is hoping his experienced defender will be fit in time to take on 2016 beaten finalists in Germany on July 22. Two French-based players who will compete in…

Last week, and in commemoration of the second year of his second term, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), granted interviews to two Nigerian television channels in quick succession. The jury is still out as to the impact of these largely unprecedented conversations, but regardless of what side of the divide one stands, the President served Nigerians one good deal with those interviews. Even though the conversation with the Nigerian Television Authority revealed nothing significant, that and the earlier one with Arise News were a fundamental satisfaction of the demands of communication between a leader and the electorate. Forget…

The Federal Government has borrowed a total of N1.3tn since 2017 to ensure that generation companies and gas suppliers received enough payments to continue generating electricity, the World Bank has said. The bank said this in its ‘Resilience through Reforms’ report. According to the report, the power sector in Nigeria will cost the Federal Government an additional N3.08tn through 2023, if current performance levels and low tariffs persist. The report said, “To ensure that Gencos and gas suppliers receive enough payments to continue generating electricity, since 2017 the FGN has borrowed a total of N1.3tn ($4.2bn). “In 2019 total FGN…

The Aba State Movement has told the House of Representatives’ Special Committee on Constitutional Review that the request for the creation of Aba State was a quest for equity based on history stretching more than 40 years. Mr. Theo Nkire, who presented the case for the proposed Aba State, in Owerri, Imo State recalled that the House of Representatives passed a motion for a referendum on the creation of Aba, Abia, Ebonyi, and Enugu states from the then Anambra and Imo States in January 1982. In June 1983, the Senate passed the same motion on the creation of Aba, Abia,…

Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Femi Falana, and the Senate spokesman, Senator Ajibola Basiru, have opposed President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), to reclaim land for open grazing, saying there is no national law on open grazing. Fielding questions on The Morning Show, a programme on ARISE NEWS Channel, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers, the silk said contrary to the impression the president has created, Nigeria has no national law on cattle grazing routes. He spoke against the backdrop of Buhari’s response…

Residents of Orisumbare community in Oluyole Local Government Area of Oyo State have appealed to the Governor, Seyi Makinde, for his urgent intervention over illegal encroachment on their lands by officials of the state government. This is just as the community said most of the lands affected are farmlands which served as their only means of livelihood, and have nowhere to go if their lands are taken from them by the government and houses on the land also demolished. Speaking on behalf of the affected residents, Pa Adetunji Adekunle said the state government had earlier acquired some land in the…

• Lawyers sue govt, Malami, Lai Mohammed over Twitter ban Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has restated the need for the country to regulate the social media. He disclosed this at the House of Representatives during a public hearing organised by the Mr. Odebunmi Dokun-led committee on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values, saying it would be in the best interest of the citizenry to monitor social media contents. The minister who spoke against the backdrop of the controversy trailing the ban on the use of Twitter in the country enjoined the lawmakers to grant full regulatory powers…

Will transaction politics hold sway in the lead up to the election of Governor Willie Obiano’s successor on November 6, 2021? The poser becomes relevant when viewed against the backdrop of recent court and shock attacks on the platforms of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and governing All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the state. The surprise court pronouncement on the status of Anambra State executive of PDP brought back memories of previous governorship polls in the state, during which the party presented double candidates for National Assembly. Intriguingly, while the Abuja High Court ruling, which sacked the Ndubuisi Nwobu-led State…

Aaron Ramsey and Connor Roberts scored as Wales took a huge step towards reaching the last 16 at Euro 2020 with a 2-0 win over Turkey in Baku on Wednesday. Wales, semi-finalists five years ago, moved top of Group A before Italy host Switzerland later in the day in Rome. Captain Gareth Bale missed a penalty before setting up Roberts for his goal during injury time. “We’ve given ourselves a brilliant opportunity tonight,” Ramsey told the BBC. “It (the penalty) was a big moment in the game but we dug in, to a man we left everything out there. That’s…