Author: Chief Editor

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, yesterday again told the All Progressives Congress (APC) to be ready to handover to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2023. Wike urged the ruling party to prepare its handover notes at the federal level for the PDP. The governor boasted that Nigerians were earnestly waiting for the PDP to take over power in order to ensure good governance in the country. Wike spoke yesterday at the inauguration of the 11.53-kilometre Agbonchai-Afam road, connecting Eleme and Oyigbo Local Government Areas and performed by the former Senate Majority Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume. The governor in…

In his eponymous drama, “Julius Caesar,” playwright William Shakespeare, the bard of Stratford-on-Avon, put it in the mouth of diviner Artemidorus to warn protagonist Julius Caesar that “Security gives way to conspiracy.” Julius Caesar didn’t heed the warning and fell to the daggers of his treacherous associates. In Nigeria, under the watch of the President, Muhammadu Buhari, a retired Major General and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces, security has given way to kidnapping. Nigeria is reported to have one of the world’s highest rates of kidnapping for ransom, as it looks as if the financial benefits of kidnapping for ransom…

“As a government, we are committed to actively engaging with the creative energies of our young people. In this regard, we will partner the legislature to develop an enabling environment to turn their passions into ideas that can be supported, groomed and scaled across regions. This will create vast opportunities in fintech, agriculture, business process startups and in the entertainment industry.”  – President Muhammadu Buhari during his 2021 New Year broadcast It’s another new year and people are wont to making New Year resolutions. If 2021 were to be a child, what name would you have christened it? I heard…

Alex Morgan, a two-time World Cup winner with the US women’s football team, has tested positive for Covid-19, the star striker said on Twitter on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, my family and I closed out 2020 learning that we had contracted Covid while in California over the holidays,” Morgan, 31, said in a Tweet. “We are all in good spirits and recovering well. After our isolation is completed, I will follow US Soccer’s return to play guidelines to ensure my body is fully recovered and I can join my teammates back on the field soon.” Morgan is married to former Los Angeles…

Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho — one win away from a fifth League Cup win in his career — says the recipe for his success is respect for the competition. The 57-year-old could deliver Spurs’ first piece of silverware since 2008 if they win the final in April at Wembley. Mourinho became just the third manager to reach the final with three different clubs following the late Ron Saunders and Ron Atkinson after Spurs beat spirited Championship side Brentford 2-0 on Tuesday. They will play the winners of Wednesday’s semi-final between holders Manchester City and Manchester United, with whom Mourinho won…

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on Tuesday hit back at Jurgen Klopp’s jibes about Manchester United’s penalty record as the Old Trafford boss claimed Premier League managers are trying to influence referees. Liverpool boss Klopp highlighted the large number of penalties given to United since Solskjaer took charge in a rant that following the champions not getting a spot-kick in Monday’s defeat at Southampton. Klopp claimed United have had more spot-kicks in two years under Solskjaer than Liverpool have in his entire five-and-a-half-year reign. United have been awarded six league penalties this season compared to the five won by Klopp’s men. They…

An expert mission to China to probe the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic was in disarray Wednesday after Beijing denied entry to the World Health Organization team at the last minute despite months of painstaking negotiations. Ten experts were due to arrive in China this week for the delicate, highly politicised task of establishing how and where the virus jumped from animals to humans. But with a number of the team already in transit, China denied them entry visas, prodding WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to say he was “very disappointed”. China is determined to control the origin story of…

• NPHCDA, NCDC reaffirm safety of vaccines, capacity to store, transport • Frontline health workers, the elderly may take vaccines first • Prof. Sofola foresees challenges in storage Despite assurances on efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine, there is still anxiety as Nigeria awaits arrival of the first consignment this month. There are questions on the country’s capacity for storage, transportation and who are likely to be first set of recipients. Will it be on alphabetical order, as in states, or geo-political groups; or, will it be first with frontline health workers or the elderly? In an attempt to douse fears,…

The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Mr. Muhammed Babandede, has warned that foreign visitors who failed to present their COVID-19 test certificates on arrival in the country will have their visas revoked. The immigration service boss said he has the powers as enshrined in the Immigration Act to revoke visas and confiscate passports of offenders, stressing that the next visa for global travel is the COVID-19 certificate. Speaking at the weekly briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja yesterday, Babandede assured that the 100 travellers under a travel ban for flouting the mandatory seven-day post-arrival…

drtayooke@gmail.com The United Kingdom was originally a union of the three ancient kingdoms of England (56 million+), Scotland (five million+), and Wales (three million). Northern Ireland (two million) was added as a conquered, and severed territory from the neighbouring Irish Republic in 1921. Thus, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland became the officially recognised diplomatic name for the UK. This and other mesmerising details below bear a lot of significance which will become clearer as you read. The ‘United’ Kingdom harbours a lot of disunity within it. It has a ‘unitary’ government, at the same time accommodates…