Author: Chief Editor

Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward insisted on Thursday that the club remain committed to manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer despite a poor start to the season. United are languishing in 14th in the Premier League table and a fine start to their Champions League campaign came unstuck with a 2-1 defeat to Istanbul Basaksehir last week. “While there is still hard work ahead to achieve greater consistency, we remain absolutely committed to the positive path we are on under Ole as the team continues to develop,” said Woodward as United revealed their first-quarter financial results for 2020/2021. The English giants…

Argentina had to come from behind to draw 1-1 with Paraguay in a World Cup qualifier at La Bombonera on Thursday, and Lionel Messi had what might have been a winning goal disallowed in the second half. A Nicolas Gonzalez goal brought Argentina back level after Angel Romero’s penalty put Paraguay in front at the home of Boca Juniors, where fans were absent because of the coronavirus pandemic. The result ends Argentina’s perfect start in their bid to qualify for the 2022 finals in Qatar, after Lionel Scaloni’s team claimed narrow wins last month at home to Ecuador and away…

Kwara State governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq on Friday announced plans to revoke the payment of pension to former governors and their deputies in the state. “In line with our campaign mantra and the yearnings of our people, next week I will be sending a bill to the State House of Assembly to revoke the law awarding pension packages to former governors and former deputy governors in Kwara State,” Abdulrazaq tweeted. “Our state needs all the resources it can get to improve our human capital development.” The governor said he believes that Kwara State’s limited resources are better spent on tackling the…

Niran Adedokun niranadedokun@gmail.com Attempting to draw comparisons between American and Nigerian democracy is usually unfruitful, and justifiably so. For starters, it would present an imbalance akin to expecting a toddler to run at the speed of a 15-year-old. Democracy is about two hundred and a half years old in the United States while Nigeria is just practising democracy for a straight two decades for the first time in its 60-year history. More than at any other time, this comparison would even be more ill-advised at this time. This is given the spectacle that the November 3, 2020 elections have…

Abimbola Adelakun In the days since the Democratic Party candidate, Joe Biden, was projected the winner of the 2020 presidential election, some of those who have been shamefaced are the American evangelical preachers that prophesied his victory. These preachers evidently did not learn from the 2016 experience of Pastor Temitope Joshua of the Synagogue Church of all Nations who made a similar prophecy only to fail. Since Trump got a surprising victory four years ago, these preachers have virtually pimped the Cross of Christ to politics. They thought history would repeat itself and Trump would get a second term.…

Ayo Olukotun There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration”  – United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, Tuesday, November 10, 2020. “What we see now (is) a completely manufactured controversy based on no evidence whatsoever, purely to maintain power and to overturn a legitimate election“  – Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times, Wednesday, November 11, 2020. As a young academic, brimming with admiration for the established democracies of the Western World, I recall asking one of my mentors, Prof. Robert J. Gavin, most recently, an Emeritus Professor at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland,…

Fola Ojo My youngest son is a musicologist. He loves combing through the Nigerian gospel world in the cyberspace for sonorous voices of comfort bellowing in adoration of our God; and magic fingers fluttering on stringed instruments. Three weeks ago, after his rummage odyssey, he barnstormed into my study with his iPhone in his hand. “Dad, Nigerians are celebrating Donald Trump. Look, dad; everybody is on the street dancing and singing.” My son played a video where a church somewhere in Nigeria organised a rally for the triumph of the US President Donald Trump as he sought reelection in…

Greg Odogwu “Today, the Trump Administration officially left the Paris Climate Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, a Biden Administration will rejoin it.” – President-elect Joe Biden, November 5, 2020. One of the most interesting aspects of the just-concluded American presidential election was the spiritual angle. For people who are not religiously inclined, it might have been something like a comic relief. But for some of us that are interested in such matters, it was a serious affair. And, considering that America has always been at the forefront of every global spiritual movement, from the Great Awakenings to the…

•Cautions against trips to US, UK, others •We’re committed to getting vaccines, says Osinbajo Onyebuchi Ezigbo and Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja The federal government and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have said that COVID-19 vaccines will first be given to 20 per cent of the country’s most vulnerable population when ready. The WHO Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, said yesterday at a media briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja, that the world body had entered into an agreement with over 186 countries on the funding and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Vice President Yemi…

President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, yesterday declared that even amid the various challenges facing Nigeria, the nation’s economy is still on the path of recovery. He expressed optimism that Nigerian economy is being steered on the path of growth despite the prevailing challenges. Lawan who spoke at the Nigeria/International Monetary Fund(IMF) Article lV Consultation virtual exercise said the exercise was a “veritable platform to share our experiences on steering our economy on the path of growth, despite challenges.” He enumerated efforts being made by the Nigerian government at promoting economic growth and reducing poverty in the country. According…