Author: Chief Editor

The G10 countries should endorse the Nigerian contender as DG of the World Trade Organisation, writes Sam Nwokoro Indications have emerged that the Secretariat of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has accepted the nomination of Nigeria’s frontline contender for the post of the Director-General of WTO, Dr Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala. She is already being touted to clinch the office. And many factors count in her favour. One, she is an African woman contending for the position after many years of non-African holding that post. Secondly, and as attested to by many world diplomats and international scholars across world’s ideological divide,…

The federal government yesterday released new guidelines ahead of the planned resumption of schools without fixing a date for students to resume studies. This is coming as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said that new research findings have suggested that COVID-19 may indeed be airborne. The guidelines outlined actions, measures and requirements needed for the safe reopening of schools after the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the guidelines released by the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja yesterday, the safe distancing measures in the new guidelines required that in schools and other learning facilities, learners should be supported…

•Presidency investigates minister, others over alleged corruption in NDDC The federal government’s intervention agency, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), yesterday continued to be in the news for the wrong reasons as its former interim Managing Director, Ms. Joi Nunieh, said she slapped the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, for harassing her in his guest house in Abuja. “Why did he not tell Mr. President what he did that I slapped him?” she asked ARISE NEWS, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspaper, stating proudly: “I am the only Ogoni woman, Nigerian woman that has slapped his face.…

•Recovered funds in TSA don’t generate interest, says suspended EFCC boss The presidential panel probing alleged corrupt practices against the suspended acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, yesterday quizzed more directors of the commission at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The interrogation was a follow-up to last Thursday’s grilling of some top directors of the EFCC, including the commission’s Secretary, Mr. Olanipekun Olukoyede, and few other directors as Magu’s interrogation entered the sixth day yesterday. Magu also yesterday pushed back allegations that he diverted interests on recovered funds, saying that recovered funds were kept…

•Insists firm knew there was no contract •Uncovers illegal payments to daughter of govt official The federal government yesterday led evidence to convince a United Kingdom (UK) High Court to accept its allegation that the Gas Supply Purchasing Agreement (GSPA) between Nigeria and Process and Industrial Developments (P&ID) for a 20-year contract on gas project, was conceived with the full intent of defrauding Nigeria. It said the GSPA, under which P&ID was to build gas processing facilities in Cross River State and the government was to supply wet gas up to 400 million standard cubic feet per day that will…

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says he has never considered dropping David de Gea “for a one second” as the Spanish goalkeeper prepares to make his 400th appearance for Manchester United. Signed as a wiry 20-year-old from Atletico Madrid in 2011, the ‘keeper overcame initial struggles to establish himself as one of the best shot-stoppers in the Old Trafford giants’ history. De Gea was a fax machine error away from joining Real Madrid in 2015 but the goalkeeper is now committed to United until at least 2023 and will make his 400th outing for the club against Southampton on Monday. The 29-year-old…

Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho has set his sights on winning next season’s Europa League if his side can qualify — even though he admits it is “not a competition I am in love with”. Spurs took a big step towards reaching the second-tier European competition with a 2-1 win against Arsenal on Sunday thanks to Toby Alderweireld’s late goal. Mourinho has already won the Europa League with Manchester United and with Porto — in its earlier guise as the UEFA Cup — and wants his side to allow him a crack at a third. “I would love to play Europa…

Paul Pogba has hailed Manchester United’s improved form, saying they are now a “proper team” as they hunt Champions League qualification for next season. United, on a 17-game unbeaten run in all competitions, host Southampton on Monday, with the chance to leapfrog Chelsea and Leicester into third place in the Premier League. Pogba, who scored his first goal of an injury-ravaged season in United’s 3-0 win at Aston Villa on Thursday, told the club’s official matchday programme that players were now pulling in the same direction. “Like I said before, it’s about the team,” he said. “You can call it…

Africa’s most iconic literary maestro and one of the world’s most influential citizens is 86 today. With his ageless physique, it is almost difficult to acknowledge that our own Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka, affectionately called KONGI by his numerous admirers, is 86! Even though 86 might not be a remarkable milestone, it was in 1986 that the Nobel Prize came, hence the reason for this remarkable reckoning and why it’s worthy of celebration. For me, WS is not the unfathomable mystery that many perceive from a distance and he is not the mythological pantheon that exists in the realm of the…

• It’ll be unfair to blame them alone, says YCE • We need restructuring, not presidency – Okorounmu • Next president should be Igbo, Aka Ikenga insists National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the party’s pioneer chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, and the Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, have been warned that they would be blamed if Southwest fails to clinch the presidential ticket of the party in 2023. The Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) gave the warning on Saturday while addressing journalists in Ado Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti State. The ARG’s warning has…