Author: Chief Editor

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked the Federal Government to “disclose within seven days the exact amount of public funds stolen by former military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, and details of spending of the about $5 billion of the loot eereportedly recovered since the return of democracy in 1999.” The ultimatum followed two Freedom of Information (FoI) requests sent on Friday to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abukabar Malami (SAN) by the Lagos- based rights group. In…

Besides Egypt, which already has a confirmed case of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), researchers and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have identified Algeria and South Africa as African countries most at risk while Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Angola, Tanzania, Ghana and Kenya as having moderate chance of importing the virus. The researchers, in a study published in Nature, said they were most concerned about Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Angola, Tanzania, Ghana and Kenya because of their weak healthcare systems, low economic status and unstable political situation which make them highly vulnerable. WHO Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had said the agency’s…

Eze Onyekpere On a daily basis, the reports coming out of different parts of Nigeria present the reality of a county at war with itself, an ungoverned territory where life has become “brutish, nasty and short.” The Nigerian security story is not one of perception but the story of real flesh and blood, of people who are murdered and these victims have relatives who have the unfortunate task of burying and grieving over them. The body count has become embarrassing while all our claims to the ability to govern ourselves fall flat on the face of this failure of governance.…

Tunde Odesola The muffled weeping is unmistakable. It cuts into the thickness of the night. It sounds so far, yet so near, like wind whistling through a palm plantation. The weeping is so ghostly; so sinister it makes the hair stand on end, sets the teeth on edge, makes the head become heavy and transfixes the feet. This eerie weeping belongs only to the “egbere”, a vicious gnome in Yoruba folklore, who inhabits the forests and moves about at night with a mat. Anyone who dispossesses the “egbere” of its mat comes into stupendous wealth. But the “egbere” will fight…

NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that the All-Star Game MVP award will now be called the Kobe Bryant Award as players lined up to pay tribute to the late NBA icon on Saturday. “Kobe Bryant is synonymous with NBA all-star and embodies the spirit of this global celebration of our game,” Silver said. “He always relished the opportunity to compete with the best of the best and perform at the highest level for millions of fans around the world.” Bryant and his daughter, Gigi, were buried in private funeral service in southern California last week after they were among nine…

Real Madrid’s dominance in Europe throughout the last decade is unmatched. The club went on to claim their third consecutive Champions League title in 2018. The 13-time European champions are without any doubt, the biggest football club in the world, but Zinedine Zidane’s men have struggled to match those heights at the domestic front. La Liga has been utterly dominated by Barcelona for the entirety of the last decade. While Blaugrana have claimed seven league titles in the last decade, Los Blancos have been restricted to just two successful campaigns. The two arch-rivals are once again entangled into an exciting title…

Liverpool returned to the scene of their Champions League triumph when they visit Atletico Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano on Tuesday very much the team to beat for those hoping to succeed Jurgen Klopp men as European champions. Liverpool is coasting towards a first Premier League title in 30 years having dropped just two points all season and is likely to be crowned English champions before the Champions League quarter-finals commence in early April. Liverpool remains on course for a potential five-trophy haul this season. They have already lifted the UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup and are used to reaching…

Japan’s health minister on Sunday urged the public to avoid crowds and “non-essential gatherings”, including notoriously packed commuter trains, to prevent the new coronavirus from spreading in the country. Katsunobu Kato warned the nation was “entering a new phase” in the outbreak of the virus, which has infected nearly 60 people in Japan so far. “We want to ask the public to avoid non-urgent, non-essential gatherings. We want elderly and those with pre-existing conditions to avoid crowded places,” Kato said after a meeting of a panel of experts. “I think it’s important that we exercise Japan’s collective strength. We wish…

Manchester City’s two-season Champions League ban could be about to reverberate through the Premier League. Pep Guardiola’s future had been a topic of discussion prior to UEFA handing down sanctions for “serious” Financial Fair Play breaches and the loss of European competition has fuelled suggestions the Catalan could quit the club. Media reports indicate City already have alternatives in mind, and their search for a successor looks set to pose problems for Premier League rivals. TOP STORY – CITY EYE PEP REPLACEMENTS Mauricio Pochettino and Brendan Rodgers are among the contenders to take over at City if Guardiola walks, according to The Telegraph. The…

President Muhammadu Buhari has received prominent Islamic Scholar Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Mr Sunday Aghaeze, the Personal Assistant to the President (Photo – Presidency), confirmed this development in pictorial reports on Sunday. According to the presidential aide, the Islamic scholar was accompanied on the visit by his children with the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, in attendance at the meeting. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that both Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi and Adamu Adamu are from Bauchi State. The president had on Saturday congratulated Islamic scholar on the conferment of an honorary doctorate degree…