Author: Chief Editor

We are now less than two weeks away from the start of the 2019/20 Premier League season, and it looks set to be yet another thrilling campaign. Manchester City will no doubt go into the season as favorites to secure their third straight Premier League title, having accumulated 198 points over the past two seasons. They will need to balance this with their efforts to win the Champions League, something they have failed with in the past two seasons. If they do slip up, it is Liverpool who look best placed to take advantage, having finished just a point behind City in…

A new battle plan to recover N5trillion debts has been drawn up, it was learnt yesterday. A task force, which will recover the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) debts has been raised by the Federal Government. Some 105 businessmen and companies are owing the toxic debts. Twenty individuals and firms account for N3.35trillion (67 %) of the N5trillion debts. The debtors may lose their assets, unless they pay up. It was learnt that the government may invoke against the debtors the Interim Forfeiture Clause in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Establishment Act 2004 and the Independent Corrupt Practices…

By Omoshola Deji After several knocks and post-inaugural countdown by Nigerians and the media, President Muhammadu Buhari bowed to pressure. He sent 43 ministerial nominees name to the Senate for screening. This action relit the Buhari leadership competence debate. The Buhari apologists applaud the president for making such crucial nominations in almost two months of his second term; a radical improvement from the first term which took him six months. On the other hand, the opposition contends that Buhari’s ministerial nominees list is uninspiring and untimely. They knock Buhari for not imitating Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Boris Johnson…

Charles Onunaiju Despite the persistent claims of a divided country tottering on the brink and whose only balm of restoration lies in political restructuring and other similar geopolitical reconfigurations, the future to the actual healing of the simmering cracks is in economic revitalisation. The politics of economy which simply revolves around desperate contestations for shrinking resources is at the heart of the call for equity and fairness in a sharing formula, the key motive in the call for restructuring and the so-called fiscal federalism. However, a puritan federal structure or what some have called true federalism with enormously substantive regional…

Ademola Orunbon The incessant clashes between the police and adherents of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, known as Shi’ites, have raised fears that another conflict is about to get out of hand in the country. Even the civil society is calling on the Buhari government not to repeat past mistakes, because the Nigeria Police itself is not doing the right thing to suppress the issue. Police duty is to maintain law and order and protect lives and property, especially in discharging their duty; it is gratifying that the legislature has always enacted the enabling laws for the discharge of this…

President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick has revealed that some desperate coaches, who want to take over the Super Eagles’ job, are those engineering some Nigerians to call for the sack of coach Gernot Rohr. Even before the Super Eagles beat Tunisia in the bronze medal match at the just concluded Egypt 2019 African Cup of Nations (AFCON), some Nigerians had begun a campaign for the NFF to do away with Rohr, claiming that the coach had lost ideas on how to improve the nation’s football. Speaking with The Guardian yesterday, Pinnick stated that no amount of campaign…

Manchester United today flew out to Norway for tomorrow’s friendly against Kristiansund, with Romelu Lukaku and Matteo Darmian missing, along with Eric Bailly. Bailly, who sustained an ankle injury in the 2-1 friendly win over Tottenham Hotspur at Shanghai is set to face a spell on the sidelines. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has maintained his stance that Lukaku has not yet featured in United’s pre-season fixtures only because he has been injured and that any potential transfer away from the club has not played a part. Lukaku has been linked with a move to Inter Milan, with the Nerazzuri’s new manager Antonio Conte reportedly…

Jurgen Klopp fears Manchester City will teach Liverpool a lesson in the Community Shield if the level of defending displayed in pre-season does not improve. The Champions League winners have lost three and drawn one of their past four friendly matches. Ten goals have been conceded in that run, including three in the most recent defeat to Serie A side Napoli in Edinburgh. Klopp does not know whether key trio Alisson, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino – all of whom return to training this week – will be available for Sunday’s clash against City at Wembley and admitted his team are…

Nigerian author, Chimamanda Adichie has been featured in Meghan Markle’s ‘Forces of Change’ list for British Vogue cover. The Duchess of Sussex, picked 15 women she considers strong proponents for change for the upcoming September edition of the magazine which she co-edited. The Duchess, who gave birth to her first child in May, reportedly spent seven months working with British Vogue Editor-in-Chief, Edward Enninful on the issue. She said in a statement that she had sought to steer the focus of the September issue, usually the year’s most read, to “the values, causes and people making impact in the world…

Tunde Odesola The invite should have read, “State Banquet for Billionaire Rulers,” but because the general election was nearby, and they wanted calmness among the sheepish masses, whose commonwealth they stashed away in billions, the invite read, “Governor Hammered Sunny marries 13-year-old Arab heartthrob.” It was also the day four of his children graduated from the oldest tertiary institution in the US, Harvard University. It was double joy for Hammered – his colleagues and friends, like vultures dressed in long apparels, were banqueting at the state House with him. Before some electrifying music set the tone for the night’s…