Dubai is a sight for sore eyes. It is a testimony to how vision and ingenuity can change dross to gold. The change is not only in the tall, glittering buildings or the wide, ten lane roads; neither is it in the development of a big sea-going vessel in the middle of an arid land, nor the creation of sub-zero temperatures for ice hockey within a hot, 50 degree Celsius atmosphere. The kudos really, is in the ability to manage these things and make them work. Dubai makes you think if you are from the Third World. It makes you even more pensive if you are a Nigerian because oil was discovered in Dubai about the same time as Nigeria.

It is true traditional rulers have with the time and the wind, started abandoning bitter kolas and alligator peppers and falling for ice creams and chocolates while steadily keeping up with the Kardashians. No one foresaw what time had in store for our Pentecostal churches. Patience , contentment and abstemiousness have been excommunicated. Bliss is coveted and pastors now envy the life of Hugh Hefner. Their predilection for frivolity and controversy , their allergy to rigour, painstakingness and scholarship and their love for money and life have birthed a counterfeit Christianity. Monks must see our pastors now as self-indulgent ,self-absorbed , bottle fed infants, lacking in toilet training. And they won’t be too wrong.

On this day, February 13, General Murtala Mohammed, Nigerian Head of State, was assassinated. Exactly 40 years ago today. He was on his way to work at Dodan Barracks, a distance of less than three kilometres from his residence in Ikoyi. He was killed along with is aide-de-camp, the only company he had. It was not his style to garland his way with a massive escort of despatch riders and armoured cars, in the midst of wailing sirens. Although he had himself seized power some six months earlier, he was casual about the personal protection his position naturally warranted.

Technical partners from China, Pakistan and India have arrived Akwa Ibom State to conclude arrangement for the take-off of a meter manufacturing company, Metering Solutions Manufacturing Services Limited (MSMSL), whose ground-breaking was performed last December at Awa-Iman, Onna Local Government Area of the state.

The team, who finished second in last season’s Nigerian league, lost some important key players like skipper Azubuike Egwuekwe, Gbolahan Salami, Ichul Lordson and Ogenekharo Etebo, but signed goalkeeper Dele Ajiboye, who was shone like a million stars at the Super 4, Mackson Ojobo and Bernard Okorowanta. Solomon Okpako and former Flying Eagles winger, Osanga King have also teamed up with Wolves after unproductive stints abroad.

Enyimba yesterday started their 2016 CAF Champions League campaign on a bad note, losing 1-0 to Ugandan champions, Vipers SC in a preliminary round first leg match at the Nakivubo stadium. The clash had far wider-reaching ramifications than just the matter of playing for the first time in this prestigious continental competition for the Ugandan side, who are bidding to go further than where other Ugandan teams had failed to do in previous years.

Nigeria’s entertainment industry is undoubtedly a male-dominated one, but one female Disc Jockey (DJ), music producer, and singer, DJ Toxiq, has decided to do the extraordinary and compete with the Men without holding back.

Members of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, AGN, Imo State chapter yesterday held a candle night procession in honour of late comedian-turned-actor, Peter Onwuzurike Onyehidelam, popularly known as Dede One Day, whose remains would be laid to rest today at his country home, Umuduruori Umuarusilam Umuagwuru Mbieri, Imo State.

Nasarawa United flag off their CAF Confederation Cup campaign tomorrow against Generation Foot of Senegal at the National Stadium, Abuja. It is a first round, first leg match, with the winner over two legs proceeding to the second round, to confront Club Sportif Constantinois of Algeria. Generation Foot, a lower division side in Senegal are targeting an unlikely upset against a Nasarawa United side, who are hoping to make the most of their campaign in CAF’s lesser-rated club competition.

Rap music legend Dr. Dre is starring in Apple’s first original television show, according to a story published Friday in the Hollywood Reporter.