The Olympic Games in Rio opened to much-anticipated fanfare and splendour extravaganza. We all gathered round our TV screens to watch the world’s finest athletes march past in all their nation’s glory. Let’s be honest, you always want your country to turn up looking their best and you reserve the largest cheer for them as soon as you spot them taking their rightful place in the stadium.

Back at home, the cry of poverty is deafening. The prices of basic food stuffs and ingredients have sky rocketed through the roof. Folks are complaining everyday, while the government carries on as if everything is normal. Civil servants have resorted to begging for financial support from friends, and even enemies, to survive, as many state governments owe workers months of wages.

The campaign train of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Mr Godwin Obaseki, is boosted, each day with the full participation of all the former governorship aspirants of the party led by the deputy governor of the state, Dr Pius Odubu, and several top PDP chieftains who keep defecting to the party at every rally. The war between the Ali Modu Sheriff group and the Ahmed Makarfi-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo has factionalized the PDP, leading to the exodus of the foundation members of the party, such as Chief Samson Esemuede, into the APC.

The panel, set up by the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to meet with Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who is laying claim to the office of the National Chairman of the party, to resolve the leadership crisis in the PDP, met a brick wall when a defiant Sheriff stuck to his guns last Tuesday. For many optimists in the party, especially Senator Walid Jibrin, the Chairman of the BoT, who had high hopes that the meeting with Sheriff would offer a window for peace, his unbending stance was thoroughly deflating.

Septuagenarian author and community leader, Sandys Omadeli Uvwoh, has been an advocate for a peaceful and robustly developed Niger Delta. In this interview conducted in Warri, Delta State, Sandys advances the advocacy, saying the under-development suffered by communities in the oil – rich region is largely self-inflicted by Niger Deltans themselves, political office holders and community leaders in particular.

THE 64th Annual Convention of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, which began on Monday, August 1, came to a spectacular end last Sunday with the ordination of 867 pastors to swell the number of ministers ordained during the convention to 10,852. Theme of the convention was AMEN!

Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare is out of the Olympics 100m final. Blessing placed 3rd in her semifinal heat and her time of 11.09 was not good enough to get her in as one of the fastest losers. Shelly An Fraser, the defending champion ran 10.88 seconds to win her heat and set to set a record […]

An elated President Muhammadu Buhari Saturday night hailed the indomitable spirit of the Nigerian soccer team to the Olympics Games, which saw them flying over Denmark 2-0 to qualify for the semi-finals.

The gospel Paul preached is different from that of Jesus. Paul’s gospel is about “the grace of God.” (Acts 20:24). This says: “Rejoice: Jesus died for our sins.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). However, Jesus’ gospel is not about dying for sins but about the kingdom of God. This says: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17).

“My heart was broken when my doctor told me I had less than one percent chance of conception. But, today, I am rejoicing because I was able to overcome the scary stage three endometriosis, a disorder in which the tissue that forms the lining of the uterus grows outside of the uterine cavity. Gabriel and Joy are proofs of my victory over the terrible condition, “Ebere Amadi narrated.

I attended Pacelli School for the Blind after I lost my sight at the age of three in the sixties due to measles. I am now in my sixties. I took interest in music at a very young age. I started learning the trumpet, then I went on to learn the accordion, and then the piano and other instruments. Also, I went to Scotland to study music. Presently, I am the Music Consultant of the Vocational Training Centre for the Blind at the Federal Nigeria Society for the Blind. I am married with four children.

He is one remarkable Nigerian soldier. Even his opponents agree that he has paid the proverbial dues in the service of the nation. No doubt, Nigeria is endowed with soldiers, who are famed in multiple ways.

The mafia in the US once upon a time would offer a victim in a deal “an offer you cannot refuse” – meaning the consequences of your refusal were guaranteed to be worse than acceptance. Governors, mostly southern, like Fayose, who have announced their intention to stop grazing in their states in response to popular outcry against herdsmen will find it difficult, if not impossible to keep the herdsmen out unless we adopt a more rational way of addressing the complex issues which a total ranching policy will bring up. The first part of this series pointed out two of those problems last week. One we have no reliable census of the number of cattle we want to put in ranches; nothing on how many ranches will be needed; at a loss concerning how much it would cost to construct a ranch and maintain one.

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governors, yesterday, told the Board, of Trustees, BoT, of the party of their frustration in getting the erstwhile National Chairman of the party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, to be on the same page with the rest of the party.

SULTAN of Sokoto and the President General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, has warned Nigerian leaders to stop what he described as the “blame game and face the reality” on the bad state of the nation’s economy.