Grisha Ghead, the Egyptian referee who officiated the Nigeria versus Zambia match have been sent home.

Protocols
I am hugely delighted to return to my alma mater the great and only University of Nigeria to speak at your 42nd convocation. Twenty eight years ago I sat just like you those of you who are part of the graduating Class of 2013; excited by my graduation. It was 1985 and I was very privileged to be one of the then only 3% of our own youthful population that had the opportunity of a university education. Today, you are still fortunate to be one of the yet paltry 4.3% of your own youthful generation with an opportunity for university education. For Nigeria that percentage does not compare favorably with 37.5% for Chile 33.7% for Singapore 28.2% for Malaysia, 16.5% for Brazil and 14.6%. Our lag in tertiary education enrollment is quite revealing and could be interpreted as the basis of the competitiveness gap between the same set of countries and Nigeria.

The Federal Government, Sunday, reacted angrily to comments by the former Minister of Education, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili alleging that the governments of Presidents Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, squandered $67 billion(about N10.6trn) in foreign reserves, describing the allegation as “outlandish and clearly fictitious.”

FORMER national chairman of the Youth Wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria (YOWICAN), Dr. Dele Oluwatade, has appealed to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria to review the decision of the Catholic Church to pull out of CAN, saying that such a decision would provide a leeway for the enemies to destroy the Body of Christ upon which the Church was founded.

A Toyota Sienna bus, Saturday, skidded off the Third Mainland Bridge and plunged into the lagoon.

Senator Ben Obi is the Special Adviser to the President on Inter -Party Relations. In this interview, Obi says he warned as far back as 12 years ago (2001) that terrorism in Nigeria could turn deadly. According to him, his experience motivated an anti -terrorism bill he initiated eight years ago in the Senate. He also speaks on President Goodluck Jonathan’s plan for Nigeria this year, Igbo leadership and the potentials of the country achieving Vision 20:2020, among other national issues. Excerpts:

THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP yesterday described the Boko Haram sect as a local terror group, just as it said that poverty and misrule were not responsible for the insurgency.

After a grueling 90minutes encounter at the the Mhobela Stadium in Nelspruit , South Africa, Nigeria and Zambia played a 1-1 draw.

FORMER Vice President (Africa) at the World Bank and Minister under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, yesterday said that both the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and his successor, Goodluck Jonathan’s regimes ‘’squandered’’ $67 billion (about N11 trillion) oil money left in two separate accounts by Obasanjo.

FOR the first time since he left the country 135 days ago, Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State, yesterday, opened up on his condition, saying he is in good health and will soon return to the country.

Nigeria Monday night, marked their return to Africa Cup of Nations with a fumbling 1-1 draw with Burkina Faso in a Group C match at the Mbombela Stadium

A South African court yesterday convicted Henry Okah of 13 terrorism charges, including conspiracy to commit terrorism and bombings that killed 12 people in Abuja on October 1, 2010.

REACTIONS have continued to trail Saturday’s attack on the convoy of the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, by gunmen, which left two of his aides dead, with former Military Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida, describing the attack as a wake-up call.

He also called on President Goodluck Jonathan to caution his political appointees on their intemperate language, which he claimed had done more harm than good.

Apparently embarrassed by what he saw at Nigeria’s Police College, on last Friday, President Goodluck Jonathan could not but lament openly, asking why people were being subjected to a treatment fit for chickens in the poultry.

Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, escaped death, yesterday, as gunmen, operating on motocycle (Okada), opened fired on his convoy. The incident occurred when the monarch was leaving Masalacin Murtala area of the Kano metropolis where he had gone to attend a Qur’anic graduation ceremony.