For many clubs in Europe, the summer transfer deadline has passed and their business will now be finished until they have a chance to shuffle their ranks in January.

Chelsea will most likely mark the past few months as a success in their books, landing top target Moises Caicedo after months of working to get a deal done. There may be questions over the £115million price tag and uncertainty over Liverpool's push, but at the end of the window, he's wearing blue.

Romeo Lavia, Nicolas Jackson, Christopher Nkunku, Axel Disasi, Cole Palmer and Robert Sanchez are just a few of the new faces who made their way in during a busy period that saw a huge influx of youth prospects. The club also managed to move off most of their outcast stars that no longer had a future there.

It means that Mauricio Pochettino can finally get down to work without the distractions of new players that he will need to integrate into his style of play. That's not to say that all their business may stop there though as, in terms of a couple more outgoings, there are still other markets open that could look to land a couple players.

There's also likely to be another shuffle in the free transfer market, with players that were unable to find clubs becoming an attractive proposition as they're free to join outside of a transfer window. It's rare that a top-end club like Chelsea will land a star at this stage, but there's one out there that could cap a dream summer.

In this case, it's club legend Eden Hazard, who became a free agent earlier this summer after ending his ties with Real Madrid. The Belgian international struggled to fit in at Los Blancos as injury concerns piled up until he was no longer seen as a key part of the project.

Hazard enjoyed some of the best years of his career in blue, spending seven-years at the club and racking up six trophies in that time. While things have no doubt changed since he left for the big-money move, the 32-year-old could still play an invaluable role within the team now.

Hazard has Premier League experience and could play a huge role in helping nurture some of the young talent currently with the Blues. A lot of the goal scoring burden currently lies on Raheem Sterling, but with Hazard as a rotational option, that pressure may be lifted while he isn't under the same injury strain of playing every week.

There's an obvious sentimental aspect to it, Hazard may not earn the same wage at Stamford Bridge as he could elsewhere and he may not have that same importance in the squad with his role. However, in this instance, it's a deal that just makes sense for where the club are, have been and want to be.

[football.london]

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After Real Madrid learned their group stage opponents for the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League earlier this week, the record European champions have now learned their fixture schedule for the same.

Real Madrid have been drawn in Group C of the Champions League, along with Serie A champions Napoli, German surprise package Union Berlin, and Portuguese outfit SC Braga.

Now, the official fixture list has been made available by UEFA, which reveals when and where Real Madrid will be playing their matches in the group stage.

Real Madrid’s UCL group stage fixture schedule

The 14-time European champions are set to kick off their Champions League campaign at home on September 20 against Union Berlin.

Following that Los Blancos will be on the road as they face Napoli on October 3 at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

Matchday three will have Carlo Ancelotti & co. travelling to the scenic Braga Municipal Stadium to take on SC Braga on October 24, before they return to the comforts of the Santiago Bernabeu for the reverse fixture on November 8.

Real Madrid’s final home game of the group stage will come against Napoli on November 29 before they wind up the first phase of the competition away at Union Berlin on December 12.

• September 20: Real Madrid vs Union Berlin
• October 3: Napoli vs Real Madrid
• October 24: SC Braga vs Real Madrid
• November 8: Real Madrid vs SC Braga
• November 29: Real Madrid vs Napoli
• December 12: Union Berlin vs Real Madrid

Having faltered at the semi-final stage last season, Ancelotti & co. will be eager to go all the way this time around and the Road to London kicks off in less than three weeks.

[madriduniversal]

Coco Gauff joked that the thought of losing in front of Justin Bieber inspired her US Open comeback against Elise Mertens on Friday night.

Gauff produced a fine fightback to reach the US Open fourth round and keep alive her hopes of winning a first Grand Slam title. 

The 19-year-old dropped the first set but dug deep to turn the match around, winning 3-6 6-3 6-0 in front of a crowd that included pop star Bieber, his wife Hailey and NBA star Jimmy Butler.

After the match, Gauff said she was aware of the A-listers cheering her on. In fact, she said their presence drove her to win the last 10 games.

'I definitely saw who was there,' Gauff told ESPN. 'I was like: "Oh my goodness, Justin Bieber!" At that point it was 2-3 in the second set. I thought: "I cannot lose in front of Justin Bieber". I didn’t lose a game after I saw that!'

 

Coco Gauff's US Open opponent Laura Siegemund is reduced to tears

Djokovic survives a scare as he beats Djere in US Open third round

'I got a little tight when I first saw him, then I reminded myself that President Obama and Michelle Obama were at my first round match... I'm fan-girling right now.'

The Obamas watched her comeback against Laura Siegemund on opening night. She had to battle back in round one, too, and after reaching the last 16, Gauff admitted she was 'starstuck' by Bieber.

'"Never Say Never" was one of my favorite songs when I was a kid. And then "Baby, Oh Baby"... I could go through all his songs,' she said. 

'And then Hailey coming too - I guess it was a little date night for them which is really cool.'

 

Gauff came back after dropping the first set to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 in the third-round match

She added: 'Jimmy Butler has come to a couple of my matches so I wasn’t as surprised that he was there. But I’m still like: "This guy is busy. Why is he coming to watch me play?!" But it's a really cool experience.”

The 19-year-old also paid tribute to the crowd in New York. 'The energy today definitely helped me. I felt you guys,' said Gauff. 'I played every point my hardest.'

'When you lose the first set you know you have to show that you left all that energy in the first set and you're ready to play... after I lost the first set I told myself: there is still a lot of game left and a lot of the match to play.'

'Elise was playing well and I tried my best to win in three sets - give me some credit. The last couple of weeks I was winning in straight sets. So a win is a win - it doesn't matter how you get it and I'm just happy.'

[Dailymail]

Novak Djokovic came back from two sets down to survive a big scare from Laslo Djere as he reached the second week at the US Open.

The three-time champion lost the opening two sets but ultimately prevailed 4-6 4-6 6-1 6-1 6-3 against his compatriot in three hours and 48 minutes.

It means that Djokovic is into the second week of the US Open for a 15th consecutive time as the Serb will look to play better as the tournament goes on.

Speaking after the match Djokovic praised Djere but admitted he has to be playing better than he did, “I thought he played terrific. I mean, I honestly have never seen him play like this,” Djokovic told journalists after the match.

“He was feeling the ball extremely well. Everything was kind of in his striking zone. He was tactically prepared very well. I think he started off the match very, very good. He was far more comfortable than me. I was defending mostly in the first two sets.

“To be honest, I could have and should have played better, on a high level in these two sets, but huge credit to him for making me uncomfortable on the court and playing really some of the best tennis I’ve ever seen him play.

“Congrats to him. Tough luck to him. I told him at the net he should keep going because if he’s going to continue playing this way, he’s only going to work his way up in the rankings. He’s a terrific guy, works extremely hard.
Tonight he shows that he deserves to be ranked much higher than he is.”

A real test for Djokovic that shows he will need to raise his level as the tournament goes on ahead of a potential showdown in the final with Carlos Alcaraz.

Speaking of the rest of the field, Djokovic believes his five set thriller sends a message that he is able to go the full distance ahead of a intriguing second week, “Well, look, of course winning a match is always better than losing a match. It’s as simple as that,” Djokovic stated.

“I think the message is sent to the rest of the field that obviously I’m still able to play five sets deep at night. Coming from two sets down always sends a strong message to the future opponents.

“At the same time I’m not really wanting to be in this position, to be honest. I prefer a straight-set win. Hopefully I can get back on that track in the next match.”

Next for Djokovic will be talented Croatian qualifier Borna Gojo, who defeated Jiri Vesely in straight sets.

Sunday’s meeting will be the first meeting between the two players.

[ubitennis]

The presidency has given marching orders to relevant security agencies in the country to recover loans from the Federal Government Anchor Borrowers Programme amounting to over N500 billion, Saturday Sun has gathered. The security agencies, Saturday Sun gathered, have up till September 18, 2023, to recover all the monies said to be owed by mostly banks, farmers, individuals, state governments and other financial institutions among others.

Apart from recovering the monies, the agencies have also been directed to probe the borrowers. Security sources say the recovery of the huge amount has become necessary to enable the government to shore up funds in the face of the harsh economic challenges in the country. Top security sources told Saturday Sun that out of N1.1 trillion of funds sunk into the programme, only about N575 billion have been recovered so far. It was gathered that while the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), doles out a total of N1.1 trillion to some banks and other financial institutions, some of them did not only disburse the actual amount to the beneficiaries and refused to return the money to the CBN. Some of the banks were also said to have disbursed lesser amount to the beneficiaries and pocketed the remaining. The source disclosed that many of the banks failed to account for the funds which passed through them to various beneficiaries of the loan. The source who said the security agencies have since contacted the affected banks, financial institutions and cooperatives, said “Most of the banks have not accounted for the funds given to them for the programme. Many of them got money they did not disburse and never returned such money to the Government. So they have to account for those.

“The banks have been contacted and some of them have expressed their willingness to cooperate with the probe. “As it is, the Presidency has given marching orders that the loans be recovered by relevant security agencies for the Federal Government.

“Among those who would be involved in the probe are the farmers, individuals, banks, companies, microfinance banks, credit and thrift services among others.

“The loans which amounted to about N1.1 trillion has about N575 billion paid so far. In the coming days more details would come to light over the matter, but for now it is confirmed that a go ahead has been given for the money to be recovered at all cost.”

When contacted on whether or not the Department of State Service(DSS), was part of the security agencies involved in the recovery of the money, the public relations officer in charge of the Peter Afunaya, who did not confirm the service involvement however said It is not out of place for the Presidency to give such orders to security agencies on issues of national importance.

[Sun]

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, has assured that the party will bounce back to power to give Nigeria a responsive government.

In a statement issued by his media office on Friday to mark the occasion, Atiku congratulated the main opposition party for growing up to 25 years and impacting positively on Nigeria’s socio-economic and political development.

The quoted him to have said that “the PDP is the progenitor of our contemporary democracy, and therefore, the party shall ensure that democracy does not only survive in Nigeria, but that the country thrives through it.”

According to Atiku, “Being one of the founding fathers of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party, I take great pride in having participated in the process of nurturing the party from infancy to a deliberate agency of socio-political and economic development in Nigeria.

“In the 16 years that the PDP was at the helm of affairs in our country, the party offered quality leadership through various administrations and the achievements recorded in those 16 years have remained the benchmark for positive growth in our economy and other critical areas of our national life.

“Of course, the PDP took leading role in the deconstruction of military rule in Nigeria, and the peculiarities of our contemporary experiences both within Nigeria and other countries in Africa demand that the PDP should, once again, rise to the occasion in cancelling the economic hardship and other structural deficiencies that directly bear negatively on our people in the past nearly eight and half years.

“I have every confidence that the PDP will bounce back to give Nigerians a responsive government,” Atiku said.

[Nigerian Tribune]

I’m no fan of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Anyone who has followed my writing in the last few years will attest that I rank in the top three severest critics of his person, record, and politics. But I’d be remiss in my self-imposed lifetime commitment to pursue the truth irrespective of where it leads me and expose falsehood irrespective of the consequences if I ignore the renewed, systematic dissemination of easily refutable lies about Tinubu not having graduated from Chicago State University (CSU).

Tinubu undeniably has many skeletons in his closet, but Chicago State University isn’t one of them. There is no question that the man who is known today as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu attended CSU for two years and graduated from it in 1979.

His study at CSU—a four-year, state-funded, historically Black university—was shortened because he transferred two years’ worth of college credit from Richard J. Daley College, a community college (equivalent to a diploma-awarding institution in Nigeria) in Chicago, which started life as William J. Bogan Junior College in 1960, got renamed Southwest College in 1970, and got renamed yet again as Richard J. Daley College in 1976.

That Tinubu graduated from CSU has never been in dispute. It was his claim to have attended or graduated from the elite, highly-ranked, privately owned University of Chicago that was a lie, but he later took back this claim and blamed it on an unintentional error by Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi.

In June 2022, when fresh, widely shared, and obviously politically inspired doubts were raised about the authenticity of Tinubu’s graduation from CSU, I took advantage of my being a professor here in the US and reached out to friends and colleagues at the school to help me verify this information.

A friend, who is a professor of English at the university, went to the registrar’s office and confirmed that Tinubu indeed attended and graduated from CSU. “Please be advised that Bola A Tinubu attended Chicago State University from August 1977 [to] June 1979. He was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with Honors on June 22, 1979. His major was accounting,” a statement from the office of the Registrar of the university read.

I shared this finding in a June 27, 2022, article titled “A Bola Tinubu Graduated From Chicago State University,” which several news outlets and blogs picked up. I wrote that “A Bola A. Tinubu” had graduated from CSU because I hadn’t conclusively authenticated the identity of the person and didn’t want to make any evidence-free association of the name with then presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

But as I pointed out in a later column titled “Lies and Truth About Obi, Atiku, and Tinubu,” I can now confidently establish that the Bola A. Tinubu who graduated from CSU in 1979 is the same Bola A. Tinubu who is president of Nigeria today. I know this because the yearbook photo of the 1979 CSU cohort features the headshot of an unmistakably younger Tinubu, even though his last name was misspelled as “THUBV.” I’ll come back to this point shortly. 

In the past few days, a seemingly coordinated misinformation campaign has been relaunched to resuscitate the lie that Tinubu didn’t graduate from CSU. The rehabilitation of the lie is being constructed on a hexad of appealing but ultimately self-contradictory inaccuracies and innuendos.

The first is that a search of Bola A. Tinubu in the archive of US college graduation records yields zero matches. Well, that’s because Tinubu’s last name was misspelled as “THUBV” in his final graduation record. But a search of “Bola A. THUBV” (which one Engr. Stanley with the Twitter handle @Engr_Stanley_EC did) turns up the record of a male who graduated from CSU with a degree in Business Administration (and a concentration in accounting).

Non-Western names are always liable to be misspelled here. I know because I’ve suffered this multiple times. Apparently, Tinubu wrote his name in long hand, as was the practice then, and whoever was responsible for entering the final records couldn’t correctly make out Tinubu’s handwriting. It’s easy to see how handwritten “I” and “N” can be mistaken for “H” and how “U” can be mistaken for “V.”

Of course, it’s reasonable to assume that Tinubu complained, and a correction was later issued for his degree certificate, but it was too late for the information that was sent to the National Student Clearinghouse.

 The second trigger for the rehabilitation of the lie is a putative July 8, 2011, FBI letter to the EFCC, which allegedly concluded that its search of Bola "Tinubo" in Chicago State University' records showed that no such person ever enrolled at the school.

 Well, duh (as Americans would say to signal that something is self-evidently obvious), no “Bola Tinubo” exists anywhere in the world. Had the FBI searched for “Bola A. Tinubu” at CSU’s registrar’s office, it would have found out that a person with that name graduated from the school in 1979.

The third lifeline for the revival of the falsehood is that a transcript oddly dated “0/76” from Southwest College belonged to a female. As I pointed out earlier, Richard J. Daley College used to be called Southwest College until late 1976. So, when Tinubu first enrolled at the school in 1975, it was called Southwest College, but by the time he graduated from it in 1977, it had been renamed Richard J. Daley College.

There are several red flags with the transcript, the boldest being the numbering scheme of the social security number shown in it. The nine-digit U.S. social security number is divided into a three-digit area number, a two-digit group number, and a four-digit serial number. It has always been that way.

But the social security number in the Southwest College transcript supposedly belonging to a female Bola A. Tinubu is 231-060-595. That’s an impossible numbering scheme for a US social security number. Plus, the transcript isn’t properly dated and leaves the spaces for date of birth and record of high school blank. These are no trivial red flags of inauthenticity. 

The fourth reason some people have infused a new life to the lie that Tinubu didn’t graduate from CSU is that the university locked its Twitter account in response to unremittingly vitriolic denunciations from some Nigerians. They say that indicates that the school is guilty of issuing a fake degree to Tinubu. That’s tortured logic. People and organizations routinely lock their Twitter accounts when they are subjected to an unceasing torrent of caustic online abuse.

 In April, a TIME magazine reporter by the name of Astha Rajvanshi who wrote a profile on Tinubu after he made it to the magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world was forced to lock her Twitter account after political fanatics relentlessly cursed, defamed, and threatened her for doing her job. 

CSU is obviously unaccustomed to the quantum of negative attention it’s receiving from a group of Nigerians who are still smarting from the outcome of the last presidential election. It obviously wants to stop it.

 The fifth impetus for the revival of the lie that Tinubu couldn’t have graduated from CSU is that Tinubu withdrew claims that he attended primary and secondary schools in Nigeria, which means he didn't possess qualifications to be admitted to a US higher education institution.

Well, it’s entirely possible to earn a degree in America without ever attending a secondary school. There's something called the General Educational Development test (or GED) for people who didn't earn a high diploma before the age of 18. A close American friend and colleague of mine by the name Dr. Matt Duffy didn't have a high school diploma. He had a GED, but he ended up getting a Ph.D.

 I am not saying that was what happened with Tinubu. I don’t have the facts to make that claim. But it’s reasonable to assume that since it’s widely speculated that Tinubu changed the identity he had at birth, he disclaimed all associations with the schools he attended in his actual hometown in Osun and took a GED test in Chicago. In any case, most community colleges (and non-flagship state schools) have open enrollment policies, which means just about anybody can get into them.

Finally, the fact that Tinubu doesn't want CSU to release his academic record— and the fact that the university has spurned requests to release his records— is being held up as an indication that he had no academic record there and that Tinubu and CSU are acting in cahoots to cover up a crime.

Well, there’s something called the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which forbids all universities and colleges in the United States from disclosing the academic records of a student to a third party. Every year, I (and all university employees who handle students’ grades here) have to undergo training on how not to disclose students’ records to third parties, including to parents, without students’ written permission.

Schools can only confirm directory information such as whether or not a student graduated from a school, which CSU has done repeatedly. And why would Tinubu accede in writing to his academic records being released to political opponents? Most people won’t, even if it’s just for the pleasure of seeing their opponents squirm in anger and frustration.

Kudi, fine-girl-no-pimples, was one of those undergraduates who lived their lives on their own terms on campus.  Kay-girl, as she was fondly called, was an ‘aristo’ girl. Small-small boys were not her thing. She liked them known and rich, politicians and business tycoons. The age or size of their bellies did not matter. They just needed to be loaded in their pockets but if they were loaded ‘downstairs’ too, ah, that was an added advantage. Once, according to Kay-girl, she had ended up with a rich, fat ‘sugar daddy’ whose only load was in his pocket. You know those guys who God just blessed with deep pockets because they are neither good-looking nor finely shaped. Their pot-bellies also rob their third legs of length and strength. But they have money and they spend it like it’s from a river that cannot dry. So, their girls ignore their deficiencies and focus on their bulging pockets.

Kudi lived the life and upon graduation, she used her ‘contacts’ to get a good job, nice digs and a fine ride. 

Then she met the most generous, good-looking, hot ‘sugar daddy’ of her life. Yes, he was hot everywhere, all over. Then came the warnings from everyone about the other part of Big Daddy (BD) that Kudi did not know.

BD’s wife is a witch.

Madam BD does not share her man.

All the girls he had dated have sad stories to tell.

BD’s girlfriends do not end well.

The warnings threw Kudi. She was scared even, but she convinced herself that BD was her last bus stop. He loved her and he loved him. In any case, what woman wants to share her man? Which wife wants to be promoted to ‘first wife’? No woman will willingly shift for another, including this Kudi. But she wanted the soft, baby life. She assured her close friends that she knew what she was doing and she would show the madam of the house that she was there to stay. Kudi soon moved into the beautiful home BD bought for her, in her name too. She got pregnant soon after. Indeed, she got pregnant four times and had spectacular miscarriages. Her friends became really worried because the fourth miscarriage almost took her life. Kudi bravely assured them she would give BD children and laugh last.

True to her word, Kudi became pregnant again. When she made it to 36 weeks without miscarriage, her friends threw a big baby shower for her. Everybody thought the worst was over. Then, she woke up feeling feverish one morning, went to her doctor and all the tests showed that she was no longer pregnant! Whaaat? Her tummy was still as huge as it was the day before. Kudi swore she could still feel the baby’s movement. All tests and scans insisted she was not pregnant after 36 weeks, after she had bought all baby things, set up the nursery. Long story shortened, Kudi is still carrying around her ‘load’, four months beyond her EDD (Expected Delivery Date).

Methinks, BD’s wife is responsible for Kudi’s endless pregnancy. Superstitious much? Yes, but if you have another explanation for how Kudi landed this hard on a hard surface, I’m willing to give you space to propound your theory. For now, my conclusion is Kudi ate food meant for the gods and now, she is stuck.

There are different types of meat but not all meat is meant for all. Some are meant for the elders and are so not for ‘children’. Some are food for the gods and are therefore not for ordinary humans. Am I speaking in tongues? Let me explain.

 Not all fine girls are available for all men. Not all dark, handsome and rich men are for every Tinu, Toke and Titi. Some girls are food for the gods. Some men are food for the gods. Those are the ones the Yoruba call ‘ounje agba’. If a young man decides in his exuberant, nothing-go-do-me wisdom to eat food cooked, reserved and already served for the elders, he may lose his teeth or may not live to tell the story of the taste of the dish. We girls say it more frequently than men especially when we want to scare off a poor or unserious suitor or toaster. We tell him what he’s salivating after is beyond his budding palate, that he is still ‘too young’ to dine at the table of elders.

‘This is food for your elders. Wait until you are fully grown.’

Women, we can be mean, seriously. May the Lord forgive us for all the times we have shot men in the knee on the field of ‘toasting’. Amen? Amen.

However, food for the elders, ‘ounje agba’ is very different from food for the gods. Food for the elders can lead you to the dispensary but food for the gods will drag you to the mortuary. Note the word ‘drag’. Painful journey to Golgotha, that is what any ‘thief’ of sacred food can look forward to.

Take the case of the University of Calabar lecturer who was the toast of the internet recently for sexually molesting his students. A teacher of law who made it his mission to break the law. He deregulated his manhood and put his pen on the inkpot market, dipping, force-dipping and blackmailing other people’s children to open their legs for his maggoty third leg. For years, according to reports, he was Satan’s representative in the Faculty of Law, a law unto himself. Tales of heartrending proportions about what he subjected those young girls to poured in from different platforms. And for what? His third leg must be a pygmy, his self-esteem non-existent if he needed to force himself on girls to feel good. Only sick men use their offices to force women to have sex with them. Only little men with no other gifts or attractive appeal use their positions to get girls to have sex with them. Since the story broke, I have swung from disgust to anger to revulsion and then vengeful anger. I know some people are talking about getting justice for the young women our dense dicky don traumatized, harassed and assaulted. I hope they succeed. For me, I don’t want him to go to jail. Sentencing the little dick of Calabar or putting him in a psychiatric ward would be doing him a favour. I do not believe in such 21st Century justice arrangement for men who sexually assault women. No. For instance, I am an advocate of ‘third leg amputation’ for rapists and child molesters. All that long drawn-out process and proceedings of lawyers using the same law book to both prosecute and defend rapists do not float my boat at all. For me, justice against a pedophile is taking away his weapon of terror. Totally and irreversibly!

For years, the sick dicky don of Unical ate every meat in sight. Indeed he forcefully snatched and ate every food. It didn’t matter to him if the owner wanted to give him the meal or not. Indeed, the more force he had to deploy, the more delicious the game. Until he ate the one meant for the gods. When he unwrapped that meal and devoured it like a possessed demon, little did he know it would be his last supper. He must have smacked his lips as he wiped the sinful sweat off his brow. Perhaps he even threatened the traumatised poor girl. Maybe he actually inflicted himself on more female undergraduates after eating the forbidden dish. But one thing was certain for the evil don. His career was over. When you Google his name 20 years from now, his messy sexual escapades will pop, not his academic prowess, not his intellectual contribution to human development. His name will now be synonymous with sexual harassment. I don’t even want to imagine the pains of all the folks who share his surname. That is what should happen to every lecturer who forgets how he laboured to achieve a PhD just because he has an erection.

But here is the real punishment I would have preferred for that randy lecturer. Just imagine that after the first time he forced himself on his victim, he loses his manhood. Close your eyes and picture it. He simply could no longer get it up, not even in the morning, not even with the missus. All he could do with his third leg was pee urine, only urine. Do you think if he ever recovered his virility he would harass his students, or any girl again? That is one of the ruinous things that happen to men when they eat food meant for the gods.

Tinubu has worsened the situation. Painfully, he is on the way to lionizing Buhari, with his litany of errors

A friend called the other day from Germany to get a true picture of situations in the country. The initial attempt was to pretend that all was well; that apart from the dust of the February/March general elections, there was not much to worry about. But that seemed a big error; in fact, a terrible one. He blurted; “Old Boy (as we address ourselves), you got it wrong on this. Reports I get every day from people at home, indicate that things are not working. The emergence of Bola Tinubu has not helped matters. Except those at the corridors of power, every other citizen is panting. What I get is that for Nigerians, it’s from frying pan to fire”.

There was nothing further to argue with him. He was in order. Perhaps, at no time had Nigerians had it as rough as they are going through currently. And to think that this is a country that is not at war, yet the citizens are literally passing through hell in the hands of their leaders, rankles exceedingly. The cost of every basic item in the land, has hit the roof top. Nigerians are hungry. And indeed, angry! Major roads and streets in the cities look deserted these days as if the country is in perpetual public holidays. Minor issues that would have been overlooked, can now result to fisticuffs. People wear frowns on their faces, as if they woke up to continue with unfinished quarrels.

This appears to be the only system where the past is reminisced over the present. You would hear the people constantly cite instances of the ‘better’ days that have gone. In Nigeria, things don’t seem to improve, they get worse. Look at the leadership profiles of successive administrations. It took the lethargy and cluelessness of the Goodluck Jonathan administration for the people to reference the misguided Olusegun Obasanjo government as one that gave the country focus. The ululation that accompanied the Muhammadu Buhari government in coming to power, soon gave way for despair and the people realizing that they had elected a parochial and narrow-minded president to govern them. It did not take up to two years for Nigerians to realise that even in his utter lassitude, Jonathan was by far, a superstar compared to Buhari. That was when it dawned on the people that the assumed taciturnity of Buhari was not a matter of concern over the direction the country but a dummy – sheer concealment of inaction and acute situation of not knowing what to say or do.

Tinubu has worsened the situation. Painfully, he is on the way to lionizing Buhari, with his litany of errors. Karl Meier, former West African Correspondent of the Independent of London, could not have chosen a better title for his book on Nigeria than, “This House Has Fallen”. Nigeria, is currently on its fours, truth be told.

It could only take a president of Tinubu’s hue to make a weighty announcement of removing fuel subsidy and harmonizing the foreign exchange market on his first day in office, without cabinet or without any contingency arrangement. Since that declaration which he admitted was based on the spur of the moment rather than any pronounced agenda, Nigeria has not been the same.

Four months to the February 25, 2023 presidential election, we had argued here, that Nigerians needed to know the candidates they were voting for. Knowing them went beyond merely knowing their names, identifying their faces or the political parties they were representing. The voters needed to know their thinking, their level of sophistication and emotional intelligence. They needed to know what they had in ideology and programmes at repositioning the country. For a system that has been maliciously held down by a chain of rapacious leadership in the greater part of its 63 years of statehood, having such details on those aspiring for the highest office in the land, mattered.

Being the standard-bearer of a political party, is a big deal. It is not a position for the boys but for serious minds. The office itself – the presidency – demands a lot. Gerald R. Ford (38th U.S. President) captured it that the presidency is not a prize to be won, but a duty to be done. It is the hardest job in the world, says American essayist, John Dickerson, in his piece on the White House.

For obvious reasons, the handlers of Tinubu shielded him from interrogation and ensured that his supporters did not know the candidate they were queuing behind, adequately. A gathering at the British Foreign Institute, the Chatham House, days to the election, provided him the opportunity to advertise himself, tell the world how ready he was for the job, sell himself and his programmes to the international community.

It gave him the chance to address nagging questions on his health, his past, his academic records and his real identity – issues that his opponents have serially feasted on in mocking him. Rather, he ducked and parried the questions thrown at him at the gathering to his stooges. By evading the questions and assigning them to surrogates, Tinubu unwittingly confessed his lack of capacity and preparation for the presidency

Now, as they say, the chickens have come home to roost. He has happened on Nigeria, irrespective of his breezy paths to power and accompanying disputations. Nigerians are bearing the brunt. From his very first day in office, it was certain that Tinubu had no precise programme for the country, despite his claims that attaining the position had been his lifelong ambition. In removing the fuel subsidy and unfolding a phantom palliative regime that is barely scratching at the problems, the entire thing looks vacuous. Tinubu is yet to explain to Nigerians how distribution of rice and maize as well as paltry N5 billion to the states, would cushion the impacts of the outrageous pump prices of petrol, rising inflation and youth unemployment due to closure of small and medium scale businesses, that his hasty withdrawal of subsidy and forex market harmonisation have caused.

Governance is not about catering for the interests of cronies and hangers-on. That is the major challenge of the Tinubu administration. He is so much surrounded with sycophants who daily feed him with the impression that things are normal, when in fact, the country is going down the hills. Daren Acemoglu and James Robinson, authors of the encompassing book, ‘Why Nations Fail’, summed it that the most common reasons why nations fail is because of parasitic political and economic classes. Nigeria has had this extractive elite over the years. For them, what matters is what they derive from the system, not what they add to it. The Tinubu administration is furthering this odious culture at the detriment of the people.

Things must change for the better. It is high time the President climbed down from his axiomatic white horse to address the challenges in the country. While his presidency lasts, let him reach out to people with the relevant know-how to assist him in running the country. They must not be his party men or cheer men but those who can look at him in the face and tell him that he is not getting his acts right.