South African football club Chippa United has placed a significant R30 million (about ₦2.3 billion in Nigerian currency) price tag on Super Eagles goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali.

Naija News reports that Nwabali unexpectedly became a standout player for the Super Eagles during the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament in Ivory Coast.

Nwabali, who made his tournament debut at the continental event, impressed everyone with his confident performance in goal, achieving four clean sheets in seven matches.

The 27-year-old player’s exceptional performance played a vital role in Nigeria’s journey to the final, where they narrowly lost to the host nation. Nwabali’s outstanding display caught the attention of various clubs worldwide.

Clubs such as Queens Park Rangers in England’s Championship, Royale Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium, Kaizer Chiefs in South Africa, and Al-Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia have all shown interest in acquiring the services of the Nigerian national team player.

According to Goal.com, the South African DStv Premiership are demanding the sum of 30 million rands for Nwabali, a price tag that has reportedly put off Kaizer Chiefs.

Nwabali’s potential move abroad seems likely, given that other clubs consider the asking price reasonable. His contract with Chippa United expires in the summer of 2026.

The real question now is whether the interested clubs are prepared to meet the substantial price set by the South African club. After his standout performance at the AFCON, the demand for the former Katsina United goalkeeper has significantly increased, making him a valuable player in the upcoming transfer window.

Dana Air has laid off several of its workers weeks after suspension by the Nigerian government.

In a statement on Saturday, the Head of Corporate Communications for the airline, Kingsley Ezen, blamed the development on the ongoing audit by the Nigerian regulatory authorities.

“In light of the ongoing audit, Dana Air has decided to temporarily disengage some staff members pending the conclusion of the audit,” Ezenwa said.

“The Management of Dana Air extends its sincere appreciation to all staff members for their resilience and dedication during this period of uncertainty. It recognises the difficulties that staff have had to endure and assures them that every effort is being made to resolve the situation promptly,” it added.

Recall that on April 24, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority suspended the Air Operators Certificate of Dana Air 24 hours after the airline’s plane from Abuja landed at the Lagos airport runway and veered off into a nearby field.

Reacting to the development, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, said the airline has been operating in an unhealthy status.

After a five-day search, rescue authorities in Lagos State found a Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), worker, Tajudeen Amololo, dead.

Naija News had earlier reported that one of the workers with the LAMATA, was on Monday, trapped in an underground drainage at the Onipanu area of the state while trying to clean the debris.

It was learnt that the male adult worker was part of the team working on dislodging and evacuating waste from the underground drainage in the area.

Although rescue agencies had initiated a search and rescue operation, the drainage worker unfortunately passed away after five days.

“After five days of painstaking, tedious, and energy-sapping operation, the team remained determined on focused on the rescue operation. At about 5:53 pm on Friday 10th May 2024 the victim was recovered dead from the underground drainage/tunnel.

“The recovered body was immediately bagged by the Agency’s officials and handed over to LAMATA Drain Ducks,” the Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) Olufemi Damilola Oke-Osanyintolu said in an update.

After the incident, LASEMA recommended that safety measures be implemented in the operations of the drain ducks.

The Naira’s woes against the US dollar continued as the currency lost a significant N160 in seven days at the foreign exchange market.

Mistila Dayyabu, a Bureau De Change operator in Wuse Zone 4, told DAILY POST that the Naira was sold at N1450 per Dollar on Friday compared to N1,290 the same day last week.

In the parallel market section, the Naira lost a whooping N160 weekly. 

Similarly, FMDQ data showed that the Naira closed at N1466.31 per dollar on Friday compared to N1400.40 it traded last Friday.

This represents an N65.91 or N4.5 per cent Naira depreciation against the dollar weekly.

The development comes despite the daily turnover of dollars settling at $113 million on Friday from $84.38 the previous day.

After weeks of decline, Nigeria’s foreign reserve surged to $32.369 billion as of May 6, 2024.

The Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, has made an announcement regarding his plans to arrange the marriages of 100 female orphans who tragically lost their parents in a series of banditry attacks.

Sarkindaji shared this information with journalists in Minna, the state capital, on Friday, stating that as part of his commitment to this cause, he will cover the dowries for the bridegrooms and has already obtained all the necessary materials for the mass marriage ceremony.

Naija News learnt that the selection process for the girls who will be married off was conducted meticulously from a pool of 170 girls whose names were submitted.

However, Sarkindaji did not disclose the age range of the orphaned girls who hail from Mariga Local Government Area of the state.

Representing the Mariga Constituency, the Speaker considers this initiative a vital part of his constituency empowerment project, which has the primary goal of alleviating the suffering of the impoverished.

To ensure the well-being of the female orphans during the mass marriage ceremony, the Niger State Governor, Mohammed Umar Bago, and the Emir of Kontagora, Alhaji Mohammed Barau, have graciously agreed to serve as their guardians.

Furthermore, the event, scheduled for May 24 at Bangi, the headquarters of Mariga Local Government Area, will be attended by Sheikh Aminu Daurawa, the Kano State Commander General of the Hisbah Board.

Nigeria’s sports development suffered a major derailment between 2004 and 2006.

That situation sustains till now, unfortunately.

This sad state of affairs was created inadvertently by government (the Ministry of Sports) in the process of trying to stop a ‘rebel’ group in Nigerian football that wanted to perpetuate itself in office, and halt government’s seeming control of football leadership in the country.

The product of that ‘confrontation’ created a ‘virus’ that has infected all other sports federations and even the architecture of sports administration in the country.

In short, the struggle for control of the leadership of the Nigeria Football Association during the elections of 2004/2006 is the root cause of the ineffectiveness of essential interventions by the sports ministry since then to stimulate development.

Needless to go into the minute details of that event here even though a brief summary will provide some background to my position.

In 2004 to 2006, the Ministry of Sports was tied in knots. Its power was rendered impotent by Ibrahim Galadima who was drawing power from the Independence clause in the then constitution of the NFA to outlaw any external interference (including by the NFA’s primary funder, the government) in its affairs as a means to reinstating himself as Chairman. With FIFA’s threat dangled over Nigeria’s head should the government interfere, Galadima temporarily had his way, reinstalled himself, but drew government’s ire in the process. That confrontation cost Nigeria a World Cup ticket, and tied down Nigerian football from any major development for the next two years.

No one fights government and wins. Galadima was not going to be an exception.

In order to regain some control, the sports ministry, under the guidance of the most powerful administrator in Nigeria’s sports history at the time, Dr. Amos Adamu, planned and executed a coup d’état. His ‘people’ infiltrated the NFA, got some ‘rebel’ members to force a re-visit of the constitution of the Association, introduced some new strategic political rules, and, aided by Nigeria’s loss of a World Cup qualification with Angola from a misjudgement by Galadima, successfully conducted new elections and removed Galadima.

That story will be properly told one day by anyone of Fanny Amun, Amanze Uchegbulam, Abba Yola, Sani Lulu, and so on, all principal actors in that government action.

Unfortunately, although government achieved its objective, it came with a high cost, a massive amendment to the correct structures and constitution of the NFA. With that ‘victory’, government inadvertently created a new knot that the even the government itself has been able to untie since then. The knot became cancerous, spreading to the entire sports apparatus, including the Nigerian Olympic Committee, that prides itself as fully independent of government. That’s the product of applying a purely political pill to cure a technical problem in Nigerian sports.

Since then, from election to election in several sports associations now, the civil courts are being brought into the picture to untie the resultant political knots without much success.

So, returning to the proper order of sports administration since then has become impossible. The strategic ‘illegality’ introduced to oust Galadima has become the norm. Its creator, the federal government, through successive Ministers, has been grappling without success to understand why the Ministry finds it difficult to align its vision with those of sports associations that have become recalcitrant and seemingly untouchable. With the exit of several old staff in the ministry from service the situation gets worse with time.

Elections into the Federation boards have become convoluted, complicated, expensive, political campaigns (even with rallies) and movement of election venues on the basis of political strength, State government funding of particular interests, etc. ‘Wrong’ has now become ‘Right’, with unending crisis. Sports are the worse for it.

A body of ‘experts’ set up under the guidance of Amos Adamu, tampered with and re-wrote a new constitution for the Nigerian Football Association in order to achieve the new numbers of delegates that can vote and oust Galadima. The body took a new political route of using the State Sports Associations to carry out the hatchet job.

The State associations were actually non-registered administrative bodies created by States using the National Federation guidelines to conduct football activities at State level. At best, they attended the annual General Assembly meetings of the Nigeria Football Association along with other members, affiliates, stakeholders and even an invited public.

As a group of State associations, they had only one vote in the election of the Chairman of the NFA, like every other member.

In 2006, the State football associations were suddenly empowered to the status of full, independent individual membership of the National Association without any justification other than the optics of being like an arm of the National Association. This move made each of the State associations a full member of the NFA, a member of the General Assembly and a member of the electoral body!

Think of it this way. Each State Coaches Association to become a full member of the NFA. Or the State associations of the Referees.

With their new number in the membership of the National Association increased from one (or two, when Secretaries were even admitted into it in another political dispensation) to 37, or 74 at a time, ordinary administrative affiliates, without any business at the national level, became full individual members of the national Federation. They now determined who became the Chairman. They took over the reign of governance and sports development.

They simply used their new numbers to vote out Galadima, and terminated his ambition as well as his regime.

That’s how administrative affiliate bodies became full, individual members of the NFA.

Meanwhile, that whole process of making State Football Associations to become full members was wrong and illegal.

The activities of State sports associations do not go beyond the States. Expanding their status, place and roles as direct, full members of the National Federations was and continues to be the Achilles heel of sports development in Nigeria. It was a grave mistake in the story of sports administration in the country.

Simply put, every national sports association (federation) is made up of the following full and independent members (existing, or when they eventually exist):

1. One rep. of each of the Leagues (any number of them that are registered for competitions)
2. Rep. of the national body of Coaches
3. Rep. of the national body of Referees
4. Rep. of the national body of Schools
5. Rep. of NAPHER
6. Rep. of the national body of Football Academies (when they are registered)

Other admissible stakeholders and affiliates are:

A representative of the Ministry of Sports, a representative of the national body of Players, a representative of the national body of State Sports Associations (called Chairman of Chairmen), and one representative of any other stakeholders registered by the federation or recognised.

It is these representatives, all elected by their different constituencies, that shall form the board of the national sports federations and shall from amongst themselves elect a Chairman or President without the shenanigans of political manipulations and brazen illegalities.

The process of electing a Chairman or President will become equitable, inexpensive, without any room for open political manipulations. The constitution must once again be amended to restore order and legality, removing what obviously was constructed to serve a special purpose in 2004 in Port Harcourt. It has served that purpose and must now be discarded.

The Minister must be strategic in approaching this subject matter.

Without addressing and solving it, his dreams of advancing the cause of sports will be hinged not on his plans but on the whims of State Sports association chairman that control the levers outside the proper national federations with which his ministry interacts.

My postulation, of course, requires interrogation and careful examination by the Minister for verification of the claims that I make. The Minister should set up a committee to do so immediately, with some time still available before new elections into boards. This way he will avoid the endless cycle of conflicts, and restore justice, equity and order to sports administration and development in Nigeria.

I know I am stirring the hornet’s nest by this piece, but truth must be told, even if nothing will be done!

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has issued a strong warning to foreign missions operating in Nigeria, prohibiting them from conducting transactions in foreign currencies and requiring them to use the Naira for their financial activities.

Furthermore, the EFCC has instructed Nigerian foreign missions located abroad to accept the Naira for their financial operations.

The EFCC said this decision becomes necessary to combat the dollarization of the Nigerian economy and the devaluation of the Naira.

In an advisory titled “EFCC Advisory to Foreign Missions against Invoicing in US Dollar,” sent to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, the anti-graft commission expressed its concerns and dissatisfaction with the practice of some foreign missions invoicing consular services to Nigerians and other foreign nationals in the country using the United States dollar.

In a letter dated April 5, 2024, addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Chairman of the EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, expressed disappointment regarding the invoicing of consular services in Nigeria in dollars by foreign missions.

The EFCC referred to Section 20(1) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007, which designates the currencies issued by the central bank as the only legal tender in Nigeria.

The letter read, “I present to you the compliments of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and wish to notify you about the commission’s observation, with dismay, regarding the unhealthy practice by some foreign missions to invoice consular services to Nigerians and other foreign nationals in the country in United States dollar ($).

“This practice is an aberration and unlawful as it conflicts with extant laws and financial regulations in Nigeria. Section 20(1) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007 makes currencies issued by the apex bank the only legal tender in Nigeria.

“It states that ‘the currency notes issued by the Bank shall be the legal tender in Nigeria on their face value for the payment of any amount’.

“This presupposes that any transaction in currencies other than the naira anywhere in Nigeria contravenes the law and is, therefore, illegal.

“In light of the above, you may wish to convey the commission’s displeasure to all missions in Nigeria and restate Nigeria’s desire for their operations not to conflict with extant laws and regulations in the country.”

The EFCC recently announced its plan to clamp down on schools, hotels, supermarkets, and other business outfits in Nigeria that charge customers in dollars and other foreign currencies.

The EFCC said such action is unacceptable as it puts pressure on the Naira.

The EFCC Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, emphasized that it is against the law for business outfits and organizations to charge and accept foreign currencies including dollars, pounds, yen and others for such local transactions

According to him, the anti-graft agency has set up a task force of 7,000 individuals to tackle dollar fraudsters and other illegal foreign exchange transactions in the country.

“The task force is not just to monitor naira abuse alone but for the whole economy. So, the EFCC is working to ensure that those breaking the rules find their way back to the right path so that the wrath of the law will not be on them.

“Yes, everyone knows that it is illegal to charge in other denominations apart from the naira. Whether in Chinese or American currency, any transaction that is not denominated in naira in Nigeria, the EFCC is against it.

“So, the task force is in place to check that and Nigerians should be happy about that. It is not just schools, hotels but other entities across the country that are doing this must come back to the naira as our legal tender.’’

“Naira is the symbol of our economy and everything that has to do with the economy in Nigeria must be done in naira,” Oyewale told Punch on Thursday.

An undergraduate student at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso in Oyo State, simply identified as Adedokun Olamilekan was stabbed to death by yet-to-be-identified people at the Under G area in the town on Thursday night.

Olamilekan, a 200-level student of the Department of Information Science, was said to be running a business outfit known as Dcrown Unisex Salon at Under G before he was murdered by his assailants during an argument.

He was reportedly stabbed by yet-to-be-identified colleagues and later rushed to a nearby hospital, where he gave up the ghost.

One person who witnessed the incident said, “He was rushed immediately to the nearest hospital where he was confirmed dead.

“The case has been reported to Owode Police Station, Ogbomoso, Oyo state.”

All efforts to get the state Police Public Relations Officer, Adewale Osifeso’s reactions were unsuccessful as his telephone mobile number was not reachable.

Also, the Public Relations Officer of the institution, Fadeyi was not reachable as of press time.

A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has barred the Speaker of the state Assembly loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike, and the other 24 lawmakers from parading as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly.

Justice Charles N. Wali gave this order in a case in suit number PHC/1512/CS/2024, filled by Victor Oko Jumbo (Speaker, Rivers State House of Assembly) Sokari Goodboy, Orubienimigha Timothy, members of the Assembly.

The suit is against Martin Amaewhule and 24 others, the Governor of Rivers State, the Attorney General of the state, and the Chief Judge of the state.

Wali, following the motion ex parte, and after hearing from Sammie A. Somiari, SAN with B. N. Owunabo, Esq, and others for the claimants/applicants, entered that Amaewhule should stop acting as lawmakers.

Recall that Amaewhule and the other 24 of his colleagues had defected from the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, on which they were elected to the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Also Read: Rivers Crisis: Fubara has committed impeachable offences, Ganduje’s APC NWC declares
Wali also ordered that Rivers government stop dealing with the said lawmakers as their seats have remained vacant after they defected from the PDP that produced them.

The order

The order read: “An Order of interim injunction is granted restraining the 1st to 25th Defendants from parading and holding out themselves as members of Rivers State House of Assembly and/or meeting/sitting at the auditorium of the House of Assembly Quarters located at off Aba Road, Port Harcourt, or any other place whatsoever to purport to carry out the legislative business of the Rivers State House of Assembly, their legislative seats having been declared vacant pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice.

“An order of interim injunction is, hereby, made restraining the 26th to 28th Defendants from dealing with, interfacing, accepting any resolutions, bills and/or howsoever interacting with the 1st to 25th Defendants in their purported capacities as members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, their legislative seats having been declared vacant with effect from 13th December, 2023 pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice.

“It is further Ordered that this Order, the Motion on Notice and the writ and other processes, in this case, be served on the 1st to 25th defendants/respondents within seven (7) days from date by substituted means to wit: by pasting at the entrance gate of the Rivers State House of Assembly Legislative Quarters, Off Aba Road, Port Harcourt and for such service to be deemed good and proper.”

The court adjourned the Rivers lawmakers case till May 29 for Motion on Notice.

President Bola Tinubu has conferred the national honour of Grand Commander of the Order of Niger (GCON), on the Awujale and Paramount ruler of Ijebuland, Oba Dr. Sikiru Kayode Adetona,

for his immeasurable and invaluable contributions to national development.

The President who was represented by his Vice, Alhaji Kashim Shettima Friday at the Olabisi Onabanjo University ,Ago Iwoye, for a book presentation on “Reinventing Governance in Nigeria”, as part of activities marking his 64th coronation as a Paramount ruler and 90th birthday.

The ceremony also featured the inauguration of Oba Sikiru Adetona School of Governance, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.

The President also announced that the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos has been directed to take over the management of Oba Sikiru Adetona School of Governance which the royal father bequeathed to the university.

He described Awujale as an extraordinary royal father and hero of Nigeria democracy, who is adored all over the country for his sincerity of purpose and courage in the face of any adversity threatening national development.