9javariety

The Final of the 2021 Principals Cup Football competition takes place on Tuesday at the Stephen Keshi Stadium, Asaba, with defending champions, College of Commerce, Warri, out to emerge the first team to win the tournament back-to-back. The developmental football fiesta organized for all secondary schools in Delta State is in its 5th edition courtesy of the partnership between Zenith Bank PLC, the sponsors, and the state government. College of Commerce will meet with Osadenis Mixed Secondary School in an encounter that promises fireworks based on the form of both teams in the competition this year. To get to the final, College Of Commerce were forced into a ‘marathon’ penalty shootout by Ovwor Mixed Secondary School after the full time score stood at 1-1. In an encounter decided at the Valley Stream British Academy school pitch in Sapele, the two teams went on a scoring spree during the shootout which eventually ended with a 21-20 victory for School of Commerce. Osadenis Mixed Se...

Quadri Aruna’s history making run at the 2021 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships in Houston has come to an end following a 4-2 loss to Sweden’s Truls Moregard in the quarterfinals of the Men’s Singles. The Nigerian who had earlier in the round of 16 defeated a Swedish Kristian Karlsson bemoaned his inability to tame the young and skillful 19-year-old Swede after falling behind in the first two games of the 4-2 (13-11, 11-8, 2-11, 11-4, 12-14, 11-7) loss in the quarter finals. “I think I did very well, I gave my heart and soul but the last match was not meant to be,” Aruna admitted. “The first two sets were really important, we started like 50-50, the first set I was like 10-8 and I lost, the second set too I lost with almost the same margin. The two sets made the biggest difference but of course he played amazingly,” the Nigerian said. Aruna was hoping to consolidate on his impressive run so far at the championships; however, he missed a chance to convert while leading 10-8, giv...

From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja What will President Muhammadu Buhari do with the Electoral Act Amendment Bill? Will he assent to it or decline assent and return it to the National Assembly for more legislative work? The National Assembly and governors have been on a warpath over the inclusion of direct primaries as the only mode of nominating candidates for elective positions by political parties, in the bill, which was passed by the parliament earlier in the month. On November 19, the National Assembly formally transmitted the bill to President Buhari for his assent; thereby effectively shifting the battle over the proposed electoral law to the Presidency. While the lawmakers argue that direct primaries will help to entrench internal democracy in political parties, the governors believe that direct primaries are not in the best interest of the country’s democracy. However, beyond the public discourse, inside sources say the direct primaries imbroglio is more or less a battle of survi...

By Sunday Ani Amidst growing clamour for Nigeria’s breakup by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Yoruba nation self-determination group, an Igbo professor based in the United States of America, Chuka Onwumechili, has said that only a properly restructured Nigeria would assuage the feelings of agitation for a breakup and set Nigeria on the path of rapid growth and development. Onwumechili, a professor at the Howard University, Washington DC, United States of America, appealed to the Igbo to explore other means of pushing through their demands from the Nigerian government, stressing that as a people who are predominantly businessmen, Nigeria as a corporate entity, would offer a larger market for them to thrive better. In a zoom interview with select journalists, he talks about the benefits of a restructured Nigeria and the need for the proponents of the country’s breakup to sheathe their swords among others. The call for restructuring has dominated the political discours...

By Chukwudi Nweje Secretary-General of the Lower Niger Congress (LNC), an aggregation of several self-determination ethnic nationalities spread across the pre-1966 Eastern and Midwestern Regions of Nigeria, Tony Nnadi in this interview speaks on the insecurity situation in the country. The LNC scribe who is also the co-convener of the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS) which recently protested in front of the United Nations building in New York also discussed how the 1999 constitution sustains insecurity in the country. NINAS held a protest at the United Nations in New York in September to among other things call the international community’s attention to the need for a referendum to determine the future of Nigeria. How do you rate the outcome of the protest? We have a plan and anybody asking how things are going would do the little homework of looking at what our plan is, it is in writing and available on our website. We had a 20-year-plan ...

From Gyang Bere, Jos The Department of State Services (DSS) has raised the alarm over plans by terrorists to attack military bases in border towns across the country. The secret agency also put the Nigeria Customs Service on red alert to avert the pending attacks by the insurgents on Ogun border communities and other border towns across the country, noting that the warning is based on intelligence it gathered. In a leaked memo dated November 25, 2021 and addressed to the Customs Area Controller, Nigeria Customs Service, Ogun Area Command, Abeokuta, the DSS advised customs and other security agencies in the country to put counter-measures in place to frustrate the plot by the insurgents. In the leaked memo was stamped and received by the CAC’s office the same day. The leaked document was titled, ‘Plans By Insurgents To Launch Attacks On Military Bases In Various Border Communities.’ “Available intelligence indicates plans by insurgents and criminal elements to carry out simultan...

From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan and Charity Nwakaudu Abuja THe Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has cautioned the Federal Government against further aggravating the suffering of Nigerians through the proposed subsidy removal. Its President, Bishop Wale Oke, noted that the implementation of such a policy could increase the hardship being experienced, especially by the masses. He also contended that the planned introduction of N5,000 for 40million poor Nigerians would create a cesspool of corruption. This caution was contained in a statement by his Media Office, and made available to journalists in Ibadan, the Oyo State, yesterday. Oke, who is the Presiding Bishop of the Sword of the Spirit Ministries international, with headquarters in Ibadan, lamented that prices of consumables and other items were increasingly becoming out of reach, noting that if the proposed subsidy removal is effected, it would heighten the hardship. “Everybody will feel it, particularly the underprivilege...