Author: Opalim Lifted

The European Union and France have shut off financial aid to Niger, and the US has threatened to do the same after military officials claimed this week that they had deposed the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum. According to the World Bank, Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world, receiving about $2 billion in official development aid every year. It is also a major security partner for Western nations such as France, the former colonial power, and the United States, which both use it as a base to combat an Islamist insurgency in West and Central Africa’s…

Kenya’s government and opposition will form a committee to settle their disagreements, senior officials from both parties announced on Saturday, following a series of opposition rallies over rising living costs and tax rises. Earlier this month, the opposition alliance Azimio la Umoja (Declaration of Unity) staged a series of rallies, producing considerable disruption and, in some cases, violent clashes with police in which more than two dozen people were murdered and hundreds were injured. Separate releases from Azimio and the governing coalition Kenya Kwanza (Kenya First) confirmed the meetings. Kimani Ichung’wah, Kenya Kwanza’s parliamentary majority leader, said in a statement…

The historic payment of an interim dividend by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited into the Federation Account less than three months into the stoppage of payment for fuel subsidy by the Federal Government has proven that Mallam Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of NNPCL, is indeed working for the good of Nigerians and the sustainability of the Nigerian oil and gas sector. On July 7, 2019, when Kyari assumed the position of Group Managing Director of the now-defunct Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the corporation was in a near-comatose state. It was laced with many challenges,…

African leaders encouraged Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to go forward with their plan to resolve the Ukraine crisis and to renew a critical arrangement for Africa on the safe wartime shipment of Ukrainian food, which Moscow ripped up last week. While they were not openly critical of Russia, their contributions on the second day of a meeting were more coordinated and strong than those made by African countries up to this point. They served as reminders of the intensity of African worry about the war’s implications, particularly rising food costs. “This war must come to an end, and…

A Japanese city discovered the hard way how incorrect they were, sparking a nationwide uproar over fliers that attempted to achieve precisely that with pregnant women. According to the municipal government’s website, Onomichi city in Japan’s Hiroshima prefecture conducted a public poll in 2017 that was used to design posters for pregnant women that were then distributed to local people. “There are differences in the way men and women feel and think,” according to one flier. “One reason for this is the structural difference between men’s and women’s brains. “Men are known to act on ideas, whereas women act on…

Justice M. Itsueli of the Edo State High Court sitting in Benin City, Edo State, on Thursday convicted and sentenced Kelvin Ifeanyi Aneke and Leonard Emmanuel Osaretin to jail for fraud. The Benin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, arraigned them on separate one-count allegations of unauthorized possession of false papers. Alleged Terrorism: Court denies Eze Ndigbo of Lagos bail They were apprehended based on information acquired about their malicious actions. During the course of the inquiry, it was found that Aneke, 23, had impersonated Calvin Hills, an American national, in order to scam unsuspecting individuals.…

UEFA has booted Juventus out of this season’s Europa League and fined them for breaking Financial Fair Play (FFP) criteria. Chelsea was also penalized by European football’s regulatory body for violating FFP guidelines by “submitting incomplete financial information.” According to UEFA the issue concerns transactions that occurred between 2012 and 2019. Juventus was penalized £17.14 million, while Chelsea was fined £8.57 million. The Italian club would only have to pay half of their sentence provided their financial records for the next three years are in order, whereas Chelsea has already agreed to pay the settlement amount. The Blues have spent…

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has announced that a supplemental polio vaccination campaign will be launched from July 29 to August 11 in order to maintain the FCT’s and Nigeria’s polio virus-free status. Mr. Malan Haruna, acting Secretary of the FCTA Health and Human Services Secretariat, disclosed this during a news conference in Abuja. The news conference was co-organized with the World Health Organisation (WHO). Haruna remembered that Nigeria has been declared free of the Wild Polio Virus by the WHO since August 25, 2020, but that a strain of the virus still remains. He believes that if the…

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Commissioner of Police, Haruna Garba, has expressed concern that some unidentified individuals use the command’s emergency phones to solicit loans from loan shark firms. He further claimed that non-state entities were intervening on the emergency lines. The CP, on the other hand, issued a warning to individuals responsible for the activities, stating that they would be prosecuted. Garba confirmed this in a statement issued on Friday by the command’s spokesman, SP Josephine Adeh. “In the same vein,” it said, “the CP enjoins non-state actors who have been engaging the Police emergency lines in their mischievous…

Conversations are raging on social media after the Super Falcons’ Asisat Oshoala pulled her top off to celebrate scoring a third goal against Australia in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. In the 72nd minute, the Barcelona attacker raced in on a defensive mix-up and beat an Australian defender for pace before sliding past the custodian from a tight angle to give the Super Falcons a 3-1 lead. The 29-year-old took off her shirt and dashed to the sideline to celebrate her goal with her colleagues, earning herself a yellow card in the process. Her iconic portrait has sparked debate…