The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • Abiodun Olayinka Osuntokun: 20 years after

    Abiodun Olayinka Osuntokun: 20 years after

    My birthday is the 26th of April. I always dread the coming of my birthday, not because of the fear of adding another year to my life, but because it always reminds me of the date my wife passed on.

     I always remember her calling on my daughter, Tosin, from her sick bed to buy a card for her for my birthday.

    I also remember telling her that it was the least of my worries and letting her know how unimportant my birthday was to me seeing how sick she was. The last card she gave me was followed by her death a week later on the 3rd of May 2003.What a dark and terrible day!

    What happened to my wife changed my life forever. She was just 55. Our children were going through university and were scheduled to graduate one after another. She and I had planned that when our children would have gone through college, we would take out time to go on honeymoon on a cruise ship because when we got married, we were students without much spare money to think of the traditional honeymoon.

    I was finishing my PhD in Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada, while my wife was in her second year of a B.Sc. degree in the Sciences. She had had to change from Pharmacy, which was reserved for students coming from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

    She had moved from the then University of Ife to join me in Canada at a very tender age. She sacrificed her career of becoming a pharmacist to join me in Canada because of the love we shared. I loved her intensely, almost insanely, if I am to be honest.  Some people said I was too possessive! I plead guilty to that charge. She too loved me very much, and she always made me know this in her inimitable way.

    I met the girl who became my wife for the first time in a multitude of more than a hundred thousand people. We both came to Apapa wharf in 1964 to welcome relatives returning by boat to Nigeria after the completion of their studies in the United Kingdom. I was welcoming a brother while she was in a party welcoming a cousin.

    Unlike today, Nigerians returned home by boat after the end of their studies abroad. Somehow, the Almighty made me meet this adorable girl by divine arrangement or accidental occurrence. As soon as I met her, I covenanted with God that if she agreed to marry me, she definitely was the person I would marry. Imagine me saying this about somebody I had never met and did not know and was not sure she wanted to have anything to do with me. 

    This is why I have always felt all marriages were ordained by God. I was very shy then, and did not usually talk to girls because our educational system ensured girls went to girls’ schools and boys did the opposite and the two must never meet. Our relationship with the opposite sex was rather adversarial.

     I was in my second year at the University of Ibadan, and my “dream girl” was in high school at Saint Anne’s School, Ibadan. To cut a long story short, we courted for almost five years before we got married.

    We got married in Canada in 1969 and when I finished my PhD in 1970, I moved to the University of Western Ontario, where I was appointed Assistant Professor to teach commonwealth studies. I had to move my wife to my new university to finish her studies. By this time, we had had a daughter, Fola. Since my job was to fill the gap created by somebody who went on Sabbatical leave for a year, the university was not able to keep me, so I went to the University of the West Indies in Barbados, leaving my wife behind but carrying Fola, my one-year-old bundle of joy with me to Barbados. Later, my wife joined us there.

    We could have either permanently settled in Canada, or in the West Indies, where I had bank credit to buy a house, but we did not because we were eager to come back home to our parents, me to my mother, and my wife to her mother and father, as it was in those days, because parents never wanted their children to be out of reach and touch for too long.

    We returned home in 1972, and I was part of the young academics who founded the University of Ibadan, Jos campus. From that time until 2003, we had a blissful marriage, with one year spent apart when my wife was trying to take a postgraduate diploma in Library Science at the University of Ibadan while I was in Jos.

    We had our own share of inadequate medical services which led to two premature deliveries. God, however, blessed our marriage with four children, now adults, namely, Folasade, Oluwatosin, Oluwaseyi and Yewande. We spent about nine years in Maiduguri and Lagos working at universities, and close to nine years abroad in Canada, the USA and Germany doing what I will call “national service.”

     When we returned to Nigeria, she decided not to work for government, but for God, as she put it, as a non-stipendiary pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God where she was the founding pastor at Jesus chancery No 1 Awolowo Road Bodija Ibadan in 1998. She was consumed with the work and she had no time for any other thing.

    In order to avoid trouble, I tagged along with her in the work of God that my wife was doing. As the Yoruba people say, the shell of a snail follows the snail wherever it goes! It was while there that she began to struggle with bad health until we went to Dublin, first in 2002, and again in 2003, where her second daughter was a medical doctor. I did not know the nature of her illness. She was being treated for malaria locally here in Nigeria. It was in Dublin that I found out how serious her ailment was. She had surgeries, but in the end I lost her. I could not believe it.

    Her last weeks and days made me reassess the meaninglessness of human struggle. I watched the beautiful angel I had married go down the slippery slope to death, and I could not do anything about it, and all the doctors and their equipment and their goodwill in the teaching hospital in Dublin could not save my wife. She and I waited for her death to come, and it came like a thief in the night. When she breathed her last breath, the beauty of the past returned with freshness to her dead body. I had never experienced the agony of death so closely and so intimately before.

    I got all kinds of advice about how to move on. But getting married again was not easy, and those who genuinely loved me and advised me to do this could not understand.

    Some even said, rather darkly, that if I did not have a woman as a help mate, my life would be cut short. It is now 20 years and I am still alive! Love is irreplaceable, and only those involved can understand the pain in the heart of a widow or widower.

    I see my wife in the physical appearances of my children and in their mannerisms, and I am consoled by that fact. I also believe in the Bible that because my wife was a believer in the sonship of Jesus she will live forever despite her physical death. I know I will see her again when God calls me. For now, life goes on even though life has not been easy in these 20 years of me flying with one wing instead of two.

  • Emefiele and his ill-conceived new naira policy

    Emefiele and his ill-conceived new naira policy

    Sir: Nothing can be more painful than what appears like a deliberate policy to deceive unsuspecting Nigerians, particularly since the perpetrator of the subterfuge believes every other person is a fool.

    The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, plunged millions of Nigerians into needless pain and suffering as a result of the cash-swap policy necessitated by the redesigning of the national currency, the naira. Small-scale business owners lost billions of naira because of Emefiele’s new naira policy.

    The policy does not appear to be carefully considered and planned. Nigerians were taken aback towards the end of last year when the CBN governor announced the naira swap policy. But he did not give enough time frame for a seamless swap of the old notes for the new ones.

    Unfortunately, Nigerians willingly submitted their old notes only to discover that the new notes were not enough to go round. It was only later that they discovered the real motive for the introduction of the new currency.

    That was when the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was then the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), raised the alarm over the real motive for the introduction of the new notes. He made the disclosure during his campaign in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Afterwards, some APC governors began to take necessary steps to save the nation from being plunged into anarchy.

    Emefiele duped Nigerians by asking them to submit their old naira notes to commercial banks for new notes. But the moment that was done, he locked up the people’s hard-earned money and refused to release new notes to them because there were no new notes.

    Read Also: Emefiele: haunted by the disappearing naira

    That was the beginning of the people’s travail. As a consequence, some banks in various cities were burnt by frustrated Nigerians who could not access their money. It was a near-total breakdown of law and order, and Emefiele watched the country head for the precipice.

    Only a cold-blooded human being with evil intentions could watch fellow citizens go through what they were subjected to by the CBN. Yet, the CBN governor refused to be moved or to heed the call to allow people access to their money in commercial banks. 

    Emefiele, I believe, deceived President Muhammadu Buhari about the perceived benefits of the policy, which presumably was calculated to prevent the likes of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, from buying votes. Unfortunately, both Buhari and Emefiele did not consider the adverse effect of such a hastily introduced policy on Nigerians. 

    Today, Nigerians are still struggling with the negative effects of the policy. Despite the intervention of the highest court in the land whose judgement he initially refused to obey until he was compelled by the leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), the CBN governor does not believe he owes Nigerians any explanation about the real motive for the policy.

    Incidentally, his name, Emefiele means “Do not sin.” When this is juxtaposed with his first name, Godwin, it makes a statement. The meaning is that evil will never triumph over good. The bearer of the name ought to know better. Unfortunately, he refused to be guided by his name.

    Thus, Emefiele chose the path of infamy, believing that evil will triumph over good.

    Therefore, the recent announcement by the CBN Acting Director of Corporate Communications, Isa Abdulmumim, debunking the alleged move to suspend the introduction of the new notes is not a cheery one. The damage has already been done.

    Emefiele and his collaborators should be made to understand that Nigerians no longer need his new notes, which have disappeared from circulation anyway. The CBN governor should be told that it is time he left Nigerians alone; they will manage the old notes in circulation until the President-elect takes over and takes steps to remedy the situation.

    Emefiele should keep his new notes and stop playing politics with the well-being of the masses. In saner climes, he would have been made to explain what went wrong.

    •Ifeonu Okolo,

    Asaba, Delta State

  • Nigerians burdened by inflation, healthcare costs

    Nigerians burdened by inflation, healthcare costs

    Sir: Nigeria, like many other countries, is currently facing a significant challenge in dealing with high inflation rates, which have had a profound impact on the cost of living. This economic phenomenon has not spared the healthcare sector, as out-of-pocket medical expenditure continues to burden individuals and families across the nation.

    Inflation, characterised by a sustained increase in the general price level of goods and services, has been a growing concern in Nigeria. Recent years have witnessed a surge in inflationary pressures, driven by various factors such as rising food prices, currency depreciation, supply chain disruptions, and fiscal challenges. As a result, the cost of essential commodities, including healthcare services, has risen significantly, amplifying the financial strain on the population.

    One area where the impact of inflation is acutely felt is in out-of-pocket medical expenditure. Nigeria’s healthcare system relies heavily on this mode of payment, with a large proportion of the population lacking access to health insurance or formal social protection schemes. As a result, individuals and families are forced to bear the full burden of healthcare costs, including consultations, medications, diagnostic tests, hospitalisation, and surgeries.

    The escalating cost of healthcare has led to a worrisome situation where many Nigerians are unable to afford essential medical services, especially those with limited financial means. This predicament often forces individuals to postpone or forgo necessary medical treatment, compromising their health outcomes and well-being. The consequences can be severe, particularly for vulnerable populations and those with chronic conditions requiring ongoing care.

    Furthermore, the combination of high inflation and rising out-of-pocket medical expenditure exacerbates existing socioeconomic inequalities in Nigeria. Low-income households are disproportionately affected, as they struggle to allocate a significant portion of their already limited resources to meet their healthcare needs. This vicious cycle perpetuates disparities in access to quality healthcare, leaving marginalised communities even more vulnerable and marginalised.

    In a bid to improve healthcare access and coverage, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has embarked on an innovative project aimed at galvanising enrolment for health insurance. The initiative, which spans the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and seven focal states—Bauchi, Sokoto, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Imo, Ekiti, and Rivers—utilises town hall meetings to educate and mobilise citizens towards embracing health insurance schemes.

    Town Hall meetings have proven to be an effective tool in engaging communities and fostering dialogue on various social issues. Leveraging this platform, the CSJ has organised a series of meetings across the selected states, bringing together community leaders, healthcare professionals, government representatives, and citizens from all walks of life. These meetings serve as a catalyst for raising awareness, debunking myths, and disseminating accurate information about health insurance.

    By facilitating open discussions, the CSJ project promotes community participation and ensures that citizens’ voices are heard. Attendees have the opportunity to share their experiences, concerns, and expectations regarding health insurance. This invaluable feedback helps shape the implementation of the project and contributes to designing more inclusive and people-centered health insurance policies.

    In addition to town hall meetings, the CSJ project leverages various communication channels to reach a wider audience. This includes radio broadcasts, television appearances and collaborations with local influencers and community-based organisations. These efforts aim to ensure that every citizen, regardless of their background or location, receives comprehensive information about health insurance and understands the importance of enrolling.

    The impact of the CSJ project is already becoming evident, with a significant increase in health insurance enrollment in the targeted regions. The town hall meetings have served as powerful platforms for mobilising communities, fostering trust, and dismantling barriers to enrollment. As a result, more individuals and families are gaining access to essential healthcare services, reducing the burden of out-of-pocket expenses, and improving their overall well-being.

    While the CSJ project focuses on the FCT and seven focal states, its success highlights the potential of using town hall meetings and community engagement strategies to promote health insurance enrollment nationwide. The lessons learned from this initiative can serve as a blueprint for other organisations, policymakers, and stakeholders working towards achieving universal health coverage in Nigeria.

    Indeed, investments in primary healthcare infrastructure and facilities are also essential to alleviate the reliance on costly secondary and tertiary care services. By strengthening the primary healthcare system, preventive and early intervention measures can be emphasised, reducing the need for expensive treatments and hospitalisations.

    Moreover, public awareness campaigns are vital to educate citizens about the importance of financial planning, savings, and seeking appropriate healthcare coverage. Encouraging individuals to embrace health insurance schemes, and facilitating their enrolment, will go a long way in reducing the reliance on out-of-pocket payments and mitigating the impact of inflation on healthcare costs.

     •Victor Okeke,

     Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) Nigeria

  • Electrifying commuting

    Electrifying commuting

    Lagos State continues to play the role of trail blazer in the country, and sometimes in the sub-continent. While the state is still under the blaze of its new train display, the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, announced the delivery of a batch of electric trains, the first not only in the country but also in West Africa.

    “I am excited to announce the first set of electric buses in the Lagos Mass Transit Master Plan as part of our increased effort to modernise every sector of Lagos. Thanks to our partnership with @Oando PLC, Lagosians can expect a cleaner and greener public transportation in Lagos State,” said Governor Sanwo-Olu.

    This is a 21st century innovation that will not only ply the road for comfort but also disrupt the way we look at mobility in this part of the world.

    “Our new electric buses will not only reduce carbon emissions but will also increase efficiency. This means that Lagosians can say goodbye to high fuel costs and hello to cost-efficient transportation,” Governor Sanwo-Olu explained.

    The buses are charged and belong to a different breed and generation from the ones with which Lagosians are familiar in their great appetite for carbon as it guzzles much fuel and gushes fumes into the atmosphere.

    Each bus has the power at full charge to travel for 280 kilometres. This is a great real estate to cover since the normal travel distance for the bus a day is 200 kilometres. It is not only a triumph for movement but of technology.

    It shows what happens when governments work with companies to bring democratic dividends to the people. Also involved is the Lagos State Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) that works with the Oando Clean Energy Limited to ensure its smooth running.

    Read Also: Lockdown: Lagos mass transit trains won’t resume yet – NRC

    The company that brought the buses saw it as a watershed moment. The chief executive of Yutong West Africa, Frank Lee stated: “This is a watershed moment for Yutong. It’s our first delivery of electric mass transit buses in Sub-Saharan Africa and the first step in the large-scale deployment of an electric powered public road transport system in Nigeria.

    The partnership is part of a vision that includes the electric buses, charging stations and other support infrastructure. Public malls and gas stations will host the charging points.

    The state hopes to establish an assembly plant for electric buses with its implication for economies of scale and accessibility.

    Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Frederic Oladeinde, says “a key component of this strategy was identifying and developing a more robust mass transit system for Lagos that would include rail and waterways amongst others. Using electricity to power mass transit is a step in the right direction, and from there we would gradually transit to private cars.”

    It also eyes a net zero regime by 2060. This is the first in the country, which makes it a guinea pig project. But other states in the country should borrow a leaf from the Lagos experiment. Lagos is the most industrialised in the country, and it is now conscious of the global trend to decarbonise. That means improved air quality, better health for its citizens, a potential to employ 3,000 drivers and 2,000 other workers for maintenance, to manage depot. It is expected to cut costs for as much as $2.6 billion, 3.6 percent of the state’s GDP.

    Lagos will see this as a phasing out of the present fuel guzzling buses and normalising a green transportation era.

    Governor sanwo-Olu said it is part of the move to make Lagos a smart city. We agree.

  • NDDC rail project

    NDDC rail project

    Sir: I wholeheartedly support the signing of the $15 billion Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Public Private Partnership (PPP) by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and a US-based company, Atlanta Global Resources, to construct a rail link to all states in the oil-rich Niger Delta region. The Niger Delta region is made up of nine states, namely Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Rivers, and Imo states.

    NDDC was created by the administration of former president Olusegun Obasanjo in 2000 with the sole mandate of developing the Niger Delta. Before NDDC, we had the Oil Minerals Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC), which was established in 1993 under the chairmanship of Albert Horsfall. The defunct OMPADEC, and its successor agency, the NDDC, have been plagued by corruption and inefficiency.

     Several NDDC administrations have tried their best, but they still fell short of the core mission envisioned for the commission. The proposed rail project is a rare opportunity for the agency to redeem itself in the eyes of the public, live up to its mandate, and justify the trillions of naira that have been allocated to it over the last two decades.

    Nigeria is largely dependent on the export of crude oil and needs stability in the oil-rich region. The rail project, if successfully executed, would be a major leap to development for the region. It would also create jobs for the teeming youths, thereby curbing militancy and agitations.

     The NDDC must do its utmost to ensure that the project becomes a reality. It must avoid the pitfalls of past projects which have become moribund. Strategic planning, commitment, functional roadmaps, and good management are a sine qua non if this project must be successful.

    The NDDC must involve critical stakeholders across the nine Niger Delta states in this project. Political leaders, traditional leaders, youth leaders, union leaders, religious leaders, etc. must be carried along to avoid this project becoming a victim of the “Nigerian factor.”

    The state houses of assembly and the national assembly should provide oversight functions and the legislative framework necessary to the success of the rail project.

    •Peter Ovie Akus,

    akuspeter@gmail.com

  • Bad timing

    Bad timing

    •Doctors’ threat of a strike two weeks to handover sucks

    Resident doctors have again wielded the weapon of industrial engagement they seem most familiar with: the threat of a strike. They’ve just given government a two-week ultimatum to meet their demands or contend with industrial disharmony.

    At the end of an extraordinary national executive council meeting of the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) in Abeokuta on April 29, the doctors gave government up till May 13 to address their demands or they would “not be able to guarantee industrial harmony in the sector nationwide.” Those demands include that government take tangible steps to effect upward review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS), pay all salary arrears owed NARD members since 2014, immediately disburse the 2023 Medical Residency Training Fund (MRTF), and ensure withdrawal of a bill in the House of Representatives seeking to compel medical and dental graduates to practise for five years in Nigeria before being fully licensed, precedent to relocating abroad.

    In a communiqué signed by NARD President Dr. Emeka Orji and other officials, the doctors asked for increment in CONMESS to the tune of 200 percent of the current gross salaries of doctors, besides new allowances itemised in a letter written last year to health minister Dr. Osagie Ehanire.  The communiqué read in part: “NEC demands commencement of payment of all salary arrears owed to our members, including 2014, 2015 and 2016 salary arrears as well as arrears of the consequential adjustment of the minimum wage, (and) massive recruitment of clinical staff in hospitals and complete abolishment of bureaucratic limitations to the immediate replacement of doctors who leave the system.”

    Read Also: Ngige: resident doctors demands absurd

    The council also demanded immediate domestication of the Medical Residency Training Act and review of hazard allowance by all state governments and private tertiary health institutions where there is residency training, and as well “immediate commencement of payment of all salary arrears owed to our members by the various state governments, notorious amongst which is the Abia State Government.”

    Health minister Ehanire was reported saying government was working at addressing the doctors’ demands before the deadline expires. But his labour and employment counterpart, Dr. Chris Ngige, slammed the ultimatum as absurd and accused the doctors of suffering from entitlement mentality. Speaking on television early this week, he said: “We have been managing their matter and have given them everything they want, including the residency training programme funds. We’re paying them, even when in training, we pay them full salary, pay them all the allowances, and you decided that we’ve not done enough!” On the proposed legislation, the minister wondered how government could be held liable for a private bill in the House. “So you ask that a bill submitted by a member be removed as a condition not to commence strike? That is absurd,” he said, adding: “The entitlement syndrome, the sense of entitlement is too much in this country…”

    The latest strike warning is the second wielded this year alone by resident doctors. In January, NARD threatened to kickstart processes that would result in industrial disharmony if lingering issues including immediate payment of new hazard allowance and arrears were not addressed before its NEC meeting billed for later that month. At the end of the said meeting, the council shelved the strike, commending government for moves made thus far in the mutual engagement. Some six months earlier, the association had issued similar ultimatum over unresolved issues affecting its members. In 2020, the doctors staged a nine-week-long strike that resulted in paralysis of healthcare service delivery and consequential death of some hapless patients. When that strike was being called off early in October, that year, the doctors said some of their grievances had been addressed though others, including salary arrears, remained outstanding.

    It’s a shame that issues at stake have lingered this long, and government perhaps could have done more to effectively resolve the demands. Still, doctors are themselves overreaching in wielding the weapon of strike, which when carried through, incurs enormous distress on hapless citizens who are in no way complicit in matters that drove them to the trenches. This is inconsistent with the profession’s foundational code of practice, the Hippocratic Oath, that mandates sensitivity to sanctity of life. Besides, this latest threat is ill-timed because it is scheduled to take effect barely two weeks to the advent of a new administration. It is true that government is a continuum, but the least expected of the doctors at this time is to hold their fire and allow the incoming administration  to settle down and get properly apprised of the demands at issue. That is what civic responsibility dictates.  

  • Eight killed, six missing in Anambra community

    Eight killed, six missing in Anambra community

    Eight persons were killed and six others missing in a renewed communal clashe between Anaku and Omor communities in Ayamelum Local Government Area of Anambra State.

    The Nation gathered that some youths of Anaku, on Monday, reportedly invaded Omor, killed eight persons and abducted six others. They allegedly took the victims to a notorious shrine in the community, called Ekwensu Anaku. Residents have fled the area for fear of further attacks.

    But police spokesperson, Tochukwu Ikenga, said six persons were killed in the crisis, which was triggered by one Nnamdi Maduneke and his accomplices. He, however, said the command is on his trail.

    According to Ikenga, a joint task force team has been deployed in the area to reinforce security.

    He said: “We have launched a manhunt for Nnamdi Maduneke and his cohorts, who wielded AK-47 rifles in the early hours of yesterday (Monday) to attack Omor.

    “According to information received, the suspect and his cohorts, without any provocation, invaded Omar and started to shoot indiscriminately. Six persons died and two others sustained injuries.

    “Preliminary information showed that there has been a protracted existing communal dispute between Omor and Anaku.”

    A community leader, who identified himself as Peter Emeka, said: “Maduneke, aka Vulture, a dreaded bandit from Anaku, with his gang members, masterminded the attack.

    “Maduneke is a notorious criminal who has been terrorising communities in Ayamelum, especially Omor. When he arrived on Monday, with his gang members, many people identified him because he is notorious in unleashing mayhem on people, including setting people’s houses on fire once provoked. He brandishes AK-47 at will; even before law enforcement agencies.”

    Traditional ruler of Omor, Igwe Oranu Chidume, described the attack as a rude shock as he just finished a peace meeting with leaders of Anaku which have been having issues with his community over the years.

    He called for Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s intervention, Commissioner of Police Echeng Echeng, and Ayamelum Leaders of Thought to bring the culprits to justice.

    Leader of Anaku community Tony Ifeanya confirmed the development but said the perpetrators were not sent by his people.

    Ifeanya acknowledged that a man from his community, nicknamed ‘Vulture’ has been terrorising the area with his gang, but said he was not acting on the instance of Anaku town.

    He said: “Our community is also looking for ‘Vulture’ to arrest him. Whenever we get hold of him, we’ll hand him over to the government for necessary action. Our community and Ayamelum people are already tired of him.”

  • SERIE A Golden Boot: Osimhen widens gap with  Lookman, Martinez

    SERIE A Golden Boot: Osimhen widens gap with  Lookman, Martinez

    Super Eagles attacker, Victor Osimhen who netted twice on Sunday has widened the gap with national teammate Ademola Lookman and Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez in the race for the Italian Serie top scorer award.

    Osimhen had been on fire since his return from injury and just when Lookman thought he could catch up with him, the Napoli talisman scored a brace on Sunday for his 12th league goal of the season.

    It’s been a battle between the two Nigerians since the start of the year with Lookman threatening to catch up and overtake Victor but the dream will require extra hard work and a bit of luck from him has he has now gone two games without a goal.

    Meanwhile, Inter Milan and Argentina striker Lautaro Martinez has joined Lookman in the race to catch Osimhen on the top scorer chart.

    Martinez was the hero on Sunday night as Inter Milan pipped city rival AC Milan by a lone goal in the Derby della Madonnina. It was his 12th goal of the campaign.

    The race promises to be interesting till the end with all three favourites currently on fire for their clubs.

  • Dyche praises Iwobi’s work rate against Arsenal

    Dyche praises Iwobi’s work rate against Arsenal

    Coach Sean Dyche has singled out Alex Iwobi’s work rate in Everton’s 1-0 win over Arsenal at the weekend.

    Dyche who took charge of Everton after the sack of Frank Lampard by the management of Everton believes the Nigerian partnered very well with Séamus Coleman to cage the Arsenal stars.

    Dyche’s first game played out perfectly as James Tarkowski’s powerful header on the hour mark clinched all three points in a passionate performance against the title-chasers who came into the contest unbeaten in the league since September.

    “The shape, the work ethic, and the two wide players working back tremendously hard. Alex Iwobi, I know he can play and he’s a very talented footballer. But the working back and doubling up with Seamus was terrific.”

    He added: “Different managers have different feels for different players and different styles, about how they wish the team to play. I’m looking at the players with a clean slate going right how do they fit in with what I think is appropriate, and of course the opposition.

    Next up for Everton is the short trip to Anfield to take on Liverpool in the 242nd edition of the Merseyside derby.

    For the Blues, it could be a potential opportunity to climb out of the bottom three and up the table.

  • ‘Olosho’ nothing to be proud of – Sonia Ogiri

    ‘Olosho’ nothing to be proud of – Sonia Ogiri

    US-based actress, Sonia Ogiri has said prostitution aka olosho is not what anyone should be proud of.

    She advised ladies engaging in the act to see reasons to make a U-turn arguing the ‘stock-in-trade’ has no long term value because the proceeds can only furnish their false social media lifestyle temporarily.

    While she urged the active ‘oloshos’ to step up and embrace legitimate hustle, Ogiri admonished young aspirants to have a rethink.

    She wrote: “Just like my late elder brother asked my late father after our family morning devotion, “Dad what were you doing when your mates became senators, governors, ministers etc?” And my dad gave him a response.

    “I have been scared of my kids asking me this same question tomorrow hence, I try to work hard and live on a clean slate.

    “As an Olosho/hookup popularly called now, what will you tell your kids tomorrow?

    Read Also: Wish I could switch places with Cuppy – Sonia Ogiri

    “Olosho money won’t go far or do any meaningful thing for you other than social media lifestyle.

    “If you wrongly once did it or situation made you, it shouldn’t be a permanent job.

    “The respect /freedom you enjoy when spending your worked money is unexplainable.

    “See them call me names for this advise and assume every girl is in their Olosho group chat.

    “Olosho is nothing to be proud of. Ladies it’s time to level up.

    “This advise is for the younger ones aspiring to go into this as a source of income NOT the chair ladies in the game, I no well for insults cause this our na only GOD fit repair our mindsets” (sic).