Making their 19th appearance since debuting in 1952, ever-colourful and joyous Team Nigeria will once again be the cynosure of all eyes as the 2024 Summer Olympics officially get underway today, with an opening ceremony like no other, signalling the start of the multi-sport that will run through August 11 in Paris and 16 other cities spread across Metropolitan France, plus one subsite in Tahiti, French Polynesia. A total of 206 nations and 10,714 athletes will be striving for medals in 32 sports and 329 events. Sports including football, rugby sevens, handball, and archery may already be underway, but billions…
Author: UZDO Media
Parenting is a tough turf. It’s also a free-for-all terrain where everyone claims expertness. When in a free fall, parenting is like the blabber around the round leather game, with noisy fans professing possession of better tactics than the god of Tiki-Taka, Pep Guardiola, though they cannot tap the ball into a yawning net from the goal line. Globally, fans are part of the ‘enu dùn ròfó’ mammoth whose mouths are their only credentials to football expertise, blaming megabucks-earning coaches, game after game, oblivious of strategic soccer details, forgetting that football is what it is; a game, after all. The…
GODWIN AIKIGBE previews Nigeria’s 19th appearance at the Olympic Games, highlighting the intrigues, controversies, and shortcomings, as well as the country’s chances in Paris Nigeria made its Olympic debut at the 1952 edition in Helsinki, Finland, featuring nine athletes in athletics (men’s 100m, men’s 200m, men’s 4×100 relay, long jump, and high jump) and has competed in every edition since then, except for the boycotted 1976 Summer Olympics. The country currently is ranked 74th, having won a total of 27 medals in athletics, boxing, football, and wrestling (three gold, 11 silver, and 13 bronze). Its most successful outing was in…
At least 59 electricity workers died in the line of duty between the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has said. A report by the commission confirmed that 23 of the workers lost their lives in 55 accidents in the first quarter of 2024. The NERC disclosed that 31 others sustained injuries in the 55 accidents. “The total number of accidents in 2024/Q1 was 55 which resulted in 31 injuries and 23 fatalities,” the report revealed. It stated that the number of deaths recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023 was…
Paris Saint-Germain are still pushing for a lower transfer fee for Napoli striker Victor Osimhen, as they continue their pursuit of the Nigeria international this summer, PUNCH Sports Extra reports. According to transfer market expert Gianluca Di Marzio, PSG are set to return to the forefront in their charge for the Napoli striker. Contrarily, Italian sports news outlet La Gazzetta dello Sport reports that the French champions remain unsatisfied with Napoli’s reduced asking price of £100m. “The Parisian club would in fact have decided to take a step back. President Al-Khelaifi considers the 100 million euros excessive, believing that with…
The Lagos State Government has distanced itself from the rumoured upcoming Oro festival scheduled for August 1 to 15, 2024, coinciding with the #EndBadGovernance protest. The government likened it to other religious activities held across the country. An X user, @lagospedia, had on Wednesday posted that the Oro festival would hold in Lagos from August 1, saying “This traditional Yoruba cultural event involves significant rituals.” The post generated mixed reactions. Speaking in a telephone interview with The PUNCH on Thursday, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s Chief Press Secretary, Gboyega Akosile, said no one questions the government when other religions hold their activities.…
Globally, the number of people living in extreme poverty has increased following the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic amidst subdued economic growth. According to the World Bank’s Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022 report, a total of 712 million people globally were living in extreme poverty in 2022, using the monetary extreme poverty line of $2.15 per day. The majority of these poor people, almost 500 million, live in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Nigeria accounting for at least 83 million. In other words, four out of every 10 people in Nigeria are extremely poor and this may have worsened since the removal…
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, has affirmed that the electoral body can conduct local government elections in the country if provided with the necessary resources. Citing the example of the Federal Capital Territory where INEC conducts the area council polls, Yakubu said if INEC got the responsibility to conduct LG polls, it would put an end to the use of caretaker committees to run LGs. He made this statement on Thursday when he appeared before the National Assembly Joint Committee on INEC and Electoral Committees. Responding to a question from members of the National…
A faction of the Oyo town kingmakers, known as the Oyo Mesi, have kicked against any plan by the Oyo State Government to commence a fresh process to select the Alaafin of Oyo. Counsel for the kingmakers, Kunle Sobaloju (SAN), wrote the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, warning against restarting the process to select a new Alaafin of Oyo. The kingmakers, through Sobaloju, were reacting to a media report suggesting the move to discard the process concluded initially by the kingmakers He advised the governor not to do anything that could prejudice pending appeals in courts. Following the death of…
Financial analysts have expressed concerns over the recent trend of high foreign liquidation in the Nigerian Exchange with N311.41bn worth of investments withdrawn in the first half of this year. This has sparked fears of naira devaluation and its potential impact on the Nigerian economy. According to the NGX, in a report titled ‘Domestic & Foreign Portfolio Investment’, the N311.41bn worth of portfolio investments liquidated in the first half of the year compared starkly with the N73.06bn in foreign outflows recorded in the same period in 2023. The report stated that foreign investments witnessed a surge, with inflows reaching N540.48bn,…