ONE WORD

Arsenal have been urged to bring the “tremendously sad story” of Mesut Ozil to an end, with Charlie Nicholas saying it is “time to say farewell” to the German and a number of defenders. A World Cup-winning playmaker has just completed a sixth season in north London. There have been plenty of highs during that time, but just as many lows for a man who has divided opinion and faced questions of his contribution throughout a spell in English football. A move elsewhere has been mooted for a while, dispute being tied to a lucrative contract, and Nicholas believes the time has come for the Gunners to move in a different direction. The ex-Arsenal forward told Sky Sports of Ozil: “It’s a tremendously sad story because he’s a seriously talented footballer. “But talented footballers, like everything else in the modern game, there is no passenger allowed in a team. “He sometimes sacrifices a bit of his game to assist other people and help other people, but it’s not working because ...

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) have described the suspension of the operating licence of DAAR Communications PLC by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) as blatant illegality. The group also said they are considering all the legal options to challenge NBC over the suspension of DAAR Communications licence. This was disclosed in a statement signed on Friday by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare. We are considering all the legal options to challenge this blatant illegality. These grounds are so subjective that if allowed to stand would seriously undermine freedom of expression, media freedom and access to information in the country. The mere fact that forms of expression on AIT/Raypower are considered by NBC to be insulting is not sufficient to justify the indefinite suspension. These grounds do not meet the requirements of legality, reasonableness, due process, necessity, and proportionality. The suspension amounts to an ...

Popular Nigerian comedian, I Go Dye has gifted his son a new house as the young boy turns a year older.     I Go Dye has stunned his many followers with the gift he gave his son on the boy's birthday.   The comedian revealed that he gave his boy a mansion to celebrate him turning a year older.   Taking to his Instagram page, he shared photos of the house and followed it up with a beautiful caption.   He wrote: " MY GIFT TO YOU ON YOUR 9TH YEARS BIRTHDAY SON. "I celebrate your 9 years birthday my son, expressing  the essence of shelter, reminiscent of how some of us grow up,with some things we never had.   "This GOLDEN SEAL CASTLE Birthday gift is just a step for you to achieve greater things in the future and praying that God should grant this privilege to many others.    "May this little gift bring forth hope to many children,who may not be privileged to have good shelter,nurturing in them that every thin...

The judge videoing members of the RCCG.  Controversial on-air personality, Daddy Freeze on Friday said Justice Folayemi Omoleye of the Appeal Court was right to have slapped a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG and assaulted other members over noise pollution. Justice Omoyele was alleged to have gone to the branch of the RCCG on the Ijapo Estate, Akure, Ondo State on Wednesday and disrupted the service by recording the church’s ongoing service with her mobile phone. Her action was said to have alarmed the church members, who challenged her for recording them, but the judge was alleged to have assaulted her challengers, including the pastors of the church. She was said to have slapped a female worshipper and some pastors, who tried to stop her from further recording the church’s activities The tough Appeal Court Judge Before the incident, it was gathered that the judge had complained of disturbance caused by the noise coming from the ch...

Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to immediately issue the certificate of return to Rochas Okorocha, immediate past governor of Imo State, as the senator-elect for the Imo West Senatorial District. INEC had withheld Okorocha’s Certificate of Return on grounds that its Returning Officer who presided over the election complained to that he declared the results under duress. Okorocha had challenged INEC in court, demanding the return of his mandate which he said he duly won. In his judgment, Abang said INEC’s action was lawless and arbitrary, saying that the commission, having declared Okorocha winner had no power to withhold the certificate of return due to him. According to him, once the declaration was made under section 68(c) of the Electoral Act, INEC had become functus officio and INEC had no lawful authority to withhold the certificate of return for any reason whatsoever. He said the...

U.S. employers last month added the fewest workers in three months as wage gains cooled, suggesting broader economic weakness and likely boosting calls for a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut as President Donald Trump's trade policies weigh on the economy. Payrolls rose 75,000 after a downwardly revised 224,000 advance the prior month, according to a Labor Department report Friday that missed all estimates in Bloomberg’s survey calling for 175,000. The jobless rate held at a 49-year low of 3.6% while average hourly earnings climbed 3.1% from a year earlier, less than projected. The surprisingly sour data signal the labor market, a pillar of strength for an economy headed for a record expansion, was facing new pressures even before Trump threatened tariffs on Mexican goods in addition to proposed higher levies on Chinese imports. Retail sales, factory output and home purchases have shown the economy struggling this quarter after better-than- expected growth in the first three...

By Garba Shehu One would imagine that business papers like economic success stories; apparently not. Instead, they feast and thrive on negatives.  Financial Times , for instance, is worried about a government policy that is enabling boom in rice production in Nigeria. And the  Economist  is panicky about toothpick manufacturers springing up following tariffs that protect local manufacturers to get off the ground and compete globally. Both papers only see negatives. Specifically,  Economist  dwells on out-of-date statistics. Deliberately it turns away from the positives as it will complicate already tailored narratives. Some foreign correspondents keep the storyline simple: Africa is home for all bad things: poverty, disease and crime. And unremitting bleakness lives on the continent, and success is the aberration. Since only negative reports on Africa make it to the international media, a backward picture of a nation is painted succinctly and eff...