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Ogun government creates trust fund for sports development
Ogun State will soon set up a Sports Trust Fund that would help in creating an enabling environment to tap from the multiplier effects of Sporting activities. The State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, stated this when officials of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), led by the President, Mr. Amaju Pinnik, paid him a courtesy call in his office at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, saying that sports, over time has moved from an entertainment past time to a Money spinning venture. “We are putting in place, a Sports Trust Fund to create enabling environment to engage and enjoy the multiplier effects of Sporting activities. We are going to launch that very soon, so that our sports have enough funding”, he noted. The governor, who described Sports as a means of youth employment, opined that when youths a...
National park trains 1,200 officers on combat readiness
Dr. Ibrahim Goni, the Conservator-General of the National Park Service, says the agency has trained 1,200 officers on basic combat readiness paramilitary by the Nigeria Army. Goni, who disclosed this at a news conference on Tuesday in Abuja, said that the training was to help the officers and men to meet the current and future conservation requirements. “Training and re-training of officers is key to achieving success in the implementation of the service mandate. “Therefore, manpower development as a human capital function is responsible for developing the skills, knowledge and competence of the service,” he said. Goni said that the agency would focus more on manpower development to help the officers and men achieve the mandate of the service. He said that in spite of its limited resources...
Governor Abiodun: Agro-allied airport underway in Ogun
Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has disclosed plans by his administration to have an agro-allied based airport to aid the development of the state as a destination of choice for agriculture in Nigeria. Abiodun, who spoke during the inauguration of Agbeloba Aquaculture Hub in Owiwi, Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of the state, said the agricultural sector remains the sure way out of poverty and unemployment ravaging the country. The project is being promoted by a former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. While also expressing optimism that his administration believes that the state and the country as a whole can actually grow what it eats, the governor commended Obasanjo for continuously and tirelessly walking his talk on agriculture. He said, “We are looking at having an ag...
Taylor Swift’s Removal From Nashville Mural Has Fans Up in Arms: ‘Young Taylor Ran Country’
Tim Davis, the artist behind the mural, told USA Today in an emailed statement on Sunday that local bargoers have specifically complained and even spat on Swift’s picture because they felt “betrayed” by her pop superstardom. “I have heard many complaints here in Nashville about Taylor being on the wall with country legends since she is currently focused mainly on pop. Some inebriated bar hoppers have spit on her image specifically, feeling betrayed by her venture from country. I guess this is to be expected, but by in large, the people of Nashville love her, as do I.” The decision was ultimately made by the owners of Legends Corner bar and not Davis himself, he clarified. Davis also organized a GoFundMe to raise $35,000 to paint a mural sol...
President Ramaphosa bans alcohol sales in South Africa
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday announced a ban on alcohol sales and said mask-wearing would be mandatory in public as his country became the continent’s first to record one million coronavirus cases. Ramaphosa said during a televised speech that alcohol would be temporarily banned from midnight to help emergency services already under pressure. He also announced it would be “compulsory for every person to wear mask in public spaces,” saying it was a “drastic measure, now necessary”. Get more stories like this on Twitter You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photo...
Nigeria fines UK, South African airlines for breach of coronavirus protocol
The Nigerian government has rolled out punitive measures against foreign airline operators flying into Nigeria, particularly those from the United Kingdom and South Africa whose passengers allegedly violated the reviewed travel protocols announced by Nigeria’s regulatory body for aviation NCAA. The agency, in a circular issued on December 26 by its director-general Musa Nuhu, disclosed that airlines from the affected countries shall be fined $3,500 for each passenger that flouts the guidelines, which were reviewed to prevent an outbreak of the new variant of the coronavirus recently reported in the UK and South Africa. The circular stated that repeated non-compliance by any carrier would result in the suspension of the airline’s permit to fly into Nigeria, as defaulting passengers are boun...
CBN: Naira to fall further in January
Barely five days to the end of the year 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria has disclosed that a survey carried out by its Statistics Department revealed that the naira is expected to depreciate further in January 2021. The report, titled, ‘December 2020 Business Expectations Survey Report’ added that there might also be a steady rise in interest rate from December till the next six months. The naira witnessed a sharp fall in recent weeks, reaching its lowest on November 30, 2020, when it exchanged for N500/$1. Since then, the dollar has been hovering between N460 and N470. As of Friday, however, one dollar exchanged for 465 in the parallel market. Also, the Nigerian economy had on November 21 slid into its second recession in five years when the economy shrank again in the third quarter. Th...
Tony Rice, Master Bluegrass Guitarist, Dies at 69
“Sometime during Christmas morning while making his coffee, our dear friend and guitar hero Tony Rice passed from this life and made his swift journey to his heavenly home,” Skaggs wrote on Facebook this weekend. “Many if not all of the Bluegrass guitar players of today would say that they cut their teeth on Tony Rice’s music. He loved hearing the next generation players play his licks. I think that’s where he got most of his joy as a player.” Tall and lean, and with an understated live presence that contrasted with the dynamism of his guitar, Rice had health problems over the past quarter-century. A muscle disorder around his vocal cords left him unable to sing onstage, and tennis elbow limited his playing. His last live guitar performance was in 2013, when he was ...
Ghana’s opposition NDC to petition against election results this week
Ghana’s main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), which has been crying foul about the results of the 7 December presidential and parliamentary elections, says it is ready to contest the outcome in court. A member of the party’s legal team, Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor, said on Saturday that the election petition against the results declared by the Electoral Commission (EC) will be filed by Wednesday. “We’ll go to court. We’ve made that clear… Certainly, by Wednesday, all these matters would be placed before the court,” Dafeamekpor was quoted by the local media as saying. Under the electoral laws, the aggrieved party has 21 days to file its petition at the court. This will be the second time in the Fourth Republic, which started in 1992, that the outcome of a presidential election ...
Ricky Skaggs, Kenny Chesney, Rosanne Cash & More Pay Tribute to Tony Rice
The bluegrass giant, known for his innovative and elegant flatpicking, released dozens of albums dating back to the early 1970s and played alongside such major artists as Dolly Parton and Jerry Garcia. Rice received numerous awards over the decades, including a Grammy in 1993 for best country instrumental performance and was a six-time recipient of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) guitar player of the year honor. His death was confirmed in a statement from the IBMA. Cash tweeted that Rice’s death leaves an “enormous vacancy” in the bluegrass community and that the guitarist “never played a bad note in his life.” Chesney, meanwhile, credited Rice as an inspiration from his childhood and recalled watching the late musician perform at ...
Nashville Explosion on Christmas: Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw & More React to ‘Another Tragedy’
Tim McGraw wrote a heartfelt message to the city on Saturday (Dec. 26): “Trying to find the words….but this is a tough one,” he tweeted. “Yesterday, on Christmas Morning, the world watched as Nashville was hit by another tragedy. It’s been a year….but we will rise again.” “Grateful for the first responders who spent Christmas morning on one of our toughest years ensuring that no lives were lost. We are bruised, but not broken. Praying for my city and hopeful that we will find the strength to rise once again with the dawning of a New Year,” McGraw continued. “Tough year for Nashville,” Brad Paisley said Friday night. “Be safe everyone.” Early Friday morning, Cassadee Pope posted an update from Nashville, writing, “Our house s...
Nigerian National Assembly spends billions of naira on constitution review
The perennial constitution amendment exercise by the National Assembly is characterised by proposals that keep resurfacing despite gulping billions of naira yearly, an analysis has shown. The federal parliament had from the 5th to the current 9th National Assembly made several attempts to amend some provisions of the 1999 Constitution to no avail. At every session, the parliament officially spends N1 billion shared equally between the Senate and the House of Representatives. There are reports that the lawmakers spend more than what is appropriated for the exercise. While some amendments were successful, several others suffered serial failures but kept appearing in new proposals. Considering the huge spending, lawyers and civil society groups have pointed out that no significant amendments ...