debate
UEFA supremo: Barcelona, Real Madrid & Juventus ‘paralysed themselves’ with ‘strange’ Super League approach
Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus have “paralysed themselves” with their “strange” approach to the Super League, according to UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin. A controversial proposal for a new competition to rival the Champions League was met with universal condemnation in April, leading to the withdrawal of nine of the original 12 founding clubs. The Super League plans were subsequently put on hold, but Barca, Real and Juve have vowed to continue pushing for change despite being threatened with serious sanctions by UEFA, who are in the process of investigating their involvement in the breakaway. The three remaining clubs released a statement criticising European football’s main governing body last week, which read: “FC Barcelona, Juventus FC and Real Madrid CF wish to express their a...
‘Patriots rule Hong Kong’ as sweeping pro-Beijing electoral rules passed
Hong Kong’s legislature approved the biggest overhaul of its political system in the quarter century since British rule on Thursday, in a decisive step to assert Beijing’s authority over the autonomous city. The changes will reduce the proportion of seats in the legislature that are filled by direct elections from half to less than a quarter. A new body will be empowered to vet candidates and bar those deemed insufficiently patriotic towards China from standing. “These 600-or-so pages of the legislation come down to just a few words: patriots ruling Hong Kong,” said Peter Shiu, a pro-Beijing lawmaker. Most of the changes were announced by China in March, though Hong Kong authorities later contributed further details, such as redrawing constituency boundaries and criminalising calls for bal...
Facebook report: U.S. a top target for foreign and domestic influence operations
The United States topped a list of the countries most frequently targeted by deceptive foreign influence operations using Facebook between 2017 and 2020, the social media company said in a new report released on Wednesday. It also came second on a list of countries targeted by domestic influence operations in that same time period. Facebook Inc said one of the top sources of coordinated inauthentic behavior networks targeting the United States in the year leading up to the 2020 presidential election was domestic campaigns originating in the United States itself, as well as foreign operations from Russia and Iran. The tallies were based on the number of “coordinated inauthentic behavior” networks removed by Facebook, a term it uses for a type of influence operations that relies on fake acco...
Minister urges media to create fact-checking desks against fake news
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has advised media organisations to set up special desks for fact-checking in order to guard against being misled by fake news and misinformation. He gave the advice in Abuja yesterday when he hosted the editorial board of the Guardian Newspaper on a courtesy visit. The minister urged media organisations in Nigeria to take his suggestion seriously, noting that establishment of a special desk for fact-checking will curb the problem of fake news and enable the citizens to separate fact from fiction. He said in the era of fake news and misinformation, the media has a duty to get its facts right and ensure that charlatans and hackers do not dominate the media space, as it is increasingly becoming the case in the country. Mohammed said: “...
CISLAC raises concerns over Nigeria’s debt profile, coronavirus accountability
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), has expressed concerns over $2.18 billion foreign loan request to the Nigerian Senate to fund the 2021 Appropriations Act, by President Muhammadu Buhari. It has therefore urged the National Assembly to insist on an analysis of debt repayment strategy to be in place as its key priority to approvals. In a statement by Executive Director, CISLAC and Head of Transparency International – Nigeria, Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjani, he said national public finance management regime is meant to save the nation’s economic system from collapse: rescuing jobs, supporting livelihoods and bailing out many businesses on the brink. He warned the government to avoid the catastrophe that the international finance institutions forced on Greece: destroying ...
Why I’ve given up eating fish (again)
At the age of 13, Kia turned vegetarian but 15 years later, she started eating fish again. Here she reflects on why that decision was wrong There is an inherent hypocrisy in what I do for a living. On one hand, I write about the state of the planet, call for tourism caps and grapple with extinction tourism, but on the other, I continue to fly when I know that it’s the worst way to travel in terms of carbon emissions. I console myself with the fact that I don’t eat meat, a worse offender when it comes to emissions, but I do eat fish and dairy. The temptation then is to say “well, fish isn’t as bad as meat” – and that may indeed be the case from an environmental standpoint, but what about the moral one? The environmental issue is knotty and complicated, but the moral one – killing anim...
Segun Adeniyi: Devolution of power alone can’t solve Nigeria’s problems
Nigerian Monitor The chairman of THISDAY editorial board, Olusegun Adeniyi, says devolution of power is not the only solution to Nigeria’s problems. Adeniyi said for it to be effective, devolution of power must come with accountability at all levels especially at the local government where administration “has been castrated”. He was speaking at ‘The Platform’, an annual programme organised by Covenant Christian Centre, which was held in Lagos on Saturday. The seasoned journalist added that from past experience, closer government does not necessarily translate to better governance. “Today, there is hardly anybody in our country who is not angry about the situation in which we find ourselves. But nobody is accepting responsibility because the other person or the other ethnic group is to blam...
Senate passes amended AMCON bill, empowers agency to seize debtors’ assets
The Senate Wednesday passed the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria Amendment bill after considering the report of its Committee on Banking, Insurance, and Other Financial Institutions. The amendment bill passed by the upper chamber empowers the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria to, among others, take possession, manage or sell all properties traced to debtors, whether or not such assets or property is used as security/collateral for obtaining the loan in particular. It also empowers the corporation to access the Special Tribunal established by the BOFIA, 2020 for dealing with financial related matters. Presenting the report, Chairman of the Committee, Senator Uba Sani (APC, Kaduna Central) said the Committee engaged with stakeholders such as AMCON, Federal Ministry of Finance, ...
Paris Saint-Germain wait for Neymar to sign contract extension
Paris Saint-Germain were revelling in the joy of knocking holders Bayern Munich out of the Champions League in midweek when Neymar offered more cause for celebration. In an interview with Brazilian broadcaster TNT Sports following PSG’s away-goals victory in the quarter-finals, Neymar dropped a clear hint that he would be staying at PSG beyond the end of his current contract. “For me there is no debate, it is obvious that I feel very comfortable here and at home at Paris Saint-Germain. I feel happier than I did before,” the world’s most expensive player said. His current contract, signed following his arrival from Barcelona for 222 million euros ($264m) in 2017, runs out at the end of next season, at the same time as Kylian Mbappe’s deal. It has been reported in France since the Bayern gam...
Nigerian senate wants travel passport documents renewable abroad via post
The Senate is making moves to make it easier for Nigerians in diaspora to renew their passport documents. It specifically wants to make it possible for Nigerians to be able to renew the documents abroad via post. The lawmakers also want more centres where passports can be renewed abroad as well as the removal of ‘middlemen’ in the process. These are some of the resolutions the lawmakers took on Wednesday after they deliberated a motion on the “urgent need to remove the difficulty faced by Nigerians outside of the shores of Nigeria in renewing their Passport” sponsored by Matthew Urhoghide (PDP, Edo South). The move by the Senate comes at a time when Nigerians both within and outside Nigeria have decried difficulty in the process of obtaining a new travel passport as well as renewing one. A...
Senate considers bill to unbundle NIPOST
The Senate has commenced moves to unbundle the Nigerian Postal Service with the consideration of a bill to repeal and re-enact the Nigerian Postal Service Act 2004. The bill which scaled second reading on Tuesday was sponsored by Senator Oluremi Tinubu (APC, Lagos Central). Leading the debate on the general principles of the bill, Tinubu said the piece of legislation seeks a reform of the Postal Industry and to make Comprehensive Provisions for the Development and Regulation of Postal Services in Nigeria. According to the lawmaker, the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) which dates as far back as 1852, evolved from an exigency of the colonial administration to a Collection Office of the United Kingdom and eventually, to the NIPOST. She recalled that as at 1st of October, 1960, when Nigeria g...
Rumble in Edo as governor runs government without cabinet
Precisely 129 days into his second tenure as governor of Edo State after his election on September 20, 2020 and inauguration on November 12, 2020, Godwin Obaseki, has not formed his cabinet. This has generated some flaks from different quarters, including the opposition party, All Progressives Congress (APC), constitutional lawyers, political analysts, public commentators, residents among others. While others feel that Obaseki has not committed any crime or breached any law, others believe that he is running a one-man administration and must go ahead to form his cabinet. They argued that going by Section 192 of the 1999 Constitution, the governor is obliged to form a cabinet, saying this is a circumvention, which the state House of Assembly should take action on. Obaseki had said that his ...