The LOC of Nigeria’s most followed and unarguably the largest grassroot football competition in Africa, the Bayelsa Governor’s Football Tournament, otherwise known as the Prosperity Cup, has constituted a five-man committee that will review and make technical inputs, so as to enhance the standard of the competition.

This year, 2024, will be the 6th edition of the Prosperity Cup.

In a statement signed by the Director General, Mr Ono Akpe, and released in Yenagoa on Thursday, said the organisers are working to ensure this year’s edition meets the global standard of grassroot football competition.

Mr Akpe said the Technical Committee initially made up of members of the LOC has been expanded to include representatives from the Referees Council and the Coaches Association, so they are to inject new ideas and ensure the rules guiding the competition are in consonance with globally acceptable  standards and are acceptable to all participating teams.

”This tournament, which is the largest grassroot  football tournament in Africa is also now the most prestigious tournament in the country and all hands must be on deck to ensure the standard is of the highest quality “,he added.

The committee will have renowned football administrator and the Technical Director of the Prosperity Cup, Diseye Nwankwe as Chairman, Elder Perela Aboro as the Alternate Chairman, Mr Edwin Kwame Ayaowei(Prof.) will be the Referee’s Representative, Coach Anthony Fouye of Afini Football Club will be the Coach’s Representative, while, Mr Patrick Ndubuisi, the Media Representative will serve as Secretary.

The Director General on behalf of the LOC while congratulating the Technical Review Committee, noted that they have two weeks to meet and present the tournament’s rules and regulations for this year’s Prosperity Cup to the LOC for ratification.

Therefore, the committee will be inaugurated on Friday, January 26th.

The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has pledged to collaborate with the Niger Delta University, NDU, Amassoma in Bayelsa State, to promote research that will address peculiar health and environmental challenges in the Niger Delta region.

The NDDC Managing Director, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, made the promise during a courtesy visit by a delegation from the university at the Commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt.

This was contained in a statement on Thursday by Director, Corporate Affairs, Pius Ughakpoteni.

“We want to collaborate with the NDU in the area of research and I challenge the university to go into research that will focus on ecological challenges, food production and herbal medicine.” said the NDDC boss.

Adding that: “Our work at the NDDC goes beyond building roads and bridges; we are also concerned about manpower development which is the forte of universities. Our interventions are not limited to building physical infrastructure.  The research from universities is equally important as we have challenges in the area of erosion and flooding. Universities should help us to find solutions that will endure. Research from universities should give us the comprehensive solutions we need.

“We are prepared to collaborate with universities to provide solutions to the problems facing the region.  Let us invest in the area of research to help us to appropriately intervene in the lives of our people.”

Ogbuku assured that the NDDC was ready to provide the needed support to universities in the region to prioritise research that seeks to provide solutions to issues plaguing the society.

He told the NDU Vice Chancellor that the NDDC Executive Director Projects, Sir Victor Antai, would lead a team on a site visit to the university to articulate their needs, noting that they recently benefited from the “Operation Light up the Niger Delta Programme” of the Commission.

Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Allen Agih, commended the efforts of the NDDC in building the capacity of universities in the Niger Delta region and described the NDU as a manpower development centre for the region.

He said: “We thank the NDDC management for the numerous projects executed in the university, including the on-going solar-powered street light project that has improved security and night life within the campus.”

“We are here to seek partnership with the commission in different areas, notably, in the areas of research in herbal medicine and food security.

We have a department of herbal medicine, which when fully harnessed, with your collaboration, will provide skills, generate employment opportunities and improve healthcare in the region.”

Agih remarked that collaboration with the NDDC was imperative, given the lean resources available to the university to pursue its objective of positively impacting the Niger Delta region.

The Vice-Chancellor also appealed for assistance in setting up an Information and Communication Technology, ICT, centre and in providing accommodation for lecturers in the university campus, lamenting: “all our lecturers live outside the university.”

OPay, a leading financial technology company, said yesterday it has taken various measures to deepen the integrity and credibility of its platform, disclosing that as from March 1, any account not linked with the owner’s national identity number (NIN) and the bank’s biometric verification number (BVN) would be wielded out.

This is part of implementing the Know Your Customer (KYC) directive by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The company stated this at a media briefing in Lagos to unveil their plans for the New Year.

Director, Partnership for Opay, Ik Kolawole Odiase said by March 1, any account holder that is non-compliant with the directive to link his/her BVN and NIN would be logged out of the platform.

“Any fraudulent account will be wiped off. Going forward, you have to link your NIN and BVN which must both align,” he said.

According to him, the platform has introduced a series of innovations and security measures to protect depositors’ funds, saying, “We are concerned about the safety of depositors’ funds.

Olayemi Priscilla, Head of Card Business disclosed that the company successfully issued more than 5 million Opay Verve cards to customers as of December 2023.

Priscillia added that the company has 17 physical locations across the country that can offer customer service physically in its drive to make financial services more inclusive.

She stated that a robust and responsive online customer service centre is being made available for users who prefer online inquiries and technical resolutions.

“Opay has established a network of 17 customer service centres across the country, catering to individuals who prefer face-to-face interactions for their service-related queries and concerns.

“For users who prefer online inquiries and technical resolutions, a robust and responsive online customer service centre awaits,” she added.

On corporate social responsibility, Olayemi noted that the company supported 1,300 children, five primary and secondary schools and five communities in two cities.

Priscillia noted that two tertiary institutions were reached in two cities, completed three projects, adding that the company is building branches in universities starting with the University of Lagos.

She said, “Opay is dedicated to providing secure, easy-to-use and affordable financial services with a superfast user experience, an amazing incentive package on transfer/airtime and data top-up, an innovative product to use as balance with amazing daily interest…”

A former Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has explained why a former Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Pantami, was annoying to some people in the immediate past federal administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Fashola who alongside Pantami served in the Buhari cabinet, said one of the reasons was Pantami’s dedication to getting things rights at all times and every ‘T’ and ‘I’ crossed and dotted.

The former Lagos State governor said this on Wednesday in Abuja in his keynote, at the public presentation of a 341-page book titled ‘A Scholar’s Journey: Navigating Academia’, written by Prof. Pantami.

“I got to know Prof. Pantami as my colleague in the Federal Executive Council (FEC), where he served as Minister for Communication and Digital Economy during 2019 to 2023. His passion and attention to detail are very well known. His desire to have every ‘T’ and ‘I’ crossed and dotted in every document was almost annoying for some people.

“But our memoranda and our cabinet records are undoubtedly better off in terms of accuracy, having been impacted by what I call the Pantami effect. He was essentially our ‘Mr. Compliance’. Either your memo, if it was a tech memo that did not have a NITDA certificate, he would be the first one to see it, and he won’t keep quiet.

“And if your vision and missions did not align, he would let you know very clearly. But he was Mr. Compliance to a good cause. As I said, our records are better off for the ‘Pantami effect’. At a time when truth is the endangered by fake news, when history is threatened by revisionists, books that profess a factual basis, which report history and events accurately, become all the more important to preserve the foundations of our civilization,” Fashola said.

Fashola said the launch is auspicious that such a book dwells on scholarship and academia, which are qualities urgently needed to drive national development.

The event was also attended by Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum; Gombe State Governor, Alhaji Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya; Nasarawa State Governor, Engr. Abdullahi Sule; former Gombe State Governor, Alhaji Danjuma Goje; former Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi; former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani Kyode; and former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed among others.

Fayemi in his remark commended Pantami for achieving many developmental strides for Nigerian, including broadband penetration which was about 23 per cent as at 2019 and which rose to about 50 per cent currently and also internet penetration to about 87 per cent.

Prof. Pantami in his remark expressed appreciation to everyone present and other who contributed to making the event successful, promising to continue to contribute to the body of knowledge for national development.

The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Thursday, said the construction of the long-awaited Fourth Mainland Bridge would begin in the first quarter of this year, “by the end of March or April.”

The governor disclosed this in his keynote address during the Lagos West Senatorial District Town Hall Meeting held at the Balmoral Convention Centre, Sheraton, Ikeja.

Sanwo-Olu noted that the bridge will be constructed in phases while promising that landlords and tenants of structures demolished during the construction will be duly compensated.

“We’ve done extensive work on the bridge. But we are at the crossroads of where to get the real financing for that kind of project. We’ll need to be very very creative,” he said.

“Our commitment is that within this first quarter, meaning that by the end of March or April, we should break grounds to start the construction of the Fourth Mainland Bridge,” Sanwo-Olu added.

Lagos has been ranked as the 19th best city to visit in the world, according to Time Out, a British media and hospitality company that publishes guides and magazines.

Time Out said the conclusion was drawn from a survey of more than 20,000 city dwellers around the world, along with its own network of editors.

Criteria used to rate the cities include food (quality and affordability), culture, nightlife, how the city makes people feel, strong community vibes, access to green space, historic sites, and much more.

In the report published on Tuesday, Time Out said it worked with Potentia Insight, a research company, to strengthen the survey’s quality.

South Africa’s Cape Town, Nigeria’s Lagos, and Ghana’s Accra were the only African cities that featured on the list.

While Cape Town ranked second, Lagos was 19th, and Accra had the 44th position.

“Whether you’re a staunch mainlander or from Lekki, there’s something for everyone in Lagos, Africa’s most populous city,” the report reads.

Time Out encouraged global citizens to visit Lagos because: “Both the city and its suburbs are expanding – just check out live-work-play concept Eko Atlantic City. Just out of town, Epe, on the north side of Lekki Lagoon, is experiencing a boom”.

“When it comes to standard of living, Lagos has a lot going for it – 96 percent of locals are happy, 98 percent would call Lagos beautiful and the city got a 92 percent friendliness rating, too,” the report added.

The ranking also praised Victoria Island’s trifecta of swanky resorts, food haunts, and nightlife, recommended Lekki for brunchers, commended Ikeja’s Kuti’s Bistro, owned by the legendary afrobeat family, for serving up “reliably delicious food”, and cited Oniru Beach as a relaxation spot.

Last year, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a sister publication of The Economist of London, said Lagos was the fourth worst city to live in the world.

Lagos was ranked above Algiers, the capital of Algeria; Tripoli, Libya’s capital; and Damascus, the capital of war-torn Syria.

The report surveyed 173 cities and used 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.

Lagos was the second worst liveable city in 2022 after holding the position for two consecutive years and was only behind Damascus which has been held down on the list by social unrest, terrorism and conflict.

EIU said Lagos moved up the ranks after seeing improvements in healthcare and education, but added that corruption is still a problem.

CAPE TOWN AND ACCRA’S DISTINGUISHING FEATURES

Cape Town scored highly across the board after a whopping 100 percent of locals said the city is beautiful and that it made them happy, Time Out said.

The city’s culture scene also ranked highest in the world for its quality.

Accra on the other hand was praised for having exciting new ventures across music, nightlife and the arts.

Like Cape Town, the Ghanaian capital scored a 100 percent happiness score, with the same percentage of locals saying the seaside city was beautiful to look at.

NEW YORK RANKS FIRST, VANCOUVER TAKES 50TH

New York, known as “the city that never sleeps”, took first place on the list.

Time Out said the adage extends to the city’s spirit, too.

“This vibrant metropolis is always adapting, always innovating and always pushing the boundaries,” the report said.

Canada’s Vancouver took the last spot, laying claim to being the country’s prettiest city, with 94 percent of locals saying they found the city beautiful (beating Montreal by 2 percent), according to Time Out.

Here is a full list of the countries.

1. New York City, United States
2. Cape Town, South Africa
3. Berlin, Germany
4. London, United Kingdom
5. Madrid, Spain
6. Mexico City, Mexico
7. Liverpool, UK.
8. Tokyo, Japan
9. Rome, Italy
10. Porto, Portugal

11. Paris, France
12. Mumbai, India
13. Lisbon, Portugal
14. Chicago, US
15. Manchester, UK
16. São Paulo, Brazil
17. Los Angeles, US
18. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
19. Lagos, Nigeria
20. Melbourne, Australia

21. Naples, Italy
22. Singapore
23. Miami, US
24. Bangkok, Thailand
25. Lima, Peru
26. Budapest, Hungary
27. Beijing, China
28. Dubai, United Arab Emirates
29. Montreal, Canada
30. Glasgow, UK

31. Sydney, Australia
32. Bueno Aires, Argentina
33. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
34. Manila, Philippines
35. Seoul, South Korea
36. Hanoi, Vietnam
37. San Francisco, US
38. Barcelona, Spain
39. Abu Dhabi, UAE
40. New Orleans, US

41Philadelphia, US
42. Austin, US
43. Boston, US
44. Accra, Ghana
45. Marseille, France
46. Taipei, Taiwan
47. Istanbul, Turkey
48. Osaka, Japan
49. Hong Kong, China
50. Vancouver, Canada

Former Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has supported the relocation of some departments of the apex bank from Abuja to Lagos.
He said it was right thing to do, dismissing those against the relocation as playing dirty politics.

There have been criticisms in some quarters since the CBN announced the relocation of some departments and units to Lagos.

Some northern politicians kicked against the move, warning it would have political consequences.

But Sanusi, who was 14th Emir of Kano, in a statement said the relocation is an “eminently sensible move”.

According to him: “Moving certain functions to the Lagos office ( which is bigger than the Abuja head office) is an eminently sensible move.”

He said he had it in mind to do the same thing while in office but didn’t have sufficient time to see it through.

“In my mind what I would have done was to move FSS and most of Operations to Lagos such that the two Deputy Governors would be largely operating out of Lagos or, even if they were more in Abuja , the bulk of their operational staff would be in Lagos.

“Economic policy, Corporate services and all the departments reporting to the Governor directly such as Strategy, Audit, Risk management, Governors’ office etc would remain in Abuja.

“It makes eminent strategic sense. And I would have done this if I had stayed.”

He dismissed the opposition against the policy as “absolutely unnecessary” because “The CBN has staff manning its branches and cash offices across the Federation.”

Sanusi added: “Moving staff to the Lagos office to streamline operations and make them more effective and reduce cost is a normal prerogative of management.

“The problem we have now is that many employees are children of politically exposed persons and their Abuja life and businesses are more important than the CBN work.

“The CBN is just an address for them and if they have to choose between their spoilt Abuja life and the job, they would gladly leave the CBN.

“All the more reason for the Governor to put his foot down and get rid of those elements they are dangerous for the bank’s future

“The question of locating functions is a STRATEGIC and not tactical one. A proper analysis should be done to identify which roles are best suited to Lagos and which to Abuja. Once the logic is clear the people then follow. Non communication of strategic intent opens the door to mischievous misrepresentation and arbitrariness.

“I don’t like the idea of arguing that the office structure can not handle the staff numbers. I am sure Julius Berger would refute that if they wanted to engage.”

On how the relocation of staff should be done, he suggested: “Individual situations should be considered. As much as possible we should be empathetic. For example young mothers with kids in school who do not need to move can be prioritised to stay in Abuja or those with medical conditions etc.”

He advised the CBN not to bend to political pressure, saying it must push through decisions hoe matter tough.

According to him: “My advice to the Governor is to go ahead with his policy. Once the CBN starts bending to political pressure on one thing it will continue doing so.

“Northern politicians will shout that this is moving from Abuja to Lagos. Abuja is a federal capital not a northern issue. So long as this is a principled decision the noise should be ignored.

“When i was about to license Jaiz bank there was a lot of religious noise from CAN etc. Even enlightened people like Okey Emelamah were going to sue me to court on religious grounds. I ignored it and licenced the bank. Nothing happened.

“A christian Governor after me licenced at least two more non- interest banks. No one is even noticing again.

“Ethnic and religious bigots will always shout. The CBN should rise above it and just do what needs to be done. It is a very unpopular and difficult job and the Governor needs to be tough.”