There are strong claims all around, and a strong political debate as a thought-provoking subtext, as the Caf Awards take place on Tuesday
On Tuesday, the Confederation of African Football will host a swanky gala in egypt, the highlight of which will be the announcement of their choice for African Footballer of the Year.

A needlessly bloated initial long list has now been whittled down to a very manageable three, all of whom have a strong enough claim under any consideration. Although it is widely expected that Senegal forward Sadio Mane will be crowned for the first time, Riyad Mahrez and Mohamed Salah have shared the last three gongs, and come into this year’s edition on the back of pretty strong years in their own right.

Salah of course shares almost all of the highs that have so elevated Mane; liverpool’s sixth champions league title owed much to the combined offensive firepower of that duo plus Roberto Firmino, even as, for the first time, the concept of a sibling rivalry entered into the conversation.

The New Year message of President Muhammadu Buhari has generated a lot of reactions following some submissions contained in the speech.

As a Nigerian, all the paragraphs made by the president call for serious thinking and ponderance, but due to the time and space, I have decided to limit the expression to two important issues bordering on the decision of the president to stand down in 2023 and his unavailability in any future elections.

I decode his unavailability, not to death but will simply not be presenting himself for any elective post in the country forever.

Prior to this declaration, there was some insinuation circulating that President Buhari would seek the third term in office because if he demands for the constitutional amendment and couple with his friendliness to the National Assembly nothing Buhari can demand that can be not passed. As a point to that direction, recently a chieftain of the ruling party approached the court of competent jurisdiction to interprets if the limit of two-term by the governor and president not an infringement on their fundamental right?

The party did not come out immediately to deny that they are not interested in such suit filed by one of their chieftains, and for those who know how the country political permutation works, things would first start by rumour before coming to reality.

In fact, I was among Nigerians who believe if Buhari determined to have the third term agenda, with the current political scenario, he would get it. The question is, with the third term or the fourth term, his tenure must end one day so why wasting time on what won’t last forever?

Thank God the purported insinuation has been finally laid to rest with the open declaration by the President Buhari via the new year message reiterating his commitment that he won’t be manipulating the nation’s constitution to seek a third term in office. I believe we should trust and give him benefit of doubt. By far and wide, the declaration has sent a strong message across the political space that present administration is not interested in anything called the third term.

With such a clear declaration, the permutation for 2023 has started immediately and one thing is sacrosanct that a Nigerian will be a President in 2023 God’s willing. There is urgent need to begin the total overhaul of the current electoral act that can give Nigeria true leaders if President Buhari really wants history to be kind to him.

 Another issue of importance that caught my attention was the determination of President Buhari to obey court orders at all cost. Recently, the administration of Buhari has been lampooned for trampling on court orders which have portray the nation as a lawless society, and unfortunately, some political affiliated Nigerians are still defending what is not defendable. May God give us sense. Amen.

President Buhari must work tirelessly in support of policies to protect the security of life and property, and all his actions at all times must be governed by the rule of law for history to smile on him.

I must state that the resolution of the presidency to respect the separation of power and obey rule of law will surely do the nation good and President Buhari himself would be the highest beneficiary because history can never be kind to someone who disobeys court orders.

People may not have the power and strength to look at his face now to tell him the truth, but when his tenure expires, history would serve him better without any bias.

Existence is by privilege, but history is real and would serve each and every one of us what we deserved. I am of the opinion that I don’t fear my action but always fear history that would follow my actions and inactions.

Irrespective of the past, there is always another chance to redeem what was lost; the declaration by the president is a timely and good omen for the country and for himself. Our country will progress if we allow the dictates and rule of law to take charge.

For anyone who want better future for Buhari should encourage him to do what is right irrespective of the ‘political situation’ because the only goodwill enjoyed by Former President Goodluck Jonathan is his adherence to the rule of law and this singular character has endeared him to the rest of Africa nations and has received many accolades as one of Africa’s finest respectant of rule of law.

Jonathan profile as of rule of law advocate has challenged and poised President Buhari to do the needful because he has done so many wonderful and laudable projects for the progress of our dear nation, and no one needs to be told that he has brought the country forward from where it was to this finest stage and as they say packaging and repairing is continuous. History would always be kind to him on his fight against corruption, infrastructure development; Fight against boko-haram, poverty eradication and real agricultural revolution that clearly differ from cosmetics agenda of the past administration.

The world is divided into people who do things and those who talk about doing things, some do things while others sit around becoming experts on how things might be done. As we enter the New Year, the presidency must belong to the first group of those doing things and talk less as time is of importance and tenure don’t last forever.

I completely agreed with the submission of John Mason that a person who wastes amount of time talking about success will win the “prize” of failure and the most unprofitable item ever manufactured is an excuse. At this last tenure, President Buhari administration must do everything needful to write his name on gold as best performing president and God will help him.

Nevertheless, we must pray and support Buhari to succeed because Nigeria development is a collective task, Buhari does not own Nigeria but only had the mandate to direct its affairs for a certain period. Nigeria project is a collective investment and the success of Buhari is our universal success.

As sincere citizens, it behoves on us to raise the alarm when the presidency is going wrong and applaud them when they do the needful. Nigeria would be better than imagine if we can play by the rules of the game and not overheat the polity with political sentiment coloured by ethnic and religious jingoism.

God Almighty is greater than any religion, and its high time we put our difference aside and work together for a better Nation. If you matured to read this message today, I can assume that 90 per cent of us won’t see the year 3030. All of us would surely be forgotten. So why causing trouble and tension on the land?

An enemy triumph when there is the presence of hatred, and all the social vices confronting our dear nation can be solved by love. If we unite against the enemy, we don’t need any alfa or pastor to tell us that we will win.

We must develop an infinite capacity to ignore what others think cannot be done. No one can predict to what heights we can soar; even we will not know until we spread our wings.

Fatai Abiodun

ICT Expert, Journalist and Public Affairs Analyst

The National Universities Commission has said that there are possibly more than 100 fake professors across Nigerian universities.

Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof Abubakar Rasheed, disclosed this while addressing journalists in Abuja.

Rasheed said, “As part of measures at repositioning our universities, the NUC through its STRADCOM, recently verified and published a full directory of professors in the Nigerian university system.

“In the process of validating the submissions, university Senates have, in some cases, uncovered that quite a number of professors are either fake or are yet to mature to full professors.”

The executive secretary dismissed claims in some quarters that the Federal Government had abolished catchment area as part of criteria for admission into Nigerian universities.

Rasheed said the commission had initiated massive reforms in the last three years  such as curriculum re-engineering, introduction of new programmes, unbundling of some programmes, research and innovation, among others.

He said these were aimed at overhauling the Nigerian university system to bring it to become 21st century-compliant.

Rasheed listed some of the courses unbundled to include Mass Communication, which has been split into seven programmes, as well as Agriculture and Architecture.

He said, “It is absolutely untrue that the Federal Government has abrogated the catchment area as part of the criteria for admission into Nigerian universities.”

The executive secretary expressed concern that in the era of internationalisation of university education, the demographics of the nation’s universities revealed preponderance of over-localisation and over-indigenisation with only a handful of universities having a semblance of national institutions in national spread of workers and students population.

According to him, it was in an effort to improve the national and international output of the universities that President Muhammadu Buhari directed that universities should ensure that all local government areas and states are represented in the admission.

Rasheed added that there were about 61,000 lecturers teaching in Nigerian universities while only about 9,000 of them are professors.

The executive secretary expressed worry about the upsurge in illegal degree-awarding institutions.

He said the commission was compiling a comprehensive list of such universities and working with the National Youth Service Corps to ensure that graduates of such institutions and other mushroom universities from neighbouring countries are not mobilised for the one-year mandatory service.

A Washington DC police officer, who visited Nigeria for the holidays, has revealed that he was profiled as a criminal by the Nigerian police because he had his hair in braids.

@wearethe2030 shared a photo of himself and wrote: “4 days in Nigeria & I have already been profiled as a criminal by the Nigeria police force. They profile people based on looks. Male with dreads, braids and so on. I work for the Washington DC as a police officer and I have braids. Enough of the profiling! @TunjiDisu1 @aleeygiwa”

Explaining how it happened, he wrote: “Riding back to my hotel on Toyin street, Allen, Ikeja, with Taxify, and the police had stopped me twice on the same road, ordered me to step out of the vehicle asking what I do for a living. My police credentials saved me from being a victim.”