**The ministry of interior announced the festive season holidays in a statement signed by Belgore Shuaib, the permanent secretary, on Friday. The public holidays are to mark Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day celebrations respectively. Rauf Aregbesola, the minister of interior, asked Christians to emulate the doctrines of Jesus, noting that “we must imbibe the life of Jesus Christ in His practice and teachings on humility, service, compassion, patience, peace and righteousness”. The minister called on Christians to use the festive period to pray for the total eradication of the insecurity bedevilling Nigeria. He said peace and security are two critical conditions for economic development and prosperity. Aregbesola asked Nigerians not to be swayed by “criminal elements” who intend “to create anarchy in the country”. “Moderately celebrate the festival, avoid the spread of fake news and be responsible,” he added. The minister said the federal government has put in place measures to secure lives and property while he encouraged Nigerians to support security agencies by providing useful information. He urged Nigerians to be security conscious and advised them to report suspicious activities through the N-Alert application on Android and IOS.
**The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has revealed the best way to fight corruption. It was reported that the former Governor of Anambra state made this known in an interview when asked how he would deal with the issue of corruption. Obi noted that corruption has been a major issue with the opposition parties as they often project their parties and candidates as not being corrupt. According to Peter Obi, Buhari is not corrupt in terms of Nigerian corruption, however, his personal integrity does not translate to the All Progressives Congress (APC) integrity. The LP flagbearer noted that the key ingredient of corruption is greed and the most greedy people in Nigeria are domiciled in APC. He said other ingredients of corruption include personal acquisition and appointment of family members in various major positions in government offices adding that the best way to fight corruption is through institutionalizing of governance processes.
**The lingering insecurity in the South-East of the country has been making life unbearable to several people in the region. It would be recalled that the activities of unknown gunmen has led to the death of several innocent people including the northerners who are residing and carrying out legitimate businesses. With the increasing rate of the killings, the Public Relations Officer of the Arewa Progressives Forum for 17 states in Southern Nigeria, Malam Badamasi Muhammad told Journalists that there are a lot of their people that have left the region. According to him, some of them that are still left behind is due to lack of opportunities in the Norh if they eventually return home. According to him many of them don’t have any other thing to do in the north if they return.
**As Atiku Abubakar visited Anambra State to flag off his presidential campaign for the 2023 general elections, a PDP chieftain and member of Atiku Presidential Council, Emma Umerah has thanked the people of Anambra and South East region, in general, for turning out en-masse to support and subsequently vote for the PDP presidential candidate. He said that Atiku Abubakar has the interest of Ndigbo at heart and will never fail them. Specifically, Umerah assured South Easterners that Atiku Presidency will address the issue of marginalization which Ndigbo has been crying against. He said Atiku loves Igbo and sees himself as part of them, insisting that he can never work against the interest of Ndigbo. According to Umerah, in the course of his civil service career and his eight years as Vice President, Atiku has built bridges across the country, particularly in the South East where he has quality allies who can never allow his Presidency to deny Igbo their rightful benefits. He called on the people of the South East zone to vote for Atiku, assuring that his Presidency will greatly benefit them in both appointments and infrastructural development. Umerah said that the current political atmosphere in the country favours the PDP and urged Ndigbo not to miss the opportunity by voting for the party.
**The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi has expressed sadness over the killing of an Imo State House of Assembly Labour Party candidate, Christopher Elehu. Obi in a personally signed statement on Friday evening condemned the activities of the killers in the strongest possible terms. Elehu was the Labour Party candidate for Onuimo Local Government Area in the Imo State House of Assembly. The politician was killed by some unknown gunmen suspected to be hired assassins. The assailants also reportedly set ablaze Elehu’s residence and destroyed his properties, including a motorcycle. The gunmen who were said to be on a rampage reportedly visited the houses of other politicians in the area but met their absences. Reports have it that their gunshot lasted for over two hours without restriction. Reacting, Obi said he is disturbed by the report and called on security agencies to uncover and punish those behind the killing.
**The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has commended the opening of the Second Niger Bridge. The group said despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s lopsided political appointments against the South-East, completing the bridge was a tangible achievement for his administration. Ohanaeze in statement on Friday, following the temporary reopening of the Second Niger Bridge to motorists during this yuletide, said that bridge was a key national infrastructure, with immense socio-economic benefits not only for the contiguous states but for the entire nation. Ohanaeze in the statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary Dr Alex Ogbonnia, said that the clamour for a second Niger bridge became necessary shortly after the Nigerian Civil War. The first Niger Bridge was commissioned in 1965 and Nigerian war broke out in 1967. The bridge was therefore not exempted from the devastating effects. Giving insights into the second Niger Bridge, Ogbonnia said, that it has been a major concern to the Igbo for over fifty years because of two major reasons; “apart from the traffic lock jam on top of the bridge, the greatest fear was that the bridge had evidence of cracks such that the stress of weights on the bridge could cause collapse all the vehicles and their contents into the River Niger with untold consequences.”
**At least 360 rural communities and 16 others have been earmarked nationwide for the construction of 5,000MW of solar power generation and 2,500MWh of battery energy storage power plants. This followed the signing of an agreement on clean and reliable energy between the Nigerian Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and Sun Africa LLC, the largest US renewable energy company operating in Africa. According to a statement signed on Friday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the agreement comprises a development and Engineering, Procurement and Construction implementation framework for the construction of 5,000MW of solar generation and 2,500MWh of battery energy storage power plants for up to $10bn investment from the US government. The statement is titled, ‘Nigeria, US firm sign agreement on clean, reliable electricity. According to Shehu, “The agreement was signed on Wednesday in Washington, D.C by Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, and Adam Cortese, CEO of Sun Africa, in the presence of President Joe Biden’s Special Presidential Coordinator for the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, Amos Hochstein.” In his address on Tuesday, December 13, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) had said: “As part of the National Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policy, we set the vision 30:30:30 which aims at achieving 30GW of electricity by 2030 with renewable energy contributing 30 per cent of the energy mix.”
**Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force have reportedly shot and killed a middle-aged man in Imo State as students of the newly opened Imo State University of Agriculture and Environmental sciences, Umuagwo, and residents of the area went on a protest. The protesting youths who blocked the ever-busy Owerri- Port Harcourt expressway, demanded an end to police harassment and brutality in the area.
**Mohammed Abubakar, the immediate former governor of Bauchi state, has been suspended from the APC in his ward According to the Makama/Sarkin Baki Ward executive, the ex-governor was suspended because of his anti-party activities But the state chapter of the party on Friday in a press statement declared the suspension as null and void, stating due process was not followed. The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bauchi state is sinking into a deep leadership crisis as the purported suspension of the immediate ex-governor Mohammed Abubakar is overruled. The leadership of the state chapter of the APC declared that the suspension of Abubakar by the Makama/Sarkin Baki Ward executive of the party is null and void, adding that it did not follow due process.
**Nigerians on social media have made a trend of a video clip showing the moment the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, attempted to pray in the Muslim way.
Naija News reports that the video clip was an extract from the APC presidential campaign rally in Kaduna. As seen in the viral video, Tinubu, who was about to address a mammoth of APC supporters who came out to welcome him into the state, tried to recite prayers in the Muslim ways but could not rightly translate was he was saying in Arabic to English language. Netizens have since made a mockery of the situation as some also observed how his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, kept a straight facial look while his principal drifted in his prayers. APC chieftains beside Tinubu, as captured in the viral clip, include the party’s National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, Shettima and others.
**A Federal Capital Territory High Court has voided the plot by the Imo State Government and some security agencies (Police ,DSS) to frame opposition coalition spokesperson, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere and proffer some trumped up charges against him. In an application for the enforcement of his fundamental rights, the Opposition spokesperson Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere who is also the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for the Ideato North/South Federal Constituency prayed the Court to void the said false allegations as they were all politically motivated without any shred of evidence and protect his fundamental rights of freedom of expression. Mr. Ugochinyere contended that the false allegations were cooked in the Imo State Government House as a plot to stop him from further exposing the manipulation of the Voter register by officials of the Imo State Government for which the Independent National Electoral Commission has deleted millions of fake registrations and about 13 of its staff are undergoing disciplinary action. The Court therefore restrained the Defendants including the Attorney General of Imo State, Nigeria Police Force, Inspector General of Police. and Director General State Security Services from further intimidating, harassing, embarrassing, inviting, arresting or detaining prosecuting or charging to court the opposition spokesperson Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere based on any issues connected to the trumped up charges including the allegations of murder, robbery, arson, hacking into INEC database, terrorism, larceny, breach of national security all targeted at shutting him up against further exposure of voter register compromise. The Court also awarded the sum of Five Million Naira only as general and exemplary damages in favour of the applicant against the defendants jointly and severally, declared that the compromise of the voter register is a threat to democracy and also voided the Police investigation report dated 18th October, 2022 and the charge in Charge No. OW/651/2022. It has been a running battle between the Imo State Government and Mr. Ugochinyere following the exposure by the opposition spokesperson of the Omuma Magic compromise of the voters register.
**Shehu Sani, a former senator for Kaduna Central, has taken on his verified Twitter account to react as Amokachi, Rufai and other ex-Super Eagles players are in Kano for the Tinubu campaign. It was reported that over 27 former Super Eagles players have reached in Kano to kick off the Tinubu-Shettima presidential campaign tour which will take place at the Sani Abacha Stadium in Kano. It was gathered from the report that those ex-Super Eagles players present includes Daniel Amokachi, Peter Rufai, Victor Ikpeba, Julius Aghahowa, Mutiu Adepoju, Emmanuel Babayaro, amongst others. While reacting to this report, Shehu Sani, recently posted a tweet on the microblogging website Twitter to ask why most Nigeria’s ex-Super Eagles players were fatally attracted to the All Progressive Congress (APC), the ruling party.
**Actress Hilda Dokubo while talking with BBC News, said that the southeast sit-at-home order is being done to put fear in the people of the southeast so that they can’t come out on election day to cast their votes. In her words, she said “They are doing this so that people will be scared of coming out to cast their votes on the election day”. While she was talking, she encouraged the Igbos not to be discouraged with all these that are happening in the southeast. “It’s all their strategy to make people scared of coming out to cast their votes on election day in 2023”. “Don’t let anyone put fear in you, or discourage you, don’t let anyone destroy the unity between yourselves. If they successfully destroy the unity between you, they will be the same people that will come out to say that the Igbo people are not united”. While talking with BBC News, she encouraged everyone to go cast their votes on the election day in 2023 without minding what they will do to discourage people from casting their votes, she said “Ignore them and vote for your candidate”
**The much talked about reunion of the Great Government College Maroko, one of the very standard memoirs of the wonderfully lovely slum that produced a lot of great men and women of national values today. Maroko; the lowland town in between two highbrow cities in Lagos, Ikoyi and Victoria Island, was reclaimed by the then Military Government of Lagos State and due to development circumstances, has lost its name to the Lekki-craze. However, Government College Maroko, Osborne Ikoyi, is about the only public or private establishment that still has Maroko well embedded in it. Indeed, the College’s reunion today will throwback a lot of wonderful and nostalgic feelings, that will remain with the men and women who were boys and girls of yesterday.
**Lionel Messi is one name that would underline the growth of the beautiful game in the 21st Century. Born with a rare medical disease, his mother rejected pleas from those who pitied Messi to free him from the tough rigours of staying alive. Messi’s mum wanted her hitherto deformed innocent boy to live no matter what. That unflinching faith unique to every mother rings so true with all that Messi has shown to the world in football, also called soccer in many climes. Messi was diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency (GHD), a condition caused by insufficient amounts of growth hormone in the body, leading to impaired growth and development, when he was 11 years old. What is growth hormone deficiency (GHD), which many readers would want to be educated about it? Medical books define GHD as follows: ”Growth hormone is a substance that is needed to stimulate the growth of bones and other tissues that help kids grow and develop. That said, growth hormone deficiency is a condition wherein the pituitary gland does not produce enough growth hormones, impairing a child’s growth and development. ”There are two types of growth hormone deficiency: Congenital GH deficiency: This is a kind of deficiency babies are usually born with. Initially, their growth may seem normal but the symptoms may start showing when they’re about 6 to 12 months old. ”Acquired GH deficiency: This type of deficiency occurs when the body’s pituitary gland stops producing enough growth hormones for the body to grow normally. This can begin at any time during childhood.”
**Mbappe is focused on the final, but he just receives two bad news. The biggest and most important match in the last four years takes place this Sunday, when Kylian Mbappe’s France will face off against Lionel Messi’s Argentina. Now, some hours before the meeting, Fracia received some bad news that worries Mbappe. In the semifinal a few days ago against Morocco, Rabiot and Upamecano could not play due to a virus that is circulating in the French dressing room. Now, it seems that a couple or three French footballers are infected with the virus. There is no official information from the French team yet, but the players are not in training.
May our weekend be divinely blessed
