Author: Amina Mohammed

In a display of sportsmanship, Nigerian cyclist Ese Lovina Ukpeseraye received crucial support from the German cycling team during the Paris Olympics. Ukpeseraye, representing Team Nigeria, found herself in a difficult situation when she had no bicycle to race with in the keirin and sprint events due to the short notice of her participation. “Due to the short notice of me competing at the keirin & Sprint, #teamNigeria I had no bicycle to race with on the tracks,” Ukpeseraye said in a post via her X handle on Thursday. However, the German team, Bund Deutscher Radfahrer, stepped in to assist…

A Miss South Africa contestant whose Nigerian heritage sparked a national controversy and a government investigation withdrew from the beauty pageant Thursday. Chidimma Adetshina’s announcement that she would not take part in Saturday’s final came a day after the Home Affairs ministry accused her mother of fraud and identity theft. “After much careful consideration, I have made the difficult decision to withdraw myself from the competition for the safety and wellbeing of my family and I,” Adetshina, 23, wrote on Instagram. Adetshina, a law student, has been the subject of vicious, xenophobic attacks on social media since she was announced…

Nigeria’s Odunayo Adekuoroye lost 8-10 to China’s Hong Kexin on Thursday in the women’s freestyle 57-kilogramme event of the 2024 Olympic Games wrestling competition. In the quarter-final match at the Champ-de-Mars Arena in Paris, both wrestlers were even by the end of the bout’s first period despite the Nigerian’s early lead. But Hong pulled away in the second period, scoring technical points freely as she headed into the semi-finals. NAN reports that Adekuoroye had earlier in the day in the first round overcame Algerian Chaimaa Aouissi who got injured. Meanwhile, reports suggest that she now hopes to fight for a…

The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari, has decried the impact of smuggling on the oil sector. He stated this before a Senator Opeyemi Bamidele-led Ad-hoc Committee over alleged economic sabotage in the petroleum industry in Abuja on Wednesday. “We all know what happens; smuggling does take place… No one can deny that smuggling takes place across our borders both for PMS and any other commodities that you can think of. This is real. Mr Chairman, when the details come, we will tell you what we know,” he said. The NNPCL…

The Central Bank of Nigeria in its ongoing commitment to support the proper functioning of the foreign exchange market by enhancing liquidity when necessary, has revealed that the net foreign exchange flows into the country increased to $25.4bn in the first six months of 2024. A statement by the apex bank on Thursday said the increase marks a 55 per cent increase from the figure recorded year-over-year. It also noted that this growth has been fueled by a rise in capital importation, which reached $6bn in June 2024, and record inflows from diaspora remittances through formal channels. The new development…

Kenyan police fired volleys of tear gas Thursday in the heart of the capital Nairobi as small groups of protesters gathered on what was billed as a fresh day of action against embattled President William Ruto. Riot police patrolled the streets of the central business district, roadblocks were set up on major arteries and many shops were shut, but barely dozens of demonstrators turned out, AFP journalists said. The East African nation, one of the most stable in the region, has been rocked by weeks of sometimes deadly protests against Ruto’s two-year-old administration, mostly led by young Gen-Z Kenyans. While…

The Ukrainian embassy in Mexico on Wednesday asked the Mexican government to arrest Russian leader Vladimir Putin if he attends the inauguration that he was invited to of president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum. Kyiv’s delegation, which called Putin a “war criminal,” also thanked Mexico for extending an invitation to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky for the ceremony on October 1. “We are confident that the Mexican government would comply in any case with the international arrest warrant by handing over the aforementioned (Putin) to the United Nations judicial body in The Hague,” the Ukrainian embassy said in a statement. In March 2023, the…

Heavily armed policemen late Wednesday night invaded the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Headquarters, commonly known as Labour House, in Abuja. The operation began just before 9 pm, with the police force storming the building and conducting a search of both the second and tenth floors. A source revealed that the officers, both in uniform and plain clothes, were seen at various levels of the building. “Comrades, armed security men, both in uniform and mufti just invaded the Labour House in their numbers and were at the 10th Floor and 2nd Floor,” the source said. The police force allegedly broke into…

The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery, has assured Nigerians in the UK of their safety following anti-immigration riots. Montgomery gave the assurance on Wednesday while meeting with the CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) Abike Dabiri-Erewa, in Abuja. The High Commissioner and envoy indicated that 12 British towns were affected by the riots. Protests first broke out late last month, after an anti-immigrant misinformation campaign stoked outrage over a stabbing attack that left three children dead in Southport, northern England. The riots were triggered by the death of three school girls, aged between six and nine,…

President Bola Tinubu has pleaded with Nigerians to be patient with his administration, assuring the country is about to enter a new dawn. Tinubu, in an official video released by the State House on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, acknowledged the hardship Nigerians are going through as a result of fuel subsidy removal. The President also admitted that an “avoidable lag” between subsidy removal and his “good and helpful plans” compounded Nigerians’ pains. He said, “Fellow Nigerians, this period may be hard on us and there’s no doubt that it is tough on us but I urge you all to look…