Serena Loses To Bencic In First Match Of Farewell Tour

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August 11, 2022

Veteran U.S. tennis player Serena Williams returns a ball during her match against Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic during the National Bank Open in Toronto, Ontario, Canada August 10, 2022.

The first stop on Serena Williams’ farewell tour came to a quick end as she fell 6-2 6-4 to Belinda Bencic in second-round action at the Canadian Open on Wednesday a day after announcing her forthcoming retirement from tennis.

Williams arrived on the court to a standing ovation and had the full support of the capacity crowd throughout the 77-minute match but was unable to conjure up the old magic that helped her lift three titles in Canada.

“It’s been a pretty interesting 24 hours … I’m terrible at goodbyes. But, goodbye Toronto,” an emotional Williams told the crowd.

“I always had amazing times here both on and off the court. I’ll be coming back just as a visitor to the city but otherwise its been remarkable.”

After the match, Williams was presented with team jerseys of Toronto’s NBA and NHL teams for her and her daughter, who was in attendance, as well as a bouquet of flowers that she carried off the court while wiping back tears.

Prior to the match, a tribute video was played featuring comments from tennis pioneer Billie Jean King, current players like Coco Gauff and Emma Raducanu as well as ice hockey great Wayne Gretzky and highlights of Williams’ Canadian triumphs.

The highly-anticipated match was played a day after 23-time Grand Slam champion Williams revealed in a Vogue article that she was “evolving away from tennis” and planned to retire from the sport she has dominated for over two decades.

Olympic champion Bencic saved the lone break point she faced in the opening set and broke Williams twice to jump ahead 5-2 but the Swiss 12th seed then needed five set points to clinch the opening frame.

In the second set, Bencic got the one break she needed to go ahead 4-3 when Williams struck a double-fault and the Swiss never looked back as she sealed the match on her serve when Williams sent a return long.

“It was a lot of emotions obviously,” Williams said about how it felt to take the court. “I love playing here, I’ve always loved playing here. I wish I could’ve played better but Belinda played so well today.”

Up next for Bencic will be Spanish eighth seed Garbine Muguruza, who was a 6-4 6-4 winner over Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi.

Among the others reaching the last 16 of the tune-up event for the Aug. 29-Sept. 11 U.S. Open were world number one Iga Swiatek, defending champion Camila Giorgi, Coco Gauff, Simona Halep, Karolina Pliskova, Jessica Pegula and Aryna Sabalenka.

CAF Set To Back Infantino For New Term As FIFA President

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Emenike Agu

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August 11, 2022

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FIFA president Gianni Infantino

Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe says the continent will throw its weight behind incumbent FIFA president Gianni Infantino as the latter seeks a third term in office at the 73rd FIFA congress next year.

Motsepe confirmed all 54 member associations of CAF have resolved to vote for Infantino, despite the fact that the identity of any potential challenger is not yet known.

With no opponent emerging yet, Infantino could stand unopposed again, as he did in 2019.

“We discussed at the executive committee meeting that in recognition of the huge contributions, commitment and the track record that you’ve built in terms of improving African football, all 54 member nations have taken a resolution to vote for you for re-election,” Motsepe told Infantino at the CAF General Assembly in Arusha on Wednesday.

Infantino was first elected FIFA president in February 2016 and has spent a lot of time in Africa, whose 54 nations are more than a quarter of FIFA’s 211 member associations and therefore make up a powerful voting bloc.

Motsepe has long been seen as an ally of Infantino and the two appeared together at the launch of a proposed African Super League for clubs that was also announced on Wednesday and is due to start in August 2023.

JAMB Releases Results of 2022 Mop-up Examination

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Rhoda Onuzulike

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August 10, 2022

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The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has released the results of the recently conducted mop-up 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME).

According to a statement by the board’s Head of Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr Fabian Benjamin, JAMB released the results in Abuja on Wednesday.

Benjamin said the board had emplaced a user-friendly and simplified process of checking UTME results in line with its desire to adhere to the ease of doing business protocol of the government.

“To check the results of the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) Mop-Up Examination result conducted on Aug. 6, all a candidate needs to do is to simply send RESULT to 55019.

“This will be done by using the same phone number that he/she had used for registration and the result would be returned as a text message.

“Candidates can also print their result from the board’s website- www.jamb.gov.ng after linking their email address to their profile,” he added.

Benjamin said the simplified process would also preclude the exploitation of candidates by shylock business centres and cybercafés that often take advantage of hapless candidates.

Nigeria Can’t Borrow N1.1 Trillion To Meet ASUU’s Demand – Gov. Umahi

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Rhoda Onuzulike

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August 10, 2022

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Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State says the Nigerian government cannot borrow N1.1 trillion to meet the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) who have been on strike for over five months.

The Chairman of the South-East Governors’ Forum said this on Wednesday when he received a delegation from the Nigeria Police Trust Fund led by Dr. Ben Akabueze, in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi capital.

“There is no way Nigeria will go and borrow N1.1tn to meet ASUU’s demand, it’s quite unreasonable. Are their demands genuine? Yes. But we can start little by little,” the governor said.

“There must be a commitment on the side of both parties that look, ‘ASUU is not asking for this to take to their houses’ so to say. It’s asking for it for our children, to better the infrastructure, to better the lecturers and the students. Yes, but we can start with a fraction of that and then have a programme that will run on the platform of sincerity to address all the lots.”

Umahi also called on varsities lecturers to show some level of understanding so the strike can end.

“So, it is important for ASUU to show some understanding and for those who are negotiating on the side of government to also show some understanding,” he added.

“Let’s meet ourselves halfway and then open the schools to save the fate of our children.”

The governor, who equally faulted the poor maintenance culture in the country, added that there is a need to work on it.

“But let me also say that most of the time, our people have a low appetite for maintenance of public works,” Umahi said.

“No matter how much you deploy to these universities unless the users and the industry regulators begin to treat public infrastructure as their own in the various universities, it will continue to go bad.

Nigeria’s Naira Drops to N680/$ at Parallel Market

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Rhoda Onuzulike

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August 10, 2022

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The Naira, on Wednesday, weakened against the dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange market.

Bureaux De Change operators (BDCs) in Lagos, said the local currency depreciated by N15 or 2.3 percent to trade at N680 per dollar at the street market.

Last week, the naira closed at N665 to a dollar at the street market.

The street traders put the buying price of the dollar at N665 and the selling price at N680, leaving a profit margin of N15.

They said scarcity has returned to the FX market.

“Demand is high, and there is no dollar. If you tell a customer to sell a dollar to you for N650, he will tell you that he saw it online for N670 or N675. We also have to make our gain. We are buying and selling to make a profit,” a lagos’ trader at the Ikeja market, said.

On the official market, the naira appreciated by 0.52 percent to close at N428.75 to a dollar on Tuesday, according to FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange, a platform that oversees foreign-exchange trading in Nigeria.

In the past week, the foreign exchange market witnessed appreciation after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) raided a BDC hub in Abuja.

The anti-graft agency alleged that some BDC operators were mopping up foreign currencies, especially the dollar, to either hoard or smuggle the funds out of Nigeria.

As part of its efforts to check the rising incidence of FX speculation, the EFCC vowed to clamp down on persons and organisations hoarding foreign currencies across key commercial cities such as Kano, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Calabar.

Recently, The chief executive officer of Financial Derivatives Company, Bismarck Rewane said the naira is overvalued by 200 percent.

He projected that the official rate would be devalued next month.

Minimum Wage: Kwara Govt. Signs Agreement With Tertiary Institutions

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Rhoda Onuzulike

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August 10, 2022

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The Kwara State Government has signed agreement with the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council on the implementation of the Consolidated Polytechnics and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Salary Structure (CONPCASS) for two institutions.

They are the Academic Staff of the Colleges of Education Ilorin, Oro Lafiagi and College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies (CAILS).

The agreement, among other things, sets the effective date for the implementation of the new minimum wage covering the Academic Staff at the tertiary institutions at 1st Day of July, 2022.

The deal also provided that the government shall in subsequent wage review, include the representatives of Academic Staff Unions at the Tertiary Institutions in the committee for negotiations on behalf of members; moderate subvention payment processes to be flexible that will enable payment of Academic Staff at the Tertiary Institutions as and when due; and that there shall be no retrenchment of workers as a result of the implementation of the minimum wage.

“I want to thank everybody who has made efforts in this process. We appreciate you. We appreciate everything that you have done. Thank you for being responsive. Thank you for believing in Kwara and that Kwara belongs to all of us. Whatever we do is either for the betterment of Kwara or at detriment of the state. I thank you for choosing the latter,” State Head of Service, Modupe Oluwole said at the signing of the agreement at the Governor’s Office Ilorin, the capital city.

“This agreement is made this 9th day of August, 2022 between the Kwara State Government and the Joint Public Service Negotiation Council (JNC) Kwara State Organ, on behalf of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), Kwara State Colleges of Education, Ilorin, Oro and (Technical), Lafiagi Chapters and Colleges of Legal and Allied Institutions Academic Union (COLAASU), Kwara State College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies (CAILS), Ilorin Chapter on the implementation of Consolidated Polytechnics and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Salary Structure (CONPCASS).

“I want to thank our listening Governor for deeming it fit for ensuring that we have this salary. We do not take this for granted because there are several states that owe salaries. We believe things will continue to get better,” she added.

Oluwole, who signed on behalf of the state government, appreciated the academic staff for their understanding and patience throughout the negotiations period.

State Chairman of NLC, Comrade Isa Ore, for his part, commended Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the Head of Service and other key stakeholders for the successes achieved so far in signing minimum wage agreements across all affected labour unions.

He appealed to the state government to also consider increase in pensions paying to the state retirees in line with the spirit of the minimum wage.

Other officials at the signing of the agreement included Chairman Public Service Joint Negotiating Council Kwara State, Saliu Suleiman; Director Establishment, Pension and Industrial Relations, Yusuf Amuda; Secretary Public Service Joint Negotiating Council, Joseph Tunde; Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary Ministry of Justice, Musa Idris; Permanent Secretary Establishment and Training, Ibrahim Mohammed.

Others are Permanent Secretary Ministry of Tertiary Education, Bola Alaya; State Accountant General AbdulGaniyu Sani; Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Labour Matters, Abdulkareem Onagun; Chairman COEASU COE (Technical) Lafiagi, Gborigi Katun; Chairman COEASU COE Oro, Isah Ibrahim and the State Controller of Labour Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Yusuf Raufu.

Nigeria’s Largest Private Airline Suspends Flights To Johannesburg For 47 Days

By

Angel Gimalo

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August 10, 2022

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Nigeria’s largest private airline, Air Peace, has announced its suspension of flight operations from Nigeria to Johannesburg, South Africa.

The airlines noted that the suspension was prompted by delays in visa approvals and aviation kerosene, also known as Jet A1 fuel scarcity.

The suspension according to the company will last for 47 days, starting from August 22 to October 8, 2022, pending the outcome of the development.

It would be recalled that the United Kingdom flag carrier airline, British Airways (BA) last week, suspended the sale of short-haul flight tickets departing from Heathrow airport.

Also, Emirate Airlines reduced flight operations to Nigeria over fuel challenges along with other factors.

However, the company in a statement made available to newsmen expressed optimism that the issues which warranted the suspension would have been addressed before October.

It said, “We hereby inform the flying public that effective from August 22, 2022, our Johannesburg flight operations will be suspended till October 8, 2022.

“This development is regretted but has become inevitable due to the delayed issuance of South African visas to travellers, worsening forex crunch, and the increasing cost of aviation fuel as well as its scarcity.

“However, having informed the South African High Commission in Lagos of the effects of the difficulty in getting SA visas by Nigerians, which consequence is the abysmally low passenger loads on our flights to and from Johannesburg, we believe that the situation will have improved within the next 60 days.

Hence, our willingness to resume operations on October 8, 2022.

“Passengers whose flights are affected have the option of rescheduling to fly before August 22, 2022, or from October 9, 2022. Passengers can also request a refund.

“We apologise for the inconveniences caused and will keep the public updated while we hope the situation improves.”

Nigerian Government To Add 204MW Of Electricity To South-West Ekiti State

By

Angel Gimalo

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August 10, 2022

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The Federal Government of Nigeria says plans are underway to add 204 Mega Watts (MW) of electricity to boost power supply in Ekiti state.

The Minister of Power, Mr Abubakar Aliyu, said this in a a statement by General Manager, Public Affairs, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mrs Ndidi Mbah, on Wednesday, in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

Abubakar said the Federal Government had begun the construction of a 132 kilovolts transmission line and a 2 by 60 Mega Volt Ampere (MVA) transmission substation and a switching station in the state to raise the capacity by 204 megawatts.

The minister, who was speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony in Ado Ekiti, said that the project consisted of a 50 km stretch of 132kV transmission line from Ikere (Ado Ekiti) with a turn in – turn out at Ijesa Isu that terminates at Ilupeju Ekiti.

Aliyu, represented by the Managing Director of TCN, Mr Sule Abdulaziz, said the project
also had a 2X60MVA, 132/33kV transmission substation with four line bays at Ijesa Isu Ekiti with a switching station at Ikere (Ado Ekiti).

”For TCN, this is a very strategic project and we believe it will have massive impact on bulk power transmission in Ekiti and environs.

“The project is part of the many projects being undertaken by the Transmission Company of Nigeria in pursuit of its grid expansion programme.

”Which is in line with Mr. President’s mandate for the expansion of the power sector for sustainable development,” he said.

The minister said that in various transmission regions, nationwide, TCN is equally executing substations and lines projects which are all at various stages of execution.

”’These are clear indications that the Federal Government is not relenting in its determination to ensure that the nation’s power sector receives the desired boost.

“For the residents of Ekiti State and its environs, the additional 204MW capacity to the grid means that more bulk supply will be readily available for offtake by Benin DisCo for its customers in Ekiti and environs,” he noted.

”The substations’ project will also take care of suppressed load in this axis and relieve the Ado-Ekiti substation which has been overburdened to ensure a more reliable electricity supply to the people of Ekiti,” he said.

Aliyu called on Ekiti residents to support government efforts against vandalism of power facilities.

Nigeria’s Budgetary Allocation To Education Lowest in 2022- Report

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Rhoda Onuzulike

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August 10, 2022

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Against the backdrop of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, strike, a report released by an advocacy group, Invictus Africa, on Tuesday, disclosed that the educational sector received its lowest budgetary allocation in 2022.

The report entitled, “Data and Analysis of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s Budgetary Allocation to Education between 2015 and 2022,” pegged the federal government’s budgetary allocation to education at 5.39 percent, accounting for N923.79 billion out of the total budget of N17.13 trillion.

The report further revealed that the 5.39 percent was a 50 percent reduction from the 10.79 percent allocated to education in 2015.

It said, “The Federal Government’s 2022 budgetary allocation to education is 5.39 percent, which is N923.79 billion out of the total budget of N17.13 trillion. This is being expended on personnel (N662.7 billion), overheads (N38.8 billion), and capital expenditure (N222.2 billion).

“The 5.39 percent allocation is not only a minuscule 0.29 percent increase from the 2021 budget in which 5.68 percent was allocated to the sector, it is the lowest percentage allocation to education by the Federal Government in the last ten years.

“Further considering that the 5.39 percent is a 50 percent reduction from the 10.79 percent allocated to education in 2015, a comparative estimate of the Naira value of these percentages, when subjected to dollar exchange, shows only a slight difference between the 2015 allocation and that of 2022.

“Invictus Africa reiterates the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) benchmark of four to six percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or 15 to 20 percent of public expenditure.

“Considering that education is on the concurrent list in the Nigerian Constitution, to ascertain the percentage of total public expenditure on education in Nigeria, different sources of funds must be put into consideration, such as budget allocations by States and the Federal Government, and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), among others. This data, however, only shows the Federal Government’s allocation to education.”

Giving her remarks on the data, the Executive Director of Invictus Africa, Bukky Shonibare, decried the negative cascading effects of the low budgetary allocation to education by the federal government.

She said, “The need for better funding of FG owned public universities is one of the many issues causing the seemingly endless strike actions by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.

Shonibare noted that budgetary allocations indicates governments’ priorities and political will, adding that an increase in education budgeting will mean that more schooling population across Nigeria can access free, safe, and quality education, while increasing the chances for uptake of secondary and tertiary education.

“Governments’ investment in education is not only in fulfillment of its obligation to fulfill the right to education, it is strategic, as investing in education is directly linked to, among others, reduction in poverty and crimes, as well as improvements in Nigeria’s economic potential and capacity,” she stated.

Thousands Of Residents Evacuated From Southwestern France As Forest Fires Destroy Homes

By

Angel Gimalo

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August 10, 2022

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A huge wildfire that has destroyed more than a dozen homes and forced the evacuation of thousands of residents was sweeping through the Gironde region of southwestern France on Wednesday.

More than 1,000 firefighters backed by water-bombing aircraft were fighting the fire that has razed more than 6,000 hectares (14,826 acres) and is still burning out of control.

France, like the rest of Europe, is struggling with successive heatwaves and its worst drought on record.

Dozens of wildfires are ablaze across the country, including at least four other major ones.

Camille Delay fled her home town of Hostens on the orders of emergency services with her partner and son as a wall of flames drew rapidly closer.

The couple grabbed their two cats, chickens and house insurance documents before taking flight, she said.

“Everyone in the village climbed onto their rooftops to see what was happening – within 10 minutes a little twist of smoke became enormous,” the 30-year-old said.

The local Gironde authority described the blaze as “rampant”. Firefighters said more evacuations were likely.

The Gironde was hit by major wildfires in July which destroyed more than 20,000 hectares (49,421 acres) of forest and temporarily forced nearly 40,000 people from their homes.

Authorities believe the latest inferno was a result of the previous fires still smouldering in the area’s peaty soil.

Fires were also raging in the southern departments of Lozere and Aveyron.

In the Maine-et-Loire department in western France, more than 1,200 hectares (2,965 acres) have been scorched by another fire.

Meanwhile, an ailing beluga whale that strayed into France’s Seine river has been put down after it was successfully removed from the waterway, according to authorities.

The development came after rescue divers overnight guided the whale into a net before a crane lifted it from the river in an operation which lasted six hours.

It was then transported in a refrigerated truck to the Channel port of Ouistreham.

During the journey by road, the already-weak beluga suffered respiratory failure and it was euthanised by vets shortly after arriving in Ouistreham to prevent further suffering.

“Despite an unprecedented rescue operation, it is with sadness that we announce the cetacean’s death,” the local Calvados authorities said.

The plan had been to move the malnourished whale to a saltwater basin in the hope it might recover some strength before being transferred to the sea. But it was a risky venture.

The four-metre (13.1-foot) male weighed 800 kilograms (1,763 pounds), well below an adult beluga’s typical weight of 1,200kg, and had not eaten since it was first spotted in the Seine last week.

Rescuers believe it was sick before it wandered up the river to within 70km (43 miles) of Paris.