The Nigerian topflight league continued on Sunday, and the results from the eight match venues recorded another series of breathtaking moments.
Three home wins, three away wins and two draws with 14 goals were recorded during the eight games played.
It was a dramatic moment in Jos between Enyimba and Plateau United as a last-minute strike from Kazeem Ogunleye gave the Peace Boys their first win of the season after their shocking defeat to Bendel Insurance on Thursday.
Finidi George and his boys were determined to cause havoc on Plateau United as they did in their first game against Nasarawa United at the New Jos Stadium, but it went south for the Elephants, who faced a defeat and two red cards during the encounter.
The game between the People Elephants and the Peace Boys witnessed critical injuries on both sides.
In the seventh minute, the combination of Chappy Katoh and Mustapha Ibrahim setup Sunday Anthony, whose shot slightly missed the target. Three minutes later, Ibrahim’s breathtaking header from Daniel Itodo’s long throw was saved by Olorunleke Ojo.
Meanwhile, the visitors tried to get an opener with former MFM player, Elijah Akanni cross forcing Yakubu Adam to score an own goal in the 20th minute. The Elephants then suffered a setback after Emeka Obioma replaced injured Mbaoma
Five minutes later, Enyimba broke the deadlock with Chibuike Nwaiwu’s header to a close range cross from his teammate.
Having conceded another goal at home, the peace boys tried to salvage the lead at the half hour mark with Ifeanyi Emmanuel heading Itodo’s throw.
Ifeanyi scored the hosts an equaliser six minutes later from a well set-up ball from Mustapha Ibrahim as he headed home his third goal of the season.
However, at the cusps of the halftime, Plateau United replaced injured Izuchukwu Chimezie for Kazeem Ogunleye.
Ogunleye was the first player to test Leke Ojo five minutes into the second half after his shot was parried for a corner by the goalkeeper.
The Federal Government has denied any increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit popularly called petrol, despite the hike in the cost of the commodity across the country.
In a statement released in Abuja by his media assistant, Horatius Egua, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, said that President Muhammadu Buhari had not given his approval for any price increases on PMS or any other petroleum products. There is currently no justification for President Muhammadu Buhari to break his earlier commitment not to authorize a price rise for PMS. The President is sympathetic to the predicament of the average Nigerian and has frequently stated that he comprehends their difficulties and would not want to subject the electorate to unimaginable agony.
“The government will not surreptitiously sanction any increase in PMS without having consulted with the necessary parties. No institution, including the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), has received a directive from the president to raise the cost of petroleum. There should not be a price rise on the PMS pump at this time.
The Minister noted that “What is playing out is the handiwork of mischief makers and those planning to discredit the achievements of Mr. President in the oil and gas sector of the economy. I appeal to Nigerians to remain calm and law-abiding as the government is working hard to bring normalcy to fuel supply and distribution in the country”
The heirs of a German Jewish collector persecuted during World War II are taking legal action to recover ownership of a painting by Pablo Picasso that now resides in the collection of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The descendants believe the painting is worth up to $200 million.
According to a lawsuit filed against the museum in a Manhattan court on Friday, relatives of the original owners, Karl Adler and Rosi Jacobi, and a group of Jewish nonprofits sought the return of Picasso’s 1904 canvas Woman Ironing.
The painting, which was produced during Picasso’s early Blue Period, shows a frail woman bent over while ironing. According to a note published on the museum’s website, it is a “quintessential image of travail and fatigue” that Picasso’s produced in his early 20s.
In the court documents, Adler’s West Coast–based descendant Thomas Bennigson claims the couple sold their collection while taking a financial loss as they prepared to flee Nazi persecution in Germany in 1938. According to the lawsuit, Benningson claims his relatives were forced to relinquish the Picasso “well below its actual value.” Benningson alleges that Adler would not have otherwise parted with the piece at the time he did “but for the Nazi persecution.”
Adler, who was active as an art collector in the early 20th century, served as chairman of a namesake German-based leather manufacturer. According to the suit, he was targeted under Nazi policy that stripped Jews of their wealth.
Adler acquired the Picasso painting from a Munich-based dealer Heinrich Thannhauser in 1916, only to sell the painting back to the dealer’s son Justin Thannhauser in October 1938. The suit claims Adler sold the painting in order to raise cash to fund short-term visas in order to flee Germany. The couple eventually landed in Argentina in 1940.
The suit states that the dealer repeatedly loaned the work to museums from 1939 on, citing its insurance values between $20,000 to $25,000. The suit claims that price was far inflated from the $1,385 he received from Adler to purchase it. Decades after war, Thannhauser posthumously gifted the work to the museum in 1978.
The suit alleges that Guggenheim is in “wrongful possession” of the work. The heirs first filed a claim to recover the painting in June 2021.
“The Guggenheim takes provenance matters and restitution claims extremely seriously,” a museum representative said in a statement. The museum said that it has conducted “expansive research and a detailed inquiry in response to this claim, engaged in dialogue with claimants’ counsel over the course of several years, and believes the claim to be without merit.”
The statement pointed out that the complaint filed over the weekend “strikingly fails to acknowledge” that the Guggenheim contacted the former owner’s son, Eric Adler, to confirm the painting’s ownership while researching the work in the 1970s. No members of the family raised concern over the work, according to the Guggenheim.
The museum claims that Adler’s sale of the painting to Thannhauser was “a fair transaction between parties with a longstanding and continuing relationship.”
It is not the first time the New York institution has dealt with a legal battle over art linked to Thannhauser. In 2009, the museum settled with the heirs of another persecuted collecting family over the Picasso painting Le Moulin de la Galette; the family claimed Thannhauser acquired it as a “product of economic duress.”
And in December, another group of descendants from a different collector sued the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York over the 1970s sale of a van Gogh painting alleged to have been improperly sold by Thannhauser during the war.
Still recovering its credibility after the headline-making FBI raid of its blockbuster Basquiat exhibition last year, the Orlando Museum of Art has been placed on probation by the American Alliance of Museums.
Commonly called the AAM, it is one of the most prominent museum accreditation groups in the nation. The AAM monitors the conduct of more than 5,000 museums and facilitates partnerships among its members; expulsion from the group can have severe consequences for an institution’s ability to borrow and loan artworks.
The AAM did not share a reason for OMA’s probation with WESH, which first reported the news on Friday.
The museum was at the center of a scandal last June when 25 paintings attributed to Basquiat were seized from the premises in broad daylight. Prior to the seizure, some had cast doubts on the paintings’ authenticity. An FBI affidavit released detailed a nine-year investigation into the artworks and their owners.
A series of swift shakeups at the museum followed, starting with the former museum director Aaron De Groft, who was ousted by the board of trustees only four days after the raid. De Groft unveiled the paintings to the public in February and vehemently defended them amid mounting challenges to their credibility. De Groft and the paintings’ owners claimed the works were created around 1982 by Basquiat while he was living and working in a Los Angeles and had been forgotten in a storage unit for decades.
The FBI affidavit provided evidence to the contrary, including an interview with the purported original owner of the paintings who swore he had never patronized the famed artist.
The World Health Organisation has said that trans fat is responsible for the premature death of 500,000 people from coronary heart disease.
According to a new status report by WHO, five billion people globally remain unprotected from harmful trans-fat thus increasing their risk of heart disease and death.
Industrially produced trans-fat (also called industrially produced trans-fatty acids) is commonly found in packaged foods, baked goods, cooking oils, and spreads, the world’s health agency explained.
Although only 43 countries have passed the best-practice policies, with Nigeria expected to be the second in Africa to do so, the WHO has, however also announced it will not meet the elimination target of trans fat by 2023
Coronary heart disease is damage or disease in the heart’s major blood vessels. This is usually caused by the build-up of plaque which causes the coronary arteries to narrow, limiting blood flow to the heart.
The symptoms of coronary artery disease can range from no symptoms to chest pain, to a heart attack, experts explain.
The WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus said eliminating trans-fat is cost-effective and has enormous benefits for health.
Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus
He said, “trans-fat is a toxic chemical that kills, and should have no place in food. It’s time to get rid of it once and for all.”
The report partly states that “currently, nine of the 16 countries with the highest estimated proportion of coronary heart disease deaths caused by trans-fat intake do not have a best-practice policy. They are Australia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Ecuador, Egypt, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and the Republic of Korea.
“Best practices in trans-fat elimination policies follow specific criteria established by WHO and limit industrially produced trans-fat in all settings.
“There are two best-practice policy alternatives: 1) mandatory national limit of 2 grams of industrially produced trans-fat per 100 grams of total fat in all foods; and 2) mandatory national ban on the production or use of partially hydrogenated oils (a major source of trans fat) as an ingredient in all foods.
“Progress in eliminating trans-fat is at risk of stalling, and trans-fat continues to kill people.”
Dr. Tom Frieden, President/CEO of Resolve to Save Lives says, “Every government can stop these preventable deaths by passing a best-practice policy now. The days of trans fat killing people are numbered — but governments must act to end this preventable tragedy.”
“While most trans-fat elimination policies to date have been implemented in higher-income countries (largely in the Americas and in Europe), an increasing number of middle-income countries are implementing or adopting these policies, including Argentina, Bangladesh, India, Paraguay, the Philippines and Ukraine.
“Best-practice policies are also being considered in Mexico, Nigeria and Sri Lanka in 2023. If passed, Nigeria would be the second and most populous country in Africa to put a best-practice trans-fat elimination policy in place. No low-income countries have yet adopted a best-practice policy to eliminate trans-fat.”
One of Princess Diana’s favourite dresses is going up for auction at Sotheby’s on 27 January and is expected to fetch between €73,000 and €110,000.
The purple velvet dress was designed by Victor Edelstein and was famously worn by Diana in her 1997 Vanity Fair photo shoot.
“Princess Diana has famously been photographed in professional portraits twice in this dress,” explained Cynthia Houlton, Sotheby’s Global Head of Fashion and Accessories. “So that makes it special. The other reason that makes it really special is Victor Edelstein was Princess Diana’s designer for ten years. So obviously, he designed a lot of dresses for her. But this specific dress was also one of her favourites.”
The dress is part of Sotheby’s “The One” auction. Other items include an invite to President JFK’s famous birthday party where Marilyn Monroe sang to the president.
Another item up for grabs is basketball superstar Lebron James’ jersey from the 2013 NBA finals.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has launched a currency swap program, an initiative to exchange old for new Naira notes for rural and underprivileged regions, ahead of the January 31 deadline for the phase-out of old notes.
Seven days before the deadline, on January 23, 2023, today, Monday, the initiative will begin. In a circular addressed to all deposit money banks (DMBs), mobile money operators (MMOs), super agents, and agents with the headline “Naira redesign policy: CBN begins cash swap program in rural and underserved areas,” CBN made this disclosure.
The currency swap program enables residents of rural areas or those with limited access to formal financial institutions to trade over their old Naira notes for new ones. As a result, the previous N1,000, N500, and N200 notes can be exchanged for the newer notes and/or the older smaller denomination notes (N100, N50, and N20, etc.), which are still valid.
The CBN circular states that the agent may only trade up to N10,000 per person, and that amounts above N10,000 must be deposited into wallets or bank accounts in compliance with the cashless policy. The customer’s bank verification number (BVN), national identity number (NIN), and voter’s card information should be recorded as soon as feasible, according to CBN. According to the circular, anyone without a bank account can use the service in an effort to promote financial inclusion.
The CBN further stated that, in accordance with the amended cash withdrawal limit policy, circular designated agents are qualified to collect the redesigned notes from MBs.
“Agents are also permitted to charge cash-out fees for the cash swap transactions but prohibited from charging any further commissions to customers for this service. Agents shall render weekly returns to their designated banks regarding the cash swap transactions. MBs shall in tum render the same to the CBN on a weekly basis.
“Principals (Super Agents, MMOs, DMBs) shall be held accountable for their agents’ adherence to the above guidelines. Cash Swap agents will be readily identifiable in all local governments, particularly those in rural areas. The CBN will continue to monitor the implementation of the programme and provide further guidance as may be necessary”.
The Lagos State Government has announced that traffic will be restricted from Monday 23rd January and Tuesday 24th January 2023 in preparation for the visit of the President to Lagos State.
In a statement released by the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, the Commissioner, Dr. Frederic Oladeinde assured that alternative routes have been mapped out, as well as the deployment of the State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA to manage Traffic flow during the 2-day visit.
On the first day which is Monday 23rd, movement around Lagos Rice Mill, Imota in Ikorodu, and the Lekki Deep Port Sea axis will be restricted. On the Second day Tuesday 24th, movement around Eko Hotels and Suites, Ahmadu Bello Way, J-Randle through to Broad Street and Outer Marina will be diverted from 6.00 am to 3.00 pm.
The options according to the movement plan will have Motorists diverted from Ahmadu Bello Way, Ademola Adetokunbo, and Akin Adesola Street to Falomo Bridge (Five Cowries Bridge), to Alfred Rewane Road to connect their desired destinations.
While Motorists that are Onikan bound from Ozumba Mbadiwe and Bonny Camp are enjoined to make use of Falomo Bridge (Five Cowries Bridge) or Awolowo Road. Motorists from Awolowo Road heading to Onikan Roundabout, Tinubu Square, or any other part of the inner Island will make use of Falomo Roundabout to link Alfred Rewane to further their journeys.
Another diversion option is for Motorists from King George V Road to connect Moloney Street and then Obalende for their desired destinations, or link Turton Street through Moloney Street to Lewis and Sandgrouse Streets.
For the Motorists from Eko Bridge trying to link to Marina, they will be diverted to Elegbata, Ebute Ero to Police Post to link to the 3rd Mainland Bridge (Adeniji Adele) to further connect their desired destinations.
While stressing that all the adjourning Streets leading to the dedicated routes for the movement of the president, will be temporarily closed, Oladeinde assures motorists of a well-mapped-out strategy to minimize delays and inconveniences for road users.
Nutrition experts have warned Nigerians against the daily consumption of instant noodles, noting that it is an unhealthy diet habit that should not be embraced.
The diet experts noted that instant noodles have no nutritional value and should not be a feature of a daily diet of anyone.
Speaking with our correspondent, the experts, the Chief Executive Officer of OSA Food and Solution, Obembe Oluwaseun, and a Public Health Dietitian and Senior Nutritionist with Light in the Darkness AIDS Patients Foundation, Ruth Onokudikoghene, said it had become necessary to enlighten Nigerians that instant noodles lack nutritional value and could also cause severe health complications later in life.
Speaking with Newsmen, Obembe said while instant noodles were usually attractive because of the spices in them which made them sweet, they contain nothing but just starch.
He also warned that the spices could even cause respiratory disorders and miscarriages in pregnant women.
He said: “I’m a food processor and analyst, so we have done all this research, it’s very unhealthy and could cause cancer. I and my family do not eat it; instead, we go for spaghetti. Noodles are unhealthy and I can’t advise anyone to consume them at any time.
“Even if I want to plan a diet for someone, I can never put noodles. If any other of my colleagues are doing it, I will tell them you know it’s not healthy why are you putting it? And anything we do; we have to back it up scientifically.
“Instant noodles consist of carbonated properties which makes it dangerous to be consumed daily”.
When asked if instant noodles could be prepared more healthily, he said, “In nutrition, we know something they call fortification, if they can fortify it, it’s okay”.
Also speaking with Newsmen, Onokudikoghene backed the opinion of Obembe, noting that she is against the daily consumption of instant noodles.
She added that most instant noodles also have high sodium content.
Instant Noodle
She said, “I would recommend a substitute like spaghetti or go for oval rings than having to go for instant noodles”.
She noted that the regular consumption of food high in sodium could in the long term predispose one to underlying conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and all the other likes.
“So, the sodium content is an issue. That is why we always encourage people to embrace proper nutrition and food diversity, not just having to take some noodles all the time.
“People should try other things. We have oval rings, we have legumes, we have our nut seeds, we have our poultry products. So, it’s a broad spectrum, so it’s very important to make proper daily selections of all the food classes and all the food groups that are available to us,” she said.
When asked about the negative impact of short and long-term on the health of daily consumers of instant noodles she said.
She noted that wrong food choices could be one of the factors fuelling the increasing cases of hypertension.
“It has been noticed that it’s not only the adults that now have high blood pressure, even young children because of the poor nurturing that started early in life.
“That is one of the reasons why I always encourage parents to ensure that in the first one thousand days of life, children should be exposed to our local staple foods instead of having to go for quick fixes like instant noodles and all the like. So parents should know that it’s not really what they should start a child on as food because children get used to what they are given, especially when it is something sweet. That is why you will hear a child say oh I want noodles instead.
“Now when the child consistently makes such food choices, over a space of time, when the child becomes an adult, he may continue with that wrong food habit that is not healthy.
“In the long term, that person may become predisposed to hypertension, obesity, and all the other lifestyle conditions.”
When asked how noodles could be made healthier, especially in preparation, she said, “For now, it’s not possible, except if they can make it a high-fiber diet. This is because the seasoning in it is already containing sodium. Seasoning is very small and would have given you the recommended daily allowance that is needed, that’s 6 grams, that’s 2,300 grams of sodium. So, if there is a need to make it healthy, probably you will have to do away with the seasoning and you will agree with me that most people would not want to make noodles without it”.
According to a study published online by the National Library of Medicine, increased consumption of instant noodles has been reported to be associated with obesity and cardiometabolic syndrome.
Another study published by Healthline – an online health education platform, also noted that frequent consumption of instant noodles could lead to an increased risk of metabolic syndrome, stressing that the food product is also low in nutrients.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board says it has registered 92, 490 candidates to sit the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
This was made known in a breakdown of registered candidates published in the board’s weekly bulletin and made available to our correspondent by the Director of Publicity, JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin, in Abuja on Monday.
In addition, the board also noted that 67,328 candidates had so far registered to sit its mock examination since registration commenced on January 14, 2023.
The registration deadline has been fixed for February 14, 2023.
Earlier, while giving a breakdown of its registration fees, the examination body noted that two e-pins were available for purchase, as candidates had the option to either register to sit its mock UTME or not.
“As already effected in the UTME exercise, two e-pins are available, N5, 700 for without mock UTME; N6, 700 for with mock UTME, while the Direct Entry is N4,700.
“Approved UTME fee remains N3, 500, reading text N500, the registration fee is N700, with N1000 for Computer-Based Test examination fee and an optional N1000 for mock examination for the candidates,” it said.
The board says it remits to the CBT centres on a weekly basis what is due to them, adding that the measure is put in place to stop extortion of candidates.
It added that as part of measures put in place to enhance the sanctity of the examination process, examinations would be allowed to take place an hour after the scheduled commencement time. It promised to reschedule any exam session affected by technical challenges from the board and communicate date for the rescheduled session to the affected candidates.
“Candidates will be notified of their new schedule centres before they leave the examination centre.
“Furthermore, no candidate will be allowed to spend less than one hour before submission during the examination.
“Late commencement or early departure from the examination hall can jeopardise the conduct of the examination by giving some candidates undue advantage over their contemporaries taking the examination,” it said.
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