Author: damazah@gmail.com

In this interview, the Chief Innovation & Commercialisation Officer at Matna Foods Limited, a Cavista Holding Company, Dr. Tony Bello, argues that as the world’s largest producer of cassava, Nigeria possesses a strategic opportunity to transform agricultural production into industrial value creation and export competitiveness. Raheem Akingbolu brings the excerpts. Nigeria is seeing renewed attention on agriculture as a driver of jobs, food security, and industrial growth. What is driving this shift, and how can it be sustained beyond rhetoric? Several global and domestic developments have converged to place agriculture back at the center of economic and national policy discussions. The COVID-19…

The real issue is whether publishers of scientific journals should retroactively apply contemporary standards regarding duplicate publication or self-plagiarism to historical papers. The journal publishing norms in the early 20th century were substantially different. The emphasis was on achieving the widest dissemination of knowledge across a fragmented scientific community separated by language and geographical distance, publishing in many different journals. As a result, the boundaries were heavily blurred between lectures, conference proceedings, booklets, collected essays, published journal articles and so forth. The scientific enterprise has since evolved to the point where it is dominated by large commercial publishing groups that…

In the last week, a group of bowlers had a lucky escape when a tree crashed down onto a green. A few days later, an MP in the House of Commons revealed a mature tree had fallen on her house. So could this be linked to the recent soaring temperatures?Trees can really suffer during a heatwave and the heat stress can show in lots of different ways. It can affect processes on a molecular level, right up to the biology of the whole tree itself.A three-day heatwave has been shown to be more than enough time to cause real damage…

Nigeria’s world record holder, Tobi Amusan, continued her remarkable run of form on Sunday, winning the women’s 100-metre hurdles at the Paris Diamond League with an outstanding time of 12.28 seconds. The victory marks Amusan’s second Diamond League win of the 2026 season, and the third time this year she has clocked 12.28 seconds, underlining her consistency at the highest level of world athletics. The Nigerian hurdler pulled away from the field in the closing stages to finish comfortably ahead of American Grace Stark, who placed second in 12.38 seconds, whilst Alaysha Johnson finished third in 12.39 seconds. For Amusan,…

Jesse Eisenberg opened up to Variety about what it was like turning down the opportunity to return as Facebook mastermind Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Network” sequel, “The Social Reckoning.” “It’s an honor to speak to Aaron in any capacity, because he’s so articulate and charming and so bright,” Eisenberg told Variety at Sunday’s Los Angeles premiere of “Minions & Monsters.” “We talked about doing the movie for several days. The way Aaron speaks, he speaks so wonderfully, as he writes that, in a way, if you’re not going to do something with him, it feels almost like…

Baobab Microfinance Bank has successfully concluded the first phase of its Menstrual Hygiene Awareness Project in Ilorin, Kwara State, reaffirming its commitment to improving the well-being of communities through impactful social interventions. As part of the initiative, the bank distributed 500 reusable sanitary pads to schoolgirls at a carefully selected beneficiary school in Ilorin. The project was implemented in partnership with Sisters of Jannah (SOJ), a trusted grassroots organization, whose local knowledge and community presence played a critical role in identifying the school with the greatest need. Menstrual hygiene remains one of the most overlooked challenges affecting young girls in…

The UK-Nigeria Security and Defence Partnership is an investment in Nigeria’s broader national development, contends JACOB ONOKPASA    At a time when Nigeria continues to confront one of the most complex security environments in its history, strategic partnerships have become not just desirable but indispensable. Terrorism, banditry, kidnapping for ransom, piracy, cybercrime, transnational organised crime and the proliferation of small arms are no longer isolated domestic concerns. They are interconnected threats that transcend national boundaries and demand coordinated international responses. It is against this backdrop that the two-day Fourth Session of the UK-Nigeria Security and Defence Partnership Dialogue, held in…

Taylor says Coalition ‘breached trust’ during Covid pandemic and must rebuild itJosh ButlerAngus Taylor claims Coalition governments, including one in which he was a senior minister, “lost trust” with the electorate through the Covid pandemic, saying they “allowed big government to become accepted”.The opposition leader also says he’d never “attack” One Nation voters, claiming his focus is on fighting Labor.Taylor was on 2GB this morning, saying the voting public was “angry” about politics and the economy, including standards of living and taxes. He admitted the Liberal Party had to rebuild trust among voters, but that while the Coalition’s vote was…

Co-hosts Canada became the first team to book a place in the Round of 16 of the FIFA 2026 World Cup after a dramatic 1-0 victory over South Africa on Sunday. Stephen Eustaquio struck deep into stoppage time to send Canada into the last 16, breaking South African hearts in a tense Round of 32 clash at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Read Also: African teams rewrite World Cup history with record nine in last 32 With both sides making their first-ever appearance beyond the World Cup group stage, the contest looked destined for extra time before Eustaquio produced the…

Suno has ambitions to be more than just a toy to churn out AI slop, it also wants to be a streaming destination and to break new artists. Spark is their new incubator program for independent artists that provides grants, mentorship, and marketing support.To apply, artists need to be an unsigned singer, songwriter, or producer releasing music under their own name. They also need to agree to some terms and conditions that have raised some eyebrows over on the Suno subreddit. For one, you need to agree to make your songs available on Suno for remixing. That’s not necessarily super…