Author: damazah@gmail.com

Many academics experience a point at which they transition from laboratory work to management, which can be an opportunity to foster growth in the next generation of scientists.Credit: Monty Rakusen/GettyIn April 2021, after six months of intensive writing, revising and reshaping of an idea that I had been refining for years, I submitted a research proposal for my first grant from the European Research Council — a part of the Horizon Europe funding scheme that focuses on researcher-led science. After waiting anxiously for another six months, I finally received an invitation to interview. I knew, therefore, that my proposal had…

Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE plans to double its labour force to meet its target of doubling its processing capacity by 2029. “Well, within the refinery, the workforce will practically become double, except in the water treatment section, because there we already have substantial capacity,” Edwin Devakumar, vice president, oil & gas and fertiliser at Dangote Industries Limited, told journalists at the refinery in Lagos on Friday. He observed that labour expansion in the transport segment might not be significant, except in the case of an increase in local consumption. “Obviously, we don’t expect a substantial increase in the…

The Executive Chairman of Ovia South West Local Government Council, Anthony Osarobo, has called for the support of traditional rulers, noting that it is the only way he can succeed in his task to develop the area. Osarobo stated this at the end of his familiarisation and thank-you visits to traditional rulers in the council on Thursday. Osarobo, accompanied by members of his executive council, began the tour with a visit to the palace of the Iyase of Udo, Chief Patrick Igbinidu, JP. He described the visit as a “thank-you visit”, saying it was important to return to Udo, his…

A team of three independent security researchers at Hacktron says it took less than 72 hours for them to hack into OpenAI employee accounts using Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8 and 5, the Wall Street Journal reports. They were able to access OpenAI’s GitHub repository, called “Monorepo,” which reportedly contains “OpenAI’s algorithmic secrets,” according to the Wall Street Journal’s sources.They stopped short of accessing internal code in Monorepo themselves, but sent a pull request from an employee’s Codex account to prove they gained access. They were able to get in through Discourse, the third-party service that hosts OpenAI’s community forums, by…

Bunmi Tunji-Ojo, Minister of Interior, is making a difference, writes JOSHUA J.OMOJUWA Nigerians are not a generous people when it comes to public officers, and there is a reason for it. Most of us have hardly had an encounter with the Nigerian state that ended well, so praise feels like something we are being tricked into. When something does work, the instinct is to check twice. The plainest test of any ministry is whether an ordinary citizen’s dealings with it became less humiliating. On that test, the Ministry of Interior has done something rare in Nigerian public administration. In late…

Ongoing conflict in the Middle East exposes shifting regional geopolitical fault lines that are pulling African states into an emerging macro-conflict system anchored along the Red Sea. This stems from several overlapping crises arising from US and Israeli military offensives against Iran and renewed Houthi attacks on shipping lanes, Saudi-Emirati competition across the Horn of Africa, and disputes amongst African states over sovereignty and regional influence. Should these crises deepen and become self-reinforcing, the implications for African states across much of the Red Sea littoral could be dire. The most recent US and Israeli offensive against Iran has added to…

Former Delta State Commissioner for Finance, Olorogun Bernard Okumagba, has reiterated his call for all indigenous ethnic nationalities in Warri Federal Constituency — Itsekiri, Ijaw and Urhobo — to promote peace and live in peace with one another, anchored on mutual respect. In a statement issued on Thursday, September 17, 2026, Okumagba who holds the traditional chieftaincy titles of Udu of Okere-Urhobo Kingdom and Eruvwu R’Ovie of Agbarha Warri Kingdom, both in Warri South Local Government Area, stated that: “Peace and brotherliness amongst all ethnic nationalities in Warri Federal Constituency will ensure that all our energies are devoted to bringing…

The All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Campaign Council has described African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar as “unfit for Nigeria’s presidency” over revelations arising from the arbitration dispute surrounding the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project. The APC campaign council made the allegation in a statement signed by its spokesman, Dele Alake, on Friday, following the International Chamber of Commerce, ICC, tribunal’s ruling in favour of Nigeria in the long-running dispute involving Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited. The tribunal rejected claims by Sunrise over the Mambilla project, including a demand for $680 million and a separate claim exceeding $2.7…

President Bola Tinubu met French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday for a private dinner at the Élysée Palace in Paris. It is the latest in the series of meetings and engagements between Nigeria and France since Mr Tinubu assumed office in 2023. The president’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed the meeting in a post on X on Friday. He also shared photographs of the two leaders at the French presidential palace. PREMIUM TIMES reports that the meeting took place while Mr Tinubu was in France during the second leg of his three-week annual leave in Europe.…

By Godwin Oritse The Shipping Association of Nigeria, SAN, has rejected claims that shipping companies impose double charges on importers for electronic cargo release services, saying the allegation confuses different processes and deflects attention from other cost pressures in the nation’s ports. The association, an umbrella body for foreign shipping companies operating in Nigeria, said its members’ charges remain below prevailing commercial rates. The reaction followed a recent allegation by former Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, that Nigeria’s port charges system make importers to pay twice for the same electronic cargo release service…