Author: damazah@gmail.com

Professor Joash O. Amupitan, SAN “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.”- Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, set the tone for the importance of a free, fair and peaceful election. It is a great honour to join this distinguished gathering for the public presentation of SHADOWS: Protest Essays on Africa’s Most Consequential Country (1999-2023). I thank the organisers for the invitation to speak on “Strengthening Electoral Institutions: Pathways to Free, Fair, and Peaceful Elections in 2027.” Few subjects are more relevant to Nigeria’s democratic future, and few occasions provide a better setting for such a conversation than…

Beavers, often described as “ecosystem engineers”, were once widespread in Britain but were hunted to extinction about 400 years ago.In 2015, the semi-aquatic mammals were reintroduced to the wild in the River Otter, Devon, and in February this year four pairs were released to Par and Fowey rivers in Cornwall.Puttock said: “One of the biggest modifications beavers do is build dams… that creates these really complex wetlands, which for beavers provides them with safety from predators and ability to move around in the landscape.”Increasingly, our research has shown this provides benefits to us as people and society, building a more…

Team Nigeria ended its campaign at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Sunday, finishing seventh on the final medals table with 24 medals made up of 10 gold, seven silver and seven bronze. Nigeria also emerged as the highest-ranked African nation at the Games, ahead of traditional rivals South Africa and Kenya. Final medal table Australia topped the medals table with 171 medals, including 70 gold, while England finished second with 110 medals. Canada placed third, with India, Scotland and New Zealand completing the top six ahead of Nigeria. For Team Nigeria, Glasgow 2026 will be remembered as one…

All hail Peter Parker. Sony and Marvel’s web-slinging adventure “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” climbed to $927 million globally, a mind-blowing, jaw-dropping and totally epic opening weekend haul. Few films manage to earn that much by the end of their box office runs, much less after three days on the big screen. It’s the second-largest worldwide debut of all time, trailing only 2019’s Marvel titan “Avengers: Endgame” with $1.2 billion. Those titles reign far above the third-biggest global opening, which belongs to 2018’s “Avengers: Infinity War” with $640 million globally. “Brand New Day,” the fourth comic-book adaptation starring Tom Holland as…

“The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” — Lao Tzu “You are under arrest for urinating in public,” barked the police officer.“What do you mean? Am I not urinating in the drain?“Sir, respect yourself! The drain is for rainwater, not your urine.“Is urine not made of water? What kind of harassment is this?“Sir, you have contravened the fifth pillar of the War Against Indiscipline (WAI). You will have to follow me to the mobile court down the street…” That was how a well-known landlord and socialite was dragged before the mobile court and fined a…

Britain could face shortages of certain foods after punishing drought in parts of England, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has warned as a heatwave was forecast to continue into next week.The UK’s Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued heat health alerts for eight regions of England, with temperatures set to rise above 30C in parts of the country. UKHSA said rising temperatures may increase health risks, particularly for vulnerable groups.Farms across the country were affected by floods over the winter, making planting extremely difficult, and now in many areas they do not have access to water as irrigation is being…

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has clarified that the smoke observed at Terminal 2 of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, on Sunday was not caused by a fire but by the discharge of the terminal’s fire suppression system. The clarification came hours after the authority initially announced that a fire incident had occurred at the terminal, prompting an emergency response and raising concerns among passengers and airport users. In its first statement, FAAN said a fire had broken out at Terminal 2 and disclosed that its Aerodrome Rescue and Firefighting Service (ARFFS) had been deployed to…

The Malaysian government has ordered the shutdown of a startup-centric community called the Network School, according to The Wall Street Journal. Billing itself as “a frontier community for techno-optimists,” the Network School reportedly grew out of entrepreneur and investor Balaji Srinivasan’s conviction that the United States is in irreversible decline; Srinivasan has said his goal is “to start a new country.” So the Network School is supposed to represent the first step in a seven-stage plan (outlined in Srinivasan’s book “The Network State”) for building a new society. Based in an abandoned Malaysian hotel, the WSJ described the program as…

The chancellor, John Healey, has said the government is standing by to prevent the public from “being taken for a ride at the pump or the till” as the Iran war continues to hit prices.While he said there had been “no significant evidence of so-called price gouging” during the crisis, he used a weekend column to tell the big retailers that ministers were “watching closely” for any signs of profiteering.Healey faces a difficult economic balancing act as the energy price shock caused by the months-long conflict in the Middle East reignites the cost of living crisis.Last week the Bank of…

The National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu, has noted that the synergy between the Federal Government and Kaduna State Government under Governor Uba Sani was crucial in tackling insecurity. Mr Nuhu who disclosed this at the graduation of the pioneer batch of Armed Forest Guards, was represented by Mr Sani Sani, the Director of Internal Security at the Office of the National Security Adviser on Saturday. The NSA appreciated the training of the Armed Forest Guards. He said that ‘’from the evaluation that we carried out across the country, the training in Kaduna State has been recorded as the best…