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The Edo State Government says athletes that will compete at the 2020 National Sports Festival must take COVID-19 vaccines before arrival for the country’s showpiece sports event scheduled for Benin City from April 2 to 14. In a statement on Sunday signed by Edo State Deputy Governor Philip Shaibu, who also doubles as the Chairman, Local Organising Committee of the festival, the state reeled out several guidelines for the event, following an earlier meeting with the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development. “MOC (Main Organising Committee) has decided that all athletes/officials from the 36 states and the FCT participating in the National Sports Festival must take COVID-19 tests 72 hours before arrival for the tournament,” the statement read in part. “All athletes/officials are to take COVID-19 vaccines at least 12 days before arrival for the tournament.

No fewer than 19 Super Eagles players have arrived camp for the remaining two 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Benin Republic and Lesotho. According to the team’s media officer, Babafemi Raji, the players were already in camp as at late Monday night. The players in camp are captain Ahmed Musa, William Troost-Ekong, Ola Aina, Semi Ajayi, Henry Onyekuru, Oghenekaro Etebo, Adekunle Adeleke, Chidozie Awaziem, Abdullahi Shehu, Anayo Iwuala, John Noble, Alex Iwobi, Leon Balogun, Joe Aribo, Tyrone Ebuehi, Maduka Okoye, Jamilu Collins, Francis Uzoho and Paul Onuachu. “Update! 18 players now in camp. Musa, Troost-Ekong, Aina, Ajayi, Onyekuru, Etebor, Adeleke, Awaziem, Shehu, Iwuala, Noble, Iwobi, Balogun, Aribo, Ebuehi, Maduka, Collins, Onuachu,” Raji tweeted.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has accepted a petition filed by the Mutual Union of Tiv in America. The Deputy Speaker,  Ahmed Wase , had prevented the lawmaker representing Gwer-East/Gwer-West Federal Constituency in Benue State, Mr Mark Gbillah, from laying the petition before the House. Gbillah brought the petition back at the plenary on Tuesday and it was admitted. Gbajabiamila said, “I believe this is the same petition that has been causing a lot of misunderstanding. The misunderstanding came from the issue of signature.

The All Progressives Congress Caretaker/Extra Ordinary Convention Planning Committee has named a 61-member Contact/Strategy Committee for the party. The party made this known in a statement by the National Secretary of the CECPC, Senator John James Akpanudoehede, titled, ‘Governor Badaru Chairs 61-Member APC Contact/Strategy Committee’ on Monday. According to Akpanudoehede, members of the committee are expected to be inaugurated on Tuesday. Amongst members of the Contact/Strategy Committee are a former governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode; ex-Speakers House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole and Yakubu Dogara; and 12 governors.

Until Muhammadu Buhari won presidential elections in Nigeria in 2015, the general consensus was that the most powerful and visible representative of the state was the president. Buhari, of course, spent months at a time outside the country (on medical leave in the UK) and has very rarely been seen in public. Most recently he has been criticized for his invisibility during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the idea developed that power resided with his senior staff, especially Abba Kyari, Buhari’s Chief of Staff between August 2015 and this April, when he died of COVID-19. There is no doubt that Kyari wielded great power and influence while he was alive, as a result of his position and his long term relationship with the President; they were close friends and  knew each other since 1976 . But the fact remains that governance conducted by the administration he was a member of was influenced mainly by external factors out of the control of any single individual, even the President. The