In 2018, the Super Eagles changed the game with a collection for the ages that set a new standard for how Nike approaches federation design.
In 2020, Nigeria picks up right where they left off with a home kit that fuses the traditional aesthetic of an agbada robe with modern football design.
The kit’s pattern was hand-drawn and is highly symbolic of Nigerian heritage with nods to nobility and family. Nigeria’s crest is placed centrally on the chest with a Swoosh underneath it.
The player names and numbers integrate the eagle feather into the application. “Naija” appears inside the neck of jersey and on the back of the socks in a new typeface.
The away kit is inspired by Onaism, a traditional artistic movement central to Nigerian design and craft represented in the trim details. An eagle feather aesthetic, creatively distorted, continuously repeats in ascending size to create a visual impact.
The collar has a slight V overlap with a thicker overlap in the back. Both the collar and the sleeves feature a slight nick at the mid-point.
The broader Naija collection will feature an extensive array of Super Eagles apparel including a poncho, vest, dress and more.
The Organised labour in Niger state, on Monday, instructed its workers to embark on an indefinite strike from February 4, over non implementation of the new national minimum wage.
This was contained in a statement jointly signed by Mr Yakubu Garba, chairman Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), his Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterparts Yunusa Tanimu and made available to newsmen in Minna.
This was resolved after the organized labour held an emergency joint State Executive Council (SEC) meeting on Jan. 29, to resolve on a notice of 21 days ultimatum of strike action issued to the government on Jan. 3, 2020.
“In compliance with the resolutions reached at the emergency joint State Executive Council (SEC) meeting of Niger state organised labour held at Labour House on Wednesday; 29th January, 2020.
“We write to formally inform you that all civil servants in Niger state are by this notice directed to proceed on an indefinite strike action with effect from midnight February 4, 2020, ” it read.
The statement said the strike would be comprehensive shall remain in force till the state government “demonstrate a clear and adequate commitment” to tackling lingering issues bothering on workers’ welfare.
Some of the demands of labour included the immediate implementation of the N30,000 National Minimum wagE and accrued arrears to all categories of workers both at the state and local government levels.
The NLC is also calling for the immediate resumption of payment of outstanding annual leave grant for 2019 to workers at both state and local government level, NAN reports.
The House of Representatives has threatened to issue warrants of arrest for heads of ministries, departments and agencies for shunning its invitation to public and investigative hearings.
The House said list of erring MDAs would also be published in the newspapers.
The Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila; and Chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, Wole Oke, gave the threat at an investigative hearing organised by the committee in Abuja on Monday.
The committee is probing the alleged “deliberate and reckless refusal by non-treasury funded ministries, departments and agencies to render accounts between 2014 and 2018 to the Auditor General for the Federation.”
Gbajabiamila, who was represented by the Deputy Majority Leader, Peter Akpatason, warned that the House would be forced to invoke its constitutional powers against them.
He named the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele; Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris; and Auditor General of the Federation, Anthony Ayine, among erring officials.
The Speaker said, “The Public Accounts Committee was purposely included in the constitution because of the strategic and very important role that the committee plays in every parliament all over the world. And any attempt to ignore such a committee, particularly when agencies of government are invited for an important occasion like this, it is a violation of our laws and carries weighty sanctions.
“The House is not pleased with the agencies of government that are not present here today, such as the Central Bank of Nigeria, and the Accountant General’s office as well as the Office of the Auditor General of Nigeria.
“When the MDAs fail to fully adhere to the letters and the spirit of the law, we create the circumstances for our citizens to believe that the actions we take and the priorities that we pursue are not intended to serve the greater good but for the private interests of such persons.”
According to Oke, the probe is to know why the MDAs record late or non-submission of audited accounts to the Auditor General’s office.
He said, “I have been given the statistics of agencies over the years that have refused to turn in their audited accounts. Do we have to wait on Mr President to intervene, when clearly you (MDAs) have the constitutional mandate (to present their reports). Mr President can only give you a job but he cannot do the job for you. If we like to be MDs or CEOs, why don’t we like to render accounts?
“If the ICPC or EFCC that we created, storms your office to ask for your audited accounts, will you be giving them the excuses that you are giving to us? What do you want our children to say about us; the generation coming behind us? Do you want them to round up all of us one day and fire us for failing this nation?”
Oke also threatened that the National Assembly would suspend budgetary allocations to indicted MDAs.
He said, “Despite this workable tripod system for checks and balances, key stakeholders have succeeded in frustrating its smooth operations.
“The danger is that if nothing is done to fix this problem, it will create an incentive for the MDAs to become reckless and non-accountable to any oversight authority.
“Without doubts, the tripod system for checks and balances has not been allowed to work since the enactment of the 1999 Constitution. I partly blame this on the failure of the constitution to prescribe a clear penalty for non-compliance with this provision.
“In such an instance of obvious gap in the law, the National Assembly will be left with no option but to exercise its power of appropriation to allocate nil funds to such MDAs for their failure to account for funds released to them.”
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has described Nigeria as the freest country to live in the world.
The Minister stated this when he received the Finland Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr. Jyrki Pulkkimen and his team, who were on a courtesy visit in his office on Monday.
He also said that the President Muhammadu Buhari government had not tampered with the freedom of speech or rights of individuals.
The Minister said the government was only sanitising the media on hate speech and abuse of the freedom of speech.
He said this was not an attempt to clip the media. He said the social media regulation was only to sanitised and not deny the rights of individuals.
He said whatever is tolerated on the streets would be accepted online.
According to him, the government, through the Ministry of Information, had begun the fight against hate speech since 2017.
The Minister pointed out that if people were allowed to do whatever they want on social media in a country like ours with diversity of religion and political interests, there will be chaos.
He said the government will not slack in its quest to bring sanity to social media.
The Edo State Government has submitted a petition to the Inspector-General of Police, and Department of State Services, DSS, for the arrest of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress.
The Governor Godwin Obaseki-led government also wants the former Governor prosecuted by the security agencies.
Oshiomhole is accused of constantly disobeying the State government’s orders.
This was disclosed in Abuja on Monday by the Deputy Governor of the state, Phillip Shuaibu.
The Deputy Governor, however, stated that the Edo ex-Governor is still his father, adding that their present differences did not change that fact.
The Rivers State Government on Sunday night sealed the secretariat of the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress located on D-Line axis of Port Harcourt.
Although a letter from the State Bureau for Special Duties indicated that the premises of the state NLC were sealed to allow for structural integrity test, the Chairperson of labour in the state, Beatrice Itubo, said that the action of the state government was as a result of the controversy surrounding the payment of the minimum wage.
Itubo had insisted that the minimum wage paid by the state government did not reflect the new national minimum wage or the principle of collective bargaining.
A text message from the NLC chairperson read, ”I want to inform you that the Rivers State Government has sealed the NLC secretariat for demanding that the government should reconvene the meeting of the minimum wage committee.”
President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the White House on the ballistic missile strike that Iran launched against Iraqi air bases housing U.S. troops, Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020, in Washington, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, and Vice President Mike Pence, and others look on. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
“Oh dang! I’m stuck in this hellhole and it’s all Trump’s fault!”
You or someone you know may have expressed or feel the sentiment above following Friday’s announcement that the United States President Donald Trump’s travel ban on immigration from include six countries – Sudan, Tanzania, Nigeria, Eritrea, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan. Four of those countries are in Africa.
Trump first signed a controversial travel ban just seven days after taking office in January 2017, arguing it was vital to protect Americans. The ban initially excluded people from seven majority-Muslim countries, but the list was modified following a series of court challenges.
Ironically, this updated travel ban is coming a year after Trump’s administration announced that a major pillar of its new strategy for Africa was to counter the growing influence of China and Russia by expanding economic ties to the continent.
What Does The Travel Ban Mean?
A closer look at the ban shows that it is not a ‘blanket ban’ as many have decried. On the surface, the ban appears to be a collective punishment for the sins of our ‘longer throat’ Nigerians whose only crime is wanting ‘better lives’ for themselves and their families. The US wants better as well and that is why despite the ban, Nigerians would still qualify for tourist and business visas.
Why The Ban?
Why then is the US shutting its doors on Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy at this period? The White House has an explanation:
The six affected countries added to the ban list did not comply with identity-verification and information-sharing rules.
In the case of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation is believed to harbour terrorists that may seek to enter the United States. What do you know? We have the Islamist extremist and terrorist group Boko Haram to thank for our inclusion on the travel ban list.
Who Is Affected?
What happens to the Nigerian youths seeking greener pastures in the United States with hopes of achieving the American dream? What is the fate of the newly married ‘Ikenna’ hoping to bring his beloved ‘Chichi’ to join him in the United States for a better life? Or the heavily pregnant Bolanle hoping to have her first child in the United States so her baby can have a green card? The dream of that better life was attainable until Friday’s bombshell.
These are the categories of those affected:
Immigrants from Nigeria and three other countries no longer will be eligible for visas allowing them to live in the United States permanently, the White House said Friday. Immigrant visas were targeted because people with those visas are the most difficult to remove after they arrive in the United States, U.S. officials said.
With the new ban, the US said it would suspend the issuance of visas that can lead to permanent residency for nationals of Nigeria, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, and Myanmar.
Sudanese and Tanzanian nationals will no longer be allowed to apply for “diversity visas”, which are available by lottery for applicants from countries with low rates of immigration to the US.
Furthermore, non-immigrant visas given to people for temporary stays including visitors, those doing business or people seeking medical treatment would not be impacted by the new rules. , Exceptions are also available for students and those with “significant contacts” in the US.
In summary, the US wants you only if you are bringing money to its economy.
The Nigerian Government’s Reaction
Following the travel ban placed on Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari has established a committee “to study and address the updated U.S. requirements,” presidential spokesman Femi Adesina said Saturday.
“The committee will work with the U.S. government, Interpol and other stakeholders to ensure all updates are properly implemented,” Adesina said in a statement.
The new US rules will come into effect on 21 February but will not apply to official, business and tourism visas, Buhari’s office said in a statement on Saturday.
On his part, former vice-president of Nigeria and 2019 presidential aspirant Atiku Abubakar said the United States instead should “consider adopting measures that individually target those in government who have failed in their duties, rather than target the entire Nigerian population.”
There is palpable pandemonium in Ijora, a suburb of Lagos as policemen and motorcyclists faced off.
An eyewitness said three persons were feared dead and that vehicles and property were being torched.
Ijora is in Apapa Local Government, one of the LGAs where the state government banned operations of commercial motorcycles and tricycles. The ban came into effect on Saturday.
The United States has said that it notified all foreign governments including Nigeria about the identity-management and information-sharing criteria in 2019.
The government stated that the Republic of Chad improved on the performance metrics and was removed from consideration for travel restrictions.
The US described Nigeria as one of the worst-performing countries on the performance metrics which it said led to the imposition of migrant visa restriction on the country.
This was contained in the full report of the visa restrictions titled, ‘Proclamation on improving enhanced vetting capabilities and process’ published on www.whitehouse.gov
Apart from Nigeria, others on the list are Eritrea, Myanmar, Tanzania, Sudan and Kyrgyzstan.
The new visa regime announced by the US Government on January 31, involves the suspension of the issuance of ‘immigrant visas’ to Nigerian passport holders. It comes into effect on February 21.
It read, “The process began on March 11, 2019, when the United States Government formally notified all foreign governments (except for Iran, Syria, and North Korea) about the refined performance metrics for the identity-management and information-sharing criteria.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Ferdinand Nwonye, could not be reached for comment as he was said to be out of the country.
