"Nigerians Love Watching Football With I Better Pass My Neighbour"- Buhari

President Buhari, FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, Minister of Sports, Dalong and other officials.

President Muhammadu Buhari has met with the Federation of International football federation (FIFA) President, Gianni Infantino and Secretary General, Fatima Samuoura at Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

The FIFA President was at the State House
at about 1.50 p.m. and was accompanied
by FIFA Secretary General Fatma
Samoura, the Minister of Youths and
Sports, Solomon Dalung, and the
President of Nigeria Football Federation
(NFF), Amaju Pinnick.

The President surprised many when addressing Mr Infantino, informing him how important football is to Nigerians.
 The President said:
"Majority of Nigerians are married to football. In
the rural areas, when there is no electricity and
there is a game to watch, Nigerians go to the
extent of renting small generators, popularly
known as ‘I better-pass-my neighbour’ to watch
the game."

Infantino and Samoura, who arrived in
Abuja on Sunday for a two-day visit to
Nigeria, were scheduled to be guests at an
under-13 exhibition football match at the
Abuja National Stadium.

How FG Spent Over #50m To Boost Image Abroad- Report

President Muhammadu Bihari

THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has given
itself a new mandate and it has nothing to do
with money matters. It does not even have
anything to do with stabilising the foreign
exchange regime or strengthening the naira,
desirable as that task is.
The new role of Nigeria’s apex bank is to
launder Nigeria’s image abroad.
In what is the latest in a trend of frivolous and
wasteful spending of tax payers’ money, the apex
bank in April engaged the services of APCO
Worldwide Inc., a public relations and political
consultancy firm based in Washington DC, to
help launder the image of President Muhammadu
Buhari’s administration and the country in the
United States.
In the last three years, the icirnigeria.org has
tracked many of such controversial contracts
amounting to over $6 million dollars awarded by
different agencies of the Nigerian government to
foreign firms to launder the country’s image
abroad.
From our investigations, such contracts, it
appears, are mere conduits for siphoning public
funds.
Previous similar questionable contracts tracked
by this news website include a $3 million
lobbying contract awarded by the National
Security Adviser’s office in September 2013 to
Patton Boggs, an American law firm that
specialises in lobbying and a $1.5 million PR
contract awarded by the News Agency of Nigeria
to Levick Strategic Communications, a
Washington-based PR firm.
There is also a $700,000 PR contract awarded
by the Nigerian Embassy in the US to Mercury
Public Affairs.
The latest image laundering contract awarded by
the CBN has an initial fixed payment of $95,000,
more than N33 million at the parallel market
exchange rate today, and is for a period of three
months beginning from April 18 to July 17,
2016. The contract agreement, however, gives
wide room for APCO to negotiate further fees
when necessary during the life of the contract.
According to a document obtained from the US
Department of Justice by icirnigeria.org, APCO is
expected to provide media relations, stakeholder
engagement, and strategic communications
services for Nigeria within the United States.
Read more here

England New Manager, Sam Allardyce Lists 3 Solutions For England

New England Manager, Sam Allardyce

News England Manager, Sam Allarduce has proffered three solutions going forward for the Three Lions.
Facing the press for the first time since the exit of his predecessor, Roy Hodgson in the aftermath of the Three Lions' below-par performances at Euro 2016, the former Sunderland manager spoke confidently about his
ability to excel in a position that many have
struggled in over the years.

Below are Sam Allardyce's solutions to the longtime problem of the English National team.

THE PREMIER LEAGUE'S IMPACT ON ENGLAND

"No mid-season break for one, I've been an
advocate of that for 10 seasons or more.
"The demands physically and mentally on
players is enormous and it's the best league in
the world and biggest brand.
"The demand has to be on the players for that
but it would help the Premier League and us at
international level if we could try and achieve
that [mid-season break].
"In my time when we finished the Christmas
period, January and February were always the
most difficult to get the players through."

HIS PLAYING STYLE
"I expect the players to be very adaptable and
very flexible. I don't expect a player at this level
to be only able to play only one position and one
style. It may be the same system [as at youth
level] but with a tweak here or there.
"We worked on Jermain Defoe [at Sunderland} as
a player that supposedly cannot play up front on
his own.
"We worked on that and what did he do? He
played up front on his own all season and
scored 15 Premier League goals, no matter what
people tell me it doesn't stop me from trying
something or trying an opportunity."

ENGLAND'S POTENTIAL
"It is not potential anymore, it has to be reality
and they have to stand up and be counted.
"The young players have a lot of experience now
and even though some of it has been bitter, they
don’t want to feel like that again. Potential is not
something I want to use, you want the quality
player to produce his best performances
immediately.
"This squad of players is very experienced and
going forward hopefully produce better."

WORLD CUP 2018 AMBITIONS
"It's two years away and the most important
thing to do now is to be very good at qualifying
and once we've qualified then we can go to in-
depth levels about challenging ourselves to
produce better results in tournaments.
"It's at a later stage. At this moment it's about
players coming and continuing to do what we've
done well. We all had great hopes for the Euros
because of qualifying, I hope the lads can
continue where they left off from that point.
"We can't change the past. We can learn from it
but we can't change it, so let's think about the
future and change that."
HIS ABILITY TO HANDLE TOP STARS
"I've managed world-class players, Fernando
Hierro, Youri Djorkaeff, Jay-Jay Okocha, Gary
Speed, Nicolas Anelka, Michael Owen, so I've
managed some really talented players.
"The good thing about talented players is they
make your life easier, they know what you want
and they take less time to prepare so working
with England's elite is going to be exciting.
They'll take on board what we want very quickly
because they're the best in the country."

National Assembly Lacks Men Of Integrity- Obasanjo

Obasanjo and President Bihari

Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo sayss investigating the allegations and counter-allegations of the 2016 budget padding in the National Assembly is a waste of time, saying the National Assembly as a body lacked Men of integrity. 


Chief Obasanlo made this known Monday while fielding questions from State House Correspondents shortly after meeting behind closed-doors with President Muhammadu Buhari.

How Igbinedion Spent Looted Funds On Oshiomhole's Election-Pastor Ize-Iyamu

Ize-Iyamu and Governor Oshiomhole

THE gubernatorial candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in the forthcoming Edo state election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has made a damning revelation saying the incumbent  Governor of Edo state, Adams Oshiomhole collected huge sums of money  from erstwhile Governor of the state, Chief Lucky Igbenedion for the 2007 elections.
In the same vein, Pastor Iyamu asked Governor Oshiomhole to be honorable and refund the money.

The refund, Pastor Ize-Iyamu said, became necessary because Governor Oshiomhole has consistently accused his predecessor of looting the state treasury.

Pastor Ize-Iyamu for the first  time admitted that the man behind the mask that financed Governor Oshiomhole in 2007 was Chief Igbinedion.

He spoke last weekend at the unveiling of a book titled “Betrayal of Trust” written by an ex-aide to Governor Oshiomhole, Orobosa Omo-Ojo.

The PDP governorship candidate said Lucky Igbinedion was one of the biggest contributors to the money that was spent to making Oshiomhole governor.

Pastor Ize-Iyamu stated that Governor Oshiomhole as President of the NLC never protested against Lucky’s policies ‘because he deliberately needed Igbinedion friendship.’

Ize-Iyamu however, mandated  the Governor to quickly refund the money he collected from President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 to ensure the defunct ACN lost the presidential election.

According to Pastor Iyamu, “Lucky Igbinedion recommended him to some of us that people are saying he had not done well, let him appoint a man who is popular, who appears to have popularity among the people. Let it be on record that he helped him to become governor. That was how he introduced Oshiomhole. We did it for two reasons.”

“First was that because Edo is one and an Afenmai man has never become the governor. We felt it was time for an Afenmai man to become the governor. I also bought the story of Lucky Igbinedion that this man just left office as President of the NLC. This man will be interested in the masses, he will be interested in our pensioners, he will be interested in students. This man will excel. On that note, we supported him. He declared he had no money, we have to put all the resources together to support him.”

“When he is busying talking about Lucky Igbinedion, let Edo people know that it was Lucky Igbinedion that brought him. In 2007, I want him to tell Edo people where he got the money he spent to become governor. In case, he has forgotten, I will like to remind him that most of the money comes from Lucky Igbinedion. Since he is saying Lucky Igbinedion stole Edo State money, can he please refund the money he collected from Lucky.

“In 2012, Oshiomhole was in ACN. I know that a governor in ACN collected money from Jonathan in 2012 to betray his party such that ACN lost in Edo.

“I did not betray my party. A governor collected money from Jonathan to betray his party and ensure his party lost in Edo. As he is talking about people refunding money, please remind him to refund the money he collected from President Jonathan. He should please refund that money.

“Let me confess that when I was his DG, he brought a lot of money for us to use for campaign, I don’t know where he got that money from. I have been told he got that money from the state government coffers. Can he please refund the money.”

[Photos]Shocks: Is Cristiano Ronaldo Quitting Football For Martial Art?

Real Madrid and Portuguese international, Cristiano Ronaldo and  Martial artist, Conor McGregor met at the Octagon on Sunday evening.

Ronaldo is currently enjoying a post- Euro
2016 break following Portugal's win in France
and dropped into the Irishman's Las Vegas
training camp as he prepares for his return to
UFC.

"My brother Ronaldo dropped by the gym
today," he posted.
"He is an animal.
"Thank you @cristiano, much respect! I will see
you for that Forbes number 1 spot next year."

I Had Sleepless Nights, Almost Died As Eagles Coach-Sunday Oliseh

Sunday Oliseh

Ex-Super Eagles Captain and coach Sunday Oliseh has made shocking revelations about
his stint as the manager of the National team. 

The ex-international revealed this Sunday via his Twitter handle with a link to his blog,
SundayOliseh.tv.

It will be recalled Sunday Oliseh resigned in February after only seven months in charge of the Super Eagles. 
The former Eagles captain who left the job abruptly, cited unpaid salaries and poor working conditions as reasons for leaving the job.

On issues concerning his  near-death experience he wrote, “One day whilst coaching the Super Eagles in Abuja stadium prior to the Burkina Faso game, all of a sudden I felt dizziness, light headedness, headache and could barely stand.

I managed to finish the session before calling on the doctor into my room who was clueless to what was happening.

“From then on it was sleepless nights, loss of appetite, high blood pressure and before I knew it I started losing weight.
“After several visits to doctors abroad nothing was found though the doctors found anomalies they couldn’t pin point the actual illness to.

“For weeks I was bed ridden, lost 7 kilos and could barely walk 5 metres without sitting down. My family was petrified and all feared the worst. One thing was for sure
though: had I not taking that evening flight to Germany when I did, there was a strong possibility of a far worse outcome.
 Thank God for his mercies.”