Category: Uncategorized

Rafiu Ajakaye, PhD.

As I walked by the Government House gate last Saturday morning for my exercise, a man and his two little children — a boy and a girl — sauntered on the other side of the road, just before the Office of the Deputy Governor. The little ones joyously gestured at the prancing horse. I wouldn’t know if they were passing by the gate for the first time, but my hunch tells me the children were seeing the horse for the first time. The father walked them across the road to the site of the prancing horse. A security officer told the man they could take pictures and I saw that the kids were grateful for it. I could see that it was fun for the kids.

Humans are beautifully wired. Complex. Nuanced. Every day we traverse the earth to make new gains as a community, like the Artemis II mission just did in their near $100bn exploration of the Moon, what we see is the infinite wonders and beauty in the creation of God and man’s capability to conquer his world.  One of the peculiarities of man is that he is an emotional being. He is moved by many things. When he is sick, drugs alone may not always heal him. Sometimes, families and friends are asked to sit around him for emotional support. Medical psychologists are sometimes called upon to examine him for better outcomes.

When humans suffer some trauma or are suspected of psychological (emotional) issues, they could be asked to change environment. Man’s pursuit of general wellbeing has led to many discoveries, including the roles that environment plays in calming the human spirit. People visit public gardens and many even plant trees and flowers to achieve the same purpose — aside the critical roles that trees and plants play to protect the ozone layer, ensure fresher air, and prevent diseases.

Yet, research has established that exciting sights play important roles in our emotional balance. Against this background, the prancing horse (sculpture) that was newly installed at the Ahmadu Bello House, Ilorin, offers an exciting view as people drive or walk by. And this means something different to different people.

The height, the beauty, and the novelty of it in that axis are an important addition to the state’s landmarks, especially for lovers of art and craft. But that isn’t just a prancing horse; the sculpture has security features carefully built into it.

Some opposition figures have taken up arms against the new addition, as a statement showed this week. They want the ‘N22.8m or N250m spent on it’ deployed to feed the poor instead. That’s an interesting take; and it gets one curiouser about the nature of this opposition talk: is N22.8m or N250m all that is needed to end poverty or fight insecurity? 

The government spends on safety net and security the same way it expands health coverage and infrastructure across the state. From the multilayered KWASSIP to the many other safety net programmes, this administration has institutionalised anti-poverty spending more than any other Kwara government in the Fourth Republic. Just recently, the government made multimillion cash transfers to support struggling families. This has been a culture. Between 2020 and now, several billions of naira have been committed to support small businesses, smallholder farmers, and the elderly. 

Fighting poverty and other spendings that support overall human wellbeing are not mutually exclusive. The two can coexist. The government spends more than N500m to support security operations every other month, apart from any other special operations. 

The PDP should understand that Kwara cannot always remain the same. We are not aguntan (sheep) whose outlook never gets better or newer year in, year out. We need to evolve. That is why the infrastructural transformation that the state has recorded over the last six years is clearly unrivalled in its chequered history.

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When people describe Nigeria as the giant of Africa, they speak more to its potential than to its reality. And the potential is enormous by most standards. A land mass that is the envy of most, a land that is rich in mineral resources of all kinds, an access to the sea that is denied many countries, a climate that is varied but mostly accommodating leading to an ecology and wild life that very few countries possess. To cap it all, Nigeria is endowed with a population that is large enough to be self-sufficient but not too large to be unwieldy. And more importantly, a people that is intelligent, industrious, resilient and warm. In other words, whatever the ingredients that have made America great, Nigeria has them in its own proportions.

So why would a country with so much potential end up being the poverty capital of the world? And why should Nigeria even be in the conversation when failed States are mentioned? Several books can be written on this. Several seminars will raise up different explanations. My own explanation is simple. We lacked visionary leadership at the critical period of our history. Leaders who couldn’t see beyond the present. And the present for them showed a country with enormous resources.

Some of the resources were so obvious that Nigeria didn’t have to work hard to discover them. A few of them became manifest so early that the leadership rested on its oars and stopped providing leadership.  It is the reason people with enormous talents hardly amount to much in life because everything comes easy to them making them to lack discipline and staying power. Besides, when bounties come ‘too much, too soon’ there is the tendency not to appreciate them and to fritter them away. The examples of young, successful athletes and entertainers who become bankrupt in later years after making tons of money are all over the place.

This ‘Giant of Africa’ had so much going for it that it made a few nations uncomfortable. Unfortunately, Nigeria didn’t try to earn the sobriquet let alone protect it. The hubris and grandstanding of the 70s became the face of the country. We were the ‘Big Brother’ to poor African nations and we played that role to the hilt dispensing funds and dispersing skirmishes in small, neighboring countries. The Western world tolerated our growing influence as long as it didn’t get out of hand. After all, a benign regional power is supposed to make their world safer. Then our frontline role in apartheid made the West to sit up. Our belligerent and confrontational posture towards apartheid sympathizers, made them realise that a stronger Nigeria was not in their best interest. Nigeria had to be cut to size. Our gradual, economic leaning towards the East didn’t help matters.

It is standard in warfare that enemies attack through the weakest flank. For most developing countries, this is through the greed of their leaders. In addition to greed, Nigeria has religion as its weak flank. For years, the northern elite had used religion to achieve its goals. It had been a tool to control peasant minds.  And an arsenal to fight the enemy, real or perceived. The less educated the people, the more potent the weapon. Unfortunately, it is a two-edged sword. Political and religious infiltrators have found these same illiterate but fertile minds as tools for destabilizing the country.

There are enough articles and conspiracy theories online which suggest that there is more to the current carnage in the country. And that foreign countries, some of them friends by day and enemies by night, are behind the happenings in the country. They have used religion, poor infrastructure, poverty and general discontentment as tools in achieving their nefarious goals. And we are playing into their hands. Our religious leaders, those to whom we entrusted the moral compass of the people, are not only rich, they are very powerful. And insensitive. They have become mini-gods manipulating the minds and controlling the purses of their worshipers.

Rather than tone down on religious rhetoric during these delicate times, they have instead, increased the decibel. So they do the talking and religious/political infiltrators do the killing. The people do the moaning while those in Aso Rock do the wringing of hands. On and on, it goes. The country is in tumult because leaders have not learnt to give unto Caesar – education, good infrastructure, religious freedom – what is Caesar’s. A secular country has become a multi-religious country where brothers are being made to kill brothers ostensibly in the name of God.

The Yoruba nation has always been very accommodating. Of religions and of strangers. However, religious intolerance which has always been alien to these people, raised its ugly head some two years ago in Kwara State when religions that had been co-existing peacefully over the years, suddenly became hostile to each other. I knew then that the State was playing with fire. Neither the Governor nor the Emir did anything decisive to douse the flame at the time.

Part of the results of that neglect is what we are witnessing in the State today. It is said that if there are no cracks in the wall, reptiles would not enter. They, by their actions, allowed religious/political infiltrators into their territory. Recently in Osun State, a State I knew in my growing up years to be religiously blind, a ‘white garment’ church decided to stir the hornet’s nest when some of its members ‘visited’ the shrines and groves of traditional worshipers in order to exorcise perceived ‘demons’. That was religious intolerance at its height. And if unchecked, it is opening cracks for religious/political infiltrators.

 State and Federal authorities have to do something urgently about this growing religious activism.   Many think they can do or say anything in the name of God and get away with it. In fact, many think they are the State itself. They have to be told in no uncertain terms that they are not. Except that of a failed State.  Indeed, there seems to be a nexus between religious activism and State chaos.

Religious activists – these include fiery, self-righteous preachers and enforcers of religious laws and doctrines through violence – should be described and treated as purveyors of violence. And an excuse – or smokescreen – for those who want to destabilize the country. That someone as high in the hierarchy as the Vice President of the country had to come out recently to state publicly that Nigeria is not on the verge of collapsing says a lot about the state we are in. And that something has to be done urgently to save the country.

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The rumour mill has continued to churn over the conspicuous absence of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from several high-profile commissioning ceremonies during his recent visit to Lagos. What should ordinarily have been a triumphant return to his political base, the very platform that launched him to national power, has instead opened the floodgates of speculation.

 Observers have offered varying explanations: physical exhaustion, competing engagements, or even emotional strain from the burdens of governing a complex nation like Nigeria. Yet, beneath these surface narratives lies a deeper and more consequential reality. This Lagos visit is not just ceremonial, it is strategic. It is widely believed to be the final political window before the President makes the most critical subnational decision of his tenure: choosing who succeeds Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

 Since leaving office as governor in 2007, Tinubu has maintained an extraordinary grip on Lagos politics. His influence has shaped every succession cycle. Babatunde Fashola, his former Chief of Staff, was his direct protégé. Akinwunmi Ambode, who succeeded Fashola, had served as Accountant-General under him. Sanwo-Olu, in turn, was elevated to office in a dramatic political recalibration that truncated Ambode’s second-term ambition. In all instances, Tinubu did not just endorse candidates, he determined outcomes.

 But today, that once predictable system appears to be under strain.

 The political environment has evolved. A new generation of actors, less beholden to the old order and more assertive in their ambitions, is emerging ahead of the 2027 elections. This shift introduces a level of uncertainty that Tinubu has not had to contend with in previous cycles.

At the forefront of the succession debate is Dr. Femi Hamzat, the incumbent deputy governor. His credentials are formidable. A technocrat with deep administrative experience, Hamzat has been a consistent figure in Lagos governance and is the longest-serving deputy governor in the Fourth Republic. For the records, he is the only deputy governor to have been inaugurated twice since 1999. He is, indeed, in many respects, a natural successor.

 Yet, his candidacy is not without complications. The political arithmetic of Lagos is delicate, and symbolism matters. His late father, Oba Mufutau Olatunji Hamzat, held the traditional title of Olu of Afowowa in neighbouring Ogun State. In the hyper-sensitive identity politics of Lagos, this raises uncomfortable questions among stakeholders. Can the son of a monarch from Ogun State be entrusted with governing Lagos? It may seem trivial, but in politics, perception often outweighs logic.

 Moreover, the elder Hamzat was no ordinary figure. A former member of the Lagos State House of Assembly in the Second Republic and a key player in the Oshodi/Mushin political axis, he was part of the Justice Forum, the powerful bloc that helped propel Tinubu to power. That legacy, while prestigious, also reinforces concerns about the concentration of influence within a single political lineage.

 Another name that continues to surface is Akinwunmi Ambode. His abrupt political downfall in 2019 remains one of the most controversial episodes in Lagos history. Some now frame a potential return as an act of political restitution, an opportunity to correct what they describe as an elite-driven injustice. It is widely believed that Ambode’s removal was less about personal betrayal of Tinubu and more about dissatisfaction among influential Lagos stakeholders who felt alienated by his leadership style. He was largely famed for not answering phone calls of the elite class.

 However, politics is rarely driven by sentiment. Trust and loyalty are the currencies that sustain Tinubu’s political structure. Even if Ambode did not directly offend the President, the events of 2019 created fractures that may not be easily repaired. The question remains: can a leader once deemed unreliable be trusted again with the keys to Lagos?

 Hakeem Muri-Okunola presents a different kind of candidacy. As the Principal Private Secretary to the President and a former Head of Service in Lagos, he represents a technocratic and administrative pathway to power. His rapid rise within the system has been attributed to longstanding family relationships. There are suggestions of a deeper, almost generational connection between Tinubu and the Muri-Okunola family, which could weigh in his favour.

Then there are aspirants like Abdul-Azeez Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, and other emerging figures. Their challenge is not ambition but independence. Lagos politics, under Tinubu’s watch, has never favoured candidates with autonomous political structures. The fear, often expressed by critics, is that such individuals could eventually dismantle the very system that brought them to power.

 This brings us to the core of Tinubu’s dilemma.

 The President must choose between competence and control, between loyalty and independence, between continuity and evolution. A strong, independent governor could assert authority in ways that diminish Tinubu’s long-standing influence, especially if the President secures a second term and approaches the final phase of his national leadership.

 Adding another layer of complexity is the whispered possibility of Seyi Tinubu. The President’s son has grown in visibility and influence, particularly among younger political actors. While still speculative, the idea of a dynastic transition cannot be entirely dismissed. However, such a move would be fraught with controversy. Supporters would say that Oloye Olusola Saraki did it in Kwara. But Lagos is not Kwara.

 Timing is also crucial. Even if such an option were to be considered, it may be more strategically viable in a post-presidential context rather than during Tinubu’s active tenure in office. For now, it remains a delicate and potentially explosive proposition.

 Ultimately, Tinubu’s challenge is unprecedented in his political career. The man once celebrated as Nigeria’s ultimate kingmaker now faces a succession puzzle with no easy answers. Every option carries risks. Every decision has consequences.

 Perhaps this explains his apparent withdrawal from public ceremonies during the Lagos visit. The real work is not in cutting ribbons or commissioning projects, it is in making a choice that will define not just the future of Lagos, but the enduring strength of his political empire.

 For the Jagaban, this is not just another decision. It is a defining moment. And this time, the path forward is anything but clear.

NB: The hypotheses above are grounded in prevailing electoral dynamics that place greater weight on the preferences of political godfathers, while giving less influence to the electorate, who, if allowed a freer choice, might act independently of what Asiwaju decides.

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West Ham climbed out of the Premier League relegation zone with a 4-0 win against Wolves on Friday that dumped Tottenham into the bottom three.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side took the lead through Konstantinos Mavropanos’ first-half header at the London Stadium.

Valentin Castellanos netted twice in the second-half to ensure fourth-bottom West Ham, who started the evening in the relegation zone, moved two points above third-bottom Tottenham.

Mavropanos completed the rout with his second goal in the closing stages in an ironic twist as the former Arsenal defender helped to push his old club’s bitter rivals closer to the drop.

It is the first time Tottenham have been in the bottom three at the end of a Premier League match-day since August 2015, when they lost 1-0 to Manchester United.

Tottenham can climb back out of the relegation zone if they win at Sunderland in Roberto De Zerbi’s first game in charge on Sunday.

The north Londoners have seven games to save themselves from playing in the second tier for the first time since 1977-78.

Beaten on penalties by Leeds in the FA Cup quarter-finals last weekend, West Ham bounced back with a vital victory in their own fight for survival.

“All of us deserve this kind of evening, especially our fans. London Stadium today was amazing, bouncing with energy,” Nuno said.

“The first half was tough. We didn’t find spaces, the game didn’t flow. Then after the break we really improved.

“The way we did it proved to ourselves that we cannot give up. That was the team spirit from the beginning.

“We are in the fight. I realise we have a lot of work to do yet. We made a big step today, important for us, but nothing has changed.”

Bottom of the table Wolves are 15 points from safety and, with only six matches left, they are destined for relegation to the Championship.

– Knockout blow –

Wolves looked rusty in their first game for 25 days due to the international break and their exit from the FA Cup.

El Hadji Malick Diouf’s poor pass gave Adam Armstrong a sight of goal, but the Wolves striker couldn’t keep his effort on target.

Armstrong wasted a better chance moments later when his close-range header was saved by Mads Hermansen.

West Ham took advantage of those escapes to steal the lead in the 42nd minute.

Replays showed West Ham were lucky to be awarded a corner when the final touch came off Jarrod Bowen and the England forward quickly rubbed salt into Wolves’ wound.

When Bowen’s corner was headed back to the forward, he produced a far better cross with his second attempt and Mavropanos rose to thump his header past Wolves keeper Jose Sa.

Bowen hit the post with a dipping curler early in the second half and Castellanos delivered the knockout blow in the 66th minute.

Playing a one-two with Pablo, the Argentine striker surged through the Wolves defence but his tame shot should have been saved by Sa before it trickled over the line.

Castellanos struck again two minutes later with a deflected shot that squirmed past the hapless Sa.

Mavropanos volleyed home at the far post from an 83rd minute corner to compound Wolves’ misery.

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Pakistan is set to host talks between Iran and the United States in a bid to turn a fragile two-week ceasefire into a lasting end to a war that has left thousands dead and roiled global energy markets.

Here are five things to know about the Islamabad talks:

– The war behind the talks –

On February 28, the United States and Israel launched deadly coordinated strikes that killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei and struck Iran’s military and nuclear infrastructure.

More than 3,000 people were killed in Iran in five weeks, according to Iranian media and US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

Tehran responded by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf waterway through which about a fifth of global oil and gas passes, sending energy prices soaring and disrupting trade worldwide.

On April 8, Washington and Tehran agreed to a two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan. The ceasefire is expected to expire April 22.

– Pakistan’s unlikely starring role –

Pakistan’s value as a mediator rests on an unusually broad diplomatic network.

Iran was the first country to recognise Pakistan’s statehood following independence in 1947, with the two neighbours sharing a 900-kilometre (560-mile) border and deep historical, cultural and religious ties.

Pakistan is also home to more than 20 million Shia Muslims, the second-largest such population in the world after Iran.

Islamabad has cultivated strong ties with Washington, Riyadh and Beijing.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar visited Beijing at the end of March for talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who backed Islamabad’s mediation efforts as “in keeping with the common interests of all parties”.

Trump himself told AFP that China helped bring Iran to the negotiating table, an account backed by Pakistani officials.

“On ceasefire night, hopes were fading, but China stepped in and convinced Iran to agree to a preliminary ceasefire,” a senior Pakistani official familiar with the negotiations told AFP on condition of anonymity.

– What’s on the table? –

The gap between the two sides remains vast.

Washington’s reported 15-point proposal centres on Iran’s enriched uranium and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran has countered with a 10-point plan demanding control over the strait, a toll for vessels crossing the strait, an end to all regional military operations and the lifting of all sanctions.

Lebanon is also a major sticking point.

Israel has continued its strikes in the country targeting Hezbollah — after the ceasefire came into force — with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejecting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s assertion that the truce included Lebanon.

US Vice President JD Vance appeared to take a softer tone, saying there may have been a “legitimate misunderstanding” from Iran that Lebanon would be included.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian warned on X that Israel’s strikes on Lebanon rendered the negotiations “meaningless”.

Iran has also long refused to concede to Washington’s demands on its nuclear programme.

Iranian sources have also told Iranian media that Tehran won’t attend the talks unless a ceasefire is in place in Lebanon.

– Who are the negotiators? –

Vance will lead the American team, joined by special envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner.

It marks the most senior US engagement with Iran since Secretary of State John Kerry negotiated the 2015 nuclear deal.

Witkoff held multiple rounds of Oman-mediated talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi before the war cut the process short.

Araghchi and Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, along with other security and economic officials, have arrived in Pakistan, Iranian state television and the Pakistani government confirmed.

Reporting their arrival, state broadcaster IRIB reiterated Tehran’s position that talks will not begin unless its conditions are met, including a ceasefire in Lebanon.

– Islamabad on lockdown –

The talks are being held in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

The government has kept its cards close to its chest, not confirming the venue, but the Serena Hotel — located next to the foreign ministry in the capital’s high-security Red Zone — asked its guests to clear out on Wednesday.

Authorities in the capital announced a two-day public holiday on Thursday and Friday.

The streets of Islamabad are flooded with armed security personnel in military fatigues, traffic diversions are in place and police checkpoints are set up.

The talks are expected to be indirect: the two delegations sitting in separate rooms with Pakistani officials shuttling proposals between them, mirroring the format used in earlier Oman-mediated rounds.

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Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh on Saturday claimed victory in an election that secured a sixth straight term in the strategically placed Horn of Africa nation.

“Re-elected”, the 78-year-old declared in a social media post as early results gave him a huge lead over his little-known opponent in Friday’s election.

Guelleh has ruled the tiny nation of one million people for 27 years with an iron grip. He has made his name leveraging Djibouti’s key location to turn it into an international military and maritime hub.

Its 23,000 square kilometres (8,900 square miles) hosts military bases and contingents from France, the United States, China, Japan and Italy, generating substantial financial, security and political benefits.

With about six percent of votes counted, an AFP tally of results announced by the election commission gave Guelleh more than 96 percent of the vote, putting him well on course to extend his term.

Mohamed Farah Samatar, leader of the Unified Democratic Centre (CDU), a party with no seats in parliament, had about 3.5 percent.

Guelleh won the last election in 2021, boycotted by most of the opposition, with more than 97 percent of the vote. He had announced he would step down this year but a constitutional amendment in November removed the upper age limit of 75 for presidential candidates.

Some polling stations stayed open an hour later because of delays opening at the start of the day. But few people in Djibouti doubted who would win.

Amid heavy security, Guelleh, widely known by his initials IOG, voted before noon at City Hall alongside his wife, while Samatar cast his ballot earlier.

“By the grace of God, we have arrived here, and we hope that this will end in victory,” Guelleh told reporters.

Guelleh has plastered the capital with campaign posters and drew thousands to his rallies, while Samatar has struggled to gain support.

The national broadcaster aired one of Samatar’s events, with only a few dozen people present.

“I’m going to vote for Ismail Omar Guelleh because he has a good programme for young people. I don’t even know what his opponent looks like,” Deka Aden Mohamed, 38, told AFP.

– Unemployment and debt –

Guelleh has faced little opposition since succeeding the country’s first president, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, in 1999. He had been Aptidon’s chief of staff.

In 2005, Guelleh was re-elected unopposed.

His candidacy is seen by some as offering “stability” in the troubled Horn of Africa region, but analysts say it is driven by the absence of a unanimously accepted successor.

The health of the president has come under scrutiny.

Despite claims by the Djibouti League of Human Rights that the vote is a “masquerade”, people told AFP they were eager to vote.

“It’s a duty to go vote,” said Yussuf Mohamed Hussein. “I’m going to vote for the president; Samatar, I don’t even know him.”

Around 70 percent of young Djiboutians are unemployed and the country’s development has come at the cost of substantial debt, particularly to China.

Djibouti is situated on the key Bab al-Mandeb strait, which divides the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and is one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

Without agriculture to rely on, the country depends on ports for 70 percent of its gross domestic product, with Ethiopia its main maritime outlet.

The nation is accused by human rights organisations of repressing dissent, while Guelleh faces claims of favouring his own majority Issa ethnic group at the expense of the Afar minority.

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Kun Khalifat FC defender, Ameh Joseph, says that players are in high spirit ahead of the Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL, matchday 34 clash against Warri Wolves.

Obinna Uzoho’s side will trade tackles with Warri Wolves at the Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri on Sunday.

Joseph declared that the players will fight to secure maximum points in the game.

He insisted that they have no excuse not to win the game.

“The mood in camp is electric ahead of our game against Warri Wolves,” Joseph told Kun Khalifat FC media.

“Everyone is sharp, focus and hungry, we’ve put in the work, we know what is at stake and we are coming out on Sunday with full intensity.

“No excuse no holding back we are going for all three points. We will make sure we do everything within our power to get the three points in the field of play.”

NPFL: Kun Khalifat FC battle ready for Warri Wolves — Joseph

Real Madrid dropped more points in the Spanish title race with a frustrating 1-1 La Liga draw at home against Girona on Friday.

Fede Valverde drilled Alvaro Arbeloa’s side ahead early in the second half but Thomas Lemar’s fine strike secured a point for the Catalan visitors at the Santiago Bernabeu.

The draw against Girona brought Madrid within six points of La Liga leaders Barcelona, but the Catalans host local rivals Espanyol on Saturday when they could move nine ahead with a victory.

Madrid head to Bavaria to face Bayern Munich in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final clash on Wednesday, trailing 2-1, in the competition where their hopes of silverware this season now mainly lie.

After Jude Bellingham impressed as a substitute in the first leg against Bayern, Arbeloa gave him his first start since January.

Madrid had the better of the first half but needed goalkeeper Andriy Lunin to save well from Azzedine Ounahi early on.

At the other end Girona goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga denied Mbappe and Valverde as Los Blancos began to knock on the door.

Bellingham tested Gazzaniga early in the second half with a drive from the edge of the box, shortly before his team took the lead.

Valverde lashed in a shot from the edge of the box which Gazzaniga tried to push out with his wrists but badly misjudged and the ball flew past him and into the net.

Madrid’s top goalscorer Mbappe mis-hit a shot when well placed and Gazzaniga saved well at his near post to keep Vinicius at bay as Madrid tried to put the game to bed.

Instead Girona pulled level, with former Atletico midfielder Lemar planting a superb strike from the edge of the box beyond Lunin’s helpless dive and into the bottom corner.

Arbeloa took off England international Bellingham shortly after the hour with the visit to Munich in mind.

Madrid’s hopes of a trophy appear to hinge on that match against Vincent Kompany’s side, with only seven La Liga matches remaining to try and overhaul Hansi Flick’s Barca, the reigning champions.

Gazzaniga beat away Mbappe’s shot and the French superstar appealed in vain for a penalty as he collided with Vitor Reis in the box.

Six minutes of stoppage time were added on but they were not enough for Arbeloa’s underwhelming team to conjure a late winner.

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Professor John Mearsheimer, a renowned American political scientist, has predicted that Israel may use nuclear weapons against Iran as a last resort to decimate Tehran’s nuclear development.

The Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago delivered the keynote address on Friday at the Arab Center’s Eleventh Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.

Noting that Israel considers Iran an existential threat, the expert warned: “Israel will use nuclear weapons against Iran if they suspect Iran is pursuing a nuclear deterrent.”

“It is now clear that Israel cannot prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons using its conventional forces,” he said. “The United States will not stop that (nuclear use) from happening.”

Mearsheimer condemned Israel’s multifaceted operations in the Middle East, accusing it of using its military might to suppress people in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

He insists Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad Director, David Barnea played a key role in convincing President Donald Trump that a “quick and decisive victory” was possible in Iran.

The international relations scholar decried the recent depletion of U.S. munitions and bases, as well as the diversion of assets to the Middle East when the focus should be on China and Asia.

He argued that Iran holds “almost all the cards” and is in a very powerful spot, saying by cutting off the Strait of Hormuz, “they are in a position to tank the global economy.”

Highlighting other consequences of the war, Mearsheimer said Tehran can “destroy GCC countries as functioning societies” through further attacks on energy infrastructure and desalination plants.

He also observed people focus on the Hormuz blockade’s impact on oil, but don’t talk about fertilizer shortages, which would affect the planting season and could cause many people to starve to death.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Erdogan on Friday continued his strong criticism of Israel, saying 254 Lebanese people were “brutally killed” on the day the ceasefire was declared.

Erdogan said “the genocidal network” is blinded by blood and hatred and continues to unalive children, women, and civilians, disregarding human values and recognizing no rules or principles.

On the controversial death penalty law passed by the Knesset, the President likened the targeting of Palestinians to apartheid. “Isn’t it using the law as a tool of racist authoritarianism?” he quipped.

Israel may use nuclear weapons against Iran – Prof Mearsheimer

Celebrity beauty entrepreneur Laura Ikeji has sparked widespread debate after attributing the struggles of many celebrity-owned businesses in Nigeria to weak consumer support and limited internal industry backing.

Speaking on the issue, Ikeji argued that while Nigerians actively engage with celebrities’ music, films, and lifestyle content online, they are often reluctant to purchase products from their businesses. She said this lack of patronage contributes to the closure of many celebrity brands after only a few years of operation.

She also claimed that even within the entertainment industry, celebrities rarely support one another’s business ventures, a trend she believes further slows growth and sustainability.

Comparing Nigeria with global markets, she referenced international stars such as Rihanna, Beyoncé, and Kim Kardashian, noting that their businesses enjoy strong consumer backing and are able to scale rapidly.

Ikeji further suggested that Nigerian consumers often assume celebrity products are overpriced, preferring to patronise smaller vendors instead. She also pointed to a perception issue around celebrity wealth and spending habits, which she said influences purchasing decisions.

According to her, investors are also hesitant to fund celebrity-led businesses due to concerns about financial discipline and priorities, creating additional barriers to long-term sustainability.

She concluded by urging Nigerians to show more support for celebrity entrepreneurs whose products they admire, noting that consistent patronage is key to business survival and growth

Nigerians Don’t Support Celebrity Businesses, Says Laura Ikeji is first published on The Whistler Newspaper