F or most Nigerians, biometric verification takes seconds. For Jidds, it has meant years of waiting, explaining, and finding other ways to prove her identity. The Instagram user, known as J for Jidds, shared her experience in a video posted on Saturday. She said she was born with adermatoglyphia, a rare condition that leaves the skin on her fingers, toes and palms smooth with no ridges. According to information from MedlinePlus, the US National Library of Medicine, the condition is caused by gene changes that stop ridge patterns from forming, making standard fingerprint scanners ineffective. She first noticed the problem in 2017 during JAMB registration. She went to the center with her father and stayed all day while more than 200 other candidates were registered ahead of her. Officials tried sand, spirit, methylated spirit, chalk and even watermelon to get a readable print. At one point she rubbed her hand on a stone before she was captured, Punch Newspaper reported. The challenges co...

I t was supposed to be a routine landing. But on July 23, an Enugu Air flight from Lagos to Benin came within seconds of a far worse ending. The Embraer jet, flight ENU4264 with registration 5N-ENR, touched down on Runway 05 at Oba Akenzua II Airport with 63 passengers and 5 crew on board. Instead of stopping on the runway, the plane kept going. It ran off the paved surface, smashed into approach lights and two abandoned concrete structures, and finally came to a rest on bare ground. Everyone walked away. Passengers and crew used the emergency slides to get out, and no one was injured. But what should have been just another incident report has now exposed deeper problems at the Benin airport. The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau released its preliminary findings on Friday, and the picture is worrying. Investigators said the crash was not only about the aircraft. The airport itself made a bad situation more dangerous. NSIB pointed to three key issues. First, old equipment from a dec...

F ormer Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi says Nigerian youths are watching the wrong match.  In an X post on Saturday, Obi said that as Europe’s football season kicks off this weekend, millions of young Nigerians will be glued to their screens, celebrating goals and praising the order and quality of foreign leagues. He then asked why Nigeria cannot have the same. Obi argued that talent is not the issue. He pointed out that Nigerians are already excelling in Europe because they are playing in systems built on merit, proper facilities, security and accountable leadership. Football, he said, does not thrive in a vacuum. It grows where governance works. He listed the things that make European football work: good stadiums, academies, transport, healthcare, steady electricity and institutions that function. Those things, he said, only come when leaders make the right decisions and citizens hold them to account.   “Nigeria has the talent. What we have lacked is lead...

Minister urges Nigerians to emulate Prophet Muhammad’s virtues of compassion and unity   T he Federal Government has declared Tuesday, August 25, 2026, a public holiday to mark this year’s Eid-ul-Mawlid, the celebration of the birth of the Holy Prophet Muhammad. The announcement was made on Friday by the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, in a statement signed by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr. Magdalene Ajani. According to the minister, the holiday is to give Muslims in Nigeria and across the world the opportunity to celebrate the occasion and reflect on the life and teachings of the Prophet. “Every Eid-ul-Mawlid gives us reason to pause and draw lessons from a life defined by compassion, humility and service to others,” Tunji-Ojo said. “These are qualities our nation needs now more than ever, and I encourage every Nigerian, not just our Muslim brothers and sisters, to reflect on them.” The minister congratulated the Muslim community and called on all Niger...

P resident Bola Tinubu has ordered the immediate arrest of George Buchi Nwabueze and suspended three permanent secretaries after the ICPC exposed another bogus agency operating inside the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. The suspended officials are M.S. Danjuma, Nadungu Gagare, and Richard P. Pheelangwah. ICPC Chairman, Dr. Musa Aliyu, SAN, broke the news to State House correspondents on Friday following his second briefing of the President in two days. He said the Commission discovered an office bearing the name “National Brands Development and Made-in-Nigeria Special Project Office” that was allocated space within the OSGF without presidential approval and in breach of government rules. The discovery came in the course of a wider probe into the earlier exposed fake “Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council” and other gaps in public service procedures.  According to Aliyu, Nwabueze promoted the fake office and had suspected collaborators with...

T he Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has dropped cybercrime charges against Maryam Isah Shehu and Abubakar Shuraim Abdulhamad following appeals for mercy and public apologies. The two young Nigerians were arraigned on Thursday, August 20, 2026, before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik at the Federal High Court in Abuja. The EFCC had accused them of cyberstalking and spreading false information about the agency online, an offence under Section 24(2)(c) of the Cybercrimes Act as amended in 2024. According to the Commission, the case came from two different social media posts made earlier this year. On June 21, 2026, Maryam posted on Instagram that EFCC officers had assaulted a man named Ahmed Uthman. She claimed the action was ordered by a zonal director who allegedly collected N20 million from another person. The EFCC said the post was meant to damage the agency’s reputation. In May 2026, Abubakar was accused of sharing a fake EFCC arrest notice on X, formerly Twitter. The post carried ...

F IFA has released the full match schedule for the 2027 Women’s World Cup, with 64 games set to be played across Brazil next year. The schedule was announced on Thursday at FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich during the live draw for the early round of the 2027 Women’s World Cup Play-Offs. Eight cities in Brazil will host matches. Each city will stage at least seven games, and every host city will also have at least one knockout match. Tournament hosts Brazil will kick off the competition on Thursday, June 24 at the famous Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Their other group games will be played at Arena Itaquera in São Paulo on Tuesday, June 29, and at the National Stadium in Brasília on Sunday, July 4. Brasília, Porto Alegre, Recife and Salvador will host matches up to the Round of 16. Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Fortaleza will host quarter-final matches. São Paulo will also host one semi-final and the third-place match. The second semi-final and the final will both take...

A ustralia has just approved a new law that forces the world’s biggest tech companies to pay local newsrooms, or hand over part of their ad money instead. Parliament passed the News Bargaining Incentive on Thursday. The idea is simple: if platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Google Search profit from Australian news, they should pay the people who produce it. The law targets companies that run major social media or search services in Australia and pull in more than A$250 million, about $178 million, in local advertising each year. According to Reuters, the firms in line include Meta, Google’s parent Alphabet, TikTok and LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft. To escape the new charge, these companies must sign paid deals with at least eight Australian publishers before their financial year ends. If they don’t, they will be hit with a levy of 2.5 per cent on all their Australian ad revenue. The government built in a twist to help smaller papers survive. Money spent on agreements with big...

A Makurdi Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday ordered that a man, Utim Ukerchia, be remanded in prison custody over allegations that he poisoned food which killed two children in Daudu, Guma Local Government Area. Ukerchia appeared in court facing charges of culpable homicide and acts of terrorism.  However, the Magistrate, Mrs N.E. Kaka’an, said the court could not take his plea because it does not have the power to handle the case. She ordered police to send the case file to the Director of Public Prosecutions for advice and set October 2 for the next hearing. The prosecutor, Insp. Godwin Ato, told the court that investigations were still ongoing and asked for an adjournment. According to police, the incident happened on May 13. Ukerchia allegedly put poison in garri and gave it to a 4-year-old girl. The girl ate it together with her brothers, sisters and six other children. In all, nine children ate the food. Hours later, the children became sick and were taken to hospital. Sadly, ...

A yet-to-be-identified young man was killed on Wednesday afternoon when a speeding truck hit him on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway around OPIC, Ogun State. The driver sped off right after. The incident occurred a few minutes before 1pm. According to those who saw it, the man was trying to cross to the other side of the road from the Lagos-bound lane, near the OPIC bus stop. Witnesses said the truck was moving very fast. It rammed into the man, ran over him, and disappeared from the scene. The force threw parts of his body across the expressway, making drivers slow down and drive carefully around the area. “I watched him cross the road when the truck hit him,” said Nojeem, who was at the scene. Nojeem said he was tired of seeing people die on that stretch. He urged the government to build a pedestrian bridge there to protect commuters. “We keep losing people here. This road needs a bridge so people can cross safely,” he said. When our reporter got to the location around 2pm, the body was ...

P resident Bola Ahmed Tinubu has named Mr. Abel Olumuyiwa Enitan as the next Head of the Civil Service of the Federation. The appointment begins on August 27, 2026. He will take over from Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack, who is bowing out after reaching the retirement age of 60. In a State House statement released by Special Adviser Bayo Onanuga, the President described Mr. Enitan as the most senior Permanent Secretary in government today. The Osun indigene has been a Permanent Secretary for 7 years and 7 months. During that time he worked in the Ministry of Police Affairs, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, and the Office of the Vice President. He currently heads the Federal Ministry of Education as Permanent Secretary. President Tinubu said Mr. Enitan’s long experience gives him a clear grasp of how government runs, and that is what the civil service needs now. The President also praised Mrs. Walson-Jack for her years of service. He highlighted the reforms and new ideas introduced un...

T he Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, FCCPC, has directed all manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers to immediately remove from shelves any consumer goods that do not meet mandatory labelling requirements. In a public advisory issued on Wednesday, the Commission said its recent market surveillance and routine inspections across the country revealed a worrying rise in products with misleading information or missing critical details. Inspectors found goods without production dates, expiry or best-before dates, batch numbers, manufacturer addresses, ingredient lists, allergen warnings and country of origin. Some products also carried false or deceptive claims. The FCCPC said the situation poses serious risks to consumer health, safety and finances, because shoppers are denied the information they need to make informed choices. The Commission stressed that such practices violate the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act of 2018, which mandates...

A big moment for Africa happened on Tuesday, August 18, 2026. Benin’s music legend Angélique Kidjo, 66, became the first Black African musician to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The event happened at 7011 Hollywood Boulevard. Under sunny California skies, actors, music leaders and fans watched as her name was set into the famous sidewalk in pink and dark stone. “This is bigger than me,” Kidjo told the crowd. “We Africans have given so much to the world. Without us, music as we know it wouldn’t exist.”   She then sang for everyone, and the audience listened in silence before clapping loudly. Kidjo’s star is in the Recording section. The Walk of Fame has over 2,800 stars honoring people from movies, music, TV and theater. According to France 24 , two well-known guests spoke at the event: actor Willem Dafoe and Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. > Dafoe called her the hardest worker in the business. He also spoke about her charity work with the Batonga Foundati...

F ifa has dismissed its Chief Operating Officer, Kevin Lamour, just days after he publicly challenged President Gianni Infantino over a controversial plan to sell parts of the World Cup to private investors. Lamour’s departure was confirmed on Monday, August 17, 2026, less than two years after he joined Fifa from Uefa. The two men had worked together for years at European football’s governing body. The fallout began on July 31, when details of Infantino’s “FFE” proposal became public. The plan aimed to bring private money into the World Cup. Lamour did not hold back.  He accused Fifa’s leadership of misleading staff and said Infantino was “acting like he owns Fifa, when he’s supposed to serve it.” He also warned that speaking up could cost him his job.   “If that means I lose my job, then so be it,” he said. “At least I’ll sleep well tonight.”   Hours later, Fifa shelved the plan. In the same statement, Lamour said staff “deserve better than intimidation and dis...

W AEC is getting tough questions after putting out the 2026 WASSCE results for secondary school students. School owners and education advocates say the results don’t match what students achieved in class and in other exams. Most of the complaints are about WAEC’s move to Computer-Based Testing and the use of different versions of question papers. Sam Abdulazeez, who runs Impact House Model Schools in Mowe, Ogun State, revealed to Punch Newspaper that his school’s performance dropped in 2025 and 2026, even though the teachers and preparation stayed the same. The school has written WASSCE since 2017 and was known for strong results in Maths and English. In 2024, all 45 students scored A1 in Mathematics. That changed after WAEC brought in serialised papers and pushed CBT. “This year we entered 69 students for JAMB. More than 30 scored above 300. No one had less than 200,” Abdulazeez said. “We did 22 computer practice tests. But in WASSCE, only 3 or 4 got A1 in Maths. For English, most go...