Cristiano Ronaldo has said that he was not bothered about scoring another hat-trick but cares more about his team.

The veteran Portuguese forward scored his 66th hat-trick of his career and it’s 52 goals in 52 games this season.

Ronaldo reduced his tally to just 10 goal to reach 900 career goals as Al-Nassr beat Al-Wehda 6-0 in the Saudi Pro League on Saturday at Al-Awwal Stadium. 

The Portuguese icon scored his 50th goal of the season with his first one in the match along with netting his 66th career hat-trick.

He, however, said his priorities lie with the team rather than individual achievements.

“I don’t care about scoring a hat-trick as much as I care about the team,” the 39-year-old said after the game.

Ronaldo is just 10 goals away from 900 career goals and when asked about that post-match, he said:

“I always say, numbers come naturally, so I don’t attach numbers, they come.”

Super Eagles head coach, Finidi George has said it is important for the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Finidi insisted that he will do his best to ensure the Super Eagles didn’t miss out on a place at the mundial for the second consecutive edition.

Recall that the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the last edition of the global soccer fiesta hosted by Qatar.

The three-time African champions face a tough task of making it to the 2026 World Cup finals after drawing their opening two matches against Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

The Super Eagles will face South Africa and Benin in their next two games in the qualifiers.

Finidi said he would need the prayer and support of all Nigerians to succeed on the job.

“The World Cup qualification matches against South Africa and Benin Republic is a collective responsibility for all Nigerians.

“I know I am in charge now and the heavy responsibility is on me to win the two world cup matches,” Finidi told reporters during his visit to Nigeria Football Federation’s office in Abuja.

“I will do my best to ensure success and qualify for the World Cup. I am also in touch with the players and they are ready and willing to give their all having missed out in the last edition held in Qatar.

“In terms of having knowledge of our opponents, I have been following them.

“The world today is a global village, one can monitor anything in the comfort of his/ her sitting room.

“We need prayers and support from everybody, this is our own, we can do it and do it well. I watch our players weekly as they play in their various clubs.

“Honestly my target is to win the two matches and not to be judged with the two international friendly games played.”

Finidi’s appointment as Super Eagles head coach was confirmed by the NFF last week.

The President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has said that the Igbos will not apologise for the murder of Sir Ahmadu Bello and Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa during the 1966 coup.

He dismissed claims by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that he plans on apologising to the Fulani ethnic groups.

He declared that Ohanaeze Ndigbo would never apologise for something they did not do.

Iwuanyanwu stated this in Owerri, Imo state, last weekend.

He said, “I was shocked to read a voice mail message which was circulating all over the country and all over the world alleging that we held a meeting in Enugu and that the meeting was poorly attended where the decision was taken that we are going to Sokoto to apologise to the Fulanis over the death of Ahmadu Bello and Tafawa Balewa and other Northerners. They abused me and insulted me. I read it and I was sad. I don’t expect that somebody or a Christian will come out and tell a completely false story against me. I never said anything like that.”

He explained that the recent retreat in Enugu was a meeting of committees established for the development of Igboland, and the issue of apologising to the Fulanis was never discussed.

“Igbos didn’t kill anybody or leader but the Igbos were killed. So, as far as Ohaneze Ndigbo is concerned, Igbo did not have any business with that coup, that coup was purely a military affair like other coups that occurred in the country,” he added.

Petroleum marketers have said the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, has opened its reserves across the federation to end the lingering fuel scarcity.

The National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Hammed Fashola and Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Hilly-Harry, disclosed this in a separate statement after meeting with NNPCL on Saturday.

Fashola said his members will meet on Monday to join NNPLC to end the fuel scarcity.

He further urged Nigerians not to engage in panic buying of fuel as the product will be available nationwide.

“We are officially meeting with other marketers on Monday. We are working closely with NNPC.

“The Monday meeting is for our National Executive Council. After the meeting, we will reach out to the NNPC. We talk with them every day.

“The meetings we have been having with the NNPC are in collaboration, which we have been doing.

“If you notice, yesterday (Friday), NNPC opened up their reserves in all the depots throughout the federation. We are working with them to ensure that everywhere is wet so this thing (scarcity) can disappear,” he said.

On his part, Hilly-Harry said the meeting between NNPLC and marketers had helped present a solution to the fuel scarcity.

According to him, queues have started easing off in Abuja during the weekend.

“The good news is that this is a new reality. It will bring better solutions because the result will be fantastic when you have NNPCL doing what they must do, and we also do what we must do.

“If you go to Abuja today (Saturday), you will see that the queues have eased off”, he stated.

DAILY POST recalls that for weeks, Nigerians had continued to battle fuel scarcity despite NNPCL’s assurance of the product availability.

Katsina State Governor, Dikko Radda, has alleged that some security personnel and government officials have exploited the insecurity situation in Nigeria for personal gain, turning it into a lucrative business venture.

He made this revelation during an appearance on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Friday, citing this as a major obstacle to ending the scourge of banditry and insecurity in the country.”

He said, “Now it has turned out to be a business venture. A business venture for the criminals, some people who are in government; and some people who are in security outfits, and some people who are responsible for the day-to-day activities of their people.

“These are so many reasons why we are unable to bring banditry to an end.”

Many people relate the insecurity to politics. But Governor Radda claims that poverty and injustice are important motivators.

The governor continued: ”The issue of the hypothesis behind political motive as responsible for banditry is not true.”

According to him, many youths in the north are recruited into banditry with mere N500.

As part of moves to tackle the region’s insecurity, some northern governors were on a trip to the US. Though they came under heavy criticism for the meeting with many wondering why it was not held in Nigeria, Radda has said they were only invited to the parley.

“The meeting was not at the instance of the selected governors of northern states but it was at the instance of the United States Institute of Peace. They were the people who invited us; they hosted us for the meeting. We were invited to sit with them so that we could bring about lasting solutions to the problems that are affecting our people,” he said.

Governor Radda said the trip gave the governors fresh insights into insecurity in the region.

The appointment of Finidi George as the new head coach of the Super Eagles was a huge surprise in some quarters.

Of course, it was apparent that the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, was leaning towards an indigenous coach for the national team.

It is almost a pendulum with these appointments. When a local coach is not performing well with the Eagles, there will be calls for a foreigner. A yearning for a more tactically savvy handler.

When the foreigner fails – like Jose Peseiro did – the argument flips. You begin to hear talk of us encouraging Nigerian coaches, how they know these players more than anyone else and of course, the chance of harvesting talents from the Nigerian Premier Football League, NPFL.

The two names that were expected to be picked from this time around were Finidi and Emmanuel Amuneke.

A lot of observers expected the NFF to appoint Amuneke.

He won the hearts of the nation as coach of Nigeria’s U17 team, leading them to glory at the FIFA U17 World Cup.

On the continent, he qualified Tanzania for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations – their first in nearly 40 years.

However, Amuneke’s record with Egypt’s Misr Lel Makkasa and Zambia’s Zanaco left much to be desired.

The 53-year-old also failed to help the Nigeria U20 team qualify for the AFCON in 2017.

But Ayodeji Adegbenro, a Sports Administrator, insists the NFF has made the right choice.

“Finidi is miles ahead of Amuneke. He has won the league with Enyimba, has two seasons CAF Champions League experience. He also assisted Peseiro for 20 months,” Adegbenro tells DAILY POST.

“Amuneke has failed at every coaching position since he won the U17 in 2015. He’s one of the major reasons we didn’t qualify for Qatar. He shouldn’t be anywhere near the Super Eagles job,” he added.

Many have argued that Finidi represents the debris of Peseiro’s time in charge.

Adegbenro explained, “If we wanted Peseiro’s shadow looming over us in the shape of Finidi, why didn’t we just keep the Portuguese?

“He wanted more money to stay. We couldn’t afford it.

“However, my point is that, given a choice between Finidi and Amuneke, Finidi is way better.”

It could also be that Amuneke did not have enough backers in the room where the decision was made.

An insider tells DAILY POST the story of how Amuneke seemingly bungled the Eagles’ chances of playing at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The source said: “He was drafted in by the Minister. On the morning of the second leg (against Ghana) in Abuja, he convinced Eguavoen to switch formation and play Osimhen as lone striker.

“Even though they trained with two strikers, Osimhen and Ighalo all week.”

All that is in the past. Looking to the future, Finidi has been saddled with the task of ensuring Nigeria qualify for the 2026 World Cup.

Already, the three-time African champions find themselves in third place in Group C of the qualifying series, behind Rwanda and South Africa.

Their next fixture will be at home against Bafana Bafana.

“I think the expectation is for him to navigate the World Cup qualifying group. That is his immediate assignment.

“Having said that, I expect the NFF to give him the same support they would have given a foreigner. Allow him to pick the assistants he will work with.

“You might not pay him as much as you’re paying the expatriates. But pay him well. And pay him when due.

“And do not undermine his position before the players he is supposed to manage. Very important,” Adegbenro added.

A Federal High Court in Kano has issued an order restraining the National Electricity Regulatory Commission and the Kano Electricity Distribution Company from implementing the new electricity tariff for Band A consumers.

The suit marked FHC/KN/CS/144/2024 was filed by Super Sack Company Limited and BBY Sacks Limited.

Others are Mama Sannu Industries Limited, Dala Foods Nigeria Limited, Tofa Textile Limited, and Manufacturers Association Of Nigeria Limited.

However, ruling on an ex-parte motion by Abubakar Mahmoud, counsel to the plaintiffs, the presiding judge, Abdullahi Liman, ordered NERC and KEDCO from going ahead with the impending tariff pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice filed before it.

The order also restrained the defendant from intimidating and threatening to disconnect the applicants’ electricity supply for non-acceptance of the new increased tariff.

In April, NERC approved an increase in electricity tariff for customers under the Band A classification.

With the new tariff, customers under the category, who receive 20 hours of electricity supply daily, would begin to pay N225 per kilowatt, starting from April 3 — up from N66.

The sudden hike has since been criticized by the House of Representatives and other stakeholders who have asked NERC to suspend the implementation of the new tariff.

The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, provided insights into the NLC’s rationale behind proposing a monthly minimum wage of N615,000.

This was posted on the Nigeria Labour Congress X handle on Friday, 3rd May, 2024.

It wrote, ”It has become imperative at this point that we inform Nigerians who may not have known already the foundations upon which our initial demand for a N615,000 (Six Hundred and Fifteen Thousand Naira) new National Minimum Wage is based upon.

The figure was a product of a painstaking effort through which we captured the cost of living of Nigerian workers and masses in all parts of the country.

It was essentially an outcome of an independent research conducted by the NLC and TUC on the cost of meeting the primary needs of an average family around the country.

Our research was based on a family with both parents alive and four children without the burden of having other dependents with them.

A questionnaire was designed and sent to all the State Councils of NLC and TUC from where these questionnaires were sent to our members in all the Local government areas in the country to gather the monthly cost of living for the average family as described above.

Below is a summary of our findings and we hope that this will enable Nigerians understand what propels our demand so that better clarity is made to create better engagement around the ongoing National Minimum Wage negotiation process.

A cursory look at the table above shows that we have deliberately removed certain elements from the Basket used in calculations of this nature.

However, it should also be noted that we have not included things like expenditure on calls and data, offerings in churches and Mosques, community dues, entertainment, savings and Security etc.

These are therefore just for the bare necessities. It should be noted that we arrived at this figure before the increase in electricity tariff and the recent scarcity of Petrol across the nation leading to the appearance of long queues with attendant increased transport fares.

Any figure below this amount becomes a starvation wage and condemns Nigerian workers and their families to perpetual poverty.

We have to remember that the old one having expired on the 18th day of April, 2024, a new one is expected to have come into effect on the 19th day of April, 2024.

However, because of government’s inability to comply with the Law that demanded for negotiations for a new national minimum wage to have begun 6 (six) months before the expiration of the existing one, concluding the new one has become unfortunately delayed.

We are sure that our social partners would see our demonstration of understanding, sacrifice and reasonableness in our demands thus accepts this figure without much delay.

We also enjoin all well-meaning Nigerians to implore the Government and Employers to meet our demands for the sake of justice, equity and national development.”

Elder statesman and leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, Edwin Clark said former President Muhammadu Buhari imposed Abdullahi Adamu, a former Governor of Nasarawa State, as national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC despite his alleged corruption charges by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

Clark stated this while speaking during an interview on Arise Television.

The elder statesman decried the freedom enjoyed by alleged corrupt politicians in the country.

He noted that nothing has so far been heard about 15 former governors and ministers who were dragged to court during the period when Nuhu Ribadu was the chairman of the EFCC.

Clark said, “In 2007, more than 15 former governors and ministers were charged to court during Ribadu’s time as the EFCC chairman.

“Some of them were charged to courts in Lagos, Abuja and so on. But after some time, some of these cases were not heard again.

“All we heard was that these same governors had been cleared to contest senatorial seats. Let me take a case of Abdullahi Adamu, who was the governor of Nasarawa State in 1999.

“He was charged to court for embezzling money from his state to the tune of N15 billion with other commissioners who were to be charged to court in Nasarawa State.

“Then after being charged to court he contested election to the Senate and he won and he has been there and nobody cared about him. Thereafter, former President Muhammadu Buhari imposed him as the National Chairman of the APC.

“We have many such people in the APC. Nobody heard about his trial again. He became an honest man and talked about corruption more than any other person,” he said.