Blogging with Esther

Nigeria stands to be stripped of the women’s 4x100m relay gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, after an unnamed member of the quartet failed a doping test. The gold winning team comprises Tobi Amusan, Rosemary Chukwuma, Favour Ofili and Grace Nwokocha. It was learnt that the Athletics Federation of Nigeria had been notified of the development by the World Anti-Doping Agency, as the confirmation of the B sample is still being awaited. As a rule, the team would be stripped of the medal and the performance, if the athlete is not exonerated. AFN president Tonobok Okowa confirmed the report with Saturday PUNCH. He said the federation had begun an investigation of the matter and would make its position known.  CWG: Gumel lauds Team NigeriaThe letter from the World Anti-Doping Agency just reached the federation today (Friday) and  we are shocked to hear this for the first time. We risk being stripped of the 4x100m Commonwealth Games gold we won in Birmingham. “But we will carry

   Nigeria bowed out of the FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup after a 2-0 loss to The Netherlands on Sunday. The Falconets could not reenact earlier round performances, which saw them winning all three group phase matches, in this their quarter-final match in Alajuela, Costa Rica. Flourish Sabastine, who scored Nigeria’s winning goal against France in their Group C opening match, could not make hay in the seventh minute. But four minutes later, the Dutch were ahead, when Zera Hulswit rammed a perfect dipping shot beyond Omini Oyono after pulling away on the counter-attack. In the 15th minute, Sabastine again pulled away and let fly, but the ball was tipped away by impressive goalkeeper Claire Dinkla. On the half-hour, Nigeria nearly got the leveller that their endeavour deserved when Deborah Abiodun seized the ball as the Dutch defence fell into confusion. But her dipping shot from 25 metres rocked the crossbar and was then tipped away from the head of Chiamaka Okwuchukwu. Only three min

ABUJA — AGAIN, the negotiation meeting held by the federal government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday, ended in deadlock, thus dashing hope of imminent resumption of academic activities in the nation’s public universities. The union had met yesterday with Prof. Briggs’ renegotiation committee with a view to resolving its difference with FG towards reopening the universities. The meeting which held at the National Universities Commission,NUC,Abuja, ended, without resolution. It was gathered that the Prof. Nimi Briggs’ renegotiation committee did not bring any new offer to the table, forcing the lecturers’ union to walk out of the meeting. A source at the meeting said the committee only pleaded with the striking lecturers to suspend their action with a promise that the 2023 national budget will address their demands. Recall that the union has been on strike for six months now,having began the action on February 14,2022,over issues ranging from poor funding of pu

 Nationwide darkness may hit Nigeria today as electricity workers at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) threaten strike action. This is at the detriment of already signed contracts between the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the 11 distribution and generation companies. The development, linked to a disagreement over promotion interviews for staff, will cause shortchange of consumers, who are currently being billed under the terms of NERC’s Service Based Tariff (SBT). In September 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari vigorously defended an increase in electricity tariff tagged SBT, stressing that it is the only gateway to improving power supply to the masses. Under the plan, the higher the hour of supply a consumer enjoys, the higher his or her per kilowatt of electricity. By implication, someone who enjoys 18 hours of electricity could be paying N60 for a kilowatt, while some who enjoys six-hour daily could be paying N30 for the same kilowatt, making a breach i

  Nigeria beat South Korea 1-0 on Sunday in the Group C football match at the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica, Complete Sports reports. Esther Onyenezide’s late strike gave the Falconets victory in their second match of the tournament The Falconets will face Canada in their final group match on Wednesda The match which was scheduled for 9 pm was shifted to 10.15 pm due to heavy rai According to Complete Sports, the Falconets made their first attempt to score a goal in the third minute through Bashirat Amoo, who tried a long-range effort from a free kick but was calmly saved by South Korea keeper Kim Kyeong-He  Falconets depart for U-20 Women’sIn the 22nd minute, the Koreans went on the attack again with Lee Soo-In hitting a long-range strike but the ball hit woodwork With four minutes left in the first half, Amoo made a long-range strike which went off target. Five minutes into the second half, Onyenezide tried a long cross into the area on the back of a pour