Leicester still wants Nigerian Ahmed Musa after rejected bid

The Russian side have rejected a $21.6m (£15.1m) offer as they hold out for a fee closer to their $27m (£18.9m) valuation of the forward.

The 23-year-old is believed to be open to a move to Leicester.

The Nigeria captain has a $32.5m (£22.8m) buyout clause in his contract, which runs until 2019.

Leicester are expected to return with an improved bid for the player before the transfer window closes on 1 February.

A former VVV Venlo player, Musa has scored 10 goals in 29 games this season and 11 times in 56 appearances for Nigeria.

Musa, who made his international debut against Madagascar in September 2010, scored twice in Nigeria's 3-2 loss to Argentina at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

He scored the county's fastest-ever goal at a World Cup - netting after four minutes - before becoming their first player to score twice in one game at the tournament.

JUST IN : PRESIDENT BUHARI APPOINYS MAHMUD YAKUBU AS NEW INEC CHAIRMAN

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Professor Mahmud Yakubu as new chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
More details coming shortly.....

The Enyeama Enigma; Revisiting the Concept of Captainship

                              

"I have fought a good fought a good fight for more than 13 years, i have finished my course, i have kept the faith and sang the anthem with passion, henceforth there Is laid for me a crown which only God can reward me for my 13 years of national service. God bless Nigeria."

  These were the exact words of Vincent Enyeama, Super Eagles Captain who took on to instagram to announce his international retirement .

   Enyeama's career no doubt has been one of immense success. Right from his playing days at Enyimba International F.C of Aba where he won the CAF Champions league Consecutively in 2003 and 2004. Before then he had put out an eye-catching performance in Nigeria's encounter with England at the 2002 FIFA World at Korea /Japan.

   Since then, he has been a very powerful member of the Super Eagles. His abilities has never been in doubt as he has stood out on a number of occasions. He was also part of the Coach Stehen Keshi's led Super Eagles Team that won the ANC in SouthAfrica in 2013. He continued to produce some dazzling performances both at the International and Club levels. Thus, in 2014 he won the Marc Vivien Foe Award for the best African Player in France. The first time a goalkeeper won the award. He holds the record for the second longest clean sheet held by a goalkeeper in the ligue 1. He is also listed among the top 20 highest goal scoring goalkeepers in his history. An amazing player indeed!

   It was clear that the decision of Coach Oliseh to appoint Ahmed Musa as Captain did not augur down well with Enyeama. Ofcourse enyeama had the right to express grieviances under normal circumstances which he did. But that not withstanding it remains the prerogative right of any Coach to appoint a Captain.

   Criteria for Appointing Captains have always differed from coaches to coaches depending on their principles, ideals or values. Some Teams have the tradition of Appointing Captains based on Age as is the case in Nigeria while others based on experience or influence. We take a look at the Concept of Football captaincy, duties and responsibilities of captains.

   A captain of a football team, sometimes known as the skipper, is a team member chosen to be the on-pitch leader of the team: it is often one of the older or more experienced members of the squad, or a player that can heavily influence a game.

  Rather than simply awarding the title of captain to your leading scorer or other top performer, choose a “Triple-Impact Competitor,” who is committed to improving self, teammates and the game as a whole. As a coach, introduce the concept of the Triple-Impact Competitor during tryouts and pre-season so that players understand the basis on which you will select captains. In addition to helping you identify captains, this will inspire players who aspire to captaincy to suddenly pay a bit more attention to helping their teammates.

Of course, this improves individual and team performance and can reinforce a strong team culture, which carries rewards far beyond the playing field.Other factors that can determine whom you name captain include:

- Who works the hardest in pre-season

- Who singularly goes above and beyond your expectations in terms of

improving self, teammates or game

- Who might contribute even more to your team due to the psychological boost

of being named captain.

Responsibilities

Captains should complement coaches as arbiters of team culture. Sometimes they may help you focus players’ attention when it wanders. Other times they may represent players’ points of view on game strategy, practice plans or how to ensure that all players stay aligned toward team goals. Coaches must find their own comfort level with the captain’s level of authority among teammates and take care to understand and cultivate the appropriate

level of respect teammates afford to captains. With the right balance, coaches can keep a finger on the pulse of the team through the captains, and captains can voice the players’ divergent ideas to coaches without undermining the coaches’ authority.

Captains also can lead in a variety of routine ways, such as:

- Leading stretching and warm-up/cool-down sessions

- Communicating with referees

- Organizing off-field activities

- Finding ways to include teammates who are less integrated into the team

- Helping settle disagreements among teammates

 By Joshua Jesse Kelvin, he writes from Lagos. 

Dear Nigerians, keep on Believing

Hello Nigerians,
    Its 55 years today, since our fathers, our heros emerged victorious in their quest for an independent nation. They gave their 'all' in their struggle.  So that their Children yet unborn would be emancipated from the trauma of colonial imperialism, they gave their all because they were driven by a vision and a mission, they gave their all because they believed in the PROJECT NIGERIA.
    We have gone through a lot in our history as a nation. From the Civil Wars of the 60's down to the Boko haram crises of the present times. In all of these, we sure have come to the realization that violence is never a panacea to any dispute. We've realized that that the smiles and health of our children cannot be traded in exchange for sad, hungry faces of our children ridden with kwashiorkor. Never!!!!
    We've come a long way to let the selfish and foolish desires of certain group put our Unity into question. The insecurity challenges , the poverty, the corruption are but a test of our faith and belief. In the Words of the great American Author and Evangelist Robert Schuller -"Tough times never last, tough people do".
    Fellow Nigerians, It is true that we may not have had the best of governments or that we are not were we ought to be. But that shouldn't stop us from believing. Believing that one day we would one day look back in amazement at those years Bokoh haram insurgents ravaged our lands, those years of little or no electricity, those years of suffering and struggle. The America we admire today never had it funny through their history. The had their own challenges and here they are today because they kept on Believing.
    The road to greatness is never easy. Only the strong and dogged can attain it. Let us set aside ethnic and religious differences and  remain resolute and commited in our our quest for a greater Nigeria. The much anticipated change we clamour for cannot be actualized by the government alone. It can only be actualized  by the concerted and relentless efforts of You and Me. Knowing that the first step towards change is by changing our very own selves. Before i go let me live you with the Words of Abigail Quincy Adams (Former First Lady Of The United States).
   
                "It is not in the still calm of life or the repose of a pacific ocean, that great characters are formed . The habits of  a vigorous mind are formed in contending  with difficulties".

    Keep on Believing!  #Nigeriamustbegreat
By Joshua Jesse Kelvin

Snowden Joins Twitter, Follows Only NSA

Fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has opened an account on
the social network website Twitter.
His opening tweet was: "Can you hear me now?"
In his profile , Mr Snowden says he "used to work for the government. Now I
work for the public". He quickly gathered thousands of followers.
So far, Mr Snowden, who is wanted in the US for leaking secrets, only follows
one other Twitter user - the US National Security Agency (NSA).
He is believed to be living in Moscow where he is sheltering from US
prosecutors.
In his second tweet - a reply to US astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson - Mr
Snowden joked: "Now we've got water on Mars! Do you think they check
passports at the border? Asking for a friend."
And in another tweet he said: "Hero, traitor - I'm just a citizen with a voice."
The @Snowden account was verified by Twitter and within two hours of joining,
Mr Snowden had accumulated more than 266,000 followers.
In June, former Olympian and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner became the fastest
person on Twitter to reach one million followers - in just over four hours.
Mr Snowden left the US in 2013 after leaking to the media details of extensive
internet and phone surveillance by US intelligence.
His information made global headlines when the Guardian newspaper reported
that the NSA was collecting the telephone records of tens of millions of
Americans.
Mr Snowden is believed to have downloaded 1.7 million secret documents
before he left the US.
Although some consider him a traitor for his revelations, many others around
the world say he is a champion of civil liberties.
In the US he faces charges that could put him in prison for up to 30 years.
Earlier this year, speaking via video-link to a Geneva audience, he said he
would like to be granted asylum in Switzerland.
He has previously worked in Geneva undercover for the CIA.
Regarding a possible return to the US, he told the audience that authorities
there had given him no assurances of a fair trial.
"The only thing they've said at this point was that they would not execute me,"
he said. "That's not quite the same thing as agreeing to a fair and open trial."

I Paid Ransome -Olu Falae

A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae, on Monday admitted that “certain amount of money” was paid as ransom before he was set free on Thursday by his abductors.

Falae’s statement contradicted the claim by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, that no ransom was paid before the elder statesman was rescued.

Falae, who was kidnapped by some suspected Fulani herdsmen on Monday, September 21, and released on Thursday September 24, 2015, however, did not disclose the amount paid. But he said it was when the money was fully paid that he was freed.

He stated this when a former Chief of Defence Staff, General Alani Akinrinade, paid him a visit at his Oba Ile, Akure, Ondo State residence on Monday .

He said, “There were six of them with three or four guns and every half an hour or so they will say, ‘Baba we are going to kill you; if you don’t give us money we are going to kill you.’

“On Wednesday one of them came and said, ‘look we are going to leave here on Thursday morning. Since we cannot leave you here alone, if we don’t get what we want, we are going to kill you.

“And they said they gave me until 3pm, and if at 3pm they don’t get the money, they would execute me. I thank God that at 21 minutes to 3pm, one of them came and said, ‘the money don complete.’

“When the hoodlums came, they slashed me with their cutlasses; they said I was not cooperating. They dragged me barefooted into the bush. After dragging me around for about two hours, they stopped somewhere and asked me to phone my wife and tell her that I had been kidnapped and taken out of Ondo State and that was a lie.

“It was about 2.30pm on Monday that we started walking with very few stops until 2am the following morning. I suspect that I must have covered a minimum of 15 kilometres. That morning, I did not eat anything. So all day I had no food, no water and I walked close to 15km. How I survived, I cannot really remember. At some point one of them gave me rubber slippers. We walked until about 2am. At some point they called for an okada (motorcycle). At about 2.30am the okada man took me way down; I had no clue where we were going. Finally they dumped me somewhere, where I was until I was released on Thursday.

“In that place, we all slept on the floor on leaves. Unfortunately, the rain came in the night and I was thoroughly drenched. One of them brought a small umbrella to cover my head, but the rest of my body was not covered. They offered me bread, but I told them I could not eat it. I asked for a bottle of coke, which was what I drank everyday to have the requisite strength to survive and to continue on the march, because they were permanently moving. They were changing locations at two to three times a day. I suspect because they did not want the police to succeed in tracing them.

“The day they said I should go, one of them stitched my buba, which was in tatters. When I came out of the bush, I was able to find an okada rider, who took me to Owo. The place was about 10km from Owo town. The place was between Owo and Ifon. I walked most of the distance from my farm to that place. Miraculously I was not tired, I was not hungry and I was not afraid of them at all. Each time they said, ‘Baba we will kill you,’ I will tell them, ‘no, insha Allah, you will not kill me.’

“It was when I got back home that I became completely exhausted. But I am now 80 per cent fit and I know that in the next few days, I will be up again.”

This contradicts what the IGP, Solomon Arase said on the day Olu Falae was freed.

On the 23rd of September, Arase went to the state on the order of President Muhammadu Buhari to secure Falae’s release, said he was happy that the septuagenarian was rescued “hale and hearty.”

On how Falae was rescued, the IG said, “I cannot tell you, it is not for you. It is purely a security matter, but I am happy he is rescued alive.

“The most important thing is that baba has come home safely, that is the mandate the President has given to me and that is exactly what I have done.

“On the arrest made in connection with the crime and the amount paid as ransom, the police boss said, “I will let you know about arrest later, but no ransom was paid.

THE GIANT STRIDES OF PROF NJODI

Virtually anyone if not everyone who had managed to transverse the
length and breath of the University of Maiduguri, either by chance or
convenience. Will testify to the remarkable rate of developments and
improvements currently being witnessed in the institution. Both in terms of
infrastructure and academic standards. Njodi is now the name on the lips of
almost every one in the school - From the students in the campus to the staffs
and lecturers down to the parents/guardian, he is now seen as a beacon of
hope.
Professor Ibrahim Abubakar Njodi was born fifty years ago at kaltungo LGA
of Gombe State to a very humble background.He attended LEA primary school
Kaltungo from 1967 -1973 and later Ecwa primary school kaltungo from 1973
-1975. From where he proceeded to the gov't teachers college Jama're in
Baluchi State from 1975 -1980. He obtained his B.sc degree in physical and
health education from 1981 -1985. He then participated in the mandatory
National Youth Service Corps from 1985 -1986.
Prof. Njodi Joined the services of the University of Maiduguri as a graduate
assistant in 1987 and enrolled and completed his MSc degree from 1988 -1991
still at the University of Maiduguri. He then proceeded to the prestigious
University of Nigeria,Nsukka for his PhD in public health education from 2000
-2003. And rose to the rank of professor in 2006.
He has also held various academic and administrative positions within and
outside the country. And has contributed articles in academic journals
worldwide.
Prior to his appointment as the V.C of the institution he served as the
D.V.C Academics. Prof. Njodi was duly appointed to the post of the V.C in a
keenly contested election. Somewhat controversial in the manner in which it
went. In a poll of 11 candidates, he secured the highest percentage of 90.1 to
defeat his closest rivals prof. Marte of the University's Pharmaceutical Dept and
prof. Kundiri to 2nd and 3rd places respectively.
Upon his appointment he promised to move the institution forward. And
also promised to correct the discordant academic calendar that the school had
observed as a result of the security challenges facing the state. At the time of
his assumption of office the institution was suffering from massive
infrastructural decay coupled with poor population of students and mass exodus
of lecturers which was a direct result of the security challenges.
Today, the situation is different in the University of Maiduguri. In spite of
the challenges confronting the state, the University has witnessed a new turn of
life thanks to its dynamic and vibrant leader. Roads being constructed across the
school, new buildings being erected, hostels and classrooms being renovated
and machineries and equipment which were hitherto in a deplorable state are
being revived. In fact the V.C takes time out of his tight schedule to visit and
encourage the students in their hostels and even in classes while reading at
night. What a man!
There was a tale of how a student was in a class reading one night
when he was tapped from the back only to discover it was the V.C to his
amazement. Due to his simple and down to earth nature it sometimes difficult
to detect him in the company of his students. During one interview session he
disclosed to his interviewee that he tries hard not let his students know he is
travelling. So as not to displease them. This shows the level of relationship he
enjoys with the students. Who never fail to heap praises on him. They even
crafted a song on his behalf titled "Doro Njodi" which was a remix of the
popular "Doro Bucci" by the Marvins crew.
Under his tenure the school has indeed witnessed tremendous achievements. From
the construction of new roads to the renovation of hostels and erection of new
buildings amongst other laudable achievements. Just recently the University
succeeded in securing a broadcasting license for its radio station from the the
Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and also signed an M.O.U with
Universitat Hamburg in Germany. Most notable among his achievements was
bringing into proper setting the faulty academic calendar the University had once
observed. Thus fufilling a pledge he made on assumption of office.
His goodwill and leadership qualities has not gone unnoticed by his
kinsmen. He was accorded the title of "Dan Rimin Kaltungo" by the mai
kaltungo and also the chairman Gombe State council of emirs and chiefs Alhaji,
Sale Muhammad Umar, OON, earlier this year. For his numerous contributions
to the development of education. Both within Kaltungo and beyond.
An epitome of excellence and sheer commitment, this great leader has
continued to awe his critics, against all odds. His unique and exemplary
leadership qualities will continue to endear him to many. And hopefully he will
continue to steer this great institution to greater heights.
 Joshua Jesse Kelvin Writes from Lagos Twitter @JJ_Kelvin