Jidenna joins the "Justice for Floyd" campaign

Nigerian-American writer, songwriter and music producer, Jidenna has joined the 'justice for Floyd' campaign. The late George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police for a non-violent forgery charge.

We gathered that the four police officers who were involved in his death have been fired by the Minneapolis Police department. Floyd died as a result of one of the policemen kneeling on his kneck.

It was gathered that CCTV camera recorded the incident and in the tape, the black man who was held down with a knee said, "I can’t breathe".

Currently, the FBI is probing the matter which sparked outrage across the US after a video showing the incident went viral.

Mayor Jacob Frey who condemned the incident made it known that the technique used by the officers to pin George Floyd's head to the ground was against the department regulations

The incident took place on Monday evening when the officers responded to a call about an alleged forgery and found the suspect sitting inside a car.

The man later identified as Floyd was spotted by two officrs, who claimed that the suspect "physically resisted" them when they asked him to get out.

According to police, officers handcuffed him, who "appeared to be suffering medical distress." Police added that the man died at a hospital after few hours.

Jidenna took to his Instagram page to make a plea on the campaign. He wrote,

"#Repost @wondaland • George Floyd. We speak your name. 🙏🏾 FIGHT FOR GEORGE BY TEXTING ‘FLOYD’ TO 55156 TO DEMAND THAT THE OFFICERS THAT KILLED #GEORGEFLOYD ARE CHARGED WITH MURDER AND SIGN THE PETITION. #BlackLivesMatter #ColorOfChange #JusticeForFloyd"

Naomi Osaka is currently the highest paid female athlete in history

Naomi Osaka is unarguably one of the top female tennis players in the world and now, the 22-year-old tennis superstar can proudly add another title to her resumé - she is currently the highest-paid female athlete in history.

According to Forbes, Osaka has surpassed Serena Williams on this front, earning $37.4 million in the past 12 months by way of tournament payouts and endorsement deals, which is $1.4 million more than Williams in that same period, and besting the $29.7 million record set by fellow tennis player Maria Sharapova in 2015.

Forbes also reports that this is the first time since 2016 that two women have made the rank of the 100 highest-paid athletes.

Naomi Osaka was born on October 16, 1997 and is a world class Japanese professional tennis player. She has been ranked number 1 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). In addition, she is the first player of Haitian or Asian descent to hold the top ranking in singles.

So far, she has won five titles on the WTA Tour, including two titles at both the Grand Slam and Premier Mandatory levels. At the 2018 US Open and the 2019 Australian Open, Osaka won her first two Grand Slam singles titles in back-to-back Grand Slam tournaments. She is the first player to achieve this feat since Jennifer Capriati in 2001.

Check out these stunning photos of Nancy Isime

Beautiful Nollywood actress and TV presenter, Nancy Isime is well known for her unique hairstyle and sense of fashion. She was born on 17th December, 1991.

According to Wikipedia, she came into limelight as an actress in 2011 in the TV series, Echoes. This was after she won the crown of the Miss Valentine International beauty pageant in 2009. She has since starred in a lot of movies and worked as a presenter on TV shows such as The Squeeze and What's hot.

She posted these adorable photos of herself with the caption,

"No matter what Life throws at you, I hope you never lose your spark✨

Sweet dreams🦋"

CBN, others donate medical equipment to Kogi

The private sector-led Coalition Against COVID-19 said it had donated health equipment worth millions of naira to a new isolation centre established in Lokoja by the Kogi State Government.

CACOVID said the donation of the equipment was a joint initiative between the Central Bank of Nigeria and the leaderships of other private sector groups in the country.

It said in a statement that the presentation of the equipment was done by a representative, Mr Toyin Idowu, alongside the inauguration of the new isolation centre by the state government.

Idowu explained that the gesture was aimed at joining hands with the federal and state governments to rid the country of the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, the United Bank for Africa Plc announced on Sunday that the President of Senegal, Macky Sall; the President of Liberia, George Weah, and US Senator Chris Coons would form part of a high-level leadership panel to discuss Africa’s economic recovery in the 2020 edition of UBA’s Africa Conversations.

The bank said the discussion, which would be held online on Monday, would be moderated by its Chairman and Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Mr Tony Elumelu.

According to a statement issued by the bank, the second edition of the symposium organised annually by UBA is in celebration of Africa Day.

COVID-19 : South Korean pupil tests positive

A kindergarten pupil in Seoul has been infected with the coronavirus. The development has led to the shutdown of several education institutes in Gangseo Ward, where the young patient lives.

The news quickly raised fear among parents with young children, just two days ahead of the planned second-phase resumption of schools, including kindergartens.

The six-year-old boy is believed to have contracted the virus from his art teacher at Young Rembrandts, a private art school in Magok of Gangseo on the south side of the Han River.

The teacher, who tested positive on Sunday, had taught 35 students at the institute until Friday and had contact with three other teachers there.

The teachers all wore masks and followed the institute’s quarantine guidelines and social distancing rules, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education.

The art school’s 91 students, three teachers and two parents have been tested for the virus and are awaiting their results, which will come out today.

The teacher’s 38 contacts have been ordered to self-quarantine for 14 days, and 13 educational institutes in the same building as the art school will be closed for disinfection.

The boy’s kindergarten, 10 nearby kindergartens and five nearby elementary schools, including Gongjin and Gonghang elementary schools, will remain closed for two days for disinfection and other precautionary measures.

Under the government’s phased school reopening plan, schools are scheduled to resume in-person classes for the two lowest grades of elementary school, kindergarten students, middle school seniors and second-year high school students on Wednesday.

High school seniors returned to school last week after more than two months of delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The education office is mulling whether to have the boy’s kindergarten offer online classes to prevent the potential spread of the virus. A decision on other affected schools will be determined based on the test results.

School reopening : FG considers morning, afternoon classes

The Federal Government says it is thinking of sectionalising classes for primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions in the country ahead of school reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, stated this on Wednesday during a briefing by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 in Abuja.

The minister, who faulted the reports that schools would reopen in the country on June 8, said the government could not afford to take any costly risk, especially as it regards the safety of pupils and students in the country. He said,

“Until we are sure these children can go to school, return safely and not bring up with them COVID-19 and infect people who are more susceptible than they are, then we are running a huge risk and God forbid, in our hurry, something happens to our children, I am not sure how anybody will be able to retrieve what has been lost.”

Nwajiuba said the ministry is being guided by the advice of experts as well as those of the World Health Organisation, noting that the decision to reopen schools in the country would be carefully arrived at because education is on the concurrent list of the Nigerian Constitution.

He appealed to private owners of schools in the country to co-operate with the government in ensuring the safe reopening of schools in the country.

“We are going to publish a specification on what we expect COVID-19 or post-COVID-19 reopening to look like. We are not talking about coping with COVID-19 but in spite of COVID-19, we expect that we will adapt.

For a country that has over 115,000 primary schools, you will understand that 35,000 of these who are private must agree to set up the same standard in other to allow children to go in.

We may have classes in the morning and classes in the afternoon so that we will have the whole of the infrastructure divided provided they can serve us. I am not sure we will have classes at night. But we can do with morning and afternoon for now,” he explained.

Nwajiuba said aside ensuring that social distancing is observed when schools reopen, said the ministry is working on sanitation in the schools, noting that the government wants to ensure that all schools could deploy pedal-push handwashing machines.

Lady drags MC Galaxy, calls him a scammer

A young Ghanaian lady has called out Nigerian singer and producer, MC Galaxy after she won 200k on his IG live show and he failed to pay her the complete amount.

Gloria Frimpong, a struggling single mother based in Ghana decided to raise money for her sick son's hospital bill dragged the Sekem singer, MC Galaxy, for failing to meet up to his own side of their Bargain.

According to her, 2 weeks ago she paid N10,000 fee and participated on MC Galaxys IG Live show where she showed the over 1,000+ live viewers online her Toto (Obo) Ukwu, Ikebe, & Ara before then proceeding to do all manner of unprintable things to their entertainment.

MC galaxy was so impressed with her obo display he excitedly announced that she was the winner of the N200k cash price and that she should send in her account number for her to be credited instantly on the IG Live show.

That was where problem started because Miss frimpong did not have a Nigerian bank account as she is based in Ghana. So when she finally found one she could use, she sent it to him and he promised to send her the N200k the upper week Friday.

The next Wednesday, just 2 days to when she was supposed to be credited (Friday), Miss Frimpong was online when she saw Popular Producer Kiddominant doing a live show and decided to call in to display her infamous talents.

MC Galaxy then saw the video of Miss Frimpong displaying her talents on Kiddominants IG Show and got angry DM’ing Miss Frimpong and telling her she was disqualified and she is no longer his winner for dancing on Kiddominants Page.

After weeks of begging, MC Galaxy finally sent her N100k. Miss Frimpong feels duped and is now calling out The Popular singer and warning all other future participants about her own unfortunate ordeal.

2019 Batch B Stream 1 corpers pass out on May 28 - NYSC

The National Youth Service Corps has announced the passing out of 2019 Batch “B” Stream 1 corpers.

It made this known noting that the event slated for May 28 would not be marked with ceremonial parades due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Service said the Certificate of National Service would be issued to qualified corpers at the Local Government level.

“A full complement of NYSC Officers have been mobilised for the distribution and shall do so from ten service points in each of the Local Government Councils.

As a precautionary measure, the distribution shall be staggered for a period of ten days in the first instance, in order to remove anxiety from the concerned corps members, in addition to making the activity seamless and less cumbersome,” the statement read in part.

The Service also urged the passing out members to observe strict discipline, orderliness, social distancing, use of facemask, hand sanitiser and proper washing of hands.

It advised members, who at present are not in their states of service, to wait till the ban on inter-state journeys is lifted before travelling to collect their certificates.

The Federal Government had in March ordered all corpers in the country to return home as part of measures to curb the spread of the virus.

Lawan solicits for child rights act

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has felicitated with Nigerian children on the occasion of the 2020 Children’s Day.

Lawan noted that the Day was set aside to highlight the realities of children in society with a view to promoting their well-being and happiness now and for the future.

The Senate President, in a statement by his media office on Wednesday, said the surest route to a happy and fulfilling future for children was to provide them quality education and healthcare and to protect them against all forms of abuse.

Lawan said it was that realisation that led the Federal Government in 1976 to introduce Universal Primary Education, which in 1999 was expanded to the Universal Basic Education, and also to enact the Child Rights Act in 2003.

The Senate President expressed concern that despite all such efforts, Nigeria is still heavily burdened with a high number of out-of-school children, a situation which he said portends a grave danger for the country.

“I want to use the opportunity of this occasion to assure our children that the National Assembly is fully aware of the challenges that they face and will continue to work to guarantee them and our country a better future.

I also call on the authorities at the sub-national level who have not done so, to domesticate the Child Rights Act for the sake of the future of our children,” Lawan said.

He called for collaboration between the Federal and state governments in comprehensively addressing issues relating to the plight of Nigerian children.

On the part of parents, Lawan urged them to dutifully play their own role in providing immediate needs for their children, for the future peace of the children, parents and the country.

School reopening : FG to release guidelines

The Federal Government has said it would roll out the course of action for the reopening of schools in the country.

The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, stated this during a briefing on Wednesday in Abuja.

While congratulating children in the country on the occasion of this year’s Children’s Day, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation urged stakeholders to begin to take steps that would aid the reopening of schools in the country. He said,

“I wish to inform Nigerians that the Federal Ministry of Education will roll out measures for the self-reopening of schools.

The Presidential Task Force wishes to use the occasion of this celebration to congratulate our children and assure them, their parents and all stakeholders alike that all hands are on deck to reopen schools at a safe time.

We, therefore, use this medium to urge states, local governments, proprietors and all other stakeholders to begin to take steps that will facilitate an early and safe reopening.”