Gist Arena

Having a customized coke bottle with one’s name written boldly on it is fast becoming a trend.  At first, it was the celebrities in Nigeria that got the first treat of the ‘share a coke’ experience. Right now, the share a coke idea has traveled wide across Nigeria as a lot of names from all the tribes in the country in one way or the other have their places on the bottles of coke in every coke shop you enter. This has made even non-coke drinkers to patronize the global brand all for the sake of wanting to feel among and also be socially significant. Perhaps, this can make us say that one of the most successful marketing strategy in Nigeria today is the ‘Share A Coke’ idea. Talking about the Share a coke idea and popular figures in Nigeria, the likes of actress, Toyin Aimakhu, Blogger, Linda Ikeji and a whole lot more have been treated to a special share A Coke experience. Taking the ‘Share A Coke’ campaign further, the global brand has also extended its...

Lagos state PDP gubernatorial candidate Jimi Agbaje, has promised to pull down the Lekki/Epe toll gates, if elected next governor of the state. He said this at a peaceful protest, tagged March for freedom, organised by Freedom Group in Lekki "I am here to show solidarity with you on the issue of the toll plaza for which you are marching today and assure you that when we get into office, these toll gates will come down; I will demolish all of them. The public/private partnership, PPP, arrangement behind this project is not transparent.   Look at the BRT and Lagos light rail projects, they are collapsing because the PPP arrangements they have on ground are not sustainable. The light rail which was supposed to have been ready since 2012, is grounded and this is because of vested interests of a few people. The PPP arrangements are skewed to favour only a few people, so for me, I am in solidarity with you and a vote for us is a vote for freedom, a vote to bring d...

In an interview with Inside Nollywood during Muna's burial on February 3rd, his step-sister Chinwe Obiekwe said Muna's diagnosis and eventually death happened in just a year. "He was sick from last year October. It wasn't a normal kidney failure. It was high BP that prompted his kidney failure. It did not give us time to do the transplant because it was his two kidneys that failed. Assuming it was a normal kidney failure, it's supposed to be one kidney. My uncles were planning to come back to Nigeria and operate on him and do the transplant then he died on Sunday (Jan. 18th). Through out the one year he was sick, we were going for the dialysis " Continue... Asked why Muna had high BP, the sister replied "Anybody can have high BP because of stress. It doesn't mean family problem should prompt high BP, it comes with stress. He was taking his medicine but because he was always on set, in different locations, he didn't have much time ...

St Nicholas Hospital tweeted photos of accident victim Owolabi Akindujoye when he was brought in (left) and after receiving treatment (right). The young man was involved in a ghastly car accident on 3rd Mainland bridge and was rushed to the hospital but no relative has come to claim him. Sad!

Bibi McGill is Beyonce's touring lead guitarist and a member of Jay Z & Beyonce's inner circle. And according to what he wrote on Twitter, the power couple cut Kanye out from their inner circle nearly 2 years ago. He spilled this in an angry rant after Kanye stormed the stage at the Grammys on Sunday night. Did he say two years ago? That was about the time Kanye began openly dating Kim. 

The Super Eagles goal keeper shared this photo of himself and his wife taken in 2004 and wrote " She has always been and she will always be.#tbt.so happy to have been this lucky." Awww, how sweet!

Not the real image A 30-year-old man, Bello Muhammed has done the abominable in Jigawa state.Vanguard reports that Bello allegedly impregnated a mentally derailed young girl, Daharatu Isyaku, who is aged 18. Bello who has since been arrested over the issue by the Operatives of Jigawa State Command of Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDC is cooling off his heels with them. While parading him yesterday in Dutse, Dr. Muhammad Gidado who is the state Commandant of the Corps made it known that the suspect during interrogation admitted that he committed the crime. He also said the agency was still investigating the matter to be sure if the offense was committed for ritual purposes or not. The state Commandant also said that the suspect had other accomplices who he named during interrogation; These people he said would not go without being investigated and unpunished if found guilty. Dr. Muhammed, however, disclosed that the girl was currently in the cus...

Pope Francis has caused quite a stir after he branded couples who choose not to have children 'selfish' and said they are part of a 'greedy generation.' He made the remarks in front of a large crowd during his weekly general audience in St Peter's Square, Rome. ' According to the  Guardian  the pontiff said... A society with a greedy generation, that doesn't want to surround itself with children, that considers them above all worrisome, a weight, a risk, is a depressed society, 'The choice to not have children is selfish. Life rejuvenates and acquires energy when it multiplies: It is enriched, not impoverished.'

The things we hear these days...A mother high on drugs locked her three daughters in a shed and burned them alive while her husband was forced to listen at the end of a phone. Thioro Mbow phoned her husband on his mobile and said: "Listen to their screams..." as his three precious children perished in the flames. Husband Hellmut Ulin, 38, a foreman on a building site 12 miles away, listened in horror as his African wife went on:  "I can hear their screams but I will do nothing to save them.You'd better hurry but you will be too late to rescue them. They won't survive." According to UK  Mirror , the 35-year-old wife, who had earlier received a legal letter from her husband's lawyer demanding custody of the children, went on:  "I will never surrender my children to you." The girls' father jumped into his car and raced back to his home in Lennik, a small town near Brussels, Belgium, while phoning his sister who lives...

Former President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has dismissed reports in some sections of the media claiming that he has endorsed the candidature of the presidential candidate of the leading opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) General Muhammadu Buhari, saying that he has not yet “endorsed” any candidate in the forthcoming presidential election. Speaking in the United Kingdom during the launch of ‘My Watch’, his controversial autobiography, which has been proscribed in Nigeria, Obasanjo said he would let his stand on the election known when the time comes. He, however, maintained that he wishes to see Nigeria being led by a strong president.  “I didn’t endorse or unendorse him as such,” he said. “What I said and I will say it again and I will do it: when the time comes for me to vote, I will consider the track record of all the candidates that are contesting and I will assess and based on my assessment, whoever I believe has the best track record to perform the...

The 11th National Delegates Conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress was on Thursday abruptly disrupted as aggrieved parties hijack, and smash ballot boxes being used to elect incoming leaders of the organisation, the News Agency of Nigeria is reporting. The International Conference Centre’s venue of the conference was thrown into confusion as delegates ran for dear lives after some aggrieved contestants and their supporters suddenly became violent, hijacking and destroying ballot boxes even while voting was still underway. The Conference, which began Tuesday, was organised to elect new leaders for the country’s central labour union following the expiration of tenure of the current executives. It is not clear yet how the event, which had been peaceful since it began suddenly descended into crisis, but the election for the President of the Union had created tension among delegates and split them along partisan lines. After the disruption, the police took over the ven...

A court in Egypt has ordered the release on bail of two al-Jazeera English journalists, Mohammed Fahmy and Baher Mohammed who were arrested in December 2013 and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment in June 2014 on allegations of helping banned Muslim Brotherhood and spreading false information about the Egyptian government. Mohammed Fahmy, a Canadian/Egyptian journalist must pay 250,000 Egyptian pounds (around £21,000) for his freedom while his colleague, Baher Mohamed, an Egyptian, will not pay anything. The two journalist were arrested and tried alongside their Australian colleague, Peter Greste, who was deported back to his home country Australia on February 1st after the Egyptian government came up with a law allowing the deportation of foreign nationals to their home countries.

A fatal bomb blast hit an overcrowded market in the largest Southern Borno town, Biu, had killed many, witnesses report. The eye-witnesses said injured persons and corpses were being displaced to hospital at the time of this report. According to Agence France-Presse the attacker was a female suicide bomber. Today is market day in Biu, about 185km away from Maiduguri, the Borno state capital. It is the first major attack on the town in a long time. According to a member of the Civilian Joint Task Force helping to evacuate injured ‎persons said many people were killed in the attack. Another witness said that BokoHaram suicide bomber detonated an IED, killing 8 with several injured. The local resident Babagani Ali said: “There has been a suicide attack by a female suicide bomber in the market this afternoon.” Another witness gave similar details but there was no immediate word on casualties. Local resident reports that there were two wo...

The Academic staff Union of Polytechnics, (ASUP) may embark on another nation-wide strike of activities if recent reports by the union are anything to go by. Naij.com authoritatively gathered that the union is not comfortable with a recent circular dated 26 January, 2015 from the office of Honourable Minister of Education purported to have suspended the implementation of CONTISS 15 in Polytechnics without recourse to the spirit and letters of agreement with the unions in the sector. According to a statement sent to our correspondent by the union, the act is not acceptable and is likely to upset the union to take its last resort which is the industrial action. The statement signed by Usman Nda-Umar, Monday P. Jegede and Peter Adeyemi all general secretaries of ASUP, SSANIP and NASU respectively, read in part: “Recall that the unions in the sector were on strike throughout the preceding year following the refusal of government to act responsibly and honour a...

I can't verify the authenticity of this report, can't tell if it is true or not, but According to a number of pro-All Progressives Congress Facebook pages, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party have spent N185 billion to bribe voters, religious leaders and electoral officers in hopes of rigging the elections. Last weekend, Professor Attahiru Jega, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commision, has announced the INEC’s decision to postpone the 2015 elections to March and April. Since then, Nigerians, already agitated from “the election fever”, have been making assumptions as to who or what might be behind the date shift, and if the reasons listed by the INEC are genuine – however, in yesterday’s media chat, President Jonathan maintained he does not interfere in the Commission’s affairs. After the elections postponement, Nigeria’s two opposing poltical giants and their respective flag-bearers, the APC and Muhammadu Buhari, and the PDP and Presi...

  After hiding her pregnancy from social media, Adaeze is now proudly showing it off. Looking lovely in a skin tight dress and knee high boots.

Actor Jim Iyke and singer Sammie Okposo in partnership with Support Our Troops group, visited Nigerian troops at Mogadishu Cantonment in Abuja today Feb. 12th to show support and appreciate the soldiers for all the work they do. See more photos below

21 years old Ijeoma Rita Onyemaechi, the current Most Beautiful Face in Nigeria queen dazzles in new shoot for the love season. The Anambra state born beauty queen is a student of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra state. See more photos below

Some Nigerian children, men and women pictured arriving a beach near Baga Sola on Lake Chad. The displaced people have since settled in a refugee camp in Chad after being chased away from their villages by Boko Haram in recent attacks. Among them is an 8yr old girl whose hand was amputated after she was severely injured during one of the attacks. See more photos below