Gist Arena

By the standards of sub-Saharan African leaders, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari is dirt-poor. According to a statement released by his government, he has $150,000 in his savings account. He owns five homes and two mud houses, an orchard and ranch with 270 head of cattle, 25 sheep, five horses and a variety of birds. He has bought two cars from his savings "President Buhari had no foreign account, no factory and no enterprises. He also had no registered company and no oil wells," reads the statement released by the spokesman, Garba Shehu, describing the president's assets as "Spartan." Everyone in Abuja is just talking about how their vice-president is richer than President Buhari after wealth declaration! — Cynthia Nyamai (@CynthiaNyamai) September 4, 2015 The question on many minds is this: Is Buhari, Nigeria's former military ruler and ex-head of the oil ministry, telling the truth? Corruption, after all, is a m...

Tanzania held Nigeria to a 0-0 draw in Saturday’s 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier played at the Benjamin Mkapa National Stadium, Dar-es-Salaam. There was no separating the two sides in 90 minutes, with the impressive Carl Ikeme, who made his Super Eagles’ debut, on several occasions denying the Taifa Stars a chance to take maximum points. The towering Wolverhampton Wanderers shot stopper’s best moment was an amazing save in the 67th minute when he denied Thomas Ulimwengu with a long stretch before scrambling to Mrisho Ngassa’s follow-up which went by the post, with both shots coming from inside the six-yard box. Without leading lights in attack Odion Ighalo, Victor Moses and Gbolahan Salami and missing veteran goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama, Sunday Oliseh’s men failed to break down Boniface Mkwasa’s well-drilled hosts who were fuelled by a crowd that generated a tremendous atmosphere. Captain Ahmed Musa showed a fine turn of pace to burst down the left and cu...

Mary Shipstone was shot in the head by her father as she stood on her own doorstep next to her mother, clutching a new violin, after she returned from school in September last year. She was taken to King's College Hospital, London, but later died of her injuries. According to Daily Mirror, her father, Yasser Alromisse, 46, was hidden in the rear of a silver Toyota on the drive by the house, in Northiam, near Rye, East Sussex, when he fired the shot. The car windows were tinted and he had created a blind from bin bags to shield himself. His body was later found in a pool of blood in the rear of the car, where he had shot himself in the head. Lyndsey, Mary's mother who had recently moved into a safe house in the area after domestic violence caused her to separate from her husband because she did not want be traced by Alromisse following the collapse of their marriage, told the inquest the killing was an "act of revenge". "Why did he kill Mar...

No fewer than 50 people were killed after Boko Haram members attacked Kirawa village in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno state  on Thursday  September 3rd. Eyewitnesses say the sect members brandishing AK 47 and carrying petrol bombs, stormed a market in the village killing as many as 53 people and injuring over 100 others. Houses were set ablaze.

A 38 year old mother of three, Rashidat Abdulkarim, who was arrested by officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for attempting to export 2.04kg of cannabis to South Africa has accused her husband of setting her up. According to The Nation, the dried weed found in her luggage at the cargo section of Nigerian Aviation Handling Company, tested positive for cannabis and was concealed in cartons of seasoning cubes. Rashidat, who sells female shoes and hand bags said that she is still in deep shock that cannabis was found in the parcel her husband told her to collect from a man which she was supposed to deliver to him when she gets to South Africa “I am in shock and pained that my husband is behind my problem. My husband sent twenty-eight thousand naira to buy locally made textiles. He also told me that one man will bring food seasoning and herbal medicines to me. I bought the textiles and added it to the seasoning bought by the man. On getting to the ai...

Popular comedian, Julius Agwu made his first appearance on TV following his brain surgery and has spoken about his travails and what he and his wife went through.

In this new article, Etcetera grades president Buhari mostly F9 for his 100 days in office. Read below We often use benchmarks as measures of progress. ‘How is your favourite football team doing at the beginning of this season?’ ‘How many words does your one-year-old son say in a minute?’ And, of course, there’s the time-honoured measure of how well a new president is doing after 100 days in office. In case you hadn’t heard, that benchmark is here for President Buhari. You may feel it’s a little impertinent for me to issue a report card for President Buhari on his performance during his first 100 days in office. Yes, I’m not his teacher, and he’s not my student. But what the heck? It’s a free country and everyone else is doing it. So here it goes: Confidence:-  Buhari has brought back confidence in governance. Especially in tough times, the confident presence of a leader begets confidence in those that he or she leads. With his steady demeanour, optimistic outlook a...

A cancer survivor has posed for a topless photoshoot - proudly displaying her mastectomy scars.  Alison Hawkes bravely decided to bare all in a bid to show women everywhere that scars are nothing to be ashamed of.The 39-year-old was first diagnosed with breast cancer in three years ago. After undergoing a full mastectomy to prevent the disease from returning, her husband Ian, 52, treated her to a makeover and photo shoot. She said: “I wanted to show everyone that scars aren’t the end of the world. I’m proud of what my body has beaten.I was reading down the list of types of photos that they do, and at the bottom it said topless and I just thought: ‘why not?'  “I uploaded the picture to Facebook. I was nervous at first, but I’ve got an amazing response.”She old UK Mirror See more below 

A 70 year old man might have cheated death when he bounced back to life after spending over 30 hours in a mortuary in Makurdi, the Benue state capital. Doctors at a private hospital in the town had on Saturday, August 26, 2015, certified Amos Otene dead at 4. 30 am and promptly covered him up and wheeled him into the mortuary, awaiting instructions from members of the family for   embalming. As further proof that Otene was dead, the doctors extracted the requisite body fluid and other substances from the corpse, for post mortem examination which was to ultimately reveal the cause of death. According to the family, the hospital admitted Otene on Friday August 25 after he complained of severe toothache which had persisted for several days. As the news of Otene’s death spread, family members and other sympathisers continued to throng the hospital. On Sunday, when one of his children, Eche, who lives in Lafia visited, he was taken to the mortuary to confirm that his fa...

Residents of a section of Majidun, along the Ikorodu Road, Lagos have raised the alarm, alleging that Naval personnel have taken over their community and enforcing the law as if the community is in a state of emergency. Residents told our correspondents that the naval personnel (stationed there to prevent the activities of oil thieves) ejected residents from a street and took over their houses. When our correspondents visited the area last Wednesday, Chief Owoyele Street close to the creek running through the community, was barricaded with a metal bar, which our correspondents learnt was installed by the naval personnel, keeping residents away from their homes since November 2014. The street taken over by the naval personnel is estimated to have nothing less than 70 houses. Our correspondents saw an armoured tank stationed at the entrance of the street. Meanwhile, the residents alleged that some young women – married and unmarried – have been raped by the naval pers...

Mixed reactions have continued to trail President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s public declaration of their assets. A statement by the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, had on Thursday disclosed part of the contents of the assets declaration forms separately submitted by Buhari and Osinbajo to the Code of Conduct Bureau. Shehu said in the statement that the verification of the President’s and the Vice President’s assets was ongoing and that the forms would be released to the public after the CCB’s verification. Based on the statement, Buhari’s assets include about N30m in his only bank account with the Union Bank Plc and a total of seven houses, comprising two mud and a standard house in Daura, his hometown; two homes in Kaduna, one in Kano and one in Abuja. The President’s assets also include two undeveloped plots of land in Kano and Port Harcourt, an orchard and a ranch in Daura with 270 head of...

Rev. Egbochiogum (right), his wife, Ugo ( middle), and Mba A 71- year old retired pastor of a pentecostal church in Abriba, Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State, Rev. Chima Egbochiogum, and his wife, Ugo, have been arrested for an alleged illegal adoption of a baby. Commissioner of Police, Joshak Habila, who paraded the couple in Umuahia, alongside other suspects in connection with the incident, alleged they bought a stolen baby. The police boss said the pastor and his wife were nabbed following a confession by a notorious child trafficker who was arrested last month for human trafficking. According to him, the child trafficker, identified simply as Ekwutosi, stole an 11-month-old baby girl belonging to a 21- year -old pregnant mother, who he had pretended to assist. He said Ekwutosi had approached the young woman, who had a baby out of wedlock, with promise that he would secure a job opportunity for her. The excited woman was said to have left her baby ...