Nigeria remains Africa’s largest economy, says World Bank (Nation)
The World Bank’s Country Director for Nigeria, Dr. Ndiame Diop, has confirmed that Nigeria remains the largest economy in Africa by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) despite the challenges faced by its private sector.
Speaking at the Country Private Sector Diagnostic (CPSD) and Stakeholder Engagement in Abuja yesterday, Dr. Diop said while Nigeria receives far less Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) than its potential warrants—especially in comparison to countries like Indonesia and South Africa—it continues to hold its position as Africa’s biggest economy.
He stated that the CPSD report, set to be released in the coming weeks, will reveal the impact of private sector constraints on economic growth. Read more
FG seeks reversal of mother tongue policy in primary schools (Sun)
The Federal Government has urged the National Council on Education (NCE) stakeholders to approve the reversal of the use of mother tongue as the medium of instruction from primary one to six.
The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, made the appeal at the 2025 extraordinary national council on education meeting in Abuja yesterday.
Ahmad also called on the council to approve the review of the national policy on education to restrict the use of mother tongue to Early Childhood Care Development and Education (ECCDE) and primary one. Read more
Elumelu: We’ve lifted over 2m individuals out of poverty in Africa (ThisDay)
Founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Mr. Tony Elumelu, said the organisation had lifted over two million individuals out of poverty in Africa.
Elumelu disclosed that 2.5 million Africans had accessed training through TEFConnect, an online portal.
The chairman of Heirs Holdings Group made the assertions in his keynote remarks at the Legacy Builders Palm Beach Conference, with theme, “Democratising Luck”, in United States of America (USA). Read more
13 US patients undergo kidney transplants in Nigeria — Shettima (Tribune)
Thirteen patients from the United States have come to Nigeria for kidney transplants at the Zenith Medical and Kidney Centre.
This is according to Vice President Kashim Shettima who observed that Nigeria is witnessing a surge in reverse medical tourism, with patients from the United States and other countries thronging the nation’s hospitals to seek affordable and high-quality kidney transplants.
The Vice President attributed the choice of Nigeria for treatment to affordability and high-quality expertise within the country’s medical community. Read more
Ex-N’Assembly members, groups fault Reps 31 new states’ proposal (Punch)
The House of Representatives Constitution Review Committee’s proposed creation of 31 additional states besides the country’s 36 existing states has sparked widespread reactions from prominent Nigerians and groups across the country.
The proposal was contained in a letter to the House of Representatives read during Thursday’s plenary by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, who presided over the session in the absence of the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas.
However, the proposal was rejected by the Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, and its northern counterpart, the Arewa Consultative Forum, which described it as ridiculous. Read more
Women’s Group backs Meranda as Lagos Speaker (Leadership)
A women’s advocacy group, Safe Haven by Tahzan, has urged the government, political stakeholders, civil society, and the media to rally behind Hon. Mojisola Meranda, the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, amid ongoing efforts to reinstate former Speaker Mudashiru Obasa.
The crisis, which erupted following Obasa’s removal on 13 January 2025, has generated political tension in Lagos State. The move, backed by 32 lawmakers, has since sparked controversy, with growing concerns over attempts to reverse the decision.
Speaking at a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday, Safe Haven by Tahzan convener Zainab Ikaz Kassim appealed to those in positions of authority to uphold fairness and due process. Read more
FG scraps JSS, SSS, introduces 12-year basic education model (Guardian)
The Federal Government has announced the scrapping of all Junior Secondary School (JSS) and Senior Secondary Schools in the country and introduced a compulsory 12-year uninterrupted basic education model after which a Nigerian child can aspire to higher education.
With this development, the Nigerian Government is seeking the abolition of 6-3-3-4 education system and replacing it with 12-4.
This is even as it has sought the approval of the National Council on Education to officially adopt 16 years as the minimum entry age requirement into the country’s tertiary institutions. Read more
Fallouts of Trump’s executive order in Nigeria: Programmes stoppage, job losses trail USAID funds freeze (Vanguard)
Apprehension has continued to trail the recent Executive Order by President of the United States of America, Donald Trump to halt foreign aid to African countries as thousands of employees at the US Agency for International Development, USAID, are to commence on compulsory leave from today.
The order halting the USAID funding to organisations outside the US has sent shock waves through Nigerian development programmes circles with several local organisations that rely entirely on the agency’s funding being forced to dismiss staff, cancel programme activities, and abandon life-saving interventions, raising fears of a humanitarian and development crisis.
But it was not all worries for African countries, as a federal judge on Wednesday blocked Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship in the United States in a blow to the president’s bid to end a right enshrined in the US Constitution for more than a century. Read more
Kendrick Lamar says watching SZA grow in her career has been ‘amazing to see’ ahead of Super Bowl 2025 (People)
On Thursday, Feb. 6, during the press conference for the Apple Music Super Bowl LIX halftime show, the “Money Trees” rapper, 37, gushed about the “Kill Bill” artist, 35, who he will be sharing the stage with on Sunday, Feb. 9, at the Super Bowl halftime show at Caesars Superdome.
When asked if he caught up with SZA ahead of the Super Bowl and their Grand National Tour to celebrate their accomplishments, Lamar said they hadn’t gotten the chance to.
“Everything [has] been moving fast like far as production and rehearsals and stuff, so we speak, [but] we haven’t really got a chance to settle into the moment,” he said.
Zoe Saldaña says she’s taking ‘time to process’ ‘Emilia Pérez’ costar Karla Sofía Gascón’s comments (CNN)
Zoe Saldaña isn’t letting the controversy surrounding her “Emilia Pérez” costar Karla Sofía Gascón’s offensive social media comments take the joy out of her experience as an Oscar nominee, but she says she still has a lot to process about it.
Saldaña earned her first-ever Academy Award nomination in the best supporting actress category for Netflix’s “Emilia Pérez,” which became this year’s most-nominated film after it nabbed 13 nominations, including nods for best picture and lead actress Gascón.
But when journalist Sarah Hagi shared screenshots of Gascón’s old social media posts that were Islamophobic and critical of George Floyd, the discourse surrounding the film shifted, something that Saldaña – who is one of this year’s Oscars front-runners in her respective category – has had to grapple with both publicly and privately. Read more
Suspect in Canada-wide romance scam claimed to be military member needing help, police say (CBC)
Police in Ontario say they are looking for a man who is alleged to have swindled nearly a dozen victims across Canada in a romance scam.
Peel Regional Police say 11 victims from Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and Saskatchewan lost a total of $275,000 in the alleged scam.
Investigators say that between June 2020 and September 2021, the victims accepted random friend requests on social media from the suspect, who claimed to be a military member stationed overseas. Read more
Lil Wayne announces release date for new album ‘Tha Carter VI’ (Pitchfork)
Lil Wayne has announced the release date for his new album Tha Carter VI. The sixth installment of the Louisiana-born rapper’s famed album series is out June 6. Little else about the project is currently known.
Lil Wayne released his first Carter album in 2004. Tha Carter II came out in 2005; Tha Carter III followed in 2008; and Tha Carter IV arrived in 2011. Wayne’s fifth Carter album was supposed to get released in 2014, but a series of delays kept it shelved until September 2018.
Since Tha Carter V, Lil Wayne has released No Ceilings 3, Funeral, Trust Fund Babies, Tha Fix Before tha VI, and Welcome 2 Collegrove. He also is the star of a new Cetaphil commercial that pokes fun at his not being selected to perform the Super Bowl LIX halftime show; you can watch that below. Read more
Trump sanctions International Criminal Court, calls it “illegitimate” (BBC)
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order sanctioning the International Criminal Court, accusing it of “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel”.
The measure places financial and visa restrictions on individuals and their families who assist in ICC investigations of American citizens or allies.
Trump signed the measure as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting Washington. Read more
US to restrict use of DeepSeek – WSJ (RT)
US lawmakers in the House of Representatives have introduced legislation on Thursday aiming to ban the Chinese-developed AI chatbot application, DeepSeek, from all government-owned devices, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
DeepSeek has rapidly ascended to become the most downloaded app in the United States. However, concerns have been raised after analyses by cybersecurity experts have claimed that DeepSeek’s application contains hidden code capable of transmitting user information to China Mobile, a state-owned telecommunications company prohibited from operating within the US.
The US has accused the Chinese government of being able to access sensitive data through its applications. Read more
Syria’s ‘Caesar’ discloses his identity, calls for punishing ‘criminal’ Assad (UPI)
“Caesar,” the Syrian military defector who documented atrocities committed by the Bashar Assad regime by smuggling tens of thousands of photos of Syrian detainees killed by torture during early years of the revolution, revealed his identity Thursday and expressed hope that the “criminal” ousted president will be punished.
Farid Nida al-Madhan, who was the head of the Judicial Evidence Department of the Military Police in Damascus before he defected and fled to Jordan in 2013, disclosed his identity for the first time during an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera TV network.
Al-Madhan said his initial job as part of the military police forensic photography unit was to take pictures of car crashes, fires, suicides and other incidents. Read more
CAF snubs Eaglets in final U-17 AFCON slots (Punch)
Speculations about the Golden Eaglets making the cut for the 2025 U-17 AFCON in Morocco have eventually been crushed after the Confederation of African Football announced plans to complete the slots for this year’s expanded tournament and overlooked Nigeria, The PUNCH reports.
The U-17 AFCON will take place in Morocco between March 30 and April 19, 2025, and will be a qualifier for the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar in November – a tournament Nigeria has won five times.
Despite finishing third at last year’s WAFU B U-17 Championship in Ghana, the Golden Eaglets fell short in the qualifiers with Ivory Coast and winners Burkina Faso picking the automatic spots in the region. Read more
Fulham re-sign free agent Willian (BBC)
Fulham have re-signed winger Willian until the end of the season, six months after he left the club.
The Brazilian, who played for the Cottagers from 2022-24, has rejoined as a free agent after leaving Olympiakos at the end of December.
As a free agent his move did not need to be confirmed before Monday’s transfer deadline of 23:00 GMT. Read more
Memphis Depay speaks as Man Utd flop handed prison sentence for drink driving (Express)
Memphis Depay has offered a heartfelt apology following a court ruling that sentenced him to a four-month suspended prison sentence for drink-driving.
The ex-Manchester United forward has been found guilty of ‘dangerous driving’ in Monaco last August, where he chose to drive his Rolls Royce post-partying at a nightclub.
Caught by the police and put through a breathalyser test, it was found that Depay’s blood alcohol concentration stood at 1.01 per millilitre, surpassing Monaco’s legal limit. Read more
Canada’s Andreescu says appendectomy will force her to delay start of 2025 season (CBC)
Bianca Andreescu will delay the start of her 2025 season after undergoing an appendectomy.
The 2019 U.S. Open champion said Thursday in an Instagram Story post that she had planned to compete in the Merida Open later this month until this complication arose.
“I unexpectedly started experiencing some sharp pain in my stomach, which led to an emergency appendectomy,” Andreescu said. Read more
Torres hat-trick leads Barcelona Copa del Rey rout at Valencia (AlJazeera)
Ferran Torres fired a 30-minute hat-trick as Barcelona booked their place in the Copa del Rey semifinals with a 5-0 win at Valencia.
The Barca forward opened the scoring in the third minute at Estadio de Mestalla on Thursday, as he burst through the home side’s offside trap to slot home a first-time finish. His second was a tap-in after Lamine Yamal struck the post.
By the time the hat-trick was sealed, with a flick from Raphinha on the edge of the box and a drilled effort into the bottom corner, Barca had already put themselves out of sight with another breach of the Valencia backline by Fermin Lopez. Read more
Baseball star Ohtani’s interpreter jailed for $17m gambling fraud (BBC)
Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball star Shohei Ohtani, has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for a fraud and gambling scheme.
He was ordered to pay back nearly $17m (£13.6m) that he’d stolen from the star athlete and another $1m to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in taxes.Mizuhara, who had been Ohtani’s English interpreter since his US Major League Baseball (MLB) debut in 2018, was fired amid media reports last year about his gambling activities, which prompted investigations into Ohtani’s finances. Read more