News

ASUU Adamant on Strike, NANS Begin Nationwide Protest

Days after announcing an extension of the industrial strike action to 12 more weeks, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU has said it is not going back on that decision.

Speaking in a press briefing on Wednesday morning in the nation’s capital Abuja, ASUU president, Prof. Emmanuel Osedeke said that the union had exhausted every other option to reach an amicable agreement with the government before deciding on embarking on an additional 3-month strike.

Osedeke told the media that the government was treating their matter with levity and were simply not willing to resolve pending issues because the state of the nation’s educational system did not directly affect them.

The president backed up his statement by citing how quickly the government swung into action after airline operators threatened to strike, saying that this was simply because the political elites were directly affected.

“Let me give you an example because this is where we are getting it wrong, when the airline operators said they were going to stop the flights, the Senate and House of Representatives quickly stepped in,” Osedeke said.

He then added, “This is because they are affected; they quickly rushed in and addressed the problem, why would they not resolve that of the education sector that is affecting the children of the poor and the ordinary people. If the government is willing to resolve the issues affecting the Nigerians, then there would be no need to go on strike. The problem is the will of the government to resolve issues.”

ASUU initially embarked on a warning strike on the 14th of February for reasons including the government’s failure to honor the 2009 ASUU-FG Agreement, as well as the inconsistency in Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System, IPPIS.

The staff union is also demanding that the government fund the revitalization of public universities, pay promotion arrears owed, as well as implement, University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS).

Despite several meetings between the two parties, a gridlock persists.

Osedeke later added;

“All the issues that made us to go on strike are still there; that is the revitalisation fund, that is putting more money into universities and revitalising the infrastructure in the universities.

There is also the issue of our mode of payments in the universities. There is no university in the world where lecturers are paid salaries from the Accountant General’s Office.

We have challenged them to provide one, if universities are universal body, why are they doing things differently.

We talk of negotiation of agreement, proliferation of universities, among others, so there are lots of issues that they have not resolved.”

The minister of Labour, Chris Ngige who is among over twenty presidential aspirants of the APC to drop NGN 100 million for the party nomination form says the government has no money to meet ASUU’s demands.

Meanwhile, university students across the nation have begun a nationwide protest seeking to force the hand of the government to take action to halt the strike. Student protests have kicked off in Ogun, Oyo, and Lagos states. Students have also threatened to disrupt ongoing political activities in order to get the government’s attention.

“We have resolved that we have to take our destinies into our hands. The leadership of NANS has resolved that there will be no political activities, especially party primaries in Abuja and other parts of the country. The mass action is in all the 36 states of the Federation and FCT, said NANS Victor Ezenagu in his May 10th interview with Channels TV.

Ezenagu added;

“You cannot be a hunting game when your house is on fire. What is government? Government is about responding to the needs of the people and their welfare. ASUU cannot be on strike for three months and nothing is being done by the government to end it.

The mass protest actually started today (Tuesday) in almost eleven states. It started at the University of Lagos and others are joining. We will block all federal roads, shut down airports, and indeed the economy of Nigeria until the universities are reopened for students to resume classes.”

NANS has issued a 9-day ultimatum for the government and ASUU to reach an agreement and reopen varsities nationwide.

Lifestyle

Mo Abudu Opens Ebony Life In London

Mo Abudu has opened a London cinema dedicated to African and Black films, saying her experiences growing up in England inspired her to help change perceptions of Africa.Abudu opened EbonyLife Place London on Thursday, 8 October, in south-west London near Nine Elms, with a 160-seat auditorium for films, performances and cultural events. AFP describes it as the UK’s first cinema dedicated exclusively to African and Black films. London Mayor Sadiq Khan joined the opening. The centre will also showcase African food and fashion.

Speaking in an interview with BBC Africa shared on X on Friday, Abudu recalled that when people were asked what came to mind at the word Africa, the answers she heard were “poverty” and babies with flies on their faces. She said those images came largely from what people read in newspapers and saw on television.

Growing up in England, she said, she found herself acting as an ambassador for everything African or Nigerian and was often asked “the most pathetic questions.” She said people sometimes said hurtful things and she learned to swallow them and move on. Racism is real, she said, and the way to deal with it is to offer a different narrative.

She described the cinema as a permanent, round-the-clock home for African and Black films, food and fashion. She stressed that it isn’t meant to keep those films off other platforms, but that because the community is underrepresented, it needs spaces where it feels safe and can share its own content while inviting the rest of the world in. The only way to do that, she said, is to be in charge of the narrative.

Membership will be open to everyone, with no ethnic or nationality restrictions, though details of the scheme have not been announced.

The programme is still being finalised, but Abudu has said it will include films from across Africa and movies that celebrate Black actors and storytelling, alongside the centre’s own productions and the next Black Panther film. She told AFP she would like to open a similar space in Paris, possibly through a partnership.

Celebs

Regina Daniels marks 25th birthday in a wheelchair, having spent months unable to walk

Nollywood actress Regina Daniels has opened up about her health, appearing in a wheelchair in a birthday video in which she said she has spent months unable to move around as she pleases.

In the video posted on Instagram on Saturday, she marked what she called her silver jubilee and asked God for “total calm” in this new phase of her life. She then addressed the sight of her in a wheelchair directly.

“I know many of you may be surprised seeing me in a wheelchair,” she said. “Well, welcome to another chapter of my life.”

She said fans had been asking about her absence from the public eye, and she chose her birthday to answer those who genuinely care.

According to the actress, she has lost her freedom to move around as she pleases for several months. She said it began as something minor before getting worse, and that things took a major turn after the last public gathering she hosted, her children’s day carnival. Regina said the pain became excruciating. Some days she could walk well, she said, and on others she could not move at all. She said she cried and turned to God for healing.

Her tone then lifted as she said she was speaking because of some really significant developments in her recovery and thanked God. She did not say what condition she has, what caused it, or what treatment she is receiving.

News

Wike’s son accused of collecting $2.1 million for land in Abuja

Jordan Ezenwo Nyesom-Wike, son of FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, is facing a civil suit over an alleged $2.1 million land deal gone wrong, with the claimants saying most of that money was intended for his father.

According to court filings, two men say they met Jordan in London and later reconnected with him in Abuja, where they asked for his help securing 60 hectares of land split between Katampe and Guzape. They claim Jordan told them the facilitation fee would come to $2.1 million: $2 million of it earmarked for the minister himself, and $100,000 as Jordan’s own cut.

The claimants say they handed over the full amount on 26 September 2025, at a property in Gwarimpa, Abuja, with several named witnesses present. They allege that after the money changed hands, they got no land and no refund, and Jordan stopped responding to them.

Jordan’s defence hinges on a single detail: he says he wasn’t even in the country that day. Under cross-examination at the FCT High Court in Maitama, he told the court he was on a British Airways flight from Abuja to London on 26 September 2025, the exact date the claimants say the payment was made. He also denies signing any acknowledgment of receipt for the money, calling the signature on the document a forgery.

The exchange prompted the claimants’ lawyer to ask the court to compel Jordan to produce his American passport, to check it against his travel claim, and to write out his name and signature five times on a plain sheet of paper for comparison. Justice Sylvanus Oriji granted both requests. Jordan produced the passport the following day; the court has not yet ruled on whether his account of his whereabouts holds up.

Jordan has said he flagged the allegations himself, in a letter to his father and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission back in November 2025.

The case has since drawn wider attention. Rights lawyer Chidi Odinkalu has called on Justice Oriji to step aside from the case over family and professional ties, while the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria has urged the EFCC and ICPC to open an independent investigation rather than wait for the civil case to conclude.