Arsenal FC postpones Nigerian tour

The much hyped Arsenal pre-season tour of Nigeria, which was to have kicked off with a match against the Super Eagles on August 5 is now off following the decision of the English club to postpone the trip.

In a posting on the club's website Thursday, the London outfit said: "Arsenal Football Club has announced it is reluctantly postponing its proposed trip to Nigeria this summer."

The Gunners declined to go into specific details for the postponement but only said: "The club has taken the decision as a result of complexities linked to the planned game against the Super Eagles on Saturday, August 5 in Abuja."

According to the Arsenal Marketing Director, Angus Kinnear: "Bringing a top-level club to an international market is always complicated and logistically challenging. With the proposed match in Nigeria planned for early August, we could not get comfortable on everything needed to satisfy our requirements, so we have reluctantly taken the decision to postpone the team's visit."

Kinnear continued: "We have a huge and loyal following in Africa, and we are sorry that the team will not be visiting this summer. However, we have a long-term commitment to Nigeria and we are already making plans for a visit next summer.

"In addition, we also have some exciting forthcoming activities planned with our commercial partners in Nigeria - Emirates, Airtel and Malta Guinness, which will kick off in the next few weeks."

However, the club's decision may not be unconnected to the fact that the pitch of the Abuja National Stadium, where the match was to have taken place, is not in very good condition.

According to reports about N30 million will be needed to get the pitch back into its proper shape but even if the money is available there might not be enough time to complete the grassing before the now cancelled friendly.

Only recently Sports Minister, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi said the Federal Government could not be armtwisted into rushing to fix the stadium on account of Arsenal's visit to the country.

Speaking during a visit to his office by the Board and Management of the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) Abdullahi said: "I was told that Arsenal wants to come to Nigeria on a playing tour, but it is not a national team. It is only a private football team coming on a training tour of Nigeria. So whether Arsenal is coming on a training tour to Nigeria does not concern the Federal Government.

"If we want to talk about how we are going to improve our pitch, it has nothing to do with Arsenal coming to play in Nigeria!"

Only a fortnight ago a security team from the London club was in the country to check on security and other logistics ahead of the much publicised tour.

It was learnt that the club, not satisfied with the medical facilities in the country, had even planned to bring a state-of-the-art mobile clinic, which would have accompanied the team to venues of the three matches lined up for the Gunners during their visit to Nigeria.

Meanwhile one of the club's principal sponsors, Emirates has also reacted to the news, which broke Thursday evening.

Emirates are the presenting partner of the Arsenal 2012 Tour and Boutros Boutros, divisional senior vice-president of corporate communications said: "Emirates shares Arsenal's disappointment that the team's visit to Nigeria has been postponed. We look forward to working with Arsenal to bring the Club closer to its loyal Nigerian fans through new initiatives over the coming months."

All further updates on Arsenal's future activities in Nigeria will be communicated on www.Arsenal.com, the report concluded.

The trip would have been the Gunners' first to Africa's most populous nation and would have come on the heels of a whistle stop visit by former Premier League champions, Manchester United a few years ago.

This Day

Related story: Arsenal FC tour to Nigeria this year cancelled

United Nations begins investigation on smuggled weapons between Nigerian and Libya

United Nations has sent a team of experts on Libya to Nigeria to investigate alleged smuggling of weapons into the country.

The Coordinator, United Nation Panel of Experts on Libya, Salim Raad, who led the panel to the Ministry of Interior, said the team was in Nigeria to investigate the alleged smuggling of weapons into Nigeria from Libya.

Salim urged Nigeria to provide report about illegal weapons as the UN has placed sanctions on weapons entering or going out of Libya.

Responding, Interior Minister Comrade Patrick Abba Moro, said considering the security challenges in the country particularly the Boko Haram insurgency, the government cannot rule out the smuggling of weapons into the country from Libya.

He reiterated the resolve of Nigeria to implement UN recommendations on trafficking of arms.

Daily Trust

Super Eagles move up in FIFA rankings

The Super Eagles of Nigeria has moved two spots from 60 to 58 in the latest FIFA rankings released yesterday by the World football governing body. Nigeria has also moved into the top 10 ranked sides in Africa. During the past month, Nigeria recorded a lone goal victory over Namibia and a goalless draw against Malawi both in 2014 World Cup qualifying games.


Then the Eagles defeated Rwanda 2-0 in the Africa Nations Cup qualifier to book a place in the draws for the 2013 editions today. Ivory Coast still remains the number one ranked team in Africa and 16 in the world. Followed by Ghana which is 33rd in the world.


Spain which won their third consecutive international title in the just concluded European championship maintained their first position while finalists Italy moved six places from 12 to six. Semi-finalists Portugal also moved five places from 10 to fifth position while the other semi finalists Germany are now second.



Despite England's disappointing Euros they moved two places from sixth to fourth while Holland which exited at the first round in the Euros without a single point slipped down four places from fourth to eight. Brazil is in the lowest position since the inception of the FIFA rankings as they are 11 down and out of the first 10 for the first time.


A total of 133 international 'A' matches have been played in recent weeks, made up of 31 EURO 2012 matches, 60 qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazilâ„¢, 15 CAF Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, and 27 friendlies.


Africa's top 15


1 Cote D'Ivoire (16)


2 Ghana (33)


3 Algeria (35)


4 Libya (39)


5 Mali (40)


6 Zambia (41)


7 Egypt (42)


8 Tunisia (43)


9 Gabon (45)


10 Nigeria (58)

Leadership

Americans living in Nigeria warned of Independence Day threat

The US embassy in Nigeria on Wednesday warned its citizens about threats to American targets through the independence holiday week in the west African country grappling with an Islamist insurgency.

"The U.S. Mission in Nigeria is issuing this emergency message to inform U.S. citizens of potential threats against U.S. installations during the July 4 holiday week," said a statement posted on the embassy's website.

Nigeria's capital Abuja was hit by fresh violence late on Tuesday, when a blast went off outside a shopping centre popular with both foreigners and locals.

US citizens in Abuja remain barred from visiting places of worship as well as nearby commercial establishments and must return to their homes by midnight, according to the embassy statement.

The Boko Haram Islamist group, responsible for scores of attacks in recent months, has repeatedly attacked churches, typically on Sundays and holidays.

The embassy "is working with the government of Nigeria to implement additional security measures," through the July 4 holiday week, the statement also said.

Last month, Washington designated three Boko Haram leaders as global terrorists, a move it said was aimed to help stem the violence in Nigeria.

Boko Haram, which has previously threatened to strike US interests, has claimed attacks that have killed more than 1,000 people since the middle of 2009.

AFP

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Nigerian Rotimi Babatunde wins Africa's top literary prize

Described as Africa's leading literary award, the 2012 Caine Prize for African Writing has been awarded to Nigerian Rotimi Babatunde for his short story entitled Bombay's Republic published in the Mirabilia Review.

Chair of the judging panel, Bernardine Evaristo announced Babatunde as the winner of the £10 000 prize at an awards dinner held on the evening of Monday, 2 July 2012, at the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

Evaristo said, "Bombay's Republic vividly describes the story of a Nigerian soldier fighting in the Burma campaign of World War Two. It is ambitious, darkly humorous and in soaring, scorching prose exposes the exploitative nature of the colonial project and the psychology of independence."

Babatunde's fiction and poems have been published in Africa, Europe and America in journals which includeDie Aussenseite des Elementes and Fiction on the Web and in anthologies. He is a winner of the Meridian Tragic Love Story Competition organised by the BBC World Service and his plays have been staged and presented by institutions which include the Halcyon Theatre, Chicago and the Institute for Contemporary Arts. He is currently taking part in a collaboratively produced piece at the Royal Court and the Young Vic as part of World Stages for a World City. Rotimi lives in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Also shortlisted were:

• Billy Kahora from Kenya for Urban Zoning


• Stanley Kenani from Malawi for Love on Trial


• Melissa Tandiwe Myambo from Zimbabwe for La Salle de Départ


• Constance Myburgh from South Africa for Hunter Emmanuel

Alongside Evaristo on the panel of judges this year included cultural journalist, Maya Jaggi; Zimbabwean poet, songwriter and writer Chirikure Chirikure; associate professor at Georgetown University, Washington DC, Samantha Pinto; and the Sudanese CNN television correspondent, Nima Elbagir.

As the winner, Babatunde will be given the opportunity of taking up a month's residence at Georgetown University, as a writer-in-residence at the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice. The award covers all travel and living expenses and will also be invited to take part in the Open Book Festival in Cape Town in September 2012 and events hosted by the Museum of African Art in New York in November 2012.

Previous winners

Last years' winner, Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo has subsequently been awarded the highly regarded two-year Stegner Writing Fellowship at Stanford University, in the United States.

Previous winners are Sudan's Leila Aboulela (2000), Nigerian Helon Habila (2001), Kenyan Binyavanga Wainaina (2002), Kenyan Yvonne Owuor (2003), Zimbabwean Brian Chikwava (2004), Nigerian Segun Afolabi (2005), South African Mary Watson (2006), Ugandan Monica Arac de Nyeko (2007), South African Henrietta Rose-Innes (2008), Nigerian EC Osondu (2009) and Sierra Leonean Olufemi Terry (2010).

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