Chelsea celebrates John Mikel Obi's 10 years at the club

English football giants, Chelsea Football Club have celebrated the 10-years stay of Nigeria’s Super Eagles captain, John Mikel Obi with the club. The club posted a video on its official website to celebrate the 29-year old.

Mikel joined the Stamford Bridge outfit from Lyn Oslo of Norway in the Summer of 2006 after a controversial transfer saga with Manchester United also claiming to have signed him ahead of Chelsea.

The then 19-year-old Mikel made his debut for Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League on 12 September 2006, against Bulgarian club Levski Sofia. Mikel received many positive comments for his performance in the match.

The Nigerian joined during the Mourinho era when Chelsea boasted an African contingent that included Ivorians Didier Drogba and Solomon Kalou and former Ghana international Michael Essien.

Even though he started out as an attacking midfielder, the Portuguese manager was quick to reshape Mikel into a holding midfielder cast in the mould of Chelsea great Claude Makalele. 10 years on, Mikel has served Chelsea in the holding midfield role.

The club’s website on Mikel’s summary page wrote thus, ‘‘Despite the presence in our squad of arguably the greatest holding midfielder of all time, Claude Makelele, Mikel still made over 40 appearances in his first season at Stamford Bridge, and he has maintained a high level of consistency throughout his Chelsea career.’‘

Sometime during the ‘second coming’ of José Mourinho, there were strong reservations about his lifestyle outside of Stamford Bridge, and the club were reportedly considering offloading the player. Deals were announced but never materialized.

In his ten years stay with Chelsea he has won all available domestic club trophies including the Europa League and the prestigious UEFA Champions League. The only continental club trophies to have eluded him are the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA club World Cup.

He has worked with a handful of managers since joining, he played twice under Jose Mourinho, twice under Guus Hiddink as caretaker, Israeli Avram Grant (also as caretaker after Mourinho’s first exit).

He also served under Roberto De Matteo (as cartaker and substantive manager), he was around during Andre Villas Boas’ tenure, during Luis Felipe Scolari and Italian Carlo Anchelloti.

At the national team level, Mikel has played 75 games for the Super Eagles and currently is captain of the team, he has four goals to his credit and was part of the triumphant team that won the AFCON 2004 in South Africa under the late Stephen Keshi.

African News

Kachikwu warns China against fraudulent oil deals in Nigeria

The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, says the era of discretionary sale of crude oil by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is now a thing of history.

Dr Kachikwu warned Chinese businessmen seeking clarifications at the Nigerian Embassy in Beijing about offers for sale of crude oil from Nigeria, that such offers are scam.

The Minister spoke at a reception organized by officials of the Nigerian Embassy in Beijing.

The forum provided an opportunity for officials of the embassy to seek clarification about the sale of crude oil in Nigeria following enquiries from Chinese businessmen who got fraudulent offers from Nigeria

He explained that only 11 companies were approved to lift crude oil from Nigeria following an open bid process and that the next bids will hold in April 2017.

He said that the use of discretion in the sale of crude oil by previous administrations led to corruption in country’s oil industry.

The Minister said that Nigeria is also investigating reported discovery of Nigeria’s stolen oil in China and appealed to Chinese businessmen who buy stolen oil to stop the practice because it encourages vandalism and militancy in Nigeria.

The meeting was one of the activities on the NNPC roadshow in China to seek investment for the repair and expansion of infrastructure in the nation’s oil industry.

Over 50 billion dollars memorandum of understanding for investment in the oil industry has been signed. One of the agreements is with China’s leading oil company, Sinopec

The Minister and his officials also signed an agreement with China’s largest securities and assets management company, Cinda Group

The company specializes in providing financial lifelines for big companies in the country

The roadshow for investment in the oil sector is also scheduled for India and gulf countries.

ChannelsTV

Former Foreign Affairs Minister Ojo Madueke passes away at age 71

Nigeria’s former Foreign Minister, Ojo Maduekwe is dead. Until his death, he was the Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT).

Born on May 6, 1945, Madueke also served as Minister of Culture and Tourism and Minister of Transportation under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The Chairman of the PDP BoT, Senator Walid Jubrin confirmed this in a statement in Abuja on Thursday.

Jubrin said he was shocked to learn about the death of Maduekwe.

He said that the former Nigerian Ambassador to Canada passed on at a critical time when the party needed him most.

Jubrin said that he was waiting for Maduekwe come back from U.S., where he travelled to, so that they could put heads together to address the party’s leadership problem .

“I learnt with sadness and great shock about the death of this very devoted member of the party, a very dependable member and a very useful member with whom we have worked very closely together.

We have been trying our best to find a solution to this problem and it is so sad that Maduekwe died at a very critical moment.

It is sad that at this critical moment, Maduekwe had to go and we are definitely going to miss him and his ideas.

He meant very well for this party, he meant very well for the BoT.

He had very fantastic ideas on the way out for our party crisis.

Maduekwe has been national secretary of the PDP, he has been a Nigerian ambassador and so, we were utilizing his knowhow in BoT.

He did very well for the few months he was in BoT. I will never forget him.

I have lost a great partner,” Jubrin said.

He prayed to God to give members of the deceased family as well as PDP faithful the fortitude to bear this great loss.

NAN

MTN Nigeria winner of the 2.6GHz spectrum auction

After a transparent and competitive auction process, the Nigerian telecoms regulatory authority, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) , Wednesday formally declared MTN Nigeria as the winner of the 2.6GHz spectrum auction. 

Accordingly, the auction process had afforded both local and foreign operators the opportunity to enjoy equal and unfettered rights of participation in line with the NCC’s desire for transparency and ensuring a level playing field for all. 

It would be recalled that NCC had earlier confirmed that ‎MTN’s bid was in full compliance with the relevant provisions of the Information Memorandum (IM) for the exercise in which MTN emerged as sole approved bidder. 

The NCC has described this spectrum as a significant trigger for a broadband revolution that will unlock benefits such as greater coverage, access, affordability and innovation, with the customer at the centre of these gains. 

Speaking on the new development, MTN Nigeria Chief Executive Officer, Ferdi Moolman said that, “After complying with all the requirements for the 2.6GHz auction and making the licence payment of N18.96 billion to the NCC, MTN has been issued a letter of award. 

With the 2.6 GHz band, we expect to roll out and provide the full range of LTE services to Nigerians, empowering Nigeria with the latest mobile broadband technology.” According to him, “We are very pleased with this development at this time, which is a further step in the right direction for Nigeria. 

Indeed, MTN is fully aligned and supports the NCC’s objective to deliver broadband services to present and future generations of subscribers, in line with the National Broadband Plan of 2013.” The 2.6GHz acquisition, he said has set the stage for the roll-out of 4G LTE broadband internet services across the country, starting in the major cities of Lagos and Abuja. 

He added “This license acquisition further demonstrates MTN’s abiding faith in the future of Nigeria and the resilience of the Nigerian economy. MTN continues to believe in Nigeria and we have expressed this belief in the level of our investment, which currently stands at approximately USD 15 billion and counting. 

We strongly believe that there is need for significant levels of investment in broadband infrastructure and services to truly launch Nigeria into the information age. We are honoured to be the arrowhead. “In addition, we are also delighted that the matter of the fine imposed by the NCC was amicably settled in the interest of all parties. 

I am pleased to announce that the first payment of N30 billion in the terms of settlement has already been disbursed to the NCC. In addition to the earlier payment of N50 billion which we paid in good faith and without prejudice on February 24, this means we have now paid a total of N80 billion. “Our subscribers, especially those in clustered areas such as the major cities, can expect distinct improvements in browsing speed, quality and experience. 

This means that they will have fast access to high definition video streaming, as well as conferencing and calling, lag-free music streaming, and improved data uploads and downloads”. 

As such, MTN’s success in this auction is a big boost to its plan to deliver global mobile broadband and LTE 4G services to over 60 million customers in Nigeria. MTN also plans to use FDD networks in addition to its existing WIMAX over TDD networks, as this provides for greater consistency with existing 2G and 3G deployments. 

Although Nigeria is one of 28 African countries that currently offer 4G/LTE services, the rate of penetration is restricted to a few major cities. Meanwhile, studies by McKinsey have shown that a 10% increase in broadband penetration is associated with a 1.4% increase in GDP growth in developing markets.

Vanguard

Nigerian government introduces scheme to end violence between farmers and herders

A community project in Kano, northeast Nigeria, is under way in a bid to end violence between cattle herders and farmers.