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Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, made a surprise appearance on the runway at the 2026 Lagos Fashion Week, joining professional models in a fashion showcase that drew applause from guests.

The governor walked the runway in a traditional-inspired outfit created by Nigerian designer Ugo Monye, becoming one of the unexpected highlights of the event.

Sanwo-Olu wore a regal off-white ensemble featuring elements of a traditional caftan and a kimono-inspired cut, paired with a beige fedora. He acknowledged spectators as he made his way across the runway, exchanging nods and flashing peace signs to the cheering audience.

The 2026 Lagos Fashion Week, which opened last Wednesday at the Federal Palace Hotel in Lagos, is expected to end on Sunday.

This year’s edition, themed ‘CRAFTED: Heritage,’ features fashion designers, models, industry professionals and enthusiasts showcasing African creativity, craftsmanship and cultural heritage.

The Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), Dr Ndagi Alhassan, has warned that excessive reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) could undermine critical thinking and clinical judgement among nurses, insisting that technology must never replace the human compassion at the heart of patient care.

‘Any algorithm can calculate, but it cannot care,’ Alhassan declared while delivering the keynote address at the 2026 Undergraduate Nursing Research Challenge and Summit organised by the Golden Lamp Leadership Initiative Africa at the University of Ibadan.

Speaking on the theme ‘Minds and Machines: The New Frontier of Academic Research’, he urged nursing students to embrace technological innovation without compromising their professional judgement and ethical responsibilities.

He explained that although AI could analyse data, identify patterns and suggest interventions, it could not replace a nurse’s ability to recognise subtle changes in a patient’s condition and respond with sound clinical judgement and empathy.

Using the example of a nurse who notices a patient deteriorating despite normal monitor readings, Alhassan said human observation and prompt intervention could make the difference between life and death.

‘Research begins when a nurse observes something and refuses to look away,’ he said.

He warned that AI systems could generate fabricated academic references and misleading information, urging students to verify AI-generated content before using it in research. He also advocated locally relevant African research data to address biases in systems trained on information that might not reflect the continent’s healthcare realities.

On patient confidentiality, he cautioned nurses against uploading identifiable medical information to AI platforms without appropriate safeguards.

‘When in doubt, do not upload,’ he said, adding that the Council would not tolerate plagiarism, fabricated research findings or unethical use of AI.

Alhassan urged students to focus their research on practical healthcare problems, verify information, protect patient data, disclose AI use transparently and publish their findings.

He also advocated intergenerational leadership, encouraging experienced professionals to create opportunities for younger nurses to contribute fresh ideas and technological expertise.

Recounting how a 31-day hospitalisation for burns in 1972 influenced his decision to pursue nursing, he reminded students that the profession is fundamentally about service and compassion.

‘The frontier is open. It does not belong to the machines. It belongs to the minds that will lead them,’ he said, urging the students to ‘carry the lamp forward.’

Also speaking, the founder and chief executive officer of Myqura, Abiola Ayilara, urged Nigerian nurses to develop healthcare technologies that address local challenges rather than remain passive users of imported solutions.

She said nurses’ close contact with patients positioned them to identify gaps in care and lead innovation, stressing that AI should support, not replace, clinical judgement and human compassion.

‘Nurses should be the ones creating the solutions for patients,’ she said, urging students to turn clinical challenges into research questions and develop solutions suited to African realities.

THE Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has expressed concern over the reported conviction and imprisonment of a Christian woman, identified as Lami Samuel Dawa, in Borno State.

CAN said the circumstances surrounding the conviction, particularly reports that the case arose from the conversion of an adult woman to Christianity, had raised serious questions about the protection of religious freedom and fundamental human rights in the country.

The association, however, said it was still verifying the precise facts and legal basis of the conviction.

In a press statement issued on Saturday and signed by its President, Archbishop Daniel Okoh, CAN disclosed that an appeal had already been filed, adding that it was committed to allowing the judicial process to run its course.

The association stressed that every Nigerian had the constitutional right to freely choose, change or practise their religion or belief without coercion, intimidation or unlawful punishment.

It called on the relevant authorities to ensure that the rights of all parties involved in the case were protected and that justice was served in accordance with the Constitution and the laws of the country.

‘Nevertheless, the case raises important questions about the protection of religious freedom and the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,’ the statement said.

CAN further disclosed that it would continue to monitor developments surrounding the case and engage relevant authorities through appropriate legal and institutional channels.

Reaffirming its commitment to religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence, the association said it remained dedicated to protecting the fundamental rights and freedoms of every Nigerian, irrespective of religious background.

The development comes amid renewed concerns over the protection of religious freedom and the rights of citizens to practise their faith in different parts of the country.

The Association of Nigerian Railway Senior Citizens (ANRSC) has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the non-implementation of the Federal Government’s housing monetisation policy for railway quarters.

The association’s Chairman, Mr Olusegun Esan, made the appeal at a news conference on Saturday in Lagos.

Esan said that retired railway workers and their families had been denied the opportunity to own the official quarters they occupied, in spite of the introduction of the policy in 2004/2005.

He explained that the policy was designed to reduce government expenditure on the maintenance of official residences, while providing serving and retired public officers the opportunity to purchase their occupied quarters at affordable rates.

Esan said that prolonged legal dispute had subjected many retirees and their families to hardship, and some affected pensioners had died while others remained homeless.

According to him, the policy has been fully implemented in ministries, departments and agencies of government such as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian Port Authority and even in the judiciary.

‘We now wonder why the Nigerian Railway Corporation is different. The past management of NRC commenced implementation of part of the monetization process, they monetised vehicles, furniture but left the important aspect – the quarter where retirees live.

‘The NRC was formerly one of Africa’s largest employers of labour, with more than 50,000 workers whose families are spread across different parts of the country.

‘We appeal to Tinubu to direct the Attorney-General of the Federation and the NRC management to facilitate the implementation of the monetisation policy and the 2016 court judgment.

‘We also call for compensation and resettlement allowances for affected retirees and widows, and above all, the government should address their grievances without further delay,’ he said.

Esan said that the association had made several efforts to resolve the dispute, including writing to NRC management, the Minister of Transportation, the Ministry of Justice and other relevant authorities.

He said that the association had also submitted documents detailing the history of the dispute, the affected residential quarters across railway districts and properties allegedly occupied by third parties.

According to him, the present NRC management has engaged the association on possible settlement.

He, however, said that members rejected the proposed conditions because they allegedly contradicted the Federal Government’s monetisation policy and the court judgment.

The Federal government has expressed commitment to the continuous support of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), particularly in the communication sector of the country.

Speaking at the Weekend in Abuja, the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Tope Fasua, reaffirmed that the Tinubu administration has continued its economic rescue by empowering SMEs, especially those in the communication sector.

‘The last time I was travelling out of the country, I bought a very expensive eSIM at Abuja Airport, and I was going to Bangkok. The eSIM worked in London, but it didn’t work in Bangkok. I didn’t get much value for it, but I’m hoping that Esdiac is better. I think it’s much cheaper than what I got’.

He commended the indigenous firm for building a system that reduces the cost of making calls around the globe, assuring Esdiac of government support.

Also speaking, the Founder of Esdiac, Mr. Austin Ugbebor, and the Lead Infrastructure and Security Engineer, Daramola Olugbenga, said the Esdiac Media Parley and Stakeholders Engagement is proof that world-class telecom products can be built and sustained in Nigeria.

Olugbenga explained that Esdiac was designed from the ground up as a statement of local capability, leveraging existing global technologies but building a proprietary, highly scalable backbone.

‘From Esdiac, we have done it and we are still doing it with Nigerians. This is a big statement that we can do it,’.

He stated that the system was initially dimensioned for one million concurrent calls, with architecture that prevents mid-call drops despite network fluctuations.

‘We built in a very scalable manner. So even if there is a network fluctuation, the call will not drop mid-conversation. Once a call starts, it will run to the end’.

At the heart of the local-content pitch is data sovereignty. Both speakers stressed that Esdiac complies with the Nigeria Data Protection Act and NCC regulations, storing and processing all Nigerian user data in Nigeria.

On his part, Ugbebor said, ‘We authenticate your access into the platform using the SIM and we ride on our own backbone, which is mainly here in Nigeria and also in the US. We are very careful that data here are not transmitted outside the country.’

He noted that as a paid product licensed by both the NCC in Nigeria and the FCC in the United States, Esdiac cannot share user information with third parties without user approval or a court order, and users have the right to request data held about them.

The story of Nevada Pierre, the sensational three-year-old American soccer prodigy from Florida, is fast becoming an archetype of how qualification can, ironically, disqualify the qualified. If you look closely enough at the Nevada narrative, you will also tease out a sobering commentary on the shrinking boundary of human patience for natural talent and competition.

Nevada set the internet ablaze recently following a youth soccer match organized by i9 Sports in Winter Park, a game that degenerated into a dispute so heated it required police intervention. The toddler’s brilliant ball control, eclectic dribbling and total pitch dominance left the parents of opposing children visibly incensed. Complaining that the boy was ‘too advanced,’ the disgruntled parents summoned the Winter Park Police Department. But their outrage backfired spectacularly. Rather than suppressing the prodigy, the police dispatch catapulted Nevada into global headlines, earning him an invitation to train at Eddie Johnson’s Orlando-based EJE7 Soccer Academy, the admiration of celebrity children’s entertainer, Rachel Griffin-Accurso and a wave of fan-backed GoFundMe support.

Instructive as the Nevada Pierre episode is, what commands my attention most is its central lesson: how man readily manipulates qualification for selfish ends.

A raging issue that underscores this moral deficit right here in Nigeria involves the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and its 2024/2025 recruitment exercise, where candidates who officially triumphed are now being punished for their success.

According to media reports, the NCS published the final list of successful candidates of the exercise in July 2026. They then received formal provisional offers on the official recruitment portal, complete with instructions to fulfill specific prerequisites. These included submission of medical certificates of fitness from state hospitals and formally accepting the offers within a stipulated window. Trusting the sanctity of the process, several candidates resigned from their existing jobs.

Yet, when basic training commenced, these successful applicants discovered to their utter shock that their names had been systematically erased. In their place were entirely new names, individuals who allegedly never participated in the initial screening exercise.

While the Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, reportedly intervened by ordering a case-by-case review of the aggrieved applicants’ complaints, the Service continues to defend its posture with the defense that inclusion on its published shortlist does not constitute an automatic guarantee of enlistment.

What the NCS must realize is that when administrative discretion becomes a veil for organizational impunity, institutional integrity leaves through the window. Just as the aggrieved parents in Winter Park sought to police away superior talent out of spite, the arbitrary erasure of verified candidates from the Customs recruitment list signals a dangerous culture where merit is treated as a liability rather than an asset. Comptroller-General Adeniyi’s promised review must move beyond mere damage control to full restitution. A nation that off-handedly mourns its brain drain and institutional decay cannot continue to systematically disqualify its most qualified, simply to satisfy the appetite of elite man-know-man.

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, has warned that anyone who threatens, intimidates or harms the commission’s ad hoc staff, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members or permanent personnel will be brought to justice.

Amupitan gave the warning on Saturday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, at the South-South Zonal Readiness Assessment and Interactive Staff Engagement ahead of the 2027 general election.

‘Insecurity may pose a challenge, but our collective constitutional resolve is far stronger. Let me again send a clear message from Port Harcourt: anyone who attempts to threaten, intimidate, or harm our ad hoc staff, NYSC members, or permanent personnel will be brought to justice under the full weight of the law,’ he said.

The chairman, who was accompanied by national commissioners, directors and technical aides, said the South-South meeting was the fifth in a series of zonal assessments, following those held in the South-West, North-West, South-East and North-East.

He said his physical presence in each zone reflected the commission’s field-first approach, noting that true electoral integrity was forged in the field across 123 local government areas in the six South-South states.

On election security, Amupitan said the commission had moved from reactive, election-day deployments to a proactive, intelligence-led arrangement.

‘We have moved away from reactive, election-day security deployments towards a proactive, intelligence-led security architecture that we term the ‘ICCES Tentacle.’ This framework extends inter-agency security coordination from national and state headquarters directly down to the most remote Local Government Areas and Registration Area Centres,’ he said.

He identified the three pillars of the framework as mapping and mitigating threats, ensuring safety and guaranteeing access to polling units.

He said the arrangement would provide a protective umbrella for all electoral personnel, technological assets, including Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices and server infrastructure, as well as voters. It would also ensure that every polling unit remained safe and peaceful.

The chairman disclosed that the South-South security arrangement relied on approximately 60 major operational formations, headquarters and state commands operating under the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), bringing together the military, naval, air, police and other security agencies.

‘Together, this integrated multi-agency network represents the operational backbone that guarantees intelligence-led protection across every riverine creek, coastal axis and land-based polling unit in the Niger Delta,’ he said.

Amupitan said the South-South accounted for the fourth-largest voting bloc, with 15,823,550 registered voters, representing 15.30 per cent of the national register. Rivers State alone has 3,736,434 registered voters across 23 local government areas.

He said the figures represented citizens whose constitutional right to choose their leaders in a secure and transparent environment must be guaranteed.

Giving an update on preparations, the chairman said the commission had completed nine of the 14 major statutory milestones in its timetable for the 2027 general election, which would involve more than 103 million registered voters and 176,846 polling units.

The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for January 16, 2027, while the governorship and State Assembly elections will hold on February 6, 2027.

He said the commission had finalised a Memorandum of Understanding with the Maritime Transporters Union to ensure the timely and secure deployment of personnel and materials to riverine and coastal communities. He added that new operational pick-up vehicles had been distributed to state and LGA offices.

On staff welfare, he said the commission had moved its workforce out of the civil service salary structure under the Consolidated Election Management Body Salary Structure, effective January 1, 2026, and approved a 150 per cent increase in monthly state overhead allocations, effective July 1, 2026.

‘To our field staff: you are the true face of INEC,’ he said.

He warned that partisan leanings, negligence, financial impropriety or absenteeism would attract swift sanctions. He also reminded staff that Section 26 of the Electoral Act 2026 mandated an Oath of Neutrality.

‘False narratives only gain traction when administrative execution falters. When our field execution is flawless, and our data pipeline is clear, no digital algorithm can displace the physical reality of a transparent vote,’ he said.

In his welcome address, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Rivers State, Dr Johnson Alalibo Sinikiem, said the engagement provided an opportunity to evaluate preparedness, identify operational gaps and develop strategies ahead of election day.

‘This is not merely an occasion to report activities undertaken. It is an opportunity to demonstrate readiness, identify outstanding tasks, establish clear priorities and strengthen mechanisms for monitoring implementation,’ he said.

He called for stronger collaboration between the headquarters and state offices and urged staff to remain vigilant against misinformation.

The Director of Planning and Monitoring, Mrs Helen Ajayi, outlined the key objectives of the engagement to include securing the support of traditional rulers for grassroots mobilisation, boosting staff morale and assessing the level of electoral preparedness.

INEC to end late arrival of materials, lowers BVAS threshold

Meanwhile, Amupitan has assured Nigerians that delays in the delivery of election materials, which marred previous elections, will not be repeated in 2027.

He gave the assurance on Friday, October 30, 2026, during a courtesy visit to the palace of the King and Paramount Ruler of Port Harcourt, His Royal Majesty, Barr. Uchechukwu Isaiah Elikwu, Eze Epara Rebisi XII, in Rivers State.

‘The era in which elections were supposed to start by 8:30 am but materials sometimes arrived very late must come to an end,’ he said.

He disclosed that the voter threshold for deploying additional BVAS machines had been reduced from 1,250 to 850 voters per polling unit.

‘We realise that the true dynamics of democracy are shaped in the field, within our local communities, across riverine channels, at Registration Area Centres and at polling units where citizens exercise their sovereign right,’ he said.

He said the commission had prioritised direct engagement with traditional rulers, describing royal fathers as anchors of grassroots peace, civic engagement and community stability.

He listed the monarchs visited so far to include the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi; the Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Oyetunji Olanipekun; the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu; the Emir of Zazzau, Ambassador Ahmed Nuhu Bamalli; the Ogadagidi I of Edem-An Ogwugwu Ancient Kingdom, Samuel Ikechukwu Asadu; and the Emir of Gombe, Dr Abubakar Shehu III.

Amupitan appealed to royal fathers to help mobilise residents to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and turn out to vote in 2027. He also urged them to educate citizens on the dangers of misinformation, disinformation and artificial intelligence.

In response, Eze Epara Rebisi XII assured the commission of the support of traditional rulers and urged it to remain steadfast, fair and impartial.

‘Do the right thing, and we assure you of our support. We will mobilise our people to collect their PVCs and come out to vote. We assure you of our unflinching support,’ he said.