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SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria says it has reached approximately 650 households in Edo State through a three-year development intervention, as it prepares to build on the gains with a new project focused on strengthening the resilience of children, young people, families and communities.

Eghosa Erhumwunse, Country Director of SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria, disclosed this during a stakeholder engagement in Benin City to review the achievements of the outgoing project and consolidate its impact in partnership with the Edo State Government, community leaders, development partners and beneficiaries.

Erhumwunse said the intervention prioritised vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations, particularly families and children often excluded from mainstream development programmes, while strengthening the capacity of communities to support their welfare and long-term development.

He said the project covered 400 households in its first phase and another 250 in the second phase, bringing the total to approximately 650 households. Based on an estimated average of four persons per household, the intervention potentially reached about 2,600 people.

The country director said the organisation considered community ownership essential to the sustainability of development interventions, stressing that families and communities must be empowered to maintain the gains made after a project ends.

He explained that the completion of the three-year programme would not signal the end of the organisation’s activities in Edo, as it was preparing to introduce a new initiative, Seed of Change, to address broader challenges affecting children, young people, families and their communities.

According to him, the new project, also supported by the German government, would build on previous interventions by strengthening resilience and promoting systemic changes that can sustain development outcomes beyond the period of donor funding.

Erhumwunse described the organisation as an implementing partner that facilitates collaboration between the donor and communities in Edo, noting that the progress recorded depended on the collective contributions of government institutions, community leaders, families, young people and other development partners.

Joy Irenonsen Ihensekhien, Permanent Secretary of the Edo State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, who represented the commissioner, Eugenia Abdallah, commended SOS Children’s Villages Nigeria for its partnership with the state government and its support for vulnerable women, children and communities.

Ihensekhien said the ministry contributed to the programme through manpower, training facilities and other forms of support for capacity-building activities designed to empower beneficiaries and improve their ability to become self-reliant.

She expressed the state government’s appreciation for the collaboration, noting that partnerships between public institutions and development organisations remained important in helping vulnerable households cope with prevailing economic pressures.

Man has come a long way from the days of Aesop, the ancient Greek storyteller who developed a style of travelling to the animal world to draw lessons for men and women. History has a bouquet of his jungle stories and their morals: The ant and the grasshopper (You can shape your tomorrow today); The boy who cried wolf (It’s the lie you’re used to which will be remembered, not the truth you only tell once); The fox and the grapes (One can’t accommodate what’s beyond your reach; you will despise it).

Modern novelists also write to instruct or entertain us, some from forest life, like Nigeria’s Daniel Fagunwa (Ogboju ode ninu igbo irunmole, 1936) and the Englishman George Orwell (Animal Farm, 1945), with others strictly seeking inspiration from the world of human beings as Professor Tunde Ope-Davies has done in his work, Winds Against My Sails.

Ope-Davies dispenses with creatures of the thicket to relate his account; but he also proffers great precepts not virtuously different from those we receive through the writers who commune with the woods. Either way, the readers are enriched, hugely tutored to change perceptions as they reap a harvest of predictable and unexpected twists in the tale.

We have plenty of them in the work of Ope-Davies (Opeibi), a professor in Digital Humanities, Digital Cultures, English and Discourse Studies at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, beginning with a tell-tale autobiographical title for a work of fiction. About the Author back cover section of the book conceals the dark days of the author’s own headwinds. But critics wouldn’t consider it unreasonable to look at Professor Wale Jones in the novel and apply poetic license to unveil him as the alter ego of Opeibi, himself a heavily garlanded don like his creation.

Jones, the main character, leaves rustic Jadesore to embark on what the author calls the Voyage of Life. The name of his village challenges the ambitious to venture out for breakthroughs eluding them. Yet, it doesn’t reveal that you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. Wale gets the delicacy alright; but it is at the expense of much travail, trauma and toil.

There are near-death experiences; there are fatalities; there are several heartbreaks as well as betrayals; missed opportunities that present no second chances are also recorded; we equally learn of juvenile escapades that could have shortened the life of the hero; there is a battle over the choice of a marriage partner; a time of abandonment by family, friends and loved ones is also shared; we read of days of hunger when biscuits and mint sweets miserably cater for hunger; there’s story of an absentee father; when he’s home however, he fails to model virtue as he engages in nocturnal drinking orgies with friends in the presence of impressionable children; there are assaults of ill health and threats of death at childbirth.

To be sure, some of these are occasioned by poverty. Not all, though. How about the struggles Jones encounter even after the young man has crossed the threshold, in a manner of speaking, and he begins to get local and global recognition denied peers and mentors? The winds against his sail don’t cease in the ivory tower. They are personified by Katakiti, ”who had remained at the same rank for years. To watch Wale, once his student, rise above him was a bitter pill.” There’s also a season of character perfidy when Wale Jones is accused of being ”too friendly with female students” and ”selling a colleague’s textbook to students, a practice the university had outlawed.” Wale attributes all what he’s facing to ”politics of the system.”

Rightly, the blurb concludes that Wale’s faith in God and ”an unyielding spirit of perseverance” are the steps he mounts to overcome the winds of adversity.

So, like Karl Marx, the legendary German co-founder of Scientific Socialism, whose bronze memorial he gazes at in an unnamed European city, Professor Jones becomes ”a man who faced his fires and emerged remade,” ready to change his defective system as Marx attempted to.

Now, in view of an opening poem that predicts ultimate victory for the voyager ”Because He that stillest the noise of the Seas”, is with the explorer, it may be tempting to dismiss Professor Ope-Davies’ Winds Against My Sails as a simplistic literary contraption primed from the beginning for a happy end, regardless of the protagonist’s tumultuous killer adventures. That would be an unbalanced ruling that misses the Olympian plot of Opeibi’s epic. He brings his story under a roof of sweeping flashbacks, critical commentary, history (ancestral and contemporary), objective philosophy, Biblical theology, all of which reveals the author’s catholic mind.

These are carried by a language rich in fluid prose. metaphor and semiotics.

Let’s examine, for instance, Opeibi’s capture of ‘dust’ to take the readers through their own semiotic journeys. as it were. It first appears as ”chalk dust” in Chapter One. Later, he says ”Dust rose like spirits over the playing fields…” And when Wale Jones got the new birth in Christ, we saw the dust called to action again: ”…he bent his knees on the dusty ground and gave his life to Christ.”

Thus, in the literary construct of Professor Ope-Davies’ world, there’s a sustained imagery of the lowly dust and chalk, both of which appear to have sentenced Wale to limitless and hopeless penury. Once, the lecturer is seen collapsing ”at the foot of a chalkboard.” But, to get into Divine embrace wherein is final liberation, Wale must align with ”the dusty ground” and look up to God from that lowly position. He must stoop to conquer.

Is Ope-Davies testing the waters of fiction with Winds Against My Sails after a string of acclaimed nonfiction publications, including the biographical Kumuyi: Defender of the Faith, which he wrote with co-members of the Editorial Board of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry?

This is a heuristic quest with the possibility of turning in a new-look Tunde Ope-Davies.

Nigerian midfielder Alex Iwobi has matched Mohamed Salah’s Premier League appearance record among African players after featuring in Fulham’s 1-0 victory over Coventry City on Saturday.

Iwobi’s appearance took his Premier League tally to 328, drawing him level with Liverpool forward Salah as the joint-second most-capped African player in the competition’s history.

However, Salah has played more minutes in the league, accumulating 26,785 compared with Iwobi’s 22,898.

The Fulham midfielder could move into outright second place when the Cottagers travel to Aston Villa for their next league fixture, provided he features in the match.

Former Manchester City and Arsenal defender Kolo Touré holds the record for the most Premier League appearances by an African player, with 353.

Iwobi played 73 minutes in Fulham’s victory over Coventry, recording 60 touches, completing 51 passes and achieving a passing accuracy of 86.3 per cent.

The achievement puts the Super Eagles midfielder within reach of Touré’s record, with 25 appearances separating him from the former Ivory Coast international’s tally.

At 29, Iwobi has the opportunity to become the African player with the most Premier League appearances if he maintains his run of involvement for Fulham and surpasses Touré’s record.

His latest milestone places him alongside Salah, underlining the longevity of both players’ Premier League careers and bringing Iwobi closer to a record held by one of Africa’s most experienced defenders.

Trade, investment and cooperation initiatives are opening new possibilities for all three economies. Whether they lead to shared prosperity or simply reproduce familiar patterns of dependence will depend on how value chains, financing and risks are organised.

About this time last year, Ambassador Geert Muylle’s reflections on the pressures reshaping Belgian industrial supply chains prompted me to examine the possibilities of moving from dependency to partnership. The argument was that Europe’s search for economic resilience could meet Africa’s demand for greater productive participation. Both needed to reconsider the terms of their engagement. As we approach the Nigeria Belgium Luxembourg Business Forum in Brussels on 28-30 October, the question has become more demanding. What would demonstrate that partnership is changing the distribution of opportunity?

My stake in both Europe and Africa makes that question personal. I want Nigerian businesses to retain more value from what they produce. I also want Belgian and Luxembourg enterprises to secure dependable returns from partnerships that last. Fair trade must make those ambitions compatible. Seven developments offer a useful basis for judging the possibilities. They include changing commercial flows, investment decisions and new cooperation initiatives. Their significance lies in the connections between them.

A contraction that should change the conversation

The first development is uncomfortable for an otherwise celebratory forum narrative. The Belgian Foreign Trade Agency’s May 2026 bilateral note records Belgian goods exports to Nigeria falling from approximately pound 4.09 billion in 2024 to pound 1.27 billion in 2025, a decline of 68.9 per cent. Belgian goods imports from Nigeria also fell, by 14.6 per cent, to pound 474.9 million. These are Belgian-reported merchandise figures, rather than a complete account of investment or services. The figures challenge the assumption that diplomatic activity automatically produces expanding commerce. They also invite a more useful question than how quickly the old totals can be restored. Which parts of the relationship should grow next?

A relationship built around supplying finished products can generate substantial turnover while leaving limited productive capacity with the buyer. A smaller flow of equipment, engineering and investment could, under the right conditions, help establish enterprises that support decades of exchange. Falling trade is no achievement in itself. But restoring dependence should not become the measure of recovery.

Refining is changing the direction of opportunity

The second development supplies an important part of that context. The US Energy Information Administration reported in August that Nigeria’s seaborne petroleum-product exports to Europe averaged 130,000 barrels a day in the second quarter of 2026, compared with 40,000 in 2025. It links the broader expansion in Nigerian product shipments to the Dangote refinery. These are Europe-wide flows; they should not be presented as exports specifically to Belgium. Nor do they explain every movement in bilateral trade.

Their strategic meaning is nevertheless substantial. Nigerian processing capacity is changing what the country can offer international markets. For Belgian businesses, the response can include engineering services, industrial maintenance, storage, emissions management and partnerships in downstream manufacturing. Nigeria gains more when industrial expansion develops local suppliers and technical competence. Belgian firms gain when their expertise becomes part of a productive system with continuing demand.

The fair-trade test also applies within Nigeria. Domestic refining must deliver competitive markets, environmental responsibility and public value. Replacing external dependence with excessive domestic market power would leave an essential part of the task unfinished.

Cocoa opens a different bilateral future

The third development is the growing prominence of cocoa in the relationship. In its December 2025 account of the previous forum, Nigeria’s Ministry of Livestock Development reported the observation of Ambassador Pieter Leenknegt that cocoa had overtaken crude oil as Nigeria’s leading export to Belgium. This is a meaningful change in the composition of engagement, although commodity rankings alone cannot establish an industrial transformation. Cocoa gives both countries a reason to think beyond the shipment of beans. Nigerian fermentation, quality control and processing could be linked more deliberately to Belgian food manufacturing, technical expertise and distribution.

Each proposed investment would still need to establish its commercial case, including reliable power, competitive costs and applicable market-access conditions. Yet that is precisely the discussion worth having. How much processing can take place competitively in Nigeria? Which skills and equipment are required? What purchasing commitments would make investment credible? Fairness begins to become tangible when the producer can negotiate a larger role in the value chain, and the buyer obtains a more reliable, higher-quality supply.

Sustainability rules are becoming a test of partnership

The fourth development is the approaching application of the EU Deforestation Regulation, with the European Commission identifying 30 December 2026 as the application date. Cocoa is among the commodities covered. European operators’ obligations create information demands throughout their supply chains, including evidence about where commodities were produced.

This matters directly to Nigerian suppliers and Belgian buyers. Forest protection is a shared interest. But the distribution of compliance costs will influence whether the transition strengthens the relationship or excludes smaller producers. A fair response would combine purchasing commitments with practical support for farm mapping, traceability and producer training. Nigerian authorities and exporters must strengthen their own systems; European buyers should consider how their procurement terms can sustain that effort. Compliance could become a field of joint investment, including opportunities for Nigerian technology firms. It should also improve farmers’ ability to participate in formal markets. A system that can trace a bean back to a poor household should be capable of asking whether that household receives enough to sustain responsible production.

Livestock cooperation now needs investable projects

The fifth development is explicitly trilateral. The Ministry of Livestock Development reported that the 2025 forum endorsed a Nigeria-Belgium-Luxembourg Livestock Investment and Cooperation Platform, intended to advance partnerships, technology transfer, capacity building and bankable projects. Endorsement establishes an institutional opening; it does not establish that investment has closed or facilities are operating.

The opportunity is to turn that opening into a small portfolio of credible ventures. Cold-chain services, feed production, veterinary provision and dairy processing deserve appraisal against actual demand and operating conditions.

Nigeria can bring producers, enterprise and markets. Belgian partners can contribute relevant equipment and technical capabilities. Luxembourg’s financial ecosystem could help structure suitable investment vehicles and connect qualifying projects with investors.

The terms matter. Producers need transparent pricing and dependable payments. Investors need enforceable contracts. Projects need responsible land arrangements, animal-health safeguards, and workable community relationships. Those conditions are part of commercial durability.

Ports determine whether productive ambition travels

The sixth development concerns the infrastructure connecting these possibilities. Reporting on an April 2026 meeting between the Nigerian Ports Authority and Belgium’s ambassador described discussions on Belgian participation in Nigerian port modernisation, including infrastructure and operational efficiency. The public account supports an emerging cooperation agenda; it should not be treated as evidence of a completed financing package.

For an exporter, port performance can determine whether a good product reaches its buyer competitively. For an equipment supplier, delays and uncertainty can undermine an otherwise viable investment. Belgian maritime expertise therefore has value well beyond an individual construction contract. Partnerships should be judged by measurable improvements in clearance, cargo movement, and service reliability, alongside local maintenance and operational competence. Nigerian agencies must deliver the regulatory coordination that physical investment requires.

A fair corridor must serve businesses at both ends. More efficient movement of European imports alone would leave its productive promise incomplete. Nigerian exporters also need predictable access to the route.

Development finance is offering another opening

The seventh development is a concrete financing decision. In July 2026, Belgium’s development finance institution BIO approved a US$5 million investment in Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund II. Nigeria is among the fund’s ten target countries. This is a regional fund investment, rather than a US$5 million allocation to Nigeria, but it identifies a route through which eligible Nigerian agribusinesses could access support.

Its relevance is the connection between agricultural resilience and investable enterprise. Productive partnerships need finance that recognises the costs of building supply systems and adapting to climate risk. Entrepreneurs still need sound governance and credible business models. Investors need to distinguish risks that can be reduced through technical support from those that require guarantees, different financing terms or a decision not to proceed. Calling a project promising cannot substitute for this work.

Luxembourg belongs in the financing discussion

Across these developments, Luxembourg’s contribution should be made specific. There is already a financial bridge to build upon: Nigerian Exchange records its 2019 cooperation agreement with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and the subsequent cross-listing of Access Bank’s ?15 billion green bond. This is an earlier institutional foundation, not a newly announced 2026 transaction.

Its importance today is practical. Suitable Nigerian projects could be prepared for sustainable-finance markets through credible use-of-proceeds frameworks, external assessment and continuing reporting. Smaller ventures may first require aggregation or intermediary finance. A Luxembourg listing would neither guarantee affordable capital nor remove foreign-exchange risk. Projects earning Naira need financing structures that can withstand currency movements. Transparency about fees, ownership, and tax treatment must accompany any international structure. Luxembourg gains through financial services and investable opportunities; Nigeria gains only if the underlying assets become productive and financially sustainable.

The conversion platform the relationship needs

Taken together, these developments suggest a possible transition towards a relationship in which Nigeria participates more fully in production, Belgium earns returns from industrial and logistical expertise, and Luxembourg helps connect viable ventures with appropriate capital. The outcome will depend on choices still to be made.

Fair trade does not require identical trade balances or equal gains from every transaction. It requires meaningful room for each economy to develop capabilities, transparent allocation of risk and rewards, and commercial arrangements that can endure public scrutiny. Nigeria must improve its investment conditions. European partners must be willing to support productive participation as well as market access for their own firms. This is the context in which the Nigeria Belgium Luxembourg Business Forum is positioning itself as an indispensable conversion platform. Convened under the CBL-ACP Chamber, the 2026 edition combines plenary engagement with targeted business meetings and company visits. The forum programme places commercial priorities and implementation pathways at the centre of that approach.

The strongest contribution of the Business Forum is to bring the people who own an opportunity into direct discussion with those who can resolve its financing, technical or regulatory obstacles. A cocoa processor should leave with a clearer route to equipment, quality assurance and buyers. A livestock venture should establish what must happen before an investor can commit. A logistics proposal should identify the agencies and firms responsible for delivery.

To make this role indispensable, the forum is maintaining a disciplined process after Brussels: named project owners, agreed next steps and reviews at realistic intervals. A ninety-day review could distinguish opportunities that have advanced, those requiring further preparation and those that should be discontinued. Commercial confidentiality can be protected while aggregate progress is reported.

As someone involved in this work, I believe that is the standard we should welcome. The forum’s importance will grow through the transactions it helps make viable and the trust earned when participants follow through. Last year’s challenge was to recognise the opening for partnership. This year’s task is to organise the conversion into shared value. Brussels can become the place where the three economies turn that intention into commitments they can implement, measure and sustain.

Since its debut in the Nigerian visual art scene in 2022, Windsor Gallery, a dynamic contemporary art institution dedicated to amplifying West African and pan-African voices on the global stage, has continued to make bold statements with its projects.

One of such projects is its Artists in Residence programme, which creates a space for artists from across the continent to live, work, exchange ideas and engage with new cultural environments.

It is in furtherance of that commitment to building meaningful cross-border conversations around African art that the gallery is featuring Hako Hankson, a Cameroonian-born contemporary artist, at the latest Windsor Gallery Artists in Residence programme.

Hako, who has arrived in Lagos, is joining Douala, his base in Cameroon, for the six-week artist residency.

Speaking on the rationale for the programme, the gallery explained that Hako’s residency in Lagos forms part of ongoing effort to strengthen the connections between African artists, audiences and institutions – creating opportunities for exchange that move beyond borders and encourage new ways of seeing and understanding the continent through art.

Offering more details, the gallery said that over the course of six weeks, Hako will immerse himself in Lagos, developing new work while engaging with the city’s creative community, its people, histories and constantly evolving cultural landscape.

However, the residency will culminate in a solo exhibition at Windsor Gallery from October, where Hako will present the body of work developed during his time in Lagos and offer audiences an opportunity to encounter his practice through the lens of the new environment.

The highly anticipated solo exhibition by Hako, which is entitled ‘Hako’s Allegory’, will open on October 31, 2026, from, 1pm – 6pm at Windsor Gallery at #4C Goriola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

On display would be the works created by Hako during the six-week Artist-In-Residence in Lagos.

Offering insights on the exhibition in its curatorial note, Windsor Gallery asked, ‘What if what we see is only a shadow of what is real’?

It further used Plato’s Allegory of the Cave to explain Hako’s Allegory’. In Plato’s case, the gallery said that ‘a group of prisoners are confined to a cave, able to see only shadows projected onto a wall before them. Having known nothing else, they mistake these shadows for reality.

‘When one prisoner is finally released and encounters the world beyond the cave, the experience is disorienting. What he believed to be true is revealed to have been only a limited perception of truth’.

With the above in mind, Hako’s Allegory takes the philosophical proposition as its point of departure.

‘Through a new technique developed on plexiglass, Hako Hanson creates works that exist between image and reflection, visibility and obscurity, surface and depth. The material becomes more than a medium; it becomes a metaphor for perception itself,’ Windsor Gallery stated in its curatorial note.

Plexiglass, according to the gallery, allows the image to be seen while simultaneously revealing the space beyond it and as light passes through, reflections interfere, and the viewer’s own position alters the work. What appears fixed becomes unstable.

The intrigue is that what seems immediately visible begins to question itself and like the shadows in Plato’s cave, Hako’s images ask viewers to consider whether seeing is the same as knowing.

‘The works operate within this tension between appearance and reality. They invite the viewer to look beyond the immediate image, to question the assumptions that shape what we perceive and to consider how much of our understanding is constructed by the limitations of our own perspective.

‘The journey out of Plato’s cave is not simply a movement from darkness into light. It is a confrontation with the possibility that everything we previously understood may have been incomplete’.

Hako’s works occupy this threshold and do not offer a definitive reality beyond the surface. Instead, they create a space in which reality remains fluid, fragmented and open to interpretation. The viewer is therefore not merely looking at the work, but participating in it – moving around it, seeing through it, seeing themselves reflected within it, and continually negotiating between what is presented and what is perceived.

But the allegory may not be about leaving the cave, but recognising that we are still inside one.

There are also reasons to see Hako’s Allegory at Windsor Gallery from October 31, 2026.

The self-taught Cameroonian contemporary artist is gifted. He works across painting, drawing, sculpture and mixed media, amid a practice that is deeply influenced by the traditions, rituals, mythology and spiritual heritage of West Cameroon, as well as the realities of contemporary African life.

The son of a sculptor and musician associated with the Royal Palace, Hankson grew up surrounded by masks, statuettes, totems and ceremonial objects. These early experiences became central to his artistic vocabulary. Although he trained as a car mechanic, he pursued art independently, developing his practice through observation, experimentation and engagement with the artistic community in Douala.

His works combine figures, masks, animals, symbols and expressive gestures, exploring memory, identity, spirituality, migration and everyday life. He has cited artists including: Jean-Michel Basquiat, AntoniTàpies and Jean Dubuffet as influences, while emphasizing the importance of energy and gesture in his own work.

Hankson has exhibited internationally, including with OH Gallery in Dakar, Primo Marella Gallery in Italy and Switzerland, and L’Atelier 21 in Casablanca. He participated in the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024 and his works are held in collections including the Fondation Cartier, MACAAL, Fondation H, Fondation Donwahi and the Benetton Collection.

In 2013, he founded the In and Off Art Center in Douala, supporting artistic exchange and emerging artists. His practice continues to connect Cameroonian cultural heritage with contemporary global experiences, creating a distinctive visual language rooted in memory, spirituality and human experience.

With all these going for him, ‘Hako’s Allegory’ will definitely live up the viewers expectations.

Once again, the solo exhibition will open on October 31, 2026, at Windsor Gallery at #4C Goriola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Michael Carrick says dropping Bruno Fernandes to the bench for Manchester United’s Premier League clash against Bournemouth was a ‘pure football’ decision, dismissing suggestions that the move was punishment for the captain’s criticism of his tactics.

Fernandes was named among the substitutes for Sunday’s match at Old Trafford, days after questioning United’s passive approach out of possession during their 4-1 defeat to Como in the Champions League.

Carrick, under pressure after United went seven games without a win in all competitions, said his selection was based on what he believed would give the team the best chance of producing a strong performance.

‘Picking the team is always a difficult decision,’ Carrick told Sky Sports. ‘We’ve got to make what we feel is the right one for the team to try to get the performance we want.’

He added: ‘When you have options, it’s always a difficult decision. We have to make the right one for today and the team to get that performance we want.’

The United manager rejected the suggestion that Fernandes had been dropped in response to his public comments, describing the decision as a footballing judgement.

Manchester United entered the clash with seven points from their opening seven matches. Carrick is under pressure to secure a result against Bournemouth and ease speculation surrounding his future.

Fernandes had criticised United’s defensive approach after Como’s emphatic victory in Italy, raising questions about the team’s tactics at a difficult moment in the season.

The Portugal international, 32, enjoyed an outstanding campaign last season, winning multiple individual awards and setting a Premier League record with 21 assists as United finished third. His influence has been more limited this season, apart from a hat-trick against Ipswich in August.

Carrick made four changes to his starting lineup, with Matheus Cunha, Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui also dropping out. Ayden Heaven, Leny Yoro, Carlos Baleba and Amad Diallo came into the side.

Fernandes’ remarks followed criticism from teammate Lisandro Martínez, who had questioned whether United’s board did enough to strengthen the squad during the transfer window.

Martínez, however, was not dropped for those comments and was replaced at half-time in last weekend’s 1-1 draw against Leeds after suffering an injury. He was named among the substitutes against Bournemouth.

The ISO World Summit, a premier annual platform dedicated to advancing organisational

performance and raising awareness about the vital importance of ISO compliance in business operations, will soon convene key stakeholders in Nigeria.

The event is confirmed to hold on October 29, 2026, at the Sheraton Hotel, Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Ikeja, Lagos.

The summit will bring together industry leaders, policymakers, and compliance experts to advance

dialogue, foster learning, facilitate networking, and drive practical action on global ISO frameworks.

This year’s summit, themed ‘Quality Creates Trust, Trust Builds Brands’, is organised by ISO World Consult Limited, a leading consulting firm that helps businesses translate international ISO standards and Quality, Health, Safety, and Environment (QHSE) compliance into everyday workflows.

A vital objective of the 2026 summit is driving full alignment with ISO standards and compliance.

To achieve this, organisers and participating institutions are focusing on upgrading documentation, refining organizational write-ups, and embedding a deep-rooted culture of quality across all operational levels.

Discussions at the ISO World Summit 2026 will focus on inspiring organisations to view quality not merely as a compliance obligation, but as a strategic business culture capable of strengthening brands, improving performance, and creating sustainable value.

Another major highlight of the event will be the International Quality Certification Awards. This prestigious ceremony will recognise exceptional organizations and individuals making measurable

contributions to advancing ISO standards, quality management, brand trust, and operational

excellence across Nigeria.

To deliver a truly robust and immersive quality gathering, ISO World Consult Limited has proudly

partnered with AFRIBIS for this year’s edition. A key feature of this collaboration will be the presentation of authentic gold-sealed certificates and golden plaques to 51 confirmed leading organisations.

Mirroring the summit’s core commitment to global ISO standards, the entire awards process guarantees absolute credibility and transparency, with all nominations undergoing rigorous evaluation by an independent panel of certified auditors.

The Federal Government through Joseph Terlumun Utsev, minister for Water Resources and Sanitation, has challenged the organised private sector (OPS) on building a more sustainable water regeneration ecosystem to bridge Nigeria’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) goal six attainment.

‘Commissioning a facility is only the beginning; ensuring that it continues to provide safe, reliable and sustainable service is the true measure of success,’ Utsev stated during the recent commissioning of eight climate-smart boreholes and water treatment plants by Nestlé Nigeria Plc.

Nestlé Nigeria recently commissioned eight climate-smart boreholes and water treatment plants in communities within the Agbara catchment in Ogun State, as part of its Water Regeneration Project

The facilities form part of a wider programme spanning the Agbara catchment in Ogun State and the Abaji catchment in the Federal Capital Territory.

The water regeneration project is structured around four connected pillars: water access, quality, conservation and governance, strengthened through community water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) committees and governance training.

‘It is encouraging that this initiative places strong emphasis on governance and water stewardship through the development of a governance training manual for water regeneration and stewardship.’ Utsev stated.

Balarabe Abbas Lawal, minister of Environment, stated that the initiative advances SDG goal six and aligns with Nigeria’s environmental priorities.

Lawal added that the project demonstrates what strategic public-private collaboration can achieve. ‘By working with regulators, local authorities and host communities, Nestlé has supported an ecosystem for sustainable and equitable access to safe drinking water.’

Olutayo Olatunji, Business Executive Officer, Nestlé Waters and Premium Beverages, stated that combining treated water infrastructure with local governance and performance monitoring, helps in creating a model that improves access, strengthens watershed resilience and delivers enduring value.

‘The Agbara commissioning is an important milestone within our wider Water Regeneration Project and reflects Nestlé’s commitment to helping regenerate local water cycles.

‘As we finalise the remaining scope, our focus remains on rigorous delivery and measurable outcomes that benefit communities and support business continuity,’ Olatunji stated.

According to him, the water regeneration project links measurable community impact with watershed resilience, responsible water management and business continuity.

The initiative provides an integrated model in which infrastructure expands access, treatment safeguards quality, rainwater harvesting supports conservation, advocacy strengthens stewardship and local governance sustains performance.

‘Today is a day of gratitude for the people of Agbara. Safe water touches every part of our lives: the health of our children, the dignity of our homes and the hopes of our families,’ Lukman Jayeola Agunbiade, the Alagbara of Agbara Kingdom, stated.

He reiterated that the community received more than boreholes; instead it received a responsibility to keep the project going. ‘What has been started here today, Agbara will sustain for our children and for generations yet unborn.’

Victoria Uwadoka, Corporate Communications, Public Affairs and Sustainability Lead, Nestlé Nigeria Plc, stated that access to clean portable water alone is not enough.

She reiterated that water must be safe, protected, and that communities across the country must have the knowledge to manage it responsibly.

‘Through the National Water Quality Advocacy Campaign and the National Water Quality Handbook developed with the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation and OPS-WASH, we are helping to take water safety knowledge beyond project sites into homes, schools, communities and institutions.’

Several persons who have worked closely with Nyesom Wike in the Niger Delta give insight, saying anytime he wants to contest for position, he innocuously floats a political group that would appear to work for the party he belongs to, but at the appropriate time, the group would spring fire and displace the parent party. So, the group would feed on the parent party and spring surprise when ready, and discard the carcass.

Blessing Nwikina, a man who served in the information womb of the Rivers State Government and worked with all governors and principal officers of the Brick House, pointed to a familiar body (GDI – Grassroots Democratic Initiative) Wike formed before 2015 with which he overthrew the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State.

With GDI, the chairman, the chairman, became the chairman of the PDP while Wike replaced Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi as governor, and has worked hard to keep Amaechi or his supporters out of power.

Nwikina, a well-known public commentator, writer, and former government media official, thinks history is about to repeat itself but this time at the national level.

He thus regretfully said: ‘It is just that we are a people who forget so easily. If you recall, when the buildup to the election of the minister, then as a governor, was around the corner, and then people were angry that he was forcing himself, another Ikwerre man, after Amaechi to become a governor. People were opposed to it.

‘Before then, he came up with a surreptitious group they called GDI, which later metamorphosed into the political bloc which he used to hijack the election then. It’s the same tactics which he wants to export to the national level, and they now call it Rainbow Coalition.’

The information expert and political analyst stated: ‘My own description of it is that it’s just the insincere strategy of someone who is used to fraudulent achievements and fraudulent tactics. If he was sincere, he could have declared his intention, and not to come under Rainbow Coalition to foster an underlying tool of his political ambition beyond 2031.

‘It’s unfortunate that the polity or the people do not see anything about a tactic that holds no promise. I mean, how can you foster lyrics over achievements? I don’t know what to point to in terms of either physical or doable achievement that you can say, ‘These are what he has achieved.’

He said election is not a war. ‘Elections are the decisions of people, or supposedly. But when you say election, ‘I will do election, I will win, I will’-that means you are insulting the people who vote because you’re trying to tell them that owning a PVC, going to the polling booths, and voting is a waste of time because. You are saying, ‘I already captured it.”

Rainbow as Wike’s brand:

Many say now that GDI has served its purpose and produced influential partners who have now joined Wike to move to the national level, this group has transformed to the Rainbow Coalition, but maintaining all its modus operandi.

Since Wike even while he was still governor fell in love with the rainbow concept, he began painting all his businesses in rainbow colour. Some of his fierce followers call him ‘high tension’. Soon, his chain of supermarkets began to be known as ‘Hypercity’, but with rainbow colours. From these businesses, observers get the message of power and coalition.

Wike’s friends and foe alike believe the All Progressives Congress (APC) Governors were right to show fear over the intendments of the Rainbow Coalition post 2027.

Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, a chief and strong ally of both Amaechi and Atiku Abubakar, contributing to this inquiry, the APC Governors’ fear is very justified if people were to consider the brain and character behind the ‘Rainbow Coalition’, who he said has established himself as a deadly strategist and schemer.

He said: ‘Wike, not minding my different opinion about most of his political actions, is someone who pursues and commits whatever is at his disposal to accomplish his mission whether such a mission is right or not right.

‘Wike reasoning of setting up the Rainbow Coalition is nothing but to prepare for his 2031 presidential election; and whatever he needs to destroy or dismantle to achieve that makes no meaning to him.

‘In this regard, if it entails endangering the reelection of Bola Ahmed Tinubu or ensuring that most of the APC Governors are not reelected makes no meaning to him.’

Eze said the only person that seems to understand the danger that Wike portends is the President’s wife who he said has voiced out the danger that Wike’s Rainbow Coalition portends to the reelection of her husband.

‘Wike ensured that PDP, Nigeria’s most outstanding political party, is destroyed. So, what makes him not to destroy APC which he sees as a cancerous party.

‘It is too late to checkmate Wike as he has vowed to see that most of the Governors are not reelected.

‘If Wike’s 20231 election bid is to be truncated, it is for Nigerians to ensure that Tinubu is not reelected to save Nigeria, not necessarily about Tinubu’s evil plots against Nigeria and Nigerians with his proposed taxes and undemocratic laws to accomplish his third term agenda but save Nigeria from being sold off by Wike if he is to succeed him in 2031.’

The north may match him money for money: Atoivgba, middle-belt voice:

Pockets will decide:

Garshagu Atovigba, an associate Professor of Mathematics Education from the Moses Orshio Adasu University of Makurdi (MOAUM), in his contribution as a onetime editor and publisher and now a lecturer, also believes that Rainbow Coalition is a pet project to upstage the ruling party and the major opposition parties to emerge as the next power force for Aso Rock.

He told BusinessDay: ‘Whether Rainbow Coalition may make impact at 2027 and 2031 elections? That depends on the size of their pocket and whether they will remain cohesive up to 2027 and 2031 elections.

‘If Tinubu believes in them and grants them enough funds they shall definitely pull the strings for him at 2027 polls. Because elections hinge much on resources in the hands of stakeholders especially local opinion leaders of which the Wike group are opinion leaders in their localities.’

Atovigba did not factor Wike’s deep pocket and his years of accumulation plus his control of Rivers State and Abuja.

The professor went on to say: ‘Rainbow Coalition may succeed if they remain cohesive at 2027 elections by fixing Tinubu reelected and possibly winning some state governorship seats. The idea is to survive at state levels and to control resources of the states of individual members of the coalition.

‘Control of resources is at the heart of politics in all societies. At federal level the coalition can easily succeed in having Tinubu elected if Tinubu releases enough funds for them to do what the president is aspiring for. Nigerian electorate hardly vote candidates owing to their merits but what local influencers tell them. The coalition members are local influencers in their localities. But is the coalition found in each state of Nigeria? No. They are not much available in most northern states.

‘First, Kwankwaso still controls Kano which stakes second highest registered voters. Second, 19 northern state governors have been pooling N2b or N38b monthly under the toga of security funds. But security toga is an alibi for what those govs would do both at 2027 and 2031. If 19 northern govs unanimously support Tinubu then Tinubu automatically gets reelected.

‘Their N38b monthly times six years would pool N2.592 trillion by 2031 and that will be enough funds to field one of them as the next president of Nigeria in 2031. They will overwhelm the rainbow coalition in 2031. Thus, in summary the 19 northern governors are a threat to the Wike-led Rainbow Coalition both at 2027 and 2031 presidential and governorship elections.’

Oby Ndukwe: APC governors should definitely be threatened

Another strong political observer who knows Rivers politics inside out, having worked closely with or under most principal actors is Oby Ndukwe, a journalist, publisher, analyst, and multi-tasking expert.

In her considered opinion, the Rainbow Coalition may not become the nucleus of the next powerful national ruling party. She thinks the APC is very strong, and the ADC too, not minding that the ADC would have to prove in January that it is the biggest opposition party. She thinks this would be determined by the number of seats in the National Assembly, the states and the local the State Assemblies, and then of course their performance if they manage to win.

She thinks the Rainbow Coalition may even turn out to be the next biggest opposition movement against the ADC (if the ADC or NDC wins).

Ndukwe, also called the Media FBI because her uncanny insight into most camps in the Niger Delta and Abuja, said she is still watching the Rainbow Coalition to see if they’re going to have a structure where they begin to hold meetings outside the PDP thing or outside the APC.

‘You also need to look at the strength that they need to bring to bear. I mean, Wike is strong. He’s a minister, and if the APC wins the next election, we also wait to see where the President will assign him. That also will determine the strength of the party, because let me tell you, a lot of funds is needed for you to finance a movement. That was why even Tinubu, with all his wealth, couldn’t finance that massive movement that later metamorphosed into APC. He still brought in Muhammadu Buhari because he knew that Buhari had the people even if he didn’t have the money. Gradually, they brought in some others from the nPDP, APGA, CPC, ANPP.’

APC’s fears:

Ndukwe, who began as publisher of the BEAM, agreed that the APC governors were justified to show fears about what Rainbow Coalition may turn out to be after 2027 into 2031. ‘Every politician, particularly those with ambitions, will definitely be threatened.

‘Let me be frank with you, the internal issues or crises within the ruling party and then also from those who are not in APC, but are supporting President Tinubu, it’s all about 2031. That is the truth. Anyone who’s succeeds to hold the structure is likely going to be considered as a running mate to whoever will emerge from the north in 2031.

‘That is if APC wins the election in 2027. So, their fears are germane. That is the truth of the matter. I’m not going to pretend, because I’m not working for anybody. I’m not on anybody’s pay roll, so I have to speak the truth the way it is. Let me tell you, the likes of Hope Uzodinma, the likes of Charles Soludo, the likes of Peter Mbah of Enugu State, the likes of Adams Oshiomhole, the likes of Dave Umahi, and the likes of Wike and Soludo (who are not in the APC), these guys all have their eyes on 2031.’

She said it’s not all about Tinubu’s re-election but about 2031. ‘They are commonly bound on that project, that is the truth. And everyone believes that, ‘If I can do well, if I can deliver, I could get the endorsement of the president, you know, for 2031.’ That is what you’re seeing.

‘That is why Hope Uzodinma is going to forego eight months of his governorship to run for Senate and probably emerge as the Senate President. Even where he does not emerge as the Senate President, he still wants to be in the Senate because he believes probably he will have an advantage. I mean, something can happen and there will be shifting in the National Assembly that could favour him. So, he’s trying to position himself. But the truth is that, as a governor, you’re equally powerful.’

She went on: ‘Let me tell you, because his election is going to be off-cycle, his fears are that by the time his tenure ends, he will not have that power or that push to fight for the Presidency when the time would come.

So, he needs to be in the Senate for the next three years to four, so that it will give him a kind of comfortable cruise to the battle for 2031. Peter Mbah of Enugu State also has his own calculations. He has joined the APC.’

What Wike wants:

Could it be that Wike has convinced himself that he would hardly be allowed to get the slot of vice president in the APC (he is not even a member) as the PDP is a no-go area?

The media FBI vouched: ‘Beyond that, Wike’s intention is to position himself for the 2031 Vice President slot. We know these things. We’re in touch, we are field people, we are connected. I come from the South East and I live in the South-South, and I can tell you that I know politics in the two regions the way I know the back of my hand. I mean, I can tell you that that is the first ambition for Peter Mbah. That’s it, that’s why he’s there. Now, you look at Dave Umahi. He’s doing everything possible to please the President with all the coastal road, all the Abuja-Kano Road, all the infrastructure projects here and there and kind of taking the heat off the government and all that.

‘Of course, he wants to be compensated with the ticket, running mate to whoever that will emerge as the presidential candidate from the North.’

She said Soludo of APGA has also made his own political calculations about the limitations of APGA and the fate of his predecessors (Obi, Obiano). Now, you can see that Obiano is neither here nor there. APGA has not been able to really favor those who served with it.

She said it’s all about a South-East vice president in 2031 and hopes of an eventual presidential candidate thereafter.

‘So, that’s basically what they are looking at. I don’t also want to rule out Alex Otti, even though he has said he just wants to finish as governor and go. Then, look at Nyesom Wike. You think that Wike will just finish all that he’s done and then just retire like that, a young man? No, I don’t see that. He has not also shown that, so I believe strongly that he is also positioning.

‘And that is where the fear comes in, because having a powerful structure as the Rainbow Coalition, though not a registered political party, but it could be tomorrow. It could be, because I don’t know whether PDP will survive from the ashes. So, it’s possible, and then I don’t also see Nigerians really believing in PDP anymore. So, Wike could just form this coalition and it will translate to something bigger.

Wike, a disruptive political thinker: Oby

Ndukwe went on: ‘Already, like I said, it’s spreading to very many states, even though there’s not been any evidence that he has those structures. It’s just that people are beginning to borrow the template and give him the credit. He, I mean, is the convener, and that’s why I said he’s also a disruptive political thinker-not a destructive, get me, a disruptive thinker. That is somebody who thinks outside the box; and that is Wike.’

So, she said, some of the governors in the APC are actually scared that these things may affect whatever plans they have. ‘But I think the bottom line is if President Tinubu wins in 2027, and then maybe endorses somebody as presidential candidate, and then somebody else as running mate. But these things are speculative, ‘All things being equal, ceteris paribus.’ So for me, what should be paramount to them is to ensure that the APC wins and remains in power before you begin to talk about what next. Because in my place, they say you have to struggle for space first before you start struggling for the mat that you’re going to put on the space to lie down.’

Conclusion: Rainbow Coalition, the next biggest thing:

Ndukwe rounded her thoughts up by positing that the Rainbow is the next biggest thing, if it survives in the 2027 elections. ‘So, I think Wike has started off well. Maybe he didn’t even know that it will grow this big, I’m sure. And so if we all have to wait to see what he wants to do, and then like I said, the fears of those APC governors are also germane because they also have almost the same ambition that Wike has. Everybody is eyeing 2031.

Nigeria’s content creative industry is fast becoming an economic driver as creatives develop content that combines business objectives with authentic audience engagement.

To strengthen this shift, Insight Redefini, in partnership with Woof Studios Africa, hosted YouTube PluggedIN 2026, a platform where brands and creators shared insights on exploring opportunities for more meaningful collaboration through brand-funded content on YouTube.

The event, with the theme ‘Beyond the Placement: Rethinking How Brands Work with Creators,’ examined how brands, agencies and creators can move beyond conventional advertising placements to develop content that combines business objectives with authentic audience engagement.

Speaking at the event, Babatunde Olaifa, Group CEO of Insight Redefini, said that the growth of the creator economy depends on meaningful collaboration among brands and creators.

Olaifa said that no single stakeholder could build the ecosystem alone, highlighting the importance of combining their respective strengths to transform creative ideas into valuable content.

Building on a 2025 pilot, this year’s edition expanded the conversation to more brands, with a focus on small-group discussions and one-to-one engagements designed to connect brands with creators and move promising ideas towards campaign briefs, partnerships and funded content.

Adetutu Laditan, founder and Creative Director of Woof Studios Africa, said the growing ambitions of Nigerian creators and the need to address the business and production complexities involved in turning creative ideas into content that can be funded, produced and distributed to wider audiences.

Discussions throughout the event centred on three priorities: involving creators earlier in the creative process, ensuring brand-funded content remains relevant and authentic to audiences, and translating conversations into tangible partnerships, content opportunities and measurable outcomes.

A key highlight was a brand panel moderated by Esosa Osagiede, Group Creative Director at Insight Redefini, which explored what brands look for when selecting creators for partnerships.

Panellists, including brand managers from established Nigerian brands, identified brand fit and genuine audience influence as critical considerations. They stressed that follower counts and views alone do not necessarily reflect a creator’s ability to connect with audiences or influence their perceptions and behaviour.

One of the panellists, Media and Consumer Experience Manager of Mondelez International, Bolaji Popoola, noted that a shared understanding of objectives, audiences and creative direction is essential to building effective partnerships.

Prominent Nigerian creators, including Kiekie, Taoma, Aproko Doctor and Ify’s Kitchen, also shared perspectives on collaborating with brands through content that reflects their creative identities while meeting commercial objectives.

Babatunde Shobanjo, Chief Operating Officer of Insight Redefini, described the initiative as a positive development for the media and marketing communications industry, pointing to the value of creating platforms where brands and creators can explore new ways of working together.

Their emphasis on collaboration reflects Insight Redefini’s integrated approach to marketing communications. Earlier in 2026, agencies within its ecosystem, working with global partners, won a Gold Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in the Creator Collaboration category for Vaseline’s The Real Nigerian Prince campaign.

The event comes amid growing interest in digital video and creator-led content as platforms for brands to connect with audiences. YouTube previously reported that watch time in Nigeria grew by more than 50 per cent year on year in 2025, with the platform reaching more than 30 million adults in the country each month.