GREATEST FUTARIANS

Former Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Education, Farouk Lawal, yesterday, appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to return to the negotiating table with the Federal Government to bring an end to the lingering strike. Lawal, who spoke during a chat with newsmen, also charged the Federal Government not to always cave in to pressure to sign an agreement if it knew the terms were stringent. He recalled that similar incident had occurred in the past when government bowed to pressure and later backslid, stressing that dialogue remained the best way out of the present ASUU/FG impasse. He said: "I think, in the first place, that the best way of resolving any crisis is through dialogue andit is on this note that I am appealing to ASUU to resume negotiation with the government. "I am appealing to both sides to resume negotiations because, it is only through dialogue, itis only through consultations, that the issues can be resolved."

The Nigerian attacker, Sunday Mba, who scored the goal that won the African Nations Cup for Nigeria in February in South Africa, left Warri Wolves for French team CA Bastia on Thursday. The 24-year-old has signed a one-year deal, the Ligue 2 club told reporters including Reuters correspondent in Corsica. Mba, who was on target in the 40th minute of the1-0 victory over Burkina Faso in the Nations Cup final match in Johannesburg, cost CA Bastia a fee of €1.32m. The promoted French club are 15th in the 20-team table with two points from four games. The move to France ends the severally speculatedmoves to Turkey and other rumoured countries since he hit the limelight with a superb strike against a Cote d'Ivoire team inspired by legendary Didier Drogba. Soon afterwards the player became a subject of controversy over ownership between Wolves and Enugu Rangers. The dispute became messy which forced the Nigeria Football Federation to set up a committee to handle the matter. One of the...

According to reports, our very own Nigerian football legend Austin JJ Okocha is currently producing a movie about reggae star Majek Fashek. The movie's screen play is reportedly written by Charles Novia, and features Fracis Duru as Majek Fasek, Sam Dede, Stella Damascus and other top Nollywood actors. However,movie producer Charles Novia has confirmed this report. He said that he movie is shooting on 35mm and took about 3 years to fine-tune. It is presently at its pre-production stage, after which the crew will travel to New Yorkin October to shoot the America scene, which is the major part of the film. It was also gathered that Nollywood actor, Francis Duru is undergoing guitar lessons and extensive study of Majek's character for the past eight months to fit the role. This is what Francis had to say about Majek: "Whatever his travails and the public perception of him, Majek still remain a world class material, who has promoted so much interest world wide with his ty...

The world football governing body, Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) has confirmed that it had received an official complaint from the Football Association of Malawi over 'racist' comments made by Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi. FIFA however said, "Please understand that we cannot comment any further at this stage," to further enquiries from BBC Sport. The Malawi federation wants action taken over what it calls 'racist' remarks by Keshi aimed at their Belgian coach Tom Sainfiet. "We feel the racist remarks by Mr. Keshi are not acceptable," Fam's general secretary Suzgo Nyirenda told BBC Sport. "We thought it was a personal attack on our coach and we had to defend him regardless of skin. We felt we should help our coach and at the same time put a stop to the racist remarks from Mr Keshi. We have sent evidence of what Keshi said and we hope FIFA will come up with some measures to control Mr Keshi." The case concern...

Joint Health Workers' Union of Nigeria (JOHESU) has called off the strike it embarked upon on Wednesday, Aug. 21 to push for improved welfareof the workers. The minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu announced this on Tuesday in Abuja, after a12 hour closed-door meeting with the union leaders. He said the strike was suspended based on an agreement reached between the Federal Government and the union. "We have reached an understanding after a lengthy deliberation which started yesterday and we resumed at 8 O'clock in the morning today. "We were able to reach an understanding which has been signed and based on that understandingthe unions have agreed to suspend the strike which was embarked upon," he said. The President of JOHESU, Dr Ayuba Wabba, said the union decided to suspend the strike based on the agreement it had with the federal government. He expressed optimism that the demand of the union would be met in the next two weeks or onemonth agree...

Chris Brown likes to keep us guessing about hs relationship status. But if this latest public display of affection is anything to go by, Chris Brown and Karrueche Tran are definitely back on. The couple were photographed on the beach in Hawaii yesterday looking pleased to be in each other's company as Chris filmed his latest music video. Despite other beautiful ladies being on set, Chris was said to only have eyes for Karrueche and rushed to her side whenever he took a break.

In the negotiations between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government forfeited again yesterday as the lecturers have pulled out of the Governor Gabriel Suswam-led Committee on Needs Assessment of Nigerian Universities. In a letter detailing its reasons for withdrawing from the committee, ASUU said that the committee had not made progress on the issues for which it was set up, adding it was not satisfied with the way the N100 billion raised by government to rehabilitate structures in the universities was being managed. Worse still, ASUU in the letter dated August 26 andsigned by its National President, Dr. Nasir Isa Fagge, accused the Suswam committee of not being, clear on its plans for managing the funds. Itcited the inclusion of a "Project Administration Fund," even as it queried the manner which fundswere allocated to universities slated to benefit from government's intervention. The letter stated that, "we have also noted alb...