NRTC WEEKLY: Top 5 trending stories across the country this week

It’s another edition of NRTC WEEKLY Roundup and in this week’s episode, our focus is on five trending stories across the country that made Nigerians discuss.

As usual, the stories will cut across the top five beats in our media organization, NRTC[ your one-stop hub for rich and reliable content covering entertainment, sports, politics, business, and more].

As we all know, a day can’t pass without the country being filled up with several trends and we have tracked many of these trends for you this week. Why not scroll down and treat yourself? 

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Tiwa Savage makes movie debut in ‘Water and Garri’, Chrisland schools student dies, Champion League; Europa League returns, again, scarcity of new currency fueled protest, Supreme Court judgement, Buhari; Governor’s clashes are the major stories to discuss this week.

Metro: Chrisland school student dies

The Internet went buzzing this week over the death of a 12-year-old student of Chrisland schools, Whitney Omodesola Adeniran, who reportedly died during inter-house sports activities in Agege Stadium, Lagos State.

 

The 12-year-old Whitney Adeniran. Photo credit: Internet

The management of the school in a statement stated that Whitney slumped and died whereas the parents of the 12-year-old deceased student accused the school of negligence in the death of their daughter.

ALSO READ, NRTC WEEKLY: Top 5 trending stories across the country this week

Whitney’s father, Michael Adeniran, said his daughter died from electrocution, saying the child had no health condition or sickness when the school bus picked her up for the event and was shocked to see her lifeless body when he arrived.

Reacting to the incident, parents, actors, actresses, and netizens accuse the management of not being sincere with the cause of Whitney’s death. 

In a switch reaction to the online dragging, the Lagos State Ministry of Education ordered the temporary closure of the school located in Opebi-Ikeja in a statement signed by the State Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo.

According to her, the closure remained pending the outcome of a full investigation into the unfortunate incident by the Police.

As of press time, the online petition generated by the deceased’s father, Dr. Michael Adeyemi Adeniran against Chrisland school had been signed by about 26,500.

The petition was titled, “Justice For My Daughter Whitney Omodesola Adeniran. All Parents Pay Attention,” 

In the same vein, the parents’ forum of Chrisland Schools, Lagos has declared 5-days of mourning for the students in a communique signed by Very Reverend ThankGod Oganwo on behalf of PTA chairpersons.

Recall that last year, four teachers were arraigned after a sex tape by Chrisland pupils surfaced online during an outing.

Business: again, scarcity of new currency fueled protest

Nigerians have continued groaning about the nonavailability of the new currency in the country which had led to protests in some parts of the country.

The new currency. Photo credit: NRTC

NRTC WEEKLY last week reported that Nigerians were facing difficulties every day and couldn’t purchase foodstuffs from the market to feed their families.

Further findings revealed that some Bank managers contributed majorly to the suffering of Nigerians despite many being arrested by ICPC and EFCC for withholding and giving the new currency to politicians.

Since the release of the newly redesigned N200, N500, and N1,000 notes, Point of Sales stands(PoS) operators had increased their charges and Banks couldn’t provide the new notes for customers.

NRTC WEEKLY also confirmed that many businesses have shut down, hunger in town and some Banks closed till further.

“Money in accounts is useless unless it’s cash, If you don’t have cash — you don’t have money. People with cash are the Odogwus,” a trending song in Nigeria.

A few days ago, after the Supreme Court restrained the implementation of the February 10th deadline for the validity of old notes, President Muhammadu Buhari in his broadcast to the nation said N200 old notes will remain legal tender till April 10, 2023.

He further added that the old N500 and N1000 are no longer legal tender.

Despite all these, NRTC WEEKLY gathered that some business owners were still rejecting the old N200 notes. 

Politics: Buhari and Governor clashes over supreme court judgement 

Governors across the 36 states in the country, especially the ones elected under the umbrella of All Progressive Congress, APC, have dared President Buhari’s over failure to obey court orders as well his comments on N200 old remain legal tender till April 10, 2023.

 

President Buhari. Photo credit: NRTC

Some governors in their states have directed their citizens to continue using the old Naira notes[N200, N500, and N1000] which were against Buhari’s broadcast that both the N1,000 and N5,000 old Naira notes are no longer legal tenders.

The governors said the policy was threatening the ‘good records’ of their administration in transforming the economy.

They further expressed concerns about the negative impact of the policy which has had a debilitating effect on Nigerians, urging the president to direct an adequate injection of the new notes and the continued utilization of the old ones until the end of the year.

“APC appointed Godwin Emefiele; he came up with the naira policy and got the President’s backing but the same APC governors are directing their citizens not to obey the policy.

“The Supreme Court gave judgement on stepping down the deadline of old notes’ validity and inside the same court people were rejecting old notes. Court itself is not obeying its order. All these inside Buhari and APC administration.” Nigerians said as they mocked the party. 

Taking to their social media pages to react to the Buhari, Emefiele, and APC Governor’s drama, Nigerians expressed disappointment over the nonchalant attitude of the Buhari-led administration to a court order.

According to them, the Buhari-led administration is the only administration that had no regard for court orders and it’ll not be surprising if the Governors elected under his party failed to accord respect to his order. 

Sport: Champion League; Europa League Round 16 kickoff

Champions League; Europa League has returned with a great shock to football fans. Before the kick-off of the knockout stage this week, many football club fans were boasting of their club and new signees as gathered by NRTC WEEKLY but upon the boasting, many clubs’ new signees were unable to record a single ‘shot’ not to talk of ‘shot of target’.

Karim Adeyemi. Photo credit: NRTC

Champions League kickoff with Chelsea visiting Dortmund with their full squad in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League knockout round tie but lost 1:0 to the club.

Chelsea mockery set the internet agog as Borussia Dortmund forward Karim Adeyemi after scoring a brilliant solo goal to help the Bundesliga campaigners beat Chelsea said the reason he was so fast and strong to score the only goal was that he eats a lot of African food ‘fufu’. 

The match was without a goal for more than an hour inside the Signal Iduna Park until Adeyemi took matters into his own hands.

Paris St Germain of Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe lost to Bayern Munich of Sadio Mane, Ac Milan beat Tottenham Hotspur F.C. and Club Brugge lost to Benfica. 

However, the Europa League kick-off with the La Liga number one[Barcelona FC] and the number three in the Premier League [Manchester United]. The tough match at Camp Nou ended 2:2 with an own goal in favor of Manchester United. The second leg of the match will take place at Old Trafford.

Also, Jose Mourinho’s Roma was beaten 1-0 against RB Salzburg; Juventus were held to a 1-1 draw by French club Nantes and Monaco beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-2 in a first-leg thriller.

The Champions League and the Europa League continue next week with Liverpool FC taking on the defending champion Real Madrid. Which team will advance to the quarter, semi, and final? Who’s lifting the cup? I’ll leave that for my readers to answer. 

Entertainment: Tiwa Savage makes her movie debut

Afrobeats songstress Tiwatope Savage-Balogun, popularly known as Tiwa Savage on Wednesday announced she is making her first movie debut in ‘Water and Garri’ as well as co-directing in the movie. 

Tiwa Savage. Photo credit: Tiwa Savage Instagram page

Tiwa who announced on her Instagram page is playing the role of a fashion designer with a budding career in the U.S. who returns to her home in Africa to confront the guilt she left behind.  

The news got many of her colleagues and well-wishers talking as they stormed her page to congratulate her on seeing beyond music entertainment. 

Reacting to the news, netizens and fans hailed her for the bold step, saying that they couldn’t wait for the movie’s release. 

Netizens who set the internet ablaze said it can only be the number one African Bad girl.

This is where we will be dropping the cotton for this week NRTC WEEEKLY, do not forget to join us next week for another edition.