Grammy award-winning singer, Ayodeji Balogun, aka Wizkid, has revealed why he rarely makes political comments in his music and interviews.
According to him, the Nigerian masses don’t care about politics, saying they only care about how to make ends meet.
Wizkid made the assertion in a recent interview with Evening Standard UK.
He said, “I don’t like to speak about politicians in Nigeria. People in the streets care about themselves and what they are going to eat. They don’t give a f*ck about nothing else.”
The ‘Ojuelegba’ crooner also disclosed his ambition as a leader of the new generation of Nigerian musicians.
He said he wouldn’t judge “previous generations”, stressing that his goal is “to steer the new generation forward.”
The 30-year-old said he desires for the new crop of afrobeats artists to make global exploits and be united.
Andre Onana has admitted that the chance to join Manchester United was “irresistible”.
The Cameroon goalkeeper is in the United Kingdom currently to complete a £47 million move from Inter Milan.
Erik ten Hag has picked Onana, who he managed at Ajax, as his top choice to replace David de Gea as United’s No. 1.
The Red Devils will pay £43.8 million upfront for the 27-year-old and £3.4 million in add-ons.
Onana has now spoken about his excitement at linking up with the Premier League giants.
He told Gazzetta dello Sport: “The important thing is to be honest and always tell people the truth.
“I am a person who always wants new challenges.
“Playing in the Premier League and for a club like Man United is irresistible. All parties wanted this to happen.
“But what matters is that, even if I had stayed, I would have been equally happy because I never had any problems at Inter. Indeed, a magic was born in Milan that is almost difficult to explain.”
"It's about changing the framing of AI from artificial intelligence to radically augmented intelligence," said study co-author Prof. James A. Evans. Credit: Shutterstock.com
A new study explores how artificial intelligence can not only better predict new scientific discoveries but can also usefully expand them. The researchers, who published their work in Nature Human Behaviour, built models that could predict human inferences and the scientists who will make them.
The authors also built models that avoided human inference to generate scientifically promising "alien" hypotheses that would not likely be considered until the distant future, if at all. They argue that the two demonstrations—the first allowing for the acceleration of human discovery, while the second identifies and passes over its blind spots—means that a human-aware AI would allow for movement beyond the contemporary scientific frontier.
"If you build in awareness to what people are doing, you can improve prediction and leapfrog them to accelerate science," says co-author James A. Evans, the Max Palevsky Professor in the Department of Sociology and director of the Knowledge Lab. "But you can also figure out what people can't currently do, or won't be able to do for decades or more into the future. You can augment them by providing them that kind of complementary intelligence."
A.I. models that have been trained on published scientific findings have been used to invent valuable materials and targeted therapies, but they typically ignore the distribution of human scientists involved. The researchers considered how humans have competed and collaborated on research throughout history, so they wondered what could be learned if AI programs were explicitly made aware of the human expertise: Could we do a better job of complementing the collective human capacity by pursuing and exploring places humans haven't explored?
Predicting the future of discovery
To test the question, the team first simulated reasoning processes by building random walks across research literature. They began with a property, such as COVID vaccination, then jumped to a paper with that same property, to another paper by the same author, or a material cited in that paper.
They ran millions of these random walks and their model offered a 400% improvement of predictions of future discoveries beyond those focused on research content alone, especially when relevant literature was sparse. They could also predict with greater than 40% precision the actual people who would make each of those discoveries, because the program knew that the predicted individual was one of only a few whose experience or relationships linked the property and material in question.
Evans refers to the model as a "digital double" of the scientific system, which allows simulation of what is likely to happen in it, and experimentation of alternative possibilities. He explains how this highlights the ways in which scientists hew close to the methods, properties, and people with which they have experience.
"It allows us to also learn things about that system and its limits," he says. "For example, on average, it suggests that some aspects of our current scientific system, like graduate education, are not tuned for discovery. They're tuned for giving people a label that helps them get a job—for filling the labor market. They do not optimize discovery of new, technologically relevant things. To do that, each student would be an experiment—crossing novel gaps in the landscape of expertise."
In the paper's second demonstration, they asked the AI model not to make the predictions most likely to be discovered by people, but to find predictions that are scientifically plausible, but least likely to be discovered by people.
The researchers treated these as so-called alien or complementary inferences, which had three features: They're rarely discovered by humans; if discovered, it won't be for many years into the future when scientific systems reorganize themselves; and the alien inferences are, on average, better than human inferences, likely because humans will focus on squeezing every ounce of discovery from an existing theory or approach before exploring a new one. Because these models avoid connections and configurations of human scientific activity, they explore entirely new territory.
Radically augmented intelligence
Evans explains that looking at AI as an attempt to copy human capacity—building on Alan Turing's idea of the imitation game where humans are the standards of intelligence—does not help scientists accelerate their ability to solve problems. We're much more likely to benefit from a radical augmentation of our collective intelligence, he says, rather than an artificial replication.
"People in these domains—science, technology, culture—they're trying to stay close to the pack," Evans said. "You survive by having influence when others use your ideas or technology. And you maximize this by staying close to the pack. Our models complement that bias by creating algorithms that follow signals of scientific plausibility, but exclusively avoid the pack."
Using AI to move outside existing methods and collaborations, rather than reflecting what human scientists are likely to think in the near future, expands human capacity and supports improved exploration.
"It's about changing the framing of AI from artificial intelligence to radically augmented intelligence, which requires studying more, not less, about individual and collective cognitive capacity," Evans said. "When we understand more about human understanding, we can explicitly design systems that compensate for its limitations and lead to us to collectively know more."
New WHO and UNICEF data show promising signs of immunization services rebounding in some countries, but, particularly in low-income countries, coverage still falls short of pre-pandemic levels putting children at grave risk from disease outbreaks.
A baby received a vaccination during a campaign in IDP sites and villages affected by conflict in the Waghimra zone of the Amhara region of Ethiopia.
GENEVA/NEW YORK, 18 July 2023 – Global immunization services reached 4 million more children in 2022 compared to the previous year, as countries stepped up efforts to address the historic backsliding in immunization caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to data published today by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, in 2022, 20.5 million children missed out on one or more vaccines delivered through routine immunization services, compared to 24.4 million children in 2021. In spite of this improvement, the number remains higher than the 18.4 million children who missed out in 2019 before pandemic-related disruptions, underscoring the need for ongoing catch-up, recovery and system strengthening efforts.
The vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) is used as the global marker for immunization coverage. Of the 20.5 million children who missed out on one or more doses of their DTP vaccines in 2022, 14.3 million did not receive a single dose, so-called zero-dose children. The figure represents an improvement from the 18.1 million zero-dose children in 2021 but remains higher than the 12.9 million children in 2019.
“These data are encouraging, and a tribute to those who have worked so hard to restore life-saving immunization services after two years of sustained decline in immunization coverage,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “But global and regional averages don’t tell the whole story and mask severe and persistent inequities. When countries and regions lag, children pay the price.”
The early stages of recovery in global immunization have not occurred equally, with the improvement concentrated in a few countries. Progress in well-resourced countries with large infant populations, such as India and Indonesia, masks slower recovery or even continued declines in most low-income countries, especially for measles vaccination.
Of the 73 countries that recorded substantial declines* in coverage during the pandemic, 15 recovered to pre-pandemic levels, 24 are on route to recovery and, most concerningly, 34 have stagnated or continued declining. These concerning trends echo patterns seen in other health metrics. Countries must ensure they are accelerating catch-up, recovery, and strengthening efforts, to reach every child with the vaccines they need and - because routine immunization is a fundamental pillar of primary healthcare - take the opportunity to make progress in other, related health sectors.
Vaccination against measles - one of the most infectious pathogens - has not recovered as well as other vaccines, putting an additional 35.2 million children at risk of measles infection. First dose measles coverage increased to 83 per cent in 2022 from 81 per cent in 2021 but remained lower than the 86 per cent achieved in 2019. As a result, last year, 21.9 million children missed the routine measles vaccination in their first year of life - 2.7 million more than in 2019 – while an additional 13.3 million did not receive their second dose, placing children in under-vaccinated communities at risk of outbreaks.
“Beneath the positive trend lies a grave warning,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Until more countries mend the gaps in routine immunization coverage, children everywhere will remain at risk of contracting and dying from diseases we can prevent. Viruses like measles do not recognize borders. Efforts must urgently be strengthened to catch up children who missed their vaccination, while restoring and further improving immunization services from pre-pandemic levels.”
Countries with steady, sustained coverage in the years before the pandemic have been better able to stabilise immunization services since, the data indicates. For example, South Asia, which reported gradual, ongoing increases in coverage in the decade prior to the pandemic, has demonstrated a more rapid and robust recovery than regions that suffered longstanding declines, such as Latin America and the Caribbean. The African region, which is lagging behind in its recovery, faces an extra challenge. With an increasing child population, countries must scale up routine immunization services every year in order to maintain coverage levels.
DTP3 vaccine coverage in the 57 lower-income countries supported by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance increased to 81 per cent in 2022 - a considerable increase from 78% in 2021 - with the number of zero-dose children who receive no basic vaccines also dropping by 2 million in these countries. However, the increase in DTP3 coverage in Gavi-implementing countries was concentrated in lower-middle income countries, with low-income countries not yet increasing coverage – indicating the work remaining to help the most vulnerable health systems rebuild.
"It is incredibly reassuring, after the massive disruption wrought by the pandemic, to see routine immunisation making such a strong recovery in Gavi-supported countries, especially in terms of reducing the number of zero-dose children,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “However, it is also clear from this important study that we need to find ways of helping every country protect their people, otherwise we run the risk of two tracks emerging, with larger, lower middle income countries outpacing the rest.”
For the first time, HPV vaccination coverage surpassed pre-pandemic levels. HPV vaccination programmes that began pre-pandemic reached the same number of girls in 2022 than 2019. However, coverage in 2019 was well below the 90% target, and this has remained true in 2022, with mean coverages in HPV programmes reaching 67% in high income countries and 55% in low- and middle-income countries. The newly launched HPV revitalization, led by the Gavi Alliance, aims to strengthen existing programme delivery and facilitate more introductions.
Many stakeholders are working to expedite recovery in all regions and across all vaccine platforms. Earlier in 2023, WHO and UNICEF, along with Gavi, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other IA2030 partners launched ‘The Big Catch-Up’, a global communications and advocacy push, calling on governments to catch up the children who missed vaccinations during the pandemic, restore immunization services to pre-pandemic levels, and strengthen these going forward by:
Doubling-down on their commitment to increase financing for immunization and to work with stakeholders to unlock available resources, including COVID-19 funds, to urgently restore disrupted and overstretched services and implement catch-up efforts.
Developing new policies that enable immunizers to reach children who were born just before or during the pandemic and who are moving past the age when they would be vaccinated by routine immunization services.
Strengthening immunization and primary health care services -including community health systems - and addressing systemic immunization challenges to correct longer-term stagnation in vaccination and reach the most marginalised children.
Building and sustaining vaccine confidence and acceptance through engagement with communities and health providers
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Notes to editors:
* A substantial decline is considered a decline of 5 percentage points or more in 2020 and/or 2021 compared to 2019. Smaller fluctuations in coverage were not unusual before the pandemic.
The data indicates how many children in the target age group for routine immunization services were reached in 2022. It is not structured to capture catch-up of those who were missed during the pandemic, as many of these children will have ‘aged out’ of local immunisation services. However, some catch-up may have been recorded as “routine” services and reflected in the data.
WHO and UNICEF are working with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and other partners to deliver the global Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030), a strategy for all countries and relevant global partners to achieve set goals on preventing diseases through immunization and delivering vaccines to everyone, everywhere, at every age.
About the data
Based on country-reported data, the WHO and UNICEF estimates of national immunization coverage (WUENIC) provide the world’s largest and most comprehensive data-set on immunization trends for vaccinations against 13 diseases given through regular health systems - normally at clinics, community centres, outreach services, or health worker visits. For 2022, data were provided from 183 countries.
World Trade Organization (WTO) director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala attends a press conference on WTO trade forecast at the intergovernmental trade organization in Geneva on April 12, 2022. Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP
The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Monday, faulted Russia’s decision to halt its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
In a tweet on Monday, the former Minister of Finance expressed disappointment, saying the stoppage of the deal would be felt most severely by poor countries.
Earlier, Russia said it would no longer cooperate with a deal that allowed the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine’s grain.
Channels Television reports that the Black Sea Grain Initiative was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.
The initiative was established in July 2022 to abate a global food crisis after Russia invaded Ukraine — a neighboring country and fellow key grain exporter.
The deal allowed for commercial food and fertilizer (including ammonia) exports from three key Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea – Odesa, Chornomorsk, Yuzhny/Pivdennyi.
The Leader Of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele, has spoken about the fate of the ruling party, All Progressives Congress, APC, following the removal of its national chairman, Abdullahi Adamu.
Primate Ayodele, who had foretold the APC crisis and the removal of the party’s National Chairman some years back, noted that the ruling party is set to begin another round of crisis that will lead to their destruction.
In a statement signed by his media aide, Osho Oluwatosin, titled: ‘APC will be destroyed, minority will oppress majority’, Ayodele knocked APC’s leadership for ignoring his warnings about the party’s crisis some years back while stressing that the removal of Adamu will expose many things hidden in the party.
Primate Ayodele explained that he doesn’t see the ruling party flourishing in the coming days unless the leaders retrace their steps.
According to Ayodele: “I warned the ruling party about the removal of Adamu, but they didn’t listen. The removal of Adamu will expose so many things about the party and will lead to them fighting dirty.
“Except they retrace their steps, I don’t see APC flourishing in the coming days. When we warn them they don’t listen but I will continue speaking. The party will not get things right, there is so much cracks already.’’
For the first time in 13 years, Nigeria Afrobeats Artiste Ayodeji Balogun, popularly known as Wizkid, did not bag a nomination in the 16th edition of the Headies Awards.
On Wednesday, the Headies Awards organisers announced the nominees in different categories. After the announcement, several mixed reactions trailed Wizkid’s absence from the nomination list.
Many were surprised that Wizkid, a Grammy award-winning singer, was not nominated. Some people argued that the artiste’s latest project, ‘More Love Less Ego,’ should be considered for nomination.
Wizkid gets no nomination at Headies
However, Wizkid is yet to respond to his name’s omission amid the social media buzz about him.
Blackface accuses Burnaboy, others of stealing his songs
Blackface
On Friday, Blackface, a one-time member of the now-disbanded music group Plantashun Boiz, accused Famous Nigerian singers Burnaboy, Wizkid and Asake of sampling his songs without his permission.
In a recent interview on Naija FM, the singer claimed that Asake sampled his song ‘Ikebe Super’ on the ‘Joha’ track. Blackface also claimed to be a ‘source of inspiration’ for new-generation artistes. However, he warned them to contact him before sampling his songs.
He further recalled how, in 2015, prominent artistes Burnaboy and Wizkid copied his song ‘Twist and Turn’ in one of their song collaborations. He said they sampled his song on the ‘Ginger’ track.
“They love music, I know, but does it give them the right to sample remake or remix works I have already released without proper permission? I guess they are the real ones sabotaging me,” he said.
BBNaija Frodd, wife’s first baby shower
BBNaija Frodd, wife’s first baby shower
Big Brother Naija’s (BBN) ex-housemate, Chukwuemeka Okoye, known as Frodd, and his wife, Chioma, are expecting their first child together.
In December 2022, the couple, who recently tied the knot in a traditional wedding ceremony, revealed their union.
On Thursday, the couple with their friends held their baby shower at their residence in Lagos.
In a video of the event shared on his Instagram page, it captured Frodd and his wife excited as they posed for pictures and videos. They also showed happiness as they watched the fireworks explode.
His caption read, “Blessed,”
May Edochie’s family reveals how their son died
May Edochie’s family
May, the first wife of Nollywood actor Yul Edochie and her family, have revealed how their son Kambilichukwu died.
On 30th March, 16-year-old Kambilichukwu reportedly died after developing a seizure and was rushed to the hospital.
Via a phone call with a journalist on Friday, May disclosed that her son allegedly died from food poison.
May claimed her son, Kambilichukwu died after eating a burger and having a drink that a yet-to-be-the-identified person gave him.ⓘ
May said a student saw the stranger who delivered the burger and drink, but his (the student’s) family kept mum.
Suspended Nollywood actor Jerry Williams in rehab
Suspended Nollywood actor Jerry Williams in rehab
Nollywood actor Jerry Williams is reportedly undergoing intensive therapy at an undisclosed rehab centre to help him concentrate on his health and recovery.
The Actors Guild suspended him on 29th June following his abuse of illicit substances.
Announcing Jerry’s suspension, the National President of the actor’s body, Emeka Rollas, said the actor was monitored from December 2022 until his condition worsened.
On Saturday, via his Instagram page, an actor and film director, Ugezu J. Ugezu, shared a picture of the actor suggesting his rehab journey.
Along with some photos in which he posed alongside the embattled actor, Ugezu’s caption read, “It will end in praise.”
Taylor reportedly unfollowed her on Instagram, with mixed reactions suggesting the lovers have broken up.
Since they became engaged in November 2022, they have regularly shared their pictures and moments on social media.
Similarly, they made news headlines in 2021 when DJ Cuppy separated from Taylor briefly after he was accused of cheating. However, months later, they reconciled.
DJ Cuppy nor Taylor has yet to respond to the latest breakup rumours.
Adekunle Gold recalls OAU students’ harassment
Adekunle Gold
Eight years after being harassed, famous Nigerian singer Adekunle Kosoko known as Adekunle Gold has recounted his encounter during a performance at the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU).
In June 2015, the singer made the headlines after some OAU students allegedly stormed his hotel room and asked him to refund half of his money or they would beat him up.
While reacting to a post on Twitter, Adekunle Gold turned down a fan’s request to perform in the ‘fun-loving’ school.
Adekunle wrote, “Poor what?! I had just one song out then (SADE); they knew it! They booked me!”
“I prostrated for the students. If you like, go OAU, go perform, anything wey your eyes see is on you.”
Don Jazzy reveals why he didn’t sign Wizkid Davido
Don Jazzy
Mavin Records founder, Don Jazzy, has revealed why he did not sign Wizkid and Davido to Mo’ Hits, the now-defunct record label.
In 2006, Don Jazzy, alongside D’banj, co-founded Mo’ Hits Records, but in 2012, the record label dissolved.
On Saturday, in a podcast interview with a YouTuber, Fisayo Fosudo, Don Jazzy said he could not sign Wizkid when the Afrobeats singer began his career because Banky W’s EME got to him first.
Regarding Davido, the Mavin boss said at some point, he saw the opportunity to sign Davido into his record label. He said he figured out the ‘Unavailable’ crooner would be better on his own.
BB Naija Vee arrests plumber for fraud
BB Naija Vee
Former Big Brother Naija (BBNaija) housemate Vee Iye created a social media buzz after she disclosed that she arrested a plumber for scamming her N150,000.
On Thursday, the reality took to her verified Twitter handle to vent her frustration after discovering that the plumber defrauded her after she hired him to fix a faulty tap
Narrating her ordeal, she expressed her disappointment at how some Nigerian artisans seize every opportunity to scam people.
She noted that the plumber charged her N150,000 for a job that cost only N20,000.
She wrote, “My plumber scammed me and collected 150k for a 20k job, and one IDIOT is telling me it’s because “everyone is hungry” He will eat in jail.”
Portable arrests mechanic for publicly advising him
Portable
Controversial Nigerian singer Habeeb Okikiola, popularly known as Portable, on Saturday, arrested his mechanic for publicly advising him on his damaged G-wagon car.
On Wednesday, Portable survived a ghastly crash, which saw his brand-new G-Wagon Brabus badly damaged.
Confirming the incident on Thursday, the singer took to his Instagram page to thank God. He also noted that proceeds from his music would help him acquire another car.
The incident happened at the Osapa London axis of Lagos State. It is the second time in 2023 that Portable would crash his car. In May 2023, he was involved in a minor accident with his Lexus car.
The Zazu crooner arrested his mechanic because of a series of short videos he (the mechanic) shot on Saturday.
The mechanic advised the singer to dismantle his wrecked vehicles and sell the parts to recoup some money.
The mechanic said, “This car is written off! We have looked at it and repairing this car would be difficult. The best thing for the owner to do is to sell it as scrap”.
Kemi Afolabi shares experience battling Lupus
Kemi Afolabi
One year after her recovery from a diagnosed incurable illness, lupus, Nollywood actress Kemi Afolabi has shared her experience, especially the adjustments she is making.
The actress announced in June 2022 that she was undergoing treatment for Lupus at John Hopkins Hospital in the United States of America.
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