₦airaland Forum

Gift Nyakno Monday (born 9 December 2001) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a striker for the Washington Spirit of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and the Nigeria national team.

Club career

In January 2021, Monday was named the league's Player of the Month for the second consecutive month. In March 2021, Monday scored a brace to lift FC Robo to a 2–1 win over the undefeated Rivers Angels. Monday inspired Bayelsa Queens to winning the 2021–22 league title and also finished as the season's top scorer.

In September 2022, Monday joined Spanish Liga F club UD Granadilla Tenerife.

On 25 March 2025, NWSL club Washington Spirit acquired Monday from Tenerife in exchange for an undisclosed fee and signed her to a three-year contract with an additional team option for 2028. She made her club debut on 12 April 2025, coming on as a substitute for Gabrielle Carle in a 2–0 win over Racing Louisville FC. One week later, Monday recorded her first NWSL start and goal, scoring after stealing the ball from goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse at the goal line in a 1–0 victory over league leaders Orlando Pride. On 28 September, Monday registered the fastest NWSL hat-trick from kickoff in league history, netting three goals in under 36 minutes to help Washington beat the Houston Dash.

International career

Monday competed at the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in France. In 2019, she captained the national team to its first gold medal in 12 years at the African Games after defeating Cameroon 3–1 on penalties. In February 2021, Monday was named to the senior national team squad ahead of the 2021 Turkish Women's Cup. She was part of the team that won the championship and was the first African team to do so. She scored the eighth goal in the team's 9–0 win over Equatorial Guinea.

On 16 June 2023, she was included in the 23-player Nigerian squad for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023.

Monday was called up to the Nigeria squad for the 2024 Summer Olympics as an unrolled alternate player.

I am always more than happy to represent the green white green. I am so, so glad to give Nigeria this precious gift. I don't know how I ended up like this today, but I am grateful and I think that today is just special for me.

Scored for club, celebrated for country 🇳🇬.

Gift Monday dedicates her hat trick on Sunday to her home country for Nigeria's Independence Day.

poseidon12:
Electric power boat race in a country that doesn't have electricity. Nigerians are funny.

naptu2:
Professor Tiamiyu Belo-Osagie

Professor Tiamiyu Belo-Osagie attended Edo College, Benin, King's College, Lagos, Howard University and McGill University. He was appointed a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist on his return to Nigeria and he worked at Island Maternity, General Hospital and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital all in Lagos.


Osagie Medical Centre

Professor Belo-Osagie established the Osagie Medical Centre at number 30, Catholic Mission Street, Lagos Island in the 1960s (that's where he delivered my brother ). There are interesting connections between the last post (about Dr Majekodunmi), this post and the next post. The Osagie Medical Centre is right beside St Nicholas Hospital (which was established by Dr Majekodunmi) and Professor Belo-Osgie's daughter-in-law works there. Professor Belo-Osagie is also the uncle of the famous Professor Osato Giwa-Osagie, who also worked at the Osagie Medical Centre at a point in time.



University of Benin Teaching Hospital

He moved to Benin in the 1970s and established the University of Benin Teaching Hospital. He worked (at various times) as Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Provost of the College of Medical Sciences at the University of Benin between 1972 and 1979.

Dodan Barracks

He served as the personal physician to the president in the 1980s. In this position he was involved in the births of Saudatu Shehu Shagari in 1981 and Halima Babangida in 1989.

Professor Tiamiyu Belo-Osagie returned to the Osagie Medical Centre in the 1990s where he was in high demand.


Away from the medical world, he also served as the chairman of Societe General Bank and was on the board of many companies. He was the father of Hakeem Belo-Osagie who is a former chairman of UBA (Keem Belo-Osagie started out as a special assistant to President Shagari). He recieved the national honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) in 1982.

Professor Tiamiyu Belo-Osagie died in March 2005.

Hakeem Belo-Osagie is a Nigerian businessman. He is chair of Metis Capital Partners an organisation focused on brokering and delivering attractive, large-ticket transactions in Africa to select blue chip international investment partners.He was listed by Forbes Magazine as the forty-first richest man in Africa in 2014.


Belo-Osagie and his wife, Dr Myma Belo-Osagie (a founding partner of Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie), are philanthropists. The couple are also supporters of Harvard University's Center for African Studies, and Belo-Osagie has established a scholarship to support African students studying at Balliol College, Oxford.

Belo-Osagie and his wife are both members of Harvard University's Global Advisory Council. Belo-Osagie also serves on the Yale University President's Council on International Activities and the New York University President's Global Council. In addition, Belo-Osagie sits on the International Advisory Council of the Brookings Institution and the Global Board of Advisors of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Belo-Osagie and his wife are among the largest donors to the African Leadership Academy (the "ALA" ), a residential secondary school in Johannesburg that works to educate Africa's brightest students. Founded in 2008, the highly selective ALA immerses promising young people in a rigorous two-year curriculum of leadership, service and African studies. The ALA network of alumni includes almost four hundred young leaders drawn from forty three countries across the continent. In 2012, the academy unveiled the "Hakeem and Myma Belo-Osagie Wing", named in recognition of the couple's support of the ALA and their advocacy on its behalf.

Personal life and education

Belo-Osagie was born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1955. His father was a professional gynaecologist and his mother was a nurse. He is the father of Yasmin Belo-Osagie. He attended King's College in Lagos and completed his secondary education at the United World College of the Atlantic in Wales.

Career

Oil industry

Belo-Osagie returned to Nigeria shortly after graduating from Harvard in 1980. He began his career in the service of the Federal Government of Nigeria working in various capacities in the energy sector ranging from Special Assistant to the Presidential Adviser on petroleum and energy, to Secretary of the Oil Policy Review and LNG Committees. He subsequently worked in the Petrochemicals Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. He resigned his appointment in 1986 to set up CTIC, which became a leading energy consulting firm. He also chairs the board of Vitol Nigeria, which is a subsidiary of the Swiss-based Vitol Group, a multinational energy and commodity trading firm.

Telecommunications and other recent ventures

Belo-Osagie until recently, was the chairman of the board of directors of Emerging Markets Telecommunications Services Ltd, a mobile telephone operator which operates in Nigeria under the Etisalat brand. He is the ultimate beneficial owner of a significant stake in the company, which is operated as a joint venture with Mubadala Development Company and the Etisalat group.

Belo-Osagie is the chairman of and main shareholder in Duval Properties Limited, a real estate company currently engaged in developing a major new residential and commercial district at Jabi Lake in Abuja. He also chairs the board of Vitol Nigeria, which is a subsidiary of the Swiss-based Vitol Group, a multinational energy and commodity trading firm.

Belo-Osagie has also recently invested in Andela, which is developing a network of high quality computer science education programmes across the African continent. Andela operates a self-financing model of education: it funds the training of promising young programmers, and generates revenue by supplying its graduates' services to a range of global clients.

Philanthropy

Belo-Osagie and his wife are among the largest donors to the African Leadership Academy (the "ALA" ), a residential secondary school in Johannesburg that works to educate Africa's brightest students. Founded in 2008, the highly selective ALA immerses promising young people in a rigorous two-year curriculum of leadership, service and African studies. The ALA network of alumni includes almost four hundred young leaders drawn from forty three countries across the continent. In 2012, the academy unveiled the "Hakeem and Myma Belo-Osagie Wing", named in recognition of the couple's support of the ALA and their advocacy on its behalf.

The couple have recently established the "Hakeem and Myma Belo-Osagie Fund for the Promotion of Africa" at Yale University, and are supporters of Harvard University's Center for African Studies. Belo-Osagie has also endowed a fund to provide scholarships for African students studying at Balliol College, Oxford.

Belo-Osagie serves on the board of Alfanar, a charity which applies the principles of private sector investment to charitable giving to help build sustainable social enterprises throughout the Arab world. He also chairs the Nigerian National Committee for the United World Colleges, which assists the organisation's member colleges in identifying suitable candidates for their two-year International Baccalaureate scholarship programmes. Mr Belo-Osagie has also funded several scholarships to the United World Colleges.

Adebayo Ogunlesi

Adebayo "Bayo" O. Ogunlesi CON (born 20 December 1953) is a Nigerian lawyer and investment banker. He is currently chairman and managing partner at the private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). Ogunlesi was the former head of global investment banking at Credit Suisse First Boston before being promoted to chief client officer and executive vice chairman.

Early life and education

Ogunlesi comes from Makun, Sagamu, Ogun State, Nigeria. He is the son of Theophilus O. Ogunlesi, the first Nigerian professor of medicine at University of Ibadan. His family is of Yoruba origin.

Ogunlesi went to King's College, Lagos, a secondary school in Lagos, Nigeria. He received a B.A. with first class honors in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University in England. In 1979, Ogunlesi received a JD–MBA from Harvard Law School and later Harvard Business School. During his time at Harvard, he was on the Harvard Law Review.

Career

From 1980 to 1981, Ogunlesi served as a law clerk to associate justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. Ogunlesi was an attorney in the corporate practice group of the New York City law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he had been a summer associate while studying for his M.B.A.

In 1983, Ogunlesi joined the investment bank First Boston as an advisor on a Nigerian gas project. At First Boston, he worked in the Project Finance Group, advising clients on transactions and financings and has worked on transactions in North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. From 1997 to 2002, he was the Head of the Global Energy Group of the by then renamed Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB). In 2002, Ogunlesi was appointed Global Head of CSFB's Investment Banking Division. Also in 2002, he served as a member of Credit Suisse's Executive Board and Management Committee. From 2004 to 2006, Ogunlesi was Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Client Officer of CSFB.

In July 2006, Ogunlesi started the private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a joint venture whose initial investors included Credit Suisse and General Electric. He currently serves as chairman and managing partner.

In 2006, GIP bought London City Airport. In 2009, GIP acquired a majority stake in London Gatwick Airport in a deal worth £1.455 billion. The Nigerian press has given him the nickname, "The Man Who Bought Gatwick Airport." GIP also owns Edinburgh Airport, which they bought in 2012, and Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori, which they bought in February 2018.

In January 2024, BlackRock agreed to buy Global Infrastructure Partners for about $12.5 billion. BlackRock will pay $3 billion in cash and 12 million of its own shares as part of the deal to buy GIP. The 400 people directly employed by GIP will receive some of the stock, and five of the six founding partners, including chief executive Ogunlesi, will join BlackRock as part of the deal.

Additional work

Ogunlesi is a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association. While working at Credit Suisse First Boston, he was a lecturer at Harvard Law School and the Yale School of Management, where he taught a course on transnational investment projects in emerging countries.

In October 2012, he was appointed to the board of directors at Goldman Sachs. On 24 July 2014, he was named lead director.

In December 2016, it was announced that Ogunlesi, among other business leaders, would be part of Donald Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum, which was disbanded on 16 August 2017.

In January 2025, Ogunlesi joined the board of directors of OpenAI.

Personal life

Ogunlesi has been married to British-born optometrist Dr. Amelia Quist-Ogunlesi since 1985. They have two children. In his song "Wonderful," Burna Boy pays tribute to Adebayo, citing his hard work. As of 2025, Forbes estimates his net worth at US$2.5 billion.

Awards and honors

Recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence. Ogunlesi was cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2019.

Bayo Ogunlesi: I just had an excellent meeting with Mr President, where we talked about the fundamental transformation that has happened in the last two years.

Think about it, removal of subsidy, tax reform, we have a refinery that's operating and exporting aviation fuel, unification of the road ownership system, and so the next step is how do we encourage international investment in Nigeria to drive economic growth and I had a wonderful meeting with Mr. President talking about . . .exchanging ideas about how we can do that, how we can put Nigeria front and center on the map for international investments and we had some very good suggestions and discussions about that.

NTA reporter: Apart from the suggestions, personally what are you bringing on board?

Bayo Ogunlesi: We're making investments in Nigeria. We explored additional opportunities, I'm not going to tell you what they are, just wait, watch this space, you will see them. But look, Nigeria is now a place that is exciting to invest in and that's what we talked to Mr. President about and of course, as you would expect, he was very encouraging of international investments in Nigeria.

NTA reporter: Okay. I'm not expecting you to tell me all that you told the president, but what sector particularly are you interested in?

Bayo Ogunlesi: Yeah, but you think about all the sectors that we invest in. Energy? So, we invest in energy. We're building LNG plants in Texas, we're building LNG plants in Australia. There's gas in Nigeria, Nigeria is a huge gas province.

People describe me as a guy who bought Gatwick Airport. I didn't personally buy Gatwick Airport, but the aviation sector is also an area of interest to us.

I confessed to Mr. President that one of our companies has ports in Cotonou and it has a port in Lome, none in Nigeria. So I asked for his forgiveness and understanding and being the gentleman that he was he forgave me but said you have to bring port investment to Nigeria. So that's another area we're looking at.

Renewables, that's another area. So lots of investment opportunities in Nigeria. You just have to be serious about making the right moves.

Hakeem Belo-Osagie: I think when Nigerians in Nigeria and when Nigerians in the diaspora invest in Nigeria, it can only be a great signal for the international community to invest in us and make our country greater. We thank President Tinubu for his policies, they have made Nigeria investible. We wish him all the very best and we give every assurance to the president and every assurance to the Nigerian people that we will do our very best and it will create a fast growing Nigeria which will achieve its objectives.

Dr Zach Adedeji: Mr. President has done fundamental reform and that reform on its own invited all these people that you are seeing. We've done the fundamental, the next thing for us is to lead export-led economy which is why you see these great Nigerians and they have committed, Mr. President has given them go ahead and the only thing I can say is the hope is very on the rise.