To prevent motorists from driving the wrong way on one-way roads, the Oyo State Government has started installing 'One-Way Tyre Spikes.' This one here is located along Idi-Ape.
What do you think about this measure by the State Govt?
To prevent motorists from driving the wrong way on one-way roads, the Oyo State Government has started installing 'One-Way Tyre Spikes.' This one here is located along Idi-Ape.
Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo GCFR (born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian general and statesman who served as Nigeria's head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its president from 1999 to 2007. Ideologically a Nigerian nationalist, he was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from 1998 to 2015, and since 2018.
1. The truck on the left is on the fast lane, which is correct.✅
2. The second truck, with a dustbin-, is partially on the fast lane but not moving as it should. Its incorrect position -should be on the slow lane, alongside the danfo the yellow buse (public transport)
3. The driver of the red car is the main culprit. He lacks driving experience and failed to calculate his entry into the lane properly.
Instead of entering at a safe speed of around 150-160 mph, he entered recklessly. A simple press of the brake for 4 seconds could have avoided the problem. The issue lies with the red car driver's poor entry into the lane.
The award 🥇 goes to danfo driver . Give that danfo man a cool beer 🍺
There are three main issues here
1. The truck on the left is on the fast lane, which is correct.✅
2. The second truck, with a dustbin-, is partially on the fast lane but not moving as it should. Its incorrect position -should be on the slow lane, alongside the danfo the… pic.twitter.com/I4l8G0wOxh
Mark Zuckerberg rips off his suit and starts performing in a blue jumpsuit at his wife's 40th birthday party.
What
The billionaire surprised his wife at her birthday party by wearing singer Benson Boone’s jumpsuit that he used during his 2025 Grammy performance of "Beautiful Things."
"Your wife only turns 40 once! Shoutout to Benson Boone for the jumpsuit and new single," Zuck said on IG.
NEW: Mark Zuckerberg rips off his suit and starts performing in a blue jumpsuit at his wife's 40th birthday party.
What
The billionaire surprised his wife at her birthday party by wearing singer Benson Boone’s jumpsuit that he used during his 2025 Grammy performance of… pic.twitter.com/ompbHIW8mp
OpenAI has just released GPT-4.5, a new version of its flagship large language model. The company claims it is its biggest and best model for all-round chat yet. “It’s really a step forward for us,” says Mia Glaese, a research scientist at OpenAI.
Since the releases of its so-called reasoning models o1 and o3, OpenAI has been pushing two product lines. GPT-4.5 is part of the non-reasoning line-up, what Glaese’s colleague Nick Ryder, also a research scientist, calls “an installment in the classic GPT series.”
People with a $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro account can try out GPT-4.5 today. OpenAI says it will begin rolling out to other users next week.
The last few generations of OpenAI’s GPT models have shown that bigger mean better performance. But there is now a lot of talk about how that approach is hitting a wall—including from OpenAI’s former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. The company’s claims about GPT-4.5 feel like a thumb in the eye to the naysayers.
All large language models pick up patterns across the billions of documents they are trained on. Smaller models learned syntax and basic facts. Bigger models can find more specific patterns like emotional cues, such as when a speaker’s words signal hostility, says Ryder: “All of these subtle patterns that come through a human conversation—those are the bits that these larger and larger models will pick up on.”
“It has the ability to engage in warm, intuitive, natural, flowing conversations,” says Glaese. “And we think that it has a stronger understanding of what users mean, especially when their expectations are [a] bit more implicit, leading to nuanced and thoughtful responses.”
“We kind of know what the engine looks like at this point and now it’s really about making it hum,” says Ryder. “This is primarily an exercise in scaling up the compute, scaling up the data, finding more efficient training methods, and then pushing the frontier.”
OpenAI won’t say exactly how big its new model is. But says the jump in scale from GPT-4o to GPT-4.5 is the same as GPT-3.5 to GPT-4o. Experts have estimated that GPT-4 could have as many as 1.8 trillion parameters, the values that get tweaked when a model is trained.
GPT-4.5 was trained using similar techniques to its predecessor GPT-4o, including human-led fine-tuning and reinforcement learning with human feedback.
“The key to creating intelligent systems is a recipe we’ve been following for many years, which is to find scalable paradigms where we can pour more and more resources into get more intelligent systems,” says Ryder.
Unlike reasoning models like o1 and o3, which work through answers step by step, “classic” large language models like GPT-4.5 spit out the first response they come up with. But GPT-4.5 is more general-purpose. Tested on SimpleQA, a kind of general-knowledge quiz developed by OpenAI last year that includes questions on a wide range of topics, from science and technology to TV shows and video games, GPT-4.5 scores 62.5% compared to 38.6% for GPT-4o and 15% for o3-mini.
What’s more, the rate at which the models respond with made-up answers (known as hallucination) on this test was 37.1% for GPT-4.5, 59.8% for GPT-4o, and 80.3% o3-mini.
But on other benchmarks, including MMLU, a standard test for multimodal language models, gains on OpenAI’s previous models were marginal. And on standard science and math benchmarks, GPT-4.5 scores worse than o3.
GPT-4.5’s special charm seems to be in its conversation. Human testers employed by OpenAI say they preferred GPT-4.5’s answers to GPT-4o for everyday queries, professional queries and creative tasks, including coming up with poems. (Ryder says it is also great at old-school internet ACSII art.)
But after years at the top, OpenAI now has a tough crowd. “The focus on emotional intelligence and creativity is cool for niche use cases like writing coaches, brainstorming buddies,” says Waseem AlShikh, cofounder and CTO of Writer, a startup that develops large language models for enterprise customers.
“But GPT-4.5 feels like a shiny new coat of paint on the same old car,” he says. “Throwing more compute and data at a model can make it sound smoother, but it’s not a game-changer.”
“The juice isn’t worth the squeeze when you consider the energy costs, the complexity, and the fact that most users won’t notice the difference in daily use,” he says. “I’d rather see them pivot to efficiency or niche problem-solving than keep supersizing the same recipe.”
“GPT-4.5 is OpenAI phoning it in while they cook up something bigger behind closed doors. Until then, this feels like a pit stop.”
Sam Altman has said that GPT-4.5 will be the last release in OpenAI’s classic line up and that GPT-5 will be a hybrid that combines a general-purpose large language model with a reasoning model.
good news: it is the first model that feels like talking to a thoughtful person to me. i have had several moments where i've sat back in my chair and been astonished at getting actually good advice from an AI.
bad news: it is a giant, expensive model. we really wanted to launch it to plus and pro at the same time, but we've been growing a lot and are out of GPUs. we will add tens of thousands of GPUs next week and roll it out to the plus tier then. (hundreds of thousands coming soon, and i'm pretty sure y'all will use every one we can rack up.)
this isn't how we want to operate, but it's hard to perfectly predict growth surges that lead to GPU shortages.
a heads up: this isn’t a reasoning model and won’t crush benchmarks. it’s a different kind of intelligence and there’s a magic to it i haven’t felt before. really excited for people to try it!
When the Japa wave—Nigeria’s mass exodus of talent—began, one of its most significant consequences was brain drain. Many industries lost top professionals, and the banking sector was hit particularly hard.
For Nigerian banks, the challenge was twofold: they were losing talent not just to emigration but also to fintechs, which offered competitive salaries—sometimes double what banks paid.
Now, banks are responding. In January, we reported that Sterling Bank, a tier-2 Nigerian bank, raised staff salaries by 7% and paid a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) stipend; however, the meagre increase did not sit well with its employees who have seen other banks like GTBank, Union Bank, and Zenith Bank all increase salaries by 20%–40% in the last few months. In response, Sterling Bank increased salaries again by 35% on Wednesday. These pay hikes come at a crucial time when Nigeria is grappling with its worst cost-of-living crisis in decades, with inflation soaring; retaining talent has never been more urgent.
But for Sterling Bank, these salary adjustments aren’t just about retention—they are central to its broader vision. While best known for its banking operations, Sterling is aggressively expanding into fintech, asset financing, and even electric vehicles. Leadership sees talent retention as critical to executing this strategy.
Under the new structure, executive trainees (entry-level employees) will now earn ₦528,000 ($352) net monthly.
Assistant Banking Officers (ABO) will take home about ₦850,000 ($567),
while Banking Officers (BO) will see their salaries rise from ₦700,000 ($467) to ₦1,030,000 ($687).
Senior Banking Officers (SBO) will now earn ₦1.1 million ($733),
and Assistant Managers (AM) will receive ₦1.3 million ($867) per month.
These raises reflect the bank’s commitment to attracting and keeping the best talent as it deepens its footprint in fintech and asset financing.
But the big question remains: Will this be enough to stop top talent from leaving?
$3.5m Nigerian tech startup ceases operation, returns capital to investors
After three years in operation, Nigerian education technology startup Edukoya has ended operations, saying poor infrastructure and economic challenges made it impossible to scale.
The startup which secured Africa’s largest pre-seed funding of $3.5 million in 2021, said it will return capital to investors rather than persist in what it described as an unsustainable market environment.
In a statement on Wednesday obtained by PUNCH Online, the startup said despite its early success, it faced fundamental adoption challenges, including limited internet penetration, high device costs, and declining disposable incomes that undermined its target audience’s ability to pay for digital education services.
Unveiled to revolutionise digital learning for K-12 (primary and secondary) students, Edukoya rapidly gained traction, onboarding over 80,000 students, facilitating millions of practice questions, and conducting thousands of live tutoring sessions.
After exploring strategic alternatives, including partnerships, mergers, and business model pivots, Edukoya found no viable path forward.
Part of the statement read, “Having explored various strategies to sustain operations—including partnerships, mergers, and business model shifts—without success, we’ve made the difficult decision to shut down and return capital to investors rather than exhaust resources in an unsupportive market.
“This strategic shutdown—though counterintuitive in a startup culture that emphasizes persistence at all costs—creates better outcomes for everyone: our investors can redeploy capital, our team can transition with dignity, and we preserve our vision’s integrity instead of compromising to survive.”
Edukoya’s shutdown highlights the broader struggles of Africa’s edtech sector, where startups face difficulties balancing innovation with the realities of infrastructure gaps and affordability constraints.
While digital learning remains a high-potential market, achieving large-scale adoption continues to be an uphill battle.
Edukoya expressed gratitude to its team, parents, students, and investors, stating that while its journey is ending, the insights gained could help pave the way for future innovations in African edtech—when the market is ready to support them.
Laila Charani and her husband, Prince Ned Nwoko toured The Sports University of Nigeria, Idumuje-Ugboko established by the Senator.
Laila Charani rekindles bond with Ned Nwoko, joins him on tour
Moroccan beauty Laila Charani appears to have rekindled her bond with Nigerian politician and businessman, Ned Nwoko, amid ongoing tension with his last wife, actress Regina Daniels.
Laila, who recently shared photos of herself aboard Nwoko’s private jet, further fueled speculation about their renewed closeness by accompanying him on an official assignment.
Taking to her Instagram page, the mother of four expressed her delight at joining Nwoko on an inspection tour of The Sports University of Nigeria, a visionary institution he established in Idumuje-Ugboko, Delta State.
“Early this morning, I had the pleasure of joining my beloved husband, Prince Ned Nwoko, on an inspection tour of The Sports University of Nigeria,” she wrote.
She praised the university as a symbol of Nwoko’s dedication to youth development, education, and sports excellence in Nigeria, adding that witnessing its progress firsthand was inspiring.
Early this morning, I had the pleasure of joining my beloved husband, Princenednwoko, on an inspection tour of The Sports University of Nigeria, a visionary institution he established in Idumuje-Ugboko.
This university stands as a testament to his unwavering commitment to youth development, education, and sports excellence in Nigeria. Seeing the progress firsthand was truly inspiring, and I am excited about the impact this institution will have on future generations.
Today, I had the gracious honour of attending the launch of President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida’s long-awaited autobiography, A Journey in Service, at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.
IBB’s contributions to Nigeria’s economy and his strong support for entrepreneurship and private sector growth remain immeasurable.
Under his leadership, Nigeria witnessed substantial growth, particularly in the financial sector. He played a key role in fostering a united and equitable Nigeria, and economic landscape, ensuring policies that strengthened national cohesion and economic development.
Documenting such experiences is a welcome development, as it allows us to learn from those who have served and left a lasting impact on the nation. I look forward to reading this book, which undoubtedly holds valuable lessons. As someone committed to continuous learning, I will always align myself with knowledge drawn from documented experiences and historical records as well as contributing to the legacy library.
Two Key Takeaways from the Keynote Address and IBB comment on the 1993 election.
1. The 1st is the keynote Speaker's notable quotation in French, "Rien n’a changé" meaning "Nothing much has changed." In the case of Nigeria, we are worse off than we were during IBB’s era. Using our contemporary peers as a benchmark, when IBB left office in 1992, countries like Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, and Ghana were all in the low Human Development Index (HDI) category—just like Nigeria. Today, however, these nations have advanced to medium and high HDI levels, while Nigeria remains in the low HDI category, having either stagnated or declined.
2. The Keynote speaker's comment that Ghana has remained a truly democratic country for the past 30 years, with leadership transitions that reflect the genuine votes of the people. Unlike Nigeria, where electoral outcomes often fail to reflect the people’s will, Ghana has witnessed instances where ruling party candidates conceded defeat, respecting democracy in its truest form.
Lastly of the most profound moments of the event was IBB’s admission that Chief MKO Abiola won the June 12 election. This acknowledgement is a step toward national healing, unity and progress of our nation.
I hope that one day, other key players in Nigeria’s democracy will find the courage to recognize the true winners of past elections, allowing our nation to tell its story with honesty and reflection.
There have been all sorts of lies peddled about me in the media for years but I always treated them like what they are, RUMOURS THAT NEEDED NO RESPONSE.
But this is different, this is about my CHILD…. You all do not know anything about me! Because you CAN’T! Except I choose to disclose. Yes, I’m that PRIVATE!
Ned isn’t the Father of my child and whoever name you might come up with later with your guessing games and like I’ve said before I’m not about to be anyone’s 7th wife! Polygamy isn’t for me .
I’ve been pregnant for months now and no one even had a clue about my pregnancy until I announced it and you all think you’ll know who the father of my child is or anything happening in my life? Very laughable and Clueless!
Keep digging and coming up with your false news. I don't care about rumours because I understand it comes with my career choice and the only reason I’m responding to this rumour is because this is about my child. My privacy is my peace and NO ONE can unsettle me. I’m basking in the euphoria of my pregnancy and that’s all that matters to me now.
The United States has commenced deportation proceedings for Nigerian nationals, with 85 individuals set to arrive in Lagos, while 116 others remain in detention.
The Federal Government, through the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, has expressed concerns over the process, calling for a more humane approach.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu, in a statement signed by her media aide, Magnus Eze, on Sunday, disclosed that “with about 201 Nigerians currently detained in US immigration centres and about 85 cleared for deportation,” the government is advocating for adherence to internationally prescribed guidelines.
Similarly, she reiterated the government’s stance in a post on her official X account on Monday, titled “US Deportations Begin.”
Lagos as Sole Deportation Destination The United States also confirmed that deported Nigerians will be flown directly to Lagos.
Mills emphasised that individuals serving prison sentences in the US would be among the first group of deportees.
“Those to be repatriated would be dropped in Lagos. There would not be room for whether it should be in Port Harcourt or Abuja.
“The first group will be convicted prisoners—those who committed crimes and are in US prisons. Some of them are those who have clearly violated US immigration laws.
“They appealed but were denied yet they are still in the US. They have committed immigration crimes, people who have been ordered to leave,” Mills stated.
Bianca expressed concerns over the emotional and financial impact of deportations on Nigerians in the US and their families, emphasising the need for humane and compliant processes.
“With the new administration in the US, we want a situation where there will be commitments. If there will be repatriation, we want a dignified return.
“At the moment, we’re told that about 201 Nigerian nationals are in US immigration camps, and about 85 have been cleared for deportation.
“Will there be any way of ameliorating their pains? This has been of great concern to not just Nigerian nationals in the US but family members in Nigeria who depend on them for survival, children whose school fees are paid for by these diasporans.
“We are asking as a country whether they will be given ample time to handle their assets or will they just be bundled into planes and repatriated? It will really be traumatic, especially for those who had not committed any violent crime,” she asked.
Trump’s Immigration Crackdown The deportation process comes as part of a broader immigration crackdown by the Donald Trump Administration. On his first day in office as the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump signed several executive orders aimed at tightening immigration policies.
These include ending birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants and declaring a national emergency at the US-Mexico border.
He also announced the deployment of more troops to the southern border and reiterated his pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
These policy shifts, according to multiple media reports, have heightened concerns among immigrant communities.
Nairaland General › Re: Who Is Your Favourite Journalist In Nigeria (photos) by nlfpmod(mod): 1:30pm On Mar 07, 2025
