President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has extended birthday congratulations to Mrs Cecilia Adebisi Ugowe, retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, as she marks her 90th birthday today.

A statement by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President, Information and Strategy indicates that the President celebrates Cecilia Ugowe as a pioneering figure whose service to the Nigeria Police Force helped broaden opportunities for women and strengthen professionalism at a time when policing was overwhelmingly male-dominated.

Mrs Cecilia Ugowe broke the ceiling throughout her career in the police. In 1968, she became a Deputy Superintendent of Police, a rare feat for a woman at the time. She was the first female Commissioner of Police (CP), the first female Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), and the first woman to hold the position of Force Secretary.

“As she marks this significant milestone, I commend her lifetime of service and wish her continued good health, peace, and fulfillment”, the President says.

Veteran gospel musician, Pa Nweze Edmund Echendu, has shared deep revelation and cultural insights into destiny and spiritual calling. He made comparisons between the Igbo Agwu and divine calling to be gospel minister.

According to Pa Nweze, in Igbo land, Agwu represents a spiritual mantle or ancestral calling that runs in certain families. He explained that when such a calling exists in a lineage, an individual chosen to bear it cannot thrive in life until the mantle is accepted and embraced.

“In Igbo land, there is what we call Agwu. Anybody it is meant for in a family is expected to take up that mantle,” he said. “Even if the person goes to work at the World Bank, he will not be successful until he comes back to answer that call.”

Pa Nweze likened this traditional belief to the Christian understanding of divine calling, noting that a person called by God into ministry may also struggle in life until they obey and answer that call.

He further shared his personal experience as a testimony of destiny alignment. Before venturing into music, the gospel singer said he was engaged in the transportation business, a venture that ended in repeated losses.

“Before I started music, I did transportation business, but I didn’t succeed in it. All my buses were destroyed on the road,” he recounted.

Following these setbacks, Pa Nweze said he began to experience recurring dreams that revealed his true calling. According to him, people appeared to him in dreams, telling him he was destined to be a musician.

In one particularly striking experience, he said he saw birds singing to him in his dream.
“That was how I knew that music is my destiny,” he said.

US President Donald Trump has recalled Richard Mills, United States ambassador to Nigeria.

US official described the development as a part of a broader reshuffle of nearly 30 ambassadorial and senior embassy positions worldwide.

The move is part of an effort to align US diplomatic representation abroad with President Donald Trump’s “America First” priorities.

State Department officials, who spoke anonymously, confirmed that the ambassadors affected by the shake-up had initially been appointed during the Biden administration but will now end their tenures in January.

While the diplomats will return to Washington for other assignments if they wish, their postings as chiefs of mission will conclude.

Africa has been the region most affected by the recalls, with ambassadors from 13 countries, including Nigeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Uganda, among those removed. Other regions affected include the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and the Western Hemisphere.

The State Department described the changes as a “standard process in any administration,” noting that ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president and are meant to advance the administration’s policy priorities.