The sight of Trent Alexander-Arnold celebrating bare chested with arms outstretched, his red shirt hoisted on a corner flag at King Power Stadium, will become an iconic image of Liverpool's march to the Premier League title. Amid the wild elation that followed his late winner at relegated Leicester City, it left Liverpool's big questions still hanging in the air. Will Alexander-Arnold leave his home city club behind in pursuit of new glory with Real Madrid in Spain? Or could the outpouring of love between Alexander-Arnold and Liverpool's fans be a lifeline for those hoping the player they call "the Scouser in our team" may yet stay? Questions only Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool and Real Madrid will know the answers to. But for now, the celebrating of another special moment in his special Liverpool career will be enough for Reds fans. Speculation regarding his Liverpool future has increased following the new deals signed by Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk. But the 26-year-old, after making his 350th appearance for his boyhood club, gave no clues over his intentions. He said: "I have said all season that I am not going to speak on my situation. I am not going to go into the details. "But days like this are always special. Scoring goals, playing games, winning games, winning titles - they are special moments for me and I am glad to do my part." Liverpool manager Arne Slot was also guarded, saying: "My only good answer is to talk about his goal. All the attention should go for that, and all the good things he has done for this club for so many years. "He is incredible if he sets his mind to it. Today he knows when it matters most, he can bring a bit more and that is something only the top, top, top players have. "My only good answer is to talk about his goal. All the attention should go for that and all the good things he has done for this club for so many years." An air of inevitability hung heavily over all that played out in the sunshine before Alexander-Arnold scored with 14 minutes left to give Liverpool a 1-0 win and send Leicester City down. Liverpool played like a team who knew they will be champions. Leicester City played like a team who knew they would be relegated. And the final part of the script was written when Alexander-Arnold returned as a substitute with 19 minutes left, having been out since early March with an ankle injury. It took him five minutes to release the pressure valve, of sorts, that had been building as the doomed Foxes frustrated Liverpool. The scenes that followed will be tantalising ones for any Liverpool fan who clings to the hope Alexander-Arnold will reject the advances of Real Madrid. Could there still be a late twist in Alexander-Arnold's long-running contract situation? Could the wild celebrations, and the communion between Alexander-Arnold and those fans in one red-drenched corner of King Power Stadium, make him rethink his next move? There is confidence in Spain that Alexander-Arnold will be at Real Madrid next season - but the leaving of Liverpool will still be tough for a player who grew up in the city's West Derby district. He has faced some criticism for not committing to Liverpool, especially since Salah and Van Dijk signed new contracts, but there was none here. This was a show of glorious unity between supporters and the local boy who has won everything during his Anfield career. It may be those hoping Alexander-Arnold will remain at Liverpool will read more into the celebrations than was there, but it was certainly quite the outpouring. When he finally ended the defiance of Leicester City keeper Mads Hermansen, it was the 23rd goal of his professional career and the first scored with his left foot. Alexander-Arnold responded by ripping off his Liverpool shirt before running towards the corner flag, bellowing in joy at the supporters as he was mobbed by team-mates. He then planted his shirt on the corner flag like a player who had reached his personal Everest. It left Liverpool at the Premier League summit, with the title party set for Anfield against Tottenham Hotspur next Sunday, when three points will complete what has long been a formality. The celebrations may even start earlier depending on the outcome of Arsenal's game at home to Crystal Palace on Wednesday. After the final whistle, Liverpool's players pushed Alexander-Arnold towards the corner where their fans were congregated to take individual acclaim. Will it make any difference? Will the sight of those fans tug on Alexander-Arnold's heartstrings or has his head already made the decision to join the Galacticos of Real Madrid? For now, Liverpool's priority is the more immediate one of winning that 20th title, an inevitability for some time. Slot said: "It is never hard to dream, but it is also clear that we are really focused on playing. The boys deserve to have a day off and hopefully they will enjoy that and then focus on Tottenham." As for Alexander-Arnold, his future remains undecided - publicly at least - but if this was part of his Liverpool farewell, what a way to go out.

The National Emergency Management Agency said no fewer than 165 persons have died, 82 missing and 119,791 persons have been affected by this year’s flooding. NEMA revealed this in its data dashboard on Friday. The agency also stated that 138 persons sustained various degrees of injuries, 43,936 displaced, 8,594 houses affected and 8,278 farmlands destroyed across 43 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in 19 States. According to the agency, children and women were mostly affected. It said, “53,314 children , 36,573 women, 24,600 men, 5,304 elderly, 1,863 disabled persons have so far been affected by this year flood.” The states with the highest number of affected persons are Imo, Rivers, Abia, Borno and Kaduna States. Meanwhile, the 19 states affected are; Abia, FCT, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Borno, Edo, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Ondo, Rivers and Sokoto States.

No fewer than 17 students from three secondary schools in Ekiti State have received N100,000 each as scholarship awards for their outstanding academic performance, courtesy of philanthropist, Dr Oluwadare Owolabi. The beneficiaries, drawn from Igogo Commercial High School, Igogo-Ekiti (Moba Local Government Area); Ayede Grammar School, Ayede-Ekiti (Oye LGA); and Odo Oro High School, Odo Oro Ekiti (Ikole LGA), were honoured for excellence in subjects including Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Agricultural Science, Economics and Mathematics. Speaking at the 2025 edition of the annual scholarship award ceremony held in Odo Oro Ekiti, Ikole LGA, on Thursday, Owolabi said the initiative was his way of rewarding academic excellence and complementing the education efforts of the Ekiti State Government. “The scholarship award is a way of giving back to society, especially to the outstanding students, and also a decision to assist and complement the efforts of our governor, Biodun Oyebanji, who has been doing well for us in Ekiti State,” he said. Owolabi reiterated the need for private individuals and organisations to support the government in funding education, noting that “the government alone cannot fund education because they have too many areas and sectors to attend to.” He urged the beneficiaries to remain dedicated to their studies and avoid distractions, promising to continue supporting their academic journey in future. A traditional ruler, the Onise of Odo Oro Ekiti, Oba Babatunde Jemilehin, commended Owolabi for the gesture, describing it as a meaningful investment in the lives of young people. “This kind of initiative will go a long way in helping these students reach their full potential. I encourage the beneficiaries to stay focused and justify the confidence reposed in them by the donor,” the monarch said. Also speaking, the principal of Odo Oro High School, Mr Johnson Oladimeji, who represented the heads of the beneficiary schools, hailed the awards as a noble example of community support for education. “Your decision to reward the best students in each subject is not only a commendable act of giving back, but also a noble investment in the future of our children,” Oladimeji said. He assured the donor of continued collaboration and a sustained effort to provide a conducive learning environment. “We welcome your ideas, mentorship and partnership as we build a brighter future together,” he added.

Moyo Orekoya, who is co-founder of an AI-powered teaching platform known as Shepherd, makes a case for the adoption of the recently launched platform in Nigeria’s teaching and learning environment, in this interview with WALE AKINSELURE What informed your decision to launch Shepherd? Every student deserves personalised support. Unfortunately, most classrooms, especially in countries like Nigeria, are overcrowded, under-resourced, and overstretched. Growing up, I was lucky to have extra lessons, and it changed the trajectory of my life. But that kind of one-on-one support isn’t scalable. Hence, Shepherd exists to fix that. My cofounder, Kehinde Williams and I developed Shepherd to make personalised learning available to every child. This, through the teachers they already have, and using tools that feel like magic but work with real pedagogy. How is Shepherd helping to solve real challenges faced by teachers and students today? Teachers have two big concerns today. First, they’re drowning in admin: spending hours on grading, lesson prep, and exam creation. Second, they struggle to personalise learning in overcrowded classrooms with 30 to 50 students. Educators are overwhelmed. Students, on the other hand, are anxious and unsupported. Many are afraid to ask questions in class. Some turn to AI tools that give quick answers without teaching them how to think. Shepherd steps in to solve both problems. For teachers, it acts as a co-pilot. Shepherd automatically generates lesson materials, grades essays, and handles repetitive tasks. But more importantly, it empowers them to design and assign personalised AI tutors to students, auto-generate quizzes with instant feedback, build flashcards and study plans, and track student progress in no more than 5 minutes. This also translates to personalised 24/7 academic support for students to stay on track, and teachers get time back to do what only they can: teach, coach, and care. How do you address the AI potential for overreliance and dependence, and the reduction of critical thinking and human interaction in the learning environment? We built Shepherd to prevent mindless AI use. Instead of handing students answers, it asks questions, nudges thinking, and scaffolds learning. It’s built on the Socratic method, so students must try, explain, and reflect. But more importantly, teachers stay in control. They can monitor learning, spot gaps, and intervene. For every user, we have gone to great lengths to make AI the co-pilot, not the driver. Can you explain how Shepherd uses AI to support teachers without replacing them? Shepherd isn’t a replacement. It’s an amplifier. Think of it as a 24/7 teaching assistant that helps plan lessons, assess students, and generate learning resources instantly. But the teacher is always in charge. Shepherd is designed to free the teacher to focus on higher-impact teaching, mentoring, and motivation. A World Bank Study done in Nigeria showed that Teacher and AI collaboration drove more impact in driving learning gains than either one alone. We believe that is the future of AI in education, not self-serve bots, but teacher-guided journeys grounded in pedagogy. Many Edtech tools promise improved learning outcomes, but what makes Shepherd’s approach different? Our approach is evidence-backed. There is this paper – From Chalkboards to Chatbots – by the World Bank, where they did a Randomised Control Trial and showed that a Teacher and AI approach drove learning outcomes more than any other learning intervention. By centring the educator and enabling them to quickly design the AI experience and then monitor it, we drive unprecedented impact. Unlike other ed-tech tools, which are content-first. Shepherd is pedagogy-first. Instead of just delivering static material, we take the best of learning science. For example, spaced repetition for recall, quick feedback, scaffolding, then layer it with the best reasoning AI model, and put teachers in the loop to monitor and provide the right guardrails. What are the measurable impacts of Shepherd in classrooms where it’s currently being used? In classrooms, teachers tell us that Shepherd saves about 75 per cent of the time they spend grading essays. So, they can assign three times more writing assignments because Shepherd helps them grade in minutes. Imagine a student being coached daily, and a teacher doing more than half the admin. That’s the real impact. On the student side, over 150,000 students have used Shepherd personally, and we have received phenomenal feedback on how it improved their study habits and grades.  Shepherd is backed by Y Combinator. What does that support mean for your growth plans? Being backed by Y Combinator means we are building at global standards, with the mentorship, network, and credibility to scale fast. But it also means something deeper: the world’s top investors believe that African schools can leapfrog the classroom bottlenecks using AI, and Shepherd is their bet to make that happen. What markets are you currently active in, and how are you scaling the platform? We’re active across the globe with students using our student-only platform (shepherd.study). But our teacher-in-the-loop product (teacher.shepherd.study) is now being piloted in the US and Nigeria, with partnerships expanding rapidly. We’re scaling through direct school partnerships, teacher ambassador programs, and collaboration with ministries and governmental organisations. The goal is to make Shepherd the default AI co-teacher in every school. Are there plans to introduce Shepherd to African schools? Absolutely, and this is personal. For too long, African education systems have been playing catch-up. We missed the industrial age revolution. We missed the internet revolution in our classrooms. But we do not have to miss the AI revolution. We can leapfrog. Shepherd is already working with a growing number of forward-thinking Nigerian schools that are not just adopting AI, they’re using it to empower their teachers, personalise learning, and better prepare students for the world ahead. We’re aligning Shepherd with local curricula like WAEC and JAMB, and we’re training teachers to use it, not as a replacement, but as an extension of their ability to teach and care. Parents and government leaders should pay close attention to what’s happening globally. In China, AI education is now mandatory in schools, with students as young as six getting familiar with the tools that will shape their future. It’s not just about coding. It’s about thinking, reasoning, and working alongside intelligent systems. That’s what Shepherd enables. Even if a student doesn’t go on to build AI, they’ll grow up knowing how to work with it, and that familiarity will be a key advantage in the global labour market. So yes, we’re coming to Nigerian and African schools, but it’s not just up to us. This is a conversation every parent should be having with their school today. Ask them: “What are you doing to prepare my child for a world shaped by AI?” If the answer isn’t clear, Shepherd is here to help. Do you plan to organise training and sensitisation programmes for educators on the effective use of Shepherd? Absolutely. We’re rolling out “train-the-trainer” models, on-site workshops, and mobile onboarding flows in local languages. We’re not just giving teachers a tool; we’re helping them build 21st-century teaching capacity. It’s part of the product, part professional development. And the feedback so far has been electric. What specific challenges do you see in applying AI tools like Shepherd in the Nigerian education system? We are tackling three challenges head-on: Digital literacy caps, low device access, and scepticism and awareness. To address digital literacy gaps, we offer mobile-ready, language-inclusive training. On low-end device access, we want to ensure Shepherd works great on low-end Android phones. To address scepticism and awareness, our focus is to lead with the teacher, not the tech. When they see Shepherd save hours and improve engagement and confidence in the students, the scepticism melts away. Teachers and schools are already burdened by economic realities. What is the cost of adopting Shepherd? We are sensitive to the economic realities in the country. So we try to ensure pricing structure flexibility. We can offer school-wide licenses, parent-funded bundles, and even NGO/government-sponsored access for public schools. We are, however, confident in the Return on Investment we deliver – more learning, less stress, better results. Would you consider partnering with state or federal education agencies in Nigeria for the sake of accessibility? Yes, we’re excited to have those conversations. To reach every student, we need the public sector. We’re gearing up to speak with ministries, governors’ forums, and donor-backed agencies to bring Shepherd into public schools, from primary to university, and even teacher colleges. How will Shepherd improve UTME/SSCE results? Shepherd is built to help students excel at exams. Upload a WAEC or JAMB syllabus, and Shepherd creates a full plan, notes, flashcards, quizzes, past questions, and reminders. It’s like a personalised prep coach that never sleeps. And teachers can track readiness, spot weak points, and give targeted support. We’ve seen students jump two to three grade levels in a matter of weeks. But also, we are working on building a vast library of UTME/SSCE and international exams – IB, AP, SAT, etc, resources that are AI-enabled, with 24/7 interactive explanations on questions, and ready to help students excel.