Egyptian football star Mohamed Salah has welcomed his third child and first son, named Lail, Trabzonspor President Ertuğrul Doğan said after the Turkish club’s third-round league match against Amedspor.

Doğan said Salah and his Cameroonian teammate André Onana travelled outside Turkey following the match as their wives were due to give birth.

“After the Amed match, we travelled abroad with Onana and Salah. Onana welcomed twins, while Salah welcomed a baby boy. I congratulate their families and wives,” Doğan was quoted as telling Turkish media.

Salah’s sister, Rabab Salah, later revealed the baby’s name on Instagram, posting a photograph of a baby hat and congratulating her brother on the birth of Lail.

The child is Salah’s first son. The Egyptian star and his wife, Magi, already have two daughters, Makka and Kayan.

Doğan’s comments came after a photograph of Salah and Onana aboard a private jet circulated online, prompting questions among Trabzonspor supporters and local media about the reason for their trip.

The club president said both players had travelled for family reasons following the match.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed claims by Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso that President Bola Tinubu can be defeated in the 2027 presidential election, insisting that the ruling party remains confident of retaining power.

The Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa, said the APC would win the presidential, governorship and other elections in Kaduna State, rejecting claims of growing opposition to the party in the North.

Musa spoke on Thursday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, shortly after Obi and Kwankwaso told supporters in Port Harcourt that they were prepared to resist any attempt to manipulate the 2027 election.

Asked whether the APC could lose Kaduna, Musa said, “APC will win in Kaduna. That I know.”

Pressed on whether his prediction covered the governorship and presidential elections, he replied, “Definitely. Presidential, governorship, and all levels.”

Musa also rejected suggestions that northern voters were turning against the APC and defended Tinubu’s economic policies, saying the President had taken “very painful decisions” whose benefits would become clearer over time.

Earlier, Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, told supporters that voters would not allow their ballots to be subverted at polling units, insisting that attempts to manipulate the 2027 election would face resistance.

Kwankwaso, Obi’s running mate, warned against assuming that control of state governments guaranteed victory at the presidential level, citing the defeat of former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 despite being the incumbent.

The APC National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru, also dismissed the opposition’s claims as “cheap talk” and “wishful thinking”, reminding Obi and Kwankwaso that Muhammadu Buhari won re-election as a sitting President in 2019.

“Presidential election is not won on empty rhetoric or wishful thinking. We are confident that Nigerians will re elect President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” Basiru said.

Nigeria’s 4.43 percent economic growth in the second quarter of 2026 (Q2’26) is masking a deepening industrial crisis, with manufacturing and the broader industrial sector losing ground as services increasingly dominate economic activity, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, has warned.

Reacting to the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, Q2 2026 GDP, report, yesterday, MAN Director-General, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, said the 4.43 per cent year-on-year real GDP growth recorded in the quarter, up from 3.89 per cent in Q1 2026 and 4.23 percent in Q2 2025, masks deep-seated weaknesses in the real economy.

He noted that services accounted for 56.62 per cent of GDP in Q2, while the broader industrial sector contributed only 17.23 per cent and suffered a dramatic slowdown in growth.

“The growth trajectory remains disproportionately service-driven (56.62 per cent of GDP), while the broader industrial sector (17.23 per cent of GDP) is visibly suffocating under severe structural headwinds,” Ajayi-Kadir said.

He described the near-halving of industrial growth as particularly alarming, noting that it fell from 7.46 pe rcent in Q2 2025 to 3.96 per cent in Q2 2026.

According to him, the sharp deterioration was driven largely by the electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply segment, which contracted by 10.63 per cent during the quarter.

MAN also noted that manufacturing’s share of real GDP plunged from 9.57 per cent in Q1 2026 to 7.72 per cent in Q2, while real manufacturing growth eased marginally from 3.29 per cent to 3.24 per cent.

Ajayi-Kadir attributed the weakening performance to the combination of high production costs, exchange-rate pressures, prohibitive interest rates and soaring electricity tariffs confronting manufacturers.

He warned that continued dependence on services and extraction would leave Nigeria vulnerable to external shocks while doing little to expand productive capacity.

“Ultimately, headline GDP growth driven by non-tradable service activities will fail to strengthen foreign exchange reserves, reduce structural inflation, or create sustainable mass industrial jobs. A nation that trades and consumes what it does not produce builds prosperity on quicksand.”

MAN said the trend portends employment fragility, an inflationary spiral, greater FX vulnerability, and erosion of industrial capacity and technological capability.

To reverse the slide, MAN called for urgent intervention in power, industrial finance, FX allocation and local procurement.

It recommended direct power purchase agreements for industrial clusters, matching grants for manufacturers investing in solar and battery systems, credit guarantees to force down lending rates, and a dedicated FX clearance window for raw materials and capital machinery, amongst others.

MAN also demanded stronger enforcement of local procurement, incentives for vehicle assembly, tax relief for domestic supply chains and legally binding implementation of the Nigeria Industrial Policy.

Ajayi-Kadir said Nigeria must urgently move from consumption-led growth to production-led growth, warning that without a stronger manufacturing base, impressive GDP numbers would remain largely disconnected from improvements in living standards and economic prosperity.