15-year-old boy brutally rapes schoolgirl of 14-years-old after spending hours on pornography websites.
Trying to re-enact sadistic scenes he had viewed on hardcore porn sites, the 15-year-old had the girl gagged, bound, beaten up, and raped.
He and a friend had threatened the girl with knives, had her head covered with a plastic bag and a scarf tightened around her neck before carrying out the act.
The battered and bruised girl had to bite through the bag in order to breathe and has been left emotionally and psychologically scarred.
Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, said:
"I have no doubt the trigger for this offence was the child's wish for experimentation following visits to internet porn."
At an earlier hearing Judge Bourne Arton -where he described the attack as 'heinous'- told the older boy:
"The full horror of what you did, only she can know. You had for many months, spent many days trawling through internet pornography.
"The full horror of what you did, only she can know. You had for many months, spent many days trawling through internet pornography.
Your interest in sexual matters was heightened and heightened, unfulfilled, and you wanted to experiment.
The relatives of the girl and the rapist have called on the Government to design a measure to help stop kids' access to online pornography.
Weak-willed you may be and weak-minded you may be, but you knew everything that you did to her. You may have been led, but you were led willingly.’
The girl’s father, who runs a small business, added: ‘This will affect her for the rest of her life. She’s very quiet now, she’s a different person."
"Restrictions should be put in place.
This attack on my daughter was pre-planned. They were re-enacting porn they had watched online.
Kids of five are looking at porn, which is horrendous. When we were that age we were playing with toy soldiers." the girl's dad spoke out.
he continued: "They can get it anywhere, on their iPhones and other mobiles really easily. Any porn is inappropriate for children but it’s the extreme violent nature of it that is worrying."
The older boy and accomplice friend, 14 admitted that they had engaged in rape and false imprisonment at an earlier hearing.
The 15-year-old is sentenced to three years at Teesside Crown Court while his friend bagged a four-year time for having been the one who instigated the idea. But the girl's father slammed the terms:
He said:
"They’ll be out in a year, perhaps two. But this will affect my daughter for ever. She is very quiet now, she is a different person."
The older boy’s gran said after the case: "We had no idea he was watching porn until it was said in court."
Suggesting ways to curb chiljd access to online porn, Lisa Harker, of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), said:
"Sadly we are hearing about more and more cases like this. ChildLine has seen a surge in calls from young people exposed to hard core pornography on the internet and from young girls saying they are being pestered, coerced and even forced into mimicking these videos.
The industry must help parents block these videos."
Vivienne Pattison, director of campaign group Mediawatch-UK, added:
"This case is a potent example of the potential damage that can be done by porn.
It’s definitely the way forward to block porn for everyone unless they opt in to it."
Thursday 28 February 2013
How Fashola’s ‘Mega City’ Policy Renders Thousands Homeless in Badia, Lagos
“It’s a bad government. They are callous, useless government who has not got anything upstairs to offer the people,” the residents of Badia community say. At nightfall in Ijora-Badia, two-month-old Joy Kalu sleeps in the open.
When it’s time for the family to retire for the day, her mother, Ada, unfolds a worn out mattress, lays her baby on it, and lights up a mosquito coil. “Is it a crime to be poor? I managed to escape with my baby when they came on Saturday,” Ada, 26, said, cradling her baby behind her back.
Last Saturday morning, the Lagos State Environment and Sanitation Task Force forcefully evicted residents of Badia East Community in Lagos. By nightfall, what used to be homes for thousands of residents were reduced to a mass of wooden and concrete rubble. The occupants said that they were taken unawares. “They came around 7 a.m., gave us 20 minutes to pack out our things,” said John Momoh, 28.
“Some people were able to pack some of their things. When they started, they didn’t allow anybody to come in. I lost everything,” he added. Homeless and helpless Two bulldozers, accompanied by dozens of armed police officers, continued to rip through buildings into Sunday. Three “dissident residents” were imprisoned in a Black Maria, but later released. “Some area boys were trying to steal our properties and were fighting with them,” Mr. Momoh, who was among those arrested, added.
On most nights, Ada said that she stays awake so her baby could sleep. “I want to stop using (mosquito) coils. It’s giving her catarrh,” she said. For Bimbo Oshobe and her family – four children and a grandchild- there is nowhere to go. “What do you do when you don’t have any alternative? We’ve been in this area since 1973,” Mrs. Oshobe said. “My husband has gone to look for money from his people.” On Monday, hundreds of the residents marched to the state governor’s office to register their displeasure with the evictions.
After a four-hour wait, Bosun Jeje, the Commissioner for Housing, came out and merely stated that they form a “technical committee” to meet with the government. By Tuesday, the demolition squad had left, but the residents – most of them – remained, squatting near drainage channels and railroad tracks that pass through the community. Clothes, torn books, broken torchlight and plates littered the ground.
Albert Olorunwa who spearheaded the protest on Monday said that the demolition was “illegal and callous.” “We have nowhere to go. No food, no shelter. We have passed through a lot of agony,” Mr. Olorunwa, a former youth leader in the community, said. “It’s a bad government. They are callous, useless government who has not got anything upstairs to offer the people,” he said. The Social and Economic Rights Action Centre, SERAC, a nongovernmental organization that had been working with the community, said that the demolition is an illustration that “nothing has changed in Lagos since the days of military government.”
“The Lagos State Government still has no shame in carrying out mass forced evictions in flagrant contravention of international law and the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution,” the group said in a statement. A history of evictions The history of Badia in Apapa-Iganmu local council and their inhabitants are dotted with forced evictions. In 1929, the federal government acquired a huge chunk of the land to build a railway. By the early 1970s, the federal government called again, this time displacing occupants at the present location of the National Theatre, Iganmu.
However, the people were moved to Badia-East, a few kilometres away, where they had continued to live until Lagos State began its forced evictions. “Aside from periodic demolitions, the community has, since 2005, been engaged with the federal government in planning for possible in situ urban renewal,” said Felix Morka, SERAC’s Executive Director. On February 22, SERAC said that it held a meeting with the Lagos State Government in which Mr. Jeje “unequivocally denied” knowledge of any planned demolition. “By the close of the meeting, the commissioner committed to raising SERAC’s concerns about the need for a more consultative planning process at an inter-ministerial meeting the following week,” Mr. Morka said.
“Flying in the face of all such denials and promises, the massive demolition and forced eviction commenced unannounced less than twenty hours later,” he added. Speaking during the demolition, Bayo Suleiman, who led the Task Force, said that a slum existing in an area housing big industries such as the Nigeria Breweries is “not acceptable.” “There is no way we can achieve the mega city status with this kind of slum in this area,” Mr. Suleiman said.
When it’s time for the family to retire for the day, her mother, Ada, unfolds a worn out mattress, lays her baby on it, and lights up a mosquito coil. “Is it a crime to be poor? I managed to escape with my baby when they came on Saturday,” Ada, 26, said, cradling her baby behind her back.
Last Saturday morning, the Lagos State Environment and Sanitation Task Force forcefully evicted residents of Badia East Community in Lagos. By nightfall, what used to be homes for thousands of residents were reduced to a mass of wooden and concrete rubble. The occupants said that they were taken unawares. “They came around 7 a.m., gave us 20 minutes to pack out our things,” said John Momoh, 28.
“Some people were able to pack some of their things. When they started, they didn’t allow anybody to come in. I lost everything,” he added. Homeless and helpless Two bulldozers, accompanied by dozens of armed police officers, continued to rip through buildings into Sunday. Three “dissident residents” were imprisoned in a Black Maria, but later released. “Some area boys were trying to steal our properties and were fighting with them,” Mr. Momoh, who was among those arrested, added.
On most nights, Ada said that she stays awake so her baby could sleep. “I want to stop using (mosquito) coils. It’s giving her catarrh,” she said. For Bimbo Oshobe and her family – four children and a grandchild- there is nowhere to go. “What do you do when you don’t have any alternative? We’ve been in this area since 1973,” Mrs. Oshobe said. “My husband has gone to look for money from his people.” On Monday, hundreds of the residents marched to the state governor’s office to register their displeasure with the evictions.
After a four-hour wait, Bosun Jeje, the Commissioner for Housing, came out and merely stated that they form a “technical committee” to meet with the government. By Tuesday, the demolition squad had left, but the residents – most of them – remained, squatting near drainage channels and railroad tracks that pass through the community. Clothes, torn books, broken torchlight and plates littered the ground.
Albert Olorunwa who spearheaded the protest on Monday said that the demolition was “illegal and callous.” “We have nowhere to go. No food, no shelter. We have passed through a lot of agony,” Mr. Olorunwa, a former youth leader in the community, said. “It’s a bad government. They are callous, useless government who has not got anything upstairs to offer the people,” he said. The Social and Economic Rights Action Centre, SERAC, a nongovernmental organization that had been working with the community, said that the demolition is an illustration that “nothing has changed in Lagos since the days of military government.”
“The Lagos State Government still has no shame in carrying out mass forced evictions in flagrant contravention of international law and the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution,” the group said in a statement. A history of evictions The history of Badia in Apapa-Iganmu local council and their inhabitants are dotted with forced evictions. In 1929, the federal government acquired a huge chunk of the land to build a railway. By the early 1970s, the federal government called again, this time displacing occupants at the present location of the National Theatre, Iganmu.
However, the people were moved to Badia-East, a few kilometres away, where they had continued to live until Lagos State began its forced evictions. “Aside from periodic demolitions, the community has, since 2005, been engaged with the federal government in planning for possible in situ urban renewal,” said Felix Morka, SERAC’s Executive Director. On February 22, SERAC said that it held a meeting with the Lagos State Government in which Mr. Jeje “unequivocally denied” knowledge of any planned demolition. “By the close of the meeting, the commissioner committed to raising SERAC’s concerns about the need for a more consultative planning process at an inter-ministerial meeting the following week,” Mr. Morka said.
“Flying in the face of all such denials and promises, the massive demolition and forced eviction commenced unannounced less than twenty hours later,” he added. Speaking during the demolition, Bayo Suleiman, who led the Task Force, said that a slum existing in an area housing big industries such as the Nigeria Breweries is “not acceptable.” “There is no way we can achieve the mega city status with this kind of slum in this area,” Mr. Suleiman said.
Wednesday 27 February 2013
"My Uncle Raped Me For 10 Years" - Woman Finally Speaks Out
A young girl was dragged to the feet of her rapist and forced to apologise to him after her father refused to believe she was being sexually abused.
Tina Rogers was just 11 years old when her uncle began raping her on a weekly basis at her grandparents' home, while her family laughed and joked downstairs oblivious to what was happening.
Finally, more than two decades after the abuse started, 63-year-old Colin Dunn was jailed for 16 years for sexually assaulting children over a 50-year period.
He was found guilty of seven offences of rape and two charges of indecent assault at Burnley Crown Court on February 12.
Sex pervert Dunn told an innocent Tina he was the only one in her family that loved her before grooming her and forcing her to have sex with him against her will.
Tina, now 37, was then forced to live with the horror of her abuse after bravely trying to confide in her father, before being dragged to apologise to her rapist when her family refused to believe the allegations.
Tina, from Preston, Lancashire, said: 'I went to tell my dad that Colin was touching me. I wanted to tell him he was having sex with me, but I was scared how he would react. I said he was touching my bottom.
'Dad went mad. He dragged me up to his house and made me apologise to Colin's face. My uncle sneered down and me and said he wouldn't do anything like that to me.
'None of my family would believe me. I could describe his bedroom, but it didn't matter. No-one would listen.'
Tina grew up in what she believed to be a tight-knit family, so as a child there appeared nothing wrong with her spending time with her loving uncle.
But his actions soon turned sinister, as he encouraged Tina to spend more time with him.
She said: 'The first time I remember anything happening was when I was putting food into the fish tank. He sat on a chair behind me and put his legs around me, and then he started touching me.
'I was naive, I didn't know what sex was. It didn't occur to me what he was doing to me was wrong and I believed that he loved me.
'Colin said we would both get into trouble but especially me, so I didn't say a word. I had sex with him too many times.'
But as Tina got older, she began to realise that her relationship with Dunn was not what it should be.
She said: 'I was watching TV one night and there was a prostitute on the screen. My mum said she was dirty. I then realised what was happening to me was wrong as well.'
As a teenager, Tina, who has an older brother and sister, was put into care and even called a 'reject' by her mother.
She said: 'They got rid of me. I was told to shut up or it would be ten times worse.'
When she was 21, Tina finally found the courage to report her rapist.
She said: 'I was terrified he was doing what he had done to me to other girls.'
Dunn was arrested and the charges were put to him. But while he was in police custody, he collapsed and was taken to hospital.
Police said there wasn't enough evidence against him and Tina was forced to watch her attacker walk free.
More than a decade after Tina was forced to believe Dunn would never be convicted of his crimes, he was handed a 32-month sentence after confessing to attacking five and six-year-old girls he had befriended close to his home.
He lured the youngsters with toys, Easter eggs and promises to look after their animals.
Following the conviction in October 2011, Tina's statement was reviewed and Dunn was finally charged with two counts of rape on her as a child.
Tina said: 'Two girls came forward and told police what he had done to them.
'Those little children that have spoken out deserve a medal for being so brave, and so do their parents for supporting them and believing them.
'I can't apologise enough to the other parents because it shouldn't have happened.'
Passing sentence, Judge Beverley Lunt told Dunn: 'It cannot be said that at any stage of your life you led a blameless existence.
'For decades you have been a perverted sexual abuser who has preyed on young girls.'
Dunn admitted the charges due to the amount of evidence served against him.
'He had nothing left,' Tina added. 'When I saw him in court, I stared right at him. He looked empty. It was the closest I had been to him in a long time.
'I felt relieved to see him sentenced. I can't believe it's finally over. I've waited so long for justice.
'But while I know he is being punished, it will always hurt that I was disbelieved by my family about it for so long.'
Detective Constable Matt Capper, of the Pennine policing division's public protection unit said: 'Dunn is a predatory and dangerous man whose offending spanned decades.
'His offending has not only had significant health implications for his victim but they will now have to live with this for the rest of their lives.
'They showed immense bravery and courage in coming forward. I hope this sentence will offer a degree of closure and allow them to move forward with their lives.'
Tina Rogers was just 11 years old when her uncle began raping her on a weekly basis at her grandparents' home, while her family laughed and joked downstairs oblivious to what was happening.
Finally, more than two decades after the abuse started, 63-year-old Colin Dunn was jailed for 16 years for sexually assaulting children over a 50-year period.
He was found guilty of seven offences of rape and two charges of indecent assault at Burnley Crown Court on February 12.
Sex pervert Dunn told an innocent Tina he was the only one in her family that loved her before grooming her and forcing her to have sex with him against her will.
Tina, now 37, was then forced to live with the horror of her abuse after bravely trying to confide in her father, before being dragged to apologise to her rapist when her family refused to believe the allegations.
Tina, from Preston, Lancashire, said: 'I went to tell my dad that Colin was touching me. I wanted to tell him he was having sex with me, but I was scared how he would react. I said he was touching my bottom.
'Dad went mad. He dragged me up to his house and made me apologise to Colin's face. My uncle sneered down and me and said he wouldn't do anything like that to me.
'None of my family would believe me. I could describe his bedroom, but it didn't matter. No-one would listen.'
Tina grew up in what she believed to be a tight-knit family, so as a child there appeared nothing wrong with her spending time with her loving uncle.
But his actions soon turned sinister, as he encouraged Tina to spend more time with him.
She said: 'The first time I remember anything happening was when I was putting food into the fish tank. He sat on a chair behind me and put his legs around me, and then he started touching me.
'I was naive, I didn't know what sex was. It didn't occur to me what he was doing to me was wrong and I believed that he loved me.
'Colin said we would both get into trouble but especially me, so I didn't say a word. I had sex with him too many times.'
But as Tina got older, she began to realise that her relationship with Dunn was not what it should be.
She said: 'I was watching TV one night and there was a prostitute on the screen. My mum said she was dirty. I then realised what was happening to me was wrong as well.'
As a teenager, Tina, who has an older brother and sister, was put into care and even called a 'reject' by her mother.
She said: 'They got rid of me. I was told to shut up or it would be ten times worse.'
When she was 21, Tina finally found the courage to report her rapist.
She said: 'I was terrified he was doing what he had done to me to other girls.'
Dunn was arrested and the charges were put to him. But while he was in police custody, he collapsed and was taken to hospital.
Police said there wasn't enough evidence against him and Tina was forced to watch her attacker walk free.
More than a decade after Tina was forced to believe Dunn would never be convicted of his crimes, he was handed a 32-month sentence after confessing to attacking five and six-year-old girls he had befriended close to his home.
He lured the youngsters with toys, Easter eggs and promises to look after their animals.
Following the conviction in October 2011, Tina's statement was reviewed and Dunn was finally charged with two counts of rape on her as a child.
Tina said: 'Two girls came forward and told police what he had done to them.
'Those little children that have spoken out deserve a medal for being so brave, and so do their parents for supporting them and believing them.
'I can't apologise enough to the other parents because it shouldn't have happened.'
Passing sentence, Judge Beverley Lunt told Dunn: 'It cannot be said that at any stage of your life you led a blameless existence.
'For decades you have been a perverted sexual abuser who has preyed on young girls.'
Dunn admitted the charges due to the amount of evidence served against him.
'He had nothing left,' Tina added. 'When I saw him in court, I stared right at him. He looked empty. It was the closest I had been to him in a long time.
'I felt relieved to see him sentenced. I can't believe it's finally over. I've waited so long for justice.
'But while I know he is being punished, it will always hurt that I was disbelieved by my family about it for so long.'
Detective Constable Matt Capper, of the Pennine policing division's public protection unit said: 'Dunn is a predatory and dangerous man whose offending spanned decades.
'His offending has not only had significant health implications for his victim but they will now have to live with this for the rest of their lives.
'They showed immense bravery and courage in coming forward. I hope this sentence will offer a degree of closure and allow them to move forward with their lives.'
Tuesday 26 February 2013
6 Crock-Pot Breakfast Recipes That Will Make You Want to Rise & Dine
If you haven't been using your Crock-Pot to make breakfast, you've been missing out. As good as it is to come home to a nice dinner you've made in one, it's even a bit sweeter to roll out of bed and have a delicious meal waiting for you.
I love to make slow cooker breakfasts when we have company, or on any day I know we're going to be rushed in the morning. It's a great way to venture away from your standard cereal bowl once in awhile. Here are six of my favorite breakfast recipes I've found that you can make in your slow cooker or Crock-Pot. And, of course, breakfast for dinner is never a bad thing either.
Crock-Pot French Toast
Just add butter, syrup, fruit, or whatever toppings you like, and you've got one amazing start to your day.
Overnight Egg Casserole
Packed with protein, you'll sleep well knowing this is waiting for you in the morning.
Breakfast Risotto
It sounds a bit strange, but it's scrumptious. With apples, cinnamon, and butter, it's similar to oatmeal, but the Arborio rice gives it a nice, new consistency.
Overnight Oatmeal
If you prefer a more traditional start to your day, this recipe for oatmeal is a great one.
Crock-Pot Apple Pie Coffee Cake
This one only takes a couple of hours to cook, so if you're up before the rest of the house, get this started and they'll be awfully glad you did.
Crock-Pot Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole
The perfect side dish, this casserole is comfort food defined. It's a snap to make, and you'll be so glad you did
I love to make slow cooker breakfasts when we have company, or on any day I know we're going to be rushed in the morning. It's a great way to venture away from your standard cereal bowl once in awhile. Here are six of my favorite breakfast recipes I've found that you can make in your slow cooker or Crock-Pot. And, of course, breakfast for dinner is never a bad thing either.
Crock-Pot French Toast
Just add butter, syrup, fruit, or whatever toppings you like, and you've got one amazing start to your day.
Overnight Egg Casserole
Packed with protein, you'll sleep well knowing this is waiting for you in the morning.
Breakfast Risotto
It sounds a bit strange, but it's scrumptious. With apples, cinnamon, and butter, it's similar to oatmeal, but the Arborio rice gives it a nice, new consistency.
Overnight Oatmeal
If you prefer a more traditional start to your day, this recipe for oatmeal is a great one.
Crock-Pot Apple Pie Coffee Cake
This one only takes a couple of hours to cook, so if you're up before the rest of the house, get this started and they'll be awfully glad you did.
Crock-Pot Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole
The perfect side dish, this casserole is comfort food defined. It's a snap to make, and you'll be so glad you did
Mom Wrongly Convicted of Murdering Her Son, But the Truth About His Death Is No Less Heartbreaking
If a mother's worst nightmare is the death of her child, I don't know what to call what Nicole Harris went through. The mom from Chicago was justreleased from prison after serving nearly eight years for a crime she didn't commit. Harris was sent away for murdering her 4-year-old son, Jaquari Dancy, in 2005, but the conviction has been overturned.
At the time, back in 2005, Harris confessed to cops that she was to blame for the boy's death. He'd been found with an elastic bedsheet cord around his neck in a bedroom in the family's home. What kind of mother confesses to such a thing?
A guilty one, right? Because no mother in her right mind would want the world to think she did something so heinous to the child she loved.
I know I wouldn't.
But that's easy to say, isn't it? From the outside? As a person never charged with a heinous crime, a person who has never had to answer questions from police while struggling to make sense of tragedy?
I know what grief has done to me in the past. I've broken down, cried hysterically, wrapped myself in a comforter, and hidden away. And that was at the death of a grandmother, not a child.
So who is to say what a mother should or will do when she's grieving? What is normal?
Nicole Harris' murder conviction has been overturned because it turned out she spent 27 hours being interrogated before she confessed. What's more, it turns out her other son was never allowed to speak in court about what he observed: Jaquari putting that cord around his own neck.
So much for being in your right mind. I can't imagine what I'd do after 27 hours of being questioned by cops, especially when you factor in that this poor woman was already dealing with -- as I've mentioned -- a parent's worst nightmare. Her child, her beloved 4-year-old, had been found dead in her home.
What do you expect a mother to do with that? While we all grieve differently, it's certainly to be expected that this kind of traumatic news would render a mother unable to think clearly, would make difficult the process of answering even the most basic questions from police.
Cops have to do their jobs; I get that. But when you're grieving, you can't just tell your brain, "OK, now is the time to defend myself, deal with being heartbroken later." And so, unfortunately, we end up with cases like Nicole Harris.
Even more unfortunately, it can take years and years and countless appeals to undo the additional hurt of these cases. It's good news that Nicole Harris is out of prison today, but this whole mess is going to leave years of scars.
Put yourself in Harris' shoes. Can you see how she made a false confession?
At the time, back in 2005, Harris confessed to cops that she was to blame for the boy's death. He'd been found with an elastic bedsheet cord around his neck in a bedroom in the family's home. What kind of mother confesses to such a thing?
A guilty one, right? Because no mother in her right mind would want the world to think she did something so heinous to the child she loved.
I know I wouldn't.
But that's easy to say, isn't it? From the outside? As a person never charged with a heinous crime, a person who has never had to answer questions from police while struggling to make sense of tragedy?
I know what grief has done to me in the past. I've broken down, cried hysterically, wrapped myself in a comforter, and hidden away. And that was at the death of a grandmother, not a child.
So who is to say what a mother should or will do when she's grieving? What is normal?
Nicole Harris' murder conviction has been overturned because it turned out she spent 27 hours being interrogated before she confessed. What's more, it turns out her other son was never allowed to speak in court about what he observed: Jaquari putting that cord around his own neck.
So much for being in your right mind. I can't imagine what I'd do after 27 hours of being questioned by cops, especially when you factor in that this poor woman was already dealing with -- as I've mentioned -- a parent's worst nightmare. Her child, her beloved 4-year-old, had been found dead in her home.
What do you expect a mother to do with that? While we all grieve differently, it's certainly to be expected that this kind of traumatic news would render a mother unable to think clearly, would make difficult the process of answering even the most basic questions from police.
Cops have to do their jobs; I get that. But when you're grieving, you can't just tell your brain, "OK, now is the time to defend myself, deal with being heartbroken later." And so, unfortunately, we end up with cases like Nicole Harris.
Even more unfortunately, it can take years and years and countless appeals to undo the additional hurt of these cases. It's good news that Nicole Harris is out of prison today, but this whole mess is going to leave years of scars.
Put yourself in Harris' shoes. Can you see how she made a false confession?
Anne Hathaway Tried to Win Over Haters With Her Oscars Speech (But It Didn't Work)
If you normally think Anne Hathaway is annoying as all get out, but found her marginally less obnoxious during her Best Supporting Actress acceptance speech last Sunday, that was no mistake. A source tells Us Weekly that Hathaway practiced her Oscar speech "a lot" to try and be more likable this time around, because she's tired of being criticized for her corny, insincere awards show speeches.
Let me clarify: those aren't my words. I like Anne Hathaway, but there's definitely something about her that rubs the public the wrong way. Despite her enormously successful awards season run, she's racked up a stunning amount of backlash -- so much so that she admits, "It does get to me."
When asked about being the butt of a never-ending stream of jokes about her acceptance speech demeanor, Hathaway confessed it does hurt her feelings. She added,
But you have to remember in life that there's a positive to every negative and a negative to every positive. The miracle of the universe is that, as far as they know, there's 51 percent matter versus 49 percent anti-matter -- things tip in the scale of the positive. So that is what I focus on.
Salon recently described Anne Hathaway as "Hollywood's most polarizing star," saying that despite her success, she's "the subject of more vituperative, angry scrutiny than perhaps any actress working today." It's true that scanning the comments section of any article written about her is chock-full of Hathaway Haterade, with people saying she's too sappy, too fake, and too desperate.
When Hathaway took the stage to accept her speech during the Oscars, my Twitter stream lit up with people eye-rolling her before she even opened her mouth. Regardless of how much she might have practiced, she preemptively bugs people now -- it's sort of the Taylor Swift Effect, where any reaction to winning an award will be perceived as disingenuous.
I don't get it, personally. I think she comes across as a very earnest, slightly nerdy drama club kid at heart, not a conniving emotional manipulator. Not everyone can be as relatable and accessible as Jennifer Lawrence when they're under the spotlight. I suspect Anne Hathaway will eventually win over her detractors, but if not, the negative attention will likely move on. If there's anything consistent about our fascination with celebrity culture, it's that we're always looking for a new target.
Let me clarify: those aren't my words. I like Anne Hathaway, but there's definitely something about her that rubs the public the wrong way. Despite her enormously successful awards season run, she's racked up a stunning amount of backlash -- so much so that she admits, "It does get to me."
When asked about being the butt of a never-ending stream of jokes about her acceptance speech demeanor, Hathaway confessed it does hurt her feelings. She added,
But you have to remember in life that there's a positive to every negative and a negative to every positive. The miracle of the universe is that, as far as they know, there's 51 percent matter versus 49 percent anti-matter -- things tip in the scale of the positive. So that is what I focus on.
Salon recently described Anne Hathaway as "Hollywood's most polarizing star," saying that despite her success, she's "the subject of more vituperative, angry scrutiny than perhaps any actress working today." It's true that scanning the comments section of any article written about her is chock-full of Hathaway Haterade, with people saying she's too sappy, too fake, and too desperate.
When Hathaway took the stage to accept her speech during the Oscars, my Twitter stream lit up with people eye-rolling her before she even opened her mouth. Regardless of how much she might have practiced, she preemptively bugs people now -- it's sort of the Taylor Swift Effect, where any reaction to winning an award will be perceived as disingenuous.
I don't get it, personally. I think she comes across as a very earnest, slightly nerdy drama club kid at heart, not a conniving emotional manipulator. Not everyone can be as relatable and accessible as Jennifer Lawrence when they're under the spotlight. I suspect Anne Hathaway will eventually win over her detractors, but if not, the negative attention will likely move on. If there's anything consistent about our fascination with celebrity culture, it's that we're always looking for a new target.
Camille Grammer's Cut-Out Bikini Leaves Little to the Imagination
I love spending the holidays at home in the Northeast, but I'm always a little jealous of families whose tradition is to go on vacation to a tropical island instead. Real Housewife of Beverly Hills Camille Grammer escapes every year with her family to Hawaii, and if that wasn't enough to fill me with jealousy, her slammin' bikini bod is. Holy WOW! Camille is looking finein her gray-green cutout bikini on those warm, sandy beaches.
I get it. It's definitely not normal to lookthat good at 44 years old. A woman at ANY age would have to have a great figure to rock a suit with those extra snippets missing. Lucky for you and me who may not have the same exhibitionist tendencies, though, 2013 swimsuit trends are all about a more conservative style. Prepare yourselves to celebrate: the one-piece swimsuit is back in a big way.
I know, it's super exciting. I've actually been seeing really cute one-pieces all over the stores lately. Some of them boast a flirty one-shoulder style, others feature loads of ruffles and bright, bright colors. It's crazy to think that a covered look that used to be reserved predominantly for moms and grandmothers at your local swimming pool is suddenly, well, hot.
Which is something I'm TOTALLY thankful for after seeing Camille's almost too-hot beach body. Really, she's a lucky woman to have that kind of figure. Maybe with a little more coverage, the rest of us regular ol' women can compete on the beach.
What do you think of Camille's swim look? Would you ever wear a bathing suit like that, or would you rather rock a one-piece?
PHOTOS: Man Dressed As Woman Causes Chaos At Abuja Hotel
These pictures was sent from people present at Transcorp Hilton yesterday afternoon when the 'lady man' you see below put on a show for everyone.
The security guards at the hotel said she initially came into the hotel as a man, then probably went into the restroom to turn herself into a woman...with those boobs and things stuffed in her tracksuit pockets to create fake hips.
When quizzed, she said her name was Regina who just returned from the US and came to the hotel for business. She told people she was a model and gladly posed for pictures.
Do you think fierce Regina is a man or a woman?
The security guards at the hotel said she initially came into the hotel as a man, then probably went into the restroom to turn herself into a woman...with those boobs and things stuffed in her tracksuit pockets to create fake hips.
When quizzed, she said her name was Regina who just returned from the US and came to the hotel for business. She told people she was a model and gladly posed for pictures.
Do you think fierce Regina is a man or a woman?
Dirty Man Stripped Naked And Forced To Shower In Public (Photo)
Drama unraveled in the market after a 41-year-old hand-cart pusher was forcefully bathed by members of the public as traders and passers-by watched.
The man who is said to have gone months without a shower was washed in the full glare of the public as his wife and two sons watched helplessly.
Residents stripped him naked and bathed him vigorously using powder soap and floor scrubbing brushes while shouting. They termed the man as a disgrace to other Juakali traders.
They also washed his clothes and inner wear which were extremely dirty due to the nature of his work.
The man who sells charcoal at the Keroka market tried to defend himself shifting the blame to his wife claiming that she does not wash his clothes but his allegations fell on deaf ears.
Residents stripped him naked and bathed him vigorously using powder soap and floor scrubbing brushes while shouting. They termed the man as a disgrace to other Juakali traders.
They also washed his clothes and inner wear which were extremely dirty due to the nature of his work.
The man who sells charcoal at the Keroka market tried to defend himself shifting the blame to his wife claiming that she does not wash his clothes but his allegations fell on deaf ears.
12-year-old author gets commendation
Glory Osandatuwa
All eyes were on 12-year-old Glory Osandatuwa on February 16 when her debut novel, Jacky the Hardworking Spider, was presented in Warri, Delta State.
Osandatuwa is a JSS 2 pupil of Preston International School, Akure, Ondo State.
The event held at Great Hall, Chevron Recreation Centre attracted people from all walks of life. Among the dignitaries attracted to the event were wife of Delta State Governor, Mrs. Sheilia Uduaghan and a former Chairman of Warri South Local Government Area, Mr. Matthew Edema.
The Managing Director of Flomat Books Limited, Dr. Tony Akpokene, who reviewed the book, expressed a high optimism that the author is a budding talent that would grow into the stature of great Nigerian authors like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Prof. Chinua Achebe.
A literary scholar, author and promoter of children’s literature, Pastor Ulisanmi Edukugho, also said Osandatuwa’s work is exciting and that she is lucky to have parents who spotted this talent and decided to nurture it.
‘Jacky the Hardworking Spider and other stories’ is a collection of short stories written by the pupil at age 10 while a primary five pupil of the International Unity School, Edjeba, Warri. Alongside a school mate, the author read some parts of the book at the event.
"I Am Sleeping With My Colleague's Boyfriend"
I’m having sex with a guy my friend introduced me to. The only problem is she likes him too.
I’m 31 and this guy is 35. I met my friend only a couple of weeks ago when she started working at the place where I work. She’s very friendly and chatty and we’ve been getting on really well.
One morning, she told me about this guy she’d just met. She was going to meet up with him and his friend that night and invited me along. I hesitated at first but then I thought, “Why not?”
This guy was so lovely and sweet but he went home with my friend. The next day at work she told me that they’d slept together. I was pleased for her but a little bit jealous too. I liked the guy too.
I tried not to think any more about it but later in the day I received a text from him saying that he had regretted the whole night he’d spent with my friend and wished he’d been with me instead. If I’m honest I did feel a real connection with him.
I texted him back and we arranged to meet up the next day at his house. One thing led to another and we ended up having sex. I did feel guilty about what we’d done but he said he wants to tell my friend that he’s not interested in her.
He wants something to begin with us. My friend hasn’t stopped talking about him which suggests to me that she likes him more than she really intended to. This has put me in a difficult position because I like him too and I know he likes me back.
I’m 31 and this guy is 35. I met my friend only a couple of weeks ago when she started working at the place where I work. She’s very friendly and chatty and we’ve been getting on really well.
One morning, she told me about this guy she’d just met. She was going to meet up with him and his friend that night and invited me along. I hesitated at first but then I thought, “Why not?”
This guy was so lovely and sweet but he went home with my friend. The next day at work she told me that they’d slept together. I was pleased for her but a little bit jealous too. I liked the guy too.
I tried not to think any more about it but later in the day I received a text from him saying that he had regretted the whole night he’d spent with my friend and wished he’d been with me instead. If I’m honest I did feel a real connection with him.
I texted him back and we arranged to meet up the next day at his house. One thing led to another and we ended up having sex. I did feel guilty about what we’d done but he said he wants to tell my friend that he’s not interested in her.
He wants something to begin with us. My friend hasn’t stopped talking about him which suggests to me that she likes him more than she really intended to. This has put me in a difficult position because I like him too and I know he likes me back.
'She Loves Me... I'm Forgiven' - Chris Brown Finally Speaks Out On His Relationship With Rihanna
Chris Brown has spoken out about his infamous attack on girlfriend Rihanna, saying that it is the 'greatest regret' of his life.
Although the US singer described the assault as a 'mistake' he also admitted that the couple had moved on and the Diamonds singer has 'forgiven' him.
Speaking to The Mirror, the music world's bad boy, who is desperately trying to re-vamp his image, claimed that he has had to work hard for Rihanna's forgiveness.
'That night was the deepest regret of my life, the biggest mistake,' said the R&B star, having clearly come to terms with the wrong he did.
'But she loves me – what can I say? I’m forgiven… but, yes, I worked hard for it,' he added, suggesting that the couple had put the incident behind them even if other people hadn't.
'Sometimes you row, you fight, with the one you love and things get said, stuff spirals,' he added.
Chris continues to face a public backlash against his actions, which left Rihanna bruised and battered after he attacked her during an argument back in 2009.
He was sentenced to a five-year probation and six months of community service by a court after admitting to the assault.
Due in part to the fact that the pair have reconciled, they've faced a fresh onslaught from domestic abuse campaigners and the general public.
Chris, who spent Monday at Elton John's Oscar party without his other half, seemed unfazed by host Seth MacFarlane's joke about him during the ceremony.
As he introduced Quentin Tarantino's violent revenge western Django Unchained he described it as, 'the story of a man fighting to get back his woman, who's been subjected to unthinkable violence - or as Chris Brown and Rihanna call it, a date movie.'
The reference to Brown's 2009 assault of Rihanna drew gasps from the audience in Hollywood's Dolby Theatre.
Although Rihanna wasn't at the Oscar party with her other half, the couple holidayed together in Hawaii last week to celebrate her 25th birthday.
Although the US singer described the assault as a 'mistake' he also admitted that the couple had moved on and the Diamonds singer has 'forgiven' him.
Speaking to The Mirror, the music world's bad boy, who is desperately trying to re-vamp his image, claimed that he has had to work hard for Rihanna's forgiveness.
'That night was the deepest regret of my life, the biggest mistake,' said the R&B star, having clearly come to terms with the wrong he did.
'But she loves me – what can I say? I’m forgiven… but, yes, I worked hard for it,' he added, suggesting that the couple had put the incident behind them even if other people hadn't.
'Sometimes you row, you fight, with the one you love and things get said, stuff spirals,' he added.
Chris continues to face a public backlash against his actions, which left Rihanna bruised and battered after he attacked her during an argument back in 2009.
He was sentenced to a five-year probation and six months of community service by a court after admitting to the assault.
Due in part to the fact that the pair have reconciled, they've faced a fresh onslaught from domestic abuse campaigners and the general public.
Chris, who spent Monday at Elton John's Oscar party without his other half, seemed unfazed by host Seth MacFarlane's joke about him during the ceremony.
As he introduced Quentin Tarantino's violent revenge western Django Unchained he described it as, 'the story of a man fighting to get back his woman, who's been subjected to unthinkable violence - or as Chris Brown and Rihanna call it, a date movie.'
The reference to Brown's 2009 assault of Rihanna drew gasps from the audience in Hollywood's Dolby Theatre.
Although Rihanna wasn't at the Oscar party with her other half, the couple holidayed together in Hawaii last week to celebrate her 25th birthday.
True Confession: "I Wish My Husband Would Die"
About 10 months after my daughter was born, I found myself wishing my husband (her father) would die.
This thought took me by surprise at first, because I don’t consider myself an evil person, nor do I think I am capable of carrying out any act of taking someone’s life. Still, I had a clear thought that if my husband would just die, my life could become so much easier.
I would not have to explain to everyone that I had made a mistake by marrying this man. I would not have to worry about divorce or the scary thought of shared custody and how he might try to do as much harm to me and my relationship with my daughter as he could.
I would not have to worry about my parents who would still love me, but somehow I would feel like I let them down. I would not have to explain the abuse to anyone.
Instead, I would be a widow with a small child. Society embraces someone like that. Just look at the greeting cards; there are hundreds of cards for the “Loss of Husband,” but how many “Loss of Marriage” cards are there?
If my husband died, friends would feel sorry for me. They would do everything to make sure I was okay. I would be martyred. I could live with that. I found myself fantasizing about his death. I would imagine how I would react when the police knocked on my door and told me he had been in an accident. Or how I would find him in bed, dead of course, and how I would call the police and tell them, tears on cue, that my husband wasn’t breathing and could they send someone to help?
I would find myself rehearsing these actions and emotions in the shower as I washed the filthy, behind-closed-doors life off my body.
With each day that passes, I would think about these scenarios and bask in temporary relief that it brings. Before I have to get out of the shower and go face the disaster that is my marriage.
Once again, I am not an evil person, but with so much deaths, I wonder what kind of God would let a useless, no-good man like my husband live.
Yes, I do wish my husband would die.
This thought took me by surprise at first, because I don’t consider myself an evil person, nor do I think I am capable of carrying out any act of taking someone’s life. Still, I had a clear thought that if my husband would just die, my life could become so much easier.
I would not have to explain to everyone that I had made a mistake by marrying this man. I would not have to worry about divorce or the scary thought of shared custody and how he might try to do as much harm to me and my relationship with my daughter as he could.
I would not have to worry about my parents who would still love me, but somehow I would feel like I let them down. I would not have to explain the abuse to anyone.
Instead, I would be a widow with a small child. Society embraces someone like that. Just look at the greeting cards; there are hundreds of cards for the “Loss of Husband,” but how many “Loss of Marriage” cards are there?
If my husband died, friends would feel sorry for me. They would do everything to make sure I was okay. I would be martyred. I could live with that. I found myself fantasizing about his death. I would imagine how I would react when the police knocked on my door and told me he had been in an accident. Or how I would find him in bed, dead of course, and how I would call the police and tell them, tears on cue, that my husband wasn’t breathing and could they send someone to help?
I would find myself rehearsing these actions and emotions in the shower as I washed the filthy, behind-closed-doors life off my body.
With each day that passes, I would think about these scenarios and bask in temporary relief that it brings. Before I have to get out of the shower and go face the disaster that is my marriage.
Once again, I am not an evil person, but with so much deaths, I wonder what kind of God would let a useless, no-good man like my husband live.
Yes, I do wish my husband would die.
9-Year-Old Boys In Sexually Explicit Video: Is This Child Abuse? (VIDEO)
A lawyer for the family of a 9-year-old rapper who appears in sexually suggestive videos is criticizing authorities' decision to investigate whether the boy is the victim of possible child abuse or neglect.
The boy who performs as "Lil Poopy," is a thriving, well-adjusted fourth-grader with a good home life, good grades and musical talent, attorney Joseph Krowski Jr. said Monday of client Luie Rivera Jr., who is of Puerto Rican descent.
"This is just what I would call a racially-tinged investigation because whoever watched it probably doesn't understand rap," Krowski said of his client's work. "...This isn't some child left alone that's not going to school. It all comes down to content in the videos, which is protected by the First Amendment."
On Sunday, Brockton police asked state child welfare officials to look into possible abuse after watching Lil Poopy videos following a feature story about him in local newspaper The Enterprise.
Police said Monday they haven't filed any criminal charges. A Department of Children and Families spokeswoman confirmed that officials are looking into concerns about the young Brockton rapper's welfare.
The investigation will include interviews with everyone who lives in the child's home and likely others who have contact with the 9-year-old, such as school officials, DCF spokeswoman Cayenne Isaksen said. Child welfare officials can refer the case to the local district attorney's office if an investigation finds any criminal behavior.
"The filers of this report wanted to make sure the child is being properly cared for," Isaksen said. "...So the department will look into all aspects of this."
The videos show the boy slapping a woman's buttocks, engaging in sexually suggestive dances and glorifying drug use and materialism.
The boy's father, Luis Rivera, told The Enterprise that his son is acting and not doing anything wrong.
The newspaper said Lil Poopy has performed alongside Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, and was discovered in his father's music studio by the rapper known as French Montana, who founded Cocaine City Records.
Lil Poopy's music that was posted to an online mix tape site last October has lyrics that include him singing about being a "bad boy" and a "cocaine cowboy."
It showed about 8,600 downloads and 195,000 views by Monday afternoon.
YouTube posts also feature the boy singing "Coke ain't a bad word," and show him with Coca-Cola.
Check out the sexually suggestive video:
The boy who performs as "Lil Poopy," is a thriving, well-adjusted fourth-grader with a good home life, good grades and musical talent, attorney Joseph Krowski Jr. said Monday of client Luie Rivera Jr., who is of Puerto Rican descent.
"This is just what I would call a racially-tinged investigation because whoever watched it probably doesn't understand rap," Krowski said of his client's work. "...This isn't some child left alone that's not going to school. It all comes down to content in the videos, which is protected by the First Amendment."
On Sunday, Brockton police asked state child welfare officials to look into possible abuse after watching Lil Poopy videos following a feature story about him in local newspaper The Enterprise.
Police said Monday they haven't filed any criminal charges. A Department of Children and Families spokeswoman confirmed that officials are looking into concerns about the young Brockton rapper's welfare.
The investigation will include interviews with everyone who lives in the child's home and likely others who have contact with the 9-year-old, such as school officials, DCF spokeswoman Cayenne Isaksen said. Child welfare officials can refer the case to the local district attorney's office if an investigation finds any criminal behavior.
"The filers of this report wanted to make sure the child is being properly cared for," Isaksen said. "...So the department will look into all aspects of this."
The videos show the boy slapping a woman's buttocks, engaging in sexually suggestive dances and glorifying drug use and materialism.
The boy's father, Luis Rivera, told The Enterprise that his son is acting and not doing anything wrong.
The newspaper said Lil Poopy has performed alongside Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, and was discovered in his father's music studio by the rapper known as French Montana, who founded Cocaine City Records.
Lil Poopy's music that was posted to an online mix tape site last October has lyrics that include him singing about being a "bad boy" and a "cocaine cowboy."
It showed about 8,600 downloads and 195,000 views by Monday afternoon.
YouTube posts also feature the boy singing "Coke ain't a bad word," and show him with Coca-Cola.
Check out the sexually suggestive video:
"It Pays To Be Corrupt In Nigeria"
There is no denying that a corrupt judge is worse than an armed robber. Last week’s soft-landing for two judges accused of corruption by the National Judicial Council shows that we are not serious about the fight against corruption.
Even though the NJC had been commended for its action, the action of the NJC deserves no commendation. By recommending two judges — Justice C. E. Archibong of the Federal High Court, Lagos and Justice T.D. Naron of High Court of Justice, Plateau State — whom it found guilty of compromising their sacrosanct offices, for “compulsory retirement”, what the NJC had done was to tell the judges to go home and enjoy the proceeds from their corruption. A corrupt official should be summarily dismissed or recommended for dismissal, not sent on “compulsory retirement.” Retirement presupposes that the judges are entitled to all their benefits after a meritorious service, but dismissal means that their tenure had a question mark.
It was also curious that there was no comment from the NJC that suggested that it planned to report the judges to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission or the police for prosecution. The NJC’s recommendation that the two judges be compulsorily retired by their employers, the Federal Government and the Plateau State Government respectively, was not different from the unpopular fine of N750,000 Justice Abubakir Talba gave to Mr John Yusuf, a self-confessed thief, who admitted to have stolen N2bn of the N27.2 billion of missing police pension fund a few weeks back. In that same case, Justice Talba, who is also being investigated by the NJC, insulted the sensibilities of Nigerians and made us a laughing stock of the world, by that ridiculous judgment.
Compare that with the ongoing case of a former US congressman and one-time Democratic Party rising star, Jesse Jackson Jnr., who pleaded guilty last Wednesday to misusing about $750,000 in campaign funds on luxuries such as fur capes and a Rolex watch. A five-year prison term is staring him in the face. And going forward, his political future has been destroyed. He has been tainted for life. He will never contest any election or be appointed to any public office in the US. No serious person will like to be publicly associated with him again. With such heavy consequences, why would any American public office holder want to be corrupt?
The action and inaction of Nigerians at all levels show that it pays to be corrupt in Nigeria. And if corruption pays, it is logical that corruption will worsen in Nigeria. Integrity hardly pays here. If it ever does, it pays in trickles. But corruption pays in billions of naira, which are used to make donations to churches, mosques, communities and universities, to “cleanse” the corrupt money and acquire prayers, titles, awards and honours.
Nigerians love to pontificate and lament about corruption but when a person is being tried for corruption or a crime, his people gather around the court premises, sometimes in clothes bearing the accused’s picture and name, and praise him for being a rare gem. Such people claim that their son is being persecuted for his stand against the government. Another comment from such people is: “Is he the only corrupt person? Why haven’t other corrupt people been arrested too?”
Taking it further, it was ridiculous that the House of Representatives and the Senate gave the anti-terrorism bill accelerated hearing, giving a 20-year jail term for a “terrorist”, while not doing anything to strengthen the anti-corruption law. Section 2(c) of the bill defines “act of terrorism” as any act by anyone who is involved in or who causes an attack upon a person’s life which may cause serious bodily harm or death; kidnapping of a person; destruction to a government or public facility, transport system, an infrastructural facility including an information system, a fixed platform located on the continental shelf, public place or private property likely to endanger human life or result in major economic loss. Almost all the states have also passed laws on kidnapping with a capital punishment for the crime. These are commendable steps. But a serious doctor who wants to cure malaria would not focus primarily on headache or fever and discountenance the root cause of the headache and fever: malaria.
It is, therefore, laughable that such laws are being passed in a country where the maximum penalty for stealing billions of public funds is about two years. Just as in the cases of former Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, and former Inspector-General of Police, Mr Tafa Balogun; by the time they were sentenced, they had spent such periods of time in detention, and consequently walked out of detention as free as a bird. Why then would someone in office not steal as much as he can?
It is the same fate that befalls drug traffickers and advance-fee fraudsters in Nigeria: Their sentences are usually less than two years. By the time their cases are done with, they just walk out of detention, because they must have spent up to a year in detention while the case was on. Such a person begins to plan for the next crime, because the punishment for the crime is ridiculous.
In contrast, those who steal a goat worth N5, 000 or a motorcycle worth N30, 000 are sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. Some are even forgotten in detention for over 10 years without any trial. Many of them die in the terrible prisons in the nation.
Rather than speedily passing laws on terrorism and kidnapping, which are indirect products of the monumental corruption in the nation, one would have expected the National Assembly to have amended the laws on corruption, drug trafficking, fraud – three crimes that have made every Nigerian a suspect in all parts of the world – and recommending a minimum of 20 years prison term for such offences with no option of fine. That is still more lenient than the death penalty in countries like China, Indonesia, Malaysia for such crimes. Such heavy sentences will not deter hardened criminals from such crimes, but before anyone decides to embark on such a crime, the person will know that if caught and jailed, chances are that he/she will come out prison in his/her old age.
And this fight against corruption does not stop only with public officers who steal public funds or demand bribes for contracts and appointments; it also involves the private citizens who demand bribes to award contracts to certain companies. It involves the private citizen who collects gratification to continue to use particular suppliers for jobs. It involves the man or woman who will not sign a document on his or her table unless a certain amount of money is made. It involves the pastor that collects money before he can pray for a sick person, or the pastor that does not care how his members make the money they donate to his church; or the journalist that will demand money before he can write a story, or the journalist that will collect money to kill a story; or the lecturer that will demand money or sex to give a student good grades; or the community, church, mosque or university that celebrates a person known to be a criminal; or even the ordinary Nigerian that keeps quiet about the corruption of his or her friend or relative. Corruption is corruption — whether big or small — and it is dangerous to the growth of a nation.
It is contradictory and hypocritical for our people to complain bitterly about corruption in public places, yet when our relative or kinsman gets into any political office, we believe that it is his turn to get rich. And if he leaves office without stupendous wealth, we call him foolish or holier-than-thou. In addition, once our kinsman gets into office, we mount personal and communal pressure on him with a long list of many things he must accomplish for us.
The time has come for us to stop commending any effort that is a mere slap on the wrist of a corrupt person. If we don’t fight corruption with zest, the wealth of this nation will continue to be stolen by a few people, and all efforts to transform this nation will be in vain.
Even though the NJC had been commended for its action, the action of the NJC deserves no commendation. By recommending two judges — Justice C. E. Archibong of the Federal High Court, Lagos and Justice T.D. Naron of High Court of Justice, Plateau State — whom it found guilty of compromising their sacrosanct offices, for “compulsory retirement”, what the NJC had done was to tell the judges to go home and enjoy the proceeds from their corruption. A corrupt official should be summarily dismissed or recommended for dismissal, not sent on “compulsory retirement.” Retirement presupposes that the judges are entitled to all their benefits after a meritorious service, but dismissal means that their tenure had a question mark.
It was also curious that there was no comment from the NJC that suggested that it planned to report the judges to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission or the police for prosecution. The NJC’s recommendation that the two judges be compulsorily retired by their employers, the Federal Government and the Plateau State Government respectively, was not different from the unpopular fine of N750,000 Justice Abubakir Talba gave to Mr John Yusuf, a self-confessed thief, who admitted to have stolen N2bn of the N27.2 billion of missing police pension fund a few weeks back. In that same case, Justice Talba, who is also being investigated by the NJC, insulted the sensibilities of Nigerians and made us a laughing stock of the world, by that ridiculous judgment.
Compare that with the ongoing case of a former US congressman and one-time Democratic Party rising star, Jesse Jackson Jnr., who pleaded guilty last Wednesday to misusing about $750,000 in campaign funds on luxuries such as fur capes and a Rolex watch. A five-year prison term is staring him in the face. And going forward, his political future has been destroyed. He has been tainted for life. He will never contest any election or be appointed to any public office in the US. No serious person will like to be publicly associated with him again. With such heavy consequences, why would any American public office holder want to be corrupt?
The action and inaction of Nigerians at all levels show that it pays to be corrupt in Nigeria. And if corruption pays, it is logical that corruption will worsen in Nigeria. Integrity hardly pays here. If it ever does, it pays in trickles. But corruption pays in billions of naira, which are used to make donations to churches, mosques, communities and universities, to “cleanse” the corrupt money and acquire prayers, titles, awards and honours.
Nigerians love to pontificate and lament about corruption but when a person is being tried for corruption or a crime, his people gather around the court premises, sometimes in clothes bearing the accused’s picture and name, and praise him for being a rare gem. Such people claim that their son is being persecuted for his stand against the government. Another comment from such people is: “Is he the only corrupt person? Why haven’t other corrupt people been arrested too?”
Taking it further, it was ridiculous that the House of Representatives and the Senate gave the anti-terrorism bill accelerated hearing, giving a 20-year jail term for a “terrorist”, while not doing anything to strengthen the anti-corruption law. Section 2(c) of the bill defines “act of terrorism” as any act by anyone who is involved in or who causes an attack upon a person’s life which may cause serious bodily harm or death; kidnapping of a person; destruction to a government or public facility, transport system, an infrastructural facility including an information system, a fixed platform located on the continental shelf, public place or private property likely to endanger human life or result in major economic loss. Almost all the states have also passed laws on kidnapping with a capital punishment for the crime. These are commendable steps. But a serious doctor who wants to cure malaria would not focus primarily on headache or fever and discountenance the root cause of the headache and fever: malaria.
It is, therefore, laughable that such laws are being passed in a country where the maximum penalty for stealing billions of public funds is about two years. Just as in the cases of former Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, and former Inspector-General of Police, Mr Tafa Balogun; by the time they were sentenced, they had spent such periods of time in detention, and consequently walked out of detention as free as a bird. Why then would someone in office not steal as much as he can?
It is the same fate that befalls drug traffickers and advance-fee fraudsters in Nigeria: Their sentences are usually less than two years. By the time their cases are done with, they just walk out of detention, because they must have spent up to a year in detention while the case was on. Such a person begins to plan for the next crime, because the punishment for the crime is ridiculous.
In contrast, those who steal a goat worth N5, 000 or a motorcycle worth N30, 000 are sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. Some are even forgotten in detention for over 10 years without any trial. Many of them die in the terrible prisons in the nation.
Rather than speedily passing laws on terrorism and kidnapping, which are indirect products of the monumental corruption in the nation, one would have expected the National Assembly to have amended the laws on corruption, drug trafficking, fraud – three crimes that have made every Nigerian a suspect in all parts of the world – and recommending a minimum of 20 years prison term for such offences with no option of fine. That is still more lenient than the death penalty in countries like China, Indonesia, Malaysia for such crimes. Such heavy sentences will not deter hardened criminals from such crimes, but before anyone decides to embark on such a crime, the person will know that if caught and jailed, chances are that he/she will come out prison in his/her old age.
And this fight against corruption does not stop only with public officers who steal public funds or demand bribes for contracts and appointments; it also involves the private citizens who demand bribes to award contracts to certain companies. It involves the private citizen who collects gratification to continue to use particular suppliers for jobs. It involves the man or woman who will not sign a document on his or her table unless a certain amount of money is made. It involves the pastor that collects money before he can pray for a sick person, or the pastor that does not care how his members make the money they donate to his church; or the journalist that will demand money before he can write a story, or the journalist that will collect money to kill a story; or the lecturer that will demand money or sex to give a student good grades; or the community, church, mosque or university that celebrates a person known to be a criminal; or even the ordinary Nigerian that keeps quiet about the corruption of his or her friend or relative. Corruption is corruption — whether big or small — and it is dangerous to the growth of a nation.
It is contradictory and hypocritical for our people to complain bitterly about corruption in public places, yet when our relative or kinsman gets into any political office, we believe that it is his turn to get rich. And if he leaves office without stupendous wealth, we call him foolish or holier-than-thou. In addition, once our kinsman gets into office, we mount personal and communal pressure on him with a long list of many things he must accomplish for us.
The time has come for us to stop commending any effort that is a mere slap on the wrist of a corrupt person. If we don’t fight corruption with zest, the wealth of this nation will continue to be stolen by a few people, and all efforts to transform this nation will be in vain.
My Breasts Are Getting Me Into Trouble With Men –Yoruba Actress
Adediwura Adesegha is a beautiful actress who stands tall among the rising movie stars who are being tipped to take over from the established acts.
In a recent chat, she speaks on the many troubles her breasts and shape have caused her with men and other personal issues.
Below is a brief excerpt:
Is there any part of your body you that men can’t resist?
We have the physical aspect and the spiritual and other aspects that surround that question. When we talk about physical attributes, it has to do with my shape, it has to do with whatever you think you can flaunt. For example, at a nightclub where you are expected to dress in a manner that portrays a club girl, in that case, I think I have something I should be able to flaunt. I have got nice breasts (laughs). On a serious note, it has to do with your educational background. You have to be educated. The way the world is going now, you must be talented and outspoken. You must be an extrovert and must be able to face challenges. I think I have a sound educational background and so too are my physical attributes. So, I am well packaged.
You must be having it tough with men because of your shape and breasts. How do you handle that?
My breasts and shape do get me attracted to men just like it happens to every other lady that have got it but I think I have been able to handle it well. Besides, it is really no big deal to get advances from men because it’s like a daily routine, but its left to you as a lady to be responsible and respect yourself.
When would you get married?
Having a man to oneself is another job entirely. You have to search, open your eyes and pray. Its not something you just say ‘okay, I love him’, while what you have for him is not real. Some will be in love at the beginning but later, as the year rolls by, the love goes off. As regards when I will marry, I will keep you posted.
How often do you have sex?
I read in a magazine that if you can have séx like three times in a week or more, it’s really another form of exercise. So, sex is good. But how often I have it is personal and not for the public to know (laughter).
In a recent chat, she speaks on the many troubles her breasts and shape have caused her with men and other personal issues.
Below is a brief excerpt:
Is there any part of your body you that men can’t resist?
We have the physical aspect and the spiritual and other aspects that surround that question. When we talk about physical attributes, it has to do with my shape, it has to do with whatever you think you can flaunt. For example, at a nightclub where you are expected to dress in a manner that portrays a club girl, in that case, I think I have something I should be able to flaunt. I have got nice breasts (laughs). On a serious note, it has to do with your educational background. You have to be educated. The way the world is going now, you must be talented and outspoken. You must be an extrovert and must be able to face challenges. I think I have a sound educational background and so too are my physical attributes. So, I am well packaged.
You must be having it tough with men because of your shape and breasts. How do you handle that?
My breasts and shape do get me attracted to men just like it happens to every other lady that have got it but I think I have been able to handle it well. Besides, it is really no big deal to get advances from men because it’s like a daily routine, but its left to you as a lady to be responsible and respect yourself.
When would you get married?
Having a man to oneself is another job entirely. You have to search, open your eyes and pray. Its not something you just say ‘okay, I love him’, while what you have for him is not real. Some will be in love at the beginning but later, as the year rolls by, the love goes off. As regards when I will marry, I will keep you posted.
How often do you have sex?
I read in a magazine that if you can have séx like three times in a week or more, it’s really another form of exercise. So, sex is good. But how often I have it is personal and not for the public to know (laughter).
VIDEO: Boko Haram Behind Kidnapping of French Family
Boko Haram has released a video showing the French family which was kidnapped in Cameroon, near the border with Nigeria.
The three minutes 26 seconds video, posted on YouTube today, Monday, February 25, shows the seven members of the Moulin Fournier family, kidnapped on February 19: three adult members of the family - two men and one woman, and four children sitting between two armed men, masked, and in military fatigue, and a third who acted as the group spokesperson.
The family is shown as being held in an undisclosed location.
"We have been taken by Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad," one of the male hostages said in the video, referring to the name in Arabic of Nigeria's Boko Haram militants. "They want the liberation of their brothers in Cameroon and their women imprisoned in Nigeria."
The spokesperson confirmed they belong to the Jama'a Ahl al-Sunnah lil Da'wa wal Jihad, better known as Boko Haram.
"The president of France has launched a war on Islam," said one of the apparent kidnappers, warning the hostages would be killed if their demands were not met.
"Finally, I say to you, fulfill all of these things, and if you leave one thing from them we will slaughter those we took, we will slaughter those we took," the spokesperson threatened at the end of the video.
The release comes a day after a faction of the group told journalists in Nigeria they were pushing for a ceasefire and that the leader of the group, Abubakar Shekau, was in support of dialogue with the government.
French President, François Hollande, had mentioned Boko Haram as the kidnappers of the hostages.
French prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault confirmed that Boko Haram had kidnapped the family, saying they were probably being held in Nigeria.
"The video tape... is being studied by our [intelligence] services, who are examining precisely the nature of these claims," he said. "French authorities are in close and permanent contact with Nigerian and Cameroonian authorities."
"A video of the French family kidnapped last Tuesday in northern Cameroon has been released by Boko Haram," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a statement. "For all of us, these images are terribly shocking. They display a cruelty without bounds. We are proceeding with the checks required in these circumstances. All state resources are mobilised to free our compatriots."
A source close to the family confirmed the identities of the family members shown in the video to the AFP news agency. It was not clear when the video was made.
Cameroon's communication minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said he could not comment because his government was not aware of the video.
The governor of Cameroon's Far North Region, Augustine Fonka Awa, said he was not aware of any Boko Haram members being held in the country.
Watch the video below (in French and Arabic):
3 Girls Die In Abandoned Ditch In Ebonyi
No fewer than three girls were at the weekend, confirmed dead at Umuigboke community of Oriuzor, Ezza North Local government area of Ebonyi state as they went to get water from an abandoned ditch in the area.
The deceased girls, Chinonye Peace Mgbada, an Ordinary National Diploma, OND, graduate of Institute of Management and Technology, I.M.T Enugu, Alice Nwokwu, and Uzoamaka Nwinyima drowned in the ditch despite concerted effort by the people of the area to rescue them.
Vanguard learnt that the bodies of the deceased had already been deposited at the Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, FETHA.
An eyewitness account revealed that one of the deceased girls slipped into the ditch abandoned during mining activities in the area and as the two other girls tried to rescue their friend from the ditch they too were equally swallowed up by the water.
The site over the years had served as the major source of water to the Umuigboke community of Oriuzor despite the construction of manual boreholes in the area by the Local government council.
The victim’s lifeless bodies were however recovered as the ditch was drained using a water distribution tanker which came miles away to drain the water in which the girls lost their lives.
The demise of these girls have brought to the front burner the need for the state government to expedite action and complete the ongoing reticulation of water from Oferekpe and Okawu Water Treatment Plants to all the communities in the state.
Confirming the incident, the Ebonyi state police public Relations Officer, DSP Sylvester Igbo stated that the command had begun
investigation to ascertain whether the incident was an act of God or act of man.
He said the police was yet to arrest any suspect in connection with the death of the girls.
The deceased girls, Chinonye Peace Mgbada, an Ordinary National Diploma, OND, graduate of Institute of Management and Technology, I.M.T Enugu, Alice Nwokwu, and Uzoamaka Nwinyima drowned in the ditch despite concerted effort by the people of the area to rescue them.
Vanguard learnt that the bodies of the deceased had already been deposited at the Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, FETHA.
An eyewitness account revealed that one of the deceased girls slipped into the ditch abandoned during mining activities in the area and as the two other girls tried to rescue their friend from the ditch they too were equally swallowed up by the water.
The site over the years had served as the major source of water to the Umuigboke community of Oriuzor despite the construction of manual boreholes in the area by the Local government council.
The victim’s lifeless bodies were however recovered as the ditch was drained using a water distribution tanker which came miles away to drain the water in which the girls lost their lives.
The demise of these girls have brought to the front burner the need for the state government to expedite action and complete the ongoing reticulation of water from Oferekpe and Okawu Water Treatment Plants to all the communities in the state.
Confirming the incident, the Ebonyi state police public Relations Officer, DSP Sylvester Igbo stated that the command had begun
investigation to ascertain whether the incident was an act of God or act of man.
He said the police was yet to arrest any suspect in connection with the death of the girls.
Nigeria's Pledge to Clean Up Poisoned Village Comes Too Late for Some
More than nine months after the funds were allocated, the Nigerian government has begun cleaning a village that could be the world's worst lead poisoning site. Activists are cautiously optimistic that the move is the first step in a process that could save hundreds of children, but some health workers say, for the most vulnerable children, it is already too late.
Last May, activists celebrated when the Nigerian government announced it would put aside more than $4 million to clean up Bagega, a village in the epicenter of what is called the worst lead poisoning outbreak in history.
In June, health workers sent out an email, saying the funds had been released and the clean-up would commence, after which, sick children could be treated for lead poisoning. In October, VOA visited the village. No one was cleaning anything and health workers were beside themselves with grief. Children were still dying. But now Doctors Without Borders mission head Ivan Gayton says the clean-up has finally begun and health workers are preparing to screen up to 1,500 children. “Oh, it’s just an incredible relief," he said." We’ve been hammering away at this for a year. There were actually times that I lost hope. There were times that I didn’t think this would get done.
That we’d have to just eventually walk away.” Children in Bagega have been exposed to lead poisoning for years, Gayton said, and many may already be permanently disabled or too sick to save. Some activists also fear the money for the clean-up could suddenly disappear before the job is done. Hamzat Lawal runs a local watchdog group called Follow The Money.
He hopes his organization’s use of social media will keep the government funds flowing to the village, rather than getting lost in anyone’s pockets. Corruption is well documented in this country, with billions of dollars worth of public funds being stolen in the past few years. And that is only what is documented. In the meantime, Lawal prefers to be optimistic.
“That means that the government of Nigeria is taking the public seriously," he said. "They’re taking its citizens seriously and they’re not stampeding on our human rights.” Some villages in Zamfara State lost 40 percent of their small children when the outbreak began in 2010. Human Rights Watch says it also causes high levels of infertility and miscarriages among adults.
The lead comes from artisanal gold mining in an area that happens to be also rich in lead. Miners crush rocks extracting gold ore and lead dust gets on their clothes and into the environment. Miners say if they did not dig for gold, those children would live in abject poverty.
Last May, activists celebrated when the Nigerian government announced it would put aside more than $4 million to clean up Bagega, a village in the epicenter of what is called the worst lead poisoning outbreak in history.
In June, health workers sent out an email, saying the funds had been released and the clean-up would commence, after which, sick children could be treated for lead poisoning. In October, VOA visited the village. No one was cleaning anything and health workers were beside themselves with grief. Children were still dying. But now Doctors Without Borders mission head Ivan Gayton says the clean-up has finally begun and health workers are preparing to screen up to 1,500 children. “Oh, it’s just an incredible relief," he said." We’ve been hammering away at this for a year. There were actually times that I lost hope. There were times that I didn’t think this would get done.
That we’d have to just eventually walk away.” Children in Bagega have been exposed to lead poisoning for years, Gayton said, and many may already be permanently disabled or too sick to save. Some activists also fear the money for the clean-up could suddenly disappear before the job is done. Hamzat Lawal runs a local watchdog group called Follow The Money.
He hopes his organization’s use of social media will keep the government funds flowing to the village, rather than getting lost in anyone’s pockets. Corruption is well documented in this country, with billions of dollars worth of public funds being stolen in the past few years. And that is only what is documented. In the meantime, Lawal prefers to be optimistic.
“That means that the government of Nigeria is taking the public seriously," he said. "They’re taking its citizens seriously and they’re not stampeding on our human rights.” Some villages in Zamfara State lost 40 percent of their small children when the outbreak began in 2010. Human Rights Watch says it also causes high levels of infertility and miscarriages among adults.
The lead comes from artisanal gold mining in an area that happens to be also rich in lead. Miners crush rocks extracting gold ore and lead dust gets on their clothes and into the environment. Miners say if they did not dig for gold, those children would live in abject poverty.
"Nigeria Is a Great Lesson For Africa" — Tanzania's High Commissioner
Tanzania's High Commissioner, Dr. Msuya Mangachi, is rounding off his tour of duty in Nigeria. During a valedictory visit to Media Trust headquarters in Abuja last week, Dr Mangachi expressed his feelings on various issues involving Nigeria-Tanzanian interests and what lessons could be learnt from Nigeria's experiences and challenges as one of Africa's largest economies.
Excerpts from the interview:
Sir, as your country's representative in Nigeria for a number of years, how would you assess Nigeria's foreign policy over the years?
First, I've said more than once, that Nigeria and Tanzania come from the same background. They are African countries to start with, but they went through similar experiences.
If you are talking about slave trade, colonialism, neo-colonialism, struggle for independence, support for liberation movement and continental integration which is a bigger agenda, all these mean that we have a lot in common.
And Nigeria plays a more key role in terms of its endowment, population and resources-both physical and manpower.
So if you can draw these advantages behind any cause in Africa, you are sure that that cause is going to have some kind of momentum. In this context, I can quote the father of the nation - Julius Nyerere who said that if you want to have an African policy, make sure that Nigeria is on board.
You cannot have an African policy if a country with all these attributes I was talking about is not on board. What are you telling the people out there? You want to pursue a cause, and the most powerful nation is not on board? How serious is that cause? For that reason, we are saying that Nigeria lived up to its expectations at least in foreign policy.
There have been a lot of changes in regimes in Nigeria, but the foreign policy has been very consistent and progressive. And we have examples.
Nigeria was a major country in forming the OAU in 1963-you remember the early consultations with the Monrovia group and the Casablanca group and the consensus that was arrived at in Addis Ababa on what kind of African integration we should all embrace that is acceptable to all nations.
You can see the roles of Nigeria and Tanzania. Nyerere was there with his ideas about gradual approach, Nkruma was there with a one step move to African union. These were the days African countries were forming their foreign policy but you can see the Nigeria impact in the liberation struggle.
It was in the mid 70’s when Nigeria made a decision to support fully the liberation struggles in southern Africa particularly and the result of that struggle came out very quickly with the liberation of Mozambique, Angola, all the Portuguese colonies if you wish that time, and later on Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa itself, and you can talk of Sao Tome and Principe. So you cannot measure this kind of commitment. It is not because Nigeria has money or anything, it was a real commitment to the cause of liberation of the continent that pushed her to that level and we are really obliged to Nigeria for that.
Nigeria was invited to be an ex-officio member of the Frontline States with the privilege of attending all meetings of the Frontline States because of the decisive intervention and so on that it played at that time.
Talking of foreign policy still, you can look at Nigeria's involvement particularly in peacekeeping missions within Africa and the world at large. It is still playing its part there but if you come to the region, Nigeria has been key in solving regional problems through ECOMOG in the struggles in Liberia, Sierra Leone and others which are coming up including Mali and Guinea Bissau, Nigeria is all over there. We appreciate this kind of stand in Nigerian foreign policy.
We are not talking about internal policies because each country has its own challenges to grapple with but you talk about the potential for collaboration with Nigeria and what has been done with these potentials.
For example, in the area of investment, during my stay here we managed to see some processes whereby major Nigerian companies have started investing in Tanzania. Example of this is the Dangote Group, which after resolving some of the issues which were holding the project back, is now on the ground and is constructing a 2.5 million tonnes capacity cement plant in southern Tanzania. The UBA and Ecobank have opened branches in Tanzania-in Dare-es-Salam to be specific. They are doing so well that they are now exploring the possibility of spreading out into other major towns in Tanzania.
Once you have serious investors like Dangote on the ground, you have financial institutions on the ground, things are taking shape. We are now calling them trail blazers, a lot of Nigerian businesses are taking interest in Tanzania, and we welcome this. I was telling the president that one good thing about Nigerian capital is that it comes without conditionalities. If you go to the World Bank and IMF you might get the loan or grant you are looking for but they will start giving a lot of conditionalities - do this first, do that, liberalise this, privatise that before we give you the money.
Here Nigerians are looking for opportunities where their money is secure and they take the risk to come and invest and we really invite them because people are coming with unconditional capital to our country. You have to be sure about minimum clearance that the money is not laundered of course there are international mechanisms which can do that. So we invite these investments.
What about the bilateral front?
Bilaterally also we are looking into the possibility of having a trade agreement. A trade agreement is important because people want to do some trading but there must be a conflict resolution mechanism as what we call creating conducive environment for trading. This will remove a lot of doubts which people have about Nigeria because you know Nigeria's name out there has been tarnished a lot because of the activities of some individuals but when you are saying you are going to trade with Tanzania within this framework, you are protected by the laws of Nigeria and Tanzania. We think this will be an encouraging factor if we can have it.
But on a wider context we want to have what is called permanent joint commission. We established one in 1980 when Alhaji Shehu Shagari was the president and they actually held one session in Tanzania. But after that the developments in Nigeria went back to where they came from, and people who were sceptical about the sustainability of that process so they abandoned it then.
But now there has been consistency in Nigerian democracy for quite some time, let me put it that way, at least you are counting 13 years of democratic consistency. And we are saying that this comes with ideas of creating such institutions of cooperation on a long term basis. Now that people are trying to assess Nigeria's possible stable regime on a long term basis, we are not looking at the next coup around the corner, we are looking at prospects for the next election, so Nigeria is probably moving in the right direction. If we have this permanent joint commission we can now like the trade agreement, include many other types of cooperation — technical assistance, technical cooperation in education, cultural cooperation, sports, whatever scope you might define it with a view to starting with a few but room for expansion for the future. So I hope these are the kind of hand over notes I should leave for my successor so that when he comes he can pursue this.
You spoke earlier about leadership. As someone who has been in Nigeria for quite sometime and observed the trend, how would you describe the manner of emergence of Nigerian leaders, have you any advice on the process in order to strengthen democracy in the country?
It may be outside my mandate to comment on how Nigerians choose their leaders, but you remember I said what you see under magnified glass in Nigeria is what obtains in almost all parts of Africa. There is no perfect system of choosing leaders, but what you can say is that once you agree to the modus operandi of a political system, a multi-party system, and then you are going to use a democratic system to choose your leaders, now, the issue is how free and fair you can ensure that the system is operated freely and fairly. When you have complaints about the system not being operated freely and fairly, it definitely puts doubt to the kind of outcome of that particular system. You have heard people wanting more transparent systems of choosing the ruling party leaders because they said sometimes caucuses and factors like zoning and so on coming but at the end of the day you might not get the best leader but in a polity like Nigeria, if people have agreed to look into this part of the process, you can only say then it should be done transparently and fairly and once you do that you stand a better chance of choosing a leader who commands the kind of support of the majority of the people. I don’t think I can say more about that.
Is there a corresponding flow of Tanzanian investment in Nigeria?
You are talking about levels of development. In order to go out you must grow. If you have strong businesses in Tanzania which have grown sufficiently to perform in Tanzania and go beyond Tanzania, if you ask me I’d tell you there is one or two. There is one company called Asam Group of Companies which deals with processing of cereals.
This has managed to go beyond the borders of Tanzania. They are operating in Uganda, Rwanda, and in East Congo, and I think they are trying to establish themselves in Zambia. They have grown sufficiently to go out but many of the businesses in Tanzania are still growing, they are nascent businesses and its not easy for them to go out. Even the banks, the banks are young, they first have to be strong in Tanzania before they can go out. So we do not have this kind of response and the ordinary businessmen are mainly interested — first, you have this cheap trade coming from China, UAE and the other places, so that one removes Nigeria from the source of such goods. If you source your goods from Nigeria you might find out that some of those goods are also sourced from Dubai and China, so why should you not go to Dubai and China, so we are facing that situation-that influx of goods coming from there.
So I think we should focus on developing our own indigenous industries. There is a lot of scope. I've argued very strongly that if the industries of African countries start with agro industries and industries based on raw materials that are found in Africa, and then you produce semi-finished and finished goods and export them through the systems of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) or trade of the European Union and other free trade arrangements in the world and save the continent from exporting its raw materials like we are doing now where there is no value addition whatsoever. This is the situation which affects most of the countries within Africa. It's a problem even here in Nigeria, we don't have many industries that are based on raw materials that are found in Nigeria and made in Nigeria goods are being exported, its very difficult to find that. The investments of Dangote are rather unique because he is using raw materials that are found in Africa and transforming them into cement which is the main ingredient in the construction industry. I think it is unique in its own way, he invests first and trades later, so we don't have many of these people. The financial institutions in Nigeria are stronger than those in Tanzania and rightly they are strong enough to go beyond Nigeria into the ECOWAS sub-region and they are coming into East Africa. In future when our businesses grow I think there could be an exchange in that field.
Do you see tourism as something that Nigeria can develop, especially as Tanzania has world renowned tourist attractions? Is it something you’ve got inquiries from people, do you see the potential that Nigerians can be more interested there, like the Europeans are?
First of all, let me take this opportunity to observe again that out of the seven wonders of Africa, Tanzania scored three, according to the latest grading. Mount Kilmanjaroo, Gorongoro Crater and the Serengeti Planes. They are in the seven big wonders. When you are telling people stories abroad that in the seven wonders of Africa, three of them are in Tanzania, it should attract some Nigerian minds, but I'm afraid, Nigerian minds are not in this type of tourism. They are into shopping tourism. A lot of Nigerians go to Dubai, London or New York, sometimes in winter, so you need to do a little more to particularly target the middle class, because the middle class in Nigeria is big, and they can spend money on leisure.
Travelling for tourism you need just a ticket and your hotel expenses for one week or so. That is nothing for a Nigerian, its not expensive for some of the middle class, but they spend much more for shopping tourism than that. So it is question of really inculcating the interest, developing the interest of the people in this type of leisure for the middle class in Nigeria because they look into East Africa as an extension of the African environment. If you are telling them to go to East Africa they say what am I going to do there? It looks like Nigeria, the trees and lifestyle, you have to convince them beyond that, to see the animals I don’t know if it is the African’s past time, he takes the lion for granted even when there is no lion in Nigeria, if you talk about lion to a Nigerian he says yes I know a lion, but he has never seen one. But to a European since the lion cannot be found there it becomes a special interest to tell them that they can some and see all animals in their habitat. So I can see that more work has to be done, the potential is there, we have to talk to the tourist people in Tanzania about the potential, and come here and talk to the minister of tourism to see how best to attract more people.
What’s the abiding picture that you take away of Nigeria having spent all these years, you ‘ve seen the good the bad and the ugly, what would you take away?
I'd go back to say that I've been more than convinced that we are all facing the same challenges of development. The magnitude is bigger in Nigeria because of the nature those forces manifest themselves. Big economy, bigger problems. Tanzania is facing its own challenges of development in the same issues.
If you talk of power Nigeria is complaining that 4,000 megawatts is not enough, Tanzania is saying if we can reach 3,000 megawatts we shall solve all our problems because our economy is smaller, but we are facing outages as well and we are discussing issues of how to stabilise the supply of energy and talking of that specific aspect, we have discovered a lot of gas in Tanzania. I think people are talking of 33 million cubic feet of gas reserves and we thinking of using part of it to generate electricity. Nigeria is the only other African country that uses some special generating equipment to produce gas—gas turbines. The only experience we have is in Nigeria and we trying to install one in Tanzania for the same purpose. I think this is an area of collaboration which we can go in.
But talking of oil and gas, the experience of Nigeria could be a lesson because nobody is convinced that that resource is being managed optimally. And it manifested last year when all the people went into the streets, making manifestations against the removal of subsidy. The reason is that Nigerian crude oil is exported raw and not much effort is being made to ensure that it is processed in Nigeria. If it were processed in Nigeria the by-products would be cheaper in the long run, than exporting the crude oil and importing all the oil products, but then when you look into Nigeria it is a whole business sector of people engaged in selling the oil products, generators and so on. When you touch into that you are touching into the business of the people, but I think somebody must come forward and put his foot down and stabilise this sector because the raw materials are here and it is a question of just putting all the factors into the right places and making sure that energy is available abundantly for the people and probably cheaply.
These are some of the lessons as I said it is a lesson learned, but also you can talk about other sectors-education, Nigeria has expanded so much, but then you have the problem of quality. People are discussing whether the quality of education is as high as it used to be with these more than 120 universities. Do you have appropriate teachers, are the students achieving the same grades and so on. So we are trying also to expand our education and we are other people to pay attention to some of the challenges which Nigeria is facing in this area.
Telecommunications, we have big problems in Tanzania and also in Nigeria. You can go without your network for a long time and you wonder why there is no national telecom company, NITEL died, then they tried the private investors, they are not solving the problem, how do you go about solving it?
You go into the roads and railways-only now we see a ray of hope when the Lagos — Kano railway is functioning, but is it functioning very well? How can you make it function, what are you going to do with the railway from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, and the trucks that are destroying the roads because the roads are over burdened by the goods which should be transported in trains. So they are lessons you look at.
Look at agriculture, I think there are certain good things to learn from that. Nigerian agriculture is self sufficient in a way in terms of food, although depending on the type of food you are talking about, some of which is maybe uselessly imported. Food like rice, can be grown in Nigeria but most of it is being imported, and you would wonder whether Nigeria could do more to be self sufficient in that. But Nigerians use tuber a lot—cassava, yam and all that. Somehow everybody affords that, and that is also a lesson.
Maybe it easier to grow tubers than maize in Tanzania, we shall talk to our people – the Nigerians don't overstretch themselves sometimes looking after maize production, it needs a lot of water and fertilizer to grow, but they do produce some things without fertilizer, so if you can get more for less work, we could really sell some of these ideas to our people, and these are a few areas where I can say by staying in Nigeria, you observe and you live that experience and you see positive lessons, and sometimes the challenges particularly of population, big population, unemployment that comes with and raises fundamental questions of even going back to education, whether the education the universities are giving is immediately applicable for production, which are challenges we are facing back home but since maybe the number is not as big, you might not feel the kind of pressures you feel in Nigeria.
Excerpts from the interview:
Sir, as your country's representative in Nigeria for a number of years, how would you assess Nigeria's foreign policy over the years?
First, I've said more than once, that Nigeria and Tanzania come from the same background. They are African countries to start with, but they went through similar experiences.
If you are talking about slave trade, colonialism, neo-colonialism, struggle for independence, support for liberation movement and continental integration which is a bigger agenda, all these mean that we have a lot in common.
And Nigeria plays a more key role in terms of its endowment, population and resources-both physical and manpower.
So if you can draw these advantages behind any cause in Africa, you are sure that that cause is going to have some kind of momentum. In this context, I can quote the father of the nation - Julius Nyerere who said that if you want to have an African policy, make sure that Nigeria is on board.
You cannot have an African policy if a country with all these attributes I was talking about is not on board. What are you telling the people out there? You want to pursue a cause, and the most powerful nation is not on board? How serious is that cause? For that reason, we are saying that Nigeria lived up to its expectations at least in foreign policy.
There have been a lot of changes in regimes in Nigeria, but the foreign policy has been very consistent and progressive. And we have examples.
Nigeria was a major country in forming the OAU in 1963-you remember the early consultations with the Monrovia group and the Casablanca group and the consensus that was arrived at in Addis Ababa on what kind of African integration we should all embrace that is acceptable to all nations.
You can see the roles of Nigeria and Tanzania. Nyerere was there with his ideas about gradual approach, Nkruma was there with a one step move to African union. These were the days African countries were forming their foreign policy but you can see the Nigeria impact in the liberation struggle.
It was in the mid 70’s when Nigeria made a decision to support fully the liberation struggles in southern Africa particularly and the result of that struggle came out very quickly with the liberation of Mozambique, Angola, all the Portuguese colonies if you wish that time, and later on Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa itself, and you can talk of Sao Tome and Principe. So you cannot measure this kind of commitment. It is not because Nigeria has money or anything, it was a real commitment to the cause of liberation of the continent that pushed her to that level and we are really obliged to Nigeria for that.
Nigeria was invited to be an ex-officio member of the Frontline States with the privilege of attending all meetings of the Frontline States because of the decisive intervention and so on that it played at that time.
Talking of foreign policy still, you can look at Nigeria's involvement particularly in peacekeeping missions within Africa and the world at large. It is still playing its part there but if you come to the region, Nigeria has been key in solving regional problems through ECOMOG in the struggles in Liberia, Sierra Leone and others which are coming up including Mali and Guinea Bissau, Nigeria is all over there. We appreciate this kind of stand in Nigerian foreign policy.
We are not talking about internal policies because each country has its own challenges to grapple with but you talk about the potential for collaboration with Nigeria and what has been done with these potentials.
For example, in the area of investment, during my stay here we managed to see some processes whereby major Nigerian companies have started investing in Tanzania. Example of this is the Dangote Group, which after resolving some of the issues which were holding the project back, is now on the ground and is constructing a 2.5 million tonnes capacity cement plant in southern Tanzania. The UBA and Ecobank have opened branches in Tanzania-in Dare-es-Salam to be specific. They are doing so well that they are now exploring the possibility of spreading out into other major towns in Tanzania.
Once you have serious investors like Dangote on the ground, you have financial institutions on the ground, things are taking shape. We are now calling them trail blazers, a lot of Nigerian businesses are taking interest in Tanzania, and we welcome this. I was telling the president that one good thing about Nigerian capital is that it comes without conditionalities. If you go to the World Bank and IMF you might get the loan or grant you are looking for but they will start giving a lot of conditionalities - do this first, do that, liberalise this, privatise that before we give you the money.
Here Nigerians are looking for opportunities where their money is secure and they take the risk to come and invest and we really invite them because people are coming with unconditional capital to our country. You have to be sure about minimum clearance that the money is not laundered of course there are international mechanisms which can do that. So we invite these investments.
What about the bilateral front?
Bilaterally also we are looking into the possibility of having a trade agreement. A trade agreement is important because people want to do some trading but there must be a conflict resolution mechanism as what we call creating conducive environment for trading. This will remove a lot of doubts which people have about Nigeria because you know Nigeria's name out there has been tarnished a lot because of the activities of some individuals but when you are saying you are going to trade with Tanzania within this framework, you are protected by the laws of Nigeria and Tanzania. We think this will be an encouraging factor if we can have it.
But on a wider context we want to have what is called permanent joint commission. We established one in 1980 when Alhaji Shehu Shagari was the president and they actually held one session in Tanzania. But after that the developments in Nigeria went back to where they came from, and people who were sceptical about the sustainability of that process so they abandoned it then.
But now there has been consistency in Nigerian democracy for quite some time, let me put it that way, at least you are counting 13 years of democratic consistency. And we are saying that this comes with ideas of creating such institutions of cooperation on a long term basis. Now that people are trying to assess Nigeria's possible stable regime on a long term basis, we are not looking at the next coup around the corner, we are looking at prospects for the next election, so Nigeria is probably moving in the right direction. If we have this permanent joint commission we can now like the trade agreement, include many other types of cooperation — technical assistance, technical cooperation in education, cultural cooperation, sports, whatever scope you might define it with a view to starting with a few but room for expansion for the future. So I hope these are the kind of hand over notes I should leave for my successor so that when he comes he can pursue this.
You spoke earlier about leadership. As someone who has been in Nigeria for quite sometime and observed the trend, how would you describe the manner of emergence of Nigerian leaders, have you any advice on the process in order to strengthen democracy in the country?
It may be outside my mandate to comment on how Nigerians choose their leaders, but you remember I said what you see under magnified glass in Nigeria is what obtains in almost all parts of Africa. There is no perfect system of choosing leaders, but what you can say is that once you agree to the modus operandi of a political system, a multi-party system, and then you are going to use a democratic system to choose your leaders, now, the issue is how free and fair you can ensure that the system is operated freely and fairly. When you have complaints about the system not being operated freely and fairly, it definitely puts doubt to the kind of outcome of that particular system. You have heard people wanting more transparent systems of choosing the ruling party leaders because they said sometimes caucuses and factors like zoning and so on coming but at the end of the day you might not get the best leader but in a polity like Nigeria, if people have agreed to look into this part of the process, you can only say then it should be done transparently and fairly and once you do that you stand a better chance of choosing a leader who commands the kind of support of the majority of the people. I don’t think I can say more about that.
Is there a corresponding flow of Tanzanian investment in Nigeria?
You are talking about levels of development. In order to go out you must grow. If you have strong businesses in Tanzania which have grown sufficiently to perform in Tanzania and go beyond Tanzania, if you ask me I’d tell you there is one or two. There is one company called Asam Group of Companies which deals with processing of cereals.
This has managed to go beyond the borders of Tanzania. They are operating in Uganda, Rwanda, and in East Congo, and I think they are trying to establish themselves in Zambia. They have grown sufficiently to go out but many of the businesses in Tanzania are still growing, they are nascent businesses and its not easy for them to go out. Even the banks, the banks are young, they first have to be strong in Tanzania before they can go out. So we do not have this kind of response and the ordinary businessmen are mainly interested — first, you have this cheap trade coming from China, UAE and the other places, so that one removes Nigeria from the source of such goods. If you source your goods from Nigeria you might find out that some of those goods are also sourced from Dubai and China, so why should you not go to Dubai and China, so we are facing that situation-that influx of goods coming from there.
So I think we should focus on developing our own indigenous industries. There is a lot of scope. I've argued very strongly that if the industries of African countries start with agro industries and industries based on raw materials that are found in Africa, and then you produce semi-finished and finished goods and export them through the systems of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) or trade of the European Union and other free trade arrangements in the world and save the continent from exporting its raw materials like we are doing now where there is no value addition whatsoever. This is the situation which affects most of the countries within Africa. It's a problem even here in Nigeria, we don't have many industries that are based on raw materials that are found in Nigeria and made in Nigeria goods are being exported, its very difficult to find that. The investments of Dangote are rather unique because he is using raw materials that are found in Africa and transforming them into cement which is the main ingredient in the construction industry. I think it is unique in its own way, he invests first and trades later, so we don't have many of these people. The financial institutions in Nigeria are stronger than those in Tanzania and rightly they are strong enough to go beyond Nigeria into the ECOWAS sub-region and they are coming into East Africa. In future when our businesses grow I think there could be an exchange in that field.
Do you see tourism as something that Nigeria can develop, especially as Tanzania has world renowned tourist attractions? Is it something you’ve got inquiries from people, do you see the potential that Nigerians can be more interested there, like the Europeans are?
First of all, let me take this opportunity to observe again that out of the seven wonders of Africa, Tanzania scored three, according to the latest grading. Mount Kilmanjaroo, Gorongoro Crater and the Serengeti Planes. They are in the seven big wonders. When you are telling people stories abroad that in the seven wonders of Africa, three of them are in Tanzania, it should attract some Nigerian minds, but I'm afraid, Nigerian minds are not in this type of tourism. They are into shopping tourism. A lot of Nigerians go to Dubai, London or New York, sometimes in winter, so you need to do a little more to particularly target the middle class, because the middle class in Nigeria is big, and they can spend money on leisure.
Travelling for tourism you need just a ticket and your hotel expenses for one week or so. That is nothing for a Nigerian, its not expensive for some of the middle class, but they spend much more for shopping tourism than that. So it is question of really inculcating the interest, developing the interest of the people in this type of leisure for the middle class in Nigeria because they look into East Africa as an extension of the African environment. If you are telling them to go to East Africa they say what am I going to do there? It looks like Nigeria, the trees and lifestyle, you have to convince them beyond that, to see the animals I don’t know if it is the African’s past time, he takes the lion for granted even when there is no lion in Nigeria, if you talk about lion to a Nigerian he says yes I know a lion, but he has never seen one. But to a European since the lion cannot be found there it becomes a special interest to tell them that they can some and see all animals in their habitat. So I can see that more work has to be done, the potential is there, we have to talk to the tourist people in Tanzania about the potential, and come here and talk to the minister of tourism to see how best to attract more people.
What’s the abiding picture that you take away of Nigeria having spent all these years, you ‘ve seen the good the bad and the ugly, what would you take away?
I'd go back to say that I've been more than convinced that we are all facing the same challenges of development. The magnitude is bigger in Nigeria because of the nature those forces manifest themselves. Big economy, bigger problems. Tanzania is facing its own challenges of development in the same issues.
If you talk of power Nigeria is complaining that 4,000 megawatts is not enough, Tanzania is saying if we can reach 3,000 megawatts we shall solve all our problems because our economy is smaller, but we are facing outages as well and we are discussing issues of how to stabilise the supply of energy and talking of that specific aspect, we have discovered a lot of gas in Tanzania. I think people are talking of 33 million cubic feet of gas reserves and we thinking of using part of it to generate electricity. Nigeria is the only other African country that uses some special generating equipment to produce gas—gas turbines. The only experience we have is in Nigeria and we trying to install one in Tanzania for the same purpose. I think this is an area of collaboration which we can go in.
But talking of oil and gas, the experience of Nigeria could be a lesson because nobody is convinced that that resource is being managed optimally. And it manifested last year when all the people went into the streets, making manifestations against the removal of subsidy. The reason is that Nigerian crude oil is exported raw and not much effort is being made to ensure that it is processed in Nigeria. If it were processed in Nigeria the by-products would be cheaper in the long run, than exporting the crude oil and importing all the oil products, but then when you look into Nigeria it is a whole business sector of people engaged in selling the oil products, generators and so on. When you touch into that you are touching into the business of the people, but I think somebody must come forward and put his foot down and stabilise this sector because the raw materials are here and it is a question of just putting all the factors into the right places and making sure that energy is available abundantly for the people and probably cheaply.
These are some of the lessons as I said it is a lesson learned, but also you can talk about other sectors-education, Nigeria has expanded so much, but then you have the problem of quality. People are discussing whether the quality of education is as high as it used to be with these more than 120 universities. Do you have appropriate teachers, are the students achieving the same grades and so on. So we are trying also to expand our education and we are other people to pay attention to some of the challenges which Nigeria is facing in this area.
Telecommunications, we have big problems in Tanzania and also in Nigeria. You can go without your network for a long time and you wonder why there is no national telecom company, NITEL died, then they tried the private investors, they are not solving the problem, how do you go about solving it?
You go into the roads and railways-only now we see a ray of hope when the Lagos — Kano railway is functioning, but is it functioning very well? How can you make it function, what are you going to do with the railway from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri, and the trucks that are destroying the roads because the roads are over burdened by the goods which should be transported in trains. So they are lessons you look at.
Look at agriculture, I think there are certain good things to learn from that. Nigerian agriculture is self sufficient in a way in terms of food, although depending on the type of food you are talking about, some of which is maybe uselessly imported. Food like rice, can be grown in Nigeria but most of it is being imported, and you would wonder whether Nigeria could do more to be self sufficient in that. But Nigerians use tuber a lot—cassava, yam and all that. Somehow everybody affords that, and that is also a lesson.
Maybe it easier to grow tubers than maize in Tanzania, we shall talk to our people – the Nigerians don't overstretch themselves sometimes looking after maize production, it needs a lot of water and fertilizer to grow, but they do produce some things without fertilizer, so if you can get more for less work, we could really sell some of these ideas to our people, and these are a few areas where I can say by staying in Nigeria, you observe and you live that experience and you see positive lessons, and sometimes the challenges particularly of population, big population, unemployment that comes with and raises fundamental questions of even going back to education, whether the education the universities are giving is immediately applicable for production, which are challenges we are facing back home but since maybe the number is not as big, you might not feel the kind of pressures you feel in Nigeria.
"Nigeria Still Produces Over Half of Sub-Saharan Africa's Oil Production" – Shell
Despite increasing production from emerging oil producing countries around the continent, Nigeria still produces over half of sub-Saharan Africa's total oil, the Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Mr Mutiu Sunmonu, said. Sunmonu stated this at the Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) 2013 Conference which ended in Abuja at the weekend.
Shell boss explained that for Nigeria to maintain competitive edge, a conducive operating environment and fiscal terms leading to competitive and attractive rates of return must be in place.
"Nigeria cannot afford to miss the boat. There is a finite amount of money to be invested by oil and gas majors in the short to medium term, and Nigeria needs a slice of that cake. We are already at an advantage, but how do we continue to maintain this competitive edge?" he queried.
According to him, Nigeria is a challenging business environment because costs are at the high end of the global scale while contracting and licensing can be long and tortuous process with multitude of security related problems onshore that have to be dealt with on a daily basis.
Though Sunmonu acknowledged the Federal Government's efforts at addressing the challenges, he noted that there is still a lot more that must be done, stressing that in recent past, militancy has simply been replaced by industrial scale oil theft and sabotage.
"As a result of this unfortunate development, we and others have had to shut-in significant production, spend huge amounts on replacing and repairing hardware and also deploying massive resources to clean up oil spills," he lamented.
On fiscal terms, he said a balanced Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is required, especially the one that will provide optimal revenue to the government whilst providing sufficient incentives for new investments to fuel growth.
"The PIB should create a level playing field; one that is fair to all investors-big, small, new or old," he canvassed.
Besides, he said the legislation on the PIB would need to address long term industry issues, such as funding of the Joint Ventures, especially in situations where funding requirements have constrained production growth, stating thatNigeria needs a strong national oil company that will partner positively and must be ready to compete with those elsewhere.
He advised that it was equally important to take local business challenges in Nigeria into consideration as well as the impact on existing investments made in good faith at current legal and fiscal terms.
Dele Momodu: "Abuja On My Mind"
By Dele Momodu, journalist/publisher
Fellow Nigerians, I made my first trip to Abuja in nearly two years yesterday morning. Let me confess that Abuja is not one of my favourite cities. The reasons are legion. I find the city too disorganised for a federal capital territory that was built from scratch less than four decades ago. For me, Abuja is a poor imitation and a tragic mimicry of Canberra in Australia, where I'm told the original idea, concept and inspiration came from. It lacks the superlative infrastructure of Brasilia in Brazil, another purpose built capital city.
It even pales in significance to the wondrous creation of the late Felix Houphouet-Boigny of Cote D'Ivoire in Yamoussoukro. Abuja is a complete waste of resources and a terrible return on investments. It is an eloquent testimony to the stupendous decay that has eaten up the very fabric of our existence. For the humongous spending on Abuja, what we deserve is something close to a Dubai, Doha or the other nascent capital cities it was meant to emulate but of which it is an unpalatable parody. But let’s leave that matter for now.
I had parted company with that city where the collective common wealth of Nigeria is shared with impunity after the 2011 elections. I was not in the mood for the wheeling and dealing that compels most people to ingratiate themselves in that sinful system. I had resisted every temptation to invite me there for one event or the other. To ensure my near-total severance with Abuja, I promptly gave up my abode and evacuated my car to Lagos. I was determined to prove some people wrong who believe life begins and ends in Abuja.
I was not under any illusion that easy money resides comfortably in a few precincts of Abuja but chose to live like a Tibetan monk totally at peace with myself and my creator. I was tired of seeing fake friends milling around every government in power and calling every cow fat or skinny "My Big Brother" all in the name of looking for beef to eat. I succeeded in snubbing the city for about 22 months without missing, what is admittedly, its occasional giddiness.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had compelling reasons to visit again, and this time I was fully prepared for the journey. It reminded me of the excitement I felt on my first trip to London. My planning was elaborate and meticulous. I did not want to be caught up in the deceptiveness and gentle mien of the city. Abuja must rank among the most expensive cities in the world. Beyond that, you must wake up as early as 4a.m to board the first flights out of Lagos if you must achieve anything meaningful and return same day to Lagos. Otherwise, you may be forced to stay in hotels and pay bills from $150 to $5,000 depending on your taste and the size of your pocket.
It is a place where the Lords of the Manor are never in a hurry and can easily help you turn your trip into an Israelite’s journey before you're eventually left stranded and bruised. Many have had to turn to Pastors and Imams and marabouts to help with talismanic charms before approaching the big guns of Abuja for appointments and contracts. This has been amply acted and portrayed in Rita Dominic's rib-cracking movie, The Meeting, a tragi-comedy per excellence.
Though I had slept at 2.30a.m, I did not waste my Course 101 in Travels & Tourism: "Never leave home late for Abuja because any eventuality can meet you on the way." By 6a.m on the dot, I had deposited myself at the gates of MMA2. Say what you will, Dr Wale Babalakin of Bi-Courtney still runs the best airport in Nigeria.
Everyone by now knows me as a perpetual grumbler on the parlous state of our so-called international airports but Dr Babalakin has managed to maintain a decent structure which I hope the Federal Government can replicate in other places through PPP rather than seeking to be Jack of all trades and masters of none. By 6.45a.m, our flight was ready for take-off.
While airborne, I had Abuja on my mind. This was predicated on my knowledge of more functioning societies where the fortunes of a nation can turn around positively in a matter of months. For some inexplicable reasons, I started dreaming of a road paved with beautiful trees and flowers with ten beautiful lanes criss-crossing one another.
I don't think it was too much to even envision some places in this magical city paved with gold and diamonds. I visualised a totally transfigured city that made Dubai look a distant cousin by comparison. But reality soon hit me where it hurts most. The road I left two years ago in the benevolent hands of our ubiquitous Julius Berger was still under perpetual construction. Though significant progress seemed to have been made, that singular road has become an embarrassment to right thinking people. I don't even want to contemplate how much it would have gulped by now in reality and otherwise.
I noticed that the road had succeeded in eliminating some of the horrendous vehicular traffic until we got close to the Abuja gate where a new queue of traffic has become a way of life. Kai, Nigerians can endure serious hardships with no terminal dates in view, I soliloquised. My driver assured me there was no problem on this occasion because the day before it had stretched to over a kilometre. By which time I had tuned off completely and psyched myself ready for a quantum of suffering in a land I never trusted.
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We crawled for about 20 minutes at snail-speed and escaped to a more glorious movement which took us past the under-utilised and nearly-abandoned National Stadium. The driver was triumphant as he rhapsodised about his earlier prediction that I had brought some good luck to Abuja. May be it had escaped his mind that the original landlord actually goes by the name Goodluck Jonathan. How then can a disloyal visitor like me have a say in the matters of such magnitude and importance.
I am reminded that in Lagos, our affable genial President is now referred to as "Gridlock" Jonathan for the standstill that he brings to our erstwhile, but still ever dependable, capital city whenever he deigns to grace the existence of the poor locals with his rampaging visitation.
We sped towards my hotel where I was just hoping to dive into the washroom. But man proposes and God disposes, my room was not immediately available and I was made to wait for the housekeepers to clean up the place. No one could have suspected the fire that was burning under that seemingly flamboyant dress. But I survived. Finally my room was ready and it was a case of escape to victory. I scampered into the long-awaited comfort provided by the room at last and embraced it with gratitude.
Soon it was time to go to the Nanet Suites' venue of a seminar on Social Media & 21st Century Journalism. Again traffic had built up because of the Friday Jumat in Abuja where Muslim faithful were rushing to keep appointment with almighty Allah. You must know when to drive and move around this city or face huge disappointments. This was Lesson 102 for me. Here, you must create your own method to madness. That is the rule of the game.
On the road, I saw the convoy of a three-star General speeding to God-knows-where. The protection squad of the big man was from Military Intelligence and their camouflage and movement would have been described by Derek Walcott as "fearful original sinuosities". They were awesome in all ramifications. Some of them cuddled their fiery guns like babies. Others dressed like the Japanese Ninja. They wore hoods that left only the eyes open. These masquerades were truly fearsome ready to hack down foolish intruders. For a moment, I thought I had mistakenly teleported my being to Iraq or some other country where bedlam reigns as a result of the ravages of war, for want of better description. This was certainly not the same Abuja I left two years ago. It had become depressingly but familiarly worse and decadent, like all things that our leaders manage to infest and pollute. I had become a stranger in a strange place. Some pestilence has obviously ravaged this land of merciless people.
My depression was further compounded on returning to the hotel and reading how the great country of Saudi Arabia has finally decided to challenge the effrontery of Dubai in the Middle East by erecting the new world's tallest building in Jeddah. By the time it is ready, it would have pushed Dubai's Burj Khalifa to a pitiable second place. The builders of The Shard Skyscraper of London, according to a Reuters' report on Yahoo news, have been appointed Project Managers for a beautiful sum of $1.2billion (about N192billion). The Kingdom Tower Skyscraper is expected to stand at over one kilometre tall in the skyline of Jeddah.
Saudi Arabia is generally on a spending spree to improve infrastructure as well as meet its housing commitments. Now wait for this, the skyscraper will take just five years to accomplish complete with boutique hotel, luxury condominiums and serviced apartments. I was left with no choice than to wonder where our own leaders descended from that they can’t have such tall ambitions.
Why have they limited us to commissioning boreholes and building monuments to madness? How can we think of rehabilitating Abuja prostitutes with billions of Naira when we can use the same money to tackle the root causes? How can a new Abuja Gate become our priority when our children are crying for mercy and compassion? What about the laughable edifice that we now learn is meant to be the pied-à-terre of visiting African First Ladies long after our indefatigable First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, has gone into glorious oblivion?
We build our skyscrapers in the tummies of some politicians and their acolytes. We have not been able to construct a stretch of road between Lagos and Benin City in the last 14 years. We have failed to fully rehabilitate the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway within the same period. I doubt if any road in Nigeria can ever pass a rigorous test against international standards. We keep spending billions on our airports with no substantial results. What we wasted on fuel subsidy alone last year would have built six tallest buildings or more in the most famous capitals of the world. But we chose to fritter ours away.
My submission is that we can do better. And it won’t take much to achieve. Our leaders at the very top only need to make up their minds if they are in power to improve the fortunes of their people or to scavenge and embark on outrageous self aggrandisement at the expense of those luckless citizens of this great country called Nigeria. Our leaders must choose between creating sustainable, worthwhile structures that will lead to the greater emancipation of our people rather than embarking on white elephant projects which eventually become our albatross. Ultimately our leaders have to decide whether they want Nigeria to grow or whether they simply want to wreck it like many others before them. That decision is very crucial to the citizenry no matter how difficult it may seem for our present crop of titular leaders.
Their choice is the thin line between success and failure of the Nigerian nation. It is essentially more acute now we are supposedly preparing for the celebration of an imaginary centenary!
Why Nigeria Is Failing - Prof Kwanashie
Nigeria is a weak and failing state, the Vice Chancellor, VERITAS University of Nigeria, Abuja, Professor Mike Kwanashie has said.
He was speaking at a seminar at the ongoing 34th Kaduna International Trade Fair yesterday. He said that Nigeria is a weak and failing state, saying that the greatest danger to Nigeria’s insecurity is the state itself.
He said that unless the state transforms itself to a just state with a political class that is committed to keeping the country together that will lead to the complete advancement of the country there can be no security.
“How can we have peace and security when 70 percent of Nigerians live below the poverty line, 70 percent of its people are marginalized. The North-East is the poorest part of the country,” he lamented.
“The state of insecurity in Nigeria is a fall out of the mismanagement of our politics and our economy by the present political class, that we cannot divorce the present leadership question in Nigeria with the state of insecurity of our youths.
“The state of insecurity of Nigeria must first and foremost be seen within the context of globalization, because today’s globalization that seems to incorporate all every counties and every individual meaning we are no longer a country in isolation, everything that happens in the world today impacts on us, global insecurity has direct implication for our own security,” he said.
The professor of Economics said that “global economic progress has direct implication so we cannot discuss security or insecurity in Nigeria without appreciating the global context that we must operate within to secure ourselves or address the insecurity challenges.
“As we are talking today, our soldiers are in Mali and one of the justifications of going to Mali is that there is a school of thought that believes that part of the security problems we are facing is a rise from what has happened in the Middle East and in North Africa.”
He was speaking at a seminar at the ongoing 34th Kaduna International Trade Fair yesterday. He said that Nigeria is a weak and failing state, saying that the greatest danger to Nigeria’s insecurity is the state itself.
He said that unless the state transforms itself to a just state with a political class that is committed to keeping the country together that will lead to the complete advancement of the country there can be no security.
“How can we have peace and security when 70 percent of Nigerians live below the poverty line, 70 percent of its people are marginalized. The North-East is the poorest part of the country,” he lamented.
“The state of insecurity in Nigeria is a fall out of the mismanagement of our politics and our economy by the present political class, that we cannot divorce the present leadership question in Nigeria with the state of insecurity of our youths.
“The state of insecurity of Nigeria must first and foremost be seen within the context of globalization, because today’s globalization that seems to incorporate all every counties and every individual meaning we are no longer a country in isolation, everything that happens in the world today impacts on us, global insecurity has direct implication for our own security,” he said.
The professor of Economics said that “global economic progress has direct implication so we cannot discuss security or insecurity in Nigeria without appreciating the global context that we must operate within to secure ourselves or address the insecurity challenges.
“As we are talking today, our soldiers are in Mali and one of the justifications of going to Mali is that there is a school of thought that believes that part of the security problems we are facing is a rise from what has happened in the Middle East and in North Africa.”
Jonathan’s 2015 Campaign Posters Flood Abuja Again
Barely one month after outrage greeted the display of pro-President Goodluck Jonathan 2015 campaign posters, a group of campaigners have again flooded the streets of the Federal Capital Territory with the President posters.
The posters are canvassing support for Jonathan to seek a second term in 2015.
The posters, which were sponsored by a little known group, Nigerians Unity Project, were conspicuously displayed on walls in Wuse, Garki and bus stops in and around the Federal Secretariat, Abuja, on Monday.
Our correspondent noticed the posters had a picture of the President wearing a black bowler hat over a black attire, which has become a symbol of people from the South-South geo-political zone.
Above the poster, which is on a white and green background, was the inscription, “To keep Nigeria’s Unity Jonathan for Continuity in 2015.”
Beneath the President’s photograph is written, the “Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (North East) was given a second term in 1964; Alhaji Shehu Shagari (North West), was given a second term in 1983; Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (South West) was given second term in 2003, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan (South South) deserves second term in 2015.”
The group left the following phone contacts: 08120001166, 08188112221 and 07066640488.
When our correspondent put a call through to one of the numbers, a man, who identified himself as Igwe Kala Leo-Ugomaduefulle and National Leader of the group, answered.
According to him, the group did not need the support of either the President of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party to do what they felt was a patriotic duty in the pursuit of justice and fairness.
He said, “We don’t need anybody’s prompting to do this. The President has not said he is going to contest or not but we are concerned about the unity of this country. It is the birth right of Mr. President to seek a second term if he so desires.
“To keep Nigeria one, we must ensure justice and fairness to all irrespective of where they come from, if you look at our posters very well, you will see the historical facts about those who were elected into office, why should President Jonathan’s case be different?”
Executive Secretary of the Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre, Mallam Awual Musa, said it was surprising that the issue was coming up at a time Nigerians were expecting improvements in their lives.
“I can’t understand our politicians, 2015 is two years away and already elected officials are strategizing on how to get power when they are yet to deliver on their existing mandate. If the Presidency is not behind this, it must find a way to stop it.”
In her reaction, the President of Campaign For Democracy, Dr. Joe Odumakin, said, “This does not augur well for the polity, the posters are clearly distractive for an apprentice President even a President with focus and capacity would be seriously under pressure with posters littered everywhere. He should halt it and let sanity prevail in our polity.”
The posters are canvassing support for Jonathan to seek a second term in 2015.
The posters, which were sponsored by a little known group, Nigerians Unity Project, were conspicuously displayed on walls in Wuse, Garki and bus stops in and around the Federal Secretariat, Abuja, on Monday.
Our correspondent noticed the posters had a picture of the President wearing a black bowler hat over a black attire, which has become a symbol of people from the South-South geo-political zone.
Above the poster, which is on a white and green background, was the inscription, “To keep Nigeria’s Unity Jonathan for Continuity in 2015.”
Beneath the President’s photograph is written, the “Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (North East) was given a second term in 1964; Alhaji Shehu Shagari (North West), was given a second term in 1983; Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (South West) was given second term in 2003, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan (South South) deserves second term in 2015.”
The group left the following phone contacts: 08120001166, 08188112221 and 07066640488.
When our correspondent put a call through to one of the numbers, a man, who identified himself as Igwe Kala Leo-Ugomaduefulle and National Leader of the group, answered.
According to him, the group did not need the support of either the President of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party to do what they felt was a patriotic duty in the pursuit of justice and fairness.
He said, “We don’t need anybody’s prompting to do this. The President has not said he is going to contest or not but we are concerned about the unity of this country. It is the birth right of Mr. President to seek a second term if he so desires.
“To keep Nigeria one, we must ensure justice and fairness to all irrespective of where they come from, if you look at our posters very well, you will see the historical facts about those who were elected into office, why should President Jonathan’s case be different?”
Executive Secretary of the Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre, Mallam Awual Musa, said it was surprising that the issue was coming up at a time Nigerians were expecting improvements in their lives.
“I can’t understand our politicians, 2015 is two years away and already elected officials are strategizing on how to get power when they are yet to deliver on their existing mandate. If the Presidency is not behind this, it must find a way to stop it.”
In her reaction, the President of Campaign For Democracy, Dr. Joe Odumakin, said, “This does not augur well for the polity, the posters are clearly distractive for an apprentice President even a President with focus and capacity would be seriously under pressure with posters littered everywhere. He should halt it and let sanity prevail in our polity.”
Second Hand Clothing Kills Nigerian Textile Industry
In markets in northern Nigeria, some shoppers scoff at clothes made by Nigerian companies and prefer to buy second-hand clothes from the West. The country's flailing textile industry says the trend is killing their chances of coming back to life. Nigerian companies make clothes but in your average market, the racks are filled with imports, often from the West, that have already been worn.
This shopper, Nafiu Akilu Usman, is buying second-hand jeans at a market in Kaduna in northern Nigeria. He says he wouldn’t buy Nigerian clothes, even if he had the money. “Nigeria is not producing [quality] clothes, so that’s why I prefer that," he said. Locals say the used clothes were originally charitable donations from abroad, meant to clothe the poor, but they have no readily available proof. In fact, some say, the clothes do serve the poor with T-shirts for sale for as little as 32 cents.
A new shirt costs $10 at least. The influx of clothes may have killed the textile industry, which was booming until the late 90s but now is near collapse. “If you look at the textile industry in the north, virtually none of them is working. And if they are working, they are working at a very minimal and skeletal level. So they cannot be able to produce for the requirement of the people in the first place," said Awwalu Makarfi, deputy president of the Kaduna Chamber of Commerce.
“Made in Nigeria” clothes seemed doomed, he adds, because companies cannot make enough money to invest in modern equipment to compete. Nigerian factories also have to pay for additional security to keep their workers safe in many volatile regions. Beyond that, he says, electricity is unstable and often unavailable, costing anyone who wants to run a factory a fortune. “Or you take the simple example of the energy and power. Even before the collapse of the industry most of them were running 24 hours on [generator] sets," said Makarfi.
Most Nigerians live in dire poverty and at this point, he says, even industrialists who make clothes buy from abroad because the price difference leaves them no choice. At the market in Kaduna, Ramatu Usman sorts through used T-shirts for her two children. She says she knows buying foreign clothes is bad for the local economy. “People go to buy these clothes because they see it’s cheaper and its more economical so thereby the industry keeps going down-keeps collapsing.
I have to laugh because it is so funny," she said. She has to laugh, she says, because with rampant unemployment, idle young men killing and dying and hungry children in her town, if she didn’t laugh, she would cry.
This shopper, Nafiu Akilu Usman, is buying second-hand jeans at a market in Kaduna in northern Nigeria. He says he wouldn’t buy Nigerian clothes, even if he had the money. “Nigeria is not producing [quality] clothes, so that’s why I prefer that," he said. Locals say the used clothes were originally charitable donations from abroad, meant to clothe the poor, but they have no readily available proof. In fact, some say, the clothes do serve the poor with T-shirts for sale for as little as 32 cents.
A new shirt costs $10 at least. The influx of clothes may have killed the textile industry, which was booming until the late 90s but now is near collapse. “If you look at the textile industry in the north, virtually none of them is working. And if they are working, they are working at a very minimal and skeletal level. So they cannot be able to produce for the requirement of the people in the first place," said Awwalu Makarfi, deputy president of the Kaduna Chamber of Commerce.
“Made in Nigeria” clothes seemed doomed, he adds, because companies cannot make enough money to invest in modern equipment to compete. Nigerian factories also have to pay for additional security to keep their workers safe in many volatile regions. Beyond that, he says, electricity is unstable and often unavailable, costing anyone who wants to run a factory a fortune. “Or you take the simple example of the energy and power. Even before the collapse of the industry most of them were running 24 hours on [generator] sets," said Makarfi.
Most Nigerians live in dire poverty and at this point, he says, even industrialists who make clothes buy from abroad because the price difference leaves them no choice. At the market in Kaduna, Ramatu Usman sorts through used T-shirts for her two children. She says she knows buying foreign clothes is bad for the local economy. “People go to buy these clothes because they see it’s cheaper and its more economical so thereby the industry keeps going down-keeps collapsing.
I have to laugh because it is so funny," she said. She has to laugh, she says, because with rampant unemployment, idle young men killing and dying and hungry children in her town, if she didn’t laugh, she would cry.
Monday 25 February 2013
Obama’s Presidential Limousine Is A Rolling Fortress
President Obama's limousine, also known as The Beast, has eight-inch-thick doors made of tiatnium, steel, aluminum, and concrete.
The Beast, otherwise known as the Presidential Limousine, and POTUS’ ride is tricked out with more armor, high-tech gadgetry, offensive and defensive gear than a small battalion.
The precise specs of this modified Cadillac aren’t available to the public due to security concerns, but we do know The Beast swills a gallon of gas every 8 miles due to its heavy armor and size, its doors are a whopping 8 inches thick, and it’s made largely of titanium, steel, ceramic and aluminum.
It’s so fortified that almost no sound enters the cockpit, necessitating special microphones rigged on the body so the driver and passengers can hear what’s going on around the car.
It seats seven people including the President. The car carries its own oxygen, is equipped with a night-vision camera, firefighting system, run-flat tires, tear gas cannons, and steel wheels.
An undisclosed amount of Presidential blood in case of emergency is aboard and the car is impervious to biological attack due to a lock-down mechanism which, when deployed, seals the interior against a biological attack.
Communication with the other 45 cars in the motorcade for typical U.S.-based trips is accomplished via a command and control center liasoned with the White House Communications Agency Roadrunner vehicle, using encrypted information.
What the public doesn’t know about The Beast is subject to endless speculation, rumor and conjecture. Some of the unconfirmed features include:
• Infrared smoke grenades, which surround The Beast and make it a difficult target for enemies firing rockets or grenades
• Video system enabling driver to see in smoke, darkness, fog
• A price tag upwards of $300,000
The Beast, otherwise known as the Presidential Limousine, and POTUS’ ride is tricked out with more armor, high-tech gadgetry, offensive and defensive gear than a small battalion.
The precise specs of this modified Cadillac aren’t available to the public due to security concerns, but we do know The Beast swills a gallon of gas every 8 miles due to its heavy armor and size, its doors are a whopping 8 inches thick, and it’s made largely of titanium, steel, ceramic and aluminum.
It’s so fortified that almost no sound enters the cockpit, necessitating special microphones rigged on the body so the driver and passengers can hear what’s going on around the car.
It seats seven people including the President. The car carries its own oxygen, is equipped with a night-vision camera, firefighting system, run-flat tires, tear gas cannons, and steel wheels.
An undisclosed amount of Presidential blood in case of emergency is aboard and the car is impervious to biological attack due to a lock-down mechanism which, when deployed, seals the interior against a biological attack.
Communication with the other 45 cars in the motorcade for typical U.S.-based trips is accomplished via a command and control center liasoned with the White House Communications Agency Roadrunner vehicle, using encrypted information.
What the public doesn’t know about The Beast is subject to endless speculation, rumor and conjecture. Some of the unconfirmed features include:
• Infrared smoke grenades, which surround The Beast and make it a difficult target for enemies firing rockets or grenades
• Video system enabling driver to see in smoke, darkness, fog
• A price tag upwards of $300,000
PHOTOS: Breathtaking Extraordinary Cakes Ever Made
Cakes have been in our lives and have been present in most of our occasions such as birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, you name it. And for sure many will be in agreement that cakes are really yummy for the tummy. Just having a gives you the urge to get a knife and have a piece of it.
But in this collection, these cakes are very out of the ordinary as these have a unique ingredient: Artistic Creativity.
1.Canon Strawberry-Vanilla Cake
2. Wall-e Chocolate Berry Cake
3. Full-Size Bride Cinnamon Cake
4. Spicy Pineapple Ship-cake
5. Happy Birthday Gingerbread cake
5. Designer Cheesecake
6. Dragon Pineapple cake
7.Sushi Bourbon Cake
But in this collection, these cakes are very out of the ordinary as these have a unique ingredient: Artistic Creativity.
1.Canon Strawberry-Vanilla Cake
2. Wall-e Chocolate Berry Cake
3. Full-Size Bride Cinnamon Cake
4. Spicy Pineapple Ship-cake
5. Happy Birthday Gingerbread cake
5. Designer Cheesecake
6. Dragon Pineapple cake
7.Sushi Bourbon Cake
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