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President Buhari Dissolves NNPC Board

President Muhammadu Buhari has dissolved the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) board with immediate effect.
The directive to that effect was conveyed in a letter signed today by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Barr. Danladi Kifasi.
Buhari in a statement signed by Haruna Imrana, Director of Communications for the Head of Service of the Federation expressed gratitude to members of the board for their services to the country.
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Same sex marriage now legalised everywhere in the US

The Supreme Court today legalised same-sex marriage across the United States. The decision was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy. He affirmed that it was wrong for states to deny gays and lesbians the same marriage rights enjoyed by opposite-sex couples for years. 
Senator Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota’s Congressional delegation said‎, “This is a momentous day in our country’s pursuit of equality and justice. The Supreme Court has affirmed what many states, including Minnesota, have already proudly recognized: same-sex couples deserve the right to marry.”
Rep Tim Wall added, “Today’s decision makes clear that our LGBT brothers and sisters are entitled to the same rights as the rest of us; that the pursuit of happiness cannot be limited because of who you love. Yes, today is a landmark day in our nation’s history and I could not be more proud.”
Prior to the judgement, more than 70% of Americans already live in states where gay marriages are legal and thousands of couples have wedded.

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"I am looking for love". Pep Guardiola

  2. Bayern Munich coach, Pep Guardiola has a beautiful wife, kids, and he isn’t interested in starting another family. Don’t look in that direction. What he wants is the feeling that he’s loved in his managerial career.
  4. Speaking recently at a charity event, the Spaniard said his priority is not to win titles but to be appreciated.
  6. “I do all I am doing in my life to be loved. My ambition is not to win titles, I am looking for love, nothing more. I read in an article by an American educationalist that a child won’t learn if it does not feel empathy with the teacher. I try to use that in my work.

  8. “Often a player feels bad, because he thinks the coach does not like him and not because he is not playing. I had a great player once who did not score. We went to a cafe together to talk. Not about football but about life. In the next match, this player scored two of our four goals. He felt special because he felt loved.”



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An Open Letter To Nigeria's Incoming Minister Of Aviation | By: Temitope Bolarinwa

My Dear Honourable Minister,
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As I congratulate in advance of your appointment I want you to look away from those who may be debating whether or not you are the best man for the job and let us seriously get to work as there is a lot to be done.
Earlier this June we remembered families and victims of the last major accident in our airspace; pointing that our airspace has been safe to a large extent for the past three years and we passed IATA security audit of our airports. All these added to series of remodeling carried out by the last administration and the ability to retain our Category 1 FAA rating make a good foundation to build a lot of work you will need to do on.
I will like you to know that it will be very wise to make most of your policies around profitability of airlines without compromise on safety as airlines are the life-blood of any successful aviation system. Airlines support our economy by connecting people and ideas from one point to another in needed time, employing a lot of people and contributing a lot to the FG account in taxes and levies to mention a few.
Highly critical is to the operations of airlines is fuel price; airlines in Nigeria currently spend approximately 65% of their income on fueling leaving a meager 35% to cover for all other expenditure including maintenance and overheads this is a far cry to around 35% of income airlines in other parts of the world spend on fueling improving airline profitability in that region and hence the great news of progress we always hear from them.
While it is not wise for government to subsidise fuel price for airlines considering the state of the overall economy, my advice to you about this is to join forces with other key ministers to push for and support local refining of crude oil which will no doubt bring down the cost of Aviation fuel to our airlines, reducing their expenditure thereby helping them to do more for the better of everyone.
 According to channels television, Route development is the life-blood of the airlines, a means of promoting growth, securing profits and satisfying various constituencies. Nigeria is said to be losing over 200 billion Naira annually to international airlines that have been generously given more than enough flight rights into Nigeria at the detriment of Nigerian carriers which are left with just three per cent of the international market share.
The inability of Nigerian airlines to ply most of the routes has led to an imbalance in the over 80 Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between Nigerian and most countries. We need to start harnessing this potential and fast. My suggestions on that would be to either create incentives to assist private airlines to cover the other part of these agreements or create a national carrier for this purpose. Recently Rwandair started to operate a Lagos Dubai service dropped by Arik. I read the news and became so disturbed. People would speak to you about a national carrier all the time, please make sure it starts for the right reasons and it is run with a lot of strategy, we do not want a repeat story.
I have to let you realize if you already do not know that just before your appointment there was an ugly development; customs decided to start charging airlines duty for importing aircraft parts. Let me highlight that this duty was previously removed to help reduce the running cost of airlines as 99% of these parts are not available locally anyway and to charge them duty on these items that usually cost thousands of dollars monthly was to in fact plunge them into further debt. Honorable minister, this move will shorten the average life span of our airlines and is not good for a lot of our people, please look into this urgently.
Aviation industries develop through intentional efforts made with specific goals in mind, but I am sure you know this anyway. I want you to make intentional efforts to make aircraft parts available locally, it will require you and your office putting together a very rigorously prepared program but the good news is that it is possible; many countries in the world have done it, local Parts availability would improve the profitability of airlines and help our system. The venture is capital intensive and that is why it requires intentional support.
Finally we need MROs locally; my direct suggestion on this is for the Federal government to start one. It is a lucrative business that will create a lot of jobs and generate a lot of patronage from within Africa, most Aircrafts in Africa currently go abroad to get services that require us bringing down expertise and machinery to be able to perform here. If the federal government cannot start one, we can create incentives for private businesses to start one or enter into agreements with world class MROs to come to Nigeria.
 
I would be glad to see you succeed and I am very sure a lot of Nigerians want that view too.
Best Wishes.
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Entertainment

That Alaafin's Young Wife | By: Joseph Edgar

As I look at this lady’s picture, the Mona Lisa comes to my mind. The mysterious and dazzling look of a strange and far off beauty. How this rare specie landed in the Palace of the withered Alafin remains a mystery that will take eons to decipher.
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As I look at this picture, I begin to understand the meaning of true beauty, the almond shaped eyes, the full lips and the smooth skin like warm milk chocolate all combined to make the Alafin the most admired man on this side of the equator.With that kind of beauty, the Alafin should go for home schooling rather than unleashing her to the boisterous community that is the University of Ibadan. He would have to, apart from engaging the Nigerian Police Force put his juju men on strict alert to cause immediate seizure and epilepsy for any intruder as she goes about her studies.
But I ask, what would the Alafin be doing with this work of Art, at his age how would he exploit the opportunities that lie in those curves? Would he like the biblical King David just lay on his royal bed and allow the queen of Oyo sing his oriki and clean the sweat of frustration from his forehead as he mules what could have been if he was not all of 100 years old.
What is the use of buying a Range Rover if you cannot drive it, would you get total fulfillment if your driver keeps driving it, enjoying its melancholic humming as it dishes out smooth pleasure at every touch of the throttle? Would you get total fulfillment sitting at the back and watch as your driver imbues himself in the inner warmth of a gloriously built machine?
Won’t you one day just die from exhaustion as you get overwhelmed,  your poor old heart wishing and only wishing that you could for just 10 minutes be that young, solidly built driver.
Well make I keep my big mouth shut, wetin concern me. This lady has thrown once again the notion of the Nigerian Beautiful woman into public discourse. Are light skinned women more beautiful, do we as men prefer them to their darker skinned counterparts or why would the Alafin go for three of these variant?
The answer my friend, is in the air.
Thank you.‎
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Joseph Edgar is an investment banker who writes as a hobby. He writes usually on trending topics from a satirical point of view. He blogs at josephedgarng.blogspot.com
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Event: Champions Church presents, 'Man For All Seasons' | 28th June, 2015

Ever wondered what makes a man ideal? 
In a recent among a group of people, the issue “what makes a man” was raised. At the just celebrated Father’s day, a lot of men- fathers, fathers-in-waiting, young me, boys and “baby daddies” had a lot to rejoice about and it wasn’t just the fact that they were alive to witness another year of celebrations, some were celebrating their new progeny, their upgrade into adulthood, their capabilities as fathers and their abilities to produce children. While some are male at best, some others can actually be called men by the definitive standards.
The big question is, What are these definitive standards? What makes a man ideal?
Join us this Sunday 28th June 2015, 9am @ 105 Ogunlana drive Surulere, Lagos as we discuss the 4H Man- His Head, His Heart, His Hand and of course, His Handsomeness.
Host: Biodun Adeyanju; 
Guest attendance: Mai Atafo.
RSVP– Blessing 08032238804
This event is FREE for all and is Powered by Champions Church. 

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Short Story: Selma | By: Damore Ali

It is our final year dinner. I look beautiful, I am sure… but I feel different and uncomfortable, more than I have felt my whole life. I am not the barbie faced girl in this Rukky Simone’s gown and Louboutins with body shapers hugging the life out of me. No. I am that tiny soul screaming for release beneath all of this packaging that make me tonight. But I embrace this one time invasion because I want Martins to see me. 
Never in my life have I thought to become someone else for a man. Truly, I used to have so much faith in the incidence of love with someone who would look beyond my limp, make-up-less face, feebleness and clumsiness to the amazing being that I am. But after a whole 25 years of waiting endlessly for that special moment, and a never-ending tirade of someone who matters so much- Mum-  telling you you’ll never get a man looking as you do, you learn to give change a try. 
So I let Salma make me her.
Down at the hall, there is so much activity going on around me, none of which I am interested in. I am seated at this table with Salma’s course mates, staring nauseously at the empty seat beside me, hoping it has been saved for Martins. I take my precious care to do everything because mama’s voice keeps ringing in my head- ‘sit like a lady, look at Salma! Eat like a lady, don’t rush it, Can’t you see Salma?! Don’t focus on your food, make eye contact with your talk partner intermittently. Ask Salma. Be witty, throw in jokes, just like Salma. Smile a lot. Smile, but don’t shoot your teeth out like that.’ There’s so much to learn from Salma, I can’t keep up. But my heart bleeds, for if the person who bore me cannot accept me, who would?
I master my gestures as quickly as possible, watching Salma from the corner of my eye so I can learn better; but when Martins finally arrives, the whole practice feels like a Shamble. I realise I can look and act like her, but I can’t be her. I can’t even strike up a conversation after the casual hello he passed my way. I am confused. I forgot to ask what Salma would do and say if seated next to her long- time crush. 
I try for a natural performance, and silence is the best I can put up.The dress, make- up and everything wouldn’t even make him pass a second glance. I feel broken within. I look at Salma now, so comfortable in her skin. She is everything I have practised for the past one hour, but it’s easy to tell a natural from one who is trying too hard to be real. 
I begin to wonder maybe if I had come through as myself tonight, maybe it would have made a difference. Or maybe not? Maybe it is just a me- thing. Mum has said I am not the kind of girl a man falls for. Quickly, I make my exit from the hall for I fear I might be tempted to strip for release, if I spend one more minute there. Ignoring the many eyes that follow me and my limp through the door, I hail a cab and head home. 
In my room, I am in a world of my own, trying to reconnect with the Selma I think I know. I hear that at birth, we are born blank… and the world informs what we do and who we become. Maybe it’s true, maybe not; I just think, importantly, we are who we are, not by choice, but by a force stronger than us. And I understand that people cannot be as patient as we are with ourselves, so I forgive mum and every mother out there who thinks a child is not good enough. And I promise myself to embrace the clumsiness and nervousness that is me, because if I am ashamed of my own product, no one will buy it. 
I reckon that Salma, my twin, is gorgeous, brilliant, charismatic, and so much the girl you beg to love; while I am something more than her exact opposite, but I won’t love her less because the world makes me feel like her shadow. I won’t love her less because mum insists she is the definition of perfect, while I am the book of flaws…
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‘Selma?’ Salma walks in on me and my thoughts now. I see the sadness in her eyes, mixed with a tinge of pity. I smile at her and hold my arms out for a hug.
‘I am fine.’ I assure her.
I feel her smile on my hair as she let’s out a sigh of relief. ‘I love you.’
‘I know darling. I love you too.’
We stay like that, locked in each others embrace for what seems like forever, and for me, that is bliss. I won’t love her less for anything in the world. I am who I am. She is who she is. And the world would have to adjust somehow, or take a leisure walk down the BRT lane. 
I am Selma, and I am fine being me. 
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This bit was inspired by parents who erroneously, time and time again, compare one child with another child; or worse still, other children from other homes. I think it’s okay to want the best for your child, but rather than compare and hurt a child’s feelings by trying to make him/her like or better than someone else, understand him/her first and see how best you can help them be better than who they were every one time.
We are not perfect. No, far from it. But we hope that you see through our flaws to the light within us. See us. Beyond the face to the maze that makes us US.
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Damore Ali is a poet, short story writer and blogger. She has been published on several online forums including Naija ‎Stories. She is an accountant by training and a lover of good music. Damore also goes by the name Dr. 2103. She blogs at https://minisculediary.wordpress.com/
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Are you a writer? Interested in sharing your short stories on this
platform? Be our guest on our Short Story Fridays segment.
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Buhari appoints Accountant General of the Federation.

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Ahmed‎ Idris as the new Accountant General of the Federation.‎ 

The appointment was made public by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Danladi Kifasi, through a statement by his Director of Communications, Haruna Imrana in Abuja today. 
Until his appointment, the 50 year-old Kano indigene‎ was a Director of Finance and Accounts in the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel
Development. 

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Bukola Saraki sets up committee to review Senators' salaries.

Senate president, Bukola Saraki, has set up a Committee to review the salaries, allowances, and the overhead cost of running the Senate.
Asides the Committee on financial review, it also set up another committee on Legislative Agenda. The two committees have been given one-week to submit their reports.

“The Senate’s Ad-hoc Committee on Financial review is the first time the Senate is setting up a body to review its own salaries, allowances, and the overhead cost of running the Senate with a view to realigning them to reflect the present economic situation in the country.” A statement from the Media Office of the Senate President reads.

Saraki said the Senate under his leadership will make “financial conservatism” its watchword.

“There still persists the need to project clarity, accountability and transparency in all legislative matters and legislators’ welfare.

“The 8th Senate under our watch recognizes the concerns raised by Nigerians about the cost of running office most especially with the economic challenges facing our nation.

“The Senate will be more transparent regarding all public funds spent for the purpose of paying salaries and allowances of legislators and ensure that distinction is sufficiently made between what a legislator actually earns and what is spent to run and implement legislative business and committee activities.

“The watchword in our financial issues will be fiscal conservatism. It is therefore on this arm that the committee is mandated to carry out thorough fiscal examination on the Senate finances with the aim of coming up with the best cost-effective regime in the 8th Senate.”

 

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