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Photos: President Buhari, Aisha Buhari, Mrs Osinbajo meet mothers of the missing Chibok girls

‎President Buhari, his wife; Aisha Buhari and the wife of the Vice President, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo yesterday met with some of the mothers of the missing Chibok Girls at the Defence House.
Wait a minute, dunno if I’m wrong, asides visiting the Principal of the Chibok school, did former first lady, Patience Jonathan meet these women? She released a viral video and that was all. Ok!
It’s all in the past now.

Sexual Offences Bill: Wole Soyinka blasts 'paedophile' lawmaker.

Dear Friends and Comrades,
Regretfully, I am unable to be with you tomorrow morning. However, I extend a warm embrace to you in your resolve to keep within Nigeria’s short memory the events that have been central to the attainment of our democracy – warts and all – enjoyed today by you and me. June 12 remains the true Democracy Day despite the unprincipled efforts of some prime beneficiaries of that struggle to expunge it from a people’s chronicle.
If I had been able to join you, I would most certainly have asked you for help. It has to do with the nation’s latest alleged legislative stance against sexual abuse – molestation, rape, paedophilia etc etc. I am only a layman, not a “learned brother”, so any help from the learned is earnestly solicited. The question on my mind is this: is that legislative reinforcement not merely a case of rubbing vaseline on leprosy?
In this supposedly progressive bill, sponsored by the respected Senator Chris Anyanwu. I could not help but notice a reiteration – as if to ensure that there is no ambiguity – of the word “child”, near superfluously. Well, we understand “child” as defined in most dictionaries. There is however also child as defined by the Nigerian legislature. This definition is contained in a prior Bill, sponsored, no less, by a notorious serial paedophile and cross-border sex trafficker, yet lawmaker – one Ahmed Yerima.
Does Yerima’s Bill, gleefully assented to by his peers, not simply vitiate this latter, supposedly humane concern for the protection of the child? Again, I confess to being only a ‘bloody layman’ in such matters. However, reading both bills, it strikes me that all the new bill does is empower the clique of paedophiles. All you need do is “marry” even a six-year old under any local laws, and do whatever you want with her. Through marriage, she is already an “adult”. Her “defiler” is now fully protected by this law. She is not. The current Bill is the ancient story of locking the stable door after the horse has bolted. End of story? Yerimah and his fellow perverts are having the last laugh.
This issue of child protection looms large all over the world – including bills passed or under debate. It is one that defines us in our own estimation and in global view as worthy to be counted among humanity, or as the basest kind of living species that exist solely for their sensual gratification, even at the cost of the emotional and physiological well-being of the weak and vulnerable of society. Our lawmakers have betrayed our children.
This latest addition of insult to social injury was tucked within a last-minute avalanche of bills that were passed at lightning speed during the tail-end of the last legislative assemblage – 47 bills in under 3 hours – surely one for the Guinness Book of Records. An accident? Or by design? This bill, subjected to wrong arguments, merely consolidates the reduction of female minors to sex objects. As long as you can afford a bag of rice or – as in the case of cross-border tastes such as Ahmed Yerima’s – ten thousand dollars, you are free To Molest a child to death. This, surely cannot pretend to represent the will of a people who care. Once you re-define female adulthood as marital status, all subsequent protection bills for the girl-child are worthless, cynical.
Neither culture nor religion is at issue here. It is, quite starkly, an issue of science, the science of the human body, one that demonstrably instructs us when the female human body is still at risk from conjugal rites. We should therefore call upon the Medical Association to take the lead on this, a human issue that affects all men and women of conscience. A nation should not be founded on the sexual exploitation of the fragile, and innocent. The debate must remain open.
President Buhari – and here I make my first imposition on his presidency – should never place his assent on such a nefarious distraction. Its implications doom the victim to afflictions that churn the stomach even to think of the human toll. Perhaps those legislators think that vaginal fistula is something thought up arm-chair critics with nothing better to occupy their minds. No matter, let those who profess a genuine concern declare their stand on this. On my part, I find unacceptable any effort to build a nation on perversions that merely minister to man’s sexual appetites. This is a sordid appeasement of a minority who actually require psychiatric help. President Buhari should not give his assent to the Bill without amendments that address the earlier Yerima gift to the nation. It’s a trap!
Let us learn from the heroes of June 12. Few people have done more for the cause of liberation than the Hero of this day. M.K.O.Abiola was an open polygamist. None of his wives was ever found to be below the only age of consent that is now needlessly under contention – the scientific. We cannot substitute science and observation for any spurious alibis that sacrifice the child to private lust!
The debate must remain open until resolved in favour of the child.
–Wole Soyinka‎

"I named my dogs Messi, Figo" – Real Madrid midfielder, Isco.

Real Madrid midfielder Isco has revealed that ‎two of his dogs are
named after Barcelona and Real Madrid legends, Lionel Messi and Luis Figo.

The 23 year-old who joined the Los Blancos from Malaga in 2013 told AS in a recent interview. “I had one who was called Figo and another who was called Messi. And another—Bubu. I’ve got lots of dogs!”

2015 Nigerian Entertainment Awards: See full list of nominees

Nominees for the 10th edition of the annual  Nigerian Entertainment Awards have been unveiled. The awards is slated to hold in New York in September 2015. Check out the full list of nominees below.
Nominees list

1) MUSIC PRODUCER
Pheelz
Shizzi
Legendary Beatz
Young John
DJ Coublon
Tspize

2) BEST RAP ACT
Olamide
Reminisce
Ice Prince
Phyno
Falz
MI Abaga

3) MALE ARTISTE


Olamide
Skales
Flavour
Davido
Wizkid
Patoranking

4) FEMALE ARTIST‎E


Yemi Alade
Aramide
Seyi Shay
Cynthia Morgan
Dija
Eva Alordiah

5) BEST POP
Sean Tizzle
Davido
Wizkid
Runtown
Burna Boy

6) BEST R&B
Banky W
Seyi Shay

Chidinma
Timi Dakolo
Praiz
Shaydee
7) INDIGENOUS ARTISTE
Olamide
Pasuma
Phyno
Flavour
Mc Galaxy

8) BEST NEW ACT TO WATCH


Kiss Daniel
Lil Kesh
Di’ja
CDQ
Ayo Jay
Falz
Korede Bello

9) HOTTEST SINGLE


Kiss Daniel – Woju
Lil Kesh – Shoki Remix Ft Olamide & Davido
Mavins – Dorobucci
Wizkid – Ojuelegba
Skales – Shake Body

10) FEMALE DISC JOCKEY
Dj Frizzie
DJ Cuppy
Dj Soupamodel
Dj Lambo
Dj Nana
11) MALE DJ
DJ Spinall
DJ Xclusive
DJ Kaywise
DJ Kenny
DJ Tunez
DJ Magicflowz

12) AFRICAN ARTISTE


Eddie kenzo
Sauti Sol
Diamond Platnumz
Sarkodie
Stonebwoy
AKA
Mzvee

13) MOST PROMISING ACT


Danagog
Niniola
Tjan
Tonye
Pere Carter
Simi
Sunkanmi
Teegee

14) BEST MUSIC VIDEO


Shuga (Eva) –WOLTRK ENT
HG2 Films – Ibadan ( Qdot ft Olamide)
Clarence Peter – Condo ( Ycee ft Patoranking)
JM Films – Crazy ( Seyi Shay ft. Wizkid)
Kemi Adetiba – Onye ( Waje ft. Tiwa Savage)
Unlimited LA – Aww ( Di’Ja)

15) ALBUM OF THE YEAR


Reminisce – Baba Hafusa
Flavour – Thankful
Olamide- Street OT
Yemi Alade – King of Queens
Wizkid – Ayo
Praiz – Rich & Famous
16) AFROBEAT ARTISTE
Lagbaja
Femi Kuti
Seun Kuti
2baba
Tony Oladipo Allen
Ara
17) BEST DANCE/LIVE PERFORMER
MC Galazy
Olamide
Yemi Alade
P-Square
Omawumi
Wizkid

Xavi opens up on his row with Neymar during Barca's title celebrations.

Barcelona legend, Xavi has lifted the lid on his altercation with ex teammate, Neymar during Barcelona’s title celebrations. Xavi who was filmed during the open-top bus parade shoving Neymar in the face told Qatari newspaper that “He was trying to take my shoes off and pushing me when I was on the edge of the bus. I said that they should stop messing about and concentrate on the people that had come out to wave as the bus passed.

He continued “These parades are for the people after all. It’s okay to
have three or four beers but the parade is for the people and it’s the chance for us to thank them for our support. You can’t just do what you want to do.”

“This sort of thing is accepted in Brazil but here he will need to learn how to win and to lose. He is an extraordinary player who also works hard and is very humble but he maybe just needs to reflect a little. If you do that [trick] in the first minute when it’s 0-0 it is one thing but if you do it when he did it… he needs to think about that.”



Bayo Omoboriowo: From a poor boy in Mushin to the President's official photographer

For many Nigerians on social media, we always admire the beautiful pictures of our new President, Muhammed Buhari. We admire the elegance and the story the pictures portray, we salute the aesthetics behind the image but not many know that the guy behind it all is Bayo Omoboriowo the official photographer of the president and amazingly, he’s just 28.
When I met Bayo for the First time February 14 this year at Buhari Valentine dinner here in Lagos, I did not know who he was, he was dressed in an impeccable manner, with suit and tie and then was carrying his camera like a baby I thought he was just one of those “I just came back to Nigeria” guys who like over dressing with their camera not until he told me to stand for him to take a snap shot of me, I did and after the shoot, we got talking, when he mentioned his name.
 I remembered I had read his interview 3 years back, an Interview he did with Bella Naija talking about his passion for photography, his dreams and where he want to be in the years to come using the instrument of his camera.
My respect for him grew higher that moment and I told myself: “Indeed Dreams come true” Bayo Omoboriowo was born without silver spoon, he tasted poverty, experienced the low esteem Poverty inflicts on its victims but never allowed his past to define him, he decided to change his story and that he has successfully been able to do looking at what he has done for himself within a space of 6 years
He took his destiny by his hand, discovered his passion which was photography, refined and turned it to a business and income making project.
One thing you have to give to this young man is this, he never allowed the distraction that being a youth brings to distract him from his focus, he graduated from University Of Lagos in 2009 and since then he has only been doing one thing, Photography and today, he is the official photographer of our dear President. 
Bayo was one of the 20-man delegation that followed Buhari to Germany On Sunday , seeing his name on that list brought smile to my face, this shows how far he has gone and where God has taken him to. I could not have been prouder of my generation and the envelop we are pushing, the stories we are changing and the boundaries we are taking in spite of the difficulties of being a Young Nigerian.
Bayo’s life is teaching young people what is possible and doable, a man born in poverty at Mushin Lagos 28 years ago is flying with the President all over the world today because of his passion and determination to give meaning to his life, what then is your excuse?
Life is too short to just waste on unnecessary gallivanting. Discover your passion, key into it and start now. You don’t need capital to start, you just need few people who believe in your passion and would do anything to see it come to fruition.
Your network determines your net worth; those friends around you have a lot to do with your tomorrow, more than you know. Bayos of this world are passing a compelling message to young people to leave every other thing that is distracting them and run with their dreams. Lives and destinies are tied to that dream and that is the more reason you need to take that bold step and believe in your ability to do it.
Again let me emphasize, Bayo started from the bottom, he started with zero capital. he had nothing except his incredible belief in God and the dream he has and nothing more.
I wish you all the best in this journey and hope to celebrate your journey tomorrow. 
Article written by Chukwudi Iwuchukwu

Majek Fashek, A National Tragedy | By: Joseph Edgar

On my way to work this morning, I spotted a loony figure. Pants sagged, dirty black underwear showing, a caftan perched precariously on his extra lean shoulders, shock of long unkempt dreadlocks cascading down his head and teeth yellowed by years of hard living and a face still surprisingly handsome despite the ravages of illicit living.

This was Majek, my hero, the one who brought down the rain. He it was who redefined Reggae and in that one album forced us to look deep into our consciousness, calling us prisoners of conscience. He it was who took that Bob Marley piece, Redemption Song into the sublime. He infused it with his pangolo rhythm and turned it into an anthem of social and spiritual awakening. Majek was a god, strong Adonis like looks, talent yet to me replicated in our clime and charisma of the gods.

This same Majek, I just saw like that in Fadeyi, begging for ogogoro becuase he did not have 100 Naira to pay for it. I stopped brought out 1,000 Naira and was immediately struck by confusion. Should I give him this money and contribute to his death or should I refuse him and watch him throw a tantrum like a disposed toddler. He saved me the dilemma as he grabbed the money from me and rushed to the ugly, black dirty merchant of death, who gleefully poured him a glass full. 

Majek downed the drink and hugged me like I had just saved him from the hang mans noose. I looked deep into his eyes and saw a lost soul. He was actually begging for help, the demon inside of him peered at me from his once very beautiful eyes, daring me to do my worse. Assuring me that he had no intention of leaving this host until it finished it’s dreadful task of killing him ever so slowly. 

He called me a fine boy and wished he was as good looking as I was, I laughed. A laugh that was more of pity, a laugh that was laced with internal cry of pain. A pain that cascaded through every pain in my body. If only I had one tenth of this talent, I would be far from fadeyi begging for N100 worth of ogogoro. 

Did we fail him as Nigerians, did we put an umbrella over the Rainmaker, did the flood of his talent wash away his life, what can be done, do we continue watch him make a mockery of a Life once blessed?

Majek in his destitution represents Nigeria. Blessed with more than enough resources., rich in human capacity, more fertile land than the whole of Asia and filled with gifted and talented people, but yet beggerly and poor. Daily our leaders go to ‘jibowu’ to beg poorer countries for aid, for debt forgiveness. The contradiction never leaves me. Japan with no known Natural resources is so developed that we can only look in shame. 

Majek with all the talents of a thousand people, begging the woman who can’t lift a finger beside him for N100, Majek being laughed at by miscreants and being mocked with so much joy by those who were not half as blessed by God. 

What can I do, but to write this piece and just walk away, lest his guest demon attempt a move on my life. I saw it and felt it look into my soul and with one withered hand, offered me a shot of the Devils brew. A shot I knew would throw me into the darkest pits of Majeks torture, a shot that will take me spiraling down the tunnels of oblivion, destroying the innocent dependent lives of my children while giving Majek solace that he has finally found a room mate albeit a very reluctant and scared one. 

I pray for you sir.  I pray God gives you peace.
God bless you Majek.

Joseph Edgar is an investment banker who writes as a hobby. He writes from a humorous, satirical point of view. He blogs at josephedgarng.blogspot.com.

Wizkid, Yemi Alade, Psquare, Basketmouth, others nominated for MAMA awards 2015 . See full list.

Some of Nigeria’s best music acts, Wizkid, Davido, Psquare, Yemi Alade, Mavin Crew to mention a few have been nominated for the MTV Africa Music Africa awards (MAMA) coming up in July 18, 2015. Below is the full nominees list.
Nominees list 
1) Best Male

AKA (South Africa)
Davido (Nigeria)
Diamond (Tanzania)
Sarkodie (Ghana)
Wizkid (Nigeria)
2) Best Female

Bucie (South Africa)

Busiswa (South Africa)
Seyi Shay (Nigeria)
Vanessa Mdee (Tanzania)
Yemi Alade (Nigeria)
3) Best Group
B4 (Angola)
Beatenberg (South Africa)
Black Motion (South Africa)
P-Square (Nigeria)
Sauti Sol (Kenya)
4) Best New Act 

Anna Joyce (Angola)
Cassper Nyovest (South Africa)
Duncan (South Africa)
Patoranking (Nigeria)
Stonebwoy (Ghana)
5) Best Hip Hop

Cassper Nyovest (South Africa)
K.O. (South Africa)
Phyno (Nigeria)
Olamide (Nigeria)
Youssoupha (DRC)
6) Best Collaboration
AKA, Burna Boy, Da LES & JR: “All Eyes On Me” (SA/Nigeria)
Davido featuring Uhuru & DJ Buckz: “The Sound” (Nigeria/SA)
Diamond & Iyanya: “Bum Bum” (Kenya/Nigeria)
Toofan & DJ Arafat: “Apero Remix” (Togo/Ivory Coast)
Stanley Enow & Sarkodie: “Njama Njama Cow Remix” (Cameroon/Ghana)

7) Song of the Year
Cassper Nyovest: “Doc Shebeleza” (South Africa)
Euphonik featuring Mpumi: “Busa” (South Africa)
DJ Fisherman & NaakMusiQ featuring DJ Tira, Danger & Dream Team: “Call Out” (South Africa)
K.O featuring Kid X: “Caracara” (South Africa)
Lil Kesh Featuring Olamide & Davido: “Shoki Remix” (Nigeria)
Mavins: “Dorobucci” (Nigeria)
Sauti Sol: “Sura Yako” (Kenya)
Toofan: “Gweta” (Togo)
Wizkid: “Show You The Money” (Nigeria)
Yemi Alade: “Johnny” (Nigeria)
8) Best Live

Big Nuz (South Africa)
Diamond (Tanzania)
Flavour (Nigeria)
Mi Casa (South Africa)
Toofan (Togo)
9) Video of the Year

“Crazy” – Seyi Shay Featuring Wizkid; Director: Meji Alabi
“Doors” – Prime Circle; Director: Ryan Kruger
“Love You Everyday” – Bebe Cool; Director: Clarence Peters
“Nafukwa” – Riky Rick; Director: Adriaan Louw
“The Sound” – Davido Featuring Uhuru & DJ Buckz; Director: Sesan
10) Best Pop & Alternative

Fuse ODG (Ghana)
Jeremy Loops (South Africa)
Jimmy Nevis (South Africa)
Nneka (Nigeria)
Prime Circle (South Africa)
11) Best Francophone
DJ Arafat (Ivory Coast)
Jovi (Cameroon)
Laurette Le Pearle (DRC)
Tour 2 Garde (Ivory Coast)
Toofan (Togo)
Best Lusophone
Ary (Angola)
B4 (Angola)
Nelson Freitas (Cape Verde)
NGA (Angola)
Yuri Da Cunha (Angola)
12) Personality of the Year

Basketmouth (Nigeria)
Bonang Matheba (South Africa)
OC Ukeje (Nigeria)
Trevor Noah (South Africa)
Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast)

Mourinho banned from driving

Chelsea coach, Jose Mourinho has been banned from driving for six months after being caught speeding in Surrey. The Portuguese ‎was also fined £750 and ordered to pay £160 costs.

Short Story: Nostalgia | By: Oluwafunminiyi Omojola

The silence deafens her.
It was not always like this, this eerie silence. Even a stranger who has never stood where she stands now knows that this sort of quiet is  man-made.

A noise in the distance punctures the stillness, rupturing the ghostly tranquillity. She glances up at the sky. It is a vulture, dark and frightening in its flight across the face of the sun. The avian calls again as it departs, leaving her in a slight shiver, chills streaking through her slender frame like flashes of lightening.

She returns her gaze to the vast expanse of land where she had played as a child. Her childhood – those were happy times. They never had much, but they had laughter. It rang somewhere in her ears now, the happy sounds of yesterday – her own laughter and Amina’s, the screeching of the other children running in the fields, the babble of chubby toddlers, the cackle of firewood, the aroma of cooking food, the shrieks of village women and the cursing of grown men.  

She had been away for only two years, serving her mistress and schooling in the west, and in that time, an ominous hand had arrived one chilly morning and rolled happiness up like a mat. The hand had tucked the mat neatly out of sight, stashed it in a place reachable only in pleasant dreams. What it left in its wake was a sobbing sadness, a cynical stench that hung onto the shoulders of the town like a desolate mother singing dirges about the death of her children. 

Hauwa’s stomach churns in a violent vortex that sucks air through her lungs and she gasps, determinedly fighting the urge to throw up. Her left hand has been a clamp over her nose and mouth since she arrived. They’d warned her about the flies and the stench, that there was no getting used to anything here any longer, the stench especially. She remembers with a sad smile a trick she and Amina used to play on each other. 
They would stick a finger into their anus, whenever it was at its smelliest, preferably immediately after shitting. Then they would stick the anointed finger in the nostril of the other person. It was a rare evil. The pong followed you everywhere you ran.  The only way to get rid of it was to remove ones nose. And that was the first instinct she had felt when the bus had dropped her off here before speeding off in a dusty haze – a violent urge to remove her own nose, to pluck it off.

 She knew that the smell was of hurriedly buried corpses. 
“There was no time for proper interment. Husbands, wives, fathers and mothers, neighbours and friends returned under the cover of darkness to bury their dead. They said they’d sleep better at night when they had ensured that the bodies of their loved ones would not be desecrated by vultures. …” she’d read in the tabloids.

She walks hurriedly on now, overtaken by an urgency to leave this place of silence. The sun is fast losing its bright yellow glow and in its place comes a mournful topaz burnish that also diminishes by the minute. She side steps the shallow graves that litter the fields, the ones she can identify from a distance. She steps on others and they are soft beneath her tired legs. 
As she walks, she wonders if she’d stepped on Mama’s grave or side stepped her fathers; she shifts uneasily when it strikes her that the one she now momentarily stands on to steady herself from a renewed wave of dissness just may be Amina’s.

By the time she reaches the dusty road, tears are falling freely from her eyes. She had arrived here with a weight on her shoulders. Now, it sits in her chest, heavy like a mill stone.

She doesn’t need anyone to tell her that she will never return.


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Oluwafunminiyi Omojola is a writer. Follow him on twitter
@ooluwafunminiyi

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