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Sports

AITEO group now NFF Federation Cup title sponsor.


Energy solution company, AITEO Group yesterday acquired the naming rights for Nigeria’s oldest football competition, the Nigeria Football Federation Cup for 5 years.  The competition is now to be known as Aiteo Cup.
Speaking at the press conference for signing of Aiteo Cup agreement, NFF President, Amaju Pinnick said, “We want to celebrate and thank Aiteo. I promise you, we will not only qualify for AFCON but we will beat SA in SA”.
Ace sports broadcaster and Independent Chairperson of the Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL), Aisha Falode chipped in, “I am very excited that the women (women’s FA Cup) have been taken care of” 

With the new deal, men’s winners will now get N25m prize money while runners-up will receive N10m. Women’s winners will be paid N10m and their runners-up N5m.
 
 

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Arts, Entertainment

Movie Review: Isoken | By: Jerry Chiemeke

Movie Title: ISOKEN
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Year of Release: 2017
Cast: Dakore Akande, Joseph Benjamin, Tina Mba, Funke Akindele, Lydia Forson, Patrick Doyle, Marc Rhys, Damilola Adegbite
Director: Jadesola Osiberu
“Isoken” is about a independent, 35-year-old lady (played by Dakore) who is being pressurised by her mother (played by Tina Mba) to get married. She has three friends; Agnes (Funke), Kukua (Lydia) and Joke (Damilola), the latter going through a marriage bedeviled by miscarriages. She gets acquainted with a man named Osaze (Benjamin), and later on, an Englishman named Kevin (Rhys), who works at her office on a contract basis, and keeps bumping into her in awkward situations, from panties forgotten in washing machines to faces smeared with flour. Osaze seems like the perfect guy, but Kevin with his dry British humour, Afrophilia and love for the arts begins to get through to Isoken, and things get complicated.
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For one, the script and the plot are non-cliche, the plot is well acted out, and the dialogue is pretty top notch. There are no excessively long scenes, Dakore shows us what we have missed for so long, Marc Rhys makes British humour really appealing, Joseph Benjamin sticks to his lines, Funke does not try too hard to be funny, and Tina Mba plays the classic Benin mother to perfection, drama and all, down to the accent. All in all, it makes for a great movie.

There are, however, a few observations. Isoken’s character is artsy and feminist in nature. That appears to be a major theme in the movie, and that is fine, but in about four scenes, the cameras seemed to focus a little too much on Isoken’s pile of books. We get it. she is an independent woman, can we move to other parts of the room? Again, the plot seemed a bit too “obvious” in trying to paint Kevin (Rhys) as a better fit for Isoken. The point is clear to see, but Osaze’s character could have used a little more flesh and personality, the shallowness seemed a tad too deliberate.
At the end of the movie, Kevin feels defeated and intends to leave Nigeria, seeing that his contract is up, but Isoken professes her love, and he agrees to stay. That is as improbable an ending as we can get! Yea yea, Love makes us do things, but ditch England for Nigeria? Oh well. I don’t know. There is also the wedding choreography at the end, similar to that overly hyped you-know-which-movie, but ultimately, the movie is watchable.
Rating: 6.5/10

Jerry Chiemeke is a lawyer and freelance writer who lives in Lagos. An amateur photographer and sports enthusiast as well, Jerry’s works have appeared on Blanck Digital, Elsieisy, Oshodi.tv, The Kalahari Review and Brittle Paper. He is the author of ‘The Colours In These Leaves’. Get the book Here 

You can follow him on Twitter @J_Chiemeke, and also check out his craft on his blog at pensofchi.com

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Opinion

Opinion: Let’s Break-up Nigeria! | By: Tony Ogunlowo  

So everybody wants to go their own separate way? Some Igbos want to re-create the nation of Biafra while others want a Niger-Delta country; Northern youths are calling for the expulsion of all Igbos (- and Southerners) from the North and quietly the Yorubas are calling for the creation of an Oduduwa Republic.

And then what?
As Great Britain is finding out from its preliminary BREXIT talks with Europe it’s not easy to break up a union that has been around for a very long time. It’s a lot of wahala!
As anybody who has been through a divorce will know, no break-up is easy: who gets to keep the dog? (- or cat?) How will assets be divided and what about access to the kids?
For intended break-aways a lot of things need to be considered; creating your own flag and drawing up your geographical borders is just the tip of the iceberg for there’s lots of things to consider.
A new country will need to be self-sufficient, generate its own income, make its own laws and be able to defend itself for instance.
As we can see from the break-up of the old Soviet Union 25 years ago this can prove to be problematic. Some of the old Soviet bloc countries have all the resources whilst others have nothing – reduced to having cabbage and potato economies.
Even the powerful Great Britain will have problems when they finally break with Europe. There will be problems with trade, defence and immigration amongst other things.
If the North wants to go it alone can they survive on an income derived from groundnuts and rice? Will yams and cocoa fund an Oduduwa Republic? Can the oil-rich delta region survive on oil alone?
And how do you divide up the Federal installations and other assets scattered around the country?
People, of all tribes, are scattered around the country and have made these places their homes. So what immigration policy will be put in place? Will there be free movement between the new countries? Will they be allowed to live and work where they are or do they have to return back to their origins? Will I, a Nigerian require a visa to live and work in Biafra?
Those old enough will remember the trouble caused by the expulsion of illegal aliens order signed by then President Shagari that resulted in the infamous ‘Ghana must Go’ in 1983 when people who were not of Nigerian descent were forced to leave.
Fast forward to the present day; there are more than 500,000 British citizens living and working in Europe and have done so for a very long time with a majority of them in Spain. After Britain voted to leave the European Union they have been left in limbo; they don’t know if they will have to leave everything they’ve spent years building up behind and return back to England. Likewise, European nationals in Britain don’t know if they’ll be sent home.
Currently Nigeria is not stable: the economy is a mess, corruption and crime is still rife and there is mass unemployment to mention but a few of the problems.
Forcing people to uproot and return back to their hometowns will lead to mass civilian unrest. Will they be compensated for their assets such as houses and businesses that they will be forced to leave behind? Who will compensate Dangote for all his investments in the South? And what about the people he employs? Who is going to employ them when he closes his businesses and moves everything up North? (- and again who’s going to work for him in the North? Fulani cattle herders? Boko haram?)
International investors will be very wary of where they invest with so much uncertainty. Again where they invest will be determined by such things as minimum wage, taxes and tariffs imposed by the new nations.
More than twenty years after the creation of the new states in Nigeria, some are still struggling to stand on their own two feet! Can any of them even be financially independent? What can they do without continual financial support from the Federal Government? Nothing! So how will a new country survive with no funds from a Federal Government?
And what about sports? When it comes to the Commonwealth Games or the Olympics some of the ‘new nations’ won’t have any competitors to send because all their women will be at home cooking, making babies clad head-to-toe in hijabs!

Splitting up the country is the equivalent of opening up a Pandora’s Box : you’ll be letting out untold problems that will cause untold misery for many years to come – probably leading to civil wars.

So to all those who are thinking of breaking away its time to go back to the drawing board and think of other ways to help your people to remain part of the country. Helping your people, doing the best for your people and getting the best for them will result in everyone helping everyone to resolve the real problems affecting the nation.

Unification is a lot better than seceding.

 

Follow me on Twitter: @Archangel641 or visit http://www.archangel641. blogspot.co.uk

 

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Sports

"He paid too much tax to Spanish authorities – not too little" – Cristiano Ronaldo's lawyers claim

Cristiano Ronaldo’s lawyers have come up with a surprising claim as regards the tax evasion allegations levelled against him. His lawyers, according to Spanish media outlet, Cadena Cope have claimed that the Real Madrid striker paid too much tax to Spanish authorities rather than too little.

The player who has been accused by the Public Prosecutor of defrauding the Spanish Purse of £12.9m by paying insufficient tax over a four-year period has been summoned to court in Madrid on July 31 and he is not likely to feature in the he first ever Clasico in the USA coming up on July 29th.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid are reportedly ready to pay his tax bill to keep him at the club.

After hearing evidence from both sides the Madrid judge will decide if the case would be in court.

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Entertainment

The D'banj vs Don Jazzy debate resurfaces on social media. See our top reactions.

The D’banj Vs Don Jazzy debate has been revisited.
Fans of both artistes are beginning to pull their hair out over who has become more successful since their shocking split in 2012.  It all started with a fan advising the award-winning artiste to seek Don Jazzy’s help; a counsel which the Kokomaster who is presently promoting his new album, Kingdoncome didn’t take lightly. And his reply below sparked up the never-ending debate.

 


While some argued that D’banj is more successful than all the artistes on Mavin record label , others opined that Don Jazzy’s artistes are not on the same pedestal as D’banj and that the latter hasn’t don well for himself since their break up.
 


https://twitter.com/OsasCruz/status/878994060123484160
 
https://twitter.com/KvngBen_/status/878974516768243712


https://twitter.com/ani_nomso/status/878986236316327936


https://twitter.com/ebuka_akara/status/878998703796781056


 
What we know is, they are great artistes and are successful in their rights.
 

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Features

“How can Nigeria continue to dance on the graves of our children”, Oby Ezekwesili debuts in first episode of Forbes Woman Africa

In the first episode, Oby Ezekwesili, creator of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign talks about her harrowing experience in fighting corruption in Nigeria from her early days as the co founder of Transparency International to the shock and horror of finding out about the abduction of over 270 girls in Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria.
Watch the promo: http://APO.af/FsLa7x.

 

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Entertainment

Our top reactions to Falz's take on fraud promotion in Nigerian music

Nigerian musician cum actor, Folarin Falana, also called Falz The Bad Guy caused a stir online yesterday after he implored his colleagues in the industry to stop glorifying fraud in their music videos. The comment which was made during an interview with HIPTV has not been taking lightly by music fans and colleagues, some of whom have vented their anger on their social media platforms

The trained lawyer had said, “I feel so strongly about this because an entertainers you are a role model to many especially your fans and youths. Yet in your songs you sing and greet all the yahoo boys and fraudsters. You even mention their names personally. You are destroying our future; please stop it. As an entertainer you must sing songs that portray our culture, save and transform lives. Instead all you do is give the younger ones the impression that it is cool to do crime, its very wrong.”

Check out some of our best reactions to the issue.

https://twitter.com/MistaMaestroDRO/status/878144032177889281

https://twitter.com/BillionTwiTs/status/877961185961721856


https://twitter.com/badgalmaddie_/status/878165941258989568
https://twitter.com/Rouvafe/status/877970158756569088

https://twitter.com/Tunnyking/status/878160740393398272


https://twitter.com/Twickta/status/877896773272043520


https://twitter.com/OsasCruz/status/878306376971407360

 

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Sports

Alexis Sanchez reaches new milestone

Arsenal player, Alexis Sanchez has become Chile all time top scorer.
The former Barcelona forward, not only netted his 38th goal for the Chilean national team, his goal was also the 400th goal in the history of the Confederations Cup. He grabbed  an early goal in Chile’s 1-1 draw against Germany at the competition. The 28 year-old who was awarded man of the match after the game is expected to decide his future at Arsenal after the club.

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Sports

Raheem Sterling, Hector Bellerin to donate to the victims of the Grenfell Tower inferno.

        

Premier League stars, Raheem Sterlin and Hector Bellerin have pledged to donate to the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey residential block in North Kensington caught fire, killing more than 25 people. While Hector pledged to donate £50 to the families affected by the Grenfell Tower fire for every minute he plays for Spain at the European Under-21 Championship, Raheem Sterling on Friday stated that he will donate a ‘substantial’ sum to those affected by the conflagration.

Sterlin told BBC, “This is a deep and sad situation, one that’s close to my heart and hard to swallow. I would like to help in the best way I can. It is only a small step, but small steps lead to big changes if we all come together. My condolences to the affected families, also the individuals who lost their homes.”

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Opinion

Opinion: When You Die Your Digital Life Lives On | By: Tony Ogunlowo

We live in a world – the digital age- where we virtually do everything online from corresponding to shopping, banking and socializing.

We send and receive emails; shop for virtually everything online; socialize through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram etc; watch movies on YouTube and Netflix; check our bank balances; store our music collection on iTunes – we do everything online.

The average person has at least 25 online accounts, all with different passwords and web addresses.

But what happens to them when you die or become incapacitated? There are currently lawsuits going in the United States right now where people are suing online companies like Facebook and Yahoo for refusing to give them access to their deceased ones’ accounts.

Your digital accounts will not know you’re no longer around and will keep your accounts open and continue to send updates, receive emails etc.

When it comes to closing accounts owned by deceased persons all the online platforms have different policies – some companies insist you send them written confirmation while others will insist on seeing a copy of the death certificate and power of attorney, especially if it’s a bank, PayPal or Bitcoin account. Likewise financial assets or monies held in any of the various crypto currencies will require a lot of paperwork to close the accounts and transfer all monies accrued.

Whilst it’s not possible to let everyone know what you’re doing online all the time it’s a good idea to draw up a list of where you have accounts. This will make it easier to deal with your affairs should you die or become incapacitated.

A simple way around this is to have a little ‘Black Book’ where you record every password and online account you have. This can be an actual notebook ( – if you’re old-fashion like me!), stored on a USB stick or stored online. It’s necessary that you keep it where people such as your lawyer, next-of-kin or power of attorney can find it and use it to access your accounts ( Please for god sake keep it where nobody  with fraudulent intent can find it, or they’ll be able to access your accounts and you’ll be a very poor and sorry person!).

Once your trusted ones are able to access your accounts through the info you leave behind in your ‘Black Book’ they’ll be able to unsubscribe you from all lists and close your accounts following instructions on the individual websites. Also there are companies such as eclosure.com.au that specialize in digital estate management.

Eventhough the law is not yet clear on online accounts and virtual assets it’s a good idea to leave clear instructions on what you want done, for instance who gets access to your music collection in cloud storage and who gets to keep the commissions from your YouTube and Blogger accounts and should they keep running after you are no longer around.

Hopefully , in years to come there will be laws outlining what can be done to access deceased persons’ online accounts, but until then its best to have a little ‘Black Book’ with all your passwords that people can use to unlock your online life.

Tony blogs at  http://www.archangel641. blogspot.co.uk

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