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Thanks for jumping for every goal! Jose Mourinho writes son.

Look who’s writing an emotional letter-to his fans, a fan, his son- Jose Mourinho! I hope we’ll get to see more of this side often. I got this picture from Twitter and I hope it’s really true. Well, the letter isn’t directed to his son alone, but to all the Blue family i.e all Chelsea fans.

Didier Drogba could return to Chelsea as a player-coach

I got this from only one football source; metro.co.uk. But if this is really true, Didier Drogba’s return to Stamford Bridge would be one of the best things that has ever happened to Chelsea fans. The reason isn’t far-fetched. He’s revered in Chelsea till date.
According to Metro Sports, Drogba, whose contract in his current club, Galatasaray expires in June 2014 could return to his former club, Chelsea FC as a player-coach. Jose Mourinho is reportedly ready to offer the Ivorian a one year playing contract as a player and three-year coaching deal.

Female Celebrities Prefer Second-Hand Husbands | By: Etcetera

Some days ago I was at a friend’s place and was asked by his sisters if I was travelling abroad for the wedding of a colleague that is still being talked about on blogs and on all social networking sites in nigeria and I said no I wasn’t. But what struck me as odd was when one of them asked me “is she getting married to a BRAND NEW husband or a 2ND HAND husband”?
I stared at her in shock and confusion because up until that moment, I had never heard of a phrase as “brand new or 2nd hand husband. It became a heated debate amongst people in the house that day. ‘WOW’, I never thought a phrase like 2nd hand can be attributed to a human being. I know it is only applicable to objects. At first i was angry. How could they have said such.
But as crazy and odd as it may have sounded, they drew my attention to their observations that it is a trend currently popular amongst female celebrities in Nigeria. The guys in the house even tweaked it into a joke. Adding that it is a normal thing in Nigeria that when you can’t afford a brand new car you go for a 2nd hand one. I couldn’t help but laugh at that one. But on my way home, I thought about it for a minute and asked myself if truly a 2nd hand or brand new theory can be a determinant in finding a husband? It got me staring at every car passing by, trying to understand the rationale behind the argument of a 2nd hand husband and a brand new one. How do you determine if a husband is a 2nd hand? I asked myself. I was later told that a man becomes a 2nd hand if he was previously married or is still married to another woman before taking a new wife.
And that a 2nd hand husband just like a 2nd hand car comes in two types. Nigerian used and Tokunbo. Meaning the husband who was previously married and living here in Nigeria is the “Nigerian used”, while the one shipped in from abroad is the Tokunbo version. Shocking isn’t it? Ok, let us analyse this for a minute. It is a known fact that in Nigeria, when you want to buy a 2nd hand car you are strongly advised to take a mechanic with you. So can you also do the same with a 2nd hand husband? Should it also be recommended that when going for a 2nd hand husband you should make sure to take a medical doctor to administer all the necessary check ups to be sure you are not getting damaged goods?
 
Because in the true sense of it, a 2nd hand is a 2nd hand whether car or husband. And If the carburetor of a 2nd hand car can easily pack up on 3rd mainland bridge, it means a 2nd hand husband can also pack up on the way to the altar. As these thoughts were spinning in my head, I began asking myself the same questions they asked me. Why do Nigerian female celebrities prefer 2nd hand husbands? Or Why would anyone prefer a 2nd hand husband? But come to think of it, Is it that our female celebrities can no longer afford the luxury of waiting for the brand new ones to come along?
Or have the brand new ones refused to be fooled by the razzmatazz or flashy make ups, thick foundations, artificial nails, Brazilian hair and Peruvian eye lashes? Can it be attributed to a thing of choice? They said a 2nd hand husband is often an Alhaji or an Otunba with pot belly and deep pocket. Is it because of the  money or societal status of the men? As long as he is fully loaded she really does not care. Some went further to say that a 2nd hand husband is already tested and trusted with a confirmed rate of performance and durability?
 
So figure a female celebrity asking her colleague, “What is the mileage of your 2nd hand husband? And she replies “Ahhh I nor know say hin former wives don finish am oo.. Na shaft I marry ooo, My sista nor be small thing ooo, even my doctor sef say him liver go soon park up. And na for hospital I dey sleep for the past 3 weeks. Just like 2nd hand car owner dey sleep for mechanic workshop everyday.
As my Curiosity got the better of me, I asked them for names of female celebrities with 2nd hand husbands. I was shocked beyond recognition that the list they gave me was as long as the distance from mile 2 to Badagry. According to the list, almost all married female celebrities in Nigeria has a 2nd hand husband and even some of the female celebrities themselves are 2nd hand. And some of the male celebrities also have 2nd hand wives or they themselves are 2nd hand. Well, if you don’t believe me, make a list of your own and be amazed as I am right now. My conclusion is that the issue of 2nd hand husband is not peculiar to entertainers. It is a general societal disease and it is as a result of too many failed marriages we have in the society at large. While nobody should be blamed for falling in love or getting married to whoever he or she chooses, it is also important that we position our lives to inspire the children and future entertainers who see us as role models in the society.
 
You may argue that it is not the society’s business what you do with your affairs. Which is very true but also remember that being a celebrity makes your life a public affair. So go ahead girls, take home the 2nd hand husbands, it is your choice and it does not matter even if he looks like an “accidented” car with scary mileage. If you love him that much and he has some money to spend, you can take him to the highly skilled American body mechanic called Dr. 90210 to panel-beat and mask all his dents. And if you are fortunate to find one whose mileage is manageable, you can take him to Ladipo market, buy the missing body parts and get a local panel-beater to fix him. And if you are a handy-woman, You can even do the servicing yourself by getting a complete first aid kit with bandages, Ampiclox and mentholatum and massage his joints every night before sleeping.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Culled from Punch Newspapers

Amaka Igwe is not dead. |By: Charles Novia

Amaka Igwe lives. The tears we shed for her are futile. She lives. The shock we express over her passing on is carthatic. She lives. Amaka Igwe did not die. She just built her loving ‘house of commotion’ in our hearts. Commotion with co-relation; commotion with emotions.
The brilliant lady who could unarguably be credited as the progenitor of Nollywood as we know it today still lives. Immortalised in our hearts. If there was no ‘Checkmate’, that superb soap opera which had a chart-topping five year run on national television, there would have been no Nollywood. For the tested and trusted actors from ‘Checkmate’ were mostly cast in the trend-setting ‘Living in Bondage’.
Amaka had groomed a new generation of Nigerian actors through ‘Checkmate’, she had prepared our minds for something explosive with her creation. There is yet to emerge a soap opera since then which has all the thrills and frills and popular appeal like ‘Checkmate’. Forget all these tin imitations. Amaka’s soap was solid steel. Unbreakable. Unbeatable. And you say she is dead? But Amaka lives!
She created characters which blew our minds. Anne Harthrope, Segun Kadiri, Chief Fuji, Peaceful Peace, Alika, Akpan, Barry Hughes, Nduka, Bennie etc. She held the nation spell-bound for five years every Thursday 8pm on the network service and gave people gossip points for the next week before the next episode. ‘Checkmate’ was her creation. ‘Checkmate’ was her success. She brilliantly wrote all the episodes, over 500 of them and produced carefully. She was far ahead of her time. The most intriguing thing about her concerning ‘Checkmate’ was that she knew when to pull the plugs. She broke our hearts by resolving the plots and finishing the soap opera on one Thursday evening in 1995.
The country was shocked and mourned. But Amaka was done with the soap. She had checkmated our expectations to see the soap opera run forever. She just knew when to stop. And that last episode of ‘Checkmate’? The best ending I have ever seen in Nigeria for any serial and come to think of it anywhere in the world. It was so brilliant. Amaka ended the plots and sub-plots and showed us all why the serial was titled ‘Checkmate’. Anne Harthrope (played by Ego Boyo who was replaced by someone else for a few months while she was on ‘maternity leave’) married Segun Kadiri ( played by RMD who gave the character a brilliant interpretation with a raspy voice and finger-on-the-cheek affectation) and just as we all sighed that at last the two enemies had fallen in love and tied the knots, Amaka gave us a twist. Anne cleverly ‘divorced’ Segun Kadiri, warning him that she only married him to give her baby a father but that she would never sell or hand over her company to him! The last scene ended with a stupefied Kadiri laughing in shock, knowing he had been ‘checkmated’.
So classic. And that was not all. She brilliantly had the cast talk to the viewers before the end credits in scripted lines about how the soap opera made its run. That episode was so good and popular that NTA Network had a re-run of it the next week. On the set of ‘Violated’ in 1996 ( her post-‘Checkmate’ opus in which I was cast as Jide, the banker) she told me how agonising it was to write that final episode. ‘I was pregnant then and I would write and discard. I can’t count how many scripts of that final episode I wrote and tore. The denouement just was not clicking. Then, finally I got the muse. And I just kept scribbling on my bed. When I finished I was so happy and screamed out to Charles (her husband) ‘Honey, I got it!’ and we both screamed and hugged ourselves!’ That piece of information stuck on my mind.
But Amaka is not dead. With enduring works such as ‘Violated’ (which re-defined and triggered the romantic drama genre in Nollywood) ‘Rattlesnake’, ‘To live again’, ‘Forever’ and ‘Fuji House of Commotion’ , how could she be dead? This lady who has been the subject of various dissertations and academic theses changed our creative landscape. Her contributions to the creative industry cannot be quantified. She was an advocate for professionalism. She was a stickler for excellence. A cerebral contributor to Nollywood’s trudge of progress. She wanted what was best for the industry. She was behind the founding of the Movie Practitioners Council of Nigeria bill (MOPICON) which has been gathering dust at the National Assembly for years.
That bill is supposed to be to Nollywood what NBA is to the Lawyers and NMA to the Doctors. Amaka wanted this bill passed. Could our fractured Nollywood please unite to ensure that this is done if only to honour and immortalise her? Thank God she got a National Honour from President Jonathan a couple of years back. An MFR. A well-deserved national honour for an Amazon of Nollywood. She believed in young talents and had an open door policy for any talent who came to her office. She had an academy too, where young and ambitious filmmakers were trained.
What about her film and television bi-ennial festival in Abuja; Best of the Best (BOB) TV? Or her radio station, Top FM? Or her painstaking contributions to the committee set up to give guidelines for the 3 billion naira grant given to Nollywood by the President? She fought tirelessly for the industry to maximally benefit from the grant. And with all these achievements, you say Amaka Igwe is dead? No, she lives. Her footprints on the sands of achievement on the beaches of our creative economy are there for all to see. Too large to fill.
Credit: Charlesnoviadaily.com

Anyone want to live in this house?

This ‘upside-down’ house is located at Shanghai, China and it’s already attracting tourists from all over the world. Can I live in this kind of house? No thanks, put me in a storex tank instead. I’ll be uncomfortable all my life.
Photo-credit: BBC News

#Bringbackourgirls: US offers to help Nigeria search for abducted school children

We can’t fight this alone. We are incapable of dealing with our own problems, we need help from all quarters. There are protests on the streets of lagos, Abuja, London etc, via social media with the use of #Bringbackourgirls hashtag. The second Nyanya bomb blast is a clever but failed attempt to divert our attention from the issue at hand but we will overcome this.
According to Reuters, the United States has condemned the abduction of over 200 school girls abducted by Boko haram in Nigeria few weeks ago and has even offered to help Nigeria in its search for them. Marie Harf, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told a daily briefing.
We have been engaged with the Nigerian government in discussions on what we might do to help support their efforts to find and free these young women. We will continue to have those discussions and help in any way we can. We know Boko Haram is active in the area and we have worked very closely with the Nigerian government to build their capacity to fight this threat.”
She added, “In fiscal year 2012, the United States provided over $20 million in security assistance to Nigeria, part of that to build the country’s military, boost its capacity to investigate terrorist attacks and enhance the government’s forensic capabilities.”
Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, the chairman of the Senate’s African Affairs subcommittee also noted. “The U.S. and the international community must work with the Nigerian government to ensure these girls are reunited with their families and deepen efforts to combat the growing threat posed by Boko Haram.”

Amaka Igwe's husband on how she died.

Charles Igwe, the husband of the late movie icon, Amaka Igwe during a condolence visit by delegates from the National Executive of the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) narrated how his wife died. He also added that she would have still been alive if doctors at the hospital she was rushed to were not on strike.
“We were in Enugu preparing for her new soap, and Amaka was taking some of the people through acting when she had an asthma attack. After using inhaler without success, she was taken to a nearby hospital, but we were told that the doctor was not around. We then went to the teaching hospital in Enugu, where we were again told that the doctors were on strike. It was while we were taking her to another hospital that she died.”
May her soul find repose!!!

Nigeria's Vincent Enyeama nominated for French best

Go Vincent! We are solidly behind you. We pray he scoops this. Yes he can!!! Super Eagles/OSC Lille goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama has been nominated for the best goalkeeper award in the Professional Union of French Players (UNFP) awards, which will be held on May 11.
 
The 31-year-old Nigerian international who has conceded 21 goals in 35 games for his club this season, was nominated alongside Olympique Marseille’s Steve Mandanda, Salvatore Sirigu of Paris Saint Germain and Stephane Ruffier of Saint-Ettiene.

Ramsey Nouah, Biola Alabi, Charles Novia, 9 others join OSCARS committee

12 Nollywood stakeholders; Ramsey Nouah, Biola Alabi, Charles Novia, Mildred Okwo, Chineze Anyaene, Ngozi Okafor, Olumide Amure, Kene Mkparu, Emeka Mba, Chioma Ude, Akin Salami, Mildred Okwo and Shaibu Husseini have joined members of the Nigerian Oscars Selection Committee (NOSC). The selection was approved by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).
Committee members will pave the way for Nigerian entries to be considered for the world’s most prestigious prizes for films. Each year, countries with an approved selection committee may submit one film for consideration for the Foreign Language Film Award Oscar; only 5 films are chosen from all international submissions for Academy members to cast their votes and choose a winning foreign language film.
 
“This is a great opportunity for Nigeria to have a voice in the international film arena”, said Chineze Anyaene, filmmaker and committee chairperson.
Shuiabu Husseini, another member of the board agrees. “The Nollywood film industry needs to play globally so people begin to look towards us.”
The NOSC comprises twelve outstanding professionals who have over time proved their mettle as some of the finest in the movie industry and will select one Nollywood movie each year to be submitted for the Oscars. According to Academy rules, the members will consider submissions on seven criteria, which are: story, direction, acting, cinematography, sound, music and universal theme.
Every Nollywood movie selected each year will compete with movies from eighty-five (85) other countries for the coveted Best Foreign Language Film Award. Academy members will then pick a shortlist of five foreign language pictures ahead of the awards ceremony.
 
The approval of NOSC represents a milestone for the nation’s movie industry which has been recognized as one of the top largest movie industries globally. For years, stakeholders have been trying to further improve its standards and this represents a move in the right direction. Sooner or later, Nollywood movies will win – maybe consecutively even – the Oscar statuette for Best Foreign Language Picture.
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