Opinion

Entertainment, Opinion

The Farce of Making Money Online | By: Tony Ogunlowo

In my line of work I come across a lot of people who have lost lots of money trying to make money online, when in reality it should be the other way round.
Internet marketing or making money online has become the 21st century’s Gold Rush with everybody trying to become the next Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates.
So why do people keep on losing money online trying to make money?
It’s very simple.
First of all there are those who jump on the bandwagon. We all like to play ‘follow,follow’ and the minute we all find out Mr X has made a fortune selling iced-water sachets online we all try to copy him. With everybody trying to do the same thing the market becomes overcrowded and saturated and nobody makes any money. Remember there is only one Coca-Cola and hundreds of imitators who struggle to compete. Try and be original.
Internet marketing has brought out a new breed of motivational speakers who call themselves ‘gurus’. They’ve made millions of naira (-or dollars!) online and they can’t wait to teach you how to do the same – for a price! They hold seminars, webinars, sell books and downloads, have glitzy websites and blogs all offering advice which will cost you something.
Now, while their rag-to-riches story might be unique it does not necessarily mean it’s going to work for you. Another man’s meat is another man’s poison. You have to write your own success story which, just like them, often requires a lot of hard work, trial and error and failure before you hit the big time. You can’t expect to walk in their footsteps, step-by-step, and make the fantastic wealth they’ve made without putting in the effort.
Another thing letting people down is education and I don’t mean formal education. You can have a Ph.D. in computing and not have a clue about internet marketing and ecommerce and a mere 16 year old geek can dazzle you with things like DDoS, viral banners, Alexa ratings, Google ranking apps or flash mob marketing. If you put a website up and don’t know how to market it, it will just sit there costing you money to run without bringing in any revenue. Learn, learn, learn – the internet is awash with marketing courses and eBooks that are free (-on most occasions) to download. Learn all you need to learn and network with the right people before going ahead with your ventures because internet marketing is a whole different ball game to running a traditional business.
The most important reason people fail online and I’ve deliberately left this to last is the lack of a USP.
USP is the acronyms for Unique Selling Proposition which in layman’s terms means what makes your product stand out better than your competitor; what makes the loaf of bread you’re selling better than Mama-Jacobs from around the corner? This is what business is all about; being better than your competitor? Better USP means more sales and equals more profit.
You have to learn how to stand out from the crowd or you won’t sell anything. Facebook wasn’t the first social media platform in the world, Zuckerberg’s’ USP  was to make his more interactive and user-friendly ; Linda Ikeji is not the only blogger in Nigeria but she’s more well-known because her USP is writing a blog that appeals to a wide range of people. Likewise Apple’s USP is to create the best innovative consumer items in the world, items we can’t do without.
Whilst internet businesses are not as capital intensive as traditional ones are you still stand to lose a lot of money if you don’t get your sums right. Draw up a traditional business plan before you start.
Try and not jump on the bandwagon. Come up with something that’s unique and you’re very passionate about. It could be writing and creating study eBooks that will appeal to students or an online houseboy or housegirl referral service. Keep it simple, keep it unique and you’ll win. Avoid the ‘fast-cash-today’ mentality( unless you’re a scammer!) and concentrate on something that will grow steadily creating a residual income overtime ; who would have thought a very simple business idea like Twitter or Snapchat would grow into a multi-billion dollar concern?
Stay away from so-called motivational speakers or ‘gurus’ who charge you money to listen to their ‘stories’ (sic – I could charge you money to listen to my ‘success’ story but you’ll probably be bored after half an hour!) – You can download better motivational talks or books for free! A good book which is free to download is ‘The Science of Getting Rich’ or better still get a copy of Richard Branson’s ‘Losing my Virginity’ or Rhonda Bryne’s ‘The Secret’. If you want to listen to a good story buy yourself a novel!
Learn as much as you can. Ecommerce is a new thing and lots of institutions and organisations offer lots of online courses – most of them are free.
Good luck in all your endeavours and I hope you become the next dot com billionaire!
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Entertainment, Opinion

Great Ife And The Failure Of The Gown | By: Reuben Abati

Photo published for OAU cancels automatic employment for First Class graduates - DailyPost Nigeria
I have been reading some depressing stories about the state of the Obafemi Awolowo University, formerly University of Ife, which provide an equally depressing metaphor for the state of higher education in Nigeria. Great Ife as that university is known to its staff, students and alumni, is probably Nigeria’s first model university in every respect. Its major competitors were the University of Ibadan, the University of Lagos, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. But Ife was far ahead in terms of the beauty of its environment and the facilities made available to staff and students. Built with Cocoa money (not petro-dollar!) by the Western Region Government, that university was a perfect illustration of the idea of the university and it managed to produce generations of scholars and students, known for nothing but distinction.
       
I studied at the University of Calabar (Malabites!), and at the time, I took time out to visit all the universities I mentioned earlier. In those days, the top universities in Nigeria were tourism destinations.  Ibadan and ABU had the best bookshops anyone could think of, and the bookshop in UNILAG was also professionally run. UNN students insisted that they attended the University of Nigeria! But Ife had the most beautiful campus. It was the only university that had a special publication titled “Ife University in Pictures.” I remember receiving copies of that publication as a gift at different times from my friends: Kola Ogunleye, Akeem Adewuyi, and Kayode Ajala who served in the university as a youth corps member. 

Whenever UNIFE students spoke about their university, you would think it was a little piece of heaven that had been converted to a university. They spoke about beauty, excellence, intellect and great scholarship. Every lecturer on the campus was painted like an Oracle at Delphi. So much mythology mixed with tales of absolute excitement attracted other students to the university. Curiousity once took the better part of me also, and I went on a visit to see the marvellous depiction of a campus in physical reality.  I was not disappointed. Great Ife was great. I did not go to the classrooms, but my friends took me round. The University had just opened a Bukateria at the time, where everything was available. Driving into the campus itself was a delight; well-manicured flowers at both ends, long, comforting, welcoming drive. 
     
We moved from one hall of residence to the other, where the students felt as if they were God’s special creations, lucky to be receiving education in one of the brightest spots on planet earth. I didn’t like the arrogance of the typical Ife student or graduate, even the girls had a special bounce to their gait, even if less pretty than our girls in Calabar, and I always quipped that flowers and beauty do not make a university, rather it is the intellectual content, but even in this regard, Ife was well-regarded. It boasted of some of the brightest guys in academia: that was in those days when Nigerian universities were centres of excellence, knowledge, discipline and distinction. Let’s add culture, for truly culture matters, and in educational matters, culture is perhaps everything, and there were scholars in Ife who had grown to become cultural icons in their respective fields.
The visits to Ife as expected always ended up at the newly launched Bukateria. Good food. Great ambience.  And from the Bukateria Complex, there was a place we always visited for palm wine. I think they called it Old Bukka, close to the theatre. The halls of residence – Awolowo, Fajuyi, Moremi, Angola, Mozambique were exciting too; the students behaved as if each hall was a country unto itself, with each student having a permanent badge of identity. The students had quadrangles in every Faculty, and a Sports Complex, where my friend Akeem ended up with a black belt in Karate in addition to a degree in Architecture. Indeed, the University of Ife that I describe could compete at the time with any top university in the world. I have been to quite a few as a regular or executive student, there is no doubt that the university environment, where the gown is a special symbol, is meant to be a combination of everything that is excellent, to impart knowledge in a friendly environment where the student is groomed to become great citizens in society and for knowledge to be produced for the advancement of mankind. That is the ideal!
This is why it is particularly tragic that the same Great Ife is now a shadow of its former self.  These days, more than 30 years after that glorious era that I describe, students of Obafemi Awolowo University, are now reported to be protesting over dilapidated halls of residence and terrible facilities. That bad? There was even a picture in the newspapers of OAU students fetching water from a stream! And I read one columnist calling on the university’s alumni to hurry up and  rescue their alma mater. Please, is it that bad? But the story of this tragedy is the larger story of the Nigerian education system.  My generation (waoh, man don dey old oh) went to school in this same country, and from kindergarten to doctorate, we can only recall in comparison with emergent realities, good memories.  
Once upon a time, our secondary schools were like higher institutions, but today our universities, with a few exceptions, are no better than secondary schools, and the secondary schools are no better than poultries. In those days, there were school principals who were more famous than state governors, commissioners, and traditional rulers, because they were known for their ability to manage schools and produce excellent students. There were government schools, there were mission schools, there were private schools, but there were standards, competition and quality.
A whole generation of students has now passed through the Nigerian education system without any memory of those good old days. What they know is the story of distracted teachers who sell handouts or beg for money from parents. What they know is the tragedy of a school system where teachers are perpetually protesting about lack of pay, lack of facilities and the inadequacy of everything. What they know are lecherous male teachers asking for sex in exchange for marks. What they know are ugly campuses, with no toilet facilities, no water, no light. When they hear about the gown, what they imagine is a gown in tatters, now terribly disconnected from the town. In our time, companies and government departments came to campuses or the NYSC camp to recruit staff, the school-to-work transition was so smooth and certain that even nurses and midwives upon graduation were sure of a decent future. 
As an undergraduate, our room was cleaned, our beds were laid, and the cafeteria fed us well at cheap rates; we had water, we had uninterrupted electricity supply, our teachers were smart and committed, life was good. There were students in Nigerian universities from all parts of the world; the ones from Southern Africa were even sponsored by the Nigerian government and they were happy to be here, so happy some of them focused on our girls and caused problems each time they got drunk. But today, who will send a student to Nigeria?      
Everything changed the moment government went mad, and till date that madness has not been cured. That madness started in 1984 with the removal of education subsidy. My point is: the present administration must see the need to properly define the role of government in the education sector, and further work out the details about sustainable development. The rot of past decades is so deep, the crisis so bad, as has been described, and the marks are still evident, only sustained intervention can make the difference. And if I may say so, this is one sector where government subsidy will be a good idea.
It is of course clear that President Buhari in his second coming wants to be remembered as the man who fixed Nigeria.  He tried it in his first coming but he didn’t have a definite mandate. Now, he has the people’s mandate, plus extra-ordinary goodwill, and he is still determined to achieve his original objective. He wants to catch thieves. Fine.  The only irony is that even General Sani Abacha did exactly the same thing, but other governments came and rewrote the narrative. Thief-catching is certainly okay! Perfect. It will excite the mob, extract vengeance, and may be promote justice, but President Buhari must begin to look to the future and build his own concrete legacy.  His record in Nigeria in the long run, will be his legacy, but it must be that kind of legacy that cannot be re-written by revisionists. 
So, what then, is his legacy project? I believe he can capture the society at the younger level: by investing in the historians of tomorrow and making their today better; by re-creating the future of Nigeria, by atoning for the past, by using public funds to secure the future of Nigerian children. Those young boys and girls in Nigerian public schools who are being poorly served, sitting in badly shaped classrooms, being taught by unpaid teachers; those undergraduates in higher institutions who graduate and have to be re-schooled by their employers before they can be found manageable; those graduates who learn research and science by simulation and who cannot compete in the international arena of skills; those unhappy teachers in our schools who are busy looking for other jobs on the side; all the children in special schools who have been forgotten by government, all the Nigerian children who are out of school, all those boys and kids who graduate from university but know nothing – they all need President Buhari. And time is not on his side.  And he cannot do it alone.  Many state Governors have shown that they take their cue from him: most of them refused to appoint Commissioners, until he appointed Ministers. They should be part of this legacy project. 
The President should launch an aggressive restoration programme in the education sector that takes off from where the Jonathan administration signed off.  The rot is so age-long, so deep, that no Nigerian President in many years to come can ever have enough time to fix all the problems with Nigeria. But every President that comes along can either leave a scratch, a mark, or a legacy.   It is up to President Buhari to make his choice.  Salaam.  
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Entertainment, Opinion

Sugabelly, rape and Audu’s sons | By: Reuben Abati

You probably don’t know Sugabelly. I don’t know her either. But it is the twitter handle of a Nigerian lady: @sugabelly, who in the wake of the death of former Governor Abubakar Audu of Kogi State felt the urge to go public with her story. My foregrounding her/story as opposed to his/story is further affirmation of an earlier submission that Audu’s death is “inconclusive”.

As the rest of Nigeria mourned the death of Abubakar Audu and pondered the implications of an inconclusive electoral process, Sugabelly showed up on social media and started celebrating his death. Her message was that the death of the man was good riddance to bad rubbish. “I feel so amazing”, she wrote. “Like God actually answered my prayers… That’s usually how it is.

Powerful people rarely remember the people whose lives they destroy.” She alleged that Audu’s sons once gang-raped her-seven of them, when she was an impressionable 17-year old and that Governor Audu used his position as a big man to rubbish her, slammed her with a $2 million libel suit, denied her from getting justice, with his lawyers insisting that “14 years” is the age of consent under the Penal Code in the FCT, and so there is no case.

For eight years, her life, she says, has been a nightmare including contemplation’s of suicide and spells of manic depression. Her frustration is well articulated in her twitter handle and an extended commentary titled “Surviving Mustapha Audu and His Rape Brigade”.
I have heard people proclaim loudly that a traditional proverb says: “the witch cried last night and the child died in the morning” and they have been wondering whether there was some kind of extra-terrestrial, meta-physical animus which led to Audu’s sudden death.

Howbeit, Sugabelly’s allegation is that of unlawful carnal knowledge. Her protestation made the rounds for a few days largely uncelebrated, but it caught fire last Friday. For days, rape was the subject of discussion on Nigerian twitter. Opinion was divided with some calling Sugabelly, “a whore” and a badly brought up child but soon, the weight tilted heavily in her favour as the reactions panned out to focus on the menace of sexual assault against women and the devastating effect on persons, families, the victims and society.

One of the sons of Abubakar Audu was soon fingered as the leader of the rape brigade -by both Sugabelly and her staunchest supporter, @Echecrates. What happened subsequently is better experienced. A lady tweeting as Zahra – @oakleafbycg – jumped into the fray to defend him – hers was quite a spirited fight that lasted for hours, defending the integrity of her husband. She probably was defending herself too.

Her father-in-law was so close to being governor and he lost it, only for some twitter activists, and a sugabelly (what a name! by the way) to start suggesting that her husband has a rape case to answer. She is a good woman, isn’t she? I monitored the conversations, and it is difficult to conclude that anyone was successfully convicted for there were persons who raised questions about sugabelly’s identity, her motives and whether she is not just a spoiler, playing a sponsored political game.
The emergent consensus, however, focused on the menace of rape in our society. Some male commentators seeking to genderize the discussion also pointed out that they were once raped, too, but the pervasive impression was that young girls are more often the victims. I noted that there was very little talk about marital rape, which is ordinarily a major issue in the West, but which will be considered absurd by Africans.
There were some suggestions about rapists being put to death in line with the still untested Violence Against Persons Act, but as is the case with twitter, 140-word interventions do not necessarily an honest thinker or an intellectual make. It creates an illusion though, the illusion that someone whose reasoning is below 140 words is a mega-man of knowledge and insights.
Nonetheless, the matter between sugabelly and the Audu sons deserves a little more probing. I am tempted to commend sugabelly for throwing up the subject, but the real problem with rape in our society lies in the inadequacy of both legal and social responses. Both the law and the society stigmatise rape, and wrong-foot the victim. The relevant sections of the law in Nigeria today more or less ridicule the victim, and usually, the victim is female.

The biggest challenge for decades has been this manner in which the law humiliates the female victim: the procedure requires examination by a medical doctor and in open court, proving actual penetration up to the labia majora. That is a tough call for victims and families, and so, many cases end up unreported. Besides, the criminal justice system peopled by phallocentric officials is wont to dismiss any woman reporting rape: in Nigeria, it would be ridiculous indeed for a married woman or a girlfriend to report being raped by her husband or fiancée. From the policeman at the station to the presiding judge, if it gets to that stage, the case may die a natural death in the vortex of misogyny.
Culture is a major barrier: the search for virgins at the bridal chamber by African families is a long dead custom, but few families can stand the stigma of taking as wife, a woman who has been raped, and whose indignity has been broadcast.

Female victims are, therefore, reluctant to seek legal redress, first because of social stigma, and that is why there are very few convictions despite the regular incidence of rape. Any woman that is labeled a rape victim stands the risk of not getting a husband: families of prospective suitors will latch on to that evidence as if it is a mark of leprosy, and urge their sons to steer clear, creating for the woman’s family an undeserved dilemma. Despite the wave of modernity in our land, tradition remains resilient and marriage, going to a man’s house, is still, quite sadly, considered a woman’s ultimate achievement.

This is probably why, in due course, the accused also showed up in the conversation releasing e-mail exchanges between him and Sugabelly, and going as far as revealing her true identity and painting her as a “whore,” a liar and an opportunist. Parents, keep an eye on your sons and daughters! The family, the most important social unit, has a role to play.

Both male and female children should be brought up to respect ethical values and the rights of other human beings to dignity. The inferiorisation of the female gender often begins in the home, and there are too many cultural paradigms sustaining an objectionable model of parenting, which must change. Too many parents, too busy trying to make survival possible, have abdicated responsibility and it is society that is hurt as a result.
The solution also lies in legal reform: the laws on rape must become more progressive and enlightened. The statutes have been in urgent need of review for long; they must provide the necessary deterrence and not ridicule the victim; even the Violence Against Persons Act (2015) does not fully correct the mischief in the Criminal and Penal Codes.
There is also a trend now that must be addressed; namely, the objectification of women for profit or other purposes. The most recent illustration I find is the battle being waged on twitter and instagram by @blossomnnodim, who has since changed to @blossomozurumba (good luck to the man who is responsible for this blossoming), as she takes on a TBWA power charger advert, which instead of promoting the subject focuses on a woman’s biological gifts.

Blossom objects to this but she has since been accused of witch-hunting and idleness. Her critics miss the point. The objectification of women in popular culture erodes the dignity of women. But the worse of it all is that women themselves promote this negative effect. Nigeria has been lucky in locking into global trends on all fronts, but in a global village, we have not been successful in retaining local standards as a bulwark against negative, imperial cultural influences.

Social media, for example, is dominated by images of sexual libertinism; even our young ladies who are now role models on the basis of concrete accomplishments help to foster this image. I am making this point delicately; my concern is that we have too many Nigerian female role models who are busy trying to be like Amber Rose, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Rita Ora, Miles Cyrus, Blac Chyna – if you know what I mean, all those foreign cultural icons whose lifestyles commodify women.

Our own equivalents are all over social media: pretty girls who are perpetually showing cleavages, wearing body tights that accentuate curves, some even boast that they won’t wear bras and pants and that illicit sex is cool: that is how this self-denigration has grown all the way down, creating a sexual tension even among the uneducated wannabes. I am not victimizing the victim, knowing full well that there is that human rights border of freedom of choice and expression; still, new cultural realities should command certain limits.

Sugabelly may not get the sugar of contentment that she seeks, but let her be consoled that she has ignited a debate that may shed more light on the dilemma of rape, and/or sex with a minor (Penal Code or not), and the sad manner in which our society continues to produce children and adults who behave badly. Let us also hope that sooner or later, the sleeping Abubakar Audu will be allowed to lie, by his sons and the girl they allegedly raped.

It is not Audu that is on trial, it is his sons: sons of big men who go overboard with their life of privilege, and of course, Sugabelly- the overtly impressionable young girl- who are all still alive to be called to account, if not in regular court, but now, in the court of public opinion.

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Arts, Entertainment, Opinion

Book Review: A Very Good Bad Guy Is A Very Bad 2face Narrative

If like me, you are an age long 2face
fan, you must have received news of the forthcoming “biography” with great
expectations. When the “editor’ now happens to be the astute Adekunle Ayeni,
the excitement must have been palpable. 2face Idibia has long ceased to be
merely a popular artiste; his brand has become the definition of a generation.
His story has been told over and over again, but an official biography of his
life both as an individual and an artiste remained an uncharted course for
neither writers nor the man himself.
Again, I have followed the career of
a certain Ayeni The Great for nearly two decades now. As a young person in the
second tier city of Ibadan, I would faithfully buy copies of HipHop World
Magazine, Encomium, Bubbles (which I would later have the privilege of editing)
and all newspapers that profiled Nigerian entertainment and entertainers.
Ayeni’s life story has inspired me to no end. He was an outsider kid from the
back waters of Okokomaiko who had huge dreams and with lots of hard work, made
himself into a journalist, publicist, public relations consultant and later
himself, a newspaper publisher. Apart from a couple of other individuals whose
name I would mention later on, no other writer qualified as much as Ayeni to
write a book on the iconic 2face. I- and millions of fans waited with baited
breaths for the most anticipated book since Chimamanda Adichie.
The first time it crossed my mind
that this might be a disappointing book was when the book cover was realeased
by Adekunle Ayeni’s publishing house The NET. I tweeted on September 14 thus: Looking forward to the 2face book. Only wish
that another photo was used on the cover. Wasn’t that the cover art for The Unstoppable
album?
Indeed it was the same photo used in
2010 for 2face’s third album. When I whispered this concern to some friends the
explanation was that since the title of the book, A Very Good Bad Guy was an oxymoron that juxtaposes 2face’s good
and bad sides, the cover art works well for that purpose.
So I ordered the book after the book
launch was over and done with. It arrived in the post yesterday November 4. As
I ripped open the polythene wrapper, a sinking feeling of disappointment struck
me like a punch. From a production stand point; this book was already a mess.
The very first page when you flip the cover open has this badly reproduced
photograph of 2face, ostensibly taken with a camera phone in one corner of The
NET office. Not only is it out of place on the inner sheet of a book, together
with the tackiness of the lamination and the substandard print quality that
persists from start to finish, the book feels like an Alaba CD jacket: cheap
and unworthy of the artiste on it. Alas, my disappointment was just starting.
For starters, this is not a story of
2face as sold by the publisher; rather it is a collection of articles about
2face since Ayeni’s own days as a reporter. How dare he now call this a
biography! The prologue proved to be the most interesting part of the whole
book. In it, Ayeni recounts a night in 2007 when he and 2face shared a bed
after an awards show in London. The cheeky double entendre promised much of the
book but soon fell flat as soon as the prologue ended. Even Annie Idibia’s
piece which is neither a dedication nor provides any perspective of her husband
leave much to be desired. It reads like a birthday tribute that was sent to the
editor of this book by BlackBerry Messenger or Whatsapp. How do I know this?
Wrongly placed full stops, unnecessary ellipses and exclamation marks, as well
as a “LOL” tell that much. A 2face book requires an Annie Idibia voice. This
flimsy bit does not provide that.
Permit me to digress for a minute:
Adekunle Ayeni has transitioned his journalistic experience into a thriving
public relations practice. Safe to say, he has mastered the dark arts required
of a PR guru and he deploys his craft well in the making of this book. Nowhere
in the book does he directly refer to it as a “biography”. However, press
releases from his organization and reportage of the launch in the media all
describe A Very Good Bad Guy as the
biography of Innocent 2face Idibia. Smart move, Mr Ayeni…
Now I’ve read a few music biographies
in my time. Carlos Moore wrote a Fela biography, Fela: This Bitch of a Life and it was based on conversations with
Abami Eda. I Would Die 4 U was
written by Toure, an American journalist and pop culture expert. The book
features several interviews about and with pop legend Prince, and provides readers
an assessment of the enigma’s life. Becoming
Beyonce by J. Randy Taraborelli was recently released as an unofficial
biography of the artiste. It delivers as it tells several unheard stories about
Beyonce. A Very Good Bad Guy does no such thing.
A biography should delve into
previously unknown areas and tell an unforgettable story. It should take
readers away from blog posts, rumours and innuendos and research the
backstories that make the subject tick. It should document the subject’s views,
influences, fears, ambition and every facet of his life. A Very Good Bad Guy comes across as a rushed vanity project rather
than the life story of an individual who the publisher rightly describes as
“Nigeria’s greatest pop artiste of all time”.

The travails of Fela Anikulapo Kuti
happened nearly a decade before I was born. Yet Carlos Moore’s book made me
rage at the injustice meted out to the man and his mother. A Very Good Bad Guy does not even come close. Heartbreakingly, it
is not for lack of talent or wherewithal to do a 2face story properly.

Ayeni’s double advantage as an
entertainment journalist and one time publicist for 2face puts him at a vantage
position to pen a biography worth his salt. Over the years, the writer has
proven himself to be a master storyteller. Does anyone remember his exclusive
interview with Dbanj immediately after the Mohits breakup? That was a classic
piece of writing.
Neither can the shoddiness of A Very Good Bad Guy be blamed on a
lack of curiosity: in page xxvi of the prologue Ayeni himself wonders, “What
kind of guy is this Idibia? What sublime irony to find a man, who does all the
bad things, yet does all the good things…? As an observer I was fascinated
and impressed…” So why did Ayeni neglect to ask these questions and answer them
for the fans?
Perhaps it is the hubris that
sometimes plagues heroes and geniuses that convinced the editor/publisher that
he could pass off these 396 pages of nothingness as a biography.

A writer has a responsibility to
document times and happenings correctly. He owes it to the reader to either
answer all his questions or allow the reader to deduce answers from his
writing. In 2024, children who were born in the year 2face released his debut
album would be university undergraduates and some of them would study the
defining era of Nigerian music. They would need to understand why it was such a
big deal for 2face to have won the Best African Act at the 2006 MTV EMA’s. They
would need to understand how big a deal it is for a Nigerian to have made the
soundtrack for a Hollywood movie. They would need to find out how a single
artiste swung the door open for a generation of African artistes to reach the
world. They would need an authoritative voice to teach them about the great
2face. A Very Good Bad Guy through Ayeni
Adekunle does not offer that; rather it is a catalogue of past articles, a
gloried scrapbook of The NET Newspaper. Maybe that was why even 2face look less
than enthused at the book launch.

The man 2face could commission a
writer to tag along with him for a couple of months to gather enough material
for a proper biography, if Mr. Ayeni is too busy to. Bayo Omisore and Efe
Omorogbe are the other two individuals who have unique perspectives of the
artiste. (Fortunately both men are also excellent writers with commendable
journalism credentials).
A Very Good Bad Guy feels like a scam. Personally I feel defrauded. The hollowness of
Adekunle Ayeni’s book on 2face does a great disservice to the artistry and
accomplishment of the subject. It does greater disservice to the skill and
talent of the two dozen writers whose contributions to The NET Newspaper form
this book. It does the greatest disservice to Mr. Adekunle Ayeni’s two decades
of journalistic excellence and his highly esteemed position as a custodian of
urban Nigerian music. Innocent 2face Idibia requires an official biography.
This book is not it.

Jide Taiwo is a media practitioner based in Lagos. He’s in the process of
finishing his own book, Reflections of a Millennial. He tweets via
@thejidetaiwo.
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Entertainment, Opinion

It's A Girl!

With confidence, my birth was announced, not so for many girls in Asia or Africa. In your corner of the world, the phrase, “Wetin your neighbour born?” (meaning, kini ara ile e bi? in Yoruba) and the implication may be lost on you, but not so for thousands of women who hang their heads and shy away from looking at the child after birthing their kind.
Many have had to welcome another bride for failure to “produce” a son, many kept “producing unlimited” until they had a son. For others, even where the man celebrates and is satisfied with the birth of girls, other women harass the woman to continue the “production”.
For some, this has led to divorce especially where the family resource is stretched as a result. Sadly, some are compelled to sign up for abortion and in a worst case scenario, abortion is suggested and induced without the knowledge of the woman once scan reveals feminine features. When many hear female infanticide, fingers point to India but read your history books and you’d see that it spans across ages and continents. For most, it was a way of controlling population, for others, it was a special sacrifice to a mute god!
The days of flogging girls for playing boys’ game (football), dreaming to be engineers or daring to campaign for political posts may have eroded but don’t you still hear statements like, “Girls are not good in mathematics!” “Boy’s don’t cry!” “How come a girl came first in your class?” “All your education will end in the kitchen!” Perhaps, you have also seen an all-female choir with boys as lead singers or drummers! Girls are still being subjected to gender-based abuse – sexual exploitation, child-marriage, genital mutilation, forced organ harvesting. That tells you we are still far from done in the task of emancipating the girl child!
Today, I join others to commemorate the International Day of the Girl Child which was instituted in 2012 by the United Nations, as I shout out loud the theme for 2015: “The Power of the Adolescent Girl: Vision for 2030”.
Before we can move positively and progressively towards 2030, the girl child must survive today. The genuine smile and laughter of the girl child must be kept alive and far away from brutality, abuse, rape, prostitution, trafficking, early marriage, genital mutilation and all forms of discrimination against her person. The rights of the girl child, like the rights of the boy child, are human rights and must be protected.
Over and beyond all the hypes, I implore women (and men) to accept the birth of girls as a priceless gift from God. I encourage you to train girls, not as boys but as girls; open them up to opportunities beyond the restrictive walls of the classroom; encourage them to innovate and boldly light up a torch to help them see that they are capable of holding up their own. Let their confidence receive a boost by the fact that, even in the myopic branding of our space as “man’s world”, their positioning as nurturers keeps men living, learning and labouring.
If your girl is a baby, find time to nurture her; let her know that humans care, not cage. If your girl is a child, find time to talk to her; let her learn from you that humans talk, not bark. If your girl is a teen, find time to take her out and share experience, let her learn that she is to be loved, not abused. If your girl is a woman, find time to encourage and appreciate her, let her know that she is valued far above rubies!!!
If any girl in your area of influence has been caged, terrorised, abused, devalued, violated… Please give her hope by caring, speaking, sharing and loving. When you treat girls right, the boys will take a cue from you. Building a better world starts with you and me.
A house-help was beaten and battered. When I saw her, the physical pain was long gone but the scars were visible just like the emotional scare and scars the brutality inflicted on this human that is someday expected to nurture others. How could she ever give what she never got?
After two visits to a girls’ remand home in Lagos, some of the inmates wormed up to me. No, they were not supposed to share but obviously they needed hearing ears. I listened and fought back the tears as one narrated how her mother fed her faeces! It was her race away from home in search of survival that landed her in the home with other girls – few criminals, many criminalised. Another narrated how an unrelated uncle turned her into a sex object, rather than her aunty standing up for her, they teamed up to send her packing. The stories are endless. But should another girl come by you without the story changing?
On the far extreme are those who pamper and spoil their girls, nurturing them with furs, purrs and the notion that they need not lift a finger as someday the right man with the right manuscript will come and sing them to wealth. The brain and beauty bestowed on them are channelled towards one goal and one goal alone, a life of wealth. This is equally to the detriment of such girls because they never are strong enough to look deep within for the greatness divinely locked in them.
You can help change ONE girl’s story. You owe a moral duty to let such wickedness stop with you, even if you missed out on that care. Forgive your past to heal your future. Look around you, there are girls crying out for care. If all hands are on deck, the goals for girls can be sustained and advanced. Formally or informally, invest in girls and promote zero tolerance for abuse. Educate one! Educate more!!! In school, I learnt to interact and understand people of other cultures and faiths. #62milliongirls don’t have that chance. You can #HelpGirlsLearn.
Together, we can ensure the girl child is positioned to tap into a lifetime that offers real life opportunities and is focused on the vision of empowerment.
Someday, the ills directed at the girl child will be over, because of YOU. UBUNTU!
Written by : Dr. Omoteso-Famuyiwa, Project Director of Cares Global Network. He can be reached  via [email protected]
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Opinion, Sports

Sunday Oliseh  Be Careful | By: Joseph Edgar

Look I am very angry this morning.
Why should Oliseh tell my town man Vincent Eyeama to not only shut up but get security men to walk him out of the grounds. Look this is nothing but racism. Oliseh has never liked Akwa Ibom people since he lost his first girlfriend who happens to be ibibio. He has since been carrying this chip on his shoulder and could not control himself when he saw my brother Vincent do so well in his career. 
He has no right to tell my brother shut up. You too shut up Oliseh, you too gerrout. What is that? How many goals did you even score for Nigeria with your yellow paw paw face. You are lucky I am not near you otherwise I would have squeezed your ear and kicked you in the bum. Go and watch all recent Nigerian matches and see the way Vincent has saved us when your Igbo brothers where busy fooling themselves on the field. 
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We ibibio people are ready to leave Nigeria because of this matter. This is not that ye ye massob struggle where they keep shouting Biafra at night and in the morning go and open their shops in the market to sell. We will go, we will go and join Cameroun so that Vincent will be given his respect. 
I don’t even care what he did or didn’t do. You will respect him simply because he is an Ibibio man that is all. I demand a full apology to the whole Ibibio nation within the next 24 hours otherwise we will instruct our Senator to look for your Senator and tell him to shut up too and where that does not work, we will ask our Governor to tell your own Governor shut up. 
What is that? This disrespect must stop. Nigerians don’t respect Ibibio people. We gave you guys edika Idong, we gave you guys fine well rounded women, we gave you guys, Akpabio and his uncommon transformation and we gave you guys Etim Esin. We demand respect and we must get it. Remember we have oil, we have palm oil, we have my mother and we have Uyo one of the greatest modern cities of the world. We are taking this matter seriously and will definitely come out with a powerful position demanding our respect as a people. 
Who be this Oliseh sef, a godfather gifted coach. What has he even achieved, how many matches has he won since he became coach, come dey tell Vincent to shut up. He is even lucky, if na me, I for kick am. He needs to get training on leadership and how to manage a team of egosmaniacs. Vincent has paid his dues and has been recognized world over and no matter what should be given his respect as a very senior member of the team no matter the situation. 
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I swear it’s because he is Ibibio that is why. Can Oliseh try a Yoruba player like that. OPC and the Oshodi boys would be on his scrawny neck or can he try an Igbo player Ohaneze and Massob will show him. It is because he has looked and is seeing house boys and house girls that he thinks Vincent has no support that is why he can open that his ye ye mouth to tell an international world class player to shut up. 
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I hereby give Oliseh a 24 hour notice to send an unreserved apology to the Ibibio nation otherwise we will unleash our Ekpe masquerade and 1,000 naked Ibibio virgins on him and let’s see if he will survive it. I will personally place a hex on him making sure he doesn’t win any match again until he is disgracefully kicked out of the team and into the River Niger where the hungry fishes will chew out that his mouth. Yeye dey smell.
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Joseph Edgar is an investment banker who writes as a hobby.
He blogs from a witty, satirical  point of view at josephedgarng.blogspot.com‎
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Entertainment, Opinion

The herdsmen from hell | By: Femi Fani-Kayode

“Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better and the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most that has made it possible for evil to triumph”– His Royal Majesty Haile Selassie 1, Emperor of Ethiopia.
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If there was ever a time to remember the words of Haile Selassie and speak out against evil this is it. With the abduction of the elder statesman and June 12th struggle hero, Chief Olu Falae, from his home by a group of Fulani herdsmen in south western Nigeria it is time for us to seriously consider the expulsion of all Fulani herdsmen from the southern part of our country.

We thank God and commend the efforts of the Inspector-General of the Nigerian police that Chief Falae was returned home safely after a harrowing three days. Given his status in Yoruba land, had this not been so there would have been cataclysmic consequences for the unity of our country.
It is because we wish to avoid such a scenario that it is important that we get these marauders and vandals out of our territory as quickly as possible. This is especially so given the fact that, by Falae’s testimony, it is clear that the Fulani herdsmen that abducted him were working hand in hand with Boko Haram.
These herdsmen have become the pests of our nation. They are like the east African tsetse fly: wherever they go they suck the life blood out of their hosts and, like the locust, they destroy everything in their path. They are like leeches: they indulge in a parasitic mode of nutrition and they suck the blood of the carcass until their victim is left for dead.
Like the Arab Janjaweed, they are only known for the most hideous of things. This includes terror, intimidation, theft, murder, rape, abduction, mutilation, the violation of the rights of others, the destruction of the land and crops of farmers and the destruction of property.
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Anyone that doubts this should ask the people of the north central zone what they have been suffering in the hands of these vagabonds and vagrants for the last 50 years. This is especially so in Plateau, Benue, Niger, Kwara, Nassarawa, Taraba and Adamawa states.
Yet up until 20 years ago this was essentially a northern problem and it did not affect the south. Sadly that has changed. It has now become a national plague that knows no boundaries and whose poison threatens to consume us all.
In the last few years the Fulani herdsmen have attacked, ravaged and pillaged many rural communities south of the River Niger and they have slaughtered and raped thousands of innocent people in the south-south, the south-east and the south-western zones of our country.
We recall how, after a violent clash between them and some Yoruba farmers in Oyo state in 2000, General Buhari (as he then was) led a strong delegation of northern leaders to see the late Governor of Oyo state, Governor Lam Adeshina. On arrival Buhari put the following question to him: “why are YOUR people killing MY people?” This was a classic case of a Freudian slip. The Bible says ‘’out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks’’. The general had spoken his mind.
Governor Adeshina was shocked with disbelief and he responded by telling Buhari that he was rather surprised that a former Head of State would refer to one ethnic group as “his’’ people whilst referring to another as someone elses’. He said that this was especially so given the fact that people were killed on both sides of the divide in what was a sad and unfortunate conflict.
The insensitivity of Buhari to the Yoruba farmers and their plight in the hands of the Fulani raiders was noted from that moment on. Ever since that conversation took place the lines have been drawn and the south west has been on alert.
The abduction of Falae may well have brought things to a head because today virtually every self-respecting Yoruba man is calling for strong resistance to these alien cattle-rearers whose criminal activities have led to nothing but blood, tears and carnage. If the government refuses to stop them then it is very clear that some communities may end up doing so themselves.
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Yet there is an even more sinister dimension to this problem than most people care to admit. That dimension is best illustrated by the following question. Can there be any truth in the assertion that the Fulani herdsmen are nothing less than the vanguard and covert armed wing of the Fulani ruling class which has managed to infiltrate the south under the ingenious guise of selling cows?
Are they sleeper cells of a much bigger army and a much wider cause? Are they, as Falae has suggested, working hand in hand with Boko Haram? If a major conflict were to arise would those sleeper cells be activated and would they commence the wholesale slaughter of the indigenous population in their host states? As painful as it may appear these are questions that we must ask.
The fact that the herdsmen demanded for a 100 million naira ransom from Falae speaks volumes. The question is this: what do mere cattle-rearers want with 100 million naira? Even more instructive is the fact that when they were offered 2 million naira they responded by saying that that amount would not be enough for Boko Haram.
Given all this it is clear to me that we must begin to look at the wider picture. We must accept the ugly reality that there may be more to all this than meets the eye. This is especially so given the fact that up until the time of writing this piece not one of Falae’s captors has been apprehended by the police and they seem to have vanished into thin air. One wonders what transpired. Were they granted amnesty or are they ghosts?
Can there be any truth in the suggestion that there was some kind of official collusion in the abduction? Was it an attempt to put Falae, and by extension the Yoruba, in their place for vigorously supporting the idea of a national conference? Is it an attempt to intimidate those from the south west that opposed President Buhari in the 2015 presidential elections? If so it will not work.
Afenifere, the leading socio-cultural group of the south west of which Falae is a leading member, and the Yoruba people generally have a way of rising to the occasion when they are threatened, cheated or persecuted. History proves that. Worthy of note are the words of Dr. Frederick Fasheun and Otunba Gani Adams, both leaders of the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) in this matter. Only the unwise would ignore their counsel.
Another curious twist to the tale is the fact that it took the Buhari administration two days to make any formal announcement on Falae’s abduction and just the day after they finally did so the elder statesman was suddenly released.
The question is this: who is pulling the strings from behind the scenes and who is attempting to test our resolve and test the waters? Whatever the answer to these questions are one thing remains clear. The days of killing people with impunity and stripping them of their lands and possessions are long over.
The Fulani herdsmen may well believe that they have one of their own in the Villa today but that does not mean that they will get away with their murderous ways or their sheer impunity. It is most unwise for them to continue to test the resolve of the people of the south in this way. I say this because collectively southerners are slow to anger but irresistible in battle. When pushed to the wall they often indulge in what Dr. Amanze Obi, the respected columnist for Nigeria’s Sun newspaper, once described as ”southern fury”.
Permit me to conclude this intervention with an interesting and relevant contribution from the famous British historian, writer and educationalist Dr. T.R. Batten. He wrote:
“The Fulani were at their most influential in Gobir.Then a dispute broke out between their Imam, Usman Dan Fodiyo and Sarkin Gobir Yunfa.The Fulani rallied behind their leader who encouraged them to defy their Hausa Chief. He began a jihad and fighting broke out. Thus the Fulani seized the country by force against the will of those who lived there. The enmity had nothing to do with religion for among those who fought (against the Fulani) were many Muslims. It was about the Fulani’s wish to seize power from the Hausas.”
It follows that the herdsman and those that they represent conquer by infiltration, assimilation and guile. Those that doubt this should find out what became of the ancient Hausa kingdoms. May God deliver us from the vagabonds and vagrants in our midst.
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Entertainment, Opinion

President Buhari, loyalty is not enough | By: Etcetera

Why do Nigerian Presidents so often fail to make quality appointments? Unlike beauty, quality does not lie in the eyes of the beholder. 

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Every new president promises to nominate talented, qualified people to fill into positions in their government. Yet, they all make more than a few appointments that do not satisfy the call for “able, creative, and experienced people,” who will serve as “the most important ingredient in the recipe for good government.” Most of the names I have seen on President Buhari’s ministerial list do not represent the best and brightest Nigeria has to offer.

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The President might be having problem with the issue of trust, thereby looking to appoint only those that will stay loyal to him, but we also want him to look beyond loyalty. No matter how loyal appointees are to the President, they also need to know what to do and how to do it once they get the jobs. The ability to manage, design, and effectively carry out new programmes, implement key legislation, and deliver services should be prominent—indeed primary—criteria for choosing potential appointees.

Those who have cited loyalty as the reason why mostly northerners have been appointed so far into the President’s cabinet should note that there are no systematic data on how loyalty results in effective performance in governance. I can also argue that loyalty or not, political appointees are often not truly loyal to the President because they also have personal agendas, thereby having multiple loyalties.
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Even where appointees are responsive to presidential agendas, some tend to lack the managerial skills to enact those agendas successfully. Most of the names I see on this list are political lobbyists, presidential campaign workers, and trusted aides to political godfathers. Some may have substantial policy expertise, but almost all are essentially soloists, not team players.

It is worrisome that in Nigeria, when it comes to selecting people for the executive arm of the government, we tend to abandon professional standards. The professional standards we do observe are limited to technical and programme expertise. The ability to manage, design, and effectively carry out new programmes, implement key legislation, and deliver services has never been prominent criteria for evaluating potential political appointees in this country. Would any large corporation place at the head of its major operating division a person with no experience in managing funds or supervising people? What enterprise would fill every senior management position with a person with little or no industry experience? Who would accept the mindless notion that any loyal or good-spirited individual can run a government agency?

An appointee’s success in changing the behaviour of a ministry is related not only to their loyalty to the president and commitment to his policies, but also to their managerial skills and experience, their personalities, and their plans for achieving goals. While the environment of a ministry may be outside a President’s control, appointing skillful and experienced ministers with appropriate personalities and designs for achieving goals is not. The President should take full advantage of that opportunity.

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You can say that conventional wisdom demands that the President considers personal loyalty and commitment to his programmes in selecting candidates for positions in his government, but you should also consider that the kind of ministers or political appointees we have had over the years shows that loyalty has never helped any Nigerian President achieve his goals.

And whether or not the President appoints political opponents in his cabinet or not, the issue is that quality matters. The greater the administrative challenge, the more sophisticated the design needed to exploit it, and the greater the premium on analytical ability, managerial and political skills, and personality—on those skills that bring out the best in a government.
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Music, Opinion

10 Reasons Why Nigerian Producers Are Losing Millions

Dear Mr. Music Producer,
I know you are a creative and very busy person and may not be interested in legal jargons, but I’m sure you are interested in making some more money.
Stated below are some reasons why the artistes you give your beats to are ripping you off.
1. You are not taking steps to ensure you get your share from ring tones and caller tunes when you could.
2. You are not taking steps to ensure you benefit maximally from international collaborations on songs which use your beats when you could.

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3. You are busy trying to transform yourself into an artiste/singer/rapper when you
just don’t have what it takes.

4. You are not taking steps to maximize yield on each of your beats through multiple uses when you could.
5. You are not taking steps to ensure you get your fair share from well sponsored
public performance of songs using your beats when you could.

6. You are not taking steps to ensure you get your fair share from any advertising and endorsement related use of songs performed on your beats when you could.
7. You are not taking steps to ensure you make money from local and international music royalties when you could.

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8. You are not taking steps to ensure you make money from local and international music publishing when you could.
9. You are not taking steps to organize yourself in a group to learn and insist on your rights.

10. You are not taking steps to organize your business within the legal framework which positions you to fully get what the law says is your own.
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Now that you are fully aware of 10 (ten) different reasons why you’ve not been making the kind of money that you should be making you should also be aware that unless you have or develop the required boldness to insist on your legal rights and organize your business within the required legal framework nothing will change!
Thank you.
Written by OgaLawya
************************************************************************@OgaLawya is a resource platform for providing free information and answers to questions on law, which relates to media and entertainment.
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Entertainment, Opinion

Power: The need to stop the continuation of payment of bills after disconnection | By: Nwaorgu Faustinus

The news about the directive or rather order by the senate on the 11th of this month to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to suspend the fixed charge of N702.00, which it has been collecting from electricity consumers across the federation following unending complaints against the policy by Nigerians has been greatly applauded as the right step in the right direction, given its anti-people oriented and exploitative coloration.
When this good news filtered into the public domain, many a consumer of power supply heaved a profound sigh of relief having been subjected to the fixed charge without proportionate benefit to show for the money they pay, especially for those who do not make use of pre-paid meters. Again, the Senate in a landmark resolution from a motion entitled:Unfair Trade Practices of Electricity Distribution Companies in Nigeria, which was sponsored by the duo of Senator Sam Egwu and Senator David Umaru, directed the NERC to urge Discos to discontinue the practice of compulsory bulk metering of villages and communities in the rural areas.
As commendable as these directives are, it is only when the various private power/electricity distribution companies that cut across the geo-political zones of the federation are forced to implement and comply with the order will fairness be restored to the power sector as regards the outrageous, extortionate, slavish and exploitative electricity bills paid by consumers of electricity.
Apart from the issues of bulk metering and fixed charge of N702.00, another issue that is giving the public a great source of concern, anger, and sadness is the continuation of the charge of electricity bills on services not rendered for. For example, there are places and residential homes that have been disconnected for months and the wires used for the connection taken away by the various private power/electricity distribution companies’ electricians for one reason or the other but the end users (electricity consumers) have continued to receive electricity bills for services that have not been offered.
This is a clear case of daily light robbery, thievery, consciencelessness, and man’s insensitivity to man by these exploitative companies and its allies. Had it not been that majority of Nigerians who consume electricity are docile even when pushed to the wall especially on this issue of having one’s source of electricity disconnected and wires taken away by these power supply companies’ electricians or taskforce on disconnection, we would have been inundated with news of untoward actions meted out to those who deliver these undeserving electricity bills to those who do not supposed to pay for the bills.
Similarly, there are homes and places that are connected to power supply but have not had electricity for months but these electricity companies still bill them for services not rendered. I believe the practice of making consumers pay for meters, poles and transformers, which by law, are properties of the electricity companies should not be paid for.
No wonder the senate directed NERC to make a regulation to mandate the Discos to discontinue the practice of making consumers pay for meters, poles and transformers, which by law, are properties of the Discos, adding however that where consumers purchase those items, they should give notice of the purchase to the Discos, and should be entitled to recover their expenses from subsequent consumption of electricity.
This unpalatable situation of things in the power sector should be investigated holistically by the National Assembly with a view to finding permanent remedies to the ripping off of consumers of electricity and to restore sanity in the system. A stitch in time saves nine.
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Nwaorgu Faustinus writes from, Port Harcourt, Rivers State. He can be reached via Email [email protected]

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