Tuesday, 15 September 2015
Ayeni to publish biography of ‘A very Good Bad Guy’, 2face
Don Jazzy confesses , I’m Cherubim & Seraphim
Mavin record boss Don Jazzy has grabbed an
award from The Eternal Sacred Order of the
Cherubim and Seraphim church.
This was gathered on the music boss’ Twitter
handle where he tweeted his fans telling them
that he’s still a proud member of the church.
See Don Jazzy’s photo, tweet and throwback
photo of his family.
Don Jazzy receiving his award from the Church.
Don Jazzy
Michael Collins @DONJAZZY
And then?? Till now sef. get it right sha
“Cherubim & Seraphim”Ericsson signs broadcast services deal withChannel 5
Communications technology and services
provider, Ericsson, yesterday, disclosed that it
has signed an exclusive multi-year broadcast and
media services deal with leading UK broadcaster,
Channel 5, owned by Viacom.
The new deal spans Channel 5’s portfolio of
terrestrial and digital channels in the UK.
The deal, which was won following a competitive
tender process, included playout, media
management, metadata, access services and
business continuity services.
With the new development, Ericsson is expected
to provide these services for Channel 5’s entire
portfolio of terrestrial and digital channels as
well as for its catch up offerings, including
Channel 5+1 and Channel 5+24.
Ericsson following the new deal also delivers
media management services for the
broadcaster’s Demand 5 video-on-demand
platform. Accordingly,, all services will
commence in May 2016.
Speaking on the new deal, Paul Dunthorne, Chief
Operating Officer at Channel 5, said: “Ericsson
showed a clear understanding of our complex
playout requirements, including the extra
demands of live and fast-turnaround shows, such
as Big Brother, which are a crucial part of our
schedule. And they promise to offer us the
robust and flexible support we need as we
continue to roll out our highly popular Demand 5
player, which is already available across more
than 25 different video-on-demand platforms in
the UK. We look forward to working with them
over the coming years.”
WHO WILL SAVE NIGERIA’S YOUTH?
A recent New York Times survey showed that
43% of Americans think President Obama is
Muslim. Some people just can’t be helped. Some
people, for all intents and purposes, will remain
ignorant and perhaps that’s just the way of the
world. Some people will continue to judge others
based on gender or ethnicity. Some people will
think political appointments “maketh” the man or
that having someone from your village at the
helm of affairs will necessarily translate to your
betterment (although it’s yet to truly happen).
Some people revel in conspiracy theories and
fictitious agendas. Maybe there’s nothing anyone
can do about this. On my worst days, this is my
train of thought. On my best days, which
sometimes coincide with a Serena Williams win, I
think quite the opposite: watching her joy as she
does the splits to celebrate, or jumps up and
down, makes me feel that I too can do anything
or that outsiders in any game, can be victorious.
The system in any country, or what Americans
would call “the man”, is a complicated set of
rules which only allows or guarantees wins for
certain well-connected (often morally corrupt),
entrenched people.
When outliers don’t just break in but beat the
system, it’s a day of celebration for all other
outsiders, people with dreams and ambitions that
the system cannot accept or recognise for fear
of the rules of the game being re-written.
Muhammadu Buhari is a very particular outsider:
he knows the game and its players. He is feared
and hated by the establishment because he
promises to break the cartels and cabals which
keep Nigerians jobless and insecure, in order to
establish a level playing field. What better face
for the outliers, than he?
Unfortunately, his fellow outsiders, the Nigerian
youth, do not fully know or understand him.
Many don’t have the capacity to do so, due in
part to the dumbing down of our popular culture.
Besides dancing to meaningless hit songs and
idolising actors and actresses with little to say
for themselves besides the pursuit of expensive
cars and handbags obtained by “friendship” with
governors, the average Nigerian youth has little
to no political conscience.
How do we breed sentient, aware young people
who take deliberate actions beyond “catching a
husband” or engaging in exam malpractice?
There are various deep rooted reasons why
Nigerian girls feel they can only exist or be
recognised by society if they can attach the
“Mrs” title to their name, and there are many
reasons why some parents choose to encourage
and help their children to cheat during exams.
Nigeria has become a country where quick wins
are the preferred option, where hard work is
shunned: so why not just aim to marry a rich
man? It’s easier than professing independence,
as if marriage (to whatever sort of partner) and
independence are mutually exclusive.
When the President said we needed to kill
corruption before it kills Nigeria, it was because
corruption is the fundamental reason why one
cannot live a decent, honest life and hope to be
successful in Nigeria.
At some point, Nigerians are called to
compromise on their ethics and principles
without which progress is often impossible. So,
young girls accept to be the third or fourth wife
of a geriatric degenerate who might believe
defiling young girls is part of culture and the law
accepts his vice masquerading as a cultural
peculiarity so that he too, looks away from its
sins, such as the inability to protect those who
cannot speak for themselves. Or worse, those
who cannot always think for themselves. Who is
going to rescue Nigerian youth, trapped in a
culture of quick wins and cheap fun where the
depth of personality and focus is sorely missing?
Upon all of our excitement over the growth of
Nollywood as a would-be industry, I wonder if
there is much to be excited about given the
strange messaging contained in the average
Nollywood film. Even reading interviews granted
by the would-be heroes of the Nigerian youth is
worrisome: warped values and skewed mind-sets
abound, all gobbled up by young people who
never learned, due to a broken educational
system, how to think critically and analyse rather
than absorb unthinkingly.
From new age TV channels to dubious “on-air-
personalities” with puerile ideas on serious issues
they know nothing about, young Nigerians lack
mentors. Those who portray themselves as
mentors are often guilty of enslaving the youth
by not training them for succession or giving
them opportunities for growth. They also don’t
know how to speak to young people, to gain their
interest or trust. Nigerian youth bemoan their
situation; yet, many till date haven’t seen the link
between their political disinterest and their
disenfranchisement within society. They might
have found a willing guardian in President Buhari
but they are yet to find their voice, the young
man (or woman) who will translate for them
what the “ogas at the top” are all about and who
will end their banishment or freezing-out from
public affairs.
Interestingly, about 80 per cent of the Nigerian
population could be categorised as “outsiders”,
simply because most of that number would be
comprised of people under 30. Why aren’t there
more names of brilliant, focused young people
being bandied around in the lists of those called
to assist the President and to serve Nigerians?
Talented young Nigerians don’t dream of
becoming civil servants (or journalists for that
matter) and this is worrisome because then, who
will reinvent Nigeria? The average Nigerian’s
attitude is anti-government: too many politicians
believe their role is simply to attack, leaving
Nigerians desensitised and civil servants devoid
of direction. We need to create simpler ways for
talented young people to get into government
and incentives for them to do so, beyond the
idea many politicians’ offspring seem to have,
which is that government is a birth right where
money unilaterally flows. It is simply put, time to
bring Nigerian governance into the 21st century
by allowing brilliant young minds to chart a new
path and destiny for Nigeria.
Stella Oduah
She’s back to set a dangerous precedent. A few
weeks ago, the former minister got a court order
restraining the EFCC, the Attorney General of the
Federation, the Inspector General of Police and
the Independent Corrupt Practices and other
Related Offences Commission, ICPC, from
arresting her or even inviting her for questioning.
Where does one begin? There is no other place
on earth where a court would be able to stop
someone from being investigated. It goes against
the idea of the law itself which is to protect all
wronged parties not just the accused, as is done
in Nigeria.
Would an ordinary Nigerian be able to stop the
police from either arresting or investigating him?
Definitely not. So why make excuses for some,
simply because they have the necessary funds
to make justice (or their idea of it) go their way?
Jonathan’s ministers
The immediate past Minister of Works, Mike
Onolememen, was accused of taking four
unidentified people to an international
conference in 2011. The former minister’s wife
also apparently travelled with him. We all know
how necessary it is to have one’s wife present at
a business engagement.
The minister defended his wife’s presence,
saying ministers’ wives and “top female ministry
officials” were included. This attitude to public
office where wives, friends and often family were
invited on official trips for unjustifiable reasons is
just another reason why the sheriff must be
allowed to pick his ministers carefully.
16 DIED , 172 HOSPITALIZED AS CHOLERA HITS MAIDUGURI IDPS CAMP
MAIDUGURI—Cholera outbreak in three Internally
Displaced Persons, IDPs, camps within Maiduguri,
Borno State, have left 16 people dead and 172 in
critical conditions, with World Health
Organization, WHO, and UNICEF battling the
epidemic.
Children collect stagnant water for use at home
in Harare Photo: AP
However, Information Officer of National
Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Mallam
Abdulkadir Ibrahim, in a telephone interview, said
it was not an outbreak of cholera, but reported
cases of diarrhoea and vomiting.
NEMA is the sole agency in charge of feeding
the IDPs since inauguration of President
Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
The affected camps are those housing IDPs from
Mafa along Dikwa/Ngala Road.
Health officials at the camp told news men that
so far, 16 people had died of the outbreak, while
172 were in serious condition as they work with
international organization to bring the situation
under control.
One of the health officials working with UNICEF
told news men, yesterday: “The situation at the
camps is terrible. It was sudden and already a
large number has been affected.
“At the last count, we have 16 dead and about
172 affected. We are in an emergency health
situation in those camps.”
Damage control
It was also gathered that the affected IDPs were
prevented from leaving the camp by security
agents in a move to prevent spread of the
disease into the metropolis until the situation is
brought under control.
Also, those affected have been separated from
the unaffected, and all the IDPs are being
treated with preventive medicine.
Another medical official said: “The camps were
unkept, unclean and with all sort of waste all
over which informed the outbreak and
encouraged its wild-fire spread.
“We are doing everything possible to ensure that
we control the spread. We encourage the IDPs
to ensure cleanliness. Source vanguard
Wednesday, 2 September 2015
I went into acting for money butfound fun – Adibeli Ify
Nollywood upcoming actress Adibeli
Ify had her first shot at acting at the
age of sixteen. For her the
experience and the money that came
with it was so good she decided it
would be more than one-off thing.
She said she was paid N5,000 just to
dance in a film.
To her, that was a hook she wouldn’t
let go herself. But along the line, the
money she thought would be rolling
in faster than she could spend it ran
into a lull.
Now, what sustains her is her
passion for the job and the fun she
claims to have found “At first my
going into acting was for the money
after I was paid N5,000 at 16 in my
first movie just to dance.
So, I thought it would continue but I
found out otherwise.
Right now it is all about fun and love
for the job. Now, if you ask me I
wouldn’t say there is much money as
I thought. Its very much hardwork
and you have to pay your dues
before you are even recognised. But
right now I am loving it and getting
to know more people in the process”
she said.
NNPC GMD to end oil theft in 8months, to use drones to monitor oilvessels
By Kingsley Omonobi, Ben Agande,
Henry Umoru & Michael Eboh
ABUJA—Group Managing Director of
the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, Dr Emmanuel
Kachikwu has disclosed that oil theft
would be eradicated in the next eight
months as the corporation has put in
place measures to check the menace
and bring perpetrators to book.
Speaking at a one-day seminar on
Security in the Gulf of Guinea,
organised by the Gusau Institute in
Abuja, Dr Kachikwu said the fight to
stop oil theft was not only for the
NNPC but also all Nigerians, as the
effect of crude oil theft was on all
Nigerians.
Ibe kachikwu
According to the NNPC boss, some
of these measures include the
introduction of drones to monitor the
pipelines as well as patrol the
country’s coastal waters; equipping
and increasing the capabilities of the
security services to carry out their
responsibilities and the engagement
of communities to police pipelines in
their areas.
While promising to introduce
transparency in running the NNPC, Dr
Kachikwu revealed that the PPMC
would be broken up into several
companies with one solely in charge
of pipelines while another would be
in charge of products at the depots
He said: “The job of keeping our
country afloat and making sure that
the revenues from oil are
transparently received and spent is
the main purpose of my work. When I
was first asked by the President to
come and take over this job, my first
reaction was trepidation and fear,
largely because over the last two
decades, we have gone topsy-turvy
with our oil industry. We, as a
country, have lost so much both in
terms of revenue and international
perception. I carry a responsibility
that is not just making sure that the
oil industry generates so much
revenue, but also a responsibility of
bringing back high level of
transparency in terms of perception.
What is happening is that a few
people do bad things but it rubs off
on Nigeria. Many Nigerians are doing
the right thing.
“Nigeria is the eighth largest
producer of oil in the world but you
probably would not see that as you
traverse our country because a large
volume of oil produced lands in the
pockets of very few people and many
of us remain extremely poor. That is
because over the years, we have
been unable to transparently deal
with our oil.
“Oil theft is a major issue for us. We
lose on average of about 50,000
barrels of oil. We lose about $3-$4
billion of revenue and that is just in
terms of crude oil itself. When you
get to pipelines, most of our
pipelines are ruptured and attacked
fairly frequently. Last year alone,
between June 2014 and June 2015,
we recorded between 3,400 to 4,000
attacks on the various pipelines in
the country. The effect is a shut-in of
about 250,000 barrels a day and
when you calculate that, you have a
net loss of over $7 billion.
8 months deadline
“A lot is happening. More challenges
are going to be there but we are
going to be able to solve the
problems. We have given ourselves
eight months within which we will
hopefully completely eradicate the
issue of oil theft in Nigeria. It is a
focus that is very firm, very
determined and in the process, you
are going to find individuals who
constitute some of the highest level
of personnel in this economy. Oil
theft is not just about the poor in the
society. It is about the very rich and
it takes a rich man to be able to get
the market for the crude and enter
into the carriage contract. It is the
rich in the country that are actually
the problem of NNPC and not the
poor. We will address that very
solidly, and we will achieve result for
Nigeria. If we don’t do that we would
have lost the essence of our
appointment into this position.
Working with security agencies, and
using lots of technology we will
ensure that this business stops. It is
critical that the Nigerian face is not
seen as a face of theft but a face of
decency.”
He noted that because of the
constant vandalism of the country’s
pipelines, the refineries may not be
able to function effectively except the
issue of pipeline vandalism was
resolved, adding that in order to
check the menace, the security
architecture around the pipelines was
being re-engineered.
“The pipelines that traverse our
country which are supposed to carry
crude into our refineries are
perpetually harassed and the net
effect is that we resorted to using
marines to carry cargoes into our
refineries. What it meant is that no
matter what you do with our
refineries today, unless that is
solved, we cannot operate the
refineries. Every month, I sit and try
to decide whether I should move
crude to the refineries or sell the
crude and be able to fund the other
accounts. The marine services are
too expensive for me.
“In the last one year, we have lost
about 350 lives — NNPC staff,
policemen, community members —
as a result of attempts to breach
these pipelines.
“Let me get to the export aspect of
it. You get calls from all parts of the
world — China, America, alleging that
cargoes of Nigerian crude are lying
in those countries’ territories, most
of them sold. We are dealing with a
case currently of over 14 cargoes in
China, where all the documentation
appears to be from the NNPC. It
might as well be that by the time we
finish with the documentation of
these cargoes, we will get to find out
that they are cargoes probably out of
Iran or Iraq who may be trying to sell
their goods as a result of the
embargo. But for whatever it is worth,
Nigeria has become known,
unfortunately as the country with the
highest level of crude theft and
sophisticated movement of funds.
Use of drones
“It is a major concern for the
President and a major concern for all
of us in the industry and we are
focused on trying to find solutions.
We have marshaled out an armada of
approaches to this which include
incorporating drones to check
movement within our territorial waters
towards the ship; we are looking at
logistical ways of changing
something at our crude oil loading
bays; we are trying to equip the Navy
sufficiently, in terms of skills and not
in terms of arsenal. We are trying to
take the bull by the horns to ensure
that they patrol within the maritime
zone.
“But more fundamentally, the
pipelines that carry oil and crude will
have to be policed. The present
attempt at policing them has not
worked, so we are thinking of
changing the personnel, using more
of the military but also getting into
dealing with the community which
ultimately is the best security in
dealing with these pipelines, as we
try to create more incentives for them
to own the pipelines,” he said.
Speaking on the new measures being
introduced, the NNPC boss said: “It
is one of many efforts that we have
put in place. But most importantly,
we are trying to improve on the
psyche of the people who work in
the NNPC. We are trying to make
them understand that there is a
difference between a corporation and
a civil service because ultimately we
begin to realize that we are here to
run a business for Nigeria, we have
no need being there,” he said.
Earlier in his keynote address, the
Prime Minister of Sao Tome and
Principe, Mr Patrice Emery Trovoada
said Nigeria should place less
emphasis on oil production and
should instead consider the option of
exploring other resources like fish in
the Gulf of Guinea in order to
diversify its revenue base.
He called for greater cooperation
amongst countries of the Gulf of
Guinea to check the incidence of
piracy and oil theft, adding that his
country would continue to cooperate
with Nigeria to check the menace.
Navy to complement drones
Meanwhile, the Chief of Naval Staff,
Vice Admiral Ibok Ibas said,
yesterday, that the Nigerian Navy will
collaborate with other security
agencies to ensure that any measure
that will result to checkmating illegal
oil bunkering and pipeline
vandalization is nipped in the bud.
Speaking against the background of
disclosure by Dr. Kachikwu that
drones will be deployed to ensure
that oil theft is checkmated in the
country, Vice Admiral Ibas said:
“First, we are deploying electronic
surveillance equipment to ensure that
this menace is brought to an end.
“Secondly, the Navy has standby
response teams ready to move at the
quickest deployment because even if
the drones are deployed as disclosed
by the NNPC GMD, it is the Navy that
will be required to implement the
response aspect”.
The CNS who spoke to news men last
night further insisted “we are all
working in collaboration with NNPC
and other security agencies to end
this menace which has impacted
negatively on our nations’ economy
and revenue base. I am assuring you
that we will give all the support
necessary to achieve the goal as
enunciated by the NNPC GMD.”
What drones do
Drones are automated (pilotless)
micro aircraft used for security
monitoring and surveillance
purposes, often described as “eyes
in the sky.”
According to the Social Science
Research Network, SSRN, drones are
“less expensive and more efficient
than conventional aircraft at tracking
the movements of large numbers of
people without their knowledge. The
capabilities of onboard instruments
like high-resolution cameras, infrared
devices, facial recognition systems,
and other sensory enhancing
technologies will make it virtually
impossible to shield oneself from
government watch.”
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