Blog

P Square was attacked and robbed in Lagos. This occured at about 6 p.m. yesterday on Third Mainland Bridge when the dread-carrying singer was on his way to Victoria Island to meet with some friends.

Paul, who was driving his new BMW X6 with customised registration number Rude Boy, had stopped to assist some victims that were involved in an accident in front of him, and as soon as he was getting back into his car to leave the scene, two gunmen approached him and demanded for all his valuables. 

“I was about leaving when these two guys surfaced from nowhere and demanded for everything I had on me at gun point. They actually succeeded in taking my phones, money, jewelry and other valuables, but just as they were about collecting my car key, one woman who had noticed what was happening screamed and alerted people at the accident scene. And that was when the gunmen ran away,” Paul told P.M. NEWS this morning.

The gunmen, according to Paul, “said they were not going to beat or shoot me, but warned that I must cooperate with them. It was so funny because they said what they wanted was their own share from P Square’s ‘largesse’. But I just thank God that they didn’t hurt me.”

Few weeks back, another entertainer, Denrele Edun and his friends were attacked by robbers on their way from a musical video shooting on Victoria Island. Some of the valuables they lost to the robbers include blackberry phones, money and laptops.

Also Wizkid got his car snatched on same Third mainland bridge some weeks ago 

Also, popular Yoruba actor, Muyiwa Ademolan was last month robbed of his Montero automobile and other valuables by armed robbers.

A few days before Muyiwa was attacked, his friend and business associate, Kazeem Afolayan, CEO of Epsalum Movies also lost his Honda Acura to armed robbers, while fast-rising Hip Hop singer, Wiz Kid, also lost his car to robbers in Lagos recently.

In Lebanon, men are legally allowed to have sex with animals, but the animals must be female.
Having sexual relations with a male animal is punishable by death.
(Like THAT makes sense.)

In Bahrain, a male doctor may legally examine a woman’s genitals, but is prohibited from looking directly at them during the examination. He may only see their reflection in a mirror.
(Do they look different reversed?)

Muslims are banned from looking at the genitals of a
corpse. This also applies to undertakers. The organs of the deceased must be covered with a brick or piece of wood at all times.
(A brick??)

The penalty for masturbation in Indonesia is decapitation.
(…so they’ll never know they went blind?)

There are men in Guam whose full-time job is to travel the countryside and deflower young virgins, who pay them for the privilege of having sex for the first time…
Reason: Under Guam law, it is expressly forbidden for virgins to marry.
(Let’s just think for a minute; is there any job anywhere
else in the world that even comes close to this?)

In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but may only do so with her bare hands. The husband’s lover, on the other hand, may be killed in any manner desired.
(Now this is justice!)

Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool, England -
but only in tropical fish stores.
(But of course!)

In Cali, Colombia, a woman may only have sex with her husband, and the first time this happens, her mother
must be in the room to witness the act.
(Makes one shudder at the thought.)

In Santa Cruz, Bolivia, it is illegal for a man to have sex with a woman and her daughter at the same time.
(I presume this was a big enough problem that they had
to pass this law?)

In Maryland, it is illegal to sell condoms from vending
machines with one exception: Prophylactics may be
dispensed from a vending machine only “in places where alcoholic beverages are sold for consumption on the premises.”
(Is this a great country or what? Not as great as Guam!)

Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
(Who volunteers for this stuff?)

Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
(Is that why Flipper was always smiling?)

The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
(Hummm….I won’t touch THAT one!)

The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30
times its own weight and always falls over on its right
side when intoxicated.
(From drinking little bottles of…? Wonder how much the the govt.
paid for this relevant bit of research??)

Butterflies taste with their feet.
(Ah, geez)

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than it’s brain.
(I know some people like that.)

Starfish don’t have brains.
(I know some people like that, too)

In Port Harcourt, pregnant widow of slain policeman begs Police, Army authorities to arrest her husband’s killers

THIRTY-YEAR –OLD Peter Okeke, a Police Constable with the Rivers State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had left home to supervise an on-going filling station project located at Onne in Onne Local Council of  the state.

As he hugged his sons and kissed his pregnant wife, Beatrice, goodbye, there was nothing whatsoever to suggest the enormity of the tragedy that would befall the young family before the day was over.

Constable Okeke was allegedly shot dead by a soldier, a few hours later, following an argument over a roadblock.

Sources told The Guardian the road had been barricaded by RCC, a construction company doing major rehabilitation work on the road.

A group of soldiers drove onto the barricaded road and assumed that Constable Okeke had blocked it, ordered him to dismantle the barricade.

An argument ensued when Okeke told the soldiers he did not barricade the road and if it would be opened, then the workers of the construction company were in a better position to do so.

“The soldiers became angry and jumped down from their Hillux truck and started beating the Constable.

“As they were beating him, he was shouting, telling them he was a policeman and that they should please not kill him.

“But it was of no use as one of the soldiers shot him at close range and they drove off.”

Okeke died while being rushed to hospital.

According to an eyewitness who pleaded anonymity: “The filling station where Constable Okeke was, was close to a road under construction by RCC.

“When the soldiers arrived and found the road blocked because of the on-going reconstruction by RCC, they ordered Constable Okeke to remove the barricade but he told them he did not set up the barricade.

“At that point, the soldiers came down and beat him severely.

“One of them then shot him and he died shortly after the soldiers callously drove away, abandoning the man in a pool of his own blood.”

That was on Tuesday, April 15, 2011 and more than 40 days after, the widow, Mrs. Beatrice Okeke, who is also a police officer, told The Guardian she could hardly believe that the authorities were keeping silent over the killing of her husband.

She said since the death of her husband, her children, eight and three years old respectively, have been ill and she did not have money to take them to the hospital or send them to school, “and nobody just cares.”

She said when the matter was reported to the Police Headquarters, Moscow Road, Port Harcourt, the Command assured her that the killer would be brought to book.

A panel, according to the widow, was set up to investigate the matter after the Army reported at the State CID, but lamented that since then, she has not heard anything either from the Police or the Army.

The widow alleged that the case file on the matter had been taken to Calabar without her knowledge, even as she begged the authorities not to allow the matter to be swept under carpet, considering her condition and her ailing children.

“I see this as a very disheartening situation in which a police officer, a good Nigerian citizen, who served his country is shot dead by soldiers and nobody cares.

“If the police officer had killed some other person in a similar manner, the law would have been invoked to take adequate care of the errant policeman.

“The silence over the death of my husband means that police officers have no protection under the law, and so soldiers can kill them like flies.

“Really, the Nigerian nation by this silence, is saying that soldiers can kill and go free.

“If so then, I think people should now summit themselves to the military and not the democratic dispensation we are talking about.”

Expressing his concern over the silence by authorities, a   father of three, Mr. Magnus Nduli, said it would be very sad if the Federal Government failed to bring to book, those soldiers in the Hilux truck, who were behind the killing of Mr. Okeke.

He called on the authorities to listen to the cry of the pregnant widow, adding: “ This woman has two kids and she is expecting the third soon. The responsibility will be too much for her with the murder of her husband by soldiers.

“She needs assistance while the law must take its course.”

Army Second Amphibious Brigade spokesman, Major, Aminu Iliyas, who confirmed the incident to The Guardian said, the panel set up to investigate the matter was still working on the report, adding that it would not be reasonable to pre-empt the report of the panel.

He denied the allegation that authorities were silent over the matter, saying:  “That a panel was set up means the security agents are serious and would leave no stone un-turned to get those who killed Mr. Okeke.”

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says there is no going back on its planned "action" to protest the non-implementation of the 2009 FG/ASUU agreement.

ASUU had on May 17 given notice of an "action" beginning from an unspecified date in June to compel the National Assembly to pass a bill before it on their demands.

The union had demanded an upward review of the retirement age of professors from 65 to 70 years, upgrade of facilities and proper funding for research in the universities.

The president of the union, Ukachukwu Awuzie told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday via telephone that members would not relent in the struggle on the implementation of their demands.

He said he had directed branches of ASUU nationwide to meet and pass a resolution on the issue after which the National Executive Committee (NEC) would take a position.

On the likely effect of the "action" on the students, Mr Awuzie said the struggle was not intended to disrupt the school system, but "to ensure a better academic operation in the universities."

"I want to say that we regret any inconvenience our planned action would have on both the students and the parents.

"It is not our wish to disrupt academic calendar because we equally gain nothing from doing this.

"Rather, we are seeking means of ensuring that things are done rightly by giving the education sector its rightful position," Mr Awuzie said.

The ASUU president said he could not understand why the National Assembly was foot dragging in passing the agreement into law.

National Assembly delay

"I do not know whether there is a special way of passing this bill that had been begging for attention for years.

"I also doubt if the lawmakers were equally sensitive to what the non-implementation of the said agreement had caused the academic community, students and parents and what it will cause them in future," he added.

Mr Awuzie stressed: "Before the 2009 ASUU/FG agreement, the union had embarked on prolonged strikes at various stages, and because this was not the only way out in settling any dispute, we agreed to sit at a roundtable."

NAN

The Internet search and advertising leader will work with MasterCard Inc, the world's second-largest credit and debit card processing network, to launch the system, the source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

Google has teamed with MasterCard and Citigroup Inc to develop the system, the Wall Street Journal reported in March.

It has now signed up retail partners Macy's Inc, American Eagle Outfitters Inc and Subway, though it is unclear if the project will be launched nationwide or just in New York initially, the Journal cited sources as saying Tuesday.

Google invited reporters to attend a "partner event" on Thursday in New York to demonstrate what it called its "latest innovations." It plans to unveil a mobile payments system that will run on the Android operating system and be available on phones from Sprint Nextel Corp, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed Google would launch the program. Citigroup did not respond to requests for comment. Google, Sprint and MasterCard declined comment.

About a decade after they were dreamed up by engineers and marketers, mobile wallets are still far from commonplace in the United States, stymied by industry infighting, consumer tastes and regulatory hurdles.

That has not stopped banks, phone makers and technology companies -- fearful of being left behind -- from trumpeting the concept.

Shoppers abroad, especially in Asia, can already wave cellphones at the check-out counter to pay for everything from groceries to gasoline.

Elbowing to the Front

Now, a growing number of mobile operators, banks, technology companies and card processing networks like Visa Inc and MasterCard are vying to gain a foothold in the still-small but high-potential U.S. mobile payments market.

Three of the top U.S. mobile carriers -- AT&T Inc, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA -- are also looking for bank and network partners to launch their Isis mobile payments venture. The companies recently scaled back initial plans to build a new payment processing network that would have competed with dominant industry players Visa and MasterCard.

Since last year, Visa has tested pay-by-phone technology with several large U.S. banks, including Bank of America Corp and Wells Fargo & Co.

"There's room for more than one competitor," said Google Ventures Managing Partner Bill Maris, speaking about the industry in general.

Such services would appeal to consumers if they can help them save money or shorten their time in line at the supermarket check-out, he added.

"The experience of buying things will be better, faster, cheaper," he said.

Details are sketchy, but the Journal reported Google was unlikely to get a cut of transactions, focusing instead on benefiting by helping retailers target ads and discount offers to Android users close to stores.

Currently, credit card companies charge merchants transaction fees. Other players, such as wireless operators AT&T and phone makers from Research In Motion to Apple Inc, are likely to demand a cut of sales.

This puts U.S. retailers in the uncomfortable position of possibly surrendering more margins.

REUTERS

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) website was forced to shut down on Wednesday following an attack by a Nigerian hacker group, NaijaCyberHactivists. The group is reportedly reacting to the government's plan to spend N1 billion on President Goodluck Jonathan's May 29th inauguration.

The hackers' warned of reprisals this Saturday in a letter titled "A Visit from Hell", if President Jonathan decides to retain his budget. The nine-paragraph letter, expressed frustration at the post-election violence and the governments repeated claims that the recent violence is merely one of the travails of a growing democracy.

A picture of the hacked website was published by an online media house, which also reported that this was the second attack on a government website by NaijaCyberHactivists. Although the media house claimed that the NDDC site is operational again, repeated visits to www.nddc.gov.ng yesterday delivered the same http 404 error messages: "the site could not be found."

The NDDC head of Corporate Affairs, Toye Abosede, confirmed the attack to NEXT in a telephone interview. "Some hackers invaded our site. They removed some of our pictures and replaced it with other things," he said.

Mr Abosede said the commission was forced to shut down its own site following the hacking and believes that other agencies may have been affected. "We actually shut it down," he said.

"Naturally, there must be some sort of investigation". He added that NDDC is going to work on beefing up its Internet security as the incident has shown that the site is not safe.

The hackers, whose mission is to "Hand over the whip to the horse," said that President Jonathan's decision to spend N1 billion worsens the country‘s situation. "An inauguration is simply an induction into office, AND NOT a costly long-running, nor a series of open-ended events organised into convoluted books and chapters," the letter said.

Other inaugurations

However, research by NEXT showed that N1 billion (about $6.5 million) for an inauguration is not as outlandish as it initially seems. The late President Shehu Musa Yar'Adua spent N820 million, South Africa's Jacob Zuma spent $10.6 million (N1.6 billion) for his inauguration in 2009 and President Barrack Obama broke U.S. records with a whopping $150 million by conservative estimates. Conversely, Britain has no inauguration ceremony.

There is merely ‘the kissing of hands,' a brief ceremony where the new prime minister pledges loyalty to the Queen and to uphold the law, and then returns to No. 10 Downing Street to deliver a speech.

Not bluffing

The group also demanded that the ACN's Benue gubernatorial candidate, Steve Ugbah, and other people who were detained for their connection to him, be released; and that the perpetrators in the murder of one Tochukwu Uzukwu, are 'fished' out.

Mr Uzukwu, was a 21 year-old apprentice in Bayelsa, who was allegedly forced by members of Bayelsa State's special task force, Famou Tamgbe, to jump into a river at gun-point. Mr Uzukwu could not swim. His body is still being kept by the police.

The group who signed the letter "In source code we trust, we fighting for a cause, to make them account for all OUR money in their purse," threatened that if the demands are not met by Saturday, they will cripple government, telecommunication, and financial networks.

"We are not bluffing. We are watching with interest and we give you till Saturday to meet our TERMS." The letter said.

A Visit from HELL

Mr President, With great sadness in our heart we bring you this message.

The Nigerian General Elections of April 2011 have come and gone. But, yet again, like all important functions of the Nigerian political system, they have provoked violent uprisings in parts of Nigeria – this time, mostly in the Northern States of Nigeria – and they have left a legacy of blood and tears, and of inter-group animosity and hate.

Nigerians have endured it all – usually assured by political self-seekers and false prophets that such problems are temporary birth pangs of a new country. But the events of the past April, and of recent months, have at last blown away all this self-deception and we are saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

To worsen the matter, the FG is to spend N1b on Jonathan inauguration

An inauguration is simply an induction into office, the formal transfer of power to an individual AND NOT a costly long-running festival nor a series of open-ended events organized into convoluted books and chapters.

Excerpt:

We, NaijaCyberHactivists are therefore joining voice with other well-meaning Nigerians and WE SAY “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”! WE ARE WATCHING and we promise that

1.) If the FG decides to go on with the N1b budget

2.) If the killers of “Mr. Tochukwu Uzukwu” aint fished out

3.) All those detained with the arrest and detention of Prof. Steve Torkuma Ugbah are not released

WE WILL

1.) Launch an attack against ALL financial institutions

2.) Launch an attack against the epayment bodies in the country

3.) Take down the Networks

4.) Cripple the telecommunication companies

5.) Take down all government sites.

We are not bluffing. .We are watching with interest and we give you till saturday to meet our TERMS.

“In source code we trust

We fighting for a cause

To make them account for all OUR money in their purse

MISSION: Hand over the whip to the horse”.

Naijacyberhactivists@yahoo.com

In the euphoria of the Children's Day celebrations, the popular MTN-sponsored family television show, ‘Who Wants To be A Millionaire', commences its annual Children's Special Edition today. The popular television show franchise, which has incorporated several spinoffs within the show, including celebrity and Valentine's Day editions, amongst others, will once again accommodate children between the ages of 8 and 13 on the popular hot seat.

Speaking at a press conference held yesterday in Ikeja, Innocent Oboh, master brand manager, MTN Nigeria, highlights the importance of MTN's Who Wants to Be A Millionaire Children's Special Edition.

"The Children's' Special Edition is one of the special editions of Who Wants To be A Millionaire, designed to reward, encourage and stimulate the culture of academic excellence among primary and secondary school children across the country by giving them the opportunity to play for N10 million. The prize money is, however, released to them only as scholarship,"Oboh said.

Young winners

Past editions of Who Wants To be A Millionaire's Children's Special Edition have been graced by young intelligent kids who walk out of the show with various cash prizes. Among them include 12-year-old Mubarak Alaaya, a junior secondary school student of Vale College in Ibadan, who won a million naira; Teniola Tope-Ojo, a junior secondary 2 student of Holy Child College, Ikoyi, Lagos, bagged in N2 million naira; and Ihuoma Chukwuemeka Emmanuel, a student at Christ the Redeemer's College, Sagamu, also won himself a N1 million naira scholarship.

Revealing why the show decides to award these prizes as scholarships rather than in cash, Tunji Adebakin, general manager of Ultima Studios, revealed that although the money is made available and managed by Skye Bank, the funds will only be accessed for education purposes.

"The prize is to cater for the education of the winner," he said. We don't want a situation where the parents of the winning student end up mismanaging the prize."

Dark, boiling clouds on a May evening don't make much of an impression in the Midwest. They wreak havoc - but always down the road or in the next town or two counties away. Hollie Hounschell, 26, was getting ready to go to a party on May 22 as the clouds approached. With one ear on the TV as she painted her nails, she noted that big hail was falling in Webb City, some 8 miles (13 km) distant.

The doorbell rang. Hounschell's ex Joe Winters was delivering their daughter Abigail, who is 4, after a visit with her daddy. When Hollie opened the front door, she noticed lightning slash the sky far behind him.
Suddenly, the voice from the TV was shouting: "Take cover! Get to the basement!" Not everyone had a basement. Bewildered neighbors appeared at the door begging for help. In all, five people hurried down the hall and huddled in a tiny basement as wood splinters, shards of glass and needles of fiberglass insulation scoured the air. The house exploded. The neighborhood exploded. (See pictures of the twister's destruction in Joplin, Mo.)

Twenty-four hours later, as a chilly rain drenched the ruins of this southwestern Missouri town, Hounschell recalled struggling from the debris after the storm passed, teetering in her black dress and high heels. Emerging from the basement, she could see Joplin High School three blocks away, down the hill behind her house. That was new. Every manmade structure, every leaf on every tree that had obscured the view minutes earlier, was gone.
The idea of cleaning up Joplin seemed unimaginable. Across 3 sq. mi. (8 sq km) of wasteland - smashed and twisted cars, ripped and crumpled siding, shattered brick, muddy furniture, bed linens flapping from stripped and dying trees, gas-fed fires flickering - scattered people picked almost at random to fill boxes with soggy clothing, ruined electronics and woeful fragments of children's toys.

Perhaps a third of this city of 50,000 residents, a city that took decades to build, was unbuilt in a matter of moments by the killer tornado, which left at least 117 people dead and hundreds more injured. Clean up is a phrase that doesn't compute. In the coming weeks and months, Joplin will have to scrape bare a blasted hole in its heart.
Many hundreds of houses are gone. Restaurants, strip malls, grocery stores, drugstores, big-box outlets - gone. The high school is a wreck. St. John's Hospital is gutted. Power poles are snapped. Steel fence posts are bent flat to the ground. Thousands of cars are crumpled like soda cans. A forest of big, beautiful trees is uprooted, denuded. (See a video of the Joplin, Mo., tornado.)

On May 23, people spoke in whispers and left sentences half finished. Jim Winters, 51 - Joe's dad - kept telling the story of watching a stranger bleed to death after he and several other would-be rescuers lifted a wall that was pinning the man's body. "His skin just went white," he said. "I've watched a lot of horror movies, but ..." Jim's voice trailed off with a quick shake of his head.
What is there to say?
A small dresser of clothes survived, askew in the rubble of what used to be a bedroom. Joe Winters hoisted it and loaded it into a van. Hollie Hounschell regarded a cell-phone charger plucked from a mess of sodden plaster, then looked away.
May 24 dawned clear and sunny. Exhausted search teams trooped back into the ruins, hoping to complete their hunt for buried bodies, living and dead, "house by house, car by car, block by block," as Missouri Governor Jay Nixon told NPR. The governor expected the death toll to rise, and he hoped the grim business could be finished before evening, when the clouds would boil up again.

• The Joplin tornado, which killed at least 125 people, is thought to be the worst since records began 60 years ago
  

Following the devastating tornado which ripped though Joplin at the weekend, these satellite images show the extent of the damage.

After and before aerial photos show the shocking extent of the damage caused by the twister in the Missouri city - this image show a six-block path of destruction.

At least 125 people were killed by the twister on Sunday, which authorities say is the deadliest single tornado in America since modern record-keeping began over 60 years ago.

Devastation: The satellite image on the left shows where the tornado ripped through Joplin and left the six-block scar across the city - and on the right was the Missouri city as it was before the tragedy

A further 750 people were taken to hospitals in the area and these images show lucky some people were, and how close they came to having their homes destroyed.

Joplin is reckoned to be the eighth deadliest in U.S. history - The so called Tri-State Tornado which hit Missouri, Illinois and Indiana on March 18, 1925, is believed to be the most deadly. That four-hour twister killed 695 people.

Meanwhile powerful storms roared through middle America again yesterday, with weak tornadoes touching down in isolated spots and severe thunderstorms threatening such strikes in several states.

The National Weather Service issued tornado watches and a series of warnings in a dozen states, stretching northeast from Texas though the Mississippi River valley to Ohio.

Picture	Name	Date of death	Official cause of death	Fame	Age
	Brian Jones	July 3, 1969	Having drowned in a swimming pool,[7] the coroner's report stated "death by misadventure."[8]	Rolling Stones founder and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist.	27 years and 125 days
	Jimi Hendrix	September 18, 1970	Autopsy showed he asphyxiated on vomit after combining sleeping pills with wine.[9]	Pioneering electric guitarist, singer and songwriter for The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Band of Gypsys.	27 years and 295 days
	Janis Joplin	October 4, 1970	Probable heroin overdose.[10]	Lead vocalist and songwriter for Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Kozmic Blues Band and Full Tilt Boogie Band.	27 years and 258 days
	Jim Morrison	July 3, 1971	Cause of death listed as "heart failure"; however, no autopsy was performed.[11]	Lead singer, songwriter and video director for The Doors.	27 years and 207 days
	Kurt Cobain	April 5, 1994	Ruled as suicide by shotgun.[12]	Founding member, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for Nirvana.	27 years and 44 days

Equal parts music history book and visual journey, The 27s weaves the lives of Robert Johnson, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Hutchence, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and more than two-dozen other musicians into a tight narrative. Along the way, Hunter’s art complements and spins off, adding layers to the story with symbolism, artifacts, and color palettes that reflect the era. Josh Hunter told Huffington Post that, "The artwork tells its own story as well. There are these other layers, these hidden symbols and cryptic messages that, if you're alert to them, you're going to find we're packing-in as well." [5] In addition, The 27s feature twenty-two original portraits. The book's creators gave an example on how the art adds more to the story in an interview with WNEW: "We wanted visual stimulation. The art correspond with the words here, supporting the story, visualizing it in an artistic interpretation. Then there are times when the art tell a different story or add to the words. Around Brian Jones' death in The 27s there's a photo of a freshly dug grave adorned with flowers. The overlay of white butterflies is an example of the latter. It tells a story about Brian's death that's not described using words."[6]
The book's storyline snakes through the history of rock in a largely linear fashion (although The 27s can also be read at random),[7] albeit with intriguing detours into the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche as it applies to music, numerology, astrology, and the findings that more rock stars have died at 27 than at any other age.[8]

“There are no words to match this moment,” Oprah said Wednesday as she brought down the curtain on her syndicated daytime talk show, while all around her, media reports rained down about The End of the Oprah Winfrey Era.
“Today, there will be no guest,” Oprah told Wednesday’s gaily dressed studio-audience members, who’d been instructed to wear bright colors, according to news reports.

“This last hour is about me saying thank you. It is my love letter to you. I want to leave you all with the lessons that have been the anchor for my life and the ones that I hold most precious,” she said in the finale of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” dressed in an elegant peach sheath, diamonds bobbing brilliantly off her wrist and ears.
That, in marked contrast to the excesses of her show’s Monday and Tuesday broadcasts, which, under the umbrella name “Surprise Oprah! A Farewell Spectacular,” had featured wave after wave of celebrities making the pilgrimage to the United Center in Chicago to praise her. On Wednesday, she called the two-day walk-up to the finale a “love intervention on steroids for me.”
“You will not be getting a car or a treat,” she told her very last studio crowd pretty much right off the bat. That was smart, because there is an expectation on the part of “Oprah” audiences that they will receive new cars, or Vera Wang wedding gowns, or honeymoon packages if they’re lucky enough to be in the studio when Oprah is marking momentous occasions — such as the first episode of this last season, when she gave every audience member a trip to Australia.
Some in the audience for the finale had worked hard to get there, submitting essays on Oprah.com about why they should be among the lucky ones to snag tickets, according to news reports. The final episode was taped Tuesday.
On the other hand, they would get to tell their grandchildren that they were there the day the queen of daytime talk TV abdicated after 25 years to devote herself to her ratings-hungry Oprah Winfrey Network on cable. OWN, in fact, went dark at 4 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday; viewers instead saw a placeholder directing them to watch “The Oprah Winfrey Show” finale on their local broadcast station. (OWN is a venture with Silver Spring-based Discovery Communications.)
“Everybody has a calling, and your real job in life is to figure out what that is, and get about the job of doing it,” Oprah told viewers Wednesday.
“Don’t waste any more time,” she urged. “Start embracing the life that is calling you, and use your life to serve the world.”
During her hour-long master class on life, Oprah also addressed the culture of victimhood.
“Nobody but you is responsible for your life. It doesn’t matter what your mama did; it doesn’t matter what your daddy didn’t do. You are responsible for your life. . . .
“ ‘Jerry Maguire’ was just a movie — no one completes you,” she told her studio audience, which listened somberly.

Full coverage: Oprah’s Final Shows



“There are no words to match this moment,” Oprah said Wednesday as she brought down the curtain on her syndicated daytime talk show, while all around her, media reports rained down about The End of the Oprah Winfrey Era.
“Today, there will be no guest,” Oprah told Wednesday’s gaily dressed studio-audience members, who’d been instructed to wear bright colors, according to news reports.

“This last hour is about me saying thank you. It is my love letter to you. I want to leave you all with the lessons that have been the anchor for my life and the ones that I hold most precious,” she said in the finale of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” dressed in an elegant peach sheath, diamonds bobbing brilliantly off her wrist and ears.
That, in marked contrast to the excesses of her show’s Monday and Tuesday broadcasts, which, under the umbrella name “Surprise Oprah! A Farewell Spectacular,” had featured wave after wave of celebrities making the pilgrimage to the United Center in Chicago to praise her. On Wednesday, she called the two-day walk-up to the finale a “love intervention on steroids for me.”
“You will not be getting a car or a treat,” she told her very last studio crowd pretty much right off the bat. That was smart, because there is an expectation on the part of “Oprah” audiences that they will receive new cars, or Vera Wang wedding gowns, or honeymoon packages if they’re lucky enough to be in the studio when Oprah is marking momentous occasions — such as the first episode of this last season, when she gave every audience member a trip to Australia.
Some in the audience for the finale had worked hard to get there, submitting essays on Oprah.com about why they should be among the lucky ones to snag tickets, according to news reports. The final episode was taped Tuesday.
On the other hand, they would get to tell their grandchildren that they were there the day the queen of daytime talk TV abdicated after 25 years to devote herself to her ratings-hungry Oprah Winfrey Network on cable. OWN, in fact, went dark at 4 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday; viewers instead saw a placeholder directing them to watch “The Oprah Winfrey Show” finale on their local broadcast station. (OWN is a venture with Silver Spring-based Discovery Communications.)
“Everybody has a calling, and your real job in life is to figure out what that is, and get about the job of doing it,” Oprah told viewers Wednesday.
“Don’t waste any more time,” she urged. “Start embracing the life that is calling you, and use your life to serve the world.”
During her hour-long master class on life, Oprah also addressed the culture of victimhood.
“Nobody but you is responsible for your life. It doesn’t matter what your mama did; it doesn’t matter what your daddy didn’t do. You are responsible for your life. . . .
“ ‘Jerry Maguire’ was just a movie — no one completes you,” she told her studio audience, which listened somberly.
She has been able to do the show for 25 years without missing a workday, she said, because of “my team and Jesus. Because nothing but the hand of God has made this possible for me.”
Wednesday’s finale enjoyed a huge promotional push. Ads ran on the season finale of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” and the season’s final performance episode of Fox’s “American Idol,” among other shows. The ads compared Oprah and her farewell to broadcast-news legend Walter Cronkite, late-night TV icon Johnny Carson and the series finale of “M*A*S*H,” which remains the most-watched TV broadcast in history in terms of percentage of the country’s population tuning in.
“I won’t say goodbye,” Oprah said Wednesday as the hour came to a close. “I’ll just say, ‘Until we meet again.’ To God be the glory.”
By “until we meet again,” she means January 2012, when OWN has said it will launch the prime-time show “Oprah’s Next Chapter,” on which Oprah is expected to be seen regularly, globe-trotting with celebrity pals — although OWN has been sketchy on the details.
But before that, in September, OWN is scheduled to start presenting reruns of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which will be selected by Oprah and some of her famous friends. Oprah will appear in introductions to those episodes.

Why They Want Me Out of Jonathan’s Government - Deazani Allison-Maduekwe

Outgoing minister of Petroleum Resources, Deziani Alison-Madueke, has said that said those angling for her exclusion in the next cabinet are doing so because she has created a transparent process and level playing field that has denied them the opportunity tocontinue ‘business as usual’ in the oil and gas sector of the economy.

 

She dismissed them as those simply afraid of President Goodluck Jonathan’s reform agenda in the oil and gas sector of the economy.

 

Fielding questions from our correspondent, against the backdrop of criticism mounting against her nomination as a minister in the next dispensation, Alison-Madueke insisted that there is no going back on ongoing reforms of the sector by Mr. President.

 

“They are fighting President Jonathan because since assuming duties as president of this country he has taken the uncharacteristic step to break the cartel in the petroleum sector that had almost strangulated the economy for over a decade. That is why the frenzied and sudden campaign of calumny by the cartel, all in a bid to deter me from carrying out Mr. President’s reform agenda,” Alison-Madueke stated.

 

She said never again will Nigerians and the government allow the return of the age-long cartel in the country’s oil and gas sector which, has before now deprived millions of Nigerians the benefits of adequate and regular supply of petroleum products across the country.

 

While she remains concerned by the activities of those who are bent on frustrating ongoing reforms of the sector, the minister maintained that despite the unjustified criticism and unfounded allegations against her, her greatest joy since she came on board as minister of petroleum resources is that, “a vast majority of Nigerians are happy with President Jonathan for the far reaching decisions the government has taken to stabilize the sector”.

 

According to her, “this explains why they voted massively for Mr. President in the just concluded general election”, stating that the ministry under her leadership has performed well in the up and down stream sector of the economy.

 

She noted that those fighting her in the media “were doing so because we have been able to frustrate their efforts in strangulating the economy through their devilish black market and questionable profiteering at the expense of the Nigeria people.   “I would not want to join issues with those criticizing me because they are crying foul that through us Mr. President has broken the old order where the common man had to spend nights on queues in petrol stations and pay higher prices for products.  We have also ensured that the business in the entire oil and gas industry of the economy is no longer business as usual. They can no longer undermine government's good intentions for the sector and cause untold hardship for millions of our people,” she said adding that the ministry under her leadership has also initiated a 24-months rehabilitation programme for the three refineries in the country, following Mr. President’s directive.

 

She maintained that this was the first time the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, “is undertaking such gigantic and extensive rehabilitation project without asking the Federal Government for funds."

 

The minister said “once the comprehensive rehabilitation of the refineries is completed, the country will considerably reduce importation of PMS (Petrol) and become self-sufficient in kerosene and diesel production, thus ending the long years of sufferings of the ordinary Nigerian”.

 

She stated further that President Jonathan last month launched a gas revolution that will create over one million jobs for Nigerians and also open up the economy in the areas of fertilizer blending and production of other petrochemical products in the country.

 

She also spoke on the ministry’s efforts in pushing for the passage of the local content bill and the ongoing Petroleum Industry bill, stressing that, “we are doing everything possible to ensure that the bill is passed into law before the end of the sixth National Assembly”.

 

“We have done all these things for the interests of Nigerians and Mr. President has been very supportive of our programme and we are working hard to ensure that we do not disappoint Nigerians,” she said.

 

A senior industry source that also spoke to our correspondent on the issue said her effort in dismantling cartel in the chain of distribution and supply of petroleum products in the country is commendable.

 

“With the passage into law and efficient implementation of the Nigerian Content Bill, it is evident that out of the approximately US$20 billion annual spend in the petroleum sector of the economy, about 45 per cent retention in the country has now become achievable. It is the passion and the efforts of the Minister that saw the passage of the law and this effort is worth commending”.

 

Industry expert who spoke to our correspondent, on the condition of anonymity agreed with the Honourable minister that “before now, investments in the gas sector was considered as very unrewarding but since the current minister assumed duties, she has reversed the fortune. Before now, it was inappropriate pricing that has been the bane of the industry but with her efforts, Nigeria has been able to put in place an appropriate fiscal system and commercial framework that has encouraged upstream and midstream investors to start investing in the sector”.   The source stated further that “the new gas pricing is projected to gradually increased from $1 per 1000 standard cubic feet (scf) of gas to $2.5 in the next two years and this has spurred investment in the natural gas resource development. This has also reassured manufacturers of access to clean and affordable fuel for their industries.”

 

The new investment in natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the source said “is going to displace and replace kerosene, diesel and fuel oil as preferred fuel for home cooking and the industry because it is cleaner and cheaper,” stressing that “gas revolution is one major step in re-industrialization of the nation. It has the capacity to create job across the country”.

However, a petroleum lawyer, who is privy to happenings within the industry aver that contrary to Dezeani Allison-Madueke`s claims, her arrogance may be her greatest undoing. It has caused her to be excluded from the list of ministerial nominees from her state.

Who gets ministerial appointment is the exclusive privilege of President Goodluck Jonathan, the source added.

Moreover, Section147, subsection (2) of the Nigerian constitution, declares that any appointment to the office of Minister of the Government of the Federation shall, if the nomination of any person to such office is confirmed by the Senate, be made by the President”.

The lawyer further stated:

Also, the preceding subsection (1) is very clear on this matter, it states “that there shall be such offices of Ministers of the Government of the Federation as may be established by the President”.  

Rick Warren of Saddleback Church (Lake Forest, CA) has written seven principles of project management that he learned from Nehemiah’s rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls. In summary:

1. Simplification
   Nehemiah kept his plan simple. He organized around natural groupings of people already associating together, such as the priests, the men of Jericho, and the sons of Hassenaah. If an organization already naturally exists, try to work through it and with it.
2. Participation
   Work with those who want to work. Nehemiah’s response was to ignore the shirkers.
3. Delegation
   When you’re organizing, you should make specific assignments. Break down goals into smaller tasks. Develop clear job descriptions. Match the right person with the right task. Somebody needs to assume specific responsibility.
4. Motivation
   When you organize any project, help people “own” it.
5. Cooperation
   When we cooperate together, when there is teamwork, there is great growth. Cooperation is a greater motivator than competition, and it lasts because you feel like you’re together on a winning team.
6. Administration
   Even after you delegate, you must supervise the work. Good organizations establish clear lines of authority. People do what you inspect not what you expect.
7. Appreciation
   Do you know who’s doing a good job in your organization? If you do, are you telling them they’re doing a good job?