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MY (29)
Scriptwriter and actress, Nuella Njubigbo, is gradually becoming a household name but her success is not without a scent of scandals, with one of them being her alleged romance with top movie director cum producer, Iyke Odife. In this interview with ADA ONYEMA, she talks about her career and her relationship with Odife What’s new about Nuella Njubigbo?I’m writing a script that will be shot in Spain. It will be an Afro-Spanish film. We’re going to use two Spanish actors – a female and a male – and Nigerian actors will also be there.
Why Spanish?
It is going to be a mixed script fusing the two parties together. Although they don’t speak English Language, we have sent the script to them and they are translating it. They are working on it and I’m still trying to inject the particular theme that I want into it. For now, we’re having conferences and correcting ourselves. They already have the idea of what we want and everything is being done to achieve it.
What is the story line?
The story is about a girl that was taken out of this country at a very early age, simply because she lost her parents at a very tender age. It paints the picture of all her struggle in Europe, how she went through negative experiences. It is about child trafficking and the movie is for the cinema; it is not the regular kind of movie that I used to do. We’re not limiting it to Nigeria; it will go to about five to 10 countries of the world.
Are you producing the movie?
No. I’m just writing the script and I will also act in it.
How come you have not done any movie that went to the cinema before now?
Actually, I have done one and the film was entitled, Room Service, and I acted alongside Mercy Johnson. The truth is that I have stopped doing anything that comes my way, but I still have other blockbuster movies in the market now. I’m very choosy when it comes to taking scripts, because I’m a writer and should be able to determine a good script. I’m having more demands from people who want me to write scripts for them, but I can’t do that because I have to get myself involved with acting too. I’m choosy and can’t do anything I see.
You once told us that you have slowed down in writing. When did you pick it up again?
I slowed down in writing because I wanted to start working on special scripts. I want to write a script that can be of Hollywood standard. I want to do something that people out there will reckon with. I don’t write like before again; anything that I’m coming out with now will be a blockbuster. I can’t stop writing, it is in me and sometimes I miss it.
Where does your passion really lie? Is it in acting or writing?
I can’t really say because I love the two creative professions. I can’t point my finger and say that I love this one more than the other; it is just that acting for me is more demanding than writing. I have passion for the two.
Are you in any relationship now?
Yes, I’m and I don’t want to talk about the person now. You will know at the right time.
Many people still believe that Iyke Odife is the man in your life. Can you clear the air on this?
I have made this statement a number of times: I’m not dating Iyke Odife, simple. Iyke Odife brought me into the industry and he is my very good friend. He will remain my very good friend.
We learnt you dumped him for another rich guy.
I have never had any romantic relationship with Iyke, so how can I dump him? I’m in a relationship, but it is not with (Iyke) Odife. I’m in relationship with a young man and I don’t want to talk about it.
Is he an industry practitioner?
No, he is not an industry person. (Laughs) Just leave it; I don’t want to talk about him now.
Many people believe that Nuella is now glamorous. What is the secret?
It’s true, the industry has changed my life so much and a lot of good things are beginning to happen to me now. Although acting has its low moments as a result of the controversial side of it, there are things you can’t do freely anymore because you will not want people to see you in a wrong direction, but the industry has helped me. It has helped me financially, socially, and in every sense of it. I will say that it has really helped me in life. I have got a lot of things since I became an actress, and I can go to places now. Before, I was into the supply business and it wasn’t easy at all, but now it is easier for me. Acting opens doors for you anywhere and anytime. Things that would have been hard for you to get are made easier. Things come your way easily because people will always want to help or do things for you.
Apart from this business and acting, what other things are you into?
I’m an actress, movie scriptwriter and a business woman. I don’t do anything else, but what I do has been satisfying me financially.
Were you removed from President Jonathan’s campaign list? Your name was there but we didn’t hear your jingles or see you on the screen.
I didn’t drop out along the way. I was giving my own support in my own way. We need support in what we do, and anybody who supports what I do; I will definitely support that person because it is my career. If anybody wants to help me grow, I will help the person to grow also.
So, what really happened, how are you giving your own support to him?
I don’t what to talk about it.
You are now wearing tattoos, why?
I have had this tattoo for two years now. I got it in 2009; maybe it’s very small that is why you have not noticed it. It is just a normal tattoo and it is a butterfly and I love butterflies because they signify tenderness. Butterflies are very colourful and most of them are very beautiful. They symbolise beauty and tenderness.
But it looks very new; how much did it cost?
(Laughs) Forget it, I won’t tell you that.
Do you have other ones in other parts of your body?
(Laughs) Please next question. Anyway, I don’t have another tattoo on my body.
What is fashion for you?
Fashion is anybody’s personal style; I don’t believe that there is anything called fashion with the meaning that something must go in a particular way. You might dress in one style and I will decide to dress in another style. It is all about what suits everybody. For me, fashion is my style and my fashion is my style.
What are the labels that you wear now?
I still wear Nigerian labels and they look good on me. I wear a lot of foreign brands, but I still wear Nigerian labels. In perfumes, I like Marc Jacobs and Tom Ford. I don’t think that I can wear any other kind of perfume now.
How was growing up like for you?
Growing up was very normal and I was a happy child. It was a small family of my parents and two younger brothers. I was taken care of but not pampered; I had sweet parents who taught me the right things at the proper time.
What are those things that acting has deprived you from doing?
There are just a few things because I’m still myself, but I’m very careful of where I enter and what I do. Before I enter any crowd, I have to make sure of what is happening and the people inside. I have stopped attending events and parties anyhow. I have to be careful now and I must be officially invited before stepping into any gathering.
Don’t your parents feel that you are tarnishing their image and name with scandals?
They have always supported me even when I am at the low moment. They have always lifted me up when I am down. If I complain too much about scandals, they will tell me that I should have known that such things will come up before going into acting. Anytime there is a scandal, the first thing that comes to my mind is my family and I will ask myself, who knows how they will feel if they see this? Surprisingly, they have supported me in these periods because they know what I can do and what I can’t do.
How come you are not close to other actresses?
I’m very friendly with all of them, but I’m just being myself. I have people who I hang out with, but naturally, I’m just myself. I am neither here or there, just like a jelly fish and you can’t hold me down. I keep friends who are real and can open up to me. I don’t like fake friends who cannot be loyal to me.
| 'To my Dear Obama, our son', says Gaddafi, defending attack on rebels | ||||
| 19 Mar 2011, 1757 hrs IST, AGENCIES | ||||
Calling Barack Obama as "our son", Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi sent a message to the US President defending his decision to attack the rebels fighting to overthrow him.
Gaddafi(68) also wrote a letter to the French and British leaders, and the UN Secretary General, saying the Security Council resolution was "void" and violated the UN charter, warning them that they would "regret" any intervention. "Libya is not for you, Libya is for the Libyans," he said. . Details of Gaddafi's letters were released by the Libyan government spokesman at a news conference in Tripoli. Defending his decision to attack rebel cities, Gaddafi told Obama, "Al Qaeda is an armed organisation, passing through Algeria, Mauritania and Mali. What would you do if you found them controlling American cities with the power of weapons? What would you do, so I can follow your example." Trying to strike a personal note, Gaddafi prefaced his letter saying, "To our son, his excellency, Mr Baracka Hussein Obama. I have said to you before, that even if Libya and the United States of America enter into a war, god forbid, you will always remain a son. Your picture will not be changed." In his letter to Nikolas Sarkozy, David Cameron and Ban Ki Moon, Gaddafi said, "Libya is not yours, Libya is for the Libyans. The security council, their resolution is void because it is not according to the charter to interfere with the internal affairs of the country." You have no right. You will regret if you get involved in this, our country. We can never shoot a single bullet on our people, it is Al Qaeda organisation." |
what if my girl was called aharit instead of arit
My girl has always been my closest friend but not one day has she ever told me her
real name . She said her name is arit and many times i go Aight ? and she says Right
. Not one day has she dared to put it all together and say AHARIT !
I wondered why she would never tell me her real name . I wondered not for long as I
asked her to marry me . to which she immediately agreed . She had been waiting for
this for ages .
Now we are about to get married it is just a few days or even weeks away .
And I asked her for the last time What is your name Arit
And she said AHARIT and I looked at her and understood . AHA RIGHT !
He sold his birthright for a meal of porridge He ignored the 'Aharit' . That which
comes After . Show me Temptations and I will ask for the AHARIT .
Now we shall soon be together for ever even after the AHARIT !
Happy Valentine
Ephesians 4:2
Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus Moench, pronounced US: /ˈoʊkrə/, UK: /ˈɒkrə/, known in many English-speaking countries as lady's fingers or gumbo) is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It is valued for its edible green seed pods. Originating in Africa, the plant is cultivated in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions around the world.[1]
If I’m feeling ill, or gloomy, Gari and Okro is the surefire remedy. I, unlike my father am particular about how mucilaginous my Okro is. The “draw” must be light. The Okro must be cut in big chunks, the seeds intact, retaining a bursting texture between the teeth. The cut up Okro must be drowned in water and boiled for barely ten minutes. A few slivers of onion, one hot pepper, a grudging spoon of palm oil, and salt is all that I permit. At the end of cooking, the Okro must be green not muggy.
There must not be any tarnish of meat in this meal. The accompanying Gari must be Ijebu. It must make your teeth jump.
There it is, what some might consider an absurd favourite food mission statement. I have heard stranger ones, like that of a very highly esteemed Nigerian entrepreneur who I dare not name, who worships his combination of Quaker Oats and Ewedu! The facts about this much maligned, roundly snubbed, oftentimes fervently hated Okro are amazing to read. Here are my favourites: Femi Kusa’s column in The Nation; Natural Remedies for Sound Body and Mind on January 14th 2010 gives a glowing acknowledgment on the Okro plant. He says, in a wonderfully melodramatic way (that only a true Nigerian can put it) that “...the chlorophyll, blood of the [Okro], converts to human blood, leaving behind lots of magnesium to power and calm the muscles, particularly the heart.” The mechanics of Okro turning to human blood has something very Africa Magic about it, but like we say, “idea is need!” Kusa goes on to say that Okro pods are loaded with Vitamin A, and the contentious “draw” is Calcium. Vario us sites on the Internet suggest Okro also contains Folic acid, iron, potassium, protein, and Vitamin C. One site goes on to claim that it is the secret of Cleopatra and Yang Guifei’s beauty. Yang Guifei by the way is a Chinese consort who lived in the Tang Dynasty, considered an exquisite beauty. Okro apparently protects the skin from breaking out in pimples.
Okro Coffee is made from roasted, ground and brewed Okro seeds! Eating the Okro pod protects the human body from diseases ranging from diabetes, high cholesterol, colon cancer, atherosclerosis, to lung inflammation, cataracts and depression. Okro is a two way lubricant, as Okro soup, helping to pass the “swallow” down the esophagus, and also at the other end, lubricating the large intestine...enough said! It is supposedly a cure for constipation, which is in itself possibly groundbreaking since alternative medical practitioners believe all disease begins in the colon.
Nigerians seem to be the only ones who call it that audibly uncomfortable vibrating name with an “r” that sounds like the “draw” in the soup. Cuba’s “Quimgumbo” sounds closely inelegant.
Nigerian mothers own a shocking adage for putting their children no matter how old they are in their place. It says: No matter how tall the Okro plant grows, it must always bend for the owner to pluck it! Enid Donaldson in her cookbook, The Real Taste of Jamaica suggests an interesting way of cooking the Okro. “Ochroes” are washed and drained, one egg is separated, the yolk beaten first, the white added after. The whole Ochroes are dropp ed in the beaten egg, and then into a mixture of cornmeal, flour and salt. They are fried in oil in a heavy skillet until browned lightly, drained and served hot with salt. The crispy outside texture balanced by the soft inside texture is delicious.
South Asians cook their Okro called “Bhindi” in curries with garam masala, cumin, turmeric and lemon juice (which I suppose minimizes the sliminess). Junji Takano, a Japanese health researcher suggests eating Okro raw, mixed with mayonnaise or with vinegar and pepper.
...I mustn’t forget that man arrested by NDLEA at Seme, on his way to Cotonou to board a plane to Italy with 1kg of cocaine suspended in Okro soup, as reported by The Nigerian Voice News on June 3rd 2010...
There is that matter of “Okro soup in dre ams” which I’m not even going to bring up here. It seems that many foods that are good for us get thrown on the rubbish heap on the back of silly superstition. But then again perhaps it is God’s providence that allows these unfo unded beliefs so that Okro like Mackerel (Oku eko) remains affordable for the poor, the “Mekunu”.
We’ve often sat around and discussed my father’s youthfulness, he rarely falls ill, and has an unflustered live and let live personality. Perhaps we should all be eating Okro with everything.
by yemisi ogbe 234next adapted by Weboga
Virtual Private Server(VPS) gives users a virtual dedicated environment. A virtual private server, as name suggests, is a method of partitioning a physical server computer into multiple servers such that each appears as an. Each virtual server can run its own full-fledged operating system, and each server can be independently rebooted. Unlike VPS in dedicated hosting the client leases an entire physical server not shared with anyone.
Simply put, a VPS simulates a private server in that you, the site owner, can deploy whatever software you want or need to continue growing an e-biz. This isn’t possible with shared hosting plans which limit you to the software options offered by the hosting company, thus limiting the database, checkout and other software you use.
Over the past four years a quiet revolution has been taking place in the hosting industry. Virtual Private Servers have been steadily changing the hosting landscape. The trend below gives some idea..
If you can identify with any of these statements, VPS might be right for you:
- “I can’t afford a dedicated server, but I need many of the features of dedicated hosting, such as installing a specific operating system and software.”
- “I know what I’m doing and need full root access.”
- “I don’t feel comfortable hosting on the same system as thousands of other websites.”
- “I need more system resources, like CPU and RAM, than low-cost shared hosting can provide.”
- “I know how to implement exactly what I need on the server, and I need the administrative power to get it done.”
- “I need to run programs on the server that are not allowed or supported by shared web hosting providers.”
Although I am somewhat of a new user to the container world I thought I'd write a short article giving an overview of why use container instead of dedicated servers for those of you who are involved in the hosting business or people thinking about leasing a container server. Here I will address misconceptions I had about container and talk about how my perspective on container is changing.
Who am I? This article originally written by Marc Perkel - a new container user - expressing my overview of OpenVZ from my perspective as a new user talking to other new users about my experience in learning this new environment. I am not an OpenVZ expert and I want to write this while I'm still new to OpenVZ so I can express my view from a new user's perspective. If you are just reading about container for the first time I am not that far ahead of you. This article is an attempt by me to give back a little to those who created this free software and give you new people an overview of the big picture as I learn this myself.
http://static.openvz.org/bg/openvz-logo-bg-trans.png); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 100% 100%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Contents[hide] |
[edit]Why use Virtual Private Servers instead of Dedicated Servers
Like many of you when I first heard of the idea of container I pictured it is some small lame server that is sold to 12 year olds trying to start hosting companies on the cheap. It had never quite caught my attention until I decided I needed a remote name server and all I needed was enough of a server to run bind, but didn't want to buy a dedicated box just to do that. So I got a container based on Virtuozzo for $80/year and it worked great.
In the process however I started understanding the container concept and it became apparent that this is more than just a tool to create little servers. The way I see it container can replace dedicated servers in many situations in a data center and do a better job than dedicated. You can actually give the customer more horsepower and better hosting than selling them a small dedicated box. (Of course big customers will still need their own server.)
I don't own a data center business myself but I have a friend who does and I colo several servers there. He has several racks of some old Celeron boxes with 512 mgs of ram and one or two 80 gig drives depending on if the customer has any concept of backups, which most of them don't. I'm looking at the racks of Celerons and P4s thinking that each rack could be consolidated into a single modern server and that the customers would actually have a better server than the one they are on now. And the cost saving is tremendous.
[edit]Advantages of container
Most small dedicated servers are a waste of resources. People buy bigger servers than they need and the excess capacity is wasted. These servers take both space and power which is expensive in a data center and you have hardware costs associated with each server that you have to recoup. People often don't do any backups so after several years the hard drive fails and they lose everything. And it's your fault for not backing them up in the first place.
Imagine a rack of 16 Celeron boxes with 80 gig drives being replaced by a Dual Core Athlox X2 with 8 gigs of ram and 4 500gb SATA 2 drives running in a raid 10 configuration. (Writing this in Feb of 2007 for future historians who will read this and laugh at the old days when computers had just gigabytes.) The above server would cost about $2000 to build and only take 2U of space and use far less power than the 16 machines that are being replaced.
Note that I'm suggesting in this example only a 16 to 1 consolidation. Everyone has the same amount of ram. In reality the consolidation is many times higher because most of those using the Celerons are not using all the memory. Many are using only 1/5 of what they have and a lot of that is used by the individual kernels running. In OpenVZ there is one kernel for everyone.
Note also that many of these servers have idle time where the processor is doing nothing and they have lots of extra hard drive space that isn't being used. By consolidating these systems the free resources are combined allowing you to run many more logical servers that each have more resources than the individual servers.
On a dedicated computer the user is stuck with an old slow 32 bit processor, a limited amount of ram, and an old slow hard drive with no backups. In a container that same user is running on a shared dual core 64 bit CPU sharing 8 gigs of ram with fast modern large hard drives with raid backup. That is a significant improvement over having their own dedicated box. So this is a better deal for the customer.
[edit]Administration Advantages
If a customer needs you to fix something on their dedicated server you have to either know the root password or take the server down and boot from a rescue CD to get in and fix it. You also can't access the customer's files without logging in to their server as root. In a container you as host can enter their server at any time without a password. (Keeping the host environment very secure of course.) That allows you to do maintenance without having to look up the person's root password.
[edit]Ease of Setup
Setup couldn't be easier as compared to building a dedicated server. All you have to do is type a few commands and the new virtual server is ready to go. You can have the customer running while you are still on the phone taking the order. A dedicated box requires setup, installation, and often has to be scheduled. This involves cost and time. container is ready instantly and easily. Any distro you want with all the latest updates installed. When a customer places an order they want it now. With container you can deliver it now.
[edit]Backup Advantages
Additionally you can access the customers files directly from the host environment. This allows you to run rsync scripts to back up all the virtual servers to external storage or backup servers without the customer being aware that you are doing sophisticated backups. Then when the customer calls you up in a panic and says, "I totally screwed up my server and deleted a bunch of files by accident. Can you get it back?" You can magically restore their lost data and you are forever their hero.
[edit]IP Allocation Advantages
Tired of allocating 4 IP addresses just to give the customer 1 usable? Or giving them 8 so they have 5 usable and most of them only use one? How inefficient is that? With OpenVZ you can allocate IP addresses individually so that if a customer only needs one IP then they get only 1 IP. But if they need 9 IP addresses you can give them exactly 9 of them. They can call you up and say I need one more IP and you can give it to them in seconds. On a dedicated server if you gave them a /29 vlan and they are using all 5 IPs and they need another one - that is a huge hassle.
[edit]Disk Space Allocation
On dedicated servers you have to install a big hard drive that is mostly wasted. If the customer wants backups then it's two hard drives. In OpenVZ you just allocate space in the raid array based on what the customer actually needs and they only use the space that they use rather than what's allocated. The "allocation" is really just a software limit and that is a line in a text file that you can instantly change the moment the customer needs more space. On a dedicatd box if the customer needs a bigger drive then it's a trip to the data center with a new drive and a few hours time to copy everything over and replacing the drive, not to mention the down time.
[edit]Memory Upgrades
Memory upgrades are as easy as hard drive upgrades. Just one command than the user has more ram. But what if the server is full and you don't have any more ram? No problem. Just copy the user's container (virtual environment) over to another physical server with rsync and start them up there. In only a few minutes you've migrated them to a new box and they are up and running.
[edit]Migration
Suppose a customer just needs a bigger server. Migration is easy in the container environment because the container is consistent between servers. You just copy over the files and start it up. You don't have to build a new server, install an OS, copy it all over, and then mess with it for an hour getting everything to work.
[edit]Emergency Procedures
Let's say that a server fries. With container and good backups you have more options. You can copy the backup of the container onto another server and restore it as of the last (nightly) backup. (I'm a backup freak - but it pays.) That gets the customers up instantly if they need that while a tech can go down there and fix the server with less pressure. This give you more options when bad things happen.
[edit]Load Balancing
OpenVZ allows you to migrate servers live from one physical server to another. I haven't yet done that but I have done a shutdown, copy, and restart of the container on another server and it's so easy to do that. So suppose you have a server that's a little crowded and some user starts hogging some resources. No problem. You just move a few users to another box and problem solved. This could probably be done automatically with some well configured cluster and I would love it if someone wrote a wiki page telling us how to do it.
[edit]Protecting your Customers
Since you are managing the host system you can create IP filters and port blocking policies that help keep users from exploiting you or keep hackers from exploiting your users. Instead of a separate box that is all theirs you have them in a more managed shell allowing you to keep the inexperienced out of trouble. This provides them with a service that watched it more closely allowing them to do their own thing, but keeping you closer by to keep them out of trouble.
[edit]Cost
The cost savings are rather obvious. An entire rack compressed into one or two computers. Picture the space and power savings. The greenhouse gas not being generated by the power you're not using. The number of computers that you are not buying. The hours you are saving in setup time and administrative time. When it comes to saving money this is definitely a winner. You can take that extra money and pass some on to customers and keep some extra for yourself.
[edit]The Down Side
Any time you add another layer then you have another layer of things that can go wrong. It takes some learning to understand the process and there is the possibility that one person can screw up the system for everyone. As virtualization develops it will get better. OpenVZ is very stable in that it is far less intrusive than other virtualization methods. It is limited to Linux only so BSD and Windows users will have to do something else.
[edit]Conclusion
I believe that container represents the future of computing. The space, power, and cost savings are too great to ignore. I see data centers that are massive clusters running tens of thousands of logical servers that transparently migrate around the physical resources and are up 100% of the time. Customers no longer will have to deal with issues of backups the way they have to now, and it will simplify the hosting process. I think that every data center should be looking into virtualization technology now with the idea that you are going to be doing this and it's time to at least start thinking about it and exploring it with an eye towards the future.
I have to say that my view of container has radically changed and that I now see this as a solution not just for people wanting little servers but for most everyone who is looking for dedicated service. container is a different way of looking at the computing world and it takes some significant mental adjustment and education to grasp the big picture.
[edit]container Hosting Providers
WHAT has remained a puzzle to Ade-yemi Durojaye, a Higher National Diploma (HND) 1 Student of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, is the identity of the person who lodged N9,309,019,869.91k into his savings account.
More puzzling, however, is the swift manner with which the money disappeared from his account without any trace of it in his statement of account..
According to the civil engineering student, he had a little over N3,000 in his account and was going home for the weekend on Friday, 13th August, 2010.
So, Durojaye went to the First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Ibadan Poly 4 branch, with the intention of cashing N2,000.
It was about 6.57 p.m., so, he had to use his Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card.
"I was perlexed when I printed out my receipt and saw the balance in my account. I became weak and tired. Nine billion, three hundred and nine million, nineteen thousand, eight hundred and sixty nine naira, ninety one kobo. How did this amount get into my account?" I wondered.
To authenticate the ATM's claim, he withdrew N20,000 from the amount. But on Saturday when he went to check his account again, the money had disappeared from his account..
He, however, went to report the incident to the manager of the bank, a woman, on Monday morning.
He declared his intention to return the N20,000 he withdrew from the amount. The bank manager gave her approval but collected the triplicate copy of the teller which Durojaye used to lodge the money into his account.
Durojaye later collected his statement of account, which had no record of the over N9 billion in it.
Although it has the record of the N20,000 which he refunded, that had also disappeared from his account, leaving a balance of a little over N1,000.
When the Nigerian Tribune visited the branch on Wednesday, the manager was said to be on leave while the Branch Operation Manager, claimed ignorance of the incident and referred the Nigerian Tribune to the bank's head office in Lagos.
Terry G just announced on twitter that he is ok after the accident, He just needs some rest.
hitmanTerryG
I dey o. Thanks for all the love, God pass them, I wan go rest small!! Ginjah no go die. God guide us and One love my people! I appreciate
25 minutes ago
Previously:
Was He Drunk or high on weed ? With the latest takeaway of our Top indigenous Rap Artist Dagrin by Car Accidents .Terry G almost joined the crew of posthumous talents.See Dagrin here http://bit.ly/c2R9Xx
| ||||
Five months ago, a friend of mine, who edits a national daily, sent me a text message agreeing substantially with my column, ‘The Punch and the rest of us’, except the generalised conclusion that “all (journalists) have sinned and fallen short of the glory of the profession”. There are still some journalists, he submits, who toe the narrow path of integrity. Of course I knew where he was coming from, but I also knew the context in which I had made that statement.
I revisit that statement in light of the stories spewing out of the political beat, specifically on the race for the 2011 presidential elections and how it affects the integrity of news.
As part of the effort to sell his candidature for the presidency, former military president, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) invited as many as 40 journalists to his Minna home on August 14 for an interview. I have heard questions asked about why he should invite journalists to his home instead of a public place if he didn’t have an ulterior motive, and why he should offer monetary gifts to the journalists in the name of paying for their transportation.
One news medium, which has championed this opposition in the open, is the online agency, Sahara Reporters. According to SR each of the journalists received N10 million for heeding Babangida’s call on his presidential ambition. That is N400 million just for one night’s interview from an aspirant yet to win his party’s nomination if it were true. But it was not. When some of the journalists complained about the fictional sum, SR changed the story on August 19, saying it was just “a paltry N250, 000 each”. Rather than admit its initial error SR simply said, “our accountants have told us that going by the number of 40 journalists in attendance, we are still around the same ballpark of N10 million”. So much for credible reporting!
Three days later, SR followed up with ‘IBB and his Rogue Journalists’, accusing the journalists of roguery and professional misconduct; roguery, because they collected money from two sources—their employers who presumably authorised and funded the trip and their news source, IBB; misconduct because it is unethical for them to demand/receive gratification from news sources for their services.
And on August 23 in ‘IBB Nocturnal Press Parley: Punch fires Editorial board Chairman’, SR stayed on top of the story by reporting that Adebolu Arowolo, editorial board chairman of the Punch, had lost his job for going on that trip without his management’s approval..
Example
Noun: IBB is a kaita, so is Ota boy. Verb: Don't kaita what we have been building for 11 yrs in one day." I like that girl, please don't be a Kaita" Or In a Foolish Person's Thought: We are winning 1 - 0, let me kaita this game, so that I can get a red card and my opponent can win.
BODO, Nigeria — Big oil spills are no longer news in this vast, tropical land. The Niger Delta, where the wealth underground is out of all proportion with the poverty on the surface, has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years by some estimates. The oil pours out nearly every week, and some swamps are long since lifeless.
Perhaps no place on earth has been as battered by oil, experts say, leaving residents here astonished at the nonstop attention paid to the gusher half a world away in the Gulf of Mexico. It was only a few weeks ago, they say, that a burst pipe belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the mangroves was finally shut after flowing for two months: now nothing living moves in a black-and-brown world once teeming with shrimp and crab.
Not far away, there is still black crude on Gio Creek from an April spill, and just across the state line in Akwa Ibom the fishermen curse their oil-blackened nets, doubly useless in a barren sea buffeted by a spill from an offshore Exxon Mobil pipe in May that lasted for weeks.
The oil spews from rusted and aging pipes, unchecked by what analysts say is ineffectual or collusive regulation, and abetted by deficient maintenance and sabotage. In the face of this black tide is an infrequent protest — soldiers guarding an Exxon Mobil site beat women who were demonstrating last month, according to witnesses — but mostly resentful resignation.
Small children swim in the polluted estuary here, fishermen take their skiffs out ever farther — “There’s nothing we can catch here,” said Pius Doron, perched anxiously over his boat — and market women trudge through oily streams. “There is Shell oil on my body,” said Hannah Baage, emerging from Gio Creek with a machete to cut the cassava stalks balanced on her head.
That the Gulf of Mexico disaster has transfixed a country and president they so admire is a matter of wonder for people here, living among the palm-fringed estuaries in conditions as abject as any in Nigeria, according to the United Nations. Though their region contributes nearly 80 percent of the government’s revenue, they have hardly benefited from it; life expectancy is the lowest in Nigeria.
“President Obama is worried about that one,” Claytus Kanyie, a local official, said of the gulf spill, standing among dead mangroves in the soft oily muck outside Bodo. “Nobody is worried about this one. The aquatic life of our people is dying off. There used be shrimp. There are no longer any shrimp.”
In the distance, smoke rose from what Mr. Kanyie and environmental activists said was an illegal refining business run by local oil thieves and protected, they said, by Nigerian security forces. The swamp was deserted and quiet, without even bird song; before the spills, Mr. Kanyie said, women from Bodo earned a living gathering mollusks and shellfish among the mangroves.
With new estimates that as many as 2.5 million gallons of oil could be spilling into the Gulf of Mexico each day, the Niger Delta has suddenly become a cautionary tale for the United States.
As many as 546 million gallons of oil spilled into the Niger Delta over the last five decades, or nearly 11 million gallons a year, a team of experts for the Nigerian government and international and local environmental groups concluded in a 2006 report. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 dumped an estimated 10.8 million gallons of oil into the waters off Alaska.
So the people here cast a jaundiced, if sympathetic, eye at the spill in the gulf. “We’re sorry for them, but it’s what’s been happening to us for 50 years,” said Emman Mbong, an official in Eket.
The spills here are all the more devastating because this ecologically sensitive wetlands region, the source of 10 percent of American oil imports, has most of Africa’s mangroves and, like the Louisiana coast, has fed the interior for generations with its abundance of fish, shellfish, wildlife and crops.
Local environmentalists have been denouncing the spoliation for years, with little effect. “It’s a dead environment,” said Patrick Naagbanton of the Center for Environment, Human Rights and Development in Port Harcourt, the leading city of the oil region.
Though much here has been destroyed, much remains, with large expanses of vibrant green. Environmentalists say that with intensive restoration, the Niger Delta could again be what it once was.
Nigeria produced more than two million barrels of oil a day last year, and in over 50 years thousands of miles of pipes have been laid through the swamps. Shell, the major player, has operations on thousands of square miles of territory, according to Amnesty International. Aging columns of oil-well valves, known as Christmas trees, pop up improbably in clearings among the palm trees. Oil sometimes shoots out of them, even if the wells are defunct.
“The oil was just shooting up in the air, and it goes up in the sky,” said Amstel M. Gbarakpor, youth president in Kegbara Dere, recalling the spill in April at Gio Creek. “It took them three weeks to secure this well.”
How much of the spillage is due to oil thieves or to sabotage linked to the militant movement active in the Niger Delta, and how much stems from poorly maintained and aging pipes, is a matter of fierce dispute among communities, environmentalists and the oil companies.
Caroline Wittgen, a spokeswoman for Shell in Lagos, said, “We don’t discuss individual spills,” but argued that the “vast majority” were caused by sabotage or theft, with only 2 percent due to equipment failure or human error.
“We do not believe that we behave irresponsibly, but we do operate in a unique environment where security and lawlessness are major problems,” Ms. Wittgen said.
Oil companies also contend that they clean up much of what is lost. A spokesman for Exxon Mobil in Lagos, Nigel A. Cookey-Gam, said that the company’s recent offshore spill leaked only about 8,400 gallons and that “this was effectively cleaned up.”
But many experts and local officials say the companies attribute too much to sabotage, to lessen their culpability. Richard Steiner, a consultant on oil spills, concluded in a 2008 report that historically “the pipeline failure rate in Nigeria is many times that found elsewhere in the world,” and he noted that even Shell acknowledged “almost every year” a spill due to a corroded pipeline.
On the beach at Ibeno, the few fishermen were glum. Far out to sea oil had spilled for weeks from the Exxon Mobil pipe. “We can’t see where to fish; oil is in the sea,” Patrick Okoni said.
“We don’t have an international media to cover us, so nobody cares about it,” said Mr. Mbong, in nearby Eket. “Whatever cry we cry is not heard outside of here.”
I won’t allow my daughter do what I did with Ojukwu
By Alvan Ewuzie[alvanatsun@yahoo.com]
Bianca Ojukwu exudes beauty.
And it is not beauty without brain. To say that she is intelligent is to state the obvious. It only takes a brief interaction to unravel the bundle of giftedness masking under the rather innocent smiles and affectionate disposition of this lawyer who seems to relish in accomplishing unconventional things. She made waves as a beauty queen in 1988 and capped it up with marrying a man old enough to be her father. All that is history given that Bianca has made an outstanding success of a relationship everyone thought was doomed to fail, a situation not helped by stiff family opposition.
Over two decades after, Bianca’s marriage to Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu has turned out the longest relationship the Ikemba ever had with any woman. That’s another unconventional success. In this interaction she gives the recipe for successful marriage and makes an unusual foray into the enigma called Ojukwu.
Then the big irony: Bianca wont let her daughter do what she did with Ojukwu. It is an interesting discussion. Excerpts:
How long have you been married to Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu
We have been into a relationship since 1989 but we got married formally on November 12, 1994. We have been together for over 20 years because we have been living together since 1989.
How old were you and how old was he at the time.
Well I was 22 while he was in his mid 50s
People considered you too young for him at that time. How did you feel then.
Its not your conventional relationship. Looking back now I certainly realise that I was very young at that time but it didn’t seem to matter because we had so much in common and we had good communication. The gap was not there in our day-to-day interactions. People found the relationship a bizarre one because of the age difference but it is only now when I look back, now that I have children of my own that I realise that it was rather unusual.
You were so much in love at the time that you didn’t notice any disparity in your ages.
I don’t know whether I would classify it as being in love. I just know that the difference tended to melt away when compared to the common grounds that we had. We had a similar background and we had so much to talk about. We had common interests and we just did a lot of things together. We went to see plays at the theatre, we went on vacations and there was just no disparity in our interaction. I didn’t feel it at the time.
How come you are feeling it now
No I don’t feel it now because we have got used to each other having been together for so long. I always say to him I am like the furniture in your house. We are too used to each other. I can complete his sentences and he can complete mine. Really I think at the end of the day that’s what is imperative in every relationship. You must be able to communicate. He understands me fully and he appreciates that mine has been a life of dedication to him. I know the travails he has been through and I appreciate that a man such as him needs somebody to step in and play the role of wife, sister and mother simultaneously and give him peace of mind in his day to day life.
Would you say therefore that you were psychologically prepared to be Ojukwu’s wife
I come from a political family. If that is being psychologically prepared well I am not the one to say so. But I think I had to shoulder a lot of responsibilities beyond what somebody of my age would reasonably be expected to go through. I had to learn in the process. I think I have done well because it requires diplomacy and the fact that sometimes you have to get out of your skin to mediate in conflicts that will generally arise around a man of his stature. It’s been quite challenging but I thank God that I have been able to navigate the terrain.
Has it ever occurred to you that people never gave this marriage a chance, yet it has lasted this long. How does that make you feel
I feel blessed. I have known friends in more conventional marriages, who break up, remarry and break up again in this space of time and I am still here. I thank God for his grace because nobody gave this thing a chance of survival. In all honesty I was really young at that time and I did believe that I could handle it. Now when I look back I wonder how I did it. That was not a situation your average 22-year-old could handle. Normally the disparity ought to make the interests different. But the truth is that I didn’t miss those things the average 22-year old would want, like going to parties, clubs and the like. Those were not my interest. Though people have always said that I am very old fashioned and I didn’t have those things that propel people of my age. I wanted a stable marriage. I wanted to live with a man that I had a lot in common with and a man that I could spend the rest of my life with. Having said that the truth is that it requires a lot of sacrifice, commitment and hard work to be able to make it work.
Was it that you had to grow up to him or he had to come down to you? How was the mix
No question about that, I had to grow up to him. I had to learn to interact with people who were a lot older than I was. Generally from the time I was 22 people who were coming to our various homes were people of his age. They were his friends and by extension they have become my friends too. I give God the glory. He has some of the most dedicated, committed and loyal friends who are dedicated to him and to his struggle. I feel privileged to have met those categories of people. I consider them as family. So I had to grow up to his life.
You were not scared by that calibre of people
Don’t forget that I am the daughter of a former governor. My father was the Governor of old Anambra S tate, now consisting of Enugu and parts of Ebonyi. So I was certainly not intimidated because we had such regular high calibre people visiting us. There were Presidents, ex-presidents, Ambassadors, governors were frequent visitors. I was not intimidated in the least. It was just a progression. Just that the same calibre of people were now visiting in another house. The routine was basically the same, just a little bit accentuated.
Let’s talk about Ojukwu. What kind of a man is he?
I think you are in a better position. Having spent the better part of two hours with him today, I think you are probably in a better position to do that. As you can see he is a very complex man, very complex. He can be like a volcano about to erupt this minute and the next he is like a kitten. His persona switches so rapidly that it is really quite hard to pin him down, to paint a complete picture of the man. There would always be that mystery. He is kind, caring and, as you have witnessed, he is a very stubborn man. A lot of the time he gets impatient and most people find that rather intimidating. But he can be very meek. One just have to find that meeting ground of interacting with him. Once you can do that then you are on safe ground. But he can be quite difficult to decode.
Obviously he loves you and says it to anyone who cares to listen. What are the things he does differently to you that also gives you the impression that he really does love you
I think it is the absolute trust that he has in me, the faith. I think every man is looking for a replacement for his mother. That’s one thing I have learnt. In life every man looks for that woman who would not just be his wife but his mother, whose paramount objective is to ensure that he can be the best man he is meant to be. I wouldn’t say that he loves me in an irrational way. Perhaps in me he has been able to find that combination of wife and mother. The mother element is very important because its only your mother that you would trust so absolutely to be able to deliver the best judgments and to be able to pull you back when they think you are doing something wrong. It is just to have absolute trust in your judgment and go to bed with both eyes closed. A lot of people don’t have that in their families. A lot of men find that their wives tend to be quite demanding and impatient and the men then reflect that in their attitude. But I think a woman cannot get the best out of any man by nagging him or making him feel bad and less of a man. But if you let him be a man then you get the best out of him. That’s what has helped this marriage to stay the way it is today.
You are a lawyer but you seem to be averse to politics even when you grew in a political home so to say
Well, I have seen quite a lot in my life with Ikemba and I have seen that you need to develop very tough skin to go into politics and unfortunately that’s something I am yet to develop. Until Nigeria offers an opportunity for one to be a decent politician without having to sell their soul I will continue to be averse to politics. I have hope that we will get to that stage soon because the Nigerian people are no longer willing to just sit back and watch and accept whatever is rammed down their throat. The recent election in Anambra is a pointer to that.
I understand that one or two political offers had come your way. You don’t want them or you just prefer being Ikemba’s wife.
Being Ikemba’s wife is a job on its own. These are issues that are being constantly discussed. Right now my prerogative is my husband and my family. I have a very young family. I don’t want a situation that would have my attention divided. I would like to help determine the path that my children would take. I would like to be instrumental to raising and shaping their lives. I am not saying that I cannot do that and serve the people at the same time. These were offers that were made even before the elections but I just do not feel that the time was ripe for it.
Your relationship with Ikemba is the longest he has had with any woman. Does that make you feel special
[long laughter] it must be one of two things. Its either that I am made of a sponge like material that I can absorb or that I am made of a shell like object, like a turtle back and I have found a way of making things work. Some times you are lucky in life. You just come across somebody that God says this is the person that you will stay with for the rest of your life and you just have to work at maintaining that relationship. He is working and I am working too and we both appreciate the fact that we need each other and that we both need to be as committed as we can for the relationship to work. That’s what we are doing, building on it everyday. That’s just the key. It does not make me feel special. Its not like being in Las Vegas everyday. But the high points are always more than the low points. I think if you can get 70 percent you have done very well.
How do you relate with his other grown up children and perhaps if there are other living wives.
[laughs] I like the way you put it, living wives. The fact is that at the time I met him he was a bachelor. He was not living or married to anybody at that time and that’s probably why we were able to go through a Roman Catholic wedding. We had our wedding in a Roman Catholic Church and that would have been impossible if he were designated a married man, otherwise he would have been a bigamist. I am just making the point that I met him as a bachelor. Of course he had been in a lot of other relationships but I have not had the opportunity of interacting with those people that he had had relationships with in the past.
What about his children
Oh yes. You know he has three children that are older than I am. We get on quite well. Most of the children don’t live here. They live abroad. My marriage to their father is not anything new because they live in societies where such things are not abnormal as such. They know their limits. We hold family meetings and things like that. Some times issues come up that we don’t all agree upon. At such times Ikemba steps in and sorts things out, that’s normal but generally we get on well. So far its been quite cordial and when they come on vacation they stay here and I am glad to tell you that they all have their rooms here. I have tried to make sure that we are one united family.
What I deduce from the foregoing is that you are Ojukwu’s only legitimate wife
That’s correct. If there is any body else who can present a wedding picture, a marriage certificate in the church then I am willing to defer to that person. However, we live in Africa and the church format is not the only acceptable mode. There is the traditional mode. In my own case I did not start with the traditional marriage because my parents were initially opposed to the marriage. I only went through the traditional marriage after the birth of my children. My children were present at the event. Any woman who has been married in the traditional mode is also an acceptable wife. The only time both modes come into conflict is when there is a legal contention. That’s why I am making it clear that he went through both processes with me.
You mean you are not aware of any other women who went through those processes with him.
I am not aware of any body that went through a church wedding with him. You know the Roman Catholic Church is very strict in that respect. If they had any such information they would not have done the wedding. No catholic priest would wed you if he considers you a bigamist. They wed you strictly on the basis that you are a single man.
Is he still the romantic man you met in 1989
Oh my. I think romance runs in his veins. He will never change. I am the one who is not romantic. I am very practical. But he is very poetic. By virtue of his education and interactions in life Ojukwu was raised as an aristocrat so he tends to focus more on the classics, the arts, literature and so on. When you look at him in that light you find that he cannot but be romantic. In everything he does, it comes through. Its part of his everyday life. Even now when he is not as strong as he used to be, he would still come to open doors for me to get into the car. He would ensure I am served a drink before him and things like that. He is a typical gentle man. Without a doubt if Ikemba is nothing, else he is a perfect gentleman.
Why did you say you won’t allow him to present himself again for an elective post
I think he has done his bit. There comes a time in every man’s life when you just need to find the nearest beach, find a deck chair, sit by the ocean and reflect. I think he is at that stage in his life. He has done nothing but live and breathe the Igbo course. Sometimes he would hear of some injustice somewhere and he would stay awake all night, trying to find how it can be redressed. I remember the situation of the Apo six. He would wake up at night and say to me ‘whats happening, have these people been found, what are you gleaning from the media. Any time an Igboman suffers any form of injustice, it makes his blood boil, even in situations when he feels helpless. At such times I simply pray to God that he does not have a blood condition because he see him so agitated. At such times, I also tell him to stop knocking his head against the brick wall. I think he has sacrificed everything including his family. There are things he ought to have done but didn’t have the time to do because of his struggles. Now, I think that whatever time he has left should be used for his family, to nurture the family and let other people carry on from where he left off.
You are the closest person to him and I want to know whether people will ever get to read his memoirs
Like you and everybody else I also keep my fingers crossed. But I can tell you that he has been writing but slowly though. Some times he wakes up, remembers an incident and then writes. One thing I know is that he is not writing the account in sequence, he puts down incidents as he remembers. At the moment, there is a group currently showing very strong interest in getting him to complete and publish the memoirs. But I do not know how soon that will be. And it is something that we all really need to see, to know what really happened or more importantly how his mind was working at the time, his fears, anxieties and aspirations, what he wanted to achieve and why he took some of the decisions he took. A lot of people still do not have a real grasp of those things and we need to get into the innermost recesses of his mind to know them.
But is he really working on it
Yes, I know for a fact that he is working on it but at a snail speed.
You still look trim and fit, how do you manage to keep this fit.
Do you know what it takes to run this house, run my NGO, run my law chambers? There are so many things I am doing that some times I don’t even have time for lunch. I think I am overworked. I don’t think it has to do with any beauty routine. The work is enough to keep me trim. We have a swimming pool that I only use when my kids come on holiday and I join them there occasionally. I have a gym which I rarely use. But when I get the opportunity I walk around the compound for health purposes but strictly speaking, I don’t have a beauty routine.
You said your parents were opposed to the marriage but what we know is that it was your late father who was opposed to it.
I think it will be unfair to say that it was just my father that was opposed. My mother had her reservations also, just that she had a different style of showing it. Mothers being what they are, they would hardly cast their daughter adrift completely no matter the circumstance. They don’t want to come out openly and deny or lambaste you. Mothers always try to nurture. But my father was left with the tag of being the chief opponent of the marriage. My mother had her reservations and to tell you the truth, as a mother I would do the same thing.
Right now I am the proud mother of a 12 year old daughter. Even if she was 25 or 30 and comes to tell me that she wants to marry a man twice her age, I would still refuse. Yes I know your next question, yes I did it but that does not make it the usual pattern. Its not conventional and it can only be handled by somebody who is mature and wise beyond their years. And I tell that I support my father’s action. He did the best thing any parent would do for his child. It would have been disappointing if he gave his support without any form of resistance. Basically he did the right thing. My mother had her reservations too, just that my father's own was more prominent because he was more domineering. But the truth is that it was his resistance that has largely helped to make this marriage successful.
Really
Yes. Because my husband then had to be very careful. He knew that if he didn’t treat me right and things didn’t go too well, he would have my father to contend with. And my father also gave me a crucial advise which I have always cherished. You know we were living in Lagos and my father told me that if I ever had plans of raising kids with my husband I must ensure that we come back to settle in the east. My father had this very strong sense of identity of where he comes from which was why he insisted that my kids be born and raised here in the east. It was his advice and one that I would ever treasure and it was the best decision I ever took.
When did you eventually come back to live in Enugu
After our wedding we moved to Abuja, After a few years we now came to live in Enugu.
Do you agree with people who say that the Igbos have neglected Ojukwu
It was said that the Igbos neglected Zik, Okpara and Akanu Ibiam. But before you can substantite that statement you have to look at Ndigbo as a people. We are republican in nature. So its hard to determine the level of love, adulation and respect the Igbos give to their leaders. But in all fairness I think that Ojukwu has been luckier than most Igbo leaders. I have been with him to so many parts of Igbo land and I am moved to tears by the kind of reception he is accorded. I have seen a whole market dismantled just to get his car to pass in the tick of massive traffic. I saw youths dismantle a market just for his car to pass. When you go with him to a place like Aba, the reception is better seen than described. So I think the Igbos love him tremendously and they have shown it to him.
Take the Anambra election for example, the other candidates had so much money and support from the centre. But Peter Obi had virtually nothing, he was like the under dog. Yes he was governor but don’t forget that he no member of his party in the state House of Assembly. But he had one man and this man had only five words to say; This is my last wish. How many other people could do that and get the kind of response Ojukwu got. People came back from all parts of the world in response to that call, though some of them were disentranchised and so could not vote. They have shown him love. They love him and see him as their treasure. Of course if there is any one that can come up boldly to berate him in the newspaper, it would be an Igbo man but they still love so much. As for neglect, well do not forget that his father was the first millionaire to come from Igboland and the first African to enter United Kingdom without a visa, yet his son is such a simple man.
Ojukwu can live in a card room box. Even if it an old, haggard looking 504 car Ojukwu would enter and be driven to his destination. That simplicity is the greatest bond between him and Peter Obi. Peter would come here to visit us like any other Person, yet people who are not even governors would come with a convoy of seven cars. He is very modest and frugal man. You would see him queue up at the airport. If you permit him he would travel on the economy class. Both of them are alike because they consider themselves first and foremost as servants of the people. They do not brazenly display the paraphernalia of power. Peter Obi certainly does not do that. His popularity with the populace is phenomenal. He may not have that with the elite who thinks that he should defer to them but he defers more to the masses. In that light Peter Obi and Ojukwu are very much the same.
If you go to Peter Obi’s house he would refuse to serve you champagne. I think the highest he would probably give you is red wine or stout. If you ask him he would tell you that he knows the cost of champagne because he trades in such commodities and knows their astronomical cost and thus considers it rather criminal to drink such stuff randomly. He says people can do that in their houses if they wished but he would do no such thing in his own house. His style is not usual and he is a very principled man. Many people do not like the fact that he is very frugal administrator. He is a hands on person who could step in and do things himself. If you visit him he will be serving you by himself in spite of the retinue of staff. He is unassuming and his people like it. You cannot believe his level of simplicity.
That’s the bond between him and Ojukwu. Do you know that Ojukwu never handles money. As I talk to you he probably does not know the colour of one thousand naira note. People administer those things for him. Ojukwu is so contented with whatever he has. As long as there is water to drink he is fine. You know before we moved to this place, we were living in a very small house and he was happy there. To a very large extent he built this new house because of me. I was the one who told him to get a bigger place and he would say no matter how big the hose is you only get to stay in one room and just one bed eventually.
I tell you for two years this house was completed and furnished yet Ojukwu did not move into it. He considered it too big. I actually tricked him into moving here on the night of a Good Friday. I just told him to get into the car for an outing and that was how I brought him here having moved some things to this place earlier. We left the old furniture in the former house. He was raised in affluence but he has little or no regard for anything that connotes wealth. I think such people are very rare to find, people who are willing to divest themselves of the paraphernalia of wealth and power. Somebody once said that it a great man to be little. I never really understood the significance of that statement until I came to live with Ojukwu. If Iwere asked to chose three words that would define him by way of an epitaph I cant do batter than saying that he was a simple man
From MOLLY KILETE, Abuja
Monday, April 12, 2010Friday, March, 19, 2010 will forever remain indelible in the mind of Richard Jideaka, the Sports Correspondent of The Sun Newspapers, Abuja office. It was a day the former Secretary General of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), lost his car, a Toyota Sienna space bus to armed robbers.
After robbing him of the car, the robbers asked him to give his life to Christ if he survived the attack. Jideaka’s ordeal in the hands of the robbers, started shortly after he left the office on the fateful day at about 7.30 pm. After work, Jideaka headed for his home in Kubwa, a satellite town in Abuja.
The journey to Kubwa, was smooth as usual until a few metres to his house. His driver had barely stopped to buy him a recharge card when four young hefty looking robbers suddenly overtook his vehicle and ordered his driver out of the car at gun point. They forcefully moved the driver out of his seat and ordered him to take to the passenger’s seat behind...
Obviously confused about the attitude of the strange men, a now distraught Jideaka, requested to know why they were manhandling his driver. The response was precise. “You will find out when we get to the police station.” Immediately, Jideaka was also forced to move to the back seat of the car at gun point. The robbers sped off with him and his driver. The incident soon attracted his neighbours and family members, who ran to a nearby police station where the case was reported.
Richard took up the story: “It was when they forced me into the back seat with my driver that it dawned on me that they were robbers and not policemen as they claimed to be. They took my phones and the money on me and within three minutes they drove off with us with their gun pointed at my head to an unknown destination.
“While in the car, the robbers called me a 419ner. That I should regard myself kidnapped and that they were sent by my colleague to kill me and steal my car. Next they said if I am not a 419ner, where did I get money to buy a big car. When they saw my laptop, they felt convinced that I was actually a 419ner or that I was into yahoo, yahoo deals. I told them I am a journalist but they refused to believe me until they saw my tape recorder.
“They took the rings on my finger and asked me which one of them was my juju. I told them that none of them was a charm. One of them then threw the rings into his pocket and asked me to bring my wristwatch and the money in my pockets. I quickly handed them over. They commended me for cooperating with them and promised not to kill or harm me because I am a good man.
“Along the line, they asked me to pray that they do not encounter police on the way. That if they do, they would shoot me first. I prayed that we do not meet police on the way and they said ‘Amen’. Thereafter, they urged me to give my life to God if I survived the attack and I told them that I had since given my life to Christ. They said I should do that again, and I said okay.
“At a point, they asked me where I work. Sensing that they were thinking of asking for ransom, I told them I work for a new newspaper based in Abuja. The next question was where my wife works and I told them my wife is a retiree who was still waiting to be paid her gratuity by the ministry she worked with in Abuja. One of the robbers then concluded that I had nothing and that holding on to me would be of no benefit and therefore, I should be dropped in the bush. All along, I and my driver were not to fix our gazes on any of them. They had their guns already pointed at our heads.
“When I stole to look at the speedometer, I discovered that they were almost running the full speed of the car. I said silent prayers that we do not crash. I discovered that they were heading for the city centre instead of the Zuba they made us believe they were going. After about eight kilometres drive at break-neck speed, they branched off the expressway into the bush and asked us to come down and run for our lives. We obeyed immediately and dashed into the bush.
Together with their operation car [a Camry 1996 model] they drove off
“After spending sometime in the bush, we eventually trekked out and met some securitymen guarding some equipment and asked them where we were. They told us we were between New Tipper Garage and Katampe Hill. We then crossed to the other side of the road and boarded a bus back to Kubwa where my wife had already reported the incident to the police. “All my neighbours had gathered in front of my house and were offering prayers for my safety. As soon as they sighted us, the shout of praise the Lord rented the air even as they rushed to greet me.
“My wife and children who had locked themselves in the house, praying for my safety, rushed out of the house when they heard the shout of praise the Lord to find me in the hands of our jubilating neighbours who were too happy to see me return safely.”
As at press time, last weekend, Jideaka, was yet to recover his car.
By Chioma Igbokwe
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Visualize a scenario where you are fast asleep beside your partner and at 2.00am, the ring tone of your phone disturbs your sleep. With your eyes heavy with sleep after a hectic day and retiring to bed just an hour earlier you pick the call only to hear the voice of a stranger you never met.
The voice is that of the opposite sex. You try to fix a face or incident to it but cannot. While you battle with ‘I can’t remember who you are’ interjection, he/she insists loudly that you gave him/her appointment to call you because you would be sleeping alone in your room.
He/she further puts you on the spot that you had always talked at such hours in the past and you are merely pretending not to know the caller. Your spouse at last takes the caller for real and counts you a liar who deliberately put up denial to save face. Problems arise from there and at last the relationship crashes.
To you, this is just a conjecture. But to many Nigerians, it is real life drama that changed the course of their lives and happiness. Despite the gains of free midnight calls offered subscribers by GSM operators, many Nigerians have such adverse stories to tell about free midnight calls that became a monster to them. To such persons who have suffered the negative impact, the free calls are not worth the trouble and the effects they inculcate.
“It has caused more harm than good to the society, the individual and families”, said a respondent who fumes at the hazards. Before the promo started any child who is awake till 1.00am must be a student who is seriously preparing for his or her forthcoming examinations. Then with the dilapidated state of the power sector, such a person would risk the effect of candle to the eyes and burn it for hours just to ensure that he/she graduates with a good grade.
But today the reverse is the case, at 12.am on the dot, children and adults, especially the singles embark on compulsory vigil just to tap into the gains of free calls that enable them talk sense and nonsense endlessly. A phone user who cannot spend three hours in a church or mosque for vigil will have his eyes wide open because of midnight call till morning. Some use the opportunity to engage on conference calls where families would seize the opportunity to chat.
Others use it as an avenue to engage in fraudulent act while most use the period to woo and toast ladies or men, even the married. Saturday Sun found that such clandestine raunchy calls are laden with romance and deep frolic that go beyond the ordinary level. And there is no need to emphasise that these midnight call have shattered and destroyed marriages and other relationships.
One of such victims of free romantic midnight calls is Jide Adesanya who lamented that it was midnight call that crashed his marriage, which he had been managing to stabilise. “I am a divorcee today because of midnight call. I was battling to save my marriage, which was on the brink of collapse because of a mistake I made in the past.
I had promised my wife that it would not repeat itself, till one night that I had convinced my wife to spend the night in my room. The grave mistake I made was not to switch off my phone. At 1.00am, with my wife in my arms my phone rang. Blood of Jesus, I pleaded hoping that my wife did not hear. I was about to switch off the phone when she asked me to answer the call, as it could be an emergency.
Could you believe that it was a voice of a woman who claimed to know me? I tried my best to pretend it was a mistake. Only for the idiot to call back insisting that I used to be her lover.
Even when I told her that I am a married man she insisted that we could always handle the affair the way we had always done. My wife got mad and that was it. Till date, I have not seen this woman who I have been begging to come help me clear the crisis that broke my marriage. Today, my marriage is over but what I do is to arrest anyone that dares call my number at night.”
Mr. Paully Onyeka blamed midnight free calls for his children’s poor attitude to reading at night and thereby performing poorly in school. “The advent of GSM has caused more harm than good especially among our children. The problem is not the midnight call but the fact that these phones are accessible. If you decide not to buy a phone for your child, one way or another, they will raise money and buy one.
I am not saying that it is not good that these products are cheap and affordable all I am hammering on is that it they have caused more bad than good to Nigerians. I was shocked one day when I woke up at 3.00am and heard voices. I quickly grabbed my cutlass and moved towards the direction of the noise only to discover that it was from my 13-year-old son. He was making a call at that unholy hour. This is a boy that has been performing badly in school, instead of reading he spends his time making irrelevant calls. How can this boy stay awake in class when lectures are on? No wonder the, performance of our children is dwindling by the day. I suggest that free midnight call should be abolished. If they want to subsidise, let them reflect it on our tariff.”
Nnenna, a journalist decided to find out who and how on earth a crippled man was able to get her number and wake her up at 2.00am. “At 2.00am, my phone rang, my husband who was by my side woke me up to pick the call. Scared that there might be an emergency, I picked the call.”
She was disappointed and relieved when he discovered that it was an unknown person.
How did you get my number? she queried and the caller, a man confessed that he asked God to ensure that whoever owns this number would turn out to be a friend. Nnenna explained that she is married and lying beside her husband. The caller who identified himself as Steve encouraged her that their relationship would be the perfect one since he was also married. He told her that the only way to control it was for her to learn to sleep in her own room.
With the consent of her husband, Nnenna decided to follow up the matter by conceding to the man’s request. They agreed that Steve should call her every Friday at 4.30am to help her wake up and receive the call. In the course of their discussion Nnenna sought to know why he chose to call an individual who he had not met. Steve’s excuse was that he has never been lucky with women. Ladies always abandon him because of his looks and the fact that he has no money. His wife, Steve lamented left him and followed another man. He decided to embark on such calls to try his luck if he would be able to get one who will agree to befriend him.’’
According to Chika Agina, a banker, midnight call is meant for irresponsible men and women who have no value for their health, thereby use the opportunity to shop for trouble. “I do not make midnight calls and would not take it lightly with anyone who calls me at such an ungodly hour. Irresponsible men or women use it as an avenue to toast the opposite sex. Any man who toasts a woman through free call is a beggar. Initially, when the promo started, I was one of those who stayed awake till 5am, just to chat with friends who wanted to. But gradually it started telling on my health.
As a banker, I had terrible errors in my job, I slept while counting money and I paid dearly for over paying people. It has no gain and I wish that it would be abolished so that people will value every call they make since they are paying for it.” Taiwo Oluwadare, student makes free night calls strictly to save cost and the night is a very peaceful time to discuss at length without fear of anyone eavesdropping.
I make night calls to save cost and also to be in relaxed mood to talk as tortuous moment in the day may not let me attend to some people especially my friends and relatives. No unknown person has called me in the night but it has cost me a dearest girlfriend. That night, I received the call and the person said I should guess who was calling, but unfortunately I mistook the person for an old girlfriend. That made my girl part ways with me bluffing my apology.
Although Chigoziem Ehirim, businessman, admits that the promo saves costs, he however warned that Nigeria is not strong enough to cope with the after effect on their health. “I make midnight calls because, its saves money. The disadvantage is that it takes your sleep away and the next day you become stressed up. Because of the effect on my health, I stopped the habit. Despite the economic benefit, I would want it to be banned. You receive all kinds of useless calls from people who are out to ruin your life. People abuse free things and this free midnight call is one of them. The habitual callers have ruined homes, the children no longer read their books or study because they spend their leisure time on phones.”
Tayo 14, is rather happy with free night calls. To people of his age bracket, it is the only source of communication since their parents would not afford to buy credit for them. “It is very good, since my parents will never buy credit for me, I wake up at night and call my friends. MTN is doing that promo for the sake of children who do not have the money to buy credit. We can talk for hours and when it is about 4.00am, you go to sleep so that you can function the next day.” A nurse, Chikezie Okezie, could not hide his face in shame as he voiced out that he makes midnight call frequently although it is not healthy.
“I make free night call but I have to sacrifice the next day with serious headache. It saves cost but has its own disadvantage. I suggest it should be banned as, it will curtail the abuse by children who will prefer to talk throughout the night and sleep during the day. I am preparing for JAMB and you can’t believe that if I decide to do midnight call I will not blink an eye, but once I pick up my book, I will doze off. It’s terrible but still saves cost.”
Abigail Nwajei whose son, Nnamdi, tried to murder two days to 2010 on an allegation that a church revealed that she was behind his misfortune, has left hospital. Emmanuel Onyeche writes her near tragic story.
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![pix201002082432957[1].jpg](http://odili.net/news/source/2010/feb/8/punch/images/pix201002082432957%5B1%5D.jpg)
Although Mrs. Abigail Nwajei, whose son, Nnamdi,attempted to murder by slicing off her throat two days to 2010, has left hospital, the scars of that near tragic experience may never leave her.
At 50, four of her front teeth are gone - knocked off with her son's hammer - and the scars of the attack, though healed, run rings round her neck.
"I took five pints of blood to stay alive", she told our correspondent at her Ajangbadi resident in Lagos last Tuesday, a claim confirmed by a doctor at Goodness Hospital in the same suburb. The doctor simply gave his name as Durotimi. "We had to call in a dentist to fix the aspect concerning her teeth", Durotimi added.
Nnamdi, 22, a 2006/2007 Accountancy graduate of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, had allegedly attempted to murder his mother with a hammer and a knife on December 30 last year, accusing her of being behind the misfortunes of her children.
After policemen attached to the Ilemba Hausa Division of the Lagos State Command had arrested him, he said while being paraded on January 5 this year that he approached his mother for, "a mother to son talk" following numerous revelations in a branch of Mountain of Fire and Miracle church, Lagos, which he did not give its location. He said that the church revealed that his mother was responsible for his misfortune.
"I wanted to talk to her to let her see reason why she should release us, her children, from bondage, especially as we enter the new year. But she started shouting. I picked up a knife to scare her and she took a hammer. I snatched it from her and used it on her. I did not plan to kill her.
Things happened so fast. I regret my action and I blame myself for taking the church revelations seriously," he said.
But Nwajei said, "The incident happened at 8.30pm. He came in hailing me 'Malee' (a corruption of 'mother' used mostly by people from the Niger Delta region of the country to hail their mothers). He was demanding food and searching every where. There was no power supply and he went and put on the generator. It was at the same time that I was also ready to eat so I brought out food for the two of us.
"He did not touch the food but suddenly pounced on me and started attacking me with the knife. He wanted to stab me with it but I prevented that with my hand. I was shouting for help and mentioning his name but I guess people did not hear me because of the noisy generator. He was much stronger and when he had overpowered me, he started slicing my throat with the knife. He also brought out a hammer from his pocket and hit me on the head several times with it. That was all I could remember until I found myself in the hospital," she said.
Nwajei's saviour was Festus, a motorcycle rider, who she graciously accommodated in a room in her house.
Festus said, "I came around but saw that the gate was locked from inside. I heard shouts but I thought it was a church pastor praying for Mama. I peeped through a hole and saw a figure moving. From the hand that I saw, I knew it was a young man. I concluded it was a thief and started shouting and neighbours were attracted".
By the time they got to Nwajei, Nnamdi had scaled the fence and bolted. She was found in the pool of her blood and passed out after she had managed to reveal that it was her son that had attacked her. Festus and her neighbours rushed her to Goodness Hospital where she went through tremendous pain and trauma trying to hang on to life.
Ironically however, Nwajei was still seemed concerned about Nnamdi as she expressed the hope that he would be freed soon several times during her short interview with our correspondent.
The authorities of MFM, when contacted, said that the man was not a member of the church since he could not mention the branch that gave him the revelation. They added that the church never asked any of its member to kill.
But Nnamdi's motive, as he confessed to the police, brings to the fore the growing issue of religious incitement which we seem to be ignoring currently. Some messages preached in churches nowadays are nothing short of outright incitements. The preachers seem to ignore that some of the listeners are unable to distinguish between things of the spirit from those of the physical.
At a new generation pentecostal church in Lagos recently, the congregation were asked to pray facing the direction their enemy resided. Later, they were urged to fight their enemies. A man got home and descended on his wife saying it was her he saw in his vision while he was praying against his enemy.
In another pentecostal church in Lagos that has an outspoken pastor, the congregation were once told to come to church on a certain Sunday bringing logs of wood. Nearly 95 per cent of the congregation did. Apparently, however, the pastor was just performing an experiment with them.
On the Sunday in question, he asked all those who had brought their logs of wood to stand up. When they did, the pastor was shocked. He shook his head at their naivety and asked them to dispense with the wood.
If religion is indeed the opium of the masses, it is indeed time we exercise caution.
