Actress Toyin Abraham has advised against the use of drugs, warning it does nothing but damage to users.
She condemned the use of hard substances and advocate the right path to live a healthy life.
She tweeted: “Stop doing drugs, stop doing drugs, it will mess your life. Please stop doing drugs, if you need help, I am here to help. Love and light always”.
Controversial entertainer Speed Darlington has declared that posing for pictures with him comes with a price tag.
A few weeks ago, Akpi, as he’s fondly called, was called out online by fans for requesting N5,000 from anyone who wanted to take his pictures.
He was at a supermarket when a scene erupted after some fans brought out their phones to take his photos but Speedy informed them that they have to pay him to do so.
Taken aback, they engaged the rapper in a heated war of words.
The fans blasted Speed, claiming he was broke to impose a fee on them simply to snap with him. They waisted no time in also mocking him over his outfit, especially his shoes. But like he’s known for, Akpi refused to cower to their backlashes, returning their energy while maintaining his stance that they must pay for his photos.
Appearing on the ‘Honest Bunch Podcast’ with popular comedian, Nedu and co, Speed Darlington was queried about the incident.
The podcast host sought to find out if truly he demanded payment from the fans as they claimed.
Responding, Speed said: “That 5k thing ehn, na true o! Maka Chineke (I swear to God).”
He went on to explain his reason for requesting money and why it’ll remain that way.
“For you to want to snap, you see the value. You see something that you like,” he continued.
“That thing that you like cost money, energy. I have to eat, to be here. Do you understand? I need electricity to power my phone. These things don’t fall from the sky. I no dey sell drug, entertainment is how I eat.”
“So, no, you have to pay me, bro. Maintaining my name in your mind costs me time and money and brain. Yes. Otherwise, I’m not interested,” he added.
Actress Toyin Abraham has advised against the use of drugs, warning it does nothing but damage to users.
She condemned the use of hard substances and advocate the right path to live a healthy life.
She tweeted: “Stop doing drugs, stop doing drugs, it will mess your life. Please stop doing drugs, if you need help, I am here to help. Love and light always”.
As part of measures to inspire good governance, a dinner reception has been planned to honour the contributions of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Dr. George Akume.
According to the Central Planning Committee headed by Kwara state governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the reception scheduled for June 17 is designed to celebrate Akume’s iconic attributes by his friends.
A statement by the committee noted that Akume is a technocrat and politician, who has contributed to the development of human capital as a former governor, senator and minister.
“Senator Akume is a man of impeccable attributes, he is humble, kind, resilient, result-driven, articulate, competent and most importantly impactful. He is a developer of human resources and he has invested largely in human capital development. Due to his humanitarian nature and dint of hardwork, Akume has been recognized by different organizations, political and social groups.
“He played a vital role in ensuring the emergence of His Excellency, Sen. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, as President of Nigeria right from the primaries to the general elections until victory was actualized,” it said
Members of the Central Planning Committee include Chief Kanayo Okoye the Co-Chairman; Amb. Ginika Tor-Ijeomah as Secretary; Dr. Bello Maigari , Chairman Finance; Sir. Barr. Olusegun Adekunle, Head of Protocol; Rt. Hon. Omonbowale Idimogu, Head of Media & Publicity; Dr. Yusuf Maina-Bukar, Head of Welfare; Alh Adamu Hussaini ZBCC ,Co-Head of Welfare. Sen. Anthony Manzo, Head of Venue Committee and Hon. Maureen Agbo, Secretary of Venue Committee.
Others are Hon. Umar Tahir, Head of Accommodation Committee; Mr. Christopher Tarkar, Head of Security Committee; Dr. Bukola Bello Jaiyesimi, Head of Medical Team; Mairo Al-Makura, Head of documentation Committee and Hon Mrs. Mbanumun Mwuese, Financial Secretary.
The immediate past Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr Umana Okon Umana, has congratulated Senator Godswill Akapbio on his election as the President of the 10th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Umana, who served as secretary to the government of Akwa Ibom State when Senator Akpabio was governor of the state, described his election to the Senate Presidency as a judicious choice.
Umana said Akpabio’s election was an expression of the appreciation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the contributions of the South-South geopolitical zone to the fortunes of the party in various ways, particularly during the last election cycle.
He also described Senator Akpabio’s election as a national acknowledgment of the significant contributions of the South-South to the economic and political development of the country, pointing out that Senator Akpabio as Senate President represents a big boost to the Akwa Ibom brand in the comity of states of the Federation.
Umana advised Senator Akpabio to again do Akwa Ibom State and its people proud by using his exalted office to promote good governance that is noted for politics of inclusion, fairness and equity for all.
Umana also called upon the new Senate President to give the President and Commander-in-Chief, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, all the support needed to turn the economic fortunes of the country around.
Umana equally congratulated all the lawmakers of the 10th National Assembly for a rancour-free leadership recruitment exercise during the last parliamentary election cycle.
Female gospel artiste Mercy Chinwo has bagged the 2023 Best International Act Winner at the Premier Gospel Awards in the United Kingdom.
The Premier Gospel Awards at Cadogan Hall in Chelsea, London celebrated 50 years of gospel music in the UK.
Chinwo, who is married to Blessed Uzochikwa, lead pastor of Lekki-based church in Lagos, The Waterbrook Church, expressed delight over the award in an Instagram post where she tagged the organisers.
She wrote: “Thanks for the honour @premiergospel. To everyone of you who voted, thank you. God bless you all.”
Uzochikwa, in a statement, also applauded his wife saying, “The 2023 Best International Act Winner at the Premier Gospel Awards in the United Kingdom coming to you my beloved wife is testament to your hard work, dint of determination and unbended focus. It is a reminder that serving God pays.”
The award recognises winners across nine award categories that reflected various aspects of gospel music excellence. The winners in each category reflect the outstanding talent and dedication that has shaped UK gospel music, the organisers stated.
Chinwo was announced with eight other winners, including Limoblaze (Best Male Vocalist); Annatoria (Best Female Vocalist); Jireh (Best Song: Limoblaze); Manor Collective (Best Group); Choir of the Year (The Spirituals); Tofunmi Adorna (Best Newcomer); Triple O’s Everything Left Unsaid (Best Album), and Guvna B’s Bridgeland Road (Best Video).
On a sunny afternoon in February 2022, I engaged my principal, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, in a talk over the propriety of an international conference centre that hosts a four-star hotel at a location just a spit distance from the iconic Kwara Hotel, Innovation Hub, and Visual Arts Centre. He grinned, and calmly asked if I had been to Dubai before. I told him I hadn’t. He told me right there that I would be joining a contingent from the state to the Emirati in April.
That visit answered many of the questions I had for him on the under-construction Ilorin International Conference Centre — and a lot more. That trip helped to further explain in practical terms his vision for Kwara without him saying a word more on the topic, apart from our usual long sessions on his projects, programmes, and approaches. Dubai is an economy built around tourism, conferencing, hospitality, and trade. I now see a man wanting to build an economy on the back of the strategic location of Kwara as the gateway between the south and the north, a state that is peaceful, rich in arable land, and is home to some of Nigeria’s oldest monuments like the Mungo Park, Owu Fall, Sobi Hill, Patigi Regatta, the first national museum in Esie, and a potpourri of rich cultures and hospitable people.
The recent visit of a powerful delegation of French government to Kwara State offered another insight into how this dream is steadily gaining a toehold. As the Governor and many government functionaries accompanied the French minister of state for development, francophonie and international partnership Chrysoula Zacharopoulou and her entourage on a tour of the visual arts centre, and they were talked through different things that the centre offers in arts and tourism attraction, what came to my mind was my failed visit to the Museum of the Future. My 11-year-old son had requested me to visit the place, which he himself had only read about. The Museum of the Future is a beauty to behold, and clearly a gold mine that generates millions of dollars for the Dubai economy. My visit was a failed one as I could not enter, having not bought a ticket online ahead of the time. My quick search showed that I had to buy a ticket online many weeks earlier before visiting. Even so, I watched in awe, from the exterior architecture, how the Dubai authorities had deployed Arabic calligraphy in the designing of one of the most beautiful structures in the world, one superbly etched in the Arabian culture. The Museum of the Future is a signature architectural masterpiece that clearly fits its name. Of course, the museum is just one of the many iconic structures that define Dubai, including the much-talked-about Burj-al-Khalifa, world’s tallest building to date. It is a place you really want to visit. Vision!
Studio Contra’s Jeffrey Adjei, who took the visitors round Kwara’s visual arts centre, mentioned one of the things to wait for as the project gets to its final stage: art galleries that will host exhibitions of great works and monuments from different parts of the world. I instantly had an eureka moment: the Governor once mentioned to me how Ilorin could well host a display of the world’s oldest manuscript of the Qur’an and other great relics. I had wondered how this would happen.
The presence of the visual arts centre, also called the Institute of Contemporary African Art & Film, already makes Ilorin, Kwara State, a destination for tourism and arts. This is exactly one of what the French visit pointed at. A section of the facility will house a Dolby studio and high-end facilities for last-mile movie productions, creating a unique hub for the creative industry in Africa. It also has a film screening room and lecture hall, a café to enhance the local food and beverage industry, a co-working space, a bookshop with wide selection of books on art, culture, film, architecture and literature, a multipurpose room, and a sculpture garden with additional courtyards for public use.
Next door is the innovation hub, one of the reasons the French delegation was in Kwara. Nothing better points the bright future of the facility than the traffic it has attracted. Alliance Francaise, French version of the British Council to push its soft power, has just booked itself a space at the innovation hub. With that comes an opportunity for rich cultural exchanges between the French and the people of Kwara, a state bordered to the north by French-speaking Benin Republic. This opens huge opportunities for residents of Kwara and surrounding areas to learn French and give themselves a leap in social mobility.
Sometimes, the facilities may not be the big deal themselves. The real deal is that each of these facilities has its quality crowds, who in turn move thousands of enthusiasts, events, businesses, jobs, and huge revenues in any direction they travel worldwide. These crowds need hospitality and conferencing facilities that support quality relaxation and conducive networking. That brings in the Ilorin International Conference Centre (IICC) with a four-star hotel. Vision!
Add those to the sugar film factory, a garment factory, multimillion dollar agroprocessing zone that is to reduce herders-farmers’ conflict and strengthen food security, industrial park at Eiyenkorin, completion of the Osi and Ilesha Baruba campuses of the state-owned university, and Shea-butter processing plant in Kaiama, investments in human capital development, unrelenting efforts to link rural communities to the city centres, and the push for sustainable living through the phased master plan for the capital city and other parts of the state. Again, vision!
Painter and 2D artist Oyinlola is attempting to break the record for the longest painting marathon.
The record is currently held by Ronald Palmaerts who painted for 60 hours straight in 2013.
Oyinlola tweeted with a screenshot of an email from Guinness World Records, that she’d be attempting to break the record between October 28-30, 2023.
Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra on Monday called for productive partnership while inaugurating and issuing the proclamation of the functionality of the 8th State House of Assembly.
Speaking at the Proclamation/Inauguration ceremony at the Assembly Chamber in Awka, Soludo said
the legislature was a crucial partner in the quest for good governance.
He said: “I congratulate our newly inaugurated legislators.
“Irrespective of your different party affiliations, you have been employed by the people to ensure that Anambra blossoms.
“The executive, the legislature and the judiciary, must work in a collaboratively, coordinative and cooperative way to achieve project Anambra by making the state liveable and prosperous.
“If you all act fully in accordance with the oath of office and allegiance you have taken, I’m sure that Anambra will have the most productive legislature in the country.
“It is a new productive partnership and as the head of the executive arm of government, I am ready so that we can achieve our common goal which is a greater Anambra.”
Before the inauguration, Mr Somtochukwu Udeze, representing Ogbaru Constituency ll, a third term serving legislator, emerged the speaker while Mr Chukwuma Okoye, representing Awka South ll emerge the Deputy Speaker of the House.
In his acceptance speech, the Speaker of the House, Udeze promised to improve the welfare and security of the people through developmental-oriented Bills and motions as well as serve as an effective watchdog of the state’s commonwealth.
“I am grateful to my colleagues for electing me as the Speaker.
“The 8th Assembly under my watch will forster a relationship with the executive and the judiciary based and cooperation and mutual respect.
“I sincerely look forward to a relationship of healthy inter-dependence where each arm approaches one another as a responsible partner in governance.
“We shall ensure the development of appropriate legislative templates for addressing the numerous challenges in our state, ” he said.
The Speaker also read the letter from the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) on the nominees for principal officers as the party with the majority in the Assembly.
He, however, said that the letter would be considered at the next adjourned date which is July 11.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 30 members of the 8th assembly comprised of eight lawmakers re-elected from the seventh assembly and 22 new lawmakers.
The ruling APGA has 16 of the members, Labour Party secured seven seats, the Peoples Democratic Party secured four seats while the Young Progressives Party won three seats.
(NAN)
Former spokesman of President Bola Tinubu in the south east, Dr. Josef Onoh, has dedicated 2023 Democracy Day celebration to President Bola Tinubu, noting that his contribution in the struggle against military regimes were significant and germane in the restoration of democracy.
Onoh also commended the efforts of all the pro-democracy activists in Nigeria, particularly the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) members, that included his father, Late Chief C.C. Onoh, who ensured through their bravery and sacrifice, pulled down the military men in politics to restore democracy back to the country.
In his June 12, 2023 democracy day tribute to President Tinubu, Onoh said: “Today we celebrate the turning point of our nation’s struggle for democracy, majority of our youth might not know the significance but have continued dreaming for a better future, a future they can be whatever they aspire to be and through hard work tap into the limitless positive opportunities our nation is blessed with.
“For me, today reminds me of the multiple traumatic experiences of midnight raids, breaking down of doors in my late father’s house in Ngwo by military officers and the SSS, as they were called back then, who quickly bundled him to various detention facilities across the country. One traumatic incident was the SSS holding facility at Epe town in Lagos state, I recall the torment and pain my mother went through while keeping a smiling face during these sad ordeals, out of paranoia we would drive from Enugu to Lagos just to be near my father and our family will forever remain grateful to late Chief Shafi Lawal Edu for all the support he showed to us during such ordeals.
“Today I celebrate him, he remains one of Epe’s greatest sons and pride of Nigeria, his contribution to conservation locally and internationally remains indelible. He was not just a friend but a brother to my father, hence I grew up devoid of any ethnic bondage rather to cherish and build a bond of brotherhood amongst all. This was one of the foundations and values that existed amongst the founding members of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) that served as catalyst for the struggle over the annulled June 12, 1993 election that culminated in Nigeria’s return to civil rule in 1999.
“As I dedicate today’s democracy day to My President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I dedicate today to his tenacity, doggedness, resilience, commitment, unruffled will power, most of all his undying belief of a better Nigeria. As our President, he represents not just Nigeria but the dream, commitment and struggles of our departed champions of democracy, most especially Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti. My unwavering support for you Mr. President represents the spirit and dedication my departed father would have given everything to see, hence I’m grateful to God that I’m alive today to have you as my President. You stand as a Symbol not just a president but the everlasting symbol of triumph of human will over suppression and bondage. You will forever represent the greatest liberty symbol of collective struggle, the unbroken shackles. I thank you for the support you gave my late father even while you were in exile.
“May you never forget the golden words made by NADECO on the 15th of May 1994 that- ‘Whereas the military as an institution is essentially authoritarian and cannot, therefore, midwife democracy in Nigeria; whereas the Nigerian political class which has been abused, subverted and humiliated in the past ten years for cooperating and working with the military political agenda, how now realised that there is no alternative to democracy in Nigeria; now therefore, the leaders of the major democratic and progress organisations and eminent Nigerians hereby resolve to create a nationwide, broad-based political reform where all democratic and progressive forces can find accommodation for a joint struggle for the restoration of democracy and true federalism in Nigeria.’
“May your tenure therefore bring peace to our nation and also peace to the departed comrades in the struggle. Today, you now carry the collective burden of their struggle.
“I dedicate today to you Mr. President, to the spirit of M.K.O Abiola and the entire Abiola family, to the souls of those comrades departed and living in the persons of Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin, Mallam Lawal Dambazzau, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Major General Adeyinka Adebayo (retd.), Chief Bola Ige, Commodore Dan Suleiman, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Professor Anya O. Anya, Colonel Yohanna Madaki, Reverend Father Moses Adasu, Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti, Reverend Tunji Adebiyi, Chief Ade Ojo, Chief Ralph Obioha, Chief Empire Kanu, Chief Michael Anyiam, Dr. Sola Soile, Vice Admiral Akin Aduwo, Chief E. Duru, Mr. Nick Dazzang, Mr. Labaran Maku, Dr A. A. Akingba, Mr Babas Eko Oyekanmi, Mr Alex Ayatolla, Mrs Sarah Jubril, Alhaji Ganiyu Dawodu, Mr O. P. Edodo, Mr A. Barber, Otunba Olabiyi Durojaiye, Chief Olusegun Osoba, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, Alhaji Mohammed Siraj Hamza, Dr. Wahab Dosunmu, Otunba Aboyade Cole, Major General Olufemi Olutoye (rtd), Chief Sobo Sowemimo, Dr. Steve Achema, Chief Olaniwun Ajayi, Chief Olu Falae, Brigadier-General Jonah Jang, Chief Abraham Adesanya, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Mr. Alao Aka-Bashorun, Mr. Emmanuel Njiwah, Chief Vincent Nwizugbo and Dr. Uma Eleazu.
“May I also most especially dedicate today’s democracy day to my Dearest father, confidant, friend and role model H. E, Chief (Dr) C. C. Onoh of blessed memory and NADECO leaders who at one time or the other got harassed, arrested and incarcerated include Chief Enahoro, Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (rtd), Chief Olu Falae; Pa Ayo Adebanjo, Pa Alfred Rewane, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Chief. C. C. Onoh, General Alani Akinrinade; Mr. Clement Nwankwo; Mr. Olawale Oshun; Dr. Frederick Faseun; Mr. Ayo Opadokun, Femi Falana and Frank Ovie-Kokori, Mohammed Arzika, Olu Lulu-Briggs, Chief Bola Ige, Beko Ransome-Kuti, Yohanna Madaki, Cornelius Adebayo, Wahab Dosunmu, Uma Eleazu, Segun Osoba and Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife among others.
“Other leaders include Dangiwa Umar; Femi Falana and Kayode Fayemi, who manned the pirate Radio Kudirat at the height of the ‘war’ against the Abacha regime.
“May their efforts and struggles never be forgotten, may your tenure as our president bring lasting peace and prosperity to our great nation. The time has come to break the shackles that have held us down. Happy democracy day Nigeria; Happy democracy day Mr. President; My President; our President!”