The Nation Newspaper

Tag: celebrate

  • Dolphins celebrate governor Wike

    Dolphins celebrate governor Wike

    Players and officials of Dolphins FC club are in joyous mood after the governor of Rivers State, Barrister Nyesom Wike sent a savory message to them just before departure to Nnewi for a league game.

    Media Manager of the club, China Acheru said that the team was preparing for the trip to Nnewi for a league game against Ifeanyi Ubah FC when the governor’s message arrived.

    “Governor Wike told the players that all salaries owed to them will be paid up until May 2015,” Acheru said.

    “You all know the team have been owed salaries and match bonuses since August 2014 and this message from the governor has come as a welcome development,” the Media manager added.

    Captain of the team, Festus Austin said before departure that the message from the governor has really lifted the spirit of the players.

    “We just want to thank him. We know he is not the one who actually owe us but it is a debt he inherited so we are happy that just less than three weeks after he was sworn in, he has given a timeline to pay us.

    “The players are happy. We have been trying our best in those dark moments and we will do even better now that we have hopes of getting paid and will actually be paid,” Austin said.

    According to Acheru, the governor has said all monies owed the team up till the end of May 2015 will be paid by Monday, June 22, 2015.

    “That is what we got from government house just before departure that every one will be paid by Monday next week as the governor has approved the release of funds to offset all debts,” Acheru added.

    You will recall that On May 27, players of the team as well as those of Sharks barricaded the gates of the Rivers State government house, two days before the handover ceremony to inquire from the outgone governor why they had not been paid and a promise was made to pay before the inauguration on May 29.

  • Children celebrate international day

    Children celebrate international day

    Has it ever occurred to you why international day is celebrated by educational institutions?”  This question was the question asked by a five-year-old Miss Mfeheke Okoko, a pupil of De Beautiful Beginning (DBB) School, Magodo, Lagos, during the school’s first International Day celebration. The young lady who wore gold India dress made this remark when she mounted the stage and addressed the guests, parents, teachers and her fellow students, to formally open the event which took place recently.

    “It worries me,” she continued, “to see my fellow black skinned man humiliated by a white man. I wonder if it has ever occurred to them that black or white, we are the same. This has necessitated the introduction of the young generation to diverse cultures we have in the world. The awareness of the different world cultures in children will help build an interest for other cultures in children, it will help develop appreciation and respect for their cultures.”

    The children wore the attires from each country they represented; countries such as India, Ghana, Brazil, Madagascar, Nigeria, Italy, Japan, South Africa, China, Egypt, Scotland and France. These countries presented various mouth-watering delicacies which they served guests.

    The Egyptians are associated with mummies, gold and Pharaohs; these were presented in the Egyptian tent as well as shawarma which they said originated from Egypt.

    Indians are known for their colourful wedding ceremony; a very short and colourful wedding was presented during the drama and dance presentation by the children who represented India.

    Present to witness the celebration was Miss Tourism 2014, Collete Nwadike. She said: “It is wonderful seeing such occasion where you bring children together and institute a sense of love, care and appreciation for other people, not just people from Nigeria, not just their tribe, not just their ethnic group but that of other countries, teaching them how to appreciate other countries and speaking their languages. This is the spirit of oneness; it makes them love other countries even though they have not been there.”

    Goge Africa celebrity couple presenters, Nneka and Isaac Moses, Ebele the Flutist, were among the judges and they picked the winners by the cuisine, information material, artworks, attire, and stage performances, organisation, etc.

    Scotland was third, second was South Africa and India was crowned the winner. There was a raffle draw in the course of the event and prizes were awarded to the winners. DeBB International day was supported by First Bank.

    The proprietress, Mrs Olubukola Ounleye, said it is important for children to know about other countries and their cultures. “We asked them to look at the similarities between Nigeria and other countries, and we discovered in the process of this that they didn’t know much about other countries. Most of them are used to travelling to the United Kingdom, United States and they think other countries are like that, this inspired the international day celebration.”

    Nigeria was not left out in the international day event, but her tent was not attractive like other tents and was not well represented in the drama, dance and other activities. “Every class was actually given a country to represent, so I guess what you saw was what they came up with. The International Day is about what each country can display,” said one the teacher, Mrs Irene Ebegbuna.

  • Polls: Politicians celebrate Buhari/Osinbajo at Valentine

    Polls: Politicians celebrate Buhari/Osinbajo at Valentine

    To mark this year’s Saint Valentine’s day, present and former elected public officials, as well as candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, yesterday, celebrated the candidatures of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and Prof. Yemi Osibajo as presidential and vice presidential flagbearers of the party in the rescheduled March general elections. The event tagged “FeBuhari at Valentine and always” witnessed a public discourse on the state of the nation, a press conference and the cutting of a Valentine cake dedicated to the victory of the Buhari/Osibajo ticket at the presidential election slated for March 28, 2015.

    Participants used the occasion to condemn what they described as the unwarranted postponement of the elections and warned against further shifting of the election dates. Politicians and other guests present urged Nigerians to vote for change during the election. In his welcome address, the convener of the programme, Hon. Sanai Agunbiade, chairman of the Lagos state House of Assembly Committee on Judiciary and Public Petitions,urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)    to ensure a free and fair election that will reflect the sovereign will of the people.

    “Though as a people, our psychic is harassed by the postponed elections, yet our love for the man we are anxiously  waiting to vote for as the president of Nigeria remains intact as we remain undaunted. For these reasons, we have decided to commemorate today as a special day to publicly demonstrate our love for a man of high integrity and rare passion:  General Muhammad Buhari. Today we shall publicly pronounce him as our Val and celebrate Buhari as a man that deserve our love and vote, today we resolve to give practical meaning to the slogan: FeBUHARI,” he said.

    Other dignitaries at the event held at Agunbiade’s costituency office in Ikorodu, included Princess Adenrele Adeniran Ogunsanya, former Secretary to the State Government, Senator Bareehu Ashafa, Barrister Jimi Benson, APC House of Representatives candidate, Executive Secretaries of Local Council Development Authorities, amongst others.

  • Drivers celebrate

    The annual get-together of the UNILORIN Drivers’ Welfare Association will hold on Saturday at the university’s Pensioners Secretariat on the Mini Campus.

    A statement by the Chairman of the association’s Ceremonial Committee, Mr. Omowumi Sunday, disclosed that the event will also serve as send-off ceremony for its members who retired within the last one year, and election of new officers for the association.

  • Need we over celebrate?

    I wrote this piece on Friday while trapped in traffic  on my way to the University of Lagos to drop my son who was resuming his second year in the institution. Although we left home in Abule Egba on what I like to call the ‘outland’ of Lagos about 10.30 am and I had hoped to return to my office in Mushin by at most 1.00pm, we were still in the traffic within the campus by 3.30pm.

    The cause of the gridlock was the matriculation for fresh students.

    All roads leading to and out of the institution were jammed, no thanks to the students, parents and well wishers who thronged the campus for the celebration.

    At a point, I had to park somewhere, while my son and his colleague took his luggage to the hostel.

    Considering how though it is to get admission into high institutions in the country, especially UNILAG, reputed to be the University of first choice, I can understand the joy of new students and their parents. What I can’t comprehend is the kind of elaborate celebrations to mark the occasion.

    As I sat in the car feeling very frustrated by the ‘owambe’ celebration playing out on the campus to mark the matriculation, I could not but wonder why we love to over celebrate at the slightest opportunity.

    Why should a matriculation which is just the beginning of the academic sojourn for new students turn out to be a nightmare for other road users in and around the campus? Why should not only few people, parents and immediate family members at most, come to wish the fresh students well and leave as soon as possible?

    Matriculation should not be turned into yet another carnival, the kind I witnessed last Friday.  I did not make it out of the campus until about 6.00pm. Maybe the “University should have made better parking  and restricted guests like during convocation. But the truth is that the matriculation should not have resulted in the type of chaos it did last Friday.

    I have no problem with celebrating major events, but more than ever before, we need to be more modest about them. The kind of elaborate celebrations one sees around these days does not indicate the economic reality of the times we live in.

    Simple ceremonies that should not cost much have become very expensive with many trying hard to live up to unrealistic public expectations.

    Money that should be utilised for more important needs are wasted in wild celebrations that leave the majority poorer.

    In some cases, people have to borrow to pay for the celebration. Long after the events, they are stuck with debts which they should not have incurred in the first place but for our culture of ‘over celebration’.

    I don’t understand why almost every occasion requires that one buys the celebration uniform the Yorubas call Asoebi , caps for men  and headgears for ladies,  which most times are not useful after the events.

    When celebrants don’t force asoebi on invited guests, they come up with colour codes for dresses to wear to such events.

    We seem to have perfected the art of inflicting unnecessary financial burden on ourselves all in the name of celebrations. It is time to begin to take a second look at the things we do in the name of celebration and maximise our resources.

  • ‘We celebrate our candidate’

    ‘We celebrate our candidate’

    Two questions came up when the campaign train of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer, President Goodluck Jonathan, stopped in Enugu. One was what was in store for the Southeast in the Jonathan second term if he won? The other was, who will Governor Sullivan Chime hand over the party’s flag to?

    The first issue was not quite addressed but Governor Chime quickly stepped in to assure his august guest that the state was behind his candidature.

    Also, Dr. Jonathan cleared the air about who the party’s governorship candidate was: Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.

    The rally at the Nnamdi Azikiwe stadium was turned to a carnival of some sorts.

    The crowd that gathered at the stadium had waited endlessly as the event initially billed to start at 10am could not take off until afternoon. During the long wait, gospel artistes and masters of ceremony had a swell time in their effort to fill the gap arising from the late arrival of the President. The two outstanding gospel singers who performed at the occasion, Felix Ndukwe and the Delta state-born Sammy Okposo, gave the audience a full dose of their stuff.

    The singers intermittently sang the praise of President Jonathan, Governor Sullivan Chime and Enugu PDP candidate, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.

    President Jonathan turned up at  the stadium at 2.15pm, accompanied by his wife, Dame Patience, Deputy Vice President, Namadi Sambo, National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Muazu,  Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, Governor Sullivan Chime and Enugu State PDP governorship candidate, Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.

    Observers pondered soem issues, one of them being the place of Ndigbo in the Jonathan second term, should the President’s bid succeed.

    Governor Sullivan Chime assured Jonathan that the people of the state and indeed the entire Southeast would support his re-election bid.

    “The traditional rulers have told you that you have no business campaigning in Enugu. We are here to support you. We are here to celebrate our governorship candidate, Ugwuanyi”, he told the President.

    One of the items members of the party at the rally and particularly people of Enugu State were anxiously waiting for was the official hand-over of the 2015 governorship flag of the PDP to Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. The anxiety over the flag was obvious considering the struggle for the governorship seat.

    Before the rally, there were still pockets of doubts over the actual candidate of the PDP in Enugu State. Recall that one of the contenders to the Lion Building, Senator Ayogu Eze, had claimed to be the PDP candidate in Enugu after holding a parallel governorship primaries in Filbon Hotel, in the New Haven part of the state.

    But with Friday’s rally in Enugu, the struggle for the PDP flag became history as the top leadership of the party, led by Jonathan officially handed over the flag to Ugwuanyi, who is about rounding off his third term in the House of Representatives.

    At the flag-off ceremony, Muazu, who was called up to the podium after Ikeje Asogwa and Governor Chime had presented their addresses, added to the profile of Ugwuanyi. The national chairman of the party said: “this is one of the most popular candidates I have ever met in this period of electioneering in our country”. He called on other aspirants who had run against the candidate to join hands with him and the party while also urging Ugwuanyi to work with all party faithful, whether they had run against him or not.

    He paid tributes to elder statesmen in the Southeast region such as Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nwafor Orizu, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and others who have contributed immensely to the development of the country.

    He thanked people of the Southeast for their show of support and solidarity for the PDP which has made the party grow in leaps and bounds.

    Muazu thereafter formally handed over the party’s governorship flag to Ugwuanyi, declaring that it was a flag of victory from the PDP. Hon. Ugwuanyi enjoys overwhelming support of Enugu PDP stakeholders, and the party faithful, many of whom have constituted over 100 support groups working to actualise his ambition.

    Recall that the party stakeholders in the three senatorial districts of the state had long adopted him as consensus governorship candidate before the primary election.

    A chieftain of the party and former member of the House of Representatives, Hon USA Igwesi described the handover of party flag to Ugwuanyi as a confirmation of victory for the PDP in Enugu State.

    He said that the development showed that the PDP believes in the popular will of the people.

    Chairman of the PDP in Amachalla/Ikpuiga ward, Mr Hyacinth Urama, praised the PDP for ensuring the maintenance of internal democracy in the party.

    Speaking with reporters after receiving the flag, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi thanked the party and the people of Enugu State for the confidence reposed in him and assured that he would consolidate on the current gains and take the state to the next level of development.

    The Enugu PDP governorship flag bearer who promised a robust campaign enthused: “The presentation of the party’s flag to me by the President and our National Chairman is a call to duty, a charge to work hard with my governor and the rest of the team to deliver Enugu State to the PDP 100 per cent as has been the tradition; and that I will surely do, God being my helper”.

    Many curious supporters were quick to notice that Ayogu Eze, the Senate Committee chairman on Works, was conspicuously absent in the PDP rally. It was observed that few members of the PDP who still show solidarity to the Enugu North Senator were also not near the crowded stadium venue of the rally.

    What many took away from the rally was that Enugu is a strong PDP state but critical observers point out that the main challenge is how to convert the large turnout to actual votes.

  • Mfon: I Will Celebrate If I Score Against Akwa United

    Mfon: I Will Celebrate If I Score Against Akwa United

    Former Akwa United favourite Mfon Udoh will celebrate if he scores against his former club as he prepares to meet his old employers in the week 26 of the Nigeria Premier League.

    The Enyimba International FC striker, who was one of the stars of the Promise Keepers in the past, is certain to grab a starter’s shirt in the crunch battle at the Uyo Township Stadium on September 17.

    Mfon said it promises to be an emotional evening for him in Uyo, but he will celebrate in a mild way if he scores against his former pay masters.

    “I’m excited about the game because it’s one that I have been waiting for due to one or two reasons best known to me,” Mfon exclusively told SL10.

    “I’m really looking forward to coming to Uyo, with the purpose of getting the maximum points with my teammates.

    “I’ll always have the greatest respect for Uyo fans and on Wednesday, if I score, I’ve got to celebrate in a mild way,” the People’s Elephants top-scorer explained.

  • Ado-Ekiti to celebrate Udiroko

    THE traditional New Year Day of Ado-Ekiti, Udiroko, will hold on Saturday.

    The Ewi of the town, Oba Adeyemo Adejugbe, announced this yesterday at a media briefing in his palace.

    Oba Adejugbe, who said the activities heralding the festival had started, added that efforts to complete the amphitheatre within the palace have begun after it was re-awarded to another contractor.

    He lamented the indiscriminate selling of the town’s old landed property to businessmen and non-indigenes.

    “We are not saying those who have properties should not sell. What we are saying is if you must sell, you need to inform the palace and the chiefs, who will then do findings to know the status of such a property and the normal way to dispose of it.

    “We don’t want outsiders to take over Ado. What we say is that the rate at which old structures are being sold is worrying.

    “We want our people to exercise restraint in the way they sell off their properties. We are saying they should not sell without the consent of the palace,” Oba Adejugbe said.

    The National President of Ado Progressives Union (APU), Chief Obafemi Ojo, appealed to youths to shun idleness and frivolity, urging them to learn a trade or a vocation.

    He said he had seen many non-indigenes coming into the town and starting small businesses that soon blossomed into big ventures.

    Ojo said opportunities abound in the town, which the youths were not taking note of.

  • Residents celebrate Aregbesola’s victory

    Residents celebrate Aregbesola’s victory

    Yesterday was Sunday, but it did not look like a day of worship for Christians. Osun State residents took to the streets in jubilation over Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s victory in Saturday’s election.

    The Returning Officer, Prof. Bamitale Omole, who is the Vice-Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University (O.A.U.), Ile-Ife, announced the result of the election a little after 7am at the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Osogbo, the state capital.

    Aregbesola, who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had 394,684 votes, defeating his main contender, Senator Iyiola Omisore of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who had 292,747 votes.

    Immediately the result was announced, residents took to the streets, singing and dancing in delight.

    Many converged in front of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) state secretariat on Gbongan Road, where they set up a makeshift public address system for a victory party.

    The party caused a traffic gridlock on the road.

    The story was the same across the state, including Ilesa, Ejigbo, Iwo, Ikirun, Iragbiji, Aagba, Ada, Igbajo, Ilobu, Ifon, Oba-Oke and Oba-Ile.

    Some security agents, who drove past the jubilant crowd, made victory signs in solidarity with the people.

    The elated residents celebrated Aregbesola’s victory with fireworks at various locations in Osogbo, including 7 Up area, Olaiya Junction, Okefia, Isale Aro and the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park.

  • Oyo residents, Anambra APC celebrate

    Oyo residents, Anambra APC celebrate

    News of Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s re-election was greeted with jubilation yesterday by All Progressives Congress (APC) supporters in Oyo and Anambra states.

    Aregbesola’s victory was the topic of discussion in many churches in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

    Mr Muyiwa Alaba, a teacher, said Aregbesola’s re-election represents victory for the masses.

    Oyo APC, in a statement by its Publicity Director, Olawale Sadare, said: “The world has seen champions of liberty in Osun people, who dared the odds of intimidation, harassment and inducement to exercise their rights to choose their leader. They have recorded a victory against the forces of oppression made up of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal Government and its agents in Yorubaland.

    “We urge the electorate to replicate this in Oyo and others states where the APC has delivered good governance.”

    Anambra APC, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Okelo Madukaife, said: “There is something to take away from Osun by the rest of Nigeria, particularly in elections yet to come, about how the voting populace can  frame their view, nurture it, guard it and find courage to protect it against state-sponsored derailment before mid-wifing same to success.”