The Nation Newspaper

Tag: girl

  • Serena Williams Welcomes Baby Girl

    Serena Williams Welcomes Baby Girl

    • Congratulatory messages pouring in from family, friends, fans
    •  Plans to return to the court soonest. 

    23-time Grand Slam winner Lawn tennis star, Serena Williams has given birth to a baby girl. The six-time US Open champion gave birth on Friday at the St Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, prompting congratulatory messages to begin circulating on social media.

    The news was first broken by a TV news producer Chris Shepherd on Twitter.

    “Tennis star Serena Williams gives birth to a baby girl weighing 6 pounds, 13 ounces. Mom and baby doing well,” he wrote.

    News of the birth came as her sister Venus prepared to go out on court at the US Open.

    “Obviously I’m super-excited,” Venus said. “Words can’t describe it.”

    Serena had admitted to be pregnant to the world in April by accident, after mistakenly uploading a photograph on Snapchat.

    Serena Williams Welcomes Baby Girl
    Photo by David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock (8770824fp)

    She had won the Australian Open title this January while newly pregnant, “It’s the most outrageous plan,” she said. “I just want to put that out there. That’s, like, three months after I give birth.”

    Williams who has a slew of records to her name, including as the only tennis player to have won 10 Grand Slam singles titles in two separate decades. She is also the only player to have won two of the four Grand Slams – Wimbeldon and the Australian Open – seven times each.

    In an earlier Vogue interview, the 35-year-old had revealed that she “definitely” plans to return to the court.

    Williams, 35, whose partner is Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, said last month she was planning to return to tennis for the Australian Open in January.

    “It’s hard to figure out what the end of your tennis career should look like,” she says. “I used to think I’d want to retire when I have kids, but no. I’m definitely coming back. Walking out there and hearing the crowd, it may seem like nothing. But there’s no better feeling in the world.”

     

     

  • Man, 20, ‘rapes’ girl, 6

    A 20-year-old man, Francis Yawu, was arraigned before a Surulere Chief Migistrates’ Court for allegedly detaining and defiling a six-year-old girl.

    Magistrate Aro Lambo granted him N1million bail with ordered him to two sureties in the like sum.

    Lambo said one of the sureties must be a property owner; the other, a community leader or clergyman.

    The sureties will also provide evidence of tax payments.

    Yawu who lives at 38, Zamba Street, Itire, Lagos State, pleaded not guilty to the three-count charge of defilement and unlawful detention.

    Prosecuting Sergeant Anthonia Osayande told the court that the accused committed the offences on July 17.

    Osayande said the accused, who lives on the same street with the victim, “unlawfully detained and indecently had carnal knowledge of the six-year-old girl.”

    The offences contravened Sections 137, 135 and 144 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.

    The magistrate directed aid that the case file be sent to the Director of Public Prosecution for advice. He adjourned the case till October 5.

  • ‘Crying’ Physically challenged girl gets 20 wheelchairs

    ‘Crying’ Physically challenged girl gets 20 wheelchairs

    Na’ima Hamza, the 14-year-old physically-challenged girl in Shuwarin, Kiyawa Local Government Area of Jigawa, has so far received 20 wheelchairs and three sewing machines as gifts from donors.

    The latest donors are two philanthropists, Mr Chidi Okereke and Aliyu Ibrahim Gebi, who donated eight wheelchairs and N20, 000 to her.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the girl drew public attention on May 20, when she wept profusely after failing to get a wheelchair donated by the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC).

    Zainab Shuaibu, who represented the donors, presented the items and the cash gift of N20, 000 to the girl on Thursday in Shuwarin.

    According to her, two of the wheelchairs were donated by Gebi, an Abuja based businessman.

    She said the two philanthropists after reading Na’ima’s emotional story, volunteered to assist her including helping to pay her school fees.

    Also speaking, the father of the girl, Malam Hamza Muhammad, thanked the donors for their show of love and solidarity.

    He said the family was overjoyed by the response and show of love to their daughter “who is now full of life.”

    Commenting, the District Head of Shuwarin, Alhaji Abubakar Abdullahi, in whose palace the items were presented to the girl, commended the donors for the kind gesture.

    NYSC Coordinator in Jigawa, Mr Michael Amulo, who also witnessed the presentation, commended the donors for their support to the girl.

    Amulo recalled that the girl’s emotional response, widely reported in the media, prompted the D-G of NYSC, Brig.-Gen. Sule Kazaure, CONTEC Global Foundation and some individuals to come to her aid.

    NAN also learnt that the girl had since received over 20 wheelchairs, three tricycles, three sewing machines, an expensive cell phone and two scholarship awards from individuals and a non-governmental organisation.

    NAN reports that the 14-year-old primary four pupil who had since resumed school, was earlier seen among her mates telling her life changing story.

    The girls said she was overwhelmed with the love shown to her by Nigerians, and promised to also donate some of the wheelchairs to other physically challenged persons like her.(NAN)

  • Mudslide kills girl, 5, in Magodo

    •Death toll in Ilasamaja collapse  building hits four

    A five-year-old girl has been killed by mudslide in Magodo Phase II, Lagos.

    The incident occurred at 21, Odofian Street, around 7pm last Friday.

    Sarah was playing with her friend, Khadija, when the mud fell on them.

    Khadija was rushed to hospital because of her injuries.

    Rescue workers comprising Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Fire Service, police and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have recovered the body.

    Death toll in the Ilasamaja building collapse hit four yesterday, with the discovery of another body from the rubble.

    Relatives of some of the workers at the site told The Nation yesterday that they were yet to see their loved ones, raising fears that more people could still be under the debris

    They said at least four persons were still missing.

    According to them, flies have begun perching on the debris which they said was a sign that people were still underneath.

    LASEMA General Manager, Adesina Tiamiyu confirmed the mudslide and warned residents of the dangers in playing around the place.

    He appealed to parents to monitor their kids when they go out to play, adding that Sarah’s body was handed over to her mother for burial.

    On the Ilasamaja incident, Tiamiyu said responders would begin a clean-up of the area to forestall public health issues.

    He confirmed that another body was found around midnight yesterday, saying his officers were on out post disaster clearing.

    Tiamiyu said: “Yes, we recovered another body around 12am. It was found under the debris during a post-disaster clearing of the site.

    “This has brought the total number of mortality to four persons, while those rescued alive remain 19, all male.

    “The body is yet to be identified and has been deposited by the State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit (SEHMU) at the Mainland Hospital Mortuary, Yaba.

    “We will carry out a clean-up of the site as soon as it was completely cleared to forestall public health issues at Ilasa and environs.”

  • Child Saftey: The Horrors of Girl Circumcision

    Child Saftey: The Horrors of Girl Circumcision

    Sometime last week, I had a heated debate with my colleague. According to her, she was circumcised when she was 10 years old by a local mid wife. As expected, it was a horrible experience.

    She is from Urhobo in Delta State, where it is a tradition to circumcise girls. I watched in discomfort as she described the inhuman experience. A blade was heated. She was made to lie down on a wide banana leaf on the ground, her legs were spread wide, forced down by two stern looking men. Without any form of anesthesia, she was cut through with the hot blade.  Her roof tattering scream fell on deaf ears. Her clitoris was chopped off in the most inhumane and barbaric way, she bled for days and the local midwife had to apply iodine on her vagina to stop the bleeding.

    Still, the pain was unbearable; she sat in hot water day and night for close to three weeks and had difficulty in urinating for many days. It was a highly traumatic experience for her.

    Her mother consoled her and reassured her that it was a necessary tradition which would welcome her to womanhood. she was visibly depressed as she relieved the traumatic experience and with sad eyes she told me that her daughter was about to experience the trauma she went through, her in-laws are insisting on circumcising her teenage daughter and she didn’t know how to stop them. At that juncture I lost my cool, how could such a barbaric tradition still be in existence? I was visibly shocked, I stared at her hoping she was joking, an educated family like hers could not possibly still be stuck in such archaic belief, it was unbelievable!. The look on her face was enough to convince me that she was very serious.

    We all have heard about this barbaric act and probably thought it’s a thing of the past. I did my research and discovered that it’s still being practiced in some parts of Nigeria.

    It is called female genital mutilation. It is the partial or total removal of the clitoris and labia majora. This procedure is an abuse of the girl child; it is cruel, inhuman, degrading and should be abolished completely. It should be a crime to put a child through such horrific experience.

    Female genital mutilation can result to death through severe bleeding and infection of the reproductive system. Not only would the child experience excruciating pain during the procedure, girls who have undergone FGM, suffer many long term negative effects which can be physical, sexual and psychological.

    The dangers associated with FGM are so many that you begin to wonder why so called ‘educated’ parents would want to put their child through such trauma. FGM can cause difficult and painful intercourse, reduce sexual desire and cause life threatening problems during labour and child birth. Most parents are of the belief that female genital mutilation will preserve a girl’s virginity and prepare her for marriage but that is the other way round as most girls that have undergone FGM become promiscuous in the quest to get sexual satisfaction.

    No child should be forced to go through FGM and the law should protect vulnerable children who are at risk from this harmful practice. There are no acceptable reasons to justify FGM and it should be totally eradicated and illegal to conduct such procedure on a child. Like my colleagues daughter, there are a lot more children who are about to go under the hot infectious blade in the name of girls circumcision. I hope the law can protect their sexual reproductive health and rights and end this age-long barbaric act.

    Njideka Obi, a lawyer, Child Safety Advocate, and Child Safety Educator

    08060424282, safersmarterchildren@gmail.com

  • And the girl died

    And the girl died.  But was it the Nigerian version of the Japanese seppuku (suicide by disembowelment to preserve personal honour)?  Or just sheer guilt and shame, that only arbitrary termination of life can take off?

    Hardball is not sure but he is in grief, pain and agony, for a young woman, full of life, just took her own life.  That was all so, so avoidable — and that’s Hardball’s angst.

    From news reports, Ayomide Ayibiri was an Employee Relations and Human Resources Management (ER & HRM) fresher at the University of Lagos, Akoka, resident in Amina Hall, one of the university’s female hostels.

    It so happened that some clothes and a make-up kit, belonging to a fellow student, got missing; and the late Ayibiri was accused of stealing the items.  Her peers, therefore, went about booing and haranguing her to be the “thief”.

    Proof?  The missing items were allegedly found in her bag.  Ayibiri’s mother, said to be one of the workers in the university, promptly paid N2, 000 for the make-up kit, apparently to save her daughter from further embarrassment.

    What is unclear, though, is if she made any investigation to ascertain her guilt or innocence.  But apparently seizing the mother’s peace offering as “evidence” of guilt, the mocking party pursued a now brow-beaten Ayibiri with a howl of boos and jeers, even as her mother led her home.

    That, for the late young woman, would have been the ultimate shame and disgrace.  The next day, her mother got home from work to find her in a bad state: she just drank insecticide and she was writhing in pains.  She was dead when she got rushed to the hospital.

    Tragically, the girl died.  But did she commit the offence?  Even if she did, must she be heckled to her death, practically speaking?

    That is where the University of Lagos authorities should step into the matter.  Unfortunately, the mother, apparently still grieving and in shock, did not report the matter to the university’s Student Affairs Unit.  But that should not stop a proper investigation of the matter.

    Did Ayibiri really steal those items?  If she did, that would be very unfortunate.  Still, must it have been so mismanaged that she, in shame, had to take her own life?

    But what if she didn’t?  Then, that would be double jeopardy. Yes, the items were allegedly found in her bag.  But if someone else planted them in there; and she was nothing but a fall guy?  What if her sense of eternal tar drove her to doing the unthinkable, even if rashly?  What if she killed herself, bitter that her peers had practical hanged her for another person’s misdemeanours?

    The university authorities should get to the root of this tragedy.  The idea might not be to prosecute, per se — though if found that she was set up, that would not be a bad idea, punishing everyone behind the ploy.

    It is rather to inculcate in students more civil ways of handling matters like that.  If Ayibiri had been handed over to the campus police, a proper investigation would perhaps have been carried out, without anyone resorting to boos and jeers, which signify a presumption of guilt.  If that had been done, perhaps Ayibiri would still be alive today.

    The university authorities should inculcate, in these young minds, extreme civility, even in the face of utmost provocation.  That is the only way the gown can positively touch the town.

    We can’t have young girls killing themselves, on our university campuses, because of unproven allegations.

  • How The Nation’s story changed girl’s life

    How The Nation’s story changed girl’s life

    Miss Òpémipó Ogunséyé, an orphan who will be 20 on April 12, thought she would never use her legs again.  But a story in this newspaper titled Please, help me to make something out of my life changed all that.

    A Belgian and Managing Director, World Telecom Labs, Mr. Leigh Smith, was in Nigeria when the story was published. Smith, who almost had his leg amputated several years ago, read the story and decided to help.

    All thanks to Smith, Miss Ogunseye now has her legs backs and also has money in an account to fund her education.

    He said: “Whenever I am in Nigeria, I always stayed in the same hotel in Abuja. I liked to swim but the hotel swimming pool was closed off because they were building a new wing on the hotel next door. So, I met with the general manager and explained that I wanted to use the pool to get some exercise. There-and-then, he gave me special permission to use the pool. Everytime I made a booking, the pool would be cleaned and I used it regularly while there.

    “This set up worked well for about seven visits before I read about Òpémipó’s story in The Nation. That November, when I arrived the reception, the officials were happy to see me and promptly, they gave me the key to the swimming pool. Unknown to me, the GM had not seen my request that while at the hotel, I would use the swimming pool. So, he did not instruct for the pool to be cleaned.

    “The next night, I went for a swim. I was already in the water before I realised that it was not cleaned as before. I accidentally had a very small cut on my knee but didn’t know that bacteria entered through this cut into my lower leg. Within the next three days, my left leg had gotten swollen. Fortunately, on the Friday night I had to fly to Cape Town to attend a telecoms conference. I arrived early Saturday morning and went straight to Christian Barnard Hospital next to my hotel for a check up.

    “The doctors immediately explained that the issue with my leg looked serious and that I needed to be checked in. Immediately, they started series of checks and later told me that they found few serious complications as they found Strepicoccous bacteria in my system. Then, they moved me into the intensive care as I had stopped breathing at some point and my kidneys stopped working.

    “By the third day, the medical team thought I was going to die and the next option for them was to amputate my left leg. They were still deliberating on the process of cutting off my leg when fortunately, the antibiotics earlier administered started killing off the bacteria by the fourth day. Eventually, I ended up being in the intensive care for eight days and lasted three whole weeks in hospital. That was how I was saved from losing my leg simply because I swam in dirty swimming pool. I think I might have wanted to end my life. So, when I read Òpémipó’s story in your newspaper, it really touched my heart because what happened to her very, very nearly happened to me.

    “This episode took me about three months before I began walking short distances. Gradually, it improved but the infection and the treatment affected the lymphatic circulation in my leg. Once monthly, I still get some physiotherapy treatment to massage out the swelling. But I am largely fine and my leg is very much okay.”

    Smith, for about two years, ensured that Òpémipó got treated medically at the Federal Medical Centre, Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, Ogun State, where she had her crushed leg replaced with Prosthesis, an artificial cast.

    Last week, Smith accompanied by this reporter, Òpémipó’s uncle, Michael, her elder sister, Elizabeth and Miss Ogunseye, was at a Sterling Banks branch on Victoria Island to open an account to fund her education. Smith had made prior arrangements with the bank to open the account.

    Explaining why he opened an account for Òpémipó, the benefactor said: “As a first step to helping her, I wanted to set up a bank account so that if and when I want to I can give her some financial support. I will like to support her to be educated and if she wants to go to university, all well. As you reported in the initial story, she was appealing to someone to help her as she said: ‘I still want to make something out of my life’. Yes, she needed to be on her feet. And now that she is back up, I am also prepared to give her some financial assistance to get a good education to actually make something out of her life. By the way, her Uncle Mike has been kindly supporting her and paying her school fees. In fact, his magnanimity towards his late sister’s two daughters should not go unrecognised. All I am doing is just helping Òpémipó to get started with an opportunity to have a better life, not anything to be sensationalised.”

    An elated Miss Ogunseye told the reporter: “From the beginning, I felt my world had come to a sudden end. I had dreams I was hoping to pursue. In fact, I was about sitting for my WAEC back then. But that was truncated by the accident and the fact that I was seriously in pains and on hospital admission. In short, I went through a lot for my young age. But I thank God and I really want to appreciate my uncle, Mr. Michael and aunty, his wife, Mr. Leigh, my elder sister, Elizabeth and several others I can’t mention here.

    “I am grateful, because they kept me going and that is why I can, and indeed, I am preparing for the upcoming WAEC this year 2017. Ordinarily by now, I should be in about 300 or 400level in the university. But I thank God who allowed the story to be written on me and made Mr. Smith to read and he contacted us.

    “After I was discharged from the hospital, Mr. Smith came over to our place and that was it. Since then, he has been an angel that God sent to my life. He has helped out in so many ways that if I counting, I won’t finish anytime soon.

    “I want to be a journalist. I want to go around the world. I want to be the voice for people who are going through similar situation I had been through. I want people who have given up to see that there will always be a better tomorrow. They just have to be patient and always believe in God.”

  • I want a baby girl, prays Omoni Oboli

    I want a baby girl, prays Omoni Oboli

    Still smarting from the setback of the court stopping the premiere of her movie, ‘Okafor’s Law’, Nollywood actress and producer Omoni Oboli has declared she desires to have a ‘baby girl.’

    Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, the 38-year-old mother of three boys shared a video of little white girl who welcomes her big brother from school every day with a hug.

    “I really want a baby girl,” she said.

    “I can’t even lie. Girls are too cute. This is the cutest thing I’ve seen in a while.”

    Oboli recently had the premiere of ‘Okafor’s Law’, scheduled for March 31, stopped through a court injunction, following Canada-based scriptwriter Jude Idada’s claim the producer ‘stole’ his script.

    Acting on behalf of Idada, Rancoteur Productions Ltd on March 24, had filed an ex parte application seeking to halt the premiere.

    Oboli who started acting in 1996 before continuing her university education attended the New York Film Academy. As a director, she has done movies such as ‘Being Mrs Elliott’, ‘The First Lady’, ‘Wives on Strike’, and the controversial ‘Okafor’s Law’.

  • I am a girl, so what ?

    I am a girl, so what ?

    I get into an argument with a boy. He slaps me. I feel the pain. Yet they tell me I provoked him.

    I get into an argument with a boy. I slap him. They tell me I have no respect.

    Like I don’t have a right to be angry……..

    So, my level of respect for people is judged by my degree of silence in the face of brutality…..

    Because I am a girl.

    So what?

    I am not allowed to show anger. I must sit with my legs stretched out even if it hurts. I must not talk ‘anyhow’.

    Because I am a woman.

    My husband cheats on me, I am told to tolerate it……to save my marriage because ‘it is in their nature to cheat’

    I cheat….and I am sent packing with my box on my head and my little child still sucking my left nipple.

    Three years later……little child is tagged a bastard.

    Because I am a woman.

    I am judged as a good girl if I know how to cook, clean and do laundry for my man. And when I don’t know how to, I am useless.

    My character does not count.

    Because I am a woman.

    He is 28 and runs a company….”ahhh wonderful! Successful at a very young age”.

    I am 28 and I run a company “Hmmmm, she is not even married. My dear, marry as soon as possible. You don dey old”.

    Because my life ends at forty

    Because I am a woman.

    I am not allowed to have wits or be a prodigy…….

    Because when I am financially buoyant….without a rich dude beside me…then, I am a generous leg opener.

    Chai.

    Because I am a woman.

    I am raped. Then, it is my fault because the strap of my bra is pink. And if I am way younger, I will be flogged because I ‘allowed’ the 25-year-old brother next door to touch me.

    I am bleeding and sore….yet, they force me to admit I enjoyed it.

    Because I am a woman.

    Education for girls

    Education is the light of life. It cultivates life. It makes people social and civilised. It gives us knowledge, skills and techniques to apply in our practical field. It gives us ideas to do things in different places.

    It gives us ideas to find out the right and wrong, good and bad, etc. The next thing it gives us is the sense of responsibility. We can’t do anything until we are responsible.

    The number of girls nearly makes half of the human population.

    To leave the girls uneducated means to make half of the people uneducated. The girls of today are the mothers of tomorrow. It is said that mother is the first teacher and home is the first school of a child. Now, we can realise what the children of an uneducated mother will be like.

    If a man is educated, only he is educated, but if a woman is educated the whole family is educated. We must educate mothers to educate children. Only then we can educate the family. Gradually, we can educate the locality, society and then the whole country.

     

    • Umeh is a social entrepreneur and student empowering girls in rural communities to take ownership of their lives
  • Girl, 16, eyes Ambode’s seat

    Girl, 16, eyes Ambode’s seat

    A 16-year-old Miss Oyerinde Deborah of Jagunmolu Girls’ Senior Grammar School, Bariga Lagos has promised to display brilliance that will make her emerge overall winner of this year’s Spelling Bee competition in order to become a One-Day Governor of Lagos State.

    She spoke after she emerged the winner in the contest organised by the Bariga Local Council Development Area (LCDA) for senior and junior schools.

    She said: “My focus is to make myself and my school proud at the end of the contest. My determination is to emerge the overall winner, become a One-Day Governor of Lagos State, win a scholarship and all the prizes attached to the contest.”

    She competed with 10 other contestants from other schools.

    While Agada Emmanuel from Archdeacon Adelaja Secondary School emerged second, Perry Emmanuela of St Luke’s Junior Grammar School took third position.

    Master Sulaimon Basit of Ayetoro Primary School won the overall best in the primary school category and Master Okonkwo Chidubem of Igbeyinadun Primary School emerged second position while the third position was won by Nojeem Fawaz of Baptist Academy.

    Miss Oyerinde commended Senator Oluremi Tinubu for initiating the competition, saying the idea had increased pupils’ academic excellence, good reading habits, spelling skills, vocabulary and developed correct English use.

    She thanked the state’s Ministry of Education, former Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola and Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for continuing the good idea.

    The Sole Administrator of the council, Prince Sanya Oshijo congratulated the winners of the competition, even as he urged them to work harder to enable them to emerge winners at the state level.

    He said one can become successful in life even if one did not attend private school.

    According to Oshijo, majority of the people who made it in their professions such as doctors, accountants, pilots, governors and presidents, were products of public schools.

    “We will continue to support the schools within the council by providing the needed materials that would enhance good learning,” he said. He ordered the re-construction of the collapsed fence of Igneyinadun Primary School.

    He thanked the initiator of Spelling Bee Competition in Lagos State, saying it had enabled pupils of public school to compete favourably with their counterparts in the private schools.

    He said the competition had spurred them to achieve better spelling skills and become proficient in English language.

    He noted that the competition had increased pupils’ knowledge in English and other subjects as the English language remains the only medium of learning other subjects. The council chief added that other states have adopted the idea as it has become part of their schools’ continuous assessment of the pupils.

    He urged the pupils to embrace reading and focus on their studies. He also urged them to be of good character both in school and at home so as to be good and responsible members of the society. The pupils were also advised to shun thuggery and cultism.