The Nation Newspaper

Tag: happy

  • Salami happy over arrival of baby boy

    Salami happy over arrival of baby boy

    Super Eagles and Warri Wolves striker, Gbolahan Fuad Salami and his wife, Lolade welcomed their first child, a boy, early Sunday morning.

    Lolade gave birth to the baby around 4 am at a hospital in Surulere, Lagos.

    The couple got married in  2014.

    An elated Salami in a chat with SportingLife expressed joy over the arrival of the baby, describing it as a sign of good things to come for his family.

    He said the arrival  will open a way for his long dream move to Europe.

    The naming ceremony, according to Salami, will hold next week Sunday.

    Salami emerged the Glo Premier League’s highest goal scorer with 17 goals at the end of the season.

    “It is good news to our family and I am happy. I thank God the baby and mother are doing fine. I thank God for everything he has done for me this year. I won the league’s highest goal scorers award and today I am welcoming my first son. I give all thanks to God. I hope this will open a way for my move to Europe which has been my dream,” Salami said to SportingLife.

  • ‘Happy to give back to God’

    ‘Happy to give back to God’

    Heaps of consumables here, some livestock and hand-made items there, parishioners in Aba, Abia State gave freely at their end-of-year harvest service, reports SUNNY NWANKWO

    one woman rimmed her unfurled umbrella with crisp N500 notes. A man sweated as he wheeled in a barrow-load of huge tubers of yam and a bunch of plantains. Behind him, another laboured under the weight of a sack of rice. Further behind, more yams were on the way. That was not all. Some self-employed parishioners had no qualms bringing to the Lord a set of workshop-fresh furniture or factory-made footwear.

    It was remarkable harvest and thanksgiving service at Christ Holy Church International (CHC), Aba, Abia State which was attended by home and Diaspora members.

    Livestock, beverages, perishables and non-perishables were in good supply.

    General Superintendent of the church, Most Rev. Daniel C. Okoh quoted Psalm 117 as he harped on the need to always give thanks to God with a pure and thankful heart.

    Some of the parishioners who spoke to our correspondent said that they were happy and would not hesitate to give back to God during harvest, adding, though, that there is no gift to repay God for all He has done for them all through the year.

    They noted that there were people who had plenty but were no longer living to either enjoy their wealth or offer part of it to God. They described the opportunity of being partakers in the 2015 harvest ceremony as a privilege that they would ever cherish.

  • Happy times for Shina Peller

    Happy times for Shina Peller

    Shina Abiola Peller has many traits that make him to look like a demigod on the social scene. His influence transcends boundaries and his pedigree is noble. His incursion into the social circuit in Nigeria has a lot to do with the extent of his opulence and the nobility of his family background.

    Shina Peller, son of deceased Prof. Moshood Abiola Peller, courts fortune and doesn’t hesitate to enjoy the luxuries of life. That Peller, who has been resident in the United Kingdom for many years, is extremely wealthy is like stating the obvious. His luxury lifestyle has set many tongues wagging.

    A favourite of many musicians who have waxed songs in his honour, Peller further entrenched himself in the social circle when he opened Quilox Night Club, one of the most expensive in Lagos. Recently, he celebrated his wedding anniversary with his colourful wife, Ayobola Abiola, and the classy event further confirmed Peller’s high status and influence on the social scene.

  • Ambrose happy to be back in Super Eagles

    Ambrose happy to be back in Super Eagles

    Super Eagles defender Efe Ambrose is delighted that he has been recalled to the team, after being snubbed in previous games.

    Ambrose was called up as a replacement for injured Kenneth Omeruo ahead of Nigeria’s friendly games against Congo DR and Cameroun in Belgium and the defender wants to remain as a mainstay in the team.

    “I am happy to be back, I have always loved to play for Nigeria and the passion remains the same, just like when I made my debut,” he told News24.

    “I want to be a mainstay in the team but it starts with me at my club side, I need to get games at Celtic and make it impossible for the coaches to leave me out.”

    Comfortable when it comes to playing any role in the back four, the utility man who has played in all positions in his career except goalkeeping ,said he is ready to slot in where he is needed the most by the coaches.

  • Seven tips for a happy marriage

    EVEN though we all hope our marriage will last forever, a third of marriages end in divorce, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. “Tough spots will always occur – one partner might get sick, get the sack, or need to attend to a dying parent,” says psychologist Meredith Fuller, explaining that every union will go through happy and hard times. A long-lasting marriage needs commitment, good communication and a good dose of love and affection. Try these seven tips for a happy marriage:

    Create your own rituals

    It could be as simple as making your husband a coffee in the morning while he lets you lie in at the weekend. Whatever you choose, a ‘couples’ ritual is a way to connect with your partner in the madness of a busy life. “The comfort of little rituals are trust giving, safety maintaining, and love enhancing  these things help us get through the day in the outside world,” says Meredith. “If your partner says they love you and demonstrates that with consistent gestures, you can believe it.”

    Learn to communicate

    If you or your hubby is a poor communicator, don’t just put up with it, says Meredith – being able to talk openly with your partner is a sign of a strong marriage. “Develop your skills  go to classes, read books, observe good communicators and interview them about technique, ask for feedback, practice,” she advises. “Communication skills enhance all areas of your life  home and work. Get cracking  no excuses.”

    Money matters

    We usually handle money in the same way as our family did, and often assume our way is best. Not so, says Meredith, who advises discussing your views on paying bills, saving and credit cards before you tie the knot. “You need to come up with the new blended way you both will do things. It’s easy to have a major joint account where you both must tell each other what you do, and a slush fund minor private account each where you can be yourself without having to justify what you spend.”

    Respect and affection are deal breakers

    Small gestures matter – if you want your marriage to last, keep reminding each other that you love each other and nurture your relationship with kind words. “You need to treat each other preciously  not for granted,” says Meredith. “Some people say ‘I love you’, and some people will show ‘I love you’  make sure that your partner understands your message, and work out what you both need then try to accommodate each other.”

    Adultery and jealousy are different things

    No matter how hard a marriage may seem at times, and while having affair might be exciting, almost everyone involved – children included  are destined to be harmed. “Either you are in or out  never humiliate your partner by duplicity,” says Meredith. “On the other hand, if your partner is jealous, and there is no reason for this, nip it in the bud. It is not cute or sweet, it is inappropriate, and can lead to violence. Get help. See a counsellor, and explore the past and work on this.”

    Make room for sex

    If you and your hubby’s libidos are matched evenly, don’t worry if sex takes a back seat on having kids. If one wants more nookie than the other, however, Meredith advises making room for sex in a busy schedule. “That might mean getting enough rest and sleep the night before, cancelling any other commitments, getting the kids minded, turning off your phones and computers, and doing nice things to each other,” she says. “Think about what the other person wants, not just what you feel like giving. So, ask them, take it in turns and take your time.” She adds that it’s perfectly normal for sex to fall of the menu when kids come into the mix. “Sometimes you just have to hang in there because one of you is dog tired. It wont be dreadful forever – but if the drought goes on for too long, seek some assistance.”

    Put your marriage first

    Meredith adds that having a happy marriage means being prepared to take turns with life’s stages. “You can still work towards your goals, but maybe they will take longer to achieve, because right now you choose to help your husband study for a post grad course, or delay moving interstate so he can care for his elderly father.” And, for those bored with their partner, she says slow and steady beats the highs and lows of an anxious passion anytime. “There are two aspects that glue lovers together in the long term: like and respect.”

    Source: Kidspot

  • Happy times for Mike Okonkwo

    Happy times for Mike Okonkwo

    Working in the vineyard of God comes with its perks. On Sunday, September 6, Dr. Mike Okonkwo, the presiding Bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission Worldwide, popularly known as TREM will be 70. Already the frenzy of the event has caught up with families, friends and members of TREM as they are all gearing up to make the event a big deal.

    To honour the celebrated man of God, a lot of activities have been lined up.

    Dr Mike Okonkwo was born in Enugu State to the Okonkwo family of Ogbunike, Oyi Local Government Area, Anambra State. Okonkwo, who has been actively involved in the evangelical work since 1970, is an easy going man who loves music and sports. He goes out of his way to encourage good music in the church.

  • INJURY NIGHTMARE: I am happy to be playing again-Fade Adebayo

    INJURY NIGHTMARE: I am happy to be playing again-Fade Adebayo

    Kwara United FC of Ilorin new defender, Moronfade Adebayo, has expressed delight playing football again after more than a year injury lay off.

    Adebayo in an interview with newsmen in Ilorin on Friday said it is God who has said he will play again not man.

    The former Abubakar Bukola Saraki FC (ABS FC), defender added that he missed football during his injury lay off. He described the period as the most difficult of his career but maintained he has put all that behind him and he is ready to give his best to his new team.

    Fade as popularly called added that he wants to cement a place in the team not just to be a Kwara United player but a regular starter that will always be in the starting lineup.

    ”I am happy to be back playing again because football is like my life. When I was injured was the most difficult of my career, I hate being on the bench not to talk of not playing.

    “I want to give God the glory for another opportunity He has offered me to revive my career. I am like a lion now who will grab every chance to play and stick to it. “I want to help my new team (Kwara United) to win trophies and play to win the fans heart. I want to thank my coach for giving the chance to play again too,” Adebayo said.

    It would be recalled that Adebayo came in in Kwara United’s 3-1 triumph over Enugu Rangers in Ilorin on Sunday and was handed a place in the starting lineup in week 12 clash with Akwa United in Calabar on Wednesday.

    Fade joined the list of growing ABS players in Kwara United and will now line up in the Harmony Boys alongside Onigbari Akeem, Abubakar Yusuf (Silas) and midfield maestro Ibrahim Abdullahi (Idiamin) plus Audu Akeem.

  • Love story with happy ending

    Love story with happy ending

    Olakunle, son of Bjeg Ventures Nigeria Limited founder Mr Bankole Jegede, married his beau, Tumininu, daughter of a Lagos State civil servant, Mr Oluwadayo Olaitan, last Saturday at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Victory Centre Parish in Agege, Lagos. OLATUNDE ODEBIYI reports.

    It was a day of joy for Olakunle, son of Bjeg Ventures Nigeria Limited founder, Mr Bankole Jegede, and his beau, Tumininu, last Saturday when they were joined in holy matrimony at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Victory Centre Parish in Agege, Lagos State.

    They were the cynosure of all eyes. The bride was a beauty to behold in her white flowing wedding dress. The groom was handsome in a blue suit and sparkling white shirt.

    Their parents wore light blue native attires.

    Some of the guests wore the gold lace and blue head gear and cap  chosen for the occasion.

    Deaconess Catherine Ojekunle said the opening prayer; Pastor Wole Oluwasanmi took the Bible reading from John 2: 1-11.

    The church choir sang the hymn “God give us Christian home”. Pastor Oluseyi Olaore joined the couple after they exchanged marital vows and rings.

    In a sermon, Pastor John Ekundayo said marriage is a life time affair, urging the couple to embrace effective communication. “You must learn to work on yourselves and say sorry at all times. Be friends and settle all quarrels between you, ” he advised.

    A bevy of pretty women in black dresses, welcomed guests to the reception at LaOcassion Events Centre in New Oko Oba, Agege

    The hall was decorated in white.

    Heads turned when the couple entered, smiling and dancing.

    They were accompanied by friends and family members amid hip pop songs by the Disc Jockey Daniel Stephen.

    The chairman on the occasion, Nigeria Guild of Editors President and Editor-in-Chief of The Sun Mr. Femi Adesina congratulated the couple and their parents on the outing, noting that it is a blessing to witness such a day. He told the couple that if they hold on to the scripture all the days of their life, they would enjoy their marriage.

    “Bring out the best of yourselves, so that your marriage will work. Do not provoke each other to anger; rather ensure love and good works just as the Bible says,” he added.

    He urged them to desire to live together for over 60 years and to carry each other like an egg. He said: “Let your partner be your friend because there are certain issues you may not be able to resolve as husband and wife but you can resolve them as friends”.

    The couple cut the cake and fed each other.

    Samuel Akinyode, a close friend of the couple, proposed the toast. He said the groom married his first love, insisting that it is possible to do so.

    Seyi Michael and his Glorious Band entertained guests. Family members and friends joined the couple on the dance floor.

    Prince Adeyemi Balogun told the couple to make God the corner stone of their relationship.

    “They should have the spirit of forgiveness and their love must be evergreen at any point in time,” he told The Nation.

    Bride’s mother, Mrs Toyin Olaitan, who works with Oyo State Board of Internal Revenue, prayed God to bless the couple with children.

    She urged them to manage their relationship with love.

    Her father, Mr Oluwadayo Olaitan, said the secret of his marriage is patience, urging the couple to emulate him.

    “For your marriage to be successful, you need patience and you need Jesus.  If you have the spirit of God in you, seek God and never rely on your own power, God will guide you,” he said.

    Groom’s mother Mrs Bosede Jegede prayed that the marriage would be  fruitful.

    She advised the bride to submit to her husband, adding that the couple should encourage each other always. She said they should hold on to God and be prayerful.

    Jegede told his son to follow his footsteps in his marital life.

    The groom said he felt elated, happy and fulfilled.

    He thanked God that their 12-year friendship blossomed into marriage.

    He described his wife as the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen. “She is a virtuous woman with good character and a woman every good guy will want to spend the rest of his life with. I am so happy that she said yes to me, I love her so much and I will love her for the rest of my life,” he said.

    The bride said she is filled with joy, excitement, happiness, adding that it was the best day of her life, which she has been waiting for.

    She described her husband as cool, caring, hardworking and the best.

  • Are you a happy person?

    Are you a happy person?

    I know that most of our adults in this country think that happiness is a fat bank account, stolen or borrowed; while the youths think it is a one-way visa to the USA

    Reader, I wish I could tell you that I look exactly like the picture you are seeing right now on this page, but I cannot. What with one thing and another, I am missing a leg or arm or half a smile on this happiness project. When my eyes are not literally crossing each other’s paths trying to make sense of the many incomprehensible troubles Nigerians have a penchant for digging up for me, my mouth is in a permanent snarl of exclamation over the things they take as normal. So no, my eyes are not closed in some blissful inhalation of my inner peace and my mouth is not spread in a wide grin of satisfaction over my social condition. I am a hapless and helpless Nigerian. Indeed, my inner turmoil and outer condition have now collectively radioed in for backup: the tears, sniffles and good ol’ adult howling.

    What about you, are you a happy person? I know a happy person when I see one; he/she looks exactly like the picture you are looking at. I doubt very much if your happiness quotient can be any higher than mine though: that of any blue-blooded Nigerian cannot be anything to speak of considering the many sources of our national outrage right now.

    As I am writing this, there is no electricity. I am using the backup battery thoughtfully devised by someone in another economic market whose own nation first ensured there was electricity to enable him to spend long hours researching how to make the devise that I would use in my own uneconomic market. You get my drift? Then you’re better than me. Anyway, there has not been enough electricity to fill two cups, and yet there are places, I am told, where electricity is supplied in spoonfuls, no matter that there are national, state and local governments in place charged with the affair of ensuring that electricity flows constantly. So, Nigeria’s electricity is short-circuiting my happiness line.

    On the matter of the roads, we have been given over to hissing and gnashing our teeth on account of what our fellow Nigerians have made of us, literally. Have you tried travelling on the Oyo-Ogbomoso road lately? Seriously, you will not only curse the fellow-dude who got the contract but failed to execute the dualisation of that road, you will spit at your government and all those connected with it. That road represents all roads in Nigeria that manage to slice off huge chunks of your contentment.

    Then, there is the matter of having to work for a living; children having to transport water over long distances; housekeeping monies buying less and less while responsibilities are increasing more and more, elections being delayed… Tell me now, while we are busy attending to all these, what time do we have to be happy?

    On Friday this week, the world will celebrate the international day of happiness. Don’t let us go into why and how it has come about that such a thing as happiness needs to be celebrated. To start with, I had always thought that happiness was a personal thing, a matter between one and one’s chi: if your chi smiles at you, you get happy, if it fails to smile, you just go look for somewhere to drown quietly without being a public nuisance.

    The United Nations for instance thinks otherwise. It says that the pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human goal. That means that I can now go around proclaiming this goal in the face of all my enemies, starting with the government. When the government fails to give me electricity in my house, I now have the right to wave the red flag at it and say, boo hoo, you government are standing in the way of my lawful pursuit of happiness. See you in court. Oh yes, by that UN declaration, you can now take someone to court for obstructing your path in your pursuit of happiness. Let me just check with my lawyer first…

    So far, you will agree with me that the pursuit of happiness in the Nigerian socio-politico-economic space is harrowing, if not nigh impossible. Yet, let us look at another possibility. Let us suppose for a moment that happiness can happen in spite of this cloudy space. Let us look at our governments across the board as errant children that you can’t get through to; so we must find ways of getting around them to pluck our own happiness from their tight-fisted jaws.

    This is what I mean. I know that most of our adults in this country think that happiness is a fat bank account, stolen, borrowed or begged for; and the youths think that happiness is a one-way visa to the USA. Indeed, most youths and young-at-hearts have the ants in their pants to ‘dump’ this country and make for parts unknown in search of a better life. Who can blame them? The only trouble is that what motivates most of them is often economic. They have not yet taken the trouble to get to the heart of life and find its meaning in order to know exactly what they want from it. Usually, most of us are after that special thing we can hardly name ourselves, that thing that is so elusive and difficult to pin down, the performance of which just brings out the sweat from our brows, the jump to our hearts and the tongue hanging out sideways. That is the point where our happiness hangs.

    For many of us, that tongue hangs out sideways when we are entertaining. Oh, you should just see us at the pinnacle of a successful bash, dashing here and there waiting tables on guests. For some, it is gathering children together and mentoring them. Oh man, you should see such people showing children the way to go in life. For many, it comes from constructing one edifice after another, planting houses with government money. All that matters to them is that the buildings should sprout up and sideways like magical things from Aladdin’s cave.

    It is time I think for us as Nigerians to begin to examine what brings us happiness. True, happiness around here would have been much enhanced if social amenities were present. Such things add to the quality of life. After all, it would be a good thing to be able to flip a switch and bathe the room in light, turn a tap and flood the floor with water or even drive your car and not be jolted through the roof by bad bumps and potholes the sizes of dams. It gets even better when you do not have policemen or their allies harassing the life out of you for not having some intangible thing or the other in your car on a journey at night when all you want is to just get home.

    Honestly, what one does for happiness does not matter provided it safeguards the environment, does not harm any other person and it allows one to treat others with respect. That’s not me; I got it from the happiness site. But we all need to look inside us and bring out that special thing which perhaps the world has not yet known and which may even do this country some good. I still believe that developed countries are where they are today because their people pursued their happinesses in ways that added value to the environment, one item after another. We can do that too; sure we can – one item after another. So, be a happy person; pursue your dream and change the face of Nigeria for the better. As for me, I am happiest just talking to you…

  • Happy times for el-Rufai

    Happy times for el-Rufai

    Former Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has no doubt had his share of bad times. Last year, he lost his son, Hamza El-Rufai, to a fatal auto accident in Abuja. This was less than four months after he lost his daughter, Zainab, to sickle cell anaemia.

    But the cloud of misfortunes has finally cleared and the happy times are here. In December, he clinched the ticket of the All Progressives Congress to run for the Kaduna State governorship seat in the February elections.

    While the family was still revelling in el-Rufai’s success in the primaries, the wedding bell began to ring in his home.

    Next month, one of el-Rufai’s sons, Bello, will be getting married to the love of his life, Regina. The elated politician took to Facebook a few days ago to announce the good news amidst congratulatory messages.