The Nation Newspaper

Tag: miracle

  • Femi Akinsanya: Miracle man of the crash

    Femi Akinsanya: Miracle man of the crash

    It was miraculous survival for Mr. Femi Akinsanya in yesterday’s Associated Airlines’ plane crash

    Akinsanya, son- in-law of the late former Governor Olusegun Agagu whose body was being conveyed to Akure, the Ondo State capital from Lagos for burial, walked out of the remains of the Embraer 120 aircraft.

    Akinsanya, along with his brother in-law, Mr. Feyi Agagu, the late Agagu’s son, were the only family members of the late governor on board the ill-fated plane.

    As it turned out, they were among the seven survivors. As the aircraft crashed, Akinsanya, a Lagos businessman, was seen walking out of the wreckage before the aircraft caught fire. He suffered a minor injury on his head.

    As he walked away, apparently conscious, Air Force men who were among the first set of rescuers at the site, stopped him. They assisted him to stop the flow of blood on his head. He told them he wanted to go home to join his family, according to an eyewitness.

    But the Air Force personnel told him he was under the Federal Government’s custody and could not go. They took him to the nearby Air Force clinic.

    The eye witness said: “I saw one man walk out on his legs. I think he is the only one that walked out.”

    It was gathered that Aklinsanya broke the news of the crash to the burial party waiting at the Akure airport to receive the body of the former governor, which was to lie in-state in the Ondo State capital yesterday.

    He reportedly spoke to Mr. Femi Agagu, the late former governor’s younger brother, who broke the news to Governor Olusegun Mimiko, who was leading the burial party.

     

    The airline, in a statement, expressed deep regrets and “with all submission to the will of the Almighty” confirmed the “unfortunate accident of one of our aircraft”.

    The statement added: “The aircraft was chartered for a flight to Akure on the 3rd of October, 2013.

    “We are currently cooperating fully with the aviation regulatory authorities with a view to establishing the remote and immediate causes of this most regrettable and unfortunate accident.

    “Our prayers go to the affected families of the departed. We pray for their souls to rest in peace while we continue to wish and pray for the speedy and full recovery of the survivors of this grave and sad accident.”

  • Martins: My success a miracle

    Martins: My success a miracle

    Super Eagles Sounders forward, Obafemi Martins has explains how he has got to where he is today and it includes a lot of hard work.

    If you think the road Martins took to join Sounders FC from Levante this March was a trying one, then you don’t know the story of Obafemi Martins.

    The Spanish club held on to his rights for weeks while he sought a move to Seattle, but eventually accepted the contractual buyout and Martins has since been pivotal to Seattle’s success this season. However, those weeks of uncertainty about his future were far from the most difficult weeks he’s had in soccer.

    The 28-year-old forward played in Italy, England, Germany, Russia and Spain before landing in MLS, but his journey from the streets of Nigeria to stardom at Inter Milan is the stuff of a Hollywood movie.

    The story starts on the streets of Lagos, Nigeria, where Martins earned his stripes in soccer not by mimicking players he saw on TV (he didn’t have one), but just by having a good time with a game that he loved.

    “When I was 11 or 12, we always played for fun in the streets without any shoes and I really enjoyed it,” said Martins.

    At age 14, he was spotted by the manager of a Nigerian second division club, FC Ebedei, and quickly joined their youth team. It was there that he developed his now signature goal scoring celebration, and he was doing plenty of backflips. During his one season there, scouts from Italy’s third-division Reggiana brought him in for a trial along with three other Nigerian hopefuls.

    There, he was on trial for nearly three months, never knowing what his next step would be. He was in a foreign country for the first time surrounded by people he didn’t know, except for one teammate from Ebedei who was also on trial, never knowing when his tryout would end.

    “We didn’t know if we were going to make it or not. There were four of us and they were only going to take two of us,” he said. “If we didn’t make it, we didn’t know if we’d ever get another chance.”

    In a move that would prove fruitful to both the player and the club, Martins was picked up by Reggiana and within a year became a target for famed Italian giants Inter Milan, who paid a transfer fee of over 650,000 dollars for the youth star.

    In his first year at San Siro, he regularly trained with the first team, but played exclusively with the youth team, scoring 23 goals to help them to the Italian Under-18 title.

    In the 2002-03 Season, manager Hector Cuper saw a player ready for the top Italian league and started integrating him into the first team more and more. However, Martins looked around the locker room and saw the likes of Christian Vieri, Javier Zanetti, Fabio Cannavaro and Hernan Crespo and he wasn’t so sure.

    “Hector Cuper supported me and told me I was better than some players in the first team, but I didn’t believe it,” Martins said. “I was scared. I didn’t think I could handle it.”

    Those fears subsided on March 19, 2003. Faced with injuries to many starters, Cuper turned to Martins in a crucial UEFA Champions League match against Bayer Leverkusen. At just 18 years old, he not only started for Inter Milan, but scored in the 36th minute what proved to be the game-winning goal to send Inter through to the quarterfinals.

    Thus, the legend of Obafemi Martins exploded. His celebration for that goal would become an iconic one

    More importantly, though, it proved to the young man that he belonged on the biggest stages that soccer had to offer.

    “There were a lot of big, big players there at the time,” Martins said, unable to contain the astonishment even 10 years later. “I don’t know how I made it.”

  • Miracle of Caine

    Even though Tope Folarin has won this year’s Caine Prize for African writting, the issues he raised in the winning story entitled Miracle needs the immediate attention of Africans, writes Edozie Udeze

    “Our heads move simultaneously, and we smile at the tall, svelte man who strides purposefully down the aisle to the pulpit. Once there, he raises both of his hands, then lower them slightly. He raises his chin and says let us pray:

    ‘Dear Father, we come to you today on the occasion of this revival, and we ask that you bless us abundantly’ we who have made it to America because, we know we are here for a reason. We ask for your blessings because we are not here alone…”

    With this striking opening, Tope Folarin, winner of this year’s Caine Prize for African Short Story Writing, began his story entitled Miracle. It is the story of what Nigerians go through in the United States of America once they leave the shores of Nigeria to find jobs, settle down and then later discover that the towns and urban cities in the USA are not really paved with silver and gold.

    One of the veritable issues raised in Miracle is the way Nigerians seek the face of God. They go from place to place, looking and hoping for miracles, resorting to endlessly recourse to prayer sessions to ask for God’s providence. Nigerian pastors are there in their true elements to assist in working these miracles to ensure that Nigerians conquer and overcome the power of darkness, thereby grabbing plenty of dollars for them and for others.

    The story of Miracle is basically the story of Nigerians whether they are in Diaspora or at home. It is the ironical twist of faith in one’s ability to go it alone. God has to be the beacon even when one prays too often without going out there to work to actualise what he has prayed for. Folarin makes the situation somewhat apocalyptic, apprehensive and habitual.

    Folarin’s gripping narrative style paints the story in many fresh folds. He makes it speak to us; he allows the story to delve into a people who have lost faith in their own clime, but prefer to hover precariously abroad for easy dough. This is a story of racism, and colour, the story of religion, and fanaticism in the guise of using the gathering of children of God to brain wash people of little faith.

    The panel of judges led by Gus Casely-Hayford saw in it a truly African story. Out of the 96 short stories submitted from 16 African countries, in which four Nigerians out of five made the shortlist, the panel admitted that Miracle is a refreshingly beautiful story. It is beautifully remade and repackaged to entice and suit the taste of readers.

    The story portrays, through its various stages of religious worship and the mesmerisation of the pastor, a continent and its descendants captured at a time of burgeoning change. It is a time when fear has become the guiding light for the people of Africa who roam from one end of the world to the other in search of economic and political bliss and succour. The more the people lose touch with their motherland, the more they are lost in the labyrinth of time and space.

    In capturing all these essences to intrigue readers, Folarin succeeded in forewarning potential migrants. That’s the true beauty and prophecy of this story; that you can’t seek this Miracle just because you are in America and there’s a pastor there to remind you of that. Miracles do happen, but hardwork is the key.

    Hear the Pastor: “Ah, I do not perform these miracles because I wish to be celebrated. I perform these miracles because God works through me… And now God is telling me: you come up here. You! You!! You!!!” Then the hoodwinking began. Then fear, followed by apocalyptic nuances, grips the congregation.

    Folarin was educated at the Morehouse College and the University of Oxford, England. He is also a Rhodes scholar and recipient of writing fellowship of the Institute of Policy Studies. He lives and works in Washington DC where he devotes ample time to writing.

  • Tope Folarin wins 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing

    Tope Folarin wins 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing

    Nigeria's Tope Folarin has won the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing, described as
Africa's leading literary award, for his short story entitled 'Miracle' from
Transition<http://dubois.fas.harvard.edu/transition-magazine>, Issue 109 (Bloomington, 2012).

The Chair of Judges, Gus Casely-Hayford, announced Tope Folarin as the winner of the
£10,000 prize at a dinner on Monday evening at the Bodleian Library in Oxford according
to a statement by organisers. 

'Miracle' is a story set in Texas in an evangelical Nigerian church where the
congregation has gathered to witness the healing powers of a blind pastor-prophet.
Religion and the gullibility of those caught in the deceit that sometimes comes with
faith rise to the surface as a young boy volunteers to be healed and begins to
believe in miracles.

Gus Casely-Hayford praised the story, saying: "Tope Folarin's 'Miracle' is another
superb Caine Prize winner - a delightful and beautifully paced narrative, that is
exquisitely observed and utterly compelling".

Tope Folarin is the recipient of writing fellowships from the Institute for Policy
Studies and Callaloo, and he serves on the board of the Hurston/Wright Foundation.
Tope was educated at Morehouse College, and the University of Oxford, where he
earned two Master's degrees as a Rhodes Scholar. He lives and works in Washington,
DC.
    Also shortlisted were:

·         Pede Hollist (Sierra Leone) 'Foreign Aid' from Journal of Progressive
Human Services<http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wphs20#.UZOV4bVlk_g>, Vol. 23.3
(Philadelphia, 2012)
www.tandfonline.com/loi/wphs20#.UZOV4bVlk_g<http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wphs20#.UZOV4bVlk_g>

·         Abubakar Adam Ibrahim (Nigeria) 'The Whispering Trees' from The Whispering
Trees<http://www.parresiapublishers.com/>, published by Parrésia Publishers (Lagos,
2012) www.parresiapublishers.com<http://www.parresiapublishers.com>

·         Elnathan John (Nigeria) 'Bayan Layi' from Per
Contra<http://www.percontra.net/issues/25/fiction/bayan-layi/>, Issue 25 (USA, 2012)
www.percontra.net<http://www.percontra.net>

·         Chinelo Okparanta (Nigeria) 'America' from Granta<http://www.granta.com/>,
Issue 118 (London, 2012) www.granta.com<http://www.granta.com>

The panel of judges is chaired by Dr Gus Casely-Hayford, art historian and
broadcaster, who presented the eight part documentary series 'Lost Kingdoms of
Africa' on the BBC. He is currently a Research Associate at SOAS and consultant to
the King's Cultural Institute. Gus sits on the Tate Britain Council and the National
Portrait Gallery Board of Trustees.

Alongside Gus on the panel of judges this year are award-winning Nigerian-born
artist, Sokari Douglas Camp; author, columnist and Lord Northcliffe Emeritus
Professor at UCL, John Sutherland; Assistant Professor at Georgetown University,
Nathan Hensley and the winner of the Caine Prize in its inaugural year, Leila
Aboulela. This is the first time that a past winner of the Caine Prize has taken
part in the judging.

Once again the winner of the £10,000 Caine Prize will be given the opportunity to
take up a month's residence at Georgetown University, as a Writer-in-Residence at
the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice and will be invited to take part
in the Open Book Festival in Cape Town in September.

Last year the Caine Prize was won by Nigerian writer Rotimi Babatunde. He recently
co-authored Feast, a Royal Court/Young Vic co-production which ran at the Young Vic
as part of World Stages for a World City.

Previous winners are Sudan's Leila Aboulela (2000), Nigerian Helon Habila (2001),
Kenyan Binyavanga Wainaina (2002), Kenyan Yvonne Owuor (2003), Zimbabwean Brian
Chikwava (2004), Nigerian Segun Afolabi (2005), South African Mary Watson (2006),
Ugandan Monica Arac de Nyeko (2007), South African Henrietta Rose-Innes (2008),
Nigerian EC Osondu (2009), Sierra Leonean Olufemi Terry (2010) and Zimbabwean
NoViolet Bulawayo (2011).
  • ‘Photography can solve jobs riddle’

    ‘Photography can solve jobs riddle’

    How did you discover your talent in photography?

    I have always loved anything that has to do with visual arts, from still pictures to films, documentaries, paintings and other forms of visual expression. During my diploma days in the college, I would ask myself: ‘what will I do after the programme?’ Since I am not from a wealthy home and I didn’t know anybody in the TV College for full time admission, I had to develop my skills in photography. I went for tutorial at Seun Anuwe Photography. This was also during my diploma programme. My elder brother and my mother helped me with the money I used to purchase my first camera.

    Do you have any role model in the profession?

    I have quite a number of them. I respect Henrie Cartier Bresson for his application of decisive moment and use of shapes, shadows, lines and frames in street photography. I also respect Moussa Monssa for his advertising and fashion photography. Steffan Roussons enticed me with his photojournalism. Kelechi Amadi Obi’s fashion and arts photography is a source of inspiration for me and Ibrahim Dung’s activities in training young ones. These are role model for me.

    What is your area of specialisation?

    At the moment, I do more of wedding and event photography. I also take pictures for a friend that writes for students’ pages in national newspapers. I do other forms of photography to expand my clientele, but in future, I want to concentrate on photojournalism and documentary photography.

    What are the obstacles you face?

    The difficulty I face at the moment is the fact that photographic equipment are very expensive, especially the professional gadgets. From camera to lens and lights, everything is expensive and it does not encourage young ones like me to be self-employed through photography. Also, there is no system that provides for one to rent equipment from a camera store to use for a particular job as it is done overseas.

    What is the highlight of your career so far?

    It is wedding. I take pictures of Deborah and Julian and also that of Margret and Ben. This is because I like to capture the happy moments of the bride and groom as well as their families and friends. It gives me deep satisfaction when I deliver to my clients above their expectations.

    How do you combine study with photography?

    Well, combining both is not easy. At times, my business clashes with school work. But I always consider the two realms such that my decision to favour one will not adversely affect the other. Also, I work hard to cover for the missed classes even though my knowledge of photography aids my understanding of some courses I do in school such as editing techniques, photography and videography. Therefore, this gives me an edge over most of my course mates. Generally, one must just find a way of striking a balance between the two.

    Based on your experience, how would you rate the Nigerian photography industry?

    The industry is doing well because it is expanding and inviting young ones. I believe photography can solve the riddle of unemployment in Nigeria by creating jobs for youth. However, there is a need for proper training of budding photographers, whether formally or informally in school and workshops. There is need to establish a professional body that will serve as a regulatory body for Nigerian photographers.

    What are your future plans?

    I want to get a professional camera with lens and its lighting kits. Then, I will get an office space where I will study and practice photography and take more pictures. This will also help me to impart knowledge and experience on others. This is my ultimate dream.

  • Akpoborie: Eagles need a miracle

    Akpoborie: Eagles need a miracle

    Ex-Nigeria star Jonathan Akpoborie has told TNFootball.com Eagles will need a miracle to beat Cote d’Ivoire on Sunday.

    Nigeria will take on Africa’s top ranked team Cote d’Ivoire on Sunday night in Rustenburg for the chance to reach the AFCON semi-final.

    Straight-talking Akpoborie said that as a Nigerian he would wish the Eagles are crowned African champions in South Africa, but if the team play the way they have in all their group games against the Elephants, they will exit the tournament.

    “The Eagles performance against Ethiopia was nothing to write home about. The only good thing about the game for us is that we won. How we scored against the lowest rated team at the competition was not the best,” said the former Wolfsburg striker.

    “On paper Cote d’Ivoire are favourites to win the competition and on the field, they have been acting like that too. But in football anything could happen. Chances of Nigeria winning this one, only Jesus can save. We need a miracle to beat them especially we play this match the way we played our last three matches.”

    However, Akpoborie has singled out Chelsea winger Victor Moses for special mention in South Africa.

    “I told you before the tournament that Moses will play a big part for Nigeria and he has been doing well, while Ahmed Musa has been the most disappointing player in the team after so much was expected of him,” remarked the former international.