The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Mother’s Day

  • Members honoured on Mother’s Day

    Members honoured on Mother’s Day

    The Catholic Women Organisation (CWO) of St Monica Catholic Church Ikorodu, Lagos has honoured some members as parts of activities marking the 2015 Mother’s Day celebration.

    Among those honoured were the parish priest and a grand patron of CWO, Mr. Vincent Omovusu.

    Others were Chief Godwin Ebitea, Alex Tobi, Clement Olaleye, Patrick Ogbangwor, Mrs. Nnkechi, Bridget Ejenta and several other who contributed positively to the growth of the church and to the women association.

    The Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Anthony Nworuh, called on Christian women to show good examples at all times.

    He admonished them to follow the footsteps of the Blessed Virgin Mary in caring for not only their biological children but also children of others.

    Nworuh charged Christian women to be partners in progress with their spouses, noting that only a peaceful family enjoys progress and gives their children good upbringing.

    According to him: “Motherhood is one of God’s greatest gifts to humanity. A loving, committed mother is an indispensable person in our development.

    “Mothers instill powerful social and nurturing characteristics in each generation.”

    He said mothers should not be discouraged by some of the challenges facing many homes today but be strengthened by their faith in Christ.

    The Parish Pastoral Council 1st Vice Chairman’s, Engr Emmanuel Ogbu said: “Personally, it would not be too daring for me to say that mothers are the pillars of the church.

    “The significant roles mothers play in the church cannot be undermined. It is your day so I feel very safe to say mothers keep the wheels of the church well lubricated to function properly”.

    The chairperson of the Planning Committee, Mrs. Carolyn Biachi, said: “Mothers define creation; a woman giving birth to a child, bringing him up, making her a co-creator of a human being. God is the creator and she, a co-creator.

     

  • ‘No awareness on Mothers’Day’

    ‘No awareness on Mothers’Day’

    Last Sunday, Mothers’ Day was commemorated in some parts of the world and Nigeria joined in the celebration.

    The event, aimed at honouring mothers and presenting gifts to show them love, saw shoppers visiting shopping places to buy what they called ‘the best gift’ for their mothers.

    However, some people, particularly retailers, complained that they didn’t get enough awareness to help them stock their shops with needed items and make huge sales  as usual. Some shoppers who didn’t know before Sunday had the opportunity of walking into gift shops to buy something for their mothers.

    Miss Fatimah Suleiman, a shopper said, she didn’t remember  Sun- day was Mothers’ Day until she saw people sending greetings to their mothers using the social media network.“I was reminded  late; however, I have been able to buy my loving mother a beautiful jewlery box and I know she will love it.”

    Another shopper Nkem Agu, shopped for her  mother online. “ I thought it was wise to surprise my mum with a beautiful gift, but I didn’t want to do it myself. So, I asked Jumia to do it for me. My mum just called to say she received my gift and I am happy.”

    She added that the process of buying, presenting and accepting gifts to celebrate mothers was fun and memorable.

    A sales representative with Justrite Stores at Abule-Egba, a Lagos surburb, Mr Ahmed Tijani,  confirmed that sales on Mothers’ Day unlike every other Sunday was on high. “At Justrite, sales skyrocketed for us  from 40per cent on a normal sunday to 80 per cent because people bought more gift items to woo their mothers, this is very unusal with sunday sales.”

    A retailer, Mrs Faith Nwanchukwu,  sells gifts items; also, she complained that the awareness for Mothers’ Day is not like that of the Valentine’s Day held last month.

    “I would have stocked up new and trendy gifts for today if i had this information early enough. Maybe it is because it is not a celebration that we take seriously in this part of the world. For instance, the Valentine’s Day sale was booming and I was able to record huge sales.”

    Mrs. Kelechi Ngwu sells kitchen utensils at Iyana Ipaja market where she owns a shop. She lamented that she looked forward to festivities to make huge sales, but the Mothers’ Day is an exception.

    Her words: “I didn’t know that Nigerians were used to celebrating with the western world. I would have taken sales for the Mothers’ Day seriously. Some of my customers told me about it when they came to buy some utensils to present to their mothers, some even sent gift items to their mothers in the village.”

  • Online retailers recount Mothers’ Day sales

    Online retailers recount Mothers’ Day sales

    As the world advances, Nigeria continues to get involved in everything that the western world does. From the ‘Black Friday’ Syndrome to the ‘Buy Nothing Day’ bug, and now the ‘Mothers’ Day’ Crazy Sales, like the online retailers would call it.

    On the Konga.com site, the hike in sales around Mother’s Day gets bigger with each passing year. This is probably because, for special days and seasons, customers are increasingly identifying with Konga as the ‘perfect gifting solution’ for their loved ones.

    For this year’s Mother’s Day, Konga created a special catalogue on the perfect gifts to delight and appreciate mothers. The Konga catalogue made it easy for customers to find the right gifts for their mothers. With Konga’s standard offer of nationwide delivery, this meant that people could show love to their mothers even when they did not have the opportunity to be there with them.

    Its Public Relations Manager, Olatomiwa Akande said: “At konga.com, we were honoured to serve as a bridge to deliver joy to amazing mothers across Nigeria during this year’s Mothers’ Day.’’

    Supermart.ng, anchored by Raphael Afaedor and Gbolahan Fagbure saw a trend of sales spikes around the special days. According to the store management, this Mother’s Day (and the recent women’s day) was no different, as the store witnessed alot of purchases of perfumes, jewelry (swarovksi crystals) and watches.

    Chief Executive Officer, Supermart Store, Raphael Afaedor, said: “We saw quite a significant number of people do big grocery shopping and had them delivered to their parents’ addresses. With over 50,000 products in store, Supermart.ng is Nigeria’s largest online supermarket and delivery service. We deliver within three hours across Lagos and that’s probably what explains why we are seeing the trends we are experiencing.”

    Carmudi Nigeria, an online car dealer, thinks otherwise, its Public Relations Officer, Vivian Chidinma said: “At Carmudi, we have only noticed an increase in the amount of app used to access the Carmudi website over the past weeks, but we can’t attribute this to the anticipation of Mothers’ Day at the weekend.’’

    She said the firm saw no increase in the amount of page visits or requests for dealer’s information during the Mothers’ Day, but that it had 65,067 page views last week, which was not significantly higher than the previous week.

    For Offline Manager, Jumia.com.ng, “Mothers Day sales on Jumia.com saw a double digit growth when compared to sales event last year. What we also saw is Nigerians adopted even further this global event; we saw many early shoppers who, obviously, were looking to have their gifts shipped to their mothers, wives or otherwise in time for Mothers’ Day.’’

    Jumia also celebrated Mothers’ day with CSR initiative ‘1 Child 1 Book’, where staff of the firm visited kids of Maryland Primary School for an exercise that had them surprising their mothers with gifts.

  • Manhunt for suspects of Mother’s Day shooting

    Gunmen opened fire on dozens of people marching in a Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans injuring 19, police has said.

    The wounded included a boy and a girl, both 10 years old.

    Sky News reports that two people have undergone surgery. Many of the victims have suffered grazes and most of the wounds are not life-threatening.

    FBI spokeswoman Mary Beth Romig said federal investigators have no indication that the shooting was an act of terrorism.

    “It’s strictly an act of street violence in New Orleans,” she said. “The southern city has one of the highest violent crime rates in the United States.”

    Officers saw three people running from the scene immediately after gunshots from “maybe two different types of weapons” rang out, said New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas.

    He branded the attack as “selfish” and vowed to make swift arrests.

    “I think what frustrates all of us is the selfishness of some people, and I think what frustrates all of us is that the great culture of this city sometimes stumbles a bit because of the selfish behaviour of some people,” he said.

    He added: “We’ll get them. We have good resources in this neighbourhood.”

    New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu urged witnesses to come forward.

    “These kinds of incidents will not go unanswered. Somebody knows something. The way to stop this violence is for you all to help,” he said.