The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Stella

  • Blending Fashion and Travel: How Stella Curates the Perfect Aesthetic

    Blending Fashion and Travel: How Stella Curates the Perfect Aesthetic

    Stella, known on Instagram as @Stellatzortzi, has gained a dedicated following by seamlessly blending two of her biggest passions—fashion and travel. At just 26, she has mastered the art of curating an aesthetic that ties together the latest fashion trends with the most breathtaking travel destinations. Her ability to merge these two worlds has not only set her apart as a content creator but also made her a source of inspiration for those looking to elevate their own style and wanderlust.

    What makes Stella’s approach unique is her eye for detail. Whether she’s walking the streets of a bustling city or enjoying the serene beauty of a coastal town, she carefully selects outfits that not only reflect the mood of the destination but also echo the latest runway trends. Her followers are often treated to posts that showcase how the colors, patterns, and textures of her surroundings influence her fashion choices, creating a cohesive visual experience that’s as much about location as it is about style.

    Stella’s ability to fuse fashion with travel has turned her Instagram feed into a curated journey through some of the world’s most iconic places. From the vibrant streets of Amsterdam to the sun-soaked shores of Mediterranean beaches, her content invites her audience to explore new destinations while looking effortlessly chic. She encourages her followers to think beyond traditional fashion choices, incorporating elements of local culture and scenery into their outfits to create a unique, personal style.

    What truly sets Stella apart is her authenticity. While many influencers stick to luxury fashion, Stella is known for showing her audience how to create stunning looks without breaking the bank. Her love for mixing high-end pieces with affordable fashion has made her relatable to a wide range of followers, offering accessible style tips for both everyday wear and special travel occasions.

    Through her platform, Stella has redefined what it means to blend fashion and travel. Her content serves as a reminder that style is not just about what you wear, but how it interacts with the world around you. By sharing her experiences and insights, Stella inspires others to find beauty in the places they visit and to express that beauty through the clothes they wear.

  • Working with Stella boosted my morale, Bimbo Ademoye

    Yoruba actress, Bimbo Ademoye, one of the casts of ‘Gone’, by Daniel Ademinokan, husband to actress Stella Damasus, has described working with the couple as a morale booster.

    The actress revealed that getting a phone call from the actress means that she is doing right in the industry.

    The post, which was shared by Stella Damasus reads; “When you get a phone call and hear that @stelladamasus specifically asked for you to be on her set, and Bossman @dabishop007 approves, then you’re definitely doing something right.

    “A very huge thanks you to the cast and crew of #Gonethemovie; I do work with you all a million and one times over. Dear Aunty Stella, I cannot thank you enough, God bless you and everything that concerns you. Director Daniel, thank you sooo much for the words of encouragement, thank you for always giving me the thumbs up even when you weren’t feeling the shots (it boosted my morale the more)”.

    Bimbo Ademoye, who started out with a short film in 2014, is a beautiful up and coming actress, who is already taking the industry by storm.

  • Stella bites the dust, N-2-N fashion

    Stella bites the dust, N-2-N fashion

    At last, Stella Oduah, President Goodluck Jonathan’s embattled minister of Aviation, bites the dust — and well, in a neighbour-to-neighbour way.

    Given the explosive twin-Stella-gate, of the purchase of two BMW armoured cars for almost US $ 1.6 million (when US and UK price for each car is no more than US $267, 000) and alleged certificate scandal, Ms Oduah did not exit the cabinet, pursued with hot presidential rage.

    What happened was “voluntary resignation”, in the best tradition of a neighbour-to-neighbour graceful exit. You see why President Jonathan cannot, and should not, be an army general, a dictator, a Nebuchadnezzar or a Pharaoh?

    That should be obvious, when you recollect Ms Oduah’s neighbour-to-neighbour electoral exploits. How Ms Oduah did the candidate-president great honour.

    Neighbour-to-neighbour, or N-2-N for short, so popularised the Goodluck brand that a voter in downtown Lagos, rhapsodised in the blazing sun, on a voter queue: you sure must have Patience to get Goodluck. It was tribute to N-2-N’s electoral blitzkrieg that that mood was nationwide.

    And when Jonathan was winning, and some rascals tried to portray his great pan-Nigeria mandate as some “pan-Nigeria mandate of Southern Nigeria and the Middle Belt”, N-2-N came up fast with its own graphic representation, to show the mandate for exactly what it was: a real, genuine and confirmed pan-Nigerian mandate.

    So, would you expect the President to show brazen ingratitude, and throw away the prized Stella just like that, because of some unsubstantiated scandals and rumours? Doing that would conform to sheer rashness: the exclusive preserve of dictators, of army generals, of Nebuchadnezzars, of Pharaohs.

    But perish that thought: Goodluck Jonathan is a democratically elected president! So folks, you can understand his tardiness and grace in the Stella affair.

    Still, not a few insist Ms Oduah is rather Janus-faced: she brought great honour to an electioneering president; but Stella-gate also brought great odium to the sitting president and his exacted office.

    So, many believed she should have fallen on her sword — metaphorically, that is — as the ancient Romans would have done, to save the dignity of the presidency and the integrity of the president. But whoever does that these days? The Romans were after all ancients and antique.

    Not a few too expected the president to wield the big stick, and throw out the beloved Stella. But again, that would be playing Pharaoh or Nebu.

    But at last, the president has played the political equivalent of mercy killing: Stella would go; but not when the mobs are baying; not when the rabble is screaming, for blood. She would go when it is dignifying, when it is calm and when the president is ready. Ay, that time has come, and Stella has made her exit with grace and honour, N-2-N fashion.

    Alleged corruption or no alleged corruption, that is how to do it. So, foreign experts in good governance should come learn something new: how to fight and conquer corruption, N-2-N fashion.

    It is a Goodluck special.

  • Stella and other ‘gates’

    Like every major invention of the 20th century, the United States is the inventor of the political lexicon, ‘gate’ as being synonymous with a staggering scandal. The most prominent was Watergate scandal, which lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. Etymologically, well, this is pure guess, the word may have stemmed from the finality associated with the ‘gate of hell’. Remember that many believe that only a dead bad person would approach the ‘gate of hell’. However, here in Nigeria, the word ‘gate’ lacks the terrifying finality of permanent political damnation, as in the US. Indeed here, many cross the ‘gate’ into greater prominence, while the less fortunate, suffer political setbacks, but rarely anything, really ruinous.

    Princes Stella Oduah, the embattled Minister of Aviation, is at such a ‘gate’; what with the allegation that she approved without legislative appropriation, the purchase by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, of two armoured BMW cars, worth N255(some say N225 million). Poor Stella, she was just acting the overused script of public service in Nigeria, which many have referred to, allegedly, as a burgeoning criminal enterprise. The difference for Stella, is that she is unfortunate to have been allegedly caught, riding roughshod over the laws of the land. And unless she can invent her version of Neighbour to Neighbour, survival campaign, (akin to her exploits to elect President Jonathan) she is in, for a political setback.

    In our public discourse, the word scam is more conventionally used than the word ‘gate’. So, you have many scams, which in the American environment may have mutated to ‘gates’. And there are many such ‘scams or gates’ in our recent memory. Now, remember the many pension scams, both of the police and the federal civil service. Nobody knows between Mr Maina, who is ‘in hiding’ over billions allegedly stolen from the pension fund and the Chairman of Senate Committee on Establishment, allegedly bribed with a billion naira, who is telling the truth, concerning the unconscionable sharing of the allegedly stolen pension fund. Remember also, the pension director who was smiling as he entered his limousine, after paying the pittance that the court ordered against him, in lieu of a jail term, for stealing millions from the pension fund.

    Remember also the petroleum subsidy scam, and the pressure on the President to sack, the Minister, Mrs Diezeani Alison-Madueke, which came to naught. Of course, we should not forget the several committees that the minister set up, to probe the allegations and strengthen the crooked ways of our oil industry. Dear reader, you will recall that Mallam Nuhu Ribadu has since come clean to regret that he was merely used to deodorise the scam. As you read this, there are no public records of where, and when the members met, or even the findings of any caucus meeting that may have taken place. It is also noteworthy, that the son of the Peoples Democratic Party’s Chairman, Bamaga Tukur, and other scions of major stakeholders in the peculiar Nigeria enterprise, are allegedly part of the ‘scams’ or ‘gates’, if you prefer.

    There and other major ‘gates or scams’ that should have led to permanent political damnation of the major actors that have sworn to kill our country, but what do we have? What we have, is that the political class and their several collaborators outside the government are working to make ‘gates’ or ‘scams’ look so very attractive. Now let’s go over to the legislature. Remember the diminutive Farouk Lawan, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee, set up to probe the Fuel subsidy scam. As you read this, no body has owned up to being in custody of the $620,000, which Mr Femi Otedola, an oil magnate, claimed that he gave to Representative Lawan, under the watch of the secret police.

    Remember also the Power Probe Committee of the same House of Representatives, headed by Ndudi Elumelu. Of course despite the hullaballoo that the committee was working to unearth the billions of dollars allegedly mismanaged during the presidency of President Obasanjo in the power sector, what came out were allegations that the hunter had been compromised; and the hunter turned the hunted. Of course the upper house is no better, except for their maturity in handling their own scams or gates. Here again, remember the Maina accusations that the Senate committee, that oversights them, have been roundly compromised, even as the senate leadership where acting the ostrich, as it hollered orders that Maina who was enjoying police protection, was on the run.

    Remember also that the Nigeria legislature has been accused by the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and other local and even international organisations of earning more money, than any of their contemporaries across the world. Also, remember that despite our public outcry, the leadership of the National Assembly has refused to come clean over this organised scam against the constitution of the country. To make matters worse, members of the judiciary feel enamoured by the attractiveness of the ‘gates’ to approach it, without any trepidation. Remember that recently, a chief judge of Federal Capital Territory, hurriedly retired, to avoid an indictment from the National Judicial Council (NJC); and he has gone to court to say, I am now a revered traditional ruler, and so can no longer be prosecuted.

    The essence of this depressing tales of ‘scams’ and ‘gates’ dear reader, is to impress it that what we have, is a systemic decay. And I strongly believe that our country needs to critically examine the structures and the processes that allow such fleecing of our nation, without any serious consequences for the culprits.

     

     

  • Stella and her armoured limousines

    Have you been to any of Nigeria’s numerous airports lately, especially the federal airports? If you have you must have noticed some changes, let’s say improvements, on the terminal buildings.

    In some of them, like at Yola International Airport, the old terminal,buildings have been pulled down and new, modern structures springing up. From the rubble of the old terminal building, a new Sultan Abubakar International Airport is to be commissioned soon in Sokoto.

    The fratricidal politics of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers State and President Goodluck Jonathan shadow boxing with Governor Rotimi Amaechi permitting, the Port Harcourt International Airport should join the league soon with a truly(?) international terminal building.

    And lest I forget, the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja has been expanded while we have been promised an additional terminal at Nigeria’s prime gateway, the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos. The Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, otherwise known as MAKIA has been upgraded, though underutilized, while renovations I am told are also going on elsewhere.

    While these constructions and reconstructions have not necessarily brought about improved services at the airports, kudos must go to Aviation Minister Stella Oduah for her aesthetic taste as some of the terminal buildings are indeed pleasing to the eyes, even where some of the (internal) facilities are less or non functional.

    The huge cost of these projects and where the money was coming from have been subjects of controversy since Madam Oduah, a member of President Jonathan’s kitchen cabinet began her dream of building a new aviation culture in Nigeria.

    And with the poor safety record of Nigeria’s aviation, her wisdom or lack of it in devoting more energy and resources to constructing or reconstructing terminal buildings have been called to question several times by industry experts and the general public who have been left shocked by incessant aircraft accidents and facility failures at our airports that have caused the nation unnecessary loss of human lives in their hundreds.

    While some have argued that some of these projects are not necessary or should not be priority, the loudest argument has been on the funding with the Minister accused of putting her hands illegally into the pool of funds generated by the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) Nigeria entered into with other countries. BASA is basically a reciprocity agreement where designated national carriers of the agreeing countries fly into and out of each other’s territory. The frequency of flights, the aircraft type, the designated airport, where to drop and pick passengers and such matters are included in BASA and royalties are paid (by the benefiting airline to its counterpart) where one of the parties is unable to compete or utilize its allotted frequencies. I think overflight charges are also included.

    These royalties generated by BASA, experts say belong to the country but earned largely by the national carrier by virtue of being the lead implementing agency on behalf of Nigeria in the agreement. The demise of Nigeria Airways has not stopped these royalties from coming in and they naturally go to the purse of the federal government and any disbursement from the fund must be approved by the government.

    The minister has been accused of spending this money on her new/modern airport projects without approval. But those who know her closeness to the president and the influence she wields in the Jonathan government say it is not unlikely that she had gotten presidential approval by stealth, without the matter getting to the federal executive council meeting. This is a matter that should interest both the National Assembly and the anti’graft agencies.

    Be that as it may, the matter here really is following due process and doing the right thing. You can’t do the right(?) thing through the wrong way and expect a pat on the back. If the source of funding for her airport project is/was deemed illegal then Madam Stella Oduah the Minister of Aviation owe this nation an explanation and those who should ask the question had better start now.

    Though the controversy surrounding the airport projects seem to be going down, the minister seem to have a penchant for courting more controversies.

    The latest of her numerous controversies and the biggest scandal of her ministerial tenure to date is the purchase of two armoured limousines for her exclusive use by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, one of the parastatals under her ministry. The BMW 760 Li cars were purchased by NCAA from the local representatives of BMW in Nigeria, Coscharis Motors Limited for a combined fee of $1.6 million or approximately N225 million in August and delivered to the minister.

    Kudos to the whistleblower that leaked the purchase to online newspaper Sahara Reporters, and the local media that had feasted on the scandal since it broke last week. Thanks to the unknown whistleblower who is now been hunted by the federal government for punishment according to NCAA Director General Captain Fola Akinkuotu, we now know how Madam Stella Oduah and her cronies run our aviation.

    Though Akinkuotu would want us to believe that the limousines were not meant for the exclusive use of the minister, but also some VIP visitors that his agencies regularly play host to while in the country, spokesman for Madam Oduah actually confirmed the vehicles were meant for his boss and were needed to protect her in the face of several threats she had received from certain interests she might hurt in the course of her duty as Minister of Aviation.

    Honestly I don’t have any problem with the minister riding a bullet proof/armoured car if her ministry could afford it. I am sure many of her colleagues and most of our politicians ride one. I think some of them do have genuine security concerns/fears. Why she had to force NCAA to cough out the money is my concern.

    If truly she had been receiving threats from God knows who over whatever she has been doing as Aviation Minister, she ought to have gone to her boss and friend President Goodluck Jonathan to seek extra protection if she wasn’t satisfied with the security arrangements around her. It is not the business of NCAA to buy those cars for her, if truly she needs them, but that of her employers, the federal government of Nigeria. If her ministry couldn’t afford them then the presidency should have paid if it was convinced that her life was in danger. To have burdened NCAA with the cost of the armored limos was an attempt to cripple the agency and endanger the flying public.

    In the face of inadequate human capacity to discharge the onerous tasks of aircraft inspection and certification, 1.6 million USD in the purse of NCAA could have done wonders in the training of its personnel. Because of paucity of fund, I understand statutory trainings, abroad in most cases, for NCAA personnel are no longer being carried out as and when due. They are now staggered with a huge backlog. As it is in aviation, if you are not rated on a particular aircraft type you cannot inspect or certify it even if you are the best aircraft engineer around. And this type rating has expiry dates, some are due every six months, just like a pilot’s license. Who knows, may be some of those our aircraft falling down from the sky were certified fit by incompetent engineers. We now know where the money for their training has been going.

    The annoying thing about this $1.6 m limousine purchase for the minister was that NCAA had to borrow the money from a local bank by mortgaging it’s future earnings. So, the money the agency has not earned it has spent, to provide comfort and security for Madam Minister.

    Whoever approved that purchase has misappropriated or is it misapplied public funds and must be punished. Mind you, this is not the first time the NCAA and the other parastatals under the Ministry of Aviation were being forced to do the biddings of Madam Minister.

    Come to think of it, how much does an armoured limo costs that we are buying two for $1.6million? Those who know say the two cars should not cost more than N75million. Can’t you see something fishy here? If EFCC still have any teeth to bite, this is the time. And if President Jonathan is serious about his anti-corruption stance, then he should act now and save Nigeria’s Aviation and the flying public from Madam Minister.

     

  • STELLA DAMASUS out with Love Me Quick video

    STELLA DAMASUS out with Love Me Quick video

    NOLLYWOOD actress, Stella Damasus has taken a bold step into launching herself into main stream music with the release of the music video titled “Love Me Quick”.

    The urban and trendy actress has overtime honed her musical skills and indications are rife that she is ready to plunge headlong into the murky waters of the music industry with the release of her latest music video.

    Though there have been attempts by her other colleagues in the movie industry to make headway in music, such moves have not yielded positive results for many of them.

    The likes of Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Jim Iyke, Ramsey Nouah, Nkem Owoh and most recently Tonto Dike have all tried their hands on music which has yielded fruitless results but Stella says she into it to make a mark for herself.

  • Stella Damasus dissociates self from bandwagon

    Stella Damasus dissociates self from bandwagon

    SCREEN goddess and multi-talented entertainer, Stella Damasus, has dissociated herself from the bandwagon of movie stars trying their luck at music. The mother of two has told anyone who cares to listen that her career in music dates back to the early 90s, even before acting.

    Stella, who just released a new single titled ‘Love Me Quick’, stressed that there shouldn’t be comparisons between her and some actors who are trying but have had a failed shot at music.

    “Those who think I joined the bandwagon of movie stars trying to play music must be new in the industry. They should be reminded of the music video of ‘Love Song’ I did with Jaiye (my late husband) and the band. I was a studio singer at Klink Studio from 1995. That is where I was trained by Sammy Okposo, Zubby Enebeli, Manny Eke, Thelma, Demola Olukotu and the rest.

    “I also started singing in Jazzville before Jaiye and I set up our band called Synergy. After he died, I set up Gig Factor. Then I did respective duets with Segun Arinze, Mr. Cool, back-ups for Sammy’s album, collabo with Blakky and OGD All Stars.

    “I have done a lot of songs with Tim Godfrey and Extreme Crew. Three years ago, I did the Christmas songs and videos for Africa Magic. In addition, I have done shows for MTN, ECONET, Worldspace, Keem Bello Osagie, American Embassy, Aisha Babangida’s first wedding, Peugeot, Leo Stan Eke and Delta State Convention among others,” Stella explained.