The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Valentine’s Day

  • Valentine’s Day: NACA warns Nigerians on ‘risky’ behaviour

    The National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) on Friday advised Nigerians to avoid engaging in risky behaviour especially during Valentine’s Day celebrations.

    Valentine’s Day celebration comes up on February 14.

    The Head of Corporate Communication Unit of NACA, Mrs. Toyin Aderibigbe, gave the advice in a statement in Abuja.

    Aderibigbe described Valentine’s Day as a season of affection, urging Nigerians to share and show love responsibly.

    She said by behaving responsibly Nigerians can halt and reverse the spread of HIV and AIDS in the country.

    “It is important that young people are equipped with information to ensure that Valentine’s Day is celebrated by showing love to those we care about in a safe and responsible manner,” the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quoted the NACA spokesperson as saying in the statement.

    “As we celebrate love, we should remember that safe sex is not just about protecting ourselves, but also protecting those we love.”

  • Nigerians are ‘most romantic’

    Nigerians are ‘most romantic’

    Nigerians are the most romantic people in Africa, beating out other online customers in global money transfer leader Transfast’s Valentine’s Day survey.

    An impressive 80 percent of Nigerian respondents say they plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day, with 75 percent calling the holiday “Sweet – I like the sentiment behind it.” Of those less enamoured, thirteen percent say it’s “silly, but I put up with it ” and nine percent call it “a ridiculous money-making scheme.” Still, only three percent of Nigerians say Valentine’s Day is “stressful: I wish it would go away!”

    Most respondents, who are Transfast customers based in the U.S. or Canada, say their loved one is in the U.S. (54 percent), while 36 percent say their loved one is in Nigeria. A majority (53 percent) says they will send money home for Valentine’s Day, in amounts ranging from $50 to $2,000.

    Transfast, the global money transfer company, is used by millions to send money home to more than 120 countries around the globe. For Nigeria, customers can send money from a mobile device or desktop, direct to a recipient’s bank account, or for cash pick-up. In many cases, the transfer is made instantly or within 24 hours.

    Nigerian respondents plan to express their love on Valentine’s Day by communicating with their loved one via a phone call (46 percent), Skype (11 percent), Whatsapp (11 percent), Facebook message (eight percent) or Facetime (five percent).

    Nigerian respondents agreed that Nigerians are by nature romantic, with 67 percent saying this was the case. A total of 46 percent say they believe in love at first sight, and twelve percent say that love at first sight has happened to them.

    Most respondents say they are married (53 percent), 14 percent are dating, 12 percent are engaged and 21 percent are single. But you may not know that from their Facebook pages, because of all respondents, most say they do NOT share their relationship status on social media (53%).

  • Much ado about Valentine’s Day

    Much ado about Valentine’s Day

    Happy Valentine’s Day! How did it go? For me, I didn’t leave my house on that day. Was the Val any less romantic, no! In fact, it couldn’t have been more romantic. But I guess I’m just indifferent about going out with my man to celebrate Val or planning that special Valentine’s Day occasion because personally, I think we should have as many Valentine’s Day in a relationship/marriage.

    I’m usually not an early riser; I woke up and realized it was just a few minutes past 8:00 am. I wanted to be the first to send my man a Valentine’s message but of course I couldn’t be, not in the days of social media, BBM, facebook, name it. Nevertheless, I sent him a beautiful message. He’s special! Very special to me!! Just like me, he also didn’t rise early and so he didn’t get to reply my message until about two hours later. Once I didn’t see his text, I knew he was still sleeping and I wasn’t going to disturb his sleep just because of Valentine. I understood his job; he has this very erratic work schedule so Valentine or not, he deserves his rest. The text came as soon as he woke up and it was so romantic. I have read it like thrice or more since he sent it. I read it over and over on Val Day’s. Don’t blame me, this man made me feel loved. He always does. God! I can’t thank you enough.

    Hmm, I’m not about to share his text with you but just for you to know that we can make it special without necessarily losing an arm and a leg. Oh yes, we can. It’s not in the clothes that you buy or the gift that you share that makes it a special day. It’s in the love that you truly feel for each other that really makes it a special day. If the special celebration comes or the gifts then it’s okay. It makes it all beautiful too.

    But you don’t feel loved in your relationship, spending the entire day dinning won’t do much. Everyday can be Valentine with the right person. Relationship shouldn’t be stressful. You should feel peaceful in your relationship. If there are too many issues, you might as well remain friends. You are dealing with crazy issues like your man doesn’t care about you, he barely visit, he doesn’t trust you, he doesn’t feel concerned about your endevours (like wise you should  so same to him), it just about the sex or the money as the case maybe of what use is that table for two?

    I’d love to set the dinner table with the best cocktail, exotic wine, cake and a special dish to go and most of all appear in that touch of red sexy dinner gown or lingerie, mind you if the relationship is working. Yes I’d love to. I’m a romantic. But in this case when he has to attend to work, it not a lost day. Make the best of what is available email, phone call, text message, get a card, just do something.

    Can you imagine that I’m just settling dispute between this couple that I know just because her man insisted he had to go and take care of some business which she felt could wait until after Valentine.

    A day before Val she had spent the entire day at the saloon, trying to make her hair and guess what he was the one who suggested the kind of hair-do, only for him to run off to attend to business oh! That got Desola mad! Not after all the preparation. They started preparing ahead, especially that more so the Val fell on a weekend. “Didn’t he know he had to attend to business? Mercy, my husband doesn’t love me anymore. All this men cannot be trusted you know, he may have gone to be with someone else”, she said.

    Then at that point, I had to chip it in, “Desola, I was home alone yesterday”. It was my choice because after we exchanged text messages, by 12 or thereabouts, my phone battery ran out. I had left my pin mouth at work so there was no way I could charge my phone. So for the next 4 hours or so, my phone was down. I had to send someone to get me a charger. But before I did that, I had tried to charge my phone briefly with a desk top knowing he might have been calling to speak with his baby. And quite true immediately my phone came on, it was him calling.

    He wanted to squeeze himself and see if we could hangout. “Why did you switched off your phone. I have been calling since. I called the other line too you didn’t pick”. I didn’t know I abandoned my other line in my bag. That was also very sweet. Even though he wasn’t there, he wanted me to know he would have loved to spend the day with me, but a man has got to do what is got to do. I understood. It was just as simple as that. I could have been the one who was very busy on that day and I would want him to understand too, sefini.

    The big question now: Is Valentine an expression of love? Please write in and let’s have your views on this. I would also like to know how you celebrated your Valentine.

  • Chris Attoh, Damilola Adegbite marry on Valentine’s Day

    Chris Attoh, Damilola Adegbite marry on Valentine’s Day

    The much awaited matrimony between actors Chris Attoh and DamilolaAdegbite has finally taken place. The couple signed the dotted lines in a private ceremony in Accra, Ghana.

    It will be recalled that the couple who are blessed with a child named Brian, met on the set of MNET Series, Tinsel, and since become an item.

    While many people were expecting them to walk down the aisle, Damilola surprised them with a baby bump. However, their love continued to be the envy of friends as they freely showed each other love on social media.

    After a year of their sizzling romance, the two actors finally got married on February 14.

    Ghanaian actor Majid Michel,Ovation Magazine publisher, Dele Momodu and other close friends and family graced the ceremony.

  • APC greets Nigerians on Valentine’s Day

    APC greets Nigerians on Valentine’s Day

    The All Progressives Congress (APC)  is wishing  Nigerians a happy Valentine’s Day, as they join the rest of the world to mark the Day today.

    The party  urges them to prepare to  “celebrate their imminent liberation from the PDP-imposed yoke”  under which they have laboured for many years.

    National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,  said  in a statement in Lagos yesterday that  “but for the insistence of the PDP and the Jonathan administration that the suffering of Nigerians must be prolonged for another six weeks, the Valentine’s Day, which is a global celebration of love and affection, would have also marked the celebration of freedom from the PDP servitude by all Nigerians.”

    The party, however,  said that  “those who orchestrated a needless postponement of the elections have only won a Pyrrhic victory as the delay will only further sweeten the joys of victory over the oppressors of the Nigerian people, over those who have looted the country’s treasury dry and left broken bones and gnashing of teeth in their wake.

    ”Saturday, February 14 would have been a day of double celebration, of Valentine’s Day and of the liberation of the long-suffering people of Nigeria from the burden imposed on them by a clueless, incompetent and purposeless PDP federal government.

    ”While they could not change Valentine’s Day from February 14, they have temporarily delayed the celebration of freedom by their orchestrated six-week postponement of the elections. Nigerians should see this as a temporary setback. They should continue to maintain their unwavering enthusiasm for change by getting their PVCs ready to vote out the yoke masters.

    ”Nigerians must continue to insist that the elections be held as rescheduled and in line with constitutional provisions.”

  • Lawmaker donates to school on Valentine’s Day

    THE lawmaker representing Abia Central Senatorial District in Abia State, Mrs. Nkechi Nwaogu has donated a three lassroom blocks with toilet facilities to the Owerri Road Primary School 1, Umuocham, Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area of the state.

    Speaking at the handing over of the facility at the school premises on Valentine’s Day, Nwaogu said the aim of the project, which she attracted through the Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) project was to enhance the pupils’ welfare. Nwaogu promised to donate additional 200 desks, a generating set and refurbish some of the dilapidated buildings in the school.

    She used the opportunity to eulogise Abia State Governor Theodore Orji’s landslide in the state, stressing that no government progresses when majority of its citizens are poorly educated.

    Mrs Nwaogu, who also doubles as the Chairman, Senate Committee on Oil and Gas, implored the beneficiary to maintain the new facility. She listed some of the projects she had executed in her constituency to include borehole, provision of transformers to rural communities, award of scholarships to indigent children, and empowerment of youths and women.

    The Headmaster of the school, Mr. Cyril Nwosu thanked the donor for penciling the school as beneficiary of her numerous projects.

    Nwosu said: “Words are not sufficient to express our hearty feelings with regards to your large heart.

    “In 2009, when you visited, you awarded scholarships to more than 100 pupils from Abia Central. Again you sunk water-borehole and pledged to renovate schools and today, Owerri Road Primary School 1 Umuocham, is one of the beneficiaries. This is a legacy and a Valentine bonanza you have left for the school.”

     

  • The world on Valentine’s Day

    The world on Valentine’s Day

    Valentine’s Day is, for many people, the most romantic day of the year, a time at which couples all over the world celebrate the wonder of love by collectively spending millions of dollars, euros, pounds and other currencies on Valentine’s gifts. Many countries have their own particular traditions and customs on February 14 and here’s a selection:

    Italy

    Originally, Italians celebrated Valentine’s Day as the Spring Festival. The young and amorous gathered outside in gardens and tree arbors to enjoy poetry readings and music before taking a stroll with their beloved.

    Today on Valentine’s Day Italians prefer having romantic dinners and exchanging gifts. Also, there is a tradition of giving chocolate to loved ones and Italians believe that in this case, size does matter- the bigger the chocolate, the stronger the love you will have.

    France

    The French like to think of themselves as the most romantic people in the world, and it’s often claimed on Gallic shores that the first Valentine’s Day card originated in France when Charles, Duke of Orleans, sent love letters to his life while imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1415.

    Today card giving is not as popular as it used to be. Instead, the French have taken to their love for their own cuisine; restaurants famously do a roaring trade on February 14, a day also considered the best time for a marriage proposal.

    United Kingdom

    Valentine’s cards are often sent anonymously in the UK, a tradition dating back to Victorian times. So the recipients find out they have secret admirers while the senders satisfy themselves with the knowledge that the ones they admire know they’re admired. Various parts of the country have their own ways of celebrating: in Norfolk in the west, a mysterious Jack Valentine knocks on people’s doors and vanishes, leaving sweets for children. In Wales in the east, Valentine’s Day comes just a few weeks after St Dwynwen’s (January 25) after the Welsh patron saint of lovers.

    Saudi Arabia

    Perhaps the only country in the world where Valentine’s Day is banned. In 2008 Saudi officials told florists and gift shops to remove all red items until after Valentine’s Day, calling the celebration of such a holiday a sin as it “encourages immoral relations between unmarried men and women”.

    Estonia

    Valentine’s Day celebrations in Estonia have their own twist: February 14 is called “Friend’s Day”, so single, lovelorn people don’t feel left out. That means everyone’s a winner thanks to nice presents offered between friends and family members.

    That doesn’t mean there’s no romance; shops, restaurants and even streets are decorated with hearts and other symbols of love. On this day single people also get the chance to take a ride on a special “love bus” where they can meet others looking for love.

    •Source: euronews

  • Gift shops make Valentine’s Day sales

    Gift shops make Valentine’s Day sales

    Stores and gifts shops in Abuja made brisk business yesterday as residents rushed to buy items ahead of today’s global observance of St. Valentine’s Day.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Wuse market, Grand Square, Sahad Stores, Shoprite, Next Supermarket and some gift shops recorded high traffic of customers, who picked one gift item or another.

    Perfumes, flowers, toiletries, cards, cakes of different sizes and shapes, ice cream, groceries and special Valentine hampers dominated the gift items purchased by the customers at the shops.

    Mr Silas Mbiam, a Manager at Grand Square, one of the biggest supermarkets in FCT told NAN that management of the shop had a tradition of stocking necessary products for Valentine Day celebration every year. He said that the shop had since Wednesday been recording influx of customers buying one gift item or the other for their husbands, wives, children, girlfriends, boyfriends and other loved ones.

    “In 2013, we made a lot of sales on wines, ice cream, chaplets, valentine hampers, cards, perfumes and other items.

    “We appreciated the patronage and because of it, we are offering 50 per cent discount on biscuits, wines, kitchen utensils and household items, and different discount rates on jewelries, for Valentine celebration this year,’’ Mbiam said.

    At Sahad Stores, an official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the Valentine Day “mood” had started registering at the shop with unusual number of people moving in to buy gift items.

    “On working days, patronage is usually low in the mornings and rises in the evening when workers have closed but because of Valentine celebration tomorrow, people have started coming early since morning (Wednesday),’’ the official said.One of the customers at Next Supermarket, Mrs Blessing Ayuba, told NAN she was there to pick up Valentine gifts for her husband and her children.She said that she could not miss to buy gift items for her family members at Valentine celebration.

    The rush for gift items to celebrate the “Lovers’ Day” was the same at Wuse Market, where ‘unusual” high number of customers, mainly young people besieged the shops.

    One of the customers at a shop, Mr John James said he was there to pick “good things” for his girlfriend.“I am already in the spirit of Valentine and I have to fetch some nice things for my girlfriend,” he said, adding “tomorrow is the D-day’’.

    NAN reports Saint Valentine’s Day is observed on Feb. 14 every year and it is celebrated in many countries around the world.

    The Day began as a liturgical celebration of one early Christian saint named Valentinus.

    However, several martyrdom stories had been invented for the various Valentines for the February 14 celebration.

    Some hotels in Abuja have reduced their prices to attract guests for the Valentine celebration. A visit to some hotels yesterday indicated that some of them have placed discounts of between 10 and 30 per cent on most of their services and products.

    Mr Shola Adeyemi, Public Relations Manager of the five-star Transcorp Hilton, said the hotel had special rates for the Valentine period.

    According to him, a room which usually went for N75,000 per person on one night will now go for N67,000 for two persons for one night on Valentine’s day.

    “If you want to prolong the feeling beyond Valentine day, you just add N44,000 to extend your stay in the hotel,’’ he said.

    Adeyemi said the hotel was also offering special Valentine four-course romantic dinner for two or a lavish Valentine dinner buffet for N18,000.

    He said the package was with a welcome champagne cocktail, a bottle of wine and a special gift for the ladies.

    At the Abuja Sheraton Hotel, NAN checks revealed that there were also mouth-watering special Valentine package for couples and friends to explore.

    According to the Sheraton Valentine brochure, there will be a special candlelight dinner of four-course meals for N28,000.

    “Stay between Feb. 13 and Feb. 16 and enjoy an all tax-inclusive rate of N30,000 plus breakfast for two persons,” the brochure said.

    The General Manager, Agura Hotel, Mr Mark Loxley, said there would be a special couples’ dinner and a seafood lovers’ buffet today “The seafood and couples’ dinner are the hotel’s way of encouraging couples to celebrate the valentine season with a mouth-watering spread of local and continental dishes,” he told NAN.

  • Valentine’s Day: FRSC places operatives on alert

    As Nigerians join the global community to celebrate this year’s Valentine’s Day, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has placed its operatives on intensive routine patrols nationwide. The FRSC officials have been placed at strategic locations to enable citizens enjoy an accident-free celebration.

    According to the Corps Public Education Officer, Jonas Agwu, while the Corps has finalised arrangements to ensure a crash-free celebration, the public have been urged to celebrate love with caution by obeying traffic rules and regulations.

    He said this year’s Valentine’s Day initiative forms part of the Corps’ nationwide intervention patrols, pursuant to its 2014 strategic goals with a projection for 15 per cent reduction in road crashes and 25 per cent decrease in fatalities.

    The Corps warns the public to desist from road vices, such as excessive speeding, which ranks as number one causative factor for road accidents in the country, the use of phone while driving, non-use of seat belts by occupants of a vehicle and overloading, stressing that patrol teams have been mandated to arrest and prosecute violators on the spot.

    Agwu also harped on the negative impact of drunk driving, which often results in blackouts, euphoria, loss of co-ordination, balance impairment, poor judgement, impaired memory and slow reaction among drivers.

  • How not to celebrate Valentine’s Day!

    ‘Twere no bad thing if you stretch out your hairy paw in love and friendship to all men (and women too), not just those making sheep’s eyes at you

    To tell you the truth, dear reader, I am experiencing too much anguish of soul now to be able to wish you a happy Valentine’s Day. The anguish was caused by some distressing pieces of news I read during this last week. Two of them concerned the raping of two little girls to death by men old enough to be their fathers, uncles or teachers while the third concerned the ‘punishment’ meted to some women for stealing. They had peppery substances inserted into their private parts in the market place by men! These are just unprintable behaviours that should actually attract capital punishment, national outrage and mourning, and me downing my pen for a month. But then I remembered that today marks the beginning of the valentine week and I cannot go through the year without wishing you a happy valentine. If only the editor would let me stop here so I can go and mourn for the country which has gone berserk but, sadly, I have to write on and hopefully, you also have to read on.

    The worrisome thing is that one of the child-rapes is said to have occurred somewhere in the north while the other took place in the south eastern part of the country. What then is this, I asked myself – national representation? Apart from the fact that instances of rape appear to be increasing, it also appears to be spreading very fast around the country, particularly of little tots. Can you just imagine the anguish those little things endured? It is as if the Nigerian male, educated or not and of any religion, has suddenly come to the realisation that he really does not need permission, spending, courting, asking-for-the-hand or even buying valentine cards any more. He can just take what he needs from any female – as young as a few months only or as old as a century.

    It is difficult to know how and why there has come to be this sudden upsurge in this act – perhaps globalisation, or too much and too easy an access to the media, especially the internet, or a virus. Yet, February 14 is the period when we remember the martyred life of all the saints called Valentine whose legends are known. They showed us how we should love, help, nurture and care for each other. These days, people all over the world prefer to spend, spend, and spend on gifts, gifts, and more gifts to celebrate the martyrdom of the saints. So, it’s that time of the year when we send out and receive anonymous gifts from silent admirers, friends and foes in commemoration of how these saints showed love a long time ago. Oh yes, your silent foe can give you a gift too. Do you remember that dent you found on your car after you had left it parked on the road to run an errand? That’s right; it came from your anonymous foe: a silent valentine’s gift.

    Certainly, this is not how to celebrate Valentine’s Day as a nation: through rapes, and governmental silence. There has been no word on either of the child-rapes from the law enforcement agents under whose jurisdiction the crimes were committed; no word from the local government chairmen, state governors or even the presidency. Yet, we have a presidency that is ever so quick on the uptake when it perceives that people are mucking around with their bad name. The authorities have not shown that they are not governing a conclave of goats and sheep but human beings who feel the pain being inflicted upon them by the elements those same authorities have failed to control. They have not shown that they are trying to contain these errant knaves whose libidos have gone on a rampage. They have not done what St. Valentine would have done.

    Now, no one is quite sure again just which St. Valentine is responsible for this holiday as many legends have sprung up, claiming the day for many Valentines. But does it really matter which one? I don’t think so. What matters is what we have come to glean as the lesson each of the legends represents. There is first of all love. This is the most difficult lesson for the Nigerian to comprehend because he/she has become overly consumed by a phlegmatic disposition where that emotion is concerned. Rather, the yawning black hole where love should have sprouted has been replaced by an insatiable appetite for money and inflicting the most grievous psychological/economic/physical lacerations on his/her fellow countrymen and women. This means there is no love, no care, no fellow-feeling.

    This lack of love is why people shut their fuel stations against other people no matter the amount of fuel in the holds of their buried tanks. The idea is to make more illegal money off those countrymen when the scarcity begins to bite. It is also why you cannot get anything done in any of the nation’s secretariats, whether state or federal-owned, if you do not first release some money even to the lowest member of the working cadre therein. It is what is responsible for the fact that employed big men and women now ask unemployed youths to first bring hundreds of thousands of Naira to them before they can employ them. I assure you that it is for the same reason that this country now pays out trillions of Naira in oil subsidy. Yes, Nigerians love their neighbours all right, but only if they can fleece them to the bone. The only problem is that everyone is so busy fleecing everyone else that one morning, some Nigerian will wake up to find out he is now fleecing himself. That’s right; he would have run out of victims.

    St. Valentine was about self-sacrifice. According to one of the legends, Priest Valentine helped soldiers become betrothed to their beloveds, an act that contravened the rules of the occupying force then. Anyway, that is not important. What is important was that the priest was willing to sacrifice himself to make someone or others happy. Very few Nigerians come in that mould now. The general mould rather has been that Nigerians willingly sacrifice others for their own conceit; they are your regular ‘let me live and let others die’ people. If you don’t believe me, just watch the Nigerian at work. Oh, they would put James Bond out of job ‘one time’, because he would not need to lift a finger – just his purse.

    Above all other qualities that Valentine bequeathed to the world is the spirit of courage. You know what that is, don’t you? It’s when you do an incredibly brave act without being allowed to think first, because you’re sure you would not do it if you were allowed to think first. It’s not as if Nigerians are strangers to the red or blue or green badge of courage. They’ve got plenty of courage all right, but only when it comes to defrauding, embezzling, killing or just generally causing mayhem. Nothing doing, sir, when it comes to your courageous acts of saving others, helping others, providing for others or assisting little girls and old women to reach home without being assaulted.

    It is Valentine’s Day once again, and it is time to remember not just the ones we love but also the ones who need love. Practically every Nigerian needs our love right now, considering how low our national morale is. I think we all need some pick-me-up and ‘twere no bad thing if you made a habit of stretching out your hairy paw in love and friendship to all men (and women too) all the year, not just to those making sheep’s eyes at you.