I called him out with several tweets in my @opebanwo twitter handle but he has kept avoiding me on the matter . I guess he figured I am not a regular guy he could mess with on legal issues . So I have concluded Deji is a joker who likes to talk smack but can’t back it up when challenged and has moved on. I don’t have time for jokers masquerading as fair commentators on national affairs.  


Do you believe Peter Obi will win?

Yes I do believe Peter Obi CAN win if they allowed the votes to count (only God knows who WILL win) . As a matter of fact, I believe if the elections were held today Peter Obi may win. Don’t take my word for it. Go to any part of Nigeria yourself and poll any 100 people at random, in several locations of the country, (except maybe the rural areas) and the truth shall set you free on this issue

Of course the previously presumptive top contenders are finally waking up to the Peter Obi insurgency and are deploying serious assets to discredit him and take him down . So as the race gets nasty in the next few months, no one can predict where everything will be by February 2022.

So I honestly can’t predict February right now but one thing I can predict is : if they rigged the elections against the popular wishes of the masses this time, there may be the kind of unrest that will finally settle the issue of bad leadership in this country once and for all. The Arab spring was coming and no country is excerpted forever from the reaction of citizens to decades of bad government. May God spare us all .

Honestly, I will be okay if Peter Obi lost the elections fair and square, since he can always be back in 2027. However there is no way I , most of his millions of followers, will ever accept him being rigged out, by any funny moves by the establishment. Whatever happens if they rigged it will be on the riggers.

As you know Peter obi followers are not docile, and even peter obi won’t be able to stop them when it comes to their will being perverted by riggers . So, For the sake of all of us that love Nigeria, I pray rigging does not happen and they give us a free, fair and transparent election


We thought you were Ashiwaju   Bola Tinubu‘s person, why aren't you supporting him?

I don’t know where you got the crazy idea that I was an Ashiwaju   person. That’s a triggering question. Have you EVER seen me campaign for Ashiwaju on anything? Don’t confuse my fair commentary on his party primaries, especially the way I saw the Osinbajo ‘failed political coup’ with endorsing or supporting the old man . Even in his early days, I was a Funsho Williams person. Ashiwjau was never my person and never likely to be.

Even when I was supporting Buhari in 2015 , I never joined the APC and never supported Ashiwaju for anything .

Fact is Ashiwaju may have been a brilliant leader once, but corruption and old age and dimming mental alertness should have ruled him out of consideration for president by anyone who claimed they love Nigeria.

Though as a person who is always fair no matter who is affected, I do think Osinbajo betrayed Jagaban with his embarrassing bid challenging his political god father, there must be honor among thieves, and I called it as a fair commentator, He himself should have ceded the ticket willingly to Osinbajo or one of his competent generals .


*What if Peter Obi didn’t win, what next? *
If Peter Obi didn’t win, provided it’s a free and fair election, I for one will accept the result and go back to the drawing board . Naija Lives Matter  is all about what’s best for Nigeria, not an individual, and we will keep working as an organization and then select who we think is the candidate for 2027.

Like I told you earlier, Naija Lives Matter is not a political organization and we are not married to any candidate permanently. We only pick who we think is best for Nigerians in each election circle . Of course no matter what happens , I believe Pete Obi will keep getting stronger  

Why aren’t you standing for election yourself?
Lol. My wife will personally kill me if I decide to be a politician in Nigeria. She says my mouth will probably get me killed and no way she will allow me get into the ring with Nigerian politicians the way it is being played in Nigeria today

In any case, I doubt many Nigerians will vote for someone like me. I am not a politician and my direct approach to issues will always get me into trouble. I am a straight shooter and I don’t believe in diplomatic speech or in playing political games in making my recommendations on what’s best for Nigeria.

Most people don’t like that

I also think very unconventionally and my ideas of fixing many things will probably scare many voters away. Most people believe it’s possible to get coconut milk without breaking some coconuts . Some actually believe you can make omelet without breaking some eggs. Anyone telling them the bitter truth is not likely to go far . Nigeria is in such a deep mess that Nigerians must be ready for the pain and the price to escape our downward spiral. Yet, many are not ready for the pain and the price that must be paid for years of madness.

Besides I am very comfortable in the USA and don’t have any Messiah complex to come and save Nigerians. Nigerians living in Nigeria must decide how far they are willing to go to get the kind of government they want. We in the diaspora can only provide support in terms of energy and resources. They MUST cast the yoke off for themselves. After all, though none of us can escape the consequences of corruption and incompetence in Nigeria, I would be one of the least affected. Myself and all my kids and family are abroad and very comfortably so.

Though I am always wary about saying never to anything, since I am very hot headed, I am not likely to ever run for anything . Nigerians living in Nigeria must do the running and we can back them up.


You are not supporting your friend OGD as well, are you not taking this 2023 election personally as well?

Of course I will always support OGD , though I do not care for his party. OGD is not just a friend, he is my Egbon and a mentor. However I won’t support him just because of that. I support him because, despite many unfounded rumors by some against him, I happen to think he is a great leader with great ideas and an approach to solving problems I definitely resonate with. I have interacted with him a lot and in my own opinion he is what you see when you sit with him . He listens and he is very cerebral and practical

Though I do not think Governors should directly transit to senators as most of them are doing, it has been about 16 years since he left office. He is still vibrant and his people obviously loved him.  So I support his current ambition to be a senator and will be encouraging our organization to endorse him for senate at the right time though we do not like his party. I have made it clear I will NOT vote according to party lines. We will look for the best candidate everywhere and vote for them. I am not beholden even to the labor party though Pete Obi is my choice for president.  


Some Obidient people don’t trust you, why?
LOL. That’s the curse of people who have their own minds and don’t mind calling out anyone they disagree with, regardless of the Political camp we belong to. I am used to people just being wary around me and my opinions. They knew I would not say anything just to be nice

Many OBIdients were initially suspicious of me for various reasons.
1. I was very critical of Peter Obi himself when I was doing my due diligence about him shortly after Prof Moghalu lost his primaries, and got knocked out of the 2023 contest. I was looking for a new candidate to back for 2023 and I was brutal in my investigation and demand for answers before I jumped on anyone's bandwagon.

As you know, it’s no secret that Peter Obi fans don’t take criticisms of their candidate lightly and that’s cool. Most of them who didn’t know my motives came hard for me and we all mixed it up for a while because I was not going to be intimidated into silence. I bear no grudge against them and in fact I was proud that these guys are real believers who would make riggers in 2023 think twice before trying any rubbish. You can’t take power by singing Sunday school hymns (that only happened in the Bible many years ago). Even Buhari had to come with his own ‘blood and baboon’ strategy to ensure they didn’t steal his mandate. OBIdients are ready and I am ready to roll with them

2. They were also very suspicious of my close relationship with Segalink. Many OBIdients considered Segalink as one of their most hated enemies (and you really can’t blame them if you followed the drama )  and they didn't trust anyone being friends or speaking well of Segalink.

I also made it difficult for them to trust me by insisting that I will never stop being friends with segalink despite our political differences. To most OBIdients therefore I was a man not to trust. Many of them felt I could sell them out to Segalink who they believed was on a mission to bring them down, though I do not believe that

3. Besides some OBIdients who have come across me previously, knew no matter how much I love Pete obi , I don’t do hero worship, and will call him out if I ever considered him not doing the right things. So many were nervous because they see me as a loose cannon who will not play the saint Obi game even if I called him my candidate . And They are right

However my work and commitment has since spoken for me and I am very okay with OBIdients and will fight and bleed with them on social media and elsewhere. I know some Nigerians have allowed themselves to be hoodwinked by the constant attacks of critics to think OBIdients are just these batches of unruly and violent supporters of Peter Obi. It’s a lie and a myth spawned by desperate politicians and their paid acolytes.

While it is true that OBIdients will come at you very hard and relentlessly when you hit them, they hardly ever start fights. They just finish it. These agent provocateurs for old school politicians masquerading as influencers wakeup each morning to bait OBIdients and then they start screaming bloody murder when the OBIdients indulge them, and bring their superior violence. It’s all an elaborate ploy to call a great dog a bad name in order to justify hanging it.  It cannot work!

Let’s be frank, If you don’t want OBIdients coming for you, then stop going for them. You can’t be trying to dash their hopes by calling their candidate all sorts of unfair names, and then expect them to embrace you and give you a kiss . It’s the law of harvest, you bring violence to them, you will reap a harvest that is in multiples of the violence you sowed. Even God will rubber stamp your rewards. Law of the Seed is inviolate no matter how much you cried.

What has PO got to offer that other candidates can’t?
Actually a lot. But this election is not even so much about what Peter Obi can offer, It’s more about what we KNOW the other principal contestants like Atiku, Bola TINUBU and Kwankwaso cannot deliver . Hence, the need to eliminate them in my consideration before I even picked Pete Obi

As they say, madness is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. We already know Atiku and TINUBU cannot give us electricity; they cannot give us accountability in the government; they cannot give us a corruption free administration; and they cannot provide our youths with employment that we desperately need in Nigeria. Fact is, If they could do any of these things, they would have done in more than than 50 years at the helm of affairs in our Political landscape, either directly, or through their surrogates

Tinubu is the self confessed Kingmaker of the current inept ‘king’ and instead of distancing himself from Buhari if he ever hoped to get the sympathy of the youths, or in spending his days apologizing for his error of Buhari, the man actually had the audacity to ask us to elect him to continue the political policies of Buhari. How crazy is that? So he was eliminated from my thinking before I even focused on Peter Obi.

Same thing with Atiku. If you were hiring someone to run your family business, would you hire a man whose best source of reference is described as the ‘most corrupt politician in Africa”? Obasanjo knew him for 8 years of close working relationship, and if that was his verdict on Atiku, then something must be really wrong with you to pick him to run your father’s business. So, Atiku too was eliminated by simple elimination .

So knowing that , it’s a simple case of eliminating the top contenders like Atiku and Tinubu from my consideration on who to support without being emotional. They represent a continuation of the incompetency , inefficiency and corruption in govt that have kept Nigeria in bondage for decades.

Those 2 could not give Nigerians a better life . So they have no business telling us to vote for them for continuity of madness. Also how can a kingmaker expect to be rewarded for doing a bad job with the title of the king ?  

Once you have eliminated the old school selfish leaders running, it’s easy to see how my choice of Peter Obi is logical even before we consider what he can do

Now, when you look at Peter Obi compared to all the others remaining after you take Atiku and Jagaban off the table, you will see it’s a no contest

Peter obi has been governor for 2 terms with very credible results to show. He has great ideas how to fix the problems unlike those who think we should vote for them because it’s their turn. I have listened to Obi on Education, economy, production , employment and many issues that matter to me and I believe he would represent a progressive departure from the last 16 years of ineptitude.

Of course delivery on his ideas is going to be the litmus test of his leadership, but I will rather take a chance with someone with clear ideas who may, or may not deliver on them , rather than re-elect the old school that I already know 100% would not deliver.

Peter Obi is the only candidate in the top 5 contesting who is consistently answering questions about how he would fix problems. Atiku and Jagaban just kept focusing on why it’s their turn to rule. Jagaban has not even bothered to distance himself from the hellish performance of Buhari that may make us think he may be different from Buhari. Instead, he actually said we should elect him to continue the program agenda of Buhari.

Does that not even scare you as a Nigerian ? Do you want a 3rd term for Buhari since TINUBU is telling you straight-faced that’s what you are going to get with him as president?


*We saw that Sega Awosanya, whom you used to love so much, blocked you on twitter,  over your disagreement with your support for Peter Obi. What happened between you and your mentee that caused the unpleasantness we see on twitter?

Like I have told everyone that cares to listen, Segalink will forever be my son, brother, protegee and friend. Sure we disagreed on our approaches to Peter Obi, he has a war going on with OBIdients and somehow , I felt dragged into it since he was using general language to refer to a fringe of our movement (ALL parties have their own fringes and we make no apologies for that but it’s wrong to then label ALL Peter Obi supporters with sake brush and without any qualifiers that acknowledge we have different people . After all, APC has Mc Oluomo and PDP have their own Boko Haram they started, would it then be fair to label all of them bandits or touts? That was my primary issue )

But That’s all I am going to say about it.

I lost a lot of friends over my support for Buhari in 2015 l, and I have since learnt the hard way that no candidate is worth losing your long term friends over. These politicians, including even Peter Obi, will still eat with each other and their kids will still marry each other while we bleed in the streets. I am wiser now. I will fight hard for my candidate but I won’t die for any. I will bleed and live for Nigeria and hopefully not die for it either

I have known Sega for over 16 years and no way I am sacrificing him over the 2023 elections regardless of what he has sadly assumed. Sure he blocked me on Twitter but that’s nothing. I block people everyday too and he is obviously still upset that I had to call him out along with influencers. I do not think we’re being fair to Peter Obi, but it is what it is . I don’t hate Segalink and I do not choose to fight with him. He, of  course, also has a right to do whatever he wants and if I feel any of his reactions warrant more response, I probably will do so. I just have an iron clad rule: I never walk away from a direct challenge from any one, even if they have 10 million followers.

So I will tell you I have no fight with Sega. Father should not fight with brother or son over politics when both of us are not even politicians .  I don’t know Obi and have never met him but I do believe he is the best we have today for 2023. He disagreed with that. We will resolve our issues and move on . We will not iron out our dispute in the public domain anymore. I have said what I had to say and I am done for now.



You called out Deji Adeyanju about his 10k Dollars bet and his claim that Peter Obi will come distant 3rd. Why the call out?

Unlike Segalink, I have no relationship with Deji Adeyanju and have no problem calling him out publicly. Deji is a loud mouth and a 2-faced compromised influencer masquerading as an independent critic.

Just a couple of months ago, Deji repeatedly called Peter Obi the best candidate in the field and urged his million followers to adopt him. Then, with zero explanation, he just turned vicious against peter obi, thereby fueling suspicions that his opinion has now been purchased by the highest bidder politician.

Again, if Deji wants to sell his influence and join others massing together to take down Peter Obi’s ambition for 2023, then he should be man enough to say it with his full chest. I won’t even grudge him collecting money for hire. I only detest when you try to deceive the public and pretend there is nothing behind your inexplicable animosity against a candidate you used to love

However, I must be clear that I have no evidence that Deji Adeyanju has sold his conscience to the highest bidder, but his bizarre behavior is giving ammunition to those who believe so. That coupled with the fact that Deji as an ‘independent’ critic only seemed to see stuff wrong with Peter Obi, but hardly calls out TINUBU or Atiku after he made his midnight conversation from an an OBIdient  supporter to a vicious ‘pull-him-down’ bandit

As for his impetuous $10,000 bet against Peter Obi fans, I decided to call his bluff because I wanted to expose Deji as another loud mouth who is either being deployed, or who has deployed himself, to delegitimize Peter Obi without clear reasons.


If Chief Dele Momodu has confirmed receiving 10k dollars from Deji, why didn’t you just pay up?

Lol. That’s a lie. Aare Dele MOMODU did NOT confirm receiving any money from Deji Adeyanju for the bet. I think It’s all hype and a deceptive game Deji Adeyanju is playing with the public, and I will be surprised if my respected Aare Dele MOMODU will allow his credibility to be damaged by Deji’s antics

I have personally asked Aare Dele MOMODU if he has collected the $10,000 bet from Deji as escrow, as has been rumored. He never confirmed it. All he said in response to my inquiry, apart from some cryptic comments about Peter Obi fans, is “bring your money if you want to bet’ and then he offered to connect me to Deji .

Aare MOMODU never said he has collected any money form Deji and I asked at least twice since I have direct access to Egbon.

So either Deji is playing a solo game or Aare Dele MOMODU is somehow giving him cover knowing someone like me respect him a lot

That’s why I challenged Deji Adeyanju publicly, to press him and confirm  if he was really serious.  I asked him to let us get an attorney to write up the clear terms of the bet, so he does not weasel out of it at crunch time, and then we can both transfer our net monies to the attorney as escrow in a way that would be binding on both of us. That way nobody can play games after elections in February.

As expected, Deji went ghost on me the minute I showed him I was very serious in calling his bluff, proving he is a charlatan wasting everyone's time.

I also found out after I had offered to take up on his bet, that several other OBIdients have also indicated their willingness to take him up on his bet too, but so far he has gone dark on the issue and refused to respond to any of them . What a joker.

You went viral with tweets on how to identify paid influencers, what was behind the tweet?

Well, as you know I and my USA based organization, Naija Lives Matter recently endorsed Peter Obi as our candidate for the 2023 elections after doing extensive research on the contestants after our first choice , Kingsley Moghalu lost his primary election with ADC.

Not so long after that I started noticing that there seems to be a disproportionate attack on the person of Peter Obi and his Obidient movement by lots of influencers, especially some that you would think would be more interested in a 3rd force candidate,  after the colossal disaster of Buhari preceded by the disaster of GEJ government.

I observed some influencers like Deji Adeyanju who had previously sung the praises of Peter obi to high heavens, all of a sudden, and without any explanations, just turned against him to start talking about him as the devil.

I further observed some influencers who claimed they are ‘independent’ commentators with no horse in the 2023 presidential race, only seemed to find something to carp about Peter Obi, but had nothing to criticize in any of the leading  contenders who obviously had more garbage in their closets than Peter Obi

So l, I went to investigate and came to the conclusion that indeed some influencers have either been paid to delegitimize Peter Obi or have been compromised to sell dummies to Nigerians again.

Of course, I felt it was important to unmask them as they try to sow poison into the amazing popularity of Peter Obi. So I did a 5-tweet series telling people how to identify the secretly paid influencers in our midst . The tweet went viral and these influencers didn’t like that .


Is anything wrong being a paid influencer?

Of course not! I am the first to acknowledge and demand that Influencers should be paid for their influence. It takes a lot of energy, resources, and time to get influence and gather loyal  followers.

So that’s not the point .

However I am against those influencers who sell their influence while giving the impression it’s their honest opinion. If you are being paid to share an opinion,  it’s only ethical to disclose it, and let your fans know you are being paid for your influence.

Even the FTC that governs the ethics of influencers have rules regarding this . Many influencers have been fine for not disclosing their interest in an issue. There is nothing like I can say what I want once you start messing up numbers of followers.

Unfortunately, you get lots of Nigerian influencers violating influencer ethics,  and most even too dumb to know they are doing wrong . You get fined by FTC for being stupid stuff like that

 It’s like a TV station running a paid advert as a news item or a movie star receiving payment to endorse a product but failing to disclose that, but lied to his or her fans that the product is the best in the world when he or she does not even use it in real life. It’s unethical and wrong for an influencer to do . That’s taking advantage of your fans.

If you are clear you are advertising for a client or you are known openly to be an ambassador of the product , then everyone will know you are promoting a product you may or may not believe in, and then they make their judgement based on that knowledge .

You may be wondering why it is a big deal for an influencer to disclose his financial interest in a subject matter , but you need to understand people follow you, making you an influencer over them, whether you intended it or not, because they believed in you,  or valued your opinion or position. So if your opinion is being paid for, and not necessarily what you believed in, then you are misleading people by presenting it as yours, without disclosing your commercial motivation. .

That’s what lots of crooked influencers do to Nigerians .

If you are being paid by Ashiwjau or Atiku or even a Peter Obi to be their influencer, why not say so? I won’t hold it against you. At that point we know you are doing a job, and we can make our judgement accordingly, with full information.


You supported Buhari, Moghalu and now Peter Obi, why the inconsistency

You crack me up man. There is no inconsistency in changing candidates once you understand that my ONLY motivation in supporting anyone is who I believed Is good for Nigeria at any point in time. I don’t do hero worship, I don’t do till death do us part, I am not a politician and I have never received any compensation to support anyone. If anything, I actually spent millions of Naira of my own money to support who I thought would make a difference .

My principles remain forever the same but candidates I believe can deliver on them will always  change from time to time. Even in a marriage for better or worse, we still have almost a 40% divorce rate . If your partner is no longer who you thought you married, most take off. How many more politicians I have never met and never desired to meet. I just want them to do their jobs and fix this country of great people and greater resources but who can’t power itself for 19 hours a day. It’s maddening

So at the time I supported Buhari in 2014/2015 I genuinely believed he was the best hope for Nigeria and the man to rescue us from the corruption ridden govt of Johnathan. Buhari at the time had the reputation of being an anti corruption crusader and most of us just wanted someone to come in and deliver us from the one-corruption-a-day govt of GEJ. Instead we apparently jumped from frying pan to fire

Unfortunately, less than a year into his government it became clear Buhari is what we call in Arthur Anderson a ‘recruitment error’ by Nigerians . I was devastated when he could not even form a government in 12 months. I therefore distanced myself from him without any second thoughts, in my viral long article titled “Call Me A Buharist No More”. I had no problems dumping Buhari because it was never about him but about what he represented .

So, When it became clear he was not what he sold to us, as far as I am concerned, it was good riddance to bad rubbish. How Nigerians re-elected him for a second time is still a mystery to me and I was nowhere near him then in 2019.

As for Moghalu, for the same reason , I sincerely believed he was the best man  on the field for 2023. Unfortunately Moghalu didn’t win the ADC primaries of his party and that was that. So we had to look again at who's left in the field that we could support and we picked Peter Obi who I sincerely believe is heads and shoulders better than the old school septuagenarians  and octogenarians he is competing with.

There is nothing inconsistent about that at all. What would be inconsistent is for you to say you love your country but you keep supporting a candidate who has shown over and over that he does not value your country or proved he is incompetent to run it or too corrupt to do anything progressive.

Our consistency should be about the love of our country and what’s best for it, as opposed to consistently supporting a leader that has been exposed as a fraud and who you can see does not mean well for your country. If you did that, It would mean your love for your nation is inconsistent and not based on principle but hero worship. I can never be like that no matter how many candidates I have to change .
 

You later came out to say you regretted supporting Buhari, who says Peter Obi won’t turn out to be another Buhari?

Anything is possible in politics, my brother. Nobody has a crystal ball. We all picked candidates to support at any point in time based on who we honestly believed was the best candidate at that point in time. Many times however some of those we have anointed as the solution often turned out to bring more problems than solving the problems we elected them to solve

That was the case with Buhari and as a matter of conscience I could no longer support him when he could not even form a government in 12 months.

As for Peter Obi there is always the unlikely possibility he may even turn out worse than Buhari , just as Buhari turned out worse than Jonathan. However that possibility should not make us afraid to throw our support behind a candidate we believed would deliver. If indeed he later proved to be useless like others before him, I personally will not hesitate to dump him too and keep searching for that one man who could make a difference in our country.

To be clear , I can never be married to any candidate in a ‘till death do us part’ pact. I can only be married to the search for better lives for Nigerians. So no matter how aggressive I am about supporting a candidate, that support is only going to be good as long as you are living up to my expectations and that of Nigerians.

Lagos State Government continues to lead the pack in the Health Sector of the Country as it begins to sensitize grassroots residents on the enrolment of the Lagos State Health Insurance Scheme.

In a bid to ensure that all the residents of Lagos State have access to affordable healthcare, Lagos State Government sensitizes grassroots residents on the enrolment of the Lagos State Health Insurance Scheme, Ilera Eko.

Following up on the state Government’s THEMES Agenda which Healthcare happens to be the Second Pillar, Governor Babajide Sanwo Olu’s administration is focused on ensuring that all the residents of Lagos State have access to quality, equitable and affordable healthcare regardless of their socio cultural and economic status.

Speaking at the sensitization programme which took place at the Agege Local Government Area on the 10th of November 2021, The Special Adviser to the Governor on Civic Engagement, Princess Aderemi Adebowale had this to say “I am highly delighted to welcome everyone to this sensitization programme in collaboration with Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA) and the Office of Civic Engagement on Lagos State Health Insurance Scheme (Ilera Eko) in the 20 Local Government Areas of the State, with the aim of promoting Ilera Eko Health plan and also scale up the grassroots enrolment of Lagos residents on the Scheme.

All around the globe, health remains on the priority list of every government at all levels and therefore our dear State cannot afford to be an exception Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu is focused on ensuring that all the residents of Lagos State, have access to quality, equitable and affordable healthcare regardless of their socio-cultural and economic status, towards the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in our State.

This has necessitated the government to embark on the building and renewal of health facilities all around the State and the continuous initiation and promotion of various intervention programmes which include the Lagos State Health Insurance Scheme also known as ‘ILERA EKO’. This sensitization, we are starting today, would go to all the 20 LGAs to encourage more people especially at the grassroots to embrace the insurance policy facilitated by this administration.

The intention is to deliver this Lagos State health insurance scheme to the citizens and for the people to own the programme with a view to making it resoundingly successful. The Office of Civic Engagement as part of its mandates to interface between the Government and the citizens of Lagos State is therefore in collaboration with LASHMA, the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for the scheme in organising this sensitisation drive.”

Even though the latest World Health Organisation survey ranks Nigeria’s healthcare system as the fourth worst in the world, Lagos state appears to hold the baton to greatness with its healthcare scheme, “Ilera Eko”

After years of consuming several social media apps founded from different parts of the world, some groups of investors comprising of Africans and Europeans are set to start an Afrocentric Audio-Conversation social media audio Platform that will rival the popular clubhouse and green room apps.

The new Audio-gisting social media app called GistHouse is similar in concept to the Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces and Green Room apps in concept but packs about 10 different new features that most users of the first generation audio apps have been clamouring for.

Gisthouse will allow people around the world come together to talk, listen and interact with each other in real-time. People, brands and businesses will also be able to do business on the app, get paid on the app and promote their products and services all in audio format.

According to a statement released by Brooksrock Media and signed by Lead Consultant, Samuel Olatunji, Gisthouse will revolutionise the way we interact on social media and it is very African. ‘Gisthouse is audio-based social networking app that allows people to connect and discuss. It will be different and full of energy and have all the trappings of Afrocentric elements that made Africans who they are’.

When pressed on the reason for such an app at times like this, Samuel Olatunji who is the media and communication director said, audio-conversation apps are the future. He said the success of Clubhouse in such a short time has lent credence to that fact. Twitter, Spotify and even Facebook are planning their own audio apps, Olatunji said ‘Most times when new revolutions in digital technology starts, Africa and Africans have always been invisible until the market is closed to new entrants. We seemed to specialize in being consumers of new technology for the world instead of Africans owning platforms that the world can then adopt and consume. For instance, Indians have social media apps created by Indians for the world. So do the Chinese and other continents. So, we decided that since the audio-conversation social media industry is still in its infancy, less than 1% of the world are even aware of what’s coming, it’s a good time for Africa to take a position and create an Afrocentric app owned by Africans, for the African continent even as we welcome the world to enjoy it with us . With GistHouse, Africa can then put in an early stake in the audio conversation social media industry. We can now gist our African story on our terms’.

Speaking further, Samuel Olatunji said it is high time Africans start major movement on social media instead of just jumping massively on platforms created by foreigners. We have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Clubhouse all created by foreigners but we have nothing very important created in the social media space by African.

Gisthouse will be available for demo launching October 1 while it will go on BETA launching October 15th.

Princess Adebowale Aderemi of Lagos State Office Of Civic Engagement Sensitizes Residents on The Hazards Of OPEN DEFECATION
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The Lagos State Government Ministry of Civic Engagement led by The Special Adviser to the Governor of Lagos State on Civic Engagement, Princess Aderemi Adebowale sensitizes Lagos residents on the hazards of Open Defecation at the Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government on the 24th of June 2021.

According to statistics, Nigeria is said to be among countries with the highest number of people practicing open defecation which refers to the practice of defecating in fields, forests, bushes, bodies of water or other open spaces.

With the reports of about 46 million people brazenly defecate openly, this practice has undoubtedly had negative effects on the populace, especially children, in the areas of health, environment and education and had contributed to the country’s inability to meet the Millennial Development Goal (MDG) target on sanitation.

This sensitization is therefore being organized in line with the 2nd pillar of the T.H.E.M.E.S developmental agenda (Health and Environment) of Mr. Governor, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu to ensure Lagosians join the global crusade, spread the awareness, inspire environmentally-friendly actions and support in facilitating the provision of sustainable sanitation systems capable of promoting economic growth and well-being of the citizenry.

Speaking at the programme, The Special Adviser to the Governor of Lagos State on Civic Engagement, Princess Aderemi Abowale educated the residents on the health hazards that comes with this practice “Ladies and Gentlemen, open defecation is a public menace because it could easily lead to outbreak of communicable diseases such as cholera, typhoid, diarrhoea and other gastro-intestinal infections.
During the rainy season, in which we are now, water supplies can become contaminated with such faecal matters; we all know that human faeces contain bacteria and germs which consequently contaminate the sources of water people use for drinking and many other purposes.

The world is changing faster than we can imagine with human population increasing at an exponential rate. Therefore, there is an urgent need to re-orientate our people on the provision and access to safe and sustainable sanitation systems that will effectively address the menace of open urination and defecation as well as other sanitation infractions to prevent the widespread of diseases. Proper handling of these critical issues would no doubt help reduce government expenditure on treatment of diseases and make more money available for other important public uses.
On a final note, I wish to appeal to us all to cooperate with the State Government in putting an end to this inimical practice of open defecation, improve on our hygiene and ensure that our environment is kept clean at all times. It is only this way that we can keep illnesses and diseases at bay. Cleanliness, it is said, is next to Godliness.”