₦airaland Forum

It is no longer news that the Okoye brothers, aka P-Square, travelled to the USA to shoot some videos for their recent album titled, Invasion. Well, LIFE&BEAT  just learnt that the twins, who will be coming back to Nigeria in two weeks, had more on their schedule than they were letting on.

The truth is that the P-Square are primarily in America to conclude a recording deal with Senegalese-born musician, Akon.

Apart from that, the singing twin brothers just acquired a property in Parkview Estate, Victoria Island, Lagos, at the princely sum of $403, 000. Peter Okoye, who was rumoured to have died in an auto crash last week, is said to have purchased a cute Lamborghini car valued at over $300, 000. There are speculations that they may be signed on to Akon’s Konvict records label.

The spokesman for the group, Bayo Adetu, told LIFE&BEAT that the P-Square were hardworking, but he declined to comment on their deal with Akon.

Adetu denied that Peter did not acquire a Lamborgini, though he admitted that the brothers owned many properties in Nigeria. However, he confirmed that they would be back in the country in about two weeks.

http://www.punchng.com/entertainment/life-beat/p-squares-hidden-secret/

Dan Alo, the man who discovered and nurtured Dapo Olanipekun, aka Da Grin, says all he knows about the late rapper in this interview

About the late Da Grin

My friends, Yinka Ogundeko, Tunji Ademoye and Femi Adeojo, introduced him to me after they observed that he was talented. They wanted his talents to be developed. They were with me when I returned from the United Kingdom in 2000. We wanted to explore the missing link in Nigerian entertainment. What we noticed was that the Nigerian music scene lacked the kind of production that existed abroad. We felt we could do something on our own and infuse it with our local content. We set up a music studio, an audio digital studio, in Magodo, Lagos and we tried as much as possible to make it work. Then somebody said he met a small boy in the street who used to entertain people with rap, anecdotes, etc. I asked him to invite the boy to our studio. The boy’s rhymes were so funny that he made me laugh for the first 15 minutes. In his free-flowing style, he talked about pieces of lace, pinafore, and so on; the way he chose his words left me so impressed that a young man of his age, he was about 17 then, could be this eloquent. That was how we called him in. He told us that he had left home and was squatting with his friends. I told him it was a not a good thing to do and I asked him to move in with me. He started living with me and that was it. He was a very quiet and respectful boy from a polygamous home. His mother was the second wife. He was taught humility right from childhood. Sometimes, he prostrated to greet his age mates. On his own, he would go into my bedroom, pick up my clothes, wash and iron them. Those times he would tell me that a future star is ironing my cloth and I should give him something. He would make you laugh. He was a very funny and loveable person. This is the way I can describe him.

His personal struggles

Da Grin grew up in Meiran, a suburb of Lagos. The place is densely populated and different kinds of people live there. He was always on the street, fending for himself. He was not a violent boy; he only adapted the everyday street lingo to his music. It became commercially valuable for him. I really don’t know much about what he did on the street. It is his parentage that I fault. I did not see the evidence of parental care in his life. At such a young age, he actually lived with me for almost five years. In all that time, his parents did not come around to look for him. The only people that always called to see him were his younger sister, Bukky, and his girlfriend at the time, Chichi. She used to give him money and buy clothes for him. Also, he had a friend named, Hope and another one called Whitie. They were always hanging around him, going to places, and enjoying themselves together. Those ones were into music, though they were not as successful as he was.

How he became brand name

Dapo was a very funny boy. He was always laughing and teasing people, jesting. I found out that any time I talked to him he always laughed and his name was Dapo.  We were recording his first album when it occurred to me that he did not have a brand name. I asked what name he would like to be called. He said, ‘I want to be called Lyrical Were.’ I asked him what that meant and he said it meant he was crazy with lyrics. I told him the name would not work. I told him it did not sound like a good brand name. We sat down; me, Yinka that we refer to as the chairman; Tunji and Femi. We said since his name was Dapo and he laughed a lot, we would take ‘Da’ from his name and since he laughed, grinned a lot, we told him he would be called Da Grin. He said the name was good. That was how he agreed. At first, he said the name sounded like an English name and he was rapping in Yoruba. He asked how we could reconcile both facts. I said we should give it a try and it might work. That is how everybody started calling him Da Grin. Before we knew I, he had become very popular.

From street life to stardom

Initially when he started, Da Grin knew where he was going and he knew that his brand was different from what anyone else could do. Nobody before him did hardcore rap in Yoruba. The other person we have is Lord of Ajasa. But he was totally different. There was a clear difference between what Da Grin was doing and what Lord of Ajasa was doing at that time.  I told them that he had come with hardc ore rap in Yoruba language. At that time, many people did not appreciate him. We took his work to our friends in the media. Some told us it would not move in the market. Then we organised a show worth N1.8m. and invited Kola Ogunkoya the Gbedu master from Washington DC in the USA. We held the show in Tarzan in Victoria Island. The invited performers were the ones encouraging us not to give up. They said this was something we would not regret in the end. We were also being positive about what we were doing. We knew it was not embraced at that time, but we knew that with time it would be accepted. A journalist even told me to advise him to rap in English. I told him it was not our focus. Our focus was to do something with our local content and make success out of it. We started moving gradually. We gave Da Grin the necessary push, we were not relenting and he did not do so, too. At a point, he felt we were not doing anything for him. But we made him realise it was not the case. We made him understand that if you decided to change people from what they knew, it would not happen in a day. Transformation takes place stage by stage. I kept explaining to him. Sometimes we would both sleep in the studio. Sometimes he would be dejected. I would take him out to cheer him up. There was a time he said he wanted to live on his own. I told the chairman, Yinka Ogundeko. He said okay and we rented a self-contained apartment for him. It cost us N500,000. That was the mistake we made. Right from that time, he gained undue independence. He was very free. He moved around without the necessary checks and balances. I have always known that he would not be able to manage himself.

There was a day I took a nap and dropped my car keys. The nap was just for an hour. He took the key, attempted to drive the car and was involved in an accident within Magodo Estate. When he returned, he told me that while I was asleep he took my car and somebody bashed him. I was shocked that somebody bashed him. I asked him, ‘Do you know how to drive? Do you have a driver’s licence? Are you up to driving age one?’  I treated him like my own son. I gave him the necessary education. At a point, his tenses were bad; he could not string them together. We had to organise English language classes for him. We would make him talk, listen to him and correct him. I asked him what he wanted to do after secondary school. He said he wanted to work in computer village. I had to register him at the Lagos City Computer College. He attended classes for a while and told me that he wasn’t going again. He said he was not interested and people were disturbing him. When I asked him how, he just laughed in his usual manner. He joked about everything, no matter how serious the issue. I just left him because I knew we would manage him well. The mistake we made was to have allowed him to live alone. I had left Lagos at the time. The guy that was supposed to manage him in my absence was not up to the task. When Da Grin met Edlyne Records, he fought with the guy that took him there; so that the latter would not tell us what he was up to. His contract with the records company was very exploitative. I knew it and I did not need to be told. The real issues were the freedom and the car that the records company bought for him. It was in the same car that he met his death. It wasn’t as if we lacked the money to buy him a car. In fact, he bought a car. I paid him about N250,000 when Alaba people started bringing money. He went and organised with a mechanic and bought a Volkswagen Golf car. He would park the car about three streets  away. People began to congratulate me on my boy’s car. I had to persuade him to bring the car and right in his presence, I sold it and gave him the money. I told him he could use the money for something better and if he  wanted to go out, there were three cars and a driver at his disposal. I knew his kind of person could not manage himself. There is a big gulf between talent and success. You have to nurture talent to be successful. Talent does automatically relate to success. All of that I was able to see in him. We considered his character and background, when we decided not to let him out of our sight. The only time he went out of the radar was when I travelled out of Lagos and by the time I got back he had left. His record made waves for about eight months. Within eight months, he made waves and he died.

The film on his life and times

It is only in Nigeria that people talk about what they don’t know. There is no way you would talk about Da Grin and you would not talk about people like myself; Yinka Ogundeko, the chairman; Femi Adeojo; his best friend Hope; Whitie;  his girlfriend Chichi, his siter, Bukky. We were close to him.  How would somebody want to make a film on Da Grin and not do a research on who the guy was?  How he came to be popular, how he lived his life and what eventually happened. I mean Da Grin did not just die, there are two things he died of. He died of lack of management. He was not properly managed. For instance, if he had been given a chauffeur he wouldn’t have died that night. Somebody else would have been saddled with the responsibility of driving him. He had all the time in the world to party and do what he wanted. Somebody told me that already Da Grin was taking skunk and he would finish two bottles of Hennessey. That liquor contains about 45 per cent alcohol; two bottles makes it 90 per cent. I can’t imagine that somebody would sit behind the wheels of a car to drive after tucking in so much alcohol. Is that what they call management or success? They had gold in their hands and  because they did not know he was gold, they threw him away. Those of us that dug deep to bring out that gold and refined it would not have treated that material that way. That is the truth. It was not as if we could afford a car, we could buy him fleets of cars, but we had to keep him under our radar so that anything he does would fall in line with his path to success. We were planning a tour of the UK for him. Already, we had been invited to some places in the UK, but we did not allow him to know. This is because if he knew, he would blow it out of proportion and his expectations would be higher than what was involved. So, we kept it to ourselves. The first thing we wanted to do was help him gain acceptance from the public. We wanted everybody to accept him and it happened. We did a world press conference for him. We took him round popular eateries to sign autographs for fans. Da Grin is my intellectual property. Somebody infringed on it, yet I cannot sue him. I have checked the laws of this country, they do not protect what you do. You can submit your proposal and somebody else will go and implement it. If you decide to go to court, I do not think you will obtain good judgement on such matters. I have checked the laws; the maximum sentence anyone can get for copyright infringement is nine months or thereabout. That is why piracy is striving in Nigeria. Who gets arrested? Da Grins signed a contract with us for all the songs that he produced in Edlyne Records. He had no right to reproduce them under another records label.  That is why people like us decided to keep quiet and see how events unfold.

Controversies surrounding his death

It is not true that Da Grin, who was born in 1988, was involved any ritual. Assuming he did, he would not have been dead now. The Da Grin I knew did not do anything like that. What I know is that the boy was not aware of  the stage he had attained in life at the time. He was poorly managed and was surrounded by bad friends.

His love life

The only girl I knew was very close to Da Grin was Chichi. That girl was very good to him. They were still dating even after he became famous. She used to work in Computer Village. This girl would prepare his meals, wash his clothes, and stay with him in the studio. She did her best to win and groom Da Grin. He had good taste. If he went for shopping he would not touch cheap clothes, but go for designers. When Ipod Mp3 player first came into the Nigerian market, he asked me to get it for him. It cost about N60,000. I told him I didn’t have that kind of money. The next thing he did was go to the Computer Village and when he got back, he showed me his new ipod. When I asked where he got it from, he said Chichi bought it for him. I know he was very close to the girl and she did well to him. Wherever she is God will bless her. He did not leave any child behind, contrary to speculations.

http://www.punchng.com/entertainment/life-beat/poor-management-bad-company-caused-da-drins-death-dan-alo/

President Goodluck Jonathan, for the first time on Friday, spoke on the travails of the deposed Governor of Bayelsa, Timipre Sylva, accusing him of failing to develop the state.

Jonathan, in his brief speech, indicated that he refused to support the second term ambition of Sylva because of the former governor’s knack for poor performance evident in his inability to initiate new projects and complete existing ones.

The President spoke at the Samson Siasia Sports Complex, Yenagoa, during the inauguration of Mr. Seriake Dickson as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for the Feb 11 governorship election in the state.

Jonathan, who was obviously angry at the performance of Sylva after five years in office, pointed at some key projects, which were abandoned by the former administration.

He knocked the former governor for abandoning the Tower Hotel, a five-star project, which was initiated by former Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and designed to be the tallest building in the state.

Jonathan, accompanied by Vice-President Namadi Sambo; the Senate President, Mr. David Mark; the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, regretted that work on the project stopped at the level he left it when he was the governor.

He claimed that the former governor’s style of leadership and poor performance compelled the people of the state to hurl stones at him (Sylva) during one of his presidential visits.

He later turned to Dickson and said, “You have brought people from Abuja to Yenagoa today. The only thing I want to tell you in the presence of Bayelsa State is that I was here in this place some months ago and Bayelsans stoned the governor. You must work hard to make sure that Bayelsans don’t stone you. The day I come here and Bayelsans stone you, I will follow and stone you.”

But our correspondent observed that there was still a crack in the party as members of the National Assembly from the state shunned the event in which Dickson was presented with the flag of the PDP by the party’s acting National Chairman, Kawu Baraje.

Senators from the South-South zone, who are also members of the party’s National Campaign Committee, did not show up.

http://www.punchng.com/news/jonathan-breaks-silence-on-bayelsa-crisis-knocks-sylva-says-ex-gov-was-stoned-for-poor-performance/

February 4, 2012 by Niyi Odebode, Fidelis Soriwei and Adelani Adepegba, Abuja
Some traditional rulers and politicians have started pressurising President Goodluck Jonathan and the acting Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, over the case of a Commissioner of Police, Mr. Zakari Biu.

SATURDAY PUNCH investigations showed that the traditional rulers and politicians had started making moves to ensure that Biu got a soft-landing.

It was, however, learnt that the President, who had resisted the pressure, insisted on due process.

The embattled CP, who was in charge of investigations, it was learnt, would retire next year.

He was suspended on Jan 18 over the escape of a Boko Haram suspect, Kabiru Sokoto, from police custody.

Sokoto was accused of masterminding the Christmas Day bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State, where 43 people died.

The suspect escaped on Jan 15 while he was being taken to his house at Abaji, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, for a search by five policemen.

The commissioner of police investigating the suspect’s case and the five policemen, who accompanied him to Abaji, had been suspended and arrested.

Former IG Hafiz Ringim was forced to resign following his failure to meet up with Jonathan’s ultimatum to produce the Boko Haram suspect.

The President had given the ex-IG a 24-hour ultimatum to produce the suspect.

An investigation showed that some members of Biu’s family had swung into action to locate the whereabouts of the police commissioner.

Some newspapers (The PUNCH not included) had on Tuesday reported that family and friends of the CP did not know his whereabouts.

According to the reports, the friends and family members said they had not set eyes on Biu and had tried in vain to trace where he was taken to, as none of the country’s security agencies seemed to know his whereabouts.

The Director, Army Public Relations, Maj.-Gen. Raphael Isah, was reported to have said Biu was not with the Army.

Also, the Deputy Force Public Relations Officer, Oluyemi Ajayi, said the officer had long ceased to be in police custody.

It was learnt that the family had contacted some traditional rulers and top politicians to intervene in Biu’s case.

A top security source told one of our correspondents that some traditional rulers and politicians had in fact contacted Jonathan and the acting IG.

The source said the traditional rulers and politicians preferred that Biu should be allowed to resign since he would leave the police next year.

[color=#419419]He stated, “They are considering a situation where the police commissioner will silently be given a soft-landing by easing him out of the police. Since he is going next year, some people are saying he should be allowed to retire with all his entitlements.

“They don’t want a situation where he will lose the 35 years he has spent in the police. Their argument is that the man deserves pity because he lost his son in the Oct 1, 2010 bomb blast in Abuja.”

But it was learnt that the moves of the traditional rulers and politicians were being resisted by people in the security agencies.
[/color]
Investigations showed that security experts had urged the President and the acting IG to ensure that the recommendations of a committee headed by the were implemented.

The PUNCH had on Monday reported that the committee recommended that Biu and the five policemen should be sacked and prosecuted.

It was learnt that those who were against a soft-landing for Biu cited his antecedents in the police.

A source in the Presidency said that because of public opinion, there was no way Jonathan, the acting IG and the Police Service Commission would yield to the pressure from Biu’s sympathisers.

The Presidency source stated, “You will recall that Biu was the anti-terrorism chief of the late maximum ruler, Gen. Abacha. Biu’s group was used by Abacha to unleash terror on government’s perceived opponents.

“Biu was said to have been dismissed from the police after Abacha’s death, but was controversially reinstated and promoted commissioner of police by the PSC, which had also ratified the demotion and subsequent dismissal of former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.”

He said any attempt to treat Biu’s case with levity would portray Jonathan’s administration, locally and internationally, as not being serious with the war against terrorism.

He said, “Those who are resisting the pro-Biu group are saying if Ringim can be forced to resign, Biu and the five policemen should face harsher punishment.”

The Presidency source said it was very unlikely that the President would yield to pressure from any quarters.

He said that while the President would not go after anybody, he would not allow anybody to interfere with the process to deal with the offence committed by Biu and others in detention with him.

The source said, “All I know is that Biu and those who committed the offence of releasing Kabiru Sokoto would be made to face the law.

“I’m not saying the President would go after them; you know that President Goodluck Jonathan would not be vindictive in this matter.

“The President would allow the stipulated process to be followed in dealing with the grave offence or allegation made against the commissioner and his cohorts.

“If they are found guilty and the punishment is dismissal, they would be dismissed from the force and tried for the serious security offence and if they are innocent, they would be made to go.”

Efforts to get the reaction of the Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Olusola Amore, on the issue did not succeed as he did not pick the five calls put to his cell-phone between 4 pm and 8 pm on Thursday. He did not also respond to an SMS sent to him.

  share

http://www.punchng.com/news/biu-emirs-politicians-pressure-jonathan-ig-want-soft-landing-for-him/

^^^^^
bros, e don do nah

ask your father

op, are you mad

Mr, Cork:
Ammyng (f). sweeery pls do not trust that crackhead called REALITY101. he is well known nairaland newsance. His job is to harasss innocent womens like u

damnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

op,have you travelled out of the country before? with exception of french, spanish, brazillian and greek girls, the remaining foreign girls are fat. foreign girls are fatter than our girls yet, you haven't said anything about them or is this another female bashing thread? just asking

op, you know what you want. go for it. i rest my case

dadicvila:
Mr rooster:Hi
Freecocoa:Hello
Mr rooster:How are u doing??
freecocoa:I am fine
Mr rooster:So can i nyansh U??

lwkmd

Crazybone, that is my acada block. Just finished my exams for the session. NUC delegates came to my school that day so there was basket at every nook and cranny of the campus in order to ensure cleanliness in the campus premises. The camera was faulty. Answered your question? You are not half as handsome as I am. Believe me.

Schaum series PROGRAMMING WITH JAVA. That's what i will give her on the 14th.

Pricelesss:
Looool, This is Hilarious. But seriously this is about love, and when you give out gifts, you do it out of love and you should expect a reward or a similar offer cuz it's not an investment. If its a pen that the lady can afford, accept it with Joy  

Nice post though  

what if she is a student and i buy her a textbook that will be useful to her that semester/session? Asking 'cause they usually get angry at me whenever i buy them textbooks as gift

If only i were a mod, many people would divorce this newly wedded nairaland madness

High_Chief:
Dude has called so many people what they are not on this board, so it doesnt matter what he is called. I used to call him a goat, where is the boy sef?

If you people had talked to that hateful boy just like you did above and adequately guide him, trust me all these wouldnt have been happening. He needs help and you guys should be of help to him and call him to order when he comes with his uncouth language and reacts vaguely to posters. I hate injustice

no doubt. I'm an active member in many forums(mainly maths/statistics/computer sc. forums) and they are 98% devoid of insults. I never thought i'ld ever dig it out with anybody in a forum. Dude happened to be the only guy who would force me to eat my words. At times, despite the fact that everyone here is entitled to his/her opinion, i just must abuse out of anger but most times, i think they are worth it. Some people do not know that nairaland.com is among the top 3 visited nigerian based sites in the world. What do they want non-nigerians to think of us? That we can't go front because of our inability to tackle/give solutions to a problem? That we would rather result to ad hominem arguments? Non-nigerians will not want to socialize with us due to our portrayed venom? . . . So sad

Poor fiction

High_Chief:
First off, am not chanting cocoa, she has her life to live and thats none of my business, but like I said earlier, she has not stepped a foot wrong. Secondly, if thats his life(the hateful boy), then I think we can profer temporal solution to his problems. He should accept nature and live with it, other than trying to take it out on people like they are the cause of his albinism.

that's not fair. The guy is no albino and even if he is, we should'nt deflate his self esteem.

Mr, Cork:
Sometimes Mr.C0rk just wannna give up. Please advise

fixed. I will never wanna give up. I show a hell lot of promise

You guys have time. Dude registered on nl dated July 1st 2011 and he's got over 8000 posts. That is over 1000 per month. That is over 35posts per day!! Can't you people reason? That is the height of joblessness. That's the characteristics of a (wo)man who's only job is to wake up, eat, log into nl romance section(the guy disgraced me the other day in politics section. Couldn't argue with real men) and sleep.

Just got placement in an IT firm. Was paired with a girl to model an encryption/decryption code. 3days later(yesterday), we got talking and she mentioned valentine. She said i should give her a gift in which I told her i would. 2 hours later, she gave me a list of N94,000! My reply : " . . . if i add N3000 to that, it will fetch me 1000Litres of petrol . . . " Beginning of quarrel. Just hope we complete this task before today ends.

Another wasted 17secs of my life

Too much false lifestyle from some guys here. Smh

Lefulefu, 190 and Mr C[b]or[/b]k

[color=#419419]Freecocoa[/color], you are wrong. When the boy becomes a menace, the father wouldn't say "it's the devil's work". Rather, he will say "he took after the mother. See him, like mother like son.". Sympathy for Nigerian mothers with ba[b]sta[/b]rd husbands.

I will take all glory and honour if i ever defeat

MrbrownJAY

in an argument. The guy is damn good & he's always on point. As for

sex(killz)/mikael

, don't you think it's high time you start arguing like MBJ? Convince us instead of your usual 'ad hominem' argument. Peace[quote][/quote]

DaShyGuy:

Must you always recycle your layman's English? Why do i keep having this urge to give your Neonatal hypothyroidism infected face, suffering from acute albinism trait,  a dirty back hand slap?

Over time, your posts keep reechoing one thing,which is; You are so so dumb and thrives on false pretense.  People like you keep portraying the present generation of Nigerian men as an intellectually backward people, whose reawakening bogus puritanism is as grotesque and as ludicrously absurd as its pretentious eremitic insensitivity.

You are not only pathetic, you are way, way out of tune with modern realities, and for that, you need to be deported to your ancestral root, Mogadishu.

BTW, take that pix of yourself off, your complexion, sorry, your colour look so much like 'Banga Soup'. Heediot!

cuts of pe[b]n[/b]is! Bookmarked! Must use this on someone.

tyson55:
Killz, you obviously a victim of severe cretinism,  clueless dunce. You need to upgrade your brain, seriously! Which world are living? Zimbabwean $20million is common in the world you live in?

You must be arrogant, vacuous,  gluttonous and generally apathetic to the environment you live in  by virtue of not having to think much since everything is provided/done for you.

No offense!

fixed!

How can you call N20m common? I can beat my chest that you stay in your parent's and depend on them. WTF! @topic, contract straight! I can later lie to her that i was kidnapped. End of story. @killz, come down to south south and see how people with the complete meaning of the 7-lettered word P.O.V.E.R.T.Y. dey marry.