₦airaland Forum

July 02, 2007.

Looks like Chris Brown may not be the gentleman that everyone thinks he is. MediaTakeOut.com has learned that a South African actress is claiming to have been in a brief scuffle with Brown - all because she refused to go to his hotel room.

According to a number of witnesses who spoke with MediaTakeOut.com, Chris Brown ran into actress Khanyi Mbau at the launch of The Real Goboza - a South African weekly entertainment show. And it was during that meeting that all the drama ensued.

Khanyi claims that during a conversation with Chris, the R&B singer grabbed her by the arm in an aggressive manner and asked that she go with him to his hotel room. The South African actress explains, "I tried to pull away but his grip was just too tight.”

That's when, according to the lovely actress, her manager came charging to the rescue. Mbau tells, "Malcolm [my manager] had to pull me away from Chris." But even then, the teenage singer wasn't finished with her. The actress adds, "Chris [still] asked if I was sure I did not want to come with him."

And MediaTakeOut.com discovered that this isn't the first public scuffle that Khanyi Mbau has found herself in recent months. The young actress, whom the South African press refer to as the "African Paris Hilton," was recently involved is a hotel brawl with her husband - African billionaire Mandla Mthembu. According to reports, the fight began when Khanyi's husband found some suspicious text messages on her cell phone.

Developing,

http://www.mediatakeout.com/7814/shocker_south_african_woman_claims_to_have_gotten_into_a_scuffle_with_chris_brown.html

VOR:
Thank you Hero, so glad to know I am not the only one who
thinks Ibadan looks like one big cesspit. To tell the truth if
I was from Ibadan I would keep it quiet, or at least not brag
about it.

'Nigeria contributes N1.8bn annually to AU'


ABUJA — NIGERIA contributes about N1.8 billion ($24 million) annually to African Union (AU) for the unity of African Nation, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Hakeem Baba-Ahmed has said.

Briefing newsmen in Abuja on the forthcoming AU summit that will take place in Accra Ghana next week, Amb. Ahmed said that the contribution is the investment Nigeria made towards the unity of Africa and peace keeping in the sub-region.

His words, “our annual contribution to AU is about $24 million dollars that transcends to about N1.8 billion.


“This gives Nigeria greater sense of security and comfort to relate with the rest of other Africans. It re-enforces our position as a leader in Africa .

“ It enforces Nigeria capacity to actually advice in the areas of conflicts and re-enforces our negotiating hands when we have to sit across other African countries and above all it places Nigeria in situation where it can sit with other African Countries that are unfortunate enough not to speak.


He pointed out that Nigeria has lots of benefit as a member of AU nation, adding that it will make Nigeria a strong Africa, a prosperous Africa, and African where Africans tell each other what is wrong and what is not.


“We shield African from external aggregation that have no place and no business in today’s world, and above all we secure for Nigeria an area far wider than we are all into, where we can trade and live in peace”, he said.

As Nigerian banking industry leads Africa into the 21st Century

The declaration last week by the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, that Nigerian banks are doing better than South African banks was never a fluke afterall. It was a pronouncement from one of the internationally respected economic minds in whom the BrittonWoods institutions have so much confidence.

In coming out with that verdict, the CBN boss must have been convinced that the imbalance between the two countries financial industries have been corrected by the rapid progress the Nigerian market recorded within the last two years.

To practically demonstrate what he meant by that statement, the governor noted it has taken Nigerian banking industry only three years to achieve what took South Africa about 20 years to attain.

Besides, the amount of Foreign Direct Investment that came into the country, through the 2005 consolidation programme, the governor observed that the reform has led to the establishment of over 600 additional bank branches into the industry, which according to him was a record achievement.

Prior to the 2005 consolidation programme, the total branch network of the 97 bank was about 3200. This has, however, grown to 3866 following the massive network expansion drive of the 25 banks operating in the country.

The latest turn of events in the industry has eventually placed Nigerian banking sector as one of the fastest growing banking industries in the world, This development comes at a time when the government and indeed the Central Bank of Nigeria were working out modalities to enable Nigerian economy join the league of the 20 largest in the world by 2020. However, international financial analysts are putting it beyond merely becoming the largest economy but are rather seeing Nigeria banking industry dictating the pace for the entire African continent in the 21st Century financial services age.

Today, Nigerian banks have gone from opening branches in the West African Sub-region to arriving on the world stage as demonstrated by the recent Roadshow at the London and New York Stock Exchanges. Most analysts see these developments as clear signals to the entire world that the country is ready to take on the global financial services market by storm in the next few years.

From all indications, Nigeria has become a foremost investment destination and banks have a strategic role to play in the emerging dispensation. Over the last two years, as noted by Professor Soludo, foreign investment in Nigeria has exceeded the $7billion mark and would continued to build up gradually as the Financial System Strategy gets underway.

Already, there are serious effort by the financial community to set up an International Financial Service Centre, in Lekki, Lagos. As the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria and indeed the West Africa sub-region, the choice of Lagos is symbolic as it is at the heart of the strategy to emphatically make Nigeria the first choice financial service centre in Africa.

The creation of the Lekki Financial Services Corridor, is therefore a key factor in the whole Financial system strategy. It is expected to make Nigeria, Africa’s financial hub by 2020. The Central Bank governor said the area will be specially quarantined and developed as an international financial centre where people doing business will not be able to differentiate from New York or London Financial Centres.

When established,, financial services will be conducted seamlessly within the area which will have its own special, legal and regulatory framework guiding business operations.

This seems to be the overriding objective of the three-day International conference in Abuja.

It was among other things intended to fashion out the framework for the development of SME financing in Nigeria, that needs its huge population of SMEs businesses to drive the economy.

Again, other issues like the pension, insurance, banking and financial education skill acquisitions were also discussed at the conference. All sectors of the Nigerian financial sector were adequately represented at the international conference.

Already, many of Nigerian banks our opening branches in many West Africa countries, and they extending to several other African countries, and within the next three years, according to the governor of Central bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, Nigerian banks will have out post branches in not less in 20 African countries.

In tandem with the overall objective, all these are being done to harmonise the regulatory framework around what will enable our people play the kind of roles they are expected to play in the emerging Africa’s financial service age.

The Nigerian economy must, according to Soludo, be growing at 12 per cent rate per annum. To achieve this, the economic base must be diversified away from primary commodities, this is more so because even after 5 decades of independence, our economy is still largely dependent on primary commodities of oil, gas and other natural resources, agriculture and solid minerals.

It is the collective aspiration of Nigerians that we should diversify our economic base away from these primary commodities by exploiting the opportunities offered by the primary commodities, then move on to the next stage of our development which is in the area of industry, manufacturing and financial services. This economy has all the resources to move it into the next stage, in terms of human resources and natural resources we have what it takes.

What remains is in terms of skills and financial growth; we have the fifth largest reserve in the world. This is in addition to what we already have, which means the 12 per cent growth rate needed to move the economy to the next stage is not beyond the reach of Nigeria and Nigerians.

At a population growth rate of 3 per cent, Nigeria has one of the fastest population growth rates in the world; most countries of the world have a figure far below this. Since we know that our population will be growing rapidly, it is in this context that we must also increase the income base of the economy with more rapidity than the rate of the growth rate of the population.

The buoyancy of the Nigerian Stock Exchange is not possible without a strong buoyant banking system, much of the trading going on in there are financed by banks. Our capital market is one of the most profitable in the world. It is only in Nigeria that you can get a 700 per cent rate of return on stock.

"We need a strategy that can move all our economic sectors in tandem with a holistic framework and common goal with and end in sight that by 2020, Nigeria will be Africa financial hub, if you want to be the largest economy in Africa, one of the largest in the world then your financial system must move in tandem with this vision."

Militants demand N170m to free hostages

Sylvester Idowu, Warri
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
The armed gang that abducted three Indians and a Pole in Sapele, Delta State, last Friday has demanded for N170 million ransom for their release.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the kidnappers called the chief accountant of the rubber firm that engaged the services of the foreigners on the phone in the early hours of Monday and demanded for the huge sum.

A security source disclosed that it became obvious that the kidnappers did not belong to any of the groups that claimed to be fighting for the Niger Delta cause when they also requested for recharge cards from the accountant.

“One of the kidnappers called the chief accountant of the rubber firm with the mobile phone of one of their captives and demanded for N170 million.

“When the chief accountant said he could not release such amount without the approval of the management, they then requested that recharge cards be sent to them immediately”, the sources disclosed.

It was further learnt that the militants were so desperate that they were prepared to release the hostages last night provided they could make some money from their crime.

“In fact, they want some little money out of this particular case. It is like they don’t have money to continue with the business,” the source said.

Dokubo’s men, police in gun battle


Unease is everywhere in Port Harcourt, caused by the return last Saturday of Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF).

He says he will give the government time to resolve the Niger Delta problem, yet his followers give the police sleepless nights.


They have taken over Agudama Street in D-Line, where Dokubo-Asari has an office, and have been engaging riot policemen in gun battles.


Residents of the D-Line and Garrison areas were forced to flee on Monday morning when policemen and his boys clashed for the second time in 48 hours.


A policeman was injured. One of the boys was shot and taken away.


Sustained gunshots around Okorodudo, Agudama, Mbonu Streets and the office of the Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) made some motorists and passers-by to beat a retreat.


Those at the Garrison branch of a bank scampered out just before security men managed to shut the gates.


Siren blared, the gunshots subsided. More policemen arrived and the boys retreated.


Twenty four hours earlier, on Sunday afternoon, gunmen in buses had attacked the Mile One Police Station in central Port Harcourt.


They opened fire to create fear and forced the few policemen on duty to give way for them to accomplish their mission.


The policemen replied, and immediately reinforced, forcing the gunmen to escape through Obasanjo Link Road.


Traders at the Mile One Market and worshippers returning from church ran in different directions.


Nonetheless, Police Public Relations Officer, Ireju Barasua, said on Monday the police are working hard to maintain law and order.


She appealed to the residents to assist the police in discharging their duties.


Action Congress (AC) Governorship candidate, Tonye Princewill, reacted by blaming former President Olusegun Obasanjo for the actions of Dokubo-Asari.


He reiterated in a statement issued in Port Harcourt that it was Obasanjo who imprisoned Dokubo-Asari and made him become more popular and defiant as a result.


"We want to thank Obasanjo for detaining our son, father and brother in such a despicable, unjust and inhuman manner without any care for him, his family and his supporters.


"By so doing Obasanjo has exposed himself as insensitive and ignorant of our unique place in the history of Nigeria, Asari’s benefit to the Ijaw and the cause he represents.


"More importantly, Obasanjo has now elevated Dokubo-Asari to a level he never imagined and secured for him a place in the hearts of not only his people but also those who appreciate his sacrifices.


"Asari is the hero of our time and the real life icon. We have Obasanjo and Peter Odili to thank for that", said Princewill, who hails from Buguma as Dokubo.