Bella Naija has just received exclusive news from a reliable source. According to the source, Nigerian musical superstar, D’Banj is in the process of finalizing a major international record contract.
The source is a staff of one of the major international labels, here is his/her account of events:

“It was during a meeting at the record label that I work with (One of the largest international record labels), this particular meeting is a weekly meeting to review new and potential signings. I reviewed the items on the agenda and suddenly I saw the name D’Banj. I was like ah na our boy?! (Didn’t say that out loud though…hehe). The VP leading the meeting led us through how he “discovered” D’Banj at a recent event in LA. From the figures they mentioned, our boy is getting major $$$ for him and million dollar budget for promotion and artist development – the plan is to give him a major international push. Even compared to what they offer ‘urban’ stars, the contract is way above that. Very major! I was proud o”

There you have it! Congrats to D’Banj!
In addition to this good news, D’Banj will be starring in the Broadway musical version of Fela! The Musical. From the available information, the show will be touring around the world soon and D’Banj will play the lead during this tour.
Very exciting.

Source:
http://www.bellanaija.com/2010/04/20/bn-exclusive-dbanj-signs-million-dollar-international-record-deal-is-set-to-play-fela/

Nobody knows more about the international drug trade better than Alain Labrousse. The author of the best selling book 'Geopolitics of Drugs' and former Director of the Geopolitical Watchdog on Drugs (OGD), clearly identified Nigeria's former military rulers and diplomats as drug barons. In an authoritative report still posted on the web site of the Canadian Parliament on the drug trade in Africa, Labrouse marks out Ibrahim Babangida, Nigeria's former self-appointed president, as one of the drug-dealing dictators in Africa.

The report says: "The international community has long considered Nigeria a narco-state: the United States put it on the list of 'decertified' countries between 1994 and 1999, and the Dublin Group, consisting mainly of the European countries, unfearingly called it a 'narco-regime'. Its President, General Babangida, and his wife have been suspected of engaging in cocaine trafficking, along with numerous other military officers."

Apart from Babangida and his wife, Maryam, top military brass and members of the diplomatic corps are some others identified in the international investigation of the drug ring that prospered from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s.

Major Orkar, whose unsuccessful coup plot was the most successful attempt to dispose Babangida of power, also alleged that there was drug dealing going on during the regime of the dictator. Said Orkar: " I, Major Gideon Orkar, wish to happily inform you of the successful ousting of the dictatorial, corrupt, drug baronish, evil man, deceitful, homo-sexually-centered, prodigalistic, un-patriotic administration of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida." Since Orkar called IBB a drug baron, many Nigerians have quietly accepted it as a fact.

In Labrousse's report, he claimed: "The United States in particular raised questions about the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tom Ikimi, who made use of the services of the director of a Lagos newspaper who frequently traveled abroad to distribute cocaine and heroin imported from Latin America and Asia among the members of his network of resellers around the world.

"Another soldier long involved in drug trafficking was Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, head of the feared Abacha Security Service (SSS), who carried on his dealings by diplomatic pouch. His wife, of Arab origin, coordinated a ring in the Gulf countries.

"A former head of Nigeria's permanent delegation to the United Nations was also apparently involved.

Nigerian top officials' dealing in drugs under the cover of diplomacy is characteristic of dictatorships around the world, especially in Africa, where Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and Charles Taylor of Liberia are known to have treaded the same path.

In the case of Equatorial Guinea, diplomats belonging to the president's family or clan used the diplomatic pouch and their immunity to engage in cocaine and heroin traffic around the world. Tens of them have been arrested over the past two decades, particularly in Spain. The family of Mozambican President Chissano has also been involved a number of times in cocaine cases. But in the case of Babangida, he has been lucky never to have been caught.

The military connection in the drug trafficking business is particularly noteworthy. Military officers have for long been suspected of coordinating the drug trade. The burning of the Ministry of Defence Building in Lagos during Babangida's regime, during which The Sunday Guardian showed IBB smiling right in front of the burning edifice, was believed to have been official arson executed to hide some sensitive information about the trade.

The only case that has been widely linked to Babangida, which many thought could have exposed him is that of Gloria Okon, a Nigerian lady alleged to have been his courier and said to have died in detention but believed to have been resettled in anonymity. It is widely accepted that the murdered journalist, Dele Giwa, was about to unravel the mysterious disappearance of Gloria Okon when he was killed in circumstances tied around Babangida's neck.

Babangida has refused to answer charges of his involvement in the bombing of Dele Giwa, and has used every available legal means to refuse to testify. The Oputa panel set up by the Obasanjo administration to uncover the misdeeds of the past regimes submitted that Babangida has a case to answer regarding Dele Giwa's death.

Starting in the early 1980s, Nigerian traffickers began to gain prominence as they swallowed condoms full of heroin and transported them to European countries and the United States. They sourced the drug from Thailand, Pakistan and India, transited through Ethiopia and Kenya and Central Africa and headed for the Western countries. . At the same time, Nigerians traveled to South America to pick up cocaine destined for European markets and, starting in 1994, for South African markets. According to the World Customs Organization (WCO), Nigerian drug traffickers were involved in 1,200 cases in the world between 1991 and 1995.

According to Alain Labrousse, "It was first thought that the Nigerian organizations were mainly family or clan-based. According to various sources, however, particularly American, there is what could be called a genuine Mafia in Nigeria: "drug barons", supported by "under-barons", who in turn have their own groups of couriers. In this organization, three leaders head up 85 cells of approximately 40 members. In those cells, a "lieutenant" apparently commands six to 20 "soldiers". The structure is found in the organization of the Nigerian rings in the United States. Operation Tonga , carried out by European police in 1995 and 1996, also showed that there were links between the Colombian Mafia, the Neapolitan Camorra and the Nigerian rings.

Similarly, Nigerians are well established in most Eastern countries. Their "bridgeheads" are most often scholarship students from communist regimes who have remained penniless since the political upheavals resulting from the fall of the Berlin Wall. Nigerian traffickers are thus the only native African groups on the most wanted lists of the law enforcement agencies of the rich countries, together with international criminal organizations and the Colombian, Chinese, Turkish, Pakistani and, more recently, Kosovar drug rings.

An estimated 35-40% of all the heroin coming into the United States is brought by Nigerian couriers. In 1989, the United States and Nigeria established a joint Counter-Narcotics Task Force. Lack of cooperation by Nigerian authorities in combating the drug trafficking problem led to a decision by the Clinton Administration in March 1998, as in 1994 and 1996, to put Nigeria on the State Department's list of non-cooperative drug trafficking nations.

The administration of Buhari and Idiagbon saw the grave danger posed by the drug trade, and it waged a very serious war against it. It killed by firing squad two Nigerians caught with drugs while attempting to take them overseas. It had been rumored that if Babangida had not staged his coup at the time he did, he was under the radar for his drug business and would have been arrested.

When IBB took power, Nigeria began to feign combating drug trading. While he put a stop to death sentence for drug trafficking, Babangida set up the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, which recruited its first set of graduates in 1990. Since then, even the agency has been involved in the drug business.

In 1992, drugs seized by the agency continued to disappear even under the oversight of the court in its own premises. The NDLEA ridiculed IBB's drug fight. And no arrested trafficker has given away the name of the boss so far.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Nigeria's anti narcotic efforts remain "unfocused and lacking in material support."

While it has never been official confirmed, reports by some Nigerian newspapers in 1993, at the time when Babangida was disgraced out of power, claimed that the Evil Genius was wanted by the US government for drug trafficking. It was said that was why Babangida has not stepped on American soil since he left power.

So, was Babangida a drug baron? There is sufficient suspicion and information, especially outside of the country to link him with drug trafficking in the 1980s and the early 1990s. However, because he has always avoided circumstances that could make him give answers to those allegations, he has never been pinned down. His failure to travel to a country like the United States, where he is believed to be wanted, adds fuel to speculations about his past. Perhaps, if he were to stop raising legal obstacles to the murder of Dele Giwa, a chance to question him about Gloria Okon may bring up the most closely guided open secret of his regime.

Source:
http://againstbabangida.com/resources/141-was-babangida-a-drug-baron

luvola:

lasu has stop using jamb score in its admision. am advising d utme stu dat choose lasu to focus on lasu post-ume if dey want to gain admision because d vc has barred d use of jamb score in admitting stu in lasu , even if u score[b] 400[/b] in jamb is useless because post ume constitute 3/4 (75%) ,yur 0'level is 1/4 (25%) , my advice is dat utme stu of lasu are advice to focus on post-ume and not utme i.e dont do utme runs because yur jamb score is irrelevant

pro01:

Baba himself. Glo lömö; owolojekiöbedun. Hmm. If I were in his billion-dollar shoes i'd summon Michael Jackson's ghost to come perform for my beloved daughter. **that is, if any guest would be brave enough to sit out the real 'this is it' performance**

hugooh42:

Chinese  law states if caught with more than  1 gram of hard drug you.  You face death penalty.T[b]hey have however discovered killing these hard die Nigerians traffickers is  waste . So what they do now is to remove all your vital organs alive like kidneys, liver heart for sale.[/b]Its one of the money spinning business for the government there. people come from all over the world to buy these precious commodity.

gidson12:

I think i bought my mtn in 2002 16500   @ enugu  with no phone, me n my cousine use 2 interchange phone then, until 3 months latter i bought a fairly used trium, mehn then na efizy oo, i remenber chicks wey i use am catch then.  

DHighPries:

Bachelor of Agric Economics
Certificate in Networking and Internet Access
Bachelor of Petrochemical Engineering (in view)

dualctizen:

go take collect money for bank!

Damysa:

Does your friend knows what she want in life at all? where is her pride? This is about the biggest joke I have heard in ages.
Please and please if she knows what is good for her let her do it. This is the height of degradation any woman can condescend to. She should stop seeing him ASAP and mind u even if they eventually marry, it is going to be worse. Any little quarrel the man will send her packing, is that wot she is worth.

Both families has to meet to finally resolve this issue once and for all. Girl, tell your friend to return his pride price and move on with her life. she will meet a man that will love and appreciate her.

Though u didnt tell us wot led to the quarrel or wot your friend did that made her "husband" to chase her out.
no matter wot, the "marriage" is way too young to be undergoing this major set back.

Make hale while the sun set. A word is enough for the wise.

BettyBlue:

@axeman85

As regards your questions above
1. Yes i love her and alot
2. I will have serious problems with believing everything she tells me and thats my worry. The trust is no more there. I will have to start all over again, i guess.
3. Sure i have been scrutinizing all she has been telling me and i fear its not good, but i don't have a choice and can't help it.

Thanks man for your comment. E no easy. Women and their wahala. And we need them because they complement us as men.

Kemi and Debo broke up close to a year ago after 2years together, they both agreed their constant bickering, breaking up and making up is a sure sign the affair had run its course.
Kemi has since moved on and is now engaged to Mike with their marriage in 3 months, she gets a call from Debo that he is in a financial mess and that his house and car has been repossessed by the bank; he needs her help but more urgently he needs her car to pick up her mum from the airport and ferry her around for a week before she returns home. [size=14pt]Kemi's car was an engagement gift from Mike [/size]and she is wary of how to tell him about Debo's request more so because she was close to his mum while they were dating.

The issue here is should she tell Mike about it, decline Debo's request or lie to Mike and help out her ex?

platinumnk:

in english its like you are mine,
My madam, can be close friend thats a woman.
since you are not in a relationship nor sleeping together
is justs a friendly way of saying he knows u very well.
Sorta like a friend calling you about something but you already know why shes calling.
So you would be like I know u chick, your my friend.

if he was meaning my madam as in gf, there are better sweet words to use ( like nkem) and since he hasnt used them then hes justs being funny with you 

kliffo:

Turai did what 90% of Nigerian ladies in her position would have done. I do suspect that the write-up
was a sponsored one aimed at whipping up public sympathy. The gambit however seems to have failed
as she and some aides of the president traveled too far down the road of deceit.
One thing we should come to terms with is that we are going to have Turai around as the 1st lady till
the end of her husbands tenure. Yardua seems to be too sick to even resign, and if the life support story
is true, they will continue to hang in there.

omobadan:

The Yoruba wont do anything. We'll let you people hurt each other and we'll be in Tantaliser eating fried rice and chicken.

ayettymama:

i dont get it

if they knew there was a threat on thie rlives why werent they protected?

ah ah

have we run out of military men, police?? private security??

abeg let this not be an escuse for them to hold the case or stop investigations

the show must go on!!

just make sure people are better protected next time!

redsun:

She thought she was running a tuwo cabinet,anu-ofia(bush meat).She was able to get away with it for so long due to the fact that the whole system is illegitimate and in an illegitimate system,any thing goes. If not for the outright cry of the people,the whole rigmarole will still be on,trying to personalize the lives millions people.

I wonder what family reputations she's trying protect,the reputation of the third generation of nigerian looters.Shehu yaradua was a known thief in collaboration with obasanjo,same was his father.Their wealth as far as any rational mind is concerned is ill gotten.

Demoladoc:

@ KECH, yARADUA spoke to bbc recently, did he sound like he doesnt know wats goin on? abeg all these stories about him being brain dead are all media fantancies.

How do u know its not yaradua giving turai instructions and d poor woman just dey follow like every woman would even if she doest dig d idea.

U cant just come and say everyone agrees he doesnt know wats going on just because u read something in the TRIBUNE. The media is known for their lengendary sensational journalism just to sell.