₦airaland Forum

Chief Guy Ike Ikokwu, second republic chairman of
the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) in Anambra State,
was a member of the Strategy Committee that
tried to hammer out a merger among four
progressive opposition parties to stop the then
ruling National Party of Nigeria(NPN).
Reminiscing on how the merger was scuttled,
Ikokwu, a foundation member of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) and former chairman of the
PDP in Anambra State, lamented that the late sage
Chief Obafemi Awolowo would have been elected
as president in the second republic if his followers,
who were in the UPGA Strategy Committee, had so
desired. He said current moves by some opposition
parties to merge into All Progressive Congress
(APC) would not yield electoral laurels at the
highest level – Aso Rock.
On this score, he said leaders of the various
factions of the All Progressive Grand Alliance
(APGA) should jettison joining APC and join hands
to prevent APGA from failing in Anambra because
the party will cease to exist if it fails in the state.
You were a member of the Strategy Committee of
the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA) in
the second republic. Why didn’t the alliance work?
The Strategy Committee of UPGA in the second
republic was made up of four parties: the Unity
Party of Nigeria (UPN), Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP),
Great Nigerian Peoples Party (GNPP), and Peoples
Redemption Party (PRP). These four parties had
hoped to evolve a very close alliance fielding single
candidates for the constituencies across the
country based on their own evaluation and party
primaries.
The main figures for UPGA were Dr. Nnamdi
Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alhaji Waziri
Ibrahim, Malam Aminu Kano, Abubakar Rimi and
Balarabe Musa. The main aim of the alliance was to
prevent the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) then
headed by Alhaji Shehu Shagari as president from
sweeping the polls and ruling the country
politically.
The alliance’s Strategy Committee, in its
painstaking and calculating methods, had shared
all the positions in the legislature and the
executive and government agencies in such a way
as to prevent any single party from having
dominance over the other.
This was done to the satisfaction of all the parties.
Over 2,000 positions were shared but then the
problem of accommodating the leaders,
particularly Dr. Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi
Awolowo, and the other leaders of GNPP and PRP
became a very thorny issue due to the historical
antecedents of the political roles played by the
individuals concerned.
At the last meeting of the Strategy Committee,
headed by the former Governor of Lagos State,
Alhaji Lateef Jakande, the basic and final problem
was how to resolve the ambitions, political or
otherwise of the two main leaders – Dr. Nnamdi
Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo both of whom
had played very distinguished roles in the anti-
colonial struggle and the emancipation of Nigeria
into an independent country. Chief Awolowo was
the leader of the UPN, which controlled five states,
whereas Dr. Azikiwe was the leader of the NPP,
which controlled three states.


www.vanguardngr.com/2013/04/how-yoruba-leaders-scuttled-awolowos-presidential-ambition-ikokwu/

RELIGION OF PISS

That's a welcome development

Nigeria has the world's highest percentage of women
using skin lightening agents in the quest for
"beauty".
Lagos, Nigeria - After carefully washing her face,
legs and arms, Taiwo Solomon vigorously rubs cream
over her body. She is meticulous and makes sure she
covers her entire face. Soloman, 32, is bleaching her
skin. She believes fairer skin could be her ticket to a
better life. So she spends her meager savings on
cheap black-market concoctions that promise to
lighten her pigment.
This has been a daily routine for the past 15 years.
Now several shades lighter she says her new skin
makes her feel more beautiful and confident.
“Bleaching just makes me feel special, like am
walking around in a spotlight,” she told Al Jazeera. “I
am not seeking to be totally white, I just want to look
beautiful. I cannot stop using the lightening agents,”
she adds.
Solomon is not alone. According to the World Health
Organisation (WHO), 77 percent of women in Nigeria
use skin-lightening products, the world’s highest
percentage. That compares with 59 percent in Togo,
and 27 percent in Senegal. The reasons for this are
varied but most people say they use skin-lighteners
because they want "white skin".
In many parts of Africa, lighter-skinned women are
considered more beautiful and are believed to be
more successful and likely to find marriage.
It's not only women though who are obsessed with
bleaching their skins. Some men too are involved in
the practice.
Conceptions of beauty
Lightening creams are not effectively regulated in
Nigeria where even roadside vendors sell tubes and
plastic bags of powders and ointments from
cardboard boxes stacked along sidewalks in market
districts. Many of the tubes are unlabelled as to their
actual ingredients.
"An African will prefer to be called John-Philip.
If you said your name was Chukwu Emeka
Afongkudong they will say you are from the
village. You are backward. How can you have
such a name? We really look down on our
culture and heritage instead of being proud of
it. "
- Femi Kut, Nigerian Musician
In a market in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital,
business is booming for shops selling skin-lightening
products. Both local and imported products line the
shelves of Rashida Lawal’s cosmetics shop.
"About 90 percent of my clients come asking for skin
whitening products," she told Al Jazeera. "I sell it to
them and give advice on what product is best for
them and how to use them."
She says most of her customers are in a great haste
to lighten their skin.
“Taking the color of your skin to different colour has
to be gradual. It's not something you decide one day
that 'I want to be fair, I want to be like Michael
Jackson and you become Michael Jackson all of a
sudden'. That is why we have to advise them first
before selling it to them” said Lawal.
Rashida and her staff also mix different ointments
and creams for customers “depending on the desired
level of lightness”.
Famous Nigerian Musician Femi Kuti says the use
skin-lightening products have given rise to their own
terminology.
“When the bleaching propaganda got so negative,
they had to come up with toning. Bleaching sounds
too hard, now it’s toning. I don't bleach, they say, I
tone!”
“They think bleaching is gege,” he told Al Jazeera,
using a Nigerian term for cool.
Femi attributes skin bleaching to a feeling that
foreign products and images must, by definition, be
good.
“An African will prefer to be called John-Philip. If you
said your name was Chukwu Emeka Afongkudong
they will say you are from the village. You are
backward. How can you have such a name? We really
look down on our culture and heritage instead of
being proud of it,” he laments.
Dangerous consequences
Skin bleaching comes with hazardous health
consequences. The dangers associated with the use
of toxic compounds for skin bleaching include blood
cancers such as leukemia and cancers of the liver
and kidneys as well as severe skin conditions.
Hardcore bleachers use illegal ointments containing
toxins like mercury, a metal that blocks production of
melanin, which gives the skin its colour, but can also
be toxic.
Ayobode Williams, a medical doctor, says the skin
bleaching agents have both internal and external
effects on those who use them.
“Systemically it causes things like kidney failure
because of the mercury in some of the products and
it also causes eczema, skin pigmentation among a
host of other infections,” he told Al Jazeera.
Dr Williams warned that sustained use of bleaching
agents could cause even cancer.
Yet few seem to pay attention to these dangers. For
those who bleach, staying black is not beautiful at all.

m.aljazeera.com/se/20134514845907984

Hundreds of thousands of marchers call for law that
would include death penalty for bloggers who insult
Islam.
Hundreds of thousands of people have held protests
in Bangladesh to demand that the government
introduce an anti-blasphemy law that would include
the death penalty for bloggers who insult Islam.
Nowsher Khan, a local leader of the Awami League
was killed in Bhanga, a town southwest of Dhaka, on
Saturday, when Hefazat-e-Islami party supporters
clashed with Awami League supporters.
The protest on Saturday, called the "long march",
with many travelling from remote villages, was
sparked after a group of bloggers allegedly began
criticising conservative religious parties that are
widely popular despite Bangladesh's secular
constitution.
Allegedly backed by Jamaat-e-Islami party, Hefazat-e-
Islam, an Islamist group which draws support from
tens of thousands of seminaries, organised the rally
in support of its 13-point demand including
enactment of a blasphemy law to prosecute and
hang atheist bloggers.
Dhaka has been virtually cut off from the rest of the
country since Friday afternoon, after secularists
called a 22-hour nationwide strike to obstruct the
march.
Both secular and Muslim protesters have taken to the
streets over the war crimes trials of leaders of the
Jamaat-e-Islami party in cases related to the 1971
war against Pakistan in which three million people
were killed and many thousands of women were
raped.
Youth protests
Abdul Quader Mollah was sentenced to life in prison
in February, spurring youth protests calling for a
death sentence for him instead. This led to counter-
protests by religious parties in the country.
Clashes erupted days later when well-known
protester and blogger, Ahmed Rajib Haider, was
killed, followed by more deaths in ensuing violence.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Shakil Ahmed, the head of
output for Ekattor television in Bangladesh, said that
the protests on Saturday were peaceful and had been
fuelled by misinformation on both sides.
"Wrong information has been spread out by some of
the activists," said Ahmed.
Al Jazeera's correspondent, who cannot be named for
safety reasons, speaking from Dhaka on Saturday,
said that very huge crowds had gathered.
She said that while there was a lot of support for the
march from the countryside where Hefazat-e-Islam is
good at mobilising people from, the country is very
divided.
Zafar Sobhan, editor of the Dhaka Tribune, speaking
to Al Jazeera's via Skype from Dhaka, said that while
the government was had maintained a "neutral line"
and was "scrambling" to prevent an "explosive"
situation, he thinks it was unlikely that a blasphemy
law would be introduced.
'More of a reaction'
Sobhan said that the march was less about a
blasphemy law but was more of a reaction to calls for
the death penalty for political party leaders being
tried for war crimes.
"The march is more of a, if you [the bloggers] are
going to demand the death penalty against us [the
political party leaders, then we are going to demand
a death penalty against you."
Our correspondent said that the real pressure would
be felt in the country's economy.
"Every time there is a strike it shuts down the
economy ... Economic issues are likely to put
pressure on the ruling Awami party."
Last week, four online writers were arrested on
charges of hurting religious sentiment through their
Internet writings against Islam.
Sobhan said the arrests were being seen as a "heavy-
handed measure" to appease Islamists.
Operators of top Bangladeshi blogs blacked out their
sites on Thursday to protest against the government
move.
They say the government has been kowtowing to the
religious activists.
Muhiuddin Khan, Bangladesh home minister, said on
Wednesday the government had identified 11
bloggers, including the four detainees, who had hurt
the religious sentiments of the nation's majority
Muslim population.
The government has blocked about a dozen websites
and blogs to stem the unrest. It has also set up a
panel, which includes intelligence chiefs, to monitor
blasphemy on social media.
Under the country's cyber laws, a blogger or Internet
writer can face up to ten years in jail for defaming a
religion.


m.aljazeera.com/se/20134661058364976

RIP ma

GEJ I gat ya back

SlyIg: Whats big inside that boxers!

He carry front nau

Na united dude be that. Wait make I call SAF

poshdiva: Collect ke? For what? What's the point of the gift after Vals day?

Ohh I see, so you have money to throw around eh kwa

Policewoman: RIP great sage.

Na wa to you o

MBA MBAMBA MBAMBA MBAMBA MBAMBA MBAMBA MBAMBA MBAMBA MBAMBA MBAMBA MBAMBA MBAMBA MBAMBA MBAMBA MBAMBA MBAMBA MBA GOD FORBID BAD THING

SLIDE waxie: Your wife is fuckin someone else!

Gbam!

Gamji007: This bastaard! Why do you enjoy insulting people's parents?

Jonathan is someone's dad too, so shut your dirty trunk. Aturu

Gbongbonosi: Well am not blame them if its not this stupidity jinx call president pls what is wrong with this northern elders so they think they can fooled us?in all this items they listed below I did not see single one that government can offer to them When did terrorist as now become a business in Nigeria science they are started this menace many innocent life has wasted what we be the reward for innocent life am yoruba I always say this every time bokoaram should not considered themselves as mend because this people fighting for they are own right and everybody know What they are fighting for or did u hear they are attack church or mosque?or innocent life? I tell you this people are not demand for anything from federal government this is religious crisis but they know that they are have lost some good, 100k in monthly for terrorist group what of graduate that jobless if president try anything stupid many group we rise fighting government if north know they can not live any longer with any other tribes they should separate them self I see does calling for amnesty for terrorist group as brainwash

Gbagaun, you are mouthed jawe

Euroclydon: Ok...this must be a successful attempt at comedy.

You dey mind the heeeediot

Angelina Jolie has paid a
glowing tribute to the
Pakistani teenager who was
shot by the Taliban for
advocating girls' education,
introducing Malala
Yousafzai to the Women in
the World summit via a new
video from Britain.
"Today I'm going to announce the happiest moment
of my life," the 15-year-old said, at one point shyly
covering her face with her hands. She said a new
school in Pakistan would be built for 40 girls. "Let us
turn the education of 40 girls into 40 million girls,"
she said.
Jolie committed 200,000 dollars (£130,000) to the
new Malala's Fund for girls' education in Pakistan.
Malala was already known for her activism when she
was shot in the head in October by Taliban attackers
angered by her outspokenness in a deeply
conservative society.
She was brought to Britain for treatment, including
skull reconstruction. She was released last month
and has started attending school there. She was
shortlisted for Time Magazine's Person of the Year in
2012 and recently signed a deal to write her
memoir.
"Here's what they accomplished," Jolie said of
Malala's attackers. "They shot her at point-blank
range in the head - and made her stronger. The
brutal attempt to silence her voice made it
stronger."
Jolie, a special envoy for the UN refugee agency,
said Malala's father had shown his daughter in the
hospital a poll that said she was the sixth most
influential person in the world, and that US
president Barack Obama was seventh. But the
teenager said she did not think people should be
categorised like that.
"So we can learn a lot from this girl," Jolie said with
a grin.
Jolie was not the only Hollywood star on stage at the
conference. Meryl Streep was there to honoUr
another activist, Inez McCormack of Northern
Ireland, who died in January of cancer. At the first
Women in the World summit three years ago,
Streep had played Ms McCormack in a short play
called Seven, with Ms McCormack watching from
the audience.
The conference continues on Friday with a speech
by former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and
appearances by Oprah Winfrey, Eva Longoria and
Tom Hanks.

www.cambridge-news.co.uk/National-News/Jolie-praises-Taliban-victim-Malala-2-6337231.xnf

I don hear

omenka: My advice: the killer party has budgetted billions to throw around jst to frustrate the merger. Grab all the awoof money u can, tell them foools what they wanna hear, go back and use thesame money to promote and strengthen the party.

Simple as that.

Nsi ju gi onu

Front page plsSsssssssssssssssssssss

"Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not
By GEJ: whosoever shall gather together against FEEE DEEE FEEE shall fall for GEJ's sake."
ISAIAH 54:15

phaya: WHO IS ThIS PERSON?

He's an animal in human skin

Is sule a suicide bomber

Omo na my area be that o, make dem sha no come magodo

Ok

abiki: she looks amazing. Six kids? Just wow.

Yeah ya right Abiku

sheyie2007: If it happens, northern nigeria will be annihilated

How do you intend to do that bro?

Can't you see the hand writing on the wall Well the picture is getting clearer and I'm patiently waiting for that glorious moment so that GENERAL BINLADIN will go and rule his fellow Almajiris

alfaman2: orji is big fool then if he said that.

you are a BIG FHOOOOOOOOL for making such comment. ADAKA