₦airaland Forum

Though he was (actually he is still) a gospel singer, Sammie Okposo is one of the biggest casanova's in the Nigerian music industry.


He bedded Stella Damascus, Kate Henshaw Nuttal and ended uo marrying Ozioma Mkparu (Warri no carry last at all). Well in a recent interview, Kate threw Mr. Casanova under the bus by exposing his "Wife-Beating" attitude and the love for control

details here: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?action=post;board=46.0

Many peoples are yabbing our DEAR GEJ for not performing and it seem many of you on NL have the solution to Nigeria problem.

Oya tell us, r will you tacle niger problem suppose you are the new elected president of this country.

Over to you MR. New President

@ Alldruns what type of enjoyment are you talking about?

i hope is not what am thinking?

@ Dyt u better shut Ur mouth up if u don't have any sensible replies here.

what type of your family problem are u laying out. ODE

Goto work by 6am in the morning, come back very late in the night.

How did you do it, without having a fight with your Husband?

Your advice we help many woman that have this type of job, but not enjoying her marriage.

When husband is brook and there is no money, is there anything wrong if the wife take control of the family Expenses?

Anything wrong in this?

A former governor of Oyo State, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, was on Tuesday arraigned at the State High Court, Ibadan, accused of misappropriation of state funds, concealment and fraud.

Alao-Akala, slammed with 11 counts by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, was arraigned before Justice Mashood Abass, with his former Commissioner for Local Government, who is currently representing Oyo North in the Senate, Senator Hosea Agboola; and Chairman, Pentagon Engineering Services, Mr. Olufemi Babalola.

The three pleaded “not guilty” to the charges preferred against them.

The ex-governor’s counsel, Mamman Osman (SAN), asked for bail following which the judge adjourned till Wednesday (today) for ruling on the bail application while Alao-Akala and the others were ordered to be remanded in the custody of the State Security Service.

However, the arraignment of an ex-governor of Ogun State, Otunba Ghenga Daniel, did not take place in Abeokuta as expected; ditto that of an ex-governor of Nasarawa State, Akwe Doma, who was billed to be arraigned in Abuja on Tuesday.

Alao-Akala, Daniel and Doma were all picked up by the EFCC last Thursday and detained in Abuja over allegations of misappropriating a total of N101bn public funds.

The anti-graft agency had said on Monday that the governors would go on trial beginning from Tuesday.

Aides and supporters of Daniel waited in vain for hours in the premises of the court on Abeokuta. There was no official clarification as at the time of going to press on why the arraignment of Daniel did not take place.

One of his counsel, Mr. Yemi Oke, however in a statement at the court announced that Daniel had commenced hunger strike to protest his non-arraignment.

“Because of the worsening condition under which he is being held and the curtailment of his fundamental rights, the former governor has declined food and medication, which has raised serious concern about his health,” Oke said.

He faulted the EFCC for allegedly flouting court processes seeking to enforce the fundamental human rights of the ex-governor.

He said Daniel’s continued detention without formal charges amounted to infringements on his fundamental human rights.

He said, “Under normal circumstances, Otunba Daniel should have been arraigned in court since he has spent more than the required period specified by law in detention. But at the time of issuing this statement, he has not been arraigned in court and no charge has been preferred against him. Yet he is being detained and his fundamental human rights curtailed for no just cause. Only his wife is allowed access to him.

“This morning (yesterday), the EFCC has been served with court processes by Otunba Gbenga Daniel’s lawyers led by Professor Taiwo Osipitan (SAN) and Mr. Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) seeking to enforce his fundamental human rights. This has been ignored by the agency.

“This disposition of the EFCC has left us with no alternative than to conclude that there are other motives for the continued detention of Otunba Daniel other than the investigation of an alleged crime.

Otherwise, he should have been admitted to administrative bail or formally charged to court.”

Don’t Legalise Prostitution – Fashola

The wife of the Lagos State Governor, Mrs. Abimbola Fashola, on Tuesday urged the National Assembly not to succumb to the pressure to legalise prostitution in the country.

Fashola said calls for legalisation of prostitution were condemnable, as such a move could have a grave impact on women in the society.

She spoke in Lagos at a briefing on the 11th National Women Conference scheduled to hold from October 18 to 20. The event will be organised by the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials.

Fashola, who is also the COWLSO Chairman, explained that prostitution could be used as an easy way out by desperate young ladies, adding the such actions could ruin their lives. She urged the National Assembly not support any policy that could encourage such a move.

She said, “Those who engage in prostitution are the persons who do not want to use their God-given talent. We will pray against it. We’ll do our best to ensure that our country does not degenerate into legalising prostitution.

“I won’t want my child or any child to go into it. We in COWLSO will help save the situation. If we love ourselves, we should not legalise prostitution.”Fashola said the conference, which will be held at the Eko Convention Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, would also be used to discuss issues concerning women and ways to support the state government in education and health.

“The conference with the theme, ‘Women: How Relevant Are We?”, would be declared open by the Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Amaechi while the proceeds from the conference could be targeted at completion of the Retirement Villa project which started a few years ago,” she said.

The Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, last week sponsored a bill at the Senate, asking the upper legislature body to consider the possibility of legalising prostitution in the country.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201110121124964

He was told in the church during prayer sesion that he should present a very nice gift for his mum,


A gift that we give her alot of happiness. Failure todo this he may never make it in life. Please fellow nairaland, what is the best gift to give to his MUM.

Please seun should put this in front page. Advice is ungertly needed.

So that this guy we have breakthrough.

Thanks

I know many candidate that seek admission into higher institution for the last 2011/2012 UME prepare very hard to gain admission. but in one way or the other Post UTME forfeit their admission.

Share your experience here.

is it JAMB that JAM you or is Post UTME that affect your admission.

Thanks

Indications emerged on Monday that the trial of the three ex-governors in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission would commence on Tuesday (today).

While the trial of a former governor of Nasarawa, Akwe Doma, will takeoff in a Federal High Court, Abuja; the ex-governors of Ogun and Oyo states, Gbenga Daniel and Adebayo Alao-Akala, will be arraigned before state high courts in Abeokuta and Ibadan respectively.

Both Daniel and Alao-Akala were flown out of Abuja on Monday, where they had been detained since last Thursday in an EFCC cell. They were flown on an Arik Airline flight at 3pm, preparatory to the commencement of their trial.

Head of Media Unit of the EFCC, Mr. Femi Babafemi, confirmed to one of our correspondents on the phone late on Monday that the arraignment of the governors would hold on Tuesday, despite the ongoing Federal High Court judges’ conference in Sokoto.

Bafafemi said, “By the grace of God the arraignment will go on tomorrow (Tuesday). We are aware that the judges’ conference is going on in Sokoto, but we are hoping that we will be able to find a way arround it.

“That we have yet to file the processes in the case of Gbenga Daniel has nothing to do with the arraignment. In the case of Alao-Akala, we just filed the charge this evening.”

Daniel, Doma and Alao-Akala were separately arrested by the anti-graft agency last Thursday for allegedly misappropriating a total of N101bn of public funds while they were at the helm of affairs in their respective states.

While Daniel is accused of misappropriating N58bn, Alao-Akala and Doma will be standing trial on allegations of misappropriating N25bn and N18bn respectively.

Supporters of Daniel and Alao-Akala as well as spectators had besieged the courts in Abeokuta and Ibadan, capitals of the states the two ex-governors once ruled, in anticipation that the trial would commence.

In Abeokuta, security in the court premises was heightened with men of the State Security Service, Special Anti-Bomb Squad and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps taking positions around the premises, turning back persons who could not justify their presence on the court premises.

A number of Daniel’s supporters, including his former Commissioner for Education, Mr. Yemi Akinwonmi, and ex-Chairman of Ifo Local Government, Mr. Sikiru Ogundele, were turned back at the gate.

Akinwonmi, who later spoke to journalists, said Daniel’s supporters believed he was innocent. “We believe he is innocent and we will come back here to stand by him anytime they bring him to court,” he said.

In the Oyo State capital, loyalists of Alao-Akala thronged the State High Court on Ring Road only to discover that their principal would not be arraigned.

Our correspondent reports, however, that no member of the state executive of the Peoples Democratic Party was sighted. Our correspondent also learnt that the charges against the ex-governor were just being filed at the court on Monday.

Meanwhile, the majority of Daniel and Alao-Akala supporters were said to be stranded in Abuja. The supporters were said to have been mobilised and transported in chartered buses to the FCT at the weekend to give Daniel and Alao-Akala support in case they were arraigned in the city on Monday.

Apparently, those who mobilised them abandoned them to their own devices following the non-arraignment of the ex-governors in the FCT.

“Many of them are finding it difficult to return home since they were not paid because no job was done. EFCC made fools of them,” a security source told one of our correspondents.

Meanwhile, a former governor of Gombe State, Danjuma Goje, who was declared wanted by the EFCC, at dawn on Tuesday, surrendered himself to the anti-graft agency, on Monday.

Goje was said to have reported at the EFCC office in Abuja at 5.30am in fulfilment of his promise to report himself to the agency. He was subsequently interrogated and detained over charges of misappropriating N52bn while in office.

“Goje is being detained in the cell and has made useful statements which would assist the commission in its investigation,” Babafemi said.

Goje had earlier in a statement by his aide, Yahaya Mohammed, faulted the EFCC for declaring him wanted, saying he was never on the run.

He had said, “There was no need by the EFCC to have declared me wanted.I was out of the country when I learnt that the EFCC had declared me wanted; there was no justification for its action.

“As a former governor who served this nation for eight years and currently a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I am ever ready to defend my action at all times.

“The allegation of corruption against me cannot stand. All financial resources entrusted in my care as governor of Gombe State were judiciously used. The records are there for everybody to access.”

I lost my phone just of recent and i feel so bad.

Not for the phone, but for the sim replacement and all the wahala wey ago do.

My body is harsh. am anoyed with everyone. i feel so bad.

Share your experience here how you feel when you lost your phone.

Send d girl no to me. let see if i can help in doing the thing. No be abortion ooo

U need to buy my advice. is just $10,000

The boy take brain resemble me

I pass mine when i was 5.

Don Jazzy, Chief Executive Officer of Mo’ Hits Records, speaks with ADEMOLA OLONILUA about his life and career.

A fulfilled dream

I knew I would be relevant in the music industry, but I did not know I was going to end up at the top. I considered the fact that it would take us quite some time to study the market. I was still studying the market at the time. I did not imagine that I was going to study it faster than expected and get to the top. I would say that I feel honoured to be regarded as one of the biggest music producers in Africa. I thank God for that. At the same time, I think it is very difficult to keep up with the name. They say great power comes with great responsibilities. It is hard to keep up with the standard that we have tried to build for ourselves. We pray that God will give us the grace to sustain what we have achieved so far. There is no day that I do not reflect on my life and thank God for everything he has done.

Scandals

I did not get this far without being well informed. I have made it a point of duty to know what is happening in the entertainment industry, especially things that concern the Mo’ Hits family and I. I pay a lot of people to get informed so they wouldn’t leave my side of the story when any issue comes up. I heard about it. I do not think it is wise to respond to what he said. I have said that I would prefer if someone arranges a meeting for both of us. We should have a debate. Let him state his point and we shall debate it. At the end of the day he will still get the publicity that he wants. God sees my heart. I am not vindictive and I have never repaid other people’s kindness to me with evil. I am loyal to a fault and it gets me into trouble sometimes. Sometimes I am loyal to those who don’t even deserve loyalty just because of the good things they have done in the past. I wouldn’t agree if he says I did any bad thing to him. It would be better if we had a public debate. For now, I will take the blame till we have our little ‘get together’. Let me tell you all the things I have heard about myself that is false. I would start from the small ones before the big ones. I have heard that many people think I am over 30 years-old. It is ridiculous. I keep telling them I was born November 26, 1982. I am going to be 29 years old in November. I keep telling them, but they do not believe me. They say that I lied about my age. Maybe it is because my face looks hard. It is that way because I have experienced many things in this life. Also they think I am old because of the name, Don Jazzy. Some people have said I am the son of Enebeli Elebuwa .My name is Michael Collins Enebeli Ajereh. It so happen I have Enebeli in my name. It is a family name. Enebeli Elebuwa, Elebuwa is my father’s friend. My parents re-married when I was about 16 years old and I was the best man. The late Sam Loco was the master of ceremony at the main event, while Mr. Enebeli Elebuwa was the MC at the party because we were not allowed to enter the club at the time. He was my father’s colleague in the movie industry back in those days. Another rumor I heard was the one they said I owe Wande Coal. I do not know how that is possible. I read an article in a newspaper, which said Mo’ Hits record could be seen as a happy record label. We are happy people and we make good music. We move together and we do not respond to negative comments or music intended to insult or taint our image. We don’t want to be a party of that and people take that for granted. Anytime we sit at home, we read all the craps some people are publishing about us. Wande Coal was worried about the matter concerning borrowed money. He came to me and said, ‘Baba look at what they are saying again. They said you owe me money.’ But I told him not to worry about it and if he needed extra money I would give to him. I learned about the illuminati story. Our affiliation with Kanye West, Jay- Z, G.O.O.D music, to me is a good thing. It is a giant step for contemporary African music, especially Nigerian music. It is a big deal for Mo’ Hits record. I have heard they are affiliated with some people. But you do not expect Nigerians and other Africans to simply go there. It is not something we should discuss. I have not heard them discuss it. So it would be awkward to just start asking questions. Maybe when we get closer, we could discuss it. I am not illuminati and D’banj told me he is not too. We are Christians and God has brought us this far. We did not join Ogboni or any other cult group in Nigeria. The latest gossip in town is that D’banj and I were arrested for being in possession of hard drugs. There was a crazy buzz on twitter, blackberry and facebook that we were caught with 100 kilos of cocaine at J.F Kennedy International Airport in New York, USA. I don’t do drugs, I have never done it. I do not know why people actually do that. Any money I have I got through entertainment.

Passion for trendy clothes

At first, I used to dress like 50 cents, with a base ball cap, big t-shirt, and baggy jeans trousers. At some point, I felt that the fez cap was in vogue . Then I moved to something I never saw anybody do before. I like to stand out in a crowd. I decided to wear Indian robes. It is actually the kind of clothes that grooms wear to their wedding ceremonies in India. When I travel to London and Dubai, people greet me and ask if the ‘wedding’ went well. I decided to quit that dress style for a reason. It was because somebody told me on twitter that there was bad news. I asked him what it was about and he said there was somebody else in Enugu nicknamed Don Jazzy because he dressed like me. He said the fellow was caught stealing somewhere and he was set on fire. I was shocked. He said that from what they gathered he was trying to ‘live the life,’ but that the lacked the means to sustain it. It made me realize that we had reached the stage where some Nigerians wanted to be like us. I decided to tone down my dressing in such a way that anybody can afford to look like us. I decided to put on comfortable pants. People call it Pyjamas, but I think it is very comfortable. I can wear it anywhere and it is quite cheap. I bought it for $10. I don’t advise any one to wear it to work. You can wear it when you want to hang out with your friends. I don’t like to mingle in a crowd. So I tend to do things my way. Think differently.

D’banj and the Mo’Hits as spokesmen

I have stopped that now. At first, I was too shy to speak in front of a large crowd because I did not like the sound of my voice. I preferred to sing instead. I used to whisper to D’banj. We tried it once and people liked it. It worked out and we stuck to it. It was a fluke. It’s not as if we planned it. We did it once and Soundcity got it on tape. We saw the result and decided to continue with it. I didn’t have much to say then. Anything I wanted to say D’banj, Wande Coal, Dr. Sid, one of the Mo’ Hits would have said it in an interview. So I decided to shut up. I did not see the need for me to come out and take the shine off an artiste that needs publicity.

How Mo’ Hits made G.O.O.D music happen

D’banj ran into Kanye West in Dubai when he went for a birthday performance. On his way back to Nigeria, he met Kanye West. He asked to be introduced to the American rap star. The latter learnt that D’banj, one of the biggest singers in Africa at present, had collaborated with Snoop Dogg and was poised to break into the international market. He said no problem. We gave him some songs to listen to on an Ipod. He was impressed and when he asked who produced it, he was told that I did. He said he would love to work with us. When to visit New York? We told him we were going to Los Angeles to shoot the video of Mr. Endowed remix. He told us to pass through New York so that we could talk more on the possibility of a joint project. We thought it was a joke or he was one of those celebrities that played people off. We called him up and he said he was serious. Before we knew it, he was introducing us as his new sign-on. He made his intention clear and we told him we appreciated it. We got our lawyers and that was it.

Working with Kanye West

I would say he became my boss when he signed me on to his record label as one of his producers. He said he had many projects in view and he would not be able to handle them all on his own. Also he said he liked the quality of my sound and would love to use it in his work. Already we are working on D’Banj’s next album. Considering the fact that we were already big in Africa, we could not come in as regular artistes. We are more like partners. We have an agreement to release D’banj’s album. They would help us handle the distribution in the rest of the world, while we handle Africa.

About D Prince and his rap style

There is something about talent. Talents were not meant to be shared equally among men, in the first place. D Prince is my brother, I can’t deny that. Although he has a passion for entertainment, he doesn’t have a great voice or the skill to deliver lyrically. Yet, whatever he delivers gets accepted. He has his own audience. It is not every song that would appeal to everyone. The sky is very big for every bird to fly. Those who would listen to him will always do so. He has own followership. Apart from D Prince, everybody in Mo’ Hits does not brag to be the best. We just want to make money and feed our families. It is good enough that people appreciate what we do. We do not want medals for being the greatest lyricists. D’banj is not a great singer, but he is the most successful. Anybody that is complaining now is actually very late because if he is as bad as people say he wouldn’t become as big as he is. There are people out there that like him. We know this. Even within, we make jest of ourselves before other people hear it outside. We know we can not rap, we know we can not sing; but we know we can entertain you in our own way.

Biyi Afonja, a retired professor of statistics, shares his experiences with ADEOLA BALOGUN and BOSEDE OLUSOLA-OBASA

How are you spending your retirement?

I retired fully in January 1993. I said fully because my appointment with the United Nations Development Programme ended in September 1992, but I had a three-month contract and I retired effectively in January 1993. Since then, I’ve tried to do a lot of writing. Of course, I wrote my autobiography, a lot of consultancy work with UN organisations notably the Food and Agricultural Organisation, the World Bank through the Nigerian office, and the UNDP. I do write a lot of articles: I do some humanitarian work through our foundation, which awards scholarships and for the rest of the time, I try to enjoy myself. Again, at a time, I got the assignment as the pro-chancellor and chairman of council, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye and I was there for about eight years on a part-time basis. So, that’s all that has kept me busy.

In the front page of The Punch today, there is this picture of pensioners struggling in the sun to get their papers for verification in order to get their entitlement. Could that be the reason some people help themselves to public fund?

That is one of the reasons. First, it’s most unfortunate for a man who has put in 30, 35 years serving his country only to be suffering just to get his entitlement. In a well organised country, your entitlement is automatically sent to you month in month out. But if by the time you are at work, you feel that at the end of the day, getting your pension would be difficult, there are two possible things you will do, which are going on in this country: steal, steal plenty, so whether they give you pension or they don’t, you are in a good shape. Or you just want to sit tight there, falsifying your age to make sure you are earning money. Of course, there are some who want to stay there neither for the money nor whatever, but for the power because power is sweet.

As a statistician, have you and your colleagues done enough to address the pension problem, which has become a permanent feature in the Civil Service?

I’m worried myself because I can’t understand why it should be so. I heard on the radio this morning how a man complained of how he was being asked the same questions he was asked a year ago when he went for his entitlement. He was miffed that records were not kept in the system. I get mad like that when I go to the University of Ibadan and they ask me what they asked me last year. I’m a statistician quite alright, but if you give the information to the people, they don’t store it the way they should, that is what they are going to have. Storing information properly and making use of it is something that is crucial. The only thing that will be left is to update it from time to time; the age won’t change, terminal salary won’t change. The only thing you want to know is whether I’m really alive or not. That doesn’t mean you must see me every year and ask me the same set of questions. In a country where deaths are registered, we won’t have such a problem. Let me give one example of the madness and I’m so happy you raised this issue. I had a late uncle called Justice Owolabi Kolawole; can you believe it, two years after he was dead, they were paying his pension. The Supreme Court knew he was dead; the president of the Court of Appeal knew he was dead, he even chaired the valedictory service held in his honour in Ibadan; the National Judicial Council knew he was dead. Everybody, except the government, knew he was dead and they were paying his pension. We drew their attention to it, yet they kept paying until we wrote virtually everybody and they started pushing it to each other. Eventually, it reached the Head Of Service office, then somebody from one of the agencies came to me and I told her, ‘Madam, you don’t have to come to me, you have your record.’ Eventually, we wrote a long letter and we refunded exactly what they had wrongly paid. The late Justice Olajide Olatawura, who was a good friend of my late uncle, because I copied him, he started showing the letter everywhere, that if only all Nigerians could be like this because we could have pocketed the N2m plus without anybody knowing. What is wrong with us? Honestly, I don’t know. Those who are alive, you don’t pay them, yet you are paying a man who had died for two years. And you can imagine how much that has gone down the drain.

Still on the issue of statistics, there was a time we needed a backlog of data of budgets since 1960 to date. We reached the Bureau of National Statistics but to our surprise, they could only give us the records for particular years. From your experience, what is the way out? Who should take charge of this?

I’ve been very much in the system for many years. The year 1960 is a long time, but that should not mean there is no record, maybe the records are kept where they are not supposed to be kept. Not that they don’t exist, but they just didn’t perfect them. I got involved as far back as the 70s when I was in one of the committees tasked with reforming the system. There was a time the government said that a data bank could be an answer where all ministries and agencies feed a national data bank. Thanks to technology, though we saw there was no point having a Federal Office of Statistics as it was then called having a different data base from the national data base. So, I recommended that the two data banks be merged because the UNDP was funding both data banks and the FOS and the next stage was the emergence of the National Bureau of Statistics. Again, one or two of my reports were used by the World Bank consultants to prepare the country’s master plan. I believe things would be much better now and if you go to them, they may not be able to give you records up to 1960, but they will give you bits of them. And you can really sit down on your desk, as I do, press your button and go to the website and download some records.

Your first degree was mathematics; why not law, medicine or engineering at that time?

The only professionals we knew in our village in those days were teachers, reverends and doctors. By the time I got to Government College and saw life, the only thing that I wanted to do was medicine. Then my principal called me and said you are not reading medicine, you must do engineering or mathematics. If you don’t pass the entrance to the University College, I will send you to Kings College to do HSC. I was not in a position to argue because I believed he knew me more than I knew myself. That was how I got into mathematics and I imagine that your next question would be how I got into statistics from mathematics. By the time we graduated in 1960, I had four offers because the government ministries and agencies were going round the universities to look for those to recruit. I had offers from the Central Bank, which was just about to be founded, office of statistics, education and survey. Out of the four, I chose survey because I heard that they said surveyors made money. Then, the Federal School of Survey then was at Okene, now in Kogi State. So after we graduated, we moved to Okene and our camp was somewhere between Okene and Lokoja. But because of the nature of life at the camp and the routine of job of going out everyday in the field, I began to see that it was not my job, no matter how much money was paid. The plan was that we would be trainees for a few months and be sent to Newbery in England, which was an attraction then. So by October, we were back in Lagos to be getting ready to travel to England. Our assignment then was surveying the Lagos-Ikorodu Road; then, we were being taken to Ikorodu every morning and back in an old army lorry by our white boss. Again, I was always being reminded that Biyi Afonja was not made for such a job. The end of it all for me was when we asked for cars. They said why? This is September/October, in March, you are going to Newbery, what do you want to do with cars? We insisted that whatever we wanted to do with cars was our business but they refused to give us. Then came October, our colleagues like Ambassador Adeniji, late Sam Agbam, about four of them were sent to the Foreign Service and they were given cars and they were cruising round. And you know when a young man has a car, no other person can compete with him when it comes to the issue of girls. That was when I made up my mind to end my job at survey and I just absconded even without any job on my mind until Abeokuta Grammar School snatched me to come and be a teacher in mathematics. I taught there for a few months and because I knew that I wouldn’t stay for long because I knew they would not send me anywhere, I started looking for something else I wanted to do. So, I found myself at the Federal Civil Service Commission to go and ask for a release (because our bond then was that we must serve the government for a time before going elsewhere). When the secretary of the place saw me, he said, ‘Oh, this is the man we have been looking for, you absconded. We won’t punish you, you don’t want to be a surveyor? There are many jobs we can give you.’ And he started mentioning them. He said, ‘There is a place in Ibadan called the Federal Department of Agricultural Research, they are looking for a biometrician and if there is none, a trainee with the right background. The plan is that you get there, you work with them for a few months and they send you abroad.’ I was happy to hear that and he gave me a note and the following Monday, January 1961, I reported there and when I entered the office of the boss, Dr. J. M. Waterson, I was so impressed. The place was like a palace to me and the gentleman was well suited. That building is still there till today. I immediately started thinking, ‘If I stay here, I can be like this man; I’ll be called Dr. Biyi Afonja. I’ll go to England and be whatever I want’ That just settled in my mind. Then I was attached to a gentleman, JH Breman, a statistician attached to the Cocoa Research Institute, he was my mentor for the first nine months before I was sent to Aberdeen to do my diploma in statistics.

What do you mean by destined to be a teacher?

I took to teaching during vacations starting from 1957 and throughout, there was no vacation that I didn’t teach and surprisingly, I got to enjoy it. By the time I graduated, I got to like teaching even though I didn’t pick a teaching offer. But while in Federal Agric and during my diploma course, I saw the beauty of teaching from those who really knew what they were talking about. I had encounters with a set of natural teachers in the course of my training. I was teaching part time to agric students in Ibadan and while I was doing this, Ife was noticing me (because then the University of Ife was based in Ibadan). So, the late Prof. Anthony Adegbola came to me one afternoon and asked me to come and join them in Ife, which I eventually did. I joined the Agric Faculty and from there, I was sent to the Madison College of Agric, but when I got there and they looked at my CV, I was told that I should do statistics. That was how I ended up doing my master’s and doctorate in statistics.

At a time, you were in politics when you were the commissioner for education in the Western Region. What was the attraction?

It was my good friend, Col. Oluwole Rotimi, who invited me from Ife to be part of his government when he became the governor of the Western Region. He made me the commissioner for education, but I was not a politician. But after two years, I came to realise that it was not the right place for me. Then, people had started to be sick of the military and I saw the handwriting on the wall and I told the governor that I wanted to go. Before I told him, I had got offer of a readership at Ibadan, which I saw as a chance of achieving my goal of becoming a professor. When I eventually told him that I had made up my mind to go because I had been told that the post would not be there for me after April 1975, he said he would talk to the Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, and they would leave the post for me. I pleaded with him, ‘Sir, you became governor as a colonel. Today, you are a brigadier-general; while you are getting promotion, I’m earning demotion, please let me go.’ That was how I left because the longer you stay in government, the more rotten you become. In 1989 also, I was asked to come and take up a job at the Federal Office of Statistics, which was in a mess but I asked to be excused because I had a job with the UNDP then. The like of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo pleaded with me to come and contest the governorship of Ogun State when I was in the UNDP, but I wasn’t convinced. His last word to me was that he hoped I would not regret it. Even Chief Obafemi Awolowo too tried to talk to me in 1979, but because of what I saw, I refused because to be a politician, you must be a good liar. Awolowo asked me to come and see him in Ikenne but people said you could hardly refuse anything he wanted you to do; I didn’t go to see him and I was told he was very disappointed. (Sani) Abacha sent for me whether I would be interested; people from my place pleaded with me to take the slot for the Yewa division. Up till tomorrow, my people still blame me for the marginalisation of Yewa division in terms of the governorship slot in Ogun State. They say nobody would have been talking about the Yewa being denied their slot if I had heeded calls to vie for the post then.

Why did you leave the government despite all the perks of office?

When I decided to leave in March 1975, I had a cousin then who said, ‘I hope our egbon (brother), is okay, gbogbo awon eeyan nsowo ni commissionership, ohun nsesiro, o de wa so pe ohun o se mo? To ba tie jepe isiro nikan ni, aa sa ma ri kobokobo, se kii se pe nkankan ndamu won nitori won so pe awon onisiro wonyen, nkan maa nro si opolo won (I hope our brother is okay; while everybody is making money as a commissioner, our brother is busy with calculation, yet he is saying he wants to leave. Even if he is doing the calculation, something would still be coming in; I hope he hasn’t been afflicted with madness said to afflict mathematicians.) That was not my nature; I didn’t see office that way, at least by that time, it was purely for service.

Was it in the course of your teaching that you met madam because they said teachers were easily attracted to girls in those days or you went to school together?

When I was a teacher, experience taught me that people would sleep off when you went into class and teach statistics in the afternoon. But if you threw in a joke intermittently, people would laugh and be willing to learn. That was my trick then. Then sometimes, some girls would wait while the class was in full steam and choose that time to stroll into class, just to catch the attention of the teacher but I would say professors don’t wait for students; students wait for professors, so you go back.’ The girls didn’t like such treatment and they soon found out that such trick didn’t work on me. I first met my wife during my first summer I spent in Dundee in Scotland with a colleague who is now late, Dr. Olufemi Ogunsan, in 1961. In the course of driving me round that Christmas, I met the young lady just casually like that and I came back in 1963. Then one day, a good friend of mine, Mr. Olowu, phoned me and said he went somewhere that day and saw one picture of a lady and I asked her what the name of the lady was and he said, ‘Sosanya.’ I said, ‘There are many Sosanyas, go back and find out which one.’ Later, he came back to say Yewande Sosanya and I said could it be Yewande I met in Aberdeen? I said he should go and find out more about her, where she was working and so on. He told me she was working at the Ministry of Economics Development then at the tallest building in Nigeria at the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos. The second day, I was there and that was how I came about my darling Yewande Ayoola Olusola omo Sosanya.

Going through your profile, you had so many scholarships. Supposing you didn’t have the scholarships, how far would you have gone in terms of education?

I wouldn’t go any far, that is the truth. My father died in 1940 when I was only five. By the grace of God, one teacher saw my record and in 1946 began to take interest in my progress and guided me through. I got a double promotion from standard three to standard five. He also encouraged me to take the entrance examination to the Government College, Ibadan at the second attempt in 1949. I remember how he coached me for the oral interview when he said I should adopt short answers in order not to expose my ignorance, having schooled in a rural area. As luck would have it, I passed and was given a scholarship. From there, it was all scholarship throughout; I got to UI, I won two to start with and after two years based on my performance at intermediate exam, I was given college scholarship and that was the first time I had a cry of joy because it was an ambition borne of my first matriculation day in UI in 1965 when I saw young undergraduates in procession with dons. When I asked why they were in procession with great professors who were mainly whites, they said they were college scholars and I then said that if all it takes to process with great men is to be a college scholar, God help me, I must be a college scholar and two years after, I won it and I had allowances that made me very comfortable. The same thing when I went to Aberdeen, apart from earning my full salary, I had British Council fellowship £41, which was a lot of money. Then I inherited one old car from my uncle and all I did with it was to run around with girls and all I spent my money on was petrol. When I was going, I gave my cheque to my uncle, asking him to do something with it for me till when I came back and he bought two plots of land for me. When I came back, instead of thinking of getting married, I bought a brand new Peugeot 404. I wasn’t thinking of settling down with a woman until my uncle began to reprimand me to get married.

So, if not for that, you were not thinking of getting married, why?

I was enjoying my life, all bachelors around were usually in my house. It can be fun to be a bachelor and there were so many girls to pick from. Actually, I didn’t see the hurry. I graduated at the age of 24 and had my doctorate at 28 and I was not in any hurry. My policy was to ‘work, property and marriage’ and I followed that sequence faithfully. Just before I got married, I was putting up a building and I called my fiancée that we should decide on what to do first, either to finish the house or go ahead with our wedding and she said I should finish the building. And as God would have it, I completed the house just before we married and that house became the Alafia Guest House later on, one of the best air-conditioned guest houses in Abeokuta. In fact, I was among the first graduates that built a house at that time.

Why did you go into the hospitality business?

I had a very good friend, the Lisa of Ondo, Chief Bayo Akinola. In fact, he proposed our toast. He was the one who encouraged me to turn the house into a guest house to yield some income to supplement my earning as a lecturer. He said I should turn it to a bed and breakfast and put an Igboman there to make more money. That was 1972, and at that time, I had a visiting position in University College, London, which was rare. When I came back, I decided to upgrade the bungalow and got a loan facility from the bank to turn the place around and fortunately, the creation of states came much later and the place served as avenue for civil servants to stay and money started rolling in. I started the guest house about July 1973 and just before the governor was going to appoint me as commissioner in September that year, I informed him about the project. A few months later, trust Nigerians, the story was all over the place in December that Biyi Afonja had started building houses only three months in office. Meanwhile, the house was in place in 1966 till 1973, nobody noticed the house until the commissionership thing came.

Is there any of your children that has taken after you in academics?

No, maybe because of money. Our first born read electrical electronic engineering but she ventured into computer engineering with a master’s. She is in California. Taiwo read law, Kehinde read agric engineering and working with Lagos State. Funlayo first read economics, then accountancy and eventually went to do management and today she is doing well in New York. Their brother is neck deep in computer software now. I’m sorry to say this, two of them are not married and I feel sad about it; that is Taiwo and Funlayo, whereas Kehinde got married in 1999, 12 years ago.

You said Obasanjo predicted that he hoped you wouldn’t regret your decision not to vie for governorship of Ogun State. Do you regret that?

I’ve not regretted it but if at all I regret it, it’s the marginalisation of the Yewa people. Some people are still blaming me till date that I started it all. But that is just by the way, I have not regretted my action because I was not cut out to be a politician.

There is this rumour making the rounds that you are dating Don Jazzy. How true?

No, he is just a colleague. I am not his kind of girl. Don Jazzy’s kind of girls are very beautiful, very endowed. Tell them that I am lepa and tiny; Don Jazzy likes endowed girls. He can’t possibly want to date me.


Read full article on:
http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201110080541925

"Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle"


Is this the true meaning of "YAHOO"?

The Web site started out as "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web" but eventually received a new moniker with the help of a dictionary. The name Yahoo! is an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle," but Filo and Yang insist they selected the name because they liked the general definition of a yahoo: "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth." Yahoo! itself first resided on Yang's student workstation, "Akebono," while the software was lodged on Filo's computer, "Konishiki" - both named after legendary sumo wrestlers.

What did u think about this write up?

60 stroke of (CANE) of that thing wey he dey under your pant we be a nice gift,


I think that we make her happy, abi weting u think Mr. Givers Never Lack

An expert in terrorism management and acting head of the Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan (UI), Dr Osisioma Nwolise, has posited that the dreaded Boko Haram sect, which has claimed responsibility for the series of bombing incidents in the country, is not a terrorist organisation.

Rather, the university lecturer described Boko Haram as a liberation force, in the mould of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) and others, which came to the fore as a result of a raging state-people conflict and struggle for social justice.

He spoke in a paper, entitled Nigeria @ 51: Where is the life more abundant for the masses? at a public lecture and award ceremony to mark the Nigeria’s 51st Independence anniversary, organised by the Centre for Good Governance in Africa at the Conference Centre of the university, at the weekend.

The Director-General of National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Abuja, Dr Seidu Mohammed, the chairman of Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State, Mr Saheed Popoola and others received African Symbol for Quality Leadership award at the event.

Dr Nwolise, who has taught management of terrorism at the National Defence College for five years and also researched and published extensively on the subject since 1982, admitted that thin line separated terrorism and liberation struggle, adding that “it is not everybody that uses terrorist tactics that is a terrorist.”

AN estimated 1.5 billion people over the age of 25 years will be affected by high blood pressure, the biggest single risk factor for heart disease and stroke, the world number one killer, by the year 2025.

The Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, gave the staggering figure on the occasion to mark the World Heart Day in Abuja, while also declaring that Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are killing more than 17.1 million every year.

Professor Chukwu, who spoke on the need to prevent and control Cardiovascular diseases, said CVD caused as many deaths as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and diabetes plus all forms of cancer and chronic respiratory diseases put together.

The health minister said: “It is estimated that more than 1.5 billion people, or nearly one in three adults over the age of 25 will have high blood pressure by the year 2025. This is one of the biggest single risk factors for heart disease and stroke, the world’s number one killer.

“The number of those affected by high blood pressure is predicted to increase by 50 per cent over the coming years. The national prevalence of hypertension is estimated to be 20 per cent.

“As you are aware, economic transition, urbanisation, industrialisation and globalisation bring about lifestyle changes and risk factors that promote heart diseases.”

Please from your own understanding what is the meaning of yahoo.

where is the name originated and who is the person bearing that name?


I have even cheked google but am not getting very good answer. please enlight me on the name YAHOO

N.B (Too Know NL people) Please no insult as there is no harm in asking a quetion one dont understand.

Thanks

Goodluck for Jonathan, Badluck for Nigeria

Residents of Ikorodu, Lagos State, on Tuesday called on the state government to stop the Oro festival in the area.

The residents, who spoke to News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos, said the celebration hinders their movement and affects the economy of the area.

NAN reported that the residents were reacting to the restriction of movement because of Oro celebration on Monday at Igbogbo, a suburb of Ikorodu.

A businesswoman, Mrs. Olayemi Bamgbade, told NAN that she had experienced the restrictions for 15 years.

She said, “We urge the government to put a stop to this Oro tradition. If government does not cancel it, they should restrict the event to midnight.

“We residents are at the receiving end of this saga.”

She said the tradition was a violation of the fundamental human rights of the residents.

An accountant, Mr. Tony Iruah, said the tradition was frustrating to his family.

Mrs. Iyabo Olofin, a hair dresser in Ikorodu, said the tradition had become a source of worry for the residents, adding that it was unfair for the government to allow it to go on.

She noted that the continued observance of the tradition by its adherents gives the impression that the country was tilting towards barbarism.

“It is so sad that in spite of the level of civilisation globally, we still condone some archaic and barbaric traditions that ought to be extinct,” she said.

A clergyman, Mr. Emmanuel Obasa, said any religious or traditional festival that infringed on people’s freedom of movement was bad and unlawful.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20110928461654

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What was the reason why you like this site (http://www.nairaland.com)

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and i know my own reason

So please fellow user what was your achivement on this site. why did you like nairaland?

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RECENTLY at a workshop for markers of answer scripts, the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the National examination Council (NECO), Professor Promise Okpalla, admitted that there were noticeable lapses in the marking and scoring of students in its last examination. In his words, “We have had cases of candidates who lodged complaints on their results only for us to discover after remarking that there were sharp differences in the scoring between the two gradings.”

THIS can only happen where due diligence was not carried out at the marking venue. The workshop which was held in Minna, Niger State, was organised for markers of answer scripts as a part of the review process of the June/July Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSSCE).

WE thank NECO for admitting that there were problems with its organisation of the SSSCE. This admission of responsibility is significant because for many years, students have had issues with the results that were released for them by the examination bodies, including those by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). As a result of the waning confidence in the assessments offered by these bodies, universities have introduced post-UTME screening and examinations to determine prospective candidates’ eligibility for admission to university programmes. NECO has blamed the mistakes on those that were engaged to mark and score students that sat for the examination. This is not good enough. There are more fundamental issues involved in the situation that NECO must attend to.

NECO must realise that there are likely to be many more students who were affected by the poor scoring than the few who were confident enough to formally protest the results they received as not reflecting their performance. The open admission of responsibility and willingness to redress these grievances by NECO will encourage more candidates who think they are inappropriately scored to seek redress in future. This means that NECO may be inundated with several complaints if it does not take fundamental and effective measures to address the issues associated with poor grading of scripts in future examinations. Naturally, those with genuine grievances but who were not confident enough to complain have lost time, effort and money because of the irresponsible conduct or incompetence of those employed by NECO to grade the scripts. Besides, it is improper that students would have to protest after taking the pain to work hard, before they can achieve a fair grading of their script.

TO address the problem of poor scoring by those who mark scripts, NECO should review the process of recruitment and remuneration of the markers.

NECO relies on teachers in secondary schools across the country to grade scripts. They are usually organised and coordinated in a decentralised arrangement. These process, though reasonable, is fraught with a lot of challenges. The first challenge is to ensure that only competent teachers are allowed to participate in the grading of scripts. Given the level of degeneracy in the education system, it cannot be taken for granted that every secondary school teacher with graduate qualification can grade scripts meaningfully. NECO must review its recruitment process. These pose both administrative and financial challenges.

IN the first place, NECO is reputed for paying its markers very poorly. For instance, teachers marking scripts in Mathematics for the ongoing NECO May/June SSSCE are paid N7, 112.5 for 250 scripts. This is broken down as follow: N8.25 per script marked, coordination allowance, N1,900, transportation N900 and a “lump sum” of N9.00 per script. This is not realistic given the cost of transportation as the teachers are expected to report several times at the marking centres for vetting by their team leaders. The teachers are expected to complete the marking in two weeks. Even this paltry sum is not paid promptly. There are several cases where after grading the scripts, the teachers had to wait for over a year before they were paid. Because of these, some competent and diligent teachers shy away from participating in the grading of NECO scripts. Some who take the job are not committed. Indeed, some even give the marking to their supposedly “smart” students or relatives.

ALTHOUGH NECO has promised not to relent in its responsibilities to render quality service to the general public through assessment, it must realise that it is under scrutiny because it has not met public expectation. We recommend that it completely reviews the marking of the June/July examination to ensure that candidates get fair scores for their effort. Apart from screening prospective markers (examiners) to ensure that only competent and experienced teachers are engaged, NECO must ensure that examiners are adequately remunerated and promptly paid. Those who prove unreliable or incompetent should be blacklisted from participating in the grading of scripts in future.


http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/editorial/28501-neco-and-poor-scoring-of-candidates

for some unserious guy out there. LOVE is eat and run.

For serious guys. LOVE is abeg a dey come first make i think am wel