Two Nigerian authors, Oyinkan Braithwaite and Diana Evans have made the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction final shortlist.
The Women’s Prize for Fiction, previously known as the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Baileys Women’s Prize For Fiction, is one of the most prestigious literature awards in the world.
In March, Braithwaite and Evans made the long-list alongside Akwaeke Emezi who, unfortunately, was not shortlisted.
This is the first time that two African authors will be shortlisted the same year. Braithwaite was nominated for her book ‘My Sister, The Serial Killer’ and Evans for ‘Ordinary People’.
Universal Music Group (UMG), the world leader in music-based entertainment has announced an exclusive global recording agreement with Nigerian pop star, Tiwa Savage.
Under the agreement, Tiwa’s future music will be released internationally through UMG’s operations in more than 60 countries worldwide.
Making history as the first female to win the Best African Act by the MTV European Music Awards and becoming the first African female to sell out London’s Indigo, 2018 was a truly memorable year for Mummy Jam Jam.
In December, Tiwa was handpicked by Coldplay’s lead singer Chris Martin to perform alongside Beyonce, Ed Sheeran and Jay Z live at the Global Citizen Festival in Johannesburg. Tiwa was also named one of the world’s Top 100 Inspirational Women in Fashion by Vogue US then later featured in British Vogue’s December 2018 issue as one of 10 women that are changing the face of music globally.
Tiwa Savage however has this to say about her new international deal; "My biggest goal is to make Africa proud. I’m so excited for this moment and I’m thankful to Sir Lucian Grainge and my new UMG family for their belief in my dreams. I’m looking forward to this next chapter in my career."
Adam Granite, EVP Market Development, Universal Music Group also said, “We are looking forward to partnering with Tiwa and her team to help her music reach new audiences around the world.“
Many traditional rulers, ethnic and civil society groups, as well as other well-meaning Nigerians gathered in Lagos to celebrate the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Chief Gani Adams, as he clocks 49 yesterday.
Adams is also the National Coordinator of Oodua People Congress (OPC).
Speaking at the event, the Olowa of Igbara Oke, Oba Francis Agbede, commended Adams for taking giant strides in protecting the cultural and traditional values of Yorubaland.
“Iba Gani Adams is somebody we should accord every respect in all regards.
He has done a lot to promote the unity of the Yoruba race and Nigeria in general.
“This birthday is a great day in the history of our nation in general,’’ the monarch said.
Also, the Zaki of Arigidi Kindgom, Oba Yisa Olanipekun, called on state governments in the South West to massively support the Aare in tackling various challenges in Yorubaland.
“It is wrong for the Southwest Governors not to be relating with the Aare Ona Kakanfo on the progress of the Yoruba race.
“Southwest leaders should not take for granted the position of Aare Ona Kakanfo. Our six Southwest governors should sit with Aare in moving Yoruba nation forward,’’ the monarch added.
In her words, Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin, the President Women Arise, a Civil Society Organisation said: “Iba Gani Adams is committed, dogged, and indefatigable supporter of culture.
“He is a man I can go to the battle with closing my eyes. He is a peace ambassador. He is for peace; he is firm and a man of his words.
“Today, as he marks the 49th birthday, he remains a great life wire for the survival of the Yoruba race. He is one of the greatest gifts to humanity. He is a very reliable and progressive activist.’’
Some of the dignitaries at the event were High Chiefs Ibikunle Adio, the Oluwo of Lagos and Tajudeen Balogun, both representing the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwanu Akiolu and representative of the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi.
Britain's Princess Charlotte is 4 today and her parents have released three new pictures of the smiling young royal to mark the occasion.
Charlotte, daughter of Prince William and his wife Kate, was pictured in the gardens at Kensington Palace in central London, and the family home in Norfolk, eastern England.
The photos of the fourth-in-line to the throne were taken by Kate, who regularly releases family pictures to celebrate her children's birthdays.
It's a busy time for birthdays in the British royal family. Charlotte's younger brother Louis celebrated his first birthday two weeks ago, two days after the 93rd birthday of Queen Elizabeth, the world's oldest monarch.
Thousands of Workers gathered at the Agege Stadium to join there counterparts around the world for the International Workers’ Day celebration.
The Lagos state governor Akinwunmi Ambode, was represented at the occasion by the Commissioner of Physical planning, Prince Rotimi Ogunleye.
Members of the trade unions, associations, were also present to bring their demands to the front burner. Although the day is set aside to celebrate workers, it is also an opportunity to demand better welfare and working conditions. S-x workers also had their representatives at the occasion saying they demand a right and not rescue.
Lol. Tonto Dikeh says she will starting teaching on ‘how to break the internet 101’ and urged her followers to follow her youtube channel saying it will be spicy! But reminded them the lecture won’t be free. The mom of one who gave a tell it all interview yesterday has also been posting beautiful photos of herself to spite those not on her side! Lol
Iker Casillas has suffered a heart attack and has been rushed to hospital. His club Porto confirmed the news after the goalkeeper suffered chest pain during a training session on Wednesday.
The Real Madrid legend underwent surgery but is now in a stable condition and is recovering at Hospital CUF in Porto.
He is expected to be ruled out for the rest of the season. Porto released the following statement: "Iker Casillas suffered an acute myocardial infarction during morning practice this Wednesday, at the PortoGaia Sports Formation and Training Centre, in Olival.
"The work session was promptly interrupted so that assistance could be given to the FC Porto goalkeeper, who is at this moment at the CUP Porto Hospital. Casillas is fine, stable and with his cardiac problem resolved."
Alhaji Musa Umar, the district head of Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari’s hometown, has been kidnapped by four unidentified gunmen.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the kidnappers stormed Umar’s Daura residence at 7pm on Wednesday and sporadically shot into the air, scaring the hell out of bystanders, who scampered for safety.
Umar had just returned from the mosque where he took part in the evening prayer when the incident happened.
Umar, who is reportedly the father-in-law of the ADC to President Buhari, was sitting in front of his house with some people when the gun totting men came.
IK Ogbonna is the latest celebrity to have shaded Tonto Dikeh. Tonto Dikeh who doesn’t let any shade slide took to her page to warn IK, saying she is not pinky that he sued, she would soon him and even DEMAND his BUTT X-RAY (you know what that means). Sigh!
IK’s shade below and ofcourse, Tonto Dikeh’s response follows….
An advocacy group, Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action, has called on the governments of Lagos, Abia, Enugu and Kano states as well as the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to review their practice of jailing petty offenders, including street hawkers.
PRAWA said following a survey it conducted in the four states and the FCT, it realised that there were certain laws in the states which seem to target the economically and socially disadvantaged persons in the society, thus criminalising poverty.
In its “Baseline Report on Decriminalisation and Declassification of Petty Offences,” which it published with the support of Open Society Initiative of West Africa and presented to the public last Friday, PRAWA lamented that most of the people being arrested for petty offences, such as loitering, wandering, inadequate dressing/behaviours, etc, were people who have no shelter and are unemployed.
The group contended that security reasons could not be a justification to arrest and imprison such people as it would seem that the states were further oppressing the poor people rather than empowering them economically.
It, therefore, called on the states to devise an approach to profitably engage these vulnerable groups so that they could become economically viable.
It said, “Declassifying and decriminalising these petty offences would be a much needed initiative for the promotion of a better society devoid of discrimination and segregation of the socially and economically disadvantaged.
“In the real sense, some existing laws are practically criminalising poverty as those petty offences, such as loitering, wandering, inappropriate dressing/behaviours, etc, are common among the poor who lack shelter and are unemployed.
“This raises the question as to whether it is justified to further oppress the economically and socially maginalised population in our society.”
PRAWA called on the government to “wake up to its responsibility of protecting the citizens, most especially the vulnerable population and to responsibly act on the content of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.”
The Chief Judge of the FCT, Justice I.U. Bello, who wrote the forward to the 31-page report, said there was a responsibility on the government and developmental partners “to assist the poor and those in vulnerable situations by using the instrument of the law to lessen their exposure and vulnerability to legal, economic and social challenges.”
“We must and should work together to implement programmes and policies not only to end poverty in all its dimensions but to also decriminalise and declassify those offences that seem to target the poor and marginalised persons,” Justice Bello stressed.
In her remarks during the public presentation of the baseline report in Ikeja on Friday, PRAWA’s founder, Dr Uju Agomo, said it was morally wrong for government to criminalise economic activities that poor people engage in as a means of earning their daily bread and jail them as a result.
She said, “When we criminalise petty offences, when we arrest people who have little means to survive and process them in such a way that makes them worse off, we are actually shooting ourselves in the foot. It is criminalisation of poverty and criminalisation of poverty cannot be a good way to go for any country. There are social and economic responses that any given nation ought to put in place to ensure that those who require help, in terms of enhancing their economic power, are catered to, rather than pushing them into places of detention.”
Abiola Orimolade, who is a graduate of the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun State, made a life-changing decision in 2017 to leave the shores of his country in pursuit of further education in a country he was uncertain about.
He was admitted in Spring 2018 into the MBA programme at Sul Ross State University in the United States, an institution recently listed by Niche as one of the best public universities in Texas.
Abiola’s major desire was to acquire in-depth training in Business and Management, in order to help take his emerging start-up brands, BlackNBold Fashion House and the Nigerian Student Fashion and Design Week to the next level. The Nigerian Student Fashion And Design Week which he founded in 2013 is the first visible fashion showcase platform for discovering new fashion talents in Nigeria; the event in its 7th edition has promoted over 300 emerging fashion brands and just last year, he collaborated with African Fashion Week Houston by bringing one of the prize winners from his NSFDW event to showcase in Houston. He was recognised in the UK in 2017 as one of the top five fashion promoters in Nigeria.
He is the only International student amongst the 13 inductees who were inducted on the 29th of April 2019 into the Delta Mu Delta honorary society, making him the second Nigerian in the history of the University to be inducted into the prestigious society.
Delta Mu Delta is an international honour society that recognises academic excellence in Baccalaureate, Master’s, and Doctorate degree Business Administration programmes at Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programmes (ACBSP)-accredited schools. It was founded November 18, 1913 by the Dean from Harvard University and four professors from Yale University and New York University.
Later that night, Abiola was also recognised during the honours convocation for being the most outstanding MBA student at the university with a 4.0 GPA setting a whole new record as an international student in the university.
Nigerian Workers joy knew no bound in some states yesterday as they got assurances of payment of the N30,000 minimum wage from governors.
At rallies to mark the May Day, Edo, Adamawa, Ondo, Cross River, Zamfara, Oyo, Ebonyi, Delta, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Anambra governors said they would pay the wage.
Outgoing Governors Mohammed Bindow (Adamawa), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo) and Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara) pledged to begin implementation of the pay before they go on May 29.
But Governor Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa) and Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara) said they were awaiting the National Income and Wages Commission (NIWC) to release modalities for the wages implementation.
In Calabar, Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade paid May salary to mark the day. But Labout protested, saying it was too early to do so.
The May Day was celebrated with fanfare across the states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) where Vice President Yemi Osinbajo took the workers’ salute on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has said the Independent National Electoral Commission lacks the power to withhold his certificate of return. Okorocha was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the February 23 Imo West senatorial election.
In his petition to INEC on Tuesday, Okorocha said he was not happy that the body decided to withhold his certificate of return after he was announced as the winner of the election.
But INEC claimed the declaration was made under duress.
The petition titled, ‘Need to Avert Abuse of Office and Political Corruption by my Political Opponents with the Active Collaboration of INEC’s Leadership in Clear Violation of the Law,’ was addressed to the Chairman of the commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu.
The governor said going by the laws governing elections in the country, INEC had no right not to issue him a certificate of return.
He added that if there were issues with an election after the announcement of a winner, the Election Petitions Tribunal would resolve them.
Okorocha said, “Section 285(1) of the 1999 Constitution states that ‘There shall be established for the Federation one or more election tribunals to be known as the National Assembly Elections Tribunal which shall, to the exclusion of any court or tribunal, have original jurisdiction to hear and determine petitions as to whether (a) any person has been validly elected as a member of the National Assembly.’
“Section 133 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) provides that ‘No election and return at an election under this Act shall be questioned in a manner other than by a petition complaining of an undue election or an undue return presented to the competent tribunal or court in accordance with the provisions of the constitution or of this Act, and in which the person elected or returned is joined as a party.’
“Where then did INEC derive the power to withhold a certificate of return after a winner in an election had been announced?"
INEC Director of Publicity and Voter Education, Mr Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, said since Okorocha had gone to court over the issue, he should allow it to make a pronouncement on his certificate of return.
He said, “The case is in court. He is the one that took us to court. He should, therefore, wait for the court to determine the case.”
Students of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, on Wednesday protested against the killing of one of their colleagues, identified as Israel Anuolowapo, by a hit-and-run driver.
Anuolowapo, a 100-level student of the Department of Mathematics, was allegedly crushed to death in front of the university main gate on Tuesday.
During the protest, the students reportedly barricaded the Ilesa-Akure Expressway, singing solidarity songs. The protest was said to have caused gridlock on the road, as motorists, especially travellers, were delayed for several hours.
The students demanded that the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing erect speed bumps on the expressway to reduce such incidents.
According to a witness, it took the intervention of men of the Ondo State Police Command, who appealed to the students, to open the road.
When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Femi Joseph, said the matter had been resolved, adding that the government had agreed to erect speed bumps on the expressway.
“When we got information about the protest, we immediately swung into action and appealed to them; normalcy has been restored now,” he said.
The Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, have faulted President Muhammadu Buhari for saying his academic certificates are with the Nigerian Army.
Replying to Buhari’s response to their petition filed before the Election Petitions Tribunal, they said if it was true that the certificates existed, Buhari as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces could order the army to produce them.
Atiku said he attached his academic certificates to the Form CF001 he submitted to INEC.
In a joint petition filed on March 18, the former Vice-President and his party urged the tribunal to declare them the authentic winner of the February 23 presidential election, insisting Buhari did not possess the educational qualifications he claimed to have in his INEC Form CF001.
They said in the reply filed on April 15 by their legal team, led by Dr Livy Uzoukwu (SAN), that having not been able to attach his academic certificates to INEC Form CF001, Buhari had falsely claimed that his certificates were in the custody of the Nigerian Army.
The joint reply filed by Atiku and the PDP read in part, “In further response to paragraph 381(iv) of the 2nd respondent’s reply, aver that the petitioners have no knowledge of any certificates or alleged qualifications issued to the 2nd respondent (Buhari), but contend that 2nd respondent falsely represented that his certificates are in the custody of the Nigerian Army when the 2nd respondent by his own admission is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.
“In further response to paragraph 381(iv) of the 2nd respondent’s reply, the petitioners aver that the 2nd respondent as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria could easily order the Army Secretary to produce the certificates allegedly submitted if they actually exist.
“Contrary to paragraph 381(i-iv) of the 2nd respondent’s reply, the petitioners aver that the 2nd respondent does not possess the educational qualification he claimed to have in his INEC Form CF001 submitted to the 1st respondent (INEC) having not been attached as required.”
The petitioners also stated that “the purported training and courses”, which Buhari claimed placed him “head and shoulders above” Atiku regarding educational qualifications to contest the presidential election, “did not culminate in the issuance of any certificates he claimed in his INEC Form CF001”.
They also described Buhari’s claim of being head and shoulders above Atiku as “erroneous”.
Responding to Buhari’s allegation that Atiku didn’t have the statutory educational qualifications to contest the polls, the petitioners stated that the ex-VP attached his educational qualifications to his Form CF001 submitted to INEC.
Insisting Atiku was qualified to contest election for the office, the petitioners stated that Buhari was unable to present any certificates because he did not possess any “as he falsely claimed”.
They stated, “In reply to paragraph 383 of the 2nd respondent’s reply, the petitioners aver that the 1st petitioner (Atiku) is eminently qualified to contest election to the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and had indeed attached evidence of his educational qualifications to his INEC Form CF001 submitted to the 1st respondent, unlike the 2nd respondent (Buhari) who did not attach evidence of the qualifications he claimed in his INEC Form CF001 because he does not possess them as he falsely claimed.”
INEC, Buhari, and the All Progressives Congress (Buhari’s party) are the 1st to the 3rd respondents to the petition. No date has been fixed for the hearing of the petition by the tribunal.
The leader of traders in Lagos and Iyaloja General, Mrs Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, has said that some traders in the Computer village market who protested against the appointment of Iyaloja and Babaloja in the market on Tuesday were ill-informed.
Addressing a press briefing on Wednesday, Tinubu-Ojo said all the markets in the state were under her control and the computer village market cannot be an exception.
According to our constitution, I can choose anybody from any local government in the state to head the market, all the iyaloja and babaloja in all the Lagos markets are my representatives in the market where they operate. Kindly educate them that phones, handsets, computers are commodities.
“They cannot tell us they are not pepper sellers, everybody cannot be textile dealers; they can’t tell us that computer village will be exonerated (sic) from other markets. We have the right to choose for them Iyaloja and Babaloja.
“Those people protesting never approached me to complain. They don’t have the initiative that the person leading the protest has finished his tenure and wants to remain in power...
“Computer village is not just an ICT hub, there are a lot of commodities being sold there; nobody can say it is wrong to select a babaloja and iyaloja for the market. Those that have been selected were not selected because they are Yoruba, in some of our markets in Lagos we have Igbos that were selected as market leaders,” Tinubu-Ojo said.
She said the appointment of Mrs Abisola Azeez and Mr Adeniyi Babalola, as Iyaloja and Babaloja of Computer Village respectively was done to maintain peace in the market among the traders.
It seems Tonto Dikeh’s ex, Olakunle Churchill won’t be replying the actress this time around. Ever since her interview dropped Churchill has said nothing than to post a photo of himself (above) and wrote ‘GRACE AM thankful’.
His friends have however been cheering him up, with one of them – Terry G saying ‘EKUN gboju’ and Churchill replied.
