by Fred Onyeoziri

In fact President Jonathan should mobilize his Presidential Power to defend the constitution by countering this Fashola impunity as a convincing deterrent against the danger of other public officers allowing themselves to be infected by this Fashola virus.

Although we operate the presidential system of government, many of our citizens, including even some of the major operators of our system do not quite understand the unique attributes of our presidentialism.

For instance, unlike the parliamentary system which separates the positions of Head of Government and the Head of State, our presidential system combines both offices in one and the same person. President Goodluck Jonathan is both the Head of our Government and the Head of the Nigerian State.

As the Head of State, he is the singular representative of the Nigerian nation, and as the Head of Government, he alone has executive authority over all Nigerians. President Jonathan is the only public officer in this nation who has an all – Nigerian wide mandate to govern. All the other public officers have a restricted or narrow mandate. Local Government Chairmen have only the mandate of their Local Government Area, and the State Governor has only the mandate of his state.

By the same token, members of the Legislature, whether for House of Assembly or House of Representatives or the Senate have only the mandate of their individual districts or constituencies. It is only President Jonathan who has a mandate from the whole Nigerian nation to govern this country. This means a lot of things:

First, it means that only President Jonathan can represent Nigeria in his own right. Every other public officer can represent Nigeria only at the discretion of President Jonathan.

Two, since Mr. President alone has executive authority to act nationally, he has a legitimate right to intervene in any government operation anywhere in this nation.

Three, because the failures of other public officers in their domain can affect the stability of the whole, Mr. President has the right of intervention in the affairs of the others.

Four, other public officers can be involved in national issues only at the discretion and invitation of the President. Therefore, there is no legitimate basis for the other lower public officers to intervene or challenge presidential views on national issues unless at the invitation or discretion of the President.

Mr. President can consult other public officers on specific issues but such consultation cannot be mandatory and will always remain at the discretion of Mr. President. This is what it means to say that the President is the only person or public officer with a nation –wide mandate to govern this country.

He is the quintessential Chief Executive of the Nigerian State invested with power and authority. He is the overall Supervisor or Moderator of the Nigerian Political System.

In the final analysis, he is the one whom all Nigerians will hold responsible if things go wrong. Therefore, he alone has the right to ask questions about anything, anybody, anywhere in this country.

The President must live up to this national responsibility by demonstrating both the willingness and capacity to mobilize this national mandate and associated power resource to tackle or address any issue of national importance anywhere in this country, including defending the constitution.

Two comparative examples from the United States illustrate the significance of these points.

Firstly, for about three years, President Obama took over the police command of the state of New Orleans which was riddled with corruption, inefficiency and racism to reform and reorganize it. The American Federal Government organized new recruitment, training and administration before disengaging from New Orleans.

Secondly, during the Kennedy Presidency, President John Kennedy once mobilized federal power to enforce the right of James Meredith to admission into a  State University against the objection of the State Governor who sought to block that admission into the state University.

This comparative example justifies President Jonathan in taking over security in a state where the State Governor is unable or unwilling to protect peace and stability in the state. The President cannot allow disruption in one state for fear that it may spread to undermine national stability. In order to protect the sovereignty of the whole, the President cannot allow disruption of sovereignty in one unit of that whole.

It is against this background that I consider it pathetic for this country that President Jonathan will sit back watching while Nigerians are quarrelling over Fashola’s deportation impunity. It does not matter whether the victims are Igbos, Ijaws, or Jukuns or whoever. The truth of the matter is that no state Governor, Fashola or not, not even the President of the country, may deport a Nigerian citizen from one part of the country or state, etc –to another. President Jonathan should tell Fashola that he cannot do this.

In fact President Jonathan should mobilize his Presidential Power to defend the constitution by countering this Fashola impunity as a convincing deterrent against the danger of other public officers allowing themselves to be infected by this Fashola virus.

Our presidential system creates a President whose constituency is the whole nation. Such a President cannot allow lower level public officers and other institutions to diminish his capacity to protect the constitutional integrity of the Nigerian State.

Federalism does not excuse what Governor Fashola has done because even federalism distinguishes between exclusive, concurrent and residual powers, Citizenship should belong to the exclusive list which is federal.

State security does not excuse Governor Fashola either because if the victims were criminals and security risks, Fashola should prosecute  them and jail them if found guilty. Their being destitute does not excuse Fashola either because any responsible government, and I think Fashola’s is one, should have the social responsibility of devising social welfare programmes to take care of the vulnerable or weaker members of the society. You cannot ride on the votes of the so called destitute to power and turn round to demean them as destitute.

Good Governance includes responsibility to both productive and non productive members of society. You cannot want one and demean the other.

If we had a credible democracy, the state Assembly should be able to order Fashola to reverse himself. Unfortunately, our State Houses of Assembly  are incapable of doing effective oversight operations, courtesy of the overbearing character of our state Governors.

But, my central thesis in this write up is that our president should use his presidential power and mandate to enforce the human and constitutional rights of the persons deported by Fashola from Lagos State.

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Read this article in the Sun Newspapers

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

by John Amoda

There is need for the C-In-C to strategically preside over the affairs of the Nigerian state and to do this the President must effect a change of the framework of the current political discourse in order to effect a change in how the President is perceived both nationally and internationally.

by Isi Esene

The Lagos State Government yesterday announced the termination of its concession agreement with the Lekki Concesssion Company (LCC) over the management of the Lekki-Epe Expressway.

This announcement is following the House of Assembly’s approval of a supplementary budget of N7.5 billion for the acquisition of the existing concession right of the expressway.

In its agreement with the LCC, the construction company was mandated under a 30-year Build, Operate and Transfer agreement to upgrade, expand and maintain the about 50-kilometre road (Phase I), and construct another 20km of coastal road (Phase II) along the Lekki corridor.

The execution of the contract has been a subject of controversy as both the Fashola administration and the LCC have come under sever attacks over what residents considered as high tolls levied on commuters on the road.

The decision of the state government to terminate the concession agreement, it was learnt, followed the lawmakers’ approval of the supplementary budget, which gave it the right to acquire the existing concession rights and toll revenue benefits held by the concessionaire.

Read the Nigerian Eye report below:

Governor Babatunde Fashola had in a supplementary budget proposal letter to the state House of Assembly dated August 19, 2013, requested it to amend this year’s budget owing to unforeseen developments in terms of the state’s internally generated revenue.

Fashola had said, “The proposal for further amendment is largely predicated on the need to fund the acquisition of the existing concession, right and toll revenue benefit held by the Lekki Concession Company, the concessionaire for the Eti-Osa-Lekki-Epe Expressway. This will effectively accelerate the transfer of ownership of the road to the state, leaving the state with wider policy options with regards to that important infrastructure.

“In order to address these issues, we have proposed a two-prong approach namely: re-ordering some expenditure provisions and also directing supplementation of the year 2013 budget. This will entail an increase in the overall budget size by N7.5bn. This is against the background of a projected shortfall of N22.5bn in budgeted internally generated revenues, which now need to be covered by the additional borrowings.”

The Assembly gave its approval to the request on Tuesday in a proposal read on the floor by the Clerk, Mr. Ganiyu Abiru.

The commissioners for Budget and Economic Planning, Mr. Ben Akabueze; Finance, Mr. Ayo Gbeleyi; and Works and Infrastructure, Mr. Obafemi Hamzat, were at the House to defend the proposal.
Following the latest amendment, the revised budget has thus increased from N499.6bn to N507.105bn.

Users of the expanded road have had to part with different amounts, depending on their class of vehicles. The amounts rage from N50 for motorcycles to N120 for saloon cars and tricycles; N150 for Sports Utility Vehicles, minibuses and pick-up trucks; N80 for commercial mini-buses; and N250 and N350 for light trucks and heavy trucks, and buses with two or more heavy axles, respectively.
Fees are currently being collected at the first toll point called the Admiralty Plaza.

The Conservation Plaza was built about 10km away from the first tolling point bewteeen the Chevron Drive and Oluwanisola Estate, but the collection of tolls has not started.

A human rights lawyer, Mr. Ebun Olu-Adegboruwa, took the matter to court to stop the LCC and the state government from enforcing the toll collection until the 10km alternative route was constructed for those that might not use the road.

Calls and text messages to the mobile phone number of the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Lateef Ibirogba, were ignored; while the Special Adviser on Media to the Governor, Mr. Hakeem Bello, said he had yet to get the details and promised to call back when he did, but never got back.

Calls put through to officials of LCC were unanswered, while text messages sent to them were not responded to.

Aisha Haruna , 20, of Uke in Nasarawa State on Tuesday at a Grade 1 Area Court in Mararaba, Nasarawa State, maintained her divorce request.

Aisha had on May 29 filed a suit seeking separation from her husband, Hussaini Haruna, 27, of Gurku Village,

At the resumption of hearing, she told the court that she and her husband could not resolve the matter after the last adjourned date on Aug. 19.

The husband, who spoke through his counsel, Nuru Mua’zu, demanded Islamic procedure of divorce.

“This is an Islamic matter and there are procedures to follow before a wife is granted her wish for divorce.

“One of the procedures is that the woman has to pay what is known as ‘Kuli’.

“Kuli means, paying back some of the expenses the husband made in the course of marrying the wife.

“Though I don’t have the document here, but the total expenses is around N300,000,” Mua’zu said.

He told the court that Aisha was eight months pregnant for Haruna.

Mua’zu applied for adjournment to enable him bring the document containing the list of expenses.

The presiding judge, Mr Musa Danjuma, granted the counsel’s application and adjourned the case to Sept. 2 for continuation of hearing.

The wife had earlier told the court that her parents gave her out in marriage at the age of 13 without her consent.

The mother of one said that she stayed in the marriage for seven years, adding that she had lost interest in the marriage.

She said her loss of interest was on the ground that she was a child at that time the marriage was contracted.

Read more: Vanguard Newspapers

by Seun Salami

Uti laughed. She tried not to laugh with him because she had intended it to be a serious question, to carry with it and deliver to him a stern message that she wasn’t quite comfortable with any distractions and she wanted him all to herself…

Rosina clutched her small travel bag close to her legs as she stood outside the arrivals hall of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, shielding her face from the blazing sun scorching the city. She held on to the certainty that she would be able to recognise Uti if she spotted him among the waiting crowd. Dotting the crowd were a lot of women and a few men; eyes squinted against the sun, bearing placards marked with names like John Kroft and Mr. Bernard and Mr Whitehead. She wondered what the whitehead fellow would look like. She wondered if he had been on the same flight with her. She felt some of the eyes from the crowd piercing through her skin, nailing the heat of the sun into her already moist pores. She dropped her bag and ransacked one of its compartments for her sun glasses. She looked up again, now under the shades. There was an enjoyable calmness to her view now.

She spotted a tall guy in jeans and a T-shirt hurrying towards her in the distance. She knew he was not Uti, but still she looked, closely, as if to be sure. She knew the outfit Uti would be putting on because he had sent her photos of himself in the morning on her BlackBerry Messenger, just like he had done consistently since he began to show serious interest in her. He usually sent her pictures of himself in his car, a black Toyota Camry with grey fabric interior; he usually sent her pictures of his meals, mostly noodles, with eggs or plantain, or occasionally, meat he had shredded from barbeque or suya. She could almost tell where he was at every point in time from the pictures. Sometimes he posted some of those pictures on his BlackBerry Messenger status update or his Twitter account or on his Facebook page, but only after he had sent them to her, and she had told him he looked good, amazing, or more recently, like my man. She had surprised herself the first time she said that, but he laughed, an affirmative laugh and she had kept saying it occasionally since then.

The tall guy was now hugging a lady who had just also come out of arrivals with a trolley containing a small bag. She remembered the lady from the plane, with her pale gold hair and skin the colour of egg shell. She had been in the toilet when the plane was about to begin its descent, and an air hostess had gone over to hurry her out. She hugged the guy for a long while and then they pulled apart before pressing their lips together, briefly. Rosina couldn’t believe she was staring at them. She had always thought it a bad habit to stare at people this way. She imagined her eyes joining those of the small crowd to pierce the skins of the innocent lovers, assuming they were. She looked away from them and wondered if they were like her and Uti, if they had also met on Twitter or Facebook and were only seeing each other for the first time now, or if they had actually met before and were only being reconciled. She wondered if she would even consider kissing Uti. Certainly not at the airport, not in front of this crowd hungry for some drama of kissing lovers and long lost relatives reuniting. She knew she looked forward to what would happen at the hotel though. She could not wait for that. She had thought about it several times and simply could not wait to see if Uti was as good as he often mildly suggested he was in bed, asking questions like, “You want to come to Nigeria? Are you sure you will be able to handle me? I can be a real freak o,” and they would both laugh over the phone, mostly on her call credit. She knew Uti made enough money from his blog and Twitter following, and he always got invited to give talks here and there, but she had made their telephone communication her responsibility and he had stopped complaining about never letting him call her. She watched the guy and the lady walk away. He was pushing the trolley with one hand and holding the lady’s waist with the other while shaking his head to one of the men beckoning on them for a taxi ride. He probably had a car just like Uti. Rosina imagined where they were going, maybe to a hotel too. She compared their heights, the girl barely reaching his shoulders and imagined what they would both be like in bed.

Her eyes fell on Uti’s large frame as she looked across from the couple. She felt her heart begin to beat faster as a huge smile suddenly enveloped her face, embarrassing her. He was almost running, wiping his face with a face towel the whole time, sweating. He looked taller than she had expected. She picked up her bag and began to walk towards him, trying hard to keep the smile on her face from becoming a blush. Uti’s hug was firm, almost determined, rehearsed. She pulled away and put her left hand on the side of his neck, and wanted to say you look good, but she did not. That was what she had prepared to say, but it would clearly be a lie, so instead she said, “You look stressed.”

“Yeah, traffic,” he responded almost immediately. He liked her accent even more now.

“Sorry.”

“Hope you didn’t have to wait for too long.”

“Not really.”

“Is this all you have?” he asked after collecting her bag.

“Yeah, isn’t it just a weekend?”

They both laughed, even though they knew there was nothing really funny and then leaned against each other and began to walk back towards the car park where Uti had emerged from.

“How was your flight?”

“Boring. Boring food, boring people.”

Somebody greeted Uti, shook his hands and muttered something Rosina didn’t hear.

“What’s that he said?” she asked when the young lady walked away.

“She must be a reader of my blog. She said I don’t give a hoot, that’s my blog mantra.”

“Oh, I remember that.”

They were silent for a while as they walked past some mallams who changed currency.

“Do you have any money to change?” Uti asked.

“I already did.”

“Where?”

“At the airport, in Joburg.”

“Really?” Uti didn’t look convinced.

“Yeah, there are naira changers everywhere. Do you know how many Nigerians were on that flight? Do you know how many Nigerians come into S.A every day?”

“Interesting.”

“So is this how ladies stop you to greet you on the streets?”

Uti laughed. She tried not to laugh with him because she had intended it to be a serious question, to carry with it and deliver to him a stern message that she wasn’t quite comfortable with any distractions and she wanted him all to herself.

“When you have fifty thousand twitter followers and a hundred thousand people reading your blog every month, you can’t avoid a few people recognising you.”

“True.” She thought of my man.

“Can you spot the car?” he asked when they got to the car park.

She removed her shades to humour him, and then smiled, a little too broadly before running her eyes through the car park. “There,” she said, pointing.

“Where?”

“Over there, close to the fence.”

***

Sex on the first night at the Moonlight Hotel in Maryland was rushed, although she had still enjoyed it. But when he woke her up the next morning, poking at her from behind, she knew it would be a whole lot better. Soon, he was up, in and out of the bathroom in a jiffy and unto his laptop. When she woke up hours later, looked at the wall clock and said, “You’ve been on that table for over two hours,” he looked back at her and said, “It’s a Saturday morning. Peak period online.”

“What’s for breakfast?”

“I’ve called for boiled yam and eggs, would that be okay?”

“Cool. Thanks.” She reached for her BlackBerry on the side of the bed and decided to go through her Twitter timeline and BlackBerry status updates. She had not checked her phone since she got into the hotel last night and jumped on Uti and began to undress him. She had barely made out the details of the room as they entered; the small table and chair facing the big bed, the little fridge at the corner of the room on which stood an even smaller TV which they would not switch on throughout their stay. The stale smell of the room had invaded her nose, like it had been several days since someone occupied it and she had noticed that the white of the bed sheet was not as sparkling as that of the wall.

Uti looked at her briefly again and began to think as he tweeted. This was the first one from outside Nigeria to come just to see him. And she paid her own fare. Not like those ones from Port-Harcourt or Benin or Abuja who would ask him to send them money to buy tickets, and he always did. Maybe she really did like him. Maybe he should consider taking her seriously and making her the official girlfriend. He thought about the last time he had posted a subliminal tweet – I wish you weren’t so far away – with at least three of them in mind, she was the first to respond and he had sent her direct messages with all sorts of sweet nothings. He really should stop this soon. It wouldn’t help his online reputation if it became public knowledge that he was busy ‘Setting P’ and dating random pretty girls he scouts online. He dismissed the thought. After all, it was they who always came on to him. He began to hum D’banj’s ‘Bachelor’.

“Who are you tweet-fighting again this morning?” Rosina asked, eyes fixed on her phone.

“Oh, you saw my tweets? It’s one of those losers who can’t stop hating.”

She sighed and turned.

(To be continued)

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

by Bayo Oluwasanmi

We should salute Dr. Ezekwesili for having the courage and determination and look power in the eye and ask why and how.

People power!

It is the most underutilized weapon in the arsenal of oppressed Nigerians. People power – ask the Egyptians and they would tell you how potent and pungent is people power.

Nigerians need some tutorials on people power from Egyptians. From “Arab Spring” into Summer of Discontent, Egyptians successfully overthrew two governments in 30 months through people power.

Nigerians have been lulled into a sense of apathy because they have been castrated by fear to confront the ruling class and for once change the dynamics of governance.

The Egyptians now know they have power of mass of troops made up of ordinary citizens to direct or redirect their national affairs. Though it is too early to assess the benefits of the revolution, it is instructive to note that the people possess immense power to reject and eject any government at any time and install government of their choice. This is the salient lesson for Nigerians from the Egyptian Revolution.

The elected representatives of the people have become terminally diseased with Chronic Stealing Syndrome (CSS). They have been effectively neutered by corruption to be of any good to the people.

The National Assembly – Senate and the House of Representatives – comprised of untutored minds known for oppressive waste. Because of the dishonorable behavior of its members, the National Assembly has become the phoniest piece of baloney. With deliberate delight the legislators are steering the nation toward a descent into imagined hell.

The presidential democracy that we practice is anything but democratic or presidential. What we have now is Hitlerite Democracy that has no room for peaceful protest, voices of dissent, exchange of ideas, and intelligent discourse without hurling insults or labeling critics as saboteurs or unpatriotic citizens trying to pull down the government.

Unlike in advanced democracies, our political parties are not as formalized and ideological, rather are formed around personalities. Instead of dealing with the issues, they fight individuals.

To be sure, governments are necessary but not all governments are good for their citizens. We often assumed wrongly that only governments that are dictatorships, authoritarian, or repressive are bad. Not true. There are many ways for a democratic government to repress their citizens.

Obviously, the objective of any repressive government is to make you a dependent citizen. Why? Because dependent citizens don’t think or rebel. Another way is to keep you guessing the next line of action the government would take. You may never know when you would be thrown in jail. Yet another way is double standard. There is no cause and effect. There are no consequences that are applied consistently.

The above characteristics of a repressive democratic government succinctly mirror our experiment and experience with our second or third fiddle (or is it fourth?) with democracy.

August 19, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili was the keynote speaker at a Civil Society Roundtable on “Cost of Governance” hosted by the Civil Society Legislative Center (CISLAC). The focus of her address was on “unsustainable economic structure and management of public finance.”

To substantiate her claim of prodigal waste by our representatives, she relied on eight years data 2005-2013 on budgetary allocations or transfers to the National Assembly. The source of her data was information displayed by the Ministry of Finance in the public domain.  By simple addition, she came up with One Trillion Naira for the eight years under review.

This is not the first time Dr. Ezekwesili would collide head-on with the members of the National Assembly. Not long ago, she provoked the ire of the representatives and the presidency when she accused them of squandering the foreign reserve. On each occasion, she was vilified, harassed, insulted and threatened.

There seems to be a great confusion what the word democracy means to our representatives. Simply, it means the government of the people. It implies that every Nigerian including Dr. Ezekwesili should be able to have their say in one way or another in everything that affects their lives. We are not under dictatorship. We are in a democracy!

Citizens’ input and contributions that would inform or shape decision making process of our legislative bodies could best be exercised through representative democracy. Representative democracy would be meaningful and relevant only if our representatives would really make all their decisions only after consulting their constituencies thereby having a clear idea about the views of their constituents on a particular issue, and trying to accommodate these views as best as possible.

Sadly, the Nigerian brand of representative democracy is not true democracy according to the above definition, rather is actually just elected dictatorship. Nigerians only vote every four years, they do not vote any issues.

All Nigerians do is elect their so called representatives who then until the next elections have no obligations by law and little or no incentive to base their decisions on individual issues on the wishes of their electorates. Because the representatives hardly ever bother to consult them on various issues, the “representatives” act in a very dictatorial manner between elections.

Is anything wrong for Dr. Ezekwesili asking to be heard? What part of her opinions or views on accountability and transparency constitute present and clear danger to democratic process? Has she any right to engage in debate or ask for one on how her representatives run the country? Why are the representatives so defensive and antagonistic? What do they have in their closets that they are hiding from Dr. Ezekwesili? By the way, who is afraid of Dr. Ezekwesili? And why?

In Nigeria, the policy making process is weak, our political society is not pluralistic, and checks and balances are poor. These factors render political incentives impotent from promoting public good that favor Nigerian society at large.

A more representative democracy requires mutual, active engagement from political actors, state agencies, and groups of citizens in the daily functioning of the state between elections by way of making policies that address public needs, in providing services to the people in an effective way, in giving feedback for adequate reforms, and giving account to the citizens and their representatives for the way the country is run.

All Dr. Ezekwesili is asking for is democratic accountability. Democratic accountability is ensuring citizens, political parties, representatives, and other democratic stakeholders and institutions and provides feedback to, reward or sanction officials in charge of setting and enacting public policy.

Democracy is not a spectator spot. When good men and women do nothing, idiots thrive. Dr. Ezekwesili’s strident calls and fanatical insistence on the elected representatives to discuss or debate the economic and financial health of the nation, call for openness, honesty, and fairness.

Operating from a state of permanent annoyance in juxtaposition to Dr. Ezekwesili’s demand for accountability, the National Assembly sees Dr. Ezekwesili as a trouble maker, unpatriotic, hell raiser, and as someone who pokes her nose on “other people’s business.”  All Dr. Ezekwesili did in her presentation was to amplify the impact of the spending recklessness and misplaced priorities of the legislators.

The elected representatives have exhibited profound ignorance and stupidity for not knowing the basic underlying principles of democracy? Why are their eyes so closed that they can’t see? And their minds shut they can’t think?

Why are the representatives so paralyzed with fear by Dr. Ezekwesili’s invitation to dialogue and debate on the very crucial and critical issue of our cost of governance which is the most expensive in the world? As a matter of fact, she’s doing the representatives a favor by needlessly reminding them of their duties to the people. If anything at all, they should welcome her invitation with gratitude.

Tax payers are responsible for the salaries of the law makers as well as the entire government functionaries. What does it cost the law makers to make their salaries including the president public information without subjecting their employers – Nigerians – to unnecessary and undeserved torture by trying to imagine how much they are being paid for services not rendered? What’s the secrecy all about?

The legislators would never win the argument by intimidating, harassing, threatening, coercing, abusing, and insulting Dr. Ezekwesili. The Nigerian public is on her side. The law makers are frankly and nakedly defenseless by their knee-jerk responses of feeding us with forged, twisted, unsubstantiated, unreliable, and unverifiable salary figures and expenditures of the National Assembly.

Instead of hurling bricks and bats on Dr. Ezekwesili, the National Assembly must come forensically clean of any act or traces of misappropriation and squandering; Dr. Ezekwesili has proven over and again that we are not all dumb after all!

For a moment, let me play the role of an interpreter for Dr. Ezekwesili’s speech on “Cost of Governance” to our legislators perhaps they are unable to decode her challenge for debate on One Trillion Naira budgetary allocations that were transferred (I hate to use that word) to the National Assembly.

Education is the centerpiece of our infrastructure. Without a sound and solid education, the center piece of our infrastructures cannot hold. Dr. Ezekwesili is asking our legislators how much money was allocated for education vis-à-vis the appropriation for National Assembly.

She is asking the lawmakers how much money was appropriated on health, on roads, on water, on light, on security, on social safety net, on housing, on pension, on jobs, etc., compared with the One Trillion Naira expenditures of National Assembly in eight years. The devastating reality is that the legislators have written checks marked “insufficient funds” for these sectors while millions of Naira went into their private bank accounts.

Dr. Ezekwesili seems to be saying to the legislators: “Where is the money? What did you do with it? Where is the proof? Where is your vision? Where is your conscience? Where are your values? What are your priorities? Where is your commitment to the Nigerian people?”

Civilized legislators in a civilized democracy would have acted with a deliberate speed by providing answers and proofs how One Trillion Naira was spent. But, this is Nigeria! We should salute Dr. Ezekwesili for having the courage and determination and look power in the eye and ask why and how.

Dr. Ezekwesili reminds me of Esther’s faith-inspired statement: “If I must die, I must die.”  God has placed Dr. Ezekwesili in a strategic place at critical moment to be the instrument of deliverance for Nigerians. Her presence in Nigeria at this time is not by accident, but by divine appointment. Who knows perhaps she is the Esther for just such a time as this?

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

by Akan Ido

Celebrity stylist, Toyin Lawani recently flaunted her bikini body wearing a transparent multi-coloured outfit fitted with a hood.

[READ: Mr & Mrs Swag: Celebrity stylist, Toyin Lawani, 31, gets engaged to her 21-year-old boyfriend (PHOTOS)]

Lawani who is heavily pregnant is engaged to a 21-year-old man who she appears to be having the time of her life with.

[SNAPSHOT: Celebrity stylist, Toyin Lawani, 31, pregnant for her 21-year-old fiance, flaunts baby bump]

Isn’t she lovely?

by Jason Njoku

Jason Njoku

The most obvious and globally acceptable way of monetizing premium content on ANY platform is via subscriptions. Asking viewers to pay a small amount for access to content they value and love sounds easy.

I write about Spark on my blog so much one would forget I actually spend <5% of my time there. The 95% is spent on iROKO, where the Nigerian tech space has been recently a flutter of its impending demise. Apparently with the opening up of YouTube’s partnership programme for all in Nigeria (and other parts of Africa) all us Multi Channel Networks (MCN) are dead. iROKO, iROKING, Ibakatv, TVNolly et al. are all toast. So iROKO’s investors should be worried. The end is nigh; alas, RIP iROKO.

Well not really. As long as a little fledgling network called iROKOtv has anything to do with it.

I haven’t responded in my usual boisterous way because as a new father I was struggling with the expectations of new found maturity and responsibility. My wife always tells me to ignore the negative drumbeat and focus on building awesome. That it’s not pundits who control the destiny of anything, but those grinding away day-by-day in the trenches. Yes, yes yes, I know. There is a natural hype cycle to any business and if you choose to shine in the media, prepare for extra scrutiny by the media. Hype and media alone cannot hide business success and fundamentals. But, only being me, respond I must. *So as not to give away the keys to the kingdom I will focus on today backwards. Future plans remain internal and private.

It is almost 2 years to the day iROKO completed its due diligence and closed $3Mn Series A with Tiger Global. The money hit the account 30th August 2011. On that day 100% of our revenue was based on YouTube audience and monetization. The $3Mn-mission was to get off YouTube. Fast. Three months later we launched iROKOtv, incidentally the same week YouTube formally launched in Nigeria. I was at the celebration, it was wonderful. But I was unhappy. I had been unhappy with YouTube for the longest time, for a variety of reasons which all MCN’s will realise sooner or later. With zero competition and 100% market share in 2011, my ambitions far outweighed what I could achieve on YouTube and thus started the mass migration of a million dollar business away from YouTube. That was make or break. In 2011, 100% of iROKO’s revenue was YouTube. Since inception. iROKO’s MCN (we operate over 400+ channels on YouTube), the largest being NollywoodLove, have generated a combined 560,000,000 views. 560Mn in about 30 months is not bad form. We are still one of the largest MCNs in Africa. I can’t think of one who is larger than us. There is a lot of noise in the space, pretenders to the throne, but I have a team who track their views, daily, weekly and monthly and even today, they have nothing on iROKO MCN, today we still generate 25Mn+ views monthly on YouTube. We have 10k+ video assets on YouTube and still see it as a very strong and awesome platform, but not one to build a $500Mn media+technology company upon. For that, you need to build your own platform. For that you need to own your house. Own your relationships with viewers. Directly own the means to take payment from them.

Today, iROKO’s business is not there anymore. Internally, YouTube never comes up in high level conversations and unless I’m actually writing an article or something I never bother to even check our metrics there. But here is a little data to chew on. In H1 2013, iROKO saw a y-o-y increase in revenue of versus 2012 of ~270%. YouTube for the entire H1 2013 represented only 14.1% of that revenue. We made more money last month from our licensing team than iROKO’s MCN. And when I mean licensing, I mean distributing Nollywood movies to Airlines (United, Kenya Airways, Ethiopia, SAA etc), TV networks outside of Africa and other third party aggregators like iTunes, Dailymotion and Rancard Ghana. But most of the ~270% revenue growth came from iROKOtv. More importantly and especially thanks to iROKOtv PLUS.

There is a reason you rarely see comparisons between Netflix vs YouTube or Hulu vs YouTube, because they live in different universes in the content world. I have never lost a piece of content acquisition to anyone. DStv/YouTube included. Definitely not on price at least. Today there are 2-3k movies already on YouTube. There are at least 50 MCN. Mostly from Alaba producers who I refused to buy content from. 50% of the most successful YouTube MCN’s are former employees at iROKO. Ibakatv included. Alaba Nollywood economics almost destroyed Nollywood with the emergence of part 1-8 ‘movies’ and ‘oil’, where the price of a VCD movie dropped from N250 to N42 within 3 years, I see something similar happening on YouTube. The cancerous Alaba economics precipitated the emergence of New Nollywood. Royal Arts, Yvonne Nelson’s YN Production, Rukky Sanda, Moses Iwang’s Sneeze Films, Venus Productions, Elvis Chuks, Desmond Elliot Denziot, Uche Jombo’s UJ studios etc. where DVD, theatre, in-flight and internet rights are valued and paid for accordingly. AfricaMagic have an entirely separate channel for this content. They don’t mix the Alaba and New Nollywood for a reason; quality of production. For people who think it’s easy to simply bypass the organisation and monetization strength of iROKO, they simply don’t understand where our strength lies. It’s not on YouTube. It’s on our balance sheet and iROKOtv. With our 1Mn email address’ of Nollywood fanatics, our 1Mn+ monthly uniques of folk who choose to come to view movies there, our carefully curated ‘actors week’ content which even AfricaMagic have started to copy, our improved discovery and recommendation tools….. I could go on. Those who glance at the site without actually using it will never get it. But that’s cool. iROKOtv is just here to build a little awesome. If Kunle Afolayan’s awesome movie The Figurine was freely available on iROKOtv, as it is currently on YouTube, the ~80k views it has gotten in four months would have easily been delivered by iROKOtv in four days. Maximum. Just from iROKOtv. No marketing. The entire organisational DNA is there to deliver this and to connect Nollywood lovers globally to content we know they will love. That’s all we do. And we always make more money from our production partners. Kunle Afolayan cannot be making money from YouTube at this stage. At least not the kind of money this awesome movie deserves.

What is iROKOtv? At core, iROKOtv is a 1Mn+ uniques per month iROKO brand which curates the best Nollywood has to offer. We stream content free of charge and figure out how to monetize it. That’s all.

On YouTube, everything is lost. Amazing content like The Figurine is barely discoverable.

We solved today’s YouTube problem two years ago. YouTube’s partnership programme has had zero effect on us. We have seen a glut of Alaba style movies flood there for almost 18 months now and yet we still grow revenue in triple digits. If that’s death. I dream of a sweet, sweet life.

The Machines are eating Internet advertising…

Ezeani wrote an interesting blog post which mentioned iROKOtv having generic ads similar to other western brands and that we should go local with our advertising partners. I tweeted last week that I wanted to start buying stocks in Adtech companies, because they are eating the internet. When I started with iROKO I thought I knew a thing or two about Adnetworks and internet advertising. I don’t. I know nothing. Over the last 18 months, Charles who leads our global advertising team, has mastered the complicated world of monetizing impressions. We have 16+ ad partners across display and video globally. We go geo by geo trying to figure out how to super monetize the 2.49 BILLION ad impressions we have generated in H1 2013. Yes that’s right. Just on iROKOtv we have generated 2,499,000,000 ad impressions across video and display in the first six months of this year. We bleed every impression to generate as much money as possible. The only issue is online advertising is being overrun with machines. Display Side Platform (DSP), Real time bidding (RTB), automation, static bidding, agency trading desks, buy/sell side platforms, ad exchanges, re-targeting, programmatic ad buying platforms… Example? Rocket Fuel ‘the fastest growing adnetwork ever’ just filed for a $100Mn IPO last week. From their website.

Rocket Fuel in a nutshell:

Rocket Fuel delivers a leading programmatic media-buying platform at big data scale that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to improve marketing ROI. Rocket Fuel’s powerful Advertising That Learns™ technology drives best-in-plan results for advertisers, and empowers media teams to focus on strategy, not spreadsheets. Its distributed computing engine currently screens over 28 billion ads per day, and selects the best for its customers via real-time bidding (RTB) relationships with major publishers and exchanges. This technique has proven itself across web, mobile, video, and social channels.

Awarded #4 on Forbes’ 2013 Most Promising Companies In America list, Rocket Fuel was founded by online advertising veterans and rocket scientists from NASA, Yahoo!, Salesforce.com, and DoubleClick. Rocket Fuel currently employs 512 people in 18 offices worldwide including New York, London, Paris, and Hamburg; and has a strategic alliance with cci to provide its services in Japan.

Only the initiated understand what the above actually means. With this 20 year mega trend of internet advertising being fed to the machines, I thought it was time, and more importantly Nollywood deserved a better way to capture the value in the global audience it has created. The most obvious and globally acceptable way of monetizing premium content on ANY platform is via subscriptions. Asking viewers to pay a small amount for access to content they value and love sounds easy. But is ridiculously difficult. The more I looked at this model, the more I fell in love with it. Subscription Economics are the most favourable economics online. But that requires its own post entirely.

- Part 2 coming shortly. 

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

by ‘Jola Sotubo

A female member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has lost her life while serving the nation in Zamfara state.

Bibiana Zira, 29, died after contracting pneumonia. She had been admitted in hospital for two weeks all to no avail.

The incident was confirmed by the State NYSC Coordinator, Ruth Bakka.

According to reports, Bakka said the corps member was on admission for two weeks at the Federal Medical Centre, Gusau, but died on Monday at the age of 29.

She said that during the deceased’s stay at the hospital, some fellow corps members donated blood to her, but that due to the strike action at the hospital, she could not receive the blood.

The coordinator added that the deceased was transferred to Yerima Bakura Specialist Hospital, Gusau, where she was given oxygen but that she died later.

Bakka said Zira was the first corps member that died of an illness in Gusau.
She said there were cases of corps members falling sick during their service year, but that once they were taken to the hospital, they would be treated and discharged.

by ‘Jola Sotubo

The Oba-Ofemmili community in Awka-North Local Government Area of Anambra State was thrown into pandemonium yesterday when suspected cultists went on a church-destroying rampage.

The assailants attacked Christians in their worship places and were brandishing guns and machetes with which they shot and inflicted injuries on their victims.

According to reports, the attackers went around looting and burning churches in the community. Some of the churches burnt include Assemblies of God Church, Grace of God Church, Deeper Life Bible Church, Winners Church, Christ Holy Church, St. Paul’s Catholic Church and another Pentecostal church.

It was gathered that trouble started in the community over disagreement between the Christians and the idol worshippers on the cultural night masquerade, a local fetish cult opposed by Christians in the area.

A victim of the incident, who gave his name as Sunday Aliuba, said they were in the church when the miscreants stormed their church, armed with guns and machetes. He said they swooped on the congregation and inflicted machete wounds on them, causing stampede as people struggled to escape from the church.

When contacted, the priest of St. Paul’s Anglican Church, whose parish church was razed, Rev. Pat. Odinanwa, said series of efforts made to ensure peace in the community between the church and the community failed.

He said the pagans nursed pathological hatred for Christians in the community. According to him, there were agreements reached between the church and the community, but the pagans sought all avenues to stop Christians from worshipping God in the community.

According to him, over 50 persons sustained gunshot and machete wounds, while seven churches were burnt by the irate youths. He said Christians in the area had been living in fear, as the youths threatened further attack today.

by Femi Aribisala

I don’t think so!  There is no revolution coming in Nigeria for the simple reason that the revolution already came a long time ago.  It came in a way that defied our political science textbooks.  Maybe that accounts for our failure to recognise it.  In the Nigeria of today, the revolution is crime.

Category Manager, Skin Cleansing, Unilever Nigeria,
Rotimi Oyesiji; winner, 1 million naira, Mrs. Adebiyi Oluwatobi; Vice
President Operations, Unilever Nigeria, Anil Gopalan; and Brand Manager,
Lux, Olumide Aniyikaiye, at the prize presentation of the first
millionaire in the ongoing ‘Lux Gold Search’ Promo in Lagos

by Isi Esene

The first one million naira winner in the on-going Lux consumer promotion emerges as the search for gold enters its second month.

Mrs Adebiyi Oluwatobi’s joy knows no bound as she emerged the first winner of one million naira in the ongoing Lux’s promotion.

‘I can’t believe am a millionaire! Though I saw the advert on TV, I never believe it’s real but now that am a winner, many thanks to Unilever and I’ll always use Lux beauty soap,” she exclaimed.

Speaking at the Promo unveil and cheque presentation, the Vice –President Operations Mr. Anil Gopalan while describing the promo mechanics said gold coins have been inserted in limited quantities bar of Lux beauty soap. “Since the launch of Lux in 1925, it has been the choice of over 1.5billion users per day. Our course is to make our consumers super stars thats the reason behind the usage of super star like Genevieve Nnaji, Munachi even Hollywood super stars as our model. As regard this promotion, customers are expected to go out and purchase this bar of Lux and find the gold coin to stand a chance to win instant prizes of 1million Naira for 5 winners; $1,000 for 30 winners; Blackberry Q10 for 20 winners; 10 washing machines; dinner tickets and other consolation prizes”. The promotion runs throughout Nigeria and winning entries have been planted strategically in each region to ensure winners emerge from each region,” he said.

The Category Manager, Skin Cleansing , Unilever Nigeria, Rotimi Oyesiji noted that Lux is a high quality soap with over 50 years of existence and formulated with special natural ingredients and first class perfumes to suit different people making them look more beautiful. It produces a creamy rich lather that cleans the skin well and leaves the skin smooth and soft.

“The new Lux range is a blend of luscious fruits and moisturising cream that enhances a soft and smooth skin. The five variants are Peach & Cream, Strawberry & Cream, Nut & Cream, Even Glow and Lux white. This promotion is our own way to rewarding loyal Lux users, as well as get new users to experience the brand.

He said that Unilever’s deep understanding of the Nigerian consumers places the company in a unique position to leverage its global strength in Research and Development and thereby bring brands that meet the highest international and local standards to the Nigerian people. In return, consumers have continued to patronise Unilever brands for which we would like to extend our appreciation.

Unilever, a leading FMCG company in Nigeria is with the Mission is to add Vitality to life by meeting everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that make people feel good, look good and get more out of life. The promo runs through October 15^th 2013 with the aim of building better relationship with consumers and to compensate for their loyalty.

by Eric Osagie

If Buhari runs in 2015, he would be confirming what many of his adversaries and opponents had always suspected: That the whole merger proposition was all for the realisation of the ambition of Buhari and the ego of Bola Tinubu.

In a country soaked deep in greed and graft, especially of its ruling elite, General Muhammadu Buhari should be a natural material for the highest office in the land? Unfortunately, not so. Thrice (2003, 2007 and 2011), he ran for the presidency and thrice, he failed to make it.  Each time, he cried that the ruling party, which boasted it would continue to rule in the next 60 years, fixed the elections. 60 years? To do what?   Of course, elections are always neither free, nor fair and credible in Africa’s most populous nation. The winner keeps winning, mostly through foul means.  Democracy here is obviously government of the strong men, who often muscle their way through every election.

So, despite his incorruptibility, integrity and legendary disciplined disposition, people like Buhari, who even his adversaries acknowledge as a good presidential choice, never made it to the finish line.   They have become, as one cheeky newscaster described him the other day, veteran presidential candidates, serial contestants for the office of Nigeria’s president!

But Buhari never intends to give in.  He seems to believe that, like Abraham Lincoln, who ran for elections and failed many times before becoming president, he too could win if he keeps trying, if he keeps running.

In 2015, from all indications, Buhari intends, once more, to throw his hat in the ring.  Even though his new party, the newly registered mega party, the All Progressive Congress, APC, is yet to blow the whistle for aspirants, the General is not hiding his intention.  He told a visiting Arewa youth group at his Kaduna residence recently that he would be trying again for the presidential mansion, otherwise known and called Aso Rock.  He was reported in the newspapers to have said he felt a sacred duty to run for the presidency.

Should Buhari run in 2015? Of course, it is his inalienable right to contest elections into any office of his choice, as many times as he so wishes.  If he runs, will he win?  That’s a different kettle of fish altogether.  If he runs and fails a fourth time, what would be the consequences for him as a person and the future of his party?  By allegedly alluding to a ‘divine call’ to run (as reported in the newspapers), is he not beginning to be consumed by a Messianic complex?  I hope not.

I first met the respected General sometime in 2003, shortly after the presidential election, through the assistance of the late Alhaji Wada Nas, the controversial former minister of special duties in Abacha’s regime.  I had been pressurising Nas for an interview, for him to speak up on his tenure as Abacha’s minister; why he took on the opposition so frontally and became known as ‘minister for NADECO affairs’; Did he make so much money for all his efforts, given the widely acknowledged sleaze of that administration?

A genial old man, despite his unfavourable public persona,  Nas would not grant a formal interview, even as he shared his shock to the news of the Abacha loot. He said he didn’t know the man was stashing so much away, while keeping a straight face under his dark goggles.  Nas was facing harsh times financially, while the family he defended with his all, was living large on the largesse left by their patriarch.

When my pressures (for an exclusive interview) became too much, he told me: “Please, take this phone number. Call the person. Tell him you are from me.”  The person turned out to be Gen. Buhari’s PA.  Once I told him I was from Nas, he was warm and friendly,and went on to fix an interview appointment with Buhari.  It was a lucky break. I wanted a big interview with Nas but I got a bigger one with Buhari.  The interview held at the NICON Hilton (now Transcorp Hilton).  Buhari spoke to me for an hour.  He told me he was in politics to sanitise the process, when I asked him why a man, who sacked a civilian administration over alleged indiscipline and graft, would be comfortable in partisan politics? What was a good man doing in the midst of bad people?  Buhari said politics was the only legitimate way anyone could change the system.  “I have told you my reason for going into politics. I don’t know what else you want me to say,” he snapped, when I tried to box him into a corner. He spoke on other issues, including what he called the ‘fraud’ of Obasanjo’s victory.

I met Buhari again in his Kaduna residence twice in 2010 and 2011. I have the activist Professor of Virology, Tam David-West, to thank for one of the other two encounters.   He had been through two electoral defeats, albeit in circumstances, he insists were skewed by the ruling party. During the interview sessions, I asked him the reason he wouldn’t quit (the race), seeing he had been unlucky in the contests?  I asked him if he was not a religious fundamentalist, as alleged by his opponents?  Why would a man, who became Head of State at 46 or thereabout, be fighting to be president at 70? Wasn’t that an aberration in Africa, seeing Europe and America were switching over to youthful leaders?

Buhari took all the questions in his stride.  He betrayed no sign of irritation.  First, he denied being a religious fundamentalist or a Nigerian Ayatollah?  He asked for proofs from people, who were saying so.  All his life and career, he had been at home with people of all religions, including Christianity. Even some of his domestic aides were staunch Christians.  He would continue to run for elections so long as he had breath in his nostrils. He didn’t see himself as too old to run for elective office.

“The young people should come together, mobilise and defeat people like me you describe as old, instead of complaining,” he said. “That’s what Obama did. That’s what Cameron did. This is democracy. Mobilise and defeat the old.”

Buhari said Nigeria needed liberation from the crooks in power. And he would lead that change, with support from the ordinary people.   His greatest fear, he said, was the fractionalisation of the country, what he called the’ Somalia-sation’ of Nigeria as a result of the irresponsibility of its leaders.

Anytime you left Buhari, you had the impression of a man of vision, a man deeply pained by the backwardness of his country.  You also had the impression of a man with a cult following, who has been made to believe in his own invincibility and god-like qualities.  He’s nearest to a saint, in the eyes of his followers and adherents.  You can’t blame them. This is a nation in search of authentic heroes.  Buhari approximates what heroic leadership is about.

When he made his iconic broadcast December 31, 1983, exhorting Nigerians to love their country, he was our ultimate JFK.  He told Nigerians:  “This generation of Nigerians, and indeed, future generations, have no other country but Nigeria. So, we must stay here and salvage it together.”

It was the days of the ‘Andrews,’ checking out to the foreign land in search of greener pastures.  That exhortation became our own patriotic anthem, a rally call to Nigerians to love Nigeria, because Nigeria’s all we’ve got.

That was over two decades ago.  Not anymore. No one has courage to tell Nigerians not to check out any longer.  To stay home and do what?  With a ballooning unemployment index, including that of graduates, people are searching for any kind of job from wherever.

With all the good qualities enumerated above, will Buhari, therefore, make better showing than he did in the three previous elections if he runs in 2015? Sadly, no.  Yes, he is a good man, loved by many ordinary people.  However, in life and politics where perception is everything, he has not been able to completely shake off the alleged religious extremism toga or that of a Northern irredentist.  The forces that have so painted him seem to have done a good job of it. Many years after, he, unfortunately, doesn’t come across to many as a national leader. Just like the man who currently occupies the seat, President Jonathan. We have seen how a president, who came on a strong national appeal, has dramatically narrowed his administration to ethnic predilection.

If Buhari runs in 2015, he would be confirming what many of his adversaries and opponents had always suspected: That the whole merger proposition was all for the realisation of the ambition of Buhari and the ego of Bola Tinubu.  A party should be about ideas and ideals, not individuals.  A party is not a limited liability company owned by one or two persons. Luckily, I know a few respected members of APC, who won’t let that happen. For APC to remain the hope of the common man, that must never happen.

At 70 plus, it’s time for Buhari to forget his presidential dream, groom younger leaders to take over from him.  With all due respect, Buhari is not indispensable. No man is indispensable.  If Buhari runs and fails in 2015, he would have finally eroded the Buhari myth, which has kept many of his followers going over the years.   And that would be quite tragic.  A nation should not lose all its heroes, in the name of politics or whatever.  We need statesmen men who, when they speak,  everyone listens,  including the president and governors.  Partisanship robs the nation of such leaders.  Anyone who truly loves Buhari ought to advise him to take a bow, and go on a deserved rest (from running for elective office). He’s played his part, he’s given his best and the rest is left for history, which will record him as a truly great Nigerian. No one can ask for more!

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Read this article in the Sun Newspapers

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

Femi Kuti

What: 2Kings Concert with Afrobeat legend, Femi Kuti & 2Face Idibia.

Where: Eko Hotels & Suites, V.I, Lagos.

When: August 25, 2013.

Photos by Hycinth Iyereosa

2Face Idibia

Actor, Joseph Benjamin

Comedian, Koffi

Pryse

Mannie

Omoye Uzamere

Warebi Martha

Moesha

Toke Makinwa

Yeni Kuti

Thelema

Layole Oyatogon

Yung

Zainab Ashadu

Yemi Alade

Trisha Ikpohongba

Helen Abutu

Jessica Onyema

Munika Mukan

Eigbe Queen

Adekumi Roland

Ayinde Kofoworola

Lynda Iledia

Adeyemo Bukky

Deborah Dawola

Ekeh Hope

Femi Kuti

Daniel and Awunika Mukan

2Face

Anne Idibia cheers her husband on

Praiz and Gideon Okeke

Vector

by Oge Okonkwo

Have you ever enjoyed a great evening of Karaoke? Jamming to your favourite songs along with celebrities and on-air personalities? Then, getting rewarded with fantastic gift items?

No? Here’s your chance! Dynamite Inc in conjunction with Freedom Hall brings to you KaraokePulse! The Karaoke competition packed with all of that and much more!

This is the 3^rd edition of KaraokePulse and is going gto be bigger and more exciting. This edition is tagged Urban Legends and is taking place at Shaunz Bar on Sunday, September 1^st by 4pm and will feature a fantastic panel of judges such as Weird MC, Nomoreloss, Kore Brown from Top Radio, Jennifer Jluv  from City FM and Gabriel Umoden from Konga and also the Konga Family will be there to hang out and give out.

Loads of cool prizes up for grabs like a grand Cash Prize for the Winning Team, Shopping vouchers from Konga.com, Beats by Dre Tour headphones, Couture dresses, Urban Tshirts, loads of goody bags and a lot more for the contestants and audience!!!

To participate, pick a team from Team R Kelly, Team Justin Timberlake, Team Ne-yo and Team Alicia Keys and send your Full Name, phone number and selected Team to karaokepulseng@gmail.com. A confirmation SMS and Email will be sent to you with a list of your team members and further instructions.

For more details and to RSVP as a guest, call Jennifer on 08034379470 or email karaokepulseng@gmail.com with your name, mobile number and email address. You can also check the Facebook page – www.facebook.com/KaraokePulse and Twiiter – @KaraokePulse for more information.

Thanks to our sponsors – Konga.com, Poster Magazine, Breeze36 Clothing, Ayotunde, Ratoleo, Beauty Overdose Magazine and also our media partners – YNaija, Bellanaija, TopRadio, CityFM, Olorisupergal, 360nobs, Gistville,  9jaticketmaster, and a whole lot more.

Your really don’t want to be told how this night happened!

- To place an advertorial, please email info@ynaija.com

by Oge Okonkwo

Nigerian Fuji legend King Wasiu Ayinde 1′s (KWAM 1) daughter, HoneyB took to the stage at the Notting Hill Carnival Nigerian corner.

The incredible performer displayed her sexy body on stage.

Watch video below:

by Oge Okonkwo

It’s a week after the launch of Davido’s Skelewu competition and already the submitted videos have an aggregate of over 100, 000 views, and there are still a few weeks to go. People have been busy and this is how they plan to win 3, 000 dollars.

The team at Laugh or yawn have the most popular Skelewu video on youtube at the moment and they add some spice to it!  From the street corner to an uncompleted toilet, it’s a must watch! http://www.youtube.com/user/laughoryawn

We are not sure this is Skelewu, but this girl sure knows how to move in bum shorts! Dovee Chase takes on Skelewu!

These guys recruit everyone in the area to Skelewu, and we love the little girl in pink!

Da Uniq Steppers are not here to play!

Break dance, moonwalking and Skelewu! Saam impresses with his version of Skelewu!

Its Monday morning at the office and Onochie is standing on a chair trying to win 3, 000 dollars!

We are not sure where Chinyere shot this video, we just know it could have been outside a restroom, in a hostel. No comments

Watch the instructional video here:

by Oge Okonkwo

by Sunday Saanu

Indeed, the new School of Business offers opportunities in academic and professional Masters of Business Administrations for both full-time and part-time MBA candidates.  It also offers short-term certificate courses as well as specific courses that meet special needs within the private and public sectors.

University of Ibadan (UI), Nigeria’s Premier University is thinking out of the box.  The 65-year old institution is becoming more creative in order to effectively blend with the current trend in this knowledge driven global economy.  In being creative, the university is beginning to take a second look at most of its courses that have been in existence since 1948 when the university was established in relation with the modern demands.

It was George Kneller, author of Existentialism and Education who noted that “creativity consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know.  Hence, to think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted”.  This is exactly the scenario in UI.  Many things that had hitherto been taken for granted are now receiving serious intellectual interrogation with a view to conforming to the contemporary needs.

The recently created and inaugurated University of Ibadan School of Business (UISB), where regular and contemporary, short-time courses, customized workshops, consultancy and research for various organizations and companies will be in the offering is one of the fall outs of a new vision.  It is on record that UI is reputed for teaching only Economics in the area of business and commercial studies even when younger universities are offering Accountancy, Banking and Finance, Business Administration among others. Many candidates who would have loved to have their First Degree in UI have gone to other universities simply because their preferred courses of study are not available in the University of their First Choice (UI)

However, with the new UISB, headed by a first class Professor of Economics, Prof. Ademola Ariyo who is the Board Chairman, and the First Female Professor of Computer Science/Economics in Africa, Prof. Adenike Osofisan as the Director, a paradigm shift that will provide and build leadership for current business challenges has berthed in Ibadan. The philosophy of the UISB is to provide an education that will satisfy today’s public and private economic requirements.  It offers a platform for post-experience learning, as well as exposure to the use of basic economic, management, and technical tools intertwined with case studies.  The teaching and learning process will according to the mandate, be delivered in the open, distant and blended modes.  This is with a view to ensuring that learning is nurtured in a flexible and versatile manner.  The real life intervention by students will be encouraged to develop problem solving capacities and capabilities.

Indeed, the new School of Business offers opportunities in academic and professional Masters of Business Administrations for both full-time and part-time MBA candidates.  It also offers short-term certificate courses as well as specific courses that meet special needs within the private and public sectors.  The school therefore intends to collaborate with both private and public sectors of the African economy to solve both management and leadership problems.

Since what one earns, in today’s knowledge based economy, depends largely on what one learns, the UISB has also determined to run short term programmes targeted at corporate and working professionals to upgrade knowledge and professional skills in order to avoid obsolescence in this highly dynamic technological world. Certainly, every activity of the school will be information technology driven.

Of course, before getting to this stage, the university, being meticulous as it is, had sent members of the school implementation committee to five selected Business schools in the United Kingdom and the United States of America for a study tour.  The committee visited London Business School, Columbia Business School, New York and Kellogg Business School, North-Western University, Chicago.  They also visited Howard University Business School and University of Central Florida, Orlando, USA.

The intention was to ensure that the best global practices in Business education are made available in Nigeria.  Besides, as they say, “knowledge is a mimic creation, not even when Thomas Edison has counseled that there is always a way to do it better if only one can find it. The University of Ibadan has seemingly found a way of running a school of Business with the forms and structures that are enviably made available. Already, the university has set aside a whopping N350 million for the initial take off.  After about six decades of its existence, the management of the university felt it was high time the institution extends its rich intellectual heritage towards the growth and development of a virile, private sector, not only in Nigeria, but also the whole of Africa.

This, the university intends to achieve through supply of new breed, first rate economic policy, and corporate managers, as well as entrepreneurs that are able and willing to ensure the accelerated development of Nigeria in particular and Africa in general, under the auspices of a private sector driven policy framework.  This, it seeks to achieve through the offering of internationally competitive programmes and products in business education, research and management. From available facts, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Isaac Folorunso Adewole richly deserves public commendation for his enthusiasm in ensuring that the UISB takes off.  Prof. Adewole who believes that other people must light their candle from the knowledge base of the university has always been saying that Ibadan must keep adding value to the society.  Inaugurating the UISB Board recently in Lagos, the VC who called on private sector players to key into the new vision.

Although there is still a long distant to destination as billions of Naira required to build main building, library, lecture theatre as well as other external works remain elusive, short time programmes and consultancy as well as research for willing organizations and companies have begun in earnest. Pioneering staff members of the UISB including Mr. Lucky Igonor deserve kudos for their commitment and sacrifice in laying the foundation for the new School of Business under the supervision of the “Iron Lady”, Prof. Osofisan, the Director. It might not be too much to provide a Business School that meets international standard.  There is no point travelling abroad for a course that could be taken in Nigeria.  If the standard is solid, the growing intelligence gap will be filled as the boundaries of human knowledge gets expanded towards uplifting the society.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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by Abdulhameed Ujo

Given the above projection, PDP will win 3 zones and FCT. These are South-South, South-East, and North-Central and FCT with total registered voters of 28,670,629; while the APC will win 3 zones with 44,848,911 registered voters.

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