Absolut Vodka Supports Creativity with Fashion, Music & Art Event

Absolut Vodka has once again proven its dominance in the creative space in Nigeria by supporting the Fashion, Music + Arts 2014 event that took place at Fuse Lounge, Saka Tinubu, Victoria Island on the 5th of September 2014. The event was a fusion of fashion exhibitions by Mai Atafo, Sisiano, Pandora Jewels, Efua and Taylor Gabriels and music performances by Praiz, Timaya, Lami Philips and other top Nigerian artists. Continue to see photos from the event...

The event which was put together by Upfront and Personal had in attendance A-list celebrities and industry executives amongst others. Absolut Vodka has been inspiring and enabling the creative movement in Nigeria with events on the creative edge like the Open canvas Lagos (www.opencanvaslagos.ng) and sponsorship of MAMAs 2014 (www.AbsolutMAMAs.com) and fantastic parties like the Glow in the dark party and Absolut Art party in Lagos.

The brand has promised to continue in its quest to create unforgettable consumer experiences in 2014 with creative and exciting events. View photos from the event below:

 

 

Beauty of the day: Former Ada Ndi Igbo queen, Ijeoma Santus

Beautiful Ijeoma Belle Santus was Ada Ndi Igbo queen last year. See more photos after the cut...

Regina Askia writes on domestic violence against women

Former Nollywood star Regina Askia Williams took to her Facebook wall to express 

her thoughts on domestic violence and how it can be avoided. In the piece, she 

addressed the notion by some women who believe a man beats a woman out of love.

 She says any violent act in a relationship is the shadow image of fear and that the

 best thing to do is to deal with the root cause of the fear. Find her incisive post after the cut...

Domestic Violence
What the heck is that? Folks this is only for mature minds and not a forum for ridicule,

 small talk nor look good ops. This is a serious issue. We all know when conflict arises

, and there is an inability to settle amicably, more often than not violence ensues.

 Why? One party feels he/she needs to be heard and the other party is just not trying

 to hear it, voices are raised, words turn salty, things are thrown around including

 punches, regrettably.
 
Now if you are at the receiving end of those “salty words” or the landing pad for those 

flying objects and punches you feel a variety of emotions. First you feel small, then 

emotionally hurt, then physical degradation, the physical being the most dangerous 

of them all. You can get over words if you work at it, therapy can get you over

 wounded emotions, but how do you get over scars and post traumatic reenactments

 of fleeting moments when death said hello. How do you reconcile when you hear

 stories of those in that same situation who actually passed on. The person at the

 launch end of the punch also feels fleeting gratification that frustrating moments of

 torture from a mouthy ‘bi*ch” are over…but wait….she/he is not moving. Damn,

 I didn’t even hit her so hard. Waves of panic and terror take turns. Frantic efforts 

at reviving the fallen may be successful or not. Then comes bitter regret and the

 “I am so sorry” which too often also comes with “It is too late”. Note that sometimes

 there is absolutely no remorse, “We hear remarks like “Look what you made me do” 

or “Bit*ch asked for it”. Snoop Dog sings “If a bit*ch gets an attitude, pop it like its hot” yeah. 
 
The question now is why do we feel the need to physically strike out at another when we

 feel we must impose our way of thought or action on them. What is that need to have 

others conform or get hurt? Now if we hurt them enough to get them to fall in line, have 

we secured true change or secured an act as a means of self-protection by our victims?

 In this case who is fooling who? As we reflect on these please consider your partners

 in relationships, your spouses and yes your children. Being raised African I often got the

 switch as did we all when we stepped out of line or when we chose to do business with

 the devil as in lying or stealing. Those were the big ones. Of course I turned out a well-rounded,

 well-adjusted individual I hope. But then how did this teach me to deal with frustrating situations?

 You got it right, the switch and if you were “bigger” than me, my mouth. Oh dear, you don’t 

want to be at the other end of my mouth. I don’t curse, I only tell the crystal truth with brutal

 delivery and at less than appropriate moments. Some would call them fighting words,

 starting sh*t or asking for it. Same reaction applies with violent spouses and relationships.

 In frustrating moments we attack each other with whatever arsenal at our disposal. 

Like animals the physically stronger survives. But we are more than animals, we are

 thinking reasoning people. So why do we react the way we do? 
It is clearly time for a journey into self. What if at the moment of escalation like

 voices getting raised, we stop and walk away, or decide to leave it for another minute.

 What if at the moment you feel like raising your hand you imagine it was landing on your

 own face? What about writing your frustrations down on paper and discussing it with each 

other. We need to realize that violence begets violence. We especially African and African

 Americans need to find other ways for conflict resolution. With our children, we must talk

 and reason with them and follow up with modelling the required behavior and rewarding 

it when met. I really used to wonder why some parents would stand by and let their kids

 act out in the store, jack knifing and rolling all over the floor, because kid wants some 

toy whereas they could give one good slap on the butt and that nonsense is over. 

Now I know they let the child pull all his /her tricks while they stand firm on “No dear, 

you can’t have yet another Robocop”. Our children learn what we teach.

 I remember also (though sadly) when my kids acted up on outings and when 

we were driving home and I was all silent, my daughter would start asking

 “Mommy are you my friend” because she knew she was going to get a

 spanking for acting up. 
 
We may be tempted to say that’s different from domestic violence, but violence is

 violence no matter the form. The sad thing about violence is that it’s cyclical, you 

will keep being violent, salty or “keep asking for it” unless you make a conscious effort 

to change the way you react in frustrating situations. If your spouse has hit you once,

 he will do it again. He will kneel with tears and a tremulous voice and beg your forgiveness,

 he will apologize, with flowers, shoes (leboutins , you know it), candle lit dinners and the

 sweetest (kiss and make up) loving. Aah yes!! for better or for worse. Stupid world people

 keep trying to break you up, you figure. In fact both of you will call up all those nosy pokers

 and warn them to mind their business and stay out of your relationship. For a while you will

 exchange secret smiles which will become quick unsmiling glances with silences you

 cannot explain, tension builds, arguments over silly stuff like why this cup is sitting on

 the side table and not in sink and an explosive argument over yet another mundane like

 a missed call. Then the flying objects and the blows come down. Who you going to call?

 You warned everybody to stay away and he knows because he made sure you have no

 relationships a mile outside of you and him. You are in a choke hold, all is quiet, his face

 is an inch from

 yours contorted in anger and vehemence, but all you hear is a ringing in your ears, 

you feel your body slacking and did you just fart? Damn. 
 
Unless we make a conscious effort to deal with frustration differently we will continue

 to be violent, teach violence and experience violence in our families and society. 
 
I have heard some flawed thinking from my African sisters; he beats me because he 

loves me. How come he does not let you beat him because you love him or don’t you? 

We cannot blame being violent with someone on “they made me do it”. No one can tell 

you how to control yourself or how to react to situations except you. Only you have the 

power to change you. Some men think it’s a power thing to slap someone into conforming

 but wise folks know that VIOLENCE IS THE SHADOW IMAGE OF FEAR.

 What are you so afraid of? The manly thing to do would be to really face that

 fear and deal with it rather than choose the cowardly way of beating up on a

 weaker person. A man incontinent with rage is as embarrassing as one incontinent

 of his bowels. (We could forgive bowel incontinence because it may be a medical condition).

 Now for those of us, who really have an out of control problem with rage, GET HELP now.

 We don’t want to see you on the six “o’clock news as having hurt somebody. For those

 women in abusive relationships get help or get out. We also don’t want to see you on

 the news as dead or as having shot somebody. Having said that, don’t expect an

 overnight change to a condition that took a life time to breed. The condition of violence

 and rage requires painstaking deconstruction during which there may be relapses. 

Some people recover while others take a while, but you should not wait around to find out. 
 
There are a myriad of services for women and men in violent situations. 

There are also so many schools of thought on those services being targeted at

 destroying the black family unit, denying black kids a home, encouraging divorce

 among black folks and the further debasing of the black male(pointing them towards jail)

 and female (driving them to prostitution). Again, personal responsibility comes into play.

 Only you can choose the direction where your life leads. Just remember those things

 will happen with worse consequences when YOU are dead and your kids taken to

 foster homes. The above reasons are the poorest excuse to stay in a situation or

 relationship where your life is in danger. A strong black family needs men and

 women with their heads screwed on right. Get help if you need help. 
 
My next post will focus us learning to handle frustration. I would also appreciate

 comments from those brave ones among you who have been to anger management 

classes. I would also appreciate comments on this black footballer who struck his 

fiancée and knocked her out cold and the one who put the switch on his son and

 is now facing child abuse charges. We must find another way other than violence. 
 
Let us walk in love and not in fear. Enjoy your weekend!!. Cheers.

British aid worker, David Haines, beheaded by ISIS

The Islamic State yesterday released a video showing the beheading of British aid worker,
 David Haines, who was abducted in Syria last year. Before he was executed,
the father of 2 blamed British Prime Minister David Cameron for his death. He said;
"My name is David Cawthorne Haines. I would like to declare that I hold you David
 Cameron entirely responsible for my execution. You entered voluntarily into a
 coalition with the United States against the Islamic State, just as your predecessor 
Tony Blair did, following a trend amongst our British Prime Minsters who can't find
 the courage to say no to the Americans. Unfortunately it is we the British public
 that in the end will pay the price for our Parliament's selfish decisions.'
We all know they force these hostages to make these statements but why even
 say it if you know they will still kill you? Haines is the third westerner to be
 beheaded in the last few weeks. Continue...

Before executing his hostage, the Islamic State militant called Jihadi John by the media, said;

"This British man has to the pay the price for your promise, Cameron, to arm the Peshmerga against the Islamic State. Ironically he has spent a decade of his life serving under the same Royal Air Force that is responsible for delivering those arms.

'Your evil alliance with America which continues to strike the Muslims of Iraq and most recently bombed the Haditha Dam will only accelerate your destruction, and playing the role of the obedient lapdog, Cameron, will only drag you and your people into another bloody and unwinnable war.'

Responding to the video, British Prime Minister David Cameron said

"This is a despicable and appalling murder of an innocent aid worker. It is an act of pure evil. My heart goes out to the family of David Haines who have shown extraordinary courage and fortitude throughout this ordeal. We will do everything in our power to hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice, however long it takes," Cameron said.

Wole Soyinka writes on the #bringbackjonathan post, says he knows Australian hostage negotiator

In a piece he titled 'The Wages of Impunity', Nobel Laureate Prof Soyinka condemned the recent #bringbackjonathan2015 campaign slogan and GEJ's recent trip to Chad with Ali Modu Sheriff, who has been accused of being a Boko Haram sponsor. In the piece posted on Sahara Reporters, Prof Soyinka wrote that he knows Australian hostage negotitaor Stephen Davis, saying that they both worked together under late President Umaru Musa Yar Adua's regime during the struggle for the return of peace in the Niger Delta region. 

He also wrote that he has his own theories regarding how General Ihejirika may have come under Stephen Davis’ searchlight. Find his article after the cut...

The dancing obscenity of Shekau and his gang of psychopaths and child abductors, taunting the world, mocking the BRING BACK OUR GIRLS campaign on internet, finally met its match in Nigeria to inaugurate the week of September 11 – most appropriately. Shekau’s danse macabre was surpassed by the unfurling of a political campaign banner that defiled an entry point into Nigeria’s capital of Abuja. That banner read:  BRING BACK JONATHAN 2015.

President Jonathan has since disowned all knowledge or complicity in the outrage but, the damage has been done, the rot in a nation’s collective soul bared to the world. The very possibility of such a desecration took the Nigerian nation several notches down in human regard. It confirmed the very worst of what external observers have concluded and despaired of  - a culture of civic callousness, a coarsening of sensibilities and, a general human disregard. It affirmed the acceptance, even domination of lurid practices where children are often victims of unconscionable abuses including ritual sacrifices, sexual enslavement, and worse. Spurred by electoral desperation, a bunch of self-seeking morons and sycophants chose to plumb the abyss of self-degradation and drag the nation down to their level.  It took us to a hitherto unprecedented low in ethical degeneration.  The bets were placed on whose turn would it be to take the next potshots at innocent youths in captivity whose society and governance have failed them and blighted their existence? Would the Chibok girls now provide standup comic material for the latest staple of Nigerian escapist diet?  Would we now move to a new export commodity in the entertainment industry named perhaps “Taunt the Victims”?

As if to confirm all the such surmises, an ex-governor, Sheriff, notorious throughout the nation – including within security circles as affirmed in their formal dossiers – as prime suspect in the sponsorship league of the scourge named Boko Haram,  was presented to the world as a presidential traveling companion. And the speculation became: was the culture of impunity finally receiving endorsement as a governance yardstick?  Again, Goodluck Jonathan swung into a plausible explanation: it was Mr. Sheriff who, as friend of the host President Idris Deby, had traveled ahead to Chad to receive Jonathan as part of President Deby’s welcome entourage.  What, however does this say of any president? How come it that a suspected affiliate of a deadly criminal gang, publicly under such ominous cloud, had the confidence to smuggle himself into the welcoming committee of another nation, and even appear in audience, to all appearance a co-host with the president of that nation? Where does the confidence arise in him that Jonathan would not snub him openly or, after the initial shock, pull his counterpart, his official host aside and say to him, “Listen, it’s him, or me.”? So impunity now transcends boundaries, no matter how heinous the alleged offence?

The Nigerian president however appeared totally at ease. What the nation witnessed in the photo-op was an affirmation of a governance principle, the revelation of a decided frame of mind – with precedents galore. Goodluck Jonathan has brought back into limelight more political reprobates – thus attested in criminal courts of law and/or police investigations – than any other Head of State since the nation’s independence. It has become a reflex. Those who stuck up the obscene banner in Abuja had accurately read Jonathan right as a Bring-back president. They have deduced perhaps that he sees “bringing back” as a virtue, even an ideology, as the corner stone of governance, irrespective of what is being brought back. No one quarrels about bringing back whatever the nation once had and now sorely needs – for instance, electricity and other elusive items like security, the rule of law etc. etc. The list is interminable. The nature of what is being brought back is thus what raises the disquieting questions. It is time to ask the question: if Ebola were to be eradicated tomorrow, would this government attempt to bring it back?

Well, while awaiting the Chibok girls, and in that very connection, there is at least an individual whom the nation needs to bring back, and urgently. His name is Stephen Davis, the erstwhile negotiator in the oft aborted efforts to actually bring back the girls.  Nigeria needs him back – no, not back to the physical nation space itself, but to a Nigerian induced forum, convoked anywhere that will guarantee his safety and can bring others to join him. I know Stephen Davis, I worked in the background with him during efforts to resolve the insurrection in the Delta region under President Shehu Yar’Adua. I have not been involved in his recent labours for a number of reasons. The most basic is that my threshold for confronting evil across a table is not as high as his -  thanks, perhaps, to his priestly calling. From the very outset, in several lectures and other public statements, I have advocated one response and one response only to the earliest, still putative depredations of Boko Haram and have decried any proceeding that smacked of appeasement. There was a time to act – several times when firm, decisive action, was indicated. There are certain steps which, when taken, place an aggressor beyond the pale of humanity, when we must learn to accept that not all who walk on two legs belong to the community of humans – I view Boko Haram in that light. It is no comfort to watch events demonstrate again and again that one is proved to be right.

Thus, it would be inaccurate to say that I have been detached from the Boko Haram affliction – very much the contrary. As I revealed in earlier statements, I have interacted with the late National Security Adviser, General Azazi, on occasion – among others.  I am therefore compelled to warn that anything that Stephen Davis claims to have uncovered cannot be dismissed out of hand.  It cannot be wished away by foul-mouthed abuse and cheap attempts to impugn his integrity – that is an absolute waste of time and effort. Of the complicity of ex-Governor Sheriff in the parturition of Boko Haram, I have no doubt whatsoever, and I believe that the evidence is overwhelming. Femi Falana can safely assume that he has my full backing – and that of a number of civic organizations – if he is compelled to go ahead and invoke the legal recourses available to him to force Sheriff’s prosecution. The evidence in possession of Security Agencies – plus a number of diplomats in Nigeria – is overwhelming, and all that is left is to let the man face criminal persecution. It is certain he will also take many others down with him.

Regarding General Ihejirika, I have my own theories regarding how he may have come under Stephen Davis’ searchlight in the first place, ending up on his list of the inculpated. All I shall propose at this stage is that an international panel be set up to examine all allegations, irrespective of status or office of any accused. The unleashing of a viperous cult like Boko Haram on peaceful citizens qualifies as a crime against humanity, and deserves that very dimension in its resolution. If a people must survive, the reign of impunity must end. Truth – in all available detail – is in the interest, not only of Nigeria, the sub-region and the continent, but of the international community whose aid we so belatedly moved to seek. From very early beginnings, we warned against the mouthing of empty pride to stem a tide that was assuredly moving to inundate the nation but were dismissed as alarmists. We warned that the nation had moved into a state of war, and that its people must be mobilized accordingly – the warnings were disregarded, even as slaughter surmounted slaughter, entire communities wiped out, and the battle began to strike into the very heart of governance, but all we obtained in return was moaning, whining and hand-wringing up and down the rungs of leadership and governance. But enough of recriminations – at least for now. Later, there must be full accounting.

Finally, Stephen Davis also mentions a Boko Haram financier within the Nigerian Central Bank. Independently we are able to give backing to that claim, even to the extent of naming the individual. In the process of our enquiries, we solicited the help of a foreign embassy whose government, we learnt, was actually on the same trail, thanks to its independent investigation into some money laundering that involved the Central Bank. That name, we confidently learnt, has also been passed on to President Jonathan. When he is ready to abandon his accommodating policy towards the implicated, even the criminalized, an attitude that owes so much to re-election desperation, when he moves from a passive “letting the law to take its course” to galvanizing the law to take its course, we shall gladly supply that name.

In the meantime however, as we twiddle our thumbs, wondering when and how this nightmare will end, and time rapidly runs out, I have only one admonition for the man to whom so much has been given, but who is now caught in the depressing spiral of diminishing returns: “Bring Back Our Honour.”

Wole Soyinka

Genevieve Nnaji, Waje, Tiwa's stuning outfit to Mo Abudu's 50th brithday event

Genevieve Nnaji stunning in a Monique Lhuillier dress. The grand event is currently going on at the Oriental Hotel in Lagos. See Tiwa's outfit after the cut...

U.S Citizens in Uganda Urged to Stay Home as Anti-terrorism Operation Commences

Uganda (Reuters/NAN) United States officials on Saturday warned
their citizens in Uganda to stay home or go to a safe location as
authorities conducted an “operation” against a suspected terror cell in the
 capital of Kampala.

“All U.S. citizens are advised to stay at home or proceed to a
 safe location,” U.S. mission in Uganda said.

The statement however did not give further details.

Photo Credit: Ug News

About NAN

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) was established by the Federal Government of Nigeria in May 1976 to gather and distribute news on Nigeria and cover events of interest to Nigeria at the international level for the benefit of the Nigerian Media and the Public.