Tuesday 19 May 2015

Sosoliso Plane Crash Survivor Kechi Okwuchi Graduates With First Class Honours


Remember the Sosoliso air crash in December 2005 that claimed many lives? One of the two survivors of that fatal crash - Kechi Okwuchi has just graduated with a First Class Honors in Economics & Marketing from St Thomas University in the United States of America. She was also inducted into the academic honor society due to her outstanding performance as the best graduating student in the department of Economics.







Monday 18 May 2015

Meet Nigerian woman who has no formal education but lectures at Harvard, other top varsities


Not many in her homeland appear to know about her unique story. But in other lands, especially Europe and America, she is a ‘goddess’ whose works are cherished by kings and presidents.
Without a doubt, the story of Nike Okundaye, the face behind the huge success story of Nike Arts Gallery, located in Lagos, Abuja and Osogbo, is as compelling as it is inspiring.

At a time when young Nigerians are in desperate need of a role model and inspiration in what self-belief and hard work can achieve, Nike’s rise from the status of an unknown village girl born into a seeming insignificant family in a rustic village to a globally celebrated icon would make an A-list inspirational novel.

Born in her native village of Ogidi, Ijumu Local Government Area, Kogi State, young Nike had high dreams about what type of future she wanted for herself. But her dreams were truncated even before they could take form when she lost her mother at age six. “I was six when my mother died,” she said with a tinge of sadness.

With the blow inflicted on her dreams by her mother’s death, young Nike was taken away to live with her grandmother. At the time, many believed that by going to live with an old woman, the young girl’s future had been compromised. But events have since proved that destiny may indeed have been at work in her journey through life.

She had her first contact with the world of arts through her grandmother, who at the time, was the leader of cloth weavers in the community.She said: “I come from a family of craftsmen. My parents were crafts people from Ogidi in Ijumu Local Government Area, Kogi State. My life as an artist is something that I was born with. I started weaving at the age of six. “I started with weaving different things, including adire, a traditional Yoruba hand-painted cloth design. As a matter of fact, I can say everything that had to do with textile. They taught me how to weave, using a little calabash. Gradually, I graduated to using bigger materials.”
Though Nike was six years old and barely able to tell the difference between her left and right hands, she already had a picture of the kind of future she wanted.“My grandmother was the head of all the weavers in our community. So, even as a little child, I already had a dream that I would own a big studio when I grew up. People came from different areas to buy the cloth from her. So, at that time, I already sensed that I might not have the opportunity to go to school.”

With the death of her mother, her grandmother, whose responsibility it was to look after her, did not pamper her in any form. She ensured that the virtue of hard work was instilled in Nike’s young, impressionable mind.

At that time, young Nike, unaware of the reason behind her great grandmother’s action, would cry, believing that she was being unnecessarily punished. “I would cry and lament because I thought she was wicked and punishing me. But today, I always thank her for inculcating in me the virtue of hard work. It was through her that I learnt that you must persevere in whatever you do and never give up on your dreams.”

Although she lost her mother at a time she needed her most, Nike believes that destiny might have been involved in the way her life played out, including her mother’s death. According to her, the mother was a very hard working young woman who would have spared nothing to ensure that her child got a good education up to the university level.

“Even at that young age, I knew that my mother was very hard working. And I am very sure that if she had not died, she would have trained me up to university level. My father was a farmer. He also did several other things like basket weaving to supplement his income. So, definitely, I would have been educated very well if my mother had not died. “But today, I look at my childhood and all that I went through as something designed by destiny. Who knows, maybe if my mother had not died and I had gone ahead to be educated, I may never have had the kind of opportunity that I have today and may never have risen to the level that I am.”

Nike never went to school to study art, the vocation that has brought her to global spotlight. 

Vocational training in art was passed down to her by her great grandmother, the late Madam Ibikunle. Watching her great grandmother in the art of adire textile processing and helping her out, Nike walked up the line to become an expert in adire making, dyeing, weaving, painting and embroidery.

A product of the famous Osogbo Art Movement, Nike is today a world acclaimed artist and textile designer. She brings vivid imagination as well as a wealth of history and tradition into the production of adire. Her works are celebrated in major capitals of the world, with her designs exhibited in countries like the USA, Belgium, Germany, Japan and Italy, among others.

Nike spent the early part of her life in Osogbo, a recognised hotbed for art and culture in Nigeria. During her stay in Osogbo, her informal training was dominated by indigo and adire.
Nike’s romance with international exposure began in 1968 when she had an exhibition at the Goethe Institute in Lagos. Since then, she has grown to become a major name on the international art circuit. She is most outstanding in paintings and design of adire, beadwork and batik.

Among Nike’s proudest achievements was her invitation to Italy by the Italian government in 2000 to train young Nigerian sex workers on how to use their hands to engage in creative ventures. Her invitation was as a result of complaints to the Italian government by the young Nigerians that they left Nigeria in search of work, not knowing what they would be forced into. When Nike got to Italy, she taught them skills in craft making and many of the women became self-reliant in no time and stopped their old means of income.

In 2006, she was awarded one of the highest Italian national awards of merit by the government of the Republic of Italy in appreciation of her efforts in using art to address and solve the problems of Nigerian sex workers in Italy.

About two years ago, her adire painting was accepted at The Smithsonian, the world’s largest museum, located in Washington DC, US. Some of her works can be found among-st the collection of prominent personalities around the world, including the White House.

While little is known about Nike and her works across the country, two former presidents of the USA, Bill Clinton and George Bush, were so enthralled by her works at various times that they sought audience with her during their visits to Nigeria. Much more than just meeting and shaking hands with the two former presidents, it was Nike that decorated George Bush’s room in Abuja during his stay in the country.

According to Nike, these two incidents, were some of the best things to have happened to her.
She said: “When President Bill Clinton of the US visited Nigeria, he asked to meet the woman behind Nike Gallery, and I was taken to Abuja to meet him. It was the same thing with President George Bush. I was invited to meet him in Abuja during his visit to Nigeria. I was the one that decorated the room where the president stayed during the visit. What honour can be greater than this? I feel accomplished.”

As an accomplished artist, Nike has taught in several universities in the US, imparting the knowledge of her traditional adire designs in thousands of eager students from across the world. Her teaching exploits, she disclosed, have taken her to revered institutions like Harvard and Edmonton in Canada.

“I have lectured and held workshops in several noble institutions across the world. Some of the universities include Harvard, Columbus, Edmonton, Ohio and in Los Angeles, among others. 

My first experience with teaching was in 1974. At that time, I taught people with doctoral degrees.”
Interestingly, all the education she had at the time, according to her, was the traditional education that parents pass onto their children.

“The type of education I had at the time was the education that is passed from parents to their children, not the education you get in a classroom. It was the practical type of education,” she said with a wry smile.

In 1983, she established the Nike Centre for Art and Culture in Osogbo, Osun State, where trainings are offered free of charge to Nigerians in various forms of arts. The centre was opened with 20 young girls who were picked from the streets and offered a new life in arts. So far, according to her, more than 3,000 young Nigerians have been trained at the centre.

The centre also admits undergraduate students from many universities in Nigeria for their industrial training programmes in textile design. The centre now admits students from Europe, Canada and the United States of America. International scholars and other researchers in traditional African art and culture also visit the centre from time to time for their research works on the processing of adire fabric and African traditional dyeing methods.

But she says the true story of the gallery started in her bedroom about 47 years ago.

“The gallery you see today actually started in my bedroom in 1968. In 2008, we opened the one in Lagos, and my husband was always the motivator. It was intended to give the young and old a platform to hear their voice.”

As she spoke, with signs of fulfillment splashed on her face, her husband, Reuben Okundaye, a retired commissioner of police, who had remained quiet since the interview started, suddenly joined in the conversation.

He said: “It is with practical education that she has continued to teach and impart knowledge into people with doctoral degrees and masters in Fine Art. Some of these people even come here under the cover of night to seek advice from her. Yet, some would say she is not educated.”

Speaking about another experience, Mr. Okundaye said he once had an encounter with a prominent Nigerian who told him that his wife would have been made a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria if she was educated. Surprised, he said he took a swipe at the man, telling him his wife was better educated than most of the people that were being flaunted.

He said: “You can imagine, I was discussing with one big man the other day and he said that my wife would have been made a minister if she was educated. I was angry and I asked him what he meant by that. Here is a woman who teaches people with doctoral degrees in higher institutions all over the world, yet you say she is not educated. But when the chips are down, they come to her for advice.”

Asked how she feels whenever she teaches in the classroom, Nike looked up as if relishing her achievements, and said: “I feel fulfilled. It was a very high sense of fulfillment. Imagine, a little girl who grew up in a rustic village without any sign of hope for a good future. Now I stand before PHD holders and teach them. I have been invited to meet presidents of foreign countries. I think I should be proud of my little achievements and be grateful to God.”

In spite of her seeming low education, she insists she has no regrets about not attending school. “I have no regrets at all. I give thanks to God for making all these things possible for me. I also thank my husband for standing by me all these years. I must confess that it was not easy coming this far. You will agree with me that for a woman to be recognised, she has to work three times harder than a man.”

Reechoing his wife’s position, Mr. Okundaye said Nike could not have had any regrets, having attained the heights sought by many across the world. “You asked if she has any regrets. How can that be possible? What kind of regret was she supposed to have with all her achievements? She is fulfilled in every sense of the word,” he enthused.

Expectedly, the couple was attracted to each other by their mutual love for arts.  “I have always been an arts lover. I have some of her works. Perhaps, like you said, maybe it was destiny that brought us together.”
With a sterling career as a police officer, which saw him attaining the rank of Commissioner of Police and serving in more than four states, the couple has in the last 20 years of their coming together enjoyed the beauty of marriage and weathered the storm together.

Nike, who would be 64 in a couple of weeks, has also successfully created an identity for herself. Her most treasured clothes, she confessed, are adire fabrics. And it is not surprising that she cannot remember the last time she wore anything other than that.

“You may be right if you say I have created an identity for myself with my adire clothes. It is the only thing that I am known with. I don’t wear any other clothe, even when I travel out of the country,” she said.

Acknowledgement: News Across Online Newspaper
http://newsacross.com.ng/meet-nigerian-woman-who-has-no-formal-education-but-lectures-at-harvard-other-top-varsities/

Saturday 16 May 2015

Anambra–based mechanic fabricates N10m dredging equipment



The old spare parts market at Nkpor, near the commercial city of Onitsha, has virtually turned into a Mecca of sort following the completion of a dredging machine which cost about N10 million by a motor mechanic in the area, Mr. David Ezenwa. The equipment, which took five months to complete has been transported to Aguleri water-front in Anambra East local government area where it is expected to be put to use soon, Ezenwa’s workshop at No 5 Awgbu street, Nkpor was the cynosure of all eyes as people gathered to admire the equipment because of its size and sophistication.

Materials that formed the major components of the equipment include a 12mm metallic pan, 10 inch sand sorting pump, 10 cylinders Mercedes Benz engine, self loader sand sucking pump, blaster pump which helps to soften the sand, a sand cutter, another four cylinders 608 Mercedez Benz engine for the pump, a dashboard for electrical indication and pipes that carry the sand from the water to its place of deposit.

On completion, the equipment is almost the size of a small bridge. Ezenwa, who is from Abatete in Idemili Local Government Area of Anambra State, said his interest in fabrication started when he was young which was why he became a motor mechanic after leaving school.

He said: “I have a friend who is an engineer and is into machine fabrication and he advised me to go into equipment construction because he discovered that I am talented in the area.

On my own, I started assembling the materials after designing it. I developed interest in the dredging machine after seeing one in operation and determined that I would build it. “Despite the high cost, I picked up courage and started it in December, 2014 and completed it in May, 2015. The machine has been tested and proved to be in perfect working condition and arrangement has been completed for it to be mounted on the bank of Omambala River in Aguleri where it will be used for sand dredging.”

The dredging machine, Ezenwa said, has a pumping capacity of 300 trips of sand per day and has a discharging capacity of over 800 meters from the river bank where trucks can load the sands to various destinations. Though Ezenwa said he did not borrow money to complete the equipment, he explained that he could mass produce it if he was able to get financial assistance from government or financial institutions.

According to him, FINANCING the project was very difficult, adding that although some people had made inquiries about the cost for me to build the machine for them, they were discouraged by the enormous cost. “All these while, many people who came to this workshop were wondering what I was doing, but I am happy that despite the initial hiccups, we have been able to complete it to the glory of God,” he said.

Acknowledgement: Vanguard
 http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/05/anambra-based-mechanic-fabricates-n10m-dredging-equipment/#sthash.moRrmoUw.dpuf

Nigerian Student Breaks A 50 Year Record At Tokai University Japan



Ufot Ekong, a brilliant 30 year old robotic and electrical engineer, recently graduated from Tokai University Japan as the best overall graduating student. This type of achievement was last witnessed 50 years ago in the university. 

Right from the start of his studies , Ufot Ekong had been identified as a student with great potential and truly he did not disappoint as in his first semester at the university, Ufot, solved a mathematical equation that couldn't be solved in 30 years.

In addition, he already has two patented products to his credit one of such is an electric car project which runs 80 miles/hour.

Ufot also emerged the winner of the Japanese language award for foreigners. 

Throughout his studies at the Tokia University, Ufot supported himself with two jobs on the side. Presently he works with Nissan and he has also commenced his PHD on a part time basis. 



                        Ufot displays his awards

             
    Photograph with the Nigerian Ambassador to Japan and other dignitaries


Vehicle built by Ufot

Monday 11 May 2015

This Company Is Paying Nigerians to Learn Computer Programming



CHIBUZOR OBIORA WAS an out-of-work TV news anchor in Lagos, Nigeria when he came across a curious link on Twitter: a company was offering money to people willing to take a course in computer programming.

For Obiora, it sounded too good to be true. “I was always interested in learning [to code] because of the problem solving aspect of it,” he says, “and here was a firm that promised to pay you to learn.” But it turned out to be a very real opportunity.

The company is called Andela. It’s based in New York City, and it pays Nigerians to learn programming skills before putting them to work on projects that serve businesses back in the States. After about four months of training, Obiora now works under Andela as a web development contractor for an (unnamed) U.S. based organization—all without leaving Nigeria.

The ultimate aim is to tap the vast pool of talent found in countries that aren’t exactly known as technology hubs, including not only Nigeria but other parts of Africa. “We know that brilliance is relatively evenly distributed across the human population,” says Andela co-founder Jeremy Johnson. “In terms of pure aptitude, there are genius level people across the world. But what there’s not is equal opportunity.”

Today, U.S. tech companies aren’t shy about saying they have trouble finding programming talent. Critics argue this talent shortage has more to do with stinginess and selective hiring practices than a real lack of qualified programmers, but regardless of the reasons, the need is there. As a result, a new wave of services are working to train enormous numbers of new programmers.

The operations range from online tutorial services like Codecademy to the dozens of “code bootcamps” that promise to get people job-ready in a matter of months. Andela puts a new twist on the bootcamp idea by moving them overseas—and paying people to participate.

Students who finish at least 1,000 hours of training are then eligible to work as web developers for Andela’s clients, but they continue to learn new skills. Johnson says most students will spend about two-thirds of their time working for clients, and the remaining time on education. All told, both the students and staff work about sixty hours a week.

“It’s very similar to the way that guilds worked in the middle ages,” Johnson says. “YouGET PAID a small amount as an apprentice, then you work as a journeyman with lots of other craftspeople, and eventually become a master.”

Johnson says the company charges clients about half of what they would pay a domestic developer, and that students are payed a middle class income in their home countries throughout the program, including during the training period.

Acknowledgement: www.wired.com

Sunday 10 May 2015

GLAMOUR, COLOUR, CULTURE TAKE CENTRE STAGE AS LAGOS CARNIVAL 2015 HOLDS



Glamour, colour, fun and beauty and a rich display of the culture of Lagos took central stage on Saturday as various groups representing diverse neighbourhoods, communities and selected associations in Lagos put up a masterful display at the Tafawa Balewa Square Lagos as the 2015 Lagos Carnival took place.

The State Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN) while addressing the large crowd made up of participants in the carnival processions and the spectators at the stands in the TBS, urged all of the sponsors, the participants, the designers and manufacturers of the costumes to continue to work hard to expand on what the present administration has done.

The Governor described the day as a great family day where all the children, parents can come out, dance, sing, display and generally have fun, stressing that a nation that has so many young people needs many more of this kind of activity to expend the energies that it has and to channel them to productive purposes.

He thanked all those who have participated, those who have organized it, all of the many sponsors to whom the State Government is deeply grateful including the artisans, the costume makers, the tailors, the designers of all of the fabrics, all the workers in the various knitting centres,

Governor Fashola expressed the hope that the participants in the 2015 Carnival have all enjoyed themselves in spite of the delays prompted by the shifting of the elections that the present administration was determined to hold the carnival none the less.

He stated that this year’s edition is the last time he would be addressing the Carnival as the Governor at the annual carnival, expressing optimism that at next year’s Carnival, the Governor- Elect, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode would be present to keep the tradition going.

“We have built a great team and it couldn’t have happened without you, so for me, it is time to say thank you all very much, you have been wonderful over the years and it is also time to say bye- bye, God bless you”, the Governor added.

The various contingents of the participants had earlier gone in a procession through different routes like Bourdillon Road-Giwa Barracks- Falomo Roundabout- Awolowo Road,-King George V Road-Bamgbose –Campos Square- Catholic Mission Street to the Tafawa Balewa Square.

The participating adult Carnival groups include, Lafiaji, Epetedo, Oko Faji, Locomotion, Obalende, Isale-Eko, Ogba, Woro Group, Ikeja, Emerald, Surulere, Ilasamaja, with many of the members made up of predominantly the youth.



Friday 8 May 2015

2015 UK ELECTIONS: ALL FOUR NIGERIAN CANDIDATES WINS PARLIAMENT ELECTIONS

All Four Nigerians who contested seats in the 2015 UK's parliament won their elections!

They are, Helen Grant, who won the seat for Member of Parliament representing Maidstone and The Weald; Chuka Umunna won the elections to represent Streatham. Kate Osamor won the seat for Edmonton in North London while Chi Onwurah won the seat for New Castle upon Tyne Central.

Chuka Harrison Umunna

Chuka Harrison Umunna is a British Labour Party politician who has served Streatham as Member of Parliament(MP) since 2010. Umunna is the current Shadow Business Secretary since 2011. Chuka Umunna’s father Bennett, of the Nigerian Igbo ethnic group, died in a road accident in Nigeria in 1992.

His mother, Patricia, is a solicitor and daughter of Sir Helenus Milmo QC, the Anglo-Irish High Court judge. Umunna was educated at Hitherfield Primary School in Streatham, South London, and the Christ Church Primary School in Brixton Hill. He says his parents felt that the local state school had “given up on him” and so moved him to the boys’ independent senior school St Dunstan’s College, in Catford in southeast London, where he played the cello, and became Deputy Head Boy. During this period he was also a chorister at Southwark Cathedral.

He was awarded an upper second class LLB in English and French Law from the University of Manchester; after graduating he studied for one term at the University of Burgundy in Dijon, before studying for an MA at Nottingham Law School. He has said that his politics and moral values come from Christianity, but that he is “not majorly religious”

Helen Grant

Born 28 September 1961, Helen Grant is a British Conservative Party politician and solicitor. She is the current Member of Parliament for Maidstone and The Weald in Kent and the current Minister for Sport, Tourism & Equalities. She was elected at the 2010 general election, replacing the constituency’s previous incumbent, Ann Widdecombe, who had decided to step down as an MP. Grant was the first black woman to be selected to defend a Tory seat and her election made her the Conservatives’ first female black MP.

Grant received her first government appointment in September 2012, when she received the dual roles of Under-Secretary of State for Justice and Under-Secretary for Women and Equalities. Grant was born in Willesden, north London to an English mother and Nigerian father, but grew up in a single parent family after her parents separated and her father emigrated to the United States. She was raised in Carlisle where she lived on the city’s Raffles council estate with her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.


Chi Onwurah
Chi Onwurah (born 12 April 1965) is a British Labour Party politician, who was elected at the 2010 general election as the Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne Central, replacing the previous Labour MP Jim Cousins, who decided to step down and left the seat. She is Newcastle’s first black MP. During the depression of the 1930s, Onwurah’s maternal grandfather was a sheet metal worker in Tyneside shipyards. Her mother grew up in poverty in Garth Heads on Newcastle’s quayside. Her father, from Nigeria, was working as a dentist while he studied at Newcastle Medical School when they met and married in the 1950s.

After Chi was born in Wallsend, Newcastle upon Tyne, in 1965, her family moved to Awka, Nigeria when she was still a baby. Just two years later the Biafran Civil War broke out bringing famine with it, forcing her mother to bring the children back to Newcastle, whilst her father stayed on in the Biafran army.

Kate Osamor

National Health Service (NHS) manager Kate Osamor is the Labour Party’s parliamentary candidate for the Edmonton constituency in London after stiff contest with fellow diasporan Kate Anolue. Ms Osamor, who has worked for the NHS for 15 years, is a trade union activist, a women’s charity trustee and a member of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee. She made funding the NHS, opposing its fragmentation and standing up to government cuts the centrepiece of her campaign.








Tuesday 5 May 2015

The Yemi Osinbajo Many Do Not Know, By Justice I.A. Umezulike




By profuse printed and oral utterances, so much had been said about General Muhammadu Buhari’s cleanliness, incorruptibility, Spartan lifestyle and unswerving mission and vision for Nigeria. The personality of General Buhari had eclipsed or dwarfed the entire APC political formation.

But not many Nigerians know that Professor Yemi Osinbajo SAN possesses the above qualities and attributes in sufficient measure. He has in the past four decades maintained exceptional clean living and clean thinking. He is highly dedicated to the Nigerian cause and dream. Above all he is an outstanding intellectual and legal genius. He took his professorial chair of the highly rated Faculty of Law, University of Lagos at a comparatively tender age. He also took the silk (the Senior Advocate of Nigeria) at a fairly very young age.

He anchored the international conferences that led to the establishment of Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Federal Road Safety Commission and National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). Professor Yemi Osinbajo SAN said at the conference that preceded the establishment of the NDLEA:

“It is fairly difficult to discern any pattern in policy formulation and legislation on the drug problem and this is hardly surprising. Law making in this area has always been a direct response to prevailing public opinion and exigencies of the time. Thus drug laws have been variously made on the premise that a social problem of drug use exists”.

Professor Yemi Osinbajo also spearheaded the unification of the criminal laws and procedure of Northern and Southern Nigeria. This project was awaiting the signature of former President Ibrahim Babangida before he stepped aside in 1993. It is disheartening that some curious officials at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Abuja, have now appropriated the authorship of that project to themselves. He has also documented and published a widely acclaimed comprehensive Nigerian Customary Laws.

Professor Yemi Osinbajo SAN appeared before us at the Failed Banks Tribunal, Lagos Zone from 1997 to 1999. The Judges including the writer can readily bear tribute that his oratory, elocution and presentations were exemplary. 

In fact his strong sweep of thought and wonderful dialectics in court place him in the league of legal grandmasters like late Chief Rotimi Williams SAN, Late Chief Clement Obiora Akpamgbo SAN and Professor A. B. Kasumu SAN.

As Attorney General of Lagos State, Professor Osinbajo recommended and saw through, the implementation of a welfare package for Judges of Lagos State High Court, far higher and better than those enjoyed by Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. He is very urbane, decorous, humble and highly respectful. He had remained religious and unspoilt notwithstanding rapid successes.

In 1991 he co-edited an epic work entitled “Democracy and the Law”. It is my surmise that the book would now come to him handy as he begins the enormous and onerous business of democratic governance and the strengthening of democratic institutions in Nigeria.

Evidently in Professor Yemi Osinbajo SAN, General Muhammadu Buhari has a soul-mate and a dependable comrade in the task of ensuring that Nigeria no longer staggers. I can testify that a sip of executive powers will never produce intoxication in him.

Justice Umezulike (OFR, FCIArb.) is the Chief Judge of Enugu State