Best Seller: Hollywood authors celebrate Nigerian entrepreneur, Mfon Ekpo

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by Stanley Azuakola
It’s not everyday that Hollywood celebrates a Nigerian, but on 28th September 2012, the National Academy of Best Selling Authors in Hollywood celebrated Nigerian entrepreneur and maritime lawyer; Mfon Ekpo.
Ekpo, who is also a consultant and founder of Premier Pioneers Network, was recognised and honoured with the Golden Quill by the Academy.
The Best Sellers summit and awards gala took place on the 28th of September 2012 at the legendary Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California, where the first ever Oscars were held.
Ekpo’s honour came in recognition of her best selling book,” The Only Business Book You Will Ever Need” which she co – authored with New York times best seller Robert Allen of the Multiple streams of income fame, America’s foremost management expert Brian Tracy, NFL super agent Leigh Steinberg whose career was the inspiration for the ‘Show me the money ‘ character played by Tom Cruise in the Academy award winning movie “Jerry Maguire”, and a host of other renowned world experts.
The book, which was released on the 8th of March 2012, reached best-seller status in three Amazon.com categories on the first day of release – reaching as high as #2 in the Direct Marketing category as well as entrepreneurship and Business Management categories.
Mfon, the founder of Premier Pioneers Network, a platform where professionals from various walks of life come together to teach on areas they are passionate and knowledgeable about, wrote in the new book about “The ‘Voltron’ Formula: Dynamics of Building an Outstanding Team.”
Her contribution in the book also won the Editor’s Choice Award 2012, an award that recognises outstanding contributions in collaborative books.
Mfon Ekpo whose mantra for life and business is “discover, develop, and deploy“also juggles multiple roles as a strategy consultant, professional negotiator and mediator, writer, speaker, singer and songwriter. She has trained people in the art of negotiation, writing, public speaking, ideas generation and implementation since 2006.

Mfon Ekpo and Jack Canfield at the Award Ceremony

Her first book, “Pushing to the front “which she co-authored with Brian Tracy and other thought leaders was also a best seller. Mfon also serves on the board of several companies and is currently the Director of Strategy and Head of H.R at Red Media, the parent company of YNaija, a founding partner of the John Maxwell Team and a Member of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. She trains young people on humanitarian issues as a school speaker for the British Red Cross and enjoys expounding life lessons to readers on her blog, The School Called Life.

Other recipients of the award from the National Academy of Bestselling Authors include Michael Gerber, Best selling author of the book ‘E-myth’, Brian Tracy, Best selling Author of multiple books including ‘Goals’, Jack Canfield, multiple best selling author famously known for his book, ‘Chicken Soup of the soul’. More about Mfon Ekpo can be seen on www.mfonekpo.com.

Mfon Ekpo receiving her Award

YNaija.com

Femi Fani-Kayode: Obafemi Awolowo and Chinua Achebe’s Tale of Fantasy

I am a historian and I have always believed that if we want to talk history we must be dispassionate, objective and factual. We must take the emotion out of it and we must always tell the truth. The worst thing that anyone can do is to try to re-write history and indulge in historical revisionism. This is especially so when the person is a revered figure and a literary icon. Sadly it is in the light of such historical revisionism that I view Professor Chinua Achebe’s assertion (which is reflected in his latest and highly celebrated book titled ”There Was A Country”) that Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late and much loved Leader of the Yoruba, was responsible for the genocide that the Igbos suffered during the civil war. This claim is not only false but it is also, frankly speaking, utterly absurd. Not only is Professor Achebe indulging in perfidy, not only is he being utterly dishonest and disingenuous but he is also turning history upside down and indulging in what I would describe as ethnic chauvinism.
I am one of those that has always had tremendous sympathy for the Igbo cause during the civil war. I am also an admirer of Colonel Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who stood up for his people when it mattered the most and when they were being slaughtered by rampaging mobs in the northern part of our country. At least 100,000 Igbos were killed in those northern pogroms which took place before the civil war and which indeed led directly to it. This was not only an outrage but it was also a tragedy of monumental proportions. Yet we must not allow our emotion or our sympathy for the suffering of the Igbo at the hands of northern mobs before the war started to becloud our sense of reasoning as regards what actually happened during the prosecution of the war itself. It is important to set the record straight and not to be selective in our application and recollection of the facts when considering what actually led to the starvation of hundreds of thousands of Igbo women, children and civilians during that war.
And, unlike others, I do not deny the fact that hundreds of thousands were starved to death as a consequence of the blockade that was imposed on Biafra by the Nigerian Federal Government. To deny that this actually happened would a lie. It is a historical fact. Again I do not deny the fact that Awolowo publically defended the blockade and indeed told the world that it was perfectly legitimate for any government to impose such a blockade on the territory of their enemies in times of war. Awolowo said it, this is a matter of historical record and he was quoted in a number of British newspapers as having said so at the time. Yet he spoke nothing but the truth. And whether anyone likes to hear it or not he was absolutely right in what he said. Let me give you an example. During the Second World War a blockade was imposed on Germany, Japan and Italy by the Allied Forces and this was very effective. It weakened the Axis powers considerably and this was one of the reasons why the war ended at the time that it did. If there had been no blockade the Second World War would have gone on for considerably longer. In the case of the Nigerian civil war though the story did not stop at the fact that a blockade was imposed by the Federal Government which led to the suffering, starvation, pain, death and hardship of the civilian Igbo population or that Awolowo defended it. That is only half the story.
There was a lot more to it and the fact that Achebe and most of our Igbo brothers and sisters always conveniently forget to mention the other half of the story is something that causes some of us from outside Igboland considerable concern and never ceases to amaze us. The bitter truth is that if anyone is to be blamed for the hundreds of thousands of Igbos that died from starvation during the civil war it was not Chief Awolowo or even General Yakubu Gowon but rather it was Colonel Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu himself. I say this because it is a matter of public record and a historical fact that the Federal Government of Nigeria made a very generous offer to Ojukwu and the Biafrans to open a road corridor for food to be ferried to the Igbos and to lessen the suffering of their civilian population. This was as a consequence of a deal that was brokered by the international community who were concerned about the suffering of the Igbo civilian population and the death and hardship that the blockade was causing to them. Unfortunately Ojukwu turned this down flatly and instead insisted that the food should be flown into Biafra by air in the dead of the night. This was unacceptable to the Federal Government because it meant that the Biafrans could, and indeed would, have used such night flights to smuggle badly needed arms and ammunition into their country for usage by their soldiers. That was where the problem came from and that was the issue. Quite apart from that Ojukwu found it expedient and convenient to allow his people to starve to death and to broadcast it on television screens all over the world in order to attract sympathy for the Igbo cause and for propaganda purposes. And this worked beautifully for him.
Ambassador Ralph Uweche, who was the Special Envoy to France for the Biafran Government during the civil war and who is the leader of Ohaeneze, the leading igbo political and socio-cultural organisation today, attested to this in his excellent book titled ”Reflections On The Nigerian Civil War”. That book was factual and honest and I would urge people like Achebe to go and read it well. The self-serving role of Ojukwu and many of the Biafran intelligentsia and elites and their insensitivity to the suffering of their own people during the course of the war was well enunciated in that book. The fact of the matter is that the starvation and suffering of hundreds of thousands of Igbo men, women and children during the civil war was seen and used as a convenient tool of propaganda by Ojukwu and that is precisely why he rejected the offer of a food corridor by the Nigerian Government. When those that belong to the post civil war generation of the Igbo are wondering who was responsible for the genocide and mass starvation of their forefathers during the war they must firstly look within themselves and point their fingers at their own past leaders and certainly not Awolowo or Gowon. The person that was solely responsible for that suffering, for that starvation and for those slow and painful deaths was none other than Colonel Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, the leader of Biafra, himself.
I have written many good things about Ojukwu on many occasions in the past and I stand by every word that I have ever said or written about him. In my view he was a man of courage and immense fortitude, he stood against the mass murder of his people in the north and he brought them home and created a safe haven for them in the east. For him, and indeed the whole of Biafra, the war was an attempt to exercise their legitimate right of self-determination and leave Nigeria due to the atrocities that they had been subjected to in the north. I cannot blame him or his people for that and frankly I have always admired his stand. However he was not infallible and he also made some terrible mistakes, just as all great leaders do from time to time. The fact that he rejected the Nigerian Federal Government’s offer of a food corridor was one of those terrible mistakes and this cost him and his people dearly.
Professor Chinua Achebe surely ought to have reflected that in his book as well. When it comes to the Nigerian civil war there were no villains or angels. During that brutal conflict no less than two million Nigerians and Biafrans died and the Yoruba who, unlike others, did not ever discriminate or attack any non-Yorubas that lived in their in their territory before the civil war or carry out any coups or attempted coups, suffered at every point as well. For example prominent Yoruba sons and daughters were killed on the night of the first Igbo coup of January 1966 and again in the northern ”revenge” coup of July 1966. Many of our people were also killed in the north before the outbreak of the civil war and again in the mid-west and the east during the course and prosecution of the war itself. It was indeed the predominantly Yoruba Third Marine Commando, under the command of General Benjamin Adekunle (the ”Black Scorpion”) and later General Olusegun Obasanjo, that not only liberated the mid-west and drove the Biafrans out of there but they also marched into igboland itself, occupied it, defeated the Biafran Army in battle, captured all their major towns and forced the Igbo to surrender. Third Marine Commando was made up of Yoruba soldiers and I can say without any fear of contradiction that we the Yoruba therefore paid a terrible and heavy price as well during the war because many of our boys were killed on the war front by the Biafrans.
The sacrifice of these proud sons of the south-west that died in battle to keep Nigeria one must not be belittled mocked or ignored. Clearly it was not only the Igbo that suffered during the civil war. Neither does it auger well for the unity of our nation for Achebe and the Igbo intelligentsia that are hailing his self-serving book to caste aspersions on the character, role and noble intentions of the late and revered Leader of the Yoruba, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, during the civil war. The man may have made one or two mistakes in the past like every other great leader and of course there was a deep and bitter political division in Yorubaland itself just before the civil war started and throughout the early ’60′s. Yet by no stretch of the imagination can Awolowo be described as an Igbo-hating genocidal maniac and he most certainly did not delight in the starvation of millions of Igbo men, women and children as Achebe has tried to suggest.
My advice to this respected author is that he should leave Chief Awolowo alone and allow him to continue to rest in peace. This subtle attempt to denigrate the Yoruba and their past leaders, to place a question mark on their noble and selfless role in the war and to belittle their efforts and sacrifice to keep Nigeria together as one will always be vigorously resisted by those of us that have the good fortune of still being alive and who are aware of the facts. We will not remain silent and allow anyone, no matter how respected or revered, to re-write history. Simply put by writing this book and making some of these baseless and nonsensical assertions, Achebe was simply indulging in the greatest mendacity of Nigerian modern history and his crude distortion of the facts has no basis in reality or rationality. We must not mistake fiction and storytelling for historical fact. The two are completely different. The truth is that Professor Chinua Achebe owes the Awolowo family and the Yoruba people a big apology for his tale of pure fantasy.
DailyPost

Bayelsa floods: State government close down schools

Due to the raging floods currently wrecking havoc in Bayelsa State, President Goodluck Jonthan’s country home, the state government on Tuesday temporarily announced the closure of all schools in the state.
The state Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, made this decision to avoid endangering the lives of students and pupils in the state due to the continuous rise of the water level.
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, who confirmed the development said schools would resume as soon as the water level subsides.
He said, “The decision was taken to safeguard the lives of children and to keep them away from possible dangers that could arise from the flood.
“Government is by this appealing to parents and guardians to accept the decision as it was taken in the interest of all Bayelsans.
“We want to assure you that, normal academic activities will resume as soon as the situation is brought under control.”
Reports have it that over 90 percent of Bayelsa State has been submerged by the raging flood.
All the motorable routes to the President’s hometown have been over taken by flood, thus, making canoe the only means of transport to and fro the community while the landing space for President Jonathan’s helicopter has now been converted to a refugee camp, as the flood has sacked thousands of people from their homes.
Also, Amassoma, the country home of the former governors of the state, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha’s and his residence at Yenagoa, the state capital has also been over-flooded. The Niger Delta University (NDU) in the same community is not left out of the natural disaster currently rocking the oil rich city.
DailyPost

What Manner Of President? By Chinedu Ekeke

Sometimes I wish I were a lunatic, so I would be operating from the realm of total freedom, that realm of extreme happiness and zero burden where the natural response to life’s complexities is a wry smile, a rippling soliloquy and, sometimes, a dance in Adamic state to spite curious glances. If I were mad, I would be free from the worries of what to eat, what to wear or where to sleep; I wouldn’t care who rules the world or who runs my state; I would give no hoot who owns a phone, who rows a boat or who drives a train. But most importantly, I would have taken a special interest in those the world calls sane, and know and mark their thought processes to detect when they reach for the world of the insane, my own world. If I were mad, I would raise the flag each time I observe a fellow the world takes seriously act more insane than my folks in the realm of freedom.

I would inform the sane world of their loss of a member when I see a bachelor announce to his community, with glee, that the Community Health Centre just informed him of his wife’s new born baby. Such oddity makes for insanity, and qualifies for what which would catch my fancy. It is similar to a man who never applied to Harvard calling a feast to announce the University authorities just informed him that he made the second best graduating student of the school. The only other silly scenario comparable to the above two is when a village laggard who doesn’t have even one farm announces to his family, with much fanfare, that the village king just congratulated him for having harvested the largest quantity of yam tubers in the village. In any of the three scenarios, I would alert the world of the insane, and cause them to prepare for the arrival of a new member.
I’ve never seen any of these scenarios happen amongst normal men, until it happened, last Monday, and in the oddest of places: Nigeria’s Presidency. President Goodluck Jonathan turned what was supposed to be our national day of honour to a day of falsehood. Reading his usual uninspiring statewide broadcast to Nigerians on Independence Day, the President boasted; “We are fighting corruption in all facets of our economy, and we are succeeding…We have exposed decades of scam in the management of pensions and fuel subsidy, and ensured that the culprits are being brought to book.
In its latest report, Transparency International (TI) noted that Nigeria is the second most improved country in the effort to curb corruption.
We will sustain the effort in this direction with an even stronger determination to strengthen the institutions that are statutorily entrusted with the task of ending this scourge.”
I am used to lies from the government Mr. Jonathan runs. He is known for making false claims without batting an eyelid. Even in this same speech, before he dropped Transparency International’s name in his web of lies, he had earlier boasted of creating ‘millions of jobs’ for the youths. But let’s let that be for now and, maybe, return to it if space permits.
My focus is on the President’s claim on curbing corruption. First, the claim was false. Premium Times, an investigative blog, stunned by the overnight positive rating of Nigeria by Transparency International as claimed by the president, immediately reached the global anti-corruption body and obtained from them a contrary, and, I must add, authentic report which stated clearly that, “Transparency International does not have a recent rating or report that places Nigeria as the second most improved country in the fight against corruption.”
Premium Times further reported: “The group said its most recent indexing of Nigeria’s corruption activities was in the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index, which measured perceived level of public sector corruption in the country. In that index, Nigeria scored 2.4 on a scale where 0 means highly corrupt and 10 means very clean. It was ranked 143 out of 183 countries. That rating was actually a dip in performance for Nigeria as the country was rated 134 out of 183 countries the previous year, 2010.”
As a matter of fact, Jonathan’s efforts, in the last two years, to nurture the monster, reflected commensurately in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. We actually dipped in performance, a sad testimony to Jonathan’s romance with all that is corrupt. Then, suddenly, in one fell swoop, he conjured up lies, in collaboration with his numerous Aso Rock sycophants, and dished out to a nation long used to hearing lies from their rulers. Name-dropping is the art of many a master fraudster. They drop names to obtain credibility and hoodwink their victims into willful submission. That was what Mr. Jonathan did in that speech.
Most people think the blame should be heaped on the president’s many courtiers – often called aides. I do not think so. I think it was a deliberate attempt by the president himself to remain on track in his agenda of ensuring high-level criminals walk free under his watch. The president was aware that such an obviously false paragraph was included in the speech. He thought, as I think he has always done, that we still live in the ‘80s when it was easy for the rulers to mount the screen and reel out lies and false statistics to the nation. His major challenge is his sustained effort to wish away the new world order in which information gets delivered to the hands of its seeker just within seconds, at the mere click of a mouse. The president didn’t know somebody would want to verify his bogus claim. He thinks we still value the Business Days and This Days of this world.
Forget the excuse that they saw it in a newspaper. Our president is of a sound mind, I believe, that is why he would never allow Business Day, or any newspaper for that matter, tell him he has been fighting corruption when he knows he hasn’t even raised a finger in the purported fight. We all know, and agree, that a battle that is won must have first begun at one time. When did Mr. Jonathan begin the battle against corruption to have earned the reverence of Transparency International, so much so that his government would be ranked alongside serious countries like the United States in the efforts to curb the monster?
Of all the high profile thievery littered on our political landscape, and under Mr. Jonathan’s watch, how many cases have been pursued by the government? How many former governors have been jailed? How many known corrupt former government officials have been prosecuted under Jonathan? So when did he begin the corruption fight to have earned such an enviable place amongst nations committed to obliterating the existence of the monster in their polity? Was the battle fought in his dream? Should sane Nigerians be worried? At best, it is a delusion of grandeur for a PhD holder to see a paragraph allocating laurels to him for finishing tops in a race he never signed up for, and then went ahead to read it out to the world. But I think it is worse, I see it as a determined attempt at perjury which, in truth, should be taken very seriously by every Nigerian.
If the president wasn’t aware that such a paragraph was included in his Independence Day speech, then it beggars belief that a president doesn’t proofread his speeches before the days he delivers them to the nation. If that is the case, it then underscores the beliefs of folks like me, that this president is not fit for office. What manner of president will not make inputs in the preparation of the speech he delivers to his citizens? If this is the case, then nothing he ever says should be taken seriously, because he never said them anyway. He simply read what people wrote and asked him to read.
This must be basically why he reads them out without any facial communication with his viewers, just like a jittery student does facing his exam scripts in the exam hall.
You know a serious president with the importance he attaches to addressing his fellow citizens, a rare opportunity to talk directly to millions of people who long to hear his plans for the present and future. One of such presidents is Bill Clinton of the United States.
In his autobiography, My Life, President Clinton gives an insight into the premium he attaches to his speeches. Days before his inauguration, he had already started working on his speech. Narrating the very many activities that took place during the run up to the inauguration, he writes of January 17th, 1993: “By the time we got back to Blair House, the official guest residence just across the street from the White House, we were tired… but before falling asleep, I took some time to review the latest draft of my inaugural address.
I still wasn’t satisfied with it. Compared with my campaign speeches, it seemed stilted. I knew it had to be more dignified, but I didn’t want it to drag.”
Remember that the inauguration was to be 20th of January. Then, of 18th January, Clinton writes: “…After the concert, there was a late-night prayer service at the First Baptist Church, and it was after midnight when I got back to Blair House. Though it was getting better, I still wasn’t satisfied with the inaugural address. My speechwriters…must have been tearing their hair out, because as we practiced between one and four in the morning on inauguration day, I was still changing it… The terrific staff at Blair House…was ready with gallons of coffee to keep us awake and snacks to keep us in a reasonably good humor. By the time I went to bed for a couple of hours’ sleep, I was feeling better about the speech”
Please note the odd hours when he had to stay awake just for the sake of the speech: one am to four am. But that wasn’t all. Even on the inauguration day, Bill Clinton still got back to the speech before it was time for his swearing in. Read him: “We went back to Blair House to look at the speech for the last time. It had gotten a lot better since 4 a.m.”
Isn’t it odd that the president of America, an English speaking country, will have sleepless nights preparing for a speech he would deliver in the same English language, his native language, while a Nigerian president, who speaks English as a borrowed language, doesn’t care one bit about what is contained in his presidential speeches?
The difference is in what each respects most. Mr. Clinton respects the right of the average American citizen to know the truth, while Mr. Jonathan respects the corrupt Nigerian system of which he is a creation. That system is what he has been battling to preserve, even if it means lying before the entire world.
Saharareporters

Chinua Achebe And The Burden Of Old Age By Jonah Ayodele Obajeun

It is one thing to tell the history of our continued existence, it is another thing to listen to the history, and it is a different thing to believe the history itself. In all, if history is not told, history will tell its history itself. This is a fundamental nuptial arrangement that nature has lured us to eternally say 'I do' to. But when history appears to be distorted through a wanton display of philosophy, especially when such perceived logic of distortion is coming from a revered great grand father of African storytellers, then there is bound to be a reprisal attack in an equal logic of distortion. There are decades when nothing happens, there are weeks when decades happen. It is a revolutionary dictum that has thrown up cerebral 'bullies', fancifully speaking from their Olympian heights to nudge sleep away from the eyes of our lowly brained leaders. Chinua Achebe is a product of this dictum.
My love for literature was informed by Chinua Achebe's "Anthills of the Savannah" when I read it in SS2. Having read the book five times now, I got an excellent grip of the role of critique in nation building. Then over time, Achebe became my favourite over Wole Soyinka. After reading Soyinka's "Ake" for the second time in my first year in the University, I ended up describing Soyinka as the grand father of African obscurants, too obscure for poor me to understand. So Achebe became my toast. In terms of logic, I have always been on the same page with Achebe, especially when it comes to good governance advocacy. Pa Achebe has won my heart on a number of times, he is not a typical Nigerian in search of a glamorous end of life. Achebe is a writer I can invest my life to read. He had seen the worst of Nigeria.
"There Was A Country: A Personal History Of Biafra", an account put together by Professor Chinua Achebe, has come with a big blow in what can be described as a product that can put to rubbles the decades of strife of the revered professor. In our cultural structure, when you accuse the dead to lend credence to your claims, you are perceived as a liar. Unfortunately, the same cultural elements of our existence postulate that elders don't lie. The former can flow with logic but the latter places elders in the status of gods, meaning the voice of the elders is the voice of gods. In simple flow, the gods can also be liars. Achebe rose from his comfortable chair in America and sentenced Awolowo to his second death in his new book. He accused Awolowo of killing two million igbos during the civil war using starvation.
I am not here to contend with Achebe's sense of historical judgment. To think that Achebe was born in 1930, when I was born about 54 years later is enough for me to eternally stay mute rather than muscle-flex with his thought-processes. Achebe witnessed the civil war, has documented evidence and watched the theatre of bloodshed that killed his kinsmen. Achebe is a historical god, but he is currently being hunted by the burden of his old age. Achebe has reversed the history of civil war in his nonfictional account, casting aspersions on Awolowo, the political god of Western Nigeria. For the first time, I am on a different page. I hate to be a judge in this case, but can the dead defend itself?
Achebe is wrong to have assumed that Biafra existed. The choice of the book title suggests that Biafra once existed. There was never a country called Biafra but there was an attempt to pull out the Eastern Nigeria and call it Biafra. There was never a constituted President, nothing like a system of government, nothing close to being a sovereign state. It was never on any map, no references on any Atlas except for the partial Nigerian writers, especially the ones inclined to thwarting the civil war stories to rake in treasures for themselves. When one considers what old age does to one's sense of interpretation, one will never want to grow old. Old age is tellingly catching up with Achebe.
Truth be told, Awolowo was a prostitute in terms of being rabid when it comes to seeking political powers. Awolowo was a financial wizard who used economic tools to fight his own war. From Awo's calculation, there was no way to differentiate between the civilians, Nigerian soldiers and the Biafran warlords and as such any food supply to the warfront might not get to the intended beneficiaries. Awo then raked in the food to feed his own people in the West rather than wasting it on soldiers. For Achebe to have accused Awo of hoarding food to starve Easterners to death, it is a clear case of someone who has lost touch with historical realities.
On the flipside, let us assume that Awo is guilty of the accusation. I have never read it anywhere that there was a warlord who was feeding his enemies on the warfront. Awo was human, in a clash of worldview, a principled man must take a stand. That Awo took a stand against Biafra was never a mistake and he never regretted it as Biafra never existed in his life time. Feeding your enemies on the battlefield is like giving your gun to your enemies to shoot you. Achebe should perish the thought of telling the assumed untold story and come to terms with historical realities.
The variegated events in human communities and societies have thus far formed the very raw materials with which writers convene the banquets at which their own imaginative mind blend seamlessly with the remarkable occurrences in human existence and eventuated by oodles of tragic, moving, perturbing and ennobling actions of human creatures. Achebe wanted to meaningfully expose the rotten underbelly of the saints of civil wars, but ended up fictionalizing a nonfiction account. I hate to think that it is a case of verbal hallucination, Achebe is of sound mind.
Saharareportes

“I did it because I needed ‘to network’ in the conference” – Doctor who refused Lawyer in Court

A medical doctor, Bissong Peter, 46, of phase 1, Gwagwalada, on Tuesday refused a female lawyer to enter appearance for him in forgery case at an Abuja Chief Magistrates’ Court.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the female lawyer was from Legal Aid Council and was in court for another case when Peter’s case was mentioned.
She stood up to announce her appearance when the Peter signalled to her that he did not need a lawyer.
Prosecutor John Ijoga told the court that the convict was arrested on Oct. 4, by the security guard at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.
Ijoga said that the accused impersonated a staff of the Nigeria Institute of Management (NIM) by forging NIM’s identity card.
The prosecutor said that the offence contravened Sections 364 and 179 of the Penal Code.
Peter pleaded guilty to the offence, saying: “it was my first time and I did it because I needed “to network’’ in the conference.
“Kneeling down in the court room, the convict pleaded to court to tamper justice with mercy.
“I have spent 15 years as a medical doctor and a one-time national award winner for my medical team.
“I am married man, a father of two, my dad is late and my old mother is sick in the village,’’ he claimed.
The Chief Magistrate, Mr Azubike Okeagwu, said that the court in the plea of the convict observed that Peter appeared remorseful.
Okeagwu said that because the accused did not waste the court’s time before pleading guilty, he would tamper justice with mercy.
He, therefore, sentenced the medical doctor to 24 months imprisonment on the two count charges with an option of N10, 000 fines.
The court said the convict would serve 12 months for forgery and another 12 months for impersonation or N5,000 fines on each of the count.
Okeagwu, however, warned the convict to desist from such disgraceful and criminal acts and work hard on his profession as he would not be forgiven next time.
 DailyPost

Police arrest Ifeanyi Uba, Capital Oil chief over fuel subsidy scam

The Police Special Fraud Unit, Ikoyi has arrested oil magnet, Mr Ifeanyi Uba, the Managing Director of Capital Oil & Gas Industries Ltd over the involvement of his companies in the fuel subsidy scam.
Uba was taken into custody at exactly 2.20pm this afternoon with his team of lawyers and is being currently interrogated.
His company was indicted by Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede’s led 15-man Presidential Panel constituted by President Goodluck Jonathan to re-investigate the findings of the report of an earlier investigation panel set up by the Ministry of Finance on Fuel Subsidy payments valued at over N2 trillion.
 BusinessNews