President Jonathan weeps at brother’s burial

President Goodluck Jonathan could not hold back his emotions at the burial rites for his younger brother, Meni Innocent Jonathan, who died 20 November, as he burst into tears.
Part of the rites was the Service of Songs held for Meni at the Dame Patience Jonathan Square, Otuoke today. It attracted notable government officials, including Senate President David Mark. Representatives of Nollywood were there too. But a notable absentee was vice-president Namadi Sambo, who kept away to prepare for the wedding of his two daughters in Kaduna Saturday.
Pall bearers with the casket of Meni Jonathan Meni Jonathan will be buried on Saturday after a commendation service at the St. Stephen’s Anglican Church, Otuoke at 10 am.
 DailyPost

Iyanya sets new record for highest single caller ringback tune downloads in Nigeria

Mobile ringtone service providers, MTech, have confirmed that Iyanya’s Kukere, is now the highest ever purchased caller back tune.
The song which put the winner of the first ever Project Fame West Africa on another pedestal, has been requested by over three million subscribers.
Kukere, was produced by D-Tunes, who also churned out another of Iyanya’s hit track, ‘Your Waist’ and has gone on to become one of the most popular songs released in Nigeria in 2012.
Iyanya confirmed this in a tweet which read: “Mtech in my house to present me a cheque for breaking the record for downloads on callertunes in Africa. Thank you all. #Kukere”
 DailyPost

Omotola’s Reality Show Breaks Africa Magic Record

Omotola Jalade Ekeinde has made waves and is still making high waves in the world of make belief but that world where she rules like a colossus is a different kettle of fish from the real world where everything is real – no cuts, edit or re-cast.

Therefore, it was no surprise when the Nollywood diva initially expressed reservations about her reality show tagged “Omotola: Real Me”. According to her, “if I sit down and tell you I’m confident about this, I would be lying to you. I’m very nervous about the show because everything about me is going to be in the public domain now” she said.
But contrary to her fears, initial reports indicate that the show which premiered yesterday, Thursday, November 6th on DSTV,  shattered the records of AfricaMagic Entertainment (DSTV Channel 151) as the most watched TV show of all time.
According to reports, more than 30 minutes before the airing of the show, the channel started experiencing heavy traffic and as the show eventually started, nearly every home that has access to the channel or other medium, tuned in.
With this news, the beautiful and sexy actress can be rest assured that the project will not ‘mar’ her career as she first feared, but may actually go on to catapault her to new heights than ever before.
Who watched the show yesterday? Did it meet your expectations or not?
InformationNigeria.org

Jonathan In Otuoke For Brother’s Funeral

President Jonathan arrived at his Otuoke residence yesterday, shortly before 3:00pm, ahead of the burial of his younger brother on Saturday.
The president was received by the governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Seriake Dickson, as well as senior security officials, after which members of his family briefed him on the arrangements for the funeral.
The president’s arrival was preceeded by that of the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, who had arrived Otuoke on Wednesday where she took charge of some of the arrangements.
After the briefing by his family members, President Jonathan visited the residence of his late brother where he commiserated with the widow and daughter before leaving for Pa Lawrence Ebele Jonathan Memorial Hall where the corpse is expected to lay in state today.
A sober President Jonathan who came out of his brother’s residence with eyes welled with tears, was then led to the community Town Hall where the community elders are expected to receive the corpse when it arrives from Abuja today.
From the Community Town Hall, the President was led to St. Steven’s Anglican Church where the requiem mass is expected to be held today.
The president’s younger brother, Chief Meni Jonathan, died two weeks ago in Abuja, after a brief illness.
InformationNigeria.org

All Africa Students Union (AASU) Disowns Bode George, Says No Plan To Honour Him

Thief Olabode George

By Abdulrahman Abdulmalik

The All Africa Students Union (AASU) has disowned a former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Party, Olabode George, saying it has no plan to confer any award on him.
Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES from AASU headquarters in Accra, Ghana, the Secretary General of the organization, Fred Awah, said reports of the award on Mr. George, an ex-convict, who recently served jail term for corruption, was “absolutely untrue, misleading and fraudulent.”
“It is clear there are elements dragging the name of our organization in the mud,” Mr. Awah said. “The Kwame Nkrumah African Leadership Award is a prestigious one and there are criteria for awarding it. At no time did we consider him (Bode George) for any award.”
Mr. Awah, who sounded livid on the telephone, said he was already planning to travel to Nigeria to meet with officials of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, with a view to identifying “the fraudulent elements” using AASU’s name to offer dubious awards to individuals for percuniary gains.
“What they have done is criminal,” he said. “We must expose and disgrace them so that others will learn.”
There have been reports in the media (not PREMIUM TIMES) that AASU, on the recommendation of NANS, had nominated the PDP chieftain as winner of its 15th edition of the Africa Leadership Award.
A certain Olufemi Lawson, described as the Nigeria representative at AASU and project co-ordinator of the award, reportedly announced Mr. Bode’s selection, saying the award would be conferred on him on December 12 at an elaborate ceremony that would feature “a distinguished leadership lecture.”
He was quoted as saying Mr. George was selected from among the many nominees for the 2012 award based on his commitment to youth development and his defence of democratic institutions.
AASU is a regional students organisation, headquartered in Accra, Ghana with over 54 African countries as members.
When contacted by PREMIUM TIMES Friday, Mr. Lawson insisted there was no going back on the conferment of the award on Mr. George. He said the award ceremony would be held in Lagos as planned.
Mr. Lawson said the President of AASU, Mohammed Bashir, a Sudanese citizen, is aware of the arrangement, and that the organisation’s secretary general, Mr. Awah, was not in the loop because he had been busy with the Ghanaian elections.
Mr. Lawson said in selecting Mr. George for the award, he and his group “looked beyond the politics of Nigeria” and were impressed by his effort in youth development and education.
“This is a man who has awarded over 1000 scholarships and grants to indigent students,” Mr. Lawson said. “He deserves to be honoured.”
But shortly after Mr. Lawson spoke to us, we called Secretary General Amah again who insisted “there is no such award for Bode George from AASU.”
“Lawson is not an official of AASU,” Mr. Amah said. “He contested for the position of deputy secretary general and lost. He was defeated by a Liberian. Since then, he has been pursuing a fraudulent scheme, using the name of the organization to hand out dubious awards.”
A former President of AASU, Oludare Ogunlana, also explained that his investigation indicated the organization and its secretariat had no knowledge of the purported award.
He said there is no Nigerian on the executive board of AASU at this time, meaning Mr. Lawson could not be speaking for the organization.
Many Nigerians have widely criticized the plan to honour Mr. George, who was imprisoned for mismanaging public funds.
The PDP chieftain could not be reached for comments Friday morning. He did not answer or return calls made to his telephone.
Past recipients of the AASU bi-annual Africa Leadership Award include former Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Kofi Anan, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Afe Babalola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, and late Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai among others.
  Saharareporters.com

28-year-old Kenyan commits suicide in the UK due to loneliness

inShare

A glamorous 28-year-old businesswoman killed herself because she struggled to cope with living alone in Britain with her family spread across the world, an inquest heard yesterday.
Sales manager Sharon Bukokhe, of Levenshulme, Manchester, was a high achiever working for a family planning charity but felt lonely because relatives including her husband lived abroad.

Mrs Bukokhe, who was originally from Kenya, used her laptop to research ways to commit suicide, applied full make up and painted her nails then suffocated herself at her flat in April.
A diary found after her death said: ‘I think that any life is as valid as the next, such that an ending of 25 is as good as 88. I have no real regrets or fears any more, I just feel decisive and justified.’
Mrs Bukokhe, who appeared to friends to be ‘the happiest person in the world’, settled in the UK in 2002 and graduated in design and engineering at Nottingham Trent University, the inquest heard.
She was later appointed sales manager of a charity helping with family planning issues involving third world countries. But Mrs Bukokhe was deeply affected by her family living in other countries.

Her husband lived in South Africa so he could complete a Master’s Degree whilst her mother lived in Richmond, Virginia, in the US, and her sister lived in Canada.
Her only relative in Britain was her brother who lived 250 miles away in Gillingham, Kent and as a result of her feelings of loneliness she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Mrs Bukokhe’s sister Caroline Lusiche, who flew in from Canada to be at the inquest in Manchester said: ‘There were many factors which led to it.
‘She was a high achiever, her marriage was also a big factor. She wanted it to succeed but he was in South Africa doing his masters. She moved and they decided to put that marriage on hold.
‘She had come here as a very young girl and it really affected her that we were all dispersed in different countries. In the last few days we had been trying to get back in touch with each other.
‘But because of the time difference- me in Canada – we kept missing each other. I sent her an email and did not hear back then I heard.
‘She was trying to be the one to bring the family together, she had a lot on her shoulders weighing on her. She had high objectives we were taught to hold our chin up and get on with it.
‘She tried to persevere she wanted to do that to protect your feelings – she didn’t want to make you feel bad’.

Mrs Bukokhe’s flatmate of two years, Stefanie Maccalli, told the hearing: ‘She was a really artistic, creative person, very active – and I think everybody who didn’t know her particularly well found her the happiest person in the world.
‘I would say the creative and joy and artistic side was real but the happiness she was showing all the time was not always real. There were times when she was not this happy, outgoing person. 
‘The two years I knew her where divided into a two periods, the first she was taking medication for the bipolar and she was always very happy.
‘In the second part she changed the amount of medication. She would have ups and downs every few weeks. When low she would not like to talk too much and would take a day off work and stay in her room and watch movies.
‘She was always trying to find a balance. She started saying things like she could not show weakness, she felt guilty about being dull.’

Ms Maccalli said that the last time she saw her was on April 24, in the kitchen of their shared home.
‘She told me that she was thinking about buying a house, she was taking in a very positive way about the future – but her eyes did not show that,’ Ms Maccalli said.
‘She took her food upstairs so I got that she was in one of her low moods. The last look she gave me, I got the feeling it was kind of a serious look. I had a bad feeling.’
Ms Maccalli added that the next couple of nights she arrived home late but had become concerned that neither she nor her other housemate had seen Mrs Bukokhe.
‘I decided to check Facebook to see if she had gone somewhere but I couldn’t find her profile. That was the moment everything started clicking,’ she said. ‘I sent her a text to her mobile. Part of me was already thinking something bad.’
‘We tried to open the door it wouldn’t open – it was obvious that it was closed from the inside. We decided to try and break the door, we looked inside and she was on the floor in front of the door.
‘She was dressed with make-up and her nails done, she looked like she had been somewhere nice or she was just going somewhere.’

The inquest was told Mrs Bukokhe had last seen her doctor, Dr Javaid Khan, in March this year.
He told the inquest that she had stopped taking her medication in January, and said she was feeling low and her sleep was variable and she had a lack of motivation.
Dr Khan said: ‘She was having suicidal thoughts but she could put them aside. She was not a severe type of manic depression, there was a low assessment of suicide.
‘When I found out it shocked me very much. She always put a brave face on, she said she did feel very lonely.’

Recording a verdict of suicide, Deputy Coroner for Manchester Carolyn Singleton said: ‘I’m sure that Sharon intended to kill herself.’
YNaija.com

Abdulsalami: It will take 20 years to revive North

by Ismail Mudashir

Former head of state General Abdulsalami Abubakar yesterday said security challenges have done a grievous damage to the North such that it will take as many as 20 years to revive the region.

Speaking at a conference on the ‘North and Strategies for Sustainable Development’ in Kaduna, Abdulsalami said the solution lies in the hands of the government and the people of the region.

“It will take 20 years to revive the North. A lot of damage has been done. If you go round the region you will appreciate the extent of damage done to the region,” he said, apparently referring to the 3-year-old insurgency that left thousands dead.

The former head of state, who spoke when he chaired a session on Security, Politics and Economy of the North, urged Northerners to join the Federal Government in tackling insecurity.

“We have to work together for us to overcome the challenges. All of us should join hands with the government,” he said.

“We should not leave it in the hands of the government alone. Every Nigerian is a security officer, let us try to join hands and report what we see that have security threat so that government can take action. Be the government’s watchdog and also be the watchdog of your community.”

Abdulsalami lamented the disunity among Northerners, saying there was urgent need for the people of the region to bury their differences and work together for the development of the region.

“I thank Arewa House for bringing various groups together in this conference so that we can chart a new course. If we are able to harness this, we will know the problems and we will know the solution. It is only when we are working together that we can address our challenged,” he said.

The conference, which began on Wednesday and ended yesterday, was organized by the Centre for Historical Research and Documentation (Arewa House) of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

Also speaking, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, said northerners must rise together in order to address the challenges facing the region.

He advocated for societal re-orientation among the people.

Tambuwal said failure of past governments also contributed to problems facing the region and the country at large.

“We must have the resolution that we want to have change. We must rise to the occasion and this is not about workshop, it is about taking the right steps at the right time. We must re-orientate ourselves and our children towards what is right,” he said.

“We need to redirect our searchlight into the civil service because Sardauna and his team succeeded because they had a very prudent civil service. Can we say we have a patriotic civil service now?”

DailyTrust