Princess Set To Wed

There are strong indications that popular comedienne, Damilola Adekoya, a.k.a Princess, will be walking down the aisle any moment from now.

A source close to the bulky humorist hinted that she will be saying ' I do' to her beau, Ade on the 8th of May, which interestingly, happens to be her birthday.

Our tweetbird also said, Princess and Ade had known each other since 2005.

Ade had been trying to get Princess' attention to no avail until a friend introduced them to each other, and they hit it off from there. Meanwhile, those in the know said, while Princess is loud and outgoing, 

Ade is on the quiet side and one who cherishes his privacy a lot. He's also a lover of entertainment.

HOW TO BECOME A MILLIONAIRE WRITING SIMPLE ARTICLES ONLINE 101

My name is JOHN GREATMAN OYEDU. I’m a freelance writer at www.smartfreelancewriting.com 

and Chief Editor at www.johnoyedu.com . 

Indeed for many years now, I have been looking for ways to start making money online since 
I know (and you know too) that there are no jobs in Nigeria, in other words,
graduating from school in Nigeria is not encouraging at all. 

You have to look for job that is nowhere or start your own business, which is not possible
as a “Flat Broke” graduate, NO CAPITAL! For me, I began my journey of self discovery
when I was in 200 level in the university, figuring out how I can make it in life… 

Before that time, I was an independent stock market analyst in one of the Nigerian stockbroking firm and 
I really made money for the firm and for myself until the stock market crashed. 
I lost almost a million naira then even as a student.

I turned to the internet to find the solution to my money worries and alas, I have found it.
All I did was to look for workable internet business models and stick to them. 

For now, I practice website designing and online freelance writing and am here to inform you that
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Helping facebook owner to be making millions of dollars yearly while 
you can turn those hours you spend on facebook into money making hours and smile to the bank.
Okay, will you like to be paid $50- $100 per article? Ah you said YES? YOU ANSWERED WELL. Online freelance writers earn that much. 

If you are given to write 20 articles a week and you are paid $100 per one, how much will you make that week? That’s pure $2000. 

I know you will now ask, if it is so, why is all this jobless graduates roaming about the cities of Nigeria not doing it? 

The answer is that many of them don’t even have access to this information, so don’t blame them.

What of people that are paid peanuts in their place of work?

What of the house wives?

Infact anybody that want to end his money worries should consider this freelance writing business…

The Good News is that I have helped you to make it simple for you. 
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JOHN GREATMAN OYEDU
http://johnoyedu.com

Boko Haram is Ignorant, Says Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has said members of Boko Haram, in their opposition to western education, are ignorant of the teachings of Islam.

Soyinka, who spoke Monday in Port Harcourt as chairman of the opening ceremony of the Third Rivers State Education Summit, noted that some of the world’s greatest philosophers and mathematicians were Muslims.

He expressed regret that a group of people felt they were educated to say western education was wrong.

He said: “Those who call themselves Boko Haram, for instance, yes they claim to be educated; educated to mean books, and they are not sufficient, even about their religion to know that some of the greatest philosophers came from that religion, some of the greatest mathematicians were the pioneers Muslims, Islamic scholars.

“So these killers roaming around saying that they hate western education, they are uneducated; but they think they are educated. They have been taught on a monorail – one track lane. But they need to be re-educated even about their own history, their own culture.”

Soyinka also decried the sorry state of education in the country, noting that people now equate cultism with fraternities.
He said the situation had become so bad that a vice-chancellor of a university had to take extra measures to restore sanity to his institution.

“The rot in tertiary institutions is trickling down to other levels of education in the country,” he said, adding that urgent steps needed to be taken by government at all levels to clean up the rot in the system.

He called for a multi-pronged approach to education in the country, adding that close supervision was necessary to achieve results.

“When people talk about the multi-pronged approach, I agree and I approve of the attempts being made to create the so-called Almajiri schools which should be supervised – the content and the method of teaching should be supervised,” he said.

He called on the Federal Government to take issues of security seriously to provide the necessary atmosphere for learning.

“At the same time, however, to impact knowledge, you have to have the heads where they belong for the knowledge to be imparted. So at the same time, talk about amnesty as much as you want, but you have to catch those who are trying to take the heads off where we are supposed to impact knowledge,” he

advised.

He called for the re-education of members of Boko Haram who are caught, but added that those who are recalcitrant should be punished according to the law.

Soyinka said: “When you catch them, you have to re-educate them very seriously. If they refuse to be re-educated, you must punish them. I am not sentimental at all.

“The society must first of all protect itself and the citizens must be taught how to protect their society, how to ensure their own survival. So let’s not be sentimental at all about this.

“I want to see the head into which I can put in the material (knowledge). I want to be sure that teachers are not being slaughtered for following their vocation. Those teachers must be protected. The universities must be reopened, the schools must be reopened.”

Soyinka commended the Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, for his achievements in education, but urged him not to feel despondent because of some of the challenges inflicted by teachers and other managers who try to subvert the system.

In his speech, Amaechi, said it was necessary to look beyond the façade of the beautiful buildings and facilities put in place by his administration to boost education.

He expressed concern that despite the directive by his government that no pupil in the state’s primary schools should pay fees, some teachers were still forcing them to pay fees.

He also noted that teachers were not making use of the ICT and other facilities in the schools, adding that the state House of Assembly was already working on a bill on quality assurance in the school system.

In her welcome address, the state Commissioner for Education, Ms. Alice Lawrence-Nemi, said the summit was the third in the series in five years, and was expected to come up with recommendations which “when properly implemented will give Rivers’ children access to education that will enable them fit into and adequately face the challenges of the 21st century.”

Remembering Chinua Achebe

How does one begin to pay tribute to Chinua Achebe—author, educator, critic and battler of colonialism’s sticky, shameful, single-story residue? 

It is an insoluble task to derive a quote or anecdote that describes him better than his own words, which signify his most useful tool for battle.

“My weapon is literature,” Achebe once said.  We lost him, the man we champion as our initial, and most authentic and intimate African voice in literature, one who told us not only that Africa is not a country, but more importantly that it is a continent inhabited by proud, beautiful, complicated

and diverse people who are more than a backdrop to its vast savannahs, lions, and diamonds.  He died after a bout with a short illness in Boston last week at the age of 82. 

The wonderful thing about griots, however, is that they manage to live forever through their stories, and their aims for telling their stories. 

Wole Soyinka, celebrated Nigerian poet and playwright, commenting on the giant’s death, writes, “His works provide their enduring testimony to the domination of the human spirit over the forces of repression, bigotry and retrogression.

”  His seminal work Things Fall Apart (1958), which tells the tale of colonialism through a distinct Nigerian-Igbo narrative voice, will continue to encourage many generations to come that hope to read and write about Africa.  

When Achebe speaks of Africa, he speaks of it not as a land that became human once Europeans arrived, but possibly one that became less human after.  When asked the role of the African writer, Achebe offers the following truths:

“African peoples did not hear of culture for the first time from Europeans; their societies were not mindless but frequently had a philosophy of great depth and value and beauty, that they had poetry and, above all, they had dignity.

It is this dignity that many African peoples all but lost in the colonial period, and it is this dignity that they must now regain. The worst thing that can happen to any people is the loss of their dignity and self-respect. The writer’s duty is to help them regain it by showing them in human terms what happened to them, what they lost.

There is a saying in Ibo that a man who can’t tell where the rain began to beat him cannot know where he dried his body. The writer can tell the people where the rain began to beat them.

After all the novelist’s duty is not to beat this morning’s headline in topicality, it is to explore in depth the human condition. In Africa he cannot perform this task unless he has a proper sense of history.”

Achebe sought to inject dignity where it had become barren.  For the Igbo people of Nigeria, Africans throughout the continent, and even those living in the Diaspora, he reminded us that we have a history that outlives slavery and colonialism, and his reminder was majestic. 

Achebe hijacked the language of his oppressors and used it to translate what had somehow become lost in our native tongues. 

He stole language, re-seamed it, and made it into a brand new garment.  Chimamanda Adichie, a new African storyteller and author of Purple Hibiscus agrees. 

She writes on Achebe’s significance to her and many:

“Achebe was an unapologetic member of the generation of African writers who were ‘writing back,’ challenging the stock Western images of their homeland, but his work was not burdened by its intent.

It is much-loved not because Achebe wrote back, but because he wrote back well. His work was wise, humorous, human.

 For many Africans, Things Fall Apart remains a gesture of returned dignity, a literary and an emotional experience; Mandela called Achebe the writer in whose presence the prison walls came down.”

This idea of “writing back” is definitely witnessed in Achebe’s fiction, but may be more transparent in his essays and public conversations.  My own introduction to Achebe was not through his novels (which include Arrow of God and Anthills in the Savannah), or his short stories (one of my favorites is “Vengeful Creditor”), but his fiery and accurate response to Joseph Conrad’s very racist adaptation of Africa,

“Heart of Darkness”.

Today I teach students who are also learning literature, but without many of the binds my generation experienced.  When speaking with them on Achebe’s death, they asked, “Isn’t that the guy who sued 50 Cent?”   “Yes” I replied, “Now let me tell you why.”

SOURCE: EBONY.COM

Pop Star Goldie...Died And The Music Stopped!

Oluwabimpe Susan Filani Harvey

Pop diva Oluwabimpe Susan Filani Harvey, better known as Goldie, shocks the entertainment world as she succumbs to death in another case of a burning candle that is snuffed out without a gale.  Nseobong Okon-Ekong reports

It all ended too soon for Oluwabimpe Susan Filani Harvey, better known as Goldie. To her very end she had the capacity to shock people out of their wits. Her exit from the earth was no less astonishing: no long drawn bout of illness, no ailment whatsoever. One moment she was there, so full of life and in a jiffy she deleted her physical presence from our collective psyche.

Many Nigerians were still on an overdose of love-induced activities on Valentine Day when they were jolted back into reality with the news of the demise of Goldie whose entertainment career was only beginning to roll into the speedy lane.

A Piece of Bad News
For many Nigerians and her increasing fans across Africa it was a piece of bad news they did not want to believe. Not minding scores of messages from close associates, it sounded all so surreal, the credibility of the tale-bearers notwithstanding. Channel O VJ, Denrele Edun who has made a couple of appearances in Goldie’s recent videos including ‘Skibobo’ featuring AY is definitely a trusted source when it comes to issues relating to Goldie. He did not mince words with his post on social media. He claimed to be the last person who saw her alive. According to Denrele, Goldie arrived from the US where she was in the company with her record label, Kennis Music boss, Kenny Ogungbe, at the 2013 Grammys Awards.

“She was full of life upon her return, but suddenly, something went tragically wrong.” Perhaps, only Denrele knows the source of this tragedy.

It was only natural for Denrele to be Goldie’s pal. Apart from being joined together by their unconventional behaviour, both entertainers had recently started a television reality programme, ‘True Friendship’. It was Denrele who revealed that Goldie died in his arms at Reddington Hospital in Victoria Island, Lagos. To absolve itself of any complicity, the hospital issued a statement claiming that the singer was dead by the time she was brought there from her Parkview, Ikoyi residence. Goldie’s management would later announce on her Facebook page and on her twitter handle: “It is with heavy heart that I have to inform you all that Goldie passed this night shortly after arriving Lagos from LA. May her soul rest in the eternal peace of the Lord – Admin!!”

Goldie Was to Feature on MTV
Base Celeb Segment
Goldie was scheduled to feature on the Celeb Surprise Segment, of MTV Base’s Big Friday Show at the weekend. About this time last year, Goldie dropped ‘Say My Name’, a love song for the Valentine season. Last year too, she released her second studio album, ‘Gold Reloaded’ on Kennis Music label to which she was signed on in 2010. She had previously released her debut titled, ‘Gold’ on the same platform.

Even as a counter message purportedly from her manager, Teejay tried to give a lie to the death story, insisting she was alive and well, Kenny Ogungbe sealed the hope of anyone hoping against hope that the Goldie death story might just turn out a hoax. Kennis Music’s official statement confirmed her demise. “On behalf of Kennis Music, I’m sad to officially confirm the shocking and untimely passage of Nigeria’s pop star, Goldie Harvey. With a deep sense of loss, we announce the shocking death of our darling music star, Goldie Harvey. Goldie, 31, died on Thursday after she complained of a severe headache at her Parkview, Ikoyi, Lagos residence shortly after her arrival from the United States where she went to witness the Grammy Award. She was rushed to her official hospital, Reddington, Victoria Island, Lagos, where doctors pronounced her dead on arrival. We consider this period a gloomy moment for us and the entire Nigerian music industry in view of the circumstance in which Goldie passed away, the abundance of talent she has exhibited in her short but eventful music career and the various opportunities her trip to the United States of America would have availed her. She is survived by her father, step-mother, brothers and sisters. We deeply sympathise with her family and fans all over the world and very grateful to all and sundry, especially, the vibrant Nigerian media for their concern and prompt reportage. We shall keep everybody informed as events unfold as we are still devastated by the sudden loss.”

Kenny’s business partner and friend Dayo Adeneye has been reported to give the cause of death as pneumonia, while earlier posts suggested she succumbed to migraine. A post-mortem is yet to be carried out, but her body has already been deposited at the Ikeja General Hospital. There is also the speculation that she might have died from an overdose of hallucinatory drugs. But all of these are in the realm of conjecture as a post-mortem has not been performed on her body.

Revealing Encounter with Goldie
A few months ago, this reporter had an encounter with Goldie at a hotel at Parkview Estate in Ikoyi. She said she was staying there because her house was being renovated. She laid bare her personality. “I am the first child of my parents. I was born and grew up in Lagos, but we are from Ikole in Ekiti State. I come from a very religious and academic background. I went to Green Springs Primary School, St. John’s College and I have a degree in Business Management from the University of Sunderland. Goldie is a pop artiste and she is different from Oluwabimpe Susan.

“I am the only person in my family that has this colour of skin. I won’t call myself an albino. When I got to the UK, my friends started calling me Goldie. There is a phase in my life when I used to pick on everything metallic, anything shiny. I am trying to think whether it was because of my skin tone or because of my love for gold jewelry back then, but they nicknamed me Goldie and when I wanted to start music I decided to stick to Goldie, first because I was already used to the name and secondly because I wanted my brand to inspire and imbibe all the attributes that gold has to offer which includes class and expense.

“The essence of the Goldie brand is to inspire confidence in women and young girls  from all walks of life just so that they know that they can be whoever they want to be and not let anyone put them down. They can express themselves in ways that add value to society not in ways that subtract from society. My brand is very homely, very spiritual in a way and just confident; the modern woman.”

Nigeria’s Lady Gaga
“I have heard a lot of people compare me with Lady Gaga and frankly I am flattered by the comparison. I have looked back at my old works, before Lady Gaga became known I have always been theatrical, having all my corsets, all my hats. I am talking about 2007/2008-. Before Lady Gaga I have always been this way. I am not Nigeria’s answer to Lady Gaga. I am Nigeria’s Goldie. I will always be this way. This is who I have always been from when I was young I have always been full of drama. I feel that you need to express yourself and I just want to express myself-my outfit, my shoes-everything has to be expressive. You can express yourself without even speaking and that is what I try to do with my work and what I wear.

“My dad’s mother is fair and I think I take after her, but it is not exactly like mine. If I go into the sun now I become very red. I am 5 feet 7 inches tall. I started (music career) by myself in 2007, trying to work, trying to do videos, go to studios recording, go to different producers, trying to manage myself and run everything. I then realized that as an artiste, you can’t really do a lot of things by yourself. You need to work with people who are professionals in their field. “Therefore, I went to Kennis Music and we have a working relationship which started in 2009 and they gave me a recording contract. That is how my professional music career started, but I had been doing music by myself since 2007. My first video, ‘Komole’ was released that year.

“I have always been someone in love with expressing myself from when I was very little. I remember doing a lot of writing. I remember doing a lot of personal reading, like taking the newspapers and taking the political articles from them. I always knew I would go into some form of self-expression or the other. I did not know that music would be the outlet that God would put in front of me.

“I feel that education is very important. No matter what you read, education enables you to be able to connect with your fans. I would not say that I should have studied music or something else. An education is an education and it is helping me in my music career in ways that might not be apparent now but I will get to know later.

“I have other creative talents. I am an artiste, anything that has to do with expression. I can design outfits; I can design food. I write. I draw. I am an artiste through and through. I work with designers but I have the ideas in my head. I sketch them and the designers come and I tell them what I want and they make it. Before I go to an event I need to have at least an hour to make-up and get my accessories right.”

At some point she stopped the interview to deal with a stubborn strand of hair that was irritating her eyes. “I have this eyelash on and I feel that there is something that has been affecting my eyes. I am not sure if it is the lash but I just have to take it off, I have put eye drop but it is not working. I like to be comfortable. I would not wear anything if I’m not comfortable. I want to be natural if it is making me feel ok I will wear it, if it is not, I really don’t care, I like to be comfortable.

“I don’t really dress for the public. I dress up when I am at home. Sometimes I dress up and just stand before the mirror. It is not just for the show. Of course, when I am going to bed I am not going to be wearing heavy clothes. I wear my pyjamas, if you come to my house sometimes, you see me dressed up. It depends on my mood for the day. Sometimes when I go out, I wear a jeans and T-shirt. I do not think the outfit is Goldie, I think Goldie is the outfit.”

At the hotel room, there were over 40 pairs of shoes and she claimed there were lots more in her house. “I can’t believe that you have been counting my shoes. All my shoes are not here I stay in the estate (Parkview). These are the ones I know I will be using regularly. Don’t count them. There are more. I don’t even know how many shoes I have. I love corsets; I think corset showcases the female hour-glass figure. I think a woman should have a good top, a good bottom and a slim middle. That way you can see the curve and the figure. I think that is the real feminine shape that a woman should have. I feel comfortable in a corset. Most women today have little things they call body magic that they wear under their clothes to give them that added hour-glass shape. I don’t wear body magic. I have a naturally slim figure. That is because I work out and I eat right and I thank God for my great metabolism. But I like to wear a corset on top of my outfit because that is how I feel. I don’t wear the corset inside; I show it.

“The most startling encounter I have had in my life is when myself and the rest of the Kennis Music stars went for a show in London. Jaywon and I got on stage. We performed. Afterwards we were leaving the event and we were going to another event and this guy followed us out, he was shouting ‘Goldie, Goldie come and take me from my girlfriend,’ he was singing the chorus of the song ‘mo le gba oko lo’wo e.’ I have the goodies and he pulled down his trouser and pulled down his boxers and bared his manhood. I couldn’t believe he did that.

“I think the guy was a little over excited and had taken some hallucinatory stuff. That was totally weird…in public! I said to myself, ‘is that the CV to get a girlfriend nowadays? That never happened to me before and it has not happened since then
“Music has been good to me in the last two years. I feel that people have started to appreciate my works and all the efforts that go into what I do. I have gotten more validation. More awards, more recognition for my works. I remember when I did not feel so good, but when I look at myself and what I have accomplished and I review the plans that I have for the next song, for the next show, for the next video, that makes me happy.

“Concerning the 'mo le gba oko lowo e' song, nobody has ever walked up to me to say something nasty. I think everybody knows it is just a cheeky song. It was not targeted at any woman in particular. It was more of a feel good song for any girl or guy who feels downtrodden or hated. People just laugh about it. I am mischievous girl. I have always loved playing pranks. I think life sometimes can be too serious, so you play pranks. You play with people around to make them laugh.

“In five years, I will be fulfilling the destiny which I know God has set out for me. As they say man proposes and God disposes. At the end of the day, you can only hope that your life is in line with what God has chosen for you. Right now I am working towards a particular goal that I have in mind, which is spreading the message of my music, creating different things, which I don’t really want to talk about but I am going to go into a lot of corporate things, not just in music but other aspects, writing, directing-movies, videos.

“I have been approached for a couple of roles but I did not feel that I was ready at the time. I would prefer to direct than to act. I feel that I have an eye for what I want people to see. I have a three-album contract and I have done two but I intend to maintain a relationship with Kennis because I think the CEO has maintained his word and he is good to me. You don’t repay evil with good.

“There was a point in my life when I felt really down. I had friends and I will go hang out with them and all my friends will have guys talking to them and nobody will say hi to me and I used to ask myself why guys will not say hi to me and why they don’t ask me out. I was talking to my mum one day and she said look at the way you are- ‘shoe gold, bag gold, they will feel intimidated and say this one is going to cut my neck, that is why they are not asking you out. You don’t have to feel you are not beautiful enough. They are scared that you are going to cut their neck or you are too confident for them.’

“Things have changed. I am in a relationship now and I am very happy. He is someone I have known for a while and I think you become friends first. This person did not know I was into music before he liked me and when he now knew it was an added plus. I think he likes creative people. When people come to artistes you don’t really know their motive, you don’t know whether they are trying to have a feel good girlfriend. With someone who does not know you are an artiste, then you know he likes you for who you are.

“I think that I have an entrepreneurial spirit. I used to have a date reminder company, which is like an event planning. We were into souvenirs and gift packaging before but I had to stop it because it is a very personal business. You have to spend time on it. Music does not give me time. The name of my company is Harfil Limited.”

Last Celebrity to Exit BBA 7 Star Game House
Goldie became the final celebrity to exit the BBA7 Star Game House in 2012 as the 3rd runner up. While in the house, she generated a lot of controversy by developing an intimacy with Kenyan rapper Prezzo who was a fellow contestant. Her fame in Nigeria and Africa went up in the aftermath of the Big Brother show.

She was working on a continent-wide musical project titled The African Invasion album. Three singles off the album are already in the public space. They are ‘Skibobo’ featuring AY (Tanzania), ‘Miliki’ featuring NAVIO (Uganda), and ‘Give it to Me’ featuring J MARTINS (Nigeria).

Her playlist on the Kennis Music Channel rates ‘You Know It’ featuring Eldee D Don as her favourite. The song is alternately known as ‘Mo Le Gba Oko Lowo E’.

Source: thisdaylive

Darey’s Love Like A Movie Concert Records Large Guest Appearance

Darey’s  highly anticipated show that generated so much hype, Love Like A Movie, has finally come and gone.

The famous R&B singer, blew the minds of his fans with the special love concert which held on Sunday at the Conventional Centre of the Eko Hotel and Suites.

The concert, which was hosted by Darey and US reality TV show star, Kim Kardashian featured performances from 2Face, Waje, Banky W, Ice Prince, Mo’Eazy, Zaina among others.

The show met the expectation, it was described as the best show in Nigeria. Although there were disappointments after Kim Kardashian came on stage for only 40 seconds.

Darey thrilled the audience with his “Boyz II Men songs which he featured Tolu (Mtn projectfame),Praiz, Banky W and Timi Dakolo, he also did a duet “Endless Love ft Waje.

Darey later performed a tribute song for the late singer Goldie Harvey.

The show was a well organized show, the red carpet perfectly arranged also with a touch of some fashion police experts.

The show also had a 3D background, with bright lights

There were South-African dancers who thrilled the stage and a phenomenal sand artist.

Explosion Kills One in Lagos

An explosion in Nigeria's commercial hub of Lagos killed a man and injured another on Monday sparking fears of violence spreading to the south of the country. 

The blast that occurred under a bridge, killed a sand dredger while a policeman was injured. 

Police at the scene of the incident believed the bomb to be battery-operated or an explosive. 

It is yet to be known if the dead victim was the target of the attack or if the bomb was planted at random. 

The north of Nigeria has been attacked several times by radical Islamic group Boko Haram which has vowed to establish an Islamic caliphate in the country since 2009. 

Boko Haram has engaged in several suicide bombings, gunfights and drive-by shootings since it commenced the insurgency and thousands have lost their lives. 

However, their activities have been concentrated in the Muslim-dominated northern part of the country with little threat to the south which is mostly dominated by Christians.