Photos from the movie premiere of Ini Edo's 'While You Slept'

The Premiere of ‘While You Slept’ took place on the 20th of March at the Silverbird Galleria. Celebs such as Ini Edo, Emem Isong, Desmond Elliot, Rita Dominic, Tana Adelana, Mahmood Ali Balogun, Kenneth Okolie, Halima Abubakar, Bobby Michaels, Tracy & Treasure Daniels, Funny Bone, Yvonne Nwosu etc were present and graced the red carpet. See more photos after the cut...

Buhari’s Election as Nigeria’s President Would be a Disaster for Africa – Richard Grenell

A former spokesman for United States Ambassadors to the United Nations, Richard Grenell, has said that if former military Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari, is elected president of Nigeria in next Saturday’s elections, it would be a disaster for the entire African continent.
Grenell, who made the declaration in a piece titled: Nigeria on the brink, and which was published in the Washington Times, a US based publication, of Thursday, March 19, 2015, said:

“Western foreign policy observers pre-occupied with the rise of ISIS in the Middle East should wake up to the reality unfolding in Nigeria. Opposition candidate General Buhari wants Sharia law throughout Nigeria. In fact, he wants it everywhere.
“Is this an indication that Buhari supports violence because the end goal of the terrorist attacks throughout Nigeria and Africa is an Islamic state? It is a legitimate question that should be asked by leaders of the Obama administration.
“Boko Haram has pledged its allegiance and support to ISIS. The Northern Nigerian based Islamic terrorist group wants Sharia law throughout the country and beyond. They are also actively terrorising Chad, Niger and Cameroon with their goal of an Islamic state.
“Buhari has also spoken sympathetically about members of the terrorist group Boko Haram, has cautioned against a rush to judgement on its members and has personally been selected by the terrorist group to lead its negotiations with the Government of Nigeria.
“Buhari’s election as Nigeria’s head of state would be a disaster for Africa. It would also signal trouble for the West’s fight against ISIS and terrorism throughout the Middle East.”

According to Grenell, incumbent president and Buhari’s main rival at next Saturday’s election, Goodluck Jonathan has made commendable inroads in strangling Boko Haram to submission in recent weeks and so deserves the support of the Barack Obama led United States administration and the rest of the world.

“The Nigerian economy has been growing faster than South Africa’s. Imagine what Nigeria could do for Africa if it was also free of Boko Haram’s violence. The Obama Administration should be doing more to ensure Africa’s most populous country doesn’t slip away,”

Speaking further, Grenell said:

“Islamic radicals have Africa on their target list and young Nigerians are reported to be interested in ISIS’ messages. Nigeria is at a tipping point. The West, and specifically the Obama Administration, needs to wake up to the growing problem,”

Do you agree???

Photos from the wedding of coach Stephen Keshi's daughter...

Here are a few photos from the wedding of coach Stephen Keshi's daughter, Ifeyinwa, which held at Ekenwa in Benin. Stephen Keshi, his wife and others were at the wedding. See more photos after the cut...

Photo credit: Kayode Tijani

Peter & Lola Okoye and their kids cover Motherhood In-Style mag

Peter, Lola Okoye alongside their son and daughter, Cameron & Aliona cover the latest issue of Motherhood In-Style Magazine. Such a beautiful family. 

Comedian Seyilaw Talks About the Baby He Lost

Ace comedian, Seyilaw, has been married for four years, and just when he and his wife thought they were going to welcome their first child, something tragic happened… In a recent chat with Punch, Seyilaw talked about the baby he lost – read below:

“It is an experience I don’t want to share but at the point when we lost the child, I could not talk to my wife because as of that time, I had a lot running through my head. I was wondering how I could console her. I am somebody who loves writing, so I decided to write something to celebrate the baby and make other people encourage me. I know that God is there and he would see us through but sometimes you are weak and you need somebody to pull you out of the gloomy mood. That was why I posted the message on the internet and a lot of encouragement poured in. It was so emotional, encouraging and soul lifting when you see people who you have not met tell you that they have passed the same road and they were able to overcome and mine would not be different. When you hear people pray for you, it makes you know that your case is in the presence of God and He is going to do something fast about it,” he said.
When asked what led to the death of his daughter, the comedian almost broke down, pleading that he could not divulge such information because his wife is still recovering from their loss.
“I don’t really want to go into much detail because my wife is healing fast and I think it would be insensitive of me because I don’t want a situation whereby she would be reading all those things on the pages of the newspaper. I just want to tell people that it has been four years that we have been married and that was going to be our first baby just to let people understand how sensitive it was to us. For a woman who has had to go through the pain for over eight months only for you to discover that you are not going to be dancing around with the baby is so painful. I don’t want to get too emotional but I think people would understand if I don’t elaborate on what went wrong,”

Hmmm….

TF? Fr Mbaka still insisting GEJ is after his life. Releases statement

Controversial Enugu-based Reverend father, Fr Mbaka is still insisting that the president and his wife want him dead. He's now accusing Enugu police of not taking the threat seriously and claiming that some men packed in a Hilux bus came to look for him recently at his Parish but didn't find him. Below is a statement he released via his Media Officer, Ike Maximus Ugwuoke..

"It is with a deep sense of concern that we are constrained to make this statement on the continued threat to the life of Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka over his 2015 New Year message titled “From Good Luck to Bad Luck. The Enugu State Police Command has refuted claims by Fr. Mbaka that his life is in danger. It dismissed Fr. Mbaka’s outcry over threat to his life as baseless.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Ebere Amarizu , DSP, was quoted as saying, “We do not have any report by Fr. Mbaka over threat to his life. We have not received any complaint from him”.
On the backdrop of the above, one begins to wonder whether the alarm raised by Fr. Mbaka on an alleged plot to kill him was a mere rhetoric as the police had made it to appear merely because there has not been an official report to the police over it.

Absence of a formal report on threat to one’s life doesn’t negate the reality of such threat more so when the victim had made a public outcry on this issue.

To argue otherwise is akin to denying the fact of death in the face of a man’s corpse merely because there is no certificate certifying his death…

Yesterday (Wednesday) strange hoodlums in a black Hilux besieged his parish compound but they left disappointed when they could not see him.

"Wherever and whoever this threat is coming from, we state that there are strong and compelling circumstances pointing towards the fact that Fr. Mbaka’s latest attacks were stemming from his said 2015 New Year message, which was not favourable to the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration.”

Ignore IGP, APC tells voters

The Inspector General of Police released a statement today asking Nigerians to go home immediately after voting, but APC says voters should ignore that directive and can wait to see of their votes are counted. Read the statement below...

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has told Nigerian voters to ignore the unlawful order by the Inspector-General of Police urging them to go home after casting their ballots during the forthcoming election

In a statement issued in Lagos on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the electorate should rather listen to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, who said the electoral law does not state anywhere that voters cannot or should not wait to watch and ensure that their votes are counted.

It therefore urged the electorate to make sure they stayed behind to protect their votes after casting their ballots, as was the case in 2011.

APC said contrary to the suspicious directive by the IGP, INEC encourages voters to stay behind and watch their votes counted, saying the law expects such voters to stay behind but to conduct themselves in an orderly manner.

''According to Jega, who appeared on Channels TV on Friday morning, the electoral law says anyone that has no business with the electoral process at the polling booths but desires to monitor events should stay at least some metres away from the polling agents and completely away from the ballot box after casting their votes.

''The INEC Chairman further clarified that all registered voters have businesses with the process and can therefore not be classified as people that don't have businesses at polling units.

''Therefore, the IGP has no constitutional right or powers under the constitution or Police Act to rewrite the electoral law. The role of the police is to maintain law and order or such other assistance as may be sought from the police by INEC,'' the party said.

It also called on Nigerians to ignore the so-called public service announcement concerning the show of force by government security agencies, saying it is part of efforts to intimidate the electorate and pave the way for the PDP to rig the elections.

APC also asked Nigerians to ignore the SMS being sent around by the agents of the PDP, asking them to send their names and the last five digits of their VIN (Voter Identification Number) to certain numbers. 

''These and other messages are being sent out by the PDP to steal people's PVCs, intimidate voters and manipulate the elections. Nigerians should never allow that to happen,'' the party said.

Alhaji Lai Mohammed

National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)
Lagos, March 20th 2015

Purple Beatz Poetry Challenge winner, enjoy weekend getaway prize at Oriental Hotel

Remember the Wema Bank’s Purple Beatz poetry contest on “Roses are red…”? Click here for recap. Trust Wema Bank in keeping their words as they announce the winners of the contest.

2nd Runner-Up – Nnagoziem Udensi

1st Runner Up – Happinness Iheme

Ultimate Winner – Chudi Uwadi

The Ultimate winner, Mr. ChudiUwadi, with his wife were treated to a memorable weekend get-away at the prestigious Oriental Hotel, Lagos. The couple was glad to be given thisopportunity to have a nice time together despite their very busy schedule.

With Wema Bank, building relationships is all that matters.

www.wemabank.com

www.facebook.com/wemabankplc

www.twitter.com/wemabank

Remember the Indian students whose parents climbed a wall to help them cheat? 600 of them have been expelled

Yesterday, I told y'all about the parents of 10th-grade students who climbed the wall of their school in Bihar to help them cheat on their exams (read here). Well, 600 of the students have been expelled. Bihar education authorities announced today in a statement. They said students caught cheating could be barred from taking the exam for up to three years, ordered to pay a fine or even sent to jail but no student on record has ever been sent to jail in the city for cheating.

About 1.4m 10th graders are taking the tests at more than 1,200 high schools across the state. The students must pass the exams to continue their education and that's why their parents are so desperate.

"It’s virtually impossible to conduct fair examinations without the cooperation of parents," said P.K. Shahi, Bihar’s education minister. "It is not possible to monitor the 6 million parents and others who accompany the students to the examination centers."

Many students were caught cheating by education department officials supervising the examination. About 25 parents were also arrested after being caught helping their children. But were later released.

The State education authorities later canceled examinations held at four centers after they received reports of large-scale cheating.

Photos from Brymo's shirtless performance on stage last night

Brymo performed onstage last night at Afropolitan Vibes and he looked sexy shirtless, leaving people in awe. Well that's according to those who attended the show...:-). More pics when you continue...

Mr President, please leave entertainers alone' - Etcetera writes

Article from singer turned writer, Etcetera. Read below...

Once again, Nollywood and President Jonathan are disconnected from the priorities of Nigerians. Millions are hungry and the country is headed off a cliff and what we get is the President having weekly dinner with celebs at Eko Hotel. Mr. President should know that all entertainers in the country won’t amount to a spoon of water in the bucket of our population. I agree that our entertainers judging by recent behaviour are now seen as hungry men and women with insatiable appetite, but Mr. President, the larger part of the society are equally hungry and should be fed as well. Why feed just the entertainers? Isn’t that discrimination? 

What will the entertainers say to Jonathan except the usual lies and half truths? Can a man with a mouthful of undeserved food speak or say the truth? An assessment of the lifestyle of these entertainers gives a false picture of the situation of things as it affects the society at large. I got your invite for the first dinner which held at Eko Hotel and I boycotted it because I felt that any event by the government at this point in time should be about reassuring the people that the government feels their pains deeply with promises of working tirelessly to bring an end to the underlying causes of such situations in this country, not getting together to eat small chops and samosa while most Nigerians are languishing. It was very embarrassing waking up the next morning to see our shameless celebrities posing with their invites on social media which invariably means they are telling their fans and the masses who brought them to fame that they are enjoying the good life and everyone else can go to hell.

One entertainer jokingly asked why the President is having these dinners with (the same set of) celebs all the time. I wanted to attribute it to youth empowerment but on a second thought, If Mr. President has a genuine interest in youth empowerment, hosting a few entertainers doesn’t cut across as empowering the youth. I think Mr. President has been wrongly advised that entertainers can be used to influence the Nigerian youths and electorate. These entertainers can’t influence votes within their families. Another thing is, if Mr. President must have an interactive session with entertainers, he should consider a larger representation of entertainers from all parts of the country, not just those who ply their trade in the south. It will seem to most people that Mr. President is only interested in entertainers from the south. It is called the Nigerian entertainment industry not the South South and South East entertainment industry.

Has Mr. President taken over responsibilities of the Lagos State governor because he currently seems to enjoy greater visibility in the state than the governor and these visits come with a heavy cost to the state in terms of lost man hours caused by traffic along the routes to the event venue. Streets are usually cordoned off by security personnel and a strange difficulty to use mobile phones in such areas, possibly because of the deployment of radio signal jamming devices by the operatives on guard in those areas. Residents of Lagos shouldn’t go through this because their President is in town. I’ll love to tell Mr. President that service, not celebrities, delivers votes.

My boyfriend killed himself because his family couldn't accept he was gay

Remember that doctor that jumped from the balcony of his home in London last year? That's him on the right, Nazeem Mahmood. He killed himself at age 34 because his family couldn't accept he was gay. Read his story after the cut...

In the spring of last year, Matthew Ogston and Nazim Mahmood moved into their dream home. The apartment, on the top floor of a mansion block in north-west London, offered stunning panoramic views of London. Nazim was a doctor who ran three London clinics, Matthew a web designer.

The life Nazim enjoyed seemed a world away from the working-class traditional Muslim community in which he had been raised. It was that world – conservative and closed – that he had left behind for a new life. In their first week in the flat, the two men stood on the balcony as London glittered in front of them. Matthew looked at Nazim and said, “Darling, I think we’ve finally made it.” They both smiled. Four months later, Nazim jumped off the edge of that same balcony to his death. He was 34.

Nazim was 21 when he met Matthew in November 2001. Matthew was at a gay nightclub in Birmingham, when Nazim approached with the words, “Excuse me, may I sit here?” Something about Nazim’s shy demeanour appealed to Matthew. They started talking. “There was an instant connection,” he recalls.

We are in the living room of the apartment. It is more than seven months since Nazim’s death but the condolence cards are still on display. This is the first time Matthew has agreed to talk openly, and during the hours we talk, words tumble and tears flow. It was only minutes after first meeting him that Nazim had said to Matthew: “I’m a Muslim, is that going to be a problem?”

The two were soon inseparable. Matthew was working as a web designer and Nazim was a medical student. Their families did not know they were gay. After a year they bought a house. It had two bedrooms so their families might assume they were just housemates. “We used to have to keep the window blinds in our front room closed so no one would see us,” says Matthew. “When we walked down the street we made sure there was some distance between us just in case a family member of his spotted us together.”


They grew tired of looking over their shoulders and wanted to stop hiding, so when Nazim was offered a job at a London hospital in 2004 they seized the opportunity to move to the capital. They would be far from their families, in a city where they knew no one and could fashion a new life together. “In London we felt free,” Matthew says. “We didn’t have to worry about bumping into our parents.”
They made friends and created a social world that reflected the people they were. Of necessity, this new life was founded on sadness and deceptions. Nazim was leading a double life: his family had barely met Matthew and thought he was merely an investor in their son’s flat. On the rare occasions they visited London, Matthew had to spend the night in a bed and breakfast. “We had to ‘de-gay’ the house,” says Matthew. “That meant putting pictures of Kylie into the cupboard, Cher too – and any photo or memento that suggested a relationship had to go.”

Nazim didn’t like to talk about his family. He had left Birmingham and felt that to talk about pain or sadness or guilt would have infected the new life they had created in London – he was resigned to playing the dutiful Muslim boy to his family in Birmingham when, in fact, he was a happily gay man in London.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of their first meeting, Matthew and Nazim threw a party at a London club. Nazim was now a GP as well as running his own business – three London clinics that offered Botox treatments – and Matthew was doing well working for a software company. During the party, Matthew asked the DJ to lower the music. He led Nazim into the DJ booth, got down on one knee and proposed. “He looked at me and his face was just lit up,” says Matthew.

The following year, Matthew came out to his parents, who were loving and accepting of both of them, but for Nazim, whose family were culturally conservative Muslims, the only strategy was to keep the solid borderlines between the old life in Birmingham and the new life in London.
On the last Saturday of July 2014, Nazim and Matthew drove north to Birmingham. It was a strange time: a close friend had died and they had to be back in London on the Monday for his memorial service. It was also the weekend of Eid, the Muslim festival.

When he arrived, Nazim’s family were annoyed that he was late for the Eid celebrations and planned to leave early for the memorial. Things were said – Matthew does not know what, exactly – that left Nazim distraught. “I am a good person,” Nazim said, weeping. “Why can’t people accept me for who I am?” “Is it because you like men?” his mother had asked him, out of the blue. And Nazim, who had spent years hiding and pretending, to protect his relationship with Matthew, did something he had never expected to do: on the spur of the moment, he told them everything.

Nazim was in a state of shock as he drove back to London. It emerged at the inquest in December 2014 that he had told his mother he was gay and had been in a relationship with a man for 13 years, and planned to marry him. Her response was to tell Nazim to consult a psychiatrist with a view to being “cured”.

The coroner, Mary Hassell, ruled that Nazeem killed himself. She said: “It seems incredible that a young man with so much going for him could have taken his own life. But what I’ve heard is that he had one great sadness which was the difficulty his family had in accepting his sexuality.”
Nazim had never planned to reveal his sexuality and found it hard to process his mother’s extreme reaction.

The couple went to the service for their dead friend that evening and a second ceremony the following day, but Matthew recalls Nazim being distant, but trying to put on a brave face. On Tuesday evening, Nazim helped with paperwork for the new job Matthew would start the following morning and then they retired to bed.

In the office next day, Matthew got a text from his sister, saying simply “call me now”. It was early evening on Wednesday 30 July. He rang her and was told to go home immediately; she would not say why. It couldn’t be Nazim – they had talked at lunchtime and Nazim had called again at just after 3pm and then twice after 5pm, but it was Matthew’s first day in a new office and he had been too busy in meetings to take the calls, though he had tried to call Nazim back. Had there been a bomb scare at the flat?

As he left West Hampstead station Matthew began to run. “It was like I was running for my life,” he recalls.

As he speaks, he is clutching himself tightly, right hand gripping his biceps. “I was pushing people out of the way and as I came round the corner I saw flashing blue lights and police cordon tape, then I saw this red blanket on the floor covering something up.”

He began to scream. He was bundled into a police car as friends started to show up, faces grey with shock.
 
Matthew arrived at Handsworth cemetery early on the day of Nazim’s funeral. In the aftermath of the death, Matthew had met Nazim’s family but the encounters were tense and uncomfortable. It appears that they did not want to have to deal with what they considered the shame of having had a gay son, and a gay son with a non-Muslim lover. Out of respect for Nazim’s mother’s plea not to make a scene at Nazim’s burial, Matthew agreed not to ask for a major role at the funeral, which was due to take place at 3.30pm.

With less than half an hour to go, nobody else had arrived and Matthew began to worry. In the distance he could see a burial taking place. “I went over and asked one of the officials where Nazim was being buried,” he said. “She said, ‘I’m really sorry – they have already buried him.’”
He ran out and saw Nazim’s family pouring dirt on to the coffin. “I was so angry,” Matthew tells me, tears streaming down his face, “I could not move. My arms and legs were just clenched. I felt completely betrayed.”

Nazim’s family had apparently given him the wrong time for the funeral.
He returned to London feeling desperately low. “I wanted to end it all,” he says quietly. “Follow Naz and leap off the balcony.”

His friends ensured he always had at least three people with him round the clock. “Every time I tried to get to the edge of the balcony, my friends would stop me. I couldn’t find a reason to stay alive.”
Then, in his distress, Matthew recalls: “I heard Naz’s voice.”
He is convinced that Nazim spoke to him, telling him to set up a foundation to help other young gay men and women driven to depression because of religious homophobia. He had a reason to go on at last.

The Naz and Matt Foundation was announced at a special service held in London for Nazim, two weeks after his funeral. The service featured contributions from a gay Muslim, gay Hindu, a gay vicar, a trainee Rabbi and a lesbian interfaith minister. Matthew has been seeing a psychotherapist but he doubts any counsellor can help to liberate him from the questions that haunt him. “I don’t have answers to the questions I have and I can’t find peace of mind because there are no answers.”
Who does Matthew blame for Nazim’s death? “I blame a community that is so closed minded to allow these bigoted views that make families believe that their honour is more important than loving their children,” he says. “The respect and honour of the family is more important than the happiness of the children they gave birth to. How sick is that?”

Culled from The Guardian UK
Culled from