Photos from the Lagos State Government Inaugural Ball

Hosted by Gbenja Adeyinka and Tee A, a dinner night filled with music and dance to welcome the new Governor of Lagos State, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode. More photos after the cut...

The First Lady of Nigeria Aisha Buhari closes beauty parlour

The First Lady, Aisha Buhari, until recently, owned one of the biggest spas and beauty institutes in the country. Situated along Camp Road, a high brow area of Ungwan-Rimi Government Residential Area in Kaduna State.

 

She owned Hanzy Spa and Hanzy Beauty Institute. The beauty Institute was the first beauty institute in Northern Nigeria and is a National Board of Technical Education accredited vocational training centre and registered by the Ministry of Education with the aim of exploring the untapped wealth in the emerging beauty industry.

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However, since the victory of her husband in late March, Mrs. Buhari closed down the beauty parlour to take up the new role as Nigeria’s First Lady. The spa and beauty institute patronised by individuals across class, was sighted closed to the private residence of the immediate past Vice President, Namadi Sambo. The institute was consulted by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation/Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company to help train individuals under its Youth Empowerment and Skill Acquisition Programme.

 

Ms. Buhari, a trained esthetician who obtained a diploma in Beauty Therapy from the Carlton Institute of Beauty Therapy, Windsor, United Kingdom and a certificate course from the French Beauty School, Esthetique Academie Dubai, is a member of the United Kingdom’s Vocational Training and Charitable Trust and the International Health and Beauty Council.

 

In an interview she granted Thisday Style last year, the beautiful Adamawa State-born mother of five said:

“I’m a very busy person who does her things quietly. I keep to my profession as an esthetician, managing my spa and beauty institute both in Kaduna and Abuja. I also personally perform some advanced facial treatments like mesotherapy, gold facial and application of TCA etc. I have a number of documentations on my experience in this area including writing a book titled “The Essentials of Beauty Therapy."

She has since closed her beauty businesses now that she has bigger responsibilities as the First lady of Nigeria,

Punch.

Foluke Daramola's husband says he isn't bothered that she was a rape victim

Despite several controversies that may have surrounded the union between actress, Foluke Daramola and her husband, Kayode Salako, they still seem inseparable. Foluke launched a foundation called Passion Against Rape in Africa dut to the fact that she was once a rape victim, she said.

Rape victim or not, her husband, Kayode, isn't bothered by it.

Speaking to Saturday Beats, Kayode said,

“I have always told my wife something which I believe is the reality of life. I did not meet my wife as a virgin and when you did not meet her as a virgin, you cannot expect to be the one to deflower her. I am a liberally inclined person who is very realistic. My orientation is western inclined, so things like that do not bother me. Either she is a rape victim or not, what I am going to say is that I did not meet her as a virgin.

“The painful aspect and what hurts me the most about the situation is that she was introduced to sex against her own wish. That is one of the things I really hate about the experience. That she is a rape victim does not bother me at all. I am glad it did not cost her life. It bothered her psychologically for a while in life but I did not meet her in such a situation. She had overcome the ordeal before we met and the two of us have been living together in harmony. You would not even know that she is a rape victim if she did not tell you. I am a liberally inclined person and I don’t attach meanings to things the way a typical African man would. That is why my wife and I have been enjoying ourselves,” he said.

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Foluke also told Saturday Beats that she wants to be known as the voice of rape victims in Africa.

“I want to be the voice of the voiceless and Punch is the reason I have a platform like this because it was the first paper to share my experience with the world. After the interview I had with Punch about my rape experience, a lot of people began to call me to ask me what I was thinking to grant such an interview. I also had people who called me to share their experiences with me. In the process, I had a documentary with a France-based organisation and they asked if I had a foundation but I told them I did not have one. It was after the interview that the idea of Passion Against Rape in Africa came to me. That was about two years ago. I decided to be the voice of the voiceless because I know a lot of people do not have the courage to come out and talk about their experiences. I want to be the voice of rape victims all over Africa. That is the aim of my foundation. I feel that as a celebrity who has gone through that ordeal, victims of rape would find it easy to relate with me,” she said.

Pregnant footballer wife Abbey Clansy poses completely nude in new shoot

Footballer Peter Crouch's model wife Abbey Clansy, 29, who is expecting the couple's second child posed completely nude in new photos she shared online. See the photos after the cut..

Pres. Buhari leaves guests at inaugural lunch to attend Jumat service

Pres. Buhari yesterday Friday May 29th left some African leaders and other guests who had moved with him from the Eagles Square to the new Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa to celebrate his inauguration, midway into the programme to attend Jumat service. When he didn't return after many hours, organizers of the event had to invite VP Osinbajo to make remarks on behalf of Buhari.

Osinbajo, in his remarks, apologised to the guests for the President’s absence. He explained that he left in order to take part in Jumat prayers. The President did not return to the venue before the programme ended. The vice-president thanked the African leaders for attending the inauguration.“On behalf of the people of Nigeria and most especially on behalf of the President, I thank you and wish you safe journey back home.”

The vice-president later saw the African leaders off on behalf of the President before being driven away in his official car." Punch reports

Is Ben Affleck ready for divorce? Actor alleged to be speaking to lawyers

Actor Ben Affleck and his wife actress Jennifer Garner and their children were spotted out and about in LA on Thursday looking like a loving family but Radar Online is reporting that Ben wants to divorce Jennifer. 

"Ben and his team have definitely been engaging divorce attorneys. He’s positioning for a divorce. Right now, it’s just coming up with a strategy and whether or not it makes sense for Ben to do it quietly and jointly so there is no battle, or to do it on his own. No one is surprised he is talking to attorneys” the source told Radar. “They are more surprised they lasted this long.” the source said

Ben and Jennifer married in June 2005, about a year after they began dating following Ben's famous January 2004 split from Jennifer Lopez. They have 3 children Violet, 9, Seraphina, 6, and Samuel, 3.

Last week, a source told OK! magazine, that all was not well with the couple

"Often, when Ben and Jen have a problem, they just agree to ride it out and be miserable together until they can get some time apart.

"Jennifer has close friends who think that she and Ben are a horrible fit, despite how much he loves being a father to those kids."

"Ben wants the official statement to come out a few weeks before their 10th anniversary June 29 - which he hopes will give enough time for the news to die down by the time he has to promote Batman v Superman and the other movies he has coming out next year."

I wasn't interested in politics - GEJ says + pics from his reception in Bayelsa

Former President Jonathan said during his reception in Bayelsa yesterday that before he became deputy governor of the state, he had no interest in politics. Narrating how he dabbled into politics, Jonathan said,

“It all started with me and Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha. I knew Alamieyeseigha when he wanted to contest the governorship of Bayelsa State under the defunct United Nigeria Congress Party. That was the first time I knew Alamieyeseigha. We formed groups in every local governments – two persons to sign petition to enable Alamieyeseigha to contest. But a late Chief Judge asked me and one person from Ogbia to sign the petition. Even though I was a civil servant, I signed the document. I was in the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission then. Of course, when he started his campaign, I joined.

His story is very interesting. Continue to read it plus photos from the reception after the cut...

"Not because I was interested in any elective office, but what drove me into joining Alamieyeseigha’s team was that those of us from very small communities always have problems and sometimes you have to run to government for assistance. I felt that if I worked with him and luckily he won, I would know some of the people in government.

“When electioneering started after Abdusalami Abubakar took over, Alamieyeseigha did not call me. But somewhere along the line because we had worked together, one evening, one Bozimo and another person came to my house and asked me to run with Alamieyeseigha as deputy governor.

“I was living in Port Harcourt then and I knew how primaries work and I said I would think about it. In fact, the following day, I told Bozimo that I was not interested, but the whole thing changed later. The detail will come later. That was how Bozimo and Alamieyeseigha brought me in and during the election, we won.

“From 1999 to date, my people and Nigerians have given me rare opportunity, rare privilege. I was deputy governor, governor, vice-president and President of the country. I am grateful to all Nigerians.”

“Nigerians have given me so much that I cannot stay back. That is why I maintain that we need peace in this country. We need development in this country. Political crises don’t bring development. And I believe the new administration will work with all Nigerians and make sure Nigerians are happy. I am indeed happy about the statement the President made that he did not belong to any clique, but to Nigerians. I congratulate him for that." (Punch)

Photo: Woman who stabbed husband to death, remanded in Bayelsa

Report written and sent in by LIB reader, Ebiowei Lawal from Bayelsa. Read below...

Mrs. Victoria Ambakadrimo, the 28-year-old woman that stabbed her husband, Late Barr. Henry Gagariga, to death with a kitchen knife on the throat around 11pm of Wednesday, February 4 after a quarrel in Bayelsa has finally appeared before a state high court in Yenagoa for the first time.

The presiding judge, Justice A.S Rotimi, adjourned proceeding to 18th June 2015, to enable the prosecuting (the state) hand over certain forensic evidences to the defence counsels before hearing commence.

However, an appeal by the prosecuting counsel to have Victoria remanded at the Okaka medium security prison in Yenagoa until final judgment is read was granted.
Though frail looking Victoria pleaded not guilty to the one count charge of murder leveled against, she sobbed over and again as she was escorted to prison at the end of the court session.

The alleged husband slayer before killing her husband works at the Bayelsa State Council for Arts and Culture, and is reportedly the daughter of a renowned journalist and retired director in the state Ministry of Information.

Recall that Victoria stabbed her husband, Gagariga, to death during a domestic quarrel in their bedroom and was sighted by neighbours while attempting to dump his body on the road.

Photos from the presidential Inauguration Gala

Some photos from the presidential Inauguration Gala which held at the Presidential Villa last night. More pics after the cut...

Black Japanese Miss Universe Japan fights for acceptance in her home country

After winning Miss Universe Japan and facing criticism for not being “Japanese enough,” Ariana Miyamoto is still fighting to change the conception of mixed-race people Japan.

Race is based off what heritage you link back to, while ethnicity is the learned cultural behaviors of a certain region. This means because Miyamoto is half African American and half Japanese, her race is African-American and Japanese, while her ethnicity is Japanese because she was born and raised in Japan.

According to NY Times:

Ms. Miyamoto is one of only a tiny handful of “hafu,” or Japanese of mixed race, to win a major beauty pageant in proudly homogeneous Japan. And she is the first half-black woman ever to do so.

Ms. Miyamoto’s victory wins her the right to represent Japan on the global stage at the international Miss Universe pageant expected in January. She said she hoped that her appearance — and better yet, a victory — would push more Japanese to accept hafu. However, she said, Japan may have a long way to go.

Even after her victory in the national competition, local journalists have had a hard time accepting her as Japanese.

“The reporters always ask me, ‘What part of you is most like a Japanese?’ ” said Ms. Miyamoto, who has the long legs of a foreign supermodel, but shares the same shy self-reserve of many other young Japanese women. “I always answer, ‘But I am a Japanese.’

“I had hoped winning Miss Universe Japan would make them notice that,” she added.

With her parents

 Ariana the child of a short-lived marriage between an African-American sailor in the United States Navy and a local Japanese woman, Ms. Miyamoto grew up in Japan, where she says other children often shunned her because of her darker skin and tightly curled hair.

That experience has driven her to use her pageant victory as a soapbox for raising awareness about the difficulties faced by mixed-race citizens in a country that still regards itself as mono-ethnic.

“Even today, I am usually seen not as a Japanese but as a foreigner. At restaurants, people give me an English menu and praise me for being able to eat with chopsticks,” said Ms. Miyamoto, who spoke in her native Japanese and is an accomplished calligrapher of Japanese-Chinese characters. “I want to challenge the definition of being Japanese.”

With her younger brother BJ

Ariana is still facing some of the same criticism and being seen as a foreigner in her own homeland.

Bruce Jenner set to appear as a woman on Vanity Fair cover

Bruce Jenner who stepped out recently in blonde hair is set is set to pose for Vanity Fair magazine as a woman according to reports. The unveiling of Bruce as a woman will appear on Vanity Fair either in the June or July issue, which will make it his first photo-shoot and interview since officially coming out as transgender in the Diane Sawyer interview.

According to People magazine, Bruce - the woman - will be photographed by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz for the cover.

Photos: Ibikunle Amosun sworn-in for 2nd term as Governor of Ogun

Congrats to him. More photos after the cut...