I hope many Europeans will get Discover African Energy—President Macron
France’s President, Emmanuel Macron Tuesday night visited the Shrine built in honour of the late Afro-beat star—Fela Anikulapo Kuti— in Lagos Nigeria where he again saw the ‘African Energy’. Macron arrived in Nigeria on Tuesday for official visit and met with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja before going to the country’s south-west where a grand party had been set at the afro-beat Shrine.
Macron tweet
This is African energy. The one I discovered here in Lagos when I was 23. The one I am glad to see is still thriving several years later. The one I hope many Europeans will get to know. The one that is far from the African prejudice of misery. pic.twitter.com/HqFxmJn0c1
Tweeted his experience: “This is African energy. The one I discovered here in Lagos when I was 23. The one I am glad to see is still thriving several years later. The one I hope many Europeans will get to know. The one that is far from the African prejudice of misery”.
Macron was seen having fun with Lagos state governor. Akinwunmi Ambode, popular Nigerian artistes and Nollywood stars.
Fela, who died in 1997, pioneered the Afrobeat sound and was known for his sexual exploits, marijuana smoking and being a fearless critic of military rule. He referred to himself as “the Black President”,
“Fela was not just a musician. He was a politician who wanted to change society. So, if I have one message for young people, it’s this: ‘Yes, politics is important; yes, be involved.’” Macron told the AFP.
The French leader, who spent six months as an intern at the French embassy in the country in 2002, told reporters earlier how fond he was of the West African country.
“It’s an appealing country. I’ve got a lot of memories… that haven’t left me.”
During an evening classic Fela songs were played alongside performances from contemporary artists, and a fashion show was also held.
Macron landed at the Presidential wing of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport at about 3:10 p.m. He was also presented with a plaque by the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Bello before leaving for the Presidential villa at about 3:40 p.m. That was his first formal meeting with Buhari.
Clockwise from top left: Dr Jung Chang, June Givanni, Vrinda Grover, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Forest Whitaker (centre)
Adichie, 4 others to receive Honorary Doctor of Literature from SOAS University of London
Internationally acclaimed and award-winning novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will this July receive an honorary Doctorate of Literature (DLit) from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London during the July 2018 graduation ceremonies of the institution.
This has been announced on Tuesday by SOAS on its website SOAS.AC.UK. The organisation said it is “honouring pioneering figures in the fields of film, literature, social activism and human rights at this year’s Graduation Ceremonies”
Adichie, who will receive the award alongside other prominent people of arts also announced the award on its Facebook page on Tuesday.
Adichie’s post
SOAS said the awardees are the Academy Award winning artist and social activist Forest Whitaker; writer and activist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; world-renowned author Dr Jung Chang; leading film curator June Givanniand prominent human rights activist Vrinda Grover.
Information on the SOAS website reads: “Baroness Valerie Amos, Director of SOAS, said: “At SOAS we are all about societal change and transformation. This year’s honorary awardees have all had a major impact in their areas of expertise and have challenged and continue to challenge conventional perspectives through film, the law and literature. They have deepened our understanding of society, politics, race and gender. They are inspiring role models and we are extremely proud to welcome them to the SOAS community.”
Forest Whitaker is an Academy Award winning actor, artist and social activist. He is the founder and CEO of the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI) through which he has developed the Youth Peacemaker Network, a global peacebuilding social network with hubs in South Sudan, Uganda, and Mexico. He is the UNESCO Special Envoy for Peace and Reconciliation and a member of the Advocacy Group of the United Nations for the Sustainable Development Goals. He has received numerous awards for his charitable activities and social activism. The Chairman of the NAACP described Mr Whitaker’s humanitarian engagement as “truly inspirational”.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning novelist. Her work includes Purple Hibiscus, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the Orange Prize. Her 2013 novel Americanah won the US National Book Critics Circle Award, and was named one of The New York TimesTop Ten Best Books of 2013. Her books have challenged perceptions around issues such as identity and race, and her internationally renowned TED talk ‘We should all be feminists’ had a global impact on conversations about gender equality. Born in Enugu, Nigeria, Ms Adichie was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME Magazine in 2015 and one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders by Fortune Magazine in 2017.
Guyanese-born June Givanni is a pioneering international film curator. Specialising in African and African diaspora cinema, Black British cinema, and Caribbean cinema, her contribution to the diversification of film culture in the UK and across the world is unparalleled. Ms Givanni has worked with a range of organisations including the British Film Institute where she also set up and managed the African Caribbean Unit and founded the Black Film Bulletin. Vital to Ms Givanni’s work has been valorizing film as a visual and aesthetic medium while also recognising the way that film plays a significant role in broader socio-political and historical movements. The development of the June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive is based on her collections from years of working in the field of cinema where her motivation for the archive is to make this valuable heritage collection as widely accessible as possible.
Dr Jung Chang is a world renowned author. Born in Sichuan Province, she left China for Britain in 1978 and obtained a PhD from the University of York becoming the first person from Communist China to receive a doctorate from a British university. She is best known for her autobiographical book Wild Swans – Three Daughters of China, published in 1991, which sold over 12 million copies and was translated into more than 30 languages. It is the most widely read book about China this century. Other books include Mao: The Unknown Story (with Jon Halliday), described by TIME Magazine as “an atom bomb of a book”; and Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China. She has won many awards, including the UK Writers’ Guild Best Non-Fiction and Book of the Year UK, and taught Chinese in the Language Centre at SOAS during the 1980s.
Lawyer Vrinda Grover is a leading researcher and human rights activist based in New Delhi who has had a major impact in the area of human rights in India. Her advocacy efforts span from the local to the global through engagement with UN human rights mechanisms including the Universal Periodic Review and UN Special Rapporteurs. She has appeared in landmark cases including the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, the 1987 Hashimpura police custodial killings and in 2013 challenged the controversial ‘two finger test’ for survivors of sexual violence in India. She has contributed to the drafting of laws to protect women and children from domestic violence and sexual violence and has advocated for a law prohibiting torture. TIME Magazine listed her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2013”, it read.
Lupita Nyong’o named in Hollywood’s Walk of Fame 2019
Lupita Nyong’o, Kenya’s Oscar award winning actress is taking her rightful place in world’s hall of fame as she has been named among Hollywood 2019 Walk of Fame honorees. Lupita is among the 28 honorees list that has only three black actors.
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced the Walk of Fame Class of 2019 on Monday and the Black Panther star was among those selected in the film category.
Lupita, who bagged an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2012
Lupita, who bagged an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2012 for her role in the movie 12 Years A Slave, is listed among those to be honored in the film category alongside Alan Arkin, Kristen Bell, Daniel Craig, Robert De Niro, Guillermo del Toro, Anne Hathaway, Tyler Perry and Gena Rowlands.
“In the TV category, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Candice Bergen, Guy Fieri, Terrence Howard, Stacy Keach, Sid and Marty Krofft, Lucy Liu, Mandy Moore, Dianne Wiest, and Julia Child (posthumously) will receive stars along Hollywood Blvd”, Kenya’s Nairobi News said.
The platform said Lupita’s nomination has been met with mixed reactions with some feeling like it was too soon for her to receive a Walk of Fame star considering that other actresses who have been in the industry longer before than her are yet to be honored.
However, during the release of the list, chairman of the Walk of Fame Selection Committee Vin Di Bona said:
“The Committee always tries to select a group of talented honorees that appeal in various genres of the entertainment world.”
“I feel the Committee has outdone themselves and I know the fans, tourists and the Hollywood community will be pleased with our selections. We are excited to see each and every honoree’s face as they unveil that majestic star on Hollywood’s most famous walkway.” he added.
Dates for the star ceremonies are yet to be confirmed.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has won this year’s PEN Pinter Prize.
More awards for Chimamanda: ‘Worthy winner’ of 2018 PEN Pinter Prize
Acclaimed writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has won this year’s PEN Pinter Prize. The award-winning Nigerian author of Americannah described the award as an ‘honour’ and stated: “I admired Harold Pinter’s talent, his courage, his lucid dedication to telling his truth”.
PEN Pinter Prize for literature is named in memory of playwright Harold Pinter, and celebrates Pinter’s respect for British and Commonwealth writers who take an “unflinching, unswerving” look at the world.
The PEN Pinter Prize is awarded annually to a writer from Britain, Ireland or the Commonwealth.
Recent recipients include Margaret Atwood, Sir Salman Rushdie and the poet James Fenton.
The judges acclaimed Adichie’s “sophisticated” approach to “gender, race and global inequality”.
“Adichie will receive the award – established by literary charity English PEN – at a ceremony at the British Library in October, where she will deliver an address.
This will include announcing the writer named this year’s International Writer of Courage, reflecting English PEN’s support for freedom of expression in the face of danger.
A limited edition anthology of 10 Pinter Prize lectures will be printed to celebrate the prize’s 10th anniversary”, BBC has said.
Lady Antonia Fraser, Harold Pinter’s widow, said she greeted the award of the prize with enthusiasm.
Harold Pinter died in 2008 at the age of 78. Credit/BBC
“Not only is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie a brilliant, compelling writer but she embodies in herself those qualities of courage and outspokenness which Harold much admired,” she said.
Antonia Byatt, director of English PEN, said Adichie’s writing and activism had “travelled across so many frontiers, showing us what is important in the world”.
“She is a very worthy winner of this extraordinary prize.”
Heroic Malian, Mamoudou Gassama, who rescued dangling baby offered French citizenship, fireman job
Malian migrant, Mamoudou Gassama, who displayed uncommon guts, climbing from balcony to balcony to the fourth floor and rescued a dandling baby has been offered French citizenship and a job at French fire service by President Emmanuel Macron.
Gassama has been hailed as a hero after mounting the daring obstacle to save the four-year old boy dangling from a balcony in Paris.
Video showed him being cheered on by spectators as pulled himself from balcony to balcony to the fourth floor.
After meeting him at the Elysee Palace, President Emmanuel Macron said he would be made a naturalised citizen.
He personally thanked Mr Gassama, gave him a medal for courage and said he would also be offered a role in the fire service.
The drama unfolded on Saturday evening on a street in the north of the city.
Mr Gassama said he had been walking past when he saw a crowd gathered in front of the building.
“When I took him in my arms, I spoke with him and asked: ‘Why did you do that?’ But he did not answer.”
The Parisian fire service said crews had arrived to find the boy had already been rescued.
“Luckily, there was someone who was physically fit and who had the courage to go and get the child,” a spokesman told AFP news agency.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Gassama met French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday Image copyright AFP
Local authorities quoted by French media said the boy’s parents were not at home at the time.
The father has been questioned by police on suspicion of leaving his child unattended, judicial sources say. The mother was not in Paris at the time, it is believed.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo was among those to praise the 22-year-old’s heroism and said she had called him to thank him.
She referred to him as the “Spiderman of the 18th”, referring to the Paris district where the rescue took place, calling him an “example for all citizens”.
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart ranks 5th of 100 Stories that Shaped the World
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has ranked the ever-green novel, Things Fall Apart, written by Late Prof. Chinua Achebe, 5th of 100 Stories that Shaped the World.
First on the list is The Odyssey (Homer, 8th Century BC), followed by Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852); Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818) and then Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell, 1949).
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet (William Shakespeare, 1603) is number 8 on the list.
In April, BBC Culture, said it polled experts around the world to nominate up to five fictional stories they felt had shaped mindsets or influenced history. “We received answers from 108 authors, academics, journalists, critics and translators in 35 countries – their choices took in novels, poems, folk tales and dramas in 33 different languages, including Sumerian, K’iche and Ge’ez”, said the BBC.
BBC said the list was determined via ranked ballots and first placed into descending order by number of critic votes, then into descending order by total critic points, then alphabetically (for 73 to 100, the titles listed are tied).
FULL LIST
The Odyssey (Homer, 8th Century BC) 2. Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852) 3. Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818) 4. Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell, 1949) 5. Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe, 1958) 6. One Thousand and One Nights (various authors, 8th-18th Centuries) 7. Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes, 1605-1615) 8. Hamlet (William Shakespeare, 1603) 9. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel García Márquez, 1967) 10. The Iliad (Homer, 8th Century BC) 11. Beloved (Toni Morrison, 1987) 12. The Divine Comedy (Dante Alighieri, 1308-1320) 13. Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare, 1597) 14. The Epic of Gilgamesh (author unknown, circa 22nd-10th Centuries BC) 15. Harry Potter Series (JK Rowling, 1997-2007) 16. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood, 1985) 17. Ulysses (James Joyce, 1922) 18. Animal Farm (George Orwell, 1945) 19. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847) 20. Madame Bovary (Gustave Flaubert, 1856) 21. Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Luo Guanzhong, 1321-1323) 22. Journey to the West (Wu Cheng’en, circa 1592) 23. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevksy, 1866) 24. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen, 1813) 25. Water Margin (attributed to Shi Nai’an, 1589) 26. War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy, 1865-1867) 27. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee, 1960) 28. Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys, 1966) 29. Aesop’s Fables (Aesop, circa 620 to 560 BC) 30. Candide (Voltaire, 1759) 31. Medea (Euripides, 431 BC) 32. The Mahabharata (attributed to Vyasa, 4th Century BC) 33. King Lear (William Shakespeare, 1608) 34. The Tale of Genji (Murasaki Shikibu, before 1021) 35. The Sorrows of Young Werther (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1774) 36. The Trial (Franz Kafka, 1925) 37. Remembrance of Things Past (Marcel Proust, 1913-1927) 38. Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë, 1847) 39. Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison, 1952) 40. Moby-Dick (Herman Melville, 1851) 41. Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston, 1937) 42. To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf, 1927) 43. The True Story of Ah Q (Lu Xun, 1921-1922) 44. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll, 1865) 45. Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy, 1873-1877) 46. Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad, 1899) 47. Monkey Grip (Helen Garner, 1977) 48. Mrs Dalloway (Virginia Woolf, 1925) 49. Oedipus the King (Sophocles, 429 BC) 50. The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka, 1915) 51. The Oresteia (Aeschylus, 5th Century BC) 52. Cinderella (unknown author and date) 53. Howl (Allen Ginsberg, 1956) 54. Les Misérables (Victor Hugo, 1862) 55. Middlemarch (George Eliot, 1871-1872) 56. Pedro Páramo (Juan Rulfo, 1955) 57. The Butterfly Lovers (folk story, various versions) 58. The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer, 1387) 59. The Panchatantra (attributed to Vishnu Sharma, circa 300 BC) 60. The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas (Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, 1881) 61. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Muriel Spark, 1961) 62. The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists (Robert Tressell, 1914) 63. Song of Lawino (Okot p’Bitek, 1966) 64. The Golden Notebook (Doris Lessing, 1962) 65. Midnight’s Children (Salman Rushdie, 1981) 66. Nervous Conditions (Tsitsi Dangarembga, 1988) 67. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943) 68. The Master and Margarita (Mikhail Bulgakov, 1967) 69. The Ramayana (attributed to Valmiki, 11th Century BC) 70. Antigone (Sophocles, c 441 BC) 71. Dracula (Bram Stoker, 1897) 72. The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula K Le Guin, 1969) 73. A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens, 1843) 74. América (Raúl Otero Reiche, 1980) 75. Before the Law (Franz Kafka, 1915) 76. Children of Gebelawi (Naguib Mahfouz, 1967) 77. Il Canzoniere (Petrarch, 1374) 78. Kebra Nagast (various authors, 1322) 79. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott, 1868-1869) 80. Metamorphoses (Ovid, 8 AD) 81. Omeros (Derek Walcott, 1990) 82. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 1962) 83. Orlando (Virginia Woolf, 1928) 84. Rainbow Serpent (Aboriginal Australian story cycle, date unknown) 85. Revolutionary Road (Richard Yates, 1961) 86. Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe, 1719) 87. Song of Myself (Walt Whitman, 1855) 88. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain, 1884) 89. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain, 1876) 90. The Aleph (Jorge Luis Borges, 1945) 91. The Eloquent Peasant (ancient Egyptian folk story, circa 2000 BC) 92. The Emperor’s New Clothes (Hans Christian Andersen, 1837) 93. The Jungle (Upton Sinclair, 1906) 94. The Khamriyyat (Abu Nuwas, late 8th-early 9th Century) 95. The Radetzky March (Joseph Roth, 1932) 96. The Raven (Edgar Allan Poe, 1845) 97. The Satanic Verses (Salman Rushdie, 1988) 98. The Secret History (Donna Tartt, 1992) 99. The Snowy Day (Ezra Jack Keats, 1962) 100. Toba Tek Singh (Saadat Hasan Manto, 1955)
Award-winning Nigerian writer and journalist, Abubakar Adams Ibrahim. Source/ICFJ
Nigerian Reporter’s story on Boko Haram, IDPs Wins 2018 Michael Elliott Award
An intriguing story on the impact of the activities of Boko Haram on the people of North-Eastern part of Nigeria, written by a Nigerian writer and journalist, Abubakar Adams Ibrahim, has won 2018 Michael Elliott Award for Excellence in African storytelling.
The writer calmly and passionately told a story about victims of double deprivations, first, deprivation by terrorists who killed their breadwinners and second, deprivation by people at whose care they were placed.
The award was announced on Tuesday by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) which gives the award in partnership with ONE and the Elliott family.
The ICFJ said a distinguished jury selected Mr. Ibrahim from among 238 applicants for the prize.
“Ibrahim will receive the award and a cash prize at a reception in New York on May 24. He also will spend time in U.S. newsrooms to learn new skills and share knowledge in an intensive, customized program run by ICFJ. The goal is to help to deepen future reporting that engages and empowers Africans. The international panel that selected Ibrahim was chaired by Norman Pearlstine, chief information architect, Money.net and former vice chairman of Time Inc., and included:
Lionel Barber, editor, Financial Times
Joyce Barnathan, president, International Center for Journalists
Matthew Bishop, managing director, Bellagio Center, The Rockefeller Foundation
Joachim Buwembo, former ICFJ Knight Fellow based in Uganda
Erik Charas, founder, @Verdade newspaper based in Mozambique and member of ONE’s Africa Policy Advisory Board
Kate Critchley, interim executive director, Europe department, ONE
Nic Dawes, deputy executive director for media, Human Rights Watch, and member of ONE’s Africa Policy Advisory Board
Jamie Drummond, co-founder and executive director, global strategy, ONE
Jerri Eddings, senior program director, ICFJ
Daniel Franklin, executive editor, The Economist
Mercy Juma, reporter, BBC Kenya and inaugural award winner
Rik Kirkland, partner, Global Publishing, McKinsey & Company and ICFJ Director
Chika Oduah, freelance journalist based in Senegal
Declan Okpalaeke, former ICFJ Knight Fellow based in Nigeria
Emma Oxford, author, “At Least We Lived”
The ICFJ said Elliott served as a top editor at The Economist, Newsweek and Time before becoming CEO of ONE.
“A passionate writer and editor with a gift for unraveling complex issues, he shone a light on global development issues and the people at their center.
A longtime board member of ICFJ, Elliott championed great journalism as a tool for empowerment. As ONE’s CEO, he lobbied to improve the lives of all Africans. Shortly before his untimely death in 2016, he spoke of his dream to establish an award that would bring together his belief in great journalism with his commitment to progress in Africa.
It was established in 2016 in honor of Michael Elliott, an outstanding editor and philanthropist whose life was a testament to the power of storytelling to bear witness to and improve the human condition. The prize aims to advance the work of an emerging journalist covering Africa who strives to strengthen people’s voices and improve their well-being. The inaugural winner was Kenyan health reporter Mercy Juma.
Ibrahim works as a news editor at the Daily Trust in Abuja, Nigeria. His story All That Was Familiar, published in Granta magazine in May 2017 puts a human face on a story often expressed in numbers: More than 2 million people from northeastern Nigeria, northern Cameroon and southern Niger have been internally displaced since Boko Haram began its insurgency. Ibrahim tells about the struggle of two women, one from Cameroon and one from Nigeria, to find their loved ones and return home.
“Mike would be thrilled by the breadth and depth of talent displayed by the entrants for this year’s award,” said Emma Oxford, Elliott’s widow. “The Elliott family, along with ONE, ICFJ and many generous supporters, is proud to help support the development of quality journalism in Africa. I am hugely grateful to the staff of ICFJ and my fellow judges for their thoughtful review of the broad range of entries.”
The winning story “exemplifies outstanding storytelling on a difficult and important topic. Abubakar’s fearless reporting and powerful writing brought home to me the hardships faced by women, in particular, displaced by the scourge of Boko Haram,” Oxford said.
Florence Ifeoluwa Otedola, popularly known as DJ Cuppy
DJ Cuppy Interview: How the name DJ Cuppy came about,… what family, education mean to her
Florence Ifeoluwa Otedola, popularly known as DJ Cuppy, daughter of Nigerian oil magnate, Femi Otedola, in this Interview with BBC Newsday’s Alan Kasujja, speaks about her life and family, how her name DJ Cuppy came about and what her education means to her. Excerpts:
BBC Newsday: How did your name DJ Cuppy come about?
My name, DJ Cuppy comes from an interesting story. When I was younger, when I was doing my GCSE’s and, in the UK, I was obsessed with cupcakes at the time. Which is quite funny. It obviously started as a little nickname but it has turned into a brand. And it was DJ Cupcake in the beginning. Now, it’s just DJ Cuppy. As a female DJ, it’s definitely challenging. I do feel like being in a male dominated industry, you know, I kinda have to work twice as hard to get half of much done. But then, things are changing. I remember when I started DJ’ing, people would look at me, like, what are you doing? You know, this is not meant for you. I always say it’s similar to being a female pilot on the plane where there is such a gender bias towards one side. But I think that I’m proving people wrong with what I’m doing. I am showing that us women can do it. And I think as an African woman as well, I am representing around the world.
BBC Newsday: You are that typical Nigerian girl whose parents would tell, you have to go to school, and then after you are done with school… let me see, there is a Business Degree from King’s College, London and a Master’s in Music from New York, and yet now, you are a musician and a DJ. Are the Degrees important? Why?
Yes, like you say, I’m fortunate enough to have two Degrees. They are important. I’m an advocate for education because, yes, right now, I am sitting down here, I may not be using my Economics Degree per se but I can tell you that education has given me the discipline and structure that I’ve needed to take on the world, globally. I do not think that I would have achieved what I could by the age of 25 without education.
BBC Newsday: You don’t need to work that hard, you know, you come from a pretty well to do family. Your father is one of the wealthiest Africans on the continent…
If anything, it makes me want to work hard, you know, I have seen my dad and I am lucky to have a role model like him in my life. I’ve seen him day in day out never get comfortable, you know, he still wakes up by 5:00 am to go to work. So, I feel like that actually makes me want to hustle and anything worth doing is worth doing well. So, I’m taking my DJ’ing and my brand very seriously. You know, I am viewing it as creative entrepreneurship. Interview by BBC, transcribed by Discover Africa News.
The sky here is dull this evening. No gentle breeze; the breeze which used to make the trees guy. And birds are not singing in the trees. No human or animal is on sight. Only the foul air of rotten blood of humans and animals pervades every space.
Here is Benue. Is here still the Benue? The once beautiful food basket of the nation, as it is fondly called, has become the ‘blood basin’ of the nation. Sad! How did it get to this? Benue state, one of the thirty-six states in Nigeria is known for her excellence in agriculture and industrious manpower. For a while now there have been indiscriminate killings of innocent citizens in this state. Should a once very peaceful nation like Nigeria continue this way?
Benue has gone to the world’s stage on a left footing. Not for the food it has produced but for the blood it has shed. Speaking to the public at St. Peter’s Square in Rome on Sunday, the 29th of April, 2018, Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church reacted to the killing of two Catholic priests and seventeen others by Fulani herdsmen on 24th April, 2018 in Ayar Mbalom village in Gwer East Local Government Area of the state.
The Pontiff prayed that Nigeria’s Christian community could find harmony and peace.
After such horrendous killings by these herdsmen, there may be no place for arguments if Christians start pointing accusing fingers at Muslims. But can such accusation be really true?
On Monday 30th April, 2018 at a bilateral talk with President Donald Trump of the United States, President Muhammadu Buhari absolved the herdsmen of all blames of the killings in the North-Central State:
“The problem of herders in Nigeria is a very long historical thing. The Nigerian herders don’t carry anything more than a stick and occasionally a machete to cut down foliage and give it to their animals, these ones are not carrying AK-47.”
“So, people should not underrate what happened in Libya. 43 years of Gaddafi, people were recruited from Sahel and trained to shoot and kill. With the demise of Gaddafi they moved to other countries and region and carried the experience with them.” Pulse.ng
On his part, Trump showed his awareness of the dreadful killings in Nigeria when he said:
“We are deeply concerned by religious violence in Nigeria, including the burning of churches and the killing and persecution of Christians” yahoonews.com
There is a sense of urgency. Nigerians must identify the urgency of the moment. The international community is looking at Nigeria in this very unpleasant moment. The time is right for all Nigerians to ‘take the bull by the horns and tail’ for peace, unity, and progress to reign in the nation.
I am still here, standing, looking forlorn at Benue, at what used to be Benue. I am hoping that a day will come when Benue will return to this Benue.
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