HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY,PASTOR PETERS.MAY THE GOOD LORD BLESS YOU.
A surprise birthday party was organised by his loving wife Mrs.Ronke Peters.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Zimbabwe in crisis
The crisis in zimbabwe have deepen has Police in Zimbabwe said Friday they have put seven opposition members of parliament on a wanted list, a development that is likely to further dampen the possibility of talks between President Robert Mugabe and his rivals.
Robert Mugabe won re-election as Zimbabwean president in a controversial and disputed election.
The seven lawmakers are wanted in connection with crimes ranging from inciting public violence to attempted murder, said police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena.
The African Union issued a resolution this week urging dialogue between Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change, to end violence that has plagued the country. The AU said it hopes dialogue may even lead to a national unity government.
An MDC spokesman said the arrests would hurt the chances of any dialogue.
"How can we go to the table when half the leadership is either on the run or in police custody?" said MDC Director of Information Luke Tamborinyoka.
The MDC has demanded the release of political prisoners as a precondition to talks with the ruling ZANU-PF party. Tsvangirai said this week that violence in Zimbabwe created conditions that are "not conducive" to negotiation
political editor
celebratingafrica magazine
MAMA G--NOLLYWOOD ACTRESS
What has made you relevant over the years?
I give God every encomium I receive in the industry. I believe it has been God at work.
What makes you such a good actress?
I still give it back to God because without God, I am nothing. I believe God has endowed everybody with diverse talents. It took so long for me to discover what God has put in me, this is because of certain things around me -my religion and my kind of upbringing. I thought I was going to get too exposed if I joined the industry, so, I just concentrated more on my radio job and people were appreciating me. When I was in Radio Nigeria; I was appreciated.
Tell me about your experience at Radio Nigeria
I was a continuity announcer before I was made a producer. Later on, I was retrenched. I tried my best to get back, but they didn’t take me for reasons I do not know. I even went for a fresh employment exercise there, but they did not take me. But God later brought me into the film industry. Now, if anybody asks me to come back to Radio Nigeria as an announcer, I won’t do it. God has deposited something into everybody. I believe those who are suffering today have not discovered their talents.
When did you start acting as a professional?
I will say it goes way back because acting on radio and stage is also acting. When I was in secondary school, I was always associating myself with the drama group. I used to represent my school in festivals of art and culture, which no longer hold now. The festivals helped develop talents in children. If a child can interpret a poem, he can interpret a script. These things no longer hold; that is why our children are roaming about the streets. I later went to a teacher training college, where we did a stage play titled Hamlet, which was an adaptation from Shakespeare’s book. I was chosen to play the role of Hamlet, which was the lead role.
We did the play half way because it was a long novel. But all the invited schools were screaming that they wanted us to finish the play. We had to promise to stage another performance and during the rehearsals, the literature teacher said I should play the role half way and another lady should play the other half because the lines were many. We later invited other students from neighbouring schools to come and watch with a token gate fee. After I played my own role of first Hamlet and the other girl came up when it was time for Hamlet to come up, everybody started shouting, saying they wanted me to continue the role. Our literature teacher told them that it was because the book is voluminous that we had to share it, but the audience said we should take our time, that they would be back. That was how we had to do it for the third time and I found myself cramming the whole book easily.
The audience was times two of the previous outing because the news of the whole thing had spread. And from there, people started calling me Hamlet even as far as Enugu. I later became an announcer with Radio Nigeria, which also gave me fame in the East. I also joined the radio drama group and I was being paid in the drama group as well. My take home from the drama group was almost double my salary, so I was so engrossed that when the retrenchment came, it was a bang. But thank God for where he has placed me now.
We did the play half way because it was a long novel. But all the invited schools were screaming that they wanted us to finish the play. We had to promise to stage another performance and during the rehearsals, the literature teacher said I should play the role half way and another lady should play the other half because the lines were many. We later invited other students from neighbouring schools to come and watch with a token gate fee. After I played my own role of first Hamlet and the other girl came up when it was time for Hamlet to come up, everybody started shouting, saying they wanted me to continue the role. Our literature teacher told them that it was because the book is voluminous that we had to share it, but the audience said we should take our time, that they would be back. That was how we had to do it for the third time and I found myself cramming the whole book easily.
The audience was times two of the previous outing because the news of the whole thing had spread. And from there, people started calling me Hamlet even as far as Enugu. I later became an announcer with Radio Nigeria, which also gave me fame in the East. I also joined the radio drama group and I was being paid in the drama group as well. My take home from the drama group was almost double my salary, so I was so engrossed that when the retrenchment came, it was a bang. But thank God for where he has placed me now.
How did you now get into the movie industry?
Actually, things became very hard at a stage. I got married and my husband got sick and it was very serious. He had diabetes, hypertension and he was always having crisis. My in-laws were not friendly at all. Since I’d lost my job, I was into everything; it was just too much struggle for me. I did birthday cakes and so many things to make money. I even joined those decorating houses for burial because I was the bread winner of the family then.
Though I had the mind of studying Theater Arts at IMT, but the year I was admitted, the school was disqualified from running the programme on the basis that their stage wasn’t good enough. So, I was given Fine and Applied Arts in lieu of Theater Arts and I majored in graphic art. It was from there that Radio Nigeria employed me when they came for a programme in the school. I later went to Enugu State University to study Mass Communication but I could not finish because I was so financially down. I stopped in 1998. Then, I found it difficult to pay my school fees and that of my children. The stress was all over me and one of my cousins advised me to stop and I stopped. But next year, I will be going back to school to study Theater Arts or Mass Communication.
Though I had the mind of studying Theater Arts at IMT, but the year I was admitted, the school was disqualified from running the programme on the basis that their stage wasn’t good enough. So, I was given Fine and Applied Arts in lieu of Theater Arts and I majored in graphic art. It was from there that Radio Nigeria employed me when they came for a programme in the school. I later went to Enugu State University to study Mass Communication but I could not finish because I was so financially down. I stopped in 1998. Then, I found it difficult to pay my school fees and that of my children. The stress was all over me and one of my cousins advised me to stop and I stopped. But next year, I will be going back to school to study Theater Arts or Mass Communication.
Tell me more about the struggle
There was a Christmas I did not have anything, there were days we had nothing at home. We were always struggling with what my husband would eat and his drugs, my children went for days without food. I really love those children because they really stood by me.
You have not said how you got into movie industry.
That same cousin of mine introduced me to one Frank who worked with Chika Okpala (Chief Zebrudaya). He introduced me to him and they gave me one jingle to do and paid me N5000; that was the reason we celebrated Christmas that year. Before that, I had gone to a very secluded village to fast and pray on my situation and after that prayer, God was just opening doors for me. The jingle was like a windfall. And from there, the present chairman of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) in Enugu State discovered me because I played the role of his wife in that jingle. Later, when he got a contract with the Women Commission in Abuja to run a series on NTA Network for women, he gave the lead role to me.
So when we were on location, the cast and crew were asking how come I wasn’t in the movie industry since I was so good on set. They invited me to auditions and I was afraid of my association then, which is the Scripture Union. But the cast said since it was God that deposited the talents in me, it couldn’t be sinful. And true to my fear, the SU disowned me when I started acting. But from then on, people started casting me for roles.
So when we were on location, the cast and crew were asking how come I wasn’t in the movie industry since I was so good on set. They invited me to auditions and I was afraid of my association then, which is the Scripture Union. But the cast said since it was God that deposited the talents in me, it couldn’t be sinful. And true to my fear, the SU disowned me when I started acting. But from then on, people started casting me for roles.
When did you do your first home video?
That was in 1998. I did Out of Cage. There was also Amina part one and two. My roles in the past movies now encouraged the producers of Authority to give me a lead role, and that was the movie that gave me the much-needed publicity. Afterward, everybody wanted me to play lead for them and I’ve not rested till today. That is the reason I can never stop giving God praises. Let me tell you, my matter got so bad that my second son said during a discussion that I should stop trying because I could never make it again. He said all that was left for me was to raise them to the level where they could cater for me. I told him to keep quiet because once there was life there was hope. Now, if I remind him, he will say he said it as a child. I am happy, not because I am making money, but the fame that is making me happy. There are people who expect me to be on screen most time. That is why if I have fever or malaria, I still want to go on set. Let me use this medium to appreciate my fans, they are the reason why I’m still acting.
With all of this, what did you learn from life?
I have learnt that God will never abandon anybody. He has a plan for every individual. Once there is life, there is hope. Don’t lose hope there is more to life.
I learnt you later lost your husband
Yes.
Is that the reason you put so much of yourself into movies when you play widow?
Well, they say experience is the best teacher. He was sick for quite a long time. I thank God for his life. He eventually died on January 27, 2002.
How has life been without him?
His vacuum is there, but we have to forge ahead.
How many children do you have?
I have four biologically and some other dependants.
I have four biologically and some other dependants.
Why do you want to go back to school?
I like education and I don’t think age is a barrier. I want to make a statement that what I could not get in education then I can get now. Anything could happen in the future and I don’t want anything to be a barrier. I believe the higher I go, the more impact I make in the movie industry.
Are you planning to remarry?
Never. I’m married to my first son.
What is your greatest fear in life?
Dying without Christ. I wouldn’t want to die without God.
Dying without Christ. I wouldn’t want to die without God.
VENUS WILLIAMS CAPTURED HER FIFTH WIMBLEDON CHAMPIONSHIP
Venus Williams captured her fifth Wimbledon title by beating her sister Serena 7-5 6-4 in a high-quality final at the All England Club on Saturday.
The 28-year-old becomes one of only four players to have lifted the trophy at least five times in the Open era.
Serena made a ferocious start, forging a 4-2 lead, but Venus clawed her way back to 4-4 before breaking at 6-5 to snatch the first set in 53 minutes.
Both players maintained a high standard throughout in blustery conditions, but Venus had the edge when it counted.
She sealed victory when Serena sprayed a backhand into the tramlines but her celebrations were muted as she approached the net to give her sister a hug.
”I can‘t believe that it‘s five. When you‘re in the final against Serena, five seems so far away. She played so awesome so it was really a task,” said Venus, now a seven-time Grand Slam champion.
”It‘s unbelievable that I have won five, especially with some of the injuries that I‘ve had. To know every time I come back I have the chance to make history. I love this place.”
Serena had beaten her sister in their two previous Wimbledon finals in 2002 and 2003, but she admitted Venus had deserved victory.
”She was a little better today. It didn‘t work out the way I planned,” she said.
”It‘s a great celebration for our family, we‘re really happy. I‘ve been working really hard and I‘m so happy at least one of us was able to win.”
Both players maintained a high standard throughout in blustery conditions, but Venus had the edge when it counted.
She sealed victory when Serena sprayed a backhand into the tramlines but her celebrations were muted as she approached the net to give her sister a hug.
”I can‘t believe that it‘s five. When you‘re in the final against Serena, five seems so far away. She played so awesome so it was really a task,” said Venus, now a seven-time Grand Slam champion.
”It‘s unbelievable that I have won five, especially with some of the injuries that I‘ve had. To know every time I come back I have the chance to make history. I love this place.”
Serena had beaten her sister in their two previous Wimbledon finals in 2002 and 2003, but she admitted Venus had deserved victory.
”She was a little better today. It didn‘t work out the way I planned,” she said.
”It‘s a great celebration for our family, we‘re really happy. I‘ve been working really hard and I‘m so happy at least one of us was able to win.”
The sisters have always struggled to produce their best against each other but their seventh Grand Slam final exceeded all expectations.
The competitive tone was set early in the way Serena took on Venus‘s serve from the outset and broke in the opening game thanks to a stunning backhand winner.
She pressed home the advantage by holding to love and if there remained any doubt that there would no quarter given, it was banished when Serena approached a short ball and hit it straight at her sister - with Venus somehow putting away the volley.
Serena had a point for a 4-1 lead but Venus saved it with another deft volley.
Serena had a point for a 4-1 lead but Venus saved it with another deft volley.
Venus clawed her way back to 4-4 but then have to save another two break points before the crowd witnessed the first sign that the two competitors might be related.
Serena hit a backhand which she thought was going wide, audibly admonishing herself as she did so, but the wind kept the ball in, and the umpire was forced to call a let.
Serena hit a backhand which she thought was going wide, audibly admonishing herself as she did so, but the wind kept the ball in, and the umpire was forced to call a let.
ANOTHER DEATH IN NOLLYWOOD,ALADE AROMIRE
The curtain fell suddenly, finally, on one of the leading lights and pioneer of Yoruba home video industry, Muyideen Alade Aromire. Aromire was the first Nigerian to own a vernacular pay television channel, Yotomi TV.
He died on Friday night at the Soleye Hospital, Ikeja, after he was reportedly hit by a trailer along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
Aromire was said to be returning from the site of his new house along the expressway, which he had planned to move into on July 15.
Aromire was said to be returning from the site of his new house along the expressway, which he had planned to move into on July 15.
Prior to 1984, film lovers in Nigeria made do with cinema houses for their movie entertainment until Alade Aromire produced the first made-in-Nigeria home video titled ‘Ekun.’ The production of ‘Ekun’ on VHS format opened a new chapter in the evolution of home video film industry in the country. According to him, he borrowed N27,000 from his parents to produce that first movie. It was premiered at Super Cinema, Lagos in December 1984.
The name, Alade Aromire, rings a bell in the Yoruba movie industry and television broadcasting. One of the second generation home video producers of the Yoruba extraction, Alade, as he was popularly called by his fans, was prolific.
Before he disappeared from the scene a few years ago for reasons he described as "personal," the artiste told Sunday Sun that he had to his credit more than 200 films, including appearances. He bounced back on the entertainment scene with Yotomi Television, the nation’s first vernacular pay channel.
Before he disappeared from the scene a few years ago for reasons he described as "personal," the artiste told Sunday Sun that he had to his credit more than 200 films, including appearances. He bounced back on the entertainment scene with Yotomi Television, the nation’s first vernacular pay channel.
His quest to improve on what obtains in the film industry took him outside to West Germany, as it was known then. In Cologne he enrolled at a Goethe College there originally to study their language, but while there, he discovered they ran a crash programe in film and television production specifically for foreign students and lectures were delivered in English.
The course lasted three months. Afterwards, he was posted to Dutch Willlick Television Village on the outskirts of Dortmund. While at the place, he made up his mind that, if his hosts could run a television station based on their own dialect of Dutch language, he could do something similar when he got back to Nigeria. He returned and started Yotomi TV. By the time he died on Friday, a restless man, Aromire had made forays into real estate with his Yotomi Estate.
He was a songwriter, scriptwriter and an entertainer.
W
The course lasted three months. Afterwards, he was posted to Dutch Willlick Television Village on the outskirts of Dortmund. While at the place, he made up his mind that, if his hosts could run a television station based on their own dialect of Dutch language, he could do something similar when he got back to Nigeria. He returned and started Yotomi TV. By the time he died on Friday, a restless man, Aromire had made forays into real estate with his Yotomi Estate.
He was a songwriter, scriptwriter and an entertainer.
W
hen Sunday Sun contacted Adebayo Salami (Oga Bello) he said he received the news with great shock. "I am really perplexed, infact I am really really disturbed, I don’t know what to say. As I am talking to you I am in shock. Alade was somebody everybody loved in the movies industry, he was very very innovative. For him to just die how is too painful. We are going to miss him".
When probed further concerning the recent deaths in the entertainment industry, Salami said that it is because entertainers are popular.
"People die in other sectors, but because we are in the eye of the public that is why people give it a spiritual connotation."
When probed further concerning the recent deaths in the entertainment industry, Salami said that it is because entertainers are popular.
"People die in other sectors, but because we are in the eye of the public that is why people give it a spiritual connotation."
Also Prince Jide Kosoko (President of the Association of Theatre Practitions, ANTP) said: "It is a shocking thing to have lost him to the cold hands of death at this stage. The man was too young to die at this moment, but what can one do?”
“Alade pioneered home video in Nigeria. He was a focused man, who knows his onions. He was industrious and very friendly. He meant different things to different people. You know he was my brother I will really miss him greatly."
“Alade pioneered home video in Nigeria. He was a focused man, who knows his onions. He was industrious and very friendly. He meant different things to different people. You know he was my brother I will really miss him greatly."
When asked about the spiritual interpretation about the deaths in the entertainment industry he says "lawyers, drivers and other people to are dying. "There is no spiritual thing to it, man will die at his own time. I am only praying to God to give us long life."
Friday, June 27, 2008
AFRICAN LEADER AT 90,NELSON MANDELA
NELSON MANDELA AT 90.THE MAN WHO FOUGHT SELFLESSLY FOR THE AFRICA RACE.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born in a village near Umtata in the Transkei on the 18 July 1918. His father was the principal councillor to the Acting Paramount Chief of Thembuland. After his father s death, the young Rolihlahla became the Paramount Chief s ward to be groomed to assume high office. However, influenced by the cases that came before the Chief s court, he determined to become a lawyer. Hearing the elders stories of his ancestors valour during the wars of resistance in defence of their fatherland, he dreamed also of making his own contribution to the freedom struggle of his people.
After receiving a primary education at a local mission school, Nelson Mandela was sent to Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary school of some repute where he matriculated. He then enrolled at the University College of Fort Hare for the Bachelor of Arts Degree where he was elected onto the Student's Representative Council. He was suspended from college for joining in a protest boycott. He went to Johannesburg where he completed his BA by correspondence, took articles of clerkship and commenced study for his LLB. He entered politics in earnest while studying in Johannesburg by joining the African National Congress in 1942.
At the height of the Second World War a small group of young Africans, members of the African National Congress, banded together under the leadership of Anton Lembede. Among them were William Nkomo, Walter Sisulu, Oliver R. Tambo, Ashby P. Mda and Nelson Mandela. Starting out with 60 members, all of whom were residing around the Witwatersrand, these young people set themselves the formidable task of transforming the ANC into a mass movement, deriving its strength and motivation from the unlettered millions of working people in the towns and countryside, the peasants in the rural areas and the professionals.
Their chief contention was that the political tactics of the old guard' leadership of the ANC, reared in the tradition of constitutionalism and polite petitioning of the government of the day, were proving inadequate to the tasks of national emancipation. In opposition to the old guard', Lembede and his colleagues espoused a radical African Nationalism grounded in the principle of national self-determination. In September 1944 they came together to found the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL).
Mandela soon impressed his peers by his disciplined work and consistent effort and was elected to the Secretaryship of the Youth League in 1947. By painstaking work, campaigning at the grassroots and through its mouthpiece Inyaniso' (Truth) the ANCYL was able to canvass support for its policies amongst the ANC membership. At the 1945 annual conference of the ANC, two of the League s leaders, Anton Lembede and Ashby Mda, were elected onto the National Executive Committee (NEC). Two years later another Youth League leader, Oliver R Tambo became a member of the NEC.
Spurred on by the victory of the National Party which won the 1948 all-White elections on the platform of Apartheid, at the 1949 annual conference, the Programme of Action, inspired by the Youth League, which advocated the weapons of boycott, strike, civil disobedience and non-co-operation was accepted as official ANC policy.
The Programme of Action had been drawn up by a sub-committee of the ANCYL composed of David Bopape, Ashby Mda, Nelson Mandela, James Njongwe, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo. To ensure its implementation the membership replaced older leaders with a number of younger men. Walter Sisulu, a founding member of the Youth League was elected Secretary-General. The conservative Dr A.B. Xuma lost the presidency to Dr J.S. Moroka, a man with a reputation for greater militancy. The following year, 1950, Mandela himself was elected to the NEC at national conference.
The ANCYL programme aimed at the attainment of full citizenship, direct parliamentary representation for all South Africans. In policy documents of which Mandela was an important co-author, the ANCYL paid special attention to the redistribution of the land, trade union rights, education and culture. The ANCYL aspired to free and compulsory education for all children, as well as mass education for adults.
When the ANC launched its Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws in 1952, Mandela was elected National Volunteer-in-Chief. The Defiance Campaign was conceived as a mass civil disobedience campaign that would snowball from a core of selected volunteers to involved more and more ordinary people, culminating in mass defiance. Fulfilling his responsibility as Volunteer-in-Chief, Mandela travelled the country organising resistance to discriminatory legislation. Charged and brought to trial for his role in the campaign, the court found that Mandela and his co-accused had consistently advised their followers to adopt a peaceful course of action and to avoid all violence.
For his part in the Defiance Campaign, Mandela was convicted of contravening the Suppression of Communism Act and given a suspended prison sentence. Shortly after the campaign ended, he was also prohibited from attending gatherings and confined to Johannesburg for six months.
During this period of restrictions, Mandela wrote the attorneys admission examination and was admitted to the profession. He opened a practice in Johannesburg, in partnership with Oliver Tambo. In recognition of his outstanding contribution during the Defiance Campaign Mandela had been elected to the presidency of both the Youth League and the Transvaal region of the ANC at the end of 1952, he thus became a deputy president of the ANC itself.
Of their law practice, Oliver Tambo, ANC National Chairman at the time of his death in April 1993, has written:
To reach our desks each morning Nelson and I ran the gauntlet of patient queues of people overflowing from the chairs in the waiting room into the corridors... To be landless (in South Africa) can be a crime, and weekly we interviewed the delegations of peasants who came to tell us how many generations their families had worked a little piece of land from which they were now being ejected... To live in the wrong area can be a crime... Our buff office files carried thousands of these stories and if, when we started our law partnership, we had not been rebels against apartheid, our experiences in our offices would have remedied the deficiency. We had risen to professional status in our community, but every case in court, every visit to the prisons to interview clients, reminded us of the humiliation and suffering burning into our people.
Nor did their professional status earn Mandela and Tambo any personal immunity from the brutal apartheid laws. They fell foul of the land segregation legislation, and the authorities demanded that they move their practice from the city to the back of beyond, as Mandela later put it, miles away from where clients could reach us during working hours. This was tantamount to asking us to abandon our legal practice, to give up the legal service of our people... No attorney worth his salt would easily agree to do that, said Mandela and the partnership resolved to defy the law.
Nor was the government alone in trying to frustrate Mandela s legal practice. On the grounds of his conviction under the Suppression of Communism Act, the Transvaal Law Society petitioned the Supreme Court to strike him off the roll of attorneys. The petition was refused with Mr Justice Ramsbottom finding that Mandela had been moved by a desire to serve his black fellow citizens and nothing he had done showed him to be unworthy to remain in the ranks of an honourable profession.
In 1952 Nelson Mandela was given the responsibility to prepare an organisational plan that would enable the leadership of the movement to maintain dynamic contact with its membership without recourse to public meetings. The objective was to prepare for the contingency of proscription by building up powerful local and regional branches to whom power could be devolved. This was the M-Plan, named after him.
During the early fifties Mandela played an important part in leading the resistance to the Western Areas removals and to the introduction of Bantu Education. He also played a significant role in popularising the Freedom Charter, adopted by the Congress of the People in 1955.
In the late fifties, Mandela s attention turned to the struggles against the exploitation of labour, the pass laws, the nascent Bantustan policy, and the segregation of the open universities. Mandela arrived at the conclusion very early on that the Bantustan policy was a political swindle and an economic absurdity. He predicted, with dismal prescience, that ahead there lay a grim programme of mass evictions, political persecutions, and police terror. On the segregation of the universities, Mandela observed that the friendship and inter-racial harmony that is forged through the admixture and association of various racial groups at the mixed universities constitute a direct threat to the policy of apartheid and baasskap, and that it was to remove that threat that the open universities were being closed to black students.
During the whole of the fifties, Mandela was the victim of various forms of repression. He was banned, arrested and imprisoned. For much of the latter half of the decade, he was one of the accused in the mammoth Treason Trial, at great cost to his legal practice and his political work. After the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, the ANC was outlawed, and Mandela, still on trial, was detained.
The Treason Trial collapsed in 1961 as South Africa was being steered towards the adoption of the republic constitution. With the ANC now illegal the leadership picked up the threads from its underground headquarters. Nelson Mandela emerged at this time as the leading figure in this new phase of struggle. Under the ANC's inspiration, 1,400 delegates came together at an All-in African Conference in Pietermaritzburg during March 1961. Mandela was the keynote speaker. In an electrifying address he challenged the apartheid regime to convene a national convention, representative of all South Africans to thrash out a new constitution based on democratic principles. Failure to comply, he warned, would compel the majority (Blacks) to observe the forthcoming inauguration of the Republic with a mass general strike. He immediately went underground to lead the campaign. Although fewer answered the call than Mandela had hoped, it attracted considerable support throughout the country. The government responded with the largest military mobilisation since the war, and the Republic was born in an atmosphere of fear and apprehension.
Forced to live apart from his family, moving from place to place to evade detection by the government s ubiquitous informers and police spies, Mandela had to adopt a number of disguises. Sometimes dressed as a common labourer, at other times as a chauffeur, his successful evasion of the police earned him the title of the Black Pimpernel. It was during this time that he, together with other leaders of the ANC constituted a new specialised section of the liberation movement, Umkhonto we Sizwe, as an armed nucleus with a view to preparing for armed struggle. At the Rivonia trial, Mandela explained : "At the beginning of June 1961, after long and anxious assessment of the South African situation, I and some colleagues came to the conclusion that as violence in this country was inevitable, it would be wrong and unrealistic for African leaders to continue preaching peace and non-violence at a time when the government met our peaceful demands with force.
It was only when all else had failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political struggle, and to form Umkhonto we Sizwe...the Government had left us no other choice."
In 1961 Umkhonto we Sizwe was formed, with Mandela as its commander-in-chief. In 1962 Mandela left the country unlawfully and travelled abroad for several months. In Ethiopia he addressed the Conference of the Pan African Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa, and was warmly received by senior political leaders in several countries. During this trip Mandela, anticipating an intensification of the armed struggle, began to arrange guerrilla training for members of Umkhonto we Sizwe.
Not long after his return to South Africa Mandela was arrested and charged with illegal exit from the country, and incitement to strike.
Since he considered the prosecution a trial of the aspirations of the African people, Mandela decided to conduct his own defence. He applied for the recusal of the magistrate, on the ground that in such a prosecution a judiciary controlled entirely by whites was an interested party and therefore could not be impartial, and on the ground that he owed no duty to obey the laws of a white parliament, in which he was not represented.
Mandela prefaced this challenge with the affirmation: I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.
Mandela was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment. While serving his sentence he was charged, in the Rivonia Trial, with sabotage. Mandela s statements in court during these trials are classics in the history of the resistance to apartheid, and they have been an inspiration to all who have opposed it. His statement from the dock in the Rivonia Trial ends with these words:
I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment and started his prison years in the notorious Robben Island Prison, a maximum security prison on a small island 7Km off the coast near Cape Town. In April 1984 he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town and in December 1988 he was moved the Victor Verster Prison near Paarl from where he was eventually released. While in prison, Mandela flatly rejected offers made by his jailers for remission of sentence in exchange for accepting the bantustan policy by recognising the independence of the Transkei and agreeing to settle there. Again in the 'eighties Mandela rejected an offer of release on condition that he renounce violence. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Only free men can negotiate, he said.
Click image for map
Released on 11 February 1990, Mandela plunged wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after being banned for decades, Nelson Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's National Chairperson.
Nelson Mandela has never wavered in his devotion to democracy, equality and learning. Despite terrible provocation, he has never answered racism with racism. His life has been an inspiration, in South Africa and throughout the world, to all who are oppressed and deprived, to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation.
In a life that symbolises the triumph of the human spirit over man s inhumanity to man, Nelson Mandela accepted the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of all South Africans who suffered and sacrificed so much to bring peace to our land.
After receiving a primary education at a local mission school, Nelson Mandela was sent to Healdtown, a Wesleyan secondary school of some repute where he matriculated. He then enrolled at the University College of Fort Hare for the Bachelor of Arts Degree where he was elected onto the Student's Representative Council. He was suspended from college for joining in a protest boycott. He went to Johannesburg where he completed his BA by correspondence, took articles of clerkship and commenced study for his LLB. He entered politics in earnest while studying in Johannesburg by joining the African National Congress in 1942.
At the height of the Second World War a small group of young Africans, members of the African National Congress, banded together under the leadership of Anton Lembede. Among them were William Nkomo, Walter Sisulu, Oliver R. Tambo, Ashby P. Mda and Nelson Mandela. Starting out with 60 members, all of whom were residing around the Witwatersrand, these young people set themselves the formidable task of transforming the ANC into a mass movement, deriving its strength and motivation from the unlettered millions of working people in the towns and countryside, the peasants in the rural areas and the professionals.
Their chief contention was that the political tactics of the old guard' leadership of the ANC, reared in the tradition of constitutionalism and polite petitioning of the government of the day, were proving inadequate to the tasks of national emancipation. In opposition to the old guard', Lembede and his colleagues espoused a radical African Nationalism grounded in the principle of national self-determination. In September 1944 they came together to found the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL).
Mandela soon impressed his peers by his disciplined work and consistent effort and was elected to the Secretaryship of the Youth League in 1947. By painstaking work, campaigning at the grassroots and through its mouthpiece Inyaniso' (Truth) the ANCYL was able to canvass support for its policies amongst the ANC membership. At the 1945 annual conference of the ANC, two of the League s leaders, Anton Lembede and Ashby Mda, were elected onto the National Executive Committee (NEC). Two years later another Youth League leader, Oliver R Tambo became a member of the NEC.
Spurred on by the victory of the National Party which won the 1948 all-White elections on the platform of Apartheid, at the 1949 annual conference, the Programme of Action, inspired by the Youth League, which advocated the weapons of boycott, strike, civil disobedience and non-co-operation was accepted as official ANC policy.
The Programme of Action had been drawn up by a sub-committee of the ANCYL composed of David Bopape, Ashby Mda, Nelson Mandela, James Njongwe, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo. To ensure its implementation the membership replaced older leaders with a number of younger men. Walter Sisulu, a founding member of the Youth League was elected Secretary-General. The conservative Dr A.B. Xuma lost the presidency to Dr J.S. Moroka, a man with a reputation for greater militancy. The following year, 1950, Mandela himself was elected to the NEC at national conference.
The ANCYL programme aimed at the attainment of full citizenship, direct parliamentary representation for all South Africans. In policy documents of which Mandela was an important co-author, the ANCYL paid special attention to the redistribution of the land, trade union rights, education and culture. The ANCYL aspired to free and compulsory education for all children, as well as mass education for adults.
When the ANC launched its Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws in 1952, Mandela was elected National Volunteer-in-Chief. The Defiance Campaign was conceived as a mass civil disobedience campaign that would snowball from a core of selected volunteers to involved more and more ordinary people, culminating in mass defiance. Fulfilling his responsibility as Volunteer-in-Chief, Mandela travelled the country organising resistance to discriminatory legislation. Charged and brought to trial for his role in the campaign, the court found that Mandela and his co-accused had consistently advised their followers to adopt a peaceful course of action and to avoid all violence.
For his part in the Defiance Campaign, Mandela was convicted of contravening the Suppression of Communism Act and given a suspended prison sentence. Shortly after the campaign ended, he was also prohibited from attending gatherings and confined to Johannesburg for six months.
During this period of restrictions, Mandela wrote the attorneys admission examination and was admitted to the profession. He opened a practice in Johannesburg, in partnership with Oliver Tambo. In recognition of his outstanding contribution during the Defiance Campaign Mandela had been elected to the presidency of both the Youth League and the Transvaal region of the ANC at the end of 1952, he thus became a deputy president of the ANC itself.
Of their law practice, Oliver Tambo, ANC National Chairman at the time of his death in April 1993, has written:
To reach our desks each morning Nelson and I ran the gauntlet of patient queues of people overflowing from the chairs in the waiting room into the corridors... To be landless (in South Africa) can be a crime, and weekly we interviewed the delegations of peasants who came to tell us how many generations their families had worked a little piece of land from which they were now being ejected... To live in the wrong area can be a crime... Our buff office files carried thousands of these stories and if, when we started our law partnership, we had not been rebels against apartheid, our experiences in our offices would have remedied the deficiency. We had risen to professional status in our community, but every case in court, every visit to the prisons to interview clients, reminded us of the humiliation and suffering burning into our people.
Nor did their professional status earn Mandela and Tambo any personal immunity from the brutal apartheid laws. They fell foul of the land segregation legislation, and the authorities demanded that they move their practice from the city to the back of beyond, as Mandela later put it, miles away from where clients could reach us during working hours. This was tantamount to asking us to abandon our legal practice, to give up the legal service of our people... No attorney worth his salt would easily agree to do that, said Mandela and the partnership resolved to defy the law.
Nor was the government alone in trying to frustrate Mandela s legal practice. On the grounds of his conviction under the Suppression of Communism Act, the Transvaal Law Society petitioned the Supreme Court to strike him off the roll of attorneys. The petition was refused with Mr Justice Ramsbottom finding that Mandela had been moved by a desire to serve his black fellow citizens and nothing he had done showed him to be unworthy to remain in the ranks of an honourable profession.
In 1952 Nelson Mandela was given the responsibility to prepare an organisational plan that would enable the leadership of the movement to maintain dynamic contact with its membership without recourse to public meetings. The objective was to prepare for the contingency of proscription by building up powerful local and regional branches to whom power could be devolved. This was the M-Plan, named after him.
During the early fifties Mandela played an important part in leading the resistance to the Western Areas removals and to the introduction of Bantu Education. He also played a significant role in popularising the Freedom Charter, adopted by the Congress of the People in 1955.
In the late fifties, Mandela s attention turned to the struggles against the exploitation of labour, the pass laws, the nascent Bantustan policy, and the segregation of the open universities. Mandela arrived at the conclusion very early on that the Bantustan policy was a political swindle and an economic absurdity. He predicted, with dismal prescience, that ahead there lay a grim programme of mass evictions, political persecutions, and police terror. On the segregation of the universities, Mandela observed that the friendship and inter-racial harmony that is forged through the admixture and association of various racial groups at the mixed universities constitute a direct threat to the policy of apartheid and baasskap, and that it was to remove that threat that the open universities were being closed to black students.
During the whole of the fifties, Mandela was the victim of various forms of repression. He was banned, arrested and imprisoned. For much of the latter half of the decade, he was one of the accused in the mammoth Treason Trial, at great cost to his legal practice and his political work. After the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, the ANC was outlawed, and Mandela, still on trial, was detained.
The Treason Trial collapsed in 1961 as South Africa was being steered towards the adoption of the republic constitution. With the ANC now illegal the leadership picked up the threads from its underground headquarters. Nelson Mandela emerged at this time as the leading figure in this new phase of struggle. Under the ANC's inspiration, 1,400 delegates came together at an All-in African Conference in Pietermaritzburg during March 1961. Mandela was the keynote speaker. In an electrifying address he challenged the apartheid regime to convene a national convention, representative of all South Africans to thrash out a new constitution based on democratic principles. Failure to comply, he warned, would compel the majority (Blacks) to observe the forthcoming inauguration of the Republic with a mass general strike. He immediately went underground to lead the campaign. Although fewer answered the call than Mandela had hoped, it attracted considerable support throughout the country. The government responded with the largest military mobilisation since the war, and the Republic was born in an atmosphere of fear and apprehension.
Forced to live apart from his family, moving from place to place to evade detection by the government s ubiquitous informers and police spies, Mandela had to adopt a number of disguises. Sometimes dressed as a common labourer, at other times as a chauffeur, his successful evasion of the police earned him the title of the Black Pimpernel. It was during this time that he, together with other leaders of the ANC constituted a new specialised section of the liberation movement, Umkhonto we Sizwe, as an armed nucleus with a view to preparing for armed struggle. At the Rivonia trial, Mandela explained : "At the beginning of June 1961, after long and anxious assessment of the South African situation, I and some colleagues came to the conclusion that as violence in this country was inevitable, it would be wrong and unrealistic for African leaders to continue preaching peace and non-violence at a time when the government met our peaceful demands with force.
It was only when all else had failed, when all channels of peaceful protest had been barred to us, that the decision was made to embark on violent forms of political struggle, and to form Umkhonto we Sizwe...the Government had left us no other choice."
In 1961 Umkhonto we Sizwe was formed, with Mandela as its commander-in-chief. In 1962 Mandela left the country unlawfully and travelled abroad for several months. In Ethiopia he addressed the Conference of the Pan African Freedom Movement of East and Central Africa, and was warmly received by senior political leaders in several countries. During this trip Mandela, anticipating an intensification of the armed struggle, began to arrange guerrilla training for members of Umkhonto we Sizwe.
Not long after his return to South Africa Mandela was arrested and charged with illegal exit from the country, and incitement to strike.
Since he considered the prosecution a trial of the aspirations of the African people, Mandela decided to conduct his own defence. He applied for the recusal of the magistrate, on the ground that in such a prosecution a judiciary controlled entirely by whites was an interested party and therefore could not be impartial, and on the ground that he owed no duty to obey the laws of a white parliament, in which he was not represented.
Mandela prefaced this challenge with the affirmation: I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.
Mandela was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment. While serving his sentence he was charged, in the Rivonia Trial, with sabotage. Mandela s statements in court during these trials are classics in the history of the resistance to apartheid, and they have been an inspiration to all who have opposed it. His statement from the dock in the Rivonia Trial ends with these words:
I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment and started his prison years in the notorious Robben Island Prison, a maximum security prison on a small island 7Km off the coast near Cape Town. In April 1984 he was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town and in December 1988 he was moved the Victor Verster Prison near Paarl from where he was eventually released. While in prison, Mandela flatly rejected offers made by his jailers for remission of sentence in exchange for accepting the bantustan policy by recognising the independence of the Transkei and agreeing to settle there. Again in the 'eighties Mandela rejected an offer of release on condition that he renounce violence. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Only free men can negotiate, he said.
Click image for map
Released on 11 February 1990, Mandela plunged wholeheartedly into his life's work, striving to attain the goals he and others had set out almost four decades earlier. In 1991, at the first national conference of the ANC held inside South Africa after being banned for decades, Nelson Mandela was elected President of the ANC while his lifelong friend and colleague, Oliver Tambo, became the organisation's National Chairperson.
Nelson Mandela has never wavered in his devotion to democracy, equality and learning. Despite terrible provocation, he has never answered racism with racism. His life has been an inspiration, in South Africa and throughout the world, to all who are oppressed and deprived, to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation.
In a life that symbolises the triumph of the human spirit over man s inhumanity to man, Nelson Mandela accepted the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of all South Africans who suffered and sacrificed so much to bring peace to our land.
LONG LIVE NELSON MANDELA!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
ANOTHER DEATH IN THE NIGERIAN MUSIC INDUSTRY
Oliver de Coque a veteran muscian was confrimed dead today.In 90days the music has witnessed four deaths.First was Late Sunny Okosuns,then Steve Rhodes also Sammy Needle was confirmed death the same day as Steve Rhodes.Now Oliver De Coque,the king of highlife music.What is actuallyhappenning in the music industry?
THE REAL CLARION CHUKWURAH
Money Power, was it your first movie?
It was my first movie but wasn’t my first entrance into the industry.
Between 1982 and today, tell us how it has been and all that had happened to you before now?
Between 1982 and today, tell us how it has been and all that had happened to you before now?
Since 1982 till date, it’s been explosive. It’s been from one mountain to one hill and valley and back up to the mountain.
The movie Money Power actually started everything. It started my journey to stardom, to adulthood to motherhood and through all the challenges I faced, the different views of Clarion Chukwurah that people had presented out of their own opinion that was not the real Clarion.
The real Clarion only came out through one journalist who was able to peep through and present the real Clarion.
Let’s take it step by step. Money Power brought you into stardom, adulthood and motherhood and you were barely in your teens. Can you talk about each of them from the beginning?
The movie Money Power actually started everything. It started my journey to stardom, to adulthood to motherhood and through all the challenges I faced, the different views of Clarion Chukwurah that people had presented out of their own opinion that was not the real Clarion.
The real Clarion only came out through one journalist who was able to peep through and present the real Clarion.
Let’s take it step by step. Money Power brought you into stardom, adulthood and motherhood and you were barely in your teens. Can you talk about each of them from the beginning?
Yes, I was seventeen years old then. Money Power as a film, was an example of what used to happen among my teens in the acting industry then.
If an actor or actress gets into a good play with a frontline director, the right people will watch it and that could be a stepping stone for you to get to the next level.
As at that time, I was an undergraduate in the then University of Ife and we came to Lagos to perform the premier production of Wole Soyinka’s Camwood on the leaves at the National Theatre.
In that particular play we did a seven days performance and the particular performance that gave me a role in Money Power was the Command Martini performance which came on the 6th performance. The play had all the who is who coming to watch, because it was Wole Soyinka directed and it was a National Theatre production.
And unknown to me, in the audience was Ola and Francois Balogun. At the end of the play, I went to the back stage and noticed that a lot of people wanted to talk to me at once. Wole Soyinka’s mother said she wanted to know if her son sat me down to tell me the kind of person he was as a teenager because she felt that I couldn’t have acted out her emotions as I acted the role of a mother.
Until she asked me the question, I didn’t know I was performing her character and so I was like, God so that was you, that was all that you put this woman through and he (Kongi) was just laughing. Ola Balogun and his wife asked if I’ve ever done a film or been in front of the camera. I said yes that I’ve been in the front of the camera for television and also for a film that wasn’t finished.
If an actor or actress gets into a good play with a frontline director, the right people will watch it and that could be a stepping stone for you to get to the next level.
As at that time, I was an undergraduate in the then University of Ife and we came to Lagos to perform the premier production of Wole Soyinka’s Camwood on the leaves at the National Theatre.
In that particular play we did a seven days performance and the particular performance that gave me a role in Money Power was the Command Martini performance which came on the 6th performance. The play had all the who is who coming to watch, because it was Wole Soyinka directed and it was a National Theatre production.
And unknown to me, in the audience was Ola and Francois Balogun. At the end of the play, I went to the back stage and noticed that a lot of people wanted to talk to me at once. Wole Soyinka’s mother said she wanted to know if her son sat me down to tell me the kind of person he was as a teenager because she felt that I couldn’t have acted out her emotions as I acted the role of a mother.
Until she asked me the question, I didn’t know I was performing her character and so I was like, God so that was you, that was all that you put this woman through and he (Kongi) was just laughing. Ola Balogun and his wife asked if I’ve ever done a film or been in front of the camera. I said yes that I’ve been in the front of the camera for television and also for a film that wasn’t finished.
Meeting with Shina Peters
They told me that my acting “is so fantastic” that as they watched from the beginning, the flow of emotions to end of the play for about one and half hours they saw the character of Yemi in me.
I was made to understand that they had cast the character of one Maureen for that role but seeing me perform so well on stage, and they changed their mind.
We were to do the 7th performance that night and leave for Ife the next morning and I was to come back after a week to meet with Shina Peters so we could audition together to see if both of us could flow together.
It was amazing how both of us were crying together in a scene we were lovers in the film. The character Yemi was just about my age and Shina Peters played the role of a 22 year old journalist.
Yemi’s parents were dead poor and wanted to trade her to a rich man who wanted her at all cost in exchange to settle her family. Shina Peter who acted as Jide was a poor journalist and Yemi’s father didn’t want to see him.
The story of the film was about all that Yemi and Jide went through but at the end of the day, they triumphed and got married.
The rich man who was actually the publisher of the newspaper where Jide was a reporter realising that Jide was his rival threw him out of the job and he went back to the street. Jab Adu who played the role of the editor of the Newspaper fought in vain to keep Jide because he saw no conflict between Jide’s job and his private life.
In all, it was a good movie and it gave me the opportunity to meet with the people who were at the top hierarchy in the industry then. I also got to work with Cinecraft, that had the duo of Tunde Kalani and Wale Fanu as camera crew and they were the ones who got me onto Mirror in the Sun.
I was made to understand that they had cast the character of one Maureen for that role but seeing me perform so well on stage, and they changed their mind.
We were to do the 7th performance that night and leave for Ife the next morning and I was to come back after a week to meet with Shina Peters so we could audition together to see if both of us could flow together.
It was amazing how both of us were crying together in a scene we were lovers in the film. The character Yemi was just about my age and Shina Peters played the role of a 22 year old journalist.
Yemi’s parents were dead poor and wanted to trade her to a rich man who wanted her at all cost in exchange to settle her family. Shina Peter who acted as Jide was a poor journalist and Yemi’s father didn’t want to see him.
The story of the film was about all that Yemi and Jide went through but at the end of the day, they triumphed and got married.
The rich man who was actually the publisher of the newspaper where Jide was a reporter realising that Jide was his rival threw him out of the job and he went back to the street. Jab Adu who played the role of the editor of the Newspaper fought in vain to keep Jide because he saw no conflict between Jide’s job and his private life.
In all, it was a good movie and it gave me the opportunity to meet with the people who were at the top hierarchy in the industry then. I also got to work with Cinecraft, that had the duo of Tunde Kalani and Wale Fanu as camera crew and they were the ones who got me onto Mirror in the Sun.
Falling In Love
My falling in love with Shina Peter happened at the point we were rehearsing for the theme song. Shina produced the sound track for that movie and we recorded the song together.
The whole process started quite naturally. It began when he started buying me apples, taking me to Ikoyi Park. And by the time we were doing the shooting movie Money Power I was already two months pregnant but people didn’t know. The secret was kept between us and the make-up artist, Aunty Peju.I was still in school when this happened and naturally my mother wasn’t happy. Everybody was condemning both of us and the heat made me drop out of school. I was 18 while he was 24 when Clarence was born. We were just two young people who were in love, so the anger shown by my mother and the disappointment exhibited by all those who believed in me shattered my world at that time. And on his on part, he was admonished for engaging in a relationship with me and people like the late Chief Olu Aboderin of Punch and Chief Dapo Tejuosho advised that he leaves me alone.I didn’t want to get married to Shina because I was still young and in school. It was not something I went into because I wanted to get married, it just happened. I was just a teenager who didn’t understand what I was going into.
I actually told him that I wanted to finish school and become a big star. And he said, “you think you can become a big star just because you acted in one film?”. But deep inside me I knew I was going to make it big and this I told him. Often we’d get into argument because of this.
The whole process started quite naturally. It began when he started buying me apples, taking me to Ikoyi Park. And by the time we were doing the shooting movie Money Power I was already two months pregnant but people didn’t know. The secret was kept between us and the make-up artist, Aunty Peju.I was still in school when this happened and naturally my mother wasn’t happy. Everybody was condemning both of us and the heat made me drop out of school. I was 18 while he was 24 when Clarence was born. We were just two young people who were in love, so the anger shown by my mother and the disappointment exhibited by all those who believed in me shattered my world at that time. And on his on part, he was admonished for engaging in a relationship with me and people like the late Chief Olu Aboderin of Punch and Chief Dapo Tejuosho advised that he leaves me alone.I didn’t want to get married to Shina because I was still young and in school. It was not something I went into because I wanted to get married, it just happened. I was just a teenager who didn’t understand what I was going into.
I actually told him that I wanted to finish school and become a big star. And he said, “you think you can become a big star just because you acted in one film?”. But deep inside me I knew I was going to make it big and this I told him. Often we’d get into argument because of this.
The Fights and the Lack of Support
Shina lived in Lagos while I lived in Ife. He will come to visit me in school and we will get into one form of argument or the other. And as soon as he leaves, I will write him a stinker and he replied saying, “I will read your letters some day to your son to explain what happened between the two of us when he was a baby.”And don’t ask if he carried out his threat because he did just that. Laughing she said, one day he stole my son and showed those nasty letters to him.
But I wouldn’t want us to talk about his role as a father because my son has asked that I stopped talking about it.
The truth is, I felt let down by Shina, but I forgave him because soon after he abandoned us, he started having problems with his career and his relationship with other women.
He was just going from one relationship to the other because of the kind of industry that juju music was then and how people like him were not given any chance by the women.
And when he recovers from any of such sour relationships, he will just show up and say he is sorry and he will disappear for like two years again.
But I wouldn’t want us to talk about his role as a father because my son has asked that I stopped talking about it.
The truth is, I felt let down by Shina, but I forgave him because soon after he abandoned us, he started having problems with his career and his relationship with other women.
He was just going from one relationship to the other because of the kind of industry that juju music was then and how people like him were not given any chance by the women.
And when he recovers from any of such sour relationships, he will just show up and say he is sorry and he will disappear for like two years again.
THE SEPERATION
I wouldn’t say the industry stole Shina from me. He was already deep into it when I met him but today, Shina Peters remains my first love and we are still very good friends. We talk, crack jokes together, abuse each other playfully and so on.
But all the fights that happened between us are in the past. Right now I have a very wonderful and caring man in my life. A man who has accepted me for who and what I am.
But all the fights that happened between us are in the past. Right now I have a very wonderful and caring man in my life. A man who has accepted me for who and what I am.
The role of the Media
At a point my career went down in the early 90’s for three reasons. First the industry was going through the metamorphosis of the era of the Soap Opera to Home Video. The change saw new people coming into the industry and it also saw the emergence of the coming in of the Igbo entrepreneurs who depended on the directors they had and people they knew.
Secondly, Shina Peters made a come back and felt that the only way he could get favour was by running me down in the press. I was having a really bad press.
The press boys were those press close to Shina and they felt that Shina Peter had a vendetta with me and they were giving me a lot bad press. On his part, Shina fueled the situation and that didn’t help at all.
At that time I was financially down and I needed him to take care of Clarence (his son) and the woman in his life then was scared. She felt that I wanted to come back and reap where I did not sow and all that.
Secondly, Shina Peters made a come back and felt that the only way he could get favour was by running me down in the press. I was having a really bad press.
The press boys were those press close to Shina and they felt that Shina Peter had a vendetta with me and they were giving me a lot bad press. On his part, Shina fueled the situation and that didn’t help at all.
At that time I was financially down and I needed him to take care of Clarence (his son) and the woman in his life then was scared. She felt that I wanted to come back and reap where I did not sow and all that.
Getting Married
I got married to Tunde Abiola and had two kids, a girl whom I lost after seven weeks and a boy (Bode).
I lost my daughter the previous year, because I didn’t breast feed her well enough. And I didn’t breastfeed her because I didn’t want to lose my figure immediately I had her. So because of this I told myself that I wasn’t going to work so I can give Bode all the care he needed. Bode’s father was very supportive and I was never lacking financially.
Two years after, I went to work on the English stages to save enough money and get more formal training as an actress. This lasted for six months.
I lost my daughter the previous year, because I didn’t breast feed her well enough. And I didn’t breastfeed her because I didn’t want to lose my figure immediately I had her. So because of this I told myself that I wasn’t going to work so I can give Bode all the care he needed. Bode’s father was very supportive and I was never lacking financially.
Two years after, I went to work on the English stages to save enough money and get more formal training as an actress. This lasted for six months.
The Return of Queen Clarion
My come back was achieved largely because of my acting ability. When I came back, the first three movies I did were to play sub roles but before the movies were half way through, the producers and directors just realised that I had taken over the lead role.
You need to remember that I was coming from a long way back, so I was bringing with me a lot of experience, skill, training and don’t forget also that it was not easy to have acted on stage for white audiences as a black. You will virtually get no laughter or applause, to succeed you have to be really good to get the applause. So I was coming back with that strength that I had used to conquer the white audience.
You need to remember that I was coming from a long way back, so I was bringing with me a lot of experience, skill, training and don’t forget also that it was not easy to have acted on stage for white audiences as a black. You will virtually get no laughter or applause, to succeed you have to be really good to get the applause. So I was coming back with that strength that I had used to conquer the white audience.
Falling from Grace to Grass and back to Grace
When I became broke and couldn’t cater for myself and my son like I said earlier, I had to look up to Shina to at least cater for his son. And that decision turned out to be a very fatal action. The media feasted on me.
It was terrible, so terrible that I took to drinking and smoking packets of cigarettes like hell. But I never taught about killing myself because of my son.
My father died when I was very young so I didn’t want to leave my son (Clarence) to go through what I went through. I wanted to be there for him and I was also praying because I have always had this feeling that God loves me. I will sit down and ask God, why? .
I had this never die spirit in me and I survived, but it was hell. When I walk the streets, people looked at me with disdain and disgust, as if I had shit all over me. And all those places and people who saw me like that, I always go around them. In my heart I was like, keep looking at me and you are going to see me become big soon.
Today I have seen some of the people who rejected me and called me names coming back to get my acquaintance and want to identify with me. And I will look at them and laugh (because I know it’s not by my power but the mercy of God that turned things around for me) but I don’t push them away.
It was terrible, so terrible that I took to drinking and smoking packets of cigarettes like hell. But I never taught about killing myself because of my son.
My father died when I was very young so I didn’t want to leave my son (Clarence) to go through what I went through. I wanted to be there for him and I was also praying because I have always had this feeling that God loves me. I will sit down and ask God, why? .
I had this never die spirit in me and I survived, but it was hell. When I walk the streets, people looked at me with disdain and disgust, as if I had shit all over me. And all those places and people who saw me like that, I always go around them. In my heart I was like, keep looking at me and you are going to see me become big soon.
Today I have seen some of the people who rejected me and called me names coming back to get my acquaintance and want to identify with me. And I will look at them and laugh (because I know it’s not by my power but the mercy of God that turned things around for me) but I don’t push them away.
The movie industry
The return of the older generation of actors and actresses is a pointer to the fact that the industry is beginning to mature and ready to move to next level. It’s only in this country that you see colleagues (younger ones) wanting older colleagues to leave the industry for them because they feel that you have been there, but this idea is very sickening and shows their level of mediocrity.
The Clarion Chukwurah Helpline Initiative
The Clarion Chukwurah Helpline Initiative is not an NGO. It was inspired from when I was 19 years. I used to have this dream where I saw myself with kids and right from when I rented my first flat (I was 19 years) I’ve always had people coming to me (younger people and kids) with one problem or the other and I will go talk to their parents.
It was something I inherited from my father. My father was somebody my younger brother called Johnny Be Good.
I grew up in a home where we had people who were not related to us leaving with us and my father was paying their school fees and taking care of them. And sometimes I will get angry but I didn’t know I was the person that will take after him. Somehow he knew, because he was giving me information on why it is necessary to help others as if he also knew he would leave us early.
As the personnel manager of Sunflag Textile Mills, my father will bring bundles of clothes and while the tailor will be taking my measurement, he will also be measuring the other children on the same number of wears he was going to make for me.
And when the goldsmith comes to take my design of Jewelries he will equally take the designs for the other children and this also was very annoying.
Another thing that inspired me was that I had always been around women who really cared about the plight of abused children because when my father died we went through a lot of hard time from members of my father’s family but I don’t want to talk about it because they have pleaded with me to stop talking about it. But the fact remains that they didn’t do the right thing for me and my brother.
It was something I inherited from my father. My father was somebody my younger brother called Johnny Be Good.
I grew up in a home where we had people who were not related to us leaving with us and my father was paying their school fees and taking care of them. And sometimes I will get angry but I didn’t know I was the person that will take after him. Somehow he knew, because he was giving me information on why it is necessary to help others as if he also knew he would leave us early.
As the personnel manager of Sunflag Textile Mills, my father will bring bundles of clothes and while the tailor will be taking my measurement, he will also be measuring the other children on the same number of wears he was going to make for me.
And when the goldsmith comes to take my design of Jewelries he will equally take the designs for the other children and this also was very annoying.
Another thing that inspired me was that I had always been around women who really cared about the plight of abused children because when my father died we went through a lot of hard time from members of my father’s family but I don’t want to talk about it because they have pleaded with me to stop talking about it. But the fact remains that they didn’t do the right thing for me and my brother.
The project and the journey so far
Clarion Chukwurah Helpline Initiative is a project that will eventually metamorphose into the Clarion Chukwurah Foundation for the less privileged children, and youths especially the physically and mentally challenged and the abused ones. A lot of people in this country have so much sad stories to tell that will make you understand that there is a mass responsibility between Nigerian men and women when it comes to their offspring.
I started running this project with money from my pocket and I’m still doing that till date. In the few months we’ve operated, we have worked with the Arrows of God Orphanage Home, Olusoye Compensatory Centre for children and youths with learning disability, Juvenile welfare centre, Heritage Orphanage homes, Modupe Home for the mentally and physically challenged, Compassionate Outreach and also homes outside Lagos, Kogi and Kwara States amongst others.
The objective of the foundation is to let people know where these homes are, what they are going through so that they can go personally and directly to help them and also to get the Federal Government to pass an annual grant bill and make state government to pass same bill and compel them to inculcate children into the Ministry of Women Affairs so as to assist them. Support for the Organisation
God has been our support and when we now bring people to see these homes for themselves, they now start supporting the homes.
They give directly to the homes not to me. People like Chief Mrs. Essien- Igbokwe has been very helpful to the homes.
She got involved in the Entertainers Star Trek we had on Childrens’ Day and she has been doing a lot to help the homes.
Mr Andre Gbinige has also been very supportive to the Arrows of God Orphanage, as he organised a party and visitation for them. Jimmy Jatt was also there with us on Star Trek.
Funmi Tejuosho, the deputy speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly came and supported the heritage homes. Abike Dabiri, Chief Mrs Adunni Bankole came and with two imported boxes of new cloths from England for the children and youths of Modupe Home.
The Clarion Chukwurah Helpine Initiative is out to make people see these homes and when you see, your mind will tell you what to do.
I started running this project with money from my pocket and I’m still doing that till date. In the few months we’ve operated, we have worked with the Arrows of God Orphanage Home, Olusoye Compensatory Centre for children and youths with learning disability, Juvenile welfare centre, Heritage Orphanage homes, Modupe Home for the mentally and physically challenged, Compassionate Outreach and also homes outside Lagos, Kogi and Kwara States amongst others.
The objective of the foundation is to let people know where these homes are, what they are going through so that they can go personally and directly to help them and also to get the Federal Government to pass an annual grant bill and make state government to pass same bill and compel them to inculcate children into the Ministry of Women Affairs so as to assist them. Support for the Organisation
God has been our support and when we now bring people to see these homes for themselves, they now start supporting the homes.
They give directly to the homes not to me. People like Chief Mrs. Essien- Igbokwe has been very helpful to the homes.
She got involved in the Entertainers Star Trek we had on Childrens’ Day and she has been doing a lot to help the homes.
Mr Andre Gbinige has also been very supportive to the Arrows of God Orphanage, as he organised a party and visitation for them. Jimmy Jatt was also there with us on Star Trek.
Funmi Tejuosho, the deputy speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly came and supported the heritage homes. Abike Dabiri, Chief Mrs Adunni Bankole came and with two imported boxes of new cloths from England for the children and youths of Modupe Home.
The Clarion Chukwurah Helpine Initiative is out to make people see these homes and when you see, your mind will tell you what to do.
TIME OUT AT SHEERNESS ON SEA
Sheerness-on-sea a village below sea level.Full of different tourism attractions.A very exciting village to have your hoilday.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
HILLARY CLINTON ENDORSES OBAMA
It was indeed a much awaited moment today for hillary clinton to supend her campaign and endorses barack obama in a much emotional speech delivered Sen. Hillary Clinton on Saturday formally ended her bid for the White House, bringing an end to her historic run by endorsing Sen. Barack Obama.After months of primaries and caucuses, the Democratic party still does not have a nominee.
The road to the nomination has been fierce. The two have endured preacher-gate, Bosnia-gate, a bitter battle over the race card and other controversies that have framed this race.From a crowded field of Democratic candidates taking the stage for a debate a year ago to the final two nominating contests that few thought would be contested, Obama and Clinton have battled it out to the end.
Clinton has become the favored candidate among working-class voters, women and the elderly, while Obama has emerged as the choice for well-educated, affluent voters, African-Americans and the younger crowd.
The contests come to an end Tuesday, exactly five months after a much wider field faced off in Iowa's first-in-the nation caucuses. There was Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, campaigning on his message of change. There was Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, who had been a prominent public figure for years and was favored to win it all.
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was also considered a top-tier contender. Edwards, running on his populist message, was the vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket four years earlier.
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was also considered a top-tier contender. Edwards, running on his populist message, was the vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket four years earlier.
The voters joined the best political team as voters in the final two states cast their ballots.Tuesday, 8 p.m. ET.Repeat runners Sen. Joe Biden and Rep. Dennis Kucinich were back for more. Biden went after his party's nomination in 1988, and Kucinich sought the top spot in 2004. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. Chris Dodd also threw their hats in the ring, and former Sen. Mike Gravel embarked on a long-shot run. And then there was speculation that Al Gore would enter the race as the candidate who would unite the party's disparate factions.
This was wishful thinking perhaps from the legion of Gore supporters still frustrated by his razor-thin loss to George Bush in 2000.
This was wishful thinking perhaps from the legion of Gore supporters still frustrated by his razor-thin loss to George Bush in 2000.
Gore stayed on the sidelines as did Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold, Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, and Virginia Gov. Mark Warner.
Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack got in, but got out early enough that his presence in the race is often overlooked. When the field of candidates was settled, it was apparent this was going to be a race pitting Clinton versus Obama.
Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack got in, but got out early enough that his presence in the race is often overlooked. When the field of candidates was settled, it was apparent this was going to be a race pitting Clinton versus Obama.
Obama scored the opening win, forging his way to the top of the democrat pack. Biden and Dodd called it quits. Despite all the hype surrounding Obama's victory and his inspirational speech that followed, the momentum quickly switched to Clinton.
Clinton, who finished third in Iowa, made a surprise win in New Hampshire even though polls going into the contest showed Obama with a double-digit lead. New Hampshire, which brought an end to Richardson's campaign, crowned Clinton the "comeback kid" -- a phrase coined for her husband in the 1992 race -- and she took the next two contests in Michigan and Nevada.
Obama then scored a huge win in South Carolina, forcing Edwards, a South Carolina native, to reassess his campaign.
Obama then scored a huge win in South Carolina, forcing Edwards, a South Carolina native, to reassess his campaign.
The Democrats next faced off in Florida. The state fell into Clinton's column and quickly became the center of a months-long delegate controversy.
The Democratic National Committee stripped Florida and Michigan of their delegates for scheduling their primaries too early. Clinton won both states, but the candidates had agreed not to campaign in either state, and Clinton was the only top-tier candidate on the Michigan ballotAs Obama amassed wins, Clinton pushed hard to get the states' delegates seated, and on the last day of May, the DNC decided to reinstate the delegations, with each delegate getting a half a vote at the convention.
The Democratic National Committee stripped Florida and Michigan of their delegates for scheduling their primaries too early. Clinton won both states, but the candidates had agreed not to campaign in either state, and Clinton was the only top-tier candidate on the Michigan ballotAs Obama amassed wins, Clinton pushed hard to get the states' delegates seated, and on the last day of May, the DNC decided to reinstate the delegations, with each delegate getting a half a vote at the convention.
The move did little to change the state of the race -- one that has been a Clinton-Obama battle since Edwards dropped out shortly before Super Tuesday.Most thought Super Tuesday would decide the outcome, but the two front-runners split the 23 Democratic contests that fell on February 5.
The presidential hopefuls each argued their wins made them the stronger candidate: Clinton was winning the bigger states, but Obama was winning more states.
The candidates soldiered down the campaign trail, with stops to explain, denounce and detach themselves from some of their surrogates along the way.
The candidates soldiered down the campaign trail, with stops to explain, denounce and detach themselves from some of their surrogates along the way.
After Super Tuesday, Obama went on a monthlong sweep, taking Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington, Maine, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and Wisconsin.
He established a comfortable lead in pledged delegates, but Clinton maintained her lead among superdelegates.
He established a comfortable lead in pledged delegates, but Clinton maintained her lead among superdelegates.
Superdelegates are party leaders and officials who vote at the convention for the candidate of their choice. Because neither candidate will get enough delegates from the primaries and caucuses to clinch the nomination, the final decision will rest in the hands of the superdelegates.
Obama's winning streak left pundits questioning Clinton's viability, and even Bill Clinton said his wife had to win Ohio and Texas in order to keep her campaign alive.
Obama's winning streak left pundits questioning Clinton's viability, and even Bill Clinton said his wife had to win Ohio and Texas in order to keep her campaign alive.
Once again, she bounced back.
Clinton picked up important wins in the Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island primaries March 4. Obama won Vermont and the Texas caucuses. The next week, Obama won Mississippi and Wyoming.
The Democratic race was in limbo, and there was a six-week hiatus until the next contest.
Questions arose as to whether the party could unify once there was a nominee, but both candidates insisted the Democrats would rally behind whoever came out on top.
Some said the protracted battle was good for the party -- each candidate was mobilizing different parts of the electorate, and that could provide a boost in turnout in the fall.
Questions arose as to whether the party could unify once there was a nominee, but both candidates insisted the Democrats would rally behind whoever came out on top.
Some said the protracted battle was good for the party -- each candidate was mobilizing different parts of the electorate, and that could provide a boost in turnout in the fall.
The contests resumed April 22 in Pennsylvania. Clinton landed a big win, re-igniting her campaign. Her campaign boasted $10 million in donations in the 24 hours after her win.
But two weeks later, her momentum all but disappeared.
But two weeks later, her momentum all but disappeared.
Obama cruised to a double-digit lead in North Carolina, and Clinton barely squeaked by in Indiana. On the eve of what was expected to be a resounding win for Clinton in West Virginia, Obama took the lead in the superdelegate count.
At the beginning of the year, he had trailed Clinton by more than 100 superdelegates.
Clinton scored blowout wins in West Virginia and Kentucky, largely due to the state's blue-collar voters. Her wins brought attention to Obama's potential problem with that segment of the electorate, but did little to breathe life back into her campaign. Clinton kept chugging along, as Obama appeared to be staggering toward the finish line.
Clinton scored blowout wins in West Virginia and Kentucky, largely due to the state's blue-collar voters. Her wins brought attention to Obama's potential problem with that segment of the electorate, but did little to breathe life back into her campaign. Clinton kept chugging along, as Obama appeared to be staggering toward the finish line.
Clinton landed another win in Puerto Rico on June 1, picking up the larger share of the state's 55 delegates. The final two contests in Montana and South Dakota offer 31 delegates -- not enough to put Obama over the edge. Still, his campaign predicted Sunday he would clinch the nomination this week, if not by Tuesday.
Obama on Sunday praised Clinton for her work in the Senate and said she was an "outstanding public servant," but indicated he's already moved out of primary mode.
"She is going to be a great asset when we go into November to make sure that we defeat the Republicans," he said.
"She is going to be a great asset when we go into November to make sure that we defeat the Republicans," he said.
Political Editor
Celebrating Africa Magazine
INVESTMENT---KEY TO ACHIEVEMENT
MOTIVATIONAL COLUMN BY INAOLAJI OLATUNJI----A REOWNED COACH & SPEAKER
A preacher once drove by a farm, and was deeply impressed with its beauty – the shaded lawns, well cultivated crops, a beautiful home, the barns were clean, and it had a well-built fence. Just as the preacher was admiring the farm, the farmer came by ..The preacher said to him excitedly; “God has blessed you with a beautiful farm. My man “The farmer replied; “yeah, and I am very grateful for that. But you should have seen it when he had it all to himself”. The message is this, a beautiful farm does not drop from heaven .God gives the Land, the seeds, the rain and the sunshine. But someone must cultivate the farm. Sowing must precede reaping, that is one of the most powerful laws of nature. It is also called the law of cause and effect. Even Newton discovered in physics that we can only get a reaction where there is first an action. One of the most powerful truths we will learn in life is this; “You can’t get something for nothing”. Success is never an accident. What you sow will determine what you harvest. Your input determines your output.
Your investment determines your achievement. Life will only return to you what you give to it. All attempts to side-step this universal law will ultimately result in frustration. What do we have to invest? Heaven has put some powerful seeds at our disposal. For example, our minds. Thoughts are seeds. The thoughts of today are the realities of tomorrow. They may seem intangible for today. But they have a way of multiplying into our future. The quality of your thoughts determines the quality of your life. Time spent sharpening our minds is time well invested. It is good to educate the mind. To glean thoughts from geniuses through their books and tapes. To discuss with those who have achieved what we seek to achieve. And most of all, to sharpen our minds with the distilled wisdom of the ages, the Bible.
Friend, invest in your mind the quality of ideas that reflect the kind of future you desire. Also our abilities and talents should be cultivated and invested in the service of others. Proverbs 18:16 says; “A man’s gift will make room for him and bring him before great men”. Joseph in the Bible developed his abilities in administration and the interpretation of dreams as a slave and as a prisoner. He made an investment the day he interpreted dreams for pharaoh‘s chief butler in prison. Then harvest time came when the chief butler recommended Joseph to Pharaoh. Joseph interpreted pharaoh’s dreams and became Prime minister of Egypt . Joseph‘s investment was the key to his achievement. Let me ask, how many people are you touching with your abilities and talents today?
It is important that you invest in your destiny everyday. Acquire knowledge. Take that course. Read books. Associate with those who have results. Work hard for your company, be a blessing to your employer. It’s an investment. Nurture your relationships with your family, your friends. Someone you know may become president tomorrow. More importantly, invest in your relationship with God. Pray, Study the Bible. Serve God with your talents.
Finally, invest in the success of our nation. Help build this nation. Obey the rules, pay taxes due to you, and say no to corruption. Whatever is in your hand to do for this nation, do it diligently. Your seed may leave your hand today, but it will never leave your life. It will multiply into your future for a harvest.
Your investment determines your achievement. Life will only return to you what you give to it. All attempts to side-step this universal law will ultimately result in frustration. What do we have to invest? Heaven has put some powerful seeds at our disposal. For example, our minds. Thoughts are seeds. The thoughts of today are the realities of tomorrow. They may seem intangible for today. But they have a way of multiplying into our future. The quality of your thoughts determines the quality of your life. Time spent sharpening our minds is time well invested. It is good to educate the mind. To glean thoughts from geniuses through their books and tapes. To discuss with those who have achieved what we seek to achieve. And most of all, to sharpen our minds with the distilled wisdom of the ages, the Bible.
Friend, invest in your mind the quality of ideas that reflect the kind of future you desire. Also our abilities and talents should be cultivated and invested in the service of others. Proverbs 18:16 says; “A man’s gift will make room for him and bring him before great men”. Joseph in the Bible developed his abilities in administration and the interpretation of dreams as a slave and as a prisoner. He made an investment the day he interpreted dreams for pharaoh‘s chief butler in prison. Then harvest time came when the chief butler recommended Joseph to Pharaoh. Joseph interpreted pharaoh’s dreams and became Prime minister of Egypt . Joseph‘s investment was the key to his achievement. Let me ask, how many people are you touching with your abilities and talents today?
It is important that you invest in your destiny everyday. Acquire knowledge. Take that course. Read books. Associate with those who have results. Work hard for your company, be a blessing to your employer. It’s an investment. Nurture your relationships with your family, your friends. Someone you know may become president tomorrow. More importantly, invest in your relationship with God. Pray, Study the Bible. Serve God with your talents.
Finally, invest in the success of our nation. Help build this nation. Obey the rules, pay taxes due to you, and say no to corruption. Whatever is in your hand to do for this nation, do it diligently. Your seed may leave your hand today, but it will never leave your life. It will multiply into your future for a harvest.
SELF-RELIANCE
MOTIVATIONAL COLUMN BY INAOLAJI OLATUNJI---A REOWNED COACH & SPEAKER
According to Bishop Oyedepo, “life is a personal adventure.” How true this is. Often our own success is dependent on the actions of others, but success is best savoured when it comes because of our very own handiwork. After all, the essence of life for us to think for ourselves, dream for ourselves, believes in what the Bible tells us to believe, and to act for ourselves.
This is why Daniel Cox, the inspirational writer, once wrote what he called “a Declaration of Personal Responsibility.” He said; “I accept full responsibility for both my successes and failures in my life. If I am not what I desire to be at this point, what I am is my compromise. I choose no longer to compromise with my potential”
You need to understand that your success is up to you and to God. Make up your mind not to blame anybody else when things don’t work out. Take full responsibility for your success or failure. God is on your side and He will move on your behalf. You will see your obstacles turning to miracles.
Consider this, however much people may love us and desire to help us, they cannot breathe for us. The truth is, we were born to live our lives independently. God wants us to focus on the things we can do, rather than the focusing on what others can do for us. You must take personal responsibility for your success. You must face challenges with strong determination. Success is a do-it-yourself affair. Don’t blame someone else and don’t blame circumstance, because you are not yet a failure until you blame someone else. It is when you take responsibility for your failures that you receive the power to move beyond those failures. Don’t blame your parents. Don’t blame your husband or wife. Don’t blame your children. Don’t blame the economy. Don’t blame your lecturers. Don’t blame the weather.
Believe that inspite of all these, you will still succeed when you take personal responsibility for your success.
Nobody is permitted to write your examination on your behalf. If that happens, it is fraud. You must write the examination yourself. Moreover, whether you pass or fail, you must take personal responsibility. In all of this, what you should bear in mind is that the indispensable factors in your success formular are God and you. When you have done what you can do, God will do what you cannot do. Try your best first, and then rely entirely on God for success.
Dear reader, recognize the fact that your destiny is in your hands. Life is largely a do-it-yourself affair. The things that are most critical to your success are things that you must do by yourself. Only you can breathe for yourself. You must eat by yourself and you must go to the toilet by yourself. Therefore, you can choose to obey the laws of success and make it big in life. Nevertheless, of course, you can also choose otherwise as many people do. These are the set of people who choose not to do anything. Not to work, not to dream, not to apply for jobs, not to study for their exams, and in fact, they can choose not to wake up at all tomorrow morning. However, whatever you choose, remember, you must take responsibility for it and for its consequences.
It is wrong for us to blame other people or circumstances for our failures because we can still make the best of every bad situation. God has put unique abilities in us, which, when developed attracts success to us.
You may not have all the education you want, you may not get all the support you expect from your parents or your friends. You may even have a job right now, but you can develop your God-given abilities. You can do something with what you have. Train the talent or ability. Develop it to world standard. Don’t give any excuses. There is the goldmine inside you. No one else will dig it out for you. As you make that move, God will move on your behalf and help you succeed.
BUILDING SELF RELIANCE
Author and Pastor, E. W. Kenyon once said; “what you do for yourself counts far more than all that others have done or can do for you.” This is very true. Self-improvement is the key.
Dear reader, you need to put yourself under mental discipline. Set a high mark for yourself. Begging as a means of survival is too cheap. Being an `area boy’ or a prostitute is even cheaper. Put a value on your life. Put a price on your time. Time is one of your most valuable commodities. Time is opportunity. Do something each day that will qualify you for a higher place in life. Let each day leave you better than it met you. Learn something new today. Read a book, and listen to a tape. Put in for a course. Learn some new skills. You must be better this year than you were last year. One day, somebody is going to pay you what you are truly worth.
In case, you think you don’t have anyone to help you today, God wants you to know that there are certain things you can do for yourself. For example, you can decide that you will make it to the top despite all odds. Psalm 27 10 says; “when my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.” You see, your disappointment can become your blessing if you refuse to give up. Our God who is ever so merciful and gracious will never let you down. He will promote you. He will open new doors for you and show you favour.
There are many obstacles on the way of the man who wants to succeed but he must not make them his excuses for failure. He must turn his problems into opportunities, his mistakes into miracles and his stumbling blocks into stepping-stones. What others describe as handicaps are his challenges to greater self-development. Poverty becomes a blessing to him, it teaches him self-reliance, and it fires his ambition, his desire for success. He makes up his mind to move from poverty to prosperity, he works hard, studies long hours and is very determined and persistent. He is internally motivated.
You will succeed in Jesus name
INVEST IN ZENITH BANK
Zenith Bank is a fast growing bank with her headquarter located in Nigeria.In 2006,the audited and published financial reports confirms Zenith Bank as the biggest bank in Nigeria and the second most profitable.The Zenith stock has enjoyed a positive progression from N10.90 to peak at N66.14 per share before the price was adjusted for the bonus issue approved for shareholders last year, representing a total gain of over N55.24 per share in just three years.
Zenith Bank Plc yesterday announced a profit before tax of N40.63 billion for the nine months ending March, 2008, indicating an impressive 111% jump over the N19.25 billion recorded for the same period in 2007.
The bank’s unaudited results for the period, released on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) also showed a remarkable 70% increase in gross earnings from N70.76 billion for last year to N120.30 billion.
The result, which indicated remarkable improvement on all parameters, equally showed profit after tax rising to N33.32 billion from N14.08 billion, representing a 137% jump, confirming Zenith Bank’s position as a market leader in terms of returns on investment.
The bank, which has long held an attraction with discerning investors, has delivered to its shareholders capital appreciation in excess of 600 per cent since its shares were listed on the stock exchange in 2004.
The bank’s unaudited results for the period, released on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) also showed a remarkable 70% increase in gross earnings from N70.76 billion for last year to N120.30 billion.
The result, which indicated remarkable improvement on all parameters, equally showed profit after tax rising to N33.32 billion from N14.08 billion, representing a 137% jump, confirming Zenith Bank’s position as a market leader in terms of returns on investment.
The bank, which has long held an attraction with discerning investors, has delivered to its shareholders capital appreciation in excess of 600 per cent since its shares were listed on the stock exchange in 2004.
HURRY INVEST IN ZENITH INCOME FUND AT #10.00 EACH AT PAR,ZENITH EQUITY FUND AT #10.00 EACH AT PAR,ZENITH ETHICAL FUND AT #10.00 EACH AT PAR.OFFER OPENS MAY 5TH 2008.LOG ONTO http://www.zenithbank.com/ FOR MORE DETAILS.
ALHAJI WAHAB FOLAWIYO LAID TO REST
HE PASSED AWAY EARLY HOURS OF FRIDAY,10DAYS TO HIS 80TH BIRTHDAY AND WAS LAID TO REST ACCORDING TO ISLAMIC RITES AT THE CENTRAL MOSQUE,NNAMDI AZIKWE, LAGOS.
Alhaji Chief (Dr.) Abdulwahab Iyanda Folawiyo, C.O.N. is no doubt one of the icons of Nigerian industry and philanthropy, and a pillar of Islam with the revered title of the Baba Adinni of Nigeria.Born in Lagos on the 16th of June 1928, to a successful Lagos merchant, Pa Tijani, the young Wahab Iyanda Folawiyo attended Olowogbowo Methodist Primary School, Lagos (1934 - 1941) and Ilesha Grammar School, Ilesha. Chief Folawiyo who is the only African Principal Member of the Baltic Exchange in the City of London, also attended in 1951 the famous North-Western Polytechnic, London, where he read Management, specialising in Ship Brokerage. Back home in 1957, Chief Folawiyo founded YINKA FOLAWIYO & SONS, an enterprise that engages in import and export business between Nigeria and Europe.
Today, Alhaji Folawiyo’s large business empire includes holdings in shipping, banking, construction, agriculture and 
energy.The Yinka Folawiyo Group, of which Yinka Folawiyo & Sons Limited is the parent body, includes the Maritime Associates (International) Limited, Nigerian Green Lines Limited, Folawiyo Farms Limited, Ilora, Oyo State; Folawiyo Fisheries Limited, Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Company Limited, United Property Developers Limited, and, the latest additions to the Group:, Yinka Folawiyo Electrical & Mechanical Company Limited, Y.F Power Limited and Folawiyo Energy Ltd. A man of many parts, Alhaji Folawiyo’s achievements in other areas are as monumental as his successes in business.
energy.The Yinka Folawiyo Group, of which Yinka Folawiyo & Sons Limited is the parent body, includes the Maritime Associates (International) Limited, Nigerian Green Lines Limited, Folawiyo Farms Limited, Ilora, Oyo State; Folawiyo Fisheries Limited, Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum Company Limited, United Property Developers Limited, and, the latest additions to the Group:, Yinka Folawiyo Electrical & Mechanical Company Limited, Y.F Power Limited and Folawiyo Energy Ltd. A man of many parts, Alhaji Folawiyo’s achievements in other areas are as monumental as his successes in business. A philanthropist extraordinaire, Alhaji Folawiyo consistently offers support to religious (Islamic) advancement, educational development and sports improvement. He has contributed majorly to the construction of mosques all over the country including the Lagos Central Mosque and the Sultan Bello Mosque in Kaduna. He single-handedly financed the construction of the Surulere Central Mosque, Lagos.In Sports, Alhaji Folawiyo was the sole sponsor of the Yinka Folawiyo U-15 Athletics Championships and the National Amateur Wrestling Championships, both annual national events of many years running.
Alhaji Folawiyo is of course not lacking in his support of socio-economic projects aimed at improving the lives of the less privileged in the society. Indeed, he is one of the greatest, yet one of the most unpublicised, of Nigeria’s eminent philanthropists.He founded the Bab-Es-Salam Home which he dedicated to the upbringing and education of orphans. He has also made significant contributions to the development funds of numerous states in the Federation.In the field of education, Alhaji Folawiyo has also written his name in gold. Apart from endowing a professorial chair in Physics in the University of Lagos, Alhaji Folawiyo has contributed to the endowment funds of many Nigerian Universities and has vigorously supported research into various fields of knowledge, notable among which is the Virus Research in the University of Ibadan.
In June 1998, Chief Folawiyo became the first private individual to put together a physical structure in the University of Lagos when he upgraded the University’s Health Centre to a full fledged hospital complete with an X-Ray Unit. Alhaji Folawiyo has sponsored, and continues to sponsor, a lot of Nigerians, both able bodied and the physically challenged to tertiary institutions in the country, and has, as well, contributed immensely to primary and secondary education development funds both in Lagos State and Nigeria as a whole.
In appreciation of his immense contributions, Alhaji Folawiyo is the recipient of several honours and awards including Doctor of Law by the university of Cross River State Uyo, 1991, Doctor of Letters by Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, 1992 and Doctor of Science by the Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, 1998. He has a Secondary School, Wahab Folawiyo High School in the highbrow area of Ikoyi, Lagos State named after him.
Alhaji Folawiyo is the Grand Patron of Nigerian Muslim Council; Chairman, Executive Council of the Lagos Central Mosque; Honorary Fellow, Chartered Institute of Transport; Fellow, Commonwealth Journalists Association; Chairman, Maize Association of Nigeria, and Patron, Institute of Freight Forwarders of Nigeria. He was also honoured with the key to DADE County, Florida, in the United States of America.
He is the proud recipient of the national honour of Order of Federal Republic, OFR, conferred on him in 1982, as well as, Commander of the Order of the Niger, CON, on November 16, 2000. The University of Lagos also conferred on him - the Millennium Award of Doctor of Science. He was appointed CHANCELLOR, Lagos State University on 17th April, 1999. He is the Patron of the Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
MEETING FUNKE AKINDELE,NOLLYWOOD ACTRESS
W hy did you pack out of Akoka side?
I just wanted a change of environment. I have one or two friends where I stay; I think the place is cool. So, you’ve left your parents.No, we all moved out together.
Obviously, things are looking up, the last time we met, you were using cars for small boys like us, now you are riding a Honda Jeep.
A point of correction, 
that car you saw is not a small car. It is worth more than one million naira. Well, it is just an improvement; I just wanted something bigger.
that car you saw is not a small car. It is worth more than one million naira. Well, it is just an improvement; I just wanted something bigger.It seems you are the hottest actress in the Yoruba genre of the industry. What’s the magic?
Like I’ve always said, it is all about hard work and prayer. Whatever you do just do it well because you never can tell which job might land you at the top. So, I give it to God and hard work.I know a couple of actresses who are working hard but not getting as much attention as you are?
Like I said earlier on, prayers also matter. Put anything you do before God and if it is His will, you will surely be celebrated there. The industry is large for any good actress to be noticed. I thank God I’m being appreciated.The pay must surely be good.Thank God, I’m not complaining.
People say you’ve been producing so many movies these days.
I’ve not been producing lot of movies. The only movie I have now is Apadi and it’s yet to be released. That is the only movie I’ve ever produced this year, though, I’ve acted in quite a lot of movies.
Tell me about the movie, Apadi.
It’s a traditional movie, it’s got some lesson in it and it is technically superb. It had a large cast and was shot in traditional setting of Abeokuta and Ilaro.
Who is financing your movie?
I financed Ojo Ketala myself, but my marketer, Olasco Film financed the others. He brings the fund and I produced.
You must be enjoying acting.
Yes, definitely. Acting is my first love, I didn’t get into acting because I wanted money, I just wanted to exhibit my talent. Acting has always been my first love.
But you never had the intention of becoming a full blown actress when you started acting in ‘I need to know’.
Yes, I just wanted to exhibit the talent in me. I wasn’t after making money or becoming a celebrity.
What is still there in acting world that you want to achieve?
I still have a lot to learn and achieve. When I look at the likes of Bimbo Akintola, I shiver and tell myself that I am not there yet. That is a very deep actress, I give that to her. And there is Kate Henshaw, I saw her in Show Me Heaven. That was her best. I was thrilled. I keep telling myself that I still have a long way to go.
Is winning City People best actress not coming too early?
No, I don’t think so because I’ve worked hard for it. Most of my friends and colleagues sent me texts saying I deserved it. Even people around me feel I deserved it. They gave it to me because they believed I deserved it.
What is next for you after best actress award?
I don’t know, only God can tell. I’ll just keep working harder.
Will you ever produce an English movie?
Why not? When the time comes, I will. It is just that I am sticking to the production of Yoruba movies because I understand the market.
I learnt most movies don’t sell more than 100 000 copies. How true?
I don’t think so. Ekuro, my movie sold more than that. And Taiwo-Taiwo sold more than that. I believe if you have something good in the market it will keep selling. Maybe your first batch sells within that region but later it will pick up if it is a good movie. When my marketer released Ekuro the movie sold 200 000 copies.
What point were you trying to prove in Risikat?
I was called upon to act and I did my best. The character was a street girl and always fighting, that was why I had gloves on.
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