I’ll mourn death of common sense in Nigeria on Jan. 20 –Soyinka

Prof Wole Soyinka

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has disclosed his intention to hold a private funeral on January 20 when the US President-elect, Donald Trump, will be inaugurated.

Addressing a news conference on what he titled, ‘The green god and the idolatory of mutants,’ in Lagos, on Monday, Soyinka explained that the funeral would, however, mourn the death of common sense in Nigeria and not bewail the citizens of the US over their choice of president.

“Our common sense is totally lost. I am embarrassed sometimes that I occupy the same nation space with some people,” he said.

Many Nigerians had been looking forward to the day the Nobel laureate would publicly tear his Green Card because he had promised to tear the card if Trump won the US presidential election.

Soyinka, however, noted that Nigerians had no right to query his personal decision on the tearing of his Green Card.

He said, “Where is the arrogance coming from? What right do they have to tell me that I have no right to take a decision in a particular way? I never took orders from (the late) Sani Abacha, why should I take orders from you? Let us have a little respect and spirit of tolerance. I can decide whether to use a garden shell or scissors for my Green Card. What is the business of any Nigerian to challenge me on my decision? Barbarians have taken over the country using the anonymity of the Internet. They sit somewhere writing about me, questioning the right of me to express myself.”

Soyinka, who said he got the Green Card during the National Democratic Coalition years without requesting it – when the exigencies of the time necessitated it – said it was absurd for people to ask him to produce a video showing he tore it.

“I am not an entertainer. Why should I entertain you on that? I am a dramatist. When I say I have done something, Ogun is my guiding spirit on it. Maybe I should be exiting Nigeria and not the US. People that one dedicated one’s life of struggle to can be so slavish in mentality to query the right of their champions to freedom of expression,” he added.

According to him, it is his personal business and not anyone else’s if he wants to leave the US and the way he plans to do it.

He said, “If I decide to leave the US, it is my personal decision and not that of the millipedes of the Internet, who claw at any excuse. I don’t know what the excitation is. Why do Nigerians tend to weep more than the bereaved? Trump is not really my business. He has been elected. He should do his work. There are born-again humans in all areas, why not in politics? Even the stock exchange reacted to Trump’s election. I also reacted in my own way. There is freedom of expression. We have far too many illiterates in this country.’’

The playwright, who said he might consider WOLEXIT 2 – a word he coined on his planned exit of the US – added that he would relocate the residency of the Soyinka Foundation outside Nigeria.

“It is a significant decision on my part in response to the stupid melodrama. Exit can take two forms; internal or external. I can stay put in my private Green Belt – the one I have named the Autonomous Republic of Ijegba,” he stated.

On whether he was reacting angrily to the Green Card brouhaha because Nigerians had never queried his personal decisions, Soyinka said it was wrong to say that.

He recalled that his former students such as Profs Femi Osofisan and Biodun Jeyifo always took

him up on issues.

Besides, he advised President Muhammadu Buhari to be wary of sending congratulatory messages like he did to the outgoing President of The Gambia, Alhaji Yahya Jammeh, for conceding defeat to the incoming President, Mr. Adama Barrow.

He stated that Jammeh, who ruled for 22 years, represented sit-tight African leaders.

Senator gives varsity students, others N70m

Senator John Owan

 The Senator representing the Cross River Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, John Owan-Enoh, has awarded scholarships valued at N70m to 700 university students and other beneficiaries, as part of his educational support programme.

The beneficiaries were drawn from the six local government areas in the senatorial district, namely Abi, Yakurr, Obubra, Etung, Ikom and Boki.

A breakdown of the categories in the 66 electoral wards showed that 60 postgraduate students got N100,000 each, while 660 undergraduates received N50,000 each.

Also, 1, 320 senior secondary school pupils received N15,000 each and 111 pupils in the junior category got N5,000 each, while  more than 1,000 candidates seeking admission into higher institutions were given N6,000 each.

Presenting the cheques to the beneficiaries in Ikom on Sunday, Owan-Enoh said that the gesture was aimed at assisting the beneficiaries in the pursuit of their academic careers.

He said that the programme was part of his responsibility and sacrifice to the people of the constituency, despite the economic recession.

Owan-Enoh said, “I am not doing this because I have so much money; but because of the love, sacrifice and a sense of responsibility to the people of my constituency.

“I am indebted to the people of the Central Senatorial District, who toiled with me and kept faith during the time of my campaigns.”

The senator said that each of the 66 wards had equal number of beneficiaries and advised the beneficiaries to make proper use of the opportunity.

Speaking on behalf of the local government areas, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academics, University of Calabar, Prof. Florence Obi, described Owan-Enoh as an excellent performer.

While commending the lawmaker for the gesture, she called on the beneficiaries to take advantage of the support to fulfil their dreams.

3 times Rihanna has given us hairstyle goals

Rihanna is one star millions of women around the world admire and her different hairstyles rank as a reason they do.

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These are some of Rihanna‘s best hairstyles we ladies should definitely emulate.

The Barbados native is one star millions of women around the world admire and her different hairstyles rank as a reason they do

"I was in need of money for my honeymoon- Man caught with heroin at Lagos airport says

An Abuja-based trader and a commercial tricycle rider from Owerri were apprehended by officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos in connection with the unlawful importation of 6.390kg of substances that tested positive for heroin.

An Abuja based trader, King Sunday, who was recently arrested by NDLEA officials at the Muritala International Airport Lagos for transporting 2.490kg of heroin, says he ventured into the illicit business because he needed money to take his wife of four days to a lovely destination for their honeymoon. When interrogated, 38 year old Sunday who was arrested as he arrived Nigeria from Kenya, said
“I erroneously took the decision to smuggle drugs barely four days after my marriage. I was in need of money for my honeymoon and also for my business but I should not have involved myself in drug trafficking. My thinking was that I could smuggle the drug from Nairobi in two days without my wife knowing that I travelled out of the country. All my life, I have been upright in my transactions but this is a huge mistake and I regret my action.”
Also arrested by NDLEA officials is a commercial tricyclist in Owerri, the Imo State capital, Cajetan Chinedu Egwin. He was arrested on arrival from Kigali, Rwanda with 3.900kg of heroin . When interrogated, Chinedu said he needed the money to fix his Tricycle as well as settle his Landlord.
"The engine of my tricycle which is my only source of livelihood is bad. While I was looking for money to fix it, I was introduced to the man that promised to pay me N400,000 on the condition that I will bring his drug from Kigali. I accepted the offer because nobody was willing to help me. Apart from the repairs, my rent is due and my landlord has been asking for his money,” he said.
Both men would soon be charged to court for drug trafficking.

US universities press Trump to backtrack on deporting thousands

Donald Trump

More than 350 US universities are urging President-elect Donald Trump to change his mind and keep a program that lets hundreds of thousands of undocumented young people study and avoid deportation.

Nicknamed “Dreamers,” they are the estimated 1.2 million young people who were brought to the United States illegally as children, grew up without US residency papers, finished high school and often speak better English than the language of their parents.

Some 740,000 of them have joined the DACA ( “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals”), a program approved in 2012 by President Barack Obama that protects them from deportation.

It has brought some normalcy to their lives, but it is a program that Trump promised during the presidential campaign to eliminate “immediately” if he won.
While DACA does not grant the dreamers federal funds or the coveted “Green Card” — permanent residence and a work permit — it lets them study at university, get a job and have a driver’s license if they were in the country before the age of 16 and if they were under 31 in 2012.

It is renewable every two years.

– Waste of talent –

At the initiative of Pomona College president David Oxtoby, more than 350 universities, including Columbia, Harvard, Yale, UCLA, UC Berkeley and Stanford, signed a statement last week pledging to do what they can to protect their undocumented students, most of whom are DACA beneficiaries.

“To our country’s leaders we say that DACA should be upheld, continued, and expanded. We are prepared to meet with you to present our case,” the letter reads.

“This is both a moral imperative and a national necessity. America needs talent — and these students, who have been raised and educated in the United States, are already part of our national community.”

The statement was released after thousands of university students protested nationwide after Trump’s win, calling for their campuses to become “sanctuaries” where undocumented students are safe.

During the campaign, Trump cast DACA as an “illegal executive amnesty” by President Barack Obama.

But he never made clear whether ending it meant accepting no new applicants, or simply abolishing the whole program.

“It’s really a huge waste of talent not to continue and not to expand the DACA program,” Oxtoby told AFP. “These students are Americans in almost every dimension of the word, except in the geographical birthplace,” he said.

For Wendy Feliz, of the American Immigration Council, “it makes zero sense” to dismantle DACA when the state has already invested so much in these young people.

“Imagine being stripped of your driver’s license, being denied the right to go to college, getting your work permit taken away. It’s devastating for a young adult,” he said.

The definitive solution for these young people, a approval of a “Dream Act” bill granting them permanent residence, languished in Congress 15 years ago.

– Ready for the worst –

After his election, Trump said that he would first expel undocumented people with criminal records, which he estimated at two to three million people. Those who commit serious crimes are not eligible for DACA.

How we escaped plane crash – Lawmaker, journalist

Rescuers search for survivors from the wreckage of the plane bearing 81 members of Chapecoense Real football club that crashed in the mountains of Cerro Gordo, Colombia...on Monday

Four people who were due to board the plane that crashed, killing 71 people in Colombia, have revealed how last-minute changes stopped them from getting on the flight, CNN reports.

The Lamia 2933 flight, carrying Brazilian football team Chapecoense, crashed late Monday near Medellin. Six of the 77 people on board survived.

Gelson Merisio, a state legislator for Santa Catarina and an ardent fan of the Brazilian club, planned to travel with the players to watch them take on Atletico Nacional in the first leg of their Copa Sudamericana final.

Merisio, 50, had been looking forward to the game only to switch his plans late on because of work commitments.
“I want to be clear, that while I was scheduled to fly on the plane with the team, I opted not to do it due to work obligations this week,” he wrote in a statement on Facebook.

Later, after the severity of the crash became evident, he paid tribute to those who lost their lives.

Just three players, Jackson Ragnar Follmann, Alan Ruschel and Helio Hermito Zampier Neto, survived the crash. Three others, two crew members and a reporter also survived.

Doctors in Medellin amputated Follmann’s right leg and he is currently in the hospital’s intensive care unit, according to Juan David Arteaga, the Undersecretary of Social Protection for the state of Antioquia.

Arteaga says Neto is under observation following multiple surgeries and Alan Ruschel is in the ICU.

Another of those who was originally supposed to be on the plane was journalist Ivan Agnoletto. He said he gave up his seat for colleague Gelson Galliotto, who had always dreamed of covering such a huge game.

“The pain is still too much for me to think about if God would’ve saved me,” Agnoletto told Globo.

“I was scheduled to cover the game, but my colleague had a huge dream to cover an international final.

“When I told Gelson Galiotto the news that he could go in my place, he could not believe it: ‘Really? I’m really going?’ It was his dream.”

I may dump PDP in 2018 – Fayose

Ayodele FayoseAdd

The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has said that he may seek another political platform to prosecute his succession battle in the 2018 governorship poll.

The governor said this on Wednesday during a meeting with the members of the Suppliers’ Association of Nigeria, Ikere Ekiti chapter.

He also argued that the victory of Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo State did not in any way threaten the supremacy of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti.
Fayose said, “I don’t know the platform I will use for the 2018 election yet and at the appropriate time, I will tell you. We are still studying the situation. We have to play the game left, right and centre and whoever we are going to use and the platform, you will all be part of the process because party politics is about the people.

“You all saw how people sold their votes in Ondo State, I am confident that that will not happen in Ekiti. I am close to the people; you are the source of my strength. Even if it requires just 48 hours to any election, if I tell you where to go, you will surely follow me there.”

At a separate meeting with the junior members of staff in the state civil service, Fayose boasted that he would repeat the victory he got in all the 16 Local Government Areas when he defeated former governor Kayode Fayemi in 2014.

“The APC will be fooling itself if it thinks it will conquer Ekiti like it did in Ondo. Ekiti is a peculiar place and I am the man on the ground here. I want to assure my supporters and Nigerians that the APC won’t win a local government here in 2018, even if President Muhammadu Buhari moves down all the money in the Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account.
“Governor Olusegun Mimiko and Eyitayo Jegede must have lost in Ondo State, but that does not mean the people had voted rightly. In 2015, people clamoured for change and what have we got now? Nigerians are becoming poorer than ever.

“Today, I am the only one among the APC governors in the South-West. I am now like the nation of Israel surrounded by enemies, but I shall defeat and triumph over them.

“The APC has never defeated me in any battle, either political or legal. Whether they like it or not, I will win in Ekiti no matter the animosity, because I have the people behind me,” Fayose declared.

He promised that he would continue to do his best in the payment of salaries by opening the account of the state to them.