Issue 27 - Nigerian Watch

E
E
R
THE 419 HIT SQUAD
F
Community leaders launch rapid rebuttal unit
to defend the majority from smears
Your next
NIGERIAN
WATCH
available from
April 25th
NIGERIAN WATCH
April 11th 2014
THE UK’S LEADING AFRICAN NEWSPAPER WITH THE LARGEST CIRCULATION
Issue No 027
nigerianwatch.com
fortNIghtly to Inspire, Inform and Entertain
INSIDE
GANGS VICTORY
US approach to be
piloted in London
thanks to Toyin Idowu
Page 3
GOING HOME
TO NIGERIA
THE TRANSFORMER
Nigeria’s Ambassador Dr Dalhatu Sarki Tafida
delivers on his ‘modernising’ action plan
Introducing Edel
Meremikwu, who has
made the big leap
Page 15
WHY WE MUST HEED
REEVA STEENKAMP
– Women’s Watch
Our goal is your success
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2
NIGERIAN WATCH
11-24 Apr 2014
NEWSWATCH
“ACHEBE INSPIRED A GENERATION” –
MEMORIAL LECTURE CLARIFICATION
NIGERIAN WATCH
Publishers
tevin Jemide & Victor omosevwerha
Publisher/Managing Director
Maryanne Jemide
PR Director
Ilonka omosevwerha
Managing Editor
Jon hughes
Art Editor
Cathy Constable
Contributors obah Iyamu; harriet ogbeide; AJ James;
Ayo Akinfe; funmi odegbami; Samuel Kasumu;
Ngozi Mbana; Ekanem robertson, Jessica onah,
laura Adenuga
Chief Cartoonist
harold ogbeide
Office address
Nigerian Watch
Chartwell house
292 hale lane
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Middlesex
hA8 8NP
Email
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Website
www.nigerianwatch.com
tel: 020 8588 9640
fax: 020 7160 5232
Nigerian Watch is a monthly newspaper owned by
green World Media ltd.
Views expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily
reflect the opinion of the publisher.
Prince’s surprise
silver wedding party
PRINCE Taju Adeniyi, the Special Assistant to Nigeria’s ambassador to the UK Dr
Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, OFR, CFR, was
treated to a surprise party by his children
on Saturday March 29 to mark his landmark silver wedding anniversary.
Caught unawares, Prince Adeniyi
returned home from the AGM of the
Central Association of Nigerians in the UK
to discover his his home had been
decorated, guests were waiting and a cake
had been prepared for him. Colleagues
from the High Commission, including head
of the consular section, Minister Shina
Alege, were among the guests.
Nigerian Watch joins all the other
members of the 2m-strong diaspora
community in the UK in congratulating
Prince Adeniyi and wishing him many
more years of a happy and blissful
marriage.
In the last edition of Nigerian Watch under
the headline “Achebe inspired a generation”
we reported on the hugely successful
memorial lecture staged in London to mark
the first anniversary of the literary icon’s
passing.
We have since been asked by the
executors of Mr Achebe’s estate, the Wylie
Agency, to make the following clarification
to this story and others published on our
web platform in the run-up to the event.
“Please be advised that this event took
place without the knowledge or approval of
Chinua Achebe’s family, his Literary Estate,
or the Chinua Achebe Foundation. On
behalf of our clients, I must ask that you
now correct the story by publishing the
following clarifications:
1. This event took place without the
knowledge or authorisation of the Estate
of Chinua Achebe or the Achebe family.
2.Neither the Estate of Chinua Achebe
nor the Achebe family has any relationship
with the Chinua Achebe Memorial
Committee.
3. While Ubaka Alex Achebe has a
familial connection to the author, he is not
a part of Chinua Achebe’s family and is not
qualified to speak on their behalf.”
Follow us on Twitter
@NigerianWatch
Conference to open
door to investment
in booming Africa
A conference to demystify how to undertake international trade and make investments in Africa and the Caribbean will be
staged at the Great Hall, Kings College
London, on the Strand, on April 17. With
a host of experts set to speak this is a
golden opportunity to learn more about
how to enter this burgeoning market.
A recent World Bank report stated
Foreign Direct Investment into Africa
grew by 16.2% in 2013, taking the total
figure to a $43 billion. It also predicted
that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
of Sub-Saharan Africa will grow from the
2013 figure of 4.7% to 5.3% in 2014 and if
‘strengthening external demand’ continues this will then rise to 5.5% by 2016.
Furthermore UK Trade and Investment statistics reveal that Africa imported
£10.4bn worth of products from the UK
in 2012, rising from £8.6bn in 2010.
Given the natural resources, growing
middle class consumer culture, educated
workforce, developing infrastructure and
strategic location, it is no wonder that interest in both regions is rapidly growing.
Conference delegates will get the opportunity to meet and network with business owners, diplomats, investment and
trade experts and entrepreneurs, to discuss and gain an insight in how to engage
effectively in International Trade with
Africa and the Caribbean.
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NIGERIAN WATCH
11-24 Apr 2014
NEWSWATCH
3
GANGS SUCCESS FOR NIGERIAN COMMUNITY LEADERS AS THE MET ACT
the Metropolitan Police (MPS) are set to study
the gangbusting methods of a US criminologist
with a view to piloting his methods in four
london boroughs later in the year.
It marks a positive resolution to a longstanding campaign by Nigerian community
leader Dr toyin Idowu, who has been pressing
for just such action since last November, as reported by Nigerian Watch (see left).
She announced this progressive step at the
AgM of the Central Associaton of Nigerians in
the UK on March 29. It was confirmed to this
newspaper by a Met Police spokesman, who
said, “the MPS is currently in dialogue with
Professor David Kennedy from the Centre for
model which he developed in America can be
applied to london. Plans are being arranged
for David and colleagues to visit london later
in the year to progress this further.
“gang Call Ins are an integral part of the
group Violence Intervention model and have
been used by some london Boroughs as a way
to demonstrate to those involved in gang offending that the MPS and partners are jointly
determined to tackle gang violence.
“the MPS continues to be committed to
learning and implementing good practice gathered nationally and internationally to maximise
all opportunities available to tackle gang violence in the capital.”
GANGBUSTERS (L-R) Dr Toyin Idowu, barrister Clement
Idowu and author Eze Nacho
Crime Prevention and Control, John Jay College
of Criminal Justice, New york, to explore and
develop how the group Violence Intervention
BUSINESS IS BOOMING THANKS
TO ASPIRATIONAL DIASPORANS
Nigerians in the UK are among
the top 10 diasporan job-creators,
an authoritative report from the
Centre for Entrepreneurs think
tank in conjunction with Dui Dell,
a company specialising in
business intelligence and Centre
UK Companies Started
for Research in Ethnic Minority by migrant entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship, has found.
464,527
Of 155 immigrant groups in the
UK Nigeria comes in at number 10
in the entrepreneurs’ league, credited
with developing 15,165 small and
medium enterprises – defined as
companies with a turnover of
between £1m and £200m and who
file employee numbers.
The Irish top the league with
56,327, followed by India in second
with 32,304, with in descending
order Germany, America, China,
Poland, France, Italy and Pakistan.
“We find that entrepreneurial
migrants are behind one in seven of
all UK companies,” the report
entitled Migrant Entrepreneurs;
Building Our Businesses Creating
Our Jobs states. “Their entrepreneurial activity is near double
that of UK-born individuals.”
It continues, “The evidence is
clear. Britain relies heavily on
entrepreneurial migrants to launch
businesses, create jobs and help the
economy.”
Migrant-founded
companies in the UK employ a total
of 1.16 million people out of a total
of 8.3 million. This, as with
company
formation,
shows
migrants are responsible for what
the report calls “an impressive” 14%
of SME job creation.
The report was commissioned to
look at the role migrants play in UK
life. Often maligned as people who
take from the state, through benefits,
social housing, NHS and so forth,
the report set out to quantify the
positive impact migrants have on the
economy. The freeloader stereotype
is a myth, the report says.
“Immigration is one of Britain’s
most fevered debates. Sadly it is
rarely informed by evidence.”
Its findings show that on balance
14%
of all UK companies
AVErAgE AgE of
ENtrEPrENEUrS
non-UK
UK
nationals
nationals
44.3
52.1
years old
years old
17.2%
non-UK nationals start
own companies
10.4%
UK nationals start own
companies
Number of UK Compaines started by non-UK nationals
India
32,304
Nigeria
15,165
the majority of migrants are driving
the economy rather than depressing
it. “While popular perceptions of
immigration involve migrants
arriving in the UK to take jobs and
depress wages, migrants actually
tend to be highly entrepreneurial.
Many want to launch businesses and
create jobs. As we map our
economic future we can no longer
afford to ignore such an important
source of economic dynamism.
“The current tone of hostility
towards immigration – even with
mainstream political debate – could
prove damaging to the future of job
creation in the UK, especially in
high-growth entrepreneurial sectors.
Instead we should appreciate that
migrant
entrepreneurs
have
overcome significant challenges to
develop enterprises in the UK, the
odds have been stacked against
them. Yet still they thrive and
triumph.
Migrant
businesses
generate jobs and opportunities for
local people, they form valuable
social hubs, and they provide
important services and goods for
communities around the country.
They give Britain a competitive edge
in the global market place. It’s time
to celebrate their contribution.”
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cial Offfer
fer on Exhibition Packages price reduced from £500 to £250 for a limited period only
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4
NIGERIAN WATCH
11-24 Apr 2014
Champions out to protect
children and help parents
Children’s charity Africans Unite Against Child
Abuse (Afruca) held a special seminar at Enfield
Town Hall on March 29 as part of its rolling
campaign to educate African parents on the
dangers of child abuse. Organised by former Mayor of Enfield
Councillor Kate Anolue, the
seminar attracted dozens of
participants who discussed the
various challenges of parenting
in the UK.
This included the risk of
having children taken into care,
children being abused by those
close to them and appropriate
ways of chastising a child. Over the last year, Afruca has
been running a series of child
protection workshops aimed at
encouraging members of the
black and African community to work with it to
protect children and prevent child abuse and
harm in a bid to end the disproportionate
representation of African children in care.
Under its Children’s Champion initiative
scores of volunteers have been trained to help
promote better parenting in their communities. Councillor Anolue said, “It is important that
we debate these matters indepth so we are aware
of what the law says. Many African parents get
into trouble and have their children taken into
care because they are not aware of what is illegal
and when chastisement becomes child abuse. Follow us on Twitter
@NigerianWatch
NEWSWATCH
“When a couple fight and argue for instance,
they need to be aware of the fact that the violence
could have an impact on their children. I do a lot
of work with families who have got into trouble
because they were not aware of the consequences
of what they were doing and by the time they
found out, it was too late." Ben TV presenter and Nigerian
Watch
columnist
Ekanem
Robertson, who moderated the
event, added that child abuse covers
a wide remit, including physical
chastisement, verbal assaults,
domestic violence and punitive
denigrating.
She took participants through a
series of slides showing Afruca’s
recommendations about how to
address many of the challenges
Africans in the UK face with
parenting. Afruca executive director Debbie Ariyo
(pictured) said that one of the challenges Africans
in the UK faced was merging what they see as
certain cultural and traditional values with the
realities of modern European life.
She added that under the Children’s
Champion programme, Afruca proffers advice on
how cultural practices impact on the safeguarding
of children in the UK.
For more information and to register interest
about becoming a children’s champion, visit
www.afruca.org loCAl hEro
BABAtUNDE loyE
The elevator
Ever-dapper, ever in demand and ever dignified, Babatunde Loye has throughout his
stellar career used his position to help elevate and inspire his fellow Nigerians.
A world renowned Insurance Consultant
with the UK’s largest insurer, Met Life, Mr
Loye manages a team of 150 people from his
base in London’s Canary Wharf. He has a
string of awards and accolades, including
number one consultant out of 75,000 worldwide. He also won two worldwide awards as
a sales manager.
But it his commitment to using his own
success to elevate his fellow Nigerians and
Africans that makes him a standout and
stand up local hero.
He is the founder of the Association of
African Insurance Professionals UK (AAIP),
launched to recognise and support the diverse range of African professionals in the industry. Within the industry Mr Loye is
acclaimed for recruiting, training and coaching hundreds of consultants and is recognised as “an excellent agent for change”.
His drive to inspire and encourage others
is commendable. One of Mr Loye’s famous
sayings is, “If I can do it, anyone can.” He
says he has built his entire executive career
on that definition. And he adds that one of
the things he most enjoys in life is helping
others to reach their full potential.
He asks of his fellow Nigerians, “What are
we doing with all our titles? When I started
at Met Life I set out to employ 200 Nigerians.
I am currently at 125. I will not stop and I will
continue to empower the people. When we
all make that commitment and do that then
we will stop the crime and violence among
our youth that is blighting our communities.”
If you want to work in the insurance industry then Mr Loye wants you to call him.
He told Nigerian Watch, “Met Life has
started recruiting now so if anybody wishes
to work with an insurance company, they
should give me a call on 07985422506, or my
PA on 02070388346.”
Do you know a local hero? Let us sing their
praises and help their cause by writing to [email protected]
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NEWSWATCH
NIGERIAN WATCH
11-24 Apr 2014
5
WHO ARE YOU CALLING A 419-ER?
PLANS FOR AN ASSERTIVE AND ACTION-PACKED YEAR ANNOUNCED AT CANUK AGM
The Central Association of Nigerians in the UK is to establish a
rapid rebuttal unit to defend Nigerians in the UK against being portrayed as little more than a
community of fraudulent 419-ers.
The initiative is one of a number
that were announced by CANUK
chairman Chief Bimbo Folayan
Roberts at the Annual General
Meeting held at the High
Commission on Saturday March 29.
Around 100 people attended
across the day, representing ethnic
organisations, professional and trade
bodies and businesses, and delegates
came from Manchester and
Birmingham.
The High Commissioner to the
UK, Dr Dalhatu Sarki Tafida, OFR,
CFR, was represented by his Special
Assistant Minister Prince Adeniyi
and head of consular and welfare
desk, Minister Alege.
Minister Adeniyi told the meeting,
“His Excellency extends his goodwill
and support to all of you and
commends you for doing a good job.”
He added that it was recognised
within the High Commission that “if
we did not have CANUK it would be
much more difficult to reach out and
assist Nigerians in the UK.”
thE ChAIrMAN'S rEPort
Chief Bimbo Roberts opened
proceedings by delivering his annual
report which was peppered with many
great achievements despite the past
year having been “the most
challenging one” for the organisation.
Shortly after the CANUK
executive was constituted after the
AGM in 2013, soldier Lee Rigby was
killed by two men of Nigerian
descent, which occasioned the
scrapping of the organisation's
planned
programme
as
the
community leaders mobilised to
firefight the backlash against the
Nigerian community.
Mr Roberts told the meeting,
“Immediately after this incident
information reached us that fellow
Nigerians living in the Woolwich area
were being targeted and attacked by
members of some extremist groups.
“We immediately swung into
action and organised a rally to
disassociate our community from
extremism and from the attackers and
campaigned widely to show that
Nigerians are peace loving people
who are opposed to terrorism.”
It was this experience and the
effectiveness of the campaign that has
led CANUK to launch its rapid
rebuttal unit. Mr Roberts explained,
“The planned rebuttal unit will help
us respond to negative stories written
or broadcast about Nigerians in the
UK. The purpose is not to cover up
but to correct any misrepresentation
about us. We will do this at some
point this year. The 419s and other
anti social elements are a tiny
minority but the way newspapers and
mainstream TV sensationalise stories
NATIONAL
CONVERSATION
about Nigerians make us a target and
reinforces a stereotype about
Nigerians as fraudsters and anti social
people. This is not done for other
communities and we must work to
stop this.”
Endeavours to regroup and get the
year back on track were then stalled
by several members of the executive
committee losing loved ones. The
chairman himself lost his brother and
father in law and days before this
year's AGM the chairman of the
welfare Committee, Dr Edwin
Sawacha, lost his wife.
Nevertheless CANUK registered
NIGERIAN WATCH
Throughout the AGM, Nigerian
Watch was praised for elevating
the Nigerian diaspora, working
to counteract the negative
stereotype and supporting community campaigns, particularly
in publicising the community’s
response to the killing of Lee
Rigby and for its “excellent”
campaign in support of Dr Toyin
Idowu’s drive to change the
way gangs are policed.
some notable achievements.
The CANUK Emergency Relief
Agency in collaboration with the
High Commission collected and sent
much-needed aid to flood-stricken
areas of Nigeria; in response to the
incessant killings of Nigerian youths
CANUK established a Youth Crime
Prevent Network under the
chairmanship of Toyin Idowu;
assisted the Nigerian Women Prays
initiative; participated in the
commemoration of the late Chinua
Achebe; mediated in the teacher and
lecturers strike in Nigeria; successfully
campaigned against the £3000 visa
bond; and mobilised the community
to support the Association of Spouses
of African High Commissioners and
Ambassadors in the UK to raise
funds for education projects across
Africa. “CANUK has built a reputation
as an organisation that speaks out
against injustice and we successfully
mobilised and joined campaigns
against the brutalisation of women,
Boko Haram killings and other acts
of injustice in Nigeria.”
MoVINg AhEAD
In the year ahead CANUK is to
redouble its efforts to catch up for
lost time and reinvigorate its
membership. A key element of this
will be a Town Hall roadshow to
engage with Nigerians outside the
capital. “We have discovered our
community is too fragmented and
CANUK has perhaps become too
London centric.
“In the coming year CANUK will
be travelling around the regions and
reaching out to organisations to
discuss our common agenda. We
have already started to contact
different communities.”
Another initiative will see
CANUK reach out more to Nigerian
youths, to tackle the gangs issue and
help mentor them “for the good of
society”.
Two important dates were also
announced. On August 23 CANUK
aims to stage its annual family fun
day. “We intend to make it the
biggest and the best ever family fun
day, considering this is a very
important year for Nigeria as we
mark our centenary.”
To mark the centenary CANUK
will also be holding a celebration dine
and dance on October 25, at the
Regent’s Park Hilton.
FROM L-R: CANUK Chairman Bimbo Roberts;
delegates from the Nigerian Police Forum, Nsikan
Etuk and Paul Orhiere; Prince Adeniyi of the High
Comission; Prof Chike Oduoza from Wolverhampton;
and Ade Arogundade from Manchester
Delegates to the CANUK AGM
were asked what issues they
wanted to see raised by the UK diaspora’s delegates to Nigeria’s National Conversation. The delegates,
Chief Adebayo Oladijemi and
Christian Udechukwu, have left for
Nigeria to make their contribution
but they will be informed of
CANUK’s position.
The issues agreed upon at the
AGM included: reparations for the
damage caused by colonialism;
greater autonomy to the States to
control their own resources, with
a 5% surcharge to the Federal
Government; a whistleblowers’
charter, to give legal protection to
those who blow the whistle on
corrupt practices; to change the
constitution that disenfranchises
us and secure the right of the diaspora to vote in elections;
change the constitution to allow
independent candidates to stand;
have a funded opposition; and
funnel more resources to help the
youths of Nigeria.
6
NIGERIAN WATCH
11-24 Apr 2014
TINUBU GIFTS $20,000 TO
AID NAIJA STUDENTS IN UK
LAMBETH MAYOR’S PARLOUR (R-L): Lambeth acting Mayor Cllr Adedamola Aminu, who
hosted the Lagos delegation at the Town Hall, with Senators Tinubu and Babafemi Ojudu
Igbo and BLN conference dates
The theme of the third annual Igbo
Conference is ‘Igbo Heritage’ and
will focus on the contributions of
Igbo culture and heritage to the political and cultural landscape in Igboland and abroad.
The two-day conference is to be
held at the School of Oriental and
African Studies over the weekend of
May 2 and 3. For more details and
to register visit www.icsn.co.uk
Meanwhile, the Black Labour
Network is staging a fringe event –
The transforming agenda for increasing black representation across public
life – at the Trades Union Congress
(TUC) Black Workers Conference,
this Saturday (Apr 12), from 12.452pm at Congress House, Great Russell Street.
Follow us on Twitter
@NigerianWatch
NEWSWATCH
Lagos Senator Oluremi
Tinubu has donated
$20,000 to launch a
hardship fund for Nigerian
students in the UK, to help
those struggling to meet
their
tuition
and
accommodation fees. She announced the
launch of the fund at a
special gala dinner staged
by the Association of
Nigerian Academics in the
UK
(Anauk)
in
recognition
of
her
achievements in creating
educational opportunities
for disadvantaged children
in Lagos State through her
New Era Foundation.
Receiving the honour
on April 5 at the Hilton
Metropole
in
west
London, Senator Tinubu
said, “I am very humbled
by the kind gesture.
Development in other
nations of the world is
advancing so rapidly but
Nigeria as a nation is still
grappling with gross
poverty, unemployment,
insecurity,
corruption,
crime and poor infrastructure, while other challenges to development
continue to plague us. “Wherever you and I
stand today, we can be an
agent of change and work
with
others
towards
actualising the Nigeria of
our
dreams.
This
recognition award will help
renew my commitment
and will also inspire others
to do more for the
improvement of society.”
Among the speakers on
the night was University of
Cambridge post-graduate
student
Ezenagu
Alexander, who was a
beneficiary of Senator
Tinubu’s
scholarship,
which saw him through his
undergraduate studies in
Nigeria.
Anauk president and
acting mayor of Lambeth
Councillor Adedamola
Aminu and the council
leader Councillor Lib
Peck, presented the award.
oSCAr WINNEr tIPPED to StAr
IN ADIChIE’S AMErICANAh
It seems that Twelve Years A
Slave Oscar winner Lupita
Nyong’o is set to take on the
starring role of Ifemulu in a
blockbuster movie version of
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s
latest award winning novel
Americanah.
In a recent interview with
Arise Entertainment 360, Ms
Adichie revealed, “Lupita
was a very early fan of
Americanah, and so before
she was sort of well-known
in the way that she is now,
she wrote me the loveliest
email, a very long and passionate email about Americanah. I’m going to do the
mysterious thing and say
that Lupita might be making
an announcement very
soon,” she said, adding
coyly. “I don’t know. That
announcement might well
be about Americanah.”
8
NIGERIAN WATCH
11-24 Apr 2014
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@NigerianWatch
NEWSWATCH
QUESTION TIME WITH A BIG DIFFERENCE
... THE AUDIENCE IN PARLIAMENT IS PACKED WITH YOUNG PEOPLE FROM BME BACKGROUNDS
The scene: the Wilson Room in
Portcullis House, the modern
annexe to the House of Commons.
The panel: two eminent MPs,
Jeremy Lefroy (Con) and David
Lammy (Lab); police commander
Gideon
Springer;
Simon
Messenger of Pinnacle Housing
Association; TV and radio
presenter Richard Kays; barrister
Anne Crossfield; Southwark
Councillor Michael Shitu; and
Sean Cooper of mentoring agency
Lighthouse.
In the audience: around 50 young
people, taking advantage of the Speak
Out initiative from Britafrique, the
charity founded by Michelle Akintoye – who has received a British Empire Medal for her tireless work on
their behalf.
The main objectives of the initiative
are to break down barriers and motivate young people to engage in public
life. And engage they did on April 7
when they had two hours to question
people in power.
The questions from the floor were
hard-hitting and covered a range of
subjects from trust in the Metropolitan
Police through to mentoring and job
opportunities.
L-R: Commander
Springer, Michelle
Akintoye and David
Lammy MP
On trust in the police the panellists
and majority of the audience believed
that on balance of probabilities – routine successes against sensational failures – the answer was yes.
But many concerns remained.
David Lammy said, “The vast majority of police are trustworthy but
when a cabinet minister can be framed
(Andrew Mitchell of the infamous
“plebgate” affair) then we’ve clearly
got a problem. When the parents of
Stephen Lawrence can be spied on we
have a problem. There are big ques-
tions to be answered and big challenges
ahead.”
One of those challenges is getting
the Met to look like the people they
serve – yet Mr Lammy said only 868
officers out of 32,000 hailed from
black and minority ethnic (BME)
backgrounds.
Commander Springer said the Met
were currently recruiting, with 5,000
officers being south, of which “we
hope up to 40% will be from BME
backgrounds.”
From the floor there were clear con-
cerns that young people’s first contact
with the police was hostile, with stop
and search being identified as a major
cause. All agreed that greater effort
must be made to make young people’s
first contact with police a positive experience.
Mentoring was another big issue
with many panellists seeing it as the
way to steer young people away from
trouble, and particularly gangs. Although Mr Lammy warned he was
worried that mentors might have a negative impact.
“The reformed gang leader scenario
worries me,” he said. “I grew up on the
Broadwater Farm – I probably wouldn’t be here if I’d had mentoring from a
reformed gang leader. We need
broader horizons, higher aspirations.”
The audience were also very concerned about a lack of job opportunities with many talking of working free
for years in the name of getting experience.
Mr Shitu agreed with their concerns, saying, “We have to establish a
new social contract so young people
can feel confident if they work hard
they can get a job.”
There was much support for Mr
Lefroy and Ms Crossfield who wanted
the school curriculum changed to contain business and finance studies and
political structures so students know
more about the world they are entering
into and can look forward more optimistically.
Watching the whole session was
global beauty expert Erica Freemantle
who delivered a straight message to the
young people present.
She revealed that she had always
been the joker at school and not only
left without any qualifications but unable to read. “I only learnt to read
when I was 30,” she said.
A Jamaican by descent she added
that she had returned to her motherland “which, to me, is Nigeria, to help
empower the young people there. They
haven’t got a quarter of what you have
but they have the drive and ambition.”
As, it must be said, did many in the
audience. There was a firm belief in
self-reliance and self-improvement on
all sides. It would seem that greater
communication and practical information about how to access existing opportunities would resolve many issues.
But as an exercise in introducing
young people to power and making
those in power hear from the young the
evening was an unqualified success.
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GISTWATCH
NIGERIAN WATCH
11-24 Apr 2014
Madam Amebo
Big Brother’s watching
SOCIAL networking sites have increasingly proved to be the ultimate bridge
between Nigeria and the UK diaspora.
They have a way of taking people into
the houses of friends and family,
sometimes without the other person
even knowing.
It is thus advisable to always be
careful about what you are posting
online, especially on Facebook, that
most notorious of all the networking
sites. Teenagers think they are smart
but one young lady in Belvedere was
recently caught out by her parents
when she decided to get up to mischief while her parents were visiting
Nigeria.
Mum and dad had to dash off for a
family engagement, so they stocked
up the house with food and flew to
Lagos for a few days. No sooner had
they left than their teenage daughter
called all her friends round for a party.
They emptied the wine rack, finished all the food and partied until
the early hours of the morning. Unfortunately for our young friend, one of
her friends took several pictures and
posted it on her Facebook wall, tag-
ging some of her friends.
Good old mummy decided to log
on to Facebook while in Lagos and
hey, she could not fail to recognise her
own living room. A quick phone call
to Belvedere soon followed.
A bird in hand
oVEr recent years, the Nigerian diaspora in the UK has gone award-crazy,
with one ceremony or the other organised virtually every month. In fact,
awards are so cheap these days some
say they are worth little more than
two a penny.
things are so bad that even if you
are the most unsavoury character on
the planet, all you have to do is book
a hall, hire an event organiser and
bang, you have an awards ceremony.
As you are the one paying for the do,
you can tell the organiser how many
awards you want to be honoured
with on the night.
recently, one dignitary came in
from Nigeria for an award and as part
of the ceremony, the event organiser
decided to throw in a few local ones
too. During the organising, the event
planner asked one of her friends to
join in planning the event but on the
understanding that whoever was on
the planning committee would not be
eligible for an award.
however, her friend declined the
invitation because she wanted to receive an award herself and show off
the pictures of her standing with the
dignitary holding plaques together.
Unfortunately for her, despite being
nominated, she did not win an award.
to make matters worse, she also
missed out on the largesse which was
handed to the organisers for putting
together such a successful event. talk
about falling between two stools but,
as they say, a bird in hand is worth
two in the bush.
Long distance wahala
LONG distance relationships have always had an inbuilt tendency to lead
to trouble as they epitomise that old
saying, “While the cat's away, the
mice will play”.
One IT expert recently relocated to
Nigeria, leaving his family in London
in the hope that they would soon join
him if he got an extension to his contract. Alternatively, if he did not, he
9
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it to [email protected]
We pay for every story that appears
would return to the UK and things
would be back to normal.
However, as it often the case with
IT, things are not certain and your
contract gets extended on a monthby-month basis. Our friend from
Woolwich thus found out that he
could not invite his family over and
neither could he return to London as
he was virtually living day-to-day.
However, when one month leads
to six and then to a year and then to
two years, things start getting complicated. It was only a matter of time before his London wife became a
distant memory and hey, you guessed
it, he ended up putting another lady
in the family way.
Can you imagine the shock on the
faces of his children who he eventually met after three years when they
visited him and discovered they had a
younger brother? However, kids
being what they are, they embraced
and loved their sibling. I doubt their
mother felt the same way.
Wardrobe malfunction
hoPPINg around from one Nigerian
event to another in london can be a
full time job if you are one of those
community activists who also happens to be a socialite.
Saturdays in particular can be very
hectic and there are several such community leaders who end up going to
between four and six events in one
day. It is thus not surprising to find
the ladyfolks in particular load their
cars with numerous changes of
clothes.
one east london community activist recently had such a hectic Saturday and packed her bag for the day
but she had one major problem; three
of the events were in central london,
so she could not travel by car.
In her dash not to be late, she
hopped on to the tube with her bag
full of different attires. however, one
of the events was a funeral and she
found out that she had forgotten her
black dress and everything else in her
armoury was flowery.
hugely embarrassed at having to
wear a flowery dress at a funeral, she
could not wait for the event to be
over and quietly sneaked away. In
fact, she was so flustered she made it
her last engagement for the day.
Se
mon nd online
eygr
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NIGERIAN WATCH
11-24 Apr 2014
YOURWATCH
NW CoMMENt
Letters to the Editor
Let us know what you think. Put pen to paper and send your letters to: the Editor, Nigerian Watch, Chartwell
house, 292 hale lane, Edgware, Middlesex hA8 8NP, or email us at: [email protected]
Letters to be included in the next issue must be received by no later than April 16, 2014. Anonymous letters
will not be published. Please include your full name, postal address and contact telephone number. Names
and addresses can be withheld, if preferred.
Letters may be edited for publication.
“Biyi has told our Nigerian story
well” – we must support him
Nearly two years ago, I sat in a screening
room in Soho with an audience of 20 people,
watching the first screening of Biyi Bandele’s
film adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun. As the lights
came back on, and the room erupted in
applause, I joined the small group of people
clustering round the director and the
producers, congratulating them.
As I approached Biyi’s outstretched hand, I
found myself pulling him into a hug and,
embarrassingly breaking into deep heaving
sobs. There had been many moving scenes in
the film, but I hadn’t realised how moved I
was by them until I wet Biyi’s shirt with tears.
A few months later, I watched it again in
the same small room, this time sitting behind
Chimamanda who was in London to speak at
TEDxEuston and who had insisted that I
accompany her to the screening that had been
arranged for her.
There were only a handful of us
in the room, and when it finished,
Chimamanda turned to me and
said “Biyi has told our Nigerian
story well”.
The next day at TEDxEuston,
we had the privilege of
showing the trailer of the film as a
surprise towards the end of the
conference, giving our audience
the opportunity of being among
the first people in the world to see
it. They received it with whoops of
delight, giving the one and a half
minute clip a standing ovation.
That reaction and the
association of the film with
TEDxEuston, was not unexpected.
At TEDxEuston, we have worked
over the last five years to inspire
new ideas about Africa, to create
spaces where we can tell our own
stories, which is what the Half Of
A Yellow Sun film project has also
been about, largely financed by
Nigerians and shot on location
mostly in Nigeria, it is an
important project with symbolic
Of Winston Churchill and President Goodluck Jonathan
I read the quote, “I won’t preside over a Nigerian break up” credited to President Goodluck
Jonathan in the Guardian of February 25.
It recalled for me echoes of the then British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill who, quite
confidently, on November 10, 1942, said, “As
the King’s First Minister I am not going to
preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.”
Churchill lost the elections that followed in
1945 and by 1947, with India, the “crown
Jewel” of the British Empire, granted Independence, we saw the beginning of the “liquidation of the British Empire”.
The truth is Nigeria is just like an Empire.
So many small countries tied together.
I observe that Churchill and Jonathan are
Black Hat (Bowker and Fedora) wearing lead-
ers, belonging to the conservative school of
politics, and they are both November children, having been born on November 30,
1874, and November 20, 1957, respectively.
They are both associated with a drink problem.
Churchill was in the midst of the Second
World War (against the Nazis) when he declaimed, as Jonathan is in the midst of a war
with Boko Haram.
Some might say placing Jonathan beside
Churchill is silly but the tools available to
Jonathan were not in existence during the
times of Churchill. Churchill would have been
prepared to kill to get a smart phone of today.
I hope things go well after the general elections of 2015
Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth, via email
To advertise call (UK) 0208 588 9640
(Nig) 07084556093
or email [email protected]
11
h
meaning for our continent.
The film’s journey to our screens, I am told
has faced the many obstacles that others have
faced in trying to tell our own stories in our
own way, to our own audiences, within spaces
where our perspectives have often been absent
or curated in ways unfamiliar to us.
As the film opened in Australia last week,
and in the UK and Nigeria this month,
questions still continue to pour in from all
over the world, asking when will it be released
in the US, in Ghana, in Kenya, in South
Africa, in India. It appears that distributors
are unconvinced that there is a market for the
film. Telling our own stories it seems is not
enough, we must also develop the channels for
distribution and show the world that there is
an audience hungry for these stories, these
perspectives.
I urge you to go and see this film, and ask
your friends, families and colleagues to see it,
not least because of the sacrifices that the
executive producer and team have made in
ensuring that our story is told, but also
because as writer Toni Kan said in his review
for African Magic, “If Yewande Sadiku and
her co-producers make a success of this, the
era of big budget Nollywood movies that
would compete well on the international scene
would have arrived.”
Ike Anya, via email
ave we diasporans in the UK ever
been more in demand? I ask that
question because it seems
everyone has woken up to our value in
society.
As we report on page three there is an
increasing awareness of migrants’ value to
the UK. We are job creators, economy drivers.
that Nigerians feature in the top 10 of the
Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurs’ league, out of
a 155 ethnic minorities, reflects who we are
and where we are going.
It is for this reason we are also wanted
back home. Weekly, we are exhorted to bring
our expertise back to help fast-track the
development of Nigeria. that is a big leap
for many of us.
Edel Meremikwu has risen to the
challenge; a new job, a new soon-to-be
“world” city, a new life.
She will be sharing her experience with us
in a regular column. It might inspire others to
follow. It is a pathway that many students of
African descent are considering.
Whether to stay or go is for you to decide.
Wherever we go we will clearly make a
positive contribution to society.
Maybe it is Easter, but I sense the green
shoots emerging of
this actually being
Africa’s century. Maryanne Jemide, MD
# # #
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12
NIGERIAN WATCH
11-24 Apr 2014
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EMBASSYWATCH
NEWS FROM THE NIGERIA
HIGH COMMISSION, LONDON
6 years of successful transformation
Next month marks the sixth anniversary of Dr Dalhatu Sarki
Tafida, OFR, CFR, being admitted
to the court of St James as Nigeria’s Ambassador to the UK.
Early into his tenure Dr Tafida set
out what he hoped to achieve in the
role, telling freelance journalist and
Nigeria’s former minister for
information and culture Philip Ideh,
“With all sense of sincerity and
humility, I would want my tenure of
office at the Court of Saint James’ to
be remembered for five important
things. These are: the promotion and
protection of Nigeria’s national
interest, including the interest of all
Nigerians in the United Kingdom,
irrespective of shades of opinion,
status, religion and ethnic origin; the
better than I met it; to elevate Nigeria’s
economic relations with the United
Kingdom to the same, if not higher
level of political relations, so that
Nigerians can reap greater economic
benefits from our country’s relations
with the United Kingdom.”
That legacy is assured as over the
past six years Dr Tafida has exceeded
his own ambitious hopes and
transformed the mission in
London.
All are welcomed through its
doors and heard with respect.
Community
organisations,
ethnic groups, businesses,
whether large or small, all are
afforded an audience and most
leave with the support they
sought and very often with a
smile on their face. And, as the
page opposite clearly shows, Dr
Tafida encourages the next generation
with a rare generosity of spirit.
The ambassador has a fantastic
sense of humour and often uses this to
great effect to make visitors feel at
home. And also to rebuke anyone who
dares to be late. He is the prototype
modern Nigerian; revered equally in
‘Dr Tafida is the
prototype modern
Nigerian; revered in
the north and south’
promotion of cordial and warm
diplomatic and consular relations with
my host country, the United
Kingdom; immigration and consular
reforms and enhanced service delivery
in these areas; leaving the High
Commission, including the physical
structures, operations and methods,
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the north, form where he hails, and in
the south, and particularly Lagos,
where he was a medical student.
As the chairman of CANUK
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said at the
organisation’s recent AGM, “I want to
thank the High Commissioner, who is
our patron, for his fatherly love for the
community and his team of ministers
and staffs. They have rarely refused us
and if they haven’t done things we
would like it is because we haven’t
asked.”
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NEWSWATCH
NIGERIAN WATCH
11-24 Apr 2014
13
A POET’S EYE VIEW OF DIASPORA LIFE
The credits had rolled on the recent premier of Labo; Life is a Journey at the High Commission; food was being served and the mood
was celebratory when two young poets were generously afforded the opportunity to perform by the High Commissioner Dr Dalhatu
Sarki Tafida. Within seconds you could hear a pin drop as they each in turn captivated the room. As the applause died down, the consensus among the more than 100 strong audience was we had witnessed something special. laura Adenuga caught up with poets
Selective Sight
I know you see me. I know you see me when I walk past you
in the street,
You may not believe me but your heart makes a mighty
beat,
Or when you’re sitting in traffic and I am simply passing by,
Then all of a sudden my image imprints in your dilated
eyes,
Chuck-Chuck goes the lock…shhhhoop up goes the windows,
As if to say if I wanted to get in your car my boot through
your window wouldn’t be
so simple,
See, I’m not mad with you for the crimes of the past,
But I’m definitely vex with you now because you rolled up
that incy wincy little bit of
glass,
Furthermore my hoodie gives you the false right to label me
a member of a gang,
And yet that was the official uniform of the Ku Klux Klan,
Plus I am sure that I am the most popular guy in the
department store,
“This is a staff announcement: Please keep your eyes on the
guy in aisle four”,
I’ve had enough of this crap, I’m going home, taking the
tube,
And true to form, you all persist in being so rude,
It’s rush hour and we are all packed like sardines in a tin,
But sitting in a seat either side of me would be the ultimate
sin,
It’s a classic how you lot go on in the elevators,
But fortunately for you, your pink handbag doesn’t match
my attire,
So loosen your grip on your Gucci bag, I would not even
want that negative karma,
And if what I’ve said so far is incorrect then I challenge
anyone to call me a liar,
Your perceptions of me are about as brilliant as a car with
four flat tyres,
Tired. Tired of the assumptions that I am the boom-box
stereotype,
Along with the gold chains, baggy jeans stereotype,
Kind of an oxymoron but I am the new and improved
prototype,
Pro two types of dealing with your selective sight,
Either walk in the shadows of my stereotype and your
‘proven foresight’,
Or step out of my supervening shadow and you regret your
actions in hindsight.
Now let me touch a bit on my genetic appearance,
Non-apologetic for the lack of social adherence,
Proud of my polypeptide chains of keratin bliss,
Simultaneous with the melanin paint of my epidermisSurface, you may see what you are programmed to see,
But sub-surface…is… the real… me,
The me, the I, the presupposition of my self with a brain
The me with haemoglobin and organs just the same –
Regardless of the frame, irrespective of my name,
Yet I am type casted and bear your imaginary blame,
It Is A God Damned Shame.
When I get the opportunity to showcase my intellect it’s a
surprise to many,
The realisation that you can exploit my talent, skills and
brain, oops…there drops the
penny,
No I don’t smoke, surprised? Not a kind of any,
Yes, your thoughts are right, I am one of a kind, but also
one of plenty,
So I pass the test of your employment criteria,
And desecrated your views of me being inferior,
Now I shall not parade my victory acting superior –
But… I know you see me… do not be a selective sight
sinner.
HEARTFELT SPOKEN WORDSMITHS More than...
It’s more than a blazing sun or dust between your toes
More than street potholes or tradesmen selling goods
JOLADE OLUSANYA
Although Jolade Olusanya, 23,
was born in Hackney, he was
sent to Nigeria to be schooled
when he was seven years old. Jolade attended boarding school in
Ogun state and Oyo before coming back to England when he
was 13.
Jolade told Nigerian Watch,
“Going to Nigeria as a London
kid was hard because people assume you know nothing about
the culture. Nigeria definitely
helped me to know myself. The
education in Nigeria is definitely
challenging. Kids younger than
me can be in university.”
In 2009, Jolade went to Buckinghamshire New University and
studied BA Film and TV Production. During his time at university, his friends encouraged him
to perform. After graduating
in 2012, he did just that.
After reaching the
final six in the Young
Poet Laureate for London competition last
year, his talent was
recognised and resulted in Jolade performing at the Houses
of Parliament for the
Mayor of Lon-
don and meeting the Queen.
Jolade said, “All my work is
about everything I have experienced or thought about. I do not
write about things I do not know
about. I can never forget my
years in Nigeria.
“In a sense, culture is all we
have left to define our identities.
It lets you know your heritage,
values and helps you find yourself as a person.”
Jolade is a softly spoken yet
intense performer who uses his
poetry to ask the difficult questions. Last year, he lived in the
Gambia for three months.
“‘More Than…’ is a poem about
my Gambian experience,” he
said. “I have always been a creative person. When I told my
mum I wanted to be a writer she
supported me. Spoken word
came from trying to make
sense of life.”
Jolade currently
works for London Live
as a technician.
You can follow Jolade on Twitter: @Joladespeaks, and see him
perform at Youtube:
Jayelmedia
MIGHTY POET
The talented and energetic
British born Mighty Poet is of
Cameroonian descent and the
23-year-old, who grew up in
Luton, Bedfordshire, astonishingly only started writing late
last year.
Yet he is already winning
competitions – such as the recent
‘CanIHaveAMinute’ Open Mic
contest in Islington – and acclaim
on social media sites. He
is something of a rock
n’ roll performance
poet of verve and distinction. A major
theme of his is unity.
MP graduated
from Brunel University
in 2011 with a BA in
psychology and
currently
divides his time working with
autistic children in Finsbury Park
and at a self-defence school.
The British born poet visited
Cameroon for the first time last
year, where he shot his first
video for his poem I’m Just A
Poet.
MP told Nigerian Watch,
“What I write about comes
from what I have experienced
and what other people tell
they have experienced. Selective Sight is about
what I have experienced.
You shouldn’t judge a
book by its cover.”
See the video and follow
Mighty Poet on Facebook
between alleyways of cars
More than wood carvings, cowrie shells, mosquito nets
More than bad power supplies, high petrol prices or fenced
verandahs
More than the pyramids they can’t explain
The rocks in Nigeria that my ancestors named
Most than coloured wax prints and traditional head wraps
More than beats, cultural names and bead-chains
More than pollution and beaches, knock off Gucci belts
and village chiefs laced in riches
More than give one pound a week charity schemes, more
than yellow fever and Hep A, B or C vaccines
More than the afro beats scene, more than where Mandela
took a stand
More than where my mother sends clothes I don’t wear no
more
More than Supermalt
More than ticking Black African on application forms
Street masquerades
Long weddings where money is exchanged and sprayed
More than the first thought when people mention
corruption
More than the land of jeeps and potholes that make even
bigger holes in your soul when you hear your exhaust go:
skkkrrr
More than where they send children who’ve forgotten
themselves
It’s more than a hiding place, make it rich quick scheme or
a retirement home
It’s where stars actually serve as lamps unto our feet
Where origins are traced from
Where people go when they have nothing
Where music comes to find it’s sound
Where English takes a back-seat
Where my name gets said properly for once
Where laziness comes to die
Where the libraries are the tongues of grey haired men and
women on doorsteps sharing knowledge with children
through song and story because TV doesn’t stimulate as much
as story telling does
Where Hollywood depicts as the last refuge for mankind
when viruses break out cos let’s face it: it’s way too hot for a
zombie attack
Where Women look to find definitions and examples of
queens
And where western Men are forced to redefine their
definitions of struggle
Where struggle is actually just character building and if
you can get through one day, you can get through the rest of
them anywhere else.
Where Black isn’t a word that you say with caution. You
don’t even have to say it at all.
Where we take things literally so think before you speak if
you want to eat that week
Where weeks move quick cos over there man doesn’t wait
for time
Cos he knows he doesn’t have it. The time is now.
So whilst you watch seconds tick by, they’ve taken on a
second hustle.
One on roads and the other in a classroom
And maybe a third keeping the house clean with a straw
broom.
Where the West you adore comes to our shores hiding the
fact that they’ve run out of what we have ‘more’
Need I say more?
I could but how could you try to define a continent with
words? You can’t.
It’s more than you could ever imagine.
It’s Africa.
14
NIGERIAN WATCH
11-24 Apr 2014
POLITICS Watch
Analysis
International aid
and elections
Governments of democratic developing countries are
using international aid to support their election drives,
new research from the London School of Economics and
Political Science (LSE) has concluded.
Dr Ryan Jablonski, an Assistant Professor in LSE’s Department of Government, tracked the spending of aid
across Kenya from 1992, when multiparty elections began,
to 2010. His research, published in the journal World Politics, reveals that electorally strategic voters receive higher
levels of foreign aid over those who may be more in need
but support the opposition.
Individuals in constituencies that most strongly support the incumbent party benefit from more than three
times the amount of aid as those in constituencies supporting opposition parties, or about US$1.50 more in
World Bank and African Development Bank aid each year
on average.
The research also reveals a clear ethnicity bias, with individuals in constituencies that share the ethnicity with
the country’s leaders receiving about twice the aid, or
about US$0.80 more per year as those that don’t. In total
this means that these constituencies receive more than
US$4,000,000 more in aid each year on average.
Dr Ryan Jablonski wrote in the journal, “By following
the money in Kenya, I found a clear pattern of international aid being allocated according to the political allegiance of the beneficiaries. Aid is being spent on projects
that benefit the supporters of those in power, rather than
people who may be more in need but who would vote for
the opposition parties. An ethnic bias was also shown,
which, as ethnicity plays a clear role in how Kenyans vote,
also indicates that electoral strategy is a clear factor in deciding how aid is spent.”
This political bias has risen, Dr Jablonski argues, because aid agencies often lack the information required to
identify how best to allocate aid and so delegate this responsibility to the leaders receiving the funds.
The development community’s belief that donors
should cooperate with government agencies also encourages this bias. In nearly all but the most unstable political
environments, donors cooperate with government agencies in order to allocate aid.
This method of operation is enshrined in the 2005 Paris
Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the World Bank’s
policy is to rely on government systems for financial management and oversight unless the government has
demonstrated its inability to manage these tasks.
Another cause of bias is the fact, he states, that, “democratic leaders of any country govern with an eye on
winning re-election.” This enables us to extrapolate that
this political bias is not relegated to Kenya alone.
“Donors lack the knowledge required to allocate aid
directly, and so delegate this responsibility to recipient
governments” Dr Jablonski said. “Delegating aid allocation, however, has perverse consequences. Governments
may care about economic development, disaster relief or
other development objectives, but their first priority is to
remain in power. As a result, governments are using their
informational advantages over donors in order to allocate
a disproportionate share of aid to electorally strategic
supporters, allowing governments to translate aid into
votes.
“My findings do not indicate that international aid is
never benefiting those in need, but do suggest that agencies should exercise caution when relying on the advice of
governments on how to distribute aid. This is true even in
democratic countries since electoral competition can create incentives for governments to lobby for the misallocation of development aid.”
How Aid Targets Votes: the impact of electoral incentives
on foreign aid distribution by Dr Ryan Jablonski appeared
in the journal World Politics.
Follow us on Twitter
@NigerianWatch
POLITICSWATCH
News
Delivering cutting edge comment, opinion and analysis
tENSIoN rISES oVEr JoB-SEEKEr DEAthS
Blogger and social media activist Japeth omojuwa was
among seven people detained
by Nigeria’s security service (the
NSCDC) during a protest on
April 2 calling on President
goodluck Jonathan to sack
Abba Moro, the Minister of Interior, following the fatal recruitment drive he masterminded
that resulted in 19 young people being killed.
Widely credited with mobilising and leading the successful
fuel protests of January 2013,
omojuwa is described by femi
fani-Kayode as “one of the
most forthright voices in the
land and he cannot be silenced”.
the arrests resulted in a twitterstorm and have raised tensions in the country where
omojuwa is hugely respected as
a voice of reason and force for
good.
the protesters took to the
streets outside the ministry
building to symbolically deliver
the dead to the minister’s door,
in the form of coffins.
While they were awaiting
for them to be delivered, large
numbers of NSCDC officers
moved in, ordering them to
leave. the protesters however
refused and instead, waving a
large Nigerian flag before them,
marched towards the interior
ministry. Subsequently, the
Nigeria media reported, a pha-
Comment
lanx of officers moved in and
scuffles erupted between them
and the protesters.
these same media reports
quoted the security chief leading the NSCDC operation on the
ground as saying, “I have told
these people to leave this area; I
got an order twice not to allow
the protest. When the order
came first, I ignored it, then it
came the second time and now I
have to obey. It wasn’t even
from my oga. It was from someone very strong.”
omojuwa, who was released
later that evening, blogged,
“We are doing this because on
the 15th of March it wasn’t us
but on the next recruitment exercise, it could be any one of us.
We are doing this because we
want to live in a just and equitable society and we can’t
achieve that until government
stops rewarding the greedy and
incompetent. We are protesting
to remind you that over 17 people died because of the greed of
a few. And we should all stand
up until justice is served.”
Meanwhile notable Nigerians took to twitter in support of
the activist.
former education minister,
obiageli Ezekwesili expressed
her shock at the arrest. “Every
democracy that must succeed
must have citizens like omojuwa and Uche Briggs, fearless
in agitating for public good.
Better release them,” she said.
Mallam Nasir Elrufai, the APC
leader and former fCt minister
who also confirmed the incident
said he was in lagos but sent
lawyers to the police station
where omojuwa was being detained.
he further said that “we
have alerted the National
human rights Commission of
this gross violation of constitutionally guaranteed right to associate/protest.”
he later added, “We must all
respond to this unlawful detention with condemnation and
further action unless it abates
forthwith.”
Mr omojuwa and his colleagues were released that
evening.
BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS
Japeth Omojuwa’s fellow blogger and social media activist Azeenarh
Mohammed explains why the protest against Abba Moro was called
Seventeen Nigerians died. They died due to
the negligence and greed of Abba Moro.
Abba Moro is yet to be prosecuted and we
are here to remind Nigerians that 17 people
died.
They will of course try to discredit us.
They might send down thugs to start a
screaming fit within our lines. They might
even start a fight or two so their police and
civil security men can intimidate, harass, and
possibly arrest us. They will do anything they
can to take attention from what matters: that
greed and negligence resulted in the death of
17 of our comrades.
They won’t tell you that 20 people died in
this same exercise in 2008 and Abba Moro
was warned by the board of the Immigration
Service to postpone the exams so as to prepare adequately and avoid casualties; they
won’t tell you that he refused to spread the
exercise to universities and polytechnics to
avoid the crowd; they won’t tell you that he
knew all the venues were above capacity, they
won’t tell you that he insisted on awarding
this contract to Drexel Technologies LTD, a
company that hasn’t filed returns since 1994,
a company that benefited at least N693m
from this exercise and that has ties to the
minister himself.
Instead, they will write in the papers and
claim we are sponsored by the opposition.
That we are trying to stir up trouble. What
they won’t tell you is the hours we spent sending emails, DMs and SMS organising what
time and date worked for most. They won’t
tell you of the hours spent under the sun arguing about price, watching carpenters build
coffins from scratch in Kugbo.
They won’t tell you that we are just Nigerians who only want the rule of law to be applied. And we don’t ask for much: the
prosecution of the Minister of Interior Mr.
Abba Moro for murder.
They won’t tell you that P.A donated
1000, J.O donated 12000 and a further 30000.
They won’t tell you that M.Y donated 10000,
F.H donated 5500, K.A, M.A donated 1000,
Q.A donated 1000, S.A donated 1000, A.M
donated 10000, A.S donated 3000, D,O donated 1000, S.B donated 1000, J.A 1000 and
we are still raising money for next week’s
protest. They won’t tell you we spent 7000
last week on paint, 2000 on transportation,
60000 on coffins (6000 per coffin), 5000 for
transport (from town to Kugbo twice) and
4500 to deliver the coffins to Moro’s place,
7000 on two buckets of paint (oil and emulsion) or that we took our lunch hour and sacrificed personal time to make this happen.
They also won’t tell you that we aren’t
doing this just for those who died or got injured. Only the protesters can tell you why we
did this, and why we won’t stop until we get
justice.
We are doing this because on 15th of
March it wasn’t us but on the next recruitment exercise, it could be any one of us. We
are doing this because we want to live in a
just and equitable society and we can’t
achieve that until government stops rewarding the greedy and incompetent.
We are protesting to remind you that 17
people died because of the greed of a few.
And we should all stand up until justice is
served.
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NIGERIAN WATCH
11-24 Apr 2014
EDELWATCH
15
At last, I’m going back to my roots
Journalist Edel Meremikwu has done what many of us dream of – relocated to Nigeria. Here, in the first
of what will be regular despatches about her new life in Lagos, she explains why she made the big leap
S
o, you want to move back
to Nigeria?” These were
my father’s exact words to
me when I told him that I
wanted to return home.
His voice sounded normal
but his response was uncertain.
He said, “Are you sure you can live
in Nigeria? It’s not a holiday.”
“Yes, Daddy, I am sure,” I replied.
As a journalist and editor I have
always been a free-thinker, nononsense, break-the-rules wanderer,
believer and traveller. If I took a new
job in London it would have been a
horizontal move, one that brought me
centre stage with more shops and
boutiques in which to squander my
money.
I knew deeply that any move at
this stage in my career had to be a
vertical move, almost like a quantum
leap of faith, because I knew that I
needed much more than just a bigger
paycheck every month. I needed a
fresh start and a new challenge. These
were my reasons. I wanted to break
the norm and try what seemed
impossible.
I QUIt
So, a few weeks ago I quit London in
search of greener pastures, a more
certain weather forecast and less grey
thoughts. This was not an easy
overnight decision; this was a twoyear-long-suffering-what-shall-I-donext type of decision.
Now before you say here we go
again another returnee story, please
hear me out. I love London, it’s a
world class city and tourist
destination and one of the best places
to live, visit, shop and dine out. Truly,
there is nowhere in the world like it,
every corner of the globe can be
found in London and at night the
South Bank is one of the most
beautiful places in the world.
However, if like me you have lived
here all your life, you will know when
it’s time for something completely
new. I guess you could say that I was
just tired of the system of London, or
in other words the rat race. This rat
had become a one legged rat, hopping
half-heartily from one day to the next.
I was desperately in need of a
change of environment. I knew I
wanted to live and work back home.
SWItChINg lANES
So one rainy forgotten day last year,
whilst wondering “what if” I had a
light bulb moment when driving back
from Sainsbury’s after an interesting
conversation with an elderly cashier,
who had told me to travel the world.
She made me realise that with all due
respect to people who work long term
in one place, they are not dedicated
staff members, they are people who
had decided not to take risks and do
something different in life.
I shuddered at the thought.
Refusing to let that to be my fate in
London I made up my mind that I
must do what I love or die trying.
I slowly began to realise that those
that had left these shores for warmer
climates and different lifestyles did
not as my father liked to say “have
three heads”. So, with the mantra
that “if you have tried you have not
failed” firmly planted in my head, I
decided enough was enough,
somehow, some way, I must try to live
and work in Nigeria.
I began quietly to work hard to
prepare for a change that I knew in
my heart had to take place lest I
perish an unfulfilled and poor
intellectual in this cold place.
I became something of a door-todoor sales woman, downsizing big
time, giving clothes to charity, friends
and relatives and selling some of my
assets on eBay. I stopped driving and
even sold my beloved Audi A3 in
preparation for what was to become
one of the most exciting phases of my
life so far.
Looking back, clearing my house
and getting rid of some of the stuff I
had acquired over the years lifted a
huge weight off my shoulders and
somehow helped me to focus on
relocating somewhere new.
I was applying for jobs in Nigeria,
France, Dubai and the US for a year.
2013 ended but my hopes and dreams
did not. At the start of this year I got
a phone call about a job I had applied
for in Nigeria. Overwhelmed, I
accepted the offer, which was almost
too good to be true.
At the back of my mind I
considered perhaps taking sabbatical
leave as a safety net, as it dawned on
me that I did not have a Plan B. This
was the logical thing to do. I mean
what the heck was I going to do if it
didn’t work out?
Well honestly I did not know, but I
didn’t want to have a Plan B either
because I knew secretly that it would
sabotage my Plan A; I would always
feel I could potentially back out.
Looking back it was a huge
emotional rollercoaster of a decision
to make but when I finally embraced
it and signed on the dotted line, I
knew I had to make it work.
As I write this now, I am sitting on
the terrace of a beautiful restaurant
nearby my office, sipping an ice cold
Chapmans drink. I realise that in
taking this leap of faith, if nothing
else it has made me stronger and
taught me not be afraid even when
the stakes are high. Like the ancient
Chinese proverb says, “the journey of
a thousand miles starts with one
step”.
So here I am. I have taken the first
step.
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NIGERIAN WATCH
11-24 Apr 2014
WOMEN’SWATCH
Follow us on Twitter
@NigerianWatch
Ekanem Robertson is
co-presenter of The Woman
TV Show on Ben TV.
Write to
[email protected]
ER with the eagle eye
DoMEStIC VIolENCE IS All oUr BUSINESS
This article is about domestic
violence and abuse. The victims of
this phenomenon are predominantly
women. For the record, I
acknowledge that men are
sometimes unexpected victims and
children suffer too, either directly or
vicariously. However, the traditional
image of domestic violence is that of
man-on-woman and that is the focus
here and, for brevity, reference to
domestic violence shall include
domestic abuse and vice versa.
The home to which many women
return on a daily basis is more like a
battleground, rather than a loving
refuge. I have a close relative who suffered domestic violence for many years.
When I look back, I remember that I
did not like her husband from the moment I first set eyes on him, but he was
her choice!
The relationship started well
enough but deteriorated rapidly. She
was regularly beaten and verbally
abused by him in the presence of their
children. I remember her telling me
how anything could spark the violence.
She had no control over what happened to her daily; women living with
domestic violence often say that their
lives are not their own.
Their relationship spiralled from
her being beaten up, going to the hospital, reporting the situation to the police, logging the complaint and then
returning home again, only for the
cycle to start all over again.
And it was not just the physical violence; there was also a lot of psychological ill-treatment, which, on top of
the physical injuries, finally caused her
to suffer from acute depression.
This story gives you my personal
brush with domestic violence. While
researching this article, I wondered
about the nature and frequency of domestic violence in the wider Nigerian
community in London. So, I spoke to
a Nigerian social worker and she told
me that of the 20 black and ethnic mi-
nority cases that she was dealing with
currently, 10 of the cases involved
Nigerians and all of them involved domestic violence. If this is an indication
of the experience of other social workers in London, there is much work to
be done.
Last month (March 2014), saw the
publication of a major report on the
police response to domestic violence
in England and Wales. The report entitled Everyone’s Business: Improving
the Police Response to Domestic Abuse
is indeed timely, and it signposts a new
push by the establishment to tackle
what has become universally acknowledged as a blight on our society.
According to the report, “On average
the police receive an emergency call
relating to domestic abuse every 30
seconds.” So, how did we get here?
Well, all of the blame has been put
at the doorstep of the police by stakeholders; victims of domestic violence,
their helpers in voluntary and community organisations and members
of the general public. They have, over
the years admonished the police for
paying only lip service to the need to
curb this menace and for treating domestic violence like a second rate
crime, not worthy of their time.
Now, in this HM Inspectorate of
Constabulary (HMIC) report, which
was commissioned by the Home Secretary, the police have manned-up.
They concede that, “The overall police
response to victims of domestic abuse
is not good enough.” The report also
contains recommendations which will
help the police focus more on improving outcomes for the victims.
There is a caveat, however. The report insists that if we are to see a significant reduction in domestic violence
cases and an improvement in the effective protection of victims, the responsibility must be shared with all other
stakeholders in society. This thinking
is reflected in the choice of title for the
report, Everybody’s Business.
In line with this all-hands-on-deck
approach, I would like to suggest a few
ways in which we, women, can help
ourselves. I do not want to concentrate
on the blame game, I want to look at
what we can do – as women, as a group
and individually – to help ourselves.
In the first instance, I think that
women have a certain amount of control over the type of men that they
allow into their vicinity and their lives.
We have to exercise this power more intuitively.
While listening to an episode of the
Oscar Pistorius case, one of the pieces
of evidence that leapt out at me, was
the fact that Reeva Steenkamp (the
This is for the court to decide. All I am
saying is that it is clear from Reeva’s
own words that she was aware that she
was in a stormy and sometimes even
scary relationship, but she held on to
it. Enough said, as the case continues.
Ladies, let the truth be told. When
you first start going out with a new
man it is important to be vigilant and
remain vigilant before making a final
commitment. Most women, who are
abused by their partners, will tell you
that, in truth, when they look back, the
signs were there.
They simply ignored them. Please
do not ignore things that you see or
make you feel uncomfortable. Talk to
“It is clear from
Reeva’s own
words that she
was in a stormy,
sometimes
scary
relationship”
girlfriend he is accused of murdering)
had sent him a WhatsApp message in
which she said to him, “I’m scared of
you sometimes and how you snap at
me and of how you will react to me.
You make me happy ninety percent of
the time and I think we are amazing together.”
It occurred to me that Oscar Pistorius had revealed important traits in his
personality with which she was not too
comfortable, i.e the 10%. Sometimes
that’s all it takes for a tragic end, just
10%, or less. The case in court is to determine whether Mr Pistorius’ shooting of his girlfriend was premeditated.
someone else about it if you are not
sure. It is possible that your view is
clouded by what you feel for him.
If you speak to him about his actions, he may just convince you that it
was a mistake, or that he was too
drunk at the time or he really did not
mean it and, pricelessly, that he does
these things because he loves you so
much!!!
Generally speaking, abusers know
exactly what they are doing and are
usually ace manipulators. I know it is
often not easy to take a step back.
Often, with the biological clock ticking
loudly, women are drawn in to dodgy
relationships, like the proverbial moth
to the flame.
So ladies, what signs should we look
for? These men may be irritable and
some show clear signs of aggression.
Pay attention to the way that he handles other people; if he treats them
badly then do not ever think that he
will not do the same to you, just because he says he ‘loves you’ or because
he buys you gifts and makes you laugh.
It is just a matter of time before he will
treat you the same way.
Take note immediately. This man is
unconsciously ‘leaking’ out warning
signs for you to see. Do not ignore
them. How many times have you heard
a woman say, “I thought he would
change.” Forget it. He may NEVER
change, or at least not in time for you.
I am sure that you have heard the
saying, “Actions speak louder than
words.” There is a saying that is even
more apt for this subject matter,
“When someone shows you who they
are, BELIEVE them!”
My father used to ask me when I
was growing up how many times I had
to experience something before I
would learn the lesson. I realised then
that once was enough. But I have lived
long enough now to realise that it is
even wiser to learn from other people’s
experiences.
In the second instance, we have
those of you who are already in abusive relationships; you must seek help.
You too, can do with a measure of selfhelp. For example, please read the
HMIC Report and keep yourselves informed of developments and new interventions that you can tap into to
help you escape the cycle of abuse.
I hope the promise of the HMIC
Report and renewed commitment
from all stakeholders will take us to a
time when domestic violence becomes
the exception rather than the norm.
To read the HMIC report visit
http://www.hmic.gov.uk/news/newsfeed/police-response-to-domestic-abuse/
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LEISUREWATCH
NIGERIAN WATCH
11-24 Apr 2014
17
The Fortnight
What to see and do over the next 14 days...
Take your spring style
to the next level with
clever styling and a nononsense approach; effortless chic is always
great for this time of
the year. Our picks for this fortnight
are both essential and purse friendly
othEr
White tee Get some extra use of your
basic white tee by styling it with your
favourite off-duty attire, denim. Or
spruce up a clean
white flawless tee
shirt by pairing with
luxe pieces
for that laid
-back-butpolished sophisticated appearance. If your
wardrobe is lacking this indispensable item of clothing this is
the opportunity to pick the perfect one. Buy the best quality
that you can afford because it is
as timeless as life itself. The
trick is to go for the right cut for your
body shape. Think unadulterated cotton
in a cut that shows off your best assets.
Mesh This 80s wonder is
enjoying a renaissance as
a layering piece this season; creative crochet-like items offer a
modern update on grandma’s talent. From
dresses to accessories mesh will be offering
an airy option to your summer style. Wear
layered now to keep the look fresh out of
the park, or pick up a co-ord pair for a
dedicated nod to the
trend. A mesh skirt lined
in a contrasting fabric
speaks serious fashion
cred. Handbags, shoes
and even hats are appearing on the streets, paying
homage to this
tricky trend.
Courtney Pine
I want to work in
Africa
International jazz legend Courtney Pine CBE makes his annual
visit to harrow Arts Centre. Bringing together musicians from
Africa, the Caribbean and Europe,
you can expect vibrant exchanges
and an exhilarating mix of
Meringue, Ska, Mento and Calypso.
Harrow Arts Centre, Fri 25 Apr,
8pm, £18
www.harrowarts.com
Frances William’s book
I Want to Work in
Africa will be launched
with stories of enterprise, creativity and
commercial success.
Following the remarkable turnaround in the
Africa story, the author
and panel will ask what
this means for people
with an interest in
working in this most exciting and diverse continent.
many different types and
meanings of hairstyles
worn by Nigerian
women.
fIlM
Images of Black
Women Film Festival
The pioneering film festival, which promotes race
and gender equality both
in front and behind the
camera, returns with a
fantastic line-up for its
10th anniversary.
Deported
This documentary explores the controversial
issue of what happens to
deportees from Canada
and the US who are
forcibly returned home
to their homeland Haiti,
an issue currently affecting migrants in the UK.
Followed by a Q&A
with the filmmaker Laurence Magloire and
Jacqueline Mckenzie
from Hibiscus Initiatives,
an organisation that supports deported migrants
in the UK and abroad.
Royal Festival Hall, Until
Sun 27Apr, FREE
www.southbankcentre.co.uk
and societal pressures
and how it continues despite being illegal in the
UK.
Sat 12 & Sun 13 Apr, at 3pm
and 2.30pm respectively
Tricycle Cinema
www.tricycle.co.uk
Life will not give you what you deserve but rather what you demand.
Making satisfactory progress in life,
comes by a determined press, for
everything remains at a state of rest
until a force is applied. That is why
Jesus said in Matthew 11:12; “And
from the days of John the Baptist
until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it
by force.”
Life is a forceful adventure and
faith is a fight. Paul told timothy in
1Timothy 6:12; “Fight the good
fight of faith, lay hold on eternal
life…” To get to the top and remain
there, you must be determined to
do what is demanded. I always say
give life what it takes and not what
you have got.
There is a blessing in front of
you, there is a promised land ahead
of you. But just like in the bible
days every promised land has giants
and only the fearless and determined will eventually inherit the
land. An interesting story in
Deuteronomy 2:24 says; “Rise, take
your journey, and cross over the
River Arnon. Look, I have given into
your hand Sihon the Amorite, king
of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to
possess it, and engage him in battle.”
Though the land was given to
them by God they still needed to
fight for it before they could possess
the land.
fAIth IS Not PASSIVE
Waiting for a breakthrough in any
area of your life or endeavour is an
exercise in futility. God will move
on the behalf of those who move in
Join DJ Afrodeesia for
some seriously danceable
tunes from Nigeria,
Ghana and Ethiopia.
CCA Glasgow, 19 Apr, 8pm
peoplemakeglasgow.com
KIDS
Hairstyles and Headdresses
Digital Ghosts/Children Of The Revolution
This is the first UK exhibition by renowned
Nigerian photographer
J.D. Okhai Ojeikere. The
Hairstyles series began
in 1968, driven by a desire to document the
RELIGIONWATCH by Rev. Craig Isa
TAKE IT BY FORCE
Super Africaine
ExhIBItIoNS
the Cruel Cut
This film is a passionate
and exuberant exploration of the complex
world of Female Genital
Mutilation that gives an
insight into the cultural
MUSIC / gIgS
determination to lay
hold on their dreams.
Many times in the
bible Jesus commended the desperation and forceful efforts of men and women as
faith. So faith is a violent, aggressive force not a passive, laidback,
pitiable attempt at your pursuits in
life. So if you really believe in your
dreams, then arise and take it by
force as you go forth and prosper.
For Prayers and Counselling
You can contact Rev. Craig Isa at
The Citizens of Heaven (The Ark)
Scintilla – Km 20, Lekki-Epe Expressway. Between Chevron &
Oluwaninsola Estate, (Eleganza)
Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria
E-mail:
[email protected]
Phone: +234(0)8091110893
Children take centre
stage in these stage productions. Do we actually
communicate? Digital
Ghosts asks whether,
deep own, for all our
technological progress,
are we ok? Children of the
Revolution imagines a
world in which young
people take control and
being old enough to vote
is bad for your health. It
takes tongue-in-cheek
look at the Generation
Gap, media stereotyping
and the revolution we
never had.
Southwark Playhouse, 16-19
Apr, 7.30pm, Age 16+, £6
southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
Circus Family Workshop
Have fun tumbling, flying, swinging and spinning with your children
SOAS, Wed 23 Apr, 6-8pm,
FREE
www.royalafricansociety.org
The Pan-African History of Basil Davidson: Episode 3
‘Caravans of Gold’
Co-produced by the
Nigerian Television Authority, this award-winning series first aired 30
years ago. In this third
episode, Basil Davidson
re-traces the network of
long-distance routes of
Africa’s gold trade and
looks at how kingdoms
changed as a result of
trade and cultural exchanges. The screening
is followed by a Q&A.
SOAS, Tue 29 Apr, 7-9pm,
FREE
www.royalafricansociety.org
Wole Soyinka @ 80
Marking his 80th birthday, Soyinka joins editor and critic Margaret
Busby to reflect on his
large body of work and
the relationship between culture and politics, exploring how
literature and the arts
speak to the contemporary African experience. This event also
marks the launch of
Essays in Honour of
Wole Soyinka at 80 edited by Ivor AgyemanDuah and Ogochukwu
Promise.
The British Library, Thu 8
May, 6.30-8.30pm, £10
www.bl.uk
Bringing good food closer to you
FASHIONWATCH by Obah Iyamu
Cafe and African Restaurant
Famous Tuwo / Amala Abula Spot
6 Beckton Road
Canning Town London
E16 1EW
TEL: 0207 476 5591
TEL: 0207 476 8808
Opening Hours
Monday – Thursday
11:00am – 11.30pm
Friday – Saturday
11:00am – 12.30am
Sunday 11:00 – 10pm
272 Barking Road
East Ham, London E6 3BA
Tel: 0208 5522865
Mobile: 07814472757
Opening Hours
Sunday – Saturday
12noon – 10pm
285 – 287 Heathway
Dagenham RM9 5AQ
TELPHONE: 0208 984 8141
Opening hours
Sunday – Saturday
11:00am – 9pm
in this family workshop
led by Vicki Amedume,
Artistic Director of Upswing.
The Albany, Sun 27 Apr,
12pm & 2.30pm, Age 3+, £14
www.thealbany.org.uk
Tasty Authentic West African Flavours
at Affordable Prices
www.squiresrestaurant.co.uk
AFROHITS
18
NIGERIAN WATCH
11-24 Apr 2014
w w w. a f r o - h i t s . c o m
gAllArDo – rUNtoWN ft DAVIDo
this new offering from Penthauze records is set to cause a stampede on the
dance floors. With a sombre yet pulsating production style, accompanied by
a dark but vibrant video, Gallardo does justice to its name, extolling the
virtues of the lamborghini car of its title. With Mr Peters on director duties
this video shows runtown to definitely be an artist to watch, especially as
he’s on the same label as Phyno of Parcel fame and these guys ain’t known
for doing things by halves. Just check the roll call. Slick visuals – check. hot
ladies as extras – check. Brilliant production – check. great vocals – check.
What more do you want? Check it out on the Afrohits Charts.
AfrohItS ChArt
1 Magic System ft Chawki - Magic In the
Air
2 fuse oDg - Million Pound girl (Badder
than Bad)
3 Kcee ft Wizkid - Pull over
4 tiwa Savage ft Don Jazzy - Eminado
5 Iyanya - le Kwa Ukwu
6 os Detroia - Bela
7 timaya - Ukwu
8 Kcee - hakuna Matata
9 olamide - Anifowose
10 r2bees love
11 Uhuru ft Dj Buckz, oskido, Professor
And Uri-Da-Cunha y -tjukutja
12 olamide - Sitting on the throne
13 Shatta Wale - gal Wuk It
14 runtown ft Davido - gallardo
15 DJ Clock ft Beatenberg - Pluto
(remember you)
16 Sneakbo ft l Marshall - her Name
17 goldie ft J Martins - give It to Me
18 Dee Moneey ft Sarkodie & J town finish line
19 May D ft Davido - Ur Eyes
20 Castro ft (Asamoah gyan) & Kofi
Kinaata - odo Pa
BEAUTYWATCH by Funmi Odegbami
New beauty discoveries
This has been a truly interesting week for me full of new product discoveries, and I could not wait to tell you all about
it. First off I went to a MAC makeup masterclass – I haven’t been to one of those in about four years – and learnt
about some of their lush new products, well new to me. I coloured my hair with organic henna that I ordered from
Amazon; I confess that I am a true Amazon addict; I tried out two new products for my hair and achieved some great results. And I
held a fun makeup masterclass at MiNK London HQ, where my students and I had an interesting discussion about eyes and eye care.
So I do have a lot to share with you in this edition of Beauty Watch, so please bear with me.
MAC MAKEUP DISCoVErIES
We have all heard about blot powders
and most of us will have used one at
some point in our lives. However I have
just discovered that in addition to providing essential shine control, MAC’s
blot powder also sets foundation like a
dream and because it doesn’t contain
any talc you do not get a cakey build up
of product on your face regardless of
how often you top up. The blot powder
contains Mica and Silica to absorb excess oils and reduce shine on the skin’s
surface. If you are a studio fix girl this is
also perfect for touching up your studio
fix powder throughout the day. If you
already knew this, then please excuse
me for stating the obvious but this was
a completely new discovery for me.
MACADAMIA oIl
Having a product that’s nearly perfect
and versatile is hard to come by.
macadamia oil is one. First off,
macadamia oil is highly nutritious and it contains a very
high amount of Palmitoleic
acid (an omega 7 fatty acid),
which is what helps skin stay
young looking. It is nongreasy and lightweight,
and absorbs into the hair
easily instead of it causing
build up or residue.
Macadamia oil, compared to other oils like
flaxseed, coconut oil, sunflower and olive, is the
premium oil in comparison.
This and argan oils are the
best oils of choice for your hair. Your
hair will experience wonderful results. I
know that mine has.
PUrE orgANIC hENNA
Henna is a reddish-brown dye made
from the powdered leaves of a tropical
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LEISUREWATCH
shrub, used to colour the hair and decorate the body. However henna is also a
hair growth remedy and it has many
properties that benefit natural hair.
Henna won’t stop damaged hair
from breaking or splitting. It will not
mend split ends – nothing will. Henna
will, however, fortify your strands, reduce breakage and prevent the damage
that causes split ends in the first place.
It mimics a protein treatment which is
why you must use a moisturising conditioner immediately following a henna
application to keep your hair soft and
pliable.
ShEA BUttEr
Shea butter restores moisture and softness to thirsty tresses from the root to
the tip. It is even beneficial for dry, itchy
scalp. Shea butter has also been known
to tame and “clump” curls, as well as
reduce frizz – so it’s a natural pomade!
It will also protect your hair from damage due to the weather, dryness and
brittleness.
Having recently discovered shea butter, I have also started to use the stuff
on my natural hair. It is one of the few
products that help to keep the hair on
my head soft.
AlBA BotANICA KUKUI NUt orgANIC
hAWAIIAN BoDy oIl
No matter what time of the year it is,
keeping your skin properly moisturised
can be difficult. In the winter, the lack
of humidity and cold air causes your
skin to get a little dry, while in
the summer extra exposure to
the sun leaves your skin in
need of more hydration. My
new favourite body oil at
the moment is Alba Botanica Kukui Nut Organic
Hawaiian Body Oil.
Made from Kukui nut, this
body oil is high in essential
fatty acids, and works its
magic to nourish, hydrate
and protect skin from moisture loss. Sweet almond, coconut, flaxseed and
sunflower oils douse skin in
silky perfection and leave
your skin smelling divine. Best of all it is
all natural with no parabens, sulfates,
phthalates, or artificial colours. You have
to try it to believe it and I love it.
VIVA glAM rIhANNA lIPStICK
I’m not one to jump on the band
wagon of a celebrity endorsed product;
however I have to say that Rihanna's
new blue-red VIVA Glam lipstick with a
frost finish is pretty awesome. What do
I like about it? It looks expensive! It
must be the tiny gold flecks in the lipstick, but there is something really chic
about this offering. It’s a limited edition
product so make sure you get your
hands on it while it is still available.
Mrs O’s food odyssey
How to keep an
African man happy
Pepper soup, that most delightful
of dishes capable of fighting off
any cold, aches and pains, tiredness or just any bland, English
rainy day… the possibilities are
endless and a steamy, hot bowl of
pepper soup is sure to keep any
Nigerian man very happy indeed!
Isn't it strange therefore that I
had never so much as attempted
to make pepper soup before? The
unfamiliar ingredients, the unusual scents… Time therefore to
grab the bull by the horns and
throw myself in the deep end.
Like Jollof rice, pepper soup
comes in many varieties, comprising local spices and herbs depending on your tribe. It can be
made with fish, beef, chicken,
goat, offal, anything that tickles
your man’s fancy, really. For
those of you unfamiliar with
some of the ingredients, here is
my lowdown on the key ones:
Pepper soup mix
The main ingredient that gives
the soup its distinctive flavour is
of course pepper soup mix, which
most shops sell ready-to-use.
While it is possible to grind
your own spice, I struggled to
find information on some of the
ingredients, let alone finding
them in a shop (aziza and ahuru
seeds for example).
herbs and spices
ground Uda seed: a pungent
and aromatic spice with a bitternutty taste. The seeds grow inside pods on the ‘peppertree’,
an evergreen in West Africa.
Uda seeds can be substituted by
a mixture of half pepper / half
nutmeg.
Utazi: a bitter-tasting pale green
leaf that should only ever be
used sparingly. It can be used as
a substitute for bitter leaves.
Uziza: West African pepper from
climbing vines native to central
and West Africa. It gives the
soup heat and a spicy, pungent
aroma.
Plus Pepper seed, Knorr powder,
aziza and ahuru seeds
Uziza leaves
These are the glossy leaves from
the climbing vines that also give
us uziza seeds. The leaves have a
spicy scent and a wonderful
aroma.
Join me on my journey and if
you have any suggestions for
dishes that I should try then
email me on [email protected].
I am a fan of crispy skin but otherwise prefer fish without the
skin. I have incorporated this in the recipe below, perhaps ‘westernising’ it a little, but if you prefer to leave the skin on then just
leave the fish in the pot.
FISH PEPPER SOUP RECIPE
Ingredients
200g yam
1 large onion, chopped
1 tbsp. oil
1 Tilapia (or other firm flesh
fish; Sea Bream, Red Snapper,
Catfish)
1 tbsp. pepper soup spice mix
1 Scotch Bonnet pepper,
finely chopped or 1 tbsp.
dried African hot pepper
500 ml water
1-2 Knorr stock cubes
1 tbsp. dried uziza leaves
1 tbsp. ground crayfish
Salt to taste
Cooking Instructions
1 First, slice, peel and cut
the yam into large
chunks. Bring them to a
boil in a pot with a little
salt until cooked. This
should take 15 minutes
or so. Drain and set
aside.
2 In another pot, heat
the oil and soften the
onions for 5 minutes on a
low heat.
3 In the meantime, wash
and cut the fish into
steak-like chunks of
about 1” wide. Add to
the softened onions, together with the water
and Knorr stock cubes. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes
until the fish is cooked. With a slotted spoon, take the fish out
and remove the skin. Set aside.
4 Add the pepper soup mix, chopped Scotch Bonnet (or dried
African pepper), and ground crayfish to the liquid and cook for
a further 5 minutes.
5 Then add the uziza leaves, boiled yam and cooked fish and
heat through for another five minutes before serving.
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EDUCATIONWATCH
LIVERPOOL HOPE UNIVERSITY
We offer an exciting range of undergraduate
degree programmes, postgraduate taught and
research degrees and PGCE courses.
There’s nowhere better to
do a degree than in the UK
A generous range of scholarships is available.
Meet our representatives at:
• SI-UK University Fair, Saturday 1st March, London
• Brooke House College University Fair,
Thursday 1st May, Market Harborough
Emmanuel Osamudiamen
Idahor describes his
decision to come to a
British university after
high school in Nigeria
YOUR FUTURE STARTS WITH HOPE
T: 0151 291 3389
E: [email protected]
www.hope.ac.uk/international
A
fter I finished high school, I knew
what I wanted from myself and
what I really wanted to study but I
didn’t know where I was going to
get it. I knew I was going to study engineering
but I didn’t know where I wanted to study it.
This became very confusing. There are so
many countries and universities where you can
get the best education, but it’s not about the
best but about the level of being the best which
now became a matter of choice for me.
As we all know engineering degrees are always completed in 5 years in most countries
but in the United Kingdom it’s all done in
about 3 years (without foundation) or 4 years
(with foundation). Why study for 5 years when
I can get the same degree in three or four
years? So I opted for the UK.
We all know there are lots of good universities in the United kingdom but I had to look
at certain criteria;
1 I needed a university close to london. It’s
definitely one of the greatest cities in the
world with great cultural diversity.
2 I didn’t want to attend a university in london because it’s really busy and you have
rush hour every morning. It isn’t really my
way of life.
3 A university among the top 20 universities
in the UK.
4 A top modern university and among the
top 15 in engineering.
I looked nowhere else than the University of
Hertfordshire. It has everything I needed and
I didn’t think twice in making my decision.
Admission application was quite fast and
easy and on arriving in the UK it was like a
dream come true, a very beautiful environment
with world-class facilities and structures. I’m
majoring in Digital Communications and
Electronics Engineering and am loving every
bit of it. The average class size is 20 students
Study Law at the
University of Reading
and it’s not just learning theoretically, you
learn practically. The students are really
friendly, irrespective of their nationality. I love
football, so I wanted to see the football pitch
and as I expected it was awesome and of
course we have varieties of football pitches.
The social life is not something to be over
emphasised. We have the University Forum,
which is a lovely place to relax and have fun
every day, or you could take a train or bus
down to London. Like I said, a lot of options
to pick from. I’m still enjoying every bit of my
stay here. You should come find out for yourself. You won’t regret it.
I hope students who are graduating from
high school all over the world would want to
come here and study at the University of Hertfordshire. Don’t think too much, make your
decision now. I was in your shoes and I have
already done the thinking. You would love it
here – just the way myself and every other student from other countries do and have done. I
really do hope to see you soon studying with
us. Come join us, you won’t regret it.
Emmanuel Osamudiamen Idahor is an international student from Nigeria, studying at the
University of Hertfordshire. He is currently
studying B(Eng) Digital Communications and
Electronics Engineering.
www.hic.navitas.com/
The
The S
School
chool is
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Forr more info
ormation, please contact: School of L aw | Foxhill House | Universit y off Reading | Whiteknights | Reading RG6 7BA | United Kingdom
Or v isit www.reading.ac.uk/international
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www.facebook.com/uorschooloflaw Email [email protected]
Study Engineering
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DR S O NWAUBANI April 12th
To the greatest man in our world. A gift given
from the Almighty. A gift we like to call Daddy!
Happy Birthday! Lots of love Chioma, Chidi,
Emeka & Stella
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NIGERIAN WATCH
14-27 Mar 2014
SPORTWATCH
23
NIGERIAN ‘MESSI’ IN BARCA BAN
TEAM AFRICA TAKE LEAD
INTO SAN FRANCISCO
Invest Africa has taken the
lead in race 10 of the round
the World Clipper challenge,
heading to the San francisco
finish line at the time of going
to press.
Invest Africa are just ahead
of their nearest rivals, great
Britain, with both teams expected to cross the line under
the golden gate Bridge within
hours of one another.
In their best performance
so far in the Clipper 2013-14
race, will it be third time lucky
for the African sponsored
entry as the team vies for their
third podium position?
Skipper rich gould says;
“All eyes are now on the
weather forecast, which predicts that the wind is expected
to decrease to almost nothing,
for now the weather is holding out, and we’re keeping up
good speed.”
Watch the race unfold on
the Clipper round the World
website race viewer;
http://yb.tl/clipper2013-race10
A young Nigerian football
prodigy is at the centre of
the storm that has resulted
in Barcelona being banned
by FIFA from signing any
players for next season
after being found guilty of
repeatedly breaching transfer regulations. The heavy
sanction, which covers the
summer and January
transfer windows, followed
an investigation into the
Spanish champion’s signing of players under the age
of 18 from 2009-13.
The origins of the ban can
be traced back to the improper
signing of 10 players, including
Nigeria’s
Bobby
Adekanye, whose parents live
in the Netherlands.
FIFA only sanction international youth transfers if the
player’s parents have moved
country for their own, non-related reasons; the move happens within the European
Union and the player is aged
16-18; or the player’s home is
less than 50km from the national border crossing.
Adekanye, aged 15, who
has reputedly received mentoring from Lionel Messi and is
considered a footballing
prodigy, has also been banned
from taking part in competitive
games along with several of
the other young signings involved in the investigation
since February 2013. He is currently training with his team
mates
at
La
Masia
(Barcelona’s youth academy).
Barcelona have 90 days to
‘regularise the situation of all
10 minor players concerned’.
What this implies for
Adekanye’s future in Spain remains to be seen as the club are
expected to appeal against the
decision.
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NIGERIAN WATCH
15-28 Feb 2014
SPORT WATCH
April 11th - 24th 2014
nigerianwatch.com
INSIDE
ADEKANYE
BARCA
BAN
“SEE THE HUNGER”
The hunt to find young Nigerian footballers
to contest the first-ever U-15 African Nations Cup UK drew a staggering 150 players
from across the UK to the trials at the
Meridian Sports and Social Club in Charlton over the weekend (April 5 and 6).
“See the hunger to represent their country,”
By AJ JAMES
declared a delighted head coach David Doherty.
“There are so many talents here, some have
come from academies in Manchester and Birmingham.
“This is why Nigeria should be engaging with
us at grassroots level. This is where the strength
is, where the future is. They should be looking at
how they can support these people.”
Of the 150 who turned up at the trials only
24 will be selected to contest the Cup. The lucky
ones will get to represent the U-15 Super Eagles
UK in a number of friendlies, before entering
the cup run.
Eight countries will compete for the inaugural U-15 African Nations Cup UK title; Nigeria,
Uganda, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Morocco, Kenya,
Zanzibar Island and Gambia. And the final will
be staged in May at Leyton Orient’s Brisbane
Road stadium.