Veteran Nigerian singer Queen Salawa Abeni has exposed an unidentified individual for threatening to upload her nude pictures on the internet.
The 58 years old waka musician, who came to lime light in 1976 with a debut album titled Late General Murtala Ramat Mohammed took to her verified Instagram page to condemn at attempt to blackmail her for money.
Salawa, whose debut album became the first recording by a female artist to sell over a million copies in Nigeria had revealed the blackmail on Wednesday April 1, 2020.
She wrote “I am very disappointed that someone somewhere will try to tarnish my image and threaten to destroy my career of over 45 years. This morning, I received messages from somebody threatening to expose very old pictures of me and in the process, blackmailing me for money.”
She noted that the pictures which the alleged blackmailer claimed to possess could have been taken while on hospital bed or with her partner many years ago.
The queen of Waka pleaded with Nigerians to be careful stating that “our current situation has made people very desperate. I am almost 60 years old, I have worked very hard and made a name for myself for somebody to believe that they can threaten and trample on my feelings, this is very sad.”
Salawa explained that she had uploaded the pictures herself for everyone to see so as not to be bullied by a blackmailer.
“Thank you and God bless you! For you the blackmailer, I refuse to be bullied by you as I’m sure that I’m old enough to be your MOTHER!!, “ she added.
Meanwhile, prominent Nigerians who responded to the call-out have encouraged and praised the Waka crooner for daring to be bold and not yield to intimidation by faceless elements.
Celebrity publisher, Dele Momodu wrote “Blackmailers are usually COWARDS… Well my very dear @officialsalawaabeni”.
In their reactions, celebrated Nollywood thespians Ajoke Silva and Mercy Aigbe wrote respectively- “Well done girl. You took the power away from the fool” and “Now this is how you do it….. Respect ma! You are an epitome of strength! A Queen in all ramifications! Nothing and no one can bring you down! Sending you lots of love ma.”
In a show of respect and love for Abeni, others advised that the phone number of the faceless individual be reported to the authorities for investigation in a bid to make the blackmailer face the wrath of the law.
Wife of Ogun State Governor, Mrs. Bamidele Abiodun has declared support and unwavering commitment to the plight of Widows in Ogun State through the provision of skills acquisition, financial management and emotional management programmes.
Mrs. Bamidele Abiodun made the declaration while addressing Widows from all Local Government Areas in the state at the commemoration of the International Widow’s Day 2019 that was held at the June 12 Cultural Centre in Abeokuta the State capital.
In her speech, the First Lady reiterated the commitment of the current administration in the state to address and improve the welfare of the people.
She said: “This administration brings to you a renewed sense of hope to prosper, a supportive community and a sincere action towards achieving fulfillment and recognition for our mothers, sisters and daughters who have been neglected in the society.”
Her Excellency, Mrs Bamidele Abiodun noted that the present government has a strong will to end the scourge of poverty and disabuse that widows often experience.
“We are committed to empowering our widows by providing them with the tools, skills and support necessary to create a life for themselves and their children following the death of their husbands.”
To develop specific need-based programmes that will directly improve the lives of widows, Mrs. Abiodun stated that: “It is important to this administration to have good knowledge and understanding of their needs.”
We will be meeting with widows’ representatives from various communities across all Local Government Areas.”
The First Lady ceased the occasion to announce her upcoming plans that is aimed at eradicating poverty and emotional sufferings amongst widows in Ogun State.
She stated as a critical enabler of her programmes, “the creation of a database where all widows in Ogun State will be registered.”
“The ministry of women affairs will be responsible for ensuring that this database is up to date”, Abiodun added.
For proper coordination, Mrs. Abiodun said: “Wives of Local Government Chairmen will ensure to have quarterly meetings with all widows in their local governments so as to monitor and track their development.”
This will also foster a sense of community and sisterhood among widows in all Local Governments.”
While lamenting the neglect of widows who go through the effect and limitations of poor emotional and mental well-being and issues such as grief from the loss of a husband, Mrs Bamidele Abiodun pledged that never again will such abandonment happen.
She said: “We will be taking on mental and counseling programmes across various communities in all Local Government Areas.”
Before the end of the year, there will be a 2day workshop for widows below the age of 55 on financial literacy and tips to manage personal finance as well as to develop and manage business activities.”
Her Excellency, Mrs Bamidele Abiodun further reiterated her commitment to ensuring a successful implementation of these programmes by partnering with private organizations and private individuals who will sponsor widows in Ogun State.
The event, which was first of its kind in Ogun State was graced by the Executive Governor of the State, His Excellency, Prince Dapo Abiodun.
In his address, the governor disclosed that his administration will soon begin a Micro-Credit Scheme for women traders, which will cut off challenges associated with raising funds from commercial financial institutions but give them access to grants.
The scheme which is tagged Oko’wo Dapo, is one of the welfare programmes of the governor Dapo Abiodun led administration.
Governor Abiodun stated that “our government is committed towards eradicating the rate of unemployment among youths in the state.”
He assured the people that the process to enable government establish a Job Creation and Youth Employment Agency is in line.”
He said further that the agency will be saddled with developing a portal that will house the database of youths across the state, indicating their skill set for the purpose of matching such with employments.
The event, which was themed Renewed Hope for Widows was organized by the Office of the First Lady of Ogun State in line with the United Nation’s objective of drawing attention to the voices and experiences of widows and to galvanize the unique support that they need.
Dignitaries who attended the event include the Deputy Governor, Engr. Noimot Salako Oyedele; newly sworn in officials- Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Olatokunbo Joseph Talabi and Chief of Staff to the Governor, Alhaji Shuaib Afolabi Salisu.
Others are Wife of Speaker, Ogun State House of Assembly, Mrs Victoria Oluomo; Wife of Head of Service, Alhaja Oluyemisi Bisiriyu; Olori Bimpe Gbadebo; wives of Honourable Members of the State House of Assembly; wives of permanent secretaries and other invited guests.
As the inauguration of the 9th National Assembly draws close, some politicians have taken a different view from that of the APC chairman, Adams Oshiomhole on how the leadership election of the Senate and House of Representatives should be approached.
Days after the public declaration by the National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, saying that his party has the numbers to take all the key positions of the national assembly without the help of the PDP, some politicians think it is alright to discus and negotiate with the opposition.
While responding to questions on a breakfast show in Lagos, a member of the Bauchi state House of Assembly, Ibrahim Bala Hassan said:
“Politics is all about discussions, listening to people and coming to terms with using diplomacy to agree on certain issues. So you have to agree to disagree.”
Hassan, who referred to himself as a strong party man who believes in the supremacy of the party stated that In the case of the upcoming national assembly leadership elections a number of things would happen.
He said: “There has to be series of discussions, there has to be series of disagreements, and what we expect in the upcoming election is to have less rancorous kind of election unlike the 2015 elections whereby there were series of rebellion against the party as we call it.”
Hassan noted that all candidates put forward by the APC leadership were only mere recommendations and not an imposition on the incoming 9th National Assembly.
“So Senator Ahmed Lawan and the house leader, Femi, they were not imposed, they were recommended. It is left for the two candidates to convince their colleagues that they are after the task to be the speaker and the senate president of the Federal Republic”, Hassan said.
The Bauchi state House of Assembly member reiterated that lawmakers at both the state and national level have the right to decide for themselves without being dictated to.
“Even if the party chairman, with all due respect, has his own position, as members of the national parliament we have our own opinion about how to make our party to win the leadership. We are not arguing with the chairman but there has to be a different approach’, Hassan said.
In his own reaction to the issue, the Spokesperson of the Turaki Vanguard, Chris Nwaokobia expressed worry that the concept of party supremacy, which according to him is only an element of parliamentary democracy, is imported into a presidential democracy like Nigeria’s.
Nwaokobia said “Very often you hear people in presidential democracy talk about party supremacy, you wonder what information they are leaving our children with. Party supremacy is primarily a dogma of parliamentary democracy.”
That is why in this country we have seen a speaker of the House of Reps from a minority party, Ume Ezeoke in the second Republic, also a senate president from a minority party. That is why we have the uproar about whether the APC can do it alone or they would have to negotiate and discuss with the PDP”, he said.
Nwaokobia explained that “the party, based on how we practice our democracy appears to be supreme. But in a presidential democracy, that is why when you talk about the leader of the APC, you talk about either President Muhammadu Buhari or Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, you are not calling the chairman.”
To drive home his point that the idea of party supremacy that is being sounded aloud by the APC National Chairman does not hold in Nigeria’s presidential democracy, Nwaokobia made effort to distinguish the parliamentary democracy.
He said: “I’ll give you a practical example. You do not perhaps know the name of the Democratic Party chairman in the United States of America, the name of the chairman of the Republican Party, even in Ghana. This is because they run a presidential democracy.”
It is simply about the people. I am not saying that the party position should not be respected. In parliamentary democracy basically, the party that wins forms government and follow in totality the ideology of the political party”, he explained.
Chris Nwaokobia also stated that while the APC chairman, Adams Oshiomhole insists on having APC members taking over all leadership positions at he National Assembly, he advises that the Nigerian people and the nuances of governance under the country’s current presidential democracy should rather be supreme.
He noted that: “In the United States of America, you must go into proper negotiation with the opposition parties. You must understand that in the chamber what you have are representatives of the people. And the representatives of the people must decide who becomes Speaker of the House of Reps or the President of the Senate.”
I am not throwing away the fact that the party has policies of programmatic that it needs the speaker and the senate president to push. But I am saying that the grand standing, the headmaster-pupil proclamation of the chairman of the APC, the nuances and body language of the APC does not run in tandem with the normative of presidential democracy”, Nwaokobia said.
In most developed and some developing climes that have evolved over time and have entrenched democracy and sustainable tenets of social and economic development, certain indices of development are not debatable as to whether desirable or otherwise. Whichever Government holds power, either liberal or conservative or even socialist, such tenets are usually sustained with some minor or operational changes in line with its ideological orientation that doesn’t undermine the fundamentals of such programs in the society.
In Canada for example, three provinces have successfully transitioned from a joint provincial- local funding system to a provincial-level funding system—a system that has the potential to promote at least equality, if not equity, in the funding of education.
In essence, it is almost unthinkable for a new Government at the Provincial level to change this major principle about educational funding irrespective of its ideological bias. This system or arrangement of funding schools has become a norm and tradition that is now immune from ideological shift of a new government. This continuity in policy has ensured stability of funding and assured sustainability of qualitative education.
The United States of America has developed its social security program over 200 years through successive governments of different persuasions. This program has retained its core elements with only minor adjustments to its operations and procedures over time.
Some countries and provincial governments in Africa have embraced this approach to development. Rwanda’s Strategic approach to developing its health sector is worthy of being a case study. According to the World Bank, in line with the 2018/24 National Health Sector Strategic Plan, the Rwandan authorities have set a bold target for all districts to decrease a stunting rate to 19% by 2024. To succeed in this endeavor, the Rwanda Economic Update makes several policy recommendations. One of such is for Rwanda to adopt a mass approach, targeting the poorest children less than 2 years of age during the critical 1,000-day development window; beyond which stunting is largely irreversible.
In Nigeria, the Ogun State government developed a 20 year plan and aggressively pursue its implementation. This plan now running into its fourth year is designed to achieve sustainable development which requires continuity in its implementation in order to realize the dream of irreversible growth, and consolidate on the current gains made in the development of infrastructure.
Proposed Abeokuta City Centre under construction by Governor Amosun’s government
Infrastructural development as it is currently being pursued will propel the state’s socio-economic potentials; act as driver for productivity and critical enabler of sustainable economic growth. The provision of infrastructure in forms of roads, bridges, schools, water etc, will certainly lead to creation of new jobs in the retail and industrial sectors. The bottom line effects are significant reduction in poverty, accelerated human capital development and a successful record of realizing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Aerial view of road network in Abeokuta, Ogun state
In his conference paper titled “Infrastructure Problems of Developing Nations and Sustainable Development: August 2006”, an independent researcher Olufemi Adedamola Oyedele lend credence to the Ogun State Government’s trajectory. He stated that: “there is no doubt that infrastructure is the key component of the investment climate…” He argued further that “fundamentally, infrastructure promotes trade and integration into world markets…”
At this stage of Ogun State development, one would wish it were possible to legislate for a certain percentage of CAPEX to be pegged at a certain bracket for a number of years just to accelerate development. There is no doubt that many states in Nigeria are far behind in infrastructural development. However, the quantum leap Ogun State achieved under the leadership of Senator Ibikunle Amosun FCA, CON has significantly accelerated development and gratify the needs and demands of the residents for a better socio-economic wellbeing.
Ogun State leaps from the 29th position it occupied prior to the advent of the Amosun administration to its 2nd position in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) in 7 years to the admiration of many States. What the Senator Ibikunle Amosun led government has achieved proves that if we cannot establish or legislate some development principles, we can at least crave sustainable growth and have convergence of ideas on certain indices as path to socio-economic development in terms of the emerging paradigm shift.
In 2016 the National Bureau of Statistics released its report on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of all the states in Nigeria for 2015. The statistics showed a decrease in the total IGR of all the states of the federation by comparing the IGR of 2014 and 2015. The IGR of 2014 was N707.8 billion while that of 2015 stood at N683.6 billion. Even in the face of this decline, Ogun State still recorded one of the highest increases in IGR (49.42%). This feat was maintained in 2018 according to BudgIT, a civic and IT organization. It is being projected that Ogun State IGR is marching towards N10 billion a month by the last quarter of 2019.
As the electorates gears up to elect a new leadership in February, some questions agitate the mind. How can Ogun State continue to be more prosperous through increase in IGR that will provide the badly needed resources to develop all rural and urban areas of the State? What fate awaits the 20-year development plan? And which candidate can be trusted to continue the progressive development plan?
There are four candidates from four political parties amongst many that are the top contenders for the coveted seat. They are Gboyega Nasiru Isiaka (ADC), Abdulkabir Adekunle Akinlade (APM), Buruji Kashamu/ Ladi Adebutu (PDP) and Dapo Abiodun (APC).
Considering their antecedents and campaign promises, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) gubernatorial candidate, AbdulKabir Adekunle Akinlade fits the bill. He is credited with having played a major role in the financial re-engineering of the Ogun State Internal Revenue Service (OGIRS). Akinlade, in 2011 was in the team that prepared the tax template that progressively delivered a sustained growth for the State. By 2016, that template achieved a 49.42% increase in Internally Generated Revenue.
In 2017, the State ranked 3rd behind Lagos and Rivers on IGR.
Since the inception of the current administration in 2011, over 700 companies have berthed in Ogun State. Reforms by the Amosun administration paid off and were recognized by the World Bank that it ranked the State 2nd in Ease of Doing Business. A feat only achieved by dedication and hard work.
The latest IGR report published in December 2018 revealed that only Lagos and Ogun State generated more IGR than the revenue received from the Federal Allocation by 105% and 107% respectively.
Undoubtedly, these feats were not achieved by the Governor alone. The credit goes to him and his team, which included Abdulkabir Adekunle Akinlade who is now vying for the seat of governor.
Having witnessed this much infrastructural development in almost 8 years, it is expected that Ogun residents would wish for nothing but sustainable growth. This can only be achieved by continuing the Mission to Rebuild Ogun State (MITROS). APM Gubernatorial candidate can be trusted to continue the implementation of the 20-year development plan.T
Tobiloba Kolawole is a public affairs analyst and public relations expert.
A training and development organization, Purpose Power and Lifestyle Design (PPLD) International is set to train young graduates through its Prep for Success (PFS) programme.
According to the Chief Inspiration Officer of the organization, Tunde Makun, the PFS will hold for two days, Thursday 24th and Friday 25th.
The Prep for Success programme, which is in its 13th edition, is the company’s initiative to breeding a new crop of business and thought leaders who will drive the emerging African continental growth.
Makun said: “Our young graduate population continues to grow rapidly in the job market. And while that’s going on, confusion and disenchantment deepen. For the few who are lucky to be invited for interview, most employers aren’t pleased with the quality of the interview candidates. Clearly, we have a duty to not only provide for them, but also to guide them.
“That’s why we created the hugely experiential graduate Prep for Success
PFS training program to help Young Graduates lay an amazing foundation for a fast-track into the future; securing and growing in a choice career or business”, Makun noted.
Some of the facilitators and sponsors that will attend the training are Mrs Gbemisola Adetola, a Public Relations Consultant; Mrs Adebola Fashaun, a retired Judicial Officer and Mrs Bioye Animashaun, a Legal Practitioner.
Makun added that, “The truly transformational 2-day PFS program is the code you need to navigate the future with confidence. Now in its 13th class, the testimonials from this program have been phenomenal.
Tunde Makun, a successful entrepreneur in the oil and Gas marketing industry also expressed regret that the country is not thinking much about the young ones. He noted that in 2019, PPLD will do a lot to deepen its connection with the youth especially, helping them to navigate through tortuous environment to attaining successful careers.
He said: “Our connection with the youth this year is very ambitious. We are looking at reaching to as much as a 1 million youth. The idea is to make sure that there are some key deliverables. Leadership is one of them, and helping them to redefine how to live in a community.
“We want to train the youth to lead themselves in a community where they live according to rules of engagement that works for communal living rather than individual living”, Makun said.
Notable past facilitators and mentors at PPD training programmes include Prof. Pat Utomi, Dr. Doyin Abiola, Mr Leo Stan Ekeh, Dr. Christopher Kolade and many others.
The internationally certified coach said he is collaborating with partners in the United States of America, who would become mentors and share resources to help PPLD achieve its goal of catapulting young graduates to success in Nigeria.
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