Saturday, 17 September 2016
wife of ace writer Amarachi Anokwute bags a merit award; dedicates it to husband.
wife of the award winning writer, Mrs Amarachi Anokwute has been honored with a merit award at the just concluded Ekwe festival. The festival which took place at the ancient kingdom of Ekwe had notable men and women in attendance. Receiving the award the fair skinned princess thanked the traditional ruler and indeed all women of Ekwe for doing her the honor. she however dedicated the award to her husband Mr Anokwute Uzoma and confessed he was responsible for the virtuous woman that she had turned out to be.
WATCH AND JUDGE: TRUMP AND CLINTON WHOSE SMILE IS REAL?
Was more more like a smiling contest between the most prominent candidates for the American white House, Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton at the Commander in Chief summit held recently. Each of the candidates wore a smile to win the audience's approval as it seemed the audience looked out for who smiled better. watch the video and judge whose among the warmth smiles was real or fake!!
‘Michael Jackson ran sophisticated child sex abuse ring’
‘Michael Jackson ran sophisticated child sex abuse ring’
— 17th September 2016Thursday, 15 September 2016
OMG!!! INI EDO'S LOOK ALIKE ESCAPES ACCIDENT
| September,, 15th 2016 | ||
Not quite long she was tipped to strikingly resemble Nollywood actress Ini Edo, Fast rising actress Queen Wokoma survived a ghastly motor accident that left her Honda jeep totally wrecked.
The beautiful actress confessed she'd never been so scared all her life. meanwhile she had expressed her gratitude to God almighty and enjoined fans to pray for her.. See the mangled car below   | ||
| Re: Queen Wok |
Tuesday, 13 September 2016
This 12,000-Year-Old Town Could Soon Be Underwater Extraordinary photos document the Turkish town of Hasankeyf before it’s flooded by a dam.
13th September 2016
Pascal Mannaerts
An ancient Turkish town along the Syrian border is on the verge of destruction. But not because of war or extremism.
conservationists fear Leopards have totally 'slipped off the radar' but all hope is not lost
A conservation group known as Panthera decry the looming extinction of Leopards.Guy Balme, the director of Panthera’s Leopard Program, said the cats ― known worldwide for their fashion-forward spots ― are a relatively “neglected species.” A camera trap in
South Africa captured something remarkable last month: In six brief
images, a leopard, one of the planet’s most elusive cats, can be seen
attacking, killing and moving off screen with a meal ― in this case, an
unlucky impala.
The images, looped into a gif above, were released by the conservation group Panthera
and reflect an extraordinary moment in a grueling, years-long effort to
figure out just how many of the big cats are left in the world.
“Leopards have totally slipped off the conservation
radar,” Balme said. “They still have a wide range, and often they’ve
managed to persist in areas where these other cats have become extinct.
But because [we] have this perception about leopards’ resilience, it’s
almost like people believe they’re totally immune to persecution.”
In fact, like many of their feline brethren, the cats face
the same pressures as tigers, lions and cheetahs due to the twin
threats of habitat loss and human conflict.
Laila Bahaa-el-din/Panthera
Leopards have lost around 75 percent of their geographical range
over the past 250 years, according to a study released in May and
co-authored by Panthera and an international team of conservationists.
“It was much more than we feared,” Andrew Jacobson, a
researcher at the Zoological Society of London and the lead author of
the study, told The Guardian.
“It’s been flying under the conservation radar for a while. We hoped to
raise its profile and say ‘this cat needs your attention’.”
The cats were also upgraded to the “vulnerable”
category on the latest Red List of Threatened Species, released by the
International Union of Concerned Scientists this month. The group, which
admits population numbers are hazy at best, notes simply: “[F]uture
decline is anticipated unless conservation efforts are taken.”
Panthera’s leopard monitoring program, based primarily in
South Africa, has been trying to come up with decent estimates as to
what all of that bad news means. It’s a tough job, as leopards are known
as adaptable, reclusive animals with wide habitable ranges. They are
scattered among some 70 countries throughout the world.
Balme said the group began such tracking in 2013, and has
since expanded the program ― which uses a network of dozens of
custom-built camera traps at each site ― to other parts of sub-Saharan
Africa and Southeast Asia. Of the populations his group has been
monitoring, around “90 percent are declining.”
Much of that decline is due to habitat loss, mostly
unknown until the May study rang a warning bell for conservationists.
Another major threat, Balme said, are massive religious and cultural
groups that use leopard skins as a status symbol. One such church is
suspected of having some 15,000 skins.
“South Africa probably only has 4,000 leopards left,” Balme noted.
The new data, however, has compelled Panthera to work
toward innovative strategies that can undercut demand, including an
initiative to replace leopardskin with faux fur and a crowdsourced camera trap identification program called the CATalogue that helps the group sift through millions of potential leopard sightings.
Steve Winter/Panthera
Balme said such
efforts are meant to show the world that leopards warrant urgent
protection because, like most news in the conservation world these days,
things are looking up. But unlike some critically endangered species
struggling to survive, saving leopards possible.
“We still have a chance,” Balme said. “With tigers, with
lions to some extent it’s crisis control, throwing money into a few
populations to try and save them.
“With leopards we can get ahead of the game. We still can
put some conservation policies into place that ensure their existence.”
Also on HuffPost
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Monday, 12 September 2016
THE CURRENT ECONOMIC SITUATION IS NOT WHAT NIGERIANS DESERVE...TINUBU
he made this known when he said that the current economic situation is not what Nigerians deserve and that Nigerians deserve a better country which he promised, the current government is committed to achieving
Thursday, 8 September 2016
BUHARI ENDORSES FG'S EXTERNAL BORROWING PLAN
Adeosun had earlier revealed plans to take long-term loans at a very low interest rate from the African Development Bank (AfDB), World Bank, China Exim Bank and other specific financial institutions across the world.
“We have a very conservative borrowing programme, and we must borrow to construct rail – the rail we have now was done in the colonial era – and there has been really significant upgrade. We will borrow sustainably and conservatively to make sure we don’t burden future generation,” she said.
She explained that her borrowing plan is clearly different from what obtained in the past where Nigeria borrowed to pay salaries, stating that the government would be borrowing to invest in infrastructure and generate additional revenue.
In a series of tweets on Thursday, Buhari’s office said the borrowing plan was awaiting the approval of the National Assembly.
Aside the concessional loans, the Federal Government said it would tap into the Eurobond market in “due course”, to seek funding for healthcare, mining, power and agriculture.
The 2016 budget, with an expansionary outlook, has a deficit in excess of N3 trillion, which the Federal Government intends to use to stem both internal and external borrowing.
With Nigeria in recession, the Ministry of Finance and the Presidency are working hand-in-hand to revamp the economy in the shortest possible time.
According to the Minister, much of the external borrowing would be devoted to provision of infrastructure including rail, power, road and health to booast government diversification agenda.
Recall that recently the government awarded the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) a $1.68 billion contract to upgrade and modernise the Kano-Kaduna segment of the Lagos-Kano rail line.
In context, the rail line would move as fast as travelling from Lagos to Ibadan in 48 minutes and is expected to be faster than the Kaduna-Abuja rail line.
CCECC also signed a contract worth $3.4 billion for the construction of the Calabar-Port Harcourt Segment 1, which aims to extend the rail line between Calabar and Port Harcourt to Onne Deep Seaport.
The Abuja-Kaduna rail line was delivered on July 13, 2016, while the Lagos-Ibadan segment remain uncompleted.
Rotimi Amaechi, Minister for Transportation, said the newly signed projects would be concluded in two years. On Friday, CCECC said the project would be concluded in 36 months (three years), contradicting Amaechi’s position.
The same Chinese firm also announced it won the $1.851 billion Kano city light rail project.
source: www.sunnewsonline.com
UNCERTAINTY BEDEVILS EDO GUBER RACE; FRESH POSTPONEMENT
Yesterday, the ding dong over the Edo State governorship election continued with the postponement of the exercise for another two weeks. The decision was reached at a security meeting held in Benin, the Edo State capital yesterday evening
SEE SLUM WHERE RESIDENTS LIVE WITH SNAKES, CROCODILES IN LAGOS
At first sight, they looked a happy lot, living in peace in their tranquil environment. But the children and their parents, numbering over 1,000, live in a repugnant, sordid slum. With no identifiable name of its own, the slum is spread along the banks of a canal that separates the Mazamaza neighbourhood from Monkey Village in the Agboju area between Oriade Local Council Development Area and Apapa Local Government Area of Lagos State. It is a sprawling, swamp settlement mostly built from materials cast off by the rest of the city.
The settlement has no particular address, but everyone in the area knows the place. It is inhabited by people from different parts of the country. Cramped alleyways and mishmash structures, all on the water, dot the landscape like mushrooms.
The buildings are made with bamboo sticks, and virtually all the roofs leak. The residents have their own canteens, provision stores and other small-scale businesses. There are also streets, if you would call them that, and footpaths linking the numerous shanties.
As Daily Sun dashed down some narrow paths in the community on a Thursday morning, amid an overarching stench in the air, many of the residents went about their duties normally. Most of the shanties had their doors open, even though the residents were not around.
A resident, Mr. Loveday Opia, led the reporters through a narrow passage, one of the many entrances to the slum. After a couple of minutes, he turned a corner and extended his arm towards a hut, “This is my house.”
The ‘house’ was built on planks and bamboo stilts and a dark river flowed slowly underneath.
Opia said he wasn’t unperturbed by the dirty environment, but it was the only place he could afford.
He noted that the slum was beginning to witness some development. Boreholes have been sunk by some of the new landlords, he said: “My wife is inside sleeping. I am managing here for now. I came here in 2007, and gave birth to my two children here in this house. This land belongs to my boss and he is living in the United States. I am the person taking care of it. We rented out some of the portions to a church.
“I will soon move out of here so that my children will be safe. In this kind of place, anything can happen. I can survive it but I am afraid for my kids.”
Moving around the community was not an easy task. On many occasions, one had to cross several dark streams to reach different areas of the slum.
Churches compete for space
On Yaya Street, leading to a section of the canal towards Mile Two, there was a new church, St. Stephen’s Catholic Parish. Many of the people in the slum came out to participate in the church’s Thursday Mass, which commenced at 6am.
But Ogu Street, which opened to a very notorious part of the slum, is where the churches are located, all practically competing for the residents’ souls. They include Gate of Heaven Healing Ministries International; Assemblies of God Church; The Apostolic Church; God’s Favour International Deliverance Ministry; Kingdom Wealth Ministry International and Christ Apostolic Church.
Smokers den
When the reporters visited, a young man in his late 20s quietly sat at a corner, puffing smoke into the sky. When one of the reporters greeted him, he stared at the cigarette in-between his left index and middle fingers and chuckled. His expression was neither here nor there. Then he gave a vague description when one of the reporters further engaged him about meandering his way around the neighbourhood.
A walk further through Ogu Street to another side of the slum led the reporters to the front of a shack where about seven youths sat, smoking marijuana. It was learnt that smoking was a daily pastime for men young men in the area, an early morning ritual for the men before they go to their various places of work.
Mansions in a slum
Ironically, the shacks are scattered amid some giant buildings in the repulsive environment. Daily Sun found out that some rich folks had acquired plots near the canal and were able to fill them with sand before putting up some exquisite buildings. Some of the buildings were two or three-storeys high. The rich landlords graded their roads to their doorsteps and pushed the water further into the shanties, thereby compounding the woes of the less-privileged.
Also living around the slum, although his home is on solid ground, was Mr. Obi Linvinus. He said his late father legally acquired the land from the Lagos Government, where he built the house that Obi inherited from him four years ago.
Living with snakes, crocodiles
Mr. Opia, from Delta State, said when he got to the area in 2007, it was a thick forest abandoned by the state government and the people.
“Only a few people were here at that time. On many occasions, big snakes would come out from the river and enter my house. There was a time a big snake swallowed my dog and my neighbours’ fowls. But now, we see small snakes. I kill them before they disappear into the water. But when I’m not at home, my wife and children would only shout (to scare them off) without killing the reptiles,” he said.
Another resident, Mr. Afolabi Moses, said he saw a crocodile last year in front of his house and he quickly raised the alarm, but that the animal backed into the water before anyone could reach it.
Open defecation reigns
In these settlements, open defecation is the order. The canal is at the mercy of faeces and other nauseating wastes.
At every corner, one sees children, two to 10 years in age, defecating either on the water or in the nearby bush. The river serves as a toilet for most residents, it also serves as the major source of water for most residents.
For most of the adults, they defecate in a bowl or a plastic bag inside their shanties before hurling the rubbish into the water, Daily Sun gathered.
Confirming this, Opia said: “There is no toilet in this community, except for few people that recently built standard houses. Since 2007, I have been using the river. But there is one new building near my house; when it is completed, its standard septic tank will serve the rest of us.”
Mrs. Uchenna Victoria, another resident, was asked whether she was aware of the health implications of living in a slum, especially for her children, but she shrugged, as if to say, so what! She noted that she was poor and would not steal to rent a better house, but it was not her children’s portion to contact any infection.
Her words: “We pay very a small amount as rent here. I pay yearly, but, at times, I beg my landlord and he allows me to stay for some months free. It is not easy staying here because this is not the kind of house I prayed for when I left my village many years ago. My husband’s job can hardly feed us. He is paid on a daily basis, but there are days he won’t have any job to do. Then what else do I do? If God answers our prayer, we will soon leave here.”
Health implications
Speaking on the health hazards for people who live in such an environment, a Lagos-based Consultant Public Health Physician, Mrs. Bola Olusola-Faleye, told Daily Sun that the children were prone to malaria, worm infestation, malnutrition, diarrhoea and other infectious diseases.
She averred that it was only poverty that would compel many people to live in such places and warned that childhood mortality was usually a consequence of such filthy habitats. She explained that death in children under the age of five was usually rampant in most slums.
“In such places, residents lack potable water and proper hygiene. You see children playing with their bare feet in the sand and in water. There is lack of hand-washing. Stunted growth is common there because intestinal worms disturb normal child development.
“Mosquitoes breed permanently there. There are bacteria and other viruses in slums, which predisposeß the occupants to different diseases. The best way to overcome all these health dangers is to relocate from such an environment,” Olusola-Faleye said.
source: www.sunnewsonline.com
OMG!!! TAYLOR SWIFT IS CAUGHT.....
It was exhilarating as DJ, singer and Taylor Swift's ex boyfriend, Calvin Harris was caught gracing the cover of the British GQ for the men of the year edition.the cute model was also awarded GQ for my Man Of The Year award some days ago.
KANYE WEST SIGNS TYGA TO PLEASE KYLIE JENNER
Buhari to resign
In reaction to a post on fuel hike on nairaland yesterday titled FUEL PRICE HIKE CAN'T BE STOPPED, social media freaks have taken turns to blast President Buhari accusing him of running a failed economy and consequently should resign. Among the fusillade of acerbic attacks on the gap toothed president and the economy under his control, two stole my attention and induced an uncontrollable laughter. please read with me
NIGERIANS CAN’T EVADE FUEL PRICE HIKE: IPMAN by Williams Omeji
basket mouth arrests his security man
Reactions have continued to trail the action of the Nigerian rib-cracker Basket mouth following the arrest and detention of his security aide by Lagos police yesterday
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