Best Blogger - Africa' at Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards goes to Uche Pedro

On Saturday Nigerian blogger Uche Pedro of BellaNaija ,was announced the Best African Blogger Award at Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards in Los Angeles

Her competitors includeTheodora Lee (South Africa),Sylvia Kamau (Kenya), and Aisha Baker (South Africa)

Congrats to her

I am hoping to find the right man

She is famous, powerful andphilanthropic, a powerful politician, she is reputed with the struggle of Bakassi people.A.K.A Mama Bakassi,only one woman has this attribute and she is no other than Senator Florence Ita-Giwa

Take a read at the interview she had with this ThisDay

read more

How do you feel at 70?

 I feel much fulfilled and I give glory to God that I am celebrating 70 and by the grace of God in good health, both physically and mentally; I feel very settled in my mind. The most interesting thing is that I am very certain that I am in the right place that I should be. I feel much fulfilled with my family, with my work, with my charity and the position I rose to in my career as a politician.

You hardly look 70; any secret?

 I think the answer I always give first is that probably because the year runs so fast; the number of the years you are carrying or you have attained doesn’t allow your body to adjust to the time. However, naturally in my family, we age gracefully and from where I come from as an Efik woman – from the time you come into this world as a female you are made to appreciate the fact that it is beautiful to be a female. Whatever your aspirations are, whether you aspire to be the president of a country or a medical doctor, the number one thing is, don’t lose your femininity. As a Calabar woman one is taught how to look after oneself; so we age gracefully. The idea is not to look young. I don’t want to be young – the idea is to age gracefully. So for that reason, knowing that my body is very receptive to food, I have a tendency to be fat, all my life, I have battled with weight gain leading me always to watch what I eat and it has turned out well. I made it a routine at the end of every day to find at least one hour where I relax my mind and my body. At the end of the day I enjoy a good dinner, listen to news, watch TV, listen to music and then before I go to bed, I give myself some 30 minutes of pampering.

Do you sometimes feel intimidated by men?

 I look at myself as a human being and I don’t allow myself to be intimidated and I don’t go out of my way to intimidate people. I just know that all of us are in the business of nation building. It is for you to show your political strength.

What are your regrets in life?

 Absolutely, no regrets. I thank God for every good thing and every bad thing that has happened to me. But I am very grateful because God has compensated me with good things for the bad things that happened to me. If I come back, I will still do it the same way. I have enjoyed everything that came along with what I chose to be in life. From my career as a nurse to venturing into politics, I have enjoyed everything. I have enjoyed it up to the point of still dancing in the street at age 70. It’s all part of it because politics is liberating and so I can dance in front of a crowd of one million people because it is my work. I am totally liberated.

Why have you remained single since the demise of your husband?

 I remained single because I live by example. I have brought up children that as soon as they graduated from school, they got married and have their own children. If your environment is rough, when you change partners then your children are likely to grow up rough and to change partners and as such I didn’t want to take a risk of changing partners. However, I am a human being, there is need for me to have a relationship but I decided that at one point I have to be sure. I don’t want to say that I didn’t see anybody that was worth it but I am still sifting through so that I don’t ever change partners. At this stage of my life, if ever there will be a partner, that partner would be my partner for life. Secondly, I live a very busy life and for most part of my life in the last 10 years, I have done some very serious things that I didn’t need that distraction. I had to take care of my business and my service to humanity. I did a lot of things that I was not sure that I could have found a man that will buy into that vision and again there is issue of men feeling intimidated by successful career women and there is no way I would have negotiated my career because I have children. Though I do not intend to ever change my name which has become a brand I am not guaranteeing that I would remain single. I have amazing friends; I am socially very busy as well but I have friends that respect me and will not take advantage of that friendship. I have very civilised male friends who do not want to take advantage. So if I want to go for dinner I have friends both Nigerian and non-Nigerians that will take me out. I have friends that will travel with me; we have very excellent and decent relationship. However, I cannot guarantee that I would remain single for the rest of my life.

You had a successful working relationship with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and perhaps, ex-President Umaru Yar’Adua. What did you learn from them?

I think with Obasanjo, initially, we didn’t take off well. While I was at the Senate and he was the President, I think in the course of my struggle for separation of powers I joined the Okadigbo group to fight for separation of powers. To be candid, Obasanjo was a straightforward military man and his desire to get things done at the appropriate time is not negotiable. Eventually, we became very good friends with due respect; because today he is my friend, my father and my mentor. I like him tremendously. I still do not know any human being who is more committed to the success of this democracy and development of this country than Obasanjo. For the four years I worked with him, he refused to go to sleep and I saw that. It was pleasantly and excitingly tiring, because he worked round the clock, and I got to know my country; so that is what he did to my life. I got to know my country and got to know Nigerians. I could make a good president because of what I learnt from him. Obasanjo believes in speed, efficiency and superior arguments and I think till today I am very impatient with anybody that does not apply speed to the things they do.

Felix Ibru dies at 80years

One time governor of Delta state and  Senator of Federal Republic of Nigeria, Felix Ibru, passed away today. He was elected as the first governor of Delta state in 1992 and was also elected a senator in 2003. President General of the Urhobo Progressive Union (UPU).
 

Ooni of Ife Ogunwusi gets married to his new wife Wuraola Zynab today

The traditional marriage of  Wuraola Zynab Otiti to of Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Babatunde Adeyeye Ogunwusi in Benin today. Click here

read more

I knew Black women as lovely not sexy

Reno Omokri is advising women to go back to the way beauty is used be especially on Nigerian women….take a read  

read more

As a young boy growing up in 1980s Nigeria, I knew Black women as lovely women who exuded charm and breeding in their dressing, their demeanor and in their mannerisms. In fact, the epitome of loveliness was Nigeria's then First Lady, Maryam Babangida. Mariam was dark skinned and proud of it. She did not bleach her skin neither did she contour her face with pancake powder to make her appear lighter. She was a lovely Black woman and proud of it. And when you looked at her, you knew that Black was and still is beautiful. I may be wrong, but I was a very observant boy and I cannot once remember Maryam Babangida wearing any Western style clothes.

Not that there is anything wrong with it, but Maryam was able to look lovely and elegant in African fabrics designed by African tailors. And it was not just Maryam Babangida, although she set the pace. Even our female pop stars of that era were lovely women who were proud of their Blackness. I remember Onyeka Onwenu. She was elegance personified. She had an Afro and it was cute. Her contemporary was Christy Essien-Igbokwe and like Onyeka, she was a paragon of Black feminine loveliness. And it was not just First Ladies of politics and pop music.

 Even our On Air Personalities and TV anchor women were of the same bent. You had Ruth Benamaisia, Tokunbo Ajayi, Bimbo Roberts and many others. In fact, the very first major star of Nigeria's then burgeoning film and theater industry (the precursor of Nollywood) Patti Boulaye, (née Patricia Ngozi Ebigwei) was a clone of Maryam Babangida. Very dark skinned, high and pronounced cheek bones and most important of all, not ashamed of it. Her starring role in Bisi, Daughter of the River, paved the way for dark skinned lovelies here at home and in England where she became a major star. I cite these examples to show that being a Black woman used to mean that you were a lovely woman.

 But something has changed. Today, I cannot flip through the pages of newspapers and magazines or browse social media without seeing bleached Black women in very revealing outfits being celebrated not for any positive thing that they have achieved but rather because they flaunt their cleavage, their buttocks, thighs and other parts of their bodies. Where we as a society used to promote the ideal woman as being lovely, today, our women want to be seen as being sexy. And being sexy appears to be code for looking light skinned, flaunting barely clothed bodies with heads covered in imported 'Brazilian' hair. Why must a woman be sexy? I would have thought that it would have been better to be lovely than it is to be sexy. I mean there is a reason the great singer, Stevland Hardaway Morris (better known as Stevie Wonder) composed a hit song titled 'Isn't She lovely'.

 Loveliness is a better ideal for women to aspire to than sexiness. And you do not have to bleach or contour or hide your Afro under Brazilian hair to be lovely. Mrs. Aisha Buhari is Black, beautiful and lovely. Ngozi Chimamanda Adichie is Black, beautiful and lovely. Chidinma of the kedike fame is Black, beautiful and lovely. Omotayo Omotosho is Black, beautiful and lovely. Molara Wood is Black, beautiful and lovely. There are many Black, beautiful and lovely women in Nigeria and we should promote that ideal rather than this westernized ideal of the 'sexy' woman. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word 'sexy' means "sexually attractive" while the word 'lovely' means "exquisitely beautiful". As a woman, ask yourself which of these two ideals you really want for yourself? I am convinced Satan promotes the word sexy so we can see women as sex objects, but God promotes the word lovely so we can see them as beings to be loved. Let us go back to The Bible were it all began and see what it tells us.

 In Esther 2:17 we read that "Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other". Why did Esther obtain this favour? It is a historical fact that King Xerxes had many SEXY women in his harem. Yet despite the multiplicity of sexiness available to him, it was the LOVELY Esther he chose as his queen. Why? That is the question we are going to examine in the rest of this piece. Women should think about the type of men they attract if they aspire to look sexy as opposed to if they aspire is to look lovely.

 The truth is that women who look lovely attract men looking for love while women who look sexy attract men looking for sex. That is just the bitter truth. Some may call me misogynistic but I have a wife and a daughter that will testify to how I treat them like queens. Truth is bitter, lies are butter. One will purge you while the other will make you fat! Even among animals, a lioness is a lovely animal and that is why she stays in a pride with her lion mate. The lion will protect her and together they will raise a family of cubs that stay with them until they start their own pride or are absorbed into another pride. You see, a lioness has pride because she is lovely.

 I want to encourage our women to see themselves as lovely. They do not need to flaunt their most delicate parts because that is what Western women do. If they must flaunt anything, let our lovely women flaunt their intelligence, their characters and their Blackness. Let us retain or return to the ideal of Black womanhood, where the Black woman is unashamedly Black, elegant, pure and a pillar of her home and her community.

Actress Ibinabo Fiberesima to face 5years behind bars

Ibinabo Fiberesima was sentenced to five years imprisonment yesterday by Justice Deborah Oluwayemi of a Lagos High Court for the death of one Dr Giwa Suraj whom she killed in an auto accident along Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lagos in 2005.

read more

Ibinabo’s PA on phone conversation says: “My boss has been feeling unwell since the judgment was delivered. We are afraid it doesn’t affect her health. She just had an operation.” She had gone to the Court of Appeal to challenge a jail term slammed on her by a Lagos High Court, and urged the court to set aside the sentence and restore the decision of the Magistrate Court which sentenced her to a N100, 000 fine.

 Shattered by the development, Ibinabo who is the President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria,AGN, had gone to her facebook page to ask Nigerians to pray her. “Pray me ,”