Renowned novelist, Chimamanda Adichie has revealed that the claim of plagiarism against her in 2016 has been declared as false by a court of law.
Giwa-Amu had accused Chimamanda Adichie of plagiarizing her novel to form her own work “Half of a yellow sun”.
The case which was taken to court was thrown out on grounds that it was “an abuse of the court’s process”.
Chimamanda has now issued a statement in regards to the case;
STATEMENT REGARDING FALSE CLAIMS FROM ANNE GIWA-AMU
“We, the Wylie Agency, are Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s literary agents.
“In 2016, Anne Giwa-Amu brought a legal claim against Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her publishers. Giwa-Amu alleged that Adichie’s novel HALF OF A YELLOW SUN had plagiarized her own novel. A professional independent reader was appointed to read both novels. The reader concluded that there was absolutely no basis for Giwa-Amu’s claim and advised that the claim should not be pursued. Giwa-Amu nevertheless continued with the claim.
“On 15 February 2019, Anne Giwa-Amu’s claim brought against Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her publishers was struck out by the court. The court determined that her claim was ‘an abuse of the court’s process.’ The court ordered Giwa-Amu to pay Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her publishers the sum of £14,250, which Giwa-Amu failed to pay. The court also ordered Giwa-Amu to pay the legal costs Adichie incurred in defending her baseless claim. Till date, Giwa-Amu has not paid the money.
“Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her publishers had never heard of Giwa-Amu’s novel until she brought her delusional claim. Her present allegations are false, libelous and constitute harassment to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Further legal actions are being taken.
Gospel singer and songwriter Osinachi Joseph professionally known as Sinach has made history as the first Nigerian gospel artiste to be awarded a gold plague from YouTube.
The popular video streaming platform usually awards the plaque to owners of YouTube channels that has surpassed one million subscribers. Taking to social media to express her gratitude to her fans for always supporting her music career, she shared a photo of herself holding the plaque with the caption:
“Look what came in the mail!! Thank you, my friends, for celebrating Goodnews music in a big way !!@youtube @youtubengcreators @youtubemusic @gosgem
PRAY WITH ME: I see victories and possibilities only; I’m bold and courageous. I win, irrespective of the challenges and circumstances that I face; they’re bread for me. As I set my gaze on God’s unfailing and eternal word, I walk continually in victory, health, success, prosperity, and righteousness, in Jesus name. Amen. RoR with Pastor Chris.”
The Ebonyi state prolific songwriter and worship leader started her music journey in Love World (Christ Embassy) church, as one of the church’s worship leaders.
With hits like “Great Are You Lord,” “This Is My Season,” “Rejoice” among others, she has gained popularity and was inducted into Bethlehem Hall of Fame in 2017.
She hit a milestone when she gained 0ne million subscribers on Youtube on 7 March 2019, following her record-breaking youtube views for her video of the single “Way Maker “ which became a hit in countries across Africa and diaspora, with over 100 million views. This made her the first gospel Artist from Nigeria to have that number of views and also the first African gospel Artist to gain one million subscribers.
By September 2019, Sinach became the first gospel Artist from Africa to tour India with thousands of worshippers in attendance.
Jackson was a kind and charismatic child who was interested in playing sports, going to church, and attending school. Jackson loved playing with his little brother and was always compelled to help others. In early 2019, before his own cancer diagnosis, Jackson shaved his head at a St. Baldrick’s Foundation event in honor of his friend who was in remission. He solely raised over $1,200 for childhood cancer research. Six months before he passed away, Jackson told me he wanted “to be a legend.” At the time I found this to be a strange comment from a 7-year-old, but looking back now, I see how profound this statement was.
Jackson carrying his baby brother
In May of 2019, Jackson had been complaining of pain in his leg. We took him to multiple doctors who could not find the cause and eventually chalked it up to growing pains. During this time, I was pregnant with a surrogate child; after having two children of my own, I had felt called to surrogacy. I always told my children how important it is to help other people, but I wanted to do more than tell them — I wanted to show them.
In early July I gave birth to my surrogate child, and just six days later, Jackson was admitted to the hospital — where doctors found a nine-inch tumor on his leg and diagnosed him with Osteosarcoma. Learning of my son’s cancer diagnosis one week postpartum was devastating — physically, mentally and emotionally. While the timing was exceptionally challenging, I am grateful the doctors allowed me to give the milk I was pumping for donation to Jackson to take as nutritional sustenance. I am proud that during this time when I felt helpless and unable to do anything for my son, I was able to do this for him.
During his short time in the hospital, Jackson suffered a rare complication from his cancer as a result of a flap on his mitral valve, which created blood clots causing multiple strokes. Just six days after his diagnosis and admittance to the hospital, and twelve days after I gave birth to a baby for a surrogate family, Jackson passed away. Jackson’s diagnosis and death happened so fast doctors were unable to begin to treat the cancer due to the swelling in his brain from the strokes inhibiting treatment. Since Jackson never had the opportunity to fight his cancer, it has become my mission to fight for him and for all children with cancer.
It saddens me that only after the loss of my son I learned childhood cancer is the most underfunded and under researched type of cancer. This is one of the many reasons why I am working with the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, the largest non-government funder of childhood cancer research grants.
In 2015, before Jackson’s diagnosis, I decided to shave my head to raise money for St. Baldrick’s, because I couldn’t imagine having a child with cancer. Now I’ve seen it firsthand. And it’s given me a strength I never knew I had — a strength to continue, in Jackson’s honor. Very shortly after Jackson passed, I set up a St. Baldrick’s Hero Fund in his name as a way to honor his passing and his passion for helping others. This year at our first ever fundraising event, we proudly have 73 “shavees” and have raised over $80,000 for childhood cancer research.
The loss of Jackson has been the most heartbreaking time my family has ever faced. Now, husband and I are working to help our 4-year-old son Ivan process the fact that his brother isn’t coming home — while also working through our own grief. It has become my mission to continue sharing Jackson’s story and raise awareness around the lack of funding for childhood cancer so other families don’t have to experience a similar pain. Jackson’s loss is immeasurable, and we will miss him forever. But at least now I can say to him without a doubt, that through his short yet beautiful life: Jackson, you did it. You became a legend.
Onyeka Onwenu has been a household name with several love and admiration attached to it. She is a phenomenal woman who goes after what she believes in.
Sharing with Guardian Life she spoke about her opinions on what achievement really means, especially for a woman in the modern-day society.
She says that learning from her mother, Hope Onwenu certain behavioural patterns, has made her the confident woman that she is.
“It gave me the confidence that I had a right to be myself, I had a right to speak my truth but also gave me a certain grounding in behavioural patterns, for example, you see an adult and you don’t greet? Who born you? So there were character traits that were instilled in us [her and her siblings] by this very strong woman who had lost her second husband at age 37 and didn’t marry again.
She says:
You have to look at yourself and say, ‘what is my life’s purpose? What are the things I need to know to make it?’ worry about those things. Society is a flux and sometimes, what societies think, is not the best.”.
Read excerpts from the interview.
She says that having experienced love as a daddy’s girl especially as one “who is unapologetically in love with his daughter,” she has had the chance to flourish and developed at a young age, self-assurance that she can rule the world.
Having lost her father, Dickson Kanu Onwenu, at age 4 and 10 months, she says that learning from her mother, Hope Onwenu certain behavioural patterns, has made her the confident woman that she is.
“The example of her life was a teaching tool because she showed that she could stand as a woman on her own…be a contributing member of the community.”
Rhonda Eva Harris famously known as Iyanla Vanzant is an American motivational speaker, attorney, author, life coach and television personality. She is known basically for her books, her eponymous syndicated program, and her appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show. She right now has Iyanla: Fix My Life, on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.
Having had 3 children before the age of 21, endure a damaging marriage and endeavored suicide twice, Iyanla’s story is one of flexibility, bravery and coarseness. Named “Iyanla”, which signifies “extraordinary mother”, in the wake of being started and appointed as a priestess in the Yoruba convention, she shares solely with XONICOLE on discovering reason and the refinement between being without anyone else’s input and being with yourself. Despite the fact that two years of age, the meeting holds such a significant number of life exercises that can help each lady in her one of a kind season. See a few passages we separated from the meeting underneath.
A lot of women feel pressured to have accomplished certain societal milestones like having a husband and kids by age 30, and if they’ve chosen to focus on their careers and don’t have these things by 35 or even 40, they’re made to feel that something is missing. Can you speak to living at your pace? And when you were in your 20s, did you feel any societal pressures?
It’s so funny that women today feel they should have certain things at a certain age because I had everything very soon and I felt like I had missed out on so much of my life.
As women we grow through stages, and there’s a transition from each stage of growth and development to the next. It doesn’t matter what we’re accomplishing in the world, what is it that each of us needs to heal through, grow through and be present through within ourselves? That’s what’s going to determine how we unfold and the pace of what we’re doing is based on the choices that we make as women.
How do women learn to be okay with being by ourselves and not needing the validation of a man?
Being by yourself is very different than being with yourself. “By Yourself” is when you feel the lack, the separation, and the deprivation of something or someone else. Being “with yourself” is when you’re taking the time to get acquainted or reacquainted with who you are and the life that’s flowing within you.
How your life unfolds is determined by the choices you make. I had three kids by the time I was 21, two at 19. I didn’t want that, but I didn’t make choices that would have kept me from being in that situation. I didn’t get married because I wanted to, I got married because I grew up in a time where its bad enough to have one baby out of wedlock, how dare you have two? So let me marry the first ‘Boo Boo the Clown’ that comes through and wants me. Then I had to spend thousands of dollars to get out of that. It’s all about choices and decisions and not allowing outside pressures to push you in a direction or make decisions that don’t honour who you are. Not everyone wants to have a baby [mama] at 22 or even 28. I certainly didn’t want to have one at 16, but I didn’t make the right choices.
Culturally, one of the things that helped me when I was unfolding as a woman were my sister circles. There were four of us and we got together and talked. Two of us had kids, one of us was in college, and the other was as lost as a shoe, but we all supported each other through that. I would tell young women gather within your age group and have three or four sister friends. Come together not to pressure each other, but to share how you’re doing and how you’re feeling.
Own your stuff” is one of your famous phrases. How do you “own” up to something that you know isn’t good for you?
“Ownership” means that you stand in your truth of what you do, what you think, what you feel and how you do it. If a woman is battling with insecurity and doesn’t think she’s beautiful, she has to own her beauty. I’ve been through that. My big brother used to tell me I was ugly and I believed it until I was about 25. Then I said you know what, I think I’m just drop dead gorgeous and that’s who I’m going to be by my own standards. I’m dark skin, I have Negroid lips, short hair, big boobs, a big butt, and I’m drop dead gorgeous, and I don’t care if you don’t like me! That’s owning your beauty, not your ugly.
But own the stuff that you do to prove to other people that you’re beautiful, that may be detrimental to you. Are you wearing revealing clothes? Do you have on three pairs of spanx instead of one? (Laughs!) Do you talk loudly in a room to draw attention to yourself? Own what you do to prove to other people that you’re beautiful when you don’t believe it; that’s what owning your stuff means.
Nigerian Justice Ijeoma Agugua becomes the first female acting Chief Judge of Imo State. She was sworn in by the Governor Hope Uzodinma.
Speaking she said, ” you have today used your office faithfully in accordance with the spirit and intendment of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and your oath of office.” She thanked the Governor for his act of justice and for being gender friendly.
She got sworned in on Friday 13 march 2020, replacing the immediate past chief judge, Justice Paschal Nnadi who retired on Thursday. Before now, Agugua was the administrative judge of the state. She hails from Anambra State while her husband is from Nkwerre local government area of Imo State.
She is a member of International Bar Association (ISA); Judges Forum; and the National Association of Women Judges of Nigeria (NAWJN).
Justice Agugua was born on May 10, 1960. She studied Law and obtained an LLB Hons in 1980 from the University of Lagos, and was later awarded a Bachelor of Law Degree in 1981 after attending the Nigerian Law School, Lagos. She was called to the bar in 1981. Agugua joined the Imo State Judiciary in 1993. she joined the High Court after serving as a chief magistrate.
Yasemin Korkut started selling dried figs, grown in her father’s garden, on social media outlets. As demand grew, she decided to enlarge the venture by adding more products. She lives in the western province of İzmir.
She has even experimented with other dried fruits, such as pineapples, bananas, kiwis and even eggplants.
Strong demand for her products grew more and she entered a local competition, titled “Young Women Empowering,” winning second place with her project.
She created jobs for 30 women from her village and established a facility that included a cold storage depot. All this with the help of100,000 Turkish Liras grant from the Small and Medium Industry Development Organization (KOSGEB),
she is now shipping her products under the label “Bilara,” named after her neighborhood’s former name, to a number of cities across Turkey.
She is currently expecting to receive orders from Germany this year.
“We annually produce some 100 tons of dried fruits and vegetables. I want to increase the capacity to create more jobs for women. I want to enter foreign markets,” Korkut said.
According to her interest from local consumers remain strong so they could hardly meet the demand. That is why she wants to build a new 800-meter-square facility.
“I am an ambitious person. I get what I want. We started out with one woman, now we are 30 women working here. Women must believe in themselves. Women can achieve anything if they really want to,” she said.
Author and advocate, Tiffany Mensah has written and released her first book titled, Forgotten: Living in the Shadows of Domestic Violence. It is estimated that globally one billion children are growing up in homes plagued by domestic violence, however to date, awareness of the childhood trauma caused by such sits around 15%.
Why when the numbers are so high, and with so many children at stake are there not more conversations?
Considering how they carry such an emotional burden alongside victims, it seems that these children are oft times forgotten and their stories of survival and resilience are buried deep into the walls of childhood homes and places of abandonment.
Today, proudly and wholly Tiffany’s book gives readers a firsthand account of what it’s like to be that child offering up her raw and uncut vantage point of pain forgotten, buried, resurrected, and healed, she minces no words in letting the reader know that you are more than the trauma you witnessed.
Through her honest transparent conversation like story-telling she empowers the reader to dig deep and look at their scars while forging forward to find the healing that only faith and honesty can foster. Tiffany gives hope and the knowledge that it is possible to live a life free from what you witnessed.
About Tiffany Mensah
Tiffany Mensah is a woman of faith, author, advocate, marketing maven, and entrepreneur. With ten-plus years in Corporate America, she currently works as a marketing project manager while owning and operating Mensah & Co., a creative consulting agency. Tiffany is most proud of the work she’s done personally and spiritually to address the childhood trauma and PTSD she experienced while growing up in a home plagued by domestic violence. This work has fueled her to launch D.O.V.E.S. Network (Daily Overcoming Violence & Embracing Safety), a 501(c)(3) dedicated to the prevention of domestic violence and childhood domestic violence exposure through awareness and outreach programs.
Former Minister of State for Education, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, has urged the Federal Government to take steps to bring back Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to serve the country.
Gbagi said Dr. Ngozi wealth of experience, as a consummate economist, can help pull the country out of doldrums and comatose.
Dr. Ngozi who was former minister of finance got recently appointed as a member of the South African Presidential Economic Advisory Council. She is known as a good thought leader in Finance.
Gbagi said, “Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is one Nigerian who has upheld the good image and integrity of the country on an international scale, bringing to bear her immense wealth of experience and expertise.
“There is no arrogance in getting someone to do what you do not know how to do. The reason the country is at a crossroads today, against the norm obtainable in other countries with tested technocrats without blemish, is due to the unbridled attitude of getting people who can hardly run a community of 30 people to run a government.
“This is the singular reason the nation is stagnant.
“We have qualified men and women and if we must get it right, they must be given the avenue to tender their best because no matter how much of a hue and cry we engage in, life and time are running out.
“The clock is ticking and no sensible human being will allow his God’s given gift to be wasted by jokers.
“Hence, if you allow a man, who has no investment in any form or shape, to take charge of a serious-minded venture such as governance and leadership, we would run into problems.”
Ghana’s second lady, Mrs Samira Bawumia in a recent radio submission revealed that she is the first graduate in her family. Married to the vice president of Ghana, Mahamudu Bawumia Mrs Samira is passionate about education and wants no one to underestimate the importance of it.
The 40 year old politician, narrates her determination whilst in school and having supportive parents who ensured she climbed the educational ladder to achieve her goals really helped her to become what she is today.
Samira Bawumia, source Facebook
While speaking on Asempa FM, she said; ”I am the first graduate in my family, both mother and father side but I had a dogged determination because the only way for me was forward because when I was going to school I had very supportive parents, not typical ones who will force you to marry early. I had the type of parents who helped me with my schooling.”
“By the grace of God I was able to go to school and today, it has been a blessing to my family. Now people in my family are pretty well educated now but at those times, I was breaking barriers because of the opportunity I had.”
“Education can change one’s destiny. This is because we see people who come from impoverished backgrounds and succeed through educating themselves to positively impact society,” she pointed.
