To make education more accessible to girls, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh has announced free education for girls, from kindergarten to doctorate, in government institutions.
He made this announcement on Monday while speaking in the Vidhan Sabha, according to The Hindustan Times. Along with that, there are also plans to give free textbooks to students from government schools and free WiFi for all government colleges and 13,000 primary schools.
Despite limited resources, the Chief Minister said that he plans on giving utmost importance to school education by increasing the budget for the education sector. As part of this plan, there will be five new colleges built in the current year.
This is an attempt at bridging the gap between rich people getting all privileges and poor ones being left with limited access to resources.
The textbooks will be provided for free and will also be posted online which would help students and parents alike to download them free of cost.
The government also has plans to offer English as a medium of instruction in government schools. To do this, initially, two schools at all levels from every block will have English medium from July.
It is also noteworthy to mention that Punjab government has brought in a lot of social welfare schemes including waiving of loans up to 50,000 for the dalits and economically weaker and underprivileged sections of the population.
Adding to that, the economically weaker section of the population would get housing at low cost wherein homeless people will get free houses, according to The New Indian Express.
Only last week, the chief minister had kept up another poll promise by increasing reservation for women in local bodies to 50 percent from the existing 33 percent. All these schemes if properly implemented, would go a long way in helping people get better lifestyles and secure means of livelihood.
Safiya Hassan Sheikh Ali Jimale has become the first female mayor of a city in Somalia. She will head the great and famous city of Beledweyne, the capital of Hiiran Province, located in the Shebelle Valley near the border with Ethiopia and about 210 miles north of Mogadishu.
She becomes the second mayor of the city, which has more than 1,7 million inhabitants, after Beledweyne held municipal elections in 2012, the first since the beginning of the civil war in the early 1990s.
Africa News reports that Safiya Hassan Sheikh Ali Jimale is not new to public office, having previously served as an official of the Shibis district. In an interview with VOA Somali after her election, she stressed that she would not hesitate to tackle her mandate head on.
Other female mayors currently in office across the African continent include Yvonne Aki Sawyerr (Freetown, Sierra Leone), Marie-Chantal Rwakazina (Kigali, Rwanda), Rohey Malick Lowe (Banjul, The Gambia) and Soham El Wardani (Dakar, Senegal).
Today, Safiya Ali, makes history as she becomes the first female mayor to big & famous city in central Somalia. Safia was officially nominated as the mayor of #Baladweyne. To elect a woman a male dominated position like a “Mayor” inspiration to many. Kudos #HIRSHABELLE6344:33 PM – May 27, 2019193 people are talking about this
As the Beyhive carry out a coordinated attack on yet another undeserving victim, we examine stan culture and why it is possibly, one of the most toxic things in existence.
Why stan culture is harmful, toxic and ultimately, needs to die [Credit: Genius]
Stan culture originated from Eminem‘s hit song ‘Stan’ which told the tale of a fan, obsessed with the Slim Shady himself. It was an incredible work of art that defined a moment in hip-hop as a whole but the word ‘stan’ became synonymous with a crazed or obsessed fan who would go to great lengths to obsess over a celebrity.
Whilst ‘Stan’ wrote letters to Eminem, the birth of social media means that fans have instant access to their idols and the ability to hide behind a keyboard has created a legion of faceless individuals who are able to anonymously spew hate in the name of their ‘fave’.
The latest incident involves Beyonce‘s legion of fans, the Beyhive, who are known for being merciless towards anyone who they perceive to messing with their Queen B. The latest victim is Nicole Curran, wife of Golden State Warriors owner who was spotted leaning over Beyonce to speak toJay-Z at a basketball game. It didn’t matter that Beyonce and Jay- Z were gusts of the couple, the Beyhive buzzed into action, prompting Beyonce’s publicist to put out a statement.
Beyonce’s publicist Yvette Noel-Schurecalled out the singer’s dedicated army of fans for ‘spewing hate’ towards Nicole Curran.
The wife of Golden State Warriors’ owner, 50, has revealed she’s had to shut down her social media accounts after receiving death threats following a viral clip of Beyonce appearing to get annoyed at her because she was chatting to her husband Jay-Z.
And now the singer’s longtime publicist Yvette has condemned the actions of the The Beyhive, informing them that she understood their ‘love for Beyonce runs deep’ but ‘love has to be given to every human.’
In an impassioned caption on Instagram, Nicole wrote, “I am looking back today at the start of The OTRII tour, one year ago. It was a place of joy, unimaginable entertainment from two of the best performers in the world, and a place of love. Every single day on that tour I saw love. Which is why I also want to speak here to the beautiful BeyHiVE. I know your love runs deep but that love has to be given to every human. It will bring no joy to the person you love so much if you spew hate in her name. We love you.”
This comes after Nicole admitted she has been cyber bullied following the viral clip and explained to DailyMail.com that she was merely getting Jay’s drink order. Nicole said the A-list couple were invited as guests of her and her husband Joe Lacob to watch Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night.
Curran revealed: “I have been cyber bullied and think it is very unfair. They were our guests last night. As a hostess, I offered her a drink and then him one as we don’t have floor service at our games. I had to lean in to hear what he wanted. That is it. No story. Just bullying.”
This latest incident, one of many, is indicative of how toxic stan culture has become and why it does more damage than it does in the long run. Impressionable young fans are being drawn into these obsessive one-way relationships with celebrities and acting out on their behalf, often without prompting.
Before the advent of the digital age fans of celebrities, musicians, even sports stars did not have the means to access their idols, however, social media has created a space for instant gratification and the dangerous access to information with little context. In this vein, when celebrities give out information or just post something, fans get up in arms about it in no time at all over the Internet, allowing for stan culture and obsessive behaviour to expand faster than ever before.
Social media also means people are allowed to freely share their opinions about everything and put themselves in a position to be instantly challenged by those who don’t share similar views. Furthermore, the stans were mostly outliers in the past, 6as the very extreme of the fan spectrum but now, they have become, if anything, the norm and come to the forefront partially due to the growth of social media where they can easily find and empower each other through fan communities.
So, why is stan culture so bad? Well, it is culture is also notorious for extreme actions, such as sending harassing and inflammatory message and threatening others. Stans are often vicious when provoked and display worrying anti-social behaviour.
What many psychological professionals would describe this as is a parasocial relationship. This is not an imaginary disorder or an imaginary diagnosis, but it’s the official definition of a relationship many people have with famous figures. Parasocial relationships are one-sided dynamics in which energy, interest and time are extended towards the object of obsession whilst they (commonly a celebrity) remain ignorant of the existence of the other.
Most parasocial relationships are completely harmless, the equivalent of caring just a bit too much about the status of your favourite celebrity couple. However, there are cases of extreme parasocial relationships cross the line into stalking or other threatening behaviour, symbolic of stan culture in its entirety,
Its important that Beyonce put out a public statement condemning the actions of her rogue fans however, if we are going to quell stan culture altogether, all celebrities need to take the same stance.
Ultimately, stan culture promotes unhealthy attachment and anti-social behaviour and needs to be stopped, the culture needs to die.
Regina Daniels always knew she wanted to be a celebrity. Though born in Lagos, she grew up in Asaba, Delta State – the second home of the Nollywood movies in Nigeria.
“I have always had the dream to become a celebrity, to be someone that the world would care about. I would always put in much effort to make sure I get there,” she says in a recent video interview on her YouTube page.
Regina’s mum, Rita Daniels had a heavy influence on the actress like every mum. However, Rita had a special plan to make Regina one of the most-talked-about actresses and it only took less than 14 years for her to succeed. Regina’s thoughts and aspirations are heavily influenced by her mum, whom she sees as her Pathfinder.
Interestingly, Regina really didn’t have to look far for artistic inspiration to become an actress. Her mum, Rita Daniel is a well-known actress-turn-producer for the majority of her childhood in Delta state. She’d tag along to movie sets with her mother till she started getting herself some roles at the age of 6 with the help of her mum.
“I started acting at the tender age of 6 through the help of my mother, she went out of her way to make sure I was in the limelight,” she said.
Soon after featuring in a few movies, Regina’s lifelong dream to become a celebrity started becoming a reality through acting. She starred opposite several established acts including Mercy Johnson Okojie to feature in ‘Dumebi In School’. ‘Dumebi in School’ is a spin-off from the Dumebi series featuring top Nollywood actors, Mercy Johnson and Kenneth Okonkwo. Regina made her mark acting opposite Mercy Johnson starring as her best friend in school.
Despite working hard to remain relevant in Nollywood – with most of her films from Asaba and mostly on Compact Discs – the actress is determined to complete her education. Regina is currently an undergraduate of the Igbinedion University studying Mass Communication.
“I’m studying mass communication at Igbinedion University. I have a passion for entertainment and acting in particular, that is why I opted for the course,” she hinted.
As a child, Regina shuttled between movie sets and school while facing different challenges. However, one of the challenges she remembers vividly was when a director doubted if she will ever make a name for herself as an actress. She said,
“I was once told I can’t act because I was asked to cry on a set and I couldn’t so the director called my mum and told her that he doubts that I can act. My mum had to call me and told me how she believed in me and she also told me how to go about the scene.”
Spending many of her days on movie sets between the ages of 6 and 17 had its side effect on Regina, who says she missed her childhood because she grew up too fast.
“I grew up too fast, I didn’t have the opportunity to explore like other kids because I never had friends, there was no one to mingle with and I would always find myself in the midst of adults trying to read scripts or my book on sets. That is why I’m so passionate about children,” she opened up.
Regina Daniels agrees to have grown up too fast and misses childhood. [Instagram/ReginaDaniels]
On May 27, 2019, a few days after her traditional marriage to Ned Nwoko, a Nigerian lawmaker and wealthy lawyer, Regina held her annual Children’s Day event tagged ‘Regina Daniels children day concert’. The concert had top Nigerian music acts like Patoranking, Zlatan Ibile, African China and MC Galaxy performing to a multitude at the government field in Agbor area of Delta State. The event further testifies to her love for children.
The cherubic actress sure has high hopes and one of it is featuring in a film alongside Hollywood superstar, Angelina Jolie. Regina says in the next five years, she intends to feature in films that will not only see her act alongside the ‘Mr & Mrs. Smith’ star but also get Oscar nominations.
“By 2024, I want to feature in movies that will be nominated for Oscars alongside my role model, Angelina Jolie. What I love about Jolie are her determination, acting ability, her carriage and most importantly, she’s so sexy,” she said.
From playing lawn tennis to playing the piano and cooking Ogbono soup – a local Nigerian dish – Regina reveals her hobbies and her likes.
Regina Daniels is hopeful of featuring in a film alongside Hollywood star, Angelina Jolie.[Instagram/ReginaDaniels]
“I love playing lawn tennis and I can actually beat Serena Williams. I swim smoothly and sexy. I like playing the piano. I find it very sexy and so matured for girls and I’ve always wanted to play the piano…I cook very well especially traditional soups. My favourite is Ogbono soup but I cook Okro soup, Egusi soup, but I love cooking Ogbono soup more,” she revealed.
Rounding off her over 7 minutes long interview, Regina says she knows many of her fans and critics are waiting to hear her speak about her relationship and or marital status and she will be doing so on her YouTube page in the weeks.
BROOKLYN, New York City (WABC) — In a sea of graduates, there’s one who is easy to overlook…if only for her stature.
But Nekhidia Harris is a force, and on Wednesday, she graduated Medgar Evers College with honors and took a beautiful walk across the stage at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
“I was like, oh my gosh, this is really, really happening,” she said. “Oh my gosh, I thank God every day.”
And so do her parents. When Harris was born, doctors gave her just three days to live. Now, she’ll turn 25 in October, and she has a college degree.
“I feel so excellent,” she said. “After the hard work, and sleepless nights sometimes, all-nighters, it feels really good that I accomplished my Bachelor’s (degree) in social work.”
Harris was born with many issues, including brittle bones, and she’s undergone numerous surgeries and had dozens of fractures. But nothing breaks her spirit.
“She lights up a room,” mom Dasline Harris said. “No matter what darkness is in the room, she lights up that room.”
She’s about the size of a toddler, but her impact is so much larger.
“No one has shunned her,” dad Michael Harris said. “Nobody treats her differently, because they see her as tall as they are.”
And that may be because of a bit of advice imparted by her father.
“Use my brain as my height, and I’ve stuck with that,” she said. “And I surely have used my brain as my height.”
Harris already has a non-profit that she uses to motivate others with disabilities. But her energy alone can do just that.
“I like to help people, and especially children,” she said. “I also have a voice, and I love children. They gravitate to me, so I want to help them in every way I can.”
Next up for her is a Masters program at York College.
Imagine you and your husband invite your friends, a couple, over to a televised event. You take their orders. You offer the wife a rose, and explain to the husband why you did so. Then you arrive home to find you’re being harassed all over the internet. Your name is everywhere. These people are on all your social media accounts, telling you to kill yourself. Because of what?
That’s the real life story of NicoleCurran, the wife of Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob.
You don’t need to be a part of the Beyhive to be aware of the news – just scroll through your Twitter and you’ll see the video of Nicole speaking to JAY-Zfloating around.
The Beyhive said Beyoncé‘s body language, in that video, made it clear that she didn’t like the woman talking to Jay-Z, and that she nudged her away.
Soon they were in Nicole’s comments section, asking her to go kill herself, and on Twitter saying she was rude for leaning over Beyoncé (to get Jay-Z’s drink orders).
Nicole tried to do some damage control, sharing a photo of herself and Beyoncé being friendly on her Instagram, but that only got her more attacks, forcing her to disable her comments, then her account.
She left a comment on TheShadeRoom’s post on the issue, writing:
Listen Beehive [sic]. I respect Queen B. I love her! I talked to her husband twice tonight. First, to take a drink order for them both when they arrived as they were our guests. Second, to explain why I gave his wife a rose from a fan. All of this has been taken out of context. I’m a happily married woman. Telling me to kill myself?????? Somehow I don’t think she would support this.
Senior Writer at ESPN Ramona Shelburnereached out to her and shared what she learned on her Twitter:
Just spoke to Nicole Curran, the wife of Warriors owner Joe Lacob, about the “incident “ with Beyoncé last night. She was in tears. Said she had been getting death threats on social media all night this morning she disabled her IG account just to make it stop.
Beyoncé’s publicist, too, shared her views on the issue, writing that the Beyhive spewing hate will bring no joy to their queen.I am looking back today at the start of The OTRII tour, one year ago. It was a place of joy, unimaginable entertainment from two of the best performers in the world, and a place of love. Every single day on that tour I saw love. Which is why I also want to speak here to the beautiful BeyHiVE. I know your love runs deep but that love has to be given to every human. It will bring no joy to the person you love so much if you spew hate in her name. We love you. 🐝 🐝 🐝
We get that you can love someone so much that you don’t want them disrespected. But taking that love and morphing it into the worst kind of hate, hate that pushes someone to tears and asking that they kill themselves? That’s just … insane.
Although Beyoncé herself hasn’t released a statement, there’s no doubt that, as someone who’s shown over and over that she’s only full of love, she doesn’t approve of any of this.
Beauty vlogger and award-winning YouTuber, Jackie Aina is on the digital cover of Essencemagazine. The YouTube star glows in the shimmering light with her silver eyebrows, extremely blonde hair, bling nails and glittery lips.
The Nigerian-American YouTube star began her YouTube channel in the summer of 2009. After She narrates to Essence how much she loved watching YouTube, and in the process, her best friend convinced her to start sharing videos. She said to Aina, ‘You should just put your looks online.’ At first, Aina refused, then she decided, ‘You know what? Why not? I’m not doing anything bold with my life. I might as well.’ However, Jackie Aina clearly stated to Essence that she wasn’t planning to start a YouTube channel.
She narrates how hard it was at the time for black women to find their own shades in makeup stores:
“I COULDN’T GO TO MAKEUP COUNTERS AND GET THE HELP THAT I NEEDED. I WOULD ASK THEM LIKE, ‘OH, HOW DO I APPLY CONCEALER?’ OR, ‘HOW DO I CONTOUR?’ AND IT WAS ALWAYS LIKE MY SKIN TONE WAS A DETERRENT TO EVERYTHING,” SHE RECALLS. “ACCORDING TO THEM, IT WAS LIKE, ‘WELL, YOU’RE DARK. SO YOU CAN’T REALLY DO THAT.’ IT WAS JUST LIKE, ‘OKAY, I’M SURE THERE’S A WAY AROUND IT. YOU JUST HAVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING.’”
Jackie tells Essence that she started her Youtube Channel with filling the voids that weren’t existent in the content creation industry. She made videos like “The Worst Beauty Brands EVER for POC!” which made her platform grow so well. With those videos, she called out brands that were not “chocolate-girl-friendly” or satisfying enough for dark skinned girls.
Jackie Aina definitely didn’t straitjacket on only blasting those makeup brands. She’s been creating video tutorials, makeup hacks, and so many other helpful content for her audience. Addressing the fact that some of these videos seemed a little rude, she defends her content creation to Essence:
“WHAT GOOD WOULD MY PLATFORM BE IF IT WAS ONLY NEGATIVITY AND BLASTING PEOPLE ALL THE TIME?”
“WITH MY CONTENT, I ALWAYS TRY TO THINK, WOULD IT BE HARMFUL TO MY COMMUNITY IN ANY WAY? WOULD THIS UPSET OR ENCOURAGE A STEREOTYPE IN ANY WAY? AS MUCH AS I WANT PEOPLE TO ENJOY MY CONTENT, IT’LL NEVER BE AT THE EXPENSE OF MAKING OTHER PEOPLE LOOK BAD. I’M ALWAYS TRYING TO BE MINDFUL OF THAT MORE THAN ANYTHING.”
Jackie Aina will never fail to be one of the greatest beauty YouTubers of our time, and we’re so proud that she’s also Nigerian. Definitely, many Nigerians at home and in diaspora have always impressed us with their great achievements so far.
The Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy (NAPHARM) has reechoed the result of a 2018 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODOC) which said that 14.4 million Nigerians aged between 15 and 64 years are drugs users.
Speaking ahead of NAPHARM upcoming conference in Lagos tagged: ‘Pharmacy United Against Drug and Substance Use in Nigeria,’ Chairman of NAPHARM Drug & Substance Abuse Committee, Dr Lolu Ojo, raised concern over the “staggering and unsavoury statistics of Nigerians abusing drugs,” saying, “if the menace of drug abuse are not checked, it will impair all efforts to put the nation on a higher political and economic pedestal.”
Vanguard reports that according to NAPHARM, Nigeria has 10.6 million users of Cannabis; 4.6 million users of pharmaceutical opioids, 238,000 amphetamine users, and one out of every five users of drugs are already dependent.
Ojo continued:
One out of every four drug users is a woman. There are unconfirmed reports that the age of use has gone down to 7 years which means that the children in primary schools are already involved. We wish to sound a note of warning that this challenge may even be more than the current official estimates at our disposal and we will request the nation to be aware of the iceberg phenomenon that this subject may present before us.
There is practically no major city in Nigeria that does not have hideouts or joints or clubs or ram-shackles where the young ones gather to buy or use drugs of different descriptions to feel good.
We are organising a 1000-man sensitisation and awareness walk to educate and inform the public on Monday 10 June 2019, symposium themed: Sustainable approach to the eradication of drug and substance abuse in Nigeria.
Each week, Jada Pinkett Smith and her family sit around the Red Table to talk about some of the most riveting topics around. There have been so many memorable episodes of the show with Ayesha Curry, Jordyn Woods and others making headlines through their appearances.
Recently, Ciara graced the table with her story, which Jada says has been incredibly influential. J
Ciara’s most recent album is called Beauty Marks. The body of work tells a tale of how Ciara has turned her ugliest moments into the most beautiful life she could have. She knows that everything that happened to her over the years has led her to find the love of her life, Russell Wilson. CiCi’s son, FutureZahir, is a major part of her sit-down with Jada, Willow and Adrienne. The singer was engaged to Future when they welcomed in Baby Future but something about the relationship was so toxic that she needed to call things off. Ciara knew that she needed her life to calm down and when she first started hanging out with Russell Wilson, she says it was “just different.”
Ciara is striving right now and nothing could have happened without all the emotional scars she lived through along the way. She’s wearing so many hats and as a mother of two children now, she still finds time to be there for her kids. Watch the full episode below.
A Nigerian journalist, Toyosi Ogunseye, has become the vice president of World Editors Forum (WEF).
Ogunseye who heads the BBC West Africa, was elected on Saturday at the annual meeting of WEF held in Scotland.
She is to deputise Warren Fernandez, editor of the Straits Times and editor-in-chief of Singapore Press Holdings’ English, Malay and Tamil Media Group, for the next two years.
Expressing her pleasure to serve in the capacity in a tweet, she wrote: “This morning, the @WorldEditors board voted Warren Fernandez @theSTeditor as President and me as Vice President. Warren and I are pleased to serve and humbled to lead the World Editors Forum. #WINSummit19 #WNMC19”
Meanwhile, the outgoing WEF president, Dave Callaway, who spoke shortly after their emergence, said: “Warren and Toyosi’s elections ensure WEF is in good hands as we encounter the challenges of the next two years. With media freedom under attack from all sides, a diverse, experienced leadership is what we need to help bring our industry together and take it forward.”
A Mandela Washington fellow, Ogunseye is one of the most revered journalists in Africa; with an outstanding career at The PUNCH, where she had risen to the position of the first female editor since the organisation was founded about five decades ago.
In her career as a journalist for about 15 years, she has won more 30 awards. Some of these are the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME); CNN MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year Awards (2011 and 2013); Knight International Journalism Award; and the Nigerian Academy of Science Journalist of the Year.
WEF is the leading network for print and digital editors of newspapers and news organisations around the world.
This is the first time that its leadership would be from Asia and Africa since it was established about two decades ago.
