The Senate has confirmed the nomination of Abike Dabiri-Erewa for appointment as Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Diaspora Commission.
The Senate made the confirmation and subsequent announcement on Thursday via its verified Twitter handle @NGRSenate.
Dabiri-Erewa who is currently the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora was a three-term member of the House of Representatives representing Ikorodu Federal Constituency in Lagos between 2003 and 2015.
As a Reps member, she was chairman of House Committee on Diaspora Affairs; and had sponsored the bill seeking the establishment of the Nigerian Diaspora Commission.
Blessing Egbe has revealed that her new film, ‘The Ten Virgins’ featuring Thin Tall Tony is cost effective and has gulped almost N50 million.
The producer and director made this known in a recent statement while speaking on the film. She also said the project can be likened to an ambitious side.
“This project has gulped nearly 50 million Naira. It is both a feature and a limited series and is indeed an ambitious stride,” she began. “We paid attention to technical details and all the elements that make a movie great, and I believe the audience will feel its pulse,” Egbe dropped.
The woman behind Nollywood blockbusters, ‘Lekki Wives’ and ‘Two Brides and a baby’ said the move to dare to make an ambition movie was intentional. She further said Nollywood is in dire need of content.
In her words,
“Going into this, my intention was to tell a story so relatable, interesting and entertaining, and I believe we have achieved that aim. It is a movie driven on the strength of the story, its style and the execution of it.
Pulse NigeriaA scene from Blessing Egbe’s new film, ‘The Ten Virgins.’ [YouTube/BConcept Network]
“Nollywood is in dire need of content with substance and that substance starts from the depth of the stories we tell. For ‘The Ten Virgins, we told a familiar story in a dated’ stage like and musical format, it is simple yet so captivating. I am excited and can’t wait to share it with the audience.”
‘The Ten Virgins’ is a musical drama about 10 maidens who amidst many temptations must remain faithful in their commitment to the greatest prince in the land. The movie is scheduled for cinema release on August 2.
The feature film parades Honey Adum, Damilare Kuku, Blessed Effiong, Bukky Okorodus, Leelee Byoma, Jade Dunni, Osareme Inegbenebor, Chidera Makata, Oge Aniegboka, Ola Taiwo, Degri Emmanuel, Chinonso Young, Tunbosun Aiyedehin, and late Priye George.
Juliet Ehimuan, Google Nigeria’s Country Director has been named as one of 30 People Who Are Changing the World by London Business School Review.
LBS Review says about her:
Juliet Ehimuan wants to raise human dignity by helping to develop human capacity and create opportunities for growth. But Ehimuan is not a charity boss or a UN chief. As Country Director of Google Nigeria, she’s a global tech leader whose contributions to technology and entrepreneurship have won her multiple awards and recognition, including being named one of Forbes’ 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa and featuring in the third series of the BBC Women of Africa strand, Power Women.
Ehimuan runs “Beyond Limits” initiative where she coaches young people to become self-leaders.
“I tell them to always apply themselves and make the best of every circumstance. Every situation offers an opportunity to learn, grow and define who you are. Always do your best, always expand your horizon. You never know what is around the corner,” she told LBS Review.
In 2017, she worked with thirteen young women from the disadvantaged area of Kiri Kiri, Lagos on an intensive boot camp to transform the lives forever.
Meeting every weekend over a three month period, she worked with them on self-development, leadership skills, personal and organisational effectiveness, and business skills – transferable competencies all required for any leader, whether in the field of STEM, fashion, catering or the creative arts.
Today, under her helm, Google is transforming lives and placing Africa at the forefront of the future of technology. Free digital training is being offered to ten million Africans in five years with three million already trained so far. This will give digital skills and certifications to young people, giving them an edge in an over-saturated job market.
Omoni Oboli couldn’t contain her joy as she announced her victory at the court over the ownership of the script for ‘Okafor’s Law’ challenged by Jude Idada and Rancouteour Productions.
In her victory speech, she said judgment was given on May 2, 2019, after two years. In an Instagram post, Oboli narrated the experience in the last two years but happy to have been vindicated.
On Thursday, March 30, 2017, a Federal High Court granted Omoni Oboli the go ahead to release “Okafor’s Law” on Friday March 31, 2017.
Though the Court lifted the injunction, the case remained in court, with hearing of the substantive matter commencing on Monday, April 3, 2017.
Earlier Justice N. Buba had ruled in favour of an interlocutory injunction which was served to Omoni Oboli, Filmone and Dioni Visions to halt the release of the movie in Nigeria.
Jude Idada, a Canadian based screenwriter had publicly accused Omoni Oboli of stealing his idea for the ‘Okafor’s Law’ script’ on September 7, 2017. Few days after the name calling, Oboli’s ‘Okafor’s Law,’ premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Monday, September 12, 2016.
Idada assigned rights of his script to Chioma Onyenwe of Raconteur Productions. Following this move, Oboli was prevented from premiering her film in Nigeria on March 24, 2017, after being served a court injunction filed by Raconteur Productions. Following the injunction, the previously scheduled premiere of “Okafor’s Law” didn’t hold.
Jude Idada had called Omoni Oboli out over the script of her film, ‘Okafor’s Law.’ [Twitter/Jude Idada]
The Past between Idada and Oboli
In 2013, Jude Idada claimed to have written a treatment for the movie “Being Mrs Elliott,” which he forwarded to the actress. However, Oboli produced the movie off the treatment without contacting or paying Idada for his work.
According to our source, the actress defended her act, claiming to have forgotten that a treatment was sent to her by Idada.
Jude Idada, who had no idea that a movie was made off his treatment, got to find out at the 2014 Nollywood Film Festival in Paris, when the movie was screened to the audience.
Hence, Idada was reportedly hesitant to write the script because he once had a bad experience with the Obolis in the past.
The alleged negotiation between Oboli and Idada
On March 30, 2017, Pulse spoke with an undisclosed source who said that Oboli had contacted Jude Idada to write the script and that they had shared ideas during their several meetings.
According to her, Oboli decided to write her own script after several attempts to reach Jude was unsuccessful.
However, another inside contradicted the above source, stating that after Oboli had contacted Jude Idada in late 2014 to write her script, the latter tried severally to reach her, but wasn’t successful.
As I type, 70 girls were arrested and brought to Utako Police station last night. This is in addition to the ones who were arrested on Friday night. Their offence; clubbing and in some instance, prostitution. Some have been assaulted with injuries in their vaginas.
One of the ladies arrested has a 2-month old baby. She wasn’t allowed to breastfeed her baby by CRO in charge on duty despite continuous plea amidst tears. It took the intervention of a female police officer who called the DPO to overrule the decision of the inspector at the time.
The joint task force that arrested some of these girls have been allegedly molesting and assaulting them. Some even showed the bruises and bleeding in their vaginas.
This is not the first time this month. According to Premium Times, police officers, two weeks ago, arrested about 30 women at different night clubs.
Police say they were arrested for prostitution, which is against Nigeria’s law but it begs the questions, “how do they know they are prostitutes,” “Is it a crime for a woman to be in a club?” and “what about the ‘client’? What happens to them?”
Obono’s tweets said they officers have been sexually assaulting the women while in detention, and we know
Nigerians have been condemning the raid as well as the assault, and we stand with them!
Dear Women all over Nigeria, how long do you think it will take before the Nigerian police start start arresting you for buying suya or standing outside your gate at night?! If they can do it to women in a city where asorock is situate, how safe do you really think you are?
Groundbreaking Muslim supermodel Halima Aden has made history once again by becoming the first model to wear a hijab and burkini in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
In 2016, Aden became the first contestant in Miss Minnesota USA to wear a hijab and burkini, ultimately reaching the pageant’s semi-finals.
“There are so many Muslim women that feel like they don’t fit society’s standard of beauty,” she told CNN at the time.
“I just wanted to tell them it’s OK to be different, being different is beautiful, too.”
She shared a similar sentiment at her Sports Illustrated shoot. “Growing up in the United States, I never really felt represented because I never could flip through a magazine and see a girl who was wearing a hijab,” she said in a behind-the-scenes video. “Don’t be afraid to be the first.”
Credit: Yu Tsai/Sports Illustrated
Aden, who is Somali-American, grew up in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp, before moving with her family to the US at the age of seven.Her Sports Illustrated shoot, photographed by Yu Tsai, took place at Kenya’s Watamu
“I keep thinking (back) to six-year-old me who, in this same country, was in a refugee camp,” Aden told the magazine. “So to grow up to live the American dream [and] to come back to Kenya and shoot for SI in the most beautiful parts of Kenya — I don’t think that’s a story that anybody could make up.”
Credit: Yu Tsai/SI Swimsuit
Again, this isn’t the first time Aden has made history — or even the first time this year. In March, she was one of three black hijabi models featured on the cover of Vogue Arabia — the magazine’s first group hijabi cover — alongside Ikram Abdi Omar and Amina Adan.
In April 2018, she broke new ground in British Vogue, as the first hijabi woman on the cover.”I empower women by staying true to myself and also encouraging them to go out and not be scared to be the first,” Aden told CNN on International Women’s Day in March. “If you don’t see yourself represented in any given field, take it upon yourself to be the one.”
Acclaimed Nigerian-American author, Nnedi Okorafor is set to take Hollywood by storm! According to Brittle Paper, Okorafor announced via Facebook that she is starting her own TV Production company, Africanfuturism Productions, Inc.
(Photo: TED.com)
According to Nnedi, the company will focus exclusively on television series because of the relative freedom TV affords:
“Film is too restrictive.”
Not much else is known about the company for now, but we can be expecting some high quality work from them because Nnedi’s novels are pretty incredible. She is is one of science fiction’s smartest and most successful voices.
Asisat Oshoala has helped her club FC Barcelona Women, beat Bayern Munich 1-0 in yesterday’s UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-final game and, in the process, became the first Nigerian to qualify for the competition’s final.
According to Goal, the match led to a lot of firsts for FC Barcelona Women. Not only did the club witness a record number of spectators for a women’s home game, but they also became the first Spanish club to reach the final in the history of the tournament.
For the past three months now, Oshoala has helped the club dominate. The 24-year-old has played six league goals so far this season, and she has sealed them all with seven goals. Oshoala’s magic will certainly come in handy on May 18, when the club faces Lyon in the final.
As public schools prepare to resume for a new term, Edo state government has warned parents that they would be dealt with if their children are found loitering around during school hours.
The state government gave the warning on Saturday, April 27, 2019, while announcing that public and private schools in the state would resume on Monday, April 29, 2019, for the third term of the 2018/2019 academic session.
A statement signed by Dr. Ruth Obahiagbon, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education states that Public and Private schools in Edo State will resume for the third term on April 29.
She added due to the ongoing Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (Edo-BEST) training for teachers in public primary schools. that public primary schools , public primary schools will resume on May 6.
However, Obahiagbon advised parents and guardians in the state to send their wards to school saying failure to do so would amount to a breach of Child Right Law.
Today, the Senate confirmed the appointment of Ms Omolola Edewor as Executive Director, Corporate Services, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation(NDIC).
This followed the presentation of a report by senator Rafiu Adebayo, Chairman, Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions at plenary. In his presentation, Adebayo said the nominee, who is currently occupying the same position, was screened and found worthy of confirmation for a second and final term of five years.
He said the Senate at its sitting on April 9, referred the request for her nomination to the committee for screening. The lawmaker noted that “the committee held the screening and we went through her curriculum vitae, security clearance form and code of conduct bureau details.
He said, “She hails from Ogun State and she will be in charge of the administration of the organisation. The committee also found out that the nominee has no petition against her and she is qualified to hold the position for another term. So, we recommend that she be confirmed”.
Seconding the committee’s recommendation, Senator Barau Jibrin(APC-Kano), said, “the nominee has shown to be eminently qualified and by her pedigree, she is qualified to be confirmed”.
In his remarks, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki put the confirmation to a voice vote and it was adopted by the lawmakers. It would be recalled that the committee had on April 18, screened the nominee and promised to refer the report to the Senate in plenary. Meanwhile, President Buhari had written the Senate, seeking Edewor’s confirmation in accordance with provisions of 5(4) of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation Act.
Ms Abiola Edewor is the first daughter of the acclaimed winner of the June 1993 presidential election, Moshood Abiola. She is also a former member of the House of Representatives. With the confirmation, Edewor will be serving her second term and final term of five years as the executive director.
