Bolaji Rosiji raises the bar for Nigerians

Inspite of Nigeria’s fast paced economic growth rate, poverty still remains significant in Africa's biggest economy-Nigeria, with over 70% population living on $1.25 (N200) or even less per day. more...

Cancer war, we need govt’s support –KSB

Kennis Music Vice President and multiple award-winning gospel act, Kenny Saint Brown has said that the fight against the scourge of cancer requires a collective effort from the government, corporate organizations and individuals.more...

Yetunde Wunmi celebrates 35 years on stage

Top Yoruba actress, Taiwo Akinwande (a.k.a Yetunde Wunmi) will celebrate 35 years in the entertainment  industry on Sunday, June 7 at Nelo's Place, No 2 Yomi Oshikoya Drive, behind Etiebet Place, off Bank Anthony, Ikeja, Lagos by 2pm.more...

Ebele Eko’s enviable giant strides in literary world

Mother of Multitudes: A Biography of Prof Ebele Ofoma Eko, Betty Abbah, Pensrule Communications Limited, Lagos; 2015, pp. 189
By DAMIETE BRAIDE


The book, Mother of Multitudes...A Biography of Prof. Ebele Ofoma Eko, is a compelling biography of an equally compelling personality, Prof. Ebele Ofoma Eko, a professor of English Literature, author and former Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics) of the University of Calabar.
 more...

My mother taught me everything- Bolaji Rosiji

Chief Executive Officer of Gaurapad Foundation and former president of Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria (PMAN), Bolaji Rosiji last week at the Eko Hotels, held a party in honor for his late mother, Mrs Gbemi Rosiji aka Mama ni. who died at the age of 89. more....

Osundare to Buhari: ‘Change must not be another buzz word’

In his usual style of taking a swipe at the government, award winning, satiric poet and writer has condemned the activities of the out-going government and urged the incoming government led by General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) to be transparent in their dealing with Nigerians.....more
He made this known at the distinguished alumni lecture organised by Christ’s School (Ado-Ekiti), Lagos Branch, which held at Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Victoria Island, Lagos.
In his lecture entitled “No More Business as Usual: Nigeria’s New-found ‘Change’ and the Lesson from the Past”, Prof. Niyi Osundare said: “The outgoing government gave us transformation without change, motion without movement, sermon without self reflection, and it happened that way, because its functionaries tried to transform the country without first transforming themselves. Their efforts bottomed out as fast and errant hypocrisy. The change promised by the new government must not be another buzz word, mouths to titillate the lips and caressing the ears of people.
Osundare, who is a Professor of English at University of New Orleans, United States of America, recalled that, before the recent elections in the country, two women who were interviewed by one of the television station was seen holding their Permanent Voters cards (PVCs) and declared with our PVC, they voted out the outgoing government and, if the incoming government would not perform better, they would also vote them out. “Holding their voters card, they declared, Never Again!” he recalled.
For Osundare, “Impunity is the vilest enemy to the rule of law faced by implication which is actually tantamount to the rule of lawlessness”. Besides, he said,“ No empire has ever risen and fallen without the active agency of impunity. No powerful institution has ever fallen into the pit without its affliction. Those women will like us to bury impunity in a grave of once upon a time. They are itching to hear something from Nigeria, and the incoming government.
Recalling the Chibok disastrous kidnapping, he said never again would what happened on April 14, 2014, the Chibok recur, when “a bunch of happy girls were preparing for their final examinations, their hearts struggled with the hope burning in their eyes”, but their dreams failed an emphatic upright, as an insurgency crashed in with guns and bombs, soiled the hope and pronounced a Fatwa on knowledge; while the security agencies did nothing.
Dissatisfied with the ruling class, Professor Osundare called for a review of remuneration and allowances to public servants, which has made Nigeria to spend over 60% of its earnings on the maintenance of a unproductive parasitic public officials whose aversion to morals has turned our country into a moral wilderness.”
With the incoming government, he said Nigerians would like to demand a full disclosure of remunerations and allowances of all public office holders and the reintroduction of fiscal regulations and fiscal discipline in all public offices. In addition, with the drastic reductions of all public office holders, he demanded a new mentality that “public service is not a bonanza”.
He sought a break from the former National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), now Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). He would also want Nigeria to put the horn back in our factories, put an end to our age long archeology as a brainless effective society that consumes without producing. 
For a change, he called for a knowledge-driven government, make our government friendly to positive ideas and surround it with people who are not afraid of thinking or asking questions.
“This is the change we seek,” he emphasised. “Nigeria has enough resources to make life reasonably comfortable for all its citizens, if our leaders will steal less and think more of the rest of us. No country can ever be happy if it has 10 millionaires and 100,000 paupers, and that is what Nigeria is and has been.”
The change we seek, he said, would never come until we start holding those who rule us to account for what they do. “Until we start holding their feet to the fire in a manner of speaking, this may sound plain or too simple, but we can only choose the way that we want to be ruled. When a ruler commands you to burn for no good reason, and all you ask is how far? Next time, he or she will ask you to sink below the surface of the earth,” he added.
Urging the populace to rediscover the power in their voters’ card, he said Nigerians should tell the incoming government and its entourage  that “we have swept off the perverse government that has held us down for so many years; if you do not want us to do the same to you, kill corruption before corruption kills Nigeria; start building with us a just and egalitarian society in which leaders lead by following conscientious and following it by insisting on their rights and their duty to the irredeemable damage that the People Democratic party (PDP) and its predecessors have done to this country. Let us join those women by saying, never again!”
Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Rain Assembly, Lagos said: We are not flattering Prof. Osundare; he has been consistent over the years. He made me aspire to keep reading his books especially, Dialogue with the Nation.
Yemi Akeju, chairman of the occasion said, “We chose to communicate to the society through our alumni association; while Ayo Adebanjo added: “If we have more of Prof. Osundare in this country, change would have taken place a long time ago. Osundare has been preaching what Nigerians should be through his literature. This present generation should try to create a name or reputation that people would get to know and respect.”
Some of the dignitaries in attendance included Prof. Duro Oni,  Yinka Odimakin, Eniola Fadayomi, Odia Ofeimun, Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, among others.

‘Buhari should choose men with fear of God’

Senior Pastor of Bible Believing Mission Incorporated, Aba, Abia State, Kingsley Innocent, has commended the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega for the success of the just-concluded general elections.more...

Ugochukwu Favour-Mayor: Why my book celebrates distinguished Igbo personalities

Individuals who have made it to the top and are role models should be honoured and celebrated. This is what Ugochukwu Favour-Mayor has done in his third book entitled Most Influential Igbo Personalities (MIIP).more...

Lines of Destiny: Adenaike and Anidi expand artistic frontiers

The last time renowned artists, Tayo Adenaike and Obiora Anidi, held a joint exhibition was 31 years ago at the Italian Cultural Centre where they created an unforgettable, powerful visual language that though expressed in different media, shared a deep congruity.more...