Day: November 25, 2016

5 Nigerian celebrities who lost their fathers after they made it

Certain Nigerian celebrities lost their fathers not long after they became celebrities and it has been a bad loss to them.

Here is a list of Nigerian celebrities who lost their dad’s after they became popular.

1. Chidinma

Petite singer Chidinma Ekile lost her dad, James Ekile after a brief illness on December 9, 2014 after she came to spot light from the project fame competition she won.

READ ALSO: Five times Olamide showed other musicians how to rock native attire (photos)

2. Yemi Alade

The Johnny crooner Yemi Alade lost her father January 16, 2015 after she also became popular.

3. Dr Sid

On February 19, 2013 Nigeria musician Dr Sid lost his father Chief Justus Esiri, a veteran actor to the cold hands of death.

4. Kiss Daniel

The “Woju” singer Kiss Daniel lost his dad May 9, 2015 which was just few days to his 21st birthday.

5. Olamide

 

Nigerian rapper, Olamide lost his father to the cold hands of death on November 26, 2015. Although the cause of death remains unknown, the ‘Eyan Mayweather’ rapper just made the announcement on his Instagram page last year.

Age is just a number: Celebrities who married older women

Love comes naturally and even easier if you can face the challenges, even celebrities have proved to us that age difference shouldn’t be a barrier where love is concerned.

When it comes to being in a relationship or getting married, age shouldn’t be a thing to bother yourself with because you are the woman and you’re scared of what your friends or family might say. It is the way you talk to and respect your spouse, that other people will carry your relationship along and treat them.

Below are celebrities who have proved to us that love is the main thing as age is just a number.

1. Kaffy and Joseph Ameh

Kafayat Sharafat popularly known as Kaffy is a dancer and a mother of two, she got married to Joseph Ameh who happens to be popular singers, Psquare’s drummer. Kaffy is eight years older than Pappy J as he is popularly called. They got married in 2012 and they have two children Eliana Ameh, their daughter and Sean Ameh, their son.

2. Lola Omotayo and Peter Okoye

Although, Lola and Peter’s relationship was criticized because of their age difference, they lovebirds got married traditionally in 2013 and tied the knot in January 2015. Lola Omotayo is said to be at least six years older than Psquare’s Peter Okoye.  Peter and Lola have two children Cameron and Aliona.

3. Deola Ayeni and Dare Art Alade

Deola Ayeni Nigeria entrepreneur got married to Dare Art Alade on February 17, 2007, Deola Ayeni is eight years older than R&B singer Dare Art Alade. The couple are blessed a boy and a girl.

4. Osas Ighodaro and Gbenro Ajibade

Osas Ighodaro who is an actress, met her husband Gbenro Ajibade on the set of TV soap Tinsel, years ago and they began dating. Osas is said to be three years older than her beau. After three years of dating, Gbenro and Osas got married and they now have a daughter.

5. Toyin Lawani and Trigga Kess

Toyin Lawani is a serial entrepreneur and a fashion stylist, she is reportedly ten years older than her beau Trigger Kess who is a budding artiste, even though they haven’t been seen together in recent times, and haven’t said anything about whether they are still a couple, they have a 2-year-old son together.

US Green Party raises funds for recount

WASHINGTON: The former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has raised the necessary $1.1 million to request a vote recount in Wisconsin, her campaign announced on Thursday.

The midwestern state was a key battleground in the Nov 8 election, helping propel the Republican President-elect Donald Trump past his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to a victory that shocked the nation.

“Congratulations on meeting the recount costs for Wisconsin,” Stein’s website read. “Raising money to pay for the first round so quickly is a miraculous feat and a tribute to the power of grass roots organising.”

The recount demands could reignite concern over the legitimacy of the vote, which followed a bitter presidential campaign that included persistent charges of foreign hacking and rigging.

Stein’s campaign has cited unspecified “anomalies” in the election as grounds to request a recount in Wisconsin, as well as Pennsylvania and Michigan, also swing states.

“The unexpected results of the election and reported anomalies need to be investigated before the 2016 presidential election is certified,” Stein said on her website. “We deserve elections we can trust.”

Wisconsin swung Republican for the first time since voters there helped elect Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Trump also won by a slim margin in Pennsylvania, where a recount filing fee costs $500,000, due on Nov 28.

Stein’s campaign has currently raised $2.7 million toward its $4.5 million goal. The campaign anticipates eventually needing $6 million to $7 million to cover attorney fees and statewide recount observation costs.

Clinton is more than two million votes ahead of Trump in the popular vote count.

Published in Dawn

India world’s sixth largest military spender

STOCKHOLM: Despite being the tenth largest arms importer in the world last year, Pakistan did not make it to a list of 15 countries with the highest military expenditure in 2015, compiled by a military think tank.

Pakistan spent $9.5 billion on military expenses, up from its expenditure of $8.7 billion in 2014, according to data published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Tuesday.

United States topped the list with a military spending of $596 billion, with China and Russia following. India was placed sixth, up a rank from its position of the previous year.

Top 15 countries with highest military expenditure in 2015.—SIPRI
India’s military spending in 2015 was $51.3 billion, an increase of 0.4 per cent since the previous year, said the SIPRI report.

India plans to increase military expenditure by about 8 per cent (in real terms) in 2016, said the report, “partly to fund many large ongoing and planned procurement programmes”.

Rising tensions worldwide helped push up military expenditure in 2015, the first increase after four years of declining spending, SIPRI said.

For the full-year 2015, world military spending totalled $1.67 trillion, a rise of one per cent from the previous year.

Examine: S. Arabia, India top arms importers, says Sipri

The increase was attributed primarily to more expenditure in Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East, while the decline in spending in the West was levelling off, SIPRI said.

According to SIPRI, military expenditure include all current and capital expenditure on:

the armed forces, including peace keeping forces
defence ministries and other government agencies engaged in defence projects
paramilitary forces when judged to be trained, equipped and available for military operations
military space activities

Mixed trends
The US remains in pole position as the country that spends the most on its armed forces, by far. Washington’s military spending budget of $596 billion was down by 2.4pc from the previous year, a smaller decline than in recent years.

Share of world military expenditure by top 15 states. Source: SIPRI
SIPRI senior researcher Sam Perlo-Freeman said the US now has “additional overseas contingency operations’ (OCO) spending from the war against” the militant Islamic State (IS) group.

The world’s second-biggest spender, China, dished out $215 billion, followed by Saudi Arabia which overtook Russia for third place at $87.2 billion. Moscow spent $66.4 billion.

Afghanistan cut its military spending by 19pc to $199 million in 2015, “which is perhaps surprising as Afghan forces have assumed responsibility for security following the withdrawal of most foreign troops”, said SIPRI.

However, it noted, that Afghanistan’s military received aid from foreign donors to the tune of $5.35 billion last year.

During the 10-year period from 2006-2015, the US military budget shrank by four per cent, while China’s soared by 132pc. Those of Saudi Arabia and Russia also increased significantly, by 97 and 91pc respectively.

World military expenditure between 1988 and 2015. Source: SIPRI
France, which had the fifth biggest budget in 2014, fell to seventh place behind Britain and India. Military spending budgets continued to decline across Western Europe, albeit less sharply than in recent years.

“The reasons for the change in trend are Russia, IS and Nato politics,” Perlo-Freeman said, noting that Alliance members have agreed to maintain spending at two per cent of their gross domestic product until 2024.

In Asia, rising spending in Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan and Vietnam reflected tensions with China and North Korea, SIPRI said.

India to buy howitzers worth $737m from US

WASHINGTON: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has finally cleared the long-pending purchase of 145 M777 ultra-light howitzers from the United States, the US media reported on Monday.

The $737 million arms deal is part of a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreement between the United States and India, which aims to promote greater defence cooperation between the two countries.

The Pentagon’s FMS programme facilitates sales of US defence equipment and services to foreign governments.

Under the arrangement, the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency serves as an intermediary, handling procurement, logistics and delivery of the purchased equipment.

“The contract will be signed within the next two months, and the deliveries are expected to start in mid-2017,” an Indian defence official told reporters in New Delhi.

“India is certainly looking forward for a much greater defence partnership under the leadership with newly elected US President Donald Trump,” the official said.

The official also told reporters that the artillery pieces would help India target militant bases inside Pakistan without crossing the border and that’s why acquiring the howitzers was a top priority. “It will be a game changer,” he added.

Last year, the Indian Ministry of Defence approved a proposal to buy M777A2 (LW155) howitzers from the US only after a commitment from the manufacturers to set up assembly, integration and test (AIT) facilities in India to boost India’s domestic defence industry.

Under the arrangement, US subsidiary of BAE Systems will dispatch 25 M777 artillery guns in fly-away condition; remaining guns will be assembled in India in partnership with private sector company Mahindra Defence Systems.

“Developing a supply chain in India is key to our vision to develop technologies and solutions in India for both the home market and for export,” the US manufacturer said.

The two companies will jointly set up an AIT facility for M777 artillery guns near New Delhi.

The Indian Army has not inducted any type of 155mm howitzers since 1986. The army is seeking a total of 220 ultra-light howitzers over the next 15 years.

The M777 is a 155mm 39-calibre towed gun which enables rapid deployment and accurate artillery fire support. It is the world’s first 155mm Howitzer weighing less than 4,218kg.

Highly mobile on land, at sea and in the air, the M777 has increased survivability through tactical and strategic mobility, low thermal and radar signature, rapid emplacement/displacement and low silhouette.

Published in Dawn

Mother seeks pardon for paraplegic son on death row

ISLAMABAD: The mother of paraplegic inmate Abdul Basit who is on death row urged President Mamnoon Hussain on Monday to pardon her son.

Nusrat Perveen said that the president had ordered authorities to halt the execution of her son in January, hours before he was to be hanged. However, that stay of execution order has now expired.

After meeting Basit at a prison in the city of Faisalabad, Perveen told The Associated Press that her son had lost a lot of weight and looked skeletal.

“I wept and cried on seeing him in fragile health,” she said. “My son is like a dead man already, do they want to hang a dead man?”

Basit, 43, has been paralysed from the waist down since contracting meningitis in prison in 2010 and uses a wheelchair. He has been on death row since 2009, convicted of murdering a man in a financial dispute.

Jail officials said they were initiating a new process to obtain a death warrant to execute Basit.

The Supreme Court last year said Basit’s execution must comply with the country’s prison rules governing execution procedures. However those rules contain no provisions for the hanging of prisoners in wheelchairs.

Maya Foa, a director at the anti-death penalty NGO Reprieve, expressed concern that authorities were gearing up to try and execute Basit. Foa said in a statement that the government has still given no explanation of how it plans to avoid a “horribly botched execution”. She said the international community must urgently call on Hussain to halt “this cruel spectacle”.

Credit : Dawn

After 24 years on death row, murder accused acquitted by Supreme Court

A man who spent 24 years on death row was acquitted by the Supreme Court (SC) Friday after the court found evidence against him ‘inadequate’.

Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, who led the three-member bench hearing the case said, “There is a discrepancy between the prosecution’s evidence and the statements of the witnesses.”

“The high court did not consider the case from all angles,” Khosa added, saying the pistol presented as evidence to the court did not belong to the accused.

Mazhar, a resident of Kasur, was accused of killing Nisar Ahmed in 1992 over a land ownership dispute in the city.

After murdering Ahmed, Mazhar remained at large for three years, Asghar Gul, the prosecutor on the case, claimed.

“He (Mazhar) is also involved in other crimes,” the prosecutor added.

A sessions court in Kasur convicted Mazhar of murder and sentenced him to death. The high court upheld the verdict. Mazhar then appealed to SC in 2011, which overturned the lower court’s’ ruling.

By Dawn

Sabificate Not Certificate

Sabificate’ is not a word in the English dictionary but a word coined for use in the Nigerian parlance, In Nigerian pidgin English, the word ‘sabi’ means ‘to know or understand. so in place of certificate as attestation of qualification, it skill knowledge, having a hands-on knowledge pf the subject matter and being a practical person on it.

Certificate on the other hand means an official document attesting a certain fact, in particular. It is actually a PAPER.It is just the head knowledge of theories

The argument in support of sabificate as opposed to certificate is very evident in the life of many young Nigerian graduates who actually hold the ‘paper’ to say they are qualified as this or that but who cannot defend the paper when the need arises.

The sabificate things as it is,is a do it yourself i-dont-want-to-be-an-employee mentallity stuff, as opposed to the mentality of the government must give me job when i get the degree, the jobs which are growing smaller and smaller by the day. It is following your passion and enjoying what you do.

My advise therefore to my nigeria people is to have the sabificate of anything that you have the certificate, having both places you heads and shoulders above your peers.

By Collins