Photos: Mrs Folorunsho Alakija meets with former Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida in Minna

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLV92SDih8YjjOXdnsHDrh2ayjpQh3qJwVB3bcdba8c8z2fYuEIqgBdfiulzvDFz5Y-f9RgeFKlis5mIxjHjkjaZx2yDpXCc2pmzOiIIOcjptbT3ShJmX8LWNtDsD8sLSNGpFmAVLHwE6t/s1600/1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLV92SDih8YjjOXdnsHDrh2ayjpQh3qJwVB3bcdba8c8z2fYuEIqgBdfiulzvDFz5Y-f9RgeFKlis5mIxjHjkjaZx2yDpXCc2pmzOiIIOcjptbT3ShJmX8LWNtDsD8sLSNGpFmAVLHwE6t/s1600/1.jpg" /></a></div> Mrs Folorunso Alakija, 66, presented her books to former Military Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida at the IBB University Minna, Niger State on Thursday, July 28. Nigeria's richest woman also commissioned the Modupe and Folorunso Alakija Lecture theatre at the University.<br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjIeYUGeWl_aKAxdZlggRlfrcLSXc80-TnVSpsTLjXNTPMYc2YXYPrt22WVUGRKSXOTrbyQf5hFlViwAqOxuvROSyBLhkI3w_aPcsrcGaGeFMKuxSAoXmOGUntCaIr97TbDCaG7jxUxVLl/s1600/5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjIeYUGeWl_aKAxdZlggRlfrcLSXc80-TnVSpsTLjXNTPMYc2YXYPrt22WVUGRKSXOTrbyQf5hFlViwAqOxuvROSyBLhkI3w_aPcsrcGaGeFMKuxSAoXmOGUntCaIr97TbDCaG7jxUxVLl/s1600/5.jpg" /></a></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigL5w3HRMGKeZPEHjXtQOw-13gJrOm5jajoHC52-5R1Ts87pw_HegHIjpbY6WMoXhw6an-a0B1JcDHtzWCas1N7MlEynDyE1m2JhkHg5aWTae2chYTKm2EnUp6qkcv_bbTf0zDA_5-sPJf/s1600/6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigL5w3HRMGKeZPEHjXtQOw-13gJrOm5jajoHC52-5R1Ts87pw_HegHIjpbY6WMoXhw6an-a0B1JcDHtzWCas1N7MlEynDyE1m2JhkHg5aWTae2chYTKm2EnUp6qkcv_bbTf0zDA_5-sPJf/s1600/6.jpg" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTX5fHHtJ21n03AGIbyDJb5_8DiWME-zFPkAmJiCxqttVNIRfuaecGGJjQxgPNnU8I5tgsc9h2I5VEdv9vbbwd94yR_WSuqLKpk0aC4Q-V7fMzld8G1am9S5aVIn1IvrAiaKJjYihgi4j8/s1600/4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTX5fHHtJ21n03AGIbyDJb5_8DiWME-zFPkAmJiCxqttVNIRfuaecGGJjQxgPNnU8I5tgsc9h2I5VEdv9vbbwd94yR_WSuqLKpk0aC4Q-V7fMzld8G1am9S5aVIn1IvrAiaKJjYihgi4j8/s1600/4.jpg" /></a></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixhh-cPytjUcUEc6WJv7ka6uYIRGBl-ZB1kbNe8-615NSNtmMuyfiWqZvSn3qg31H-RMixS2LkWTY9c0QhkCMibhAPdYDkreSxoMcz0bx9nc7VYbBMDAsUJwox4mgVocTs6Y5fYrqPVPwq/s1600/3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixhh-cPytjUcUEc6WJv7ka6uYIRGBl-ZB1kbNe8-615NSNtmMuyfiWqZvSn3qg31H-RMixS2LkWTY9c0QhkCMibhAPdYDkreSxoMcz0bx9nc7VYbBMDAsUJwox4mgVocTs6Y5fYrqPVPwq/s400/3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>

Photos: Mrs Folorunsho Alakija meets with former Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida in Minna

Mrs Folorunso Alakija, 66, presented her books to former Military Head of State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida at the IBB University Minna, Nige...

link to this post

The Fajuyi Spirit - By Femi Fani-Kayode

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxgiMTiDIhtrhh79TR6f3hXvMiS5ah5wKHAbAdr8IvG2YpdE8Aj7NQXyF-mAfT6P3bMml-sQFwqI78BHsoQzx2r33SczSPmCtz-UhjZ5dyiIzP8-9E2yNKwwWLrtTVbqx3bt3fgLQT57-Y/s1600/index.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxgiMTiDIhtrhh79TR6f3hXvMiS5ah5wKHAbAdr8IvG2YpdE8Aj7NQXyF-mAfT6P3bMml-sQFwqI78BHsoQzx2r33SczSPmCtz-UhjZ5dyiIzP8-9E2yNKwwWLrtTVbqx3bt3fgLQT57-Y/s320/index.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Read his piece below...<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> Fifty years ago today, on July 29th 1966, a man by the name of Lt. Col. Francis Adekunle Fajuyi gave his life in defence of our country and the then Head of State, General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi. His killers were a group of northern army officers who participated in the so-called northern "revenge coup" of July 29th 1966. No less than 300 Igbo army officers were slaughtered that night together with a handful of yoruba soldiers, including Fajuyi.<br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a></blockquote> Major General Fajuyi was a yoruba man who opted to die in defence of an igbo Head of State. This was not only honorable and courageous but it was also unique and unprecedented. He was a selfless hero and a man that we shall honor and immortalise in the new Nigeria that is to come.<br /> <br /> Those that murdered him, General Aguiyi-Ironsi and the famous 300 in cold blood that night are still running the affairs of our country till today. They determine who is who and who gets what. They decide who our President will be and how long he will remain in power. As a matter of fact their hateful hegemony and evil intentions are even more pronounced and frightful today than they were in 1966 and their grip on the levers of power in our country is even stronger.<br /> <br /> Today they are fully in charge and some of those that actually shot Fajuyi are fully behind them. Yet despite their intention to dominate, silence, break and destroy the rest of us one thing remains clear: the Fajuyi spirit of courage, unity, selflesness and sacrifice has been imbued by millions in the southern and Middle Belt regions of our country.<br /> <br /> These are men and women that are prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder with the oppressed of our nation, whether they be Niger Deltans, Igbos, Yorubas? Middle Belters or anything else. These are men and women that are prepared to resist the perfidious religious and ethnic agenda of the "born to rule" in our midst and that recognise the fact that they regard the rest of us as nothing but slaves. When it comes to southern rights and interests we the Yoruba particularly must learn a lesson from our own son Fajuyi and emulate his example.<br /> <br />  Like him, if necessary, we must be ready to sacrifice our lives and liberty in defence of any or all of our southern and Middle Belt bretheren that are facing persecution, genocide and injustice at the hands of our collective slave masters. It is also time for us to appreciate the fact that if we truly want to be free we must extend our hand of friendship across the River Niger to the Igbo and we must see their bitter travails as being ours as well.<br /> <br /> We must also feel the pain when an Igbo or Niger-Deltan youth is slaughtered by President Buhari's army in the name of "crushing all opposition and dissent" and "keeping Nigeria one". We must also feel the pain when an Igbo or Niger-Deltan youth is slaughtered by President Buhari's army in the name of "crushing all opposition and dissent" and "keeping Nigeria one".<br /> <br /> We must acknowledge the fact that Nigeria cannot remain one as long as there is ethnic and religious bigotry, oppression and injustice. We must appreciate the fact that there can never be southern, or indeed Middle Belt, emancipation without southern unity. Fajuyi understood that point 50 years ago. Consequently he opted to resist the evil in the and and die for it. He was indeed a true martyr. He paid the supreme price for his fellow southerner and he stood against northern adventurism, oppression, domination and hegemony. 50 years later it is time for the rest of us to do the same.<br /> <br /> It is time for us to acknowledge and honor his sacrifice and come together as one. It is time for us to stand up, look at our collective oppressors in the eye and say "no more". No longer should we bow our heads in submission, servility and shame. It is time for us to rise up, invoke the power of the Living God and be men. May the gallant and beautiful soul of Major General Fajuyi continue to rest in eternal peace and may those that murdered him 50 years ago be brought to justice.

The Fajuyi Spirit - By Femi Fani-Kayode

Read his piece below... Fifty years ago today, on July 29th 1966, a man by the name of Lt. Col. Francis Adekunle Fajuyi gave his life i...

link to this post

Ooni Of Ife: Africa has the sole responsibility to balance the world as its center

<div class="post-header"> </div> <div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-817654093980706007" itemprop="description articleBody"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFQ0zzjhN7blxUbWRWbFeieF97WdMx_0ULWSAe0p9POACvi2GHLCnLSglH99UxH773iIbUeKuD0UKxxF3xak1DzZJVGEFs-QNHlY5BEF2e4Mec7Z_p2qVrw8VI_6V0KbwmSemG63GsWQHI/s1600/ooni.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFQ0zzjhN7blxUbWRWbFeieF97WdMx_0ULWSAe0p9POACvi2GHLCnLSglH99UxH773iIbUeKuD0UKxxF3xak1DzZJVGEFs-QNHlY5BEF2e4Mec7Z_p2qVrw8VI_6V0KbwmSemG63GsWQHI/s400/ooni.png" width="400" /></a></div>  The Ooni of Ife Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi shared this on his IG page. He wrote: <br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhycCyxP-sJfQqKwtaFBADGM_3gprzs-qqmHFmg9cYy_hGUjbPyEQpfYLeRA3OaFilmEVKVfLZ0aarkv6wQ9TWhYPef6O6MCgL43YjPez-mUDlLYaNfLTgCb_8prKikmFPSqi7QhYULPxQ_/s1600/ooo.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhycCyxP-sJfQqKwtaFBADGM_3gprzs-qqmHFmg9cYy_hGUjbPyEQpfYLeRA3OaFilmEVKVfLZ0aarkv6wQ9TWhYPef6O6MCgL43YjPez-mUDlLYaNfLTgCb_8prKikmFPSqi7QhYULPxQ_/s400/ooo.png" width="400" /></a></div> <span title="Edited"></span><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <span title="Edited">There were no boundaries in Africa until the 1894 Berlin conference, we should forget these boundaries and focus on the strength of bond of our natural togetherness created by our earliest ancestors. -- Africa has the sole responsibility to balance the world as its center. This can only be achieved if we all come together and see ourselves as one. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/ooniofife/"><span style="color: #003569;">#OoniofIfe</span></a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/aroleoduduwa/"><span style="color: #003569;">#AroleOduduwa</span></a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/togetherinprogress/"><span style="color: #003569;">#TogetherinProgress</span></a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/oneafrica/"><span style="color: #003569;">#OneAfrica</span></a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/africarising/"><span style="color: #003569;">#AfricaRising</span></a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/otisese/"><span style="color: #003569;">#Otisese</span></a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/ooniogunwusi/"><span style="color: #003569;">#OoniOgunwusi</span></a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/oloriwuraola/"><span style="color: #003569;">#OloriWuraola</span></a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/adimulayoruba/"><span style="color: #003569;">#AdimulaYoruba</span></a></span></blockquote> </div>

Ooni Of Ife: Africa has the sole responsibility to balance the world as its center

 The Ooni of Ife Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi shared this on his IG page. He wrote: There were no boundaries in Africa until the ...

link to this post

PENDULUM: 21 Years Of Sadness and Joy

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8JCXvTYVxmGnvdg_LgV-3RmVdw_HDKZCldt3t1-68PehEVQh2MAuf00jRLZ_xynV4cUyzt7HkqFfxxX-AFewTLaDXmAqtzbBpG_h_BFqJbYk4pjT2lkWCkhU1pGANatiLe_SMqtTFhK1S/s1600/MAHAMA.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8JCXvTYVxmGnvdg_LgV-3RmVdw_HDKZCldt3t1-68PehEVQh2MAuf00jRLZ_xynV4cUyzt7HkqFfxxX-AFewTLaDXmAqtzbBpG_h_BFqJbYk4pjT2lkWCkhU1pGANatiLe_SMqtTFhK1S/s400/MAHAMA.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <div dir="ltr"> <br /></div> <div dir="ltr"> <br /></div> <div dir="ltr"> By Dele Momodu <br /> Fellow Africans, exactly twenty-one years ago, on July 25, 1995, I set forth at dawn. My destination was exile. I needed to dialogue with my feet and escape in a jiffy from my dear beloved country without any prior notice. Nigeria was under a most brutal and brutish military dictatorship. Once you were considered a dissident, you were a target for incarceration or extermination. I still don’t know how my name crawled into the evil register but I was accused of knowing about a pirate radio station, first known as Freedom Radio and later changed to Radio Kudirat. But it was all a cook-up. The long and short of it was that I needed to travel speedily and navigate through the forests of a thousand daemons.</div> <div dir="ltr"> I succeeded in crossing through a smugglers’ route into Cotonou, Benin Republic. I was too scared to stay too long in Cotonou and so decided to meander my way to Lome, Togo. Since I couldn’t speak any smattering of French, my best and ultimate destination was Ghana. I crossed the border at Aflao and waltzed my way to Accra that evening. I was instantly stunned by the peace I found on ground after the fiasco I left behind in Lagos and my young family I was forced to abandon without any chance of negotiation.</div> <div dir="ltr"> President Jerry John Rawlings was in power. He was the dream ruler Nigerians craved. We had been regaled with tales of an audacious revolution. Though many Ghanaians did not fancy his coup and bloodletting propensity, Nigerians felt our country needed such Rawlings’ treatment to teach our corrupt leaders an enduring lesson. I spent the next three nights exploring and plotting my eventual migration to the United Kingdom. I found Ghana very hospitable and discovered the true meaning of Akwaaba!</div> <div dir="ltr"> I departed Ghana on the night of July 28, 1995, and landed at London Gatwick on July 29. Ghana remained permanently etched in my mind. I dreamt of a day I would be able to return to the tranquillity of Accra. I spent the next three years under most excruciation conditions. Exile was not an Eldorado despite the unparalleled hospitality and avuncular protection of the British Government.</div> <div dir="ltr"> It was exile that miraculously gave birth to Ovation International magazine. Time would not permit me to go into the story of its Immaculate Conception (to borrow a popular Catholic expression) and delivery. That is for another day. Our Board decided on a few pertinent projections. We will promote Africa and debunk the malevolent prejudices against our continent. We will celebrate the beauty of Africa and encourage social and business interactions amongst our people. We shall produce a world class magazine that would be the pride of Africans at home and abroad. We decided to concentrate all attention on West Africa before spreading out to other regions. Nigeria and Ghana became our priority countries.</div> <div dir="ltr"> Before my first and forced trip to Ghana, I had encountered the old Gold Coast on the pages of literary works by The Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Kofi Awoonor, Ayi Kwei Armah and company. I was particularly enthralled by the seminal work of Nkrumah and the thesis propounded in his book <i>Africa Must Unite</i>. Nkrumah introduced me and got me addicted to pan-Africanism though I had read pan-Africanist and Negritude works by Walter Rodney, Frantz Fanon, Chinweizu, Amilcar Cabral, The Nwalimu Dr Julius Nyerere, Leopold Sedar Senghor and others. I was exceptionally touched by Dr Nkrumah’s vision and was particularly convinced that Africa would never make appreciable progress unless Africans can join hands and lift themselves up.</div> <div dir="ltr"> We decided to expand our operations to Ghana and launched big in Accra. We were delighted to welcome then Senate President of Nigeria Rt. Hon. Adolphus Wabara, then Governor of Lagos State, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and a few of his Commissioners. From the Ghanaian side, we had Hon. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey of blessed memory, Alhaji Asoma Banda who told us how he got his big break in Nigeria, and so many distinguished personalities. I had met and fallen in love with President John Agyekum Kufuor at Alhaji Banda’s house and decided to support his government. We were more interested in the development and progress of Ghana and not the politics. We invested heavily in Ghana and provided jobs and created employment opportunities for Ghanaian youths like we did in Nigeria and elsewhere.</div> <div dir="ltr"> Pioneers and pathfinders always suffer and indeed we got burnt but remained unbowed. We were ready and determined to raise Africa up. If we couldn’t make sacrifices for our continent why should non-Africans invest in us? Just imagine that not a single Nigerian bank existed at that time in Ghana. Many even thought Nigeria was synonymous with drug-trafficking and obtaining by false pretence (otherwise known as 419) but we changed that ugly narrative by showcasing the great men and women of Nigeria, some of the brightest human beings created by God: Mike Adenuga Jr, Aliko Dangote, Tony Elumelu, Antonio Oladeinde Fernandez, Fifi Ejindu, and showcased their Ghanaian counterparts. This synergy has yielded bountiful harvests. Today, many Nigerian companies are operating in Ghana. Despite occasional skirmishes like husbands and wives do, we have learnt to live together in peace or hurly-burly. We are happy and proud to have made our modest contributions. Ovation has since become one of the biggest Nigerian brands in Ghana today.</div> <div dir="ltr"> It was with great delight that I received a refreshing letter from the University of Professional Studies Accra (UPSA) announcing the award of a Doctorate Degree (honoris causa) to be bestowed on me at the convocation ceremony of the prestigious institution today. I am truly honoured and full of gratitude to the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Joshua Alabi and members of the Governing Council of the institution for such a wonderful gesture.</div> <div dir="ltr"> Just a few weeks ago, I visited the university to see things for myself. I was deeply impressed by the great work Professor Alabi and his team have done to sustain and improve the culture of excellence and the quality of professionalism that the institution has become renowned for.</div> <div dir="ltr"> The University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) was founded in 1965 as a private professional business education tuition provider. It was taken over by the government of Ghana in 1978 through the Institute of Professional Studies Decree, 1978 (SMCD 200). It was subsequently established as a tertiary institution with a mandate to provide tertiary and professional education in Accountancy, Management and other related areas of study by the Institute of Professional Studies Act, (Act 566), 1999. The university was the first and is still the only public institution with the mandate to offer both academic degrees and provide training for higher professional education in Ghana.</div> <div dir="ltr"> With an estimated student population of about ten thousand as at 2012, UPSA is fast growing into a world-class institution of knowledge, molding today and tomorrow’s leaders in relevant fields of human endeavor. In 2008, the university received a Presidential Charter, conferring on it the status of a fully-fledged public university. The university offers undergraduate and master’s degrees in several programmes.</div> <div dir="ltr"> As I inch closer to my conclusion, let me not fail to acknowledge a man whose work as a public servant has deeply inspired not just the people of Ghana but many across the African continent and beyond. I’m talking about no other person but His Excellency, John Dramani Mahama, the President of Ghana. The rare leadership he has provided as President of Ghana continues to illuminate the path of many, breaking borders and charting the course of a new brand of development that is not only excellent but also visible and tangible. His calmness, simplicity, humility, passion and devotion to public service continue to demonstrate the stuff that truly great leaders are made of. History will be kind to him.</div> <div dir="ltr"> Over the past few days, I took some time to reflect deeply on the conferment of this award of an honorary Doctorate Degree by this great institution. A careful observation of the trajectory of my exit from Nigeria to exile in Britain and my passage through the city of Accra over two decades ago is explainable only by what may be described as the unseen but unmistakable hand of destiny. Who would have thought that a journey that began with sadness twenty-one years ago would today crystallise in this rare moment of honour and victory.</div> <div dir="ltr"> To God be all the glory!</div>

PENDULUM: 21 Years Of Sadness and Joy

By Dele Momodu Fellow Africans, exactly twenty-one years ago, on July 25, 1995, I set forth at dawn. My destination was exile. I nee...

link to this post

Sokoto uncovers 13,000 ghost workers in LGAs

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-FFjjRGZUSTD-jMZOFHcfsh9kiNmPfdFmNImZ93PfTVAjrkuWRNzWSSRc5xK94nGoTbZ9AvOP0eMzIgVLR_5nqrMSZ2rmnoUPV8nkl5otq_27RvvrI6glEDpnkbRtrxSB5TACxYZbzROS/s1600/Governor-Aminu-Tambuwal-400x330.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-FFjjRGZUSTD-jMZOFHcfsh9kiNmPfdFmNImZ93PfTVAjrkuWRNzWSSRc5xK94nGoTbZ9AvOP0eMzIgVLR_5nqrMSZ2rmnoUPV8nkl5otq_27RvvrI6glEDpnkbRtrxSB5TACxYZbzROS/s1600/Governor-Aminu-Tambuwal-400x330.jpg" /></a></div> Sokoto State Government said it has discovered no fewer than 12,915 ghost workers whose names were added into the payroll of the 23 Local Governments Areas of the state.<br /> <br /> The State Commissioner for Local Governments and Community Development, Alhaji Mannir Dan-Iya, disclosed this at a media briefing in Sokoto.<br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br />"The Ministry, through the Monitoring Department and other stakeholders has concluded a local government junior staff verification of about 58,143 workers, comprising of scheduled and unscheduled staff.<br /><br />"The verification exercise has yielded a fruitful result, whereby about 12, 915 staff,comprising of seat-at-home and ghost workers were fished out of the local governments staff payrolls.<br /><br />"The state government has also saved over N319 million from the exercise, hence, it was a huge success.''<br /><br />Dan-Iya further stated that the Ministry is planning to conduct a similar verification exercise of senior staff whose salaries are paid by the Ministry through their respective bank accounts.<br /><br />The Commissioner also vowed that, the Ministry and the Local Governments Service Commission were collaborating to sanitize the payrolls of the local governments.<br /><br />"Any official of the local governments or the ministry found to be wanting in this direction would be duly sanctioned. The ministry and the commission have beamed their searchlights on the various Departments of the 23 local governments, as well as the ministry, and anyone indicted would be sanctioned," he added.<br /> <br />The Commissioner also said that issues that arose from the exercise mostly<br /> associated with ''human error'' were being addressed in collaboration<br /> with the stakeholders.<br /><br />Dan-Iya further explained that the ministry had successfully boosted<br /> the internally generated revenues of the local governments by engaging<br /> consultants.

Sokoto uncovers 13,000 ghost workers in LGAs

Sokoto State Government said it has discovered no fewer than 12,915 ghost workers whose names were added into the payroll of the 23 Local...

link to this post

Mary J. Blige releases a statement addressing her divorce

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrmZEqYnJIg72kRniLvxcqyCNlm1fETwZC0SgSe9gERl1VhQWw32HibdP74_0j7lXX9MHZqBbA9AVAnJlnckI6t7xYR4LnMACWpgkpu2eAIbWtvWpLul_jkMzDEs7OdBzOz_ZKeXYDinT5/s1600/000.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrmZEqYnJIg72kRniLvxcqyCNlm1fETwZC0SgSe9gERl1VhQWw32HibdP74_0j7lXX9MHZqBbA9AVAnJlnckI6t7xYR4LnMACWpgkpu2eAIbWtvWpLul_jkMzDEs7OdBzOz_ZKeXYDinT5/s400/000.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> News broke yesterday that singer Mary J.Blige has filed for divorce from her husband of 12 years and longtime manager Kendu Isaacs. She has now issued a statement through her rep, saying "there is a reason for everything". The statement read, <br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> “Ms. Blige is saddened to say [that] it is true that she has filed for divorce, saying sometimes things don't work how we hoped they would... but, there is a divine plan and a reason for everything. Mary will continue writing and working on her album, which is due out later this year along with her world tour. She thanks and appreciates her fans for their support and love through this very difficult emotional time.”</blockquote>

Mary J. Blige releases a statement addressing her divorce

News broke yesterday that singer Mary J.Blige has filed for divorce from her husband of 12 years and longtime manager Kendu Isaacs. She h...

link to this post

Kanye West: 'I love seeing Kim naked, love her nude selfies, I used to do cock selfies back in the days

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7TNuPX6tx5ILPTUDcSiAo_A7sSDpzwg43wFE7e9E0YETFggKqC51nc4vWpFlSC2vF4cntn6MfFIzneFO_7jw8w_1xIIeb6sFhlOTdLyUtUKJxlCWlWkTHS3HNnNEQN_sMw8E90deP64BB/s1600/000.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7TNuPX6tx5ILPTUDcSiAo_A7sSDpzwg43wFE7e9E0YETFggKqC51nc4vWpFlSC2vF4cntn6MfFIzneFO_7jw8w_1xIIeb6sFhlOTdLyUtUKJxlCWlWkTHS3HNnNEQN_sMw8E90deP64BB/s400/000.png" width="321" /></a></div> Kanye West has revealed that he loves seeing his wife Kim Kardashian naked and that he loves her nude selfies taken from the side and back in a new interview with magazine, Harper's BAZAAR.<br /> <br /> The rapper and fashion designer who together with Kim stunned on the cover of the magazine's September edition also revealed his best part of Kim is her heart and they both talked on a lot of things ranging from his debt, to Taylor Swift, to their biggest insecurities and annoying habits. Read the full interview after the cut.<br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br /> Harper's BAZAAR's Laura Brown: Okay! So, this is in no particular order. Kanye, your favorite body part—your own or Kim's.<br /> <br />KW: Is the face a body part? My favorite body part of Kim's: heart.<br /> <br />KKW: Awww, now I have to say the same. But of my own, I like my upper stomach. I just seem to always have abs.When I'm not really pregnant, I have a great two-pack. [Laughs.] And of Kanye's? I have to say his heart. And I've always loved his legs.<br /> <br /> LB: Favorite song of all time?<br /> <br />KW:"All Along the Watchtower." The Jimi Hendrix cover.<br /> <br />KKW: I really like the song "Only One" [West with Paul McCartney].<br /> <br />LB: Favorite Taylor Swift song?<br /> <br />KW: For me? I don't have one.<br /> <br />KKW: I was such a fan of hers.<br /> <br />LB: Favorite book?<br /> <br />KKW: Embraced by the Light. It's about a woman who passed away during surgery, and she went to heaven, had her experience, and then came back. My dad [Robert Kardashian] would try to get me to read it, and I wouldn't. Then when he passed away, I was cleaning out my room in his house, and I found it. I read it, and it helped me. I felt like my dad was okay.<br /> <br /> KW: Yeah, I don't have an answer for that.<br /> <br />KKW: Your mom's book or your book?<br /> <br />KW: Yeah, but that's like, you know...<br /> <br />KKW: Too self-promotional?<br /> <br />KW: Yeah, too promotional.<br /> <br /> LB: Celebrity crush when you were young?<br /> <br />KKW: I thought Johnny Depp was so cute when I was younger. Kanye, didn't you like Pam Anderson?<br /> <br />KW: Yeah! That's what I would say.<br /> <br />LB: Historical figure you identify with?<br /> <br />KKW: This one is hard.<br /> <br />KW: Us? Muhammad Ali, Marilyn Monroe—all day. Next question.<br /> <br />LB: Hidden talent? I don't know if you guys hide your talents, but if you do ...<br /> <br />KKW: I can smell when someone has a cavity. It's a very specific smell—not a bad-breath smell—but something that is really strong.<br /> <br />KW: I can analyze people's intentions. Immediately.That's just a warning. To everyone.<br /> <br /> LB: Biggest insecurity?<br /> <br />KKW: I would say looking fat sometimes. I really do take it seriously. I try to do what I can and diet and stay in shape, and it does make me insecure when I'm heavy.<br /> <br />KW: I used to have insecurity about my finances, then I announced that I had debt, and now I don't have any insecurities.<br /> <br />KKW: Then you didn't have any debt; it seemed to all figure it out.<br /> <br />LB: You just put it out there, like The Secret.<br /> <br /> KKW: Don't think that will work for everyone.<br /> <br />KW: People will definitely use that against you if someone knows that. But the one thing I don't have an insecurity about is public perception. I'm not going to conform to it, you know?<br /> <br />LB: Yes, the more attention you pay to the winds, you can overthink things.<br /> <br />KW: Here's something that's contrary to popular belief: I actually don't like thinking. I think people think I like to think a lot. And I don't. I do not like to think at all.<br /> <br />LB: You're an underthinker.<br /> <br /> KW: I think about things to put them in a place where I don't have to think about them anymore. Say if I had a child with a really bad mom, I would have to think more than if I had a child with a good mom. I'm just doing my homework early. I told my trainer today, I'm a mix of a 14-year-old high schooler and a 60-year-old guy. It can never fall into the 30s or the 40s. It has to be 100 percent 60 or 100 percent 14, no in between.<br /> <br />LB: Can you please make that into a T-shirt? Okay, how much do you really sleep? On social media you are asleep all the time.<br /> <br />KKW: He can fall asleep anywhere.<br /> <br />KW: I can sleep. I love sleep; it's my favorite.<br /> <br />KKW: He took me to a fashion meeting in Paris once. I'd never met these people; I was so nervous. It was the beginning of our relationship, and I didn't know anyone in fashion. And he passed out at the table. I'm like, "I'm so sorry, we're jet-lagged." You don't know the number of times I've had to say that. I always flat-out lie that he's jet-lagged, even if we've been home for months. [Laughs.] Me? I'm up at like 6 a.m. With my trainer, running up the hill you drove up to get here.<br /> <br /> LB: Most annoying habit?<br /> <br />KKW: I think he gets really annoyed because I just hate fittings. I'll just be like,"Ah, I can't find something to wear." I get so worked up every time I'm rushing; I get annoyed with rushing. Then I get in a bad mood—I'm so cranky. I hate being late.<br /> <br />KW: It's so hard to do fittings [for Yeezy] because we want to do things that are inspiring, that people could look at and say, "Wow, I like that color palette, I could put that together." And there are so many images of things that it's almost impossible to have your clothes go up against the amount you're seeing and carry it into one language. That's why I'm always fighting either to have a house work with us or to head a house. It's a lifestyle I can totally see: the future, modern Versailles, modern Versace, modern Calabasas, paparazzi, celebrity language. I just want to build a collection that's around me and my wife and my kids. Because Kris and the family, they have the power of communication. This is the number one communications company.<br /> <br />LB: You're saying you've got the power of the idea.<br /> <br />KW: The idea. I know I wasn't allowed to go to fashion school; I can't cut a dress like Galliano, right? But I had enough wherewithal to go to that studio on my first collection and bring Kim, [stylist] Christine Centenera, Ian Connor, Theophilus London, Virgil Abloh...they all came down to [Vetements/Balenciaga designer] Demna Gvasalia's studio that night and hung out. (And then Demna, as you probably know, he worked on Yeezy Season 1.) Anyway, I want to say a controversial thing for this article...<br /> <br /> LB: I'm ready.<br /> <br />KKW: Laura's question was, What's annoying?<br /> <br />KW: What designer on the planet can sell, consistently, 40,000 shoes. In two minutes?<br /> <br />KKW: One minute.<br /> <br />LB: Wow. Yeezy does it. Okay, change of subject. Favorite selfie pose?<br /> <br />KKW: I love a selfie in the mirror.<br /> <br />KW: I love her nude selfies. Like, I love the ones from the side, the back ones, and the front. I just love seeing her naked; I love nudity. And I love beautiful shapes. I feel like it's almost a Renaissance thing, a painting, a modern version of a painting. I think it's important for Kim to have her figure. To not show it would be like Adele not singing.<br /> <br /> LB: Kanye, nude selfies?<br /> <br />KW: I used to do nude selfies in my single days.You'd get a good cock shot here and there. [Laughs.] Gotta keep it rock 'n' roll.<br /> <br />LB: I'd assume scale is important.<br /> <br />KW: Yeah, it's all about scale. You don't become a rock star for no reason.<br /> <br />LB: Who's more vain?<br /> <br />KKW: I mean, me.<br /> <br /> KW: Yeah, I think she has vanity. And with me, I don't give a fuck, bro; it is what it is. I'm the best—now what? I don't know if that's a vain statement. I don't particularly like photos of myself, though.<br /> <br />KKW: Yeah, what is the definition of vain? I want to look up exactly what the definition is.[Googles.] Vain, definition: "having or showing an excessively high opinion of one's appearance, abilities, or worth."<br /> <br />LB: Speaking of pride, tweets you're proud of and tweets you regret.<br /> <br />KKW: I don't regret any tweets. I'm not a tweeter and deleter. So I have no regrets.<br /> <br />KW: She hates tweeters and deleters.<br /> <br />LB: Kim, blonde or brunette?<br /> <br />KKW: Blonde. Brunette is who I am obviously, it's my core. Blonde Kim is this alter ego; she has a vibe to her that I love.<br /> <br /> LB: Could you have predicted the reaction to your nude selfie with the black bars?<br /> <br />KKW: I was about to get in the shower; I took a nude selfie, kept it in my phone for over a year. I just liked the picture, so I was like,"Let me put censor bars on it and post it." I don't do things to be like, "This is powerful. I'm going to show you guys that this is my 'message.''' I'm not that type of person. I'm empowered by it, but I'm not doing it specifically to show power.<br /> <br /> LB: It was a weird response because we've all seen your body before.<br /> <br />KKW: Yeah, that's what was so shocking. And when I put the bars on it, it was more covered up than a bikini!<br /> <br />LB: What was the last thing you bought yourselves and each other?<br /> <br />KKW: The last thing I bought was a pair of Isabel Marant sandals. I don't wear flats, so it's hard for me to buy sandals. Kanye is the hardest person to buy something for, so I bought…<br /> <br />KW: You extended the bathroom and bedroom on the house.<br /> <br /> KKW: I rented an island for his birthday. A far, far away place where no one can find us.<br /> <br />KW: You see, those are the type of statements that make people not like us, more so than the "I'm the best" statement. It's more the "Oh, yeah, I just rented an island for his birthday ..." You know in Meet the Parents, Owen Wilson's character? All of our shit is like Owen Wilson's character; he's like, "This is when we jumped off Mount Everest, and we wore turtle flight suits or whatever."<br /> <br />LB: Is there anything you wish the world didn't know about you?<br /> <br />KKW: Definitely. I was going to say some ugly looks and stuff.<br /> <br />KW: Some pregnancy stuff. You killed this second pregnancy, though.Your body slammed that crap. You made that second pregnancy your bitch.<br /> <br /> KKW: I wish I had a little bit more privacy.<br /> <br />LB: Okay, TV shows you binge-watch?<br /> <br />KW/KKW: Empire.<br /> <br />LB: What would you do if you were invisible?<br /> <br />KW: Women's locker room.<br /> <br />KKW: I would probably creepily follow my kids around, see how they act, see what they talk about. I record my daughter just talking because the things she says are so funny. I could watch her talk all day.<br /> <br />KW: Yeah, maybe. See, Kim? Yours is so much nicer than mine.<br /> <br />LB: What makes you both laugh?<br /> <br />KKW: Kanye just says the funniest analogies that are so random. I should start keeping a book—in 20 years, I'll have a big book of analogies.They always make me laugh.<br /> <br />KW: Kim's just a funny person in general.<br /> <br />KKW: But I don't get credit for being funny; it's, like, not a thing.<br /> <br />KW: I think my sense of humor is really dark and super twisted and stuff like that. It's like, "Is this a funny joke for real? Or am I just rich?" See? That was funny.<br /> <br /> <br /> LB: What would you bring to a desert island?<br /> <br />KKW: My kids. My phone.<br /> <br />KW: Not me. [Laughs.] I would bring my laptop and the Internet.<br /> <br />LB: How would you like to be remembered?<br /> <br />KKW: I'd like to be remembered as someone who was smart in business, works hard, and can be sexy and a mom. A powerful but still sexy, nonconforming woman. And I would hope that Kanye would be remembered for being smart and sticking to what he believes.<br /> <br />KW: Determined. I would say my determination is way higher than my smartness.<br /> <br />KKW: A lot of people have strong beliefs, but they don't have the confidence to really stick to them. I really respect Kanye for that.<br /> <br />LB: I personally really enjoy your use of capital letters.<br /> <br />KW: Yeah, all caps. Next time I'm doing all raps in all caps.<br /> <br />KKW: Kanye, what do you want to be remembered for?<br /> <br />KW: Your answer was so much better. I was going to say the whole thing about global warming and we're all going to be gone.<br /> <br />Source: <a href="http://www.harpersbazaar.com/">www.harpersbazaar.com</a>

Kanye West: 'I love seeing Kim naked, love her nude selfies, I used to do cock selfies back in the days

Kanye West has revealed that he loves seeing his wife Kim Kardashian naked and that he loves her nude selfies taken from the side and bac...

link to this post

REVEALED: #SaveMayowa ‘raised N85m’ but the family said it was N30m

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRfIT3UxVoGKLc4Gpdh38e0KeRnS_7yZ9h0ZHEebptJ04fPD56yittQhA8nFKleUcZlHANAgAGEaN7lvIeNqy5QUqzhMd87VYYtGqAAWMEOPoNeSPizkS9U_uQKYWyHT2G2T1XuCcUcDtj/s1600/SaveMayowa-AimakHU-326x150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRfIT3UxVoGKLc4Gpdh38e0KeRnS_7yZ9h0ZHEebptJ04fPD56yittQhA8nFKleUcZlHANAgAGEaN7lvIeNqy5QUqzhMd87VYYtGqAAWMEOPoNeSPizkS9U_uQKYWyHT2G2T1XuCcUcDtj/s400/SaveMayowa-AimakHU-326x150.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <h2> <strong>Aramide Kasumu, founder of Lifestake Foundation, who was deeply involved in the #SaveMayowa fundraising campaign, says the family of Mayowa Ahmed realised N85 million from the campaign but lied to the public that only N30 million was raised.</strong></h2> Ahmed Mayowa Shukurat, a Stage 4 ovarian cancer patient, needed funds for medical treatment outside the country, prompting her family, friends  and well-wishers to kick off an #SaveMayowa campaign to save her life.<br /> Kasumu, said she personally drove Mayowa from her house to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), said the family’s story on how the story would be spent on Mayowa’s recovery is not adding up.<br /> “The brothers came publicly and said they raised N30million when in actual fact they raised N85million,” she said. “And they said they had a visa when they didnt have a visa. They solicited funds to go to America, now they’re saying they’re going Dubai. So a lot of things wer enot adding up; they were not being straightforward.”<br /> According to Toyin Aimakhu, who was also involved in the campaign, <a href="https://www.thecable.ng/police-step-in-as-savemayowa-controversies-get-messier" target="_blank"><strong>the fund-raiser has turned out to be a scam</strong></a>.<br /> The Nigerian police has waded into the situation, and are expected to see to the judicious spending of the funds raised for Mayowa’s recovery.<br /> <br /> WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW... <br /> <div class="full-frame" id="player" style="height: 100%; width: 100%;"> <div class="html5-video-player unstarted-mode ytp-hide-controls" data-version="//s.ytimg.com/yts/jsbin/player-en_US-vflVo2R8O/base.js" id="player_uid_215406955_1" tabindex="-1"> <div class="html5-video-container" data-layer="0"> <video class="video-stream html5-main-video" controls="" style="height: 400px; left: 0px; top: -400px; transform: none; width: 550px;" tabindex="-1"></video></div> <div class="ytp-chrome-top ytp-watch-later-button-visible ytp-share-button-visible" data-layer="1"> <div class="ytp-title"> <div class="ytp-title-text"> <a class="ytp-title-link yt-uix-sessionlink" data-sessionlink="feature=player-title" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK5GB7shyKI" target="_blank"><span>Aramide Kasumu Explains #SaveMayowa Saga</span></a></div> <div class="ytp-title-text"> <span> </span></div> <div class="ytp-title-text"> <span>source: thecablesng </span></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ytp-copytext ytp-no-contextmenu" draggable="false" style="height: 15px;" tabindex="1"> https://youtu.be/iK5GB7shyKI</div>

REVEALED: #SaveMayowa ‘raised N85m’ but the family said it was N30m

Aramide Kasumu, founder of Lifestake Foundation, who was deeply involved in the #SaveMayowa fundraising campaign, says the family of Ma...

link to this post

John Obi Mikel to Captain Team Nigeria for Rio Olympics

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxhpKVMFLUzm_WYnQ6UMGv3VqJBTNJpKnh8Yyq6YuA62946IeMcGYUII6OGlEK9tnf2WeJ9OVPHpn2lpQRy4DWStkgpqOD0o2JV2TnjKaJiNOZOLdHDLl7lwV1zN-y0AF3Uoqx-fx6moKY/s1600/index.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxhpKVMFLUzm_WYnQ6UMGv3VqJBTNJpKnh8Yyq6YuA62946IeMcGYUII6OGlEK9tnf2WeJ9OVPHpn2lpQRy4DWStkgpqOD0o2JV2TnjKaJiNOZOLdHDLl7lwV1zN-y0AF3Uoqx-fx6moKY/s400/index.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> Chelsea and Super Eagles of Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel has been named as the captain of Nigeria's Olympic team that will compete at the upcoming Olympic tournament in Rio.<br /> <div> </div> <div> <div> Mikel Obi, one of the three over-aged players invited to the national U-23 football team for the games, is making his first appearance at an Olympic Games.</div> <div> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a>Table tennis star Funke Oshonaike will be the assistant team captain. This will be Oshonaike’s sixth appearance at the Olympics after she debuted at Atlanta ’96.</div> </div> <div> </div> <div> <div> “Mikel is a young, patriotic footballer of international status and we believe he will be a role model to the upcoming athletes while Funke Oshonaike is experienced and is one of the oldest athletes in the team.</div> <div> </div> <div> “We believe that their combined efforts will bring goodwill to TEAM NIGERIA and project the country’s image positively to the world,” a statement from the Sports Minister’s Special Adviser on Media, Nneka Ikem -Anibeze, stated.</div> </div> <div> </div> <div> <div> Speaking on his appointment, Mikel described it as ‘overwhelming’.</div> <div> "First and foremost, I will say I am overwhelmed with this opportunity to be the captain of Team Nigeria to the Rio Olympics,” Mikel told the official website of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).</div> <div> “This is the highest accolade you can ever have as a sportsman‎ and it's one I am really looking forward to.</div> </div> <div> </div> "‎It's massive, it's big, it's not just the football team. I am the captain of the Super Eagles. Sometimes you look at it and you think that's a big burden, but this is even much bigger, it's one that I am looking forward to,”

John Obi Mikel to Captain Team Nigeria for Rio Olympics

Chelsea and Super Eagles of Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel has been named as the captain of Nigeria's Olympic team that will compe...

link to this post

Obama's full speech at the DNC: 'There's never been a man/woman more qualified than Hillary to serve as US President'

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvmceE4rpy1ZDDxF0NIMWYmxlfmtQKrvkDbmREe6m3WUrMLVIapW7wHMb5rhhAtWnMJCD6Qz7-A3aDXhq4iC3BngLutOIhgeymyyRymsIdZGAY1Dp6hegwZj8B1XgxNHVjTkrEzrL-SlfO/s1600/160727235039-47-dnc-gallery-0727-super-169.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvmceE4rpy1ZDDxF0NIMWYmxlfmtQKrvkDbmREe6m3WUrMLVIapW7wHMb5rhhAtWnMJCD6Qz7-A3aDXhq4iC3BngLutOIhgeymyyRymsIdZGAY1Dp6hegwZj8B1XgxNHVjTkrEzrL-SlfO/s400/160727235039-47-dnc-gallery-0727-super-169.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <div> It was a busy night at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, as the party's leading lights like Barack Obama, Joe Biden and others made their case for Hillary Clinton.</div> <div>  </div> <div> Obama blasted Trump as a man who did business with people and left his workers feeling used and also praised Hillary Clinton, saying she was even more qualified for the presidency than him, or even her husband- Bill Clinton. Read the full transcript of President Obama's speech after the cut...</div> <div> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP8n-VJbLFj9kTmw2cU1qYHqcNDG3pYwXeFt4GvWjP-DE3TDvy8StDeSDPWqoftQKPuis74jomZgHs4LkcdUhUvpwwJQs8FGGK2bWcEj_bKRDLqWTfS8vIwexC3Qjmhs4NydGcWThRHF-0/s1600/index.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP8n-VJbLFj9kTmw2cU1qYHqcNDG3pYwXeFt4GvWjP-DE3TDvy8StDeSDPWqoftQKPuis74jomZgHs4LkcdUhUvpwwJQs8FGGK2bWcEj_bKRDLqWTfS8vIwexC3Qjmhs4NydGcWThRHF-0/s400/index.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <div> Twelve years ago <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_80404271" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">tonight</span></span>, I addressed this convention for the very first time.</div> <div> </div> <div> You met my two little girls, Malia and Sasha – now two amazing young women who just fill me with pride. You fell for my brilliant wife and partner Michelle, who’s made me a better father and a better man; who’s gone on to inspire our nation as First Lady; and who somehow hasn’t aged a day.</div> <div> </div> <div> I know the same can’t be said for me. My girls remind me all the time. Wow, you’ve changed so much, daddy.</div> <div> </div> <div> And it’s true – I was so young that first time in Boston. Maybe a little nervous addressing such a big crowd. But I was filled with faith; faith in America – the generous, bighearted, hopeful country that made my story – indeed, all of our stories – possible.</div> <div> </div> <div> A lot’s happened over the years. And while this nation has been tested by war and recession and all manner of challenge – I stand before you again <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_80404272" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">tonight</span></span>, after almost two terms as your President, to tell you I am even more optimistic about the future of America.</div> <div> </div> <div> How could I not be – after all we’ve achieved together?</div> <div> </div> <div> After the worst recession in 80 years, we’ve fought our way back. We’ve seen deficits come down, 401(k)s recover, an auto industry set new records, unemployment reach eight-year lows, and our businesses create 15 million new jobs.</div> <div> </div> <div> After a century of trying, we declared that health care in America is not a privilege for a few, but a right for everybody. After decades of talk, we finally began to wean ourselves off foreign oil, and doubled our production of clean energy.</div> <div> </div> <div> We brought more of our troops home to their families, and delivered justice to Osama bin Laden. Through diplomacy, we shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program, opened up a new chapter with the people of Cuba, and brought nearly 200 nations together around a climate agreement that could save this planet for our kids.</div> <div> </div> <div> We put policies in place to help students with loans; protect consumers from fraud; and cut veteran homelessness almost in half. And through countless acts of quiet courage, America learned that love has no limits, and marriage equality is now a reality across the land.</div> <div> </div> <div> By so many measures, our country is stronger and more prosperous than it was when we started.</div> <div> </div> <div> And through every victory and every setback, I’ve insisted that change is never easy, and never quick; that we wouldn’t meet all of our challenges in one term, or one presidency, or even in one lifetime.</div> <div> </div> <div> So <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_80404273" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">tonight</span></span>, I’m here to tell you that yes, we still have more work to do. More work to do for every American still in need of a good job or a raise, paid leave or a decent retirement; for every child who needs a sturdier ladder out of poverty or a world-class education; for everyone who hasn’t yet felt the progress of these past seven and a half years. We need to keep making our streets safer and our criminal justice system fairer; our homeland more secure, and our world more peaceful and sustainable for the next generation. We’re not done perfecting our union, or living up to our founding creed – that all of us are created equal and free in the eyes of God.</div> <div> </div> <div> That work involves a big choice this November. Fair to say, this is not your typical election. It’s not just a choice between parties or policies; the usual debates between left and right. This is a more fundamental choice – about who we are as a people, and whether we stay true to this great American experiment in self-government.</div> <div> </div> <div> Look, we Democrats have always had plenty of differences with the Republican Party, and there’s nothing wrong with that; it’s precisely this contest of ideas that pushes our country forward.</div> <div> </div> <div> But what we heard in Cleveland last week wasn’t particularly Republican – and it sure wasn’t conservative. What we heard was a deeply pessimistic vision of a country where we turn against each other, and turn away from the rest of the world. There were no serious solutions to pressing problems – just the fanning of resentment, and blame, and anger, and hate.</div> <div> </div> <div> And that is not the America I know.</div> <div> </div> <div> The America I know is full of courage, and optimism, and ingenuity. The America I know is decent and generous. Sure, we have real anxieties – about paying the bills, protecting our kids, caring for a sick parent. We get frustrated with political gridlock, worry about racial divisions; are shocked and saddened by the madness of Orlando or Nice. There are pockets of America that never recovered from factory closures; men who took pride in hard work and providing for their families who now feel forgotten; parents who wonder whether their kids will have the same opportunities we had.</div> <div> </div> <div> All that is real. We’re challenged to do better; to be better. But as I’ve traveled this country, through all fifty states; as I’ve rejoiced with you and mourned with you, what I’ve also seen, more than anything, is what is right with America. I see people working hard and starting businesses; people teaching kids and serving our country. I see engineers inventing stuff, and doctors coming up with new cures. I see a younger generation full of energy and new ideas, not constrained by what is, ready to seize what ought to be.</div> <div> </div> <div> Most of all, I see Americans of every party, every background, every faith who believe that we are stronger together – black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American; young and old; gay, straight, men, women, folks with disabilities, all pledging allegiance, under the same proud flag, to this big, bold country that we love.</div> <div> </div> <div> That’s the America I know. And there is only one candidate in this race who believes in that future, and has devoted her life to it; a mother and grandmother who’d do anything to help our children thrive; a leader with real plans to break down barriers, blast through glass ceilings, and widen the circle of opportunity to every single American – the next President of the United States, Hillary Clinton.</div> <div> </div> <div> Now, eight years ago, Hillary and I were rivals for the Democratic nomination. We battled for a year and a half. Let me tell you, it was tough, because Hillary’s tough. Every time I thought I might have that race won, Hillary just came back stronger.</div> <div> </div> <div> But after it was all over, I asked Hillary to join my team. She was a little surprised, but ultimately said yes – because she knew that what was at stake was bigger than either of us. And for four years, I had a front-row seat to her intelligence, her judgment, and her discipline. I came to realize that her unbelievable work ethic wasn’t for praise or attention – that she was in this for everyone who needs a champion. I understood that after all these years, she has never forgotten just who she’s fighting for.</div> <div> </div> <div> Hillary’s still got the tenacity she had as a young woman working at the Children’s Defense Fund, going door to door to ultimately make sure kids with disabilities could get a quality education.</div> <div> </div> <div> She’s still got the heart she showed as our First Lady, working with Congress to help push through a Children’s Health Insurance Program that to this day protects millions of kids.</div> <div> </div> <div> She’s still seared with the memory of every American she met who lost loved ones on 9/11, which is why, as a Senator from New York, she fought so hard for funding to help first responders; why, as Secretary of State, she sat with me in the Situation Room and forcefully argued in favor of the mission that took out Bin Laden.</div> <div> </div> <div> You know, nothing truly prepares you for the demands of the Oval Office. Until you’ve sat at that desk, you don’t know what it’s like to manage a global crisis, or send young people to war. But Hillary’s been in the room; she’s been part of those decisions. She knows what’s at stake in the decisions our government makes for the working family, the senior citizen, the small business owner, the soldier, and the veteran. Even in the middle of crisis, she listens to people, and keeps her cool, and treats everybody with respect. And no matter how daunting the odds; no matter how much people try to knock her down, she never, ever quits.</div> <div> </div> <div> That’s the Hillary I know. That’s the Hillary I’ve come to admire. And that’s why I can say with confidence there has never been a man or a woman more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as President of the United States of America.</div> <div> </div> <div> And, by the way, in case you were wondering about her judgment, look at her choice of running mate. Tim Kaine is as good a man, as humble and committed a public servant, as anyone I know. He will be a great Vice President, and he’ll make Hillary a better President. Just like my dear friend and brother Joe Biden has made me a better President.</div> <div> </div> <div> Now, Hillary has real plans to address the concerns she’s heard from you on the campaign trail. She’s got specific ideas to invest in new jobs, to help workers share in their company’s profits, to help put kids in preschool, and put students through college without taking on a ton of debt. That’s what leaders do.</div> <div> </div> <div> And then there’s Donald Trump. He’s not really a plans guy. Not really a facts guy, either. He calls himself a business guy, which is true, but I have to say, I know plenty of businessmen and women who’ve achieved success without leaving a trail of lawsuits, and unpaid workers, and people feeling like they got cheated.</div> <div> </div> <div> Does anyone really believe that a guy who’s spent his 70 years on this Earth showing no regard for working people is suddenly going to be your champion? Your voice? If so, you should vote for him. But if you’re someone who’s truly concerned about paying your bills, and seeing the economy grow, and creating more opportunity for everybody, then the choice isn’t even close. If you want someone with a lifelong track record of fighting for higher wages, better benefits, a fairer tax code, a bigger voice for workers, and stronger regulations on Wall Street, then you should vote for Hillary Clinton.</div> <div> </div> <div> And if you’re concerned about who’s going to keep you and your family safe in a dangerous world – well, the choice is even clearer. Hillary Clinton is respected around the world not just by leaders, but by the people they serve. She’s worked closely with our intelligence teams, our diplomats, our military. And she has the judgment, the experience, and the temperament to meet the threat from terrorism. It’s not new to her. Our troops have pounded ISIL without mercy, taking out leaders, taking back territory. I know Hillary won’t relent until ISIL is destroyed. She’ll finish the job – and she’ll do it without resorting to torture, or banning entire religions from entering our country. She is fit to be the next Commander-in-Chief.</div> <div> </div> <div> Meanwhile, Donald Trump calls our military a disaster. Apparently, he doesn’t know the men and women who make up the strongest fighting force the world has ever known. He suggests America is weak. He must not hear the billions of men, women, and children, from the Baltics to Burma, who still look to America to be the light of freedom, dignity, and human rights. He cozies up to Putin, praises Saddam Hussein, and tells the NATO allies that stood by our side after 9/11 that they have to pay up if they want our protection. Well, America’s promises do not come with a price tag. We meet our commitments. And that’s one reason why almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago.</div> <div> </div> <div> America is already great. America is already strong. And I promise you, our strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump.</div> <div> </div> <div> In fact, it doesn’t depend on any one person. And that, in the end, may be the biggest difference in this election – the meaning of our democracy.</div> <div> </div> <div> Ronald Reagan called America “a shining city on a hill.” Donald Trump calls it “a divided crime scene” that only he can fix. It doesn’t matter to him that illegal immigration and the crime rate are as low as they’ve been in decades, because he’s not offering any real solutions to those issues. He’s just offering slogans, and he’s offering fear. He’s betting that if he scares enough people, he might score just enough votes to win this election.</div> <div> </div> <div> That is another bet that Donald Trump will lose. Because he’s selling the American people short. We are not a fragile or frightful people. Our power doesn’t come from some self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order. We don’t look to be ruled. Our power comes from those immortal declarations first put to paper right here in Philadelphia all those years ago; We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that together, We, the People, can form a more perfect union.</div> <div> </div> <div> That’s who we are. That’s our birthright – the capacity to shape our own destiny. That’s what drove patriots to choose revolution over tyranny and our GIs to liberate a continent. It’s what gave women the courage to reach for the ballot, and marchers to cross a bridge in Selma, and workers to organize and fight for better wages.</div> <div> </div> <div> America has never been about what one person says he’ll do for us. It’s always been about what can be achieved by us, together, through the hard, slow, sometimes frustrating, but ultimately enduring work of self-government.</div> <div> </div> <div> And that’s what Hillary Clinton understands. She knows that this is a big, diverse country, and that most issues are rarely black and white. That even when you’re 100 percent right, getting things done requires compromise. That democracy doesn’t work if we constantly demonize each other. She knows that for progress to happen, we have to listen to each other, see ourselves in each other, fight for our principles but also fight to find common ground, no matter how elusive that may seem.</div> <div> </div> <div> Hillary knows we can work through racial divides in this country when we realize the worry black parents feel when their son leaves the house isn’t so different than what a brave cop’s family feels when he puts on the blue and goes to work; that we can honor police and treat every community fairly. She knows that acknowledging problems that have festered for decades isn’t making race relations worse – it’s creating the possibility for people of good will to join and make things better.</div> <div> </div> <div> Hillary knows we can insist on a lawful and orderly immigration system while still seeing striving students and their toiling parents as loving families, not criminals or rapists; families that came here for the same reasons our forebears came – to work, and study, and make a better life, in a place where we can talk and worship and love as we please. She knows their dream is quintessentially American, and the American Dream is something no wall will ever contain.</div> <div> </div> <div> It can be frustrating, this business of democracy. Trust me, I know. Hillary knows, too. When the other side refuses to compromise, progress can stall. Supporters can grow impatient, and worry that you’re not trying hard enough; that you’ve maybe sold out.</div> <div> </div> <div> But I promise you, when we keep at it; when we change enough minds; when we deliver enough votes, then progress does happen. Just ask the twenty million more people who have health care today. Just ask the Marine who proudly serves his country without hiding the husband he loves. Democracy works, but we gotta want it – not just during an election year, but all the days in between.</div> <div> </div> <div> So if you agree that there’s too much inequality in our economy, and too much money in our politics, we all need to be as vocal and as organized and as persistent as Bernie Sanders’ supporters have been. We all need to get out and vote for Democrats up and down the ticket, and then hold them accountable until they get the job done.</div> <div> </div> <div> If you want more justice in the justice system, then we’ve all got to vote – not just for a President, but for mayors, and sheriffs, and state’s attorneys, and state legislators. And we’ve got to work with police and protesters until laws and practices are changed.</div> <div> </div> <div> If you want to fight climate change, we’ve got to engage not only young people on college campuses, but reach out to the coal miner who’s worried about taking care of his family, the single mom worried about gas prices.</div> <div> </div> <div> If you want to protect our kids and our cops from gun violence, we’ve got to get the vast majority of Americans, including gun owners, who agree on background checks to be just as vocal and determined as the gun lobby that blocks change through every funeral we hold. That’s how change will happen.</div> <div> </div> <div> Look, Hillary’s got her share of critics. She’s been caricatured by the right and by some folks on the left; accused of everything you can imagine – and some things you can’t. But she knows that’s what happens when you’re under a microscope for 40 years. She knows she’s made mistakes, just like I have; just like we all do. That’s what happens when we try. That’s what happens when you’re the kind of citizen Teddy Roosevelt once described – not the timid souls who criticize from the sidelines, but someone “who is actually in the arena…who strives valiantly; who errs…[but] who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement.”</div> <div> </div> <div> Hillary Clinton is that woman in the arena. She’s been there for us – even if we haven’t always noticed. And if you’re serious about our democracy, you can’t afford to stay home just because she might not align with you on every issue. You’ve got to get in the arena with her, because democracy isn’t a spectator sport. America isn’t about “yes he will.” It’s about “yes we can.” And we’re going to carry Hillary to victory this fall, because that’s what the moment demands.</div> <div> </div> <div> You know, there’s been a lot of talk in this campaign about what America’s lost – people who tell us that our way of life is being undermined by pernicious changes and dark forces beyond our control. They tell voters there’s a “real America” out there that must be restored. This isn’t an idea that started with Donald Trump. It’s been peddled by politicians for a long time – probably from the start of our Republic.</div> <div> </div> <div> And it’s got me thinking about the story I told you twelve years ago <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_80404274" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">tonight</span></span>, about my Kansas grandparents and the things they taught me when I was growing up. They came from the heartland; their ancestors began settling there about 200 years ago. I don't know if they had their birth certificates...</div> <div> </div> <div> They were Scotch-Irish mostly, farmers, teachers, ranch hands, pharmacists, oil rig workers. Hardy, small town folks. Some were Democrats, but a lot of them were Republicans. The party of Lincoln. My grandparents explained that they didn’t like show-offs. They didn’t admire braggarts or bullies. They didn’t respect mean-spiritedness, or folks who were always looking for shortcuts in life. Instead, they valued traits like honesty and hard work. Kindness and courtesy. Humility; responsibility; helping each other out.</div> <div> </div> <div> That’s what they believed in. True things. Things that last. The things we try to teach our kids.</div> <div> </div> <div> And what my grandparents understood was that these values weren’t limited to Kansas. They weren’t limited to small towns. These values could travel to Hawaii; even the other side of the world, where my mother would end up working to help poor women get a better life. They knew these values weren’t reserved for one race; they could be passed down to a half-Kenyan grandson, or a half-Asian granddaughter; in fact, they were the same values Michelle’s parents, the descendants of slaves, taught their own kids living in a bungalow on the South Side of Chicago. They knew these values were exactly what drew immigrants here, and they believed that the children of those immigrants were just as American as their own, whether they wore a cowboy hat or a yarmulke; a baseball cap or a hijab.</div> <div> </div> <div> America has changed over the years. But these values my grandparents taught me – they haven’t gone anywhere. They’re as strong as ever; still cherished by people of every party, every race, and every faith. They live on in each of us. What makes us American, what makes us patriots, is what’s in here. That’s what matters. That’s why we can take the food and music and holidays and styles of other countries, and blend it into something uniquely our own. That’s why we can attract strivers and entrepreneurs from around the globe to build new factories and create new industries here. That’s why our military can look the way it does, every shade of humanity, forged into common service. That’s why anyone who threatens our values, whether fascists or communists or jihadists or homegrown demagogues, will always fail in the end.</div> <div> </div> <div> That’s America. Those bonds of affection; that common creed. We don’t fear the future; we shape it, embrace it, as one people, stronger together than we are on our own. That’s what Hillary Clinton understands – this fighter, this stateswoman, this mother and grandmother, this public servant, this patriot – that’s the America she’s fighting for.</div> <div>  <div> And that’s why I have confidence, as I leave this stage <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_80404275" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">tonight</span></span>, that the Democratic Party is in good hands. My time in this office hasn’t fixed everything; as much as we’ve done, there’s still so much I want to do. But for all the tough lessons I’ve had to learn; for all the places I’ve fallen short; I’ve told Hillary, and I’ll tell you what’s picked me back up, every single time</div> <div> </div> <div> It’s been you. The American people.</div> <div> </div> <div> It’s the letter I keep on my wall from a survivor in Ohio who twice almost lost everything to cancer, but urged me to keep fighting for health care reform, even when the battle seemed lost. Do not quit.</div> <div> </div> <div> It’s the painting I keep in my private office, a big-eyed, green owl, made by a seven year-old girl who was taken from us in Newtown, given to me by her parents so I wouldn’t forget – a reminder of all the parents who have turned their grief into action.</div> <div> </div> <div> It’s the small business owner in Colorado who cut most of his own salary so he wouldn’t have to lay off any of his workers in the recession – because, he said, “that wouldn’t have been in the spirit of America.”</div> <div> </div> <div> It’s the conservative in Texas who said he disagreed with me on everything, but appreciated that, like him, I try to be a good dad.</div> <div> </div> <div> It’s the courage of the young soldier from Arizona who nearly died on the battlefield in Afghanistan, but who’s learned to speak and walk again – and earlier this year, stepped through the door of the Oval Office on his own power, to salute and shake my hand.</div> <div> </div> <div> It’s every American who believed we could change this country for the better, so many of you who’d never been involved in politics, who picked up phones, and hit the streets, and used the internet in amazing new ways to make change happen. You are the best organizers on the planet, and I’m so proud of all the change you’ve made possible.</div> <div> </div> <div> Time and again, you’ve picked me up. I hope, sometimes, I picked you up, too. <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_80404276" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Tonight</span></span>, I ask you to do for Hillary Clinton what you did for me. I ask you to carry her the same way you carried me. Because you’re who I was talking about twelve years ago, when I talked about hope – it’s been you who’ve fueled my dogged faith in our future, even when the odds are great; even when the road is long. Hope in the face of difficulty; hope in the face of uncertainty; the audacity of hope!</div> <div> </div> <div> America, you have vindicated that hope these past eight years. And now I’m ready to pass the baton and do my part as a private citizen. This year, in this election, I’m asking you to join me – to reject cynicism, reject fear, to summon what’s best in us; to elect Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States, and show the world we still believe in the promise of this great nation.</div> <div> </div> <div> Thank you for this incredible journey. Let’s keep it going. God bless the United States of America.</div> </div>

Obama's full speech at the DNC: 'There's never been a man/woman more qualified than Hillary to serve as US President'

It was a busy night at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, as the party's leading lights like Barack Obama, Joe...

link to this post

WikiLeaks releases hacked vociemail recordings of the DNC days after they released nearly 20,000 DNC emails

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2YXcgEEjKpIQ3-vLDOsRVAVZcN9EEhtPfNLBek1UepBcJ5LqvUFHZBDQS62RGf8uwCEXF3TP38P1zJpSyfd658dINLwaWFyZNaDq7YzSHXiWHqqBM4AJoG-2qicgUdj19jkqXp8mn5C9m/s1600/1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2YXcgEEjKpIQ3-vLDOsRVAVZcN9EEhtPfNLBek1UepBcJ5LqvUFHZBDQS62RGf8uwCEXF3TP38P1zJpSyfd658dINLwaWFyZNaDq7YzSHXiWHqqBM4AJoG-2qicgUdj19jkqXp8mn5C9m/s400/1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> Days after WikiLeaks hacked into the US Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails and released their private email communication, they released voicemails of the DNC. The voicemails are related to the batch of about 20,000 leaked emails WikiLeaks published earlier this week, which revealed that people within the supposedly neutral DNC were in fact working to help Hillary Clinton secure the Democratic nomination against Bernie Sanders. According to CNN: <br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> Wikileaks released a series of voicemails Wednesday from the Democratic National Committee hack showing donors plying top-level officials for favors, and one donor expressing outrage that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had won a say in the drafting of the party's platform.</blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> In one of the 29 voicemails released, a woman who donated $300 to Clinton called the party finance director Andrew Wright and said she was angry the party was acquiescing to Sanders by allowing liberal activist and prominent Sanders surrogate Cornel West to have one of 15 seats on the party's platform-writing panel.</blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "I'm furious about what you are doing for Bernie Sanders, he's getting way too much influence. I'm on a fixed income, I spent over $300, donated to Hillary, what I see is the DNC bending over backwards for Bernie and Bernie is the worst person in the world to even be running in the Democratic Party, because he's not a Democrat," said the unidentified woman in a voicemail that was sent to Wright's DNC email account.</blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> In another voicemail, Bill Eacho, a longtime Democratic donor and former U.S. ambassador, inquired about the details of a "small dinner with President Obama."</blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> The voicemails are related to the batch of about 20,000 leaked emails WikiLeaks published earlier this week, which revealed that elements within the supposedly neutral DNC were in fact working to help Hillary Clinton secure the Democratic nomination. Those emails ultimately led DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz announcing her resignation. But most of the released voicemails amount to innocuous messages from one person trying to reach someone else.</blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> A few of the messages highlight the relationships between donors looking for favors and goodies, and the party officials trying to bring in money to their coffers.</blockquote> The owner of WikiLeaks Julian Assange told CNN in an interview that DNC officials were taking advantage of the possibility of Russia's involvement in the hack to distract voters from the contents of the emails, which have revealed shocking internal discord and collusion.<br /> <br /> Speaking from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where Assange has resided for five years now, he said:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "It raises questions about the natural instincts of Clinton that when confronted with a serious domestic political scandal, she tries to blame the Russians, blame the Chinese, et cetera. Because if she does that while in government, it could lead to problems." </blockquote> <br /> Source: CNN

WikiLeaks releases hacked vociemail recordings of the DNC days after they released nearly 20,000 DNC emails

Days after WikiLeaks hacked into the US Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails and released their private email communication, they ...

link to this post

Nicki Minaj’s brother’s DNA reportedly matches semen found on 12 year old rape victim

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpazjG3gF8JV-iFvopST8wIDYhmFI1yNcmlOKbCcDug_4CHhFDVZKB3pNj6eTg_VKjAGu0tOAlRzKo7k2RaVAAg_qS9wIG3a4PuITGwxL_J0TOaoI6PkfPa03cdbfaCCI-UZcy9l_cz3wo/s1600/1a5.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpazjG3gF8JV-iFvopST8wIDYhmFI1yNcmlOKbCcDug_4CHhFDVZKB3pNj6eTg_VKjAGu0tOAlRzKo7k2RaVAAg_qS9wIG3a4PuITGwxL_J0TOaoI6PkfPa03cdbfaCCI-UZcy9l_cz3wo/s400/1a5.png" width="400" /></a></div> Nicki Minaj's older borther, Jelani Maraj semen has been reportedly matched with semen found on the 12 year old girl he allegedly raped and is currently facing 15 years in prison after being offered a plea deal in his child rape case.<br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br /> Prosecutors offered Maraj 15 years in prison if he pleads guilty to “predatory sexual assault of a child” which is a class A-II felony. Nicki's brother, was initially offered a plea deal for seven years in prison before being indicted by a grand jury in exchange for pleading guilty to “course of sexual conduct against a child in the first degree,” but he rejected the offer.<br /> <br /> Remember, Maraj was arrested last December after a 12-year-old girl accused him that he raped and sodomized her for eight months.<br /> <br /> The Assistant District Attorney Anthony Pirri, told the judge at a hearing July 26 in Nassau County Supreme Court’s sex crimes division, that the semen found in the victim’s pants was consistent to Maraj’s DNA. He said:<br /> "A DNA profile, a partial profile matching the defendant or consistent with the defendant, your honor, to the point in the hundreds of billionths of chance of it being any other individual, was discovered in the…pants of the complainant in this case, and also tested positive indicating the presence of semen,”.<br /> <br /> He is due back in court in August, but if he rejects the current deal, the child rape case will start in  November. <br /> <br />

Nicki Minaj’s brother’s DNA reportedly matches semen found on 12 year old rape victim

Nicki Minaj's older borther, Jelani Maraj semen has been reportedly matched with semen found on the 12 year old girl he allegedly rap...

link to this post

The bleaching, chameleon crowd By Reuben Abati

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyTP7Luhm3AEAl1pXYOcpDDF51Ww7qELjlELOu4Cu6cvpF8lh_a89ErfV_kBI6A7ztVHYiAyKUIeSrg3-RF_MNLsmCD-bVhXqkhgfMdlN31SHHMymYktUdFjA1MbNLbcE00MewYkOpisQc/s1600/Dr-Reuben-Abati.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyTP7Luhm3AEAl1pXYOcpDDF51Ww7qELjlELOu4Cu6cvpF8lh_a89ErfV_kBI6A7ztVHYiAyKUIeSrg3-RF_MNLsmCD-bVhXqkhgfMdlN31SHHMymYktUdFjA1MbNLbcE00MewYkOpisQc/s400/Dr-Reuben-Abati.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> Read his piece below..<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> I wrote a piece recently, a tribute to the late veteran actress Bukky Ajayi and the multi-instrumentalist OJB Jezreel, in which I raised a number of issues, including how in Nollywood today, there is an obsession with the whitening of skin, an anti-Negritude yellowing, what I referred to as “the bleaching, chameleon crowd of Nollywood beauties.”<br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a></blockquote> The various reactions to the piece conveniently ignored this subject; two young ladies who felt that I was probing an unpopular theme drew my attention to this. I was reminded that being light-skinned is now the in-thing, indeed the socially acceptable norm, because there is now a universalization of the concept of beauty and self-esteem.<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span><br /> <br /> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">     The more light-skinned you are, the more acceptable you are in various circumstances, that is. I thought if this was true, then it is a tragedy indeed for the black world. For, once upon a time in the history of the black race, being black was a thing of joy and an instrument of protest. When Jesse Evans gave the black salute at the 1939 Olympics, after winning four gold medals, he was making a racially loaded statement about black pride and achievement. Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad, Muhammad Ali are key historical figures in the struggle for the black identity in the United States not to talk of various moments  and efforts culminating in the Obama phenomenon eight years ago.  </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">         None of these historical figures would ever have contemplated a globalized notion of beauty and self-esteem, which superiorizes and imposes the idea of being white in 2016, and for same to be validated by blacks, living in the black world’s most populous country- Nigeria.  Closer home, the independence struggles across Africa were fuelled by ideas of racial pride, and indeed in the 1960s, the coalescing of that around the negritude movement projected confidence and faith in the black colour, the people’s culture and identity. To be added to this is the expressed faith that black people all over the world can contribute meaningfully and significantly to the march of human history. Being black was nothing to be ashamed of. Cultural workers used their art and narratives to promote black culture. </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">     Writers identified with their natal roots.  James Ngugi for example, became Ngugi wa Thio’ngo. Albert Achebe dropped his Albert and became Chinua Achebe. Wole Soyinka argued that “a tiger does not proclaim its tigritude”; it should act and in his writings, he proved the point.  Black activists like W.E.B. DuBois left the United States and traced their roots to Africa. But today, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of that movement are turning back the hand of the clock. They want to be white! They may in the long run constitute a minority, but artificial beauty is a growing trend among black people. I was once asked to buy Brazilian hair, during a trip to Brazil. I went dutifully to a shopping mall asking for Brazilian hair. </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">      Nobody could figure out what I wanted.  Brazilian hair is what a lot of Nigerian women wear, or attach to their natural hair to achieve the effect of a straight, <i>Oyinbo-ish</i> hair and to hide their own natural, curly hair. It took me two days of trying to buy Brazilian hair in Brazil before it occurred to me that Brazilian women are not likely to be selling Brazilian hair in their own country since in any case, every one of them is born with it. But here in Nigeria, Brazilian hair is a big deal: it is one of those items a bridegroom must budget for, otherwise, no wedding and I understand, this could be in the range of N350, 000 per hair. The final cost could also be determined by the adopted style: <i>normal leave-out, closure or frontal, </i>all designed to create an artificial effect. Even the eyelashes you see on our ladies these days may not be real: eyeballs are replaced with contact lenses, and there is a new craze now called eyebrow wig: a wig on the eyebrow!  </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">     The new global culture of beauty has also imposed on our women what is called acrylic nails, or plastic nails. With those cat-like nails, women find it difficult to wear sanitary pads, jewellery, button their shirts, eat dollops of swallow with their hands, type on their phones or wash clothes and plates, and yet every young lady out there is wearing strange nails in the name of beauty. </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">    Check out the faces too. Make up has been turned into such an art of deception; you could marry your ex-girlfriend and not know she is the one because she has changed colour, changed face and changed everything about her. Make-up and making up are associated with success, but it is pure 419 as many may have discovered.  Women talk about laying a foundation on their faces as if they are bricklayers, they also talk about contouring and highlighting the face to look different: the effect is that every ugly girl is contoured and highlighted to become a stunning beauty. We are also in the age of breast implants, breast reconstruction, liposuction, pumping of bum-bum and lip lightening (there is cream method or peeling with machine!) and the use of body pads and slimming girdles and all kinds of borrowed gadgets to make a woman look prettier than she is. </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">        The idea of the “African Queen” celebrated over the years, and more famously by Tu Face Idibia in a song of the same title has thus undergone a transformation.  Women and men (yes men also) in Africa’s most populous black nation, and quite a significant number, are all struggling to become either light-skinned or copy the Kadarshian/Kanye West effect. I have been made to understand that in Nollywood for example, dark-skinned actors and actresses are ignored by producers: they say they don’t look good on camera and that only light skinned actors sell movies. So, there is a marketing side to it but it must be crazy if true. Celebrities are also expected to be glamorous all the time. This is why public figures don’t step out of their homes or take pictures unless they are properly made up. And to worsen the story, I am told you need to look clean, and fresh to be considered successful and the black colour does not project success.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">        Here we are confronted with many men and women who are bleaching their skins, to look fresh and successful. The prostitution angle to it is buried in the argument that men are naturally attracted to light-skinned ladies. And it is a big industry, one of the most lucrative businesses in Nigeria today.  The minimum cost of a bleaching cream is N15, 000 per week. These include Egyptian milk, Arabian milk, Snow White and steroid creams like Movate, which is used to bleach the scalp. Yes, the scalp!  They bleach the scalp too. There is also a bleaching tablet, which costs as much as $500; four tablets are usually taken per dose. Some people opt for what is called bleaching injection to peel off the melanin, and one injection is a tidy N250, 000. There are special creams for old women and men with resistant skin, at higher cost.  The madness is across all age brackets, and may God help you if you have a bleaching wife or girlfriend.  </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">       I am not making this up. The various creams and services are hawked daily at Ikeja roundabout, under the bridge. The merchants also advertise tattooing, hips enlargement, penis enlargement and breast reconstruction services. And in Yaba, Lagos, you’d find the biggest cosmetics store run by a certain Mama Tega who is said to be the oldest and the most trusted in the business.  The irony is that she, herself, is interestingly dark-complexioned! The girls who work for her and her patrons are not. </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">       The stress and risks involved in bleaching and looking white by all means possible are so much, but the people involved do not care. The knuckles and the lips do not bleach easily, so people go about looking patched up and they have to buy a different chemical to lighten their knuckles, elbows and knees. The side effect of the chemicals used includes bad body odour and stretch marks, the skin is thinner and more sensitive, and the chemicals expose the person to enormous health risks.  It is also a lot of work. If you are bleaching your skin, you have to use the cream everyday, morning and night. If you miss the cream for a week, you’d look different, and you have to stick to the same supplier and mixture: so much needless stress. </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">      I am aware that every individual is entitled to a freedom of choice including the choice to look the way they want. But I see the spread of a bleaching culture as a display of so much insecurity and lack of self-esteem, and an assault on the legacy of all the men and women who fought and are still fighting to ensure that black identity matters. It is also shocking that many mothers are now in the habit of introducing their children to bleaching creams very early. They don’t want dark-skinned daughters and sons! And the ones who fail to do this feel terribly embarrassed when they are photographed with their children and the skin colours do not match. Check family photographs these days. And worry about the many ladies out there living a life of pretense engaged in <i>“coded waka runs”</i> (euphemism for underground prostitution) just so they can buy skin whitening creams. </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 10pt;">    This is a sad story about the way we now live, even as I recall the antiphonal lyrics of James Brown’s “Say it Loud – I’m Black and Proud” (1968) - one of the greatest songs of all time.  In Nigeria’s entertainment industry today, being black is almost a taboo. The women want to look like Kim Kardashian and the men seem to think that to be a celebrity is to be light-skinned.  In the larger society, a <i>“faworaja”</i> (fake appearance) culture is on the rise.  The people are deliberately re-colonizing themselves mentally and physically.  What can anyone say to such persons who are ashamed of their own identity?  I speak for myself: “I’m Black and Proud”.<i> But even if I wan bleach sef, I black so tay, cream go finish for market… </i></span></div>

The bleaching, chameleon crowd By Reuben Abati

Read his piece below.. I wrote a piece recently, a tribute to the late veteran actress Bukky Ajayi and the multi-instrumentalist OJB Je...

link to this post

History: Hilary Clinton accepts the Democratic Presidential Nomination

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj197xwNymOuZUwfBq2CO7OuwF1XbQ1Y3wmOnhP99dWzppKuXvp7494iC1Fr_j15A7_NjQp-K4wBBWvp7ZiEmWrdA9jyR2orFqYKd93mz_bhvyGIVekz1Mp7diMwuUQS8zrVWl9c58XzTC/s1600/1a6.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj197xwNymOuZUwfBq2CO7OuwF1XbQ1Y3wmOnhP99dWzppKuXvp7494iC1Fr_j15A7_NjQp-K4wBBWvp7ZiEmWrdA9jyR2orFqYKd93mz_bhvyGIVekz1Mp7diMwuUQS8zrVWl9c58XzTC/s400/1a6.png" width="400" /></a></div> Hillary Clinton accepted the Democratic nomination on Thursday at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia to run as a US Presidential candidate. Making history as the first woman to be nominated for Presidency from a major US political party. <br /> Accepting the nomination, she said:<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br /> "I will be a president for Democrats, Republicans, independents, for the struggling, the striving and the successful. For those who vote for me and those who don't." <br /> She said her Republican rival, Donald Trump, was esupremely unqualified for the White House. She added:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "Imagine him in the Oval Office facing a real crisis," she said. "A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons," she said.</blockquote> Clinton took the stage to roaring applause from flag-waving delegates. But her real audience was the millions of voters who may welcome her experience but question her character due to the leaked emails released by WikiLeaks. <br /> Inregards to that she said:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "I get it that some people just don't know what to make of me."</blockquote> But her primary focus was persuading anxious Americans to stick with a Democrat for a third term and put aside their frustration with those who have been entrenched in the political system.

History: Hilary Clinton accepts the Democratic Presidential Nomination

Hillary Clinton accepted the Democratic nomination on Thursday at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia to run as a US Pres...

link to this post

#ByeBigBoss: Photo from the funeral of former Super Eagles Coach Stephen Keshi

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Rq-j4JV1rCPQK8lz7MBEFTHoSTrhWw6q-oCRhf3YMIM8yrRs4V4bhp3RKyGcTnJZwYVN6Lr-X6JSDENyVC4ouVIOSRgzNpOG37casg-B9SgrpKFIdXy5Kup2TZYA3_7nkkHbkHRT5XU7/s1600/1a9.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Rq-j4JV1rCPQK8lz7MBEFTHoSTrhWw6q-oCRhf3YMIM8yrRs4V4bhp3RKyGcTnJZwYVN6Lr-X6JSDENyVC4ouVIOSRgzNpOG37casg-B9SgrpKFIdXy5Kup2TZYA3_7nkkHbkHRT5XU7/s400/1a9.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> Late Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi was buried yesterday in his hometown. His funeral started with a requiem mass in Benin, Edo State, yesterday. The funeral mass took place at St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Airport Road, Benin. City which was followed by a novelty match at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium. More photos after the cut...<br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSMkXeu8JSiAo8haQaDsNbQ2wMVUUGoMi3ehrYCqVIsGrEWe9JT4fskzFK3p0Yh4pbqQwUMwtoosg9liaDOqgsxVwe_qK2hVynIjG335R1rgvtT7OE6eSF8A7uC28D-k2eJ_rwd_DQZ2yw/s1600/1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSMkXeu8JSiAo8haQaDsNbQ2wMVUUGoMi3ehrYCqVIsGrEWe9JT4fskzFK3p0Yh4pbqQwUMwtoosg9liaDOqgsxVwe_qK2hVynIjG335R1rgvtT7OE6eSF8A7uC28D-k2eJ_rwd_DQZ2yw/s400/1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYNezwGmtxIctr_kvQl2ipJ1bGOU7owWgs7HGBaGxO6YJDOVirO05-8IBiQ1jSOX4Z01r7OY_rLwBFfKCghLdz4X_EPIx1PbaOrG0hIXJ4Zgqq21FBFdAdfDV0qy-_ORzMPrjahXyucpZe/s1600/1a3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYNezwGmtxIctr_kvQl2ipJ1bGOU7owWgs7HGBaGxO6YJDOVirO05-8IBiQ1jSOX4Z01r7OY_rLwBFfKCghLdz4X_EPIx1PbaOrG0hIXJ4Zgqq21FBFdAdfDV0qy-_ORzMPrjahXyucpZe/s400/1a3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIBfueqEYCYoiqT081fAzzW4Ln951W6w6njy4RzQH1eZqASNSPuwsNVSlhztW8LZ21LWV4OGH2Yvms1N35YVVJ41n3icla4os9XG2qS9lWduhexj5zPpH1gPoarrVgis2S69tDt6pDPEMP/s1600/1a7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIBfueqEYCYoiqT081fAzzW4Ln951W6w6njy4RzQH1eZqASNSPuwsNVSlhztW8LZ21LWV4OGH2Yvms1N35YVVJ41n3icla4os9XG2qS9lWduhexj5zPpH1gPoarrVgis2S69tDt6pDPEMP/s400/1a7.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_NA4bKMgeznTFQdAv0Sx-6S_xiXqryVGh5yaL59qUG3cznffPGfGyPCSK-C3ywlphDtq3dzyaWFGC7O4Jd0fFvtK2oatrILIRkLnPlDbASkrgaK4NGnUbwYQNJzd0IM34IxV36RUtWlL_/s1600/1a4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_NA4bKMgeznTFQdAv0Sx-6S_xiXqryVGh5yaL59qUG3cznffPGfGyPCSK-C3ywlphDtq3dzyaWFGC7O4Jd0fFvtK2oatrILIRkLnPlDbASkrgaK4NGnUbwYQNJzd0IM34IxV36RUtWlL_/s400/1a4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLobB3n0dUdV_yPGA6jp3k126HEBpjydDZ3_S1aBnqr-DPtuwsXBNLLdltYGbKa4qsnPuveJacj7vxyy4PPOZFffONoEMTLdJqI_ufycRVe_0I8Y-JLX3LC6Y6BMYMxogGGNS8MYtcAZSk/s1600/1a5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLobB3n0dUdV_yPGA6jp3k126HEBpjydDZ3_S1aBnqr-DPtuwsXBNLLdltYGbKa4qsnPuveJacj7vxyy4PPOZFffONoEMTLdJqI_ufycRVe_0I8Y-JLX3LC6Y6BMYMxogGGNS8MYtcAZSk/s400/1a5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk0ZanhDilenk9mbAWdIpwyiJ4EHmOnTIfNUBh4u69Bd9qeVTatf_YXVsPkSgIGDghWmcDiYcs7fnfH32tiRl5kXHuMLDrgCB4teQoNi6utbvgCTX2pSQCSZmMdeqesi8a6-pRdhboWk1e/s1600/1a8.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk0ZanhDilenk9mbAWdIpwyiJ4EHmOnTIfNUBh4u69Bd9qeVTatf_YXVsPkSgIGDghWmcDiYcs7fnfH32tiRl5kXHuMLDrgCB4teQoNi6utbvgCTX2pSQCSZmMdeqesi8a6-pRdhboWk1e/s400/1a8.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxWv61ftjL2jVwDuoSZIiJ7VukSQb8SjK_1H55alrfFFo-jyPj4cfmp0_vYd9h-XYYr9oGFR8-opX55Z40quRMHvh9uAOknRqJcH0HvrFAQgImVQJspeIsSIeP2h9MRW45L4spyBJKGFKw/s1600/1a6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxWv61ftjL2jVwDuoSZIiJ7VukSQb8SjK_1H55alrfFFo-jyPj4cfmp0_vYd9h-XYYr9oGFR8-opX55Z40quRMHvh9uAOknRqJcH0HvrFAQgImVQJspeIsSIeP2h9MRW45L4spyBJKGFKw/s400/1a6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisWJ0dD280QLgTkB5DRQVJDjJtK3pwZE3zN4ChqEOkE26uA8xaHxduTQ661lC8A58MzzlSDyzfhHvw0fjEFVN_Q7nfGMN2W8x6ZE3hnGNwyZ07ntAMuJORThEXglTRHRh5jGQIXXjxtwGN/s1600/1a2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisWJ0dD280QLgTkB5DRQVJDjJtK3pwZE3zN4ChqEOkE26uA8xaHxduTQ661lC8A58MzzlSDyzfhHvw0fjEFVN_Q7nfGMN2W8x6ZE3hnGNwyZ07ntAMuJORThEXglTRHRh5jGQIXXjxtwGN/s400/1a2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>

#ByeBigBoss: Photo from the funeral of former Super Eagles Coach Stephen Keshi

Late Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi was buried yesterday in his hometown. His funeral started with a requiem mass in Benin, Edo State, ...

link to this post

Khloe Kardashian lashes out at body shamers who say she is too skinny

<div class="post-header"> </div> <div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-1481832085514660743" itemprop="description articleBody"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7gon_ZUVQCbRz8JAVZP9Vm7kzw88lMEgM4X9R22A1hFboLgQNJNCFh028YO29NBq6pwHsxt23qG5D_pHhPWbVwzcG5qUSQhPPb1pxGLiN3lskHCpLbUPTbf8BZjowickgN01fYN936jAC/s400/1a4.jpg" width="196" /><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh41sWoGI08-eMn4DJCZXlC9Ud-AB7V-mXVD9hsTjQyBrM7Y5goPVeU3Unh7l44A07Nf4XYs7HfdDS2-Rmwu1zfbp-hVEzOuY1KzRNb248BndhDT283mVrpJDt_MyJ5wOtUUxrO8xErQ-wy/s400/1a3.jpg" width="196" /></div> Khloe Kardashian tweeted that body-shamers have accused her of being too skinny with her new fit physique. 'Never would I have ever thought I would be in the media for being "too skinny". What on earth?!?!' She tweeted on Thursday. <br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-SJZVrQPXcN43E-suLsDstgzLzJ8JZuRhuTMXBY_iquU926btCLaiqBnCId8Z68AupfJOmabNkt_tfMDoX3vfRLygEgUxgZLnop-0RnmeKLngeURtY4yGiT6HKx0asBptATXomNw4jH8-/s1600/khloek.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-SJZVrQPXcN43E-suLsDstgzLzJ8JZuRhuTMXBY_iquU926btCLaiqBnCId8Z68AupfJOmabNkt_tfMDoX3vfRLygEgUxgZLnop-0RnmeKLngeURtY4yGiT6HKx0asBptATXomNw4jH8-/s400/khloek.png" width="400" /></a></div> </div>

Khloe Kardashian lashes out at body shamers who say she is too skinny

Khloe Kardashian tweeted that body-shamers have accused her of being too skinny with her new fit physique. 'Never would I have e...

link to this post