Word of the Day: “Too much discussion means a quarrel.” – Ivorian Proverb.
Today in history in 1964
“The University of Abidjan is founded. In 1996, the largest university of Côte d’Ivoire will be renamed Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, after the country’s first president.”
Source: https://www.africatodayyesterday.org/days/09-jan
News highlights from Africa and beyond (January 09, 2024).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (January 09, 2024).Word of the Day: “One single finger cannot pick a louse.” – Liberian Proverb.
Today in history in 1848,
“Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as Liberia’s first president, in Monrovia. Nathaniel Brander is sworn-in as the vice president of the five month-old country.”
Source: https://www.africatodayyesterday.org/days/31-dec
News highlights from Africa and beyond (January 03, 2024).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (January 03, 2024).Word of the Day: “A coward has no scar.” – Zimbabwean Proverb.
Today in history in BC 2500, “the stone carvers and builders of Egypt are finishing the Great Sphinx at Giza, chiseling the head of the Egyptian King Khafre atop the body of a reclining lion. The monumental statue is not intended as a work of art, but has the practical function of guarding the roadway to Khafre’s pyramid tomb.”
Also, in 1987, “Robert Mugabe is elected President of Zimbabwe for the first time, as his position as head of government changes to President. Mugabe has been running Zimbabwe as Prime Minister since 1980.”
Source: https://www.africatodayyesterday.org/days/30-dec
News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 30, 2023).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 30, 2023).Word of the Day: “Fine words do not produce food.” – Nigerian Proverb.
Today in history in 1851, “Akitoye is installed for a second time as the Oba of Lagos. The British have helped by forcing out Oba Kosoko after what the Yoruba people have called Ogun Ahoyaya (“The Battle of the Boiling Canons”). Kosoko is Akitoye’s nephew who ousted Akitoye in a 1845 coup d’état. In three days, on 1 January 1852, Akitoye will sign a treaty between Lagos and Great Britain that outlaws human sacrifice and the slave trade in what will become Nigeria.” Source: https://www.africatodayyesterday.org/days/29-dec
News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 29, 2023).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 29, 2023).Word of the Day: “Don’t waste time putting forward arguments in good faith in the face of people of bad faith.” – King Hassan II of Morocco.
Today in history in 2020, “Morocco’s Palais Ronsard, the stylish restaurant in Marrakech, wins the Prix Versailles award from U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the International Union of Architects award for “World’s Most Beautiful Restaurant.” Source: https://www.africatodayyesterday.org/days/28-dec
News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 28, 2023).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 28, 2023).
Word of the Day: “The day on which one starts out is not the time to start one’s preparations.” – Nigerian Proverb.
Today in history in 1970,
Chioma Ajunwa, the first Nigerian to win an Olympics gold medal, in Imo, Nigeria was born. She was the first black African woman to win an Olympics gold medal in a field event, at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 25, 2023).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 25, 2023).
Word of the Day: “Whoever is patient with a cowrie shell will one day have thousands of them.” – Nigerian Proverb.
Today in history in 1969, the Nigerian Civil War draws to a close with Nigerian federal forces’ final military push against the breakaway Republic of Biafra, with an offensive led by future Nigerian president Col. Olusegun Obasanjo.
News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 23, 2023).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 23, 2023).Word of the Day: “If you are building a house and a nail breaks, do you stop building, or do you change the nail?” – Rwandan Proverb
Today in history in 2017, Shisa, a popular and highly addictive tobacco pipe is banned in Rwanda, following the World Health Organisation’s finding that smoking a shisa for one hour equals smoking 100 cigarettes.
News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 15, 2023).
Continue reading News highlights from Africa and beyond (December 15, 2023).
There was a small lake north of the city of Seattle which was very popular with the people of the area. It was very unique. There was no obvious inflow or outflow of water but the lake’s level remained the same and was almost always clean and clear. Once upon a time, there had been an aqua theater there where water shows had been staged for enthusiastic audiences. All that remained of that outdoor extravaganza now was a concrete husk of a quarter-circle of benches and many stairs climbing to its top.
It was somewhat late evening but was a very balmy one as well. The usual brisk breeze was nearly dormant and only fluffed her hair in an occasional puff or two. Continue reading #PAUSIBILTY: AN AFRICAN FASCINATION by Jeff Underwood
Quickly, I do not have much to say than to record my condolences and much more, my father’s condolences.
“Riro ni t’eniyan. S’ise ni ti Oluwa. Man proposes. God disposes. Sometimes, the loss of one life brings grief to an entire nation of people. Here is such a case, where the loss of more than one life has brought us grief and left us disheartened. Our sympathies, first and foremost, to the families of one of us, a member of our association and his son, Tunji and Olatunji Okusanya. He was until his untimely death the CEO of popular MIC Caskets. We also share our sympathies with the families of every other single person on that plane. Again, may you all experience peace. God be with you and with everyone of us.” – Pa A. A. Jaiyesimi, National PRO, Molusi College Old Students’ Association.
That is not to sound so much as to mean I have no condolences to offer. No. On the contrary, I do have. May the good old Lord grant you all eternal peace, if truly there is anything like that. And to my late Pa Agagu, Ondo State former governor, you need more prayers. This is supposed to be your second death; what, in maddening environment, the maddeners would refer to as akutunku e l’ona orun. I’m not sure I can translate that. But it must also mean the same as saying RIP (Rest in Peace). To all other survivors and non-survivors, may God be with you. Continue reading Agagu’s Plane Crash: The gods must be angry
When I was a kid, my elder brother and I had a lovely pastime. It was a pastime we never thought could leave us; and that’s if we never got to leave it. Today, I am not sure to what degree one has left the other. Today is Nigeria’s independence day (53rd celebration of this? Wow) and it is nostalgic. I’ll rather not stare at the television screens for too long. That’s because I do not want tears to run down my face the way they did when I was a kid, staring at the television screens on Nigeria’s Independence days. I cried, inwards to outwards and I wondered why my brother never cried – maybe he cried inwardly – every time we saw other children like us, probably not looking as fine as I thought I was, marching proudly to loud beats of drums and high pitched rendering of the Nigerian national anthem.
What worsened my condition was the very expectation of a knock every year’s Independence day, or the eve of it, by some person dressed in military or paramilitary style, pleading with my elder brother and I to join in the children’s parade for Independence. I thought after all, Nigeria was a country for us all. And all the children of the country were expected to march on special days like this. If not all, at least the bright ones like us. My brother and I were that ingenious (pardon the little note of pride in it. Just thought to report how I feel in retrospect) that we set aside a room in my father/mother’s house at the then Our Lady of Apostles Secondary School, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria. This room became a country; a country we could call ours, very real as far as we were concerned, far removed from what people refered to as Nigeria – a country we never believed was real, just an imaginary idea as we were only able to imagine everything about the country Nigeria. So, we created our own country – Lupek, the exposition of which will be for another day (But for now, we should be content with the meaning of Lupek – Love, Unity, Peace, Endurance, Knowldege). These are virtues my brother and I still keep today. Don’t ask where we are now. We had a President, Governor of our Central Bank, Ministers etc. We created commodities to trade with (mindful of our national GDP). These items were drawn and cut-out pieces of paper; including most-importantly paper pigs, paper goats,blah blah blah. Our major national revenue source was BOILED MAIZE. We created our own paper currency too – The Lupe. There was enough of it – too much, maybe; a reality that dawned on us after our own World War and we were vanquished by the enemy. The enemy being an Uncle, who sternly asked that Continue reading Nigeria@53: Where are the “LEADERS OF TOMORROW?”
In the event that the question is posed “Who constitutes the African first-timers?”, they are the Africans who, in spite of the status quo at their time, belled the cat whether by choice or by chance. By that, we mean Africans who did things that were hitherto considered impossible, too risky or just way above the reach of any African and trust me we have more than enough names that can get mentioned in a single piece as this.
Let’s do ourselves a favour by mentioning some.
BARACK OBAMA This is the first African (African American, as some call him) and 44th President of the United States of America. Born by a Kenyan father, what drove him to the top of the American government must have been internal much more than external. An inner resolve and drive to get to the top. In this vein, quite a number Continue reading Role Models: African first-timers…
| THIS IS A PIECE WRITTEN BY AUGUSTINE TOGONU-BICKERSTETH AND PUBLISHED ORIGINALLY ON OBAFEMIAWOLOWOFOUNDATION.COM IN 2009. |
SIR: The world would be celebrating 200 years of the birth of Abraham Lincoln and 100 years of the birth of Obafemi Awolowo on February 12 and March 6 respectively. There appears to be strange developments between the United States and Nigeria, particularly as it concerns Abraham Lincoln and Obafemi Awolowo. Abraham and Obafemi have seven letters each and Lincoln and Awolowo also have seven letters each. Lincoln was born in the ninth year of the 19th Century, 1809 and Awolowo was born in the ninth year of the 20th Century, 1909. Lincoln and Awolowo were both hired out as labourers when they were young. Lincoln and Awolowo were both lawyers and both practiced up to the Supreme Court. Lincoln and Awolowo were at first skeptical in their religious inclinations, before they were brought to religious conviction. Lincoln and Awolowo, as adults, both studied Mathematics as a form of mental discipline. Lincoln and Awolowo were both Rosicrucians. Lincoln as a young man loved wrestling and relatedly Awolowo as a young man loved boxing. Lincoln presided over the civil war in his country to be described as the greatest American president and Awolowo was the chief strategist during the Nigerian civil war to be described as the best president Nigeria never had. Lincoln and Awolowo both have universities named after them, the Lincoln University and the Obafemi Awolowo University. Lincoln as presidential candidate and Awolowo as presidential candidate were both endorsed by the Tribune Newspapers of their respective countries. There is the Lincoln Museum and there is as well the Awolowo Museum. Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth,
|
Professor Maurice Iwu, a former Chairman of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is part of a team of scientists that has recorded a breakthrough in the treatment of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). But I’m afraid the world is agog at this bit of news while not fully understanding what the news is about actually. Maybe!
This team has discovered an oral botanical drug called Crofelemer, already approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of the dreaded disease.
The former INEC chairman is an acclaimed pharmacologist and tropical medicine expert; based on his antecedent especially as INEC boss, certain quarters have been asking questions about the accuracy of the claims. Continue reading Professor Maurice Iwu involved in HIV/AIDS treatment breakthrough…read am well for ojoro…
Find below the Transparency International (I wonder why WIKILEAKS never take over the ranking things sef) ranking of global corruption by countries between 2002 and 2012. Increasing value of numbers mean say the country dey get better with corruption while decreasing value mean say the country dey get worse.
Continue reading Corruption Perceptions Index 2012 by Transparency International: Denmark, Finland,USA, SA worsen. Ghana and Nigeria improve
Now, everybody fit customize dem own baby.
One kind company, The Fertility Institutes don dey customize babies wey get special attributes or edge.
Dem claim say we never see anything and say plenty trips still dey on the way as science dey improve.
But some countries dey vex say “this is against moral and ethical practice”.
Whether you like am or you no like am, these designer babies don land.
You wan a baby wey dey black, very black or white, very white? Or shey na baby wey fine, beautiful, handsome, mildly handsome or gruesomely handsome? Now, you fit get am!
Which kind baby you want? Dan Foster kind?
Tu Baba (so “Nothing dey happen”)
or D’banj (for the Oyato thinzzz)
Well, you fit even like to get C. Ronaldo kinda baby right?
Whatever kinda baby wey you want, you fit customize am before the thing get inside em mama belle.
Unless na our Papa, Obj type (as in, ehm…ehm…)
Liu Xianping, 72 don become model for ladies’ clothes to promote em granddaughter’s clothing store, Yuekou.
Baba got beautiful legs, no?
“Why unacceptable (for someone like me to wear women’s clothes? Modelling for the store is helping my granddaughter and I have nothing to lose. We were very happy on the day of the shooting. I’m very old and all that I care about is to be happy.”
Business don better for em granddaughter since Baba start modelling. Chop up!
Seun Anikulapo Kuti, son of Afro-beat maestro, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, wey yamutu about 1.5 decades ago,dey advocate for the legalisation of Marijuana.
His words, “Marijuana is medical, and I feel Cigarette is selling legally because it is white man’s business. It is killing millions of people every day. ‘Igbo’ is not killing anybody… Marijuana is not only for smoking. It’s used for a lot of things; you can make clothes, you can drink tea, it is good, it is medicinal, it helps your appetite, they give it to cancer patients.. a lot of benefits”.
This dey happen as two states in the United States, Colorado and Washington recently joined others as dem legalise the herb ‘for medicinal purposes’.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/prweb/article/Marijuana-Legalization-a-Step-in-the-Right-4025581.php
Other states for United States dey different stages of breaking the cuffs of Marijuana.
See http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000881
Naija, my country, wetin dey happen? “Everything is prohibited, bad, extremely so for us it becomes deprohibited, good for other countries, especially, the United States.”
lAkUnLeScReWs 
