After only nine months as the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has been named TIME magazine Person of the Year 2013. TIME said the former Argentinian Cardinal has become the 'new voice of conscience and is the person who had the greatest impact on the world in 2013.
Thursday, 12 December 2013
Pope Francis named TIME's Person of the Year 2013
After only nine months as the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has been named TIME magazine Person of the Year 2013. TIME said the former Argentinian Cardinal has become the 'new voice of conscience and is the person who had the greatest impact on the world in 2013.
Obasanjo Writes Jonathan, Accusing President Jonathan Of Lying And Promoting Corruption
Mr. Obasanjo said in the 18-page letter dated December 2, 2013.
He said Mr. Jonathan has failed to deliver on his promises to the Nigerian people, stem corruption, promote national unity and strengthen national security.
He said in the letter titled “Before it is too late” that rather than take steps to advance Nigeria’s interest and up the standards of living of Nigerians, Mr. Jonathan had betrayed God and the Nigerian people that brought him to power, and has been pursuing selfish personal and political interests based on advice he receives from “self-centred aides”.
In the detailed letter, dripping of anger , frustration and what appears a genuine concern to rescue a nation on the brink, Mr. Obasanjo lamented that Mr. Jonathan had become terribly divisive and clannish, destroying his own party, polarizing the country along regional and religious lines and ridiculing Nigeria in the comity of nations.
Without mincing words, Mr. Obasanjo blamed Mr. Jonathan for the crises tearing the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, apart.
He said apart from using party chairman Bamanga Tukur to cause multiple crises and divide the ranks of the party, the president’s failure to keep a promise he made not to seek a second term is also generating tension within the ruling party.
“It would be unfair to continue to level full blames on the Chairman (Tukur) for all that goes wrong with the party,” Mr. Obasanjo said. “The chairman is playing the tune dictated by the paymaster (Jonathan). But the paymaster is acting for a definitive purpose for which deceit and deception seem to be the major ingredients.
“Up till two months ago, Mr. President, you told me that you have not told anybody that you would contest in 2015. I quickly pointed out to you that the signs and the measures on the ground do not tally with your statement. You said the same to one other person who shared his observation with me. And only a fool would believe that statement you made to me judging by what is going on. I must say it is not ingenious. You may wish to pursue a more credible and more honorable path.”
The former President said Mr. Jonathan told him before the 2011 election he would not seek a second term, and made the same promise to governors, party stakeholders and Nigerians.
The president’s refusal to keep that promise cast him as a man without honour, Mr. Obasanjo said.
Saying it would be “fatally morally flawed” for Mr. Jonathan to contest in 2015, Mr. Obasanjo added, “As a leader, two things you must cherish and hold dear among others are trust and honour both of which are important ingredients of character. I will want to see anyone in the Office of the Presidency of Nigeria as a man or woman who can be trusted, a person of honour in his words and character.”
Mr. Obasanjo also accused Mr. Jonathan of anti-party conducts – supporting opposition parties’ candidates in governorship elections in Lagos, Ondo, Edo and Anambra states at the detriment of PDP’s own candidates –, and of pitting party members against one another.
Saying the President had failed to address the underlying causes of the Boko Haram menace, Mr. Obasanjo urged Mr. Jonathan to adopt a carrot and stick approach in dealing with the insurgency explaining that “conventional military actions based on standard phases of military operations alone will not permanently and effectively deal with the issue of Boko Haram”.
Mr. Obasanjo also tackled Mr. Jonathan for allegedly being clannish. “For you to allow yourself to be “possessed”, so to say, to the exclusion of most of the rest of Nigerians as an “Ijaw man” is a mistake that should never have been allowed to happen. Yes, you have to be born in one part of Nigeria to be Nigerian if not naturalized but the Nigerian President must be above ethnic factionalism. And those who prop you up as of, and for ‘Ijaw nation’ are not your friends genuinely, not friends of Nigeria nor friends of ‘Ijaw nation’ they tout about.
“To allow or tacitly encourage people of ‘Ijaw nation’ to throw insults on other Nigerians from other parts of the country and threaten fire and brimstone to protect your interest as an Ijaw man is myopic and your not openly quieting them is even more unfortunate.
Two Ijaw men, ex-militant Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, and a former federal commissioner for information, Edwin Clark, who carries himself around as the political godfather of the president, are known to talk down on people opposed to the president.
Mr. Obasanjo also accused Mr. Jonathan of placing over 1000 Nigerians on political watch list and “training snipers and other armed personnel secretly and clandestinely acquiring weapons to match for political purposes like Abacha and training them where Abacha trained his killers”.
He wondered why the Presidency was providing assistance for a murderer to evade justice.
“Presidential assistance for a murderer to evade justice and presidential delegation to welcome him home can only be in bad taste generally but particularly to the family of his victim,” Mr. Obasanjo said. “Assisting criminals to evade justice cannot be part of the job of the presidency. Or, as it is viwed in some quarters, is he being recruited to do for you what he had done for Abacha in the past? Hopefully, he should have learned his lesson. Let us continue to watch.”
Mr. Obasanjo did not mention the name of the murderer he accused the President of protecting but he seems to be referring to Hamza Al-Mustapha, a former security aide to late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, who is facing trial for allegedly masterminding the killing of Kudirat Abiola, the wife of Moshood Abiola, the winner of the annulled 1993 presidential election.
Mr. Al-Mustapha was freed by the appeal court in July but the Lagos state government has since appealed the judgment at the Supreme Court.
The former President also called on the National Assembly to rise up and take decisive action over the recent allegation in the country that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation failed to remit billions of dollars in proceeds of crude oil sales to the federation account.
“This allegation will not fly away by non-action, cover-up, denial or bribing possible investigators,” Mr. Obasanjo told the President. “Please deal with this allegation transparently and let the truth be known.
“The dramatis personae in this allegation and who they are working for will one day be public knowledge. Those who know are watching if the National Assembly will not be accomplice in the heinous crime and naked grand corruption. May God grant you the grace for at least one effective corrective action against high corruption which seems to stink all around you in your government.”
Mr. Obasanjo said he wrote the letter in the national interest, saying nothing, at this stage of his life, would prevent him from standing up for whatever he considers to be in the best interest of Nigeria, Africa and the world.
He said he was ready for whatever backlash his letter would provoke from the presidency.
“Knowing what happens around you most of which you know of and condone or deny, this letter will proke cacophony from hired and unhired attackers but I will maintain my serenity because by this letter, I have done my duty to you as I have always done, to your government, to the party, PDP, and to our country, Nigeria…,” Mr. Obasanjo said.
“I have passed the stage of being flattered, intimidated, threatened, frightened, induced or bought… Death is the end of all human beings and may it come when God wills it to come.”
Shehu Sa-narrates-how-president-jonathan-frustrated-peace-talks-with-boko-haram/
Human rights activist and President of Civil Rights Congress, CRC, Mr. Shehu Sani, yesterday, alleged that it was President Goodluck Jonathan that scuttled an initial effort to constructively engage key members of the Boko Haram Islamist sect with a view to convincing them to end the blood-letting insurgency in the northern part of the country.
Sani, who spoke at a seminar for judges and journalists, organised by Konrad-Adenaver-Stitung, KAS, a German non-governmental organisation, gave an account of some underground moves that were made by some elder statesmen, including former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
Sani, who presented a paper on The Difficulties of Political Cases in Justice Delivery, recalled how he persuaded Obasanjo to visit the family of the slain leader of Boko Haram, Mohammed Yusuf, in Maiduguri on a peace mission.
It will be recalled that the representative of Mohammed Yusufs’ family, Babakura Fugu, who hosted Obasanjo in Maiduguri, was killed shortly after the meeting.
However, Sani said he opted out of the presidential committee because he was convinced that it would not achieve anything given his earlier experience with the Presidency on the matter.
Obasanjo intervenes
He said: “I independently reached out to leaders of Boko Haram and offered myself to mediate on behalf of the Federal Government.
“When they were ready to talk, and because I do not have the telephone numbers of President Goodluck Jonathan, I decided to reach out to Obasanjo.
“I narrated my encounter with members of Boko Haram to Obasanjo and he said ‘are you really sure of this?’ I said yes and invited him to Maiduguri.
“Thereafter, I told the leaders of the sect that I was coming with former President, Obasanjo. They agreed and gave us conditions that the meeting should take place in Maiduguri with no security men and journalists involved.
“At the meeting, they came out with photographs and some documents and presented them to Obasanjo, who assured them that he was going to take their grievances to the Federal Government after appealing to them to stop the killings.
“Obasanjo took those documents to the Villa. Since then nothing was done. But Obasanjo told me that he has done his best.
Delay at the Villa
“I made a second attempt by involving Dr. Dati Ahmed, who was a teacher to the founder of Boko Haram, late Mohammed Yusuf. We brought him to Abuja to mediate with the Federal Government on behalf of the sect.
“We went to see the then National Security Adviser, NSA, to the President, late General Owoye Azazi. He kept us waiting in his office for over three hours only to tell us that after consulting with security chiefs, he was told that the Boko Haram members have run out of weapons.
“Therefore, the sect can be overrun by the Federal Government and so there was no need to meet with them. At the end of the day, Dr. Ahmed was frustrated and we all left Abuja.
… opting out of amnesty c’ttee
“We have done this twice and was frustrated, only for me to wake up one day to hear that my name was among the 26-member Presidential Committee on Amnesty for Boko Haram members.
“So when I turned it down, some people called me names and said many things about me, including the fact that I am not a patriotic Nigerian.
“I cannot think of any patriotism other than the efforts I have made. It took me three months to make contact with leaders of Boko Haram.
“It is not an easy thing because you are dealing with a killer group that even goes after their members.
“When you give a committee two weeks, it is not going to work. I have done my best and I know the committee will not achieve anythin
Read more http://newswirengr.com/2013/12/12/shehu-sani-narrates-how-president-jonathan-frustrated-peace-talks-with-boko-haram/
Nigerian Man Found Dead Inside Boston Apartment, Making Him Third Person To Die Under Similar Circumstances
A 57-year-old Nigerian, Mr. Benjamin Chibuogwu was found dead in his apartment on Saturday in Lowell, Massachusetts. A native of Awka in Anambra state, Mr. Chibuogwu recently attended the Awka Convention in New Jersey over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Mr. Chibuogwu body was found three days after he died. The gruesome discovery was made when his brother who lives in Seattle, Washington, could not reach him over the phone for three days, he then alerted a friend who went to Mr. Chibuogwu’s house with the landlord and found his body.
Mr. Chibuogwu, who is divorced and lived alone, is survived by five kids - three girls and two boys.
Chibuogwu popularly known as "Benny Chuks" briefly played professional soccer with Vasco Da Gama Football Club of Enugu before coming to the United States.
The Boston community is having a wake for him on Saturday, December 13, 2013 at St. John’s Evangelist Parish in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, after which his body would be taken back to Nigeria for burial.
Earlier this year, Elias Onyechi, a ther 60-year-old Nigerian man based in Lowell, was also found dead in his apartment. Elias Onyechi, from Ogidi in Anambra state, was also divorced with five children. He was buried in Lowell.
This summer too another Nigerian, 54-year-old Sonny Asoa, formerly resident of Lowell, died in Revere, Massachusetts. He, too, was living alone after divorcing his wife
Friday, 6 December 2013
Hundreds of people have gathered outside the Houghton home of the late former president Nelson Mandela
Some wrapped in thick blankets and coats to ward off the cold, others with the African National Congress (ANC) flag draped around their shoulders, mourners sang struggle songs and began to toyi-toyi in honour of the fallen icon.
Mourners laid flowers, cards and candles near the gate as sombre police officers looked on. A military helicopter also hovered above.
Among those gathered were young children who were accompanying their parents. “Mandela has freed our generation. If it wasn’t for him we would be living in a country where people are separated, just like our parents did,” said Lacy Gibbet (14).
Annah Ngoasheng (13) accompanied her parents to Mandela’s house after hearing about his death.
“My parents have told me about what Mandela has done for our country and I had to be here to pay my respects to him,” she said.
Members of the Mandela family, ANC leaders including President Jacob Zuma and General Secretary Gwede Mantashe, were seen entering the home earlier. Shortly before 3am, a convoy of dozens of cars and an ambulance exited.
As it drove off, the convoy was joined by cars which had been parked in the street. Defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula got into the back of one of the departing cars.
CNN is reporting that the body is being transferred to a military hospital in Pretoria where it will be embalmed.
The only family members confirmed absent at this time are daughters Zindzi and Zenani Mandela, who were attending the UK premier of Mandela: Long walk to freedom at the Odeon Leicester Square in London last night.
According to reports, Zindzi and Zenani were informed of Mandela’s death while they were still at their hotel before the start of the screening, but insisted the event should continue.
Zuma made the announcement shortly before 12am. “He passed on peacefully in the company of his family around 20.50pm on December 5,” he said.
“He is now resting, he is now at peace. Our nation has lost its greatest son.”
Thursday, 5 December 2013
Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid icon and father of modern South Africa, dies
That was Nelson Mandela, who emerged from prison after 27 years to lead his country out of decades of apartheid.
He died Thursday night at age 95.
His message of reconciliation, not vengeance, inspired the world after he negotiated a peaceful end to segregation and urged forgiveness for the white government that imprisoned him.
"As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison," Mandela said after he was freed in in 1990.
Mandela, a former president, battled health issues in recent years, including a recurring lung infection that led to numerous hospitalizations.
Despite rare public appearances, he held a special place in the consciousness of the nation and the world.
"Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father," South African President Jacob Zuma said. "What made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human. We saw in him what we seek in ourselves."
His U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, echoed the same sentiment.
"We've lost one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this Earth," Obama said. "He no longer belongs to us -- he belongs to the ages
A hero to blacks and whites
Mandela became the nation's conscience as it healed from the scars of apartheid.
Zuma: This is a moment of deepest sorrow
Nelson Mandela in his own words
1990: Mandela released from prison
1994: Mandela takes oath of office
His defiance of white minority rule and long incarceration for fighting against segregation focused the world's attention on apartheid, the legalized racial segregation enforced by the South African government until 1994.
In his lifetime, he was a man of complexities. He went from a militant freedom fighter, to a prisoner, to a unifying figure, to an elder statesman.
Years after his 1999 retirement from the presidency, Mandela was considered the ideal head of state. He became a yardstick for African leaders, who consistently fell short when measured against him.
Warm, lanky and charismatic in his silk, earth-toned dashikis, he was quick to admit to his shortcomings, endearing him further in a culture in which leaders rarely do.
His steely gaze disarmed opponents. So did his flashy smile.
Former South African President F.W. de Klerk, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela in 1993 for transitioning the nation from a system of racial segregation, described their first meeting.
"I had read, of course, everything I could read about him beforehand. I was well-briefed," he said.
"I was impressed, however, by how tall he was. By the ramrod straightness of his stature, and realized that this is a very special man. He had an aura around him. He's truly a very dignified and a very admirable person."
For many South Africans, he was simply Madiba, his traditional clan name. Others affectionately called him Tata, the word for father in his Xhosa tribe.
A nation on edge
Mandela last appeared in public during the 2010 World Cup hosted by South Africa. His absences from the limelight and frequent hospitalizations left the nation on edge, prompting Zuma to reassure citizens every time he fell sick.
"Mandela is woven into the fabric of the country and the world," said Ayo Johnson, director of Viewpoint Africa, which sells content about the continent to media outlets.
When he was around, South Africans had faith that their leaders would live up to the nation's ideals, according to Johnson.
"He was a father figure, elder statesman and global ambassador," Johnson said. "He was the guarantee, almost like an insurance policy, that South Africa's young democracy and its leaders will pursue the nation's best interests."
There are telling nuggets of Mandela's character in the many autobiographies about him.
An unmovable stubbornness. A quick, easy smile. An even quicker frown when accosted with a discussion he wanted no part of.
War averted
Despite chronic political violence before the vote that put him in office in 1994, South Africa avoided a full-fledged civil war in its transition from apartheid to multiparty democracy. The peace was due in large part to the leadership and vision of Mandela and de Klerk.
"We were expected by the world to self-destruct in the bloodiest civil war along racial grounds," Mandela said during a 2004 celebration to mark a decade of democracy in South Africa.
"Not only did we avert such racial conflagration, we created amongst ourselves one of the most exemplary and progressive nonracial and nonsexist democratic orders in the contemporary world."
Mandela represented a new breed of African liberation leaders, breaking from others of his era such as Robert Mugabe by serving one term.
In neighboring Zimbabwe, Mugabe has been president since 1987. A lot of African leaders overstayed their welcomes and remained in office for years, sometimes decades, making Mandela an anomaly.
But he was not always popular in world capitals.
Until 2008, the United States had placed him and other members of the African National Congress on its terror list because of their militant fight against the apartheid regime.
Humble beginnings
Rolihlahla Mandela started his journey in the tiny village of Mvezo, in the hills of the Eastern Cape, where he was born on July 18, 1918. His teacher later named him Nelson as part of a custom to give all schoolchildren Christian names.
His father died when he was 9, and the local tribal chief took him in and educated him.
Mandela attended school in rural Qunu, where he retreated before returning to Johannesburg to be near medical facilities.
He briefly attended University College of Fort Hare but was expelled after taking part in a protest with Oliver Tambo, with whom he later operated the nation's first black law firm.
In subsequent years, he completed a bachelor's degree through correspondence courses and studied law at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He left without graduating in 1948.
Four years before he left the university, he helped form the youth league of the African National Congress, hoping to transform the organization into a more radical movement. He was dissatisfied with the ANC and its old-guard politics.
And so began Mandela's civil disobedience and lifelong commitment to breaking the shackles of segregation in South Africa.
Escalating trouble
In 1956, Mandela and dozens of other political activists were charged with high treason for activities against the government. His trial lasted five years, but he was ultimately acquitted.
Meanwhile, the fight for equality got bloodier.
Four years after his treason charges, police shot 69 unarmed black protesters in Sharpeville township as they demonstrated outside a station. The Sharpeville Massacre was condemned worldwide, and it spurred Mandela to take a more militant tone in the fight against apartheid.
The South African government outlawed the ANC after the massacre, and an angry Mandela went underground to form a new military wing of the organization.
"There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile for us to continue talking peace and nonviolence against a government whose reply is only savage attacks on an unarmed and defenseless people," Mandela said during his time on the run.
During that period, he left South Africa and secretly traveled under a fake name. The press nicknamed him "the Black Pimpernel" because of his police evasion tactics.
Militant resistance
The African National Congress heeded calls for stronger action against the apartheid regime, and Mandela helped launch an armed wing to attack government symbols, including post offices and offices.
The armed struggle was a defense mechanism against government violence, he said.
"My people, Africans, are turning to deliberate acts of violence and of force against the government in order to persuade the government, in the only language which this government shows by its own behavior that it understands," Mandela said at the time.
"If there is no dawning of sanity on the part of the government -- ultimately, the dispute between the government and my people will finish up by being settled in violence and by force. "
The campaign of violence against the state resulted in civilian casualties.
A white South African's memories of Mandela
Long imprisonment
In 1962, Mandela secretly received military training in Morocco and Ethiopia. When he returned home later that year, he was arrested and charged with illegal exit of the country and incitement to strike.
Mandela represented himself at the trial and was briefly imprisoned before being returned to court. In 1964, after the famous Rivonia trial, he was sentenced to life in prison for sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the government.
At the trial, instead of testifying, he opted to give a speech that was more than four hours long, and ended with a defiant statement.
"I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination," he said. "I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
His next stop was the Robben Island prison, where he spent 18 of his 27 years in detention. He described his early days there as harsh.
"There was a lot of physical abuse, and many of my colleagues went through that humiliation," he said.
One of those colleagues was Khehla Shubane, 57, who was imprisoned in Robben Island during Mandela's last years there. Though they were in different sections of the prison, he said, Mandela was a towering figure.
"He demanded better rights for us all in prison. The right to get more letters, get newspapers, listen to the radio, better food, right to study," Shubane said. "It may not sound like much to the outside world, but when you are in prison, that's all you have."
And Mandela's khaki prison pants, he said, were always crisp and ironed.
"Most of us chaps were lazy, we would hang our clothes out to dry and wear them with creases. We were in a prison, we didn't care. But Mandela, every time I saw him, he looked sharp."
After 18 years, he was transferred to other prisons, where he experienced better conditions until he was freed in 1990.
Months before his release, he obtained a bachelor's in law in absentia from the University of South Africa.
Mandela's jail: Robben Island
Calls for release
His freedom followed years of an international outcry led by Winnie Mandela, a social worker whom he married in 1958, three months after divorcing his first wife.
Mandela was banned from reading newspapers, but his wife provided a link to the outside world.
She told him of the growing calls for his release and updated him on the fight against apartheid.
World pressure mounted to free Mandela with the imposition of political, economic and sporting sanctions, and the white minority government became more isolated.
In 1988 at age 70, Mandela was hospitalized with tuberculosis, a disease whose effects plagued him until the day he died. He recovered and was sent to a minimum security prison farm, where he was given his own quarters and could receive additional visitors.
Among them, in an unprecedented meeting, was South Africa's president, P.W. Botha.
Change was in the air.
When Botha's successor, de Klerk, took over, he pledged to negotiate an end to apartheid.
South Africa: Following Nelson Mandela
Free at last
On February 11, 1990, Mandela walked out of prison to thunderous applause, his clenched right fist raised above his head.
Still as upright and proud, he would say, as the day he walked into prison nearly three decades earlier.
He reassured ANC supporters that his release was not part of a government deal and informed whites that he intended to work toward reconciliation.
Four years after his release, in South Africa's first multiracial elections, he became the nation's first black president.
"The day he was inducted as president, we stood on the terraces of the Union Building," de Klerk remembered years later. "He took my hand and lifted it up. He put his arm around me, and we showed a unity that resounded through South Africa and the world."
Mandela: Patriarch, legend, family man
Broken marriage, then love
His union to Winnie Mandela, however, did not have such a happy ending. They officially divorced in 1996.
For the two, it was a fiery love story, derailed by his ambition to end apartheid. During his time in prison, Mandela wrote his wife long letters, expressing his guilt at putting political activism before family. Before the separation, Winnie Mandela was implicated in violence, including a conviction for being an accessory to assault in the death of a teenage township activist.
Mandela found love again two years after the divorce.
On his 80th birthday, he married Graca Machel, the widow of former Mozambique president, Samora Machel.
Only three of Mandela's children are still alive. He had 18 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
Symbolic rugby
South Africa's fight for reconciliation was epitomized at the 1995 rugby World Cup Final in Johannesburg, when it played heavily favored New Zealand.
As the dominant sport of white Afrikaners, rugby was reviled by blacks in South Africa. They often cheered for rivals playing their national team.
Mandela's deft use of the national team to heal South Africa was captured in director Clint Eastwood's 2009 feature film "Invictus," starring Morgan Freeman as Mandela and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, the white South African captain of the rugby team.
Before the real-life game, Mandela walked onto the pitch, wearing a green-and-gold South African jersey bearing Pienaar's number on the back.
"I will never forget the goosebumps that stood on my arms when he walked out onto the pitch before the game started," said Rory Steyn, his bodyguard for most of his presidency.
"That crowd, which was almost exclusively white ... started to chant his name. That one act of putting on a No. 6 jersey did more than any other statement in bringing white South Africans and Afrikaners on side with new South Africa."
Share your memories
A promise honored
In 1999, Mandela did not seek a second term as president, keeping his promise to serve only one term. Thabo Mbeki succeeded him in June of the same year.
After leaving the presidency, he retired from active politics, but remained in the public eye, championing causes such as human rights, world peace and the fight against AIDS.
It was a decision born of tragedy: His only surviving son, Makgatho Mandela, died of AIDS at age 55 in 2005. Another son, Madiba Thembekile, was killed in a car crash in 1969.
Mandela's 90th birthday party in London's Hyde Park was dedicated to HIV awareness and prevention, and was titled 46664, his prison number on Robben Island.
A resounding voice
Mandela continued to be a voice for developing nations.
He criticized U.S. President George W. Bush for launching the 2003 war against Iraq, and accused the United States of "wanting to plunge the world into a Holocaust."
And as he was acclaimed as the force behind ending apartheid, he made it clear he was only one of many who helped transform South Africa into a democracy.
In 2004, a few weeks before he turned 86, he announced his retirement from public life to spend more time with his loved ones.
"Don't call me, I'll call you," he said as he stepped away from his hectic schedule.
'Like a boy of 15'
But there was a big treat in store for the avid sportsman.
When South Africa was awarded the 2010 football World Cup, Mandela said he felt "like a boy of 15."
In July that year, Mandela beamed and waved at fans during the final of the tournament in Johannesburg's Soccer City. It was his last public appearance.
"I would like to be remembered not as anyone unique or special, but as part of a great team in this country that has struggled for many years, for decades and even centuries," he said. "The greatest glory of living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall."
dentical Twins Romance & Love Story
Love is so kind especially when you marry the right person. Identical twins, Okunnuyis and Okuezes tied the knot on the same day. The couples walked down the aisle on Saturday, 30th of November at Foursquare Gospel Church, Omole, Ikeja District Headquarters and reception for the two twin couples was at the 10 Degree Events Centre, Oregun, Lagos.
The first twin couple, Folawemi Taiwo Okunniyi and Chinonso Akinade Okueze was the picture of absolute happiness, as they were joined by the other twin couple, Febisola Kehinde Okunniyi and Chibuzor Adelakin Okueze, a pharmacologist and accountant.
Folawemi Taiwo Okunniyi and Febisola Kehinde Okunniyi are identical twin sisters from the same parents and they hail from Ondo State, and the grooms, Chinonso Akinade Okueze and Chibuzor Adelakin Okueze are also identical twins from the same parents from Asaba, Delta State
image
Contrary to what many may think that it was an ‘arranged’ marriage project, one of the grooms, Chinonso, said it wasn’t planned that way. This is the couples love story according to E24-7 MAGAZINE: “When I saw Fola, I was struck. Unlike what many think that ‘Kehindes’ are always faster, I was sharper than him. I started dating Fola first, but one day, I noticed that he was going out, but he didn’t tell me where he was going. That was so strange so I decided to find out where he was going, and I realised he was visiting the Okunniyis. He later told me he likes Febi, and I told him it was okay that he should stick to her, because I already had my eyes on Fola.”
Chibuzor also re-iterated his twin brother’s claim that the joint wedding wasn’t initially planned. According to him, “We thank God and give Him all the glory. I pray that this ‘friendship’ that has started today will last for a very long time,” he enthused
Homecoming! Wale Visits Family In Nigeria for the First Time
Maybach Music met the Motherland this past weekend when Wale stepped foot in his father’s home country of Nigeria for the very first time in his life. He was there to perform at a Johnnie Walker event but took the opportunity to get in touch with his roots, having emotional reunions with his family.
When he first stepped off the plane and was making his way out of the airport, he told a reporter that only 15 percent of his family lives in the U.S. and the rest are in Nigeria so he was excited to connect with his people while there.
I feel good. I was excited. I could barely sleep. It’s a real moment to finally be here, man. I’m blessed. I’m excited about it.[...]I’m curious. I’m more curious as to what it’s going to bring to me than what I’m gonna bring. I’m just very alert and really curious about everything from the food to the fashion to the people. The little idiosyncrasies that are within the country. Being that I’m a very family oriented person, only 15 percent of my family lives in the States. Everybody else is here so I got a lot of ground to cover.
During his trip, Wale stopped by Lagos Beat FM radio and revealed that he’s never been to Nigeria because he grew up poor and didn’t have the money to afford a plane ticket out of the States:
I grew up poor. When we lived in DC we lived in the projects. In Maryland we lived in the projects. To get a ticket to Nigeria on a $20,000 yearly income for my family, that wasn’t really…and by the time we started getting money, I’m a knucklehead. A 14-year-old, 15-year-old with a decent job, I’m not gonna save up to go to Nigeria. That’s not how I was thinking when I was at that age. Then I was in college and money [was] tight. Then I get this record deal when I dropped out of school, you running around so much you don’t have time to barely see your own parents at home. It took some time, but I’m here now.
During his show at the Johnnie Walker event, Wale brought out Nigerian artist Sèyi Shay on stage to sing “Bad” with him. He also gave a shout out to his dad during the show while using a Yoruba accent.
“I promise to keep coming back. If y’all will have me, I’ll coming coming back. Shoutout to my dad, Mr. Akintimehin do you want to take a bow for these people now? Haaa Oga!
Read more at http://necolebitchie.com/2013/12/04/photos-videos-wale-visits-family-in-nigeria-for-the-first-time/#jlHd5bIWs4q48WK7.99
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)