06:54 11/06/2015
Rio de Janeiro - Former Brazil star Zico on Wednesday confirmed
he will stand in the election to succeed Sepp Blatter as president of
FIFA, although he admitted he may struggle to find enough support.
"I would like to confirm the decision to be a candidate," the 62-year-old told a news conference.
"I feel I am capable. For sure, certain rules need to change."
Blatter
has already announced he will stand down from the job after the
organisation he has headed since 1998 was engulfed in a series of
corruption allegations.
Thursday, 11 June 2015
Tuesday, 9 June 2015
Saraki's emergence: 51 APC senators absent
Only 57 out of the 108 senators were on the floor of the House when Saraki was nominated and elected.
Saraki’s main challenger for the post, Ahmed Lawan and his supporters were absent during the exercise.
They were reportedly attending a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the International Conference Centre when the election was conducted.
The meeting was called by Buhari to resolve the crisis that has engulfed the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the lawmakers’ battle for top seats in the federal legislature.
D’banj to celebrate 35th birthday in local resturant
14:03 09/06/2015
Lagos - Singer Dbanj who turns 35 on Tuesday will be spending the day in a local canteen in the Mushin area of Lagos, reports Nigerian Entertainment Today(NET)
Born Dapo Oyebanjo on June 9, 1980, D’banj just returned from a trip to Mauritius alongside his rumoured boo, Bonang Matheba and E.M.E boss, Banky W.
According to reports Dbanj wants to take over a local restaurant, popularly known as ‘buka’ in Mushin.
He will personally dish out local delicacies to his fans and will most likely spend the whole day serving.
Read more at NET
Lagos - Singer Dbanj who turns 35 on Tuesday will be spending the day in a local canteen in the Mushin area of Lagos, reports Nigerian Entertainment Today(NET)
Born Dapo Oyebanjo on June 9, 1980, D’banj just returned from a trip to Mauritius alongside his rumoured boo, Bonang Matheba and E.M.E boss, Banky W.
According to reports Dbanj wants to take over a local restaurant, popularly known as ‘buka’ in Mushin.
He will personally dish out local delicacies to his fans and will most likely spend the whole day serving.
Read more at NET
PDP adopts Saraki, Dogara
The party also adopted Yakubu Dogara for the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The party in statement released on Tuesday morning urged its lawmakers to vote for these two candidates.
These two are not those adopted by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the positions.
The APC nominated Senator Ahmed Lawan for the office of the Senate President and Femi Gbajabiamila as Speaker.
Read more at Premium Times.
Efe Ambrose, Reuben Gabriel visit Super Eagles camp
15:12 09/06/2015
Kaduna - Dropped Super Eagles players Efe Ambrose and Rueben Gabriel, yesterday visited the camp of the Nigerian team who are currently getting set to take on Chad in a 2017 AFCON qualifiers.
The duo that are based in Kaduna State where the match will be played were at the Africa Continental Hotel to wish their colleagues, well ahead of the Chad game.
"I am here to lend my support morally and otherwise to the team even though I am not invited, it's a Nigerian cause, and hence all hands should be on deck" Ambrose told News24.
"I am confident with the support of the fans and the abilities of my teammates; we will triumph over Chad by the grace of God".
On his part Rueben Gabriel who played for Nigeria at the 2014 World cup in Brazil said aside from wishing the team well it was an opportunity for him to catch up with some of his teammates he has not seen in a while.
-Soccer Laduma
Kaduna - Dropped Super Eagles players Efe Ambrose and Rueben Gabriel, yesterday visited the camp of the Nigerian team who are currently getting set to take on Chad in a 2017 AFCON qualifiers.
The duo that are based in Kaduna State where the match will be played were at the Africa Continental Hotel to wish their colleagues, well ahead of the Chad game.
"I am here to lend my support morally and otherwise to the team even though I am not invited, it's a Nigerian cause, and hence all hands should be on deck" Ambrose told News24.
"I am confident with the support of the fans and the abilities of my teammates; we will triumph over Chad by the grace of God".
On his part Rueben Gabriel who played for Nigeria at the 2014 World cup in Brazil said aside from wishing the team well it was an opportunity for him to catch up with some of his teammates he has not seen in a while.
-Soccer Laduma
MTN Impunity: When Enough is Enough
Funmilola Ajala
13:28 07/06/2015
Imagine the thought of a scenario where you allow a fellow from some alien geography perch within your abode; offer him the best of hospitality you could afford; and yet he puts up a covert gambit to mortgage your progenies’ collective destinies - while you still live!
That proverbial imagination denotes the realism of telecoms giant MTN and its conclusion to strike a dagger into the hearts of close to ten thousand individuals.
Their crime? They are, of course, Nigerians!
This is an interestingly disturbing abnormality which is being played out in Nigeria, at the moment.
At first, many opined that the possibility of such musing is improbable - to simply summarise. But alas, the unthinkable stares us all in the face now.
The recent decision of MTN to contract its Customer Care Centres across the federation to an Indian firm named ISON BPO is an exhibition of the highest degree of disrespect to - perhaps its most generous host community the world over - Nigeria, if one considers the deleterious implications of this ill-advised and ill-conceived act.
At the centre of this unfolding brouhaha is a pan-Nigerian firm, Communication Network Support Services Limited (CNSSL). The indigenous firm which boasts of about 6, 000 staff (mainly young Nigerian graduates) has been a major manager of the Customer Care contract for MTN in the last half a decade, with a nearly perfect record.
Although MTN argues that the need to maintain competitiveness in its operations informed the disengagement of CNSSL, yet it failed to register in the public sphere in what aspect(s) the Nigerian outsourcing company was found wanting in fulfilling its contractual obligations to the South African telco.
With this development, Nigerians have embarked on revisitation of the catalogue of misdemeanours which have come to crystallise the comatose status of Nigeria/South Africa diplomatic relations, of late.
Again, the claim by MTN that ISON BPO (Indian) is preferred to CNSSL (Nigerian) due to the former's so called international experience holds little water - if any. The sermon that the Indian company will, henceforth, be trusted with MTN Call Centres across Anglophone Africa is equally punctured and rendered null and void by the exclusion of South Africa from the list. The last time I checked, English language was the lingua
franca in South Africa.
This is simply ridiculous!
The incontestable market value of Nigeria will always retain her pride as Africa's leading economic hub, hence the envy of her peers (South Africa inclusive).
Therefore, any imported investor would need to contemplate more than once before romancing the dire consequences inherent in pulling the plug on Nigeria and her people.
All said and done, I'm not sure if the South Africans needed a tutorial to realise that Nigeria symbolises an unavoidable 'foe' that is far more strategic than a close ally.
To submit here, therefore, let's remain watchful and hope sanity prevails. And sanity, it seems, will be for the proponents of this callous and inhumane subterfuge to keep it firmly in the realm of thought ONLY. Nigeria has endured enough pains and agony from South Africa and its economic scavengers; thus this latest attempt to further alienate Nigerians – even in their territory - must be resisted at all cost. Now is time to act.
Here, I rest my case (for now).
Imagine the thought of a scenario where you allow a fellow from some alien geography perch within your abode; offer him the best of hospitality you could afford; and yet he puts up a covert gambit to mortgage your progenies’ collective destinies - while you still live!
That proverbial imagination denotes the realism of telecoms giant MTN and its conclusion to strike a dagger into the hearts of close to ten thousand individuals.
Their crime? They are, of course, Nigerians!
This is an interestingly disturbing abnormality which is being played out in Nigeria, at the moment.
At first, many opined that the possibility of such musing is improbable - to simply summarise. But alas, the unthinkable stares us all in the face now.
The recent decision of MTN to contract its Customer Care Centres across the federation to an Indian firm named ISON BPO is an exhibition of the highest degree of disrespect to - perhaps its most generous host community the world over - Nigeria, if one considers the deleterious implications of this ill-advised and ill-conceived act.
At the centre of this unfolding brouhaha is a pan-Nigerian firm, Communication Network Support Services Limited (CNSSL). The indigenous firm which boasts of about 6, 000 staff (mainly young Nigerian graduates) has been a major manager of the Customer Care contract for MTN in the last half a decade, with a nearly perfect record.
Although MTN argues that the need to maintain competitiveness in its operations informed the disengagement of CNSSL, yet it failed to register in the public sphere in what aspect(s) the Nigerian outsourcing company was found wanting in fulfilling its contractual obligations to the South African telco.
With this development, Nigerians have embarked on revisitation of the catalogue of misdemeanours which have come to crystallise the comatose status of Nigeria/South Africa diplomatic relations, of late.
Again, the claim by MTN that ISON BPO (Indian) is preferred to CNSSL (Nigerian) due to the former's so called international experience holds little water - if any. The sermon that the Indian company will, henceforth, be trusted with MTN Call Centres across Anglophone Africa is equally punctured and rendered null and void by the exclusion of South Africa from the list. The last time I checked, English language was the lingua
franca in South Africa.
This is simply ridiculous!
The incontestable market value of Nigeria will always retain her pride as Africa's leading economic hub, hence the envy of her peers (South Africa inclusive).
Therefore, any imported investor would need to contemplate more than once before romancing the dire consequences inherent in pulling the plug on Nigeria and her people.
All said and done, I'm not sure if the South Africans needed a tutorial to realise that Nigeria symbolises an unavoidable 'foe' that is far more strategic than a close ally.
To submit here, therefore, let's remain watchful and hope sanity prevails. And sanity, it seems, will be for the proponents of this callous and inhumane subterfuge to keep it firmly in the realm of thought ONLY. Nigeria has endured enough pains and agony from South Africa and its economic scavengers; thus this latest attempt to further alienate Nigerians – even in their territory - must be resisted at all cost. Now is time to act.
Here, I rest my case (for now).
Gay Muslim filmmaker risks death to reconcile faith and sexuality
20:36 08/06/2015
London - Millions of Muslims each year make the arduous and exhausting haj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, but for one filmmaker, it was a journey that could have cost him his life.
The documentary "A Sinner in Mecca", which screened at the Sheffield Doc Fest on Sunday, follows Parvez Sharma, a gay Muslim living in New York, on his once-in-a-lifetime journey to a country where homosexuality is punishable by death.
For many Muslims, travelling to Mecca is the culmination of their entire lives, but for Sharma, who secretly filmed his pilgrimage on an iPhone, it was borne of a need to prove that he could reconcile his sexuality with his devotion to Islam.
Sharma said he was fortunate to be allowed into the conservative Islamic kingdom, despite his sexuality and a film career in which he has challenged conservative Islam.
"I was going back into the closet as a gay man, and also a filmmaker," said Sharma, who was publicly labelled an infidel in Saudi Arabia for his 2007 film "A Jihad for Love", which documented the lives of gay and lesbian Muslims worldwide.
"I was probably the most public Muslim homosexual on the planet and my "sins" were very visible to anyone would care to simply search for my name online," Sharma told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the annual film festival.
As a stark reminder of the chasm between Sharma's sexuality and his faith, the film opens with an exchange of distressed messages on a gay social network site between the filmmaker in New York and his friend Mo in the Saudi city of Medina.
In a frantic flurry of keystrokes, Mo recalls watching the beheading of a man in public, who he says was rumoured to have been executed because he was accused of being gay.
"Please help me get the out of this country it's hell. HELL. HELL. HELL," Mo says on the networking site.
Shame
The film not only follows the pilgrimage, but also explores Sharma's life with husband Dan in New York, and his troubled relationship with his late mother as a young man in India.
Having travelled to India at the end of his time in Mecca, Sharma reads various letters from his mother, who died of cancer when he was 21 imploring him to find a wife.
"I always wonder 'Did the shame of my sexuality kill her? Am I the one who has sinned?'" Sharma asks himself in the film.
"Mother never forgave me for being gay Her anger was relentless, and my shame eternal."
It is this shame that Sharma wrestles with as he narrates the pilgrimage which all Muslims must undertake once in their lives, to cleanse them of their sins in the eyes of Allah.
The filmmaker is wracked with doubt throughout his journey, often pondering if he will be accepted by Allah and denouncing contemporary Islam as at war with itself and having been "hijacked by a violent minority".
In one ritual of the haj, known as qurbani, Sharma kills a goat by slitting its throat, yet is overcome with remorse.
"By killing another living being, I have also killed part of myself. What is gone is the part of me that wondered if Islam would accept me it is up to me, as a gay Muslim, to accept Islam," Sharma says as the film concludes.
Reflecting on what he refers to as the greatest journey of his life, Sharma talks about powerful moments where he felt completely alone despite being surrounded by millions of people.
"I felt I was making the pilgrimage on behalf of hundreds of thousands of gay Muslims who would never be able to go due to being too afraid. For me it was my haj of defiance."
London - Millions of Muslims each year make the arduous and exhausting haj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, but for one filmmaker, it was a journey that could have cost him his life.
The documentary "A Sinner in Mecca", which screened at the Sheffield Doc Fest on Sunday, follows Parvez Sharma, a gay Muslim living in New York, on his once-in-a-lifetime journey to a country where homosexuality is punishable by death.
For many Muslims, travelling to Mecca is the culmination of their entire lives, but for Sharma, who secretly filmed his pilgrimage on an iPhone, it was borne of a need to prove that he could reconcile his sexuality with his devotion to Islam.
Sharma said he was fortunate to be allowed into the conservative Islamic kingdom, despite his sexuality and a film career in which he has challenged conservative Islam.
"I was going back into the closet as a gay man, and also a filmmaker," said Sharma, who was publicly labelled an infidel in Saudi Arabia for his 2007 film "A Jihad for Love", which documented the lives of gay and lesbian Muslims worldwide.
"I was probably the most public Muslim homosexual on the planet and my "sins" were very visible to anyone would care to simply search for my name online," Sharma told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the annual film festival.
As a stark reminder of the chasm between Sharma's sexuality and his faith, the film opens with an exchange of distressed messages on a gay social network site between the filmmaker in New York and his friend Mo in the Saudi city of Medina.
In a frantic flurry of keystrokes, Mo recalls watching the beheading of a man in public, who he says was rumoured to have been executed because he was accused of being gay.
"Please help me get the out of this country it's hell. HELL. HELL. HELL," Mo says on the networking site.
Shame
The film not only follows the pilgrimage, but also explores Sharma's life with husband Dan in New York, and his troubled relationship with his late mother as a young man in India.
Having travelled to India at the end of his time in Mecca, Sharma reads various letters from his mother, who died of cancer when he was 21 imploring him to find a wife.
"I always wonder 'Did the shame of my sexuality kill her? Am I the one who has sinned?'" Sharma asks himself in the film.
"Mother never forgave me for being gay Her anger was relentless, and my shame eternal."
It is this shame that Sharma wrestles with as he narrates the pilgrimage which all Muslims must undertake once in their lives, to cleanse them of their sins in the eyes of Allah.
The filmmaker is wracked with doubt throughout his journey, often pondering if he will be accepted by Allah and denouncing contemporary Islam as at war with itself and having been "hijacked by a violent minority".
In one ritual of the haj, known as qurbani, Sharma kills a goat by slitting its throat, yet is overcome with remorse.
"By killing another living being, I have also killed part of myself. What is gone is the part of me that wondered if Islam would accept me it is up to me, as a gay Muslim, to accept Islam," Sharma says as the film concludes.
Reflecting on what he refers to as the greatest journey of his life, Sharma talks about powerful moments where he felt completely alone despite being surrounded by millions of people.
"I felt I was making the pilgrimage on behalf of hundreds of thousands of gay Muslims who would never be able to go due to being too afraid. For me it was my haj of defiance."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)