St. Valentine: Happy Valentine to all My Readers

Today, we remember the holy saint St. Valentine, patron of love, lovers, and friendship.

St. Valentine is believed to have been a priest in Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius II. He was well loved by the Romans who flocked to the temple where he was assigned to listen to his words.

During that time, Emperor Claudius was defending his empire against its enemies. Year after year the battle continued but men who wanted to be soldiers were diminishing. Married men did not want to leave their families and single men did not wish to leave their loved ones. So to resolve the problem in the recruitment of men who will go into the battlefields, Emperor Claudius passed a new law which prohibits any more marriages Valentine did not support the new law and continued performing marriage ceremonies secretly. He believed that people needed to get married so that they would not be tempted to sin by living together without the sacrament of matrimony. One night, he was caught, arrested and thrown into prison.

The Emperor took a liking to the prisoner. He thought that the young man was well spoken and wise. He was encouraged to renounce his faith and become a loyal Roman but Valentine refused to give up his faith and beliefs which resulted in him being condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs, and afterwards, beheaded, which took place on February 14, about the year 270.

In 496 AD Pope Gelasius marked February 14 to honor St. Valentine.

Many miracles have been heard about St. Valentine but the most inspiring is the story that happened before his persecution.

The story says that Asterious, Valentine’s Jailer, seeing that the prisoner was a man of learning brought his daughter Julia to Valentine for lessons. Valentine read her stories, taught her arithmetic and told her about God. It was believed that through the prayers of Valentine, Julia’s sight was restored.

On the event of his death, Valentine wrote a last note to Julia to thank her for her friendship and urged her to stay close to God. The note was signed, “From your Valentine.” And some say that this was the start of the custom of exchanging love messages on Valentine’s Day.

Today, as we celebrate the Feast of St. Valentine, let us be inspired by the saint’s abiding love and friendship. May our hearts be full of love and affection today and every moment of our lives.

Happy Valentine to YOU!!

United States gives Nigeria Conditions for Terror De-Listing

The United States has given Nigeria four conditions it should meet before it is removed from the list of terror watch list.

The minister of foreign affairs, Ojo Maduekwe, disclosed this at a meeting with the House of Representatives committee of foreign affairs in Abuja on Thursday.

The conditions, according to the minister, are public condemnation of any form of terrorism anywhere in the world; improvement of security in the nation’s airports; deployment of air marshalls on board of aircraft, and passing legislative laws on anti-terrorism.

 

The committee chairman, Bature Umar, who briefed journalists after the meeting held behind closed-doors, said it was convened to enable the minister brief the committee members on the alleged aborted plan by a 23 year old Nigerian, Farouk Umaru AbdulMutallab to bomb an American plane last Christmas day.

He also said that the minister was called to give the lawmakers insight into the reasons for the inclusion of Nigeria on the list by the US.

According to Mr. Bature, the minister explained the role Mr. AbdulMutallab’s father played before and after the incident and also briefed the lawmakers on the reports of the US State Department on terrorism.

Celebs Rock Tribecca as Femi Kuti brings the shrine to Victoria Island

It could not have been better —  two hours plus of professional non-stop command performance atop a pool stage in the cosy atmosphere of Tribecca; an A-list club located in Victoria Island  Lagos.

Two-time Grammy nominee Femi Kuti and his band; the Positive Force, thrilled a select assembly of guests last Friday into Saturday morning, strutting the stuff that earned him Grammy nominations and has kept him as the only eligible Afrobeat king after his father’s demise.

The get together was coming thirteen days after the ‘King’ lost out in the Best Contemporary World Music category to Bela Flec at the 2010 edition of the Grammys which held at Staples Centre, Los Angeles. Femi together with his band reeled out hit after hit causing a reminiscence of  yester-years teaching the new generation artistes present, the art of stage performance and musicianship.

Guests in attendance at the N10,000 per seat show included Nollywood’s Dakore Egbuson and hubby; Lanre Akande, D’banj, Ikechukwu Asa, Sunday Are and Banky W, who left quite early. Perhaps the happiest attendee at the show was elder sister Yeni Kuti, who raced up and down many times across the pool side in theatrical gestures causing laughter.

As radical yet comical as ever, Femi mounted the stage at exactly 12a.m after his band had warmed up the audience. Using anecdotes on some occasions, he introduced each song stating the year they were first performed or released and the political situations surrounding them.

He didn’t fail to take a swipe at ex-president Obasanjo saying ‘Obasanjo said he didn’t know Yar Adua was sick (scoffs and laughs)’ while punctuating each remark with his traditional shrine slang ‘A ra ra ra ra’ to which the crowd and his band responded ‘O ro ro ro ro’.

Songs like ‘Wonder wonder’, ‘Day by day’, ‘Sorry sorry’ and the NBC banned ‘Bang Bang’ were toasts of the morning. Femi implored guests to patronise the Afrika shrine – where he’s on stage every weekends- for a token of N500 per guest.

It was a morning and money well spent as each guest walked away with a copy of the Grammy rated CD titled ‘Lets Make History’.

Source: Vanguard Nigeria

Glitz at The Future Awards 2010 as Warebi, M.I, Aniebo win

It was a brilliant night of glitz and inspiration as some of Nigeria ’s most prominent citizens gathered to celebrate youth who are making the nation proud in sections including science, technology, business, the
media and others at the 2010 edition of the nation’s premier youth event, The Future Awards.

The event held last Sunday evening, at the prestigious Shell Hall of the Muson Centre in Lagos .

With a rousing keynote address by Managing Director of the World Bank, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who called the event “grand”, the guests were asked to refocus their efforts on nation building with a strong eye on the youth of the country who, according to Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala, “have, at the event, shown immense potential that gives me hope.”

Warebi

Guests at the event, held in partnership with HiTV and the Federal Ministry of Information, included a high profile delegation from Lagos State that had the First Lady, Abimbola Fashola; the Deputy Governor, Sarah Bisi Sosan the Secretary to the State Government, Princess Adenrele Adeniran-Ogunsanya, and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Youth, Dr. Dolapo Badru, who represented the Governor.

The night was anchored by a high profile team of young people that included musician Naeto C and former MBGN Munachi Abi,  with surprise take over mid-event by Idols West Africa finalist Omawumi and Big Brother Africa winner Kevin Chuwang.

Performances were a major highlight of the event, with spectacular themes that the audience hanged on to. Even more remarkable was that most performances were by a live band. One was a rehash of songs that defined the nation in a nod to Nigeria ’s fiftieth anniversary by vocalists Waje, Timi Dakolo, Nene and Essence.

The other was themed The Future of Rap and had young hip hop artistes Lil H, Willy Bang, Mo’Cheddah, Scales and Whizkid revving the crowd up. There was a dance fest that had the nation’s reigning dance groups; ‘StreetHood’ and ‘Dance na the main Thing’ slug it out.

Kefee electrified the crowd with her hit song Kokoroko, and a collabo between Djinee and Bez
had the crowd screaming.

The awards also saw interesting takes on pop culture moments that included a recap by Dr. Reuben Abati and musician Banky W of their controversial articles over the state of the Nigerian music industry.

The winners were then announced across categories. The big winner of the night was young Ify Aniebo, a malaria research scientist who won a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grant.

She won the award for Best Use of Science and also beat other nominees like award winning journalist Tolu Ogunlesi, musician Asa, music producer Cobhams Asuquo, youth advocate Toyosi Akerele, movie producer and actress Stephanie Okereke to picking up the Young Person of the Year award. Her plaque was handed over by last year’s winner, D’banj.

Now, is the time to focus...

Focus Maria! Focus!!

This is worthh my time...

I have to believe in myself.....

Believe in you...

Cherating???

count me innnnnnn....
imm sooo gonna wear bikinii......

Cupid, plss be good...

Sad songgg...
making me feel so sadd everytime...=(