Oprah to Donald Sterling: “We’re All Off The Plantation

Oprah has a message for Donald Sterling.
“We’re all off the plantation,” she tells TMZ. “The plantation days are over.”
The media mogul was asked about the disgraced Los Angeles Clippers owner’s racism scandal on Tuesday, and spoke about everything from the rumors that Magic Johnson will buy the team to the O.J. Simpson trial.
It’s worth watching

Erykah Badu under fire for singing to Swazi king

Mbabane (Swaziland) (AFP) - US singer Erykah Badu has been condemned as a hypocrite for singing "Happy Birthday" to Swaziland's King Mswati III, described by a rights group as a "corrupt tyrant".
The hip-hop and soul singer performed for the king at his official 46th birthday celebrations during a visit to the southern African country last Thursday, leaving the US-based Human Rights Foundation (HRF) fuming.
"She owes us all an explanation. The king is a kleptocrat who lives in the lap of obscene luxury while most of his countrymen toil in abject poverty for less than $2 a day," HRF's Alex Gladstein said in a statement.
American jeweller Jacob Arabo brought the Grammy award-winner to Swaziland as a birthday gift for Mswati, considered Africa's last "absolute monarch", according to state-run Observer newspaper.
"This is my second time in Swaziland and the last time I was here there were a lot of women dancing in a forest," the newspaper quoted her as saying before dedicating her first song to "sons of kings".
She gave Mswati a $100-bill as a birthday present, as well as "a special stone which she said would uplift His Majesty's spirits when he was feeling down," according to the newspaper.
Two years ago, Mswati celebrated his birthday by ordering his subjects to give him cows.
Badu's support of the king goes in the face of her self-professed concern for human rights, according to HRF.
"She claims to want to improve the lives of the disenfranchised and impoverished, but unapologetically does favours for a corrupt tyrant who jails those who challenge his ill-gotten wealth and power," said Gladstein.
Two journalists are on trial in Swaziland for writing articles critical of Mswati's government.
Africa's last absolute monarch holds a tight grip on dissent in his tiny mountain kingdom, where criticism of the king is illegal.

Jonas Brothers To Expose Personal Lives in New Stage Show

Joe and Kevin Jonas are set to get personal with fans in a new interactive theater tour, kicking off in June.
Titled Off the Record with Kevin & Joe Jonas, the two brothers will interact with audience members through live Q&A sessions and will present never-before-seen video footage.
“We hope that people will be really involved and have a lot of fun, make this kind of something that we get to do a lot more of,” Joe told Entertainment Tonight.
“We’re going to be talking about our old stories from when we toured together, show pictures, a lot of laughs, and get the fans involved,” explained Joe, adding, “I want everyone to come out and hangout.”
The Off the Record with Kevin & Joe Jonas tour kicks off on June 5 in New Jersey.
Would you be interested in seeing the show?

N10bn jet scandal: Diezani sues House of Representatives, Gets Court Injunction To Stop Probe

The Minister of  Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke,  has   halted the investigation by the House of Representatives into the N10bn she allegedly spent on a chartered private jet, Challenger 850, in the last two years for her trips.
 The House Committee on Public Accounts investigating the expenditure was set to conduct a public hearing on Monday, but it was stalled by an Abuja  Federal High Court order.
 Alison- Madueke and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation   listed the National Assembly  and the House   of Representatives as the defendants in the suit with reference number  FHC/ABJ/CS/295/2014 and dated April 11, 2014.
It is gathered that the monday hearing did not take place, as the minister had already flouted a deadline the committee gave to her to make submissions before April 28.

A “surprised” Tambuwal was served the restraining order on Monday morning.

 “This has never happened before in this country that a serving minister is asking a court to stop the parliament from doing its work,” a committee source told reporters on Monday.
 “These are indeed, no ordinary times. I am seriously disturbed about the way we want to run this country”, he added.
 The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, confirmed the development to journalists.

 “The court processes were served on us today (Monday); the speaker has been served.

 “Simply put, it is to notify us that, this matter which you want to investigate, we have gone to court”, Mohammed stated.

 Mohammed described Alison-Madueke’s  action as a “temporary setback”? for the House, but assured the public that the legislature would fight to the finish.

 According to him, being a “law-abiding House”, the first reaction was to put the hearing on hold until legal opinions were sought.

 He spoke further:

 “We expected the minister to be here today(Monday) for the hearing.
 “Instead, we have been served with court processes. As law-abiding citizens, we have decided to wait. We will tarry awhile, take some legal opinions and move on  from there.
 “What has happened   tells you the kind of frustration that the House is facing. A matter of public importance is under investigation and a minister is telling us that she has gone to court.
 “However, our job is to expose corruption. We will study the court papers and take it up from there.”

Reporters gathered that, while the original mandate of the committee was to investigate the alleged N10bn expenditure on the Challenger 850, the committee stumbled on additional information indicating that Alison-Madueke chartered two other jets.

One of them, a Global Express XRS, was said to have cost €600,000 in a return charter trip to London.

Alison-Madueke had twice failed to respond to letters the committee wrote, asking her to state her side of the allegation preparatory to the public hearing.

A further directive to make the submissions before April 28, was again ignored.

Another official said the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, and the  minister decided not to honour the House panel’s  request “because they’ve been very busy lately.

“The minister is a very busy woman, so also is the GMD. They can’t be answering to every call at the detriment of their duties at the ministry and the NNPC and we hope that with this court order, these things will be adequately addressed.”

The FHC will on Tuesday (Tuesday) begin hearing in the   suit by the minister and the NNPC.

In the suit, they  asked the  FHC   for an order of interim injunction restraining the respondents “whether by themselves, their members, committees or agents from summoning or directing” their  appearance “before any committee, particularly the PAC  set up by the House of Representatives”  to conduct the investigation.

They also want  the court to stop the committee from asking  any official of the ministry or the NNPC to produce any papers, notes or other documents or give any evidence in line with a letter from the House   dated March 26, 2014, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

In the same vein, they  asked for an order of interim injunction restraining the  defendants  from issuing a warrant to compel   the  minister’s  attendance, or the attendance of any official of the ministry or the NNPC, with regard to the investigation.

In the alternative, the plaintiffs want the court to make an order of status quo, directing the parties to maintain the current position with regard to the investigation, as of  the date of filing of the suit.

The  court order   which was made available to our correspondent, indicated that after hearing an ex parte motion moved by Alison-Madueke’s counsel, Etigwe Uwa (SAN), Justice Ahmed Mohammed   made an order directing the defendants  to appear before the court to show cause why the interim orders sought by the plaintiffs should not be made by the court.

Court injunction to stop probe? Wonders indeed shall never cease.

UPDATE: Abducted Girls Moved Abroad, Married Off At N2000 Bride Price Each-REPORT

If the new report by DailyTrust concerning the girls abducted by Boko-Haram  is anything to go by, then I'm afraid there is serious cause for alarm.
According to the report, most of the 234 Borno schoolgirls in Boko Haram captivity have been ferried abroad to Chad and Cameroon after they were married off to sect members on N2,000 bride price each, an elder told Daily Trust yesterday.
The female students were taken from their hostels at the Government Girls Secondary School Chibok on the night of April 14.

About 40 had escaped in the days after the incident, but parents and school authorities said at least 234 of them were yet to be found.
Dr. Pogu Chibok, who is the leader of the Chibok Elders Forum, told Daily Trust yesterday that latest information available to them indicates that most of the girls have been taken to the neighboring Cameroon and Chad by their captors.
He said before they were ferried in canoes across the Lake Chad, a wedding ceremony was conducted at a town on the border with Cameroon where they were married off to Boko Haram militants.
He said N2,000 was paid as bride price on each of the girls to the specific Boko Haram members who took them from their school and who had assumed “ownership” of the students.
“They ferried them in canoes to Cameroon and Chad republic after they were wedded off to Boko Haram members who bidded (sic) and paid N2,000 each as dowries on their heads,” Bitrus said.
“The dowry was paid to their captors, the very people who abducted them from their school. One of them who married one of the girls took her to a border town close to Cameroon where villagers saw her.”
Following their abduction, the schoolgirls were thought to be first taken to the Boko Haram camps in the notorious Sambisa Forest. Reports later said villagers had seen the girls being conveyed in trucks to other locations.
Bitrus said yesterday: “So many sources have informed us that the girls have been taken to Cameroon. Many villagers said they saw the girls being transported in trucks and then in canoes.
“On Sunday they were taken to Dikwa area where they (Boko Haram) have a camp there. From there they took them to Marte, then Monguno before they were finally ferried in canoes. It was yesterday we got this latest report of them being married off to the insurgents by their captors.”
He said sources in Cameroon told them that most of the girls were now being held at “an area where the Boko Haram operates in Cameroon.”

‘Crying day and night’
On whether military authorities were informed about the movements of the girls, Bitrus said:

“The military was alerted on Tuesday about two weeks ago when some villagers saw many of the girls being transported in trucks, some with even their school uniforms. The villagers tried calling the senator representing the zone but they couldn’t get him so they went to Bama barracks where they reported the matter.
“At the Bama barracks they were told that they must put it in writing, that that is the military tradition. At that time if the military had intervened they would have stopped them from reaching their destination.
“And the fact that for nearly two weeks we have been talking about this and nothing is being done, then there are questions we have to ask. Nobody did anything.”

Bitrus sobbed as he spoke to our reporter yesterday.

“What is happening with the Nigerian nation? I think we demand some answers. Today it is happening to these unfortunate girls from Chibok, tomorrow it may be somewhere else and that is why all Nigerians must rally around us on this,” he said.
“If these captors are trying to achieve a political point, I think the best thing is for us to try to make sure that they don’t succeed but from all indications they are succeeding due to inaction of government. It is helping these people in achieving their objectives.”

Earlier yesterday, Bitrus spoke to the BBC Hausa radio saying:

“parents of these girls have been angry that despite the existence of government, there has not been concrete effort from government on the matter.“Female parents have been crying day and night, because nobody knows what government is doing about the whole issue. All that we read in the papers is that Nigerian Army have done this or that.”

When contacted over claims that the military was informed of the movement of the schoolgirls, the Director of Defence Information, Major General Chris Olukolade, told Daily Trust:

“The concern and anxiety from all quarters is quite understandable. Please be assured that as much as the forces may not disclose details of action being taken to secure the freedom of the girls, every information received on the subject is duly analyzed and acted upon as necessary.
“No information is being ignored in the concerted effort to ensure the safety and freedom of the girls. Just pray for the successful outcome of all efforts please.”

Source

This is report is very disturbing.
Up till now, many Nigerians have wondered how it is possible to transport these girls without anyone knowing their whereabouts. Now this report further reiterates the fact that the government is doing little or nothing to find them. The statement by the director of defense information is not in any way consoling either.
What I cannot understand is why the government is being so lackadaisical about the issue. Is it because their own kids are not involved??? This is just heart breaking and sad.
At this point, I can only appeal that we all remember these girls in our prayers. Divine intervention is strongly needed at this stage. May God bring them back safe, AMEN

Jonathan Fires Gulak

Special Adviser (Political), Alhaji Ahmed A. Gulak position has been terminated by President Goodluck Jonathan.
The president wished him well in his future endeavors but did not reveal why Gulak had been laid off.
The president also praised and thanked Gulak for his hardwork in the present administration and wished him well in all his future endeavors.
This was revealed by the President’s spokesman, Reuben Abati through his twitter acount. Tweets below.




READ MORE:  http://news.naij.com/65477.html

Breaking!!! Half of a Yellow Sun banned

After much anticipation for the film, Nigerians might not get to watch Half of a Yellow sun after all. I can confirm to you that the Nigerian Film Sensors board has forbade the film for being aired. So it will not be on cinema, Tv, or even on CD. The board did not give reasons for the ban but I can bet that it has to do with the hot and steamy sex scenes in the movie. At one point, a 'live' breast was shown in the movie. Before now, there had been anticipation that Nigerians will not buy the sex scenes, but no one thought of NFVCB ban. So it's official, no Half of a Yellow sun for now.

Press release from producers reads:

Shareman Media, the Nigerian producers, and FilmOne Distribution, the Nigerian distributors, of the feature film, Half of a Yellow Sun, announces as follows:

"The highly anticipated release of Half of a Yellow Sun in Nigeria has been postponed due to delays in obtaining certification from the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board for the public release of the film.  Subject to obtaining the certification of the Board, the film is now rescheduled for release on 2nd May 2014."