Michael Ojuroye Initiative (Ngo)

BY: FUNMI OJUROYE Gifted Yoruba actor turned movie producer Kunle Afolayan ups the bar once again in another sensational movie that throws ecstatic fans face to face with a great teacher, political campaigner, women’s rights activist and traditional aristocrat; the late Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. 2nd from right Movie producer Kunle Afolayan, Sadiq Daba, Tunde Kelani with others participants in the October 1 movie Funmilayo will be played in character by Nigerian designer Deola Sagoe of Haute couture. The movie’s plot is as thick as the heavy weight names involved… Dan Waziri is sent to the trading town of Akote, by the British to solve a series of female murders. He must solve the mystery of these attacks before the British flag is lowered and the Nigerian flag is raised on Independence day…October 1. Kunle is revealing nothing more about this film which is already in the works and which sources hint could be premiered, this year on October 1st. Veteran broadcaster and act...

BY: FUNMI OJUROYE LOS ANGELES (AP) —  Oprah Winfrey  says she's "sorry" that a media frenzy emerged after saying she experienced racism during a trip to Switzerland. "I think that incident in Switzerland was just an incident in Switzerland. I'm really sorry that it got blown up. I purposefully did not mention the name of the store. I'm sorry that I said it was Switzerland," Winfrey said Monday night at the Los Angeles premiere of "Lee Daniels: The Butler." "I was just referencing it as an example of being in a place where people don't expect that you would be able to be there," she continued. In a recent interview with "Entertainment Tonight," Winfrey recalled a clerk at an upscale Zurich boutique refusing to show her a handbag. Winfrey said she was told she could not afford the $38,000 purse. "I'm in a store and the person doesn't obviously know that I carry the black card and so they make an assess...

BY: DAYO BALEWA A High Court   in Okitipupa, Ondo State, on Tuesday sentenced a palm kernel merchant, Abayomi Timothy, 37, to death by hanging for the murder of his girlfriend .  Timothy was convicted for strangling his girlfriend, Oluwaseun Oyeyemi, 21, to death after having carnal knowledge of her. Segun Adodo, the  35-year-old friend  of  Timothy, was also sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for being an accessory after he was convicted of attempting to conceal the murder by secretly disposing of the corpse by the roadside. Justice Yemi  Fasanmi said the prosecution had proved  the  case against the accused persons beyond reasonable doubt. Fasanmi pointed out that murder was a capital offence attracting the death sentence, adding that the court had no discretion to exercise in the matter. “The sentence of this court upon you, Abayomi Timothy, is that you be hanged by the neck until you be dead and may the Lord have mercy on yo...

BY: FUNMI OJUROYE Mubi – The Nigerian Military Special Operation Unit, Mubi Battalion, Adamawa, on Tuesday said it killed two notorious Boko Haram commanders during a gunfire exchange. Lt. Col. Beyidi Martins, the Commanding Officer, Operation, told newsmen in Mubi. Martins said the unit was making a successful progress in containing the activities of the sect and other miscreants that terrorised the state. “Two notorious Boko Haram field commanders, Abubakar Zakaria Ya’u and Muhammed Bama, declared wanted, had been killed by the special operation unit, Mubi,” Martins said. He said the operation that led to the killing of the two commanders was successfully carried out following collective effort by the military, members of the State Security Service (SSS) and other security operatives. Martins, who commended the support and cooperation given by the people of the area, said the activities of the sect was weakened in the state. “On July 30, the unit received a call from som...

 BY: FUNMI OJUROYE Super Eagles head coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi has revealed that Chelsea's midfield star, John Mikel Obi, will not be available for Wednesday’s Mandela Challenge against Bafana Bafana in Durban, South Africa due to a stomach virus he picked up while on tour with his EPL side. Late on Monday, Chelsea's doctors wrote to the NFF asking that the player be excused for health reasons. Keshi obliged and said on Tuesday morning in Durban that he will not want to push Mikel too much because of the September 7 World Cup qualifier against Malawi in Calabar. All the other 19 players are already in Durban for the game, including Mikel’s Chelsea's teammate, Victor Moses. Keshi also on behalf of the team prayed for the soul of his late national teammate, Samson Sochukwuma Okwaraji, who died on August 12, 1989 during a World Cup qualifying game against Angola in Lagos. “We pray for the repose of his soul and for the family he left behind, we missed him badly ...

BY: FUNMI OJUROYE A democratic rights activist and former official of the National Conscience Party (NCP), Femi Aborishade, has suggested that Nigerian governors be paid the national minimum wage rate of N18,000 per month in order to discourage corruption in the country. Mr. Aborishade voiced this position at the congress of the Ogun State chapter of the NCP which took place today in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State. He stated that he had advocated the same idea when he contested as an NCP governorship candidate in 2003. The late Gani Fawehinmi, a lawyer and human rights activist, was once the NCP’s presidential candidate.   The party’s congress showcased its youthful membership, calculated at 60% of the party. Speaking at the congress, the party's national chairman, Yinusa Tanko, declared that the NCP was the only party that has the interest of the masses at heart. “To contest on the NCP platform, it will cost you no kobo. Our reason is that we do not want you to get i...

By Femi Aribisala SOME   years ago, I visited Angola.   On a sight-seeing tour around Maputo, my guide took me to an area of the city where the powers-that-be lived. The houses were obviously more elegant than those in other areas.  The streets were tarred and the gardens manicured.  He then said something that caught my attention.  He said: “There are no power-cuts in this part of the city.” Negatively egalitarian:  For some reason what came immediately to my mind was that Nigeria is an egalitarian country.  Don’t ask me to justify this questionable distinction, but I thought: “There are no parts of Lagos where there are no power-cuts.”  All Nigerians enjoy power-cuts.  Even the powerful are not denied this benefit. While that might suggest there is little discrimination between the rich and the poor in Nigeria, it is not intended here as a compliment.  It means we have not been able to define exclusion zones to power-cuts....

BY: FUNMI OJUROYE Leaders of the All Progressives Congress should shrug off the illusion that their party will win the 2015 presidential election. In their bid to achieve this goal, the leaders have resorted to attacking the person of President Goodluck Jonathan instead of selling the party’s manifesto to the electorate. Not only that, they seem to have a messianic evaluation of their status as the solution to Nigeria’s problems. Nigerians are no fools. A party, composed of individuals who never made the difference whilst they served at various levels of government in the past cannot be said to be mindful of the nation’s interest. The federal universities are being grounded in favour of private universities through poor funding. How many times did the APC leaders call the attention of government to the consequences of the ASUU strike to the children of the masses ? Enough of deception!

BY: FUNMI OJUROYE MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Suspected Islamic militants wearing army fatigues gunned down 44 people praying at a mosque in northeast Nigeria, while 12 other civilians died in an apparently simultaneous attack, security agents said Monday. Sunday's attacks were the latest in a slew of violence blamed on religious extremists in Nigeria, where the radical Boko Haram group poses the greatest security threat in years. It was not immediately clear why the Boko Haram --which wants to oust the government and impose Islamic law --would have killed worshiping Muslims, but the group has in the past attacked mosques whose clerics have spoken out against religious extremism. Boko Haram also has attacked Christians outside churches, as well as teachers, schoolchildren and members of the government and military. Since 2010, the militants have been blamed for the killings of more than 1,700 people, according to a count conducted by the Associated Press. The news abou...

BY: FUNMI OJUROYE Some South African women married to Nigerians staged a peaceful protest in Johannesburg . South African women married to Nigerians, yesterday, threatened to stage mass protest in Johannesburg to stop discrimination against them, their husbands and children. Mrs Lindelwa Uche, the chairperson of the United Nigerian Wives in South Africa, UNWISA, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria during the launch of the association, Sunday, in Johannesburg. Uche said that South African society did not take their marriage to Nigerians as serious relationships. She said: “Our society does not take our marriages serious, they see our marriages as relations of convenience and perceive us as evil to the society. “All of us are South Africans married to Nigerians living in South Africa, we decided to come together to fight against stigmatization  discrimination, and humiliation, against our families by government departments and agency and the o...

BY: FUNMI OJUROYE WHERE is the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, heading? It is doubtful if PDP, any side of it, knows. Matters are complicated, so complicated that the intentions of its members are unknown. The size of PDP and its pervading influences are factors in its struggles. It is equally important to note that the insistence of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, that PDP adheres to the party’s constitution in electing its national executives, is partially responsible for most of the slide that has hit PDP. Other interests have fed on this to unleash anger at the party leadership. There are some who are happy to watch PDP tear away at itself. Their expectation is that the feud would result in the break-up of PDP. It is a vain expectation. The central interest in PDP is access to power. It is an aspiration some consider too important to explore on other platforms. Many politicians believe they would have easier access to power through PDP. Some of them have b...