Veteran Nollywood actor, Richard Mofe-Damijo (RMD), has admitted that it is “very hard” for entertainers to be faithful in marriage.

He said married male celebrities are often targeted by desperate ladies who aim to lure them into infidelity.

The 62-year-old thespian stated this in the latest episode of the Teju Babyface Deep Dive Podcast, hosted by comedian Olateju Oyelakin, aka Teju Babyface

Mofe-Damijo said, “It’s very hard for entertainers to be faithful in marriage because of the line of work that we are in. Every one of us is married, we are the target. Look at how women are, how can you escape it? Women are like Delilah, they are like Jezebel, they prepare… The only way the enemy can perpetrate their real intention is to constantly aim at the image of God or the symbol of authority in any home. Then shut it down. It’s like shooting a General on the battlefield. You drop him and then the battalion scatter. Their mission is to take down the head of the family.

“So, it’s very difficult [to be faithful]. You have to get to the point where your wife understands what she is up against as well. Because if your wife is not up to speed on what she is up against, then you would be left open.”

RMD is married to television personality Jumobi Adegbesan. The couple got married after he lost his first wife, talk show host May Ellen ‘MEE’ Mofe-Damijo in 1996.

The Special Adviser to the President on media and publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, has said that the reversal of the visa ban on Nigerians by the United Arab Emirates does not mean that things would go back to business as usual as it concerns UAE visa applications and processing.

He said this in an interview with Channels ‘Politics Today on Monday night, September 11.

Ngelale said: “Every agreement comes with mutual responsibility, there’s no free lunch. And what I mean by that is the notion that “flood gates open up and that we will go back to business as usual”. That is not what Nigerians should expect. I want to be very clear about this so that everybody understands.

“One of the major challenges within the bilateral relationship with respect to visa processing, with respect to Nigerian being able to migrate to the UAE, for example, was the fact that there was a kind of relax on the part of certain visa processes or certain applications that were being made that created a lack of specificity or lack of diligent evaluation with respect to who is travelling to the UAE and why they are travelling.”

“This why we had issues, just a few bad eggs amongst our people, giving a bad name to all of us which was a major sticking point as to why we got to this point. What we’ve done is part of the process is put in place new measures that will ensure that there’s effective diligence done on the part of both sides, that’s the UAE authorities and the Nigerian authorities in making sure that any Nigerian citizen seeking to travel to the UAE for example is being thoroughly scrutinized not in a way that is prejudicial, not in a way that is presumptuous or negative but in a way that ensures that well-meaning citizens, people that want to go and do business or people who want to get education or people who want to participate as active in productive or active citizens in those domains are those people.

“Not people that’ll be involved in drug trafficking that some of our people have engaged in when they travel abroad. So, these are some of the things that have to be sorted not in a way that is whimsical, in a way that is disturbing and that is part of what we are agreeing to. To ensure that our best people, our peace-loving and well-meaning people are those leaving abroad. Because they’re going to give us a good name and effectively represent us wherever they’re in the world.”

[NationalDaily]

Chaos engulfed the Garki area of the Federal Capital Territory on Tuesday following a violent clash between two factions of the National Union of Road Transport Workers on Sapele Crescent, off Ladoke Akintola Boulevard, Garki II, Abuja.

The conflict underlines an ongoing dispute within the NURTW, a development which observers say requires urgent intervention by the federal government, to prevent further breakdown of law and order, especially in the nation’s capital city.

It was reported that a clash broke out when supporters of the NURTW President, Tajudeen Baruwa, marched towards the union’s national headquarters, which is currently occupied by the Lagos Park Management Committee led by Tajudeen Agbede.

The PUNCH reports that Baruwa had earlier revealed that he sought the intervention of the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigeria Labour Congress to resolve the situation, without success.

“We shall henceforth not hesitate to defend our mandate with the last drop of our blood,” Baruwa had earlier vowed while accusing former NURTW leaders of illegally occupying the National Secretariat of the union.

He stressed that only a court of competent jurisdiction can invalidate his mandate, and encouraged aggrieved members to follow due process and seek legal redress, warning that anything short of this could lead to anarchy.

He further accused the former president of the union, Najeem Yasin, and Agbede, the former National Vice President, of holding illegal meetings with selected past leaders of the union.

While calling on the Inspector-General of Police, Olukayode Egbetokun, and Director General of the Department of State Services, Yusuf Bichi, to intervene in the matter, he alleged that the police seem to be working in favour of the Lagos Park Management Committee.

Though our correspondent could not ascertain the exact number of casualties, if any, as of the time of filing this report, however, eyewitnesses revealed that the transport union members fired several gunshots in the air during the conflict, which caused heightened tension in the area.

When contacted over the development, the spokesperson for the FCT Police Command, SP Josephine Adeh referred our correspondent to the Force Headquarters.

However, the Force PRO, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi did not respond to enquiries by our correspondent.

[Newspot]

Dapo Abiodun, governor of Ogun, says he is not being “vindictive” regarding the partial demolition of Datkem Plaza.

Abiodun spoke on Monday during the inspection of the reconstruction of Mowe-Ofada road in the Obafemi-Owode LGA of the state.

Datkem Plaza is a building owned by Olufunke, wife of Gbenga Daniel, former governor of Ogun state.

Daniel governed Ogun from 2003 to 2011.

Last Sunday, Datkem Plaza, a building situated in the Ijebu Ode area of Ogun, was demolished by officials of the state urban development ministry.

In a statement issued through Adeyinka Kotoye, her counsel, Olufunke accused the Ogun governor of “illegality”, adding that despite suffering unimaginable and huge losses, she will continue to seek redress in court.

Speaking during the inspection, Abiodun said the demolition exercise was not to “witch-hunt” anyone in the state.

The Ogun governor said building codes must be respected, adding that the state would be “chaotic” if building laws are disregarded.

“We are a responsible government. We are responsible to our citizens. We are a law-abiding administration,” he said.

“I’m sure that everyone will testify to the fact that since I assumed office in 2019, I have ensured equity, fairness, and upheld the rule of law.

“I have not in any way, form or manner attempted to be vindictive or appear like someone who is trying to witch-hunt anybody.

“These are some of the insinuations I have read on the social media and nothing could be further from the truth.”

Abiodun asked residents to always abide by building codes of the state.

[TheCable]

The member representing Oluyole Federal Constituency of Oyo State in the House of Representatives, Hon. Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, has denied reports that she inflated the contract sum of a road rehabilitation project in her constituency.

The lawmaker was reacting to reports in the media that she connived with officials of the Federal Ministry of Works to inflate a 45 kilometre road project from N9 billion to N54 billion.

The contractor handling the project, DC Engineering Limited, was quoted to have made the allegation at a public hearing organised by the House of Representatives in Abuja.

Speaking with journalists on Tuesday, Akande-Sadipe explained that the Olojuoro, Ijebu-Igbo, Ita Egba, Owonomwen road project in her constituency in Oyo State was awarded in 2018 with a two-year completion period, but after five years, one kilometer of the road has not been completed despite the contractor being mobilized substantially.

According to her, several petitions have been written by her constituents, prompting her to sponsor a motion calling for investigation as the road got deplorable with serious human casualties on daily basis due to accidents.

Her intervention, she said, was within the mandate of her office as a lawmaker in protecting the interest of her constituents, hence, she raised a motion expressing concerns over the deplorable state of the road and calling on the lower legislative chamber to investigate with documentary evidence of payments made to the contractor.

Her motion urged “the House to establish an Ad-Hoc Committee to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the consistent failure of the contractors to fulfill their contractual obligations”.

“The investigation should specifically focus on the construction and rehabilitation of the Olomi Olojuoro road, referred to as the Ijebu-Igbo Ita Egba-Owonowen Ibadan road, with the following contracts and budget allocations,” the motion added.

The lawmaker expressed disappointment that she was being blackmailed by the company, which she said failed to meet up with the terms of the contractual agreement to the benefit of the people of the Oluyole area.

A paper she presented at the public hearing on the road project partly read, “My attention has been drawn to a letter dated 29th August, 2023 written by the solicitors to DC Engineering Limited Co and Oba (King) Adesegun Alowonle, the Emure of Ijebu, the person believed to be the owner of the company.

“This letter accused me of total falsehood in an attempt to steer this hallowed committee away from, the true situation on ground with regards to Olojuoro, Ijebu-Igbo, Ita Egba, Owonowen road in Oluyole Federal Constituency.

“The letter did not address the substance of the several petitions and motions in anyway, including the most recent of 13th July, 2023, rather what they went into was to disparage my person and smear my name and engage in scandalous defamation of my character by alleging that my objective in intervening on behalf of Oluyole is to promote a particular contractor – Aereatech Nigeria Limited, to the Federal Ministry of Works.”

The lawmaker denied having any “direct or indirect relationship with the said contractor, and I am not in any way related to the said contractor. I have never introduced any such contractor and have never inflated any contract”.

She alleged that the competence of DC Engineering calls for investigation given that some parts of the road project were sub-let to other minor construction firms in contravention of the contractual terms.

Akande-Sadipe further recalled how she initiated an inspection visit to the site in 2021 with representatives of the Federal Ministry of Works, the Commissioner of Public Complaints Commission and representatives of DC Engineering Limited, only to discover that the company was accused of collecting money from communities to fix feeder road culverts which were removed in the course of the rehabilitation work.

[DailyPost]

I have been laughing in VERNACULAR since this evening when my attention was first drawn to a banal trending story on the social media, titled, "OUTRAGE AS ENTRANCE TO MIKE OZEKHOME'S HOUSE IN IKOTUN-IGANDONIS LITTERED WITH CALABASHES OF SACRIFICE" ( news.phxfeeds.com ). I would have completely ignored the story, but for the fact that numerous calls have since kept pouring in, all callers worried about my safety. Keep your peace, my loving fellow compatriots, for I am hale, hearty and covered with the blood of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who fights my battles for me ( Exodus 14:14 ). The said alarmist story is largely baseless, funny and phony. That is why I have never stopped laughing. I am now used to such jejune and insipid stories which I am told is part of the fate of a "celebrity lawyer", as  many are want to regard and call me. I thank God Almighty for making me whom it pleased Him to make me of-a resonating story of "grass-to-grace". What has the write-up got to do with me, even when the entire contents are laid out bare, completely stripped of the screaming headline? NOTHING!!! It was just tied to my name to make it hot and trend. And in this, it has succeeded, for it has been trending.

The story alleged, amongst others, that "reactions have trailed video of near hundred of clay pots of sacrifices scattered a few meters away from the house of human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria ( SAN), Mike Ozekhome". Many lies!

THE FACTS:

1.The Church Bus Stop mentioned in the story is situate on Ikotun-Igando road, Igando, well over a quarter of a kilometer far removed from my former residence situate at No 1,Mike Ozekhome Lane, Igando, Alimosho LGA, Lagos.

2. I no longer live in the said premises, having relocated from Igando, Lagos, to Abuja, many years ago. I had subsequently partitioned the huge property into many residential apartments which are on rental to tenants whose identities I do not even know. Nor do I have any personal relationship with the sitting tenants who presently reside in the premises, since the property is being managed by the famous Odudu & Co-Real Estate Agents. God has since enabled me to acquire a personal residence in Ikoyi, Lagos. I am forever grateful to God. How wonderful is thy Holy Name.

3.The dump location of the calabashes of  alleged sacrifice is thus not even near my former residence at all by any stretch of  the imagination, let alone being "a few  metres away from the house of human  rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria ( SAN),Mike Ozekhome", as falsely alleged. But, as rightly noted by the writer, the dump spot is also called " T-junction and notorious for ever-presence of dumps of offerings in clay pots and calabashes to spirit beings".

4. As a Christian of the Catholic faith ( a proud 4th Degree Knight in St Mulumba-KSM- ),I had seen and passed by this fetish dump for the well over two decades that I lived in that beautiful and peaceful community called Igando; a community that accorded and afforded me accommodation, peace and opportunity to grow during my marriage, children upbringing and the first decade of my legal practice. All I have for and owe the largely Aworis Igando community and its first class monarch, Oba Lasisi Gbadamosi, Orootan 111, the Onigando of Igando, is nothing but love, respect, affection and eternal debt of gratitude for taking me in as their own, at a time I was forced to flee there from my 17 Ajao Road, Surulere residence, to escape from the daily torment and threats to my life by successive military juntas in the days of our struggle in the trenches. The Onigando had even honoured me with the prestigious traditional title of BA'LORO OF IGANDO in September, 1994.Some day, by the grace of God, I will tell my full story in my own biography. But, even with the presence of these fetish objects, I was never affected, afraid of, or terrified by such luciferous and satanic agents of darkness. When you are with and in God (as I am),such impotent lower classes of ethereal "beings" can not faze you ( Rom 8:31).
5. The story also claims that "behind the ( St John's) Catholic Church is the Mike Ozekhome Street named after popular lawyer and human rights activist whose house is one of the first buildings in that area". The story is only true to the extent that my house is one of the very first houses in that area of the then sleepy little village, Igando, now a sprawling residential, commercial and government hub. But, it is not correct that my former residence is behind the St John's Catholic Church. There are many houses behind the church ever before getting to my former residence. Indeed, a long stretch of a street called Osunba Street completely separates the church far away from my said former residence.
6. It is also false that the Oba's palace is "less than 200 metres" from my then residence. Nothing could be further from the truth. The palace which is situate between two major roads, the Igando-Ikotun Expressway and the Isheri-Lasu Expressway, is nearly one kilometer from my then residence.

So, we are not even near each other at all as falsely alleged. What did the writer of this story hope to achieve at the end of the day? I would not ascribe his intentions to mischief or an attempt to run me down or unduly disparage me. I think it was simply a sensational, transactional and merchantilistic write-up meant to enable the blogger make huge sums of money by linking my God-given name to the story. It could have been published and still retained its message and essence without mentioning me. And in this, I think, using Machiavelli's well known philosophy ( I do not agree with him ) of "the end justifies the means", the blogger roundly succeeded. Otherwise, why would such a simple and innocuous story be linked to me and start trending? I have now changed my laughter to a guffaw. By God's grace, I am covered with the blood of Jesus. My portion is Psalm 105:15. And to some known and unknown enemies of progress, let them read what the good Lord says of me: " Yea, though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me" (Psalm 231-6 ).AMEN, AMEN AND AMEN

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, says the government is determined to initiate a new creative means of funding tertiary education by granting universities the autonomy to explore new sources of financing their activities.

He said this in Abuja yesterday at the Nigeria’s Annual Education Conference (NAEC) with the theme, ‘Implementation of Education 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Nigeria’.

He said the conference would discuss emerging trends, including university autonomy and the Students Loans Fund as well as education financing which, according to him, align perfectly with President Bola Tinubu’s vision for the sector.

He said the theme of the conference would always remain relevant until the country achieves 100 percent of the targets set in the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and beyond to education-related indicators and targets of Agenda 2060 of the African Union.

“As a signatory to the SDG 2030 and AU Agenda 2060, Nigeria must continue to demonstrate its commitment to achieving these goals through leadership and ownership of the implementation process. The education sector is one of the line sectors that ensure that planning and budgeting in the country are within the framework of the SDGS,” he said.

The minister said, “In proposing and developing implementation strategies, also provide for mechanisms for constant monitoring and evaluation, to ensure goals are achieved.”

[DailyTrust]

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes provided three assists and scored once to inspire Portugal to victory against Luxembourg in a 9-0 thriller and maintained their perfect start to their Euro 2024 Group J qualifying campaign.

Despite missing Cristiano Ronaldo through suspension, Portugal produced a dominant display at Estadio Algarve with Fernandes producing a hat-trick of assists before scoring a late goal himself in the nation’s biggest international victory to date.

Goncalo Inacio opened the scoring after 12 minutes and a brace from Paris St-Germain forward Goncalo Ramos soon had the home side in complete control.

Inacio headed in a fourth in first-half stoppage time from another pin-point delivery by Fernandes.

Skysports.com reports that Roberto Martinez’s side did not let up and, just before the hour, Fernandes found Liverpool forward Diogo Jota, who raced clear to fire home a fifth.

Ricardo Horta added a sixth with 20 minutes left before Jota slotted in again. Fernandes then capped his fine individual display with a well-taken goal late on and Joao Felix completed the rout to make it six wins from six.

Slovakia remain five points behind Portugal after they made a fast start to beat Liechtenstein 3-0 in Bratislava with goals from David Hancko, Ondrej Duda and Robert Mak inside the first six minutes.

Alfred Finnbogason scored in stoppage-time to give Iceland a 1-0 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina in Reykjavik.

Croatia moved top of Group D on goal difference after a 1-0 win in Armenia, where an early strike from Andrej Kramaric proved enough for all three points.

[Leadership]

Real Madrid are ready to commit £200million to sign Kylian Mbappe without negotiating with Paris Saint-Germain, according to SPORT.

Both clubs did not hold talks this summer despite Mbappe being frozen out by the Ligue 1 champions.

The 24-year-old has since returned to the first team and has scored five goals in his first three matches of the season.

Although there are speculations Mbappe could agree a new contract with PSG, it is believed Real Madrid intend to reach a pre-contract agreement with the player in January.

This will mean the France captain joins them for nothing when his PSG deal expires on June 30.

Real didn’t like PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi rejecting their approaches out of hand, even offers approaching £172m.

Instead, Real have decided to set aside around £200m for Mbappe in the form of wages and a signing-on fee.

[DailyPost]

I, like many of our compatriots, often ask the question as to how best we should approach the challenge of nation-building that ails Nigeria. There are those of us who think the problem with Nigeria is her size, some others think it is the many ethnic interests conflating one another for domination. Others think it is all about bad leadership, while others believe it is the Constitution.

There are those who blame poverty as the issue, while some Pan-Africanists believe colonialism, foreign religions and intellectual imperialism are the reasons we are still lagging behind. The thirst for excuses and culprits to blame for our obvious challenges is insatiable. In the midst of this epistemological melee, there have even been more disillusioned solutions as to how to end the problem – the loudest of these today are the clamours for secession and unending complaints about marginalisation, which is mutual anyway!

Therefore, I tend to assume that the idea of “Making Nigeria Work” stems from the mindset that sees the country as a collapsing edifice rather than a country still in the hands of architects and builders. For me, the idea of making Nigeria work should not suggest a strategic demolition for us to erect a totally new structure.

For me, whatever defects currently ail our country can be corrected without having to collapse the whole structure. This is very logical if we understand that nation-building is an endless endeavour and that no generation is ever satisfied with the work it has done. It is the generation that comes after that can truly appreciate the progress that has been made when they begin to take for granted what was scarcely available for the generation before them. Nation-building is an unfinished business.

Renowned Nigerian author, Ben Okri in his award-winning book, The Famished Road, tells of a people who, for several generations have been trying to build a road. But no matter how hard they work, they never go far in their endeavour. Even then, whatever little progress they make, is always destroyed by disasters beyond their comprehension and they would have to start all over; much like the curse of Sisyphus. Yet, every generation understands that it is their destiny to try and complete this road. History has taught them that the road will never be completed, but they never give up because each generation hopes that it will be the generation that gets the job done. Several commentators have noted that Okri’s unfinishable road is in fact, a grand metaphor for nation-building.

Indeed, nation-building is a continuous work in progress. Sixty years may be a long time in the life of an individual. But a sixty-year-old nation is a nation yet in its infancy. Therefore, rather than despair over the failures of the past, it would be more productive that we look ahead with great hopes at the infinite future that lies ahead of us, armed with that immortal admonition from the French West Indian psychiatrist and political philosopher, Frantz Fanon that “every generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, betray it or fulfil it.”

Over the years, Nigerians have agonized over the lamentably slow pace of our development. Successive governments and policymakers have responded with various approaches and strategies for achieving the much-desired national development. Yet, even the most charitable analyst of our political economy would agree that we have not performed to our optimum capabilities. So many experts have made great efforts to explain our under-development, with some, like the late Professor Claude Ake even arguing that development was never part of the post-colonial African political agenda. It appears to me however that the fundamental challenge is that all along, we have been placing the cart before the proverbial horse. Before we can think of development, we must first solve the problems of nation-building, because you cannot develop what you do not have.

When the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka asked “When is a Nation,” he was attempting to draw our attention to those urgent questions of nation-building that have remained largely unanswered to this day. The development of every nation necessarily derives from “elite consensus”. However, this consensus can only be forged after some fundamental questions, what we call the national questions, have been settled. Where the very existence of the nation itself is easily brought to question at the slightest provocation such as we have seen with our recent elections, it should be clear that we have to ask and settle certain questions first, and it is the settlement that would then provide the foundation for our vision of society and the structure and direction of our national development. In short, the very notion of national greatness is directly consequential to nation-building.

Over the years, I have heard even presumably informed analysts refer to our country as the mistake of 1914. But was the amalgamation really a mistake? The American social philosopher, Eric Hoffer argued that divide-and-rule is most effective when it “fosters a multiplicity of compact bodies – racial, religious or economic – vying with and suspicious of each other.” Therefore, it is possible to argue that the toxic legacy of the colonialists’ ‘divide and rule’ strategy may be the reason that we have remained divided even six decades after their rule ended. However, to describe this amalgamation itself as a mistake would be wrong, both historically and conceptually. The hands that drew the map may not have been ours, but the map was possible only because we were here in the first place.

Every student of history will agree that as a people, if not as a country, Lord Lugard did not introduce us to ourselves. Long before the white man set foot on our land, our people had developed an intricate network of relationships. Even though they lived in their various enclaves as independent people, they traded together, they married one another, they fought together as allies in battles and against one another as adversaries. Our cultures inter-mingled freely and produced a rich synthesis of cultures, in such a way that no single culture was left pure and unaffected by this intercourse, as evidenced in new vocabularies, diets and even dress.

It is also important to note that many of our empires and kingdoms were territorial rather than tribal. They luxuriated and thrived on their diversity and formed unions and alliances based on shared understanding and mutual respect. A cursory analysis of our languages and belief systems will reveal that we actually have more in common than some of our differences would suggest.

Therefore, while the colonialists may have been “culpable” for creating the country that we call Nigeria without consulting us; the task of forging a nation out of this colonial invention, rests squarely in our hands. And this task must progress from a deliberate effort to remobilize and re-interpret our history, especially our pre-colonial history. If we take a sociological look, we will see clearly that we did not arrive here by chance or as mere products of colonial misadventure.