Nigeria's Chioma Ukonu Among Finalists of $1M Global Social Enterprise Competition

Chioma Ukonu, the Co-Founder & COO of RecyclePoints is among the 30 finalists shortlisted for the $1M Global Social Enterprise Competition of Chivas Regal® to reward the most promising Social Entrepreneurs around the globe.

RecyclePoints is enabling individuals, particularly from low-income households, to create value from their everyday waste. We operate an incentive-based model which collects recyclable waste materials from registered households, and in turn rewards them with points, which they can accumulate and redeem for cash or other useful items offered through our iRecycle Store. We employ young ‘Wastebusters’ to ride our electric tricycles and collect door-to-door recyclable waste such as plastic bottles, aluminum cans, newspapers, or cartons. These items are then processed at our Collection & Sorting Hub by unemployed women within the community, and sold on to recycling plants to use as raw materials for new products.

See more in the following press release.

NEW YORK, March 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, at the Skoll Centre at the world-renowned University of Oxford, 30 of the brightest startups from across the globe were unveiled as finalists of Chivas Regal's The Venture – a global search to discover and reward the world's most promising social entrepreneurs. Each finalist, including DayOne Response from San Francisco, CA, will travel to Los Angeles, CA, in July to compete for a share of $1 million to make their dream of creating a better future for the world a reality.

Click here to read the full report and vote for the finalists.

The African Image in the Information Age of the Internet

The African Image in the Information Age of the Internet

On the 28th anniversary of the invention of the World Wide Web (www) on Monday, March 13, 2017, Tim Berners-Lee., the Inventor  mentioned his biggest fears for the future:
1. Losing control of our personal data.
2. The spread of fake news and
3. The lack of regulation around political advertising.
Of course, he never had these fears when he invented it on March 12, 1989.

Many people still mistake the World Wide Web for the Internet, but it is a portion of the Internet and one of the ways that information can be disseminated over the Internet.

Pastor Adeboye Celebrates His 75Th Birthday with 75 Hours of Praise Marathon

Adeboye@75: silence on a loud day

~ by Bisi Daniels

It was Pastor E.A. Adeboye’s birthday and the 31st anniversary of the monthly Holy Ghost Service of the Redeemed Christian Church of God on March 2. The service is always heavily attended, a part reason for a 3-kilometre-by-3-kilometre auditorium called The Arena. But people who had taken a cue from the 75-hour non-stop praise of the Lord to expect fanfare and cake-cutting during the week arrived the Arena to the usual service, the birthday having been celebrated privately. Pastor Adeboye is not known to put himself in God’s way or share in God’s glory or time. In fact, preachers at the service on March 2, were youths from four zones of the church.

Prize Winning Nigerian Writer in America Gives A To-Do List for President Buhari

Prize Winning Nigerian Writer in America Gives A To-Do List for President Buhari

Here’s A To-Do List For Nigeria's President Buhari IF He's Serious About Rebooting Nigeria

~ by Adeleke O'Adeyemi.

A new lease on life is a terrible thing to waste. President Buhari, you have just been handed one, along with something else: an epiphany.

I take it from your statement upon arrival back home that you now have a new conviction: education is the bad sector that has seen to the corruption of all others in Nigeria.

Video: President Buhari Returns from London

President Muhammadu Buhari arrived the country Friday at about 4 a.m., 51 days after he left the country on a medical vacation.

Owing to the closure of the Abuja airport, presidency sources informed THISDAY that his plane was scheduled to land at the Kaduna airport in the wee hours of Friday, following which he was to be flown by helicopter to the President Villa, Abuja.

Stephanie Linus Appointed As Goodwill Ambassador for UNFPA in Africa

Nollywood diva, Stephanie Linus  has been appointed as Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal Health in West and Central Africa by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on United Nations' International Women's Day, Wednesday, March 8, 2017, at the Eko Hotel & Suites on Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria.

The event attracted both the local and international news media organizations, including the BBC and Reuters. Notable Nollywood actors, producers and directors, including Bond Emeruwa, Keppy Ekpenyong-Bassey, Yemi Blaq, Femi Branch, Gabriel Afolayan and other VIPs were at the event.

Be Bold for Change: Invest More in Young People and Women

Be Bold for Change: Invest More in Young People and Women

~ By Mabingue Ngom, Director for West and Central Africa Region, United Nations Population Fund .

To ‘be bold for change’ Governments must take the bold step to put money in smart investments. Two of the smartest investments for Africa are investing in young people and in maternal health.
The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day, Be Bold for Change, echoes the need for bold action to accelerate gender parity, eliminate maternal mortality and invest in young people especially young women and girls. Taking bold action requires setting the right priorities, ensuring equitable distribution, and avoiding the costly mistakes of the past. Therefore the most important question is ‘where do we put our money, time and resources to get the maximum return?’

Nigeria: Corruption Has Changed Hands

When the "CHANGE" political mantra of the All Progressives Congress (APC) attracted majority of Nigerian voters and secured the mandate of the electorate in the 2015 presidential election, Nigerians expected the new national ruling party to change the  corrupt system of government of the former national ruling party, People's Democratic Party (PDP) after misruling Nigeria for 16 years with the institutionalization  of corruption. But many of them seem to be disappointed by the shortcomings of the new administration of the government under President Muhammadu Buhari. He is the most fearless Nigerian Head of State to fight corruption since when he was a military Head of State from December 31, 1983 – August 27,  1985.  And his anti-corruption policy made the corrupt ruling class not to support his previous presidential campaigns and he was defeated in the presidential elections of 2003, 2007 and 2011. Then in December 2014, he became the presidential candidate of the APC after he compromised his rigid principles as an anti-corruption crusader and the powerful leaders of the political ruling class supported him to win the presidential election of 28–29 March, 2015, by defeating the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan; the first time in the history of Nigeria that an incumbent president lost to an opposition candidate in a general election.

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo on Prof. Wole Soyinka and Populism

Retired general, Chief Olúṣẹ́gun Mathew Okikiọ́la Aremu  Ọbásanjọ́ , GCFR, is the first Nigerian leader to become twice Head of State of Nigeria; first as a military Head of State from February 13, 1976 – September 30,  1979 and later as democratically elected civilian Head of State and 12th President of Nigeria from May 29, 1999 – May 29, 2007.

Chief Ọbásanjọ́ and the famous Professor Wole Soyinka, first black man to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986 are from the same Ogun State in south western Nigeria, but Soyinka has never hidden his aversion to the personality of Ọbásanjọ́.
The following is the opinion of Ọbásanjọ́ on Soyinka during a press interview for his 80th birthday to be celebrated tomorrow, March 5.

When you aspired to be United Nations Secretary General, Wole Soyinka kicked against it. But you don’t seem to have forgiven him?

You’re absolutely wrong. I don’t hold a grudge. Wole Soyinka is not God. And I don’t believe there’s any human being that is absolutely right. Wole Soyinka has what I believe he has. He’s a gifted person in his own way. But Wole Soyinka is not an oracle. I will not accept Wole Soyinka making cathedral statement on everything. I don’t believe that anybody could do that. So it’s not a question of forgiveness. When Wole Soyinka does what I believe is right, I will commend him. When he says what I believe is not right…Wole Soyinka is a populist and I don’t believe in populism.

A Pastor and Apologist of the President of a Satanic Government

A man who claims to be a pastor is the shameless apologist of a former President who turned the State House into a rendezvous for cultists and demonic embezzlers of public funds who hid their stolen millions of dollars and jewelries in caskets. ceilings, pits and other strange places in Nigeria.  They turned the country into a banana republic of bandits and cultists who looted the nation, murdered innocent people and caused the deaths of more than 20, 000 Nigerians, including children and women murdered by the Boko Haram  that would have been defeated if the former President and his gang of corrupt public officials and their partners in crime did not  misappropriate the federal revenue allocations for national security during the most corrupt and incompetent government in the history of Nigeria since independence from British colonial rule.

~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima, author of "The Victory of Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerian Dream: My Testimony on the 2015 Presidential Election".
Click here to get the book on Lulu. Click here to get the book on Amazon.