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http://ift.tt/2rZPLih Funke Akindele Explains Her Interest In Grooming Fresh Talents Leading Nollywood actress Funke Akindele-Bello was guest this week on CNN’s African Voices, and the award winning thespian talked through her career and why she’s focusing on the next generation of actors. Funke has appeared in countless films and some of the biggest sitcoms in Nigeria. Despite starting acting as a young adult, she told African Voices how she started out on a very different career path. When Akindele was a child, her parents had differing opinions when it came to her acting dreams, as she told CNN: “Growing up was fun for me having the support of my mum, she believed so much in my talent, though my dad never wanted me to be an actor – he wanted me to be a lawyer.”  She revealed to the show how she compromised and agreed to study for a degree, eventually graduating in law. Following this, Akindele began auditioning for roles and had her big break when she was cast in on...

http://ift.tt/2olN76U Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai A Kaduna High Court, presided over by Justice Mohammed Bello, has issued a restraining order on Governor Nasir El-Rufa’i not to demolish the Kasuwar Barchi Market in Kaduna until the determination of the case before the court. According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Justice Bello ordered that all respondents to the case should stop “entering into and demolishing Kasuwar Barchi, pending the hearing and determination of the case.” The case was instituted by 16 persons, on behalf of stall owners and traders in Kasuwar Barchi, seeking to stop the governor from demolishing the market. Joined in the suit are the attorney general of the state and Kaduna Investment Promotion Agency as second and third respondents.The plaintiffs include Auwalu Hussain, Kabiru Usman, Aminu Ahmed, Bawa Ahmed, Josiah Sunday, Ndubueze Egbo-Ogu, Augustine Sunday, Ali Abdulhamid, Maryam Abubakar, Rabiatu Musa, Latifah Yusuf, Amina Abdul...

http://ift.tt/2rZZAwZ Speaking at the occasion, the Head of Public Relations and Events, Dufil Prima Foods Plc, Asiwaju Tope, said: “Every year, Indomie brings children in their thousands from their various clubs and entertains them with no expense spared.” As part of activities marking this year’s Children’s Day celebration, Indomie Fan Club (IFC) organised a fun-filled weeklong party for over 100,000 school children across the country. It also used the event to reward winners of the Indomie Show Your Talent Competition, which started in April. Thousands of children from various schools in Lagos converged on the Apapa Amusement Park to take part in a number of activities lined up especially for them, with the grand finale holding today. Speaking at the occasion, the Head of Public Relations and Events, Dufil Prima Foods Plc, Asiwaju Tope, said: “Every year, Indomie brings children in their thousands from their various clubs and entertains them with no expense spared.” “We ...

http://ift.tt/2rSFEfg PHOTO: CNN I was facilitating a workshop for teachers at our school recently, and I thought a good place to start as a leader will be to share some of my deepest thoughts and philosophies about education that are the basis for the work that we do in our School, and our vision to “Make every child a success story” So, I asked the magic question – are there some children who are just born geniuses? My question generated some interesting debate on both sides of the argument. I even got a lecture in genetics and we got many rich perspectives on how certain children are pre-disposed to being geniuses just because their parents were geniuses themselves. Then we got the perspective that changed the entire debate – Imagine if the one-month-old baby of genius parents is kept in a room for 10 years, fed and taken care of without any external stimulus like TV, social interactions or school – will this child be able to solve integral calculus at 10, just because her pare...

http://ift.tt/2pTHgom President Muhammadu Buhari. PHOTO: TWITTER/ PRESIDENCY NIGERIA Dead on arrival. That sums up the story of the rumour of coups that went wild last week and whose reverberation continued into this week. The wild and certainly the most pernicious rumour last week was that some unpatriotic soldiers of the Northern Nigerian extraction would stage a coup to remove this democratically elected government. And the only reason they would do so would be to prevent Professor Yemi Osinbajo, now acting president, from becoming president in case President Muhammadu Buhari, for any reason, can no longer continue to be president. The president is currently in London receiving treatment, the third time he has gone there for the same reason. In no time, this wild rumour began to gain currency As if to give life to the age old adage that there can be no smoke without fire, General Tukur Buratai, the Chief of Army Staff, sounded a note of warning to soldiers to desist from hobnob...

http://ift.tt/2p7NHlG About 2000 students from public schools in Lagos will be competing for the final of FAB-5 U-13 five-aside football challenge billed to kick off on May 26 at the Campos Mini Stadium. This year’s edition, which coincides with the Children’s Day celebrations, will attract 16 screened schools from the state’s five educational districts, with the winners slated to receive prizes. The outstanding players will be enrolled into the FCBESCOLA Academy, an FC Barcelona soccer school in Lagos. The Project Manager of Pet-Bamok Limited, Dare Amokeodo said the Lagos State Sports Commission (LSSC) has promised its backing, as the project drives LSSC’s vision of grassroots sports development. He said the country needs to invest in the youth to create an enabling environment for them to discover their potential, just as stars like Anthony Joshua, Dele Alli, Alex Iwobi and many other Nigerians in diaspora were given the chance to do likewise. “We will continue to reach ou...

http://ift.tt/2rSIRvp The genetic variants identified in the GWAS account for only about 5 percent of individual differences in intelligence, the authors estimate.(AFP Photo/) Smarty-pants have 40 new reasons to thank their parents for their powerful brains. By sifting through the genetics of nearly 80,000 people, researchers have uncovered 40 genes that may make certain people smarter. That brings the total number of suspected “intelligence genes” to 52. Combined, these genetic attributes explain only a very small amount of overall smarts, or lack thereof, researchers write online May 22 in Nature Genetics. But studying these genes, many of which play roles in brain cell development, may ultimately help scientists understand how intelligence is built into brains. Historically, intelligence research has been mired in controversy, says neuroscientist Richard Haier of the University of California, Irvine, United States. Scientists disagreed on whether intelligence could actually be ...

http://ift.tt/2rj9RXG From all interrogations in symposia, lectures, workshops, conferences, submissions of policy makers and independent opinions of parents and parent teachers associations, Nigeria is in dire need of quality education characterised by duty, moral obligation and moral commitment different from the status-quo. Quality education can be defined as formal learning in schools, polytechnics and universities squarely related to individual well-being, competence, rights, duties, obligation, aspirations and national goals, a kind of integrated and holistic development of the individual and the society. Absence of quality education makes nonsense the ideal of individuals and society’s developments leading most often than not to violence, poverty, unemployment, corruption, graft, unaccountability and political instability. The cause and course are historically and vertically decipherable and horizontally clear and reducible. The dramatic fall in the quality of education is not...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J By Enyim Enyim O nitsha — The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, yesterday, condemned the designated centres for the on going voters registration nationwide by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on the grounds that it was a ploy to disenfranchise voters in future elections. INEC, before commencing the exercise, announced that voters who want to register should go to INEC offices located in every local government area across the country. Speaking exclusively to Vanguard on the issue, Acting National Vice Chairman of APGA (South-East), Mr. Uche Nwegbo, said the party  had rejected the voters registration centres being put at their own offices given the economic situation in the country . He said: “People should understand the antics of INEC vis-a-vis their preparation for the forth coming general elections. For you to ask the electorate to spend their money from their respective villages to INEC offices in their local government areas ...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J By Innocent Anaba Lagos —An Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, investigator, Tosin Owobo, yesterday, narrated to a judge of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos how former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Adesola Amosu, diverted huge sums of money from various accounts of Nigeria Air Force, NAF, to his private businesses. Air Marshall Amosu alongside Vice Marshall Jacob Adigun, NAF’s former Director of Finance and Budget, and his deputy, Commander Olugbenga Gbadebo, with eight companies are being tried before the court over alleged N22.8 billion fraud by the EFCC. Companies charged alongside the trio are: Delfina Oil and Gas Limited, Mcallan Oil And Gas Limited, Hebron Housing and Properties Company Limited, Trapezites BDC, Fonds and Pricey Limited, Timsegg Investment Limited and Solomon Health Care Services. Owobo, a prosecution witness, who continued with his evidence-in-chief, narrated to the court, how about  N860.03 million, meant for di...

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J By Oboh Agbonkhese D r. Folasade Olajuyigbe, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA, has been named winner of the 2017 Fulbright African Research Scholar Programme, ARSP, award for advanced research in the United States for the 2017/2018 academic session. Dr. Olajuyigbe, who will be affiliated with Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, was picked from a pool of 700 candidates that initially applied for the fellowship from Nigeria, from which 16 candidates were shortlisted for the interview and five finalists picked. Olajuyigbe area of research interest is enzyme biotechnology and environmental health. Reacting, FUTA’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Adebiyi Daramola, congratulated Dr. Olajuyigbe, saying the award further solidifies the image of FUTA as one of the universities with first rate faculty and students. He said Olajuyigbe’s research visit will promote productive collaboration and bui...