2face Idibia, Abd Elfattah Grini, Ahmed Soultan, Akon, Amr Diab, Anselmo Ralph, Banky W, Cheb Mami, Danny K ,Darey, Davido ,D’Banj Dr. Sid, Fally Ipupa, Femi Kuti, Fuse ODG, Ice Prince, Iyanya ,Jose Chameleone ,KCee ,Khaled ,Loyiso, Bala Mamadou ,Kelly ,Mode9 Mohamed Hamak,i Olamide, Praiz ,Saber Rebai, Tamer Hosny, Timaya, Wizkid and Wyre.
The music star beat fellow nominees 2Face Idibia, Akon, Banky W, Darey, Davido & many others to take home the World Music Award for “Africa’s World Best Male Artiste“2014 The award show took place on Tuesday, May 27, in Monaco.Africa’s World Best Male Artiste - (Nominees)
2face Idibia, Abd Elfattah Grini, Ahmed Soultan, Akon, Amr Diab, Anselmo Ralph, Banky W, Cheb Mami, Danny K ,Darey, Davido ,D’Banj Dr. Sid, Fally Ipupa, Femi Kuti, Fuse ODG, Ice Prince, Iyanya ,Jose Chameleone ,KCee ,Khaled ,Loyiso, Bala Mamadou ,Kelly ,Mode9 Mohamed Hamak,i Olamide, Praiz ,Saber Rebai, Tamer Hosny, Timaya, Wizkid and Wyre.
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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has met with people close to the dreaded Islamist sect, Boko Haram, in an attempt to broker the release of more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls, a source close to the talks told AFP. The meeting took place last weekend at Obasanjo’s farm in Ogun State and included relatives of some senior Boko Haram fighters as well as intermediaries and the former president, the source said. “The meeting was focused on how to free the girls through negotiation,” said the source who requested anonymity, referring to the girls seized on April 14 from the remote northeastern town of Chibok, Borno State. Reports of the talks emerged as Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, said the girls had been located while casting doubt on the prospect of rescuing them by force. Obasanjo, who left office in 2007, has previously sought to negotiate with the insurgents, including in September 2011 after Boko Haram bombed the United Nations headquarters in Abuja. Then, he flew to the Islamists’ base in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, to meet relatives of former Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf, who was killed in police custody in 2009. The 2011 talks did not help stem the violence and some at the time doubted if Obasanjo was dealing with people who were legitimately capable of negotiating a ceasefire. Spokesmen for the former head of state, who remains an influential figure in Nigerian politics, could not be reached to comment on the latest reported Boko Haram talks. But the source told AFP that Obasanjo had voiced concern about Nigeria’s acceptance of foreign military personnel to help rescue the girls. Obasanjo is said to be worried that Nigeria’s prestige in Africa as a major continental power had been diminished by President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to bring in Western military help, including from the United States. Mustapha Zanna, the lawyer who helped organise Obasanjo’s 2011 talks with Boko Haram, said he was at the former president’s home on Saturday. But he declined to discuss whether the Chibok abductions were on the agenda. “I was there,” he told AFP, adding that Obasanjo was interested in helping orphans and vulnerable children in Nigeria’s embattled northeast and that possible charitable work was on the agenda. Zanna had represented Yusuf’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the government following his death in police custody. It was not clear if Obasanjo’s weekend meeting had been sanctioned by the government. Obasanjo, who backed Jonathan’s 2011 presidential campaign, fiercely criticised him and his record as president in a letter released to the public last December and the two are widely thought to have fallen out. According to the source, Obasanjo supported a prisoner-for-hostage swap that would see some of the girls released in exchange for a group of Boko Haram fighters held in Nigerian custody. As a private citizen whose ties to the presidency have been damaged, Obasanjo likely does not have the authority to negotiate any deal on the government’s behalf. The government, which has officially ruled out a prisoner swap, sent intermediaries to meet Boko Haram in the northeast to negotiate for the girls’ release. The source identified one of the envoys as Ahmad Salkida, a journalist with ties to Boko Haram who had been close to Yusuf before his death. “There was contact but it was bungled by the government,” according to the source, saying Jonathan backed away from the deal after returning from a security conference in Paris earlier this month. The conference saw Nigeria and its neighbours vow greater co-operation to tackle Boko Haram because of the potential threat to regional stability. The chief of defence staff on Monday said that despite having located the girls, the risks of storming the area with troops in a rescue mission were too great and could prove fatal for the hostages.um Bearbeiten hier klicken . Nine serving Generals in the Nigerian Army and other senior military officers are now under investigation for their alleged role in the sale of arms to members of the Boko Haram sect. They are also fingered in the movement of weapons and Army armouries in some northern states. A top security chief confirmed to Nigerian Pilot yesterday that the military authorities had made progress in the investigation of the affected Army officers, adding that they would soon be court-martialed. He said the delay in their arraignment before a military court was because of the concentration of activities on how to rescue the abducted schoolgirls from Chibok, Borno State by Boko Haram sect.According to the source, some detained Boko Haram suspects allegedly named the Generals and other military officers as supplying them arms. He explained that the military High Command would only make the matter public after concluding its internal checks to ensure that there are no loose ends. The security chief said that the Nigerian Army, headed by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Kenneth Minimah, in conjunction with other military top brass was working tirelessly to sanitise the armed forces and fish out collaborators with insurgents. He hinted that the Army Chief had been briefed on the Generals’ arms deals with the insurgents, adding that “he (Army Chief) is currently carrying out a secret and independent investigation on the matter.” A few months ago, a soldier had told a foreign news agency that some top military chiefs were colluding with Boko Haram sect in their raging offensive in the North-East. In a swift reaction, The Defence Headquarters described the allegations as grave and promised to investigate the claims. The outcome of the probe is yet to be made public by the authorities as well as the names of the affected Generals. The insurgents operate with local and sophisticated weapons such as Improvised Explosives Devices, IEDs, AK-47rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. A United States, US Network TV, NBC, recently reported that most of the terror group’s weapons were either stolen from Nigerian military stocks or purchased from the thriving Central African arms black market. Army replaces attacked Borno GOC Meanwhile, the military high command has summoned the General Officer Commanding the 7th Infantry Division, Maj-Gen. Abubakar Mohammed to Abuja for an explanation into what led to shooting by some soldiers under his command at Maimalari Barracks in Maiduguri, Borno State. Already, the military has named Brig-Gen. M.Y. Ibrahim as Mohammed’s successor in acting capacity. Coordinator of the National Information Centre on Insurgency, Mike Omeri, yesterday confirmed the alleged mutiny by soldiers in Borno and the setting up of an investigation panel on the issue. At the daily briefing on the update of insurgency activities in the country, Omeri, however, said the nature and details of the incident were sketchy. But the Director of Defence Information, Maj-Gen. Chris Olukolade, in a statement earlier, assured that the military authorities will investigate the circumstance leading to the soldier’s’ act. “The 7 Division of the Nigerian Army is to institute a military board of inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the conduct of soldiers who fired some shots.” Media reports had suggested that the soldiers’ action was due to anger following the death of 15 of their colleagues in a Boko Haram ambush, on their way back from an operation in Kalabalge, but it was also gathered that the military personnel had deep resentment against GOC Mohammed. Gen. Mohammed was reported to have narrowly escaped death on Wednesday when angry soldiers opened fire on his official vehicle when he came to address them at the command headquarters at Maimalari Barracks. According to further information, soldiers who attacked the vehicle of the former GOC also shot two of the soldiers in his escort on the legs for guiding him into his armoured car and facilitating his escape. However, in order to ascertain the cause of the soldiers’ shooting, the Nigerian Army instituted a high powered investigative panel and COG Mohammed has been summoned.!!!!!!! The fact that many artists are enjoying the hard work of their producers is no news anymore, but what is news is that only few actually go back to show appreciation apart from paying their recording fees.This is how to show appreciation. MASTER KRAFT has Produced many of Flavour’s hit songs which include Shake Ukwu, Ikwokrikwo, Kwarikwa, Egwu, Chinny Baby and many more. This is a well deserved gift as we expect more great songs from their combination. A mother cries out during a demonstration in Abuja with others who have daughters among the kidnapped schoolgirls. Photograph: Gbemiga Olamikan/AP Just before midnight on 14 April in Chibok, north-east Nigeria, pastor Enoch Mark's phone rang. Half asleep, it took him a while to make sense of the voice talking rapidly down the line. Eventually four words penetrated: "Boko Haram are coming." The caller, a friend in a neighbouring village, said a convoy of trucks and 4x4s bristling with armed insurgents was heading his way. At first, Mark did not panic. It was for such contingencies that 15 soldiers were stationed in Chibok, a remote settlement in one of three Nigerian provinces that have been living under a state of emergency since May last year. But his fear and frustration grew as repeated calls to the military post failed to connect. He was on the sixth attempt when an explosion shattered the window panes. "My wife and I woke up the children and started running into the bush," he recalled. "As we were running, we saw that they had already started burning houses. It was a horrible sight." The two parents and five children huddled together as they watched the flames spread to a soundtrack of gunshots. Across town, another of the family's children was less fortunate. By the time the fires subsided hours later, Mark's eldest daughter was among more than 300 teenage girls carted away from Chibok government secondary school by the extremists. A man weeps as he joins parents of kidnapped school girls during a meeting with the Borno State governor in Chibok. Photograph: Afolabi Sotunde/ReutersThrough interviews with witnesses, schoolchildren and security officials, the Guardian has pieced together the security lapses that allowed the militants to launch a five-hour assault while encountering barely any resistance. The military says it knows where the girls are being kept, but insiders say several rescue attempts have been thwarted by tipoffs from their own numbers. The kidnapping and ensuing confusion appear to point to widespread infiltration of the military by Boko Haram supporters. Some security sources say another mass abduction is inevitable. When the truckloads of heavily armed militants rolled into Chibok, they split into three groups of at least 25 each, witnesses said. One column headed to the local government secretariat and began firing rocket-propelled grenades at the dozen or so soldiers stationed there. Another set off into the town centre, and a third approached the school. The Borno state governor, Kashim Shettima, centre, visits the scene of the mass abduction in Chibok. Photograph: Haruna Umar/APEarlier that day, 530 pupils had registered to sit their final exams there, according to a teacher who spoke on condition of anonymity. Some were pupils from neighbouring schools, attending the only one open for miles around after repeated attacks by Boko Haram forced mass closures. The group, whose name means "western education is forbidden", opposes non-Qur'anic education, particularly for girls. When the gunshots began, 15-year-old Lydia Togu, an art student, was shaken awake by her elder sister Soraya, who whispered for her to get dressed quickly. The two hurried out to the courtyard where other confused and crying girls were filtering out. "We saw five men come into the compound wearing soldiers' uniforms. We were even happy because we thought they were military men who had come to keep us safe," Lydia said, speaking softly as she recounted what followed next. When the girls had all gathered together, the men began shooting into the air and shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest), she said. They raided the school supply stores and then forced the girls at gunpoint to march for an hour into the forest, where trucks were waiting. "I thought my end had come," Lydia said. At the same time, her father, Yakub Kabu, was in another part of the forest, where he had taken refuge with a group of people including soldiers assigned to the town. Kabu asked the soldiers who was protecting the schoolchildren. "They told us they had a gun battle with the Boko Haram attackers but they ran out of ammunition. They were overpowered by them, there were around 100 of them who were using superior firepower and rocket-propelled grenades," Kabu said. The men had thrown their rifles into the bush and joined the fleeing crowds. There was no one to chase the militants as they herded the girls into the forest. MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — The number of kidnapped schoolgirls missing in Nigeria has risen to 276, up by more than 30 from a previous estimate, police said, adding that the actual number abducted by Islamic extremists on April 14 was more than 300. Police Commissioner Tanko Lawan said the number of girls and young women who have escaped also has risen, to 53. He told a news conference Thursday night in Maiduguri, the northeastern capital of Borno state, that the figures keep increasing because students from other schools were brought into one school for final exams last month after all schools in Borno state were shut because of attacks by Islamic extremists. Communications are difficult with the military often cutting cellphone service under a state of emergency and travel made dangerous on roads frequently attacked by the militants. "The students were drawn from schools in Izge, Lassa, Ashigashiya and Warabe A. and that is why, after the unfortunate incident, there were various numbers flying around as to the actual number of girls that were taken away," Lawan said. Hundreds of women protested in at least three cities this week to express their outrage that the girls have not been found. Two bombings in three weeks have also hit the nation's capital, Abuja. Reports this week indicated some have been forced into "marriage" with their extremist abductors, who paid a nominal bride price equivalent to $12. Other reports that also could not be verified said some have been taken across borders, to Chad, Cameroon and to an island in Lake Chad. The reports come from parents and legislators who are in touch with villagers who have seen the girls with their abductors. As the students, aged between 15 and 18, endure a third week of captivity President Goodluck Jonathan referred to them publicly for the first time at a May Day rally on Thursday. Jonathan, a southern Christian who has been accused of insensitivity to the plight of mainly Muslim residents of the northeast, vowed "we must find our missing girls" and "the perpetrators must be brought to book." He said "the cruel abduction of some innocent girls, our future mothers and leaders, in a very horrific and despicable situation in Borno state is quite regrettable." "We shall triumph over all this evil that wants to debase our humanity," he added. Girls who have escaped say their captors identified themselves as fighters in the Boko Haram terrorist network, thought the extremists have not claimed responsibility for the abductions. Boko Haram — the name means "Western education is sinful" — believes Western influences have corrupted their society and only an Islamic state can restore purity to Africa's most populous nation of about 170 million people, divided almost equally between Muslims and Christians. Senator Iyabo Obasanjo has accused those in President Goodluck Jonathan’s inner circle of being a stumbling block to ending Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. “I am moved to write about the current state of affairs in Nigeria. My first inclination was to write to the President but since all letters to him seem to elicit only open derision and even more stupidity from his inner circle, I have decided to address my letter to a group also currently causing Nigerians a lot of pain and agony that may actually have more sense than the country’s leadership,” she wrote. Dear Boko Haram, The fact that you have taken arms against the Nigerian state is no surprise. The question should be why haven’t more young people organised themselves against the state? Even the fact that your motto, ‘Against Western Education’ is in a way reasonable given the fact that your leader, martyred by the Nigerian state had university education and found no reasonable employment but had to resort to thuggery for politicians to survive, as the story goes. He, like millions of Nigerian young people and college graduates, seeing a blighted future are doing anything to survive. They have become opportunistic desperados, almost sub‑human as the stepping on and trampling on each other to death at the Immigration employment debacle indicates. ‘Where you’re wrong’ Where I think you have gotten it wrong are in two areas, if you can pardon my giving you some unsolicited advice. First, your victims are becoming more and more the people you should be attracting to your side. Take the Nyanya bus massacre. The people that live in Nyanya are usually the clerks, messengers and other lowly office workers that live out in relative slums compared to the rest of Abuja and take public transportation to work to receive monthly salaries they barely get by on. Consult any written work of successful revolutionaries be it French, Russian, Cuban or even the more recent uprooting of communism in Eastern Europe, to succeed you need the people to be on your side. Right now you are not achieving this. You are targeting the group you need most. This does not make for a successful revolution but you are making yourselves into nuisances to the people and in the end while the state, including its military machine may not be able to conquer you, your downfall will be alienating these potential allies, i.e. the oppressed and down-trodden. Secondly, the abduction of girls. It must be hard to stay in the bush as all male revolutionaries fending for yourselves with no s*xual gratification. Cuban example But again, reading up on past bush revolutionaries like the Cuban, for example, indicates that they were able to convince some women to go voluntarily with them into the bush. Somehow, revolutionary zeal does not include s*xual abstinence and cooking and cleaning by yourselves. Reading must be hard for you since you hate education but the past is a good guide to the future and if you can’t read, you are done for in organizing or succeeding in most endeavours as most things have been done before and reading up on how it was done can only serve as good guidance. The parents of the girls you abducted are just trying to give their daughters a chance at having successful lives. Without an education there is very little anyone can achieve in this early 21st century. I know living in the bush; it must still seem like the dark ages but the truth is that even with the lack of jobs and opportunities for young people in Nigeria currently, it is still better to be educated. An educated university graduate who was selling food from a food cart ignited the Arab Spring which was spread by use of the internet which is hard to use if you are not educated. There are writings, videos and stuff you post on the internet which I haven’t seen. But think of it, you can only post and use the internet because some of you have some education. But in the end you have no control over the distribution of your advertising and recruiting information because as you may know, the internet is really part of the western system you despise. Why you’re succeeding The truth is that you have succeeded because the Nigerian state has failed to provide jobs and opportunity for its young people who you can now easily recruit. By disrupting education, you are adding to the burden of the people. You may say, but how about our religious issue? Let the truth be told, just as there are indigenous southern Muslims, there are indigenous northern Christians even from your epicentre in Borno State and just as you are zealous for your religion, I don’t see them giving up their religion either. The reasonable solution to this impasse would be for you to advocate for everyone to be able to practice their religion as they see fit with respect for each other’s beliefs. Remember, a couple of centuries ago, all of our ancestors below the Sahara were all animists worshipping various ‘gods.’ The parents of the abducted girls have received little information about the rescue effort !! Parents of the 230 schoolgirls abducted in north-eastern Nigeria have marched to plead for more help to find their daughters, residents in the town of Chibok have told the BBC.he girls were taken from their school in Chibok by suspected Islamist militants more than two weeks ago.One parent, who asked not to be named, said they were grateful for the support of Nigerians, as other marches are held to put pressure on the authorities. "We want to see more effort," she said. The Islamist group Boko Haram has not made any response to the accusation that its fighters abducted the girls in the middle of the night on 14 April 2014. The group, whose name means "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language, has staged a wave of attacks in northern Nigeria in recent years, with an estimated 1,500 killed in the violence and subsequent security crackdown this year alone. 'Discreet' missionOn Wednesday, several hundred people, mainly women, dressed in red braved heavy rain to march to the National Assembly in the capital, Abuja, to hand over a letter to complain that the government was not doing enough to secure the release of the girls. "We thank the women for their support," the parent in Chibok told the BBC Hausa service, saying such marches might push the government to make more of an effort to locate the girls. "We are pleading for others who are outside... to please come and help us, because the burden is too much for us parents," she said. As she spoke, crying and wailing could be heard from others marching through Chibok. She said that she was desperate to know what had happened to her daughter and that a dead body was better than no body at all. Earlier, Nigeria's Interior Minister Abba Moro told the BBC that he understood the "outpouring of emotions", but the government could not divulge details of what it was doing to secure the release of the girls. It had to act in a "discreet" way because the militants had threatened to kill the girls if "certain steps" were taken, he said. All we are saying is: 'Bring back our girls'," the protesters chanted He accused opposition parties of politicising the crisis and said they should work with the government rather than criticise it. Following the march in Abuja, more than 20 senators requested a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan. They met on Wednesday night but no details of their discussions are known. Swathes of north-eastern Nigeria are, in effect, off limits to the military, allowing the militants to move the girls towards, or perhaps even across, the country's borders with impunity, says the BBC's Will Ross in Abuja The girls were seized from their school late at night The students were about to sit their final year exam and so are mostly aged between 16 and 18. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau first threatened to treat captured women and girls as slaves in a video released in May 2013. It fuelled concern at the time that the group was adhering to the ancient Islamic belief that women captured during war are slaves with whom their "masters" can have sex, correspondents say. |
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DEEJAY LEXZYIs about re Introducing many of my friends, new dj's and others who have Interest In genres of American club music in what real classic Electro is about and how it influences modern day music. Im going thru a rare select few of Electro records, Miami bass and Freestyle records.. |