naijaXclusive: bayelsa

Showing posts with label bayelsa. Show all posts

Xclusive Music: Timaya ft D'banj - Mind Over Matter

Brand new track from the Egberi Papa Of Bayelsa, its been a while we heard from him, little did we know he was planning a supper collaboration with the Koko Master himself "D'banj" and finally the wait is over. Enjoy the new HIT from Timaya

<a href="http://cdn3.tooxclusive.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Mind-Over-Matter-Timaya-ft-Dbanj.mp3">DOWNLOAD</a>

Xclusive Music: Timaya ft D'banj - Mind Over Matter

Brand new track from the Egberi Papa Of Bayelsa, its been a while we heard from him, little did we know he was planning a supper collabora...

1:32 pm

Xclusive: 2015: There’s No Vacancy In Aso Rock – Alamieyeseigha

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President Goodluck Jonathan’s benefactor and former Governor of 
Bayelsa State, Chief Diepriye Alamieyeseigha, has told all who care to 
listen that there is no <a href="http://www.informationng.com/2013/05/2015-theres-no-vacancy-in-aso-rock-alamieyeseigha.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter#" id="_GPLITA_0" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="Click to Continue > by Browse to Save">vacancy</a> in Aso Rock because his protégé will remain the Commander-in-Chief beyond 2015.<br />
<br />
Alamieyeseigha
 said: “Aso Rock is not vacant. The northern agitators will all at the 
appropriate time join the moving train. They may have their opinion but I
 can assure you that President Jonathan will remain as the President of 
the Federal Republic of Nigeria, come 2015″.<br />
<br />
Baring his mind on 
the presidential pardon granted to him by the Council of State, 
Alamieyeseigha said it was a negotiated deal which started under the 
late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s tenure and that it is in order.<br />
<br />
He
 said: “It was a pardon that was negotiated. This pardon was negotiated 
and if I fulfil my own part of the bargain, why shouldn’t the Federal 
Government fulfills its part? People who don’t know what happened are 
the ones talking. But if I opened my mouth, those who are talking will 
keep quiet.<br />
<br />
He said: “President Goodluck Jonathan was part of the 
negotiating team. There is no person in this country that knows issues 
surrounding Alamieyeseigha better than Mr President. He was my deputy 
governor and all that transpired were known to him. I’m already writing 
my memoir. At the appropriate time, you will know.”<br />
<br />
In a veiled 
attack at former President – Olusegun Obasanjo, Alamieyeseigha said, 
“without Yar’Adua, I would have died by now. Otherwise they would have 
even killed me. The person behind it is somebody all of you know. 
Somebody used the phrase, Oga at the top. You know him and he will be 
exposed at the right time.”<br />
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Xclusive: 2015: There’s No Vacancy In Aso Rock – Alamieyeseigha

President Goodluck Jonathan’s benefactor and former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepriye Alamieyeseigha, has told all who care to l...

11:36 am

Xclusive: If I’m Arrested, Nigeria Will Be Histroy – Dokubo-Asari

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFE48a070sMNYGzbHm2u-5uYtuPqThnp0gieEvYjaNiAxdZQLrVx58IChUPj-PTidTCWAa7UjGj0-Zu8fi7_4qlT5215ntSdVukeXArHuX79oWDU_Izx2K1RQXPsg2jcJZuoQmnx407v0/s1600/Asari-Dokubo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFE48a070sMNYGzbHm2u-5uYtuPqThnp0gieEvYjaNiAxdZQLrVx58IChUPj-PTidTCWAa7UjGj0-Zu8fi7_4qlT5215ntSdVukeXArHuX79oWDU_Izx2K1RQXPsg2jcJZuoQmnx407v0/s400/Asari-Dokubo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Leader of the Niger Delta People’s 
Volunteer Force,  Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, has dared the  House of 
Representatives and leaders of northern Nigeria to arrest him if they 
can.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dokubo-Asari, who spoke with journalists
 on Wednesday evening in Abuja, said he stood by his words that there 
would  be no peace if Jonathan is not reelected in 2015.</div>
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<br /></div>
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He was responding to calls by members of
 the House, Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State and northern 
leaders, saying the leaders were cowards if he was not arrested.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The former President of Ijaw Youth 
Council  also added that any attempt to arrest him would make Nigeria “a
 history”, asking why those calling for his arrest turned deaf ears when
 some northern leaders like former Military Head of State Maj.-Gen 
Mohamadu Buhari, Alhaji Lawal Kaita and a former member of the House of 
Representatives, Farouk Aliyu, among others.</div>
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<br /></div>
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He said, “I stand by my statement which I
 made in my early press conference. There will be no peace, not only in 
the Niger Delta, but everywhere, if Goodluck Jonathan is not president 
by 2015.</div>
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“I want to refresh your memories with 
comments made by these northerners, who had in the time past threatened 
war and break-up of Nigeria.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“In 2010, one Lawal Kaita said and I 
quote: ‘Anything short of a Northern President is tantamount to stealing
 our Presidency. Jonathan has to go and he will go. Even if he uses the 
incumbency power to get his nomination on the platform of the PDP, he 
would be frustrated out…The North is determined, if that happens, to 
make the country ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan or any 
other Southerner who finds his way to the seat of power on the platform 
of the PDP against the principle of the party’s zoning policy’.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Today insurgent groups, in furtherance 
to Kaita’s call a’re wreaking havoc, attacking military barracks and 
seizing weapon, but we will not sit and watch. Kaita made this 
statement, nobody arrested or call for the arrest of this fellow,  today
 he is walking free.</div>
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<br /></div>
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“Buhari made this statement in 2011, he 
was never arrested and nobody ever called for his arrest. In other 
countries, former leaders are being tried, but here, a man who overthrew
 a legitimate government, continues to threaten us with blood and 
nothing has happened.”</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He added, “I am not afraid of arrest. I 
am saying it bold and clear without mincing  words, that the 
consequences of my arrest, Nigeria will be history.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“The last time Obasanjo arrested me, my 
arrest reduced Nigeria oil production to 700,000 barrels per day.  </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
 This 
time, it will reduce it to zero barrel, and we will match violence with 
violence, intrigues with intrigues. We are ready for them. Goodluck 
Jonathan will complete his tenure of two terms, whether they like it or 
not.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I am daring them to arrest me if they can. If they don’t, they are cowards and shame on them.”</div>

Xclusive: If I’m Arrested, Nigeria Will Be Histroy – Dokubo-Asari

Leader of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, has dared the House of Representatives and leaders o...

10:18 am

Xclusive: Charles Novia Writes On AMAA Awards

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXUGVTISx-lzpbrJLsA_SaRshgT-8NqslyHgAAKh9calTYK_EFfXpLwyBtBAFLmev8hM0OU9iOT3pCbdyBWThSFWWqpbXaSvPFwRPE2iIMc1B6UzRFecojvRJXPwAuZQphzFUDr2gpDMk/s1600/AMAA-20131.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXUGVTISx-lzpbrJLsA_SaRshgT-8NqslyHgAAKh9calTYK_EFfXpLwyBtBAFLmev8hM0OU9iOT3pCbdyBWThSFWWqpbXaSvPFwRPE2iIMc1B6UzRFecojvRJXPwAuZQphzFUDr2gpDMk/s400/AMAA-20131.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Charles, you know you have to write a review about this year’s AMAA or 
you will be seen as biased, not after you have reviewed the AMVCA’ a 
prominent Film Maker said to me as we arrived Yenogoa by road. <br />
<br />
I had already made up my mind weeks before to do such, even if I was in a
 somewhat precarious position; my movie ‘Alan Poza’ was nominated in two
 categories . If we didn’t win anything ( and eventually we didn’t) some
 might misconstrue my review as ‘sour grapes’ rather than the honest and
 unbiased opinion I have chosen to write.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br /><br />‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn’, says Clark Gable in the movie ‘Gone with the Wind’ and I align with his phrase.<br /><br />With
 all sense of propriety, I will not in anyway compare the two awards. 
That is left for the viewers and readers to do but I will only make 
appropriate objective commentaries as witnessed by me.<br /><br />The show 
started with a group of dancers who gave a good account of themselves in
 their choreography of the AMAA theme song. The dancers captured the 
essence of Africa in their dance and the theme song itself had a 
pulsating multi-African feel to the mix. This was followed by a brief 
reel of late Nollywood actors who passed on in the last year.<br /><br />The
 compere of the night AY, the stand up comedian, made an entrance in a 
Power Bike and cracked our ribs with a few hilarious jokes. It was a 
good thing that AY was on board for the show as an otherwise lukewarm 
event would have turned out to be tepid if not for his rib-crackers.<br /><br />There
 were a lot of the ‘Notice Me’ people, especially the ladies in their 
evening gowns, strutting all over the hall, much to the amusement or 
annoyance of many people. I don’t know if they were looking for seats or
 if they were all over the place, ensuring that we all got a glimpse of 
their evening outfits. Of course, some of the outfits were eye-popping 
or head-shaking, depending on one’s point of view. I remember AY threw a
 barb at one of the actresses from the ‘Asaba Nollywood ’ slant, when he
 called her ‘Lady Gaga’ because of the huge, screaming mop of coloured 
wig she had on. The actress in question, either good-naturedly or 
daftly, waved at the recognition.<br /><br />‘Who’s that Lady in the 
glittering pink gown?’ asked one of the foreign visitors who sat behind 
me. ‘She should sit down a bit! Blimey!’ He was pointing to Ibinabo 
Fiberisima, the Actors Guild President, who seemed to be all over the 
place. She wasn’t the only one. Others with a sense of self-importance 
equally struggled for strutting space.<br /><br />The Executive Governor of 
Bayelsa State gave the opening speech. I thought the Federal Government 
in the ‘Rebranding Nigeria’ campaign had jettisoned all the protocol 
recognition intros by Government officials? His Excellency spent about 
ten minutes ‘recognizing’ those present in the hall, that it was a 
wonder he didn’t acknowledge the presence of the hall cleaners!. And his
 accompanying speech was so long that it was more of a drone after a 
while. In the speech which took the better part of thirty minutes, he 
made some good points about encouraging the film industry and also 
building a Film City Centre in Bayelsa to boost the Tourism Potentials 
of the state. Governor Dickson has an authoritative booming voice and 
boring aspects of his speech were made up with his style of speaking, 
which some people found fascinating.<br /><br />If the Governor’s speech 
seemed drone-like, then the next speech by the South African High 
Commissioner takes the biscuit for ‘boring’. Whoops! There goes my SA 
visa, I am sure! The diplomat just kept talking and talking, sometimes 
in inaudible or inarticulate tones, that a lot of us in the hall 
mercifully found solace in our smart phones for company. He spoke for 
about twenty minutes and just as we all were heaving a sigh of relief, 
yet another Speaker climbed the podium! Chai! We wan die!<br /><br />It was 
the Culture and Tourism Minister, High Chief Edem Duke, who is a very 
powerful speaker. This night was no exception but he must have been 
bitten by the ‘long speech’ bug and spoke ex tempore for close to twenty
 minutes as well.<br /><br />Could someone please tell the AMAA Producers 
that next time, speeches by government officials should not be more than
 five minutes per person and not more than two, if it comes to that?<br /><br />Peace
 Anyiam Osigwe gave her own speech in subdued tones and the reason for 
that became clear when she asked us all to observe a minute silence for 
the late entertainment lawyer, our dear good friend and brother, Efere 
Ozako who passed on a couple of days before AMAA. That brought tears to 
the eyes of many in the hall who knew and loved Efere.<br /><br />The 
co-compere, Ama K Abebrese came up on the stage to join AY. Her voice 
was hoarse and grating on the microphone and she apologized for losing 
her voice to the audience. It was difficult to judge her outing as a 
compere because of her lost voice but one would give her kudos for the 
bravery of carrying on, despite this setback.<br /><br />The performance by a
 South African flute-blowing group, though interesting, was marred by 
annoying technical issues which was intermittent the whole night for 
many performing acts. One of the flute artistes got the hall reeling in 
laughter when he said he learned a new dance called ‘Azuntu’, a 
mis-pronunciation of ‘Azonto’. !<br /><br />The special guest of AMAA this 
year was acclaimed Hollywood Black director and actor, Mario Van 
Peebles. I am one of those who grew up inspired by Mario’s movies and he
 came on stage dressed in a white Kaftan ,all hyper and warm. He gave a 
great, motivating speech which stirred a lot of hearts. AY took a jibe 
at him for wearing odd green sneakers with his Kaftan!.<br /><br />There 
were performances by Waje, who has improved tremendously in her 
stagecraft and Timi Dakolo who was the star of the night. My God! There 
isn’t a voice in Nigeria like Timi’s and there isn’t an inspiring singer
 and performer in his class like him! Timi had the crowd clapping on and
 on and got both visitors to Nigeria and citizens all up, all our hearts
 swollen with pride, as he rendered a special song of his for Nigeria. 
Timi Dakolo is good! An ace singer.<br /><br />Funny Bone, the comedian was 
quite hilarious. He was followed by the ‘son-of-the-soil’ comedian, 
G-Bones, who also maintained the comic tempo.<br /><br />Dakore Akande came 
up on stage as the third compere of the night. She was elegant in her 
looks and tried to make the most of the glitches in the programme with 
her Ghanaian male co-compere. And there were glitches! Microphones going
 off, sound systems and teleprompters messing up, and other avoidable 
impediments.<br /><br />One commendable innovation AMAA brought this year, 
was the introduction of many of the new, promising actors of the 
so-called ‘new Nollywood’ school, as award Presenters. To me, that was 
quite symbolic. A perfect suggestion that as Nollywood loses its old 
guard, a fresh and vibrant pool of new talents are in the wings, 
carrying on with the dream. It was heart lifting to see the likes of 
Beverly Naya, Belinda Effah, Omoye Uzamere, Kemi Lala Akindoju, Wole 
Ojo, Ivie Okujaye, Uti Nwachukwu, OC Ukeje an many others up on the 
podium.<br /><br />The last performance for the night was by Flavour who got
 the crowd dancing with his hit songs. Curiously though, he strode off 
stage abruptly as his song was coming to an end as if to say ‘I don do 
wetin una pay me for. I don go’. That was the cue many in the hall 
needed to also take their leave and the last two categories had a 
half-empty hall as many tired guests had left.<br /><br />The show ended at a
 few minutes past four in the morning! A seven hour event, which with 
proper planning, could have been wrapped up within three hours! There’s 
still a lot to be done in that regard by the AMAA producers. There were 
needless pauses and long waits in between presentations and a few people
 were nodding off to sleep in the hall when the show dragged on and on.<br /><br />There’s
 a feeling of déjà vu one gets each time one attends the Africa Movie 
Academy Awards in Bayelsa State. The State has no airport and so, the 
guests are transported by road from the Port-Harcourt airport to Yenogoa
 in a two hour journey. I would advise AMAA to contract a central 
logistics company or directorate to handle the grueling logistics for 
future events, instead of the weary-eyed officials we see yearly who run
 helter-skelter to sort out logistics issues, to their credit.. It is 
about time to outsource that department and that’s all I would say about
 that, with all brotherly love to Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, my good friend 
and sister, whose vision for AMAA has been sustained for almost a 
decade.<br /><br />It is heart-warming to note that Bayelsa State has built 
more hotels since the first edition of AMAA held in Bayelsa nine years 
ago, with most of the hotels built as a tourism boost to AMAA. The brand
 image of Bayelsa State is majorly intertwined with the AMAA brand but 
there seems to be a major disconnect between the organizational organs 
of both parties. There is a lot of work to be done in that regard but I 
must commend Bayelsa State for being a faithful host of the event these 
past years, even though there’s much to be desired. Building an airport 
in Yenagoa, for starters, is long overdue. Mercifully, The Governor 
promised that it would be done by next year, in his speech.<br /><br />If 
AMAA aspires to be a world class award ceremony tailored after the 
Oscars, as most of its screening and jury processes are, then it should 
ensure that the stage management, logistics and event production for 
AMAA must be at per with its aspirations. Next year, AMAA will celebrate
 ten years. A ten-year old organization such as AMAA cannot be taken 
lightly anymore. It is an institution and can only get better if many of
 its activities are properly outsourced to the right people or 
companies. The movie industry in Nigeria and parts of Africa have 
supported AMAA wholly these past few years and will continue to support 
it but its about time AMAA takes a long look at itself and surpass our 
expectations. AMAA is no longer a solitary, annual event for the African
 Film Industry. It has competition; and one which went all out to make a
 point in their first outing too! Very soon, we all would either be 
looking forward to ‘AMAA-zing’ awards or one with a touch of ‘magic’ 
which could polarize our loyalties if we all don’t get it right.

Xclusive: Charles Novia Writes On AMAA Awards

Charles, you know you have to write a review about this year’s AMAA or you will be seen as biased, not after you have reviewed the AMVCA’...

4:55 pm