Bazement Magazine (8th Edition)

BUSINESS LITERATURE POLITICS ECONOMY INTERVIEWS EDUCATION POETTRY ENTERTAINMENT EVENTS SPORTS

BAZEMENT DECEMBER 2018 8TH EDITION

ENTERTAINMENT

CAPITAL CLOUT COVER STORY

Baze University Students Representatives Council (SRC)

The uprising musical talent of Abuja.

POLITICS

THE BUSINESS MAN AND THE SOLDIER.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

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13 POLITICS 20 LITERATURE 24 INTERVIEWS 28 COVER STORY 36 ENTREPRENEURS 42 FOCUS 44 EDUCATION 48 POETS & WRITERS 54 FOOD 60 ENTERTAINMENT 70 SPORTS

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CREDITS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Chibuike Anyim

NEWS EDITOR

Linda Ezenwammadu

PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Ediken B. Essien

ASSIST. PHOTOGRAPHY DIR. Hussaina L. Danmusa

BUSINESS MANAGER Yusuf Inuwa

ASSIST. BUSINESS MANAGER Aisha A. RimI

FEAUTURES EDITOR Joseph Okwoche

SPORTS EDITOR Idris B. Bello

CONTRIBUTOR

Faizah A. Abubakar

CONTRIBUTOR Ahmed Sheidu

CONTRIBUTOR Seyifah Joseph

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Geoseph Etim & Ugo Oparadike

DESIGNER

The Walking Paradox

PUBLISHER

3yc Masterpiece Ltd. 3ycmasterpiece@gmail.com Suite C10 PEB 04 Plaza Plot 2027 Dalaba Street Behind Shoprite, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja 07051010987, 09054365439

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BASEMENT MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2018

EDITORS NOTE WELCOME TO TH 8TH EDITION OF OUR PRESTIGIOUS BIANNUAL PUBLICATION, BAZEMENT. A PUBLICATION CURATED BY EACH GRADUATING MASS COMMUNICATION CLASS OF BAZE UNIVERSITY.

 

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EDITORS NOTES

W

E LIVE IN a time plagued by negative occurrences.

In recent years, the world has lived in a state of constant apprehension and chronic anxiety caused by a host of factors ranging from political to marital and everything in-between.

At some point it becomes tempting to blame our plight as youths on the older generation and our lack of a voice on the government. At some point we run out of things to blame them for so we begin to blame the cosmos. It’s easy to throw around, blame is. What we have to

oldies. No matter how much we’d like to blame the for their past decisions, we must realise that what happened before matters because it shapes things. The Nigeria we had 20 years ago isn’t the same Nigeria we have now. And the only way to adapt is to develop ourselves. As

In the midst of all this it becomes easy to rely on appropriation of blame as a tool for vindication and self-preservation. What people who chose this method don’t realise is that time is too fickle to be spent throwing stones. When you need it (time), there’s too little of it. Then you wake up at two thirty in the morning, and there’s too much of it. It’s usually better to take it than to anticipate it.

remember is that the universe isn’t evil.

It’s just indifferent.

the saying goes: “One hand washes the other and both hands wash the face.”

It is for this reason that we dedicate this edition of Bazement to the Nigerian Youths. This edition is a celebration of life and youthfulness. It’s a jollification of the the joys of unashamedly and simply pursuing the things you love. As I always say: there is a great consolation in simply doing something you love.

It’s indifferent to the cries of those looking for handouts. It’s even indifferent to the success of the worlds richest men. But what the universe will always acknowledge is the power of a world changing idea. Victor Hugo once remarked: “You can resist an invading army; you cannot resist an idea whose times come.”

We must refuse the life where despite all our visions of greatness, we end up ordinary.

When you flip through the pages of this magazine you’ll be enthralled by the quality of information imprinted. We’ve allowed all our contributors creative control of the materials they chose to turn in on the condition that it is original and personal.

There are people who effortlessly carry an island of serenity with themselves.

They’re the ones that have the basic acceptance that life is a joke and a person should be able to smile his/her way though it. They’re the ones who have found their niche and begun to develop themselves to stay on top of the times by constantly reinventing themselves. And there are youths amongst them. These youths are those who work now, rather than sit down and brood about how things should have been and could be much later in the future.

This decision was made to encourage them to voice their feelings in a productive way. Note that we produced this edition without any resources from the University. Nonetheless we thrived and have created a reputable magazine, expressing not just our ideology but also the ideology of the people we look up to.

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We must refuse the life where despite all our visions of greatness, we end up ordinary.

Let’s stop blaming the politicians and

To all our readers; a big thank you.

And more big thank-you’s to the editorial board, advertisers, contributors and all those who have made this edition of Bazement a huge success. I hope we get to work together again on bigger projects.

What was it that Orwell said about writing a book? “A horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.”

We can relate.

ANYIM CHIBUIKE, Editor-in-Chief, Bazement Magazine

 

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THE SOLDIER AND THE BUSINESS MAN: A TALE OF TWO DESPERATE MEN

Nigeria is eagerly awaiting the most political event of 2019. But while the politics thrives, the government suffers. Be that as it may, both contestants share a common denominator: They’re both desperate men.

Is either one of them the right man?

BY ANYIM CHIBUIKE

THE SOLDIER

F

OR PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU Buhari, the story begun on the last day of 1983 when the then Major General Muhummadu Buhari declared that the Nigerian army had become “deeply concerned” about the conditions under which ordinary Nigerians were living and decided to take over the government.

He came to power in riding on the wings of an extremely ambitions manifesto; promising to end a jihadist insurgency, diversify the economy from oil and reduce corruption. His aids recently said that his administration can claim successes in the fight against jihadists in the northeast and in diversifying the economy away from its dependence on oil, which once accounted for 90% of government

“promising to “stamp out” corruption in Nigeria is a classic example of overselling.”

Nigerians flooded the streets in jubilation at the pronouncement; believing that the the change they’d cried out for had come.

As time went by Nigerians began to desire another change. Gen. Buhari had overseen one of the country’s least popular and repressive regimes with a string of human rights abuses and a shutdown of press freedom. 15 months later, Buhari himself was overthrown in a coup by general Ibrahim Babaginda.

Nigerians, once again, were on the streets celebrating.

But this is not the end of the story for Mr. Buhari. Fast-forward 35 years later to the present and Mr Buhari, a Fulani Muslim from Daura, Katsina, is 75 and is the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Elected in 2015, Mr Buhari appears to have not only mellowed but also become feeble with age and each previous attempt at the presidency (2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015).

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revenues.

But what can his administration claim regarding his promise to rid Nigeria of rampant corruption? Ordinary voters are angry that Mr Buhari appears to have made slow progress in curbing corruption. In the midst of the several stories of misappropriated funds with billions of dollars disappearing during the past government of President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr. Buhari’s government appears to be spotted with officials who have been afflicted with the corruption plague that seems to infect every Nigerian politician.

This lends Mr. Buhari’s government a hypocritical veneer as Nigerian ask why he would point out the speck in the eyes of his neighbours while ignoring the logs blinding his household.

Mr. Buhari must by now have learned to manage expectations. As the popular Nigerian blogger, Tolu Ogunlesi wrote years ago: “Nigerians are realistic enough

to know, from their history, that promising to “stamp out” corruption in Nigeria is a classic example of overselling.”

Contrary to the claims of his aides, whilst the economy has picked up since the recession of 2016 and 2017, the security situation appears to be deteriorating as “The herder-farmer conflict, rural banditry and the increase in kidnapping are being discussed more openly and government performance being judged more critically,” says Sola Tayo, a fellow at Chatham House, a British foreign affairs think tank. Although Nigeria’s army made gains against jihadists in his first few months in office, it has since become bogged down. Soldiers guard towns and patrol the roads, but insurgents still rule the countryside.

To add to Mr. Buhari’s rapidly dissipating support is his penchant for running abroad for lengthy periods of time to receive medical treatment. He spent much of 2017 in London receiving medical treatment. Interestingly, within hours of announcing his intention to run for a second term, the president traveled to London to attend a meeting of Commonwealth leaders. His office did not give a date for his return, leading to renewed rumours in that Mr. Buhari would once again be receiving medical attention in London.

Upon his return from one of his numerous medical trips, Mr. Buhari worked from home for several weeks. His spokesman explained it was because of the presence of rats in the president’s office. He became the subject of widespread ridicule in Nigeria.

POLITICS

That ridicule turned to anger in February, when Boko Haram abducted 110 schoolgirls in Dapchi, in the northeast. The president had insisted for nearly two years that the group had been defeated, and the abductions led to new questions about the government’s security strategy and its response to the kidnappings.

In March, 104 of the girls were returned to the town after successful negotiations between Boko Haram and the government. The Buhari’s government has also negotiated the release of more than 100 of the girls Boko Haram captured in Chibok in 2014, before he took office.

Some voters may see a second term as a steadying force, and his supporters have argued that Mr. Buhari, a former army general, needs more time to battle Boko Haram, and to defeat corruption and other entrenched economic problems.

Earlier in the year, his government made a statement urging Nigerians to “count the blessings that the administration has brought to the country’s economy,” citing a World Bank report ranking the nation as one of the top 10 in the world in making economic overhauls.

Mr. Buhari, it appears, sees himself as the knight in shining armour for Nigeria.

Remember when Nigerians woke up to find their democratically elected government gone as General Buhari took it upon himself to improve the conditions under which ordinary Nigerians were living? Or when he contested in 2015, riding on the wings of a heartbreaking desire to see change effected in Nigeria?

MUHAMMAD BUHARI CURRENT, PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA Addressing Nigerians living in the United States of America, Mr. Buhari urged Nigerians to give him a second chance to do better and make a difference, promising: “I will leave some difference in that office.”

It’s not just about what he says or what he means by what he says. What he has done, so far, leaves very little confidence that he is in charge or can be in charge.

To borrow the words of Mr. Ogunlesi; perhaps Mr. Buhari “oversold.” Be that as it may, from Mr. Buhari’s record, trusting him with another four years would be a dangerous leap of faith.

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POLITICS

J

THE BUSINESS MAN

ust as Mr Buhari’s extraordinary victory in 2015 challenged the long-held view that it was impossible to unseat an incumbent president in Nigeria, maybe, 2019 will prove that history can repeat itself.

The Presidents highest-profile challenger to emerge so far is Mr. Atiku Abubakar, 71, a former vice president (1999 to 2007) during the Obasanjo administration and wealthy businessman who will run in 2019 under the umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It is Mr. Atiku’s fourth run for the presidency after failed attempts in 2007, 2011 and 2015.

In a country of constant advances and setbacks, where every gain is fragile and every defeat reversible, no one expects a smooth ride when the president, Mr. Buhari, takes on challenger, Mr. Abubakar in the most hotly contested election since civilian rule was restored in the country 18 years ago.

Upon the conclusion of the PDP presidential primaries in October, roughly half the delegates were said to have voted for Mr. Abubakar as the candidate of the PDP in the forthcoming year’s election.

“Atiku has emerged from third place in the last primaries of this former party and his frequent position as wannabe-inchief, to flag-bearer yet again.” writes Azu Ishiekwene for the prestigious Nigerian newspaper, Vanguard.

Mr. Atiku is a familiar foe for the ruling party (APC), having been a member until last December when he decamped

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and returned to PDP. Since leaving APC, Atiku has been a strong critic of Muhammadu Buhari’s performance in office with Nigeria’s economy struggling for growth and insecurity concerns in the volatile north persisting. So far, Atiku has hinged his campaign on creating jobs -a message that’s likely to resonate given Nigeria’s high unemployment numbers.

Ironically, corruption is likely to be a prominent issue for the Businessman. In a 2010 report, Mr. Abubakar was singled out on money laundering by America’s Senate. It said he had channelled substantial funds of uncertain origin into America through proxy accounts. Mr. Abubakar’s supporters note that their candidate is the most investigated politician in Nigeria’s history, and that no charges have ever stuck.

For his part, Mr. Buhari still hinges his campaign on a strong anti-corruption

“…there’s a desperate edge about his quest for compromise and power that hints at a darker, uncomfortable quality about the man.” stance and economic reform. But with some members of his cabinet mired in corruption scandals of their own and an anti-corruption campaign that has seemed largely focused on the opposition, it remains to be seen if his message is still as effective.

He’s obviously a smart man. Whether his brand of smartness is what Nigeria needs is arguable.

POLITICS

THEIR SIMILARITIES As earlier noted, both Mr. Buhari and Mr. Atiku are desperate men. Mr Abubakar having been in every election since 1999; and Mr Buhari in every one since 2003, are both boringly familiar to voters. Oddly, for a country where half the population is younger than 18, both candidates are in their 70s. They are both aware that this is their last shot at the office of the Nigerian presidency. For Mr. Buhari, it’ll be a second term of power in all its glorious delights. For Mr. Abubakar it’ll be a taste of the office that was merely inches away from his position several years ago.

Equally striking is that both are northerners, Muslim and belong to the Fulani ethnic groups. That ought to be of little

consequence. But it counts for much in a country where people often vote along ethnic and religious lines, and where parties usually ensure that candidates from the north and south take turns standing.

For all their outward similarities, the two are quite different characters. Mr Abubakar, a wealthy former vice-president and customs-service chief, is a politicians’ politician, a gregarious character who masterfully outflanked his rivals in Port Harcourt. He campaigns as a business-friendly candidate who will get Nigeria’s economy going. Albeit, there’s a desperate edge about his quest for

compromise and power that hints at a darker, uncomfortable quality about the man. A quality that lies just beneath his veneer of a strategic fighter and a generous heart. Atiku is not a criminal, whatever anyone might say. But relentless wave after wave of corruption charges made against him since his former boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo, opened the floodgates in 2003 have left him with his head barely above the murky waters By contrast President Buhari, austere and introverted, is a former military ruler who does not hurry to make decisions and is suspicious of Nigeria’s corrupt political and business elite. .

CHALLENGES Under the headline, ‘An Ugly Beauty Contest,’ The Economist accurately notes that a key to Mr. Buhari’s success “was his ability to hold together an awkward coalition of parties to defeat Mr Jonathan.” To repeat the trick, Mr Abubakar will need to win the full-throated support (and financial resources) of rivals he has just trounced for the nomination.

Mr. Buhari’s challenge is different.

Although his nomination was uncontested, the party has been tearing itself apart over which candidates will run for state governorships and seats in the senate. The first lady, Aisha Buhari, said on Twitter that some of the APC’s primaries had been rigged. She then criticised party managers for sanctioning a culture of “impunity”.

Her husband will need to impose discipline on the party. Turnout in 2015 was just 43%. In more recent state elections it dropped to 20%. In a system where

the party machinery is needed to turn potential support into actual votes, The Economist again notes that “it is the battle within that may determine the outcome of the presidential election.”

In the end, they both face the challenge of energising an electorate that is growing disenchanted by extravagant promises that bring little change.

WATCH AND SEE.....

It was predictable that Mr. Buhari would run again, said Ayisha Osori, a Nigerian author, lawyer and political activist. As for whether he would win, “it is too early to say,” she said. “A lot will depend on the other candidates.”

She’s right. It is a moment of opportunity which, given the limitation of time and resources, the smaller, newer parties can only seize by combining their strengths and presenting a common front, possibly

in a loose coalition.

While Mr. Buhari’s poor performance has created a large army of discontented voters, that one particular group is unhappy with Mr. Buhari does not necessarily mean that they see Atiku as alternative.

The only other options is to watch out for the other presidential candidates to emerge from other political parties despite public analyses suggesting that the other other 24 or so candidates are wasting their time.

Nigeria will wait and see. Perhaps history will repeat itself. Perhaps an unexpected candidate will emerge successful. As renown author, Malcom Gladwell aptly wrote: “David pulled it off, but the best bet is always on Goliath.

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L I T E RAT URE The Trajectory of Literary Writing in Nigeria from 1958 - 2018.

BY TERZUNGWE KWA-AONDO

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L I T E R AT U R E

I

T IS NOW a given that serious and landmark literary writing in Nigeria and by extension, Africa had begun with the historic publication of Things Fall Apart in 1958. Achebe had taken the world by storm. His debut novel apparently his magnum opus has since eased into the pantheon of world literary classics.

Between 1958 and 2018, a whopping sixty years have intervened. Over this period, literary craft in Nigeria has remained in a bubble and well afloat.

Nigerian writers have added their oeuvres to the vast pool of the global artistic talent. The doyens and doyennes of Nigerian literature to name Achebe, Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo, Cyprian Ekwensi, Flora Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta and all the writers who blazed the trail of literary writing all exuded coruscating brilliance. Their writings can well be said to be a cornucopia of delights.

When Nigerian writers started writing in the lead up to national independence in the 1950s, they were playing the twin roles of activist-writers and nationalists. Their writings were a form of protest and revolt against the colonial order. Early African writers had engaged in a sort of protest or writing back. They were writing back to Europe in a counter discoursive mode. They had forged a counterhegemonic discourse that disclaimed all the Euro-centric assumptions about Africa. Put differently, the themes and motifs in the early writings reflected an obsession with the past and had generally railed against the cultural disarray that resulted from western colonial incursion.

ABOVE Sandy dunes of the deadliest deserts of all the deserts  

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L I T E R AT U R E

However, post-independence Nigeria and by extension all the which was dubbed the Nigeria-Biafra war was fallout of the independent states of Africa came with new challenges and recurring power tussle. Nigeria’s top military brass at the concerns. And this apparently and inevitably had reset the time was apparently dazed by their newfound power and had focus of the Nigerian writer. From a romanticised obsession become irredeemably embroiled in a war of attrition ruled by with the pre-colonial idyllic order, writers were now confronted self-interest. with the chaos and problems of leadership in the newly independent state of Africa. Far from anticipated, the African indigeThe civil war ushered in a landmark epoch in literary writing nous leaders that cropped up following the exit of the European in Nigeria. It had inspired an array of new writers as a literary expatriates had dimmed all hope that was nursed and nurtured revolution ensued in its wake with many old and new authors before independence. Brazen and hydraheaded corruption emerging on the scene to offer their varying accounts of the and graft characterised the upper reaches of government and war. A whole new genre of Nigerian literature had emerged public life with a known as Civil War resultant general literature. decay. Leadership tussle became These com“ Nigerian writers have forged a departure from a romanticisation of the widespread and prised both literary the direst fallout past and an obsession with local idiom and have now started invading and extra-literary was the series of accounts of the war new spaces and settings.” coups and counter both by those who coups that dogged had fought in the line African sites. of duty and those who were simply Confronted with these mounting challenges, writers turned to inspired by the trauma of it all. Most of the military honchos on document this new malaise and to express their displeasure both sides of the impasse later gave their varied accounts of the and the general feeling despondency. Wole Soyinka’s The debacle. Olusegun Obansanjo’s My Command, Elechi Amadi’s Interpreters and Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People made Sunset in Biafra, Chukwuemeka Ike’s Sunset at Dawn, Isidore varied commentaries on the state of the nation and the attenOkpewho’s The Last Duty and most recently Chimamanda dant national disarray. The dire climax of this chaos was the Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun and Chinua Achebe’s last testaoutbreak of the civil war in 1967. The civil war ment There was a Country: A personal History of Biafra among many others, are some of the literary and non-literary renditions that were inspired by the civil war. It is instructive to note that the emergence of civil war literature was somewhat akin to an earlier genre of literature that had sprung up in the late 50s and 60s known as Onitsha Market literature. It was a sudden proliferation of chapbooks and pulp literature that had inundated Onitsha market around that period. It did not have the quality of serious writing and its rise was quite fleeting and meteoric The mid and late 60s saw the emergence of female writers on the Nigerian literary scene. The first to join the league of established writers was Flora Nwapa following her publication of Efuru in 1966. Buchi Emecheta and other female writers also joined the fray around the late 60s and 70s. Female writing was fundamentally gendered and bristled with feminist undercurrents. They were poised to mark a break with the existing malecentred writing. They consequently attempted to challenge patriarchy to its very foundations and liberate the female figure from the constricting fetters of patriarchy and male subjugation.

The leadership quagmire in Nigeria continued to be a central

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L I T E R AT U R E

theme for the established and emergent writers in Nigeria.

The menace of corruption and moral bankruptcy of leaders made Achebe to quip earlier that “our true leaders are not those intoxicated with Cambridge, Oxford and Harvard degrees but those who speak the language of the people” and later in his polemical publication titled The Trouble with Nigeria (1983) that “the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership”.

The 1980’s would change the texture and global stature of literary writing in Nigeria. A slew of things would occur that had grandly etched Nigeria on the world literary map. A high point of this decade was the clinching of the Nobel Prize for literature by Wole Soyinka in 1986. This indicated the arrival of a grand and historic epoch in literary Africa. Wole Soyinka would become the first to be so honoured in black Africa.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee hailed Soyinka’s depth of imagery and glittering literary style and further averred that Soyinka, “in a wide cultural perspective and with political overtones fashions a drama of existence”.

The 80s and the 90s would see yet another era and style of literary craft. Writers like Ben Okri, Abubakar Gimba, Femi Osofisan, Ken Saro Wiwa, Kole Omotosho, Tanure Ojaide had emerged with a growing oeuvre that thematically wove together a medley of issues. In the northern part of Nigeria, the first female voice would be heard in the mid 80s. Zaynab Alkali would publish her first novel The Stillborn (1984) which was received with a thunderous acclamation as a feminist classic. More female writers would be heard with emerging women-writers uniting against the constricting chains of patriarchy that had tethered women to a spot.

At the turn of the new millennium, a third generation of Nigerian writers had arrived on the scene. Writers like Helon Habila, Sefi Atta, Chmamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ezenwa Ohaeto, Chinelo Okparanta, Molara Wood, Dul Johnson, Terhemba Shija, Damian Jam, Sue’ddi Agema and a host of other new writers came with a cacophony of literary voices that have continued to expand the vast corpus of literary writing in Nigeria.

of Nigerian writers, the third generation of writers has reset its literary focus with a global outlook. Nigerian writers have begun to explore global themes in their works. Recent Nigerian writing has seen an array of writers exploring diasporic concerns and taking on varied issues at the heart of Nigerians in the Diaspora.

In effect, Nigerian writers have forged a departure from a romanticisation of the past and an obsession with local idiom and have now started invading new spaces and settings. There is now no limit to the literary depth and breadth of the Nigerian writer. The new tribes of Nigerian immigrants abroad who are writing from the Diaspora have introduced a whole new dimension to Nigerian literature.

From Achebe to Adichie, Nigerian literature has indeed thrived.

In truth, it has experienced both boom and bust. The boom reflected in the quality of work and the quantity of awards both national and international won by Nigerian writers. The bust, in a manner of speaking, designates the huge losses as it connects the death of the titans of Nigerian literature like Chinua Achebe who died in 2013 and Buchi Emecheta who died in 2017, among many others.

In conclusion, Nigerian literature which in practical terms is barely over half a century old is in motion and fully set to run its course. It is an incontrovertible fact that Nigeria brims with literary talent. Established and budding writers attest to the promise of this arm of global literature and the future sparkles with hope.

It is apparent that the world has not seen the full range of the Nigerian literary talent. As we brace up for a close of this decade and a start of the new decade of the 2020s, it is the projection of this writer that a whole new generation of writers would emerge within the shores of Nigeria that would make literary exploits which will stump the great achievements of the Dickens and Shakespeares of this world.

Writers of all stripes have since emerged and are set to alter the texture and complexion of Nigerian literature going forward. The new writers seem to be evolving a new paradigm in both style and motif. From an obsession with the past by the pioneers and first generation of writers to the gendered and political overtones of the second generation

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INTERVIEWS SENATOR ADEMOLA ADELEKE SPEAKS ON HIS COMEBACK PLAN Ademola Adeleke is a Nigerian Senator representing Osun-west senatorial district of Osun State. He was also recently a gubernatorial candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the Osun 2018 gubernatorial elections. The Bazement Team sits with him to discuss his strategy, ambition and ideology:

BY AISHA RIMI

You recently ran for the Osun state governorship position. What motivated you to run for the office?

The present government is not doing well. At all. So I asked myself if I could just close my eyes when my people are suffering. That is why I came out for the election: to make life better for the people of Osun state. The election came and has gone. You all know the story, I won the election but the opposition stole the seat. We are already in court at the tribunal and I believe it’s going to be a straight forward case with the whole world watching. I believe that very soon we will reclaim our mandate back.

Lots of politicians defected to the APC and vice versa. What motivated you to remain in the PDP? APC right now is a disaster. There is impunity in APC. What happened at the presidential primaries in Port Harcourt when Atiku won the presidential primary election is what we call internal democracy. The election was free and fair, everybody voted, no intimidation whatsoever.

That is what makes us a democracy. As I’m talking to you APC has a lot of problems because of impunity. This one is fighting here, the other one is fighting there. The problem here is that a lot of people use the presidents name to achieve their personal goals. That is why Mr. president should call all of them to order that they should stop using his name because once you are elected as the president of Nigeria we don’t care whether you are APC or PDP the most important thing is to make sure that life is better for all Nigerians. Once you are elected as the President you are the father of all and you must make sure that life and property is protected. I was in APC for couple of years before I moved back to my old party, PDP. I think, right now as I’m talking to you that PDP is more organised than the APC and that is the truth.

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Is there any advice you have for other political aspirants who feel that they have been cheated out of their rightfully won position?

Well, as for me I believe in non-violence because I look at some of the world leaders that have achieved so many things through non-violence. If you say you want to go and tell people to start fighting why can’t your children be in the forefront? We have a constitution in Nigeria. If you know that you have been cheated, there is a legal means to go through and I have chosen that path. I’ve already gone to the court to file my petition, so the case is on. I believe that the judiciary will do their own part because the judiciary should be the last hope of a common man.

INTERVIEWS

The Election Petition Tribunal was recently relocated from Osogbo to Abuja. Are you aware of the reason for the relocation?

I don’t have any reason. I just woke and they just say that it has been relocated to Abuja. We believe that we have the right to know but if they choose that they don’t want to tell us, well, we are watching. The whole world is watching Do you think that there were any political developments in Osun state, under the past government?

I don’t think so. I’m talking about the present government. The past government was PDP and they did a good job. They built the Osun state university and erected so many other infrastructures and development programmes. The past government did very well. But this present government? There is noting to show for.\ What definite action plans do you have to address their shortcomings?

I have a 6 point agenda to address the shortcomings. The first thing I will work on is agriculture. Agriculture is too important to have been neglected. During the old times in Nigeria everybody knew their strengths and used the profit from agriculture to pay taxes and the respective governments used that money to develop its region. After agriculture -and with agriculture- I will create employment. Then education. The education is very important. I will improve teachers welfare and the quality of education for students. Education and health are very important. Do you know that the hospital is neglected?

They don’t pay the doctors. If you go there, they don’t have drugs for ordinary malaria.

An issue that is important to us is the inclusivity of Nigeria youths in politics. Are you a supporter of the cause?

The President of France is 39 years old. When you are young you will be able to do more but when you are old, by 7 o’clock you will be sleeping and there will be limits to the things you do.

I support youth participation in politics. I encouraged them to go out and collect forms. But you the youths should not disappoint, you must be serious.

What are your thoughts on the negotiations over the new minimum wage?

I think there should be more negotiations between the labour unions and the federal government so that they can agree on a just amount. Because nobody can survive on thirty thousand Naira a month.

Do you have any advice for both the current and opposition government that they should initiate before the upcoming presidential elections ?

I believe so much that it is only God that can give you power.

You can’t force it. So why are we even fighting? The only advice I have for them is that there should not be violence. Let everybody campaign, tell us what you want to give to Nigeria and let the Nigerian people decide.

Security is part of it because if you don’t have security, investors will not invest. I want my state to be a role model for other states to copy. Those are some of my agendas I plan to execute for my state.

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Hon. Kawu Sumaila: The Man Building a Bridge Between the Executive and the Senate Hon. Suleiman Abdulrahman Kawu Sumaila (OFR) is the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters. He has successfully completed three consecutive terms in the House of Representatives of the National Assembly, served as a member of the board of trustees, National Caucus and NEC and served as member of the central merger committee which formed APC. Hon. Sumaila recently made public his intention to contest for Kano South senatorial seat at the forth coming general elections in 2019.

AISHA RIMI and IDRIS BABANGIDA sit down with him to discuss his his politics and National Assembly: Recently, the national chairman of our great party, constituted a higher You recently made public your intention to contest for the Kano South senatorial

committee in all six geo-political zones for reconciliation and understand-

seat at the forthcoming general elections. What motivated you to run for the

ing. We are waiting for the reconciliation committee to act. Whenever

office?

you hear of reconciliation, definitely, there must be a misunderstanding.

When there is misunderstanding, there must be a rancour. The party and

I am a parliamentarian. I served in the house of representatives for twelve

the government has reacted and naturally, the party is telling the position

years and I even served in the highest decision body of the house of repre-

of the government.

sentatives as a principal officer. After finishing my tenure, I became a liaison officer between the President and the house of representatives which gave

We are very lucky, all of the APC members across Nigeria believe in

me another opportunity to understand the workings of the national assembly

Muhammadu Buhari. Muhammadu Buhari is APC. But thank God now,

and the workings of the executive. What can we do to promote understand-

President Buhari is there and most of our people are loyal to him no matter

ing, to work together between the executive and the house of representatives

how they feel. They believe that one day we will go out from this our mess

to achieve our desired goal? This is what motivated me.

because of Buhari. What we met on ground is more than what is happening now. Therefore, the coming of APC is a good omen.

As a public relations officer between the executive and the senate, I understand that there is a need for me to transfer my experience to the senate which

Do you think the National Assembly will be able to pass certain critical bills

at least, will bring harmony and rapid development through understanding.

like the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, the Disability Bill and others before critical ones before the expiration of its tenure?

You’ve expressed your regrets over the mass defection of APC aspirants to other political parties in Kano State and other parts of the country. What would

It is a continual process. Even if this tenure expires, the next national

you say is the reaction of the government towards the trend?

assembly will takeover. There is a constitutional amendment and there are some laws which allow the national assembly to continue with what they

Well you know, I am a founding member of APC. I was part of the 89-member

have started. Even if they do, first reading, second reading, they will do a

central merger committee, who formed APC. I served in the board of trustees

third reading in the next assembly. There is no harm in it.

of APC. I served in various committee’s, various organs of the party, before my appointment. Therefore, I can say that APC is our baby project, it is in my

Most of the constitutional amendments passed by this current 8th assem-

blood. I must feel bad whenever anything bad happens to the party. As a pol-

bly were started in the 7th assembly. Like the State Assembly Autonomy,

itician, more especially in this kind of our situation where we practice mass

I was a sponsor of the bill. And we had finished all the processes but it is

political party system, where everybody is looking for numbers. Whenever our

only in this 8th assembly where they passed it and made it a law. It is a

number reduces to a certain level, we must feel bad. I am not happy because

continuous process.

we lost some credible members.

An issue that is important to us is the inclusivity of Nigerian youths in Secondly, I am not happy because of the way and manner in which our party

politics. Are you a supporter of the cause?

conducted its primaries. A party that promised free and fair election, a party that came to do free and fair contests. We complained from 2003, up to 2015,

Quite alright. I am a supporter because I am a critical stakeholder. I became

that what the PDP is doing is not good to our system and now we are trying

a member of the house of representatives when I was 35. I can say that I

to emulate what PDP was doing.

didn’t have a serious godfather from my constituency who sponsored my candidature. I did it by myself and I joined politics from my tender age. I

How do you think that APC can promote unity among its members?

used to go to the state house of assembly in 1999 when I was 30 years.

This shows you how committed I am with generational change. When Mr. President was signing that constitutional amendment, I was standing

22

behind him, I am the one who handed over the legislation to him.

But, it is not all about laws. We need to get some certain things clear before we achieve youth participation in current politics. Because of what we perceive as democracy, we respect party’s more than individuals. We need to understand that in the presidential system of government, it is individuals who are moving the system, not the party. It is different from the parliamentary system of government where the party is moving the system. I am 50 but people still see me as a young person. Therefore it is a serious challenge, we need a generational shift.

We need old age too, just to mix the two.

Do you have any advice for young Nigerians interested in politics?

Well, I think they need to be serious, be committed and they need to know that nobody is giving them power, they must fight for it. You must come out and fight for it.

You must watch your left, right and centre when you’re going. You need to do a lot and you need to understand before you start blaming the entire system. You know most of our youths nowadays are more of the blamegame, rather than studying what the game is all about.

What are your thoughts on the negotiations over the new minimum wage?

In as much as there are some people agitating for true federalism, naturally, a central government cannot in anyway impose a minimum wage to states because the capacity of different states are far different. The capacity of Akwa Ibom is different from Maiduguri or Yobe.

How much they are getting is different from what other states are getting.

Secondly, we need a collective understanding in arriving at a minimum wage. When you compare N18,000 or N30,000, it is very, very meagre. Can somebody sustain himself and family with N18,000 or N30,000? It is not realistic. We need to sit down and tell ourselves the truth. We need to talk as human beings. I can say that we are encouraging corruption, we are going against the code of conduct. We need to sit down and amend some of our laws, see how we can adjust our federation status, then how life under N18,000 or N30,000 can be possible.

Do you have any predictions about the forthcoming presidential elections?

Well, of course, you know I am a politician, I am a supporter of Muhammadu Buhari and I am a candidate of House of Representatives.

Naturally, I would say, APC will win. What do you expect me to say, PDP will win? Naturally, it is not a question.

Do you have any advice for the current government and the opposition government regarding the coming election?

I appreciate PDP, how they presented their agenda and how we came up with our own. I am very interested in the way the debate started. Now we are on issues. It is not like 2015 where we start talking about the President, digging his past, making lies. Now it is on issues. While the PDP are thinking they will make Nigeria great again, in the end, we are all reaching one destination. But the process of reaching the destination, from my understanding, APC is the best.

 

23

Introducing the Baze University

y Student Represen-

Rabi Mohammed PRESIDENT

“I derive a lot of pleasure from serving people” WHY DID YOU JOIN THE SRC? I joined seeing that there is a wide gap in the communication cycle between the Baze University management and the students. So I believe my coming into SRC will bridge that gap between them as I act as an intermediary between the students and the school.

WHAT DIFFERENCE DO YOU THINK THE SRC WILL MAKE IN THE UNIVERSITY? For starters, we’ve ensured that each department has a specific registration officer that will sit with each and every student of that department once the student comes back from internship right before the student proceeds to their final semester. That registration officer will go all the way back to the students first year to make sure that the student does not have any backlog of courses that will prevent the him/her from getting cleared for graduation.

WHAT CHALLENGES HAVE YOU ENCOUNTERED SINCE YOU GOT INTO OFFICE?

Because the SRC was any just elected, our most tasking responsibility has been laying a new foundation for the SRC coming later. Ours is more of drawing the blueprint.

WHAT IS THE SRC DOING ABOUT THE RECENT STUDENT COMPLAINTS CONCERNING WATER SHORTAGE AND POWER OUTAGE ?

I’ve consulted with the Vice Chancellor and he assured us that the management is doing everything possible to see that the problems are speedily resolved and doesn’t happen again. Alternatively, we wrote to the management asking permission for the SRC to get two generators that would be used specifically for pumping water to the hostels. Our request wasn’t approved.

WHO COMES FIRST: THE FAMILY, SCHOOL OR SRC?

The SRC, of course (laughs). Does it gives me pleasure to do this? As a wife, a mother and a student it’s a lot of work but I’m happy doing this because I derive a lot of pleasure from serving people.

SECTION NAME

Nafisa Abubakar FINANCIAL SECRETARY

“We insist on accountability and transparency amongst ourselves.”

WHY DID YOU JOIN THE SRC? I have financial skills so I joined the SRC to assist the team in effectively executing their goals while maintaining a modest expense sheet.

HOW WOULD YOU GAUGE THE SUCCESS OF THE SRC IN MEETING YOUR OBJECTIVES? It is really not easy. Our powers are somewhat limited because it is a private university and then we have to be sure we get everything approved by the school before taking up a decision.

HOW WOULD YOU RATE THE SRC’S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE STUDENT BODY? It’s been good so far. We’re looking to strengthen the relationship in the nearest future.

HAVE THERE BEEN ANY PARAMETERS SET UP TO ENSURE ACCOUNTABILITY OF THE FUNDS PROVIDED TO THE SRC? The students can be assured that the SRC is strict on managing the resources that they have given us. We insist on accountability and transparency amongst ourselves. That’s why the funds all go towards meeting the needs of the students.

Firstly, we plan to repair the road leading to the hostels; provide stronger and unlimited internet connection; and also purchase a small generator to be pumping water specifically to the hostel.

We are just waiting for approval from the school management.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO STUDENTS WHO ARE IMPATIENT WITH THE PROGRESS OF THE SRC? Nothing good comes easy, everyone has to be patient.

Mustapha Musa Bamiyo SECRETARY GENERAL

“We have achieved that symbol that a body representing the students’ voice exists.”

WHY DID YOU JOIN THE SRC? To bring my knowledge and impact to the SRC and improve Baze University as an institution.

WHAT HAVE YOU ACHIEVED? We have achieved that symbol that a body representing the students’ voice exists.

WHAT ARE YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES? They’re a few but we took an oath when we accept the office and the discomforts are part of the package WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE CHALLENGES THE STUDENTS ARE FACING? We’ve spoken to management and are currently trying to solve the electricity and water situation in the hostel.

Because it is an unfortunate situation where a student is here to learn and is expected to learn to live without all the fundament needs for him to excel in his academic works.

We are also working on bringing in food vendors that will sell food at a low price because of the students complaining about how costly food is in Baze. We are also trying to set up at least one 24-hour eatery WHAT ARE YOUR SHORT TERM GOALS FOR BAZE UNIVERSITY? To leave a legacy that other student would like to emulate in the future. One legacy would be constructing the road leading to the school hostel?

Immanuellla Alalibo SPORTS DIRECTOR

“At the end of my tenure students will be connected better with the management.”

WHY DID YOU JOIN THE SRC? I wanted to make a difference in the sports sector of Baze University. I battled with weight problems when I was young and engaging in sporting activities helped me overcome them. Now I’m really passionate about sports.

WHAT SPORTS ARE YOU INTERESTED IN ??

I play a wide range of sports. Mostly badminton and Tennis.

WHAT IS YOUR ROLE IN THE SRC??

I’d says I’m the glue that brings the students together.

Outside academic activities, sports is the one thing that brings students and even the SRC together. So my role in the SRC is to bring students of distinct backgrounds and from different faculties together while channeling the sporting needs of the students to the school managemenT. WHAT CHALLENGES HAVE YOU ENCOUNTERED SO FAR? The gym and the basketball court are in poor shape.

Although we’ve complained, the feedback has been delayed. But we’re still pursuing a revamp of the gym and outdoor courts WHAT DIFFERENCES DO YOU THINK YOU’LL MAKE AT THE END OF YOUR TENURE? The other SRC members are a wonderful team to work with. We’re an ambitious group and with their help I will revamp the sporting sector of Baze University.

Muhammad Kabir TREASURER

“I want to create a trademark for absolute accountability and transparency.”

WHY DID YOU JOIN THE SRC? I believe I have leadership qualities and I see this opportunity in the SRC as not only a good place to utilise my skills but also as a stepping zone towards achieving my future political dreams.

WHAT IS YOUR ROLE AS A TREASURER?

I deal with financial transactions, keeping up with financial statements.

WHAT CHALLENGES HAVE YOU FACED SO FAR? Lack of cooperation from students and delayed responses from management.

WHAT HAVE YOU’VE ACCOMPLISHED THUS FAR? My tenure in the SRC is a journey I decided for myself to embark on. I’d say the most tasking thing is balancing both my education -which is my primary motive- and also the duties I took an oath to perform

WHAT LEGACY DO YOU HOPE TO LEAVE BEHIND AT THE END OF YOUR TENURE?

According to the motto I used during my campaign which is: “An eye for detail and icon for change,” I want to create a trademark for absolute accountability and transparency.

So that every other individual who aspires for this particular

Robert Jephta Daniel Public Relations Officer

“At the end of my tenure students will be connected better with the management.”

WHY DID YOU JOIN THE SRC? I joined the SRC as a response to students plights because they I feel that I can communicate good with the school management and effect the changes the students require.

HOW HAS THE EXPERIENCE BEEN SO FAR? It has been okay. Not as smooth as I’d expected but we are moving forward.

WHAT CHALLENGES HAVE YOU ENCOUNTERED ?

Lack of cooperation from students and delayed responses from management.

WHAT HAVE YOU’VE ACCOMPLISHED THUS FAR? I’ve tried to create an environment where students are more willing to relate with one another and confident in the ability of the SRC to represent them before the school management.

WHAT DIFFERENCES DO YOU THINK YOU’LL MAKE AT THE END OF YOUR TENURE? At the end of my tenure students will be connected better with the management. And there will be a better and more effective means of informations dissemination in Baze University.

ENTREPRENUERS  

36

ENTREPRENUERS

The Talented Mr. George Okoro Chibuike A. and Hussaina Lawal meet Nigeria’s reigning wedding photographer, Mr. George Okoro to discuss his trajectory to the top.

01

You have been a photographer for how

long?

Professionally, I would say five to six years as a pro. No, not even as a pro. I mean when you started you can’t even say you’re a pro because you were training and I started learning on my own. So it was more self taught until I enrolled with the New York Institute of Photography to learn the basics. The course was Fundamentals of Digital Photography. Apart from that, everything is self taught; YouTube, practice and fail, trial and error.

04

Back in 2016, you were awarded the title of Sarkin Masuhoton Galadiman Zazzau (King of photographers Zazzau) back in Zaria. What’s that like?

This is actually one of the biggest highlights in my career, to be honest because I didn’t see it coming and for you to be recognised like that -if you understand how it works- the Zazzau emirate council is one of the top emirate councils in the country and they honoured me with a title that means King of Photographers Zazzau. The title came as a shock because we travelled down there to document a wedding and in the process they informed me that they were going to turban me the next day. It’s huge and I thank them so much for that recognition and if you agree with me I think we deserve that accolade.

02

03

Inspiration at some point comes from the people around you. There are certain days where you feel like the pressure is getting too much, are you sure I can do this and a simple statement from somebody changes the whole thing. Somebody tells you “Oh my God, your doing a great job, I see what you’re doing.” Not even the money. The real joy comes from actually making other people happy, making people see what you’re doing.

The comments that are coming from people make me feel fulfilled at the end of the day.

We like to say ‘we created an image’ not just that ‘we took a picture.’ So, I make sure I try to connect with my subject before I click. The photographs are a representation of who the person is. Those are the kind of images we like to create. My pictures are organic.

Where do you find inspiration to continue photography?

05

What has been the most challenging thing

you’ve experienced when it comes to expressing your art?

Every photographer in Nigeria today will tell you that the industry, even though its not where it was a few years ago, it is also not where we want it to be because the career is still generally perceived as for dropouts so we are still not getting the value that photographers in the developed countries would get. We are working to see that this perspective is changed and we are also hoping that some day photography as a course would be taking seriously in Nigerian institutions. Some other challenge would be the cost of buying gears because gears are really expensive and even though they

If you could describe all your photos, what would you say that they’re all about?

06

What has been the

highlight of your artistic career?

In 2015 I was privileged to be the first photographer to profile the first current family even before they won the primary election, so that is an achievement because today they are in power.

Secondly, I shot the first lady’s official portrait which I think is a big deal. I have been opportune to photograph and profile a lot of current governors, aspirants. I have been opportune to do jobs in so many countries. We are talking Germany, UAE, Ghana, Liberia, London, Barcelona, Italy and the list goes on. This is a business that I started up in my bedroom. Yesterday we were discussing with another client from Liberia that wants us to come document a wedding. Those are the highs.

say the camera doesn’t make the photographer but there are certain equipment’s you need to purchase in other for to go commercial and these things are really pricey.

33

BAZEMENT MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW

07

What has been the lowest low of your artistic

career?

Some clients give us a tough time, to be honest. Some people don’t understand what it takes to actually create these images. So if you’re not in sync with your clients, sometimes you don’t get the best results and when you don’t get the best result you’re not happy with yourself because you know you can do better. Each time I do a gig and I’m not happy with the gig I don’t sleep well. Times like that I would consider as low times because I know if I had put certain things in place maybe I wouldn’t have made that mistake. So those are mistakes that we try to correct every now and then especially in the next gig make sure you don’t repeat the same sort of mistake.

08

Who is your favourite photographer?.

There is a photographer called Sue Bryce. She is based in the USA. Her work is absolutely amazing and she majors in portraiture. She tops that list for me.

09

At what point do you believe a photographer is ready to go pro?

The moment you pick up your camera and say “This is what I want to take seriously,” that’s the moment you’re ready to go pro. The day I picked up my camera and put down my resignation letter was the day that I was ready to go pro. I still like to consider myself as amateur but any day you makeup your mind, that is the day you’re ready to go pro.

10

What has been your most memorable photo-shoot?

There was a wedding 2014, in Kaduna, Aisha Dangiwa and Mustapha Aliero. That wedding was a game changer not just for me but that wedding influenced a lot of changes in the wedding industry in the north. I had the option of going for a friends wedding in the UK as a groom’s man or shooting this wedding. Aisha and her sister insisted that I must shoot her wedding. It’s not like we were friends before but for some reasons they felt that I was the only person that could deliver what they wanted for their wedding and I was honoured to hear that from a client. So I decided I was going to miss this wedding in the UK and stay back and shoot this wedding. When we started documenting Aisha’s wedding from the first event which was the dinner that we shot, the pictures were something else. She wore this green dress and we created this image when she was coming out from the car and there was a reflection of her by the car door.

That image was so powerful then. On the second day, she wore a white lace and she was going in to change and I said “hey, we need to take a picture in this outfit and she said “no, this is not my main dress” and I said your already wearing it, let me take a quick picture then you go in and change. After the shots, I quickly brought out my computer and retouched the images and put them up online. Within the next 30mins all the wedding blogs were talking about that picture. They all changed their profile images to that picture. My phone started buzzing, I’m getting calls from Hello magazine and they wanted the exclusive pictures. People created wedding blogs to feature this wedding I’m talking people that where not blogging weddings started blogging weddings because of this wedding. It was a wave and that’s the wedding that changed the game for me because everybody started asking who I was, saying they wanted George Okoro to shoot their wedding. I can’t forget that.

11

Have you found your someone? That model that you feel most comfortable with?

I enjoy photographing Adukebe. Also Precious John. I’ll leave it at these two for now.

12 artist ?

Do you ever feel threatened that you’ll lose yourself as an Yeah, you get that felling some times. But sometimes you look back and see that that is where I was and this is where I am now, you’ll have to go back and create.

13

Is there anything else in the

creative industry that you’d like to try out ?

For now, no. I’m really focused on doing this. We’re barely 6 years so we have to make sure to build a solid foundation so the structure can operate even in my absence before I start thinking about doing something else.

INTERVIEW

 

39

EMINE ADOGA

The Woman Changing our Grooming Routines for the Better Source: Uptatie mod tin

voluptat praesse quisit utpat nisci eraessequam dolenim do ex eu feugait

GoldTribe.gt is a brand creating natural body care products for everyone. Reports abound of the efficacy of their products in healing skin ailments. Joseph Okwoche meets with GoldTribe.gt founder, Emine Adoga, 27, for information on her come-up, the importance of focus and how not to look like a withered husk in 2019.

01 .

Have you got a professional career besides the GoldTribe brand?

Yes, I am a communicator. I studies Mass Communication. After graduating the university, I worked with a magazine company for over 2 years, then became an editor in a radio house and also read the news as a DCA (Duty Continuity Announcer).

02

What inspired you to make your own body care products?

The ability to heal. I like anything that heals.

From drugs to aromatherapy to anything that heals. For a long time, my mom and I had discolouration on the face - not sunburn - it was just a discolouration we could not understand.

I then took my time, reading, researching and experimenting on myself and I saw that a few things could come together to create something awesome for the skin.

So, it worked for both my mum and I and then, a few people started complimenting me and then, I started making for them. What inspired me was the act of healing and then people telling me how my natural products worked for them.

03

What products have you got right now?

The Bath Wash made from African Black Soap; the BodyOil made from essential oils and herbs; Cowash cleanser or shampoo for natural hair; I sell pure, unadulterated edible honey gotten from the Idoma speaking park of Benue state. I also sell Ghee sometimes.

04

When did you realise you could create a business from them?

The moment it worked on my skin. I was about leaving my job and realised I could sell this and have a life from there. I could heal people through it and could create a business.

05

Are there any skills or experiences from your career the you use in the business?.

Yes. I am a communicator. I understand the act of communicating, I also understand the act of getting people to understand me and also getting myself to understand people. If you don’t understand people, you can’t get them to buy.

09

Are there any non-organic products you use?

Yes. Putting in mind that non-organic doesn’t necessarily mean toxic. Let me give an example; non organic such as Salicylic acid, is beautiful and doesn’t harm the skin, instead, it works very well for acne and that is a component in most of my products..

10

What are the biggest challenges you have had to overcome in starting your business ?

The price war between competitors and the cost of researching and experimenting and attending webinars and seminars sometimes are challenging but then again, it’s a business.

06

What are your considerations when choosing ingredients for your products?

I consider the healing capacity, chemical reactions, people’s skin sensitivity, skin type, sometimes their age and effectiveness.

07 .

What is your favourite thing about your job as a formulator?

My favourite thing is feedback. When I get messages that my body wash has cleared my clients skin ailment. That’s one of the greatest achievements.

08

Have you got a specific target market in mind when creating your products?

I target every man, woman, young adult, child, that has a skin ailment or want to maintain their very beautiful skin or wants a less toxic body product. My target is everybody. Everybody that takes a bath, uses oil on their skin, takes care of their hair. In a family, one or two people suffer from skin condition and so, families are my target also.

11

13

What is your vision for GoldTribe a year from now?.

I hope to be a household brand in 5 or 10 years. Well, in a year or two, I want to service more people than I do presently. If I can service at-least 3-5 percent of Nigeria’s population, I would love to have been able to take that off my bucket list in the next year. I want to be able to sell to market women and be able to sell to people who buy Avon, Dove products.

14

Whats one piece of advice you give to others looking to this into this market?.

I’ll say focus, spend money, be willing to learn, be willing to spend money to make money. Most people settle for less because they don’t want to buy the organic lightning agent because they’ll rather sell what the bleaching people want. If you focus on why you started and what you really want people’s skin to look like; if you focus on going green and organic, I think you’ll make it better because people are getting to understand why they should throw away their toxic body products to buy natural ones.

Just Focus.

The organic personal care products market is projected to grow to $15.98 billion by 2020. Why do you think the demand it the industry is growing so quickly?

Demand is growing quickly because of the rate of skin ailment, skin cancer, and other skin related conditions. Going organic or natural gives you longer life, makes skin healthier void of skin ailment.

People would rather have all these than an unhealthy and cancerous skin.

12

What are the most important things that have contributed to your success?

I would say my devotion and focus. Of course, God is present. I have also been able to focus on a certain set of product I produce and stick with it. I attend webinars and seminars a lot, I listen a lot, I read, research and experiment a lot. Overtime, I have learnt the art of business.

37

ENTREPRENUERS

A CHAT WITH IFUEKOO The Illustrator and Comic Artist Inviting us into Her Imagery In 2018 It’s not just photographers who dominate social media. Graphics artists/illustrators like architecture major, Osafuwenko Tunde-oni also pull a huge fanbase while reminding us of the potency of creative talent from across the artistic spectrum.

Run through her social media (IG:@ifuekoo) and you’ll observe in her illustrations a generosity that seems to invite a person to imagine he/she a part of the scene that’s depicted; delivering an overall effect of fun, rather than formal and serious imagery.

The Bazement team Facetimed her to find out in-depth insights into her work and how she hopes to evolve in 2019.

01

How’d you come about your talent as an illustrator ?

I could all always draw stuff so I kinda just kept buying books and learning. I was always interested in art. I don’t know if I really came about it but, yeah, consistency, I guess.

05

How do you

approach your artistry ?

IYou know how when you’re small they give you a pen and paper and tell you to draw a line?

02

Then they deduce the kind of person you are if

Was there a moment when you decided that this is what you wanted to do?

It kinda been a funny journey because I’m in architecture and basically in Nigeria if you can draw they put you in architecture. But I always knew that I wanted to do something that had art in it.

03

Do you remember some of your earliest influences?

There was this children’s’ author, Jacqueline Wilson and Nick Sharratt illustrated for her. I have all her books in my library. I loved the illustrations. And then Disney, Cartoon Network, comic books. They influenced me.

04

you draw a straight line or a curved line. I kinda just draw random curves till I actually get what I want. I can get up to three different rough sketches before I start the main work. That’s for personal projects.

Life. Anything that happens in life: emotions, events. With art you can get inspiration from other artists and other types of art. Everything comes together to become one thing and then you make something.

What’d you say is your strongest skill?

Attention to detail. Any medium I use, I can master it if you give me time. I pay attention to a lot of details depending on the time I spend on my work.

09

What other creative endeavours are you

involved in?

I’m into photography. I just don’t post them as much.. I started a brand. Kind of like a fashion/ lifestyle thing. I actually use the photography for that and deal with the graphics. So I take the pictures, edit them and also deal with the graphics.

So just fashion, photography, art, more-or-less.

10

Have you got any plans for after you’re

done with school?

06

Ideally my plan was to drop architecture and go Which one of your projects has been the

into art full time. But I learned today that that

most important in developing your personal style?

would not be a wise choice. My plan right now is

Not a lot of people know about the fact that I have

to graduate next year then work for a year. Then

a comic page. I kind of stopped doing this for a

get a masters degree in Europe. Hopefully in

while this summer because I had a lot of work

Milan. Then I’m going to try afterwards to apply

to do. I started with comics. The comics more or

to art school; SCAD to be specific.

less shaped how I thought and how I approached

11

story telling.

What inspires your illustrations ?

08

07

What are you expecting from yourself as

an artist in 2019?

How’d you describe your personal style?

I think my personal style is very fluid. I think I’ve gotten to the point where people who follow my work can recognise it on sight. It has a lot to do with curves. You don’t find too many straight lines in my work.

To be very honest I expect my work to be a lot cleaner. I feel that I’m becoming more confident with my work.

Osafuwenko Tunde-oni The Illustrator and Comic Artist

F OCUS

Justifying his condemnation of interest Aristotle, the Greek Philosopher, asserted that “very much disliked is … the practice of charging interest; and the dislike is fully justified of interest as a yield arising out of money itself, not a product of which money was provided. Money was intended to be a means of exchange; interest represents an increase in the money itself. Hence of all the ways of getting wealth, this is the most contrary to nature” (Aristotle, The Politics, Pg. 46,).

[Jesus said] “if you have money, do not lend it at interest but give (it)

ISLAMIC BANKING: WHAT IT IS

to one from whom you will not get it back” (Gospel St Thomas V.95).

By Aliyu Mamman, GST Department

lend money to my people, to the poor, among you, you are not to act as

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In other sources, Jesus was reported to have commanded that “ if you a creditor to him. You shall not charge him interest” (American Standard Bible). In the past, charging of interest and usury were prohibited in

ISCUSSIONS ON THE subject of Islamic banking especially in our clime are often suffused with sentiments and suspicion arising from the mistaken belief that Islamic banking is religious banking. On the contrary Islamic banking, similar to the generally known concept

of banking is just an alternative form of financial service delivery. It is a service that is opened to all regardless of religious creed. You do not need to profess the Islamic faith to participate in or benefit from the services of an Islamic bank. It is tagged ‘Islamic’ because its underlying jurisprudence is derived from Islamic sources. But far from being religious, its operating principles are based on the universal human values of equity, justice, fair play, and transparency aimed at the overall well being and welfare of the individual and society.

WHAT IS ISLAMIC BANKING? Banking, traditionally is simply defined as financial intermediation i.e. the process of moving financial resources from surplus areas to areas of deficit in the economic system. Islamic banking, like the traditional or conventional meaning of banking is also essentially a process of financial intermediation. The basic distinguishing difference between traditional/conventional and Islamic banking as generally acknowledged is the element of interest (Riba in Arabic)) which is defined as “money paid for the use of money lent (principal) or for forbearance of a debt according to fixed ratio” (Oxford Dictionary). The concept of interest (riba) however, may be extended to include any form of unjust enrichment. Suffice it to say that interest (riba) in any form is not allowed under the Islamic financial system.

It is noteworthy that the aversion for and condemnation of interest in financial transactions pre-dates Islam and finds resonance not only in preIslamic thought but also within other major religions of the world. Aristotle, the Bible, the Jewish Torah all forbade loans at interest or denounced interest as usury. In Medieval times, Christians condemned interest taking absolutely. Similar rulings may be found in other major faiths such as Hinduism and Buddhism.

both the Old and New Testament as these were considered immoral practices by money- lenders and the cause of injustice.

Substantial condemnation of the practice by various traditions, institutions and social reformers on moral, ethical, religious and legal grounds abound. The rationale employed by the wide ranging critics include arguments about social justice, economic stability, ecological destruction and inter-generational equity. The significance of the adversity of interest (riba) is greater than ever before in the context of the modern interest –based global economy.

The religious injunctions and admonitions aside, the rationale against interest taking for example, lies in the fact that it is essentially unfair because the current environment does not guarantee positive returns on a business enterprise financed on borrowed capital. Current practices penalise entrepreneurship by obliging it to return the principal with a date and interest that are pre-determined even when part of it is lost due to circumstance beyond the entrepreneur’s control. Same is true for banks and financial intermediaries in the present system whose commitment to depositors in savings and investments accounts is to pay back the sum deposited with interest added. When a project fails and a business person defaults, the financial intermediary must also default and the ripple effect can destabilise the whole system.

In spite of all of these, interest (riba) drives the lending process in the conventional financial system. It is involved in all financial transactions, be they public, private, business, savings and investment or consumer finance. It is generally understood that there is no incentive for anyone to part with money or cash without the element of interest. The banks, like other intermediaries pay one amount of interest to the depositors, charge a higher amount of interest to borrowers and keep the difference as profit commonly called ‘spread’. While the investors get a risk-free returns, entrepreneurs give a fixed charge to intermediaries, keeping all profit/loss with themselves. Similarly, in the informal market, borrowers have to pay interest to lenders irrespective of the nature of the use of the borrowed funds and/or the results of the business activities.

In the Islamic financial system, money cannot be traded for any return as money has no inherent value in its own right (neither fixed nor

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FOCUS variable). Financial institutions are not entitled to get any returns if financial transactions are not covered by corresponding liability or business risks.

Accordingly, prohibition or avoidance of the payment or receipt of interest (riba) in any form is a defining feature of Islamic banking. Islamic banking is however, much more than just avoiding interest in the lending process. It embodies an entire value system that seeks to engender socio-economic justice and equitable distribution of income and wealth in the process of financial intermediation.

The basic objective of conventional economic system that underlies its financial system is self interest i.e. profit maximisation at individual and organisational levels. It is believed that the self interest of individuals and organisations leads to maximisation in the accumulation of wealth and want satisfaction without interference by the state. Ethical and moral values underlying the Islamic economic system which underscore Islamic financial system itemised above are often trampled upon in pursuit of the overriding goal of profit maximisation.

While also seeking returns on shareholder investments, the focus of Islamic banking is ultimately social; the overall wellbeing of all segments of a society. Thus, financing transactions that are harmful to the individual and the collective well being of society such as production, distribution and consumption of alcohol and psychotropic substances, production of arms and armaments for offensive purposes or stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, gambling/casino operations, pornography/adult entertainments

Financial intermediation in an Islamic banking framework is based on the principle of risk sharing between Labour and capital. Being interest-free, Islamic commercial relationships as such are participatory in nature based on the principle of profit and loss sharing between providers of capital on the one hand and the entrepreneur (providers of labour) on the other hand.

In sum therefore, Islamic banking just as conventional banking, is a process of financial intermediation however, its distinguishing character lies not only in the avoidance of interest in all financial transactions but also in subjecting returns of all transactions to the overall interest, welfare and well being of not only the transacting parties but all individuals as members of a society. Thus while conventional banking is largely value-neutral with the profit motive and return maximisation for shareholders as the driving force, Islamic banking is value-biased with an eye on equitable income and wealth distribution, fairness, social justice and wholesome development of all segments of society as its focal points. This focus of Islamic banking is derived from the Islamic concept of wealth which is seen as a means to an end‌, it is a means of satisfying needs and providing sustenance, in moderation, for survival and fulfilling moral obligation to family and society as a whole. In treating wealth otherwise, man becomes materialistic, greedy, selfish and miserly.

and related vices are forbidden (haram) because of their obvious harmful and corrupting effects. On the other hand, driven almost solely by the profit motive, moral barriers take a secondary place in the financing decision process under the conventional banking system.

Regardless of the harm it may wreck on the individual and society, in both the short and long run, the returns that may be generated in funding of armaments transaction for example, are uppermost in the approval process of corporate financial decision makers. The end to which funds are put is not important; what is upper most is the capacity of the project or transaction to repay – the principal advanced along with interest. Protest voices against arms/armament financing and other morally reprehensible businesses that result in environmental pollution and degradation are raised a times, by advocates of ethical financing but such voices are far in-between and are almost always completely drown in pursuit of the goal of profit maximisation.

Other features of conventional banking which Islamic banking seek to avoid are excessive speculation or dubious transactions and excessive risk taking fuelled again, by self interest and the greed to maximize profit and shareholder returns but often with disastrous consequences for the individual and entire economies as witnessed in the 2008/9 global financial crises.

Lastly, apart from the prohibition of interest (riba) in matters of financial transaction, another cardinal principle in Islamic banking is that there should be no reward without risk. This principle is applicable to both labour and capital. As no payment is allowed for labour unless it is applied to work, so no reward for capital is allowed unless it is exposed to business risk.

 

41

EFFECTS OF SEXUAL ABUSE ON MINORS

By Joseph Seiyefa

Over the years, cases of child sexual abuse have been on the rise. In some cases, the victims die, in others the victims survive but are traumatised by the unfortunate incident that snatched away their childhood and innocence. It will surprise you to know that a lot of youths today (both male and female) are victims of sexual abuse, and it is more worrisome to know that this evil act is mostly perpetrated by close relations, friends or people they look up to as mentors or people they admire. What is child sexual abuse? Child sexual abuse is the involvement of a child in sexual activity that he or she does not fully comprehend, is unable to give informed consent to, or for which the child is not developmentally prepared and cannot give consent, or that violates the laws or social taboos of society.

These abuses often have long and/or short-term effects on the victims. For some others, they go through psychological or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and others go through the Stockholm syndrome.

For long term effects, we may observe traits of anxiety, selfdestructive behaviours that include alcoholism, drug abuse, insomnia and more in the lives of the victims, for short term effects, we may observe traits that include sleeping disorder, eating disorder, bad behaviour, low performance at school, unwillingness to participate in school or social activities and a lot of others. For PTSD aftermaths, we may observe traits that include, hyper alertness or being easily startled, insomnia, guilt about surviving or find solace in prostitution, lack of focus, avoidance of activities that arouse(s) recollection of traumatic experience and intensification of symptoms if events resemble the traumatic occurrence.Â

EDUCATION

The Stockholm syndrome, unfortunately doesn’t receive much attention. It is named after a famous bank robbery that occurred in Stocky, Sweden in 1973, two armed robbers held bank employees, three women and a man hostage for six days. The hostages were bound with dynamite and were cruelly treated, they became emotionally attached to the bank robbers’ overtime and came to see them as their protectors from the police.

There is no universally accepted definition of the Stockholm syndrome but it has been suggested that it is present in a person if one or more of the following is observed: •

Positive feelings by the captive towards his/her captor

•

Negative feelings by the captive towards the police or authorities trying to win his/her release

•

Positive feelings by the captor towards his/her captive

•

The victim fears the abuser will come to get him/her, even if he is dead or in prison.

In the light of the above, it is clear that child sexual abuse isn’t a case to toy with, we don’t have to wait till the victim dies before severe action is taken on this beast that is gradually destroying lives. Every victim of sexual abuse whether dead or alive deserves justice.

Statistics have revealed that one in ten children will be sexually abused before the age of eighteen, ninety percent of child sexual abuse victims know their abuser, one in seven incidents of child sexual abuse perpetrated by juveniles occurs on school days, twenty percent of these victims are abused before the age of eight, four to eight percent of child sexual abuse reports are fabricated.

In Gabrielle Union’s “We’re going to need more wine”, a chapter was dedicated to discussing the traumatising effects of child sexual abuse and how hard it is to heal from one.

The above explanation has also been put forward in the study of post abuse traits in minors. In a sexual abuse case, the abuser terrifies the victim by threatening his/her physical and/or psychological survival.

As a result of this fear, the victim needs to be nurtured and protected.

In a situation where the victim is isolated from others, the victims tend to turn to the abuser. If the abuser shows the victim little kindness this creates hope in the victim, who then ignores his/her rage at the monstrous side of the abuser (because this rage would be processed as overwhelming) and bonds to the positive side of the abuser. With the hope that the abuser will let him or her live, the victim works to keep the abuser happy. In trying to determine what will keep the abuser happy, the victims needs feelings and perspectives are of less importance and he/she unconsciously takes on a different view of the abuser.

To tackle this beast:

The following are common ways the victim’s view of his/her abuser can be distorted with reference to Stockholm syndrome:

¬ Finally, an enabling environment for them to speak up.

•

The victim unconsciously ignores the abuser’s violence against him/her and focuses on his positive side.

•

The victim feels ashamed for abuse done to him/her.

•

The victim resents outsiders attempts to free him/her from the abuser due to fear of how the abuser might react to any action of disloyalty.

•

The victim identifies with the “victim” in the abuser.

•

The victim believes he/she deserves the abuser’s violence/abuse.

•

The victim defends the abuser’s violence/abuse against him/her.

•

The victim feels hatred for that part of him/her which the abuser said led to the abuse.

¬ Government needs to take drastic actions towards the culprits regardless of their status in the society. ¬ More functional NGOs should be created and well-funded. ¬ Sensitisation of young children about the need to speak up. ¬ Sensitisation of adults about the dangers of perpetrating this evil act. ¬ Parents need to pay more attention to their child(ren)/wards.

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E D U C AT I O N

The Pre-colonial Education Mindset :

An Impediment to the Nation’s Development.

BY JOTHAM NWABUOBI

I write this with the pain that I feel for the little ones and the unborn generation who’d probably suffer the same plight as ours did, should all these issues go unchecked. It only dawned on me recently that whenever we talk about Nigeria’s dependence on largely imported things we don’t mention the experiences and institutions that have turned out to shape our lifestyle. Of the many substandard products that we import, the one that affects us the most is our adopted educational system. From observation one can find that a substantial portion of the problem with education in Nigeria stems from our roots and culture.

The etymology of the ibo words for ‘school’ and ‘education’ should help to make this clearer. Where I’m from, when a father wants to send his kid off to school he says to him/her gaa Ulo akwukwo which directly translates to ‘go to the house of books’. The word for education in ibo ‘agumakwukwo’ directly translates means ‘the reading of books’. This translation gives you an idea of what the Ibo people had in mind when the advent of schools got to them. I believe that as a result, children subconsciously tend to develop the mentality that they’re going to school to know about books and not to get an education. This mindset prompts the child to then focus on knowing the content of the books he’s being taught about and often merely focusing on passing exams rather than experiencing the entire learning process.

The first unintentional mistake was made when the only motive for sending our kids to school was to get them to learn the white man’s strange ways so that they in

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turn could help their parents understand it. It is true that there was no other viable option, but it was a mistake nonetheless.

It is said that when the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable. A huge number of Nigerian graduates are unemployable today because they haven’t been able to do away with this ‘book’ mentality and therefore slave away all the days of their academic calendar reading, attending classes, cramming what they’ve been taught with or without understanding not really knowing why they’re doing it all.

You might randomly pick 20 Nigerian university students and I can bet that at least five will be able to recite a commendable portion of their textbook (before their exams, at least) but cannot comprehend what they’ve just recited. So what we have at the end of the day is an unpleasant number of uneducated bookworms roaming society with their resumes looking to find an employer for whom they’ll slave for.

A complete education is supposed to equip individuals with what they need to survive anywhere; even in a less than utopian society like ours. We find that many educated individuals in Nigeria have of late started flocking other countries abroad in search of greener pastures. This is because instead of attempting to tailor our education to arm individuals with all that is necessary to improve the status of our nation, we simply adopt systems that have been known to work for others elsewhere, forgetting that our system of education should be adapted to address the issues we face on this side of the world.

Since we’re bent on making the imported system of education work, we should not be surprised then at the rate with which our indigenous professionals are fleeing our nation to the same places from where we imported our education It would be cliche and blame the government for all of this, but on that matter; I’m obliged to reserve my comments.

It’s hilarious that the majority of us, Nigerians have bought into the idea that education is our hope of advancement, yet we don’t realise that we fail to understand what that actually is. Another day has passed and I am yet to use the Pythagorean Theorem. I remember being allured by the references to the University of Nigeria in Chinua Achebe’s There was a Country Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, only to finally visit the institution and realise that I should’ve just stuck to the version that the books inspired my imagination to paint. It dealt such a fatal blow to my already dwindling belief in the system.

This is not an issue that should be addressed hastily, neither does it have a straightforward solution. I am convinced however that because we’re survivors trying to navigate this concrete jungle, we will eventually make it work.

E D U C AT I O N

M A R C H 2 0 11 U N I V E R S A L M A G A Z I N E

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POETS & WRITERS promoting the craft of writing while cultivating a thriving and diverse literary arts community in Baze University.

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POETS & WRITERS

God Did Not Hear Us

BY EBUBE UKAH

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URING THAT PERIOD my sister was ill, Mama, and I were on a bus to visit a man who according to her, could see demons and call upon heaven. It was the fifth one this month, each of them failed because they weren’t powerful enough, according to her.

“This man is peculiar,” a close friend had informed her as they sat up chatting while they lost customers at the market. Mama patted her thighs as she resonated with curiosity.

“He once cast out seven demons from a girl who constantly had a nag migraine,” her friend had mentioned. Those words were inducement enough to get Mama hooked, so here we were, cramped, ice fish in a humid, onion-smelling bus as we rode to meet my sister’s saviour. Mama’s saviour.

Few moments into the bus ride, a man as if possessed with a supernatural entity, sat up straight, fixed his mouth and screamed the noisiest “Praise the Lord.”

The response “Alleluia” filled the bus and made it vibrate like an earthquake. Mama clapped her hands and shut her eyes as the man sang “He can never, never change.” The entire bus responded as if it was a normal duty to carry out. That if a man sings and claps his hands, the other passengers must follow. My sister woke up occasionally, squinting her eyes and falling back as she swiftly had woken. Mama pinched me as she gave me that ferocious look. “Is your mouth too heavy to sing?”

“I don’t want to.” The passengers turned to face me, condemning me with their eyes and extending their sympathy. “All these for what?” I asked. They made me feel as if I was a sinner. Maybe I was. For all I knew, I was a boy who my teacher thought was too smart for my class.

Mama felt irritated. She was flushed with humiliation and she screamed at me, pointing her hand like a flexible arrow. I mumbled the words and grumbled as the bus bumped along the deteriorated roads of Imo State.

She still didn’t wake till we arrived at the pastor’s home. They were awaiting us and as soon as we arrived they began. Mama had tied a scarf on my sister’s head while she slept. Anointing oil flowed, and I was sure heaven heard our voice, or so I thought. For my sister remained unchanged and desolate. Her fever worsened, and she kept complaining of a migraine. At a point I felt she could throw up her whole intestines, and that her neck had become stiff and would not move. More prayers made. The man rolled on the floor in tongues and his colleagues dancing, like as if they were cut out from a comic drama series.

God still did not hear us. Mama was sad and as we journeyed through the undulating roads of Anambra, she did not sing. She clapped for the man who raised an off-key verse, but there was no song. Her face stuck to the window as vast land of vegetation sped past. Mama wasn’t one to be quiet, twelve years of living with her would make you realise that. I looked at my sister still asleep. She slept more these days. She does less; moving sluggish and sleeping. It was all her fault, I formed my hands into a fist. Her condition dragged me to all corners of the earth. From the bad roads of the East to the dusty roads of the North and the stretchy roads of the west. For all the night vigils, the anointing oil that I drank and the bitter kolanuts that I chewed. It was all her fault. How could she sit there and do nothing while I had to suffer all this.

As time went on, I distanced myself from my sister. She was a different person. There were times I would feel she was desolate. When she was not sleeping, she would look at me and her eyes would communicate of her loneliness and of how she was tired and wanted all of it to end. I would turn my face away. It was all her fault, I would whisper. I hated myself for that, for leaving her and not being there.

She was different. This stiffed-neck, sluggish person was not my sister.

Occasionally I did what a big brother could do: I’d sit and watched her while she slept, a bowl of water and a towel ready, to arrest the high fever that usually attacked her at night. I would sing to her till she fell asleep, patting her and fanning her, because that’s what big brothers do. There were times I would pray, kneeling or prostrating; whichever I thought was most pleasing. I wanted my sister back.

But God did not hear me. Didn’t He love my sister? She never stole meat from the pot, unlike me. God never heard Mama, he never heard me. I had learnt the reason. He wasn’t a mediocre like many had taken him to be.

ABOVE Sandy dunes My sister didn’t wake up for a while, Mama got scared, she kept of the deadliest placing her palms on her neck as if to check she was still alive. deserts of all the deserts

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POETS & WRITERS

“She has meningitis, take her to the doctor,” my principal had told me as I, frustrated and exhausted, told her about my sister. I memorised the word. I told Mama what my sister’s problem was.

She wasn’t possessed or neither was she an Obanje. She was just sick and needed to see the doctor, I told Mama with excitement. She frowned her face and struck me on the face twice.

“What do you know?” she pointed her hand vehemently at me.

I was confused, it was supposed to be good news. Perhaps, Mama felt overshadowed by my intelligence of me knowing what was actually wrong with my sister. Her insecurity poked her ugly head once in a while.

“We are going to see a spiritualist in two days,” Mama said. “He prayed for a man with leprosy and he got healed.”

I sat still and dumbfounded. A new emotion began to rise inside me. It swirled higher and higher as I curled my hands into a fist. Was she mad? I just told her the solution, and here she was going back to that never ending cycle of high hopes and nothingness.

Later that night I turned and turned, restless as I lay awake in bed. I looked at my sister as she slept. I couldn’t let her pass through this again. It was terrible and scary for a six-year old girl. I was weak. I decided to pray because there was nothing else to do. I didn’t kneel, nor did I prostrate. I just lay on my side and let my heart bleed because I was hopeless.

The next day, a group of doctors on medical missions came to my school. They talked to us about germs and how bacteria were a bad thing.

“My sister is sick. She has meningitis,” I said, my expression bland and confident. The head doctor after few minutes listening to me blab about my ordeal, decided to follow me home.

“Everything will turn out fine in the end,” the head doctor told me as we were at the door of my house to talk to Mama. Somehow I believed him. The clouds hung so low and full with hope. But sometimes hope can be a crafty thing.

Couple of hours had gone, Mama was in tears as the head doctor patted her at the back. My sister would be herself again.

Her treatment would be free. The head doctor would pay. Mama stood up and shook her waist vigorously as she sang. We all got up and joined her till our body ached. Finally, my sister would return.

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MY COUNTRY NIGERIA

by Fa iz a h A b u b akar Faizah’s passionate ode to her motherland. Assuring her (Nigeria) that she is loved and still holds an irresistible appeal. Beware, nostalgia-evoking !

Oh! My dear country Nigeria I love you and I’ll always do For you belong to me and I belong to you too When ever I leave you I always long to come back to you No matter the country I go to I can’t wait to return to my dear country Nigeria.

For you’re a wonderful country where everyone wishes to be

For you accommodate all and equally love all.

For your love for the people’s the world transcends, race, colour, creed or religion And this is what makes you a home for everyone For which you’re called the giant of Africa Oh! My dear country Nigeria I will always love you.

UTMOST BABARISM

by S hula I’m different, so what!

You have your opinion and so does everyone else.

Why force your ways on anyone?

Do we have to be uniform?

THE WOLVES

by Shul a

Uniformity does not lead to unity Unity is a universal truism With unity there is respect Respect breeds civilisation

In hoods they come Eyes blood shot in search for more Unleash! Unleash! They cry with roar Young hearts astray they lead to death A promise of bliss above unseen

Why go back to the rag times?

The toddler saying ‘I want to be fed at 12 mid night’ is a personality, he’s got choice.

The child saying ‘mummy please talk to me slowly and don’t shout in public’ is a personality, he’s got character.

The teenager saying ‘I need my space’ is a personality, he’s got the centric word with an E prefix.

Death! Death! In scales they weigh

The woman saying ‘I am entitled to my opinion’ is a personality she’s got a life.

Mothers weep for hearts along

The woman saying ‘I don’t need another’ is a personality she’s a missing rib.

Lands for hearts to come do long

The man saying ‘I am the head, you must do my bidding’ is a personality it’s his opinion.

Cry! Cry! The land invokes

The man saying ‘let’s make this work’ is a personality he’s got some strength, that’s the real man.

Oh what terror the book provokes!!!

The community saying ‘lets eat, squander, kill and plunder’ is a personality, they’ll soon be extinct.

The ruler saying ‘to me beweth the throne’ is a personality, all animals are equal but some animals are more equal. It is not in vain that he beareth the sword.

The scarlet king cob has said ‘alas! It’s me, I shall rule the world’ is a personality, might be the king of the North.

Utmost Barbarism Universal barbarism Uncivilised grand stone age

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THE CHRISTMAS MIRACLE This may be a real life story. It may or may not have happened. I’ll plead the fifth if called to the stand.

By LINDA EZENWAMMADU Source: Uptatie mod tin voluptat praesse quisit utpat nisci eraessequam dolenim do ex eu feugait Aha! I was 10 years of age and about concluding my first term of JSS1.

Here went my prayer, “Dear baby Jesus, how are you? I hope you are fine… please I need your help with my report card. I was told you are a saviour. Come and save me from the cane in my daddy’s room. I want to get a first position. Thank you.”

I felt good after the prayer and walked back to my class room.

As soon as I got there, the class teacher walked in and immediately, she started handing out report cards. GEHN GEHN! I looked at the faces of my mates as they got their cards and I saw a mixture of expressions. I was chilled and had nothing to worry about so when I heard my name, “Linda!” I stood up with pride and walked to the front of the class.

My class teacher didn’t look at me with an expression of one that had taken the first position, I did not care. I’d given Baby Jesus N20.

Wonderful right? Maybe…

As a school tradition, we were to head home with our report cards…

Beht WHY? On freaking Christmas season! This was really a gift.

I remember having my first ever documented case of panic attack that morning as we waited nervously for our class teacher to give us our report cards.

In my mind, I thought, “I am only ten, why would I feel this way?

My daddy will beat me. I’ll run away from school once the gates are open…”

I knew I did not put in great effort into my school work that term and I wasn’t interested in having a depressing Christmas holiday.

So, I had an idea...

I ran to the Chapel not far away from the JSS1 block, I made the sign of the cross before getting in, got to the manger constructed by the students, knelt down in front of Baby Jesus who was with his mummy, daddy and some other guys I had no clue of until I watched the cartoon of the birth of Jesus two days after.

No digression!

Since these other guys gave Baby Jesus gifts that were obviously expensive (why does a baby need gold?), I decided to give my last N20. I gave the money to his mummy since my mummy always took the money the visitors gave me.

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As I got to my seat I looked at my card and started weeping. I was weeping for minutes until a classmate of mine came up to me and asked what was wrong.

I could not speak. I decided to use sign language to communicate and then she asked me what my position was. I brought up my right hand and made a number ‘1’ sign. Still in tears.

“Wow! Linda came first. Eiya! Tears of Joy.” she said, as she congratulated me.

I saw my teacher give me a questioning look but she said nothing.

Fast forward… I’m home now and my parents were looking at my report card.

“Ahh! Oseeee! I will eat plenty chicken this Christmas.” I thought to myself.

My parents gave me a disappointed look and gave me my report card. I looked at it for a minute and then my mood changed.

I came 36th in a class of 38 students. How? I then noticed that it wasn’t 1st position I saw but 1st term. 1st term! 1st term!!

Before my daddy brought out his cane, I thought to myself, “I shouldn’t have given the money to Baby Jesus, mummy.”

THE END!!!

SECTION NAME

nmbelloStudio ABUJA | LAGOS

 

55

FOOD

A Delightful Insight into Islamic Cuisine

BY Faizah Abubakar On her ninth cookbook, the writer and chef, Anissa Helou celebrates the culinary culture of the Islamic world with a potpourri of history, helpful maps, stimulating stories and a marinade of traditional recipes.

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Fear of the loss of a culture still seems to be very much an issue today as it was two or three decades ago. Perhaps the talk of globalisation, fuelled by the awareness of an already changed cultural landscape, is responsible for the recent wave of concern.

In any case, Anissa Helou has come to the rescue with Feast: Food of the Islamic World; her 300 recipe comprehensive and dazzling mosaic of Islamic food culture across the globe.

In the book, Ms. Helou traces a line from Islam’s advent in 610 to the glories of the Mughal dynasty. Interestingly, she opens Feast with the birth of Islam in Mecca, including detail of the Prophet Muhammad’s favourite meal: tharid (meat and vegetable stew on dry bread), before sharing a digestible overview of the faith’s evolution.

As we progress with the history lesson, we learn that it was under the rule of the Baghdad-based, Persian chef-favouring Abbasid caliphs “that Muslims started to develop a rich, culinary tradition,” Ms Helou says. Because: “Persian cuisine is the ‘mother cuisine’.”

Feast was born out of a sense of disturbance she had felt since 2013, she said, when she saw Muslims vilified in the news coverage surrounding the Arab Spring and the rise of ISIS. “Through this book, I wanted to open up a world that people might not know, but in a positive and approachable way,” she said.

This handsome tome details manifold regional distinctions of flavour palate and dining custom. You will not find a lot of recipes for hummus and baklava in this book. What you will find is what she calls a limited selection of classics and personal favourites ranging from the Nigerian breakfast fritters, the Hyderabadi biryani, the Algerian fish cakes, the Ramadan date cookies and different recipes from Senegal, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Malaysia and beyond.

Which is all to say that Helou’s book is not only a series of lessons about culinary history and technique, but also a profound celebration of the cuisine of a quarter of the world’s population.

The author notable observes that beneath any differences, what binds the Muslims around the world are, naturally, the tenets of Islam, many of which, especially around religious holidays such as the two Eids (al-Fitr and al-Adha), feature communal meals.

“Food, hospitality and conviviality are absolutely central to [Muslim] life,” says Ms Helou. “In Feast, I quote the Prophet in the Quran telling his followers that it is a duty to God. It’s still widely a traditional world, and, almost everywhere, people come together to cook… especially at [special] times, such as Ramadan, when there’s this huge contrast between the day, when you fast, and the night, when everybody gathers to enjoy their family and friends’ company.”

At over 500 pages, the encyclopaedic tome is a revelatory exploration of Islamic art, all culminating into a part travel diary of gastronomic proportions.

53

FOOD

Quick & Easy Dessert Recipes

By Hussaina Lawal

Microwave Chocolate Brownies

-

-

-

-

-

-

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of flour 1/4 cup brown sugar 2 Tbsp cocoa 2 Tbsp melted butter/margarine 1/4 cup Milk Optional: Chocolate chips, sprinkles, marshmallows, nuts, crushed candy cane/mint anything your heart desires

DIRECTIONS

đ?&#x;™

sugar and cocoa in mug

đ?&#x;š

margarine and milk, whisk

đ?&#x;›

and mix until it is gener-

thoroughly

liquid remains on top.

Combine flour, brown

Add melted butter/

Cook in microwave at

30 second intervals until no

đ?&#x;œ

Add desired toppings.

ously blended and there are no lumps in the cocoa.

All-Berry Trifle

Ingredients: - Jelly - Custard - Whipped Cream - Cherry Filling - Sponge Cake - Blue Berries - Strawberries

DIRECTIONS

đ?&#x;™

jelly add the sponge cake, add

đ?&#x;š

the custard. .

half of the jelly, add the

đ?&#x;›

whippedcream making

jelly, top with cherry filling

sure it covers the jelly,

and garnish with the straw-

In a bowl, place half of the

add the remaining

add the whippedcream

making sure it covers the

berries and blue berries

đ?&#x;œ

Refrigerate and serve

chilled.

STROBRIE BY JOANNE MEET THE WOMAN CREATING SLICES OF HEAVEN In a city of mediocre baking and demands for gluten-free goods, Joanne Aipoh conjures magic from good oldfashioned flour while steadily redefining what it means to make baked goods now.

Words by Chibuike A.

W

HEN I FIRST walked

up to to the charming set of twining pink huts that house ‘Strobrie by Joanne’ I caught myself thinking that the colour pink seemed like a daring task for a business that wants to be taken seriously. I was wrong.

Just like the pink huts, Miss Joanne Aipoh, the founder of Strobrie is vibrant, warm, charming and full of character. Besides, strawberries -from which the name ‘Strobrie’ was coined- are pink so it only makes sense that the huts are painted pink.

which serves as the bakery/kitchen. I’m directed to the other one to sit and set up while she hands-over to one of her two assistants. The waiting area is a well-lit, air-conditioned space with two cozy chairs, a table for reading or eating, I assume and a discreetly placed display of books, each one seeming to include a detailed personal recommendation. There’s also a huge, strategically placed refrigerator filled with carrot cakes, cheese cakes and banana bread. Although I understand the psychology behind the strategic positioning (so customers can see, whimper and buy), I am not immune to their visual appeal.

It’s all at once obvious that this space is for business and the other for passion.

Joanne, 23 is working in the second hut

55

Enters Joanne a couple minutes later. She’s wearing a pink top, blue ripped jeans and a big smile. We exchange pleasantries and begin. She tells me that the passion to bake was forged sixteen years ago in her mother’s kitchen as she, Joanne observed and helped her mother with the baking. On her website (strobrie.com), Joanne describes the way “the aroma of freshly baked bread right out of the oven, sounds of eggs being cracked, the sweet red colour of strawberries and my siblings uncontrollably laughing” built every memory she’s ever had of baking.

Her intention when baking? “That’s the same memory I want to share with everyone whenever I bake.”

Her desire to share this memory led her to pursue her dream of putting up a patisserie in January of 2017; right after studying IT for four years. In lieu of a white-collar job, Joanne realised that she “wanted to do something closer to the heart” so she enrolled in a 6 months course at the Academy of Pastry Arts in the Philippines. “I loved every bit of it,” she fondly remembers.

Besides her mother, Joanne craft was honed by Chef Janelle Joy Toh, a pastry chef instructor at the Academy of Pastry Arts who Joanne tries to be “as determined as she is.” Like Joanne, Chef Janelle, in her time, picked up culinary arts right after her studies (Business Management and Hotel Operations Management, in her case).

Despite her sunny disposition I observed (and commented on) that Joanne doesn’t rely on passion alone to bring in customers as a lot of entrepreneurs do. In fact, she has both the business acumen and the passion to make a success of her patisserie as “one can’t do without the other.”

In essence, Joanne is no less canny an executive than any of them out there. From finding the ingredients she needs, to managing staff, it’s constantly one thing or another that keeps her busy but through it all, she tries “to make decision that I am comfortable with. Whatever works best for Strobrie is what I try to do.”

5 6

During the course of the interview, I watched a couple of people come and go and the friendly way Joanne handled them.

Sometimes I’d digress and we’d talk enthusiastically about a random subject, sometimes she gave baking tips. One thing was constant: she always made everyone feel at home, like you wanted to stay and hang out.

With the absence of heritage recipes, Joanne can be placed in the league of forward-thinking female bakers (like Chef Janelle) who have been recently redefining what it means to make baked goods now. But what inspires her to ‘create’?: A steady dedication to combining old-world techniques with a “personal touch” because that’s what Strobrie is all about: Baking from the Heart.

Her technique? Thoughtfully sourcing ingredients from whatever fruits are available. We have a brief chat about how popular strawberries were earlier this year. She reveals that she’s “looking forward to strawberry season next year.” Blueberries are “hard to come by” but a huge seller when she makes blueberry cheesecakes. And the more common carrot is obviously a staple in her signature good: the carrot cake.

Although Joanne creates breads, pastries, and cakes that are so thoroughly modern even the most hardened carb avoiders are starting to change their stance, there will always be critics. Her mother, she says, is her biggest critic. As she occasionally experiments with new recipes, she admits that some times there are “observations” made by customers. Some might say that the “base of a cheesecake is too thin. Others, that it’s too thick.”

“So, it’s mostly preferential, then?,” I ask. She replies in the affirmative. “Your good, then.,” I quip. “Realising that I don’t have everything perfect helps me take the pressure down a notch.” is the perfect close to that aspect of the conversation.

Despite the success she experiences over the past two years: from baking for just friends of the family to starting a business and now owning her own store, Joanne just wants to “take things slow.”

She repeats this phrase a number of times during our conversation and I can tell that she appreciates the gradual process where she can evolve at her pace. When I start to talk of expansion and opening up a cafe she listens in a distant way that suggests it is not on her agenda at the moment. She’s still savouring the joys of simply doing something she loves.

Reminiscing with a smile, Joanne discloses that the baking process, for her is “like going back to the comfort” of watching her mother bake in the past.

At this point I excuse myself to go to the car and get my camera. She heads into the kitchen to make finishing touches to an order as the delivery man is soon to arrive. I get back to the interview and learn some things: Macaroons are the hardest to make “because they’re easy to ruin.”; “Strawberries are good because they make everything look good.”; there hasn’t been an official opening for the shop because there isn’t anytime (“maybe January or February”); “Temperature is everything in baking.” and again “I’m taking things really slow.”

The delivery man has come and gone. We’re now down to the final question, I sneak a peek at my list: ‘What’s the future looking like for Strobrie ?’ I instantly decide to ignore the question because I know that running a business in Nigeria isn’t child’s play. Everyone wants to be an entrepreneur but most times people only see the social media-glamorous looking side. It’s a lot of blood and sweat and tears and you can tell that Joanne puts in the work and is on her way to celebrity cheflevel-stardom. Instead I ask “How big do you want to go?” She smiles and takes her time ….. “Big enough.”

I’m done with the photos. I thank her and request for a carrot cake “for the road,” I explain. She offers it on the house and I instantly accept. Once I’m out of sight, I stow the camera in the backseat and open the carrot cake. I look around me to see if anyone is watching. I don’t see anyone. Now I take a bite……. Have you ever tasted something so good you have to pause to appreciate its richness as the flavours explode all over your tastebuds?

The cake was rich and creamy with a touch of dark to temper the sweet. It was glorious; like a slice of heaven.

ADDRESS: 16 Usuma Close, back gate of Maitama Amusement Park, Maitama, Abuja EMAIL: strobrie@gmail.com strobrie.com

57

ENTERTAINMENT CAPITAL CLOUT: ABUJA’S FAST RISING MUSIC TALENT The Capital city is laden with an array of musical talent. They’re the stars that light up the stages at our favourite events. Their ingenious talent and personas leave the crowd in awe. Edikan Essien present the hottest and most outstanding acts who have the potential to become industry heavyweights.

KIID PRO, 28 | HIP-HOP/RAP Having been born in Plateau state and then moving to Abuja to gain a degree at the University of Abuja, Emmanuel Cheto (aka Kiid Pro) is well adept at expertly fusing Hausa and English into his lyrics. His earlier released mixed tape, First Quarter (Mixtape), is a potpourri of hard, hot singles for ones listening pleasure. His aim? “To satisfy you with diversity, wordplay, intuition and a whole lot more. Shikenan.”

Upcoming Projects: The Cheto (EP) Social Media: @nwacheto

59

PSYCHO P, 20 | HIP-HOP/RAP Nicolas Ihua Madenyi recently joined the new movement of rappers coming out of Nigeria. What distinguishes him? He is the leader of that class and his most recent project, “YPSZN” (coined from and pronounced as “YP Season”) proves it. The mixtape has 2million streams and peaked at Number 4 on Apple Music World Top Charts in both the UK and Nigeria.

Only dope tracks make it onto the Abuja bred trapper’s projects as he pioneers trap culture in Nigeria and charts his way to the top in the new wave of urban music breaking barriers in Nigeria and beyond.

It truly is Psycho Season

Upcoming Projects: YPSZN 2 Social Media: @psychoyp 6 0

RIAH B, 22 | AFRO-POP/DANCEHALL Born Queen Victoria Bello, Riah B, is know for her silky style and vocals as she employs the sounds of afro-pop and dancehall to create sheer brilliance. Her debut single ‘Money (Whistle)’ featuring Peruzzi, is a socio-conscious chide to lavish spending while ignoring the less-privileged.

She signed to Grand Empire Records in April to pursue a professional musical career.

Social Media: @riah_bello

61

CH1DZ, 27 | AFRO-RAP Afro-rapper, Chidozie Moneke started writing music at the age of 11. His first attempt at recording (a mixtape) was in 2008. He then graduated from the University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, later releasing a fire single: Roll (Promo Song). Based on past performances, his upcoming EP is expected to more than impressive.

Social Media: @ch1dz

6 2 

DECO SUAVE, 23 | HIP-HOP/RAP From modelling to a computer science degree and now rapping and performing, Deco Suave (real name: Obinna Ndukwe) leads an interesting and talented life. He’s so talented he wrote and produced his first official single, “Jin and Juice” in 2018 and then a collaborative project titled “Scared of the Trap” with hit songs like ‘Amala-shitta’ and ‘Money Dance.’ We’ll wait for what else The Talented Mr. Suave has up his sleeves.

Upcoming Projects: B.A.D (Beyond All Doubts) Social Media: @decosuave

63

REEPLAY | HIP-HOP/TRAP/AFRO-POP Pinned to Reeplay’s Twitter wall is a recent status saying ‘All I want is money in abundance.’ Listen to his music and you’ll affirm that the young Jibril Adeiza Omaki will have his wishes met really soon. The Abuja based rapper, songwriter, record producer and performing artist under Izgaaju Productions has two singles (‘Finesse’ and ‘Greatness’) that demonstrate his versatility and ambition. Till his next project comes along, all we can do is replay.

Upcoming Projects: Anti World Gangstars Social Media: @reeplaysumtin

6 4

TEMPO, 23 | PERCUSSIVE TRAP He’s a songwriter, rapper, sound engineer and music producer. Better known for his singles ‘Gafara’ and ‘On My Own.’ David Adejo, better known by his stage name Tempo is one to watch out for.

Upcoming Projects: The Leap of Faith - EP Social Media: @monster_x_tempo

65

The 12 Be s t A

Ahmed Sheidu share his picks for the t

SAINt JHN: COLLECTION ONE Collection One is a journey into a state of catatonic shamelessness. This solo debut from the rapper and singer is a celebration of overindulgence, debauchery and all thing worldly. An equal juxtaposition of bravado and insecurity grounds the album in something beyond superficial vice.

Travel with JHN as he runs though his bad habits and in the end you’ll agree with his declaration: “It was a vibe.”

DRAKE: SCORPION Drakes fifth studio album is rambling body of beautiful and funny moments that offers a curious insight into the life of one of the most successful artists of this era. Although a grandiose tribute to every musical base, Scorpion remains a good album that could have been great.

6 6

METRO BOOMIN - NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES On his 2018 mixtape, the St. Louis master producer, Metro Boomin leaves retirement to save the game. Coming equipped with a complete arsenal of picks, Metro features Drake, Gucci Mane, Offset, a re-energised 21 Savage and more. He may not be the hero we deserve but he’s one we all need.

MAC MILLER: SWIMMING It’s a shame that Miller never lived long enough to amass the same cultural footprint as behemoths such as Kendrick Lamar, Drake, J Cole, etc., whose’ league he existed in. Swimming, the last and most impactful album of his career sees the icon maturing while in search for self-acceptance.

VARIOUS ARTISTS: BLACK PANTHER: THE ALBUM In the wake of campaigns to diversify cinema and disrupt the Hollywood hegemony, album curator, Kendrick Lamar delivers a soundtrack so diverse, so daring, and so holistic that it makes a perfect match for the blackest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Africans rule Black Panther: The Album; dictate the pace of every track they land on; and make it feel like the year’s most vital pop music. If that’s not worth celebrating, what is ?

LIL WAYNE: CARTER V

A long-delayed album, full of fire and passion from an artist who doesn’t have anything left to prove. Enough said.

lbu m s of 2018

top 12 albums of 2018 you should know:

TRAVIS SCOTT: ASTROWORLD

KACEY MUSGRAVES - GOLDEN HOUR

TWENTY ONE PILOTS: TRENCH

The 26-year-old artist plays ringmaster as he curates a futuristic record with virtually flawless production, that lingers on the mind long after the final track; leaving you with the best music of his career. Step into the humid, psychedelic Astroworld and you’ll agree that Scott’s third album is inarguably his strongest to date.

Kacey Musgraves runs through Golden Hour with the most distinct ease and confidence. It’s a universal album built for crossover success throughout which she confirms that she is no longer your average Nashville star. You’ll be hard pushed to find a better collection of pop songs this year

The duo’s elective third album is an introspective break away from their Spotify sound as they weigh the price of fame. Trench is simultaneously ambitious and cohesive; coated with a healthy layer of post-industrial reverb and coalescing into a smarter, more mature record.

BURNA BOY: OUTSIDE

JORJA SMITH: LOST & FOUND

6LACK: EAST ATLANTA LOVE LETTER

Need a soother? You can turn to 20-year-old, Jorja Smith’s fusion of nimble, accomplished slow jams. The record toys with a shedload of genres: R&B, soul, UK dance and trip-hop, all overlaid with a distinctly polished (and slinky) percussive sound. Lost & Found is quietly and confidently remarkable.

On this project, 6LACK’s greatest skill is captivating listeners as he exposes us to his joyless meditations, subtly overlaid with chilly vocals, minimalist beats, conditions of the heart and a self-important quagmire.

With Outside, one of Nigeria’s preeminent musical ambassadors draws on Afrobeats, dancehall, and road rap to flaunt his skill at musical synthesis. With its kaleidoscopic versatility, Outside is a fine lesson in mixing genres without making mud.

67

SPO RTS SPORTS

starts with great heading, great subheading, great typography and all EREthings AT BAZEMENT, we Idris Babangida provides photographic other great you will find in this universal Magazine Template. strive to promote the inter- coverage of the friendly match between

H

ests of those who watch,

the Baze University students and the

about sports in the Baze University Community. Our love for sports resonates in our continuing work to promote and shoot athletes in every field.

Yusuf Inuwa outlines his top picks for the best performing football youngsters amongst Europes top five leagues.

Text by Johnplay, Doe,officiate, photos by or Doe careJohnson Baze Uiversity Alumni team.

6 8 

ALUMNI VS STUDENTS FRIENDLY MATCH

By IDRIS BABANGIDA

The Baze University Alumni in collaboration with the University Management held a friendly football match on Thursday 25th October. The Alumni team beat the Baze University team: 2-1.

In attendance were the University Management, fellow alumni amongst he spectators and other students of Baze University who came to support their team.

THE YOUNGSTERS THRIVING

PAUL BERNARDONI - NIMES (6.94 RATING)

AARON WAN-BISSAKA - CRYSTAL PALACE (7.31 RATING)

IBRAHIMA KONATE - RB LEIPZIG (7.10 RATING) Returns of 1.9 tackles, 2.3 interceptions and

Young goalkeeper, Paul Bernardoni has been key to Nimes having made 46 saves in France’s top tier, a return bettered only by Brice Samba (49).

REISS NELSON - HOFFENHEIM (7.48 RATING) Reiss Nelson has now scored six league goals in seven Bundesliga outings, with only Kylian Mbappe (11) scoring more goals of all teenagers in Europe’s top five leagues this season.

The Crystal Palace right-back has made

three clearances per game are all note-

more successful dribbles (26) and tackles

worthy, while RB Leipzig’s win ratio in the

(45) than any other defender in the Premier

Bundesliga increases from 40% to 66.7%

League this season.

when the 19-year-old starts.

IBRAHIM SANGARE - TOULOUSE (7.44 RATING) The Ivorian is second for tackles per game (4.3) in France’s top tier. Although he hasn’t featured since a 1-1 draw with Nice at the beginning of October, but he’s still done enough.

RICHARLISON - EVERTON (7.34 RATING) Signed for a hefty fee over the summer, the 21-year-old, Richarlison has scored six goals from 10 league outings. With additional returns of 1.7 successful dribbles and 0.8 key passes per game.

IN EUROPES TOP 5 LEAGUES

BY YUSUF INUWA

DAN-AXEL ZAGADOU - BORUSSIA DORTMUND (7.50 RATING) Zagadou has been hugely impressive, having made the joint-most interceptions (18) of teenagers in Europe’s top five leagues this season.

KYLIAN MBAPPE - PSG (8.19 RATING) The highest rated youngster and third highest overall in Europe’s top five leagues has executed 15 - 11 goals and 4 assists this season as he continues to excel for Thomas Tuchel’s side.

ACHRAF HAKIMI - BORUSSIA DORTMUND (7.43 RATING) The Moroccan has thrived when fit to start, having registered three assists for the German giants following his summer arrival.

Those three assists have come from just six key passes.

BRAIS MENDEZ - CELTA VIGO (7.31 RATING) Brais Mendez has scored three goals and registered two assists this season, all of which have come in his last three La Liga appearances. He’s also made 19 key passes this season.

LUKA JOVIC - EINTRACHT FRANKFURT (7.41 RATING) The Serb has been sending shockwaves across the continent from when he scored five in a 7-1 win over Fortuna Dusseldorf; scoring more goals (9) than any other Bundesliga player this term; and bettering last season’s league total.