Lighthouse Beach, Lagos State

The 110-year-old lighthouse that guards the entrance to Lagos harbor can be seen from the Tarkwa bay beach, and is a sight worth seeing as there are very few monuments of its age left standing in Lagos. The walk along the beach between Tarkwa Bay and Lighthouse is very pleasant – often you are the only person on the beach. You can watch the many ships queuing up to enter the port on the near horizon.

Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos State

The Tafawa Balewa Square (popularly called TBS) was built in honor of the first Prime Minister of the country. It was constructed in 1972 over the area that was previously a track for horse racing. With a capacity to accommodate over 50,000 persons, all major national functions like Independence Day and Democracy Day are held here, as well as other events like musical jamborees and religious gatherings. Facilities at the square include a shopping center, offices of Travel Agencies for major Airlines, restaurants, car parking, etc.

Japheth Omojuwa

Japheth J. Omojuwa is a graduate of Economics from the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun state; he’s a Social Media Expert and many other things. He speaks on the role Social Media played in the just concluded Elections.

-Mr. Omojuwa, you are a Blogger, a Socio-economic and Political commentator, a Social Media Expert, a Mentor
and a whole lot of other things. How do you juggle round all of these?

I delegate as much as possible, not to mention I prioritize a lot. I am able to take each day as a whole and maximize the
minutes and the hours. I love doing all I do and I love doing them excellently well but time will never be enough for one to do everything alone so delegating becomes a natural order. I try as much as possible to manage my time well too.

-It would not be out of place to say people like you won the election for General Buhari, long before the election was conducted as a result of your vehement campaign on twitter and other Social Handles. Why a GMB and not a GEJ?

The reasons are quite many but the most obvious is the fact that status quo had to change. The incumbent had lived through its usefulness. They were just okay with power; they mostly did not have an idea about the essence of power. The corruption was unprecedented, the foreign exchange earnings were a record high, yet the depletion of our foreign reserves was just as unprecedented. The Excess Crude Account is gone. We were told to accept insecurity as the norm. They missed out a chance on an early rescue of the Chibok girls, they insisted on lying with respect to the power situation. They were clannish, parochial and overly obsessed
with picking enemies. They had to go and thankfully, most voters agreed.

-A lot of people say President Jonathan deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for accepting defeat long before the result was announced. What say you?

Go and read the history of those who won the Nobel Peace Prize and tell me if they won it just because of doing their regular job or something they were expected to do. Let us not cheapen the Prize, it is not for jokes. President Jonathan deserved commendation for conceding, that was a new one for a Nigerian President, and we both saw how he was praised and commended for that. 
The Nobel Peace Prize is a different proposition altogether. His failing with the Chibok Girls alone is a permanent argument against him for what remains a prestigious prize. We came about this Nobel Prize discussion because his supporters crafted a quick agenda for same, but all of us cannot afford to drink out of that stream of delusion.


-You and other extraordinary Nigerians have worked hard to put a 72 year old general in the highest office in the land.
Do you see the general keeping his own end of the
bargain?

Nigerians have done their part and must continue to do their part by keeping their government on its toes. The onus is now on the General to do his part. I am hopeful that they will make change happen and anyone who can see can already see that even before he takes power, certain contractors and government officials are already adjusting. Fingers crossed for the coming days.

-Everyone’s eye is fixed on May 29th, what should Nigerians expect in the first 100 days?

I’d rather we keep an open mind and watch the first 100 days unfold before us. The days are here soon enough, there is no need speculating over what is here within days.

-Social Media played a key role in this election, and people like you deserve a lot of credit for that. Do you think General Buhari can put up with criticism from that quarter when it starts coming?

That would be his question to answer. But he knows better than to try to clamp down on social media. Nobody can win
that battle and it would be in his interest and that of everyone in his government to just let social media be. Do your job and letsocial media be.

-We need a strong opposition to build a virile democracy,
and just recently we saw a Tsunami of defection from PDP
to APC. How unhealthy is this to our democracy?

Very unhealthy but we will attain equilibrium eventually. Politicians will leave the APC for the PDP later and the movements will rise again towards the next election. The PDP will pick up some strength in the course of this administration. It’s a forming political ecosystem and I believe these movements are normal for now. Eventually ideologies will be formed at both ends and the movement will reduce drastically.

-The name Omojuwa is becoming a household name in Nigeria, how do you feel about that?

I am not aware of Omojuwa being a household name in Nigeria, so I don’t feel any differently from how I felt say 5 years ago. I am not conscious of things like that.I just look to get on with my life and do my bit of contributing to a virile civil society. I am a believer in the power of the individual
and I believe in the protection of individual rights. There is no time o look back on what has already been done, especially as there is a lot more to get done.

-Mr. Omojuwa, where do you see Nigeria four years from now?

At a much better place. Most Nigerians will be much more proud o call themselves Nigerians in 2019 than most do today. Corruption would not be as popular then as it is today. Infrastructural development would have advanced. Reforms would hopefully have advanced and in certain sectors already bearing fruits.

-One word to describe Nigeria.

Amazing!


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Gobarau Minaret, Katsina State

Located at Gobarau quarters in the city centre of Katsina Township, Gobarau Minaret is believed to have been built more than 300 years ago. The minaret was built by local craft men using mainly sun baked clay and mud. In the past, Gobarau Minaret
was the highest building in the ancient city of Katsina and it was believed that the holy Ka’aba in Mecca could be sited from its top through the assistance of a Sait in the person of Wali Jodoma. 


This legend is still popular among Muslims in the State. The Gobarau Minaret is a beautiful and imposing traditional architecture; it is believed to be the Mosque of Shehu Usman Dan Fodio and his flag bearers.

Tope Fasua

Tope Fasua is a political analyst and a renowned economist. He has pioneered a successful enterprise across three continents, Africa, Europe and United
Arab Emirates. He’s the founder, Global Analytics Consulting Uk; a philanthropist and a youth advocate.

He shares on what the present administration can do to lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty; the effects of globalization and Nigeria’s place in a flat world.


 -You’re the CEO of Global Analytics Consulting Limited with offices in the UK, UAE and Nigeria. What is it like doing business in Nigeria, given that Nigeria is ranked as one of the worst business destinations?

 No! It’s a very wrong concept. When I hear that I want to believe that there’s a psychology to it; to put Nigerians off
from doing business in their own country, while other people come here to do business. If it was so bad, we won’t see many foreigners falling over themselves to come here and do business.

It’s totally wrong to say Nigeria is one of the worst places for doing business and I will tell you why. In the US and UK, all of those places are economics that have reached a certain peak and it’s difficult for an upstart to come and just get something done. In fact, those who are actually making a lot of difference there are maybe, if you like some of those tech start ups. And for everyone Facebook, Twitter, Instagram that you see, five thousand, ten thousand people fell by the way side.
 
You cannot just walk to the US and say you’re starting a business like you would in Nigeria. Nigeria is where some of the gaps are; in the whole of Africa, Nigeria is where you have some of the largest population with a very good cash flow. I have done businesses in different countries; I am telling you Nigeria is one of the best places to do business and it compete fairly well with places like Dubai if you ask me.

 -In view of the recent political permutations in Nigeria, what should Nigerians expect from General Buhari led government?

 I think Nigerians should expect what Nigerians want to make happen, in which case it’s not about sitting back and say “Buhari has promised let him go and do it” it’s about what we do, it’s about how we make it happen. I personally am not going to be sitting down to just say “now we’ve voted for him or whatever the case maybe let him go and sort it out” , it’s my call, it’s my time. If he fails, I have failed.

-I hope you’re not saying this because you are a member of the APC?

See, it doesn’t matter. The PDP forced us to join parties because of sixteen years of gross mismanagement, therefore we realized that and we had to do something. I am not necessarily politically inclined but all of us are political animals. In which case, if you dig deep down you’ll find that politician in you and at the end of the day, everybody plays politics- it’s all about how you manage people, how you lead, how you deliver on your promises, how you take people forward and for me certainly I do have a lot of those attributes.

Some people can decide to hibernate and go into a cocoon for the next four years and be on the other side plotting the failure, naturally that’s going to happen but that’s their own cup of tea, I just happen not to be one of those. I believe that Nigeria needs change and change we are going to get and I believe that to a large extent this next four years is going to be prosperous for us.

I live on the cutting-edge of economic thoughts. We can’t be thinking in a straight linear fashion when things have gone digital, the kind of challenges we are dealing with now are not the cut and dry kind of issues. When I wake up in the morning that’s all I read, that’s all I think about, and I have fine-tuned my ideas in that regards. What happened is that Buhari did not win; I think that the people of this country won
and therefore the people of this country will dictate how the economy rolls. 

-Speaking of the people what should they expect in the first
100 days?

I think we are going to see a drastic cut in government expenditure in terms of what the government spends on itself; I think we’re going to see a scenario where when they are coming in they will declare their assets. Of course it’s not going to be easy; we are going to see some fight backs. Hopefully they’ll be able to re-energize EFCC to do its work; hopefully we are going to get a lot of recovery of assets of stolen money, here and there or maybe misappropriated funds, let me not use that word stolen money.

-Our economy needs technocrats to drive growth, well not the kind of growth that will keep the poor poorer and the rich richer. What kind of economic team are you looking forward to?

The word technocrat itself can be a fraudulent word because a lot people come and they say “ we are technocrats” and they put their noses in the skies and they don’t actually see what is on ground and they come with this arrogance of “I
have been abroad or I have gone to the best schools or I have got a PhD” and so on. What we need are patriots.

The question that you asked, you put this very question together perhaps with some divine guidance because you
talk about technocrat on one hand and growth that does not reflect on the lives of the people. What our technocrats have
been selling to us including Mrs Okonjo-Iweala is growth that does not include the people and it could be very easy to
include the people in the growth of this nation. In fact, until you include the people you’re not going anywhere. We don’t
want some technocrats that will come and tell us some theories they learnt in some place, what we need are patriots who can fix this economy and let me tell you, it can be done.

The only thing that will move the economy forward now, all things considered is for the government to define unemployment from the level of secondary school graduates to say that anybody that leaves secondary school must have a job--a light kind of work. And God have mercy there’s so much work to be done. Coming to the office today, the kind of dirt on the streets, the kind of dumping grounds that we passed and there are people who can clean that.

One way to move this country forward is for us to advertise to the world that now we are ready to run a country that’s going to be the cleanest and the safest and the money will come. If we do so, we will be putting money directly in the pockets of our young people. Get our young boys and girls on the streets light work. The idea is to put money in their pockets. Every streets could do with 10-20 people, 3-4 hours shift daily, with this plan you can easily create 1.5 million jobs in this country and if you say one graduate should supervise 5 people or ten people you can easily create either 200 or 300 thousand jobs for our graduates and pay them at
least N50, 000 monthly.

In an economy like ours, private sector is not charged with the duty of creating employment. Government first! In the
north we have desert encroachment, what do you need to do? You need to do tree planting; you need to do irrigation,
that’s mass labor. Private sector will not do tree planting for you, government has to chip-in in order to create the standards. If government employs 800, 000 people as a result of this that is a plus for all of us and there is a lot of work for everybody.

A clean safe environment means that businesses will be able to do more, businesses can open longer and in fact,
we should be talking about the 24 hrs economy. No young person should sit at home waiting for jamb-if jamb does not
answer you, get something doing. If we do this 1, you’ll reduce crime, 2, you’ll be putting money directly in the pockets of young people, and by so doing you’ll be creating a new class of people.

We are talking about diversification; you are not going to diversify with mouth. If there is a local textile industry in Aba
manufacturing shoes and there are local guys in Aba sewing it well, why are some of them not growing? They need someone to buy from them. The people, who’ll buy the N2000 shoe made in Aba, are these boys and girls. When you put money in their pockets, that guy manufacturing shoes in Aba will sell more and when he sells more he will improve his processes.

 -Mr. Fasua, you have built a successful business across
three continents, if given an opportunity to serve under Buhari’s government will you take it?

I will and I will do it for free! I can do it and I’m ripe enough to do it. In fact, I won’t even wait; if I can I will talk to the
necessary people. It’s not a matter of pride, these ideas I’m propagating are unheard of. I’ll be glad if am called to serve and if they don’t call me, I will give my ideas for free. If they don’t accept any of these ideas they’ll fail, I’m telling you. 

If they get advice from the hawks I see floating around the scene now; they’ll come and say “oh we have infrastructure deficit of 100 billion, let’s go to the World Bank and borrow 60 billion” they are finished! If it is about awarding contracts, they are finished. What we should do now is to reinvent our economy by focusing on the youths, how? Retooling most of our educational institutions and I say #bringbackourpublicschools.

-Social Media played a huge role in this election; in fact you are one of the few big boys who went all out online irrespective of your business interest challenging young people to give a 72 year old general a chance, why?

Because with the information at my disposal I knew we had reached our tetras end as far as PDP was concerned. I staked everything I had to say look this wasn’t the way to go
and I pushed for a change. I knew that we couldn’t continue
to sustain the level of brigandage and open looting that was
going on. I knew the economics was wrong because it was
all about chronic capitalism; I knew that we couldn’t continue
to run an economy base on bailout for the rich. These big
guys have taken Nigerians for a ride, you bail them out and
next time you see them buying all sorts of things. That’s the
reason chiefly I rooted and still rooting for Buhari, because
hopefully we will get the opportunity to get things right in this country, the wickedness was getting too much.

-All over the world, there’s a global conversation turning into innovation, as we speak the world is flatter than it was ten years ago. Where’s Nigeria’s place in this?

Regarding that one, Nigeria is finished! There are 400 Americans working in Instagram, serving almost a billion
people, when Facebook bought Whatsapp for $19 billion,
it had 55 employees serving 450 million customers. How much did they cash out? The young CEO Jan Koum who had 45% stake got $6.8 billion, his friend Brian Acton, co-founder got $3 billion, the other 55 people who were the early employees who had only 1% stake got $160 million each. Ambassador Victor, where are you there? You are there to use Whatsapp. Don’t talk innovation as far as Nigeria is concerned. What we need to do is, first go back to the root; it will give us time to think of where to come in.

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Gbagyi: Heritage

Gbagyi people are one of the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria with an estimated population figure put at 5.8 million.




Brief History:
It has been claimed that the Gbagyi people migrated from Borno into the Abuja region due to conflict with the Kanuri. Additionally, Gbagyi familiarity with the lapis lazuli stone has been taken in some quarters as indication of Egyptian origin. The question of Gbagyi origin is farther complicated by the fact that
the Nupe and Gbagyi languages have recognized affinity and the Koro, whose history seems to have
been intricately linked with that of the Gbagyi, actually claim linkage with Wukari and the Kwarafara Empire.
 
The first settler was a hunter who was on expedition to Paikokun land, a thick forest in Abuja. Paikokun was the name of the mountain where the first settler inhabited.

The Gbagyi people settled on mountains. While on the mountain, about eight kings were crowned; which
means that they lived as an organized people, even on the mountain. And when they came down, about  four rulers were crowned. Interestingly, the Gbagyi people from Minna came down from the mountain when westernization came, which attracted a rail track. The people thus agreed to come down to the plain instead of remaining on the mountain.

Gbagyi or Gwarri (also spelled Gbari) are peaceful, agriculturalist, artistic and Nupoid-speaking people
living in North-Central geo-political zone of Nigeria. They predominantly live in the Niger, Kaduna States
and the Federal Capital Territory. They are also found in Nasarawa and Kogi States. Gbagyi is the
most populated ethnic Group and indigenous in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, where their major occupation is farming. 

Gbagyi people are one of the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria with an estimated population figure put at 5.8
million, spread in four States, including the FCT and located in thirty local Government areas, according to
the 2006 National Population Census figures. 

The word Gwari, which the Gbagyi are famously called, is the name of a particular yam in Gbagyi.
Principally there are three types of Gwari: Gwari Niger, Gwari Gengen and Gwari Yama. Before their
farming occupation, Gwari’s were into calabash carving, pottery and hunting and fishing.The Gbagyi
people are known to be, noble, peace-loving, transparent and accommodating people. 

 In most African cultures, women carry loads on their head. The situation is quite different among Gwari
women in Nigeria. In this society, women carry loads on their shoulders, because they are of the believe
that the head should be accorded a royal status as the King of the entire body, saddled with the task
of thinking for the body, as a result it should not be burdened with manual or pedestrian task, such as
ferrying goods from place to place.
 

First Story Building, Lagos State

The first story building in Nigeria was built in Marina Badagry in 1845. The simple Portuguese styled one story building was built of concrete, wood and corrugated zinc materials.

Thebuilding located at a strategic part of Badagry, was built by a merchant and one of the Bale’s of Badagry. The house is a popular tourist landmark in Badagry.

‘Atilogwu’

The ‘Atilogwu’ (Acrobatic Dance) was an acrobatic dance that served both as entertainment but also equivalent to today’s cheerleaders in the west. The acrobatic flips, high jumps, etc kept young men in shape and out of crime.

WHY I LOVE TO TRAVEL AROUND NIGERIA

Pelu Awofeso

Awofeso is a winner of the CNN/ Multichoice Africa Journalists Awards in the tourism category. He is also the publisher of waka-about, an online travel platform.


"Traveling around Nigeria is a lifelong lessons no-one can pick up in the classrooms or from reading books." 

 I have been asked 101 times in recent years why I travel around Nigeria so frequently. On the surface, I travel because my job as a travel journalist demands it—in much the same way that a trader must go to the market. But the truth is that beneath the surface, there is a different force at work. I should say that I have been on a learning quest over the last 15 years and the journey continues.

 Many years ago, I realized that I didn’t really know much about Nigeria, my home country, and I thought it be quite a shame. I was a graduate trained in the sciences; I had only a slight understanding of the history and socio-cultural aspects of Nigerian life. So I made the decision to re-educate myself through traveling, to expose myself to as many Nigerian lifestyles and traditions as I could manage.

 By and large, I have been the better for it. I trace my wandering ways to the one year I spent in Jos (Plateau State) in 1998/99 as a corps member and an extra year spent there afterwards as a guidebook researcher. Jos at the time was a beauty to behold—the physical setting, the tidy environment, and its easy going indigenes and residents all added up to make Jos an attractive city. In Jos it was that I started off as a travel journalist, and it launched me into a career that has spanned nearly 15 years and taken me to 30 states of the federation.

Travelling so widely in the country has opened my eyes to the innumerable beauties of Nigeria and Nigerians. I have been warmly received and feted by complete strangers in cities I was visiting as a stranger; I have learned lots of local customs by interacting with indigenes of the states I have visited—from Argungu to Abeokuta to Akwa Ibom; I have interviewed royal fathers and covered dozens of local festivals; I have climbed hills and walked in underground fortresses; I have collected films, music and souvenirs from different cultures nationwide, all of which help to preserve my memories of those places.

The fascinating thing about my experiences is that I know more about the Nigeria than the average Nigerian who hasn’t travelled as widely as I have. I am writing this after a week spent sightseeing in towns situated in Ijebuland, Ogun State—Ikenne, Ososa, Ilisan-Remo, Idowa and Omu to mention a few. While there, I visited the Awolowo museum/mausoleum as well as the country home of Hubert Ogunde, both accomplished Nigerians in their lifetime. I was also privileged to witness a rare traditional festival.

These are lifelong lessons no-one can pick up in the classrooms or from reading books.Beyond travelling extensively in Nigeria on assignment and self-sponsored trips, I have also had the privilege of living and working in cities like Abuja, Port Harcourt and Lagos. These have given me added knowledge of the people of those places, knowledge I wouldn’t have had if I had not lived in those places.

And having benefited immensely from my travels, I am now trying to inspire Nigerians to do as I have done. In January 2014, I launched a project called @TravelNextDoor (www.travelnextdoor.com) with the aim to reach one million Nigerians (via social media) with the message of domestic tourism and to help them see that traveling within one’s country can be both fun and fulfilling. So far we have reached a quarter of the target we set ourselves and I am quite certain that we will hit the mark by year’s end.
 

MINISTER OF LABOUR, NGIGE DIDNOT COLLAPSE

Minister Of Labor Ngige Did Not Collapse

A rumored collapse of the Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, shook the National Assembly around midday on Thursday.

But, investigations showed that the former Senator and former Governor of Anambra State did not step his foot on the premises of the legislature on Thursday, the Minister is said to be out of the country at the moment to Zambia on official duties.

However, rumors in the National Assembly had it that Ngige had come to the House of Representatives to defend the 2016 budget of his Ministry but collapsed in the process.

The Minister, in a terse reaction, quickly dismissed the rumor of his death.

His Personal Assistant, Mr. Nwachukwu Ngige, relayed the Minister’s Facebook post in which he dismissed the rumor.

He wrote, “Dear friends, please disregard the wicked tissue of lies, contained in an online publication about an unfortunate incident said to have taken place today at the National Assembly and in which I was said to have been involved.

“I am currently not in the country much less being at the National Assembly.

I have since Monday, February 15, 2016, been attending the 42nd Ordinary Session of the African Regional Labour Advisory Council, taking place in Zambia.

BOKO HARAM MARKET DISCOVERED

‘Boko Haram market’ discovered, 195 captives rescued

The Nigerian troops on Wednesday destroyed patent medicine outlet and major market operated by Boko Haram insurgents and rescued 195 captives at various locations of Borno State.

 “The Nigerian troops of 7 Division Garrison comprising 112 Battalion and Armed Forces Special Forces yesterday carried out a joint clearance patrol on suspected Boko Haram terrorists locations at Kwaptara, Mijigete, Garin Boka, Mosole, Ngubdori, Ma’asa, Dukje and Gulumba in Dikwa and Bama Local Government Areas of Borno State.

“The troops discovered Boko Haram terrorists’ camp, patent medicine outfit and major market at Gulumba “quite a number” of insurgents were killed and a lot of items were recovered during the raid; this includes two logistic trucks, 180 motorcycles, 750 bicycles and various perishable and non-perishable items such as a 100 KVA Mikano generator and grinding machine, a statement made by the spokesman of the Nigerian Army, Sani Usman.

“In addition, they also rescued 195 persons held hostage, recovered 300 cows, 200 sheep and 130 goats rustled by the insurgents.

“The troops also recovered military items such as camouflage uniforms as well as rifle magazines and grenades.