Reliving the past with ‘Spirit of Lagos’

Several people would find it odd to hear that Lagos has a ‘spirit’. While it is not out of place to attribute a spirit to an emerging mega city such as Lagos, as it may conjure some diabolical feelings to some; but in reality, Lagos has a spirit.

   A group already goes by the name ‘The Spirit of Lagos’ and they simply depict the essence of the commercial nerve centre of Sub-Sahara Africa. “It is the embodiment of all things good about Lagos and the very lifeline that connects its glorious past with its future that we dream of,” Olaniyi Omotosho, the project coordinator said.

   Omotosho is worried that the once vibrant, enterprising, fun-loving and accommodating spirit, which Lagos is known for, has been challenged and diluted by a combination of factors. This is a problem the group is determined to address through a creative campaign.

   The factors include widening gap between the government and the governed, poor quality of life, unemployment, high density/poor housing, education, healthcare, social/environmental services, which resulted in indifference and diminished sense of belonging towards communal development and sustainability.

   “The initiative is to discuss the development possibilities that can make the city a better place for all to live in. It will probably be the most transformative thing to happen in this city in several decades. And it is only fitting to have it taking place in Lagos, the crown jewel of the Nigerian economy. Hopefully, its success will spur renewed focus, across the country, on ambitious, value-adding infrastructure projects,” he stated.

   The group noted: “As apathy deepens over time and people do not see a way out, a state of contagious depression, cynicism and negativity results. They loose all sense of restraint and violate established laws with adverse effect on them and society at large.

   “People become desperate and look to survive by any means necessary. Social values spiral down, as people stop caring for one another. This manifests in increased armed robbery, vandalism, lawlessness, road rage, kidnapping and others.”

   The group believes that recourse to social justice, equal opportunity, civic responsibility, citizenship education and good neighborliness would address the issues.

   Speaking on the subject of social justice, the group stated that Lagos historically has always been a fair and just place to live, both in terms of access to recourse for injustice and a collective responsibility to fight wrong to an individual or group.

   “History is replete with examples of these acts of liberation that make everyone ‘free’ in Lagos. These will be reenacted and presented to enliven Lagosians to a spirit that should never die through indifference and a lack of information of all that the government continues to put in place to ensure justice for all,” it explained.

By Adeniyi Idowu Adunola

Airtel rewards ‘Google Cloud App Developer’ challenge winners

Airtel Nigeria has rewarded some young Nigerians who excelled in the just-concluded Airtel/Google cloud applications development challenge.

  While announcing the winners in Lagos, The Director of Products and Services, Maurice Newa, said Airtel is committed to discovering talent hence its decision to partner Google in the app challenge.

  He said: “The Google cloud development challenge was an initiative Airtel Nigeria identified as very impactful thus threw its full weight behind it because of our commitment to creating credible platforms for the development of local talents and also providing Nigerian youths with plethora of opportunities to succeed.”

  Jambite online prep school app fetched the duo of Aneke Chidindum and Nosa Harry Belvi the third position while Mapplusyou app secured Adewale Obadimo and Ayodele Adebayo the second place slot. The star prize of N1 million went to Femi Taiwo and Tunde Owokoniran with Funnyleni app.

  The challenge, according to the organisers, was aimed at testing the knowledge of Nigerians and indeed Africans on how well they know the web, in various categories such as social & entertainment; education, business & non-profit.

  Programme Manager Outreach, Sub-Saharan Africa, Google, Chukwuemeka Afigbo averred that “one thing Google hold dear is the importance of the web and the importance of the Internet is the relevance of the web.”

  Afigbo observed that the importance of the app challenge was to encourage young Nigerians to get creative with the web and to encourage best practices amongst best app users.

  He noted that the winning apps were based on relevance to the Nigerian environment, originality and the responsiveness of the app to different screen-size phone, tablet or regular screen.

  Aneke Chidindum, developer of the Jambsite online prep school app, explained that the idea behind the app is to create an avenue where web users can learn various subjects and assess one’s self instead of the usual social media which gets heavy visitors on a daily basis.

  The second and third place winners were rewarded with N500, 000 and N250, 000 respectively.

By Adeniyi Idowu Adunola

MTN thrills youths at Valentine party

IT was a night of splendid and memorable entertainment at the weekend as the telecommunications giant, MTN, hosted thousands of Nigerian youths at a Valentine Rave party held at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos.

 The event was marked by good music and a convivial setting, as the young and not-too-young Nigerians came out to take advantage of the platform to give and receive love in an atmosphere of fun and excitement.

 Speaking on the reason for the event, General Manager, Consumer Marketing, Kola Oyeyemi, said: “We at MTN are committed to greatly impacting lives. We love the youth of this country and we want to create a platform where this love from us to the customers and also amongst the customers themselves can be celebrated with good music.”

 " Nigerian youths have chosen to be here over other places tonight, they want to have fun on Valentine night. We promised a lot and we are indeed delivering on our promises,” he added.

  As Nigeria’s popular DJs dished out monster hits from their wheels of steel one after the other, the crowd roared in delight.

  Led by Jimmy Jatt, each DJ proved his mettle to convince the audience they were worth all the hype and praises that were heaped on them prior to the event.

  Others on the wheels of steel mixing, blending and scratching to the delight of the excited crowd were Big N, Caise, Neptune and Obi. One after the other, they churned out heart thumping numbers from the past, the not-too-distant past and the raves of the moment.

  Then came the performances by the best of Nigerian musicians. Sound Sultan did not fail to impress as he and his crew rocked the staged, effectively setting the tone for other performances. Then came Chidinma (a.k.a Miss Kedike) who held the ageless crowd captive as she thrilled the crowd with her sing-along signature track "Kedike". 

 Then came Praiz. As soon as he started singing "Oshe", the crowd erupted in recognition of the track, which is one of those currently ruling the airwaves. After that came the ‘First Lady’ of Nigerian music scene - Tiwa Savage and her sultry dancers. Like those before her, she also did not disappoint, as did her best to wow the crowd. She started out by singing a love song to all the guests. Then as if to underscore the importance of the event and her audience, she taunted, "my husband allowed me to come out here on a Valentine’s night because you are all special!”

  International music star Mario Winans also performed to the excitement of the guests. He noted: “I’m so happy to be with you guys, and I promise to keep coming to Nigeria “because I love you guys."

By Adeniyi Idowu Adunola

Lagos disburses N47.4b into RSA

Lagos State Government has so far disbursed over N47.4 billon into the Retirement Savings Accounts, (RSAs), of the state retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme.

 The Director-General, Lagos State Pension Commission (LASPEC), Rotimi Adekunle Hussain, disclosed this recently, at the 10th Retirement Bond Certificates presentation to employees, who recently retired from the state’s public service.

 Hussain, said the state government had been steadfast in its commitment at sustaining full implementation of Contributory Pension Scheme even beyond the present administration.

 He added, “From the inception of the scheme in 2007 to date the government has contributed about N47.4b being monthly deduction of 7.5 per cent of the basic, rent and transport allowances from the salary of every worker and counterpart 7.5 per cent contribution by the state government, into the RSA of every employee with the state approved Pension Fund Administrators (PFA).

“The development is in line with Fashola administration’s determination to make life meaningful for employees of the public service after their retirement.”

 He further explained that LASPEC remained resolute that every employee in the state public service is adequate equipped and empowered with the necessary knowledge contribution pension scheme before exiting the scheme.

According to him, the Lagos State Pension Reform Act 2007 is aimed at protecting the retirement benefits of the workers, promote good pension administration and reduce the risk mostly associated with the previous pension laws to the barest minimum.

To this end, Hussain advised all the retirees to live their life in retirement responsibly and not to engage themselves in businesses that could put their retirement benefits at undue risk

 Before this recent development, the state government was said to have paid a total accrued pension right of N18.97bn into the RSA of 3,489 retirees.

Adeniyi Idowu Adunola

US business group visits Nigeria, to partner entrepreneurs

An Atlanta, US-based group, Geek Gone Global, is currently visiting Nigeria to explore business opportunities in Nigeria and Africa.

Speaking with journalists after the visiting team was hosted by the Managing Director of Shod Systems Nigeria, Alhaji Hassan Sharafadeen; the head of the delegation, Faruq Hunter, who is the CEO of GeniusCorps Inc, US said the company is a conglomerate of 16 companies that came together to partner Nigeria and African countries with the objective of solving some problems associated with African rural communities.

“We are encouraging Africans to do things on their own and accomplish goals. We believe that Africa is investment haven, especially in the sectors like software development, distribution of energy and water and mostly agriculture. It is all about allowing the people to take control of their lives and destiny. We encourage African to shun the importation of food and make use of their local materials to boost their economy. The problem isn’t opportunity but awareness. So we are here to create awareness,” he said.

Geek Gone Global will also visit places like Dakar, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi and Cairo.

Earlier, Hassan had stated that the group and his own company have the same vision, which according to him, is to encourage and assist young Nigerians entrepreneurs start their own business at minimal cost by providing virtual office space opportunity to serve as soft landing and rapid smooth start up. 

“We encourage youths to become entrepreneurs early enough as this will further boost Nigeria economy instead of relying on government jobs that might not come,’’ Hassan said.

 By Adeniyi Idowu Adunola