#nigerian steel pan

[tosinger]

Musical Footprints: Pioneering TEDx Music Performer at the inaugural TEDx Atlanta Women Event - SOAR '22

Musical Footprints: Pioneering TEDx Music Performer at the inaugural TEDx Atlanta Women Event – SOAR ’22

Seven years ago, I wrote a blog post on “Three Nigerian friends and their TEDx Talks worth sharing” little did I know that I will be gracing a TEDx stage myself under monumental circumstances. Monumental because this will be the first ever curated TEDx Women event in Atlanta. Usually for a TED or TEDx event, speakers and performers apply and go through a screening and selection process, so I…

[crimechannels]

By • Olalekan Fagbade Despite economic headwinds that affected Nigeria’s economy, three Nigerians have appeared in the list of richest black people on earth. They are Aliko Dangote, Abdulsamad Rabiu and Mike Adenuga. Aliko Dangote, President of the pan-African Conglomerate, the Dangote Group, tops the list. Here is a list of 17 richest black people on earth 1. Aliko Dangote ($10.8 billion) Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, founded and chairs Dangote Cement, the continent’s largest cement producer. He owns 85% of publicly-traded Dangote Cement through a holding company. Dangote Cement has the capacity to produce 48.6 million metric tons annually and has operations in 10 countries across Africa. After many years in development, Dangote’s fertilizer plant in Nigeria began operations in March 2022. Dangote Refinery has been under construction since 2016 and is expected to be one of the world’s largest oil refineries once complete. 2. Robert F. Smith  ($8 billion) Robert F. Smith founded private equity firm Vista Equity Partners in 2000. It focuses exclusively on investing in software companies. With $96 billion in assets, Vista is one of the best-performing private equity firms, posting annualized returns of 31% since inception. In October 2020, Smith entered into an agreement with the DOJ and IRS, agreeing to pay $139 million for his role in a tax evasion scheme. As a college student, Smith secured an internship at Bell Labs after calling the company every week for five months. An engineer by training, he worked at Kraft Foods and Goodyear Tire before getting his MBA at Columbia University. During a commencement speech, Smith vowed to wipe out the student debt of the entire 2019 graduating class of Morehouse College. 3. David Steward ($7.6 billion) David Steward is the founder and chairman of IT provider World Wide Technology. In the early days, Steward sometimes went without a paycheck and once watched his car get repossessed from the office parking lot. Today he is majority owner of the $14.5 billion (sales) company, whose customers include Citi, Verizon and the federal government. He grew up in the segregated South with seven siblings; his father worked as a mechanic, janitor and trash collector. Steward donated $1.3 million to the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 2018 to create the David and Thelma Steward Institute for Jazz Studies. 4. Abdulsamad Rabiu ($5.6 billion) Abdulsamad Rabiu is the founder of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate active in cement production, sugar refining and real estate. In early January 2020, Rabiu merged his privately-owned Obu Cement company with listed firm Cement Co. of Northern Nigeria, which he controlled. The combined firm, called BUA Cement Plc, trades on the Nigerian stock exchange; Rabiu owns 98.2% of it. Rabiu, the son of a businessman, inherited land from his father. He set up his own business in 1988 importing iron, steel and chemicals. 5. Mike Adenuga  ($3.6 billion) Adenuga, Nigeria’s second richest man, built his fortune in telecom and oil production. His mobile phone network, Globacom, is the third largest operator in Nigeria, with 55 million subscribers. His oil exploration outfit, Conoil Producing, operates 6 oil blocks in the Niger Delta. Adenuga got an MBA at Pace University in New York, supporting himself as a student by working as a taxi driver. He made his first million at age 26 selling lace and distributing soft drinks. 6. Jay-Z ($2.5 billion) Since becoming hip-hop’s first billionaire in 2019, Jay-Z has more than doubled his fortune thanks to his lucrative liquor businesses. In 2021, giant LVMH purchased a 50% stake in his champagne empire Armand de Brignac, otherwise known as Ace of Spades.

Jay-Z sold a majority of his stake in his cognac brand D’Usse to Bacardi in February 2023. His other assets range from a fine art collection including works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, his music catalog and shares in companies like Block and Uber. In 2021 he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame; He won an Emmy in 2022 for Outstanding Variety Special for his production of the Super Bowl Halftime Show. 7. Oprah Winfrey ($2.5 billion) Oprah Winfrey has transitioned her hit talk show, which ran for 25 years, into a media and business empire. Reinvested, the profits from her show, plus profits from films like The Color Purple, Beloved and Selma (which her Harpo Productions coproduced) add up to an estimated more than $2 billion. In 2011, Winfrey launched cable channel OWN. She sold most of her stake in the network to owner Warner Bros. Discovery in 2020 in exchange for shares in the company. Winfrey bought a 10% stake in Weight Watchers in 2015, though she owns less now. Her sprawling real estate portfolio includes homes in California, Nashville and over a dozen properties in Hawaii. 8. PATRICE MOTSEPE  ($2.3 billion) Patrice Motsepe, the founder and chairman of African Rainbow Minerals, became a billionaire in 2008 – the first black African on the Forbes list. In 2016, he launched a private equity firm, African Rainbow Capital, focused on investing in Africa. Motsepe also has a stake in Sanlam, a listed financial services firm, and is the president and owner of the Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club. In March 2021, Motsepe was elected president of the Confederation of African Football, the sport’s governing body on the continent. In 1994, he became the first black partner at law firm Bowman Gilfillan in Johannesburg, and then started a mining services contracting business. In 1997, he bought low-producing gold mine shafts and later turned them profitable. 9. Michael Jordan  ($2 billion) Regarded by most as the NBA’s greatest all-time player, Michael Jordan won six titles with the Chicago Bulls. His salary during his career totaled $90 million, but he has earned $1.8 billion (pre-tax) from such corporate partners as Nike, Hanes and Gatorade. MJ joined sports-betting firm DraftKings as a special advisor to the board and an investor in September 2020. He also became a NASCAR team co-owner in late 2020. Jordan, who owns the Charlotte Hornets, agreed to sell a minority stake in a 2019 deal that valued the NBA team at $1.5 billion. 10. STRIVE MASIYIWA, ($1.8 billion) Strive Masiyiwa overcame protracted government opposition to launch mobile phone network Econet Wireless Zimbabwe in his country of birth in 1998. He owns just over 50% of the publicly-traded Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, which is one part of his larger Econet Group. Masiyiwa also owns just over half of private company Liquid Telecom, which provides fiber optic and satellite services to telecom firms across Africa. His other assets include stakes in mobile phone networks in Burundi and Lesotho, and investments in fintech and power distribution firms in Africa. He and his wife Tsitsi founded the Higherlife Foundation, which supports orphaned and poor children in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Burundi and Lesotho. 11. Alexander Karp ($1.8 billion) Alex Karp is cofounder and CEO of data mining firm Palantir Technologies, which received early backing from CIA investment arm In-Q-Tel. The company does contract work for government agencies like the Department of Defense, the FBI and the Danish National Police. Palantir went public on the New York Stock Exchange in an unusual direct listing process in September 2020. Karp met Palantir cofounder and billionaire Facebook investor Peter Thiel while at Stanford Law School. Karp managed money before starting Palantir in 2004, and occasionally teaches meditation classes at the company. 12. Rihanna ($1.4 billion ) Rihanna, Barbados’ most famous export, is a billionaire thanks to the success of cosmetics line Fenty Beauty.

The cosmetics company, which she co-owns with French luxury retailer LVMH, doubled its revenue in 2022. She also has a 30% stake in the Savage x Fenty lingerie line, which raised money at a $1 billion valuation in February 2021. The pop star headlined the Super Bowl LVII halftime show for the first time in 2023, during which she revealed she is pregnant with her second child. Rihanna and rapper A$AP Rocky already have one son, born in May 2022. She released her first new music in five years in 2022 for the movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Her song “Lift Me Up” was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song. 13. Michael Lee-Chin  ($1.4 billion each) Michael Lee-Chin made a fortune investing in financial companies like National Commercial Bank Jamaica and AIC Limited. The native of Jamaica acquired AIC in 1987, when it had less than $1 million in assets under management. Under Lee-Chin, the Canada-based wealth management and mutual fund business managed more than $10 billion in assets by 2002. But the firm was hit hard by the 2008 recession, and Lee-Chin sold AIC to Canadian financial services group Manulife in 2009 for an undisclosed price. He managed to hold onto a valuable 60% stake in National Commercial Bank Jamaica, which now makes up much of his wealth. 14. MOHAMMED IBRAHIM  ($1.2 billion) Mohammed “Mo” Ibrahim founded Celtel International in 1998, one of the first mobile phone companies serving Africa and the Middle East. He sold Celtel to Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Company for $3.4 billion in 2005 and pocketed $1.4 billion. Since then, he’s focused on fighting corrupt leadership in Africa through the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, directed by his daughter, Hadeel. Ibrahim also chairs the board of Satya Capital, a private equity fund that invests in African businesses, education and healthcare. 15. Tiger Woods  ($1.1 billion) Woods has earned roughly $1.8 billion during his pro golf career, including a PGA Tour-record $121 million in prize money. In 2022, Forbes certified him as a billionaire, making him only the second active athlete ever with that distinction, after LeBron James. Woods reached that rarified air despite reportedly turning down a “mind-blowingly enormous” offer from the upstart LIV Golf tour, a deal that LIV CEO Greg Norman told the Washington Post would have been in the “high nine digits.” Woods has parlayed his golfing paychecks into investments that include two homes on Jupiter Island, a golf-course design business and high-end mini-golf chain Popstroke. Woods and fellow golf star Rory McIlroy announced in 2022 that they had founded TMRW Sports, a tech-focused venture with plans to launch a new golf league called TGL. The superstar is also a partner with Justin Timberlake and British billionaire Joe Lewis in Nexxus, a luxury real-estate venture. 16. LeBron James ($1 billion) James is the first active NBA player to become a billionaire, with Forbes estimating his net worth at $1 billion in June 2022. Born to a 16-year-old single mother, he lived with an assortment of family members, friends and neighbors, plus his youth football coach, before being drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003. James has reportedly earned more than $430 million in pretax salary from stints with the Cavaliers, the Miami Heat and his current team, the Los Angeles Lakers. He has raked in upwards of $900 million (pretax) off the court, according to Forbes estimates from business ventures and endorsement deals with the likes of PepsiCo, Walmart and Nike. Key to his billionaire status: James has been more than a pitchman, taking equity in brands he works with, including Beats by Dre and the fast-growing Blaze Pizza chain. His LeBron James Family Foundation opened its first elementary school in 2018 and has pledged to spend more than $40 million to send kids to college. 17. Tyler Perry  ($1 billion) A director, actor, producer and writer,

Tyler Perry is best known for his “Madea” franchise, which has grossed more than $660 million. Perry started out in live theater in the 1990s and became extremely popular before transitioning to film and television in the 2000s. Perry’s wealth comes both from his cut as a producer and from a library dating back to the early 1990s: he owns 100% of the content he’s created. In 2019, he opened Tyler Perry Studios, a 330-acre property in Atlanta with 12 sound stages and custom sets that include a to-scale White House.     #billionaire #Nigerians #wealth #Worldsrichestblackpeople

[petewentzisblack1312]

(Asks you about mania as a dancehall album because Burna Boy's on it, Nigerian rep and all)

so every fall out boy album has its core softcore punk fall out boy sound and draws influence from another genre and with mania the genre is dancehall and reggae. patrick actually mentioned that mania is probably the closest theyll get to a ska album because of that, and i really think its noteworthy how they use reggae and other west indian genres that evolved from reggae to evoke imagery of the ocean to represent a chaotic, manic state of mind (the sunshine riptide). theres rock at the core with joes riffs and licks and andys drumming but i feel like the basslines, melodies and instrumentals, particularly the way the isntruments are pitched (to me they have this je ne said quois that makes them sound kind of like steel pans sometimes) have a lot of dancehall and reggae and even calypso elements. its really obvious on sunshine riptide i think. theres also a fair bit of electronic beats (a staple in dancehall and often seen in modern reggae) on a lot of the songs, like bishops knife trick and wilson. obviously thats emphasized by the only feature on the album being a afrobeat/dancehall artist who sings in yoruba and english creole during his verse.

im really bad at explaining this but mania as an album is just very caribbean and i love it

[foreignmusicdownload-blog]

Nigerian Music Videos - Treading Up The coffee quality Game

foreign music download The particular foreign music videos were being better than our close to you made ones. Despite visitors including: Nico Mbanga (Sweet Mother), Osita Osadebe (Osondi Owendi), Oliver de Emballage (Boni boni identity), Mandy Brown leafy (Taxi driver), Onyeka Owenu (One Love), Lorine Okotie (His love is definitely that medicine), Charly son (Before Before) Chris Okotie (ABC), Evy Edna Ogoli( Happy Birthday), Felyx and also Mozes( Free), Felix Liberty(Ifeoma), Stella Monye (Nigeria head out survive), while seen within one of my articles or blog posts "The blossoming Of Typically the Nigerian Music Industry", baladin didn't make the sought after impact from the International arena, based within other stuff on the colossal inferior video quality account.

foreign music download

Often the 90's era was definitely not drastically better than often the 80's, likely the mid 90's when the category associated with music towed the way regarding rap / rap along with the use of each of our neighborhood parlance in sounds begun to make the tunes industry considerably more entertaining seeing that opposed to the 80's. The actual Remedies (Edris Abdulkareem, Eddie Montana, Tony tetwila) keyed into it in addition to became the excellent involving the moment at in which time. Sugar plantation Boyz (Tu face Idibia, Faze, Black color Face) ended up incredible as well as soared to help greater heightened levels before the set separated. The launching connected with Th face Idibia's by yourself employment with his hit trail "African Queen" catapulted the pup to the top. Nearly all Nigerians liked his initially online video, but unfortunately he / she had in order to re-shoot a different in acquiescence with the actual direction of a common foreign music TV approach. Style Plus's "Olu Fumi" also had a wonderful videos in comparison using many that stormed all of our TV sets. Paul holmes Play's hit song "Angel associated with my life" in addition acquired a cool video.

Conceivably, the turning point to get the doing of fine quality videos is due to the particular stable of P- Block with the video with regard to their hit song "Do me" which was shot inside Newcastle, south africa. The video absolutely hit typically the International typical mark with different music prepared TV shows throughout Nigeria, constantly showing the item. Baladin challenged by the sound production began to take a trip Newcastle, south africa, USA, and pieces of European union to photograph videos in their songs. Many people also featured light skinned ladies dancing inside movies. Most top rated histrion patronise directors who get wooden niches for their selves in the fine art regarding making quality videos. Best on the list are usually DJ Golf tee, Clarence Peters (CEO involving Capital Hill) and Bobby Hai.

The particular rise connected with Cally Ikpe's "Nigerian New music Video Awards" (NMVA) and also Sound Urban center Music Videos Awards (SMVA) aimed at worthwhile baladin with top notch video clips have also contributed to be able to the grow of excellent quality productions. Furthermore, histrion who have good video have easy access for you to enjoy airplay on MTV Base, Approach O along with other International new music avenues, opening wider, opportunities which will tend to give these individuals admission to fame and bundle.

Excellent, creative videos are generally snappy and draw awareness to often the artistes in addition to of course, the home. Quality music videos this have manufactured waves with Nigeria and perhaps beyond include things like but not on a: P- Square (Do my family, Jiggle it, Ifunnaya), Are brave enough Fine art Alade (Not the lady, More), Tu face Idibia (If love is a crime), Kel (Too fine), Keffi (kokoroko), Naeto C (Kini big deal), Bouqui (Take you away), Infinity (Olori oko), Asa (Fire for the mountain), TY Bello (Green land, Ekundayo), Gino (No be God), Djinee (Lade), DJ Jimmy Jatt (Too much ft Sasha, Blaise, kemistry, Bouqui), Alabai (Voice of God), Mo arised all stars (Pere), Omawunmi (In the music), Nikki Laoye (Never felt that way), Steel (South Cameras girl).

Nigerian music video tutorials include certainly helped baladin to help clinch international specials and awards and usually are getting better regular. Typically the duo of P-Square clinched the KORAH prizes organised in 2010 at Burkina Faso for the "Artiste with the year" category. Often the twins was home having the jack pan treasure of $ just one zillion!.

[tayoakinrinsola]

Miking a perculiar instrument called STEEL PAN Steelpans is a music instrument originated from Trinidad and Tobago. It was first played in Nigeria in 1977 when a Steel Band from Trinidad and Tobago came in for the African festival of arts and culture (FESTAC). They manufactured their own instruments at the Nigerian Army Band Corps Head quarters, Lagos, as a result of the bulky nature of the instruments and perhaps the cost of transporting them to Nigeria This became an advantage to Nigeria as the band from Trinidad left these instruments with the Army on their return to Trinidad and Tobago. Because no one could play these instruments, the Army sent bandsmen to Trinidad immediately for training on those instruments.  Since their return, the Nigerian Army has been the only official organization with a Steel Band in the entire nation. Also, the Redeemers's International Secondary School, Maryland has skillful students who plays the instrument Tayo: +2348060516493 #tayoAkinrinsola #loveislove #instagoodshot #photooftheday #fashion #beautiful #happy #cute #tbt #like4like #followme #picoftheday #follow #me #selfimprovementsdaily #summers #artist #instadailyapp #friends #repost #nature #girl #fun #style #smilemore #foodstagram #instalikesandfollowers4u #likeforlikesback https://www.instagram.com/p/CEwgOBologa/?igshid=1dk3pdpv2mw4a

[domdavis19]

Idea for Helmie oil poem.

Concept

Panning shot with two realities of oil. One it's destructive capacity. Two the economic generator the oil industry is for the world.

Style

Style wise the boy eating bread with the fabric flowing and the grid black filled floor with the columns, the columns can come out of the black oil as maybe new steel and consumer goods. And the birds and landscape sinking into the oil never to be seen again. The oil can have the erodescent effect of the rainbow on the surface of the oil. We can include Americana like oil barrels dollar bills in the economic side. And the poverty maybe Nigerians moloko or Niger Delta regions destroyed by shell corp.

Could have that corporation branding scattered in the bad side.

Style wise again. We can have motion in the onion skinning style as holding frames that move to the next frame but as dashed lines to symbol something hidden like in architecture. And then when it reaches a resting frame the drawing is in colour and well done. I'm thinking of doing this will a pelican flapping in oil. So dashed outline of the bird and multiple drawings overlaid in movement like muybridge then resting on a beautiful drawing.

Start with collage then illustrate it

Make list of thing related to oil. Americana war landscape poverty wealth contradiction Niger Delta Dubai desert Iraq middle East destroyed buildings by war Dubai lavish malls. Technology iPhone cars generators

Take oil tankers and then transition into strange world of oil economics (western wealth) and oil destructive ability

[upshotre]

UBA Honours Kola Jamodu after 12 Years of Service; Assures of Solid Governance Processes

Pan African financial institution, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has assured investors and shareholders of her continuous adherence to solid corporate governance processes as the bank honoured its ex-director, Chief Kola Jamodu. In a glitzy cocktail event and dinner in his honour at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, on Thursday, Jamodu was celebrated for his service on the bank’s board for 12 years as a non-Executive director. Accolades were poured on him, for his remarkable contributions to the group over the period that have helped solidify the bank’s footprints in its many countries of operations. Speaking at the event, UBA’s Group Chairman, Tony O. Elumelu, commended Jamodu’s efforts at contributing towards the strong corporate governance policies which UBA currently boasts of. He said, “Chief Jamodu is a great Nigerian, a respected man and a great non-executive director to UBA. He has been wonderful and instrumental to today’s current standing of UBA across our 20 presence countries in Africa as well as in America, United Kingdom and in Paris. He was on the board of UBA for 12 years, and in line with corporate practices, which says at the end of 12 years, you retire from the board, he is retiring and we are here to celebrate his contribution to the bank.” While reeling off some of Jamodu’s many achievements, Elumelu said, “He has been extremely supportive to UBA; he served as Chairman of Board Risk Committee, and he has all the experience - a chartered accountant, extremely astute, chairman of Nigerian Breweries, chairman of PZ, chairman of Nutricima; former minister of industry; a great tax expert, financial and management expert and UBA has been extremely lucky to have him on our board for 12 years. So to him and his family, we say thank you for all the support, for the teachings, for being generous with knowledge and for asking those hard questions that made us solidify our governance processes here at UBA.” On his part, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Kennedy Uzoka, explained in fine details the impact that Jamodu’s experience has had on the bank, adding that he was able to help UBA navigate through some challenges that have now made the bank come out even stronger. He said, “Chief Kola Jamodu is a very astute financial manager with diverse experience; he is someone that has helped us as managers to look into areas that we may not have looked into. During his time, he helped us to navigate critical issues, and now UBA America is a bank on its own as is UBA UK. He was always asking the right questions which others would have missed, and this is what helped us be where we are today. He started with us when we had just a few countries of operation and now today, UBA is operating in 23  countries. Kudos to Jamodu, he will be missed.” Jamodu, who attended the event with his beautiful wife Funmilayo, thanked the bank for the opportunity given to him to contribute to the growth of the UBA Group, adding that as a board member one should be able to have an impact in the way things are being done, in governance principles and much more. Speaking on his most memorable achievements on the board, he said, “I am very happy today that loan loss provisioning in UBA is one of the lowest because of the way we have handled those issues. My door is quite open and I will continue to offer what I can to ensure that this bank which I am still very much a part of continues to flourish.  My advice to the board, is that they should continue to ensure good succession planning which is very important.”

l-r: Minister of Industry, Otunba Niyi Adebayo; GMD/CEO, United Bank for Africa(UBA) Plc, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka; the celebrant and Former Director, UBA Plc, Chief Kola Jamodu and wife; Chairman, UBA Plc, Mr. Tony Elumelu; Wife of Vice Chairman, UBA Plc, Mrs Dayo Keshi; Senator Tolu Odebiyi; and Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Uchechukwu Ogah, during the dinner party in honour of Chief Jamodu who recently retired from the Board of the Bank, in Abuja on Thursday Read the full article

[olaluwe]

Writing about the dreary and inexact subject of Economics is a truly confounding exercise. Yet there are times when one cannot shy away from the patriotic obligation. No discipline can be more exacting than modern Economics. 

Consensus is rare and intellectual unanimity even more elusive.

Yet in the hallowed field of medical sciences, physicians are aware when the object of their skillful attention is about to expire. It is only a certain species of economists who pretend otherwise even as the object of their learned attention goes into rigor Mortis.

About twelve weeks ago, the Nigerian federal authorities, fearing that the nation might simply collapse economically as a result of its having become a vast dumping site for imported goods smuggled through our neighbouring countries, closed the borders of the country.

As usual with everything Nigerian, the move has elicited mixed reaction with the country split along the traditional fault lines of ethnicity, regionalism, and religion.

To be sure, it was a drastic and extreme move which in a normal democracy ought to have been driven by elite consensus and conciliation. But we live in extraordinary times and an unusual democratic arrangement. After some initial objections, the protests petered out. It is obvious that despite having fallen prey to the hocus-pocus of neo-liberal economic orthodoxy in recent times, President Mohammadu Buhari still retains an awkward sense of the economic nationalism of his youth.

As a doctrine of economic growth and inclusive development, with its Keynesian echoes, is often dismissed by the chic sophisticates of the Breton Wood consensus against the developing regions as sheer economic illiteracy. It has not occurred to our modern economists that regurgitating western economic theories with Pavlovian punctuality without adapting them to the specific local conditions is a higher and more dangerous form of illiteracy.

It is on record that it is when economic nationalists are in control of the engine room of Nigeria’s economy, from Chief Obafemi Awolowo during the civil war to Professor Sam Aluko and Anthony Ani during the Abacha regime, that Nigeria recorded its greatest economic growth and relative currency stability.

For example, it is well known that Awolowo managed the Nigerian economy in a war situation without borrowing a penny and with plenty to spare. And despite the political depredation of the era and his own untrammeled personal burglary of Exchequer, the naira was stable throughout General Abacha’s reign of terror and the nation’s economy experienced relative growth.

The neo-liberal canard about the big-spending which turns the state into a huge economic almshouse for unproductive mendicants cannot apply to developing countries, particularly if the spending is wise and invested in infrastructural developments. You cannot roll back a state which is yet to find or fulfill its organic destiny.

African nations yet to domesticate and consolidate the nation-state paradigm are being frog-marched to frontiers beyond the nation. This is the bane of our local economists trained and hooked on theories meant for other societies and who mouth such economic shibboleths to the applause of their western backers and entrenched interests.

Whatever the political failures of the Buhari Administration and the reservations of pan-Africanists who are still sold on the nostalgia one big African community, it will be intellectually dishonest not to applaud the decision of the federal authorities to close off our borders for now. To many of our neighbours, Nigeria is not a country at all but a huge dumping site for smuggled goods and other nefarious cross-border activities.

The shameless, state-driven xenophobia emanating from South Africa notwithstanding, Nigeria remains the only African country that has found the pluck and temerity to drive the nation-state paradigm imposed on hapless African communities to its ultimate conclusion in a manner that suggest a countervailing move to developments on the global chessboard.

If the Nigerian authorities are conscious of the geo-political implications of what they are about, t is well and good. But if it is a case of intuitively sleepwalking to the right answer, then it is fraught with mortal perils as we will advance shortly for both nation and its rulers. By enacting closure at the sacred shrine of modern nationhood, Nigeria is following developments from the west itself.

Having pioneered and benefitted twice from the momentum of globalization, first with the internationalization of political slavery and now with the internationalization of economic slavery, western nations are recoiling in the horror and terror of as the ultimate logic of their own creation begins its homeward journey.

Hence the frantic retreat to the primal and even primitive nationhood by the same leading western nations that pioneered the two historic waves of globalization. As usual and without any sense of irony, Donald Trump is on record as having showered praises on the apostles of ultra-nationalism who are thwarting the advances of globalization by defending their nation with any means and method possible.

In the civilized bastions of liberal tolerance in Europe such as France, Holland, Hungary, Italy, and Poland, we have witnessed the eruption of racial hatred and the ascendancy of extreme right-wing groups. In Britain, the country of good manners, the rise of xenophobia, the whole Brexit rumpus and the rise of one -nation nationalists led by Boris Johnson who is himself of Turkish extraction represents a forlorn attempt to stall the march of history.

Former voluble internationalists have now strangely transformed into ardent nationalists. In the end, perhaps nothing can beat Robertson’s classic description of globalization as “the universalization of the particular and the particularization of the universal’. In this instance, the universal is western capitalism which ought to have many unique variants all over the world and the particularized is the attempt to impose western capitalism on the rest of the world.

That move has met a catastrophic end, and the west is in full retreat. Leading the resistance from the weakened ideological rampart of the old left are vibrant ultra-nationalists countries such as China, Russia, North Korea and the remaining enclaves of socialism. From the right Singapore, Malaysia, Iran, India and one or two Arab monarchies in the Gulf States are baying at the notion of one-race capitalism.

In this emerging polarization of the world driven by the ideology of nationalism rather than the old bifurcation along class lines, no one is sure where African countries stand within the divide. Most African nations are too riven by internal schisms of ethnicity, religion, culture and countervailing worldviews for its political elites to make a strong pitch for any form of nationalism, except when they are confusing ethnic interest with national interests.

Last week, the Nigerian authorities began to climb down from their high-horse of ultra-nationalism and autarky by giving conditions for the reopening of borders and stipulating a timeline. Just as one ad suspected, the whole thing has been a combination of bluff and bluster rather than arising from a holistic strategy which is a function of a strenuous and stringent intellectual evaluation of national needs. In short, it is one of those strange whimsical impulses so characteristic of the current administration.

Autarky, or extreme self-isolation based on economic self-possession and self-reliance is normally based on sterner stuff. It can only come from a nationalist political elite forged in an overriding ideological war or steeled in elite consensus based on negotiated national destiny pr a combination of both.

In the case of former socialists’ countries such as Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Vietnam and North Korea, it is the former. In the case of old and emerging democracies such as America, India, Britain, South Korea, and post-Franco Spain, it is the latter or the combination. It can also help if a nation has an indigenous tradition of home-evolved capitalism such as the chaebol oligopoly in South Korea or the Juche doctrine of Spartan self-reliance from North Korea.    

It is to be noted that several traditional societies in what has become Nigeria practiced a rudimentary and pre-industrial version of capitalism. Although this can no longer pass muster in the face of the onslaught of western modernity, the elite unanimity that drove them ought to be noted and applauded.

When Pandit Nehru famously declared that if Indians could not feed themselves let them go hungry of if they could not build their own indigenous car let them trek, he was confident of his own shinning personal example and of nationalist political elite that would not sabotage this immaculate vision of national self-pride and sense of worth no matter the personal rivalries and differences. India boasts of an ancient, well-heeled and a well-ordered civilization which had already established its own pre-modern versions of university by the eighth and ninth centuries.

The Cambridge-trained, intellectually self-assured founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, boasted with supreme self-confidence that he and his close associates and collaborators routinely took apart imported doctrines and ideas from the west before isolating what was useful to his country and thereafter dumping in the rubbish heap what was useless and inapplicable. So does the equally accomplished recently returned nonagenarian ruler of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir Bin Mohamad.

Yet it is not as if Nigeria has not thrown up its own local avatars. In the fifties, a man known as Mazi Mbonu Ojike was already preaching the doctrine of boycott all boycottable. Even more famously by 1945, Obafemi Awolowo, a private Law student in London, was already contesting the affliction of unitary federalism foisted on the nation by our imperialist masters.

Here is the crux of the problem. A nation that will borrow any money from anywhere in the world to finance its deficit budget, a nation whose political leadership is so steeped in primitive hedonism that they hanker after any western luxury goods and gadgets, including the latest automobiles, aero planes, shoes and expensive watches and most tellingly a nation whose president is currently on medical tourism in the hallowed epicenter of metropolitan mayhem, cannot afford to preach not to talk of practice economic autonomy without inviting mortal peril on its own head.

This whole drama about border closure reminds one of an infamous argument once canvassed by one of our forgettable military regimes. We were told that in Nigeria, a bottle of coke was more expensive than a liter of petrol and therefore in order to discourage the rampant smuggling of the prime good across our border, it was mandatory to drastically increase the price of petrol products.

Thirty years and several price quadrupling later, the phantom subsidy not only remains but petrol continues to be smuggled across our borders. Meanwhile like the condemned of Altona, the number of people living in absolute poverty has quadrupled even as the old Nigerian middle class has been obliterated.  Before our very eyes, Nigeria has become one hell of a place to live in and a vast penal colony boasting of its own internal horror chambers where citizens are chained and tortured without any recourse to law and order.

The current drive against corruption and recovery of stolen money must be commended despite its awkward partisanship and polarization one-sidedness. But unless the leadership finds true moral courage and vision to rein in the recurring fiscal prodigality as seen in the reckless unbudgeted spending by the executive and the legislative infamy which still defends the humongous pay packets of our lawmakers, the run on the naira will continue leading to devaluation and further ruination of the Nigerian people.

Unless we urgently find a nationalist ruling class and a leadership with the will and altruistic courage to do the needful, it is obvious that a world-historic implosion is loading in Nigeria. The most dangerous thing about false and hypocritical pretenses to autarky is that it can actually be used by clerical fascists and extreme reactionary groups to quash genuine efforts aimed at local and sub-national self-sufficiency on the altar of a bogus national interest. We surely live in perilous times in Nigeria.

Disclaimer: This piece was written by Tatalo Alamu and first appeared in his column ‘Snooping Around with Tatalo Alamu’ in The Nation Newspaper of Sunday 10, 2019.   

[freelanews-blog]

CBN vows to clamp down on businesses, banks that abuse Forex on 42 restricted items

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday vowed to clamp down on individuals and businesses engaging in clandestine activities to frustrate the restriction of foreign exchange on the importation of 41 items into the country. In June 2015, CBN listed 41 items it said were ineligible for allocation of foreign exchange for their importation, on grounds that they could be competitively produced within the Nigerian economy. Some of the affected items include rice, cement, margarine, palm kernel, palm oil products, vegetable oils, meat and processed meat products, vegetables and process vegetable products, poultry, tomatoes/tomato paste, soap and cosmetics, and clothes. Other items included private airplanes/jets, Indian incense, tinned fish in sauce, cold rolled steel sheets, galvanised steel sheets, roofing sheets, wheelbarrows, head pans, metal boxes/containers, enamel ware, steel drums and pipes, wire mesh, steel nails, wood particle boards and panels. Also included were security and razor wire, wood particle and fibre boards and panels, wooden doors, furniture, toothpicks, glass/glassware, kitchen utensils, tableware, tiles (vitrified, ceramics), textiles, wooden fabrics, plastic/rubber products, polypropylene granules and cellophane wrappers. The CBN, on Sunday, included fertiliser as the latest commodity to be affected by the policy. But, the CBN director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Kevin Amugo, said in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES, the policy has resulted in massive investments and the establishment of cottage industries that are now producing the hitherto restricted items across the country. Mr Amugo said it was unfortunate for the CBN to observe that the policy was fast being circumvented through the importation and dumping of the goods and services. The director said the implication is that the benefits, by way of growth and employment benefits as a result of the policy, may be eroded if not checked. Frowning at the development, Mr Amugo said the Economic Intelligence Unit of the apex bank in collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) would start the immediate investigation of corporate accounts and entities suspected to be abusing the policy. The CBN warned that it would not hesitate to impose severe sanctions on all the culprits and perpetrators of these abuses. Such sanctions, the director said, in a letter to all banks, include blacklisting the corporate entities and their directors; closure of their bank accounts, and restricting them from maintaining any bank accounts in any bank under the CBN supervision. “Banks that provide their platforms for such economic sabotage and abuses would be appropriately sanctioned,” the CBN said. He urged banks to ensure strict compliance with the Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and Know-Your-Customer Business (KYCB) requirements to avoid unpleasant consequences. Read the full article

[nilority-blog]

See this story at CaribbeanLifeNews.com.

By Vinette K. Pryce

The influence of Trinidad & Tobago’s steel pan music has been grossly under-documented. The history of the instrument and its impact on the world community seems to be under-reported and only partially documented until now.

Introducing “Panomundo” the second and final installment of a series, which explores its global reach to — Japan, Nigeria, Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Continuing from a 42-minute preview which explored the Evolution of the Steel Pan, two documentarians of this project traveled to six geographical locations to further expand on the impact of the unique Caribbean-born instrument.

“We traveled to six countries because we wanted to document the impact the music has had in jazz, classical, Latin and other music,” producer Charysse Tia Harper explained.

“How it has helped people suffering with Down Syndrome and Aspergers Syndrome as well as how the Nigerians have implemented its use with regard to military discipline.”

Harper considers herself a T&T / US national. Born and raised in Oxnard, California, she boasts a parent from the twin islands. She graduated from the University of Southern California with bachelor degrees in cinema and television productions and broadcast journalism. After completing her undergraduate studies she moved to London. It was there that she recognized the benefit of living in an international city with a large mix of ethnicities. She capitalized on the opportunity of learning about different cultures by travelling to 20 countries and has enjoyed recounting her experiences with family and friends.

While in England she also earned an advanced degree in management and leadership at Regent’s University London in England.

Now a resident of New Jersey and an avid biker, Harper commutes to Brooklyn, New York often to soak up the culture and revelry that abounds.

Last weekend she was able to meet and greet hundreds of revelers lined up to experience Panorama 2018.

In her latest project the aspiring Academy Award nominee spoke with pannists and a number of experts on the instrument including Earl LaPierre Sr.

Along with director Keith Musaman Morton the producer confirmed much of the claims surrounding the beat and rhythm of the steel pans and documented their findings in a film slated to premiere in Brooklyn on Sept. 19.

The film had its European premiere recently during the London Nottinghill Carnival in England. Ironically, it seems an appropriate European launch since it was at the Festival of Britain in 1951 that steel pan music actually had its big international debut.

According to Harper, with limited resources from the government of Trinidad & Tobago, the Trinidad All-Stars represented the twin island by presenting a global display of the orchestral harmonization of steel.

Although the band comprised of only 10 musicians performed, soon afterwards, they were invited to repeat their musicianship in Italy, France and Switzerland. Needless to say, pan fever spread from Europe to the continent of Africa arriving with impact in South Africa.

Although SA has many more pannists playing the music, the film turns the lens on Nigeria because “there is one guy who is a stalwart and he is devoted to promoting the music.”

“We focused on Nigeria because there is an Abuja festival — replete with camels, stick fighting and in Lagos, a steel pan competition — as a matter of fact Len “Boogsie” Sharp played there at the presidential palace.”

Fans of the music will be able to purchase DVD copies of part one of the two-part series at the free screening which will be held at 204 Parkside Ave. (near Flatbush & Ocean avenues). Beginning at 7 pm pan aficionados will be able to bolster their knowledge of the sole instrument that merited an entire evening’s attention at the recent West Indian American Day Carnival Association’s pre-Labor Day festivities at the Brooklyn Museum.

On Panorama Night, last Saturday, eight bands competed for a WIADCA championship prize.

A long queue to the entrance began forming soon after the junior carnival parade procession ended. Stretching past outdoor vendors and meandering to the front of the façade, patrons lined a walkway to purchase tickets to the competition.

That same enthusiasm and support is expected on Sept. 19 in Brooklyn.

Presenting insightful information and enlightening historic details which has never been documented Harper and Morton has gifted the world with steel, music and history.

For more info. check xploretheworld.biz/panomundo.

Comment on this story.

Go to Source ‘Panomundo’ explores steelpan on 4 continents See this story at CaribbeanLifeNews.com. By Vinette K. Pryce The influence of Trinidad & Tobago’s steel pan music has been grossly under-documented.

[newssplashy]

Fela Durotoye: Read aspirant's 10-point plan as Nigeria's president

The aspirant has published his plans for the country if he's elected president next year.

Presidential aspirant, Fela Durotoye, has released a 10-point agenda on how he'll make Nigeria work if he emerges victorious in the 2019 presidential election.

The management consultant released the document on Tuesday, May 29, 2018, noting that it is a condensed version of his policies while disclosing that a detailed one will be released soon.

In his 10-point plan, Durotoye noted that he'll focus on power, security, education, healthcare, infrastructure, business and industries and the economy. Others are enforcing the rule of law, creating jobs and reducing the cost of living in the areas of food, transport, housing, fuel and so on.

 Cost of living

While expanding on his points, Durotoye promised that he will reduce inflation from double digit to single digit in order to ensure affordability of necessities, guaranteeing a minimum of 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate per annum in his first four years.

He said he'll reduce the pump price of refined products by encouraging the licensing of modular refineries, as well as also diversify intracity transport options, launch 36 agricultural hubs across the country, and create a national affordable housing policy that enables the development of affordable housing.

Power

Durotoye also promised to deliver a minimum of 12,000MW to Nigeria within 4 years which he says will attract investors.

He said his administration will achieve this by taking a multidimensional regional approach to power generation as well as prioritising the use of renewable energies for power generation while also partnering with the private sector in the area of increased funding for power projects across the federation.

Security

Durotoye assured Nigerians that he'll degrade, dismantle, and defeat terrorist group, Boko Haram, with human intelligence and return internally displaced persons (IDPs) to their homes or reabsorb them into a reconstructed community and 'safe cities'.

He further promised to address militancy across all geopolitical zones and put a complete end to activities of violent herdsmen and delist the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist group to engage them in negotiations instead.

He also noted that military intervention under his command will be in line with the proportionate use of force and adherance to the fundamental human rights provisions.

The aspirant also promised to ensure that security forces are well-equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry and hinted at the creation of one Military Equipment Manufacturing Plant without providing details, for security reasons.

Education

Durotoye promised that his administration will increase the literacy rate by up to 90% in four years by making education compulsory and mandatory up to secondary school across the country. He noted that this will be achieved by increasing funding and partnership with the private sector and development partners, while ensuring that government expenditure on education is not less than 5% of GDP starting from the 2020 budget.

He said his administration will work with states and local governments to ensure nationwide rehabilitation and equipping of all existing government schools at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, while also ensuring free education for primary and secondary students in public schools.

ALSO READ: Fela Durotoye searching for female vice president for 2019

Healthcare

To improve healthcare in the country, Durotoye promised to ensure access to at least one working federal health care facility in each of the 774 local government areas in Nigeria while also significantly increasing funding for medical research and development across all federal universities, and university teaching hospitals.

He also promised to increase government expenditure from 0.9% of GDP to a minimum of 5% of GDP, increase doctor to population ratio from 4:10,000 to 15:1000, and improve average life expectancy from 53 to 60 years.

He promised that there will be mandatory universal health insurance for every Nigerian with emphasis on maternity care to eliminate maternal mortality by 2023.

He also said his administration will create structured health alliances with specialists outside Nigeria (especially for cancer, HIV/AIDs, kidney-related problems, autism and cerebral palsy), as well as set up four regional healthcare cities to provide tertiary and specialist medical care and act as a medical tourism destination for the West African sub-region.

Infrastructure

In his policy statement, Durotoye promised to rehabilitate and construct inter-city roads across the country; provide support for the commencement of light rail metro-lines within all 36 states through public private partnerships to aid the easy movement of goods and services; as well as improve rural to urban transport systems by developing a pan-Nigeria rail system that works.

He also promised infrastructure in place for at least one additional sea port while also promising a reform of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).

Business and Industries

Durotoye promised that if he becomes president, he will double investors' confidence index from current 18pts to an all time high of 40pts within four years while also lowering the unemployment rate from 18% to an all time low of 5% with an improved foreign direct investment (FDI).

To reduce banking interest rates, Durotoye said his administration will ensure a lower inflation rate with robust monetary policies and promote an industry development centric banking sector which will ensure that the banking industry is able to lend to businesses at single digit interest rate which would thereby enable households to grow outputs.

According to him, his administration will improve the ease of doing business and make Nigeria the number one destination for investors in Africa by creating an enabling environment for locally-owned businesses and foreign investors to thrive and maximise profits.

ALSO READ: Durotoye tells Nigerian wives to not have sex with husbands with no PVC

Economy

Durotoye promised to diversify the economy by promoting non-oil sector growth through agriculture, mines and steel, manufacturing and the services industry by providing legal and fiscal incentives in these industries and sectors. He noted that this will be achieved by decentralising national resources to allow states generate more revenue at state level and attract investors.

He said he'll promote an enabling environment for private sector led growth and adopt Public Private Partnerships (PPP's) for sustainable revenue generation.

The leadership expert also promised that his administration will promote better tax compliance by reducing personal income tax (PIT) by a few points, and reducing the rate of company income tax (CIT) from 30% to 20%.

Job creation

Durotoye promised to reduce the unemployment rate in Nigeria by creating 12 million jobs in four years, 3 million for each year of his first term. He said these jobs will cut across education, health, economy, agriculture, amd the power sector.

He said a national jobs database will also be created to make it easier for job owners and job seekers to connect with each other while also promising to establish vocational and technical skills acquisition training centers across each of the six geo-political zones.

He also promised the implementation of a Start-Up Action Plan to support start-ups across the federation through a Start-Up Intervention Fund under the Bank of Industry (BOI).

Law enforcement and judicial system

In his final policy point, Durotoye promised to make Nigeria surpass Botswana as the least corrupt country in Africa during his four years in office.

He said his administration will pursue and implement a comprehensive police reform that'll provide support for state and community policing and create a more motivated and professional police force via decent pay, trainings and tools.

He also promised to support the creation of state judiciary councils in all of the federating units as well as the establishment of state courts of appeal to enable states appoint their own judges and have control over the payment of their judicial officers.

To expedite court processes, he promised an automation of court systems to ensure zero tolerance for inefficiency.

 Durotoye concluded that to achieve a Nigeria that works properly, the country must evolve and rebuild with vision and values that'll create strong institutions.

He'll contest for the presidency in next year's election on the platform of the Alliance for a New Nigeria (ANN).

source http://www.newssplashy.com/2018/05/fela-durotoye-read-aspirants-10-point.html

[wionews]

Hung: From an armour to a musical instrument

Who would've guessed that two warrior shields sealed at the rims to suspiciously resemble a miniature UFO, wok or barbeque grill is a musical instrument called 'hang' (pronounced as hung)? "I get stopped at security checks, till I play it and then everyone is entertained for a while," chuckles 40-year-old Canadian fusion artist Gurpreet Chana (aka The Tabla Guy), a tabla exponent since 30 years who's been playing the hang for 13. What made it easy for Chana to adapt to the percussive hang, is that it is tapped, palmed or drummed, very similarly like the tabla.

The hang belongs to the idiophone family, an instrument which creates vibrations minus the use of strings. It's one of the few that marries rhythm with melody. Swiss duo and physicists Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer developed the steel hang after years of R&D, tuning and observing instruments as esoteric as the concave Carribean steel pan. The top side (ding) is given a ceramic-brittle feel with indentations at select points and the bottom (gu) has a hole in the centre, such that the surface bounces off a whole new sonic level for a plethora of sounds it's pretuned to produce. For instance, in Chana's hang, the ding is tuned to Akebono scale of Japanese traditional music that can smoothly fit into an Indian classical music scene, and the gu emits Nigerian udu and Carnatic ghatam. With only 7,000 hangs in existence, Chana considers himself fortunate to possess an original.

That's the beauty of the hang. There is no right and wrong way. Its designed to engage not inhibit the player

  ×

Conversation starters with another hang artiste is usually sheer astonishment: "Wow! You have a hang too?" before discussing technique, practice, and scales.

Chana took to the hang like a fish to water 13 years ago when a cellist showed to it him at a music festival in Quebec. "In that first encounter, I knew I wanted one. Five years later I got my own. I didn't see anybody play the hang but I just took techniques from the tabla. That's the beauty of the hang. There is no right and wrong way. Its designed to engage not inhibit the player" explains Chana, who enjoys melodies of hang masters Adrian Portia, Manu Delago and Davide Swarup and has jammed with flutists and drummers, and even an ensemble of bansuri, singing bowl, violin and tabla artistes. Soft-spoken and calm, the lean and turbaned Chana manages to attract diverse audiences to the hang. This was evident at his performance last week at Mumbai's Bhau Daji Lad museum, where he managed to turn a majority of the visitors into the audience.

Chana hasn't ditched the tabla for the hang, but keeps flitting between or amalgamating the two during performance and riyaaz, evident in a YouTube video where he flexes amazing dexterity in playing the tabla and hang simultaneously. "Tabla means engaging with my faith, spirituality and Punjabi culture. It gave me the skill and tool set to approach other percussive instruments like the djembe, and now the hang. I spend time with both, as both are interconnected, practising one helps the other. In fact, the hang has bettered my tabla skills," says Chana who accompanies kirtans on the tabla at the local gurdwara in Canada, as he's been doing since age three.

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