Pep Opara's Blog

  NO fewer than 173 passengers narrowly cheated death at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, on Wednesay, when a Turkish Airline plane caught fire while fueling.   It took the prompt intervention of the fire service at the airport to avert what could have been a major disaster.   According to findings, the aircraft, with a sitting capacity of 170 passengers and registration number TC-241, had touched down at the tarmac of the airport from Istanbul, while it caught fire as a result of technical fault in the process of fuelling.   The incident occurred at about 11.00 p.m, as airport authorities promptly mobilised staff to tow the aircraft from danger zone.   As of the time of filing this report, the slightly damaged aircraft was still at the tarmac.   Efforts to get views of the Kano office of the Turkish Airline failed, but an employee said “it was God that saved the aircraft from being engulfed by fire ...

  Researchers say painkiller is no better than placebo despite being frequently prescribed for condition   Paracetamol does not help to relieve lower  back pain  despite it being a commonly prescribed treatment, according to new research.   A study from Australia, published in the Lancet, has found that the painkiller is no better than a placebo at aiding recovery from or reducing the pain linked to an ailment that afflicts 26 million Britons.   The associate professor Christine Lin, of the Oxford-based George Institute for Global Health, the senior author of the paper, said people with back pain would be better off being as active as possible, avoiding bed rest, using heat wraps or heat packs and considering spinal manipulation.   In the study 1,652 adults in Sydney with acute lower back pain and an average age of 45 were given paracetamol three times a day for four weeks, or when they needed it, or a placebo.   The ...

  Pretty and famous thespian, Moji Olaiya was cornered by correspondents of ENCOMIUM Weekly  at an event in Ebute Metta, Lagos, where she opened up exclusively on issues that revolve around her life and career, including why she converted to Islam, alleged car gift from a younger lover, among others. Enjoy!   What’s the situation of things at the moment as regards your career? I give God all the glory for He has been good to me all the time.  He has blessed my career, and everything is moving fine.   What are you working on right now? I have a lot of projects I am working on now.  I just finished an Islamic gospel song with Okiki Films.  The job is in collaboration with Islamic gospel singers, including Ere Asalatu, Aminat Omotayebi, Rukayat Gawat and others.  Also, I just finished a production concerning marital problems.   What informed delving into Islamic song? I guess my marketer just wanted me to try somethi...

  What a shame! Even in this current dispensation this stupid two timing tactic of group(s) urging a person who has got no set plan to contest is at the fore again. Very disturbing!!.  If Atiku got no plan to contest 2015 election or a plan to serve the citizens why would idiots masquerading as sensible individual urge him to? We need a focused individual not a political maradona or a power lust or an unprepared person. What do you think ?     As the race to the 2015 presidential election gathers momentum, a political interest group, the Atiku Mandate Forum (AMF), has asked the former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to step out and contest.   Speaking with journalists in Abuja yesterday,  a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Enugu State and Coordinator  of the forum, Okosisi Emeka Ngwu, said the former the vice-president can no longer delay on the issue, but should ensure that “he not only runs for bu...

  If you have been wondering why the government of Goodluck Jonathan has achieved precious little in the monumental fight against corruption in Nigeria, the answer is very simple. There is actually no corruption in Nigeria. Nigerian politicians are thieves, but they are not corrupt.   This is the erudite position of our dear president, who happens to be the first president in the history of Nigeria to have the distinction of a Ph.D. President Jonathan says: ”What many Nigerians refer to as corruption is actually stealing. Stealing is not the same thing as corruption.” This is a profound statement that has since become the subject of many doctoral dissertations on Nigeria. It has also provided a very Nigerian contribution to the English language.   Nigerian “doublethink” Our president is not alone in this assessment. The Chairman of the ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices Commission), Ekpo Nta, agrees with Mr. President. He also insists it is wrong to conf...

  Regardless of the Federal Government imposition of high tariff on imported vehicles, auto dealers said it has not affected the prices of their stocks. Checks by sources and a media outfit, ENCOMIUM Weekly  across Lagos metropolis from leading auto dealers revealed that there has not been any increase in the prices of automobiles.   The new auto policy requires vehicle importers to pay 70 percent duty on imported cars, a development which is attracting public outcry. Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga disclosed, “The policy is necessary to check the activities of importers putting strain on Nigeria’s foreign reserves”.   The minister stated further that Nigerians spend about $3.4 billion (N544 billion) on importation of used cars and spare parts. He maintained the new regime would only apply to those who import used vehicles into the country while those who manufacture locally would enjoy the old tariff of 35 percent.   ...

  APC a strong opposition party to the ruling party in Nigeria PDP did a press release asserting that President Jonathan is a big embarrassment to the Nation. You agree to this view or not? or you rather remain neutral ? By the way who owns Premium Times or who are the board of directors?     Read report Via Premium Times ....   “If your handlers had been sincere, Mr. President, they would have told you that the best venue of the meeting is Chibok, not Abuja.”   The All Progressives Congress, APC, has described as a compound embarrassment the fact that it took 17-year-old girl-child education campaigner, Pakistani Malala Yousafzai, to visit and convince President Goodluck Jonathan to agree to a meeting with representatives of the parents of the kidnapped school girls.   ”President Jonathan, who has already embarrassed himself and the entire people of Nigeria by his inexplicable failure to visit Chibok since the girls were ab...

The removal of Admiral Murtala Nyako as governor of Adamawa State was a prediction long foretold. But why he walked straight into the booby trap is a wonder.   The atmosphere in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, hours after Admiral Murtala Nyako was removed as governor of the state on Tuesday was largely serene. Citizens went about their businesses largely unconcerned with the political asphyxiation of the state’s former number one citizen.   Remarkably, family cronyism was one of the charges leveled against the former governor by the State House of Assembly.The indifference was largely reflective of the feeling of detachment with which the former governor related with a large section of the citizenry. Nyako in the estimation of some was largely devoted to himself and his family with the appointment of friends and family in strategic positions in government.   When his political pangs came in the last few weeks it was as such remarkable that Nyako had very...

  Speaking on Thursday before the US House Foreign Affairs Sub-committee on Africa’s hearing entitled, ‘Human Rights Vetting: Nigeria and Beyond’, the Specialist at African Affairs Congressional Research Service, Lauren Blanchard, said the Nigerian government and its military had not been yielding to America’s suggestions.   Blanchard cited the human rights abuse record and uncooperative attitude of the Federal Government and its military authorities as factors hindering the assistance of the US.   The Congress heard that the main impediment to America’s efforts to support Nigeria’s broader response to Boko Haram is “gross violations committed by the Nigerian forces, the Nigerian government’s resistance to adopting a more comprehensive approach to Boko Haram, and the continued lack of political will” within the government to investigate allegations of human rights abuses and hold perpetrators accountable.   Blanchard told the Congress, “The Nigerian ...

  Sources says Kanye is taking some time off home as he feels  miserable married to his "lady love" as he fondly refers Kim K, he's got to contend with the knowledge that his BFF Jay Z and Beyoncé he considers family doesn't want to be associated with his new family not to mention the boos he gets from fans when he mentions or rambles about Kim K on stage. You know paparazzis would always go after them, couple of  sneaky pictures been taken asserting Kanye's miserable look...   According to  a report via  RadarOnline:   Is Kanye West the next Kris Humphries? Just 46 days after the rapper and Kim Kardashian said “I Do,” reports claim that the couple have spent less than two weeks in the same bed. And now, RadarOnline.com has learned, sources close to the couple say that when they actually are together, they’re “miserable!”    As Radar reported, the tension began on the honeymoo...

  24-year-old Yadoma Bukar Mandara is the youngest of the 492 delegates at the ongoing National Conference in Abuja. She is the last daughter of the late philanthropist and politician, Bukar Umaru Mandara, who was the Zanna Dujima of Borno. The 2011 graduate of Environmental Biology from the University of Maiduguri in her interview with PREMIUM TIMES tells about her experience at the Confab. PT: What do you do? Yadoma: I work for the public service and have a foundation that caters for widows and orphans in Borno State.   PT: Is it on the platform you came to the National Conference? Yadoma: I came on the platform of “Other Youth Organisations.”   PT: How did you get nominated into the Conference? Was it the government that called you up or did you apply for a seat? Yadoma: Someone I had never met was asked to nominate a youth from the North East and he felt I can represent the youth. He nominated me and others and I eventually got picked; that is how ...

  Kukah, who argued Soyinka’s place is already assured among those in the pantheon of the great men and women of letters said, “One last word: Prof, had you listened to your mother, life would have been easier for you. Remember she warned you: ‘Wole, Itirayi ni gbobo nkan.’ Perhaps it is just as well that you did not believe in merely trying for them, you would not have had a Nobel Prize. For a failed trader, failed farmer, a soldier on AWOL, you did well by choosing Literature and Art.   Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah on Friday preached to Prof. Wole Soyinka to “return to the Lord,” as he walks toward the sunset.   Speaking in Abeokuta, Ogun State, during the 17th Wole Soyinka Annual Lecture Series, to coincide with the 80th birthday celebration of the Nobel Laureate, it was an event organized by the National Association of Seadogs.   Kukah, who argued Soyinka’s place is already assured among ...