Gist Arena

Victor Udochukwu Nwaogu is a TV presenter, voice-over artiste and an actor. Nwaogu, who is fond of referring to himself as a ‘little person’, has been in the industry for more than a decade. He describes his passion for entertainment as overpowering and does not wish he was in any other field. “The passion is overwhelming; it is beyond seeing actors but getting to learn how the industry plays out. For me there is no better industry I would have been. Even if I was not an actor, I would still have been in the entertainment industry,” he said. According to Nwaogu, he feels that his height prevents him from accessing big roles as most movies revolve around people of average height. He said, “If you look around you, society is made up of people of average height, so it will be very difficult for a writer to pick up a pen and start putting down stories that are related to little people like us.” On his relationship, Nwaogu admitted having had his fair share...

Sanusi, Soludo In a new development, the Federal Government is considering probing the tenures of two former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governors. The two CBN Governors involved are Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo and Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. The Sun reports that the probe would specifically cover the activities of the CBN between 2007 and 2014. According to a top Presidency source, the probe, which was yet to be finally approved by President Muhammadu Buhari, would focus on the printing of naira notes under the authorisation of Soludo and the management of CBN’s  “surplus”  finances under Sanusi, who is now Emir of Kano. According to the source, government believed that the handling of projects and policies by the two ex-CBN governors had issues that needed clarification. Sanusi recently cautioned the incumbent administration not to engage in acts that would make it end like the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. He...

Aisha Wakil  is a lawyer with the National Human Rights Commission and wife of a judge in Borno State. But the emergence of Boko Haram compelled her to abandon her primary assignment for a peaceful resolution of the insurgency that has inflicted untold damage on the country since it broke in 2009. However, Mrs. Wakil’s intervention did not come without its challenges. The most recent being the recent decision by the Nigerian military to declare her wanted alongside two others on allegations they were aiding Boko Haram. PREMIUM TIMES’  Samuel Ogundipe  sat down with her in a location she said should be kept private for her first exclusive interview since regaining freedom. When you first heard that you were declared wanted, what ran through your mind? First of all, what ran through my mind: I said ‘devil is at work’. Devil is a liar. I was a little bit taken aback. Because I left Maiduguri that very day but I didn’t hear anything of such. So when I heard it, I ...

Abdulmumin Jibrin, the Kano lawmaker at the centre of the unfolding budget padding scandal, on Saturday said he was also a beneficiary of a questionable office maintenance allowance for members of the House of Representatives. Mr. Jibrin’s confession came a day after he accused 10 principal officers of sharing more than N10 billion in fraudulent proceeds. The 10 principal officers who allegedly received billions of naira in running cost allowance include the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, who allegedly got the largest share of N1.5 billion, Mr. Jibrin said. Others on the list are Deputy Speaker, Yusuf Lasun, N800 million; Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, N1.2 billion; his deputy, Buba Jibril, N1.2 billion; House Whip, Alhassan Doguwa, N1.2 billion; and his deputy, Pally Iriase, N700 million. The rest are Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, N1.2 billion, his deputy, Chukwuka Onyema: N800 million, Minority Whip, Yakubu Barde, N700 million and his deputy, ...

The Niger Delta Avengers has refuted the claim that it nominated Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka; a former Abia State governor, Mr. Orji Kalu and five others to negotiate with the federal government on behalf of the group. A statement by the spokesman of the militant group, Mudoch Agbinibo, late on Saturday described the claim as the work of mischief makers, keen to derail the group’s struggle. The group said the claim “by enemies of the Niger Delta” might be because of Soyinka’s “belief that the government of the day should understand the need to restructure and listen to the Niger Delta agitation positively”. “That we, the NDA, have named Prof. Wole Soyinka and some incredible names to advise and lead any group is the Lie of The Century,” it said. It, however, said that the group supported the Chief Edwin Clark-led Niger Delta Elders and Stakeholders Conference committee to lead a Pan-Niger Delta Negotiations/Dialogue Team whenever the Federal ...

The 55-year-old woman who's the older sister of pop star, Mariah Carey, was arrested in the upstate New York town of Saugerties on a prostitution charge. Alison was booked on the prostitution charge after cops allege that she was working illegally out of a local hotel and soliciting money in exchange for sexual favors from an undercover police officer.  The U.S Police are concerned that the woman, who 'based on reports' is HIV positive, may have transmitted the disease to her clients. They are now encouraging  anybody who may have had sexual relations with her to go to a doctor immediately to get tested.  One of Alison's online ads which had two photos her of seeking clients reads:  "Im a pretty lady looking for guys who are looking to have some fun and get into a world of pleasure that other woman just cant provide two you, woman with the ability to make the earth move for you and to get you to see stars, oh ye...

On Saturday, August 20, a wealthy elderly real estate manager John Njuguna Ng’ang’a and his young new wife Anne Wairimu were celebrating their wedding at her Ruiru home when the man's first wife Jane Njeri Njuguna, armed with a court injunction, stormed the scene accompanied by the Officer Commanding Ruiru Police Station. (Pictured: John at Ruiru Police Station. Inset: Jane Njeri and John during their wedding) While the two women engaged in a scuffle, the old man was whisked off to Ruiru Police Station where he spent the night. According to Njeri, her husband opted for a second wife because one of her breasts was surgically removed due to cancer and that at one time, he even insulted her that she no longer has anything special for him. "He has a right to marry even 10 wives, but what I want is the property I acquired with him. It is painful to see another woman enjoying my sweat after I have endured a lot of ridicule," said Njeri Another rel...

Newly formed pro Biafra group; Reformed Indigenous People of Biafra, RE-IPOB, has said it sacked the detained director of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, including its splinter group, the Rebranded Indigenous People of Biafra, TRIPOB because they betrayed the Biafran struggle through collection of money from local and foreign sponsors. In a statement made available to Vanguard, spokesman of RE-IPOB, Ikemba Biafra, accused Kanu of insulting respected Biafran and Igbo leaders and converting the Radio Biafra set up by the leadership of the Movement for the Actualization Sovereign States of Biafra, MASSOB, to a private propaganda tool. The group added that Kanu’s unguarded utterances led to the detention and death of innocent Biafran youths and accused him of not being sincere about the Biafran struggle and using the platform to attract fortune and fame to himself.  “The emergence of TRIPOB is a fall out of the internal wrangling in the IPOB. Members and officer...

Faced with intense criticism of his government’s inability to free scores of teenage girls held captive by the Boko Haram, President Muhammadu Buhari has restated his government’s willingness to negotiate with the terrorists to free the girls. Speaking a few days after the families of the over 200 girls, kidnapped from their school in Chibok, Borno State in 2014, asked him to resign if he could not secure their release, the president also indicated that he was willing to do a prisoner swap with the Boko Haram. The terror group recently released a video showing some of the kidnapped girls. A masked Boko Haram member in the video asked that the group’s members held in various prisons by the Nigerian government be released before the girls could be freed. In an interview with journalists in Nairobi, Kenya at the weekend, Mr. Buhari said the Nigerian government is ready to dialogue with bonafide leaders of the terror group who know the whereabouts of the girls. ‘‘If t...

A woman severely injured during the suspected Fulani herdsmen attack in Ndiagwu Attakwu, Akegbe-Ugwu in Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State has been confirmed dead. Mrs Ifeoma Agbo, until her death was receiving treatment at one of the hospitals in the community, along with three other victims.  The Chairman of Nkanu West LGA, Mr Afam Okereke, who confirmed the death of the victim in an interview with Channels Television, said in a bid to prevent such occurrence, especially after the Nimbo attack, he had called several security meetings with the Fulani community. Suspected Fulani herdsmen on Thursday, August 25th invaded the community, killing a seminarian identified as Lazarus Nwankwo, a final year student of Spiritan International School of Theology and wounded four persons, including a pregnant woman. Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who visited the community on Friday vowed to bring perpetrators to book, adding that his admi...