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  • Lionel Messi Wanted To Leave Barca During His Tax Fraud, No Club Offered A Deal

    (FLOWERBUDNEWS) Lionel Messi wanted to leave Barcelona in the midst of his case for tax fraud, he has revealed, but remained at the Nou Camp when no offers came forward.

    Messi and his father were both found guilty of tax fraud in July 2016 and were handed suspended 21-month prison sentences and the forward ordered to pay a 1.7million Euro fine.

    Messi believes his reputation as a one-club player ultimately dissauded clubs from making an approach.

    “At that time, with the government mess, I wanted to leave, not for wanting to leave Barca but wanting to leave Spain,” Messi told Catalonian broadcaster RAC1. “I felt that I was being very mistreated and I didn’t want to stay here. I never had an official offer because everyone knew my idea to stay here.”


    “It was very difficult for me and my family because people don’t know much about what’s going on. The truth is that it was hard for everything that happened but it is better that my children were small and did not know.”

    Now Messi has no more plans to depart Barcelona, and hopes to finish his career at the club were he has spent his entire professional career.

    “Today my idea and that of my family is to end here,” he said. “Especially first because of how I am in the club, how I feel in the club, then because of the familiar, for how good we are in this city, for my children, for not changing my friendships and I don’t want it broken because I had to live it on a personal level.”

  • Hate Speech: Lai Mohammed Says Online Media Will Start Paying 5M Naira Fine

    (FLOWERBUDNEWS) Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed on Thursay October 10, announced that online news platforms will now be regulated as he inaugurated a seven-man committee to implement reforms in the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

     

    Members of the committee whose job description centers on implementing reforms in the NBC include;  Armstrong Idachaba, NBC director of monitoring (chairman); Godfrey Ohuabunwa, acting chairman of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON); J.K. Ehicheoya, director, legal services, ministry of information and culture; Binta Adamu Bello, secretary, Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON); Ibrahim Jimoh, director of administration, FRCN; Agbo Kingsley Ndubuisi, NBC board member and Joe Mutah, chief press secretary, ministry of information and culture (secretary).

     

    Speaking at the event, Lai Mohammed said President Buhari has approved the upward review of fines from N500,000 to N5 million for hate speech offences as well as the amendment to the NBC act to enable it to license WebTv and radio stations, including foreign broadcasters beaming signals into the country. There is also an upgrade of political comments relating to hate speech to ”Class A” offence in the broadcasting code.

     

    “The terms of reference of the committee are as follows; To establish and publish a new regulation for the licensing of web and internet broadcasters/international broadcasters in Nigeria,” he said.

    “To immediately commence work on all statutory, legal and regulatory framework for further legislative action on the review of the NBC act by the national assembly.

    “To work out the modalities for a competitive and reasonable salaries, wages and other welfare needs of the staff of the commission.

    “To establish necessary protocols for the establishment or appointment of professionals or technocrats (non-partisan personality) to run the agency, and appointment into the board of the NBC.

    “I have no doubt that this committee, which comprises highly-experienced professionals and administrators, will carry out a thorough job that will reposition the NBC as an effective and efficient regulator,” Lai added.

  • Bishop Berry Dambaza Commits Suicide By Jumping From 4th Floor [photo]

    (FLOWERBUDNEWS) Reverend Berry Dambaza, a senior Zimbabwean pastor with Upper Room Ministries died on Monday, September 23, after committing suicide by jumping from the third floor of Rezende Parkade in Harare.

    Pastor Dambaza reportedly died on the spot. While details surrounding his sudden death is unknown, there are speculation that he had financial problems as well as infidelity issues.

    Confirming the incident, National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said: “We can confirm that a church pastor allegedly jumped from the last floor of Rezende Parkade and died.

    “We are currently investigating the case to establish the motive or the reasons behind this suicide,” he said. According to iharare, he is said to have left a suicide note indicating abuse of funds.

  • Corruption: Buhari Directs PACAC To Sell Assets Forfeited, Remit Funds To TSA

    (FLOWERBUDNEWS) President Muhammadu Buhari has met with the members of the newly constituted Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption in State house today.

    President Buhari also revealed the outcome of the meeting through his Twitter handler.

    Read: EFCC Arrests Yahoo Kingpin With Exotic Cars In Delta State.

    According to the President he has directed the committee members to sell off all asset forfeited on account of corruption.

    “In my meeting with the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, today at the State House, I reiterated my directive that every asset forfeited on account of corruption be sold and the money put into the Treasury Single Account (TSA), for the benefit of Nigerians.”

  • Britain says Merkel sees Brexit deal as ‘overwhelmingly unlikely’

    The British government has reportedly accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of telling Prime Minister Boris Johnson by phone on Tuesday that she sees a Brexit deal as “overwhelmingly unlikely” unless London accepts new conditions.

    A Downing Street source said that Merkel had “made clear a deal is overwhelmingly unlikely and she thinks the EU has a veto on (Britain) leaving the customs union,” Sky News and the BBC reported.

    A Downing Street spokesperson confirmed that it had given a readout of the phone call but would not immediately share it.

    In Berlin, the German government confirmed that the call took place but declined to give details of the “confidential conversation”.

    The broadcasters quoted Downing Street as saying Merkel’s comments make a deal “essentially impossible”.

    Keir Starmer, the opposition Labour party’s Brexit spokesman, accused Johnson’s Conservative government of trying to “sabotage the (Brexit) negotiations” through its remarks on the phone call.

    In Brussels, European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted to Johnson that “what’s at stake is not winning some stupid blame game”.

    “At stake is the future of Europe and the UK as well as the security and interests of our people,” Tusk wrote.

    “You don’t want a deal, you don’t want an extension, you don’t want to revoke, quo vadis?, he added, using the Latin for “Where are you going?”

    European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva stressed that the Brussels is still “working for a deal” and technical talks are continuing.

    Pro-EU Labour lawmaker Hillary Benn, who instigated new legislation designed to prevent Johnson taking Britain out of the EU without a deal on Oct. 31, told the BBC that the Downing Street statement was “about blaming Angela Merkel for something that is from Boris Johnson.”

    “This is yet another cynical attempt by [Downing Street] to sabotage the negotiations,” Starmer tweeted.

    “Boris Johnson will never take responsibility for his own failure to put forward a credible deal.

    “His strategy from day one has been for a no-deal Brexit,” he added.

    But Steve Baker, an influential pro-Brexit Conservative lawmaker, responded to Tusk by defending Johnson.

    “We’d like a deal. We’d like to end up in a relationship of the character the EU offered us last year.

    “For the whole UK,” Baker tweeted, referring to key sticking points on how to handle the post-Brexit Irish border.

    He added that the EU “has been encouraged by our weak and incompetent parliament to think Northern Ireland is the price.

    “That’s wrong. Boris is right to defend our Union,” Baker said.

    Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said it was “hard to disagree” with Tusk.

    Tusk’s statement “reflects the frustration across EU and the enormity of what’s at stake for us all,” Coveney tweeted.

    Merkel met with European Parliament President David Sassoli in Berlin on Tuesday to discuss Brexit.

    They did not comment on the Brexit showdown before their closed-door meeting.

    Merkel was also due to meet Tusk later Tuesday, while Johnson was scheduled to meet Sassoli in London.

    Johnson has insisted that Britain must leave the EU on Oct. 31, with or without an exit deal.

  • BBC ‘Sex For Mark’ Investigation: Kiki Mordi’s Life Under Threat

    (FKOWERBUDNEWS)  Kiki Mordi, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) investigative journalist that uncovered the sexual harassment in universities has revealed that she has received subtle threats since the report went viral.

    According to the journalist, her interest in the investigation was driven by her personal experience which saw her dropping out of the University and yet to become a graduate.

    In a chat with Sahara Reporters, she said; “I have received subtle threats since this work was completed but I am not bothered because the BBC takes the security of employees seriously.

    Before embarking on this project, the team prayed a lot and also sang because it helped to calm the nerves.

    But I had to go through the trainings I received over and over again because I wanted to get it right.

    The biggest goal of this work was to be louder than the aggressor because sexual harassment is very loud.

    I wanted it to be silenced.

    I am happy that a lot is changing already since the documentary was release and I can confirm to you that one of the lecturers at the University of Lagos caught sexually harassing a prospective student has been dismissed by the institution.

    I believe it doesn’t stop there until there is a conviction. We have to break that culture of impunity.”

  • Sex For Admission: Watch BBC Full Video Of Life Inside UNILAG ‘Cold Room’

    (FLOWERBUDNEWS) The University of Lagos (UNILAG) has shut-down the ‘Cold Room’, where lecturers allegedly assault student sexually.

    The development comes 24 hours after the British Broadcasting Service (BBC) through a video documentary “Africa Eye” reveled what goes on in the location.

    The documentary had also exposed one of the lectures Prof. Boniface Igbeneghu, sexually assaulting an undercover journalist who pretended to be a student seeking for admission into the university.

    Watch the video below:

  • Chimamanda Adichie, Aliko Dangote, Elon Musk, Trevor Noah Make Top 5 in 100 Most Influential Africans List

    (flowerbudnews) Multiple award-winning Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been named as one of the 100 Most Influential People of African descent by the Africa Report. Adichie is Number 4 on the list, and is the only other Nigerian on in the Top 5 apart from Aliko Dangote who is number 1. She is also the only woman in the Top 5. Adichie is followed on this list by number 5, Trevor Noah, the South-African born television personality and comedian who is one of the leading talk show hosts in the US, having taken over from Jon Stewart on the award-winning “Daily Show”.
    In a series of articles published on their platform, The Africa Report, a highly credible publication, named the top 100 Africans “who control the levers of power across politics, business and the arts: from billionaire barons to unpredictable peacemakers and soft-power superstars”.
    The Africa Report said of Adichie that she “continues her stratospheric ascent and is as often seen behind a mic as in print these days – engaging audiences about racism, sexism and the human condition.
    She has received numerous awards and recognitions, including in 2008, a Macarthur Fellowship, popularly known as the Macarthur Genius Award. She also received fellowships at Princeton University and the Radcliffe Institute of Harvard University.
    Her books have been translated into over 30 languages and are used in school curriculums around the world, including Nigeria. They have won numerous prizes, including the Commonwealth Prize for her first novel, “Purple Hibiscus”.
    Her second novel, “Half of a Yellow Sun” was awarded the Orange Prize for Fiction (subsequently renamed the Baileys’ Prize), which is the worlds’ top award for female writers- and in 2015, “Half of a Yellow Sun” won the “Best of the Best” Prize, awarded to the best of the ten Prize winners over the previous decade.
    “Americanah”, among other awards, won the U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award, which is the most prestigious literary award because it is awarded by professional book critics. “Americanah” is now being adapted for TV, and HBO recently commissioned a 10-episode series of “Americanah” to be produced by Lupita Nyong’o and Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B, in which Nyong’o will star.
    Adichie’s TED talk, “The Danger of a Single Story” is one of the most viewed TED talks of all time. Her other TED talk, “We Should All Be Feminists” started a global conversation about feminism, and was sampled by Beyoncé for her song “Flawless”. It also led to a collaboration with Christian Dior Couture, which launched a limited-edition T-shirt in 2017 inspired by her talk.
    In October 2018, she was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize, named in honor of playwright and Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter.
    With many of these awards, including the Orange Prize, the Macarthur Fellowship, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN Pinter Prize, she has the distinction of being the first Nigerian and in fact, the first African, to receive these recognition’s.
    Adichie is admired by many global leaders and influencers, including Barack and Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Oprah Winfrey. Barack Obama called her “one of the world’s great contemporary writers”; and Hillary Clinton has written that “she has the rare ability to sum up even the biggest societal problems swiftly and incisively”.
    In addition, she has received 14 Honorary Doctorate degrees from leading universities around the world, including from one of her alma maters, Yale University; has spoken at some of the most influential global institutions such as the United Nations General Assembly, and is known for her courageous speaking out against injustice. Adichie’s influence transcends writing, with the New York Times calling her “the rare novelist to become a public intellectual”.
    She is also widely seen as a style icon, has been featured on covers and features in numerous top global fashion and style publications, and was included in Vanity Fair’s International Best Dressed List in 2016. Later that year, she was named as the face of British beauty brand Boots No7. In May 2017, the author launched her own project, “Wear Nigerian,” to promote Nigerian brands and designers.
    Adichie is committed to assisting young aspiring writers, and 11 years ago, founded an Annual Writers Workshop in Nigeria for which applications come from around the world. The late literary titan, Chinua Achebe said of Adichie when she was starting out: “We do not usually associate wisdom with beginners, but here is a new writer endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers…Adichie came almost fully made”.
    Her deep love for her people and country is evident in her work and in 2011, the Nigerian Government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, awarded her the Global Ambassador Achievement Award.
    Also included in The Africa Report’s list are Chief Executive Officer of leading global bank Credit Suisse, Tidjane Thiam (Cote D’Ivoire); Chairman of the largest media group by market capitalization outside the US and China, Koos Bekker (South Africa); and the current Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed. Other Nigerians on the list include General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church of God Pastor Enoch Adeboye, award-winning artiste and record label executive Davido, leading global banker Adebayo Ogunlesi, and tech entrepreneur Iyinoluwa ‘E’ Aboyeji.

  • Don urges FG to enforce use of English language in public places

    (FLOWERBUDNEWS)  A Don, Prof. Kamaluddeeen Bello, has urged the Federal Government to place strong emphasis on the use of English language as mode of communication in every public place in the country.

    Bello gave the advice in Abuja while delivering the 15th Inaugural Lecture of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) with the topic “Who is a Nigerian Citizen”.

    He said the call became necessary since it would be difficult to adopt a lingua franca for the country at this stage of Nigeria’s existence due to the distrust among the various ethnic groups.

    According to Bello, there is no indigenous language that can be adopted in the country that other tribes will support and not protest against since there is nothing like Nigerian citizens but Nigerian indigenes.

    “Nigerians should erase from their minds, the belief that Nigerian citizenship could replace the current Nigerian indigeneship by fiat or decree or enactment of law or constitutionalised approach.

    “That is, agitating for constitutional provisions alone cannot produce a deepening and sustainable Nigerian citizenship in place of Nigerian indigeneship; this is because the practice of indigeneship has been in existence since the time of Nigeria’s creation in 1914.

    “This has become a culture and note that culture die hard.

    “In the interim, every Nigerian should have it at the back of her or his mind that Nigerian constitution and Nigerians do not recognise Nigerian citizen, but Nigerian indigene of the various indigenous communities.

    “Therefore, one should try to be assimilated into the way of life of a place he wants to claim its indigeneship and not agitate for the indigeneship of a place that he cannot be assimilated into its culture or annoyed when denied an indigeneship of a place that he cannot be assimilated into its culture,” Bello said.

    He also said that nobody was discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion, gender or place of birth under citizenship but could be found under indegenship.

    The Vice-Chancellor of NOUN, Prof. Abdalla Adamu, regretted that the country had been divided into ethnic and tribal lines.

    Adamu, however, urged Nigerians to see the country as one indivisible entity to be able to conquer and surmount their challenges.

    “The topic is interesting and it is in the public domain because there is nothing like Nigeria but communities, and I think that is what the professor wants to talk about.

    “People don’t identify themselves as Nigerians but rather as Fulani, Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Kanuri; the concept of collective Nigeria doesn’t seem to be in minds.

    “The questions are, who are the citizens, how do you define the citizen and the parameter for defining citizenship and do you call yourself a Nigerian first before identifying yourself as Yoruba and so on?

    “If you say you are an American citizen, you have to swear an allegiance to the flag of the country which means that you are a U.S. Citizen; even if you come from another place, there has to be that central point that connects you spiritually to the country.

    “Even if you are a Nigerian and the U.S. is at war with Nigeria, you can be a soldier on the American side fighting Nigeria where you come from.

    “Are you willing to kill your own people because you are now in another country, or do you still see yourself as a Nigerian even though you have an American citizenship?” Adamu asked. (NAN)