Yoruba Actress Mosun Filani gets married [Photos]

Today, Actress Mosunmola Filani got married to her heartthrob Kayode Oduoye in a private ceremony somewhere in Ibadan. The Actress is now Mrs. Oduoye
Congratulations to the newlyweds!

Nick Cannon almost died again

Nick Cannon Hospitalized

Just a month after being hospitalized for kidney failure, Nick Cannon had to hit the ward again -- this time for blood clots.

Nick Cannon totally almost died again. The husband of Mariah Carey was hospitalized over the weekend for blood clots, missing out on all the fun Grammy fireworks and Whitney Houston tributes.
Cannon explained on his radio show that he was diagnosed with blood clots in both lungs and an enlarged ventricle in his heart -- kind of dire for this father of twin babies.

Adios hospital! Nick Cannon released >>

"I was trying to downplay it a lot, even in my own mind," Cannon said. "I travel a lot. Anyone who flies a lot can be a victim to getting blood clots because it can start in your legs or your lower back (from sitting for an extended period of time)."
"That, on top of my previous condition (kidney failure) made me more prone to (getting blood clots). I couldn't sleep because I was in so much pain. I was having a lot of pain in my back."
"My doctor was saying that my work is going to kill me -- and he's not joking," Cannon revealed. "I think part of the reason why my health did kind of deteriorate was because I wasn't resting a lot and I was doing too much. I was overworking myself, working out too much."

Mariah Carey buys Nick Cannon a $300K get well gift >>

"I always took a lot of pride in working so hard and never taking a day off. But I'm learning that it isn't the wisest thing all the time, especially being a new father. Not only wanting to spend more time with my children, but wanting to be there for my children."
Mr. Mariah Carey is now out of the hospital and recovering at home with the help of his lovely wife.

What exactly is Kombucha Tea?

Could this strange elixir kill or cure you?

Is the cure for AIDS hiding in a batch of fermented tea, yeast, sugar and bacteria?

For many people hopping on the Kombucha tea train, the answer is simple: yes! Others believe it can also cure baldness. However, not all opinions of this murky, goopy tea are positive. There have been hospitalizations and even deaths associated with people gulping it down like water. So where do you stand? Are you brave enough to drink this mysterious elixir?
According to the International Buisness Times, Kombucha tea has become really trendy recently due to the surge of hipster-esque foodies, intelligentistas and even celebrities like Halle Berry and Lindsay Lohan chugging the stuff. In fact, according to the IBT, Kombucha tea and other juice/tea products raked in over $295 million in profits in 2010 alone.
In addition, there have been many new records of real health benefits of the tea, such as the ability to fight wrinkles and boost the immune system. Plus, WebMD claims the tea is full of Vitamin B and other minerals that have been known to fight cancer. But, that's not all! The tea can even balance our bodies PH and increase blood circulation, which, as you may now, is linked to a higher libido.

The good, the bad and the ugly

Cancer fighting vitamins, the ability to fight wrinkles and more circulation to my happy spot just by drinking juice? It's not hard to see why millions have started buying this stuff off of the shelf or taken to producing it at home. In fact, the Bay area of California is spewing with tons of the home brewed tea.
However great the benefits are, don't hop on the bandwagon yet. There are also some pretty serious negative side effects that may change your mind.
For example, none of the so-called health benefits are validated, according to a top doctor at the Mayo Clinic. But faulty health claims aren't all that should deter you. Two women in 1995 who had reportedly drank the tea daily for months were diagnosed with severe acidosis and hospitalized. Plus, one woman died of cardiac arrest just two days after admittance. Cancer.org has also cited several deaths because of the tea.

Court stops Amosun from scrapping TASUED

A Federal High Court sitting in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, Tuesday restrained the state governor, Senator  Ibikunle Amosun and the State House of Assembly from scrapping the embattled  Tai Solarin University of Education, TASUED, Ijagun.
Giving the  order, Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, who granted the order in a motion on notice filed by some students of the institution, said the state governor, state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice as well as  lawmakers and the National Universities Commission, NUC, had been restrained.
Ofili-Ajumogobia said further action should be stopped on the attempt by the state government to scrap  TASUED pending the determination of the suit.
The judge said: “All actions on the merger of the third (TASUED) and fifth (Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye) defendants be and are hereby suspended until the final determination of the Motion on Notice dated February 9, 2012.”
In the suit, the plaintiffs, include Adewunmi Michael Tosin, Olayemi Alaka Bose, Salaudeen Kazeem Olamilekan, Abiodun Sunday and Uthman Tajudeen Olusegun in the case filed on behalf of the students and Alumni of TASUED.
Defendants/respondents are the governor, Attorney-General, TASUED, Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, TASUED Branch, Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, Ago-Iwoye, Tai Solarin College of Education, NUC and Ogun State House of Assembly.
A copy of the court order obtained yesterday indicated that the presiding judge granted some of the reliefs sought by the applicants following a motion exparte filed on their behalf by their counsel, A.A.Ogunba, on February 9, 2012.
The order was granted on February 15, 2012 and the court  however fixed the  hearing on the matter to March 27, 2012.

NYSC boss seeks support for reorganisation

The Director-General, National Youth Service Corps, Brig.-Gen. Nnamdi Okore-Affia, has called for support from Nigerians for the reorganisation of the scheme.
Okore-Affia said the reorganisation would help the scheme to fulfill its mandate.
A statement on Wednesday by the Deputy Director (Press and Public Relations) in the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mr. Tope Ajakaiye, said the NYSC boss stated this during a visit to the Head of Service of the Federation, Alhaji Isa Sali.
Okore-Affia explained that the visit was “to discuss issues relating to the on-going reorganisation of the scheme”.
He said, “The visit is to tell you the progress being made in the implementation of the approved restructuring of the administrative machinery of the corps and solicit further assistance in solving specific problems arising from the reorganisation process.”
Sali emphasised the role of the scheme in strengthening unity in the country.
The HOS said, “Despite the recent challenges, the NYSC scheme has always been a strong factor in the efforts being made to build a united and strong nation.
“Most of the people in leadership positions in Nigeria today have gone through the scheme and benefitted from it immensely.”
He implored Nigerians to ensure the safety and comfort of corps members in all parts of the country.
Meanwhile, the HOS has called on trade unions in the country to always use dialogue in settling all disputes instead of resorting to strikes.
Sali said this when some executive members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics visited him to discuss issues relating to the welfare of polytechnic workers.

INTERVIEW: Wole Soyinka: Next Phase Of Boko Haram Terrorism

Prof. Wole Soyinka

To what will you attribute Boko Haram’s terrorism?-Let me begin by reminding everyone that Boko Haram has a very long history, whether you describe Boko Haram as an army of the discontent, or even as some people grotesquely try to suggest, “revolutionaries,” or you describe them as, legitimately, this time, as marginalised or feeling marginalised.
When I say that the phenomenon has a very long history, I am talking about a movement that relies on religion as a fuel for their operation, as a fuel for mobilisation, as the impetus, an augmentation of any other legitimate or illegitimate grievance that they might have against society. Because of that fuel, that irrational, very combustible fuel of religion of a particular strain, of a particular irredentist strain; because of the nature of that religious adherence, which involves the very lethal dimension of brain-washing from childhood, all a man needs to be told is that this is a religious cause. All they need to be told is that this is an enemy of religion and they are ready to kill. No matter the motivations, no mater the extra-motivations of those who send them out, they need only one motivation: that they are fighting the cause of that religion.
People wonder, sometimes, if they are fighting the cause of religion, why are they also killing fellow religionists? It is very important for us to understand that they have a very narrow view of even their faith. Anyone outside that narrow confine, narrow definition (in this case, we are talking about Islam), is already an infidel, an unbeliever, a hypocrite, an enemy of God (they use all these multifarious descriptions) and therefore is fit for elimination. If they believe that this environment contains any non-believer in their very narrow strain of Islam, that person or that very area is due for sanitation. And if there are those who also believe, who are confined within the very narrow limit of their arbitrary religion, any chance that there are such people, they consider them matyrs, who will be received in the bosom of Allah, with double credits as having been killed accidentally.
What I am saying is not any theorising; it is not any speculation. Examine this particular strain of Islam from Afghanistan, through Iran to Somalia to Mauritania. We are speaking in fact of a deviant arm of Islam, whose first line of enemies, in fact, are those who I call the orthodox Muslims with whom we move, interact, inter-marry, professional colleagues and so on. They don’t consider them true Muslims.
So the seeming paradox is explained in that. And this mind is bred right from infancy. We are talking about the madrasas, we are talking about the almajiris. They have only one line of command: their Mullah. If the Mullah says go, they go; come, they come; kill, they kill; beg, they beg. They don’t believe in leaving their narrow religion, which teaches them that they have to be catered for either by their immediate superior as an authority or by the community or sometimes an extension of that by the town. When they go out to beg, they believe that this mission of begging is divinely ordered and it is the responsibility of the person from whom they are begging to give them alms.
They sit before their Mullah or their Emir or their chief or whatever and memorise the Qu’ran. Their entire circumscription or mental formation is to be able to recite the Qu’ran from the beginning to the end. Outside of that, there is no educational horizon. So, I want us to distinguish very carefully. If you don’t distinguish, if you don’t narrow these things down to the specifics, we are likely to be misunderstood, as people like me have been misunderstood, because I have been against fundamentalism all my life, of any religion, whether it’s Christianity, Orisha worship, Buddhism, Hinduism or whatever. Any kind of extreme in faith that makes you feel that you are divinely authorised to be the executioner of your deity or that there is only one view of the world, or that only one view exists, for me, is pernicious and it is anti-human. That is why I am making this preliminary explanation.
The second elaboration I want to make is that I have never liked the expression, “the core North”. We are talking about North because the North is very much identified with Islam. And for one reason, there is no core South. I don’t know about the core East, I don’t know about the core West. So why that expression? For me it is too general, too loose and it confuses the dramatis personae of our political life.
I, however, identify hard-core northerners, as in hard core pornography. There exist hardcore northerners. They may be in the minority, but they believe that they are divinely endowed to run any society.
They are hardcore Northerners, whether you are talking about Sheikh Gumi and others. For a character like Sheikh Gumi, politics fuses with religion. A man who said Christianity is nothing, who said a Christian would rule this nation over his dead body. So, we have hardcore northerners, hardcore northern Islamists like the late Sheik Gumi. Among those that I describe as the hardcore northerners, (note I didn’t say Islamists), are people like Sani Ahmed Yerima, the former Zamfara State governor, who is now a legislator. There are hardcore northern Islamists. Why do I use Yerima? Because in him, you also encounter the fusion of a credo in Northernism and at the same time in Islamism. So you can see somebody like him as an opportunist. And I say this, you know, because he himself admitted to some of our people in NALICON during the immediate post-Abacha era, when he was asked why he decided to turn Zamfara into a theocratic state in a secular dispensation. He said, and I dare him to deny it, that it was the only weapon he had to snatch power. He said the PDP machinery was so strong that he needed something which would appeal to raw emotions, to mobilise and get the governorship.
If, periodically, I refer to this individual, it is because he represents to me, the opportunistic face of Islamism. And, of course, he had to deliver after he became governor. He is not the only one. I distinguish between him and Gumi because Gumi never sought political power. He was just a raw believer in raw Northernism and Islam. The two tributaries fuse in a personality like that.
In the case of Mr. Yerima and a number of others, Islam is just an instrument. I don’t consider them genuine Muslims. For them, however, they are willing to go the full length of Islam because it pays them politically. Having said that, I do not say for a moment that he is responsible for Boko Haram or that he has any hand in it. But I say that his school of thought and his school of opportunism is responsible for the birth of a movement like Boko Haram.

Now let’s get to the specifics. And I dare anybody to contradict what I am about to say. General Obasanjo came to power as a civilian ‘President’ on the platform of the Northern caucus. If you remember, there was a huge controversy: Did he sign? Didn’t he sign? Did that one sign, didn’t this sign?
Before the presidency was, shall we say ‘conceded’ to him, it’s quite true, and he’ll be the last to deny. In fact, he admitted that he was even brought a paper to sign but he refused.
The first signs that the sponsors of Obasanjo got that they made a mistake was when he dismissed military officers, who had held political offices. That was the first time those who sponsored Obasanjo, who were hardcore northerners, felt they had got themselves into trouble because as it happened, those who were most affected were northerners. That was the first sign of trouble.
And they just didn’t take it and say ‘oh let it pass’ until later. They then opened a war office at that time. I’m talking of a physical office in which every single thing he said, every clipping, was stored. Ask Olusegun Obasanjo. I personally told him this. I said: ‘By the way, I hope you realise that the people who sponsored you have declared war on you; that they have opened an office on you, specifically an Obasanjo office!’ How do I know about this? If anybody denies this, I will come back to you and I will tell you how I knew about it. I am not ready to divulge. So, that is the first. The second phase was when Obasanjo proceeded and began privately to plan his re-election (that is the second term in office). At that time, what I called the hardcore northerners began to mobilise at what level yet, I cannot categorically say.
I don’t have the slightest interest in whether Obasanjo was right to seek a second term or not. I am not going to discuss whether it is right or wrong for anybody to try to impose a limitation, which is not backed by the constitution, on any individual candidate. I’m just telling this nation certain facts which no one can deny.
Obasanjo decided to have a second term, that is a southerner, not just an ex-military man, but a southerner. The language at the time was very overt. It was ‘we are just lending you the presidency, we will take it back at the end of your term.’ It was a feeling, a belief, which percolated through the various levels, various ranks of politicians and across all ages.
I remember one incident. I was invited by Fani-Kayode (Femi) and Akin Osuntokun to a meeting of a group they had. There was a very young man, very intelligent, at the meeting. A lot of young northerners gravitated towards me, by the way, and I interact with them. Even back in the Abacha days, some of them used to come and see me in Harvard University, where I relocated and taught. And each time I meet a generation that does not belong to the hardcore northerners, I am always delighted to exchange ideas with them till tomorrow. And this young man, I remember I met him. And I wanted him to join us. I sent his name to Fani-Kayode and I said this is the kind of man you people should interact with. These are very progressive people. It almost ended in a disaster because that young fellow, whom I discussed with, made a mistake by saying: ‘After all, I don’t know what you people are complaining about. We did concede after Abiola. We did concede the thing to you.’ Fani-Kayode wanted to take that man’s head off. He blew up, it was difficult for me to separate them. I say these things only to explain that, even among some of the young generation that one thought could be weaned away from such ideas, such notions exist. A lot of people there that day can check on the incident. And it’s only one of such incidents.
So, the next sense of betrayal was when Obasanjo got a second term. Some of them even said openly that they had been misled that the man they thought was going to hold the forte for them turned out to have an agenda of his own. So far, so bad. The next phase that can determine at which time, I won’t tell you, the hardcore northerners began to activate what I called secret army, when they began to send their people to training. They felt they had to fight to take back what they felt belonged to the North.
So I suspect that the breaking point was when Yar’Adua took ill and the question of succession began. ‘If Yar’Adua dies, you mean another southerner is going to get into that position?’ This now became a real nightmare. For this, hardcore northerners (it’s too long, let’s just use the word cabal, even though that word is misused, to narrow it down to make sure we are talking about individuals, not about a region).
They decided that something drastic had to be done. Around this time, they had begun to activate, they intensified the training, this set of foot soldiers, they began to make intensified contacts, alliances with international religion-based insurgents like al-Qaeda. And their soldiers began to go to Mauritania, Sudan and Somalia, particularly those who were categorically confirmed by the security services. They began to send them seriously for training. That is not the problem, al-Qaeda has always been interested in Nigeria, as in Kenya and Mauritania. Osama bin Laden listed, if you remember, it’s published, Nigeria among the nations to be Islamised.
And so, these people went for training, they came back lying low, waiting to be activated. Remember all these didn’t begin with the period I’m talking about. They have a long history of extremists. People tend to forget about Maitatsine; that was a different calibre altogether. So there is nothing new about what we are seeing. It is the intensification and the murderous dimension that this narrow Islamism is taking.
I am talking of accumulation of grievances of this narrow group. And this is why even some of their own fellow northerners were targets because these were considered malodorous among them and in any struggle of this kind historically, you find that the first stage is to clean out your rearguard, those whom you consider might stab you in the back–the rearguard traitors. You wipe them out first. And that is why we are seeing the intensification of the antagonism towards certain progressive liberal northerners.
Matters became worse, of course, when Jonathan decided that in his own right, he was going to contest elections. That is when the last restraint vanished from the hardcore northerners. That is when they activated the extreme, murderous strain of religion. That is why they began to identify political enemies as religious enemies. What we are reaping today is largely a political problem. It’s true that in my article, precisely the last one, used in Newsweek, I emphasised the religious strain because it is true. I did not want to make statement of a political nature; I did not want to elaborate, but I said enough in that article where I used the expression: ‘those who lost out in the political stakes are the ones who are now intensifying, who are now mobilising, activating the religious fanatics in our midst.’ I just hinted as much. But now, we are reaching a place where we are talking in terms of fatalities, we are counting now in four figures. By the time you add together all the fatalities that have occurred in the last year and half, we are talking in terms of thousands now since the real militancy began.
But I think at that point, even before now, we should never even have gotten to this point. But now, we have reached the stage where there is going to be some frank talking among ourselves.
If you read the ‘manifesto’ of the Boko Haram, you will find that there is nothing you can actually hold on to unlike, say, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, which is categorical on the polluted environment. The oil companies have polluted the environment, all the wealth coming from there goes to develop the rest of the country, you killed our leaders, we turned them into martyrs, land is polluted, air is polluted. There are pulmonary and skin diseases as a result of oil spillage and flaring of gases. Fish ponds have been degraded. You can see what you can hold on to. You can agree or disagree with their methodologies, we are not talking about that now. The important thing is that when you read their table of content, of complaints, at least, it is not on an eerie level.
In this particular case, you can go to Youtube and all what Shekau says is that ‘democracy is haram’. We are going to Islamise’ and so on. What is he going to Islamise? You are talking nonsense because you are saying you were going to Islamise dead bodies. Let’s say there are non-Muslims in this country, a modest estimate, let’s say two million. I say very modest estimate, you know you cannot kill two million. So, what you do to Islamise is you do that over dead bodies and you can’t do that, not even if you say you are Rwanda.
It is because these hardcore Northerners are embarrassed to admit what really is behind this thing. They are embarrassed to admit it. And on the other side, they are inhibited, they don’t want to say it’s North versus South, it’s not even that. It’s a minority versus the rest. And I say it’s not even against the South. It’s a minority versus the entirety of the nation.
PDP is at the heart of the trouble, it’s within PDP they have been making this dirty bargain. “You rule for so long, it’s my turn.” It is not in the constitution. So it’s the PDP members, who really should go and sort out this problem among themselves. But the nation is the one paying the penalty. This is not comfortable because they can protect themselves. They are the ones that divided the country into two–the North and then, the South.
I think that the reason which you might say is on paper, in terms of political planning, are the six geo-political zones. This ‘two’ business, I don’t understand. But they are using this division of North versus South the same way as they are using religion. The issue is completely political. But with toxic element of religion infused into it, it gives them the leg to ally with international terrorist bodies based on religion. Those are only too happy to be of assistance.
It is the same way, as in the days of ideological bifurcation of the world, the Eastern bloc versus the Western bloc. All you had to do was to go the Eastern bloc and say I am a revolutionary, I’m a Maxist-Leninist, Troskyite, Maoist something, and they give you training right away and they embrace you, and are ready to send you even outside your own country to go prove your mettle there and come back.
And, of course, the capitalists would go to the former Nicaragua under Somoza and other nations and they also got their training. So, we are right inside an international programme. And a lot of people don’t understand; it’s not extraordinary, it’s only that we are hiding the truth under blocs, hoping that somehow it will fizzle away.
When we talk about a national conference, it’s because we realise there are serious polticial issues into which religion has also been cropped and that is a very lethal cocktail. But the basic thing is political. Religion is invoked. I am not surprised by the recent revelations being made in the papers such as ‘we have been on the payroll of this governor’. It may be true, it may be half true, it may be totally untrue.
But all these go back again to Maitatsine. In the Maitatsine days, governors courted the sponsorship of Maitatsine. I remember a former governor of Kano admitted that at the beginning, he used to go to Maitatsine, when elections came close, to get support. But he said: ‘I stopped doing that when I realised that it’s a very dangerous organisation.’
The politicians are so desperate; they are the ones who utilise religion. They are not alone. We saw Goodluck Jonathan kneeling before a Christian prelate for his blessing. The only difference is that I am not aware that Goodluck Jonathan has been sponsoring any militant fundamentalist Christians. People turn to religion. We shouldn’t be surprised at this; it’s the extent at which you want to go into religion that makes it a normal aberration, a contradiction in terms by the way or an acceptable kind of aberration. Whether one destabilises, whether one gives you psychological advantage over the followers of that particular religion, there is nothing we can do about that. But when we reach a point where the product of that alliance is destroying us, then I think it’s about time we all spoke up and let these people now admit what they have known, what they have always suspected, so as to assist the security people in determining where the criminal line exists and to take action.

Many people are worried that what Boko Haram is doing may lead to the dismemberment of the country, while some others are saying: “we are too interwoven to split”. On what side do you queue?
If Boko Haram succeeds in its stated agenda to make the country ungovernable, if Boko Haram succeeds in goading those areas that have victim citizens in the northern part of the country into reprisal actions on the nearest targets, not only will this cause a break-up, it will be very messy. That is the reason some of us have been issuing appeals to community leaders to make sure it doesn’t happen in their communities.
It isn’t the break-up as such. Other nations were broken up, but the way in which we will break up will be intensely irremediable, it will be extremely messy. I can reveal to you, for instance, what the third phase of Boko Haram is supposed to be.
The security people know it. I am making it known publicly because I am disappointed that they have not taken action on it. And that third phase is selected assassination of leaders from here. I happen to know for a fact that I am on the list. I am very close to the very top of the list. If you have contact within the security, go and check because I have this information confirmed within the Nigerian security services and from outside security quarters, which I will not name. At least the government security agencies have the responsibility to start protecting those individuals or at least to communicate to community leaders the existence of this threat so that they can take certain precautionary measures. Because if they succeed unfortunately in that particular project, things will be out of control. There are young people, who will not, may not be able to control their reactions.
The reason for this programme, which I know is very much their third phase, is that those pushing this agenda know very well that this could be the last straw that breaks the camel’s back. And they would rather this country broke up and possibly in an inferno, than continue to accept the loss, even the temporal loss of power in this country. For these people, government is the only business around. To the membership of this group that I’m talking about, government is the only business.
We are talking about an unproductive group, who all their lives, have been accustomed to living on the proceeds of power, even when they are not physically in charge. It is the only way of life that they know and so while destabilising the rest of the nation, they want to ensure that they carve out a certain region in which they can dominate, and which they can terrorise through an extreme form of the Sharia, so that they can continue consuming the revenue from that area, such as it is without any opposition. These people believe very much in the divine authority of religious governance.
They secure through terror, total destruction and, paradoxically, they are securing their enclave when they retreat, they have somewhere into which they retreat which is governed on the strictest law of the Sharia. That is their ultimate goal. If they cannot have the entire thing, that is the nation, then they can ally with similar theocratic states and their position is, whatever it is, they are not individual losers, they will be taken care of.
That is why I believe that the country is very much on the verge of disintegration, especially if Bokom Haram succeeds in its agenda, which I outlined. With complete sense of responsibility and with the accumulation of facts, some within the government know what I’m saying, they acknowledge it. Some within the security services, I hope, have reached that analytical truth. I hope so, but they are not acting as if they heard and it is very worrisome.
How do you assess President Goodluck Jonathan’s response to Boko Haram threat and even the President himself as a person?

I don’t believe that President Jonathan understands half of what I have been telling you about. I don’t think that he has a truthful appreciation of the circumstances. I think he is very much some kind of an optimist; he believes certain politicial largesse or panacea here and there will solve this enormous problem. I think he is counting too much on the fact that yes, indeed, there are strongly committed loyalists to his regime from the troubled parts of the country, and ideally that is enough.
He is underestimating the desperation of the forces of the group. I do not believe that he has been able to extract the lesson or lessons of Islamic struggle, that is internal struggle throughout the world. For instance, in Iraq, every year on the holiest day of a certain Islamic sect ( I am talking about the Shiites and the Sunnis) that one group goes and butchers the other, ambushes them, mows them down even on their way to pilgrimage. I don’t think he understands or appreciates the fact that even sanctuaries have become meaningless. Sanctuaries used to hold meanings in all religions. You don’t just assault your opponents when they have taken religious sanctuary. Nigeria is filled with a whole race of mimics.
If one person 419s, tomorrow, a thousand will. They will use exactly the same formula. If they see that this formula has worked in attracting one greedy fellow over there, the next time you will see thousands of people in cyber cafes, using exactly the same formula. If you analyse all the 419 letters, I don’t think you can get more than three models, with minor variations, and yet there are hundreds of thousands of these letters going out. I am sorry to say these are the kind of people who would say: ‘Oh, the Shiites killed just 40 people. Okay, to make ourselves heard, we’ll kill 400.’
That mimic syndrome of the worst kind that is taking place in others areas is somehow very prevalent here. A mistake in London is a style in Nigeria. That is our mentality, which has been carried over into the realm of religion.
And in talking about the almajiri, they are not the “unwashed” faces that you see on the streets now. Some of them who came through the madrasas you see on the streets have gone to universities and some of them have dropped out of universities because of genuine religious convictions. They look around and say: ‘we cannot be part of this sinful environment. This is not true Islam.’ But the more “enlightened” of them just go and carve out their own school of religious thoughts, gather adherents around them and preach and try and convert people. They don’t try and convert, putting a knife to the throat. No, they convert through the soul, through the invisible soul.
Others, however, have come to believe that what is happening in Afghanistan is what ought to be happening here. That they are not true religionists unless they are killing, unless they turn executioners on behalf of Allah. Who appointed them executioners? I don’t know.
But that is what they believe. Unless they are behaving in the most extreme fashion on behalf of their religions, they are not true religionists. And because they have been to universities and because they have travelled, they adopted the sophistication of other religious movements in terms of organisation, in terms of weaponry, in terms of arrogance to look down on those who do not believe in their particular religion, as less than human, as vermin, the extermination of which will make Allah very happy and will guarantee their entry into paradise.
This is the phenomenon we are confronting right now. And, unfortunately, it is not being said and said properly in the right places. The correct people are not being confronted with it. There are only those who understand it and who are willing to exploit it. And those are the hardcore northern Islamists that we are talking about.
There are people who suggest that the solution to this problem is to have a dialogue with Boko Haram. What you think?
I know the Movement for Unconditional Dialogue exists. That may have to do with guilt. In Obasanjo’s case, guilt is definitely involved because it was under his watch that theocratism entered this country in a structured way. And you also note that he cultivated some of these groups because of his own political agenda. So, he owes them, so to speak, in the sense of repayment of the debt. There are others who, for me, have wooly ideas, who believe that, who fastened on dialogue as a magical wand. You dialogue only with those who are willing to dialogue.
These people, as I said, have not articulated what they want to come and discuss at the conference table. You begin talking of dialogue when there is articulation.
They want the suspension of the constitution, they want the enthronement of Sharia…
Throughout the whole nation, and that is why they are bombing us to the table! Alright, those who want to have dialogue with them on those terms, please go and institute the dialogue. We instituted a dialogue without involvement of government in this nation, which was PRONACO. Obasanjo tried to stop it, he threatened us, he charged us for treason. In fact, if you remember, that was when I came into PRONACO. When he said he was going to arrest all those who were organising the conference, I said what? In this country under a democratic dispensation, a group of people cannot meet, and decide and review the constitution and then present their findings to the rest of the nation? And I joined. That was how I came into PRONACO.
To those who believe in dialogue, organise your dialogue. I am not stopping you and then come and give the rest of us what your findings are.
We are not stopping you, but please don’t tell me that somebody attempted to take my life yesterday and then I start begging him, please come to the table. I believe that one should not beg for existence. If the price of not coming to table is that you want to eliminate me, and you can do so, please do so. I am 77.
Please come to the debating table, but you will not persuade me simply because you have the capacity to blow me and my family. You can simply go ahead, blow us up if you think that is the way you can do your conversion. But you will not bomb me to sit with you at the table. Rather, that diminishes me as an individual.
How would you describe the last protests over the fuel price hike?
A huge awakening and I hope a huge revelation, not only for the present governors but for those who want to come. It is a heartwarming event. To mobilise the country in such numbers says a lot of the political enlightenment. I think even if the goal was not achieved immediately, and I use the word immediately because it does not mean the goal will not be eventually achieved, the bill of rights, the bill of claims, is there. It’s being distributed, including the things we went to discuss at the town hall meeting.
For once, such a bill of demand has to be taken seriously because they know that the people have the will and the power and the means of mobilising in support of that. It includes things like what legislators should be earning, removal of tax here and there, transparent investigation of the real killers of society, economic muderers of society, abolition of such offices as first lady, which is not in the constitution.
I know that the movement, which we saw, will be pushing that bill of demands at every opportunity. And if government is dragging its feet on those issues, if it is showing unwillingness, it is trying to be deceitful, doing cosmetic things, I know the people will come out again.
You once said the presidential system of government is too expensive. Why do you consider the other alternative, which is the Westminster model, better, given that it has its own shortcomings?
The human factor is always there. What you do is block the avenues for corruption. And the presidential system is the most corruptible. Even in the United States, from where we copied it, you find that there are so many bye-laws, regulations, even lobbies. But there are rules and laws that have mapped out how far you can lobby, not to declare certain things, areas of interest, and so on. We don’t even have such controls here to start with.
The parliarmentary system, to me has less avenues for corruption. But above all, I think that in this country, what is wrong with having a part-time legislature? Look at the amount of work they do; calculate the man-hours involved in their sitting and tell me why they have to have full time engagement. And all the scandalous allowances.
Do you believe the ongoing probe of the oil sector can yield anything meaningful, given that we have a history of probes that have turned up nothing positive?
Let me first of all say that among the problems, among those who at least delight in Boko Haram and the destabilisation of the nation, are those who have criminal cases to answer and they are across the land. They are not just those we are speaking of now. And so, every kind of attack should be very carefully examined because there are those who jump on the bandwagon to assist in the total disintegration of the nation.
Many people for instance don’t know (let me go back to the opportunistic categorisation) that one of the very first files taken by the EFCC to Obasanjo when he was there, was the file of Ahmed Yerima, governor of Zamfara State. If you don’t believe me, go and check with Nuhu Ribadu. One of the very first files, with prima facie case for serious investigation and prosecution, was the case of Ahmed Yerima.
Some of these people, South, North, East, mouthing dialogue this and that don’t even want dialogue. And they also have very serious criminal cases. I mentioned that in my article in Newsweek.
So, we are waiting to see whether something positive will happen with all the probe going on. The civil society is also waiting on the direction of those probe to see if they are serious. I mean they have asked in that bill that I saw for life sentences for anyone found guilty of corruption. Let’s see how serious, how free these investigations will go.
One of the problems Nuhu Ribadu had, for instance, was that he found himself being circumscribed. I’m waiting to read his book, by the way, to see how much he is willing to tell of what happened during that period.

What do you make of the recent deployment of soldiers in Lagos?
It’s pernicious and it’s a huge blot on Jonathan’s administration that he found it necessary (in a democratic setting, with legitimate demonstrations going on, rallies going on, peaceful, well controlled) to send the military to Lagos. It’s something which should never have happened. I went there. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do the walk that I wanted to because I was being mobbed almost immediately. I got down from the car. I just asked some of the officers there: ‘What are you people doing here and when are you leaving?’
‘We are here to protect you, sir.’
I said: ‘Don’t tell me that; you know very well you are not here to protect me, I don’t need your protection.’
And I had to jump into the car because people were bringing out their cameras and so on. I didn’t really do what I wanted to do. It’s wrong, it’s setting the people against the military and it’s only in extreme cases that you infest a place with military presence.

There are people wondering, given the way Jonathan is going and the helplessness he has shown, if the military would not come back. And if the military should come back, won’t they be accepted?
We have had worse cases of civil unrest in other societies where the military did not come in. And so I will find it totally unacceptable, the incursion of the military. They are part of the problem, they sowed the large part of the problem. And so they cannot say they are coming to solve it. All we just want from the present administration is that Jonathan should widen and diversify his present catchment area of consultation. He should try and bring closer those who have no stake in the governance, who are not seeking advantage, those who are genuinely altruistic about the direction of this nation, those who are not seeking for preferment, not looking for contracts, not looking for jobs, not looking for anything whatsoever. He should try and diversify his area of consultation.
He desperately needs that. I believe that he is doing himself a lot of damage by restricting, I mean he should have more options; I believe he is having only one set of options, the kind of option that made him to antagonise a large section of the civil society by deploying soldiers where they were not needed, where there was that little justification for them. Somebody obviously said to him: ‘Oh you are weak, show that you are in charge, show that you are commander in chief, send the military there’ and he also bought it, I suspect. I don’t believe that it stemmed directly ftom him. It was part of the advice given him. In any case, the buck stops on his desk. He did it and he has to accept responsibility for it, and the penalty which civil society will exact from him. And on the penalty, I’m not talking about the immediate, I’m talking in terms of the kind of support they give to his government. He will come to appreciate that he committed a huge blunder.
He alienated a large section of this population because of that. To militarise any section of society unnecessarily and with the governor saying: ‘I didn’t invite you, please take your people away’; leaders of society saying: “please, take these people’ and then having the military lying and saying “we had this arrangement”. Which arrangement is that? You know where the armed robbers are, go and find them. They are not at Gani Fawehinmi Park.

What do you have to say about the ethnicisation of the protests/struggle?
Oh, what a disappointment, that was. That is also a result of the narrowness of advisory circle that he has. I was very disappointed, I want them to please go back to history, not even immediate past history, and see how civil society conducts itself when there is disagreement with governments at the centre. Let’s go back, under Obasanjo, under Yar’Adua, under Shagari, under Tafawa Balewa, let them go back and please not lose credibility, particularly that language “Our son, our son”. It disgusts me. Who is our son? Who is not our son? Who is our father? Who is not our father? I found that kind of language very depressing and I hope it is an aberration. I like to be able to meet those I still consider my comrades on that side of ethnicity to please, come back into the fold. You can disagree with the cause, there is nothing wrong with that. Even on a parochial level, you can disagree. If you believe, for instance, that the revenue that will come to you will become less, will be reduced, so you have the right to fight for that kind of revenue, but you don’t have to ethnicise it.
When we talk about allocation, derivation, we are not talking about one region alone. Lagos is involved in the same principle of derivation. We have been talking about VAT, we have been saying that it should be proportionate. Where VAT is derived should have a lion’s share of the proceeds. To generate consumption, you put certain infrastructure in place, you spend your revenue. Common justice dictates that in the states, there should be a derivation principle in proportion to what you actually contribute to that common purse. And so we are on the same side.
I don’t say this for any reason. Fashola is not my son, I didn’t know him until he became governor. We are saying this on behalf of human beings, who also actually occupy spaces, not their leadership. Let’s hear the last of “our son, our son”. I don’t want to hear it.

Can we have your take on the judgment (death sentence) on Hamza al-Mustapha and Shofolahan?
This moment of decision would have been arrived at much earlier, if al-Mustapha and his defence had not deployed delaying tactics, including grandstanding efforts to rubbish his judicial process. The delaying tactics were based on the expectation that government would change hands in Lagos State. I know for a fact that al-Mustapha had been assured that the trial would be discontinued with a change of government.
He gambled on this assurance and he lost. Pressure was indeed mounted on Lagos State government to release him. The discontinuance of the case against Mohammed Abacha was cited as guarantee – more of that in another place. Mustapha’s defiance, his confident arrogance, his insults to the process, were based on this assurance. I make no comment on the outcome, I merely remind the Nigerian people once again that political interference with the judiciary remains one of the main issues that must be tackled whenever (if ever) Nigerians take the courageous step to sit together and fashion a new set of constitutive protocols for their co-existence that protects the judiciary in an unassailable manner.
SOURCE: http://thenewsafrica.com/2012/02/06/next-phase-of-boko-haram-terrorism/

Obasanjo receives kudos for reforms in aviation sector

Dr Harold Demuren, Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), has lauded former President Olusegun Obasanjo for initiating the ongoing reforms in the nation’s aviation sector.
He spoke at the launch of a book entitled: “Nigeria Civil Aviation: Decade of Security, Safety and Passenger Comfort Development’’, written by Oba Femi Ogunleye.
Demuren attributed the transformation of the sector to Obasanjo’s visionary leadership.
“Obasanjo challenged  NCAA management to ensure that it meets up with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)  and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) standards and get the US Federal Airport Authority (FAA) Category one status on aviation safety,’’ Demuren recalled.
He said that Obasanjo also signed into law the various bills that empowered the NCAA to regulate the activities of airlines in line with international standards.
The director general further said that the Obasanjo administration approved N19.5 billion for infrastructure development and implemented the training of staff in the aviation sector.
He announced that currently Arik Air and Air Nigeria had passed the ICAO Operational Safety Auditing (IOSA), giving them safety rights to operate international flights.
Demuren added that other domestic airlines were now working hard to be certified by the NCAA and international regulatory bodies to enable them to undertake local and international operations.
The director general commended the author of the book for finding the time to write it, saying that the documentation would discourage the distortion of historical facts in the sector.
Earlier, Obasanjo had said that the reforms in the aviation sector had enhanced safety in the sector, and praised the Oba for finding the time to write the book. (NAN)

“Underwear Bomber,” Abdulmuttalab, Gets Life in Prison

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian passenger who on Christmas Day 2009 tried unsuccessfully to bomb down an airliner flying into Detroit, United States, has been sentenced to life in prison by a US District judge in Michigan.
The sentencing ended a trial that started in 2010 after the so-called “underwear bomber” tried to ignite a bomb hidden in his underwear 17 minutes before the Delta flight carrying 300 from Amsterdam was scheduled to land.
 The judge applied the maximum sentence after dismissing two motions filed by Umar Farouk's lawyer in the last 24 hours.  In her sentencing, the judge restated prosecutors’ argument that Umar Farouk’s action had political and religious undertones.  She said the intention was to inflict maximum damage on US citizens using weapons of mass destruction which Umar Farouk considered a "blessed weapon" by Allah.
The judge observed that Umar Farouk had shown no remorse for his actions and thus still posed a significant threat to the US and was still interested in fighting a jihad against Americans.
Following his sentencing, Umar Farouk shouted “Allahu Akbar” five times, after which he was led out of the court room to begin his life in prison.

What sexual act says about your well-being

I always encourage wives not to apportion blame to their husband’s methods or manner of lovemaking. Maybe your body is trying to tell you something. The bitter truth is that sex and health do reflect on each other, but because open discussion about sex is still viewed as a taboo, married lovers often separate the two in their lives.

However, various physical problems can sneak into a woman’s nuptial bed and affect the quality of her sexual relationship. Although it takes two to tango, a wife’s sexual clues can also reveal what her sex life says about her husband’s health.

When a wife avoids sex because it is painful, this might be as a result of vulvodynia (a painful vaginal syndrome). In 2010, a survey was conducted on the sex lives of American housewives and it was discovered that 30 per cent of such women reported mild to moderate pain during sex in spite of prolonged foreplay.

Fleeting causes of painful sex can include insufficient foreplay and pressure of the male genital on the cervix. However, for many wives, the pain is more generalised, often described as burning, stinging, or knife-like, and showing up even when they are not having sex.

Almost one in five women experiences vulvodynia at some point, according to the research. The cause of vulvodynia is unknown, but a thorough medical workup can rule out other possible causes. A regular use of unadulterated natural herbal lubricants can be of immense help.

As a wife, you take forever to reach orgasm, if at all. It might be as a result of diabetes; many things can contribute to difficulty achieving orgasm, including pain or side effects of medication. However, one fast-growing factor is complications from diabetes.

In a 2010 study of 2,000 adults between the ages of 57 and 85, researchers found that both women and men with diabetes reported difficulty in attaining orgasm, though male erectile dysfunction got most of the attention.

Diabetes can damage nerves and small blood vessels, including autonomic nerves, the kind the brain uses to send unconscious signals for involuntary responses, such as sexual stimulation.

The reduced blood flow caused by damage to blood vessels contributes to the problem. If you have never been diagnosed with diabetes, but it seems as if you are having other possible signs of diabetes, have a fasting blood sugar level test done and other medical check-up and mention all worrisome symptoms. If you are a known diabetic, do not be shy about mentioning this sexual effect to your doctor or sex therapist. Unlike before, we now have certified sex therapists in Nigeria.

Wives, if you do not lubricate much when aroused, though you are not close to pre-menopausal or in menopausal stage. It might be the sign of an unhealthy heart. Most married women have heard that vaginal dryness is a common side effect of the shifting hormones at pre-menopause and after menopause. It may shock you to know that if you are under 45 years and you are affected by dryness, one possible causes maybe the condition of your heart.

Lubrication comes from hormones and fluid in the bloodstream. If there is impaired blood flow for any reason, it could reflect early signs of a cardiovascular issue. Men experience this surprising sign of an unhealthy heart more noticeably in the form of erectile dysfunction.

Interestingly, long time female smokers can also develop vaginal dryness. In laboratory studies, women who chewed nicotine experienced less blood flow to their genitals than those chewing a placebo (plain gum).

To be sure, it is good to consider whether you have other signs of heart trouble, which can include fatigue, shortness of breath, or heartburn. Also, get a thorough check-up if you have not had one lately. There are, of course, other causes of vaginal dryness, which include early menopause (in women under ages 40 to 45), pre-menopause (which can begin at 40), and side effects of drugs.

When a married woman is hardly ever in the mood, it might be as a result of low level of testosterone in the system. Most of the time, when I say women’s hormonal level should not be low for a good sex life, many couples think that testosterone is only found in the body of the men.

On the contrary, there is no male monopoly of testosterone (although men have more of it). Testosterone is linked to sexual desire in both men and women. In the years before menopause, testosterone levels fall to about half what they were when women were in their 20s. Sometimes, this corresponds to a dip in libido.

One of the various serial checkups that doctors and sex therapists carry out is the testosterone level. Even if a woman’s general health is good and the relationship is good, doctors often check hormone levels. However, female sexual desire is influenced by many factors, both mental and physical. Pre-menopause alone may not explain a loss of desire. Stress, fatigue, boredom, and marital challenges, dispute, trials and ‘un-forgives’ can all contribute.

When a woman is sexually miserable, unhappy, dejected, low, down, sad and depressed. More than often many married women who visit my consulting office always confide in me that they are either sexually depressed, low, sad or miserable. They sincerely want to please their husbands, but the will power and drive is just not there.

When I hear heart-rending cases like this, I investigate the root of the matter. Many people confess that it was not like that when they first got married. But, surprisingly, the loss of interest in sexual activities that once brought wives pleasure, especially with their lovers, is a classic sign of bereavement.

The loss of love oned, cases of unfaithfulness from their husbands, failed marriage, unrealised dreams, truncated trust, some cases of clinical depression. All this and more can numb both desire and sensation, including the ability to climax in many married women.

Married women often don’t link sexual boredom to depression. Nevertheless, if you are feeling low and have experienced other common symptoms of depression, mention it to a sex therapist. (I happen to be one). Depression is highly treatable with talk therapy and natural medication.

When a married woman starts giving endless excuses not to have sex with her husband because she is embarrassed about a strange vaginal odour, it might be due to bacterial vaginosi, which is the leading cause of vaginal complaints in many women in Nigeria.

It is not an infection, but an imbalance in the bacteria normally found in the vagina. Lactobacilli, normally the predominant bacteria found in the vagina, disappear for reasons that are not yet well understood, and other types of bacteria overgrow. This changes the acid-base balance of the vagina to an alkaline one, and the elevated pH is accompanied by protein concentrations that, well, smell.

A mild form smells like ammonia a bad case smells like dead fish. Yeast infections can also cause an off-smelling discharge, but this is less common. In addition, combo yeast-BV infections can also occur to prevent this it very important for women to do a pelvic inflammatory disease examination.

When urine leaks out during sex, it might be as a result of stress incontinence, which is caused by weakened or damaged muscles. Some women wet themselves a little during orgasm and wonder sheepishly if it was not just part of the excitement of sex.

Peeing at any point during sex, whether foreplay, intercourse, or climax, is not normal, Leaking is a form of stress incontinence, the most common form of incontinence in women. It is caused by a weakened or damaged pelvic structure. Childbirth, especially multiple pregnancies and vaginal deliveries, is a leading risk factor. Other risk factors include getting older, smoking, obesity, and having COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) or asthma, which cause chronic coughing.

For most women with stress incontinence, anxiety about future episodes is enough to make them avoid having sex altogether. Fortunately, there are many ways to stop urinary incontinence from sabotaging your sex life. The simplest include avoiding liquids for several hours before sex and immediately before and during foreplay.

Things that can affect your libido

Often, the key to sexual satisfaction may not be the size of the male sex organ, stamina, technical isolation of the G-spot, good foreplay, and so on. Rather, it should be about understanding oneself and the desire of one’s partner. It is recognising the fact that real couples are not born with a perfect, divinely granted understanding of sex and sexuality, but that they are acquired and we all get better by the day.

Losing interest in sex may not be as common an occurrence for men as it is for women. When men lose interest in sex, it scares them more than women. It affects between 15 per cent and 16 per cent of men and the statistics double or sometimes increase three times in women.

The loss of libido bothers men more and makes them unhappy about the rest of their lives than it does women. Only 23 per cent of men that suffer the loss of libido say they still feel very happy about life in general. Their masculinity is so linked to their sexuality that it appears very threatening.

Men do not like to talk about loss of libido nor do their wives. However, inhibited sexual desire stresses a marriage more than any other sexual dysfunction. It can be embarrassing to talk about one’s sex life and get back to being intimate with one’s spouse. But the loss of libido is not something that men have to live with. There is so much one can do to regain a good sex drive and have a happy outlook of life. In fact, sex therapists can identify the source of the problem and recommend solutions.

Some men are not even aware that they suffer loss of libido until we get talking in my office or on the phone. How do you know if you are afflicted with loss of libido?

Libidinal loss does not usually happen suddenly. It is not like catching a cold. Although it is difficult to define precisely, the loss of libido is a lack of interest in sex for several months.

The frequency of sexual activity is not the best yardstick to determine an individual’s interest in sex because many factors can get in the way of an encounter, even if the desire is there. However, if you are married and having sex less often than is the norm (about at least once a week), you might ask yourself whether you are happy with things as they are.

If you are not happy about your loss of libido, researchers agree that it is best to tackle these issues before they become deep-rooted. To help identify the early warning signs, see whether you answer the following questions true or false:

I. Touching takes place only in the bedroom [many African tradition-oriented couples find this difficult to answer, but touching should be done anywhere anytime

II. Sex does not give you a feeling of connection and sharing

III. One of you is always the initiator and the other feels pressured.

IV. You no longer look forward to sex

V. Sex is mechanical and routine

VI. You almost never have sexual thoughts or fantasies about your spouse

VII. You have sex once or twice a month at most

If you answered true to most of these questions, you may be on your way to losing sexual desire. Understanding the various causes is the first step to finding the appropriate resolution. So, today, we shall be looking at a systematic programme to rekindle sexual desire in low-sex and no-sex marriage relationship.

The brain is an often-overlooked erogenous zone: Sexual excitement starts in your head and works its way down. Sadness, hopelessness and dejection can dampen desire and can lead to erectile dysfunction.

Many husbands confided in me that most times they consider having a few drinks to get in the mood. This may not be a bad idea at all, but I have problem with this class of husband for two reasons.

First, I want to ask what brand of alcohol and what quantity are you consuming? If you are not taking healthy alcohol, for example, red wine, which is good for the heart, your body and sexual activities may be in danger of overloading synthetic brews.

Second, addiction to any kind of drink could make it harder for a man to finish the sexual act. Too much of everything is bad and alcohol does not help to increase erection or improve stamina in the long run. Instead, it gives an euphoric feeling that initially and later, gradually destroys sexual performance. Heavy alcohol use can interfere with erection, but the negative effects are usually not seen immediately. The good news is that moderate drinking of real red wine (one or two-cup drinks a day) might have health benefits like reducing heart disease risks.

The contents of your medicine cabinet could affect your performance in the bedroom. A long list of common drugs can cause ED, including certain blood pressure drugs, pain medications, and antidepressants. Street drugs like amphetamines, cocaine, and marijuana can cause sexual problems in men.

It is not easy to get in the mood when you are overwhelmed by responsibilities in the work place and at home. Stress can take its toll on different parts of a man’s body, including the main sex organ. Deal with stress by making lifestyle changes that promote well-being and relaxation, such as exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and seeking professional help when appropriate.

You have to reduce stress, which is common to everyone. Our bodies are designed to feel stress and react to it. It keeps us alert and ready to avoid danger. However, it is not always possible to avoid or change events that may cause stress and it is easy to feel trapped and unable to cope. When stress persists, the body begins to break down and illnesses can occur. The key to coping with stress is to identify stressful things in your life and learn ways to direct and reduce stress.

Learning an effective means of relaxation and using it regularly is a good first step. Allow yourself some ‘quiet time,’ even if it is just a few minutes. Examine and modify your thinking, particularly unrealistic expectations. Talking problems out with a friend or family member can help put things in proper perspective. Seeking professional assistance can help you gain a new perspective on how to manage some of the more difficult forms of stress.

Other approaches to reducing stress include;- Keep a positive attitude. Believe in yourself. Accept that there are events you cannot control. Be assertive instead of aggressive. ‘Assert’ your feelings, opinions, or beliefs instead of becoming angry, combative, or passive. Learn to relax. Exercise regularly.

Your body can fight stress better when it is fit. Eat well-balanced meals. Stop smoking. Limit or avoid use of alcohol and caffeine. Set realistic goals and expectations. Get enough rest and sleep. Your body needs time to recover from stressful events. Don’t rely on alcohol or drugs to reduce stress. Learn to use stress management techniques and coping mechanisms, such as deep breathing or guided imagery. Anger can make the blood rush to your face, but not to the one place, you need it when you want to have sex. It is not easy to feel romantic when you are raging, whether your anger is directed at your wife or not.

Unexpressed anger or improperly expressed anger can contribute to performance problems in the bedroom. Worrying that you will not be able to perform in bed can make it harder for you to do just that. Anxiety from other parts of your life can also spill over into the bedroom. All that worry can make you fear and avoid intimacy, which can spiral into a vicious cycle that puts a big strain on your sex life and relationship.

Carrying extra pounds can influence your sexual performance, and not just by lowering your self-esteem. Obese men produce less of the male hormone testosterone, which is important for sexual desire and producing an erection. Being overweight is also linked to high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries, which can reduce blood flow to the sex organ. This invariably leads to low self-image. When you do not like what you see in the mirror, it’s easy to assume your partner isn’t going to like the view, either. A negative self-image can make you worry not only about how you look, but also how well you’re going to perform in bed. That performance anxiety can make you too anxious to even attempt sex

Low libido is another thing that can deflate a man’s erection. It is not the same as erectile dysfunction, but a lot of the same factors that stifle an erection can also dampen your interest in sex. Low self-esteem, stress, anxiety, and certain medications can all reduce your sex drive. When all those worries are tied up with making love, your interest in sex can take a nosedive.

Many different health conditions can affect the nerves, muscles, or blood flow that is needed to have an erection. Diabetes, high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, spinal cord injuries, and multiple sclerosis can all contribute to ED. Surgery to treat prostate, haemorrhoid and bladder problems can also affect the nerves and blood vessels that control an erection.



First move

Whenever we make love, my wife seems to enjoy it as much as I do. However, she hardly makes the first move. I told her that I would like her to do so, occasionally and she accepted. Still, she did not change. Why is she like this and how can I make her do what I want?

Mr. A, Lagos

 This type of complaint is common among married couples. The average Nigerian male thinks about sex several times in a day. Such frequent sexual thoughts may eventually compel him to have sex with his wife. This is how God made men. Whether it is a sport car or practical automobile, the vehicle for your sex life is typically in the drive mode. Your wife, on the other hand, is not ‘sexually wired’ the same way. Most women are in the neutral mode. They are not opposed to sex; they just need to be properly stimulated to get them moving.

Once you initiate sex and she is receptive, both of you will move forward. Frequently, about 10 minutes into foreplay, a woman begins to be aroused, enjoy herself, and becomes aware of her desire for sex. Therefore, she is being honest when she expresses her enjoyment and desire to please by saying that she would like to initiate sex. Then, she will probably not even think about sex for a long while. She does not think about it until you initiate or bring up the subject. While she might agree that she ‘should’ initiate sex or is willing to do so occasionally, it is difficult to get her in the mood when she is not thinking sexual thoughts.

Make sure you are not missing her promptings. Many couples do not agree as to how to initiate lovemaking or what actually constitutes an initiation, so they miss each other’s signals. Women typically initiate sex in more subtle forms. Your wife’s initiation might be as subtle as taking a shower after work. Make sure you talk about how she prefers to let you know she is in the mood.

President Barack Obama is calling on Congress to extend a payroll tax cut

President Barack Obama is calling on Congress to extend a payroll tax cut for the remainder of the year as another deadline nears for Congress to act or see taxes go up for millions of working Americans.

Lawmakers agreed back in December, after much bickering, on a two-month extension, but that runs out at the end of this month. Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday that Congress "needs to stop this middle-class tax hike from happening. Period. No drama. No delay."

Obama said that the economic recovery, which has been ticking upward, must not be jeopardized by a failure to act to stop payroll taxes from going up, and he urged listeners to add their voices.

"I hope you'll pick up the phone, send a tweet, write an email, and tell your representative that they should get this done before it gets too late. Tell them not to play politics again by linking this debate to unrelated issues. Tell them not to manufacture another needless standoff or crisis," Obama said. "Tell them not to stand in the way of the recovery. Tell them to just do their job. That's what our middle class needs. That's what our country needs."

Lawmakers have made halting progress on legislation to extend the tax cut. The bill also would renew jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and prevent doctors from being whacked by a 27 percent cut in their Medicare payments, but the package costs $150 billion-plus and lawmakers will have to find a way to pay for it.

The 2 percentage point cut in Social Security taxes is worth about $1,000 per year for the average family, or $40 per paycheck.

In the Republican radio address, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell applauded efforts by Republican governors across the country to contain government spending and reduce their state budget deficits. Speaking ahead of Obama's release of his own 2013 budget, McDonnell said the federal budget will impede job creation by calling for tax increases and for continuing the administration's health care policies.

Obama's budget, to be unveiled Monday, would allow Bush-era tax cuts for people in the upper brackets to expire. It also is expected to call for the elimination of corporate tax loopholes while calling for lower corporate tax rates.

McDonnell said Republicans can help create an environment that creates and sustains private sector jobs.

"We know that when we limit government to free up capital, and reduce onerous regulations and litigation, we spur private sector job creation."