This week, I am really addressing the young women, especially the undergraduates. That you have chosen to get educated, you will soon find out, is one of the greatest and wisest decisions that you would ever make. Most of you feel you had no choice. It was just the way it was.

I produced musicians like Ebenezer Obey, King Sunny Ade and dramatists like Baba Sala, Baba Ogunde: great, great and wonderful man, Duro Ladipo and so on. Those were the great performers and great artists of those days. But the programme I was best known for was the Village Headmaster, which many people thought was all I did. But no. I was also interviewing and reporting as a journalist.

It is really very sad that 49 years after independence, we’ve not developed ourselves. It is just like one having a child who is supposed to be a full grown man but is still developing clay feet at 49. You find out that in terms of education, people in Nigeria even take their wards to study in Benin Republic and Accra because of the fact that our institutions have not been developed.

Wife of the Benue state Governor, Arc Mrs. Yemisi Dooshima Suswam has described the death of Mrs. Mariam Babangida as a great loss to the nation and the less privileged Nigeria women whose lives she touched in special ways.

NATIONAL Chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh, yesterday, warned those planning to rig the February 6 governorship election in Anambra State to drop the idea saying the party would resist any attempt by any contestant or political party to deny the people of the state their rights to elect a governor of their choice.

Welcome to 2010! There is no doubt that every new year brings its own surprises- positive and negative. This fact, however, does not dissuade pundits from making predictions stemming from their knowledge of the workings and on-goings in the Nigerian music terrain. In view of this, let’s look at the musical possibilities of 2010 and maybe a little of the ‘promise and fail(s)’ that befell 2009.

Many summed the year 2009 as a near disaster for football in Nigeria. The country’s qualification for the World Cup in South Africa was indeed a face-saving measure for football in the year.

As another memorable footballing year approaches its conclusion, FIFA President Joseph Sepp Blatter had the following message for fans of the sport;
“A successful and exciting football year that featured top-class FIFA competitions is drawing to a close.To stage successful events, the whole football family worldwide needs to stand together and work hand in hand, a feat that has been achieved in 2009.

The New Year no doubt will usher in a lot of new developments in Nigerian sports and for Bayelsa State owned football club Bayelsa United, a new management awaits the 2008/2009 Globacom Premier League champions.

Having finished year 2009 on a low note, Shooting Stars General Manager Mutiu Adepoju is disappointed but confident that the New Year will bring good tidings to his Ibadan based side.

Enugu Rangers’ players and officials are still waiting for the package promised them by Enugu State governor Sullivan Chime. Rangers, prior to the Christmas break enjoyed a good run in the Globacom Premier League and the management is confident that it will continue in the New Year.

Spanish golfer Sergio Garcia will visit a specialist about a hand injury that has prevented him from swinging a club for several weeks.
Garcia said Tuesday that he still feels pain in his right hand after not playing for nearly a month. He sprained the wrist during the third round of last month’s Dubai World Championship, where Garcia finished seventh.

Come February 6th 2010, Sapele Athletics Club Golf section in Delta State will be a beehive of activities as the best of lady golfers from the South South zone lay siege at the newly constructed golf facility as Lady Golfers Association of Nigeria (LGAN) Vice President South Liz Ogbetuo hosts her inaugural tournament.

Nigeria’s best female golfer Uloma Mbuko is set to turn pro this year. Mbuko who for years dominated the ladies scene, winning virtually every tournament in the country, finally decided to turn pro two years back but she could not secure a sponsor. Last year, Mbuko financed her trip Nelson Mandela’s country where she secured a trainer, who would help her fine tune her game as she prepares for the big journey ahead.

When one of Nigeria’s greatest footballers, Chief Olusegun Patrick Odegbami (MON) sauntered into the premises of the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) about 12 years ago, he didn’t know that the project he was building with the company was going to grow into a world brand.