Where persistence rules, great strides follow! Peter Oladotun Falade played the sax in Faze’s Originality as well as the sax version for Terry G’s Pass Me Your Love. It was my first encounter with him, and that memorable evening, he handled the saxophone in a manner that seemed like he was born with it. Young and charming Saxo Smooth as he’s fondly called by fans, sent goose pimples down my spine as I watched him do what he calls ‘his thing’- a skill that has taken him to France, Germany, and several other countries.

A FORMER External Affairs Minister, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, yesterday, fingered corruption as Nigeria’s biggest problem.

Hyundai’s Sonata received the distinct honor of most dependable midsize car by J.D. Power and Associates in their 2013 Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS). The annual Vehicle Dependability Study shows Sonata ranked highest in its class, beating out leading competitors.

Security agencies are on the trail of the abductors of seven foreign construction workers in Jama’re Local Government Area of Bauchi State.In fact, information pieced together by Sunday Vanguard, yesterday, suggested that the abductees were still being warehoused by insurgents inside Bauchi State.

As a result of this, there has been increased security presence in some strategic areas of the state.

The Joint Association of Persons With Disability (JONAPWD) has insisted that its demand on 5% affirmative action on both appointive and elective positions from state and federal governments subsist for any politician to win their support in the 2015 general elections.

Super Eagles’ hero at the 2013 Nations Cup, Sunday Mba has balked at claims by Warri Wolves officials that he is their bonafide player.

There are conflicting claims by Rangers of Enugu and Warri Wolves on the where the player’s affirnity lies. But the Mba who scored the only goal that earned the Nations Cup for Nigeria at South Africa 2013 stated that he has fulfilled his contractual pact with the Wolves and wondered why all the noise about his affiliation with the club.

Adegoke Odukoya also known as Ade Bantu, a Nigerian-German musician, producer and activist, is founder of the Afro-German musical collective and leader of Bantu & Afrobeat Academy Band. The KORA award winner in this interview, lets readers into his life, music and thoughts about Nigeria. Excerpt:

Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, 68, is chemical engineer product of University of Liege, Belgium. A farmer that he also is, Ladoja was one of the very few Nigerian figures that created the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Between 2003 and 2007, he was elected governor of the Oyo State. For three hours at his Bodija GRA home in Ibadan last weekend, he told Sunday Vanguard the story of what transpired between him and Governor Abiola Ajimobi and how the attitude of the governor has led to the current strained relationship between the ACN-led government and his young but vibrant Accord Party. On the state-of-the-nation, he said since Nigeria cannot be discussed without a mention of the PDP, that PDP’s biggest mistake was its failure to make the late Sunday Awoniyi its national chairman.

Housing is very vital to the human life; for without it, we are no better than the animals whose roof is the sky. Sadly, the sky has become a roof for many city-dwellers in our country, so to say, as homeless people of all ages sleep under the bridges, in market places, in uncompleted buildings, on pavements, and slabs on the roadside. How did Nigerians, particularly those from areas noted for their pride of their ethnic group, family and roots, get to this deplorable situation? Population explosion, mass migration to the urban areas, loss of jobs and consequently of rented premises, all contribute to this.

I have been long troubled at the level of violence and casualties in the senseless waste of human lives in the last couple of years. There is a big elephant in the room and it seems the elephant in the room is getting so large and yet no one seems to want to talk about it! This big elephant that no one dare speaks its name is Boko Haram.

It is not new. Indeed, the ritual of the now familiar tango between the executive arm of government and the legislature is again keeping he budget season heated as usual. This national assembly and this presidency did not invent it but the shambles that is now being introduced into the budget face-off signposts yet the sometimes infantile approach of the leadership in the country to some otherwise very critical engagements of very serious nature.

At a time when many young people are frustrated over their inability to find jobs, 25 year old Mrs. Omotola Aderonke Teriba Abdul, a graduate of Mass Communication, created her dream job for herself. She’s the CEO of Hardey’s Make-Over and Bridal Aso-Oke in Lagos. In a recent encounter with Vista Woman, she shared her passion for creativity and love for business, while also revealing meeting her heartthrob, another embodiment of creativity, with whom she finally tied the knot late last year. Excerpts:

Short of giving details of the anticipated repossession of Nigerian artefacts from France, Usman insisted that diplomacy remained the “best and only option for now and we would change our strategy if it’s not working.”

The world today is witnessing a situation bedeviled by violence of diverse magnitude, anarchy, starvation, health challenges, evil of the highest order, corruption, poverty, war in the homes and among nations. And in the face of all these, hapless individuals have responded with despair and negative confessions.

Language is the best tool of communication and it comes in many diverse tongues. In the world we now live in, English is the language most widely spoken and if all the manuals and language set ups of most gadgets are to be believed, there are quite a few versions; some a lot more different than that spoken by the Queen of England who is the confirmed custodian of the english language. I love the inflections and accents of the other latin languages in English.