Bayray McNwizu Disarmed Me By Saying She Has A Crush On Me!!!

One Saturday morning, I was due to have a Nollywood Star called BayRay McNwizu as my Artiste of the week.  I had no idea who this was and I Google to check her out.  She had quite a few stunning images online and I thought, phew, she is beautiful.  

I went on to do my usual research on her bio and stuffs she has done, while also reading up on what the tabloids said about her positive and negative.  It was interesting that there were scanty negative and they were not serious dirt, so she seems like a clean act, unusual as that may be.

BayRay McNwizu sauntered into the studio with a shy smile that lit up her face and dimmed her eyes a bit, but she just looked more like a really sweet and beautiful young lady in her body-hugging trouser dress, one-piece outfit and its yellow. 

 I had to compliment her outfit, her very nice figure and her beautiful smile then, she dropped the infinitely disarming bomb, "Hello Sir, I have always had a crush on you, but you have to promise me  you will not say that on air"  

Awwww... she got me there and guess there are few men that will hear that from a beautiful woman, and would not have their heart melted a wee-bit, guess I am not one of them.

The interview was like having a chat with a long lost friend that one loves a lot and know that the feeling is mutual. It was an interesting interview in getting to know BayRay McNwizu and her ambition.  She was seemingly honest with her response, sometimes coy, mostly oozing with charm.  

 

Let me digress a little by telling you this story, and I will link it all up at the end.  A few months ago, I was in Yenagoa for the AMAA Award ceremony and it was the very first time ever that I will attend the event.  I had watched reports on the ceremony several times on Channels TV for a couple of years now, but I had no business attending, especially as I was not even invited anyway.

But this year, I was invited by the Bayelsa State Government to come and witness one of the events that they are delighted to showcase as a way of encouraging the arts and investing in Nollywood.  Channels TV was official broadcaster for this event as it was live on the station.

There were Starlets (Kokolets in D'Banj speak), Stars, Super Stars and Mega-Stars present at the event.  Since I was a guest of the State Government, I had nothing to do with the event itself other than to come in and watch, while my Outside Broadcast Crew "do the needful" in putting it on air live.

I had an eyeful of absolutely stunning outfits like the one put on by my very good friend of many years, South African Radio Star, Kgopedi Namane, there were also amazingly gorgeous ladies and some truly charming guys, presenting and receiving awards.  I had my little toy, the Canon 600D camera with lens as long as my arm (just kidding, its not that long), but it allows me to take very clean and crystal clear shots from over 100m away.

I love having my little toy on auto, so that it just clicks away and the sound makes me feel like a proper papparazo. As I fiddled with the focus and checking out the people on stage, a lady in orange one piece dress with a pantalon bottom that is free-flowing stepped on stage.   I did not hear her name, actually it did not matter as she waltzed in elegantly to announce the category and eventual winner.  

I still did not hear anything she said, I just kept clicking away, trying to get excellent close up shots and different angles.  This is made more difficult considering I am seating in the crowd and not anywhere near the stage.  I had to get ingenious with camera angles and virtually contorting my neck and body in weird ways to get clean shots without having folks around me shouting at me to sit down and stop blocking their views.

I never got to meet this lady in the picture and did not even know who she was, but she caught my eye.

This is one interview I will not forget for a long time, because at the end of it, I realized that this lady, I had seen on stage once and actually met and was introduced to her on the second occasion before she was on my show.  

I pride myself in not forgetting faces easily but on this occasion someone did something to my memory, such that the person on the AMAA Awards stage that was introduced to me by Seun Oloketuyi on a set shooting at a hospital in Opebi and finally live in the flesh in the studio, I still did not link all the images together, that I must say is by my standard unprecedented.

But its all good and unusually interesting as BayRay McNwizu has, in her very unassuming, sweet smiling way has melted into oblivion where she came from.  I have not heard from her since and can only hope to see her again in a major Nollywood film in the coming months and years.

She did put a smile that will come on my face fleetingly each time I remember the coy and nice way she said "I have always had a crush on you, but you can not say this on television... "

Well now, I did not say it on TV :-)

Pounding The Streets Of Lagos - Raising Funds For Save The Children

I have always wanted to be a soldier, believing that when you join the Army they will give you the training that turns you into a very disciplined, strong, tough and truly dynamic being. An officer and a gentleman idea is always in my head, so that when I put on that uniform, every living being will respect and salute both my courage to put my life on the line for humanity and fellow citizens of my great nation, Nigeria.


Unfortunately, I never got the chance, mind you, not for want of trying, but I was deprived the great opportunity because of the absolutely ridiculous policy called "Quota System".  I see myself as a citizen of the world, but because my late father is from Ondo State, "Quota System" made it such that a couple of my friends from the good old Federal Government College, Kano, who were from Northern Nigeria could get admission, despite scoring less points in the Nigeria Defence Academy exam than me.

Anyway, I have grown out of that and I guess I can look back now and say, may be, just may be, all things on this one turns out for good because I love the Lord and His plan for my life is different.  I am tempted to see this as a cop out when I hear people use same line.

It is this passion for discipline and fitness that has informed my decision to continue to run regularly to keep fit.  It is this fitness regime that has informed my decision to now take pare in the Great North Run marathon to raise money for a good cause.  One of those that is consistently on my heart is the Save The Children and the amazing work I see them do supporting and helping children around the world.  The wonderful work they are doing in Nigeria is also commendable, especially in Northern Nigeria where I still have loads of friends and I travel to from time to time as a result of having school out there.

I have been pounding the streets of Lagos, jogging virtually every day and on some days doing over 20KM in the morning between 5am and 7am before getting ready for work.  This will usually be a job from Opebi, through Mobolaji Bank-Anthony way to Maryland, then down Ikorodu Road to Yaba and back through the same route.




All of these because I want to prepare to raise funds for Save the Children and support their work as I strongly subscribe to one of their regular sayings "No Child Born To Die".

This year, I will do a bit more promotion than usual, and I am starting some of that through this blog and you will see some of it in the newspapers and on television as well. 


Fortunately for me, my employer, Channels Television has agreed to sponsor/support me in this adventure.  I have reasonable amount of time to talk about Great North Run, Newcastle on my Saturday morning magazine show, Sunrise and I will also talk about it on our Sports programmes like Sports Tonight with Toyin Ibitoye and Sport This Morning.

I am also fortunate to have the backing of the largest airline in Nigeria and possibly in West Africa, Arik Air.  They have donated tickets to ensure I can be part of the Great North Run Marathon in Newcastle.  They are supporting me and they did same the last couple of years, which shows that the people at Arik Air have a heart and will support a good cause.

I spoke with the Group C.E.O. of Forte Oil PLC last week and I have a bit of commitment from the Oil Company to expect some amount of support for my fundraising.  I am not sure how much is small, but I know something will be done to support the great work being done by Save The Children.

I have a story to tell shortly about my experience at Verdant Zeal, check out their website and you will now why they are the way they are.  I went there for a quick meeting about "Native and Vogue" coming up soon. Just before we finished the meeting, I mentioned my run to the C.O.O. and here team of two staff working on the Native & Vogue project with her. The three of them agreed that they will ask their colleague to support me and I gave them the form immediately.  I was shocked at the end of the day when I got about N25,000 cash which was contribution from all the members of staff with the smallest donation being N500 and largest N5,000.

Watch this space for more stories and pictures and possibly videos in the coming days and weeks....

Bishop Idahosa Saw The Anointing On My Life First - WAJE

It is not often that an awesomely talented musical artiste gets discovered and actively supported by a Bishop.  

This is the story of Aituaje Iruobe aka WAJE.  Her musical talent was discovered and supported by Bishop Benson Idahosa from an early age.  Once the good Bishop saw the anointing on WAJE's life, he sponsored her education.


Waje was my guest on Sunrise this Saturday here at Channels TV and she was such a wonderful and interesting Artiste of The Week on my show.


 
Waje came on the show just a week after her close friend and industry colleague, Omawumi was on the same programme.  She talked about her passion for music and how she has always known that singing is a God-given gift that has shaped her life.

 Waje has on a cute smile when I asked about the man in her life.  She wanted the details to remain private, but she is happy to share the fact that she is happy in her relationship and was almost waxing lyrical on how much she prays that it continues on the current trajectory.

 

Waje was a bit coy about wedding bells, stating that when its time, the world will know, so as it is not in the public domain yet, it means its not happening yet :-)


To Be Continued....

I Am In Happy Place, Marriage Might Happen Next Year - OMAWUMI

I have a small number of Nigerian celebrities I can call my friends.  There are few others I can't call friends because we are not close, but I sincerely like them, as well as enjoy their company whenever we get to catch up. I often find myself in some unusual and wonderful places because of the travels my job require.



Omawumi is one of those I will not drop her name and say we are great friends, but she is one of those Nigerian Celebrities that I honestly enjoy her company and love because of her candid, honest and straight to the point nature.  She does not pretend to suffer fool gladly at all, but she can easily use euphemism like "slow people" for those that others will describe as "fools".


If you have never met a warri girl or don't know what one is like, find time to watch Omawumi in conversation.  She is a delight to interview and a joy to watch, whether while on stage singing or dancing.

Omawumi was my guest on Sunrise this Saturday morning at Channels TV and I had so much laughter, I could have been interview Julius Agwu and Alibaba on the home stretch today.

I asked her about the father of her gorgeous little girl and what their relationship is like now.  Omawumi said she is in a happy place and having a very happy family life.  She even hinted at marriage next year being a possibility.


 I take that as not just a mere hint, she is not the kind of person that would make loose statements about marriage unless it has been considered and already being worked on.

Omawumi is one young Nigerian musician that makes me proud each time I watched her on stage either in Nigeria or the few times I saw her perform outside the shores of this country.

 

I am wishing Omawumi the very best of luck with here new song #Megbele and of course whenever the wedding bell tolls, we will be here to congratulate and pray they "be together ever after".

 Here is the Video of the interview where Omawumi seemingly dropped the hint about the forthcoming wedding and when a lady starts talking about wedding location and all, its no longer hint... its for real... :-)

 

#OsunDecides2014 - The Debate

On Saturday, I had such amazing time asking questions and allowing the representatives of the PDP Candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore and that of the incumbent Governor of State of Osun, APC's Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola trade words and have a bit of a #ShoutMatch.  Each time it seems to be getting out of hand I play the puppeteer and stopped them. When they go on for a bit longer, I threatened to put an end to the conversation because its becoming a #ShoutMatch.

I asked the DG of Omisore Campaign Organization what his principal has on his manifesto, offering the good people of Osun.  He have a 5-point agenda that has Education, Agriculture and Infrastructure Development on it.  The unfortunate part of this kind of conversation is that you never get the details of how these 5-point agenda will be achieved, especially details of where the money will come from, considering there is limit to what the state generates (IGR) and what it gets from Federation Account (FAAC).

But it was interesting to see how excited each of the representatives were when it was time for them to shoot down the achievements of the incumbent or the track record of the other candidates.

At the end of the segment, Alero, my co-presenter said we didn't want a fight in the studio, and all of them in unison said, "no way", we are all friends, all that argument is just politics and argument for television.

The one word that seemed to have gained a life of its own since the Ekiti Election is #StomachInfrastructure and it was mentioned in the same breath with bags of rice, which made me wonder if this has now become the norm.  Is it a case of how big your bag of rice is that determines your number of votes now or how you cater for #StomachInfrastructure.

We will have to wait and see how things pan out come the August Election in the State of Osun.  One's prayer and hope will continue to be that there will be a huge turn out, the people will vote, not for popularity or #StomachInfrastructure, but rather for manifesto that make sense and can deliver gains of democracy for the good people of Osun.

Finally, I can not shout this out loud enough, we have to create a groundswell of voters enlightenment, so that there is a clear link and understanding of the fact that a good choice will determine quality of education, job opportunities, improvement of infrastructure, quality health service and more, while bad choice based on bags of rice and #StomachInfrastructure will lead to poorly equipped hospitals, regular problems of unpaid salaries, corruption that pays back those who delivered the bags of rice and of course impunity.

The Queue For Kerosene

 Its a bright and sunny morning, I had to be up early to join the Sunrise Daily crew of Channels TV, so we can hit the ground running with the show being broadcast live from Yenagoa in Bayelsa State. As we drive past the very first ever flyover in Bayelsa State, I was so busy admiring the beautiful landscape and corner of my eye saw what looked like sea of heads and close by, bright and colourful jerry cans.

I had to ask the driver to stop quickly, because, just the day before, the Governor of Bayelsa State, Hon. Seriake Dickson was very happy to brag to about a thousand people in the hall at the Bayelsa State Investment & Economic Forum, that Oloibiri is just under 10minutes drive away and that is the first place Nigeria hit oil. See the picture that caught my attention:

 I got off the vehicle, took my camera, Canon EOS600D, which my friend in the US likes to refer to as "The Beast" and walked into the midst of tired beings, some said they had been on the queue for Kerosene from about 5am, while other said they had to leave their Jerry cans in that location on queue and beg for someone to look after it for them.

Its not an extremely unusual sight in Yenagoa, I was informed by one of them, and another one chipped in quickly, "you no dey see this kain queue for Lagos? Na everywhere ooo. Welcome to Nigeria."  All I could do was shake my head just for one reason only.

It beggars belief that crude oil is abundant in the Niger Delta, the President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan is from Bayelsa State and  The Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Allison-Madueke is from Yenagoa Local Govt, also in Bayelsa State, yet, the people queue for a by-product of substance that come in abundant quantity from their community.  It is almost as ridiculous as asking a nomad in the sahara to queue endlessly just to buy sand.

 

Nigeria never cease to amaze me as a nation with virtually every thing that is needed to make life a grand pleasure for all citizens and create a nation that is the envy of the rest of the African Continent, if not the world, yet the basic thinks fail and often are seemingly non-existent.

Nigeria has experienced scarcity of Kerosene for many years as some blame the marketers, others say its those importing the product, while NNPC absolves itself of any complicity in this embarrassing situation.  In the midst of it all, there have been stories of monumental corruption in the petroleum sector and till tomorrow, its unlikely anyone will be investigated or convicted not to dare think of being jailed.

This is one more proof that Nigerians need to demand better government, but when they are opting to not rock the boat or allow politics of region and or religion rule the day, the result will be infrastructure deficiency, reign of "stomach infrastructure" as reason(s) for political decisions, especially in the area of voting and other unspeakable and outrightly disturbing actions/decisions that do not bode well for the nation.

Come 2015, the nation will go to the polls again to elect new leaders, if manifestos are not published and scrutinized, with explanations being demanded for blanket statements like 7point agenda that means nothing, then #Queue4Kerosene will continue to be hashtag for a long while, but it will still mean nothing because twitter hashtags in Nigeria do not in themselves stir the conscience of the nation or that of national leaders.