SIMON KOLAWOLE; Corruption and the Nigerian Project

Simon Kolawole Live!: Email: simon.kolawole@thisdaylive.com

What is corruption? Ask a typical Nigerian, and the response is likely to be “government officials stealing our money”. This definition effectively shields the lecturer who forces students to buy his books before they can pass his course; the journalist who demands money to write a story; the company executive who awards contracts to himself through fronts; NGOs and activists who falsify their accounts to their donors; lawyers who prepare and seal fraudulent deals; etc. Everybody is oiling the corruption chain in their own humble way. I have always argued, and will never stop arguing, that people don’t become corrupt the day they join government. The grooming process starts from their childhood. They practise corruption in bits and pieces until they get into position of access. Look at this: is it the market woman who falsifies scales that will suddenly become upright when she becomes a council chairman or commissioner?

Moments with Mo: Search for Mo’s Co-host Begins

The search for a co-host to pair with Mo Abudu, the pioneering host of the internationally acclaimed TV talk show, Moments with Mo, has begun in earnest. According to a statement issued in Tinapa, Calabar, Moments with Mo, Africa’s first and only syndicated daily talk show has begun its search for “a young, charming, brilliant, exciting and dynamic person to co-host the long-running, but now even more rejuvenated show, alongside its pioneering host, Mo Abudu.”

BIG BROTHER SEEKS HOUSEMATES

The eighth edition of Africa’s biggest reality series BIG BROTHER AFRICA kicks off in May and already fans of arguably the most successful television franchise ever seen on the continent are asking… who will the new housemates be? Who will find their name and their faces gracing newspapers, their profiles loaded to websites and blogs?

Who will become the subject of drive time radio and just who will find themselves heating up the Twitter-sphere? At this time there is no way to know this but if you meet the entry requirements and enter between now and Valentine’s Day on February 14, you may well be among the superstars in waiting and may find yourself flirting with fame and fortune!

AMAA Nominations Holds in Malawi

President Joyce Banda of Malawi with Peace

Come March 16, President Joyce Banda of Malawi will host film makers and celebrities from different parts of Africa during the nominations event that will be hosted by her country. The AMAA nomination weekend will run from March 14th-17th during which the business community, the political class in Malawi, celebrities from across Africa and their counterparts in the Southern African country will be hosted to per-nomination concert, the nominations event proper and post-nomination party.

The Director of Administration of the organisation, Mr. Tony Anih said the government and people of Malawi are very excited with the prospect of having movie icons and other players in the motion picture industry coming to the country for the nominations event.

FG to Ban Medical Treatment Abroad

Minister of Health, Prof.  Onyebuchi  Chukwu

The Federal Government has said that plans have been concluded to place a ban on Nigerians seeking medical treatment that could be handled by some  public and private health facilities in the country abroad.  

The Minister of Health, Prof.  Onyebuchi  Chukwu, who stated this Monday in Asaba, the Delta State capital, during the opening ceremony of the first  Nigerian Medical  Association (NMA)  National  Health  Summit,  said government was no longer comfortable that  Nigerians rush  abroad unnecessarily for health challenges that could be handled in the nation’s public and private facilities.