Now is the Future

Author: tdpel

  • Nollywood veterans announce 12-film project with release of ‘CAKE’

    By Emmanuel Afonne

    Two Nollywood veterans, Dotun Olakunri and Steve Gukas, have announced they will be releasing a 12-film project over the coming months.

    The announcement was made in a statement issued on Sunday by their media consultant, Edward Israel-Ayide, where the duo announced the release of the first film of the project ‘CAKE’.

    The film was directed by Prosper Edesiri and produced by Tongryang Pantu.

    The statement quoted one of the executive producers Dotun Olakunri, as saying that ‘CAKE’ is a quirky romantic comedy that follows the hilarious ride of ‘Tomiwa Akinlolu’, a talented baker who is caught in a love triangle with two beautiful women.

    “The film stars Tope Tedela, Sophie Alakija, Folu Storms as the main characters, supported by Big Brother Naija alumni Saskay, Patience Ozokwor, Emmanuel “Koloman” Jibunor and Philip Asaya,” Olakunri said.

    According to Olakunri, CAKE is a must-see because it sweetly captures the essence of modern-day romance in cosmopolitan cities and the attendant twists and turns.

    He said that the story brilliantly told by Prosper Edesiri, the director of the film, would be viewed in cinema halls soon.

    “Patience Ozokwor brings needed experience to the film that elevates the art of young Nollywood creatives.

    “It is the first of the planned slate of 12 films to be released through a collaboration of Natives Filmworks and Michelangelo Productions on the Natives Family Friendly Films Project.

    “The project leverages a focused human capacity development initiative to create a slate of 12 movies that highlight the creativity and skill of a new set of movie directors telling meaningful stories to entertain families,” Olakunri said.

    Co-producer of the film, Steve Gukas, said the 12-film project would be an opportunity to showcase the talents in the Nollywood.

    “It is heartwarming to see the transformation of the directors we have worked with in the development of the film slate.

    “Seeing them embrace the process and put it to work is very pleasing.

    “I am very excited and cannot wait for the world to see the amazing films we are making,” Gukas said.

    CAKE is distributed by FilmOne Distribution and is expected to be released in cinemas from Feb. 25. (NAN)

  • Africa’s COVID-19 cases exceed 11.1m

    A total of 11,104,160 COVID-19 cases were reported in Africa as of Saturday evening, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

    The specialised healthcare agency of the African Union said the COVID-19 death toll across the continent stands at 246,584, while 10,254,788 patients have recovered from the disease so far.

    South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Ethiopia are among the countries with the most cases on the continent, said the Africa CDC.

    South Africa has recorded the most COVID-19 cases in Africa with 3,654,824 cases, followed by Morocco with 1,158,145 cases, Tunisia with 979,612 and Libya with 482,153.

    In terms of caseload, southern Africa is the most affected region in Africa, followed by the northern and eastern parts of the continent, while central Africa is the least affected region. (Xinhua/NAN)

  • Nigeria to establish legal framework for Geographic Indications

    By Perpetual Onuegbu

    The Federal Government is poised to establish appropriate legal framework for Geographic Indications (GIs) to protect its indigenous products as a further panacea for poverty reduction, community development and social inclusiveness.

    A geographical indication (GI) is a distinctive sign used to identify a product whose quality, reputation or other such characteristics relate to its geographical origin.

    The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami,  said this in Abuja at the National Conference on Creating Legal and Institutional Framework for Geographical Indications in Nigeria.

    The AGF, who was represented by Ms Ifunanya Nwajagu, Director, Legal Drafting at the ministry, said GIs represented economic opportunities in rural areas, leading to more rural jobs and stronger rural communities.

    “Therefore, for Nigeria to avail itself of the opportunities and benefits of its Geographic Indications, our efforts must begin at home, with the establishment of an appropriate legal framework.

    “Supported by robust efforts to promote the GIs in formalising the traditional knowledge and techniques employed by originating geographic regions, standardising methods of production, and actively driving recognition for Geographic Indications in international trade.

    “To be or not to be, depends on a carefully grafted legal and institutional framework that meets the needs of today while guaranteeing the future and bearing in mind, global and continental trends in the fields of geographical indications.

    He stated that the legal framework would set out the roles and procedures for the actualization of geographical indications to be recognized and protected locally to be recognized internationally too.

    He pledged the Federal Ministry of Justice determination to lend its support and collaborate with the stakeholders towards the birthing of a reliable legal instrument for it.

    “The time has come to move away from oil economy.

    “Surely, the time has come to embrace green economy through economic drive powered by geographical indications for which Nigeria is richly endowed in quality assets and products.

    “The right to use a geographical name belongs to the community of producers in a given area.

    “And, empowers those who are involved in the origin of so many wonderful products, thereby, making Geographic Indications the perfect tool for local development,” he said.

    Speaking further on the relevance of Legal framework to back GIs he said that the country had varieties of unique agricultural and natural products that should benefit from GIs.

    , “It is worthy of mention that we currently have varieties of unique agricultural and natural products that qualify as geographical indications such as “sokoto goats’ skin”, “Ijebu garri”, “skin hide of Kano”, “Kilishi”, “Yaji” (dry pepper), “Ose Nsukka” (Yellow pepper), “Aso Oke, “Adire”, “Ofada Rice”, “fura” and many more.

    “Yet, none of these have benefitted from any comprehensive registration, international recognition and commercialization,” he said.

    The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo also said that  Federal Government in collaboration with the European Union were intensifying campaign for product specification as a means to increase the exportation of unique products in Nigeria.

    The minister commended the EU and European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) specifically, for funding the Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation in Africa (AfriPi project).

    According to him, the AfriPI Project has gone a long way in supporting African companies, creators and inventors to generate value from their intellectual property.

    “For many years, stakeholders from both the public and private sector in Nigeria have worked hard to promote and draw attention to geographical indications and other forms of intellectual property protection in Nigeria.

    “The benefits obtainable from geographical indications in Nigeria are immense. Nigeria Is one of the most culturally diverse societies in the world. We can boast of a wide variety of products that can be classified as GI.

    “These range from the popular Ijebu garri to Nsukka Yellow Pepper, the Sokoto Red Skin Goat and the famous Yauri Onions.

    “Unfortunately, poor knowledge of geographical Indications and the absence of a specific legal framework has rendered our unique products more vulnerable to misappropriation”, he added.

    A Professor of intellectual property at the University of Lagos, Prof. Adejoke Oyewunmi said the functions of the GIs must be clearly stated on the Draft law for GIs.

    Oyewunmi also called for collaborations between Nigeria and other countries especially with the coming of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement to promote Geographical Indications in Nigeria.

    The post FG to establish legal framework for Geographic Indications first appeared on News Agency of Nigeria.

  • AKTH performs second successful cochlear implant surgery

    By Aisha Ahmed
    Department of Otorhinolaryngology (Ear, Nose and Throat) of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital performed second successful cochlear surgery on Saturday.
    A statement signed by Deputy Director, Publicity and Communicatioms of the hospital, Mrs Hauwa Abdullahi, made this known on Sunday.
    It said that the second cochlear implant surgery was performed in the hospital, in collaboration with medical professors from University of Jordan, Prof. Firas Alzoubi and Prof. Simeon Afolabi.
    According to the statement, “The department lead the surgery team in Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital on Saturday and it was a success.”
    It said that the Head of the ENT Department, Prof. Samuel Kolo, stressed that cochlear implant is a specialised surgery conducted by ENT specialist to restore hearing in severely hearing impaired individuals.
    He explained that in 2021, the first surgery was conducted on a three-year-old boy from Yobe and an eight-year-old girl from Borno.
    Prof. Kolo, according to the statement, added that the two patients have been doing well, as their lost hearing has been restored and communication flow maintained.
    Another surgery, Kolo said, would be performed on a 42-year-old lady from Plateau.
    He further called on people with hearing impairment, to come to the hospital in good time for proper evaluation and treatment. (NAN)

  • Lagos Nigeria, Our Center Of Excellence Named 45th Best City For Art And Culture In The World

    Lagos State has been given the 45th position in a 50 list of best cities for arts and culture in the world put together by Big 7 Travel.

    In the list, Big 7 Travel says “Nigeria’s largest city Lagos is home to a thriving cultural scene, with top billing arts institutions such as the Centre for Contemporary Art, the Didi Museum and African Artists’ Foundation.

    “It’s also one of the world’s fastest-growing cities, with a lively arts scene on both the streets and behind the doors of its celebrated institutions.

    “Currently, there are 14 theatres, 54 cinemas, 51 art galleries and 12 museums dotted across the city. ”

    Lagos Nigeria took the 45th position as a lead over cities like Edinburgh in Scotland, Oslo in Norway, Guangzhou in China, São Paulo in Brazil, and Austin in United States which are 46th to 50th in position.

  • Leicester boss Rodgers prepared to work with limited summer budget

    Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers is prepared to work with a limited budget this summer market.

    Rodgers says he wants to overhaul his squad in the summer, after saying some of the players ‘may have achieved everything they can’ since last year’s historic FA Cup win.

    But with the club’s finances hard-hit, with a pre-tax loss of £33million for 2020-21 following a £67m loss the year before, there were no transfer funds available in January.

    “If the club doesn’t have any money, we can’t bring players in. I have to develop them,” Rodgers said.

    “We don’t have the resources that a lot of the top clubs have. We have to find a different way.”

  • Nigeria working on reforms to stabilise power supply – NBET

    The Managing Director of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET), Mr Nnaemeka Ewelukwa, on Friday said that the Federal Government was putting reforms in place to ensure stable power supply in the country.

    Ewelukwa made this known at a Capacity-Building Workshop for members of the Power Correspondents Association of Nigeria (PCAN) and Civil Society Organisations in Lagos.

    The workshop, with the theme: “Building knowledge and Plugging Skills Gap in Power Sector Reporting”,
    aims to address some challenges being addressed by government in the power sector.

    He said that the critical reforms that the government had embarked upon were designed to sustain the financial status of the market and ensure technical capacity to remove the deficit in supply to meet demands.

    According to him, the Federal Government has begun the implementation of the transmission expansion plan which works in sync with the government/Siemens Presidential Power Initiative – with phase one – (7,000mw), phase two – (11,000mw) and phase three (25,000mw) supply.

    Ewelukwa said “This government is keen to implement these reforms. To be honest with you, we are having sleepless nights to achieve these.”

    He said that government plans to keep expanding generation, transmission and distribution capacity to meet the country’s demand.

    According to him, the distribution companies are also improving their performances and facilities to ensure improved power supply.

    Explaining NBET’s function in the Transition Electricity Based Market, he said the design was temporary bridge in the electricity market.

    He said that NBET has a long-term role to drive market competition by ensuring that it is moved from a government-centred market to a private-sector driven electricity market.

    “We are enthusiastically looking at the point when we will actually start the innovation process of handing over the Power Purchase Agreements we signed to distribution licencees and eligible customers as the case may be,” he said.

    (NAN)

  • Mbappé-PSG: reasons to believe that the renewal is possible

    France seemed resigned to losing its phenomenon, but Kylian Mbappé ‘s exhibition against Real Madrid last Tuesday in the Parc des Princes has raised the media and all his fans against a fate that seemed marked. While all the signs in Spain point to Mbappé wearing white next season, in the neighboring country they cling to all possible arguments to believe in the miracle: retain their star at whatever cost.

    The newspaper L’Équipe takes the ‘Mbappé case’ to its front page today and asks itself the same question: “Is it possible to renew Mbappé?”, assuring that PSG is willing to burn all its tricks to make it a reality.

    Until now, and if we trust the player, the only reality is that nobody has won in this battle since the footballer, two days before playing against Madrid, assured that there is no agreement with anyone or conversations with the rival, as defined Madrid before the round of 16 duel.

    The million a week, denied

    After the exhibition before the world, the rumors about an all-out offensive from Paris have skyrocketed. That if Macron has done his part , that if there is an offer of one million euros a week for the player, something that by the way PSG deny, that if a short contract, of one year , to ensure the player at less during the Qatar World Cup, than if a promise of full powers in the locker room , as leader of the project above Neymar and Messi himself, than if a project that ends the power in the locker room of the Di María group, Keylor, Neymar or now Messi himself.

    The reality is that Mbappé does not want to know anything about all this while the team is immersed in a round of 16 match against Real Madrid and even less with what he and his entire club are playing for in Madrid. The footballer, no matter what happens, wants to do well especially with his fans, hence that gesture after scoring the goal against Madrid pointing with his finger at the lawn of the Park, as if claiming that, today, this is his place . These would be, according to L’Ëquipe, the weapons that PSG could use to convince their star.

    Leadership on and off the field

    Mbappé has always claimed a competitive team to stay in Paris. However, the competitive team concept for PSG has been to bring in Messi, Ramos or Wijnaldum. However, according to this newspaper, the French star was looking for something else , a team built around him, in a case similar to Benzema’s role now at Real Madrid. Mbappé would be the leader and, however, it is not easy for Pochettino to give him that role with Messi or Neymar in the same team. PSG, for this reason, would have to find a way to explain to Mbappé that he would be the true leader from next year.In Madrid, that field is much clearer, because Bale, Hazard, Rodrygo or Vini himself would not be as much competition as the one he has right now in Paris.

    A club above egos and stars

    Mbappé has always missed a firmer PSG in the face of the egos and whims of its stars. For him, as has happened in recent years at Madrid, the club has to be above everything and he understands that the club’s leaders with Al Khelaifo at the helm have shown signs of weakness in the face of the whims of certain players.

    A guaranteed exit in 2023

    Another of the proposals that PSG is considering is that of a short contract that allows Kylian not to miss the Real Madrid train , and that also makes it easier for him to leave at the agreed time. In economic terms, according to the French newspaper, the club guarantees the player a signing bonus of 25 million if he decides to renew. At the moment, the footballer earns 26.6 million gross per season. The idea of ​​​​PSG is to double his tab and offer him two seasons, although agreeing on an amount that frees him in June 2023.

    Being PSG history

    Another of the arguments on which the club would support would be to make Mbappé see that he can go down in the club’s history by winning the first Champions League , becoming the top scorer… Achievements that would leave his name written in gold letters in the Park of the princes.

     

  • Dulceida: “I have brutal clitoral pain”

    “I know it’s a bit of a taboo subject,” Dulceida began by saying in the video she shared on her Instagram stories, in which she talked about a health problem that has taken her to the emergency room twice.

    The influencer began “with a lot of discomfort in the clitoris” last weekend, and during her visit to the doctor she was diagnosed with candidiasis, although she was still worried because she had already suffered from it on other occasions “and it didn’t look like it, it was a pain in the brutal clitoris”.

    Such was the pain that Dulceida returned to the medical center, because she had even gotten worse, “Today I can’t even move, I can’t walk.

    My clitoris is swollen like a giant walnut.”

    In reality, the influencer does not have a clear diagnosis of what is happening to her, although she has been given antibiotics and painkillers and she assures that “

  • The battle of Real Madrid and Barcelona for Haaland is more intense every day

    In the week in which the spotlight has fallen on Kylian Mbappé , the other great sensation in world football continues to recover from the injury that has kept him off the pitch in recent weeks and has not stopped thinking about Her future. That absence does not mean that the greats of Spanish football and some of the Europeans lower their arms to achieve the signing of Erling Haaland. They are still pending and in contact with the player’s environment to let them know that the interest is still alive.

    In fact, in recent days the contacts of Real Madrid and Barcelona with the player’s entourage have intensified to convey to both the Borussia Dortmund footballer and his family the desire they have for him. Haaland already knows it and now he is the one who has to decide. The ball is on the court in Norwegian. They have not been the only clubs that have come close , but it seems that the decision revolves around playing in LaLiga. Manchester City and PSG are not simple observers in this story either.

    In the week in which the spotlight has fallen on Kylian Mbappé , the other great sensation in world football continues to recover from the injury that has kept him off the pitch in recent weeks and has not stopped thinking about Her future. That absence does not mean that the greats of Spanish football and some of the Europeans lower their arms to achieve the signing of Erling Haaland. They are still pending and in contact with the player’s environment to let them know that the interest is still alive.

    In fact, in recent days the contacts of Real Madrid and Barcelona with the player’s entourage have intensified to convey to both the Borussia Dortmund footballer and his family the desire they have for him. Haaland already knows it and now he is the one who has to decide. The ball is on the court in Norwegian. They have not been the only clubs that have come close , but it seems that the decision revolves around playing in LaLiga. Manchester City and PSG are not simple observers in this story either.

    Real Madrid and Barcelona continue with their particular battle . The Barcelona have not hidden it. Joan Laporta has publicly acknowledged that the Norwegian is his goal and for this reason has transferred the player’s entourage (his agent Raiola is still not working one hundred percent but he is aware of everything), that the offer that is going to transfer the striker from the Borussia Dortmund would place him well above the rest of the Barça dressing room in terms of salary.

    broken promise

    Laporta knows that he cannot disappoint the Barça fan after the promise made of signing the center forward and even less so if the destination ends up being the Santiago Bernabéu. The president of Barcelona, ​​as announced by MARCA, is willing to do anything to see the Norwegian at the Camp Nou. The order is express and clear: ” we must find the way and the money that is necessary to sign Haaland.”

    Barcelona does not have it easy. Javier Tebas insists that now he himself does not have the capacity to face the signing. ” Today they could not, but they have months to achieve it. If they had signed for CVC it ​​would be easier.” Laporta knows it and is trying to find a solution and everything in order not to see Haaland in white.

    A Norwegian television reported on Thursday afternoon about a meeting of Real Madrid leaders with Haaland’s father, in which they supposedly closed an agreement. It was in Monaco, two weeks ago on the trip that they also spoke with Tchouameni’s entourage.

    In recent days there have been contacts with the player’s agents in order to remind them that interest is still alive, that there is still no firm decision regarding the time of the possible signing and asking for the necessary patience for Haaland to commit to Real Madrid.

    The priority of the Madrid entity has always been to ensure the signing of Mnappé, but not for that reason by giving up Haaland, although it would see the Norwegian’s incorporation in 2023 much better. The operation is on ‘stand by, waiting for events , but the striker knows first-hand the place he would have in each team. The decision already depends on him and if he makes use of the exit clause or not.