FRESH GREEN ENTERTAINMENTlaunches out in style - O’star Eze, Nnewi

FreshGreen

Fresh Green Entertainment, a new entertainment industry recently launched their first act, VictorAnierobi, who incidentally goes by the same nomenclature – FRESH GREEN. The launch cum mini-conference was put together by Ben Emeh, a multi-talented entertainer and the CEO/DIRECTOR of Socials - Fresh Green Entertainment, at Five Star Restaurant, Awka road, Onitsha.

In his introductory speech, Mr Ben narrated how he was introduced to Victor by one of the team members, a Youth Pastor and Movie Director, and decided to break all jinxes associated with professional music down in Onitsha. He introduced Victor as the next sensation every Nigerian, African albeit the whole world should anticipate given his unique passion and powerful voice performances.

Mr Emeh said that that day marked the beginning of a musical revolution as the Entertainment Firm – Fresh and Green intends to go beyond the present artiste to harvesting other underground musical sensation thereby ensuring that the people are continually given fresh and green musical classics for their listening pleasure.

According to the cousin, ChizobaEkwue, who is Fresh Green’s Personal Assistant, music runs in their blood and therefore she was not surprised when approached her with his intention to go into music professionally in Nigeria. Also, she had always known about his flair for music given his constant involvement in musical activities right from childhood. In Chizoba’swords; “If you trace most of the popular Nigerian artistes started from the choir just like him”.

The music artiste, Victor Anierobia.k.a Fresh Green revealed that besides having been participating in musical activities right from his tender years, he had started professional music in Italy in 2010 but after listening to the likes ofTimaya and Phyno, experienced a turning point and decided to come back to Nigeria and make his own input in the thriving Nigerian music industry. According to Victor, “The guy that pulled me out of my shell was Phyno. Nigerian music has gone far and wide. There is no place you go in Europe that you are not respected as a Nigerian artiste.”

BEN BRUCE TO DRIVE INNOSON BULLET PROOF CAR IN 90 DAYS. {SEE PHOTOS}

Sen Ben Bruce has purchased an INNOSON MOTORS bullet proof SUV with his personal money. The classic automobile which will be delivered to the Senator is said to be the first of its kind in Nigeria.
 

Agriculture Is Remedy to Unemployment in Nigeria –Ezeemo

 

Mr Godwin Ezeemo, Industrialist,   owner of Orient Farm based in Umuchu, Aguata Local Government Area Anambra said Agriculture remains  a way out to remedy youth unemployment in the country .

 

Ezeemo said this while in a press chat with newsmen on Friday in Umuchu his country home.

 

He said he was disturbed by the spate of unemployed youths in the state and called for serious emphasis on agricultural development in the country.

 

The Industrialist opined that the number of application received from unemployed youths in his office on daily account triggers cause for alarm and wonders the vacancies that would accommodate the sea of graduates seeking for employment all over the country.

 

"Agriculture in my view is the only profession roomy to provide jobs to willing unemployed youths.

 

"Instead of the youth lying fallow seeking for  white collar jobs government at all levels should see agriculture as a core means of livelihood and place  more emphasis  on agriculture as if well developed  can provide wide range of employment  to job seekers in the country" h

 

If agriculture was well placed in this country, Mr Ezeemo said that it would create jobs more than oil companies  and allows springing up of many Industries like palm kernel cracking industry , soap making industry , Starch Industry among others

 

He said that development of agriculture will lead to provision of Raw material to existing industry in the country and other industrialist will come up because of availability of raw materials for their business.

 

Ezeemo said that food security would be assure human development and it will increase Internal Generated Revenue (IGR), decrease poverty among many other benefits.

 

"Agriculture is the last blood of any nation, its potentials are many. The problem is that we left agriculture and focused on Oil our mistake can be remedied if we reverse now is never too late' he said

 

 

He said, "Before the war, there was groundnut pyramid, cotton field and palm oil depot that we exported, but because oil was discovered, agriculture was abandoned and that brought about unemployment".

 

"Oil gave us raw cash which we did not use very well. If we had invested on agriculture with the oil money, by now Nigeria would have been one of the best economy in the world", he stated.

 

 

Blasphemous Poem, according to Saudi Arabia

1
petroleum is harmless, except for the trace of poverty it leaves behind

on that day, when the faces of those who discover another oil well go dark,
when life is blown into your heart to extract more oil off your soul
for public use..
That.. is.. the promise of oil, a true promise.

the end..

2
it was said: settle there..
but some of you are enemies for all
so leave it now

look up to yourselves from the bottom of the river;
those of you on top should provide some pity for those underneath..
the displaced is helpless,
like blood that no one wants to buy in the oil market!

3
pardon me, forgive me
for not being able to pump more tears for you
for not mumbling your name in nostalgia.
I directed my face at the warmth of your arms
I got no love but you, you alone, and am the first of your seekers.

4
night,
you are inexperienced with Time
lacking rain drops
that could wash away all the remains of your past
and liberate you of what you had called piety..
of that heart.. capable of love,
of play,
and of intersecting with your obscene withdrawal from that flabby religion
from that fake Tanzeel
from gods that had lost their pride..

5
you burp, more than you used to..
as the bars bless their visitors
with recitations and seductive dancers..

accompanied with the DJ
you recite your hallucinations
and speak your praise for these bodies swinging to the verses of exile.

6
he’s got no right to walk however
or to swing however or to cry however.

he’s got no right to open the window of his soul,
to renew his air, his waste, and his tears..

you too tend to forget that you are
a piece of bread

7
on the day of banishment, they stand naked,
while you swim in the rusty pipes of sewage, barefoot..

this could be healthy for the feet
 but not for earth

8
prophets have retired
so do not wait for yours to come to you

and for you,
for you the monitors bring their daily reports
and get their high salaries..

how important money is
for a life of dignity

9
my grandfather stands naked everyday,
without banishment, without divine creation..
I have already been resuscitated without a godly blow in my image.
I am the experience of hell on earth..

earth
is the hell prepared for refugees.

10
your mute blood will not speak up
as long as you pride yourself in death
as long as you keep announcing -secretly- that you have put your soul
at the hands of those who do not know much..

losing your soul will cost time,
much longer than what it takes to calm
your eyes that have cried tears of oil



* These poems appeared in Fayadh's poetry collection Instructions Within which was published by the Beirut-based Dar al-Farabi in 2008 and later banned from distribution in Saudi Arabia.

Translated by: Mona Kareem

Blasphemous Poem, according to Saudi Arabia

1
petroleum is harmless, except for the trace of poverty it leaves behind

on that day, when the faces of those who discover another oil well go dark,
when life is blown into your heart to extract more oil off your soul
for public use..
That.. is.. the promise of oil, a true promise.

the end..

2
it was said: settle there..
but some of you are enemies for all
so leave it now

look up to yourselves from the bottom of the river;
those of you on top should provide some pity for those underneath..
the displaced is helpless,
like blood that no one wants to buy in the oil market!

3
pardon me, forgive me
for not being able to pump more tears for you
for not mumbling your name in nostalgia.
I directed my face at the warmth of your arms
I got no love but you, you alone, and am the first of your seekers.

4
night,
you are inexperienced with Time
lacking rain drops
that could wash away all the remains of your past
and liberate you of what you had called piety..
of that heart.. capable of love,
of play,
and of intersecting with your obscene withdrawal from that flabby religion
from that fake Tanzeel
from gods that had lost their pride..

5
you burp, more than you used to..
as the bars bless their visitors
with recitations and seductive dancers..

accompanied with the DJ
you recite your hallucinations
and speak your praise for these bodies swinging to the verses of exile.

6
he’s got no right to walk however
or to swing however or to cry however.

he’s got no right to open the window of his soul,
to renew his air, his waste, and his tears..

you too tend to forget that you are
a piece of bread

7
on the day of banishment, they stand naked,
while you swim in the rusty pipes of sewage, barefoot..

this could be healthy for the feet
 but not for earth

8
prophets have retired
so do not wait for yours to come to you

and for you,
for you the monitors bring their daily reports
and get their high salaries..

how important money is
for a life of dignity

9
my grandfather stands naked everyday,
without banishment, without divine creation..
I have already been resuscitated without a godly blow in my image.
I am the experience of hell on earth..

earth
is the hell prepared for refugees.

10
your mute blood will not speak up
as long as you pride yourself in death
as long as you keep announcing -secretly- that you have put your soul
at the hands of those who do not know much..

losing your soul will cost time,
much longer than what it takes to calm
your eyes that have cried tears of oil



* These poems appeared in Fayadh's poetry collection Instructions Within which was published by the Beirut-based Dar al-Farabi in 2008 and later banned from distribution in Saudi Arabia.

Translated by: Mona Kareem

INTACOM NIGERIA FIGHTS SLAVERY IN ONITSHA O’star Eze, Nnewi

The business heartland of Anambra state, Onitsha, was set ablaze with the fire of sensitization against human trafficking recently. This came as a result of the Integrated Anti-Human Trafficking and Community Development Initiative,INTACOM Africa, Roadwork and Sensitization program that held at the heart of the metropolis in the wee hours of Monday, December 14, 2015.

The 30-man team led by Okoye Hope Nkiruka, the founder and Executive Director of the NGO, and made up of Volunteers, Human Trafficking Survivors, and media people marched through the streets of the Onitsha suburb sharing stickers and handbills and messages of warning and admonition against human trafficking to the people. Then, at the venue of the interdenominational fellowship of the market, Okoye Hope addressed the traders who had converged for their usual morning prayers.

Explaining the event during interaction with the press, Mrs Okoye explained that the program was a grass-root awareness campaign that was funded by the European Union under the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime,– UNODC NAPTIP grant component two. She disclosed that she has partnered with the leadership of Onitsha Main Market as a community to create awareness and sensitize the people on issues of human trafficking and smuggling of migrant and illegal migration.

Speaking further on the reason for the program, the INTACOM boss said that a study UNODC carried out in 2012, together with the report coming from immigration and some of the survivors the organization has identified in the course of their work in Anambra state has revealed that Anambra state is a human traffickingendemic community. This, she said, made it expedient for them to create this awareness with prevention as their objective.

The t-shirt worn by the sensitization team read ‘I am priceless’ and explaining the intent, Hope Okoye said that it was to reverse the mindset of the people from seeing fellow humans as commodities that can be traded upon. She likened the practice to the slave trade of yester-years calling it modern day slavery where people, out of ignorance, give up themselves for people to enslave them. “That is why we are here today to make people realize that there is no gold for them to pick on the streets of foreign countries. Instead of them selling off what they have, borrowing money trying to leave this country with the hope of greener pasture, it is better for them to use that money to get themselves established here. There are a lot of unharnessed opportunities in this nation,” she said

Okoye Hope Nkiruka also enjoined the Nigerian government to be more responsive to the people and make the environment more conducive for the people so they would not have reasons to be leaving the country en masse.Speaking, she said, “We are losing our young men and women in their thousands in the desert and theMediterean Sea, because they want to get to Europe by all means. If they are not able to get visa, you will see people posing as agents,who are really traffickers, taking advantage of their vulnerability to use them as a commodity.”

On how the organization takes care of the victims, the INTACOM boss said that the organization through the aid of their partners recover and rehabilitate victims who are thenknown as survivors and some of them join her as volunteers in the sensitization campaign.

Narrating, she said, “One of our comrades, Osita Osameme who is a graduate in the University of Benin was selling fairly used vehicles in Nigeria. He sold up everything on his way to Spain. But he ended up drinking women’s urine just to survive the drought in the Sahara desert. When they told him to pay 1,200 dollars to enter a small boat which he called lampa lampa used for fishing in his hometown, he said it was suicide to use such a tiny boat to cross the Meditterean sea and that was how he stopped short on his track and started retracing his steps back home. Today he joins us in the crusade.”

Hope informed that they also let people understand that when some of these people come back empty handed, it does not mean that they were not smart enough over there.In her words, “Imagine finding yourself in a country where you do not even understand their language and there is no country that doesn’t have its own share of unemployment. Go to the U.S,Morocco, Greece; you see the problems they are going through. It is shame and fear of stigmatization that keeps some of our people over there from coming back.”

She narrated the account of another survivor who drank women’s urine for six days and lost a toe while trying to cross the Spanish enclave (a fence of barbed wire). The survivor almost drowned while crossing the sea save for his life jacket that held him up till coast guards saved him and detained him for some time before he wasdeported back to Nigeria.According to her, he said that out of the 9 months he spent away from Nigeria, he begged on the streets ofMorocco for five months, a feat they christened ‘hustling’. The lady announced that the man in question, despite encountering stigmatization when he got back, was helped by their partners to go back to College.

One of the survivors, Pastor Elvis Okolie, who said he came back to Nigeria as a semi lunatic narrated his ordeal as a victim of human trafficking in the desert to everyone ready to listen. In his words, “On one occasion, our vehicle broke down in the desert and we were asked to push it. We did and as the vehicle engine started, those desert guides drove off leaving about 38 of us behind in the middle of the desert to die.”

He said that it was a miracle he survived being the only surviving of the trio that left together on the journey. Elvis Okolie also alleged that there are cases where some of these so-called travel agentscoerce people into going with them on the trip with the promise of greener pasture only to kidnap these victims, keep under torture and blackmail the victim’s people to send ransom money before they are released.

“They lock our girls in a room and force them to have sex with several men in order to make money. In a day, 50 people will have sex with one girl. They cue up for the marathon on the girl and these men collect the money. If the girl is resistant, they spread eagle her against the bed and tie their hands and feet,” he narrated. He termed it a very terrible experience and enjoined all to know that there is no money on the streets of abroad. “Here is better than there.”

Reverend father Patrick Aniere based in Rome, a missionary priest and agriculturist said he has been out of the country and in different parts of the world and eighty percent of Nigeria regretted leaving Nigeria. In his words, ‘you discover that Nigeria is such a great country only when you leave the shores of Nigeria.’ The priest fingered poor economy as the cause of the mass exodus of Nigerian youths.

He however quickly added that the problem of unemployment and economic crunch is a global one. Father Patrick then observed how a lot of Nigerians are lured into drug trafficking as a result of the hardship overseas and that is what ends them up in prisons.

FROM NNEWI, NIGERIA’S ENTREPRENEURIAL MELTING POT – the inspiring story of CHIDI EJESI – KINGSTECH COMMUNICATIONS’ YOUNG CEO - O’star Eze, Nnewi

Chidi Ejesi is from Aguluzigbo in Anaocha Local Government Anambra state. Born in November 1, 1986, he had his primary and secondary school education in Aguluzigbo, Further Hope Nursery/Primary and Secondary School, Aguluzigbo. Then he went up Federal Science and Technical college, Awka where he concluded his basic secondary education.Then he got admission at Federal University of Technology, Yola, to study Electrical Electronics Engineering. Right from when he was a kid, he had always had a knack for fixing electrical appliances and constructing things. This was what inspired the parents to channel his educational experience towards engineering.

Chidi Ejesi, though a

Chidi Ejesi
www.kingstechdevelopers.com

born engineer, also nursed an entrepreneurial heart and did not spend a second after youth service looking for white collar or blue collar job. Rather, he came down to Nnewi, the Nigeria’s entrepreneurial melting pot he enrolled himself on apprenticeship to learn GSM repairs for 9 months. This was because of the rave GSM as an electronic gadget gained in the country. He envisaged the high demand for GSM repairs would be sustained over time and therefore decided to invest his time and energy in acquiring the skills. Afterwards, given that the financial capital for starting his own GSM repair outlet was not readily available, he attached himself to his elder brother’s PHONE PARTS shop in NNEWI and started offering GSM repairs in a booth inside the shop as his brother sold GSM phone parts.

It took Chidi 3 years of toil to raise enough capital to set up his own shop, Kingstech Communications,Nnewi, where he repairs, ‘pimps’ as well as teaches other young people how to repair and pimp up GSM phones GSM phones, tablets and laptops as well as selling of phones and phone accessories. According to Chidi, GSM repairs should be a part of Electronics Engineering but sadly, it is yet to be taught in formal institutions of learning, irrespective of the fact that the knowledge empowers immensely.

Ejesi observes with dismay that GSM phone engineering is yet to be taken seriously by the educational policy makers who are yet to make it part of school curriculum and yet they pay lip service to achieving functional education in the country.‘When I started GSM phone repairs, I had practically nothing and knew nobody, but as time went on, I started gaining popularity and financial stability, all thanks to GSM repairs. When you do a good job for people, they will pay you. As long as you know what you are doing in GSM repairs, you will definitely make money.’

Chidi Ejesi also observes that a lot of young people don’t give themselves to proper training before setting up shop as GSM phone repairers and they end up spoiling people’s phones. He therefore advised that people give themselves to proper training under the auspices of a widely acclaimed phone repairer.

From his experience, Chidi gleans that big things start small and most big phone companies started as small GSM repair outfits. His own firm, Kingstech Communications is a case in point which has in two years become an employer of labour with 7 people on his payroll and 23 GSM phone graduates to his credit and 6 trainees. He proudly pointed out that the he has kept tabs with his graduates and they are doing well for themselves.

Social skills and entrepreneurship:Kingstech Communications CEO identifies, from personal experience, that an entrepreneur needs to acquire and exhibit certain social skills if he wants to be successful. The primary skill is sincerity, he says. Without sincerity, you cannot retain customers. Most of the people that started repairing phones with me have gone bankrupt today, Mr Ejesi intimated. This is simply because they were not sincere with their customers.When people give such personsphones to repair, instead of doing the job or referring them to someone that can help them, if they cannot do the repair, they would swindle the individual, or even steal some parts from the customer’s device. When customers find out they have been swindled, they stop coming.

Another social skill Chidi considers as one of his cutting edges in his field is calm disposition towards customers. "There are bound to be disgruntled customers who would want start making a scene over one issue or the other. You don’t need to shout back at the customer. What I do is to stay calm and take time to explain the situation for the customer. This has continually paid off well as I have made long term business pals using this attitude.Such customers still go ahead to refer other people to me because they are happy with my attitude towards them."

According to this young entrepreneur, he invested more in acquiring the right working tools when he started earlier. He also made it a point of duty to network with other GSM repairers from far and near. These were the two steps that have kept him on top of his game.