The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has lambasted governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha for participating in the merger talks that produced the All Progressives Congress (APC), it described his involvement in the alliance as ‘ridiculous and unfortunate’.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Friday, the party said Governor Okorocha acted alone because “APGA is not in the merger. We were never consulted by anybody before such statement of our involvement was issued.”

A member of APGA’s Board of Trustees (BoT) and former Minister of Health, Dr. Tim Menakaya, while addressing the media, said, “The merger of political parties, where the parties are expected to lose their identities, cannot be an ad-hoc arrangement or decision of one person,” adding, “We have nothing against the formation of any mega opposition party.”

Menekaya said that the decision to initiate such a discussion was vested in the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the merging parties “and shall be ratified by their national conventions and communicated to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) through a letter jointly signed by the national chairman, national secretary and the national treasurer of each of the merging parties.”

“The issue of merger with other political parties is not on the agenda of APGA for now. Our concern at the moment is to restructure, nurture and build a strong party capable of winning elections across the states of Nigeria.”

While calling on all party members and the general public to disregard the misleading inclusion, the party chieftain said: “of our party in the ongoing merger talks of opposition parties. It is not on the agenda of the party for now.”

Okorocha, who was elected on the platform of APGA, was at the 10 opposition governors’ who met in Lagos Tuesday to form the APC.

 

Nollywood producer, Charles Novia, who is notorious for his feisty utterances, has this time around taken a swipe at Nigerian radio and TV On-air-personalities.

Novia, whose autobiography is still causing ripples, declared that most of them are “fake-accented elephants”, but reserved praises for a few, who he said are representing the country well.

 

Excerpts:

 

Listening to some Nigerian radio stations can either leave one permanently befuddled or just plain angry all the time. The latter is what happens to me mostly, so I stopped listening to most radio stations for some time. The television stations are not any better. The cause of one’s linear anguish is not hard to find. Confusing accents of the presenters!

Yes, one cannot really tell if the presenters on radio and television [in Nigeria these days] are from Miami, Manchester or Mushin or if they are just a bunch of clueless upstarts mouthing words which seem to make them happy but leaves the listener with a terrible ‘earache’.

Tracing the history of radio and television presentation in Nigeria, who can ever forget the glorious days and diction of Soni Irabor, Jim Lawson Madueke, Bimbo Oloyede, Tony Abolo, Donald Everedjo, Sienne All-Well Brown, Ruth Benemesia Opia, Lola Alakija, John Momoh, Silver Oforgu and so many other articulate and fantastic presenters who shaped the entertainment industry with their style and panache of presentation?

What these names have in common is a clear and distinct presentation style with a pleasant-sounding smattering of perfect Queens English and intonations, mixed with the distinct mother-tongue of the personalities ( if you will) . These guys made millions of people shape up their articulation. We wanted to talk like them, to present like them, in the very clear and African-tinged intonations they had. We loved them and still do.

Being a former colony of Britain, it was only natural that our Spoken English as citizens of Nigeria, had to be a bit uppity and middle class even when many of us were of a lower rung in the society ladder. But that helped many people aspire to change their destinies in their chosen fields.

Sadly, in the mid-nineties, the sweeping American culture crept into our mainstream radio and things changed, albeit horribly. Before we knew it, the ‘Yo, Yo, Yo!’ presenters hit the airwaves. Sounding very American ( and most times Ghetto Americanese too) became the fad. So, the beautiful accents we have as Africans just disappeared with the ‘dash monkey banana’ borrowed accents.

Almost every Presenter came on air sounding like poor imitations of Hollywood Black Gangsters or rap artistes. These days, you just have to strain your ears to hear anything they say on air. Words like ‘alright’ has given way to ‘aight!’ and so many examples. It’s not so much the fake accents that pisses me off but the lack of a true identity by these presenters! Some are confused and don’t even know if the accent they speak with are American or British or just a horrible cacophony of both. All these ‘gonna, wanna, burra, berra’ Presenters! Una nor go kill person.

I have visited South Africa a few times and one of the things I like about their Presenters on radio and television is the NATURALNESS. The Black South African Presenters don’t attempt to hide their MOTHER-TONGUE accents with the English Language. In fact, it makes them so distinct and wonderful on air. I like Supersports Presenters on DSTV from SA like Thomas Mlambo and even the Ivorian Football Analyst ( can’t remember his name now). You feel so at ease with them.

You hear them. (I must also commend Charles Anazodo and Praise and the female presenter on Supersports Nigeria. They are superb in their presentation). And that is not to say that we don’t have presenters in Nigeria at present who are superb. We do have but they seem to be in a minority compared with the horde of fake-accented elephants who have assailed the Nigerian airwaves. Some of them have so perfected the art of ‘forming’ so well that they can’t even pronounce Nigerian names at all on air!’Okoro Feeling Funky’ jockeys! As Basket Mouth the comedian would say ,’Their Father!’

 



Controversial Nollywood actress, Cossy Orjiakor, has reacted angrily to an open letter published by a blogger, Ngozi Kanwiro, calling her “jobless” and “a low life”.

Kanwiro had written about the reckless and notorious lifestyle both Cossy and Tonto Dikeh live and the former didn’t take it likely on Twitter last night.

She tweeted: “What impact ve u made in ur community or nigeria as a country. Tonto and I have been able 2 draw attention to Nigeria internationally.

“We are simply not on d same social strata. Go and cook for ur husband and let those making an impact in d world be. Ur simply a nonentity.

“Stupidity at its heights..how can a low life igbo woman write a letter to me and tonto abt our supposed dirty lifestyle. SMH ur so jobless.”

Here is the open letter written by the blogger:

An Open Letter To Cossy Orjiakor and Tonto Dikeh & Appeal To Ohanaeze Ndigbo – By Ngozi Kanwiro
The unscrupulous lifestyles of Igbo NOLLYWOOD Actresses, Cossy Orjiakor and Tonto Dikeh are just becoming too unbearable.

This duo has ignorantly and intentionally refused to stop their no-longer interesting/entertaining lifestyles that are now tarnishing the image of the Igbo female group as a whole.

It is so disheartening how Cossy has continued to tarnish the image of our Igbo sisters through her dirty lifestyles that now give all Nigerians the impression that Igbo ladies are all prostitutes using their bodies to climb to the ladder of fame in all works of life, whereas in reality, it is not true, rather it is being practiced by few unscrupulous Igbo girls who have nothing else to offer to the Nigerian society aside exposing their God-given feminine physique in sexual-appealing manner to gain popularity, and by giving out their supposed holy-bodies to men (married and single) so long as he can pay the price.

Please Cossy and Tonto, Nigerians and most importantly, Ndigbo are no longer finding your ugly, dirty lifestyles funny, please you girls should turn a new leaf this new year and embrace God in your lives for your own good. You two maybe thinking that you are on top of the game, but you are only causing yourselves more harm than good, and if you ladies refuse to change for better, you will surely reap a negative fruit in future to come.

Finally, I am using this medium with other mediums to follow, to call on the Ohanaeze Ndigbo society to please write personally to Cossy Orjiakor and Tonto Dikeh to change their lifestyles as soon as possible, and if they fail or pay deaf ear, then the Ohanaeze Ndigbo should write to NOLLYWOOD, PMAN, Nigeria Censorship Agency, and every other entertainment industry in Nigeria through the major national dailies in Nigeria, to ban them from participating in Nigerian entertainment industries of any kind.

This is so sad because they are no longer entertaining Nigerians but rather teaching the upcoming Nigeria youths bad moral conducts.

Just see the unimaginable picture an African woman of Igbo origin posted publicly online in the name of entertaining her so-called fans. Yes, such rubbish can be done in the west, this is Africa, Nigeria and this also goes beyond to tarnishing the name of Igbo tribe. Spread this message as fast as you can.