NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA MAKES WORLD 100 MOST POWERFUL WOMEN

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s finance minister also makes the power list. The 58 year old Harvard-educated finance minister, who has spent one year in office after a failed bid for the World Bank presidency, moves down from the 81st position to the 83rd.

Joyce Banda, President of Malawi is up from the 71st position to the 47th and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia also makes the list. She is at the 87th position, down 5 from last year.

MEET NIGERIA AND WEST AFRICA FIRST FEMALE MILITARY PILOT

 

Blessing Liman was commissioned as a Combat Flying Officer alongside 126 others who finished the Direct Short Service Course 2010/2011 Cadets of the 325 Ground Training Group at the Nigerian Air Force Base, Kaduna.

Present at the winging ceremony (badge decoration) was the then Chief of Air Staff, Air-Vice Marshal Mohammad Dikko Umar who described her training as a ‘very laudable achievement‘.

She was quite excited and proud to have made history and said: “It is very uplifting and I feel very proud of myself though it has been very challenging. Coming from the civil war and the civil mentality, the Air Force has done a great job because it has changed our orientation. I believe that all females have equal opportunity to dignify their rights in whatever adventure they choose they can do.”

As a first female pilot I would want to make a mark that would encourage other females to join the military because I believe that all females have equal opportunity to exercise their rights in whatever they choose to do, I believe that all female Nigerians who choose to become pilots can do it since I have done it.

This is a remarkable achievement, one that should drive our ladies to know and see themselves as been able to achieve the impossible and break the so called glass ceiling in any sphere you find yourself.

Blessing Liman was born 29 years ago and is an indigene of Zangon Kataf Local Government Area. She later attended the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, Kaduna State. She was of the SP-24A set of pilots and they were referred to as the Knights of the Air.

ARE YOU SLEEPING AWAY YOUR LIFE?

On the average, most of us will spend TWENTY FOUR YEARS of our lives SLEEPING!

Whoa! I found that a hard pill to swallow so I did the math. If you are one of the believers in the magical powers of sleeping 8 hours a day (which represents 1/3 of your allotted 24 hours), in a week you’ll be sleeping 56 hours, in a month you’ll be looking at 224 hours and in a year, you’d be clocking in 2920 hours of sleep. Multiply it by the at least 70 years you’re hoping to live and you got yourself 204400 hours. Do the necessary long division and you have yourself 23. 39 years (and you didn’t add the extra hours you snuck in as a baby and all the extra snoozing time when you’re at retirement age). Wow. If you were earning a minimum wage of £6.19 (or the US minimum of $7.25) for every hour you’d have slept, you’d have earned £18,074.80 ($21,170.00) a year and £1,265,236 ($1,481,900.00) in 70!

Name	Job	Hours of Sleep	Note
Marissa Mayer	Yahoo CEO	4-6	Worked as many as 130 hours some weeks while at Google, recharging by taking week long vacations every four months
Jack Dorsey	Twitter founder and Square CEO	4-6
Donald Trump	Chairman of The Trump Organization	3-4	Quoted in The Daily News:”How does somebody that’s sleeping 12 and 14 hours a day compete with someone that’s sleeping three or four?”
Kelly Ripa	Host of “Live! with Kelly and Michael”	Usually sleeps between midnight and 1 a.m. and wakes up at 6:15 a.m.	Ripa also has three kids and a production company she owns with her husband Mark Consuelos.
Bill Clinton	Former U.S. President	4 -6 hours a night throughout his presidency.	A professor at Georgetown told him great men require less sleep.
Tom Ford	Fashion designer and director	3 hours	He does not attribute this success to talent, but says it’s due to his energy.
Indra Nooyi	Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo	4 hours
Martha Stewart	Chair of Martha Stewart Omnimedia	4 hours	Her company produces four magazines, Martha Stewart Living, Everyday Food, Weddings, and Whole   Living. She additionally has a TV show, radio show and product lines in stores

You snooze you lose 
Donald Trump is credited with saying: "I sleep very little, 3 or 4 hours a night. And that’s what I need. And I have friends that need 12 hours sleep. I say, 12 hours? What are you going to do? So how does somebody that’s sleeping 12 and 14 hours a day compete with somebody that’s sleeping 3 or 4? It doesn’t work that way".

Tell me about it. I realized that each moment I spent sleeping unnecessarily someone else was out there getting ahead, becoming better and gaining the advantage. Here’s something from the New Living Translation of the Bible: A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber. (Proverbs 23:33-34)

Time is money and I became obsessed with shaking every penny from every second and used to go all crazy and try to strangle sleep. Once, I went from Thursday morning to Saturday afternoon without proper sleep, shuttling from work in the morning, straight to class around 5pm, to the house to shower by 6am and off to work again. 48 hour stints were common. For a long time, I never even really shut down…just hibernated, with my laptop next to me. People became worried and I got lots of lectures about how I was hurting myself and how it was not necessary to push so hard. Just to be sure I wasn’t digging an early grave, I did some quick research.

Less is More 
How many hours of sleep can I live on? I did a quick check to see if there’s any documentation for how many hours of sleep successful people get, and to my pleasant surprise, I found a couple of sites. Here’s the info on a few of the people I found:

Evan Williams, the founded Blogger (he sold it to Google for millions and then went ahead to start Twitter) has a reputation of regularly working 12-14 hour days; Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg is also known for working long hours and occasionally sleeping at his desk. Decades earlier, Microsoft’s Bill Gates was known for his incredible work ethic too.

How many hours of sleep do you get?
Wake Up! I have cut down on the madness now. Instead I have developed an understanding with my body. No more fighting sleep with Redbull binges and swallowing caffeine tablets like a druggie. Now I listen to my body. Still push it, but when it can take no more, I give in to her (yes, I have decided she’s female so I can treat her right…I am a gentleman). I have learnt the power of ‘power naps’ (20 minute stints) to drive up energy at the lowest points of the day. I like getting up early and depending on the intensity of work, get up between 1 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. and try as much as possible to get between 3-5 hours every day.

Like Aristotle said: Don’t sleep too much. If you sleep 3 hours less each night for a year, you will have an extra month and a half to succeed in. Key thing though isn’t just staying awake. It is what you do with that time. However, though we all have 24 hours in a day to succeed in, but taking Aristotle’s advice I get more time than most of you and even if we were doing the same things - I am at an advantage.

NIGERIANS INCREASINGLY EMBRACING FINEST WINES, HEALTHY FOOD, SLEEK FASHION AND FAST CARS

It is generally agreed that Nigeria offers investment potential for companies looking to capitalize off the population’s increased consumer spending power.

With the Nigerian middle class growing and favouring supermarkets, the country is becoming a destination for retailers, many of which are South African. In addition, research by Euromonitor indicates that South African retailers are starting to target cities beyond Lagos and Abuja. Massmart, Woolworths and Shoprite all recently opened stores in the south-eastern city of Enugu, while Massmart and Shoprite have plans to open outlets in the northern city of Kano this year. Euromonitor’s data suggests that Nigeria’s fastest growing major cities between 2010 and 2030 will be Ibadan, Maiduguri and Kano respectively.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Developing a taste for wine

Another trend is that Nigerians are increasingly moving towards wine consumption. According to Euromonitor, wine consumption in Nigeria rose from 18.8 million litres in 2006 to 44.3 million litres during 2011 and is expected to rise by a further 80.4%, to 79.9 million litres, by 2016.”

Movement towards healthy eating

Nigerian consumers are also becoming more concerned with healthy eating. “A survey of 700 consumers conducted by newspaper Business Day Nigeria during October 2012 found that while price was still crucial to the Nigerian consumer, health considerations were becoming more important,” says Euromonitor. “Fifty per cent of respondents said that they read the labels of packaged food and beverage products before purchasing them. Thirty-nine per cent said that they would like to see more nutritional information, including calorie counts, on restaurant menus.”

Fashion Conscious

Nigeria also has a budding local fashion industry and the Lagos Fashion& Design Week in October 2012 attracted European companies, such as Selfridges and German online retailer MyTheresa.com. Bruno Barba, PR manager at Selfridges, said, “Nigerians are among our highest-spending foreign customers.”


Fast Cars

German carmaker Porsche made a grand entry to the Nigerian market last year and has been embraced by the local folks. An estimated 200 Nigerians owned Porsches when the firm opened its Lagos but that number has increased appreciably. Euromonitor has it that “0.4% of Nigerian households had an annual disposable income of more than US$100,000 (at purchasing power parity) during 2011”. Nigeria already has dealerships specializing in Aston Martin and Lamborghini.

THE MAN BEHIND NIGERIA'S ANSWER TO THE iPAD

 Saheed Adepoju is a Nigerian inventor and co-developer of a tablet (touchpad) called INYE which means "One" in Igala language. He holds a degree in Maths and Computer Science from the Federal University of Technology, Minna (Nigeria, 2005) and an Advanced Computing degree from Bournemouth University (UK, 2008).

He is the founder the technology firm called Encipher Group that commercializes the tablet with Anibe Agamah his long time friend. They started being attracted by computers and the like when they were still teenagers.

The INYE tablet costs between N45, 000 to N60, 000 as opposed to around N120,000 for an iPad. Yet, it is Apple's Ipad that inspired the Encipher INYE tablet which price is probably the strongest point, especially if the firm wants to penetrate the Nigerian market and other areas of the African continent.

Inye-1 was unveiled to the public in April 2010, while in Inye-2 was unveiled in May 2011. Here are some of the characteristics of the tablet.

Another product that the firm is working on is Encipher TV which is a box that will enable people to watch TV, movies, etc. Just like the Ipad, the Cardiopad or the Way-C, the INYE tablet is manufactured (assembled) in China, but conceived in Nigeria.

NIGERIAN MOVIE STAR OMOTOLA JALADE-EKEINDE MAKES TIME 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD LIST

Nigerian Screen goddess and Queen of Nollywood Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde has been named as an Icon on Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World list for 2013.

This year's list categorized the personalities into five groups - Titans, Pioneers, Leaders, Icons and Artists. Omotola was named in the ICONS category which also has renowned personalities such as Beyoncé, Mario Balotelli, Kate Middleton, and Michelle Obama in a list released by TIME magazine earlier this month.

Speaking in an interview with UK based Zoomin TV at the 2013 TIME 100 Gala at the Frederick P. Rose Hall Home of Jazz, at Lincoln Center in New York on Tuesday, April 23 2013, the award winning actress said the nomination means everything to her.
 

NIGERIANS SHINE AT THE 2013 L'OREAL WOMEN IN SCIENCE AWARDS

Francisca Okeke, a Professor of Physics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka has recently received the L’Oreal/UNESCO for Women in Science Award for her contribution to the understanding of “daily variations of the ion currents in the upper atmosphere which may further our understanding of climate change.”

UNESCO says Professor Okeke has made the study of the ionosphere her lifetime work and her research could lead to a better understanding of climate change and help pinpoint sources of dramatic phenomena like tsunamis and earthquakes. The ionosphere lies between 50km and 1000kms above the earth surface.

NIGERIAN GRADUATE STUDENT CREATES APP TO TRACK AND PREDICT POWER OUTAGES

Chidube Ezeozue, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduate student has devoted his time to help alleviate the frustrations witnessed by Nigerians over the epileptic power condition in the country. Rather than complain endlessly about the situation this brave man has decided to take the challenge squarely.

Since his admission to MIT in 2011, Ezeozue — who received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nigeria in 2008, followed by three years of work at a software startup — has created an app, with his brother, that crowd sources information about power outages in Nigeria. With the app, called NepaSituation, people living in Nigeria can report outages. This data, when merged into an algorithm developed by Ezeozue, can help Nigerians predict when power outages may strike their neighborhoods, and how long those outages might last.

According to the MIT journal "with the app, called NepaSituation, people living in Nigeria can report outages. This data, when merged into an algorithm developed by Ezeozue, can help Nigerians predict when power outages may strike their neighborhoods, and how long those outages might last".
 

NIGERIAN SUPERMODEL OLUCHI ONWEAGBA-ORLANDI BRINGS “NEXT TOP MODEL” TO AFRICA

CBS Studios International has announced that the African format rights for the hit reality TV show America’s Next Top Model’ had been given to Nigerian supermodel Oluchi’s production company, LuLu Productions.

According to Worldscreen, It is reported that the Reality show competition series is slated to hit screens this year and air pan-regionally in Africa on the M-NET Africa Magic channels. The show will be shot primarily on location in South Africa, with Oluchi Orlandi serving as the show’s host and Executive Producer.

 

TEN YEAR-OLD SEYI OJO ANJOLAOLUWA EMERGES AS NIGERIA'S YOUNGEST MICROSOFT CERTIFIED PROFESSIONAL

Seyi Ojo Anjolaoluwa, a 10-year-old student of Valencia College, Ibadan, Oyo State, has recently emerged as the Youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in Nigeria. He sat for the MCIP test on 24th July 2012, three days after he turned 10, scoring 869 out of possible 1,000. Due to his performance, he was adjudged by Microsoft as a Certified Professional in Microsoft Windows XP (Administration Management and Configuration, Exam 70 – 270).

Five other students of Valencia College, Ibadan namely: Adeyinka Oreoluwa, Odunsi Nicholas, Ajao Blessing, Ololade Toluwanimi and Agbele Oluwaloniope also sat for and passed the certification examination.

Microsoft Certified Professional is an internationally recognized certification programme provided by Microsoft Corporation. The certification is tailored towards building skills on Microsoft business solutions, focusing on client-end operating systems such as windows XP, Vista, Windows7 among others.

Speaking to the media, Seyi disclosed that his aspiration is to become a Medical Doctor rather than pursue a career in information technology. According to him, his mission in life is to make his school and country proud.

Seyi is only one of the youngest people in the world to attain this feat and is truly an inspiration to many children out there.