NIGERIAN UNDERGRADUATE CREATES VERNACULAR BIBLE APPLICATION FOR SMARTPHONES

A 25-year-old Nigerian undergraduate, Kayode Sowole has introduced smartphone apps with Bible available in four languages: Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and even pidgin English. Sowole, a student of computer science at the University of Lagos, gave Nigerian smartphone users the opportunity to study the bible in their preferred language, just by one touch of a button.

According to him, with this innovation, you do not need the Internet to read the Bible. Neither do you need to bring a Bible to church. You have it in the local language of your choice on your phone. The download is currently available in four languages. While Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa app versions contain both the Old and New Testament, the pidgin version has only the New Testament.


The app development was reportedly completed last October. The inventor confessed that he got his inspiration from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, whom he calls his hero. Sowole received a million naira prize for his app at the competition launched by MTN provider, however he doesn’t seem to focus on the commercial aspect and profitability of the project now. One can download the app for free at wazobiabible.com.


According to the student, he took part in the contest to popularize his app and his skills, which yielded the expected results. Not spoilt by the fame Sowole is already working on some other app ideas applicable for the Nigerian market. “I believe I have not really achieved much. I believe we can have another Bill Gates and other IT giants among the Nigerian youths. I can be one.”

YOU COULD BE HAPPY EVER AFTER

As human beings we are often times sub-consciously selective and prefer to fall in love based on certain physical or material attribute that our object of affection possesses. If she is fresh with a firm tummy, standing breast, hour glass figure and straight legs, then she has to be the ONE or if he has six packs, looks dapper, drives a custom made car and lives in Banana Island, then he is the ONLY ONE for you; otherwise he or she can keep their love for someone else.

Everyone has some level of expectation from the person they hope to fall in love with. We all desire that special person that will show us another world we never knew existed. That one person that comes to mind whenever you listen to John Legend’s ‘All of Me’ and when it rains or snows, we always wish we were wrapped in their arms.

Setting your sights on a Drop Dead Diva or an Omo Baba Olowo is not entirely a bad idea if you ask me. An average woman should be able to appear elegant and attractive and any man going into a serious relationship should be able to support his partner. However, there is no guarantee that ending up with a very beautiful woman or a moneyed man is your one way ticket to everlasting happiness. No amount of good looks or riches can make up for all the years of emotional and physical abuse that lies ahead of you if things turn awry. Factors such as beauty or wealth in which many love relationships are built on these days, can sink within a short time. This is because these factors are mostly tailored for flings or trips and not for long lasting relationships or marriage.

Occasionally, we find that relationships these days crash even before they start flying simply because they were built on deception from the inception. True happiness in a relationship cannot be completely determined by the size of a man’s wallet or the size of a woman’s hips. Every object of our affection should be judged by whom he or she is and not entirely by their physical or material attribute. And let it never be said that we have forgotten the most fundamental objective of love which is happiness.

When you eventually fall in love, make sure his bank account or her physical endowment is not the only thing that attracts you. One of the most important reasons we often choose to fall in love is to attain a state of unimaginable joy. So we are constantly in the lookout for this wonderful person and when we find them we try to keep it in a permanent state. To find someone who makes us happy is one thing and to keep them is another thing.

We fall in love, expecting it will work itself out but it doesn’t always work out that way. Often we are faced with situations that will try to take away our happiness. Sometimes we are not well prepared or strong enough to hold on, often times we find more happiness in the arms of someone else, other times we just let the happiness go because we think that we do not deserve to be that happy and in exceptional cases we give up our happiness on the altar of ethnicity or religion.

I have felt what true love and happiness can be like and I advise that you hold onto what feels true to you. What is most important is that when the storms rage and all you have left is each other that your partner is someone you can trust absolutely. Someone that will not let go off your hand when the waves come to test the steadfastness of your love.

DEAR MR PRESIDENT, ITS TIME TO TAKE ACTION

Dear Mr. President, I must admit I am finding it difficult trying to find a good reason to write you at this critical time. But then I think it would benefit both of us if you attempt to listen to what am about to say in the course of this conversation. Remember this is between me and you.

Dear Mr. President, I am running out of patience and someday I might be forced to ask for your Patience. I hear she is the mother of the peace we have all been searching for. Has ‘Mama Peace’ heard of all the atrocities committed against ‘her children’? What kind of mother would watch whilst her children are living in fear without an attempt to put up a fight or has her strength failed her again? I want to believe she has no idea of what is going on.

Dear Mr. President, I have tried to picture you as you might have been as a young boy without shoes playing on the lonely streets of Otuoke. Did you live in so much fear and terror like my brother Mohammed in Damboa? Are you asking me why he can no longer play football with his classmates just like you did? Have you not heard that his best friend Abdullahi was hacked to death in cold blood while he slept in his hostel? Mr. President what kind of a man do you expect him to become if he survives the next slaughtering, the next suicide bomb attack and the next abduction.

Dear Mr. President, did you even hear they have taken our daughters again. I heard they took them in their hundreds while they were asleep. As a father your Excellency, I am sure you felt so much joy when you gave out your daughter in marriage sometime ago. But these little girls are your daughters too, or are they not? Do you say you do not have an idea what they are going through at the moment? If you don't bring them back now, the enemy will come for more and more. And when they take all our daughters, what will happen to our sons?

Dear Mr. President, I have heard that many years ago you were a fairly honourable and learned man, until you went to politics. You wined and dined with hypocrites who tell you to keep climbing that you will not fall. Mr. President, do you realize you are going down in history as the worst leader this country has ever had? Yet they keep clapping for you while they feed fat from your misery.

Dear Mr. President, I do not think too much of 2015. Do you expect me to vote for you? Does it matter if I vote when you have surrounded yourself with ‘do or die’ cronies? Mr. President, between me and you, what can you say you are coming back for? The last time you came, you promised us fresh air but each time we try to breathe, they blow us away. No matter the amount of promises you make, we will never believe you until we see a transformation. And time is not your friend your Excellency.

Dear Mr. President, you and your gang of media commandos can put up propaganda of how the insurgency in the country is all politically motivated but since you know the problem, kindly find a solution. You can say you are doing your best but I see nothing but more dead bodies. Tell me Mr. President who do you hold responsible for all these carnage. Just tell me one person who you think should take the blame for all these unwanton loss of innocent citizens under your watch if not you. What do you feel when you see all the lifeless bodies on the street?

Dear Mr. President, I can tell you are extremely saddened by all these unfortunate incidents, like you were when those helpless kids were killed in their sleep and the bomb blast before that and also now that our daughters have been abducted. But how long are we going to keep looking at your sad face? Mr. President, how many more will be gone before you at least know what to do?

Dear Mr. President, how do you sleep at night while most of us live with so much fear? Does it help that you live in a fortress that is fortified enough to withstand any terrorist attack? What do you feel when you look from your castle and see your people crying in the streets because they don't know who would be the next victim. I hear that they are heading down south to your kinsmen but if the rumours were true would that bother you at all? The least you can do is give us some hope that our lives will be safe tomorrow.

Dear Mr. President, what makes you the commander-in-chief and not the commander-in-speech is the single fact that your action should speak louder than your words. If all you do is sit there and make heartfelt speeches to the families of the deceased, do you not think that the enemy would see you more as a weak General. Mr. President, it is time to take action.

Dear Mr. President, Am sorry I did not introduce myself properly but I know you know me now. I am that concerned Nigerian who is not happy with the state of affairs in this country. I have a lot more to say but that would be when I can look you in the eyes.

Thank you, Mr. President for your time. I hope you found this conversation useful. And also that you realize the importance of the things that we spoke about. God bless you Mr. President.

NIGERIA BECOMES AFRICA'S BIGGEST ECONOMY

Nigeria has overtaken South Africa as Africa's largest economy after the government announced a long-overdue rebasing of the country's gross domestic product.

The new figures were announced by officials of the Nigerian Bureau of statistics on Sunday. The new calculations took into account some new sectors like telecoms, information technology, and entertainment industries that were negligible or non-existent in 1990. The Nigerian telecommunications sector is clearly the largest in Africa and the film industry alone is now worth 853.9 billion Naira ($5.1 billion) or 1.2 percent of GDP.

According the Finance Ministry, it is a clear indication that the economy was becoming more driven by the service sector. It indicates a clearer picture of Nigeria’s economic landscape, and the significant opportunity for growth and wealth creation in the Nigerian economy.

Nigeria's GDP for 2013 totaled 80.3 trillion naira, which almost doubled its gross domestic product to more than $500bn. Nigeria has been emerging as an investment destination owing to the size of its consumer market and growing capital markets.

The new GDP also moves Nigeria 11 places up to number 26 in the world ahead of countries like Austria with $394.7 billion; Venezuela with $381.26 billion as well as Columbia, Thailand, Denmark, Malaysia and Singapore among others which has $369.6 billion, $$365.96 billion, $$314.88 billion, $274.7 billion and $269.86 billion respectively.

However, Nigeria still faces an immense challenge in terms of infrastructure deficits. Slow ports, bad roads and a lack of electricity are some of the major factors hampering business activity.

UNTIL TWERKING DO US APART

When someone accepts to be friends with you, it is a privilege that they are conferring on you. In the same way, when you allow people into your life, they also have to consider your friendship a privilege too. And both parties must not take this privilege for granted.

If for any reason these privileges are misplaced, the value you place on yourself or on your friend is questioned. It’s dangerous for either party to assume that they are too elegant, witty or successful for their friends. By undermining yourself so that you can fit into the same spectrum as your friends is gullible. What is the point of being in a friendship where you cannot be your real self? There are few things as rewarding as being in a relationship were both parties have mutual respect for each other.

Life has thought me that the most enduring pleasures on earth are the simple ones. It is in those euphoric conversations you have with a classmate you have not seen after graduation but whom you know will always remain a true friend. It is in sharing the passion of an absorbing game of football with your buddies even when you guys support opposing teams. It is in listening to tales of adventures during the Biafra War from grandma or helping the missus out in the kitchen while she prepares your favourite meal. It is in playing hide and seek with your little cousins during the holiday or in preparing your daughter for her first day in school.

The people we remember with the most fondness when their thoughts cross our minds are those with whom we have had these pleasurable moments. No matter how hard we try, we cannot forget them because the happiness they have given us is eternal. In a world that is full of challenges, they have managed to keep us afloat with these irreplaceable moments.

There are few things as wonderful as being able to find comfort away from the abrasiveness of this world and step into a place where we can be ourselves with little or no inhibitions. It is in moments like this that our stars shine brightly. However, moments like this can turn out to be the worst moments of our lives when we share it with the wrong people.

My undergraduate days were some of the best moments of my life. This was long before smart phones and twerking replaced common sense. My friends and I did so many wild and crazy things in college. Things I would rather not talk about now. Till this day, each time I remember our escapades conducted in good faith and brotherliness, it leaves a lasting smirk on my face.

A few days ago, a video of two friends having a private pleasurable moment went viral on social media. Let me start by saying that I do not encourage young people to always capture very sensitive moments on electronic devices. However, I must admit it sometimes hard to resist especially when they are being cheered on by a bandwagon of manipulative friends.

The presumed culprit in the incidence has tried making a case for herself which I find even more provoking because the fact remains her innocent friend's life has been turned upside down. And the annoying thing about this is that even if she manages to pick up the pieces of what remains of her dignity, there would always be a constant reminder on the internet of the moment she let her goods out.

What is in this for the rest of us who haven't made it this far scandal wise? Its perhaps simple. Never undermine your value by allowing someone else so much privilege all in the name of friendship. And never take anyone's friendship for granted, thus shattering pleasurable moments, relationships, dreams and self worth all at once.

Have a pleasurable and scandal free weekend people.