QUEEN OF ENGLAND HONOURS FOUR NIGERIANS AT THE QYL AWARDS

The Queen of England today honoured four outstanding Nigerians at the inaugural Queens Young Leaders Awards event at the Buckingham Palace. An award that aims to honour exceptional young people aged 18-29 across the Commonwealth countries.

The four Nigerians who were honoured include Nkechikwu Azinge of the Sickle Cell Aid Foundation; Isaiah Owolabi, co-founder of HACEY Health Initiative; Kelvin Ogholi co-founder of UNFIRE and Oladipupo Ajiroba of The Environmental Advocacy and Management Initiative. They were among the 60 young people from 35 countries who were honoured by Queen Elizabeth II.

Winners of the prestigious award are expected to undergo training, mentoring and networking, including a one-week residential programme in association with Cambridge University. They will also be expected to continue and develop the amazing work they have already started.

NIGERIAN SCIENTIST WINS ANNUAL ST LOUIS AWARD FOR INVENTING CANCER-GOGGLES

Nigerian-born scientist, Dr. Samuel Achilefu, a professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering has won the prestigious St. Louis Award for 2014 for creating cancer-visualizing glasses. The award is given to a resident of the St. Louis area whose achievements reflect positively on the community.

Achilefu and his team developed the imaging technology in cancer diagnosis into a wearable night vision-like goggles so surgeons could see the cancer cells while operating. They began work in 2012 after they received $2.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Before then, they had been working on a lean budget provided by the Department of Defence’s Breast Cancer Research Program. After it was developed, the team spent years testing the technology on mice, rats, and rabbits to confirm the efficacy of the goggles.

MY VERY UNCOMMON FATHER

I really love my father and honestly I do. Not just because he ‎is my father but because of the kind of man that he is. I would still love my father even if it were not from his loins that I came from. The man is too good like that. My father is one in a million and I am not even trying to flatter him. Does he have his flaws? Of course he is imperfect but you can never fault his commitment to be the best husband, father, brother or uncle. 

If only about 1% of married men in the world have never cheated on their wives, I am proud to say my father is one of them. ‎I grew up knowing a man whose love for only his wife literally made other women green with envy. Sometimes I think his shyness was a catalyst to his faithfulness but then my father is handsome enough to attract women who would teach Potiphar's wife the act of seduction. So how was he able to stick to one woman all his life? The man is just awesome like that. 

MEET THE FIVE NIGERIANS UNDER THIRTY THAT MADE FORBES FUTURE BILLIONAIRE LIST

Here are the profile of the five Nigerian future billionaires who made the Forbes lists of Africa's 30 most promising young entrepreneurs under for 2015.

1. Affiong Williams [29] Founder, ReelFruit
ReelFruit, founded, in March, 2012 is an emerging fruit processing company focused on packaging and branding and processing of locally, and quality fruit products.The first product is a range of dried fruit snacks and nuts.

The products are currently stocked in over 80 stores in Nigeria. ReelFruit is an award-winning brand, winning both an international Women In Business Competition in the Netherlands, as well as an SME exhibition (Creative Focus Africa) in Lagos, Nigeria.

Williams is trying to expand her nut business into the lucrative airline market. She is raising capital to build a factory on the outskirts of Lagos next year. “I hope to be on the cover of Forbes Africa in five years’ time,” she says.

AYOKUNLE ADENIRAN INVENTS A PRESSING IRON THAT DOESN'T USE ELECTRICITY

Ayokunle Adeniran, a mechanical engineering Graduate from Covenant University may have solved a really big problem relevant to a country with power challenges such as Nigeria.

Adeniran has invented a pressing iron that does not run on electricity. Rather, it makes use of cooking (butane) gas cartridges which will retail for about N120 per canister. There are 6 canisters per cartridge; one cartridge is said to last for about 2 weeks’ worth of daily ironing, or 40 pieces of clothing.

As a student he did everything from building prototype cars to helping students repair gadgets and even designing and selling lecture notebooks to pay for his tuition and other educational requirements.

Adeniran currently works as an Engineer with a Queens, New York based firm. A working prototype of the nepaless iron does exist, albeit bulky, but it is yet to be mass produced.

THE SEXUAL COMMUINICATION GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS

Good sex depends on great communication. Sexual communication among couples is critical in order to achieve a positive sexual experience. Talking about sex during sex is good for sex. Hence, the focus of this post is to highlight the importance of communicating with your partner during sex and provide the necessary guidance for couples who probably find it perplexing.

YOU BELONG TO NOBODY: OVERCOMING THE ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari, during his recent inauguration made a rather audacious statement in his now popular "I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody" speech. Many political and social analysts have interpreted this phrase in so many ways to suit whatever idea they were trying to communicate to their audience. But the truth remains, only President Buhari himself can categorically explain what he truly meant.

Many have concluded that he made the statement to allay the fears of many Nigerians who believe the President would be working to the benefit of the political gladiators who were partially responsible for his victory at the polls. This opinion was strengthened on the premise that these political leaders wielded enough clout to influence the President. Personally, I think Muhammadu Buhari will always have a mind of his own.

MUFUTAU AKURUYEJO BECOMES THE FIRST AFRICAN TO RECEIVE CERN ICT TRAINING

Mufutau Akuruyejo, a 5th year Computer Engineering student of the University of Lagos student and MTN Foundation (MTNF) Scholar, has become the first African to participate in the coveted CERN Openlab summer programme.

CERN Openlab is a unique publi-private partnership between The European Organization for Nuclear Research and leading ICT companies like Oracle. The nine week programme will be held in Geneva, Switzerland.

The objective of the programme is to accelerate the development of cutting edge solutions to be used by the Worldwide LHC (Large Hardon Collider) community.

According to Alberto Di Meglio, Head of CERN Openlab, over 1500 applications were received from all over the world and students of the highest calibre were selected with Mufutau being the only African on the list.

Mufutau Akuruyejo is also a member of Shell Eco-Marathon team designing and building energy-efficient cars and an IEEE project to construct Intelligent Traffic Control Systems. He interned at Chevron Nigeria where he designed remote visualization screens and as well worked at various production facilities. His interests include Big-Data and Analytics, Machine-Learning, Modelling/Simulation and Embedded-Systems.

At CERN, he is on a Continuous Integration Project developing frameworks that enable the scheduling and automatizing of tests on databases before they go into production system using tools including Oracle Real Application Testing.

We wish all the best as he continues to make Nigeria proud.

APPLE ACQUIRES NIGERIAN CHINEDU ECHERUO'S HOPSTOP.COM FOR $1 BILLION

In its continuous attempts to match up to Google’s mapping abilities, Apple has bought Chinedu Echeruo’s HopStop.com for $1 billion. This development is seen as Apple’s move to bolster its mapping services offering especially given Google’s recent acquisition of Waze for $1 billion.

Chinedu Echeruo is a highly successful, serial entrepreneur grew up in Eastern Nigeria and attended Kings College, Lagos before proceeding to Syracuse University and the Harvard Business School in the United States. He worked for several years in the Mergers & Acquisitions and Leveraged Finance groups of J.P Morgan Chase where he was involved in a broad range of M&A, Financing and Private Equity transactions.

40 NIGERIANS SELECTED FOR MANDELA FELLOWSHIP FOR YOUNG AFRICAN LEADERS

The U.S. Embassy has selected 40 Nigerians to participate in the Mandela Washington Fellowship Program for Young African Leaders in 20 top U.S. universities, for a period of six weeks.

Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador James Entwistle, congratulated the beneficiaries on their selection. Entwistle explained that the 40 Nigerian fellows were selected amongst 7,000 Nigerian applicants and tens of thousands of others throughout Africa.