Entries Tagged 'Media' ↓

It seems that the rumor published by AFP (Agence France Presse), quoting NAN (News Agency of Nigeria), mirrored by Channels TV, that President Yar’Adua plans to resign after changing his cabinet weekend, is false.

The axe has fallen.  The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has revoked the operating license of Channels TV and the station is off the air.  The State Security Service (SSS) has arrested principal officials and the station is under lock and key.

Here we are “back to where we were before”.  No difference it seems being under a supposed democracy.  Back to the days of the Khaki boys before whom we all tremble.

Anyhow, I see the rush to closures and arrests more as a confirmation that resignation was indeed in the air.  It was already rumored more than two weeks ago, when the president returned from his medical hajj, but reports were that he was dissuaded from resigning by his northern brothers who were afraid that the north did not yet have a backup plan.

I rather think that Channels was closed down by the president’s boys in order to force the president’s hand.  Now that the NBC has publicly intervened to close down a TV station, the president (who I believe would like to resign) cannot now turn back and say, “Oh, my boys were wrong, Channels was right.  I was going to resign”.  The poor sick man will now be forced to stay on in power…

So the virus is spreading…

The website of Punch dubbed the “most widely read Nigerian newspaper” has been hacked. This notice which you see on their site is keeping the real matter close to heart. I wish them quick recovery.

Temporary page

The situation is the same on both punchng dot com and punchontheweb dot com

Try ‘googling’ the above phrase and you’ll be amazed at the result.  No wonder, it happened to me too.  No, not this site.  You see, as part of my media communication job, I have clients for whom I have done websites.  While I outsource the actual programming, my brief is to ensure that the site ‘communicates’.

Two months ago, one of the sites belonging to a big client was hacked.  If you’ve never been hacked (actually you will be someday ), pray that you don’t.  Ha!  Easier said than done.  The feeling is creepy.  You feel an interior cold that has nothing to do with the ambient temperature.  In my case, the fellow sought to remind me of “Matrix” and he succeeded.  The screen boldly screamed “HACKED!” and words were falling down the screen in a ‘Matrix’-like form.  Boy, was I scared!  I was rooted to my seat and all I can remember muttering was: “What is this?”, “Impossible”, “This can’t be happening”… and so on.

My client did not find it funny. Continue reading →

Bold title. That is how the author of Purple Hibiscus prefers we deal with the topic. But she is mistaken in her take on how to depict sex in literature.

She is currently running a training workshop for aspiring Nigerian writers under the auspices of Fidelity Bank. One of the course participants took exception to the brazen way some authors treat a topic that should be sacred - human sexuality, averring that a writer should not throw decency to the wind in an attempt to please the readers. The participant Ejiro Edoki says that literature should be a “moral agent” helping to shape society for the better, and that it was therefore “indecent to openly depict sex and (such) experiences on the pages of a literary work”.

Hear Ms. Adichie’s retort: Continue reading →

If you’re reading this and you’re surprised, you must know that I’m in big trouble.  Forget all that talk of Version 2.0.  It’s big ‘grammer’ to disguise that I’m up sh*t creek without an oar!Something happened to my blog and I’m presently in the rubbish bin trying to dig out the dregs.  I did make a backup though but quite another thing it is to restore it.

Hang in there with me please…

[update] After trying in vain to restore the site, I am left with no choice but to re-post all old stuff.  I don’t imagine myself ever feeling ‘creative’ so instead of building up this blog from scratch, I will do just that: re-post.