It's hard to stand out in the modeling industry. When you consider the vast majority of fashion shows, most of the models are tall, thin teenagers and twenty-somethings. It's in no way reflective of the real U.S. population, especially given that the average woman lives to be 84 years old.

This is what makes Yazemeenah Rossi so exceptional: She's a 60-year-old woman with a successful modeling career, and she can rock a swimsuit campaign just as well as (if not better than) Kendall Jenner.

After successful campaigns with the fashion label The Dreslyn and the lingerie brand Land of Women, the France native has been making headlines left and right. Upon meeting Rossi myself, I quickly understood why she's become so popular: She is just as magnetic in person as she is in her photos.

Rossi is tall and ethereal with striking white hair. "I kept my hair natural because I found it very beautiful, and I couldn't stand the idea of putting chemicals on my head," she explains. "I've always found it ridiculous to hide the truth, to 'fake' it."

If you're wondering how difficult the look is to maintain, Rossi says it's as easy as leaving your hair alone. "I never blow dry [my hair] and use very simple, natural products," she says. (She doesn't even go to a hairdresser - she simply trims her hair herself.)

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Three mothers of schoolgirls abducted from Chibok in northeast Nigeria two years ago said they had identified their daughters in a video released by Islamist group Boko Haram, the first possible sighting of the girls since a video in May 2014.

About 15 girls featured in the video released to local officials on Tuesday, saying they were from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok and pleading with the Nigerian government to cooperate with Boko Haram on their release.

The girls were filmed saying they were being treated well but wanted to go home and be with their families.

Boko Haram militants abducted 276 schoolgirls from Chibok on April 14, 2014, with 57 students managing to escape but 219 still missing despite a global campaign #bringbackourgirls involving celebrities and U.S. first lady, Michelle Obama.

Various false leads have raised hopes of finding the girls but their whereabouts remains unknown.

Mothers Rifkatu Ayuba and Mary Ishaya said they recognised their daughters, Saratu and Hauwa, in the video, while a third mother, Yana Galang, identified five of the missing girls. 

 “The girls were looking very, very well,” Mrs. Galang said in a telephone interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation after viewing the video at a screening organised by local officials in Maiduguri, capital of Borno State in northeast Nigeria.

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By Mohammed Lere

 

The day of reckoning is here. After walking free for about two years, former Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, and four others are now set to face trial for their roles in the shoddy March 15, 2014 immigration recruitment exercise that killed no fewer than 20 job seekers across the country.

 

After investigating the matter for five months, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has now slammed an 11- count charge bordering on obtaining by false pretence, procurement fraud and money laundering on Mr Moro; permanent secretary of the ministry at the time, Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia; a deputy director in the ministry, F. O Alayebami; one Mahmood Ahmadu(at large), and the contracting firm given the recruitment job, Drexel Tech Nigeria Ltd.

The defendants are accused of defrauding 676, 675,000 (Six Hundred and Seventy Six Thousand, Six Hundred and Seventy Five) Nigerian applicants of N676,675,000 (Six Hundred and Seventy Six Million, Six Hundred and Seventy Five Thousand Naira).

The applicants paid N1000 each through an e-payment platform for their online recruitment exercise into the Nigerian Immigration Service.

The accused are also alleged to have contravened the Public Procurement Act, No. 65 of 2007 in the contract awards by not following the necessary procedure laid down by the government.

 

The award of the contract to Drexel Tech Nig Ltd, the EFCC said. had no prior advertisement, no needs assessment and a procurement plan was not carried out before the contract was awarded.

The contract was awarded through selective tendering procedure by invitation of 4 (Four) firms without seeking the approval of the Bureau for Public Procurement, contrary to sections 40, 42 and 43 of the Public Procurement Act, No. 65 of 2007 and punishable under section 58 of the same act, the anti-graft agency said.

 

Drexel Tech Global Nigeria Limited, the company that provided the online enlistment and recruitment services is said to be unregistered and had no legal capacity to enter into the said contract.

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Following President Muhammadu Buhari’s comments in an interview granted to the UK’s Telegraph newspaper on February 5, many Nigerian have expressed dissatisfaction. The presidency has described the various interpretations of the President's comments as being misconstrued.

 

In a statement today by Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, noted that the wave of negative reactions to the President’s remarks about the reputation of Nigerians abroad was a result of incomplete understanding of President Buhari’s point.

“President Buhari was asked about the flood of migrants from Nigeria and the fraudulent applications for asylum put in by people desperate to leave their motherland at any cost, and it was this question that elicited his response,” he said.

 

Mr Shehu added that it was preposterous for anyone to imagine that the president of Nigeria would describe all the citizens of the country he leads as criminals, when he himself is a Nigerian–obviously not a criminal–and when there are many Nigerians of honest living making their country proud all over the world.

“Unfortunately, there are also Nigerians giving their country a bad image abroad, and it is to those Nigerians that the President referred in his comments,” he said, adding that people may play politics and online games with the President’s comments, but the fact of the matter remains that Nigeria’s reputation abroad has been severely damaged by her own citizens. To that, I agree 

 

Excerpts from the interview;

 

A number of Nigerians use the migrant routes to come to the UK to claim asylum, saying their lives are at risk from Boko Haram. Is is legitimate for them to do so?

"Some Nigerians claim is that life is too difficult back home, but then again some Nigerians have also made it difficult for Europeans and Americans to accept them because of the number of Nigerians in different prisons all over the world accused of drug trafficking or human trafficking. I don't think Nigerians have anybody to blame. They can remain at home. Their services are required to rebuild the country. If their countrymen misbehaved, the best thing for them is to stay at home and encourage the credibility of the nation."

Do you think that Nigerians have an image problem abroad?

"Certainly. But we are on our way to salvage that. We will encourage our countrymen to stay at home, work hard and make a respectable living at home."

 

For full text of President Muhammadu Buhari's Interview to the Telegraph Newspaper, Uk, CLICK HERE

 

Fathe Ejike Mbaka who was recently transfered to a  new post at the Our Lady Parish, Emene has described his ‎re-posting by the church as a “calculated move” to make him suffer.

 

The controversial priest said  "I know we are going to suffer within now and few months to come,” the priest said. I am going to suffer and suffer; I know that. I’m going to suffer because I have no place to put my head. I am going to suffer because I have no place to keep the Adoration Ministry’s assets. I know I’m going to suffer.”

 

Public criticisms had greeted the Enugu Diocese’s recent decision to transfer Mr. Mbaka out of Christ the King Parish‎, GRA, where he had served for over 10 years and also established a popular prayer ministry called The Adoration Prayer Ministry where thousands of Catholics  and indeed others throop to for  prayers, healing and miracles.

 

Well, In its reaction to the controversy over the transfer, the catholic church yesterday clarified the issue, said the posting was not meant to be punitive. That the Bishop has the right to post any priest wherever he feels his service would be more useful to the church.

 

The Secretary-General of the Catholic Secretar‎iat of Nigeria, Reverend Father Ralph Madu said transfer of priests within the catholic church is a “normal church procedure" and “Mbaka’s own is not an exception,”

 

 Is that so? Well, there are speculations by the general public that his being moved to another parish was a punishment for his firm  support of a Muslim candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, over his Christian predecessor, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan. It can be recalled that during last year’s general election process,  Father Mbaka had told a gathering of thousands of catholic faithfuls at his Adoration Prayer Ground ministry to vote out the incumbent, president Goodluck Jonathan.

 

But Mr. Madu in an interview with the media insist that  “such frivolities ‎have nothing to do with the posting". He said Mr. Mbaka had done things that were unacceptable to the church in the past but received no punishments for them.

 

So, people, It is just a posting.

        Kehinde Olatubosun  and  Dada Ayaji                                                  

Kehinde Olatubosun, 56, a  suspected drug addict arrested by the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Command has disclosed that he made over N300, 000 monthly from begging in Ikeja. The  Ibadan, Oyo State indigene was arrested on Saturday night along with 18 other drug addicts at a joint in Ipodo, Ikeja.

 

Mr. Olatubosun stated to the RRS that he made over N10, 000 daily begging at the Mobolaji Bank Anthony Roundabout; beside the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital; Toyin Street; and Opebi.

 

".....What I do is that, I get LASUTH drug prescription papers. I get it from their waste bin. With this in my hand, I convince motorists, passengers and passersby that I have a relative who is in dire need of money to buy drugs and I show them the prescription papers.

“This is what I have been doing since I was deported from Germany in 2004. Before the deportation, I was working as Electrical Engineer in Bauhusa, Colon, Germany. I was in Germany for 12 years before I was deported.” Mr. Olatubosun‎ said his deportation from Germany was after he was caught in possession of hard drugs.

 

“Unfortunately, all the money I make from this begging goes into drugs. Day after day, I am always there, seven days a week. I make more money on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. I make more than N10,000:00 on weekends. As I speak to you, I’m not on drugs but I am experiencing withdrawal symptoms, that is, the effect of not taking drugs for sometimes.”

 

The suspect who promised not to go back to drugs if released said it was the first time he would be arrested.

Another drug suspect, Dada Ajayi, arrested at the drug joint during the police raid, said that addiction had destroyed his life.

“‎I am trying to get over it now; drug has been the cause of my stagnation in life,” said Mr. Ajayi, 48, who said he had been hooked on drugs for over 17 years....Right now, I have lost my family because of my drug addiction. I don’t know where my children are or how to start my life again. I can’t stop going to that drug joint.... 

Read the full story HERE  as reported by Ben Ezeamalu

photocredit: premiumtimesng.com