Abuja (Nigeria) — Managing Director, Aqua Rapha Investment Nigeria Limited, Sunday Nwankwo Reginald asked wealthy Nigerians to invest in industrialization for the purpose of creating massive jobs for the teeming jobless Nigerians.
Reginald, who gave the advise at the Annual Dinner /Diamond Award and Fellowship Conference of the Institute of Polymer Engineers {IPE} in Abuja, observed that rather than building hotels and eateries here and there, which can only employ few people, such fund should be channeled to building industries to accommodate jobless Nigerian youths roaming about the street seeking for jobs.
He expressed worries that many well-to-do Nigerians and business men and women across the country are even afraid of investing in industrialization, saying that Aqua Rapha Investment Nigeria Limited started with only three {3} water filling machines some years ago , but has expanded tremendously as many have been employed in the company.
According to him, “We started this company with three sachet water filling machines in 2005, but today, we have gone so far and beyond expectation of many people. As I am talking to you now, we have many product lines, most especially of polymer products among others”
Nwankwo also urged entrepreneurs in the country to come up with new ideas and be creative so as to move the country forward.
He observed that until wealthy individuals begin to give to the society, but not expecting to get from the society, the space of development will still be very slow.
“Now, we no longer think of waste, we should think of transforming waste to wealth. If you look critically at what many people thought are waste, you will understand that they are no longer waste but wealth, hence the need for Nigerians to begin to create wealth using waste.
“Nigerians should understand that until we begin to think of bringing something good out of nothing, and as well come up with creativities that would bring out wealth, until we start giving to the society rather than we expecting from them, we will not move too fast”
The MD of Aqua Rapha Investment Nigeria Limited, who was bestowed with Diamond Award of the fellowship in Abuja by the institution in recognition of his contribution to the lives of many Nigerians through creating job opportunities, stated that the honour conferred on him will go a long way to spur him to do more of what he has been doing before.
“I look at the award as a challenge, telling us to do more and having recognized us in this way for what we have done so far, the award will spur us do perform even more better than what we have done before. The world is now looking forward to see what next we would come up with”
He has been accused of rape, sexual assault and harassment, but has “unequivocally denied” any allegations of non-consensual relationships.
Despite being fired as chairman of The Weinstein Company studio on 8 October he had continued until Tuesday to hold a position on the company’s board.
Weinstein, who has been expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that present the Oscar awards, still owns 22% of his company’s stock, according to Variety magazine.
Amid the fallout over the Weinstein accusations, Roy Price, the head of Amazon Studios, also resigned on Tuesday over allegations of sexual harassment, according to US media.
Mr Price took a “leave of absence” last Thursday after Isa Hackett, a producer on the Amazon series The Man in the High Castle, told the Hollywood Reporter he allegedly sexually harassed her in 2015.
Image copyrightYANN COATSALIOUImage caption Harvey Weinstein was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood
In her Twitter posts, Headey described sharing a lift with Weinstein after he had invited her to his room to show her a script.
“The lift was going up and I said to Harvey, ‘I’m not interested in anything other than work, please don’t think I got in here with you for any other reason, nothing is going to happen,'” she recalled.
“I don’t know what possessed me to speak out at that moment, only that I had such a strong sense of don’t come near me.
“He was silent after I spoke, furious.
“He walked me back to the lift by grabbing and holding tightly to the back of my arm,” she said, adding that she felt “completely powerless”.
After he allegedly “whispered” that she should not tell anyone about the encounter, she writes: “I got into my car and cried.”
Headey’s story comes as other Hollywood actresses shared their stories of sexual harassment and impropriety in show business.
On Monday, Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon said she had been harassed by an unnamed film director when she was 16 years old, during a speech to the Elle Women in Hollywood event.
Jennifer Lawrence, who has won a Best Actress Oscar, spoke at the same event and described a casting call where she was made to stand nude in front of producers who criticised her weight.
“After that degrading and humiliating line-up, the female producer told me I should use the naked photos of myself as inspiration for my diet,” the star of Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle told the Los Angeles audience.
Hollywood continues to speak out
DreamWorks film studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg meanwhile told a Wall Street Journal conference of Weinstein: “Make no mistake about it: he is a monster.”
He added Weinstein had been protected by other men around him, who he described as “a pack of wolves”.
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption Jeffrey Katzenberg pictured with Harvey Weinstein at a charity event in 2005
Screenwriter Scott Rosenberg also got involved by writing a Facebook post about his early days at Miramax Films.
He wrote the movies Beautiful Girls and Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead at the time Weinstein’s profile was rising in the film industry.
In his post, he said that while he never heard any rape allegations, he was aware of Weinstein’s “dreadful” behaviour – and said “everybody” else knew, too.
‘I kept my mouth shut’
“I was there. And I saw you. And I talked about it with you,” he wrote. “You, the big producers; you, the big directors; you, the big agents; you, the big financiers.
“And you, the big rival studio chiefs; you, the big actors; you, the big actresses; you, the big models.
“You, the big journalists; you, the big screenwriters; you, the big rock stars; you, the big restaurateurs; you, the big politicians.”
He said others chose to ignore what was going on because they were enjoying themselves and because women were told it would ruin their careers if they said anything.
At the end of the piece, Rosenberg apologised for not doing anything.
“I reaped the rewards and I kept my mouth shut,” he said. “And for that, once again, I am sorry.”
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption Lauren Holly at a charity foundation event in February 2017
Beautiful Girls actress Lauren Holly has also come forward, sharing her story of harassment, describing an encounter she had with Weinstein.
The pair arranged a meeting in a hotel, which she didn’t find “abnormal at all” because she had routinely met producers, writers and directors in their suites.
She described the early stages of the meeting as normal, but said things turned sour when Weinstein walked into the hotel suite “wearing a hotel bathrobe”.
‘I pushed him and ran’
“He said, ‘OK, let’s get to it, this is what we’ve got going on at my company, these are the scripts we have in the pipeline, this is what I think might be right for you,’ and he gestured for me to follow him.”
Holly recounted that she followed him into the bedroom part of the suite as he continued talking.
Weinstein then showered and, when he emerged, was naked and started to approach her.
Holly said she started to run away, but that Weinstein began to threaten her, saying she needed to “keep him as [her] ally” and that it would be a “bad decision” if she left the room.
At that point, Holly said, she “pushed him and ran”.
More than half of women in Kenya have experienced gender-based violence on public transport, according to a recent study. In 2014, there were national protests after a woman was allegedly stripped on a public bus in Nairobi.
Anita Nderu is a television and radio presenter based in the city, who says she was groped while travelling on a bus.
She hopes that sharing a story will help other women to come forward.
What is 100 Women?
BBC 100 Women names 100 influential and inspirational women around the world every year. In 2017, we’re challenging them to tackle four of the biggest problems facing women today – the glass ceiling, female illiteracy, harassment in public spaces and sexism in sport.
With your help, they’ll be coming up with real-life solutions and we want you to get involved with your ideas. Find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and use #100Women
Note: This story is auto-generated from ‘BBC News’ syndicated feed and has not been edited by Africa Prime News staff.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Note: This story is auto-generated from ‘BBC News’ syndicated feed and has not been edited by Africa Prime News staff.
Image caption Campaigners in Cairo say everything about the city is difficult for women
The Egyptian capital Cairo has been described as the “most dangerous” megacity for women.
The finding comes from the first international poll on how women fare in cities with over 10 million people.
The survey was conducted in 19 megacities where experts on women’s issues were asked about how well women were protected from sexual violence.
The poll ranked London as the megacity most friendly to women, followed by Tokyo and Paris.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said women were now leading in every level of society in London, including public service, the arts, business and politics.
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Media caption100 Women: What exactly do we mean when we talk about street harassment?
Women’s rights campaigners in Cairo blame centuries-old traditions for the discrimination there, with any progressive steps to help women extremely difficult.
Women also have limited access to good healthcare, finance and education.
Shahira Amin, a high profile Egyptian journalist, said everything about the city was difficult for women, and even something as simple as walking down the street could expose a woman to harassment and abuse of all kinds.
Karachi, Pakistan, Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Indian capital Delhi come behind Cairo in the survey, conducted by Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Delhi and the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo were reported to be the worst for risk of sexual harassment, sexual violence and rape.
The figures for Delhi come despite tougher laws on sex crimes after a fatal gang rape of a woman on a bus in Delhi in 2012 which led to popular protests.
A poll conducted for the Brazilian Forum of Public Security found one in three Brazilian woman 16 or over had suffered some of form of physical, verbal or psychological violence.
Media playback is unsupported on your device
Media captionWomen sent tweets, posts and emails from all over the world.
Note: This story is auto-generated from ‘BBC News’ syndicated feed and has not been edited by Africa Prime News staff.
Kaduna (Nigeria)– A community in Chikun local government area of Kaduna State, north west Nigeria on Monday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to wade into ‘unjust treatment’ of their members whose ownership of lands is being threatened with reckless impunity by the State Government.
The community located in Millennium City, comprising Danhonu 11 and Kakura also called on the international community to hear their cry and prevail on the Government to stop the unjustified move.
Addressing newsmen in Kaduna, spokesman and leader of the land owners, Abdullahi Sulaiman, said, “As we address you this moment, we have counted the loss of many lives owing to the frustration from the denial of what belongs to them. Some of our members are in prison without any justification after several days in police detention and police brutality.
“We wish to place on record that, the land supposedly in contention is proven to be exclusively owned by individuals. We wish to categorically dispute the claim by governor El-Rufai that the lands have been fully acquired by government. This is far from the truth. It represents a distortion of the facts.
“As far as we are concerned, government cannot entirely lay claim of its ownership without due process including necessary compensation. This resort to blackmail and force, including the arrest and detention of some of our members as a brutal show of reckless force by government to intimidate and forcefully take away from us what is rightfully ours. We can’t believe a government we voted for will treat us this way and seize our land. Even the previous government compensated persons whose lands it acquired.
“We thought that the Kaduna State governor is a democrat and gentleman, and has pursued peaceful coexistence among the residents and citizens of the state. We are however forced to assume the contrary by his current disposition on our matter, in which he has resorted to the use of force instead of following due process.
“Before now, we have vigorously pursued amicable resolution of the issue in separate correspondences, dated; 7th March 2016, 15th March, 2016, 29th April, 2016, 7th October, 2016 and 20th July, 2017, none of which was replied, with only one acknowledged.”
The owners noted that while they acknowledged that government reserves the right to acquire land for any developmental purpose, they added that it holds a larger obligation likewise to adequately compensate those on whose loss such development is factored as rightful owners.
“Rather than a fair treatment, we are alarmed at the dubious intention to displace the rightful owner and appropriate same lands to cronies of government and their patronisers.
“We watch helplessly as our lands are overtaken by developers whose illegal occupation of the land is being commercialized for selling purposes. Expectedly, there should be considerations for moratorium over a period of time for which the actual owners may be appealed to vacate the land for government use following adequate compensation,” the owners regretted.
The owners observed that the method being adopted is to use state instrument and power to ostracize law abiding owners and exploit their weaknesses to deprive them of their rights, adding, “Every office holder ought to always remember that such occupation is temporary.
“Members of the National and state assemblies, civil society groups and rights groups owe it a responsibility to come to our rescue immediately. The arrest and detention of several of our members, including local community leaders is a clear sign of how far the government is willing to go in devapitating us.”
Kaduna (Nigeria) — A Non-Governmental Organization, Unified Nigeria Youth Forum, UNYF, has condemned the erection of a statue of President Jacob Zuma of South Africa in Imo State, South east Nigeria
The statue was erected by the State Governor Rochas Okorocha where he named a road in honour of Zuma.
In a statement made available to journalists in Kaduna, northwest Nigeria, the President of the Forum, Abdusalam Mohammed Kazeem the group views the statue as a misplaced priority on the part of the governor of Imo State considering the economic situation of the state, where some civil servants/pensioners are yet to receive their entitlement for some months now.
“It will forever remain in record that the said President Jacob Zuma of South African is a controversial politician who is alleged to be involved in several legal scandals, associated with financial corruption and contracts racketeering.
“It is the same South African where many Nigerians,majorly of the eastern extraction are been killed on weekly bases,”
“We as a forum are not against our government at all levels to recognize or immotarlise other African leaders, but the said Jacob zuma does not have the moral standard to received such honour. “the statement reaffirmed.
The forum noted that under the watch of President of South Africa were xenophobic attacks on his African brothers most especially Nigerians, which his son was fingered as an instigator.
The statement added that Jacob Zuma is alleged to be in corruption crisis which his is currently facing with the GUPTAS bothers.
“Jacob Zuma never believed in a peaceful resolution of dispute which has led to the serious division in one of Africa’s most respected political parties, (ANC) and also the sacking of a respected financial minister who uncovered his illegal deals.
“We demand the reversal of the honour within one week or we move all our members to Imo State to short down the economic activities of the state,” the statement warns.
Abuja (Nigeria) — Managing Director, Aqua Rapha Investment Nigeria Limited, Sunday Nwankwo Reginald asked wealthy Nigerians to invest in industrialization for the purpose of creating massive jobs for the teeming jobless Nigerians.
