ABOUT FUNMI

Funmi Omoboriowo is an award winning On-Air-Personality (OAP), Newscaster, Communications consultant, a versatile MC, Voice-Over Artist and Lecturer. She currently works with the Lagos State Radio Service, owners of Eko 89.7FM and Radio Lagos 107.5FM where she is a Principal Presentation Officer.

Funmi was born in Abeokuta, Ogun state in the south western part of Nigeria. She holds a Master’s degree in Communication Studies, a Bachelor’s degree in Radio and Television Broadcasts and a Diploma in Journalism. She also has certifications in broadcast presentation from the famous FRCN Training school in Lagos which has now been renamed Nigeria Broadcast Academy (NBA). She has attended several self-improving trainings, workshops and seminars. Some of which include trainings under some BBC Media Action Nigeria projects,  Development Through Data, organized by the Centre for Sciences and Environment (CSE), India. Media and Information Literacy Curriculum Adaptation & Intervention Programme in selected Higher Institutions of Learning in Nigeria organized by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Coverage of Gender Issues organized by State Accountability and Voice Initiative (SAVI) to mention just a few.

In 2018, Funmi received an award from BBC Media Action Nigeria for Best Online engagement under the Strengthening Citizens Engagement in Electioneering Processes (SCEEP) project. She’s an Associate of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR).

Funmi currently co-presents Eko 89.7FM’s flagship programme “The Breakfast Show” which runs Mondays through Fridays from 6am to 10am. She presents the very first Corporate Governance Programme to air on radio in Nigeria “Corporate Governance Platform” with sponsorship from Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators in Nigeria (ICSAN). She is passionate about gender issues, she therefore uses some of her platforms to bring to fore issues affecting women.

Funmi lectures part time in some universities in Nigeria, mentoring youths is also part of her forte especially those interested in broadcasting. She has been part of different research works in the academia which includes “Influence of Sexually Oriented Home Videos on Secondary School Students: An Experimental Research”,                 “Indigenous Knowledge as a Tool for National Development”, e.t.c.

Funmi is married and lives in Lagos, Nigeria with her family.

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#LMAAWARDS2020

2020 has been loaded and full of surprises. This year, just like in previous years, we met people from different cities, countries and states. They range from selfless activists, mentors, advocates, leaders and wonderful people with so much to offer and contribute to the society, both locally here in Nigeria and abroad.

A million thanks to my mentors, Tony Tokunbo Eteka Fernandez for being there right from the outset, Pst. Femi Ogunsanya for all the prayers, DrPauline Long for believing in us, Sir Ferdinard Senyo Lawson Author who has secretly inspired us, Neena Richie Dr Winston George Ellis Emily Blake, Zitases Ifeoma Edmonds,
Ability Okolie and King David, I can not thank you guys enough, I am deeply humbled.

The HOW and WHY LMA Awards was founded, with more than 5000 followers on our site, from different states, within and across the globe has kept us going. It is simply amazing how we get to connect with these people, get to know them and what they do, award them without getting to meet them one on one. We have worked so hard for the past 7years trying to maintain our standard of interview, LMA brand, and LMA originality.

LEADERSHIP MIND AMBASSADORS INTERNATIONAL AWARDS in conjunction with Igc Pro House, Dr Baroness Neena Richie (Minister for UK/ EU, league of Arab & Africa) & Gathering Of mentors is preannouncing THE 8TH EDITION OF LMA AWARDS AND LMA 2020 NOMINEES (8years in a row) to celebrate outstanding individuals, honour brand projectors, mentors, leaders and people making a difference.

LMA 2020 NOMINEES: Temitope Olaleye Wendi Russo, Dr Vivian Timothy, Dr Winston George Ellis, Ijeoma Chiemela , Baroness Dr Neena Richie, Uzodinmma Uzodimma Lucy Ogodo, Victor Chen , Collins Samuel, Emily Blake, Ayooluwa Oluwatosin, Hagen Clara Meierdierks, and Tunji Bigsam Offeyi

DATE: FRI. 11TH SEPTEMBER 2020
TIME: 9AM.

Kindly visit our page – http://www.facebook.com/groups/leadershipminds/

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AFRO-BLOGGERS CONVENTION
SLOGAN: Our Image, Our Voice, Our Story
TOPIC: Re-information
DATE: 19 – 20 June 2020 Visual conference (online)
2nd annual Afro-Bloggers Convention which will be taking place 19th and 20th 2020. We had the 1st edition in 2018 which was a success. Afro-Bloggers Convention is the coming together of bloggers of African descent from all over the world to discuss and proffer solution to issues affecting our community. The topic for the last event was “Our Image, Our Voice, Our Story” which we now use as our slogan. This year the chosen topic is “Reinformation”.

Click this link 👇 to register and participate
https://afrobizgermany.com/abc

SUBTOPICS

1. Leadership (Youth) 2. Lessons learnt from covid 19 in the Afro-community 3. Afro-empowerment (Youth) 4. Afro media 5. Culture 6. Education 7. History 8. Wealth building

TOPICS FOR PANEL DISCUSSION 1. Impact of Africans in diaspora 2. Re-information

ACTIVITY PLAN
DAY 1 & 2. Four speakers per day, each choosing from the subtopics with an hour for presentation including questions and answers with the audience. Then ending each day with a panel discussion.
The conference will be conducted online via Zoom, to be shared on all other social media platforms

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The Modern-Day Lynching of a Black Man by a White Police Officer

I once read a poem written by a West African writer – captioned ‘Death in the Dawn’. I will link the death of George to the limerick of that poem I read in my secondary school days. George Floyd died in the dawn May 25th, 2020, paying a huge price, for a trivial offense. Was he really paying a price for a venial sin? Or was his death destined to happen, to create awareness that ‘Black Lives Matter’, amongst the White Race? Despite, Michael Jackson’s song – Black or White, Martin Luther King’s Speech, Nelson Mandela’s speech, etc. still the oppression continues.

I will go with the later, for if George had known on that fateful day, time, hour, that his life would end so abruptly, within 8 minutes from police brutality inflicted upon him, he would have stayed at home. He never knew that the very law enforcement agents, who were meant to save his life, would gang up to end his life, in just eight minutes. He was viciously terminated, despite his desperate plea for mercy, ‘I can’t breathe’, as well as a call for his mother, yet the officer was unperturbed. However, his mum was not there to respond to his call, yet the malevolent police officer with his colleagues ignored his supplication. Father, God if thou should mark iniquity who will be exempt. I believe nobody, not even the newborn baby.

What could a defenseless and handcuffed man do? He could not do anything. The police officer knew this, but as he was on a mission to get rid of another black man from the street of Minneapolis, he continued to viciously kneel on his neck, bearing his weight on George, until he gave up His spirit. The officer continued to inflict his vicious racial intolerance on George. Hence, the dire plea from the public, shouts to free him were ignored.

I believe that George Floyd’s death was meant to be, in order to further expose the mind-set police officers have against the black community. Acts of brutality imbued by bigotry are nothing new, we just happen to have camera phones to expose, the intolerance and phobia some white people have been programmed to have. Let’s hope that his death will serve as a catalyst to speed up the enactment of policies, establishing equal rights, for black people, as their white counterparts. The ownership of America, between blacks and whites, must be equitable. Also to create the awareness that black people have contributed greatly to the economic development of America and our black ancestors suffered greatly to build the country. Besides, God created the human race with red blood flowing through both veins. Hence what makes one race believe that they are superior and the other is subordinate?

Although black people, indigenous or immigrants in America or other places around the world, have contributed immensely to the economic growth of the places they lived or migrate to. Yet they are always the people, continuously facing racial inequality, xenophobia, nepotism, and hatred, by the same people they served. The majority of white people are guilty of institutional racism and but can be quite passive about it. Black migrants would rather be in a job and pay tax, than claim social security benefits, as they know the very reason they migrated to their host countries. Therefore, stop this racial injustice against blacks and appreciate their contributions to society.
I was shocked to see that, amid the peaceful demonstration on ‘Black Lives Matter’, attended by both the white and black race; a white man was heard shouting at the protesters, ‘why don’t you go back to Africa, as if all the protesters were Africans. While others were repeatedly swearing and challenging them to a fight. Again, what is the counter-protest this Saturday all about? I would define it as, the reinforcement and perpetuation of racism by the whites. To my knowledge the White race has not been oppressed, nor have they been victim to systemic racism hence what have they got to protest about?

To be precise, tyrannical attitudes and hatred towards black people must stop, as George Floyd’s death has paid the price for Blacks liberation.

Author: Maria Fernandez

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ADIEU GEORGE FLOYD ADVOCATE IN DEATH!!!!#BLACKLIVESMATTER!!!

A peep into your life of Struggle, typical of most male African Americans break my heart…
You hard your peculiar challenges…..Without privileges or opportunities…. Buh battling to achieve just that basic life above failure..
Brother I learned from your life,that yeah you kept struggling to be the best…..That’s what we all do no one is perfect in the real sense.
The question I dared asked God was why did George just keep failing and falling… As I reminiscence the process of pain in which life was snuffed out of you… Unprecedented mode of wickedness indeed.

Kneeling to the NECK!!!He had obviously set out to kill something in you, So with focus and determination he kept kneeling and pressing how sad and heartbreaking those momentsPressing down pressure..hardI can’t breathe..was your words and song as heartlessness kept kneeling till he snuffed the very life out of you, he definitely set a new made history and rewrote the hierarchy of gruesome implemented wickedness ever committed by the police.Officer Derek Chauvin has thereby written his name in history negatively forever in this generation.

Brother George, descriptions of who you really were floods the social and timelines, you kind brave and loveable heart, Perry your family out pours the vacuum you Left..all in the media.

Life couldn’t just be so unfair to one man, expose you to a life of zero privileges.. and let u have so much pain and struggle in one lifetime. Then let you die in public so cheaply at the Knee of Killer Officer Chauvin……So very sad

Lets just say you are the HERO OF THE SEASON, DYING JUST TO BRING BACK TO FRONT PAGE HEADLINES NEWS OF THE  PRIORITY ISSUE THAT…. #BLACKLIVESMATTER!!!!
SO PERRY,may your sweet soul rest in peace, knowing that what you couldn’t achieve standing..You Indeed achieve while sleeping…in death.

These signals gone up in every corners is a  blaring flame, with one message #BLACKLIVESMATTER
This time it’ll burn till  this Message sinks..Equality Not Revenge.
An equal world is an ENABLED WORLD!!!!

Thank you George, for not dying in vain!!!!Adieu brother!!!Adieu Great AfricanAdieu Our Advocate in Death!!!!Adieu Comrade,you left us still in the struggle,God Almighty be with you.I should say;Goodnight George Perry FLOYD.Buh you More alive in death than dead.

So live on Great GuyLive on Great African American.Live on in Millions of hearts and minds.Live on my ZERO 2HERO EVEN IN DEATH!!!!!

• 

I am Chief Emmanuel Koko Eyamba Marshall from Duke Town, Calabar South Local Government of Cross River State, Nigeria. I am the second of seven siblings of my parents and was brought up by my grandparents, who impacted a wealth of life experiences in me. I’ll describe myself as an adventurist whose life is driven by an enthusiasm to help others and get things done wherever around the world. I am pretty emotional and passionate in all my endeavors. That is to say, I have a great understanding perception and anticipation in what I do. I dislike falseness and so I always say as humans we are players on earth, and have to contribute our best for the benefit of mankind.

MY LIFE AS A CHILD 

As a child, I grew up living with my grandparents with my numerous Grand-uncles, Grand-aunties, Uncles, Aunties and cousins. I also had numerous friends I had then “myself”, hence I discovered inner drive. I attended the famous Duke Town Primary School, Eyamba Street,  and the famous St. Patrick’s College (SPACO), Ikot Ansa, both in Calabar, Cross River  State, Nigeria. One situation that spurred me on then was that, I had a dynamic support and as such, became focused. I grew through those developmental days happy because, as there was competitive support from teachers and my peers, academically and socially.

MY LIFE AS AN UNDERGRADUATE 

In 1983, I took a decision to exit from working experience to study. I got admission to University of Manchester to study Accounting and Finance. I had become an active member of the Students Union and the local branch of the Nigerian National Union. After graduating in 1986, I went to pursue further professional studies in London, combining with working part time as the newly introduced Second Tier Foreign Exchange market in Nigeria impeded the processing of and receipts of tuition fees and grants.

MY WORKING LIFE

After my secondary education, In 1976, I was employed by Lewis and Peat (Nig) Limited in Oghara, Sapele, Delta (then Bendel) State, a Rubber Processing and Shipping firm; with vast business ties to United Kingdom and Nigerian business moguls; with its own private jetties in Oghara and Sapele, dealing with imports and exports worldwide. I was exposed to different nationalities and shapes businessmen, that helped broaden my base. My working here started as a Clerical Assistant, rising through the ranks to Accounting Supervisor and Assistant Accountant when I left to Study abroad.

After my University studies, I worked in a variety of organizations, amongst whom were Rotter’s Discotheque in Manchester, McDonalds Restaurants Ltd, Royal Mail, a Charity-United African Women Forum and South West London and St Georges’ Mental NHS Trust in London.

WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITY 

Right from childhood through to adulthood, I have been involved in voluntary services wherever I lived. I was a mass server in both primary and secondary schools. I was a member of Young Christian Students, Debating Society, Man O War Bay, the Choristers and the Band Set. In my adult life, I worked voluntarily with several charitable organizations.  I am a member of AkwaCross Nigerian Catholic Chaplaincy in UK and Ireland, The Calabar Union of the United Kingdom, many others and was very active in the social circle. I am collaborative, compassionate, consistent, and respectful; and open to all.  This is what I live for and hope world must become a better place.

• 

He kicked him framed him up, after some brutalizing he

Got him some years  then threw him behind the prison bars!!! 

Sure he simply knows that it didnt matter he was BLACK!

He used her up got her

Pregnant and dumped her with pregnancy to figure out her struggle..he always thought because she was BLACK so it just didnt matter…

The mental slavery system of WELFARE structured to cater for the less privileged MOTHER, was put in place to be prominently patronized by the BLACK females cos those cadres of population didnt really matter…

Time and again BLACK kids being victimised by Gangsters white kids, plus being victimised by even the police sometimes getting killed and buried off without any justification of their mode of DEATH..ooooh yes they deserved to DIE, they were BLACK….it didnt matter!

JUST like the June 16th

I944, Electrocuting incident..of the young lad, whether guilty or not He was BLACK AND DESERVED TO DIE..it just did NOT  matter 

Then in the city of Minneapolis…

he knelt on his neck…deprived him of breathing…Then he pleaded a dozen times for a chance to breathe.

In his words ‘I cannot breathe’A whooping dozen times PLUS…in their thinking…

He is BLACK 

So why should it matter…??

Then when he DIED the

World eruptions began

World protests began

The lootings the burnings 

The vandalism, breaking ups.The sanctions Every where agog no peace the white house in disarray…

And so gradually Maybe perhaps it began to sink.. that these were not those ancestors, this generation was more definite and focused and wouldnt call for peace…

Untill justice was served…

Then they began to understand This age LONG agitation!!!!!s

For equality not even REVENGE…was what they sort for….

That indeed.. just maybe THESE…

#BLACKLIVESMATTER…

We hope someday and that VERY soon that our Brothers can effectively and respectfully realize that BLACK LIVES JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER LIVES MATTER TOO!!!

By

JCI sen. Princess Ayi Umo

• 

 

 POEMS

ON #BLACKLIVESMATTER

An Equal world 

Is an enabled WORLD..

The world full of races 

That world full of colours 

Like the Rainbow full of resources…

World with out

Majorities and minorities 

Superiors and inferiors 

A world with 

White and black living 

Equally in love and peace

A world of love and trust. 

Knowing fully well we are 

No masters to the other but our brothers keepers

A world where the officers would protect and value BLACK LIVES same way WHITE LIVES. 

Our advocacy our crusade…for a better WORLD that emphasises 

The humane slogan..AN EQUAL WORLD IS AN ENABLED WORLD…

#BLACKLIVESMATTER

By

JCI sen. Princess Ayi Umo

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THEN & NOW, WE ARE STILL HISSING…

I couldn’t get myself to watch the George Floyd video completely. Still can’t. I’ve only seen clips on the news.

There’s anger it stirs within you when you realize that anyone involved in that gruesome murder must have taken the victim as subhuman- undeserving of respect. Undeserving of pity. This sentiment was not directed to Floyd alone but all black people. Floyd was just an object to channel their disdain and frustration. The knee was left there for an eternity to squeeze the life out of a race he clearly had no affection for. Even though they had enough time to snap out of it and salvage a bad situation, they chose not to. Their madness was far from momentary. It was nurtured from a much greater, systemic, and generational madness that goes back centuries. The George Floyd incident, like many others, paints an ugly picture of a racial divide that has refused to close.

After publishing …And the night hissed some years ago (a fictional suspense thriller about the exploits of a white slave trader in 19th century Yorubaland), I took a step back and asked myself if the racist sentiments I described in the narrative hadn’t been over the top. Well, visits to Elmina and Cape Coast Castles in Ghana a few years later cleared any doubts I might have had. I realized that my depiction of the African slave trade was just the tip of the iceberg. It was a sobering trip for me but one I would surely recommend to anyone. What I couldn’t fathom however was how such bile… such racial abuse as witnessed in the 17th to 19th centuries could still exist in our world today and why certain countries would treat it with kid gloves. Racial mistrust and resentment for blacks haven’t faded away with modernisation; it’s just been hiding in the shadows. Recent cases like the Nigerian woman in Lebanon who was sold at an online auction or the blacks caught on CNN being sold at a Libyan slave market or the racist chants we hear and bear at European football matches…all show that we are not there yet. Not yet uhuru!

Cape Coast Castle had a lot to show and tell but what probably struck me most was the chapel located directly above the male dungeons which, by the way, still carries a strong pungent odour. Lord knows how it must have smelled two hundred years ago! Did these people actually worship over the heads and stench of thousands of naked men and boys crammed into dark tunnels and shackled together with no toilets waiting for months to be shipped? How did they pray to their God with a clear conscience? How did they utter words of prayer over cries for help? How did they? How could they? The only explanation I could find to this disturbing question was that they considered us sub-human. In other words, we didn’t count: just like Floyd and Arbery and Breonna and Michael Brown and Diallo and Rodney King didn’t count. Many racists and Neo-Nazis in our world today still describe themselves as ‘God-fearing, righteous white Christians’ while they proudly ascribe little regard to nature and ‘Negro’. 

You may ask how the slave traders slept at night with all this on their conscience? Well in Elmina Castle at least, the answer would be with a slave girl. The master’s bedroom was directly above the female dungeons and it had a trapdoor and cat-ladder that descended to where hundreds crouched in fear. The master would raise the door and select a woman or girl to be brought up to him for the night. So we ask again: How could they do all this without finding it a crime against humanity? If we could ask Arbery’s or Breonna’s killers, I bet the answer they would give would be no different from those given hundreds of years ago by slave masters. Racial inequality demands neither reprimand nor repentance.

It is a sorry state of affairs for us to still have a closet and systemic support for racism in some Eastern and Western countries. The challenge for us therefore seems daunting but there is hope. From the number of pensive white tourists at those castles years ago to what I see now on TV with all races protesting together worldwide for Black Lives despite a pandemic, there appears a steady growth of conscience. I am thus of the strong opinion that we can only combat racism if we refuse to shy away from it however disconcerting the topic may be to some. Therefore, I was (and still am) quite appreciative of reactions to my novel which delves into this disconcerting subject. Our comfort zone needs shifting once in a while for people to see another view. Floyd’s video was disconcerting and haunting enough to evoke change. It succeeded in exposing the harsh reality of racism to a world that has played the ostrich for too long. Now that our common neck is out of the sand, we need to strike more cords to move the legs so paralyzed by inertia. 

So the million-dollar question remains: can we ever eliminate racism? I have my doubts. We can’t change the hearts of every man but like the Abolitionists of the past, we can rely on a collective resolve to attack it wherever it surfaces. So long as there is good and evil in the world, racism will find a place. We just need to ensure that it no longer finds hold.

Claude Opara

Author, …And the Night Hissed @nighthissed

             Bayajidda: An African Legend @bayalegend 

• 

AFTER CORONOVIRUS

BACK STATUS QUO

THE ORIGINAL VIRUS

THE SILENCED ONE

THE 400 YEARS OLD ONE 

SEVERE AND BRUTAL

SEGREGATED ONE

VISIABLE IGORNORANCE

IN THE AIR

MINORITY CHOKE ON

INFLUECED AND TAUGHT

BRUTALITY –

OUR REALITY

HUMANITY PANDEMIC

INCOCENT BLOOD

ON THE SAME

COLD HANDS

TIME AND YEARS ON

LIFE FORCED. WRONG.

OUT OF THEM

HIM

A TRUE LIGHT

SWITCHED OFF

BROAD DAY

REMAINS LIT

A WORTHY BREATH BLOWN AWAY

COUNTLESS OTHERS

UGLY TRUTH

HAUNTS

THE NATIONS SPIRIT CHOKED

BUT THE SOUND OF

THE HEART BEAT

OF EVERY

I CANT BREATH

BREATHS CHANGE

SONS OF THE SUN ITS TIME TO RISE AGAIN

CHAINS OFF

GET YOUR KNEES OFF MY KNECK

AFTER CORONVIRUS

BACK TO STATUS QUO

THE ORIGINAL VIRUS

WASH YOUR HEARTS –

AND THE SAME COLOUR BLOOD

WE SHARE OFF YOUR

COLD HANDS.

CHAINS OFF GET YOU KNEES OFF MY KNECK.

SONS OF THE SUN IT’S TIME TO RISE AGAIN

JACKLINE WAZIRI –

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