Vice President Kashim Shettima has arrived in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, to officially launch the ARISE Human Capital Development Strategic Plan and Local Government Human Capital Development Implementation Roadmap.
This initiative is part of President Bola Tinubu’s broader human capital development agenda, aimed at enhancing Nigeria’s workforce capabilities and improving socioeconomic outcomes nationwide.
In a statement on Monday by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications, Office of the Vice President, Mr. Stanley Nkwocha, the launch is being attended by key stakeholders, including Sen. Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, Deputy Chief of Staff to the President.
Others include Mrs. Rukaiya El-Rufai, Special Adviser to the President on NEC & Climate Change and National Coordinator for Human Capital Development in Nigeria, marks a significant milestone in the country’s development journey.
Akwa Ibom Gov. Umo Eno, and other state government officials had welcomed Shettima on arrival at the Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo.
The ARISE Human Capital Development Strategic Plan focuses on three core pillars: health and nutrition, education, and labor force participation.
Improving healthcare systems, reducing child mortality and stunting, tackling malnutrition, and enhancing maternal health are crucial aspects of the health and nutrition pillar.
The education pillar ensures access to quality education for every Nigerian child, fostering a skilled workforce capable of thriving in the 21st-century economy.
The labour force participation pillar creates jobs and promotes economic growth through skills development and entrepreneurship.
Following the launch ceremony, Shettima commissioned several ARISE HCD projects.
These include model primary healthcare centers providing quality healthcare services to communities, model primary schools enhancing access to quality education for Nigerian children, and compassionate homes supporting vulnerable populations with shelter and care.
Additionally, a skill acquisition center will equip individuals with skills for entrepreneurship and employment, while the ARISE Park will promote sustainability through innovative environmental reclamation.
On one of Jeff Bezos’ rockets, pop star Katy Perry will be the biggest name in an all-woman group that will travel to the moon on Monday and launch into space.
The singer will board a ship from Blue Origin, an independent space company owned by the Amazon founder, and will be lofted more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) above the Earth’s surface.
The flight, which is scheduled to depart from western Texas at around 8:30 am (1330 GMT), will include five other women, including Lauren Sanchez, Bezos’s fiancee.
Read more about Vargas Llosa’s death at the age of 89 here.
A handout photo taken on April 14, 2025 on the X account of Blue Origin shows US entrepreneur Lauren Sanchez, former NASA scientist Amanda Nguyen, singer Katy Perry, TV presenter Gale King, former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe, and film producer Kerianne Flynn posing in their space suits ahead of the All-Women Sub-Orbital Mission aboard the New Shepard rocket (clockwise from L). (Photo by X ACCOUNT OF BLUE ORIGIN / AFP)
Before the crew capsule detaches mid-flight, the fully automated craft will rise vertically before crashing back to the ground as a result, slowed by parachutes and a retro rocket.
The first woman-only space  crew to join the Monday mission since Valentina Tereshkova’s famous solo mission in 1963.
Additionally, Blue Origin, which has provided space tourism experiences for a number of years, has completed its 11th sub-orbital crewed operation.
The company’s New Shepard rocket’s cost of travel is not made publicly known.
The flight, which will last about 10 minutes, will take the passengers beyond the internationally renowned Karman line.
The women will be able to unbuckle from their seats and float in zero gravity for a brief period.
Gayle King
‘Inspiration’
Perry recently disclosed to Elle magazine that she was taking part in “for my daughter Daisy” and that she would inspire her to “never have any limitations on her dreams.”
When she sees the rocket go, and she goes back to school the following day and says, “Mom went to space,” Perry continued, “I’m just so excited to see the inspiration through her eyes and the light in her eyes.”
She claimed in a separate Instagram video that she was shocked to learn that the capsule her parents gave her was called the “Tortoise” and had a “feather” design, which she was shocked to learn during space training.
Katy Perry
Perry stated in the video, “There are no coincidences, and I’m just so grateful for these confirmations and so grateful that I feel like something bigger than myself is steering the ship.”
With her 2008 smash hit “I Kissed a Girl,” Perry, who was first introduced internationally, will perform alongside TV presenter Gayle King, film producer Kerianne Flynn, former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe, and founder of the group that fights against sexual violence, Amanda Nguyen.
They follow 52 previous Blue Origin passengers, including William Shatner, a former Star Trek star, in the lead role.
Aisha Bowe
As Blue Origin fights several rival companies in the space tourism industry, such high-profile guests are intended to keep the public interested in its work.
Virgin Galactic, which offers a similar suborbital experience, is Bezos’ main rival in passenger flights.
However, Blue Origin intends to compete directly with SpaceX and Elon Musk in the future to land space travelers.
The much more powerful New Glenn rocket from Blue Origin completed its first unmanned orbital mission in January.
Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa was the last survivor of a golden generation of Latin American literary giants, his writing exploring universal themes often set outside his native Peru.
Admired for his depiction of social realities but criticised within Latin American intellectual circles for his conservative positions, Vargas Llosa — who died Sunday at age 89 — was a leading light of the “boom” generation that included greats like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Julio Cortazar.
Winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature, Varga Llosa passionately believed writers should be involved in civil society.
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(FILES) Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa receives the Nobel Literature Prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden during the Nobel prize award ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall in Stockholm on December 10, 2010. (Photo by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP)
“We Latin Americans are dreamers by nature and we have trouble telling the difference between the real world and fiction,” he said.
“That is why we have such good musicians, poets, painters and writers, and also such horrible and mediocre rulers.”
But he courted controversy over his support for the war in Iraq and was a passionate admirer of Britain’s “Iron Lady” prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.
Author of a vast body of work, spanning historical novels, erotic romances, crime novellas, light-hearted comedies, plays, memoirs and essays, Vargas Llosa also kept his hand in current affairs by working as a journalist.
Unlike Garcia Marquez and other Latin American greats, he rarely strayed into magical realism, his style marked by graphic descriptions of murder, rapes and other violence, perhaps harking back to his days as a crime reporter in Peru’s capital Lima when he was just 16.
“A writer must never turn into a statue. I have never liked the idea of a writer stuck in his library, cut off from the world like Proust was,” he told AFP in an interview.
“I need to keep a foothold in reality. That’s why I do journalism.”
(FILES) Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa is pictured as he visits an exibition about his work “Mario Vargas Llosa, La liberte et la vie (Freedom and life),” at the Maison de l’Amerique Latine on September 13, 2010 in Paris. (Photo by JACQUES DEMARTHON / AFP)
Military school trauma
Born in Arequipa in southern Peru on March 28, 1936 to a single mother, Vargas Llosa was taken to Bolivia as a baby, only returning a decade later when he met his father for the first time.
It was not a happy relationship, his father being “very authoritarian and severe”, Vargas Llosa said in 2019.
“I lost my innocence and discovered loneliness, authority, adult life and fear.
“My salvation was reading good books, taking refuge in worlds… where I could feel free. And I became happy again.”
At 14, his father sent him to Lima’s Leoncio Prado Military Academy, an experience which he described as “traumatic”, seeking solace in the world of books and writing.
On leaving, he worked at La Cronica tabloid before studying law and literature at San Marcos University while dictator Manuel Odria was in power, becoming very politically active.
(FILES) Renowned Peruvian writer, Mario Vargas Llosa, speaks during a press conference in Caracas on August 16, 2008. Peruvian Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa died aged 89 on April 13, 2025 in Lima, his family announced. (Photo by Juan BARRETO / AFP)
A scandalous marriage
At 19, Vargas Llosa married his aunt Julia Urquidi. Although not a blood relative, she was a divorcee 10 years older than him and it was socially scandalous.
She encouraged his writing and when they moved to Madrid, he began his first novel “The Time of the Hero” (1963) based on his military academy experience, which he later finished in Paris.
Their decade-long marriage inspired his 1977 novel “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter”.
He worked for a period in Paris as a journalist for Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Radio Television Francaise.
After his marriage broke up in 1964, Vargas Llosa married his cousin Patricia Llosa and had three children.
The couple separated in 2015.
(FILES) Peruvian writer and presidential candidate for the centre-right Frente Democratico coalition Mario Vargas Llosa receives a hug from a supporter during a campaign rally in the town of Chincha, 300 km south of Lima, on March 20, 1990. (Photo by Cris BOURONCLE / AFP)
‘Unreserved admiration’ for Thatcher
All of his early novels are set in Peru, among them “The Green House” (1966), “Conversation in the Cathedral” (1969), and “Captain Pantoja and the Special Service” (1973).
Later writings were set further afield: “The War of the End of the World” (1981) tackled a military conflict in late 1890s Brazil, while “The Feast of the Goat” (2000) portrayed the 1961 assassination of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo.
After his Nobel win, he published “The Dream of the Celt” about Roger Casement, a gay British consul who wrote a 1904 report about colonialism’s abuses in the Congo before becoming an Irish nationalist.
Like most of Latin America’s intelligentsia in the early 1960s, Vargas Llosa initially supported Fidel Castro’s leftist revolution, but later grew disillusioned, becoming an advocate of free-market capitalism whose political idol was Thatcher.
After her resignation in 1990, Vargas Llosa wrote of his “unreserved admiration” for Thatcher, praising her 11-year rule as “the most successful revolution in Europe this century and the one with the most powerful effect on the rest of the world”.
The same year he ran for president in Peru representing a conservative coalition but lost to Alberto Fujimori, an unknown academic of Japanese descent.
Disappointed in defeat and upset by the dictatorial turn of Fujimori’s regime, Vargas Llosa took Spanish nationality in 1993, angering many Peruvians.
Operatives of the Kwara Police Command have arrested controversial singer Habeeb Okikiola Badmus, better known as “Portable”.
In a statement, the spokesman of the Kwara Police Command, Adetoun Ejire-Adeyemi, said that Portable’s arrest followed a petition received from one Mr. Okunola Saheed, popularly known as “Osupa”.
“The petition borders on serious allegations which includes criminal defamation, threat to life, incitement, character assassination, conduct likely to cause a breach of peace and the use of abusive and insulting words,” the statement read partly.
“In view of the weight of these allegations and the supporting evidence presented, the Command secured a valid arrest warrant from a Magistrate Court sitting in Ilorin.”
“Acting on this warrant, operatives from the Command proceeded to Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Saturday, 13th April 2025, where the suspect was apprehended at about 19:25hrs. He was immediately brought to Ilorin for further investigation.
“Upon his arrival, the suspect’s statement was taken in the presence of legal representatives from both parties. He is currently in custody, and arrangements are being made to charge him to court without delay.”
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The “Zaazoo” crooner had used a line Osupa is known for, a move that led to the Fuji star’s team filing a complaint.
Portable had earlier called out Osupa, using unflattering names, triggering a social media backlash. He, however, later apologised to the Fuji singer over the outburst, blaming his temper for the development.
READ THE FULL STATEMENT BELOW
KWARA STATE POLICE COMMAND.
PRESS STATEMENT.
13th April, 2025
ARREST OF HABEEB OKIKIOLA BADMUS (AKA PORTABLE) OVER AN ALLEGED CRIMINAL DEFAMATION AND OTHER RELATED OFFENCES.
The Kwara State Police Command wishes to inform the general public that following a petition received from one Mr. Okunola Saheed, popularly known as “Osupa,” against Mr. Habeeb Okikiola Badmus, also known in the entertainment industry as “Portable”. Police detectives of Kwara Command have taken lawful steps in line with due process to investigate the allegations.
The petition borders on serious allegations which includes criminal defamation, threat to life, incitement, character assassination, conduct likely to cause a breach of peace and the use of abusive and insulting words. In view of the weight of these allegations and the supporting evidence presented, the Command secured a valid arrest warrant from a Magistrate Court sitting in Ilorin.
Acting on this warrant, operatives from the Command proceeded to Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Saturday, 13th April 2025, where the suspect was apprehended at about 19:25hrs. He was immediately brought to Ilorin for further investigations.
Upon his arrival, the suspect’s statement was taken in the presence of legal representatives from both parties. He is currently in custody and arrangements are being made to charge him to court without delay.
The Kwara State Police Command remains committed to upholding the rule of law and ensuring that justice is served in a fair and transparent manner. We urge members of the public to remain calm and refrain from spreading unverified information. Further updates on the case will be communicated as events unfold.
Nigerian singer and rapper Eedris Abdulkareem says he didn’t attack Seyi Tinubu with his new song, stressing that he only replied to a statement made by the entrepreneur that his father, President Bola Tinubu, is Nigeria’s best-ever president.
The younger Tinubu made the statement in Yola, the Adamawa State capital, in March 2025.
The rapper said his new song ‘ Tell Your Papa ‘ was not an attack on Seyi but a call for the president’s son to tell his father to address Nigeria’s economic and security challenges.
“Nigerian youths are just asking for basics: electricity, security, enabling economic environment, job creation and not palliatives”, Abdulkareem said on Channels Television’s Rubbin ‘ Minds programme on Sunday.
“So, why should I attack Seyi Tinubu personally? If Seyi Tinubu never talked about it, I wouldn’t have recorded a song like that. So, I am replying to the video that he made. If he had kept quiet, I wouldn’t have said anything. I am inspired by Seyi Tinubu to record that song”.
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The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) immediately tagged Abdulkareem’s new song as inappropriate and banned it on radio and television.
The ban has been faulted by many Nigerians including Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, who described the development as a return of censorship and a threat to the right to free speech.
During the television programme, Abdulkareem lamented that 24 years after he released a previous song, ‘ Nigeria jagajaga’, the song is still relevant because Nigeria has not experienced the necessary development.
He said, “I was inspired by Seyi Tinubu to record the song. I saw a video where he was campaigning for his father and he was defending his father, saying ‘ My father is the best president, my father is the greatest president, they are coming for my father… ‘
” He (Seyi) repeated it like six times. But for Seyi, I differ because it looks more perfect when you are silent than when you speak. I would advise Seyi to hand over the microphone to the MC next time. He lacks the charisma and purpose to express himself, telling the truth about the true economic situation in Nigeria under his father’s government. “
Kunle Afolayan, a filmmaker and actor from Nigeria, has unveiled his film village, known as Kunle Afolayan Productions (KAP) Film Village and Resort.
Seyi Makinde, the governor of Oyo State, and Hannatu Musawa, the minister of art, culture, and the creative economy, on Saturday, commissioned the film village in Igbojaye, Oyo State.
The excited Afolayan stated that the “film village” will be revealed for posterity as opposed to for himself.
If my children like to know my name, I have established something in my name and it will be forever remembered.
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Anikulaopo, Anikulapo: Rise of the Spectre, and Ijogbon are three well-known productions from the Nigerian film industry that KAP Film Village and Resort has hosted.
