Tonto Dikeh’s sermon 'Happiness doesn’t come by materialism'

ITRealms:

Controversial actress and director, Tonto Dikeh has urged her fans to always give more than they receive, saying that happiness is not quantified by materialism, reports ITRealms.

Tonto in a likely Monday sermon on her Instagram page, told fans that everyone wants to be happy in life, acknowledging that happiness is not quantified by materialism.

According to her, this much she learnt in her cause of life journey.

“I used to think that when I have a nice car and a lot of money I would be happy. Yet on my journey I have met hundreds of people with all of these things, yet none of the happiness,” she said.

Admonishing that if anyone’s bank balance exceeds sense of purpose or the only purpose is to work towards achieving a greater bank balance, then you are likely to struggle in finding happiness.

“Appreciate what you have, gaining more won't make you happy if you aren't happy with what you already have,” she said, stressing that they should endeavor to live in the moment, and askew videoing of everything you see, instead, take it in whilst it is happening, then relive the memories forever.

“You were there but looking at a phone screen...? Give more than you receive, be it your time, money, gifts, love and laughs. When you give someone your best, the best comes out of you. Stop worrying about your future! Your future is going to happen, it is yours to happen to. If you want something then work towards it, but make sure you are happy on the way there,” Tonto advised.

She emphasized that every human will die someday, so concentrate on the living.

“Don't practice escapism because you are unhappy with your reality, be real, keep level headed and make sense of your life,” she said.

Tonto further said that being high or drunk all the time is a problem, nobody wants to be ill or crazy or both! 

“Life is a journey not a destination, you never want to get too comfortable, comfort is where you put on weight, get slow, become bored. I'm not saying throw yourself out of a plane, but you should try to do something that scares you now and again,” she said.

Insisting that people should not worry too much on what other people are doing, because “they are on their own journeys, enjoy yours, try not to compare your behind the scenes life to someone else's highlight reel.”

Tonto went on to advise fans to uphold what is in their hearts and heads because they shine brighter “than what's on your wrist and neck.” 

Above all, Tonto advised fans to love their work, because “this will be a big part of your life.”

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FFK says PDP ahead on presidential poll result

ITRealms:

The Director of Media and Publicity, PDP presidential campaign organization, Femi Fani-Kayode (FKK) has declared that his party is ahead on the presidential poll outcome from the Saturday elections nationwide, reports ITRealms.

Fani-Kayode in a press statement made available to ITRealms, he said they (PDP) is ahead by at least two to three million votes.

“We wish to take this opportunity to make it clear to the Nigerian public that according to the figures made available to us, we are ahead in the presidential elections by at least two to three million votes,” he declared.

According Fani-Kayode, PDP situation room have been collating all its figures from party agents across the country.

“We have our own Situation Room and we have collated all our figures from the various polling booths, wards, local government areas and states in the Federation,” he said.

He also warned of the opposition’s propaganda, saying PDP is confident of victory.

“Despite the propaganda of the opposition, we are confident of victory.  They and all other stakeholders can be rest assured that we will accept nothing less than the announcement of an election result that is truthful and that reflects the true will of the Nigerian people,” Fani-Kayode said.

He insisted that any attempt to manipulate figures or to rig PDP out from any quarter will be firmly resisted.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms)

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Why slimy cheats don’t win - Scientists

ITRealms:

"Darwin’s evolutionary theory predicts survival of the fittest. So why do different survival tactics co-exist, if evolution should always favour the winning strategy?"

To answer that question scientists at the Universities of Bath and Manchester have been studying a single-celled amoeba, also known as slime mould, which displays certain behaviours that have been labelled  as “cheating” or “cooperating”. 

In a study, published in the prestigious journal Current Biology, the team found that cheaters don’t necessarily win in terms of overall survival, suggesting that biologists should re-evaluate how they define and measure social cooperation.

ITRealms gathered from the Public Relations Officer at University of Bath, Dr. Vicky Just, that their research has medical implications when it comes to developing therapies that use socially successful bacteria to fight diseases such as lung infections.

Professor Chris Thompson from Manchester’s Faculty of Life Sciences explains: “If the cheats always win, then according to Darwin, altruism shouldn’t exist. To study this we looked at why the single fittest strategy in the amoeba community doesn’t dominate.”

The team looked at how amoebae compete against each other during cooperative encounters. These strange microbes generally live in the soil as single cells, eating bacteria, but when food is limited, they clump together to form a ‘slug’ that moves to a different location before transforming into a fruiting body which eventually releases spores to produce the next generation of amoebae.

Development into a fruiting body requires cooperation, with some of the amoebae forming the stalk part of the fruiting body, effectively sacrificing themselves for the benefit of the ones that become spores. Therefore biologists have labelled the individuals that become the stalk as ‘altruists’, with the individuals that tend to form lots of spores being identified as ‘cheats’ because they benefit disproportionately.

However, the scientists from Bath and Manchester found that these assumptions don’t necessarily tell the whole story. Those labelled as cheats don’t end up having higher success than those that appear to lose since the cheats pay a price for their apparent success by producing larger numbers of lower quality spores. These inferior spores have lower survival rates, so overall the number of spores that survive is similar to those amoebae who ‘cooperate’.

According to Professor Jason Wolf from the University of Bath’s Department of Biology & Biochemistry, their study showed that there are definitely winners and losers in social coorporation.

“Our study shows that whilst there are definitely winners and losers in social 

cooperation, you can’t measure social success just by counting the number of spores these moulds produce. Those that produce lots of spores often make inferior ones that don’t have any overall advantage over their competitors," he said.

Stressing that scientists require to take a second look at the bigger picture when measuring social success, rather than making assumptions based on measuring the wrong things.

For Professor Chris Thompson what the study says was that when scientists look at systems through just one aspect then that system could appear to be unbalanced and shouldn’t work, but in reality they are a collection of many features that together determine success, and so variety helps to make man more equal.

“Our study threw up quite a big surprise because the way we measure fitness in a system is currently misleading. By focussing on the number of offspring (in this case spores) rather than the quality, we’re using an incorrect measurement of success. “What we thought of as socially successful needs to be re-evaluated,” Thompson said.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) @www.twitter.com/UniofBath

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Nigeria Customs promotes 2065 officers

ITRealms:

The Nigeria Customs Service has promoted a total of 2065 senior officers who participated in the 2014 promotion exercise, reports ITRealms.

Comptroller General of Customs, Dikko Inde Abdullahi gave the approval to release the promotion results following the conclusion of the promotion exercise and ratification by the Nigeria Customs Service Board, in Abuja.

Customs Public Relations Officer, Mr. Wale Adeniyi confirmed to ITRealms that the Comptroller General of Customs also congratulated the promoted officers, and charging them to redouble their efforts to justify their promotions.

“The promotion exercise which featured competitive computer-based examination and oral interviews were conducted in all customs formations in October and November last year,” he said.

Mr. Adeniyi also explained that breakdown of the promotion list indicates that 48 Deputy-Comptrollers were promoted to the rank of Comptroller, 81 Assistant-Comptrollers were promoted to Deputy-Comptrollers, while 112 Chief Superintendents of Customs were promoted to Assistant Comptrollers.

Others include 32 Superintendents of Customs promoted to Chief Superintendents of Customs, 121 Deputy Superintendents of Customs to the rank of Superintendents of Customs, 65 Assistant Superintendents of Customs I to Deputy Superintendents of Customs and 15 Assistant Superintendents of Customs II to Assistant Superintendents of Customs I.

A total number of 1,591 Officers benefited in the Inspectorate cadre. Out of these 1493 were general duty whereas 98 officers were support staff.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) +Nigeria Custom Service
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Perpetrators of Electoral violence should face ICC, says Women Group

ITRealms:

The Women’s Situation Room (WSR), a non-governmental organization has advocated that any perpetrator of electoral violence should be made to face the International Criminal Court (ICC) reports ITRealms.

The National Coordinator, Women’s Situation Room, Joy Onyesoh made this call in a press statement made available to ITRealms on Sunday in Lagos, saying they are in a process that engages women in collaboration with youth, and lobby key stakeholders to actively support their call for peaceful elections.

According to her, WSR got its mandate from UNSCR 1325 which reaffirms that women must be involved in peace processes and peacebuilding. The process culminates in a physical Situation Room where an all women observer team is trained and deployed to observe elections and send to the Situation Room incidents from the field which are analysed by our team of analysts and which our team of Eminent Women from Africa and Nigeria act upon in a timely manner.

For women, she said, the key issues in this election are security, inclusiveness and participation. With regards to the issue of security besides the peace accord signed by the candidates and the media messages, security should be provided at the polling units to prevent violence from erupting. This is because any time violence erupts women and children suffer most. 

The law enforcement agencies should, apart from providing security at the polling booths deal with situations of breakdown of law and order promptly and prosecute offenders. Unfortunately the Amendment to the Electoral Act 2010 which would have birthed the electoral offences tribunal has not been signed into law. 

As it is the prosecution of election offenders therefore still lies with the Police and the Attorney General’s Office. But Nigeria is obliged under the African Union Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections 2002 to do things that will safeguard the safety and security of the people.

On the issue of inclusiveness, the Police are mandated to take care of internal security this is a civic and civil responsibility. The High Court in Sokoto, the Court of Appeal and recently the Federal High Court Lagos gave Judgment against the deployment of the Military during elections. In disregard to the Judgment, soldiers have taken over the civil space instead of safeguarding territorial integrity. With the combat ready mood the soldiers are displaying, how will this affect the women in terms of confidence building and intimidation?

Yesterday, pictures were shown on national television of soldiers whipping people and making them frog jump in Lagos. There have been opposing views on the effect of the scenario playing out. Some people have argued that the presence of soldiers on the streets will engender confidence while others have argued that people will be intimidated. The use of the Military in the elections raises the issue as to whether women will be afraid to go out and vote.

We welcome the ICC’s statement that any person fingered in electoral violence will face the wrath of the Law. With the multiplicity of security forces including the military deployed to cover the elections, the question again arises as to who is in charge (is it INEC, the Police or the Military?). For the women is important for them to know the command structure with regards to who is in charge and who to report to when there are problems. This will lead to confidence building in the process.

Again Nigeria’s obligation under the African Union Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections 2002 comes into play

Finally again on the issue of inclusiveness, The United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol obliges member states to protect people with various forms of disability.  We are confident that INEC will upscale her commitments to the marginalized groups in terms of making them priority in the election processes. Apart from women with Physical disability, older persons and pregnant women suffer varying forms of disability e.g. standing for long periods of time and cannot run fast in emergency situations. It’s essential they are given priority during accreditation, voting and counting.

We pray for tomorrow’s elections to be peaceful and enjoin to remember that “Peace in our hands.”

 

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Presidential poll: Police brutalises Journalist at Lagos INEC office

ITRealms:

The publisher of New Sentinel online news medium, Mr. Peter Jones was yesterday, Saturday, March 28, had a guest of an overzealous armed police officer, (names and service number withheld); for discussing with passersby after he was directed by the same officer to answer nature call at a location distance from the premises of the Lagos INEC office in Yaba, reports ITRealms.

Reports reaching ITRealms showed that the Journalist Jones, was dully accredited journalists by INEC to observe the elections and was putting on INEC accredited vest at the Yaba INEC office, when he was pressed and equally took permission from the police officers on duty and got their consent on whether to use a particular spot before he was asked to move a step forward.

 He however obeyed as directed but while returning, the police whose identity was heavily shielded by his colleagues then questioned Peter Jones on why he had to discuss with the passersby after he had been directed on where to urinate. Mr. Jones however told them that he was exchanging pleasantries with somebody he knows but the unruly policeman descended on him with horse whip.

“In my attempt to explain myself, the police rained abuses on me, and then brought out his horsewhip to whip me severally to the extent that blood was gushing on my face,” Jones explained to his concerned colleagues and higher police officers in pains.

Meanwhile, the policeman has been arrested and put in the guard room even as several police officers surrounded New Sentinel Publisher appealing to him to prevail on his colleagues to exercise restraint in publishing the story. 

A source said yesterday that angry colleagues made several attempts to speak with the Lagos state commissioner of police but his phone was not going. At INEC office in Yaba, policemen formed groups discussing the matter in low tones even as they condemned the action of their over-zealous colleague.

Ayo Omidele/GEE
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