Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Apple Purchases Nigerian owned innovation

Apple has acquired HopStop.com, an “online city transit guide” and mobile application founded in 2005 by Nigerian tech entrepreneur Chinedu Echeruo. Echeruo’s company, HotStop.com was acquired by Apple in a move to bolster the tech giant’s plan to upgrade its map offering, following Google’s recent $1.1 billion acquisition of Israeli mapping startup, Waze, which draws similarities with its new acquisition.

Confirming the acquisition to ABC News, Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said in a statement that the tech company “buys smaller technology companies from time to time” and it generally does not discuss its “purpose or plans”.

HotStop.com is a mobile application that helps people get directions to subway stations and bus stops in over 300 cities. The company also makes apps available on iOS and Android platforms.

HotStop’s founder, Chinedu Echeruo, is a serial entrepreneur who has received several accolades including Black Enterprise Magazine’s Small Business Innovator of the year and the magazine’s Top 40 under 40. He grew up in Eastern Nigeria and attended King’s College, Lagos. He also attended Syracuse University and the Harvard Business School.

He founded HopStop.com after working several years in the Mergers & Acquisitions and Leveraged Finance groups of J.P Morgan Chase. Echeruo also worked at AM Investment Partners, a $500 million hedge fund. He founded and raised nearly $8 million for his two U.S based internet companies; Hopstop.com and Tripology.com.

In 2010, the latter was acquired by American travel and navigation information company, Rand McNally. He is currently a partner and head of the Principal Investing group at Constant Capital, a West Africa based investment bank.

Source: ventures

The African Awards USA, announces The Carter Center Organization as Humanitarian Award Recipient

ATLANTA (July 22, 2013)– The African Awards is an annual event sponsored by Hope of Africa, Inc. a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization headquartered in Atlanta, GA which is focused on community development through education and empowerment. This year we are pleased to announce that the Humanitarian Award Recipient is The Carter Center.

The Carter Center called international attention to the need to eliminate the Guinea worm disease by providing technical and financial assistance to national programs. The disease, which once afflicted over 3.5 million people, has seen a reduction by more than 99% due, in part, to the continued work of The Carter Center. In addition, the organization has also launched the Development and Cooperation Initiative, a multiyear effort to help reduce poverty in Mali. The Carter Centers continued efforts to contribute to the advancement of Africans as well as Africans of the Diaspora exemplifies the selfless contribution made by them and all selected nominees.


Each year the African Awards showcase and recognize the talents of people of African descent who have made positive and selfless contributions to the improvement of Africans as well as those of the Diaspora. Recognizing some of the Diasporas emerging talents, achievements, and leading organizations, the African Awards donates a portion of its proceeds to the Hope of Africa Organization in their continued determination to provide education scholarships funds and school and medical supplies to orphans and the underprivileged in West Africa.

Nominees are industry experts like Educator of the Year contender Rashid Brown , Learning Chief of Kingdom Fortunes Development Group (KFDG), a for-profit education and learning Logistics Company. African Publication candidate Trendy Africa, an award winning lifestyle and entertainment magazine focused on reporting, documenting, and presenting positive values and attributes of Africa, Africans in the world at large, and Fashion Designer of the year nominee, Mamasoe Aruna of rising Sierra Leone based line YEAMA , a women’s ready-to-wear and couture line often described as exquisite and elegant. The line infuses cultural influences through usage of traditional fabrics and illustrates the diversity of the African aesthetic. The ceremony will also present awards to outstanding individuals within the medical, entertainment, and diplomatic industries. 


Awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, August 31, at 9pm and will be held at the Georgia Public Broadcasting Studio located at 260 14th Street, NW, Atlanta, Ga., 30318.  Guests will delight in live entertainment, cocktails and hors d’oeuvers and following the ceremony recipients, nominees and attendees can enjoy the official African Awards after party. 

For more information about nominees or to purchase tickets online, please visit africanawardsusa.com or facebook.com/africanawardsusa.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

On the Massacre of defenseless pupils in Nigeria

Dear President GEJ, I sincerely share my grief with you. The recent assassination of innocent pupils in Northern Nigeria defiles all reasonable logic to say the least. Even in the worst of wars, defenseless children are never the targets.

The recent round up and brutalization of students in Yobe is one too many. Your Excellency, I am of the honest opinion that every day you hear the cock crow reminds you of the oath you took as the commander in chief and presiding officer of 170 million folks and still counting.

Giving the prevailing circumstances, it’s no more about black or white, who is from where or not, or who serves or worships who or what. This is about the ELIMINATION of the future of a GREAT NATION. This is not a blame game, nor is it an attempt to make a political statement. In fact, there is so much to write but tears in my eyes with the thoughts of those innocent children would not allow for more than a few paragraphs.
President Goodluck Jonathan - GEJ

Sir, I hope you constantly think about the word; LEGACY. If there is one that will immortalize your name, it will be bringing this carnage to an END. You must not and never allow for a defeatist tendency to permeate out of your office.

I am not sure who really advice's you with your interest at heart but the following are just my humble suggestions with specific reference to the recent heart wrenching events that has attracted international attention.

-         - Ensure that all students who have been slaughtered recently because of their in born passion to learn be accorded a befitting State burial. The future of the Nation has to be accorded some respect. I am sure you are aware of the Newtown USA episode and the concern shown by the Presidency.

-        -  Beef up security around any form of educational institution in the country; in all geographical zones. Events have shown that it could happen anywhere.

-        -  Institute massive campaigns to educate the citizenry of the affected areas about being each other’s watchdog. I have come to realize that the perpetrators of these acts also have blood running through their veins but maybe at a different pressure level.

-          -Sir, all politics aside, all State Governors who receive massive security votes should be accountable to such occurrences in their domain. Security is security and it’s for the entire citizenry and not for the state house alone.

-         - I can only imagine the level of deliberations going on to stem this epidemic but don’t fail to continue the use of modern surveillance technology and social media. We have read that the perpetrators have gone as far as pulling down mobile phone masts to stem communications. Sir, you are the President of the Richest black nation in the world and I am certain you can afford a few drones with Ariel photographic and surveillance technology (not those with war heads though).

You hold the mantle at this time and I wish you well.

Yours sincerely,
Tosan Aduayi
tosanaduayi@yahoo.com


Sunday, July 7, 2013

Survival rate a miracle on Boeing 777 San Francisco crash

Officials now say they have accounted for all of the 307 people on board an Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul, South Korea, that crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday, killing at least two people. The crash left the runway littered with debris, and forced passengers to jump down the emergency inflatable slides to safety.

In the moments before Asiana Airline Flight 214 crashed while landing at San Francisco's airport, the plane was going too slowly and tried to abort landing, an NTSB official said Sunday. The plane had an excellent air safety record.

While it may be some time before an official conclusion about the cause of the crash is released, there are already many clues about what may have went wrong. Among the evidence collected by officials in the aftermath of the crash is the plane's cockpit voice recorder, currently being analyzed in Washington, D.C.

A top aviation chief claims the large number of survivors had to do with the "structural integrity of the aircraft” and clearly when it finally stopped, the ability to get these people off, the training that the flight attendants actually displayed. We say, it’s clearly a MIRACLE.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Nigerian Presidency and the Northern Death Spell

The Presidency of any Nation determines the course of such society; hence, Wisdom is essential to leadership. A particular dimension of Wisdom apparently unknown to the Nigerian political leadership is the way of understanding and utilising the spirituality and power of iconic art forms that may come in literary, sculpture, or other art craft models through adoption of functional and regenerative metaphysical and aesthetic intelligence. A principal art form of particular reference in this piece is the Nigerian Coat of Arms and its connection with the ‘proposed’ and ‘adopted’ Bayelsan Coats of Arms.

When these iconic art forms are not understood, the human consciousness in material creation may be subjected to the directions of lower astral ambience. Hence, the mental state of human consciousness, which is higher than the astral, is subjected to leadership of the lower astral ambience and man is cut off from the purity in the plane of spiritual ambience of God through the sub-conscious bridge. Consequently, there is a reversal of roles in the directions of the power of thought and will. The place of God is given unto astral forces which are lesser than man. Due to the subjection of human mental ambience, there is bound to be a problem of bankruptcy in reasoning, consequently raising issues of ethical concerns in the course of statecraft. Human behavioral patterns would expectedly reflect instincts of lower animals. Hence, in socio-political philosophic theory, the organised human society finds a befitting definition according to Thomas Hobbes’ State of Nature.

By 2008, in the course of a private study of the evolution of the Nigerian Coat of Arms in direct relations to the course of social-political and economic evolution of Nigeria, I discovered that the Nigerian Presidency was operating under a degenerative spell emanating from the Coat of Arms—particularly from its Northern space. It was then presumed that the adoption of the Coat of Arms in 1975 was a ‘State suicide’ which shut the doors of Nigerian presidency against good leadership. 

The suicide was deemed to be the correct astral foundational root cause of majority of Nigeria’s current problems that God had revealed to some churches but which their leaders did not understand and erringly arrived at the disastrous conclusion that God was referring to FESTAC 77. What is more, it was presumed that even in the event of ascension of a good leader by chance to the Presidential throne, such leader will not last long in the position. Presently, the problems of the Presidency has increased by the influence of the adopted Bayelsan Coat of Arms in association with one of the proposed versions which was also briefly used by some Bayelsa State on-line outfit as the Coat of Arms. This version operates in stronger cosmic dimensions by virtue of the replication of the Red Eagle from National Coat of Arms on its apex.

To validate propositions made so far, I shall state reality incidents of Nigeria’s evolving but mutable metaphysical history, from the ‘death of Yar Adua’ to the ‘enthronement of Goodluck Jonathan’ and the ‘death vibrations threatening the current first lady’, the ‘death of Kaduna State Governor’, the ‘permeating of international cosmos of nations through the British cosmic lot’, and the ‘potential martial cataclysm by the evolutionary ghostly clash of talons and the water beast’.

At this moment in time and history, the Red Eagle on the Nigerian Coat of Arms spells doom for the entire country. However, the worst doom is spelt for the North to which it has attracted ‘self destruction’. In order to properly lay a foundation for the proposition of evolutionary danger and the Red Eagle nature, it is necessary that I refer to a write-up by the present author, titled ‘An Artistic Analysis of the Nigerian Coat of Arms’, which was published by The Nation News paper on July 2, 2007. In the write-up, the author made preliminary historical interpretations devoid of deep metaphysical considerations of, and reference to, inherent futuristic prognosis.

Summarily, of the eagle, I wrote that “it is a mythological bird that symbolises the sun and regenerates its energy from it through a fasting-ritual in which the eagle focuses on the sun…The sun rises in the East and sets in the West. However, the Nigerian eagle, in a fixed state, faces the West where the sun sets…Worse still, it is colored red…In esoteric science, the West hemisphere is the abode of water. Naturally, eagles’ motion towards that aquatic direction is for food. It is readable from this perspective that the will to power and leadership in Nigeria is governed by the appetite and vices of lower self. This is a formidable astral foundation of rabid greed and corruption in Nigeria”. The eagle positioning was also noted to be the “determinant of Northern educational incapacity, symbolic curse and cause of extreme poverty…”

The down-south does not have any animal symbolic representation like the North (Eagle), East (Horse) and West (Horse). The down-south, determined by the wreath, is like a non-entity and imaginary beast of burden on which the East, West, and Northern structures rely on for subsistence. Unfortunately, by the 21st century astral evolution of the Red Eagle, a deathly art spell is evoked from the Northern cosmos upon the destiny of all other cardinal zones of Nigeria.

The anti-intellectual eagle positioning sets the course of a cosmic curse of degenerative witchcraft and glories’ destruction upon the land. The error of mystic art has transformed the Eagle into its opposite: the Vulture. What is consequently attracted to the Nigerian presidential space and social space (in secular, economic and spiritual activities) is the manifestation of the spiritual culture of the Vulture (Eye Igun) which thrives on deadness and exudes stench and filth magnetism. These are translatable to mean a mutable predestined degenerative social, religious, political, economic intelligence.

The northern decline and Yar’adua’s death
The Red Eagle’s decline from its cosmic plunge in 1999 physically translates into a terminal decline of Northern Nigeria. The region began its journey down the abyss from year 2000 without any hope of recovery so long as the Nigerian Coat of Arms is in force. There are worse indicators for the Northern destiny in the 21st century through renewals of nature cycles at periodic crossovers that spell doom for Nigeria. Presidency headed by a Northerner ceased by May 29, 1999, during the closing periods of Nigeria’s 38th year of self rule. By October 1, 2000, which is the beginning of the 4th decade of self governance, the presidency was headed by a South-Westerner, Rt. General Olusegun Obasanjo. In 2007, he handed over to a Northerner.

By 2009, a Northern President faced serious health crisis that was attracted to his spirit by the etheric vibrations of the Coat of Arms. By the cosmic evolution of the Eagle’s fate from the vibrations of Nigerian Coat of Arms, it was determined that the late President Yar’Adua was never going to survive the luminous evolution of 2009 which was to complete the prism of 2000 and 2009—both being the first complete set of foundational luminous prisms for the 21st century human existence. 

The millennium began in 1999, and not 2000, on a count of 1. 1999 is 1+9+9+9=28 that transforms to 2+8=10; i.e., 1+0=1. Automatically, the proceeding number from 1 is 2; hence, the proceeding year from 1999/1 is Year 2000/2. 2+0+0+0=2. A symbolism of 2, from the Jewish mystical tradition, is of illumination as the biblical theme of divine act of creation where Jehovah or Jah commanded that ‘let there be light’. The more intense of these luminous numbers was bound to manifest in 2009; i.e., 2+0+0+9=11. 11 transforms to 2 as 1+1.
In this period, the intensity of cosmic light was bound to dominate the space of leadership, and every spiritual art directing national fate but which is creatively inclined to darkness will be drained of energy and vanquished. The presumed physical evolution of this cosmic agenda was expected to manifest in the form of an emaciated cadaverous being in prism with the Northern Iconic eagle.

The eagle had no immunity against the intensity of cosmic light, being unknown to the cosmic sun rising from the East. In the intensely luminous year 2009, when the sun ran its course and peaked in the North before journeying to set in the West, it was expected that the eagle’s head will be scorched and its crown dissolved.
The peaking point of luminous year 2009 was the eleventh month of November. Doom of the living principal Northern Icon was sealed at the closure of the evolutionary triangle of cosmic illumination in the following evolutionary order of days: Wednesday, November 11, 2009; Friday, November 20, 2009; Sunday, November 29, 2009. The numerological order of this sequence is 33, 42 and 51 derived from the calculation of 11 (number of November) + 11 (of the day) + 11 (of year 2+0+0+9), 11 (number of November) + 20 (of the day 2+0) + 11 (of year 2+0+0+9), and 11 (number of November) + 29 (of the day 2+9) + 11 (of year 2+0+0+9). All these numbers, digit summed in numerology, revolve to figure 6, the number of the Sun and intensely expressive illumination.

In Yoruba cosmology derivable from the Odu-Ifa mythology, Wednesday, Ojoru, is a day in which all evils berthed on earth, and on which those who perform the necessary sacrifices are expected to avoid the evils. In the utilitarian philosophic sense, sacrifice here is really not the material sacrifice of anthropological interpretations of traditional religious culture, but of the essences propounded in the fourth noble truth of Buddhist philosophical tradition which enunciates an eightfold path to peace which are as follows: Right mindedness, right concentration, right intention, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right speech, right views.

In the spirituality of days in Ifa tradition, Friday, called Ojo Eti, is the day of evolution of trouble and spiritual siege. Sunday, Ojo Aiku, is the day of immortality. Of the aforementioned triangle, at the time of manifestation of Orunmila (that is, Open-Heavens of Fate), the first determination was the evil day (Wednesday) by agreement of emanations from Nigerian Coat of Arms which operate in the form of what the Yoruba call aba, i.e, wishful decree to the powers of Heaven. Instead of experiencing the good fortune of number 33—a master number vibration of healing derivable from the Sun, the Presidency Icon was exposed to a manifestation of terminal infirmity by aarun ojise iku (spirit of disease, the messenger of death). In cosmic evolution, at the formation of the first point of the triangular base in the Eastern cosmic space on Friday, 2oth of November, the Presidential Icon came under the full spiritual siege of terminal infirmity. At the triangle closure in the Western cosmic space by Sunday, November 29, 2009, the advantage of immortality was non-existent, and the Presidential Icon’s mortality by terminal infirmity was sealed at sunset.

The metaphysical abstraction stated posits that the cosmos of nature as determined by the Coat of Arms never favored a Northern leadership in Nigeria, even though the cosmic evolution of the effect of the said Coat of Arms placed a Northerner on the Presidential seat—to face a ruthless and invincible cosmic revolt and opposition. The natural revolt was expected to be most intense if the Northern Presidency emanated from the 90 degrees range of the Northwest direction where the eagle faces, and which also represents the crown of the head. Incidentally, the degree range is the space occupied by the State of Katsina (which was Yar Adua’s state of Origin) on the Nigerian map. The scorching effect of the sun drained up the water contents of the eagle like it will drain water completely from earth devoid of spring, thus creating the emaciated cadaverous image (i.e., extremely thin and pale). In reality, this manifested physically in the fate of late President Yar’Adua in the year 2009.

The Northern decline and Jonathan’s ascension
The Northern decline began at the turn of the century and millennium. Turn of every millennium is an indicator of cosmic re-arrangement and crossover. It is a potential cause of the rise and fall of civilizations and empires largely determined by the influence of civic icons. As for Nigeria, although the Red Eagle and Horses on the Coat of Arms still appear to be in a fixed state, in metaphysical evolution and history, at the turn of the century and millennium in 1999, all these astral images naturally repositioned in a state of rest and chaos. 

The horses have since let go of the shield that elevates the distressed eagle which has since crashed with the shield and is buried in the devastation of Nigeria’s cosmic earth and waters through the wreath space, leaving its evil ghost to haunt the Presidency. In the plunge, the eagle drew upon itself and the South-South destination some elements of the treacherous spirit of the Horse (which, by vibrations of Odu-Ifa Obara Owonrin, is imported into the sub-consciousness of Eastern and Western Nigerian political class the spirit of treachery—in view of contest, akin to the Ifa legend in which the horse entered into a conspiracy to kill the beautiful deer before a scheduled dance contest in which the deer was favorite). Most unfortunately for the Red Eagle, it was without energy to flee from the cataclysm unlike the Horses which experience some cosmic earth-slide and struggle to find their feet on natural cosmic earth.

By the millennial turn that caused the Horses to let go of the shield on which the eagle perched uncomfortably on a wavy band, the Red Eagle’s plunge headed towards the down-south direction of the Nigerian Coat of Arms. The plunge created a vacuum in the cosmic space of leadership and terminated the Eagle’s ill cosmic fortune in the national space of subconscious direction. As a rule of causal science, nature abhors vacuum, and therefore, there was bound to be a cosmic exchange of position. In the Eagle’s down-south plunge through the wreath, advantages of leadership position and the cosmic fortune which crowned the North spattered over the Down-South of the Coat of Arms, bringing a burden of crisis upon the space of the Down South axis where the fortune roosts to fill the empty space of national leadership. A physical manifestation of this metaphysical historical evolution is the ascension of President Goodluck Jonathan, of the Down-South axis of the Coat of Arms, to the position of Nigeria’s Head of State.

Bayelsa’s inheritance of the Northern death spell
By the creation of the proposed Coat of Arms for Bayelsa, the principal evil immediately incarnated from the Nigerian Coat of Arms Red Eagle into the Bayelsan and National space was the death spell which overcame late president Yar’Adua and which still saturates the Northern space in a different dimension. It was expected by presumption that the spell of death was predestined to primarily haunt Mr. President’s space by incarnation, which means that death will occur within it, but the manner and targets cannot be precisely predicted, just as the Presidents’ space may refer to those directly connected to him. His wife was expected to be the first target of the vibration of death emanating from the eagle, because she is a principal officer in the government of Bayelsa State (as Permanent Secretary) and co sharer of the National Coat of Arms seal as the first lady by virtue of office. By this, she takes precedence over the President and the Governor in death choice; for, like a maxim in the law of equity posits: “when two equities are equal, the first in time prevails”.

Dame Patience Jonathan was reported very ill around the time of the inauguration of the Bayelsan Coat of Arms, but she escaped death by whiskers. Somehow, the death which lurked around Mr. President’s space however struck against his brother on Mr. President’s 55th birthday in November 2012. A coincidence it may seem to be, but the order of astral program of peculiar arts emanating powerful ether vibrations will always run its course. Assuming the first lady of Nigeria was not a part of the Bayelsa State Government, the death would expectedly have manifested in the space of the State Governor without any hope of an escape. Having roosted on the Mr. President’s brother, it was presumed in prognosis that the death had concluded its first dimensional manifestation in the Presidential space, and that the next space of manifestation was expected to be that of the co-sharer of the Nigerian Coat of Arms seal in the hierarchy of government, i.e., the Vice Presidential space.

Perhaps the Vice President’s wife does not have an official position in the government of her husband’s state of origin, therefore, the equity rule is presumably not expected to arise, and the deathly vibration of the eagle emanating from the Bayelsan contaminated space was speculatively expected to manifest against the Governor of the Vice President’s State of origin, i.e., Kaduna State. It was not precisely known how this was to manifest, but could be traced to any other astral icon on the proposed Bayelsan Coat of Arms. It was presumed that the deathly essence of the Red Eagle on the proposed version seals the deathly art vibrations of the unintelligent image of the ‘fishes out of water’. The two fishes are identified as shark and dolphin. Dolphins are aquatic icons of military intelligence—of Naval Command in particular. 
The configuration is very bad for the Nigerian Navy and this is most probably the metaphysical historical cause of the death of a former Kaduna State Governor, Patrick Yakowa, in a Nigerian Navy helicopter crash in Bayelsan territory.

The worst imaginable situation may be sealed in Nigeria by month of November of the expressively luminous year 2013, (2+0+1+3 = 6), on the normalcy platform of a cosmic triangle beginning from Thursday, November 7 through Saturday November 16 and Monday, November 25. Thursday, in the cosmic essence of days derivable from Odu-Ifa, is a new beginning of cosmic course when Sun returns to its normal course. 

It is within the powers of Governments to check the art forces unsuspectingly dealing devastating blows on Nigeria’s fate. To save Nigerian Presidency (as an office and institution) now and in the future, irrespective of which geo-political zone or political party occupies the position of Head of State, the National Coat of Arms (alongside the first Stanza of the National anthem and the pledge) must cease to exist by the force of legislation. Reasons stated are the most easily explainable so far for public knowledge. The Nigerian Coat of Arms is a common enemy to every Nigerian and the world. In its potential to permeate the global space, the gate of evil cosmic influence will be open through Nigeria’s mother—Britain. As a rule of practical metaphysical science, it is much easier to effect good changes from the astral plane in physical existence than using all the forces in the world to put things right on earth. It is written in Ecclesiastes 10 verse 10 that ‘Wisdom is profitable to direct’.

Every nation has a right to adopt a Coat of Arms. In doing so, there must be an understanding of what it is. A Coat of Arms is an armorial achievement or bearing. Its use by countries is known as civic heraldry. It originates from European culture and is a symbolic code and sign post of family or fraternal history and aspirations. Its use in Nigeria constitutes an improper and miscalculated adoption of foreign culture, thus constituting a colossal cultural and spiritual catastrophe. In Nigeria, it is the seal of the Head of State and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and the Vice President in both the Military and Civilian regimes of government. As a matter of necessity, it is also used by the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial arms of government. It is the principal astral base of evolutions of indigenous cultures and national will.

Olumide Okunmakinde is an Artiste-in-Residence
Institute of Cultural Studies, OAU, Ile-Ife
Tel: 0813 818 3456