USAfricaonline.com, 1st African-owned U.S.-based professional newspaper on the internet, assessed by The New York Times as the largest (and arguably the most influential) African-owned, U.S-based multimedia networks; established May 1992. News@USAfricaonline.com 713-270-5500. wireless: 832-45-CHIDO (24436)
Michael Jackson (estate) gets record-shattering $200million recording deal
Special to USAfricaonline.com and CLASSmagazine, Houston
The estate of Michael Jackson has reportedly signed the largest recording deal in music history: a $200 million guaranteed contract with Sony Music for 10 projects to be released in the next seven years.
The official announcement is expected Tuesday (March 18, 2010).
The deal,which [...]
Mutombo to lead NBA talent to Dakar for youth camp
(AFP) NEW YORK — Retired NBA star Dikembe Mutombo will lead a group of NBA players and coaches to Dakar for the eighth Basketball Without Borders trip to Africa in August, the league announced on Wednesday.
The four-day basketball camp for 65 top 19-and-under players from across [...]
In the likeness of Obama, Donald Duke’s message of change connects with Nigerians at home and abroad.
By Chido Nwangwu, USAfricaonline.com
http://www.USAfricaonline.com/donaldduke-obama-nigeria-chido
USAfrica, March 10, 2010: Donald Duke, the charismatic former Governor of the Cross River State of Nigeria, will speak in the 4th largest city in the U.S., Houston, Texas, on Friday March 12, 2010. The interactive [...]
“I cannot forgive him for going to receive the Nobel with his jailer de Klerk. Hand in hand they went. Do you think de Klerk released him from the goodness of his heart?” She asked.
Clinton says Nigeria must bring killers of Christians to justice.
Special to USAfricaonline.com
(AFP) Washington DC— US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called on Nigeria to find and punish those responsible for the killings of more than 500 Christians in a wave of sectarian slaughter.“We continue to urge all parties to exercise restraint,” Clinton told reporters, [...]
Why Nigeria’s Acting President Jonathan fired his security adviser.
Special USAfricaonline.com report by Chido Nwangwu
USAfrica, March 8, 2010: In his first bold, presidential security interest move, Nigeria’s Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has removed his country’s national security adviser Sarki Mukhtar.
He announced a familiar replacement in the person of retired General Aliyu Gusau. A polite statement from [...]
“The Acting President has placed all the security forces in Plateau and neighbouring states on red alert so as to stem any cross-border dimensions to this latest conflict,” Jonathan’s office said in a statement on Sunday March 7, 2010
Dora Akunyili, public service and path of honor
By Nkem Ekeopara
Exclusive commentary for USAfricaonline.com and CLASSmagazine, Houston.
I do not give credit easily to public officers, especially the type we have in Nigeria for the obvious reason that only a handful take public office to serve the common good. Our unfortunate experience is that they come, largely, [...]
South Africa marks 100 days to World Cup
Special to USAfricaonline.com
JOHANNESBURG — With 100 days to go before the World Cup, jackhammers shuddered and bulldozers rumbled Tuesday as workers wearing “Proud to be building Soccer City for 2010″ buttons readied South Africa’s main stadium.
Inside, the grass was smooth and inviting. But not far away stacks of [...]
Still marching on, at 80….
By Mazi Emmanuel A. C. Orji
Special to USAfricaonline.com and CLASSmagazine, Houston
1929 is significant in Nigerian history as the year of the Aba Women Riot against British taxation. Internationally, it was the year of the great depression as well as the year that Vatican City became an independent state through the signing [...]
As Frank Annunzio, a shrewd former Democratic member of Congress from Chicago – reflecting on how Congress really works – once observed: “All the matters here is the votes. Everything else is [baloney].”
Right now, Obama and the Democrats should be concerning themselves solely with cobbling together bare majorities in both houses to achieve final passage.
Nigerians are moving on, with casual regard for the mysterious presidency of the indisposed Yar’Adua and the man who imposed him and his VP Goodluck Jonathan on Nigeria in 2007, the retired General and former president Olusegun Obasanjo. The truth of the matter is that Nigerians are sick and tired of subjecting our youth and children to compete and struggle for the same political positions with their grand-fathers…. the demands of Nigerians for a responsible and responsive government will not quieten with the return from Saudi Arabia (after 100 days) of the unwilling president of Nigeria ‘Baba Go-Slow’ Umar Yar’Adua. Nigerians say welcome, and goodbye….
“I saw him the day before yesterday … He’s really feeling better now,” Nigeria’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Aminchi told AFP.
Aminchi confirmed that a delegation of senior legislators were not allowed to see Yar’Adua earlier this month despite coming to Jeddah on a mission to gauge the health of the 58-year-old president, who checked into King Faisal Specialist Hospital on November 23 for an acute heart condition.
Into 2010 in Niger, whether the military coup succeeds or not, Tandja’s age and relevance to Niger’s future and representative democracy are dim and out. In one of his most controversial moves, after more than 10 years in office as commander-in-chief and president, he extended his rule via an unfair referendum in August 2009. The conflicts and rumbles within and outside the military grew….
A few months following the twisted referendum, he dissolved the Nigerien national assembly/parliament and the country’s court for constitutional issues. Soon after, in October 2009, he rail-roaded a parliamentary election which was widely condemned by African countries, the U.S., European countries and donor agencies who for almost 50 years have supported the needs of the poor country which shares borders with Nigeria’s northern region.
After three coups hit Niger between 1974 and 1999, Tandja twice won votes deemed fair. But in the waning months of his final term, critics say he went down the path of many long-serving African despots, breaking a promise he had frequently made to step down when his term expired in December. Opposition leaders say Tandja morphed from democrat to dictator over the course of several months last year. In May 2009, he dissolved the national assembly because it opposed his plan to hold a referendum removing term limits.
Nominated for Best African player on the continent: Uche Agba (Heartland FC, Nigeria), Mputu Mabi (T.P. Mazembe, DR Congo), Abdelmalek Ziaya (Entente Setif, Algeria)
A group of Nigerian lawmakers who tried to visit Yar’Adua (in Saudi Arabia) to determine his state of health returned at the weekend after five days without seeing him.
Sudan’s 2011 referendum: who’s afraid of freedom?
By Prof. Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe
Special to USAfricaonline.com and CLASSmagazine, Houston
Jean Ping, the chair of the Addis Ababa-based Commission of the Africa Union, recently criticised the likely outcome of next year’s referendum by the people of south Sudan on the restoration of their independence. Ping told a French radio station [...]
Why do we celebrate Nelson Mandela’s life?
By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfricaonline.com
Special to USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
USAfricaonline.com and CLASS magazine and The Black Business Journal
(First written on April 19,1999, exclusively for USAfrica, updated after his retirement as President and on February 11, 2010 remarking 20th anniversary of his release from apartheid South Africa prison)
http://www.usafricaonline.com/chido1999.mandelatribute.html
Nelson Mandela, preeminent statesman, [...]
“The events of the recent past have put to the test our collective resolve as a democratic nation…. We have all shown that our unity as a people, our love for this country, and our hope for its great future cannot be shaken”, said VP Jonathan in a tv address to Nigerians,
