Women's History Month - Motivational Stories #1

March is Women's History Month here in the US. Last month was the month of love and we celebrated the men who love us, and those we love. I've decided to use this month as an opportunity to showcase some contemporary Nigerian young women doing motivational things. I'll start with a young lady I discovered just some days ago

Ola Orekunrin is a 26 years old medical doctor and founder of Flying Doctors Nigeria, the first air ambulance service in West Africa. Her start-up is a social enterprise providing urgent air ambulances to leading health institutions, insurance companies and private individuals throughout West Africa.

Dr. Ola an exemplary product of England’s Foster care system, was raised in a working class home by foster care parents where she quickly learned the value of hard and smart work. Dr. Ola later applied these skills learnt in her childhood to put herself through school with jobs in retail, modeling and administration. Undeterred by the challenges (financial included) that seemingly blocked her path, Dr. Ola graduated medical school at age twenty one (21), becoming the youngest doctor to graduate in the entire country. With such impressive credentials and brilliance, you would think she would settle for working at England’s prestigious acute care facilities/hospitals. She had a different agenda.

Encounter With A BlackBerry Babe

What’s your BB pin?”, she asked conceitedly, raising her BlackBerry screen-glazed eyes. Her fake Yankee accent was drowned by rancorous voices and the din of the heavy metal music blaring from the Hi-fi speakers of the high-end nightclub in the heart of Victoria Island, Lagos. Even when she was just sitting across the table as we both share a drink, I could barely hear her.

Just as I could not make any sense out of our conversation in the entire time we spent together that evening. To add to my misery even now as I reflect on my experience that night, it is difficult to tell if my inability to understand my young female guest was due to her contrived foreign accent or the frequent interruptions from her “pinging” and the instant messages that kept coming into her BlackBerry phone.

Her obsessive romance with her phone, which repeatedly came in the way of our acquaintance, can be likened to having a conversation with the deaf. So, I had proceeded to ignore this new question; one of the many she had asked, while she took intermittent pauses, with the usual vacant look, from her dialogue with her imaginary phone character, intent on ruining my evening.

I was going to treat her new enquiry like a rhetorical question; but leaning close to me, she asked the question again, insisting on an answer. Her persistent question about my BlackBerry status threw me off balance for a moment.

Nse Ikpe Etim has a Step Son, Jermaine Sule

Nse Ikpe Etim got married to Clifford Sule a couple of weeks ago in a civil ceremony on Valentine's day. For me, being that Feb 14 was also my anniversary, I found it very romantic especially knowing that this was the same guy she had dated and loved as a teenager.

Now the journalists and reporters who will not investigate real news have dug up the fact that she is a step mother to her husband's 15 years old son. The few comments I've seen are not very complimentary, but from my perspective, it is a double blessing. She is marrying her love, and she is getting a child in the bargain. And her two men cook too! LOL....

Congrats once again, Nse. And all the best.

More pictures when you continue...

We Found 28 February Man Candy - Dbanj Kokomaster

I was still in Nigeria when Dbanj hit the music scene with Tongolo and some of his earlier songs. The guy in whose car I heard that album the first time saw me singing and nodding along, and explained the songs to me. Since then, Dbanj rhymes with sexy in my head. Atala and I danced to his Fall in Love at our wedding :)

Dbanj rounds off our February Man Candy line up for staying the course and moving even higher. All the best to him.

Fun Facebook Teaser - What Am I?

I saw the following teaser on several of my friend's walls and on some pages too, and the answers got me laughing so hard. Who has seen it, and what is your answer? I have added some multiple choice answers so you can have maximum fun with it, LOL...

My name is Funmi, I used my friend to set up my boyfriend to see if he'll cheat on me. Now they have sent me a wedding IV......WHAT AM I?
A. Beginner
B. Matchmaker
C. Single Again.
D. Other

Tonto Dike Releases New Single - Jeje

Tonko Dike is a Nollywood actress who recently ventured into the music industry with two singles “Its Over” and “Hi” released in October 2012. She has just released another single titled “Jeje” and it is produced by Jospo.

First off, congrats to Tonto and kudos on her hardwork.

Jeje is a danceable tune with an up-beat tempo but the vocals, while stronger than her previous offering still has a long way to go. Or maybe it's the overwhelming auto-tune? I won't be surprised if this goes on to become a hit like the others though :)

Listen and decide.