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Posts tagged with "Nigeria"

Music: what I have been listening to : "Asa"

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Asa - another new singer coming from namespace Nigeria- apparently has been around for sometime. I got to know of her approximately 4+ months back, sitting on the tube on the way to work.

The free london Metro had done a quarter-page review. I rarely read reviews, but on this day, I somehow got struck by this CD cover nicely doting the newsitem on the newspaper.

Few weeks later, I got this MP3 from someone. He wanted me to 'feel it' - the latest, exiled Nigerian artist, rocking the airwaves....

At first, It sounded a little too scripted. My initial reaction was "oh!-another-generic-mix-of-bass-and-strings-passing-off-". I was wrong. I keep getting refferals, from folks to check the songs out again. At the moment, I have listened to the following tracks

Jailer + Bibanke + and 360.

They all sound soulful, modern and quite infectious if you are in your elements. Or trying to get into it.

I have played 360 up to a hundred times on my phone while on the tube, and I admit, its definetely a good mix. The strings and chords are rich, and quite simple.

The voice, Asa's voice, may not compare in mellow to a Dido, but it isn't as pitched or abrasive, like that of a Mary J. Blige. And Asa would hate to be compared in the first place....

That said, Asa does not make any attempt to emphasize the color of her voice. She just sings. She also reminds one of the colorful blend of thick and 'live' drums, infused with really low pitched Chords, a masterclass of a Sade or the the Tracy Chapmans.

What she needs, going further however, would be further releases that builds on her evolving credential, as the next performer of soulful RnB musicians, to come from the continent of the complicated....

Downloads -

360 - http://rapidshare.com/files/131271929/360.mp3

Bibanke - http://rapidshare.com/files/131274251/Asa-Bibanke.mp3

Fire on the mountain - http://rapidshare.com/files/131274540/Asa-_Fire_on_the_mountain.mp3

Enjoy!

24hours for the Nigerian Judiciary and Mallam Yaradua

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In less than 8hours from this moment, 2.13AM GMT, 5 Appeal court Justices, sitting somewhere in Abuja - Nigeria's fairytale capital - will deliver a long awaited judgement.

Background:
In 2007, Nigeria conducted presidential elections, that were assessed locally and internationally to be the worst of its kind, in terms of its cheer levels of irregularities. Mallam Yaradua (I shudder to ascribe the title President to his name) had emerged as the coronoted winner, but he was gracious enough to accept the elections were flawed in his inaugural speech.

2 of the presidential candidates - Alhaji Abububakar Atiku and former Military officer, Muhammud Buhari - had jointly contested the presidential elections, and judgement day is fixed for later today.

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To underline the importance and weight this legal question has in Nigeria, Two of the nation's biggest broadcast Networks - the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and African Independent Television (AIT) has been granted authorisation to beam live signals from the court room to the entire world. It has to be said, this is the first time, a court room would enjoy such live coverage, irrespective of the issue, on litigation.

While it is extremely hard to predict what the Court Supremos would rule, I dare say nothing short of an outright voiding of the joke of an election would NOT be welcome by the mass of the people of Nigeria.

It is indeed a moment of utter importance for the Appeal court Justices. Here is their lifetime's opportunity to etch their names, on the annals of history as the fearless souls who had the responsibility of overturning the sickening perception that Nigeria is a namespace incapable of organising a simple ballot process, in a clean, and regular manner. And I would have taken that, without a bat of the eye...

Above all, the notion that Nigerian, and Africans at large always turn to savage methodologies for dispute resolution - exemplified in the recent Kenyan experience - would be repudiated. Confidence in the independence of the Judiciary, and its capacity to dispense justice representative of the wishes of the people is already at an all time high.

The next 24hours may push it up all the way to planet Pluto.

We siddon dey look in the meantime.