Ibukun's Blog

Nigerian Female Footballers beg for the release of the kidnapped school girls, and they are doing what they can to keep the issue in the public eye. The 100th day of #BringBackOurGirls is aimed at highlighting the potential of sports to bring back the abducted Chibok girls. In commemoration of the 100 days since the abduction of over 200-school girls in Chibok, Nigeria, some women football players in Abuja took to the playing field for a “100 days football Match for the missing Chibok Girls,” on Tuesday, July 22. The match was played between two football teams in Abuja - the Dream Girls Women, and the Airtel Girls FC. It ended with a score of 1-0 in favor of the Dream girls. With the abduction of the Chibok school girls and Boko Haram's nonstop attack on Nigerians in the North-East, the event organizer Aderonke Ogunleye, an award winning journalist and social change initiator, thought it very relevant to ask for their return using sports. Ms. Ogunleye said she organized ...

The Bring Back Our Girls campaign, vowing that the Nigerian Citizen will not be silenced, has announced events on July 23 to mark the 100th day of the abduction of 276 girls from their school by Boko Haram. Of that number, 219 girls remain in captivity, while 57 have escaped, the group said in a statement today, adding that the families and community have suffered deep anguish seeking effective rescue to end the peril that befell their daughters who had gone to school in search of knowledge. “Citizens who have insisted on standing with our girls and ensuring they are not forgotten are heartbroken that our daughters and sisters are about to spend 100 days with their evil captors,” the statement said, hours after President Goodluck Jonathan finally met with the families at his convenience in Abuja. “In those 100 days, the Bring Back Our Girls Campaign has focused on creating awareness of the abduction to ensure that it is a priority issue requiring action and compelling the right...

The Director-General of Nigeria’s State Security Service (SSS), Ita Ekpeyong, said today that the Nigerian government was aware of the location of more than 200 high school girls kidnapped on April 14 by insurgents belonging to the Islamist group, Boko Haram. According to Mr. Ekpeyong, “Nigerians can go to bed.” The DG’s assertion came as some security sources assured SaharaReporters that release of most of the abducted girls would happen soon following secret negotiations between members of the Jonathan administration and representatives of Boko Haram. One source stated that the increasing confidence evident in the pronouncements of government officials and security agents came from the advanced stage of the negotiations with the abductors. The source added that the Jonathan administration was working to maximize the political gain from the release of the abducted girls. “The plan is to secure the release of the Chibok girls around the 100th day of their abduction,” the source...

What is your background and how did you get started? I had somewhat of an international upbringing as I spent my childhood going back and forth between the United Kingdom and our family home in Nigeria. After returning to London in 1999 and completing my A-levels in Mathematics, Accounting and Economics, I moved to the United States in 2001 to attend the University of South Alabama and earn my Bachelor’s Degree in Finance with a Minor concentration in Marketing. I later joined a mortgage company in Alabama as an Account Executive. The company was one of the first to be hit by the demise of the sub-prime mortgage market and subsequently closed. I then teamed up with some co-workers and formed an independent mortgage brokerage. Years later, anticipating the global financial crisis of 2007-2008, I decided to make a career transition into commercial banking. In 2013 however, my entrepreneurial inclinations beckoned and I found myself itching to get back into business for myself...

356 BC  – The  Temple of Artemis  in  Ephesus , one of the  Seven Wonders of the World , is destroyed by  arson . 230  –  Pope Pontian  succeeds  Urban I  as the eighteenth  pope . 285  –  Diocletian  appoints  Maximian  as  Caesar  and co-ruler. 365  – A  tsunami  devastates the city of  Alexandria, Egypt . The tsunami was caused by the  Crete earthquake estimated to be 8.0 on the  Richter scale . 5,000 people perished in Alexandria, and 45,000 more died outside the city. 1242  –  Battle of Taillebourg  :  Louis IX of France  puts an end to the revolt of his vassals  Henry III of England  and Hugh X of Lusignan . 1403  –  Battle of Shrewsbury : King  Henry IV of England  defeats rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire ,  England . 1545  – The first landing of  French  ...