Dear esteemed reader In our usual style, we have an all-round package for you. This week, Enam Obiosio looks at the man T.M Aluko, his life, works and pen, even at 90. Obinna Emelike tells you how to discover the goldmine in Nollywood. Wale Haastrup highlights different lounges now available for business travellers at newly built MMA 2. CONTENTS Travel + Leisure Starters . Read more... Beauty&Style Music&Gadgets
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Feel of nature from the balcony
By PAUL OJENAGBON
The balcony is a platform
that is built on the upstairs
outside wall of a
building, with a wall or rail around it. You can get out into a balcony 
from an upstairs room.
To imagine a storey building without a balcony is to conceive an architectural disaster of immense proportion. It is to take finesse, wholesale, from the building. It means to have a building that is patently lacking in creative imagination and safety standards.
There is this massive estate within Amuwo Odofin that is associated with a renonwned ex-governor of the second republic dispensation in Lagos State. It is a low cost housing estate but it could have been more beautiful than it is if the buildings had balconies. Do the residents know what they are missing!
There is something very exotic about the balcony in a home. It means one can come out in the cool hours of the day especially in the evening to luxuriate in the fresh air. A very creative, inspired mind, can imagine the world at his or her door step since he is on top. Who would not want to be on top? Even daddy God is up there in Heaven and Satan far down below in hell. Perhaps, it is for the same reasoning that the top hierarchy of any organisation are likely to be on the topmost floor.
The higher the floor of the balcony, the better because from that trajectory the viewer can see much more of a wholesome world. At that high point, the gazing eyes are likely to catch an expanded picture of the scenery around. Such views would be very arresting if the surroundings are of natural landmarks such as hills, mountains, lakes, lagoons, golf or polo courses. It could even be just a luxuriant vegetation or simply a scenic landscape. Therefore, the balcony is to the building what the focal area is to camera from which a skilled photographer takes on his object. It is an observatory of some sorts.
From the perspective of a balcony, there is never a dull moment, not even when PHCN would not behave. It is very common to see family members on the balcony of their homes in the night or other times of the day, catching in on rare moments of the day. Balconies can be on the front, rear or even on the side of the building. The benefits of a balcony are better imagined and more detailed if there is an exclusive occupation. Balconies on apartment blocks cannot be utilised optimally this way, except for those occupants at the extreme corners, who would not be infringing on the right of way of their neighbours.
Some families have come to accept the balcony as a real love nest. They screen it off with mosquito nets to check the menance of intruding insects as they have their good times.
Lounges for business travellers at MMA 2
By WALE HAASTRUP
For regular travel
lers, there can be
very little to do at an airport between checking in and taking off if you have bought all your souvenirs 
and don’t fancy sitting in crowded departure lounges.
In these days of heavy rains and constant flight delays, you may have hours and hours to while away before you board the airplane. In order to enjoy your stay at the airport, managers of the Murtala Muhammed Airport terminal 2, have opened for use, world class lounges for passengers use.Speaking about the lounges which are of three categories, Amina Jambo, head of customer services of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, the aim is “to make the airport user friendly”.
As it is known worldwide, airport lounges offer free soft and alcoholic drinks, tea, coffee and snacks, fax, email and internet access and local and international newspapers and magazines. Some of the more luxurious lounges have spas, gyms, showers, steam cleaning, shoe shining and, in some cases, babysitting.
At lounges, passengers will also find more comfortable seating, quieter environments and better access to customer service representatives than in the airport terminal.All these are what MMA2 promises for air passengers, as the first lounge called the protocol/VIP lounge where government officials, such as serving and former presidents, governors, senators and heads of government parastatals can while away time before their flights.
The lounge which is opened between 6am and 9pm provides maximum service to users without charging them a dime. However, as it is a free use lounge, the number of users is limited to just the principal with not more than one or two others entering. Immediately next to the protocol lounge is the executive membership lounge, which caters for corporate organisations.To enjoy facilities of the lounge, the firm will pay for a year, allowing the managing director and two or more directors to use the airport lounge as they travel.
In this lounge, which will be opened to users by the end of the month, protocol services would be rendered freely.Jambo said, “Once you are a card carrying member, our customer service officers would be on hand to assist users as they go or come in through the airport”.
Some of the features in the lounge include wireless service, so that executives can continue with their work while waiting for their flights.Aside, there is room for coffee, teas and drinks which is on self service, though there are ushers on hand to assist.
Access to airport lounges may be obtained in several ways. In the United States , the most common is by purchasing an annual or a lifetime membership. Membership fees are sometimes discounted for elite members of an airline’s frequent flyer programme, and may often be paid using miles.
Travellers flying internationally in first class or business class are often offered free access on their days of travel. Lounge access can also be attained with an airline status card. The top levels often offer access to any of an airline’s lounges or partner airlines’ lounges, when travelling in any class of travel on any of the partner airlines (usually it is required for the cardholder to be booked on one of the carrier’s flights within the next 24 hours).Generic lounges provid by an airport operator also exists. A fee is paid, which ranges from a daily fee to yearly fees or lifetime memberships.
Independent lounge programs such as Priority Pass offer lounge access for an annual fee. Premium credit and charge cards such as Diners Club International, American Express Platinum and Centurion charge cards, as well as the Morgan Stanley i24 Card, offers lounge programs for members.
As of 2008, the American Express Platinum (in some countries) and Centurion charge cards and the Morgan Stanley i24 card include Priority Pass membership. American Express also offers access to lounges belonging to partner airlines when flying with those airlines.
The number you have dialled is … No, it's not!
By PHILLIP ISAKPA
The number you have dialled is switched off, please try again later!"
"The number you have dialled is not available at the moment, please try again later!" "The number you have dialled is not reachable at the moment, please try again later!"
If those messages haven't sent you to your own personal mental/medical rehab (not to be confused with the type the awesomely talented musician, Amy Winehouse, urgently needs - our prayers are with her), then you must be a very strong woman - no chauvinism meant, I'm only according respect to womanity.
In some holier-than-thou parts of the world, you would have a blanked out exclamation: "B***** H***!" in the local newspapers, like the UK Sun or Daily Mirror or Daily Star, apparently suggesting you shouldn't swear in public. Such an exclamation will show you trying to achieve two things upon hearing those messages. First, you want to really express your frustration and disappointment that you are not getting value for the service you have paid for. Second, you really would be aiming to get a dig at the sources of those messages, for gross incompetence.
For at least some years ago, when banking was still rudimentary, when those CEOs sat in their offices arms akimbo, thinking nothing, doing nothing, but waiting in the classical 'business-as-usual' manner that our country has become infamous for, 'the grandee greying men' got a high voltage shock when some whiz kids came on the scene and aggressively 'attack' the market by offering upfront interest payments on deposits they had just secured from prospects.
"Geevu me your ten million na-ee-ra for just 30 days," we learnt the whizkids ( some of them not quite kiddy) used to say, in that typical Alaba International or Onitsha Market style. You didn't have to wait for it to come to term before ripping your benefit." So it was that a bank manager would get the money and from that same money, pay the depositor his interest and everybody smiled, every which way. You thought that was a great business model. Perish the thought! A few survived, many kissed the irons of some uncomfortable prisons while waiting for their food to be served morning, noon and night! For those who got interest payments upfront, it was great, when they managed to get out fast before their fingers got burnt.
But we are in a new era, I tell you. From being totally absorbed in the tradition of paying and seeing what you are paying for; especially grabbing it and going home with it, Nigerians appear to have become re-orientated. And thanks to the mobile phone companies who, it seems, have no business plan to do things on credit! Every thing, it seems, even those packaged for National Assembly people in the name of 'hospitality', has to be paid for upfront. See the contrast? The banks paid you interest upfront. The phone companies take your money before you have used their services. How do you know they even have a mast to serve you wherever you go (no pun intended)? And then they have their computers fitted with inappropriate messages that make you want to scream "Blue Murder!" Unfortunately, the colour of murder is red not blue, if you see what I mean.
"The number you have dialled is not available at the moment." Oh, really? I just spoke with the owner of that number on that number only seconds ago. How come he's suddenly not available? You feel like engaging in a dialogue with this monstrous machine at the other end, however you can. So you try again, hoping that they message will change to: "I have just told you the number you have dialled is not available at the moment. Didn't you hear me?" But it doesn't quite come that way. It's not a dialogue, stupid! It becomes even more annoying like every repetition is likely to get you worked up, especially if you are not having your way. You can't have your way with a machine, can you? Well, you go on thinking: "I probably dialled the wrong number, let me check." You are beginning to doubt yourself. It is a mentally rigorous exercise. You check your numbers, they are correct. In fact, you have dialled from an 'address book' on your phone. And that's what you have always used, so you can't be wrong. No way! You scream at no one in particular. Mental fatigue is beginning to set in and you do not quite realise who's responsible for this your momentary state of mind. It's your phone company (companies, for those of us who carry mother than one phone due to inefficient services served up to us by people who care less about customer service/welfare but would rather smile to the banks week-in, week-out. And that's because people who are supposed to do something about this people actually do nothing.
To really wind you up, the machine adds another one. "The number you have dialled is incorrect. Please check the number and dial again." Funny enough, the voice doesn't sound like anybody you have listened to around you. It's very foreign, but it doesn't matter, you just want good service. So, again, you get really angry, raising your anger quotient this time. Blimey! And that's foreign and borrowed, too, of course. What a plonker that! How can it be 'incorrect', again, only after speaking with the owner of the line just seconds earlier? Is it not because you dropped my call that I lost contact with the owner? I am only trying to resume an animated conversation with a lovely friend who has made light with her words, what had been a rather hectic day for me. And as you boil inside, you want to just burst out and say: "B***** H***. Get my conversation back on; otherwise I will sue you for inefficient service delivery after collecting my money upfront.
But that's really you beginning to feel like you are in America or Western Europe, where compensation seeking has taken a culture of its own, and the courts are there to serve justice in quick time so you, the cheated, and the cheater can move on and bring closure to a rather sad encounter with each other. But that's beside the point. How is it really possible for a system to be so wrong, so misleading, across the board? Why is it that the mobile networks all seem to have this common problem, of making customers feel that it is their fault that a number they had saved on their phone, when re-dialled, suddenly turns out to be wrong? You might not know this, fellow indulgees, there are many thousands of people who daily are beginning to doubt their own state of mind, no thanks to inaccurate, false, and misleading automated messages served up by mobile phone companies. And who would blame them?
You can trust people are going ballistics, on being told, "check the number and dial again," by that foreign voice at MTN, GLOBACOM, CELTEL or is it ZAIN (?), Multilinks Mtel, (is it still in business? And does it have its own messages? Has anyone heard them, and can they share them, if they have? And is the voice local, suggesting evidence of having attacked amala, tuwo, akpu, uzi, lafun during such a person's on-going life time? We need to know these things as they will help us know 'our own' and for us to be able to locate them wherever we go (again no pun intended), and give them this piece of our mind: "You lied to me yesterday about a number I dialled through that network you work for, saying it was incorrect! Surely, you guys know the numbers are always correct. You are only taking the Mickey on us, right? Some day, the Mickey will be on you, mobile networks!
It's a question of power
By FUNKE ADETUTU
There is a strong wind of power-worship
sweeping across the Lagos Metropolis nay
Nigeria. It has been there, I must confess, but many of us are perhaps yet to take cognisance of it. Most of us are aware of the power-worship in our homes since the man of the house always wants to prove a point. He carries himself as the warlord in the home, the big man in-charge hence every other person at home must be at his beck and call. He has the last say on everything. But what he often fails to understand is that it comes to a point when his position becomes questionable.
This reminds me of an advert on STV where the speaker observed that if a man of the house never stops asserting that he is the man of the house then he is not a man because he does not have to bring who he is to people's consciousness. Simply put, his position speaks for itself. This clearly points to the fact that power-people need small, narrow, shut-in worlds where they can demand for respect rather than earn it. They never feel secure in the big, wide flexible universe where there are too many cross-currents of opposing thoughts.
This sums up the experience I had with Agberos few weeks back. Even in their little comfort zones, Agberos popularly called touts, or better still "area boys" like the police, are really welding powers. They contribute in no little measure to the hike in transport fare. They are always bent on sniffing out the last kobo from the pocket of bus conductors and the drivers. But these lots are welders of power in corruption.
The taxi I rode in from Stadium Bus/Stop, Surulere was overtaken by a Coaster bus that was rather in a hurry to get to the bus stop to scoop the 'booty' of waiting passengers into his bus. Just as the elated bus driver manoeuvred his way back onto the road, an Agbero appeared from nowhere to demand for his own share of the loot. A serious argument soon ensued between the warring parties and the driver drove off fiercely leaving his conductor behind. It was like the drama had just begun, as the Agbero pursued the conductor towards the adjoining road to Alaka.
"At this hour of the night, wetin you dey do for bus stop?" screamed the driver at the top of his voice while popping out his head from the window. "You be tif, I no go gif you any money. E don late no be dis time you supos dey collect money."
At this point, the conductor had jumped on the bus hanging menacingly, but firmly on the tail end of the bus. Frustrated, the Agbero picked up a stone which he hurled lamely at the moving vehicle. From all indications, this unplanned rigorous exercise had sapped out the energy from his sodden Indian hemp body.
As if that experience was not enough. On the said night, the same bus was accosted by a group of policemen. "Were you trailing the bus," you asked? Far from it, I was only being able to be a part of this because the road which leads to Costain from Alaka is bad, hence vehicular movement was at a snail speed.
"ol' it, shouted the policeman waving the wooden rod in his hand, to signal it to a halt.
"Settle am fast-fast make I comot here," the driver shouted at the conductor.
"Oya, take," said the conductor, shuffling a dirty-looking fifty naira note into the hand of the policeman.
"What number, number?" Asked the conductor from the policeman who had moved to the next bus for another "White" as fifty naira note is now being called by bus drivers and their likes.
This attitude of forcefully extorting money from innocent citizens all boils down to the question of power. Everything that takes place in this country is a result of some kind of power that somebody, somewhere is able to garner. Power is a continuum which power mongers lend a hand to. Consequently, they use it as a tool of oppression. This must stop, because it's simply bad!
Dress code bill: A vote of allegiance?
By FUNKE ADETUTU
It was mid March, 2008. It was no
joke when it was first announced
in the National Assembly that the
fate of the Nigerian woman in terms of
her dressing was about to be sealed. The Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters is determined to pass the Sexual Offences and Public Nudity, Sexual Intimation and Other Related Offences bills into law. With the recent on-going public hearing of the committee, like characters in a movie, the scene is playing out before all Nigerian women.
Indeed, a woman has an ocean of wrongs too deep for any plummet just as an African American has an ocean of wrongs that cannot be fathomed. There are two great oceans for the Negro; in one is the black man, and in the other is the woman, who also suffers from double woes, first as a black and second as a woman, simply put, she suffers from double agony.
The “isms” have once again been pitted against the woman. Sexism like the racism issue, has taken the deepest root in the Nigerian society that is largely patriarchal. It appeared the folly witnessed in Lagos last year of police hounding skimpily dressed ladies was about to assume a national character. In every domain where patriarchy reigns, women are seen as the ‘other’. She is marginalised, defined only by her difference from male norms and values which means by what she allegedly lacks that men allegedly have. Just as the colonisers saw themselves (as opposed to the colonised) as the embodiment of what a human being should be, the proper self, women are seen as the ‘other’, different and inferior.
This perhaps explains why it has become the norm for ladies to be pulled or shouted at in market places by sales boys and shop owners who are either eager to call their attention to what they have for sale or to poke fun or yell at women because of their mode of dressing. Little did many know that in a short while the National Assembly will join forces with these market boys to put a stop all form of ‘indecent’ dressing.
The story of Seun Akanbi (not real names) is instructive as she tearfully narrates her ordeal at a popular market in Lagos. Shout of ‘Asewo! Asewo! Asewo trailed her footsteps few weeks ago when she stopped by at the market to purchase a few things for her upkeep. She was clad in a simple lace top on a pair of jeans while moving from one stall to the other when a group of market boys pulled and yelled at her from all sides. She narrowly escaped being stripped naked.
It is for this reason that many people, men and women are expressing concern on the dress code bill which they believed if passed into law will no doubt empower the policemen who are hitherto more than willing to molest women as soon as the opportunity presents itself. “A slight provocation is all they need,’ says Akin Lawal, a banker who is not totally in support of the bill.
While delivering a lecture at the University of Lagos, Eruvebetin, a professor of literature says for any law to be made about indecent dressing, it’s important to define the concept of indecency it self.
“What do you regard as indecent, is the obvious question that should logically come to mind. You must be able to define it. If the woman is seen as being indecently dressed what then should one say about the men? Women should not be restricted in any way when it comes to dressing,” he says.
Some gender experts believe that the dress code bill which is about to be passed at by the National Assembly is another motif deeply rooted in patriarchal ideology. Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, a gender expert, agrees with the fact that many older women wear dresses suitable for those in their twenties even those in their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s who are already mothers of grown children. Yet, this does not call for a dress code bill. She has a divergent view on this issue as a gender specialist who believes in equal right for both men and women.
“I believe that men and women should be given equal right in every area of life but when you now devalue your womanhood, it is very pathetic even though some women might say if they go naked is it anybody’s problem. A mother is like a role model to her children she is supposed to be well dressed. Children are very sensitive and they are vulnerable to pick up habits from adults. It is therefore important for mothers to be good role models to their children. They shouldn’t bare it all when they dress.”
She is equally of the opinion that nobody has the right to legislate to another how to dress. “Let us have that freedom to wear what we like but let it be decent. You may ask me what is decent. What I define as decent is what you wear that people don’t feel repulsed or angry and certain degree of emotion didn’t come up. It’s true that some people find those who dress indecently attractive, but the truth really is that many people don’t find them attractive. A lot of people feel offended when they see women who exposed their boobs. It requires intelligence to do the right thing at the right time. It is understandable if a woman wears swim suit or a bikini by the beach side but that kind of dressing suits the occasion.”
“I have been trying to figure out why the National Assembly thinks that the fundamental problem that should attract their attention in our country today is the types of dress Nigerians wear and I have found none other than legislative idleness. Without mincing words, apart from school pupils who can have uniform prescribed for them by their authorities, there is nobody who has the right to tell any adult Nigerian what to and not to wear,” says Kunle Stone, a legal practitioner.
Patrick Oloko, a lecturer at the department of English, University of takes a cultural look at this issue. As a specialist in the field of gender equality, he believes notion of woman is very important as the society already have cultural attitudes towards issues bothering on womanhood. “When you see a youth, he explains, she is likely to behave like a young girl. She will dress the way she has seen people dress on television but as she grows up, by the time she gets to twenty, twenty-two or twenty-five years of age, one will discover that she will begin to change this attitude because the reality of life will begin to dawn on her. There’s a self-correction mechanism both in our culture and in our development that can correct these things. It is not necessary to pass a dress code bill because there is really no use in making a law that people won’t respect or obey. As children, women continue to dress in that way because it is in the sphere of their development to behave in the way they are doing but in a short while, they will correct these things. If such law is made that is like passing a law to quench taste.”
Some argue that passing such a law is like infringing on the right of women but Oloko is quick to caution those who belong to this school of though that: “I don’t really believe that people have the right to do things the way they like. If you go to countries where people have serious respect for the rule of law, there is also a law against indecent exposure. I don’t think that this thing has you do with issues relating to human right or the right to dress any how. It’s also about infringing on other people’s rights. The question is how do you enforce such law? Will police men be on the streets at night to arrest prostitutes? We all know that after a certain time of the day the law dies in Nigeria. I really don’t think it is something that can work.” Ezeigbo equally shares this view even as someone who believes strongly in gender equality. But when we do things we must consider the right of the next person too. If you know that there is something you like which will destroy the next person, you must find a way of doing away with such thing. Do it in the privacy of your room when you are alone not when the other person is there.
When you are alone you can do it when the other person is not there. Let’s say you have a child, who is asthmatic, I’m sure you will not want to bring up something that will trigger such an attack even though you may like such thing. Or if you have a child who is allergic to certain food items, you won’t include lift in the family meal unless you will cook a separate meal for the child which is more stressful.”
Return of analog recording studios
By OSA AMADI
With the tremendous advances in recording technology, this has no doubt brought aboutsignificant revolution in music production and 
recording. Before the advent of digital recording studios, the works of a musician needed to be among the best before it could be put on vinyl. This is because it costs millions of naira to book an analog studio and print the song on LPs and audio cassettes.
Digital recording technology, however, changed all that. Now, with a few hundred thousands of naira, any musician can have his works on compact disc or DVD, thanks to digital recording technology.
The differences between analog and digital have to do with the ways in which sounds are recorded and stored. Actual sound waves consist of continuous variations in air pressure. Representations of these signals can be recorded in either digital or analog formats.
An analog recording is one where the original sound signal is modulated onto another physical medium such as the groove of a gramophone disc or the iron oxide surface of a magnetic tape. A physical quality in the medium such as the intensity of the magnetic field or the path of a record groove is directly related to the physical properties of the original sound. Another name for this direct relationship is analogous. That is why it is called analog.
But a digital recording is produced by converting the physical properties of the original sound into a sequence of numbers. Those sounds can then be stored and played back for reproduction. The accuracy of the conversion process depends on the sampling rate and the sampling depth. However, unlike analog recording, which depends critically on the long-term durability of the fidelity of the waveforms recorded on the medium, the physical medium storing digital samples is essentially immaterial in playback of the encoded information so long as the original sequence of numbers can be recovered.
Both analog and digital systems of recordings have their advantages and disadvantages. Those who favour analog systems say it avoids the fundamental error mechanisms which are present in digital audio systems. But the digital system has high levels of performance including excellent linearity in the audible band and low levels of noise and distortion.
Accurate and high quality sound reproduction is possible with both analog and digital systems. One of the most limiting aspects of analog technology, however, is the sensitivity of analog media to physical degradation. The principal advantages that digital systems have is very uniform source fidelity, inexpensive media duplication costs, and direct use of the digital signal in today’s popular iPod-type ultra-portable playback devices. Analog recordings by comparison require comparatively bulky, high-quality playback equipment to capture the signal from the media as accurately as digital.
Unlike analog duplication, digital copies are usually exact clones, which can be duplicated indefinitely without degradation. Digital systems have the ability for the same medium to be used with arbitrarily high or low quality encoding methods and number of channels or other content, unlike mechanically pre-fixed speed and channels of practically all analog systems.
There are also several non-sound related advantages of digital systems that are practical. Non-sequential (random) access, owing to their disk or memory-based nature, makes editing much easier and allowing the listener greater flexibility when choosing tracks. Most digital systems also allow non-audio data to be encoded into the digital stream, such as information about the artist, track titles, etc.
The cheapness of digital recording is however responsible for the excessive proliferation of recorded music today. Anyone who can open his or her mouth and produce a sound runs to a digital studio and produces a CD. Many of these so-called musicians cannot, after the recording, play the same songs they have on CD, during a live performance. This is because most of the sounds on the CD are computer-generated.
Even with all the advantages the digital studios have over analog, the analog appears to be making a comeback. This is due to the advantages musicians have in rehearsing as a band and going into an analog studio to record their works. The product is always unique because it a blending of the different musical skills and inspirations of the different musicians. With the return of the analog studios, the Nigerian music industry may be on its way to recapture its lost old glory.