Facebook e-mail is going away -- in case you notice

Check your Facebook mail lately?
Didn't think so. Apparently not many others did, either. So after three-plus years, the world's largest social media outlet is pulling the plug on its little-used e-mail service, the company confirmed Tuesday.
"We're making this change because most people haven't been using their Facebook e-mail address, and we can focus on improving our mobile messaging experience for everyone," Facebook said in a statement.
For those who do have a Facebook mail account, messages will be forwarded to the primary e-mail address listed in a user's account, the company said. The changes are planned to roll out in March, and users can turn off that forwarding option if they prefer not to have their personal inboxes flooded with these messages.
"It's a little bit of bowing to the inevitable," said Justin Lafferty, editor of the trade site Inside Facebook. The e-mail addresses, which showed up as messages for Facebook users, never took off, and when Facebook tried to make them the default e-mail accounts for all users in mid-2012, "a lot of people were unhappy with that," he said.
"It was kind of rolled out to everyone regardless of what they wanted," Lafferty said.
With last week's $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp, the fast-growing messaging service, Facebook is focusing more on mobile messaging than e-mail these days.
Facebook ventured into the e-mail field in November 2010, adding the service to the messaging system already used heavily by its 1.2 billion users. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the time that the system would complement, not compete, with entrenched e-mail giants such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.
"We don't expect anyone to wake up tomorrow and say, 'I'm going to shut down my Yahoo account or my Gmail account and switch exclusively to Facebook.' But we do expect a shift to more real-time communication," he said.
Lafferty said the reversal is unlikely to be remembered in the company's annals -- much like the service itself.
"Many people probably weren't even aware of the change," he said.

Southern leaders pass confidence vote in Jonathan

Leaders of Southern Nigeria have commended President Goodluck Jonathan for the remarkable progress made in the development of critical sectors of the country’s economy, particularly in the areas of power, transport, aviation, agriculture, as well as direct foreign investment.

Rising from a Southern leaders’ summit in Calabar, Cross River State, comprising eminent Nigerians including former Vice President Alex Ekweme, Pa Olaniwu Ajayi, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, Obong of Calabar, Edidem Ekpo Okon Abasi Otu, Chief Emmanuel Inwuanyanwu, Dr. Edmond Daukuro, the Amanyanabo of Nembe Kingdom, they affirmed their support for the Jonathan administration.

The summit applauded him for the forthcoming national conference and also demanded the quick passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill currently before the National Assembly.

Participants called on the Federal Government “to revisit the issue of the loss of territory, particularly as it relates to the loss of the Bakassi Peninnsula.”

They also recommended the excision of solid minerals from the Exclusive Legislative List, just as they asked for an increase in the percentage of revenue derivation from oil and gas.”

In a communiqué read by the chairman of the event, Chief Olu Falae, the group commended President Jonathan for what it noted as his commitment and dogged efforts in combating the menace of insecurity in the country.

The summit which considered issues such as the indissolubility of Nigeria, the practice of true federalism, the current security challenges, the economy, as well as the forthcoming national conference, had delegates from the South-West, South-East and South-South, drawn from the traditional institution, the academia, public sector, politics, the judiciary, labour and religious bodies.

It said: “At the end of deliberations, we the leaders and people of Southern Nigeria, resolved as follows: That Mr. President be commended for his commitment and dogged effort in fighting the menace of insecurity and noted that in spite of these security challenges, Mr. President has made remarkable progress in the development of critical sectors of the Nigerian economy, particularly in the areas of power, transport, aviation, agriculture and direct foreign investment.

“We commit ourselves to a united and indivisible Nigeria based on the principles of justice, equity and rule of law with ample respect and understanding for cultural, linguistic and religious differences. That we endorse an increase in revenue allocation to the federating units in a way that takes cognizance of the new responsibilities and residual powers of the federating units; that in line with the principle democratic governance, decisions at the forthcoming National Conference should be by simple majority.”

Eddie Murphy’s ex-wife looks super-SEXY in two piece bikini (LOOK)

She’s hot and we know it.
46-year old Nicole Murphy who got divorced from her superstar husband Eddy Murphy  in 2006 is about to wed to football star Michael Strahan.
What can we say, Nicole Murphy is still in such incredible shape even after six children with the actor as she showed off her spectacular bikini body in Hawaii
The leggy 46-year-old was clearly best in show as she filmed scenes for her VH1 reality series Hollywood Exes – a nod to Eddie – in a miniscule bikini.

Sure she should be your ex, Eddie? Nicole Murphy was looking stunning a blue bikini on Sunday as she filmed scenes for Hollywood Exes in Maui, Hawaii

Nicole was joined by a gaggle of other ex-wives of celebrities, all of whom signed up to be part of the show, based around the fact their former flames were famous.
The reality star flattered her toned physique in a petite royal blue bikini adorned with gold beads, and added a touch of bling with a gold body chain.
Her long, toned legs were on show and her washboard stomach made it clear she had been going hard on the ab workouts.

    Floral delight: The star put a white flower behind her ear as she showed off her clearly epic figure

     Splashing about: The 46-year-old reality star looked epic as she made a few waves in the ocean

Learning new skills: Nicole looked out to sea as she stood before a paddle board on the sand

She may have been at the beach but Nicole wasn’t about to tone down the glamour so also sported large hoop earrings and elaborate gold bangles.

Her naturally stunning face was adorned with a layer of make-up, with gold eyeshadow coordinating with her accessories.

As she stood amongst her fellow cast members, Nicole stood out as the most toned of them all – perhaps because she’s working hard to get herself wedding dress ready

          Loving it: Shanna Moakler showed off her enthusiasm on the seaside set
   Why’d he break up with her? R Kelly’s ex wife Andrea Kelly showed off her splits skills on the beach

Jaw-dropping: The mother-of-five showed off her flawless figure in a blue bikini with her abs and chest endowed with a simple gold chain

The group of women were filming a segment that involved paddle board lessons and beach yoga on the sunny Sunday in Hawaii.
Cast members of the interesting reality series include Will Smith’s ex-wife Sheree Fletcher, Jose Canseco’s ex Jessica Canseco, R-Kelly’s ex Andrea Kelly, Prince’s ex Mayte Garcia and Martin Lawrence’s ex Shamicka Lawrence.
Nicole was married to Eddie Murphy – who is now dating Australian model Paige Butcher – from 1993 until 2006, and together they had five children.
Appropriately, however, VH1′s website claims that Nicole’s storylines will primarily revolve around her upcoming marriage to Michael Strahan, who currently presents Live With Kelly And Michael.

    All over red rover: Nicole Murphy was married to Eddie Murphy – pictured here at an event in Los       Angeles in 2005 – from 1993 until 2006, and together they had five children

El-Rufai once said all this.Can he reverse his statement now that they are in the same party?

          Can he reverse his statement now that they are in the same party?

Don Jazzy Laughs Off Marriage Tale With Atiku’s Daughter

Mavin Records boss, Don Jazzy has rubbished reports making the rounds that he is planning to take the daughter of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Amina, to the altar.

Tweeting via his twitter handle on Tuesday, the Delta State-born music producer debunked the rumour, claiming that there is no iota of truth in the story.

He jokingly asked, “which of the Atiku’s daughter name be Onome wey I wan marry o?” Tweeting further, he said, “Rihanna don vex dey flash me since set becos of dis una fake news. I am sorry hun.”

Some hours ago, news went viral on the internet that Don Jazzy was planning to marry the daughter of Atiku.

Recall that some months ago, Atiku said on twitter that Don Jazzy was richer than him, which caused an internet frenzy. The two are believed to be good friends.

face of BO-16: Omotola in Ghana to kick off Role as Beauty Ambassador

Nollywood superstar Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde arrived in Ghana for a visit to Ghandour Cosmetics Ltd. She was recently announced as the face of BO-16, a hair relaxer and hair care range for the Ghanaian company.

Omotola visited the office for a meeting and to see the range of products that she will endorse.

For the event, Omotola wore a chic yellow blouse, black pants, a statement necklace, gold earrings and black heels. She completed her styling with dark shades and a black Hermès birkin bag.

Shagari Urges Northern Leaders To Support Jonathan’s 2015 Ambition

In an interview with THISDAY Newspaper in Sokoto, the State’s Deputy Governor, Alhaji Mukhtari Shehu Shagari asked Northern Leaders to pay the South South region for all their support over the years by re-electing President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015.

He revealed that the Niger Delta people help the North  during the first, second and third republics to form the federal government. He further stated that there was an existing political relationship between the people of the Niger Delta and the North. He urged northern leaders to help President Jonathan remain in power come 2015

“I don’t really want to talk about the northern elders because I don’t know for whom they are speaking. But all what I am trying to say is that nobody in the North can deny the fact that there was a political relationship between the people of the North and people of the South-south brought about by the late Sardauna, Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa, Shehu Shagari and Melford Okilo.

“And that relationship has helped the North many times because it helped the North to form the government in the first republic, it helped the North to form a government in the second republic. During the 1979 presidential election, the Niger Delta people gave more votes to Shagari than the people of Sokoto and in 1983, they supported us and we won the election.

“Even when the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua came, he was given an overwhelming support by the South-south and he won the 2007 elections. I am telling you the reality that nobody can deny such relationship. So, the North should reciprocate the gesture of South-south over the years because one good turn deserves another”.

Shagari believes it is the responsibility of the North to support Jonathan’s re-election bid next year just as he urged Nigerians to support Northern candidates in the future



“And now that their own (Jonathan) is there, if he decides to go for a second term, I think we have the duty to support him and after that, the possibility of a northerner becoming a presidential candidate under the PDP is there and then we will need their support. So, the relationship between the people of the North and South-south politically is a very strong pillar of unity in this country”.

DBANJ PARTS WAY WITH KANYE WEST? DELETES G.O.O.D MUSIC FROM HIS TWITTER BIO

 In 2011, fresh off the MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West surprised a London crowd, Nigerians as well, with an announcement as he welcomed respected Nigerian enertainer D’banj into the G.O.O.D. Music family.

Fast forward to today, seems that relationship is no more. Because D’Banj has deleted G.O.O.D Music from his Twitter bio.

Kcee on leaving KCPresh: ‘I thought going solo was going to be stressful’

We thought we’ve been doing it for 12 years and we needed a change because the only thing that is constant is change. Just like the Yoruba adage that says that 20 children cannot play for 20 years. continue....

Although we never saw this coming, we always thought we would be together forever, but at the end of the day, we are doing it and we are loving it.Initially, I thought going solo was going to be stressful. I thought about how people were going to accept me as a solo artist knowing full well that I had been with Presh for about 12 years. Both of us were scared, but I thought that so far we can make people believe that we are good together as a group; we can also make them believe we can do it without each other and that was the belief. Even if you are twins, your focus can not be the same, your spirit and your drive might not be on the same platform at all times.” 

NCC Sanctions MTN, Glo, Airtel N647.5 Million Over Poor Service, Etisalat Scales Through

         Operators barred from sale of SIMs, promotional activities  • Gives Etisalat clean bill

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has sanctioned three out of the four major network operators in the country – MTN Nigeria, Globacom and Airtel – the sum of N647.5 million for breach of key performance indicators (KPIs) and poor quality of service for the month of January 2014. It however gave Etisalat a clean bill as it met all the set KPIs.
The telecoms regulator, in letters dated February 19, 2014, addressed to each of the affected companies, said after collating statistics from the network operating centres of the operators in the month of January, discovered that the services provided by MTN, Airtel and Globacom fell below the KPI published by it in 2013.


The letters, which were obtained exclusively by THISDAY from a source in the Ministry of Communications Technology, will be delivered to the three network operators today.
A breakdown of the sanctions indicate that Globacom was penalised, N277.5 million for three breaches, while MTN and Airtel got sanctioned N185 million each for two breaches.
According to the letters conveying the breaches and sanctions, the NCC set four critical KPIs – Call Setup Success Rate (CSSR), Drop Call Rate (DCR), Traffic Channel Congestion (TCHCONG) and Stand Alone Dedicated Control Channel Congestion (SDCONG).
With a target of 98 per cent for CSSR, MTN, Airtel, and Globacom failed to meet the target in January. They scored 96.85 per cent, 96.99 per cent and 96.89 per cent respectively.
In the DCR category, NCC set a target of 1 per cent. The audit report referred to by NCC in its letter stated that for the month of January, MTN and Globacom failed to meet the target, while Airtel exceeded the target with a score of 0.84 per cent.
For the SDCONG KPI, with a target of 0.20 per cent, Airtel and Globacom failed to meet the target, scoring 0.40 per cent and 0.58 per cent respectively, while MTN exceeded the target with a score of 0.17 per cent.
For the last KPI, TCHCONG, with a target of 2 per cent, all the three networks exceeded the target, as MTN scored 0.55 per cent; Globacom – 0.79 per cent; and Airtel – 0.79 per cent.
In summary, MTN failed to meet the targets set in the Quality of Service Regulations for the CSSR and DCR computations; Globacom failed to meet the targets set for CSSR, DCR and SDCONG computations; while Airtel failed to meet the targets for CSSR and SDCONG computations.
The operators are expected to pay the sanctions on or before March 7, 2014.
Should they fail to pay the sanctions within the stipulated deadline, each of them will be liable to pay N2.5 million daily, as long as the contravention persists.
Apart from the monetary sanctions, all the three operators were barred by NCC from selling new SIM cards throughout the month of March 2014, with effect from March 1 to March 31; barred from churning or deleting from their networks inactive (or non-revenue generating SIMs) during the period March 1 to March 31; barred from supplying new SIM cards from their warehouses to dealers or third parties during the same period; and stopped from all promotions until the identified KPIs considered are positively addressed.
The letters further stated: “NCC shall carry out an audit of MTN, Globacom and Airtel on March 1 and also on March 31to ensure no sale of SIM cards or churning of non-revenue generating SIMs occurred during the period, either using their network provisioning systems or directly on the HLR.
“Any deviation or alteration of patterns (in terms of average daily number of provisioning) in the remaining days of February 2014, compared to your regular provisioning rate, shall be construed a breach of this direction.”
From this audit of the performance of the telecoms operators, the Ministry of Communications Technology source confirmed that Etisalat met all KPIs for the month of January and was therefore not sanctioned by NCC.
NCC had in a letter last December issued a notice of intention to sanction the telecoms firms, if their quality of service did not improve by December 31, 2013.
It had warned: “If the quality of service does not improve by 31st of December 2013, the commission will be compelled to direct operators to, amongst others, suspend the activation of new SIMs and subscribers until such an operator can prove that it has met the key performance indicators specified in the regulations.”

VIDEO: Brandy Praises Tiwa Savage | Watch Valentine's Concert Performance

Photos from Omotola Jalade Ekeinde's birthday party

The sultry actress turned 36 on February 7th and her staff threw her a small party at their office. She shared the photos on her instagram page this morning. See more photos after the cut...

Update On One/Do Agric : D’banj, Femi kuti, Fally Ipupa, Dontom, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Victoria Kimani and Others Done With The Video Shoot

D’banj, Femi kuti, Omawumi, Fally Ipupa, Domtom, African stars of Victoria Kimani, Buffalo Soulja, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, and other to music stars teamed up in Johannesburg South Africa for One/DO AGRIC project. Twenty artists all over the continent have teamed up in one voice to make a statement in support of the slogan of the African Union for this year, which has been declared as a year of agriculture and food security.

The Paris based Nigerian international highlife singer, Dontom, was among the top voices of the project which had a line-up of the legendary Chaka Chaka of South Africa, Femi Kuti, D’banj, Omawumi, Victoria Kimonu of Kenya and a host of other international artists…the music which was produced by the creative Cohbams Asuqwo was accompanied with a video shoot by Godfather production.. This project initiative which brought together 20 artists from the continent of Africa is a move to enforce the African union declaration of this year being a year of Agriculture and food security. The crew just finished shooting the video of the must watch single today.

Diamond Celebrities talked with one of the talented artist Dontom after the shoot. “I don see my wife” crooner said the shooting was very great. He also said “I believe in the African dream, and if I can’t support the Panafrican movement on revolution, on agriculture and food security, why am I Panfricanist?

My experience being in the project is fulfilling because mixing up with about 20 African popular artists in integration and cultural cum idealistic exchange is a great lesson.

The video we learnt will soon be out.

LISTEN TO THIS, I BELIEVE IN PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN AND HIS ADMINISTRATION

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH IS HERE!

Back in the days, we only sang about our beliefs. 
I simply can’t violate my conscience; by singing about issues i do not believe in. 
I BELIEVE IN PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN AND HIS ADMINISTRATION so I sing again and yes, I still can sing!
LISTEN TO THIS

RIVERS CRISIS: Governor Amaechi Is Afraid & Federal Govt Will Arrest Him After Jonathan’s Victory –Wike

The crisis rocking Rivers State took a new dimension on Friday when the supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, said that the State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, would be arrested after the declaration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as President in 2015.

Wike explained that the Port Harcourt International Airport would be shut, including land and sea borders in the state to prevent the governor from escaping.

The minister spoke in Port Harcourt at the inauguration and handing over of 25 buses to the 23 local government chapters of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state.

He pointed that the governor was planning to run away after his tenure in 2015, adding that the governor and his cohorts will not succeed.

Making reference to the approval given by the State House of Assembly for the governor to withdraw the sum of N30bn from the State Reserve Fund, Wike added that Amaechi and his cohorts would account for the state fund they have been spending.

“They can sit in Government House and approve whatever amount of money they like for Governor Amaechi to spend. But let me tell you all now, Governor Amaechi and his friends will account for all the monies that they are appropriating and spending now.”

“Once the Independent National Electoral Commission announces the victory of President Jonathan, we will immediately shut down the Port Harcourt International Airport and all land and sea borders in Rivers State to prevent Governor Amaechi from escaping.

“Does he (Amaechi) think we don’t know that he is planning to run away? But he and his cohorts will not succeed. All they can do thereafter is to lock themselves inside the Government House and at the appropriate time, we will go there and pick them up one after the other.

“Believe me; Governor Amaechi will surely account for all our monies that he is frittering away now. We will not allow the looters of our treasury to run away from justice,” the minister said.

Wike, however, noted that no amount of humiliation from the governor or his agents would stop the PDP from winning the 2015 general election in Rivers State.

On Amaechi’s claim that Wike swore with the names of his (Wike) children that he would not betray him (Amaechi) if the governor nominated him for ministerial appointment, Wike said Amaechi was afraid of everybody.

He said, “Amaechi is afraid. We will not beg him. Why is Amaechi afraid of everybody? He is afraid that the Speaker of the House of Assembly will betray him; he is afraid that the Chief Judge recommended by the National Judicial Council will betray him. Why is Amaechi afraid of everybody? When did Amaechi become an oracle or priest that everybody will now make an appearance (before)to swear?”

In his remark, the Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, described the governor as a temporary occupant of the Government House and added that the PDP would not allow him to choose his successor in 2015.

According to Secondus, “Rivers State is PDP and Governor Amaechi cannot go against the wishes of the people. He has taken all our money to Lagos to develop the All Progressives Congress.”