Young and In Charge: Ugonma Chiori

'One particular day, I had made up my mind to quit baking, get a real job then keep baking as a side hustle. I ran into a group of children I had baked cupcakes for and they screamed,"Aunty Cupcake Aunty Cupcake"... I teared up, nobody understood why.' When the motivation for what you do goes beyond the monetary compensation that comes at the end of a successful job, the will to keep on moving even when defeat is staring you in the face never runs out. Our YIC of the month has a couple of lessons to teach us, from never giving up to starting small. It promises to be an interesting read and I hope you enjoy getting to know baker extraordinaire, Ugonma Chiori, as much as I did.

Let’s start by getting to know you a little bit. Tell us a little about yourself, from childhood till now. 

I'm from Abia State but I was born and brought up in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. I had all my education in Akwa Ibom State, my family stays there so basically, I am an "Uyo babe". I am a baker, blogger, choreographer, fitness enthusiast. I'm a 3rd generation baker. I have vague memories of my maternal grandmother baking, sewing...you see, she was a Home Economics teacher. I remember my mother used to bake for leisure but later in life, I found myself doing it as a business. However, before I became a baker, I used to be a "makeup artiste". Actually, I have always been a "business woman". Back in the University, I sold everything ranging from chocolates to sweets to dresses my mother bought for me I was a Mary Kay/Avon sales rep... I sold everything. "Do you like it? Do you want it? Okay, bring money". Yes, that was me. 

Just My 2Kobo: South Africa! Xenophobic Attacks, Maka' Why

 Ngozi .G. Izuora

 

Being simply speech less is the reaction on the lips of many in relation to this subject matter. People have only but imagined, especially for us Nigerians in Nigeria we are disgusted by this reaction from South Africans for whatever reason why should you harm your fellow African not to even talk less of any one? What are the underlying issues from this outburst which reared its ugly head as far back as 2008? 

Young and In Charge: Osasogie Uwaifo

Running a successful business is never easy, "but when find something you love doing, you would always find time for it". As long as the passion is present, every other thing is secondary, but also as important. Our Young person of the month shows us that passion supported with hard work, gives birth to success. Meet Osasogie Uwaifo, she is young, creative and in charge.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I'm just a young woman trying to make her dream work. LOL

Bridging the Patient - Doctor Gap

When was the last time you had to visit a hospital?

What was the experience like? Did you have to wait long hours to get registered before seeing the doctor? How long did you have to wait to see the doctor? What was the environment? Crying babies, wicked nurses, hot waiting rooms?

Would you be willing to adopt a technology that makes your visits to the doctors relatively non existent? Would you be willing to have your doctor at your finger tips? Did you know that, that mobile phone you are using to read this could bridge the patient - doctor gap?

Please take this survey to help a PHD students research on a technology that we are all waiting for. Just click on the link below to take the survey, it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes. Thanks alot for your time.

https://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/coventry/madukapghdpilotv1/

Better Nigeria: The Price Of Change

BY IPHIE OBIECHINA

What price are you willing to pay to ensure that the change you want to see in Nigeria is a reality? We go on and on about how we need things to change in Nigeria and in the same breath we support actions that have left us where we are today. We say we want change but by our actions and sometimes our words show otherwise. We pay lip service to the idea of change without putting in any work to bring about that change.

FreeFormFitness

Art Imitating Life: When Love Hurts

‘He would do it again’, she said quietly.

They remained silent for a few seconds, staring into space. ‘I don’t think so’ she finally answered, ‘he has promised it would never happen again, he is very sorry, he has been apologizing ever since. We love each other, I know it wouldn’t happen again’.

Ngozi sighed, ‘they always say they would change, but they never do’, she goes on her knees, ‘please sister you can leave now, the bride price can be returned, its not too late sister’.

JUST MY 2 KOBO: WaZoBia

BY IPHIE OBIECHINA

Have you ever been amongst a group of people, when suddenly, the people who understand a common language switch to that language? They decide it is ok to ignore the language understood by everyone in the group, that common language usually being English. There is nothing as rude and annoying as switching to a language understood by a select few in the group.

Better Nigeria: Is Buhari The Change We Need?

By Iphie Obiechina 

CHANGE!!!

A word we have heard a lot of in this New Year, it has to be the Nigerian word for 2015, and we haven't even gone through the first month of the new year.

This word has become a slogan for the APC, it has been a word rolling on the lips of almost every Nigerian, whether old or young, but most especially the young Nigerians. Before I go into what my opinion on what change should really mean and what it has come to mean to the average voting Nigerian, I would first like to see what the dictionary defines the word change to mean.

The word change has a lot of meanings, but I would go with the ones closest to the meaning of the change we have been chanting about in Nigeria. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines change to mean ‘to make (something) radically different”,  ‘to replace one with another’, ‘to make a shift from one to another”. Going by these different meanings stated, change is simply the process of making something different from the norm, something different from what we are used to. In Nigeria, the word change has come to be associated with the presidential candidate of the APC, General Muhammadu Buhari, in this light change can be taken to mean something or rather someone different from our present leader, His Excellency Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Better Nigeria: Little Me, Powerful Me

By Iphie Obiechina

Everyday I see things that make me wonder if we are really interested in the change we are all clamouring for, more often than not it is the little thing we do, which we take for granted that makes me wonder. On Sunday morning while trying to get to church, I saw something that again caused me to wonder if we really want this change, I would need to give some background information to help you understand where I am coming from. If you are catholic, you know that this is the peak period for harvest and bazaar activities, and my church like any catholic church in Nigeria, is the middle of harvest activities. What this invariably means is that, masses that were ordinarily wrapped up in under 2 hours now have an additional 30 minutes added to it, automatically this means that people who are coming for the 8am and 10am masses get stuck in traffic while waiting for the earlier masses to be done, so the parking lot can be vacated by those who attended that mass.

JUST MY 2Kobo: HEY I AM NIGERIAN, DO YOU LIKE MY FAKE ACCENT?

BY IPHIE OBIECHINA

What is it with our actors and actresses, our TV presenters and our On Air Personalities (OAPs) and having a fake accent? Most of them just make sounds without communicating; my imaginary dog can do that

I listen to the radio a lot, especially when I am driving alone, I like to have the 'presence' of another person in the car with me, LOL, weird right? But I have had to buy a lot CDs because instead of listening to the fake accent all day, I prefer to listen to music. And it annoys me because there is this presenter I love so much, we share the same ideas on so many things but I just can't stand the fake accent. I also like to listen to the news as I drive, but I can’t do that anymore? I watch Nigerian movies sometimes just for the fun of laughing at their stupidity and it is the same thing everywhere; the fake accent just pains my ears.