NAIJAFEED

Monday, March 5, 2012

IT Crowd's Richard Ayoade giving geekdom a new dimension

Richard Ayoade was born in 1977 to a Nigerian father and Norwegian mother and was educated at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge. Other than being an English comedian and actor, he has also tried a hand in music-related film directing. While at Cambridge, he became president of the prestigious Footlights.

In 2000, he appeared on Garth Marenghi's Fright Knight, a show he co-wrote with Matthew Holness. The show was nominated for a Perrier Award and a year later its sequel which he also co-wrote, won the Perrier Comedy Award. He and Holness took the Marenghi character to Channel 4 later on, and this spawned the spoof horror comedy series Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.

His stage appearances include those in The Mighty Boosh where he played the dangerous villain Dixon Bainbridge. In 2005, he appeared in Nathan Barley as Ned Smanks. He later gained even more recognition in Britain, when he played Maurice Moss on Channel 4's The IT Crowd. He later reprised the role in the American version, produced by the NBC network. Ayoade's role is that of a computer geek who happens to be friends with another computer nerd.

Together they make up the IT function of a small company which banishes them to the basement of their building. Their lives pretty much revolve around technology until they meet Jen, an attractive woman who knows how to make people listen to what she has to say. Little by little she teaches them how to live their lives to the fullest and make the best out of things which are not confined to the basement where they dwell.

However, he co-wrote the stage show Garth Marenghi's Fright Knight with Matthew Holness, appearing in the show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2000 where it was nominated for a Perrier Award. In 2001 he won the Perrier Comedy Award for co-writing and performing in the sequel to Fright Knight, Garth Marenghi's Netherhead.

In 2004 Ayoade and Holness took the Marenghi character to Channel 4, creating the spoof horror comedy series Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. He directed and also appeared as Dean Learner, Garth's publisher, who plays Thornton Reed, a hospital administrator who bears a trademark shotgun and answers to hospital boss "Won Ton".

Ayoade's Darkplace character, Dean Learner, was resurrected in 2006 to host a comedy chat show, Man to Man with Dean Learner, on Channel 4. The different guests were played each week by Holness.

Ayoade is now a recognisable face in Britain owing to his role as the technically brilliant but socially awkward Maurice Moss in Channel 4's The IT Crowd. In 2008 he won the award for an outstanding actor in a television comedy series at Monte-Carlo Television Festival for his performance.

Also in 2008, Ayoade co-starred with Joel McHale in an unaired Americanisation of The IT Crowd pilot, reprising his character without any changes to his appearance or character.

Since then, Richard Ayoade has appeared on a number of other productions. He was seen on Man to Man with Dean Learner and Snuffbox, before he signed on for a role in Bunny and the Bull.

Leadership

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje talks G.I. Joe

Nigeria criticizes South Africa deporting 125 Nigerians

Chairman of House Representatives committee on Diaspora Affairs Rep. Abike Dabiri-Erewa has criticised the deportation of 125 Nigerians by the South African government.

In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, Dabiri-Erewa condemned the act, describing it as "continuous unwarranted hostilities against Nigerians by the South African government."

The Nigerians were deported from South Africa on Friday over yellow fever vaccination card.

The 125 Nigerians, who arrived in South Africa on Thursday, were deported on Friday. 75 of them went aboard South African Airways while 50 followed Arik Air.

She described the South African government's action as degrading and asked the Federal government to apply the rule of reciprocity to South Africans coming to Nigeria.

"It is pathetic that 125 Nigerians, the highest so far, which include women and children, were delayed for 24 hours without water and food in an inhumane condition before being bundled back to Nigeria," she said in the statement.

The lawmaker recalled various role Nigerians including women and children played in dismantling apartheid in South Africa.

Dabiri-Erewa also recalled how South African businesses like MTN and Multi-Choice owners of DSTV among others are thriving in Nigeria better than any part of Africa without any form of molestation from the Nigerian government.

Daily Trust

South Africa deports 125 Nigerians

South Africa deports 100 Nigerians

South Africa deports 125 Nigerians

For alleged failure to provide genuine yellow fever vaccination documentation, South Africa Friday deported some 125 Nigerians that arrived the country on Thursday through South African Airways (SAA) and Arik Air.

THISDAY learnt that SAA returned 75 passengers to Nigeria while Arik Air brought back 50 passengers. Among those deported were Nigerians who have been living in South Africa for several years.

Reacting to the action of the South African government, Nigerian's major carrier Arik Air announced the suspension of its flights to that country.

In a statement issued by the airline and signed by its head of communications, Adebanji Ola, Arik said it has taken the decision to temporarily suspend all flight operations between Lagos, Nigeria, and Johannesburg, South Africa with immediate effect.

"The decision to suspend the daily B737-800 service between the two financial hubs was taken due to the ongoing dispute between international airlines operating into Johannesburg and the Port Health Authorities over Yellow Fever documentation being presented to authorities at OR Tambo International Airport by passengers.

"Many of the passengers have been detained and refused entry into the country in recent months. The Port Health Authorities cite the reason being incorrect or un-recognised batch numbers on the documentation which is mandatory proof before entrance to the country."

The airline also said the situation had escalated, culminating in hundreds of Nigerian and West African passengers travelling from the region being refused entry including 50 Arik Air passengers today (March 2, 2012).

"Arik has reached the conclusion that the irregular and obfuscating nature of this protocol is having an impact on its passengers and does not wish to proceed with operations into a country where its customers are at risk of detainment or any other measures meted out arbitrarily by the authorities."

Arik Air also said its top official in South and Central Africa, Rodger Whittle, had been attempting to secure an answer for the decision to refuse 50 of its passengers yesterday morning, but the Head of South African Port Health Authorities had refused to speak to the head of operations of the airline in South Africa.

Group CEO/President of Arik Air, Dr. Michael Arumeni-Ikhide, said, "We are not prepared to stand-by and watch as our passengers reach their destination after an over-night flight only to be met with a protocol and procedure that is at best haphazard and at worst discriminatory to many of our passengers.

"Whilst we are being informed that the current crack-down is not unique to Nigeria and its inbound passengers, we are taking a stand by temporarily suspending this daily operation to show the Port Health Authorities we are simply not prepared for our customers to be treated in this manner.

"I hope that the matter can be resolved so that we can start up operations again as we obviously have a number of passengers booked in the coming days but I think they will agree with our decision and support our stand. Our priority is our passengers and we will ensure that everything is done to re-accommodate them whilst this situation is clarified and resolved in an agreeable manner to all carriers that are involved in this."

The insistence of South African government to demand yellow fever vaccination document, known as Yellow Fever card, from Nigerian passengers has been a recurrent controversial issue, which many Nigerians believe is a way to discourage citizens from Africa's most populous nation from visiting the country that shed off its apartheid regime in 1994.

The image-maker of South Africa Airways in Nigeria, Mr. Tope Awe, explained that the national carrier made efforts to ensure that its Nigerian passengers were not deported, including trying to authenticate their yellow fever vaccination documents, the country's government still insisted that those passengers that did not satisfy the expectations of the officials of South Africa's port health must be forced back to Nigeria.

An informed industry source told THISDAY that although the request for Yellow Card was not discriminatory of airline, it could be said to be discriminatory against some countries. The source wondered why some Nigerians resident in that country for some time now were also sent back home.

The source argued that South African government might have contacted the Port Health in Nigeria to be acquainted with the identity numbers of the Yellow Card for the officials to know which ones were not genuine.

The yellow fever vaccination was supposed to be administered by the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and other health centres in the local government councils which were supposed to issue yellow fever certification, but South Africa argued that most of the Yellow Cards were fake.

An industry operator told THISDAY that there has been a strain in the relationship between Nigeria and South Africa over the controversial vaccination and other visa and immigration issues.

In 2001, the then Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Kema Chikwe, was held hostage by the South African Port Health, which insisted that Chikwe must be vaccinated and quarantined, but the former Minister resisted it and the issue was later resolved by the Nigerian embassy in that country.

Earlier in 2000, former President Olusegun Obasanjo visited South Africa and as he addressed the business community in that country, he told them that he was aware of the way South Africa manhandled and humiliated Nigerians and treated them disrespectfully.

He, however, said he was not going to treat South Africans who wished to come to Nigeria that way but would rather facilitate their visa process, a promise that he kept and which succeeding governments also kept.

Yesterday, the aviation source disagreed with Obasanjo, saying, "Nigeria should introduce the quid pro quo, the principle of reciprocity, by also treating South African citizens who come to Nigeria in the same manner".

This Day

South Africa deports 100 Nigerians

Nigeria deports 25 Chinese

UK deports 61 Nigerians

Friday, March 2, 2012

Video - Documentary on the militant rebels in the Niger Delta

Current's Mariana van Zeller travels to one of the most unstable regions in the world - Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta. She investigates what's behind the growing number of kidnappings and attacks in Africa's largest oil producer and the US's fifth largest energy supplier.

Video - The Tragedy of oil spills in the Niger Delta of Nigeria

U.S. issues travel warning to Nigeria

Violent crime committed by armed gangs and militants wearing police uniforms remains a threat to US citizens in Nigeria, the US State Department said.

The State Department issued a travel advisory warning of the risks of traveling to Nigeria. "Violent crime committed by individuals and gangs, as well as by persons wearing police and military uniforms, remains a problem throughout the country," the advisory read.

Abuja in December declared a state of emergency in parts of the country because of militant activity attributed to Islamist militant group, Boko Haram.

The advisory noted that Boko Haram took responsibility for a series of attacks in February that killed dozens of people and left many more injured. The group seeks to establish an Islamist state in a country divided along Muslim and Christian lines.

The State Department said kidnapping remains a security concern as well. Five US citizens were kidnapped in Nigeria last year and another was abducted from his vehicle in January.

The advisory said foreigners shouldn't travel to areas designated as conflict areas by the government as Abuja may likely consider such activity illegal.

"The state of emergency gives the government sweeping powers to search and arrest without warrants," the State Department warned.

Daily Trust