The Wait is Finally Over ! - ARISE Magazine Fashion Week Retruns to Africa

“Africa's up-and-coming fashion designers put on a dazzling show in a
three-day runway event in an unconventional city.” CBS News

"[KlûK CGDT] Drama, emotional, traditional but fresh - each look had its
own story and moment." Vogue Italia Black

"The London fashion world has descended on Lagos to parade the
latest collection to put Nigeria on the fashion map." ITV News

"The gala event was the climax of ARISE Magazine Fashion Week - the
largest event of its kind ever seen on the continent." Telegraph

Due to the phenomenal success of the inaugural ARISE Magazine Fashion Week 2011, where 5,000 guests, 51 designers, 81 models, 5 musical acts performed over three days – ARISE is once again proud to announce that it will return to Lagos in March 2012.

The ARISE Magazine Fashion Week 2012 fashion extravaganza will run for an extended period of SIX days from Tuesday 6th to Sunday 11th March 2012. Once again, ARISE will invite 50 designers to participate in its 2012 Fashion Week show. The much anticipated finale will host the spectacular ARISE Magazine Fashion Awards. The very best of the designers will be invited to participate in the annual ARISE Magazine Fashion Gala at the Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week in September 2012.

At last yearʼs AMFW 2011 fashion event SEVEN designers: Lanre Da Silva-Ajayi, Jewel by Lisa, Asibelua, Bunmi Koko, Tsemaye Binitie, Pierre-Antoine Vettorello and KlûK CGDT were given a golden ticket invitation to showcase their designs in September 2011, as part of the Made in Africa by ARISE Magazine Collective at the Avery Fisher Hall, New York.

ARISE Magazine founder Nduka Obaigbena says: “There is a side of Lagos that chimes well with the international fashion scene. We at ARISE Magazine recognise that the city has much to offer in the way of vibrancy and extraordinary talent in abundance making it the cultural capital of Africa. Once more we are proud to be associated with nurturing new designers from the vast continent –
and continuing our support of those who are more well-known in Nigeria and in the diaspora.”
ARISE Magazine launched in 2008 and is Africaʼs first global style and culture title. On the 8th of March 2011, ARISE Magazine hosted its inaugural show in Lagos, where it invited over 50 designers to participate at the prestigious Federal Palace Hotel, Nigeria.
Its most recent show MADE IN AFRICA BY ARISE MAGAZINE (15th September 2011) at the Avery Fisher Hall, New York, received huge acclaims from the media including this quote from Londonʼs Daily Mail: "It was a triumphant show for Ms Da Silva-Ajayi and the African fashion set, also including Jewel by Lisa, Asibelua, Bunmi Koko, Tsemaye Binitie, Pierre-Antoine Vettorello and KlûK CGDT. They threw the cat amongst the pigeons of New York high fashion with an eclectic
mix of bright colours, eye-catching designs and bucket-loads of African attitude."

Previously, ARISE had a successful run of THREE seasons (in 2009, 2010 and 2011) of the ARISE AFRICA FASHION COLLECTIVES at New York Fashion Week's Bryant Park, New York, and the successful sponsorship of the inaugural ARISE AFRICA FASHION WEEK at the Sandton Convention Centre, in Johannesburg and Cape Town in 2009.

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Beyond the Fuel Subsidy: Conversations the Government and the NLC should be having

By Ayodeji Jeremiah

(1) Despite strong economic growths in the past 5 years, our government is broke because there is extreme wastage on recurrent expenditure. Our government is too big and extremely expensive to maintain. Our National Assembly consumes a huge amount of our budget. The president, governors and local government chairmen and their assistants all have expenses that can be curtailed to bring down the cost of government but we don't see this happening. Why?

(2) Nigerians have to come to a realisation that for our government to work, it's time to do away with federal character and ethnic representation. A situation where we constitute a board and insist on having six commissioners on that board representing the six geo-political zones when that board can work effectively with two or three commissioners is unacceptable. Having a federal government with 36 or 42 ministers is unacceptable.

(3) Why is government so unwilling to repair the existing refineries? Each refinery can be repaired within 12 months while a new one can only be built within three years. If the government says there is no money to repair the refineries, how about borrowing money from the World Bank or ADB at reduced rates to do so? If those refineries work, supply will improve and people will be more than willing to allow subsidy removal to pay back such loans. At least, we will know what the government used the money for.

(4) Our Civil Service is bloated, disorganised and non-functional, yet majority of Nigerians continue to subsidise the salaries and financial inefficiencies in this sector. The NLC will not address this situation because it is not politically correct for them to do so. Fighting for N18, 500 minimum wage for less than 5 million Nigerians when majority of Nigerians are in the informal sector working in companies with less than 50 staff where the minimum wage law does not apply to them is not the way for the NLC to go. NLC should be looking at how to engage the government on how to free up resources for the informal sector, how to build new infrastructure and how to sustain our moribund manufacturing industries.

(5) If government is sincere about removal of fuel subsidy, they should give a timeline. E.g.
- Repair of existing refineries - January 2012 - December 2013
- Improvement of Power Supply to at least 10, 000 megawatts – January 2012 - December 2012
- Reduction of staff, salaries and expenditure in the Civil Service including both political and non-political office holders – January 2012 - December 2012
- Provision of Mass Transit Schemes - January 2012 - December 2012
- Repair of Railway - January 2012 - December 2013

The monies for the above can come from savings made in (iii) above and from public-private sector partnerships and from soft loans. Rather than collecting loans and mounting up debts to maintain an expensive bureaucracy and government, such loans and debts should be used to build new infrastructure

(6) There will be no 'cabal', no subsidy and corruption will be eliminated in the fuel supply chain if our refineries can work and fuel supply is improved.

(7) The fuel subsidy issue is not just economic and that is where the government got it all wrong. Anyone with A-Level Economics knows this subsidy cannot be maintained but the argument is also moral and political. Nigerians simply do not trust their government to spend the money realised from the subsidy removal wisely. Government should have come out with a detailed expense statement saying this is how and how the money will be spent with derivables clearly stated and dated.

The subsidy is the only thing Nigerians generally see as their gain from the government, removing it arbitrarily was wrong and then the government's damage control activities has been less than satisfactory. The House of Representatives, while they should be commended for their special session convened on Sunday January 8 should also be made to sit up. There are lots of other burning issues that we need their attention on. Playing on our emotions and sentiments should not be allowed, they are also culpable in the issues pertaining to our country. I did not see any statement from them slashing their salaries and bloated allowances.   

If the NLC wants to go on strike, then it should not just focus on getting us back to N65 per litre of petrol. If at the end of the day, negotiations take place and we start buying fuel at N80 or N100 or N120 per litre, then nothing has been achieved.         

Bolaji Akinyemi: Happy Birthday to a Great Nigerian Icon at 70

Professor Akinwande Bolaji Akinyemi was born on 4th January, 1942. He graduated cum laude from Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. in 1964. He holds M.A. (International Affairs) and M. A. (Law and Diplomacy) both from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts, U.S. A., 1965 and 1966 respectively. He obtained his D. Phil. from Trinity College, Oxford, in 1969. He was the Director-General, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos from 1975 – 1983 and Minister of External Affairs, Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1985 – 1986. He has taught at various schools including being Lecturer and Later Senior Lecturer in Political Science, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, 1970-1975; Visiting Professor, Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, 1977; Visiting Professor, Diplomacy Training Programme, University of Nairobi, Kenya, 1977; Regent’s Lecturer, University of California, Los Angeles, California, February 1979; Visiting Overseas Scholar, St. John’s College, Cambridge, 1984 and Professor of Political Science, University of Lagos, 1983-1985. He is a Member, International Advisory Board, Centre for Strategic Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A and Member, International Institute of Strategic Studies Committee on Regional Security Studies. He is currently Member, Presidential Electoral Reform Committee and Chairman, Presidential Think Tank, under the current Government of President Yar’ Adua of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Professor Akinyemi is a prolific writer and has authored several books and papers.