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Bobby Brown performance: 50 man crew to arrive Lagos on March 7


courtsey:lindaikeji
Last week, Lagos based Events Company - R28 Events officially announced plans
to bring Bobby Brown and his former boy band to Nigeria. With the event just a
week away, the question many fans and industry practitioners have been asking is
“How did R28 Events get Bobby Brown to come to Nigeria at this time when many
American artistes have developed a phobia for the country?”
We have been in talks with
Bobby Brown and BBD’s team since last year, we even went as far as bringing the
team to come see what Nigeria has for them, and they sure had a nice time. All
we are trying to do is bring the good old times back. We are promising an
evening of good music, unbelievable fun and an opportunity to relive the good
old times” Gbolahan Balogun spokesperson for R28 told news men in Lagos this
week.
And as fans and music lovers
gear up for the biggest indoor concert this year, the producers have confirmed
the full set of Nigerian artistes who will join New Edition to deliver a world
class event. Bonafide Nigerian stars Banky W, eLDee and Omawumi will deliver
electrifying sets at the Eko Hotel and Suites on Friday March 9, 2011 while the
combo of 2face, Duncan Mighty and Burna Boy will set the Port Harcourt Polo Club
on fire on Sunday March 11, 2012.
“I am excited to go to
Nigeria and I intend to give them a great performance, we are going to have fun
in the motherland.” Bobby Brown says from his base in Boston last
week.
Balogun says 39 members of New
Edition’s talent, technical and management crew will leave their base in Boston
on Tuesday March 6, 2012 to set up in readiness for New Edition’s arrival from
LA on Thursday, March 8,. New Edition will arrive Nigeria with an 11 man crew
including sound engineers, backup singers, security personnel, publicists and
managers. The entire crew of 50 will work together in Lagos and PH to give
Nigerians a rare experience of the New Edition classics.
This is the first time New
Edition will be performing in Nigeria, a country where they have millions of
fans and followers. It is also their first time performing on the African
continent. We are told they are beyond excited about this trip; looking forward
to connecting with African fans and talents – with a clear promise to give
Nigerians ‘the concert of their lives’.
Bobby has been touring the
world with his group New Edition since last year. Although he cancelled a
performance in honor of Whitney Houston the day she died, the event producers
say “Brown considers performing as therapy to get him through a difficult
time. He wrote to us last week that he’d like to do this concert in memory of
Whitney, and we said fine”.
R28 Events is a Lagos-based
events solutions company set up to deliver simple, insightful and creative
solutions through events, experimental marketing and corporate hospitality. The
company says they are organizing the two-city concert as a way of redefining the
quality of events in the country. ‘This promises to be a world-class concert,
not like anything you’ve seen here before. Both in terms of production, and the
quality of talent…’
The Lagos and Port Harcourt
concerts will be dedicated to Bobby’s ex-wife Whitney Houston who passed on
February 11. 2012.
New Edition is made up of
Ronnie Devoe, Johnny Gill, Ricky Bell, Mike Bevins, Ralph Tresvant and Bobby
Brown. The group's hits include "Candy Girl",
"Cool It Now",
and "Mr. Telephone Man”
Produced by R28 events with
support from Play Centre the concerts will hold at the Eko Hotel and Suites on
Friday March 9, 2012 and at the Polo Club, Port Harcourt on Sunday March 11,
2012.
Bianca's tribute to late husband, Odumegwu Ojukwu


You were the lion of my history books, the leader of my nation when we faced extinction, the larger-than-life history come to, my life - living, breathing legend. But unlike the history books, you defied all preconceptions. You made me cry from laughter with your jokes, many irreverent. You awed me with your wisdom. You melted my heart with your kindness. Your impeccable manners made Prince Charming a living reality. Your fearlessness made you the man I dreamt of all my life and your total lack of seeking public approval before speaking your mind separated you from mere mortals.
More when you continue...
Every year that I spent with you was an adventure - no two days were the same. With you, I was finally able to soar on wings wider than the ocean. With you I was blessed with the best children God in heaven had to give. With you, I learnt to face the world without fear and learnt daily the things that matter most. Your disdain for money was novel - sometimes funny, other times quite alarming. It mattered not a whit to you. Your total dedication to your people - Ndi-Igbo - was so absolute that really, very little else mattered. You never craved anybody's praise as long as you believed that you were doing right and even in the face of utmost danger, you never relented from speaking truth to power - to you, what after all, was power? It was not that conferred by the gun, nor that stolen from the ballot box. No. You understood that power transcended all that. Power is the freedom to be true to yourself and to God, no matter the cost.
It is freedom from fear. It is freedom from bondage. It is freedom to seek the wellbeing of your people just because you love them. It is the ability to move a whole nation without a penny as inducement nor a gun to force them. When an entire nation can rise up for one person for no other reason than that they love him and know he is their leader - sans gun, money, official title or any strange paraphernalia - that is power.
To try to contain you in words is futile. You span the breadth of human experience - full of laughter, joy, kindness and sometimes, almost childlike in your ability to find something good in almost everyone and every situation. You could flare up at any injustice and in the next instant, sing military songs to the children. You could analyse a situation with incredible swiftness and accuracy. In any generation, there can only be one like you. You were that one star. You were a child of destiny, born for no other time than the one you found yourself in. Destined to lead your people at the time total extinction was staring us in the face. There was no one else. You gained nothing from it. You used all the resources you had just to wage a war of survival. You fought to keep us alive when we were being slaughtered like rams for no reason. Today, we find ourselves in the same situation but you are not here. You fought that we might live. The truth is finally coming out and even those who fought you now acknowledge that you had no choice. For your faithfulness, God kept you and brought you home to your people.
You loved Nigeria. You spent so much of your waking moments devising ways through which Nigeria could progress to Tai-Two!!! You were the eternal optimist, always hoping that one day, God will touch His people and give us one Vision and the diligence to work towards the dream. It never came to pass in your lifetime. Instead, the disaster you predicted if we continued on the same path has come home to roost. You always saw so clearly. Your words are indelibly preserved for this generation to read and learn and perhaps heed and turn. You always said the dry bones will rise again. But you always hoped we would not become the dry bones by our actions. Above all, you feared for your own people, crying out against the relentless oppression that has not ceased since the end of the war and saddened by the acceptance of this position by your own people. In death, you have awakened the spirit that we thought had died. Your people are finally waking up.
At home, you were the father any child would dream of having. At no point did our children have to wonder where you were. You were ever at their disposal, playing with them, teaching them of a bygone era, teaching them of the world they live in and giving them the total security of knowing you were always present.
In mercy, God gave me a year to prepare for the inevitable. I could never have survived an instant departure. In mercy, God ensured that your final week on earth was spent only with me and that on your last day, you were back to your old self. I cannot but thank God for the joy of that final day - the jokes, the laughter, the songs. It was a lifetime packed into a few hours, filled with hope that many tomorrows would follow and that we would be home for Christmas. You deceived me. You were so emphatic that we would be going home. I did not know you meant a different home. The swiftness of your departure remains shocking to me. You left on the day I least expected. But I cannot fight God. He owns your life and mine. I know that God called you home because every other time it seemed you were at death's door, you fought like the lion that God made you and always prevailed. In my eyes, even death was no match for you. But who can say 'no' to the Almighty God? You walked away with Him, going away with such peace that I can only bow to God's sovereignty. Your people have remembered. The warrior of our land has gone. The flags are lowered in your honour. Our hearts are laden with grief.
But I will trust that the living God who gave you to me will look after me and our children. Through my sadness, the memories will always shine bright and beautiful. Adieu, my love, my husband, my lion, Ikemba, Amuma na Egbe Igwe, Odenigbo Ngwo. Eze-Igbo Gburugburu, Ibu dike. Chukwu gozie gi, Chukwu debe gi. Anyi ga afu na omesia.
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