SOUNDCITY MUSIC VIDEO AWARDS

Organisers of the Soundcity Music Video Awards, last week, released the nominations list for this year's editon of the awards with Tu Face and P-Square emerging with the highest number of nominations. They each got nominated in four of the total fifteen categories.

Tu Face was nominated in the Best Cinematography, Best Collaboration, Soundcity viewers choice and Best video categories all for his latest album titled 'Enter the Place'. In addition, the album's producer, Sleek was nominated as the hit producer of the year.The twin music super stars, P-Square can look forward to winning four different awards come August 1, as they were nominated in the Best Special Effect, Best Duo/Group, Best Video and Best Choreography categories all for 'Roll it'.Following them with three nominations is Ikechukwu who was nominated in the Best Collaboration, and SoundCity Viewer's Choice categories for 'Wind am Well' and Soundcity fresh video for 'She Makes Me Go' (Shoobeedoo).

ElDee's 'Bosi Gbangba' also got three nominations from the Best Male Video, Best Cinematography and Best Video categories.The likes of Naeto C, 9ice, Banky W, KC Presh and Weird MC ended up with two nominations each. Project Fame alumni, Omawunmi also bagged two nominations in the Best Special Effect Editing and Best RnB or Pop Video categories for her hit single, 'In The Music'.Newcomer, Goldie was not left out as she was nominated in the Best Choreography and Best Female Video categories for 'Shift'.

Upcoming act, GXploits' 'Tear Rubber' was nominated in the Soundcity Fresh Video category.Some non-nigerian authored songs also made the nominations list. Meanwhile, voting is open to the general public on the SoundCity Music Video Awards website until the 25th of July. Nigerian voters can also vote their favourite nominees by sending SMS to 33144 at N50/vote.Below is the full

nominations list:

Best Male Video• Gino – Farabale• Naeto C – Kini Big Deal• Igho – Naija Boy• Shank – Too Lat;e• Banky W – Capable Remix• 9ice – Party Rider• eLDee – Bosi Gbangba

Best Female Video• Sasha – Only One• Goldie – Shift• Weird MC – Riranwo• TY Bello – Ekundayo• Kel – Waa Wa Alright• Nikki Laoye – Never Felt This Way

Best Choreography• Freewindz – Like That• P-Square – Roll It• Dipp – Dangerous• Goldie – Shift

Best Special Effect Editing• Mo Hits All Stars – Ten Ten• Dipp – Dangerous• P-Square – Roll It• Omawunmi – In The Music• Brymo – Sorty• H-Man – Ndoli Ndoli

Best Cinematography• Bigiano – Shayo• eLDee – Bosi Gbangba• Sasha – Only One• Tuface Idibia – Enter The Place

Best Hip Hop• Str8buttah – Last Standing• Mode9 – Hip Hop• OD ft. Sound Sultan – No Be TodayBest• Gino – Farabale• DJ Jimmy Jatt ft. Sasha, Blaise, Kemistry & Bouqui – Too Much

Best R&B or Pop Video• In the Music – Omawumi• Banky W – Don’t Break My Heart• Dipp – Dangerous• Tony Tetuila – Do Re Mi• KC Presh – Shokori Bobo• Ay.com – Pass Me Your Love• Djinee - Lade

Best Duo/Group Video• Mo Hits All Stars – Pere• P-Square – Roll It• Kentro World – Kama Kazee• KC Presh – Shokori Bobo• GXploits – Bolu Moru

Best Collaboration in a Music Video• J Martins ft. Timaya & P-Square - Good or Bad• Tuface Idibia ft. Sound Sultan – Enter The Place• 2shotz ft. Timaya – In case you never know• Klever Jay ft. Danny Young – Koni Koni Love• Ayzee Yo ft. Tuface Idibia – No be small thing• DJ Jimmy Jatt ft. Sasha, Blaise, Kemistry & Bouqui – Too Much• Ikechukwu ft. D’banj – Wind am Well

Soundcity Viewers Choice• 9ice – Street Credibility• Weird MC – Riranwo• Tuface Idibia – Enter The Place• Bigiano – Shayo• Ikechukwu – Wind am Well• D’banj - Suddenly

Soundcity Fresh Video• Bouqui – Morile• Ikechukwu – She Makes Me Go (Shoobeedoo)• GXploits – Tear Rubber• Morachi – Boomskolo• Steel – South African Girl

Discovery of the year• YQ ft. Dagrin – Efimile• DeeBee – Collabo• Bracket – Yori Yori• Kel - Waa Wa Alright• Bigiano – Shayo• Tustep ft. Dagrin – Call the Police• J Martins ft. Timaya & P-Square – Good or Bad

Hit Producer of the Year (as used in a music video)• “ Efimile” by YQ ft. Dagrin (Dr. Frabbs)• “Le Fenu so” by Lord of Ajasa (ID Cabasa)• “Suddenly” by D’banj (Don Jazzy)• “Kama Kazee” by Kentro World (JJC Skills)• “Pasa Pasa” by M.P (Dapsey)• “Enter The Place” by Tuface Idibia (JSleek)

African Video of the Year• Nneka – Heartbeat (Nigeria)• ML (Mozambique)• Hip Hop Pantsula (South Africa )• Asem – Pigaro (Ghana)• Okyeame Kwame - Woso (Ghana)

Best Video• Weird MC - Riranwo• eLDee - Bosi Gbangba• Naeto C - Kini Big Deal• Mo Hits All Stars - Pere• Kentro World - Kama Kazee• P-Square - Roll It• Tuface - Enter The Place

TREE PLANNING CULTURE PRESERVES THE ENVIRONMNET

Rt. Hon Adeyemi Ikuforiji Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, called on residents of Lagos to imbibe the habit of planting trees to preserve the environment on Tuesday.Ikuforji made the call at the year 2009 tree planting campaign which held at Oba Ogunji Road in Agege where he led a team on behalf of the state governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola to plant trees on the road.

Answering questions from newsman after planting a tree, the speaker urged residents of the state to ensure that the dream of the state government towards a green environment was sustained."it should not be a one off thing but some thing we do every day. We need to protect our environment we all see what is happening. How much of rainfall have we had this year?"We have already had more than we should for the entire period.

The global warming is real and we need to protect our environment. "If we all get used to the idea, there may not be need to get special people to take care of the plants as people around would get used to the habit," he said.The speaker while delivering his welcome address stressed the state government’s commitment "to bring back as much greenery as possible" to ensure a safe and healthy environment.

Stressing the importance of trees, he said that trees had been scientifically proven to fight global warming as it absorbed carbon dioxide to replenish oxygen.He explained that the state was careful to preserve trees planted during its inaugural tree planting campaign last year by taking a census of the trees planted in Ikeja, Apapa and Ikoyi. He added that 3088 were counted in the three zones. He urged residents of the state to "join hands in protecting existing trees at every given opportunity" and make tree planting a culture.

Earlier, Dr Mrs Titi Anibaba, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment who represented Commissioner of Environment, Dr Muiz Baniz highlighted the importance various religions attached to tree planting. Anibaba cited some portions of the Holy Quran, the Holy Bible and some traditional dieties which gave strong backing to the support of tree planting and environmental protection.

Dr Saka Jimoh from the University of Ibadan (UI) who represented Professor Musiliu Onilude of the Department of Agricultural Engineering said that tree planting should not be left to government alone. Jimoh who demonstrated the practical method of planting trees to participants in the campaign, presented two species the Terminalia Montalis and the Queens Palm for planting.He explained that the Terminalia Montalis was good for open fields and front of houses only and should not be planted on road medians.

He however recommended the Queens Palm which the Speaker planted for road medians as it was shallow rooted and its roots would not spread nor penetrate deep to destroy underground cables.Mrs Kemi Nelson an Action Congress (AC) Leader in the state urged participants in the campaign "to show more love and passion for the environment" by making it a duty to ensure they nurtured the trees they planted.

OKELUSE COMMUNITY AT A GLANCE.

Okeluse is a small community in Ose Local Government Area of Ondo State.
It has a population of about 1 million people and it covers an area of about 3,30 km. predominately, the place is dominated by farming activities.

It is a general believe that the descendant of Okeluse community migrated from Ise Ekiti in Ekiti State of Nigeria. When there was war in Ekiti State some people left Ise – Ekiti to settle in this present community called Okeluse. The community has a first class king (Oba) who happens to be a member of the councils of Obas in Ondo State.

The community has three primary schools, a secondary school, a maternity home, one post office, a police post and a market that is being run every five days, where people from other community like Sobe, Ute and Ogbese do come to buy and sell goods.

Farming is a major activity in this community. Okeluse have three types of farmers, those that are involved in subsistence farming i.e. farming mainly for personal consumption, commercial farmers which are people that farm for commercial purposes. Their main product is cocoa and the third set of people that engage in timber work i.e. falling of trees from the forest for commercial purposes.

The electrification of the community some years back brought the introduction of new businesses like opening of hotels, restaurant and beer parlor which has not been in the community before.

The story of Okeluse will not be complete without making reference to the Iro festival. It is a festival that is done to mark the anniversary of the descendant of the village. Normally a group of people within the age of 69 years to 71 years in the village are chosen as celebrant of such occasion. They will all be dressed in white, both men and women and be dancing form one angle to another with a lot of fun fair and music. The entire celebrant will dance to the king’s palace where they will be initiated into elder hood. The Iro festival normally come up around August each year.