Tolu Oniru-Demuren, widely known as ‘Toolz’, has one of the most popular voices on Nigerian airwaves. As a multi-award winning presenter, talk show host, and assistant director of programmes at Beat FM, she is already a media powerhouse. Not the least insecure about her figure, she has carved a niche for herself in the broadcast industry, while also serving as an inspiration for women all over world – especially curvy ladies.

With confidence and style that seem to flow from her scalp to her toenails, Toolz has consistently shared personal stories about her tough experiences before attaining her present height, a journey that has spurred her to educate and push others to find confidence and pride in themselves.

Since her return to Nigeria in 2009, Toolz has consistently dominated news headlines and social media trends, with conversations either covering her popular weekly radio show ‘Midday Show with Toolz’ or new photos on her social media pages –  generating controversy among critics about her body shape and size.

Based on her personal experience with body image and finding self-esteem, the media mogul and business woman has decided on a bold move – to launch an inspirational brand for plus-size women trying to make a statement. As a plus-size celebrity, she found her way to wide recognition and acceptance through creativity, resilience and boldness.

In Nigeria, plus-size ladies are psychologically ostracized and consistently attacked, becoming subject of discourse among health and well-being experts on how to change the perception about body weight. Growing into confident ‘self’, Toolz stands out due to her self-confidence and unshaken ambition.

This, more than anything, is the message she intends to share with the new brand – something to change the lives of plus-size women. A brand that truly defines, represents, and captures every curvy woman’s beauty in and out.

• Information from your use of Facebook. When you use Facebook, you can choose to share things about yourself like your age, gender, hometown, or friends. You can also click or like posts, Pages, or articles. We use this information to understand what you might be interested in and hopefully show you ads that are relevant. If a bike shop comes to Facebook wanting to reach female cyclists in Atlanta, we can show their ad to women in Atlanta who liked a Page about bikes. But here’s what’s key: these businesses don’t know who you are. We provide advertisers with reports about the kinds of people seeing their ads and how their ads are performing, but we don’t share information that personally identifies you. You can always see the ‘interests’ assigned to you in your ad preferences, and if you want, remove them.

• Information that an advertiser shares with us. In this case, advertisers bring us the customer information so they can reach those people on Facebook. These advertisers might have your email address from a purchase you made, or from some other data source. We find Facebook accounts that match that data, but we don’t tell the advertiser who matched. In ad preferences you can see which advertisers with your contact information are currently running campaigns – and you can click the top right corner of any ad to hide all ads from that business.

• Information that websites and apps send to Facebook. Some of the websites and apps you visit may use Facebook tools to make their content and ads more relevant and better understand the results of their ad campaigns. For example, if an online retailer is using Facebook Pixel, they can ask Facebook to show ads to people who looked at a certain style of shoe or put a pair of shoes into their shopping cart. If you don’t want this data used to show you ads, you can turn it off in ad preferences. My colleague David Baser shared more detail about how we, and others in the industry, use this information in a post earlier this week.

Joy, Inc. founder, Chude Jideonwo is the face on the cover of this Sunday’s edition of Nigeria’s leading weekend magazine, The Guardian Life.

Titled ‘The harbinger of joy’, Jideonwo takes readers on his journey towards changing the narratives surrounding the pursuit, perception, and understanding of joy and happiness on the African continent.

With his usual passion, Jideonwo draws from personal experience and depth of knowledge on the subject to highlight the importance of joy in attaining emotional development and personal fulfillment.

“At Joy, Inc., we are building a movement that inspires people to be the best version of themselves by discarding all limitations – internal and external – and living their truth. ‘Being human together’ – that’s what we call it,” Jideonwo says.

Out on the newsstands today, the cover feature is put together by The Guardian Life creative team which includes Chidera Muoka, Niyi Okeowo, and Nkem Okorafor.

Adebola Williams, the chief executive officer of RED; Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, founder/CEO of RISE Networks; Bolanle Olukanni, television personality and Bukunyi Olateru-Olagbegi, chairman, Modern Democratic Party are among the speakers at the second edition of Handle It Africa Conference.

Themed Social Media: Expanding Influence, Broadening Thoughts, the event is scheduled to hold on 4 May, 2018 at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The conference features exciting panel sessions designed to enlighten participants on the effective use of social media and also share insightful knowledge on maximizing the benefits of social media platforms. Participants can also explore the opportunity to meet, network, and collaborate with young, upwardly mobile individuals who are leading the charge and creating impact in diverse sectors. 

The sessions will feature speakers who have successfully built strong personal and corporate brands by leveraging on the power of social media.

Other speakers include comedians, Kenny Blaq and Lasisi Elenu, amongst others.

Handle It Africa is pioneered by Olufemi Oguntamu of Penzaarville Africa.

For more information about the conference and registration details, visit http://www.handleitafrica.com/

Sunlight has rewarded all three winners of the just concluded #SunlightShero letter writing competition, as participants were encouraged to write an emotional letter extolling their mothers’ qualities and explaining them as ‘Sheros’.

Precious Akowe from Benin, Abdulbasit Abubakar from Kaduna and Titilope from Lagos were selected as the best entries through the number of likes on social media. They were rewarded with complete home makeovers and weekend getaways with their mothers.

Watch the reactions, including the home transformation videos and be blown away!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DErdlw0EwGo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GWZFyyL_rY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l5iBnlAW_I

Sunlight has more exciting competitions planned for the near future so follow them on Instagram: @Sunlight_Nigeria and @Sunlightdishwashng

Facebook: @SunlightNigeria @SunlightDishwashng

Twitter: @SunlightNigeria @SunlightDWNG

As the world gears towards this year’s World Environmental Day on June 5, Nigerians have been urged to be more proactive in matters relating to environmental and wildlife preservation so as to maximize the potentials of the sector. This plea was made recently by Nela Duke, the Chief Executive Officer of Obudu Conservation Centre, while speaking about the state of environmental preservation in the country.

Duke’s call is coming as several global bodies continue to highlight Nigeria’s seeming disinterest in matters relating to sustainable environmental practices. Water Aid, an international charity body focused on improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation recently ranked the country third on the list of countries still practicing open defecation. The United States Environmental Protection Agency also declared Nigeria the second biggest emitter of methane – a potent greenhouse gas capable of damaging the climate when released during natural gas production and distribution.

“We need to start taking issues about our environment seriously. Over the years, Nigeria has been saddled with lots of environmental issues including deforestation, desertification, and pollution, all of which can be attributed to the nonchalant way we relate with the environment,” Duke said.

“There is a need for us to understand implications of these actions and subjects like climate change, global warming and more importantly, show support to organisations and bodies making efforts to right these wrongs,” she added.

The Obudu Conservation Centre was set up in 2002, and has since been actively involved in wildlife education, community management, tourism, and research.

When the death of Sudan, the last white male rhinoceros was announced on Monday March 19, 2018 the world literally held its breath. Influencers, celebrities and several others especially environment protection and conservation fanatics lent their voices with most clamouring for the need for humans to change their attitude towards conservation of the wildlife, environment and nature generally.

Trust Nigerians to act unbothered. Who would blame us though?

We have a barrage of issues daily besetting us. Why should the death of a “mere animal” bother us when hundreds of people die daily, no thanks to incessant tribal wars, religious insurgency, underfunded hospitals amongst other ills. While this may be true, what is often forgotten is that there portends a danger far more catastrophic than bad leadership should we continue to neglect tending to and caring for our environment.

When critically considered, we are doing ourselves more harm than good, focusing all our attention on economy, leadership, education, though all of which are important, pale when compared to how directly issues like erosion, congested air, deforestation, river pollution and animal extinction affect our lives. The fact, whether or not we admit, remains that our quest for good leadership and a better country will one day be met but by then, at this rate, it may be too late to have the beauty of our environment back. Would we then now start another protest for the environment?

This is something for us all to think about and if you are out there wondering how you can take care of your environment, let me share with you quick ways, according to an article published on www.conserve-energy-future.com.

1. Stop smoking. If you don’t smoke, you lessen air pollution and improve your lung health.
2. Change the way you clean the house. Use sustainably made items or all-natural products that aren’t made with dangerous chemicals. It’s better for your health, doesn’t pollute the air, and is less harsh on personal items.
3. Conserve water. Wash your clothes and dishes only after you have a full load. Save water by turning off the faucet, taking shorter showers, and make use of nature’s water by collecting rainwater to water your lawn.
4. Unplug things. If an item isn’t in use, that doesn’t mean it isn’t requiring electricity while plugged up. When an item is unplugged, it’s not using any power at all. This saves more energy for future use while being cost effective.
5. Learn to upcycle. There are so many crafty ways to reuse things you already have. Research to learn fun new projects that can bring new life to old items so that you don’t have to throw them away.
6. If you can, avoid using plastic water bottles and paper. Anything you do use that is recyclable, be sure to dispose of it properly.
7. Contact government officials and support petitions and other companies that promote change.
8. Be kind to others. Donate things that you don’t use anymore instead of throwing them away. You avoid trashing valuable items while making it available to someone else for less money. On a similar note, purchase items that were gently used instead of buying new material that has been mass produced with no regard for the environment.