Recently, reports went viral that popular Nigerian comedian, Julius Agwu, was putting plans in place to towards ensuring the establishment of a Christian nightclub called ‘Believer’s Lounge.’
The comedian had stated that the lounge will be a non-smoking and alcohol hangout for Christian faithful which will also create a platform for them to get to know others and network.
Speaking with NET on what prompted his choice of lounge, the comedian explained that it wasn’t his calling but what God wanted him to do.
Julius explained that since unbelievers could go out to clubs to pop champagne and do other things, it was important that believers of the word of God have a hangout where things are done moderately to please God.
“It’s God’s calling. God spoke to me do it. We have unbelievers going to clubs, popping champagne and all that, so we want to have a club where believers can hangout too and pop nonalcoholic drinks. It’s basically an assignment from God. The club is located at Lekki and we are taking it everywhere. God also told me to raise young ambassadors that will fight his battle” he said.
When asked how it feels to be one of Mexico's most powerful women at her age, Dafne Almazan giggles. “I'm kind of proud of it,” she says. “It's a great honor.”
Last month, Dafne became the world's youngest psychologist as she graduated from Mexico’s Monterrey Institute of Technology. At just 13 years old, she’s the country’s most famous child prodigy. And it shows: When she's not studying, she plays the piano and teaches Mandarin to other gifted children, and she just returned from a trip to Denmark where she presented her simulated satellite project.
“It's not actually that hard, to be honest,” she says. “It's not like getting up really early every day and staying up really late. I just try to organize my time as best as I can so I can do all the things I like.”
Becoming a psychologist is a remarkable achievement for such a young person, even if she is a genius. It's why Forbes named her one of the 50 most powerful Mexican women this summer. According to the magazine, Dafne's “power” springs mostly from her capacity to inspire others.
“I'm happy with the attention,” she says in an interview, with a somewhat bashful smile. “This way I can show everyone that it's worth it doing your best. And I can do something about the prejudice that gifted children spend their time locked up in a library. We don't have to give up our youth just because we're gifted, you know.”
Her success made Dafne the poster child for the super-gifted in Mexico. Her inspiring role may indeed be sorely needed. Most child prodigies in Mexico aren't nearly as lucky as she is.
Only 4 percent of Mexico's underage geniuses are capable of actually using their gifts in adulthood. A recent study estimates there are 1 million underage geniuses in this country of 120 million, but only 4 percent of them reach adulthood with the ability to actually put their
gifts to use.
Here are some of the reasons. The vast majority of geniuses are wrongly diagnosed as having a mental disorder. They receive none of the special attention they need in a woefully inadequate Mexican education system. And they suffer bullying at school, depression and demotivation for developing their talents.
Said study, the first and so far only one of its kind published in Mexico, was carried out in 2013 by the Talent Attention Center (CEDAT in its Spanish initials), a private institution in Mexico City studying the child prodigy phenomenon and offering after-school courses.
Established in a mansion-like building in the capital city’s posh Del Valle neighborhood, CEDAT provides approximately 250 super-gifted children with classes like robotics, astronomy and physics, while also helping parents deal with their genius kids.
CEDAT is the biggest institution of its kind Latin America. It's a family business of sorts: It was started by Asdrubal Almazan, a doctor and Dafne's father. His youngest daughter is the third in a generation of prodigies; her older brother Andrew, 20, and sister Delanie, 17, are also highly gifted.
“Establishing CEDAT began out of personal necessity, when I found out Andrew had genius-level intellect,” Almazan says. “When he was 9 years old, he was having trouble at school. He was smarter than the other kids, would often correct his teachers and suffered from boredom and bullying.”
Andrew himself now leads the psychology department at CEDAT. He entered university at age 12, back then the youngest in Mexican history (until his youngest sister overtook him). He graduated in psychology and education and is now developing an educational model for highly gifted students at the ITESM university in Mexico City.
“I'm trying to prevent other children from having to go through the same experiences as I did,” Andrew says over Skype. He was attending a conference at Harvard when the interview took place. “Mexicans are very poorly informed about what genius-level intellect in a child means. Prodigies are often wrongly diagnosed with ADHD, and parents have no idea how to deal with them. Many are rejected by their classmates and their teachers.”
Mexico's education system ranks an abysmal last among member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). And, according to CEDAT's study, it has virtually no resources to identify and guide super-gifted pupils adequately.
And that's not just a problem for the kids themselves, but for the entire country. Mexico's economy has been underperforming for years, with half the population living in poverty. Innovation lags behind; according to the OECD, patents and other science and innovation outcomes are all very low.
“There have been plenty of studies that point out that a more intelligent economy is a more prosperous economy,” Andrew explains. “And a country that 'loses' its prodigies is a country that loses economically.”
Mexico's federal government seems in no hurry to adjust that problem. While embroiled in a seemingly endless struggle with radical unions over teacher evaluations, the Education Department in August cut funding to several major public universities by almost $70 million. Never mind any additional government support for institutions like CEDAT, which lacks the resources to expand.
Dafne, however, retains her youthful enthusiasm. Despite being a graduated psychologist, she won't be treating any patients in the near future; she just decided to pursue a master's degree in education, which will likely make her one of the few people in the world to gain an MA while still a minor. “I know it's hard to reach and guide all gifted children in Mexico, but I'm optimistic that we'll eventually be able to do so,” she says. “I always wanted to go to college, and I managed to achieve it too.”
This story originated and was cross-posted from our partners at the Global Post.
Pastor Chris Okotie, the leader of the Household of God Church has accused the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria(CAN), of wrongly assuring Goodluck Jonathan of a win in the last presidential elections.
Okotie who said this during his sermon at the church service yesterday 25th October, pointed out that:
Pastor Oritsejafor deceived Jonathan with a false prophecy from God that he (Jonathan) would win the election convincingly. The man became convinced to contest after Oritsejafor had told him, using CAN’s name, that God had ordained him the winner of the 2015 presidential election.
While I continued to write and speak that Jonathan was not the man, those of them who knew the truth in what I was saying chose to keep quiet out of fear. I told CAN and PFN that Jonathan was not of God; that whosoever would win would be one that had built a tabernacle in the presence of God. I told CAN and PFN that Jonathan did not belong to the House of David and that since he did not belong to the household, his winning would bring more sorrow to Nigeria.
Here are the things you can tell just by looking at someone
As for personality, you can generally trust your gut when guessing extraversion, self-esteem, and religiosity. If you have a spontaneously taken photo of them you can add in agreeableness, emotional stability, openness, likability, and loneliness. Your predictions are probably more accurate when evaluating good-looking people.
Who is a good leader? The face will tell you. (True for women as well as men.) Or just look at the earlobes. Not sure which team has the better quarterback? Make your guess based on how handsome he is. You can probably tell whether a politician is a Democrat or Republican. Or even a non-politician. Or which politician is likely to win.
We’re pretty good at telling who is a criminal. At an above chance level you’ll be able to tell which people are America’s Most Wanted and which are Nobel Peace Prize winners. If you think someone might be a psychopath, trust your gut. (And move quick, psychopaths are quite good at sizing you up too.) Tattoos will tell you who is most likely to commit more crime. Heck, your gut can be trusted to tell you if a neighborhood is unsafe. Still not sure if a man is dangerous? Ask a short guy. Is this useful in daily life? Yeah, because you’ll know who is more trustworthy or cooperative.
Want to know if someone is good at their job? Watch them for six seconds and your guess is more likely to be right than wrong.Sometimes a glance can tell you how smart someone is. Or whether they’re rich.
Ladies, want to know if he’s attracted to you? It’s all in how long he looks at you. And guys might be able to look at you and tell whether you are currently fertile or even your sexual orientation.
The Leading GOP candidate for the white house, Dr. Ben Carson shared this amazing account of the kindness shown him by this beautiful young girl on his social media pages. Its stuff like this that real Heal, Inspire and Revive.
In his exact words he said:
Today while speaking at a luncheon in Virginia, my new friend, Brandi Bradshaw, was working as a server at the event. After I finished speaking, Brandi stood up and shared with the entire group how excited she was to be part of our campaign to Heal, Inspire, and Revive our great country. She then did something unexpected and amazing, and donated $500 of her hard-earned money to my campaign. Brandi, I am inspired and moved by your gesture and it is because of people like you that we will win this fight.
'One hundred percent,' Trump said when asked if the world would be better off with Saddam and Gaddafi still at the helm in Iraq and Libya.
+3
Trump (pictured in Miami on Friday) said that the Middle East is worse now than when Huddein and Gaddafi were in power
Trump said on Sunday that dictators like Saddam Hussein (left at moment of his capture) and Muammar Gaddafi (right) would '100 percent' make the world a better place if they were still in power
Both strongmen committed atrocities against their own people and are now dead. Saddam, the former Iraqi president, was toppled in the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and was executed in 2006.
Gaddafi - who ruled Libya for four decades - was ousted and slain in October 2011 amid a NATO-backed uprising.
'People are getting their heads chopped off. They're being drowned. Right now it's far worse than ever [than it was] under Saddam Hussein or Gaddafi,' Trump said.
'I mean, look what happened. Libya is a catastrophe. Libya is a disaster. Iraq is a disaster. Syria is a disaster. The whole Middle East. It all blew up around Hillary Clinton and around Obama. It blew up.'
Calling Iraq the 'Harvard of terrorism,' Trump said the country had turned into a 'training ground for terrorists.'
'If you look at Iraq from years ago, I'm not saying he (Saddam) was a nice guy. He was a horrible guy but it's better than it is now,' Trump said.
Battle that lasted 16 years finally ends with ruling that the Tablighi Jamaat sect cannot build a 290,000 square foot mosque in East London
The government has blocked an Islamic group with alleged links to fundamentalism from building Britain’s biggest mosque, putting a final end to a 16-year battle.
The highly controversial plans by the Tablighi Jamaat sect – accused by some of being a gateway to terror - would have created a so-called “megamosque” with 190-foot minarets and three times the floorspace of St Paul’s Cathedral. The 290,000 square foot mosque, near the Olympic Park in east London, would have accommodated up to 9,300 worshippers in two main gender-segregated prayer halls and a further 2,000 in a separate hall.
The bitterly-fought struggle has seen street blockades, accusations of racism, High Court action and even a video “obituary,” linked to from the mosque website, making implicit death threats to the main protestor against the plans and his family.
The scheme, officially known as the Abbey Mills Markaz or the Riverine Centre, was rejected by the local council, Newham, as long ago as December 2012, with councillors saying the building was too large and would harm their plans for a mixed-use neighbourhood.
But Tablighi Jamaat appealed, taking the application to a three-week public inquiry in summer last year. The inquiry inspector's report was submitted to the Government in January, but ministers have been sitting on it since then because of its political sensitivity.
File photo: Muslims attend the annual Tablighi Jamaat or Islamic religious meeting in Raiwind, Pakistan Photo: PA
However, sources close to the process say that the Communities Secretary, Greg Clark, has now made the final decision to block the scheme. A public announcement is expected shortly. “This proposal has created a great deal of division in Newham,” said one person with knowledge of the decision. “That would get a lot worse if the thing was built.”
Alan Craig, a former Newham councillor who led the campaign against the mosque, said: “This is fantastic news. For a decade and a half, Tablighi Jamaat has pulled out every stop to get its way, but at last the spectre is over.”
In 2007 Mr Craig was the subject of a video “obituary” entitled “In memory of Councillor Alan Craig” and featuring him, his wife and two daughters. The mosque website carried a link to the YouTube page where the video appeared.
During the Newham planning process, protestors from a body called the Newham People’s Alliance, set up to express “community support” for the mosque, blockaded the council offices where the planning committee was meeting.
The NPA included a number of extremists connected to Lutfur Rahman, the former mayor of neighbouring Tower Hamlets disqualified for corruption and vote-rigging. It ran a virulent campaign against Sir Robin Wales, the mayor of Newham, calling him “Dirty Robin,” a “Zionist” and a racist.
White extremist groups, including the BNP and EDL, campaigned online against the plans.
Tablighi Jamaat already has a temporary mosque for 2,500 worshippers on the site, a former chemical works, which it has owned since 1996. It originally produced plans for a new mosque with a capacity of 40,000, but scaled them back under a wave of protest. In 2013 the High Court ordered the sect to close the temporary mosque because it did not have planning permission. It has so far refused to do so.
Tablighi Jamaat is an ultra-conservative and separatist group which believes that Muslims should not integrate into non-Muslim society. Its current UK headquarters, in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, includes a school whose pupils are banned from watching televison, playing music or speaking to outsiders. The Newham mosque was to have been its new headquarters, with residential facilities, a library, visitor centre and sports centre as well as the mosque.
Tablighi Jamaat’s links with radicalism and terrorism are hotly disputed, with many experts saying it is peaceful and non-political. However, the French intelligence agency has described TJ as the “antechamber of fundamentalism,” claiming it acts as a stepping-stone to radicalisation. In 2003 Michael Heimbach, the then deputy chief of the FBI's international terrorism section, said: “We found that al-Qa'eda used them for recruiting, now and in the past.''
A number of terrorists have TJ connections. Abid Naseer, convicted this spring of plotting to attack the Arndale Centre in Manchester, was a member of the sect. Two of the 7/7 bombers, including their leader, Mohammed Siddique Khan, attended a TJmosque. John Walker Lindh — an American who is serving a prison sentence for aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan — traveled with Tablighi preachers to Pakistan in 1998 to further his Islamic studies before joining the Taliban.
What could have been a major disaster was averted Sunday in troubled Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, Northeast Nigeria as a vehicle conveying four suspected suicide bombers heading for the town accidentally exploded before it could reach its destination.
Though the departure point of the vehicle could not be ascertained last night, all that was revealed was that it was eight kilometres away from Maiduguri before it suddenly exploded and went up in flames killing all the four occupants suspected to be suicide bombers on a mission to Maiduguri.
It was gathered that the explosion occurred on the highway around Njimtilo, and apart from the four persons in the Volkswagen Golf car headed for Maiduguri from “God knows where” there was no other casualty.
Confirming the attack in a text message, the information officer of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in the Northeast, Mallam AbdulKadir Ibrahim said “there was aborted suicide bomb attack at Njimtilo today 25 October, 2015.
“The four suicide bombers came in a car (golf) around some minutes past 1:20pm. The car presumably exploded before they reached their target.
“All the four suicide bombers on board died. No innocent soul loss. No casualty recorded. Their remains is deposited in the mortuary at Borno State Specialist Hospital.”
An Oakland, Calif., teen who was declared brain-dead by doctors in December, 2013 "is still alive and just as beautiful as ever," her mother wrote in a recent Facebook post.
The mom, Nailah Winkfield, gave an update about her daughter, Jahi McMath, on Wednesday, saying she was moving more on her mother's command.
"Hello everyone," Winkfield wrote in a post at Keep Jahi Mcmath on life support. "As requested here is the latest pic of Jahi. Our little sleeping beauty is doing great and progressing. She is moving more on her mothers command. As you can see she is still alive and just as beautiful as ever. Flawless skin! She will be 15 in a few days."
In a post Friday, Winkfield listed an updated image of her daughter with braids for her 15th birthday on Saturday.
Jahi was declared legally dead On Dec. 12, 2013, following complications from tonsillectomy. Although multiple experts confirmed that nothing more could be done for the girl, her family moved her to an undisclosed facility that agreed to continue treating her.
Chris Dolan, the family’s attorney, filed papers last year arguing that medical experts, including world-class experts on brain death, said she is not brain-dead.
The suspended president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter has thrown hinted on who he would want to succeed him as head of the world’s football governing body.
As the elections draw closer and many declaring intentions to occupy the exalted position, Blatter has openly declared his support for a former Abia State Governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu over former Secretary General, Jerome Champagne, and Prince Alli of Jordan.
Former Abia Governor Orji Uzor Kalu
Kalu, who has not officially declared his interest for FIFA presidency, is preferred by Blatter. According to Blatter, nominating Kalu would be in the best interest of Africa because of his deep passion for the game.
Speaking in Zurich, Blatter told a Swiss radio on Sunday: “The position of the FIFA president is too important to be left to just anybody.
“I have heard of some candidates who want to take over from me.
“But I find the businessman from Nigeria, Kalu, very qualified and interesting because he is not only a businessman, but a politician with lots of contacts and corporate experience.
“He can bring his great experiences to bear in the running of world football.
“He is passionate about the game.
“I remember how he sponsored one of Nigerian clubs to win the CAF championship twice.
“He is a man that can take world football to the next level.”
“If Africa hopes to win the support of other federations, then they must cue behind the Nigerian businessman.
“Football has developed beyond just anybody taking over.
“I sacked Jerome Champgne in 2010, so how can he come back to lead an Association he tried to destroy.
“You need a man who can command respect and win friends for football.
“With Kalu, Africa stands a better chance.”
Other than Kanu, Segun Odegbami is another African also vying for the office.
The Confederation of African Football is expected to meet in the coming week to decide on which candidate to field for the election scheduled for next year.
The pretty young lady you are looking at below has burn scars on her face and body because she is a gas explosion survivor. Abuja based professional makeup artiste Zuzu Mamman shared her touching story and pics on her IG page.
And according to the story Zuzu told BellaNaija, our lady here had gone into the kitchen and did not realize there was gas leakage. Once she turned on the stove and lit a match, there was a huge explosion. Thankfully, she survived the devastating experience.
Makeup artist Zuzu was in a salon when she spotted her and chatted her up. After they spoke, Zuzu asked if she could make her over. She said yes. They decided on a bridal inspired makeover and you can see the results below.
Most times in life there are situations we find ourselves not because we want them that way but because it is inevitable! She was this pretty before the fire accident!
Apostle Anselm Madubuko Denies Adultery Confessions Heaped On His Head.
There is a scandal going round concerning Revival Assembly General Overseer Apostle Anselm Maduko’s alleged confession to Adultery in front of his church on Sunday.
It is alleged that he was engaged in a sexual relationship with the ex wife of Musician K-Solo.
Earlier in the week Stella Dimoko reached out to the General Overseer Apostle Anselm and he was sad that a lie had spread faster than the word of God.
He said and I Quote:
”I never apologised for Adultery. Its a wicked demonic world. I don’t know where that came from. We had an issue in Church cos i was away, it involved Our intercessory department and I ended up expelling one Pastor who heads the department and also a female member of same department but it had nothing to do with Adultery. Its just crazy and how the person who started it got the story is still a mystery but I leave that person to my God!”
A member of the assembly who was there on the said sunday that the Apostle made the alleged confession has come out to state clearly that he heard no such thing during the service that day and according to him, no such thing took place.
It is still unclear the primary source of the information, but if predating is anything to go by, it seems like the news was first broken by Nigeria’s Naij.com whose respondents are as yet unavailable for further clarification.
You would think the anti-Christmas crowd would wait until there’s frost on the pumpkin patch before pillaging and plundering our long-cherished yuletide traditions.
But the Freedom From Religion Foundation has been chomping at the bit to bully those who celebrate the birth of Jesus.
In recent days they’ve filed a federal lawsuit demanding an Indiana school district yank a living nativity from a Christmas production and they successfully forced an Oregon school district to ban choirs from performing at a Catholic shrine.
By way of introduction, the FFRF is a bunch of perpetually offended atheists, agnostics and free-thinkers that hasn’t met a lawsuit they couldn’t file. And they become especially grumpy Grinches at Christmastime.
On Wednesday they filed a federal lawsuit against Concord Community Schools in Elkhart, Ind. on behalf of an unnamed student who happens to be a performer in the district’s Christmas Spectacular.
The FFRF is demanding an injunction that would forbid the school from “presenting the portion of the Christmas Spectacular with the live Nativity Scene and the telling of the story of the birth of Jesus.”
Yes, friends—the FFRF wants to silence the Christmas story.
“It is illegal for a public school to endorse religion to students by organizing a religious performance, such as acting out the exclusively Christian legend of Jesus’ birth,” FFRF attorney Sam Grover wrote in a Sept. 8 letter to the school district. “Centering the high school’s holiday concert around the nativity is illegal even if participation in the nativity scene is necessary.”
Unlike many educators, the Concord School Board decided to stand up to the out-of-town bullies and refused to comply.
“For more than 30 years, the Spectacular has been an important part of the Concord High School holiday experience,” Superintendent John Trout told the Elkhart Truth. “It will continue to be so.”
Finally! A school district willing to tell the Freedom From Religion Foundation to go jingle their bells somewhere else.
Hence, the lawsuit.
“Concord Community Schools cannot host a celebration of the Christmas holiday in a religious context, rather than a secular celebration,” Grover wrote.
The lawsuit was filled with all sorts of damning evidence—including accusations the young people sang songs like, “Joy to the World” and “Silent Night.” Their investigation uncovered appearances by the Virgin Mary, shepherds and other “biblical figures.”
Their breathless documentation of the living nativity would make the toes curl on any godless atheist or free-thinker.
“No other faith than the Christian faith has ever been represented in performances staged at the Christmas Spectacular,” the lawsuit states.
Well, that’s because Christmas is a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus. …
My apologies, good readers. I didn’t mean to lose my cool—but I’m dealing with some rather unpleasant folks.
Thousands of people have rushed to the school district’s defense—urging them to fight the Wisconsin bullies.
Robyn Chiddister launched a Facebook page to muster support for the longtime holiday tradition.
“I can’t believe that one individual can take away something so precious to so many,” she told me. “I’m so proud of our school system for standing up to the Freedom From Religion Foundation.”
Sadly, that wasn’t the case in Portland, Oregon—where public school choirs have been banned from performing at a Catholic shrine called The Grotto.
The school district, fearing an FFRF lawsuit, decided it was best to end a longtime tradition of singing at the Grotto’s Christmas Festival of Lights.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has waged a relentless campaign of fear and intimidation against schools across America. And these godless bullies will not stop until they’ve eradicated Christianity from the public marketplace.
A father allegedly beat his seven-year-old daughter to death with an air conditioning hose after she said that she didn’t love him. The man, who is yet to be named, is accused of battering his small daughter, Yara, with the hose in a mad fit of rage at their home in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. He is then thought to have locked the child in her bedroom, only to discover how badly she was hurt when he later checked on the youngster. Gulf News reported that the father had aimed to ‘educate’ Yara when he beat her with the hose ‘all over her body’.
After finding her in a critical condition, her father drove her to hospital, but she reportedly died on the way. Yara’s mother told the Saudi Daily Al Watan that her daughter had went to live with her father three months ago under the terms of their divorce – but that she had done so unwillingly. She said: “She did not wish to move in with him, and she was very unhappy.”
In a statement to prosecutors, she said: “He used a hose that he snatched from the air-conditioning unit and beat her all over her body. “They believe that the fatal blow occurred when he hit her hard on the head. “He started beating her simply because she told him that she did not love him. “He was furious and locked her inside a room. She burst into tears and had an uncontrollable crying fit.
“When he unlocked the room, he noticed she was in a bad condition and drove her to hospital. However, she died on the way.” The mother’s lawyer, Saeed Al Qahtani, said: “Prosecutors have been listening to all parties concerned, and they have covered a lot of ground. “We are now waiting for the final medical report and for the prosecutors’ charges.”
With the help of journalists from Norway and Spain, we profile Watford striker Odion Ighalo - now the top scorer in English football in 2015.
Sergio Aguero scored five against Newcastle last time out, Newcastle's Wijnaldum also got four last week but there's still a Premier League striker with more English league goals than both strikers this year. Odion Ighalo's equaliser for Watford against Bournemouth took his tally for the calendar year to 21 goals. The Nigerian is the country's top scorer in 2015.
Ighalo has scored the most goals in the English leagues so far in 2015
Remarkably, it was only earlier this month that Ighalo was surpassed as the Championship's top scorer in the calendar year - and he scored his last goal at that level in mid-April. The 26-year-old was a surprise hit for the Hornets, scoring 16 times after Christmas to help the team into the top flight.
Last season's goals came at a rate of one every 97 minutes. It wasn't a fluke. Even in the Premier League, the goals have continued to come. Five and counting at a rate of one every 122 minutes this season. So how did this goalscorer end up at Watford? It's certainly been a curious route to the top.
Record breaker?
Odion Ighalo has scored in five consecutive Premier League games but has some way to go to match Alan Shearer's record of scoring in nine games in a row in 1993.
Indeed, it's tempting to think that Ighalo's relatively late blooming can be explained by his unusual career progression. Born in Lagos, his European adventure began in Norway with mid-table Lyn. Before long he was attracting attention from fellow Tippeligaen rivals Brann but the deal was scuppered by interest from Italy.
Oyvind Askeland is a journalist with Norwegian paper VG and recalls the fuss. "Lyn were investing heavily in talents from Nigeria in the middle of the 2000s," Askeland told Sky Sports. "But as with John Obi Mikel when he became a Chelsea player, there was quite a lot of trouble around Ighalo when he left for Udinese after two seasons in Norway.
Watch all of Ighalo's goals from Watford's promotion-winning campaign
"Brann announced in July 2008 that they had signed Ighalo and even sold one of their strikers to make room for him. Brann said that they had a 'gentleman's agreement' with Ighalo and his agent Atta Aneke but this was denied by the pair. The case was sent to the Norwegian FA but they didn't find anything wrong and Brann decided not to appeal."
The Udinese move was not a success. Ighalo scored just once in Serie A before being loaned to Granada in Spain's third tier. The club had been newly acquired by Giampaolo Pozzo, the long-time owner of Udinese and marked the beginning of an unusual five-year loan stay that took Ighalo all the way to La Liga.
He has a lot of attributes that match the Premier League which didn't match La Liga. There are more spaces here, and because he's fast and can get to the ball first it helps him.
Guillem Balague on Odion Ighalo
He had his moments in Spain. There was the time, in 2013, when he gave Granada the lead against Barcelona before two second-half goals by Lionel Messi stole the headlines. The following year he was among the exclusive group of players to breach Atletico Madrid's defence in their title-winning campaign.
However, in total, Ighalo scored just 12 goals in 74 La Liga games. And yet, the potential was there. Spanish football expert Guillem Balague believes he is simply better suited to English football. "Some people don't realise how much of a goalscorer Ighalo is," Balague told Sky Sports. "He has a lot of attributes that match the Premier League which didn't match La Liga.
The link-up play between Ighalo and Deeney was too good for Newcastle
"For instance, in La Liga the marking is tighter and more collective. There are more spaces here, and because he's fast and can get to the ball first it helps him. Sometimes, the same as how Roberto Soldado is a striker for La Liga and not for the Premier League, it works the other way around."
Released by Udinese last October, his loan deal at Watford - yet another club owned by the Pozzo family - was immediately converted into a permanent transfer. He soon won over supporters, scoring four second-half goals against Blackpool, and the club's then boss Slavisa Jokanovic praised his quality and work rate. But the summer threatened to bring another twist.
Watford strikers Ighalo and Deeney interview each other for Sky Sports
The Chinese second tier was looming for the nomadic Ighalo. Hebei China Fortune had come up with a reported £10m offer and a salary of around £50,000 per week. He was tempted. "They offered me crazy money," said Ighalo. "But I don't think it is a good league for me. It is not always about the money." Staying put already looks a smart move.
Not only does Ighalo have a key role in the dressing room, such as in helping former Granada team-mate Allan Nyom settle in at the club, but he has developed a strong partnership with Watford captain Troy Deeney. It's the sort of chemistry that Ighalo cannot rely upon finding elsewhere.
Troy Deeney has assisted three of Ighalo's Premier League goals so far
So far this season, Deeney has assisted three of his goals. That makes it the most common goal combination in the Premier League. Operating slightly deeper, Deeney has sacrificed his own goalscoring instincts to help bring the best out of his partner. "We put Ighalo closer to the goal as his feeling close to the goal is good," said Watford boss Quique Sanchez Flores.
That's certainly proving to be the case. Ighalo is one of only 13 forwards in the Premier League to get five or more clear-cut chances this season and he boasts the best conversion rate among all of them. While Ighalo praises Deeney's work rate, even his skipper admits Ighalo is "naturally a better finisher" than him.
You can see that they're never more than 10 or 15 yards apart from each other. That's the sign of a good partnership.
Kevin Phillips on Odion Ighalo and Troy Deeney
They have worked at the partnership. Ighalo says playing "closer together" was the plan, and former Watford and England striker Kevin Phillips feels that's key. "You can see that they're never more than 10 or 15 yards apart from each other," Phillips told Sky Sports. "That's the sign of a good partnership. And this boy can score. He's a goalscorer."
The challenge now is to keep the run going. Recently, Ighalo spoke of his pride at his top-scorer status but, with Jordan Rhodes and Benik Afobe playing in the division below, maintaining his advantage might be too much to expect. Flores will settle for keeping his top scorer happy at Vicarage Road.
"He took a decision two months ago to stay here at Watford," said Flores. "He had offers from other teams but he decided to stay, so it's clever because he saw something in the football that is good for him. He is involved a lot with the team in training during the week, so for us, he is a very important player." He's becoming more important all the time.
