In the Year Nelson Mandela Died...

Last year, 2013, was the year the iconic Nelson Mandela died. Many other significant events also took place in the same year. In this post, I present some of the events that happened last year which I consider as notable. The events are sectioned into two. The first section contains international events while the second section contains events that happened in Nigeria.

In the year Nelson Mandela, the following world events took place:

• Pope Benedict XVI resigned, becoming the first pope to do so in over 500 years and the first to voluntarily resign 700 years.
• Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio replaced Pope Benedict XVI to become the 266th pope, the first Jesuit Pope, the first Pope from the Americas, the first Pope from the Southern Hemisphere and the first non-European Pope since Pope Gregory III, 1272 years earlier. Bergoglio took on the title, Pope Francis.
• President Mohammed Morsi of Egypt was ousted by the army.
• An American computer specialist and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee, Edward Snowden, who is also a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor disclosed classified documents which revealed details of the US government’s secret surveillance programme, a global surveillance apparatus run by the NSA, causing embarrassment for the US government. He then fled to Russia where he was granted temporary asylum.
• Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, died.
• Prince George of Cambridge was born to Prince William and Princess Kate.
• The US government was shut down for some days.
• Miley Cyrus, a recording artist, caused an uproar following a following a sexually-provocative performance called twerking during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.
• Twerking was added to the Oxford Dictionary of English.
• Another word, selfie, was also added to the Oxford Dictionary of English. President Barak Obama, David Cameron, UK Prime Minister and the Prime Minister of Denmark were criticised by some people for taking a selfie at a memorial service for Nelson Mandela.
• Microsoft bought Nokia phone business
• It was alleged that President Bashar Assad of Syria launched a nerve gas attack on the people of Syria.
• At the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States, two bombs were set off by two Chechen Islamist brothers. The blasts killed 3 persons and injured 264 others.
• Jose Mourinho came back to England to coach Chelsea FC a second time.
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• Arsenal showed real intent of winning the English Premier League by capturing Mesut Ozil.
• Al-Shabaab Islamic militants attacked the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, killing at least 62 civilians and wounding over 17.
• The rollout of the much-publicised Obamacare (whose official name is The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010) in the United States suffered glitches. Its website's launch was marred by constant crashes and lockouts.
• King Jong Un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, ordered the execution of his uncle.
• Lance Armstrong, a seven-time Tour de France winner, was stripped of his titles after confessing to doping.
• Lionel Messi won the world footballer of the year award for the fourth time.

In the year Nelson Mandela died, the following events took place in Nigeria:

• An aircraft carrying the corpse of a former governor crashed within seconds of taking off.
• The Academic Staff Union of Universities went on strike for over five months.
• The number 16 was proved to be greater than 19 when the federal government recognised the candidate of a 16-member faction of the Nigerian Governor’s Forum as the chairman of the forum over the candidate of the faction that had 19 members.
• Military barracks were bombed by Boko Haram insurgents.
• Policemen acting on ‘orders from above’ prevented a state governor form entering the government house.
• An ex-president and a sitting president engaged in a public spat by exchanging open letters.
• Governors and members of the nation’s House of Representatives defected from the ruling party to the main opposition party.
• A governor made amend for an insensitive remark made to a hapless widow by giving her two million naira and a job with state government.
• Nigeria won the African Cup of Nations for the third time, having won it last in 1994.
• Nigeria also won the Under-17 FIFA world cup.

2013, the year Nelson Mandela died, was indeed an intriguing year and this year again, I look forward to many intriguing events.

Wishing you a prosperous 2014.

Cheers!