“Philip Osondu, ogba bolu (footballer)” this is the adjectives that my mother used to qualify me with when I came home from a football game then. The memories came back with these words when I heard the news that Philip Osondu is dead. He was the hero of my childhood and alas, a victim of eventuality.

It was reported that Osondu was feeling unwell at work and went to the hospital for a checkup, he was pronounced dead shortly after. At 48, Philip Osondu was such a life cut short.

In 1987, Osondu became a sensation through his performance in the Under 16 FIFA World Cup in Canada. Though Nigeria lost to the Soviet Union on penalties, he wowed the world with his skills and won the Golden Ball as best player of the tournament. What followed was a professional career that his well won fans considered below expectations.

In 1989, he helped Nigeria to get to the final of the under 20 world championship – Saudi 89.

Born Philip Osondu Mast, on November 28, 1971, in Aba, Abia State, he started his youth career in 1988 with El Kanemi Warriors, his brilliance with the ball saw him being touted by Anderletch.

In 1989, Osondu joined Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht, a Belgium professional football club based in Anderlecht, Brussels. But his spell in Anderlecht, didn’t last long.

In 1990, he joined RWD Molebeek, another Belgian side. Osondu’s stay in RWD Molebeek lasted for two years, a period of time that only afforded him 41 match appearances and seven goals.

Two years later, in 1994, he was plying his trade in another Belgium club called R.A.A Louvieroise. But his stay there lasted only for one year, a situation that kept him on the move once more.

In 1996, he was in Union SG, a Belgian club located in the municipality of Saint-Gilles, in Brussels. Osondu only made 13 appearances for the club throughout his time there, scoring only one goal.

In 1999, Osondu joined K Diegem Sport, a Belgian club based in Diegem, Flemish Brabant. It was a three years spell, and he made 43 appearances and scored only two goals.

In 2003, Osondu joined FC Merchtem 2000, the Belgian club was the last in his professional career. Until 1996, he was still an Anderlecht player hoping to improve his game through other clubs where he was playing as a loanee.

The age controversy

When Philip Osondu was snapped up as an under 16 player by Anderlecht after the 1987 World Youth Championship, he was given the opportunity to grow in career and also in height. Both didn’t happen. His inability to grow in height like every other youth player became suspicious to the club authorities who opined that he was way older than he claimed, and that has come to impact his career negatively.

When Anderlecht finally let go of him at the age of 25, in 1996, he could only manage to secure some contracts with some low-key clubs in Belgium, he never made it big. Some of his national team mates in 1989, like Mutiu Adepoju moved to bigger clubs and had a call up to the national team. But Philip Osondu, the once brilliant star gradually receded to a player formerly known. He started doing odd jobs in Belgium to survive, a situation his past didn’t give a hint of.

But such is life, good and bad happen, even stars fall from the sky. For those whose childhood fell on the late 80s and early 90s, Osondu is a memory worth relishing. Our ancestors who don’t care about football today still remember the name Philip Osondu, not as a failed footballer, but as one who dazzled in the field and put his name in the mouth of everyone.

Though misfortune ended a would-be great career, Philip Osondu did not go ahead to play for the biggest clubs in the world, nor did he become the world’s best player at a point, he left one thing that matters to many – a good memory.

And although he couldn’t live long enough to tell his grandchildren his story, they will read it and hear it from those whose childhood was blessed by the skills of their grandfather.

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has suspended Turkish Airlines from operating into Nigeria, over persistent baggage delays. The indefinite suspension becomes effective December 16.

NCAA director-general, Abdullahi Sidi, announced this on Thursday, through a letter released by the director of public affairs at the Ministry of Aviation, James Odaudu.

The decision was necessitated by incessant cases of delays and loss of baggage by the airline passengers. The situation was attributed to the use of undersized aircraft by the Turkish Airline.

The letter noted that the airlines’ inability to deliver passengers’ luggage has become a crisis that the aviation regulator can no longer afford to ignore. In the most recent incident, the airline arrived Nigeria without 85% of passengers luggage, added to the backlog that the Turkish Air is already dealing with.

In the letter written to the airline, dated December 11, 2019, the NCAA warned Turkish Air that their operations in Nigeria will come to a halt effective December 16, and will remain so until it sought out all outstanding cases of luggage loss and change the size of its aeroplanes to accommodate both passengers and their luggage.

The letter reads: “The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) wishes to extend its compliments to Turkish Airlines and also express its serious displeasure about the recent cases of not bringing passengers into Nigeria together with their check-in baggage.

“These incidents, which have been going on for two weeks, have become so bad that the most recent flight arrived without 85% of passengers’ baggage on board. Our Airport Authority has been facing serious crises controlling the passengers at the airport whenever they arrive without their baggage.

“This issue has made passengers to carry out several mob actions at our airport and it is a great threat to our airport facilities.

“In view of all these, and the series of meetings held by with Turkish Airline personnel, which did not yield any solution to the problem, the NCAA is therefore, left with no option than to direct Turkish Airline to suspend its operations into Nigeria until such a time when the airline is ready to operate with the right size of aircraft that can transport all passengers with their baggage at the same time.

“If no remedial action is carried out by your airline, this suspension shall be effective from the 16th of December, 2019.”

This decisive action by the Aviation Authority seems to be long overdue based on the applauding reaction of Nigerians to it. The Turkish Airline social media pages are bubbling with voluminous complaints from passengers, mainly, those who have lost their baggage or those waiting to have theirs. And the problem is not exclusive to Nigerian passengers, others from around the world are also complaining.

It is so disappointing because it goes against the ethics of Turkish Airline, and their rules regarding Lost and Delayed Baggage. Part of it reads:

“If you are unable to find your baggage at the end of your flight, contact the Lost Property Office of your destination airport. Once your journey and baggage information is recorded at the Lost Property Office, a referral will be made and you will be given a reference number…

“Within the first 5 days, the search for lost baggage is the responsibility of the airport Lost and Found Office. If your baggage is not found within the first 5 days, you can make a claim with the required documents through the baggage irregularity report page.

“Whatever the reason for your missing baggage, we will write a lost baggage report and offer you our essential needs packs. If you received your baggage late, you can make a claim via the baggage irregularity report page and submit evidence of the costs incurred during that time.”

Turkish Airline actions have become so irregular that the Lost and Found Office has become tired of handling the incessant complaints because it is deliberate. The company uses aircrafts that obviously cannot accommodate passengers’ luggage, and made them to wait until they fly them to the destination in a separate airline. No one knows how long that will take, and the compensation stated above is usually out of the question.

Many of the passengers claim that the airline doesn’t respond to their complaints, let alone the stated compensation for loss of baggage. The responsibility is therefore shifted to the Lost and Found Office even though the baggage isn’t there. The overwhelming number of missing luggage cases has resulted in mob actions at the Nigerian airport, prompting the NCAA to take drastic action before it gets contagious.

Are you a first-time screenwriter? Does the process of identifying a story idea, researching the chosen subject – the subject is the topic that your screenplay covers. For example, the movie Rocky’s subject was on boxing – and writing an accurate, compelling screenplay appear too herculean?

Then a technologically inspired approach can be the answer. Indexed within search engines are dozens of online tools, websites and resources that can help you get familiar with your screenplay’s subject regardless of how complex it is.

Many of such online tools are free and easy to use. This means that if you’re working on spec or with low budgets, you can still acquire a library’s worth of information with little financial investment.

Furthermore, a great deal of information that can be accessed through the internet is reliable and verifiable.

Although online media content may have attracted a bad rap in recent years due to a surge in plagiarism and fabricated information, it is still a fertile ground for doing valuable research work. This is why Journalists and Academics still use the internet to conduct their research today.

When done properly, online research may even impact film marketing efforts down the line. For example, if you consulted an influential blogger during your research, he might announce the premiere of your film to his huge online audience when it was released because he was vital to its making.

But a dependence on online research is not usually the best strategy. Rather, a strategic combination of online research with live research tactics, like going directly to the source to conduct personal interviews and examine the environment, will usually provide better results. Here are proven suggestions on how you can use online research to get valuable results:

1. Start With Google

Perhaps, this is too obvious.

But do you know how to use this free resource to find most of the information that you so desperately need? If you don’t, then a good starting point would be to apply any of the 10 Google shortcuts as shared by Raindance’s Elliot Grove in this blog post.

However, if you want to use academic and scholarly publications in your research, then you should turn to Google Scholar. This free Google service has access to millions of published research and offers filters that enable refined searches.

Through the Google Image search function, you can also access relevant images on your subject. After all, the pictures are easier and faster to comprehend than text. Using them, you could speed up your script research process.

Using Google News, you can also stay abreast of current events within the scope of your subject. Such information, usually contained within the websites of reputable media companies such as Forbes and CNN, might spur you to explore new story ideas.

2. Go Through Wikipedia

Is Wikipedia, the popular free online encyclopedia, reliable?

No.

In fact, as administrators of the website warn,

“Do not use a Wikipedia article as a source for another Wikipedia article, even when describing Wikipedia… Wikipedia should not be considered a definitive source in and of itself.”

But Wikipedia is still a valuable resource for screenwriters.

This is because of the references to consulted websites and publications that Wikipedia contributors include at the end of every article. Through the references, you can visit the original publishers of any information used on Wikipedia to find out if they’re credible. You can do this by:

• • Finding out who owns or contributes content to the website. You can get this information on the Contributors page, Team page or About us page.
  This is important because highly authoritative media sites are usually owned by reputable persons and attract contributions from experts. For example, the Raindance blog is authoritative because it is owned by Raindance; a leading film organization in the UK.
• • You can further complement your effort with social media investigation. Simply visit online forums and social media sites to meet and ask other reputable stakeholders what they think about the website, its owner(s) or contributors. Highly reputable websites usually get glittering reviews from their readers.

3. Use Other Online Tactics

Wikipedia and Google are not the only sources of information for your online research. You can always include the following in your efforts too:

• Contact academics and researchers:

There is probably an academic expert or researcher for every subject, even your script’s. Academics are often reliable and can even help you reach other information sources.

But how do you meet academic researchers through the internet?

First, focus your efforts on finding research papers and articles on your subject. Then reach out to the scholars responsible through their contact information which might be published on paper. If there is no contact information on the paper, then you might search for the scholars on social media sites like LinkedIn to contact them or use the email finder tools, Lusha or Hunter to get their email addresses or phone numbers.

You can also look for academic experts who are active on social media or online forums. Before contacting them, ensure that you double-check to see if their claims are true. For example, you may look for their published articles or studies on reputable journals or ask their employers to verify their claims.

• Use YouTube:

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million. Videos are faster to understand and harder to forget.

This is why you must prioritize video analysis in your research efforts. You can always find free videos on many subjects through YouTube.

When searching for videos, don’t expect to find feature-length videos on your chosen topic. Since most YouTubers don’t get paid for uploading videos, no one might have sponsored an expensive video production on your topic yet. But look at the bright side; even a one-minute video or a sarcastic reference to your subject in a video can be relevant to your needs.

• Listen to conversations on blogs, forums and social media:

Is your lead character a female doctor in the offshore oil and gas sector? Do you want her to appear believable and multidimensional on screen?

Then use social listening tactics in your research. This simply means that you should find top blogs, social media groups, social media pages or forum discussions that engage online users who resemble your characters or share their traits.

For example, a Google search for “top insurance blogs” will lead you to a list of reputable blogs that discuss pressing issues in insurance. This can help you identify authentic challenges, attitudes or perceptions of Insurance salesmen that you can use if one of your characters sells insurance.

You can also reach out to top bloggers and journalists on your subject as well as social media group administrators.

These kinds of sources are knowledgeable since they constantly work to find news on your subject that’s relevant to their audience.

But how do you contact them?

You can use the same strategies for finding the contact information of academic experts to locate their emails and phone numbers too and send a message asking for their help in your research.