How Abducted Dapchi girls were Released - Lai Muhammed

                

     TEXT OF A PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND CULTURE, ALHAJI LAI MOHAMMED, IN LAGOS ON SUNDAY, MARCH 25TH 2018

PROTOCOL

Thank you, gentlemen, for once again heeding our call. May I also use this opportunity to thank you, most immensely, for the professional manner in which you have always treated our press conferences. We do not expect anything less from today's event.

As you are aware, the abducted Dapchi girls were released last Wednesday as a result of intense back-channel engagement aimed at securing their quick and safe release. This was done in concert with a friendly country, international organization and trusted facilitators.

Since then, there have been a lot of developments. We feel we should meet with you to furnish you with first-hand information on this, and also give you the opportunity to clarify any issue surrounding the release.

Gentlemen, a total of 111 girls were abducted from the Government Girls Secondary and Technical College (GGSTC) in Dapchi on 19 Feb. 2018. That means one student was not captured on the list of 110 abducted students that was compiled by the school, on the basis of which the Federal Government gave the number of abducted schoolgirls as 110.

Also kidnapped were two other persons, who are not students of the college. They include a primary school boy who came to the school to sell pure water and another primary school girl. That brings the total number of abducted persons on that day to 113.

So far, a total of 107 persons, comprising 105 Dapchi schoolgirls and the two non-students, have been released by the insurgents.

Six Dapchi schoolgirls are yet unaccounted for. All efforts will be made to secure their release

HOW THE DAPCHI GIRLS WERE FREED

As I have said at many fora, we neither paid ransom nor swapped any Boko Haram member to secure the release of the girls. This is a fact, irrespective of how a section of the press has tried to spin the story.

The insurgents brought the girls back to the location of the kidnapping themselves as an apparent gesture of goodwill, following relentless efforts by the Government to find long-lasting solutions to the conflict.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed all security agencies to do everything possible to bring the girls back unharmed. That dictated the method we adopted. Back-channel talks with our international friends as mediators, and the result was the release of the girls

HOW WERE THE INSURGENTS ABLE TO RETURN THE GIRLS TO DAPCHI UNATTACKED, DESPITE TROOPS PRESENCE?

Unknown to many, we have been in wider cessation-of-hostility talks with the insurgents for some time now. The talks helped to secure the release of the police officers' wives and the University of Maiduguri lecturers recently. And the talks did not stop thereafter.

Therefore, we were able to leverage on the wider talks when the Dapchi girls were abducted. As I said earlier, the insurgents decided to return the girls to where they picked them from as a goodwill gesture. All they demanded was a ceasefire that will grant them a safe corridor to drop the girls. This is not new. Even in larger war situations, safe corridors are usually created for humanitarian and other purposes. Consequently, a week-long ceasefire was declared, starting from Monday, 19 March. That is why the insurgents were able to drop the girls. This counters the conspiracy theories being propounded in some quarters concerning why it was so easy for the insurgents to drop off the girls without being attacked by the military.

WHY THE GIRLS WERE FREED EARLY

As I have said time and again, there is no government that will not face tragedies. What makes the difference is how such tragedies are managed.

President Buhari put this in perspective when he said the response of his Administration is a marked departure from the attitude of the preceding administration in the aftermath of the kidnap of the 276 Chibok girls in 2014

Whereas it took that administration 18 days to even acknowledge the kidnap of the girls, the current administration was responsive and was not in denial. No stone was left unturned to secure the release of the girls. For the record, the following actions were taken:

1. The President sent FG's delegation twice to Dapchi and Damaturu, within four days, to engage in fact-finding and to condole with the government and people of Yobe State and the families of the abducted girls. I was on both delegations.

2.   The President ordered the Service Chiefs and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to take direct charge and brief him on a daily basis on the efforts to bring back the girls.

3.   The President ordered the re-strengthening of a Joint Operational Base involving relevant agencies and Services to coordinate the rescue mission. Consequently, the Service Commanders established a unified Command Centre in Maiduguri, and the Military also raised several rescue teams to comb the forests in the North East Theatre of Operation.

4.   The Nigerian Air Force maintained aerial surveillance of the area all through.

It was not a surprise, therefore, that this abduction ended about a month after it occurred, and that most of the girls are free.

THE REACTION OF NAYSAYERS

You are not unaware of the reaction of the naysayers - the main opposition PDP in particular - to the release of the Dapchi girls. What called for non-partisan celebrations was rather thoughtlessly turned into politics, bad, despicable politics that has no place in any democracy. At times of national tragedies, countries unite. This is the norm everywhere.

Let me encapsulate my reaction to the disgraceful and insensitive politics, that the PDP has been playing with the Dapchi girls, by quoting the statement of the President when he received the Dapchi girls last Friday: ''May I also warn against those elements who have chosen to make political fortune of our citizens’ misfortune. Government would not tolerate any attempt by any person or group to trivialize or politicize security issues for politically motivated ends. Accordingly, security agencies would not hesitate to decisively deal with such unscrupulous characters.'' Those are very clear words that need no elaboration.

The PDP and its co-travelers do not understand that terrorism is a global problem. A terror attack on any country is an attack on all countries. The UN was among the first international organizations to condemn the abduction of the Dapchi girls and also among the first to welcome their release.

Perhaps we should ask the PDP what indeed the party knows about the abduction of the Dapchi girls, going by its statement that their abduction and release were stage-managed. The party made itself a laughing stock within and outside Nigeria with that statement. Don't  they know that our international friends are involved in the process that led to the release of the girls? Indeed, there should be a new criterion for withdrawing the registration of a party like the PDP which has failed both as a ruling and an opposition party! If a party cannot rule and cannot be in opposition, what else can it do?

CONCLUSION

1. We thank all Nigerians for their support and prayers. We are grateful for their belief in the ability of this government to secure an early release of the girls. We will continue with the ongoing efforts to account for the remaining six Dapchi girls, and indeed to bring back our remaining Chibok girls.

2.   In the words of Mr. President, this Administration remains committed to the fight against terrorism and insurgency. The security services have since been directed to put in place further measures around all schools vulnerable to attacks to ensure the safety of pupils/students and teachers and school workers. The President has also tasked all the security agencies to work to ensure that we do not witness any recurrence of these incidents.

3.  Let me emphasize the government's position that while the military efforts are necessarily ongoing, we are willing to continue engaging in a meaningful dialogue which is not only about the release of hostages, but intended at a broader engagement on conflict mitigation (reduction of the violence, possibility of ceasefire, protection of civilians, increased humanitarian access). Government is therefore willing to engage on measures which can lead to stopping the bloodshed and finding long-lasting solutions to the conflict.

4   We appeal for non-partisanship on the issue of security. We all have to be safe and alive before we can even belong to any political party. And whether you are in government or in opposition, Nigeria belongs to all of us.

5.   We appeal to the media to be more discerning in disseminating materials that serve no other purpose than to sabotage the ongoing efforts to end the insurgency and secure the release of the remaining Chibok and Dapchi girls. Obviously, the naysayers are growing more desperate and will stop at nothing, including disinformation and fake news, to muddle the waters.

Finally, let me use this opportunity to react to the fake news making the rounds concerning a supposed Sergeant in the Nigerian Army, named David Bako, who said he was part of an alleged conspiracy by the Government to abduct the Dapchi girls.

This is a classic example of what I have just said: Disinformation and fake news! I can tell you categorically that this David Bako is fake. There is no such soldier in the Nigerian Army. There was no conspiracy anywhere. The intention of those behind the disinformation and fake news is to cause disaffection between Christians and Muslims, and between Southerners and Northerners.

This Administration's success in seeking an early release of the Dapchi girls has ruffled many feathers. It has upturned a lot of plans by naysayers. They have not been able to sleep since the girls came back. Their campaign to unseat President Buhari is fuelling their desperation. Nigerians should prepare to see more avalanche of disinformation and fake news. But they should not lend any credibility to such reports. They belong to the trash can!

I thank you for your kind attention

Millionaire Visit a Restaurant Pretending to be Poor..... And this Happened

   

       

Coby popular YouTube star brought new meaning to the saying 'don't judge a book by its cover' with a shocking social media experiment that saw him dressing like a homeless person in order to see if staff at a restaurant would treat him any differently.

In an attempt to prove that appearances can always be deceiving, New York-based Coby Persin tested staff at a Florida eatery to see how they would react to someone based purely on what they looked like, before stunning them with the revelation that they were in fact dealing with a millionaire.

In a three-minute video, the 23-year-old can be seen approaching a restaurant while dressed in an assortment of scruffy clothing and carrying a large garbage bag, before asking to be seated by a staff member who is standing at the entrance.

Wasting no time, Coby approaches the man, who appears to be acting as a host, to ask for a table for himself and his friend Ronaldo.
Ensuring that he remains polite and courteous throughout their conversation, he also asks whether it would be possible to see a menu.

'Hi how are you? I would like to get a table for me and my friend Ronaldo - to see the menu maybe,' he says.

But the host, whose faced has been blurred out to maintain his privacy, says that he is unable to seat Coby because he believes the restaurant is 'too expensive' for him to afford.

'I'm sorry. We're not going to be able to do it sir,' he says, while blocking Coby's access to the eatery. 'This place is a little too expensive for you.'

Clearly put off by the interaction, Coby decides to give the restaurant host a chance to redeem himself and asks again if there is a menu he can see.

'Nope,' the host replies bluntly. 'We can't serve you, we're not going to serve you today. I'm sorry about that.'
And even when Coby tries to tell him he has a lot of money, the host still refuses to serve him and says: 'Can you please get away? Go eat at McDonald's - some other options but not here.'

Coby then backs away from the restaurant and is heard uttering a 'wow' as he dials his driver Ronaldo.

But as he starts dialing, the host asks if he can make the call off the restaurant's property.

'Can you please get away,' the host asks again. 'Stand over there.'

But the host is in for quite the surprise because Ronaldo drives up to the restaurant in a Rolls Royce with a suitcase of cash in the trunk.

Ronaldo then hands the suitcase to Coby who shows it to the host.

Coby says: 'I told you I had money. What's crazy is the way you judged people just by there appearance. I might buy this spot just (so) I can fire you - you're lucky.'
Ronaldo and Coby then go to the 'steak spot down the street' leaving the host speechless and ashamed.

This isn't the first social experiment video, Coby has done. One of his most recent ones involved the vlogger planting trees in New York City pot holes.

He came up with the green-thumbed idea after he himself hit a pot hole and ruined the tire of his car.

He said: 'When I was driving around New York City, I hit a pot hole and my tire popped and I had to buy a new one.'

'So I was thinking to myself, how as New Yorkers can we avoid these pot holes? Had I seen a plant inside the pot hole, I would have drove around the plant and not hit the pot hole.'

He added: 'So I'm going around with different sized plants and putting them in different sized pot holes so New Yorkers avoid them.'

(A MUST READ) The Epic Battle Between King Sunny Ade and Chief Bolarinwa Abioro

     

 The Story of the Epic Battle Between King Sunny Ade and Chief Bolarinwa Abioro.
It was in 1974 that the news broke. Chief Bolarinwa Abioro, the Balogun of Ipokia, the Chairman of African Songs Limited, had taken his star musician to court! Everyone who knew KSA knew Abioro. Everyone who knew Abioro knew Sunday Adeniyi. Sunny was the son. Abioro was the father. What could have gone wrong between father and son?

KSA was the second artiste to be signed on to the stable of African Songs Limited. Ayinde Bakare was the first. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister was the third. Like most creative people, young Sunny Ade was more concern about his passion and less concern about the business aspect of music. His passion was to play music and to excel as a musician.

It was enough that Abioro – one of the biggest men in the music industry at the time – was ready to promote him. They brought documents for Sunny and his band boys to sign. They called it a contract. It could have been called any other name for all that KSA cared. Won ni ko wa je saara, o ni ojo ti wonu ju. Se ata ni won ni ko mu wa ni, abi iyo. You are invited to a free feast, you are complaining about the short notice, are they asking you to bring salt or pepper? Sunny Ade and his boys didn’t hesitate. It is doubtful if any of them read what the contract said. The most important thing was that they were going to become recording artistes. Sunny signed. His band boys signed. Everybody was happy.

The contract was for 5 years. However before its expiration, KSA had become a household name. His album, Challenge Cup, sold in excess of 500,000 copies. It was certain that King Sunny Ade was going to dominate the music scene for a very long time to come. African Songs Ltd knew a good product when it saw one. The management of the company didn’t wait for the first contract to expire before they brought a new contract.

The new agreement was carefully worded. KSA and his band boys agreed to perform and record exclusively for ASL for a period of five years. ASL had full copyrights to all compositions and recordings of Sunny Ade. ASL was entitled to the sole right of production, reproduction, and use of King Sunny Ade’s performance throughout the world. That was not all. During the period of the agreement, KSA was prohibited from rendering any performance whatsoever to himself, any company or group of persons.

The contract also stipulated that ASL had the option to renew the agreement at its expiration for a further term of two years or for any longer period. Sunny Ade had no such right.

That was not all. On the sale of every album which price was then fixed at N6.00, KSA and his boys were entitled to a princely sum of 20 kobo. Yes, you read that right. African Songs would go home with the remaining N5. 80 kobo. Onigegewura’s mathematics has never been good. He is just an amateur historian. You can do the sum yourself.

Still basking in the euphoria of his growing fame, Sunny gratefully signed again. His band boys signed. 20 kobo was still something. Orogun iya re da sokoto fun o, o ni ko bale, melo ni iya to bi o da fun o? You are complaining that the trousers made for you by your step-mother was not long enough, where is the one your own mother made for you?

They were expecting their 20 kobo royalty on every album. Well, when the time came for actual payment, it was then discovered that mathematically and arithmetically, it was not supposed to be 20 kobo. They had not factored the cost of publicity and promotion! And since it was the artiste that was being promoted, he must be the one to bear the cost! After the addition and subtraction, Sunny was given 15 kobo per album.

KSA was not Chike Obi, the mathematician. But he knew that 20 kobo and 15 kobo were not the same thing. Compared with his contemporaries in the music industry, KSA realized that he was holding the short end of the stick. His colleague, Baba Commander, Chief Ebenezer Obey was earning as high as 70 kobo per album. Others were earning between 35 kobo and 60 kobo.

That was when Sunny decided to ask Chief Abioro for a raise of the royalty payment. The chairman listened patiently to KSA and his colleagues. He was nodding as they canvassed one reason after another why a raise was in order. When they finished, Chief Abioro flipped open a file he had on his table.

He brought out a bundle of documents. Even from where he was seated across the table, Sunny saw that it was a copy of the contract he signed. “An agreement is an agreement. It is a binding contract!” The chief informed them. “This is what you signed. This is what you are entitled to! No more, No less.” He returned the documents to the file. Case dismissed.
But Sunny was not done. “Chief, this is not about contract. You are our father. Our request is for adequate compensation! Let’s leave the contract aside.” Chief Abioro looked at the young star the way a parent looks at a child asking for another candy. “Leave the contract aside? We should leave the contract aside?”

The chairman asked incredulously. “You know, it would be nice to leave the contract aside. But you know what? That would be illegal!”
Haba! Illegality ke! . It was then that someone brought up the idea of requesting some of his friends to plead their case. Sunny agreed. After all, Eni ti o mo oju Ogun, ni pa obi ni ‘re. It is the person who is conversant with Ogun, the god of iron, that is usually given the duty to administer its rites. They went to meet Prince Okunade Sijuwade who would later become the Ooni of Ife.

They also met with Chief Afolabi Joseph. Even Chief Ebenezer Obey was also requested to intervene as well as Chief Nurudeen Alowonle.
The eminent persons appeared in the court of the Balogun of Ipokia as ‘amici curiae’ on behalf of the musicians. Amici curiae are lawyers invited by the judge(s) to assist in filling briefs that may be helpful to the court in deciding a case. Our eminent persons argued their case like experienced advocates. They cited relevant sections of the unwritten Yoruba constitution.

They cited Yoruba proverbs. They made reference to the story of Oduduwa. The presiding chairman listened to their submissions and summarily dismissed the case. Contract is contract!

Chief did not only dismiss the request for a raise. He opened another file on his table and brought out a new set of documents. Your guess is right! A new five-year contract! By now, Sunny Ade had learnt enough law. He had become a professional mathematician. He had obtained his Master of Business Administration from practical experience. He knew the implication of putting pen to paper. He applied for an adjournment.

The King of African Beats found himself in a quandary. His new songs were ready but Chief had threatened not to release any new album until he signed the new contract. And KSA was not ready to sign any new contract until the issue of royalty was resolved.

KSA remembered his grandmother’s proverb. Ti abiku ba gbon ogbon ati ku ni igba erun, iya abiku a gbon ogbon ati sin oku e si etido. If an abiku decided to die during the dry season when he knew that the ground would be hard to dig, his parents would also decide to bury him by the riverside where the ground would not be hard to dig.

Sunny Ade decided to release his record with another company. His plan was to use the album to bargain for a better deal with African Songs. Instead of the measly 20 kobo, he was confident that the chairman would be ready to pay him at least N1.00 per copy. The album was recorded in Nigeria but taken to London for mixing. What Sunny Ade did not know was that Chief Abioro was a master at the game. Before Sunny could get a copy of his own album, Chief Abioro was already in possession of the new record.

Baba Ibeji was composing fresh materials at home when the court bailiffs arrived. They served him with an order of interim injunction! The court order was as comprehensive as it was broad. Sunny Ade was prohibited from sale, distribution, marketing, dealing, etc. etc. of the record. He read the order again. Even without being a lawyer, he knew the implication of the document he was holding.

With palpable emotion, his mind went back to how he came to Lagos from Abeokuta with only one shilling and eighteen pence! He remembered his years with Baba Sala. He recalled how he got stranded with Baba Sala’s travelling theatre in Jebba and Kano. How he did not see his mother for two years whilst he suffered to make it as a musician. He recalled how his first album sold only 13 copies. Now when he was at the threshold of success, this court order! With grim determination, he knew he couldn’t afford to quit.

He remembered his first day at Oshodi when he missed his way trying to locate Moses Olaiya’s house and how he was directed instead to Dr. Victor Olaiya at Tinubu. He recalled how he knelt down in the dust of Oshodi to pray.

Immediately he knew what he must do. Sunny went down on his knees and with an emotional voice, he prayed and prayed. It was not the Sunday Adeniyi that knelt down to pray that stood up. He had become empowered. He had become emboldened. That same evening, he established his own label.

Sunny Alade Records was born! He didn’t bother to sit down again. He remembered the threat of Chief Abioro to bring him down at all cost. He needed a lawyer who knew his law and who would be prepared to fight his cause against the Magnate. He went off in search of Gani Fawehinmi.

Gani collected the court papers and looked at the claims. He looked at his client. He looked again at the claims. Chief Abioro was not leaving anything to chance. He knew what he wanted from the court. His lawyer had read the agreement between African Songs Limited and Sunday Adeniyi.

Chief Abioro wanted only four things from the court: a declaration that the agreement between ASL and Sunday Adeniyi and his boys was still subsisting; an injunction restraining Sunny Ade from distributing or selling the record; an account of all sales of the record; and N1 million for breach of contract.

I hope you are not sneering at the N1 million as being ‘chicken change’. Remember this was in 1974. The price of a brand new Volkswagen Beetle car was about N500 at that time. N1 million in 1974 was a princely sum!

On the day of the trial, the court was filled to capacity. Gani Fawehinmi was armed with every conceivable legal authority. The law books he brought to the court were more than enough to open a library. There were books on Contract. There were books on Human Rights. There were volumes on Intellectual Property. Gani even brought some books on Slave Trade.

The first application Gani brought before the court was for an order to compel African Songs to produce its statement of account over the preceding three years. The court granted the order. It was discovered that the company was making almost N900,000 every year from the sale of Sunny Ade Records.

It was also discovered that the total sum that KSA received was N62,000 in the almost ten years he was with the company. How can you be asking me what is 900,000 divided by 62,000? I have told you that I’m not a mathematician. Please don’t ask me about percentages or fractions.

Gani did not forget to raise the issue of how 20kobo became 15 kobo. He also cross examined Chief Abioro at length on the onerous terms contained in the contract. Gani put it to the chief that the contract was in restraint of trade and that it was therefore null and void as it amounted to colonization of King Sunny Ade, a free citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and a citizen of the Commonwealth!

My Lord Justice L. J. Dosunmu listened patiently to the parties. His Lordship also asked the witnesses some probing cases. The court thereafter adjourned the matter to February 14, 1975 for judgment. It did not even occur to the King of African Beats that the day was St. Valentine’s Day.

His only preoccupation was to find out the direction in which the pendulum of justice was going to swing.

On February 14, people started arriving at the court as early as 7am. The court officials had hectic time controlling the mammoth crowd that had come to court to witness the historic decision. In His Lordship’s judgment, Justice Dosunmu held that although some of the terms of the contract were stringent, that was not a ground for holding the contract invalid.

In effect, the contract between ASL and KSA was therefore valid. As the court pronounced on the validity of the contract, Sunny looked at his lawyer. Gani signaled to him to be calm, the court had only resolved one issue out of four.
With regard to the second claim, the court held that since the records in question had been distributed all over Nigeria, there was no way the court could order them to be recalled. The court therefore refused to restrain Sunny Ade and his marketer, M. Ola Kazim from distributing the album. A tiny smile crossed Sunny’s face.

You recall that Chief Abioro was asking for N1,000,000 as damages for breach of contract. The court ruled that for recording with another company during the subsistence of the contract, Sunny Ade was liable. He was asked to pay N300! Yes, Three Hundred Naira! From N1,000,000 to N300! Sunny smiled for the first time.

The court having found that the contract was still subsisting, KSA was ordered not to release another album pending the expiration of the contract with Chief Abioro’s company, which was due in six months. Six months! What am I going to be eating? Sunny thought. Apparently, this was the only part of the judgment that Anti Wura, Buroda Alani’s third wife must have heard, and heard wrongly too!

As if reading Sunny Ade’s mind, Justice Dosunmu said he realized that Sunny Ade would need to eat and feed his family in the six months that the contract had to run. His Lordship therefore held that the injunction was limited to only recording of albums and that Sunny Ade was free to do live performances for fees. His Lordship said that this was in order to avoid a situation where the King of Music would starve or be compelled to go back to Chief Abioro.

The judge had hardly risen before King Sunny Ade jumped up to hug his counsel. He was free! He gave Gani a bear hug. He had learnt his lesson. Creativity and Business must go hand in hand. Years later, the King of Music recalled: “The lesson I learnt from the episode is that if an artiste is churning out hit records, he needs to keep an eye on the business side of things. If not, he would be in a mess.

(Credit: Written and copyrighted by Onigegewura)

Elon Musk!!! The man who changed the world

      Elon musk is a South Africa born entrepreneur,investor,inventor,business magnate.He is the founder of zip2 and co founder of PayPal.He is the CEO and CTO of SpaceX,product architect of Tesla and Chairman of Solar city .
This guy is one of the biggest futurist,visionaries I have ever seen
So here's are some of the facts about Elon Musk.
Elon Musk is self taught programmer, at the age of 12 he had made a game named Blastar and later sold it for $500
He co founded Page on x.com which later got aquired and was named Paypal
He went away alone Canada leaving South Africa because he didn't want to join the South African army
He joined Stanford university but left after 2 days because he wanted to setup his company.
His grandfather wanted to find the lost city in kalahari desert
He became famous for starting Tesla Motors and SpaceX but he first made his fortune as a co-founder of PayPal.
Musk provided a large amount of inspiration for the Hollywood character Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man). In fact, parts of Iron Man 2were actually filmed inside and outside of SpaceX. Musk even has a cameo in the film!
Like Steve Jobs and other famous entrepreneurs, Musk's official annual salary for Tesla Motors is just $1.
Elon Musk didn't become an American citizen until 2002, at age 31.
When Elon Musk was 17, he moved from South Africa to Canada. Eventually, he attended college in the U.S. at the University of Pennsylvania.
After graduating, Musk moved to California in order to begin graduate school in physics at Stanford University. He left Stanford after just two days, deciding instead to take advantage of the Internet boom, which was in full swing.
After dropping out of grad school, Musk quickly established his first company --Zip2, which provided online newspapers with maps and business directories. He sold the company in 1999 for $307 million.
In 1999, Musk co-founded Page on x.com, an online payment company that eventually became PayPal before being acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock (of which $165 million was given to Musk).
Musk co-founded Tesla Motors, a company that designs and manufacturers electric sports cars. Tesla was able to succeed in the electric car market where other large manufacturers failed. He now serves as CEO and chief product architect at Tesla.
The Tesla Model S was awarded a 5.4-out-of-5 safety rating from the National Highway Safety Administration, the highest rating ever given an automobile.
Musk is one of the major driving forces behind SolarCity, a company founded by his cousins. He is also the largest shareholder of the company.
Elon Musk also founded SpaceX (a.k.a. Space Exploration Technologies), a company that creates and manufactures space launch vehicles, with a particular focus in rocket technology. His aim is to reduce the cost of space flight in hopes of expanding human life beyond Earth.
Musk initially found it impossible to get funding for SpaceX, which investors saw as a pipe dream. Musk channeled all his own money into the company to make SpaceX a reality (going against every piece of business advice ever written).
SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to resupply (and eventually ferry people to) the International Space Station, effectively replacing the Space Shuttle.
Musk has reduced the cost of reaching the International Space Station by 90%, bringing it down from $1 billion per mission to just $60 million.
Musk aspires for his Falcon rocket to someday make space tourism and the colonization of Mars a realistic goal for mankind.
1.     The Falcon rocket gets its name from Star Wars'Millennium Falcon.
SpaceX is the first commercial company ever to successfully recover a spacecraft from Earth's orbit, and its Dragon spacecraft is the first commercial vehicle to attach to the International Space Station.
Despite his enormous recent success, both his flagship companies (SpaceX and Tesla Motors) came alarmingly close to failing. Tesla'a first electric car, the Roadster, faced an ongoing string of production problems, and SpaceX had three launch failures before its fourth and final effort was a success.
Elon Musk has been married three times, having married (and subsequently divorced) British actress Talulah Riley twice.
Musk has five sons (one set of twins and one set of triplets),whom he shares custody of with his first wife, Canadian fantasy author Justine Wilson.
He has confessed to naming one of his sons, Xavier, after Professor Xavier of the X-Men.
Elon Musk established the Musk Foundation, which is a group committed to space exploration and discovering clean energy sources. The Foundation runs the Musk Mars Desert Observatory telescope in Utah.
The Musk Foundation also runs a simulated Mars environment that allows visitors to experience what life on Mars might be like (complete with waste-burning toilets).
Musk has been referred to as a "thrillionaire," a new class of high-tech entrepreneurs looking to use their wealth to make science-fiction dreams into a modern reality.
Musk is a firm supporter of fighting global warming and working toward sustainable energy use -- he cites it as his primary incentive for founding Tesla Motors and SolarCity.
Elon Musk has signed the Giving Pledge, in which pledges promise to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropic efforts. The Giving Pledge has also been signed by Bill Gates, Sir Richard Branson, Warren Buffett, and Mark Zuckerberg, among others.
Elon Musk owns Wet Nellie, a custom-built Lotus Esprit submarine car from the James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me.
Musk was named one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century by magazine
In 2013, Musk was named Fortune's"Businessperson of the Year" for SpaceX, SolarCity, and Tesla Motors.
On January 25, 2015, Elon Musk made a guest appearance onThe Simpsons episode titled "The Musk Who Fell to Earth," playing himself. Musk was a good sport about the episode, which poked fun at many of Musk's ideas.
The Federation Aronautique Internationale, which is the world governing body for aerospace records, presented Musk with the FAI Gold Space Medal in 2010 for designing the first privately developed rocket to reach orbit. It's the organization's highest award (and has also been awarded to Neil Armstrong).
  In 2013, Musk introduced his latest endeavor -- the Hyperloop, a new form of transportation that could theoretically send people from San Francisco to Los Angeles in half an hour by way of pressurized tubes. Musk has said if no one else will build it, he will do it himself.