When Heath Ledger breathed his last, his daughter was devastated as she could not find him. But his presence was not the only thing she would miss out on. The actor had not included her in his will. Worried about her welfare, three of Ledger’s costars gave up their salaries for her.
Heath Ledger was well recognized for playing The Joker, a psychopathic criminal mastermind with a warped sense of humor, in the superhero film “The Dark Knight.”
In addition, the actor also played many other roles, including in “Lords of Dogtown” and “I’m Not There.” In 2004, during the filming of “Brokeback Mountain,” the actor met and fell in love with Michelle Williams. A year later, they welcomed their baby girl, Matilda Rose Ledger…Click Here To Continue Reading>> …Click Here To Continue Reading>>
Unfortunately, in 2007, the pair broke up, but Ledger’s love for his daughter remained as strong as ever. Director Terry Gilliam would say that the actor would put his daughter in his backpack, get in the tube and go to his house to talk about a movie they were working on.
Sadly, in 2008, when Matilda was only two, Ledger passed on accidentally at his New York Apartment. Little Matilda could not understand her father’s sudden absence and constantly bombarded her mother with questions about him that Michelle did not know how to answer. She would always ask:
“Where’s my daddy?”
Heath’s Costars Financially Rescue His Daughter
Right before he met his tragic death, Ledger was in the middle of filming “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.” The film is about a traveling theatre troupe whose leader, having made a bet with the Devil, presents his audiences with a choice between self-fulfilling enlightenment or gratifying ignorance.
Upon his death, the director, Terry Gilliam, did not know whether to scrap the film or replace Ledger. With a little convincing from his daughter, he settled on the latter. He chose Hollywood A-listers Jude Law, Johnny Depp, and Colin Farrell to replace Ledger in the film and play the remainder of the parts. Gilliam said:
“Nobody asked how much they would be paid or if the part was right for them. They were all Heath’s friends, and they wanted to make sure the film was finished in his memory.”
Other A-list celebrities, such as Tom Cruise, offered to take over Ledger’s part, but Gilliam turned them down because they did not know Ledger well.
While Gilliam worried whether replacing Ledger with three actors made financial sense, the three were concerned about something else — Ledger’s daughter.
In the act of extraordinary generosity, the three actors worked for nominal pay and took none of the payment to themselves, instead donating all their salary to Matilda. It would turn out that Ledger had not included his two-year-old daughter in his will.
Showdown For Heath’s Millions
The award-winning actor had written a will long before his daughter was born, leaving his estate, estimated at $118,000, to his parents and three sisters. He never updated the will after his daughter was born.
Under normal circumstances, that would mean his daughter was not eligible to inherit anything from her father. However, everything took a drastic turn a year after the actor’s death.
Ledger’s father, Kim Ledger, told The Sunday Times that his family would not claim any part of Ledger’s wealth and would instead give it all to the actor’s daughter. He said as Fox News reports:
“There is no claim. Our family has gifted everything to Matilda.”
The decision raised a dispute between Kim and his brothers, with two claiming that Ledger’s father was not in a position to be the executor of the actor’s estate as he had mismanaged their grandfather’s estate years back.
However, Robert John Collins, an Australian executor of Ledger’s will, came to Kim’s rescue, saying the accusations against him by his brothers were rubbish. The claims led to quarrels between the brothers, who have since remained estranged.
Matilda was only two when her dad passed on, but it’s been 15 years, and she is now all grown. It is easy to see how the 17-year-old resembles her dad from rare photos of her available online. The resemblances are notable to her family members, including her grandfather Kim who said:
“She’s got an enormous number of his mannerisms. She’s very inquisitive. She’s got his energy cause Heath never slept from when he was two, and Matilda’s like that.”
Kim doted on his granddaughter, saying she was a ball of energy and radiated an aura just as Ledger had. In addition to taking after her dad, Matilda inherited traits from her mom, who works tirelessly to keep Ledger’s memories alive in his daughter.
What remains constant about the little girl is her endless questions in a bid to discover and get to know the person that her dad was while he lived.
Ledger’s family commends Michelle on the beautiful job she has done raising Matilda on her own since her father’s demise, and as the actor’s sister Kate Ledger would tell People:
“I think that she provides such a wonderful environment for Matilda to grow up in, especially in the sort of industry that she’s in.”
Kate referred to Michelle as grounded and noted how much Matilda resembled her late brother. She shared that everything Matilda does reminds her of her brother.
Simple tasks performed automatically by Matilda were similar to how Ledger would have done them, including things as simple as picking up a pencil and getting on the skateboard.
She also strives to keep her brother’s memories alive inside his daughter and tells People: “I tell her about her daddy every time we see each other. I tell her little stories of him growing up and how he used to chase me with the cricket bat.”
Despite having star parents, Matilda keeps quite a low profile, and any photos available of her are with her mother taken in different public places.
The post When Matilda was only two, Heath Ledger passed on unexpectedly in his New York apartment. appeared first on Entertainment Mind.
Gen. Diya was crossed examined at the Human Rights Violation Commission (HRVIC) on the coup plan 1997 to overthrow Gen. Sanni Abacha, He bluntly denied the fact that he was part of the plan but he admitted he knew about the plan. He further explained that he was afraid of being killed by the Coup Master Planner if he revealed the plan.
Gen. Diya Oladipo then was appointed as Chief of Defense Staff. He was appointed Chief of General Staff in 1993 and Vice Chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council in 1994. In 1997 Diya and dissident soldiers in the military allegedly planned to overthrow the regime of Sani Abacha. The alleged coup was uncovered by forces loyal to Abacha, and Diya and his cohorts were jailed. Diya was tried in a military tribunal, and was given the death penalty. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
Nigeria has seen the rise and fall of many military regimes since she became a sovereign state in 1960 and this, at every turn, has altered the direction of the country.
A second coup since independence which happened on July 29, 1966, would see to the brutal death of Nigeria’s Supreme Commander, General J.T.C Aguiyi-Ironsi (the nation’s 1st military head of state) and his friend, Lieutenant Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, who was the sitting and 1st Military Governor of the Western Region…Click Here To Continue Reading>> …Click Here To Continue Reading>>
Aguiyi-Ironsi was a guest at the Government House, Ibadan, as he came to hold a meeting with traditional rulers in the Western region. Ironsi arrived Ibadan the previous day and unknowingly, he met his death during the counter-coup which is generally believed to be a retaliation to the January 15th 1966 coup in which prominent Northerners in power were killed.
The Northerners were believed to hold a grudge since the first coup as they lost leaders including Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (Nigerian Prime Minister) and Sir Ahmadu Bello (Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of the Northern Region). They tagged it an ‘Igbo Coup’ as no Eastern casualty was recorded in both the military and public service as even the West lost Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola in the coup. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
This counter-coup of July 29, 1966, led by General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma was tagged the bloodiest coup by many in the history of Nigeria. Ironsi and Fajuyi’s death which still remains a controversial debate among historians because how they were killed isn’t clear but both bodies were found in a bush in outskirts of Ibadan. Read a comprehensive account of how Aguiyi-Ironsi was killed here.
Aside from the Head of State and Western Military governor, many other casualties were recorded in the army and most killed or maimed were Easterners, particularly Igbos. This will be one of the many reasons the country would go into a civil war the following year as the Eastern region tried seceding.
54 years after, we remember this gruesome act done in the Brown Roof City and how much has happened or changed since then.
General Sani Abacha is perhaps Nigeria’s most enigmatic head of state. He reigned from 1993 until his death in 1998. General Abacha was born in Kano state, northern Nigeria on September 20, 1943. He hails from Kanuri in Borno state.
He passed out of the Nigerian Military Training Centre in Kaduna where he proceeded to Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, England before being commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in 1963.
He is held by some as Nigeria’s most successful coup plotter. When he was still a Second Lieutenant with the 3rd Battalion in Kaduna, he took part in the July 1966 Nigerian counter-coup from the conceptual stage. He could well have been a participant in the Lagos or Abeokuta phases of the coup the previous January as well…Click Here To Continue Reading>> …Click Here To Continue Reading>>
Abacha fought for Nigeria in the country’s civil war against Biafran secessionists continuing to rise through the army ranks.
He was instrumental in the 1983 Nigerian coup d’état which brought General Muhammadu Buhari to power as well as the August 1985 coup which removed him from power. He announced the coup which removed the government of Shehu Shagari.
When General Ibrahim Babangida was named President of Nigeria in 1985, Abacha was named Chief of Army Staff. He was appointed Minister of Defence in 1990. With Babangida’s resignation, an interim government headed by civilian President, Ernest Shonekan was formed.
Sani Abacha became the first Nigerian soldier to attain the rank of a full General without skipping a single rank in 1993. In the same year, he moved for the ultimate.
Shonekan resigned and transferred power to Sani Abacha in a move widely believed to be another bloodless coup. In September 1994, he issued a decree that placed his government above the jurisdiction of the courts, effectively giving him absolute power. Another decree gave him the right to detain anyone for up to three months without trial.
Abacha is noted for helping restore peace and democracy to Sierra Leone and Liberia after the civil wars.
On his administration of the Nigerian state proper, he established The Petroleum Trust Fund aimed to address major economic issues facing the country at the time. Between 25-100km of urban road in major cities such as Kano, Gusau, Benin, Funtua, Zaria, Enugu, Kaduna, Aba, Lagos, Lokoja, and Port Harcourt was planned to be constructed each. A N27.3bn contract was awarded for road rehabilitation in the first quarter of 1996.
There was a restructuring of major insurance companies that supported SMEs across the entire country.
Abacha mandated the PTF to publicise its accounts as it was the second-largest public corporation at the time. In 1997, the account of PTF showed that it disbursed N24.3bn on roads, N21.2bn on security, N7.8bn on health, and N3bn on other projects. Other disbursements include N2.2bn on water supply, N936m on food supply and N476m on education. It realized a total of N1.049bn from various investment activities.
It’s curious the sums which emerged after his death that he stashed in overseas accounts as the Abacha administration became the first to record unprecedented economic achievements overseeing an increase in the country’s foreign exchange reserves from $494 million in 1993 to $9.6 billion by the middle of 1997. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
He also reduced the external debt of Nigeria from $36 billion in 1993 to $27 billion by 1997. His Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund is also hailed for infrastructural projects and interventionist programmes in education, water and health.
His wife is credited with setting up the National Hospital in Abuja viewed as Nigeria’s foremost national hospital, which was initially set up as a hospital for women and children before its upgrade.
Nonetheless, Abacha was ruthless with groups he considered hostile to his administration between 1993 and 1998. There was a crackdown on the civil rights groups, media and pro-democracy groups.
It was also under him that Nigeria became a perpetual importer of petroleum products as the refineries packed up. The emergence of the ‘foul fuel’ which damaged car engines and released a repugnant smell was in his time.
General Sani Abacha earned the title ‘Thug of the Year’ from Time magazine in 1995 after the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa. Abacha developed the habit of working only at night. Availing himself to be seen publicly rarely while being averse to granting interviews.
The events of his death on June 8, 1998, at the presidential villa in Abuja are murky and while the official account is that he suffered a heart attack, other accounts say he was in the company of two Indian sex workers flown in from Dubai when he died. He was buried on the same day, according to Muslim tradition, without an autopsy. This fueled speculation that he may have been murdered by political rivals via poison.
Foreign diplomats, including United States Intelligence analysts, believed that his drink or fruit (apple) was laced with a poisonous substance while in the company of prostitutes.
Abacha was married to Maryam Abacha with whom he had had seven sons and three daughters.
In March 2014, the United States Department of Justice revealed that it had frozen more than $458 million believed to have been illegally obtained by Abacha and other corrupt officials.
On 7 August 2014, the United States Department of Justice announced the largest forfeiture in its history: the return of $480 million to the Nigerian government.
Stashed sums in other accounts have been discovered with the Nigerian government working to have the funds returned.
