I do not quite know if this caption aptly describes what I want to write; neither do I know if it correlates with what you will find in the body of the writing. However, staying true to the new way of writing which I have discovered, the one without rules or objections, please let’s together see the few lines below and drop your comments.
For the past two weeks or thereabouts, I have taken some things into perspective. I have played different scenarios in my big coconut head. I have given myself reasons to think so deep. Thoughts that left me either wanting to turn back the hands of time, stop living and quitting the rat race or even wanting to live the more and do what I must to make the world I live in a better one. I have still learnt a few more things by virtue of my perspective thinking, hoping that will make me a better person.
The perspective thing gained more ground with some recent events. The Fabrice Muamba incident opened my eyes to how human beings relate in times of distress and challenges. First lesson I picked added to the one I already know about the sanctity of life. Fabrice just fell, and according to medical people, “he was technically dead for 78 minutes”. That would have been the end, I mean the end of Fabrice. I renewed my pledge to live as though every minute is the last, I chose to make peace always.
The outpouring of love and support shown Mr. Muamba, a guy I first heard of while honing his skills in the club I support, Arsenal FC, did not quite surprise me. I felt so concerned for him and saw the same on my Twitter timeline and Facebook feeds. It made me feel something I never was sure of how to explain again. The concern from all walks of life, even from non-soccer supporters, was overwhelming. Maybe just for once, everyone united irrespective of creed, colour, religion or other affliations.
Maybe, just maybe if we can daily support ourselves, our world will be a lot peaceful. Maybe if we can be regularly unite, we will together confront and defeat the evils which daily threaten our existence. Maybe if we offer folks shoulders to lean on, their lives will be a lot better. Imagine the number of people praying for Fabrice at the same time, does that tell you something about unity of purpose? Does that convey a message about oneness? Fabrice has pulled through and daily improves in his health.
See the show of support from Gary Cahill, Muamba’s former teammate. What with Andrea Pirlo getting his goal dedicated to Fab? See Real Madrid players wish Fabrice and an arch rival, Eric Abidal (of Barcelona, Madrid’s arch enemy) quick recovery in their respective health battles. I do not expect a world without rancor, I do not plead a perfect world, I only ask that we come together to make it a world in which we will stand firm by one another in our times of need.
While Fabrice Muamba’s condition was on, the campaign to #saveOke started here as well. Here was a young man who was bubbling with life before being confined to his bed due to diabetes. He needed a sum of five million naira to get to use his legs again. Calls were made for donations from folks. I saw one thing that I thought was not available again, many folks rallied round the young man, making donations out of the little they had on them too. Not wanting to sound immodest, I did something as well.
At the end of it all I felt a huge sense of relief and fulfillment. Of what use is the trouser and shoe I want to buy when someone’s life was at stake. Some of my friends on BBM responded, others ignored. At the end of the day, the Delta state government took over after our efforts yielded two million naira. Together we stood, as a unit, we contributed two million naira. Does that not tell you what we can achieve if we come together as a team?
Remove your five hundred naira and my two hundred naira from two million naira and you will have one million nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, three hundred naira; that is less than two million naira in any way. So whatever anyone did was important. Every penny, every contribution to a joint effort counts. It goes to say that we all are important in anything and everything, no matter how inconsequential you think you are.
A lot still on my mind, but I think we all should value ourselves and come together as a team to tackle challenges when needed. Words of encouragement alone are enough to spur people who are taking active part in any exercise. Every team needs you, you are of value. Team work will always win. This to me does not qualify as the best way to carry my message across, but I have tried to explain in a little way. You and I are important in a team…xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
AND THE NEW YEAR STARTS…
I have met many people in my life’s journey and I must say I consider myself extremely blessed to have met all. I want to say I appreciate you all. The best birthday blessing you can give me is to read and comment on this. It will go a long way to show how much you appreciate my March 28 this year.
A few hours ago, the calendar again turned for me, the year increased and the age changed yet again. I feel so blessed to be alive to add another year again with the different scenes in my eventful years playing all over again, allowing nostalgia to creep in quietly. I feel so lucky after treading so many paths – the illegal and legal, the good and bad, the ones that make me proud and the ones I regret. All in all, ope ni fun eleda mi to fun mi ni oore ofe lati wa laye (thanks to my maker for the grace to be alive).
I have had cause to be a student in many institutions while I was growing up steadily. However, we all remain students in the university of life. If you agree with me, that is where we live and school; the Boarding House where we only either make ourselves independent or enslaved as there are in my views no House Masters, Mistresses, Prefects or what have you. You report to the maker who has given you full control over your life to either make or mar it.
Without the input of many people in my past and present, I would have no chance to be here, neither will I be chanced to ink my mind. To the maker who yearly increases my age, experience, and maybe wisdom, I say thanks for giving me the chance to strut my stuff in the University of Life. It always is a privilege, never a right. It always will be a privilege I will appreciate till I return to the dust from where he molded me.
I can imagine how Momma felt seeing her first bundle of joy, the first result of her union with Dad. I’m trying to picture how Dad looked that beautiful Wednesday morning years ago. My Dad would sure have been grinning from ear to ear telling whoever cared that he did the ‘arrange’ that brought that baby over there into the world. To make matters funny, due to the fact that they place lots of premium on the male child, he would have been the proudest Adam in the whole wide world that morning.
The hen has finally hatched; the chick has become the cock now, going after Eves to also do his own thing his preferred way. Right from my nursery school days at Bodija International and Oritamefa Baptist Schools, I have always had this sense of responsibility, not wanting to disappoint anyone. That has stood me in good stead while I steadily grew ‘like a weed’. Having one of the best upbringings, modest but rich in values and love, I have been blessed every year of my life and I expect a lot more blessings as I add this to the years.
It is not as if birthdays are strange to me, this however is a special one for many who know the reason behind the ‘special’. I decided not to really look forward to it for a couple of reasons but common sense along with the thankful heart in me presently has overtaken that initial carefree attitude I had about my birthday celebration of this year. I have refused to get discouraged with some things which look as though they are not going my way now, I have decided to count my blessings.
I want to live after I die. Life after death is what people will say after I die, and I’m ready to be prayed for in death and my fruits, the seeds of my loins, be blessed for having a father that was and is a blessing to humanity. Nobody knows when he will exit this world. I therefore want to do all I must, the ‘dos’ and the ‘musts’ right on time so that it if I die today, it would be said that I was a blessing to all. I’m getting old and I’m trying to see what I’ve brought to the world. I want to be remembered for bringing love to the world and joy to the people.
Folks who are younger than me have achieved a lot more than what I’m currently boasting about. Contrastingly however, I have older folks who have not achieved a quarter of what I have achieved. I ask the creator for just one chance and that is to right all my wrongs and be the reason people celebrate and rejoice. Meanwhile, thanks for reading this, you have effectively wished me a HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
A few hours ago, the calendar again turned for me, the year increased and the age changed yet again. I feel so blessed to be alive to add another year again with the different scenes in my eventful years playing all over again, allowing nostalgia to creep in quietly. I feel so lucky after treading so many paths – the illegal and legal, the good and bad, the ones that make me proud and the ones I regret. All in all, ope ni fun eleda mi to fun mi ni oore ofe lati wa laye (thanks to my maker for the grace to be alive).
I have had cause to be a student in many institutions while I was growing up steadily. However, we all remain students in the university of life. If you agree with me, that is where we live and school; the Boarding House where we only either make ourselves independent or enslaved as there are in my views no House Masters, Mistresses, Prefects or what have you. You report to the maker who has given you full control over your life to either make or mar it.
Without the input of many people in my past and present, I would have no chance to be here, neither will I be chanced to ink my mind. To the maker who yearly increases my age, experience, and maybe wisdom, I say thanks for giving me the chance to strut my stuff in the University of Life. It always is a privilege, never a right. It always will be a privilege I will appreciate till I return to the dust from where he molded me.
I can imagine how Momma felt seeing her first bundle of joy, the first result of her union with Dad. I’m trying to picture how Dad looked that beautiful Wednesday morning years ago. My Dad would sure have been grinning from ear to ear telling whoever cared that he did the ‘arrange’ that brought that baby over there into the world. To make matters funny, due to the fact that they place lots of premium on the male child, he would have been the proudest Adam in the whole wide world that morning.
The hen has finally hatched; the chick has become the cock now, going after Eves to also do his own thing his preferred way. Right from my nursery school days at Bodija International and Oritamefa Baptist Schools, I have always had this sense of responsibility, not wanting to disappoint anyone. That has stood me in good stead while I steadily grew ‘like a weed’. Having one of the best upbringings, modest but rich in values and love, I have been blessed every year of my life and I expect a lot more blessings as I add this to the years.
It is not as if birthdays are strange to me, this however is a special one for many who know the reason behind the ‘special’. I decided not to really look forward to it for a couple of reasons but common sense along with the thankful heart in me presently has overtaken that initial carefree attitude I had about my birthday celebration of this year. I have refused to get discouraged with some things which look as though they are not going my way now, I have decided to count my blessings.
I want to live after I die. Life after death is what people will say after I die, and I’m ready to be prayed for in death and my fruits, the seeds of my loins, be blessed for having a father that was and is a blessing to humanity. Nobody knows when he will exit this world. I therefore want to do all I must, the ‘dos’ and the ‘musts’ right on time so that it if I die today, it would be said that I was a blessing to all. I’m getting old and I’m trying to see what I’ve brought to the world. I want to be remembered for bringing love to the world and joy to the people.
Folks who are younger than me have achieved a lot more than what I’m currently boasting about. Contrastingly however, I have older folks who have not achieved a quarter of what I have achieved. I ask the creator for just one chance and that is to right all my wrongs and be the reason people celebrate and rejoice. Meanwhile, thanks for reading this, you have effectively wished me a HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
ALL HAIL MOTHERS
No, I choose not to succumb to laziness. I was thinking of just recycling my Mothers’ Day article for 2011 but common sense has prevailed and here I am doing what gives me pleasure and fulfillment. I was getting so soaked in the kind of unnecessary busyness that has come to characterize my life of recent only to be jerked back to reality by a popular mart where I bought stuff that it would be Mothers’ Day on March 18.
There were conspiracies against this celebration of motherhood but I have weathered the storm to make sure this gets posted at all costs. PHCN did their best and my ever troublesome generator joined the conspiracy. Work did not allow the space and time but I am squeezing out the time and space to do this because mothers are one in a kind.
If I will forget everything, it definitely will not be one of my nursery school songs. “Who sat and watched my infant head, when sleeping on my cradle bed, and tears of sweet affection shed, MY MOTHER”. This was one song we all sang with devotion back then. We were actually oblivious of the important role of mothers back then. We just caught fun singing about Mummy.
There is always this bond, that ties the mother and the child. The kind of bond that nobody cannot explain. Ever seen a lunatic look admirably at her child? That is to tell you they also have a period of sanity after all. They are so aggressive when it comes to their children. Try everything and you will get away with it but don’t you ever mess with a made woman’s child. That’s the power of the mother-child bond; one of the mysteries of creation that is simply beyond human comprehension.
Make no mistake, you have a mother, but you have mothers as well. Your biological mother only brought you to the world. Mother figures get to emerge in one way or the other in our life’s journies. You say no? What about your primary school teacher? And for those privileged to attend playgroups, what about the Aunties then, the ones who changed your nappies?
What about that aunt that took care of you and your siblings? Or that neighbor that fed you and your siblings when Mother came late from work? Have you spared a little thought for the friends that your mother have, those ones who always cared for you all. They also are your mothers, they are the ones I call mother figures in our lives, they are indispensable.
In the Yoruba setting, there is a proverb that says “oju kan nii’bimo, igba oju lo n wo”, which easily translates as “one person gives birth, two hundred people train the child”. This goes to say that no one individual has one mother, we all have mothers and mother figures or whatever we choose to call them. They are the ones who have formed us into what we are.
Let me get a little explicit, without a mother, our fathers’ seeds would be very useless. It would be mere liquid as there would be no eggs to fertilize. Daddy’s only contribution was the semen and from there mother took over. She bore the pregnancy and took care from the moment the child arrived. Does father have enough time and emotion to care that much? Mother it is that can do all and more.
Therefore today, I say to my biological mother, Aunty Vic and all the mother figures in my life, HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY. Also to all potential mothers, I beseech you to be wonderful mothers who will make your children proud of you. The way I am proud of my mother and mothers. At the risk of over-emphasizing the celebration, HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY, tell her you love her and show it in a special way.
There were conspiracies against this celebration of motherhood but I have weathered the storm to make sure this gets posted at all costs. PHCN did their best and my ever troublesome generator joined the conspiracy. Work did not allow the space and time but I am squeezing out the time and space to do this because mothers are one in a kind.
If I will forget everything, it definitely will not be one of my nursery school songs. “Who sat and watched my infant head, when sleeping on my cradle bed, and tears of sweet affection shed, MY MOTHER”. This was one song we all sang with devotion back then. We were actually oblivious of the important role of mothers back then. We just caught fun singing about Mummy.
There is always this bond, that ties the mother and the child. The kind of bond that nobody cannot explain. Ever seen a lunatic look admirably at her child? That is to tell you they also have a period of sanity after all. They are so aggressive when it comes to their children. Try everything and you will get away with it but don’t you ever mess with a made woman’s child. That’s the power of the mother-child bond; one of the mysteries of creation that is simply beyond human comprehension.
Make no mistake, you have a mother, but you have mothers as well. Your biological mother only brought you to the world. Mother figures get to emerge in one way or the other in our life’s journies. You say no? What about your primary school teacher? And for those privileged to attend playgroups, what about the Aunties then, the ones who changed your nappies?
What about that aunt that took care of you and your siblings? Or that neighbor that fed you and your siblings when Mother came late from work? Have you spared a little thought for the friends that your mother have, those ones who always cared for you all. They also are your mothers, they are the ones I call mother figures in our lives, they are indispensable.
In the Yoruba setting, there is a proverb that says “oju kan nii’bimo, igba oju lo n wo”, which easily translates as “one person gives birth, two hundred people train the child”. This goes to say that no one individual has one mother, we all have mothers and mother figures or whatever we choose to call them. They are the ones who have formed us into what we are.
Let me get a little explicit, without a mother, our fathers’ seeds would be very useless. It would be mere liquid as there would be no eggs to fertilize. Daddy’s only contribution was the semen and from there mother took over. She bore the pregnancy and took care from the moment the child arrived. Does father have enough time and emotion to care that much? Mother it is that can do all and more.
Therefore today, I say to my biological mother, Aunty Vic and all the mother figures in my life, HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY. Also to all potential mothers, I beseech you to be wonderful mothers who will make your children proud of you. The way I am proud of my mother and mothers. At the risk of over-emphasizing the celebration, HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY, tell her you love her and show it in a special way.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
CELEBRATING ‘HER’
Waking up this morning, I tried as usual to remember whose birthday it is on March 8th so as to keep the reputation that I never forget birthdays. I racked my brain to no avail. Again I tried to remember what the exact thing happening today is. Of course after a few minutes, I remembered that it’s the day of our women, International Women’s Day. It’s the day set aside to celebrate womanhood starting from girlhood, 'ladyhood', spinsterhood, motherhood, 'grandmahood' and whatever-hood.
In our daily lives, I have noticed that we do not accord these ones the respect they deserve. That we choose to celebrate womanhood one day out of the many in a year is not too much. My favourite musician, the masked Lagbaja is one I will always refer to in celebrating women. He rhetorically asked in one of his songs “who is man without woman?”. We all are nothings, without them. In his exact word, Lagbaja said “nothing, nothing at all”.
We do not eulogize our women enough and it is a real shame. Think very deep and you will realize that without our women, life would be incomplete. Our semen would have nothing to do if there is no woman to shed the egg. In the procreation process, she does the bigger percentage of the work. Let us get real, the only thing the man does is the ‘love making’ aspect of the thing. Thereafter, the woman is left to do the rest. She carries the baby in her womb for nine months, nurtures it to growth.
The woman is a special creature, made by the creator to help the man. I seize every opportunity to celebrate them not minding their excesses. Now the whole stuff is not about paying lip service. It is time to actually change a lot of things pertaining to our Eves. Every woman is a girl and deserves to be treated as a chic. Every girl is a woman and should be treated just that way. We have to start showing them respect.
Methinks it is time to stop suppressing our women. Our culture relegates them to the background so much so they are not given enough chance to express themselves. Have you ever taken time to ponder on what the women of the olden days would have achieved if many of them had the opportunities we presently have? Most of them made their homes even when their husbands had little or no time for them. I may be wrong but I saw that in my now departed patrilineal grandmother.
I have seen girls grow into self-made women who are being celebrated today. The allure of making history is one too much ignore for many of them. They therefore succeed where some men dare not tread. If those ones are suppressed, they would not have been blessings to our world. Our grandparents humiliated women in their days, it is time to rise above that. Women are also human beings, ones to be treasured and respected; valued and adored. I hope we can do more of that.
Some women may hurt you with their actions; many others may get you depressed by their inactions. Like one of my twitter friends said today, they may even not reciprocate your good gestures, just manage to take them the way they are. Reject the temptation to generalize as it may rob you of the one woman that is your ‘own angel’. Accept them just the way they are, after all not all men are even half as good as them sometimes.
So much to say but I have to keep this short. Please learn to show some more respect, love and whatever positive you can, to the women in your life – wife, mother, sister(s), niece(s), cousins, as from today. Care for them the best way you can; Be the reason they smile, chuckle and even laugh hysterically. May we all find peace and love; and may our womenfolk be blessed. Happy International Women’s Day.
In our daily lives, I have noticed that we do not accord these ones the respect they deserve. That we choose to celebrate womanhood one day out of the many in a year is not too much. My favourite musician, the masked Lagbaja is one I will always refer to in celebrating women. He rhetorically asked in one of his songs “who is man without woman?”. We all are nothings, without them. In his exact word, Lagbaja said “nothing, nothing at all”.
We do not eulogize our women enough and it is a real shame. Think very deep and you will realize that without our women, life would be incomplete. Our semen would have nothing to do if there is no woman to shed the egg. In the procreation process, she does the bigger percentage of the work. Let us get real, the only thing the man does is the ‘love making’ aspect of the thing. Thereafter, the woman is left to do the rest. She carries the baby in her womb for nine months, nurtures it to growth.
The woman is a special creature, made by the creator to help the man. I seize every opportunity to celebrate them not minding their excesses. Now the whole stuff is not about paying lip service. It is time to actually change a lot of things pertaining to our Eves. Every woman is a girl and deserves to be treated as a chic. Every girl is a woman and should be treated just that way. We have to start showing them respect.
Methinks it is time to stop suppressing our women. Our culture relegates them to the background so much so they are not given enough chance to express themselves. Have you ever taken time to ponder on what the women of the olden days would have achieved if many of them had the opportunities we presently have? Most of them made their homes even when their husbands had little or no time for them. I may be wrong but I saw that in my now departed patrilineal grandmother.
I have seen girls grow into self-made women who are being celebrated today. The allure of making history is one too much ignore for many of them. They therefore succeed where some men dare not tread. If those ones are suppressed, they would not have been blessings to our world. Our grandparents humiliated women in their days, it is time to rise above that. Women are also human beings, ones to be treasured and respected; valued and adored. I hope we can do more of that.
Some women may hurt you with their actions; many others may get you depressed by their inactions. Like one of my twitter friends said today, they may even not reciprocate your good gestures, just manage to take them the way they are. Reject the temptation to generalize as it may rob you of the one woman that is your ‘own angel’. Accept them just the way they are, after all not all men are even half as good as them sometimes.
So much to say but I have to keep this short. Please learn to show some more respect, love and whatever positive you can, to the women in your life – wife, mother, sister(s), niece(s), cousins, as from today. Care for them the best way you can; Be the reason they smile, chuckle and even laugh hysterically. May we all find peace and love; and may our womenfolk be blessed. Happy International Women’s Day.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
FEBRUARY 4 REFLECTIONS
I have been intentionally quiet for the better part of this year because the prevailing situation in my country has activated a combination of sadness and anger in me. I am just finding my groove little by little. I had lots to write on in the first month of the year; I was buzzing, raring to go. I had my articles- motivationals, politics, every day living, and others as early as the tail end of 2011. However, the unfortunate fuel subsidy removal crisis put paid to all of that.
My head just went blank after that infamous announcement in the afternoon of New Year’s Day. Everything I was to write about ran away and anger seized the whole of my being, sadness took up companionship with the anger. I was no longer myself. The well of ideas dried up, setting me back momentarily, and threw me into the no man’s land of semi-writer’s block. I would not write anything with the level of anger I was feeling.
Lots of events have happened after that period. Events that have shaped the way this year may likely go in my dear mother Nigeria. Government came up with different techniques – blackmail, appeals, propaganda and other things in their black book. People rose for or against the ‘subsi-sh*t’ thing. Some stopped short of calling some of us names because they felt we were unnecessarily antagonizing the President and his team. We were to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Virtually every Minister became a guest of the NTA, the state owned TV station. Even those ones whose portfolio have little or no relevance to national development. The other members of the team started saying their own bit of jargons, to curry the favour of their inept boss. The most annoying misfiring tongues in the heat of the crises belong to the dishonorable Minister of Culture and the now retired Hafiz Ringim. Words I don’t want to remember again.
A few weeks after all the controversies, what do we have? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Where are the hurriedly commissioned mass transit buses? Has electricity improved one bit? Has government expenditure been cut? Has corruption reduced? Is it still not business as usual? Where in God’s name are all the promises? Instead of that, terrorists have permeated every aspect of our daily lives. Bombing at will, taking lives at will, with reckless abandon.
I have seen that this set of people we have as rulers as of now, are nothing but rulers. Nothing seems to be working on the national front. Some people have seized the country by the scruff of the neck and are blowing the hell out of the northern part of Nigeria with the government either not doing enough or having their efforts sabotaged. Things we have only seen on TV now stare us in the face, they have become reality. It sucks big time that nobody is actually taking enough responsibility for all these.
Fellow Nigerians daily die avoidable deaths in painful manners. Deaths that could make one cringe, the kind of death you don’t want to experience. Someone walks on and unsuspectingly a bomb goes off. You cannot imagine these things happening in Nigeria like ten years ago. We saw these on TV. Someone said these are signs of the end time. I totally agree with them but how come these things don’t happen in Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Benin Republic? Is it not end times there as well?
What I think is we have loads of problem and the ones saddled with that responsibility are not doing enough to get us out of the woods. While they are not doing what they should, we should stick together as one, rise beyond ethnicity and religion or whatever divides us and confront our challenges. Nigeria shall be great again, end time or not. Preach peace, act peace, live peace and we shall overcome. It is our turn to do something about Nigeria, let us act.
I’m outta here…xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
My head just went blank after that infamous announcement in the afternoon of New Year’s Day. Everything I was to write about ran away and anger seized the whole of my being, sadness took up companionship with the anger. I was no longer myself. The well of ideas dried up, setting me back momentarily, and threw me into the no man’s land of semi-writer’s block. I would not write anything with the level of anger I was feeling.
Lots of events have happened after that period. Events that have shaped the way this year may likely go in my dear mother Nigeria. Government came up with different techniques – blackmail, appeals, propaganda and other things in their black book. People rose for or against the ‘subsi-sh*t’ thing. Some stopped short of calling some of us names because they felt we were unnecessarily antagonizing the President and his team. We were to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Virtually every Minister became a guest of the NTA, the state owned TV station. Even those ones whose portfolio have little or no relevance to national development. The other members of the team started saying their own bit of jargons, to curry the favour of their inept boss. The most annoying misfiring tongues in the heat of the crises belong to the dishonorable Minister of Culture and the now retired Hafiz Ringim. Words I don’t want to remember again.
A few weeks after all the controversies, what do we have? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Where are the hurriedly commissioned mass transit buses? Has electricity improved one bit? Has government expenditure been cut? Has corruption reduced? Is it still not business as usual? Where in God’s name are all the promises? Instead of that, terrorists have permeated every aspect of our daily lives. Bombing at will, taking lives at will, with reckless abandon.
I have seen that this set of people we have as rulers as of now, are nothing but rulers. Nothing seems to be working on the national front. Some people have seized the country by the scruff of the neck and are blowing the hell out of the northern part of Nigeria with the government either not doing enough or having their efforts sabotaged. Things we have only seen on TV now stare us in the face, they have become reality. It sucks big time that nobody is actually taking enough responsibility for all these.
Fellow Nigerians daily die avoidable deaths in painful manners. Deaths that could make one cringe, the kind of death you don’t want to experience. Someone walks on and unsuspectingly a bomb goes off. You cannot imagine these things happening in Nigeria like ten years ago. We saw these on TV. Someone said these are signs of the end time. I totally agree with them but how come these things don’t happen in Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Benin Republic? Is it not end times there as well?
What I think is we have loads of problem and the ones saddled with that responsibility are not doing enough to get us out of the woods. While they are not doing what they should, we should stick together as one, rise beyond ethnicity and religion or whatever divides us and confront our challenges. Nigeria shall be great again, end time or not. Preach peace, act peace, live peace and we shall overcome. It is our turn to do something about Nigeria, let us act.
I’m outta here…xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Monday, January 16, 2012
THIS IS FOR YOU MOMMA, HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Another January 17 breezes in and despite the prevailing situation in Nigeria, it is time to celebrate my Mother. I feel blessed that a wonderful woman of unputdownable virtue and unquestionable character is the one I have as a mother, my biological one. Momma's birthday in itself is a reason to celebrate and forget whatever mixed feelings I've had Nigeria for now.
It is a fact that everyone says their mom or dad is the best in the world. I can however say without any contradiction whatsoever that in choosing the best mothers, Iya Seye stands right in front of the queue. I cannot start listing the virtues that make her qualify but I know I am very demanding and I have just been careful not to judge every other based on what Momma is to my Dad, myself and my brothers.
She is the epitome of loyalty, something very scarce in the womenfolk nowadays. Momma is a planner per excellence. When the resources are in excess quantity, she manages it so well that when scarcity comes, you'll never feel it. I know, and can say that about her. She's always ready to give a smile, I mean a big smile.
I have learnt a lot of things from her and every single thing I have learnt has put me in good stead so far. Lessons that I have picked up from her life of sacrifice have been the basis for my way of life. I know times that Momma has sacrificed her happiness to make some people happy. It is from her that I learnt what living for people means. She has always done that with her resources, no matter how little.
I can never explain the level of loyalty she has shown to folks around her. Very loyal to Dad and her friends. I have even had cause to disagree with her on the level of loyalty to folks who are utterly disloyal. She just looks me in the eye, and tells me its a form of investment that has a way of coming back to one. And to be honest, it happens that way in most cases.
I have a very demanding Dad. Momma however takes it on the chin and makes sure she does whatever it is that her husband wants. She never sits when she's not satisfied with things around. She always wants her house neat. She is always putting things in shape and doesn't want things scattered. I learnt from her that even the minute details count.
For example, Momma hates her pot black. I can say with all pride that her kitchen is neat in its own way. She will not rest until it is perfect enough for her. My mother still does her laundries and that of her husband, and if you're washing when she is, she will help you out, in most cases. I get to ask myself what she is made of. A very hardworking woman, even Mother Eve would be proud of her.
So much to say but where do I start? I have said I will celebrate this one-in-a-kind woman while she lives and beyond because she is a rare one-a mother, a sister, a friend. I am short of words Maami and I do not think I can ever say enough, how I feel about you. I'm proud of you Momma, and I love you big time.
My prayers? Not very many. That you'll live long enough to reap all that you have sown. For you to live long enough to see us achieve what you have always dreamt for us. That I will, Yinka will and Nifemi will, marry wives that have all your positive attributes and more. That everything due you, every of your rights, will be delivered to you this year.
You'll age gracefully and in happiness and sound health. All your sacrifices will not be in vain. Right in the very presence of everyone who has written you off shall you rise to heights hitherto unexpected. Iya Seye, Aunty Vic, Sister Sola, igba odun, odun kan o. Happy Birthday Momma. I love you big time; and I love you more everyday. Hugs and kisses Mommaxoxoxoxoxo
It is a fact that everyone says their mom or dad is the best in the world. I can however say without any contradiction whatsoever that in choosing the best mothers, Iya Seye stands right in front of the queue. I cannot start listing the virtues that make her qualify but I know I am very demanding and I have just been careful not to judge every other based on what Momma is to my Dad, myself and my brothers.
She is the epitome of loyalty, something very scarce in the womenfolk nowadays. Momma is a planner per excellence. When the resources are in excess quantity, she manages it so well that when scarcity comes, you'll never feel it. I know, and can say that about her. She's always ready to give a smile, I mean a big smile.
I have learnt a lot of things from her and every single thing I have learnt has put me in good stead so far. Lessons that I have picked up from her life of sacrifice have been the basis for my way of life. I know times that Momma has sacrificed her happiness to make some people happy. It is from her that I learnt what living for people means. She has always done that with her resources, no matter how little.
I can never explain the level of loyalty she has shown to folks around her. Very loyal to Dad and her friends. I have even had cause to disagree with her on the level of loyalty to folks who are utterly disloyal. She just looks me in the eye, and tells me its a form of investment that has a way of coming back to one. And to be honest, it happens that way in most cases.
I have a very demanding Dad. Momma however takes it on the chin and makes sure she does whatever it is that her husband wants. She never sits when she's not satisfied with things around. She always wants her house neat. She is always putting things in shape and doesn't want things scattered. I learnt from her that even the minute details count.
For example, Momma hates her pot black. I can say with all pride that her kitchen is neat in its own way. She will not rest until it is perfect enough for her. My mother still does her laundries and that of her husband, and if you're washing when she is, she will help you out, in most cases. I get to ask myself what she is made of. A very hardworking woman, even Mother Eve would be proud of her.
So much to say but where do I start? I have said I will celebrate this one-in-a-kind woman while she lives and beyond because she is a rare one-a mother, a sister, a friend. I am short of words Maami and I do not think I can ever say enough, how I feel about you. I'm proud of you Momma, and I love you big time.
My prayers? Not very many. That you'll live long enough to reap all that you have sown. For you to live long enough to see us achieve what you have always dreamt for us. That I will, Yinka will and Nifemi will, marry wives that have all your positive attributes and more. That everything due you, every of your rights, will be delivered to you this year.
You'll age gracefully and in happiness and sound health. All your sacrifices will not be in vain. Right in the very presence of everyone who has written you off shall you rise to heights hitherto unexpected. Iya Seye, Aunty Vic, Sister Sola, igba odun, odun kan o. Happy Birthday Momma. I love you big time; and I love you more everyday. Hugs and kisses Mommaxoxoxoxoxo
Thursday, November 10, 2011
ADIEU PASTOR SAMUEL ADETUNJI OWOYEMI (1930-2011)
I sat down in my office that fateful morning, playing with my phone because I had a little let-off from my normally busy schedule. I was trying to do many things at the same time play some music on my computer, playing game on my phone, doing a few chats with folks and a few other nothings. Impulsively, I scrolled to check the updates on my messenger and I saw a very close friend with sad emoticons, he was asking rhetorically, why do these things happen?
That was some minutes before ten in the morning of September 15. Going further down my contact list, I knew the inevitable had happened. The elephant has fallen; read a display. I knew I had to confirm something somehow. I picked up my phone and dialed and the voice at the other end said what I knew had already happened. The exact word I remember hearing was Baba don die o. I sighed, re-adjusted myself and took a deep breath.
That sums up how I knew about the passing unto glory of a father and an encourager. I have known Pastor Samuel Adetunji Owoyemi, whom we all called Baba Owoyemi right from my childhood. Permit me to get a little emotional with this piece. Baba Owoyemi deserves this and more, for he lived a life that was exemplary. I am struggling to find the right words that would tally with how emotional I feel. I do not feel sad at his exit, I only am going to celebrate this impactful life well-lived.
I have known Baba Owoyemi since my childhood. As a child, I remember he was calm and articulated his points whenever there was anything to discuss. His messages in our old SPAC, St. Pauls Apostolic Church, were not the speaker blaring, altar stamping, grammar blowing ones. Yet they had this way of sinking into ones system.
The Yoruba word kami kami kami is one I heard for the first time, from his mouth. It was in one of his wisdom-laden messages. I was nothing more than seven years old then but by the end of that Sunday service, I knew what kami kami kami meant. He carefully chose his words and had an illustration cum example for every situation he explained. Wisdom was never lacking in his words.
There were lots of situations in which his wisdom was brought to the fore. He was like a mentor to many up and coming young men back in the days. Shortly after his demise, I was talking to a father figure whom I hold in high esteem. This person said without mincing words that the fact that he has a roof over his head is down to Baba Owoyemis persistence, regular encouragement and advice.
Daddy Owoyemi always had a word for everyone. If you were doing good, he had a proverb to urge you on. If you were not doing something to be proud of, he had your kind of proverb. I vividly remember when there was a debate about indecent dressing. He simply said something which is translated as there is no dress code anywhere. Anyone who wants can walk around naked, and anyone who is ashamed can wear his or her undies around. It took me long before I knew the weight of that statement.
Baba and Mummy, both resting in the Lords bosom now, exemplify love and oneness. They together had this special interest in peoples lives and progress. I can count off my fingers, lives that have been touched by the simplicity of Daddy Owoyemi and the concern Mummy showed while they both were here with us. They personally touched me with their oneness. I saw only one thing with them both, love as of old. I know I am not the only one who saw that.
Getting closer, Baba had this way of encouraging my immediate family. There were tough times when my Dad faced a challenge in his career. He had this way of always asking after him; he was just so concerned. He would always want to know the most recent development in my Dads place of work. He had this way of asking my mum about us all. Iya Seye, e ma pele. Alagba nko? (Seyes mother, how are you? How is Elder?) He never looked down on anyone, instead he urged us all on.
My mom had a fracture on her leg in 2007. I remember Daddy Owoyemi came to visit my mom. He did not send anyone, he came himself. What made it so humbling was that it was shortly after Mummy passed on. For someone who was still mourning the passage of his other half to come on a visit to an ailing person was the height of it all. He said specifically that Mummy would have come to see you if she were to be alive and I owe her this visit.
Personally, I have heard only good words from him all my days. As a six or seven year old, Baba always said I had Akinkanju, it meant nothing to me then but I knew it was a good word. All through my university days, while some people scorned my choice of Animal Science, he always told me that the future of our country rests on agriculture and that I had taken the right step. He said that time and time again. He repeated it the last time I saw him before his passage.
At the end of my service year, I gave him a litre of wild honey, being what I brought for him from Taraba state. He looked at me and my mother and said Seye has brought me honey. He is saying my life should be sweet. Seye, may your life never know bitterness. I was moved by his appreciative spirit. He regularly asked about my job and told me to stay focused in my career. You are destined for the top, just stay focused, he always said. Baba, I remain focused Sir.
I will always remember a father figure, my adopted godfather and a great encourager and lover of all. Like we always say, we love you, but God loves you more. I will always miss your words while I hold on to the ones which drive me in my pursuit of excellence in life and destiny. You live on Baba; for life after death is what people speak of you after you are gone; and I have only good words about you.
Rest in the bosom of your God till we meet to part no more.
Adieu Baba, O daaro sir.
That was some minutes before ten in the morning of September 15. Going further down my contact list, I knew the inevitable had happened. The elephant has fallen; read a display. I knew I had to confirm something somehow. I picked up my phone and dialed and the voice at the other end said what I knew had already happened. The exact word I remember hearing was Baba don die o. I sighed, re-adjusted myself and took a deep breath.
That sums up how I knew about the passing unto glory of a father and an encourager. I have known Pastor Samuel Adetunji Owoyemi, whom we all called Baba Owoyemi right from my childhood. Permit me to get a little emotional with this piece. Baba Owoyemi deserves this and more, for he lived a life that was exemplary. I am struggling to find the right words that would tally with how emotional I feel. I do not feel sad at his exit, I only am going to celebrate this impactful life well-lived.
I have known Baba Owoyemi since my childhood. As a child, I remember he was calm and articulated his points whenever there was anything to discuss. His messages in our old SPAC, St. Pauls Apostolic Church, were not the speaker blaring, altar stamping, grammar blowing ones. Yet they had this way of sinking into ones system.
The Yoruba word kami kami kami is one I heard for the first time, from his mouth. It was in one of his wisdom-laden messages. I was nothing more than seven years old then but by the end of that Sunday service, I knew what kami kami kami meant. He carefully chose his words and had an illustration cum example for every situation he explained. Wisdom was never lacking in his words.
There were lots of situations in which his wisdom was brought to the fore. He was like a mentor to many up and coming young men back in the days. Shortly after his demise, I was talking to a father figure whom I hold in high esteem. This person said without mincing words that the fact that he has a roof over his head is down to Baba Owoyemis persistence, regular encouragement and advice.
Daddy Owoyemi always had a word for everyone. If you were doing good, he had a proverb to urge you on. If you were not doing something to be proud of, he had your kind of proverb. I vividly remember when there was a debate about indecent dressing. He simply said something which is translated as there is no dress code anywhere. Anyone who wants can walk around naked, and anyone who is ashamed can wear his or her undies around. It took me long before I knew the weight of that statement.
Baba and Mummy, both resting in the Lords bosom now, exemplify love and oneness. They together had this special interest in peoples lives and progress. I can count off my fingers, lives that have been touched by the simplicity of Daddy Owoyemi and the concern Mummy showed while they both were here with us. They personally touched me with their oneness. I saw only one thing with them both, love as of old. I know I am not the only one who saw that.
Getting closer, Baba had this way of encouraging my immediate family. There were tough times when my Dad faced a challenge in his career. He had this way of always asking after him; he was just so concerned. He would always want to know the most recent development in my Dads place of work. He had this way of asking my mum about us all. Iya Seye, e ma pele. Alagba nko? (Seyes mother, how are you? How is Elder?) He never looked down on anyone, instead he urged us all on.
My mom had a fracture on her leg in 2007. I remember Daddy Owoyemi came to visit my mom. He did not send anyone, he came himself. What made it so humbling was that it was shortly after Mummy passed on. For someone who was still mourning the passage of his other half to come on a visit to an ailing person was the height of it all. He said specifically that Mummy would have come to see you if she were to be alive and I owe her this visit.
Personally, I have heard only good words from him all my days. As a six or seven year old, Baba always said I had Akinkanju, it meant nothing to me then but I knew it was a good word. All through my university days, while some people scorned my choice of Animal Science, he always told me that the future of our country rests on agriculture and that I had taken the right step. He said that time and time again. He repeated it the last time I saw him before his passage.
At the end of my service year, I gave him a litre of wild honey, being what I brought for him from Taraba state. He looked at me and my mother and said Seye has brought me honey. He is saying my life should be sweet. Seye, may your life never know bitterness. I was moved by his appreciative spirit. He regularly asked about my job and told me to stay focused in my career. You are destined for the top, just stay focused, he always said. Baba, I remain focused Sir.
I will always remember a father figure, my adopted godfather and a great encourager and lover of all. Like we always say, we love you, but God loves you more. I will always miss your words while I hold on to the ones which drive me in my pursuit of excellence in life and destiny. You live on Baba; for life after death is what people speak of you after you are gone; and I have only good words about you.
Rest in the bosom of your God till we meet to part no more.
Adieu Baba, O daaro sir.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
PRAYERS FOR OUR LEADERS
IN recent past, President Goodluck Jonathan’s luck appears to be running out. He has come in for series of scathing verbal tirades and attacks from people due to the policies of the federal government. He is not the only one in this boat as many state governors and legislators at both state and federal level have also been seriously criticized. I see no reason why people should not pour out their minds and rain invectives on these people, I only see a need to redirect and re-channel our anger. It would be better if we daily pray for them, as my religious inclination says ‘prayer is the master key’.
I plead one thing however, please respect my position as prayer does no harm, it on the other hand does a lot of good. What I know is that in whatever we do, we can never over-emphasize the beauty of prayer and what good it does in our lives. There are countries whose leaders do not need any prayer before they do what must be done but what do we make of these ones who specifically ask for our prayers? I owe them, you owe them, we owe them; and I will pray for them.
Our leaders believe in the existence of God, that is the best thing about them. Do you want to know the worst? They do not act as if they have a God in their lives in most cases. They only do things they deem appropriate, they do things that please them without caring a hoot if they hurt their followers. They have given a new definition to leadership and followership in this part of the world. They have asked for prayers, they will receive it in tons. I only need a resounding “Amen” or its equivalent as we pray.
Many children have been sent to the great beyond in this country. Many avoidable deaths have occurred due to the bad nature of our hospitals and medical facilities. Many homes have been thrown into avoidable mourning. Dear Lord and God, we seek help for our leaders, we pray that you touch them and let them notice our medical plight. We ask that you touch the reasonable parts of their brains such that they will hear and feel our pains.
I remember King Pharaoh of Egypt. He was hard-hearted and his people paid for it. For every leader that has refused to heed his followers’ pains in Nigeria, we pray that their immediate families will pay for it with their lives. We ask that they experience the sorrow parents are made to go through when their children die avoidable deaths. We also seek for them, the total disappearance of their happiness in every sphere of life. Is someone saying an “Amen”?
We daily suffer rape in this country. Our daughters and daughters are being raped with no one doing anything to punish the wicked ones. I do not expect anything from them, are they not also rapists? Raping our heritage and commonwealth, draining the life out of our country. For every way in which we have been raped therefore, may the same bitter pill be forced down the throat of the evil men who have done that evil act. May they suffer the same calamity they have caused us in every aspect of their lives.
I have noticed one thing. Everyone who has stolen our money, looted our treasury and kept the stolen cash stashed in foreign countries have one thing or the other to spend the loot on. Yes, they build houses and use state of the art wonder on wheels. They however get to suffer a lot of terminal diseases. If it is not diabetes, it is either liver, lung, kidney disease or another kind of unexplainable infirmity that they suffer from.
As long as they keep stealing and leaving us poor, that will always be their lot. As they get healed from kidney failure, may they fall to heart diseases; as they get healed from diabetes, may chronic ulcer follow; as they get healed from lung cancer, may epilepsy seize their bodies from them. Anyone who steals from our common heritage will always have negativities to spend it on. May they never find rest or peace in every area of their lives, their bodies will rise and fight against their souls.
They have asked for prayers, they shall get it in abundance. Please start thinking of the prayers you will say for them as well. I am just starting. I just want a resounding Amen, Amin or whatever represents it. Our leaders daily ask for prayers, they are too busy to pray themselves; some others are dumb and cannot use their mouths to ask God. Some of us have the time and resources to ask God, and that we shall do for them. We shall give them the prayers they deserve.
The majority of the people they rule, the ones they trample on, are not able to eat one square meal not to talk of three. Yet they eat and drink aplenty, they live without recourse for tomorrow, not caring if the man on the street whose vote along with the rigged ones brought them to power. I therefore ask on behalf of others in my shoes, that bitterness shall be the end of the sweetness of the food they daily consume. It shall neither nourish nor add to them.
The food they eat while hard working people suffer shall serve as poison in their systems. It will even lead to some taking the quick route to the Almighty to answer for all their deeds while they held sway here. The lucky ones will suffer diarrhea and if they choose not to change their ways, they will easily go the way of the ones who will go on a journey of no return. Hear me Almighty God and see this as a prayer from the heart of a patriotic Nigerian, who wants the best for his ilk.
Whenever pensioners have to go for their screening, I feel pity for the old people. Senior Nigerians queue inside the sun for hours while they wait to collect peanuts to keep body and soul together. The ones saddled with the responsibility of taking care of them do not care enough if these senior citizens. For everyone who has played a part in making these people go through this much stress to collect the ‘coins’ being paid them, their latter ends shall not be peaceful.
The wicked ones who make majority of our senior citizens go through hard times in claiming their pensions shall suffer at the tail end of their lives. Their old ages shall be spent in darkness and illness. Every ill gotten wealth of theirs shall be spent on one condition or the other. They shall not enjoy the beauty of old age. They have denied these people the joy of old age, they shall reap the same thing. Their old ages shall be spent in that bit of suffering they have caused these ones.
Should I go on? For a few more lines I will. Peace has gradually given way to pockets of violence in different parts of the country. Government knows them they claim, but they cannot do anything. Talk of a toothless bull dog. Since the ones who lead us can do nothing about the ones who have sent peace on recess in our country, I will do well to raise a standard against them. They also deserve some prayers, or what do you think? Just give me the Amen as I declare their portions on them.
For every leader beside MEND, Boko Haram, the bombings and killings, the face of God will rise against them as in Psalms 34, “to cut off their remembrance from the earth”. For every life they have taken, they shall be reduced; In every way they have risen against peace in this country, their peace of mind shall be taken. For every instrument of the evil ones, the MEND and Boko Haram dumb fools, their lives shall have no bit of tranquility, shameful and ignoble deaths shall be theirs.
I have not finished, for every agent of destabilization in this country, their lives shall be turned upside down and they shall not have rest in every aspect of their lives. As for them and their sponsors, bloodshed will be a regular occurrence for them and they will never find rest till they exit the face of the earth. Their lives shall be turned upside down the way they have turned lives upside down. Evil shall slay them and their lives shall be made desolate (Psalms 34:21).
I have the urge to go on but I stand the risk of boring you with my kind of prayer. I also stand the risk of being selfish (of course I am not). It would not be bad if you will also keep praying for them in your own way. I have done mine, I want you to do yours as we get on the road and march against every evil one who has pushed our backs to the wall. I say these prayers with all available honesty and patriotism and if I have any other ulterior motive, then may all I have asked for these one be my portion.
I’m outta here…xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
I plead one thing however, please respect my position as prayer does no harm, it on the other hand does a lot of good. What I know is that in whatever we do, we can never over-emphasize the beauty of prayer and what good it does in our lives. There are countries whose leaders do not need any prayer before they do what must be done but what do we make of these ones who specifically ask for our prayers? I owe them, you owe them, we owe them; and I will pray for them.
Our leaders believe in the existence of God, that is the best thing about them. Do you want to know the worst? They do not act as if they have a God in their lives in most cases. They only do things they deem appropriate, they do things that please them without caring a hoot if they hurt their followers. They have given a new definition to leadership and followership in this part of the world. They have asked for prayers, they will receive it in tons. I only need a resounding “Amen” or its equivalent as we pray.
Many children have been sent to the great beyond in this country. Many avoidable deaths have occurred due to the bad nature of our hospitals and medical facilities. Many homes have been thrown into avoidable mourning. Dear Lord and God, we seek help for our leaders, we pray that you touch them and let them notice our medical plight. We ask that you touch the reasonable parts of their brains such that they will hear and feel our pains.
I remember King Pharaoh of Egypt. He was hard-hearted and his people paid for it. For every leader that has refused to heed his followers’ pains in Nigeria, we pray that their immediate families will pay for it with their lives. We ask that they experience the sorrow parents are made to go through when their children die avoidable deaths. We also seek for them, the total disappearance of their happiness in every sphere of life. Is someone saying an “Amen”?
We daily suffer rape in this country. Our daughters and daughters are being raped with no one doing anything to punish the wicked ones. I do not expect anything from them, are they not also rapists? Raping our heritage and commonwealth, draining the life out of our country. For every way in which we have been raped therefore, may the same bitter pill be forced down the throat of the evil men who have done that evil act. May they suffer the same calamity they have caused us in every aspect of their lives.
I have noticed one thing. Everyone who has stolen our money, looted our treasury and kept the stolen cash stashed in foreign countries have one thing or the other to spend the loot on. Yes, they build houses and use state of the art wonder on wheels. They however get to suffer a lot of terminal diseases. If it is not diabetes, it is either liver, lung, kidney disease or another kind of unexplainable infirmity that they suffer from.
As long as they keep stealing and leaving us poor, that will always be their lot. As they get healed from kidney failure, may they fall to heart diseases; as they get healed from diabetes, may chronic ulcer follow; as they get healed from lung cancer, may epilepsy seize their bodies from them. Anyone who steals from our common heritage will always have negativities to spend it on. May they never find rest or peace in every area of their lives, their bodies will rise and fight against their souls.
They have asked for prayers, they shall get it in abundance. Please start thinking of the prayers you will say for them as well. I am just starting. I just want a resounding Amen, Amin or whatever represents it. Our leaders daily ask for prayers, they are too busy to pray themselves; some others are dumb and cannot use their mouths to ask God. Some of us have the time and resources to ask God, and that we shall do for them. We shall give them the prayers they deserve.
The majority of the people they rule, the ones they trample on, are not able to eat one square meal not to talk of three. Yet they eat and drink aplenty, they live without recourse for tomorrow, not caring if the man on the street whose vote along with the rigged ones brought them to power. I therefore ask on behalf of others in my shoes, that bitterness shall be the end of the sweetness of the food they daily consume. It shall neither nourish nor add to them.
The food they eat while hard working people suffer shall serve as poison in their systems. It will even lead to some taking the quick route to the Almighty to answer for all their deeds while they held sway here. The lucky ones will suffer diarrhea and if they choose not to change their ways, they will easily go the way of the ones who will go on a journey of no return. Hear me Almighty God and see this as a prayer from the heart of a patriotic Nigerian, who wants the best for his ilk.
Whenever pensioners have to go for their screening, I feel pity for the old people. Senior Nigerians queue inside the sun for hours while they wait to collect peanuts to keep body and soul together. The ones saddled with the responsibility of taking care of them do not care enough if these senior citizens. For everyone who has played a part in making these people go through this much stress to collect the ‘coins’ being paid them, their latter ends shall not be peaceful.
The wicked ones who make majority of our senior citizens go through hard times in claiming their pensions shall suffer at the tail end of their lives. Their old ages shall be spent in darkness and illness. Every ill gotten wealth of theirs shall be spent on one condition or the other. They shall not enjoy the beauty of old age. They have denied these people the joy of old age, they shall reap the same thing. Their old ages shall be spent in that bit of suffering they have caused these ones.
Should I go on? For a few more lines I will. Peace has gradually given way to pockets of violence in different parts of the country. Government knows them they claim, but they cannot do anything. Talk of a toothless bull dog. Since the ones who lead us can do nothing about the ones who have sent peace on recess in our country, I will do well to raise a standard against them. They also deserve some prayers, or what do you think? Just give me the Amen as I declare their portions on them.
For every leader beside MEND, Boko Haram, the bombings and killings, the face of God will rise against them as in Psalms 34, “to cut off their remembrance from the earth”. For every life they have taken, they shall be reduced; In every way they have risen against peace in this country, their peace of mind shall be taken. For every instrument of the evil ones, the MEND and Boko Haram dumb fools, their lives shall have no bit of tranquility, shameful and ignoble deaths shall be theirs.
I have not finished, for every agent of destabilization in this country, their lives shall be turned upside down and they shall not have rest in every aspect of their lives. As for them and their sponsors, bloodshed will be a regular occurrence for them and they will never find rest till they exit the face of the earth. Their lives shall be turned upside down the way they have turned lives upside down. Evil shall slay them and their lives shall be made desolate (Psalms 34:21).
I have the urge to go on but I stand the risk of boring you with my kind of prayer. I also stand the risk of being selfish (of course I am not). It would not be bad if you will also keep praying for them in your own way. I have done mine, I want you to do yours as we get on the road and march against every evil one who has pushed our backs to the wall. I say these prayers with all available honesty and patriotism and if I have any other ulterior motive, then may all I have asked for these one be my portion.
I’m outta here…xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
INDEPENDENT THOUGHTS
INDEPENDENT THOUGHTS
With the reality that Nigeria’s independence anniversary was drawing nigh, my head was clouded with different thoughts at different times last week. My dear country was clocking 51 and there was a heavy cloud of gloom. Tension was as palpable as it was close. It was so close that one could feel it like rain droplets. What with the security challenges headed by the dreaded Boko Haram and other problems presently bedeviling the country?
I have known my country as one that has gone and is still going through thick and thin. Quite a lot has seemed right and wrong, or wrong and right, as the case may be. I have memories of different things in my twenty something years on earth, all of which have been spent as a Nigerian. I have tasted a little of the goodies that the generation which failed us have left behind for us. I have had a swallow of the suffering with which we have been drenched as we grew up.
I titled this as shown above because the thoughts have come to me independent of our independence as a nation. While I grew my mother used to give to myself and my then only brother, two biscuits each to take to school. I ate the popular Okin biscuit and the equally popular Nasco wafers. We had cartons of both in our house. How many people can afford to buy that again? If it would be well said, then may the labour of the leaders in our recent past ‘ever be in vain’.
I do not want to lament about the wrongs in my dear country, I will try as much as possible to focus on the goods, the positives. Isn’t that what our leaders want? I will for once try to please them. Back in the days, we had the luxury of TCTC luxury buses (in Ibadan); we would queue and wait with glee while the buses plied the routes. Today we have Call-A-Cab. Isn’t that an improvement on Trans City? At least we charter Call-A-Cab at N600 per hour.
Even if the old NEPA also cut power then, we still had light everyday to watch Wrestlemania. Our black and white television never lacked regular supply of electricity. We saw Yoruba drama like Omo Arayele (how do I translate that?), Feyikogbon and Arelu; we saw Koko Close and New Masquerade back then. Now we have stepped up, we have provided a source of income to generator manufacturers and dealers all over the world and that has contributed some more to the revenue they pay the government. Our electricity generating, distribution and transmission equipment can at least rest very well now due to the inability of the people in charge to replace or maintain them as the case may be.
The water taps were running at full capacity but government was paying too much in salaries and allowances. Therefore little by little, the water corporations went into coma and if not for the fact that some state water corporations now produce sachet water now, they would have gone into oblivion. Of course, we have pure water companies now. So where government has failed, they have given us another source of income by making it easy to produce well water in sachets to help hospitals make more money.
Thank God things have improved a lot better as we do not have to go to the river to fetch again. For people who can afford it, boreholes can be drilled; others who have no financial capability to drill can buy water and pay a token. That has actually reduced the rate of cholera and other water-borne diseases. I therefore see no reason why we should not celebrate 51 years of nationhood. It is not all doom and gloom; there are reasons to be positive.
Need I say that there are lots of schools that litter our areas now? The government schools have been replaced by lots of daycares, nursery and primary schools, as well as private high schools and tertiary institutions. I served in a nursery and primary school built from mud bricks. Each class had one arm, I mean nurseries 1 to 3 and then primaries 1 to 5, all had one arm. Is that not much better than government schools where there is equally no furniture. Students at least can make do with whatever is available while the nouveau riche send their children to other schools where they will not learn what it means to be Nigerian.
I also thought about the improvement in the way we have bred different categories of people. Nigeria has brought up the very gentle set of people, who have in turn become mumus. They refuse to stand for themselves even when their rights are being trampled. They only siddon look, waiting for God intervene while they are being taken for a ride.
My country has birthed first class hustlers, who can thrive and survive anywhere. Thanks to our leaders past, most of who are heroes the other way round (I never called them villains), we daily struggle to achieve everything. If you do not know, that is something to be proud of. You can stand up to an American, a Dane, a Briton or even a South African, and tell them confidently that all you have achieved is by pure human effort, not government support via social security or whatever it is.
We have consciously unconsciously (I know what I mean here) created people who have to fight to get everything. Check out Niger Delta militants, Boko Haram and other freedom fighters. The Niger Delta peeps did not get the attention of the people that mattered until they took up arms against their country of birth. Same with the Boko Haram peeps now. I am also thinking of starting mine if per chance, someone will notice me for bombing vegetable farms and other notables.
We keep saying there is nothing good about Nigeria but have we not booted out the very corrupt military? We asked for democracy and we have it already. Democracy and even some more craziness, Lootocracy has joined our democracy. We chased those ones who told us to our faces that they stole our money and effectively replaced them with those who daily feed us with different reasons why the treasury is being regularly devoured and the foreign reserve is being depleted.
Some people curse my country but I see no reason for them to do that. Some call me names for saying what is obvious. Why do you expect us to buy fuel and petroleum products on the cheap? Because we are producers? That is not enough reason. It gives us the opportunity to know how much our country daily makes from oil and tells us nobody cares for us; we are on our own in this beautiful country. Expect more from next year.
I am even baffled when people cry because government wants to remove the subsidy on petroleum products. It only goes to strengthen the point that no one cares the slightest hoot about us. That is about the only thing we gain from them and they still want to remove it. It is to tell us to buckle up and tighten our belts that they say better days are coming, but some see it as harder days. I however see it as just that, better dey come. We will buy fuel at N250 per litre when the better days come.
Independent thoughts… I could go on and on but God, someone else should also comment. I still have them in my head and that may necessitate part 2 of this writing. In the mean time, please read this and let me know the thoughts that have been ringing in your head (like my coconut head) as we remember our independence in Nigeria. The only thing I want is your own independent thoughts in form of comments.
The labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain; the labour of the leaders in our recent past shall always be in vain. Happy belated 51st birthday Nigeria; Happy independence to my family and friends; Happy independence anniversary to everyone. God bless Nigeria at 51 and beyond.
I’m outta here…xoxoxoxoxoxo
With the reality that Nigeria’s independence anniversary was drawing nigh, my head was clouded with different thoughts at different times last week. My dear country was clocking 51 and there was a heavy cloud of gloom. Tension was as palpable as it was close. It was so close that one could feel it like rain droplets. What with the security challenges headed by the dreaded Boko Haram and other problems presently bedeviling the country?
I have known my country as one that has gone and is still going through thick and thin. Quite a lot has seemed right and wrong, or wrong and right, as the case may be. I have memories of different things in my twenty something years on earth, all of which have been spent as a Nigerian. I have tasted a little of the goodies that the generation which failed us have left behind for us. I have had a swallow of the suffering with which we have been drenched as we grew up.
I titled this as shown above because the thoughts have come to me independent of our independence as a nation. While I grew my mother used to give to myself and my then only brother, two biscuits each to take to school. I ate the popular Okin biscuit and the equally popular Nasco wafers. We had cartons of both in our house. How many people can afford to buy that again? If it would be well said, then may the labour of the leaders in our recent past ‘ever be in vain’.
I do not want to lament about the wrongs in my dear country, I will try as much as possible to focus on the goods, the positives. Isn’t that what our leaders want? I will for once try to please them. Back in the days, we had the luxury of TCTC luxury buses (in Ibadan); we would queue and wait with glee while the buses plied the routes. Today we have Call-A-Cab. Isn’t that an improvement on Trans City? At least we charter Call-A-Cab at N600 per hour.
Even if the old NEPA also cut power then, we still had light everyday to watch Wrestlemania. Our black and white television never lacked regular supply of electricity. We saw Yoruba drama like Omo Arayele (how do I translate that?), Feyikogbon and Arelu; we saw Koko Close and New Masquerade back then. Now we have stepped up, we have provided a source of income to generator manufacturers and dealers all over the world and that has contributed some more to the revenue they pay the government. Our electricity generating, distribution and transmission equipment can at least rest very well now due to the inability of the people in charge to replace or maintain them as the case may be.
The water taps were running at full capacity but government was paying too much in salaries and allowances. Therefore little by little, the water corporations went into coma and if not for the fact that some state water corporations now produce sachet water now, they would have gone into oblivion. Of course, we have pure water companies now. So where government has failed, they have given us another source of income by making it easy to produce well water in sachets to help hospitals make more money.
Thank God things have improved a lot better as we do not have to go to the river to fetch again. For people who can afford it, boreholes can be drilled; others who have no financial capability to drill can buy water and pay a token. That has actually reduced the rate of cholera and other water-borne diseases. I therefore see no reason why we should not celebrate 51 years of nationhood. It is not all doom and gloom; there are reasons to be positive.
Need I say that there are lots of schools that litter our areas now? The government schools have been replaced by lots of daycares, nursery and primary schools, as well as private high schools and tertiary institutions. I served in a nursery and primary school built from mud bricks. Each class had one arm, I mean nurseries 1 to 3 and then primaries 1 to 5, all had one arm. Is that not much better than government schools where there is equally no furniture. Students at least can make do with whatever is available while the nouveau riche send their children to other schools where they will not learn what it means to be Nigerian.
I also thought about the improvement in the way we have bred different categories of people. Nigeria has brought up the very gentle set of people, who have in turn become mumus. They refuse to stand for themselves even when their rights are being trampled. They only siddon look, waiting for God intervene while they are being taken for a ride.
My country has birthed first class hustlers, who can thrive and survive anywhere. Thanks to our leaders past, most of who are heroes the other way round (I never called them villains), we daily struggle to achieve everything. If you do not know, that is something to be proud of. You can stand up to an American, a Dane, a Briton or even a South African, and tell them confidently that all you have achieved is by pure human effort, not government support via social security or whatever it is.
We have consciously unconsciously (I know what I mean here) created people who have to fight to get everything. Check out Niger Delta militants, Boko Haram and other freedom fighters. The Niger Delta peeps did not get the attention of the people that mattered until they took up arms against their country of birth. Same with the Boko Haram peeps now. I am also thinking of starting mine if per chance, someone will notice me for bombing vegetable farms and other notables.
We keep saying there is nothing good about Nigeria but have we not booted out the very corrupt military? We asked for democracy and we have it already. Democracy and even some more craziness, Lootocracy has joined our democracy. We chased those ones who told us to our faces that they stole our money and effectively replaced them with those who daily feed us with different reasons why the treasury is being regularly devoured and the foreign reserve is being depleted.
Some people curse my country but I see no reason for them to do that. Some call me names for saying what is obvious. Why do you expect us to buy fuel and petroleum products on the cheap? Because we are producers? That is not enough reason. It gives us the opportunity to know how much our country daily makes from oil and tells us nobody cares for us; we are on our own in this beautiful country. Expect more from next year.
I am even baffled when people cry because government wants to remove the subsidy on petroleum products. It only goes to strengthen the point that no one cares the slightest hoot about us. That is about the only thing we gain from them and they still want to remove it. It is to tell us to buckle up and tighten our belts that they say better days are coming, but some see it as harder days. I however see it as just that, better dey come. We will buy fuel at N250 per litre when the better days come.
Independent thoughts… I could go on and on but God, someone else should also comment. I still have them in my head and that may necessitate part 2 of this writing. In the mean time, please read this and let me know the thoughts that have been ringing in your head (like my coconut head) as we remember our independence in Nigeria. The only thing I want is your own independent thoughts in form of comments.
The labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain; the labour of the leaders in our recent past shall always be in vain. Happy belated 51st birthday Nigeria; Happy independence to my family and friends; Happy independence anniversary to everyone. God bless Nigeria at 51 and beyond.
I’m outta here…xoxoxoxoxoxo
BOREDOM
TO CHECK OR NOT TO CHECK
I sure am not the only one who gives myself a lot of mental tasks. I have this way of evaluating issues that get me doing a lot of reflecting, so much so I start having this guilty feeling about my feelings sometimes.
You know while we were growing up, there was this thing that discouraged one from thinking too deep. Stuff like “it is beyond human comprehension, don’t you ever bother your head about it”. I want to disobey that rule and get thinking. You heard me, I wanna think a little.
I have had the cause to critically examine some situations in the past few days. I want to share the thoughts that have made my head heavy for a few days now, I hope I get response and comments from those who take time to read.
In my part of the world, people have consciously or unconsciously started doing something that is funny to me. In choosing marriage partners, many folks now go to their spiritual leaders to see what the future holds for them both. Does that not seem a bit like divination to you? I ask because I am confused.
In recent times, this same thing has been happening across ethnic, religious, social and other divides. This practice used to happen among the hyper-religious and overtly spiritual but even all of us who are sinners now do it.
I have seen people who have decided to break up with their partners because “Pastor said our stars do not match”. They gave up love because someone heard from God for them, possibly because their ears are too filled with sin that they cannot hear from God directly. Whatever matching stars mean.
This thing is actually becoming the in-thing everywhere now. They have this funny way of saying it in my local language, it is translated as ‘checking’. The whole thing is even assuming a more terrible dimension these days because we now give the ‘checkers’ the authority to pick and choose for as many of us.
They do the sorting and arranging all in the name of “this one is better than that one”. They even end up forcing their clients on unsuspecting peeps in some cases. They peddle different tales about one to favour the other, the one who is their client in most cases.
I remember quite clearly the same thing as it happened to someone I know last year. He was seeing an industrious young woman before different revelations started saying she was possessed by marine spirit and stuff. The guy left her and started seeing someone else on the orders of his Pastor.
The funniest part of it is that even the person that took this young man to the Pastor later complained about the young lady. We have a way of gossiping in my part of the world and everyone says she is downright lazy, lacks the industry of the ‘marine’ lady.
I am not saying it is not right to ‘seek the face of God’ as we put it, I am saying we should not base everything on spirituality. Some people have lost the ability to seek God themselves, they base everything on human beings like them, those they see as God’s representatives. They actually have forgotten that they are themselves God’s representatives.
We end up forgetting that apart from being a child of God, there are other personal characteristics to look out for. There is the individuality. And who says there is a perfect person anywhere in the first place? I believe
I believe in God, I am a Pastor myself but I do not believe you should hand over your life to someone because you believe he can talk to God for you. What exactly is wrong with your own mouth that has made it impossible to talk to God yourself? I have this funny feeling that most of the men to whom we run have their own biases and may just deliver their verdicts based on those biases.
Some of us have passed love on the altar of ‘checking’; ‘trying to see if their stars match’ or ‘if he/she is the will of God for me’. I only pray some folks will not misunderstand my position or see me as totally carnal. What do you actually think of this controversial issue? Let me know, I’m outta here.
I sure am not the only one who gives myself a lot of mental tasks. I have this way of evaluating issues that get me doing a lot of reflecting, so much so I start having this guilty feeling about my feelings sometimes.
You know while we were growing up, there was this thing that discouraged one from thinking too deep. Stuff like “it is beyond human comprehension, don’t you ever bother your head about it”. I want to disobey that rule and get thinking. You heard me, I wanna think a little.
I have had the cause to critically examine some situations in the past few days. I want to share the thoughts that have made my head heavy for a few days now, I hope I get response and comments from those who take time to read.
In my part of the world, people have consciously or unconsciously started doing something that is funny to me. In choosing marriage partners, many folks now go to their spiritual leaders to see what the future holds for them both. Does that not seem a bit like divination to you? I ask because I am confused.
In recent times, this same thing has been happening across ethnic, religious, social and other divides. This practice used to happen among the hyper-religious and overtly spiritual but even all of us who are sinners now do it.
I have seen people who have decided to break up with their partners because “Pastor said our stars do not match”. They gave up love because someone heard from God for them, possibly because their ears are too filled with sin that they cannot hear from God directly. Whatever matching stars mean.
This thing is actually becoming the in-thing everywhere now. They have this funny way of saying it in my local language, it is translated as ‘checking’. The whole thing is even assuming a more terrible dimension these days because we now give the ‘checkers’ the authority to pick and choose for as many of us.
They do the sorting and arranging all in the name of “this one is better than that one”. They even end up forcing their clients on unsuspecting peeps in some cases. They peddle different tales about one to favour the other, the one who is their client in most cases.
I remember quite clearly the same thing as it happened to someone I know last year. He was seeing an industrious young woman before different revelations started saying she was possessed by marine spirit and stuff. The guy left her and started seeing someone else on the orders of his Pastor.
The funniest part of it is that even the person that took this young man to the Pastor later complained about the young lady. We have a way of gossiping in my part of the world and everyone says she is downright lazy, lacks the industry of the ‘marine’ lady.
I am not saying it is not right to ‘seek the face of God’ as we put it, I am saying we should not base everything on spirituality. Some people have lost the ability to seek God themselves, they base everything on human beings like them, those they see as God’s representatives. They actually have forgotten that they are themselves God’s representatives.
We end up forgetting that apart from being a child of God, there are other personal characteristics to look out for. There is the individuality. And who says there is a perfect person anywhere in the first place? I believe
I believe in God, I am a Pastor myself but I do not believe you should hand over your life to someone because you believe he can talk to God for you. What exactly is wrong with your own mouth that has made it impossible to talk to God yourself? I have this funny feeling that most of the men to whom we run have their own biases and may just deliver their verdicts based on those biases.
Some of us have passed love on the altar of ‘checking’; ‘trying to see if their stars match’ or ‘if he/she is the will of God for me’. I only pray some folks will not misunderstand my position or see me as totally carnal. What do you actually think of this controversial issue? Let me know, I’m outta here.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
MINIMUM WAGE, MAXIMUM ACHE
Sometime last year, either out of excitement, trying to win acceptance or for reasons I cannot say, Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan (GEJ) announced a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers. People were happy, GEJ had what he wanted. Folks were singing his praises to high heavens. He wanted that acceptance, he got it.
What Mr. President failed to take into consideration was the different bottlenecks associated with things of this nature in Nigeria. In as much as there may be evidence(s) of personal gains (politically of course) and honest pity or otherwise of Nigerian workers, he did not consult well before making the matter public.
Trust the Nigerian populace, it was as if they were waiting for the gladdening news and they took it with all available enthusiasm. Many wanted to know whether the implementation was going to be immediate or if they were going to pay arrears whenever it was to be implemented.
Not a few government personalities got into trouble because of GEJ’s minimum wage. The announcement had this divisive tendency and just that it did. News filtered out that the Legislature was yet to pass the Minimum Wage Bill and Nigerians turned against the people who hold sway in the Hallowed Chambers. The leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives were called different names.
I am sure that was one of the reasons people shouted when the Central Bank Governor talked about the overhead cost of maintaining our system of governance and the overhead cost of maintaining the Legislature.
The major question now is when are we going to start earning the paltry N18,000? The least paid member of the House earns in millions in salaries and entitlements. They are paid allowances for Constituency Projects they will not do. State Houses of Assemblies are also not left out of the heavy pay packet jamboree. It then surprises me when they say some state cannot afford to pay N18,000 as the least salary when they can spoil their Special Assistants with ‘special’ salaries.
What exactly is the cause of the delay in implementing this new minimum wage? The furore this minimum wage has generated is too much, too much for comfort such that one begins to ask what the motive behind the announcement at that time was. The controversy is so much that by the time it will be paid, it will not be enough again (who ever said it was enough in the first place).
The N18,000 monthly translates into a paltry N600 daily, convert that to other major currencies and you’ll understand how ridiculously low the least paid Nigerian worker earns.
Truth is Nigerian workers deserve to earn more than they presently do. In all honesty, let us compare what our politicians (who do next to nothing) earn with what the average Nigerian worker (who works his fingers to the bones) earns. It is so small.
The new minimum wage is long overdue and I think all the bureaucratic and administrative bottlenecks associated with it be should sorted out on time. I have always been skeptical about salary increases in Nigeria. This is due to the fact that you get a salary raise and in some months, government increases the fuel pump price and the prices of foodstuff and other things go up.
It is the fact that our legislators get to approve their own jumbo allowances with the speed of light while the average Nigerian will have to wait endlessly that annoys most of our people.
What I think should be done is that government should without any hesitation again make that ‘coins’ available. At least N18,000 is no money to those in government circles; it is not even enough for them to lodge their ashewos or take their mistresses shopping. The Nigerian worker knows how much N18,000 is and needs it to augment his daily expenses.
At least, it will make some people smile. So can we have its implementation as soon as possible?
What Mr. President failed to take into consideration was the different bottlenecks associated with things of this nature in Nigeria. In as much as there may be evidence(s) of personal gains (politically of course) and honest pity or otherwise of Nigerian workers, he did not consult well before making the matter public.
Trust the Nigerian populace, it was as if they were waiting for the gladdening news and they took it with all available enthusiasm. Many wanted to know whether the implementation was going to be immediate or if they were going to pay arrears whenever it was to be implemented.
Not a few government personalities got into trouble because of GEJ’s minimum wage. The announcement had this divisive tendency and just that it did. News filtered out that the Legislature was yet to pass the Minimum Wage Bill and Nigerians turned against the people who hold sway in the Hallowed Chambers. The leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives were called different names.
I am sure that was one of the reasons people shouted when the Central Bank Governor talked about the overhead cost of maintaining our system of governance and the overhead cost of maintaining the Legislature.
The major question now is when are we going to start earning the paltry N18,000? The least paid member of the House earns in millions in salaries and entitlements. They are paid allowances for Constituency Projects they will not do. State Houses of Assemblies are also not left out of the heavy pay packet jamboree. It then surprises me when they say some state cannot afford to pay N18,000 as the least salary when they can spoil their Special Assistants with ‘special’ salaries.
What exactly is the cause of the delay in implementing this new minimum wage? The furore this minimum wage has generated is too much, too much for comfort such that one begins to ask what the motive behind the announcement at that time was. The controversy is so much that by the time it will be paid, it will not be enough again (who ever said it was enough in the first place).
The N18,000 monthly translates into a paltry N600 daily, convert that to other major currencies and you’ll understand how ridiculously low the least paid Nigerian worker earns.
Truth is Nigerian workers deserve to earn more than they presently do. In all honesty, let us compare what our politicians (who do next to nothing) earn with what the average Nigerian worker (who works his fingers to the bones) earns. It is so small.
The new minimum wage is long overdue and I think all the bureaucratic and administrative bottlenecks associated with it be should sorted out on time. I have always been skeptical about salary increases in Nigeria. This is due to the fact that you get a salary raise and in some months, government increases the fuel pump price and the prices of foodstuff and other things go up.
It is the fact that our legislators get to approve their own jumbo allowances with the speed of light while the average Nigerian will have to wait endlessly that annoys most of our people.
What I think should be done is that government should without any hesitation again make that ‘coins’ available. At least N18,000 is no money to those in government circles; it is not even enough for them to lodge their ashewos or take their mistresses shopping. The Nigerian worker knows how much N18,000 is and needs it to augment his daily expenses.
At least, it will make some people smile. So can we have its implementation as soon as possible?
Monday, January 31, 2011
I COULD BE PRESIDENT
Some days ago, my Facebook profile read ‘I could be President’. I was not merely pulling legs or trying to get funny. I actually meant what I wrote. I tried to get into people’s minds, especially those that are my Facebook friends, and of course everyone who must have seen that post. I know quite a number of them would just hiss and scroll down the page.
In the real sense of the word, I could be the President of Nigeria come May 29. Get honest with me, when you read that status update, what exactly was on your mind? Did you not think this guy that has an exaggerated impression of himself has started again?
I know some folks would say to themselves that I make a fool of myself while thinking I am funny. Let it be known to them that I am not trying to be funny; I know I could be President. What have they all got that I haven’t? Someone says cash, maybe, maybe not; I just know I could be Nigeria’s number one citizen, my wife could be the first lady, my family could be the first family and everything about me could be first.
I just did not sleep and wake up one morning to start fantasizing about being President Seye Babalola. I actually have taken a keen interest in the way things are going in my country this election year. I have decided to stop the apathy that has characterized many of our democratic adventures by the citizens of this great country (once was and will again be).
Prior to the various party primaries in mid-January, newspaper spaces were taken up by adverts from different aspirants, as they were called then. Messrs Atiku Abubakar and Goodluck Jonathan were the major ones in the much-maligned Peoples Democratic Party, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and Attahiru Bafarawa were the major contenders in Action Congress of Nigeria while the others had no, one or two aspirants of their own.
In all their campaign advertorials, I found not one issue worth mentioning. It was adverts upon adverts by one fictitious group or the other. Senile old men allowed themselves to be used while the ones who were supposed to be vibrant, intelligent young ones were not left out. Different women groups queued behind their benefactors (mostly in cash) and rolled out adverts paid for with state funds or stolen cash as the case may be.
I would actually spare the aspirants of other parties and face the two men who fought ugly in the PDP which has earned new names two of which are Power Drunk Party and according to Atiku in 2006, Poverty Development Party. Both GEJ and Atiku left issues and started campaigning based on zoning, indictments and other petty issues.
One newspaper put it that they fought dirty and ugly. I put it that they fought stupid and senseless. If the campaign points of Atiku and Jonathan are worth what would make one the President of Nigeria, now tell me why I cannot be President. I’ve got ideas, I’ve got what it takes. I may be wrong, and you may even knock me, but I think I’m even more sensible than they both were at the height of their power struggle.
Ask Goody J, sorry I mean GEJ, what he actually has to offer us all. I would not mention Mr. Atiku because I know his head is as blank as the word itself. He only wanted to be President so that it would be said that Atiku Abubakar was President, inordinate ambition and all that. My sympathy used to lie with Jonathan but of recent, I don’t see why I should vote for him or any one yet.
I’ve simply not seen any manifesto that impresses me enough to vote for anybody as my President. If all what they use as campaign points, their 7-point agendas and their 77-point addenda, is what we’ve been hearing since my primary school days, tell me why I cannot be President. Mr. Jonathan has the sympathy of people because of the way he was treated prior to his ascendancy. He has the sympathy of youths because they see him as one of them (at 53 years of age).
GEJ has it all going for him – people, incumbency and a whole lot of other factors. It is his chance to make history. One of my friends will quote “History will be kind to me, for I intend to be good to her”. Will GEJ be good to history? It’s his call.
For now, if all we have been hearing is what they have all got to offer, I am sorry; my cousin’s one year old son could even be President because I am too qualified. I’m outta here.
Monday, January 17, 2011
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMA!!!
Now this is for my Mum. The one who as my people will say, poured blood on my head some years ago. I’ve been counting the hours to this wonderful day since we shouted ‘Happy New Year’ on the 1st day of this year.
Momma is first in quite a lot of ways. Her birthday is the first in the family every year and she of course is the first girlfriend I have. Add that to the fact that she is the first and the only wife my Dad has and you see why I am so effusive in praising her.
I remember in one of my status updates on Facebook in 2009 that I wrote “Comparing my wife with my Mum would be purely suicidal”. I knew perfectly what I was getting myself into. I knew it was bound to provoke some reactions, and that it did.
Mum would not get tired. No she would clean and pack, pack and clean. Put things in order. What have I told you about this sweet lady of 50-something. She tries her best to make people happy, even if that infringes on her own happiness.
I’ve thought of a way to celebrate my Mum today. I have come up with the perfect way to do that-let blogosphere join me in wishing Momma a very great birthday. She is a gift to humanity, a blessing to womanhood and a perfect example to motherhood.
At the risk of sounding immodest about my Mum, she is simply exemplary. Do I even have to be modest about her? I don’t think so because if I fail to blow her trumpet, who will do? The things I have seen her do have put me in good stead in tackling some issues.
I’ve had cause to test the waters, asking one or two folks about her. I understand her weaknesses and excesses and I try really well to help her overcome them but what i heard from these people was enough to discourage me from continuing with that. At least, everyone has their weaknesses.
Which of you can cook like me? She never ever formally forced me to come into the kitchen to learn but I did not realize I had picked a few tips in cooking until I got to the boarding house sometimes in the mid-90s and I had to cook rice for one of my numerous seniors back then. The guy, son of the popular Eruobodo, Chief Busari Adelakun, made me his regular cook.
I did not know I was the perfect cook until I went to the university and I had to make my meals. My roommate thought he had monopoly of culinary skills until I showed him ‘what my Mama taught me’. He actually abandoned the cooking for me to do because he had a feel of Mum in my meals.
I got to far away Taraba state in Northern Nigeria and my culinary endeavors endeared lots of people to me. I just had to cook even when I did not want to. Who taught me how to do this? Momma of course. I remember one of my friends back then in Takum, the town where I served, saying I may have to marry his Mum or he would have to marry mine to ensure that he had great meals.
I ain’t all about food. You can imagine having all sons, no daughters and trying your best to mould them into food things. I remember her doing my laundries while I was in high school. I will never forget the pride with which I always walked to the rostrum at the end of session party while in Oritamefa Baptist Nursery and Primary School to receive the prize for the ‘Neatest Boy’ while in Primaries 3,4 and 5.
Momma is the classical example of the African woman – the daughter (to her parents), the wife, the mother, the friend, the daughter-in-law, the sister-in-law I can remember. I really am proud of her, and so is ’Yinka and ’Nifemi. I cannot imagine having another.
I perfectly remember late 2007 and early 2008 when she was on crutches occasioned by a fractured ankle in a domestic accident. Momma still got up after some weeks and with the P.O.P on her leg was walking around the house to make things tick. She would enter the kitchen and cook. She would still manage to join me in the poultry, supervising and looking on.
I was brought up to appreciate people and the one I have to appreciate today is the one who taught me all of that. My mother is never tired, she works her fingers to the bones and is the first to get up in the morning. She is never ashamed to get dirty and does not care even if you hurt her, she’ll be right there for you again.
I’m grateful to the Almighty that I am celebrating her alive. I am thankful to God that I am writing this for her to see while she lives many more years to carry children that will be borne by me and my sibs. It is a real pleasure having you as my MOTHER.
I might never have told you this Mum – I am happy to celebrate you today, we are so proud of you. You are a blessing to humanity. I love you, we love you, your excesses, your flaws, your strong points. We appreciate everything about you. The song for you today is Asa’s ‘So Beautiful’ in which she eulogized her Mum.
And so Mrs. Adesola BABALOLA, my Dad’s beauty, my mother, our Maami, our girlfriend, the wife of four of us, like Dad would say, words and writings will never be enough to express our feelings for you. We celebrate you today, eku odun o. Igba odun, odun kan –happy birthday, may you live very long to see many more good years.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
HALF-BAKED… OR NOT?
The Nigeria of these days is rather amazing. It is one that is quite disheartening. We toil and struggle to go to school in this present day Nigeria, yet we are derided and called different names, addressed in different uncomplimentary ways, ways unbefitting of people of our standing.
People of the generation before mine went to school in Nigeria when it was convenient to go; they went at a time when one would be very happy to be a student of tertiary institution. They were students when dear Mama Naija was great enough to cater for her youths, cater for her students.
They did not bother about cooking their meals while in school; they never bothered about doing laundries. They did not go through the stress and hassles of transportation on campus or having to live off-campus because the edict establishing their school made it non-residential, like some of our new institutions of higher learning.
The students of these present-day Nigeria go through a lot of stress. Apart from having to gain admission in manners harder than that of a camel passing through the eye of a needle, they face a lot of problems. Lectures are fixed arbitrarily, fixed in manners that are only comfortable for the lecturers without any bit of pity for the students.
The lecturers get to call the students all sorts of names. They do these for reasons best known to them. Students are hounded and victimized, they are grounded and vilified. They only find solace in the hands and hearts of some colleagues of like minds and of course, their sponsors and loved ones. It may even be one of the reasons students are engaged with ‘that very close someone’, they may need to share their burdens with one of them who is ready to give a shoulder to lean on.
Now who is to blame for all these katakata (confusion)? The generation before us had it so good. In some parts of the country, it was free education at all levels. With the likes of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the saddle of leadership, one had no cause to worry about going to school, or not. It was a matter of not going and feeling so inferior to those who have gone.
It was easy to go to school; they made it easy for you. You just wanted to be in school and work your socks off. You wanted to work your fingers to the bones because you knew it was all about lots of reading and then some, or lots of socializing, depending on where you belong.
That has changed now though. With all sectors progressively deteriorating, education and morals also gave way. Schools became a shadow of themselves right from primary to tertiary. Private institutions now top the chart and the mere mention of you attending a public institution sees you looked down upon, as if those that now send children to private schools attended one.
All that does not bug me anyway. The major thing that pisses me off is having someone refer to me derogatorily as ‘half baked’. The folks responsible for the decline are those that parade themselves as reformists. They are the ones now crying and shouting, panting and puffing that they want to reform the educational system in my dear country.
They will not come out straight to address issues; they will not come out plain to say that they and their fathers caused the rot. The fathers will only call us names while the sons nod in agreement. They will just raise their voice to get the silly attention they desire from the media.
The generation before mine wants to impose standards on my generation, standards of back then without actually making everything they had available to us. They had it so good, they enjoyed every basic necessity from water and electricity to good roads, they had all the equipment needed for practicals in their laboratories and will not go and rent a skeleton in town, like what obtains today. Everything worked in their favour.
I can go on and on about everything they had and how it was in place while they were growing. Let’s place both generations side by side. How many truly brilliant students get scholarships these days? How many?
If you showed a bit of promise back then, you were considered for scholarship. These days, you are not considered if you have nobody in the corridors of power. Everything was on merit then but what do we get now? They employ someone worse off than you while you walk about the corners of your neighborhood in your well-worn slippers and trousers, waiting for a miracle to happen.
Employment opportunities waited for them back then after their school. In fact, as a high school graduate, you were accorded respect. God help you and you finish Polytechnic or University, a good job and then a brand new Peugeot 504, 505 or Volkswagen beetle car was waiting for you. You had no stress getting the cash needed to get settled.
Place the Naija youth of today in the same shoes and you’ll see wonders. What we get however is the exact opposite of what they experienced, yet they show-off their agbada and babanriga in front of the television cameras and belch nonsense that we are half-baked. They forget that they caused it all.
After the pre-independence and first generation of leaders came those ones we can call bastards. They destroyed our common heritage and today, they shout themselves hoarse because they see a newspaper guy and a television lady, they have nothing to say but they want their face to be seen on TV and newspaper pages, saying something. That ‘something’ which in many cases is outright rubbish and balderdash.
Have they bothered to ask themselves why Nigerian youths thrive in well-organized societies? They will not. It is a question too hard for them. There is a particular Vice-Chancellor in Nigeria today. His school is in the place that calls itself the north, despite being closely affiliated with the South.
A lecturer who was a colleague back then questioned the guy’s moral right to do some things which he presently does. He said they had full chicken for their meals and the day it was reduced to half, this particular VC, then a student, led the protest. He is today one of the voices that stifle student uprising. He is the one who champions double-standards and injustice in his school today.
How much did they pay in government institutions back then? Today, we are made to pay through the nose. Sometimes last week, the papers were awash with stories of an institution neighboring the one earlier mentioned. They increased their fees to N100,000. Yet they come out and shout that the economy has been destroyed.
While I was in that school, I did not pay up to N30,000 as my fees for the five years I studied there. Yet we say the students are interested in getting rich quick while forgetting that we give them no choice because they are from indigent homes.
They have made education a luxury for people that are struggling, it is totally out of their reach now.
Mission institutions are not left out. The story I heard was that they were the ones that were readily available for everyone back then. The St. Andrews and St. Joseph schools, the Anwar-ul-Islam and the Ansarudeen (popularly called AUD) schools, were cheap enough for everyone. What do we have now? Costly schools some people dare not near. Yet they open their mouths and call us half-baked. Who baked us half way? No be them?
Leave me, let me vent my anger. I’m bitter at these people. Why should I suffer in school for years only to be called ‘half-baked’? In my first year, well over 5,000 students cramped inside two halls to receive lectures. In my second year, we had to wait for one set to finish their practical before we did our own. In my third year, we had to take lectures in the laboratory, because there were not enough lecture halls available for use.
In my fourth year, we used primitive tools for our practicals. In my finals, I had to combine my research project with class lectures, there was finding no balance. I graduate after all the stress and still get labeled ‘half-baked’? Total nonsense!
Me I get luck o. Some folks did not even see their laboratories or how it looked like. They struggled all through school for no fault of theirs. They had extra year or years as the case may be because one dumb fellow say they are not serious. One dumb man, called a lecturer says more than three-quarter of his students are not serious and he fails them. Is that not a half-baked lecturer? Nemesis catches up with people and has caught up with this ‘bad news’.
I have sworn that if anyone, I mean anyone from the sixties, seventies and early eighties refer to me as half-baked, I’ll give that person a piece of my mind. Tell him or her it’s their generation, a generation of waste and rape, that set the tone for what we experience now.
Is there anyone who calls you that derogatory name (half-baked)? Tell them you are righting their wrong. I’m outta here. Let me go do something that will improve my mood.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
SENATOR(?) DORA AKUNYILI
Quite a lot is happening in Nigeria these days. From the deaths to the funny politics, it just leaves you scratching your head to know which of the things to actually do the writing and blogging on.
Events have actually overtaken some of them but it does not mean I cannot still reflect on them, or does it? From the Sanusi versus House of Representatives thing, to the Atiku consensus thing and even the various verbal wars going on all because of the 2011 general elections.
This week however, some other events joined the already long list. The first noteworthy event this week was the passage of elder statesman and father of modern Nigeria, Pa Anthony Eromesele Enahoro at the age of 87. The man sure lived a good life, leaving his marks on the sand of time, even if the ruling class has made the Nigeria of his dreams a mirage.
Joining Pa Enahoro later in the week was one of Nigeria’s foremost Fuji musicians, Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Balogun, popularly known as Barrister. He was said to have died earlier in the year only for the press to recant. We thought the worst was over but it was not to be as Barry Wonder finally bade the world bye. My tribute to this wonderful duo will come in due course.
The other event that interested me and I’m sure, a few others is the resignation of Mama Dora. Prof. Akunyili, resigned her post as Information Minster to contest as a Senator come 2011. That in itself was the major attraction for me this week.
With all due respect to Pa Enahoro and Barry Wonder, I’d prefer to talk about Mrs. Akunyili for now. i’ll then come back to do a tribute for the departed. We are still on the same side with Akunyili while the celebrated duo has taken their bow, breathing their last.
I had earlier read during the week that the former NAFDAC boss would resign to contest but I just read the story in passing. It finally happened and there was this banner headline two days later – “Akunyili Resigns”. I saw Mama Dora all smiles, handing over to Mr. Labaran Maku, her erstwhile Minister of State who has been promoted.
I don’t know what prompted the patriot who has served meritoriously while in NAFDAC. The amazon who laid her life on the line in the war against fake drugs leaving the Ministry for the hallowed chambers, that is if it is ever hallowed. I shudder at the thought of Prof. Akunyili rendering herself useless in the Senate.
I had always known Mrs. Akunyili would one day join mainstream politics but I did not know it would be in a fashion like this. I did not expect her to vie for a Senatorial seat. I did not even know it would be like this. She has made her decision and no one can change it.
Someone asked me the post I expect her to vie for if not the Senate considering the fact that there is no gubernatorial election in Anambra, her home state in 2011. I actually am not a fan of Akunyili in the Senate. I would rather have her in a place where she’ll have more impact.
I do not want her to join set of people in the National Assembly. I’d have loved to see Dora in better company than in the Red Chambers where those self serving bigots hold sway. I do not want to believe Mrs. Akunyili is drawn to the Senate by the megabucks Nigerian Senators earn. I just want to trust her sense of judgment, fold my hands and see what will happen.
Something tells me Akunyili is preparing herself for something bigger and only wants to start from the Senate. It all remains to be seen though. I hope she would not be dragged in the mud along with the others.
Meanwhile, as we all await the unfolding of events, I rest my case and see if one more appellation would be added to the ones Professor Dora Akunyili already carries.
On a final note, I want to celebrate the departed- Pa Anthony Enahoro, the last of the titans and Mr. Fuji, Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Balogun. They made impacts on the lives of people around them and quite a lot of good would be said about them.
I need you to ask yourself what would be said about you when you die. Enahoro has done his bit, Barrister has done his bit, make sure you do your own.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
RAUF VS LAGUN IN OSUN: MY TAKE
15:26 hrs, November 29
What is good luck? As I stepped out of my office a couple of minutes ago, I heard a splat on my head. Lo and behold, it was a passing bird that sent a message to me. It showered me with some droppings right in the middle of my big, coconut head. This is another issue for another day anyway.
In my part of the world, it is said that when a bird flies over your head and dashes you some faeces while moving, it is a sign of good luck. If that is the good luck that some people have recently been enjoying, I’ll rather welcome it. I’ll welcome it because I need it in every part of my life, especially in the love, loving and relationship aspect of things which has been a bit turbulent in a while.
Perhaps, that was the good luck that has smiled on the Action Congress of Nigeria in the past few weeks. That political party and her members have had to fight tooth and nail for every post they presently hold, especially that of state Chief Executives.
Like it happened sometimes in October in the South west Nigerian state of Ekiti, the breeze, or better put, wind of change blew across the land on Friday November 26, 2010 and blew away the Olagunsoye Oyinlola led-PDP government in Osun state. It was received with glee. Folks were happy all over the place – shouts of joy, screams of happiness, leaps of victory and other expressions that cannot be adequately expressed in writing were the order of the day in Osun, my home state.
Justice Clara Ogunbiyi and her colleagues have unwittingly written themselves into the good side of the record books of Nigeria. Conversely, one gentleman that answers the name Thomas Naron and members of both the first and second Osun state 2007 Election Petition Tribunal have written themselves in the other side of the history books.
I keep looking for a way to rhyme Naron’s name with something significantly negative. If it would be Thomas Aaron, then it would be that part of Aaron, the Israelite High Priest in Bible times that made the golden calf for Israelites to engage in idolatry.
Mr. Justice Thomas Naron had the chance to write his name in gold like Justice Ogunbiyi and her learned colleagues but chose to go the naira way, the way of perdition. It is an open secret, a common knowledge, that the retired Brigadier General who held sway in Osun state until last Friday and his boys did well to grease the palms of the first Election Petition Tribunal that was set up in the aftermath of the 2007 general elections.
Rauf and his team headed to the Appeal Court after Naron and his team turned the blind eye to all weighty allegations of electoral fraud before them. I remember sometimes shortly after the elections that a friend called me from Osogbo. He told me point blank that PDP and Prince Oyinlola openly used brute force to win the elections.
I stand on the fact that elections are not won in Nigeria anyway. It is rigged and the announced winner is the one who has out-rigged his rivals. I do not want to be corrected though. This is an issue for another day anyway.
The then ruling PDP had things in her favour – cool, hard cash, incumbency, federal might and a lot more. They made their money speak for them, gave the hungry members of the bench something to chew, and reduced them to young people begging for recharge cards. Or are there no evidences in the Tell Magazine that printed their call and S.M.S logs?
The then AC had a lot of doggedness, as exemplified by Rauf Aregbesola, the former SUG President of The Polytechnic Ibadan; the financial and physical backing of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the immediate past Governor of Lagos; the good side of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as used by the late Adrian Forty, their forensic expert and lots of other monitoring devices which came from the InfoTech world and the support of majority of the Osun people among other factors.
We voted, they voted, everyone voted. PDP rigged, AC rigged, thugs clashed, touts fought and at the end of the day, everyone knew whoever won had fought a keenly contested battle. The bald-headed Iwu’s INEC and OBJ said PDP won. AC went bunkers, claiming a lot of irregularities and pronto, went to the Tribunal. The Tribunal was fruitless for AC and they went straight to the Appellate Court.
Good luck smiled on Aregbesola, his party, and their appeal and they went back to a new Tribunal. The new Tribunal, cousins to Thomas Naron’s, also said it was the honey man, Olagunsoye Oyinlola that should continue his hold on power, and that the ex- Lagos MILAD did.
He changed from honey to the bee and stung quite some folks who were never in his support, openly denying them the small dividend of democracy he had to offer. In stinging in different parts of the state, the paramount ruler of Aregbesola’s part of the state was the first to have a taste of the bee’s sting. He was being stung while others were enjoying the honey.
Some others paid the price for being avowed AC supporters. It was quite a battle that nearly consumed the lead fighter himself. At a time, Aregbe, as the new Governor is widely called, was accused of faking the Police report he tendered before the Tribunal.
Mike Okiro did what he could, tagged the gentleman different names and stopped short of calling him a tout. It was a battle indeed. Some people had already given up, they had told dogged Rauf to throw his hat into the ring for 2011 and forget all about 2007. The guy simply refused to give up, his backers did not back down or back out; they were staunch in his support, they stood with and by him and the result is there for all to see.
Olagunsoye Oyinlola has done his bit; his only blot was wanting to cling on to power when he should have left. No matter what bad people have said he did while in the saddle, it is on record that the teachers his immediate predecessor and now ACN Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, sacked while in office were reinstated by him. The fact that Osun can boast of her own state University can be attributed to Oyin, even if he made the school out of the reach of the masses. He had his pluses while he held sway in the state of the living spring. He only screwed things up in his second term, a term which was not his own from the start.
What I think Mr. Aregbesola should do is change the bad impression Akande, his party chair, has created in the mind of many Osun people while he was Governor under the platform of the old Alliance for Democracy, a party which broke into pieces and part of which is the present ACN. Akande would have been a very good Governor if not for some administrative blunders he committed while in office.
It is Aregbesola’s call, his chance to make history in Osun. It is his choice to either continue being celebrated or have his head being called for on a platter after a few months in the saddle. Remember what a section of the American populace is doing for Mr. Obama now; they want him to fix the mess of George Bush’s eight years in just two years. People want miracles overnight and I hope Rauf can do just one that will keep Osun people salivating at least for some time.
I do not think Oyinlola has lost anything save for the fact that he was sacked by the Court. He has been warming up to contest as a Senator next year. The only person who has lost at least for now and who would have lost in a level playing field is one man that is call Christopher Iyiola Omisore.
The young man who won a Senate seat while standing trial (that alone is funny to make you laugh and tumble over) has been nursing the ambition to be Osun Governor come 2011 but may have to wait at least until 2014 to have that ambition realized.
Aregbesola was Commissioner for Works under Tinubu, I hope he has something to bring to Osun so I can brag the more about being an Osun indigene through and through. I want to believe Governor Rauf is not just about power, but about delivery of goodies to Osun and her teeming masses. It is only by doing that that the ousted PDP government would not mock Osun people, it is only by giving us a better deal that we would have our own new Osun state.
The fact that the Court has told PDP and Mr. Oyinlola to vacate Abere for Mr. Aregbesola is not the problem. It calls for celebration in that we may be getting it right. Let those who want to celebrate do it and do it anyhow they like, either moderately or over-the-top.
What I think should be addressed is the issue of holding an office illegally and getting away with all salaries, emoluments, security votes and entitlements. The Nigerian system should find a way of getting back all the salaries that these illegal political office holders have collected over the years.
Youths roam the streets without jobs, some hardworking men can hardly feed their families but some people smile to the bank every month and sometimes weekly and daily for holding offices, political offices that do not belong to them. They get paid for years and are eventually booted out after almost finishing another person’s term. I find it sad.
To make it worse, they would have employed SAs, SSAs, PAs and other unnecessary Assistants and it is government that pays these staffers. I think the new Electoral laws of the land should make provisions for this anomaly.
They would have eaten enough dough over the period of time spent in government that asking them to return the basic salaries they were paid while illegally occupying office would not be bad.
The game goes on as 2011 approaches but for my dear Osun state, I say congratulations. To Mr. Aregbesola, I salute his courage and say Bravo! Nigeria shall be great once again and my generation shall enjoy after suffering while growing.
Enter Rauf, and let the music go on…
What is good luck? As I stepped out of my office a couple of minutes ago, I heard a splat on my head. Lo and behold, it was a passing bird that sent a message to me. It showered me with some droppings right in the middle of my big, coconut head. This is another issue for another day anyway.
In my part of the world, it is said that when a bird flies over your head and dashes you some faeces while moving, it is a sign of good luck. If that is the good luck that some people have recently been enjoying, I’ll rather welcome it. I’ll welcome it because I need it in every part of my life, especially in the love, loving and relationship aspect of things which has been a bit turbulent in a while.
Perhaps, that was the good luck that has smiled on the Action Congress of Nigeria in the past few weeks. That political party and her members have had to fight tooth and nail for every post they presently hold, especially that of state Chief Executives.
Like it happened sometimes in October in the South west Nigerian state of Ekiti, the breeze, or better put, wind of change blew across the land on Friday November 26, 2010 and blew away the Olagunsoye Oyinlola led-PDP government in Osun state. It was received with glee. Folks were happy all over the place – shouts of joy, screams of happiness, leaps of victory and other expressions that cannot be adequately expressed in writing were the order of the day in Osun, my home state.
Justice Clara Ogunbiyi and her colleagues have unwittingly written themselves into the good side of the record books of Nigeria. Conversely, one gentleman that answers the name Thomas Naron and members of both the first and second Osun state 2007 Election Petition Tribunal have written themselves in the other side of the history books.
I keep looking for a way to rhyme Naron’s name with something significantly negative. If it would be Thomas Aaron, then it would be that part of Aaron, the Israelite High Priest in Bible times that made the golden calf for Israelites to engage in idolatry.
Mr. Justice Thomas Naron had the chance to write his name in gold like Justice Ogunbiyi and her learned colleagues but chose to go the naira way, the way of perdition. It is an open secret, a common knowledge, that the retired Brigadier General who held sway in Osun state until last Friday and his boys did well to grease the palms of the first Election Petition Tribunal that was set up in the aftermath of the 2007 general elections.
Rauf and his team headed to the Appeal Court after Naron and his team turned the blind eye to all weighty allegations of electoral fraud before them. I remember sometimes shortly after the elections that a friend called me from Osogbo. He told me point blank that PDP and Prince Oyinlola openly used brute force to win the elections.
I stand on the fact that elections are not won in Nigeria anyway. It is rigged and the announced winner is the one who has out-rigged his rivals. I do not want to be corrected though. This is an issue for another day anyway.
The then ruling PDP had things in her favour – cool, hard cash, incumbency, federal might and a lot more. They made their money speak for them, gave the hungry members of the bench something to chew, and reduced them to young people begging for recharge cards. Or are there no evidences in the Tell Magazine that printed their call and S.M.S logs?
The then AC had a lot of doggedness, as exemplified by Rauf Aregbesola, the former SUG President of The Polytechnic Ibadan; the financial and physical backing of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the immediate past Governor of Lagos; the good side of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as used by the late Adrian Forty, their forensic expert and lots of other monitoring devices which came from the InfoTech world and the support of majority of the Osun people among other factors.
We voted, they voted, everyone voted. PDP rigged, AC rigged, thugs clashed, touts fought and at the end of the day, everyone knew whoever won had fought a keenly contested battle. The bald-headed Iwu’s INEC and OBJ said PDP won. AC went bunkers, claiming a lot of irregularities and pronto, went to the Tribunal. The Tribunal was fruitless for AC and they went straight to the Appellate Court.
Good luck smiled on Aregbesola, his party, and their appeal and they went back to a new Tribunal. The new Tribunal, cousins to Thomas Naron’s, also said it was the honey man, Olagunsoye Oyinlola that should continue his hold on power, and that the ex- Lagos MILAD did.
He changed from honey to the bee and stung quite some folks who were never in his support, openly denying them the small dividend of democracy he had to offer. In stinging in different parts of the state, the paramount ruler of Aregbesola’s part of the state was the first to have a taste of the bee’s sting. He was being stung while others were enjoying the honey.
Some others paid the price for being avowed AC supporters. It was quite a battle that nearly consumed the lead fighter himself. At a time, Aregbe, as the new Governor is widely called, was accused of faking the Police report he tendered before the Tribunal.
Mike Okiro did what he could, tagged the gentleman different names and stopped short of calling him a tout. It was a battle indeed. Some people had already given up, they had told dogged Rauf to throw his hat into the ring for 2011 and forget all about 2007. The guy simply refused to give up, his backers did not back down or back out; they were staunch in his support, they stood with and by him and the result is there for all to see.
Olagunsoye Oyinlola has done his bit; his only blot was wanting to cling on to power when he should have left. No matter what bad people have said he did while in the saddle, it is on record that the teachers his immediate predecessor and now ACN Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, sacked while in office were reinstated by him. The fact that Osun can boast of her own state University can be attributed to Oyin, even if he made the school out of the reach of the masses. He had his pluses while he held sway in the state of the living spring. He only screwed things up in his second term, a term which was not his own from the start.
What I think Mr. Aregbesola should do is change the bad impression Akande, his party chair, has created in the mind of many Osun people while he was Governor under the platform of the old Alliance for Democracy, a party which broke into pieces and part of which is the present ACN. Akande would have been a very good Governor if not for some administrative blunders he committed while in office.
It is Aregbesola’s call, his chance to make history in Osun. It is his choice to either continue being celebrated or have his head being called for on a platter after a few months in the saddle. Remember what a section of the American populace is doing for Mr. Obama now; they want him to fix the mess of George Bush’s eight years in just two years. People want miracles overnight and I hope Rauf can do just one that will keep Osun people salivating at least for some time.
I do not think Oyinlola has lost anything save for the fact that he was sacked by the Court. He has been warming up to contest as a Senator next year. The only person who has lost at least for now and who would have lost in a level playing field is one man that is call Christopher Iyiola Omisore.
The young man who won a Senate seat while standing trial (that alone is funny to make you laugh and tumble over) has been nursing the ambition to be Osun Governor come 2011 but may have to wait at least until 2014 to have that ambition realized.
Aregbesola was Commissioner for Works under Tinubu, I hope he has something to bring to Osun so I can brag the more about being an Osun indigene through and through. I want to believe Governor Rauf is not just about power, but about delivery of goodies to Osun and her teeming masses. It is only by doing that that the ousted PDP government would not mock Osun people, it is only by giving us a better deal that we would have our own new Osun state.
The fact that the Court has told PDP and Mr. Oyinlola to vacate Abere for Mr. Aregbesola is not the problem. It calls for celebration in that we may be getting it right. Let those who want to celebrate do it and do it anyhow they like, either moderately or over-the-top.
What I think should be addressed is the issue of holding an office illegally and getting away with all salaries, emoluments, security votes and entitlements. The Nigerian system should find a way of getting back all the salaries that these illegal political office holders have collected over the years.
Youths roam the streets without jobs, some hardworking men can hardly feed their families but some people smile to the bank every month and sometimes weekly and daily for holding offices, political offices that do not belong to them. They get paid for years and are eventually booted out after almost finishing another person’s term. I find it sad.
To make it worse, they would have employed SAs, SSAs, PAs and other unnecessary Assistants and it is government that pays these staffers. I think the new Electoral laws of the land should make provisions for this anomaly.
They would have eaten enough dough over the period of time spent in government that asking them to return the basic salaries they were paid while illegally occupying office would not be bad.
The game goes on as 2011 approaches but for my dear Osun state, I say congratulations. To Mr. Aregbesola, I salute his courage and say Bravo! Nigeria shall be great once again and my generation shall enjoy after suffering while growing.
Enter Rauf, and let the music go on…
Saturday, October 30, 2010
OCTOBER 30TH REFLECTI- SLEEP AND SLEEPING
09.01 HRS, 30th October
The biggest risk we all take in life and destiny is sleep. I was going through my journal yesterday and I saw one of my writings in the journal I did while my stay in Taraba state of Nigeria lasted. This writing was originally done June 2nd 2009. I hope you find it interesting reading:
As I sit on my students’ bench and table in Kwambai, the sleepy village in Taraba state where I presently serve my country, Nigeria, I’m kind of remembering the photo finish that my day was yesterday. Full and lots of activities and lots of strenuous exercises.
The way I drifted off to sleep and finally dreamland yesterday was shocking. Is that how we sleep not to wake up again? Na wa O!
So all the ambitious rants and plans just end up like that. I mean it could even have finished before starting. Yes it can, at least you sleep. What happens if one day I sleep and wake up in the other world, a world farther than dreamland?
I’ve never visited there though but I know that other world is not a world of dreams, not a world of ambitions, not that world of rat race where we the hustle and bustle ends nowhere.
Do you want to know the truth? Yesterday night made me think of my life in that other world where the only thing you will not do is WORRY. That world where you don’t have to bother about paying bills – electricity, water, children’s fees, cable TV bills and even ashewo and gigolo bills.
That world where the school you attended and the level of your education does not matter. The world in which you do not need a wife to make you happy; where you do not need a girlfriend not to talk of her getting angry because you have not called her today. A world different from this in all areas and ramifications.
Truth be told, I got scared when I woke up this morning feeling so scared. What if I drifted into that eternal sleep, what would have happened? Okay, people would’ve cried abi? Is it all of them that will cry because they feel good about me? NOPE!
Many of the tears (if I get any) would be for people’s selfish end. That guy who thought we could have done something together and has now seen the hope of that faded. That beauty that has been swaying her generously loaded bust and hips to attract me would cry because she finally would not have that chance. Those folks whose moods improve when they see me would also spare me a sob or two although it will not be because they love me, it’ll be because of what they’ll miss in me.
The good thing however is that no one, I mean nobody is irreplaceable in life. Some folks would be like “you see, see where he has ended it after all the posings and formings”. “I think we told him to relax a bit and live less on the fast lane”. Some would even be indifferent, “too bad he’s dead”, they’ll say.
But wait a minute, can you try write your OBITUARY yourself? Be honest with yourself, you know where you have been good and otherwise. Your obituary is not that glossy poster they put in front of your house and office when you die, it is not what people write in the condolence register (na lie full that register). Your obituary, my obituary, our obituary does not even have to relate to what happened in the mortuary, it is what people say of the kind of life you lived – “that boy was just wonderful, why did I not allow him to get a feel of me?”, young Eves would say. A lot of other people would say other stuff like “Did he forget that the end would come one day?”
Try evaluate yourself in a very honest way. As for me, I know how mine would read; I know the BUTS and FLAWS; I know the positive side of it. What I want to do is change my buts to a more positive side so that when I sleep and wake in another world one day, I’ll look at you and you and hear you speak well of me because life after death is not the number of houses you built while you bestrode the land; not the number of girls you had; not the number of guys that chased after you; it is not the number of folks that cry before you are planted; it is even not how attractive, unique and beautiful your glass casket looks. It is what folks say after you are gone.
What will be said of you? You’re asking me? I’ll still be around for some more time but I’ll make sure people say good and remember me for good me when I just go and long after I am gone.
The biggest risk we all take in life and destiny is sleep. I was going through my journal yesterday and I saw one of my writings in the journal I did while my stay in Taraba state of Nigeria lasted. This writing was originally done June 2nd 2009. I hope you find it interesting reading:
As I sit on my students’ bench and table in Kwambai, the sleepy village in Taraba state where I presently serve my country, Nigeria, I’m kind of remembering the photo finish that my day was yesterday. Full and lots of activities and lots of strenuous exercises.
The way I drifted off to sleep and finally dreamland yesterday was shocking. Is that how we sleep not to wake up again? Na wa O!
So all the ambitious rants and plans just end up like that. I mean it could even have finished before starting. Yes it can, at least you sleep. What happens if one day I sleep and wake up in the other world, a world farther than dreamland?
I’ve never visited there though but I know that other world is not a world of dreams, not a world of ambitions, not that world of rat race where we the hustle and bustle ends nowhere.
Do you want to know the truth? Yesterday night made me think of my life in that other world where the only thing you will not do is WORRY. That world where you don’t have to bother about paying bills – electricity, water, children’s fees, cable TV bills and even ashewo and gigolo bills.
That world where the school you attended and the level of your education does not matter. The world in which you do not need a wife to make you happy; where you do not need a girlfriend not to talk of her getting angry because you have not called her today. A world different from this in all areas and ramifications.
Truth be told, I got scared when I woke up this morning feeling so scared. What if I drifted into that eternal sleep, what would have happened? Okay, people would’ve cried abi? Is it all of them that will cry because they feel good about me? NOPE!
Many of the tears (if I get any) would be for people’s selfish end. That guy who thought we could have done something together and has now seen the hope of that faded. That beauty that has been swaying her generously loaded bust and hips to attract me would cry because she finally would not have that chance. Those folks whose moods improve when they see me would also spare me a sob or two although it will not be because they love me, it’ll be because of what they’ll miss in me.
The good thing however is that no one, I mean nobody is irreplaceable in life. Some folks would be like “you see, see where he has ended it after all the posings and formings”. “I think we told him to relax a bit and live less on the fast lane”. Some would even be indifferent, “too bad he’s dead”, they’ll say.
But wait a minute, can you try write your OBITUARY yourself? Be honest with yourself, you know where you have been good and otherwise. Your obituary is not that glossy poster they put in front of your house and office when you die, it is not what people write in the condolence register (na lie full that register). Your obituary, my obituary, our obituary does not even have to relate to what happened in the mortuary, it is what people say of the kind of life you lived – “that boy was just wonderful, why did I not allow him to get a feel of me?”, young Eves would say. A lot of other people would say other stuff like “Did he forget that the end would come one day?”
Try evaluate yourself in a very honest way. As for me, I know how mine would read; I know the BUTS and FLAWS; I know the positive side of it. What I want to do is change my buts to a more positive side so that when I sleep and wake in another world one day, I’ll look at you and you and hear you speak well of me because life after death is not the number of houses you built while you bestrode the land; not the number of girls you had; not the number of guys that chased after you; it is not the number of folks that cry before you are planted; it is even not how attractive, unique and beautiful your glass casket looks. It is what folks say after you are gone.
What will be said of you? You’re asking me? I’ll still be around for some more time but I’ll make sure people say good and remember me for good me when I just go and long after I am gone.
BETWEEN FIRST BANK AND CITIZEN DUROJAYE JOB ADEYEMI
I saw in one of the dailies this week and on an internet forum where I get to rub minds with people what First Bank has said about citizen extraordinaire, Durojaye Job Adeyemi, a HND II student of The Polytechnic Ibadan.
It is quite annoying that First Bank, a bank that has been in operation since 1894 will come out to wash her dirty linen in the public. I wonder what good they think they’re trying to do their already battered image by coming out to say Durojaye Job Adeyemi wanted to play a fast one by withdrawing more than he had on his account.
Now, let’s get a bit rational here. If it were to be any of these other people, the accusers, that saw a balance as huge as that on their accounts, would they not have withdrawn it? It becomes surer that they would do worse than Job is being accused of here because they are well versed and experienced in things like this.
While trying to protect their corporate integrity, I’m so certain that First Bank did not think of the outcry that would follow the ill-advised comment that Job is a fraud. I am not amazed though, the image maker of the Bank and his friends in the Press would have earned quite a few thousands of Naira to tarnish Job’s image, to bring down someone who is a million times more credible than they are.
I am happy quite some internet media have stepped into the issue. Newspapers have been publishing vox-pop to show First Bank the error of their ways, a popular website, www.saharareporters.com has also lent its voice to the debacle.
What I see here is a case of pot calling the kettle black, the asin (a breed of rat that smells) telling the obuko (Yoruba name for the he-goat) he stinks and whatever can also be related. I think, or better still, I know First Bank is trying to cover their own ineptitude by demonizing Job but no matter what they do, this guy that has got praises and knocks in equal proportions from Nigerians (praises from me though), has worked his way into Nigeria’s Hall of Fame while First Bank has willingly walked into the Hall of Shame.
Citizen Job’s Regional Overseer did not leap to his defence; he jumped and even flew to his defence. The comment credited to him in one of the dailies smacked of real anger and disappointment at First Bank’s position. Nearly everyone who commented on the issue rose in staunch support of the guy while knocking and bashing First Bank.
The Regional Overseer even claimed that it was not the first time Job was handling big money. “His department, the Youth department was entrusted with N1.2 million and they bought the church a befitting bus for everyone to see”, the Regional Overseer said.
I spoke to someone who retired from the Banking industry 10 years ago after working there for 19 years and in her exact words, “it is a fraud they should investigate. They were possibly waiting for him to come and complain. It’s something that was perpetrated possibly from the headquarters or the specific branch. First Bank is only trying to cover-up their staffers who were involved at the expense of Job”.
It is a classic case of Nigeria. First Bank is using the press because they have the cash to blow on the useless venture. Job Durojaye has no one. He has God and God alone. They only are trying to blackmail the guy and cover their own people in a bid to paint the innocent man black. It is a shame an institution of First Bank’s standing will do that.
From the least ranked staffer at First Bank to Mr. Bisi Onasanya, the MD, they have dragged themselves in the mud. Did they ever think of the counter-effect of the press war they wanted to start? Now cases will start in the Courts and lawyers will feed fat on the Bank again. This is avoidable waste.
What does it cause First Bank to celebrate Job for who he is? They would have been pardoned and the case would have encouraged some semi- honest people to do what should be done in cases like this. Right in my office, some guys engaged themselves in a shouting match over Job’s honesty. Some called him names and others defended him.
If the money were to be mistakenly wired into the account of a politician or one of our so-called big men, would they have returned the cash? Would they have screamed? Would they have told anyone? First Bank lost the chance to celebrate a true Nigerian icon and idol by resorting to petty lies, playing on the intelligence of millions of Nigerians. Whoever advised them to tell such a lie should forfeit his certificates and go back to Primary school.
I wonder if they discussed with their Legal department before their P.R department went to the press. If their Legal Advisers were privy to that, then they should possibly be de-robed and sent back to farm in their respective villages, Fat don dey enter their brain for inside office, make sun wire dem small.
For citizen Job, if the God of fire will agree, let him institute legal proceedings against First Bank. At least quite a number of us know what he can sue for. If he doesn’t want to do that, let him take it as the “Trials of Modern day Job”. However, methinks the NBA should do something to cut First Bank to size.
If First Bank wants to hear anything from an ‘enemy’, as they would call me, I think they should put their house in order. Their Inspectorate Department can do a very good job by getting to the root of the matter. Or how do we explain a situation in which about 37 percent of a Bank’s capital base is paid into someone’s account? To make matters worse, they now had to resort to babyish excuses of an error that all First Bank ATMs were credited with N9.3 billion at the time Job went to make his withdrawal. It is quite disheartening that an excuse as foolish as that will be given by First Bank, of all banks.
Those found culpable should be made to face the full weight of the law except they are ‘untouchables’ like some of us are in this country. The only pain in my heart is our penchant for making good people look bad while exalting the wicked. It is the same thing that makes our judges give a man who steals a N100 bathroom slippers a 6-month jail term with hard labour while they give a Bank Executive who stole billions of depositors’ funds an 18-month jail term which runs concurrently.
These dumb-heads who advised First Bank to blackmail and demonize Job are wrong and cannot be right again. Citizen Job, you are and remain an exemplary man. Case closed!
It is quite annoying that First Bank, a bank that has been in operation since 1894 will come out to wash her dirty linen in the public. I wonder what good they think they’re trying to do their already battered image by coming out to say Durojaye Job Adeyemi wanted to play a fast one by withdrawing more than he had on his account.
Now, let’s get a bit rational here. If it were to be any of these other people, the accusers, that saw a balance as huge as that on their accounts, would they not have withdrawn it? It becomes surer that they would do worse than Job is being accused of here because they are well versed and experienced in things like this.
While trying to protect their corporate integrity, I’m so certain that First Bank did not think of the outcry that would follow the ill-advised comment that Job is a fraud. I am not amazed though, the image maker of the Bank and his friends in the Press would have earned quite a few thousands of Naira to tarnish Job’s image, to bring down someone who is a million times more credible than they are.
I am happy quite some internet media have stepped into the issue. Newspapers have been publishing vox-pop to show First Bank the error of their ways, a popular website, www.saharareporters.com has also lent its voice to the debacle.
What I see here is a case of pot calling the kettle black, the asin (a breed of rat that smells) telling the obuko (Yoruba name for the he-goat) he stinks and whatever can also be related. I think, or better still, I know First Bank is trying to cover their own ineptitude by demonizing Job but no matter what they do, this guy that has got praises and knocks in equal proportions from Nigerians (praises from me though), has worked his way into Nigeria’s Hall of Fame while First Bank has willingly walked into the Hall of Shame.
Citizen Job’s Regional Overseer did not leap to his defence; he jumped and even flew to his defence. The comment credited to him in one of the dailies smacked of real anger and disappointment at First Bank’s position. Nearly everyone who commented on the issue rose in staunch support of the guy while knocking and bashing First Bank.
The Regional Overseer even claimed that it was not the first time Job was handling big money. “His department, the Youth department was entrusted with N1.2 million and they bought the church a befitting bus for everyone to see”, the Regional Overseer said.
I spoke to someone who retired from the Banking industry 10 years ago after working there for 19 years and in her exact words, “it is a fraud they should investigate. They were possibly waiting for him to come and complain. It’s something that was perpetrated possibly from the headquarters or the specific branch. First Bank is only trying to cover-up their staffers who were involved at the expense of Job”.
It is a classic case of Nigeria. First Bank is using the press because they have the cash to blow on the useless venture. Job Durojaye has no one. He has God and God alone. They only are trying to blackmail the guy and cover their own people in a bid to paint the innocent man black. It is a shame an institution of First Bank’s standing will do that.
From the least ranked staffer at First Bank to Mr. Bisi Onasanya, the MD, they have dragged themselves in the mud. Did they ever think of the counter-effect of the press war they wanted to start? Now cases will start in the Courts and lawyers will feed fat on the Bank again. This is avoidable waste.
What does it cause First Bank to celebrate Job for who he is? They would have been pardoned and the case would have encouraged some semi- honest people to do what should be done in cases like this. Right in my office, some guys engaged themselves in a shouting match over Job’s honesty. Some called him names and others defended him.
If the money were to be mistakenly wired into the account of a politician or one of our so-called big men, would they have returned the cash? Would they have screamed? Would they have told anyone? First Bank lost the chance to celebrate a true Nigerian icon and idol by resorting to petty lies, playing on the intelligence of millions of Nigerians. Whoever advised them to tell such a lie should forfeit his certificates and go back to Primary school.
I wonder if they discussed with their Legal department before their P.R department went to the press. If their Legal Advisers were privy to that, then they should possibly be de-robed and sent back to farm in their respective villages, Fat don dey enter their brain for inside office, make sun wire dem small.
For citizen Job, if the God of fire will agree, let him institute legal proceedings against First Bank. At least quite a number of us know what he can sue for. If he doesn’t want to do that, let him take it as the “Trials of Modern day Job”. However, methinks the NBA should do something to cut First Bank to size.
If First Bank wants to hear anything from an ‘enemy’, as they would call me, I think they should put their house in order. Their Inspectorate Department can do a very good job by getting to the root of the matter. Or how do we explain a situation in which about 37 percent of a Bank’s capital base is paid into someone’s account? To make matters worse, they now had to resort to babyish excuses of an error that all First Bank ATMs were credited with N9.3 billion at the time Job went to make his withdrawal. It is quite disheartening that an excuse as foolish as that will be given by First Bank, of all banks.
Those found culpable should be made to face the full weight of the law except they are ‘untouchables’ like some of us are in this country. The only pain in my heart is our penchant for making good people look bad while exalting the wicked. It is the same thing that makes our judges give a man who steals a N100 bathroom slippers a 6-month jail term with hard labour while they give a Bank Executive who stole billions of depositors’ funds an 18-month jail term which runs concurrently.
These dumb-heads who advised First Bank to blackmail and demonize Job are wrong and cannot be right again. Citizen Job, you are and remain an exemplary man. Case closed!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)