My Presidential Speech

My Presidential Speech

Fellow Nigerians, it is with a heavy heart, eyes laden with tears and mind occupied by grief that I speak to you today.

First I'll say may the souls of the dearly departed rest in perfect peace with hope that the bombings in Kano will be the last of its kind in the Nigerian territory.

Years from now Posterity will ask us 'Where were you when this all started?' & the answer will be 'We were here,helping them start it'.

In any war,there will be days when we lose a battle,when we lose face & even the dignity to call ourselves Nigerians. But we must not lose Faith in the oneness of this country because it is such faith that will give us the strength to win this war.

It is the strength in this diversity that has held us strong for 50 years & counting. It is this togetherness of being an Ijaw with an Igbo name with Hausas & Yorubas alike as friends. This Unity & Oneness has helped us become a force to reckon with all over the world.

And today as I speak with you, we face the biggest threat yet to that Unity & our National existence. That threat is Terrorism!

Terror does not start in a day, it takes years of organisation and motivation,good or bad. Maybe from our lack of planning or the lack to follow through on laws and implementations that would have curbed corruption and promoted transparency in both our public and private sectors and every dealings of government. Perhaps this is even motivated by our history of bad governance and public embezzlement or the continuous negligence of the people who have voted for us in the first place. I am not sure.

But we should make it clear, that nothing gets better by violence and there is no peace gained by mass killing of innocent people. If these attacks (or Boko Haram as a whole) is the handiwork of people who are tired of our ineptitude, of people who want Nigeria to start afresh and become a great land again, then we must ask them to, please, 'put down their guns' and talk to us. The government is all ears and ready to listen and turn a new leaf first with the resignation of the Inspector General of Police and the Head of Secret Service. The government is yours as much as it is mine. We all want to build a great Nigeria.

With that said, we hereby grant amnesty to all members of Boko Haram and ask that they lay down their weapons and join us in the re-structuring of Nigeria to make it great again. However, this amnesty will last for just one week, 7 days starting from today Monday, 23rd Jan, 2012 & will end on Monday 30th of Jan,2012.

However, say these men or women that call themselves Boko Haram do not heed our call and do as we have proposed then starting from the 31st of Jan,2012 these men or women have become the enemy of the Nigerian state and we will haunt them down wherever they are. We will chase them down to the cave or nest or wherever they call an abode and make sure that we bring them to Justice for the many lives that they have taken, for the tears shed and for the chaos that they have brought upon Nigerians. If this would take us across our borders, fellow Nigerians, have no fear for we will fight any gathering or government that backs such an evil. We will declare war or any such government or group of people.

Today 23rd of Jan is a declaration of peace in Nigeria and also a declaration of war. The perpetrators have been warned and options have been presented to them.

Seven, they say stands for perfection, so we have perfected our craft as a government and have started working on ourselves both internally and externally as you would begin to see in the coming days and weeks. Nigerians, home and abroad, should therefore have no fear and continue to stand strong and tall as you have always done. We are a proud people and let nothing put us to shame.

The 'never say die' Nigerian spirit will prevail no matter what the enemies of our democracy have planned. We will continue to work towards the safety and protection of Nigerians everywhere on the surface of the earth.

Continue to pray for Nigeria. God bless Nigeria.

Education should open the mind

Education should open the mind. 

Effective learning involves creating and solving our own errors. Go ahead; over-step, stretch, become too enthusiastic. When you make those mistakes common to all high achievers, use them to learn. Then enthusiastically attack again.

 Pry open your mind, don't let your education rust it shut. Learn to think, not to follow. Combine your learning with action, letting unavoidable errors impel you to seek greater understanding.

Coco Chanel is quoted as saying "In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different." As the bureaucratic age winds down college degrees as requirements are replaceable; independent thinkers and visionary leaders are not. Cultivating a love of learning is becoming imperative for success.

"I know very well that because I am unlettered some presumptuous people will think they have the right to criticize me, saying that I am an uncultured man. What stupid fools! Do they not know that I could reply to them as Marius did to the Roman patricians: 'Do those who pride themselves on the works of other men claim to challenge mine?" - Leonardo da Vinci

Churchill has been attributed with a statement to the effect that "to be young and not be liberal is to have no heart, to be older and not be conservative is to have no brain". If this is a mostly true insight than why must institutions of higher learning spend so much energy shouting long and hard on ideas that students will probably embrace naturally.

If you are a student, ignore repetitious bombast, seek out convincing counter arguments. Then, through synthesis born of contradictory views, make up your own mind. Until you wisely decide to change your mind once again. Open your eyes and observe even as your ears are assaulted.

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." - Noam Chomsky

Question authority, scientifically test and verify answers, embrace fully only self-proven knowledge. If a pronouncement isn't subject to rigorous challenge, repeatedly verified, and made ever more accurate; it is opinion, not knowledge. History is littered with debris of false, expert-authority opinions. Human progress has been accomplished by those that ignored "established facts," doing the impossible, advancing against the scorn of brilliant and highly educated naysayers. A kite rises against the wind, not with it.

We need freedom of expression if we are to discover truth - if like that kite we seek to soar.

Do not remain two dimensional. Question those of us with educational authority. Expand your thoughts to understand all views that pertain to an issue. "We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us" - Virginia Satir

We each learn differently

Shouldn't education be forced to discern and approach individual needs? The bureaucratic answer is consistent - "we need more teachers, and smaller class sizes." If each student is taught the same curriculum, regardless of their skills, desires, temperament, and abilities; class size is immaterial (except as it grows the power and wealth of protected education industries and unions).

"Does the inherent impossibility of traditional education, training, and other formal learning processes drive insane all of those involved for too long?" - Clark Aldrich

In commerce the day of one size fits many is just about over, replaced by self crafted solutions. In education everyone must fit our size is still the rule. You have three choices: you can settle for diminishing expectations of programmed mediocrity, you can fight toward a bureaucratic peak of a settling heap, or you can become a powerfully unique individual.

It is your life you are developing.

Your life, and the lives of your children, will prosper to the degree you can openly structure self-directed learning and keep it pleasurable. This is the educational importance of the Internet - you can discover and test thousands of ways to learn, finding what suits you best.

.....To read more click here
 

This article is the handiwork of Allan R. Wallace

 

Police Pikin 2 (A series of growing up in the barracks)

'How far now? Where you go since?'

'I dey jare, some things just happen as dem no suppose happen joor, i been go serve now'

'How e take happen? no wonder i no come dey see dem your guys around self, na only go d level? what about Kelvin and Turo?'

'Omo na only me and Turo go o and one other guy wey Turo say him meet for school, the guy too dey rush jare, na im make dem catch us, if not we don hammer now and you know as Turo be, e no gree stop even after eke bust us, dem shot am for leg and him still dey hospital now, e be like dem go cut him leg comot self but that him guy,i don even forget the guy name, dem kill am straight, na Baba God save me o, na my mumsy just know one or two people for Abuja o,na im even make easy for me,if not i for still dey that place o'

'Ah,i tank God for you o, sho o...na so i hear say dem shoot Chikodi for one level wey him go,omo mehn, this people dey vex o, anyways so wetin be your level now? you know say since me i move go PH na low key i dey, me and some guys come dey run some levels, dem involve me for some things sha, if you dey interested we go talk am well later'

'You dey make me laff, you want make my mama die abi, i no dey even fit comot for where she dey now, i sure say she go don dey look for me as we dey talk so, me i be church boy now o, i dey try make i see wetin i fit still achieve now, you know as e dey go now'

'Well no wahala, in case you change your mind na, devil wey person know better pass angel wey person just meet o, na why i want involve you, anyhow sha, i want see that my babe for block 'P', make we waka reach there now, as e dey go we suppose scatter town today na, comot for this place small make we go flex, i get small thing for hand,no worry'

'ok, but make i reach house tell my momsy say i dey around, make i run go'

The above is one of the most common conversation that takes place in my hood,the military styled living hole we sleep and wake up in, i think the only conversation that beats that will be be counting the amount of Police officers lost in a month, which is normally a stale gist.

Months after Papa Darlington's wake, the police came and served them a notice of eviction, pratically telling them they have about a month to look for a new place to move into or else their property will be thrown out and it wouldn't be a funny scene on the so called deadline day, like we all witnessed a week ago in the case of Mama Nimota, it was not funny at all, her property was all over the place, not that she had much but they way the eviction officers went about it was wrong and who could blame them, they were just doing their job, knowing that one day, if they die in the force, they get the same treatment, i wonder what goes on their mind while doing their this 'dirty' job.

Darlington has an elder Brother, Aldophus, he's of employable age(17) but doesn't have a job, not for the lack of trying but because he has the 'Barrack boy' tag for a fellow everywhere he goes job hunting, he never gets one and when he eventually almost gets one by lying, he doesn't have the required qualification, he was suppose to be getting ready to write his WASSC exam when his father died and now he's a drop-out since his mother doesn't have a job, even if she had one, Mama Darlington has 4 daughters and two boys to cater to, why waste limited resources on sending the eldest to school when he can get a job and starts helping the house-that's always the reasoning of these widows, pathetic yes but its the only way they can survive.

Aldo has two choices, since he can't get a job and he needs to start supporting the house, he either has to go to the Police College, pick up a form and apply to the force (with forged results of course) eventually becomes a police officer like his father before him because his late father's friends will help him become one, that's the only way they know to help him, make him one of them and hence keep the cycle alive or he takes to the street and come up with a scheme, the same scheme that his father was fighting against,the one that eventually killed him, if he chooses this, Darlington will eventually kill another kid's dad,like someone did his or he'll be killed. Actually there is another option, to do nothing, wait to be evicted and thrown into the street which can still lead to one of the two first options or leaves him in the hands of members of his extended family, who either do not give a damn about them or care enough to help them get transportation back to the village and kids, who would have been able to become doctors, lawyers et al now become farmers or hunters or passive housewives. Not that been a farmer is a bad thing, it is actually the noblest job in the world but an illiterate farmer that can provide for a village, a community but just his immediate family and that is just barely, just enough food for them to eat once in a day.

So Aldophus, so not decided on what to do, was playing 'whot' with Kayode on their 'domot' when two friends came calling, both of whom he hasn't seen for more than a year. I saw one of them a few days back and some of my friends told me he just came back from the U.S, but in truth, he looked like someone that has been locked up a long time, someone that hasn't seen the sun rise or fall for a long time so at 9, i doubt that is exactly how the U.S is, a lockdown, if so, i never want to go there and it sure paints a contradictory picture to the U.S that we all see on the T.V but my curious mind wouldn't let me have peace until i know the truth so i headed over to him.

'Broda Tee-K, wetin u bring come for us now, dem my friend say u just come from yankee, i want my own share now, gimme something now abeg broda'

My friends came running too but 'Broda Tee-K' has nothing to offer, he was looking at me with a sad grin, i bet wondering 'if only this small boy knew the half of it' but his friend, i haven't seen him around before but Darlington himself told me he doesn't live in the Barracks anymore, and he's looking better than the so called Americana, came to his rescue and gave me (and my friends, who by now are all over the place) 200 naira. i couldn't believe it at first, i was already shaking my head when he said,

'Oya take now, make you and your friends go share am'

I was confused but he pushed the note into my hands anyways so all my friends were already screaming, already calculating their share (Of course we all came home with a D in mathematics on our last report card, D7 because we sabi calculate money)

So i took it and we took off, all of us and some more who didn't even know the source of the money but its money, everybody wants a share, even some mothers were contemplating taking the money from us and asking us to come back to share it but we stood our ground, stubborn kids, we'd rather have the money now.

By now Aldophus and his two visitors were laughing at us, Kayode stood there wondering, am sure he wanted to come collect the money himself.

'Aldo man, we just say make we come greet you o, we hear wetin happen o, sorry my broda, u know say na so e dey be, just take heart o and now u don be man o, na u be papa now o' Tee-K said and Kayode stood there nodding his head in the affirmative.

The second visitor who by now i still don't know his name, but people call him Rico said 'na Tee-K just dey tell me now o, i just say make i enter bk come hail una na im i dey hear wetin happen, i hope say u dey take am like man now o'

For a response, Aldo (as he is called) can only nodd, am sure still wondering at the larger effect this whole event will have on his life and then Rico continued.

'Go inside change now, make we waka enter town now, you need to flex small make this thing for comot for your mind, you need to chop Mama Boki Ishi-ewu, u go like am die, u don even chop am before?'

Aldo hurried inside, got into his only jeans and puts on his only wearable footwear, a 'pam' slippers he has had for 2 years now. He came out, ready to leave this sadness behind and have some good time before he finally makes the decision that will turn his life.

Darlington and I were chewing gum, sitting in the 'lun-di-ree' (laundry) when Aldo and his friends passed us, with Kayode too. We were glad to see Aldophus leave the house and walk around with his friend, we hope he'll have a nice time and hopefully come back home with more money from his friends, the Americana and the former bk (barrack) boy, of course Kayode we know, never has money to spare.

So as the boys go into town, will the former bk boy, Rico tell his friends, Kayode included, about the levels he has going in PH, will Aldo get in on the conversation and be interested. One can never tell but it is certain the conversation that started this piece will continue, maybe not tonight, maybe on a latter date. Will one of these boys kill their fathers' colleagues or even their friends or become like their father and become a police officer. Seems like obvious questions that has obvious answers as our life in the barracks continue.

People have lived here and survived, dem no born me well make i no try.

Last Night, I had a dream!

Am having a messy day, am having a totally forgettable day and the only way i can immortalise how unfulfilled i feel today is only if i write it down, which in a way, is making today down in history as a day i will never forget but i'd rather forget it, either by waking up and realising i wrote this note in my dream and wake up to find just little bit of memories of how this day has been.

Few days back i saw the movie Inception, remarkable story line, a work of fiction that makes you wonder if you are living your real life here and now and put that together with the acting skills of DiCaprio (who in the end couldn't tell reality from dream) and you will want to see the movie over and over again but my bad day is not from having memories from that movie, my bad day i think is a result of the dream i had before i came to work today. It wasn't even a remarkable dream, me and a few friends were gathered around discussing the future and suddenly it goes dark and we never could see each others face again, i woke up from that thinking "what the f**k, NEPA dey take light inside dream again" but what was more weird was not the fact that i didn't see any of my friends again- afterall they say 20 children can not play for 20 years and so i expect at a point in my life,i'll have to let go some friends and welcome new ones-the weird thing was that light was not restored until i woke up from the dream and it bothers me,it bothers me, it really does bother me and it still bothers me.

Is it possible, for there not to be light in the world for a full day, i mean no sun and no moon and all electric sources of power just refuses to work and not just that, you try your candle, lantern and every other source of lighting up a place and nada, nothing at all, how will it be? how will we be? how will we survive? what will become of us. it bothers me, it bothers me greatly. I have never been dead before, i am sure i have not or maybe i have and like the movie inception, every time i die in one world, i wake up in another. Do you think that is even possible? if it is, loads and loads of us will gladly commit suicide, just to start again, just to have a clean slate, a second chance that many have been craving for.

So it bothers me in my dream that it was dark and i didn't see light again until i woke up,so what? does it justify me even writing about it to start with, why does darkness have such a bad connotation, is darkness really bad? Reading this piece, i know you can tell it is really a messy day for me, i keep asking myself questions that i can not answer and that no one else seems to be able to an answer and yes i know its weird and scary and maybe not at all interesting but it still bothers me.

Ah now i remember, maybe this is why it bothers me. Yesterday, a friend showed me his facebook wall (thank goodness that was not on my wall) of gory sights, of something the government knows about and maybe they are trying to hide, it was a picture and i saw many dead people (maybe that is what darkness means,death,an end), they were roasted alive as i can tell from the picture and it wasn't interesting at all. Being me, i try joking about it so that i can forget what i have seen, i try to rationalise in my mind, telling myself that what i was seeing was a picture from the Biafra era (i don't even think this kind of carnage happened during the Biafra civil war), so many people, young and old roasted alive and this happened some days back, in Jos, not so far away from where i am now. Going home that night after work, the picture was stuck on my mind and maybe the dream is about it, maybe the dream is about the inevitable, what will come on us, as a people, as Nigerians, if we continue to pay lip service to what is happening in our nation now.

Like in the dream, me and my friends were talking about the future and suddenly it was dark, gross darkness, like nothing we have never seen before. That can happen in Nigeria, it can and that bothers me, it bothers me greatly. Young and old, in high places and low places, from every tribe and every religion, go about our day like nothing happened,like nothing is happening, like its normal. We get on social networking site and everything seems okay, we dish out new music everyday, we make jokes and crack ourselves up about our situation, what is the solution? Someone please answer me. when old neighbours, people that have lived together for centuries suddenly pick up weapons and injure one another, doesn't that scare us? what in hell's name could cause that? This is where we should look at ourselves and laugh, we are in the middle of electing people into offices, selecting leaders that will govern us and yet we ignore an issue as important as the life of the citizenry of this country, what is happening? are we blind or are we all deaf? where are the elders, the ones that have caused all the problems(oh i forgot, they are all in polling booth trying to get registered), where are the youths, the supposed future of this country(oh i forgot, they are all preparing to attend the futures award), where are the real Nigerians, people that refuses to defile themselves with the tribal jargon that we carry around, people that will not kill for a God of peace,people that will not make other men their gods and live by what they say, where are the true Nigerians, those few that can stand and make us all hear and listen and pay attention to the plight that we face as a Nation. Perhaps there are no Nigerians alive again, perhaps the country Nigeria died the day we gained independence, perhaps the only True Nigerian was Fela-Anikulao Kuti and the rest of us are just Biafrians, Ooduas, Arewas, Ijaws and the many great tribes that use to be the strength of this great Nation.

Perhaps I am wrong and someone out there  is  doing something to make things right or maybe i am right and no one has a clue, no one is doing anything, perhaps tomorrow will come and the fighting and killing will end,perhaps, but it still bothers me, my dream,it still bothers me.

Me and my friends were in the that dream and it suddenly went dark.

Police Pikin (a series on growing in the barracks)

I don't know what part of the bed i woke up on this particular Thursday but i was feeling grouchy, this crabby nature did not ebb even after i saw my mum that morning (she always have a way of soothing me). 

"Ekaro Ma" I said and with all the love in the world she said "Karo oko mi" and those three words have a way of making me just soar in mid air but on this morning it sounded like the normal greeting, nothing changing, but not withstanding i put up my usual candor with all the artificial reverence i can muster else i will be prodded all day.

So on my way to the bathroom then, i was number 5 on the queue so i quickly got going with brushing my teeth and exchanging the customary morning greeting with the elders of the military styled block i live in. 

The always good natured Papa James was to eventually notice i was sullen.

"Ah good morning my pikin, how your papa? abi him don go work?"

"Yes sir" was all i could say before another question hits home "so wetin come make u dey look like person wey no chop sleep last night? abi u know well"

"Nuttin do me sir,i dey kampe" i said trying to put up a smile to go with the act.

"Na lie jare, your eye be like person wey dey vex own, abi na you and your mama dey quarrel?" he said

"No o, nuttin do me, serious" I said with a prayer in my heart that the queue moves along faster and i can escape this nice man, i can't continue with this line of questioning without giving in at a point especially because he was a well trained police man, he will probe till i come clean and suddenly we heard it. The scream at first didn't make any sense, as senseless as the grievous of all wailing can be.

"Make una come o, i don enter wahala, see wetin dem do me and my pikin o, ahyah...ahhh" Mama Darlington was screaming at the top of her lungs, people could hardly hold her. If i wasn't so carried away with my not-so-well start to the day, i would have noticed a white police pick van parked in front of our block just a few minutes ago, just before Papa James started probing and i would have been prepared for this or better still i would have hurried into our own living unit and pretended i wasn't home when the news broke. Death just came calling, not when Mama Darlington started shouting,not now when she started crying helplessly, it had come earlier and it is the same story that results in the loss of life in my block every few days,last night precisely, Papa Darlington was killed in a gun battle with an armed robbery gang the night before and like always our block just lost a man, the second one in a week and am not surprise, its almost the end of the year, what we call the -ber months and the blood suckers are out again.

Quickly the mothers have rallied around, (even the widow before this, Mama Nimota whose husband has been dead for about 72 hours now,her cry joined could be heard miles away,not only because she is still trying to understand how her husband's death happen but also because they just got married about 5 months ago, officially that is, Mama Nimota has been living with her husband for 2 years and they just gave birth to Nimota not more than 7 months ago and got officially married soon after) they carried Mama Darlington into her apartment and were trying as best as they could to keep from crying as they try to sooth the new widow. In their heart they weep, not only for Mama Darlington and maybe Mama Nimota too but also for themselves, they know their husbands might not come home the next day,they know they could be the next,they know their is no rest for their heart and mind as long as their husband is at work,they know and they pray. It is always like that after another officer dies, it becomes a waiting game, a watching game. Deep in their heart,the mothers are praying with a fervently, not to be the next in line, not to be the ones that will be chased out of this military block for losing a husband to the force.

Mama Debo already brought her bible, ready in her commando-styled posture to lead the prayer and ask God why again, why so soon after just 72 hours of crying.

 "Jesu, iwo lo dawa ni aworan are re, jo gbawa lowo iku to'un pa agba ati omode ni buloki yi,oluwa jo,Jesu jo,emi mimo wa gba wa, gbogbo awon oko wa to wa ni ibi ise, jo dabo bo won........" 

and the prayer continued, just her with the rest of the women tending to Mama Darlington and some still to Mama Nimota, as a crowd was already forming, people from neighbouring blocks, especially the 'peeping' block P, notorious for its loku loku as it is called, our block was quickly becoming the center of attention in a barrack that can boast of nothing but a 20 yard field for her only recreational center, so people get entertainment wherever they see it even when it is a sad one. 

Papa James called out, "oya all of una, make una go baff for 'lun-di-ree'(laundry) so una go fit go school kia kia,oya make una dey go as i dey see una so o". 

He was always one to look out for the kids, make sure this does not rob in the wrong way. 9-years old Darlington am sure has not fully understand the magnitude to which his life will change by now, his younger sisters, the twins i love to play with so much, are both toothy, smiling sheepishly at the attention their flat seems to be getting at the moment and who could blame them, kids hardly get any attention when you live with a father who works 12 hours officially plus 7 hours unofficially with additionally 2 hours to drink away the fear,the trauma and the shame they bear daily just to make ends meet. Add to that a mother who can barely make her own way in life, it takes the best of women, the Maggi Thatcher kind of this world, to suck it all in and go outside to look for a job and stick to it for more than a month because the 'Police-wife' tag is her headliner everywhere she goes.

And so we hurried along, me at the forefront, at full speed because i am scared of looking at Darlington, he knows as much as i do what has happened, maybe not the whole implication but at least he knows his father will never come back home again because at just 9 we have seen too many deaths for our age, too many fathers went to work and never returned, too many men lost in a war that is fought in a seemingly peaceful society. The ritual of bath seems to be over in just 5 minutes, kids who have no interest in going to school on a Thursday that has started with the announcement of the death of a man we all know well,for those of us who have been here longer say like 6 years, me, Shehu, Daniel and Emeka (Because our dads have been lucky to still be alive or because they refused to resign or get reposted), it is quickly becoming a norm that we never get our 5-aside football team complete for more than a year, we never play the other blocks with a full squad and we were hoping this could be our year, and now this when Darlington was becoming the fulcrum of our team, even if his dad's death fails to affect his performance, the fact thay they will be chased out soon will eventually so it lightened my mood and then killed it when Dara,my 5-years old sister came calling "Mummy so pe ko se kia o, won ni pe ka ma lo school mo, pe ka lo si odo daddy Ayo". Part 1 of that message was good news,no school after-all but part two is not good news at all, to me at least, my nightmarish uncle who never seems to find any meaning to why we even live at all, he thinks we are all a joke for putting up with a father that is a Police officer, so you can imagine how much my father hates him and i do too because i never seem to understand how he contributes in any way to society better than what my father does, agreed my father collects bribe, who wouldn't when you get paid 2 cent to keep a $100 home going, i doubt anyone would not. 

As it is,my grouchy day was growing wings and having a mind of its own and i had to do something to get it back on track, at least for some hours before my dad gets back from work,so i feigned illness, i told Dara as we walked back to our flat that i couldn't go anywhere,i told her body temperature was rising and that sleeping would do me well than going anywhere for now (of course my mum was out consoling mama Darlington and so i could get away with this,Dara is just 5) I told her i'll go to the sick bay later (Sick bay, big joke, when all they had there was nothing but a bunch of bed-bug ridden mattresses to lay on, like a movie's depiction of a place filled with war torn soldiers and no medicine other than stink) and of course i'll be fine and she believed it, she hurried along,she and Ayo are age mate and they get along well so i know she would have loved to go, its a shame she loves me more, or else she would have called my mum and i would have been bursted and forced off, grouchy day continue. So i escaped visiting a nightmarish uncle but still could not get over all i have been through in just the first 2 hours of waking up, it seems like its going to be a long day and i haven't even seen the half of it yet. Better that i lay now, go back to sleep and see what happens when i wake up in some hours time, maybe then it will be a dream and i can finally start the day anew or maybe not.

So on one of my grouchy thursdays (Did i mention am sag and they say Thursdays are suppose to be great days for us). It is another life lost, another friendship to end abruptly, even as we never seem to get along well, Darlington will become my past and i will be his, maybe 20 years from now he will not even be able to remember the boy who made a laughing stock out of him for spelling the word 'Phone' with a 'F' (Don't blame him, we speak pidgin 24/7 at home and they still expect us to get an A), but it's all in a day's job for a young boy growing up in the barracks and many have survived it, dem no born me well make i no do the same thing.

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I met this girl who could really see (Unedited)

So i met this girl today that can really see, see further than anybody can, we started chatting and it was interesting because i realized she could even tell me my past,see backward into memories lost,those buried dark secrets, events and happenings we'd rather forget than recall and now she got me writing again,she got me talking again, she got me looking back into that part of me that's almost dead and buried, that part of me that sometimes want to be left undisturbed and never touched, that part of me that will and should make me thick and that's just talking about my past,then there is the issue of my now, today,my present. Just because she is here seems like a fairy tale, my now seems like a present presented to someone living a dream. Have you ever had that feeling, where it seems like you are floating? or the one where it seems like you are not the one living,like you are watching a real life drama of yourself,acting it all out,making things happen? that's exactly what she makes me feel like, like am living in a dream,nothing is ever wrong or rather nothing seems to be wrong even when nothing is right,its magical,i have a feeling if man would ever grow wings and fly,this is what it will feel like, i am flying, really flying. 

And then to the part where i know everyone has a fear for, the fear of tomorrow is what makes a man steal and kill,its the same reason people commit suicide and so am eager to know,i want some of her bliss especially reserved for that time of my future,that uncertain tomorrow,i want it settled now.So we began my quest for tomorrow on her timeline,she-the leader,me-the humble follower oblivious to the fact that what we are seeing really is not my future,it is the future we will have if i follow her but follow her i did at least for the reason that i wanted to know what my future hold and so we started out,woman and man-not yet man and wife or husband and wife as many will call it,slowly we crossed mountains of problems,temptation and despair but because i am in a capsule of bliss,i can't even feel a thing,we raced with wild horses and took a dive in ocean filled with deadly sharks but yet a hair on my head never lost its root, it was the best time of my life, even though am in a limbo, it feels like am Di Caprio living the inception story in full throttle, almost could not tell which is my real life from my unreal one,it was a daze and still is every time i recall the moment,i never want this feeling to end,i want this bliss forever. 

And so we came to a junction,nothing remarkable about it all,it was the plainest i have ever seen in my life, no spectacular feature, nothing at all to make it seem like a dream,it is a junction nonetheless and we must decide, not we, she must decide which way we go.So to keep in line with my role as the follower,i was ready to do the bidding of the leader and let her know i am here for as long as it takes,or it took as the case may be, to me it was a simple decision,as simple as a Yes and a No,if she turns right,i follow in her steps,if she goes left,there i am behind her. So i was all set,ready to go but suddenly the music in her voice ceased,the expression on her face was one of worry, like a mother whose child has just be taken from her, it looked to me like a sane person wearing the appearance insane person, like a mad man putting on tie,looking as corporate as can be,ever seen that? And it was the scariest moment of my life,seeing a win-win situation toppled on its head like that,no man can is built to withstand that. While still searching within myself for the next step of this wonderful journey,she spoke to me for the first time.Yes the first time since we began this journey,it didn't feel strange though,all she has been doing before now was to show me,make me see,make me live, but now she spoke and with the most sonorous voice ever,it was like hearing a harp talk,it's like a grand piano with the voice of lucifer, it was spell casting and of course bounding too so you can imagine how relieved i was,maybe things are not as bad as her expression says,maybe she is just acting,wanting to be sure of my commitment. So a new hope built up within me but it didn't live long because the next words i heard was, 'make your pick',those three words, that number three, words that could have been 'i love you','i want you','i dig you','i claim you',any positive action word that can stand between i and you but that was not to be,what i heard was 'make your pick',plain and simple,like the junction and like the two roads that leads to an end. I was scared, i don't want to on any of the paths alone,i wanted to be with her but it was clear,her words made it clear i had to make a choice, alone.  

At this point, my whole life depended on this junction, the two path that leads out of it, my concerns where plain for her to see, will she go where i go or will she go the other way? This journey that i was enjoying at the beginning was almost developing into a nightmarish tale and deep down in my heart i know i couldn't do anything to change her mind so i did what could be done in the situation, pick one and hope she picks the same,i headed for the left for no reason that i can explain at all,i just got on the trail and started moving,praying deep in my heart for her to follow in my step and restore my bliss,i was waiting for that angelic voice to speak to me again,this time telling me 'i love you' or maybe she is not a talker,anything she says is bound to hurt,so she could just show me,continue to show me and make me fly again but nothing,i waited,i listened for a voice,for a step but i heard nothing, no voice,no footsteps, no new vision and then i realised she choose the right path. 

The right path? why didn't i think of that,why didn't i just go the right path just because that is what it is,the right path as the name implies? but i choose the left path and she left me, not a word, not a step or even a glimpse of my future to spare, i was scared of turning around, i was scared to face the fear of losing her, of really confirming the truth of what i already know,that she is gone so i kept on going, never looking back, sure that my path is set before me, me to the left, she to the right.

So i met a girl that showed me something i would love to have forever,an ability to fly,soar into higher skies, into a new world yet unknown. I met a girl that changed my life with a vision. I met a girl that made me fly. But she choose the right path and i the left. I met a girl today who could really see.

Sporting activities are overrated

From Football, soccer in some culture to basketball, baseball, hockey, golf, tennis and the loads of many more sporting activities that many of us partake in as a means of livelihood, for pleasure, leisure and the many other reasons we have for practising or following a particular sport, i dare say that the hype associated with these sports is too much, all of them are overrated. 

What does any of these sporting activity do for us?, yes us, who for no good reason rush to the stadiums and buy season long tickets of our favourite team, go to their games, get a rush when they win and a high blood pressure when they loss, what does it do for us? What do we gain? Absolutely nothing than a feeling of belonging that can be said to be the same feeling a young boy gets after his first smoke. And what does it do for them, yes them, the machos who could not get into school by the power of their brain but takes the shortest cut to fame, as the world pours it at their feet like a scene from ‘Spartacus’, them who could have just settled for 30 minutes in the gym daily and take up a job working for a construction company and use that energy, the one they so overzealously waste (for good money though) to build low income houses for third world nations, one issue that is underrated.

Much as we all enjoy these activities, either as a sports-person or just as an onlooker, the truth remains that they do not play an important role in the life of the majority of the populace other than that one moment rush that it gives and satisfy the win or loss diatribe that our whole human race seems to be a sucker for.

Without trying to be extra critical about the issue, sporting activities are good, they are a form of release and they add to us in some way (that i cannot explain now) not in the way that reading a good book or having a sound sleep does, they are a simple game of logic, somebody wins, someone else losses and we know this from the get go and it bothers me, that even while we know this, sporting activities are rated highly, much more above some more important human endeavours like farming, teaching and even healthcare while know we might not survive for long without these other activities.

Stop the overrating now! By the way, who do you think will win the Premiership? Legoooo Arsenal!