The Future of Nigeria

Words are welling up inside me, albeit in a most unusual way. My thoughts are reeling in in my native Yoruba language.... 

I have actually attempted putting down this post in Yoruba but had to stop because my typing was not aligning with the speed of the thoughts so I was losing a lot of the words flowing forth from me.

I will liken the story of Nigeria to that of the prodigal son in the Bible. When he had it all, he thought not of tomorrow and he could have said to himself, ‘let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die’. But alas, after squandering all his inheritance that he got from his father, he did not die. He was wide alive to suffer the consequences of his action. What did we see happen to the prodigal son? He ended up living with animals and had to struggle for food with them.

It is no news that Nigeria is richly blessed in natural resources that can amount to so much money and notably among these natural resources is the crude oil which many have called ‘the curse of Nigeria’. Since the first oil was drilled in Oloibiri in 1956, Nigeria has been benefiting to the tune of billions of dollars from sale of crude oil. Our eyes saw unexpected wealth and our excess crude account was always a bounty to all concerned parties. 

However, in our days of surplus what did we do or rather what was done unto us. We know that a person that does not save in the days of abundance will undoubtedly suffer in the days of famine. In these budding days of global financial crisis, I wonder what is going on in the minds of those that have squandered the non-stop wealth that kept pouring in from the sale of crude oil particularly as its selling price kept climbing the charts.

In the days of our boom we refused, rather our leaders refused to establish schools, hospitals, roads, power supply etc. Instead, we were on maintenance mode living off on projects that had been implemented in the days when Nigerian leadership had not been hijacked by greedy and utterly selfish men and women. Intellectual reasoning was useful when it was needed for plotting the next move to defraud the nation and was never summoned for the use of improving the lives of common Nigerians.

I remember a book I read about Nigeria written by Karl Maier. He titled it ‘This House has Fallen’. Well, what do we expect from a house that is built on a shaky foundation of falsehood; it will certainly come crashing down. Falsehood will not last forever, the truth will surely surface. And to the ignoble leaders and people that have participated in depriving millions of Nigerians benefits of civilization, I say, one day the wind will blow and we will see the fowl’s anus.
I am writing this at a time when the naira is currently crashing fast, trust is dipping at our stock exchange, the price of almighty crude oil is at an all low and every time the picture of the president is shown on TV, I’m waiting for the presenter to start with ‘A sick president Yar’Adua... (I’m not blind!).

What’s going to happen to Nigeria if the economic crisis reaches its heights?

“Eni awi fun Oba je o gbo
Eni a soro fun Oba je o gba”

IYABABY: My Blog on Motherhood

Ok, I finally did it. I have started the blog on Motherhood as promised. Please check it out on www.iyababy.blogspot.com

Gradually Coming Back

Hmm....It's a great while and i seem not to know how to even make my way to blogospere.

I have been away because of this young man...

The experience has been out of this world. Didn't know Ididn't have the slightest idea about how babies came to this world and now I know I shouldn't have trusted all those biology textbooks. What they contain is not even up to a tip of the iceberg.

As a result of my experience I would say I have grown and matured more than any other time in my entire life. For example - 

• I didn't use to like to carry children..but now i have no choice but to carry one.
• I couldn't stand a baby cry before..but now i have find a solution to one.
• I used to be selective about the kind of children I  allowed to come near me..but now i appreciate every kid I see either dirty or very smelling.
• I never had sympathy for moms before but now...I give all the respect in the world to mothers.
• Most beautiful of all, I am now a kinder person.

Ok...now that i am a kinder person, I plan to start a new blog on my experience as a mother because i realize that first time mothers know so little. A reason I have attributed to the fact that mothers rarely share experiences with single women. I also hope the blog will serve as a platform for mothers particularly young and working moms to share their hearts.

I am still working on the name for the blog and will be glad if you can drop suggestions....

Thank you.

How Did The 46 Returning Army Officers Lose Their Lives?

Were you about to tell me through an autocrash as a result of their vehicle colliding with an oil tanker? Yeah I know that. But what caused the collision? That is the puzzle

• Bad road?
• Bad weather?
• Bad vehicle?
• Bad driving?

We may want to let sleeping dogs lie particularly because of the affected family. But....shouldn’t there be a thorough investigation into why the accident happened? At least for tomorrow’s sake, so that we never record same incident.

Well on a second note, remembering what we could be like in this country, we never really care about lives. Or do we? Considering all the mishaps that have taken place on our NIGERIAN ROADS and no long term remedy has been put in place till date to avert them. As I also remember the infamous Ibadan-Ife road accident that happened sometime in 2000 caused by a tanker transporting fuel. The accident claimed lives of people commuting in more than 20 vehicles on both sides of the road........I remember this sadly because I can still vividly remember seeing the flame of burning bodies and metal rising from my room in the Post Graduate hall of O.A.U.

How many more people would we like to see dead before we find a lasting solution to the death traps we call roads?

Ps: I just had to come out of my hibernation and say something about this. For xxx’s sake, I’m about to have and raise a baby in Nigeria!

My 9 Month Project

Hi Guys,

I know I've been gone for a very long time.

Well, i guess my diasappearance can be forgiven as it is due to a 9-month project that i have embarked on (good luck to those who don't understand). I may not be able to update as often as I should. However, i would love to read from you via your comments and believe you would also drop your words of prayer for me.

Cheers......

Seven Weird Things about me

Un:
When i was young, I actually thought all children around the world were rotated to be housemaids and i would sit quietly to watch the house maids whilst they work mentally preparing myself for when i would be taken away :).

Deux:
As you would know by now..i get lost in space very often.

Trois:
My mum feared i would never get married.

Quarte:
I am not particular about food, clothes, shoes, colours, furniture, jewelry. I'm a basic person with only basic needs. I don't go like i want a red-laced, tee-toed, wedge heels shoes..

Cinq:
When it concern roads, i think in one direction, so if i drive somewhere, more often than not i will get missing going back.

Six:
I never ever ever experiment with hairstyles so no matter how much convincing hairdressers or other salon customers try to be, i never yield.

Sept:
I will never be caught dead taking Ogi (pap) or custard!!!!

As was done to me, I do unto others. I hereby tag Ayo Oladejo, Titi Akinsanmi, Toyin Lamikanra, Fiyin,
Folu, Afromusing, and Wordsbody

Here are the rules:
1) Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog
2) Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself
3) Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs
4) Let each person know that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

YOU CAN DO IT!

December 2000

I was a university student and had a total sum of N300 to my name. I had to travel back home for the Xmas break and I also wanted to buy greeting cards to give to relatives and family friends.

I had budgeted my transport fare to be N200 and had decided within me that I had only N100 left for greeting cards. On the day before I was supposed to travel, I went to one of the stores around campus to purchase my cards. I looked around at the cards and realized the average price was N70 per card. I scanned more for affordable cards until my eyes ran across a pack of cards that had N150 written on it. I asked if the price was for each card in the pack and to my surprise, I was told that was the price for a whole pack. The pack contained 10 cards with different designs.

As I write this, I vividly remember standing infront of the shop owner, weighing all my possible options.

• I asked the woman if I could buy half of the pack for N75, but she said she couldn’t, I had to buy the whole pack or pick other cards.
• If I buy one pack of cards for N150, then I will not have enough money to travel home (In those day, asking for favours was not in my dictionary, didn’t even know they existed. I always took care of myself by myself).
• I thought of purchasing just one Xmas card for N70 and then struggle in my mind to decide who deserved the card

After much thought, I bought the N150 pack of cards, went to my hostel and knocked on doors from one room to the other selling the greeting cards @ N30 each. It took me barely one hour to finish selling the cards and I made 100% profit. I stayed back in school that day, went back to the shop to buy another pack to sell the next day. Again, I sold all the cards using the methodology of the previous day, going from room to room knocking on doors.

So, around 12noon, I went back to the shop bought one last pack for my relatives and friends, went back to my room to carry my luggage and headed for the park with my transport fare and extra change of N100. (That meant a lot to a student like me in those days when a plate of fried rice and chicken sold for N120 at the New Buka of Great Ife campus).


December 2007
I had just resigned from my J-O-B on November 30 due to a nudging in my spirit and several other reasons. I did not have a job offer from any quarters and I had two options. I could sit in my house and wait for the next job or I could bring the next job to myself.

I chose the second option. Using skills I had developed from my days of working at V.I.P Consulting under the tutelage of a renowned great man, Fela Durotoye, I designed and produced a marketing communication material on organizing end of the year parties for organisations.

On Monday, December 4, 2007, I got in the car, went to the salon to get my hair fixed and from there went from office to office to offer End of the Year Party services. As I went from one office to the other, the number of ‘no, we’re not interested’ increased. At about 3p.m I was somewhat dejected and was on my way home when I received a call from one of the places where I was told ‘we have concluded plans for our party, we’re sorry…..’.

I was asked when I could come to their office to discuss our services and I replied right now. So I turned back and went to their office. After several, meetings and discussions on different days and telephone conversations, we received letters commissioning us to provide catering, decoration and other event related services.

On December 14, 2007, the event management company which I presently manage, Blossom Creations provided services for our first official client, one of the top 3 HIV/AIDS NGOs in the country.

The event was successful and looking back, I remembered the story of December 2000. And I reminded myself if you could do the little things, trust yourself to be able to do the similar bigger ones. Just like David when he faced Goliath, he reminded himself of his victory with the bear and he won victoriously over Goliath too.

I just wanted to share this to encourage anyone that has been feeling or acting short of who you can be……remember you past victories and trust yourself….

YOU CAN DO IT!