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#ENDSARS #endPoliceBrutality #endNegativityInNigeria Being a Nigerian citizen has for long been a curse on the individual. Being one only means you were born in a very, very unfortunate place. A country where you could get murdered in cold blood, and safe for your family and some close relatives, no one would bat an eye, except you are a part of a select few. When you get killed, there will only be uproar on social media for a couple of days and then you become one more dead person- just another one. Wherever there is a law, the lawmakers seem very eager to show how ‘powerful’ they are by trampling over everyone on their path to breaking said laws. The Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a unit in the Nigerian Police popularly known by their acronym SARS, has been carrying out special searches in peoples’ bags and have been able to so solve robberies only in laptops and smart phones.  They question individuals based on appearance and the prices of their gadgets. Just harassing

                                                                             Image : Africa Feeds It’s been two weeks since our transformer developed some issues, and charging our electronics during the day was a challenge as we could only turn on the generator in the evening. Ever since my dad opened my eyes to the demons behind gambling, I swore to quit, and I tried, as the years went by, falling and getting back up until I managed to kick out the habit. One day I went out of the house and decided to see what was happening in a betting shop close by, hoping I could get to charge my phone. I had wanted to see if people still got consumed by the power of gambling, or if things have changed over the past few years since I stopped going there. Not surprisingly, though, I saw people queued up, trying to stake their bets so they could earn some fast and easy cash. I had already learned that the money acquired through this means does not last. Hardly does one see its value- actually, most o

               I rear lots of birds in my compound, and they lay with time. I also have a puppy in the same space. My dog is cool, playful, and loyal, but it steals any eggs it lays its eyes on. On several occasions I gave the dog severe beatings, only stopping when I felt it was getting too brutal and begin feeling remorseful. After the beating, it will still return, as said, to the proverbial vomit, in this case- the eggs. I had chained the puppy, beat it with a stick, slippers, and all sorts of weapons. If I had the stomach I would have killed the poor dog myself. Several weeks later another hen laid up to eight eggs, only for the eggs to start vanishing; three days and four eggs had gone missing. I immediately sought out the little brown puppy with it's a big head, I hit it so hard out of anger and resentment, it produced a sound I had never heard before I thought it was going to die. "Good. Since I cannot cut your throat, this will do. You have murdered severa

Not long ago I was traveling back to Jos from my village and I bought dog meat to make the journey more enjoyable. Alongside myself in the vehicle was my dad, sister, and my grandma who is now frail with age. Do you know how they say red meat isn't healthy for the aged and people with some conditions? Well, dog meat is red meat, and my grandma had been cautioned against partaking in this glorious delight. I knew her teeth were too good for her age, for while her age mates have either lost theirs or can only dine on soft food, she didn't have that limitation. So when she first declined, I thought she just didn't like dog meat, but after some real persuasion to either eat or tell me why she wouldn't, she gave in and said it was doctor's orders.  My message to you is from my response to her: with a smile,  I said, "Let me eat all the meat I can while I'm still young." She smiled knowingly. TD Jakes said, "If you do not devour in the morni

It is common knowledge that you are the average of the people you spend your time with, and those people surely are your friends. Choose them wisely as it depends solely on you who you choose to emulate. It's easy for friends to let you go astray-lead you astray as well, than to drag you into the light. Living in a time when fake friendship is the norm, leaving you with no idea who to trust, when you find one who tells you the hard truth, one who has stuck with you while at your lowest, stick with them, they fuse better than brothers. What kind of friends do you keep? What kind of friend are you? In a generation where loyalty is fast losing its value, 'squads' change as soon as you're faced with difficulty, or when they can no longer benefit from the 'friendship'. "If you want a friend, be one." If you don't want your squad to leave, then don't leave; a new broom may sweep quickly, but an old one knows all the corners. Your old frie

All around the world schools are vying for more students, companies setting and maintaining higher standards, sports teams rivaling each other for trophies, countries battling for supremacy, and tons of other examples of competition. Competition is good, healthy even because it brings out the most creative parts in people: we have heard of business wars between Adidas™ and Nike ™, sporting rivalries between Messi and Ronaldo, e.t.c., these are all rivalries that pushed opposing parties to their maximum capacities so they could deliver the best goods. I remember a story I once read of a man who missed a turn trying to outrun the person in front of him. I thought it was a joke until I had a similar experience. Early one morning I went for a run. On my way back there were three boys ahead of me, jogging- mostly to show off than to keep fit.  I covered and got level with them, then I maintained my pace so we could go together but they thought I wanted to overtake them. They kep

6% means six out of one hundred-6/100. You know that already, but you do not know the exams I got 6% in. First year of the university and everyone was serious with their studies, everyone except Dice and Banret: we would spend the whole day playing games and sleeping late. Days became weeks and weeks turned into months; the only thing we would do is to ask for the topics that were treated in class and we would put each other through. If there was a test coming up we would be notified (please get yourself friends that will feed you important information on time- it’s very important). Few weeks to our first exams, while we still hadn’t started reading, the Department of Pharmacy organized a mock exams for their students, and unfortunately for us my cousin, Kyenret was among the organizers. She asked both of us to come and give it a try- “it wouldn’t hurt to try; besides, the real exams might be a repetition.” She managed to convince us to sit for the mock exams. Banret had no ide

DANGER IS IN THE EYES OF THE 'BEDANGERED' I climbed a tree, finished the ripe fruits i could lay my hands on and started to climb down. I know it had rained the previous day, but the fact that the tree would be slippery eluded me. To further complicate things for myself, I went up the tree with flip flops (slippers). On my way down, the proverb, “it’s not going up that matters, but coming back down” kept ringing in my ears, but it didn’t make me feel any better, if anything it made me feel worst. So I devised my own saying. One that would console me a bit…”Danger lies in the eyes of the bedangered .” At the time I didn’t know if bedangered was an actual word, I didn’t even care; this was no time for grammar. My adrenaline and stress levels were rising exponentially by the second. I even thought of throwing my flip flops down, “But what if I had to make a jump?” I asked myself. I kept the flops on. “Danger lies in the eyes of the bedangered,” I said out loud this time, trying

Several ideas get rejected because they are not well formed, or their roots are not strong enough for the buyer(s) of the ideas. While pitching for a grant I noticed that the investors were more receptive to pitches for businesses that have already taken off the ground and are at least partially stable; no one wants to stake their money on the losing horse. The truth is that life is harsh, that reality is biting and you need to help yourself because no one else would. You have to show that you are ready to accept help when it comes and not continue to be pampered all your life like a child who refuses to grow. Before you get noticed you must leave your hole and poke your head up; you have to level up and be prepared to seize any opportunity that comes your way. Imagine a writer with no manuscripts; or a musician with no songs; a farmer with no piece of land to cultivate; or a footballer with no boots. You are not prepared but want to get noticed… think again. Nobody knows what

                                                           picture: https://www. healthdesigns.net A lot of the time we tend to focus on what we cannot do with little or no regard to the things we can actually do, but who by worrying will add a day to their lives? No one can, but we can make the remaining days nice, pleasant, and enjoyable- fun even. It’s ok to learn from the mistakes of the past, but what’s not OK is letting those mistakes hold you back from future achievements. Challenge yourself today to change what you have control of and let go of things that are out of your control. Know what is in your control- kill it, know what is not- leave it. You may have done some terrible things in the past and think that you are damaged beyond redemption so you just let fate carry you along like undirected winds. I have my shortcomings and you have yours, it’s what makes us human. So pick yourself up from the ground and clean yourself from the mud of the past. Do not let past mis

Risk and reward Risk it all and one day you’ll drive a ford, That’s when people will call you Lord; But success comes at a price- a very steep price, It takes hard work, patience, dedication and sacrifice; To get there you may tell a lot of lies, You will hate and be hated, despise and be despised; You will be abandoned and you will suffer, But one day you will smile as you clean your zufa; Ridin’ in a black limo driven by your chauffer;   You have to sacrifice your time, Even put your life on the line; You will fail, but you gotta get up and try, Failure makes you feel dejected and you wanna cry, But you gotta sit up and push ‘em down Cos one day it’ll all turn to success; When everything you want you now possess, And your fears turn to pigs in the seas – possessed; Work hard Pay now, play later Burn now, shine later Grind now, wine later

Are you happy? This is a question everyone finds some level of difficulty in answering or at least some hesitation. Do you recall the last time or just anytime you felt really good about yourself? You should. I am going to give you something to try: if it works for you, keep doing it, and if it doesn’t then find something else to try. You must have done something the last time you felt good about yourself; a good deed, solved a problem, or even made someone else feel good about themselves- whatever it was that you did, it was an action that you took, and happiness was the reward. How about now? Why did you not keep up with what you did to keep your spirits even higher? You did something and felt happy and satisfied, but you stopped, you did not repeat the action. So today I would love you to recall an event or a scenario that made you proud of yourself. Try to repeat the actions you took, or the words you said, or something else you can immediately do to simulate the scenario

We are at a time when ‘busyness’ is valued over productivity; people who work all day are thought of as highly productive, but that is not necessarily true. You must have heard of the phrase, “quality over quantity,” or some other variation of it. It is good to work hard but let your achievements complement your efforts. One can live up to a hundred years without really accomplishing much, while another would barely live past thirty and would have made a tremendous impact in the short time they have spent. Look at the life of Jesus as illustrated in the Bible: We know of his birth, then a brief cameo when he was around twelve years of age…and then he disappeared. What he was doing is not known to me, but I’ll take a wild guess and say he was working on making his future brighter- transforming himself to give quality content, or in our days’ terms, he was ‘grinding.’ Jesus’ ministry lasted three years, but the impact those few years had, and are still having can never be exh

  You must have read or at least heard the story of Greedy Gehazi; he was the servant of the prophet Elisha who was obliged to healing a certain general, Na’aman. There are two lessons I would like us to take from this story.   First, consider how Na’aman had to travel such a long way to meet Elisha. Were there no other healers in his home town or on the way? But Elisha had a special set of skills and an impeccable reputation and ‘clients’ had to be referred to him. We all want to build businesses and get rich as fast as possible, so fast that we overlook the quality of our services. Know what you want to do and do it well- be the best in your field and referrals will overwhelm you. Secondly, greed will kill you, period. The hierarchy at that time would be Elisha– Gehazi -Na’aman: one because Na’aman was not in a territory to use his rank, he needed the services of the prophet, and although Gehazi was a servant, the servant of a prophet was always held in high regard. But a

 WHAT REALLY MATTERS? It is written in the Bible that “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” (1Tim 6:6) This verse has been hammered into my brain since I was a child, but then it was just another memory verse, just like the others I learned in Sunday school. But growing up, I have come to see the several applications of this verse and how it has helped me lived a happy and fulfilled life. In our society today, we are blinded by clout and desperately chasing and falling for what we do not have. Scammers on -or-offline would not have a fan base if it were not for our greed. One will see an ad promising free cash, phones, or other gift items and all sense of reasoning will disappear through thin air, all for what? I’ll tell you the answer… we are trying to get what we do not have. How about fathers and mothers; uncles and aunts; and even children who leave their families to search for the so-called “greener pasture?” I have no doubt we all want to climb up whatever ladder we t

                                                                           BE THE VOICE I was watching a video yesterday on how the power of one could change many. Although I dare not use the same example as I’d seen in the video, mainly because I do not have the same experience, therefore, it would be really hard to portray the message using their situation, I will illuminate it using a different perspective. Sometimes all you need is a little voice to give you the final push that will help you overcome that difficult task. You do have that voice in your head but it doesn’t work because you have shut it down by giving up, therefore you need another voice- someone else’s voice to speak to you. Whatever challenges you face, don’t face them alone; find a true and willing friend to share them with. They just might be the voice you need. Now these tough guys in the referenced video was undergoing some training and tests under very harsh conditions and they were at the point of giving