Enough is enough!

There has been nothing but madness going on around the world!

I woke up yesterday to twitter buzzing with news of a young woman who went to church to study in Benin, Edo state of Nigeria. Uwa, a 22-year-old woman, was raped, her head smashed with a fire extinguisher and she was left in a pool of her blood to die…IN CHURCH! #JusticeforUwa

As I scrolled on to see more details, I read about Jennifer, an 18-year-old girl, who was gang raped by 5 men in Kaduna state. I got outraged when I googled to see if anything had been done, only to see that the family was willing to accept a settlement. That would never repair the damage that was done to her and I am glad that people are demanding that justice be served to the boys. #JusticeforJennifer

There was one more hashtag…#JusticeforTina. From what I read, Tina was 'accidentally' shot by a trigger-happy policeman who was trying to enforce the curfew in Lagos. He seemed to have been asking for a bribe to let the bus go but the driver refused and was shot, an altercation ensued, and he shot randomly into the crowd. The bullet hit Tina, a 16-year-old girl. Why do policemen need to shoot at all to pass their point? And this is not a one off incident!

Road to recovery

I found this church in the middle of a village, in the bush. A number of churches are run by Polish priests and nuns. I was talking to a priest who told me about some of his projects; one was construction of bridges to connect communities that had been cut off. He also talked of some mediation he was involved in for peace in communities. This conversation left me deep in thought afterwards.

The Struggles of a Woman with Kinky hair


I've noticed that there is a natural hair movement, or so it seems...

I've always had hair so thick and tough that when I was growing up, I did not look forward to my hair being washed, or loosened or combed. In case you don't get that, I'll explain...a person of African descent has hair that is curly, kinky, curly, coily...so many words could go into describing our hair, might not have the pleasure of running hands through. When water touches our hair, it shrinks and becomes the toughest it can be.

I remember back in secondary school, school mates would refuse to plait my hair because of how thick, full and tough my hair is. So at the end, their fingers would hurt (well, that's what they said!). Bless my school mother, Anne, she would always come to the rescue.

As difficult as my hair was to manage, it was made worse because I could not keep plaited hair for more than a week as it would make me look untidy, well except it was plaited so tightly that it would give me little boils at the edges from how tight it was. I had to make that sacrifice sometimes sadly.

Nothing in particular...maybe politics

So recently I have not had the motivation to write. 

Except you live in a cave, you would know that Nigeria has had major challenges, for long enough, but the situation is getting worse.

Looking at reports from different agencies, here is a link to one of many reports about the situation of some people who have lost everything. 

The government seems more concerned about the upcoming elections in February and tends to 'treat the war with indifference'. See this article from the Economist. 

My new favourite thing

Something that’s fast becoming a favourite for me is watching people. 

I’ve been doing this for some time, but I am realising more, how much I enjoy it.

At airports, social gatherings, it’s amazing the stories the mind could form from just observing.

Airports make a great scene – raw impatience, politeness, lateness, cluelessness, all forms of emotions are usually displayed. Have you witnessed any extreme reactions from someone at an airport? Intense!

Up and About Nigeria - rejoinder

From my last post, I got a very detailed reply via e-mail from a friend. Waking up to that was such an amazing thing, that I decided to write a follow up post with his comments. 

I say a very big thank you to all of you who follow my blog and come here to read whatever it is I have to write. Please keep the comments coming, they make it all worthwhile :-)

That was a very great piece by Ene and I thought I should lend my thoughts to some points she raised. Yes, Nigeria just reached her centenary year as an entity and quite frankly, many aspects of her nationhood leaves a lot to be desired. However, there are many contributing factors to this and I feel obliged to respond to two main issues: History and the state of historical artefacts. I would not mention much about the economic aspect as that can be an article on its own. What I may want to clear up is that Nigeria was not referred to as a ‘giant of Africa’ because we had actually attained that status. It was in recognition of its enormous POTENTIAL in terms of population and material resources that gave us the moniker. We were just ‘work-in-progress’.

Up and About Nigeria

Have you ever travelled around Nigeria with the motive of appreciating the diversity in the different cultures, ethnicities and complexities that make up the country? These are things worth celebrating.

Nigeria has so much that is yet to be tapped, Nigeria has so much potential, Jim O'Neil's MINT theory states that the concerned countries economies have the potential to grow rapidly in the next three decades. This has been said about Nigeria over and over though. Nigeria has been called the giant of Africa, it is the most populous black nation. But does a country not need to appreciate what it has and its past to move forward?

Nigeria celebrated the centenary of its amalgamation this year, but I have to say that there was no real impact on Nigeria despite the series of events that were held for certain people in Abuja. I would have thought that this would be a time to dwell on the things that haven't worked, and what makes Nigeria the country it is, then come up with ideas to make the nation stronger.

A sudden change! ! !

How has your life changed since the 1st of January someone asked . . . In response, life for everyone has changed in so many ways; we had a gift given to us by our president that day which wasn't well accepted by most of the citizens of our dear country.

Plans suddenly changed, people were unable to return to their previous destinations from their holiday points...The subsidy on fuel, the only thing Nigerian citizens enjoyed as an oil producing nation had been taken away with no warning. Rage is what most people feel towards the government at this point.
How does inflicting more hardship on citizens bring development when there are no services rendered at all? A country so blessed yet poverty thrives among her citizenry.

Rally points agreed on, unions coming together, youth activist movements ready to do their part to demand that the government do what is right by her people. Posts, comments flying all around, with one voice the movements started. There is so much to be said to the government, placards with all sorts of messages conveying our distrust and feelings towards the government are held up high. The national strike has begun!