CONVOCATION DAY

We all wore our colourful convocation gowns, headed to the hall for convocation lecture and all the stuff they supposedly do on such occasions. After all the formalities we step out of the hall in style and a sense of fulfillment as the freshest graduates in town [4 years no be beans jor] to the admiration of family and friends who can’t wait to share in the joy. ‘Congrats oh, we thank God, it is finally over, the four years paid off [that one na private school parole oh]. Just then, cameras start to flash as grandaunts pose for pictures with family, friends and well-wishers [some people bring their kinsmen and masquerades even]

In a country like Nigeria, you really should be crying on your convocation day. Yes! NYSC is just a way of sugar coating your recent unemployed status, [I dey tell you]. I was one of the lucky ones that served in a private firm in Lagos and was paid well [25k oh LOL]. I respect those who served in villages, even towns of less developed states in the country, where they get paid two thousand naira a month. Still can’t believe people are expected to live on 2k for 30days [sad]. The so called ‘accommodation’ they provide is nothing to write home about. Well, food might be cheap but then, na suffer be that oh [Now Your Suffering Continues]

Anyway that’s by the way… let me share some secrets no one told me when I was still in school. If I knew all these things I’m about to share with you back then, I’m quite certain I would be better off than where I am today. No point crying over spilt milk so I refuse to be bothered. [Smiles]

1.                 I.T/ SIWES: is very important. It may not be a part of your curriculum quite alright (like it was not part of mine) as long as the school will give you the letter when you ask, do it! That is how you begin to gather work experience.

2.                 DO VOLUNTEER JOBS: do not expect to get paid for this. Some companies/ organizations might pay but it will be chicken change. That is not why we are here though. The koko be say, you dey work dey establish connections/relations with potential employers. That’s what the White man calls ‘Networking’. This also applies to I.T/SIWES. If you do your work well, don’t you think they will call you to come and work with them later or do you think they’ll trash your CV when you drop it with them after graduation? Of course they will consider you since you have not just work experience but with them.

3.                 LEARN A TRADE: do not look at it like ‘ahn ahn! How will I be an apprentice when I’m an undergraduate, I’m educated gbo gbo eh…’ You go tire oh! By the time you graduate and start walking up and down the streets submitting CV’s and your shoes starts to get thirsty and hungry, you go sabi say to go school no mean say work full ground just like that. At least the first few months after graduation, if work no click omo you start a business which brings us to the next point.

4.                 START A BUSINESS: “…do not despise the days of little beginning…” it might be to sell water, airtime, provision, etc. in the hostel. Just do something. Learn to be an entrepreneur. Put your skills to use. Ehen if you know how to make hair sef, it’s good. We girls love to look good. Make us look good, and make plenty money. Abi no be so?

I don tire jare. I am saying this out of experience. I am done with school and no work. Na now I start to dey learn trade. Well, nothing spoil. I can’t begin to dwell in the ‘had I known’ era. I go just tey for ground.

Do not misunderstand me oh. There are jobs in Nigeria but na who you sabi movement we dey so. And who you sabi must sabi another person. So all this merry go round waka dey tire person. I actually do believe that if you at least do 2 or 3 of the points I mentioned, you will be better off than your peers.

May God help us all. AMEN!  

                                                                     Chinenye Nwuba 

                                                                     @Blacqie_                                                                                                         

                                       

WOMAN

         

You are a woman not a bitch

A lady of virtue, substance and many abilities

A girl with diverse talents and aspirations to be a world changer

You are a woman not a bitch

A man’s treasure

A boy’s heroine

You are a woman not a bitch

Specially carved out and beautifully sculpted from man’s ribs

To be his helper when he is in need

His strength when he is weak

His companion when he feels lonely

His pillar for support when he’s about to fall

The sound of sweet music to his ears when he wants to dance

The map to a beautiful destination when he feels lost

A light to make his world brighter and clearer when it gets all dark and blurry

A warm hand of embrace to receive him when the world turns its backs on him

A pain reliever when he gets beat down and knocked out

You are a woman not a bitch

The world’s greatest and strongest soldier

Conquering the daily wars of physical assault, heartbreaks and other negative vices and still coming up strong with a heart big and strong enough to go through a thousand more all in the name of love

You are a woman not a bitch

Created in a unique height, shape, color and size; according to nature’s own specifications

So when you are referred to as UGLY by one man, to the right man, you are BEAUTIFUL

TALL, SHORT, FAT or THIN by one man, to another you are PERFECT

CHEAP by one man, have it at the back of your mind that you the APPLE of another man’s eyes

So why lower your standard to fit into the world of the wrong man when you are created to stand out and make a difference in the world of the right man

You are a woman not a bitch

With the heart of a lion and the mind of a sheep

A fountain of unlimited possibilities

The mother of a great nation

I salute you…

                                          Joseph Abati

                                                                                   @oluwajoezy

                                                                                       

EBOPHOBIA 2.0: FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN

A Wake Up Call:

Somehow we all woke up to text messages, BC’s and even calls from our “loved ones” this morning. My morning was not an exception. I woke up at 5am to iron my clothes in preparation for the day’s work. I could hear utensils jiggle in the kitchen from where a pleasant aroma was oozing out. My mom was sure up so early trying to prep something for the family as she does before going to work.

Moments later I heard my dad answering a call and I was puzzled as to who could be calling him that early. For someone to call you that early it must be something really serious. Calls like that are usually received with great anxiety as to what has happened this time. When I didn’t hear my dad ask questions like “O’ragiaraga?” which means “Was he/she sick?” I knew it wasn’t much of a bad news then. So I thought it was probably my younger brother who’s away from the house. A few minutes later my dad called my mum that her phone was ringing… Didn’t hear the convo oh! But all I know is that my mom dashed into my room and hurriedly says “We were asked to bath with salt and hot water before 6am.” Immediately she ran and hurriedly did as she was told to beat the time as it was just a few minutes to 6. Her phone did not stop ringing as almost everyone related to her was so eager to share this ‘Life saver’ with her. My elder sister also called but when it rang and my mum did not answer because she was still busy in the kitchen, she decided to call me and asked me to tell my mum to call her. She could not tell me the ‘Salt bath’ story because she knows so well that I don’t subscribe to such BS. As usual, my dad was indifferent at the same time disappointed with my mum for always giving a listening ear to such stories and fallacies.

The whole neighbourhood was up early this morning. People were sending and receiving messages, others were talking on the phone, neighbours knocking on each other’s door to make sure they’ve gotten the message. There was pandemonium everywhere as I could hear children crying as their mom’s woke them up earlier than usual to have a strange and mysterious ‘Salt Bath’.

At the end of all these, Dangote and The mobile network providers would smile to the bank as a result of the millions they’ll make from all the salt and airtime that would be used in promoting the ‘Salt Bath Therapy’ BOOM!!!

The Place of Ignorance:

Seriously the event of this morning goes a long way to reveal just how blinkered and gullible most Nigerians really are. It’s even recorded in the Bible in Hosea 4: 6 that “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” This ignorance happens to be our greatest problem as a nation and that alone has really limited us and made us accept mediocrity and take everything that is presented to us as the easy way out. First we heard of bitter kola and now it’s salt bath. What would be the next possible cure/preventive measure? Where are our foremost pharmacists and researchers? They are probably in the markets buying up some salt for their families to bath with also. Will they continue to produce more panadol and paracetamol which our clinics prescribe to us for every ailment?

Truth is the western pharmaceutical companies are not ready to produce drugs or vaccines to help cure and prevent Ebola yet because the disease is domiciled in Africa and therefore they don’t see a viable market for them. At the end of the day it’s more about making profit than actually saving lives. We need to realize that we can’t continue to depend on the Americans and Europeans to help us solve our problems.

Even our fresh graduates are not enlightened enough to be able to analyse information they get despite all the access they have to internet and the web as portrayed in the image above. They were busy panic buying salt from a woman who did not get up to the level of education they have or should I say are ‘supposed’ to have. This is a big problem oh! “Leaders of tomorrow” indeed.*SMH*

Smartphones With Dumb Users:

Most Nigerians today use smartphones with data running on them 24hours. But what do we use our smartphones for? Playing Games like Temple Run and Candy Crush and sharing high scores with friends? Chatting and Pinging on Whatsapp and BBM? Taking pictures and sharing them with friends on Flicker, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter? Really is that why we call it a smartphone? How often do we use Google or Wikipedia to look up more info on things we don’t know about and just heard of? When I first discovered Wikipedia in my junior school, I made it a habit of always asking my mum to help me print out info on any subject I needed clarity and deeper knowledge of. I still have copies of what she printed out for me on Architecture, Climate Change, Sustainable buildings, just to mention a few. Then when I got a phone that could browse, I became ‘Mr Know it all’ to all my friends, challenging and educating them on several issues and subjects. At a point in senior school I was called ‘Yahoo’ by students and even a few teachers. But that’s BTW.

Usually I look up ailments to find out their causes, symptoms, cure and prevention to adjust my lifestyle, but later on I thought to myself that ‘why am I really doing this? Is it fear or what? Don’t I know what is written about ailments in the bible anymore or have I lost faith in God and his word?’ After answering all those questions, I stopped looking up ailments. But as soon as the Ebola thing became an anthem on every lips and every discourse on TV, I decided to look it up and I am glad I really did, because it took away every fear that I would have had if I stayed ignorant. I actually didn’t wait for the fear to set in before I took a step to enlighten myself, which is where most of us fail.

The last time we experienced this type of disease, was the Avian Influenza known to many as Bird Flu. But before then, I remember that while I was in primary school there was something called SARS. I was so scared then because I thought the whole world would die since it was airborne but somehow that passed and so will Ebola.

If you’re reading this it means you have access to the internet, so let’s all do ourselves a favour and look up Ebola on Google and Wikipedia to find out first-hand information from reliable sources on its causes, symptoms, treatment and most of all prevention as there is no known cure for now. God will show us mercy and keep us all by helping us to find a solution to wipe out this epidemic that is threatening our existence IJN.

To know more on Ebola, you can start by opening the CNN link below http://t.co/sRzSBjzBTV

EBOPHOBIA: THE EBOLA FRIGHT

I've heard some people say ‘the fear of Ebola is the beginning of wisdom’. As ridiculous as it sounds I think it has sunk deep into the hearts of so many Nigerians. Just yesterday in church, a young lady who sat beside me refused to shake hands with an old woman who was sitting in front of us. Some minutes later the young lady was going to shake another young lady and the old woman intercepted the other lady’s hand and asked her not to shake hands with the lady who had refused to shake hands with her earlier. It wasn't funny because I could see and feel the stigma all over the poor old woman all through the remaining part of the service.

I found it very difficult to comprehend and accept the ladies action as I had already shaken both the lady and the old woman. I always sit in that part of church and I've always seen both women. Although the old woman acts kinda weird but she has always been like that and I'm quite sure the young lady knows that. At the end of the day it’s none of my business so I’ll just let it go….

Since news of the Liberian, Mr Sawyer, who died in a Lagos hospital after he was found to have flown in from Liberia with the dreaded Ebola virus broke, there have been calls from several health organisations on the need for citizens to be more conscious and sensitive about their health and hygiene. It has caused a lot of panic as people have been gripped with so much fear that they dread almost any person they come across while they go about their daily businesses.

Personally am not scared of the Virus because it’s not airborne and as such with proper precaution and hygiene, we can keep it off our streets. But I also acknowledge the fact that we can’t be too careful and as such we need divine intervention and protection from God.

The biggest problem is that the world is smaller than it was in the 70’s when the virus was first discovered in northern Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) and in southern Sudan (now South Sudan). Now people travel across the world daily, which is exactly how the virus got into Nigeria in the first place. Just this morning I read that someone that flew in from West Africa has tested positive to the Ebola virus in New York. Nations have begun to shut down their borders completely and strict measures have been taken to quarantine travellers flying in from countries where cases of the Ebola outbreak have been recorded recently.

I also read this morning that a secret serum which was administered to the two American doctors that were infected while treating patients in Liberia helped to save their lives. People have begun to ask questions as to why the drug was given to the two doctors only while several hundred are dying in West Africa. WHO has said that the drug is an experimental drug, as it has never been tested on humans before and therefore can’t be used in an outbreak. It was given to the doctors with their consent and if it’s proven to be effective, it will be made available to the larger populace. This kinda reminds me of the Hollywood movie “World War Z” tho.

Before then, let’s just practice the precautions and always wash our hands, keep our environment sanitised and stay clear bush meats and bats as we've been told. But then again, who in the world eat bats when we have chicken, turkey and several other birds? It is well oh. May God help us find a solution by way of a vaccine soon IJN… Stay safe and live healthy.