If you are visitor in Nigeria, one popular means to get to your destination within cities is by the motto cycle popularly known as Okada. This means of transportation is as old as someone who is up to 30 years old in this country. I can vividly remember that when I was a child, (about 13 years ago), I used to make use of an Okada together with our house help each time he wants to take me to school or bringing me back. Now, I’m more than 20 but less than 25 and Okada is only becoming more popular here in Nigeria. Well, my dad once told me that Okada is far older than me!! The only difference between then and now is that people did not see Okada as a profession. These days, Okada is seen as a profession especially among youths some of whom are graduates of our high Institutions. The question now is why do people prefer to use Okada as a means of intra-city transportation?
One major reason for sure is that it is a very cheap means of transportation. Considering the state of our cities, Okada unarguably is the choice of many because it saves time. The time it will cost many of us to reach our destinations as a result of hold ups in our various cities has made Okada the people’s choice.
The truth of the matter is that Okada has turn out to be a menace to the republic of Nigeria! How true is this?
Okada has disfigured so many people in this country. It is one of the easiest ways to be involved in an accident. The bad thing about this is that it hardly takes one’s life but disfigures someone easily. It has crippled so many people and has taking few lives. This is as a result of two reasons; the state of our roads which are a means to an early grave and the Okada drivers themselves. Many Okada riders don’t have respect for their own life; tell me, how they can have value for someone else’s life when they don’t have value for their own lives. Some of these drivers drive at a very high speed!!! They run on the road as if someone is chasing them!!!!! The excessive speed by most of these Okada riders has increased Okada accident in the country. I once heard of a true life story of one young Okada driver who disfigured his own bone and that of his unfortunate passenger! According to the account of this story that happened in Ibadan, the young driver was so excited that the English premier club side he supports recorded a famous victory against a bitter rival. His excitement made him to drive so speed on the road; singing happily. His lack of concentration while driving led to the accident which resulted in the damage of his spinal cord together with that of the unfortunate passenger.
Well, if you doubt my observation, please, kindly visit one of those local hospitals around your hood and see things with own naked eyes, because I’m very sure that some of you are just like Timothy in the bible. The numbers of Okada accident in our hospitals are just too much. It is just a pity that our great country, did I say great country? I think I’m leaving in the past! Sure, I’m leaving in the past. Gone are the days we were great. Well, it is a pity that our country is one of the world’s highest importers of motto cycles (Okada). We have made countries like China, Japan, Thailand, richer and even richer as long as our government and some so called rich tycoons will continue to compensate our people with the importation of Okada from these countries. Some of them even boost around that they are empowering our youths by giving a graduate Okada and ke-ke-na-pep to use as a means of survival. Hmmmm, what a country!
Please, don’t be angry with me because I have digressed so much. Back to the main issue of the day; how true is the fact that Okada is a menace to our country? Well, I know some of you are not a novice to the issue of global warming. Hope you know that one of the biggest causes of global warming is the smoke from the Okada, vehicles, generator sets etc. if you don’t know about global warming, please, do yourself a very big favour by visiting Google and just type this two words- global warming and click on search key to get better information on global warming before you will sleep and wake up one day to hear that you are the only one remaining on earth, that the rest of the people have gone green or have gone to another planet since the earth is no longer safe. Back to business, Okada is really damaging our ozone layer, in fact, the type of Okada used in Nigeria is really causing big time problem to this earth. Mane!! The type of Okada used in Nigeria is dam old!!! Even in the old stage, we still use them, I pray that one day, NTA will not announce that everybody in Nigeria should leave for another planet that the country is no longer safe for us! Well, I hope you know that you cannot go anywhere because I’m more than sure that you cannot afford it, hahaha. Please and please, I’m on the opinion that Okada be banned completely in this country. I don’t even want to see ke-ke-na-pep in this country any more or what do you think?
It was another long journey for me and I was having mixed feelings-one, I was happy because I will be meeting my few friends and I was sad because I was going make use of that bad road in my country once again. As I expected, I became weak and I lost my eagerness to eat food!
Well, the journey started as planned and as I expected, I experienced almost similar issues as I used to experience; bad road, port holes, view of vehicles that had accidents (there were many of them this time, all because of bad road, God help us in this country of ours), hold up here and there, wicked driver, illiterate passengers, heat from the sun (remember, there is no air conditioner), noise etc before I forget this particular one that happens all the time-our car broke down on the high was. Guest what happened, I know you might have guest right-the tire spoilt again.
The vehicle I used for traveling happened to be one of the most popular and highly rated vehicle transport companies in my country, you can imagine how so good others will look like.lol. My parent paid huge for my travel since the economic harsh condition got worst as a result of the fuel subsidy removal saga that brought my country to state of confusion! With all the high pay, my travel experience was so terrible!!
A journey that was meant to last for just 7 hours took us 13 hours, you can imagine that! My journey back to school was so good that I never prayed to travel again, not in this country!
Hi friends, how are you all? I appreciate the time you spend reading my posts, thanks to you all. I will be writing about the experiences that took place at home when I came back with those clothes I bought for my younger sisters. Today, I want to share with you all my experience on the 25th of Christmas. We in this part of the world call it ‘Christmas day’. I decided to go out on the evening of 25th at least to catch fun. I visited my usual destination; COCACOLA DOME. This place is very beautiful and popular in Ibadan and some people claim that the building in this place is the tallest building in the country but I strongly disagree with the claim but I believe that the building should be among the 3 tallest buildings in the country.
Well, if you have being following the news in my country, you will know that suicide bombing is now a normal thing and that we hear of suicide bomb at least every other week. People were afraid of going out this past Christmas. 2010 christmas celebration was fun because we were not used to bomb blast. I can remember when my friend and I usually wonder why countries like Iraq should be experiencing suicide bombing, it was amazing to us, we never knew that very soon, it will become a similar case in my country. I spent my 2010 christmas at this same venue and we rocked so well so I thought it going to be the same experience in 2011, so, I visited the same place with my friend. Hoping that we would see some female forks to dance with, hahaha…. guest what?
We ended up not dancing with any one! When we got there, the place was so dried and boring; I saw few ladies and many men. Men were dancing with men! Shocking experience, we searched and searched but found no lady who was ready to dance. Most of them were people’s girl friends and we had none, I have no girlfriend, hahaha…. do you know why it was so boring?
Simply because people relaxed in their various houses because of suicide bombers, the place we visited was a potential place for bombing and we all know that our security may not be too ready to face suicide bombers.
What a Christmas celebration, the next day, I put on our television set and tune to CNN and I saw that suicide bombers bombed down some places in the country and their major targets were churches. I was so shocked and scared and I decided never to go out for any celebration this season before suicide bombers bomb me down.
On this day, we were still in the New Year fever, yes off course, we were. On this day, my parent took all of us to church. We are six in the family, my dad married my mum and she gave birth to three girls and me. Is really fun being the only son in the mist of three girls. So, you really want to know what happened on this day.
As I initially said, my parent took all of us to a church for prayers. As for my siblings and I, it was the first time we will be going to the church. Have you ever being to a church where the preacher preaches in a language you don’t understand? It was really an experience. Take for instance, you an English person and you visit Spain and went to a church where the preacher was preaching in Spanish and prayers were ordered by the pastor, you turn around to see people praying with passion, shaking their heads and jamming their hands but you don’t understand what the pastor said that should be prayed about.
This was the case when we visited the church and as Africans, prayers are accorded serious respect. We do have a believe that if we don’t pray hard, we may be consumed by our enemies. The pastor called for some prayer points and the members were praying with passion, shouting on top of each other’s voices, jamming their hands, some were even hitting their hands against the wall, some were hitting their body commanding the evil spirits to leave their body system. Well, I was used to this kind of attitudinal display since I’m an African but this particular one was too much. The worst part of it was that we didn’t understand the language used but my dad was expecting us to pray like the other members of the church. He screamed at my younger sisters to pray harder but we didn’t understand the language. According to him, he expected us to just pray for any thing and shake our heads and body.
The service started 9 am and ended by 3pm, I was so tired and bored, I really wished I was married and had my own house. We in our country don’t value time, we are too religious and have a lot of spiritual problems to solve out. we finally left the church and came back home. What a day-January 3rd 2012.
Waiting for the New Year has always been fun because I have witnessed it and it used to be one moment I enjoyed together with my friends. But, it wasn’t like that this time around! I know you may be worried about what caused it! Just read on, because I will share it with you.
On the 25th of December 2011, my country witnessed bomb explosions in some parts of the country. These explosions were targeting Christians in particular and there was one successful bomb explosion that hit a church in our capital. These ugly incidents around the country led to lost of several lives mainly Christians who went to church to celebrate Christmas.
In this part of the world, we Christians wait for the New Year mainly in the church because most of us believe that if we don’t start the New Year in the church of God, we may have a bad year ahead and we also make sure we don’t sin that day. We also believe that whatever style we use in starting the New Year, we may likely continue with that style, so, we are always smiling and jumping happily even when there is no much reason to do so.
Because of the Christmas bomb explosion in some parts of the country, most churches didn’t hold the normal service that prepares their members for the New Year. Those that held their services started on time and ended on time and members of such churches were so scared of another bomb explosion, so, they were always looking around to check for strange faces. My own church (I mean the place where myself and family worship) in the city of Ibadan which I once said in one of my posts that is the largest city in west Africa, held its own service. I think this was possible because of the small size of the church, the pastors believed that the suicide bombers will never come attacking the church. The service usually starts by 9 pm and ends before 12:30 am the next day, which is the New Year. Because of the fear of the suicide bombers, I went to the church 25 minutes before the New Year. This was to fufil all rightouness and starts my new year in the church. It was only me and my mum that attended the church service and we planned to come out of the church immediately the New Year starts.
The story was not like that; an invited pastor came and took our time. He advised all the ushers to stay at the entrances to prevent us from going out. He preached till 3:30 am, the first time we waited that long and we were meant to come back to church by 10 am for new year service and preaching and we had to prepare our food for new year celebration. The worst was the fear of the suicide bombers coming at any moment. Our senior pastor had to constantly whisper at the invited pastor’s ear, to remind him that he was meant to close the service 3 hours ago. He finally listened to our senior pastor and closed the service, we were so happy and immediately ran out of the church to head home. We were happy that no suicide bomber carried out any attack in the city I stay.
Can you believe that the same pastor held the morning service and he started from 10 am till 5:30 pm? I didn’t attend the service because I knew he was going to waste a lot of time. My dad and two of my other sisters went and they came back home so tired and frustrated. They didn’t eat any thing before going for the service since the usual service was to start from 10 am and end 11 am. I don’t know where this pastor came from. WHAT A NEW YEAR!!!
Travelling for Christmas
In this part of the world where we live, travelling for Christmas is very important and every Christmas season, we embark on Christmas journey back to our villages or from one city to another. Come with me as I narrate to you my experience in this year’s Christmas journey.
I was to travel from my College to my residential home which is in the city of Ibadan. The city of Ibadan is the largest city in West Africa. I was travelling from far eastern part of my country to the west. I entered an eighteen seated bus and my journey was meant to be just eight hours but due to bad roads, traffic jam and driving breaks, we spent sixteen hours travelling on this very day. Well, this journey happened on the 22nd of December.
We passed through six different states before we got to the city of Ibadan. When we got to Benin City, we had a flat tire. The worst thing was that it happened to two of the bus back tires and we had to stop on the high way to fix it. There came the communal life style of the people of Nigeria; every passenger in the bus came down to fix the tire. It was only the four ladies in the bus who did not participate in the action.
It was fun fixing the tires and I was taking some shorts with my phone cameral and the same time assisting in the fixing of the tires. We had to use jack to pull the bus up and bring out the tires one after the other well, our driver did it himself but we the passengers helped in inspiring him by making a hell of noise. When we finished fixing the tires, it was now time to fix in the both tires but the Jack our driver used got spoilt!
We had to come together and pull up the bus while our driver arranged the tires on after the other. Belief me, it wasn’t easy pulling the vehicle up, the ladies didn’t assist us, they were busy gisting with local women who were selling oranges. The action lasted for about two hours, this was because we were not professionals. During the period of intervals, I went to join the ladies who were not helping in anything at that time, they were only buying oranges from local sellers there.
These local sellers sold oranges at very cheap rates. I asked one of the women selling the fruit to prepare one for me to test. She did as I said and after testing it, I found out that it taste so good and I demanded for some supplies at a very cheap rate. We interacted with the local residents of the village and we all laughed out and forgot our problems (problems that we are facing in the name of democracy). One of the local sellers was so friendly that she taught us some of their local mother tongue, it then occurred to me that Nigeria is truly big and diversify. I have never heard that language before in my entire life, the tone was so unique and the orange seller was very happy, she even expressed this as she laughed out each time ten seconds passes that moment. The local residences were happy and satisfied. To them, we in the city and with western life style are missing a lot; they had little to worry about. The little gain they make from selling oranges behind the high way is enough for them.
When I got home, my family members came out to welcome me and I presented to them the oranges I bought while coming back. I felt so good of because all my family members have being waiting to welcome me, my phone switched off on my way and we arrived Ibadan city late. We arrived by 10 pm. What a Christmas journey I had. Do you care travelling with me next time?
Chicken for Christmas
Have you ever wondered what it will look like if the whole world kills and shares one whole chicken? I can imagine how top presidents fights and struggles for their own share of the chicken. You can imagine President Barack Obama struggling to get little part of the chicken that is meant for everyone in the whole world. What a Christmas it will be!
World leading counties such as USA, Britain, China, Russia, France, will use the principle of military threat to take bigger of the share while smaller countries will beg for help and unity of other small countries to get their own share. Western Europe headed by USA will preach democracy as a weapon to confuse the rest of the world so as to get their own better share of the Christmas chicken while China will preach communism to get their own share of the chicken.
Countries in Africa such as Nigeria will get the left over shares giving to them by the leaders of confusion and hide them at the Swiz bank only for the privileged few. Yes of course, they are confused, they don’t know the actual meaning of democracy but they claim to know. America and the West gets half of the chicken, China and Russia gets almost half and the remaining part that is very small goes to the confused countries such as Nigeria.
West and American presidents will demand for their own full and satisfying share so as to get enough distributed among the proud citizens of their various countries while the leaders of powerful Asian countries (China, Japan, Russia) reacts to protect their own interest so long the leaders of Democracy don’t tamper with their own share (powerful Asian share). The shares of the less powerful countries with majority of them in Africa keeping quiet and accept any share given to them. The leaders of these African countries don’t protest because the few share of the chicken goes to their personal accounts in Swiz bank or those who wants to talk will keep short and pretend that all is well before drone jets are sent to eliminate them from office in the name of democracy.
Well, smaller countries only receive, they don’t agitate, if they do, drone Jets will be sent against them with the help of CNN and BBC, the world mocks hungry citizens of less powerful countries as pictures of hungry people who did not get shares of the only chicken available in the world for charismas. These powerful countries only practice the so called democracy within, they don’t practice it without. Hope you understand me. What an experience of chicken for charismas which has being happening for several decades now.
The place of colour in your relationship
I will be writing on the place of colour in your relationship. Do you know that colours are very powerful? Yes, they are very powerful; the truth is that your partner is in love with one colour or the other. Everyone has one favourite colour or colours; it is now left for you to find it. Your partner’s favourite colour is that colour that melts down his or her hearts whenever he or she is in bad mood. Let look at what your partner’s favourites colours can do for you as you drive further to show love in tour relationship.
Colour enhances forgiveness: do you know this? Well, if you make your partner angry and your partner is finding it hard to forgive you why not try using his favourite colour to wrap up a gift and write on it ‘I’m so sorry my love’. That will surely help. Your partner does not have power over how he or she should react whenever he or she sees his or best colour. Try it.
Colour restores lost or dying love: absolutely truth, love can be restored by the presence of colours. Have you ever tried decorating your house or room with your partner’s favourite colours? Take note that you have to do them when your partner is not expecting them. Colours can provoke your partner to love you again. As I said initially, no one has power over how he or she should react when the person sees his or her favourite colour. This can work very well in marriages especially those with weakened love or lost completely.
Creates open mindedness between partners: the love and happiness one will derive from the introduction of colour will create atmosphere for open hearts minds between both couples/
Colour can bring back happiness. Well, for me, whenever I see my favourite colours, I find myself being very exciting and happy. My favourite colour is white and my Love normally calls me her Angel whenever I wear anything with white. I try not to be angry because of my colour. Are you wondering why? Well, I can’t help it, you also can’t, and that is the nature of things. Go and make good use of your partner’s favourite colour(s). Thanks and see you soonest.
RATS
I don’t like rats! I hate their mouth,
They make me shout
I hate their colour
Its reminds me of horror
Rats are fearful enemies, always running
In the night, climbing my legs when I’m sleeping
Yes, because I’m sleeping
Always making my sisters to be screaming
Rats are uninvited guests
Always putting me under quest,
Quest for what? Quest for their defeat
I have my fears to beat
I have wage war against THEM
Like that war between David and Goliath
I have my fears to defeat
If I really want to succeed
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
I heard her sing
I heard her sing like a Nightingale
Her voice was loud and peaceful but was as powerful as a gale
Her voice was louder than that of the Israelites
Calling my attention to the presence of sun light
I heard her children shouting; ‘we are free! We are free!!
Yes, but whose children are free?
The children of her that sings
They have be given some wings
Some wings to be flying
They have being told to stop crying
I listened very well to her song
She sings song of INDEPENDENCE!
She sings; ‘NO MORE DEPENDECE’, NO MORE DEPENDENCE!!
WE ARE FREE FROM OUR TASK MATERS!
YES! AFRICANS TASK MASTERS
Have you wondered what you can lose being frustrated? This is one situation most humans have not being able to handle; some people are easily frustrated and once they find themselves in that frustration, they act in violent way, some will keep shortening their life spam by being quiet while they wallow in pains emotionally, some will stop what so ever they were doing before falling into the frustration mood, some will use abusive words, some take harsh and regretting decisions etc. Which one you find yourself doing, which maybe negative to you and those around you, you just have to stop them. Do you know you can stop acting those ways and be the controller of your actions whenever you are frustrated?
A good friend of mine was frustrated by one project he was doing; the project failed him after so much investment, do you know what he started doing after he got the result that his project has failed? He started drinking! He was used to drinking whenever he is frustrated and he wasn’t happy with it but couldn’t help himself out of it. This is because humans act like something that has been programmed; our body tends to act in a certain way once we continuously act in that way for a particular reason. This is because we get use to certain acts consciously or unconsciously. My friend drank on this particular day and went home driving and had an accident which led to him losing one of his legs! Don’t be shocked please. One of my friends do eat too much whenever she is angry; she buys things, my other friend has formulated a character of destroying his properties whenever he is frustrated. All these people do regret after such actions and want to stop them. Well, I’m trying my best to help them out. Are you like that or you know someone with such character?
I believe that humans can control their actions by choosing to do so and this can be done by choosing to do positive things at all times. Take for instance, if you start from today to engage yourself into music each time you find yourself frustrated, or you start by saying positive things such as I’m not going to drink this time around, I’m not going to eat too much or spend too much this time, I’m not going to destroy my properties, I’m not a slave to this character, such sayings will put you in the right frame to come out of it without doing some negative things. You can control yourself, yes, you can, just say it constantly and your inner part will respond to it. As for me, I listen to music once I’m in a bad mood and it has helped me not to take decisions that caused me regret. This is what I call programming your life to act in a particular way. Best of luck.