What Nigerians can’t turn into a challenge must be a life saving thing. Anything life saving, technologically innovative and cerebrally engaging, Nigerians wouldn’t turn into a challenge. Never! Let it not be that I am being or sounding condescending, check all the challenges that actually trended on the internet, none had any meaningful and positive impact. All frivolous and sometimes amorous. Months back it was Gwo Gwo Ngwo dance challenge. It trended and the social media space literally broke into shreds. Sometimes ago it was “I am not the bride but the bride’ … challenge. Few months ago it was…
Author: Jarlath Opara
It isn’t new. Why the hullabaloo? It baffles me. Nothing strange, nothing creepy. Many brotherhood have been in it, maybe not in this phenomenal manner, except if one wants to be shockingly dishonest. Many offices play host to the Baltasar-hook- up games. Churches are no exceptions. The mastery and the speed of a Warthog, seen in the Equatorian Baltasar may not be the insignia of what we experience here in Nigeria. But they are all the same hook-ups Go to many offices, Baltasar-hook-up is the game many live off on. Their cash cow, especially in this strangulating, twisting economy of…
Congratulations! Donald Trump. Your weight isn’t light, not even medium. It is at best description a mega weight . What a beautiful come back he made. A show of determination and courage. It seems his power is only powerful with women but dwindles and shrinks before men? Just thinking aloud anyway. Congratulations to those who for their personal reasons and convictions are happy over Donald’ victory. We all have reasons for either hating or liking somebody or something. Such is the beauty of freedom, which of course isn’t devoid of consequences which may not be as exciting or otherwise of…
That is what white is. It is “occultic”, leaving the lesser beings dazzed in confusion. Yesterday I went for a function. It was glamorous. Every person that mattered wore white. The quality of the white materials didn’t really matter. What caught my attention and soaked me in admiration was the blend, the aura and the majestic appearance it created, making words like purity, angelic, heavenly, bliss, majestic, adorable etc look patented by the color white. Did you wear white too? I know you would have asked yourself such question severally. Of course I wore white, a colour that gives me…
Life is in layers, each layer comes with its pains, discomfort, frustration and oftentimes disaster. As it peels by itself, nothing would be more disastrous than to stop, wail, cry and weep, flattened on the floor of despondency, depression and hopelessness, with vision so blurred not to know what next step to take out from the hole of such a mess. She isn’t a name that rings strange tune to anybody’s ear. The name sounds familiar, the ordeal and challenges passed neither a secret nor one that was blurry. Recently she cuts into shreds an onion of her marital challenges…
Fake! Fake!! and serially Fake!!!. Quote me! anywhere, it is fake! Success without scars of failures. Nothing validates the genuineness of ones success more than scars of failures as fringes around it. Look for scars of failures , disappointment etc if none of these is found in the narrative of ones success, it may quack like it, roars like it, even glints and glows like it, it is not success. Success is brewed out of struggle, challenges, shame, embrassment and difficulties. A by product of many stumblings, many tipping over stones, falling, hitting of toes on rocks and the gushing…
Recently I had a friendly discussion with a priest. It was on the spur of the moment exchange of ideas. I guess that should be about one of the closet discussions on various events I had with him over period of 9 years. I walked away from that discussion with a lot of musings. He said something which stuck, set rules that applies to everyone and never break or bend it for fraternal reasons. It sounds very easy but can be very challenging and tasking when it comes to implementation, especially when the pressure of halo effect syndrome becomes overwhelming.…
Hurrah! 64 years looks good on you? Your roads very slippery, sloppy with potholes. Hunger, poverty and deprivation looming large, giving everyone, especially the poor masses the blow and punch of their lives. 64 years? Good and better! Anything to cheer and cling glasses for? You are more than 64years. Well over it by your years of existence. 64years an independence age. Not real age. More like a civil service age, not like civil servants,who on their own, out of greed, selfishness and inordinate desires reduce their’ in service. 1914 Age of amalgamation. You still remember 1967 to 1970? Certainly…
Plenty of such pulpits. Just get on one and begin your messages, in whatever dimensions, however nauseating, crude and prurient, fellowers abound. Just Know what your gullible audience needs and feed them accordingly. Too large a crowd on social media, anyhow, one would get followers however cut and nail, messy and offensive many would be ready to lay down their lives for their Papas/ Mamas and do dirty things for miracles which obviously is in drought and faked most times by the way. The world is decaying and the word of God monetized. Values and morals, getting old-fashioned, only a…
Some days ago something happened that made me turn on my inquisitive light on the concept of Ofo (staff of authority) na ogu (fairness righteousness)? in Igbo cosmology. It was one discovery that blew my mind opening my eyes in a very delightful manner on the deep heritage Igbo culture/ tradition is embellished with. It was so sweet an unveiling, in a split second I wished the Igbo’ transfer of Ofo and the sacredness it carries, commands and the sanctity the ogu exudes, defiling any manipulations could be the modus operandi of our political process. A political process that is…
Smiling and suffering. Suffering and smiling, though a cliche, it defines us as Nigerians. We get beaten, pulped and pummeled, same hands that gave us red eyes and bloody noses, we hobnob, kiss and cling to, as if nothing happened. At what point would Nigerians know their real enemies? Those who raped them under the beam of a floodlight and called their bluff? Cost of living skyrocketing. Price of fuel galloping. Naira stability more like a movement on a treadmill, cost of electricity tariff on the roof top. In all these our cheers for APC is not weaning anytime soon.…
“If you feel pain you are alive. If you feel other people’s pains you are human” Leo Tolstoy The above quote got me! There is no better truth than this. So true, any effort to stifle it to silence wouldn’t work. What makes us Human is not our being alive rather our humanity makes us alive. Alive without humanity is just being, and being without humanity makes one no better than animals, trees and birds of the earth. We are by day losing our humanity and wearing the cloak of animality, embodying nothing but things that ridicule our humanity. From…
The noise is too loud, the shrieking sound of the pitched voices of the poor hungry masses on the street very deafening. Everybody is in a rat race of survival. The hunger is biting and the desire for the blood and flesh of others for survival, an obsession for some. The waist for the previously plumb and chubby, too slippery to either hold any cloth or remain fitted in it. Things have indeed fallen apart and the dreams for hope renewed, becoming hopeless and a mirage. The noise is too much. Even the silence of those whose strength to shout…
When one looks at the war of words that rage presently among men of God, especially from the Pentecostal block, it saddens a mind that is truly Christian, seeking for that light that illuminates and brings understanding to the reality of who we ought to be, The Revealed Glory! It makes sick this mind that seeks to know more, only to be thrown at their faces barrage of arrows of division, attack, maligning criticisms that suggest nothing but canality. How did we get here? A place of shameless throwing of pebbles, lies and unhealthy defamation, turning Christianity into a theatre…
Immunity is one word serially abused. One word used as a cover to perpetrate evil and malfeasance. It has become a joker card that is flashed at to save criminals, however notorious they seem from going down the pit of shame and disgrace. They knew they were sacrosanct, untouchable, even when the cesspool of their dastardly orchestrated ignominy is obviously stinking, all about, all around, within their space of jurisdiction they flaunt around like peacocks; after all, they have Immunity, their breastplate, in it their haven is. Immunity! It wouldn’t be removed anytime soon. If one thinks otherwise, maybe in…
Mystery! Beyond the unraveling of mere minds at first sight, especially a mind that isn’t initiated into the world of Aerodynamics. Airborne yesterday, that was all I could think. Why was the musing so strong since it wasn’t my first experience being airborne remains something I couldn’t wrap my thoughts around. From a surface, it looks like a mystery, how a mass of weight with over a hundred passengers with their luggages get suspended into the air against the natural law of gravity. Nothing goes up and remains there without a force pushing it up for it to resist the…
Oftentimes, what one thinks is a challenge to others, turns sometimes to be the fire that burns one eventually. The wind one thinks isn’t within one’s neighbourhood becomes a whirlwind that blows off the roof of one’s house instead. We live in a circle of chains where the strength of us all is determined by the strength of the weakest chain. Nigeria is a country of diversities of strength, weakness, ugly and beauty. Each of these comes to reckoning when one wants to place Nigeria and define her properly. The financial strength or stability of a family is determined by…
For over two decades, his influence loomed large, building institutions, humans and cults. For over two decades, he bestrode the golden horse of Lagos and rode on it with an uncommon discretion, uncensored and unquestioned by any mortal. The Amadioha(god of thunder) that strikes ailing tongues against him. The Ala ogbaga(deity) that controls destinies, dishes out wrath, punishment as he pleases and rewards those he considers by his judgment as good and loyal. The gods have blessed him with such stupendous wealth, his lineage to the tenth generation wouldn’t suffer lack or abject poverty. Their ways paved already with gold…
Social media by day is repositioning itself as the new oil well. Everybody is getting into that space to have a cut of their share through monetization, the new word on the lips of everyone. The rush is so crazy, the space gradually becoming a dumping ground for all manner of junks in the name of content creation. Boundaries lost, sensitivity gone, decency fizzled and godliness archived. Nothing matters, nothing else is considered once it attracts traffic, with likes and share rising, they are good to go! Not minding if it exposes sensitive areas. With the rate people create content…
Why wouldn’t I look at her that way? You shouldn’t! She isn’t as bad as you think. Yes the three Presidential Jets seized by China, she isn’t as irresponsible as your looks at her suggests. How exactly did I look at her? Your looks at her were scowling, disdainful and despising. You looked at her with a heart filled with guile, suggesting, “what an irresponsible nation” Were you in my mind? You see through people’ hearts to know what they think? I don’t need to see through your heart to know what you think about her. It is all over…
15th of August holds two important events for an average Mbaise person. As a proud Mbaise man and as an astute Catholic. It is so significant for them, treating this date with levity becomes as difficult as squeezing water from a rock of Gibraltar. This date provides a confluence between their origin as an Mbaise and their unique identity as a Catholic. In Igbo land, particularly in Mbaise, yam holds great symbolic significance. It is often seen as a symbol of sustenance, fertility and abundance. It is considered a staple food in many Igbo communities and deeply rooted in their…
Often times it beats me how incredibly blessed the Igbo tribe is. So blessed, lifted and honoured beyond the comprehension of human intelligence however ingenious. I have heard many narratives of how Israel (Jews) descended from the East. However true or otherwise, the truth is, the striking resemblance of Israelis’ industry, discipline, commercial and entrepreneurial ingenuity, not to talk of God’ protection they share in common with the Igbo undoubtedly very resonating. Each time I reflect on the Nigeria/ Biafra war, the insiders’ betrayal, the external orchestrated pogrom, the starvation, the denial and subjugation and of course their never say…
Deep! My simplest way to define life. Complex! My off the cuff reaction to what human beings are. These two are powerful tools in human relationships, understanding them the best way possible, gives one an edge over situations. The truth is, not everyone with a friendly mien is a friend, the heart can be deceitful and the face as glittering and shining may cover a lot beyond human imagination. Has it ever worried you why bad news travel so wide, with the speed of lightning and goodnews wobble like an aged Tortoise? Have you bothered to find out why bad…
When we told you that life is spiritual, believe us. When we told you that beyond all the shenanigans going on, in and around the political circles in Nigeria system, there is a force beyond the foretelling, forecasting and foreknowing of mere men, believe us. When we also told you that there is karma and the law of retributive justice, I beg of you, believe us. We are legion, we say little, but see far beyond the ephemerals. We may be listening to the lyrics of leaders’ mediocrity, the dance of deception of the led and the rhymes of those…
Ultimate Dr. Sir Warrior was a musical idol from an ancient town of Umuhu Enyiogugu in Aboh Mbaise local Government Area in Imo State Nigeria, a maestro with a magical voice that resonated beyond the boundaries of Nigeria and Africa to the global realm, where his musical talents mesmerised minds , creating energy, happiness and joy amidst forlorn and depressed souls. Each time I listen to his songs I have this heart ache, that in him a destiny of musical incursion into the realm of global recognition was cut short. He died at the age of 52. Young, vibrant, creatively…
Life is a good teacher, with deep understanding of what was, what is and what possibly would happen. It comes with a research methodology that lays the cards on the table, creating options and the attendant consequences to the various victims and Victors in the race of life. I have been around for a while in the field of life. I have equally played some games that either gave me a twisted ankle, strained nerves, muscle pulls or total victory without hurt or pain. Such is life! Trust me, there is no one fix it all strategy, rules and regulations…
So popular a song, sang by all, across tribes, culture and faith. Though an Igbo lyrics, but the energy it exhudes and the swag it provokes know no boundaries. The Yorubas enjoy it likewise the Hausas and other ethnic tribes. Like tramadol it boosts the joy and energy level, creating some level of ecstacy that defies natural strength. It sounds like a war songs, a song that is not for the lily livered. It is a song that intrinsically shows the mental condition of the chanters, one that does not in anyway signal weakness, dullness and redundancy. Many had expected…
Talks are cheap! when The chips are down , the real colour would show. It is not in words that kings are known, not in regalia, rather in power, authority and integrity. Kings don’t just talk, their words are their bond. They just don’t talk, they stick out their neck and defend their pronouncement no matter whose ox is gored. The Kings I refer here are not this present Kings some of them live a life of absolute compromise, ingratiation and stomach infrastructure. When hunger presses, fame receding, power and authority waning and the gullibility to become relevant high faluting,…
“I believe you are a Catholic Christian just like I am. Just yesterday (earlier hours of Saturday 3rd August and 3rd day of hunger protest), we woke up with the news that one of our parishes, an exile parish being accommodated in the old church building of Our Lady of Fatima Cathedral Kano, was desecrated. Some hoodlums in the name of protest or whatever broke into the church and broke the tabernacle and carted away with the ciborium and concentrated hosts and littered them all over the surrounding vicinity” The above was sent to me by a friend. As sad…
After listening to it, what readily came to my mind was an image of someone who ran so well but out of set rules and lane. Someone so gorgeously dressed but off the dressing pattern of the event. Someone whose dance steps are quite amazing, but danced off the tune. I saw nothing in such speechless speech of Mr President but a well written answer sheet, good handwriting, well arranged but with many off points. It was a speech of necessity to address imminent teething issues. There was a nudge or rather a provocation that necessitated the broadcast. However well…
