How is the mighty falling! The glory and highly celebrated force image. Once the tonic and honey many authorities desired to lick, but now sour and bitter. He rose from the rungs, climbing methodically and seemingly meritorious to where he was before the great fall. He was smart, a fine force gentleman, whose stewardship was commended with garlands and bouquet of appreciation and promotions. He was smart enough to play the cards discreetly off the eyes of many who saw nothing but an officer who was diligent at work, focus on his schedule and methodically , with rare sense of…
Author: Jarlath Opara
He is a player, always playing and making some fantastic dribbles , scoring heart- trick goals and sometimes missing the target. He shoots across the bar when not in his element, makes some infringements which earns him some caution cards. In all these, his fans are by day swelling ,cheering him even when the pelt from his detractors are hitting him hard. Recently, I watched one of his spot kicks on face book, great kick, spot on ,with an artistry that left the goal keepers battling with an empty air. It was a goal, a fantastic one for that matter,…
Politics in Nigeria is not a cup of moi-moi. It is not Akamu, neither is it some kind of Agidi. It is a serious business, full of intrigues, power play, voodism, “otumokpo”, callous personality redesigning and maligning of ancestry roots. It is a battle of full option, nothing is left undug. Firing from all cylinders is one technique that is most operational in this game. Shame him if you can, bring him down with whatever storyline you can invent , make it believable even when it never existed. Only the lion hearted gets into this ring, expects anything, surprised at…
THE SUDDEN POPULARITY OF FR JAMES. The news of Fr. James banning Igbo songs and his indefinite leave of absence by his local ordinary is trending big time! Suddenly , he has become a social media celebrity for the wrong reason. From Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and twitter his fame is all over. Bad things trend the most, flying quicker, with an amazing coverage , turning a nobody into an instant talking point for every Dick Tom and Harry. What could have pushed Fr. James into such a divisive and anti Christian love comment? Could there be a history behind his…
We live in a world where gregarious instinct is strong. Everything is seen from the view of a brand. If it is not a brand it makes no sense and its value and usefulness put to question. We live in the world where every month, every event , every moment in our life etc is celebrated with a more cliché expression, happy this! ,happy that!!. It is more of a brand and people gregariously follow it. Our generation is becoming so fixated with such to the point that nothing passes without it being celebrated with “happy this ,happy that expressions”…
Complex is an energy, how one uses such either makes or mars an individual. Until human beings understand the power inherent in them, power unlimited, designed to do the unimaginable, we would be living our lives through the approval mirror of others, allowing the very real self of ours to die and waste in idle and vain competition. We are differently created, differently endowed, achieving different purpose, goals destines and values differently , as grace enables one. Tall or short, fat or slim, beauty or ugly, riches or poverty, intelligent or dullness etc are all strength and weaknesses , complementing…
Few days ago ,along Kado estate Mabuchi express road, parked by the road side with an open bonnet, with a red triangle at the back was a 2021 Prado Jeep. What would make a 2021 model of a car breakdown at the middle of the road? Mechanical? Electrical? It beats me even when it is a common knowledge that a car fresh from the factory could develop fault. Whatever could be the challenge of the car, what matters wasn’t its model and newness, the driver wasn’t also of utmost importance as well as the owner at that moment. The interior…
Life is full of unimaginable maze twist and surprises . There is always a flip side of things no matter how glittering and burred. Every cloud must always have a silver lining. It only becomes a tragedy when life is viewed only from its sunny sparks and glows. No life is rosy all through and none is all thorns, there are always moments that bring tears, it flows ,trickles , even sometimes rivulets down as if it wouldn’t cease. In a speed of a lightening it switches ,giving one hope, joy and amazing opportunities to smile and laugh. This too…
Life is full of ups and downs, straights and bends, deep and shallow, joy and pains, love and hate, celebration and anguish etc . No one has it all, nothing lasts forever, and each moment comes with its vibes, flavour and taste. Ascension today, descending tomorrow, Hosanna today, crucify him tomorrow. To those who feels that life is a composition of goodies only, a celebration of appointment and clinking of glasses for honor and elevation, they should pause and take a count of the life itinerant of many who travelled such path but are no more relevant. Each time I…
Buhari has been on the lips of many Nigerians especially those that do not buy into his policies and obvious lackluster administrative strategies. If words of unpleasant meanings and consequences were to be imminently efficacious, one wonders what possibly would have become of Buhari. Dead? Depressed? Destroyed? Or like Nebuchadnezzar, long thrown into the bush, interacting with no other than the animals. Nigerians unarguably have seen the worst of it in this administration. Huge borrowing, flip-flop Naira strength, high rates of things , crime and insecurity at high pitch level and off course shrieking cry and agitation for secession We…
With the gruesome murder of Dr. Chike Akuyili and other numerous lives lost in cold blood one wonders whose hands and whose voice that are behind it. South East is sliding, fast for that matter into the sheol of violence, only God knows where all these will take them to. The situation is precarious, more like a state of nature which according to Thomas Hobbes was one in which there were no enforceable criteria of right and wrong. People took for themselves all that they could, and human life was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” The state of nature was…
Each time I look at the activities of an average Nigerian politician, I see a man or woman burdened with so many things. I see souls drawn in-between two things – value and human drive to orgies. I see beings with so much expectations, demands and pressure around them, trying to keep up with the Joneses. They stretch themselves, get involved in so many awful things once there is a guarantee of fame, riches and relevance. I have heard tales of some politicians who sold their souls to deities and shrines either to get power or to sustain it. They threw caution…
We pray to you oh God our Father, in Trinity you exist, created us and runs the affairs of the world. Through the Trinitarian power of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit we pray for your mercy, healing and love. You are an all sufficient God, all knowing and all powerful, you say a thing and it comes to pass .Say a word dear God and our country Nigeria will be whole again. In your love and compassion you created us Nigerians, blessed and endowed with the goodness of things. For years we prayed and continue to pray for…
Congratulations to Nigeria at 61. Years gone, challenges huge ,pains, regrets, disappointment , gory and gruesome events in the increase, yet the blessings are not in short supply either . God has been merciful and his grace not taken for granted for us Nigerians I have tried to look at Nigeria from the lens of 1960 independence, her achievements, failures and prospects, what I see may not be amazing but not entirely irredeemable . I have friends , uncles , Aunties ,Cousins etc who are within the threshold of 60 years , many of them are great and amazing…
Is it laughable? Indeed very ludicrous and mayopically naive and infantile to think that power and how it is exercised is a regional exclusivity. Each time I hear or read about the biblical show of Goliath’s arrogance and intimidation to the Lord’s chosen (Israelites) I remember the brags and entitlement spirit of the northern oligarchy. They feel they are the “Lord and Master” of Nigeria. Holding power and distributing it as it pleases them; living in the euphoria of holding the ace of violence and brashness . They do any how both in politics, public and civil services with no apologies; after all they…
Rumour is one thing that comes with two sides. One side that eventually becomes false and damaging and the other side most times heralding reality in due time. The common saying that “there is no smoke without fire and every rumour has an inkling of truth in it” finds life and expression in Nigeria politics. We have all lived through the trend and spread of rumours among politicians , it is only one who decides to be naive that would treat trending rumours around politicians as rumours not rumours in transit, evolving into something only God knows. If you ask…
Call him carnal he takes offence. Tell her she lives in the flesh, she flies off the handle . Remind him how worldly he has been in his activities he feels depressed. Tell him, he is always in the Spirit , he chuckles in self fulfilment. Remind her of how “uncarnal” she has been in her spiritual life she smiles unassumingly . These and more are our daily experiences, words and expressions we hear or say at every turn. We are flesh not by default but by divine purpose. The two are not evil, however, their abuse comes with…
One month in mind of my Dad “Life” essentially is life because of breath. When breath ceases and one stops breathing “life” becomes lifeless. Each “life” has both breath and breathing pattern unique to their species. The way humans breath is quite different from the way and manner animals, trees etc breath. To humans and animals oxygen is their life, while plants get their’s from carbon dioxide through the process of photosynthesis. What was waste to one is a source of life to another. We live, complimenting one another. Nature is not wasteful, it patterns its activities so knitted…
Step by step the distance is closing up. Minute by minute the craze and weirdness become more pronounced. By second the moral thread holding our daily activities gets weakened and compromised. Nothing scares , nothing embarrasses anymore. Singed and insensitive we are, doing things largely against nature and nuture. Sodom and Gomorrah a city of immoral is today comparatively a good example more than ours. A city once cursed and painted with obscenity is today a model, an ideal compared to our world. Dangling on a hollow, deep and weird is our generation. How great is God. How wonderful…
The game is up. The centre wobbles and the links are gradually caving in. Each day comes with its unique twist and surprises. Nothing surprises us anymore. Our sensitivity, brutally defied and our emotions lost by the orgies we see daily . Blood is no more sacred. Like water that runs from a tap, invoking no emotions , so is the sight of drips of blood from the throat of brutally killed innocent Nigerians daily. The story is the same . From East to South ,from West to North, the masses cry, and their humanity lost while their leaders, the…
I will be having this space( Death politics) as my comfort zone. A zone where my serenity is assured, my peace guranteed and the worldliness of my mind interrogated on daily basis. Tell me one thing that doesn’t have Politics? Nothing! There is always politics to things and until one understands such politics, nothing works at best abuse sets in. For long I have talked so much about life. What did I achieve? I have thought about it , had sleeplessness night over what it holds and people’s expectation of me. What did I achieve? Crazy competition even with my…
