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My heart bleeds for you...
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

My heart bleeds for you...

Some years ago, he was still in his teens. He was my senior in age and I looked up to him like a role model. He was everything I had wanted to be like. He was responsible, intelligent, ambitious and diligent. He had a lot of dreams and visions. But all that changed when he was brainwashed with the chance of a better life in a far away land.

He was taken to a destination, I know not. But some say it was the Middle East. I heard he mixed up with the wrong crowd and was found in the wrong place and at the wrong time. He was locked up for a number of years, maybe ten years or more.

Some say it was drugs he got involved with, others say he was innocent but was found at the wrong place with the wrong crowd.

But today, the person I once admired and looked up to like a role model is now a shadow of himself. I couldn’t bear to ask him how it all happened for fear I might even hurt him more, let alone talk about it. Some say he has gone psycho, others say he had been so hurt that he isn’t normal anymore.

He doesn’t even remember who he used to be. Whatever happened to those ambitions and visions of his teenage years? What ever happened to those dreams? All is now gone with the times. How he has changed so much. Sometimes I can barely recognise him. He just lives like nothing had happened, but just a faint shadow of his former self.

My heart bleeds for you. I wish I can turn back the clock of life and put it back to the days when all was well, when we were all innocent and just sweet little kids.

I am sorry you found the wrong side of life...
..How my heart bleeds for you!


July 31, 2008 | 6:05 AM Comments  0 comments



It will never cease to amaze me.
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

It will never cease to amaze me.

On a beautiful Saturday morning, I was walking down a street uptown in my home town in Benin City, Edo State, when I came across a burning building. The people in the vicinity made frantic efforts to put out the fire but their efforts were fruitless. When they called on the State Fire Service Department for immediate help, the State Fire Service arrived at the scene eight hours later after the fire had totally ravaged everything!

The baffling side of the story was that the office of the state fire service was just less than fifty meters (50 Meters) away from the scene of the fire accident.

A couple of months ago, a residential building close to where I live, was engulfed with flames and the State Fire Service was called upon only for them to come when the flames had exhausted its fury and done all the damage it could possibly do.

A renowned market was burnt down totally sometime ago but yet nothing could be done to minimize the extent of the damage by the usual late arrival of the State Fire Service.

It is no surprise because, sometime ago too, a public building caught fire and the State Fire Service building was just adjacent to this burning building and yet nothing could be done to save the situation.

Meanwhile when one visits the department of the State Fire Service, one could see on display several fire fighting vehicles, trucks and machines on parade around their department, all beautifully painted and from every indication must have cost successive Governors of the State massive budgetary allocations but yet “good for nothing” and worthless!.

The other time I overhead a crowd of people saying that “each time there was fire incident the State Fire Corporation would always complain of either lack of water in their tanks or lack of fuel in their vehicles” and yet nobody has ever been brought to book for this indiscipline and appalling situations.


This is the more reason why it will never cease to amaze me!

May 21, 2008 | 8:50 AM Comments  0 comments



Re-emergence of "The rule of law"
Related to country: Nigeria

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Re-emergence of
‘The rule of law’
In Nigeria

If but in all things, the current presidency of Nigeria in 2008, is writing its name in marble. It will be on the record as one of the best presidency Nigeria ever had, despite its controversial election victory and coming to power.

It vowed to tackle corruption head-on and to promote the concept of the rule of law and constitutionalism. Without mincing words, for the time being, it has fared well in doing so as at the middle of 2008: unlike its’ predecessors who grossly abused office witch-hunting opponents and displaying favouritism in some quarters.

The current presidency has esteemed valued judgement in exhibiting fairness and justice in some ramifications and more is still expected. Like the Oliver Twist in Charles Dickens novel, Nigerians would never stop-short at demanding more of what they know is good. Therefore, despite the leaps and bounds of the current presidency in Nigeria, the citizens consider these agreeable and want the presidency to accomplish more and to shun favouritism and lopsidedness if it is to have any appeal to the average Nigerian.

For the first time in this era of Nigeria’s history of this wonderful generation of youth, have we experienced what it really means to practice ‘the rule of law’

In Edo State in early 2008, in a court judgement after considering all the evidences before it, without fear or favour but in accordance with the rule of law, the presiding judge ‘overturned the presumptuous victory’ of the ruling political party. Such actions as this has given a lot of Nigerians confidence and some respite in the system, and endeared them more to their country.

Nonetheless, similar occurrences have taken place in some other states of the federation nationwide, where the election victories of most candidates have been contested in court by the aggrieved opponents, for proper scrutiny and evidences. One should note here that the judiciary in Nigeria has lived up to its expectations for the time being.

There are some perceptions around the country that justice, equality and fairness exists more with “the rule of law”.

There is no doubt that one is happy with the political trend in the present dispensation and prays for leaders with integrity, objectivity and purpose to lead Nigeria to greater heights and development and a future where the rule of law is fundamentally protected and safeguarded!

April 19, 2008 | 6:38 AM Comments  0 comments



Do we celebrate mediocrity and inefficiency in Nigeria?
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Do we celebrate mediocrity and inefficiency in Nigeria?

Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), in any single day would always find reasons to interrupt the electricity supply. One would think maybe it is because of maintenance but this would last for hours, sometimes more than ten hours.

When you begin to think all is well, they would interrupt the supply within seconds and then bring it back in another split second, just for the glory of interruption and inefficiency!

If a neighboring West African Country could celebrate a whole 365 days of efficient power supply, why can’t Nigeria celebrate a single day without power failure?

Is it that the staffs of PHCN are bored with their work that they would trip it off every now and then just to keep up the unbeaten records of frequent interruption and inefficiency?


Walk into the banking premises of a reputable bank in Benin City, Edo State and you would be pleased to see ATM machines everywhere, for easy access to quick cash in case you have emergencies to spend on. But mind you, there is no single day that you won’t see crowds and line-up of people all waiting to use the poor machines, which in some quarters looks like my abandoned fairly used tokumbo T.V.

There is never a day that I don’t find people milling up in line waiting to use the machines and there is never a day, that half of these machines don’t break down and their stomachs turned inside-out like sick crocodiles.