I AM AFRICA

I Am Africa 

This world…my world…it has two sides…just like a coin…The head and the tail. I am at the tail. I live there; at the tail…there I eat… I drink…I live. I don’t want to stay there forever. It’s too dark…down there at the tail. I look up and I see a light…at the head…the top…up, up…a bright light shining and beckoning.

I want to go to the light. I want to go to the top and be up there and live a good life and be a man Baba will be proud of. But these chains keep holding me back…keep tying me to the tail…the bottom…to the darkness…where our words don’t matter. But I must cut these chains lose…I must say my mind…I must be free.

{Image Source: themetaphorsicantcreate -daniel emeka }

You keep holding me back…you, who is stronger, you who is richer…you who rules Africa…you keep pulling me back and no matter how hard I try to get up, I keep going down, down into oblivion. I do the campaign and you have the Champagne. I do the working and you do the chopping. I build the roads but you drive the cars. I am the scavenger and you are my god. I worship you…I clap for you…your kids eat from theudala tree but when I ask for a piece, you tell me to dance first. I dance and dance but my dance steps never please you. I cannot dance any better because I have chains on my legs and hunger in my stomach. I am tired. I am so angry with the injustices of the world.

When I see you… your face…your hands…your hair…I see the man…the man who murdered my dreams. I want to murder you too. I want to strap an explosive on myself and blow myself up. I want to take a lot of people with me…in the church, in the mosque, in public places, I want to destroy everything that reeks of my sweat and reminds me of your opulence. But I will not do that. You know why? I am Africa. I am not like my brother Boko who has allowed himself to go down the alley way of self-destruction. I feel sorry for him though. He went away for too long. Disconnected from his own people. He lost the African spirit. When a man cut the string that binds him to his people, he floats; like a balloon…he floats…suspended in nothingness. It won’t be long until KABOOM! Debris. Tears. Death. Me, I am different. I am a real Nigerian with the African spirit. In Nigeria…in Africa, when we are hurt…when we are down…when we are at the tail…we don’t go about blowing ourselves or blowing up people, people who know nothing about our pain; we stand up again, dust ourselves and say, e go beta. Then we move on. That is what we do…we move on…towards the light…to the top…the African spirit. That is why we have survived so far…and that is why I am moving on. To the light…the chains must leave my hands and I must go to the light…up there…towards the light. I am moving to the head. I am tired of the tail. No matter what you do to me, I am not stopping. I won’t let you keep me down because I am not Boko. I am Africa. I will dust myself and I will move on. E go beta…

Today, I will break the chains. I will see the light. The battle field will be quiet. The war will be over. The casualties may be many but the flag of victory will be up at last. Freedom will finally come for Africa.

WRITTEN BY  KONNEKT AFRIKA

I PRAY, HOPE AND LOOK FORWARD TO THE FREEDOM!

I AM AFRICA

I Am Africa 

This world…my world…it has two sides…just like a coin…The head and the tail. I am at the tail. I live there; at the tail…there I eat… I drink…I live. I don’t want to stay there forever. It’s too dark…down there at the tail. I look up and I see a light…at the head…the top…up, up…a bright light shining and beckoning.

I want to go to the light. I want to go to the top and be up there and live a good life and be a man Baba will be proud of. But these chains keep holding me back…keep tying me to the tail…the bottom…to the darkness…where our words don’t matter. But I must cut these chains lose…I must say my mind…I must be free.

{Image Source: themetaphorsicantcreate -daniel emeka }

You keep holding me back…you, who is stronger, you who is richer…you who rules Africa…you keep pulling me back and no matter how hard I try to get up, I keep going down, down into oblivion. I do the campaign and you have the Champagne. I do the working and you do the chopping. I build the roads but you drive the cars. I am the scavenger and you are my god. I worship you…I clap for you…your kids eat from theudala tree but when I ask for a piece, you tell me to dance first. I dance and dance but my dance steps never please you. I cannot dance any better because I have chains on my legs and hunger in my stomach. I am tired. I am so angry with the injustices of the world.

When I see you… your face…your hands…your hair…I see the man…the man who murdered my dreams. I want to murder you too. I want to strap an explosive on myself and blow myself up. I want to take a lot of people with me…in the church, in the mosque, in public places, I want to destroy everything that reeks of my sweat and reminds me of your opulence. But I will not do that. You know why? I am Africa. I am not like my brother Boko who has allowed himself to go down the alley way of self-destruction. I feel sorry for him though. He went away for too long. Disconnected from his own people. He lost the African spirit. When a man cut the string that binds him to his people, he floats; like a balloon…he floats…suspended in nothingness. It won’t be long until KABOOM! Debris. Tears. Death. Me, I am different. I am a real Nigerian with the African spirit. In Nigeria…in Africa, when we are hurt…when we are down…when we are at the tail…we don’t go about blowing ourselves or blowing up people, people who know nothing about our pain; we stand up again, dust ourselves and say, e go beta. Then we move on. That is what we do…we move on…towards the light…to the top…the African spirit. That is why we have survived so far…and that is why I am moving on. To the light…the chains must leave my hands and I must go to the light…up there…towards the light. I am moving to the head. I am tired of the tail. No matter what you do to me, I am not stopping. I won’t let you keep me down because I am not Boko. I am Africa. I will dust myself and I will move on. E go beta…

Today, I will break the chains. I will see the light. The battle field will be quiet. The war will be over. The casualties may be many but the flag of victory will be up at last. Freedom will finally come for Africa.

WRITTEN BY  KONNEKT AFRIKA

I PRAY, HOPE AND LOOK FORWARD TO THE FREEDOM!

Do you really need those shoes?

Do you really need those shoes?

“I was crying of having no shoes until I saw someone without legs”. I guess we are familiar with this saying but in the “real sense” do we really need the shoes?

In life there are storms to overcome, one cannot help but come across one challenge or the other, even those that were born with silver spoon plaited with gold all over, faces challenges, how much more those that had it rough from the beginning. It is however how we choose to face these challenges and what we make of it that really does matter, like it or not challenges would come in phases and at different phases in our lives.

Back to my question, the shoe you are crying of not having, do you really need it, are you thankful enough for even having the legs, now ,this is not to say you shouldn't aim and pray to get higher but then do you care to look around you?

In the past few days, my Timeline on tweeter has been invaded with the #saveOke# post.  

Okeoghene John Igwhiwotho, is an ex-student of Federal Government College. He's a diabetic mellitus type 1 and 2 patient and has been bedridden for the past six years, after losing all the toes on both feet, due to injuries he sustained many years ago. Sadly, this has prevented him from completing his university education (he dropped out from OAU). At the moment, his life is at stake and he is in need of surgery urgently.

He was supposed to have the surgery in January 2012, but he has not been able to, because of his inability to raise funds. Oke needs 5million Naira for treatment in India...and needs your help.

Just as little as one thousand naira on your part can help save him, even if you don’t have up to that,you can still do something(well..like  a joint contribution or anything).

This fine young man deserves to get his foot back, like ShecrownLita said in her tweet handle, "that #1000 you wanna spend at the club this Friday could help save Oke”, if you are not doing this for any reason, then do it because it could have been anybody, if not him and always remember some people have no leg while you complain of having no shoes, in this case those shoes are your excesses and extravagancy, so do you really need those shoes? When you can help with it.

Your #1000 counts

Help save this handsome dude

It could have been anybody!

Oke can be reached through the phone number, 08063255842. Banke details - Ighiwoto Okeoghene John (0012913007 - GTB). Ighiwoto Okeoghene John (2054468076 - UBA).

well..the writing is not flowing but at least you got my message..save this dude with your token

"Mama Nigeria"

Hmm, that sound too mamaish, as in mama Nigeria but there is actually nothing wrong in being mama Nigeria ke, afterall have got no other country, despite the trouble and challenges, i still believe in Nigeria. Now, isn't that doing what have been accused of again.
ok, here is the gist, you know have got just few articles on my blog and almost all of it has something to do with Nigeria and somebody said, ha ah! cant you just write something else, does it have to be Nigeria this or Nigerians that?
Now, that was not said with any contempt but a nice way sha, in other words, this friend of mine want me to explore my writing skills, like write anything anything, you know now,so i want to take to her advise pending the time i would be able to develop my blog to be of international standard (yes ke, you know like those blogs you follow like an adict, you know them now)where you get anything everything ranging from information, education, entertainment, gossip, politics and maybe sport(shaking my head in slow motion, well?) infact anything, i would just keep coming with the the articles, i could write on life, love, relationship(well, not necessarily like the Intimate Talk with Tolu, lol why not sef, dont try me ooo), i could drop my poems here too, excerpt from my story, and any other thing sha.
Now the koko of my story is that i want to make this place more interesting for you and more details. i pray i dont loose it. with this i would leave you with my latest poem titled A DANCE IN THE RAIN, you may have to take a second look to get the drift, but the concept is just for everyone to be happy regardless of who we are and where we come from, after all only one God created us all. i hope you enjoy it...drop your comment plssss

                         A DANCE IN THE RAIN

A dance in the rain
Washing happily over me with joy
I hope it won't be a strain
As i dance with the boy
I just don't want to be drained
Oh! how happy life could be
A dance in the rain
To wash away my pain
A joy in my heart
Where everything is beautiful
where everyone is equal
Where everyone get the blessing
Where everyone is one
A dance in the rain
A life to Treasure!!!

....Halybee


... do you like this, i mean, do you get my drift, see ya soon

Typical Nigerians

Typical Nigeria
Hypocrisy is one word I really don’t like using but when I think of Nigerians and some of our attitudes that seems to be so ingrained in so many. I can’t help but say we are hypocrite, quick to judge others and accuse them of the same thing we know deep down inside us, we are also guilty of without batting an eyelid.
Typical Nigerians you would say, what makes Nigerians quickly come to mind when we think of all of the bad vices that can be, we complain that we have bad leaders , that our leaders are this and that, or that our leaders are not doing this or that, but do we stop to ask ourselves, what kind of followers are we?
We all, whether we accept it or not are leaders in one right or the other, how do we fair in our leadership roles or even as followers?
Agreed that our leaders are not making things as easy as it should be for us, but in our own right , do we know that we are as guilty as our leaders?
The last subsidy issue is a recent reminder , if we seem to have forgotten so many others, the federal government on the first of January 2012, announced its decision to remove subsidy on fuel thereby increasing the pump price of petrol from #65 to #141,(of course we remember some of the happenings thereafter and the reactions that followed this announcement by Labour union, Trade Union, the save Nigeria group and Nigerians as a whole, but am not going there right now) immediately the prices of goods and services sky-rocketed all over the country.
Following this reaction, the federal Government was forced to rescind on its decision and the price was brought down to #97 as against the #141 earlier announced by the federal government.
Like typical Nigerians, and the typical saying of Nigeria: what goes up in Nigeria doesn’t come down, most marketers of goods and services refused to bring down the prices of their goods and services, which they had taken into double or triple the normal price in some cases.
Nigerians! Do we expect our leaders to walk into the streets and market to ask them to cut down their price, even when we know we pay more for what we get. It is in Nigeria the market woman would pad her measurement tin and still sell at the normal price and the annoying thing is that we know we are buying less than the normal quality but we still accept it without complain, typical Nigerian I would say.
Even at filling stations (this I find very annoying) they adjust their meter in such a way that when you buy into a 25 liter gallon, you have like 23 liters inside and you still pay for “gallon charges” whatever that means or wherever it originated from, I don’t know but I find it annoying because it is just like begging them to render a service to you when it should be the other way round.
A typical Nigerian sees nothing wrong in taking advantage of others, after all everybody does it is what they say, the commercial bus drivers are another set of service providers I have issues with(though I may not say much about them now) they tend to fix their price as it suits them, they don’t care about their passengers, the same route would have different fare rate in the morning, afternoon, mid-day, evening and late in the night then I begin to wonder if they use more fuel in some certain hour of the day than the others. Infact the more the crowd at the bus stop, the higher the transport fare…tell me what our leaders have got to do with this?
Typical Nigerians feel comfortable inconveniencing ourselves, make the other person pay through their nose and go through hell before they get something we know we could give easily.
A typical Nigerian would find nothing wrong throwing dirt outside the window of a vehicle on the express, forgetting that these dirts go into the drainages and block them thereby causing trouble for residents and users of such area and roads during the rainy seasons.
A typical Nigerian would feel good selling a fake product to fellow Nigerians without batting an eyelid. A case of a brothers friend that bought a phone at the popular Alaba market only to get home and when he tried to put it on found out that it was “FUFU” that was packed in it, Alas! A different phone from the one he was shown was given to him without him knowing about this “intelligent swap you would say”, and the same amount was collected from him, unfortunately he bought it from a roadside vendor, whom he never saw, like he disappeared into thin air, well foolish, you may want to say he is for leaving a known store for a road side vendor, but of course we buy things from street vendors in Nigeria.
A typical Nigerian would want to skip protocol, would go to a place and would offer bribe even before it is demanded. Even some of our pastors and imams are greedy and guilty as well, no one is a saint, even me. When people are out there they are quick to judge others and point fingers at others but when they get in, the story changes, I don’t want to mention names.
In churches, the rich are hailed, while the poor are made to feel like they are of no benefit to God because they are not rich, in mosques, the rich are praised, while the poor man who make sure that the mosque is clean every blessed day gets little or no attention.
It is true that the bible says:
“owo ni keke eyin rere”(money is the bicycle of evangelism)
but then I don’t think it did say it should be the criteria to judge who does it better with God.
Allah says in Quran 13vs11
“Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change it themselves”
We are very good at pointing accusing fingers at our leaders , yet we fail to see the ills and rots among us the followers. See why I say we are hypocrites.
You may want to ask, now what is the moral of my story? Which way forward? if we remember some years back, the Ministry of Information under the leadership of Professor Dora Akunyili, launched the campaign for re-brand Nigeria, well, I wouldn’t say I see the effect of that campaign anywhere around me today ( I stand to be informed and corrected) despite the millions/billions of naira spent on it, well, maybe the media campaign, the fliers, but I don’t think that is the solution to the typical Nigerian syndrome(TNS).
You may want to say again that the National Orientation Agency does lots of campaign to orientate and re-orient Nigerians on attitudinal change, but well, just my observation, I don’t seem to have seen any changes on the street.
It is so sad that the typical Nigerian is so quick to point fingers at our leaders when we know we are like 80% responsible for our own problems.
Typical Nigeria is where protectors of lives and properties are the ones taking it, supposed preventers of crimes are the perpetrators, recent research report I came across says you are more likely to be killed by a Police than any other person, and I couldn’t agree less with the stories here and there of police killing innocent citizens, then I begin to wonder, whatever is the criteria for enlisting anyone into the Nigerian police. Whatever the criteria are, am suggesting that brain check/test should be inclusive in order to certify the mental ability of anyone willing to join the force.(issue for another day)
Like I always say, collective change starts with an individual, the best way for now (I mean the most viable and costless way) of achieving a “better Nigeria” and entirely doing away with the Typical Nigeria Syndrome is to begin as individuals to change our thinking, don’t ever say again that a fish in or out of an ocean cannot make a difference. Let your own fish stand out and see if it would not make a difference, as those who know, lets inform who do not know.
Allah says in Quran 3v104:
“Let there arise out of you a group of people inviting to all that is good, enjoining what is right and forbidden what is wrong. They are the one to attain felicity”.
Why not make yourself be among the few, do something different, like I take it upon myself to tell my family members, friends and people I see around me to avoid throwing dirt through the window of a vehicle when I see them wanting to do so, well you may say what effect does this have, but in the long run you would get to know.
No doubt, people would talk and call you over- sabi, I get strange stare in the bus when I tell people to stop throwing dirt, they look at me like, where is this one from? Yeah, like am not the typical Nigerian, but am not bothered because I know somehow am saving some people and I feel good about it, besides, stare or comment, they still do as I say at that point, no throwing of dirt through the window!
Don’t care about what people would say, they know the right thing but they won’t do it and would not just keep their mouth shut to allow those who dare to be good just because they see them as a threat.(that’s just the simple truth). Just believe as an individual you can make a difference, as a market woman don’t say because every other person padded their measurement you have to do the same, use the normal size and if you have to add a little amount for doing that, it would pay you better than deceiving people. Sooner or later, you would find those who would appreciate your honesty.
As students, let’s not say because everybody is no longer reading to pass, why should I? In the end you would come to know that there is benefit in reading for you than going through the way every other person is doing it. That majority does it doesn’t make it right.
I could go on and on with the list of the typical Nigerian syndrome but I know you have the list with you unless you want to be hypocritical about it (another typical Nigerian syndrome)
Let us try to be the “few good ones that would attain felicity”. No African time, no mago-mago, no corruption and all other vices, then time would tell if our leaders would be good or not. Remember, you are as good or as bad as your leaders. Let’s be that individual that look out for others without necessarily expecting benefits.
God bless you!
God bless Nigeria!
Say no to the Typical Nigeria Syndrome!

BE THE BEST BRAND YOU CAN BE

we were just talking about what topic to discuss on Brandz and Jamz at the office, when she suggested why not you as a brand, then i said, that is a good one you know. often times when we hear or speak brands,  the only thought that cross our mind is product, product and services, has it ever ocured to you that every individual is a brand? 
let start by highlighting  some of the qualities a brand must have to be recognised, it must be worth it, that is,it must definately stand for something which makes it popular among it peers, it must make and fulfil a promise, it must be consistent,it must possess values such that when the thought of this brand comes to the mind, the value is quickly linked to it, it must stand out, such that people who patronize it here in Lagos would see it the same people who patronize it in Abuja sees it.
with all of these, it means you have a good brand, now try linking it, which one of these qualities(and even more) shouldnt human beings posssess?
maybe when we start seeing ourselves as  brandz it will ginger us(like my brothers in the hood would say) to be a better us, i dont think anyone would want to represent their product or services in a bad way, which in this case is the 'brand you'.
the brand you should endeavor to stand out and represent not only yourself well, but also your lineage, your community, your state and your country as a whole, like this Yoruba adage says, 'omo ale lo ma n fi owo osi ju we ile Baba e'. lets endeavour to be the best brand we can be, yes! because in the end everything you do would fall back on the brand you, have you ever wondered why some people who had died so many years ago still have thier memory fresh in the hearts of people, while some who died just recently cant even be remembered so easily..they were both different brands, they represented themselves differently, hence, the reason for the different results.
see yourself as a brand, stand out and be the best brand you can, no one says it is going to be such an easy ride, have you ever looked into the success story of most of the top ranking and solid brands we have now? they were thorns in their  part, but they were determined and ignored their critics and we all know the result today.
this is brand Halybee imploring you to be the best brand you can be!

be the best brand that you can be