How time flies…

It seems just like yesterday. Recollect how many times you have spoken those words. That is if you take the time to just sit back to dredge up the past, look back to see how far you’ve come in life, taking note of where you were then compared to now, you say how time flies…

It seems just like yesterday.  How long ago was it that you were born. And now, here you are. When you remember your days in school or wherever and it seemed it would never end that you would remain a child forever and now you have children of your own, your family, and you get to look at their antics, try to compare it with what you did back then and you say, how time flies…

It seems just like yesterday. When your heart suddenly felt like exploding when you first sighted that boy/girl. When your feet refused to transport you and your tongue went missing. When your head hung in the clouds after the result came in YES. When it appeared both of you were doing toothpaste advert walking down the aisle after the I do… it’s now several years past, the children have flown the coop and his/her sight still gives you the thrills (you must be blessed). You are back where you started, just the two of you and looking into each other’s eyes your heart says, how time flies…

It seems just like yesterday. When you felt you were nothing and you had nothing. When you toiled and scratched and struggled to make ends meet. When you saved and traded gradually building the empire that is now a global entity. You take your deserved rest from it all and look back and say, how time flies…

It seems just like yesterday. Back then when you had to go from street to street, trying to locate a house that is blessed with that big box that had humans inside doing all sorts and then you wonder how they get to feed and why they were black and white. Here you are today, watching DSTV on you mobile phone and able to chat with anyone, anywhere and at anytime and while chatting, you stop to remember that just a few years back, this was unimaginable and you say, how time flies…

All the above, is assuming you made something of your yesterday and you have arrived at a desirable today. The truth remains, if you find yourself in pleasurable and desirable circumstances you wish it to continue and it always appears short lived but if it were a bad time, the seconds drag for eternity before making minutes and the minutes take their time to reach the hour mark. Time is in slow motion and yet you are still able to look back at it all and say, how time flies…

The saying is true, that what humanity has in common and in equal measures is time, that is, irrespective of the number of days you may spend here on earth; our unit allocation of time is equal daily – 24 hrs. You decide how you spend your time and what you spend your time on. I like that saying that goes yesterday is gone, but today is a gift that is why it is called present and might I add, tomorrow never comes and truly, time flies…

D2MAD…help our youth the truth to know…

All you need do is open the pages of any Nigerian Newspaper or read any article on Nigeria and you will be assaulted with the impossible hopelessness that appears to be the lot of this large African Nation and mirrored all over the African continent. The sheer magnitude and hopelessness that is expressed in the day to day struggle of the average Nigerian and indeed African especially this south of the Sahara is mind boggling. It is a wonder that some of us are still able to maintain our sanity.

I was discussing with our family Doctor one day and I was shocked to hear him say that if he gets an opening, he will leave Nigeria for good.  Shocked because by all standards he is an established man as in set and I wondered what he expected me, a young person to do. I that feel I have a lot more reasons to want to check out and maybe join Maziyateke in the UK or several other friends in the US, live life, enjoy and forget home (can’t do that, won’t do that). This is a man I love. He is father and one of those that still believe in the masses. He is a man that dedicated his life to serving humanity and a philanthropist to the core and very down to earth. He is a man I admire; blunt and unassuming, a great man (I hope he is reading this). We talked quite a lot that day and frankly too. He expressed his shock at the level of rot that is now Nigeria. He said he is willing to check out if the opportunity arises. He is completely disillusioned. He is not unaware that his generation shares in the burden of responsibility for this mess. That is something good. Then he asked what do the young people have to offer?

I paused to consider the question critically and analytically and now I ask everyone that calls himself a young person or young at heart as some say, what do you have to offer? Can the youth champion the necessary change that is needed in this country and indeed this continent? Sincerely, critically assessing our situation in Africa one is doomed to gloom except for the few unrepentant optimist (thank God I am one) that are still alive and hopeful for a better future. These are not just hopeful but are also active in ensuring the reality of this dream, a glorious Africa. I know a handful of young people who are doing their thing to catalyze the change we need.

Permit me to mention just a few, Ireti(Retlinks) of Rheallyz Naija, Tolu Borokini of D’Surehouse Resources, Angelique of maziyateke.wordpress.com, Paul (Qish) Njoku, Ife Leo-Olagbaye, Gbenga Sesan of EiE and a host of others too numerous to mention (and they are not blaming the white man too) out there still keeping the dream of a better future alive. I salute you. Young people that are willing to look beyond this present mess and CRY for a saner and progressive future. Young people who dare to be different by choosing not to tow the line of their peers who are presently distracting themselves with temporal pleasures. Young people who have dedicated themselves to stay focused and influence their peers by integrity, steadfastness and good character. Young people who are willing to make the necessary sacrifices to realize the future they dream of. Visionary young people who know that they can’t achieve this on their own and therefore chose to yield to God almighty and surrender to His wisdom and guidance. Young people who are willing to bear their cross and know that God got their back. Young people who are not ashamed to be the change they desire to see and do not shy away from the truth. Should I continue??? Does the above profile fit you??? If yes GREAT, if no, shouldn’t you rather align yourself with such a force because whether you like it or not, against this seeming hopelessness and helplessness, against all odds, this light is going to shine through and this present darkness will fade away.

Disengage yourself from this seemingly amusing distractions and join this fast growing team of Holy Ghost Firebrand Youth, Destined to Make A Difference in and around them. I invite you to be a part of this great move of God with this team of young people.

How do I join you ask??? Anywhere you are right now, surrender your life to God, accept Jesus into your life and you have taken the first step. Prayerfully link up with and join a body of believers, study the word of God – the Bible – and follow the instructions therein. The truth be said, no amount of strategizing can have any effect except this first step has been taking but this I assure you, every strategy after this first step is sure to hit home. We will be fooling ourselves if we think we can solve the problem of this world without God as we will equally be fooling ourselves if we sit back expecting a miracle and refuse to act. Acting on His instructions is the only way to succeed and this can’t happen except you have a relationship with Him.

Guys! Ecc 12:1  Remember also thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; ASV – e-sword

Pro 20:29  The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head. ASV – e-sword

Better shine at your glorious best before you gray and become beautiful which is not bad but it is just necessary to make hay now that the sun is still shining. Ladies! I hope you know this includes you???

People! Young People, let’s do this. Lend your voice to the inevitable change that is just around the corner, be the change, make noise about the change, shout it at the top of your voice, on the mountain top, in the valley, all over, live the change. We can, and we will…

who do i marry???

I remember asking a girl out once. She was my friend. Let me give a quick background, in Nigeria, we don’t date. We enter relationships with the expectation that it will surely end in marriage. It doesn’t matter that, that is not always the case, but the mindset is still generally unchanged. There are few and very few who are practicing dating in Nigeria. The concept of dating is still foreign to us and not yet properly understood but it is catching on gradually.

Now among my Christian brothers and sisters back then, it was more serious as we all were seeking for the will of God. Will of God meaning, future spouse. When you hear will of God then, it had only one meaning. That is gradually changing now. So, most of everyone will be seeking the will of God for their life therefore no room for dating. It has to be it! Therefore all such relationships are serious from the get go in fact; the tag fiancée surfaces almost immediately.

Back to my story, here I was seeking my will of God and sensing that this here girl is it! I make my proposal and she says NO. Taken aback, I asked why and she goes ‘because we are friends’. Those were her very words, because we are friends… I had to ask her if she intended to marry her enemy. Now that is my confusion, she is not the only one that has made that same comment as this same view has been replayed in conversations with other ladies – note the word used is conversation and not proposal so don’t think I have a habit of asking girls out just for the  pleasure. These ladies just go, NO! It won’t work between us, he is my friend, he knows so much about me, we are better off as just friends, I don’t have any feelings for him, and the best, he is like a brother… sound familiar???

Now to my main point, these same girls now complain that there are no guys out there that meet the mark, their mark, HELLO!!! What’s going on here??? Does this sound familiar?

My friend wrote on his blog about the relationship situation issue in the UK and the attitude of the men in the UK and he asked me to do something from the Nigeria angle – Check his blog at ugopaulnjoku.tumblr.com. I read it and couldn’t help noticing that it’s the same story here in Nigeria but with a slight twist – the issue runs both ways. Guys complain bitterly that there are fewer and fewer wife materials out there. Ladies go, all men are the same, they only have one thing on their mind – don’t ask me what! And here’s the fun part, these complainants both male and female I have as friends as in buddies. Some are even part of my inner caucus. It pains me, but I am more confused than pained because I wonder, if one must marry – me, I must o – why is it so stressful to find someone to settle down with? I have a string of guys, and gals, in their 30s, unmarried and still searching and we are all friends, in the same circle. Why can’t they just see themselves? And like I started above, the ladies will go; he is my friend so we can’t go out while the guys will go, she is not serious, or she is too clingy or the worst she is only good to warm the bed but not take home to mama and all sorts. Me, I never had such issues. My quest was to find me and in the process find her. I had always lived by the saying that marriage is not about finding the right person but about being the right person therefore, my focus had always been being the right person; working on myself to attain the proper mindset, mentality and outlook, and to work on my character and all and at this point I must NOTE emphatically that GOD is the MOST important part of this process.  And after all, the law of attraction implies that, ‘you attract who you are” so it is first all about you. We are unique and our uniqueness has a role to play in our choice of a spouse among other equally crucial decisions. We need to understand our uniqueness to accept another’s uniqueness. It appears complicated but it is simple… it starts from the heart, your heart gat to be right and your mind will follow plus your body too. That is why GOD is MOST, if you let Him, He works you inside out. Do let him, please…

People! this article, is a big question mark? I am not writing as one who has all the answers, no but as one who is somewhat confused at this, (I don’t even know what to name it situation) and hopes that some of you that read this will have something to say. Let me keep ruminating over the issue, in fact, let us do this together. Who knows, we may together come up with solutions that work and bring happiness to the lives of those who desire to get married.

Like my Naija people will say, “Shine ya eyes well, well!” is it that hard??? Let me put a pause to it, see if I get a couple of responses and go on from there. 

Very funny

wonders they say never ends, and for me that means plenty. lo and behold something i wrote many years back. i say again, thank God for HARD DISKS. enjoy.

Writing your dream

Write first think later, were words I just came across from a movie. So, I am more or less taking the advice. I am writing. Just writing? You may ask. Well, a lot of things actually go through my head and I keep saying to myself, one day, I am going to put it all down. Well, you may also wonder that, wouldn’t that be a good recipe for writing rubbish? To answer that question, I don’t intend in any way to write rubbish despite the fact that I am just writing. And by the way, for you to have gotten this far in this read means something, so keep enjoying yourself while I try to bore you some more. Any ways just like my opening says and I am doing, how many times has it happened to us that we have some lofty ideas to do something, could be a song, write a poem, write an article or even a book or it could be anything really, but we just continue to confine such thoughts to their source. It never comes out, in fact some don’t even come out in form of words not even to ourselves. I naturally enjoy my sleep and I get easily stressed up if I don’t get enough sleep, but here I am typing late into the night just because of a movie. Though I wonder if I will be able to keep up this habit, but then like I say sometimes, there is always a first time. I am almost sure that if you had seen my first draft of this particular piece, you would have been frightened of by the magnitude of the errors present, but like I said, I am just writing not thinking yet. Well I hope the movie was right because I am going to humbly ask for your candid opinion concerning this piece. It is not that I am seeking encouragement of any kind and not that it may turn out to be a revelation for me that I should be in the writing profession. But then really, should I have any excuse not to write seeing that I myself have devoured a whole lot of books. Then I may have the excuse of resources you know it may be too tedious to write with a ball point pen especially in this age of mega multi media facilities that even let you dictate your own words only for the computer to type it out for you. Well I don’t have any of that as a problem because I have access to a good system that sits redundantly  on a desk in the living room of the next flat which happens to be where my room is in other words I sleep next to a computer. Oh I am looking forward to when I will own my very own laptop so when it comes I will be able to put down all this grand ideas I have. Yours my not be as difficult as mine after all I already have a computer which you don’t but you aspire to be a writer or whatever it is that your dream may be. A lot of people always talk about waiting for the right time or sorry the perfect time, and others just don’t have any access to any resource that could further enhance them. I think it may not actually be a problem of not having the resources or the right resources but it may be a case of not actually seeing the opportunity around you as resources. I don’t know yet what I have started, but I am surely going to ensure or at least try my best to put down the ideas that come to mind as and when they do. I have heard of people whose personal diaries became best sellers. We all have treasures within; all we have to do is, dig it out. Alors, like the French will say, if you made it this far, it may be probably because it is just a few lines, but beware, I might want to try you with a whole book next time and I sincerely hope you are looking forward to that but of course not with trepidation. It really was nice boring you. Cheerio.

Well am at it again, just got back from work, ate watched half or almost half of another movie that I love so much though it inspires me in other directions but it inspires me any way. Then I start writing again. What? I don’t know am still just writing, not thinking yet. I am not so used to the keyboard yet but hope that by the time I’ve gone through like 6000 words , I will know the whole layout by heart. Especially since I am not finding having to type with inadequate lighting funny and its stressful and slow. Maybe your mind wanders like mine, you may call it roving because mine is capable of scanning a million topics in a sec. it really amazes me. Makes me ask, what happens if we write down everything that passes through our mind. We might likely experience what happened when God decided to format the earth with water during Noah’s time. Which is, we all finding ourselves drowning in the deluge of our own words from our own minds. Amazing isn’t it. Well it does not end there. Say if the rule is we could determine how long we live by the words we speak no lets start with our thoughts. Yes if lets say, for every good thought you add a hundred years to your age but for every ungood thought you loose like a thousand years, what do you think the world will be like, take a guess. No more hurting remarks, snide remarks, sarcastic, words name it. At least then people will not have to be explained to, the difference between good and bad which a host of us really find difficult to justifiably define, especially where it concerns us. To me it’s simply straight forward. There is good and there is bad and it is not how we define it. Our perception can and will never erase one single truth that binds this world together. And that is there is a God who created the world and everything in it. The sooner we accept that the better for us all. Mind you am not writing as one who does not know. I know and I can tell you it’s the best that can happen to anyone. Well, well, well, I have started preaching. Forgive me I just cant help being myself that’s what. But deep down within me I know that we have all got a story in there somewhere. I guess I must be really trying your patience by now because it appears to even my self that I haven’t made any sense since I started this one and this first draft is fraught with mistakes I cant even begin to form a word that best defines it. Well maybe my not seeing too well in the dark is adding to it. Anyways for you information, I am typing with the aid of light from the monitor right in front of me. Yes. You can imagine the strain I am giving the eyes. Most painful of all is the fact that with all I think have got, I just got into my second page today. Meaning I didn’t write up to a page of words last night. Makes me really wonder how these authors could do it. I know I have always had catchy words so am prepared to use that to my advantage. They say am a natural when it comes to story telling. I kind of got it from one of my fore bears. But is like I like making myself heard, But if I really put my mind to it, I may not even bore myself. Also I know about the suspense thing and I am sure a lot of you are already wondering were I am going with all this. Well hang on cos I am also with you in the same boat. I don’t even know where this is gonna end but I have so much faith that it will end well. At least, for you to have gotten this far with me shows it’s either I’m actually good or you are just buoyed along by tenacity. My neck is stiff, my eyes are tired, I am thirsty and getting sweaty just typing, God, I didn’t realize typing was such a hard stuff. Lazy me you would say, stylishly signing of. My mistakes are killing me already and I haven’t even made it to a new page yet. I think am going to have to play the slow but steady thing on this. So, I will go as far and as long as I can go every other day. That I have lasted this long amazes even me. To cap it, that you are still with me this far…………. Fill in the blank spaces yourself. Of course there is no way I can tell. I just hope no school makes this a compulsory text for its students, cos I sure smell the makings of bloody riot on there hands if they attempt to do so. Let me beg that only the brave and adventurous embark on this uncertainness. I remember how I felt then when the English teacher would demand for just 500 words. Imagine the black out. Well we just fill up with a lot of I’s and ands. They are words you know. Really, someone tell me what I am up to tonight. Maybe still trying to a break a record of at least a page a night. I’m certain that no right thinking publisher will agree to take me on. It will sure be catastrophic for such a one. My neck is quitting, so I guess I better quit along. Thank God I hear you say. Like I said it’s the same for me too, thank God. Good night.