Happy Birthday Nigeria! Happy Independence Nigerians!!

Happy Birthday Day Nigeria! I love u, love u, love u even with your numerous issues: ASUU on strike, boko haram, PHCN palava, unemployment, PDP, chop-alone-leaders, corruption-the father of all (but bros Jona said corruption is a perception...smh). 

Issues neva finish but I gast stop to say "Happy Independence and happy happy new month to all my fine peeps!! Love y'all!"

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Communicating with God-a different perspective

She wakes up at 5.30am and does what is expected of every practising Christian.

However, she assumes that God is still asleep, so she feels obligated to wake him up with her sonorous voice.  She sings all the worship songs she knows (do not forget that she is a chorister).

 

After about twenty minutes of futile endurance, her roommate shifts noisily on the bed as a way of informing her that she is still trying to sleep. She notices but says within herself, “well you are not supposed to be sleeping by this time. I cannot please you and displease my God”. After exhausting all the songs she knows, she decides to have a quality chat with God. She fills the entire room with her words even though she knows that God is not hard of hearing. As for her poor roommate, she has no other alternative but to give up the quest of achieving a sound sleep, since the ‘alarm’ (which she did not set) cannot be turned off.

Majority of us will definitely pity 'the poor roommate' criticising the prayer warrior for being self-centered and inconsiderate. Before we become like the hypocrites who wanted to stone the adulterous woman, let me remind us that we cannot be completely exonerated from this infuriating act. Let me rephrase the above narrative.

(The guilty ones know themselves) When you wake up in the morning you sing worship songs, hymns, or praises and pray aloud even if it is still very early in the day and everyone else is asleep. *I experienced that in the university and experiencing it now, courtesy my sweet neighbor* 

For those who have gospel DVD’s, cassettes, or other electronic devices with gospel songs, you blast it, not minding whether or not you are invading the serenity of those around you. *I experienced that during NYSC* 

Even churches cannot be acquitted of this selfish act. A church in residential area holding its midweek vigil or early morning service would put the volume of its speakers (speakers inside the church premises but facing the outside world) to the maximum interfering with the quietness of the neighborhood. Surprisingly, you will not find more than fifteen members of the congregation present, sometimes just their nuclear family members. *I am experiencing that now* 

To you, you are communicating effectively with God, but to the other person (the victim), you are only producing unwanted sounds.

Communicating with God is absolutely necessary and mandatory but it should not constitute a source of disturbance to others. God knows the yearnings of your heart, so you do not need too many words to explain yourself to him; he confirmed this in Mt 6:8 “Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him.” Although he also said that we should ask and we shall receive, that does not imply you speak on the top of your voice. You could either pray silently or go to a place where your voice would not bother anyone if you must pray aloud. This, he also confirmed in Mt 6:6 “But when you pray, go to your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you.”

Everybody loves and wants uninvaded tranquility. No one looks forward to being disturbed in anyway, especially when one is trying to get a decent sleep after a hectic day or while having a swell time in dreamland. Some people highly cherish that early morning sleep and you just destroy it for them. Why don’t you live in accordance with the aforementioned biblical quote or the golden rule “Do unto others as you want others to do unto you”. 

On a lighter note: Imagine you have been praying to God to reveal your future partner  to you and on this wonderful night you dream about this person. Just as you were about to see the face of this partner you have been searching for, you hear a voice from a loud speaker singing/shouting "We have come again 2x, father we have..."    Or 

You wake up to use the rest room in the middle of the night, only to find it hard to sleep again. The room is hot as there is no power supply and you heard one mosquito buzzing close to your ears. You are struggling to sleep and finally you drift away. Suddenly your heart skips a beat as you are brought back to reality by the aggressive sound of a pastor shouting "All enemies of progress, trying to delay my success, in the name of Jesus die! die! die!"         

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October 1st Nigeria is 52! This is what I have to say!

This is not a blog post, it is just me talking to myself-so please pardon any errors. You can call it a soliloquy or monologue, even trilogue-me, myself and I. I should have posted this earlier but PHCN decided that today of all days, they would not supply my community with power till late this evening. Anyway, yesterday I wasn't really feeling myself. No enthusiasm, no motivation, no will-power, nothing...just little me playing with my phone and with my ear piece plugged into my ears listening to some Enya and Yanni music.

I was having my dinner when I saw something on a popular TV station about Nigeria being 52...yada yada yada...tune in at 7am. My aunt actually brought my attention to it when she said, "na who dey want make e wake at that time pscheww?" I laughed and agreed in silence. I also thought to myself, even if one decides to wake up to watch/listen, will there be power supply? 

In the Twitter mood, I tweeted about it.

@yincah tomorrow is for sleeping, not excited at all. A station showing Nig @ 52 7am. Who r dey expectin to b awake @dat tym? PHCN go gree?  and my friend replied

@frediliamomodu fredilia is vexing

which I replied back

@yincah Vexing ke. I get tym! I'm even enjoyin a plate of peppersoup with catfish and turkey. 

After some time on Twitter, I went into a shallow trance, swimming in thoughts of how life would have been if Nigeria was a land where the dreams of children and youths were not frustrated. I watch American films and hear Americans talk about the American dream; but I hardly hear of the Nigerian dream. Please if you do, let me know. Maybe that is too ambiguous, let me rephrase. What is my dream as a person and how can Nigeria make it happen? Nigeria hmmm...(screaming in my mind) Nigeria how can you make my dreams happen? JAMB question abi! 

If Nigeria were one person, these are what I would ask her (like a mother scolding her child): 

Why did you allow me spend 3years doing JAMB without admission? It is not as if I was not passing. 

Why did you pressure me to choose Chemistry all because I wanted to gain admission? Lack of proper counselling.
Why don't you ensure that there are career counselling centres in secondary schools to give our young ones a sense of direction before choosing a course of study in the university?

Why is it that schools are all about books at the expense of a child's natural abilities? I was good at speaking, writing, drawing and performing arts but who cared. 

Why are  graduates working in places where their talents and education don't fit just because they want to make a living? 
Why do we import virtually everything when God has blessed Nigeria with numerous natural resources?
Why can't we have stable power supply after 52 years? A piece of advise: you don't need to change the name again, PHCN=NEPA.
Why is corruption the order of the day amongst those who are supposed to be our leaders? They accumulate wealth at the expense of the people and still get national awards.
Why do perpetrators of evil go scot-free?
Why do the Rich keep getting richer and the Poor poorer?  

Why do our parents and grandparents say you were better in their time? What has happened to you Nigeria? What has happened to you o?
I am positive we all have our different answers to these questions. 

What can man or woman do? I thank God for our flexible and resilient nature, because anywhichway, we must make things work for us. That is why we are Nigerians!

I woke this morning and thought of the president's speech came to mind. I looked at my clock it was 8am. I checked, no light. Then I remembered the past gifts (fuel subsidy, renaming Unilag, my Alma mater) GEJ surprised us with and said to myself, "hope he doesn't give us a gift this time."     
Talk never finish but I wan stop...as a sign of respect 

Happy Independence Nigeria!
... I still love you.