Izuu's Turn

One painful experience I have had is doing all you can to help someone else and the person turns round to accuse you of being wicked. It so happens that atimes, someone we have been good to accuses us wrongly of being the cause of their problem. It's happening all around us: in politics, religion, education, and economics. Good intentions are often construed for selfishness. And for good reasons too because as one African proverb says: it's not kindness but the need for a clean mouth that prompts the hippopotamus to open its mouth for birds to peck at. So I make bold to say that the reason people don't love us as much as we desire even with our professed altruistic purpose is basically because they can sense the undercutting selfish interests beneath the Greek offer. Examples from international politics are so many that I don't know which to choose. They range from the interests of the West in the Arab world to those of China in Africa and other developing ...

It's not certain what one could consider the greatest tragedy that can happen to a human being. I do not think it is death because we are not certain about the hereafter. But I do know that losing a means of livelihood is not something most of us would wish to experience. Permit me, friend, to say that it is not the end of the world. You will surely rise again in such a manner that will shame Phoenix. But before then, friend, I wish to tell you a few truths. Rising from the ashes of failure is easier than staying up. Staying up itself takes a lot of energy exerted in being tactful, less voluble and determining who your real friends are. The last part is very important because those you call friends are the ones you should not inundate with a deluge of half truths and lies. Yes, lies, friend! You told me so much of it that I started doubting, for a moment, my own sanity. I gave you a few advice and some others who have your interest at heart advised you wisely. But ...

I once met a fifty-five year old man who blatantly told me that he will be like me when he grows up. A successful man by many standards, with a thriving business, two sons that were already university graduates and so many other achievements that space will not allow me to enumerate. I wondered what it was about me that this man desired so much that prompted him to say what he said. This got me thinking. Oftentimes we get so hard on ourselves that we forget how to just live life. We tend to focus so much on the yet-to-be-attained so much that we forget to be grateful for the already-attained. We get so hard on ourselves that success becomes something we attribute to folks other than ourselves. It just eludes our consciousness that the people we envy often wish they were us. With these thoughts in me, I opted to be less harsh on myself. I became cognisant of the fact that there peers of mine who will give a limb just to have half of what I already possess. Why then should...

He had just settled with his chilled bottle of beer and a water-dripping glass. His favourite position was vacant at his arrival; a darker corner of the bar. It's also his best after-work 'watering spot.' Though equipped with countless swirling and twinkling coloured bulbs, the darkness of the bar still held sway over its brightness. After a long, slurpy sip of the foamy, cold beer from the wet glass, he leans into his seat savouring the taste and the soothing coldness of the liquid as it courses over his palatte, down his oesophagus to the indescribable depths of his entrails. A triumphant smile plays at the corner of his protrudent lips as he remembers his wife's counsel. She is pregnant with their first baby and these moments are the singular moments that he enjoys because he does not need to help her stand up, raise her legs, give her an extra pillow, get her a glass of water, or most irritatingly bear her nagging complaint about tiredness, loss of appetite, minor...

I am pleased that the present members of Nigeria's House of Representatives have collectively refused to cower to the dictates of the powers that be in the country's politics. Whether we want to admit it or not, the bane of Nigeria's development can be traced to the antics of this cabal; selfish individuals who benefit from the crises that bedevil the nation and its people. I earnestly long for the day that the masses of this country will discard the divisive cloak of ethnicity, religion and nepotism, to stare truth in the face and say a permanent emphatic "NO!" to these oligarchic opportunists. I pray that GEJ will rise to the occasion and write his name in gold by standing up to these folks ... Just like the Reps did yesterday. We need to do much more than sacrificing competence and popularity on the altar of zoning. For me, zoning often leads to the enthronement of mediocrity and god fatherism. Someone who is elected based on popularity is not necessar...