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Saturday 30 August 2014

Cogitatis Ergo Estis

For those who are soul searching
For those who are mind seeking
For those who are feeling the gravity of what life is about
Those who are worried about the outcome of the nearest future
Those who are about to lose hope, those who are about to lose it
Stay. Stay in this moment. Believe.
Your greatest fear will be turned on its head
And you blossom will be beyond suffice.
Just like proverbial saying "Where there is life, ...".
However you might like to see life, here's the thing
Make a pledge to arise... "Cogito ergo sum"
Cos
If you are, you breathe
If you breathe, you talk
If you talk, you ask
If you ask, you learn
If you learn, you experience
If you experience, you think
If you think, you grow
If you grow, you seek
If you seek, you find
If you find, you doubt
If you doubt,  you question
If you question, you understand
If you understand, you know
If you know, you want to know more
And if you want to know more, then you are alive.



Tuesday 12 August 2014

Oyingbo!

The Bhojsons building ever present though it does not look the same way I left it the last time. It got a paint job and it no longer bears the burden of carrying its name on its head, rather it wears it on its body like a tattoo. However it still stands tall, proudly unclad just staring at the expanse of land beneath it and so does the church which is in proximital radius and the post office which is about a mile away, and the shuttle buses, the ones going to the expressway and the one going to the island. The chatterings are still present, both the pronounced and indistinctive, this place has always been a hub.

20 years ago, the chattering was more, and louder. Development has come, infrastructural advancement, BRT lanes, Banks, restaurants but the same old feel of a market place is there. Market women here and there, traders all around the place. Countless wholesales counters and shop, this is indeed a depot of foodstuff. Practically, every food consumed in the Lagos metropolis must have passed through here, it is a traditional place with a traditional smell.

There goes a Yoruba proverb which says:
“Eni ti o le sebi alaaru loyingbo, ko le sebi adegboro loja oba”
This translates literally into
“If you cannot give haulage services manually at Oyingbo, then you cannot be in charge of being the sole foodstuff provider for the king”. Well, more like “Whoever is not ready to serve cannot become a boss”. This reaffirms its prestige, but the proverb basically means "NO PAIN NO GAIN"

Countless lives have crisscrossed at this juncture. People who have felt the pain People who have made the gain. Everybody gains after all, one way or the other. This place is a mirror of what the state is, the hustle and bustle of Lagos. Matter of fact, it mirrors the world itself, the world is marketplace.

I hail the heritage of this place. Oyingbo!


Grin

“The truth is bitter” is a popular phrase we know of, but nobody likes to hear it; the truth that is. It always sounds like a mortar shelling or bullet riddling. People also believe in the other sayings “Ignorance is bliss” and “What you don’t know won’t hurt you”. Apparently, neither the former nor the latter is true, Ignorance is not bliss and What you don’t know still hurts you, just that you don’t know how it hurts you.

What if I say a bottle of coke is equal to 20 cubes of sugar and its job is to get you closer to diabetes, but I think everybody knows this already.

What if I say the government; world government that is, is constantly looking for ways to hurt you.

Who runs the world? Definitely not the girls.

The Illuminati runs the world! I am not trying to scare you.

What if I say the Illuminati has nothing to do with the devil or religion or profanity and you are made to believe otherwise. The guys in the music industry are just making their money off this façade getting all the attention. From as little as your fast food and fluoride toothpaste to technology, money, market prices and oil, the illuminati controls everything.

40 years after the world war, the world population was balanced and was growing geometrically. They had to do something about it, don’t you think? Surely, the world was more peaceful then, they could not start another war. Poetically, the Odysseus of their time advised them, they took to the labs and prepared some pathogens perfect for population control. They dispatched the HIV first, then 30 years later, they dispatched Ebola, though they had announced both of them together. For what it’s worth, the “undead” virus may still be in their freezer, but I would not like to scare you further.

What if I say 9/11 was all planned by the host country themselves, I cannot give too much details on this.

What if I say for some reason unknown to me, since the dawn of civilization; the days of Alex the Great, every big gun has been trying to conquer Afghanistan as if to avert a prophecy of some sort. I would not know if the Afghans are good or bad but I know they have oil and the people fighting them are the people they do not sell oil to; USSR, Russia, U.S.A. But the Afghans are resilient, local enemies of Afghanistan used to say a prayer.

“May God deliver us from the venom of the cobra, the teeth of the tiger and the revenge of the Afghan”

Pablo Escobar and Muammar Gadhafi might have not been bad guys but victims of their individual causes just like Ojukwu.

What if I say the mainstream Nigerian music videos of today are more or less soft porn videos a pervert would easily masturbate to, just the lyrics are enough for the pleasure. Put me in a superior position and I’d ban them all and mandate the musicians to enrol for basic moral education. I’m sure you’ll do the same, but it could all be an attempt by the government to corrupt the next generation.

What if I say the whole subsidy issue, Farouk Lawan, Otedola, subsidy committee is a total film show and the ordinary people of Nigeria are their grateful audience.

What if I say that the girls were not abducted but instead relocated. It was more of a relaxed operation than a quick one. This is only my opinion, though they called it an act of terrorism, they say terrorism is a consequence of religion.

What if I say religion is more of a tool for propaganda than a tool for salvation. I am not supposed to be blasphemous, they say. So I should not say stuff like “The pope is gay” or “the forbidden tree is not a tree but actually sex”, but that’s none of my business.

I might appear to be spewing hatred, but it’s the truth and it’s food for the spirit.

What if you say I’m a blatant liar and I am just talking rubbish. If the shoe fits, I’ll wear it, but if it doesn’t. Then you have to swallow the truth, grin and bear it.