The CJ Factor

I was going through my archives today and stumbled onto an article I wrote back in 2010, leading up to the presidential elections the following year. Disturbingly, all of the problems 17 year old me wanted answers to are still biting hard today, 3 years after. I just had to share it.                                               ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS. (22 -01-2011)  With the conclusions of the presidential  primarie s of the three largest political parties in our country and the emergence of candidates from them, it is obvious that the much awaited 2011 presidential elections  are right around the corner. As Nigeria celebrated her silver jubilee last year, these elections have been described by many as the most important elections in our country's history and quite frankly, it is easy to see reasons with them. We are at a point in our history when we have to stand up and take bold steps towards the r edemption of our dear country. W ith these elections at our door step already

I got really upset today after reading a mindless essay written by a certain ex minister for aviation in Nigeria.  In his essay (which I will not even dignify by posting a link to) he portrayed the people of a part of this country as nothing but a bunch of free-loading, unpatriotic ,power hungry, greedy aliens, attempting to reap where as he claims, they have not sown. He went further to demand that these Nigerians should "know their place" in what according to this bigot is a land belonging to only a particular ethnic group "and them alone!"   I cannot begin to express how utterly disgusted I was, reading this. It is a real shame that in today's Nigeria, the youth of this country have to sit and listen to the most corrupt of her citizens stir up bullshit to spite, incite and create bad blood and disaccord between us. It is no news that the greater percentage of Nigerian youth could care less about where the next guy is from or what ethnic group he chooses to fi

Salvation... The cornerstone of all religious establishments. The Human race is so terrified of the doom that is promised to come upon the many who will not be saved and this in turn has led to a great deal of desperation among men to gain this salvation.  In our world today and speaking from a Nigerian perspective, the need for this spiritual "assurance" if I may call it that, has inspired the birth of a multi billion Naira industry - Souls Insurance Banking (SIB) wherein a few clever men have learned to take sacrilegious advantage of this widespread desperation among people and have now debased the sanctity of God's Word to the level of Insurance Banking. In this business, the insurance bankers (pastors) devise different means (some contradicting others) of selling this insurance package, that is the comforting hope of salvation to this Gullible Population. Worse still, people don't mind! It is common place in this country to hear stuff like "I call on the go

I was scrolling through my timeline on twitter recently when I stumbled upon this: “ All these white ignorant people that think Africa is Natgeo wild and animal planet ” It is downright sickening to know that in this day and age many Africans still haven’t let go of this prejudice against white people. When will we stop playing this blame game, face some of OUR problems and start solving them without first pushing the blame west? I understand the sentiment being that the Western media continues to portray Africa in certain crude light but we as Africans, need to realize that it is solely our responsibility to correct whatever offensive impression that the so called “white ignorant people” have of our continent. The way you treat your home is the way others will treat it. We can’t continue to be as critical and unappreciative of our continent and expect outsiders to see it for any better. Africa is a beautiful place but it is the responsibility of the African media houses to show our b

More often than not, we hear sayings like; "the youth are the leaders of tomorrow", "the youth are our future" and so on...I think a lot has been taken out of those phrases and we are now at a point where they have almost lost all essence and have little or no effect on most members of our generation. In writing this, I only hope to restore even a fraction of that essence to as many people as I am able to reach. It is often said that the human mind is a most powerful tool, whose capabilities are limitless. In my humble opinion, I believe that this generation, this 21st century generation proves this theory more than any other before it. The amount of information shared between us and the rate at which it is decimated, processed and digested is utterly astonishing. Judging by the range of subjects we allow ourselves to indulge in these days from academics to the social media, movies, music, sports, celebrity lifestyles and a few other things that I'm ashamed

As he took a closer look at the corpse in his arms, the boy looked even younger than Emeka had earlier imagined. There was no way he was over 10 years old. “Oga, na your pikin? Abi na you kill am?” the first officer asked as he motioned to Emeka who was still in shock, on his knees with the boy’s bloody head resting on his thighs. The question irritated him. “How dare you, ask me such stupid and insensitive questions?!” Emeka shot back at the MOPOL who casually chalked a circle around the boy’s corpse. “You are a very foolish man! If he is not you pikin, comot there make we do out work abeg” Emeka was utterly disgusted by the policeman’s attitude but he decided that he wasn’t going to get drawn into a verbal exchange with the illiterate, junior officer. He walked over to the 4x4 Toyota Hilux which the policemen had arrived in.  There were three other officers listening to various accounts of the incident from a few other eye-witnesses. “Who is the commanding officer here?” Emeka inte

Friends? They're the biggest treasure anyone could ever have. Sure one's family is mighty important but your family are people whom you have been destined to love and tolerate regardless of their short comings. Your family are the most unlikely people to walk out of your life. Your family will love you unconditionally and go to any length to protect and defend you but with friends, you can never really know for sure and that's what makes friendships so thrilling. All you know for sure is that you have chosen that person to be a part of your miserable life and you are willing to condone a fair amount of imperfections as long as the common ties that bind you continue to transcend those imperfections. Now I personally don't like to over-associate the word "trust" with friendship. For me  a person you trust is someone in whose hands you can place your life. That's it for me. anything less than that, I see as having 'confidence' and having confidence in

Good morning fellow earthlings!! so this is my first post of 2013 on this blog and I honestly feel I couldn't have come up with a more befitting topic than the new mixtape, Folarin by the very talented Wale. Released on Christmas eve as an early present for his fans, this production hosted by DJ Clark Kent  is everything that makes the Nigerian born lyricist one of the most promising talents in the music industry - Intelligent, original, smooth complete and fun. Folarin is a back and forth journey from the classic underground delivery that earned him the respect of original Rap enthusiasts to the more subtle and romantic tunes which have endeared Wale to a large number of female fans. It doesn't matter whether you're kicking it with your Gees or just having a moment with you girl/man,  you CAN bump this mixtape all day long. I'm really trying hard not to build it up too much but  dare I say that Folarin is a timeless work of art! I am buzzing in anticipation of the rele