Population explosion: the beckon of bright lights!

Everyday people escaping a dreary rural existence pour into Nigerian cities in flood like proportions. They come clutching their dreams as tightly and as dearly as the bags containing their favored items.
Some these dreams are realized, others become nightmares.

I am an urban migrant myself. City life here in Lagos is not just fast but dizzyingly so. Lagos is a very energetic city. Rush hour isn’t happening only at the odd morning or evening hour but at every tick on the clock. With short breaks observed only between the dangerous interval between midnight and dawn.

Lagos is one city bearing more than its fair share of the country’s population. Its infrastructures are the most overworked. They are not even allowed rest during weekends.
It’s a city whose economics mocks the law of gravity. Prices of commodities are always in the high like its many street urchins whose daily diet is spiced by weed.
Housing for instance, as soon as a structure sprouts from the earth and there is constant activity to suggest that the builders are intent on completion in the shortest possible time, there will be an army of house seekers waiting to invade.
The ones who get keys to the apartments are usually the highest bidders in the auction.

Just as much, as soon as an area in the outskirts start seeing development, it takes very little time before it becomes another noisy and over populated bee hive. Like a festering sore, the same ugliness of overcrowding, clustered buildings, aggressive street trading, touting etc is replicated.

Just as rural dwellers buy a bus ticket to a modern life in the cities even so do urban dwellers buy plane tickets, usually one way, to less chaotic, more structured, better regulated, better planned life in the more advanced cities of the West.

All a rural dweller needs to make up his mind about leaving is to see pictures from friends and neighbors who have moved. The shine, the background buildings etc are hard to resist. Modern inventions like radio, TV, glossy magazines and very recently the Internet fuel this migratory trend. Everyone will only like to call home the place that offers the most comfort and prosperity.

As these cities get obese with no let up in their intake, is there a possibility of an explosion?
Was the last census only used as a tool to demand a larger share in the national cake by over populated cities?
Do the people in Government concern themselves with this or are they more concerned about making sure that the engine of growth of the Western world lacks no oil?

The religion of peace

The religion of peace
Oddly leaves lives and properties in bits
The junction of time determines the weapon of choice
Crude stones or civilized bombs



The righteous murderers
Are their own first victims
Blocking out the voice within
A gag stuffs up the nag




A blood thirsty god calling for bloody action
The desire for virgins heating up the passion
Climaxing in a thunderous explosion

Boom! Goes the outer world
Gloom! Doom! The inner world

A lavish amount of water is scooped
As the friction of palms labor to rub out the guilt

Higher & higher rises the voice that prays
Announcing that today
The religion of peace
Has done its bit!

The world's biggest liability

Your life is like teeth
It exists only to cut
What ear can hear your story
And not recoil in horror?

If a priest were to read the scripture
Declaring that there were no more two in the picture
You will arrive with hooves of thunder
And leave all asunder

You have been around since time
Like a cat’s claw, you have left sharp marks

The grave truth about you is buried
And the visible epitaph reads a bold lie

It’s either your story is unknown or it's heard only in whispers
The details are a scorching hell

With every blackened soul you own
You ignite an unseen war
A war that makes Iraq look like a playground
Because they clutch a gun but also hold out hope for peace

With you
It’s always exaggerated


Like with 6 million Jews
You caused a total eclipse in the news!

some things are better left alone

They stare at me
Their eyes brimming with questions

I return the stare

My eyes offering no explanations



They seek to peel back my layers

But I do not oblige

Because like an onion

The content of those layers might draw tears to their eyes

Under God’s Sky and His watchful Eye

While draining my teacup of its milky content, I noticed the morning light dimming. The cloud was brooding. Instead of its clean look, it looked dark and dirty.
Out of the door, I broke into an even paced jog. My stomach sloshing with undigested semi solid breakfast: the road to the bus stop stretched endlessly before me. Soon out of air I slowed down to a walk when I heard my ankles begin to talk.
Before long the morning looked like it was evening. Headlights were turned on to illuminate the darkening road. Frantic movements, adults hurrying, kids scurrying, folks nowhere near origin or destination doing the jumps over gutters in their search for shelters, road side traders spreading nylon covers over their wares, lightweight materials gaining buoyancy as they get picked up in the excited wind, competing winds locking horns making frightened dust particles flee into eyeballs for cover, umbrellas growing from prepared people’s heads like mushrooms.

Observing all this brought a thought to my mind. I remembered that Heavenly daddy is the sole controller of the universe, he schedules the seasons, rainy and dry as we have it here. It didn’t seem implausible that I could gain favor from Him by asking the time for the downpour to be delayed long enough for me to get to my bus stop. I still had a lot of ground to cover. The sky was barely holding. Drops were already cascading lightly but I had no doubt that I could pull strings with Heavenly daddy. But this didn’t mean that I walked like my need to stay dry meant more to Heavenly Daddy than His duty to feed the mouths of millions of His other creatures. No, this wasn’t the case.
Because of delayed rains, such staples like corn, pear, oranges, have been in short supply. The farmers blame it to a baked earth untouched by rains.

Just a few meters to the bus stop, the sky broke at it’s seams. Slanting silver drops pierced the air, fast and furious, filling up gutters in the bat of an eyelid.
I got soaked to the skin but my bones managed to stay dry.

I got to the office, leaking water on the tiled floor like a watering can in a nursery garden . Without a change of clothes to slip into the heat from my laptop helped to warm my fingers while a waiting mail from my fiancée brought some warmth to my heart.

Once upon a time in history, Heavenly Daddy was willing to freeze the Sun and the Moon in their tracks because elder brother Josh had some scores to settle with obstructing infidels. Elder Brother Elijah was once given supernatural strength to outrun the wind in a bid to escape a vengeful weather.

Heavenly Daddy is well known for His fairness, goodness, tenderness and soft tissue heart although He can be firm even stern. He uses the rod to make His kids sit up straight but experience has shown that He also has a waiting balm to massage into the welts drawn across our stubborn posterior.
For many, the rain pounded and attempted to dissolve them but Heavenly Daddy made it fall soft and gentle on me as well as sending a non frigid wind to bring dryness.

Heavenly Daddy loves His Children equally but is moved more by those of His kids who give Him a chance at helping them in circumstances beyond their control. To them He sends help that refreshes their soul.

Grudge against a rat

The rat!
Ate most of my grains
And left me a thank you stain!
Beholding it gave my heart a twinge of pain

Nothing will appease
Short of a trap
Closing the case with a just snap

And as it chokes you by the neck
I will call to mind how you thought I was a jerk!

Anger

Bottled like carbonated drink
It desires to heal
By straining at the seal

It's sudden "pop"
Gives a scary shock


What it does
Has a face looking away from right


But what's left
Sets off a relaxing belch!

Boiling Point

It’s not only on my stove that things boil. It also gets steamy in my mind. Restive in my heart, sizzling in my vein. It’s a familiar cycle. Right there, Satan’s racings leave a dusty trail that makes it difficult to see the good in life. The evil rises in sharp detail; the good lies distant and faded.
Oily sweat moisturizes the skin as the mechanism of thought ramps up my internal temperature.
My head becomes as unfeeling as a brick as it is subjected to intense introspection while it mercilessly goes on a mile long search for the reason for the upset of the delicate harmony and balance of my emotions.
Faces float before it as it looks for an outlet: a name to pin the blame. It is already suffering so it couldn’t be punished any further or implicated of any guilt. It is spared.

A therapy is badly needed: something ordered, logical, soothing, dreamy, and soft. The hand extends to the drawers, the fingers rummaging, seeking for that which will quiet the storm: Something as calming as the words of Jesus the Christ when he spoke to the troubled Sea of Galilee.
Maybe the stomach is empty and needs filling. Or the nerves are frayed and need soothing. The mind is bored and needs stimulating. The ears itching and need to hear the sound of music, laughter. Maybe a walk along the creative path will expose the mind to peace like a tree swayed by the breeze. Maybe…the maybes are as much as your imagination can stretch.
Hours pass and all that is achieved is what a drunk achieves when he sloshes his brain with the memory tinkering contents of alcohol…forgetfulness. The situation doesn’t fade away but the consciousness of it does.
Slowly the tightness unwinds, the frenzy comes to a grind, the ice melts, the eye blinks…there is a sneeze swiftly ferried away by the breeze.
No doubt, Life is back.

An unusual approach to sharing the Gospel

Usually when people sense that you are about to share the good news about Christ and His saving power or that you are trying to warn them of the dangers of not hiding under the shadow of His protecting wing, they harden their mind.

Employing the skill I use often when writing poetry, which is to awaken curiosity in my audience and cause them to investigate the puzzle that my words hold, I mystified this lady friend of mine in a chat session. I only let the penny drop at the end by cluing her in with an unmistakable clue.

Here's our exchange:

crystalden_25: hi
freddy_lincoln: low
freddy_lincoln: they are back...to break more backs!
crystalden_25: hmmmn
freddy_lincoln: you got one for breaking?
crystalden_25: saw tht
crystalden_25: whtz tht supposed to mean
crystalden_25: ?
freddy_lincoln: can't call names...can only give attributes
crystalden_25: wht?
crystalden_25: speak English pls
freddy_lincoln: lol
crystalden_25: laugh all u wnt
freddy_lincoln: To call a name is to play a deadly game
crystalden_25: and?
freddy_lincoln: sorry, if I do that, knowing how dangerous they are, I will have no one but me to blame
freddy_lincoln: sorry, I know all this is really mysterious
freddy_lincoln: It's because things have gotten really serious
crystalden_25: are u sure u're tlking to me
crystalden_25: ?
freddy_lincoln: Nothing can stop them...they are unstoppable!
freddy_lincoln: Anyone who speaks of the law earns a broken jaw
freddy_lincoln: sorry crystal
freddy_lincoln: really sorry
freddy_lincoln: I hate to make you look so dumb
crystalden_25: are u nuts?
freddy_lincoln: I am sorry squirrel...I can't be your lunch
crystalden_25: i hope not
freddy_lincoln: hope at this time, crystal, is dead!
freddy_lincoln: The situation is all gloom and doom
crystalden_25: he's really nut s, everybody run for dear life
freddy_lincoln: you hope because you are drinking a bottle of illusions
freddy_lincoln: And if life is dear to you, then I am sorry for you
freddy_lincoln: They said they would destroy all that is near and dear to the heart
freddy_lincoln: Crystal, it's bad. It's sad...They will break every back!
freddy_lincoln: Your's included
freddy_lincoln: Have to leave you now to hatch my escape plan
freddy_lincoln: I have 66 books to study to overcome the most vicious...agent 666
freddy_lincoln: I hope you make it. The road is really narrow and takes only an elected few

Miss Love

“I love you”
The oil with which you fry my brain into scrambled eggs


“I miss you”
The lullaby with which you rock my senses to sleep

“I will call you”
The coffee with which you burn the sleep off my eyelids


“When are we going home to see my mama?”
The piercing scream that jerks me up from the dream!

Sometimes, it's the last key that turns it open

His life had been characterized by weakness for as long as he had been self-aware.
Mentally appraising his personality profile, he shakes his head in utter disbelief: According to Biology, he is supposed to be the strongest of the horde in the spermatic dash that crowned him with life. What ridiculous nonsense! He thought.
He has never done anything but flail and thrash against the currents of life.
He is not only sick and tired now but he is sick and tired of being sick and tired. He had put off the decision to do something for too long. Fate has resisted every of his attempt at self-embetterment. So it has dawned on him that if there exists an undisclosed category of people whose script in the theatre of life has a predetermined outcome of failure and defeat, he is unarguably among them. It’s a sad fact yet one he is no longer flinching from. He is facing it and his decision has become decisive: Stop it now!

Stopping it though would require courage: a trait so conspicuously lacking in his constitution.
But he had observed the empowerment that fear gives to weaker creatures in the face of danger that may spell their untimely end. He had seen Goats revise their defensive strategy to an attacking one when driven against a wall. He was going to let himself be driven against a wall to bring out his survival instinct, which in this case does not mean continued existence: but the survival of his dignity from the mindless and endless assaults launched against it by failure.

Life had being cruel to him. It had brought to him death in small installments: A Heartbreak here, some rejection there etc. He desired a swifter exit. But Life apparently favored a slower approach. Since it wasn’t coming at the rate he preferred, he surmised that he would have to take the initiative.

He did just this on a magical night: A night that saw the Moon out in full splendor and Stars twinkling with unusual brilliance. It could be speculated that nature was out in its best to encourage him or bid his suffering soul good bye.
He found just the perfect spot: a clear patch of ground with just a minimal clutter of leaves beneath a tall, rugged tree.
With one sweeping glance, he took in Earth but couldn’t feel any tug of emotion in his heart to suggest that he would miss this place that was never truly home to him. Admittedly, there are so many unknowns. He didn’t know for instance, if death would give him a better place. That answer rested too high in the realms of religion. Perhaps, he didn’t even wish for another home; perhaps what he needed was an end to everything; a cessation, finality!

Blocking out these train of thought, which was beginning to let in doubts into his settled mind, he quickly reached for the wooden handled, gleaming blade he had bought earlier in the day. Everything had being mentally rehearsed to familiarity. The organ to strike at was the heart. He was going to drive the blade in with maximum force to get the deadly result he wished for: He didn’t want to survive it or be in too much pain.

Just as he was holding up the knife, he felt something tumble down along the length of his leg, startling him. Narrowing his eyes in the poorly lit and shadow littered environment, he saw it was his pocket Bible.
He picked it up seeing it was parted to the book of Acts. Lifting up the small print closer to his vision, he read the words:
My strength is perfected in your weakness…My Grace is sufficient for you.
Then the book fell off his grip. He picked it up again, noticing the parting to a different page. Reading out loud, he heard the following words:
God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are.” …
In one sobering instant the import of the scriptures hit him. Like a man waking up from a dream, he looked again at himself realizing with horror that but for those words he would be lying dead in the pool of his own blood with a knife sticking out from his chest. He walked away with a new resolve. Perhaps it’s the last key in the ring that would open the door he desired to enter into his fulfillment. He was going to turn his knife against failure!

Twilight Zone

My strength failing
I clutch for support as I sink through the emptiness of air
Floor's indifference takes my fall and offers me pain
My breath escapes like a cat fleeing a burning building

In my skull, silence explodes!
I strain my ear to pick up the sound of concern
But activity has no time for me

I seek a voice to state my case
But my vocal chord strangles my cause

All these gets filed away in my memory
Which is already an overflowing archive of pain and hurt

I lie befuddled as everyone walks and talks
My prostrate form becoming a pipe through which resentment and bitterness course
I grumble that my life is a sweaty and screaming nightmare

Light fades as my thoughts take a walk on the shadowed track of despair
I lose my footing...on reason...on joy
Depression ambushes and coshes my head
I fall unconscious: coldness and numbness blanketing me
Happiness is not cold enough to revive me

I wake up later and unwind memories reel
I make a movie screen out of air
It ripples with images of the past
And reflects grotesque shadows of the future

My vision is so clouded
It's rainy season in my head
To control the flood, I grab a pen and write
Punctuating each line with a sigh

My bones are rickety furniture
They bear my weight with complaining creaks

In a crowded world
I manage to feel alone
Caged by fears, released by tears

I muse that if it was up to me, I wouldn't live
I would decide that it was easier to just leave

There are those who have it better
And those who have it worse
Neither better nor worse
I stand in twilight zone

Heartbreak

Ah, My Tears!
Flow! Flow! Flow unhindered!
Run your course along the mounds of my swollen cheek
Rinse away the toxins stockpiled in my skull
Add taste to me by your salty content
Let your fall break my brokenness
That I may find healing

Ah, Pain!
Carve it deep on my heart
That I may never forget
Narrow my eyes
That my vision may be sharpened

Ah, emotions!
Bleed! Bleed!
That Life may flow out of me

And pulse in my words
**********************
In this poem, I preserve the memory of a painful break up
August 25, 2006

Grey Emotion

There are times when what you feel couldn’t be classed simply into a category of strong and weak emotions. In these times the feeling is an even mix of both extremities: neither a giddy joy nor sinking sadness: A plateau rather than a towering mountain or a depressed valley; Just an interplay that produces a bittersweet mixture.
I love to be happy and hate to be sad. But experience tells me that both emotional states can and do have a meeting point where none claims any dominance. Like when cold and heat level to form a lukewarm state.

Sadness is not the most sought after and appreciated emotion yet it is inescapable in this mortal realm. It is inextricably woven by fate into man’s experiences.
The pull of sadness on man is as strong as the gravity that keeps him from levitating: very strong. Once in an odd while, man breaks free from it’s clutches, and flies off in erratic motions like a butterfly.

Something indefinable is terribly wrong with this world we call our home. A baby’s first contact with it produces a distressing reaction: piercing screams and agitated gestures. The family, already hardened to its condition finds it funny to watch the puny baby’s violent response.

The one place in which God prepared for man’s habitation is Earth but it is also the place most hostile to him. In it he finds his diseases, pollution, wars, hunger, natural disasters and finally his end: death.

Recently, the newspaper headlines had screaming announcements about an earthquake in the Indonesian Island of Java. Thousands of people got entombed in Earth’s gluttonous bowel. Buildings got flattened to rubbles. The papers had high resolution images of survivors weeping and looking mournful.

The dead lay tranquil and docile, in the midst of the disaster. The living walked around weeping sad tears and expressing mad fears about the future.
Then the question jumped into my mind: who, in this picture, is the loser, the resting dead or the fretting living?

At the point of death, everything stops dead in their tracks. All the suffering, strife, worries, struggles comes to a permanent halt. Humans walk around complaining about life’s ever-present woes, yet death is never a welcome relief. They know that they are destined for this great appointment yet it never meets them prepared.

Christians view death very differently. They know and understand that it is a servant of their father; their God. This knowledge takes them out of the grip of worries about its whims and caprices. They believe that they have received Eternal life, so their death in Time is their commencement of Life in Eternity.

I read the Bible and learn that I have preexisted in the mind of God. But what I was then is not what I am now. I am a god because I am a Son of God. Same genetics. Like all men made from dust, I shall die and my flesh will rot, but I will not miss it: for in it I had my tempestuous temptations, debilitating weaknesses, burdensome afflictions, nagging insatiability etc
So it was really a nuisance more than anything.

Murdered By Love!

Like an excited kid
You giggle and run back and forth in my head
Screaming, “catch me, catch me!”
I shriek, “wait for me!”
You howl back
“I can’t stop this motion, please catch up!”

But I remain rooted to the floor
My eyes staring- hypnotized
As you shrink-increasingly dwarfed by the distance

My voice rings out after you
But returns unanswered
Escorted back by grave silence

Lost is what I have become
Trapped in the middle of nowhere
Knowing you are gone fracturing my mind

Looking at my now desolate world
I scream into the wind like a maniac
“She was all I had…”Justice, justice, I have been robbed”!

My skull becomes a ghost town
Where ghostly memories play at
Taunting and haunting

My sighs go forth
As the wind forerunning rain
Salty tears trickling in the stormy sequence

Death is man’s destination
Life is the train that makes the journey
So with one puffed breath at a time
I fade into it

For you, miss secnarf

Random thoughts on relaxation, the mind and books!

My favorite picture of a simple relaxation is one in which I am reading while munching on a doughnut and sipping on a glass of milk.
I love the doughnut shape because I find it convenient to playfully hook my fingers in the middle while brooding on the content of my reading material. Milk helps with softening the effect that would result from the by-product of eating too much doughnuts; oil. My days of forming a close bond with this drink dates back to my boarding school days and I have since stayed true. I don’t even flirt with coffee or other brews. My consumption of milk continues to grow heavier. Last month, June, saw me tearing open two 400g net weight of the powdery stuff.

My love for reading was one of love at first sight. As soon as I learnt to spell and make sense out of a sentence, it became a big hit with me. Books have been faithful companions: speaking to me in periods of loneliness, telling me stories, empowering my expression by giving me more than one way to see and articulate a thought, educating me in privacy outside the confines of a classroom and above all, helping me to think!

It was even more exciting when I realized that the beautiful minds that the world has ever celebrated all had reading as a common indulgence. It nourished their imaginations to a heightened fertility and creativity.

I remember a restless young man, Azuka Eboka Obi, from my secondary school days. He was a slavish reader. I have seen him curl up with a book on weekends for hours at a time. He wouldn’t go to church because, well, he had more exciting stories to read. He performed poorly in class work, except in English Language and the arts and some science subjects requiring more practical skills. He read for pleasure: magazines, novels etc Books were for him pretty much an escapist mechanism. He couldn’t deal with the abstraction that came with other subjects. They were too much for his entertainment hungry mind to handle.
At a point, he fell a class behind us, but no one including the teachers could call him a failure. He just had his focus and priority mixed is what everyone thought.

Forever restless, he was never satisfied to leave things as they were. He would tear them apart and modify them. We saw him melt our plastic buckets many times to make blades for battery operated fans, turn a can to a crude pressing iron heated by burning coals, water heater constructed from metal hangers etc
Once we entered the dormitory and were greeted with sounds that seemed like those in a cinema. What had changed?
He had rigged up a palm size hand held computer game to huge speakers and the sounds got incredibly amplified. There was no telling what this dude would come up with next. He quickly got bored with his last achievement.

To be sure, I don’t think Azuka learnt his inventions from following any manual instructions but he had developed an expanded mind from reading. In his reading, he was able to SEE that he could do more. The last project I recall him getting into was writing a novel with a dizzying plot. He wrote the story in this notebook that was worn from frequent handling. I asked to read his draft but he said no. A private individual was Azuka.

Now I wouldn’t observe Azuka so closely except I had an interest in this way of life myself. But I had a big problem with concentration until just recently. I suffered terribly from a mind that would disconnect without my awareness. For this reason, my pace was so sluggish that I started to get discouraged. It would take forever to finish books just over a hundred pages long. So I built a huge complex for any book that was fat or thick. Once I ploughed through the book, Honey Badger, which was over 600 pages long.
It was exhausting but I did it. From that experience I started to link to the clue that would reveal the solution to my breaking attention.

This situation became even more worrisome when my magazine subscriptions would pile up unread because I was still stuck with the back editions. When also I would find interesting themed books with friends or at bookstands but get intimidated by the size.
So in desperation I cried to God for help with this problem. He did by showing me that I was only interested in the high points and discriminatory to the low points where a story forms! The high and the lows are all connected and to choose one over the other would break the picture. My mind couldn’t deal with those broken pictures so it would drift.

So my solution to this was visualization. Seeing a picture as opposed to seeing parts, seeing meaning as opposed to seeing words, then holding to it and stretching it as the story expands.
This is my silver bullet. It starts out with a slow pace because the beginning is a detailed search but once the mind gets the hang of things it starts to push faster. Accelerating so fast making pages fly!

aRt

In a world that has a baby screaming on arrival
It’s family taking turns at his departure
A coping mechanism is needed…Art!

Amid the consuming pile of suffering, hopelessness, decadence, wars, disasters, tensions, fears, meaninglessness…Sadly, space has insufficient room to contain the list
Art provides the ultimate escape

Art ingeniously knits beauty out of the strands ugliness
Erecting order on a foundation of chaos
Harmonious sounds from the noise of anarchy

Art is the life that pushes through emotional rubbles
That sprouts from the ash heap of broken dreams and disappointment
Which abundantly litter the field of life

Art can be made anywhere:
In Africa- smoldering from civil wars and disease epidemics
Middle east striving for peace
America grappling with paranoia, afraid of it’s own shadows
Russia shivering from symptoms of the cold war

Art is the healing balm that reaches deeper than the doctor’s medicine
The analgesic that dulls the pain of reality
The cushion that softens the impact of man’s stumble on life’s road

Art sucks off the poison from the circulation
For the artist, thinning the clot
For the art lover, giving a rush of blood

Art discriminates on no race
Its pictures are painted with white, black, red, yellow, brown…
All it’s colors blending into a harmonious hue

Art is the pillow on which weary heads lie for comfort
Giving them occasion for dreams
Dreams of a better world- a world of infinite possibilities

When Earth in the beginning began
It was dark, formless and void for lack of art
So God said, “Let there be art…and there was art”

know your self...your strength

The whole of a man is a head. The whole of a woman is a body. When a man and a woman unite in marriage, a more complete unit of head and body comes to view.
The consequence of this natural fact is that we can have a better guide as to where emphasis should be placed in our preoccupation across the gender lines!
My interpretation of a man being the head is that: he should be mentally oriented to the point of using the delicate folds of his brain more than his brawns. He should be about ferreting out the secrets of life, through study and observation.
He should occupy himself with seeking answers to questions about life: it’s origins and destination. He should get wisdom and understanding because he is born to be a leader.
With him, leadership is a birthright. He needs a good head on his shoulder to steer the lives of those that are in his sphere of influence.
A man with little understanding is one who is fixated on bodily adornment. He wants to dress spiffy and flashy all the time, at the expense of his head. Making him empty headed and clueless about anything.
Now some manage to both look good bodily and mentally, no doubt, but that is the exception not the rule.
I am not suggesting that men should be careless about their look but implying that we should strengthen the areas where God has strengthened us.
A woman’s assets are more readily visible and on display on the body.
From the flowing hair to the tender eyes, soft voice and delicate frame.
Needless to mention the more aesthetic gait as opposed to men’s styless locomotion.
The rule is bodily beauty and the exception is a logical, rational mind.
Yeah, we are different and difference is good. The blunder is made when we cross the gender line in competition instead of complimenting one another.
Just as much as I see women taking their adornment seriously enough to invest precious irreplaceable time to enhance, it’s somewhat less common to see the men try to build their brains.
More common is it to see them spending precious, hard earned naira in buying up clothes and stuff that are only make-up.
Imagine men using make ups: phones, computers, wristwatches, shoes, clothes etc
Big shame if you ask me.
Some women become mental juggernauts too but most men see that as a potential source of friction (threat) because much learning has a way of making people independent minded. Most intellectuals are notoriously bad team players!
A wife needs to be submitted to her husband. Drop her ideas for hubby’s! The reason for that , I believe is self evident. We can't afford two captains in a boat.
The purpose of this article is to help us know where to spend our energies on in our talent development!
I feel like a man should have a mental life more than any other, while the women are perfectly justified in making themselves look beautiful…but I think that true beauty is that which proceeds from inside out!
True beauty is not on sale. It is acquired in the school of life. Built into the fabric of our character.
A man whose head is loaded can only look down in humility. He whose head is empty is justified to walk around making sounds of emptiness, like clanging cymbals!

Eve of Troubles!

The night that Adam thought he needed a girl
That was the Eve of our troubles!
* * *

My shortest poem ever!

Depression

Sighs seep off from the burdened spirit like bubble gas
Complaints drip from the lip like a ruptured pipe
Murmurs break off restraint like erupting lava from a volatile earth
Bitterness pollutes the heart like sewage spill on a stream
Restiveness possesses the mind like a demon
Moody silence thickens the air like fog
Indignation redden the eyes like the burning end of a cigarette
Frustration depresses like the wreckage of a crashed car
Tension tightens the air like a hangman’s noose
Fury circulates the veins like liquid fire
Energy dissipates like a dying sun
Sanity gradually snap like an over stretched thread
Insanity approaches like an undertaker with a pale smile
Death beckons like a beacon!

Total eclipse

I bend my head to the large pages of the morning paper
Spread over my laps
And see the light fading fast
The stories are as dark as the ink with which they are written
So much tension captured in those pages
It’s a miracle that the paper has not caught fire
The photographs show grim faces reacting to grim situations
A few laughing faces but it’s only for the camera

I read of one day’s of worth of news and it includes
Treasury looting that makes Abacha look like an amateur
A boat sinking with all passengers on board
Plane crashes, collapsed buildings,
Mass burial given to whole villages by an earthquake,
Mudslides,
Religious and ethnic strife
Kidnapping of foreigners
From the Niger Delta to Iraq
Lots of obituaries, no single birth!

Page by page the horrors unfold until I fold them up at the last page
Then I raised my head in realization saying
“It wasn’t as dark as this yesterday or the day before, before…”
Cured of my illusions
I suddenly knew what to expect in future morning papers
A slow but steady advance to…
A Total eclipse!

Oily Faces versus Ugly cases

Like a hen and her brood
We, the followers, scratch out a living from our national soil
But our leaders are not scratching with us
They are digging with the machinery of Government
And finding massive oil deposits
The pipes they construct meander away from our locations
To theirs and their banks
No wonder the papers are full of smiling leaders with oily faces
And unsmiling followers with ugly cases!


Dedicated to us, the followers, the masses as we like to call ourselves

Blast from the Past!

Somewhere in my past
I was lit
Then left to burn
Burnt
My remains were tossed on the floor
And trampled underfoot
But a spark of me survived

Right here in the present
The scorching memories,
For an instant, returned
Like someone forgot to close the door of hell

Mid sentence
The impact shattered my thoughts
Scattering them in every corner of my skull

My lips opened
But silence remained unbroken
My mind numbed
By the blast from the past

It’s midnight in the middle of the day!

What in the Heavens is going on up there?
The news media had all been chattering about it for days but my thoughts were
“How can this people be so sure”
My skepticism increased on that day (may 29) when the sun mounted up its heavenly place with its usual burning zeal.
By 9 am, everywhere was heated enough to cause people to be sweating so early.
At about 10:30 am when I stepped out, that was when the historic event was made.
The clouds suddenly darkened and light swiftly faded like it was twilight. For a moment, I wasn’t certain if it was the expected eclipse or the prelude to a heavy down pour of rain.
With that confusion in mind, curiosity overruled my better judgment causing me to look up.
In the briefest of moments, I saw the big fireball in the heavens being shut out of view by the darkest cloud I ever saw.
Then without any warning, I felt sharp pain tear through my eyes to the rear end of my skull! My brain felt like a mess of fried circuitry struggling with normal transmission. The facial skin lost its elasticity causing pain at every facial contortion.

Different people had different opinions about its significance.
The educated scientific minds tried to calm everyone, saying that it meant nothing really. It was no more than the sun indulging in some celestial truancy! Refusing to work.
The common man on the streets relied on his instincts for interpretation. He said the world was at its end.
The spiritual minded folks didn’t differ much with that but they had more concrete evidence to point at.
They first tried to disprove the suggestion that it was a meaningless occurrence. To the contrary they argued.
According to Genesis 1:14
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;
Apparently this was more of a sign than any other.
The sign of darkness! Exit of light, judgment and impending doom.
It is certain that after this historic event, things will return to business as usual but for those waiting for that Rapturous exit, there will be a more sober reflection
One of preparation.
I believe that we the Bride of Christ are the light of the world as the scriptures teach.
Perhaps God is foretelling our imminent exit and the consequent darkness that the Earth shall be plunged!

Same ritual for the living and the dead

Sad tears streaked my face
Which was odd because everyone was glad in this place
Laughter choked voices filled the air
As congratulations and prayers flowed freely as the drinks
The new born babe was wrapped and carried in swaddling clothes

Just the other day, when a lady was gone
Grief choked voices filled the air
And condolences and prayers flowed freely as the drinks
As the newly gone lady was wrapped and carried in swaddling clothes

It was then that realization hit
Propelling my mind to a turbulent spin
Same ritual for the living and the dead!

Birth Pains of creativity

Imagine the inspiration
As emotions flow with the blood circulation

Imagine the clarity
As pain sharpens the focus

Imagine the vision
As tears wash the eye

Imagine the wisdom
As the mind ponders the tragedy of life

Imagine the tenderness
As tears soften the heart

Imagine the innocence
As helplessness reduces a man to a baby

Imagine the bond
As a man cuddles and cries on his lady

If your imagination captured all these
Then welcome to a poet’s birth centre










.

Worthless memories, how they linger!

The memory pounds my head with merciless aches
The memory makes my smile appear worn and faded
The memory makes my head hang low like I was afraid I might see judgment written in the clouds
The memory makes eye contact with the pictures of Christ and His prophet a distressing experience
The memory makes dancing in church a clumsy affair
The memory makes my upraised hands weigh heavier than the pull exerted by gravity
The memory makes praying an awkward act
The memory makes my seated frame sag like a boneless mass of flesh
The memory makes the preacher’s sermon sharp like the edge of a surgeon’s knife
The memory makes being inside the church feel like a hostile courtroom
The memory makes my peace strained like a graveyard
The memory makes my gut go haywire prompting unending trips to the bathroom
The memory will make an excellent material for a horror movie

Like History, I can’t help repeating myself
Like the sun, I can’t help rising and falling
Like water under pressure, I can’t help letting off steam
Like an animal, I can’t help following my instincts

I can still see those rebellious steps that marched me along the way of a transgressor
I can still taste the hard to get rid off vileness lingering in my breath
I can still see the pained expression of regret that masked my face when the deeds were done
I can still see the weight of guilt that stooped my back like I had grown a hunch
I can still feel the disgust wash over me like I was a virgin whose long protected virtue had been defiled
I can still recall cold sweat breaking out on my body like rash on a baby
I can still hear the demonic laughter that echoed back to my mind as a jubilant demon was being congratulated with the words, “well done”

I see all these
As my accuser forces my eyes on every ugly detail
But I also see the atoning blood washing the slate clean
And writing the incredible word
“Pardoned”

Author's comment:
I hear the sun is faithful because it never fails to rise. It never fails to FALL either, so I guess it's really faithful anyway you look at it.That's my best picture of grace hanging there in the heavens.

"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit." Psalm 32:1

Black and White Scenes

I see yet I fail to see

I see huge oil explorations but I fail to see the end of poverty

I see courthouses but I fail to see justice

I see religions but I fail to see changed lives

I see a Government but I fail to see leadership

I see PHCN officials roaming with ladders but I fail to see electricity

I see businesses everywhere but I fail to see employment

I see many calling themselves Christians but I fail to see Christ in them

I see workers everywhere but I fail to see dignified living conditions

I see the beating drums of democracy but I fail to see the masses dancing

I see a democracy but I fail to see democrats

I see policemen but I fail to see the end of insecurity

I see many tribes but I fail to see a nation

I see conductors but I fail to see order in busses

I see EFCC but I fail to see the disappearance of corruption

I see pupils going to school but I fail to see them coming out as students

I see those claiming to be of the religion of peace but I fail to see anything but terror and terrorists

I see young men and women but I fail to see a hotbed of ideas

I see universities but I fail to see research and development

I see a message crying out against denominationalism but I fail to see the unification of the “revealed” and the “non revealed” camps

I see an army of preachers preaching about the kingdom of God but I fail to see them stop building earthly empires

I see the ravages of STDs but I fail to see the end of ungodly fashion

I see great strides in the field of medicine but I also see great advances in the invention of weapons of mass destruction

I see religions holding up one book but I fail to see a unified interpretation of it’s content

I see people wearing watches but I fail to see them recognize the hour that they are living in

I see women dressed in men's clothing but I fail to see them any less prone to Satan's misquotes

I see a majority of Christians reading about the fiery judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah but I see only a minority being convinced about God’s hatred of homosexuality

I see huge amounts of money populating budget sheets but I fail to see improved infrastructure

I see religious houses everywhere but I fail to see a decline in the number of brothels and drinking pubs

I see many perishing in automobile accidents but I fail to see them avoid the use of cars

I see people cursing at a rainy weather but I fail to see them refrain from devouring fresh fruits and veggies

I see many who think that the world revolves around them but I fail to see the earth grind to a halt at their death

I see many who consider life to be a drama of tragedies but I fail to see them opt out of it's theatre

I see a lot of religious activities but I fail to see them translate to spiritual progress

I see packs of cigarettes threatening smokers with death but I fail to see them smoking any less

I see a stockpile of lethal weapons in national arsenals but I fail to see the death of the true enemy, Satan.

I see brides veiling their bodies to the altar but I fail to see those covers remain later

I see the sons of Ishmael eating rams but I fail to see them act gentle

I see lots of computers in the offices but I fail to see shorter working hours

I see the butcher of Baghdad out of office but I fail to see Iraq cease to be a slaughterhouse

I see a White House in Washington but I fail to see men without selfish ambitions

I see a United Nations Organization but fail to see unity or organization among the member nations

I see yet I fail to see
Author's comment:
We certainly live in a magical world of “the more you look, the less you see”
2:00am 05:03:06
Alfred Iwerebor

Lessons from the night!

I slept in early
When I awoke, it wasn’t yet dawn
But sleep was certainly done with me
It would be hours before the sun brightens the sky
To occupy me, I decided to play the detective
My mission was to uncover darkness and reveal that which it conceals
While on the job, many secrets I learnt…
I learnt that mosquitoes are after my blood, my life!
I learnt that for all the mosquitoes I killed in the daylight, at night I shall face the music!
I learnt that rats and roaches visit my cupboard without permission!
I learnt that time moves slower at night than in the day!
I learnt that my neighbor snores as loud as a pig!
I learnt that nature is an incurable talkative at night!
I learnt that when trees whisper, they are engaging in gossip!
I learnt that at night, things aren’t what they seem…for instance; the shadow of my head appears larger than my entire body!
I learnt that cockroaches consider my room as their home address!
I learnt that even frogs are bold to sing at night!
I learnt that my enemies are sheltered from sight in those innocent looking shadows!
I learnt that the food I tuck away in my gut before going to bed end up as
Entertainment for worms!
I learnt that the only living things at night are ghosts!
I learnt that I am not the only dreamer because everyone sleeps!
I learnt that those who pride themselves as realist have to deal with dreams at night!
I learnt that the reason ants sting me in my house is because they consider me a trespasser!
I learnt that if I don’t show my food the warmest attention at night, it would be sour on me in the morning!
I learnt that the neighborhood dogs don’t give a bark who I think I am if I don’t remain indoor!
I learnt that criminals prefer working night shifts!
I learnt that this is the best time to receive inspiration!
I learnt that God’s speech is both audible and clear!
I learnt that if I don’t end this poem you or I might fall asleep!

4:00am, Tuesday
21:02:2006

Same God

The venue is Mali.
The only message preaching and believing church in that country.
After what must have been a soul stirring Sunday meeting, eight Brothers and two sisters stood in a wide arc around the pulpit for a group photograph. They wanted to preserve the memory of that day for future reference.
But unknown to them, their Lord, whom they had just talked about was going to be a part of the photo session!
Click!
The camera snapped at their half smiling or in some cases sober looking faces!
When the print came out, it had a puzzling appearance! The camera made them look like they had taken the shot in a building engulfed with smoke! And a multi-colored smoke for that matter!
Just about everything in the familiar place was wearing a different color. The mahogany colored pulpit had an amber shade at its base. There was purple at the top left part of the roof, and again the ubiquitous amber was showing again, with some shades of pink at the top right.
Brother Phillipe Etambalako, do you have an explanation for this?
“Oh yes, actually I do. Brother William Marrion Branham had a similar experience and he traced it to the Bible. Several places in the book of Ezekiel. Then again, we know of the cloud that filled the Jewish Temple during its inauguration.”
Oh! We have had a visitation from the Lord!

NEPA the sleeping operator

The Sun had worked brightly in the day shift
Worn out, it went home to sleep

The Moon relieved him at night but she is kind of dull
So the Boss assigned her a man called NEPA (Nigerian Electric Power Authority)
To help her out with the lighting job

Regrettably, he proves unreliable and erratic
Loving to slumber on the job

The customers are left just one option
To enlist the help of small, fearless and brave Mr. Candle

Set ablaze by his flaming zeal
He pushes away the darkness of night
With all of his frail and feeble light
But it turns out to be a strenuous task

The shadows lurk in the corners
Dancing while waiting as they see him burn himself low

Their wait ends six hours later
As Mr. Candle dies of a burn-out

Then they returned and engulfed the Nigerian space
As NEPA dutifully and indifferently snored on!

Disquieting thoughts

These thoughts keep me awake at night
They also subdue me to a worried sleep in the day

I am unable to get rid of them
Because they are protected by my skull

I don’t want them
Because they are just ugly, loud and obnoxious

They spread like a gloomy cloud
Penetrating even my dreams

I scream!
Because this constant torture
Keeps interrupting my quiet nature

I need a pipe to drain them
Bless God for this device called pen

Their outflow
Affects my expression to a happy glow

Copyright©2006

I wail because this is a jail!

The thoughts of my head have me troubled
They affect my vision, making me walk wobbled

Looking at life, I thought there was only a happy and cheerful face
Now the coin is flipped, I see a serious case

Look, trouble on every side!
More bills to pay than the income can handle
The outcome is… my head burns and I melt like a candle

The pool of my eye is no more serene and calm
My heart drums mournful beats
But my legs can’t dance because they feel spaghetti weak

The door of hope is slammed shut
Making everywhere stifling hot

All I see are concrete walls
Walling me in and walling help out

Not even the wind is allowed to blow
For fear it will fan the embers of hope!

I wail because this is a jail!

Copyright ©2006 Alfred Iwerebor

Recapturing the Vision...dealing with writer's block!

Dry! Dry! Dry!
As a bone. My ink won’t flow!
The Ideas have taken flight; the wit blunted, couldn’t cut through butter.
How did I lose my touch? What happened? What went wrong?

I could still force it and create something, but it was only that... forced!

Then I called on God. I prayed to him, requesting his anointing to wet me back to fluidity.

I wrote an article at first, thinking that I couldn’t go through the rigors of poetry, the condensation of ideas and thoughts and feelings; the weaving of complex strands of images into the fabric of language…it just suddenly seemed like gruesome work.

Then, I met Dahlia, a poet from Iraq. Soft spoken, unreligious yet decent. We became friends. She visited my blog and found my first attempt at humor in the form of a poem.

She got attracted to it and had it published in a Middle Eastern site. From then on, I started becoming self conscious of my creations, thinking to myself, who knows where this one might end up. At this time, the ideas still wouldn’t flow until

Well, until she showed me a draft poem she was making .I saw her technique and it was indeed brilliant and I got smitten again by the art form.
Right there and then, confidence flooded back to me, the passion for painting verbal pictures got rekindled because I think I caught a another glimpse of the once familiar pattern that underlies the art .

In the days of my struggle,my best attempt would come out as misshapen prose!

I could argue that I had invented a new form but I wouldn’t be arguing in sincerity.

Immediately after the revival of interest, I went back and produced a flurry of works.
Wet! Wet!Wet! as rain!
The ink won't stop flowing.

I thank the Lord that He would grant me this one prayer request!

Untitled(Suggest a title)

I always say more than a word in Microsoft Word!
I use bleeding edge technology to make quiet difficult clients!
I always check my yahoo! Mail because I don’t trust Yahoo!
I never listen to anyone who says give me your ears because I only have two
I torture a clean confession out of a dirty cloth by drowning it in water and then hanging it limp on a rope!
I cuff my hands when I dress to work, so they can remain on the job
I love music but never pay for it. I just make sure to live near a bush for when nature radio broadcasts at dawn and late night.
I steal into the best cities in the world at night without travel papers. My pilot, Mr. Dream, is my assistant.
When my crisis was resolved, I asked the man if it was fair to charge for what took him ONLY two minutes!
I habitually paste my mental excretions on snow-white surfaces and insist that people say pleasant things about them
I employ a boxer to keep my waist flat and in shape
I am working on how to take over all the computers in the world, just by creating a folder in them and naming it “My Computer”
I love to spring people into action by my subject headings! I constantly say “Urgent”
I have a giant American company, called Yahoo! Working for me and I pay them nothing!
My idea of banking is called withdrawal!
I am tired of eating small egg yolks, so I am itching for the SUNniest one on earth.
I have poisoned quite a number of sleek guys…the RATS ate my grains and left behind their stains!
When the mad scientist, called mirror, presumed to clone me, I gave him a smashing funeral!
I leave every competitor trailing by a mile when I soft pedal with a smile
I always leave open my mouth, in a wordless warning to mosquitoes, when I slumber
I ride my horse on level, sleek and slippery paths with automatic speed yet expecting to arrive safely
I am a public servant but I make sure that the public works for me, while I lead them.
My house is built but I always call it a building, so no one says I have not fixed the latest facility!
The only reason I cried when I was born was that everyone had a fabric on and I was nude!
The reason they cried as I died was that I was leaving in a designer outfit!
The reason I am a friend of Mr. Clinton is that when I am in the US and incur costs, I just call him up and say “Bill! I am here”…he always understands.
I blinded my neighbors with a curtain when I couldn’t tolerate their sight anymore!
I am an ingenious mathematician! I have all my rich business contacts reduced to numbers in my cell phone!
I may already be the best boxer in the world, my coach; Calculator, rates me higher after every punch!
I am quite generous to strangers, that’s why I give them the benefit of doubt!
I have a suspicious nature, so maybe I should establish a security outfit.
I am undecided which trait I share with a wall gecko. Perhaps we both love sitting on the fence!
I always rightly tell people that they are wrong when they differ with me.
I will never buy the papers as long as they consider me not newsworthy!
It’s immoral for anyone to give Bill Gates so much money for one dream. I have a headful!
A man once asked me to help him out, so I showed him the door!
This other poet was making so much WAVES, so I shored him up! I hate a tsunami around me!
When I got home sick, I left!
They wondered why I didn’t write. So I called, saying there was nothing to write home about!

A smashing error against a mirror

Hey, look at me standing there!
But I am here!
Mom never mentioned a twin

Or is this the work of a mad scientist?
Is this the cloning I have heard so much about?

Why me?

Wow, my exact duplicate!
The guy does exactly as me
I am stunned…he looks stunned too!

Is he gearing up for a clash?
He is standing against me
And watching me closely

What a copycat: he is even wearing the same fad as me!
Yuck, a real loser!
Well, I should be flattered really; at least someone thinks I am a great model!

But wait…

What if this fraud stops by my bank?
I could get robbed with enthusiastic assistance from my bankers!

Hey, you! Whatever your name is
Whatever your game is
Don’t play it on my territory

Did I mention that I have a temper?
Even Hell envies the heat it is capable of
Because it burns hotter than sulphur and brimstone

No, I am not threatening you
I am just keeping you informed
My last victim is still horribly deformed.


Shut up and listen!
How can we both speak at the same time?
And saying the same things too


I guess you don’t believe me, huh
One of those guys that don’t believe until they see, huh?
Well, take this!

Oh, no…you should’ve told me you were just a mirror
Then I won’t make this error; now I have wrecked you
Oh well, this boutique makes so much money; let them fix you

You have to be lying, uncle!

When uncle told me that daddy had died,
I quickly suspected that he had lied

How could daddy die?
Perhaps uncle just wishes to see me cry!

If that’s the case, it surely was a good try
Phew! I almost fell for it like a wounded fly

But why is he looking solemn, as if it is not a lie?
I dislike this new image he is wearing, for it mirrors a bad guy!

Do people give up the ghost at Christmas season?
Maybe, but daddy loves life and is keen on living!

It’s three days uncle, call off this joke!
Or I will break your head with a bottle of Coke!
And leave you to drown in your own blood till you choke!

But wait a minute!
Uncle’s morals are polished and shiny as a soldier’s boot!

Could it be that daddy is really…?
Can’t be Freddy, don’t be silly!

It’s the seventh year since daddy was with us
But he will come around once he knows we’re now in Lagos!

I am waiting daddy,
Don’t delay too long buddy!

Don't worry, I won't accuse you of being late.
I will welcome you with a smile when you show up at the gate:)

It's a cold, watery world!

The fountain in the head is broken
The waters freely flow
Tiny microbes roam loose, causing mischief!

Sniffles!Snifles! and more Snifles!
You can hear each breath!
The hissing sound of air struggling through nasal secretion

A blasting sound errupts from the lungs,
Hang on, it's just a cough!

Loud and obnoxious
Sounding like a breaking bottle
It shatters the silence with it's suddenness

Filmy clear liquid fills the two holes in the face
As waters trickle into the Eyes
It's a cold watery world!

A contemplation on the Mightiness of God

The Almighty God
You are the All powerful,Infinite,Absolute and Supreme God
The Earth looks to you for sustenance
Your children's needs are many but they do not overwhelm or strain your Mightiness
Some need salvation,love,healing,improved finance,freedom from bad habits,addictions,sin etc
They call to you, they cry to you
You hear all their cries and you stir
For you, Lord, are a merciful God


As smoke defies gravity and rises to Heaven
So do their requests ascend to you
Though it is said that what goes up is what must return
You make sure that the problems are not what returns
The solution descend as sunrays, bursting the mass of darkness and blackness

The Almighty God
We your people acknowledge our deficiency
But we despair not, for we remember your sufficiency
We are frail,feeble and Weak
We are of dusty composition
But you excel in strength!

The Infinite God
We your people, know what it means to begin
We your people, know what it means to end
But not so you, being infinite-unbound neither by time nor space
You stand at both ends at the same time
You are both ends, for you say, "I am Alpha and Omega"

The Absolute God
Knowing no dependence,limits or boundaries of law
Sufficient, for you seek nothing,
You are complete!

The Supreme God
Your kingdom reigns over all
Your subjects are kings and gods
Who but you is the finality of all?
Who settles disputes among sovereign powers ?
You are the referee whose decision is final!

For these attributes, we look up to you
As the plants rise toward the light
As the mountains mount to the heavens
As the birds ascend to the cloudy heights

Happy New Year!

Hey, I haven't written since this New Year began. I have a feeling I know why: my mind has been really taken up by this totally unexpected incident that happened. Just one of those things that you want to forget. It’s about hurt and the feeling of betrayal.
Not sure why it happened but this I am sure of, it happened for a reason. Maybe, I will be able to tell why after more time has passed.
Well, last year was pretty exciting. Had a lot less downs than the preceding years. The ups were significantly increased in number. God’s been really merciful to me, especially in helping me see that my growth is inextricably tied to my attitude toward life and toward Him. I learnt a great deal about the power of the tongue too. What you say is what you get!
Doesn’t matter what the prevailing situation and circumstance is!
Somewhere in the Book of Jonah, it puts it nicely: those who observe lying vanities, FORSAKE their mercies. Your eyes must not shift from looking at the promises, neither the mouth shut in proclaiming them.
Sometimes, frankly, I go right ahead and say and do negative things but being knowledgeable of this principle, I am under no illusions of what the consequences are.
I am in the month of January and I am faced already with the thought of what I could make out of the other eleven months stretched before me.
I have learnt also that good things don’t come as accidents. They have to be worked at. While looking and proclaiming the promises, our faith is expressed really when we start to inch toward the goal with a singleness of mind. Doubts and fears are expensive luxuries in this journey.
I really do hate the environment where I live in and I don't know if it's ok to state that here, but I will take the risk. I hate some aspects of the environments that offer a better alternative to this, too.
But I don’t think I am in a dilemma if it comes to choosing. It’s a case of choosing for a lesser evil.
The environment I live in is very lax. Not challenging enough. You get the impression that you have all the time in the world to get things done. I have been stuck in a particular stage for so long and it is really sickening. The value system here is so upside down. These aren't complaints but merely statement of facts.
One of the things the Internet, of which I have access to most days of the week, does to you, is to make you see how other societies are not just moving but making long term plans toward the future.
Here, it's like you are stuck in the here and now. Most times, the longest term plans are those for a year period, on the governmental level, that is. The Budget. Individuality as opposed to the greater good of the society is the norm.
When you read of many developmental moves, Africa is usually conspicuously absent. Like it is not a part of the world. This is so frustrating because we have just as much as is needed to make this giant strides toward development and a better tomorrow for the unborn generation. People who see the political platform as a means to quickly enrich them and their families at the expense of the masses fill our Newspaper pages with power play and struggles being their favorite game.
The youths here are not trying to revolt or anything like that but to flee to more benign environments.
What does this New Year hold for me, for you, for us all?
Whatever we do, we must hide ourselves under God's protective shade. Good and evil are playing out their final acts on the stage of time. Evil is really desperate to suck in the unguided and undiscerning!
One thing I have seen with walking with God is this: the path ahead is never crystal clear; you just have light enough to walk a few steps at a time. Sometimes frustrating because we think the future is too important to be guessed at, but God has an answer to that in saying: I know the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of PEACE and not of evil, to give you a future and Hope and an expected end. He expects you to believe Him on that, come what may!
Will we believe Him ...Is He believable?

Camp Meeting 2005

CONVENTION
Due to the non denominational nature of the Message of the End time and the autonomy practiced by it’s various local assemblies spread across the nation, there grew a need for a once in a year gathering of all the various like believing assemblies. This is so everyone can interact and compare notes.
There are many of these conventions across the nation. They are held regionally, not by formal agreement, as there is no organizational structure in the message. Those assemblies in the North congregate in the ones held in the West, East and South. I am not aware of any being held in the North. Most of the northern assemblies come down to the East, West and South.
Since the Northern assemblies don't usually have any in their region, they have the option of choosing from the other regions of the country. It is my understanding that the most prominent deciding factor in this choice is, the like-mindedness that they share with the convention organizers, doctrinally speaking.
THE VENUE:IBADAN
My Home church, Bibleway Fellowship Tabernacle, favors the Ibadan venue in the West. .The Convention is known as The Spoken Word Convention, put together by The Spoken Word Fellowship.
Ibadan is located in the south west of Nigeria. It is an hour and a half drive from Lagos.
A very ancient city, dating back to the eighteenth century. It hosts the First Nigerian University, founded in 1948.
It is a sprawling city with pretty much good modern facilities, the Nigerian standard that is.
Arterial road network, Canals, Industries, Markets, Schools, Fast food chains, Fuel stations, A train station, a small Airport, two big Stadiums, Banks and Companies, all doing active business.
Relative to Lagos, where I am based, the pace of life is considerable slow. The people are warm and friendly but lacking in the sophistication that can be found in Lagos. Food is a whole a lot more affordable also.
The Convention itself, took place in an almost century old high School, called Ibadan Grammar School.
It is an expansive compound. Running in the middle of the school is a tarred road that proceeds from the main gate. This road divides the compound in two. To the left, as you enter is the staff quarters .The right is where the class blocks are located. Grasses carpet the non-tarred areas of the compound. There are lots of trees to be seen also in this school compound. They have a truly ancient look. Extremely tall and deep rooted.

The worship was very colorful. The congregation in full participation. Singing and dancing and responding to the sermons with animated gestures and commentaries. It was highlighted also by individual song renditions known as “special numbers”.
A FLYBY OF THE SUPERNATURAL
There are usually two services each day. A morning and an evening one. On Christmas night, the preacher from a mid western assembly decided to take a different turn from the direction of preceding sermons. He chose to expose Satan's organizational structure. The sermon struck a note with the people indeed. There was rapt attention and occasional vocal outbursts of the word "Amen", which means, "So be it" or in the context, "It is so".
Having stuffed myself with more than my fair share of food, I suddenly felt a stir in the stomach at a point in the service. I tried to wait out the sermon but the warning sounds grew louder, so I left the building to relieve myself.
After I did, I thought it would be irreverent to be seen walking in a hall that was having a very tensed atmosphere, a result of the incisive words being spoken from the pulpit. So I stayed outside the hall, but to the side of the building where I could still maintain a view of the raised platform from which the preacher preached.
It was not very long after I had settled in before the most spectacular sight grabbed my attention from the preacher’s speech. Not knowing why, I found myself looking up.
Just above the building, a bunch of orange colored lights with a gaseous trail were flying at a casual pace. I followed with my eyes their progress as they traveled the length of the building. I moved a bit to see their continued movement when just at the end of the building, the lights flying in a parallel formation all merged into a single form and dissolved into nothingness. Even the gas trail was gone too.
Then people started to speculate what they were.
I heard the word "comet" and then "stars" and then "fireworks”. I mentally dismissed all these because they didn't follow the patterns of any of those.
A comet travels in a blazing speed. This was casual in movement. This group also traveled in an arrowhead formation. I am not aware of comets traveling in company.
They were not Stars because stars are bigger than the Earth and cannot be flying in it. What we see and call stars are actually starlights.
Fireworks would have been the most plausible except for the lack of explosive sounds, which produces the light sparks. Noteworthy also is the horizontal way they flew. Fireworks are known to travel vertically like rockets, with so much sound and a quick explosion. This was a very silent incident.
It wasn't very long after this before someone was making a prophetic utterance in an unknown tongue and then interpreting later.
I have no doubt that this was a supernatural manifestation. I have no certain knowledge of the significance of it but to just say that we had some heavenly visitors who chose to be seen, in a bid to lift the faith of the people. Mine definitely soared consequently!
I feel disappointed that no one, including I, had a camera to preserve this most wonderful sight. Then again, maybe the only camera needed was the human eye that witnessed it.

Christmas:A marriage of heathenism and Christianity!

FATHER CHRISTMAS (SANTA CLAUS):
Conventionally, Santa Claus is portrayed as a kindly, round-bellied, merry, bespectacled white man in a red coat trimmed with white fur, with a long white beard.
This jovial fellow arrives on Christmas Eve on a sleigh pulled by reindeer, and lands on the roofs of houses. He then climbs down the chimney, leaves gifts for the children, and eats the food they leave for him. He spends the rest of the year making toys and keeping lists on the behavior of the children.

THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTMAS
The Bible doesn’t say when Jesus was born. However, it was most likely in spring, the only time that ancient shepherds ever watched over their flocks by night.
Historians are unsure exactly when Christians first began celebrating the Nativity of Christ. The Protestant Church until after the 1800s because of its association with similar pagan holidays forbade it. Some scholars maintain that December 25 was only adopted in the 4th century as a Christian holiday after Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity to encourage a common religious festival for both Christians and pagans.
The Roman priesthood preserved the festival and many other traditions and beliefs in its transformation to Christianity and formation of the Catholic Church.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF CHRISTMAS
So, what do we do to celebrate this greatest of gifts? We get ourselves into debt and more debt, we drink ourselves silly, and we spend, spend, and spend! Then for weeks and months afterwards we are eaten up by guilt and all sorts of ideas to repair the damage. Guilt is not one of the gifts the Father intended for us; instead it is one of those sneaky little emotions implanted by Satan and his cohorts. Look at the list of stuff just mentioned and tell me they are gifts from God! The spirits of anger, drunkenness, sexual abuse, promiscuity, physical abuse, murder to name but a few!
Due to poor roads and airports here in Nigeria, amongst other factors, the season witnesses the death of many who use these channels for their travels.
Because of holiday celebrations involving alcohol, drunk driving-related fatalities typically also increase.
The Christmas season gets dominated by money and greed at the expense of the holiday's more important values.Flambouyant displays of fashion and passion too. It is indeed also the most stressful time of the year, packed full of activities that deplete money, energy and time.
The crass commercialization of Christmas today makes a mockery of both Christian history and belief.

The Absurdity of reading a spiritual book with an unspiritual mind

Christianity is badly marred from the sustained and vehement yet subtle attacks mounted by the enemy.
The archenemy of this wonderful faith is Satan. He is patient, for he didn't achieve this over night.
Like a beaver, he has eaten the tree that constitutes the Christian life bit by bit.
His most potent weapon is adulteration, contamination or perversion, if you like. The introduction of extraneous materials into an original, for the purpose of distortion.
He has used this weapon as far back as the Garden of Eden were he talked eve out of the commandment of God by introducing ONE word:” Thou shall NOT surely die" as opposed to "Thou shall surely die".
That introduction brought the harmony of nature to a grinding halt. Then
Evil crept in until now it reigns supreme. Like a mountain, it towers on Earth’s landscape and casts a long and dark shadow over all. Light is almost totally blocked out. That which remains is dim and insufficient until lately.
But God is not helpless in all this. Like it is written, in the book of Ecclesiastes,” there is a time and PURPOSE for EVERYTHING under the earth’.
Evil, strange as it may seem, has a role to play. Temptations and Trials too.
There is a simple law embedded in the Bible, that says that EVERY child that comes to God MUST first be tested.
It doesn't make much sense to the carnal, unspiritual mind. But look at what obtains in the natural; Gold is subjected to fire, not to destroy it but to take away the impurities or attachments. Now this fire heats it up to the point of melting!
Jesus was LED to be tempted by the Devil to prove him.
Satan was bound for a 1000 years in the duration of the millennium and subsequently let LOOSE to deceive.
There is not a chance occurrence in all these things. It is all by design.
Man has been given the Bible, which is a spiritual book, to live by. He tries to understand it intellectually, using his five senses as a judge for its accuracy and interpretation.
That is an erroneous approach. What we have as a result of this is, lots and lots of confusion.
Christians read from ONE book, the Bible, yet it will be an uphill task to say how much the number of interpretations there are. Possibly, thousands and counting.
What has resulted from reading a spiritual book, unspiritually or carnally are these:
The tearing, chopping, and ripping of the ONE God, into three entities.
Unscriptural baptismal formula in the TITLES of the chopped up entities
Appealing to the shadows of the Old Testament instead of The SUBSTANCE to which they pointed.
The ridiculous teaching, inspite of the truth having been made manifest, that the original sin came from eating an Apple! The original sin came from transgressing God's Word through an act of Adultery.
The neglect of the command for men and women to dress distinct from one another. God’s Word forbids cross-dressing.
The role of women in the church. Exalting women to leadership positions.If she is not allowed to head any home, how can she do so in God’s House?
The disgraceful portrayal of Grace: as a license to perpetrate nonsense.
This list is by no means exhaustive. There are lots of other things as there are lots of denominations.
God has looked down from Heaven and just as He could no longer bear the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, even so is He uncomfortable with our Age.
But He has a principle of warning first before pouring out His judgment. Therefore He has sent a message through a messenger.
The message is now in the land: judgment is imminent. There shall be no hiding place.
All excuses are no longer tenable! The message is here and now!
Note:
For an insight into the message and the messenger, please click on the title of this article.
God Bless you

Once Upon A Boss

I know a man, a boss
He loves to say, "Hurry up, quicker"
Have you finished EVERYTHING?
Well, why didn't you, you are so overpaid, you are so lazy, how will I pay your salary?
In December, he faults you for not remembering what happened in January, even though records are kept for that purpose.
He can't believe you made a mistake; he can't believe you are not perfect.
He caught you tired once and having a nap...that means he caught you in a deep slumber. You sleep everyday at work!
He doesn’t understand your need to have breaks; that could break the BUSINESS.
He doesn't understand why you will not give your SOUL to the job.
You want to go home, so early ...At 7pm?
You ought to share in the rent because you spend so much time here. That goes for all the other bills too!
Will you be here on Sunday...church? Forget about church...the BUSINESS is more important!
Salary? Is that all you think about? ...You are not concentrating on the BUSINESS.
You are sick? Come on, you are just being lazy! Who will take care of the BUSINESS?
What do you need a weekend break for? That's for lazy folks!
Christmas break? Don't you know that that’s when the job gets exciting, more BUSINESS?
A loan? Do you think I am a bank! I am not making as much money as you think!
Some allowance for the job? So much for your loyalty...can't you make sacrifices?
Of course I know you have been with me for 10 years, but I told you five years ago I was thinking about your raise, so please be patient!
How come the sales are dropping...I mean, they just INCREASED a little!
What do you mean the business couldn’t borrow from you? ...it pays you!
Working like a donkey is not as bad as people try to make it...there is a donkey dignity in labour.
Go buy me the things I need, as fast as possible and please go as far away as possible ok... Here they charge too much...be fast about it but go far please!
You have been sitting all day. You need to exercise more...please, go buy me some lunch!
Someday, you will own a car...why not practice on how to change tyres now...please, help me change my car's.
What do we need a cleaner for...aren't you a godly person ...cleanliness, is next to godliness. You ought to practice more godliness!
You need a smarter look ok, people don't have to know you earn so low. You must learn to protect your secret.
You eat too much! Isn’t this your second meal since morning... it's just 8pm!
Why do you need 3 days to finish a job that takes Just 24hours.Aren’t there 24 hours in a day?

I actually know a man, who thinks and talks this way.I just thought to convert the negative vibes to a more humorous one.This character represents most bosses, but not all.
Currently, I have the most benign bosses in the world, here at systemplus---Alfred.