The Power of Persistence: Hosni Mubarak Resigns

When Pharoah of Eqypt held the Israelites captive for forty years, he didn't envisage that

centuries down the line his own people would be held down by one of their own; Hosni

Mubarak.

But history has been made today as he resigns from office this afternoon. 11th February 2011

would be indelible in our memories as the day a tyrant bowed to the power of the people.

Today, we are all Egyptians. Let the corrupt tyrants in Nigeria beware. There is indeed power

to the people and no, I'm not talking about PDP!!

Take that Leap NOW!!

I spent the later part of my teens exploring singing as a talent. When I graduated from high school, I joined a Christian youth choir and slowly began to build my skills. I soon went to College and joined a fellowship choir in Year 3 and slowly moved up to become choir head. I didn't have the best voice. No! But, I guess I was just good at organising and leading. I eventually joined a Christian interdenominational choir that organised concerts yearly and was chosen to lead solos during three concerts before I graduated.

Suffice it to say, I thought I would eventually chose singing as an alternate career. And any church I've been a part of since then, I've joined the choir there too.

I only started serious writing in October 2010, but I can say that more than singing, I do derive greater pleasure from writing. Oh! I still enjoy music and singing, of course, but I would have continued my life's journey without ever exploring writing. What a shame that would have been, I hear you say!

There is such a thing as multiple competencies, I know, but there is wisdom in choosing to pursue that interest where you have the greatest talent and derive the greatest joy from.

I once read an interview of Jide Alakija, a fantastic photographer, and sought to check out his WEBSITE and I was suprised to read that five years back, he only just had a passing interest in photography. If you know the kind of work this guy does now and how important he is in Nigeria's photography scene, then you would understand the danger of not answering those silent nudges you often feel.

Tolu Ogunlesi, my good friend and professional colleague, oh well, he is still a pharmacist, only that he is known all over the world as a writer is another example. He once said that all he loves to do is write and  is happy not to be multitalented. He simply pursued his dream and is loving it.

I read Danfo Chronicles on 234Next.com and was pleasantly suprised to find out that it is our own Olu Jacob that writes it. You need to read  100 Percent Increase and Deadlier than a male ! I said on Facebook that if you don't feel like laughing and crying at the same time after reading these pieces, then call me Berry FeistyPen! Lol!!

My point is that Olu Jacob is living his dream; acting and writing and I can't be any more impressed!

We know of a lot of people who were on one path and suddenly discovered they could do something well and have begun doing it and experiencing the greatest fulfillment, that they could ever imagine.

Please, please, follow your dream! It may be tough in the beginning, but continue slowly but surely and I guarantee you that the end would be one you would never have imagined. I'm not saying you should quit your day job immediately, I still practise as a pharmacist, but slowly begin to learn your craft and seek to better yourself. You'll know just when to face it sqaurely.

There! I feel like virtue has gone out of me... but I'm glad I got this out.. Enjoy yourselves folks and leave your comments about.
1.Other people you know who were on a certain path and suddenly discovered their talents and began pursuing it and are having the time of their lives.

2. The challenges you face in living out your dreams!

3. Your bizarrest dreams.( like being Nigeria's first real television animation star! Lol..not bizarre enough?)

My Ynaija Post: My Mess, My Growth

I do not like stress or anything that poses a threat to the equilibrium in my world. Just like every human being, I do everything within my power to restore balance as fast as I can. I particularly hate being broke; and it has proved time and time again to be one of my most dreaded inconveniences. “I know both how to abound, and how to abase, ” Paul says in Phil 4: 12; but I must confess that I’m still learning to appreciate the merits of abasement.

I would not be who I am today without all the troubles that have plagued me since my life began. I’m sure you have heard stars and great men say this in interviews, when they are asked the secret to their greatness.

It’s no news that challenges lead us to growth and troubles inspire greatness. Throughout last week, a particular verse of Scripture was going through my mind;  “And let patience have her perfect  work, that you may be perfect and entire lacking nothing” ( James 1: 4).

The Lord has been saying, “In your bid to cut short the life span of your challenges and to extract an instant wave-of- a-magical-wand above all your troubles, you will miss out on what I am trying to achieve by all of it.

“You’re trying to achieve something, Lord?

“Of course, he says, can’t you see how different your life is from when you began ‘going through’”.

“Hmmmm”, I respond.

Yes, we talk that way, my Lord and I. You should try it; therapeutic to say the least.

Every young person deals with various issues at different points. If we are not trying to gain admission into college, we are trying to graduate or dealing with the incessant exams. Or we’re dealing with relationships or marriages, struggling to overcome the pressure of our peers while trying to project the emerging identity of our true selves.

I am going through my own crises; essentially a crises of identity and refusing to accept the labels of the world and instead accepting the name that the Lord has given me; Hepzibah which means Delighted.

It is a crucial time for us; our youth – a time to establish foundations and utilize the debris, the stones, the rough gravel, the gritty sand to build a sturdy and stable future.

In the interim it will be tough, I know. I’m ‘going through’, remember? But I know the end is a fully formed individual – bold, sure, wise, impactful and above all living the destiny for which she was made.

Embrace your struggles, for in them lie the potential for greatness.

Here’s a fledging attempt at poetry. I hope you will be blessed:

Lo, behold a magnificent building

Where, where, I see it not

Here, here, right before your eyes

Where, where, I see it not

Lo, behold a magnificent building

Where, where, I see it not

All I see is gravel; broken and jagged

All I see is stones; big and small

Lo, behold a magnificent building

Where, where, I see it not

All I see is cement, grey and unassuming

All I see is sand, dry and gritty

Lo, behold a magnificent building

Where, where I see it not

All I see is water, tepid and colourless

All I see is a builder in the shadow of the son of man

Lo, behold a magnificent building

Where, where I see it not

Come back on the morrow

For your eyes may be clear just then

Lo, behold a magnificent building

I see, I see, a magnificent building

But I see no gravel or stones

No cement, or sand, or water

Lo, behold a magnificent building

‘Twas all of those that made the building

For that is the stuff of which magnificent buildings are made

A broken, ugly mess of raw materials.

Photo credits: http://www.ynaija.com/

My 234Next Article: What EXACTLY is your Colour?

I am a retail pharmacist and I have been for four years. That means that I get to see tens of clients everyday who want to receive medication for simple and sometimes not so simple ailments. 

I attend daily to the traffic induced headaches, children with runny noses and the never ending cough, men with requests for  instant libido enhancers. I enjoy my job. My clients serve as pleasant diversions to an otherwise tedious profession. Which is why I am tired of entertaining requests for creams that help maintain ‘my colour’.

What exactly is your colour? I once worked with a colleague who blurted out the not too discerning question to an elite client once. On being asked by this Remy hair wearing, bejewelled, Jimmy Choo bag carrying lady of fourty something years for a cream to help maintain her colour, my colleague did a quick once over of the lady and spotting the greenish yellow patch on her feet, the charcoal black spots on her knuckles and the Miranda orange peeking out from the mask of very fair MAC powder on her face and  just had to ask, “Which one, Ma?” Thankfully, the boss was not in earshot and the client had the grace to grin; batting her eyelids coquettishly.

What is it that you want? A total transformation from a Jonathan Goodluck shade to a Pat Utomi hue? I shudder to think! Although I’ve seen  a few people who have embarked on that journey and are now spending the remainder of their lives trying to avoid being found out through suspicious looking  potions that are surreptitiously transferred from Jimmy Choo bag to Blvgari bag and stern instructions to “carry am go fridge sharp sharp!”

We were born into this world with different melanin quotas;  God held back with the dose for some  but was overly  generous for the others. Now, why do you think that the fair colour is a better option for you? I‘ve heard a few answers to that question. The first being that men find fair ladies more attractive and that among a sea of suspects, detectives are more likely to believe a fair person. Now, now, let’s look at this critically. So you think your skin colour is your most marketable asset (not that I think we should market anything) that it has to be completely changed.  That  you have nothing else to bring to the table that the guy is just supposed to look at your splash of colours and think that this is the woman for me?   In the case of being a suspect;  now that’s a laugh,  are you planning to be bomb anywhere? If you aren’t , why should it matter if you’re fair or dark?

We’ve heard it countless times;  hydroquinone and all such mercury containing compounds increase the risk of skin cancer. Ok, something must kill someone, but isn’t it a bit unfair for people to lose you to skin cancer brought on by the use of unsafe products?  You haven’t heard that before? You want to be first?

Ok, ok, I’m being a bit too hard, but the thing pains me. Beautiful ladies with skin the colour that God gave them reducing themselves to objects of ridicule; their lives spent pursuing after the latest potions someone has cooked up, and I even heard those things are not cheap. There is a way out though, assuming you think like me that is. I am dark skinned, as in I use MAC NW50. Now that is dark I hear you say. Wetin person fit do?

When I am stressed out, I  do feel sometimes that my colour is a bit dull and  looks very ashy and pale. But I don’t try to become yellow;  I simply use  exfoliating scrubs and  face creams with alpha and beta hydroxyl  acids which are anti oxidants that keep your skin healthy. Vitamin C, lemon, oatmeal, granulated sugar are all homemade remedies that could be used to brighten the face. I also use sunscreens with an SPF of over 30 containing soy complex and natural light diffusers. What this does is brighten and cause light to reflect off my face, giving me a healthy, luminous  glow.  But when I tell clients that you don’t need any cream, that all you need is to slough off those dead skin cells to reveal your brightened hue, they just look at me like I’m crazy and go, eh, “let me first get my colour back!”

To talk more about the health hazards of these potions may be overly dramatic, but I know what I have seen in the way of a cream job gone bad; it’s a sorry sight and more often than not there’s no going back. You are beautiful just as you are,  abeg!  You no see Naomi Campbell?

This article was published on 234Next on the 29th of January in their Elan section. Photo credits : 234Next

Wow!! Chinedu (The Debater 2010) is on FeistyPen!! He has Jos on his mind!

Chinedu Chidi won the oratory competition (Debaters 2010) organised by the Inspire Africa Project founded by the hit TV Talk show host Mo Abudu. He loves the great work !FeistyPen! is doing and agreed to lend his voice to the disheartening trend of killings in Jos and other parts of the country. Read what Chinedu has to say.

IN DEFENCE OF THE TRUTH; FOR THE LOVE OF HUMANITY

These are desperate times in our collective existence. I dare say that the disturbing happenings in our polity readily reveal that Nigeria is experiencing a crisis of security occasioned not only by a crisis of political identity but also a crisis of human identity and the burden of social contradictions.

 The misdirecting force of a brand of religious loyalty at variance with the cardinal principles of the natural order, the inordinate quest for material ascendancy and the volatility of the primordial lust for monopoly with a flagrant distaste for orderly competition have all combined to put the country in this state of emergency. Simply put Nigeria typifies a unit strained by the consequent violence of moral crisis.

The pogrom from ethno-religious conflicts and the spate of bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, violent robbery and ritual killings all amplify age-long notable questions about the nature of our being. Is Nigeria a nation or merely a state of contending nations?

Have the majority of Nigerians shown sufficient dissatisfaction having historically been denied their natural right to equity and the legitimate gains of citizenship by a small but adventurous class conquered by the dark lusts of their lower nature?

Considering Nigeria's widespread decrepitude and startling rot, isn't Nigeria in a state of development emergency? In the light of Nigeria's chequered history marked by bad leadership, shouldn't the collective pursuit of radically ingenious and principled leadership be embraced as non-negotiable?

Discrepancy between our religion and the practice of it

Does the crisis of religious intolerance not spite our reputation of a devout nation and reveal the striking contrast between our practice and the true essence of religion which is the moral regulation of man's fallen nature for higher existence, with the consequence of tranquil and prosperous social order? Doesn't our culpability in varying degrees of lawlessness show our growing amenability to both latent and potent nihilism?

Heightened social consciousness

My contemplations on the realities of Nigeria have heightened my consciousness of our true nature and defined my perspective of the direction of our country, challenging my prior conceptions rooted in a false sense of reality born out of the desperate cling on the soothing appeal of imaginary safety. What solemn reflection has taught me is that to live in denial of reality is to shed the empowerment from a cardinal possession of higher humanity--reason--and the extended awareness of the potential for significant intervention.

The surest trajectory to social balance begins with social awareness. As we reflect on the crises of our dear country, let us remember that our society bears the marks of our existence. We collectively define our country by our actions and inactions. We must hold dear the truth that we will not only be judged by history but by the light of conscience, the mold of society and irrepressible wind of providence!

The wrongful use of sectional identities

As the vengeful killings continue in Jos and Borno, I continue to mourn. I believe that at the root of this crisis is the failure to define others by our common and supreme identity--HUMANITY. Ethno-religious, political, cultural and sectional shades are secondary identities and they have immense potential for either good or evil.

Taken as the core of human definition, they possess great volatility, but under the light of conscience and the compass of reason, they lose their dark potential and occupy their rightful place as subordinates to humanity.

True Peace arises from an ordered mind

Despite heavy security presence, the crisis continues in Jos. This is because the crisis originates from a faulty internal reality. External order may be restored,  but ultimately the crisis will be RESOLVED not by the interventive  instruments of state. For true peace cannot be enforced; it only arises from the order of the mind drawn from the stability of conscience! The solution therefore lies in capitulating to our higher humanity.

The highest proof of humanity is to see one's priceless being in others!

Hook up with Chinedu on Facebook HERE and also find out about the The Debaters HERE

Should it be BLOOD for BLOOD?

I love ChooChoo so much. I love him because he is my seed and the fruit of my womb. I would still love him if he belonged to someone else, but you see this LOVE I have for him is different: he is my SON.

By the power of God, I would train to fear and love God. I hope and pray that he would appropriate the training and grow up in fact to love and fear God. It would make me very happy.

I hope he never kills anyone, whether the person asked for it through their actions or not.

A young boy in Pennsylvania has been convicted of the murder of his father’s pregnant fiancée who he shot through the back of her head when she was sleeping. He has been in court recently appealing the decision of the US courts to try him as an adult which could land him a life sentence without the opportunity of parole.

Human Rights Groups including Amnesty and the Sentencing Project have decried the decision of the courts and are actively fighting it.

The decision has divided two parents; the parent of the boy killer and the parent of the killed fiancée. The boy’s father is protesting his innocence and says he has no idea what could await him.

"Try to explain to a 12-year-old what the rest of your life means. It's incomprehensible for him, he was quoted as saying in an interview with ABC last year.

The deceased mother on the other hand, understandably distraught about the gruesome murder of her 'baby' and grand baby is pushing for maximum sentence for the boy.

"I can't stand this 'Oh, he's 11,' 'Oh, his clothes don't fit him,'"she told the Pittsburg Review soon after her daughter's death. "He knew what he was doing. He killed my baby."

I READ this whole thing with a lot of heaviness in my heart and pondered on what could have pushed an 11 year old to pump a bullet/bullets in someone’s head. 

Could he have felt threatened by his father’s fiancée. Could he have hated the way his father’s attention was turned away from him?  

Now: the main bone of contention. Should he be tried as an adult? Is the deceased’s mother a DEVIL for pushing for that? Who is the real devil here? 
 

The final questions; Should it be BLOOD for BLOOD? Is a parent justified in demanding justice for the death of her own? Is another parent selfish in seeking to preserve his child’s life after another’s has been lost and that at the hand of his child?

Questions, questions, questions!

Let’s discuss, people. It’s time to remind ourselves of what we already know and file it away appropriately in our minds for use when occasions demand. But I reject, “ChooChoo, when you grow up, you would not kill anybody in the mighty name of JESUS!

Photo credits: http://www.guardian.co.uk/

My Ynaija post! Too young for a legacy?

I received news that my younger sister’s friend at school and indeed our family friend died last week from gun shots by robbers. She had been an eighteen year old student of Covenant University and had left school for Lagos when this unfortunate incident happened. My younger sister has not stopped crying for days now. I am still very distraught. Late last year I also lost a very good friend of mine to cancer of the stomach while he was away for his Masters degree in the UK. I attended the funeral with eye whites flecked with red; my heart breaking all over again when I remembered his smile.

Eight years ago, I lost three young friends of mine to an accident, malaria, and sickle cell respectively. They were just mid way through their university degrees and had high hopes and dreams.

Death as we know is inevitable. It occurs as certainly as birth does. Anyone that is born must surely die, and this has been going on since the world began, but it doesn’t mean we have gotten used to it. I lost my mum at forty five and I still think she was too young to die. I still haven’t quite gotten over it and may never; she really was an amazing woman.

I wrote a piece a few months ago, titled Of Legacies and Remembrances to try and make humorous sense of the pain of losing someone dear from the point of view of the one who has passed. And in my piece, I created a fantasy where the person was worried about the legacy they left behind and constantly looked for affirmations that they had been on the right path.

I thought of this most of the day before deciding to write this piece; battling with the unintended morbidity this may portray. However we must talk about it because it is not only old people who die. Young people do too, and we cannot afford to wait till we are old to begin to think of a legacy, taking for granted that we will live till our nineties.

What is a legacy? Dictionaries tell of things like a gift; something to be remembered for; a bequest; and not always of money. Your legacy speaks of your essence, which will be unmistakably unique to you and clearly apparent on your passing, whatever the age.

To be conscious of death is to be conscious of life. People who are committed to leaving something behind are more likely to live better lives. Jesus who was constantly aware of his mission; to die for mankind, lived his short life with his eyes on the goal and did everything to attain that goal.

It’s a new year, and just like we have short term, mid-term and long term goals, I believe a good goal for us which will be called an all-term goal should be to die well.

“Ah, am I not too young to be interested in that?” you may ask? You’re not at all! I really hope all the friends I lost in their twenties thought of this.

To die well is to live well. Living well involves a clear eyed approach to the issues in your life, refusing to be hood winked by the enemy of our souls; the devil and taking responsibility for all our actions.  It is fool hardy at this point to be unaware of what is good and what is evil. Search God’s word for his standards for all of life’s issues and enlist the Spirit’s help in conforming.

Realizing also that God has given us talents; graces, passions, skills and abilities and would be very upset if we bury them (see Matthew 25:14-30). If you don’t do something about that writing, singing, web developing, football or preaching  now that you’ve got your youth, and then you go to meet the Lord with talents still intact, do not expect the Lord to smile and be happy. Harsh words like ‘Lazy and lying servant’ may apply to you. We should do our best to avoid that.

A lot of grief is associated with death, particularly with the death of a young person. Families and friends mourn the loss greatly because they think the person did not get a chance to “live life”, to get married, have children, buy houses and so on. The pain and sadness is understandable. However, at the end of the day, we all would do well to live like every single day is our last; to leave behind an ever present legacy for the loved ones we leave behind.

Photo credit: www.ynaija.com