WHAT WOULD THEY SAY?

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Many people who were doing very well in life before until some sort of misfortune happened are suffering in silence today, not because there’s nothing more they can do to at least have three square meals a day but because they are dwelling too much on “what people would say”.

Who cares about what the people would say?

If it’s the same people who would not give you a dime are the ones who’d always laugh when they see you trying to fight poverty off by doing some ‘humble’ legit jobs? Then let them laugh.

Nobody has any excuse to die of hunger!

You may not have that luxury car or other luxuries of life at the moment, but you have no excuse to die of hunger if you are not physically impaired,  ill, bedridden or something.

Just the other day, I boarded a bus but got held up in one ‘terrible’ traffic for almost an hour. Yes, an hour! Which shouldn’t be news for many in this part of the world.

Anyhow, the core of this post is not about the traffic but about the conductor of that bus.

While in the traffic, I engaged Tunji (by far the most respectful conductor I’ve ever encountered in my entire life) in a discussion.

First of all, I got on the bus; he greeted me and then asked if I was “okay”, properly settled on one of the seats before he asked the driver to move. Then he proceeded to collect his money in a very good manner “aunty please, your money”. I gave the money to him and he gave me my change and said “thank you”.

After a short drive, another passenger boarded and he extended the same courtesy towards the passenger, it was at this point I took an interest in him.

Unlike the many bedraggled ones seen on the roads, Tunji was well dressed in a simple traditional ‘ankara’ attire with hair well cut and of course no mouth or body odour, as I was seated next to him and furthermore well-spoken too.

In the course of the journey, I found out that he’s not only a graduate who had at a time worked in one of the blue chip organisations in this country but also a father of two.

He talked about how things went from ‘very awesome’ to ‘very appalling’ and then couldn’t stand to watch his family get hungrier than they later got so he decided to take up the job of becoming a conductor until something better comes up.

Of course by the time I disembarked, I was convinced without doubts that not too long from that moment, Tunji would get back on his feet again given some of the plans he talked about in the short journey with him.

What am I trying to say here?

Don’t die of hunger simply because of “what would people say”?

What is that thing you can start doing right now? Start from wherever you are and with whatever you have. There is nothing to be ashamed of.

It will pay off in the end.👌

©Stella Ene - Inyang

OUR ECONOMY FLUCTUATES MORE THAN THE POWER SITUATION IN OUR COUNTRY

I asked a young lady, Shalom to put on paper, her thoughts on the present economic situation in the country and she wrote thus:

Our economy fluctuates more than the power situation in our country. From the devaluation of our currency, to the labor market getting tighter and inflation of prices on everything.  We are aware that the devaluing of our currency started in Babangida’s regime and ever since it has been hard to give our currency the value that used to be placed on it. 

 

However, corruption in my own opinion is one of the major causes of our economic meltdown. Let us quit putting all the blame on our leaders and face the fact that we as citizens of Nigeria also play a part in the instability of the good will of our country. We citizens have accepted whatever the society throws at us and by this the economy keeps getting worse.

I mean the price of crude oil has dropped drastically and the fact that our country is solely dependent on oil has affected the economy a great deal. Left to me the only surviving people in this country are the higher class people, the merchant class are managing while the peasants are in despair. This is sad, what happened to the Nigeria where everyone was comfortable and didn’t have to worry about the fact the economy could decide not to favor them tomorrow?

The bad part is even regular commodities now have their prices hiked just like the price of tomatoes that got inflated. To make matters worse people are being laid off en masse from their jobs because organizations can no longer afford to pay staff and as if that is not even enough there are more unemployed people than employed people. I mean how are people supposed to survive without money and in this situation where the exchange rate is ridiculously high and the prices of everything are getting inflated. Apparently only few people have stable jobs in Nigeria.

I would like to agree with a lot of people that our present leader, President Muhammadu Buhari is doing the best he can, but let us not forget that he is trying to mend Nigeria almost from scratch and there is only little he can do. But if we the citizens of this country put our hands together to see to the progress of our country then Nigeria can be fixed, it might take a while but we would go a long way in making our country a better place to live in. If we determine to make this country better then I assure we would be able to build this country up again.

SAVE YOUR HEALTH, SAVE YOUR MONEY!

With the rains here now, mosquitos are sure having a fields day/swell time with many Nigerians on the losing end as malaria hits after the mosquitoes’ feast. The mosquitos have being chased out of their hideouts where they obviously have been hibernating in their thousands or  millions for a long time but have now launched out to deal with many who cannot afford sleeping nets or good insecticides, repellant or fumigation on a regular basis.

That is the lot of many in my country as we speak. Oh I meant ‘read’.

A few days ago, I decided to get a new can of repellant having not slept a wink the night before due to the ever buzzing and a few bites from ‘mosquidragons’. So, on my way home from work, I stopped at a supermarket and asked for a particular brand of insecticide which has proven time and time again ‘over effective’ on mosquitos than any other tried in the past.

Sadly, I was disappointed after a few minutes of going round the store only to realize the desired brand was in stock but only in a much bigger content can and of course more expensive without even a single regular ‘smaller’ can in stock.

We all know how ‘sweet’ the economy is at the moment *winks* in terms of cash flow. So I made a quick mental calculation and decided even though unenthusiastically to settle for another very popular brand which was cheaper as I needed to buy other needed items for the home.

Interestingly, the popular brand eventually bought, used to be my favourite until I discovered this ‘my sought after’ brand even though people still consider the popular brand a most effective one as not many have realized how effective my ‘sought after’ brand is with its odourless form unlike the smell from the popular brand which gives me headaches even long after it has being sprayed around the house.

‘My sought after’ brand sends mosquitos away and on exile without reserves around the house even though not many people know it for now yet everyone who have been introduced to it can attest to the fact that it is indeed a brand to be reckoned with.

Enough said already on the brand. Name will be revealed once the company credits my bank account. *smiles*.

Back to my story.

And so I settled for the ‘popular’ affordable one but that was my own undoing as ‘yours sincerely’ did not still get to sleep any better than the night before the purchase as the popular brand bought repelled NOTHING!

Feeling really bad and almost depressed by the next morning with the thoughts of how my desired brand should have being bought if only I had added a little to the amount used in purchasing the popular brand, I no doubts would have slept better as all the mosquitos would have gone to ‘roast’ without any apologies from my sought after brand. It was a case of ‘penny wise, pound foolish’, right?

While I was contemplating on buying the sought after brand the next day irrespective of the amount, it then occurred to me that there should be a few mosquito nets in the house which were bought to be used but were never touched because nobody welcomed the idea of nets over their beds at the time I brought them home so I guess they were simply put away without even opening one of the packs.

And so, like a dedicated soldier at work, I went into the closets in search and within a couple of minutes, “voila” I was out with four packs of treated mosquito nets and so without bothering myself about the disappointed looks on the faces of the rest of the family, I tore the packs open and gave an order for them to be aired outside till I returned from work and of course when I returned home later in the evening, they had no choice but to assist, even though reluctantly,  in setting up the nets on the beds.

My testimony in all of these is that, I have being sleeping like a baby EVERY NIGHT without even the slightest buzz or a single mosquito bite since the ‘nets went up’. Now I truly understand why World Health Organisation has being promoting the use of these nets, especially the treated ones in order to kick out malaria. I always felt the babies, children and nursing mothers alone should be forced to use them. Honestly, it makes a lot of sense for EVERYONE.

Don’t get me wrong on the use of pesticides and insecticides. I’m just espousing that we can actually save ourselves some monies and the troubles related to consistent inhaling of the chemicals used in producing these repellant as they remain in the air long after being sprayed notwithstanding the fact many a times some of these mosquitos surmount them. Laughs.

What am I reiterating?

Like the old time religion, use mosquito nets. Avoid too much exposure to insecticide as considerably as you can. Save your health and of course save your money.   

SUICIDE? WHY? THERE’S STILL A LOT TO LIVE FOR!

What in the world would lead a man who many thought had everything going for him, commit suicide?

When I heard that story many things ran through my head and I remembered Tee Billz and the story that made the rounds many weeks back on how he wanted to commit suicide but for the timely intervention of some friends who held him back from jumping over a reported bridge.

When many heard Tee Billz’s attempt at suicide, a lot of debated statements were heard and read on all the social media platforms. Some people attributed Tee Billz action to ‘depression’ but many others laughed it off saying ‘depression’ was not a “Nigerian thing”. Sadly the reality is here and so many eyes are beginning to get “opened” that depression is indeed not just an ‘oyibo’ thing but Nigerian and the world at large thing.

Many attempts at suicide are made on a daily basis all over the world. Nevertheless, it has become common and on the upsurge in Nigeria today. Thanks to not just the harsh economic weather, the lack of love for brethren and the many ‘show-offs’ on social media are also contributive factors to the upsurge as not many people can withstand the pressures.

Just yesterday, one of such attempts however fell through as a promising young man with a close knit family and according to very reliable sources has a good financial backing given his family background. He was said to be a happy, jolly fellow who was always the joy of every party and had nearly everything going for him including a good paying job, social life, family and more. As a matter of fact, he was envied by many. By the way, wife has a great paying job as well. Not even a health issue.

So the mind-boggling question is “why did he commit suicide”?

A close friend of mine who is also a friend to the ‘suicide guy’ narrated that he was actually in his (my friend’s) office the day before but had to leave him behind in the office to meet up with an appointment even as the ‘suicide guy’ stayed back given that they both work in the same establishment but different units. Unknown to my friend that was the last time he would see his friend and colleague alive.

The confusing part of the story is that he never gave anyone the impression that he was depressed or going through a ‘thingy’ that needed sorting out by suicide neither was there any inkling to shooting himself.  Worse of all, he had to go shoot himself in front of a Priest! Why? Nobody knows as at the time of writing this. However, the guy must have had a good reason, known only to him, for doing it in

front of a Priest. Nonetheless, there is no justification for shooting himself let alone in front of a Priest.

Even though many stories are buzzing in the air about the reasons behind the suicide, I still don’t think ‘suicide’ was the only way out. Even if he owed the Central bank of Nigeria millions, still was no ‘good enough’ reason to commit suicide. This life is sweet inspite of the numerous challenges jare!

Objectively, one would expect that the young man should have thought about his wife, daughter and some beloved members of his close and extended family who look up to him for one thing or the other, tangible or intangible. If he thought about all that and more, he would have sought out other means of getting out of whatever trouble he found himself and yet still be alive today.

Well the guy thought otherwise.

So my sincere prayers go out to his family and also that God would grant him eternal rest.

I decided to with-hold his real names here because the family is still trying to get their heads around this ‘real-life’ drama put together by their son, husband and father. And for all those who may be doubting the credibility of this story, please don’t kid yourself that ‘it’s a script out of a movie’ because it is not but as real as the pain you’d feel if you pinched your nose hard right now.

I wish it was a movie as well but it’s not as it happened right here in Lagos.

And to everyone out there going through one challenge or the other. Please do not make suicide an option to the list of means-of-getting-out.  

There’s still a lot to live for.