The Future is Now

                                                        Image: Courtesy pexel.com

First published in 8 oct 2010

The future is forever because every day comes with its own future; be it tomorrow, next week or next year for that matter. Everyone talk about it, dream it or live it in some way or the other but few believe that the future is actually here and now. Few have the understanding that today is the future and that our tomorrow is made today yesterday is history. Except in our memory, yesterday don't exist. To enjoy today we must move on from yesterday and all the experiences we've had - good or bad.

Why should we forget about the so great and lovely life we had yesterday or the pains people or circumstances inflicted on us? Why are we not having the great life we had yesterday or forget the terrible way we were treated yesterday? Thinking of the good times past creates sadness while thinking about the past wrongs creates worries and pain. Living in the present is taking one day at a time and trying to make the best of it hoping to do better. 

Voices of Hopelessness

                                                        Image: Courtesy pexels.com

For the average youth and the silent majority of older Nigerians who dream of a future for Nigeria which will work for all Nigerians their voices got willingly muffled. They were silenced by the few who knew no civilised way to win in what was supposed to be a democratic electoral process. For them the future is uncertain. Their already inhuman existence is made worse by feelings of hopelessness and despair caused by the BIVAStarized open rigging of the just concluded 2023 general election.

The government and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are not pretending not to be part of the show of shame. It appears that Prof. Mahmood Yakubu sold millions of Nigerians into slavery for thirty pieces of silver. This man is not a Nigerian in essence.  At this stage of Nigeria's bumpy journey to a democratic system guided by respect for the rule of law and established elections administration process, it is right to expect the INEC chairman to be seen to have overseen a process which can be adjudged to be fair, credible and free. He failed woefully.

Behind the Cloak of Chieftancy

Founding members of the Abonnema Council of Chiefs

Note: This article was first published on 28/08/2011

Chieftaincy institutions will continue to evolve. More so in some communities in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria where the prerequisites for an individual's elevation to that erstwhile revered position has changed quite significantly recently. Recent key changes we are experiencing are not the type that strengthens a community because they occur in violation of the constitution of these communities with respect to the way individuals are accepted as members of the council of chiefs.

The chieftaincy institution is the most important one in the social and political life of these communities and its strength or weakness, therefore, reflects the fitness of the community. A community's fitness is its ability to create and manage positive change and/or its ability to withstand and manage changes that are not favourable to its long term survival.

Never Live in Fear My Daughter

Credit: Pixabay

Step out and worry not of the dark,
be fearless, be brave, be of courage,
there's no such thing as fear,
in the mind that venture into the unknown;

What is fear after all?
if not the coward's tool of defence,
the fear-stricken is not safe when in hiding?
fear has not a shape any man has ever sighted,
except in the eyes of the retreating coward;

Be brave my sister for God is on thy side;
be valiant my brother for God is thy shield,
fear is unreal, a mere negative feeling,
which strikes the body when the mind is weakened,
it is a phantom that fools the stricken mind,
into inaction, retreat or collapse;