Worrying Development...

Residents of Ijora and Lagos as a whole have woken up this morning to the stark reality now facing them. Boko haram have made good their promise to move their operations down to the south of the country. This is an extremely worrying development. Lagos does not only serve as second city diplomatically, economically it is first city to the most populous African nation.

At 7am this morning State security personel and soldiers were able to apprehend a group of terrorist who one would have to assume were in an advanced stage of mounting a terrorist attack. They were fully prepared with bomb, guns and other war paraphernalia.

At this point in time being wary of a Mumbai style showdown on the streets of Lagos wouldn’t totally be out of the question. It is sad that it has eventually come to this.
This Cancer must be checked before it consumes the country and everything in it. .

Chinua Achebe moves on.

A literary giant was Albert Chínụ̀álụmọ̀gụ̀ Àchèbé, a blessing he was among story lovers and lovers of culture and tradition. He could put pen to paper and write down things that the rest of us could but vaguely dream about. He wrote it as he would have it read.

He was a true hero of modern Africa, an icon in academia. He would always be alive in the pages of his book.
All hail Chinua Achebe, may he rest well.  

SMH

People are always prone to see the funny side of events. People would always want to have a laugh about an issue that does not necessarily tickle them as it does present the stark reality that there isn’t anything they could possibly do to make the situation any less shameful. Over the past few weeks it’s been one blasphemy after another.

Facing down that reality needs a lot of energy, time and resources. No one has that time and energy to counter little niggling irritations so all we can do is poke fun, propagate it on Facebook and twitter, make T-shirts and we all have a good laugh. But then, the fact remains that we are inching towards the edge of a precipice.

Mediocrity is a dangerous web, it sets its own bounds and one would wallow inside its shadows, eternally insulated from any form of confrontation. Nothing would ever seem worth the while to raise one’s voice or to take action. So as long as factors are not potent enough to penetrate and jolt one out of this nice tidy rat race, everything would seem acceptable. Everything would seem bearable, the good, the bad and the downright shameful.  

#MyOgaAtTheTop has been the height of events lately. 

Before that there was the pardon granted to a world renowned thief who is still wanted in various countries for financial crimes. The shame about his crimes isn’t as much it is some complicated, sophisticated business acquisition/financial deal as it is a case of just stacking raw cash into suitcases and cheap plastic bags and yanking them across Countries.  The stealing is a crime on its own; the stupidity exhibited is in itself a crime. To compound issues, we have had a Presidential spokesman come on air to justify this pardon. His words and actions have made the initial crime committed seem pale in comparison.

We all make mistakes, we all fall short.  This is very natural we all humans. On the other hand standing up to defend a wrong, no matter what words or policy or law you use to justify your deeds is just downright shameful.

Like my friend Obi has said, Keep wearing the T-shirts, keep the word alive.

It's all well and good to poke fun at and laugh at the current situation unfolding in Aso rock, but the sad truth is that these are desperate times. We must treat them as such.