Telling a Story......Carrion beast or Journalist?

In the presence of war, famine, celebrations, disasters, and acts of God we now see a new breed of people. People who seek to tell what they see, people who seek to share the story of their experiences. It is with great pain that I have come to realize that these people are consequently products of these stories, they have become carrion, feeding off happy times and disasters alike.

On the one hand they represent the conscience of society, on the other they are just vultures who very much depend on the occurrence of the rotting depraved acts of man to further a career of story telling. 

To accuse them would be futile for all they do is tell as they see, but then there should be a limit to ones ability to resist the temptation to stretch forth a helping hand to a dying human rather than just run and tell as they see. 

Telling a story about a dying girl to prevent the future death of ten other girls is good but saving the first dying girl should be priority it should be the noble thing to do and her death should not just be used as material for a heart wrenching career boosting story.

As the years have gone by the heart of man indeed has become as stone. 

 

A peoples dilemma......

It is with much anguish and disdain that we perceive the current political turmoil that is currently wrecking the reputation of  Rivers state as a political entity. 

What seems to be the most perturbing aspect of it is that most of it is being generated by just a few people. All to buttress their selfish interest. 

It is become a worrying situation indeed, because it does not just threaten the peace of Rivers state it is also threatening to destabilize the entire region. 

With the two most important stake holders keen on fomenting the embers of what is already a precariously poised situation the only foreseeable result is a downward spiral that could ultimately end in a state of anarchy. 

The present administration tends to be nonchalant about what people think. It is frightful to see a government being run the way the present administration is being run. It is indeed scary. It does leave much to be desired on all fronts.      

With the Presidential spokesman who seems to be constantly in a bellicose state of mind bent on treating credible questions and complaints directed at the Presidency as minor irritations, the populace is becoming disengaged from the ruling class. It has gradually becoming a parallel system. With the government attending to issues it perceives to be expedient while the worries and real everyday problems of the common man are being dismissed as superficial and somewhat exaggerated.

One could hope and pray. Its all we have done in the last four decades. We hope and we pray while the world marches on. 

A sponsored research  on the Nigerian problem is very much overdue. As an entity the Nigerian state seems to be constantly in a state of flux, there seems to be an ingrained consciousness that reaches out and corrupts any good thing that threatens to rear its head out of this convulsing pile of corruption, miss-governance, crime and  filth. 

Politicians have lost faith in the system, the middle class have no stakes in its wealth, the lower class have decided that they are beyond hope and reprieve so all we have is a perfectly poised collection and brush wood waiting for the inevitable burn fire that we are approaching.   

The current administration has no scruples about trading its soul now just to get ahead in the pols for the 2015 seat, it all means that between now and 2015 all we can hope for is a government run by a group of people whose sole aim and ambition for its people, the continent of Africa and the world at large is just to win a reelection it is scarcely credible to stand for.  

Politics played around the world is rarely free of misdeeds and corruption but then what we are experiencing in the Nigerian political demography is totally on another plain. The nonchalant manner with which business is carried out is abhorrent. It is like a skyscraper built with foundation of rotten wood. With the elite political class moving ever closer to the roof where they have their getaway helicopters at the ready. 

Everyone knows the system needs to be purged, everyone expects a revamp, everyone is aching and crying but no one seems brave enough to stand and make a difference. We all just carry on and hope a savior in the form of a powerful politicians marches on to the political scene and revamps the whole system. 

With this state of mind we are going to be waiting for a while yet. 

Rivers State is one of the largest Oil producing states in the country. Off Nigeria's 2.28 million barrels produced daily in the country Rivers state is accountable for almost 40% of this. Yet all its oil produced has amounted to almost null development to indigenous communities in the state. In comparison to the Dubai emirate with just 4 billion barrels of oil reserves it has seen almost all of its oil money ploughed back into its community transforming it into a playground for architects and financiers.

With the 10th largest confirmed deposits of crude oil in the world and the 8th largest confirmed natural gas reserve in the world Nigerians still languish in abject poverty and confusion reigns supreme. It is sad to note that the Nigerian state loses $18.2 million a day in burning off its gas reserves rather than harness it. Lacking the expertise and being constantly wary of western nations who always seem keen in locking unsuspecting developing nations into one dubious deal or another with the sole view of furthering their own gains. 

The big oil companies seems content with waiting rather than engaging in serious endeavors to curb gas flaring. While corrupt Nigerian politicians flutter around knowing fully well they are sitting on a pile of raw cash but being oblivious without the slightest of how to convert this to real money. 

We still hope and pray and believe that things would take a turn for the better.

Trayvon and Zimmerman two worlds apart...

Oh sweet Florida my home my Friend

A host of choice, a port of hope

Oh sweet Florida, A home for heroes 

A mansion of dreams, a place to love

your blue seas, white sands and shores of gold

Your palm trees to the wind do bow

Oh sweet Florida, oh Sweet Florida

of thee I sing

I feel your comfort, I feel your love though my skin be tanned, my hair be curled

my eyes jet black, my voice suave

of comfort of fairness a promise from you

of my race, not a question for equality we bought

I feel your riches, I smell your wine

of hardwork and oppurtunity a slice I have

now to protect your shores and my hard earned riches

To thy streets I hurl myself my sword

I should take a walk, I should feel your sweetness

I get some candy and smell the rain

Oh sweet Florida, of thee I sing

Oh sweet Florida, oh sweet Florida

I see a threat, a hood and swagger an enemy I tell

should I draw my sword and challenge this foe, or dog his steps then cut him down

he is armed all right, with a deadly hood and a black skin

to no good he is aimed, oh Florida thy shores I protect

I have a Shadow, a sickening feeling

I have been perceived to be a threat

my race, my colour questioned again

oh sweet Florida this tainted freedom please abolish

He slows his steps, why should he

he is a foe now I see 

he must assume the position

or my steel would drive my challenge and question

I should walk faster and shake this shadow

of fear and anger I feel arising

Oh Florida oh Florida, of thee I sing

I would stand my ground and declare myself

Halt thy steps and declare thyself

to no good I perceive you to be

you would stand with me

till the sheriff does arrive 

Why should I be held to ransom 

on these lovely shores of mine and thou

No, my freedom I must protect and declare

of this, not an inch would I give

He does resist then my sword would speak

a blemish he is to these shores of ours

Now he is down his blood abroad, a closer look I take to see

a foe alright he is to us and has been for all of 17 years

Oh Florida, oh Florida I lie mortally wounded, for once again my skin belies me

now from me gushes my youth, my virtue my soul with the rain does mingle

oh Florida, oh Florida of thee I sing

I lie here spent, my future taken 

Could I have waited 
the sheriff would come
but then i did what I did to protect myself
after-all a hood and black skin he had on him

I go now quiet, for I must 

for my body lies broken and spent beneath your sky

of justice and freedom I beg again

though I know it shall never be mine

Go on now young foe
I have a story to tell for us both
in the grave you can but rest
your colour on earth brought you non of that

Oh I wish my mother to see for just a moment ere I go 

the silence is come, the night beckons 

my heart flutters my breadth is stilled

goodbye Florida of thee I sing