Success Adegor Video: Help a Child and Trend

                                                             

Photo Credit: www.lindaikejisblog.com

A girl of about 7 or 8 named Success Adegor, a pupil of Okotie Eboh Primary School II has attracted media presence to herself because of her so-called stubbornness and zeal for school. When interviewed by the person who published her on social media, she complained that she was chased from school for not paying school fees.

From her video that has gone viral, one could feel the bitterness from her complaints. She complained that the school authorities should have flogged her and let her stay in school instead of sending her home since she will still pay the fees eventually. She really poured out her heart to show how she felt by her demonstrations while adding that if they had flogged her, they would be the ones to get tired.

I will rather say that her stubbornness is constructive because it attracted first the person that wanted so badly to know why she is ranting, then that person interviewed and published her on social media. Ever since, she has attracted favour to her family and school, apart from her media presence. So many individuals have taken up the responsibility of paying her fees while government representatives have gone to check out the state her school, which is in a mess. Our take on this is that any kind of stubbornness that does not attract good fortune should be done away with.

The problem here now is that we so much love popularity. Since someone has initially promised to sponsor her or pay up her school fees, others should please focus on other children around them who are suffering the same fate. Everybody must not pay Success' school fees and sponsor her all the way to university, it will be too much for one child when there are other children going through the same thing. We shouldn't help because that help will make us trend or go viral; we should help because that help is needed. 

Ideal Olive applauds that person who saw her walking and ranting but did not smile or laugh and pass her by but stooped to find out why she was ranting. That is the person that helped her the most, because of Success Adegor and that person, renovation and upgrade of infrastructural facilities has begun in Delta Schools beginning with Okotie Eboh Primary School II. 

Written by Olive Chinyere Amajuoyi

Lagos Building Collapse: Are we really worthless?

Photo Credit: vanguardngr.com

I felt so miserable when I read about the Lagos collapsed building as reported by a local source, especially as regards the testimony of one middle-aged woman identified as Medinat who revealed the state of the building during an interview with her. She said: "The government should come and demolish all these houses in my neighborhood; this one that collapsed, they marked it since last year but they cleaned the mark by the government and continued staying there, even the government never came back. Do you know that even this morning, this house was shedding debris before it...".

The building was marked for demolition because they knew it was a threat to human lives, yet, people wiped off the mark, ignored the warning and continued to stay there. Government agency that marked it for demolition, on the other hand, didn’t care to go back and check if their warning was effective, they didn’t go back according to the woman.

The four-story building in question containing residential buildings, a nursery and primary school as well as a shop complex on the ground floor situated at Ita Faji on the Lagos Island has collapsed, killing many people inside. According to residents and rescue workers, "the building that was very old and marked for demolition since last year came crashing after giving signs of fatigue".

Photo Credit: thisdaylive.com

Ideal Olive is asking: Are we really worthless? Why does it seem like we Nigerians have no value for our lives? I read one of the essays written by late Pius Adesanmi who died during the Boeing 737 Ethiopian Plane crash and saw how Canadian government value animals and I was as shocked as he was when he got the orientation because we are Nigerians and here in Nigerian, humans are not valued as much. 

Here is an excerpt from the essay: “I hope you all know that in Obodo Oyibo, public animals are government property. All those doves you see in Trafalgar Square or the squirrels you see on lawns, geese, ati bebelo, are all government property. Una wey dey go holiday in London from Nigeria, go to Trafalgar Square and touch a dove, that is the day you will realize that the life of a public animal is worth more to the government of obodo oyibo than your life is worth to the Nigerian government”.

Ideal Olive encourages you to patiently read the full essay below.

Written by Olive Chinyere Amajuoyi

Raccoon Orientation for Canada-Bound Nigerians

By Pius Adesanmi

I promised I was going to get around to tell you all this story. 

Eventually.

Happened last summer – before my accident.

The jazz of all my political enemies in Nigeria finally crossed the Atlantic and caught up with me here in Ottawa. 

The trouble with Homo Occidentalis North Americanus is that as soon as he arrives within a certain income bracket that is no longer middleclass but not quite upperclass but dangerously close to upperclass, he will move far away from the city and create a new paradise he calls upscale suburbia. Swanky neigbourhoods with manicured lawns, removed from the rabble of the city. 

That is where you will find high-earning doctors, engineers, accountants, lawyers, etc. If you are a Professor who negotiated a good pay when you were hired, you also tag along, buy property among them, and begin to form associate big man.

Trouble is suburbia in Canada or the US is always encroaching on the habitat of much older residents. Man steals land from these residents but cannot always predict consequences. That is why a family in Florida will return from work to an alligator chilling in their swimming pool. That is why a family in Arizona will grumble about rattle snakes all over their yard. They call animal services. Never mind that these animals have called that place home for millions of years before man put one leg on top of another leg and developed his suburbia there.

In Ottawa, if you live in the suburbia called Riverside South as I do, you have encroached on prime raccoon territory. As in Florida and Arizona, these raccoons have a way of behaving like omo onile in Lagos. Occasionally, they let you know who truly owns the land (This is where you google raccoon).

Because the jazz of my political enemies in Nigeria worked as I was saying, a family of raccoons elected residence in our roof last summer. We’d been hearing mawuru mawuru in the ceiling for months. The noise would come only at night. Tise said it was the tooth faerie. I thought it was squirrels, but we couldn’t fathom how squirrels could tear into the roof of a duplex from outside and make their way into the attic.

One day, madam called me urgently and asked me to hurry home. I arrived to a small situation in front of our home. Our otherwise very friendly neighbours had converged on our front lawn. It was quite a scene. Bloodshot eyes everywhere. No friendly faces. In upscale suburbia, we are naturally the only non-white homeowners within a certain radius so when normally friendly white neighbours converge, looking sorrowful and unfriendly, you worry.

I exited my car to behold quite a scene. Unknown to us, we had accommodated a pregnant raccoon for several weeks. Mama Raccoon eventually gave birth to six pups. On this day, she suddenly went crazy like she found a mixture of codeine, sniper, and tramadol in our attic. She began to fling her babies down on the lawn one by one. From the roof of a duplex fa.

That explained the sadness and sorrow of our neighbours. Remember, this is an animal-loving civilization. It also explained their hostility. Somehow, it must have been something we did that got that poor animal so crazy that she began to murder her own kids. Everybody was looking at us one kain, like, what have you guys done now?

The only analogy for you in Nigeria is if your home was invaded by destructive giant rats. You’d tried everything from traps to rat poison. Then, one day, Mama Rat begins to miraculously kill her own children before your very before. Only for your neighbours to gather around sorrowfully because those awesome baby animals are dying. Only for them to be hostile to you for not doing enough to keep the baby rats alive!

Anyway, animal services eventually arrived to rescue some of the babies that had not yet died. Come and see interrogation! Even Tise did not escape questioning! Are you guys perhaps a little noisy in the house? What time do you all normally sleep? 

Nigerians, believe you me, Oyinbo was trying to determine if we did something to cause the postpartum depression of Mama Raccoon, which led her to killing her babies!! They began to explain the characteristics of raccoons to us. How it was still too early for her to bring her babies out, let alone fling them from the roof. There was the unsaid: you guys must have done something.

When we were eventually “acquitted”, the animal services people went into our attic to inspect. They screamed in excitement: three more babies that Mama Raccoon had yet to fling! We said: thank God. Now you can evacuate Mama Raccoon and her remaining babies.

I hope you all know that in Obodo Oyibo, public animals are government property. All those doves you see in Trafalgar Square or the squirrels you see on lawns, geese, ati bebelo, are all government property. Una wey dey go holiday in London from Nigeria, go to Trafalgar Square and touch a dove, that is the day you will realize that the life of a public animal is worth more to the government of obodo oyibo than your life is worth to the Nigerian government.

So, we asked Obodo Canada to please carry their raccoons from our ceiling. We were in for another shock. She is a nursing mother, the animal services people replied, we don’t move nursing mothers. By law, Mama Raccoon has the right to remain here and nurse her remaining babies. We will keep checking.

I have been in Obodo Oyibo for 22 years. I didn’t see that one coming. Apparently, the Raccoon had eminent domain! The best they could do for us was to come and move her at the end of the biological breeding cycle or something to that effect. With that, they entered their van and zoomed off.

I looked on in wonderment, lost in one of those na-who-send-me-come-obodo-oyibo moments that every Diasporan goes through on occasion. With which mouth am I even going to tell this sort of story to a Nigerian audience?

Then I noticed that Tise all along had had the same attitude as our Oyinbo neighbours.

Now she is glad that some Raccoon babies had survived and would not be moved.

I realized that only her parents had a problem.

I realized that we were two Nigerians raising a Canadian.

This is her country.

This is her culture.

These are her people.

These are her baby raccoons. 

I jejely borrowed myself brain and joined the little girl in rejoicing that three baby raccoons had survived.

Political Extremism: Man Dies after Drinking Drainage Water to Celebrate Buhari’s Re-election

Photo Credit: guardian.ng

The death of Bala Haruna, a strong supporter of President Muhammadu Buhari in Bauchi State, who died after battling with Gastrointestinal bleeding in the hospital as a result of drinking drainage water, has continued to fly on social media.

When I learned about Bala Haruna, a strong supporter of President Buhari and his extremist tendency and resolve to spend 10 minutes inside a gutter and drink the drainage water if President Buhari wins the presidential election, I wondered if he has got a human brain. If I had seen him, I would have asked him to jump inside a pit toilet instead; to drink the dung, but on second thought, I had to conclude that some humans are not normal.

Haruna actually fulfilled his promise as he swam in a gutter and drank dirty water from it the moment Buhari was declared the winner of February 23 presidential election in the early hours of Wednesday, February 27. But the problem now is that he did not live to enjoy the rights and wrongs of President Buhari’s leadership that he sacrificed for. According to reports, Haruna was rushed to the hospital after complaining of severe abdominal pains and severe stooling of blood for two days and was diagnosed with Gastrointestinal bleeding, which was contacted from the contaminated water he drank.

A similar incident happened in 2015 when a man named Abubakar Duduwale trekked from Yola in Adamawa State to Abuja to celebrate Buhari’s victory. It was also reported that the man was admitted at the Federal Medical Centre, Yola, after developing leg injury as a result of the trekking.

I have seen and heard of people who eat, drink, party or celebrate the victory of their fan politician or sports club; they don’t punish themselves to show their excitement. Consequently, if their fan loses, then they have reason to destroy lives or properties, but for someone to destroy his life to celebrate the victory of a fan, I will rather say it is way out of line. But whether it is to celebrate the victory of a fan or oppose the victory of a foe, does it worth destroying the life that God has given us? Today, Bala Haruna is making face wrinkling headlines, but inside the grave - no thanks to his suicidal stunt.

Some stories are too disgusting to be true but here we are; we have to face reality and deal with realities of life because nothing exists that God has not empowered us to handle.

Written by Olive Chinyere Amajuoyi

Resurrection Challenge: Pastor Lukau of Alleluia Ministries International Raises a Dead Man

Photo Credit: damiadenuga.com.ng

Photo Credit: damiadenuga.com.ng

The video and account of Pastor Alph Lukau, the General Overseer and Founder of the Alleluia Ministries International South Africa who recently raised a dead man have continued to trend on social media. The body of the man he raised from the dead was being transported to Zimbabwe when his grieving family rushed to Pastor Lukau’s church.  It was alleged that the coffin began to rattle as the car carrying his coffin approached the church. Based on facts from the video, a lot of speculations have trailed the alleged miracles, many are beginning to question if his miracles were real or fake. The facts below will get you thinking.

1)   The man’s mouth was wide open before the miracle took place. Recall that health workers and mortuary attendants close people’s eyes, nostrils, and mouth when they are confirmed dead and before they are taken to the morgue.

2)   The alleged funeral home where the dead body was claimed to be taken from denied admitting the supposed dead man.  Their statement below might give a clue of what really happened.

“We were approached by alleged family members of the deceased who informed us they had encountered a dispute with a different funeral service provider and would like to use our transport services which we offered them".

"We did not supply the coffin neither did we store the deceased at our mortuary nor was any paperwork processed by Kings and Queens Funerals. As a Funeral Services Provider, we do not offer services without documentation neither do we repatriate bodies without any paperwork".

"We are in the process of taking legal action for this malicious damage to our image".

"To all our beloved clients and prospective clients, thank you for the continued support during this confusing time. We continue to strive for excellence as your preferred funeral services provider that offers a service that gives you honour, dignity, and comfort”.

Photo Credit: damiadenuga.com.ng

Meanwhile, according to lailasnews.com, Pastor Alph Lukau, the General Overseer and Founder of the Alleluia Ministries International South Africa recently visited a hospital to heal the sick, after being mocked for a fake resurrection miracle.

Ideal Olive believes in miracle and will not judge any miracle worker, but advises the public to be careful of the pastors they patronize or the churches they go to because many false prophets have arisen from their graveyards. Be wise!

Written by Olive Chinyere Amajuoyi