She has won many awards in writing and poetry amongst which are CLO essay competition (1st Prize Southwest) NDIC essay competition(5th Prize in the southwest) and a World Bank Essay Certificate of Participation
She has worked with woman.ng as a content editor and a host of sites as a ghost writer. She has written great inspirational content for fashion brands/blogs. She has been featured on radio and recently added public speaking to her portfolio.
You can hire her to write a professional/business profile for you, online content editing, book editing, guest blogging, ghostwriting, content creation or if you need copies of her book, contact her via [email protected]
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This is a rant… I may be dropping out of postgraduate school. .I’ve been numb since yesterday. I went through a lot of emotions yesterday ranging from frustration to anger to near depression. The worst part, I tried to let out the […]
. I’ve been numb since yesterday. I went through a lot of emotions yesterday ranging from frustration to anger to near depression. The worst part, I tried to let out the emotions but it couldn’t be expressed. But it’s still right there as a lump in my heart.
I went to school yesterday to register for 2nd semester. In NOUN, you pay school fee every semester. I went with 80k. I had many sleepless nights before the 80k appeared sef and on the last day the registration portal was going to close, I promised myself I was going to check my BP at the office clinic since I had not been sleeping for days. However, I got the money that very day in the afternoon but I was too busy to do anything about it.
Friday was public holiday. I went to a cyber cafe to do the registration and payment online but funnily, the cafe was closed that Friday morning. First sign from God most likely. Saturday, no chance. Monday, I went to the physical school close to me yet, I couldn’t get it sorted. Second sign. I was told to go to bank after generating RRR. I knew I could pay directly online besides, the queues at my bank on Mondays are terrifying. So I called an oga and he told me to come back to school the next day. I was relieved. Yesterday, I went back. He opened his desktop, generated RRR, paid through remita. Only to discover that he paid into a wrong remita portal. He should have done everything from my student portal but he paid directly to remita and my money went to a wrong place. So he wrote a letter which I typed in my name and took to NOUN HQ in Jabi. When I got to student account, they told me I have to go source for another money to register for 2nd semester else I lose the semester because the money won’t come out even in three weeks. In fact, there’s no date in sight because the money has to go through a whole lot of bureaucracy-move from table to table and finally ratified by the VC. There’s no certainty I will get this money back. No way to even trace anything. While leaving school yesterday, I didn’t know I had crossed the express until I saw a car fly past me just few seconds after I crossed without looking. It was a narrow escape. On my way back from Jabi, I had to book a ride with bolt to just take me home. The driver didn’t try to make small talks, thank God for that. He played music and we rode in silence. I managed to go to church and still taught Bible study😀 I’m still numb and I still haven’t cried. I really need to cry. I’m feeling the pains in my leg. Life is overwhelming. I’m feeling as if I just lost my life savings in an investment scheme.
Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off. Proverbs 27:10 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.27.10.KJV I have amazing neighbors […]
Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off. Proverbs 27:10 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.27.10.KJV
I have amazing neighbors in this hood I live now. I moved in just a week before lockdown started last year. Its a block of one bedroom bungalow each, fenced and gated. You know you have neighbors but they aren’t in your face. You are alone in your fenced apartment. They are alone in their own apartment too but you hear their voices.
The family next to me on the left is an entire family-father, mother and children. They are from an eastern part of Nigeria that I do not actually know. They are not too there, they are friendly if they see you, greet you warmly, the kids really don’t care in a good way. They are a family who mind their business.
The one next to them is a single bachelor, yellow, good-looking and my favourite. He’s from the food basket of the nation. All the people I’ve met from that axis are usually nice people. I can’t forget the security guy at the estate I lived in Wawa, Opic Estate in Lagos who would open a gate that leads to a shorter route for me to pass every morning. He went home that period and brought me two yams, very sweet. He was so kind and protective of me. I can never forget him.
Now, when this yellow neighbor greets me, he’s usually very polite. He’s the only neighbor who says ‘good morning ma’ to me. I tell him ‘good morning sir’ too. I am not your mummy😃. He’s very kind and warm. He has helped me to fix my security light, brought drinks to my house, helped with waterboard issues and all that. Well, he just moved out recently to the airport area I used to live because he’s getting married and has even promised to come take me to know his house. Who does that?
My right hand neighbor is a premium Edo guy, young, suave and well loved. He’s involved in ‘majekobaje’ things in the area. When robbers came to our area during the lockdown, I heard him on the phone speaking with people in the area, raising alarm. When he speaks in his bedroom, I can hear him even though we don’t live in the same compound. I think my bedroom window opens into or faces his bedroom. I don’t know how to explain this.
So I got some vegetable seeds, pepper and okro seeds from my uncle’s farm and he helped me to get soil, put them in plastics, gave me manure and helped me out. He gave me curry leaves to plant. He took me to his compound and showed me his own nursery. He has Efo soko, pumpkin leaves, bitterleaf, pepper etc. I gave him some Efo Tete seeds too. He practically packed sand for me and helped me set up my own nursery too. He even promised to get me some pumpkin seeds. Now, I’m a small scale neighborhood farmer who will soon be self sufficient. In few months, I won’t be buying okro, vegetables and pepper from the market again. People who live in my quarters all practice subsistence farming. I noticed that everyone has a small nursery in their backyard. There are a lot of mango trees, orange trees on my street.
That’s the vegetable seed newly planted. Only the okro plants are growing from the ground.
The blue container has manure in it. It must stay till Monday before we plant pepper on it. The paint bucket is for Efo tete
Good news is that my okro plant is already growing. Thanks to my neighbor, he showed me the mistakes I made while planting the pepper and vegetable, little wonder they’ve not grown.
Edo guy got married on Val’s day this year and I gave him little cash when he got back to buy isi ewu for himself and his wife. There was a period he came to fix his electricity stuff at my backyard and saw that a part of my fence had broken down at the back. He drew my attention and I began to lament. I was very broke that period. He offered to help me pay. He was even going to withdraw but I declined and called someone I know to help me fix it. The person didn’t collect money from me sha.
Another time, when NEPA and waterboard people used to knock our gates anyhow, he suggested we should do jam lock and he agreed to look for someone to fix it. I told him to make sure he does it when I have money. However, when he was ready to fix it, I didn’t have money. So he paid for both of us, went to buy the locks, got the technician and connected the wire to his meter to fix it. I paid him back the following week.
I was walking out of the hood one day, on my way to church, when I met Oluwafemi. He looked at me and asked if I went to OAU. I said no. Because of his light skin, I thought he was Ibo. When I heard his name, I said to him “Femis are usually heartbreakers they said we should avoid”. He laughed and laughed and we went our separate ways. I didn’t see him again till two or three months later.
“you still live here?” I asked. ‘Yes now’.
“So where have you been all this months?”
“I go to work”, he replied. Well, because we both go to work and come back late, we rarely meet. I didn’t even know where he stays. I just was jamming him at different parts of the hood.
After another three or four months again, I jammed him on the street not far from my house and asked “are you a ghost? Where do you even live?”Then, he pointed at a house that’s just five blocks from opposite mine.
He asked where I live too and I pointed at my house. We had been meeting on the road for months without knowing where we both lived. So, he came to knock my gate after service one Sunday and started preaching to me😅😅. Or he started discussing the word of God with me in a strange doctrine of once saved is forever saved. He started giving me books to read and we started discussing under the tree opposite my house. I never invited him in because my house is always a mess anyways.
Gisting with Femi outside Bible talk is always fun especially since he went to OAU, he’s from the South West and looks to me like a long lost brother. He’s a realtor as well as a staff of an international NGO. He sells houses and lands. He bought this very fine muscle Camry that’s very neat and one day, after our Bible argument, he asked if I would love to go eat Amala with him. I had been craving Amala that period so much that I jumped at the offer. Nobody had ever invited me to an Amala outing before 😂🤣. I didn’t know where he was driving us but I trusted him. It was about 7pm and we went to Amala 360 degrees. I ate amala with abula and enjoyed my life.
Femi drove to my office to do an affidavit while I was writing exams. I told him who to meet and how to get there-google map of course. I became his chief consultant on marriage preparation affairs. He wanted to know the best federal registry to do his wedding. I told him to go to AMAC. He’s getting married this month and I saw him on Monday while sitting under the tree outside my house. I travelled out of Abuja for a while and I informed him so that he would not go and knock my gate. But we didn’t see since I returned. He came to meet me and said he was on his way to Gombe. He had a flight to catch by 5pm. So, we chatted a bit and he left.
It’s great to have wonderful neighbors who care about you, who stick closer than a family across miles. It’s a huge blessing and I’m grateful for the gift of them.
These days, it’s tough being a Nigerian. While everything in the market increases exponentially, your earnings/income remain at the same level so you are always running on a deficit budget every month. Naira has so much lost its value to the extent […]
While everything in the market increases exponentially, your earnings/income remain at the same level so you are always running on a deficit budget every month. Naira has so much lost its value to the extent that more money is purchasing fewer goods. This is not the best time to be an adult in Nigeria. It’s best to just swallow your pride, pack your load and go back home to your parents. Ile Koko ni tagbe😅.
However, if you are like me without any home to run back to, you keep trying to stay afloat. The bills come without pity-electricity, water, security. I pay these three on a regular. When I don’t call people and they ask why and I say ‘no airtime’, they look at me as if I’ve gone nuts. Yes, I can’t buy. Apart from office WiFi which sometimes is irregular like a woman’s menses, I sometimes do not buy data too. Because, it takes a lot of my money. In June when I was writing exams, my freezer was empty. My store was empty and my bank account was zero. I don’t even know how I survived. I had to stay up late to read as well. I wrote my last paper in July.
There, brethren, are the reasons I’ve been absent on this space for more than a month after bringing the blog back. In July, my promotion was ratified. Remember how I wrote about my promotion exam at the supreme court complex last year. How I went for interview at the Federal Judicial Service Commission afterwards and was asked to take a bow and exit the hall because I had a very high score in the exam? Let’s just say that I aced the interview without being interviewed sha. In August, I passed the exam I wrote in June with three As, 5Bs and 2Cs. I had an A in administrative law, principles of accounting and computer applications in business. Okay, maybe I didn’t tell you that I’m in postgraduate school at open university.
Well, while waiting for the result, I spent my second semester school fees on air tickets and now school has resumed, registration has commenced and results are good but my account is singing dorime😅😃. You pay fees per semester in this uni.
Did I tell you that My Lord got transferred to Calabar and I cried when he was moving his things? I even sought for transfer and it didn’t work? Well, I have a new Lord now. She’s the Presiding Judge of Abuja, next in line to the President of the court, number two in Abuja and …………
Oh!!!! Did I tell you that I’m no more team low cut gang? That I’m now an aspiring naturalista with the hottest two twist strands to die for. Some think it’s dreadlock actually. Who cares?
It’s been almost a year already and it feels good to be back. I didn’t plan to take an almost one year break at all. I never thought it might be this long 😜. I tried paying for web renewal last December […]
It’s been almost a year already and it feels good to be back. I didn’t plan to take an almost one year break at all.
I never thought it might be this long 😜. I tried paying for web renewal last December but the web developer didn’t pick my call.
He had sent me the details via mail, but I needed to communicate with him verbally first, before making payment but all effort to reach him proved abortive. So I spent my 10k 😀. You are shocked that it’s 10k right?😀😀
Okay, I tried reaching out to him again in March but he didn’t pick as well and he never called back. So I simply got on with life.
July 8th 2021, I suddenly remembered that I have a blog so I called him and he picked before it rang out. We sealed the deal in less than 5mins and the blog came back in less than 30mins. It took all of 30mins because he had to shift us to another domain after we discovered that a Chinese company already bought our former domain.
Yes I’m using ‘our’ because the blog belongs to us-you, the readers and myself. You are all shareholders. He told me that because of exchange rate wahala, rates have gone up, but I could still pay 10k. Which means I could pay more next year.
Some people reached out during that period of my hiatus. Thanks to all those who kept checking on me, those who told me they missed the blog and all that. I came back only because of you.
I even went to YouTube while I was away to start a channel 😁😁😳😳. Yeah, Vlogging things. But, procrastination and self doubt would not let me be great. I deleted my first video after 48 hours or so. I gave myself so many excuses. It was meant to be a faith based content not a lifestyle content like the blog but I was worried about so many things. We will talk about these later. Or not.😜
We were on strike for two months. I came back curvy😜
********** So, a lot of waters have passed under the bridge.
My Lord left me in Abuja and got transferred to Calabar. I don’t know if we discussed this before the blog disappeared. Anyways, milord is now in Calabar. I shed hot tears the day he packed his few things out of the same office we had both gisted and laughed together. I walked with him to the car park with other top management staff and couldn’t stop the tears when he climbed into his jeep.
May!! my hair was like this.
I went to Jabi Lake Mall for groceries
Well, I asked for a transfer before he left. I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life after him so I thought I should go try another department. Moreso, I had heard so many terrific news about the new judge who was coming from gidi. Truth is, I was so disoriented in Dec/Jan. I didn’t know where my career was headed. More on this later.
The topics coming up are: How I fell in love with a SAN Hey! I have a new Lord(Jesus is still my Lord) I met someone cute on my street but he only bought me Amala and Gbegiri and that’s on period 😀(I know your ears are wide open at this point). Far better than the guy who got us 5galas in Lagos that year. I think I like my new judge etc
******** I aced my promotion exam. Maybe I didn’t write that I went to write a promotion exam at the Federal Judicial Service Commission, Three Arms Zone located within the Supreme Court Complex. I passed so well that when we were invited for interview and the panelists saw my name and score, I was asked to take a bow and exit the bar just like they do during ministerial screening at the house of assembly. Maybe I should do a post on it.
I’m in school again studying Public Administration…this is the juiciest part- The topics coming up under these are:
The Tale of a Mopol and His Marine Possessed Ex-Wife The Invigilator who got my number My Classmates Think I’m their Hushpuppi etc
July!! Can you see the ‘kolese?’😀
* okay, we started doing ‘kolese’ about a month ago. The last time I barbed was March.
This is for people who are fond of saying “you don see person wey coro catch? Na government dey use am chop money….. I won’t say you are ignorant because I know you are not. However you are just deliberately socially irresponsible […]
This is for people who are fond of saying “you don see person wey coro catch? Na government dey use am chop money…..
I won’t say you are ignorant because I know you are not. However you are just deliberately socially irresponsible to yourself and people around you. I never doubted its existence for once even though I didn’t know anyone who had it but following the figures on air alone was traumatic for me. Some went a step further and called it a rich man’s disease. It is really pathetic to think this way.
. I was hoping it would go away so that I could have my life back when maternal uncle called me that our other big uncle, his elder brother was at the isolation centre in Yaba. This uncle lived with us when I was in primary school. Mum brought him from the village and got a job for him at an insurance company close to her own office in dugbe. So uncle lived with us while saving to get an apartment. I don’t remember how long he stayed but he soon got a place and invited his family over. He had three sons then. Now they are four with a girl.
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Uncle was a correct village boy who loved to eat eba in a funny way. He would cut it very big, mould it with his hand and swallow it with a noise in his throat. We always stole glances at him every evening since he only ate dinner with us during the week. He was our favorite uncle.
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How did it happen? Uncle still works at this insurance company till date but he got transferred to Lagos. Infact, while I was in Lagos, he was in Lagos too, living at Berger, close to this Mr Biggs I once went with Jonathan Eze when I was working under him. So uncle’s boss fell ill and he began to move his boss from one hospital to the other. He was rejected at a hospital in ikoyi and referred to isolation centre.
. In Yaba, uncle’s boss tested positive for Covid 19 and died two days after. Uncle, alongside boss’ wife and kids were all taken into the isolation centre. He was released after spending two weeks there and testing negative. So many people I know have had Covid at home and survived it after two to three weeks. Two weeks ago, three people I know, fell sick, had fever, cold, lost their sense of smell but later recovered. So many people have had it around us. They treated it as malaria and got better using herbs. Covid is real. It is not a joke. Wear a mask and use your sanitizer. Be responsible!!!!
What have I been doing with my life?Surviving coldLiving life one day at a time.Baking bread, reading sometimes, not looking for trouble. . I woke up this morning to realise I’ve not locked/bolted my gate in two days. I’ve been sleeping with […]
What have I been doing with my life? Surviving cold Living life one day at a time. Baking bread, reading sometimes, not looking for trouble.
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I woke up this morning to realise I’ve not locked/bolted my gate in two days. I’ve been sleeping with my gate slightly ajar. I didn’t notice because I have not stepped out of the room in 48hours. I don’t even have money so what am I doing outside?
. Cold dealt with me. I have battled it for more than a month. Rains have been falling here everyday. I hope we get the August break. I was having constant sneezing, running nose, watery eyes, itcy eyes and general discomfort which only happens at night. I did hot water+Robb therapy where you use towel to incubate yourself over hot water😁. I drank ginger every morning and night. Someone even asked me to chew raw ginger. I did. No relief.
I went to the pharmacy every other day, got different drugs I could remember from my mom’s first aid collection. A doctor prescribed some drugs over the phone. I took these drugs for seven days and was relieved. On the 8th day, symptoms returned. I went back to pharmacy and then I asked to see the pharmacist.
. “I will refer you to ENT at General Hospital. When you are ready, let me know. Take my number. Despite working at my office clinic for six months, I hate hospital. Working there was even an issue. So the thought of going to ENT at a general hospital did not appeal to me. I had no intention of calling her.
After one week and no relief, I waited for salary week then I called her. She was so nice on phone. She works at the general hospital herself as a pharmacist. She sent me the number of an ENT nurse.
So I went to general hospital, asked around for ENT, got there, explained myself and was told “you are having an allergy. It has no cure. You have to manage it”
Yaaaay, mogbe!! Kogboogun faaa!!! My friend in US who is also a pharmacist already told me the exact same thing. So the hospital wrote down nasal drops, vit C and one other drug. When I went to the pharmacy to get it, and I heard the price, I laughed. Like, spend this much on sneezing?? 😁😁😁
I don’t even spend that much on malaria. Take note that I had paid for card, consultation etc before we even reached this point. I jejely bought orange flavoured vitamin C and left😁. Sense will not kill me😄.
. I decided to visit the eye clinic since I had been postponing an eye check too. I called the pharmacist again and she gave me the name of an optometrist.
I saw the kind optometrist, who told me to get a card and wait to be called. I sat for one hour. I was almost giving up to go home when rain started. It was shortly after that my name was called. If not for that rain, I would have gone home.
So, I got a comprehensive eye test done. My glasses are two years old, not sharp again so I’m getting a new pair. A photochromic lens will cost me 20k frame inclusive. I offered to go get a referral from my NHIS hospital.
“Well, you will still pay half of the price”, the pretty doctor said No wahala. It’s still better. If I add sneezing bill😁😁 to eye bill, that’s about 25k. Eye drops were prescribed too-about three. It wasn’t available at the pharmacy so my bill would have been 30k.
Well, I got home and kept the two prescription notes and began to pray😁😁. Meanwhile I ordered two frames on Instagram. God is Good, GIG logistics just notified me it has arrived. So I will go get my referral letter on Friday and get my glasses done next week.
However, for the first time in over one month, guess who woke up this morning without sneezing?