simply oroque's view

so it hit the papers today that the 27 soldiers (including 3 women) who dared to obstruct traffic in ondo state, to protest the non-payment of their entitlements after completing a horrifying war-time assignment, have been sentenced to life imprisonment by a court martial. for me, thats quite besides the point, because although soldiers are well aware of the strict nature of martial laws in this country, i don't think that makes them less human and less able to feel cheated or aggrieved. is it just me, or has anyone else stopped for a second to ask the simple question: why were they being owed in the first place?!!! i cannot imagine how we end up punishing the victim and watching the fat, lazy, corrupt boss walk freely around. how on earth can anyone hold on to the entitlements of war veterans and probably plug it into some fixed deposit account so that he can reap the interest after the 180 days period (or longer) and the country turns around to sentence these men to life imprison...

in discussing the contents of my blog so far with my colleagues, and avid readers, i have been accused of crossing the line between ethical criticism and flat out cynicism. its been said that i don't seem to see anything positive about this country, or with the daily life that we live as nigerians. to set the records straight, i have hope. so throughout yesterday, i scoured the papers looking for something positive to write about. there is all the buzz about the eyo festival happening tomorrow in lagos, nigeria. where the government is giving free transportation to everyone to come and see what indegenous lagos masquerades look like and do. i spent the whole day thinking about the tourism benefits of this carnival and of the PR importance of the festivities on the always stressed people of lagos. but my mind couldn't help but wonder how much more economic sense it would have made, for the government to offer this free transportation to lagosians on a weekday when they need to w...

i was reading the papers today(please allow me to sound a lil intelligent), and i stumbled on a piece on albinism in a certain african country where albinos are used for money rituals. the various uses to which albinos are put isn't quite the subject of today's blog. truth is, i often read albino stories with one mindset: albinos are again begging for acceptance - and i'm often right. it saddens me that in an age where prositution is permitted, and HIV is being spoken about on national television in all its dirty ramifications, society still finds it hard to treat albinos like there's nothing wrong with them. albinism, along with sickle cell aneamia and some forms of diabetes, is hereditary. meaning that these people who suffer from these ailments, really had no choice about whether they would like to have these ailments or not. quite the same way you couldn't have decided for yourself if you'd prefer being naomi campbell rather than the short stumpy mutt that y...

there are countless cycles in life...some good, some bad, some plain hopeless. being born and giving birth, being birthed and being buried, being slapped by your spouse and giving the silly rascal a hot slap right back without a flinching thought (okay, maybe thats not exactly a good analogy for cycles of life)...but you get the point. i have today found a cycle that doesn't fit into the regular cycles listed above and of course, its peculiar to Nigeria. okay, today has been a good day so i really can't get myself to write too much negativity so i'll keep it short. we've got a bunch of traffic management officers on one side, that harass everyone whether or not you commit a traffic offence (but thats another matter for another day)...and then we have oil tanker drivers on the other hand who feel that it is their God-given right to park their tankers at any damn spot (highways included) they very well please. so there lies the quandry. the traffic guys, always ask the ta...

there are things that you must be taking for granted in your life. as you read this, if you reside in - say - the US or the UK, you expect to wake up this monday morning, grab a coffee, hit the train station, get to work. its a logical expectation. i mean, its so standard that it probably becomes a routine that you never even have to think about anymore. it just happens. here in nigeria, the only thing that just happens is that you wake up in the morning. and then again, we all know that even that doesn't just happen (crime rate is soaring, people are choking to death from generator fumes, buildings are collapsing). it is now commonplace for a nigerian to go to work in the morning without drama, and find that he is not able to go home in the evening for a variety of reasons. you can never be too sure that the government hasn't blocked off your usual route home with no notice to anyone, or that tanker drivers have gone on strike etcetera or simply that the fares have hiked for n...

i think sometimes, that this country generally suffers from a collective ability to just stop doing the same silly things again and again...how can the Nigerian government release another 15 billion naira for electricity generation? shouldn't we just use the money to import cheap generators from china and share out to the poor masses to generate their own power? the only thing we ever hear about the electricity sector is more investment: we're still trying to achieve 6,000 Mega watts since 1999 and more people are moving to lagos and abuja daily and almost every single person i know has a generator (even my barber) so really, do we need any more lost funds? then again, why is it always when elections are close by that government suddenly remembers the "ailing" power sector? i wonder... which reminds me just to say out loud that generators actually emit carbon monoxide. before you roll your eyes like "yeah, yeah, we know", my proclamation stems from a story i...

i know that i was supposed to write a blog a day but this particular opinion won't seem to let me go to bed without putting it down, so please forgive my apparent over-zealousness. there i was at work earlier today, minding my own business and flipping through the dailies when i stumbled on page 15 of the Guardian newspapers. it was an article on the "magnanimous" release of overdue inmates from the prisons of lagos ostensibly because they had outstayed the term for which they could have served had they been properly tried by a court of competent jurisdiction. two major things crossed my mind while reading this article, the first was: why, in a country with about 60,000 lawyers, do we still have people in detention without trial for periods exceeding 6 months? should the NBA lagos branch actually feel like heroes for this commendable feat of courage or should all the lawyers bow their heads in shame for their apparent lack of significant 'pro bono' activities for ...

watching television in Lagos, Nigeria on the weekend is a harrowing experience. As there is a lack of concept amongst television managers, and more and more undergraduates are thrown to the screen to seduce viewers with ever tighter tops and bigger breasts, we are left with no option than to go through hours upon hours of incredibly boring nigerian music videos that look more and more like the last video we watched...just three minutes ago. Ever since Kennis music introduced scantily clad back up dancers, to the videos of the then 'Remedies' and their other top acts, the music industry has remained stuck to the format. every video from 'p-square' to 'kaha' to 'banky w'...and even 'tuface' - who should know better after the international awards he's won...is stuck in this time warp of big bottomed women shaking their asses in front of the camera even if the song is supposed to be a love song (if there's such a genre in nigerian music). yes...

i've done this thing about blogs before but it tapered off for two reasons: noone was reading it, and i ran out of stuff to write about. so today is easter monday and after browsing all the porn sites and entertainment sites and news sites (okay only CNN actually), i finally decided to add my voice to the world. i realised that i did love reading a lot of other people's (sane) musings [take note john mayer], but i had a lot of opinion kept to myself. i had an opinion about basically everything, from music to television etcetera. anything i absorbed through my senses i had an opinion about and it was killing me that all my disagreements with all those other less informed bloggers were swimming in my head without an outlet. so i'm starting over today. and if you're reading this, please check in once in a while and drop even a syllable to encourage me to keep writing. like i say, even negative attention is better than no attention. i should about something else but i need ...