simply oroque's view

i know you all saw the papers last week. well, i won't call them newspapers, because there was hardly any news in them. and that was because a few people who are inarguably rich and alligned with the ruling party, but who are arguably undeserving of as much as a standing ovation for their contributions to their villages, were given national honours and  hijacked whatever little credibility that our national dailies had by buying up page after page in congratulations to themselves under different pseudonyms. i browsed with shock as page after coloured page of intellectual space was wasted congratulating the governor of kwara state - Bukola Saraki, the owner of an oil company - Femi Otedola and my absolute favourite, some unknown Hajia who's claim to fame in the minds of all right thinking people, is her uncanny ability to appear in glossy softsell magazines, profiling her attendance of every elite party in town. to be honest, there isn't much to say, so i wont bore you w...

here's a brief summary of the new movie in Nigeria, its an independent production happening in real time, quite like reality TV shows, but only more scandalous. It's titled "when we were true". as always, its directed, produced and acted out by the same folks so grab a popcorn and coke, sit tight and listen attentively. for those of you who live outside nigeria/on a floating meteor in outer space, you may not have heard about the headline kidnapping of five journalists on their way from one of the south eastern states in Nigeria. They apparently went to attend some event somewhere and were returning in a vehicle, when they were abducted. Usually, news of kidnappings in the south east region of Nigeria do not exactly make headline news anymore, as Nigerians have grown immune to this new criminal vice (as with everything else) and have just decided to let go and move on. However, since these were journalists involved, their colleagues in the print and television med...

so as usual, i went online to read the papers and was struck in the face by the following headline attributed to the President on 234next.com: "Power supply will stabilize when we achieve 40,000 MW". part of the report acknowledged that as at today, Nigeria is still trying to achieve 10,000 MW of electricity. and so, in my usual nothing-better-to-do-on-a-weekend mode, i went on a research to identify exactly what the problem was with Nigeria and getting power. As you probably already know, each time there is a massive power outtage (massive means more than we already experience daily) the Power Holding Company of Nigeria will take to the media to explain it away by laying the blame on things like "low water levels" and "lack of gas supply". naturally, that indicates that our present power generation system is based on water and crude oil related sources. so, here's what i found on the internet: In 1969, the 11,500 MW Kainji dam was inaugurated....

okay, today i'm gonna say as little as need to be said. not only because its not a topic i like to talk about, but i'm just plain tired and its the middle of the week and i should be sleeping. as the whole world possibly knows by now, i had a slightly improved weekend in terms of activities last saturday. i went out to watch a movie, and simple as that journey sounds, it brought many many questions to mind. how was life planned out to be? where did i think i would be by this age? what did i hope to become or achieve? i remember growing up, i was constantly planning ahead. by the time i was 7 i had planned all the way to my 17th birthday, by the time i was 21 i had decided what i'd be doing by 30. needless to say, nothing exactly went as i planned, and life often took its own course. fortunately for me, most of it took turns for the better. half of the plans i made when i was younger was borne purely out of fear. from a very young age, i have always feared that for some unkn...

my hand almost reached for you my skin could have felt your touch the moves, the brilliance of your stage so so far and yet so near your voice ringing so true sincere, even through the blue for your make believe, made me believe that being far, your also near my laughter you never heard when gloomy nights i lay in bed watching you mimic life, so true not too far but not so near and now art bows to life as the sun to night sans strife and no more you shall we behold ever far and no more here. goodnight Toun Oni. from a fan you never knew.

yesterday, a friend of mine of facebook arrived at a conclusion that i had since reached long ago...reading nigerian news is likely to cause migranes, heart aches, high blood pressure and nervous breakdown. when i first started writing this blog a long time ago, i recall how someone said he was not going to read my blog because i was too negative and saw nothing good with nigeria. he felt that as a citizen with a chance to share my views with the world through my blog, i should seek out the good in the country and splash that to the world. that, to me, would not be fair to my reading public and i feel that if anything should be interesting, it should be the absurdities that make mainstream news in our country and that we have all grown immune to (like the 20 million naira children's party for 1,000 children to celebrate nigeria's independence i.e. 20,000 naira per child when whole families survive on about 3 dollars a day/ 500 naira). and so, in order to stay sane, i swore off ...

well, let me start off by saying that i had made a secret promise not to write about my church goings on since i have been chastized once or twice by some christian folk for not being reverent enough of the christian insitution. i have even been accused of picking on the church because it is an entity that cannot defend itself. and so, i deference to what i considered prudent logic, i have staved off the church in general in my blog postings. however, the church just won't let me be. a friend of mine who used to be a church goer (i've been told that a true christian would never leave the church but a "church goer" would) told me that one of the reasons that he decided that the church wasn't for him is the amount of offerings collected on any given service. i'm sure by now everyone knows i attend the redeemed christian church of God and my church is no exception when it comes to giving an offering for every fly that perches on the wall. trust me, we have offeri...

okay, i'll be honest. i goofed. the end. if i stopped this blog post right there, i would have freed my conscience of the searing guilt that has gripped me since i made a comment on my friends' facebook post about how women like to cry wolf when they put themselves in a bad position in the first place. that one comment made me realize how far down the road of angst i had gone and why its really important to put think thrice about stuff before you say them, and even then, still not to say them. so here's an overview of yesterday. after a roughly three year break, i met up with a former colleague for a quick business lunch (and to ogle his new car) and the conversation geared towards how he has now, from experience, decided that women make much better employees, are more loyal and less financially ambitious than men. he feels that guys always want to become boss as soon after they join an organisation even without doing half the amount of work the women were doing, and that t...