simply oroque's view

i am pretty numb at this stage. this is that phase you get you when you speed past shock, anger, frustration and helplessness...you just feel numb. not sure you actually can comprehend what is going on around you, and not sure if your understanding really makes sense. not sure if you should yell and call out the obvious, and not sure if you should be silent like others. so, for days on end throughout december, i couldn't stop trying to get the christmas spirit going. i felt like it was a year that was worth celebrating the christmas holidays not only because we have survived incredible odds but because goodness alone knows if we will ever have the opportunity to celebrate christmas in the years ahead, going by the current economic trends. and i wasn't the only excited one. millions of nigerian children were already dropping hints for their parents and being extra nice in the bid to wrest a few minutes of attention from the ever busy adults towards securing a really festive

its world AIDS day today. a day that is set aside to bring to top of mind, the global pandemic known as HIV/AIDS. as with all things that afflict the human race, we have come from blame shifting, to research, to prevention...and we are inching closer to a cure. how am i so confident? well, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, in 2010 there were 1.8 million AIDS related deaths, down from 2.2 million in 2005. In Nigeria, we had roughly two hundred thousand deaths in over two million HIV infections for 2009 and that shows that our HIV counter programs work, or we are not reporting every HIV infection/death case... or we are lying to the united nations. either way, sounds like great news but that number remains a large fraction of the Lagos population for context and there is more to be done. however, my sincere happiness lies in the fact that for once, whether driven or led, nigeria appears to be doing what is right in terms of not being the last to tackle thi

okay so usually, i avoid topics bordering on religion, politics and sexuality...but this one is hard to ignore (and as fearless blogger, i must bite the bullet). i woke up this morning and my timeline was full of comments castigating the bloody waste of time and tax payers money that is the the new anti-same sex marriage law. the nigerian senate passed it into law a few days ago (14 years imprisonment etc). the honest truth is that everyone is cautious about this topic because it is like holding palm oil while wearing white. no matter what side of the fence you're on in terms of your sexual preference, you are bound to get stained if you as much as say the wrong thing on the matter - and anything you say can and will be wrong. if you disagree with the new law, you're clearly an undercover gay person and if you agree with the new law openly, you're a shameless homophobe. i guess this explains why interestingly, all of the people i know who are vocal against the new law - o

okay, so i've been asked more than once in the past week, what email address my readers can use to reach me. i perfectly appreciate that one or two blog posts may be off the mark and you may not want to say that in the comment section and would rather drop me a silent line on your thoughts. so, being the democratic believer (having seen what happened to mubarak et al), i have decided to create a dedicated email account to this blog: simplyoroquesview@gmail.com and i hope to get an avalanche of mails...but those who know me beyond the blog, drop me lines all the time and ask me weird questions like the one below: "when you write with dripping sarcasm and unpopular opinion, are you inspired by any persons living or dead?" what i'd really like to say in response to that would be: "now look here missy, you really need to get your blood pressure checked or some other random stuff that will keep you the heck busy. i mean like seriously? you actually sat down and

i just stumbled on Gist Merchants blog post today where he mentioned the many moral failings of nigerian society today. i actually didn't have any comment to make to that post because it was stating an obvious reality but then it triggered the recollection of an incident that occured a few days ago. for context, gist merchant noted that the socially entrenched need to respect older people whether known or unknown had long since gone. some of the comments to that post noted that children now look familiar elders in the eye and walk on by like nothing happened without so much as a good morning. all i could think when i read that comment was, 'you're having it good if all these startlets do wrong is not greet you'. i wouldn't be less bothered if a fly shat on a wall. so there i was after work one day, heading home when i dropped from my car two houses away by a row of shops. i wanted to buy something or the other and hadn't quite stood there for a minute (waiting

i just heard the second most horrifying story this year. so yesterday, someone i know was on her way to work. now here's the set up...you know how in lagos, a lot of people work on the island and live on the mainland. many people who do not have cars, hitch rides with people they see in their neighbourhood but never really know. like how i may know titi, and we are waiting at the busstop one day when titi see her friends neighbour living near her house and he drops us both at the island and from that day, we become his passengers. so, my friend is me in this scenario and her neighbour is titi, and the man they follow to work is that titi's person that my friend really doesn't know like that. so thats how they were headed to the island from the mainland when they got to oworo and from the left side, a brand new toyota corolla going at top speed just began to edge them to the side of the road, almost as if to avoid a third car that was pushing that toyota from its own lane.

its just weird how everyone i meet or talk to for more than 30 minutes ends up assuming that i am psychologist...you  know, those guys that white people go and pay to allow them vent? whatever they're called, thats what i always end up being. in the past week alone i have been inundated by tales from men and women who i assumed where having a blast in their private lives. its even weirder that the longer and most organic vents come from married people. which often leaves me wondering, "why do people actually get married?". is there some secret money given by the government, is there a financial benefit...is lonesomeness that killing?! the baseline of all the conversations i've had show one common thread...women spend their entire lives trying to wrest control of the man's life. pure and simple. all the married women seem more interested in uprooting anyone who appears closer to their husbands (even biologically related folk who were there before they appeared) and

i have a lot to write about...but nothing interesting enough to make me actually write. so i went over to my secret guilty pleasure http://www.efemenaoreoluwa.blogspot.com/ (she's so crudely realistic that i blush to even admit to reading her blog) and here's the one thing that inspired me today. of course, i can't guarantee you will like the consequence of following the advice in the picture, but doing it will make you feel really good... up until the black eye. see y'all around!

i haven't been writing as much as i should be, but you know, work has been all sorts of tedious so i'm not really remorseful that i haven't. as y'all know, i'm not religious or fanatical but i try to live right before God...so much as i ridicule the things that we presently do in his honour (wrongly in my opinion), it wouldn't be fair to mislead my readers into thinking i have no regard for true faith or for the Almighty. having said that, i am thus faced with a dillemma. one which i'm not sure has an answer either way. and its seemingly simple but has far reaching implications. infact, it is so deeply significant that it could change the entire course of my life...if i go by what i'm reading on some websites and things. okay, enough of the pretend suspense...i have decided to get a tattoo. yes, you can laugh now. for context you know that tattoos are permanent ink markings that come out perfect on a buff muscular dude who is between 16 and 24, has h

i've been kinda sad for a few days now...no, not like sad for the sake of it, but deeply inexplicably sad. infact, so sad i've begun to have weird dreams (no dream is really bad or good) which all culminated in a near-migraine yesterday that left me wearing dark shades for most of the morning in the office. so i woke up at 3 am this morning and lay on my bed staring at the ceiling and trying to decide for myself if i should focus and find out exactly what bothers me, or to determine for myself that i will have a good day and live happy just because...if it was that simple. so on my way to work this morning as i sat in the quiet car, my mind went from my family to my job to the cases in court that i wish could all just end to my boss (amazingest boss ever by the way) and eventually perched on the issue of the fuel subsidy removal by the federal government - yeah, of all things for me to think of in trying to make myself happy. you know, i am not very knowledgable in the econ

Dear Mr. Jobs, In your work I had identified a mind quite like my own, refusing the status quo and pushing the boundaries. Not forsaking the external beauty for internal capabilities. Constantly evolving without apology. Through your courage I found a new kind of strength to accept the inevitable without regret or self-pity, and in your passing it is clearer now than ever…that you were here for this singular purpose. We never met, but we are kindred spirits you and I. Godspeed. oroque

i was in court today, please dont ask how my matter went. if i wasn't being represented by another lawyer, i'd have run out of the courtroom screaming in shame. some small administrative error meant that as far as the court was concerned, i was invisible to it and was not being represented. like i said, don't ask. unexpectedly (to me at least), as soon as the court made it clear that this was an issue, the opposing counsel capitalized on this small matter and kept beginning every sentence with "in view of this grave foundational matter, my lord...". the silly nincompoop, but i swear i will get my day in court and will feed him the judges old dirty socks. luckily the judge is well versed and shot down all the other lawyer's needless rhetorics and simply adjourned the matter to allow us correct the mistake. and so i got back to the office pretty miffed and wondering why on earth that sort of avoidable error occured in the first place, and how bad it could have

i read yesterday, somewhere, that every blogger has areas of human life that they completely avoid. areas that either hold some emotional meaning for the blogger, or areas that he would rather not point his reader's attention to either in order not to offend them, or just to be on the politically correct side of social culture. at first i thought it was baldderdash and considered myself to be above and beyond this type of behaviour since i feel that my blog is very "no-holds barred" and i virtually say anything i think...but then upon reflection overnight i realized that yes indeed there are some issues i completely avoid. if you're an avid reader of my blog, you will notice that i have never disclosed where i work. i have also never used anyone's real name while relating a true story. i also do not talk about extremely controversial issues like gay people and the church, religious interference in the educational system, downlow men and marital deception, the ge

Another year, that is. I mean, was it not just the other day I celebrated one year younger? Where I was moaning about all the things I was yet unable to achieve? When all I could think about was the fact that I wasn't married? Wasn't it just a few quick months ago that I was thankful for turning a year older and hoping aloud that I would by the next year be all that I ever hoped to be? Maybe married with two children and one nephew? Well it's that's time of the year again. I'm a year older. The weight is still there, the woman still isn't, the job is better than it has ever been and I've stopped pretending that I'm tripped by church in any way. I think this is what they call midlife crisis. That time in your life when your perspectives change..,when you stop sucking in your stomach to give yourself the false hope that you're somehow fit for your age. The time when you suddenly think you've spent a logic your life worrying about the wrong things

i used to be ordinary. i used to be just another fellow down the road, weird but nothing out of the ordinary. i used to be the guy who wanted to live an ideal world where everyone respected the other. a world where one could lead the life that he alone chose and where everyone respected the personal space of the other person. i used to want to live in heaven. i used to be ordinary. i trusted people and always thought that human actions were noble and in the common interest of the greater. i used to tell the world exactly what i thought and demand to be heard. i was taught to believe that small people could do great things if they only believed firmly in their dreams and didn't care what anyone thought about it. i felt that every twist of paper i made was ingenious artwork and that my creativity was boundless. i thought that friends were people who actually liked you just because, and that you could literally expect them to accept everything about you. i used to be young. i used

okay so i'm sitting here minding my own business when my colleague walks into my office (yes, i do have an office...haterz :))) and very animatedly tells me she needs some minutes of my time. i usually have two faces on generally in my life, the work face and the home face. interprete that how you like. well, the reason why its easier to keep the office face at work is that people behave within the confines of professionalism...and don't just jump into other people's space without invitation etc and carry on like they've got fire ants up their pants. so anyways, the way she came in took me by surprise as i raced through my mind trying to determine what face to put on considering this visit was clearly not an official looking one. so anyways, she plops herself into my chair and starts seemingly without breathing: "you want to make money right? i mean who doesn't. you probably want to buy a car, a house, pay for mortgage, travel for free on an all expense paid

in marketing speak, a space holder is an item used to fill out the portion of a graphic that you intend to place text of other graphic when the real text is ready. its just to identify that "something will be there in the final version"...it could also refer to stuff you use to fill out forms and diaries to meet a certain quota. its pretty obvious in blogs, when they run stories like "britney wears fake fur" or "justin bieber cuts hair short"...it becomes clear that its a slow news day and they must write something! anything. so this blog post right here is one of those spaceholders for me. i have absolutely nothing interesting to write about but just tiny pieces of stuff floating around in my life that i might as well just put down, so here goes: 1. Okonjo - Iweala has been sworn in as nigeria's finance minister. who was the former one again? you know, its weird that we think nigerians pay no heed to good works of noble people, because the excite

and there i was bored as heck and flipping through my twitter timeline when i stumbled on the following back and forth in retweets: person A: "awwww, you shouldn't have said someone is ugly...its just so mean" person B: "being mean is not a criminal offence. besides if something is a fact, its no longer considered mean" Person A: "sha know that we are all God's creations" person C (from the blues): "yeah, all of us except Derek J" well, look, y'all know i'm a lawyer and as inquisitive as they come so at this point i had one of two choices. (i) jump in and retweet "whats a Derek J" (cos it better not be a human being that someone would speak about like that) or (ii) just google it. and so google it i did...and i haven't been able to snap out of it. here is Derek J. okay look. as everyone knows, i am all for the "do whatever you like as long as it hurts nobody" but c'mon! dude, seriously? so h

i couldn't eat lunch today...cos right there in the canteen, cnn was beaming to the world the current process of an infant's life in somalia. pictures that i could not understand... 1. many young children are saddled with the responsibility for infant siblings when the parents die on the long trek to the nearest refugee camp in neighbouring countries. they often arrive malnourished with the infants near death 2. the refugee camps are themselves not in the best conditions. with 2,000 persons arriving daily the provisions in this camps are stretched beyond capacity five times over. 3. half the time, there is no food even in the camps and the memories of all the loved ones lost on the way can prove too much even for the surviving relative. with no hope for the next meal, water or basic hygiene the death toll in refugee camps is in itself alarming... 4. more than 2 million children are presently at risk of dying. malnourished to the point of no return, many of the docto

there's this guy, yeah? (i like when girl's use "yeah" in every line)... he came from absolutely nowhere into the public consciousness when in 2007, abuja was awash with his posters in a bid for the presidency. yes, you heard me, presidente. a position that even the most sure footed party stalwarts were skeptical about putting in money and time. all the relevant players like danjuma and lar and all didn't even bother. but our dear mr. okorocha did. from feelers i got after the last elections a few months ago, mr. rochas okorocha has been politically active before he became famous and to cut an otherwise long story short, he is now the governor of imo state. as one nigerian who does not watch africa magic except at gun point, i'm usually not one to believe in voodoo as being the source of every single stupendously rich man, but i am yet to find anyone who has given me a break down of mr. okorocha's source of income. at least, i can point to dangote cement

you know, its amazing how things change overnight. i have often wondered why people who are famous never seem to get the rule right when faced with a scandal or public condemntation. i was one of those who thought at every stage of ndi okereke's obama dinner saga - when she made a point of responding to every single article written on the matter in almost every newspaper - that she should have kept silent long before she did. now i realize its easier said than done. twas this same me, who went on a tirade of sorts when the results of the nigerian blog awards were announced. i didn't let them hear the last of it. i made one (okay a few) tweets on twitter trying to play the part of the 'sore loser', just to create some memorable drama to an otherwise successful award show. although the process of the awards needed some tweaking, i am better able to coordinate my expressions than to come out unintentionally, as a sore loser. and so, i half expected that anyone reading th