simply oroque's view

you know, i find it impossible to read the absolute rubbish that we all so treat so laissez faire. i mean seriously, i'm trying hard not to burst a nerve. i'm usually one to give some benefit of the doubt to anyone up until they are caught with their hands in the cookie jar. i am full of respect for constituted authority and always expect the best from government even when i am proved wrong over and over again. but this has to be it. so just last week i got a text message from my pensions administrator telling i've got some six digit sum sitting in my pension account for when i grow old and retired. as you know, since 2004 the government set up a new pension scheme where you pay 7.5% of your salary and your employer pays 7.5% every month end unfailingly. actually, its not like you have a choice as it is deducted at source. to make sure this works, or so we were told, the money is kept separate from the place where your contribution is recorded and monitored. so, we end ...

this was a very long weekend. one of many weekends that elongate because of certain lifestyle choices and that test the limits of my resolve. i have a confession (yes, again). i hate generators. and its for all the reasons that you can imagine. i hate the contraption in and of itself, i hate the noise, i hate the fumes and i hate the fuel consumption. i hate the fact that i can literally see each puff of black smoke ascend into the upper atmosphere to devour an oxygen particle that was this close to repairing the ozone layer :)...and i happen to honestly believe that at the current rates of pollution, we will have no earth to call home in the next 20 years. however, i am unfortunate to come from, and live in, a country that cannot generate anything in sufficient quantity to ensure that its citizens do not have to fend for themselves with regards basic amenities. there are public systems for water, electricity and telephones but nobody has any ac...

i honestly hate to sound like a dumb blonde, but i can't ignore the matter on ground...actually, take that literally because that is the only thing i have been baraged with all day. unfortunately, people expect lawyers to have an idea about everything and would stop me on my way to raid the office snack bar   er...the gym, and ask me random questions about things they hear in the news which i am clueless about. so today the whole office is agog about the week long south africa/nigeria match. for those of you living under a rock/in other countries with your own problems/dont care, heres what happened (the nigerian version of the story clearly). here we were, sitting down minding our own business and dodging bullets from boko haram when we heard on the radio that over 125 nigerians had "AGAIN" been deported from south africa for the flimsiest of excuses. the word 'again' is used not because the same 125 had been deported before, but because nigerians have long bee...

ive never felt older than today. i swear. so there's this new set of youth service corpers that have been sent to my office for their one-year national assignment.  i remember having a conversation with the human resources people sometime ago and them telling me that they only take top notch, super achieving graduates to complete their service year with the company. well, i'm guessing that the word 'top notch' has a new meaning in the modern advanced dictionary because frankly, i disagree. firstly, i am struck by how young these kids are. they all claim to be about 20 to 23 but frankly i can almost swear they are younger (or maybe i am older) but you know, no problems there. i used to feel like a super chap when i graduated from law school at 23 so hey... naturally, i strike up conversation with them just to test the depth of the water and thats where it hits me. the times have really changed. to start with, everyone is an enterpreneur. when i was in school, i co...

i have now come to the point where i must admit that i have totally run out of the blogging spirit. :( i've kept up the hope that maybe it was just a dry spell, and that maybe it will soon pass but the honest truth is that i have changed. i have grown, and i have lost interest in those things that used to get me riled up enough to write the damn blog in the first place. everything that was weird has finally become so normal in my mind that i cannot even summon the will to write about the absurdity called nigeria. the daily killings by boko haram that has become but a blip in the news, the kidnappings in the oil industry, the blatant rigging of state elections by the ruling party, the inconsistent government policies, the overbloated government official appointments...nothing moves me anymore. and thats a dangerous place to find oneself if you ask me. i suddenly realize that no amount of screaming and blogging appears to change anything and frankly noone cares. people are so d...