simply oroque's view

the blog is in its 5th year and we are giving away prizes. you get to do a good deed by helping your favourite charity win 100,000 naira (just convince us why they deserve that money) while you then get the following personal keepsake prizes worth 150,000 naira for yourself!!! you know you want it... HOW TO WIN: 1. Nominate a charity and write a short justification as to why they deserve One Hundred Thousand Naira 2. Submit your write up to  simplyoroquesview@gmail.com between April 14 2013 to May 31 2013 TERMS & CONDITIONS: Judges decision is final Only winners will be contacted Cash prize of 150,000 may be given at our discretion in lieu of winner gift package (i.e. blackberry z10, shoes & bag plus 20,000 naira cash) no purchase, payment or donation is required to participate. Absolutely free. yes, you can spread the word. Winners announced June 15, 2013. lets go peeps! don't let your favourite charity down!

winner to be announced May 31st 2013...

so after the last post by the blogger "leggy" on nagging, she has risen quickly to one of my bloggers of interest (right after ginger and toinlicious)...hence my need to visit her page today and read what unabashed views she has this time. alas, i was not disappointed. she is giving single girls tips on how to get a nigerian man to marry them. i swear she makes me laugh out way too loud at work. you've absolutely got to read it: http://www.leggy-freda.com/#!/2013/04/how-to-get-nigerian-man-to-marry-you.html a lot of people were laughing about the tips and going "you can't be serious" but i know to goodness that all them single girls be taking notes, cos whether we admit it or not, more than half of the tips are true. damn it, actually all of it is true other than the "maternal" bit. who gives a flying toss if you love kids?! as long as you dont give them a flying kick and look like a grouch, then you're fine. so, in the spirit of advice and...

so on april 14, 2009 i set out to revive my blogging skills after leaving it to simmer as i was busy climbing the corporate career ladder. it was clearly a tough time and the only blog site then that was user friendly was yahoo. my blogging attempts were less frequent and as my world was close knit, i had not much to write about. i didn't want to write about my friends because i value their privacy, and i didnt want to bore people with what i thought were my pet peeves: "mediocrity in nigerian music", "the mass swindling called nigerian churches" and "political shenanigans". alas, these were pet peeves shared by more people than i imagined. my first blog post was, as you may have guessed, on nigerian music. i had just about had it after watching some local channels play yet another psquare song that sounded like the last one etc and i flipped. yes, i have come a long way since then. i had decided from get-go to be bold and courageous and speak my (n...

in my 33 years of living i have never heard of the word amnesty being used as daily parlance, more times than i have heard since president jonathan took office. i remain one of those who insist that our country had ceased to exist from the moment where we decided to grant MEND the amnesty many years ago. there was no justification, to my mind, for the wanton destruction of public property that we had spent several years to even manage to build. for 150 million people the public infrastructure is grossly inadequate and the wantom kidnap of foreign oil workers for ransom was clearly a criminal act, irrespective of the motive or 'noble' cause. as a tax payer, (and i have whined about the portion of my meagre earnings i fork over to the government to build roads and things), it hurts me that several persons, uneducated and misinformed...and by many accounts brainwashed, could hold a sovereign state to ransom by throwing tantrums and hiding under the cloak of anonymity. why on earth...

Sometimes, the best blog post on a subject is made of the words from someone directly involved and this interview could not have come at a better time. Meet my friend Lola, longtime childhood friend and huge blog fan. I just want one person who reads this to relate to it, and get the real sense…that many other people out there have dealt with whatever you are presently dealing with closely, and are winning. Me: so, i'm doing a series of interviews and I’d be glad to chat with you though on anything you're comfortable sharing Lola: shoot Me: what exactly do you do for a living? Lola: practice law largely, I freelance as referee, cook, nurse......name it Me: LOL @ your freelancing jobs...I guess that’s what every mum does. Okay. With a NGO? Or private practice? Lola: private practice (new at it), been in NGO for the better part of my working life Me: that much I remember @ NGO. What was that like? And why did you leave? Lola: interesting, but the last one I was at had...

so today i was lounging about on blogger when i stumbled upon the following post written by a blogger named 'leggy' (follow her blog here: http://www.leggy-freda.com/2013/03/nagging.html?showComment=1364290838035#!/2013/03/nagging.html .). i swear we have world class bloggers in nigeria that challenge me everytime! beyond the wit and humour, she lays a good one on a woman's view about nagging. she says: Nagging is the first thing you learn as a nigerian woman. It's like a passage of sorts. you're taught to not nag your husband or boyfriend. you're taught it by everybody and especially by nigerian movies that tell you that nagging your husband/boyfriend is going to make him meet genevieve nnaji and fall in love with her, and cheat on you and leave you and it'd be justified because your bitch arse was nagging him all around the house. you start talking to your friends about how you're not a nag, justify your guyfriends' stupid behaviours because th...

So as you all know, I’m starting my value adding blog posts. The honest truth is that when I made the commitment to inspire my readers by seeking out interviews with different successful young people, I really didn’t have any leads. I also didn’t have any particular area I thought you’d like to read about…but life has a way of aligning the stars when its time for you to get moving. And that’s how the interview below came about. ‘I Do’ Weddings is the brain-child of a friend that I have known for a long time. In fact, she is a British trained lawyer who was working in a multinational company and by all standards should just sit and coast along like the rest of us are doing. So I was intrigued when some time ago, she just ran the idea of a one-stop wedding company by me. Naturally, as I hear about business opportunities every day from people who won’t move an inch from the sofa and remote control, I brushed it aside. You can of course imagine my shock when I hear from acquaintances h...

okay so y'all know how i feel about the mediocrity of nigerian music. that hasn't changed. i'm still done with the recycled beat but different (still empty) lyrics of P.Square etc...and although they are mega-huge stars in countries as far away as south africa, kenya and cote d'ivoire, i'm still not impressed. i guess its a matter of a prophet never being respected in his home town but hey. you won't believe how many times i have to tell foreigners that i do not personally know ramsey noah, p.square and ini edo everytime i'm about to check in to a hotel in a foreign country. dubai was the best as the front desk lady tried to pronounce d'banj with her heavy accent. so i had tuned off nigerian entertainment for a while until one day i stumble on some dude called MayD. i was so blown away that i was beginning to wonder if all was well with me. for some reason, although he doesn't even try to be classy and all, his music gets me like nothing else. to m...

Okay so the funniest thing happened to me on the ride home from work this evening. There I was in the car absolutely quiet because my head was pounding after a hard day at work. I had just left my desk without shutting down my computer because I had so much half finished work and couldn't bear to lose the progress I had made on each one. As I sat in the car, I kept trying not to look at my phone as it vibrated on the seat indicating yet another email or bb ping or text in the unending stream of human communication. In the midst of this, I remembered that I hadn't paid my nepa bill and this was about the time of the month when they would usually come to physically disconnect electricity cables...then my mind wandered to the amount left in my account and all the bills I was yet to pay and how much I would have left etc. Next thing, after what seemed like a long silence, my phone vibrates and I check it. It's a chat from miss j. Naturally, it becomes priority. It simply read...