Tell the Islamists and even those with genuine grouse like the Palestinians. When you keep doing the same thing that fails always without modification, you will fail always. One would think humans sit back and study strategies thathave succeeded and also ones that failed with a view to choosing the strategy to use. I find Islamists to be the biggest fools on earth and sadly the Palestinians chose to allow Islamists lead their charge. THE ENTIRE MUSLIM NATION CAN NEVER BEAT ISRAEL. The only thing keeping them alive is public opinion.....PUBLIC OPINION which they continuously spawn. Let us look at movements and their leaders that have succeeded in recent history Ghandi Mahatma leading India to "defeat" England. BAPU (Father) showed the world that you do not have to kill to succeed. Martin Luther King Jr leading the march against segregation. While Malcolm X who in many ways had embraced the ineffectual Islamism as taught him by Elijah Mohammed did not succeed with his message of aggression, Martin Luther King like Ghandi showed how to get what you want by non-violence but with a determination to get what you want...unbowed....yet "unviolent. Nelson Mandela leading the charge against apartheid. He was even in prison. He had followed the ways of violence earlier on but realised while in prison, he was more effective than when he was alleged to be throwing bombs. He did not accept "deals" to regain his freedom and yet his soul creid FREEDOM and FREEDOM his people got....non-violently. Now check Yassser Arafat. He had a good cause. IRAEL TOOK HIS PEOPLE'S LAND AND THE WHOLE WORLD COLLABORATED WITH ISRAEL. Yes Israel bought the lands off them aided by funds from Germany, America UK etc. But how did they choose to get back their lands? BOMBS, KILLINGS ETC and how have they succeeded?? ZILCH. NADA. In fact, areas that Isreal had not taken before, each armed struggle against them has led to more annexing of their lands. But for public opinion, Israel would have captured for Itself vast lands even in Egypt. The world does not in anyway sympathise with Palestinians, not because their cries are not genuine, but because of the violent means with which they go about it. Tell me how you would not be moved when you hear an Israeli say this "If all Arabs dropped their guns today, there will be peace in the world. But if Israel dropped their gun, Israel will be no more. Indeed hearing that, you know it is the truth. Israel has nuclear bombs but does not use it. Allow Iran or Syria or Iraq to have one and KABOOM! there goes planet earth. Thus how can anyone support them? And so Palestine continues to not be a state or country. If Palestine had chosen the wayof peace and Islamism and anti-semitic hate was not ingrained in their brain, like the US, Israel would have been multi-raced and Palestinians beng more would have produced the leaders as the blacks produce presidents in South Africa today. Alas, the violence as contained in many other books that have the force of law in Islam (the Qoran contains statements by Allah to Mohammed and so it is not that much more violent than the Bible. But the other books like the Sunnah and Hanafi and Hadiths and also "the Rulings Of The First Generation of Muslims" have made it possible for Muslims who ordinarily following the Qoran would have seen the Christian as his brother and who would have never"spilled the blood of innocents", from following these other sources of Islamic law have made killing something pleasurable. And thus the Osama Bin Ladens and Shekau's can come on TV and say "Allah told us to kill kill kill kill" and go on to say "we are allowed to sell women" or read this "Sunan Abu Dawud 2126 "A man from the Ansar called Basrah said: 'I married a VIRGIN woman in her veil. When I entered upon her, I found her pregnant. (I mentioned this to the Prophet Muhammad).' The Prophet Muhammad said: 'She will get the dower, for you made her vagina lawful for you. The child will be your slave. When she has begotten (a child), FLOG HER'". Even when the Qoran says "ALLAH IS MERCIFUL. Such Caliphs and their teachings is what has brought about Islamism as distinct from Islam and Muslim religion as spoken by the Prophet. Thus you will find IRAN and SUDAN where to even be a Christian makes you an endangered species and then you see Qatar and Dubai. But I digress. The point is, this Islamism and incessant bombings have gotten them nowhere. IT HAS ONLY BROUGHT ISLAM HATE and no one supports any cause of those they hate. And so Palestinians will continue to be starngers in their own land and at the mercy of Israel. The stupidity of Osama Bin Laden has led to the destruction of once beautiful Babylon sorry Iraq (yes Babylon in history is Iraq) In Nigeria, STUPID muslims amongst the very many sane intelligentones have allowed themselves to adopt the violent and backward teachings "OF FIRST GENERATION MUSLIMS" and so they say "Boko Haram" that is "book is forbidden". Their lack of education did not allow them know the very numerals we use viz 1,2,3 is Islamic nor know about the educational citadels of Timbuktu which was totally Islamic scholarship. They choose not to know the Prophet's wife Aisha was a female leader and women can lead much like Queen Amina of Zaria. Yes, Osama Bin Laden and his type have totally lost the plot that leads to success. WHAT HAS ALL HIS VIOLENCE ACHIEVED? Destruction of two buildings and painand death for those in the TWIN TOWERS (including Muslims) and death to many Iraqis and 5000 American soldiers. WHAT ELSE? Since his bombing, Israel has fortified their gates and amassed more arms. The whole Middle-East is in turmoil. Egypt that beautiful beautiful city is in shambles. Lybia oh Lybia and the former Islamist Ghadafi who had grown to see the folly in killing people on a plane that did him nothing...that Ghadafi's Lybia that was leading the way for Africa is destroyed. In Nigeria, Yusuf is dead and Boko Haram and Shekau has destroyed their own Muslim lands and while their neighbours who are Christians continue to thrive in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Calabar, their cities and economy in the North is pigshit poor. So what has violence achieved???? The Nigerian government led by a Christian has brought in America, the bane of Islamic world if Muslims are to be believed. The West whom they accuse rightly and wrongly of causing them grief is now camped in Nigeria and what is their reaction? KILL KILL KILL KILL. To what end? Will the president resign? NO. Will he finish his tenure YES. Have the Christian lands now united against the ruling Fulanis YES/more and more each passing day and exploding bomb. Will the Muslim Fulani be then played out of relevance as Jos and other places in the Middle Belt that used to consider themselves an "North" now think is terms of SELF ACTUALIZATION? will they team with souther Nigeria? YES. Will one of their Christian sons DAVID MARK likely be the next president after Goodluck Jonathan, thus making it Christian to Christian to Christian presidency (minus YarAdua's two years rule) YES. So why the EFF are the bombing? TO WHAT EFFECT? do they sit to calculate? Do Islamists think at all? Do they measure success by goals reached or simply by blood spilled? These Islamists are nothing but people worshipping Ilbis and Shaytan thinking they worship Allah YOU CANNOT KILL BABIES AND WOMEN WITH BOMBS AND EXPECT ALLAH TO BLESS YOUR ENDEAVOUR WITH SUCCESS, Palestinians, Muslims must recalibrate and search with and ask WHAT HAS BOMBING AND KILLINGS DONE FOR US.....and against us
Monday, September 15, 2014
Friday, September 5, 2014
Nonso had received the invitation by Aghogho's wife to come to their house with his heart beating. He had warned Aghogho, his colleague and bossom friend about his wife. Aghogho was a stubborn man.
Aghogho was married to an "akata" which is how they often referred to black American women. Like all women, the black Ameican woman can be good and they can be bad. Aghogho had sadly married a "bad" one and his life was made into living Hell and at 41 years Aghogho was still without child and now without a wife.
That was 14 years ago. He and Bolaji who was seated with his wife across from him had pressured Aghogho to go home to Nigeria and pick a wife. They had told him at 41, he had better start a family so his children does not call him granddad and he does not train them with his retirement benefit.
Aghogho had truly gone home and had invited them over his wedding to Ufuoma, a young twenty years old beauty. Nonso did not attend himself but instead sent Aghogho the money he would have used for plane ticket had he decided to travel.
But that is where Aghogho stopped listening to them. Upon Aghogho's return, he had enroled his wife in a community college. Nonso, Bolaji and all of his friends had asked him what his hurry was about. That he should first have ensured she was pregnant with first then second and third and had even borne the fourth one before enrolling her in college. That at 41, that should be his priority. That she was too young and beautiful for him to allow her mix with young men her age and in a University community.
Aghogho had told them that his wife was the daughter of his secondary school crush and that he promised her that he would take care of Ufuoma his wife and allow her finish school in America.
Nonso was nonplussed when Aghogho told him his wife was studying medicine as in doing her pre-requisites. He knew in America you do not study medicine straight away but do a course first and then the medicine. He wondered why he could not just make her be a nursing assistant, a Licensed practical nurse and ultimately a Registered nurse and then after of course at least 3 children.
Nonso just could not understand it as Aghogho was a security man just like him and his wife was a nursing assistant like most of their friends and only now studying to be an LPN. He came to America before Aghogho and was even the one who helped him get the job as a security guard in their company.
Now watching Ufuoma, Aghogho's wife gritting her teeth, jaw set and held in an angle of having made a major decision, he knew his worst fears had been confirmed. The medical doctor and the security guard was a strange combination. Security guard and nurse was bad enough. But security guard and doctor... Well, at least Aghogho has 2 children now and at least the courts would not make him give all his money to his wife upon the divorce as she earns more than him. Maybe Aghogho was smart after all.
Nonso is interrupted from his train of thought by their pastor Utieyin Edema Eyen....well actually he was just a junior pastor learning and earning his stripes in the ministry. The main pastor could not come so sent the young Edema to represent him.
Edema: Em praise the Lord. Having prayed and invited the presence of the Lord into this gathering, having bound whatever spirit of separation and division into the deeper recesses of Hell Fire, we will ask Dr Mrs Ufuoma to tell us all why she called us here.
Dr. Ufuoma: I greet you all and welcome you. None of you are strangers to my home. You have all even known my husband Aghogho longer than I have. It is why I have called you all to complain very very bitterly. You all will not understand where i am coming from until I tell the full story. My husband thinks it is my mother that made me marry him. NO. I saw him come and greet my mother and father and I liked him. He does not know why I was the one who walked him to his car and took his number and why I called him first and came to see him. He does not know the fight I had with my parents for them to allow me marry him. My dad wanted me to finish school in Nigeria.
Okay he is 22 years older than me but maybe it was his smell or his accent or how quiet he was or maybe that he is from America, but I fell for him and wanted to marry him. My mother told me she liked him too back in school but they were just friends and so I guess I was not the only one that liked him.
When I came here, I expected all the worst things of course and that all those promise of school was "washy" as n lies. But when I came, he truly enrolled me in school and paid everything and even when I got pregnant and wanted to stop, he made sure I continued and he helped with the baby allowing me read at night. Several times I felt like giving up but he encouraged me to finish school. I had two babies for him while schooling and you all know Edesiri and Iroro. He changed his shift to night shift so in the morning when he returns from work by 6 a.m, he will help to take care of the children, drop me off at school and then also pick them and sometimes me up. I have been a doctor for six years now.
Where is the problem you may ask, I will get to that. Please be patient. Two years after becoming a doctor, I came home very tired and did not prepare food that day. When he came home, he asked me where his food was. I shouted at him
"don't disturb me. Can't you see I am sleeping? Can't you cook?"
He said nothing and went into the kitchen and made food for himself and then brought some for me. I pretended to be sleeping but he came, woke me up, gave me tea and toast bread and said
"I know you must have had a hard day at work. Do not let it get to you. Everything is alright. Eat".
I have never eaten tea and toast bread that tasted that good in my whole life. It is the best food I have eaten; fr sweeter than Christmas rice and chicken in Nigeria. As the words left my mouth, I had expected to hear
"Okay, so because you are a doctor now, you feel you can talk to me anyhow. I am now our mate. I brought you to this America. Without me you are nothing NOTHING!!! But that day I understood what the Bible said when it said "a silent answer turneth away wrath. We had lost a child and the mother during childbirth that day and I had prepared the nice lady for the surgery. She was Yoruba and had come all the way from Nigeria to have the baby. As she was bleeding she was calling my name "Ufuoma help me, Dr. Ufuoma please help me" but we just could not stop the hemorrhage. I came home tired and did not make a meal for him. I could have apologized as this was not the first time he had come home to no food. Marrying a doctor is a strain in itself. But I replied him rudely and....
Chinansa: (Nonso's wife). Hmmmmm ask Nonso. Me, when I never get work sef I dey curse am. He kuku know my mouth.
Dr. Ufuoma: Exactly. But from what my nurses tell me, they say once they became nurses and startd earning more than their husbands, whatever they did, even when it is because they want attention from their husband with the quarrel, the husband will say "it is because you are earning more than me. You have grown wings". But my husband's behaviour to me that day made me cry tears of joy because I knew then and there that God has given me "Aghogho" which though is my husbands name, but the true meaning is JOY, Aghogho means joy and God has given me joy.
Nonso: I do not understand. So why are we here?
Dr. Ufuoma: But we are having a very serious issue. You see, my husband has refused to allow me support the home. He will say
"I did not train you to come and give me money. My salary is enough."
So practically all my salary is saved up in the bank these past six years. We are in this same two bedroom in this ...I am sorry...but....this ghetto neighbourhood. Edesiri and Iroro are in schools in this neighbourhood as you cannot enrol your child in a neighbourhood you do not live in and we all know how the schools in this area are. I have told him I will pay the rent in maybe Bethesda...
Aghogho: My wife will not pay my rent. It will not happen in this life or in heaven.
Dr. Ufuoma (crying) why not Aghogho, why not?
Aghogho: See, e get wetin no good for eye or for ear. As a man, you go dey let your wife pay your rent? Any man wey dey allow that kine thing suppose dey collect 12 strokes of koboko everyday. Look honey, it is not happening. We are staying in this house until I am able to ...
Edema: Okay....
Mrs Bolaji: Pastor Edema, what is okay??? You that is not married, you want to contribute because they call you pastor abi? Pastor when you marry, you can contribute.
(everyone laughs)
Edema. (laughing) That means priests cannot talk in marital matters. Even the pope cannot then advise any husband and wife following your logic.
(every claps and)
Nonso: pastor Utieyin Edema...chei! you go son break up form your church
Edema: This is a very simple matter. Mr Aghogho, you want it said you pay your rent
Aghogho: Not "said". I do not care about what people say. A man should pay his rent.
Edema: I will not bother to preach about "a man and a woman are one" as you already have heard that. So how much is the rent in this house?
Aghogho: 1000 dollars.
Edema: Okay. The spirit has put it in me that you should put that money in a bucket called RENTand give to your wife to give to the landlord. Do not bother about the cost of the new place your wife will get. Just put the 1000 dollars there every month
Aghogho : But...
Edema: I may be young but the Bible says "because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes."- Mt 11:25
You see, there is a difference between pride and honour. You that cook and take care of childen refuses to allow your wife pay the rent. That is honour and not pride. However, as a man of honour, you will not allow your children have a destiny not approved by God. Their destiny is to attend better schools than this county can provide and as such God has put it in your wife's heart to insist you move to Bethesda or some other more decent neighbourhood.
Mrs Bolaji: Baby Pastor Edema.... Come and See!!!
Nonso: Emm Aghogho, reason with us. I dey even dey find how this my wife go release money. Her hand na superglue.
Chinansa: hehehehehe. Make you come use the money take go carry woman. Mba. I must make sure it is small money in your hand. If they like they can run follow you. They will not see money because as they promote you, I will increase our cost of living. When it is important, that is when I will release my own. Your own is our own. My own is my own.
Aghogho: hmmmmmm em.....
Dr. Ufuoma: (Brings out a document) See, emm... we...em... me and you, WE have bought a very fine house. Look at the picture. Iroro and Edesiri have their own rooms. Me and you our room...
Aghogho: You bought a house
Dr. Ufuoma: WE...WE ...I haven't paid. But I love it. See it. (She is kneeling in front of Aghogho with the pictures. Aghogho is looking at the pictures. Dr. Ufuoma continues) Honey, I am begging you in the name of God to let me be your helpmate. Pls. You have borne this burden alone long enough. I beg you in the name of Jesus.
Aghogho: hmmmmmm
Dr. Ufuoma: And....and please do not be angry. Please do not be. We have used your 1998 Camry long enough and I respect and love the car. It is what took me to school. But let me buy you a car.
Mrs Nonso: Na lie. Aghogho, na me and your wife go buy Range Rover Sport for you. Your wife say you dey look the motor everytime. Say you like am well well. Na me give am heart make she buy am.
Nonso: So you knew this was what the meeting was about and you let me be thinking...
Mr Bolaji: This is like a movie. I can't believe what is happening
Dr. Ufuoma: No oga Bolaji. Movies end up sad. In the movies, I have to be bad. I have to become a doctor and look down on my security guard husband and say
How can I Dr. Ufuoma, be married to a mere security guard. I have to turn my husband to my rag and treat him badly and then leave him. That is what sell movies. The Ibo flute has to be playing as my husband walks and shakes his head that I left him. He should be crying and crying. That is what sells movies. The picture on the desk in my office is this very one on my wall. My husband in his security outfit with the two children and myself. Colleagues ask me if that is my husband and I say yes, My husband and my security. My financial, emotional, spiritual, security. He is my guard. (looks at Aghogho) Honey you are my guard, my security. I have never felt as safe as I have with you in my life. (she is crying. Everyone is quiet. )
Aghogho: You went and bought a car for me
Edema: em...the car should not be a problem. If you do not want it, you can sow it into the church. I can get brother Ena who is saying nothing there but observing everyone to drive it behind me.
Aghogho. Em...what is the colour
Dr. Ufuoma: Guess
Aghogho: White
Dr. Ufuoma: Yes
Aghogho: Because of that day at Burger King that I walked over to that one parked right. Hmmmm.
emm....why are the rooms so many and I see two more rooms with babies marked on the door
Dr Ufuoma: (smiles) Cos I want more babies. I want more of you. More you. Honey, we do not have to live so tight anymore. Honey we are comfortable. Your wife is a doctor earning good money. It is what it is honey. Please let me take care of you as you have taken care of me.
Edema: emmm Hallelujah!!! I am assuming the White Range a block away is the car we are talking about, let us go and dedicate it unto the Lord.
Mrs Bolaji: Baby Pastor. This one is not a seed. This is the fruit. So emm... nobody is sowing anything. wait for offering on Sunday.
(they all go outside and Aghogho takes the key opens the door and sits in the drivers section)
Dr Ufuoma: See my sexy husband pulling a Range!!! She goes and hugs Aghogho who is only half seated in the car
Nonso: (to Chinansa) When you dey finish nursing school again?
Chinansa: Me go buy Range Rover for you? Na me use my hand marry second wife give you be that.
Nonso: second wife for America?
Chinansa: All these girls, if them see man with this motor, no be pregnancy and child support go dey their head? Nonso, Mba no!!! No worry.
Edema: Let us pray. In Jesus name. Oh Father in Heaven, the God that said in Phillipians 4:19 I will provide all your needs.....
(as everyone prayed and blessed the car, including my humble self Ena Ofugara who just tagged along with Pastor Edema, I could see the tears streaming down Aghogho's face and Dr Ufuoma his wife, wiping it and kissing his forehead and then lips and I realized, right then and there Mr and Dr (Mrs) Aghogho Emakpor had survived America.
Monday, July 21, 2014
PRODUCT NIGERIA....And Helping Sell Her. Levick vs Axlerod, APC/BOKO HARAM vs PDP BY ENA OFUGARA
PRODUCT NIGERIA....And Helping Sell Her. Levick vs Axlerod, APC/BOKO HARAM vs PDP
Trending right now on Sahara Reporter is the fact that Nigeria has hired a foreign company to help launder her very battered image....battered especially by her own opposition politicians.
Nigeria has always been viewed as corrupt and her denizens as thieves and fraudsters. But remember, the name 419 was coined by NIGERIANS ABOUT OURSELVES from the section in the criminal code for "stealing by false pretenses".
Also it was Nkem Owoh that sang the song "I go chop your dollar" which the International media and organizations turned into the jingle for Nigeria.
Bottomline is, PEOPLE WILL CALL YOU WHAT YOU CALL YOURSELF....mostly.
Maybe people in Nigeria do not feel what people abroad feel when your accent betrays you and reveals you as a Nigerian. If they did, they'd be irate at Amaechi for going on International media talking about how Rivers has no water. Or Shettima or Ndume or any of what has been shown the media of us.
That the opposition could pay Obama's campaign manager's company millions to damage Nigeria's image should qualify as treason. WHO DOES THAT?
Of course Axlerod was not brought in to win elections in Ekiti. What does he know of our voter's need for raw rice? Of course Levick will not be the ones to revote in Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Ondo Ekiti, Borno has left the grasp of the APC and soon Ogun and Nasarawa to follow. The President does not need LEVICK here in Nigeria to win NOOOOOOOOO!!!!
What both Axlerod and Levick were hired for was Nigeria's image.
Now while Axlerod is to make the president look bad, Levick is to make him look good.
Now the difference is that you cannot make Goodluck look bad without making Nigeria look bad.
Mumus think when Sen John McCaine disrespected Goodluck Jonathan, they think it is just Dr Ebele Goodluck that was rubbished. I know the arguments I had with my Boswana and Ghanaian friends here when that happened. OH HOW THEY LAUGHED.
He Axlerod ensured the whole world saw THE WHOLE OF NIGERIA AND NIGERIANS AS GIRL KIDNAPPERS. Obi Ezekwesili is ensuring tha Nigeria is looked at as worse than Russia, Pakistan, India and other places with worse cases of Islamist attacks yet with very good image.
It was Dr. Sandra Ote Dafiaghor who asked me to representNIDOAmericas at the human rights hearing here in DC....which I failed to attend due to work commitment and my relief not showing up (and which I am yet to apologize for). In that hearing, the Nigerian ambassador is said to have lambasted all who called Nigeria unsafe, comparing just the violence in just Chicago....one of (30,000) cities in America to the violence in the whole of Nigeria....and the number of death support him. Yet he says "NO ONE CALLS AMERICA UNSAFE"
What the APC paid a foreign media to do is in full consequence is...
1. Do not do business in Nigeria. THE PRESIDENT IS BAD.
2. Do not give Nigerians visa. They kidnap girls they will not bring back
3. Do not even visit Nigeria, THE PRESIDENT IS BAD.
4. DO NOT COME TO NIGERIA, You will not get water. He refused a UN loan THE PRESIDENT IS BAD.
5. You will be killed in Nigeria. Boko Haram is everywhere and sponsored by the President. As you arrive you die. THE PRESIDENT IS BAD.
6. #BringBackOurGirls THE PRESIDENT HAS REFUSED TO BRING THEM BACK
2. Do not give Nigerians visa. They kidnap girls they will not bring back
3. Do not even visit Nigeria, THE PRESIDENT IS BAD.
4. DO NOT COME TO NIGERIA, You will not get water. He refused a UN loan THE PRESIDENT IS BAD.
5. You will be killed in Nigeria. Boko Haram is everywhere and sponsored by the President. As you arrive you die. THE PRESIDENT IS BAD.
6. #BringBackOurGirls THE PRESIDENT HAS REFUSED TO BRING THEM BACK
And yes the opposition has paid money to destroy our image and make us poorer.
China has more corruption and terrible Human Rights abuses, yet today the U Iphone and almost every product is manufactured there. China spent good money organizing meets and visits with the Mitt Romeneys telling them "COME AND CHEAT US. PAY OUR WORKERS BADLY. JUST BRING YOUR MONEY AND BUSINESS HERE." Or you think America just woke up and went to produce their shirts and utensils etc in China? THE GOVERNMENT SPENT AND IS SPENDING MONEY FOR THIS TO HAPPEN AND CONTINUE.
You watch CNN and you do not see Malaysia, Indonesia and so many countries advertize that you should come visit and or stay? Have you not seen Dubai do that? How about Qatar? You think it is a Dubal firm selling Dubai to AMericans? YOU MAKE ME LAUGH SAD LAUGHTER.
Nigeria is the second richest country in Africa after South Africa. We are beginning to grow rice, have trains, better airports, safer roads, less fuel scarcity. We have one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and JUST WHEN IT IS GETTING TO BE THE "NIGERIAN ERA", we have an opposition hell-bent on destroying the image of the nation.
AND THEY GOVERNORS ETC SWORE IN THE PLEDGE TO "UPHOLD HER HONOUR AND GLORY". TREASON I TELL YOU!!!
And Boko Haram....what can one say? But of course the moneys paid to CNN etc has ensured the image of Nigeria is not the peaceful Calabar or the "unwarring Warri" or Lagos where u can go to Lekki and party and return to Ketu by 3 a.m and the worst thing that would happen to you would be a mugging where you will lose a phone.
Then the Goodluck administration gets the advert firm LEVICK, again NOT TO WIN IT THE ELECTION, but so the world may look at Jonathan Goodluck and feel confident to bring their money here, which translates to JOBS JOBS JOBS.
I asked someone who said "ENA, YOU AND YOUR GUYS ON YOUR PROFILE (Clear reference to Soji Oseni Jagaban Edwin Dico OkugboMichael Dedon Nonso Okey Okpala Jojo Abiyere and of course Tosin Awotesu (too numerous to mention really) are doing so much for the administration. WHY DONT THEY GIVE YOU GUYS THE MONEY?
(not a bad idea. hehehe)
But seriously I was on the phone for a long time with Favour B. Afolabi who schooled me on what it entails for International Media. He asked me a question. he said "Ena Ofugara, if I am to charge the federal government for what I do for them everyday for free, if I am to disseminate information and paint them in a good light, bringing their good works to 170 million Nigerians, how much will I bill them?"
He continues "we all understand that it was entered into by NAN (News Agency of Nigeria") which is the agency charged with the duty to disseminate information or assign same.
Obviously it is under a new management and they are being pro-active. I believe the new boss Rume Ima Niboro is from your side of Nigeria.Yet if I was to charge Nigeria and they give me the same 1.2 million dollars, if I hire 10 people in each state with real following, pay them one hundred thousand naira a month (which is below what Mtn Shell Chevron pay those who answer their phones), in twelve months, I would need four hundred and thirty two million which in dollars is about 2.6 million. YET THE FED GOVT PAID A FOREIGN MEDIA HOUSE 1.2 million which means just a hundred thousand per annum. SOMEONE NEGOTIATED VERY WELL."
Yet people are screaming WHY?
Is it that it is a FOREIGN FIRM? Oh well!!! ALL YOUR TOP BRANDS AND ADVERT AGENCIES ARE FOREIGN even to market local products to us. I am sure Kasaprenko has foreign media team.
And now you want a Nigerian firm with NO EXPERIENCE AT THAT LEVEL TO MARKET US TO BRUNEI, Kazakhstan and such distant lands????
Look at what Axlerod achieved with the #bringbackourgirls. He had Mrs Obama, and ALL THE STARS OF HOLLYWOOD from Stallone to Scawarzenegger to Timberlake to ...name them. So Salako and sons advertising Nigeria ltd or Usman Advertizers Incorporated....selling groundnut since 1949, is the best people to hire (na joke I dey joke before una say I curse Nigerian advert firms)? WOULD YOU HIRE A NIGERIAN FIRM FOR THIS?
Now imagine if APC were patriots and all those stars carried placards that said #DobusinessinNigeria or #Nigeriansaregreatpeople.
By now you would have seen Nigeria blossom.
But of course APC are saboteurs no less...each one that granted an interview to foreign media and disrespected the Nation's leader and symbol. (yes he is one and the same while in power.)
"TO UPHOLD HER HONOUR AND GLORY...." That is the pledge we recite. That is what the governors and many members of the opposition swore to.
By going abroad and on their TV, are they doing that?
If it is LEVICK that will help to improve our image and assure ONE INVESTOR......ONE INVESTOR... that NIGERIA IS A PLACE TO DO BUSINESS, If they can tell the world "THE INSURGENCE IS IN JUST A PART OF NIGERIA...3 of 36 states really... Cross Rivers, Ebonyi, Ondo and the rest of them are lands of eternal sunshine and love...and they are doing their darndest to fight terrorism which is a global scourge and not just Nigeria, if they can paint Nigeria to be the HAVEN IT SHALL BE SOON going at this rate where the trains, farming etc are starting to take pride of place, THEN GOOD JOB News Agency Of Nigeria, GOOD JOB Niboro, good job Abati et al and GOOD JOB Mr President and the FEC.
TO UPHOLD HER HONOUR AND GLORY....all hands on deck.
Friday, May 9, 2014
My ENAlysis of Chibok and an ENAstradamus Postulation. BY ENA OFUGARA.
Dummies Sold, Dummies bought....bought in foreign currency.
The opposition played a dangerous and risky game and GEJ like that TV program of the 80's has said "checkmate".
It is Ome Omenai who asked "If the Chibok girls are not missing, why is this administration allowing the world to get involved"
This administration KNOWS this girls are not missing. If you listen to the first Lady in that "only you that waka come" video, you will see that she was very suspicious that grieving parents may not exist hence "only the principal waka come"
The administration, for it not to be said to be "denying" the kidnapping, through the police and in the nationwide broadcast BEGGED PARENTS WHOSE CHILDREN ARE MISSING TO COME TO THE POLICE STATION.
That has to be a first in history where you that lost you 16 years daughter has to be begged to come to police station when in reality the police station should be a beehive of activities for grieving parents.
Even the Borno government house and Local government headquarters of Chibok, there is graveyardlike silence. It definitely does not look like 276 girls are missing.
I know how Police Station in Sapele would be if "gbomogbomo" stole 5 children. Parents and well-wishers will sleep in government house or police station just to hear if there is news on their girls.
So why is Borno State govt and the opposition selling this dummy? GEJ HAS NEVER BEEN AS MALIGNED ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND ESPECIALLY WORLD MEDIA LIKE THIS.
Even papers that used to support him here, since Obiageli Ezekwesili's march with false parents and hired actresses, the attack has been relentless as they say "he is doing nothing about the girls"
I have asked severally "How do you look for kidnapped people when the parents have not made "missing person's report"
But the foreign media likes bad stories of Africa and in fact bad stories worldwide. Notice if anyone is interviewed and he does not attack this administration, the interviewer quickly says "thank you for your time" and ends it.
So the APC and Borno governments looking to totally discredit the SOE (state of emergency) has sold you all a dummy and you all opened your pockets and paid.
Then GEJ, that man Ogbemudia told you "is more brilliant than many of us put together" has absorbed the attack and very denting blow for a loss of goodwill to gaining of actual position of strength.
While his "Queen" Patience GEJ was engaging opposition "bishops" and "knights", GEJ "castled".
The US that has been looking for a way to put fot and soldiers down on sub-saharan Africa has finally done it. Now they will have an eternal post in Sub-saharan Africa and even if later they say they are gone, all what is needed for them to arrive in 12 hours and encamp in case of global conflict will have been put in place.
Should world war start, Russia cannot win the race to Sub-saharan oil of Nigeria and now Ghana. They also cannot use the soils for food growing as Hitler had planned for Africa.
DUMMIES SOLD, DUMMIES BOUGHT....bought in foreign currency.
Nigerians in some inexplicable pausing of the use of their reasoning faculties, failed to really listen to SHEKAU in that video where he never mentioned Chibok or WAEC. He does not boast of the hours he took to arrange the transportation, but instead boasts of over-powering the army....when all reports show there was no struggle and that the girls were handed to them. And when all the villagers say they did not see or hear any gunshots, and yet Shekau spoke of the fight to get the girls.
Nigerians do not bother to wonder if it is this very incidence he is talking about or the speech could have been any other attack.
HE TALKED ABOUT 9 AND TWELVE YEARS OLD GIRLS and not 18 and 16...even 20.
He Shekau chooses the less lucrative alternative of selling little girls to the poor, in and around Chad and Cameroun to a huge ransom and release of held brothers in prisons.....something GEJ would have agree to easily for the safety of 176 girls.
And that representative or who that is quick to tell us, "the girls are now in Chad and Cameroun. They have been sold for 2,000 naira. They have been married off" even before Boko Haram made contact. EVEN BEFORE SHEKAU MADE CONTACT via youtube video.
Did they in anyway see this SHEKAU video and play their game to the script he had already written? Like chess moves read from a Bobby Fisher text, did they totally adapt their play to pre-arranged moves?
Well... I have looked at this thing a million and one ways and in my ENAlysis, AS AT TODAY, I am 80 percent certain there was no kidnapping.
I sit back and congratulate the president. What a wonderful capitalization on a gambit.
Now he has the US army at his disposal in his country. ANY COUP STANDS FOILED.....yes, coups are by no more than 100 soldiers......easy for the US army to take back any radio station they capture for their broadcast and easy to zoom in and bomb and snipe and quell any attack on the villa. I SAID GEJ "CASTLED"
Then also, should the Niger Deltans decide to break the country at the constitutional conference, should things escalate. Should a civil war ensue, AMERICA IS ALREADY HERE.
Russia almost beat them to the Nigerian oil during the Biafran war. But not anymore AMERICA IS HERE.
DUMMIES SOLD, DUMMIES BOUGHT...IN FOREIGN CURRENCY.
America called the Northern governors and flew them over. How the US meets provincial leaders of a country shows the deep division. Mumu governors went, insulted their country and president and America joined them and said "yes. Abuja refused to support Northern governors push for education and employment" when Abuja has built more almajiri schools than the state governments. When Abuja has built so many universities on their soil than in the south. When Abuja chose their soils to begin the rice revolution that made the Agric minister Akinwumi "Forbes Man of The Year." proving the success of the farming initiatives: when the groundnut is being grown again....something their own Northern leaders and governors could not do.... farming that is also a State Government function....even local government....
YEt America spoke HIGHLY in their favour and they are happy. Yes, Obama and John Kerry has heard their argument how GEJ cheated them of their one term agreement and RIGHT TO RULE.....
DUMMIES SOLD, DUMMIES BOUGHT....IN HARD HARD CURRENCY
Now America can monitor even the anti-Israel terrorist group's activities in Nigeria. HAMAS and AL QAEDA has lost their vacation spot.
But they should not have brought attention to Nigeria where a lot of their financing was going on under the radar. They were planting even CENTRAL BANK GOVERNORS and STATE GOVERNORS who all regularly visit Sudan, the African mother-bed of terrorism.
But someone got greedy. Someone got stupid. They decided to smoke weed where they keep guns and drugs and the police has followed the smell and now are here....over stupid weed/marijuana smoking. Nigeria ultimately is lost. A stronghold, a bastion is lost. AMERICA IS HERE....
YES AMERICA IS HERE, RUSSIA IS NOT
DUMMIES SOLD DUMMIES BOUGHT...IN FOREIGN CURRENCY.
So everyone, sit back and watch as Nigeria finally is no longer the Beautiful Bride of International politics. No more are we "unaligned". Like SHEKAU's "kidnapped" girls, we have been married off to a side...AMERICA.
Stupid gambit by Shettima and APC. Wonderful capitalization by GEJ....Gary Kasparov-esque. AMERICA IS HERE> GEJ IS SAFErrrrr
DUMMIES SOLD DUMMIES BOUGHT.
Dummies Sold, Dummies bought....bought in foreign currency.
The opposition played a dangerous and risky game and GEJ like that TV program of the 80's has said "checkmate".
It is Ome Omenai who asked "If the Chibok girls are not missing, why is this administration allowing the world to get involved"
This administration KNOWS this girls are not missing. If you listen to the first Lady in that "only you that waka come" video, you will see that she was very suspicious that grieving parents may not exist hence "only the principal waka come"
The administration, for it not to be said to be "denying" the kidnapping, through the police and in the nationwide broadcast BEGGED PARENTS WHOSE CHILDREN ARE MISSING TO COME TO THE POLICE STATION.
That has to be a first in history where you that lost you 16 years daughter has to be begged to come to police station when in reality the police station should be a beehive of activities for grieving parents.
Even the Borno government house and Local government headquarters of Chibok, there is graveyardlike silence. It definitely does not look like 276 girls are missing.
I know how Police Station in Sapele would be if "gbomogbomo" stole 5 children. Parents and well-wishers will sleep in government house or police station just to hear if there is news on their girls.
So why is Borno State govt and the opposition selling this dummy? GEJ HAS NEVER BEEN AS MALIGNED ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND ESPECIALLY WORLD MEDIA LIKE THIS.
Even papers that used to support him here, since Obiageli Ezekwesili's march with false parents and hired actresses, the attack has been relentless as they say "he is doing nothing about the girls"
I have asked severally "How do you look for kidnapped people when the parents have not made "missing person's report"
But the foreign media likes bad stories of Africa and in fact bad stories worldwide. Notice if anyone is interviewed and he does not attack this administration, the interviewer quickly says "thank you for your time" and ends it.
So the APC and Borno governments looking to totally discredit the SOE (state of emergency) has sold you all a dummy and you all opened your pockets and paid.
Then GEJ, that man Ogbemudia told you "is more brilliant than many of us put together" has absorbed the attack and very denting blow for a loss of goodwill to gaining of actual position of strength.
While his "Queen" Patience GEJ was engaging opposition "bishops" and "knights", GEJ "castled".
The US that has been looking for a way to put fot and soldiers down on sub-saharan Africa has finally done it. Now they will have an eternal post in Sub-saharan Africa and even if later they say they are gone, all what is needed for them to arrive in 12 hours and encamp in case of global conflict will have been put in place.
Should world war start, Russia cannot win the race to Sub-saharan oil of Nigeria and now Ghana. They also cannot use the soils for food growing as Hitler had planned for Africa.
DUMMIES SOLD, DUMMIES BOUGHT....bought in foreign currency.
Nigerians in some inexplicable pausing of the use of their reasoning faculties, failed to really listen to SHEKAU in that video where he never mentioned Chibok or WAEC. He does not boast of the hours he took to arrange the transportation, but instead boasts of over-powering the army....when all reports show there was no struggle and that the girls were handed to them. And when all the villagers say they did not see or hear any gunshots, and yet Shekau spoke of the fight to get the girls.
Nigerians do not bother to wonder if it is this very incidence he is talking about or the speech could have been any other attack.
HE TALKED ABOUT 9 AND TWELVE YEARS OLD GIRLS and not 18 and 16...even 20.
He Shekau chooses the less lucrative alternative of selling little girls to the poor, in and around Chad and Cameroun to a huge ransom and release of held brothers in prisons.....something GEJ would have agree to easily for the safety of 176 girls.
And that representative or who that is quick to tell us, "the girls are now in Chad and Cameroun. They have been sold for 2,000 naira. They have been married off" even before Boko Haram made contact. EVEN BEFORE SHEKAU MADE CONTACT via youtube video.
Did they in anyway see this SHEKAU video and play their game to the script he had already written? Like chess moves read from a Bobby Fisher text, did they totally adapt their play to pre-arranged moves?
Well... I have looked at this thing a million and one ways and in my ENAlysis, AS AT TODAY, I am 80 percent certain there was no kidnapping.
I sit back and congratulate the president. What a wonderful capitalization on a gambit.
Now he has the US army at his disposal in his country. ANY COUP STANDS FOILED.....yes, coups are by no more than 100 soldiers......easy for the US army to take back any radio station they capture for their broadcast and easy to zoom in and bomb and snipe and quell any attack on the villa. I SAID GEJ "CASTLED"
Then also, should the Niger Deltans decide to break the country at the constitutional conference, should things escalate. Should a civil war ensue, AMERICA IS ALREADY HERE.
Russia almost beat them to the Nigerian oil during the Biafran war. But not anymore AMERICA IS HERE.
DUMMIES SOLD, DUMMIES BOUGHT...IN FOREIGN CURRENCY.
America called the Northern governors and flew them over. How the US meets provincial leaders of a country shows the deep division. Mumu governors went, insulted their country and president and America joined them and said "yes. Abuja refused to support Northern governors push for education and employment" when Abuja has built more almajiri schools than the state governments. When Abuja has built so many universities on their soil than in the south. When Abuja chose their soils to begin the rice revolution that made the Agric minister Akinwumi "Forbes Man of The Year." proving the success of the farming initiatives: when the groundnut is being grown again....something their own Northern leaders and governors could not do.... farming that is also a State Government function....even local government....
YEt America spoke HIGHLY in their favour and they are happy. Yes, Obama and John Kerry has heard their argument how GEJ cheated them of their one term agreement and RIGHT TO RULE.....
DUMMIES SOLD, DUMMIES BOUGHT....IN HARD HARD CURRENCY
Now America can monitor even the anti-Israel terrorist group's activities in Nigeria. HAMAS and AL QAEDA has lost their vacation spot.
But they should not have brought attention to Nigeria where a lot of their financing was going on under the radar. They were planting even CENTRAL BANK GOVERNORS and STATE GOVERNORS who all regularly visit Sudan, the African mother-bed of terrorism.
But someone got greedy. Someone got stupid. They decided to smoke weed where they keep guns and drugs and the police has followed the smell and now are here....over stupid weed/marijuana smoking. Nigeria ultimately is lost. A stronghold, a bastion is lost. AMERICA IS HERE....
YES AMERICA IS HERE, RUSSIA IS NOT
DUMMIES SOLD DUMMIES BOUGHT...IN FOREIGN CURRENCY.
So everyone, sit back and watch as Nigeria finally is no longer the Beautiful Bride of International politics. No more are we "unaligned". Like SHEKAU's "kidnapped" girls, we have been married off to a side...AMERICA.
Stupid gambit by Shettima and APC. Wonderful capitalization by GEJ....Gary Kasparov-esque. AMERICA IS HERE> GEJ IS SAFErrrrr
DUMMIES SOLD DUMMIES BOUGHT.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
SURVIVING AMERICA...IMABONG'S TALE By ENA OFUGARA
As Imabong sat in the BWI airport lobby waiting for two people, she could not help but reminisce on what her life has been.
She like a lot of calabar young girls sadly was a housegirl. Her last "oga" had raped her and gotten her pregnant. The wife of the man had given her the kind of beating that was reserved for people who stole from the market for daring to put herself in a position to be raped by her husband.
IMabong's mother had been nice. She allowed Imabong stay and deliver and before allowing her find a new family to be house-helps to while she too care of Essien, Imabong's son.
Imabong was lucky to have found this rich Yoruba family who for a pittance paid, made her a live-in help. They were both staff of Mobil Unlimited and were really well to do.
She was cook, nanny, washerman, and errand girl for the family and their four children. Yes, she was taking care of people's children while her son Essien never got to see his mother in the same Calabar as a housegirl is never allowed to go home...ever.
Imabong was the lucky kind of House girl....the type that is needed to accompany the whole family to the US.
As a smart girl, Imabong ran away while in the US. She found her passport in her madams purse and ran like the wind. She just ran into the streets and was in shelters with drug addicts et al, Imabong suffered but knew she had to be here in America as going back home meant she would remain a househelp forever.
Imabong wanted more.
Her Visa was a working Visa and as a nineteen years old, she joined the hispanics at HOME DEPOT and did all kinds of jobs.
Then she saw a Nigerian couple who now and then needed a babysitter for their 7 year old. And so once again she was a nanny as the man was a driver and wife nursing assistant.
The couple, Mr and Mrs Umukoro were quite nice to her and Mrs Umukoro told her matter-of-factly to see if she could try and be CNA/GNA too. Mr. Umukoro, hearing her story, paid for her to attend the classes by adding to the money he owed her. She was taken in by them.
The classes were quite easy as Imabong was in class with other Africans. She was always a brilliant girl and wondered right there in class why her father and mother would let her become a housegirl. Surely they weren't the poorest in the world. Why Calabar parents allowed their children to be househelp she could never fathom as she hardly ever meets other Niger Delta children becoming househelps.
And so she did become a GNA (geriatric nursing assistant) at first go.
She got a job with Manor Care, a senior living facility and Imabong had the honour of cleaning poop of frail senior citizens.
Imabong's first salary amazed her. She never knew cleaning poop was so honourable and fulfilling. She knew all the child poop she had cleaned and all the cooking she had done and all the washing. Here all she did was be nice to these old people and her salary was ....she just could not believe it. SHE COULD ACTUALLY BUY A CAR in 5 months of work and she did.
She remembered the look on Mr and Mrs Umokoro's face as she sat on the steering wheel of the Honda Bullet. It was an old car but what did Imabong care? She had taken driving lessons and was on top of the world with joy as Kevwe, her madam and friend watched as she showed off her skill in "paralel parking".
But her happiness was about to end. Her two years working Visa was about to expire. Esiri Umukoro her oga had given her options to stay in America. YOU MUST FIND SOMEONE TO MARRY OR YOU WILL LOSE YOUR JOB.
Imabong wore that worry to work everyday even as she took care of the old people. But it never stopped her from doing a good job with the residents. She knew back home in Nigeria, she would do a lot more, under worse treatment for a lot less.
Her favourite resident (as they are called) was Mr. Cuningham. It was her job to take care of him each morning and as she did, Mr. Cuningham and her always gisted and laughed as he asked her so many questions and Imabong smilingly told him everything about herself.
He was a jocular fellow and asked her about Tigers and Lions in Africa. He asked her to prepare lion soup for him one day and Imabong actually brought Idikainko soup and gave him and said there was no more Tigers so she use a leopard.
The nurses and patients playfully called IMA (the shortened form) Mr Cuninham's wife and playfully Imabong accepted and really treated Cuningham good.
For Imabong, tick tock tick tock time ticked away as her visa would expire in two months.
As Mr Cuningham ate the Edikainkong, Imabong's brain was in overdrive. She started asking Mr Cuningham very pointed questions as to his family and all.
Mr Cuningham told her he was an attorney and had been married twice. His children were grown and second wife had gotten bored with him especially after his stroke and upon needing a catheter which spelled the end of his sex life. He told her he was an attorney and has had a good life and waiting for a good death.
Imabong breathed in and out and told Mr Cuningham
"sir, marry me. I will take care of you. I need to be in this country"
Mr Cuningham looked at her and knew there and then he had his wish for a good death fulfilled. He was tired of the nursing home anyway and with a caring nurse like this by his side, that was a good way to go anyway.
It raised a few legal issues which was quickly resolved by Cuningham's old law firm.
The 75 years old Cuningham was of sound mind and so Imabong had gone to the registry and married a 75 years old wheel-chair ridden Mr Cuningham with only the Umukoros present as Mr. Cuninham did not bother to inform his kids whom he said were spoilt brats who never come to see him at the nursing home and were only waiting for him to pass.
That was 6 years ago. Mr Cuningham is still doing great and healthier than he had been for a while now. He has developed a taste for Nigerian soups, though the eba and fufu was a little too heavy for him. He found the vegetables to be nutritious and the oils made him go to the toilet without need for annoying enemas.
He can now even take a few steps without the wheelchair. Imabong was an elixir to him with how well she took care of him and building a house for her mom and dad in Nigeria was a small price to pay for such happiness.
He was expecting his son from Nigeria...well her son and now his son and for an 81 years old man, and one with an inbuilt catheter, expecting a son was not bad at all. He will be a new dad....well if only he had the ability to father one with her. But oh well, what is hers is his.
He could not go to the airport with her as he wanted a bit of rest...especially as he was sure the house would be a lot noisier soon. He just watched as the nice Nigerian couple and dear family friends the Umukoros drove off with her in her Sports Range.
Yes her Sports Range for this young girl, the minute they got married and some of his mates still alive had come to see him, she had offered to get them care at home instead of in a Nursing Home and it had been a hit. All the advert needed for her was him and how happy and well he looked.
She had gotten together loads of Africans and hispanics and a few Americans willing to put in an honest shift of truly caring for the old and infirm.
He had gotten out of retirement and you would not believe that at his age he was her manager as he handled the legal drudgery and such-like.
His primary doctor told him there is nothing better that could have happened to him an even his children an ex-wives have come to admit that he has never looked so alive.
So with a thriving business of Home Care, Imabong had bought a Sports Range and he still smiles when he remembers how she kept screaming "tear rubber, tear rubber", which he later undrstaood to mean "new"
These Nigerians like flashy things, he says to himself. But what a great people from a great country.
And so Imabong, looked at herself at the airport, her clothes her environment and the Umokoros sitting beside her.
As her son...who she could only recognize from pictures taken of the lovely clothes she sent him, walked through the security post with her mom. Imabong looked up to the skies. Yes, she could see the skies way past the beautiful , metal ceiling and lights...she looked to the heavens at ABASI, and said a huge THANK YOU GOD for then and there, as her son and mom walked towards her, IMABONG, daughter of Okon, knew without a doubt, she had SURVIVED AMERICA.
She like a lot of calabar young girls sadly was a housegirl. Her last "oga" had raped her and gotten her pregnant. The wife of the man had given her the kind of beating that was reserved for people who stole from the market for daring to put herself in a position to be raped by her husband.
IMabong's mother had been nice. She allowed Imabong stay and deliver and before allowing her find a new family to be house-helps to while she too care of Essien, Imabong's son.
Imabong was lucky to have found this rich Yoruba family who for a pittance paid, made her a live-in help. They were both staff of Mobil Unlimited and were really well to do.
She was cook, nanny, washerman, and errand girl for the family and their four children. Yes, she was taking care of people's children while her son Essien never got to see his mother in the same Calabar as a housegirl is never allowed to go home...ever.
Imabong was the lucky kind of House girl....the type that is needed to accompany the whole family to the US.
As a smart girl, Imabong ran away while in the US. She found her passport in her madams purse and ran like the wind. She just ran into the streets and was in shelters with drug addicts et al, Imabong suffered but knew she had to be here in America as going back home meant she would remain a househelp forever.
Imabong wanted more.
Her Visa was a working Visa and as a nineteen years old, she joined the hispanics at HOME DEPOT and did all kinds of jobs.
Then she saw a Nigerian couple who now and then needed a babysitter for their 7 year old. And so once again she was a nanny as the man was a driver and wife nursing assistant.
The couple, Mr and Mrs Umukoro were quite nice to her and Mrs Umukoro told her matter-of-factly to see if she could try and be CNA/GNA too. Mr. Umukoro, hearing her story, paid for her to attend the classes by adding to the money he owed her. She was taken in by them.
The classes were quite easy as Imabong was in class with other Africans. She was always a brilliant girl and wondered right there in class why her father and mother would let her become a housegirl. Surely they weren't the poorest in the world. Why Calabar parents allowed their children to be househelp she could never fathom as she hardly ever meets other Niger Delta children becoming househelps.
And so she did become a GNA (geriatric nursing assistant) at first go.
She got a job with Manor Care, a senior living facility and Imabong had the honour of cleaning poop of frail senior citizens.
Imabong's first salary amazed her. She never knew cleaning poop was so honourable and fulfilling. She knew all the child poop she had cleaned and all the cooking she had done and all the washing. Here all she did was be nice to these old people and her salary was ....she just could not believe it. SHE COULD ACTUALLY BUY A CAR in 5 months of work and she did.
She remembered the look on Mr and Mrs Umokoro's face as she sat on the steering wheel of the Honda Bullet. It was an old car but what did Imabong care? She had taken driving lessons and was on top of the world with joy as Kevwe, her madam and friend watched as she showed off her skill in "paralel parking".
But her happiness was about to end. Her two years working Visa was about to expire. Esiri Umukoro her oga had given her options to stay in America. YOU MUST FIND SOMEONE TO MARRY OR YOU WILL LOSE YOUR JOB.
Imabong wore that worry to work everyday even as she took care of the old people. But it never stopped her from doing a good job with the residents. She knew back home in Nigeria, she would do a lot more, under worse treatment for a lot less.
Her favourite resident (as they are called) was Mr. Cuningham. It was her job to take care of him each morning and as she did, Mr. Cuningham and her always gisted and laughed as he asked her so many questions and Imabong smilingly told him everything about herself.
He was a jocular fellow and asked her about Tigers and Lions in Africa. He asked her to prepare lion soup for him one day and Imabong actually brought Idikainko soup and gave him and said there was no more Tigers so she use a leopard.
The nurses and patients playfully called IMA (the shortened form) Mr Cuninham's wife and playfully Imabong accepted and really treated Cuningham good.
For Imabong, tick tock tick tock time ticked away as her visa would expire in two months.
As Mr Cuningham ate the Edikainkong, Imabong's brain was in overdrive. She started asking Mr Cuningham very pointed questions as to his family and all.
Mr Cuningham told her he was an attorney and had been married twice. His children were grown and second wife had gotten bored with him especially after his stroke and upon needing a catheter which spelled the end of his sex life. He told her he was an attorney and has had a good life and waiting for a good death.
Imabong breathed in and out and told Mr Cuningham
"sir, marry me. I will take care of you. I need to be in this country"
Mr Cuningham looked at her and knew there and then he had his wish for a good death fulfilled. He was tired of the nursing home anyway and with a caring nurse like this by his side, that was a good way to go anyway.
It raised a few legal issues which was quickly resolved by Cuningham's old law firm.
The 75 years old Cuningham was of sound mind and so Imabong had gone to the registry and married a 75 years old wheel-chair ridden Mr Cuningham with only the Umukoros present as Mr. Cuninham did not bother to inform his kids whom he said were spoilt brats who never come to see him at the nursing home and were only waiting for him to pass.
That was 6 years ago. Mr Cuningham is still doing great and healthier than he had been for a while now. He has developed a taste for Nigerian soups, though the eba and fufu was a little too heavy for him. He found the vegetables to be nutritious and the oils made him go to the toilet without need for annoying enemas.
He can now even take a few steps without the wheelchair. Imabong was an elixir to him with how well she took care of him and building a house for her mom and dad in Nigeria was a small price to pay for such happiness.
He was expecting his son from Nigeria...well her son and now his son and for an 81 years old man, and one with an inbuilt catheter, expecting a son was not bad at all. He will be a new dad....well if only he had the ability to father one with her. But oh well, what is hers is his.
He could not go to the airport with her as he wanted a bit of rest...especially as he was sure the house would be a lot noisier soon. He just watched as the nice Nigerian couple and dear family friends the Umukoros drove off with her in her Sports Range.
Yes her Sports Range for this young girl, the minute they got married and some of his mates still alive had come to see him, she had offered to get them care at home instead of in a Nursing Home and it had been a hit. All the advert needed for her was him and how happy and well he looked.
She had gotten together loads of Africans and hispanics and a few Americans willing to put in an honest shift of truly caring for the old and infirm.
He had gotten out of retirement and you would not believe that at his age he was her manager as he handled the legal drudgery and such-like.
His primary doctor told him there is nothing better that could have happened to him an even his children an ex-wives have come to admit that he has never looked so alive.
So with a thriving business of Home Care, Imabong had bought a Sports Range and he still smiles when he remembers how she kept screaming "tear rubber, tear rubber", which he later undrstaood to mean "new"
These Nigerians like flashy things, he says to himself. But what a great people from a great country.
And so Imabong, looked at herself at the airport, her clothes her environment and the Umokoros sitting beside her.
As her son...who she could only recognize from pictures taken of the lovely clothes she sent him, walked through the security post with her mom. Imabong looked up to the skies. Yes, she could see the skies way past the beautiful , metal ceiling and lights...she looked to the heavens at ABASI, and said a huge THANK YOU GOD for then and there, as her son and mom walked towards her, IMABONG, daughter of Okon, knew without a doubt, she had SURVIVED AMERICA.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
MADE IN BIAFRA....SORRY MADE IN NIGERIA...IF WE COULD HARNESS THE POTENTIALS OF COMPOSING UNITS. By Ena Ofugara
On my post "MEANINGFUL MONDAY pt 5" I shared the fact that we could have made the cheapest car in the world if only Sanni Abacha understood that one good product could change a country and its economy. WE COULD HAVE MANUFACTURED CARS FIVE YEARS BEFORE INDIA. WE WOULD HAVE NOT BEEN EXCHANGING PETROLEUM FOR BUSES WITH BRAZIL TODAY. They would have paid CASH which we would have directed elsewhere...sorry to buy our own made in Nigeria cars. Yes, most of the buses you see in Nigeria are from Brazil, a country almost as third world as us
My whole being tells me it was because it was an Ibo Man that made the discovery. I want to like Sanusi has admitted and as Amaechi blabbed, that it is an "ARE WE BIAFRANS" mentality.
IF ONLY WE TOOK FULL ADVANTAGE OF OUR POTENTIALS....
If I was Gowon, I would have pondered and ruminated how an Ojukwu who did not stockpile arms could hold off the Nigerian army for 3 whole years.
Indeed Ojukwu did. Without money or planning, without foreign support or arms build up, he fought a war for three years against a ready army and large population. So if I were Gowon, I would ask him who made his guns popularly called "awka" after where it was made and how and how we can improve it to become Nigeria's arms.
I would have asked him about those bombs and improvised landmines...made by hungry engineers at Okigwe and Ogbaku in Mbaitoli Local Government Area. I would have wondered what they can make with full stomachs.
I would have conscripted Ibo mental capacity in production and by now Nigeria would have been.....
No seriously, think of all that would have been achieved if "Aba made" had not been disparaged and looked down upon as if it was excrement.
Now let me tell you a secret your electrician will not tell you. NIGERIAN COPPER IS THE BEST. But they will make you order for foreign ones. Nigerian copper is able to transmit currect far better than anything imported.
But Nigeria had already gotten used to sneering at what is local. Uncle Bens rice is immediately superior to "Ekpoma rice....even when Ekpoma rice had the visible starch which is white when parboiled as compared to the polished nutrientless stale UNCLE BENS"
BUT WE ALREADY WERE LOOKING DOWN ON ANYTHING LOCAL. In fact "THAT IS SO LOCAL" is an insult till date.
Ahmahdu Bello it was that said in his "Northernization program" that "we try and get a Northernern (not bad) for any open position. If we cannot find any, then we get a foreigner (STUPID WICKED EVIL) and if we cannot find any before we give it to the Ibos.
Too bad the policy did not just stay local to the Northern region, but became a National policy.
"Oyibos" became transport managers in Nigeria. He "oyibo with his high school diploma, comes and bosses graduates.
Just imagine that as at 1967-1970, we were manufacturing armoured tanks (as the one displayed in this picture) and making bombs and guns in wartime, with little assess to materials and perfect factories. Our Eastern engineers where rustling a bomb up at short notice.
YET WE AS A NATION REFUSED TO HARNESS THIS ABILITY
So yearly we spend the highest chunk of our National budget buying guns from sundry countries when we CAN make them and even become sellers and use the money instead to do other big things.
Ditto for medical equipment.
DO YOU KNOW IN UNIBEN THE DOCTORS HAVE SUCCESSFULLY CHANGED THE GENOTYPE OF A SICKLE CELL PATIENT? DO YOU KNOW THIS?
I THANK GOD FOR GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN. Yes I supported him because he was Niger Delta but since then, I am beaming with pride at his achievements.
You will not understand my gladness at seeing INNOSON MOTORS.
Then he did not give Julius Berger the contract to repair police college. He said "Army, Nigeria spends money teaching you architecture. Come and keep yourself occupied).
They built the police college before the set date.
The Nigerian Military has manufactured a car.
The Nigerian Military has manufactured a drone....an unmanned plane.
Sahara reporter told you it could not fly. It flew and circled.
All this in 3 years of a believer-president.
I hear he wants to ban importation of cars, textiles, and so many things. I can only ask that you read up Tai Solarin's "MAY YOUR ROAD BE ROUGH" or some other article I read as a child in Tribune then when he talked about Singapore or some other Asian Country. He said while Nigeria was busy buying imported "table salt" which ran and had smooth grains, singapore's salt was brown from impurities and was clustered. THEY BANNED IMPORTATION OF SALT. He said when he went back a few years later, Singapore's salt was "table salt" as the grains were now smooth and ran.
So I plead with Nigerians. We cannot go forward doing the same thing that keeps us behind. I am making small money sending cars down from America. BUT IF IT IS BANNED, SO BE IT. Make I find something else do.
Again, WE CANNOT GO FORWARD DOING SAME THING OVER AND OVER.
This is not like the silly wheat ban by IBB when he was not planting wheat or when he did not have a researched wheat variety that can grow all over Nigeria. Nisan and Renault and more companies will produce cars locally and the money will not be seent abroad by wiring. People will find jobs. THERE WILL BE FOOD ON OUR PLATES.
If they ban foreign clothes, (I dont know if the want to) then let us get creative with our local fabrics. WE CAN MAKE JEANS ETC. I even find girls sexier on Sunday in their Ankara and "local' fabric than in clubs with those foreign tights(true to God...ok I no go swear) ..And who says we cannot make those tights, be it leather or any materials?
Let Nigerians allow these policies come on and watch Nigerians with money from all over the world come home to set up industries. WE WILL TAKE LOAN FROM BANKS HERE AND FALL BACK HOME which is something the BBC article takes into cognizance.
MY POINT IS LET US MANUFACTURE.
Let us stop importing what we can manufacture at home. It should not matter if the Ibos are more blessed in this regard. A goal scored by Mikel Obi is a goal for Nigeria whether you consider him an Ibo boy or a jos boy. I remember Abass and Waziri (are their names right) that used to run long distances for us from the North. I use to say "the South has sprinters (Chidi Imoh, Mary Onyali, Innocent Egbunike) while the North has the marathoners.
LET ALL FEDERATING UNIT BE SUPPORTED by government and more importantly by their people...our people to discover their forte and develop it. Let the Yorubas arise with their cocoa and go on to invest in a Chocolate-making factory. Nigerians like chocolate. We will buy for our girls on Valentine Day. Let the cocoa beans not be only for export.
Let the South South produce their woods and rubber and indeed begin to manufacture things with it and export finished products.
Let the North give us groundnut pyramids again. Let us eat their rice..their tomatoes their wheat.
LET US MANUFACTURE...LET US GROW literally
God Bless Nigeria
God bless The people
God bless the president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Failing Forward By Ena Ofugara
I done already title my autobiography FAILING FORWARD, which encapsulates what my life and many people's life story is. I dey read about Steve Jobs that owns APPLE and many times they sacked him from a company he built. He was broke more times than u wld believe, yet till date, when an Apple product is released, people queue up and fight to BUY...not free...to Buy them. He kept on and on even as he failed and must have been laughed at.
I just felt like sharing my thoughts and situation that failing does not make you a failure. Again FAILING DOES NOT MAKE YOU a FAILURE.
My dad told me "odjo Oro e riye, ka ro oma ere gboro Oro e" (when someone falls, it does not mean he should now keep rolling on the floor) which means keep trying to get up.
Also a friends dad Igbunu Onosode told me what has been a recurring decima in my headl "the wheels keep turning".
I have taken many detours in my life and each one has broadened my horizon. I wrote an article on my blog "broken roads" and many have been inspired by it.
Is life hard? YES...even for billionaires.
Is poverty a sin? NO. Elijah begged a widow for her last morsel. How low can it be for a man to beg a widow food? Pretty low I say. Did it make Elijah a sinner or a failure? NO. It was a phase, a design in a large tapestry called life.
I just felt like sharing my thoughts and situation that failing does not make you a failure. Again FAILING DOES NOT MAKE YOU a FAILURE.
My dad told me "odjo Oro e riye, ka ro oma ere gboro Oro e" (when someone falls, it does not mean he should now keep rolling on the floor) which means keep trying to get up.
Also a friends dad Igbunu Onosode told me what has been a recurring decima in my headl "the wheels keep turning".
I have taken many detours in my life and each one has broadened my horizon. I wrote an article on my blog "broken roads" and many have been inspired by it.
Is life hard? YES...even for billionaires.
Is poverty a sin? NO. Elijah begged a widow for her last morsel. How low can it be for a man to beg a widow food? Pretty low I say. Did it make Elijah a sinner or a failure? NO. It was a phase, a design in a large tapestry called life.
The "sin" in poverty is in not trying. Not working hard despite perceived failures. Jesus says "he who does not work, let him not eat"
So I encourage myself and everyone else...even if you be down on your luck, to work hard, raise your chin up. be proud in the garri you are soaking, even if u do not have sugar. Ejiro Jalogho an ajebutter who came to live with me in Lagos, came with snooker sticks, expensive perfumes etc. @Dudu Tetsola and I laughed and said "he never ready to hustle Lagos. I left to Gordons hotel and stayed for 3 days and handsome Ejiro who ran out of money and as I wasn't home saw the garri and sugar I kept. He had never soaked garri in his life. His dad hold pieces, that is has money. Nobody taught Ejiro how to put water and mix the garri. Now as he was about to put Sugar, the sugar fell. He drank the garri like that..sugarless.
When I came home, he told me the story, that his mom refused for them to drink garri cos it spoils eyesight she said. Ejiro looked at a distant billboard and told me "Ena, na now I dey see clear pass. I dey see that far billboard. Make I read am for you?" Dudu Tetsola and I laughed till we cried. But indeed ejiro saw a lot clearer with the garri. I termed it "garri-assisted vision". He was able to see a clear path in modeling and along with Uti and Ajibade his look-alike are sought-after models in Lagos.
Ejiro has come here to America and the same story is repeating itself somewhat as he finds his feet.
Poverty is no sin. Failure to work and laziness is. There is so much scriptures on the sluggard and the slumberer. But as long as u try, as long as u keep keeping on. As long as while u "hustle" you "look to the east from whence cometh your help" God will bless the works of your hand and prosper you.
I will say it a thousand times I AM BLESSED. I was blessed in Uniben plus the stress and wahalas, I was blessed thru sojourn in Lag with Alibaba, Basketmouth, Alec, Kefee Gordons, Fragrance Don Pedro, Raymond Dokpesi etc. I was blessed with DnI's David and Isaiah Iteire and Adaz and Bclean and Snoop Damager at Magodo with swimming pool and Sauna flexing. I was blessed in Ketu struggling with Longjohns. I am blessed in America even when I had no car awaiting buses and trains in snow. I am blessed now typing this. I will still remain blessed even if Obama says this morning "Ena leave my America to ur Ekpan village".
Because I do not count my success by the fact I threw away a whole chicken I bought a day before, cos I forgot and bought another on way back from work and no space in fridge anymore (I dey troway am I dey shake head) or that as winter set in I threw away designers cos I no fit keep clothes full wardrobe dey block space (my designers na from "sales". Dem cheap. Dem no pay freight way make am dear for naija.). NO.
I am blessed because JESUS LOVES ME...in good and bad times, thru success and failure. ups and downs supine or upright. He is the fourth man when I am in the fiery furnace. He is with me in the Lion's den. If I do not hurt, how will I confirm he is the balm of Gilead? If I dont fal lsick, how will I know he is the great physician? If I no broke, of wha tuse then is Philipian 4:19? Which says he will provide all my needs?
So when u see me smile, na knowledge of who is in me bringing an overflow of confidence nay faith, that come what may, good or bad, kpokpo garri or hor's d'oevers, IT IS WELL.IT IS WELL IT IS WELL
Make e beta for all of us in Jesus name. Amen
So I encourage myself and everyone else...even if you be down on your luck, to work hard, raise your chin up. be proud in the garri you are soaking, even if u do not have sugar. Ejiro Jalogho an ajebutter who came to live with me in Lagos, came with snooker sticks, expensive perfumes etc. @Dudu Tetsola and I laughed and said "he never ready to hustle Lagos. I left to Gordons hotel and stayed for 3 days and handsome Ejiro who ran out of money and as I wasn't home saw the garri and sugar I kept. He had never soaked garri in his life. His dad hold pieces, that is has money. Nobody taught Ejiro how to put water and mix the garri. Now as he was about to put Sugar, the sugar fell. He drank the garri like that..sugarless.
When I came home, he told me the story, that his mom refused for them to drink garri cos it spoils eyesight she said. Ejiro looked at a distant billboard and told me "Ena, na now I dey see clear pass. I dey see that far billboard. Make I read am for you?" Dudu Tetsola and I laughed till we cried. But indeed ejiro saw a lot clearer with the garri. I termed it "garri-assisted vision". He was able to see a clear path in modeling and along with Uti and Ajibade his look-alike are sought-after models in Lagos.
Ejiro has come here to America and the same story is repeating itself somewhat as he finds his feet.
Poverty is no sin. Failure to work and laziness is. There is so much scriptures on the sluggard and the slumberer. But as long as u try, as long as u keep keeping on. As long as while u "hustle" you "look to the east from whence cometh your help" God will bless the works of your hand and prosper you.
I will say it a thousand times I AM BLESSED. I was blessed in Uniben plus the stress and wahalas, I was blessed thru sojourn in Lag with Alibaba, Basketmouth, Alec, Kefee Gordons, Fragrance Don Pedro, Raymond Dokpesi etc. I was blessed with DnI's David and Isaiah Iteire and Adaz and Bclean and Snoop Damager at Magodo with swimming pool and Sauna flexing. I was blessed in Ketu struggling with Longjohns. I am blessed in America even when I had no car awaiting buses and trains in snow. I am blessed now typing this. I will still remain blessed even if Obama says this morning "Ena leave my America to ur Ekpan village".
Because I do not count my success by the fact I threw away a whole chicken I bought a day before, cos I forgot and bought another on way back from work and no space in fridge anymore (I dey troway am I dey shake head) or that as winter set in I threw away designers cos I no fit keep clothes full wardrobe dey block space (my designers na from "sales". Dem cheap. Dem no pay freight way make am dear for naija.). NO.
I am blessed because JESUS LOVES ME...in good and bad times, thru success and failure. ups and downs supine or upright. He is the fourth man when I am in the fiery furnace. He is with me in the Lion's den. If I do not hurt, how will I confirm he is the balm of Gilead? If I dont fal lsick, how will I know he is the great physician? If I no broke, of wha tuse then is Philipian 4:19? Which says he will provide all my needs?
So when u see me smile, na knowledge of who is in me bringing an overflow of confidence nay faith, that come what may, good or bad, kpokpo garri or hor's d'oevers, IT IS WELL.IT IS WELL IT IS WELL
Make e beta for all of us in Jesus name. Amen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)


