“WHERE’S MY WALLET?”

A few days ago, I sat in the ‘comfort’ of the cab on my way to the night shift which has so much become regular of recent. As the cab man was screaming his destination on top of his voice, I decided to busy myself in the e-version of Francine Rivers’ An Echo in the Wind. Time, always not my friend these days, was running out fast. I needed to catch the staff bus, failing which I would have to ‘hail’ a bike in a not so favourable time of the day. Little by little, the vehicle got its full passenger load, and even added the extra one man in front, that has come to stay in my city of residence.

I managed to murmur a reply when each of the co-passengers came in as I was engrossed totally in the book I was reading. I even ignored all sorts of messages that came in on the phone, preferring instead to continue my reading.

Time to move, I looked up for no particular reason and then went back to my reading.

The journey started smoothly and there was this elation in me that the angels have actually answered my prayers and we would get to my destination even before the calculated time. While the journey continued in its smoothness, I was enjoying the breeze that was washing over my face that warm evening, as well as the minimal level of traffic flow that allowed easy and quick movement for me.

As we approached the final stop, I wanted to flip my wallet which I always held in my hands. That was when it dawned on me that in my rushing and hurrying, I had left my wallet on my bed post at home as someone moved me for free from home to the bus stop while I was hurrying. In my distraught state, I actually started ransacking my bag maybe to see if angel Gabriel had placed it in there. My palms became sweaty, my mind in turmoil. “What would I tell this cab man for God’s sake?” I was half laughing at myself for the embarrassing scene I would witness when I alight at the last stop. I tried to place a call to my friend who lives a bit close to where I was going to stop to go wait for me and avail me of the amount I needed to pay. Thank God for MTN and Globacom, my misery was compounded as the call did not just connect on either of the networks.

I sank well into the car seat, ready to receive the highest level of dressing down I have ever received. I sighed repeatedly, brought out my handkerchief to mop invisible sweat. Simply put, I was restless. The young lady beside me whose greeting I answered in a murmur noticed that I was not composed and I was lucky she asked “is everything okay?”

I smiled, and told her I was in real deep trouble.

Explaining my plight to her, she told me to calm down. That was when I started feeling the coolness of the breeze on my face again. She paid the driver with a crispy one thousand naira note and just chuckled, more like holding a laugh.

Wetin consign me? Part one of the ish don settle. She just turned to me and said “I’ve been down that road before”.

Reaching the final stop, I thanked her and was about making my way to my friend’s when she called me back. She asked where I was heading and how I’d make my way there. All semblance of ‘forming’ disappeared straight. I reeled out my movement and lucky me, we were headed in the same direction. She offered to pay to my next stop and we started a semi-gist. That was when she narrated her own experience. Time seemed to move too fast and we got to destination, that was when I remembered the staff bus I was so in haste to catch, which by then was even gone.

As I made to go after saying thanks, she just pulled me back and dropped five hundred naira in my hands to “find your way back home tomorrow and be more careful next time”. I smiled and said thanks to appreciate the gesture.

Now you wanna know what happened next?

I took her digits and promised to call to appreciate her. Someway, somehow, there was a mix up and the number I took from her exceeded the normal eleven digits which a mobile number should be.

My ass was saved, I got a raise, but the chance to appreciate the lady I met in the dark was lost.

Maybe she was sent by angel Gabriel. Just maybe…

I am @0scarpoems

SUICIDE…FROM PAN TO FIRE BY AYOTUNDE OLOJEDE (@iamAYOTEE)

This piece came about as a result of the news that, a teen took her own life by taking Septol antiseptic. This is just one of the instances of suicide and attempted suicide which is sadly on the rise in our part of the world.

But pause…

I personally think the main cause of suicide is actually the fact that people don’t bother to think of its repercussions and the reaction of their families, friends, associates and the society. They just want to get it over with as quickly as they can.

The truth is that death is inevitable, but no one should die from another person’s carelessness or one’s disregard for faith because if anyone who has faith of a better future than the discouraging present would never entertain thoughts of suicide.

Remember the maxim, “when there’s life, there’s hope”. No matter how bad it gets, suicide is never the solution, in fact it should not be an option.

People should think of the afterlife, somewhere far away from all human imagination, some place where we would either have eternal rest or be in eternal pains.

Yes, you were raped…oh well, you failed that examination after so many attempts or you lost someone so dear to you. All these things are just in a phase of life. Oprah Winfrey was raped, look what she’s become today. A lot of the great people we idolize today, who are successful are those have failed a lot of times. The only reason someone is labelled a failure is if he/she refuses to stand up and try harder.

Yes, life is tough. Very tough, but what makes the so called strong people is their personal toughness, resilience, resistance to failure, determination and of course perseverance, to mention a few. Great things don’t come easy, and I want the youths of today (of which I am one), and everyone at large to actually give up the nasty thought of suicide. Whatever you see in a movie should not necessarily affect you, especially the negativity.

I was deeply saddened to hear of one of the numerous suicide attempts very close to me a few days ago. A female student of Obafemi Awolowo University Centre for Distance Learning (OAUCDL) pre degree programme took her own life by drinking the poisonous antiseptic Septol some days ago (May 6 specifically). It was heartbreaking, even to me that I probably never knew the young lady who locked herself up and drank that antiseptic.

From that day (the 6th of May 2013), I made a promise to myself to begin a campaign against suicide in our community. I deeply regret the fact that the girl possible never sought counseling because if she did, she probably would have still been alive today. If she rubbed minds with anyone, she possibly would have been dissuaded.

So this message goes out to all those who are in the ‘tight corners’ of life. I beg of you, suicide is never the solution. It is even stated that anyone who commits suicide would go to hell. Of what use then is it to escape hell in this world just to get into an eternal hell?

I hope this piece would change some minds and I pray that our youths see solutions in situations, I pray they see no solution in suicide and avoid it totally.

AYOTUNDE OLOJEDE (@iamAYOTEE)

REFLECTIONS ON WAR AND UNREST

               *Gbooom*

Another explosion just occurred

Human beings lay lifeless on the ground….

The price of unrest being paid

 

In such expensive terms that it is

Both the innocent and guilty pay

Old and young, rich and poor

All pay with different things

Lives, properties and all

What do you say about the man who is without a gun yet just lost a son?

Or a mother who watched the soldier pull the trigger, sniffing life out of her child…

Tears roll down our cheeks

But we have become used to this

 

Upon all these troubles,

 do we take time to think?

If we fight for the right cause

Or we are just overridden

 by the force that controls blood lust

Through all these,

some of us still hope

That one day, it will all end

Our broken hearts, time will mend

Our lost ones

which we couldn’t bid goodbye

shall all rest

 

The homes we lost

The results of war, a robust burden

Avoidable occurrences all

 

Things which would have been settled without fighting

Because after the war,it isn’t about ‘who was right’ but it is about ‘who is left

 

Even as we look for hope in the blue sky

All these shall pass

Ayotunde Olojede (@iamAYOTEE)