Only one mic

I wanna sing, I wanna shout I wanna scream till the words dry out so put it in all of the papers, i'm not afraid they can read all about it read all about it
- Emeli

Yo, all I need is one mic, one beat, one stage
One nigga front, my face on the front page
Only if I had one gun, one girl and one crib
- Nas

I respect the confidence of both singers. They know what they want to say, how they want to say it and they don't care if you hear them - in fact they want you to hear them.

Not only do I respect there confidence, I am also envious. Envious they don't care if they'll be judged. Someone give me what Nas and Emeli are smoking. Please.

It might even take me to the mountain top. To shout it out. This bother that i have. Maybe I would get absolution. I don't want to whisper to a priest through a lattice in a confessional booth. Whispering won't help. Letting out an almighty roar from this top to the world is what I want to do. I'm hoping with bellowing my transgressions with a mic and a speaker there would be an expitiation .

Problem is I can't. There's no mic and mountain. And no one is going to read about this.

One Mic

I wanna sing, I wanna shout I wanna scream till the words dry out so put it in all of the papers, i'm not afraid they can read all about it read all about it oh
- Emeli Sande

Anesi

She's trying to catch the light between reflections from the curtain. Makes me proud, I remember how small she was when we took her from the hospital in Houston. My fear was she shouldn't break...I wasn't at that moment thinking of being a good father or the fact that for a year, neither her mother nor I would visit a cinema.

RE: IN IT TO WIN IT - IDEAS ON SPORTS FUNDING

It’s a great article by Feyi Fawehinmi on how to develop sports and maintain a competitive edge. It is impressive to be able to look at the Nigerian challenges then honestly propose a solution to it without sounding cynical. That takes an effort. His article acknowledges that there is not a unique solution to our sporting woes and problems. One hopes at least Mr. Fawehinmi’s articles stimulate a desire to look for answers to the problem of our sports. Not the bunkum we are being fed by Nigeria’s Minister of Youths and Sports (hope I got his designation right, if not my apologies). His article and proposals are filled with half-truths that are more dangerous than outright lies. My gut feel is that his commentary is designed as a money making venture rather than a desire for serious sport policy development, which would improve the standing of sports. I digress. 

Unlike the article by Mr. Fawehinmi, however, I am probably too skeptical that any solution proposed in the current Nigerian system would work. So I would deign to propose any new ideas. However, I do have a few points to make on the article’s solutions to the problems.

 Neither retreat nor surrender

Well, well, what can I say? As easy as it sounds, walking away doesn’t solve our problems. It would be easy to just walk away from our problems. It would save countless headache. However, the failure in our current Olympic endeavour is symptomatic of a deeper rot in the Nigerian polity, not just sports. Walking away from it is really no option here. Except we are prepared to walk away from getting good governance…oh, I know we have been walking away from these problems a long time. 

 

Crowd Sourcing

Using crowdsourcing websites like www.kickstarter.com to fund sports wouldn’t work for the long term. The reason crowd sourcing wouldn’t work is our typical short attention spans. If an athlete has a bad year he would be promptly dropped like a hot potato by the crowd…Crowd sourcing as a way to invest in our sports would be driven by short-term gains rather than a long-term view - (which unfortunately the government is in a better position to take) - I am rather libertarian in my views, but the government does have its uses. 

 

Sports development needs long term funding, commitments and facilities. Even in the UK where the lottery funds the athletes for a large part, the government pitches in a ‘meagre’ 40%. This is aside from the various community centres with well-developed sporting facilities that a  monetary value cannot be easily placed on.  As a short-term bridge though, crowd sourcing might work while a permanent solution is worked. Crowd sourcing would help us gloss over the problem while we wait for a system to nurture and develop talents. 

 

The Other Things 

The Nigerian government doesn’t have plans to develop sports aside from the lip service being paid to it. Athletes are developed from the grounds up. I am not trying to sound sarcastic, the current government is good at setting up committees, it might be worthwhile setting up committees with a view to looking at how Jamaica, South Korea, Grenada, China and Russia have successful athletes. I recommend the committee members do not work on pro bono basis, but rather be paid full estacodes equivalent to what our senators and minister. 

 

Serious countries like the UK have started a post mortem for why some sports were unsuccessful e.g. swimming. Countries have started planning towards the common wealth games in 2014 taking place in Glasgow. We do not need to wait till it is 3 months to the date before we start assembling athletes when we know the dates for the games already. 

 

Last Points

This might be controversial but it is a fact in its own way: we are not a sporting nation. We like watching our sports on DSTV, we are very competitive…why else do we buy I better pass my neighbour for chrissakes? Maybe we used to be a sporting nation, however, at the moment sports are not our priorities. 

How many Nigerians actually exercise? How many participate in sports for the fun of it? I know we stare in consternation at those who actually jog and exercise for fun!

 

Some Other Things

While I am not best placed to propose a solution to the problems of sports in Nigeria, there are few things we could do.

An idea would be to concentrate on the easy pickings, sports which require little outlay. Concentrating on such sports as archery, running, shooting, weight lifting can be a good way to start developing our quest for excellence. We are not going to be able to compete with the developed countries in sailing, or dressage (who made that event an Olympic sports anyway?) 

People with natural talents for the sports or interests in the different games should be encouraged. For a long time ABU unarguably had the basketball team amongst Nigerian universities. This was because it was a sport actively encouraged and promoted with different incentives. Contrast the treatment to athletes from some other schools where they where they had to go for the Nigerian University Games Association under the threat of failure…

 

It Ends

Most times, the problems of Nigeria have easy solutions. There are many ideas floating out there on how to improve sports in Nigeria. Implementing these solutions is the difficult part. No matter how many discussions goes on about the state of sports, without the will to implement the suggestions, there would never be growth or improvements if the first step is not taken to implement improvements. 

 

Our problem is not the dearth of solution, it is the dearth of honest will. 

 

The Jona Awakening

Jona Goofcup lies sprawled on the ground of his sitting room, surrounded by papers, files, laptop, empty bottles of champagne, bottles of Star, cups  and curiously, Alomo Bitters. He is wearing a flowing dashiki with a bowler hat sitting precariously on his head.

 

A mobile phone rings, ringtone is Dbanj's Scapegoat song...he frantically searches for the ringing phone,  and sees the mobile phone tucked between files

He picks up his mobile phone trying to focus on the screen and drawls drunkenly:  Otonto Douglas, how far? Have you arranged the flights to Johannesburg for the meeting with the South African president?

 

Otonto Douglas: Yes sir, two jets sir…one for you  and the kitchen cabinet, the other for Rento and the boys sir, we are in control

 

Goofcup gets up and  staggers as he tries to walk around. He trips on a bottle of Star but manages to stand up again.

 

Goofcup:  Good! Please ensure Madam Pertinent is aware so she can be ready in time. The last time we went to Sydney she caused a six hour delay because she couldn’t get the right Mascara brand from Italy

 

Otonto: Yes sir. Rento Omonkore is on top of the situation with madam. 

 

Goofcup: (Drawling): What do you mean Rento is on top of madam? Does he want to die? 

 

Otonto: Oga no no...that's not what I mean. He is attending to madam's needs...

 

Goofcup mutters: Ok ok...this people would not kill me with wahala

 

Otonto : There is no wahala oga… you are highly favoured, you are godsent…

 

Goofcup interjects: Yes I know…and to see how favoured I am, the South African president has told me there is excess local beer, Umqombothi, to guzzle. He said it is better than our burukutu. 

 

Otonto: Yes sir, yes sir, I agree absolutely

 

He staggers some more and falls on the remote control with a loud noise on his butt, the TV flickers on and his bowler hat spins off his head.

 

Otonto can be heard shouting in the background worried: OGA ARE YOU OK?! Oga are you fine?

 

Goofcup grapples for his mobile phone and screams into it: OTONTO and RENTO you have killed me ooo…What is this I am seeing on TV? People protesting? You have removed subsidy? Chai…you want to ruin me ooo… You want to send me back to my village empty handed…Devil would punish you people! This is not my portion.

 

Otonto: Oga calm down. It is nothing. There is no problem, no cause for alarm we are in control…

 

Goofluck screams some more into the mobile phone: IN CONTROL?!! YOU CALL THIS CONTROL. You want Nigerian Harmattan to happen here. When did you remove the subsidy without telling me…These people have ruined me finally.

 

Otonto: Oga, it was removed last week sir. You said we should not disturb you about anything if it is not important…the Prime Minister Madam Nagazy said there was no need to tell you about the subsidy removal…

 

Goofluck jumps up in panic: You mean Madam Prime Minister knows about this and agreed with you? Can’t you people see people protesting on the TV? Can’t you see them saying I should go. I don’t want to end up like Mubarak in a cage on display on NTA. God forbid. I know I shouldn't have employed you people. 

 

Otonto: No cause for alarm sir! We are on NTA, Facebook and Twitter calming the populace down…in fact Boko Haram are in support of the fuel subsidy, we are…

 

Goofcup cuts off Otonto: You are what?! With automatic alacrity tell madam Nagazy to revert the price of petrol to the former price, 48 naira

 

Otonto sounding incredulous: Oga. the former price was 65 naira...it is impossible to...

 

Goofluck screeches: Shut up there! What do you know? Amadioha scatter your mouth Otonto. In fact you are fired with immediate effect…pack your bags and leave Asso Bunker this very  minute.

Oh before you go, please bring me some Sapele Water!

 

Time and the Revolutionary

Time slows, the heady days distilled into crawling years

Boredom lethargically eating holes in the wall

Strands of grey hair suddenly sprout, 

Which the Revolutionary meticulously counts, languidly 

He reminisces on his youth crippled forever

on the sidewalk 

 

Slowly, as the drink slurps past his throat

A beeline for the brain, pickling his dreams and

promises preserved in alcohol

awaiting the Resurrection

Time, frail and disillusioned stubbornly refuses to move

 

The mind is marooned on an island of want

And time leisurely erodes the thoughts of escape

Morbid entertainment provided by ageless flights

of courting seagulls

They are here today and here tomorrow

 

Then Time dies naturally, euthanizing those uberous ideals

Cremation is immediate, ashes mixed with dust, wind and water

a memorial built to what could have been.

The beer bottles emptying out one after the other 

another Revolutionary defeated…

Night At This Bar

In This Bar listening to voices strangle the music

and the voices transform to an uproar

broken glasses tinkling on the ground

 

Faces blurred into beer glasses;

That drunkard at the corner swears he's not drunk

The leery gambler is sure he's bets are calculated

The terrorist dancing ungainly,

knows his causes 

are dead right

He's been killed many times by Jägerbomb

 

At the bar, reticent, I'm the voyeur

Listening to inane conversations

Gleaning out inside information from city boys

Which would be invaluable tomorrow 

if the hangover allows 

 

There's no sadness in This Bar

Only love and anger

Disintegrating to kisses and broken glasses

 

Sadly, Time and the big brawny bouncers come

To end our stories

Which would continue same time tomorrow

Maybe same casts, maybe different lovers ...

Prisoner

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it's always nights in this bony cage

in here, my mined thoughts

blows up rationality

when it stumbles into blind alleys

 

with sleight of hand

shredded neurons are hidden under decks of cards

bathed in warm blood

to disguise complicated emotions

 

dark illusions

tumbling down twisted tubes

locked in unfathomable double helix

restrain reality

 

i am a prisoner of my mind,

trapped behind bars of education

learning too much of too

   little

 

it's always night in here

in this house of darkness

Nights in my brain

it's always nights in here
that's why my mined thoughts
stumbles into blind alleys
blowing up rationality

with a sleight of hands, shredded neurons
are hidden under decks of cards
bathed in warm blood
to disguise complicated emotions

dark illusions, tumbling down twisted barrels
locked in unfathomable double helix
block the roads to reality

i am a prisoner of my mind,
trapped behind bars of education
of learning too much of too
little

it's night here my lover
let your heart set me free from

Hope and the Future: E Go Better

Gyrating wildly at Wuse Market
Crescendo building as the percussion creates dissonance
A music without beats,
Celebration of voids, of hope so far away…

Rhetoric by politicians, stuffed into disaffected minds
Deceitful promises celebrated by panegyrists; and the
Innocent electorates, the claqueurs in a game without rules

Night comes swiftly, and the collective hypnoses wear away;
Okigbo writes dirges for the sweet memories never realized…

Yet, we wait in everlasting patience, hoping good luck shapes our fortunes




Allen. 2011

After You Have Been Stripped Of Everything...

Sometimes your humanity is stripped of everything. You look in front of you and you don't seem to see that hope, that hope that used to shine so bright just around the corner.
It's not that you are indigent, it's not that you haven't eaten in a day or two but you have been stripped of your respect and hope of happiness. Indeed your pride has been stolen.
There is no need grovelling at this point for restoration. Cut your losses. Hold on to your defiance if you can, live off any or all of silence, stoicism, hate, indignation and the anger. Sometimes it nourishes, sometimes it kills.
Silence is better than the cries, the plenty words of pleading especially for those that have resolved to destroy you. Only use words when they are of more benefits than silence .

Obasanjo's new form of presidential swindling

Obj(aka President Matthew Aremu Obasanjo) recenly decided hey, I've been keeping the people of naija in intellectual darkness.So let me get those dumb people a library.He went all out for it...a library in his name somewhere in his hometown Abeokuta.

Well, no one actually thinks it bad to get library, at least the populace has a right to knowledge and education.Now the problem I have with this is that why on eath does he have to intiate a fund raising while he is in office.Knowing fully well people will rush to outdo themselves.this to me is another forem of corruption: PRESIDENTIAL CORRUPTION.All this when the prez is saying he is out to curb corruption...BIG DEAL.

I'm happy that people are not letting him go easy: Soyinka is saying it is executive extortion, Gani Fawehinmi is reaching for his law toga

But me, I'm just pissed silly and all I do is tell anyone who cares to listen that our president is another kinda crook.He wants to gyp the populace indirectly of 7 billion naira($50 million naira)- the cost of the library.Indirectly in the sense that the donors are his cronies who have benefitted from his policies, favours and contracts.

Obasanjo(OBJ) is nothing but a cheap fraud who wants acceptance in the western world,pretending to fight corruption while he perpetuates evil.

i'll get u

A day like this

i'm getting old.WELL today is another birthday, and i'm beginning to feel like a veteran in the art of surviving thru life.

nothing doing...just as broke as i was yesterday and i guess i'm happier. get paid tomorrow and hit PH city...celebrate with za boiz...

CHEERs to myself

FSI

the spinner

the real macoy

the fractals

arranged fractals

Sometimes i can't believe this. my life is SLOWLY but STEADILY being reorganized. order is being put in my own CHAOS, the very bane of my existence.
In the midst of my chaos , there is focus and order.Though only me seem to follow the fractals of my order. in the seeming CHAOS, i do nothing without my subconscious having to analyse ,weighing the ways and means. in actual fact my so called disorder is a 'random' organization, which most eyes don't see as they tend to look for the obvious.



Now all these have and are changing...my life is being reorganised, a new order is being placed into my life. Now i have to conform to the obvious. Everything has to be done in the conventional.While being efficient it is no fun, i have to be extraordinarily careful about my work as there seem to be people looking over my head and shouldrs to see what the hell i am doing and have done and how i am doing it.There is no room for half measure, my life is slowly but steadily being rearranged!

do i like it? hell no! But it has to happen to a man one of this days . I guess, it is happening to me sooner than i want...probably better or me in the long run.Can't always get away with mediocrity.Especially when it be known that there is a lot of HARD an QUALITY stuff to be put into the world out there. Can't live out my life on my own terms always, but i sure can dictate some of the terms of the contract. Definitely will...definitely

be expectant
allen

running for ur worth
allen

The battle is today, the war is always...
inform,disinform,reinform

perpetual motion 1

this really isn't about anything in particular.it all has to do with what the human mind seems to want.A typical human wants constant action. that is why governments and leaders who can provide actions for the populace can get away easily with anything. all he/she needs do is create a diversion and trust the typical human -HE GOES FOR THE ACTION.the tendency to forget what is immediately wrong is blurred from the thinking...with this a ruler and governments can get away with misdeeds

peple don't tend to look closely at how the government is run behind the scenes in times of war, the concentration here seems to be how well the war is going, the morality of the war, pro- and anti- war,the percentage of the budget going into war mongering,, how the war is affecting businesses and unemployment and the different atrocities.gone is the concentration of a large part of the populace on the day to day mundane activities which actually had been defining their lives till the interruption...i'll like to submit that the non-vigilance of the populace actually allows a great lot of misdeed o be done under the cloak of war

a lot of money is made by big and small businesses and people in government are actually able to get away with a lot of unaccountability.

in essence this writing is to emphasize the need to supply the populace with a source of activity.it is seen that a lot need be achieved but as a result of the usual tendency of humans to meddle in activiies it is neccessary for a distraction to be provided...this is in man forms. and i hope to discourse when i can

my early day's at internship

Days and Mo’ Interminable Days

(a mail to a friend)

The days are fraught with work (though the nature thereof is unknown) and the nights with atimes dreamless (or sometimes nightmarish) state of being.

The battle is everyday and the war is always. So a man has to be always at athis state of red alert. Here there is no time for weaklings and prisoners are not taken. What is wanted is triumph and whatever it takes to triumph is what should be done. In short we exist here on the Machiavellian principle.

Well after all the preamble ramblings I guess I should try to educate you. What I do is what I do. I’m at the DCS and what I’m supposed to do is internship. Hope it goes into your thick skull. At the DCS, we trade in data, not your contemporary daytrading on wall street- but just as vital to our numerous and ‘esteemed’ customers. As if I had ever seen one.

Presently, I’m at the computer department and what I’m doing is learning to appreciate computer. Such a mundane idea. Then I’m being indoctrinated as per schlum i.t. (infotech) security. I should not talk to people like you about the top-secret jobs we are doing. ‘cos u may get our info down to our competitors. Which is not in the best interest of Schlum. I’m also learning UNIX. It is what most of there softwares run on. Also, I’m trying to get it into my head how the workflow here is. Oh, before I forget, I’m the general ombudsman here (in short I dey double as messenger for hear- na me dey go bind, fotocopy, type shit, shred, get water for the dispenser and all sorts of crap an intern does not think he sould do - I don de rebel!).

From this point I’ll move to the geology department where I’ll learn how the different softwares are put into use to solve the different geological problems. Then my next stop is with the geophysicist; I’ll do enuf seismic and interpretations. Then right on to my main unit the petrophysicst and the reservoir engineers. They work in collaboration with the log analysts. I get to see the different soft wares and the interpretation of logs so as to be able to give our clients advice and help make decisions that would be economically viable (you this is a huge capitalist venture money is the name of the game).

Well I also get to use such soft wares as BoreID*, MRX*, GeoFrame* and al sorts of crap which I’m sure does not make a difference if you eat or not- or maybe it does who cares.
You can tell me about your xperiences . Here it is like being in a fancy loony bin, only here the noise is not like being in Aro mental home. Probably like the padded walls of an American psychotic hospital where the inmates (well I consider the staff here to be inmates of the company) are hugging, caressing, fiddling and staring glassy eyed at their numerous therapists. The therapists here happen to be –guess…u did not get it…they are the intra and interconnected pc. JEEEEZ!!! It’s not funny at all.
Well I hope at the end of my 20 weeks I don’t be like them…I xpect u reply me

Yours indeed,
Allen
Res dura, et regni novitas me talia cogunt

Moliri, et late fines custode tueri.

...against my will, my fate,A throne unsettled, and an infant state,Bid me defend my realms with all my pow'rs,And guard with these severities my shores.

sometimes...

somtimes i wonder if life is fair at all... hey don't get me wrong, i have really had some of the best things in life andreally i'm not a whiner
its funny the things that happen to us sometimes
like now i'm bored to hell
present state :no friends and in a strange city
cash running fucking low
but i'm still good.

now what do i want to talk about: i dunno.

the main point i want to bring out is that i'm bored to hell!

i'm caressing the keyboard hoping to God it would give me any joy...

it is minimal. my inspiration is zilch and i keep thinking :hey mon when are u going to get the heck up from ur desk.

i can't, my friend has travelled andi'm left alone at home :HOME ALONE!

hope i've succeded in boring u...i'm not this mean most of the time...but today is my lowest ebb in a long time

poem

This is Lagos

(This is about a day’s experience in Lagos).

Waking from a flea ridden bed at a distance
Into the present, just as the night fights the last round with day
In a fight it must lose.
Cocks crowing, dogs howling, agberos shouting, cars honking, children bawling
Kai! Which other reminder is needed, for this is Lagos

The bag slung on the back,
To continue tramping through the travails of life and Lagos;
And few steps from unknown to unknown
I’m orphaned underneath the huge sea from the sky
Mercilessly whipped till the rags turned white
and need u know:
this is Lagos

Jammed between the whole world, 69 sitting and 100 standing
The molue mulishly plods through the rain.
And a second bath is taken through the leaking roof, the invisible windows
and from hurled insults thrown indiscriminately
no complaint here
for this is Lagos!