Insanity in the corridors of power 2

Honourable (ˈɒnərəbəl; ˈɒnrəbəl) or Honorable adj 1. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) the Honourable(prenominal) a title of respect placed before a name: employed before the names of various officials in the English-speaking world Whenever I behold the actions of some of our lawmakers, I just assume that they do not understand some things. They simply do not know what it means to be an honourable. And that is why I have decided to look up the meaning of this title to ensure that its original meaning has not changed!  A title of respect! To be honourable means to be of high esteem. Not the same as pride, but very similar to being graceful and pious.  Over the few years of our democracy, we have witnessed recurrently, disgraceful and shameful actions from our honourables, both at the National and State levels; not just in terms of misinterpreting the law to suit their selfish purposes but also in their physical actions and reactions. It's no longer news that Hon Melaye and some others were almost stripped naked in the hallowed chambers, neither is it strange to watch honourables assault themselves with whatever they can lay their hands on, even if it's the mace. The chaos that ensues in the name of debates and the pitiful exchange of words and insults that fly around in the hallowed chambers make me wonder if hallowed has been redefined in the dictionary!         ( National Assembly Fitness Drill Video) The recent fitness drill and show of acrobatic skills showcased by some of our lawmakers is just unbelievable! My jaws refused to come together as I watched them perform! D banj couldn't have given a more captivating show than what we saw on Thursday! One thing I always ask is this, ' how will they look into the eyes of their kids and tell them to act honourably?' Politics in Nigeria has become a pitiable show of shame and lack of integrity! Only God knows what else we'll see in the corridors of power! I can't even guess, cause no where in this world would I have guessed that Nigerian Honourables would scale the gates of the compound to gain access into the legislative chambers! No I didn't see that coming. No one did!

Insanity in the Corridors of power 1

Today, I shall start my soliloquy by borrowing the words of the renowned Brainiac Albert Einstein who defined Insanity as " doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"; because saying outright that our government might be insane would appear insulting albeit factual.  The presidency and Committee on Security matters have approved an extension of the State of Emergency Rule in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states for the 3rd time in a row! This is the first time a particular region of this country would be in a perpetual state of emergency for so long! The simple logic is that if a particular method isn't effective, change to something else.  Persistence and loyalty to a school of thought isn't the way forward when lives are being wasted everyday.  No. Trying whatever will work should be the approach of our government. From the look of things, it appears that while the citizens of these states are restricted in their land, the intruders, the insurgents have an unrestrained access to loot, plunder and devour the inhabitants of the land. My questions are these: 1. Are there no other methods apart from declaring a state of emergency? 2. If after so long, the state of emergency hasn't restricted or curtailed the operations of Boko Haram, what miracle will happen now? 3. What happened to all the foreign support we were promised by the First world countries? If the presidency wants an extension of this rule, then I assume there must be a change in the strategy and plans of our armed forces. I assume that there is a sure and better way they have devised that cannot be implemented without a State of Emergency.  If not, then I might be forced to agree with those who think that a routine psychiatric evaluation is a mandatory exercise for all our National leaders, afterall, only a mad man will do the same thing the same way and expect a different result. No be me talk am, Na Einstein say so.

A concatenation of my thoughts

In the space of 3 to 4 days, we had at least a major BH attacks per day on the citizens of Nigeria and while BH attacks have earned a regular slot in our news bulletins, I always try to put myself in the shoes of the victims and their relatives. Whenever I do this, it sparks up reactions that are fast becoming eroded by the frequency of disasters all around us.  This week, I have had to do this twice and these are the words I found to express my emotions:  MONDAY I am tired of this rubbish! Ahn Ahn! What is it sef? Every day some animals blow up people as if they are rocks that need to be blasted in a quarry! Yet our government and people are silent, parading themselves for 2015 election!  If the Federal government cannot provide security in Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Gombe, every other state in this country and stop this crazy trend that is fast becoming a norm, let them forget 2015 election!  Let GEJ, TAN, Protectors of Nigeria's Posterity and all other supporters stop wasting our money on campaigns!  It's sad to think that they'll even talk about elections in the ears of Northern Nigerians ( and of course in the ears of every Nigerian) when daily, we mourn our people! I cannot imagine what would be going on in the mind of a people whose government has failed to protect them, yet ask to be reconsidered, let alone be re-elected!   It's appalling and totally unacceptable!  They should be slapped, stoned and mobbed! All of them!   Biko, we demand to be protected!  Going to school has become a crime and yet they say they are protecting our posterity!  Where's the future when our children are ignorant and uninformed?  What is there to preserve?   What do they look forward to preserving?  A country that is a shadow of its old self and loves to bask in that faded glory?   We demand to be protected!  We demand that Boko Haram be taken care of!  It's our right and the responsibility of our government!   If they won't be responsible, then they can't be re-elected!   Enough is Enough!  Our girls are still missing!  Our children are still dead and more are dying! Yet they parade themselves in our faces!   What nonsense!  FRIDAY So GEJ had his rally a day after scores of children were blown to pieces in their schools?  And people keep wondering why I can't stop ranting about our president!   I don't know if I am in this alone, but would it be too much to postpone that declaration in honour of these dreams that were suddenly killed under his watch? Would it be too much to ask?  That a father should mourn openly his lost children? That a leader should show empathy about the decaying condition of his institution? Are we asking for too much? Shouldn't GEJ be sensitive to the pains of the people of Yobe and Gombe?  Why can't he see what we see? Why can't he feel what we feel? Has he become so far above that he can't relate with the realities of the common man anymore? Has he forgotten so soon, how he felt when he had no shoes?  I am at a loss for words to describe my uttermost disappointment at this display of insensitivity by the Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria. Even if he is so ill-advised, shouldn't there be a voice of reasoning from within? How much more before tyranny sets in? Nigerians, THINK!

Convulsion? you can help!

I got an unusual  call from my sister this evening. I should have suspected that something was wrong earlier since that was her first call to me all day. 
Well, I didn't think anything was wrong until she started talking.
My sister is the sweetest teen I have ever met. But she didn't sound sweet tonight.She was enraged! She just kept talking and fuming.

Apparently in the spate of a month, 2 students had died in her school. The most recent one was today.But what enraged her most was that the student that died today could have lived.
According to her, the 100 level student collapsed outside a class and was left there for more than 20 minutes. A lecturer purportedly checked the boy and went back to lecture his students after locking them in the classroom and stopping them from rendering any help.


A cleaner subsequently went ahead to call the people that eventually took him to the hospital.Unfortunately, he gave up the ghost before he got to their Medical center.According to her, the boy had  convulsed after fainting but nothing was done for him.


Guys, convulsion is not contagious.  Our culture has stigmatised too many people that have at one time or the other in their lives convulsed. What we do not realise is that our stigmatization may lead to the loss of a life.
Here are a few helpful tips about what to do if you are around an individual that is convulsing:

• Keep calm and reassure other people who may be nearby.

• Prevent injury by clearing the area around the person of anything hard or sharp.

• Ease the person to the floor and put something soft and flat, like a folded jacket, under his head.

• Remove eyeglasses and loosen ties or anything around the neck that may make breathing difficult.

• Time the seizure with your watch. If the seizure continues for longer than five minutes without signs of slowing down or if a person has trouble breathing afterwards, appears to be injured, in pain, or recovery is unusual in some way, call for medical help

• Do not hold the person down or try to stop his movements.

• Contrary to popular belief, it is not true that a person having a seizure can swallow his tongue.Do not put anything in the person’s mouth. Efforts to hold the tongue down can injure the teeth or jaw.

• Turn the person gently onto one side. This will help keep the airway clear.

• Don't attempt artificial respiration except in the unlikely event that a person does not start breathing again after the seizure has stopped.

• Stay with the person until the seizure ends naturally and he is fully awake.

• Do not offer the person water or food until fully alert

• Be friendly and reassuring as consciousness returns.

• Offer to call a taxi, friend or relative to help the person get home if he seems confused or unable to get home without help.

• Stay calm and speak reassuringly.

• Guide him away from dangers.

• Block access to hazards, but don’t restrain the person.

• If he is agitated, stay a distance away, but close enough to protect him until full awareness has returned.

Fellow Nigerians, I assume that if that male student  that died was in one way or the other related to that lecturer or the students he was teaching, that class would have been suspended and he probably would have been saved.
Please don't join the group of onlookers when next you see someone convulsing or in distress, your act of kindness might save that life.


I pray that the Lord will comfort the grieving family and that the school authorities will probe further into these deaths. 

Help Ijeomah live

I met her mum about this time last year. I didn't think we were going to keep in touch and become friends. A few 'his and hellos' once in a while was our routine until I saw her dp and read about her daughter in the Punch news paper . I met Ijeomah for the first time a few days ago and all I could do was brace up and pray for this young lady. Having to go through at least 3 dialysis sessions every week is enough to sap energy and the will to live from anyone; but it isn't so with Ijeomah. Even after her 37th dialysis session, she smiled and spoke with little strength; yet full of hope and aspirations! I took solace in her contagious smile and decided to join her in this battle against death. I decided to help her win her life back and assist her in becoming a doctor  as she hopes. Ijeomah is presently in a battle with Renal Failure and needs a Kidney transplant to surmount this obstacle.  My subsequent post will be to enlighten my readers about renal diseases; but today's post is about helping Ijeomah. Ijeomah is 19years and was in S.S.1 until her recent crisis. Thanks to her health challenge, she has lost some years in her education and can only hope to catch up when this sordid ordeal is over. She's the only daughter of her single mum, Oby who is a Masters degree holder that recently relocated to Lagos to start a career in the corporate world after several years of teaching in Abuja Please check the link below to read Ijeoma's interview with Punch newspaper. http://www.punchng.com/feature/jebose-boulevard/i-want-to-live-teenage-girl-with-kidney-disease-cries-for-help/ To win this battle, Ijeomah needs a renal transplant ASAP! A renal transplant in Nigeria costs about 10 Million Naira; In India, it costs 7 Million Naira; In USA, it costs 12 Million Naira; In UK, it costs 12 Million Naira. While waiting for her transplant, she has to undergo at least 3 sessions of dialysis per week and each costs an average of 40,000 naira. Dear readers, please help me help Ijeomah Let's help her win this battle against  renal disease and help realise her dream.  For further details please contact me via email ogunleyea.m@gmail.com

Global Handwashing Day

One of my favourite memories is my nursery school days. I loved my school. Everything seemed like fun. Learning was fun! Each class was like a tower, with colourful chairs, wall paintings, crayons and plasticine and of course wonderful peers and instructors!
I loved school then. Transitioning to Primary school was a rude shock! Even though both schools shared a fence, that was all they had in common!

Anyways, I remembered my nursery school experience cause I was reminiscing on the global Hand washing day. Nursery school had a lot of rhymes and songs about hygeine that still crop up once in a while , but I can't remember any that taught me about proper Handwashing.  
(pls if you have one post it as a comment).

Thanks to Dettol, Safeguard and Lifebuoy antiseptic soaps, we all know that we have unseen germs on our hands. And thanks to the recent Ebola Virus outbreak, Hand washing is becoming a norm in our society. 
However, there is a difference between Hand washing and proper hand washing.

Here a few tips about proper hand washing:

• Before you wash your hands, take off any jewellery.
• When you wash with soap, use regular liquid soap. You don’t need antibacterial soap to remove dirt and germs. In fact, using antibiotics when they aren’t needed can lead to antibiotic resistance – that's when germs get stronger and harder to kill.
• Use moisturizer on your hands. Washing your hands can dry out your skin. If your skin is dry, it can develop small cracks, where germs can hide. So put moisturizer on your hands after cleaning them.

When to wash your hands:

• Before and after you eat,
• Before, during and after you prepare food,
• After you use the bathroom or change diapers,
• After you blow your nose, sneeze or cough;
• Before and after taking care of someone who is sick,
• After touching animals, their toys, leashes, or (poop),
• After touching something that could be dirty (garbage can, dirty rags, etc.),
• Before and after you clean a wound, give medicine or insert contact lenses,
• Whenever your hands look dirty.

Proper hand washing is the cheapest way to stay healthy!  


Our Health is in our hands! 

Keep clean! 

International Day of the Girl Child!

Today, 11th of October marks the International Day of the Girl Child; when the whole world emphasises on the girl child's rights and the inequalities we face based on our gender.
Today, 11th of October marks the 180th day since our Chibok sisters were abducted and forced into untold hardship and horror.

What better way to celebrate the girl child day than to bring to the fore front again the plight of the Chibok girls and their loved ones?
No one thought at the beginning of the #bringbackourgirls campaign that they wouldn't have been returned 180 days after.

Just a few days ago at a gathering, one of my readers jokingly said 'B8, our girls are still missing o!' and I could only nod and wonder if they'll ever return. 
A vast majority of Nigerians have not forgotten these girls but we have moved on like we always do. I guess their immediate family members will be doing the same soon if they haven't already. 

I have often wondered what we will have to do in order to get our Chibok sisters back.
A lot of people have argued that they aren't girls again, that they can't return the same way they were taken and I do not disagree with this school of thought, but no matter how changed they might have become, we want them back.

As we join the world to mark the International Day of the Girl Child, we should remind our leaders and ourselves that this kidnap is no faux and that the reality is- our girls are still missing. 
Another fact is that if this happened before, it can happen again!
If 276 girls can be kidnapped from their dormitories in a state that was in a state of emergency, and more than 2/3 of those girls are still missing, then why can't it happen in any other region of the country where there isn't a state of emergency? 

Since every event in Nigeria seems to be centred around 2015 elections, maybe we should make a demand and tell our politicians and leaders that if they can bring back our girls, they'll earn our votes; maybe they'll take us seriously then, and bring back our girls! 

Happy International Day of the Girl Child Nigeria!

#Bringbackourgirls!