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Showing posts from 2016

Letters In a Glass Bottle IV: Even Chicken Poop Sells

Dear Son, This week's letter is going to be brief and to the point. Nothing is truly useless, nothing at all. Even Chicken poop sells. I know because I've sold bags of it, to very enthusiastic buyers who paid a pricey sum. On the road to success in business, do not look down on anything and consider it of no good. What may have no use now could turn out to be tomorrow's hotcakes. Back to chicken poop, your grandma and I used to run a poultry, so we had lots of chicken poop. We knew that chicken poop was useful as manure in a backyard farm but we never knew it was useful enough to draw people from over 400km away who were ready to pay handsomely for it. Guess what? Let me disgust you a bit. They wanted the chicken poop as moist and smelly and organic as possible. Ours was dried and non smelly. Still we sold. So open your eyes. Despise not the days of little beginnings. Nothing is truly useless. You're smart. I believe you've learnt something new. Plenty Love Da

Letters In a Glass Bottle III

Don’t Dull Dear Son, The phrase “don’t dull” would probably no longer be in use when you read this. However, its message is going to still be as potent as it was a few minutes ago when I muttered the words and tapped this down for you. Simply put when someone (especially a Nigerian) tells you “don’t dull”, he or she means ‘don’t slack’ or don’t erm ‘pussyfoot’ or don’t drag your feet. You get the drift? In this life, opportunities come regularly and while patience is a virtue procrastination and sluggishness. A lot of people are 'dulling' and being sluggish letting themselves to be passed over repeatedly by opportunities while deceiving themselves that they are patient or that they don’t want to be reckless. Granted, recklessness is never to be confused with risk, and patience pays. However life without risks is a big disappointment. I too used to love playing it safe, I used to have a lot of grand ideas I shared with friends when I was younger but I was perhaps to

Letters in a Glass Bottle II

Irrational Fear||Rationality in the Face of Fear Son, Is there any way it is rational to fight a lunatic? Would you have imagined I had ever decided to fight a mad man? Let me share with you a small story. I lived in Abeokuta one time, and in the district where I lived there was a lunatic (as with all the neighbourhoods in Abeokuta). This guy always walked about with a stick along the road median. It happened that on this fateful day, I had crossed one side of the road to the median, when I saw him coming. He was armed with his stick and was wielding it with a fierce look on his face. I thought he even pointed it at me one time as he started marching towards me determinedly. Naked fear hugged me tight and I began to sweat. I decided to quickly cross over before he reached me but the speeding oncoming traffic made it impossible. Beating a retreat to where I came from was far more impossible. It was me and a lunatic in the middle of speeding traffic. Fear told me to get away

Letters in a Glass Bottle

Letters in a Glass Bottle So I have decided to put together some of the lessons I’ve learnt in life in a 10 week epistolatory series called Letters in a Glass Bottle, it will contain a letter I’ll post every day to my future son sharing most importantly a few of the things I’ve on the way to becoming his dad. Truly, it’s honest, heartfelt correspondence with someone I’ll share a deep connection with in future but most of all it contains my ideas and opinions about current happenings which I want to put down for all history. Everything that will go down here really happened, maybe like a few names will change to protect their identities and protect the integrity of the series from their influence. Some secrets may spill but well, that is less load for me. Yo, for real son for every letter you see addressed this is not just your dad exploring a new writing style, this is me pouring out my experiences and hoping you learn from my very few mistakes (that’s an obvious lie) and get

Joella

Poem dedicated to my unborn daughter ***** If I had a daughter I'd name her Joella I'd not cut her hair and I'd not Pierce her ears I'd take her along wherever I go I'd be proud of her and I'll let her know

À crack of dawn

I can see the dawn breaking. Something tells me a lot of good things are going to happen to me in rapid succession. I feel alive and success bound. First of all NooW magazine is back and better! See @NOOWmag for more details. I see this going beyond the frontiers of my imagination. Secondly, I might just feature on a music project. Details are not clear yet, I may contribute in writing capacity or vocals or feature as a rapper. It's thrilling. I'm vibrating here at the thought it. Finally, I'm officially single and unattached. I've been through it all; this is the rise of the phoenix. More blog posts will follow. Blessings.

Something about Yellow PawPaw

*I posted this on Facebook last year, just thought you should read it here too. Back in my undergraduate days, there was this Pawpaw that caught me eye. Hanging on a Pawpaw 'tree' a few metres from my front window it was the first thing I saw as I walked off to school in the cold lonely mornings and when I returned at dusk it was the first thing I looked out for. She lifted my tired spirits in no small measure. My Pawpaw was not yet ripe but I knew it was just a matter of time, soon I'll gladly harvest it. My Pawpaw. I considered it my Pawpaw because I was in pole position to lay claims to ownership, I had the right of first refusal . Hell, she's hanging a few metres from my door post, just within reach. I patiently watched as my Pawpaw grew big and acquired the curviness ripening Pawpaws put on while it slowly wore this new coat of yellow that indicated good health . "Ahh" , I thought thoughts of having this Pawpaw all to myself and wrung my hands in p