2ND October 2009, The Accident.

Don’t want to sound like my brain is always thinking about something (it is always thinking cha), pondering on something or wondering and asking some really funny questions. Watching the news daily and hearing them say that we have experienced the worse of the recession, I wonder why I didn’t have 200naira to recharge my phone to make a very important call. I had a little change of about 170naira so I opted to go outside my estate to make the call. Just as I got outside along refinery road, I saw a very long traffic and people rushing trying to cut the traffic. It was about 8:13 am when a jeep suddenly halted at the middle of the road and people screaming. There was an accident, two motor cycles (okada) had collided while trying to avoid the jeep. Clearly it was the fault of the driver of the jeep.
I did not get up to see exactly what at happened as I was still making my call which was ringing but there was no answer. I still tried for about 5 times before giving up. As at this time the jeep had parked by the side of the road and two thick looking men came down. I still watched for about three minutes before crossing. On getting across, I saw a girl wounded on the floor sitting on the floor and an okada rider in similar conditions. As i watched a real life Nollywood scene unfold, the driver took the girl to his jeep as the other okada riders who had stopped urged the injured one to follow the driver so he gets compensation for his injury and damage on the okada. The driver was hesitant and trying to understand why he would be, I heard other okada men saying “the man na general o”, another said “he say if he blow siren before whether we for fit stop am”. Before we could say Jack Robinson, “Oga General” had taken the girl and zoomed off as everybody watched in confusion. Still trying to understand or let me say grasp what just transpired, I heard the injured okada man telling the other one he collided with “na your fault, you for jam the motor instead of make you dodge come jam me”. Another okada man quickly said “you be mumu o, who do you don drive comot and you de talk rubbish now”. Before I talk about the foolishness of the okada man, let me take a little time to wonder the heart of the general. If is truly a general does that give him the right to do what he did? General aside, is the girl’s life more value-able than the okada rider’s to him? This was just a typical example of animal farm, all animals are equal but some are more equal than the others.
I quickly related the situation to present day Nigeria in two different analogies. The first analogy takes the injured okada man as present day Nigeria. Instead of asking the right questions and seeking the right answers, we lay blame while our wound still fresh should be treated. The outcome is that our sore gets worse.
The second analogy takes the onlookers as the Nigerian people and the Jeep driver (Oga general)as the Nigerian leaders. Here the onlookers who understood the situation and knowing the right thing to do refused to do it because of fear of the general. This is the worse part of Nigeria because those that even know the right thing, don’t do it because they lack the courage. Under the nose of the onlookers the general drove off but they did not have the courage to stop him. On the hand, I couldn’t blame the people as the injured man could not speak for himself. I had a feeling that if he stood up for himself, people would have joined him. The general saw fear from the people which he exploited. The will to stop him was there but no courage. This is what our leaders see when they commit all their atrocities, the lack of courage to confront them. As he drove off, people started shouting and cursing. Typical of today’s Nigeria where we talk more, curse more than do the right thing. Is this the Nigeria we want?
The moral of the story is that as Nigerians, we need to stand up for ourselves or nobody will. We must take fear off our minds as it is only through courage we can get where we are supposed to be. To Mr General (our leaders), you can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time but you can’t fool all of the people some of the time. You can’t keep playing on the ignorance of the masses.
LIGHT UP NIGERIA

My October 1st 2009, Nigeria at 49

Woke up at about 6:18 am and said my prayers (I said it), washed pops car and arranged my room. The day was now set and ready for me, INDEPENDENCE DAY. Interestingly we were fumigating the compound so we had to leave the compound for at least 5hours. At about 9:10 am I left for Robinson plaza (phone sale capital of Warri) to buy a 2 gig memory card. I got it for about =N=1,700:00 and went back home. Quickly loaded it with 97 Nigerian songs (I said to myself “strictly Nigerian songs for independence”) and left for my friends house with my brother.

We arrived at about 10:28 am and he was driving out so we hopped in. I hadn’t updated my facebook status yet but had tweeted so many “Happy INDEPENDENCE DAY NIGERIA, #lightupnigeria”. As we were cruising along airport road, we ran into traffic (a real thick one). As I was trying to figure its cause I saw “HAPPY NIGERIANS” marching, sitting on top of cars, loaded on trucks, riding bicycles as they basked in the euphoria of the celebration. All dressed in white and green they produced a sight that would gladden the heart of every NIGERIAN. Although they weren’t in unison physically, they were in unison in their motives and beliefs. As usual I brought out my camera to snap pictures when one bus driver on the opposite lane shouted “you no know wetin to video” and I shouted “bush pig, drive your ugly bus that resembles you”. I was angry because of the mentality most NIGERIANS harbour when it comes to snapping picture. They believe they must be in a studio, in a beautiful place like a park or fast food or abroad but I snap anywhere whether in Lagos, Warri, Newyork or anywhere just to relish the moment and have something to look back to. Let us forget this driver jo, i quickly tweeted “Happy INDEPENDENCE NIGERIA, lets bask in the euphoria we will talk about the future later” and posted it as my facebook status too. I continued snapping till we were out off traffic and they were out of sight.

When I saw a woman looking like she was in her mid thirties screaming “49”, my heart melted and said to myself that even with the conditions we face we could celebrate for NIGERIA. I saw people who looked like they had not eaten for two days, poor dressed and looking tattered as they marched. In my cogitations I asked questions like: does the government see what we go through and yet we can march for Nigeria with a few still believing “E go better”.

Before I came back down to earth from my planets of thoughts, we were back in his house. As I sat in his exquisitely furnished parlour, he served me a chilled bottle of malt and tuned to trace on the TV. I told him to change it to CNN (my favourite TV station) which I doubted was a wise choice station then as they were showing a live broadcast of China’s independence celebration. The ceremony was so glamorous and I asked “Are NIGERIA celebrating independence too?” It was the 60rh celebration of the Peoples republic of China. I quickly tried to compare China and NIGERIA. At 60 China are eleven years ahead of NIGERIA and are in the G20(20 most developed country in the world) while we are dreaming of vision 2020 that would let us break into G20 in 11years time which is 2020. If I tried to console myself by saying China are ahead of us with a 11years, I looked back at China 11years ago and compared them to NIGERIA today and I smirked (you know the answer or don’t you).I am a very optimistic person and I still believe in NIGERIA so let us watch and see how we progress in with our vision 2020 if we would be like the China of today by 2020.

At about 2:46 pm we left his house to heading back to my place when another friend pulled over with another friend of mine and we went to relax in a hotel. We just chilled over bottles (took nothing cha) and gisted. Left at about 5 after the rain had poured for almost an hour.

On getting home, I roasted plantain (bole) and oil with my dad while I browsing through the channels on the TV. I opted for Silverbird to watch the NIGERIAN u20 team take on Tahiti and needed like 8 goals to qualify for the next round. Thinking NIGERIANS deserved a Gift for INDEPENDENCE was only a fantasy as the team managed 5 goals and spurned numerous chances even while playing with a two man advantage as our opponent had two red cards. Towards the end I changed it to channels where I started watching a special independence forum of Nigeria at 49. Professor Pat Utomi(presidential candidate 2007), Senator Ken Nnammani(did I get that spelling right)(former senate president), Annkio Briggs(Niger delta Activist),Marzo(environmental activist), Abdulwahhed and one other dude. Senator asked two funny questions and I would love to get your answers, he said “NIGERIA have been fighting a war on corruption since, yes, it has been a war but where are the casualties” and on the issue of 2011 elections he asked “why do we expect change when it is the same people who conducted the last election that would conduct this?”. The program was really interesting and as it ended we switched the TV off for night devotion. It was a really great day as I learnt a lot about my Beloved NIGERIA.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY NIGERIA.

Swag flu

"Before all this talk about empty swagger...",that was Djinee in his song overkilling and in Lil Wayne’s new song with Gs boys brand new money he said “....I got so much SWAGGER, I swear SWAGGER is trying to sue me” and you remember Jay-Z screaming “Nobody got a SWAGGER like us”. Now soldier boy is out with “SWAG flu”. I don’t have to think twice to agree with him because it seems all we do these days we are so conscious of our “SWAG” and we would even want to sleep with SWAG. I don’t think am hearing someone say the SWAG bug has bitten just the musicians, have a rethink. Ask a girl before on her idea of her perfect man and you hear “he should be tall, rich, God fearing, Blues eyes and handsome”, shekina. Now we hear “he should be tall, rich, God fearing, brown eyes, handsome and he must have SWAG”. Shit, what swag? What is even swag?
Before I attempt a definition, I will give some more example of SWAG flu in action. In the Nigerian version of American idol, after contestant performs and it is time to for the audience to comment on their performance we hear funny comments like “....I like your SWAG”, “...You did not just show us that SWAG”, “that was an amazing performance, your dressing, your SWAG...”amongst many other SWAGGERlicious/unSWAGGERlicious comments(the SWAG bug has bitten me too, I got the SWAG flu”. To another reality TV show, Maltina dance hall we can comments from the judge like “the energy wasn’t there, I did not feel that SWAG”. On social networking SWAG is so common that it became a trending topic on twitter and on someones facebook status I saw “let our SWAGGER be in Christ. People argue, “Dbanj vs Tuface: who has got more SWAG”. In my own curiosity have I wondered what SWAG really meant, when it should be applied and stuffs like that because the way the word SWAG is used( we might not have enough SWAG to say in the future) we would all be driving through the SWAG lane on a SWAG speed competing for who has got more SWAG(hope we don’t crash in our quest for swag). Permit me to think of a SWAG that goes along with eating, laughing, praying, sleeping and many other things.
Conventionally I always believed SWAG is a slang coined to mean a way of life that project us in a certain image, making us feel cool and proud of ourselves. That was my own definition, but surprisingly Oxford dictionary got a definition of SWAGGER (yes it does, check it). Oxford defined SWAGGER as: to walk or behave in a manner that is too proud or confident. What a definition! So if that is the definition of SWAGGER, I would leave us with this question. When you say “I got so much SWAG”, you are admitting to being a proud person and self fulfilled.
Just thought it wise to understand the words we use. Send me a SWAG tweet and tell us your view on this SWAG issue. What is your SWAG? Are you ill of the SWAG flu?

OPEN LETTER TO FELLOW NIGERIANS

Dear Nigerians
“I be king for my country, but now am a commoner in London....naija na my home, my home....” Sound Sultan sang with Wyclef Jean in the remix of the song king of my country. Obviously abandoned by our leaders to wallow in poverty, power failure, bad roads, insecurity amongst others we still find time to and even Jogodo, ShayoYori Yori(why not when we are the happiest people on earth). The possibility of transforming our corrupt leaders are bleak since they are hell bent on looting our money instead of asking God for Akonuche to rule Dem mama and Dem papa. The truth is the only expensive commodity to our leaders.
There is fire on the mountain and there is nowhere to run leaving us Confused and in Danger, while they leaders have Enough space to commit their atrocities. They had the time to march the streets showing so much Street credibility pleading for our votes(which really doesn’t count) but now No time for us. Ifunanya called me from UK asking wots up with our country, I told her “we live in a country where the rules applies only to the poor and defenseless, education and feeding for a selected few and more than half of the population lives on less than a dollar a day”, “Thats wots up” i said. Unfortunately our generation is fast growing and seem to be adopting the crazy ideologies of the crazy leaders following their every footstep Bumper to Bumper. Lade asked “Se na like this we go de de?” but Who am I to answer this question.

We may be tempted to say “Now its all gone” but we can still call on Jehova to Suddenly turn things around for good. I write in pain suffering from the Strong Thing the government is doing to us, I still urge us to call the Entertainer to entertain us while we try to Alanta and Gberekete. With all these suffering we go through we end up Overkilling anything we lay our hands(imagine the outcome if we had a better Nigeria) because we are Strong and Mighty. Let us not give up hope on our dear country as we can still do good to make it a better place such that when anybody Enters the place, they feel Safe. It may happen Slow Slow but we can achieve our dreams if we Pump it up working together in unity putting aside all religious barriers and ethnic differences. For those who still believe in a better Nigeria all I can say is Thank you.

yours sincerely,
Anoti.

WE CAN'T WAIT

Living up to expectations could really be tough but Nigerians where not ready to be pessimistic as we were sure of a ticket to South Africa 2010 even though we hadn’t played Tunisians yet. As we welcomed them to Abuja on the faithful September 6th of 2009, a positive result should have been the only result. A draw would do only the Tunisians good as they led the group standings with 2 points ahead of us(Nigeria), we only expected and prayed for a win(was that too much from us). The gates were opened early enough o accommodate the fans who flooded the stadium and paid a paltry sum of 300naira. At least the fee was paltry before 90minutes but i guess the inflation rate after 90minutes was 300%.

The most common satellite in Nigeria being HITV and DSTV made us accustomed to the MTN advert for the world cup, “WE CAN'T WAIT”. Who remembers the one where the Swedish fans arrived and on match day one of them was on a date with a girl who boarded same bus with him. “Man WE CAN'T WAIT" for the world cup so i can go and get my own South African girl. As expected after the match “WE CAN WAIT”. So I started to ask questions like when did we start waiting and many others so i choose to say our wait started ...oops I still can’t say. Let us recount how we waited on that faithful day.

“WE CAN'T WAIT” for the 6th ...oops, here it was. “WE CAN'T WAIT” for the kickoff ...oops, it started at exactly 4pm local time. “WE CAN'T WAIT” for the goal ...23minutes was all we need for our wish to be granted by Odemwinge. What barely 90seconds and scores are levelled, “WE CAN'T WAIT” for the second goal. Tunisian based eagle came off the bench and scored the long awaited goal (what do you think we were waiting for now). “WE CAN'T WAIT” for the world cup (eyes straight to the world even though we had two outstanding matches). In what was a reversal of fortune, with three minutes left on the clock the Tunisians brought us back to earth with a well taken goal (now we had many things to wait for).

What more can I say but “WE CAN'T WAIT”. What are we waiting for now anyway? Could it be a Tunisian loss or draw and a corresponding Nigerian victory in her remaining double fixtures or maybe the world cup in 2014???? What are you waiting for????

This little piece is dedicated to whatever we are waiting for

For Tunisia’ slumber we now wait

Leaving with Joy our stadium gate

In years gone by we were never mates

The deed is done but it is never too late

All we do is blame, cause and hate

In our minds we will always keep this date

In our hands we held our fate

But now we pray in faith

WE STILL CAN’T WAIT

South Africa 2010. The Giant of Africa needs to be there o... l8r y’ll

ABOUT ME

FAMILY BACKGROUND
I am from a monogamous family of six, like six kids, my humble self being the 3rd of an equally distributed gender family.
EDUCATION
Nursery education for me started at Prime Inter School, Warrri, Delta State. Moved to Chinkelly Nursery and Primary school in primary 2 where i completed my primary education. Passed my common entrance and gained admission into many schools including the great Kings college but opted for Lumen Christi Secondary School, Arue, Uromi, Edo State because of my friend Gibson Okogba in 1998. Upon completion and failing Jamb twice, sat at home(but not without a story) till January of 2006 when i got admission for my Cambridge A-level at the school of preliminary studies, Osunte, Offa, Kwara state. In the summer, I left Kwara upon gaining admission to study Computer science at the Benson Idahosa University, Benin city, Edo state.
LIKES
Eating, watching television especially CNN and supersports, laughing, sleeping.
DISLIKES
Define dislikes
HOBBIES
Playing and watching football, reading anything not related to my field of study (computer science), writing and chilling with my peeps
STYLE OF DRESSING
I love wearing a T-shirt and jeans until recently when this whole looking cooperate bug hit me especially with my educational environment(its mandatory we dress in cooperate to class) and exposure, I can be seen frequently on long sleeves shirts with tie and a nice pair of trousers. Ahn, wait worse of all is this whole naija bug that has bitten me such that i wuld love to wear native 5 times a week, too bad I don’t even have up to that.
FAVORITE PIECE OF CLOTHING
Anything that makes you say “wow that dude is looking good” but I so love long-sleeves shirts and trousers.
FAVORITE COLOUR
It is obvious mate, its GREEN and WHITE (Truly Nigerian I guess). Pink, yellow, brown and blue ain’t half bad at all.
MOST CHERISHED POSSESION
Easy to say, my education is my most valued asset (not that I can’t do without it) but don’t harass my girlfriend (My Laptop). I love her so much and she is almost always with me.
MOST EXPENSIVE ITEM
My education and laptop
TURN ON
Honesty and truthfulness commands respect.
TURN OFF
Deceit, it pisses me off. know-it-all(s) and ignorant people also gets the creep out of me.
HAPPIEST MOMENT(S)
I just can’t seem to get one now, maybe it is because I am a happy person.
MOST EMBARRASING MOMENT
That should be in primary 1 when I excreted on myself. It was so gross.
FAVOURITE FOOD
E mi, me that like food.... it is not easy to answer to answer cha but am into rice and stew with plantain, love pancakes and a sicker for chicken, eggs and salad. I will stop here before......
GADGETS
My phone(nokia) and laptop(hp). Surprisingly, I love my laptop more than my phone.
FUTURE FAMILY AND KIDS NAME
Three girls; Chelsea(to be born in Chelsea), Milian(to be born in Milan) and Paris(to be born in Paris). A squad of boys(lol),any name will do from spoon to whatever. Hey, ONE wife.
FOOTBALL
I love Juventus, Arsenal FC and Valencia CF. I also like barca and strongly hates Manu, Real Madrid and AC Milan. Undoubtedly THIERRY Henry remains my favourite closely followed Ibrahimovic, Fabregas, Del Piero, Messi, Nasri and Diego.
MUSIC
Am into all kinds of music: rock, pop, rap, hip-hop, blues, reggae etc. Loving 2face Idibia, Asha and Kanye West. I really “gbadu” Naija jams o, ahn no try them at all.
MOVIES
I think the Nigeria/Ghana merger to produce films has boosted the quality of movies from the industry. I am so much into watching series and I got a couple of dozen stacked in my stacked in my library. My favourite series includes 24, lost, damages, heroes, Las Vegas and many others.
BOOKs
My mad crave for knowledge makes me read almost anything and I mean those I think that will be useful to me. I read news papers irrespective of the date, magazines and I have a library of e books on my laptop. I am also writing a novel.
SITES YOU CAN FIND ME
1. www.twitter.com
2. www.myspace.com
3. www.facebook.com
4. www.tumblr.com
5. www.youtube.com
6. www.flixster.com
7. www.stylehive.com
8. www.woome.com
9. www.mylife.com , am even loosing count...but it is not what you think, am not an internet addict. My favourite websites are google, twitter and Wikipedia.
WHERE DO I SEE MYSELF 5 YEARS FROM NOW
Tricky but by God’s grace I would have impacted my world positively and be a CEO of my own company.
RELATIONSHIP
Not into it now but I love women.
DESCRIBE MYSELF IN THREE WORDS
I am a very happy person, passionate about my beliefs and always willing to learn.
INSPIRATION
God has been my main inspiration and He is the one who keeps me going. I also draw inspiration from people who share same beliefs with me. I draw inspiration from Kanu Nwankwo because of his dedication to charity through his foundation, generally people into Charities like Charlize Theron, Will Smith, George Clooney just to mention a few. I draw my business inspiration from Richard Branson, Donald Trump, Robert Tiyosaki, Mark Zuckerberg and Farray Gray amongst many others.
MY MAIN GOAL IN LIFE AND DRIVING FORCE
I am driven by my passions and beliefs. I believe any good thing is possible with the right attitude, dedication and hard-work you invest in it. The thoughts of millions of homeless and less privileged children suffering under poverty has been a major driving force for me as I try my best in every little way to levitate them from their plight. Apart from poverty, Illiteracy which is the second biggest problem and the main cause of poverty is a key factor that pushes me to be hard working.
VIEWS ON NIGERIA AND GIVEN THE CHANCE, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE
I would really love to follow JK Rawlings path in his revolution of Ghana but other means would help. I would focus on the changing the leadership of the country and the mentality of the common man. I would focus on education, tourism and housing. I also believe the people are the major sources of the problems that befall them and we should learn to attack the situation of our demise and the individual.
Kparoskparos caught with kparoskparos in the depth of solitude.

A new blogger in town

Yes, centuries after wishing I had my own blog, googling the difference between a blog and a website, I finally got my wish and satisfied my inquest. It was so easy logging into blogger.com and following some few simple steps, my blog has been born: www.kparoskparos.blogspot.com.

Ahn, the feeling is so cool that I have tweeted it, tumblred it, updated my facebook profile and myspaced it. I tweeted “check my blog, www.kparoskparos.blogspot.com” and started calling my friends to check it out. Even a really silly thought brushed through my mind to gather a bunch of little kids and tell to check my blog. Anyway I feel so excited because I can express my self on any issue now and since I believe so much in the power of writing, I am writing to the top, changing every negative value and educating people. You know one good thing about this whole blogging thing makes me feel more responsible and crave more a general knowledge on issues. Hey, if you are reading this don’t always forget to check www.kparoskparos.blogspot.com for the latest information and relax your brain.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF BLOGGING,

If you have anything you would like to see me blog about, don’t hesitate to let me know and you can follow me on twitter, www.twitter.com/kparoskparos or click the link follow me button.