AH! Ejo e ma binu! My sincere apologies for seeming ‘AWOL’. As is wont to happen sometimes, other aspects of my life take on gargantuan proportions and literally subsume everything else. In the last two months it’s been relentless.

This piece would have been my submission last week… but there was no way I was going to send it in as is.

Thirteen years ago, when I decided to marry my husband, the general shock was palpable. Not surprising as ours seemed to be a rather incongruous combination. He was a widower with four children; an established name who had been there done that, and had several t-shirts to show for it.

In these parts, death is taken as seriously as life;sometime even more so. Indeed, in Africa the style in which you bury your dead especially one’s parents is a measure of your stature as a man or woman of means, and is a testament to how well (or not) the dead have raised their children. It’s a paradox.

Let it never be said of our public servants that they are not working. Neither can you accuse them of lacking in long-term vision. I also dare anyone to say they lack that intrinsic intuition necessary for inspiring leadership.

It’s amusing how we scurry about our ‘daily grind’ planning this, scheming that, plotting the other… all legitimate of course, all seemingly ‘worthwhile’, like somebody promised you tomorrow. No one said tomorrow wouldn’t come either so hey! I guess we just carry on… .

The beautiful thing about a new day, or a new book, or a new friend… or a new year; is the promise of opportunity. What I could not achieve yesterday perhaps I will achieve today. It’s a chance to do it all over, begin on a new journey of discovery but this time with the benefit of hindsight (for the serial slipper uppers *wink*)Long story short—a clean slate— upon which to write anything our hearts and minds can imagine.

Half the time you go around like a headless chicken trying to cover every day all that needs to be covered from personal hygiene to the children’s homework, and ever thing else in between. And even if you are one of those super-efficient individuals blessed with not one but 2 effective assistants, you can still come away feeling like there aren’t enough hours in the day.

Hate us, love us, one thing is for sure; you can’t ignore us! Even if all you do is to stop and marvel at some of the more bizarre and absolutely mind boggling things we get up to as Nigerians.

It’s a paradox of sorts the daily gridlock that the Lagos traffic has become. One would have thought that the banning of okada would ease things up a bit; the direct opposite is the case. So I’m thinking to myself that perhaps a large percentage of the people who used bikes as their primary mode of transportation owned private cars.

What could have been Justice Ijeoma Jumbo- Offor’s offence that day? Maybe… her gele was too big. Or was her entourage too large? Was she overly excited? I know!

All you have to these days is tune in to any news station to realise what a sorry state the human condition is.

Sometimes, when certain things occur and people react in a certain way, I wonder if it’s peculiar to us as Nigerians, or if it’s just basic human nature period. Four students lose their lives; and that is just one incidence, one drop in the recent flood of such events; in the most gruesome way conceivable…

I knew this day would come. I knew that it was just a matter of time before our negligence came back to bite our collective asses. There was a time when the lament was that there were no good women out there for our sons to marry… the story today is rather different.

I knew this day would come. I knew that it was just a matter of time before our negligence came back to bite our collective assets. There was a time when the lament was that there were no good women out there for our sons to marry… the story today is rather different.

I think maturity can be said to have set in at the point where an individual realises that yes, while he has the right and freedom to say, do and carry on as they please; there are consequences and that one must bear responsibility for ones choices.

Being a platform that provides one easy access to unlimited information and an audience base of hitherto unimaginable numbers at the mere click of a button, it is no wonder that new social media has gained such popularity within such a short time. Indeed,there have been many success stories of people who by simply posting a five-minute video of themselves on YouTube have achieved worldwide fame and fortune; Justin Beiber is one that readily comes to mind.

It took me a while to jump on the new social media band wagon, Facebook, bb… as I speak to you I still do not operate a twitter account. Beyond the randomness and anonymity of it all what bothered me the most was the kind of havoc could,and often was,wreaked with a mere click of a few buttons.

What a man can do a woman can do better; an age-old adage that has sparked off many a debate and several battles between the sexes. Never before has it been brought home though (especially in these parts) as with the recent action of Liberia’s first elected female President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Much has been said about the Nigerian resilience; our ability to adapt and make the best out of any given situation. Everywhere you turn you see evidence of Nigerians making ‘lemonade out of the lemons’ that life and our awkward socio-political situation continue to throw at us. Indeed, the average Nigerian is described as ‘industrious’ and hard working.

For a summer holiday that received very little or no planning, it’s shaping up really nicely. My sister in-law turned 70 so it was another opportunity for the family to gather together in that rare and special way that modern day living does not often allow for.

It was a 7a.m flight on a Saturday… how hectic could that be. Besides at that time of the morning it will take me ten minutes to get to the airport so I thought to myself ten to six would be a good time to leave my house thus allowing for check-in etc.

I have very often wondered what it would to take to wake us up from this deep slumber, you, me, the political leaders, everybody. What is the price of all this ineptitude? I have often wondered in my quiet moments what we the majority of Nigerians can do to change this utterly absurd situation that we find ourselves in.

The man was sitting in his car at a major junction furiously fiddling with something. Obviously there was some sort of vehicular malfunction otherwise which right thinking person would intentionally hold up traffic on a major road long after the lights had turned green?