Finding Belief/Faith in 2017 – Project A

This is going to be a rambling post. I am looking for something and i’m yet to find it.

Sometime in July 2016, i stopped preaching (knocking on doors to talk to people about God, his purposes for mankind and how best to serve him). Preaching and attending meetings were a key part of my religious life before then.

By the time 2016 ended, i was sure i did not want to do it anymore. I was not sure i believed in God, Christianity and by extension religion.

I was in what many would call my confused christian phase. There was a lot of scolding and encouragement from many who felt i just needed a push, but their prescriptions, feelings and judgement will not be discussed here.

Continue reading Finding Belief/Faith in 2017 – Project A

Nigera’s cost of living index

The cost of living of a particular country is the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living in it. Usually, calculating the cost of living for a country is done in comparison to a certain standard of living in different geographic areas.

Nigeria’s cost of living index as related to New York city is explained in this article i wrote for Naij here.

What I am not

I am not your project,

I am not salve for your guilty heart,

I am not your salvation,

I am not your saviour,

I am not responsible for the burden you carry,

I am not your God,

Your God is not mine,

I am not tread softly,

I am not blow gently,

I am not your placebo,

I am not one of you,

I do not increase your numbers,

I am not your nightmare,

I will be fine,

This thing you say is broken,

Is a crack, through which light will shine,

I am full to bursting, groaning at the seams,

So i need you to leave,

We are not kindred souls and when i come apart at the seams,

I will rip you to shreds,

I refuse to be the cause of your pain,

Refuse to heal you again and again,

So i am setting you free,

I know it is okay, to tear entire empires apart and rebuild from scratch,

I know what to do with the pain,

I know where the tears go,

Which holes sleepless nights fill,

I know, by God, i know what to do with pain,

But you don’t, and for that i am sorry,

But i refuse to be salve

I refuse to be your salvation.

Image credit: Free4U Wallpapers

An introductory message masquerading as a speech.

Before i started writing this introduction, i woke up to a Twitter feed full of mentions of Meryl Streep and her speech at the Golden Globes, so naturally i had to watch it.

And like all passionate speeches, it left me feeling all gooey inside, made me feel good about my intentions for this blog. Although many Trump supporters will disagree, the main thrust of her speech was empathy. You can watch the video here and deduce for yourselves.

To empathize, you do not always have to understand, but it doesn’t hurt, if you do. I will be sharing a lot of myself and a lot of the stories i have heard and experienced, in order to contribute to the understanding of the many shades and hues of the world we live in.

There will be poetry, a lot of it, it has always been my first choice of creative expression. I will be producing more video content this year (hopefully), and sharing them here and on my YouTube page.

I have a day job at Naij.com, and while it is difficult to really give your best when writing under the constant pressure of deadlines, i manage to produce one or two good articles daily, i will share the best of the best of those articles on this blog.

I will be embarking on two projects at least for the first quarter of the year and i would like everyone reading this to be a part of the process, so the project logs are to keep you up to date on what’s going on, what goals i have set, and what progress has been made.

2017 is the year i try again to make this writing thing work, it is the year i tell stories through whatever medium possible, to try, if not to change the world or Nigeria, but at least a little corner of it.

Take my hand, and let us make this journey, a beautiful one. (You can clap now) 🙂