EMMAWAD

  WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES Look at this child hustling to survive. Mehn this country is too hard. Jesus! He will fall o..! the crate of water is too heavy on his head…! This was the beginning of a show of wickedness. We see a white bus filled with men and women looking like crusade members with some wearing face masks. One of the passengers calls out to a child hawker selling water for a bottle that costs N100. The child looks not older than 11 years. He struggles to catch up with the white bus as the traffic moves from time to time, with a crate filled with cool bottles of water on his head. His Ankara - up and down - is wet with sweat from the marathon of the day. It is past six in the evening. The bus moves in the traffic, enough for the child to hand over the bottle of water to the passenger in demand and just when it is time to exchange notes of change by the child and payment by the buyer, the bus driver increases the speed of the vehicle. The traffic had subsided.  We ...

  HOW TOUGH IS YOUR TIME?   Look up the definitions of pressure, stress, toughness, challenge, hardship. Yes, these are not mere words; they are situations we face as humans in a world where time gives no hoot about what you are going through. It keeps moving like an endless train with many passengers confused about the next stop or the condition of the engine, or the longevity of the journey.   The world faces its problems. Countries fight their wars; continents battle their evils. States wrestle their fears, and it goes down to the individual. A woman fights just as a man does his demons. They come in the form of psychological traumas, financial hardships, career blocks, relationship ghosts and all sorts of whats and hows and when and who and where.   In my father’s time, the challenge was having values. In my time, it is acquiring wealth or being successful. In the future, it might be visiting Mars like it was a stone throw. Who knows? Still, time is havin...

  OUR SOAP IS IN US “We should be participating in all sports at the Olympics. We have different states known for their gifts. Some can swim and paddle, many can race, some are from hilly states and can be trained, some can wrestle as it is part of their festivals, others can...” “Abeg na who go cut soap for me I dey find. All these can…can…can… you are saying is a far cry. Even if we are given 10 years to prepare for the games it will not be enough. How many swimming pools do you have in your state, talk less of all local government areas? Did you hear the name of the swimming grounds at the Olympics? It is called Tokyo Aquatics Centre; aquatic animals fit camp there no shaking! The pools I have seen in this side of the earth na inside people compound dem dey to use differentiate poor man from rich man.”   “Pessimism has eaten deep into your membrane. Imagine if we harness our sport sector and top it up with tourism, we will not need any oil to survive man! See, all t...

  A WASTE OF MANHOOD     “Young lady, are you familiar with the news that the Chinese authorities seized a cargo ship that sailed from Nigeria with 7,200 refrigerated penises? I ask myself why single ladies in Nigeria have not gathered to stage a riot”   “Just like the Aba Women Riot of 1929?”   “Exactly! I mean, the number of unmarried women today is alarming. Yet potential organs are being shipped to another man’s land as what, meat? What a waste of natural, human, God-given creation that would have made many ladies happy. No wonder many of you are on the edge every now and then. Hm, 7,200! And they even tagged it ‘Organ Harvesting' can you imagine. Is it a plant?   As usual, a committee has been set up to investigate this illicit act. Wait, it was first condemned. That is not the end of my point. Young lady, have you visited a prison in Nigeria? I don’t advise you to. If you see able-bodied men locked up, waiting for trial for over 10 years, mo...

  SNOW WHITE It is 6 AM. Yaba bus stop is already crowded with workers struggling to board comfortable buses. Many ignore smoky, scrappy, dirty and high-fare vehicles; Friday gives you such luxury. It does not take too long before an accepted bus stops in front of me. The bus is barely empty; occupied by the drive, conductor, a man and a woman dressed like it was snowing that morning. I board the bus and suddenly, this winter like woman hands me a tract which I turn down. She looks at me like the devil’s advocate. I sit as far away from her as possible.   The bus is finally ready to kick off with all passengers in their seats. Many of us are with our face masks but not Snow White. Suddenly, we are jerked from our sleepy states by a deafening shout: “repent my brothers and sisters, everything is vanity. God loves you so much even if you cannot create the world, or the rivers or the sky. Or can you.” A man in front of Snow White suddenly remembers his face mask and digs ...

FAITH There is one power so great - the wisdom of tomorrow. No one wishes ill on themselves but when we are in a fix, we tend to wish we had the power to tell what tomorrow would bring. Just like Mama Iliya. The night before was so cold that she took her last available wrapper, covered up her son and lay by his side all night long to keep him warm enough to see a new day. Afterwards, she was going to meet with her pastor to pray out every sickness from his lanky body. He had been sick for two days; would not eat, could hardly breathe, see or taste anything. After selling Wankee the week before, he had complained of a headache and was told to lick red oil by his mother. The bottle of oil is empty today, staring at Mama Iliya as she rolls on the sandy room begging Iliya to wake up. “No be wetin we talk be this o Illiya. You tell me say we go go market this morning together go buy meat to use cook food for our customers. You say you go use Wankee build me big house. You even say Ame...

  THE TAKSI THAT TALKS! If you are A TAXI driver, please do not talk too much. It is not every passenger that is interested in chit-chatting. It is even worse when you have body odour and spit out, leaving long lines of liquid on your car window. Please stop it! Oluwafemi was his name. He picks me up from Berger; we head for Yaba. It is at about 7:00 p.m, the roads are not so free. I am seated in the passenger seat, a decision I regret. I should have been at the back with my eyes glued to my phone. Unfortunately, we all make wrong choices sometimes.   “Sister abeg you get USB cord for there? This my phone go soon die.” I replied with a NO and he asked; “why you no go get na? You no carry phone comot for house? And I need this thing badly today o as the one wen I buy for traffic na wash. For that guy mind now e don gba me. Na why I deyhope say one rider (like Me) go dash me cord.” A call comes in to save me from the beginning of what was yet to come. I am on the phone for anoth...

  If—  BY RUDYARD KIPLING If you can keep your head when all about you        Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,     But make allowance for their doubting too;    If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,     Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,     And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;        If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;    If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster     And treat those two impostors just the same;    If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken     Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,     And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnin...