Tribute to Hicham

In my spare time, I like to busy myself by watching sports different from boxing, motor racing, skiing & basketball(yuck! I hate them). Some people have become strong idols who have caught my fancy. But none have thought me so much about dedication, perseverance and focus like the duo of Hicham El Guerrouj and Haile Gebrselassie. And today, it's Hicham's day.
Hicham El Guerrouj is considered as one of the finest runners in the middle distance category. Being the world record holder for 1,500 meters, the mile and 2,000 meters, his records speak volume about him. El Guerrouj became the only middle distance runner to win four consecutive world titles in 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2003.
Born in 1974 in Morocco, Hicham (popularly known as king of the mile) has achieved what many people spend three or four lifetimes achieving. His lessons have been passed across without any duress in transmission; focus on your goal can give you whatever you want (even if you are an African).

This week, Hicham announced his retirement.
God give us grace to run after and achieve what we aspire just like you did.
Thank you Hicham.

Good music

People listen to music for so many reasons. Many for the unending love of it. Some for therapeutic reasons (not like King Saul in the bible) to ease the stress around. However it is, there's one sure fact about music - it places you on a plateau that gives room for relaxation and creates an easier approach to addressing issues especially that which affects a core part of human existence.
The latest album of the self-proclaimed Naija Ninja, Sound sultan, is one I've been looking out for. Though the number of tracks in The (compulsory) textbook is great, I fel in love with two tracks only - Area & Back in the days.
This track playing (Area) encourages those who have gone far and wide in search of greener pastures to please come back home if the situation has turned worse.
So my people, come back home if things are very bad. It's not that bad at home oh!
Ajo 'o dabi ile (meaning There's no place like home).
I also discovered that dearest Tracy Chapman released a new album (Where you live) late last year.
Now where the Alaba boys at? It's like they haven't heard that she's dropped one.
Or could you lend me a copy of Where you live? I just wanna listen to it once, dat's all.

P.S At no point should you try to open his website.

Oh Barc'a!

Phew!!
I told a few of my colleagues yesterday that I had a dream overnight that Barc'a beat Arsenal. They flared at me.
I'm patiently waiting for them this morning to see their reactions.
There you go Ronnie. You're the greatest.

Basket mouth

The late Dele Giwa, a prominent journalist, was a real one. He would be there to confront anything he deemed unfit head-on and even face-long. He dared not what anyone would do to him. He was later handed a parcel-bomb during the Babangida era which he personally took pains to open.
M.K.O Abiola was determined to become the president at all cost. If it were for him to declare the works of the presidency during that time evil, he did not care. He was tenacious about telling people his views about the situation of things. His incarceration later lead to his death which he picked up from the teacup.
Dr. Tai Solarin (of blessed memory) was more explicit about things he never loved. He brazingly castigated regimes when he felt their actions were bad. His package was frequent visits to the prison. He even had a prison bag which he always kept in his room. He would pick it up each time it was time to go on holidays (all expense paid by the military regime of Nigeria).
Nelson Mandela spent many useful years of his life behind bars because he could not just live with the fact that he would have to keep quiet and simply do nothing to what he saw around him.
Ken Saro-Wiwa was not even given a chance to repent of his words and actions before he was executed by the Abacha regime.
Silvio Berlusconi of Italy would have won the last polls if not that he was too outspoken and did not think that there some things should or shouldn't be said. He said the Chinese (the main backers of his rival) used to boil & eat babies. He goes down as one of the greatest people with basket mouth tendencies.

The show of disgust and dislike or love for a particular thing could incur the wrath of those who are ardent supporters of it. I mean to say that being an antagonist or protagonist is a big deal. You're gonna have to deal with everyone who is passionately against your views. God help you if you don't have the capacity to withstand the barrage.
Chief Festus Odimegwu, who happens to be the MD of Nigeria Breweries PLC and a board member of the highly revered Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp) has just steered the hornet's nest by saying that he fully backs and infact will die for a third term for the president of Nigeria. His stance reminds one of someone who broke a wasp's mudhouse. Now the wasps have come out in their dozens. The remaining board members have decided that he should step down because of his utterances. He hadn't even talked when people had started saying that Transcorp was institutionalised by the President to fund his third term ambition. He nailed their coffin by his utterances. The board of directors, wary of being pointed out as a machinery of third term has decided to do away with him.
Many say he's expressing his views and should be left alone. I ask when politics and professionalism had a common room which they share. When did seasoned businesspeople become mouthpieces and towncriers for political programmes. Great wonders Obasanjo has a stronghold on many people, wielding them to sing as he pinches them.
Now shareholders of Nigeria Breweries have decided to dump their investments and people have said they would no more drink his beer (I wonder how that's possible) if he continues to take that stand.
Why is it that politics spreads deep into every part of the Nigerian life. Can't this businessman just continue making his money by facing the business before him? Is it necessary for the industrialists to also join in the puppet game? Even if you are a supporter, who asked to know of your opinion?
There's always a reward for being a basket mouth. Silvio will teach you from experience.
I'm definite that he has a price to pay for his open die-hard embrace of the devilish program. We shall no more drink Star, Gulder, Legend or any form of Odekumicine. Shikena!
Please my people co-operate & stop drinking beer.

Lingua Franca

A 30-mins watch of the news will tell you how hard the people are trying to learn another man's language. Passers-by when interviewed show that it aint easy to include the much-adored good spoken English in their list of priorities after the search for food to fill their bellies and shelter over their heads. You see very elderly people (who should have comprehended how to master it a long time ago) code-mixing & code-switching between English and their native tongues.

Signposts and sticker comments on buses like the one in the picture above show that the people are really struggling to speak English. Abi what is the native spelling for 'Such is life'? The answer is ' Curch is life". Some say the energy spent on mastering English is huge enough to make a visible impact on other fields like Engineering, Medicine et al.

Funniest thing is if you make the mistake of making a grammatical blunder (not speak English correctly), you will be the object of scorn and ridicule for as long as the memory of people who heard your blunder lasts.

Then go to other countries and see that what we all carry in our heads to be the language of the intellectuals is not a criteria for achieving astounding feats in fields of endeavour. Or how do you explain the fact that a german Professor who has gotten to great heights in research cannot speak English? How does he teach & learn from science? It's definitely through his native tongue.

That's why the Chinese President would not directly speak English even if he can. He would rather do it through an interpreter. Even if people like these force themselves to speak English, they do not bother if their English is of the most impeccable standard. No one boos them for not speaking it correctly. This can't be done over here oh! It's the dailies that will floor whoever the person is and tell him to go back to school to learn English.

Just imagine if President Obasanjo wakes up tomorrow and he addresses the nation in pidgin English understood by everybody in the nation. Una go laugh am to scorn abi? You will ask 'who gave him the pamison to speak pijin?'.But is it that bad to find other ways of expressing themselves.

As Lagbaja said, 'if I fire & you dodge I don't care".