OCCUPY 2012

                  

Before the 1^st of January this year, the word "occupy" was just a random word to the average Nigerian but by the end of the first week of 2012 there was only a handful of people who didn’t know its meaning. According to the English dictionary the word “occupy” as used in this context refers to the act of taking over a place: to invade and take control of a country, area or building. There were two major occupy protests this year, the first one was OCCUPY Nigeria and these protests which grounded the country to a halt for 5 days occurred as a result of the Federal government announcement on the removal of the fuel subsidy on the 1^st day of the year. The second one was the OCCUPY UNILAG protests. The latter didn’t ground the nations economy but activities in the school were suspended because of the riots that ensued the democracy day (may 29) speech of the President in which he announced the changing of the name of the university to Moshood Abiola university of Lagos (MAULAG). This announcement did not go down well with most people as protests began that very day as early as 9 a.m. Let’s go into the nitty gritty of the whole story.

OCCUPY NIGERIA

What started as a happy day being the 1^st day of the year ended up with a lot of mixed feelings.

I woke up that faithful morning and all I was hearing was the exchange of pleasantries between neighbors and the usual “happy new year, same to you” greetings. I went to church, grateful to God for the gift of 2012 and when I got back home, I decided to watch t.v and that was when I saw the news. The next thing I knew people were spitting fire and brimstone on social media i.e twitter, facebook and even on the streets. People who didn’t even know the meaning of subsidy were suddenly enlightened. Then activists and other organizations decided to embark on an industrial strike action so that the government would retrace their steps. ]

 

       

The protests began in the 2^nd week of the year and the first two days of the protests were thorough. Lagos state was at the center of it all. People also gathered in other states like Oyo, Abuja, Kaduna, Edo and even outside the country like in NEW YORK to hold their protests. In Lagos, the Gani Fawehinmi freedom park was the camping ground for the protests. The protests were coordinated by the SAVE NIGERIA GROUP and other activists. The protesters would start marching from yaba and would be joined by other protesters along the way. then they would all converge at the freedom park. The freedom park was likened to the Tahrir square of Egypt where protesters camped till they had their revolution. 

 

During the protests, the streets were empty.Its either you were on the road protesting or you were in your house watching the protests. People were afraid to come out because of the riots which were getting worse by the day. The fear of tear gas, random shootings et all kept a lot of people indoors.

By day 4 of the protests, the freedom park gathering was starting to look more like a concert because various musicians were performing and since the youths constituted the highest number of people around, it wasn't difficult to engage them. while they were enjoying themselves, the convener of the SNG advised them not to forget the main reason for their gathering. Many celebrities were present and so they decided to thrill the crowd so they don]t get tired. We can conclude that this worked because more people were trouping to the freedom park.


 

 

 There was a meeting earlier that week between the Federal government and executives of the NIGERIAN LABOUR CONGRESS (NLC) but it was more like an ego battle because none of the two parties was willing to come down from their high horse.it was a grid lock. They had another meeting on saturday and the price of fuel was reduced to 97 naira per litre. Of course, some people were not happy with the resolution but the protesters had agreed to stop and so Occupy Nigeria died down.










These are some of the pictures of the protests.  


 

 

     

Yes...they also occupied the north.  
 
 

The crowd was MASSIVE....

 

Some people really took it personal ....
 
  



....while others were calm about the whole thing







yeah....the police and army were also present :)        

 

  ...and some people decided to occupy the streets 

 



Hmmmmm.... I had a pretty good laugh looking at these pictures, I hope you did too. The last set of pictures  reminds me about the average Nigerian's sense of humour. Let's not forget the subsidy songs like "wa gba petrol" and cartoons that were produced. Our ability to smile even in the midst of so much suffering cannot be overestimated.
Look out for OCCUPY UNILAG in my next post.


GRACIAS.

TRUE CHRISTMAS

It is not about the number of chickens you kill, neither is it about the number of beers you take. It has nothing to do with the number of parties you “rock”, same way the number of heads you turn with your pretty hair and beautiful dress remains irrelevant. Even though Christmas seems “impossible” (to some people) without these things, we have to remember the reason for the season. 

The baby we celebrate this day was already a king before he was born (talk about swag!), he came down on earth to bring peace to all men (not only to the rich, but also to the poor). Of course, he had a choice to stay back and watch over us from heaven but he decided to come to the earth like every normal baby just to show you that it is possible to live a just life even in this present age.

As you go about eating, drinking and celebrating today do remember that there are those who cannot afford the fun you are having either because they are poor or because they have no other choice because they’ve been on admission in the hospital for a while. To them Christmas may have no meaning because it is pretty hard to see the joy in the midst of so much suffering and pain but that’s where you come in. you are happy and able to celebrate this period with joy why not share some happiness with them. You don’t have to do the extraordinary because it’s the little things that count. It may be in your place of work or even on your street. You may be a doctor in a hospital, going personally to wish some of your patients a merry Christmas, sharing ice cream and even taking pictures with them will go a long way to give them that beautiful smile.

The true definition of Christmas is seen in that smile you are able to bring to the face of someone who hasn’t had the course to smile in a long while. We are all our brothers (and sisters) keeper, let’s show love to one another just because.

In the spirit of the season, yours truly is wishing you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!.... Put a smile on someone’s face today like this ;) :). Let me know how you spent your Christmas too, please share your experience here.

GRACIAS

2012 IN RETROSPECT

 






DEAR DIARY:
"2012 is ending already???..... oh well!"

Its the end of another year and all I can say is thank you. Its been a year of mixed feelings for me but some good things happened along the way..yeah, like this Blog. I didn't know that by the end of 2012 I would have a blog where I would share stories and people would read them and even comment, I never knew. A lot has happened this year to me as a person and to us as a nation. All of us in one way or the other have seen the good, the bad and the ugly this year. We {well, most of us} made a lot of plans and resolutions at the beginning of the year, I wonder how that turned out.

Well to mark the end of the year, yours truly is going to be dishing out all the cool stories and major events that made 2012. Its going to be a PHOTO BLOG...yeah you heard right, you are going to be seeing a lot of pictures with stories to compliment them. I haven't done something like this before though so let keep our fingers crossed and see how it turns out.

As you read the posts I'll like to remind you that the year wasn't entirely beautiful, there were some really sad tales that did us in but still we thank God for grace. That you did not accomplish all you hoped to, does not mean you failed, it only reminds you of the fact that you are human and liable to make mistakes. Look on the bright side, for every "NO" you got this year, you've come out a wiser and stronger person waiting to face 2013.

Lets go down memory lane and have fun together. Please feel free to drop comments and criticisms, I'll really appreciate them. Also do tell a friend, to tell a friend to read the posts. DEAL??..... DEAL!!


 I would like to know how your year has been, what rocked and sucked for you in 2012? do describe 2012 for me in your own words.... beautiful? horrible??...let's hear it.



GRACIAS.

FROM THE WOMB.

……And we are back from the break. You are still tuned in to 94.3 Stehllar Fm Lagos and it’s still the show “RISING STARS”. In the studio with me is fast rising act and the voice behind the hit song “It’s my time”. —————>Raydon-G *applause*. We are going to be asking him a lot of questions this morning because we want to feel his pulse, we want to know what makes him tick. So feel free to call in and ask any question, the phone numbers are 01-2712943 and 01-2713943. Here we go!

OAP: Good morning Raydon-G. How are you today?

Raydon-G: I’m good. I’m really happy to be here this morning.

OAP: yay!!!… That’s cool.

Raydon-G: yeah… Yeah. *smiles*

OAP: hmmm…..so let’s start from your identity. Your name sounds weird, how did you come about it?

Raydon-G: yeah…people tell me that all the time.

OAP: oh yeah?

Raydon-G: yeah….everywhere I go, they ask me the same question.

OAP: so let’s hear the story.

Raydon-G: well I got the name in high school from a couple of classmates. Then I always liked to sing like the late ray charles and so I was called Ray. Initially it was “don ray”, but everyone was “don-something” those days so I decided to reverse it and that’s how I Got the name.

OAP: ha ha….”Everyone was don-something”, Alright that’s cool. The “G” part??

Raydon-G: yeah, its from my name Gabriel.

OAP: okay… So what’s your full name?

Raydon-G: my name is Gabriel Coker

OAP: let me guess, you are from Lagos?

Raydon-G: yes I am…. How did you know??

OAP: well most people I know from Lagos bear such english names like that as surnames. You guys have names like williams, baker, johnson and the likes.

Raydon-G: ha ha…. That’s true.

OAP: someone said it has to do with the colonization era.

Raydon-G: yeah, I guess so.

OAP: Alright now….let’s get to your music. When did music start for you when did you discover your talent?

Raydon-G: *clears throat*….. Well music started for me way back when I was a little kid.

OAP: really??

Raydon-G: yes. My mum even told me that I had been singing right FROM THE WOMB, that she felt me singing in her womb even as she carried me…………………………




By this time yours truly had stopped listening. He was still talking but all I could see were his lips moving. There’s so much a man can take but this is the height of it all. I mean…… “Singing from the womb??!? Did you use your placenta as a microphone or guitar??!”… I was asking myself as he kept talking.


(Welcome to stehllar’s SUBCONSCIOUS…let’s discuss)

A lot of artists, actors, dancers these days claim to have had their talent from the womb. Its now becoming synonymous with their success. When they become successful they say they’ve had the talent from the womb but when they are yet to make it, they tell you their life history and how they are struggling to get to the top.

The phrase “……from the womb” has been over-flogged, beaten and dragged. Why would you tell me that you have had a particular talent from the womb? It just doesn’t add up. As a neonate (new born), the only thing you can do is cry, your eyes are not even open yet!. So if you call “crying”, “singing” that partly explains why you are still struggling to make it.

As a child you may have an innate ability or likeness for a particular thing but having this “likeness” does not guarantee that you will succeed if you decide to make it a career. This is where terms like NATURE and NURTURE come in. While NATURE refers to something that you came to this world with, something that is already in you, NURTURE refers to act of growing something so it can mature. Mother nature has blessed us all with an innate ability but it takes nurturing on our part as individuals to make sure that it grows to be successful.
 The fact that you have an inbuilt love for an art means nothing if you do not grow and develop it. You have to challenge your talent, feed it and nourish it so that it does not die of MALNUTRITION.

Someone once said ——->”CREATIVITY IS LIKE A FART, U CANT FORCE IT WHEN IT’S NOT THERE, NEITHER CAN U HIDE IT WHEN U GOT IT”…….hahaha, need I say more???



GRACIAS.

IN LOVING MEMORY

"How did it get in here???"

.....we asked ourselves as we heard it scrambling and making it's way through the books in one corner of the room. It seemed like it had been in the room for some time because the manner in which it ran from bunk to bunk showed that it was no "jjc". We were at a loss, because we didn't know what to do with it. Its not like we were scared or anything of the sort because we had tried chasing it out before but yours truly almost broke an arm. No one was ready to be tied up in P.O.P (plaster of paris) so, we decided to let sleeping dogs lie.

We waited earnestly and prayed fervently that it would one day, leave the room. Day by day we hoped that it would find the door open and scramble away. ...But this did not happen. One day, our prayers were answered. The student body had placed a circular on the notice board stating that the hostels would be fumigated within the next week. Our joy knew no bounds as we waited in excitement.


They came fully clothed in their attire looking like the ghost busters one morning, and they were ready to carry out their business. They sprayed different chemicals in the room and even placed certain tablets on the floor. All we needed now was time so we could see the effect.

I was rushing to class one morning and was about to pull out my shoe and Voila!.....there it was all cuddled up in the shoe lying cold in death. It must have eaten one of the tablets placed by the fumigating team. It looks like it crawled and crawled with pain after it had eaten the "forbidden fruit", looking for its final resting place. Then it saw it, that beautiful shoe (more like a casket) where It would lay and say its final prayers. It curled itself into a comfortable position and drifted into eternal rest.

THE END ;'(


To its fellow creatures, I say weep not!.......for it is only a matter of time before you all join your fellow compatriot. Enjoy the life that you have now because it may be taken from you in the twinkling of an eye.


R.I.P --------> Rattus Rattus
.......Your "athletic skills" will be missed and your memory will remain indelible in THEIR hearts. ADIOS :'(



GRACIAS