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.