Ola Barnabas

TRUE LIFE STORY OF A MIGRANT My name? You can call me Ese. I am eighteen years old, from Edo state. Two months ago, a friend of my aunt came to our house and said she could help me get a job abroad, she said she knows someone there who has been helping other people. We only had to provide about Six Hundred thousand naira for my transport to the Libya. My aunt, my mum and my elder brother all gathered the money and gave me some extra for the trip. Two weeks later, we were ready for the trip.  From Edo state, we were transported to Kano, and then Katsina, and, I don’t know the names of all the places, but they said they had to follow that particular road because of Immigration and other officers that collect money from them on the road. We went through several bush paths and un-tarred road in a long lorry until we were completely in the desert. More than ninety percent of us girls were from Edo state and I think all the boys were Ibo because they were speaking more of Ibo...

ISSUES THAT WILL DETERMINE 2019 POLLS IN NIGERIA As you may have noticed already, politicking is starting earlier this time around, and that’s principally due to the series of events that have hung around the neck of this administration particularly – the Fulani herders/Farmers clash and more notoriously, the IPOB secessionist drive which has led to very loud calls for restructuring as a more permanent solution. Do not be deceived that the issue is rested; no it is not. But above and beyond those two is the seeming dissatisfaction that Nigerians can no longer hide about their expectation and eventual reality with the current administration. For several people, elections better take place in 2018 so they can change the change (even though their own readiness to provide suitable alternative leadership is highly questionable). As it appears, even though some diehard loyalists of the present leadership of the country may not have come out to express their disappointment, many of ...

WHO IS AFRAID OF A RESTRUCTURED NIGERIA? A man has three wives, and he chooses one, only one of them for special and preferential treatment. One of the other two enjoys some kind of privileges because she played a part in helping the Maigida to attain certain heights sometimes ago. If she didn’t help, she possibly will be as unattended as the last wife, for whom I feel a lot of pity. That one of the wives is preferentially treated is a point that the Maigida himself has written articles to deny, this he has done through people who are paid to speak for him – workers I feel equal pity for because Maigida does not make lying easy for them anymore. Why are the other wives complaining? Why are they not reasonable enough to know that life is ‘turn-by-turn’? Why are they trying to make the house ungovernable for the Maigida ? How can they complain that Maigida uses only his brothers most times when there are assignments? How can they complain that Maigida’s brothers are kill...

Have you also ever had to wonder how some people survive being friends, relatives, acquaintances or even doing business with certain kind of people? If yes, then I’m relieved, that makes two of us. God! Some people are just impossible. Give them a job to do, they will give you assurances like non other, only for you to turn your back to go and that is the end of everything. They promise to deliver jobs at so and so time, and they probably even swear on their mother’s grave, check them out at the arranged time, you’ll be pretty surprised. Pay them for services and after they have collected the money that is the end of the job. They’ll never deliver. Agree to meet with them at a particular time, when the time comes, you are the only one that shows up. They never call to tell you they are going to be late or would not come, and worse still, they see nothing wrong with their actions. Impossible people! They are everywhere. They rate very low on the reliability meter. You find ...

MAKE ROOM FOR THE CHAMP, SAVE THE DYING CHURCH We were in the middle of this music concert, and every single presenter or group made you salivate for the next. It was all going so fine until a dance group was invited on stage. The way they danced that day, my friend, even yours sincerely was embarrassed on their behalf. They left the stage with mouths agape and minds in bewilderment; everyone checked to be sure we were still seated in a church hall. The programme host could only remark when he took the microphone: “That was something to watch, but, no matter what it looked like, I’d rather that they dance it in church than in the club house.” Young people are amazing. The way they do things, the way they want to do things keeps the heart of the old throbbing. And because they do not find room for the expression, we constantly see mass exodus from their church of birth to newer churches that allow such expressions. I remember reading a statistics sometimes ago that said the...