Serendipity

Image: Pikist Over the weekend, I played football for the first time in probably 15 years. I went with my neighbour who plays regularly after I signified an interest in tagging along. As much as I love the sport, I must say I was petrified at the prospect of actually playing. Most of the people who played at the field where my neighbour played had been playing together regularly for a long time; they all practically knew each other and were quite good at the game as they appeared quite competitive during games. I had watched the guys there play before, they played like professional footballers. I was scared of playing in front of so many unknown people, I was afraid I wouldn’t be good enough, I was afraid at being laughed at, I was afraid people would form an opinion about me from how I played, I was just plain scared. My neighbour knew nothing of the trepidation I overcame to go for that first game; I decided it was a fear I had to conquer, this fear of judgment from other peopl...

Image: Sunnewsonline I was one of those people that campaigned vigorously for President Buhari in the build up to the 2015 elections. I had one main reason; I was tired of the ineptitude and corruption that held sway with blatant disregard in the Jonathan administration. I like many Nigerians at the time wanted Buhari to tackle corruption. I had no delusions of grandeur that Buhari was going to do wonders for our economy or transform Nigeria into a land flowing with milk and honey. The man in my mind had just the one mandate; fight corruption. And then possibly pave way for a younger more charismatic candidate beaming at the seams with progressive ideas; and one who would finally be able to settle down to the business of building a Nigeria of our dreams without the encumbrance and bottle necks of deep seated venality. The argument about Buhari’s performance thus far has left Nigerians divided, (not that we were running out of reasons to be) but irrespective of what side of th...

Photo: Newswhip The Oscar awards are a global entertainment staple, rewarding many great actors and film practitioners over the years. A number of Nigerians were just elected into its voting board. What does this development portend for us as Nigerians and for our movie industry? The idea for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences started out as an organization to facilitate smoother working relationships within the American movie industry in the 20s. Curiously, it was to be known as the International Academy but that prefix was dropped by the time the academy was officially incorporated.   In more recent times the awards have been dogged by allegations of being too ‘white’, a fact which the academy itself acknowledged and thereafter pledged an era of greater inclusivity by rendering its voting pool more diverse across not just race but also gender, age and relevance. And so consequently, a number of our own veterans here got drafted into the voting academy, but ...

Image: Melmagazine We’re all familiar with the usage of the word ‘Chivalry’ today and this piece looks at the take on chivalry by some advocates of feminism. I recently read comments attributed to one of my favourite and most inspiring people (in an interview she granted) where she argued for I would describe as a more balanced and gender-neutral inclined substitution for chivalry. I discovered while researching the topic that this particular view has actually been around for a while. My choice of advocate for feminism as opposed to outright ‘feminist’ is deliberate as it represents my current understanding and struggle with what feminism truly means. I have and will always believe that men and women are equal (and this is where I differ with some feminist ideologies), but different. What I hear some, (again permit me) advocates of feminism averring, is the ‘same’ treatment for men and women. Same here should not be confused with equal, they mean different things. I will atte...

Image: Livguard I had barely left my street heading to church one Sunday when my car started to act up. Sparking sounds emanated from the engine; an issue my auto electrician had just assured me was resolved only the day before. It didn’t take long for me to decide that it would be safer to park and investigate the issue further. On the opposite side of the road from where I stopped was a truck driver backing his long container truck into an available parking spot there. Now, this fault is something that had damaged the brain box of my car in the past, (or at least that’s what I was told was responsible) and so I was not willing to take any chances. The day being a Sunday, I wasn’t likely to get a mechanic easily and so I approached the truck guy parked on the other side of the road for some help. Thinking about it now, I’m wondering why I felt he could help; I guess I felt driving a truck implied that he was more technical than the average driver.   As I approached h...

Image: Life hope & truth The evolution of man to what we are today has taken place over numerous civilizations and eras. And when one considers how far we’ve come in today’s technologically advanced world, there’s a sense of achievement or even pride at some of the things that are possible today that were unthinkable just  decades before. And the development continues at an astonishing rate as technology often pioneered by the developed nations spreads to the other parts of the globe. Man also advances socially, this is evident in the eradication of a number of horrific social ills that were perpetrated at different times in our history. Slave trade, the holocaust, ethnic cleansing by different regimes as well as numerous unspeakable exploitative and oppressive acts that have sometimes been brazenly carried out in some quarters while the rest of the world watched. Usually such events are relegated to the dark history of the human race, or so I thought.  Sadly the ...

Image: Madison Just the other day, I was wondering how and in what ways our humanity is shared, if at all it is. As we traverse life, do we do so solely through our own experiences and consciousness or is there a way we are connected to and through the experiences of others. I considered how diverse our lives can be; how different and yet how similar human experiences are. I considered the extremes present in our world, poles of wealth, health, well-being, opportunities, exposure, intellect, understanding, sanity and even consciousness. I thought about how these contrasts don’t always exist in opposite ends of the world, oftentimes they subsist side by side, on different sides of a city or a street, or even within a family.    It made me wonder how much impact our circumstances have on how we experience the world, how we live out our lives. Are the experiences of the elite so far placed from those of the down trodden?  Those of the powerful from the weak? Those o...