God is not to be blamed.

Late last year, a church building in Akwa Ibom's state capital - Uyo collapsed. It was a sad day for Nigeria as people lost their lives in this unfortunate tragedy.
The response on Nigeria Social media was a little bit surprising. Atheists and non-religious people had a field day saying "the Nigerian god does not care about Nigerians","if God was really omnipotent, why didn't he save the people from dying or even stop the building from collapsing?"

These and many more were questions posed on the weekend of this event. Some of these questions, were borne out of grief and despair of course and some were just in attempt to mock religious people and their god.
There were few calls to the government to set up an inquiry panel to investigate the incident and subsequently prosecute perpetrators.

On the 15th of April 2013, two homemade bombs detonated 12 seconds apart near the finish line of the annual Boston Marathon. Boston is home to some of the best hospitals in the world and medical personnel, alongside bystanders responded swiftly to save lives. FBI and other security personnel went into action as quickly as they could, to arrest the perpetrators of the attack. Any clues the security operatives found that could help in getting these perpetrators arrested was shared with the general public so they could assist in the search for the criminals. Eventually one of the bombers died while trying to escape,the other one was arrested and was subsequently prosecuted.

The number of lives lost was recorded, people who sustained life changing injuries were recorded, people who survived were also recorded. No details were hidden, no speculation of numbers of people that were affected. Accurate numbers were given.

In Nigeria on the other hand, no information on accurate numbers of lives lost, injured and survived. It's all speculation. A pastor of the said church, who was supposed to be ordained as Bishop, supposedly knew that the building was not in good condition. It was alleged that he ignored "a stop work order" by the Uyo Capital City Development Authority (UCCDA) when the building was still in foundation stage of its construction. He ignored another one in 2014 and  subsequently the building collapsed in 2016. What was done to him? Nothing!!  No news of his arrest or prosecution till date.
He instead implored people to pray and blamed the devil for the unfortunate incident.

I remembered Fela Durotoye's Facebook post on the night of the Boston Bombing, he commended the medical personnel and people who swiftly responded to the incident, and added this

"Fact is - Evil people carry out bad things all over the world. But the culture of excellence, preparation, readiness, training, equipment, co-ordination and team work can save so many innocent lives when bad things happen.
So..........We may not be able to prevent the next tragic act of evil......but we can invest more in training and equipping our emergency response teams of the police, firefighters, medical response."

And I will just add that in the Western world, they tend to investigate the cause of man-made and natural incidents and find means to prevent it from reoccurring or work towards reducing the negative impact it will have on people as opposed to praying, blaming the devil and swerving responsibilities.

My husband told me about a documentary he watched weeks ago about the 1985 Bradford city stadium fire - I cannot bring myself to watch that documentary because of all the horrid details he shared with me. It was a scary and tragic incident. It started from a small fire and because of the wooden stands at the stadium at that time and some rubbish underneath some of the stadium's stands, it erupted into a huge one. This fire according to reports lasted just four minutes but the devastation caused was immense. Lives were lost, injured and there were survivors, all recorded accurately. Medical, security personnel and bystanders responded swiftly to the incident.

One of the survivors was Mathew Wildman, he suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and that meant he needed crutches to walk and was helped out of the stadium by a fellow fan - David Hustler. He said "I have never known anything like it, either before, or since. Everybody in the city was devastated, but there was an amazing number of volunteers. I still have terrible memories of the day, but it is the humanity of those that helped us that I reflect on"

They didn't just mourn after this incident or bury their heads in the sand. There was no party for survivors, just urgent medical care. An inquiry was set up and this led to the introduction of new legislation to improve safety at all football stadiums in the UK. Wooden stands and smoking was banned in all sports ground in the UK. The Bradford city club was found to be partially responsible for this incident as they had received letters before the fire incidence highlighting the need for improvement of the stands in the event of a fire outbreak. They had to pay compensation to the families of those who lost their lives or were injured. Till date, there are calls for a new inquiry into the fire incident citing reasons as times have changed and fire investigation techniques have advanced compared to the 80's, another reason was that the inquiry lasted just two weeks and was considered too fast.
Something my husband said that caught my attention and made me ponder about for a bit was the fact that at the end of the documentary, names of people who died was displayed on the screen. I had to conclude that and I say this with all humility and respect to those who lost their lives - the death of every one of them was not in vain.

Every rainy season, residents of a particular area in Lagos state, Nigeria complain about flood issues. Works are sometimes carried out in the summer in preparation for the rainy season but they are mostly substandard. And these badly constructed roads are a recipe for disaster. If something horrible happens, I do not think it is God's fault as some will like to allude to. It is the people's fault who decided to cut corners and do substandard work.

Thinking back to the weekend of the Uyo incident, I could not help but think why people could not see that God was not the problem here but the people. We all serve the same God, after all the Western world introduced God to us and he gave us wisdom to be able to discern right from wrong and freewill to do as we deemed fit.
God gave us and people in the Western world free will to do as we please, as it is with happenings in life, some people use their free will for good and some use it for evil.

I watched a video of Trevor Noah's book review that took place in London last year, and he read a part of his book and I could not help but ponder about it for a while.

"My grandmother always told me that she loved my prayers. She believed my prayers were more powerful, because I prayed in English. Everyone knows that Jesus, who's white, speaks English. The Bible is in English. Yes, the Bible was not written in English but came to South Africa in English so to us, it's English. Which made my prayers the best prayers because English prayers get answered first.
How do we know this? Look at white people. Clearly they're getting through to the right person".
Add to that Matthew 19 vs 14. "Suffer little children to come unto me, Jesus said "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven". "So if a child is praying in English? To White Jesus? That's a powerful combination right there".

It is funny but sad, because this right here is still our present reality.
We all serve the same God, whose only begotten son is Jesus just  like the Westerners. The only difference between us and them is that while we pray our problems away- which is foolish by the way, they tackle their problems head on. They strive for excellence and comfort and are willing to go the extra mile to achieve that.
We are blessed in Nigeria with the three types of resources: Human, natural and Capital. If only those at the helm of affairs could utilise these resources for the good of their citizens, Nigeria too will be able to stand almost as tall as other Western countries. It sickens me when we receive foreign aid because I believe we do not need it.

We must demand accountability, transparency, justice from our leaders, have high and realistic expectations from them. Do our part by being law abiding citizens.

I will end this post with a statement by Fela Durotoye -
Let us all commit to a lifestyle of excellence in all we do as we deliver the future. As we have seen excellence saves lives.

THE MOVIE 13TH - REVIEW

                                                       

I could not bring myself to watch this documentary at once. I had to watch it in bits. It is an emotionally draining one.

In this documentary, young black men and women were beaten, handcuffed violently, old men were beaten, pushed and shoved by white policemen without any form of empathy.
This documentary is mainly, Ava DuVernay's way of linking the past and current mass incarceration of black men in relation to slavery before it was abolished. Extensive research went into the making of this movie and there were evidence to back them all up to prove that slavery has been replaced by mass incarceration of black people. Contributors in this documentary ranged from formerly incarcerated men and women, former and present congressmen, activists, journalists.
Ava DuVernay brings to our consciousness the loop hole in the 13th amendment - a law that was passed to abolish slavery.

The 13th amendment law states that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as a  punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.....shall exist within the United states, or any place subject to their jurisdiction". The part of the law in bold italics is the loophole Ava sheds more light on in this documentary. It's being greatly exploited by those who benefit from it.

At the beginning of the documentary, we hear President Obama saying "5% of world population are in America, 25% of world prisoners are in America, think about this". 2.3 million Americans are presently in prison and of this number 40.2% are African-American men. I was shocked when it was pointed out that African- American men make up only about 6.5% of the America population. More Shocking was when Cory Booker (New Jersey Senator) explicitly said "Right now, we now have more African-Americans under criminal supervision than all the slaves back in 1850s" - Let that sink in.

The documentary traced the inception of mass incarceration of African- Americans to the 1915 movie by D.W Griffith titled 'The Birth of a nation'. This film portrayed black people as criminals and it got great reviews by critics and white communities leaders. President Woodrow Wilson requested for a private viewing and described it as 'History written with lightening'. In that movie, black men were lynched and were associated with menace. It also encouraged the resurgence of the KKK(Kuh Klux Klan) - who lynched and murdered black men. This movie also made black men to be treated as permanent second class citizens. This prompted a peaceful protest by black men wearing a placard that read "I am a Man"

Black men and women activists were thrown into jail for even peaceful protest and speaking up against police brutality and segregation. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X,  Angela Davies and other activists were declared the most dangerous men and women in the world by FBI Chief at that time J. Edgar.

As Van Jones, CNN political analyst Puts it - "You can tell the story of white leadership in America and never mention the FBI one time, you can't tell the story of black leadership not one without having to deal with the full weight of the criminal justice system weaponising this black descent"
Fred Hampton the leader of the Black Panther was killed at age 21. The policemen who carried his dead body were even pictured laughing. It seemed like a sort of relief to them that a young man whose only weapon of fighting oppression were through his speeches and protest was dead. The system was so afraid of Black men.

The Justice System was so afraid of black leaderships and groups no matter how small they were. So these groups and it's leadership were criminalised, thrown in jail or killed. This coincided with the government plans to rebuild the post-abolition southern economy. Prisoners built and reconstructed the prisons at cheap labour of course.

In the documentary was a video clip of Black Panther Assata Shakur who predicted that "In the next five years, something like three hundred prisons are in the planning stages. This government has the intention throwing more and more people in prison"


This documentary also highlighted how Presidents Nixon and then Regan heightened the problem of racial profiling of black people by starting a war on drugs lending credence to Shakur's prediction. This war on drugs was a subtle way of starting a war on black and brown people. They even used the slogan in their campaigns using it to appeal to more southern white people.

A Regan adviser  - Lee Atwater was quoted as saying "Y'all aint gonna quote me on this. You start out in 1954 by saying nigger. By 68, you can't say nigger - it huts you, it backfires. So you say stuff like forced bussing states rights and all that stuff and you're getting so abstract. Now you're talking about cutting taxes and all of these things are totally economic things and a by products of them is - blacks gets hurt worse than whites"

So it has always being in the plan for white leadership to destroy black men in any way possible, criminalising black men was the way to go for them.
The years of the civil rights movement saw an increase in incarceration of black people and black people began to see being arrested as a noble thing.

The 70's recorded mass incarceration based on the war on crimes spearheaded by past presidents. Black men and women got jail sentences for the possession of cocaine no matter how small, while white people got a judgement that can be described as a slap on the wrist.

It is not as if Black people didn't commit crimes, they did but so did white people. But more attention and publicity was put into the arrests and trials of Black people so even Black people were of the notion that there Brothers ans Sisters were criminals. They were scared and wary of one another.

Then came President Bill Clinton in the 90's, surprisingly his policies birth the current prison system. A crime bill that birthed the expansion of the prisons. He was also responsible for the three strikes law which allowed for repeat offenders to be sentenced to life and to be made to serve 85% of their jail terms.

The three strikes law includes even being arrested for theft or possession of drugs. Clinton's policy in addition to Regan's  mandatory jail sentences for drug crimes saw a large number of black people arrested and jailed. Hilary Clinton supported her husband's three strikes law. I could not help but think that maybe, that act of showing support for her husband's policy contributed to her loss.
Hilary and her husband have both publicly said they regretted that law.

Some black teenagers were wrongfully arrested for raping and leaving a lady jogger for dead in 1989. Donald Trump was  shown in this documentary saying the death penalty should be brought back. He campaigned hard for these teenagers to be killed. He even bought a full paper advert asking that the Death penalty should be brought back. These teenagers were eventually acquitted after serving part of their jail terms thanks to DNA testing.

The thing about been formerly incarcerated is that, it is hard to get a job. Formerly incarcerated men and women are mostly on benefits. The systems was tweaked in a way that once they are out it became hard for them to be employed.

I also wondered why Donald's Trump role in this didn't come back to bite him. He was forgiven for what he did, if not he would not have being voted in - White male privilege maybe.


The concluding part of this documentary also showed Donald Trump while he was campaigning clamouring for the good old days where protesters were carried out in stretcher and criminals beaten. One could not help but think that criminals was his subtle way of referring to Black people.
Police brutality to black people was shown in videos and pictures.Very horrid I must say.


On the whole, if you are interested in the America's prison system, slavery and the injustice meted out to African- Americans, then this is for you. Ava Duvernay covers all aspects of these topics extensively.

FAREWELL TO A PHENOMENAL WOMAN - MICHELLE OBAMA

                                                                         
Prior to 2007/ 2008, I had never heard of the name OBAMA. I was not really conversant with world politics. An excuse I tend to give was that - I was too preoccupied with Nigeria's politics.

I am a huge fan of Hillary Clinton and I wanted the Democratic party nomination for Hillary. It will be great for a woman to become the  president of the most powerful country in the world- I remembered saying to myself.

One day in December 2007 my dad and I were talking about US politics and I told him, I wanted Hillary Clinton to get the nod for the Democratic party presidential primaries. He knows I am a huge fan of Oprah and he said 'Oprah endorsed the other candidate - Senator Barrack Obama'. That was the first time I heard his name. I remember looking disappointed as I asked my dad why Oprah would endorse a man over Hilary, aren't women supposed to support one another?

My dad said something to me then and over the years, I have come to understand the statement he made. My dad said 'When someone like Oprah is asked to choose between supporting one candidate from either her gender or race - (and her gender and race are in minority), I guess the right call will be to choose race because men and women of her race stand to benefit if Obama becomes the president'  I remembered just shrugging. Suffice to say I switched allegiance to Obama because of Oprah. I saw Michelle on the campaign trail but never thought anything about her.

On the night of the election, when Obama walked to the stage to give his victory speech was the day I fell in love with Michelle, she oozed of class, charisma and elegance as she walked out holding the hand of her eldest child. Her smile looked genuine.

I love intelligent and successful women. Michelle ticked those boxes perfectly.

I remembered when she started the initiative to address the issue of obesity in schools and encouraging healthy eating amongst school children. I thought it was brave of her to speak out concerning such an issue. The truth is obesity was and is still a huge problem in America but parents can be overly sensitive when it comes to their children and I was expecting a backlash from the parents and schools, but I guess they were swayed by her charm. Her passion to put an end to obesity was questioned by feminists. They had other expectations for her and felt she was too much of a mum as opposed to being a career woman. Her support for homeless veterans and families of military men and women, which I believed was  noble of her, was questioned as well. She was described as a 'Feminist nightmare'.

Almost everything she did was questioned. She was called derogatory names, her physique was scrutinised. Is she a woman? Is she too strong or weak? Is she feminist enough? Is she an angry black woman? ......just to mention a few. Through all this name calling, Michelle rose and came out of the mud slugged at her looking pristine.                                          
Little did we know that she was living by a motto she was kind enough to share with us at the Democratic party convention that took place last year.
Our Motto is - When they go low, we go high.
                                                                               
She remained focused on what she felt were important issues to her. She attributed this to knowing herself and not listening to distractions. She brought a human side to the office of the First Lady. A human side like we had never seen before, a human side we could relate to.
She opened the doors of the white house to everyone irrespective of race or gender. Like her husband President Obama said about her in his final farewell speech, 'You made the white house a place that belonged to everybody'

I watched in awe and admiration, the video of her 2015 University of Tuskegee commencement speech, She spoke about how she dealt with all the name-calling, how she declined to conform to other people's expectations of her by just being true to herself.

In my opinion, Michelle Obama lived her life in the public eye and still managed to live in her TRUTH.



She laughed when she wanted to, she joked about her husband, herself and even added her children to the mix. She danced, sang, rapped when she wanted to. People looked forward to her interviews on talk shows across USA, because of her fun personality.

The partnership, friendship, mutual respect and love Barrack and Michelle Obama is admirable.

Dear Michelle Obama,
In your  final speech as First lady at this year's School Counsellor of the Year,  you asked 'I hope I have made you all proud'?
I speak for myself and say that I am proud of you, your works and achievements.

Your influence has gone beyond the shores of America and people like me who live miles away have felt your impact.

Reiterating what Oprah said to you at the United State of Women Summit 2016 'The way you handled this office, the way you carried and presented yourself to the women and men of United States reminds me of a line from Maya's book - you make me proud to spell my name WOMAN

I wish you all the best as you start the next chapter of your life.

Farewell Ma'am!!!

CHEERS TO A SUCCESFULL 2017

Happy New Year!!! This is coming a little bit too late - 8 days into the new year, but work just started for me today on the blog. I have being on holiday mode. I had to take time off the blog and social media in October. I had an exam to prepare for, I started a new Job, and my son started reception class in primary school - he found settling down into the new school and adjusting to routine very difficult. All these required my undivided attention so I had to take time off.

Thank God my son is settling down well and he has adjusted well to school routines. I passed my exam, which was a huge relief. I believe I have gotten to the point in my life where Time is more difficult for me to give than money. All I kept thinking about while preparing for this exam was the fact that if I failed it, where will I get the time to retake it? Money was not an issue for me anymore - not that I have loads laying around, but time is of more value to me now. Shout out to all Parents juggling family, work and school together - You guys are the Real MVP!!

There will be few changes on the blog. I am looking to devout more time to the blog and make it more interactive. The blog will be updated every Monday. To encourage visitors on the blog to post comments, there will be 6 recharge cards to be won by active commenters at the end of this month.

All you have to do is regularly post comments on the blog, and the most consistent people get to win recharge cards for network of their choice.
There will be giveaways all through this year and they will be announced at the beginning of the month.

For the month of January, I am reading A RETURN TO LOVE - Reflections on the principles of A COURSE IN MIRACLES. I will be sharing excerpts on this book on my Facebook wall and review it at the end of the month.

As part of the changes to the blog, documentaries and movies will be reviewed on the blog too. I am currently watching a documentary titled 13th by Ava DuVERNAY and will review it sometime this month.

If you will like to review anything of interest to you on the blog, please send me an email or a Facebook message. Suggestions on books, movies and documentaries are welcome.

I will like to end this post with this message that was shared by a friend on Facebook, Number 6 resonated with me. I hope this message resonates with you too and help you in your journey on becoming the best version of yourself.





No matter what you are going through, God's got you!!

Have a Prosperous and Fulfilled 2017

Best Wishes
Bola Awe