JENNIE IFEATU

Oprah Winfrey quoted that "Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you." Our #ShowcaseThursday guest is as passionate about fashion as she is about food. Alia Bhatt further advices "Whatever you do, do with determination. You have one life to live; do your work with passion and give your best. Whether you want to be a chef, doctor, actor, or a mother, be passionate to get the best result." Let's slide into the world of Eke Rosemary, a Quantity Surveyor who has found love in Fashion and Designing. In her own words "My Inspiration first of all was being independent, I started learning and discovered a burning passion for making clothes. Well, It hasn't been easy, been difficult given the fact that the Nigerian economy doesn't really encourage entrepreneurs but passion, determination to make it and willingness to learn has kept me going." Word of advice? (She laughs softly) I  have not gotten to w...

Hippocrates affirmed that if we could give every individual the right amountof nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health. Meet Harry Fitt. His  fitness journey started in 2011, during his first year in the university. After a year of working out, he made a big transformation, went from skinny to a stud with a great physique. That's when people started approaching him  and complimenting him  for his training routine and  enquiring if they could workout with him. Hear his words "I actually was never interested in the fitness world, till my friend one day insisted that I follow him to the gym, that one day changed my whole life After that workout, I felt something within that I've never felt before It became an everyday ritual for me, it was my new addiction My body was responding to the training, I was getting results very fast Of course, I was putting them through, but it wasn't ea...

Professor Mbakwe had been a father figure to me when I was still in school. He advised me to stay back when I was on the verge of leaving school but my hopes seemed bleak, so I left. It was a miracle that he was spending part of his sabbatical leave in Lagos. It was quite unlike him. The usual thing for him was to fly without wasting time to his favorite holiday spot. Have you ever heard that once you bag a Ph.d, you begin to act abnormal? It may not be true about every professor but Prof was an eccentric man whose pot belly contained all the hamburgers that he had ingested during his stay at the Yale university. He rarely kept his beards but his moustache looked like a curved arc. I could affirm that he looked like the cartoon villain in the story of Peter Pan but Prof was a man with a large heart. I arrived at his office. It was located a few poles away from Lawanson bus-stop. What was he doing in Surulere, I supposed he would have chosen an area like Lekki to locate  h...

Arnold Schwarzenegger says "For me, life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer." Our Showcase Thursday guest of today has always been hungry of being an employer of labour. This influenced her decision to grow her own empire. Iroanya Judith Amarachi is the brain behind Unic Cakes 'n' more. A graduate of food science technology from the prestigious Federal university of technology, Owerri. Hear her words. "It started as a result of my passion for good food. It was during my service year, after all the talks and seminar  on skill acquisition, I decided to venture into it fully. Though I tried getting a job but to know avail. I always wanted to be an employer and not an employee." Unic cakes 'n' more makes tasty cakes and pastries. They also cater for all occasion. She  can be reached through Facebook : Unic cakes 'n' ...

Destruction and perdition reign in pools Bubbling in ripples and fighting cohesive force Plunge in! The force says Brother, what is your take? Eyes and hands fitted to a bag Conscience rejected like an old hag Sons of sons of Simon Pouting lips in treacherous kisses The heart is a bathroom Letting all in to bath A bath that leaves you covered in blood; even naked Beelzebub A little greed that ignite sinister bulbs The horse at the stream who refused to drink Did you run the cart into the ditch? Does the slave sell his master? Is thirty all  there is to life? Was Aceldama calling out to you? Invoking upon her altar your once disciplined soul? What do the goods in your stall portray? Could it be what I have heard or goods on Bee Trays? Could Iscariot have been a specie of carrot?

So how do I possibly want a want that leaves me in want? Kneel and pray to be a prey who at the face of its predator stays Oh! How you consume me Have all of me Till there remains no me in me I do not marvel at how you make my angels stay But how do you send my demons away? Does heaven blink and eat? Did you come in place of it? With you, my heart is a lagoon Calm and flooded with a collection of love-drops At your presence even the sun's heartbeat stops Let me hide what we share in his unbreakable cocoon Sit on the moon, let's make love faces Face that 'd never know phases For us, they will search through places Only you and I know where this place is

According to Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s unemployment rate is at 23.9 per cent; and 60 per cent of its population are youths, translating to 80 million Nigeria youths. Our person of focus is a different jigsaw piece. He does not fit here. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is the acclaimed largest study of entrepreneurial dynamics in the world, providing information to help policy makers, civil society and the business community understand the obstacles to nurturing entrepreneurship, enterprise promotion and growth. According to a survey carried out by GEM, the result of the survey shows that out of every 100 Nigerian adults, 35 are involved in some sort of entrepreneurial activities. This is the round hole where our round peg fits! John Belllo Okenyi studied Structural Engineering from the Federal Polytechnic Mubi. He Served in Ebonyi state and swam the murky waters of unemployment until he enlisted to begin a training with a company that installs autom...

The sun had set earlier than every other day. Perhaps the truck driver was right. "We now have shorter days and longer nights" He muffled out sounds from his bread filled mouth. At interval , his belly would jerk like he digested the bread as soon as he swallowed it. He often bought bread from my tray instead of that of the other boys in the group. "Shey e soft?" He would mumble, squeezing the bread lightly between his fat thumb, index and middle finger. His hoarse voice gave him away as a rough mean-looking man but I also pictured him sometimes as a man who would  have a family. Lots of children, maybe some who would have big sagged pants strapped to their tiny waist while they yell Daddy! Daddy! in excitement on his return back to his house at the close of the day. My left leg raised its weak self, wobbled  in the air  then met the red earth again while my right leg dragged itself forward to meet the impatient left foot's pace. I increased my pace de...

I entered my compound and banged the gate behind me. I walked to my door and inserted the key into the door hole then I caught a glimpse of a dark shadow that ducked. Could it have been my imagination? I turned the key to unlock the door and felt a pair of palms cup my eyes. There had been no supply of electricity. The black out just gained extra momentum.  I felt the palms then the softness of the palms and familiar cologne gave her away. "Abike!" She giggled as she released my tired eyes that she had held captive. "Why did you refuse picking my calls all through the day?", I feigned annoyance. She wore a mischievious smile, "Uncle police! So I am now to blame for a malice you started... eeehhh??" The thought of the title 'uncle police' was hilarious. "Oya, am sorry. I was only joking. How can I tell you not to talk to me again and you believed. I will die without you" "Hmmmm! You and your sugar-coated tongue",...

I will sit on the pyramid where I will be seen by you only At dusk my tears flowed Without restrain like a waterfall You chastised me O! With your burning sensation How I hated you How I wanted to lift my head up and grace your your face with spittle Your rays ate up my energy I couldn't breathe But it filled me with a strange yet more firm energy. I was bore of you Your words I chewed Letting the lumps crawl down my throat and enlarging my belly with a new feeling A feeling of longing yet satisfying My sight is renewed If this is what you want me to see Blind me with your rays Let me at the sight of your rays gasp I was told you give vitamins Is this the means? I have walked on red hot coals My feet are adorned with                           non-flammable soles I leap, lean in for his embrace and touch Alas! The sun does not scorch.

Nigeria.  June, 2020. It was a usual Monday morning at the United World Organization (UWO) regional office at Lagos. Employees walked like robots, every figure busy with his or her own tasks, nerdy eyes glued to their computer screens as their fingers pranced like hares on their keyboards. Men and women all dressed in suit and engrossed in their tasks. Their workaholic figures hidden behind their individual cubicle. I marveled at the site for a while then continued to mop the stairs. Just then, two hefty men brushed passed me in brisk motions that would have sent me tumbling down the stairs if not for my breakfast of fufu and bitter leaf soup that kept my feet on the ground. As I regained my balance, I wondered why they were in so much hurry as to obliterate every sense of courtesy. Few minutes later, they dragged Jackson down the stairs in handcuffs. What has he done? Why the public show of shame? The whole office was filled with murmurs and hushed whispers. I picked the m...

A birthday mate of the rain Existing before the occurrence of the reign Of optic fibres Ground intruding electric wires She lived and lubricated the terrains Of hidden deep earth-embedded maze Flowing through the creeks Into the pockets of those with colours of the greeks Economy draining into the sink Even before the next blink Our sales done in ecstasy Has defecated nemesis Is selling our black gold the basis; To keep Azikiwe's legacies? Fishes in the caskets down the river Children with bloated bellies that can't deliver the chill of black liquid on red earth makes it shiver Sniff! Doom is here, who will deliver? Upon her never-oiled back we hanged now, we fall like weightless rags Boma's oil spat a boomerang Ring! Ring! Her phone rang; "Not available," her network sang The black liquid no longer exist under the sand Wife of the red earth You flirted with the deep sunken rod Your value, Miss Man has gulped Algebraic and Socr...

They say If flabby breast  take over pointed breast What a flabby world, we 'd live in When a beardy jaw takes over a smooth jaw What a beardy world we 'd live in When the old hags take over the young What a haggard world it 'd be Woooooooo! The sinister wind blows The red anus of the chicken opens Layers of buried emerging faeces unfolds The ancient turn in their graves The smell of even juvenile fart crumbles the airways Tiny ankles tied with anklets Fig-like limbs adorned with trinkling trinkets Clothed naked bodies parading madness When modesty is roasted Charred remains of sanity is for breakfast Loosely hanged trousers on black toned buttocks Cursed is clothing Blessed is nakedness Upon the accursed firestand We roast chopped barbecue modesty

"We have come to a stage where we don't end up in the kitchen anymore. We are taking over the world, that is why we have come into even your villages to get you informed. Empower yourselves to get to where you desire in life. Always declare yourself a proud feminist, Thanks", she bowed and allowed her slim fingers pick up the sleek silver tab where she had been reading from.   The crowd erupted into a thunder of applause. "Nwanyi ka ibe ya', a thin woman yelled in a shrill voice at the top of her voice amidst the crowd. The anchor, a lady in her late fourties walked in elegant strides in her pair of stilletos to the podium and grabbed the mic then made few announcement. "Oyibo dizikwa too much. We should be allowed to go now", a fat sweaty woman behind the first row grumbled. Some of the participants were already making their way to the door. "No one should be in a hurry to leave, we will be taking photographs after now and ...