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Showing posts from January, 2018

A tale of men who went numb

How do you describe what has no description? How does one define what has no definition?7 You will never know Even if you sit behind the walls of Egypt's Bibliotheca Alexandrina There is a want There is a longing But if the longing is never fed It kills you It kills yet the strongest of men Gnawing the intestines and flesh first Before it makes a feast off the soul Leaving behind nothing Not a tiny debris How do we tell you that we are like vampires Waiting for centuries in fear Not of longing But that we may peer into your familiar face And all we 'd see is a hollow of nothingness That our blood freezes at your sight Sniffing in nostalgic air Then our breathing sighs and curls up in the deep of our lungs This is the story Of men who went numb Nails and teeth dig into supposed skin But they plunge out bruised There is nothing left So goes the tale of men who went numb

Meet DannyC: A voice that awakens dead men

Edith Piaf says "Singing is a way of escaping. It's another world. I'm no longer on earth." I can't  agree less with her after I had listened to our today's  Showcase Thursday personality. He sings quite effortlessly that makes you wonder how he draws the kind of energy he showcases on stage. Meet Daniel Chieke with stage name, DannyC. A gospel music artist, song writer,  painter and music producer. He currently works with Wole Oni of Instinct Productions (WOMP), has  dropped some singles so far and is  currently working on his debut album. In his soft spoken voice, he leads us into his music journey "I believe in making deep and inspirational songs,to help lift up the faith in man,to believe again and see the the power in the name of Jesus. My new single is coming soon,with title 'The Name" When asked if his being an only son and having grown around women influenced him to take on gospel music that some other secular musicians might

In the eye of the mind

She says a dance plus a step Makes up to two steps Is Pythagoras aware? Did you slurp off the vine? Is that why your eyes are red? Thou old drunk lady! Down the broad long road She walks in zig-zag steps On her head rests her load Paying imaginary debts Stable as change On every table matter sits change Yet unstable as water Eyes stare in the mirror Your face is all it sees O careless traveller! When your eyes are open Sights stick to your breasts Like cotton stuck to glue Like sap to a gmelina tree Will you from what you see set your heart free? A matrix of thoughts Electroplated smiles Embellished frowns Interconnected psychic fibres Excreting emotions in fluid and pulp A thunderstorm A ravaging storm Stick your eyes on my back Against your back, my sword makes a barricade Order and pressure me to be lame Your long rolled-up tongue, i will tame I have seen you When the tempest does not rage O disappearing captive of my rib cage I feel yo

Okeowo Mayowa John: A creator with magic hands

Swami Vivekananda says "All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark." This is the case of many Nigerian youths. However, meet Okeowo Mayowa John who has defied this to create the past, present and future with his bare hands. He ditched the wish of his family to study Law and go after Fine Arts. Hear what he has to say about that "I can't deny the fact that I have faced a lot of challenges but God's faithfulness and the joy emanating from drawing and sculpting has kept me going." He is currently a Higher National Diploma student of the Ibadan Polytechnic. "I also had a very strict lecturer who could make your interest wane but I was totally not going to be separated from my love for this art" He further divulged. He affirmed that art as made him meet people he never thought he would ever meet. His first commission work in 2017 was a work of sculpt

Lopound Virus 6 (Finale)

Soon the white board showed a beam of light and a video clip began to play. A man dressed in a black mask entered a very familiar room. He rummaged through files on a long mahogany table then an older man walked in. The masked man held a gun to the older man's head,he collected some files and shot him. Was it a dream? The older man was Prof and that  was his office. He opened a laptop but it seemed he was having difficulties with operating it. He yanked the mask off his head to view well into the screen. The camera zoomed in. It was Efe! Haaaaa!, shouted the lady beside me. The DG stood up, cleaned his spectacles and wore it again. There was an uproar followed by immediate murmuring. Efe jumped down form the podium and made for the exit door but was stopped by one of the disguised State Security Service officers (SSS). The SG grabbed the microphone. "All other recipients please go back to your seat. I just pulled a stunt to have him standby", he said with a

Geared Up: Strides towards changing the narrative of Nigerian youths

“The Nigerian Dream” is not a common phrase amongst the average Nigerian youths, as the environment itself largely influences a survival mentality that barely leaves room for lofty dreams. An environment, where youth poverty and other challenges facing the average Nigerian youth are as obvious as a floating red flag in the bright morning sky.  However, it is not all gloom and doom. With a population nearing 200million and the youth making up over 60% of that number, we are a nation with unlimited and untapped potential, largely due to poor short-sighted leadership and resource management. It is all about perspective. Do you know that? In view of the recent Libya slave trade saga in which a lot of Nigerian youths who in search of greener pastures drowned at sea or found themselves in torture camps or worst still sold into slavery for $400. Not to mention the prediction of Nigeria becoming the country with the largest number of poor people by February 2018, it is obviously high

We will not sleep

Did you ever hear about us? The knights that watched the night Inhabiters of the land of light Whose captain arose and was lifted to the highest skies We have never slept Our eyes do not blink Straight-faced shapened by anticipating Shall Enoch accompany him? We howl in the wind Calling out to the lost pack Sheep's in wolf skin It is cold out there We seek warmth With coarse palms we render a dove's touch Where we have found ourself is rock hard, it needs gentility Woe betide us if we but sleep Wait! Who sleeps on pins? The storm makes terrifying faces at our ship What becomes of our eyelids? They become uncoverable lids awaiting Him who leads We will not sleep till our captain we see.

Lopound Virus 5

They had got be kidding. Prof was my last resort to solving the Lopound puzzle and they said he was murdered,just like that? "Liars! I was this close!" I yelled and sobbed uncontrollably. My hands reached for the piggy bank souvenir and tossed it against the mirror.  I hated life for making things tough for me. I hated myself for abandoning an important mission to embrace bottles. Bottles of stupid liquid that left your pockets empty and your head heavy with a migraine. I just had to get to the police station. Stone cold! That was the description of Prof's corpse at the morgue, the murderers carted away all we had worked on. I had to start afresh. But with who? Who would I trust enough to spill out such information to? I had so much going on for me.... Perhaps I should tell mama but her health was at stake, stories like this could aggravate her health condition. I was alone and scared. My annual leave ended when I actually needed it most. When the m

OSHAMART: The 21st Century market in your pocket

Ryan Lilly  never knew he would have followers when he said “ Make something people want and sell that, or be someone people need and sell you.  Ugochukwu Okoye, a graduate of the University of Nigeria Nsukka is a young entrepreneur trailing that path. He is the creative hand behind OSHAMART. A virtual market  where people buy and sell on the digital space. While narrating his story, he had said "For a first time visitor to one of the countless markets in Onitsha, navigating through the maze of shops and ubiquitous ' middle-men' in search of the perferred products, with the right quality and at the right price is a herculean task. My case was no different in 2012 when I first visited Onitsha Main Market. My committee and I were tasked with the the responsiblity of producing customised tee shirts for the Catholic Students' body in which I was a student leader. We went there  to purchase dozens of quality tee shirts for the production, in company of a friend

Running on water

The only seed of that conjugation That has been and will ever be Do you hear my clatter in the wind? Do you feel my body shiver in the malicious breeze? My ancestors say I am mad of steel But I must confess I, Even I break In grinded uncountable pieces A lunatic chasing lunatics An exorcism looms that can be done Only by this lunatic exorcist A needful pastry that needs kneading Will you of this need knead? My kinsmen say I chase the wind Slippers in the air; Feet hang a bit beneath there I will chase the wind Till her tail I pinch With bare hands dragging her into my wind bag I have set sail and man my oars If this ship breaks, I will run on water On this aquatic terrain will I race upon Till I catch up not with the kingfisher or rainbow Nothing but the wind.

Lopound Virus 4

My sick mother would say "The old woman never gets tired of the familiar dance steps." Prior to this time, I thought it to be some old lady's gibberish but Prof proved my thoughts to be wrong. He had unearthed all the facts concerning the black-op. It was a black operation called 'Operation Lopound' which had  already been blacklisted and destroyed by the intelligence service of the United World Organization till these sons of doom resurrected it. Another ally in the plot was the Congolese government who had supplied a massive amount of cobalt to a certain phone manufacturing company called Tinkstar Technologies hidden under the conniving wings of the European assembly. The cobalt chip had been cloned with dermaloglyphic and telepathy influenced technology to extract fat-soluble vitamins in human bodies. Activated only by clicking delete on a crappy message that read; I dropped 10pounds in a couple weeks thanks to these berry-drops I got it here, type in w