JENNIE IFEATU

I don't say what's up. I say What's new? Have you seen "I AM NOT PCOS" Its a short spoken word video describing the challenges of women living with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and encouraging them to live out their best life.

Teased by illusions  Tickled by threats  Yet this path I must thread  She says nothing  But her eyes speak all I need Perhaps words are vain  Words might be vain Yet in them I found a terrain  Have you ever seen the mountain top?  They are nothing close to the roof tops Impossibility is a thug Growling and staring me in the eye I have fallen in and out of love with life There is a transparent stream running through you All I have ever longed for lies in you   I am careless I have misplaced it a million times  Yet I find it in diverse crystallised balls again.

Earlier this morning I had woken up with a crave for bread. My love love for bread can be likened to that between a dog and a bone. It explains why when I was a kid every time, bread got missing at home, the culprit was always me irrespective of if it had been proven or not.  Yesterday, I was close to placing a bet on finishing a loaf but I had changed my mind because I could not  bear dwaddling like a duck all the way to work because of the heaviness of a full stomach. To my utter disappointment this morning, my bread had become mouldy. So I actually held 'a minute silence' to practically mourn my bread. That's how much I love it. However you have something more valuable than bread that is gradually growing mould. Do you have a talent, dream or skill that you have kept lying low and praying to have mould grow on it? You indirectly wish that! I should have put put a Readers Discretion before this post because this is not for everyone's consumption. I am tr...

Every night through the seasons,  Adindu's compound would be serene as a lagoon, dark as the night skies only to be interrupted at intervals by the hooting of the owl that often positioned itself on the mango tree at the rear end of the compound and Adindu's ever nocturnal creaking bed. The bed that had produced his fifteen children and served with total loyalty as his three wives love cradle. Each morning after 'the creaking bed escapades,'  he would trot out of his compound, whistling with a leer in his face and his pot-belly right before his stout body. His fair skin tone and handsome face would have been the bait with which he caught his wives who often turned his compound to a wrestling ground. Adindu was sweet-mouthed. A skill he used effortlessly. His creaking iron-spring bed was to be warmed up through the week by Hauwa. She was a beauty to behold. A northern goddess. Her white gap-toothed dentition made her her endearing. Her coco-like toned skin gl...

If you were undergoing mental stress and your doctor prescribed 'Vitamin H' as a drug, would you think he was crazy? Vitamin H is the new vitamin on the block. Helping means making it easier or possible for someone to do something by offering them one's services or resources. This is the place of Altruism. Its not some mumbo-jumbo from the oxford dictionary. It is when we put other people’s needs before our own. Some folks will put up arguments like if I had more, I will give more. You can actually give through: Volunteering Mentoring Doing something for a good cause Random acts of kindness There is a constant and unending war of either crashing down or rising up. We are strong people however there are people who are not so strong, this is how they are wired but have refused to deactivate their default setting. Everbody needs somebody. From the guy behind the counter at the bank, to the poor girl hawking grocery on the street, to the hundred billio...

Close them They allure me like a river Too beautiful like a rose's petal Too tempting It calls out to me Transfixed! Yet I move Plunging deep into it My clan does not swim I could drown Please close your eyes Hide it in your ribcage The thud jolts me Is it powered by a magnetic force? How come the strings of my heart are pulled out? Strings lying strained like that of a bashed guitar My clan does not wield a shield I am permeable Hide your heart in your ribcage Cover them They stand obedient like Altar Knights They draw close to me I grasp a pole But the wind drags me closer to you What do you desire to hear? My clan does not whisper I could spill it in like ink Please cover your ears Tie them up They are too pleasant to behold Fair yet strong Are they made of gold? I elope and they catch up with me My clan does not run I may never run away Please tie up your legs.

The dark sky is a coy mistress too shy to indulge herself in the embrace of her lover. I guess its a thing about masculinity,the sun subtly comes from the east without her knowledge and draws her into his embrace. They say two hearts beat as one perhaps that is what happens when we have the ash coloured sky  break into an orange coloured sky at dawn. Earlier, the atmosphere had been quiet with only the coarse voice of the bus conductor searing through the peaceful air  "Hold ya change!" He repeated it countless times each time, a passenger hopped into the bus like an incantation that a diviner was meant to recite or else he 'd be made mad by his gods. There is a guy with white earphones stuffed in his ears, he nods his head to the play of his music like he was excited but his face looked worn out like he had worked all through the weekend. This is Lagos, it wears even the strongest out. I am seated between two men. One is dressed in a black suit and the other...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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 frie...

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.

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...

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' ...