CHOICES

I have over the months struggled with the idea of returning to blogging but time won't just let me. Man must wack! No food for lazy lol. Well, due to some certain insight I have resolved to start blogging again. I missed here and I learnt a lo
t. I miss all you guys( #youknowyourselves) Below is a short story I wrote a while back. By the way, I'm a freelance writer and I need more writing jobs and opportunities o! Hope you enjoy it.

Besides playing chess the only thing Jamiu did good was playing chess. From the early age of 9, Jamiu would frequent the local catholic priests, raptured in the mystery and magnificence of the game, he would watch keenly as they played. 'Chess, a game of deep thought, calculations and choices' the missionaries -who had left their comfort, always said to Jamiu.
In Nigeria the elite played chess, Jamiu's class fancied draughts. Aged pot bellied men would sit on opposite ends of a bench with a draughts board in the middle; playing with one hand chelsea london dry gin in the other, chatting, cursing and gossiping their lives away. Their young ones preferred thuggery, girls, patronizing video gaming shops and fiddling with drugs and alcohol. They had nothing to do with the mentally taxing. Jamiu dropped out of Aunty Bose Secondary School. His business studies teacher once asked him if fishery was an extraction, manufacture or service business, he stuttered 'mani, mani, manifashure'.
Jamiu thought nothing but chess. He literarily ate chess. He would miss lunch gazing at white and black plastic images ceaselessly for hours, muttering to himself. He would move a piece, stand up and switch to the opposite end of the board and then move an opposite colored piece. Mama Risi - his mother, would hopelessly stare at him, place her two hands on her head and move her head; left, right, left, right. Tears streaming down she would let out a pathetic hiss. She thought her son had gone mad. Emeka was making some money for himself trading, Lamidi was a conductor. He made #1,100 per day. Bisi had started her own paraga joint. China even sponsored himself to the University. Kunle alias black tiger was now in the agbero business. He put a girl in the family way and his mother would soon become a grand mother, mama Risi thought. She lamented her son's madness; always talking to himself, playing with images that looked like 'shigidi' to her. She suspected iya kunle. They had had a quarel. Iya kunle must have bewitched Jamiu she thought.
Jamiu's drunk father didn't
care whether Jamiu was Esu odara's puppet or not, he simply kicked Jamiu out, to fend for himself. Life was a game of chess, life had played, it was now Jamiu'
s move.

MUTALLAB THANKYOU.

I wrote this piece about a year ago but after the recent unfortunate happenings I have decided to edit the post and reupload it. Mutallab just put Nigeria on the world scene. Even the multi-billion naira driven 'rebrand Nigeria' campaign couldn't neither Nigeria's super eagles nor her #3 world's biggest movie industry - Nollywood has brought her this much global spotlight at once. Nigeria is now on the terrorist WATCH list of the US government. and on the ‘watch’ of the world but Nigeria begs to differ lamenting a single act of attempted suicide bombing by her (born but not bred) citizen is not reasonable to label a whole country a terrorist state. On the contrary, Nigeria might not have a proven link with Al queda but the country has continually experienced sponsored religious upheavals and movements in different states as far back as the 1970s when it began with a radical islamic group- Maitatsine. It believed its leader was the last prophet according to the holy quran to shut heaven's door once and for all. Hence every dead after the closing goes to hell. Their goal was simple. Die before the prophet or go to hell! It was a mass and bloody suicide mission. The followers would throw themselves in front of bombs and bullets fired by the government forces sent to stamp them. Nigerian Government soon realised this method aided their course so it went after only the group's leader and after he was killed his corpse was shown to his followers. Heaven had been shut! The madness stopped. Nigeria has been showing too many signs of instability, radicalism and religious fundamentalism. The Boko Haram debacle in Jos and Benue state revealed the islamic militia had a philosophy, sponsors,training camps and weapons to rebel against the Government! What else is terrorism?Nigeria's minister of information Prof. Dora Akinyuli has made a weak attempt to defend the country against the labeling by the US government in a vague statement 'nigerians are good people'. Sterner moves and contacts need to be made to quell the higher rate of american visa denials that awaits nigerians and intensive search of arrivals from Nigeria at international airports as a result of the national stigma. In the miraculous absence of Nigeria's president who is said to be receiving treatment in a Saudi Arabia hospital, the minister of information and the minister for foreign affairs need to mitigate and manage the foul mess. Ironically, Yemen recieves tens of millions of dollars from the US for being a terrorist haven. Commonsense let's us know nigerians don't run cartels has big and successful as the mafians and neither are they responsible for up to half of the percentage of internet crimes committed by americans yet they are seen as the black sheep of this generation. Obviously a minister of foreign affairs responsible for the international image of the country is not doing his/her job efficiently.P.S. I wrote this over a year ago and then everyone disagreed with me over Nigeria being a terrorist state. On christmas and new year's eve bombs exploded in Jos and Abuja respectively and the Boko Haram islamic group have sent tapes to TV stations claiming responsibility for the bombings. I guess they just confirmed my views. I pray for Nigeria nevertheless