The Story of Imo State

Roads after two weeks of usage

When you browse for state of roads in Imo state and then you see all those nice pictures of engineers, both foreign and local ones working on very beautiful roads, please do not be fooled. They do not represent the state of roads in Imo State, not by any chance. I know this because I tried to browse for images for this write up and believe me; the pictures I saw there do not represent what is happening in Imo State all.

Construction Engineers

I intentionally wanted to stay quite but mama has got to say something, it's getting crazier everyday. Our governor is smarter than the rest of us. Isn't that why we elected him or let me rightly put it: Isn't that why he was selected? It's better put like this. And then he embarked on a rescue mission to rescue the people of Imo; so then, what are all these big roundabouts on small roads that cause big accidents on our roads? What are all these breaking down of shops to expand roads only to abandon the roads half way? The whole State is littered with abandoned roads. When they are done constructing the much they can, the roads break down after a week. Why?

The smallest amount of rainfall causes flood in the city. Sometimes, it looks like a witch-hunt because streets that do not lead to busy roads are broken down for expansion and then abandoned causing people untold suffering. And when they begin to work on a road, they select the houses or walls to break down intentionally passing some; it's crazy. People in Owerri understand what I mean. Don't pray to be out when it's raining in Owerri, which is an impossible prayer for God to answer now because this is rainy season and people have to go out to earn a living.

Earning a living, people need to live, right? So, you don't pay people salary, you lay off all the young people you employed last year in your Youth Must Work Project after owing them for so many months, you are not providing means of generating internal revenue for the state and yet you break down people's shops to construct roads which you will eventually abandon half way? How Sir? People are hungry and unpaid and the state is breaking up and abandoning roads? Sometimes, that roadside shop is what a family feeds with because salary is not coming.  The level of frustration in the state is escalating.

 We hear of people committing suicide everyday. Armed robberies are increasing, so is fraudulent internet activities amongst our young people. There is no way a governor will become a miracle worker but he should be sensitive to the needs of the people. Instead of breaking up roads, renovate the old ones. All the streets in most of Imo are riddled with very bad potholes. Instead of breaking up several roads at the same time, focus on one, finish it and go to the other. Instead of wasting time and resources working on the same roads over and over (on the same road, you will see different layers and colors of coal tar making the roads so rough and bumpy), use good construction companies and make quality roads. Truth be told, if all the roads this present administration built were quality roads, Imo will be close to heaven. Alas, it is not so. The roads become bad after two weeks or less of usage.

You see, I can go on and on in my lamentation but it will not make any difference. Governors should really stay true to their mandates and the will/needs of the electorates. Why make elaborate speeches and flamboyant campaigns only to use your office to oppress people? There's no need for all the stress. Go to a very strong babalawo, bewitch the whole state and become the Governor. Save yourself and the people all the stress because right now, Sir, your rescue mission needs to be rescued. It is drowning the people of Imo.

typical flooded compounds in Owerri
 after 15 minutes of light rainfall

Scriptwriter87@gmail.com

Instagram/Twitter: @club7teen

Friends who Rock!

So I haven’t had time to write in a long time. I’ve been busy attending meetings, strategizing, making new alliances and learning fresh facts. We even had a morning chat with Akwame, deputy Mayor of Lilongwe City in Malawi. It’s still in progress and promises to be exciting. Most interesting is that I’ve been meeting new and interesting people from other African countries. Trust me, they rock. So, this is to all my friends that rock, home and in Diaspora, you know yourselves; rock on! And oh, families rock the most. Aren’t they the best of friends yet?

To all those friends who rock

And then through this life I walk

On my face you put a smile

Making easy each stride in a mile

We have our arguments

Different perspectives in developments

And yet like a rock

You guys you rock

I count my blessings

None of you missing

For you, my heart is warm and gay

As you rock my world each passing day…

Scriptwriter87@gmail.com

Instagram/Twiter:@club7teen

The Word-napper

So I stepped out on Monday morning looking like this.

 *Winks*

As l walked down the road, the sun shone brighter.  While I reached into my bag to fetch my glasses, a guy rode by in a car. He said something that I didn't hear but I waved with a smile assuming that  it must be a greeting. I put on my glasses and he stops the car. He rode with a friend. As I approached, he shouted to me and said,

He: I was admiring your glasses and my friend was admiring your hair

Me: (with a smile) thank you

He: Thank you? Won't you give me the shades?

Me: You have a car; this is the only thing I have to shield my eyes from the scorching hot sun.

He: (Came down from the car and said to his friend) drive the car. (He turned to me and said) Now, I'm walking with you.

Me: (I smiled and said) eventually, you will get back to your car and I'll continue my hot sun trek.

He: I'll follow you to anywhere you are going. Where are you going to?

Me: Ikenegbu

He: I'll follow you. It's not every day that you see a pretty angel walking along the road by 12:00 noon on a Monday afternoon.

Me: (With a big laugh) when do you see them?

He: Ask anyone.  A beautiful girl, along MCC on a Monday afternoon? That's a rare occurrence.

Me: This is Owerri. Drive to IMSU (Imo State University) junction, you will see a lot of beautiful girls.

He: Well, those ones are students.

Me: I could be. Do you know if I'm one?

He: Are you? And your beauty is dazzling my senses. I can't think...

And so he went on and on. And I listened with a smile on my face. Then I said,

Me: Now, I'm suspecting you.

He: Why? Am I a Niger-Delta avenger?

Me: No.

He: Boko Haram?

Me: No

He: Kidnapper?

Me: Yes, that's the word-“wordnapper.” You can steal any girl with your words.

We both laughed.

He: You mean like a wash guy, like hypo guys?

Me: Oh, you have given yourselves some names already?

We then continued our journey and our gist; and yes, he dropped me at my destination. I told him I would write about him and now I have.

Shit is, when a guy walks up to a girl and tries to be all sweet and very familiar, it sounds so plastic. So guys, next time you walk up to a lady, take it easy. Otherwise she might look at you and ask the question, "Are you a wordnapper?" Peace y"all. (Lol. I'm just having fun. No vex abeg)

Scriptwriter87@gmail.com

Twitter/Instagram: @club7teen

Thumbs Up

 Yao: Thumbs down?

Bey: I wanted to do thumbs up. Lol

Yao: You broke my heart

Bey: Eewu, it's not intentional. 😭

Bey: I'm crying 😢 rivers now

Yao: Rivers will rather wash the pieces away

 Bey: Eei! Am I not forgiven?

Yao: Your thumbs up sunk my spirit so low

That it landed at the bottom of the bottomless pit where it doesnt glow

 So slow that your blow thwarted all attempts for my form to grow

 And just like a lost bet, she makes jest of my stress

 Alas, this too shall pass

when mournful flowers shall fill my vase

 Cautiously I count my scars and lick my wounds

For her sword plucked my stars and melted my golden spoons

However will I live, as I strive to survive

Who will contrive to raise me with a kiss that will revive

Nevermore for my pieces lack the peace to find surcease

I wince with a whimper as they scatter like geese

Adieu

Written for me by my friend- Yao Mawutor Fianu

Facebook/Twitter:@YaoMawutorFianu

I left home

I LEFT HOME

One day

I took a walk

I left home

The world beckoned

And so I heeded

Then I walked and walked

But home was gone

When I looked again

How could I stop?

I just kept on and on

Confused! Disarrayed!

I wallowed on

Who am I?

How did I get here?

When did I get here?

Questions

And even more questions

I looked within

Home was gone

And then too far

I began to dance the dance

Because an old woman never tires in the dance she knows too well

But my feet would not move

I opened my mouth to sing with my Ogene voice

My neighbor knocked on my door to say

"Why are you wailing, sister of mine?"

With my heart heavy, I lifted the pen to write

And the ink wouldn’t even flow

What a life!

I heard Mama say

Come home, straying child

But how can I take a journey when I do not know the way?

Oh, how I cried

In shame bowed my head

Days and weeks and months

Till the man who had the light came to me and said

Look!

But how could I?

When his glory blinded my vision

So I shielded my eyes from the light that blinded me

But when he spoke again

And heaven smiled at me

And then I could see again

And I ran and ran until I saw the sign

Home Sweet Home

N:B – A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of hands and so shall poverty invade you…precept must be upon precept, line upon line, a little here and a little there…Your greatness is those little steps of improvement you take every day. Your failure is all those tiny moments of procrastination and compromising of values. One day, you find out that you are far from your old you and you don’t even know how to get back. And when you eventually do, time has been wasted.  Daily work on you; give no rest to your wheel of greatness.

Scriptwriter87@gmail.com

Twitter/Instagram: @club7teen

He was right

 “What have you been doing with yourself,” I ask myself. I believe that that there's something that defines me that's more than having enough to eat and look good and I believe you feel that way at times too. Life is more than that; to live for those two is a bad way to live; to live in complacency is even worse, knowing that things are going wrong and looking the other way because you feel powerless.

Is there really a time when we are powerless? Is there a time when we are completely left without a choice?

In Nigeria today, people are hungry! People are frustrated! People can do virtually do anything just to survive! The rate of armed robbery and vandalism of oil pipelines have skyrocketed. These things are barely news. You know them; I know them. We are here in this state because of the poor decisions of a few, of those in our political class.

How can an individual own an oil well and handle deals with a country, deals that are supposed to be done country-country? How can one communication company handle both voice and data at the same time? You know about Oyo state, how one man single handedly made Alao-akala the governor of the state. You know how EFCC came to arrest him and the whole state threw a party. You know how he was returned before the end of the day and the gloom continued. You know how one man determines the political climate of a state and everyone watches. You know it in Abia State and T.A Orji. We did the much we could and then the one-man's will prevailed over a state.

And you remember when it was reported that the Nigerian budget was missing. A friend of mine who works in National assembly told of how the senators prepare the budget, which is a huge compilation of papers, and this document could just disappear into thin air. They drink(very expensive bottles of wine, after all they are senators) and curse themselves all evening into early hours of the morning, and so the bugdet reviews and prepares itself and decides to disappear all by itself, while the pimps with the girls wait for the senators to refresh them for working so hard. (But you already know these things and the more I remind you, the angrier and complacent you would become.) And then we sit back and read the news and discuss politics and that's about it.

I sit down with a lot of smart Nigerian youth, they are so politically enlightened and they have one thing in common: Their belief that Nigeria is doomed. And I get the connection; the more you analyze our politics, the crazier it gets you. One of my friends told me a story. He said, “In 1998, I told one of my friends who is a die-hard believer in the change of Nigeria when he was traveling outside Nigeria that if he comes in 20 years time, Nigeria will still be like this.” The friend came back this year, 18 years after. He was right. He even did us one better: Nigeria has gotten worse. So, we fold our hands waiting for the worse to happen, maybe one day God will kill all Nigerians.

Libya? Egypt? French revolution?

Are we this powerless?

By no means am I suggesting a revolution but if all these good heads come together, I'm definitely sure we can come up with a solution. But as for our present political class, you and I know that they have absolutely nothing to give. When you have lost your mind, can your head still work?

For now however, let Niger-delta avengers keep vandalizing. Let Biafra keep agitating. Let people keep dying of hunger. Let armed robberies keep increasing. Let dollar keep rising. These are the only things our fathers have been able and would be able to give us. Young people decide!

Scriptwriter87@gmail.com

Twitter/Instagram: @club7teen