Everything is the Government's fault!

“Good morning ma”.

“Good morning my dear, how can I help you?”

“Ma, I came to enquire about a vaccine”.

“Okay, Sit down and wait for my supervisor”. I was in a general hospital and came to inquire if I could get the last dose of a vaccine I had started at home. I looked around the antenatal ward. It looked old and there were so many posters on the wall about vaccines and antibiotics.

“Is it a drug or injection?. The lady I met in the ward asked.

“An injection, ma”. I replied guessing she would be one of the cleaners and turned back to reading of the posters.

Few minutes later, “Is it hepatitis vaccine?”

“No ma”.

“Hmm, Okay o”. she said and I brought out my phone to check for messages.

“Have been to OPD?”

“No, ma” I replied again. Noticing she was probably just fishing for conversation, I added, I started the vaccine at home and I’m to complete the last dose today, that’s why I came”.

She looked at me sadly and said “Where did you start the vaccine?”

“Delta State”

“I don’t think you would get that vaccine here o”.

“Ha! Why Ma?”

“Hmm, you know this our state, we never get anything good, all the good things are sent to the surrounding states first before they get here”.

“Really?”. I asked smiling.

“Yes O, you know our governor, that man is not a good person at all. Since January, he has not paid salaries. How does he expect us to feed our our families?” She said bitterly.

“See”, she went on counting with her fingers, “January, Febuary, March, April and this is May, nothing. If someone does not have anything doing on the side, how are we going to survive, ehn?”.

Wondering how the issue of my vaccine got to her salarynot being paid, I encouraged her by saying “Eyah, that’s not fair o”

“My daughter, it is bad o, but thank God, the incoming government has decided to close all borders so that no governor would travel out till handover”.

Not knowing if that was true or not, I added a “Really” to make her know I’m paying attention.

“Yes O, after eating all our money, they want to run, e nr go better for any of them, thieves!”

“I heard one of the governors sef has paid all the salaries of his state” She continued after a pause. “But I know our own will never pay, that is why this state will never get better, have you ever seen a tap in this place?”

“No, ma”. I replied since that was obviously what she wanted me to say.

“Ehen na, they are all spoilt and have not been repaired, now we only manage boreholes and wells”

While i was busy wondering if there were any difference between boreholes and taps, she continued, “Everything is just going bad o and worse every day, and it’s just because of this our government”.

Finally her supervisor came in and the talkative lady stepped out.

Five minutes later, I was done. I came out and saw the lady again

“Did you get the vaccine, my daughter”

“No ma”

“You see, what I told you, don’t mind this government jor”

He raped her and she raped him back

I was walking down a street in school with two of my colleagues and I was complaining about how hot the sun is in this state when we came across a guy. He was dressed shabbily and looked a bit mad, had beards all over his face and was generally unkempt. As we walked past him I prayed silently he wouldn’t accost us, but then also grateful for my male counterparts who I’m sure would protect me from him if he did when suddenly he hailed one of us.

The colleague he hailed turned and answered him in a familiar way.

“Do you know that guy?” I asked after we had gone a few paces ahead.

“Yeah, I do. I even know his mum, she works here”

“Really, what happened to him?” I asked.

“A woman put him in that position”

“How come?”

“He wasn’t always like this, but his love and insatiable hunger for women landed him in this position. He couldn’t stay away from anything under skirt and one day he raped a girl. She placed a curse on him and since that day he has been insane, and now whenever a girl mistakenly falls into his trap, he beats her up mercilessly”.

“Yeah, he raped her and she raped him back” my other colleague added.

I tuned back to look at the young man and wondered how he threw away his future because of his lustful desires and shook my head sadly.

Are you an illiterate??? Find out!

What is Education?

The meaning of education can be looked at in two dimensions; in a broad sense and in a restricted sense.

In a broad sense, education embraces all the experiences which an individual acquires including knowledge, skills, and attitude. These experiences may be acquired within or outside an organized school system as well as those received outside it and range from advice given by parents and elders that the individual makes use of from the first few days at the beginning of life and the last few days, towards the end.

In a restricted sense, education refers to those learning experiences that are provided by or sanctioned by the state, that are transmitted in institutionalized settings and are concerned to provide a broad understanding of the world. This form is also concerned with transmitted knowledge, skills and attitude that are sanctioned and considered worth having in the society which the individual lives.

In whatever sense, education is needed for the survival of the society and aims in making learners less ignorant and well informed. Education is from the society and for the society. It refers to all the experiences that help to shape and change an individual positively, to enable him or her to be useful to his or her society.

Being an educated person does not rest solely on certificates. That’s not even relevant anymore due to the dubious ways most of such are acquired. Hence, who is an educated person? Rather, who is an illiterate?

ü You’re not educated if you can’t apply the skills, knowledge and attitude you’ve acquired to make your society better.

ü You’re definitely an illiterate if you divert funds given to you for the benefit of the society to personal use.

ü You’re not educated if you finish eating a snack, or finish drinking satchet water and not dispose the waste properly. Illiterates throw waste out of their car windows when in a moving vehicle.

ü  You’re also not educated if you zip down your fly and urinate anywhere, anyhow in your environment.

ü You’re not educated if you can’t bring a positive change in your society.

ü If you do not know the roles, rules, relationship and culture of your society, you’re an illiterate.

ü If you don’t have respect for worth and dignity of other individuals in your society, illiteracy is your middle name.

My First Class

One important part of my post graduate programme in education (PDE) is Teaching Practise. This is usually done in a secondary or primary school of your choice where you go practice all you’ve been taught in class…

So I started mine on Monday in a secondary school close to my house. My first class was on Wednesday. One thing I suffer from is, whenever I’m about to do something for the first time I get nervous, apprehensive, tensed up e.t.c. This is usually accompanied with sweating profusely, becoming extremely pressed, my heart beating faster, my legs and my hands start shaking uncontrollably, migraine, sometimes my vision even becomes blurry. And these were all what I was going through when I checked my time and saw it was almost time for my first lesson.

This isn’t the first time I’m teaching, I’ve taught both in a secondary, primary and tertiary institution. But this was a new school with new kids and I cant really control my tension and how my body reacts when I’m about to embark on something for the first time.

Thirty minutes to the time of my lesson, I ran back home to relieve myself. On my way to and fro I recited how I was going to start the lesson and all I was going to say throughout. As soon as I got back, it was already time, I took a deep breath, picked up my book and walked to the class.

When I got there, there was just about three students.

“where are the rest of your classmates?”. I asked in a small voice and discovered my voice was a little bit shaky.

One of them ran out to call the rest of them and I asked another one to wipe clean the chalkboard. When there were about twenty of them, I picked up a piece of chalk, which I didn’t see at first until a student pointed out that it was in front of me, and wrote Basic Science and Crude Oil underneath it on the board. As soon as I turned back, everything I had recited flew out of my head. I turned back to the board, said a short prayer while underlining the topic I had written. I turned to the students and asked if anyone knew where kerosene, fuel or diesel comes from, one of them said it came from the filling station which made us all laugh and that broke the tension….

From then on, the lesson went on smoothly and even after my time was up, the students begged me to stay more, that they loved me and my teaching…

A grateful heart

Years back, I was left alone to babysit a kid. She was about four years old and I’d been told all I had to do was let her out to play, feed her when she was hungry and put her to sleep when she was tired. Since I knew she was quite a well behaved kid, I wasn’t expecting to be stressed up and immediately her aunt left, I called the child gave her her meal and when she asked if she could go out to play I obliged, advising her not to go too far, and settled down to watch 24. Twenty minutes later she came back looking a bit stressed up, I bathed her and five minutes later she was fast asleep (Oh, the joy of taking care of a good child and an ajebo for that matter).

Waking up, she went to use the bathroom and coming back she asked for a snack. I gave her bobo and biscuit and she said she wanted to go back out and play. As I opened the door to let her out, she stopped as if she had just remembered something, looked up to me with those cute looking eyes and said “Aunty, Thank You”.

I was amazed, and felt the love I had for her grow massively. I stood there smiling for some minutes not even noticing she had already gone out. I was just thinking of what more I could do for her.

I learnt a lesson that day. No matter whom we are, we are never too small or too big to appreciate what someone does for us, even if we are deserving of it or it’s our right. My parents tell me thank you when I go on errands for them, I tell a bike man thank you when I pay him money for the ride, I say Thank you whenever something is handed over to me, even if it’s my own item being returned. A simple “Thank you” goes a long way to show appreciation.  Sometimes we are so ungrateful and we don’t even know the extent of the damage we cause when we don’t appreciate. So I advise y’all, try showing a little appreciation, it helps.