Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The danger of statistics.


    We never forget our first. I remember the first bomb blast that brought this nightmare into our homes. Surprise greeted this story coldly at the door and while we criticized, we wondered why? Today Bomb blasts are gently warming up into a norm. Of course, when these things happen we still ask why, we still criticize but the humane shock is gone, casualty has lost the element of surprise. Our first question is no longer why? But how many people died? We find consolation in numbers, where lives will be condensed into a few neat incorrect figures. The magnitude of this numbers determines the enormity of our grief.

    Today we are alarmed; two hundred of our girls have been taken. Two hundred is a good number. One is not; five is not. Our slumbering humanity needs victims in hundreds to jeer it awake every now and then. We have taken to our keyboards again, to digitally fight this physical war. I close my eyes and try to imagine the fear of captivity, the trauma of being in a coven of not knowing. Sadly, I know what I imagine is nothing close to the reality.

    ‘We are winning the war on terror’ are intended as words of comfort, this and stories of similar invention. Stories that try to mask the surface of the damage while the wound rots underneath, but my brethren there is no comfort in the embrace of false security.

    We are tired of the faceless statistics; there is only so much emotion random figures can elicit, let us find names, let us find faces. The least we can do is to begin to humanize this inhuman situation. We want to know the girls behind the figures.

#BRINGBACKOURGIRLS #BRINGBACKSECURITY #BRINGBACKJUSTICE.

Friday, April 11, 2014

cyber signs,confab spirituality and other stories

    Each day I say a prayer for the originator of the internet. I believe strongly after breast lifts, it is the world’s greatest thing, helping make my crusader hustle easier to manage by digitally bringing incriminating spirits to my notice. I remember a time when I would never have known about the wizard who crashed while flying from Ghana to cape coast for a meeting. This night flying spirit is way beyond my expelling power, I am not too proud to admit this. Such spirits are better left to our pastors who can do the impossible, like float in midair and raise the dead. Night flying spirits do not stand a chance against these warriors.

   I knew the national conference will be a breeding ground for spirit hustle, which is why I have delayed my crusade. The spirit of sleeping sickness, a.k.a Trypanosomiasis and male castration is certainly one we could not afford to leave out of our ‘cast and bind into bottomless pit’ list. When a delegate comes up with the idea that all male rapists be castrated, it must be of a spiritual source. I do not believe any mortal man (or woman) is capable of such mind blowing intelligence that leaves no room for repentance.  I shall bind such idea bringing spirits; not for the rapist sake, certainly not, But for the sake of their family and friends. God forbid we have to guillotine Yemi Fasominu’s son’s testicles someday ,or some girl falsely accuses a man and we only have ‘sorry’ to say after we have fed his genitals to Bingo. No will do. I am all for creative punishment, but let’s think of this punishments in naira and kobo?  Castration is not death sentence; the procedure must punish while keeping the human rights activist happy. Imagine hundred billion naira being budgeted for rapist castration! I rebuke such embezzlement stimulants.

   More importantly is the expulsion of the let us ‘leave it to God and pray about it spirit. We are not paying millions of naira to get more prayer points. I am a crusader and I am all for praying, but we all agree there are things we do not pray about, like praying for Banky W to grow an afro, This will be testing God!. Plus when we feed you Chinese food for lunch, and pay millions to hear what you have to say, we want more than leave it to God!

  The internet is a place where Life is made easy; digital signs and wonders. Where we type amen, and money grows out of our armpit; I have nothing against spirits of good fortune, I will continue to intercede for their hustle to flourish and wait for the time when we all can ‘like’ our beer bellies away on facebook or ‘retweet’ away wrinkles on twitter. Good times. But we shall unleash fire upon all Omniknoweth agents. The breed that cost us sleep when we disregard those annoying send to fifty people and wait for your phone to ring messages; God forbid we don’t buy houses or private jets, or worse still we run mad like that runs girl in Lagos only because we wouldn't just forward those messages. All this little fear factor spirits shall be burnt at the crusade.

   Lastly, I hear a rape movie is in the oven (seriously, I am not talking about anyone in particular. That singer you think this is about, it’s not about him). Heaven knows we are all tired of movies from the victims’ perspective. Sob stories of pant ripping and callous slapping; now we get to see the other side of the story. Alas, the question ‘what was he thinking?’ may just be answered. I am patiently waiting to have my brain raped by this upcoming Nollywood classic. I will advice the script writer to wait a few months though; we do not want to miss out the castrating part, just in case.

With the internet I have come to accept, the shocker of today is only the norm of tomorrow. When our ancestors exclaimed ‘wonders shall never end!’ they didn't know how right they were, because now I am certain with the cyber world; they never will.