God be praised! Halelujah! Unbelieveable! i passed that darned biochemistry course!
Chineke be praised! After 3 agonising months i was able to make it!

All's well that ends well o! I even passed with an A when all i was looking for was a cool B!.

it's friday morning. TGIF! What an eagerly awaited end to a long week. At long last i have exams behind me and not before me. I got to the lab at 6am, are u surprised? i'm also surprised myself, when did i even start waking up early sef? It's like the moment you start living on your own, some sense gets knocked into your head automatically by Baba God. Nothing like "mummy pls wake me up at 6"!

I have my last exam this afternoon so i came as early as possible to allow me get some of my work done before i go and do some last minute reading. Na so ebe! After this i really need to treat myself to some spoiling, i think i deserve it.

Too bad the concert has to come up by 7pm, that means i miss the party by the GSS! Newayz there's still plenty of time to attend one!

Back to biz, my head is yelling at me o!

I am sad, very sad and in a mourning mood since sunday morning. I have refused to say much, infact but for compeling reasons i do not wish to speak at all.
My homeland has just suffered another big blow! Chineke! Has Pst Bimbo Odukoya really died? Are we no more going to watch "singles and married" every sunday again? What about those kids, 62 of them, who perished on their way to a joyous christmas? Did they deserve to fly in flying coffins called aircraft? How come they died so close to home and in the presence of their family and friends? How come so many watched them die and yet could do nothing to save them?
I am gloomy, i don't know how such families would celebrate christmas this year. Who will pluck the chickens now? Who will light fireworks and terrorize innocent church goers with their mischievous "bangers"? Who will visit "father christmas" and tweak his white beard? Who will carry that bowl of rice to Mama's house down the street?
Praps there will be soccer on the streets that day maybe not. I am wondering who will kick the football on those lonely streets in PortHarcourt? Mothers over 40 yrs old are now left childless, begining to pray to have another baby for him to be killed in another flying coffin?

Once it was only the unavailability of rail transport, we bore the pains in silence. Then came the death traps the government set for us in the name of roads, still we bore the pangs. Now they have taken our only refuge, the skies, and turned it into a mass grave for innocent souls. Will we keep quiet?

Yet they have told us it was the work of God! They have yet again told us to pray, they say that was how God wanted them to die. Some say God could have drawn them out of the blazing inferno but like the firemen, chose to stand aside and watch. I heard they were holding a memorial service at the site of the crash, maybe they are begging God to help hold all remaining coffins in the air. Praps we should consider floating an airline wholy owned and managed by "Holy Ghost air", maybe we would all be encouraged to take to our skies again!
Or would it be too much to ask God to stand for elections in 2007? Government officials i hear only fly Virgin Nigeria if they must fly at all or when their bullet proof cars go for repairs, of course abroad! Why won't they? At least those planes are much younger than i am!

Who ever heard of buying planes from Yugoslavia? Where in the world is their airline? Does anyone still remember the route to that country or where it is on the map?

Still i mourn! Not for the thieves in office, but for those children whose voices their parents will never hear again. I mourn for those kids whose lofty dreams the world would never get to see or hear. I mourn for songs buried, inventions aborted, writers, scientists, doctors, engineers sent to meet their maker in the prime of their lives. I mourn for their colleagues who may never truly know the joys of christmas again. Where would those kids start from? Who will take those 62 places on the schools' march band? What of bunkmates, seatmates, classmates, buddies, pals, friends whose bonds have been rudely cut short? Would school life ever return to normal for those left behind?

But i am comforted! I know those kids are probably somewhere trying their mischievous fireworks at the gate of heaven. They are lucky, no policemen will be in heaven to harrass them again. They will no longer have to go to school, read and write exams. They will still have plenty of chickens to pluck in heaven, and just maybe God will allow the pesky ones to pull at His beard. They will ask him so many questions! I can just hear them asking why He allowed them to be born in Nigeria and not Britain or America. What will they ask for next? Only God knows.

Adieu my fellow country men! Soon we shall meet and pat ourselves on the back and congratulate ourselves for surviving those death traps and coffins. We shall hold our heads up high and be proud to have been citizens of that ridiculous piece of geography called "Nigeria".
For in life and in death, rich or poor; we will always remain proud of where we come from!
"Arise o compatriots!"

I'm recovering from a shock! A very close friend of mine just got the marching orders from his fiancee/girlfriend (?) of wait for it, more than 10yrs! He's on his knees right now! Ol' boy, i do feel sorry for him, he'll probable kill me after reading this post but that's a price i'm willing to pay. If only for my dear friend.
I'm wondering why this would happen to him! Did he do something wrong or say something he shouldn't have or in the usual nigerian male excuse, say he was "not yet ready"?

Anyway, i have since welcomed him to our new club. The club is called "the bachelors' club". A friend happens to be the president while i'm happy to serve as the pioneer secretary. You are all free to join, you know the criteria, all singles welcome!

Why do such things happen? This particular relationship is probably the longest and the strongest (?) i have ever seen. How would a man stick to a woman he probably sees once in maybe 2 yrs, stay faithful and yet get kicked in the butt! That wasn't fair at all, my pal deserved a better treatment. What makes it more painful is he probably has lost all those girls who were crying and begging for his attention all those years we were in college. Who knows where they are now, maybe married with kids right now! Where does he start from? I can bet all the coins in my pocket ($2.50) right now he has never gone on a date before. Vals' day used to be a day for sleeping in for the poor fellow, now he has to get out and start looking! But the question is where?
Before you begin to tell me all the potential places he can search, i'll like to remind you the guy is like me, too shy to open his mouth and too stubborn to admit he likes you! Maybe he will adjust as i'm learning to. Where we not told the best place to get a marriage partner was in college?
Now we have lost that opportunity for good! We shall just have to ask the Father for His help and like my pal would say, what is yours will be yours no matter how long it takes in coming.

Don't worry soul brother, being single comes with it's pain and so it does come with its' peace too. But like me, u're bound to realise only too soon that "it is not good for man to be alone".
We promised to attend each other's weddings, by God's grace we will still do that and after have a good laugh at all those "days of yore" when it seemed we were only going to be in this club for life!

Ay. keep riding the winds man! You're the only one unwelcome in this club! All i'm asking is the same old question you know i always like to ask, "when are you getting married"?

Is it possible to score 270 and above in jamb and not be able to construct a simple sentence in English language written or spoken? I'm afraid for the youth of this nation. i wrote the exam about 7 years ago and scored 220, i remember crying my eyes out when i heard the result because i knew what i was capable of scoring. right in my school i knew colleagues who scored more than 50-70 points above my score who i had to coach in maths, physics and chemistry for the SSCE. Absurdities do happen!Ironic that many youths who kick against the post ume aptitude tests do not batt an eyelid to fork out thousands of naira to write the TOEFL, SAT, and other aptitude tests for american universities. If any meaningful progress is to be made in the nigerian society, our attitudes towards many issues must change. Some argue that jamb was set up to make university admissions "just and fair" on the basis of catchment area and educationally disadvantaged state status. I wish to submit that nowhere in the world is university admission uniform. Every university even down to individual departments have independent criteria for admitting students. Out of more than 15 differnet postgradaute depts in my school here in the usa, there are just about 80 students per year. With each student being the best in his/her individual areas. this makes for healthy competition among students and schools and is the major factor that drives the scientific dominance of the advanced countries today. it is no longer news that such schools also select the very best from africa, entice them with mouthwatering scholarships and make them work for their own societies. such students having been frustrated by the so called "just and fair" admissions policy of jamb.It is ironic that many students who fail jamb (or score below 230) end up graduating with top class honors in american and british universities while those who scored 270 and above and made it into nigerian premier institutions cannot even manage beyond the first year.It is not news that not every american can gain admission into schools such as princeton, yale and harvard universities where even some excellent nigerians have studied. It is such "fair and just" mediocre policies such as jamb that have kept us groping in the dark while countries like Ghana and southafrica without such retrogressive laws are begining to become attractive destinations for frustrated nigerians.Many of our policy makers are also insincere, they insist on keeping jamb while their own children reap the benefits of liberalised policies in other countries. For where America and Europe to adopt policies like jamb, Nigerians will never have the opportunity to study there on the "just and fair" basis of catchment area!

"When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land."
…Bishop Desmond Tutu

“Nigeria’s problem is not money, but how to spend it”
…the Gospel according to Gen Yakubu Gowon

Everywhere you turn, a Nigerian is praying. Whether on the mountains, in the synagogues, at stadiums or even in the government house, a Nigerian is praying.
Old men are praying, women are praying, doctors are praying, even atheists are beginning to pray. We love to pray, on our knees, on the road, in our cars, in schools; everywhere we are praying.
Political thieftains are praying, Governors are praying, legislathieves are praying, even the president has a special house of prayer!
Criminals are praying, those who jump bail are praying, fugitives are praying, this truly is the land of prayer!

Nigerians are a people of prayer, they pray for light, water, good roads, drugs and a good education. When Abacha bestrode this country like a colossus, Nigerians prayed. When the bellview airlines crash of 22/10 occurred, Nigerians took it to the Lord in prayer. When Alamsco disgraced us all in London, you bet he just left it in the hands of the Lord to deal with his enemies in His time.
Just in case we were beginning to forget, Governor Boni Haruna of Adamawa state reminded us that only prayer could save Nigeria from all the problems bedeviling the nation. He further enjoined us to “engage in serious prayers and fasting and appeal to God for deliverance”.
Nigerians are even asked to pray for “dividends of democracy”!

Recent comments by our Government officials have begun to portray us as a nation in crisis, a nation of unserious and insincere individuals and sadly as a nation adrift in the ocean without a captain. The increasing recourse to “prayers” by our rulers has only exposed their crass incompetence and complete ignorance for the tasks for which they where elected to power.
Government speeches these days are never complete without the usual request for prayers, When the super eagles failed to make it to Germany 2006, Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima told us it was the will of God and not our birthright. We do not even need to play at the nation’s cup next year since it is also not our birthright, let us go to the mountain and pray that the Lord will miraculously send the cup to Nigeria. Since Chief Bola Ige died, we have been told that God will fish out His killers.

I am not against prayer, far from it! In fact I believe in the credo that a prayer less Christian is a powerless Christian. But I am reminded daily that President Bush also prays, I know that Abraham Lincoln was a prayer warrior, George Washington prayed, and millions of Americans and Europeans pray daily. Why are our own prayers not answered by God? Is God blind only to African prayers? Do we accuse God of racism?
No! God has not been partial, infact He has been most magnanimous to our nation. Despite sharing the same Atlantic ocean with the southern united states, we have been spared the horrors of hurricanes. We do not have constant earthquakes like the Japanese, we do not have to look over our shoulders and place a whole nation on terror alerts. What else can we ask for?

The difference is in our attitudes and sincerity of purpose. While Governor Haruna has told us to fast and pray, his family does not need to pray for the next meal, Alamsco does not need to pray before going for a tummy tuck. The senate president did not fast before getting his new #40million naira toy, neither do children of ministers have to pray to study abroad. It is the common man who has to pray, it is he who is saddled with the responsibility of asking God for his next meal while Government officials feed fat on state resources.

General Yakubu Gowon set up Nigeria prays and has told us all to pray. We remember that it was he who dragged us into the 30 month civil war that the ndigbos are yet to recover from 25 years after. We remember that he it was who told us that our problem was not money but how to spend it. We also do not forget that he even proceeded to teach us how to spend the money by paying the salaries of civil servants in Gambia. We do also note that his government laid the foundation for the present rot that pervades our landscape. Rather than own up to his 9 years of misrule, he has enjoined us to pray!

Governor Haruna has told us to include fasting in our prayer. After six years in office, Yola still remains one of the most backward state capitals in terms of social infrastructure despite huge monthly allocations to the state. Electricity supply is epileptic, not once did water run in taps the entire one year I spent in the state. Thank God for the advent of GSM, yola is now connected to the outside world.

While Government officials enjoin us to fast and pray for our country, they feather their own nests in foreign countries. While students are praying against ASUU strikes, the president and vice president are busy building their own private universities. While patients are praying for simple chloroquine, Nigerian officials are doing tummy tucks and facelifts in European countries. While we are still praying towards the elusive house for all by the year 2010, government officials are awarding themselves government houses. While we are praying, the Edo state governor has just built the most fantastic residence anywhere in Africa for $250m. Yet we will still pray.

While other serious nations are praying for peace, Nigerians are still praying for electricity, good roads (and airports), food and water in the twenty-first century.
Despite the fact that Nigeria is the sixth largest producer of crude oil in the world, we still have to pray for kerosene to cook, petrol to fill our tanks and gas to run our turbines.
With all the rivers and oceans that surround us, we still need to pray for portable water.
Despite the billions of naira voted for road construction this year, Nigerians still have to begin every road trip with a night vigil. Each time we travel by air, we must precede with a session of prayer.
Lecturers have to pray for salaries, doctors must pray for their allowances, NLC prays against fuel increase, graduates are praying for jobs, patients are praying for drugs, policemen are praying for #20; indeed everyone is praying.
Pensioners have been praying for years for their entitlements, they still have many more years to pray, infact they might even need to include a fast.
Every year huge sums of money are voted for providing social services, yet each time our elected (and unelected) officials tell us to pray.
While we are praying, They build houses in London and the USA. While we pray, their children study in prestigious foreign universities. While we are on the mountain, their wives and girlfriends are busy gallivanting around the world. While we pray for electricity, Gen Abdulsalam Abubakar has a solar power generator in his house.


Even though our leaders know only God can solve our problems, yet they are quarrelling over who gets our votes in 2007. They do not want to leave office, perhaps they still want to pray more.
It is rumored that president Obasanjo is angling for a third term in office, maybe he has left the decision to God. All we can do is pray.


But I no longer live in Nigeria. I am fast forgetting how to pray. I don’t have to pray for water, I don’t have to pray for electricity, I don’t need to fast for good roads. I don’t need to visit my pastor before I travel, I don’t have to pray against armed robbers because they are not there.
I don’t need to pray for fuel for my car or gas to cook. I don’t need to pray against lecturers strike, I don’t need to pray for drugs because I have medical insurance.
I don’t have to pray for a house over my head or clothes to wear or food to eat. I don’t need to pray that George Bush will quit in 2007, I don’t need to pray against corrupt leaders for I know they will be caught and jailed. I don’t need to pray for good runways, I don’t need to pray against tokunbo aircraft. Indeed I don’t have to pray for a visa!

Not that I don’t pray at all, but I can channel my prayers to something more useful like praying for a wife and good children. I have time to pray for success in my exams because I don’t have to worry about praying for things that God has already provided but have been squandered by those who profess to rule us.

God answers prayers. That is why America is what it is today. That is why Nigeria is still together today and we are not being threatened by natural disasters and terrorists bombs.
Rather we are praying against those who have ganged up against our collective future, those who are in power only for themselves and their families and have constituted themselves a form of man-made natural disaster to our nation.
Interestingly they are the ones who are admonishing us the loudest to carry our problems to the Lord in prayer.

Can't believe it's already the end of the year. When did we even celebrate the begining of this millenium anyway? Great day, never mind the continous snowflakes we've had all day. Beautiful to see that stuff you were only opportuned to see in your mom's deep freeze back home falling round about you and forming a thick white blanket for miles around you!

Church was great again today, it always is! I just can't help falling in love with the worship sessions every time, very sad i won't be around for the christmas and new year, but never mind, i've got plenty of time ahead next year.

Was in the lab today to run some cDNA PCR assay for a sample, still the same result even though i'm absolutely sure we did the right thing this time. Thank God, my cells are begining to do quite well, should be ready to be placed in liquid nitrogen tomorrow.

Aww! this week reminds me it's welcome to exam time and i'm not even half way reading!

Gotta go if i will do any bit tonight, pray i don't fall victim of Fifa2004 soccer today!

see ya around...

wait a minute, i've been listening to this song by Chris Tomlin all day "Indescribable"! That's what God is!