You are not a failure!

My second week on camp, I was beginning to feel totally useless, having being denied by the popular OBS (Orientation broadcasting service) an opportunity to showcase my talent and be useful for 3weeks on camp, a writing competition which I was supposed to participate in cancelled and worst of all, rejected in the volleyball team. I was told that I had weak fingers and my height wasn’t good enough, I couldn’t feel any more useless. But just as I lamented to close friends and thought God was deliberately hiding me, I realized that, the fact that I was denied an opportunity to showcase doesn’t mean I couldn’t be heard or seen. So I went ahead to write this short piece and submitted to my platoon leader for morning meditation.

“Becoming successful is the desire of everyone. Even though they say success is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration, success remains a thing of the mind. It is a conscious determination and will to do well. As they say when there is a will, there is a way. Having this at the back of our minds and working towards it gives the assurance of good success. But may I remind you that even in our life’s journey our determination, hardwork and persistence still get threatened by evil critics, envious people, some dream killer, negative attitudes are not left out. Challenges we are likely to face on the way are like checkpoints on our way to success, always remember that not every criticism is positive and aimed at improving you, discern the negativities in and around you at each stage of your life and do away with them. Hold on to your goals and aspirations, wake up and bring your dreams to reality. Remember that successful people remain persistent and positive.

Even though it wasn’t read out as usual, I had done something. Afterwards some platoon members started approaching me concerning writing for them and how to write. I was particularly happy that I was able to write outside of my comfort zone. My point exactly? If life gives you lemon make lemonades, make the good you can out of every situation. No matter what anybody says or do, you are not a failure!

Back!!!

Hi! First accept my apologies for leaving abruptly and not posting all these while. I don't totally have an excuse but I had to heed the clarion call. to crown it all I found myself having to go to a state on the hill (Plateau). I've had to battle the different responses I got from people, different reactions as well but in the end I had to go. I'm glad I did actually, the experience is priceless, now that I have seen the middle belt and northern Nigeria,I have more things to say about this country. Expect articles on these and lots more in the weeks to come.

I also plan to share my camp experience, an interview I secretly held with an overaged, zealous camper as well. In the meantime relax, tutorial articles will continue, living off campus series ends and a new story series will begin. Thanks for visiting the blog...

Whats in a name?

A name is an identity indicator, a name is a pointer to several things, it can provide certain information about the bearer. when asked, most individuals declare that they were named after a specific person, interest, occurrence or period.
The name Nigeria, as named by flora Shaw was inspired by the river Niger running through the country. The name was coined from “Niger” and “area”. According to research , the origin of the name Niger is uncertain and this originally applied only to the middle reaches of the Niger river. One would have thought that since Nigeria was named by a british citizen and after a lone river, by independence her name would have been re-coined considering the country’s expanse of land. Also considering the myth about a name being the reason for actions of the bearer, which has been proven by certain myth followers.

Although the holy book supports the fact that a name truly has a lot to do in the life of the bearer but a myth as it is classified, is said to be an imaginary story or event , taken to be true, what then can be said about the activities and happenings in Nigeria with respect to the name? do we now agree that Nigeria is finding it hard to successfully expand or increase in unity because its named was coined from a river?

Nigeria popularly referred to as the giant of Africa has overtime found it hard to sustain lasting unity, security and wealth amongst its people. From the inter tribal wars to the religious wars, corrupt practices, price hikes and now terrorist attacks. Nigeria keeps wallowing in the river of pain, struggle, lack, fear, limitations and poverty despite all odds.
on the other hand, a river indicates peace, except in turbulent waves a river is often regarded as peaceful. A river expands and enters into other rivers and into the sea. A river brings fresh air, soothing breeze and refreshment when pure. So whether the name

Nigeria has had a negative effect on its bearers or not there is still hope for liberty and peace. As a people,name or no name, we need to re-define Nigeria, show the true meaning of Nigeria, not the Nigeria on a map, or the Nigeria in the news, but a Nigeria in our hearts, a dream that can come to fruition, a beautiful place, where intelligent people work hand in hand to make life a better place for all. We need to spark up the lost hope, hope for this country again. Once the storm is calmed the peace and refreshing times will be restored.

Squash video

Watch few minutes of squash

Tutorial 3: How to play squash

Yes we are discussing sports, remember this tutorial series is not stereotyped to a particular line, genre or format. It’s a series of teachings on different useful vocational and non- vocational skills. This week having realized how much interest sport lovers are showing towards the sport name squash and realizing that a handful of people hardly know about the sport, I decided to talk to a sportsman who is known for his squash playing prowess. Here is what he said:

I started playing squash because I wasn’t a fan of team sports, I like sports that you play individually, you win or lose , you know its your fault not anybody’s. Asides that ,the game of squash has a lot of health and social benefits.
It improves cardiovascular health, the game can see you running, diving, lounging and leaping for the ball
It increases strength, fitness, flexibility, good eye and body coordination and agility
Gives greater confidence, opportunity to make new friends, improve concentration as well as releases stress

A lot of people ask me for the secrets to becoming an excellent player and I share with them the tips below:

Plan to play well : you don’t just say it , you plan and work towards it like every other good thing in life. Prepare for about 4-6 weeks before matches, during the first 2weeks do lots of on and off court routines for aerobic fitness. E.g on bikes, weight lifting, leg work for power around the court and upper body work to keep being symmetrical
Be consistent, get into a routine : don’t just wander through your training routines, get into a routine, know what you are doing and workout what you want to achieve in a training session

Use your basic practices to groove and improve your shots. Make time for this perhaps before you play. Concentrate on doing a few practices
My basic practice is the BOAST & DRIVE routine :
Starting from the front of the court, concentrate first on striking the ball
Turning my shoulders, staying away from the ball and making sure I open the racket face and hit the ball sweetly just in front of my front leg
After hitting, movement back to the T is crucial so that you can practice positioning for the next shot. Practice getting in the right place for your shot and try to eliminate casual shots.

Well, I hope this article has been helpful especially for squash players and if by chance you stumble on this article and you get interested , its an indoor game played with a squash ball, squash racket, squash shoe sportwears in a squash court. I will upload a video on squash immediately after this tutorial. Other types of sports and games will be discussed in the subsequent tutorials.

Living off campus 11

I rushed out and I learnt that the university had become interested in the robbery case and had requested to interrogate us, as news of houses being burgled had become too frequent and since in our case the policemen suspected a foul play amongst the housemates. I didn’t like the sound of it, I’ve never had any reason to be involved with the university security officers or the senate, although a part of me was a bit at rest, knowing that I was no thief and I had no link with any thief. But to say my housemates were alarmed and scared is an understatement. Serious panicking, the information asked us to report first thing in the morning to the university senate house everyone of us living in that house.

Truly we all went, whenever anyone had issues with the university, all your records till date had to be reviewed. This was how I found out that, AK who we thought was in 300l, just got admitted into 100l and he had been living in the house for about 2yrs, more shocking was the fact that Bukky had series of carryovers and was as good as still in 200l despite being in 400l and was also on probation, the verge of expulsion. Ronald, Doyin”s boyfriend, got into more trouble as the university wanted to know the source of his wealth since he was just a part time student. Our rooms were searched and weed was found in AK’s room, Ronald who rumour had been going round about his involvement in internet scam was handed over to the police alongside AK.

We the others were let go as we had no incriminating evidence. About a week after, Laura who had finally broken up with Wole returned home in a hurry. She rushed to my room and started to talk excitedly. Laura had been running a background check on Wole since he openly embarrassed her and brought in another lady and through her “investigations” found out that Wole had visited some of his irresponsible friends earlier before the robbery and had been introduced to strong indian hemp and other intoxicating drugs and drinks. He had been out of his mind and had revealed how much he recently made from internet scam alongside Ronald, who and who had expensive things in the house, how stupid and troublesome Laura was and how he couldn’t wait to get rid off her. He had divulged all of these information openly and unconsciously and these friends had organized the robbery.

They knew AK personally so his room wasn’t burgled .
Now that Laura knew the truth, how will the truth be told to the right authorities and the robbers apprehended? who was ready to bell the cat?

Living off campus 10

This is a work of fiction based on the writer's imaginations. Any resemblance to names, characters, persons,places, events and incidents is purely coincidental

I was more than surprised when someone finally told me that the whole house had been robbed! I was alarmed and worried at the same time, I was about to rush to my room when someone stopped me to say my room and Timothy’s room was not touched. I felt somewhat relieved but I still felt bad for my other house mates. Laura had been beaten, so was Ronald who happened to be around with his girlfriend and had been caught unawares. As for wole he was exposed , the robbers I learnt headed for his room first and he was sent running outside the room half naked with another girl he had spent the night with as the robbers tried to break open his window.

As for Riike ,her little savings was carted away, Kunle wasn’t home too but his new model, expensive laptop was stolen. His own door wasn’t damaged, so the robbers must have easily gained entrance into his room, either they had a key or he didn’t lock his door. Kunle could be careless at times. Another funny and surprising issue was the fact that

AK’s room wasn’t burgled. Within few minutes, the neighbourhood’s security men, police officers had arrived and began to question everyone. Some people were taken to the police station to write statement. This occurrence really disrupted the whole day. I suddenly wished I could park out of the house.

I had to keep Riike and Laura company while they mourned. Laura kept cursing wole who had disappeared because of shame. As for Bukky who had disappeared from the house 2 days earlier, she returned home with the caretaker few hours after the policemen were gone, looking all surprised and concerned. After asking lots of questions and the usual suspect naming and lamentations, the caretaker disappeared with her into her room. At first I just felt maybe he went in to ascertain how much had been stolen from her room but to my surprise, they didn’t come out for hours. A lot of rumours had been paddled about Bukky dating the caretaker despite all the male visitors she entertained but I was yet to believe. Riike and Laura further confirmed to me their findings and with the way they both arrived and disappeared I began to believe the story. Laura especially hardly carried fake news, she was good with the amebo thing, her stories were always true in the end. The situation was a funny and shameless one, as lazy as Bukky was, she had time to entertain male visitors and even the illiterate caretaker.
Night came and we said our goodnights to each other as I left Riike and Laura to go to my room. My imaginations played pranks on me a bit as I imagined someone break in from the back door again.
I quickly entered my room and locked the door. As we all went to sleep that night , I thought within myself the worst is over since those who were taken to write statement had been released. But to my surprise the following morning as I prepared for school, I started hearing shouts from the passage..

Tutorial 2: how to search for information online effectively using google and other search engines

A lot of times we spend too much time on the internet while researching on a given topic, this can be frustrating especially when we have limited time, data or power supply to work with. Ever wondered why you search for some things and you don’t find the right or detailed information that will be helpful? While I was still an undergraduate a friend of mine confessed that she wasn’t really swift and skilled in searching for information online using google and the likes.


Effective searching is a powerful skill, think about how often you go on google even to search for something so simple such as spellings of words.. I do that at times. I thought of all these and decided to share a few tips I know and that I also found out even as I asked skilled computer gurus. Here are some below, I hope you find them helpful.


In searching effectively, the search engine one uses matter. Results are based on relevance ranking and search algorithm used by the search engine. I once heard from one of my lecturers that the use of google scholar is more appropriate for students. But then there are other search engines such as google, bing, surfwax, complete planet, edu finder, yahoo search and so on.


Use fewer words : when you are typing into the search box, according to an online article I came across, it said every time you add a new word to the mix, you limit your result.

Use quotes : this tells google or whatever search engine you are using that you are looking for that exact statement or word. This is more effective when you are searching for an exact statement

Search a certain website, or a website that links the subject of your search if you are sure of it

Try and search for things in multiples, I mean giving multiple options using OR especially when you are looking for alternatives of the same link e.g FUNAAB admission list 2009 OR 2010.

If you are searching for a range of numbers, instead of using “–“ USE …… e.g 12 ……..100 , $ 40……. $ 100

You may also use search operators, search operators are words that can be added to searches to help narrow down results e.g searching the NBA website to get any mention of Olympics or Olympic games.

The use of autocomplete, I m certain a lot of us have used this at some points and may not realize. But it really is a good search aid as it saves time and also it helps you to chose from multiple predicitions. It corrects misspelt words as well and this helps especially when you only have an idea of what you are looking for but you are not so sure of the spelling. Autocomplete helps you to be sure. As soon as you type in some of the keywords from what you are researching autocomplete brings in the predictions.

I sincerely hope this has been helpful. Look out for the next tutorial.

An INEC adhoc staff's election experience

Having been tempted to enroll and work as an adhoc staff in the Nigeria 2015 elections but my dad stopping me, I couldn’t help but hold on to the idea of what it would have been like to participate. I also kept wondering, amidst the fear of the unknown and violence in the country some young people like me especially corp members were bold enough to still go ahead with the task and work mostly for the money I suppose.

Although reading the punch newspaper Monday, pg3, I realized that some corp members were actually really too scared to show up at their centers, causing delays. Do I blame them? No . Anyway I have decided to share the experience of someone I interviewed, who worked as an adhoc staff in the south south part of the country, calabar to be precise.

“the night before the elections , I was really in a bad mood. We had to sleep on benches at the rack center, in preparation for the following Saturday. I had a terrible time sleeping, of course I had not much choice since I already agreed to do this. The rack center as we call it is where the election materials for the ward was distributed. The following morning which was the election day, as early as 8am we left for our different polling units. At first in my unit we set up at the wrong place, the residents then had to show us another place where they say is more accessible to the residents. After setting up at the ‘right” place , the residents present, party agents present, we still couldn’t commence accreditation. For some reasons I being the assistant presiding officer (APO1) couldn’t set the time and date on the card reader machine. Yes we were trained but our training only involved them reading out their manuals and how to set up polling boots. So all my efforts to correct the error proved abortive. When I saw that the crowd was becoming angry and the party agents were beginning to boil I rushed to the nearest polling unit to us to see if the situation was the same, lo and behold it was. I found them battling with the card readers too. So we had to wait for technical support from INEC , I really don’t blame Prof Attahiru Jega for these unforeseen challenges, there were about 150,000 card readers brought into the country, they couldn’t have ascertained all to be in good and perfect condition. Anyway as the technical support fixed it, I tried to see what she was doing in case I needed help again but she shooed me off, I didn’t like it but I thought within myself she was right in a way, what if I got a hang of things and then manipulate the number of accredited cards later on. So I kept my cool and well accreditation started shortly afterwards. Over 300 people had registered and gotten pvcs for that location but surprisingly by 1.45 pm when we started voting, just 60 voters showed up. This was a bit discouraging more discouraging was the fact that some of the party agents present were drinking and smoking publicly despite having policemen around, patrol vans passing every 3hrs.

As at 4.30pm when we were certain no one was returning to vote, we started counting, the party agents present, monitoring as we counted,the presiding officer and assistants as well. In all, it wasn't a bad experience for me"
From all indications, despite postponing the elections, all arrangements made still couldn't forestall challenges. But one good thing is there was minimal violence, considering how much fear had earlier on been envisaged, one can definitely say the electoral process was a sixty percent success. As there were reported cases of attempted violence at some centers, where some adhoc staff's were held at gunpoint and asked for the state of the result after collation.

Tension brewing up everywhere today concerning who will emerge as the next president, all thanks to social media, I have had to laugh so much at various wall papers and caricature drawings with different humorous remarks. I only have one statement to make though " May the best man win"... God bless Nigeria

Living off campus 9

Riike usually didn’t go home often. She didn’t have the perfect family setting, we all understood and really felt for her. This particular weekend she returned to school sad after having had a quarrel with her mother. Kunle had been more than willing to give her shoulders to cry on. This made me and other housemates realize that Kunle must have always had soft spot for her. She herself took to him and was going in and out of his room to hers, he likewise. To think that Riike had a serious fiancé and she still encouraged serious closeness with another guy was surprising.
_

I was of course annoyed and surprised. If Kunle had always wanted Riike, why get close to me in the first place? Why do guys do that? Kunle must have realized that I wasn’t really pleased as he stopped coming to my room and our relationship became strained. We hardly saw each other in the house and when we did it was just “hi” hello”. Activities in the house remained the same and somewhat boring. Wole and Laura still held on to their epileptic relationship, frequent quarrels and make up sex. Tunji still came home with different ladies, I often wondered, didn’t these girls know he had many of them at his beck and call?

_Doyin still maintained 'me and my husband/boyfriend relationship. She was always in the room with her boyfriend, cooking, playing doing all sorts. The only times she liked to talk was when she wanted to do amebo or ask about something. They all already quit asking me about Ife since they realised that I myself knew nothing more than they did concerning her. As for Timothy he was either , fellowship or reading in school. Bukky was always having lousy friends come over. At times she would have male visitors and lock up in the room without coming out.

I began to spend more time at my friend’s place who lived close,we were also in the same department. it was the only appealing option after lectures in school. Besides it afforded me the opportunity to avoid pests. I usually returned in the evening, yet on some evenings immediately I get in I hear knocks on my door as if they have been waiting for me to return. Some people can be unrepentant pests you know.

One day I just felt like totally sleeping over at my friend’s place. Since we didn’t have lectures early the following day. So I did, which was why I didn’t witness what happened that fateful day. As I returned home the following morning I was already hearing rumors from passers by and other students, I got to the house only to meet mournful looks..

FIrst tutorial : How to write an essay/ article

I have been thinking of what the first tutorial on this blog should entail. I realise that readers here have different interests at the same time while catching fun, I like knowledge being acquired. That is why I will be discussing how to write a simple essay. This can work for students who still need to write essays to pass their school leaving certificates, other young writers or those who would love to become better at writing, for those writing on a research too. Here are a few tips:


Find subjects you truly care about and write on them
Except you are being tasked to write a specific topic, or given an assignment in school you will be helping yourself improve and building confidence by writing on subjects of your personal interests. Be it politics, religion, human rights, societal vices, sports, emotions and lots more


Have an outline before you start writing
It helps you to arrange your thoughts brilliantly in your first draft, before the final draft. Yes! have a first draft, except you totally have your thoughts arranged perfectly in your head you need to have a first draft. In your draft, outline everything you know or can think of about your topic. It helps arrange the final article beautifully.
If along the line you get stuck and can’t continue, move away for a while, then return to it when you are settled. Even in an exam situation go and answer other questions, do not panic then return to it.


Be concise and watch your grammar
Bad grammar is a total turn off, except you need to do it on purpose to prove a point, avoid bad grammar totally even typographical errors. It will make you lose marks in an examination setting and even as a professional your readers might lose faith in you
Read! Read! Read! Be a reader to become a better writer. Online articles, research articles, other writer’s books read them.


Have a dictionary close to you while you are writing
You cannot have all the vocabulary in the world and their meanings in your head. Sometimes people get stuck forgetting spellings or switching meanings. This is why a dictionary is needed to be certain always, except in situations where you cant have it close.


Read over when you are through, you may read out aloud to yourself also have people read over for you to ascertain you are truly through except you are in an examination hall.
Be disciplined, all of these points mentioned earlier can only be achieved through discipline


Finally practice makes perfect, if you want to be better at writing, write more.




EXAMPLE
WRITE AN ARTICLE ON THE EFFECT OF BAD GOVERNMENT ON THE EDUCATION OF A CHILD.


Suggested outlines

A brief introduction to what the educational system is like in your country. E.g 6-3-3-4 system of education.
The role of government
The role of parents
The role of the child
Challenges faced by all parties
The effects on the child.
Conclusion , here you may include brief suggestions.