Everybody Has To Work

I remember when that meme about makeup artists being the main thing for Nigerian women came up. I laughed and let it be because I found it hilarious. I didn’t take it seriously, but within days I saw a lot of outrage online about it.

Many ladies were not smiling for being told their mates are becoming ministers and presidents but they’re rushing to become MUAs. I didn’t stress myself over it because even if the person was serious I also laugh when memes and jokes about us guys come out about our work choice, behavior, etc., I guess for me, not everything is an issue or deserves serious attention and scrutiny.

Regardless of this, I didn’t make any silly and patronizing post about the people attacking the meme and comments people made agreeing with it. Just because someone else’s annoyance or struggle is major to them, doesn’t mean it is irrelevant because I feel so. I let it be.

The people who seriously favoured that idea (male and female) obviously didn’t understand that the Clinton’s, Obama’s and many other public figures and superstars that they idolized also have professional makeup services done for them for their public appearances.

Do they never do their own make up? No. But those people with the professional skills are needed. That’s a fact. Some makeup artists are even in the movie industry as people who create masks, injuries, transformations and more that these same people adore. It was also ridiculous because there are actually some awesome male makeup artists too! So abeg, who is fooling who?

You see, anyone who supported that kind of mockery was well and truly being silly. That is like saying a couple are horrible parents and yet praising the child they raised together as being brought up well. It’s stupid. You don’t think makeup artists are worth a damn but many of you gush over a bride’s look at a wedding which is usually done by one too. So what was the point of all the silly talk?

To even claim that there are too many was also stupid. How many doctors are released into society each year from schools? Do you know how many engineers, artists, and lawyers we have in Nigeria? How is it your business how many there are and their practice?
If their work is bad say it, don’t hire them and avoid them, but don’t come to insult the rest of the people doing their jobs right and that goes for the MUAs as well.

Everybody cannot be the same and do the same job. As long as a person has found something they want to do that makes them money, isn’t illegal and isn’t causing you harm, kindly be quiet and move on with your life. Since your job is so exciting, why not face it? The people talking can’t even be simple LGC of their area but want to tell a woman to abandon her work just to impress them.

If the woman had decided to be a prostitute now, they will scream and curse her (while some also patronise her)but now she’s doing honest work, you’re complaining.

The biggest irony of all is that when she now gets the job of being an exec or governor, the same idiots will ask if she still kneels down for her husband and pounds yam. Some will even demand she resigns. Some Nigerian men need makeup…for their brains.

Source: Hub201.com

Credits: Onuora Onianwa ©2016

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ORESEGUN AND THE MERMAID

Long Time Ago in a village called Alagboja. There was a drunkard called Oresegun. Many people believed that he inherited his drinking habit from his father, while some believed he was cursed by his father second wife because of his father’s love for him.

Oresegun was a talented and famous artist in Alagboja Village. Although he is a drunkard and still single at age 38, other artists still envy him because of his good works. On one Sunday morning, Mr Emgrin, a white man who lives in Lagos but based in Germany came to Alagboja Village to look for a land to start his cocoa farming. He was directed to the king’s palace. The king agreed to give him land in the village after their discussion.

Two weeks later, the king invited his chiefs and Mr Emgrin to his palace for a feast. During the feast, Mr Emgrin saw a large portrait of a young girl and he asked, who snapped this? “It was painted by Oresegun”, the king replied. He painted it when my only daughter drown in the river. Mr Emgrin could not believe his eyes because he never thought someone could paint and make it look so real like a photograph. He asked the king about Oresegun and he said he will like to take him to Germany.

One of the chiefs, Mr Gbola was angry because his son is an artist and his works are also in the palace but they were not recognized. He planned to kill Oresegun that night so he ordered some thugs to do so. The thugs went to Oresegun’s house to carry out the task. They tied Oresegun and threw him into the river. He was dying, suddenly he was untied and he opened his eyes. Surprisingly, he saw the king’s daughter that drown and died in the river sometime ago. He looked at her and he observed that she is half human and half fish. He was scared but she said to him, “don’t be scared because I am here to help you. Chief gbola is behind my death and he also wanted to kill you because of jealousy. I will show you the way out of here”. She took him out of the river. He reported what happened to the king and the king ordered for the arrest of the thugs. They confessed and Cheif Gbola was stoned to death by the villagers.

Oresegun stopped drinking and he was taken to Germany to continue his Art work.

Featured Image by: Oresegun Olumide
Written by: Emgrin Rowland

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NURTURE YOUR MIND WITH GREAT THOUGHTS – SEE WHY

The mind is just like the brain which deals with your intellect, i.e the faculty of thinking, judging, abstract reasoning, and conceptual understanding. It’s also connected to the ability for rational thoughts, the ability to be aware of things, the ability to remember things, and the ability to focus on the thoughts.

All these features can keep you going forward in life if the mind is surrounded with good/great thoughts. The mind works like a written test or exam, what you give it is what it will give you in return. For example, if you continue having evil/negative thoughts about people’s success in their business or whatsoever, you will always continue to fail in your own quest, OR, if you always think of using/buying what people have already created, you can never create your own.

Talking about keeping your mind off negative/poor thoughts and filling it with great ideas/plans, will help you alot in creating a life of opportunities and success towards your target. Therefore, nurture your thinking, make it creative. Think of the bigger part of life you’d want to venture in, and make it real by setting the targets of your plans.

Great people today had the mindset of becoming great because they had the idea of creating something good for themselves, so they worked on every of their plans. They don’t just think of something that will help them for some hours, rather, they think of the possibility of creating something that will make them ‘well-known individuals’ in future of which they’ll benefit from.

Great thoughts builds the road for success beyond one’s imagination. It helps you discover a more meaningful and happy life. Being great is being big, not just big, but very big. As a student, don’t just think of passing your exams, but rather, think of passing the exams with ‘great’ grades even though you can guess what you might have. As a business man/woman, think of making ‘great’ sales of products. As a normal worker, always think of getting ‘great’ promotions and earnings. All these aforementioned processes above are what should be in your mind, and to make them come out real, do things according to how they can be established. A student must always study hard to make that dream come successful, a business man/woman need to be committed, friendly and consistent in his/her business in order to make good sales, a normal office worker need to put in more impressive work-style in order to have great promotion or salary top-up.

Your mind is always ready to act if you follow the right processes. Train the mind to focus on great thoughts, then work towards your plans. I’ll leave you with this proverb, “Instead of thinking of how you can buy a pen, think of how you can make a pen (some day)

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HOW TO STICK TO YOUR NEW YEAR RESOLUTION

As part of the new life strategy that comes in the new year, people try to change from some certain things they’ve been doing that hasn’t been favouring them. Therefore, people bring up resolution for themselves in the new year, and some do stand by their words, while others find it hard to follow up to what they’ve decided upon.

Here are some ways ‘I think’ you can use to stick with your new year resolution and make life splendid for yourself and those around you.

1. Decide with your heart, be ready to fight against temptations. 
This is the first thing I think you should do before thinking of having new year resolution. You should decide the plans you have for the new year and how you want it to appear in your life and things you’d want to change about yourself and the environment. Be ready to devote your time in your plans, take it as a challenge that you ‘must’ be committed to your plans no matter the temptations that will come in the process. Take it that you don’t wanna live that life of the past, you’re now in a new era altogether and nothing should stand as a barrier.

2. Note down/Write down your plans and resolution. 
I think this should follow up after deciding your plans for the year. Write down the context of your resolution in a notebook, notepad or pc/mobile phone notes (a perfect example is the ‘Docs to Go’ app I use on my BlackBerry 10 smartphone). The reason why you need to write them down is to keep you focused and determined as you’ll be tracking your progress daily/weekly. Let your write-ups be succinct and straightforward, and should come in summary for you to easily read up and act.

3. Be aware of friends who will bring you back, keep them off you. 
Before a target is been set, some certain things that will cause hindrance have to be removed. For example, one of your resolution is to stop ‘smoking’ and you know you have friends who have not yet decided that for themselves, you’ll have to stay far from them else you ‘might’ be brought back to what you’ve planned to leave. This is true and that’s why you ‘must’ need to stick with the number #1 point I wrote on and get alternatives to it before further processes.

4. Do not procrastinate, start somewhere!
Be true to yourself, don’t hesitate to carry out the tasks you’ve written with the influence of procrastination. Ensure to start somewhere amidst temptations. Procrastination only end up bringing your plans down and for you to make it, you need to start somewhere no matter what.

5. Act and Believe you can make it. 
This is the last thing you should do, atleast, believe in yourself. Believe that you can do it no matter what the mistakes or error you might get, don’t stop until you’ve achieved the goal. Believe and trust yourself that you can make it. Know that ‘you can only if you think you can’.

Make the new year a favourable one for you and stick to whatever you believe in as far as it’s part of your target. Change yourself and change your environment in anyway you can and stick to your plans.

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9 SECRETS OF FIRST CLASS STUDENTS

The struggles of every student in their academic pursuit include strive to graduate with good grade. The best grade in University is first class which is known as Distinction in Polytechnic. Many Nigerian students always wish to graduate with first class but they don’t know how to go about it. In fact, some students do see first class students as extraordinary while some see them as magicians.
Nevertheless, any student who wish to graduate with first class can do some things to make his dream come to pass. Below are some secrets of first class students which you can work on to get your own first class grade.

1. First class students don’t read 24/7

Hmmm, the believe of many about candidate that bag first class honour sometime are not true.
You don’t have to read from morning to Night before you become a first class graduate.
Most of the first class graduates have fixed hours for reading, between 2 to 5 hours everyday.
So, if you want to become a first class student, you don’t have to read for 24 hours.

2. First Class students Attend lecture

Yes, there is need to be in class always to achieve it and get it done.
Most of the students that graduated with first class can testify to this claim.
In the world of first class, you don’t play with lectures.
If you want to have first class start attending lectures.

3. First class students always want to know everything

There is a similar mentality on the head of many first class students- most of them will ensure all the topics discussed in their various classes is well understood to the best of their knowledge.
If there is any topic they don’t understand, they will always want to learn from others.
They don’t mind to be your friend because of a single topic.

4. Cramming is first class best friend

No brilliant student can survive without cramming.
Although it is advised that you should read and understand but if you lack the power of cramming, my dear say goodbye to first class.
Some students are first class but the manner they converse and communicate with people looks odd.
I have seen a first class student that cannot pronounce English words correctly.
The more you know how to cram the higher your chances of bagging first class.
Cramming and understanding works perfectly together. To know the name of your lecturer involves cramming which lead to understanding.

5. First class students are Goal setters

There is always a vision for first class student.
Most of them will be aiming to Bag first class from their first year in school.
It will be too late to start aiming for first class in your 3rd year.
You must monitor your CGPA and ensure you keep pressing forward.

6. Be a teacher and first class is Certain

Do you know that there is good reward when you teach others what you know?
It will make it very difficult for you to forget. By teaching others you are building and increasing your knowledge and most of the first class student also have this attribute.

7. First class students don’t ignore the power of note taking

There are many secrets first class students will not want to tell you but if you study them closely you will realise where everything goes wrong or right.
First class students always tag some words, sentence or particular definition that comes from the lecturer that others may consider insignificant. Pay attention to these facts and you will be celebrated as a first class student on the day of your graduation.

8. First class students have boy friends/girl friends

Most of the first class students will tell you otherwise but the truth will always stand. Though the failure of some students today is as a result of their relationship and friend in school.
Giving priority to your relationship ahead of your academic is insanity.
You can have girl friend and boy friend but make sure your courtship is free from anything that can affect your Academic obligations.
Chase your book and not the female folks..
Don’t turn yourself to romeo and juliet while in school.

9. First class students Are Gifted

Make we talk the truth, we must acknowledge this fact.
To become first class is sometimes by gift.
We all know messi is the best footballer in the world with only two legs.
Other footballers also have two legs but are no where to match his standard.
We can be age mate but not grace mates.
Some brains are designed to cram and also save information.
Don’t hurt yourself if you fail to graduate with first class degree honour.
You might be destined for something Greater.

Credit: myschoolnewz.com

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TWO WRONGS, TOO MANY

It was a bright, brilliant morning. The sun set right from the eastern sky smiling through every odd that might have hidden its rays. Tolu, a short and dark girl in her thirteen, had dressed up for school with all the eagerness in the world. ‘Mummy’, before she would leave for school, she whispered in a low and graceful manner, ‘I heard you making some noise through your nose while you were sleeping last night, why do people snore?’ Her mother answered with a caring voice that betrayed her bothered mind, ‘It’s normal for men to snore’. ‘Mum’, but my teacher beat me up because I was sleeping in class. She said I was snoring. Is it a sin to snore?” No, Tolu, he must have beaten you because you were sleeping, not snoring’. ‘Yes, you’re right, I felt so too. The whole class laughed at me when I woke up. It was shameful, I couldn’t withstand it. So, I should always avoid sleeping! ”Don’t sleep in class anymore’, answered her mother. ‘Thanks mum’, she replied as they heard the driver press the horn.

On getting to school, it was late. She did not leave at the right time. However, all the pupils in her class had gone somewhere. In a moment, she dashed, like a bat, into the classroom that was buried in screaming silence. It was a strange sight for her. In a jiffy of time, in awful horror, she heard a loud sound creeping along as she took every step forward more and more into the looming silence. She waited a bit with conflicting thoughts beating in her little heart. She was troubled because there was no time the class became so empty at nine o’clock in the morning.

Meanwhile, peeping through the window that opened into the next classroom, she saw her teacher deeply sleeping and snoring to high heavens. Now, she knew there was nothing to fear about. It was Mr Dele that had been making the scaring snore all the while. Hence, a thought jumped up in her mind, ‘Let me go ahead and wake him up’. All at once, she eventually did what brought some strokes. She crooned along as she wept, ‘I was trying to let you know you were scaring me with your snore’.

It was already noon. Tolu was back at home with all the sadness in the world. She had been treated badly by her teacher. ‘Mummy, mummy, mummy…’. She shouted as her mother spred her arms wide open to carry her up. ‘I was beaten for waking Mr Dele when he was snoring today’. ‘Beaten’? No impossible. You must have have done something else’. ‘He was scaring me with his snore since there was nobody in the class. ‘Mum, have you forgotten that he also beat me when I was sleeping in the class? Is it right to be wronged when it’s right?’ She lamented. Now, her mother lulled her. She explained to her that she was taken to be rude and foolish out of sheer ignorance. Though she was taken to be wrong, not too wrong; the teacher was just hysterical in reacting to the situation wrongly. She exploded, ‘these two wrongs are too many and proper examination would bring effective correction’.

Written by: Oyeyemi John Ojo

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ANGER: HOW IT AFFECTS YOU AND WAYS YOU CAN CONTROL IT

As defined by the English dictionary, “Anger” is a strong feeling of displeasure, hostility or antagonism towards someone or something, usually combined with an urge to harm. When angry, you can do unimaginable things without you knowing. As part of this, anger can destroy our daily affairs, jobs, well-being and our relationships.

Anger comes in a combination of your thoughts, feelings and behaviours when you’re severely frustrated by unfortunate conditions and maybe by people’s unfair behaviour. When you get angry, you say/do things out of control, not knowing that you’re negatively harming the next person.

WHAT ANGER DOES AND HOW IT AFFECTS YOU

If you ask yourself what anger has cost you, I believe two or three sentences will be made. Has there ever been a time in your life when you got angry and ended up hurting someone you care about? In the aftermath of feeling mad, i.e when you’ve calmed down, it’s often easy to know the damages you’ve done or the ‘unfriendly outspoken words’ you’ve uttered uncontrollably.

In a relationship, there are visible, tangible signs: tears on the face of your partner (mostly with the ladies), a heavy silence hanging in the air after a loud shouting time and also bringing quarrels or so. Anger can also cause problems in your life that perhaps aren’t so easy to spot right away. This inspired me to do this research about how anger negatively affect your life and the lives of those around you.

If you can’t control anger, that means there are chances that you’re might be hurting someone’s feelings or other people’s life around you. If you ever feel really angry and unable to let something go, if you feel like you’re continually on the edge, when your anger lasts for extended periods of time, it becomes more difficult to cope with little aggravations in your life and it becomes harder to de-stress.

As it might interest you, uncontrolled anger can adversely affect your health life, thereby causing headaches, migraines, chest pains, some body aches and more. Over the long term, anger issues can further complicate pre-existing health conditions. It can also put you at risk for hypertension, high blood pressure and depression for stressed thoughts.

In other words, your anger can affect not only you, but the people in your life as well. It casts a negative feeling on those around you. Your anger can cause people to feel upset, intimidated, afraid, or a handful of other unpleasant emotions. You’re also running the risk of pushing loved ones out of your life for good.

When you yell at your partner when you’re angry, whether it is emotional or physical, it can have an extremely negative effect on your partner’s well-being. Solving conflict with anger, yelling and violence also sets an unhealthy precedent in a relationship, by doing what your emotions tells you to do under the influence of anger.
These are some of the ways anger affects you.

WAYS IT CAN BE CONTROLLED

This is something that has been a problem to me before, not until I worked out plans to get rid of it.
Now, let’s take a look at the step-by-step ways I think anger can be controlled below;

STEP 1: Try Calm Yourself a little 
First of all, when you’re angry, stumbling upon some things that didn’t come out as planned for you and maybe a friend/partner or neighbour tries to talk to you, either in a good or bad manner, don’t over-react, try calm yourself down and simply say thank you and leave, even though you must have said something ‘huge’ as part of the shouts, it doesn’t really mean though as it can be solved in the other steps below.

STEP 2: Go to a Lonely Environment and rest
After calming yourself a little, change environment by taking a walk to a lonely place set aside for just you, and maybe the birds and nature. Try rest there for some time. Don’t go to a neighbour/friend’s house because they might advice you wrongly thereby causing more negative behaviour and attitude. This is true because I’ve learnt that some people can easily be negatively advised to pick a step that they will later regret without them knowing and re-thinking. These set of people are gullible and easily persuaded to do something. Even in this my article, they won’t bother doing a re-think of some other possible ways, rather, they’ll just stick to it. Always have a re-think!

STEP 3: Think of the Situation on Ground
When alone, think of the situation and how it happened, think of what you might have done or said rudely to people around you and realise your mistakes that “even in bad times we should still be responsible and mature enough to handle issues that annoys us and not by getting angry for no reason at people for their opinion whether good or bad”

STEP 4: Make amend and live a more meaningful life
After stumbling on it, go back home/office and make amend. Maybe you said things out of control or did something unlawful, go make apologies to those parties. Life wouldn’t have been better should we have not had a merciful God who always forgives. Apology is one thing that is cherished so much by people because it tells your ingenuity, maturity, honesty and straightforwardness. Knowing and admitting you’ve made a mistake somewhere frand it needs to be corrected is really a good thing and makes you a mature person.

STEP 5: Practice a New life without Anger
As you’ve set the pace, let it begin. Start living a new life of controllable anger even when it might come some times. Also, try keeping yourself out of things that will make you angry, especially in a relationship, family or work place, by disregarding any attempt of temptations that you might have out of spoken words or behaviour/reactions.

I’ll leave you today with an inspiring line that; “It takes only a mature and responsible mind to fight against anger”, so if you’re the type that do get angry at every little thing that comes your way, dearest, it’s either you’re a kid that can’t handle issues or you’re learning to grow up. Always live without bearing grudges because grudges because grudge is a key to anger, it makes you not to forget what has happened.

Photo Credit: Excellence.colinmtita.com

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DO YOU DEFINE YOUR SOCIAL NEED?

Sometimes, we all wish to be by ourselves to do some somber reflections about our past actions. It is quite normal that we decide to pass up some opportunities presented by our friends and loved ones for a moment, alone with our thoughts. There are other times that we make up our minds not to step out in the open for a few days because we have some serious decisions to make about the turns our lives are taking. It is not a selfish move to decide not to want to have any form of communication with your usual circles for a given period.

Taking some time away can actually be good for us to engage in some deep thinking about what move to make next in life. We need some soul searching every now and then, for us to be able to cut down our excesses or improve on the quality of our lives. Some evaluations and assessments will not harm anyone when it is done constructively and purposefully. Those times that you devote to be by yourself are very important and they will help keep you on track.

However, it is very unhealthy and injurious to shut out oneself completely from positives of the outside world. We are naturally and innately social beings and we depend on one another to survive. We are dependent on those people we find in our society. There are relationships that we develop among some social groups in our society that will contribute to the person we become in life. Our age grades, people with similar ideology, people who are of the same gender, profession and class with us are most times the people we build a closely knitted relationship with.

A life of absolute seclusion from everyone and everything around us is definitely not the best decision we can make. Our need for inclusion surpasses the need to live alone. We always desire to feel among and affiliate ourselves with some certain groups of people that we believe will have positive impact on our lives. We want to be seen in the company of these people so that people will view us in the light in which they see these people. We are inherently social beings and we should embrace this beautiful characteristic with our shoulder straight and our head held high.

You need to socialise, but rightly define such socialisation.

Mustapha Modupe writes from the University of Ibadan, Oyo state.

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KNOWLEDGE IS POWER; IGNORANCE IS NO EXCUSE!

As you grow old to become more aware and conscious of all that is going on around you, it’s important to develop a great level of sensitivity because it will help you to avoid lots of mistakes that could be damaging to your person or to people around you. You are taught a lot of things that will assist you in your endeavours by your parents, friends and families; you learn a lot from the school you attend and from your teachers. You also get few life’s lessons from the books you read, the songs you listen to, the movies you watch and the people you listen to. At times, you get some of these things by accident. It really does not matter where you get it from as no one will bother you with that question.

However, if after spending an ample time in the world and you have not been able to put the bits and pieces together to develop a reasonable level of cognitive complexity, it will then be very difficult for you to impart or pass on what you have learnt and acquired to the new generation.

It has generally been accepted that no one is an island of knowledge. That is why you will not be pressured or castigated by anyone if you do not have an answer to everything. Nonetheless, you are encouraged to know something about everything and everything about something. You will not only be doing yourself a lot of good if you take it upon yourself to know more beyond what you are taught in the four walls of the classroom, but also you will be contributing to the development of the world. If you reach the level, your counsel or opinion will often be required before any decision is reached or taken by a great number of important people that move the world in a certain direction.

More often than not, people end up pursuing careers or taking up job offers that are distinctively different from the courses they studied in school. If these people are too fixated to explore or gather some more information outside their field of study, then, veering into other areas will be near impossible. It is however possible to read all that you can, on the Nigerian history, read about the number of local governments in your state of origin and know more about your native language and culture. You can also read about the opposite gender and stay informed, so that you do not find yourself ignorant of some basic and important subjects in a gathering of scholars or even the uneducated people.

Know that everything you learn today or yesterday might not come in handy tomorrow, but it could, the day after or the next or even years after you acquired that knowledge. Such precious knowledge might save you from a total embarrassment or help you to nail a job or contract. Knowledge is power!

WRITTEN BY:
Mustapha Sakirat Modupe,
University of Ibadan, Oyo state.

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MASTURBATION: WHAT IS YOUR TAKE?

What is masturbation?
Masturbation is simply, an act whereby individuals use their hand or soft object to channel a process of message through their private parts to generate a sexual ecstasy, this is done in both sex.

What is sex?
Sex in this context is an act whereby two individuals usually a man and a woman, whether married or not, engage their reproductive organs in a union that usually promote ecstasy for both parties, with or without the intention of producing an offspring thereafter.

Writing about the former and the latter, I’ll be pragmatic enough here, on the other way round I’ll be soft.

Forgive my Cynicism if it frightens you, just as I wrote: “I’m only trying to be pragmatic”.

Firstly, it is God’s intention for man to have sex, because it is the process through which His majesty’s plan to keep man replenishing come to being. If there was any other, God would have told us from the genesis anyway. But it was never God’s intention that man masturbate. One similar qualities is that both act can be caused or channel by pornograhics whether active or passive. It was never part of God’s idea that man masturbate, why? His majesty, when He made both of them (Adam and Eve) never intended that the man Adam would had a ‘seperate sex’, He said “it is not good for man to be alone”, meaning, from this context “it is not good for Adam to be fingering himself or playing with his balls all day by himself”, although sex was not the only role the woman eve was supposed to play as designed by God, but on this topic I’ll maintain a straight resonance here – won’t divert. It was not God’s idea too that the latter Eve would practically impractically give herself a self-arousal and take her finger or an object to induce on herself some climax of sexual cool delectation and felicity, it wasn’t God’s idea. Even when He made animals; carnivorous, herbivorous, reptiles, insects, God did made provision for a means to sex if the need be, they all had their partner, Bible recorded “Male and female He did made them”.

These days, something frightens me well when I see animals and insects do their things, even a cockroach will not loose the pleasures of such full exorbitance and frilly moment to the detriment of imagining a self-induced sex on themselves whether male or female. Even the tse tse fly

I don’t know what you see and say, but It is a great magnitude and gob of disgrace for a man whether a believer or an atheist to practice such.

Credit: Adegbite Joseph God’sWork Adexlord

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A WRITER’S TRAVAIL

Quite a number of times, you have this profound urge to move the world in a particular direction as a writer. The desire to put down your thought or idea becomes so acute that you feel the need to write them as the ideas flow in. Most likely, you want to guide against not scribbling down important things that you see or hear about. You want to avoid leaving any stone unturned or distorting the picture you want to create. You often times realize that you have so much you want to put down, but you cannot just find the right words to use to paint the right image. 

Sometimes, writers get frustrated, livid, and defeated when they experience that writer’s block. It feels like they have lost the magical touch they possess to produce another epic novel. That mental anguish they experience when they grope for the elusive words can be likened to the period of childbirth. A woman in labour tosses, groans and writhes in pain all by herself for unending hours at the early stage of childbirth. The contractions she experience are always longer when she is close to having her child. Her face contours into different expression that gives away the intense agony she is passing through.

The searing pain that a woman goes through during labour can be transformed to the excruciating distress, throbbing and torment that a writer goes through when he tries to string innovative ideas together in his work. Even, as her contractions become incessant, she contains the burning torture because she can only picture the moment where she carries her child in her arms and smiles fondly at it. She is patient, resilient, resolute and determined to finish the work she started nine months ago and no amount of pain will deter her. Even, when all the Zest and vitality she has, appear to be failing her, she only has to remember why she is making so great a sacrifice for her to continue to muster all the courage she has in her to deliver the precious being who wants to make its appearance into the world.

Writers go through a similar experience because they believe they have an obligation to fulfill to their readers. So, they work fiercely day and night. It is so inconsequential if they go through hell and high waters to achieve their goals as long as they are able to impart and impact the world positively. They are willing to endure any form of discomfort that will ensure they produce a masterpiece that they can call their baby. Even, when they are fatigued from the hurdles of the day, they still make sure they devote some quality time into their work.

Diligent writers do community service. So, they usually feel the deep longing to expose the ills of the society and at the same time proffer solutions to them in their work. They are painstaking, experienced and dexterous in the way they present their write up. Solely, a writer, irrespective of his accomplishment, often feels like he just recovered from a long bout of illness when he finally finished his work.

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IGBOGI ROAD (A Short Story)

It was on the penultimate week before the last presidential election. He was in the supermarket adjacent his home. Clad in a white kaftan that he likes to wear on evenings, due to his love for the Arabs way of dressing, and a black leather slippers. Mayowa is well-groomed and tall. He looks like he is 27years old but is close to 34. Unmarried and loving it, he lacks the aura associated with a philanderer. But don’t be deceived. He could sleep with his father if he was wearing a skirt.

He checked his wrist-watch, one of the few of his Armani collections, and it’s luminous hands showed the time was around 7:22pm. The evening breeze outside was cool and soothing. His jet black and curly hair, reflected the ray of the moon and made him appear a rich and successful young man. In retrospection, this was how he envisioned his appearance would be when he first saw the Arabian who manages the branch of the construction company he works with as a project manager.

Looking through the varieties of cereals he wanted to buy, he saw what he wanted to be in the next four or five years; The Project Coordinator-Africa of this multi-billion dollar company that pays him good salary.

“Excuse me. Do you by chance work here?”
The soft feminine voice just behind him made his heart skip a beat. He turned around and discovered who should have been crowned the most beautiful girl in the universe just behind him. She was so stunning time could only wait for him to scan through the face. She had beautiful dark eyes that slants perfectly at the edges, full lips and the perfect nose.

“Hi!” she said looking into his eyes.
Mayowa was completely over taken by her beauty that he had no words slipping out of his own mouth.
“Do you work here?” she asked again
“I’m sorry I was taken to the land of dreams by your beauty. I don’t work here but if I have a chance to see you here everyday, I’ll resign where I work and start working here” Mayowa said
She giggled and waved a hand to hide her blush.
Mayowa stretched his hand, stepped forward and introduced himself.
“My name is Mayowa Olabanjo and it would give me so much excitement to know your name and be of assistance to you.”

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MY EXPERIENCE: The Tears, The Pain and The Release

We live in a world where we all struggle to
be heard, we struggle to even speak…
because everyone is talking.
We all want that quiet place, that shoulder;
that ear that would listen but never judge;
that full expression of companionship where
we can pour out the entire contents of our
hearts and not feel vulnerable…
I’ll paint a picture for you! One that’s of
my struggles, my pain and all the challenges
I go through. I want to tell you of my
pure yearn for true companionship where I
can be myself, where I can speak to one
who’s true and great and mighty and not
feel judged.
My typical morning entails waking up so
early, rushing out to join the buzz of the
day; joggle a few buses (lost in thoughts
the entire journey) an………d wheeeew! (Sigh
of relief) I’m at work…sweating profusely
though! I settle on my desk, put on a fake
smile for the ceremonial ‘Good mornings &
Hi!’…thought of this fake smile lasting all
day sometimes gives me a churn; soon I
organize jobs for the day, (most times
absent mindedly)…. On and on it goes till
my whole day wears out and soon I’m ready
to go home and I’m faking another
‘Goodnight’ smile again.
But guess what? it’s not ok…I’m not ok!
Why can’t my life be as calm as the sea, as
gentle as the cool breeze, as joyful as the
clapping waves…that calm; that Peace! But
Nooo my mind wanders carelessly to my
broken engagement……
Psalms say ‘come into my presence with
thanksgiving and into my court with praise’,
BUT I go to my father’s house so heavy
hearted, submerged and tormented by my
thoughts that by the time I’m laying my
burdens at his feet while worshipping…the
worship session is gone! It’s never ever
enough!
Then I heard about THE EXPERIENCE…Then I
attended an……d (Pause) for the first time I
could cry without bothering that someone
was watching; I could laugh truly from the
depth of my heart without faking it; I could
truly appreciate my existence; I dropped all
my guard and ego…….and got soaked in a
true moment of limitless worship with the
one God! I lost all my pain; all my worries;
all my hurt; all my bitterness; all my
hatred…I felt the best EXPERIENCE man
could ever have….I got healed!
That’s #MyExperience @ TheEXPERIENCE .

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ACCEPT WHOM YOU ARE

Some of us have spent most of our lives disgruntled about what we do not appreciate about ourselves. We most often feel uncertain about our looks and appearances. We are very self-conscious that we focus more on our imperfections and give little or no credit to the lovely things we possess. We beat ourselves so hard that we begin to give life to our misgivings and apprehensions. It then becomes difficult to feel good about ourselves.

So, we habour a lot of fear when we step out in the open. Our home becomes our haven as it’s the only place we feel comfortable in our own skin; we get sick to our stomach with dread when we have to go to public places. Even, our carriage is a dead giveaway of the insecurity we feel because we find ourselves walking with an unenthusiastic slouch.

Inadvertently, we go about wearing our heart on our faces. We do not think much of our selves, we only make ourselves vulnerable to the onslaught of the urchins and vultures. These Predators find pleasure in making susceptible people their prey and throwing darts at us. They have this uncanny discerning and probing eyes that can see through lead. They do not need a crystal ball to detect that we are an easy target.

However, we forget that we all have a demon which we try to get rid of every time. We all have our flaws, but we only find a way to live with ourselves. These egocentric people that pick on the weak and helpless are often times more afraid than we are. If we look closely, we will see beyond the superficial and see these people for whom they are.
We will have a good and long laugh at their charade which is a sham. They only put up this show for the benefit of those people who are not so perceptive.
We will then realize that we are better off, if we accept ourselves for whom we are.

There are so many wonderful things we are too blind to see about us. We only have to look inwardly to see the untapped talent that we carry. We are capable of doing great things, but we only have to discover and develop that raw talent. Let’s learn to love life and love the people that deserve our love; entertain people who believe in our dreams, people who are interested in us, achieving our dreams. We should cultivate the habit of assisting the people who require our help because we do need one another to make our dreams come through.

Written by:
SAKIRAT MODUPE, a Communication and Language Arts undergraduate of University of Ibadan, Oyo State.

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IF YOU LOVE HER, MAKE HER HAPPY – TIPS TO MAKE HER FEEL LOVED

Maybe you love her so much and can’t do without her but sometimes you just don’t stay in line when trying to bring little romance to show you truly love and cherish her. Every female relationship partner needs to be treated with care, love and respect no matter what they’ve done to you (that’s if you still love her and wants to keep her). It’s the way you make her feel that matters, therefore, if you make her happy when you’re also happy in the relationship, it keeps it going in a good way and it feels good.

Unlike guys who gradually think problems and issues off their memory, ladies would want to elaborate more on it and this makes guys angry. But not withstanding, you still have to make her feel happy and loved because she’s your partner. You might not have much but you just have to do something little and below are some tips for you to make her feel loved.

1. Do the Things she likes
You’ve been in an affair with her for some time now, I believe you must have known some few things that she likes; work on them. Maybe you know she likes banana so much, and maybe you went to work, you can surprisingly buy it for her on your way coming back. It doesn’t mean anything but it shows you love her by giving her what she likes. She’ll receive it with happiness and your dinner will be well set that night *winks*.

A good girlfriend will always like what’s good and what you can afford, don’t go buying different things for her just to impress her. If you didn’t see it in particular, don’t buy another, for example, if she likes a particular white gown that she’d shown you before, and because you didn’t see it and it’s only the red colour that was there, you went buying the red, it’s a no no no. Instead simply surprise her with something else that she likes

2. Be Honest and Open to her
Don’t brag about something you don’t have or something you’ve not yet achieved, instead, tell her the truth about what you’re into. Caring and good girlfriends/wives are always understanding and you telling them the truth will bring more love and affection in the relationship. She’ll love you because you’re open to her.

3. Go out on a picnic together
In a quiet place occupying just the both of you, eating together, feeding each other, sharing ideas together and lying in her legs, looking at her eyes. The affection and love in her eyes will be so strong that she might shed tears of joy because she’ll be thinking of the things you’ve been doing for her. Ladies like this, they enjoy it.

4. Pet Her, Care for her and Assist her
Ladies love guys who can treat them right. If you truly want to make your lover feel loved, pet her. Maybe she’s tied up with some works that will take her time, you can help her by taking some tasks upon yourself. There’s nothing there, you’re not doing it everyday, it’s just for that time so there should not be any form of pride. Do this if you truly love her.

5. Take her on a trip together and to occasions. 
This is one of the sweetest ways you can actually make her feel loved. Taking her on a trip together to see what the world covers makes her to know different things she don’t know, and she’ll feel happy for expanding her knowledge about the world. Also take her to occasions where people are celebrating; wedding, music and comedy show, award nights and other outdoor events, so you people can feel warmed and enlightened together. Especially a comedy show, it feels sweet and lovely when you laugh at one particular thing together. She won’t feel the love instantly, she’ll feel the love when you’re back home, when she remembers the event and how she got there and the person that brought the idea.

Love is something every relationship should possess. Always show efforts to make your girlfriend/wife happy by using these tips, it works so well because I’ve been using it, they costs nothing.

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