A List Of Really Great Books I Read In 2015

It is amazing...just yesterday i was texting people a Happy New Year text and today, it is November, almost 2016. A lot has happened...too much in fact. Amidst all the craziness of this world and the circumstances that are our lives, i have stumbled upon some great books this year. I do not remember a time when i read as much as i read this year. It is not like i had more free time this year, i was so busy with my masters thesis, writing for ezibota, updating this blog, working on some writing projects, work on and off and so many other little things yet, i still created time to read. This goes without saying that it is a major illusion when we tell ourselves that we do not have time for certain things. Yes you do, yes time does not stop for anyone but it is up to us to utilize the time we have and create times for things we want to do. Before this goes to another direction, i just wanted to share some of the most spectacular books i have read this year with anyone reading this. Some of the books that i will list were recommended to me, some i found on my own, some destiny threw my way. If a book is on this list, best believe it has had a profound impact on my life. You will find philosophy, poetry, biographies, novels etc. I hope you get  to read at least some of them within the coming year or even within the last few weeks of this year.

1. Ecce Homo- Friederick Nietszche
2. Words From A Wanderer- Alexandra Elle
3. Love In My Language- Alexandra Elle
4. The Remains Of The Day- Kazuo Ishiguro
5. A Pale View Of Hills- Kazuo Ishiguro
6. There Was A Country- Chinua Achebe
7. Norwegian Wood- Haruki Murakami
8. After The Quake-Haruki Murakami
9. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running- Haruki Murakami
10. The Prophet- Kahlil Gibran
11. Eleven Minutes- Paulo Coelho
12. Brida- Paulo Coelho
13. The Winner Stands Alone- Paulo Coelho
14. The Bastard Of Istanbul- Elif Shafak
15. My Feudal Lord- Tehmina Durrani
16. Callings: Finding And Following An Authentic Life- Gregg Levoy
17. The Everything Store- Brad Stone
18. Americanah- Chimamanda Adichie Ngozie
19. If You Have To Cry, Go Outside and Other Things Your Mother Never Told You- Kelly Cutrone
20. The Satanic Verses- Salman Rushdie
21. David And Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and The Art Of Battling Giants- Malcolm Gladwell
22. The Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam

I really hope if not all, then a few of these books impact your life as much as they have impacted mine.
Bonne Annee/Mutlu Yillar/Happy New Year!!!!

Immigrant Diaries (3): Go Home

They say;
"go back to where you came from"

as we became bent

from carrying home

on our backs.

you think we want to be here?
you think we want to break the ocean
to hear you say our names?

noor sounds like darkness
from your mouth.
you ask if
i burn in the sun
you tell me slavery
was not such a "big deal"
do you still think
we want
to be
here?

La Haine (The Hate)

I made this gif from my favorite movie titled La Haine meaning The Hate. It is french movie made in 1995. It is amazing, this movie was made in the 20th century and today, almost 2016 in the 21st Century, same people are still fighting the same wars.
Is the world not exhausted? From all this fighting? Has cowardice overpowered our courageous and natural will to end conflict and embrace peace? The over-exertion of power by the powerful has proven to be counter-intuitive in the face of defiance then why is it still so rampant?

World powers are exercising their power on weaker counterparts. Today, Israel, a giant in the middle-east do nothing but bully Palestine where the people only have rocks. Why not step out of the tankers and come out from behind their sniper rifles. If there must be a fight over something, why not fight the fight on equal grounds.,take it to the streets. Fight a fight with stones if that is the case, lets see who can pelt stones at better trajectories and win. Cowardice and arrogance has crippled the entire world and we have accepted that.
ISIS claim to be fighting "infidels" yet they attack and terrorise civilian people in Iraq and Syria. Why not take up the war with the Russians, fight according to your means, why not take the fight up with the American fighter jets, why not walk up to Assads mansion with all his security detail and fight the fight? Most of these whys cannot be answered because it is not truly a fight. A fight would be if all parties involved were capable of fighting and they were all fighting towards or over a common goal. What chance does a rock pelter stand against an armoured tank. It is truly not about land, or religion, or tribe, or race...All of these insurgences, mindless killing and fighting is truly about ARROGANCE, GREED AND POWER! Boko haram have killed more muslims than any tribal/religious clashes in Nigeria. These are people that are supposed to be fighting for Islam and muslims. If they are killing the same people they are fighting for, then what is their fight really about?
It is absolutely a power play between world powers whom have nothing to lose, the weaker parties, the poor people, they are the ones whom will always pay the price for the arrogance and greed of the powerful. They are all murderers, simply killing for the sake of killing, because there is a sort of gratification in their minds afterwards. It is very twisted. We live in a world where a group of people terrorises an entire region, forcing them to leave their homes, yet they arrive at our doors and we don't answer their knocks, we peep through the windows and we tell them to go back to their homes, knowing very well that sending them back is the same as signing their death certificates.
I do not think anyone is born with hate, hate is a product of our immediate circumstance, hate is the product of anger, hate does not dwell where love thrives. If we are all truly fighting for God, isn't God synonymous with love, isn't God synonymous with peace? If we distrupt the balance of the world by infesting it with hate, war and mindless killing, haven't when then strayed far away from God? Do we think we are still at Gods feet?

The Nigerian Civil Servant And The Public

The Nigerian civil servant is the most under-appreciated person in the working world.

I think this is the problem, because the civil-servant also feels under-appreciated, he/she also regards his/her job with little care. Have you ever being to an organisation run by the government(e.g public library, government hospital etc) and had someone who works there treat you so bad that you regret ever stepping out of the safety of your own home.
Why are these people so rude? My God. While working on publishing my book (Solitude which is available on Amazon, link above page), i went to the Kaduna public library to get my ISBN. On getting there i met the most distasteful woman ever, she was unnecessarily rude and unkind and for the life of me, i could not tell what i had done to offend this woman. I decided to be terribly kind to her, i greeted her, tried to crack jokes which she did not find remotely funny and offered to buy her something when i went to print my request letter which she declined with the roll of her eyes. But this is not the only case, have you ever gone to the Transport Authorities for your drivers licence in Nigeria and you happen to not know anyone there? You would hate the day you learned how to drive. No one wants to even listen to you talk-less of attend to you. I do not know why this case is so common with government bodies. I was at the Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital in Kaduna for a medical report and i opened a file, paid and everything. I came back the next day and what do they tell me? My file was missing and i had to pay for another file? I understand it is a little sum of 200 naira but what if i was someone whom could not afford to spend 200 naira every time? I am sure there are people whom are not financially well off that come to the hospital, how does the hospital expect them to get any treatment?
The Nigerian public sector is in dire need of reform. There should be some form of civil servant training program that teaches potential civil servants about customer relations. This is not okay, have you ever been to a public hospital abroad? people want to help you even, why is Nigeria falling behind on something as simple as customer relations, besides, the moment you choose to work with/for the government, you have chosen a life of National service. You are obliged to treat the public with respect seeing as you are serving them and all. There are so many cases like this, i detest anything that requires i go to any public organisation for anything.
I do not understand if it is because these people hate their jobs, or they just don't care about the people that they serve, or they feel "the government does not pay me enough to care about all of this" but you are a civil servant, you work for the people, you must learn to be nice to the people you directly serve.

xoxo
Sayonara

Immigrant diaries (2): Things we left in the water

As water sipped in
Through the sides of the boat
Your conductor asks you
To dump everything you don't really need
What do you mean?
You ask, he says
"throw it all over board"
Your father throws away
The guilt of cheating
Your mother dumps out
The dissatisfaction of marriage
The woman opposite you
Spits out the pain of miscarriage
Your aunty flings away
The shame of sexual curiosity
You take of your shoes
You throw your shoes in the water
You begin to cry
To rid yourself of tears
There is too much in you
Too much sadness
You say, it will drown us
You cannot stop crying
You cry for the war
You cry for the children
You cry for homelessness
You cry for the word refugee
You stick your face away from the boat
If the water doesn't drown us
Honey, your tears would
Your mother says
You give it all to the water
The conductor paddles you all ashore
Through salt water and tears
There are is too much pain in the water
Once ashore
You don't look back
You pray to God to drown it all.

The Voice Of New Nigeria

Image Source: Igemcity

I am very very excited about this generation of young people. There is an ample amount of young people lately whom have wild ideas and i am very happy about that. As i had spent my summer working with children (whom i adore) i noticed a trend with young people, they have things to say. Unlike the generation of our parents, these new set of young adults/teenagers are very opinionated and if you don't agree with them, they are willing to sit and make you understand why they say what they say. I find that highly impressive.

I have very young sisters with such wild opinions. My 17 year old sister is the smartest teenager i know. It is fascinating really. I decided to write this today because i got very emotional over some issues, suddenly, i found myself reaching for words my sister had told me about coping, strategically planning and never letting my emotions get in the way of what i need to say. I never saw this day coming. We often say my sister talks out of her ass because she has absolutely no filter. As long as it is in her head, my sister will let it roll down to her tongue and voice box, this is what will take her places.
The youth of Nigeria proved that they will be heard through the last elections, they demanded a just electoral system and let the entire world know that they were in control of their destinies now, the nation heard them. They advocated and campaigned, eventually electing into power the president they believe had the best interest at heart for them and they have shown that if he fails them, they will remove him and elect someone else. This is a vocal generation. The young people don't want to be silent anymore and that terrifies the older generation. They are maximally utilising social media to get their message across.

Most parents feel threatened by the outspokenness of the new generation of the new Nigeria. They will do everything in their power to reenforce their control on the youth, they will throw threats, point accusing fingers and wag their tongues,they will claim to know more and most be obeyed because they are older but the beauty of it all is, it does not stop the youth. Nigeria is a country of entrepreneurs, young people are screaming on the top of their voices, "if the government will not provide jobs for us, we will provide jobs for ourselves", they are succeeding. What is even more beautiful is the way the women are rising up. Amina Muhammed of Gombe,Nigeria just recently showed Nigerian women whom have always being the ones left behind that they can be successful, that they can aspire to one day sit before the UN to voice their opinion and be heard. Women of Nigeria are waking up, Nigeria and it's religious and cultural beliefs are not enough to hold them down anymore. Today, northern women are reaching places, slowly but surely, they are climbing. There are doctors, lawyers, engineers, politicians, engineers,activists etc. I am a strong believer in the power of the people, i sincerely believe that when people push to achieve their dreams, even when the entire world is against them, then truly the universe will align in their favour.

This does not suddenly eliminate the problems that the Nigerian youth face. There is still widespread unemployment, child marriage is still an issue, religious and cultural stigma are still a problem but what these set of new Nigerians are saying is this, that they will persevere. I will use this sentence which has become more of a slogan since revolutions started rising around the world, "They tried to bury us but they did not know that we were seeds." I am proud to be a part of this New Nigeria, it is up to us to create the Nigeria we want our children to grow up in.

The Aftermath of War

Head shot 

Bleeds the forehead of a nation 

Whose mother is plunging fingers 

Into her belly wrenching out 

The womb of disaster 

A nation cries tears 

Of remembrance for the days 

When the sun shone 

And when it rained 

The rainbow curved across the sky 

Casting Gods smile 

On green grass 

And the children's ribs 

Were not corn ridges 

A nation sings 

Choruses of songs that called 

To patriots and fed them 

Like bones to a dog 

Watched them bleed 

As the moon rose 

Casting shadows 

On the ghosts of our sons 

Head shot 

A nation looks down at its chest 

It is stained red 

The color of survival 

The color of redemption 

The color of a second chance 

A nation wraps its daughters 

In a garment of promise 

Uses its hands to support 

Broken boys 

The memories of war 

We lived to forget 

A second chance 

A nation 

is reborn again.