How Green are YOU?

Martin Luther King who we respect so much had this to say about Green, "For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver."

Have you ever wondered why so many national flags have The Colour Green in them? Have you ever asked yourself why freshness is mostly associated with Green? Do you think Vegetation would be pleasant to the eyes if it were another colour, say Blue? These and many more questions about green is what we encounter everyday, consciously and unconsciously.

The most universal meanings of green are strongly associated with nature. In today's world, we have become increasingly concerned with preserving our planet ecologically. Green color meanings have become closely tied with this trend. So the big question of when was the last time you planted a tree surfaces here. We take our environment for granted yet we react when the environment acts out of anger of how we have treated it. Are we humans really interested in preserving the Colour Green of nature?

Green, the color of life, renewal, nature, and energy, is associated with meanings of growth, harmony, freshness, safety, fertility, and environment. Green is also traditionally associated with money, finances, banking, ambition, greed, jealousy, and wall street.

How Green are your thoughts for people? Do you think of helping people grow or you just wallow in ambition, greed or jealousy? Have you ever thought about creating harmony where there is discord? We need to stand for Peace where ever we find ourselves. Being an Ambassador of Peace should be a Self Conferred title. We cannot always wait for the authority around us to be the ones to broker peace.

When you are around people, do you get them refreshed or you tend to drain people just by being around them? We must consciously work towards how we want to impact people. Unconsciously affecting people can turn out to be negative. We must learn to be like the rain, when it falls, vegetation is refreshed. Again I ask, how do you leave people when you encounter them, refreshed or drained?

Most people on earth keep thinking the world is greener on the other side. Guess what, someone somewhere thinks your area and where you are at the moment is greener. You aren't seeing Green probably because you aren't working hard enough to make your area Green.

Whatever you find yourself doing can blossom if and when you do it the right way, with the right energy and at the right time.

Today I ask you, what does your Green represent; jealousy, envy, greed or prosperity, freshness, harmony,growth, safety or fertility?

The Unwelcome Embrace!

As I lay on my bed yesterday morning, thinking of how much I missed photography and my camera, my mind suddenly did an impromptu back flip to one event that scarred my last days as an undergraduate, actually two events. I may make up my mind not to tell you about the second today but you never know.

A very beautiful lady, smart (to a fault) with very shapely body and a wordsmith with a way with words drew my attention, a number of times to my uncanny acts of kindness/selflessness. The fact that I was dating her at that time did nothing to bring me close to heeding her warnings. I could crave her indulgencies, leave her and go on one of my ‘kind deeds’ endeavour. I sometimes retorted that it was my nature to help and I couldn’t change it and she would always remind me that there was always a line. But the man in me was as stubborn as the man in all men is. Until this one incident brought my emotional knees to the ground.

I was just chilling at my friend’s place when my phone rang.

            “Good day Sir”, as I answered my call

            “Where are you?”

            “I am at divine lodge Sir”

            “Okay, I’m coming to meet you there”.

The caller came and explained to me how my assistance was needed. He was the leader of a group in church that had the mandate to do Prison ministry. He was well respected even by people outside the church, so it was an honour for him to need my assistance. One of the duties they had was to look for people who had been wrongfully accused, detained over the years, now discharged and acquitted so they can help integrate them back into the society after such a long time behind bars. Believe me, it was such a Noble cause and a lot of people benefitted from it. It was this vision that I now had the opportunity to partake off and I didn’t say ‘No’.

This dude had been in prison for 8 years, wrongfully accused (as he said) and remanded, till the court threw out the case for lack of ‘substantial’ evidence, discharged and acquitted him. The group from church picked him up; encouraged by the fact they had heard that he was a Pastor in prison. Now he needed a place to stay until the group puts finishing touches to the plan they had for him. After hearing his story, I was moved with compassion for him. I suddenly was overwhelmed with this urge to care and tend to his ‘broken soul’. I gave him a bag, a towel, my cloths (luckily he was almost the same size as me) and shoes among which was a very nice shoe my dad bought from the USA which I wore just once and had been saving to give to the right person. Again, as a student, especially in final year, 3 square meals were a luxury and 2 square meals were just a blessing. I was blessed (most times) but not luxurious. But I made sure he ate 3 times and even had in-between meals. I remember the first day I took him to go eat and he ordered for Gari and soup, very early in the morning. I took my time to explain to him that he could have anything he wanted, not just Gari. I convinced him to eat jollof rice with meat, eggs and a bottle of coke and after that morning our nutrition therapy was underway. On top of that, whenever I was leaving my room, I gave him money to hold, an extra key to the room and introduced him to people in and around my lodge. People liked him and gave him lots of gifts, mostly money. He was well accepted in church and I was feeling good with myself.

But two days after my project defence, lightening struck! I was in a friend’s room playing scrabble and waiting for rice on the fire when I had this very strange feeling. I knew something was wrong but I delayed a bit because I couldn’t be absent from the feast. Boys would devour it in my absence. By the time I got to my room, the rice lost its taste in my mouth. My room was open to the mosquito door net. I was wondering where the dude was. I half-started preparing for church and half-looking around. Then it struck me! All my shoes were gone. My brand new suit which I had worn just twice wasn’t there anymore. My shirt from India was gone too. The money I had in the house was missing. And most devastating was the Camera my dad bought for me from Dubai – a Sony 2000x digital zoom, 40 mega pixel with battery life for up to 9 hours alongside all my recordings of my final days as an undergraduate including a video of my project defence. All of them, everything I had, GONE! Only my hair clipper survived for reasons known to God alone. I felt a terrible cramp in my stomach. I felt depressingly sad. I had waded into the water of unpopular kindness and I felt myself going below.

I managed to drag my dishevelled self to church with a pair of slippers and one of the few clothing left for me looking like I had seen death. The church attended to me and that was the cue to cancel that aspect of the prison ministry. I was suddenly scared of being nice to people. That incident totally changed my life.

My simple question is, “how many people have you being an obstacle to help coming their way both unconsciously and consciously?” Please beware of your deeds when you assume a role of a recipient!

My Caring buddies!

After reading an article on my friend’s blog on how 'nice' and 'warm-hearted' the police can be, I decided to share my 'dreamy' experience about them.

It was exactly a week after my younger sister’s wedding and we all were still smarting and reminiscing from the stress and success of the wedding. So my mom’s elder sister was leaving that morning and I had to take her to the ‘park’ but I was still silly tired. I love driving but this wedding showed me the next level of driving (please remind me to always be extra nice to my drivers). So I gathered the little strength I had gathered and drove her to the park with her daughter and an uncle accompanying me. We got to the park and were just chilling for the ‘agbero’ boys to complete the normal antics of delaying people,

    “Oga no worry, them go soon comot. Na five people remain”

was the reply I got when I asked what the delay was, a very normal reply when dealing with an agbero. So we kept gisting and waiting.

After a while, this troll of a guy walks in wearing a ‘fitted’ shirt that obviously wasn’t his size on a shapeless body with a round tummy putting the very meaning of round to test. He greeted a man standing with two elderly people, gisted a little with him and then proceeded to greet my aunt and us. He talked for a little time with my aunt, gave her some money and left to go ‘buy onions’ for her. Few minutes later the five people the bus was waiting for arrived and the bus was good to go. This was our cue to leave. Then it all began!

Five minutes into our journey back home with Praiz (Rich and Famous) delightfully blaring from from the car speakers, my phone started buzzing of the hook with calls from Dad. Wahala had erupted at the park, Dad after my aunt called him sensed a fight and had his gloves on. We were back at the park in no time after I exhibited some very fine classy James Bond moves. The park which was normally agog with people making last minute runs to catch a bus or hawkers (selling things which you don’t need but just buy because it’s customary to do so when you are travelling), etc was now a market place of trouble. The Police had arrived to arrest my aunt and the park boys had refused to let their customer go. I didn’t know agbero could be so caring after they had collected money from you. What was my aunt’s offense? A man hunted by the police for over a year for 419 activities came to say Hi to her just before she travelled. The man that was standing with the elderly people was a detective on the case. The troll (for want of a better name) who engaged in 419 activities (very recent conning 10 million naira from some folks) had told the detective that he was at the park to see his travelling mom off (how evil). The detective called his group that the wanted man was at the park with his mom and that was how we landed at the Police station after a lot of drama at the park.

There was a buzz in the station when we got there because the policemen felt this was a big catch. My dad was furiously ‘raking’, my aunt was pleading her innocence, I was backing my dad and my uncle was trying to calm us. Dad infuriated the police more and they threatened to lock my aunt up (which we all did not want). It was at that point that my dad saw how ‘friendly’ the police can be. He immediately called my uncle, a former police commissioner, recently retired. When he arrived, the frown on the faces of the policemen had no direction until dad walked up to him as he alighted from his car. The policemen present, including the DCO (who had been breathing fire and brimstone) gave him a parade-like salute because he once served in the state and was quite popular among the ranks before he was posted out. He told them that if they were looking for whom to arrest, they should take him as the woman in question was not the mother of the wanted man.

To cut the 8am to 3pm story short, the police apologized for harassing her, claiming that it was the wanted man (who they obviously let escape again) that deceived them. And that was how the presence of a former commissioner of police (cousin to the harassed) stopped the police from demanding and possibly collecting only-God-knows-how-much sum of money, which was always bound to come.

So I was wondering, should the slogan “the police is your friend'  not undergo rebranding too?”


 Agbero - Touts at the motor station (park)
 Wahala - Trouble
 DCO    - Divisional Commanding Officer