AHANONU KINGSLEY BLOG

There's a particular attachment for which a community, a society is known, that with which they are distinguished and for which they could be easily identified with. This is the people's way of life, it's their tradition and hence their culture! For some people, their culture had formed a better part of their lives through the process of committed deep instilling that has built in them a conviction as to believe and as well transmit along their respective genealogy of how such is an integral part of their lives and for which they should hold dear. The huge respect accorded some cultures as  significant elements of heritage has made them proud possession assiduously passed from one generation unto the next, strictly retaining their tastes along the ages, inspite of the dynamism and susceptibility of culture to time. This is quite said of the Iwa-akwa (cloth-wearing) celebration, an important cultural identity of some communities in Igboland, Southeast Nigeria, undertaken lar...

Reading through the story of Don Davis, the 11years old pupil that was sexually molested by his seniors in the Deeper Life school in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State, I'm raised to a gallish drip. The whole context of the story: right from how the young lad was treated disdainfully for supposed bedwetting, how he was so horribly messed up with sexually and to how he was further starved, speaks more to an angered me. It's very shameful and so diabolic to have subjected this kid to such horror and dread. And to heighten my already blistering anger is the purported attempt by the school authority and the Akwa-Ibom state government, through its commissioner for Education, to sweep this issue under the carpet. This attempt to cover up this dastardly act and trying to undermine the degree of such ill is the worst action that could be taken, for it's akin to denying the victim the needed justice! And this should be condemned. It shouldn't be allowed to happen, in the least. Such story ...

 #Christmas2020 Every Christmas, usually Comes with celebration, But this Christmas, specially Calls for heavy heavy reflection. There are so many things that's happened And so much more still happening Yet we have another Christmas Another moment to ponder and to celebrate. A yearly ritual turned very sober By the unsettling daily situations But yet still retaining the stint That makes it a moment of joy and exhilaration. This Christmas as against all odds Presents moment to sing, to praise and to think For the usual euphoria of the Savior birth And the rare privilege to have survived the dart. Indeed Christmas has come to bless the earth And we believe fervently That by the Messiah's birth  The raging storm shall be flummoxed And our joy shall be full. Again and more! #MerryChristmas2020 🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲

Is Nigeria of too many talks, and no commitments.. In the aftermath of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnap in 2014, the federal government had proposed the Safe School Initiative (SSI) to significantly provide security to schools and pupils. Apparently, it was a knee-jerk reaction of the Goodluck Jonathan's administration that was not only informed by the Chibok mishap but that of the many attacks and killings of schools and schoolchildren. Fast-forward to December, 2020 with the recent abduction of the Kankara schoolboys, the federal government is again musing of a Safe School Program (SSP) by the Muhammadu Bihari administration. My question, which implicatively is the basis of my angry concern is what had happened to the SSI and why was it not implemented as to have considerably stalled the recent abduction and to adequately make the reinvention of the SSP highly unnecessary? Why are we always in the habits of continuous reactionary syndrome, not been able to apply proactive steps but ...

 Yesterday was the World AIDS day for the year 2020 and as is customary, the United Nations marked the day with the theme: “Ending the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Resilience and Impact.” The commemoration of this year's AIDS day just seemed to be deeply hushed considering the world's distraction by the trotting coronavirus pandemic. The entire globe has had a much more troubling period imposed by the inconveniences of the novel Covid-19 disease, with more effort committed to halting the geometric decimation. And so it was understandable why the low-key event. However, the topic for this year's event is quite incisive and deeply reflecting, for which the silent period that we're facing provides a labyrinth to consciously ponder upon. It's a reminder that beyond the value of your personal effort to safety living, the efficacious fight on the AIDS scourge is also dependent on the others to replicate such safety and life-protecting measures. The challenge from this year's to...

 Dear Cummings,  How did you forget that the UK is not Nigeria, where different rules are made for different statuses and faces. In the UK, laws are made for everyone and to be respected by all regardless. In Nigeria, the law respects status and has boundary of effectiveness. If it were to be Nigeria, Cummings, you could travel way beyond the shores and into another country with the luxury of private and presidential jets- in the tightest lockdown restrictions. You may consider coming to Nigeria to enjoy such irresponsible privileges for being a government official. May you take this moment to reflect on your act and realize how you've goofed by not realizing firsthand that in a country where laws work, everyone responds to its bidding. Happy resignation! My people, ICYMI.... Dominic Cummings is a top advisor to PM Boris Johnson, who flouted the Covid-19 lockdown regulation in March by traveling from London to Durham. Cummings is to leave his position this Christmas after much...

  The Election Is Over, Concession Is Now! Donald Trump and every fanatical supporter of his, who sees absolutely nothing wrong but wholly good with him, must realize that power belongs to God and that he vests it on whomsoever he wills. The majority of the people of America have spoken as regards who they want to lead them from now on! And that person is the candidate of the Democratic Party, Joe Biden! Could Donald J Trump respect that wish with the decency that he yet has? Could his supporters help him do so if he, out of the probable trauma, fails to so do? POTUS isn't life neither is it the end of it! This is what President Trump must realize. As such, he must understand the emerging reality to make the needed concession to defeat rather than heating up the polity and smirching a long trusted system. But the truth be and which must be strictly stated is that the American system respects nobody more than the commitment to protect its institution. Hence, whether or not Donald Tr...

The United States 2020 presidential election has come and gone, even as the winner is yet to be known. The lingered process has continued to generate streams of reactions for and against the process itself and the contenders. Below are just some of my ripostes to some of these reactions, which are mostly Facebook posts. To Femi Fani-Kayode ,  Why do you always sound defeatist as evident in your pouring of tantrums when things seem not to work according to your prediction. You're human and your opinions are not sacred and certain. They are what they are, opinions. In 2016, you had predicted and supported a Trump win and it did happen so. You felt fly, maybe as a true prophet. We who supported Hillary and supported her emergence, took the result, shook our feet and moved on. It wasn't a life battle! Your coming now to pour invective and make mess of the opinions of people supporting the one you hate is ridiculous and smacks of a personality who's unidirectional, and who feels...

  Nigerian youths finally have decided it's time they took the bull by the horns in giving direction to the future they desire. With the launch of the endsars movement which was focused as an onslaught against long tales of incidences of police brutality, the demand has serenaded to an emphatic demand for good governance, good economic programs and extensive national rebirth. The #EndSARS protest which commenced on the 7th of October within the major cities of Lagos and Abuja, was specifically meant to send a message to the government that the SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) unit of the Nigeria police have shown to not be only irresponsible but wicked, having totally strayed from their responsibility to protect the people and maintain law and  order and has instead turned to be inhuman, barbaric and monsters against the same people they're meant to protect. They had at such in expressing their bulging anger of many years taken to the streets, having boldly as their immediate...

On the 20th of October, 2020, the ongoing #EndSARS protest took a new turn as the Nigerian Army became part of it. And my heart bleeds for the loss of lives that became the outcome. I reek of deep pain knowing that these young fighters didn't die in a warfare but were hacked to death in a process that was peaceful, and by the very people who are meant to protect them and for whom they fight! Permit to say that I stand in solidarity of the fallen youths, who died in the course of their demand for a Nigerian rebirth that meets modern global standards of nationhood. I stand with them in death as much as i identified with them when they stood with the vim of life pushing for end to institutional impunity. Also, I wish to use this medium to reiterate my stand against inept and inefficient leadership that has again proved to be callous, insensitive and shameful with the largely detested and totally horrible #LekkiTollGateMassacre of peaceful, unarmed protestors on Tuesday, 20th of Octobe...

 Let the Conversation for a #NationalOverhaul commence.. May this explosive nationwide protest be a precipice for this all important discourse! Beyond the motive of the current sprawling agitation, let this national awareness reignite the process for far-reaching economic and sociopolitical reforms. Nigeria nay Nigerians have long been suffocated by institutional inefficiencies that have been prodded by inept leadership for a very long time. It is time to get off and get on. Let this protest fan that necessity to action! #EndPoliceBrutality #ReformNigeria

Why are our national processes so mundane and riddled with archaism? What could explain the situation that INEC staff on national assignment of conducting elections in Ondo state are ferried with just supporrless boats? The resultant effect is that these individuals on national assignment ended up risking their lives as the boat carrying them has reportedly capsized. May God save this country from the way we do things!

The 2020 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE chose to celebrate the effort to ensuring peace through the fight against hunger the 2020 Committee of the Nobel Prize found it worthy to award this year's Nobel Peace prize to the World Food Program (WFP)! I am not in the least elated for this recognition and honour, for they're well deserving and very highly appropriate, especially in the very reality that has been unraveled by the global pandemic of the corona virus. The WFP, an institution of the United Nations, has been committed to fighting hunger and through the efforts of food distribution, reaching out to the vulnerable and those exposed to hunger and starvation especially in war-torn countries of the world. It is worrisome to know that millions of people affected by one way or the other in crisis-ridden areas are subjected to the pangs of hunger in our present world. The story coming out from Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, Somalia and Nigeria, of people displayed, fighting for their lives and ho...

Reports have it that the United States President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania are down with the Coronavirus. Both have been quarantined and receiving treatments.  It's unfortunate, but a really sordid prove of his foolhardiness! Consistently defying Covid-19 safety protocols and flagrantly refusing to wear face mask even against professional medical advice, thereby setting a bad precedence to his countrymen, Donald Trump has contracted the coronavirus. Donald Trump, who initially in the early wave of the pandemic, downplayed the seriousness of the disease has been forced to swallow his ignorance that consistently fanned his rather weak gusto of the denial of reality. The delayed management of the disease caused the deaths of dozens of thousands of Americans. And while the virus rampaged along, bringing down millions of Americans down and as the death toll rose, Donald Trump fiddled along, dancing amidst the confusion of denial and engaging the people in openly crowded campaig...

The moment, when the Union Jack was lowered and the Green and White pulled up to a visible hoisting, ushered in a euphoric excitation from a people ready to take that journey precipitated by their common view of a robustly greater destination. That was in 1960, 1st October, and my dad told me the joy was egregious and an expectation that took sleep away from their eyes. Personally taking a peer into history and watching the white-and-black snippets of the moment, I really did sense the exhilaration visibly strewn around the faces of both old and young citizens of the new nation as they filed out and stood without compulsion cheering the good news of that emancipation- of a peaceful political emancipation. All through the breadth of the land, from Zungeru to Oji River and from Nembe to Akoko-Ado, the feeling was same. But today, we look back with huge nostalgia at that moment, the joyful expectation and what that journey has so far become. I am not one focused on the negative perspectiv...

The new law just passed by the Imo State government that has got people talking is one that has drawn my attention today. Termed the Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2020, that piece of legislation is one awful and needless addendum to our existing body of laws that needed to be vociferously condemned. Ostensibly and for the start, the people ordinarily provoked by such senselessness has given it the needed diatribe. But this condemnation must be taken further beyond the surface layer of criticism to its deeper layer of outburst that sends a clear message that this bill of a law is not just welcomed but smacks of a mundane dereliction to ludicrous childish postulation and so much backward. The so-called law is an element of such puerile senselessness of a huge magnitude that deserves to be roundly and vehemently condemned. The angst that should be shone towards it should speak in such manner as "what do these people take us for?" Indeed, that law is a statement of how t...

IT IS indeed with a huge sense of dole that I write this piece, which itself is a contribution to the raging issue of sex for grade that had become part of our University system and which recently seemed a magnified concern. The BBC documentary on the issue by Kiki Mordi happened to highlight the concern of sexual harassment on female students happening in some selected varsities in Ghana and Nigeria, but that on its own was just a tip of the debauchery perpetrated by lecturers in every high institution of learning in this country. The incidences of favor for grades has become so prevalent nowadays that continuously they have begun to rob value off our educational system and the certificates it confers. Certificates ordinarily are the culminating reflection of the educational value of a student; they are  the concise description of the academic worth of any student presented in a single material. Certificates are such that they do not define the processes towards the feat their bea...

 I do not know much about the young Chadwick Boseman, as I'm yet to watch any of his acts. So, I never felt need, never wanted to be drawn to the tributes. But I have begun to reconsider, obviously out of the push from the cacophony of voices that attest to his impacts. If he could have touched such lives as cut across different backgrounds and statuses, he could as well have touched mine! Please permit me to salute such a young man, who within such a short time of living was able to move so much crowd of inspiration. Rest in power, Chadwick! On Captain Ernest Chika Permit to also send my tribute, a hearty one indeed, to the pilot of the helicopter that crashed in the Opebi area of Lagos. Chika Ernest died, thinking of the last impact he would make even as he struggled for life. The young pilot left a great legacy in death. He saved more lives by that heroic act of emptying the aircraft's fuel! And whilst the late Chika thought nobly for the people behind, those behind who in t...

Shinzo Abe has stepped down from his official service as the Prime Minister of Japan. Mr Abe, who has been the country's head of government since 2012 premised his resignation on health ground. Abe is concerned that his health is worsening. He's diagnosed of ulcerative colitis since age 15. Just this week, Mr Abe achieved a milestone of being the longest serving PM of Japan and still has one year to go. The nation's parliament is yet to announce the successor of the outgoing Prime Minister.

 Interday was August 12, and globally as has become customary, the UN marked it as International Youth Day in celebration of the global young population. As the world and especially the youths relished the day with the topic ''Engaging the youths for global action, I just had to swerve between two emotions, one of great excitement and the other of deep disappointment. #IYD2020: I'm Happy... I am a youth, by international description, and as such I'm happy that today I'm celebrated alongside my peers through the auspices of the International Youth Day as set aside by the United Nations to re-echo the importance attached to the young population in fostering governance and building strong advocacy. #IYD2020: I'm Not Happy... At the same instance, however, I am not just happy that I am a youth in a nation that has no value for its future and its youth, where instead their future has become mortgaged through the incessant and crippling loans, especially from China, r...

Each time I feel that the killings in Southern Kaduna have stopped, I become nudged to the reality of its persistence, now and again. The continuous coming to terms of the subsistence of the carnage just does well to reveal how a designed and conscripted silence had pushed it below the radar. The killings have been ongoing, and every day. We might not be fed with them, the mainstream media may not carry them, and the government might denounce or play down the reality. But lives are lost daily, just as people are been butchered daily. By SUSPECTED herdsmen. Life is going on. We have just so many things to practically keep up with. The novel Coronavirus pandemic (or scam pandemic as some may posit), the Big Brother Naija TV reality show, the resumption of the foreign football leagues' season, the politics of Edo and Ondo polls. Differently, we have varying things that have kept us fully engaged in, based on predilection. And indeed, we're fully committed to them, as definitely, l...

I heard with disconcertion the news of the action by the Nigerian police against members of the Islamic Movement if Nigeria, IMN. It was learnt that the movement had embarked on a peaceful protest aimed at commemorating the deaths of their members, who had paid the supreme price especially in the hands of the Nigerian security forces. But in the line of this, the police swooped on them and violently dispersed them. In a statement which seems not to proffer a genuine reason as to why they were stopped from holding their legitimate right of protest/paying respect to their dead loved ones, the Nigerian police concurred that the protest was a peaceful one, but had only the purported proscription of the sect as the reason to have attacked their assembly. It's pathetic how the Nigerian police has refused to face reality in what is their responsibility to protect citizens and fight crimes and has resorted instead to harass and intimidate people who mean no harm. It is indeed condemnable h...

If there's one recreational activity that brings you close to nature, and exposes you to the untrammeled vicinity of the environment and its wide and open space of just air, water and sky. It's canoeing. Introduction Paddling in the canoe, one experiences the hilarity of the water body through which the journey is made. Yes, it is a journey, but also a sport; more like an adventure that you neither could place it as an everyday engagement or an exercising activity. However, the truth of the matter is that canoeing is both a normal activity as well as an exercising one; the reason it falls in the description of a leisure game! But then, how do you journey through the wavy water and still describe it as recreational? For some, it is difficult to be paddled through the sea for an important venture and very unthinkable to paddle through for just fun. The jinx breaker for this incredulity is to first understand that the canoe is configured in such a way as to float on water- yes, ev...

The Speaker of Nigeria's House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, in palpable defense of his family of legislators has dared the Minister in charge of the Ministry of Niger-Delta Affairs, Sen Godswill Akpabio, to name those legislooters that alleged have 60% of the contracts in the NDDC. Earlier, in the course of answering questions from members of the House committee sitting over alleged recklessness in the NDDC, Akpabio had claimed that some of the members of the National Assembly are contractors handling almost 60% of the NDDC projects. Obviously this did not go down well with the members, who tried severally to shut him up. But I call on Sen Akpabio to heed to this call and beat the 2 days ultimatum given him by the HoR. And I believe other Nigerians too are waiting for, not just the talking session of this sitting, but a tangible framework subsequently that will tackle the issue of sleaze and recklessness in this agency. It is a wonderful opportunity to throw open the deba...

''The NDDC, for me, has become a kind of occultic cauldron of familial vampires feeding on and sucking the blood of their own people, the very same people they are meant to ostensibly fight for and develop with the commonwealth that has become saddled in their hands.'' And so when we heard about the many oodles of disquieting revelations emanating from the ongoing investigation as regards the process of management of the Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the flagship program of the oil-rich Niger-Delta region, it was to say the least disturbing. The can of worms that has been blown off by accusations and counter-accusations since the House of Representatives adhoc committee set out to investigate the activities of the agency has been deeply shameful and highly interesting as well. It's shameful for the rots in this sector that it has caused to be exposed and interesting for bringing to the fore the facts about the many clogs that has continued to lacerate t...

There are times we feel traumatized, devastated and highly let down by life's circumstances. At which point, we beat ourselves, regret our inadequacies and hold some despicable opinion, some grudges against others for being the cause or part of our woes. We are broken down by the infliction of pains and regrets and gradually our psyches fails, our emotional, mental and physical stabilities start to crumble. The critical situation that breeds is a disease condition. And nothing, from the moment of a diseased psychology, seems to work.  The immediate solution is to muster the internal mechanism of Self healing that purges the self and empties the body of the militating burdens, to get over and get going! #SelfHealing  starts with  ..forgiveness,    .. letting go,       ...release,           and the appreciation of the power of the self to recover by the invention of an inner courage and the...

When I was a lil kid, not knowing how to use the pen and pencil but had to barely scribble just with chalk. I admired the pen, liked to use it the same way my older siblings did. I had looked at my dad, not cool with the inequanimity. I craved for the pen to write on script, asking him to give me that I wanted using it too. My father looked at me with that patting smile. I knew he loved me and he'd have given me if I needed it. But guess what he told me. He said, when it's ripe the time to handle the pen over the paper, you'd not need ask me. Seamlessly, it'll be provided for you. And truth to my dad's words, I have watched the reality of life unfold as I grow, widely and more impressively. I have not only written with the pen, I do always and have continued to always put pen to paper in such a professional way as a #Writer, #Author & #Blogger!  The point is that that thing I craved for, I've become so used to it to exhaustion. The reality of life is just th...

#WoleSoyinkaIs86 The one and only Nigerian noble laureate, intellectual extraordinaire, and a huge social mobilizer and respected national conscience, Wole Soyinka is 86 today! And today, I celebrate his intellect and mental sagacity. In celebrating, I chose to highlight the blessings of his cerebral enormity and the wealth of his wisdom, which significantly has been his contribution towards projecting the country's international image. Indeed, WS has remained just one of the few Nigerian elders and citizens alike we can robustly call mentors and a guide for tomorrow. His pragmatism to national issues stands him out. He has devoted most part of his life in standing and speaking against draconian and beastly government and his by his strong diatribes and censures risen in defense of the people against inept and nepotistic leadership. Regarded also as one of the best exports of this nation, WS stands highly to be some of the few identities that adequately debunk the widely spread neg...

#MyThought Love is not a shadowy, docile feeling. It's the summation of actively functioning virtues/values.  Love is shown by the ''active'' display of goodness: of trust, patience, sacrifice, loyalty, generosity, support, kindness, etc. all in one! To show love to someone, you must prove that by been patient enough to listen, and attend to the person's needs, concerns and worries. You must exhibit a sacrifice that feels a need. Also, you must be able to be kind in the midst of a vacuum and give the support that guarantees confidence. If you truly love someone, it must be manifested in your trust and loyalty to their genuine courses. They must also find in you someone to be trusted. Indeed, love is the continual manifestation of characters that are noble and genuine. For it is an action substance that ''answereth all things''. #LoveIsAction #LoveNotFeeling

I am beginning to think about life and the application of the salient principles of actions and consequences. We've heard that for every action, activity, inaction and thoughts of man, there's always attached to it a resultant effect.  That's to say that in a very critical dimension, there's vividly the reciprocal outcome of what man's action brings. E very act of virtue of man, indeed, is definitely and justly reciprocated.  Same could be equally said of every evil deed perpetrated by any individual.  Some people in their actions go free of them, some may say; but the exception to this is merely an injustice that shall not escape recompense appropriate for it. Yes, from the dynamisms of life, which we cannot define with certainty, nobody could expressly say when, but if not now then definitely later. Therefore, the basic message is to think before posing any action. If you are consistently doing good, it is fair enough for goodness to follow you; but nevertheless, ...

As humans, we're people, living in a life that's basically demanding of faith, and chiefly because the world we live in- nature and the whole processes of life- is a gargantuan adventure shrouded in awesome uncertainty and mystery. It is difficult to perfectly understand life and know the holds of tomorrow.  For this reason, we must live life, facing tomorrow with a steep treading of faith- believing that the tomorrow that's uncertain and beyond our control and comprehension could just be favourable to us. Yes, we must walk this journey of life by faith and not merely by the giving of the senses. The senses are riddled with fears and false make-ups called projections! ''We move by faith and  not by sight...'' But in walking through life by faith, that process must be anchored upon a faith that's reasonable and very dependable. Going through life with just the impulsion of an undefined incitement in the name of faith could be drastic and catastrophic. Ind...

I am beginning to think about life and the application of the salient principles of actions and consequences. We've heard that for every action, activity, inaction and thoughts of man, there's always attached to it a resultant effect.  That's to say that in a very critical dimension, there's vividly the reciprocal outcome of what man's action brings. E very act of virtue of man, indeed, is definitely and justly reciprocated.  Same could be equally said of every evil deed perpetrated by any individual.  Some people in their actions go free of them, some may say; but the exception to this is merely an injustice that shall not escape recompense appropriate for it. Yes, from the dynamisms of life, which we cannot define with certainty, nobody could expressly say when, but if not now then definitely later. Therefore, the basic message is to think before posing any action. If you are consistently doing good, it is fair enough for goodness to follow you; but nevertheless, ...