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We are back from the long break, and it is our first post for the year, on the first day of a new month!
Our aim is to help you impact your world, and this year we are more determined than ever to give you practical steps to start making impact in your world; hence we are launching our career development ideas with this post.
Career is a part of one’s life spent working in a particular field sometimes till retirement, other times for just a period of time. Some people try to pick up different careers in search of greener pasture, some follow the trend to earn a living, while some consciously choose a path, focus on that path and build their lives around it. That’s what we will be looking at in this coming series, finding a career path and building life around it without losing our family or loved ones.
For students and graduates, choosing a career is one of the toughest decision to make in life because there are various factors that surround such life changing choice. In the beginning, it feels like a path should be chosen for you from birth, sometimes it feels like you know what you want, and boom it feels like you are blank and the motivation is gone, more desperately it feels like you should catch on the train and grab the bag by any means possible, and it is perfectly okay to feel that way! Every successful career icon you know experienced one of these, if at not all of these at different stages of their career growth and development.
However, before showing you how to decide on a career path, it is important to share some of the factors that can consciously or unconsciously affect your choice of career or how you feel about choosing a career.
Here are few factors that affect choosing a career:
Every other factor you will be reading here falls under the two N (Nature and Nurture). We are a product of nature and nurture, in that we have innate traits, and strengths we inherited by merely being born or by gene, and these potentials become actualized and utilized based on our trainings, and largely our environment. Whatever a man becomes is determined by these key factors, and it is the anchor of our freedom, responsibility, and predestination as humans.
There are traits inherent in our lives from birth, they are usually genetic. The adage “an apple does not fall far from its tree” illustrates this more. A more practical exam is in the career path dominant in a family. There are families that have more people doing business, overtime their children begin to pick up businesses regardless of how they choose to brand it. there are cases of having a long family history of lawyers, teachers, doctors, writers, and what have you.
Now it does not mean that every child born any of those families will definitely pick up a career on that path, some children can choose different career paths giving that being born into such they have the knowledge of a career path and what they know about it helps them choose if to choose that career path or not.
Our environment affects our choice of career. This includes school, church, social institutions where we socialize, and eventually home and its environment. As we go through professional trainings, interact with others and our environment, we consciously and unconsciously become open to changes, personal growth, and personal development which help our innate traits find expressions.
Overtime, our reception towards our nurture becomes a guide to what we want to do, and how we want to do it. It does not always start out clear, nor in a linear direction, it just unfolds as we progress towards time.
Nature and nurture are springboards of passion, and academic interest. Paying close attention to these factors determines a lot in one’s career path.
Are you on the verge of trying to choose a career path? Here is your first task:
I know this maybe new to you, but find time to be honest to yourself as you answer these questions. We are on a journey to make impact and you will not be left out.
The Intellects Magazine supports the #ENDSARS #ENDSWATinNigeria #ENDPOLICEBRUTALITY #REFORMTHEPOLICE movement pioneered by Nigeria youths, and continues to lend a voice to building the kind of Nigeria we want posterity to remember us for.
In our article titled, ‘Federal Government’s Relief Parcel’, we reinstated what democracy should be, and the urged the Federal Government to prioritize the interest of Nigerians—that the labour of the heroes past be not in vain.
Interestingly, the #ENDSARS movement that began in Lagos, Abuja, and Owerri on Thursday, 8 October, 2020 illuminates the depth of the impunity in the Nigeria system. It also shows that Nigeria youths have grown weary of the yoke of oppression around their necks, and like Aisha Yesufu said, the youths want a nation “where the child of a nobody becomes somebody without knowing anybody.
What strikes the most is the unity and oneness! Everyone is saying one thing and watching each other’s back, ambulances arrive almost immediately, doctors are on ground giving first aid treatments to casualties, lawyers are working together, ensuring the release of arrested innocent protesters, TV stars are seen on the fore front, hunger is tackled, no loss of properties, no violence from protesters, no gender battle, no nepotism, no tribalism, just one people, speaking one language, identifying as humans and as Nigerians, yet without a unanimous leader, resisting every attempt made to bribe and deny the protesters their right to protest—that’s the Nigeria we want! The place where humans are priority, where no one is self-seeking, a land of harmony!
All over Nigeria since Thursday October 8, 2020, protesters are painting the picture of that Nigeria on the protest ground with teary glands tired of shedding tears, and are online building a strong network, hoping that the Federal Government will take a bold step and make things right—evidence that the people are not the problem, but the system and hence should be purged.
However, the solution is not creating another unit on impulse, nor calling for indoor talks—Nigeria youths cannot be fooled again. This what should be done:
All defaulting officers should be brought to book
The government should address Nigeria youths straight from the heart, and not with written scripts.
The government should ensure that a team be set up in each state to pay condolence visits to the bereaved.
The government should not redeploy the disbanded SARS officers until they have gone through medical and psychological tests, and re-orientation or training.
The entire police force must be reformed because if law enforcement agencies lack orderliness, then anarchy rules the society.
The government should increase the salary of the police force.
The government must duly establish the duties of anti-crime squad, take them off the streets and provide better technological means of getting them informed about crime locations and the perpetrators of crime.
An independent panel must be set up to address police misconduct in all states. The system must stop shielding bad officers.
The government should understand that every unit of the force requires trained minds; that’s the essence of sociologists, psychologists, philosophers, criminologists, and other crime detecting, or socio-humanity (social sciences and humanities) disciplines.
Getting protesters off the streets is not an issue, the issue is implementation, and restructuring Nigeria. Once the government deals with what brought the protesters to the street, the protesters will leave the streets. The system is bad but the protest shows the government is the problem, and not the people.
Attempting to lobby and divide this movement will not work because the movement has no leader, therefore all energy should be channeled towards creating a nation free of police brutality, where the child of nobody becomes somebody without knowing anybody, because “no Nigerian is more Nigerian than other Nigerians” (Aisha Yesufu).
In the same vein unleashing armed thugs on peaceful protesters will only fuel the protest! FG should wake up to their responsibilities.
This is democracy give the people good governance! SóróSóké!!!
“Who is the Nigeria system?”
“Is the system really immuned to pragmatic democracy?”
These questions have stared me in the face, and dwelled in my head over time. Regardless of its intensity, the answers seem to be far fetched.
On some days, unfolding events sing the praises of the citizens, the streets robe the roads ahead of their steps, and even the breeze blows currency notes their way.
Election campaigns are the only event capable of such. The one event that makes the executives and legislatures prostate, posing to be servants with whom Nigeria will reach the promised land. They seek to physically meet with the masses in the streets, the markets, the church and the public places. Moreso they plant billboards that echo “ultimate importance”— a strategy to make citizens feel that they own the system; a democratic practice.
Soon, they shed some skin and their identities are revealed; ambassadors of chronic poverty.
The billboards that echoed ‘change’, in 2015 are still evergreen in my memory. They were at strategic points stirring debates among the people in commercial buses, in market places, in clubs, in bars, in schools, in newspapers, on TV, everywhere. While the masses were absorbing that, the assurance to equate =N=1 to $1 was given without any insurance! It rang an alarming bell because coins have gone extinct in Nigeria and =N=1 has no place in the currency notes. How can the one Naira we see only in figures be equated to one Dollar? Albeit we are five years past 2015, under the regime of the same government that made the awaiting promises above, yet sachet water does not sell at =N=1. Nigerians are skillful in all forms of inflation adaptations, so we have adapted to the situation that nothing sells at =N=5 and now see it as ‘normal’. Maybe that’s why there is =N=5 always added to our fuel price (=N=125, =N=145, =N=165) — to add relevance to the note that cannot afford a sachet of table water.
Unbearably, after two months of total lock down in Nigeria, businesses and works resumed, but the economic effect of the pandemic left a heavy yoke on the necks of the populace — the proletariats. The Federal Government, in the tenure of General Muhammadu Buhari (President), and His Excellency Prof. Yemi Osibanjo(Vice president) thought that like other African countries who temporarily relieved citizens of fundamental bills, and the developed countries who paid their citizens allowances, that Nigerians deserved proper reliefs aside the media camouflage decided to send Nigerians their packages in parcels they considered appealing.
The power sector, the bank, and the oil industry, were the suitable delivery men for such relief package.
Fuel price has been increased from =N=125.00 to =N=165.00. The same fuel that Nigerians were promised will sell at =N=40.00 once this incumbent took over in 2015 and later, in 2019. When was the last time fuel sold below =N=100?
Furthermore, to make sure this Covid-19 palliative was properly distributed, there was an increase in the price of units for the prepaid meter. In 2008, =N=1,999.62 could buy 317.4 power units(kWh), and vat was 95.22 at 5%. As at June 2020, =N=10,000 could buy 271.4 power unites (KWh), at rate 34.28, and vat 697.67. Yet, an increase has been made.
Bank charges keep beeping slowly yet =N=5,000 in a savings account become =N=3,000 over time. The transfer charges that were reduced from =N=50.00 to =N=10.00, have suddenly risen to =N=16.00.
How convenient?
How heart warming is the parcel from FG?
Jean Jacque Rousseau asserted; “we all give up our rights that the Government will through the general will’ protect the state and her properties”. A means to abolish the brutish state of nature, perhaps the system in Nigeria is immuned to this.
Peaceful protesters are either arrested or bullied of the streets, and all the pleadings to revert these hikes seem to fall on deaf ears!
Road users who have their paper for road worthiness are made to pay for the loads in their wheel barrows, or cars, or trucks, or tricycles. My heart bled when a food hawker was asked to pay “for load”(the food cooler on her head)before me. The weapons and brutality that clothes the perpetrators didn’t let me move a muscle, that hawker explained she had paid already =N=100.00 twice at different junctions without making sales, but she was made to pay again, and was told that it is generating revenue for the government. What people oriented government unleashes touts on its citizens? Arrest them today, they get released and double up the next day.
Democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people. Ironically, the actions of the government are clothed in tyranny, neatly adorned in the labels of “democracy”.
The Federal Government should prioritize the interest of Nigerians. Nigerians deserve that in their father land and should not be expected to adapt to an economic downward slope that leads to inflation, and impoverishes the people! That’s not why the heroes labored and died!!
#REVERT fuel price
#REVERT bank charges
#REVERT electricity bill
#END brutality on road users
Could this be all we can ever be? A green and white Flag?
If we are to rewrite history in Nigeria, the art should be focused on projecting the humanity in our culture and the strength of the people before the British colony and amalgamation of the northern protectorate and southern protectorate.
The streets of Nigeria do not project democracy as expected after reading the heroes deeds.
For a better landing, how do you explain to the ten year old who in 2017, learnt that democracy day is May 29 which is why after elections, candidates who win are inaugurated on that day?
Suddenly the norm is changed to June 12 because someone supposed to serve, thought to compensate a people politically by commemorating the death of their icon hence June 12 became the democracy day!
The question is how much of an iconic act is shown in shifting democracy day and what good has it done in our history?
A pandemic hit the world and nations subsided bills for citizens including African countries like Ghana and Rwanda, the western world paid allowances to their citizens but we met an inflation, subsequently a lockdown with nothing to stay home with from the government except on lip service giveaways.
It is a capitalist economy, no doubt but there are still spheres controlled by the government! The price of crude oil was slashed globally by 60% in the oil market which when carefully analysed means that fuel should sell below a hundred naira in Nigeria yet only twenty naira was withdrawn from the price of fuel.
There are still killings going on and a Ruga settlement letter passing round southern NIGERIA asking indigenes to give lands for settlement to nomadic men as though they were asked to evacuate their lands.
The world is frowning at racism in the media yet we die daily by nepotism, imperialism and tribalism in Nigeria, exactly the things Chinua Achebe talked about in “The Trouble with Nigeria“.
Two point eight billion us dollars has been invested in a gas pipeline that will have thresholds in Ajaokuta, Kaduna and Kano all the way from Niger-Delta for the industrialization of northern Nigeria without any state from the south being partakers of this. A plan approved since 2017, yet today we lift the flag and banners to celebrate democracy in the land and with strange voices we echo “one Nigeria”. Meanwhile, only one seaport is active and in portharcourt, far from Onitsha main-market that constantly puts Nigeria on the map as the largest market in West Africa. Ironically, the government bans importation of goods, but lacks the will to industrialize the southern and northern parts of the country so as to increase the nation’s gross domestic profit.
Moreso, the government is yet to acknowledge Innoson Vehicle Motors (IVM), the same way Ibeto was crippled economically by marginalising policies. If IVM was to be a Dangote product like cement, maybe there would have been a ban on allien automobiles and a regulated price like in the cement industry; who knows? only reality puts that in check.
Independence day will come calling soon and we will be faced with the same problems perhaps with different names until we put to full vain the labours of our heroes past. The government should start making our democracy and independence worth the while, compatriots should arise and take responsibility, otherwise the democracy we see today may one day become an aristocracy or a full fledged dictatorship.
(written by Violet Ejiata, Face of Girlpreneur)
Debates on gender roles and some gender stereotypes sidetrack the core conversation of the yolk of Feminism, which is on equal rights and privileges for both genders; to the best of my knowledge, that is the alpha and omega of Feminism.
My immediate elder sister had just moved to a boarding school, joining my eldest sister who moved the previous year. I was in primary 2 at the time. Roughly two years after, my older brother decided it was time I pulled my weight around the house. Because my sisters were mostly absent from home (they returned for holidays 3 times a year), I grew to become the caretaker of the home. At the age of 8, I was introduced to sweeping and cleaning. It was a gradual process- I started off with just the sitting room and corridor while one of my older brothers handled the courtyard because we both attended the same school and we had to be done in time to catch the 8am assembly.
Eventually, by the age of 9/10, everything was handed down to me; I swept the bedroom, living room, corridor and courtyard for Saturday sanitation. I swept so much that I’m ambidextrous with the broom.
From arguments that counter assignment of gender roles in the home, what I garner is that women raised by this yardstick that measures strength and ability for determination of functionality in the home front grow up to feel inadequate and less than their male counterparts because the primary upbringing conditions them to be so. This, of course, is very detrimental to the female and the root cause should be tackled. However, I’m yet to read or hear of an individual who has been personally affected by gender roles in the society.
So far, I’ve read of more speculative than subjective submissions. So, here is my own real experience.
I was raised in a home where the disparity on chores was drawn with a clear, fat line, like the broad walkway that was created when Moses parted the Red Sea with his staff for the Israelites to cross in the Bible- that’s how wide the line was. My sisters and I were designated to “feminine chores” which included keeping the home clean, cooking and doing the dishes. Lobatan!
My brothers, on the other hand, did all the “masculine chores” in the house which would be everything other than the three aforementioned activities e.g. washing the rug, emptying the bin, fixing faulty electrical appliances, fixing other faulty props like leaking pipes and broken stools (my father is multi-skilled so strangers rarely came to fix anything for us, and of course, his sons were obliged to join him through the process until they learned to do it without his help), operating the generator, etc. They were useful in the kitchen though- for pounding yam and Akpu (native meal made from cassava).
Gendered chores in my home are well earmarked that neither my sisters nor I were sent to buy diesel or engine oil or anything generator-related, and we couldn’t operate it either, not even one time when they bought a gen that uses a key start. The most we did was go to the generator shed, welcome it and “Daddy it’s nice o”. Lobatan! I can’t fix a lightbulb in its socket. (Sighs)
My father’s bias at the house keeping front begins and ends with gendered chores. At the academic front, everyone was drilled equally with same expectation of outstanding results! He accorded everyone equal treatment and anyone lagging in one or more subject(s) attracted extra lesson fee to his bills. You basically had no excuse to fail! My father was so unbiased that no hand could be placed on who his favourite child was.
I may be the girl who returned home after school to do dishes and wash bitterleaf till it gets bland, but my father was not the man to accept a bad result (bad here includes average result) from me or anyone. One time, he made one of my older brothers repeat a class because he was not impressed with the result even though the school didn’t require my brother to retake the session.
My father is a hard man to please, and my eldest brother was his partner in academic drilling. I must admit that these two cemented my academic foundation when I was younger. During my holidays from the boarding school, my brother would give me “assignments” to write essays and poems. I remember the very first essay I wrote, the topic was “Girl child education: a panacea to poverty reduction in Nigeria.” As an SS1 student, the word ‘panacea’ was just introduced to my vocabulary; it didn’t stop that 16/20 from getting stamped in red ink though.
The reason the anti gender role argument does not hold water is because the females in my family turned out the opposite of what proponents of this school of thought have claimed.
Apparently, my parents did not see gender, our fire was fueled to burn the hottest. Hence, I finished secondary school as the Best Graduating Student. The credibility of this feat in this context may be contested because it was a single sex school, so I’d employ a contest that involved boys. In Junior Secondary School 2, I became the Leader of the Junior Debate Team in my school (a unisex school), and I was the youngest to ever do it at the time. In 2010 (SS2), I led my school to participate in a debate competition organized by the Federal Ministry of Education to commemorate Nigeria’s Independence at 50, and was awarded the best preliminary speaker in the Northeast geopolitical zone. This competition included boys and girls from 15 Unity Colleges in the zone. My father saw and treated these as wins, not as “girl wins”.
We were raised with the notion that effort, not gender produces results. So, pardon me if my conviction supports that.
Biologically, women and men are different entities of the same unit, there is no debate about that. Hormonal and physiological components of the male child therefore, are OBVIOUSLY the motivation behind gender roles. I am a weaker vessel; I say this a lot and this is not a joke. The first time I carried 25 liter jerrycan of water from the dining tap to my hostel room in boarding school, I panted heavily enough to in seconds lose all the extra fat in my body! Need I mention the numerous breaks I took between the two ends!
Gendered chores only stem from the fact that all children are required to contribute their quota to housekeeping. Who else is gonna take care of the habitation?? It reminds me of the duty roster we maintained in boarding school where the chores were literally a DUTY because they were categorically assigned to all students per term.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, I do feel like in modern times, gender roles should be delineated according to interests rather than perceived capacity. It is no news that there are men who can cook oxygen and make it delicious!
Feminism has been so derailed in times past and it definitely feels very all over the place, so much so that defending it feels draining.
Here’s what I know for certain, the fundamental elements of this epic movement are neither erased nor tottered by gender roles, gender stereotypes and traditional gender gestures.
For instance, it is global knowledge that the colour pink is associated with the female gender while the colour blue is male-pegged. Some individuals opposing this status have claimed that the colour attributes portray women as a weaker sex.
The vital question here is, what effect do these colours have on individuals’ psyche?? Can similar effects be traced in individuals whose baby rooms were painted in a different colour? Do you even remember the colour your room was painted when you were little? ‘Cause I don’t! How has the colour of your ONE YEAR birthday dress affected your ability to set and achieve goals? These are questions we truly need to ask ourselves and answer honestly. If dire consequences are not derived from the answers to the effect of these colour stereotypes limiting a woman’s rights and privileges to succeed in the world, then, just maybe we should let sleeping dogs snore.
Imagine the confusion that would erupt if yellow balloons were popped at a baby shower. What gender would that be?? Knowing humans, same people asking “why pink” would still ask “why yellow though”?
My favourite colour is White, and there’s no way my mum would have known this prior to my delivery because I only started fancying White some two years back. Instead of over flogging gender roles and exaggerating impacts laced with fallacy, I think more energy should be geared towards addressing the nature of upbringing of a child. The family is the first point of socialization for any child, it’s only typical therefore that they grow to reflect the family’s configuration.
A friend once told me of something that happened in her family when she was younger. One of her elder brothers and elder sister were in the same class. They were both to write UTME but their father made a decision to only pay for the elder brother’s form so that he would proceed to the University first because he was a man. Mind you, the sister was even older than him.
If a child is raised in a home with disproportionate yardstick for different genders, it would indubitably affect not only the way the child sees him/herself, but also the way the child presents him/herself to the world. For instance, my brothers were groomed to be protectors and helpers. Helping has been so ingrained in them that you would see them even helping random people carry heavy stuff so long as they are female because they are already conditioned to think women are weaker vessels. I, have on the other hand, definitely made the mistake of thinking all guys are helpers because numerous times, I’ve been hit with the reality check that the next dude is nothing like my brother.
“I think holding the door shouldn’t be gender because we should open the door for everyone. I hold the door for men and women. I have trouble with the idea of holding the door for a woman because she is a woman; because chivalry is the idea that women are somehow weak and need protecting but we know that there many women who are stronger than men”. ~ Chimamanda Adichie
Sometimes, high profile personalities forget to clearly state the difference between their personal fancies and the concepts that drive feminism. A classic example is this Chimamanda’s controversial tweet quoted above.
In my honest opinion, this is a personal perspective of a traditional gender gesture and it should NOT be treated as feminist ideals that should be cast in gold. If no one gets hurt in the process, why then is it an issue of concern, enough to be expressed and enforced? It is rather unsettling that because Chimamanda Adichie is a renowned feminist, even her most remote thoughts with regards to gender stereotypes including notions which in my opinion derail the essential nucleus of the movement are treated as words on marble. As a globally renowned and celebrated flag-bearer of the campaign, I think she should be able to sift her personal perspectives on small beers from core feminist principles.
The problem is, she probably doesn’t even recognize the difference, hence cloaking all her prejudices with Feminism.
For instance, I personally do not grasp the rationale behind a man purchasing three rings-the engagement ring and 2 wedding rings. He bought the engagement ring to engage the woman, he’s gonna buy the wedding ring to say “I do” to her, why isn’t she the one to buy the ring she wants him to say “I do” to her with?
I’m not attaching this to feminism because this genuinely has no business playing on that playground. I’m indicating instead, that my stance stems from my fancies. I want to walk into the ring store myself, and after critical analysis, select a ring that I believe will remind my husband of me. I’d emboss on it words that he’ll be pleased with till death do us part. I just need him to understand that when I saw the ring in the showroom, I thought it would look better on the finger of the father of Viola. But then, that’s just Violet Ejiata. Integrating it into the grand scheme of an age-long, well-defined campaign would indubitably be a stretch.
Similarly, some socio-cultural practices in my opinion, should be left to lie like sleeping dogs in cases where they cause no harm to anyone. For instance, some sect contest the Yoruba and Igbo traditional marriage custom of brides kneeling to their husbands to present kola or palm wine.
Where is this same energy when the congregation only rises upon entrance of the bride into the Church? Are the men suddenly less significant or invisible?? It’s even a wonder why no one has tried to suggest that ladies should be allowed to wear black to weddings since men wear black suits too.
I consider it pertinent to point out that even the Nigerian Law protects individuals (male and female) from harmful customs e.g. forfeiture of an intestate man’s property by his widow without a male child which hitherto obtained in the Igbo custom, annulled by the Repugnancy Doctrine.
Truth be told, it was hardly surprising when Teni’s tweet surfaced on my Instagram timeline. It was rather agitating that such benighted expression would be made by a woman. Why mock the very cause that’s afforded you a voice? If you won’t support a cause, it’s best not to sabotage it. Regardless, I’m of the opinion that this ignorant statement wouldn’t have been made if the focus hadn’t been shifted by Feminism frontline advocates from the compass of equal gender rights. As women, we really should have a uniform front against the pervasive inequality in our society.
Feminism is really just about promoting a level playing field so all genders would be afforded same opportunities politically, socially, economically, legally, educationally, to ensure everyone can thrive in an unbiased world. The imbalance only favours one gender which is why naturally, the aggrieved gender is championing the cause to demand what is due to them.
Gender roles are like a pedestrian platform on both sides of the highway (where gender rights constitute the highway). Feminism is the vehicle- it plies on the highway to arrive at its destination. Attempting to ply the pedestrian platform would not only cause damage to the car, but also hurt the driver.
Did you know what I missed most this Easter and Lockdown?
It’s that I didn’t see clown (horrible) attires that trigger unending laughter any time I remember the design, courtesy of the tailors and seamstresses who are supposed to clothe us in fitting attires for events.
Thinking about that now, you also missed that especially when you are not the person in the attire. We have all had a fair share of that, at least once.
To usher you into the moment we decided relive a few moments. Grab a drink because it’s INTELLECTS and chill time!
PRIZY:
I was to go for Kay’s wedding, then I decided to sew a style I had admired for a long time. I relocated temporarily to Anambra state from Cross River, so I needed a new seamstress. I found a particular shop attractive and it seemed to be worth the try. After a little chat, I showed her the style and she assured me it was a done deal, I gave her my material and paid. Confidently, she called me to pick my dress. What I saw was like the case of ‘what you ordered versus what they delivered’. I wore it that way.
HOPE:
Last December, I was only interested in having something to wear for my parents Chieftaincy Installation. I trusted this seamstress with the only attire I needed for the season. The day we were to travel to the village, I went to pick my dress. The woman had not even cut the materials (perhaps she was planning to help me resell). I just wore a jean and top in low spirits. Till this day, even the shoe I bought for the attire is lying untouched.
EUPHEMIA:
I fell in love with a fabric I found in the market, so I bought and thought to add a new dress to my wardrobe. I went to my seamstress and gave her a style as usual. The day I went to fit and pick my dress, we exchanged pleasantries as usual and she asked if I came visiting since I had no material. I laughed it off, meanwhile at the entrance was the same material I gave her but a different style and size. To cut the long story short, my seamstress used my material for another client. What manner of act is that?!
EMMANUEL:
My birthday was on a Saturday last year, and same day was a friend’s wedding, and I was in the league of his groom’s men. I looked forward to the day in high spirit. I decided to gift myself a customized suit which I will be wearing to the wedding. My tailor gave me an assurance that all is well. For some reasons we agreed I will pick it the early that morning; I wish I could see the future because that was a real wrong decision. So, on Saturday morning, while the boys were teasing our friend in church, and the wedding was going on, I was dressed in a casual wear, sitting in the tailor’s shop and waiting for him to finish my suit because going home was going to get me stuck in traffic.
NKEM:
I belonged to the girls’ guild and we were preparing for a march past to celebrate the girls’ week in the church. Marching was an activity I enjoyed and I was very good at it, so I joined the girls’ and was behind the flag bearers but I needed a uniform. The uniform was a white shirt tucked in a green skirt, a cap and a tie. Every member had one, I had one but my white shirt was old; so I got a material and took the shirt as a sample to a seamstress that always beckoned on me to patronize her. A day to the march past, I went to pick my shirt, it looked beautiful but the collar was nothing to be a seamstress for. My friend encouraged me to try it on with the tie. I almost choked that day, looking like a ram being dragged to church for a child dedication. The group provided with a shirt I could use that evening.
GLORIA RUBY:
It happened sometime last year. I had a function to attend and needed to be nicely and stylishly dressed for the occasion. Nigerian stylists and their usual disappointments, I wasn’t going to take chances so I got the fabrics and gave them to my seamstress ahead of time. I made sure to call from time to time to supervise the making of my outfit and for each call, my seamstress gave me an assurance that all was going well. The due date for collection was here, I was in her house by 9:30pm to meet the highlight of the day; she had just finished cutting my fabric! And was yet to sew it!! I felt my world crumble because I had no alternative wear and I had to leave for the neighboring town very early the next day for the occasion. I left my seamstress’ place after much arguments but of course without my clothes.
VERA:
A certain seamstress convinced my mum to convince her and my material was the first trial. First, she missed the style, but my sisters said it wasn’t so bad, so I wore it to granny’s house we had a little family event. After the meal, the dirty plates were quite much so we had to wash them outside; my cousins (peers) and I. As soon as I bent to wash the plates, I heard a cracking sound, it was my dress. I stood up to see the part that covered my stomach was torn. I would have been better off wearing a crop top than that dress. I told mum patronizing that woman was going to be an error and it did happen.
We draw the curtain here!
Make sure your fashion stylist is an assurance not an insurance except you want to make it to The Intellects’ Magazine screen in the next episode.
Before the end of year two thousand and nineteen (2019), the two thousand and twenty (2020) calendar was almost ticked; at least from January to Easter or even Summer as the case may be for institutions and the world at large. A lot was said about two thousand and twenty, but right now, the world is not sure any more what to do or where to turn while still making plans for next year.
Like an ice hit Titanic, a pandemic hit the human race. There have been so many speculations about the virus on social media.
In the beginning, it was considered a virus contracted from aquatic animals in Wuhan, theories that postulated some virus and bacteria are harmless to animals but could be harmful to humans. Some consider it a bio weapon, perhaps the type that can replace nuclear weapons and grant one country the plaque of world power; yet there are still others who consider the pandemic a punishment for the evil man has perpetrated on planet earth.
To accept one of these could be accepting all because there is a common ground for them all. One of which is for such pandemic to occur despite of artificial intelligence, the advancement of technology and a few forecast by data analysis it shows that something is not sitting right on the human planet.
Inevitably, countries are on a severe lock down because people are expected to sit at home to reduce the spread of the virus in affected areas; except an occupation or vocation does not involve any throng.
By implication there are few or no producing companies working, retailers are probably not able to sell, wholesalers possibly have their money in the clouds from trying to strike a deal with manufacturers and retailers. Consumers are not left out of this chain because those who are not economical could be running out of supplies if that has not happened already and if the lock down persists. Well, digital learning has really been promoted and a good tech savvy educationist can find a good ground online.
While there is doubt in the report of countries and the cause of covid-19, one is certain, that there is a huge imbalance in the world, ranging from recession, global warming and the advancement of technology; and this happened to create balance. Yes, balance and shift to give who wills an opportunity to start afresh or to advance to a more fertile ground.
Of course, it is always good to have a plan, so that opportunity becomes more revealing except where opportunity requires a fresh plan. Look within, there is need for a fresh plan in your area, and in Nigeria generally.
However, while waiting for the government to initiate good policies for socio-economic growth, there is need for subsistence industrialization. Start small scale farming, and other vocations. Meanwhile, take a leap to the digital world for more efficiency; as long as you keep trying, your efforts will take power and make demands the law of attraction will supply. Don’t forget that Titanic did sink but everyone did not sink.
Remember this, power is rarely given, it is taken and the ecosystem is providing a balance for financial, socio-cultural, relationship, physical, spiritual and political growths.
This is happening now for you to make a demand!
TO WHAT END?
We begin this year confronting the issues that matter!
A few months ago, the world witnessed the trial, impeachment and acquittal of Donald Trump. The American citizens and how America should be seen posed the real center of the discourse. People have their reserved view on what should be or not be, whether the discourse was political or religious, at the end of the day the citizens were the main focus.
Hitherto, in Nigeria there are so many discourses on going, but where is the center?
The essence of government is that everyone be protected from the state of nature which Thomas Hobbes described as brutish, nasty and short lived because violence and oppression to gain absolute control was the order of the day.
Scholars perhaps saw a glimpse of the future and came up with theories they believed to be instruments necessary for a humanity enabling environment.
Today, the Nigeria political system says we practice democracy; government of the people, by the people and for the people. This is vague in practice and in describing the true essence of democracy; hence I like to elaborate democracy in Rousseau’s theory, ‘general will’.
Rousseau in his discourse said: “I give up my will, that every man gives up his will, and we all have a collective will. We have an all-powerful sovereign whose main aim is to express the general will, and each obeys himself, thereby obeying the general will and everyone is free.” (paraphrased)
Consequently, the idea is to provide constitutional stability legitimacy through universal participation and every country who adopted democracy, cannot feign ignorance to the implication of this. It includes lives and properties!
New business policies that do not favour the tax paying businesses are made.
Ranging from the ban on foreign goods without enabling factors to encourage local made goods to rejection of Nigerian made cars and vehicles over foreign made cars, to a monopolizing and a competitive cement market. Today, there is a value added tax attached to phone calls and text messages.
Apparently, it seems the 2019 elections remain inconclusive in some states, and that the electoral rules and what the constitution says about elections are not quite clear considering the interpretations and application or that perhaps in Nigeria, Oligarchy is the practice and democracy, a mere name.
In states like Anambra, citizens who have paid for road worthiness are made to pay for the loads in their tricycles, vehicles and even trucks. Failure to do so, the driver becomes a victim, and the vehicle or items become subject to destruction as the oppressor claim to be following the directives of the government.
More so, the charade that takes the cake is the issue of security. Heads keep rolling, pools of bloods flood around the streets of both the northern and southern protectorates. During the killings of Nigerians in South Africa, only the victims and refugees were heard wailing until Allen Onyema of Air Peace came to their rescue. The government or the voices of the Nigerian diplomat to South Africa and the Federal government were not clear on the issue.
To what end is the will of Nigerians trodden and neglected? To what end is the rising insurgency?
Chinua Achebe could be right in asserting that the center cannot hold!
One of the aims of the government is to secure the territory and protect her people. If the government cannot do that, if Nigeria is drowning in imperialism, her citizens need to know!
Nigerians try to get by everyday with the little value attached to naira. The least the government can do is to provide security since making good business policies are hard and the devaluation of naira seems to irreversible.
Get Nigerians security on all sides and watch her industrious nations grow!
To what end do we lose lives to insurgencies?
CAREER DEVELOPMENT