Nice Linus

It Is You I Find at The Tunnel’s End

Your eyes, a haven of vivacity, sparks my curiosity. What audacity. What sweetness. What hope. The lines below your eyes, like scars on wet leaf. The sparkle in your dark pupil, like the twinkle of a million stars. What is this light I see in your eye?

Your smile, how lovely! I wonder at the innocence. I wail at the helplessness. I revere the calmness, the heavenly understanding. I marvel at the convenience with which you pull up those smiles.

Your heart, a priceless gem. It defeats treasure island in glamour, rich in bliss and amour.

You are a leader. You are a teacher. You are the voice that reverberates a thousand times, like echoes in a cave of bats. Time stops to listen when you speak.

Your hands hold the balance of the world. Equity and justice. Mercy and empathy. Diligence and tenderness. Thought and tact.

I revere the sound of your feet. The firmness in your stride, your laugh, the drumbeats of joy that attend your every step.

I search. I pray. I hope you find you. Because we need you, even much more than you know.

Walking through this darkness, I think of you. I see you right ahead. It is you I find at the tunnel’s end. You are the light at the end of the tunnel.

For the Girl Child!✨

Between the cradle And the black door's handle Was a big luminous candle.

Birthed upon the victory Of dignitaries' patrotic fray, You were clothed with dignity.

You were born to burn With justice and unity Shining with sheen.

To our dismay, The winds of disarray Blew your candle to bay.

Yet, we'll obey your call To serve our fatherland With love and strength and faith Because the labours Of the heroes past Shall never be in vain And one day, you'll shine again.

Happy new month, lovelies💞 Happy independence day. God bless Nigeria!🥳✨

#NigeriaAt63 #IndependenceDay #WeCantContinueLikeThis #NiceLinus

DIARY OF A CHRISTIAN LADY

Sweetheart, this weather is a setup. It spoils plans and breaks protocols. Everyday passes by almost in a blur. I wake up very early only to put off my myriads of alarms, close the windows if they're open, wrap my blanket tighter around me for another dose of sleep and wake up again by 6am. I'd warm the leftovers from the previous night's meal or cook something fresh and hot for breakfast. I'd sometimes imagine being served toast bread and hot tea in bed. Lucky is what I call those who have it exactly as I imagine- being served toast bread and hot tea in bed by one's mother.

This weather comes with mood swings. Maybe it's not just the weather. Maybe it's me. I remember how it started for my pregnant neighbor. She used to work like a robot. Bend to wash the plates. Bend to sweep the floors. Bend to wash clothes. Bend, bend, bend. Bend like a woman. She loved to do all the house chores in one go. She'd also leave the house to go about her business at noon. I used to hail her in my mind, what a strong woman she is. I still do. Then, suddenly, I saw her sitting idly on the chair one morning and staring blankly at the floor. She looked so helpless, like a child. Another time, she came to my doorstep very early to ask if I had cooked anything. I felt for her. “This condition does a lot to me,” she would often say. I would divert her attention to the naming ceremony and parenting. I would call her Iya Ibeji like a hundred million times in a day to remind her to ignores the pains and instead think about the bundle of joy to come.

Today, mine are triplets. They keep me awake every night. Their kicks wake me up early every morning. They make me crave for more of every necessity. More knowledge. More patience. More experience. They push me. They scare me. They excite me. Sure only those who have been in my shoes understand. It comes with arduity, anxiety sometimes but the stress will be worth it at the end. What is life without dreams to gear you up?

#nicelinus

Diary Of A Christian Lady

Ruth told me she wanted to use the coal pot after I'm done with it. “It's just stew,” she said. “It's not like your own that you'll be turning, turning and turning for like twenty minutes.”

I laughed. I thought of telling her it was “fry” not “turn”. But in this moment of indecisiveness, she smiled and left. Twenty minutes is an exaggeration but I'll let her get away with it because I've also had my turn to whine.

Today, my neighbour's daughter also cooked but something went wrong in the process. She actually burned the beans. I could hear her mother scolding her outside, asking if this was how she intended to cook for her future husband.

I laughed in the privacy of my room because I've also been asked the same question before but not by my mother, never my mum. I remember I burned a good number of meals and cooked a great deal of rubbish before my culinary skills got to its current stage.😂

These days sef, I do wonder how much suffering someone's son would have gone through if we were in those days when girls were married off at an early age. But today, I have a different story to tell. Practice makes perfect.

There's no need to rush. There's no need to worry so much about any imperfection. I'm also resolving not to think about my future marriage. I must focus on ME. I need ME to be alright and successful first before adding someone else's burden to mine.

Singleness is a blessing. It's a time to relax, serve God and work on one's self. Everything will come naturally, with patience and practice. Above all, my Father says, “BE ANXIOUS FOR NOTHING.” Nothing includes everything.😊✨

#Nice_Linus #DiaryOfAChristianLady

CASHLESS POLICY: NEW MONEY SAGA (part1)

Sometimes I envy trees; living for so long with no worries.

Heavy is the heart that muses and grave are the circumstances. According to “The Wanderer”, 'man is fleeting , maid is fleeting'. Please, let's also add that 'government is fleeting' and 'naira is fleeting'. So it seems to me because when something does not serve the purpose for which it exists or was created, it becomes useless, as though it is non-existent.

Ours is a nation where out of the blues our sun can decide to rise from the West and set in the east. One thing begets another and we discover that things are falling apart. Surely, we won't cry at the remembrance of the 'happy new year' we chanted on the 1st of January and the next few days that followed, neither will we bemoan the gate of the chickens whose lives went for it because it doesn't matter now. What of the 'wishing you a prosperous new year' we received and said to people? We'll keep them for better days ahead.

We love to live in the moment, it's just that over here, one moment, things could be fine and in the next, the situation gets wesser. if you are not prepared in the least for the change, you could lose your balance.

Towards the end of 2022, it was fuel scarcity. Motorcycles, tricycles and cars lined the roads waiting for their turns to get fuel. Fights erupted many times. Perhaps it was so frequent that many filling stations had to get soldiers to help them coordinate the sale of fuel. For many people the only way the issue of fuel scarcity came to be of concern to them was because of the resultant hike in cost of transportation and subsequently, inflation. Yet, all of it was still bearable.

#NigeriaDecides2023 #NewNairaNote #WeCantContinueLikeThis #Nice_Linus

CASHLESS POLICY: NEW MONEY SAGA (Part 2)

The new naira notes minted by the CBN were supposed to be in circulation by December 2022. However, in a cosmopolitan city like Ibadan, ATMs didn't stop dispensing old naira notes until about seven days to the deadline, January 31st.

Usually, people would have been waiting at ATM stands as early as 6am. By the time the average person comes around, the queue would be so long that one could collapse while standing and waiting for their turn. Many times, ATMs run out of cash as well. I can recall that there was a whole weekend when no ATM in my environment was dispensing cash. They were either out of service, temporarily unable to dispense cash or something else.

Naturally, people turned to the POS operators in relief. Just as in wartimes, however, these business men and women wouldn't render their services for peanuts. As the tension increased, so did their charges. At a time, they charged one hundred naira on the new design of one thousand naira note. Later on, right after the deadline was extended when both old notes and new notes became scarce, people didn't mind paying two hundred naira to get the old design of the one thousand note.

The rate at which the pressure rose was alarming. Every new dawn broke out with a different level of uncertainty. Without doubt, many passed their days in weariness, the kind that weighs heavily on the soul. Banks were always crowded and their gates were usually locked. People would stand outside these gates under the scorching sun for hours. Network service was terrible and customer care agents are always busy. Not only was withdrawing money a problem, transfers often went wrong. In this case, the party transferring money could be debited though the transfer was unsuccessful.

People soon began to protest and riot. Both public and private properties were vandalized. Banks were set on fire. Roads were blocked and this affected both transportation and trading.

Lives of people have been put at risk. We've faced starvation, insecurity, penury, backwardness, depression, emotional and psychological turmoil. Individuals were stranded. Families were stranded. Businesses have suffered regression. We've spent money to get back our money. We had fought back in anger, desperation and frustration. I have one word for us all.

Fight. Keep fighting. Only fight in the way that's legally acceptable and morally right. In this struggle for peace, we'll all have to be brave and strong. It might take time but we will win against corruption. One day, our dream of having a better nation will come to pass. God bless Nigeria!

#NigeriaDecides2023 #NewNairaNotes #GodBlessNigeria #Nice_Linus

WHERE MAD MEN ROAM THE STREETS

Change is constant. It may come in different variations, yet, this phenomenon is without doubt, a constant, just like time. Days, weeks and months come with varying weather conditions and seasons.

Atmospheric conditions differ from one environment to the other. The sky may be blue in one place and black in another. Even in that community where the sky is bright and blue, it could be fogy from someone else's sight. Here, the day after Sunday is Monday. In some other place, it could be Tuesday, Friday or no day at all!

There is the cosmos. In the cosmos, different worlds also exist. On a normal day, these different worlds should be interdependent and coexistent. However, where nuts go lose and no one is found to tighten them up in their right places, they eventually rot.

One good luck that comes with lunacy is blindness to reality. Mad men live in a world of their own. Mad men never know they are mad. In fact, they regard the sane person as the abnormal one. They could casually discard things they used to cherish. They could also forget people they loved. Similarly, things that used to matter would not matter anymore.

Mad men know no promise. Mad men do not understand the sanctity behind oaths, neither are they bound by them. Mad men do not understand development. Only what is right in that world in their head feels right to them.

Mad men have a different definition for many things. Justice could mean 'just us'. Freedom could mean doom. Stability could mean oppression. Violence could mean peace to them. They could mistake the oppressor for the oppressed.

Insanity can come in varying degrees. It could be partial or total. It affects various classes of people, both the rich and the poor, the ruler and the ruled, proletariat and bourgeois. Yet, insanity is insanity. It is characterized by blindness to reason.

In a world where mad people are allowed to roam the streets in their numbers, you could end up trying to differentiate between the sane man and the insane man. Worse would be the case when people who claim to be sane make people who turn out to be insane their leaders.

The good news is that insanity could be treated. In this case, the treatment would start from the mind. One's mindset should be positive and objective. Sentiments and prejudices should be sieved when making decisions.

#NigeriaDecides2023

CASHLESS POLICY: NEW MONEY SAGA (part1)

Sometimes I envy trees; living for so long with no worries.

Heavy is the heart that muses and grave are the circumstances. According to”The Wanderer”, 'man is fleeting , maid s fleeting'. Please, let's also add that 'government is fleeting' and 'naira is fleeting'. So it seems to me because when something does not serve the purpose for which it exists or was created, it becomes useless, as though it is non-existent.

Ours is a nation where out of the blues our sun can decide to rise from the West and set in the east. One thing begets another and we discover that things are falling apart. Surely, we won't cry at the remembrance of the 'happy new year' we chanted on the 1st of January and the next few days that followed, neither will we bemoan the gate of the chickens whose lives went for it because I doesn't matter now. What of the 'wishing you a prosperous new year' we received and said to people? We'll keep them for better days ahead.

We love to live in the moment, it's just that over here, one moment, things could be fine and in the next, the situation gets wesser. if you are not prepared in the least for the change, you could lose your balance.

Towards the end of 2022, it was fuel scarcity. Motorcycles, tricycles and cars lined the roads waiting for their turns to get fuel. Fights erupted many times. Perhaps it was so frequent that many filling stations had to get soldiers to help them coordinate the sale of fuel. For many people the only way the issue of fuel scarcity came to be of concern to them was because of the resultant hike in cost of transportation and subsequently, inflation. Yet, all of it was still bearable.

#NigeriaDecides2023 #WeCantContinueLikeThis #NewNairaNotes

THE TIDES OF YULE

Nature's full breeze Sweeps the chill in with ease As the birds raise that tune Which to despondence is immune.

I perceive, from the pier, A finger shooting out from the rear Alas! It's my true love I see With a patridge in a pear tree!

Waves of the blue Travel back and forth As the sky assume its hue Since merry quiescence is due!

Tides of yule have sprung out With all its foam and fuss Roaring and roving in bliss Through our heart.

Boom! Bang! Bang! Smiles. It's a banger, Not a bomb!

The eerie whoosh of the wind Breeze away our balloons Up to the lift and down again Before the... Boom!

We'll wine and dine With no wistful thinking, We'll dress pretty and dance, We'll pray and play.

Merry Christmas fellas♥️✨.

#Christmas #yuletide

Why Do I Feel Caged?

Sometimes in recent past,

My heart often belts out,

Rich, booming and vibrant,

The song of freedom and certainty.

I want to happen to life

But along the way,

Life makes my hay

And we happen to each other.

When he takes my peace to tangle

And does my strength wangle,

I hope my grit mangles

My gentled self from his mess.

And now I ask myself,

What's up with the face?

Why do I feel caged

Seeing that the clouds of trial loom?

#IHappenToLife

#BePositive

#Grit