I read about Abiola's daughter's appearance on Dragon's Den, a  discovery show for young  entrepreneurs on BBC. She came out confidently with a smile and spoke with clarity. As I watched her, I felt a pang of admiration mixed with jealousy and maybe anger.

While I was happy for her and the success she was garnering overseas, I wondered if it was so at the expense of ordinary Nigerians.

Almost all Nigerians have heard of Abiola Kashimawo, his death was a shock and the masses mourned his loss. He was a rich entrepreneur/ politician and was liked by many. He sponsored many egalitarian projects and was an active supporter of Democracy. His story inspired me when I was little about how he grew up poor and his first taste of boiled egg was at his first wife's house. That was how poor he was.

Anyway, his daughter studied in a secondary school in the UK and went to Oxford University. When asked about her father by one of the investors, she said he was her inspiration and her drive, she painted him as a hero.
I definitely wasn't tuned with politics when Abiola was alive, I was too young, but I know he wasn't a saint.

The point of all this is, how many Nigerians have the level of education and enlightenment Dupesy Abiola showed and how many can exude as much skill?

While the majority suffer in poverty and want, our leaders embezzle public funds, substantial enough to foster theirs and their children's life even after their demise. A recent case is the corrupt ex-governor Ibori whose son was reported in to be living a luxurious life.

And that was why when I saw her exhibiting such intelligent charm after benefiting from a top notch education in UK something most of us can't afford, I couldn't help the rise of anger and jealous mingled with admiration.

When it comes down to it, irrespective of what the world has given, with enough passion and determination, one can achieve anything. Though it wouldn't hurt to have a well deserved head start especially if the lack of it is due to the few who are lavished with it at the expense of others.

...how about living for myself?

'You don't like cooking?! How will you cope when you get married?'

'It doesn't matter if you slept late. As a lady, you should up at 7am!'

'Don't talk back at me! Is that what you will do to your mother-in-law?'

I have spent half of my youthful life listening to this kind of rebukes and I wonder, how about I live for myself ? Instead of for a mother-in-law or husband I haven't even met. If you are an African lady then I bet you have heard one of these rants.

Reasons like these makes me feel like I'm not living for myself, and instead of growing up as a lady who wants to live, experience and explore life for my own development, I am being trained to become a perfect robot  to please some next guy who is probably somewhere at the moment with friends enjoying a drink or sowing wild oats.

Don't get me wrong, I intend to meet a Mr. Right -if he exists- whom I will love and he in return, but how about living for myself and meeting someone who is pleased with it?! How about that?

ANOINTING SERVICE..The Oil thereafter

This is kind of silly but like I said, I am only thinking aloud. So Today at church we had an anointing service and something got me laughing hard; what people did with their left over oil. If you have been to one of these services then you will get this. So the pastor said to bring out the oil bottles. Bear in mind the nature of oil, mere touching it with a finger can do a lot. Anyways, since some forgot to bring their oil they had to get some poured in their palms. The woman sitting in front of me had more than she needed poured in her palm so she went about looking in her bag for something to pour it in, she used her other palm to prevent the oil from dripping. I was laughing so hard and trying even harder to go unnoticed that I missed what she did with the excess. After we had made the cross sign on our foreheads, I looked around at people's creativity. The first thing people did, something I did myself, was to rub it on my weave, the woman used it to polish her patent bag, some their shoes and all of a sudden the bald men's head were shinning. I looked around and shiny heads were scattered about, oil put to good use. It was hilarious!

What language can you speak Alakowe?

If you are Yoruba then you know the term 'Alakowe'. It is like a praise though it simply means literate. This is what our grandparents use to call us students, if we greet them in English, use a fork and knife for a native dish or do a half bob instead of the full curtsy our culture requires when greeting elders. They sometimes will simply shake our hands saving us the trouble.

In Nigeria we also call some people 'aje butter'  literally meaning butter eaters but figuratively, rich kid. One sign of spotting this kind of people is that they rarely speak their native language and when they do, they do with an "English" accent. 

Again if you studied in Nigeria then you know that during a Native Language exam, which  in my case is Yourba, students seize the opportunity to act unruly. Teachers will normally cancel an exam or write a damaging remark on the student's sheet which will likely result in a fail but since native languages are not important to we 'Alakowes', we go ahead and walk out of the exam hall. We dare not do this during a Maths or English exam. 

We don't take this subject nor its teachers seriously because passing it wasn't a criteria to gain admission into a University. The essential subjects in my time were English, Mathematics and a Science subject

I was an Alakowe and I have sometimes been called an Aje Butter, the latter can be argued though. I spoke English fine as far as I was concerned but when I came to England to study, I was shocked to realise I am decrepit in English language, the reason I forfeited my native language, Yoruba.

My main point of defence when I realise how bad my English is compared to native English speakers, is that I'm bilingual, but I can't even speak my native language proficiently. I had neglected it just to be an Alakowe. 

My question now is; What language can I speak competently? I am languageless! I have got no identity! I am not English neither am I fully Yoruba!

Africans are Fraudsters?

So today after lectures, I went to the computer lab to do some bits of adjustment to my blog (folaenifeni.wordpress.com). It's something I have to write every week, as it part of my Journalism course.
Anyways, I went into the lab and I overhead a conversation between two Asians and a White guy. The Asian guy said he got an unknown call from Ghana. The others guys laughed, and immediately suggested it's a scam attempt. One asked 'did he ask for money'
I was immediately baffled, well maybe not baffled exactly. I know we have kinda garnered that reputation, but I was miffed! Outside Africa, Africans are rarely commended for anything. The world knows Africans as poor desperate people who haven't contributed a dime to the world's development.
Although, this perception of Africans is not altogether a lie. It is true that there are some who will rather make their money fraudulently, than not at all but trust me every country has its fair share of fraudsters!