Random Musings #1: “Let’s Light 59 Candles to honour Love, Light and Life”

Let us light candles of Hope, Peace, Light, Healing, Forgiveness and Love for the 59 students who were slaughtered in Northern Nigeria on February 25, 2014 (exactly one year ago).
“Men suspected to be members of the Islamic Sect, Boko Haram, today Tuesday Feb 25th launched an attack on students of the Federal Government College Buni-Yadi, Yobe state, Northern Nigeria, killing 59 students (or more)…” ~Hausa Service BBC reports, Feb 25, 2014

The attacks on FGGC Buni-Yadi hit home for me and it hit hard! It was a wakeup call that in different ways, we are all victims of Boko Haram’s horrific onslaught on innocent citizens. In more innocent and peaceful times, I was one of many young students who also attended a Federal Government College, (a group of Unity schools founded by the Federal Government of Nigeria, with a clear vision to provide world-class education based on the pillars of national unity, exemplary leadership and academic excellence).

The attack on Federal Government College Buni-Yadi, is both sadly ironic and symbolic! Boko Haram has become a cancerous sore, eating away at our sense of unity and has also fuelled our poor choices of mediocrity over meritocracy. In the end, it does not matter to me whether a christian or muslim life was lost, what matters is that INNOCENT lives were lost and perhaps somewhere in Nigeria, 59 mothers, women just like me, will weep today as they remember beloved, promising and wonderful sons they lost to a senseless orgy of violence. #AllLivesMatter OZOEMENA! May their souls rest in perfect peace, Amen

Love, Light & Truth!

Juliet ‘Kego Ume-Onyido

Co-Founder, Whole Woman Network

#79. A Grandmother’s Whispers

‘Child, face your fears and embrace your power,

pursue your passions and follow your purpose

have a date with destiny, dare to grab your dreams

Even when you derail, rise and get back on your path

Revel in only whom and what make your soul sing

and beam with joy, with light and with love’s delight…’

#78. Between the old and the status quo

Pray tell, what is the choice?
Are we to choose between
a maze and a labyrinth?
Lost in confusing patterns
So many road, so many traps
Or the lone road that leads
To a place we know not yet.

#77. Lagos on my mind; Las Gidi state of mind.

Listen to the AUDIO Version of the poem below.

 

Las Gidi state of mind

The go – slow; the maddening traffic,

the jarring fast pace,

‘Ojuelegba? ‘Owa, owa’; the yelling and yapping

of crazy Molue and Danfo drivers.

Mama put and isiewu joints,

Amid the stinky smells of oceans and rivers

The fierce, obsessive, relentless race

to outrun giant, gutsy Eko rats

The runs, the hustle, the bustle,

(Eko for show),

Hustlers, hoping to hammer

————–

 

The Island, high-society; awon big boyz and gals

-Meet Jenifa’s crowd and crew

Caught in the designer madness, the endless chase

Under-the-bridge thugs and day-dreamers,

planning their next strike at the high-rise tricksters;

-the big spenders, the takers, movers and shakers,

moving fast-forward, then lost in reverse.

Rockstar-pastors and their sheeple,

trading big dreams for hard currency,

all in a polluted maze of fleece!

————–

 

Mainland, Ajegunle – AJ city, Eko Atlantic,

Slum hummers, jungle drummers,

Iyana Ipaja to Ajah, Lekki to Okokomaiko,

I love my Eko o [(♪, ♫)].

The exotic paradise of the combined beat

Shoprite designer rice, side by side with my Agege bread,

Faking it, making it, celebrating the mess and the madness

————–

 

Aje-butter, aje-pako,

Mushin-living, Louboutins-wearing, accent-forming,

welcome to our crazy land;

Redeemed by our sacred love for this soulful Island!

Tribe and tongue forgotten under the Island heat,

With love and passion we meet and greet,

screaming with swag from afar:

Bawoni? Kedu? How far?

The only currency accepted here are big, bold dreams.

————–

 

Las Gidi born, Las Gidi bred,

Together, we dare to follow our dreams,

Finding our unique light in the darkness, UP NEPA!

All united in this crazy prayer and anthem:

Eko oni baje o![(♪, ♫)]

Lagos, always on our minds,

eternal dreamers

in a Las Gidi state of mind.

(c) Juliet ‘Kego Ume-Onyido 2015 (All rights reserved).

[Image source: Author’s, self-created; copyright-free content]