Pocket of Thoughts™ by Saint Akanji

    Identity crisis is the mother of all evil. A man who does not have the slightest clue of what he/she stands for will abuse whatever role he/she finds himself playing. This is a no brainer. In my country, people still wonder why for instance, political leaders and a host of many other pseudo-leaders at all levels fall short of the confidence and expectations. I say look no further because the answer is obvious. It is identity crisis that will make a man mis-act . Without fear of contradiction, i wish to say that Identity crisis is the greatest crisis. A wise man once said to me: May the Lord grant you the serenity to accept the things you cannot change ,the courage to face the things you must and wisdom to know the difference . There is wisdom in knowing the difference. There are over 6 billion people in the world with varying distinctions and striking similarities. Its interesting to know that we even share converging aspirations across those boun...

I am fortunate to have been born during that renaissance era when BATA now FAMAD defined the ultimate source of motivation for a school child. Those were the good old days. The promise of a new set of Cortina shoes meant double efforts on the part of children at their school work. There will be no BATA for you if you don’t behave; my mom would taunt me at every slightest opportunity. And of course, I aligned myself at every instance. The threat from my mom propelled me to shape up. The amazement created by this enigma remains a very powerful emotion even for me today. I still picture the sleek and classic design of the Cortina; it was a perfect finish. The wooling and seaming was executed brilliantly. My Cortina was the ultimate piece of foot gadget. My white tennis shoes made me grow wings as I rocked them. It was insanely cool. It was regal. It was simple yet oozed this subtle sophistication. BATA was the ultimate delight of school boys and girls. The vintage brown school shoe was...

Events in the last few days are interesting to say the least. Who says Nigerians cannot stand their ground? If there was any doubting Thomas, i encourage you to take a trip to the Gani Fawehinmi Memorial Park at Ojota in Lagos. There you will see a community of valiant protesters who have decided to clamp down on the inhumane government policy. These are really interesting times. The Nigerian masses have shown great solidarity by making their voices count. The strike action against the removal of subsidy by the federal government which started on Monday continues indefinitely. The 4 DAY stand down (Monday till now) is so far the longest national strike action in the history of this country and i'm glad to be alive in these times. Nigerians have defiled the inconveniences to communicate their dissatisfaction to the government of the day which apparently has defiled the words of reason. This is shameful and belligerent. When a man surrounds himself with a brood of psychopaths...

I had so much of trouble coming up with a suitable topic for this. This is a familiar spirit. 29th August, 1993 was that year that i saw with my own eyes the utter desperation of my countrymen. It was the wake of another increase in pump price of the premium motor spirit (PMS) and of course the military government of that day did not spare bullets. I'm sure you get my point. Let’s just leave the sleeping dogs lying down for now. 18 years after; democracy in progress, double digit inflation and thinning middle class, yet my country men are back to the dark ages. It’s like a De javu and a familiar spirit of some sort. I have been through this valley before. I will save you the agonies of the differential statistics with respect to the retrogressive state of the country. I am sure not the first to state the obvious that Nigeria is a huge paradox. How come we are still where we are? It’s amazing that in spite of the opportunities and potentials, we haven't quite been abl...