Tribute to My Mother In Heaven

Oh Mommy! I miss you. I wish you were here. I can tell you that a Mum is irreplaceable for a child. I still cannot believe that you're really gone. The loss makes it hard to breathe.

It is unimaginable to think that I will not see your smiling face again! I will miss your laughter forever …and I will feel your absence every day of my life. Such emptiness will be the hardest point of each day.

Now that you’re in heaven, I know that you will continue to guide me, as the Angel you have always been. Rest peacefully in the bosom of our Lord.

Adieu, Sweet Mommy.

- Emeka.

Tribute to My Angel

 

My light went out on 27^th January 2019 when you, my beloved wife, passed away after a four month struggle with a debilitating illness. It was a terrible shock because we all believed you were making favourable progress towards recovery. You resisted this fate; you fought it with every essence of your being; we could see that you wanted to live. From both far and near, friends rallied round family, providing support, absolutely committed to your recovery at all cost. But God in His infinite wisdom had other plans. He took you to a heavenly home to be with angels just like you.

My dear wife, Omalicha Beejay, you were not only a wonderful wife and mother but you were a meticulous homemaker, with an amazing capacity for multitasking. Combining your very busy schedules at work with keeping us happy at home could only be achieved by specialized abilities, possessed by someone with a definite natural advantage. Your job demanded a lot from you and you handled every challenge with the same positive mind, always cheerful and completely trusting God.

I am left with a combined feeling of humility and submission to Divine authority. I know many men have a wonderful wife but no one has ever had a better one than I. You were my love, faithful, efficient, loyal and true. You inspired me in ways I cannot explain. I have lost a worthy helpmate in you but I have nothing but happy memories of our nearly fourteen years of life together. Your interest in helping the needy is exemplary. I will do my very best to ensure your legacy lives on.

I sorrow now for you, my love. You will be deeply missed.

Rest in perfect peace in the bosom of the Lord, till we meet to part no more.

BJ Chiawa

Emeka

He arrived on 25th March, 2007. Emeka (short for Chukwuemeka) is 13 months old now. Do you still wonder why I've been absent from here for so long?

It's a joy to watch Chukwuemeka growing up; even as he explores his environment, scattering (more like destroying!) everything within reach. Toys? None is ever the same after 60 seconds in his grip!

Chinweizu 2 Marshall

Clem Marshall:
I am glad you are troubled by the plans to wipe out Afrikans and that you are sending out these updates on their implementation.

But am quite amazed that any Pan Afrikanist is just getting to see the picture. After all Garvey warned about it back in the 1920s! Or is it that Pan Afrikanists dont read the documents of Pan Afrikanism or that they dont take seriously what they contain until some white boy says the same thing? Well, as they say, if you want to hide something from niggers, just put it
in a book, like Garvey did.

Anyway, better late than never.

But I am even more amazed at your reaction, now that you've caught on to the situation.

Soul Food

We love music, and like good wine - the older the better, the rarer the more better. It doesn't really matter who made it; if the rythmn is right, we consider it food for the soul.

The Chiawas may claim no record labels yet, but we've got our ears tuned to good music, old skool and modern jamz alike. The only member of the family who had come closest to making music was Cyprain Ozochiawaeze, of blessed memory. He made melodies in his time, and his favourite instrument was the guiter. It is also on record that he taught Gentleman Mike Ejeagha, of the Akuko n'Egwu series, how to play the guiter.

What not to name your dog

Sent in by one of our more intellectual members "Just for a laugh".

Everybody who has a dog calls him "Rover" or "Boy". I call mine "Sex"!

Now Sex has been very embarassing to me. When I went to the city hall to renew his dog licence, I told the clerk that I would like a licence for Sex. He said, "I'd like to have one too". Then I said, "You don't understand. I've had Sex since I was nine years old". He said I must have been quite a kid.

When I got married and went on my honeymoon, I took the dog with me. I told the motel clerk that I wanted a room for my wife and me, and a special room for Sex. He said that every room in the place was for sex. I said, "You don't understand. Sex keeps me awake at night". The clerk said, "Me too".

Danish Cartoons spark riots in Nigeria

Danish Cartoons spark riots in Nigeria
By Chinweizu

Published on Sunday 26 March 2006 on page 26. in Citypress, Johannesburg, South Africa. - Headline "A divided Nigeria only way forward"
Recent riots in Nigeria sparked by the Danish cartoons illustrate that Muslims cannot peacefully coexist with non-muslim neighbours, argues CHINWEIZU

Starting on Friday, Feb.17, 2006, several cities in Nigeria were engulfed in riots, arson and mayhem which left more than 200 persons dead, some 50 churches and mosques burnt, as well as hundreds of shops and residences destroyed and looted. It all began in the far north city of Katsina when a public lecture organized to protest the notorious Danish Mohammed Cartoons veered from its declared purpose and began to violently agitate against President Obasanjo’s scheme to perpetuate himself in office through an opportunistic constitution review process to which most Nigerians are opposed.

King Leopold's mandate to his missionaries

King Leopold’s mandate to his missionaries and the passivity of Africans world-wide today
--Commentary by Chinweizu

[The letter which follows is Courtesy of Dr. Vera Nobles and Dr Chiedozie Okoro

Letter from King Leopold II of Belgium to Colonial Missionaries, 1883
"Reverends, Fathers and Dear Compatriots:
The task that is given to fulfill is very delicate and requires much tact. You will go certainly to evangelize, but your evangelization must inspire above all Belgium interests. Your principal objective in our mission in the Congo is never to teach the niggers to know God, this they know already. They speak and submit to a Mungu, one Nzambi, one Nzakomba, and what else I don’t know. They know that to kill, to sleep with someone else’s wife, to lie and to insult is bad. Have courage to admit it; you are not going to teach them what they know already. Your essential role is to facilitate the task of administrators and industrials, which means you will go to interpret the gospel in the way it will be the best to protect your interests in that part of the world. For these things, you have to keep watch on disinteresting our savages from the richness that is plenty [in their underground. To avoid that they get interested in it, and make you murderous] competition and dream one day to overthrow you.

Lights in the Sky

Day and night, the dome of the sky is a stage on which superb scenes are played, with the Sun in the leading role. But often the show is merely one of visual effects, the subtle play of perturbed sunlight in the atmosphere.

Today, 29th March 2006, between the hours of 10.00am and 11.00am, this phenomena played itself out on the Nigerian stage. Though the point of greatest eclipse featured elsewhere in the continent http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4849224.stm, about eleven states witnessed this amazing secret of nature, including; Lagos, Ogun, Sokoto, Niger, Abuja, etc. The government and the National Space Agency had carried out massive campaigns for the people not to associate this natural phenomena with superstitious beliefs, and not to view it with the naked eyes.

Very Special Effects

When the Sun is Hidden...and Revealed

The eclipse of the Sun is one of the most moving natural phenomena that is possible to observe from the Earth. But you need to be in the right place at the right time. The term 'eclipse' is actually inappropriate, and is more correctly referred to as 'the occlusion of the Sun by the Moon'. During the precious few minutes of this occlusion, you can see an immense halo round the Sun, the solar corona.

Usually visible, it reveals the existence of energy in the surrounding space. Just before and after the stage when occlusion is complete, the final rays light up the irregular surface of the Moon. Very bright points called Baily's beads then appear, forming a ring of diamonds arround the Moon. In addition, at the edge of total occlusion, it is possible to see the Sun's photosphere in the form of a thin pink border, from which emerge, here and there, incredibly long thread-like features, or prominences.

Nigerian Police Get Change?

Funny how these things start: you leave home on a perfectly normal day and, before you're aware of it, trouble is sitting there right on your laps. No, you're not attacked by highway hoodlums, neither are you witnessing a religious riot or ethnic uprising; nor are you being mugged by the ubiquitous Area Boys. These are daily occurences in this country, but right now, you're facing a different situation: you're a victim of the highest organised criminal machinery in the country. And it carries official sanction. The Nigerian Police Force is indeed in a sorry state, with little hope of redemption.

My wife had her day off last Saturday, and we decided to try and catch up on some visits which we had put off because of her busy schedule. No sooner had we left the house than we ran smack into a police check point. One raised a baton to indicate we should stop. We did. He looked in the car and waved for us to park.

'Clear well', he said. We parked.

'Oga', he declared, leaning into the vehicle, 'we're "Stop & Search", you have to come down (from the vehicle) so we can search you.'

Now, I've been through this routine more than a few times since returning home from the UK. May be there's something about me that attracts the interest of the police (especially the checkpoint police) all the time. Must take another look at myself in the mirror!

I've no qualms about being stopped and searched by these boys, if it helped solve anything. I've nothing to hide. Or so I thought.

'Oga, wetin dey ya pockets?'

'Just my mobile phones, and my wallet', I said, bringing out my handsets.

'Let me see your wallet.'

I thought: here we go again. Why do these guys always want to see my wallet? I took out my wallet and opened it. There were the usual: ID card, library card, driving license, bank cards, shopping cards, a few naira bills, etc. Synthetic world, plastic life. Maybe I enjoy the look on their faces when they see these plastics, but after this experience I'm giving it a second thought. In these parts you got to be careful what you carry around with you.

Suddenly the fella's face lit up with interest. Must've felt he was onto something here.

'Wetin be those? Make I see.'

He took my wallet and proceeded to examine each card, pulling them out in turn, and asking for explanation each time. Again I obliged him, watching closely all the time.

Then he pulled out a small piece of paper, unfolded it, and:

'Oga, what is this paper?'

I saw the document and remembered the last time I'd sent money home to my wife from London. This was about five months ago; now what was this piece of paper still doing in my wallet?

'Er, I used that paper to send money to my wife from London last year', I tried to explain.

'But Oga, how manage? This is not Western Union?'

'Listen, Western Union is not the only people who do money transfer, ok. There're others in the same business. You just use whoever is cheaper and more convenient for you.' Not so fast, dude.

'But how do we know that these people are not operating illegal business? You're one of those people who cheat government out of revenue. This is money laundering. You will follow us to the station to make a statement. You must explain this document to the EFCC. In fact, we must search your wife too.' He grabbed my wife's handbag.

Haba!

'This is silly, Officer. Let me talk to your superior?' I countered, beginning to get angry. This guy was definitely wasting my time.

His superior, who had been watching from the corner of his eyes, slid over to us. Wearing an automatic weapon across his chest, the magazine in his right hand, he demanded to know what it was all about. My explanations cut no ice with him either.

'Oga, this na serious matter o! We go reach station make you write statement.'

I wasn't at all sure where this argument was going, or how and when it would end. You didn't want go to a Nigerian police station, whether as an accused or an accuser, even to report a case. I wasn't ready for that experience right now. Then again, you didn't argue with a man with a gun, especially not the Nigerian police.

Their attitude had already changed. It had become aggressive, intimidating and menacing. A third cop had joined us, urging me into the vehicle. Frustrated, I asked them:

'Which police station are we going to?'

'Aguda police station.'

The first policeman and his superior joined us in the car and we headed to their den. I saw my appointment slipping away. I needed to do something fast. Thank God for mobile phones. Eventually it was technology that saved the day. Quickly I reached for my handset.

Nothing less than a top-notch police officer friend in Abuja would do. When in Nigeria, please try to keep one handy. How sweet it would be to use one of their own against these brutes. Expectedly, Abuja was disgusted at what he described as "predatory antics" of their officers and men; advised me to follow them to the station, and promised to get back to me.

For the sake of assurance, I alerted an army major in Ikeja, another friend, handy too in matters like this. Told him the police had accused me of money laundering, and are taking me to their station in Aguda. The major just laughed and said not to worry, he would be on his way instantly.

When we got to the station, they set me down by a desk, brought a form and practically ordered me to fill it out. About half a dozen other victims were also there, all struggling with their own cases. Surveying the situation, I decided the turnover here must be quite high.

My tormentor continued, 'It is for everybody. Balogun wrote it; Alameisiagha wrote one too; even Obasanjo himself has done it! You must write a statement beginning with your biography!'

I began to laugh at the mention of Alam. Incidentally, my wife had also been busy on the phone all this while, and when calls began to come back asking to speak to me, the guys threatened to take away my mobile phone.

'You dey call soldier; you de call police, dem no go come save you o!'

I asked my wife to call a lawyer. I wasn't taking chances with these guys.

But what followed next made everything else unnecessary. Abuja's reaction was swift and total. One phone call from my friend, to another top-notch officer in Lagos (now I've got two, see), and it was all over. The tune changed immediately. The guys actually began to apologise for wasting everybody's time. A new "song" rent the airspace:

'Oga, wetin you get for us now?'

Pathetic isn't it? At the end of the day, it was all about money. Extortion. So sad.

We drove off from the station to try and keep our appointment. But we had to call the army major back to tell him I was free. He cried:

'Chei! Na God save those idiots! Dem for hear am today!'

He was actually on his way to Aguda with a small troop. Just like that? Hey, we didn't plan to start a little war here, did we?! But this is Nigeria. This scenario plays itself out in this country all the time. Army versus police; at each other's throat. Police versus the rest of us.

I realise that not all Nigerians get away from police check points in one piece. Many have lost their lives at these "toll gates" for as little as N20. Others have been shot and killed at the slightest provocation, for nothing. The roll call is heavy, and the case of the Apo six is yet to be decided till date.

Today the Nigerian police touts the motto: To serve and to protect with integrity. However, the service is lacking; police protection does not exist; and there's no integrity whatsoever in this outfit. Nigerians generally believe the NPF is a major source of irritation, and a special breed of public nuisance. Do not ask me how the Nigerian police can be reformed to improve the service. It is impossible. It is not designed to serve the citizens. You got to reform the Nigerian state itself first.

Not surprising, when we got to our appointment, our host had a story of his own when we told him why we were so late. He capped his story with that of a man who had gone to the market to buy an Easter goat for his family.

He tied the goat to an okada motorcycle and raced home to deliver it to his wife. Suddenly he was stopped at a police checkpoint, and the following dialogue ensued:

'You no know say your goat suppose wear crash helmet too?'

'But oga police...', the man began, fishing for the right excuse.

'Wetin you get for the boys?'

'I no carry N20 for here o. Na only hundred hundred naira notes wey I carry. Next time now.'

'Make you bring ya hundred naira. I get change!'