COVID 2.0

 

As if all the havoc it has caused is not enough, this Corona virus shit still keeps on doing the most.

Since inception, we’ve had more than a million people worldwide lose their lives to this fucking virus. Economies have been badly hit, lockdowns have been in place, schools shut, Churches/mosques shut, social distancing becomes the order of the day…. And even though there have been major strides in developing a vaccine, we still get more bad news all the time.

Imagine hearing that after the initial strain of COVID-19 has wreaked its havoc worldwide, there’s a new discovery of its mutant brother who is also coming to dance on the stage. Christ!!!

Not sure we are ready for another lockdown again o..the last one brought out all shades of evil in people here in Nigeria and it’s going to be a disaster.(to put it mildly).

Already developed countries are facing the second wave of the virus and more and more people are getting infected and dying daily.

You wanna hear something funny? There are literally millions of people who do not believe that the vaccine which has been developed can protect them and have vehemently stated that they’re not going to be vaccinated!! This is coming on the heels of this virus fucking shit up everywhere and making life a misery.

Still, we have these fools living with us. God help us.

#ENDSARS

 

Nigeria…the land of kolomentality.

Hi guys, it’s been a bit going on all year, and even though I haven’t had all the time in the world to post regularly (*minions eye roll*), let's just say this year is one for the books.

So, even though the Fucking Wuhan virus was sure to fuck up world economies as expected, trust Naija, our own economic recession was epic!! As in, things have become very expensive, there’s hunger in the land while some bastards hoarded palliatives meant to assist, jobs are scarce, the government is a colossal failure and everything had to come to a head somehow…

Cue in the #ENDSARS protests.

What started as an online regular protest against the idiots known as SARS*, took on a life of its own outside social media and escalated to full-blown coordinated protests against the government asking them to scrap the killer cops.

Coordination was so good and well organized that the clueless clowns in power were obviously scared and anticipating another Arab-Spring type of situation. So they resort to their evil tactics. While pretending to accede to the demands on one hand, they go full out with devious plans to quash the uprising on the other. Hired thugs are brought in to disrupt the protests and cause chaos, the usual suspects of tribalism and religion are employed (mostly in the north) and are unfortunately minorly successful in dividing parts of the populace. Still, the protests go on with youths banding together to strongly condemn SARS and all their evil practices and relations.

Finally, the Govt, fearing the worst, play their most devious hand.

October 20^th, 2020 the Lagos state Govt imposes a curfew and sends soldiers (with obvious instructions) to the Lekki toll gate to get rid of protesters.

Now, if there’s anything well known about Nigerian soldiers, majority of them, sorry to say it, lack basic common sense. These fools go to the toll gate venue and eventually open fire with LIVE FUCKING rounds on people gathered there!!!

Thanks to some live streams from the venue, we can see exactly whats going on and it’s an absolutely horrific scene. People are injured, shot and some blatantly murdered.

It’s an overwhelming shameful stain on our collective and honestly that day remains one of the worst days in a year chock full with horrible days.

The enormity of the decision takes its toll and Nigeria is prominently featured in a bad light the world over for a while. Unfortunately, it has the effect of ending street protests as honestly, nobody wants to die for this useless contraption called Nigeria. However, the government knows it has lost the people and we wait to see how things turn out.

Meanwhile life goes on in this patch of the world as we try and come to grips with the reality of living in this part of the world.

Mma Gracie...

 

2020. The year that keeps on taking.

My grandmum, Ma Grace Ejiogu has passed on to glory. Sigh.

Seems like people always reach out and tell you there’s no reason to mourn, as the person in question lived to a very ripe age of 95 and that it should be a celebration of life instead. I understand the sentiment but I wonder why its assumed that its not supposed to hurt when someone you love passes away at a very old age.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t the closest relative to my late grandma but the truth is that every single time we spent together over the past years, I could always feel the love this special woman had for me pouring out and showing in her very unique way.

I think of all of us, I got to spend the most time with Gracie Moses (her nickname of unknown origins). Mostly because I would often come back to the village on holidays back then in my school years in Calabar. I’d always be sure to spend some part of my time in Awaka with her because even rebellious teens back then still needed to feel pampered by Grandma’s love. And she took the pampering to another level in her own very special way.

Mama was old school. I am so certain that her own love language was performing acts of service and feeding you till you burst..Chai…who can forget the meals at Awaka!! She’d shuffle around (even with her painful arthritis) to ensure that there was always something hot and ever ready every single time we were around. I mean, it’s the little things you know.

She taught me lots of things as well. It was under her tutelage that I learned the basics of farming. Gracie used to take us to her massive farmland and work the land with us. She taught us how to process garri from scratch. Harvesting the tubers, peeling them, grinding, sacking the mash , and finally frying them to get the sweet grains.. in fact, I reckon I should include cassava peeling as one of my skills in my CV. That became my favorite chore when we had to do them.. Truth was that there were always lots of local girls back then helping out and they were always admiring this cool young town guy who didn’t mind peeling cassava and frying garri…lol

To my eternal chagrin, Gracie would always hover around and make sure they didn’t corrupt her sweet angelic grandson and she’d chase them off once any of them lingered too long after we’d finished. She wasn’t quite as effective as she thought though as I still have some very nostalgic memories of the bathroom stall at the back of the compound with some young nubile girls. Sigh.

Arthritis is a bitch. It caught up with her and slowed her down massively over the years. To the point that she eventually became bed-ridden and had to be taken care of by my wonderful aunt Theresa and later on by my parents when she had to stay with us at our home in the village for quite a while.

So many fond memories of her…She had this thing where she’d give every one of her grandchildren a special name that was hers and hers alone. It was a very endearing gesture and till she passed, she’s been the only one who calls me Azubuike..lol..

We’ll miss you grandma. Thanks for the love, care, memories, wisdom and for just being you.

Sleep well and say hi to pops when you guys surely meet on the other side.

Ps: This is one of my favorite videos of her I took much later on when she was with us.