Bliss resort

The mirror never get to choose its clients. Sometimes life just happens. The unbroken are spared to tend to the wounds of the broken. My success is for all of us and so is yours. There is  a greater need for things like love, joy, empathy, goodness and happiness than for money.. If you have any of these please share to others. Don't take your mirror too seriously,  whatever it tells you is it own opinion  and we are all entitled to ours though we hardly share it, so that everyone will be happy.

I wish to thank you, dear friends in this web of Zuckerberg and to wish you all a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year in advance, from my Christian brothers, Muslim friends, atheist folks, traditionalists, to those who are neither here nor there in this obsessive calamity of religion. Let's not allow our abstract and abstruse differences to obscure our practical and demonstrable similarities. We are all humans with one head and one heart. Let's show love to everyone, for this alone is the message of Christ. You all and alone aided me not to slide into depression all this while. And despite over a thousand reasons to frown, I will always find one reason to smile at you, dear friends. Feliz Navidad!

My good people, it is very relative when it comes to the sweetest thing in life. I had to hold back an urge to defecate today in the church for a whole hour even when I had diarrhoea until I ran out in the middle of prayers, practically holding my trousers and wobbling like a woman in labour searching for ease. I just finished doing it in a nearby bush and I feel like I've got a new life. So relieved. So sweet! I came back but the church had dismissed, and I was like, who the hell is complaining?

Like the he-goat said, that he is grateful to heavens for his relationship with his mother has doubled; that she's both his mother and his wife! So is my relationship with this special damsel. But unlike the he-goat, I say mine with deep-rooted nostalgia. Maureen had become one of my  students five years ago when she came into the university. She was drawn to me because of her stunning intelligence. She was the best. Soon, things turned more rosy and platonic. She became an indispensable friend and confidant. Now, she recently turned my counsellor. She called the other and asked me: 'Obinna, I hope you've got someone?' I mumbled and told her no. And she returned, 'why? I know you're shy. You've always been. You find it difficult to speak to girls about such matters, but I have told you it's better you do it now. Obinna, you're the dream of every girl. If you fail now, you may find it difficult to choose a wife from the pool of ladies who will be surg...

My friend is passing through hell now over a threatened hope of marriage. I just finished sharing my thoughts with her, to assuage the inferno within her soul, and I feel it's necessary to say this here. Marriage is a wonderful institution but friendship matters more. Marriage at best is a component of friendship. The expectations of friendship with the opposite sex should not always be about marriage. Seek and cherish friendship for the pleasure and solace derived thereof. I have female friends of different cadres. Some married, others engaged and some single. Many girls I set out with are married now, yet nothing has severed our friendship. There are no mitigations against friendship unlike marriage. To emphasize the ascendancy of friendship over marriage, I'd like to say that every marriage needs friendship to guarantee relish and happiness. Having known this, you shouldn't draw a gun or sword, or go diabolical when your spouse calls or sits you down to say, 'I...

Earlier today, I boarded a bus to quickly see a friend at Onueke. The bus was clearly surviving out of the negligence of our Road safety agents or precisely their corruption. A sharp edge of its board peeled my skin as I scrattled into a more stable position. The middle-aged hippy woman seated beside me didn't even care to understand that it was a commercial bus and not her sitting room. She sprayed her thighs like a goalkeeper awaiting a shot, squeezing every other person on the row. She arched up her neck above our eyes and played deaf to our gentle plea for her to appose her hips even a little. We eventually gave up. After all it's just a little distance. 20 to 25 kilometres. My mind calmed as the pain on my bruised arm numbed gradually. Then I looked up to notice the conductor. He had turned to position his anal cleft directly over my face. 'Oga, biko shift small. Abeg, you go soon mess for my nose.' I cried out. As he turned his buttocks the opposite way, a clean, ...

I don't know why I'm still shaking over an atrocity I consciously avoided. I'm watching a taped lecture yet a horror is playing on my mind. Terrified. My heart is rending into motes. I decided to visit my friend today. We went our separate ways after over ten years of intimacy. Two years ago he gave me a distress call. I had come back from an over four-hour Pharmacology class and rushed into my toilet to empty my bladder. It was threatening to tear over a long-held urine. While relishing in pleasure of the deep ease, my phone kept ringing. Ringing. Ringing and ringing! 'If you like be Jesus Christ. I'm not gonna take it until I'm done with this bliss.' I swore. Yet it kept ringing. I carefully zipped up. I brought out my phone to see that KC had called me ten times. I was still holding the phone when he called again. He said he was coming to see me immediately. The dire desperation in his voice scared me. KC had never sounded that forlorn. He rather used ...

Growing up, we were taught to protect our talents by hiding them, never to show them to anyone. We were told there were destiny snatchers who were usually family relations and neighbours than strangers. Lies! All lies! I tell you most solemnly, the best way to secure your gift is to showcase it. Gone are the days they went about searching for or hunting one who possessed a particular skill. Today, there are many persons who have same potentials as you. Sadly, the world is busy, too busy to notice you. You must distract them to recognise you. You must strive against all odds to convince us beyond every doubt that you've got something unique. That you are capable! And don't tell me you're capable of nothing naturally. Each of us has got something sui generis. Look inwards. You must discover yourself. And should you be in a country like Nigeria, you may have to lobby for the chance to show your gift. Make your gift count, at least for your own happiness. It's a norm you m...

I feel so sad now. Often than not, what we do estranges us, disconnects us from the custom of average life and unconsciously bestows on us some factitious grandeur that only rapidly crumbles like lighted wax when we get momentarily disjointed from such work or hobby, when such horrific events hit close home. Some of us who have the unfortunate privilege of seeing many people die in both gentle and most cruel manner, both the young, the old and the middle-aged, the diseased and the fresh, have overtime become victims of this occupational hazard, this alienation from human feelings, from all empathy and softness, from the truth that not all accidents could be avoided, and from the reality of ill-fate. But this mutation of character and life is what I'd promised never to be a victim of, and to resist all my life. Yesterday evening, as I was walking home with two of my friends, famished and tired as often, I saw a cluster of people in front of the Accident and Emergency section of th...

My friend dropped out of the university where he was studying Law because he couldn't pay his fees. I had helped the much I could but like a pebble cast in the dune, my little aid drowned soundlessly in his ocean of needs. I advised him to get a job, be it menial. I knew it was difficult. I wondered what job a quiet poor boy could find in Abakaliki? He called me four months ago. His voice was lit up. He spoke sprightly and clearly. He told me he had found something, that he was working in a ministry. And my heart beeped with joy. 'Which Ministry?' I had asked. 'Brother, it's a healing ministry...' He beamed on the line. And my spirit shrunk like I had taken an ice bath. Time passed. His knock on my door woke me up this morning. He walked in with a heavy bible, looking so faded and unkempt. 'Peter is everything alright?' I asked, scanning him up with eagle eyes. 'It's that woman.' 'Which woman?' 'The owner of the m...

This Allah must be a vampire! It must have become an ocean of blood and bones; this heaven. They must've turned maggots feeding on flesh; these angels. He must have looked away in shame and despair; this God. For ages they've murdered us in your name.

There are very few things in life that man achieves through physical strength or power. Perhaps lifting a gallon of water up the staircase or pumping a bicycle tube and a few other isolated cases. Even in the rings, one may wonder how John Cena whose height is 1.85m and weighs 114kg, not only summons the courage to fight but beats Ryback whose height is 1.91m and weighs 132kg. The answer isn't far-fetched. It's called NERVE! He possesses the nerve. When I was a child, in the village, there was a plumpy peer that I feared to ashes. And for a reason I didn't know, he was always on the sprawl to catch me and beat me up. I dreaded and dodged him like fire. I would run back home crying if I saw him on the road. If I heard he passed here, I'd choose a bypass. I often joined other boys in the neighbourhood every morning to tether cattle. Any time they told me that Ejiofor was going with them, I'd run back home. I kept evading this lad until one day when my friends co...

The first time I understood what sugar Daddy is, was in 2010. It was the same year I knew that most girls have boyfriends in all cities they've spent at least two days. I I had begged this fine girl, a fellow awardee, to let me travel with her to Port Harcourt to submit the documents required of us. I hadn't been to Port Harcourt before. She was young and dainty. Not quite a native city girl but she strove to show her knowledge of the contemporary. And that made her what is known today as slay queen. She said we should get to Enugu a day before, and from there take a bus to Port Harcourt. She had detached a little to make a call. Soon after, a shiny Camry pulled over at our feet. I had run back, cursing the driver in my mother tongue. Stella hopped in. I stood, staring at both of them. He was a middle aged man. I had been warned never to enter a stranger's car. 'Olodo, hop in!' Stella shouted, laughing. Insult was insult, whether said with a smile or a frown. ...

By Obinna Oke Identifying her by name would be a gross misdeed. Because every Mary and Elizabeth and Veronica aren't the same. It was by her that I woke up every 5am to peer through the black and grey darkness outside my 12-inch window frame full of cold dust, folds of old newspapers, nylons and stones and sleeping lizards, all meant to cover against the beams of the sun and more dust. A helpless act that turned a ritual. It was permeating and goosing and soothing, her voice. A pleasant melody! I would hear the shrill screech of Martin's bamboo bed across the thin wall between us. He shivered at her hymns too, and her messages. Mine was a Hausa mat, a precious gift from dad. Everyone under our miniature, torn and rusted zinc roof shivered. Mama Ekene and Aunty Ngozi and my prodigal sake, Obinna and Uche who thought he was more handsome than everyone else and wasn't always around. Even the old headmaster who lived in the front room would freeze on his newly caught...

If I say I hate today pastors, someone will misunderstand me and call me antichrist. Those who know me well, know one thing that I seldom lack. And that's fried groundnuts. If you come to my house and you don't see a bottle of it ontop of my fridge, know that I'm in dire need of help. Know that I'm in my lowest ebb and might not have had a meal for days. Mama Amaka made sure of its constant supply. Hers is special. Sweet. No sands. She always had a large table, full of assorted nuts and fruits. Groundnuts. Coconuts. Cashew nuts. Bambara nuts, in its season. Banana. Oranges. Pineapple. Pawpaw. Watermelon. Avocado. Udara, in its season. She sold them only in the evenings, by the roadside. I spent every Sunday evening at her stand, with her and her children. Three of them. I'd spend from seven to nine, licking oranges as she peeled them and casting the seeds at some passersby; those I knew and some harmless-looking beautiful girls who caught my attention. Litt...

Prof. Anezi Okoro is an inimitable phenom, a wonder prodigy of world acclaim that roots deep into the peridotite. The Professor of professors as he is known. Anezi Okoro is a confluence Science, Arts and Humanities. Being among the very first set of Nigerians to acquire western education majoring in Medicine, he had gained admission into the University of Ibadan as the pioneer set with his mates among whom was Chinua Achebe. While Achebe opted out from Medicine into Literature after their first year, Anezi Okoro proceeded with the 23 others. He graduated in 1952 from the University of Bristol, England. He had his post graduate medical education at the Post graduate Medical School, Institute of Dermatology, London, England; Post graduate Medical School Institute of Dermatology Hammersmith Hospital, London; Post graduate Medical School, Edinburgh, Scotland, etc. Anezi Okoro is the first Consultant Dermatologist and Venerologist and the first professor in these fields of Medicine in...

The biggest shame on the Igbo race is their silence over the disappearance of Nnamdi Kanu. It doesn't matter from which perspective you've judged this matter. You might have joined the federal government of Nigeria to label a bold, innocent chap a terrorist for his demand for a better slate for the Ndi Igbo. He was arrested, refused bail against court injunctions, later released on unagreeable grounds, and finally kidnapped by the same government (perhaps killed like his dog and immediate followers.) This young man proved more resourceful in all of Igbos post-civil war demand for fair inclusion in the Nigerian government. He had the highest followers and commanded the greatest respect from the Igbo youths more than Azikiwe, Chuba Okadigbo, Sam Mbakwe, Alex Ekwueme put together. Second only to Ojukwu. Nnamdi Kanu seemed to understand the language of the Nigerian government when it comes to the best way to draw its attention. For the few months he had the freedom to ...

THE GIFT OF FRIENDSHIP To choose to understand his/her lack of understanding ,  to choose to be patient with his/her impatience. To stand on the right things so he can come to it as he comes for you, so that even your feelings are taught God's rules.. To put your self in his shoes and give him yours to use if it seem more comfortable.  To grow him, to grow her until he/she has all the fruits you wish to see. To choose  trust as your first impulse and and in this also serve as example. This is the  gift of friendship. © Samson Abanni

By Teslim Opemipo Let our mothers come like harmattan haze and swear by the sacrality of ògún if the roof lying above their fathers' house has never been stoned by a boy in love to walk them out for an evening talk. Let our fathers come like a windy rain and swear by the simplicity of òsun if the path that leads to the village stream has never danced to serenades sang by their soles in chase of maidens with braids so long. Let the elders come like a mid-year harvest and swear by the tranquility of the moon if they've not once tasted the bliss of childhood fermented with the morals of moonlight tales. In our village, childhood is made of water; kinsmen, remember, water is brewed with life and life is the laughter moulded on our lips when we gambol from rivers to trees and to fields painted in the colours of hopping grasses. Brethren, if you hear an elder saying: growing up kills laughter and joy, do not giggle for they once like us tasted the bliss o...

Ignorance is protective. Because we know we will all die, Living is now a protest or an acceptance, like a waiting room where the minutes are in years. Like a dressing room for a grand performance. so we are preparing for a career, then a family then for retirement then... The concept of time is the scam of mortality, if we have to spend all our time minding it as we do currently. The norms about how you should live, what you should value and what path to follow were all made by society, if it was an LOC that was chosen by social evolution to make these rules, the members must be all dead now, maybe they would have now recommended changes based on prevailing reality.  The Society has prescribe these laws for it immortality but we won't live forever. We  are just  interruptions in the continuum of time, so ratify these values and choose your personal set.Everything is like everything else just until you decide to value one more.The power of money is in what it can buy ...

BREAK THE SILENCE Convictions of completion ABOUND Dreams of hope awaken you all day with SMILE But yourself you know keeps you ASTOUND Do press up and fight the VILE Fruitless miles past mayn't COUNT Do you feel guilt and so you doubt your FUTURE Still look up and never welcome DAUNT And try to re-enable yourself as to AUGUR Determine to shatter your LIMITS And break the SILENCE Look up for cheers and course from your HERMITS Shun this reluctance it's a DETERRENCE Turn against PROCRASTINATION it's a grave SILENCE Though misfortunes throw you into ABERRATION Rise with firmness and storm the SILENCE     →JOEBLISS THE VOICE IN CAVE→JOEBLISS This is the voice in CAVE Whose innocence are knitted in DEPRAVE Tears of negligence keep rolling in VAIN Who'll save these doves in PAIN They've all it takes to EVADE But you fear if they'll in turn INVADE So you waste their pleasures in THRASH And still ready to address them with TRASH You never told them their TRESPA...

 By: Samson Abanni (A Prolific Writer, Poet and a Motivational/Public Speaker) One of our greatest strengths in life is the ability to look at anything, no matter how important or otherwise and decide what meaning you want it to hold for you. Be it relationships, money, news or acquisitions.  What makes gold , gold is more of the substance of human value than the substance of the metal itself. Our ability to choose our own value system is clearly our ability to choose our life, our joy, happiness and freedom. So a colleague receives an amount of money and takes his wife out for a celebration, because "he tells himself it is enough", maybe not enough to meet all his needs but enough to be thankful for. Meanwhile you get the same amount and lapse into depression,wondering how you would get by. When we fully appropriate this innate ability, we discover the ultimate source of freedom from the rat race . we individually carry around our own universes where we choose what matters a...