NOT YOUR NORMAL SUNDAY

In the words of Joseph Addison (I don't really know who that is), Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week. I can not clearly say he is right or wrong.

Every other day I wake up feeling like it's “just another day” and I act like I'm going to trudge through the motions of it "as usual". But I have learnt that there is nothing usual ever going to happen any day any more. I'll share some part of my Sunday with you. It is a blog after all.

I awoke to my father's (phone) call, although he was just in the next room (I like people who don't see the need to shout my name); I had to go make a withdrawal for him after morning prayers so I put on my earphones, turned on the music for the road (sweetest devotion it was for today) and got moving.

Before long I ran into the security man at the next house who liked to call me chairman (I don't know why), next up I ran into someone I called chairman because I didn't know his name. He was smoking something, definitely not a cigarette; then was the turn of the medicine store owner - and while I was smiling pretending as if I could hear his returned greeting, two un – uniformed gun – wielding men emerged from an unnumbered vehicle and started searching this dude who had on an Arsenal jersey at gunpoint; on a further look into the vehicle I saw the smoking chairman already bundled into the back seat although he was seated more on his back than any other body part. Arsenal jersey guy was clean - they were looking for marijuana a man said later. I crossed the road to avoid all the drama and checked the social networks (to take my attention off them as more people were being forcefully searched) big news, people were trolling Chelsea, which returned a bit of normalcy to my thoughts. I went from bank to bank trying to find an ATM while the commercial vehicles I boarded all ensured I listened to the radio – most of them were talking about the elections in Bayelsa state; one of the major topics there is the failure of the card readers (as if anyone would be surprised at all), there were scattered reports of violence but most of it has been brought under control. The newspaper stands were filled with men mostly middle - aged (I wanted to ask them to go to church but I risked a beat down).

The only headline I saw at the vendor’s stand was tagged "Dasuki Gate, Nigeria's messy arms deal" and I had a moment of sadness for so many reasons. But I hope the best interest of Nigeria prevails.

The ATM queue was really long, but I waited. Not even when the negative lady said the ATM wasn't paying MasterCard users did I consider leaving; she was just a disgruntled user. The journey back got me in contact with the most annoying person on earth, an old lady who screamed every time there was a vehicle overtaking the tricycle we were in or whenever we had to do the same. She somehow found a way to say she was in a hurry but she didn't want the vehicle to move fast at all. Luckily she alighted early - nobody likes screamers.

Then there ensued a not-so-mild argument (both on radio and in the tricycle) about the Rivers State Governor’s decision to recall students on overseas scholarship from the state Government under the RSSDA. This made the rounds in the news between Friday and yesterday and many people have disagreed with the Governor’s reasons (I actually heard only one man on radio who agreed with him) which include, but may not be limited to lack of funds, lack of transparency of the process and many more. The loudest point I heard anyone make was, "Rivers State is very rich o" (where have i heard that before?)

Students under the scheme in their final year are however exempted from the recall and the returning students have been offered admissions at the universities operating in the state (the same universities they escaped from).

Kogi elections have it that APC has won the seat despite all the setbacks, congratulations to the winner.

There's so much weird stuff on the news today, like a man arrested for having sex with a donkey in Zimbabwe (sad for the donkey).

Our prayers remain with victims of terrorism all over the world. Do not forget to keep praying for peace in the world. Happy Sunday. And as for the words of your pastor, take them serious - at least most of it.