Tuesday Talk - Naija

I want to apologize first for the inconsistent updates in the past week. Unfortunately it may continue up to next year when I'll return from my Naija trip. The fact is that I have slower internet and less time to browse because I'm spending more time with family and friends. And so, it's really been awesome in Nigeria so far. Seeing the changes, mostly for the better, speaking with people, known and unknown, feeling their optimism, their fears, their anger and their hopes; about the future of the country, reading, politics, etc. Infrastructure still remains a challenge especially in the power sector, road and transport systems and Healthcare.

The forthcoming elections has got people talking, at both state and federal level, I'll see if I can register though I won't be here to vote  since the dates have been postponed from January to April. Still there are passionate debates and more people seem aware of their options and their rights as well as their civic responsibilities. Fashola seems to get the consensus as the best governor in the country and will likely get re-elected. It is possible Goodluck will carry the presidentials but Atiku should not be underestimated too. Uduagha in Delta seems a more contested choice, his major opponent is Ogboru, who is well known, Also, many of his detractors do not like his government's support for Ibori. Again, we shall see.

Reading seems to be on the upswing, but it seems there is a niche and that needs to be expanded by more people being involved in literacy campaigns. The education sector is in shambles, results are abysmal. But how can you pass an exam when you cannot read? The president, I hear is about to launch a nation-wide reading campaign. Some think it is to score political points ahead of the elections, but I'd rather give him the benefit of the doubt for the effort and time he's putting in. Being a leader is not an easy task.

As for the House of rep and Senate, they should be ashamed of themselves, they're not worthy of being leaders. Greeders more like, imagine earning close to 10 million each month while the masses strike while begging for 18,000? And then they call the CBN Governor to apologize for speaking their supposed secret?For shame! I hope Nigerians vote with their legs at the next poll. My only fear is that those who seek to replace these ones are not better. But I ask, what will they do with the money? I heard that TY Danjuma complained recently of not knowing what to do with his amassed wealth. I hope he's not wanting my pity? Pschewww..

On a final note, I love Naija, or as Dora Akunyili will have me say, I love Nigeria.

ps, check back for pictures with some bloggers...

Picture Weekend - Celebrity Reads, World AIDS day Edition

Hello everyone, hope your weekend has been going great? Mine has been an absolute blast, I am so thankful! Last week, I was a guest at the Celebrity Reads Africa, a programme to encourage reading amongst young Nigerians using celebrities as readers and role models. It was a great event, the venue was packed and I met a couple of bloggers too. Read some more reports of the event HERE, HERE and HERE

Essence and Modele - Celebrity Singers/Performers

Chichi Offor - one of the directors of Celebrity Read Africa

Deji Badmus - Presenter and MC of the show

Opening Act

About to Read

Reading from a steamy part of the book - to advice against irresponsible sex. It was the World AIDS day edition of the Celebrity Reads event.

Random Meme and Tags

I'm still enjoying Lagos, while thinking of the events this weekend, pheww! BTW, let me get this off my chest, the traffic is just terrible in this city. I wasted at least 5 hours today, well not really, I made a decent headway into my latest book purchase, but still... And who else was stuck in a queue at the filling station? On to other things jare....

Remember I won the Group B blog awards and Madam Meme? Here I am again. This is a very random meme I saw on one of the blogs I follow and I decided to do it here and also tag some people. So it's very straightforward, all you get to do is fill in the blanks and then tag 5 people to continue and spread the love.

5 Famous people you want to meet: My number one used to be Micheal Jackson but he's gone now. There are several of them sha, but these are a few that I feel we'll have things to talk about, you know have things in common, like passion for affecting society, etc. Toni B is there because I just love her music. You will notice that I did not put in the actors and musicians I do googly eyes for, I'd just be too tongue-tied, lol...
- Toni Braxton
- Nelson Mandela
- Bill Gates
- Oprah
- Fela Durotoye

5 Books that affected you: This is not an easy one, I have read like hundreds and thousands of them, but let's see. These have to be books I read when I was much younger and which shaped who I am today.
- The Bible
- Roots - Alex Haley
- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
- The Bride Price by Buchi Emecheta
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

5 favorite movies: Another hard one.
- Titanic
- Avatar
- Watchmen
- Toy Story Franchise
- Violated

5 things you can't do without: Easy peasy. Atala wants me to list internet for all five. Yeah I know I'm addicted, rub it in, lol..
- Internet
- Food
- Music
- Books
- Movies

5 turn ons
- Intelligent conversations
- A nice smelling man
- Chocolate and ice cream
- Honesty
- Independence

5 turn offs
- Narrow minds
- Dulling conversations
- Societal restrictions
- Lies
- Disorderliness

So now I tag the following people
- Omotee
- Naijamum
- Shorty
- Gretel
- NaijaLines

If you want to do this and I did not tag you, please just go ahead. Cheers!

For those in Lagos, Nigeria...

Abuja, Enugu and other dates coming up soon.

Join Author Myne Whitman as she unveils the Lagos winners of her book raffle. She will also read from A Heart to Mend and her WIP and answer questions from the audience. If you have bought the book, please come with your raffle tickets, prizes include - Starcomms Modem, Camera Battery, SD Cards, Flash Drives and Picture Frames. There will be signed pictures of the author, bookmarks and stickers for every guest. Entrance is FREE!

Date : Sunday 5th December 2010
Time : 2pm - 4pm
Venue : The Hub Media Store, Palms Shopping Mall, Lekki Lagos

Edith Ezeji - Bleeding Heart ... Guest Author

My name is Edith Ezeji, I am a Nigerian from Imo state, though I grew up in Ogun state Nigeria. I am the second of four children. I was born in 1983, went to Sango Otta High school in Ogun state after which I came to England and did a secretarial course at Newham College.

1. First off—when did you start writing?
I started writing 4 years ago but I never got the courage to publish a book.

2. What type of book is this, is it an autobiography?
It is a romantic novel, a very emotional novel.

3. Do you intend to write more books?
Yes, of course. If this one is successful, I will.

4. How did you come up with the idea for the book?
It all started when I gave birth to my daughter, I tried to write something emotional, just because of the way I was feeling at that particular time. It helped me to put more emotion to it.

5. How long did it take you to write?
Well, it took just two to three weeks to write the book.

6. What project or projects are you working on now?
I am really trying hard to get it out there for people to read, I know that a lot of people will learn from this book, especially women.

7. Tell us a bit about the book?
This book is about a young lady whose life was full of pains and frustration. It tells how Angela managed to survive in Greece, being forced to do prostitution and how she refused to do what they expected her to do. She was betrayed and humiliated by everyone she trusted; all she ever thought about was to commit suicide. However, she managed to pull through the agony of a bleeding heart.

8 Which of your characters do you most relate with?
The character that is most attached to me is Angela, who is the main character. In the book, she met Nick and got pregnant. It was almost completely true to my life.

9. What’s in a name? How did you decide on the title of yours?
You know when you are in pains and you find it difficult to breath, it will be like you have been stabbed in your heart. I put myself in Angela’s shoes. I felt the way she was feeling at that moment, and that was when the title Bleeding Heart came to my mind.

Picture weekend - Send-off Winter Style

I was complaining that I would miss snow since I was spending Christmas in Nigeria. Well what do you know? I got a winter-style send off from our weather over here. From Monday through to Tuesday morning, it kept on snowing. Even when it stopped, the weather was in the low 20s for most of Wednesday and the inches of snow lay thick on the ground. A lot of places were closed, including schools, libraries, etc. Well I am in Nigeria now and enjoying the heat, so take that winter, lol...

What are you Thankful for this Thanksgiving?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING in advance to everyone, especially those in America.

I love the spirit of the thanksgiving day here in the states because apart from its history and the turkey and all, it is good to have a thankful heart and give thanks always. As it is, this is also the period when most churches in Nigeria do their various major thanksgivings, you know the ones that have the bazaar at the end. I remember as a child, looking forward to that day because of the variety of food that would be on offer. There were games too though I rarely won at those try-your-luck. Still it was the closest thing to a town fair and we got to meet most of our friends and family friends.

This year, God has been especially good to me and my heart is glad as I prepare to travel back to Nigeria. I am so thankful for life, love, health, but especially for my family. We had some crisis with my Dad and my sister, both around the same time in the middle of the year. But God proved faithful and answered our prayers. God is good and I thank him for EVERYTHING.

I also thank my SO, he's the most wonderful, supportive and loving man to me. Someone said to me, "What has got into you in the past two years? I didn't know you had so much in you." And I replied, it's all in the person who has become my husband and more importantly, my partner within this time. It couldn't have been the same without him. Thank you so much darling, I love you.

I am also thankful to you all, my readers, commenters, reviewers and supporters. Your words keep encouraging me and I am very grateful.

So what are you thankful for today?

Picture Weekend - At the Art Museum

Hello everyone, hope your weekends are going well so far? We visited our local Art Museum recently to see an art fair and the Guild sale of some art work. We managed to get a big old painting and some other vintage stuff at very good prices. Wishing us all the best as we enter into the new week.

A speaking event at the Garden City Literary Festival

Some of you may already know that I will be visiting Nigeria soon. The first part of my visit will be to promote A Heart to Mend in the country. I am very grateful for the wonderful reception the book has received there and it will be awesome to meet some of the people who have read AHTM. For the first few weeks of my visit, I'll be taking part in various book events in Lagos, Abuja and some other cities. The one I'm most excited about is the Garden City Literary Festival in Port Harcourt. I've been selected as a speaker on one of the interactive sessions and I also look forward to meeting Wole Soyinka, JM Le Clezio and a galaxy of 50 other writers and authors in Nigeria including Reuben Abati, Adaobi Nwaubani, Helon Habila, among others.

The festival's latest press release is below. You can see the programme HERE

Garden City Festival Reveals Exciting Line-up of Events.

With just a month to go before the third annual Garden City Literary Festival gets underway, the organisers have revealed a line-up of events that promises to offer something exciting for all lovers of books and literature.

The highlight of the four-day event is a historic meeting of two Nobel Laureates – Professor Wole Soyinka and Mr J.M.G Le Clezio. Fans are being invited to send questions in advance for a special interactive conversation with these two great writers.

In keeping with the festival’s tradition of creating a forum for learning, improvement and debate, a special seminar will be held which focuses on the use of social media and how that impacts on Nigeria’s book industry. This topical seminar will be facilitated by Myne Whitman, a refreshing new writer who has used the popular medium of the internet to promote her own writing as well as the work of other Nigerian writers.

Debate Tuesday - The Orator and his Audience

Who is to blame when bad things happen?

...Oratory exists above the ordinary; it is prepared with passion, infused with creativity, and masterfully crafted to offer a sublime experience. Read more on Oratory...

So we had some friends over during the weekend and this discussion cropped up.  One guy regaled us with anecdotes of competitions at a Toastmaster's conference and how those with good oratory skills - which according to all indices boils down to arousing emotion in your audience - won. The discussion led to other orators past and present, including Martin Luther King, Obama, and some of the pastors in Nigeria. It is no secret that the latter, most especially, Adeboye, Oyedepo, Oyakhilome, TB Joshua and Adefarasin, control millions of people in the country, maybe even up to half of the Christian population.  I was not happy about how these pastors misuse their power for personal gain, are unaware of their clout or simply ignore how they can use it for social gains for the whole country.Anyway, that is a topic for another day.

Today, I want us to talk about another part of the discussion. It is obvious that by it's very use, oratory or simply the gift of the gab, can be used for bad too. So when things go bad, who is to blame? The good speaker or the people who bought what he was selling? Some examples;

Hitler used his so-called sweet tongue to get most of the Germans to support him during World War 2 and the persecution of the Jews.

Rev. King, a self-styled Nigerian pastor used his charisma to do terrible things to his church members, including murder, rape and fraud, etc.

Jim Jones, an American preacher some decades ago, convinced all his members to move to a different country and while in the jungle, he led them to commit mass suicide.

Ade Demi, a fictitious person, convinced 5 women he was in love with them simultaneously. Not only did he leave 3 of them with babies and/or pregnancies, he also swindled all of them of their life savings. He is yet to be found by the British police.

What say ye? The orator or his audience?