NOBODY CARES

NOBODY CARES

That's the sad truth about life. You're dying, no one cares. You're still alive, no one truly cares. Life is a personal journey and also a selfish one.

And to think this discussion came up as a joke between I and two friends strolling a path. I realize as I type this, that I also don't care if you like the message or not. (That's only true to an extent sha!)

Because no one truly cares, that's why:
- Parents give birth to children of theirs to protect personal interests, and most alter the love shown to children begat outside their loins.
- An only son is made to marry early, to protect their interest.
- A child is given off by the parents to make a way for the remaining ten siblings.
- There's so much budget padding and whistle-blowing in the country.
- Why a lecturer fails you for a pardonable offense.
- Cigarette companies warn you of death after collecting your money for the pack...

The list is endless.

Life is unfair, and the easiest way to not be a permanent recipient of all its baggage is to toughen up and to an extent stop caring.

Nah! I'm joking.

Care. Show love. There's too much negativity in the world; we can only try out part by infusing as much positive energy into it as we can. That way, we'd know if things would get better, and polithievecians would stop carting away our money.

Nah! I'm joking too.

Whistle-blowing is presently the most lucrative job in Nigeria. If you care deep enough, do not blow your whistle for that criminal that has made life difficult for you and the masses.

What am I saying sef? Let me come and be going.

(singing as I leave... nobody cares! nobody cares o!...)


- Rinzy Talius Dike
FB: Life Summaries by Talius
(Tweet @TaliusDike, and @LSbyTalius)

The Untypical Nigerian Husband

I remember when I sent this piece to Daniel Nkado's DNB Story to publish two years ago. How time flies!
PS: This is a throwback piece.

***

The Untypical Nigerian Husband

Ebuka and Nneka have been married for 3 years now.

Though to them, it seemed like 33 years. It is obvious that love has finally been lost in the union.

"You can get a divorce if you want!" Ebuka would shout on top of his voice at every chance he gets to chastise his wife.

He claimed she nagged a lot, though his voice was usually the more frequently heard.

Truth is, he was already tired of the marriage and now only in it because of his father.

He didn't understand why his millionaire father had to insist he continued staying in this hell of a marriage when he could easily get another woman to marry.

Another woman he would live peacefully with and would not be a problem to his soul.

But his father had maintained he held on to the union, endured whatever hell he claimed to be passing through in his marriage.

The elections were fast approaching and a divorce scandal from his son could destroy his chances of getting into public office.

Ebuka didn't understand why his happiness should be the price to be paid for his father's political ambition. But he knew better than to argue with his father, or disobey him—his large inheritance was at stake.

But today, the argument had taken a new turn. Ebuka was ready to let all hell break loose.

On Nneka's request he returned home earlier than usual to find a man in a corporate wear sitting in his living room. The man was going through some papers in a file with austere confidence, just the way lawyers do.

Ebuka began to wonder.

His wife called him aside. “Your father wants me to divorce you,” she told him. “He sent this lawyer to make it happen as quickly as possible and I've been assured 50 million naira as settlement once this is done.”

“50 million for what?” he asked.

“For my silence," Nneka told him. “The money will be deposited into my account as soon as everything is finalized, so please be nice and walk over to that table and sign the papers.”

Ebuka was dumbfounded. "Wait, did you just say 50 million naira?” he asked again.

Nneka nodded. “50 million naira only,” she said.

His heart began to beat faster as he wondered why his father would prefer to give such a huge amount of money to someone not related to him by blood, especially when he has been requesting for just 2 million naira from him for the past four weeks to put into his business.

From his pocket, Ebuka pulled out his phone and dialled his father to know the reason behind this spite.

His father told him that was the only way to avoid a messy separation between him and his wife.

Ebuka wasn't finding it funny especially the part where his father mentioned that the settlement to be given to his wife would be taken from his inheritance and that he could have whatever was left of it whenever it pleased him.

With that much sum gone from his inheritance he’d be lucky if he still has a full100 thousand left.

Ebuka got off the phone call with his father, shaking his head in disagreement.

No way he could allow his many years of patience and waiting for his inheritance to grow go to waste just like that.

Immediately, he held up his phone again and called his pastor requesting for a date for he and his wife to come for the renewal of their marital vows and keep their bond strong and lasting.

Fast forward to 10 years now, Ebuka has stopped complaining about his wife. He and Nneka now have two beautiful children and a happy home and his dad just stepped down from public office and a party was thrown in his honour.

At that party, Ebuka’s father and Nneka had the opportunity to reminisce over their ideas to hire a con artist 10 years ago to act as the lawyer and get Ebuka to take life serious.

It was their secret. They treasured it and again swore there was no need for Ebuka to know.

What's Holy About The Holy Week?

For the non-Christians, this is the Holy week - the week that ushers in Easter Sunday (the Sunday that's supposedly the one Jesus Christ rose from the dead.)

Permit me to say, but since time immemorial, this week boasts of the highest rate of hypocrisy among Christians. To be truthful, the entire Lenten season is a scam. Sort of.

Now, many might wonder why I'm saying this, but there's no need sugar-coating something almost everyone knows, even if we don't like to admit it. The reason for this my ideology stems from the fact that most of us aren't really Christians, we only answer the name as a tag because we identify with the Church as against other forms of religion. Truthfully, most of us have no single strand of Christ-likeness in us, which is made evident from the many sinful acts we nonchalantly spearhead in our daily lives.

The Holy Week. The well revered Holy Week. The week when even the staunchest of sinners goes about preaching the need to strive to be Holy, to attend the Good Friday's Stations of the Cross procession. The week scholars of the Bible, Pastors, Priests, etc., urge you to be at your best behavior for the sake of reverence to something that has lost its meaning through extreme negligence.

I ask, who is fooling who?

People need to wake up. We need to start seeing pass the Church and what it no longer represents. The Church has lost a large chunk of its true values. We need to begin to see pass the reasoning that going to Church every Sunday increases our chances of being right with God. To see pass the false truth that going for confession offsets our burdened heart for us to start the count again from zero to full-cup of sin when we'll be due for another confession. Till we see the need to be selfless beings who are ready to serve Christ in full, truth and in spirit, there's no need deceiving ourselves. One can either be for God or for mammoth, but never both at the same time.

So, if you aren't ready to serve now, stop the pretense!

Growing up, I heard a lot of references to how judgment will start in the Church. I never understood it then, but it's beginning to make sense now. Remember, the Church are the persons who make up the congregation and priesthood, not the building.

Few days ago, there was this article about Mount Zion Ministry reminding people not to drag God's name into Efe of BB Naija's win. Their reason was that BBN was immoral and God wasn't central to Efe's victory. People (mostly Christians) went on rampage, because this generation detests the truth. But that's where it gets interesting, the truth is the truth and it will never change. If you find fault with what Mount Zion Ministry said, check yourself, because you're already in trouble. God is God, yesterday, today, and forever. No manner of twisted doctrine in Church, or form of alteration by persons will ever change that.

- Arinze Talius Dike©

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THE HOLE SIZE, BASED ON LOGISTICS.

They said to me, you can never get to that level in life; you can only admire but never will you get there.

At first it got to me. I'd lay on my bed staring at the ceiling, mentally calculating its area and perimeter to know if fatigue would cause me to drown into a long and painless sleep. Everyday was like that, until after a while it stopped working.

The rejection continued, and I wanted the easy way out.

I returned from my routine job that faithful evening; gentle, quiet, self-absorbed I was, for it was to be my last day on earth. God! What was I thinking?

I set out for the street, a polythene back in hand, one that contained all sorts of instruments to take away my pains. There was this cloud resting over my head that caused me to view the world in a whole different light. I was going going to die and I was ready for it even if the world feigned it wasn't.

I thought of what my mother would say, how she'd react when they break the sad news to her. It broke my heart to be the one to break hers of all her thirteen children, but my mind was made up and even my love for her wasn't going to hold me back.

I thought of Abigail, the love of my life. How life would be for her once I'm finally gone - she'd be free to marry that rich man who's been toasting her for a while now. I can imagine her face, the one where she'd be angry to return home and not find her stay at home lover, only to hear later that he's gone for good. But, if the love of my mother couldn't deter me from this path, certainly not her.

 

The choice place for my exit - a place commonly called The Hole, based on logistics. Ironic that it had a metaphorical hole that was going to feast on my life.

The Hole welcomed me. Everyone I met from the moment I entered the arena, smiled to me. I almost felt at home. I felt welcomed and loved enough to immediately  appreciate my choice of where to say goodbye. Then came the hard decision - which weapon to murder myself with? I picked up the kitchen knife, but felt it too blunt to do a neat job. Poison? Too harsh a way for anyone to die, most especially a person who the world had been thoroughly unjust to.

I had worked myself out for ten years at The Company, only to be tossed out at the slightest accusation of theft. My sack came with an assurance that I'd spend the next fifteen years of my life in jail, over an offense I sincerely know nothing about.

The easiest way out of this betrayal is death - death by the ropes. I took my weapon of choice and decorated my neck with it. Looking downward, where people gallivanted round the mall, I didn't give it a second thought, I took that leap of faith, only to be set free as fast as I did.

I went ballistic. Why would the police interfere with a man tired of this life? Why would they leave the thousands who wanted their rescue on the third mainland bridge, just for me?

My inquiry revealed they saved me to face the full extent of my crimes - stealing money from the firm and also killing the brother of the C.E.O. in retribution.

Now, I'm looked up, in chains, no way to take my life, and certainly no way did I take another man's.

What am I supposed to do?

- Arinze Talius Dike

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Twitter: @LSbyTalius; @TaliusDike

A Sound of Hope to my 2037 self

I'm not really sure how best to address you because I'm lost within thinking which of my many personalities has take precedence in your time. I pray you to not take offense at my lack of such formality.

I want to ask how you fair, not because I fear for your era but because in my time every conversation has to proceed with the question - How are you?

I want to also believe you got married to an angel, had the wonderful son and beautiful daughter I always craved for; but sensibility quickly reminds me that if wishes were horses beggars would ride all day - so instead I'm asking, which of the lesser evils did you achieve?

You're not getting any younger; hope you've started to plan for that early retirement I heavily crave for?

Hope you're happy with the various choices you've made? If not, write back, detailing all you did and didn't do right. If you do not write to me, when I finally arrive at your time and things aren't looking funny I definitely won't write to our 1997 self in order not to disrupt the timeline.

Hope you're enjoying the best of what this limited human life has to offer?

Life is very fragile and fleeting, making the right choices helps to alleviate the sufferings that come with its fragility.

Make positive choices always!

With love,
Your 2017 self.

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RELIGION HAS MADE US WICKED

Religion has made us wicked!

We spend more time church politicking than praying.

We spend extra time being religious than actually being Christians.

Religion has killed us: It has made us sentimental.

It has made us weak.

We lack love! And there is no health in us - simply because we are too religious.

We hate TJ, our foreign neighbor because of his identity, but claim to be one at peace with JT, the popular robber because he is one with our 'belief' and hasn't stolen directly from us yet!

We are hypocrites! It has done more harm than good! We are damaged goods!

A world without religion might be a better place; it should be. But, I doubt we'll ever find out, because religion is the identity, the world order, and not Christ whom we claim to be our cornerstone.

Twitter: @LsByTalius; FB: Life Summaries by Talius

What makes the quality of life different?

What makes the quality of life different?

Why is it that I and my neighbor have different reactions to almost the same environment inputs?

Am I just lucky that none of the many vile easily strolling the world has caught up to me yet?

I may not know why, I may never know. Probably there's more to it that meets the eye; more to it than the loud speaker of the church close to my house that would always remind me that... God knows all things before it happens.

I'm on the bridge, the one where you just have to choose if to continue believing in providence or that a man makes his path and every place he finds himself is as a direct consequence of his decision. That's where I am.

I'm not toeing the line of atheism; I can never, because I know there's a God. All I'm saying is that believing in him, following his ways and keeping his statutes' an individual race, one that can be run irrespective of race, belief, or denomination.

My quality of life is different, maybe because of His input, His gracious touch, His presence, I can never be certain, but whichever of His attributes, I am grateful. The things that kill my neighbors has only made me stronger!

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