From the Bishop's pulpit at Sunday mass:

It was a usual Sunday morning in the middle of May, and early as it was the intense heat of the season had not yet had a chance to level it's firm grip over the city of Enugu, the city amongst the Udi hills which sprawled to the West and the North.  A few drops of dew remained on the leaves of grass, and from her hideout in the blue heavens of the sky the sun was attempting to peep through the clouds of the rainy season. here and there could be seen a lone straggler making his or her way to mass, for as the hour was still early, most of the town was still in bed, obediently obeying The Lord's exhortation to keep the Sunday a holyday, a day of rest.
A loud noise was heard across the parking lot of the cathedral and a small old green Toyota Corolla, which must have nearlier been older than the driver himself pulled into the parking lot , and a smart looking youngish fellow  quicjly stepped out, and after meticulously locking and relocking the doors of the car, he proceeded towards the front entrance of the cathedral.  He wore a formal light blue shirt and a pair of khaki colored trousers which seemed most suitable for the time of the year, and he strode confidently into the church and without much difficulty he found a seat in the back of the cathedral.
He was surrounded by all men as the men sat on the right hand side of the pews and the ladies on the left, for although there was no sign designating the seating as for men and women, by tradition , the women had always sat on the left and the men on the right, and it was in this way now a custom. As the person on the end of the pew never wanted to be dislodged form his choice seat it meant he had to negotiate his way through the legs of several men and found himself finally safely ensconed in the middle of the pew, with little or no ventilation, and barely enough room to sit.
The Bishop himself was presiding over the morning mass, and Obi was quite happy to welcome this unexpected occurrence,

" Yes, yes, my brothers and sisters, hehad started," we must make an effort every day to choose God over evil, I cannot tell you how urgent this message is, for each day must be lived as if it is the first day and the last day you will live, the first day, because then you will be enthusiastic in the Lord's work, and the last day, because then you will be fearful of the judgements of God. The reason for the urgency is because the Lord cannot wait, His message of salvation must be preached from the rooftops,our very lives must bear witness to the faith we hold dearly in our hearts.  Yet, I shudder to think that we can so easily fall into complacency, and be overcome with a sense of self-righteousness, a condition where we take for granted the Saviour of the world.  A man who loves his wife remembers the little things she likes, and pays attention to the smallest details, and likewise a man who loves God, must be attentive to the small things and great things with equal diligence.  I know the question before you all right now, you worry that we have no pope, or you worry over who the next Pope will be or will not be. "Ca me fait egal", it is not for us to tell the Spirit of God, for we know not where he blows from or where he goes; and only God and God alone can see the interior of men's hearts' and make judgements thereupon.  In all things we must trust in God and His mercy, and remember that " God is close to the broken hearted" and to those trampled down by lives woes.  For us there are more immediate problems, problems with security in a nation of unimaginable proportions. Problems of injustice and corruption which have laid such a heavy weight upon the back of the working man that instead of ourlife expectancy increasing over the last fifty years it has worsened, and that not only due to AIDS. Yes, we have great good here in our town of Enugu with our sprawling seminaries and convents, how many saints there are, are known to God alone! Yet, it is an undeniable reality that in parallel to this great good, to this pearl which has been entrusted  us to safeguard the faith for future generations, there is intense evil.  Against the goodness, which perhaps goes unrivalled, there has sprung up an evil which may also be unrivalled, an evil where a man kidnaps and kills his brother or sister for money. These acts are repugnant.  So today and everyday let us rededicate ourselves and our lives to Jesus Cristus, and let us renounce all inclinations to sin. Let us hold on to the hem of the cloak of the Blessed Virgin, and determine to lead chaste and Holy lives."

 The words had reverberated to the core of his being, it was not that Obi was a bad young man, but neither was he a saint, and he had felt that certain parts of the homily were like the Holy Spirit carrying a lance to his heart to excise certain propensities that lay therein towards sins of the flesh. Sins of the flesh, he mused, were necessary for procreation, yet at the sametime he recognised that in his hearts of hearts there was nothing he wished more for than to lead a life that was upright in the eyes of God and man.  Yet this was the theoretical aspect of the equation, for his soul fully acknowledged all these things but it was in the practicality of the matter that his soul met opposition in the form of his own physical weakness wherein he often and freely fell in love.

Mr. Tokunbo Ajayi at a crossroads.

for three weeks he thought incessantly about what his next course of action should be, and in his mind he played out a variety of scenarios, pretend that nothing had happened, admit that something had happened, or just stay away until he knew what he should do next.   He consoled himself in the thought that no one can ever know what the future holds, yet inspite of this his own frivolity presented itself as an undeniable knife in the guillotine of his soul ever ready to fall and sever the fountains of grace which kept his soul in communion with God.  But, as all men, he had little power over the whims of the flesh, and he resigned himself to the fact that in due course, he too, like so many before him, would succumb to the demands of lust.  And long forgotten would be the loves  of old, which would remain as objects buried in the sand of time with  little  or rather nothing to disturb them, and their secrets to be forever forgotten.  For twith the passage of time, even the thought of Toyin had long since lost it's power to influence him, for he had so trained his soul to dismiss all thoughts of her immediately

ALL TALK and no action.

I have never seen a country with such a propensity for meetings, and galas, and fetes ; but dont be deceived, little or nothing is ever accomplished at these farces or jamborees.  These meetings are infact an insult to the intelligence of all, ..it is over and over again ALL TALK AND NO ACTION. and dont worry, 20 years from now we will still be holding these endless discussions with no change, no improvement.  If truth be told I cannot hide my disgust.  And then I remember the stories of the fate of the pensioneers , old men cheated out of their hard earned pension, indeed, we have turned ourselves into a conglomerate of fools with our endless good will which always falls short of the mark, and inregards to our treatment of our fellow man, I shudder to say that we turned ourselves into people worse than animals of the forest.

On the death of Odumegwu Ojukwu- And the man died

Biafran 'war lord' Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu died on November 26th 2011 at the age of 78 years.  He died in a London Hospital after suffering a massive stroke in December 2010.  He was preceded in death by an estimated 2 million of his people who were systematically killed at the hands of the federalist forces of the republic of Nigeria, in what can be described as one of the worlds worst progroms of ethnic cleansing witnessed in the 20th century. 

And the man died...and the question we pose, is, do ideas die?  Is there an inherent fault in the desire of people to pursue happiness and freedom?  Or, would it be wrong to say that it is the inalienable right of all people to seek self-determination.  And so, the nation of Biafra, though dead, the idea still remains, and this is an idea of a recurring thought, that past events do not necessarily predict the future.