In The Cyber Cafe

It was Palm Sunday the other day and the heavens opened up in PH. Even with all the cold and rain; ma people still went processing. There was no NEPA anyway so me stayed at home. At about 5pm in the evening we heard sporadic and heavy moving gunfire on campus which is supposed to be closed down. Apparently some students are not in a hurry to go home; some cultists gunned down a final year mechanical engineering student in the cool of the evening. Its a muslim holiday today and still there is no light but the weather is still very cold.

Going to the bank during any festive period is a very painful experience. For the past 2 days "the server has been down" at all branches in UBA Port Harcourt. This started Tuesday afternoon and ended on Wednesday. Thursday morning and the banking halls are so full with people trying to get money for the easter; alas there is no money to pay. What is the essence of having N25b and yet can't pay your clients money when they demand it? People have to spend nothing less than 6 - 7 hours hustling for their own cash. There was no work today as it appeared even the NEPA guys were in the banking hall.

Expected the church service to be very emotional and dramatic not long. The girl that sat next to me did not have a bible and was trying to borrow one from the person in front so that "we can use it together". This did not augur well with me as I will have preferred to be alone but she kept looking into my sermon notes for spelling and this put me in a bad mood. Our country Nigeria will be better off if people practiced what the bible says especially those that shout "Jesus I Love You" inside church. Elections are around the corner.

Different fever na im dey, jaundice fever, yellow fever, malaria fever, hay fever, election fever na im dey bring the mata na we dey.  Out of the blues, early in the evening we got wind that there is a public holiday tomorrow thursday and friday.  government magic is at work. I'll just relax and do some academic exercises; perhaps watch a DVD. The weather is so beautiful, am tempted to take a stroll and just chill.

What can I say? A lot of people were disenfranchised long ago because where they registered is different from where they reside. In this category must include at least 90% of students in Nigerian universities. The fear of violence kept many people indoors; P D P is having it big. This one is worse than a Tsunami, am still telling myself that this "demoncracy" is far better than military rule but its unfair.

After activating my celtel family & friends and making about an hour long call; Its now becoming clearer that there is little difference between them and MTN in terms of voice clarity billing system and promos only that MTN with its large client base has the edge and is also cheaper because of that. GLO on the other hand is still the best rural network with a better voice quality than the others. No comments yet on 3G. MTN gives 3 Nos on family & friends at 50% reduction, GLO gives 4 at 40% reduction while CELTEL for now gives 5 at 50% reduction.

When I look at the politics being played in my church then really OBJ has not fared badly. Infact I was not surprised to see a newspaper report online that Mbang defends Iwu. These Politicians and Pastors are one and the same; you don't have to look far before you find out whose interests most of them are serving. Suddenly, we are in darkness as NEPA is trying to recreate another environment. Uniport students who are tired of staying at home are already coming to school after spreading rumors that the ASUU strike has been called off which they now want everyone to believe. See as Nigerians engage in self delusion to their own harm. The University authorities have postponed the resumption date but some people don't want to know.

Work this days has been very demoralizing. The website that am maintaining has been under a massive renovation for the past 2 days so updating it and querying its database seems to take forever. The electricity situation has been a stumbling block for as soon as the PC has come on and the site manages to come up with the results then there is an outtage and then we work until our big UPS runs down. Its really been a disappointing challenge. Little by little, the students are coming back to come and chill in the university; hoping and waiting for the resumption of major academic activities.

Quite a long weekend but it was eventful. Church service on sunday was so much fun though it was quite hot. Infact I would have fainted because of the amount of water I lost through sweating. It eventually rained heavily in the evening so staying indoors was the only option. Had a fruitless debate/gist in the office about some culture stuff; quite interesting way of catching up on people's views. Tomorrow is a holiday so I guess work will be light today and the banking halls full.

How will you define undue advantage? My best friend came to see me in the office and asked to browse. The atmosphere in the office was a bit tense so I told him to be quick about it as I reluctantly gave him a staff system.  After a while my colleague came and was like he could continue browsing as she wanted to do other things but i insisted he quit the system. Not long after then he begged that he really needed to check some other things on the internet so I gave him another system from the pool and then the drama started. One girl just came and before long my friend forgot he had some important thing to browse online and started checking her email; soon after she was browsing full time. I was so furious; I started smiling because this is the last time I will give him a system. I hate it when "ugilities" score cheap points from a guy who is actually having free lunch at the expense of another guy.

Today was quite somehow. There was a general staff meeting scheduled for 1pm so its like we were waiting from 9am till then. Most people came early and the cleaners even swept the office after like three days or so. I dressed corporately and everyone was just teasing. Everyone was in a relaxed state and the meeting went well thereafter the office closed and am back at home with a place of garri which almost killed me. Watched a bit of music videos and then went strolling with some friends.

The other day my sister bought a foreign cereal from a popular departmental shop. When I compared the naira value with the advertised british pounds value it was quite good which caused me to wonder. It was later that I checked the expiry date and found out that it was just a matter of 7 days. Yesterday I bought hobnobs from another store and also checked the expiry date which revealed that it will expire within 3 weeks. Our country has become a dumping ground for soon to be expired food from the UK which as a result of the low travelling cost to London yet the NAFDAC woman will be making noise.

Long fuel queues have started appearing in Port Harcourt indicating that such stations are selling at N65 a litre. Most of the others are selling at N75 and it appears its going to go up. The poor state of electricity in the campus today did not allow me to do any meaningful work. Spent most of the time gisting away and then got to meet an FLP marketer.  The weather is very conducive for strolling but i have to reach church this evening for choir rehearsals.

Came to the office and was greeted by no light. Talked with my colleagues on the interview of OBJ the previous night. He made quite a bit of sense although his remarks about ASUU shows that we are in for a long fight. On the whole, it does appear that he had great plans but could not conclude them. I hope the incoming administration will do well to utilize the options he has left. God Bless Nigeria.

Its been a while since I became angry. Some people are just mean. The system too does not help matters. What is the difference between being malicious and callous? I'D have to check out the dictionary meaning of both words but I find that both together with serious bad belle exist in one particular large soul. The girl has the nerve; I'll teach her one of the life lessons of Father Abraham. No need to be nice; it just does not work.

The past two days have been very sunny in Port Harcourt, I am a little afraid because of the type of rains that normally occur afterwards. Thank God, I did some laundry because we were asked to come to the office on saturday to make up for the monday - tuesday holiday abi is it strike. I hear petrol has gone up to N150 a litre. This our country is really an interesting place because nobody is even raising an eyebrow.