In The Cyber Cafe

Both Friends will think that they are too busy and will not make contact thinking it may be disturbing. As time passes both will think "let the other make contact". After a while, each will think "why should I make contact first". Here your love will gradually be converted to pride. Finally without making contact the memory becomes weak. They forget each other. One day they will meet and blame one another. So Keep in touch with all your friends.

It was in the first chapter that I was introduced to the word "Hooked", It does appear to me that 3 in every 5 female final year students in the University of Port Harcourt claim to be "hooked". I started to wonder as to the relationship between a fish and a woman; the act of "fishing" by a fisherman and "razzling" by young men. In any case, it does appear that once a fish is caught on one hook, it cannot be caught on another hook. Where is all this leading to? There seems to be a relationship between the act of fishing and the act of toasting; practice must be a descriptor in the above statement. Don't mind me o, I am doing a class in research methodology and intend to run a pilot study on social relationships.

Have you tasted the new maltina lately? Its not quite like it; lighter with a mild taste. I had to entertain my guest with amstel malta instead. Mr. Biggs UNIPORT has the good habit of disappointing their numerous customers on Saturdays; they only have rice and chicken. The electricity situation on campus is improving and the weather is still pretty dull. It appears am going to have a quiet weekend and am not finding it funny.

During a wedding reception; the groom was called upon to give his response to his guests and it went like this:

I want to first of all thank the Lord Almighty for creating my wife and to also thank the pastor and his wife for lending us their wedding rings.
Special appreciation to my landlord who lent us his car. I am most grateful to my boss for approving the loan I used for the wedding. Big thanks to the committee of friends for the appeal fund they raised. Also to my brothers wife, thank you for lending us your wedding gown. Am so grateful to the cake designer for the cake. I promise to return it tomorrow morning as agreed. Special thanks to my friends who brought food from their homes to help me feed you all.  Please for those who were served food good luck and for those who didnt get any, well we will make it up to you during our child dedication party hopefully next year. Very big thanks to my parents for bringing the village cultural band to supply the music. Not forgetting the church marriage committee, thank you for persuading my wife to marry me. Appreciation to the married men in the church for rushing me into this marriage. The women are not left out, thanks a lot for teaching my wife how to dance. To the youths thank you for sweeping and decorating this venue with palm fronds. I am also grateful to my teenage friends for helping with the Zobo drink

Well, I wish you all safe journey and I pray you don`t experience what I suffered for this wedding.


Thank you

I am now in the cybercafe and its clear my day will be filled with activity. Paper got jammed in the printer and it was not easy getting it out but I did. The cyber cafe was quite busy today so I had to help the client support staff in ensuring that our services were delivered efficiently. The airconditioning was quite tight so I did not feel tired though I took a quick nap in the afternoon. Woke up to the voices of some 2 students quarreling outside, before you could know what was happening, they had started fighting. Within a minute one guy was mending the other; infact the other guy had already broken his arm and people had gathered as usual. I returned my desk when the university security came and took both combatants away. There is nothing good in violence. Rain did fall towards the end of the evening.

It was 3 days ago that I noticed that my MTN line does not receive calls in the evening. It was very distressing. A friend of mine sent me an SMS to call his line and it was the same result. I could call every body in his house but his line and what did he have in common with me - MTN caller tunez. I called their helpline and a female voice tried to be helpful but I was not convinced. In any case I had tried disabling it but no way.

It was supposed to be a normal day, I just finished updating the antivirus software on 3 client systems via the internet which did not take as long as I expected. Infact I had driven to Safari Fast foods to pick up some loaves of bread for the house. My dad had travelled to Oleh in Delta State to be with my Mom whose Dad was celebrating his 81st birthday in style. The 2 Local Governments in Isoko were hosting a party in his honor and a book was to be launched. A lot had been planned for the evening - one of which was the watching of the documentary of osama bin laden on CNN. There was some one or two places i was supposed to check but you never can tell what the ladies are up to these days. Got home to a beautiful lunch of fried irish potatoes and dodo with fried eggs. My sisters are really taking good care of me. I left the house back to the cyber cafe after getting some wrong signals, this evening will be a quiet one. Armed bandits attacked the cash office of ECOBANK situated in the administrative park, quite close to the female hostels, the previous night so people activity is very scarce there. I quickly went home to watch the documentary on CNN

In the course of our journey in this world, we get to meet a lot of people - good, bad and ugly under many situations and circumstances. There are some funny characters you jam that you wish will go away but it appears that reason and destiny (for those who believe in it) is not in your favour. To say I am the embodiment of all anti - socialism might be a fair assessment for a human observation from a distance.

I got home from church last sunday to meet this pal in my parents house gisting with my dad, and it might have been that he was just past passing by because he actually returned a DVD he borrowed a long while ago but I did not want to take any chance of him spending the sunday afternoon with me so I left the house almost immediately to my best friend's place. Its been a very long time since I visited what is supposed to be my "third" home so the family was excited and so was I. They served us a very nice lunch with desert and we settled down afterwards to watch a movie and chat away.

Back to the "church meeting" that day, I did not establish any social discourse during or after the service as I was just not in the mood for that so it appears many people did not notice I was there even though I sang with the choir.  I was having a nice time at my "third"  home when my sister called my best friend to tell me that I had a "female" visitor. It was then that I understood the oneness of the spirit - I had killed two birds with one stone by leaving the house when I did. I really did not want to see any body outside family and close associates last Sunday and it appeared the spirit was in agreement.

Reading nigerian newspapers this days and listening to news items on the tv stations or radio (public or private) makes me want to puke.  How can we be talking of a 2007 that we are yet to see? This politicians have started their madness.

The last post was done about 5.30am and I actually had to stop when NEPA did it. Fell asleep on the couch in the living room and was awaken by my mom. The light had been restored but I was not in any mood for the internet now. Maybe I should watch CNN, that too was boring, I mean, why report the arrest of a man who believes he should have more than 1 wife. Decided I was better off in the cyber cafe so I went to have a bath but before then I decided to check my glo set.

That was where the green devil almost got me. To check balance, I see - Your account cannot be assessed at the moment please try later. I thought it was a joke but its like the reverse with MTN. I can receive calls on my glo but i cannot make calls. Now this should not be happening this early. I went into the bathroom then to the kitchen for a quick breakfast and back to the set all in about 45 minutes and there is no change. I just grab my vmobile line and put it in my 3310 handset and leave the house.

If there was any month I was looking forward to this year, then it must be september.  I think I have been too "generous" especially in a particular "gender" directions and also quite uncharacteristically diplomatic in a lot of things. The time has come to take a stand on so many issues, to cut off all human wasters and speak bluntly on issues of personal interests, on the whole Its time I increase my capital base by cutting down on unneccessay expenses. To start with I have changed my line and am informing only those people that matter. I am going to be miserly with words and focus a lot of time to my work and studies and later on church activities howbeit in a dormant manner. Good Morning september.

It appears the gsm networks have conspired to tempt me. Just when I have moved over to be using my vmobile line the network is off on the entire saturday in UNIPORT and i had over a N1500 loaded inside. Oh well just had to make do with good old glo. MTN won't have been a bad idea but I think they have enjoyed my money well this year. A very beautiful saturday morning and the sun is shinning well; i have done my laundry and am off to the cyber cafe. Its the state monthly sanitation and people movement is light; some parts of the university are in complete darkness due to some technical fault. Let me update my yahoo toolbar.

My MBA class has over a hundred students and a leadership structure made up of supposedly the class representative who is a guy and an assistant who is a woman. Then there is a fifth column of the bougeois who unknowingly cause things to happen and then make it appear the leadership is responsible. Its quite interesting because this is exactly what obtains in the larger Nigerian society.

About 3 weeks ago, the final examination for research methodology was fixed at september 5, which is today by 9am and it was done by the university authorities after direct consultation with the graduate students and the supervising faculty which is management sciences. I had been reading so hard that sleep was quite far from me and there was some sort of tension; in any case I was ready to unleash all my hardwork on the paper and so it was with a bounce I approached the hall by 8.30am passing the cyber cafe to drop some things.

On getting to the venue, I noticed that there were few cars packed outside and was a bit apprehensive. Inside the hall we were about 30 in all with some people still streaming in. Then the bombshell was dropped, the examinations had been postponed till thursday the 7th at the instance of the class leadership. Everyone was "furious", what nonsense is this? People were shouting one thing or the other.  More people were calling the course lecturer who was equally "annoyed" at the class behaviour. So what really happened?

The class had an examination which made them stay in school up till 6pm of the previous day yet they all left the campus without knowing that the assistant class representative - one nneka by name had gone with 2 "big people" to meet the lecturer with a request to shift the date by 2 days. How the lecturer agreed beats everyone's imagination because he has said it many times openly that Nneka always comes late to class and is very unserious. As if that was not bad enough, this same Nneka had collected N150 from a lot of students so that she can call them in case of any emergency previously. She only called her friends that night and then sent a stooge to announce to the class by 9.15am that the exam had been postponed at the instance of the lecturer. In all of this the class representative was conspiciously absent. Another twist was added, an term paper that was cancelled before, all of a sudden has been ressurected and will be submitted on that day. This country na wa o and to think that the Nneka and all of them coup plotters must have gone to church on sunday speaks volumes of their hypocrisy.

Did i protest to the lecturer or join those that shouted? NO I did not and why? because I am by default a member of the rulling class; so I just kept a straight face with sealed lips while I was boiling inside. That really is the Nigerian situation. We were now over 40 inside the hall and about 25 who are at home are not in support but because of about 10 people who are in the inner caucus and another 10 who are the "big shots" a great injustice has been done.

Woke up this morning to a very heavy downpour, and in that rain went I for my examination. The lecturer had threatened fire and brimstone to give the exam come what may by 9am, but u guessed right, i have now concluded that if you see someone shouting against something in Nigeria; most of the time he is the worse culprit. The exam started by 1pm and it was pathetic. We were all caught with our pants down, its not good to read too much but in any case i am sure i will pass.

On getting to the cyber cafe, I noticed that the number of "tout" have increased so much they are disrupting our activities. This country na wa, some 'boys" come and buy time then pose as staff and charge post - ume clients as much as N600 for with are doing at N300 officially. I had to shut the network a number of times to try and shake them off. Eventually the downpour ensures that they do not get as many clients and eventually they go. Its 9pm and am in the network control room tinkering with the system to try and see how I get put an end to this, in the end i have to go as am hungry and in despair.

The sun was up early and I could not resist the temptation to do my laundry before going to the cyber cafe. The area was a bit quiet; I was wondering why when I heard that UBA was yet till open even by 11.30am and it appears everyone was patiently waiting for them. About 2pm, I understood that they had finally started operations. The post ume students had started trickling towards the cafe and the "touts" as usual were all over them. It appears we have reached an understanding  with this "touts" to operate only in one of our browsing rooms so that other clients can have a peaceful and orderly climate in the other rooms. The sun was so hot, I was really very happy, the public electricity in this part of the campus has been switched off as they are cutting down all the trees which they consider to close to the high tension cables.

Typical of Port Harcourt weather, from no where the sun disappeared and the clouds were so dark, I was so sure the resulting downpour will be very dense. We were about to change shifts so there was no way I could rush home. Luckily for me, about 4pm a friend of mine stopped by on his way home and gave me a ride straight home.

In the beginning of the rainy season, the university was hit by strong winds and heavy downpour which resulted in physical destruction of some bad sections of a newly built wall and the pulling down of electricity power lines by some trees. Indeed some roads were blocked as a result of the falling trees. A decision was reached to cut down trees that were close to the electricity lines and others that possed a threat by the university authorities and the contract was awarded. I understant that to cut each tree will cost about N4000.

Starting from last week, they began to cut ALL the trees in the university except for those which are on the university road leading from the first gate to the roundabout. All of a sudden the school looks naked, trees have a beauty in themselves and are symbolic with an academic environment but it appears the contractors are more intent on making their billions. The worse part is they are largely unsupervised and end up causing the falling debris to cut existing power lines (i wonder if they will also give them another contract to rerun the destroyed electricity cable). In the staff quarters where I stay there is no light presently, and this is supposed to be a university community - a centre of excellence. Trees traditionally act as wind breakers but it is God that will be witness when the next great wind comes. Trees that take at least 5 years or so to grow, those that should not be destroyed have been lumped up with the easy going melina tree.

Tomorrow we will say the politicians are bad and to think that we have a geography department in this school is so depressing. Why we continually inflict damage and harm on our society is mind boggling?