"I felt really sad when we were dropped last year, I admit we were not not at our best, we came directly from another show and we didn't put enough energy into it. Still it was hard not winning the first price. *HOL* What's the prize for coming first?
Around 3 million naira... I'm not really sure about the figures but what ever it is, we are taking the prize home this year."

Woooooow followed dis thread from page 1 .. So touching thread

Jah bless u op

TochiPhotos:
"Few days ago we shared the story of Julianna, the woman with 2 kids who was sent away by her husband. We asked if any of our wonderful followers could provide accommodation and a job for her, the response was amazing. A lady offered her a job and accommodation which she initially accepted but on the day they were supposed to be moved, she said she'd prefer to go to her village instead and stay close to her people.
They boarded a bus to her hometown this morning and should have arrived now (called her around 6pm and she said they were almost home... Called again now but she didn't answer so I guess they are home now.) The lady also gave her some money to start a business when she gets home.
God bless our Instagram follower Oghenekaro she is the wonderful lady that made this happen. She took their problem as hers and treated them like family. She is one of the most selfless person I've met, was inspiring listening to her talk so passionately about the things she cares about, helping others and trying to make the world a better place in her own little way. God bless you Oghenekaro and all the best to Julianna and her kids."

Tomorrow these children would be told that they owe their father forgiveness!

One day I witnessed a girl beat up some guys that tried to rob her. After the incident I overhead someone say the girl knows Taekwondo and I immediately picked up interest. There is always one incident or another in Uniben and with my new Taekwondo skills I can defend myself. I'm in Lagos for the national Taekwondo classic, it's my first competition, I've been training hard since February and I hope to do well."

Hmmmmmmn

Life drama

"Before my match in my first ever competition, I prayed and asked God to remove anything that will cause me injury during my fight. After praying, I stayed back in the dressing room waiting to be called out for my fight but some minutes later I was told I've been disqualified for not showing up. I did not understand how I could possibly miss that, that kind of thing rarely happens. I was sad for sometime, I do not know if I could have won the fight and go all the way but then I remember my prayer and I choose to believe it was God that made me miss the fight, maybe God was preventing from sustaining an injury that would have ended my career."

TochiPhotos:
"Before my match in my first ever competition, I prayed and asked God to remove anything that will cause me injury during my fight. After praying, I stayed back in the dressing room waiting to be called out for my fight but some minutes later I was told I've been disqualified for not showing up. I did not understand how I could possibly miss that, that kind of thing rarely happens. I was sad for sometime, I do not know if I could have won the fight and go all the way but then I remember my prayer and I choose to believe it was God that made me miss the fight, maybe God was preventing from sustaining an injury that would have ended my career."

taekwon! If u started taekwondo dis year u will not make any medal, I particapated in d competition 2! At surelere teslim balogun, bt wch. dressing room did u stay? I'm nt sure thrs any dressing room thr! Cos its was done indoor! And next time u see us we athlete seating/waiting wen its our category fighting! Sorry better luck next time! Hope 2 c u in panamai or ccsf so wch weight do u fight?

shawnfamous:
taekwon! If u started taekwondo dis year u will not make any medal, I particapated in d competition 2! At surelere teslim balogun, bt wch. dressing room did u stay? I'm nt sure thrs any dressing room thr! Cos its was done indoor! And next time u see us we athlete seating/waiting wen its our category fighting! Sorry better luck next time! Hope 2 c u in panamai or ccsf so wch weight do u fight?

Hahaha no be me oo.

"I feel invincible when I'm on my bike, I feel like I can do anything, just anything. At times, I even get the urge to attempt something crazy like jumping over a trailer maybe not exactly that but that's the kind of ginger I get when I'm on my bike.
HOL* Are you not afraid of injuries or getting hurt?
Injuries are part of the game, you've not started riding till you have your first fall/injury. You have to stop thinking about getting injured if you want to enjoy this, you need a strong mind and the fun part is in doing crazy/risky tricks, the feeling you get when you successful pull off a difficult trick is the best thing ever, I don't think there is something else that feels better than that."

TochiPhotos:

Hahaha no be me oo.

kk bt I knw dat pictured guy

"My classmates always look for my trouble and if I beat them they will report me to our Aunty(Teacher) and she will flog me even after I tell her I wasn't the one that started it, she will tell me I'm stubborn. I don't even like fighting but my classmates are the ones 'finding' my trouble all the time."

"I want to be a banker when I grow up, I don't know if they will allow me carry my hair inside the bank. I've told my mummy and she said I can cut it if I want to she also said they will buy me anything I want.
HOL* what will you tell them to buy for you?
A bicycle.

"Me and my friends do this thing were we dress like girls once in a while and walk round our streets to make people laugh and also promote our comedy group. We were bored today and decided to do it again.
HOL* How were you able to pull off this feminine look effortlessly? Your friends look funny but one can almost mistake you for a lady.
As a kid I found myself spending more time with the girls than my fellow boys. I would sometimes put on my Sister 's dress and ask them to refer to me as a girl. I stopped behaving like that as I got older and with lots of beating but when I got into comedy acting like a girl came natural to me and I decided to resurrect that. I get taunted once in a while and people call me all sorts but I laugh it off. It's work now and as long as it puts food on the table."

TochiPhotos:
"Me and my friends do this thing were we dress like girls once in a while and walk round our streets to make people laugh and also promote our comedy group. We were bored today and decided to do it again.
HOL* How were you able to pull off this feminine look effortlessly? Your friends look funny but one can almost mistake you for a lady.
As a kid I found myself spending more time with the girls than my fellow boys. I would sometimes put on my Sister 's dress and ask them to refer to me as a girl. I stopped behaving like that as I got older and with lots of beating but when I got into comedy acting like a girl came natural to me and I decided to resurrect that. I get taunted once in a while and people call me all sorts but I laugh it off. It's work now and as long as it puts food on the table."

Dual role transvestism

"Once in a while we dress like ladies, go round the street and make people laugh. We enter bars and shops, do stand up comedy and a bit of drama. It's a way of promoting our comedy group and we've gotten lots of gigs this way."

"In 2009 the school proprietor called all the Teachers together to find a solution to the increasing rate of truancy and hooliganism in the school. Some of the Teachers were suggesting the same old methods flogging, suspensions etc most of the students have gotten used to the punishments and would boastfully 'chest' the cane as if it's nothing. I played football back then in school and I knew the kind of positive impact it would bring.
I suggested we introduce sports and make it part of the school curricula , try using sports to engage their minds and see how it would go. The proprietor agreed and asked me to be the coach. The first challenge was trying to bring them together in unity. They had factions and some wouldn't even want to be in the same place with the others but after our first official match, I saw them all walking home together and discussing the match, it was beautiful. The unity did not end there it spread through the whole school, their was this new found togetherness and peace. Things started changing and in 6 years Ikotun senior high school has turned from one of the most notorious schools to one of the best. It has changed a lot of lives and coaching the team has been the best thing I've ever done. Our female team just won the GTBank Lagos state Principals cup 1 of the many things we've achieved in the past 6 years."

Unity through sports. Now that's a story

Yeah

Sports truly unifies!!!

Ur thread is so fine TOCHI.

UjSizzle:
Unity through sports. Now that's a story

Pukka36:
Yeah


Sports truly unifies!!!


Ur thread is so fine TOCHI.

Thanks.

"My best friend is inside the pitch, he is the one sitting near the center circle. I am here crying, I could not control myself when our team missed the final kick and I can not even imagine what Kamal is going through. This was supposed to be the best moment of his life, all week he kept telling me how he can't wait to show his dad his winners medal, his dad thinks football is a waste of time. They won't allow us enter inside the pitch now but I will go and console him later."

"Before the final, our coach brought some of our Alumni to talk to us. He told us how they all started, how difficult it was in the beginning for the girls team. How some of the parents chased their children out and told him to keep them cos they were playing football and the parents believed girls are not supposed to play football. He told us about Yetunde Adebajo and Opeyemi Ayeonibre they started from our school and have gone ahead to represent Nigeria in the women's youth world cup and so many others that are playing professional football now. He said we shouldn't let anyone discourage from us from following our dreams and one day we will become stars and he will tell others about us. I dedicate my medal to him."

"My Grandmother owns this house. We were all crying together yesterday when the bulldozers were bringing down the house then some minutes later someone noticed Grand Ma was not with us again. Till this morning nobody has seen her, we just pray she is fine."

"By this time I'm supposed to be preparing breakfast but I cannot even tell where the kitchen was before. I have not eaten, no one has eaten since morning even my baby. Our major concern now is not even the house but Grand Ma. She left in tears when the house was been brought down and nobody has seen her since yesterday."


There is an ongoing demolition by the govt along Mile2-Lagos-Badagry Expressway which has affected over 200 houses making thousands homeless. I spent sometime taking pictures and talking to the people affected but was harassed by the officials and forced to delete the pictures I took. The pictures are an important part of the story and sadly I cannot share most of the stories because of the deletion but I will share the stories of the few whose pictures I managed to skip when I was been forced to delete the images.
All the Landlord's I talked to agreed they were notified years ago and were sent constant reminders to vacate, the last reminder came 2 weeks ago but they've received so many of that over the years and thought it would pass like the other times. Some also said they believe someone influential bribed the contractors and they are going beyond the marked spots and even bringing down houses that were not meant to be brought down.

"I was with my friend sympathizing with him when I saw some of my tenants moving their things. They were not supposed to move, the demolition was only supposed to affect the 2 rooms near the road, I don't know what made them decide to bring down everything. I built this house in 1974 it took me years of hard work to finish and in less than 5 minutes it was gone. This room is the only thing still standing and they said they will still come back to level it."

"This was our room, the day it was demolished we couldn't pack all our things. We came the following day and found out all the things we left has been stolen."

'I'm building my Ram's strength, we walk and run for a few hours each day. He fought against a bigger Ram on Sunday and it ended in a draw. His last 2 friendly fights ended in draws but I'm happy cos it was against bigger Rams. I will buy him a chain weighing a few kilos, it will help make his neck stronger. He needs to get strong enough before the fight season starts during Ileya."

TochiPhotos:
"I was with my friend sympathizing with him when I saw some of my tenants moving their things. They were not supposed to move, the demolition was only supposed to affect the 2 rooms near the road, I don't know what made them decide to bring down everything. I built this house in 1974 it took me years of hard work to finish and in less than 5 minutes it was gone. This room is the only thing still standing and they said they will still come back to level it."

So touching, what a world.

Tochi well done

TochiPhotos:
'I'm building my Ram's strength, we walk and run for a few hours each day. He fought against a bigger Ram on Sunday and it ended in a draw. His last 2 friendly fights ended in draws but I'm happy cos it was against bigger Rams. I will buy him a chain weighing a few kilos, it will help make his neck stronger. He needs to get strong enough before the fight season starts during Ileya."

Seriously? Training ram for fights.

TochiPhotos:
"I've always wanted to attend University of Lagos but I couldn't get in in my first 3 attempts. The first one was more painful, I was so confident I'd get in, I had already started telling people. Then came the second and third, at a point I got fed up and enrolled in a polytechnic but each time I passed Unilag, I'd keep staring at the Logo, students etc I felt this was where I belonged, I needed to be here. I kept trying and was finally admitted.
The distractions were there but I wasn't there for that, I had a goal, I wanted a first class and I started working towards it from day 1. It was tough, faced a lot of challenges but to the Glory of God I finished with a first class."

WOW. Talk about resilience.
God bless you!

this is so emotional