ASAKE OKIN

Sometimes, they live alone, with parents or even squat with friends. They can be single, divorced or widowed.   Not all single parent are women, I once met a single father who took care of his child by himself. Our society often judge the unmarried ones. They are sometimes tagged as "irresponsible". “Choosing to keep and take care of a child is the highest level of responsibility”- Olayinka O.   For the men, some attained the responsibility of taking care of their kids when their wives left their relationship - walk away or died. Who remembers Nick Cannon's music video??, the one about his mother walking out of the abortion room after deciding not to abort, Lil' Wayne's how to love video...and the list goes on. Nick Cannon is making his money now, doing well with his shows and married to a talented lady, what if his mother had gotten rid of him? I remember seeing her daughter's birth certificate; the space for father's name was empty. She hard...

  photo credit : crackberry.com  Congratulation Asake-Okin, your blackberry just crashed. The phone loaded half way but did not come up. I was scared of losing my information- not my contacts, not my documents, not my pictures but my note pad. My note pad is my comfort zone for writing my post. Apart from Life is beautiful which I wrote at the back of a course note while in University, the remaining posts on my blog were written in my BB notepad. I see, I get inspired and I start typing.   I lost about over 6 new posts (titles I can remember - Life beautiful 2; Marriage; two jobs; Tested ok; going cashless with 5000; their butterflies in my belly; definitely(maybe 2)and the parent). Maybe  Why didn’t I back up?  Good question.... The first time I lost information was 22 nd of December 2011; I wanted to repair my memory card and mistakenly clicked the format option. I had backed up before then however I was not with my laptop so I had to start afre...

From a tender age, I developed a phobia for English language. I did not hate English but I never thought I could pass the language. Later, I discovered it extended beyond English even Arabic, French and Yoruba. With that discovery, I concluded I had two phobias: 1. phobia for writing Yoruba(which is my mouth tongue) and English language 2. Complete phobia for non-mother tongue, non- official language. I attended a day primary school so I could go to Madarasa (a school with the goal of teaching the in-depth of the Quran) after school. After concluding primary school, I got admission into a boarding secondary school, so I stopped going to Madarasa. I enrolled for Arabic in secondary school with the hope that I would be able to read the Quran. During my holidays and after secondary school, I tried private tutoring (1ce, 2ce, 3ce)...Finally, I gave up and stuck to reading the English meaning of the Quran. Although, I wish, I hope I can still learn how to read the Qu...

I couldn't think of a title to this post, Then Mombasa Raha came to my mind. I wrote this 7months ago * Lazy Asake * Enjoy It was a beautiful morning in the Month of June; we set out at 7am and didn't get to our destination till few minutes past 10am. I hadn't been on 3rd Mainland route since April. We drove pass the new development, I remembered my mom once told me about Ilado. From what I can remember, it should be from the end of Muri Okunola to Lekki phase 1.. My grandma (sometimes called Mama Ilado- Some Yoruba use residential area to name differentiate older people, e.g Mummy South C, Mummy Ojota, Mama Tema etc) used to live there before it was taken over by the government and some of them were relocated to Ikota. Lekki expressway felt different, after the first toll gate, I noticed the MTN cube advert, it was eye catchy, then I saw the second toll gate, I did not know it had been completed. From Lekki toll gate 2 to Lekki free trade zone’s junctio...

Hearing the sound of the gun and I am thankful for another day. If I do not hear it in the space of 30minutes, I will doubt my existence. It is something we have to live with. I am sure a child soldier from Somalia can say that. Three Sundays ago,at about 3pm I was returning home from a stroll, I heard it (the gun shot), I ran to enter the house. I noticed people running out of their houses to go watch what's happening. I bbm-ed my friend "3gunshot and the whole area is back to normal like nothing happened" , her response was :- "Na wa o". It is just a gunshot I thought to myself. Is this how bombs go off in the North and the area will be back to business as usual? I can only imagine. In the evening while at the salon, I heard the full story, two armed robbers on Okada( Boda Boda) were attempting to snatch a jeep, some youth in my neighborhood who were relaxing with chilled alcohol drinks saw the attempt and decided to rescue the car owner. ...

  You have been having issues and you no longer know if he is the one. Rewind to when you first met or when you became official, you knew he was the one. Few weeks, months or years later you want to leave. If you can't be honest with anyone else, be honest with yourself Do this simple exercise, one per day. Day 1: What attracted you to him? ·           religion ·           wealth ·           good in bed (Some relationship started from a one night stand) ·           physique ·           Intelligent Name it? Day 2: Positive things he has done for you. ·           rescued you from broke-ness ·           counseled you ·    ...

It is not easy blogging o. Since I changed my route, I have been struggling to blog. In the past, I got inspiration in buses (big smile). Now, I hardly struggle for change, no mosquitoes biting me and ofcourse choking perfumes as I once experienced. I still use public transport but compared to my previous route, the journey is shorter and sometimes, I get a ride 95% of the time,to and fro. Oshodi pre 2008 To be honest, I miss a lot of things.   Like yellow, green and red plantain chips, coconut chip ( Yes o, they don't exist on my new route), conductor vs. passengers argument, LASTMA, drug marketers ( Yes o, those ones that say two tablet of a particular NAFDAC approved medication can cure all diseases like stroke, hypertension, diabetes, backache, malaria and even tuberculosis), I miss getting scared at Oworo Shoki ( my wallet and my I-touch were picked on separate day). I remember the day my I-touch was stolen. I had a bad day at work and decided to listen to music. As I...

I opened my mouth and words didn't come out. I couldn't vent, the other passengers were already ranting. What will be the need of speaking, as whatever I say will be useless. This was the second time it was happening to me...but 6am, isn't that too early... ? Is it that we don't know the law or we just dont respect human feeling? “Asake, cut the crap! Human feelings and laws in Nigeria?”  Its not that we don't have laws, it’s just that people misuse their powers. I should have listened to the inner voice, it’s too late crying over spilled milk. The first time I experienced the butter and wine color wearing officials, they "impounded" a bus I was in. The passengers begged for minutes.At first I didn't care, couldn't be bothered, and was already looking for another bus. The driver was wrong. At that time, commercial buses were not allowed to drive on the middle lanes (or expressway as some people call it) on Ikorodu road; the service ...

As a proud owner of a luxurious Legedize Benz, I have been opportune to use most means of road transportation- Okada (Boda-Boda), Bicycle (Tuk-tuk), Tricycle (Keke Marwa or NAPEP), Danfo (Matatu), BRT and even Moluwe (although I am yet to board it alone). The only route I know the 5 th passenger is standard practice is on the Obalende- Oshodi route, using those buses bigger than Danfo; also if you are leaving Lagos -Abeokuta headed for Obalende/CMS before 5.20am, one is likely to encounter the 5 th passenger practice. However the bus fare will be 50 Naira less than if it was 4passengers per row. Apart from the standard practice, if you board a regular 4 passengers per row big bus and you happen to seat on the 2nd row; don't be surprised when the conductor is the 5th Passenger. This practice is not peculiar to Lagos, Nigeria only, this also happens in Nairobi, Kenya. I remember one afternoon, my girlfriends and I were headed to town in a Matatu, the conductor told us to s...

Remember the primary school prayer: Some have food but cannot eat, some can eat but have no food, we have food and we can eat, Glory be to thee oh Lord ... This prayer has been remixed by different musicians changing “God" to “Allah” and Wande Coal changing it to "Jehovah" "For the food we are about to eat, we thank you oh Lord" - FGCL dining hall prayer. A colleague once told me, I never used to say thank you as a child so my mum will take away anything given to me till I said "Thank you". Her mum wanted her to learn the importance of being thankful after a gift. If you are not thankful, things can be taking away from you. I did a couple of aptitude tests before passing out (NYSC); I didn't pass the first two while the only one I passed was dragging. After passing out, I stayed home for a couple of weeks then I started crying. "You are getting aptitude test invites indicating you met a certain criteria. All you have to do no...