Friday 14 October 2016

Behind The Blue Helmets

... as he got into his room, just seconds after kissing his sofa, the lights went out. He knew that meant perpetual darkness till dawn. The only device which illuminated the obscurity was his Android phone.

All he ever wanted was everything, but now it seemed he had a basket full of voidness.
Brenny found solitude in company of the soft tune which emanated from his phone. This night of course, he had decided to find a reminiscence in the tune which he chose. He wasnt a jazz lover, but this night wasn't a regular one and so he decided to play Kenny G's "Alone".
As the sound filtered into his ears, the rush of memories both positive and negative came running through his mind. This made him shudder;
How on earth did he get into this kind of life.
The war in Syria had made him to be deployed by the United Nations on a peacekeeping mission.
Brenny never envisaged such a clarion call would be made to him. At least he was just a junior officer who in fact saw himself as being inexperienced.
ALAS, the General didn't see him in that light.
Given just a day to pack up and head towards Syria, he saw his life change like the weather. In normal circumstances this would be regarded as a promotion but not in this scenario, the rebels in Syria amassed unquantifiable pleasure from placing a kiss on the heads of any one wearing a blue helmet through the bullets of their mac five (a lovely gun which had the weakness of not showing love).

Brenny thought at least he would be deployed to a less violent area in syria but providence had a "better" plan for him; he was deployed to western Aleppo, Syria.
He had heard on the news and seen disturbing graphics of the war torn place.

Brenny thought about what happened on the line of battle earlier in the day. The rebel forces had gradually taken over the area and so the troops had a tough time trying to ward them off. Both sides sought to take cover in the bosom of the remains of fallen walls.
In the duel, a young lad ran into the midst of the beautiful habitually flying bullets. In the twinkling of an eye, he laid lifeless on the floor amidst risen dust. He had been hit by multiple bullets.
The sight was gory. The life of a lad of about 7 years of age had been abruptly summarized.
Brenny couldn't stand the sight, he knew he was destined to be a soldier but not one who would face a civil war. He had fainting feets. The troop successfully drove the rebels to a distance but a significant casualty had occurred. The lad was gone and this had gradually become a ritual, whereby little kids were hit by stray and even straight bullets.
Brenny thought about how long this would continue. Was the country going to be utterly destroyed like the Amalekites or was the war going to come to a definite end soon.

The music gradually came to an end signaling the need to get some rest in anticipation for another day of bloodshed and gnashing of teeth.

Da Jandy.

Tuesday 11 October 2016

The Encounter. (Fiction)

He picked up the bible and flipped it open...
The passage which surfaced was Psalm 121:5, it read thus "The LORD watches over you... the LORD is your shade at your right hand".
Mike had just lodged in the hotel close to the conference centre. He had arrived at Garki for the conference which was slated to commence the next day. He checked into the hotel and freshened up. It was in his relaxation mood, that he sighted the book placed on the shelf. He discovered it was a bible...

Mike wasn't an atheist but neither was he a strong Christian. He attended church services occasionally when he didn't have an appointment on some Sundays.
He pondered on these words from the bible for a while before hitting the comfy mattress. Even in that state, for the first time in his life, he couldn't just take his mind off what he just read. He was perturbed by the wordings of the bible passage.
What actually aggravated this thought, was the fact that the bible verse which he had just read applied to what had transpired on his way to Abuja.
Mike had planned to attend the conference in Garki and so getting his things ready on the date of his journey, he invited a cab man to pick him up from his house at about 8am on Sunday morning in order to catch his 9am flight to Garki.
On his way to the domestic airport, he almost got killed by a trailer whose driver had swerved off his lane only to face the opposite lane head on. The cab man could manoeuvre his way out of deaths way and both men were safe.
He boarded the 45 minutes flight to Garki and took a cab to his hotel accommodation.
He wondered as he laid on his bed what would have happened if the trailer had collided with the cab he had entered.
Finally after a while, he postulated that the salvation was orchestrated by a superior force which was God.

From that moment on, Mike never stopped trusting in the Lord. Those two incidents, paved a way for Mike to finally have a reorientation about life and the saving grace of Jesus.
He now believes that God is life and He alone is able to keep humanity from falling.

Da Jandy.

Saturday 1 October 2016

How Come, How Long.... Independence Reminiscence

He remembered the 30th of
september, 1960... His mother had excitedly cooked enough to feed an army and his father had gone out to find fireworks as was everybody
in the country.
High life music softly played and
the scent of fried animals wafted around his nose. It was exactly 10pm and in two hours time,
nigeria will be made independent.

He watched his senior sister, Nwanka as she pulled off her
shoes and staggered a little bit.... She said a drunken 'kedu' and a scream of 'independence'.
Nwanka will surely miss that her white boyfriend but then good riddance to bad rubbish. It was an anamazing time, Nigeria for once was just one people awaiting freedom.

He saw the yoruba
professor across the street engaged in a heated but friendly argument with the hausa vendor and laughed... He went back to the
sitting room and sat down beside his stonedsister...
'Nwanka, you know daddy is going to kill you...'
His senior sister eyed him ' Obinze, biko..apu maka'.. And she stumbled back to the room...
He started dozing off until he heard the national anthem playing, he checked his watch...11:55pm...he rushed out into the neigbourhood,
his parents and his now sober sister were already singing in tune to the anthem with the neigbours 'Nigeria we hail thee....' After singing,
they put up the national flag of green and white and saluted it, and then the allnight party began...he sipped his drink as he double checked the time '00:00..1st october, 1960'...he raised his glass cup to the flag 'Happy birthday, Nigeria'

56 years later.....
'Grandpa, so why would we celebrate?' ike asked
76 years old Obinze smiled at his 20 years old grandson 'because it is our country... Listen young man, you all ...youths of these days only know how to complain... In my days, we lived for what we believed in.

I lost your grandmother in
that stupid civil war... For Biafra, yes i did! But it never came... What of the likes of Zik of Africa or Awolowo...or Ken Tsaro Wiwa who died while trying to tell the truth... You all complaining about some hard times, we saw hard times son!
Military regimes, civil wars. Nigeria has always had problems and we have always found a way out and we will find a way out again...so quit
whining and get me a bottle of whisky'....

Ike laughed and poured two shots of whisky...giving one to his grandfather...
Obinze downed it and looked at the Nigerian flag in his son's study
'God bless Nigeria...' he whispered..

The national anthem continued playing on the radio... '.... To serve our father's land with love and strength and faith....the labour of our heros past shall never be in vain......'

It is october 1st 2016 and we are wishing Nigeria a happy
birthday...you should know that you are getting old already...God bless you,we love you and
Africa loves you!

By
#DeeAdebayo

(Edited for blogging by Da Jandy)