MEMOIRS OF PISCES (episode 3)

ANNIE

Annie had walked to the end of the long street before finally going back home the day she had the interview. That night, sleep eluded her. She had prayed more than ever that night and had conversed with her subconscious about the worse that could happen if she didn't get that job. She had decided that a lot of worse things will happen if she didn't get the job or any other soon. She had to do something quickly.

Today made it a month since after the interview and still no feedback from that company. Even the other companies she applied to still haven't called her. Most days, she felt depressed and frustrated, other days she felt completely disconnected from the world, her environment and her family. She had stopped calling home and stopped taking their calls as well. she had stopped going to church and totally blanked out from even herself. She needed that closure.

On this particular night, she decided to visit her regular online job sites to check for vacancies and to apply. The light had been fluctuating since morning and just as she was about plugging in her laptop to charge, it was lights out again. So she decided to go for her routine stroll.

...............

The stroll was therapeutic as usual. She was able to enjoy the noise and the chaos of Idewu street. The noise came in varieties; cars honking, okadas zooming past like flying bats with the riders not caring if they knocked the wind out of anyone in their way and the passengers cussing and praying under their breath to arrive their destination without breaking a leg, film rentals shop owners competing for attention as they blasted igbo, yoruba and foreign songs, barbing salons entertaining just one customer with hit songs from Wizkid and other young Nigerian artistes, little kids playing outside their compounds and waiting for their parents to return from work or their hustles and full time housewives who's decided to trade in the evenings only, displaying their wares of sweets, oranges and roasted corn by the road side, haggling prices with customers excitedly.

It was indeed a beautiful chaotic symphony of voices and people she thought as she walked back home.

......................

The light was back by the time she got home and she quickly plugged her laptop. She heard a knock on her door and went to check reluctantly. It was Mama David. Gosh! the woman was a pain in her neck.

"Good evening Mama David"
"Erm, Annie, how nau? Abeg give me salt there"
"Okay. I'm coming"
Annie went to her cupboard and brought out a sachet of salt and handed it over to Mama David. With her face lit up in excitement, Mama David exclaimed with gratitude.
"Hei! Thank you o! Chai, this one go last me for one month. Eya! You do well for me my dear."
Annie rolled her eyes and quickly smiled as she replied,
"No wahala Ma. Good night"

Annie sighed with relief as she bolted her door. Her neighbors won't be the death of her she mused. They were always coming to borrow one thing or the other from her and she was tired already cos she couldn't find herself refusing them. Mama David was a mother of five and a full time house wife whose husband found joy in bashing her face every month like a tradition so she found herself particularly nice to the woman. The other women in the compound found her as a resource house too and sometimes, it could be really exhausting but she indulged them anyways. In this part of Lagos, no man or woman is an Island.

...........................

She was undressing for bed when her phone rang. She picked it up to check and when she saw the caller ID, she cussed under her breath as this was the last person she wanted to speak with but she picked anyways.

"Hi Terry"
"Hey babe! What's up?"
"I'm alright, thanks." Terry said excitedly
"Ummm, look Terry, I thought about our conversation. I'll give it a shot but you'll have to give me more time" Annie said
"Nada babe, I'm outside your house like right now. We have to go now. I already talked to the manager of the place about you and he's dying to meet you in person"
"Oh no... I'm not prepared Terry" Annie replied worried
"Come on! Just wear whatever you have and I'll handle the rest"
Annie hesitated for a bit before replying "Okay. Just give me some minutes"

Annie hung up and scratched her head. This is going to be a long night, she thought out loud. She was scared but she had to go with the flow. What she's going for, who she's going to meet, was something she'll beat herself over when she returned in the morning for now, she wasn't going to over think things.

She dressed up and went out to meet Terry.

MEMOIRS OF PISCES (episode 2)

DAREN 

Daren was already exhausted by the time he got home. He didn't find the experience at the airport funny at all; although, he had been given a heads up by his friend, Femi. The moment he had arrived at the MMIA, he had received the warmest and most sycophantic welcome ever. The attendants at the airport were so friendly and helpful that he had fallen completely for their over resourcefulness. Everyone wanted to be of help to him and try as he might to assure them that he could manage his luggage, they insisted. By the time he was cleared, he had spent over twenty thousand Naira out of the money he could manage to change, on "settling" everyone that "helped" him. He had been washed with relief when he had finally sighted his good friend, Femi.

Now, as they drove through the streets of Lagos catching up on old times, he couldn't help but marvel at how things had changed. Everywhere looked so beautiful. Not particularly spic and span but really different from the Lagos he had left fifteen years ago as a teenager.

By the time they drove into Lekki, he was amazed. Femi noticed the look on his face and laughed. He was more impressed when they finally got to the house that his Mom had prepared for him. She knew he liked white and thus ensured that the house was white in every way possible; just like the one he had left in England. He didn't like it; yes he was impressed but he didn't like it. It looked too fake; almost like the architect wanted to clone his house back home.  He looked at Femi and frowned. Femi knew that look and immediately went defensive,

"Come on Buddy, tell me you love this place. It took us a lot of time and effort to get this one for you"
"Well, not really but it'll do for a week at least and then I'll move out" Daren replied in his rich British accent while still looking around
"A week?!" Femi exclaimed trying to hold in his laughter before continuing. "Daren, your Mom has paid for this place, two years in advance. She totally loves it and feels it'll be like home away from home" he paused to see if that would have any effect on Daren.

Daren wasn't surprised but he was upset that as usual, his Mom has had her way again. He sighed and asked,
"How many rooms are there?"
"Three rooms" Femi answered
"Alright" he shrugged  and followed Femi as he gave him a tour of the house.

............................

It was a three bedroom serviced apartment with a gym, a pool side and a view of the Ikoyi link Bridge. It was tastefully furnished and the furniture was completely French. Everything had Mom's name written all over it and though, the house looked sophisticated with a great view, he still didn't like it. It reminded him of England which has no place in his reveries yet but still he would have to learn to like the house if he was going to live in it for two years.

..............................

The door bell rang and without waiting for a response, the visitor opened the door and walked in with sure unhurried steps. Daren rolled his eyes and smiling fondly, he went to the living room to meet the only woman he could never argue with. Mom.

DRUM NETWORK AFRICA: THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC IN NIGERIA, AFRICA.

Back in the day, I used to love watching music concerts on TV but something always put me off while watching those shows; the fake mimes and lip syncing from the artistes. I would always ask myself why they didn't just do live performances in the real sense of it. After all, people paid money to come watch them 'perform'and not lip sync. I mean, we've heard the studio version of your song that's been padded with so much fine tuning and digital accompaniments that made it sound beautiful. How about giving us some real tunes "straight outta you". Thoughts like these were usually made up for when I listened to the music maestro, Fela and his Egypt 80' band. His, is what I referred to as real music for the soul. But still, I believed that something could still be done to remedy this situation.

Then last year, I had a talk with Solomon Elijah; popularly known as Soulman Eli, a Mechanical Engineer and Mathematician, who found his passion in making soul fetching music as an Instrumentalist on the drums.

Solomon Elijah (CEO Drum Network Africa)

I asked him the reason artistes do not employ the services of instrumentalists on stage instead of lip syncing and he explained, that these instrumentalists end up being short payed and exploited. He sighted an instance where, an artiste could be paid about 5 million Naira for a show but when he/she wants to pay an instrumentalist for performing along side, the pay could range between #30,000 to #80,000. For him; the fact was, artistes do not provide good patronage to these musicians. At the end of the day, it looks like only the artiste makes the music while the core music makers are side lined. This was part of the reason he had started the organisation he called, Drum Network Africa. I was intrigued by the amazing details of this journey he had embarked on since 2011.

In the course of our conversation, I went further to ask him about the objectives of his organisation and he had this to say;

''We are committed to promoting drumming and performing arts. The whole idea is born out of the need to empower people in the performing arts and give them a level playing field of expression like other professionals in other fields. We engage in training, recruitment and promotions for people in the performing arts.

One of our major events called Drumxtreme Series, sits about 3000 audience annually.  We partner with media houses and arts organisations across University Campuses in the country. Over the years, Drumxtreme series has become a strong brand name amongst musicians in the performing arts industry."

"Impressive!" I thought. Talking about the Drum Xtreme Series, I later on attended the event at Unilag that year and the turn up was massive. I was more impressed to see that some veterans in the entertainment industry were in attendance. Here are some photos of them.

Dan Foster ( Veteran On Air Personality & Mc of the Drum Extreme Series 2)

Pappy J (Music Producer & member of P-Square's 14 man music band)

Bimbo Akintola (Nollywood Actress) &Tee Mac Iseli (Percussionist and Ex PMAN President)

This is a first of it's kind in Nigeria and according to Solomon, 

"Drumxtreme series is an urban Drum and live music show that showcases musicians popularly known as instrumentalists as front line artiste. This way, we are telling the society that there are individuals who work equally hard and need their own share of visibility and promotion.                We're bringing them to limelight. The show is not restricted to drumming; it's all encompassing of all'

So, for all you lovers of real and live music, Drum Xtreme Series 5 tagged; "Drum Xtreme Evolution: Rise of the Drum Machine" is happening again this year and the T shirts and face caps are out for grabs. There's no fixed date yet for the event but trust me to bring you the details of the date and venue. 

For your viewing pleasure, below are some of the varieties of colours for the shirts and face caps.

P.S

Check out website at www.drumnetworkafrica.com
And also check out my Youtube videos by copying these links

http://bit.ly/2ffWJuC

http://bit.ly/2xyKao9

http://bit.ly/2xrMhZ2

TUNDE ANIMASHAUN: AUN STAFF AND HIS RE-BRANDING OF YOLA.

I live in Lagos state, Nigeria; one of the most populated and lively cities in the world. Anyone who knew me while I was still a student in the university considered me lucky and "foreign or janded". To them, Lagos state was the "Yankee"of Nigeria. Well, I couldn't argue because I sort of felt a bit that way. Then, when I went to Yola in Adamawa state for NYSC, friends and family went into a fit on my behalf. They weren't happy at the reality of me going to serve in Yola. However, I did.

With time, I got to find out that several misconceptions about the place were truly false. It saddened me to realize then that, most of what I had heard about the North East weren't completely true. The media was too quick to carry the tales of woes and displacement in those areas, perpetrated by the Boko Haram insurgents. Thus, they failed to extensively propagate the stories of recoveries, reconciliation, restoration and peace of most of those areas, especially Adamawa state. The beauty, culture, art, people and life of these areas had become overshadowed by the sound of fear that resonated with their names. As a result of that, investors too were quick to pack up and leave.

I saw and met people in Adamawa state who loved the peace and serenity of the area and wished that there were more social activities, institutions and innovations that could keep body and soul together away from the hustles of Lagos. With time, some of them had to leave to seek the "fast life" outside Yola.

Fast forward to now, a lot of work has been going on through the efforts of individuals, groups, organisations and institutions in Yola.  The American University of Nigeria is one of the major agents of change operating in all levels to see to it that the later glory of Adamawa state is greater than the former.  For the prestigious, all hands must be on deck to restore Yola.

I particularly met an outstanding fellow, Mr. Tunder Animashaun who  works as the Senior Manager, Retail and Business Services at AUN. Quite an intelligent personality he is. At first, I was intrigued by the great ideas he shared with me about his own steps to re-branding Yola but I was more wowed with the materials he had created with his team to actualize those ideas.

Mr. Tunde Animashaun (Senior Manager, Retail and Business Services, AUN)

He had made; customized T shirts that had, artistically designed, the famous Yola calabash sculpture that sat elegantly in the middle of the town.

AUN students modelling the shirts

South African student of AUN wearing the shirt

Left: Dr. Lionel Rawlins (Ass. Vice President for Safety & Security, AUN), Middle: AUN student, Right: Mr. Tunde Animashaun 

When I asked Mr. Tunde about his inspiration for such a move, he had this to say.

"We identified the need to promote our host community and let the world know that good things are happening in Yola, Nigeria and that, Yola is the host state of the American University of Nigeria despite the negative media reports about the North Eastern Region. Our aim is to get the T shirts to travel around the world.

All countries and cities around the world have their own challenges but the message portrayed goes a long way in affecting the perception of potential visitors.People travel to cities around the world like Paris, London, NewYork, Dubai, Madrid etc and they come back with souvenirs indicating they had visited such cities. So, we feel we can do the same for Yola"

I was impressed by his response and thus went further to ask about what he hoped to achieve with such a campaign. He enthusiastically answered;

"We want people to know about Yola so that they can be eager to research and know more about the state hence, consider investing therein and developing the peoples well-being in the end'

At the end of the chat with him, I was overwhelmed with joy at the fact that, this man is taking this bold step to promote a state that he's not even an indigent but because, he's Nigerian and he's a stake holder in the welfare of Nigeria. A Yoruba man promoting a Northern region is definitely worthy of emulation. I wish we'll have more individuals, groups, organisations and institutions such as the AUN who'll shift their attention towards the North East for this same aim.

Mr. Tunde Animashaun in his cultural regalia

Most people would love to do such things in states like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and maybe Calabar because of the dominance such news would gain in the media. But I think that if such innovative moves, that breaks and demystifies the negative preconceptions of the North East extends from Yola to other parts of North, revival and growth will come to all areas of that part of Nigeria.

Thumbs Up Mr. Tunde. Keep up the great work! 😊

P.S

If you've missed out on previous episodes of Frankly Speaking with Glory on Youtube. Kindly click the links below to catch up. 👇👇

http://bit.ly/2xplqNa

http://bit.ly/2hoZB9f

http://bit.ly/2ffWJuC