MONTEÈCLAIRS TRANSFORMATION INITIATIVE

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE GIRL FROM THE OTHER SIDE? I got posted to the north for my service year. My people cried, begged and began to call my nonexistent uncles, aunties, somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody in NYSC to change my posting. Somehow they all forgot about me. While the drama was going on – and really it was based on genuine concern and love, I gently packed my ‘kaya’   and prepared myself for one year of adventure in God’s own land without the nerve racking gaze from my folks. Suddenly, as though someone was prompted, they remembered to ask me what my thoughts where. This was my response,   ‘are people living there? (Jigawa) Yes. Is God there? Yes. Therefore if people are there and God is there, then I am safe. I would be afraid if God wasn’t there. But as long as God is there, I am cool and I am going.’ That is my general attitude to life and the unfamiliar. It's the same attitude I had towards marriage and see where it landed me - in the han

JESUS VS RELIGION I’ve got a  controversial Cousin , and his name is Louis. Loius can  ‘TALK for Africa’!!! Ha! It’s like he only hears himself. And most of the time, all he ever wants to talk about is the bible and God. Recently i took him up on his decision to quit church (as in a building), especially since God dwells in us. He had to fill a form somewhere and got to the ‘religion’ line. The options were: ‘Christian, Moslem and others’ , and my dear bible-spitting cousin deliberately chose ‘others’, He gave long explanations (most of which i can’t remember...an avalanche of words...lol), but one question he asked lingered, ‘What really is Christianity to you, is it a religion or not or more?’ As you attempt answering that question, i wonder what Jesus would say about our faith/religion today.Watch this video and share your thoughts. Yours truly, Beryl 

Sometimes I sit and complain about why I wasn’t born in another country with a ‘golden-spoon’, why I didn’t study another course in school; I hear others complain about the witches pursuing them from their village, how they wish Dangote was their father or in-law, they complain about unemployment & the failing economy is ‘forcing’ them into criminal activities e.g. ‘boko-haramism’, ‘419ing’, kidnapping, armed robbery, corporate begging, get-rich-quick-schemes and the likes… If there’s such a fellow around you, please do this little exercise,   ‘look them eyeball-to-eyeball and say SIMEON!’ SIMEON! First time I met him was at rehearsals in prep for ‘Worship Unscripted’     organized by Mr. Toyin Adebola. I marveled as he played the bass guitar with such dexterity. Touching what was ‘supposed’ to be his hand (no palms, just a wrist), I was awed at what it could do and I couldn’t. ‘do you eat eba’, I asked. ‘I do everything’ , he said. Wow!   I couldn’t wait to know m

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. "What food might this contain?" the mouse wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning: "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it." The mouse turned to the pig and told him "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers." The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for yo

I was flipping the newspaper, still pissed at the comments i was getting from Nigerians on my Facebook wall  based on a picture of the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Andrew Pocock donating blood in Abuja and the Nigerian President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, at a birthday party in Ibadan, Oyo state just 24hours after the Nyanya bomb blast, when my eyes caught it,... ‘Slacktivism’! ‘ Slacktivism ’, is a condition we’re all suffering from even though it’s not peculiar to Nigerians. The term, which was coined by Dwight Ozard and Fred Clark in 1995, is a combined word for ‘ slacker and activist ’. It was coined to deride those who offer online support to causes in order to feel sane or at least assuage their feelings for or against a certain issue without actually doing something constructive about it. These ‘feel-good’ measures according to +Deola Kayode (punch newspaper) include likes, tweets & re-tweeting for a cause, signing online petitions, changing profile pictur

During my service year in Dutse, Jigawa state, I had to assist my choir director score a song and so I was given a cassette player to take home. On getting home as usual there was no light and of course one could never predict when the light would come so weighing my options I decided to get batteries for the player. About a day or two later, Nepa gave light and I rushed to my room, got the player out and pressed play. No sound. 'Arrrghhhh! Not now! not today!' I screamed in my mind. I took the player, fidgeted here and there, checked the wires, checked the power circuit point, pressed off and on again and then pressed Play. No sound. Ah, how can this be happening I thought to myself. I grabbed the player, dashed off to another Corper's room, plugged it and pressed play.  No sound. Now I stopped being confused and moved over to being worried.' Ah, this player is not mine. How do I now explain to the owner that the Player which was working is now bad. How much allowee