Fiction and Articles

I wish I could see Santa so I could tell him that I would like to spend Christmas in Lagos. I’ve heard about the beautiful decorations and bright lights — and most importantly, the fireworks. Debby told me that her cousin, who visited Kebbi from Lagos, said the fireworks are bright and beautiful in the sky. I would really like to see them. That’s all I want for Christmas. I hear Lagos is not far; it is only twelve hours by road. I don’t even care where I will sleep or what I will eat. I just want to see the decorations and lights. I should be sleeping. I can’t wait for Creative Arts class in second period. First period is Mathematics. I don’t like maths; I like Creative Arts. Maybe when I go to Lagos, I will be able to write about my experience for all the children in my hometown. I wonder if people in my hometown have ever gone to Lagos. Maybe someday I will be a popular actress and travel to Lagos — and to other parts of the world. My mother says I’m too young to have those kinds of ...

I’ve heard the word “Grow Up” spoken around me all my life and until 48hours ago, I didn’t know what it truly meant. I assumed it meant “don’t sulk” “act your age” or maybe “get rid of things that don’t serve you”. I have now personally learned that growing up means so much more. It means acknowledging your limitations and having the courage to admit them. To learn lessons and constantly evolve. To make the best use of time-doing the things you love and the things you don’t quite love that needs to be done. It means to not say yes when you mean to say no and to say no even after you have said yes. To grow up means to recognise what counts and what doesn’t.  To control what you can and let go of what you can't control. To choose kindness always in your interactions with every human starting with yourself. To accept burning truths and use the fire to light new paths. To give yourself the grace to continue tomorrow what you didn’t finish today. As Zinoleesky said in his song “...

  I live by a farm. Yes — odd. Sometimes, when I'm working from home and in meetings, my meeting participants hear chickens clucking (please don’t tell my employers, lol). In a still moment on a cool afternoon, the birds chirp away, and I hear my estate cat meow. I named her Catrina. We avoid each other as much as possible. Eckhart Tolle often speaks about being still and present in the now. An illustration of this is when you're doing the dishes — instead of thinking about that bill you need to pay or the activities you have lined up, you rid yourself of everything but the present. You focus on what you're doing and just do it. It can be hard, but it is highly beneficial. I said to a friend a couple of days ago that it is the lie of human to make us think we need a few more things to finally be happy . The truth is, you are not where you were yesterday , and certainly, you will not be where you currently are tomorrow . The magic happens in the now — when you sip that very ...

  The simple things are becoming not so simple. For someone fascinated by STEM, I have not been able to get past a page of physics textbooks. Not a chapter, just a page. As with a lot of other things, that is seemingly becoming a challenge, including the things that I naturally love to do. For instance, I had the draft of this article a while ago but abandoned it because something else mattered –i.e. scrolling mindlessly on my phone. Also, Sundays were meant to be my reading days, but I really just want to watch Shank Comics on YouTube. A perfect work-free day is now defined as one where I get to curl up in bed all day to either watch TikTok or see a movie, and if possible, have all my meals in bed and that doesn’t seem right. A perfect work-free day should be rising up with the sun, going for a walk, a jog, running, or just soaking in nature, followed by a refreshing shower, healthy breakfast, light chores, reading, learning a recipe, or playing a musical instrument, having a ...

A few years ago, my mother would look at me in disbelief as I ate voraciously like a cocoon at late hours of the night.   She would and still say things like “you shouldn’t eat that heavy before bed” and go on to list a million reasons why. It didn’t make sense to me then. As a matter of fact, I needed the heavy meals to throw me into deep night sleep and like clockwork 10minutes after eating I will fall asleep waking up maybe once or twice during sleep for number 1. Good times, I guess. A few weeks ago, I started to notice something different. After “inhaling” my heavy meals and hitting the bed, I will start to feel a funny sensation of my food wanting to go back to my throat-a form of self-regurgitation. I didn’t think too much of it until I started to observe that the nights when this happened were nights when I went to bed just right after I ate. I do not know what to make of this. I wonder if my metabolism slowed down. I wonder if I got old. Did I get old? I hope that’s a good...

I heard lately it's been about who said what and what who said. Other people’s lives and choices have become our primary occupation as we analyse, dissect and even make up the stories as if they happened right before our eyes. Dear Nigerian Youths, who blindfolded us and turned off the lights? This is a call to action. A call to realise that the hourglass never stopped. It is time to leave that room; enough of judge and jury. It is time to build nations, invent, innovate, break grounds and groundbreaker in humanity, politics, science, fashion and art. We are in the era of slavery that is not by chains and shackles but by data bundles. Set yourself free before you are long lost and forgotten. We are the masters of our fate, the captains of our souls.   P.s: men invented cars including lambos. Spread the word.

It was one of those typical Sundays as a Nigerian living in Nigeria. If you are Christian, you will typically have gone to church and attended a church service for at least two hours. Depending on your age bracket and your family’s style, you either stop by at the market to buy food items and head home to clean and cook or you stop by at a local restaurant to have lunch. From statistics, the former was usually the case as a teenager. If you have become an adult fending for yourself, then you probably think Sunday lunch should either be made at home except you are invited over to a friend’s or relative for free food or have plans to eat out and never to be ordered. Let us assume you are a working adult, privileged enough to own your own space and have the food items in your fridge to make that Sunday rice that you can eat over and over again. The weather is hot but you are grateful for electricity, cold water in your fridge and the opportunity to “balance” with that rice, turkey and a v...

It was one of those Friday nights- around past 10pm, Vic had dragged me out to get “Turkish Shawarma” and meet his new friend Sal. I did not feel like going out initially but no sooner had we driven out and started to see the Aminu Kano streetlights of the famous Wuse 2 that I began appreciating being dragged out. It gave me Lagos vibes that was good enough for the night.     As we went round and round trying to find a place to park I was intrigued by the pick-me-up girls on the streets. How well dressed they were and how beautiful they looked. I wasn’t judging but started to think about what the stories of each one might be.     My imagination was cut short when we spotted a lady with a really really fat a$$. We will call her Lady E. She had those behinds that you cannot deny and she cat-walked the road as if she was on a runway.     A couple of minutes after with shawarma in hand, Vic, Sally and I went back to where we were parked just close by ...

P.s- Happy Birthday to our Author 

  I can’t be here for you today, Kamsi, no. I know he left you without words and your tummy hurts. Kamsi, today, I want to put on my finest jewelry and cook for my man. Did I also tell you I have to pick up the kids from school? My manager called. I just might get that promotion I had mentioned over and over again. Kamsi, look, you must get a hold of yourself. I have many more important things to do today Kamsi and none of your rants will take us anywhere or put money in our pockets. Today, Kamsi, only today- let me be the star of the story; talking about how I’ve made all this money and how the men can’t get enough of my body. Kamsi, today I do not want to hear your advice. How my waist can be slimmer, my breast fuller or my bums wider-no Kamsi. Kamsi, I say all these in my head even as I swipe my phone to the right as your call comes in the second time. I exhale as the words finally roll from my now open mouth. “Kamsi I’m so sorry. I saw your message. Tell me all ...

Have you ever wondered if our destinies have been set such that we have no control over anything, and the joke of the divine is for us to think that we are?   Those were my thoughts as I turned over the remaining pages of the book Victory City by Salman Rushdie. A book that took me nearly three months to finish, which in hindsight, I suppose had been destined to be finished at a certain location. The thought about destiny became more intriguing because I had been reading about a “Victory City” that never came real to me until I found myself on a hammam slab in downtown Marrakech. In that moment, it occurred to me that Marrakech symbolized victory city. In that city, I was visited by the divine, thrice, in the most unorthodox way. The first time was at the hammam I earlier mentioned, the second at a local shopping store and the third was on my final day at a Riad. The divine gave me Victory City, Hajib and Good Luck. At the end of it all, we are all living beings with organs...

I had coined this name for myself a couple of months back. Cheesy yet cool. I like to pride myself in being a Lagos girl. I will shout it to the rooftop and tell it on the mountains. The best place to be in the world is Lagos, Nigeria. Maybe, someday, I will write about that. But today’s article is different. It's about my experience indeed as a Lagos Girl in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria. The F.C.T isn’t new to me. I had been here numerous times either for school, work, leisure, or vacation but a couple of weeks ago, a new reality dawned on me when for the first time in my existence I booked a one-way trip to Abuja. My flight tickets were always for round trips. Thankfully I had familiar faces to welcome me and friends’ kind enough to give me shelter and take me out to dinner. But after a couple of days, I started to ask myself questions and at a point I even shed a few tears. I am a Nigerian through and through and I count it a privilege to live in a community ...

I had just watched “To Kill A Tiger” an emotional documentary centered around a 13-year old girl who had been gang raped by three young adults in her community. The girl’s family had reported to the police and sought justice from the courts. The community started to pressure the girl’s father saying he should marry her off to one of the boys who had raped her to take away the “stain” from her and recover his right standing in society. This was my first time encountering the “marry-your-rapist” notion. After two hours and a few tears shed, I finished the documentary and wrote a caption I intended to post on my WhatsApp story. The caption went thus “Any society that supports the marry-your-rapist notion should have a place worse than hell reserved for them”. Just before I hit the post icon, I typed the word marry your rapist in google and found that it was a law or concept that protected the honour of a rape victim. It still did not make sense to me. Who started this and how did it st...

  "Chika, you know I don’t believe in International Women’s Day. We already have Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Children’s Day. Which one is Women’s Day again? If anything, we should thank the women who fought for equality of rights in the 18 th /19 th century. And that’s even the fault of their generation that had men with a different mentality and believed so much in patriarchy. Also, I don’t mind patriarchy if my Father, Brother and Husband are doing what is right and looking after me and providing for me. I am a woman with breasts and periods. With a womb and back to carry children. Nature has already assigned me responsibilities. It is fine. I am okay. I am complete. Whether I can vote or not. Whether I have property or not. Whether I am educated or not. I know this might sound shallow but that is just my unpopular opinion on a popular day."   To the real women, who despite the odds, show up every day. Every day is your day.

  Seek and you shall find.  P.s- fadekealabi106@gmail.com

In the days when you need light on a dark path, I hope some of these lessons can be your torch. 1.    A positive atmosphere is everything. 2.        God will come to you as you think He is.   3.       Good always prevails.   4.       It will stop when you stop it.   5.       The answer is usually in the question.   6.       You cannot help people’s perception of you.   7.       Always extend grace.   8.       Givers never lack.   9.       Suffering is an illusion.   10.   Recognize bus stops.   11.   Not all friendships should lead to relationships.   12.   Follow the signs, trust the process.   13.   What you really need must come to you.    14.   The Universe is always ...

Today , I said I was going to read the book of Philemon but didn’t remember till I opened the blinds and shut the door ready to go for work. Why did I do that again? I barely spent time with my maker and I’m wondering why I’m not singing in tongues or memorizing the word. I fe el the overwhelming guilt from switching from W hats A pp to blogs, to Instagram and then T i k-T ok. I will do it later tonight ; I say . I will spend time with my maker . Still, I’m back in bed after a long day and all I want to do is to catch up with YouTube - of course after I have returned all the calls of my loved ones. I don’t even have time for H im I think to myself, but then, in a moment, and as a still small voice, I hear the word so loudly “ You never left, and H e never left you ”. You see, H e was there when you woke up feeling astray. When things were not adding up and you were wondering when the next cheque will come. When you realised once again that there’s no one to make break...