Author: Uché

So if you will be visiting with family and friends, there are some activities to look forward to. Nigerians schedule weddings, child dedications, birthdays, and even car launches for the end of the year. To help you prepare for these festivities, we have made a list.

Aguba was inconsolable. He woke up sobbing but his wife did not move a muscle even though she was awake. It was becoming a usual occurrence for Aguba to wake up at times like this and she was already getting tired of asking. Some nights he wakes up happy, some other nights, he cries out in pain.

Every year in December, millions of Nigerians go to church on Christmas Eve. They crowd shoulder-to-shoulder in “batchers”, kiosks or domes to light candles and sing “Silent Night”. A lot of persons participate in plays that recreate the birth of Jesus. And when the service is over, they exchange hearty “Merry Christmas!” wishes before beginning the trek home.

“Parents who take their children home in this time just deceive themselves. How much can a child learn in less than two weeks about a culture you never mention to them all through the year? After that time, till the next year again. I believe that all a child needs to know about their culture, they can learn from their parents”.

Amadi looked her and smiled. Indeed, God was in support of his next move. After the dibia had told him of the nature of the sacrifice required to bring him out of his predicament, he had asked God for a sign. He knew it was wrong by all standards to kill an infant, but he was at his wits end. So he prayed and God, seemingly, heard.

“In Nigeria, people with mental health conditions are often considered as being possessed by evil spirits or demons,” writes the nonprofit group Human Rights Watch, which is currently campaigning to convince leaders of African countries to end the practice of shackling mentally ill people. “In some camps, people are chained to trees, where they would bathe, defecate, urinate, eat, and sleep, some for years.”

Most women in marriages, especially in Africa, always bear the brunt of angry parents-in-law when a couple has to deal with infertility. But studies have shown that the bulk of problem come from men and it has been termed the ‘male factor”. Between 45 and 50 percent of cases are thought to stem from factors that affect the man.

“In Igbo Land, it is important that everyone sees that you are pregnant when you are pregnant. Start with the Igwe’s wife for example. Everybody is supposed to see her pregnant. They will celebrate it and even assign people to help her as her baby grows. Apart from this, traditionally, it is improper to have another woman bear the heir to the throne. That’s infidelity. Most children born that way are exempted. The bottom line is that there has to be a seen proof of pregnancy.

No fewer than five people have perished in a tanker crash around the Felele axis, along the Abuja-Lokoja highway.

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said the 2019 edition of Abuja Carnival will be decentralised and will hold in area councils of the FCT, instead of restricting it to a few venues in the city centre. Mohammed said that will elicit more participation by the residents of the FCT.

Have you ever looked at your children and wondered if they are truly yours? In recent years, three out of every ten Nigerian men have been made to raise children that are not theirs. They have been deceived by lying and unfaithful wives. So they cater for children from infancy to adulthood only to be knocked out by shocking revelations later on. The beast in some of these men has been triggered and some have been influenced to maim.

So he took her hand, turned her to himself and reiterated, “I would never do anything to hurt you, Aisha. I’d rather die”. She smiled and kissed him. She didn’t want promises; all the men she had met never kept any. She loved him and she was grateful he felt the same way. “If you die, I die”, she thought, but she didn’t say anything.

They have been shamed for their lack of achievements, their struggling careers, and the likes. Individuals from the comforts of their homes, throw hurtful words around and trigger depressive tendencies. The worst is when these persons speak up about things that plague them or about the voices in their heads, you begin to hear things like, “no be only you suffer pass”, “the suffering na everywhere” or “if you see wetin other people dey go through, you go know say your own better pass”.

About three weeks ago, I saw a really good-looking young man. From where I sat in the moving bus, he looked well and happy. He was walking down the road like someone who needed to be somewhere and the briefcase he was carrying looked cool. With just one look at him, you may not tell that there was something off about him. But my curiosity, or is it lust, did not allow me to take off my eyes.

You might have heard the statement “if you are born of a woman, then…” or “if na woman born you, then…”. When you hear it, what comes to mind? In most conversations, especially in Nigeria, that statement is a call to validate one’s existence. And if you cannot, at any point, ascertain that you came from a woman, then you are considered abnormal. The question now is: has anyone stopped to consider that a child can come from a man? Absurd. I agree. It is not ‘normal’, but have you considered the possibility? “Where have you ever heard that a…

The debtor walked in and it was the town’s brute. Head of the agberos and king of ‘boys’, Capone was the devil in flesh. Ochanya could not imagine being the wife of the man who had ruined the lives of most girls in the community, but she had no choice.

Intersex individuals are not homosexuals; transgender maybe, but not homosexual. Wearing feminine clothing does not make one a homosexual. The homosexual orientation is one that has very little to do with physical appearance. It has more to do with emotionally connecting or sexually/romantically connecting with people of the same sex, a psychologist pointed out.

The next time he walked into the area, he came in with three scary-looking boys. Ugwu was ready to take out his obstacle and its carrier. He wasn’t going to allow anything to get in the way of his admission; the first one after writing JAMB for eight years.

Nigerians on Twitter woke up three days ago to the buzz about a certain woman and her “husband” who allegedly are scammers. The shocking revelation about their “disguised” dealings and operations came to light when she put up a vacancy ad.

All year round, there are one hundred and fifty-six international days to celebrate people, talk about issues and raise awareness. Amongst these days are seven days that are specifically incorporated to celebrate women and talk about their issues. Only seven. Yet most Nigerian men complain that the world celebrates one gender more than the other. They say they are burdened by the number of gifts they have to buy every year to celebrate the women in their lives.

Adeola handed her cellphone to the terrified young man, who surprisingly stayed back. In a nod, she asked him to read out the message she just received. He obeyed. It read: YOUR TIME IS UP. She heaved a sigh and closed her eyes.