Imagine having to leave a high-paid job as Principal of the prestigious Federal Government College which is regarded across West Africa as the best among equals in the field of education. That was exactly what His Royal Majesty UKOHA did when his maternal uncle passed on from the throne. The Community wanted no other than the distinguished academician who knew nothing of traditional headship but had spent the greater part of his life within the four walls of classrooms either as a student or teacher. Ever since his ascension to the throne in a kingdom founded by a woman, His Majesty has changed the perception of his people from that of hewers of wood and pitchers of water, peasant farmers and warriors to that of intellectuals, successful industrialists and international merchants. He has also completely eradicated illiteracy, gender discrimination, laziness and hooliganism from amongst his people. In a culture where Kings are entitled to marry as many wives as there are beautiful maidens around, His Majesty is constrained by his religious inclination to remain attached to his glamorous wife who also had to subjugate her role as school Headmistress to adorning the regal beads and playing the role of “First Lady.” Their twenty years on the throne is being marked this month with pomp and pageantry and by exhibition of cultural displays amidst recognition of eminent citizens among whom is one Chief EBULU whose illustrations spanning over a period of more than fifty years, could be found in the pages of most school textbooks used across Africa and beyond. Surely, this event and the personalities deserve emulation; to serve as role model to other communities where the primitive lifestyle has remain unchanged.

POPE's VISIT TO BENIN: Blessing or Curse?

As we approach the end of count-down to the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Benin republic, it can easily be seen that Cotonou the commercial nerve-centre is becoming cleaner than ever before. This new look of a city that was almost hitherto assuming an epidemic level of filthiness is not, however, without collateral damage. Structures adjoining the pavement of most roads and boulevards across the city which serve as business centres or workshops for various types of economic activities have been completely pulled down by agents of the Municipal Council. Ironically, it is the same Council that collects various taxes and rates in respect of these business places on monthly basis, and one wonders how they hope to make up for the losses which happen to constitute a greater percentage of their revenue base. The effect of this demolition exercise is that more than 30% of businesses in the city have suddenly come to indefinite standstill with the attendant hardship it has brought to hundreds of thousands of breadwinners. The Pontif's visit is to last just four days, but the demolition exercise started since more than one month, and the big question is how much longer the victims will stay without regular income. The ripple effect is already being felt at the international markets and restaurants and bars which have suddenly started recorded low or zero customer traffic. Some desperate traders are said to be planning a mild display of placards during the reception of the august visitor in front of the national stadium to register their plight.Their argument is that since the theme of the Pope's visit is "RECONCILIATION," that government should also consider RECONSTRUCTION of their knocked-down structures or REHABILITATION of law-abiding business people.

NEW EDITION SOLAR COOKING OVEN by Vincent NNANNA

MATERIALS NEEDED:
1 Any dark coloured plastic bowl
2 Recyclable carton sheets
3 Black waterproof sheets
4 Inexpensive reflective louvre blades
5 Super glue

METHOD OF ASSEMBLAGE
Recyclable sheets of carton are trimmed to fit round the interior of the plastic bowl to act as insulation against heat loss. Back side of the tinted reflective louvre blades are further darkened by pasting black waterproof sheets to intensify reflectiveness of the mirrored surface. These blades are thereafter layered round the plastic bowl. The cooking pot is set on top of a little piece of wood at the centre of the bowl ensuring that sun rays act directly on the pot from all angles. Water pasteurization point can be achieved in less than 30 minutes. Most cereals car be cooked in less than one hour.

SOLAR COOKER AT SCHOOLS

Vincent NNANNA has successfully concluded working tour of parts of Ohafia Educational sub-zone in Abia State Nigeria conducting on-hands solar cooker training of students and teachers of selected secondary schools. Above video shows students of Federal Government College building their own solar cookit.
Students of another international school entertain the trainer with some home-made delicary after the workshop.

solar cooker advocacy in schools

Vincent Nnanna has spent the past five months teaching students of Secondary schools and some selected international schools within Ohafia Educational Sub-zone how to build various types of solar cookers. Video above shows students of Federal Government College going to practicals after a demonstration by the Solar Cooker Ambassador. The even was rounded up with

50th Anniversary of the Military in Benin

Benin republic is today celebrating the 50th anniversary of the formation of its military services which include the Army, the Navy, the Airforce, as well as other paramilitary agencies such as the Gendamerie, Marine Police, Commando force et cetera.
The purpose of this colourful ceremony, according to the Head of Armed Forces Dr. Boni Yayi, is to display the military capability of the country as well as reinforce the potentials of the military with a view to injectingthe spirit of non-partisanship in politics.
Historical Background:The Benin military came into being on the promulgation of Law Number 60-32 of 28th July 1960, but it was not until 1961 that the first embryo of the army was conceived in Ouidah which then served as the official headquarters of the then DAHOMEY now Benin Republic.
November 30 1975 saw the birth of the Peoples Republic of Benin which was promptly followed by the transformation of the Army to the Peoples Army on 14th January 1976.
Recruitment into the military is on quota basis across the 12 provinces of the country reflecting the national character of the military.

Adieu Missebo Market

The Missebo International market in Cotonou which constitutes the most populated and most economically viable single centre of trading activities in Benin republic has been reduced to rubbles. This is to enable the Benin authorities build a more dignifying shopping mall with parking facilities on the site. If the dream is realized, it will be the first ever one-stop shop in Benin republic.
This market which was established in 1972 and accommodates more than twenty-five thousand traders from across the West African sub-region is located in the heart of Cotonou municipality, and is the point from which most goods especially textiles and used clothing imported from abroad are distributed across Africa. Revenue generated from this market on a monthly basis runs into millions of dollars both to the Market Authority known as SOGEMA and to the individual traders. But it does appear that government’s decision to embark on this demolition is informed by the fact that little returns is trickling into its purse out of the huge taxation raked in by the market administrators.
According to the President of the Nigerian Community in the diaspora, there have been ongoing discussions between the Benin government market authorities and members of the Nigerian Retailers and Importers Associations respectively concerning relocating the market to a more conducive and accessible environment. However, the Benin government authorities have not been patient in allowing the traders to return from Christmas holidays before the demolition exercise and this has resulted in most people losing their goods while others will return to find that they have no place to put up to continue their business activities.
Some of the displaced traders could be seen from the footage standing aloof and helpless as they are being intimidated by the menacing presence of the arm-carrying policemen.
This incident is happening at a time when schools are just resuming for the second term and parents are at a loss as to where and how to find the money to feed their children let alone paying school fees.
“A hungry man, they say, is an angry man.”

FLOOD IN BENIN REPUBLIC

The republic of Benin in West Africa was submerged in flood the first of its kind in 47 years following an unprecedented heavy rainfall. According to official sources, a total of 700,000 persons have been affected by the flood out of which more than 200,000 have become internally displaced without homes. About 65 persons mostly children lost their lives due to cholera outbreak as water from the drainage system and the overflowing lagoons had contaminated domestic water supply. Residents were forced to use canoes converted to taxis to get to their homes to see if they could still salvage some valuables from their flooded homes.

Schools which had just resumed classes after the long vacation remained deserted as school children could not find their way into the school compounds. Fishermen who had converted their boats into street taxis still found time to catch fishes on the flooded streets.

COOKING GAS SCARCITY IN BENIN

“Water, water everywhere, but not enough to drink.” Today, it is cooking gas that is in “short” supply that it cannot meet the needs of domestic consumers.
Benin has two licensed cooking gas distributors – SONACOP which is the government-owned petroleum marketing company, and ORYX a private concern. For the past one month, SONACOP has been monopolizing the distribution of this essential commodity throughout a country of nearly three million consumers. ORYX which has its installations close to the Cotonou harbor was stopped from operations on allegations that their bottling plant has been found to be substandard and constitutes environmental hazard.
In effect, SONACOP apparently unprepared for the upsurge of consumer demands, has been unable to combine refilling cylinders of the two types, thereby causing not only long queues both at its gas stations but also at all the newly-established proximity service centres. Consumers deposit their bottles and have to wait for more than a week before lifting the product.
This development has brought untold hardship to both domestic and industrial consumers of gas in the country. People have resorted to inevitable use of alternative fuel or heat energy sources such as firewood, charcoal, kerosene and saw-dust. Some who cannot afford any alternative have to travel across the border to buy gas from neighbouring Nigeria. Herein lies the real danger as most of the users of these alternative fuel sources are not knowlegeable on how to manage any crises that might arise therefrom.
This trans-border purchase is already posing a lot of dangers as it has become common to see a single motor-bike loaded with about six 12kg cylinders plying to and from Nigeria and covering a distance of more than 80 kilometers on a very busy highway. Pick-up vehicles loaded with gas cylinders have become a common sight on this international route.
Critics of government are saying that the closure of ORYX on allegation of non-safe is a political gimmick calculated to stifle a powerful political opponent who happens to be a Director of that multi-million gas company. It will be recalled that Presidential polls will hold in Benin during the first quarter of 2011.
Surely, this kind of situation could have been averted, had the sub-regional gas pipeline project promised by former President Olusegun Obasanjo not become a pipe-dream.
Vincent NNANNA.

HIV/AIDS CAMPAIGN AT COTONOU SCHOOLS

HIV/AIDS CAMPAIGN AT SCHOOLS
In spite of all the human efforts aimed at arresting the spread of the one epidemic that has defied all known medical and unorthodox therapy, HIV/AIDS continues to sound to many people as some sort of alien from outer space. Most people especially in the rural areas of African environments are never able to differentiate between HIV/AIDS and other common sexually-transmitted diseases such as Syphilis or Gonorrhea; and so attempt to treat them with the same approach. Among the academic class in the cities, the level of awareness is not appreciably higher than the urban scenario.
This conclusion is informed by the level of response, participation and enthusiasm shown by students of one of the international secondary schools in Cotonou – Benin republic, during a campaign organized by members of International Association of Science, Economics and Commerce students (Association International des Etudiants en Science, Economie et Commerce (AIESEC), drawn from 17 countries around the world. AIESEC has its headquarters in Canada.
During the workshop which lasted over one month, students of Greater Tomorrow International School had to fight for space which forced the organizers to reduce the participation age and other criteria in order to accommodate the overwhelming demand. Parents were no less enthusiastic in encouraging their wards to get really involved while lobbying for an extension of the original time table.
According to the Co-ordinator of the program Master Say-Ali Mouhamadou who happens to be the senior prefect of Greater Tomorrow International School, some of the topics discussed include Handling Teens, Sexually Transmitted Infection, HIV/AIDS, Teens pregnancy and Abortion, Teens and Sexuality, among others.
At the end of the workshop, participants were at a colourful ceremony issued with certificates, male and female condoms and T-shirts.
An estimated 22.4 million adults and children were living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa at the end of 2008. During that year, an estimated 1.4 million Africans died from AIDS. Around 14.1 million children have lost one or both parents to the epidemic. The following data shows HIV/AIDS prevalence in Benin Republic as at the period 2008:

People living with AIDS = 190,000; Percentage of Adults aged between 15 – 49 = 1.2%; Women = 37,000; Children = 5,400;
AIDS Deaths = 3,300; Orphans due to HIV/AIDS = 29,000. Source: GRADES-AFRICA® http://vinfish.blogspot.com

According to some of the participants, the workshop has opened their eyes to so many health and sex-related information that are not ordinarily taught in the school curriculum. They expressed the need to have more of such extra-curricular activities for the benefit of the teeming number of endangered youths both in schools and around the communities.

WHEAT AVAILABILITY Uninterrupted

Wheat Price Volatility: Panic is Baseless and Hurts Poor People


Apparent similarities between today’s rising wheat prices and the food-price crisis of 2007-2008 are just that: apparent, not real. Suggestions to the contrary serve to drive up prices and hurt poor people, who spend much or most of their incomes on food. They need neither jittery markets nor ad hoc protectionism, which has exacerbated past food crises.

At first glance, the current situation can look like an unfolding rerun of the last crisis. Russia, hit by drought and wildfires, has banned exports of wheat well into 2011. Ukraine and Kazakhstan are weighing possible restrictions of their own. Unrest in Mozambique has been blamed on rising prices. All this evokes 2007-2008, when more than a dozen major food producers halted or restricted exports. This was meant to protect domestic markets as staple prices soared and global grain stocks fell to record lows, but it put even more pressure on commodity prices. Global market stability was sacrificed at the altar of domestic politics. This sparked riots in countries starved of food imports.

However, the situation today is different in a number of ways:

1. We are able to cope with lost production better than we did two years ago. The latest figures from the US Department of Agriculture’s World Agricultural Outlook Board indicate that wheat production in 2010-2011 will amount to 656 million metric tons, 7% more than in 2007-2008, even after tallying all known losses. Moreover, global wheat stocks stand at around 175 million metric tons—nearly 50 million metric tons more than in 2007-2008. The United States alone holds reserves of 26 million metric tons—more than enough to cover the combined estimated loss of 18 million metric tons from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and the European Union.

2. Bad weather—a perennial wildcard in agriculture and commodity markets—has not hit all producers. While Russia and others tally losses from drought or floods, the United States—the world’s largest source—enjoys a good harvest, as do Argentina, Australia, India, and Uzbekistan.

3. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) food price index rose 5% during August, prompting comparisons to previous spikes. This might seem dramatic, but in actual fact the peak of 176 seen in August was a mere 1% higher than the January 2010 level of 174. This is all the more striking because the index includes not only grains but also oil, fats, and sugar—the prices of which also have risen (and for separate reasons). In other words, for all the recent talk of runaway wheat prices, the impact has been minimal.

4. In order for world wheat prices to drive up the price of bread, they would have to stay high for a prolonged period. In 2007, prices rose continuously for months on end before hitting consumers. Today, prices are volatile. Two points bear emphasizing. The first is that volatility is not the same thing as inflation. The second is that volatility has stayed within the normal range since the end of the last food-price crisis. Indeed, recent spikes notwithstanding, the prevailing trend is flat or slightly downward. In consequence, there should be no knock-on effects.

5. Spot prices for wheat rose by nearly one-quarter in July and by more than 50 percent between the start of June and early August. But weekly price increases, compared with four weeks previously, were no larger in July 2010 than in May or November 2009. Indeed, when compared over a 12-week span, prices have climbed less in the past three months than they did at the end of 2009.

6. Likewise, futures prices for September contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade posted their biggest daily increases since 2008 twice during the first week of August. But these were aberrations, extreme values of return that remain freakish and highly unlikely when viewed against supply, demand, and returns in the futures market over the past six years. Moreover, these spikes involved nearest-delivery contracts, looking ahead one month. Contracts of longer maturity are a better guide to overall market conditions. These also have adjusted upward—but at a much calmer pace. This is contrary to what happened three years ago, when futures prices of distinct maturities climbed relentlessly and in lockstep.

7. The situation today also differs with respect to other key commodities. The World Agricultural Outlook Board and FAO expect maize production in 2010-2011 to exceed the total for 2007-2008 by 4% and 5%, respectively. The FAO expects production to increase by 3% for rice and 4% for coarse grains such as rye, barley, and sorghum. And the price of a barrel of oil today hovers around US$74—against US$131 in June 2008.

If policy decisions such as Russia’s appear to have overlooked much of this, so too has public discourse. For example, initial news analysis tied the recent unrest in Mozambique to the price of wheat—wrongly so. Rather, the government raised the prices of basic food and non-food items to reflect the rising cost of imports from South Africa, Mozambique’s main supplier. These have become more expensive as Mozambique’s currency, the metical, has fallen against the South African rand by 21% since January 2010 and 47% since September 2009.

More thoughtful analysis has followed in recent days but not until after the earlier, more reflexive narrative had already caused another global price spike. That was the last thing consumers—especially poor ones—needed.
This article is taken by permission from The International Food Policy Research institute (IFPRI) and is written by Maximo Torero
Director, Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division,
International Food Policy Research Institution (IFPRI)

PRESIDENT's LIFE IN DANGER?

President Boni Yayi narrowly escaped death yesterday when his helicopter nearly caught fire. This incident happened in Dassa north of Benin republic where the Head of State was attending some state functions. When the initial hiccup was noticed with the helicopter, the Pilot thought it was a fuel problem. After dropping off the Head of State and some members of his entourage, the Pilot quickly attempted to fly off to procure additional fuel that can sufficiently fly them back to Cotonou. It was then that some curious observers noticed some apparent misbehaviour of the helicopter; and it had to be promptly grounded for safety.
Given some unfolding antagonism within the political fronts against Dr. Boni Yayi, one cannot but conclude that the life of the Head of State could be in some danger.

It will be recalled that President Boni Yayi has gone down in history of Benin Republic as the first to acquire a presidential jet which was a gesture from President Muomar Khadaffi of Lybia which was meant to consolidate the strong economic and political bond between the two countries. Albeit, the said aircraft is also said to be grounded for reasons of needing some servicing that Benin could hardly afford in terms of cost.

MIXED FEELING AT CHURCH

With the overwhelming child abuse scandal that has dominated airwaves on issues affecting the Roman Catholic Church worldwide, the Catholic commuity is always held in suspense when an unusual or infrequent clergy mounts the altar in some irregular manner.
Such was the atmosphere last Sunday in Cotonou when Monsignor Marcel Honorat Agboton mounted the pulpit. But the tension was soon eased off when all he had to say was that he had submitted his letter of resignation both as Arch-Bishop of Cotoou and from active service to the Vatican. His reason for pulling off the red cap which symbolically distinguishes a priest of his rank and calling from other clergies, was on account of a long standing ill health.
Even though Monsignor Agboton is highly cherished as one that ignited spiritual fire among Catholics in Cotonou, he is not badly missed as someone equally ebulient and charismatic in the person of Monsignor Antoine Ganye the substantive Bishop of Dassa-Zoume is immediately stepping into his shoes.
What a big relief it was to the tensed congregation to know that none of their shepherds was being linked to the global sex scandal that has thrown the Papal Church into untold shame and scandal.

EXTRACT OF CONFERENCE CALL

G8, G20: A “Business as Unusual” Approach Must be Adopted to Meet the First Millennium Development Goal of Halving Hunger

By Shenggen Fan
Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Global banking regulation, the European credit crisis, and sovereign debt burdens are likely to dominate the G8 and G20 meetings in Canada this weekend. Yet, five years after G8 leaders promised at Gleneagles to increase development assistance and one year after they promised to advance global food security at their summit in L’Aquila, the number of poor and hungry people is increasing. We are moving further away from the world community’s first Millennium Development Goal of halving the percentage of hungry people between 1990 and 2015.

In 2009, when the number of hungry people in the world stood at 1.02 billion, we were confronted with the need to reduce that number by 73 million people a year by 2015. It is now 2010 and the goal appears to be slipping away. Yet it is a modest one that would still leave some 600 million people deprived of food.

The objective of cutting hunger in half can still be achieved, but business as usual will not be enough. What is needed is “business as unusual.” The elements of such an approach to tackling world hunger are as follows:

Invest in Two Core Pillars: Agriculture and Social Protection
The first step in reducing poverty and hunger in developing countries is to invest in agriculture and rural development. Scaled-up investments in social protection that focus on nutrition and health are also crucial. More importantly, policymakers should increase investments in productive safety net programs that support the poorest and hungriest households and increase their productive capacity.

Bring in New Players
New actors in global development—the private sector, philanthropic organizations, and, more importantly, emerging economies—have important roles to play in reducing hunger in developing countries. The private sector can provide effective and sustainable investment and innovation to help in the fight against hunger. Private companies should be given the right incentives and a favorable operating environment. Emerging economies are playing a growing role in trade and investment, and in providing development assistance. They need to be fully integrated into the global food security agenda.

Adopt a Country-Led, Bottom-Up Approach
Effective, efficient, and sustainable policies that are well adapted to the local context can help countries maximize the impact of the global agenda and tap external development assistance. Successful reforms also need to be local in nature, with poor people acting as a driving force in the development process. At the same time, some issues—like climate change, trade, and control of disease—must be addressed at the global level. The task for individual countries is to digest and integrate these issues in developing their own strategies at the country level.

Design Policies Using Evidence and Experiments
Pilot projects and experiments have the potential to improve policymaking by giving decisionmakers information about what works before policies are implemented across the board. Experimentation can improve the success rate of reforms as successful pilot projects are scaled up and unsuccessful policy options are eliminated. To succeed with this approach, policymakers need to allow impartial monitoring of experiments and rapidly transform the lessons learned into large-scale reforms.

Walk the Walk
Decisionmakers at the global, regional, and national levels have made commitments to policies and investments for enhancing food security, but they have often failed to meet those commitments. To effectively enhance food security, financial commitments must be supported with strong institutions and governance at all levels and monitored in a timely and transparent fashion.

Scaling Up “Business as Unusual”
Some aspects of this “business as unusual” approach have already been applied successfully. They need to be scaled up and extended to new countries in order to have a real impact on global hunger. On a larger scale, the global food governance system itself needs to be reformed to work better. Also, although global and national actors have distinct roles to play, it is important that they work together, combining their efforts to fight poverty and hunger. A stronger system of mutual accountability between the two groups would help keep progress on track.

THE PRICE OF LOSING VIRGINITY

Vending food or article along the streets is something no woman would like to make her lifetime occupation. Even in a country where the average lowest income earner is on less than US$2.00 per diem, this type of job is considered as best fitting for non-indigenes or nomadic or immigrant refugees struggling for survival.
For Magdalena, it was not a matter of choice or the lack of it that she was into street trading. Worse still, she was into selling oranges and peanuts which made her even more vulnerable.
Street trading business demands strict observance of the rule of survival of the fittest if one must manage to break even. In spite of the meanness or awkwardness of street trading, a preponderant majority of African women and men are helplessly embracing it as any other white-collar or dignifying profession.
With the legislative embargo on employment into the civil service still in force in most African states, many school leavers as well as college graduates can hardly expect to land any meaningful job except as help-hands in some private enterprises such as mechanic workshops, at the artisans’, or as house-helps in homes that have not yet been scrambled off.
Magdalena was in her 12th grade in one of the Montessori educational houses in the city when she fell for one of those flattering and sugar-coated words from an infatuated honey-bug in the neighbourhood. No sooner had they started some hideous affair than she was put in the family way. Her man happened to be one of those houseboys who would convert his master’s house into a brothel while the family is away on their usual preoccupations.
Magdalena was too naïve to understand the difference between a house-owner and an impostor. She had been taken in by the leisurely manner with which the boy conducted himself whenever he hosted her. They would share some drinks from the variety of wine and spirits that lined the family bar. He would usher her into the kitchen and even coax her into helping out with preparing some of the dishes they shared amidst more flattering words and empty promises of marriage.
If anyone was to blame for the incongruity between these two lovers, it would be the gods that seem to have chiseled Magdalena out of some unusual and extraordinary clay, with such dexterity that gave her the most exquisite physique ever on earth. If she had been born into some well-to-do family, one could bet she would emerge the world’s most beautiful girl with the right statistics. This one traverses beyond “beauty in the eye of the beholder” class.
Any uncastrated man could have fallen for this smashingly beautiful mermaid, but for her tender age and probably the family background which was not anything to write home about. In a rural setting where there is no hiding the fact that Magdalena is a single-parented child whose real father one could be sure of, men are skeptical of venturing into any serious relationship lest they contract an outcast.
This house-boy who happened to have migrated from the woods was not familiar with the ancient rules of this locality. Moreover, his secluded residence did not afford him any opportunity of making friends with the indigenous boys of his age. It would not have mattered to him if he even fell in love with a ghost, let alone an outcast. He was in essence freer than the people of this village who were still enslaved to obeying the rules of the jungle in the name of respecting tradition. Such was the fate that gave him the incontestable possession of the most beautiful girl of her time. As a matter of fact, nobody envied him. Instead, he would be regarded as a gullible idiot who had taken what everybody would not accept even for a price.
GRAND CHILD ON THE WAY
Barely two months into this frenziedness, things turned sour when Maggie as she was fondly called by this lover-boy, began to experience symptoms that are usually associated with early pregnancy, such as drowsiness, vomiting and loss of appetite. Maggie’s mother would be deceived by her daughter’s age to dismiss these signs as mere happenstance. And it would be considered serious embarrassment to imagine or suggest that the poor girl had started eating food that is an exclusive reserve of adults. The frequency of these symptomatic occurrences continued to be a source of concern to her mother whose sense of modesty beclouded her sense of reason to see that no other form of illness could be associated with those signs.
By the third month, it had become obvious that this one-time angel was no longer a virgin. Valleys in her abdominal region had given place to rapidly obtruding mountain. Her almost invisible breast had suddenly assumed the size of an organic-grown and tenderly groomed South African apple. The type that first-time visitors to the south would like to take home as souvenir. Hairs were showing on her forehead as never before. Her school uniform no longer fitted to expose her gorgeous physique.
The mother who could no longer restrain herself from voicing her fears, had to confide in one of her woman friends who happens to be a close associate of the family. It is usually said in some African parlance that the baby reptile beheld by one person can easily be construed a python. She really needed a second opinion to convince and reassure her that Maggie was still the baby of her childhood. Her lady friend was alarmed to learn that she could not distinguish between a pregnant girl and one who had swallowed a cow. Whether it was convincing or reassuring, the verdict of the second opinion alarmed and devastated Maggie’s mother beyond redemption.
She had a million and one reasons to be so devastated by the revelation that her only daughter would end up like any other girl from a poverty-stricken family in town. As a single mother, it had been her long-held belief that if girls were treated like an egg, they would last long enough to hatch a live chick at the appropriate time that will gladden the hearts of their parents.
AGONY OF A MOTHER
She would go as far as pledging some of her valued jewelries and wrappers in order to pay Maggie’s school fees as well as give her a comfortable lease of life that would make her fit properly into the society comparing favourably with her peers. In almost all the instances, she had been unable to redeem the pledge, and had in so doing been left with a dwindling reserve of convertible wealth. Ironically Maggie was about to hatch her own, though prematurely.
She was devastated and ashamed to know that she had been living with a fellow woman and she didn’t know it. Her other worry was that she had inadvertently let out a family secret to a third party whom she could not trust to keep the lid closed. She was even more disturbed when it was revealed that the prospective father of her grand-child would be a house-boy and a non-indigene. This woman was not unaware of her daughter’s astonishing beauty, and had secretly nursed the wish that one member of the bourgeoisie class would ask her hand in marriage when she came of age. She knew that such a development would suddenly uplift her to a higher level of material existence and put an end to her perpetual suffering. She almost cursed the day she conceived Maggie, but for her religious devotedness.
How was she going to cope with members of her Women Group who would insist on proper upbringing of a member’s child especially the girls? Who would make them believe that she always went the extra mile to ensure that her child got more than most of her peers? How could they understand that she truly practiced what she preached as she had on several occasions chastised mothers whose daughters fell short of religious morality?
Could she afford to feed an extra mouth at a time when they had resorted to a ‘zero-one-zero’ eating plan? These were some of the questions that bugged her already beclouded mind. How could anybody think clearly in such circumstance? All she could do was slump on her bare floor and try to suppress her anguish and tears which were bubbling like fresh keg of palm wine. Any uncontrolled outburst will usher in uninvited neighbours who would do her more harm than good by helping to peddle the news as fast as an unfriendly whirlwind would scatter a thatched roof in early winter. All the persuasion from her lady friend to maintain tranquility fell on deaf ear. She knew for certain that it was only a matter of time before her friend would be the first to start a gossip that would soon spread around in a village where everyone knows everybody.
When she appeared to have surmounted the initial shock and devastation, the next question that came to mind was how to confront the lover-boy or the master. Her friend who had a clearer reasoning had argued that it were better to pass on the buck to the master on grounds of vicarious liability.
They both agreed that that was a clever idea and decided to take that line of approach so that this rich man could at least sponsor the pregnancy up to and beyond delivery while his wife would provide most of the unborn baby’s essentials.
UNHOLY VISITATION
One week before the two-man delegation would set out on the scheduled visit or confrontation, Maggie had gone to announce to her lover-boy that she was carrying his baby; expecting the boy to jump for joy, hug her, shower her with precious kisses and dance around the living room of their supposed apartment, with some rock music at the background. When she pressed the bell that she was accustomed to, it was a woman that opened the gate to ask what the matter was.
“Good-day, ‘Ma,” she greeted, stooping halfway down as a sign of respect to a senior.
“Yes, my dear, how may I help you?” asked the house owner, with her gentle eyes curiously screening this unusual and unfamiliar visitor.
“Please ‘Ma, I’ve come to see Andie.”
“Oh, Andie? My husband asked him to wash the car. He’s at the backyard. Wait a minute.”
“Andie!” she called out.
“Yes ‘Ma,” echoed Andie from the distance.
This girl’s countenance became suddenly engulfed in utter confusion. She had never encountered other faces in this home that she looked forward to sharing with her future husband, Andie. She had never been opportuned to notice that the building had a backyard and a car park. If she did, as her naivety would hardly permit, she never bothered to probe further. Hearing that her hubby had been sent to wash another woman’s husband’s car was an incomprehensible and inconceivable ‘April Fool joke.’ For a moment she thought she had knocked at the wrong door, but the familiar landmarks were still there to prove that there had been no mistaken identity. She was deeply engrossed in these contemplations to notice Andie standing beside her and shivering like a frightened puppy that had just been fished out of a dirty gutter. His unguarded and uninhibited fright expressed more than words could say. Madam didn’t need a soothsayer to explain what had gone wrong. But to give both of them the benefit of doubt, she broke the silence by asking the girl if that was the Andie she was looking for.
“Y-ye-s-s ‘M-ma,” replied Maggie, amidst sobs and gritting teeth.
Andie who was still holding lather-soaked towel in one hand and a hard brush on the other stood with his mouth agape as if he was beholding a ghost. Presently, his master who sensed that some unusual dialogue was going on in his abode had arrived at the gate.
It was he who asked Andie who the pregnant girl was; expecting to hear that she was one of his sisters or cousins. Andie known to be of plausible tongue suddenly became dumb but not deaf in the face of this unexpected visitation. Silence, they say, is golden. This one conveyed more than a pound weight of golden message to both Master and Madam.
“So, you’ve been sleeping around with girls, uh? And this one is already carrying your baby.”
Having assessed the whole situation from an old man’s point of view, Master retired back into the room for a brief moment and promptly returned with an envelop which he handed to Andie.
“Here, he said, is your salary for this month and another sum representing your one month salary in lieu of notice. I don’t think we need your services any longer. Go, gather your belongings right this moment and leave this house immediately. Suspend the car washing. I will deal with that myself.”
Maggie stood there with her face stuck to the ground which seemed to be caving in under her bulky weight. She would have relished it if the ground beneath had opened its mouth to swallow her and her unborn baby. Tears from her eyes were continuously and freely dripping but unable to create the flood that could sweep her eternally out of this embarrassing and dehumanizing situation. The sky with its heavenly bodies seemed too distant to behold, and she could not fathom rendering any supplications for rescue to the Deity she used to know and serve. In her present condition, she felt some sense of self-condemnation and considered herself unworthy to be begging God for mercy. Getting pregnant for a total stranger and a houseboy for that matter was anything but what she could wish for. She remembered moments when Mother would jokingly but prophetically call her ‘Lo-o-lo-o,’ a title used by the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria to denote a rich man’s wife. More sobs, more tears, and a bunch of regrets kept sweeping over her. But it was too late to dwell on such mortal predilection. There was nothing she or anybody could do about the situation.
As Andie went to bring out his bag and baggage, the couple engaged Magdalena in some compassionate heart-to-heart talk during which she told how she had been deceived into believing that Andie was the owner of the house and that he meant to marry her, whereupon she consented to sleeping with him; the evidence of which was the three-month-old pregnancy.
The couple had sincere compassion on her on account of her frail nature and tender age, but was cautious not to betray any impression that would make her believe that she could get any form of assistance from them. The same reason why no indigene would want to have anything to do with the likes of Magdalena was what informed the couple’s restraining instinct. They didn’t want to be victims of their own failure to follow the traditionally accepted line of rectitude.
Meanwhile, Andie emerged from the house with an empty fifty-KG bag which constituted his luggage. The couple felt relieved to bid them both farewell forever. The man instinctively reminded Andie that he should not bother to call by or even call them on phone. Thus was Andie thrown back into the over-saturated labour market with the additional burden of an unsolicited wife and an unborn baby.
Whoever coined the adage that “poverty is a sin” ought to receive a philosopher’s award. Imagine how this one-time homeless and hopeless Andie who had been offered not only a peaceful home and a well-paid job with other fringe benefits had to plunge himself back into penury in a twinkle of an eye by frolicking with something that lies next-door to the channel of the worst of all human excretion. In the present circumstance, it is difficult to imagine who is the greater looser. Is it the young girl who had not only lost what every girl treasured most, but also her future educational opportunity; or Andie who had sojourned from a distant land and had been fortunate to find a job and a family he could comfortably relate with, only to lose all that for a mess of porridge?
NO HIDING PLACE
The raven and other birds of the air have their nests. The squirrel and foxes have their burrows, but Andie the son of man has no place to lay his head. He had just lost an employment opportunity of a life-time.
As soon as they backed out from the residence of his former employers, Andie attempted to open his stinking mouth to ask Maggie why she chose to embarrass him with such an unprecedented and unannounced visitation. Maggie immediately descended on him with her massive body and was slapping him all over with her feeble hands. Andie held fast to his luggage so as not to spill the contents to public view. This incapacitation on his part proved an advantage which Maggie exploited to no end as she continued to slap, kick, bite and scratch Andie all over inflicting some visible cuts here and there. Andie was taken aback to see his angel display such unrestricted level of hostility in public. He almost froze to death with the realization that he had inadvertently contracted putting up with what he thought was a ‘tiger in sheep clothing.’ He knew quite well that it would be difficult for any family to take him in after hearing of his activities at his former employers’. The hardship that sent him out to this foreign land had not assuaged way back home. He only needed to brace up to drink the full gall of the consequences of his exuberant recklessness.
Some neighbours who had witnessed the spectacle had gone to alert Maggie’s mother who promptly appeared at the scene with her lady friend and comforter closely treading on her heals. Within minutes, the much dreaded gossip had gone into circulation. The parabolic Job says that what he feared most has come upon him. This mother would have pledged or traded the remnants of her possessions in exchange for keeping the state of her daughter’s disgraceful and abominable act forever concealed. But the unthinking and unmindful girl had dug not only hers but her mother’s grave. The mother’s friend who had been contemplating how to handle the inevitable gossip without giving out much of her own involvement, felt very relieved that the cat had already been let out of the bag by the culprit and victim herself.
It was only after the scandalous street fracas and a few words of caution from the other woman that Maggie realized that the prospects of the rumour spreading as fast as it would meant that she had to remain in solitary confinement for a very long time. She would lose her school friends as no sane mother would allow her daughter to mingle with not only a street fighter but a spoilt and prostituting child like Magdalena. She was the socializing type of girl who made friends easily, and subjecting her to the type of isolation that was imminent could be very unbearable.
NO GOING BACK
Thoroughly bemused and not too sure how far the gossip had spread, mother went home with her daughter followed by the fiancé and the other woman.
The bombshell dropped when after preliminary interrogations and explanation of the entire episode, Andie announced that he had no place to go to. It dawned on Maggie’s mother that she had not only inherited unwanted pregnancy, but an unsolicited son-in-law and irreversible scandal.
It was at that juncture that her friend took her aside and suggested that since the deed had been done, there was nothing more to be afraid of, and that allowing Andie to stay would not make any difference. She added that the boy could even help her out in her farm work which was draining much of her energy on account of her age. That idea pleased her and she whole-heartedly consented to accommodating Andie and damning the consequences. Andie was very grateful to find a home, a wife, and not the least a job even though he did not expect to be paid for that. To him, the end justified the means. The previous plot to accost Andie’s master and intimidate him with a pregnancy that he knew nothing about was discarded in the face of those compromises. It remained to figure out how to manage the girl through ante-natal until the baby would be safely delivered.
To avoid all the tongue lashing and reprisal attacks that awaited her at the Women’s Group, Mother decided to voluntarily exclude herself from their meetings for good. It did not bother her that such a decision meant that she would lose all the benefits of membership should anything happen to her.
ADDED RESPONSIBILITY
Soon it would occur to the family that the combined efforts of Mother and Andie alone were not enough to provide sustenance to the family as well as acquire the necessary essentials in readiness for the baby that would soon arrive. When the other woman who had played the role of family adviser was presented with the difficulty the family was passing through, she advised that since Magdalena was in very ebullient state of health, she could engage in some petty trading to augment the family’s meager resources. She cleverly added that a pregnant woman needed to engage in some form of exercise in order to make her child delivery an easier task. That was how the idea of hawking oranges and peanuts was conceived. That executive decision was handed down to Maggie, not with a view to sampling her opinion, but for immediate implementation. If not for the pregnancy, she normally would have earned herself severe whacking and immeasurable sanctions from her no-nonsense mother.
OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD
During her initial outings, she could not muster the courage to venture into familiar territories for fear of being seen by her erstwhile school friends. But as she continued to record low sales in spite of having to trek long distances, it dawned on her that her only option was to catch the bull by the horns and carry on with her life and the stigma. She started moving to every corner she imagined there would be high sales output. During the course of her rounds, she would buy some necessities that she thought her baby would have need of.
The most patronizing customers of Maggie’s line of commodity were mechanics, taxi drivers, motor park touts and petty shop owners who could hardly leave their businesses to go to look for food. She suffered the greatest harassment in the hands of auto mechanics and taxi drivers who would make passes at her and would want to take advantage of her. On many occasions they would say to her:
“Magdalena, we used to believe that you were one of the untouchables. Now that the chips are down and the unfriendly breeze has exposed the back side of the hen, how about letting us have a piece of the action?” She would try to avoid wandering into such places for some time, but would soon return if she noticed that her sales level was dropping.
If she felt wearied out by the scorching sun and would take a hike home, the taxi driver would henpeck her not a little and would offer to drive her to some brothel before dropping her off for free. These were very tempting and annoying moments for her, but she soon learned to cope.
On one occasion, a filthy-looking apprentice lured her into a junk wagon in the workshop and offered to buy her entire ware for the day in order to save her the ordeal of perambulating the length and breadth of the town all day. She almost leaped for joy at that offer because it meant half a day’s work for full earning. But wait a minute. What would a trainee mechanic be doing with perishable consumables the cost of which far exceeded his one-week stipend? What degree of compassion would stir his benevolence into making such a generous offer? If his kindness was accepted for once, what would happen on subsequent days? This must be a big joke or the poor boy must have gone mad. After all, given his dirty and tattered mechanic outfit, it was not easy to distinguish him from a regular psychiatric inmate. But he was not mad. From the bottom of his heart, he meant every word of that offer and was ready to live up to his promise if only the pregnant girl could condescend to having fun with him right in the makeshift boutique – the rickety vehicle in the workshop.
Prompted by the principle of ‘once beaten, twice shy,’ the thoroughly alarmed girl, who was already packaging her articles of trade for the kind-hearted wholesale customer, stumbled out of the wagon, screaming and cursing as she spilled part of her peanuts along the trails.
The family continued to face the harsh realities of penury from day-to-day. Mother and Andie spared no single day without working at one or the other of their farms. Maggie did not cease from bearing the burden of her new-found occupation on her head and another burden of disobedience in her womb.
Up to that point in time, Maggie had so much improved in the manner of packaging and dressing her merchandise to make it more appealing to the public. She would build a circular base with the oranges and top it up with the groundnuts arranged in a conical pyramid.
COINCIDENCE
Fast forward. One fateful morning, a company executive, obviously attracted by that meticulously arranged pyramid of merchandise and the astonishing beauty of the vendor, had to pull over to patronize the young lady. As Maggie tried to lift down the heavy load to sell to her latest customer, the weight gave her such an uncomfortable contraction of abdominal muscles and made her experience what the women call a “show.” This is associated with bursting of the placenta and gushing out of hot fluid, signaling the readiness of the baby to emerge.
The young and inexperienced mother-to-be not understanding what had happened to her, tried to suppress her embarrassment. When she stooped down to select what her customer had chosen, another hot fluid splashed and dripped down to soak the lower part of her tight-fitting gown. She was forced by circumstances to incline herself to the body of the man’s jeep, hoping to regain her composure.
When the man noticed her ordeal, he carefully managed to alight from his vehicle to help her to stand on her feet. To everybody’s surprise, the restless baby had already popped out his head. The man did not know how to handle the situation. Looking across the road, he beckoned on two women who promptly rushed to the rescue. It was agreed to convey the girl to any nearest medical facility.
The two women assisted to position the lady into her customer’s jeep. One of them sat to ensure that her head remained propped up. The other ensured that her legs remained eagle-spread so as not to suffocate the emerging baby.
Before they arrived at the nearest clinic, the baby had completely and safely been delivered by the two ‘peripatetic midwives.’ He was a boy. It only remained to give both mother and child some professional brushing-up. The man apparently overjoyed that fate had placed him in a position to render such humanitarian service, offered to pay the hospital bill. He bargained with the girl that the boy should be named after him if that would please the father.
The girl was highly pleased to behold all those unfolding events. She knew the implications of naming her baby after such a rich man. In most African cultures, it meant that the man would bear greater part of the responsibility of the child’s upbringing. There was no limit to what he could do for the boy in particular and the family in general.
She thanked the man and gave her word to communicate his offer to her parent in due course. The man demanded of the staff of the clinic when they hoped to discharge mother and child. Having learnt that it would take some four days in order for the nurses to keep mother and child under strict observation since it was her first pregnancy, he promised to return to convey them home.
When he returned home later that evening, he narrated his experience to his wife, and she was equally pleased that Providence had blessed them with such a miraculous coincidence. She promised to join her husband to drive the family home on the scheduled day.
Before Mother and Andie returned from farm, news had already spread that Maggie had put to bed. Rumours were peddled that she had delivered right by the road side. Others said she had delivered in a strange man’s car. Whether it was in a lorry or on a mountain-top did not bother the family. All they were grateful for was that it had been a safe delivery, and a bouncing baby boy for that matter.
They quickly gathered whatever rags they could find and rushed to see the baby at the clinic. When they arrived and saw some brand new baby’s wears, napkins, expensive powders, lotion, soaps, towel, bath-tub, feeding bottle and every manner of baby’s toiletries delivered by the ‘foster parents,’ they dared not let anyone know that they had brought some rags for the same baby.
Magdalena narrated to them how she had encountered an “angel” earlier in the day, and how the baby chose to emerge just then.
It is customary in some African cultures to name the first son after his grand-father. In this case, the boy should bear Andie’s father’s name. But since Andie’s father had no meaningful existence, and it would bring no fortune to the family to name the boy after him, the lot fell to name it after the ‘Good Samaritan.’ Maggie who had not yet communicated the man’s request to her family was pleased that the Almighty had arranged everything to fit properly for her unborn child.
Eight days after the child’s birth, the families came together with friends to pronounce the boy’s name as custom demands. Mrs. Samaritan personally provided all the food and drinks that guests shared on that occasion. They bought a bag of toys and amusement and educational objects for the baby. To cap it up, the man offered to sponsor Magdalena to finish her education up to any level.
And they lived happily ever after.
Story by: Vincent NNANNA.

SPATE OF KIDNAPPING IN BENIN

Since we entered the year 2010, the once-serene city of Cotonou has experienced not less than six cases of kidnapping of Nigerians with increasing number of armed robberies.

Curiously the majority of cases revolved around businessmen from one particular Nigerian community.

1. The first one involved a couple whose one and only child was kidnapped and thrown over the perimeter wall after the mother had been beaten to submission. Unfortunately for the criminals, their get-away motor-bike could not kick start, and they had to pull away as some panic-stricken crowd had started gathering apparently alerted by the alarm raised by the couple. The kidnappers are said to have left with about €4,000 (four thousand Euro) which the said victim threw to them over the fence as ransom to free his child.

2. The second incident involved a man whose wife was successfully kidnapped for a ransom demand of 5million francs CFA. She was later released but it is not clear whether the ransom was paid or not.

3. The third and most recent case happened at a shop located around the CABOMA area of the city centre, where, by broad daylight the company lost about 40million francs CFA to armed robbers. The robbers casually walked into the shop disguised as customers and were bargaining on the price of bales of second-hand clothing. When they had conveniently engaged the attention of the shop owners, one of them demanded that the cashier surrender the proceeds of their day’s sales amounting to forty million francs CFA. Upon her refusal, they hit her on the head with a bottle of sparkling wine and forced her to submission.

Interestingly, none of these cases was reported to the Police for ‘obvious reasons.’ And one is bent to believe that this is the reason for the perpetuation of the acts of kidnapping and armed robbery.
One close associate of one of the victims on claims of anonymity fingers 'tax evasion' as the reason why these very rich merchants do not want to report to the Police to avoid bringing the departments of Customs and Finance into crossfire.

It is difficult to say who the next victim will be. A stitch in time saves nine or ten

Christmas Presence

Christmas Presence

SHEA BUTTER TREE TO THE RESCUE

The Government of Benin republic has ordered the upward review of petroleum, electricity and water tariff by 18% (eighteen per cent) with effect from the first week of July 2009. This was announced Wednesday by the Minister in charge of Energy and Water Mr. Sacca Lafia. To the average Beninese, this is a disastrous phenomenon occurring at a time when people are still battling to cope with the dividends of a global economic crunch. Following this announcement, there has been restiveness among the populace as not everybody is prepared to bear the burden of increased water and electricity bills just yet. In effect, people are obliged to fall back to traditional habits of fossil fuel consumption using firewood and charcoal. Fortunately, charcoal and firewood exploitation are neither prohibitive nor scarce. There is abundant supply of shea tree in all regions of the country. This abundance has been helpful to consumers in past years, and will prove very feasible this time around. Apart from the numerous uses to which the Shea tree is being employed dating back to centuries, Climate Change Advocates (and that includes all of us); will soon discover that there is more to the tree than just its food, medicinal and industrial value. Industrialists will need substance extracted from the seed of the Shea tree for soap and cream production. Even the bark of this tree has also been employed in medicinal soap production in most West African countries. Most importantly, the wood has been exploited for ages in the production of high quality, long lasting charcoal. Before one thinks of deforestation, it is pertinent to note that the people of Benin republic are not unmindful of the effects of destroying their eco-system through deforestation activities. In effect, for every single Shea tree that is hewed down, at least ten more are planted in its place thus ensuring continuity of exploitation vis-à-vis regeneration. Moreover, the tree is never cut from the root; so that it has chances of sprouting more stems that can be trimmed to rear up another forest in the near future. The charcoal which burns without emitting the much talked about carbon or fume is almost absent in this specie of charcoal from the Shea tree so that not much harm is done to the ozone layer. This charcoal is being used for heating the room, cooking at various levels, large-scale fish drying and fueling industrial furnace. Local restaurants also use it for their beef and chicken barbecue which adds some appetizing and mouth watering aroma to the roast.This product is produced in commercial quantity and is good for use in Europe where there is more cold weather condition for the greater part of the year. Government argues that the reason for the increase is to guarantee uninterrupted water and electricity supply, but most members of the public do not seem to agree with that excuse.

GHOSTS ARE REAL

There is widespread belief among Africans on the existence of ghosts. Popular religions (including the writer’s), do not ascribe to such beliefs. But in the light of the endless debate and counterclaims bordering on this ghost phenomenon, I am persuaded to share the following stories:
Ghostly Conversation:
“Do you believe in ghosts?”
“Damn me, if I don’t, because that would amount to not believing in oneself.”
“As a matter of fact, I have come to prefer living in this ‘ghostly’ state of freedom
than being perpetually trapped in the filthy solid called ‘human’ form.”
“By the time the officials would come to remove that body,
they will be sorry to realize that we have since freed ourselves.”
This was part of a conversation heard by a condemned prisoner from his inmates who had passed on during the previous night. And they continued thus:
“Imagine I couldn’t be stopped by any of the sentries at the three fortified
gates as I passed without having to have the shackles unlocked.”
“I have taken advantage of my freedom to visit just anywhere
I desired to, including my family and my friends.”
“The only sorry part of my interactions with the people I met
was the fact that each and every one of them thought
that they had had what they call a dream.”
To ghosts as to humans, each existence is considered to be the real while the other is the unreal. Both cannot be true for there be only one reality. When considered from the standpoint of metaphysics, it does appear that that which we call material existence is but a counterfeit of the world of substance.
Back to the prison:

When the authorities were alerted to the sudden death of two out of three inmates awaiting the hangman’s noose, undertakers were promptly dispatched to evacuate the unsightly corpses.
Little consideration is given to the fate of condemned criminals, let alone their dead bodies, hence there was no call for autopsy to determine the cause of their untimely death. However, upon the insistence of the surviving prisoner, one of the undertakers dared listen to his detailed account of how his now dead partners-in-crime had poisoned themselves with some overdose of cocaine usually smuggled to their cell by some prison officials.
The drug trafficking part did not interest him as it was already an open secret. The dramatic manner of their death and the subsequent conversations and apparitions was as thrilling as a good movie.
According to this eye-witness, it was one of the suicides that resurrected first on the night of their tragedy. This eye-witness was woken up by a glow at the far corner of their unlighted cell. Initially, he thought it was some security men that had come with torchlight to inspect the cells. This soft light gradually assumed form like human frame and angled itself at different dimensions as it spindled and finally floated out of the cell through the concrete deck above their head. Goose pimples enveloped this witness’s entire being. He became momentarily dazed and dumbfounded. He thought he was in some sort of trance. When he eventually came to, he tried to talk to his cell-mates, but no voice talked back to him. He tried to feel his way through the darkness to where his friends are supposed to be staying. His hands touched two cold lifeless bodies. It was then that it dawned on him that he was the only living being in that prison cell.
Since the day his death sentence was pronounced by the Judge at the Armed Robbery Tribunal, he had developed thick skin and could hardly wait for his execution. Every passing hour was as agonizing as the stings of a million scorpions. He once boasted to his mates that he no longer feared death. But as his hands felt the lifeless and cold bodies of those two malfeasants, his entire system reverberated with such strange timidity that surprised even him. For a moment, he became aware that he was afraid of nothing but death.
In the News:

It was when this story was published by a journalist friend of the undertaker that government became interested in the matter and had to order for autopsy to confirm the drugging angle. The startling revelation triggered off a nationwide crackdown on prison drug cartel which smartly went underground, only to surface after the security agents had been bought over or wearied by fruitless efforts.
After that publication many unsolicited correspondence bearing witness to authentic accounts of apparitions began to pour into the journalist’s mail box. Being himself an investigative journalist, he did not just take in those stories on their face value.
The following accounts are the result of an in-depth research work, vigils or surveillances, interviews and interactions with religious authorities, institutional doyens, historical and traditional heavyweights of various ethnic representations in and around Africa.
Definition of Terms:

Before arriving at conclusions, attempt had been made to draw a distinction between 'ghost' and 'spirit.' The Encarta Dictionary describes ghost as: supposed spirit remaining after death; supposed spirit of somebody who has died, believed to appear as a shadowy form or to cause sounds, the movement of objects, or a frightening atmosphere in a place; an entity that seems to exist but does not.
It describes spirit as the vital force that characterizes a human being as being alive.
The Nicene Creed formulated in AD 325, which constitutes the formal statement of Christian beliefs, refers to The Holy Ghost as the third person of the God-head. Recent translations of the Scriptures have interchangeably used The Holy Ghost to mean The Holy Spirit.
From the foregoing, it is clear that the distinguishing features are:
► Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit refers to the third person of the God-head. It is always written with an initial capital letter. It cannot be rendered in plural because there is only one Spirit as there is only one God.
►Ghosts cannot be said to be 'spirits' because the Encarta has defined it as “supposed spirit.”
During the research work and interviews, these clarifications were shared with resource persons with a view to keeping within bounds.
Celebrating Laurels:

Not long ago, there lived a young man who was untimely snatched away from his loved ones by the wicked hand of fearless death. Mr. Obele had just graduated from the university and was about to enter into the labour market. He was the only son of his parents amidst five sisters. Expectations were very high on him as the first fruit of that family. His early graduation meant that he would soon be helping his parents in the upbringing of his younger ones as soon as he landed a reasonable job. It was for this reason that the parents made sacrifices and compromised the early education of his sisters to ensure that he got the best possible education. He was not unaware of the demands upon his life, and endeavoured to excel in his educational career through diligence and striving for high ethical and moral standards. True to type, he bagged first class honours in Banking and Finance.
In the very moment of his triumph, the greatest tragedy that he would not be alive to recount had befallen him and every hope he and indeed every member of the family cherished, fizzled out like the morning dew when the sun begins to blossom. At the end of his National Youth Service Corps, Obele was returning home to share the joys with family members when the minibus he boarded got stuck in a go-slow caused by a rickety slow moving truck that would not make way for other vehicles to move ahead.
The driver crawled behind that truck for miles before being coerced by impatient passengers into attempting to overtake it. Many of the passengers resorted to calling him ‘madam’s driver.’ Some called him apprentice driver. Others even cajoled that he was following a funeral convoy. Most disturbing was the fact that other vehicles, which looked, outmoded than this bus overtook both his bus m and the truck in front.

Fate Strikes:

The driver seemed to have run out of patience when all of a sudden he decided to overtake the never-ending convoy. Just then, that truck which had no rear-lights tried to overtake another truck further ahead thereby pushing the minibus into the counter-traffic lane. Here was where they kept date with destiny.
The three vehicles ended up on the body of an oncoming trailer on the Lagos-Benin highway in western Nigeria. Sixteen passengers lost their lives in that tragic incidence. Two survivors from the minibus lived to tell this story – a pregnant woman and her baby that was born on the scene of the accident.
One of the obituaries read as follows:

"With gratitude to God for a life well spent, we mourn the untimely death of our son and brother, Mr. Obele who died last Saturday in a ghastly road accident along Lagos-Benin highway. Obele was a graduate of Lagos University. He was aged 21. His remains will be buried in his father’s compound next Saturday. May his gentle soul rest in the bosom of the Lord, Amen. He is survived by his parents and five sisters.”

Regular Occurrence:

On a daily basis, pages of newspapers in Nigeria carry similar obituary inserts. One would therefore ask why this particular incidence should make news headlines. Is he the only future hope of the family that ever died prematurely? Is he the only one ever to graduate at the age of twenty-one? Alternatively, is he the only lone son of a family of six ever to die in auto-crash? More pathetic incidents than this happen on Nigerian highways almost every passing hour. These reasons are therefore, not enough to warrant recalling the obituary.

Ghost in Bank:

Fact is that barely six months after his death; Mr. Obele was spotted by one of his university mates working in one of the popular banking institutions situated along Allen Avenue, Lagos Nigeria as a Cashier. His friend had come to cash a cheque given to him by one of his benefactors as he was still searching for employment. He congratulated Obele for having already found a good job. It was when he ran into another schoolmate of theirs and shared the news of Obele having secured a job that his unbelieving friend argued that the very boy he was describing had died, and that he even attended his funeral. The argument that ensued made them fix a hurried rendezvous to visit the bank the following day.

Identification Parade:

Fortunately, Obele was seen flesh and blood by the doubting ‘Thomas.’ His shock came when his host evaporated before his eyes as he rushed forward to call out his name. Thomas slumped right on the banking hall and shortly passed away. There was stampede and uneasiness within and outside the bank premises. Some customers who could not immediately comprehend what had transpired ran for cover thinking that some robbers were carrying out their usual daylight raid on the bank. The bank supervisor who suspected the same robbery operation discretely set off the alarm system, which brought armed combat police officers promptly surrounding the bank and cordoning off the entire street to forestall any attempt to escape.

Cross-examination:

When Thomas came to, after having received some first aid treatment, he was whisked into the bank manager’s office for questioning amidst tight security. The initial apprehension and disbelief that met his story soon gave way to another pandemonium when the Security men that were dispatched to invite Obele to come and identify Thomas who claims to be his schoolmate reported that he was nowhere to be found. His jacket, lunchbox, and valise, which he left in the cloakroom, had all disappeared. The column where he signed on the attendance register that morning remained blank. No Security staff saw him leave the bank premises, which were immediately sealed off as soon as the alarm went off. Worst of all, his entire personal file had also disappeared from the file cabinet. The only thing the bank authorities refused to disclose was whether the cash he had drawn from the strong room to commence the day’s business as well as the transactions he had made with customers prior to the drama were intact.

Startling Revelations:

Further investigations that took a combined team of the bank’s anti-fraud squad and men of the Police criminal investigation bureau to his last known address at Aguda area of Lagos and subsequently to the hometown of late Mr. Obele in Isele – Delta State, only confirmed Thomas’s story. Neighbours at his Lagos address confirmed that he had moved in barely six months ago which coincides with the same period he started work at the bank. His girlfriend, Florence, confirmed that Obele had come home that ill-fated afternoon and collected all his belongings claiming that the bank was sending him on some training. He left some money with Florence and promised to come back for her as soon as he checked into the lodging at the training centre. She confirmed that they had met at a nightclub some four months back and that she was already carrying his two-month pregnancy. Upon this confirmation, the Cashier’s cage from where Mr. Obele made his dramatic exit became a ghost cage with no staff agreeing to enter therein.
The Ghost Question:

This is only one of many stories of apparitions of dead people among the living. This gives rise to the question of whether people really die in the sense of the world’s understanding of the phenomenon. Alternatively, do they just change form, location, and name; carrying on with their day-to-day activities wearing the same physical appearance? Is this state of existence applicable to a select type of people or is it an experience involving everybody?
Traditional Practices:

In most African environments, interments of beloved ones are not concluded without special rituals or fervent prayers purported to persuade or pacify the ‘spirit’ of the departed to “Rest in Peace.” In the same vein, some families would enlist the intervention of religious priests or traditional medicine-men to exorcise the spirits of their departed ones, especially when things seem to go wrong in the family. Such instances that call for spiritual intervention range from childlessness, infant mortality, and mysterious sicknesses to unprogressiveness among family members. The widespread nature of this practice only confirms the extent of belief on ghosts.
A grandfather once explained about the spirit world, how the souls of our ancestors continue to need love and attention and devotion. Given these things, they will share in our lives and they will bless us and even warn us about disasters in our dreams. But if we neglect the souls of our ancestors, they will become lost and lonely and will wander around in the kingdom of the dead no better off than a warrior killed by his enemy and left unburied in a rice paddy to be eaten by blackbirds of prey. Such conversations can only allude to the widespread and deep-rooted belief in life after so-called death.
In the Republic of Benin, for instance, the 1st and 2nd days of the month of November are observed as national work-free days. In anticipation of this holiday, people would go to or hire labourers to clear grass, decorate, and refurbish the tombs of their departed ones at the public cemeteries around the country, well in advance. Come the D-day, family members would throng to the graveyards to hold prayer sessions preceded by anointing the tombs with fragrances, lighting candles, incense and, according to individual family disposition, offering sacrifices of various kinds in honour of the departed ones. To round off the occasion, parties are held with lots of eating and drinking. Some families even hire live bands as if in a real funeral. This practice, alludes to the widespread belief that the ‘spirits’ or ‘ghosts’ of their loved ones are still present somewhere around our earth; and by these rituals, are being reassured of the families’ attachment and love.

From the Archives:

Lopsang Rampa, the author of “Cave of the Ancients,” in one of his series is being credited with negotiating with a certain frustrated but ebullient looking young man about to take his own life; who willingly shifted from his body and allowed Rampa to take it over in exchange for his own frail and disease-stricken frame. Rampa in essence had his mystically advanced mind intact, but only expressed through the young man’s borrowed shell. The story continues that way back home, the other man’s wife continued to behold the face and frame of her husband, but could not comprehend his strange behaviour and utterances for the rest of their cohabitation. Neither did she realize that she was in fact, living with a complete stranger.

A Living Witness:

A widow who is still alive today was sick and bedridden. All medical and therapeutic remedies rendered to her only drained the family’s lean resources. It got to a point that no further help could be given and she was left for dead. Her children were too young to offer any assistance, as she was rather their breadwinner. One night, as in a trance, she picked up a shovel and a head pan and followed an old man who guided her through some familiar bush track to some very strange environment where the king of the local village only touched her on the shoulder restoring her to instant state of healthiness. The same man whom she later recognized as her late husband had escorted her back to a point where she could recognize her way home. It was daybreak by the time she got back into the village having trekked all the nightlong. People were surprised to see an almost dead woman go back to her farm work tilling the ground and cutting overgrown grass with the strength and vigour of a teenager.

Vivid Memory:

The sorry twist to this experience is that she still has a vivid picture of the environment where she received her healing but no known community within their locality fits into her description. Her experience started like a dream where her late husband came to visit her on her sickbed and said to her that she needed to be alive to continue to fend for their three children. He then offered to take her to the man he said was a native doctor who also was the king of that mysterious village. This story can be verified by anybody who doubts its authenticity because the woman in question and her children are still alive up to the time of going to press.

Dateline–Togo:

There was another woman who lived in a popular part of Lome in Togo republic. She operated a roadside restaurant, and her food was said to be exceptionally delicious and much sought after. One day, someone identified her as a woman from her far-away town in neighbouring upper-volta region of Ghana. He knew she had died some years back. He boldly walked to her front and called her by name. She looked up, waved her long spoon across his face, and felled him to the ground right on the street.


In a twinkle of an eye, she evaporated carrying all her pots of variety of food. As if that was not enough, she took with her the young girl that was her helper. When curious neighbours who witnessed the spectacle hurried to where she lived to arrest her for causing public disorder, they received the shock of their lives on discovering that she had also packed all her belongings, which could hardly fit into a pick-up van. All these happened in less than fifteen minutes, which is too little time for anyone to have gathered as much household utensils and furniture to escape.
Ghost Call-girl:

A young man who lived in Port-Harcourt Road in the commercial city of Aba in Abia state Nigeria once contracted a prostitute with whom he spent the night at his residence. The next morning, he asked the girl to accompany him to his business place in what is called cemetery market. This locality was a one-time burial ground that the government cleared to construct one of the very busy markets in the state for want of space. They both walked hand-in-hand and side-by-side until they got to a culvert that needed one person crossing at a time. The man was the first to cross. As he turned back to grab his girlfriend’s hand once again, she was gone. It was early in the morning and there was not yet the normal crowd that could hide anybody. The man raised alarm and his shop neighbours joined in a frantic search, which yielded no results. The only answer to her sudden disappearance was that she was a ghost. When the man ran back home to check whether she was there by any chance, he met his room still padlocked. He had the only key to his room. The girl’s vanity bag and underwear that she had washed and hung in the man’s bathroom earlier in the morning were all gone.

Cote d’Ivoire Resident:

What about a young man who had a wife and two children. They had spent four years in Cote d’Ivoire before he consented to taking the family to his hometown somewhere in Ngwa-land near Umuahia the capital of Abia state - Nigeria. When they arrived within earshot from the man’s compound, he alighted from the chartered vehicle and directed the driver to carry the family to a compound he indicated to them feigning that he wanted to inform a relative of their arrival. That was the last they saw of him. When the wife met with members of the family and identified her husband from the family photograph that hung on the wall, one member of the family was invited after another until they had almost the entire village in session. The woman apparently overwhelmed was full of joy that she had such a large number of in-laws. After protracted consultations, the grave of the man she claimed to be the father of her children was shown her. The woman and her children are still living and have put the nightmare behind them.

Diplomatic Passenger:

During the oil boom era in Nigeria; Nigerians acknowledge that what they now have is a ‘doom,’ some undergraduates used to travel abroad, during long vacations, to as far as the United Kingdom, to buy various items which they sold to raise money for their next tuition, board, etcetera. One of such girls had met a white man at Heathrow airport who offered to chaperon her around popular shops at the end of which he offered to accommodate her for a couple of days in his apartment in central London. This was not an unusual gesture as most tourists always appreciated anything that would make them spend less on hotel bills. The girl returned to London three weeks after her last visit, and headed for her lover’s residence. She stood at the gate and knocked frantically, pressing the doorbell endlessly, until some neighbours came to inquire what the matter was. When she announced the name of the man she was hoping to meet and confirmed that they had been together some three weeks back, she was told that the man had been dead about a year ago. Moreover, no one was known to have entered that apartment for quite some time. Upon hearing that revelation, the girl slumped to the ground. Ambulance service was called up. The girl was later handed to the Nigerian High Commission that assisted to fly her back to Nigeria.

At the Morgue:

Let’s be patient to share this last testimony of an old man who slapped a mortuary attendant and got his neck twisted. His wizardry was an open secret. His eyes continued to blink after his heart had stopped beating. Autopsy report confirmed him dead while the blinking eyes proved otherwise. As his body started decomposing, his kindred conceded that he be buried like any dead person. During his burial ceremony he had the hands and feet of his coffin bearers twisted in unimaginable manners until there was a consensus to delay the interment for another couple of days. While the corps lay in the morgue, attendants reported of endless shuffling of feet and collision of caskets especially during the nights.


One of the attendants tried to ascertain what the matter was. What he got as a report was dirty slap on his face from the man with blinking eyes. He was busy scattering the other caskets and corpses to create a distance between them and him.

Flesh and Blood:

There is no scientific explanation to the fact that a body can remain fresh with blood still flowing in its veins after it had been buried for more than six months. Science describes decomposition as the process of breaking down complex matter into simpler form through the action of fungi and bacteria. This process can commence as early as forty-eight hours in the case of vegetables and animals once the life giving source is disconnected. But this natural law was violated by a woman from the same locality as the man at the morgue earlier spoken of. During her life-time, she was known to be a devout member of the Women’s Guild in her local church. That devotedness earned her a befitting and well attended church burial. According to tradition, she was buried on her undeveloped piece of land within the outskirts of the village. Her frequent and unceasing appearance at her former house especially at eventides became a source of worry not only to her immediate family members, but to the entire community. A group of clergies did whatever they could, but she would not be assuaged from making those nocturnal visits. As a last resort, a traditional medicine-man had to be consulted. His two initial visits to the grave proved futile. The woman seemed to have eavesdropped on the discussions preparatory to nailing her down and had decided to play hide and seek with the BABA as he was fondly called. Himself being an adept in the craft, got himself dangerously fortified and enlisted the services of two aides, just in case.
During the next three days, BABA and his assistants were on fast; eating only a morsel of roasted plantain soaked in raw palm oil by midnight. On the high-day and at the high-hour, the trio set off and stealthily barricaded the graveyard, making any intrusion or escape very dangerous and impossible. After carefully studying the situation, BABA ordered his assistants to clear off surrounding weeds and start digging the grave with the intention of exhuming the corpse. When they struck the deck, lo and behold, they came face to face with a casket glittering with polish and ornaments as on the very day the woman was buried. The screws which held the cover were already loose, indicative of the fact that they had been previously tampered with or had never been fastened in the first place. While they were trying to contemplate this anomaly, the woman emerged from inside the casket, shelving the cover aside in a very casual manner. Her clothes were as fresh as ever before. She engaged BABA in a long dialogue which heightened with threats, abuses, allegations and counter-claims and finally mellowing down to compromises. When BABA had succeeded in putting her to sleep, he had her head severed from her neck, and handed it to members of the woman’s family for reburial on her living room which was one of her grievances for frequently coming back home. The family would rather take the fresh cut head to the Police and lodged a complaint of murder against BABA. He was promptly arrested, and would have gone to jail if not for the intervention and testimony of a cross-section of the community and the church authorities.
So far for this drama. Dwelling long on evil tends to give it some air of prominence, which is not the intention of these write-ups.

Unresolved Debate:

These and other verifiable evidences of appearances of people that were once dead amongst the living begs the question as to whether people really do die, whether reincarnation is still an issue for debate, or whether all those apparitions are only some hallucination of some sort, or proof of man’s immortality. Whatever it is, these appearances have neither ceased nor have people found any clear-cut explanation to the phenomenon.

Suspicion amongst Neighbours:

It is becoming even confusing to tell whether one’s next-door neighbor at the place of business, in the churches or even at home is not a phantom from a nearby or distant location seeming to be a living human. The danger lies in the fact that their true identity only becomes obvious when they happen to be identified by some earlier acquaintance, and they vanish. Everybody seems to be a suspect. Or are we not? If we are not, what evidence do we have that we can even vouch that our parents or grandparents were not such-like beings?

Earth-bound souls:

The only argument that can stand the test of time in this regard is the common belief among certain occult or secret societies that their adherents, who fulfill the requirements and obligations of their membership, can be sure to have as many as seven lives or levels of physical manifestation either on this earth or in some regions only known to them. For the love of these earthly material exigencies most Africans especially business executives and some government officials or politicians are known to belong to one or more of these secret societies. Apart from using their membership to intimidate and threaten non-adherents, most of them have used it to attain levels of affluence and influence. Little is known of their involvement until at death when their members usually come to hijack the funeral to the exclusion of other members of the family.

To such group of humans, their life is ever shrouded in secrecy, scandal, and accusations. There are endless mysterious deaths of family members, which are linked to the demands of their cult. It is alleged with absurdity of evidence that they do pledge the lives of those family members in exchange for riches and promise of long life or life after death.

Non-violent:

But ghosts do not and CANNOT cause physical harm to any living person. What can be attributed to physical injuries sustained by people who lay claim to having encountered a ghost is the scientific fact that some people make themselves vulnerable. They lack courage. They harbour fear. They fail to exercise control over their Solar Plexus, and thus allow it to contract in the presence of any form of threat. It is evident that non-resistant thought expands the Solar Plexus; resistant thought contracts it. Pleasant thought expands it; unpleasant thought contracts it. Thoughts of courage, power, confidence, and hope all produce a corresponding state, but the one arch enemy of the Solar Plexus which must be absolutely destroyed before one is immune to so-called ghostly attacks is fear. It is capable of making men tremble at the contemplation of their past, present, and future; fear themselves, their friends, and their enemies; fear everything and everybody including ghosts.
During such encounters, the victim has been known to slap, kick and scratch himself under the illusion that he was wadding off a ghost. This accounts also for the physical injuries sustained after such encounters.

Materialism:

The Scriptures say that, “where a man’s treasure is, there he focuses his heart.” This ‘heart’ is synonymous with soul, mind, spirit; whatever faculty that constitutes an embodiment of or manifestation of that personality or individuality called ‘man.’ A further understanding of the activities or preoccupations of those aforementioned apparitions will reveal their strong attachment to materialism.
Some schools of thought will also attest to the fact that one of the factors that compels them to constitute a coven or congregation is not only the material allurements but also the alleged physical manifestation of their spiritual Masters.

Other Inducements:

All human activities emanate from thought. Thought originates from the Mind – the Universal storehouse of all information. Even when people tend to forget their actions or thoughts, the Mind continues to retain these information. That retention is otherwise known as Consciousness.

Duality of Being:

Man is both physical and spiritual. Physicality has its shortcomings and hindrances. The spiritual is uninhibited. Hence, when the physical body becomes inanimate, has passed through the death experience, the spiritual continues to exist, carrying with it all the embodiment or characteristics of the personality through which it had expressed.

The Distinction:

If prior to passing on, a person had been malevolent, vindictive, hostile to others, wicked, a murderer or thief, quarrelsome, alcoholic, adulterer, liar and full of all the vices the world ever knew, he does not suddenly transform into a benevolent, gentle, loving peace maker. The same is true of a person who, by universal standards could be adjudged a good person. Personality or character traits are carried over to the next level of existence.
Ascension to higher levels will depend strictly upon the degree of refinement or reformation of the individual, hence the Scriptural injunction to work out one’s salvation with fear and trembling. Phil.2:12(b).
The distinction, therefore, is that whereas benevolent spirit persons move closer to celestial level of tranquility, serenity and bliss, wicked ones continue to hover around dense regions as ghosts.
When some people die, their mundane inclination attaches them to the physical world. This attraction motivates the “ghost” to draw Etheric Energy from their surroundings at will, thus keeping them grounded to the material environment rather than allowing them ascend to finer astral levels of existence.
Seldom do most dead people come to terms that they are no more dwelling in flesh and blood. Such ghosts tend to continue to dwell in their familiar native environments such as the offices, market place, personal rooms, trying to communicate with former acquaintances, and stupidly engaging in physical life activities such as drinking, eating food, having sex; in fact, engaging in all manner of physical life trappings. Some lurk around in the hope of trying to settle scores with enemies or reconcile with people they had regrettably offended, or still, trying to put finishing touches to unfinished business; though these are not possible without a physical body.
People have often come back to life after several hours or even a couple of days in a state of comma, resulting from fatal accident, influence of anaesthesia, hallucination, or having some dose of astral travelling. They have been consistent in their accounts of near-death experiences, which coincide with some of the accounts herein given.
Curiosity and excitement at the prospect of unrestricted movement compel some of these dense spirited persons to wander into the river. Some experiment with living among wild animals, reptiles and domestic animals. Others prefer to dwell among the birds of the trees. Others, still, maintain their physical body and carry on as if they had not died. It all depends on the overbearing inclination of the person during life time.

Epigenesis:

A developing baby in the womb tries to mimic the mother’s movement as transmitted via the umbilical cord. As soon as the umbilical cord is severed at birth, the baby is liberated to begin to mimic other people that surround it. This includes learning to smile, eyes movement, crawling and walking and talking with increasing number of days of its earthly existence. The same is true of a traveller who, for instance leaves what we can call a 19th century “third world country,” who, wearied by the long distance, sleeps off, only to arrive in a 21st century “developed world.” This traveller is one that is passing through what we call ‘life’ to what is termed ‘death’ which is marked by the severance of the silver cord. This severance of the silver cord which marks the final stage of passing through the threshold between earthly physical existence and extraterrestrial sojourning, accounts for the rolling upwards of the eyes of a departing soul as it trails the blaze along its enchanting trajectory beyond the horizon.
Such a sudden change of environment will certainly confuse the traveller. The initial reaction will be that of unbelief, confusion, and disorientation. But with time, he will begin to mimic other beings within the environment. He will make new acquaintances, initially with timidity, until time and circumstances enliven his response. He then will begin to exercise his sense of discrimination, liberty and choice.
In this state of consciousness, everything is possible including transmigration, teleportation and transformation.

Transmigrated Vultures:
The following photograph depicts a man-eating vulture which is believed to be an embodiment of a one-time cannibal. This man and his wife were lynched in a mob action instigated by the village youths after they have been substantially linked to many mysterious disappearances of children within the neighbourhood of Onitsha in Anambra state of Nigeria. Shortly after the death of the couple, people started noticing this pair of vultures at the refuse dump near one of the road-side markets after the Niger Bridge. Naturally, vultures congregate around butcheries where they can get enough meat to each. But this pair had insatiable preference to human flesh. Children who occasionally went to have a bowel movement at the dump seldom returned to their parents. These disappearances ceased only after the vultures were tracked, killed and burned to ashes.

Making Contacts:

Interestingly, what people regard as ‘invocation of spirits,’ is nothing more than tuning up oneself to a rate of vibration, launching out, attuning to a frequency of higher electro-magnetic charge otherwise known as the sixth dimension. Spirit CANNOT be ‘invoked’ – that is, called down to earth. Rather, humans can raise consciousness to a level where communication with spirit becomes possible.
Scriptural Injunction:

Conversely, according to the Epistle of St. Paul to the people of Corinth “The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” 1 Corinthians 15:47 – 52.

Exceptions:

Evidently, spirit-filled persons can hardly be counted among those apparitions. Their abode is in the spiritual realm as promised by Jesus the Christ when he said, “In My Father’s house, there are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you so that wherever I am there you will also be; if it were not so, I would have told you.” (John 14:2).

Humans have a Choice:

And God says, “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. (Deuteronomy 30:15 – 20.)

Exhortation:

Little wonder the wisest man in recorded history wrote:
“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say; I have no pleasure in them; while the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, and the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low; also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.

Final Word:

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecclesiastes 12:1 – 8, 13)