YOUR LIVER WILL REMEMBER

If the colour of your eyes or the colour of your urine is yellow, then my friend you may already be in trouble and not realise it. In fact, you could be walking around with a potentially life-threatening condition and not know it. Basically, if you have yellow urine and yellow eyes, you might want to check your liver.

I feel compelled to do this piece based on my observation of the level of ignorance and non-challans of many of my peers within the Nigerian community in diaspora but also those at home about the real dangers of alcohol abuse and why the urgent need for a lifestyle change could save your life down the line.

When I turned forty, I felt the pressure that it was downhill from then on, so to counter that, I decided to be healthier but not just by doing a couple of push ups here and there or having the odd run from my house to the local ALDI but I wanted to see what was beneath my six foot two inches fourteen stone frame to have a glimpse into what was working and what wasn’t, coupled with the discovery that whenever I got injured either from playing basketball or sparing at the boxing gym, it took me longer to recover or walk properly compared to when I was in my twenties when injuries were simply an inconvenience.

It’s not the body…it’s the engine that counts

Like most people, I too equate muscles with fitness and good health and rightly so, except a muscle-bound body may not necessarily be a fully healthy body. What I’m saying is that there is need for an internal check of the “engine” so to speak and not assume that just because you have a massive bicep and a fifty-inch chest, then it’s okay to gulp down alcohol on a regular basis or drink “opa-eyin” (local herb mixed with local alcohol) indiscriminately without consequences.

You may be slim and trim, with a nice proportionate diet and exercise regime…but alcohol abuse could be slowly destroying your liver without you realising it.

Studies have shown that our internal organs just like our physical body also suffer wear and tear, therefore it is dangerous for anyone close to forty or above forty to continue to abuse his or her liver with indiscriminate alcohol consumption because guess what, few years down the line when you have forgotten all the “fun” you had, your liver will remember.

Yellow eyes? Yellow urine? Do a test!

I see a lot of guys walking around with yellow eyes. I have verbally mentioned the significance of it to some of these friends of mine but it was waved aside in jest. One said to me “I have been urinating yellow for ever and I’m fine”. He looked physically fit as well, tall and lanky but with golden eyeballs. The way I see it, there is only so much your liver can endure and it would be a shame to continue to hammer it until it grinds to a halt.

Alcohol abuse is a common problem in the West but hey, the medical support is available and efficient. My message is for the Africa community, because if women still die at child birth and children still die of malaria, I’m afraid your knackered liver won’t be anyone’s priority therefore it would be advisable to keep it in check while you can.

As it’s Christmas, the tendency to go “haka” or “mortal” as the Geordies would say it is high, but before you go on your bender, take a moment to think about your liver, cos it will remember.

He was not seven years old nor did he steal gaari...

The case of the 7-year-old boy who was brutalised and burnt alive on the streets of Lagos has outraged Nigerians home and abroad (I’d say those abroad in particular) due to the horrific video and photos that were displayed on social media as a “7-year-old child” was tied up visibly exhausted from the beatings, bleeding all over, with a huge gash on his head, probably from repeated blows of machete he had been dealt, wearing a tyre and moments later doused with petrol and set on fire.

This incident has upset Nigerians all over the world, except for the people living near Alafia bus stop area of Orile-Iganmu Lagos…why? Because not only did they participate in the murder of a 7-year old, they filmed it and watched him burn without flinching.

“Beasts” “Scumbags” “Shame on you” “Murderers” Nigerian social media world was grief-stricken and angry that in a country where politicians steal billions of dollars collectively without reprisal, a vulnerable 7-year old who just wanted to eat was burnt alive for stealing gaari and were even more outraged that adults stood by and watched while a baby was murdered, except that was not a 7-year old child and he didn’t steal gaari at all.

The young man that was brutally killed by the lynch mob was in fact a member of an armed gang that has terrorised and killed dozens of people in the Alafia bus stop area of Orile-Iganmu and continued to do so until that faithful day of 16^th November 2016.

The Mob Mentality

Unfortunately, like most Naija social media news report, accuracy is miles away from this account. The “heartless and soulless” people of Alafia bus stop area of Orile who watched this dastardly act without trying to rescue the boy knew something the rest of us didn’t know. In fact, some of them were indeed victims of this violent gang notorious for stabbing unsuspecting people in the neck and stealing phones and mobile devices.

They use the element of surprise in their attack, wherein they don’t ask you for your phone or money, they simply blindside their victim with a sudden violent stab wound to the neck and relieve the victim of his or her electronic device. They have even been known to have thrown a victim over the bridge to his death whilst he was fighting them off to keep his precious iPhone.

Therefore, my dear friends, countryman and countrywoman, here are the facts…the victim of the lynching was not a 7-year old child who stole gaari because he was starving, rather he was a member of this violent gang who carried out an attack but was overpowered due to being relatively young (probably 16 or 17) and was apprehended by the mob while the other gang members escaped.

What happened next was the wrath of the people of that area who had lived in fear for years, who had complained to local government authority about the notorious Alafia bus stop area, who had lost loved ones to violent attacks, unleash on one of the gang member who unfortunately turned out to be this young man who you could argue had his life ahead of him (or did he) cut shut in his prime.

For those of us who jumped straight on social media to write moving memes, upload videos, wrote passionate FB updates with angry emoticon, sad emoticon and tearful emoticon…an increasing trend of “mob mentality” where we jump to say what everyone else is saying because its popular.

I was fascinated by the unanimous stand that Nigerians took in condemning the killing of another human being, regardless of what he must have been accused of or guilty of. I was like “wow…Nigerians still have empathy and a humane spirit” and this public condemnation is proof…or is it? Cos no sooner had I joined a Facebook thread on this topic did the true nature of Nigerians spring out from hiding.

A lot of people who have condemned the people who set this boy ablaze or watched him burn without feeling any remorse would do the same thing if people they considered “deserving of death” were in such position. I raised the issue of Nigerian drug peddlers, some of them in their early 20s and some teenagers per my findings who get executed in Malaysia and Thailand and how Nigerians on this same platform said they deserved to die and they got their comeuppance and immediately the same person who just condemned the death of a young man echoed that the execution of another human being is perfectly okay with him as the person committed a crime.

Well, the boy that was burnt committed a crime too, using that rationale, why is one killing bad and the other killing okay? Is it because one was carried out by the Malaysian Government while the other by citizens who have become frustrated and fought back. I would argue that these days an average Nigerian is not sympathetic, lacks empathy and is incredibly biased. Nigerians like to follow the mob…on social media and on the streets as the poor kid found out. May God have mercy on his young soul and the souls of those he had stabbed and killed or being a part of.

And what about Witches?

How many times have you heard Christians clamour and advocate for the death of their enemies and how many times have we heard pastors and general overseers, bishops et al propagate the death of witches with much enthusiasm and passion. Is it not odd to see people who supposedly commune with God desire the death of other people so bad? My point is there is a lot of hypocrisy in our community. A greater number of those grieving for that boy’s death had already prayed for the death of someone else, so my point is a lot of us are not different from the people who filmed that video and didn’t intervene when that boy was being burnt.

We had cases of children accused of witchcraft and doused with acid by pastors. We had women suffering from dementia accused of witchcraft and burnt to death, so what is this noise all about really? When most of us will participate, or approve of similar thing in principle.

And what about the gays?

It is this same country where a homosexual man was brutally attacked, stripped naked and murdered for being gay. Now note this, some of us condemned that act, but some of you who have uploaded videos now condemning yesterday’s act said nothing about the young man who was cut shut…why? Because your Christian belief condemn his lifestyle and as such he probably “deserved” to die, hence you didn’t criticise nor comment, therefore I conclude that these outpour of grief is not necessarily a reflection or evidence that we are good people, even though it should.

If you have no problem with the brutal murder of a gay man, then what is your moral justification for condemning the people who took vengeance on a person that tried to kill them in the first place? I don’t understand that bit.

I condemn in its entirety the lynch mob; I support whole heartedly the bravery of the locals who rugby tackled and overpowered the gang and eventually detained the young man. I only wish they handed him over to the police instead of killing him like they did, making Africa look like a bunch of uncivilised barbarians who take pleasure in burning old women, disabled children and disenfranchised youths. But then again, imagine if they took him to the police station, what is the guarantee that justice will be served, that he would be prosecuted or put in a remand home since he’s probably under age and do we even have such facility.

Clearly the people have no faith in the police or the local authority hence why they take matters into their own hands, defend themselves and act as judge, jury and in this case executioner.

A country that cannot provide security for its citizen has failed in its primary responsibility and the real culprit here is not the people who murdered the boy but the Government who failed the boy and failed the people who murdered the boy.

Spare a thought for Buhari

A man and his dog 

So a man buys a dog and call him Buhari, as an ode to Mr president...a man he “respects and admires so much” for his "doggedness" (pun intended). He loved his dog so much that he shaves the dog's torso and writes Buhari on both sides of it then walks his dog past his neighbour from Niger Republic whose father apparently is also called Buhari (like there are no other names to bear) and the neighbour demanded an explanation as to why Joe Fortemose Chinakwe a.k.a Joachim Iroko decided to name his dog Buhari which led to an altercation and subsequent police intervention.
Unfortunately for Joe…what started as a police intervention soon graduated to an arrest and charge for “conduct likely to cause breach of the peace” under section 249 (d) of criminal law of Ogun State and Joe has since then been sent to prison. As usual this has divided opinion across the nation, some argue this is a violation of fundamental human rights to freedom of speech and others argue that Joe deliberately goaded his neighbour by his action.

What about Buhari

Unfortunately, in all of these, nobody seems to care about poor Buhari or his whereabouts. Joe’s neighbour allegedly killed the innocent dog because they saw it as an insult to name the dog either after the President or after his Dad, so killing Buhari was the best option as far as they are concerned. People have been going on about rule of law etcetera, but who is going to bring Buhari’s killers to justice?? When is animal rights going to be enshrined in our constitution and more importantly in our minds.
Buhari never asked to be bought by Joe…he never asked to be shaved, hell his original name was bully before Joe decided to name him Buhari either for the reasons he stated i.e. out of admiration for the president or perhaps he was being cheeky and trying to goad his neighbour, this poor dog had nothing to do with all of these, yet he’s been brutally killed and no one is being arrested for that.
The Nigerian police have one more arrest to make…Buhari’s killers must be brought to justice and the Senate and house of representatives need to be up and doing regarding animal rights legislation, after all you can tell a lot about a country based on how they treat their animals.

And what about Lucky?

If everybody who bears the name Lucky was to take offence by the fact that 1 in every 20 dogs is called Lucky, then how many people will be in prison for breach of piece? If Joe wanted to upset people, he succeeded and hopefully learnt from it but what sort of precedence are we setting under this Government? After all Patience Jonathan was called a hippopotamus and a chimpanzee and her husband Goodluck Jonathan the former president had a goat named after him and heaven did not fall over, so why can’t I name my pet parrot Aisha or my pet monkey Lai without being worried I might get locked up and this is 2016 and a supposed democracy.


Let us spare a thought for Buhari and use this unfortunate incident as a turning point to start treating animals fairly and consider the fact we have a duty of care to our wildlife, maybe…just maybe we might start treating each other better.