Angry Uncle Monye Vol. 1

A couple of things you should know about me: I am a frustrated angry man, I feel like the whole world is crazy and i am the only sane person and lastly, everything pisses me off...and I mean everything

Last weekend, I took a day off work to try and get registered on the whole INEC registration bit(for some reason I can't explain I seriously want to vote, even though I know it won't count) so here I'm on the queue then this woman comes by she is told there is a queue and she starts making a whole lot of noise about her being old and that the youths have no respect, and that she is too old to join a queue and a lot of other gibberish, eventually she jumps the queue. What’s even more mind boggling is that this supposedly old lady would not be more than 50 years old.

I stood on the queue in shock when the "old" lady actually registered before me and after 2 more people the INEC Officials/youth corpers say "the machine is down". I would like to point out though that this machine is a laptop all be it cheap a zinox one. For whatever sentimental or should i say "eye service" reason the low budget computer by Leo stan ekeh was picked to do such an important job. Let’s be honest, how many of us have ever seen a Zinox computer talk less of owning one? One word comes to mind.... SENTIMENTS. In my country Nigeria, we have come to put sentiments into everything we do and that's reason why we are still stagnant and will not move forward. Religious sentiments, political sentiments, business sentiments, family sentiments and the list goes on!

  I once borrowed my brother some money for business, and by principle i had him sign a letter stating when and how the money would be repaid, when i had him arrested for failure to pay back the money he owned me, the rest of the family said i was a bad person.

How am i supposed to survive if every one of my family members knows that if they borrow money from me they don’t have to pay back? What’s worse is, if i say i don’t want to lend anyone money, i would be labeled selfish. So here i am without my money and compelled to lend some more out, all thanks to SENTIMENTS

  I remember a little while ago, I went for a conference at ijebu ode, it was one of those long, boring and tiring ones, I was glad when it was all over and so I began the journey back home. After such a long day, i can't wait to get home, have a cold shower, sip on my favorite beer and finally get some sleep. But that is not to be as there is heavy traffic on "LAGOS - IBADAN EXPRESS WAY" that is a major road, as in a major road in my dear country Nigeria. After 4 hours in this slow moving traffic and my beat up Mitsubishi lancer on the verge of overheating I finally get to see what's causing the traffic and I find out that's its Churches along the road that's causing the traffic, as a couple of them have got programs/crusade/healing seminars that weekend.

I find it appalling that the government has refused to do something about this situation, for crying out loud this is a major road and a lot of commuters use this road, business men, trucks carrying goods and others. The only reason I see the government throwing a blind eyes to this is due to SETIMENTS.

Way back when Fela (one of the greatest musicians to have lived)  was alive, several  times the Government would go and lock up the premises where he performed popularly known as " African Shrine" and their excuse was that it was causing a nuisance and was a menace to the society.

Truth be told, these so called churches are a menace to the COUNTRY when they have their activities and decide to block the whole highway and the government turning a blind eyes to this just shows how much SENTIMENTS is being traded in for the right thing to do. Looking at it from another perspective, even if the government won't do anything about this, is it not common sense that the people in charge of these churches should do something about the problems they are causing other people. I mean, I love God like the next man does, but I don’t think Jesus had his meetings or the feeding of the 5 thousand on Pontius Pilate Highway

Right by my house is this Mosque, and every morning at 5am unfailingly, they wake me up and i all but want to blow my brains out. What’s a mosque doing right beside my house for Pete’s sake? I decide to bring this up at the Residents association meeting and i have been ostracized ever since. Not to mention there’s a church on the left side of my building now so i am smack in the middle of 2 religions. How am i even supposed to know which to follow?

 One can’t even say what’s on his mind for fear of being labeled a bad person. So here i am being forced to suffer in silence and being judged for my opinions - Uncle Monye