I PROMISE YOU

I am not too sure how often I tell you this and even how truthful I am when I get to say it; but today, I mean every single letter of every word plus all the possible meanings you get out of it. I promise you!

You have brought so much with you into my life and I really feel the best of it comes with the humility and your ability to weather the storm with me; that is indeed all I can ask for in a woman I call my wife. Thank you.

It is not your birthday nor is it our anniversary but I have come to realise that the best words and assurances shouldn't wait; these thoughts and words must be shared as soon as they are felt. They are about the most responsible way to pay back a rare display of companionship.

Times like this offer me the opportunity not only to say thank you but to be truthful. Have I been the best of husband? No, I haven’t. The good thing about this truth is that I know it and I am working hard to be better than you think I am.

The turbulence that has rocked our humble start tells a better tale of how consistent you have been and why you deserve a better deal; I haven’t seen and may never see an end to this except for the ultimate, death. Whenever it comes and whoever goes first; if feelings are carried over, I would always be grateful I have you. Once again, thank you.

I pick inspirations from quite a number of things but I have quickly come to realise how close I come to tears and inspiration when you talk to me and share our dreams together. I have always wanted to be a superb husband and a great father; this you have helped me start by seeing a reason why I should be what I actually set out to be. You made these attributes a goal worth pursuing and I am set.

My life has been rocked by some kind of challenges and I have fallen into temptations here and there but none of it has come without personal regrets and quest for self redemption. Some you reacted to and some, you let go. In all of these, I want you to know I have never taken your position in my life for granted and that which I have never contemplated is to let you go. For all my mistakes, I say, sorry. You have my love at all time and that would always be.

In all of these, my dear, I can only promise to justify your investments in our union. Your goals, the ones you have lived through and the ones you look to achieve, the drive to make our home the most pleasant destination and a place to always want to be, your pains in bringing our lovely children into this world, your doggedness in pursuing with me some of my dreams that may seem unrealistic, your trust in my ability to make the best out of nothing, your believe in my obviously limited ability; all of these would not be for nothing; I promise.

You can’t forget in a rush the days we passed together without money to spend and very little to eat. The days we had to whisper into the ears of our little boy why things had to be so hard on him even when we both knew he couldn't understand us and I also would never forget the nights you have to stay awake to keep the little man sleeping, the days spent to see our girl grow into a good woman and even the days I get so so lazy to get up and give you a hand. Let the truth be told; most of these times, I am eaten up by my guilt and weep over them in my quiet times; what a wife I have, what a man I have not been to match the energy and zeal.
All of these times are precious and are kept very close to my heart. I surely would grow into a better man and I hope one day, you would write in return for me some lines like I have done today.

This may be shared all around the world; this may be read by millions of eyes, all of these at any rate are for you and purely informed by how much you mean to me.

The best I can do is promise and pray for all of the divine guidance I can get.

Olaoluwa, I promise you!

In pursuit of constructive opposition

I am compelled to return to my blog after so long for reasons owing to my very erratic schedules in recent time. Taking advantage of some free time while here in the United States, it is indeed a good time to write about issues very dear to my heart especially considering my political inclination.

The first rule around here is absolute loyalty to your party and its leadership; this loyalty has nothing to do with the correctness of policies and/or ideologies, no! it is just about being loyal. This also does not presuppose that the ideologies are outrightly outrageous but for a system like ours that has consistently suffered doses of bad leadership; there has to be a crystal clear opposition strategy in place to give hope that better days truly are ahead.

My frequent twitter and facebook visits have opened my eyes to the emergence of a new brand of activist; I mean the e-activist!

The brand of activism is such that from the comfort of your hand-held smart devices, one can easily analyse issues and make submissions without hassles; this plus the fact that we currently have a leadership system where almost anything negative said about it may end up correct makes it such a very convenient approach to opposing government. I have nothing absolutely against the wave of e-activists as I equally qualify to be one and also that it rightly would be one of the needed avenues we would rely on if mass participation is anything to go by. It is equally important to note that not all e-activists go unpunished especially those whose activities take a physical dimension.

My wish is to see opposition parties especially that which I belong to outgrow its current approach to dealing with the activities of the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan led administration. It some sort appears to be automatic that a reasonable number of Nigerians already know what is wrong with the utterances and actions of our president just about as it happens; a situation that practically reduces my party to a mere projector of known facts as it were. This in my opinion isn't the right approach to opposition except that we wish to add to our very long list of names, the 'doomsday gospeller'.

What would really portray the party in the right light is taking a more constructive approach in dealing with policies of the government. We can’t afford to busy ourselves with what is already in the public domain while shying away from articulating proactive ways forward.

That the PDP led government is bad is as common as saying it’s raining, what is missing is that we have not successfully as a party proven to the people that we are a better option as most arguments presented in recent times only end up telling what is wrong with PDP and not what should have been done or what we intend to do!

This trend seem to be scoring the emerging party to the negative region as the whole alliance seem to have further galvanized the same old approach of condemning without proffering solutions.

Another interesting fact is that the ease of condemning the wrongs of the current administration which without apologies, I strongly agree must be properly situated seem to outweigh giving kudos for the few right judgments of Mr. President. While it is natural to want to argue against praising an opposition, it all boils down to the fact that we should owe to our country a sense of loyalty more that we can ever pledge to whatever political organisation we belong to.

In recent times, a number of issues have pitched our party against overwhelming public opinion on very crucial security matters; a fact that underscores the popularity of our said promises to outdo the current administration.

My point therefore is to get our acts right, busy ourselves with designing pragmatic ideologies, raise a soldier of young think-tanks to critically analyse happenings and come up with critiques and ways forward. This is in my opinion, about the only way we can end up representing a viable replacement for this current crop of confused individuals managing the affairs of our dear country.

At the end of the day, what is important to an average Nigerian is that daily life is improved upon and the pride of being a Nigerian is revived as against the current exchange of hot words that end up not solving any problem but compounding the existing ones.

God Bless Nigeria…