THE HOPELESSNESS OF HOPE

"It's a hopeless write up. Have you been doing weed?" That was the reaction I got when I first told a friend about this post. He is someone I respect, so I wanted to gauge his opinion before I go public with a post that most would deem controversial. I have been thinking of a way around this for the last three months but I can't hold this anymore. So with my bulletproof jacket well fitted, ladies and gentlemen I present to you "The hopelessness of hope".

Now in case some of you are wondering, am I really high? Yes, a little. On weed? Absolutely not. So why would anyone think of writing a post trying to relate hope with hopelessness? Don't get me wrong, you cannot possibly deny the fact that hope is one of the most powerful attributes any man can possess. It is the most powerful human motivation I know.

THE LOVERHOLIC X-RAYS: FALLING IN AND OUT OF LOVE

It’s often astonishing how two people can fall in and out of love over and over again. One minute they are head over heels in love an the next minute they are tearing each other apart. So, I decided to x-ray the problem with the intention of finding a lasting solution.

Falling in love is a gradual process where you move from being attracted to someone to having a sense of fulfillment. To fall in love, a person must move from a position of independence to interdependence or sometimes dependence.

Interdependence is when you two people are emotionally, economically or morally responsible to each other. Dependence is however, when one party relies on the other to exist and can’t function properly without them. So why do people fall in and out of love? Okay, let me tell you the story behind today’s Loverholic X-rays before I forget.

NIGERIAN TEEN HAROLD EKEH ACCEPTED TO ALL EIGHT IVY LEAGUE SCHOOLS

17-year-old Nigerian, Harold Ekeh, recently got accepted to all eight Ivy League universities in the United States and got admission into all 13 schools he applied to, including MIT and Johns Hopkins.

According to Ekeh “I am very humbled by this. I see this as not an accomplishment for me, but as an accomplishment for my school, my community. I really see this as my mission to inspire the next generation. I am leaning toward Yale,” he told CNNMoney. “I competed at Yale for Model UN, and I like the passion people at Yale had.”

With a passion for science: He wants to major in neurobiology or chemistry in college and later become doctor and, ultimately, a neurosurgeon. He was named a 2015 Intel Science Talent Search semifinalist earlier this year for his research on how the acid DHA can slow Alzheimer’s. Elmont High School is 99 per cent minority. Ekeh is the second student in recent years to win a prestigious Intel Science award.

For Ekeh, the cause is personal. His grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when he was 11. One of his proudest moments was running home to tell his mother and aunts about the breakthroughs he was finding with DHA.

“When other kids would say, ‘I want to be a superhero or police officer,’ I would say, ‘I want to know what is on the inside of us,’” he said.

The key to success: Outside of the lab, Ekeh directs a youth choir at his church, plays the drums, is part of Key Club and Model UN and was elected to the Homecoming court. He speaks Igbo and Spanish and has a 100.5 per cent GPA. He’s proud of acing the AP History Exam despite his early struggles with the subject.
His parents moved from Nigeria to the United States with his family eight years ago and his mom works for a human resources agency, while his dad works for the New York City Police Department.

According to media reports, Ekeh credits his success in gaining admittance to all eight Ivy League schools and several other universities to his parents for moving from Nigeria to the United States when he was 8 years old, and his teachers for challenging him.

HOW NIGERIAN MUSIC KILLS YOU SOFTLY

What you allow to get into you will surely affect your thought process and eventually your mindset. When you listen to songs with foul lyrics or convey inappropriate messages, it will negatively affect your thinking and certainly corrupt your mind. When your mind becomes corrupt, it negatively transforms your  personality and slowly destroys you.

Everyday, Nigerian musicians reel out songs intended for the entertainment pleasure of their fans across the country. But unfortunately the quality of what they come up with is so poisonous that one day it will eventually kill us.

PROFESSOR MOHAMMED ATTAHIRU JEGA IS THE MAN OF THE YEAR

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has asked for special salary scale for its staff. The National Commissioner of INEC for South-West, Prof. Lai Olurode, disclosed this yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital. He said the commission was seeking the special pay for its workers to motivate them so that they would not be engaged in electoral malpractice.

He said: “The commission is working to make sure that the staff begins to enjoy special salary scale.

What the commission is doing is a special assignment and we know that the workers are open to great temptations especially from politicians. “The work is very risky and the commission’s workers who do their work as expected at times risk being killed.

We hope that this would be granted before the 2015 election. We have started engaging the relevant authorities to make sure that this is done.” He noted that the INEC was doing everything to make sure that its workers were happy to get the best from them.

Olurode said almost a million persons applied for 1, 500 jobs, which INEC recently advertised. He said the commission had decided that no children of the national commissioners of the INEC would be employed.

According to him, the decision was taken to ensure that children of commissioners were not given undue advantages over other Nigerians who had nobody in the commission.

“No matter how brilliant their children may be, they will not be employed in this recruitment. We are advocating against corruption and we want charity to start at home. But there would be other opportunities when their children who are qualified could be employed.”

MUHAMMADU BUHARI WINS NIGERIA'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has today emerged the winner of the 2015 Nigerian Presidential Elections, defeating incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. This is the first time in the history of Nigeria that an incumbent President was defeated in a general election by the leader of the opposition.

INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega, announced that Buhari of the APC won with 15.4 million votes to defeat all other candidates, with Jonathan of the ruling PDP polling a total of 12,853,162 votes to come second.

This is Muhammadu Buhari’s fourth attempt at contesting for the number one position in Nigeria having failed in 2003, 2007 and 2011. He was Head of State of Nigeria from 31 December 1983 to 27 August 1985, after taking power in a military coup d'état.

He hails from Daura in Katsina State. He was born on 17 December 1942, in to Adamu and Zulaihat Buhari. He is the twenty-third child of his father, who died when he was about four years old. Buhari attended primary school in Daura and Mai'adua before proceeding to Katsina Model School in 1953, and Katsina Provincial Secondary School (now Government College Katsina) from 1956 to 1961. He then joined the Nigerian Military Training School in Kaduna, where his military career began.

His party the All Progressives Congress has promised Nigerians change and on Buhari's shoulder is the herculean task of fulfilling that promise. We wish him all the best.
 

HOW THE GIRL IN MINISKIRT SAVED MY LIFE

‎Growing up with my brothers was such an amazing experience I cant forget. We were involved in various escapades like most children in our days. Some of them we got away with but we were not so lucky all the time. Luck in this context would imply my parents having little or no knowledge of what were up to while they were gone. 

We had to contend with our house helps who held sway while my parents were gone. I remember a particular incident when myself and my immediate younger brother had to tie up one the house helps while she slept, so that we could go out and play. That was the beginning of our partnership in many crimes. And needless to say my parents dealt with us that fateful day. 

THE POWER OF COMPASSION

It’s amazing how some of the things that we often pay very little attention to or even neglect, so often times hold the most significant values in our lives. I used to have a certain female acquaintance who often told me of how the little things I did for her were the ones she treasured the most. She made me realize that what matters most to her is not the enormity of my action but the sincerity and genuineness behind it.

Every day we are presented with an opportunity to touch the lives of people by paying attention to their pressing needs. That lone act of compassion that can transform their lives without necessarily costing us anything. You could deny yourself of that bowl of ice-cream and pizza just to put food on someone’s table or to pay for another’s hospital bill.

ABU STUDENTS CREATE ECO-FRIENDLY CARS

Students from the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria have manufactured two eco-friendly cars that were specially constructed for this year’s ‘Shell Eco Marathon Competition’. The locally-made cars named ABUCAR 1 and ABUCAR 2 were displayed on the university’s campus.

According to the Head of Mechanical Engineering Department, Dr. Mohammed Dauda, they started to manufacture the cars as Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited invited the ABU to participate in what they call ‘Shell Eco Marathon Competition’.

“The car should be one that consumes little fuel but goes long distances. This competition is held in America, Europe and Asia and we are participating in the European one in Netherlands in May this year. All materials used for this car were sourced locally,” Dr. Dauda said.

Dr. Dauda, who doubles as the Dean, Faculty of Engineering, also said that, though, there are things that they did not fabricate themselves, everybody would be surprised that some of the components like the electrical, they just looked at an old computer system and then adopted some of the components that were useful.“So, this is one example of what we did, which is recycling, otherwise, I will say 100 per cent of the things we used were produced here in Zaria,” he added.

NIGERIAN GIRL NAMED AMONG THE 50 SMARTEST TEENAGERS IN THE WORLD

A 19 year old Nigerian student Saheela Ibraheem was listed among the 50 smartest teenagers in the world in a recent ranking by the TheBestSchools.org, a website that identifies smart and intelligent teenagers from around the world. She was ranked 21st.

Saheela was recently invited by the US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle to the Green Room of the White House for the Black History month event. Acknowledging her exceptional nature, Obama said "We are so proud of your accomplishments and all that lies ahead of you, and you reflect our history. Young people like you inspire our future" the President added.  

In 2011, she had a SAT score of 2,340 and was accepted into Harvard University's Department of Neurobiology one of thirteen (MIT, Stanford, Cornell, Princeton, Columbia) of the 14 schools she applied for. She intends to become a research scientist, who studies the brain.

Her parents totally support her and sometimes teach her subjects the school didn't offer. She believes the key to success is knowing what you love to learn as early as possible. A knowledge she says she came about at the early age of 5. As for her intelligence she claims she is nothing special. "I try my best in everything I do. Anyone who's motivated can work wonders.

Saheela combines her academics with other extra-curricular activities like softball, soccer and trombone. She also sings in the school's choir and serves as the President of the school's Investment Club. She is fluent in four languages including Latin and Yoruba.