Sweet Western Odyssey (3)

For the past few days, I have not been chanced to write on the western odyssey for reasons beyond my control. Nevertheless, I will do my best to elucidate you on our western tour.

Having spent two days in a western land, we were set for the third day and obviously the final day adventure. On the third, we visited the popular "Ikogosi warmspring" located in a town in Ekiti State and on the fourth day, we visited the famous "Idanre hills" located in Idanre town southwest of Ondo state.

On our way to Ikogosi warmspring, one of our vehicle broke down and unfortunately only a few made it to the warmspring.

Ikogosi warm spring is a tourist centre tucked away in the rustic, idilic and serene town of Ikogosi-Ekiti, in Ekiti State. What is mysterious about the Ikogosi warmspring is the fact that, flowing side by side the warm spring, is another spring, a cold one. The warmspring is a beautiful place to be.

A Sweet Western Odyssey (Day 2)

There's something so spectacular about nature. When you begin to imagine how nature came to be, you will just have to appreciate the beauty of God's creation. In admiring nature, we admire the awesomeness of God's creativity. God is nature and nature is God.

Today began on a prayerful mood. We are in a religious setting and of course we began the day with the celebration of the Holy Mass.

The issue here was not even the Holy Mass but that the officiating priest celebrated the Holy Mass with Yoruba Language, (a subtle way of welcoming us to Yoruba land). Most of us found it difficult to decipher the liturgical prayers. After prayers, we had some sporting events to relax the body and get our body ready for the day's adventure. Our adventure was delayed since we had to fix our vehicle.

A Sweet Western Odyssey (Day 1)

Life is filled with adventures, and there is time for everything under the sun.

This is our time to relax our brain after a marathon brain-stressing examination. This is a time for us to have an experience with the western culture.

It's our biennial picnic organized by the Nigerian Federation of Catholic Students (NFCS), FUTO Chapter. This time around, we will be touring round the western part of the country. This adventure will grant us the opportunity to visit the OAU Zoo, Erin Ijesha waterfalls, Ikogosi warmsprings and Idanre Hills — all located within three different western states in Nigeria.

THE LADY THAT BROKE THE JINX

In life, there is no limitation to what we can achieve. There is nothing too big for a human being to do. All it requires is a dint of hard work, determination, zealousness and an unrelenting passion.  Some years ago, I got admitted to study Materials and Metallurgical Engineering (known as Met/Mat or MME) in Federal University of Technology, (FUTO). The first impression I received from older students of the department was “Met/Mat na akpo department”, “The department tough so tey person no fit make first class” etc. that was the notion and sadly enough, a lot of us believed such wrong notion.

GOOD FRIDAY: THE DAY OF MAN'S RESTORATION – ANTHONY C. ANIEBO

In a certain parish during a funeral ceremony, a priest asked the congregation certain questions. First, he asked how many of them are willing and ready to go to Heaven? They all chorused and responded in the positive. Next, he asked how many of them are ready to die now so as to go to Heaven? There was dead silence. Nobody responded. Nobody was ready to die. Even the old man seated in front was afraid of dying. The priest laughed and told them that they can only go to Heaven when they die. In other words, death is inevitable and a step to going to Heaven.
Today, all over the world, we commemorate the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary for the salvation of mankind. Today, we celebrate the death that reconnected humanity to divinity(Col 1:20). We celebrate the victory of Jesus over sin and the evil forces of this world. We celebrate the death that brought restoration to man which was lost by Adam. Even in His Divine form, He did not claim equality with God, rather Jesus humbled himself even to die on a cross to redeem mankind from the abyss of death(Phil 2:6-8). For us to understand fully, we must understand the concept of death. Death in itself is a mystery. What is good about “GOOD FRIDAY?” Why don't we call it 'BAD FRIDAY' or 'BLACK FRIDAY' since we are commemorating the death of Jesus.

BLESSED IWENE TANSI: 20YEARS BEATIFICATION ANNIVERSARY

Exactly twenty years ago (21 - 23 March, 1998), the then Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope JohnPaul II stepped his feet for the second time on Nigerian soil for a three day pastoral visit. His first contact with the people of Nigeria was in 1982 which took him to five major cities in the country. Sixteen years later, he came again for a pastoral visit, this time for the beatification of our very own priest and monk, Michael Cyprian Iwene Tansi (the first of its kind in Nigeria and the entire region of West Africa) in Onitsha and also the celebration of the Holy Mass of the Church as Family of God in Abuja.

An experience of hardship.

It was on a Monday afternoon during lectures that we began the discussion. We were learning a course known as "Cement and Concrete" when my colleague drifted my attention to him.

The lecturer was explaining a few things about the Concept of Concrete when the guy seated beside me chipped in."Guy, if you don handle concrete work before, you go know say life no easy at all."

I returned a perfunctory smile to him while trying to focus on what the lecturer was saying. He repeated what he said earlier just to draw my attention. It occurred to me that he needed someone to talk to.

LIFE: A TWO-SIDED APPROACH

One of the most valuable gift from the creator of the universe to mankind is the gift of “Life”. Life is a free gift regardless of one’s social status, wealth, knowledge, experience, age because no amount of “wealth” can buy “life”. Life in itself is “UNFAIR” and it is also “TWO-SIDED”. Life presents us with “pains and joys”, “sadness and happiness”, “failures and success”, “bad and good”, “poverty and wealth”, “disappointments and blessings” “loss and gain” etc. We cannot fully understand the essence of life, the mystery of life and the right attitude to life since life is unpredictable. Life begins with conception and ends with death. God in his omnipotent way has so designed life in such a way that there is time for everything to take place in life. Life is two-sided in the sense that when Obi is happy with life, John is saddened with the circumstances life around him. With time, the reverse might be the case. Let’s look at some practical examples to show that life is two-sided.

Mazi Obi Okonkwo

Mazi Obi Okonkwo sat at the podium watching the new matriculants as they processed to the matriculation ground dressed in their colourful academic gown smiling happily to the flash of the camera.

The feeling was ecstatic, memorable and awesome for him. As the students from the school of Engineering processed, he watched keenly to see if he will sight his son on the queue. It has been his desire to send Chukwudi his first son to a University of Technology to study Engineering. And today, after many years of writing JAMB, Chukwudi finally got admitted to study Civil Engineering.

GET A SKILL

There is something so spectacular about the beginning of a new week. It comes with all forms of seriousness, dedication and its own unexplained stress.

On Mondays and Tuesdays, all hands are on deck to achieve a common goal. For those who are working, you dare not come late to work or dress haphazardly on such days. You must have to look smart! Same goes with those in the business sector. After the weekend rest, activities commences in earnest on Mondays.

I MET HIM AGAIN

I met him four nights ago along FUTO road, Eziobodo just in front of Ozii plaza.

The time was around 8:10pm.

Despite the late hour, the road was still quite busy.

Students were seen loitering around like sheep without a shepherd.

He had finished buying a few items for dinner and was strolling down to his lodge when I met him.

"Okofor my man, how far na? E don tey wey I see you oo."

I shook his hand as it was a usual norm here while he smiled and replied.

GIVING ABOVE LIMIT

In a certain family of four boys, the father was fond of giving his kids 5 naira every Sunday as offering money. His usual offering on Sundays was 50 naira. He would split 20 naira into pieces of 5 naira and share to his four sons, give his wife 10 naira while he himself will give 20 naira as offering. This practice continued for a long time that the kids were so used to it. 

One day, as usual he called his sons to share offering money to them. To their surprise, he shared 20 naira each to them, gave his wife 50 naira note while he himself had a hundred naira note for offering. Out of curiosity, one of his sons asked, “Dad is this 20 naira for four Sundays or are we not going to give offering next Sunday if we give 20 naira today?” The man smiled and replied him, “My son, last week I made good profit in my business so I have decided to give God above our usual limit so that He can bless us above His usual limit.”

STACC FUTO CELEBRATES DEDICATION ANNIVERSARY

The Catholic Chaplaincy in Federal University of Technology, Owerri known as St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Chaplaincy (STACC) played host to a galaxy of personalities today to celebrate the three year anniversary of the dedication of the chaplaincy to God. The event drew together staff, students and the entire university community. Present at the occasion were clergy men (including the chaplain and his assistant), notable university officials like Dr. (Mrs) Chinwe Anunobi (the university librarian), Prof. I.N.S. Dozie (Chairman, Chaplaincy council), Dr. Mrs. Eze (wife of the Vice chancellor), Dr. Emmanuel Esenwa, senior lecturers, staff and students of the institution also participated in the celebration.