Talebearing24 - A Day with Death.

There was a man, Okonkwo who lived in a village called Obudu, an outskirt of a popular city. This village had rivers at its boundaries where many palm trees were grown. This environment enabled Okonkwo as a palm wine tapper to carry out his job successfully. From history, Okonkwo’s father was also a palm wine tapper during his lifetime. Okonkwo had a wife and two children; male and female. The elderly one was male of seven years of age while the female was just four years. Rebecca had a delay of childbirth. She gave birth to Peter, the first child after ten years of their traditional marriage in the village.
Her husband patiently stood by her with the hope that they would be eventually given a child by God. Exactly ten years after their marriage, Rebecca was pregnant and delivered a baby boy named Peter while after three years, she also conceived and gave birth to a female child, Sarah. What Okonkwo faced while looking for a child before he finally got Peter made him cherish children and show affection to them. Okonkwo was very down to the ground likewise his wife. He was also generous to humanity in his vicinity. Whenever he went to farm, he would bring season fruits, roasted corn and roasted yam for the children in his neighborhood.
This made the children to know his arrival time from the farm. Okonkwo went to the farm three times in a week; Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. When he was about to arrive on any of these days, they would gather together waiting for him with the hope that something would surely come from him. As they sighted him coming with his bicycle, they would be shouting ’’Okonkwo!’’ ’’Okonkwo!!’’ And he would give them whatever he brought from the farm. Weeks after weeks, months after months, years after years, this had become a norm. His humility made the people of the village to like him while his generosity earned him a widespread popularity among the children of the village including their parents.
His name was found at the lips of the children and even the toddlers. The good news of Okonkwo as a good man had gotten to the ears of the village head that had planned to invite and give him a Chieftaincy title during their incoming festival. The festival was fast approaching and the people concerned in the village had started preparing for it to make it a success. The small villages under this village had sent their representatives to the village head to know their contributions as usual. Messages had been sent to the indigenes of the village living far and near to remind them of the incoming festival that used to be a memorable one every year.
Okonkwo in his mind planned to tap enough palm wine for the festival when it was one day to it because of its freshness. Everybody was preparing. When it was a week to the festival, the village head sent a message to him. He went to see him thinking in his heart that the village head wanted to ask him to tap palm wine for the festival but when he got there, the story changed and he was highly astonished when the news of becoming one of the chiefs was disclosed to him which would be formally announced and celebrated during the festival. He showed his appreciation and left for home.
A day to the festival, what a fateful day! Okonkwo carried his sack bag and mounted his bicycle while heading towards the farm as planned to tap enough palm wine for the talk of the village festival coming up the following day. When he got to the farm, he fetched all the palm wine settled in the gourds tied to the neck of the palm trees for four days purposely because of the festival. He was hurriedly fetching the palm wine because of the time and wanted to leave the farm early. In the process, one of his legs missed the rope and he fell from the tree.
He became unconscious immediately he landed. There was nobody around on the farm to come for his rescue. After some minutes, his condition became worse and went into coma. Children had gathered as usual expecting the arrival of Okonkwo but when it was two hours they had been expecting him without his return, it sent a signal to their parents because that was very unusual of him, immediately they raised an alarm. The able men in the village assembled and started tracing him into the farm because it was late already around 7:00pm in the evening.
As they were going farther into the bush towards the rivers, they kept signaling at him making a sound ’’ooooh’’ ’’ooooh’’ to know his exact location on farm but to no avail because he could not respond until one of them saw him at a distance under the tree lying flat and incapacitated and quickly called the attention of the other men to what he saw. They noticed he was still breathing but could not respond to any action. He was quickly rushed to the village and laid him on a mat in front of his house. The news of his tragedy was widespread like a burning bush in the dry season.
Children were crying while adults were unhappy for something like this to have happened at that time when the festival was few hours to take off with all the preparations on ground. He was breathing but his eyes were closed. They were talking to him but he was not responding. All efforts to make him talk to them proved futile. That was the night that the Okonkwo’s wife knew truly that the people of the village loved her family. Okonkwo did not open his eyes throughout the night.
The sad news got to the village head and he instantly sent four of his messengers and two of his chiefs for their supports and sympathy. Some people left in the middle of the night to their various abode and started gathering when the first cock crowed at dawn. When it was some minutes to 8:00am in the morning, Okonkwo opened his eyes and began responding little by little. He was given water to drink while sitting and asked to rest his back on the wall. He gradually regained his strength but he couldn’t stand on his own.
People were relieved because there was hope then unlike before he couldn’t respond. One of the messengers went to relay the new development to the village head which made them to commence the festival proper. After few hours, he was fit to talk and thanked everyone for their candid supports at that trying time. When he was asked to explain how it happened, he said; he couldn’t remember anything but the only thing he could remember was that he saw death on his journey of coma. What a coincidental tragedy!

Talebearing24- Nutrition In MRNIGERCAD Part 1

Nutrition is the ability of a living organism to feed while the chemicals taken in by the organism during this process is referred to as nutrients. Examples of these chemicals include Nitrogen, Carbon, Oxygen, Phosphorous, Hydrogen, and Chlorine to mention a few.Ingestion is the process of taking in the food substances into the body while egestion is the process of passing out of the undigested food particles from the body of a living organism through anus. Injection is the insertion of needle and syringe into the body.
Modes of Nutrition
All living organisms are capable of carrying out different modes of nutrition. However, the mode of nutrition can be group into two major classes referred to as autotrophic and heterotrophic nutrition.
1. Autotrophic Nutrition: This is the type of nutrition in which organisms are able to manufacture their food. Organisms which can manufacture their food are called autotrophs.Autotrophic nutrition is further divided into two groups. These are holophytic or photosynthetic nutrition and chemosynthetic nutrition.
I. Holophytic (Photosynthetic) nutrition: It is the type of nutrition in which all green plants are able to manufacture their own food making use of Carbon dioxide and water in the presence of sunlight. This process is called Photosynthesis. The green plants derive their energy for making this food from the sunlight which is trapped by Chlorophyll. Examples of organisms that exhibit this process include flowering plants, Spirogyra, Euglena etc.
II. Chemosynthetic nutrition: It is another mode of nutrition in which certain bacteria are able to synthesize organic compounds from simple inorganic materials such as carbon dioxide, water, ammonia or nitrite to manufacture their food. The energy used for the synthesis comes from the oxidation of the inorganic materials or chemicals; hence the process is called Chemosynthesis, e.g. Nitrosomonas, Nitrobacter.
2. Heterotrophic nutrition: This is the type of nutrition in which the organisms cannot manufacture their foo but depend directly or indirectly on plants(autotrophs) for their food. Organisms which cannot manufacture their food are called heterotrophs. Most animals, fungi, protozoa and some bacteria belong to this group.
I. Holozoic nutrition: This involves the feeding on other organisms or solid organic substances synthesized by green plants. The organisms ingest, digest and assimilate these food substances into their bodies. Examples of organisms that exhibit holozoic mode of nutrition are:
(a) Carnivores like cats, dogs, lions etc. that feed on flesh
(b) Herbivores like sheep, goats, rabbits etc. that feed on plants
(c) Omnivores like man, pig etc. that feed on both flesh and plants/vegetables
d. Scavengers like vultures that feed on dead animals
II. Parasitic nutrition: This is the type of nutrition in which certain organisms feed on another organism in order to derive nourishment from it. This mode of nutrition is called parasitic nutrition while the association is called Parasitism. Parasitism is an association between two organisms, usually of different species in which one called the parasite gains from the association while the other called the host is harmed or suffered losses. Examples include Tapeworm, plasmodium, ticks, bugs, dodder (plant), mistletoe (plant) etc.
Animal parasites are classified as endoparasites and ectoparasites.
I.Ectoparasites:- These are parasites which live on (outside) the body of their hosts where they derive food and shelter from e.g. flea, bedbug, and tick.
II. Endoparasites:- These are parasites which live inside the body of their hosts such as man and other animals. Examples include Tapeworm (host- pig and man), Liverfluke (Fasciola hepatica, host – sheep), Filaria (Wucheraria brancrofti, host – cattle, sheep and goat), Guinea worm (Drancunculus medinensis).

Talebearing24- He Reaped What He showed

In a remote village of Amackpu, once lived a man whose name was Ofuchi Nwosis. Ofuchi was a palm-wine tapper and he lived with his family and step brother in homesteads built on the land they inherited from their father. The name of Ofuchi’s step brother was Nduibisi. Ndubuisi was a farmer and he had a son called Nnaji named after his own father. Ofuchi had three children who were all male.These two brothers built their huts at the two extremes of the land handed over to them by their father. When their father was about to die, he called Ofuchi and took the right hand of his brother, Ndubuisi, handed it to Ofuchi meaning Ofuchi should assume responsibility over his step brother.
This was the last assignment the old performed on earth. He said: ‘’if your brother has offended you, forgive him. In him, you have a partner and somebody to rely on; a bunch of broom is always very difficult to break. Be in unity and plan no evil against each other’’. Soon after uttering these words, he surrendered to the cold hands of death.The final words of the old man guided Ofuchi and Ndubuisi’s behaviours towards each other for a number of years. They preferred to live closer to each other, building their huts on the same piece of land their father left behind for them.
They both got married. The name of Ofuchi’s wife was Nne while the name of Ndubuisi’s wife was Ifeoma.Nnaji, Ndubuisi’s only child was growing up in the same compound with the three male children of Ofuchi. When he was old enough to start schooling, he was registered in the school that his other brothers were attending. However, Nnaji was very brilliant at school. He was more brilliant than the three children of Ofuchi. He came out top in every examination in the school and so he was loved by his teachers.
He was so brilliant that he was given double promotion and soon after enrolling in school, he was in the same class with the second child of Ofuchi.There was a time that Nnaji’s teachers in school followed him home to encourage his father to endeavour to send him to the only secondary school which was about five kilometres from their village after the completion of his primary education.The recognition of Nnaji’s brilliancy began to create animosity and envy at home. Ofuchi decided to give a gap between his wife and that of his brother.
It was at this period that Ofuchi remembered what he was told concerning his mother’s death. He was told that his step brother’s mother was responsible for the mysterious death of his mother. He therefore decided to take revenge on Ndubuisi by killing his only child, Nnaji.He thought of a plan of poisoning Nnaji since his children and Nnaji ate together as family. He went to the house of the herbalist to collect poison. On the day he had planned to execute his diabolical plan, his wife had prepared the food of the children as usual before going to the market. Unknown to her, Ofuchi went to put poison in the food he thought Nnaji would eat since he was always the first to arrive from school.
On this day, Nnaji was a bit delayed at school and Ofuchi’s first child, Ike was the first to arrive home hungry. He picked the food and hurriedly ate it. Soon after, Ofuchi and his wife arrived and met Ike holding his stomach crying for help. The people in the village heard the noise and rushed into the house, Ofuchi could no longer hide his emotion. He started crying, recounting how he went to procure poison from a herbalist to kill Nnaji, his step brother’s son. The villagers were comforting him, trying to hold him but his brother demanded that he should not be comforted because ‘’he reaped what he showed’’.

Talebearing24- A Local Festival In My Village

The arrival of civilization and western culture has made us to forget our cultural past. Our heritage has been lost and traded off for the western ways. Those cultural heritages which had delighted our fore-fathers are looked down upon by youths who regard these heritages as old-fashioned and anachronistic.I must confess that that I did share this opinion with my peers but I have to give it another thought when I was privileged to accompany my parents to our village to a witness a local festival.
The festival is usually celebrated every first Saturday of September in my village, Obong. Every year, the indigenes travel from far and near to convene at Obudu Market Square, the venue of the annual new yam festival. The origin of the festival goes as far back as when the first group of settlers fled to the plateau for safety and decided to dwell there. I can recollect vividly what my grandfather told me about the first festival when the settlers had their first new yam harvested. Tradition has it that the very first celebration was held at the summit of the Obudu plateau. The joy and happiness shared among the people was enough to pull the heavens down according to my grandfather. Ever since, the celebration has taken the same pattern.
Last year the new yam festival I witnessed began on Thursday. The day after that Thursday, all men in the village woke up early in the morning and left for their farms. They returned in the evening with their children carrying large tubers of yams on their heads. I joined the village children to carry the tubers which we dropped at the market square. In the evening, the men gathered after taking their bath to discuss over a gourd of freshly-tapped palm-wine. Their discussion took them into far night before they went to sleep in their various homes.
Very early the next day, the women started peeling the yams for cooking. They brought all ingredients together for the cooking while the young men prepared themselves to carry masquerades. The girls including myself were not allowed to cook but we helped the women in cooking the food. Saturday finally arrived and the festival was scheduled to begin at noon. As early as 7.00am on that day, the women were up again to add finishing touches to their cooking and finally they pounded the yams.
The real festival began with the arrival of ‘Usu’, the chief who was followed by the masquerades. The young girls including myself dressed beautifully with the ‘jigida’ beads around our waists. We danced to entertain the ‘Usu’ and his chiefs who occasionally waved their locally made fans. Then the food was served and there was more than enough to go round. Everybody ate to his or her satisfaction. Finally, after all the dancing, singing and eating, the festival came to an end in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Talebearing24- As One Makes One's bed so One must lie on it

There lived, a long time ago, two half-brothers named Tolu and Tola. The two were age mates. The two brothers shared the same father, who died when they were both still small, but different mothers. Like all kids, Tolu and Tola were very troublesome and they got into trouble easily, but while Tolu’s mother, Mama Agba, was very strict and meted out appropriate punishments for Tolu’s wrongdoings, Tola got away with most of his pranks because his mother, Mama kekere, was very protective of him.
She wouldn’t punish him or allow him to be punished. Mama Kekere always had an explanation to excuse Tola’s behaviour.Tolu and Tola attended the same school. While Tolu was well-behaved in school, listening attentively to his lessons, doing his class-works and home-works correctly, Tola was always playful in class; he was always among the noisemakers, and he wouldn’t do his home-works. And the mother never cared to monitor Tola’s school activities, unlike Mama Agba, who monitored Tolu’s works.
One day in school, Tola’s teacher caught him cheating in class; he was copying a friend’s assignment. The teacher scored Tola and his friend zero for this and punished the two boys. When Tola got home that day, he lied to his mother that he did his home-work properly but that the teacher scored him zero. The mother was so angry that the next day she followed Tola to the school and spoke angrily to the teacher. She wouldn’t believe the teacher when he told her, her child was caught cheating in the class.
It took the intervention of the headmaster to prevent Mama Kekere from physically assaulting Tola’s teacher. The headmaster, who was so surprised by Mama Kekere’s actions, advised her that such behaviour and action send the wrong signal to the child, as the child might from the notion that he can do anything and get away with it.‘’No, my Tola is different, he is always a good boy,’’ retorted Mama Kekere. ‘’Ok madam,’’ replied the headmaster.
‘’I just thought you should be more cautious the way you handle your kid.’’ Tola’s mother wasn’t happy with this, she felt the headmaster was taking sides with his teacher and she angrily left the office, promising to deal with anybody who dared touch her Tola again. In the secondary school, Tola began to associate with bad boys in school and they were involved in lots of truancy, smoking, drinking, stealing and all social vices. Tola began to miss classes and keep late nights, drinking and smoking with his gang.
Mama Agba, who noticed Tola’s strange behaviour,one day called Tola’s mother and told her about it, but Mama Kekere was not happy with Tolu’s mother, claiming that she was jealous of Tola’s popularity and liveliness. Mama Agba replied by warning Tola’s mother that she would eventually regret her pampering of her son as it was bound to destroy his future and life and eventually that of Mama Kekere.Tola was eventually caught by the police during a burglary operation and was detained in the cell where he escaped. The police immediately arrested his mother and locked her up in a cell until the son was found.
Meanwhile, Tolu sat for the Senior School Certificate examinations and the Unified Matriculation examination and when the results were released, he passed both and was offered admission into a university. Tola’s mother was in the cell when she heard Tolu’s performance and she started to weep because she knew it could have been Tola if only she had been a better mother. It was while crying that she remembered the words of the old woman who once admonished her thus: ‘’My child, what you are doing concerning your child is bad, remember, as one makes one’s bed so one must lie on it.’’

Talebearing24- The Early Bird Catches the Worm.

      There lived in Gwabi two friends whose names were Francis and Chukwuma. They were intimate friends and their friendship started from childhood. These two friends were brought up in the same village where their friendship began. Their friendship continued after leaving the village and decided to settle down in Gwabi, these two friends went into the same type of business of fabricating spare parts for industrial machines.

     Francis and Chukwuma were in this business for a long period of time, struggling very hard to make a living. Though Gwabi was a big city that was full of opportunities, these two friends toiled daily to eke out a living. It got to a time in their lives of struggle when they thought that they were dogged by misfortunes. Hard as they struggled daily to eke out a living, difficult was it for them to make headway.

     ‘’I don’t know why we are unlucky, those who started after us are doing well’’, said Francis. As despondent as Francis was, he continued to struggle hard with his friend, Chukwuma, serving as a source of encouragement for him. ‘’don’t be discouraged because I know that our own time will come’’, Chukwuma always said to his friend and business partner.

     The story, that changed the misfortune of one of these two friends started with Chukwuma’s business trip to Gwandu, a neighbouring city to Gwabi where he and his friend, Francis were living. Chukwuma had travelled there to buy some metal scraps with which they would fabricate some tools in their workshop for a company that had asked them to make the tools for its factory.

     After buying the metal scraps, he ran into Ifeanyi, another friend of theirs. Ifeanyi had become a successful businessman and he had just arrived from an overseas trip. Chukwuma narrated the hardship and difficulty he and his friend, Francis, were passing through in Gwabi. Ifeanyi then promised to introduce them to a man who helped to give him the opportunity to break even in his business of selling vehicles.

     When Chukwuma got back to Gwabi, he told his friend how he met Ifeanyi and the promise that he made. Two weeks after Chukwuma and Francis set out for Gwandu to see Ifeanyi. They went to meet Ifeanyi in his office through the address he gave them. After entertaining them, he took them to chief Iberemadu who after listening to them promised to help at least one of them to travel abroad where he would have the opportunity to stay, depending on the readiness of any of the two friends to make a good use of the opportunity. Chief Iberemadu asked them to come back in one week’s time.

     On the day that they were to come and see Chief Iberemadu, Francis woke up early in the morning to wait for his friend, Chukwuma at their workshop where they had agreed to meet by 5.30am. He waited for Chukwuma to come for thirty minutes before setting out for Gwandu to see Chief Iberemadu. Francis got to Chief’s house at 6.45am and the Chief gave him the document with which he would travel abroad and a cash donation of five million dollars.

     Chukwuma arrived Chief Iberemadu’s house at 8.00am with Ifeanyi.  The Chief welcomed them and said that he had given all what he intended to give to Francis because he made use of the opportunity he offered maximally. There was nothing Ifeanyi could do to make the Chief change his mind to help Chukwuma. He then turned to him and said that, ‘’the early bird had caught the worm’’.  

    

Talebearing24- Where There is a Will, There is a Way

I have not been able to understand the joy that filled my heart and the wonderful things that have been happening in my life. I now recall as I always do, the last words of my father before he gave up the ghost. I can remember vividly that he said ‘’nothing is impossible under the sun and as long as there is a will, there is always a way’’. More so, I tried to recollect again the incidents that followed the death of my father.
I had just finished my senior secondary school promotion examination and I was going home when I noticed that someone was running towards me. She was shouting my name and informing me that something had happened at home. This person, who happened to be my aunt, kept on repeating her words. I was confused as I could not believe that my father was probably dead, though he had been ill for some weeks.
Then my aunt finally broke the news: Olu, father is dead’’. I broke down in tears and that was how my trouble began. My mother died when giving birth to me, her first and only child. Ever since then, it had always been my father and I. Now my father was gone. Who was going to cater for my up-bringing? My father’s only sister was poor and she had little means of catering for her little children and herself.
She also depended on my father. I then realized that I was in the world alone. I applied as a house-boy in one of my neighbour’s house and out of pity, I was hired. My master took the responsibility of sending me to school. I was very pleased and I always tried my best to please him. I also did all the best I could do well in school so as to encourage my master. Since he had no child, he treated me almost like his own.
The only difference was that I called him ‘’master’’ and not ‘’father’’. I counted myself lucky. I then took my final examinations and came out with the best result in my school. Soon after this, my master sent me packing and I felt as if I was born with a curse on my head. He told me that he would not be able to pay for education neither would he be able to accommodate me anymore. And then, it was like all hope was lost and I decided to look for a menial job.
I took up a job as a cleaner in a small company in my village and after working for three months; all I could still afford were three square meals. ‘’Was this how I was going to continue’’? I asked myself. While I was considering my depressing condition, the words of my late father came back to me. This raised my enthusiasm and hope and there and then, I decided I must further my education.
I then began to save some money to buy Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) form. After about a year of saving money, I purchased the form and wrote the examination and I came out in such flying colours that my community offered me a scholarship to study Accountancy in the university. With determination, I came out of the university with a first class degree in Accountancy. The following year after graduation, I became a Chartered Accountant.
Now I am a respectable Accountant in the society and I still owe my success to the saying of my late father that ‘’where there is a will, there is a way’’.