Date Archives June 2013

All in a Year’s Work: My Writing Chronicles

One year is an awful long time to wait for a new blog post. I’ve been busy and lazy at the same time. Very busy with work and other ish and lazily hiding under the guise of that to leave this here blog (and you my teeming audience *straight face*)unattended to.

But I’ve started this post near the end. Let’s get back to the start real quick.

Last year was a tough year. The long wait to get drafted for service pretty much gnawed away any inspiration I had to keep the blog – and some other stuff – going. Being made to suffer due to an inherent ineptitude/irregularity in a system, it took a lotta grace to not lose my mind. Anyways, all of that ended in September as the draft finally came at the end of the month.

By mid October I got a mail from one of the editors over at Ynaija, telling me I’d been selected to be among the Y! Superblogger project. The gist was all over the web, on Twitter and various blogs, and I was awed, to be honest. Friends were ecstatic for me and I felt like, yeah, now Imma be able to move outta my father’s house and finally have a girlfriend, yo. Lol… I checked the shortlisted bloggers from across the country and I kept wondering how I made the cut considering I was arguably the most inconsistent writer in the lot. I mean the list had people, quite renowned, who updated their blogs daily! I guess I was picked for my content, maybe.

Anyway, the Superblogger project kicked off in the first week November – same time I shipped out to camp in service of the Fatherland. The project required me to send in an article every week that month so I quickly wrote 3 in a matter of days and sent in the drafts as it wouldn’t have been possible to write in camp. My first piece went up November 14 – just over a week into camp (which was a horrendous week as the first week usually is, but we’ll be reading about that on another post). It’s been a good ride since, getting the avenue to reach a wider audience. And the mere satisfaction that came from seeing a lotta people appreciate my art and have a discourse on Twitter about stuff I wrote far outweighed the persistent inner turmoil it took to write them.

Also, at the turn of the new year, my buddy Stanley Azuakola (yep, Google the name already. Dude’s a rock star writer) of Guardian and Ynaija fame, told me about the project he was working on and gave me the honour of being a part of it.The ScoopNG site went up on January 6 and it’s been magnificent. Writing about politics, public policy and affairs is hard for me as those aren’t really my forte but the opportunity has helped me learn to pay keener attention to Nigerian politics and affairs thereby helping to make useful contributions to the national discourse.

So Imma just put the link to the Superblogger and Scoop articles I’ve written since that got published. Check them out if you haven’t. A second reading won’t hurt too:

The Limit of Intelligence was my very first piece that got published by Ynaija in the Superblogger series. I wrote about factors we overlook which had a bearing on students’ performance in college.
Looking Through Time is arguably the coolest piece I wrote last year. This one got tweeps tweeting about it for days.
The Story of Death, a piece borne out of an old blog post of mine went up on Christmas eve.
Obeying the Clarion Call was my first piece (Scoopinion) for The ScoopNG. I basically ranted and analysed about the NYSC scheme.
The Value of Vanity was my first post this year for Ynaija. Looking in the mirror inspired this one.
Grading Good Governance was written when the Minister of Information’s good governance tour came to my place of primary assignment in February.
Water board blues was borne out of a nostalgia for the days when our taps worked.
Curriculum Adaptation went up on the ScoopNG in March.
Virtual Connections and the Distance Dilema went up in April after a hiatus. This one has a poignant feel to it.
Winning the Porting Race, published by the ScoopNG in May was about addressing the drama and attendant issues with the MNP service launch late April.
When the wells dry up addresses the possible issues that will define Nigeria when the sun sets on the golden age of oil.

So, there you have it, the first chapters of my Ynaija and ScoopNG chronicles till date. Check ’em out and lemme know what you think. Remember, sharing is caring.

It’s good to be back. I’ve been busy with work, serving the Fatherland and all. Working at a broadcasting corporation barely gives me enough time to do other things. But I try to find the time to write and do stuff I love still. Many thanks to my buddy AY for consistently but ever so subtly nudging me to post here again. Writing is hard, more so if you’re writing for a magazine/newsletter – it’s pretty much like having an assignment hanging over your head everyday for the rest of your life – but it’s exhilarating stuff too and I love it.

I’m grateful for the audience Ynaija and The ScoopNG afford me. All that’s left now is for the pay to start rolling in when I write and then I’d truly have arrived, hehe.

Most importantly, I’m grateful for you, reader, who visits this lowly blog of mine to see my latest musings.

*throws on cool shades and work up my Arnold Schwarzenegger voice*

I’ll be back.