This is the story of my life. I have found it is necessary to not take life personally. I failed at a lot of things. I hope at the end of this series I have started to win at more things than I fail at. And that my successes are on a scale tremendously bigger than my failures. CN is an acronym of my name. CN is the first of five children born to Igbo parents of Nigeria, born in northern Kaduna...
Don’t take it personally.
The Big 3’s of Life
It was a chilled day at work and all of a sudden, here comes the lingering debate on who the biggest afro-beat artist is. At the heart of this are my work colleagues; Belema, a sworn member of the Wizkid’s FC nation, and Sayo a loyal daughter of the 30BG family. Who wins an argument against a Nigerian??? Good thing both are… Amidst all these, their fantasies didn’t fascinate...
Impossible Redefined: Doubt Your Doubt
The world as we know it today is built on the ruins of impossibilities. Every groundbreaking achievement—whether in science, technology, medicine, or human resilience—was once deemed impossible. If history has taught us anything, it is that “impossible” is merely a temporary state of mind, not an absolute reality. Many people allow doubt to become a wall between them and their dreams...
The Journey of a Thousand Miles
Growing up, I often heard the saying, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a step.” But it wasn’t until I heard an old man tell a story that I truly understood it. He spoke of a boy named Tunde who dreamed of becoming a scholar. However, he lived in a small village with no access to books or teachers. His dream seemed too far away, and fear of the long road ahead made...
The Growth Potential in Moments of Boredom
In a world that’s always buzzing with things to do, boredom has become something we try to escape at all costs. We fill every spare moment with our phones, social media, and endless to-do lists. But what if boredom is actually a gift? What if those quiet, empty moments are exactly what we need to grow in ways we rarely consider? One surprising benefit of boredom is that it’s a spark for...
Growing up……….
It’s 1 am and I’m up on my bed, sleep has disappeared from my eyes again. This is the third time in a row that I’m up at midnight and can’t seem to go back to sleep. I started having flashbacks of my life as a kid, the first memory that came to my mind was an exciting one, it was when my mum got me a bicycle as a surprise gift. She had just returned from a long journey and I was at home helping...
The Price of Pride: How Ego Can Drain Your Wallet
Two days ago I went into a supermarket with a friend who wanted to buy a pack of juice, we went in, saw what we were looking for, and quickly made our way to the counter, reaching the payment point the young lady, scanned and told us the bill, and to our greatest surprise it was N6,000 higher than the price we know, my friend complained that it was above her budget but what can we do...
Like moth to a flame
In your journey of life, one day you suddenly understand time in perspective. It takes a human’s time from 1 day to an average of 90 and 150 years for the most extreme to grow and then die. It takes a tomato plant 30 days to 3 months. It takes a tree a few hundred years. And mountains a few thousand years. And so you wonder where you are in the midst of this. Are we but a puff of smoke in...
Feminist them, wahala. Part 1
Today, we talk about feminism. My current favorite feminist quote reads thus: “Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.” Case in point, I attach the excerpt of legal proceedings from England in the year 1914 where Gwyneth Bebb sued for her rights to be admitted to the law society. Looking back from the year 2024, it may seem absurd. However, it is important to remind us that...
Dear Not a Diary
The random rumblings in my mind. I think of Life In the incremental ways that you look at a situation and gain more insight as time passes. But to do that, you require an open mind, otherwise you end up with a skewed view. The radical notion that all people who pass through your life add a sketch to the drawing called your life is called being existing – being alive. A friend who is also a...
