A prayer

I've been having temptations lately. But as they say, it is not having temptations that is bad; it is giving in to them. And by this very act of writing what you are currently reading, I am refusing to give in to my temptations.

Going biblical (again), you remember one of the Psalmist's prayers (in the Psalms of course!):

Cast me not away from your presence O God, Take not your Holy Spirit from me...

It is a prayer I'd like to borrow from the Bible, and address to the god(dess?) of blogging. (I swear, there's a spirit of blogging!)

You will notice that I have blogged only once this new Year. 2006 seems to have washed my desire for blogging along with it; handed me over to 2007 with chromosomes 47 and 48 (blogosomes) missing from my DNA.

I'm not the only sufferer of this condition, my friend iGwatala was also afflicted. Prognosis seems very very poor.

All I can say is that, the struggle continues.

To (continue) blog or not to blog?

Merry Go Round

For want of what to say, let's start off the New Year with HAPPY NEW YEAR (FANCY YOU HERE!), and a photo essay.

196?/197?

An undated photo, I reckon it was taken sometime in the late sixties or early seventies. The boyish looks of those men (except OBJ) makes me think I'm right. Three of these men would eventually go on, over a total of 30 years to (more or less through coup plots) take turns as military Heads of State of Nigeria. (Obasanjo went a step further and secured a second stint, this time as an elected (?) civilian President.)

Abacha - (the late) military head of state of Nigeria 1993 - 1998

Danjuma - Chief of Army Staff during Obasanjo's military stint in Government, 1976 - 1979, Minister of Defence in Obasanjo's first term as civilian President, 1999 - 2003

Babangida - self-styled military President of Nigeria, 1985 - 1993

Obasanjo - Head of State of Nigeria, 1976 - 1979; President of Nigeria, 1999 - 2007(?)


Decades later, the same men still playing checkers. This time, the people of Nigeria are the wooden pieces ;-)

2007

Babangida (right); Obasanjo (third from right) at the National Council of State meeting on Tuesday.

Also in the picture are

1st from left: Buhari (military head of state 1984 - 1985, overthrown by Babangida)

2nd from left: Yakubu Gowon: military head of state 1966 - 1975, overthrown by Obasanjo and Murtala Mohammed

1st from right: Shehu Shagari, first civilian president of Nigeria, 1979 - 1983, handed over to by Obasanjo, and deposed by Buhari)

oh dear, this is beginning to sound like fiction...