Arise O Compatriots

To celebrate Nigeria's Independence on the 1st of October, 2012, a friend of mine wrote a very intriguing poetry which i hear was inspired by my little sister (Mya of Super2 - a contemporary dance duo) who was planning a dance concert(that held this month, on the 20th of October). As much as i would love to talk of her concert, i think it would be unfair to let October come to a close without sharing this piece. It was actually a recital and it packed a punch when listened to and since i can't play his voice reciting this piece for you, i hope you enjoy it all the same. Read on!

Arise O Compatriots Nigeria's call obey
But to these words we turn deaf ears like we are not to be blamed when our country falls short each day simply because we decline to serve our father land with love strength and faith
Principles deeply rooted in our hearts to do we now uproot throw in the trash not to use
Forgetting we had pledged that the labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain
I am talking about great men who put their lives to the ground and minds to what Nigeria should be built around; One of peace, progress , prosperity and purpose
Knowing we are a people with souls of a unique race that shows forth greatness, justice, equity and insight;
A people willing to serve with heart and might in a Nation bound with the integrity of true freedom
For we are free sons and daughters and in us is wisdom found in a land with diversity in tribe and tongues but never at heart.

For just as our colour is the same so is the blood in our veins
If only these words can mean more to us than just lyrics to recite when we think of a song to sing or as a proof that this is a land where we reside;
But take each word not as they seem but as they imply and sew it together with the fabrics of our minds
becoming the true Nigerian willing to do much more than just saying them, painting the picture that shows who we are:
A people not ruled by fear, hatred, bitterness or strive but of love and of a sound mind
Only then can we truly experience in our lives, in our lands much more evident The undoubted peace and Unity...
The type which the God of creation has bestowed on us so gracefully
Along with creative minds jealously directing our noble course
Through a bearing of sincerity angled on the basis of sacrifice constructed on the decrees love

A compass of truth in hand that would guide our leaders right
Only to do not of their will but of that which takes each son and daughter of this land on the strong wings of the eagle flying up to our highest height
Soaring on the chronicles of integrity that would help our youth the truth to know
One that would easily flow from generation to generation we would plant it in the fertile soil of love and honesty and patiently watch it grow
And with every of our deeds live in and not living out being just and true.

All these can start today as we turn 52
The number of years that we all share both old and young
Seeing the possibilities of miracles through faith happening... Understanding the significance of the numbers we now attain 5 and 2
Remember Christ fed the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fishes A miracle that surpasses just hopes and wishes
But of a conscious mind with a belief of constantly achieving One day at a time the type of greatness and glory that you as a Nigerian will now live in
We would grow in it, flourish with pride in it, attaining great lofty heights in it and with diligent hands building a nation where Peace and justice now reigns supreme in it
So rejoice Nigeria for the creator has given us the power to succeed complete
No more mourning only a change of heart towards this calling
For we are magnificent and we are Nigerians
Happy 52nd Independence day celebrations
by Philip Asaya.

Talk movies (Movie review)

Since my last movie review, I’ve had more than enough opportunity to watch some really great movies like the Amazing Spider man, the Expendables 2, Men in Black 3, Bourn Legacy, Resident Evil 1-5, etc. I’ve even had the pleasure of giving advice to a few friends in Lagos advice on which films are cinema worthy. Rather than talk on all the latest movies I’ve seen, I’ve decided to spend a little time talking on some not so recent films that I’ve enjoyed watching recently as well. Here they are:

Foster – Now this is one endearing movie I couldn’t stop gushing about after I watched it. A simple storyline by Jonathan Newman with start studded performances by Golden Globe winner, Toni Collette, Ioan Gruffudd (you probably remember him as Mr Fantastic from the movie Fantastic Four), the adorable Maurice Cole and so many other talented actors and actresses. It had hints of magical mystery which kept the film intriguing but what I loved best was the subtle message of hope and positivity which is reflected in the movie’s tagline: Miracles can come true. You want to know about the story? Well, here’s a teaser: Life was becoming a chore for high school sweethearts Zooey and Alec Morrison who had recently faced a painful tragedy that affected their ability to have kids. In a bid to move on, they decide to adopt a child but what they didn’t know was just how special the 7year old Eli (who showed up at their doorstep unannounced) would be to them. This is one 2011 English Comedy-Drama, you’ve got to watch.

Tempest - When I saw the DVD case of this movie starring Helen Mirren as Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan and Djimon Hounsou as her brutish Caliban slave stranded on what seemed like an enchanted island, I felt compelled to watch this modern 2010 take of an old Shakespearean classic.

To my disappointment, it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. For me I felt it was too theatrical for a movie, the conversations were in old English – rather than today’s English – which made it a bore and my least favourite moment was seeing Russell Brand play Trinculo, one of the comical lost sailors. What I did like was the story was brought to life in vivid pictures using visual effect, nice costume (although I wasn’t too fond of Djimon’s black and white patch mud covering), great acting and use of beautiful locations in Hawaii and New York soundstages. Uh, I also liked Ariel, the weird puckish spirit played by Ben Whishaw, which I had a hard time figuring if he was actually male or female. If you are a fan of Shakespearean work and live theatrical drama, then you might just enjoy this 1hr 20mins movie written and directed by Julie Taymor.

12 Rounds – Every once in a while, I indulge in watching what I call senseless action movies i.e. films with little or no meaningful storyline. Even though I liked the brief short storyline and its twist, I would like to put this 2009 American action flick directed by Renny Harlin (Director of popular action movies like Die Hard2, Cliff hanger, Deep Blue Sea and Mind Hunters) and produced by WWE Studios in that category. The hero of the day was none other than the emotionless John Cena, an WWE wrestling star who played Danny Fisher, a local police officer who got promoted for arresting a ruthless terrorist arms-dealer Miles Jackson (played by Aidan Gillen), whose girlfriend Erica Kessen got accidentally killed. A year later he’s back to even the score with 12 challenges and Fisher’s girlfriend’s life as the prize to be won. For a great chase, stunt, effects and funny dialogue, this is not a bad movie to watch in your free time.

Neverland – After watching a 2011 re-imagination of Treasure Island which starred Elijah Woods, I was curious to see what new twist can be added to the classic story of Peter Pan (not one of my favourite childhood fantasy stories). Since it was advertised as the prequel detailing why Peter Pan never wanted to grow old and why he and captain cook were enemies; I figured it would be a good watch.

At least I got to understand why people love the character Peter Pan; I enjoyed the fantasy of Neverland (except the poor visual graphics of the 8legged crocodile) and could better swallow Peter’s inability to age. There were a few things that I didn’t like such as the inappropriate attraction between Peter Pan and Aaya, the Red Indie princess, the boring last sword fight between Peter and Captain Hook where Hook lost his hand and worst of all for me was the Pirates lady Captain, Elizabeth Bonny. Rather than the characters flying to a place called Neverland, they were transported by a magical orb forged from a meteor shower. Even though the graphics wasn’t all that great, it was nice to see Bob Hoskins again as he played Smee, a role he played in Steven Spielberg’s 1991 version of Peter Pan called Hook. This 2011 Adventure Fantasy written by Nick Willing is a nice film to watch if you want to relax and you have four hours to spare.

The Duchess – I had seen the preview of this movie in 2008 but never got the chance to watch it. One night I stumbled on it on a local TV channel and couldn’t take my eyes off it, I don’t know what it is about 18th century period dramas and stories that keep me glued to my TV set.

This movie is based on Amanda Foreman's biography on the life of a young aristocrat, Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire (played by Kiera Knightley). At age 17, she’s married off to the Duke (played by Ralph Fiennes) on the grounds that she produces a male heir with no knowledge of what joy of marriage, depth of love, pleasures of sex and strength of character truly mean. Despite becoming famous for her fashion and political aspirations, she fights inner demons in her secret closet like betrayal, adultery, giving up a love child, living together for more than 25years with her husband’s mistress, choosing between being loved as a woman and sacrificing that love to remain a mother. The uphill journey faced by women of old always brings tears to my eyes and once again I find myself appreciating this era in which I was born into. This 1hr 45mins movie which tells the tale of Princess Diana’s great-great-great-great-aunt is truly one to watch.

Nigeria at 52

As October 1st draws near, Nigerians are faced with the challenge of celebrating our independence. Since 1960, celebrating our independence with 24hour festivities has never really been the norm because October 1st has always been a time of sober reflection. More often than not, we find ourselves comparing our Nation to other countries about our age. The vast difference technologically and otherwise usually sends Nigerians into the spiral of blame games. Rather than logical self examinations to find the root of our challenges so as to proffer practical solutions, we look for whom to blame but can anyone blame us really for doing that?

At our 50th national celebration, Nigerians adorned themselves in the national colours – green white green- ran through the streets and celebrated the beginning of a new era where democracy meant we would get involved in government decision making, where things would start anew and get better for the masses. After the untimely passing of President Umaru Yar'Adua on 5th of May 2010, his successor, Goodluck Jonathan stepped up to the plate intermittently till his official election on the 16th of April 2011. For once our presidential election was free and fair; people had hope that an un-ambitious president would do more in our favour. But in the past two years, things have not become the fairy tale Nigerians hoped for.

Imagine being greeted on 2012 New Years’ day with the news of fuel scarcity because the government had removed the fuel subsidy claiming it could no longer afford to subsidize fuel if it had to save our economy in the years to come. The life of the masses became more expensive and difficult causing protests all over the nation. Officials came on television telling the people for months how it would be in their best interest and by April this year, a compromise which was still higher than the masses would have wanted was reached. A few months later, we were told there had been a scam and the money to be reserved (1.6trillion or so) was no longer available and the culprits were being investigated.

Another move that got the Nigerian public displeased was the seemingly forceful cashless society scheme. The plan was to reduce the amount of money spent printing currency notes. With so much wrong in the country, the last thing on Nigerians’ mind is to walk around with no visible cash in hand. Imagine going to an ATM machine with your card in a store and finding out the network is down. Does that mean you don’t get to buy what you need because your bank’s network is faulty? It’s one thing to deal with the embarrassment, it’s quite another to walk away from a purchase empty handed because there was no POS machine or functional ATM network to purchase you needs. Nigerians were not having that. So the matter of how feasible it would be to practice the scheme remained debatable.

Also, imagine how insulted the Nigerian populace felt when we were told (after our currency was renovated to polymer to cut cost and going cashless was less expensive) that the Central Bank of Nigeria wanted to introduce a new currency (the N5000 note), redesign currency notes (N50 - N1000) and convert lower denominations (N5 - N20) to coins. knowing that doing so would cost the country over N40billion, the common man was left wondering how that was a less wasteful economic plan. The worst part was the government has now made it its style to approve policies and plans without asking the opinion of the people or trying to sensitize the people before implementation. Then we hear the present administration feels they are the most criticized by the Nigerian people. Why won’t they be when the people had so much hope in them and so far nothing has changed? Bottom line, our systems are still faulty and majority of the motivation to improve the nation are born from personal money making schemes.

Infrastructure has still not improved and with the recent climate changes, Riverine settlements like Lekki in Lagos State, Markurdi in Benue State and Lokoja in Kogi state are now dealing with intense flooding issues. By-pass roads that have been neglected have now become potential death traps. Death toll this year has been uprising. Not to forget the amount of property damage caused by Boko Haram, Niger Delta militants, violent riots and aviation mishaps. Amidst all these chaos, the House of Reps recently were asking for N7 million increase in their pay packet. Why on earth would they feel the need to say so when the president tried to cut the expenses of the Executive arm of government to show the masses its commitment to selfless national development? It’s like our leaders have not known the nature of the people they are ruling. What Lord Lugard deduced during his analysis of Nigeria in 1912 – 1916, our leaders still grapple with till date.

All our leaders have to do is go back in time and learn the act of self-examination/analysis of a people from a man (Lord Lugard) who knew how to get the diverse cultures of people to work towards one goal of national unity. We, Nigerians, need to know what can work for us and how to harness the best out of what we already have. Lord Lugard’s analysis can be seen from his book, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa which was published in 1926. There he talked about the strategies needed to govern the African people as at that time. These days Africans have evolved especially Nigerians and it’s too bad our leaders are still just as he described centuries ago. Here’s an excerpt that (emphasis: I believe) still rings true about all who get into power in Nigeria: they lack, “....self control, discipline, and foresight ... full of personal vanity, with little sense of veracity (my emphasis: honesty). His thoughts are concentrated on the events and feelings of the moment, and he suffers little from the apprehension for the future or grief for the past. He lacks the power of organization, and is conspicuously deficient in the management and control alike of men or business. He loves the display of power, but fails to realize its responsibility...”

There has been a bit of good news in our history as a people despite our many challenges. For once, our government has tried to show its ability to visualize the future needs of the people and is currently working towards it; needs such as stable power supply, repairing of our national image, enhancement of tourism, reformations in the banking and aviation sectors just to mention a few. Another good thing about Nigerians that can see us through all our challenges till we become better is our dependence on religion. Irrespective of religious preferences, we tend to commit our nation into the hands of a Deity we believe can help. That is why October 1st has always been a day dedicated to National prayers by every religion in the country. As our challenges evolve as a people, so do our prayer points and recently, the reality that everyone needs to act one way or the other to make Nigeria great has become a daily truth.

We, the children, who were called the leaders of tomorrow, are today aware of the national transformation needed to lead our country to greater heights. At age 52, Nigeria has become a more mature nation who does away with wishful thinking and tackles the reality of the challenges ahead. It is our prayer that as we grow nationally, we would look beyond our selfish interests and do what’s best for the future our people. Happy Independence Day Nigeria!

Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Summer Olympics (aka A Symphony of British Music)

So by now you’re wondering why I’m still writing on the past London 2012 Summer Olympics. Well, I do like to finish anything and start and if I could tell how it started and what happened in between, I think I owe you a conclusion to that journey for all those who missed it due to our country’s epileptic power sector. As you know, electricity in Nigeria is never really constant and this has a way of affecting everything from business to personal enjoyment of entertainment. Such disappointing moments with lack of electricity did affect my viewing of the closing ceremony as directed by Kim Gavin and David Arnold a great deal.

But from what I did see, I could tell that it was concluded with a few countries like Brazil receiving their gold medals before the musical fan fare began. It was such a pity we couldn’t glimpse Queen Elizabeth 11’s scowl but at least she was represented by the jolly Prince Harry and the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton who were more than happy to be there. With a worldwide viewership of 750 million people (a few millions shy of the opening ceremony’s 1 billion people viewership), it was a night meant to be remembered.

The stadium glowed with the colours of the British flag (a tribute to the Union Jack) – and I’ve got to say, the lighting effects for both opening and closing ceremonies were spectacular – and the floor was covered in what looked like newspaper clippings. Once again, comic relief was provided but by a fat looking batman and an elderly robin character. Once the jokes were over, it was party time.

The crowd not only went wild as a series of popular British acts playing rock, rap, pop, etc hit the stage but they also sang along filling the arena with a thunderous chorus and applause. As for me, certain performances stood out. First on the list was Scottish singer, Emeli Sande’s vocal excellence as she sang an acoustic version of her song, "Read all about it". Next was the drum-roll of the street percussion group with drummers beating on aluminum dustbin bins/covers with drum sticks while the stomp and acrobatic dancers did moves that left me with one word ‘wow’. Unfortunately this moment was disrupted for me when Ryan Davis’ performance followed. Yeah I had lots of down moments but let’s stick to the good ones for now. I also was pleasantly surprised by the open party scene with volunteers wearing colourful plaid outfits, party hats, abstract fashion pieces and colour-coded suits as well as the royal guards trumpeting.

Lots of musicians made guest appearances and I was glad I could catch a glimpse of One Direction singing on what seemed to me like a dismantled truck. Spice girls made a grand entrance on moving vehicles and sang their signature songs, as did Jesse J, Tairo Cruz and Tinie Tempah who also came in moving cars. Other singers include: Madness, Pet Shop Boys, George Michael, Ed Sheena, Take That, etc.
Amidst the musical concert, the athletes were paraded one last time bearing their national flag. It was nice to see countries truly celebrating because they were returning home with gold medals like USA and China who walked away with the highest amount of medals won in the 2012 Olympics (104 and 88 medals respectively). Jamaicans had a lot to celebrate besides able to hold on to their world records; as the closing ceremonies coincided with their country’s 50th anniversary. On the other hand, Brazilians were excited about the prospects of hosting the next Olympic Games (Rio 2016).

I wasn’t too psyched to see Nigeria’s parade especially when we were coming back home empty handed. My disappointed was shared by so many other Nigerians on twitter, some of which made sarcastic jokes about the team. The word Nigeria was trendy that day on twitter as Nigerians vented their anger at seeing a fellow athlete dancing during parade of nations. Everyone felt our team should hang their head in shame especially when the disabled team did so well at the Summer Para-Olympics.

Let’s get back to the closing ceremony shall we? Talking of Nigeria could start a long chain of issues relating to what ails this ‘failed state’ as diagnosed by *a CIA report predicting our disintegration by 2015. Since we are on low moments, might I say I was irked by Jessie J’s off key as she made her way to sing with Tinie Tempah and Tairo Cruz. Thank God she redeemed herself by the time she sang a classic rock song “We will Rock you”with Bryan May. Beady Eye’s rock piece with Liam Gallagher, from Oasis band, had such a nasal pitch to it I almost wished PHCN had seized the light during his performance.
I’m sure glad I had no electricity to watch Russell Brand’s musical performance though (being divorced from a popular pop musician did not qualify him to imagine he could actually sing and if that was meant to be funny, I doubt it was). Think happy thoughts, happy thoughts *fore-fingers to my temple with eyes closed. Then I take in a deep breath*.

*Smile on my face, commence conversation*. Once again the spirit of emotional freedom to cry was celebrated as pictures of athletes crying tears of joy and pain were displayed on projector screens, proving that it was now socially accepted in Europe to express emotion in public. Homage was also paid to minority groups like British Indians, though the gladiator’s dance part was lost on me sha. Don’t forget the stunts like the person who walked on a tight rope above the stadium or the human cannon ball. The London welsh choir performed the Olympic theme, soothing our ears and cleansing our memory from bad vocal performances of the night. Tribute was made to the Union Jack, Winston Churchill, Models and British fashion designers. Extinguishing of the Olympic torch which was the last feature of the celebrations was as glamorous as its lighting at the opening ceremony.

It would be hard to forget the London 2012 games especially since most of the clothes – t-shirts, leggings, jackets, etc –bearing the British flag which were used during the games will no doubt find its way to Nigeria in the form of Okrika. Or shall I say second clothing?

Credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images, Copyright: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire/Press Association Images.

London 2012 Summer Olympics (article continued)

A lot happened during this year’s Olympics games. The games started 2 days before the actual opening ceremony (July 27th) with preliminary matches for the Women and Men’s football respectively. From that first event till the very last day (August 12th), records were being broken, new world records were being set and emotions were running sky high. Like Cristiane Rozeira de Souza Silva of the Brazil’s women’s football team who set the record for the most goals scored by a woman in the Olympics when she scored her 11th Olympic goal on the 25th of July.

Her record was closely followed by South Korean team that not only set a new world record for men’s Archery competition but also produced the individual world record (by Im Dong-Hyun - legally blind competitor) of 699 points for 72 arrows on the day of the opening ceremony. Let’s not forget the athletes that got disqualified and sent home for tweeting unpleasant comments about other competing athletes and the many drug-tests to ensure athletes were not depending on performance enhancement drugs. But what people were looking forward to was which country would go home with the most medals and if their country would get medals in the particular sports they participated in.

As a Nigerian, I was proud to see we had our first ever Kayak representative (Jonathan Akinyemi) and a Basketball team in addition to the usual squads of athletes for athletics, wrestling, Taekwando, Boxing, Table Tennis and weightlifting categories. Most of our athletes held great promise (like Blessing Okagbare who was Africa’s fastest female athlete in the 100m category), but in the end, we were left a tad bit disappointed as none of our finest athletes were able to clench a single medal in this year’s Summer Olympics.

Nigerians vented their disappointment through various social media but little did we know we would have a second chance with the just concluded London 2012 Para-Olympics. We won 13 medals (6 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze) in Power lifting and set new world records through athletes such as Yakubu Adosokan, Esther Oyema, Joy Onaolapo and Folashade Oluwafemiayo. (more on this later). Too bad we can’t participate in the London 2012 Winter Olympics since we experience no winter season in Nigeria.

Now back to the London 2012 Summer Games. Our basketball didn’t do too badly, despite the record breaking match played against the USA. While the American team made the record of the most points ever scored in an Olympics basketball game, Nigeria made the record of the highest scores ever earned by an African Basketball team in an Olympic match.

Don’t forget we also had player with the second highest score by an individual (Ike Diogu-27points) in that particular game even though an American Player (Carmelo Anthony -37points) broke the former Olympic record of the most points scored by an individual which was set in 1988 by a Brazilian player ( -31points). What I hated most was when some of the athletes suddenly began admitting that they were not home based players and blaming their poor performance on the poor support from the Nigerian government as if that would excuse their failure in securing a gold medal.

From what I saw, the athletes who did exceedingly well in the games were people who had a personal stake in their success like Michael Phelps, Usain Bolts and even 16-year old Shiwen Ye. Anyway, like I said on twitter, we (Nigerians) should be grateful we even had a team to represent the country at such an international sporting event.

The London 2012 Summer Olympics (Opening Ceremony)

The London 2012 Olympics is over but memories of the events that transpired still remain fresh in my heart. I’ve always been a fan of the games and my favourite part is the opening and closing ceremonies where I get to see the creativity and variety the host nation have to offer. After Beijing 2008, I kept wondering what surprise the United Kingdom would spring up on us even though, this is not the first time the city of London had been privileged to host the games(London hosted in both in 1904 and 1948 but this year’s games was the first modern Olympics for London).

The Opening Ceremony

I waited eagerly, week after week till July 27th 2012, for the opening ceremony themed the Isles of Wonder. I heard the inspiration for the festivity was drawn from Shakesphere’s Tempest. With a $40million budget, the extravagance which was artistically directed by Danny Boyle was indeed worth the wait. For those of you who don’t know Danny Boyle, he is an English film director and producer who has won numerous awards since 1995 including the Oscars & Critics Choice Awards (2009) and AFI film Awards (2010). He is best known for directing the 2008 film, Slum-dog Millionaire. He’s not only been honoured with awards by Americans but also from other European organizations in Norway, Scotland etc. Anyways, back to the ceremony.

Thanks to our fluctuating power supply in Nigeria, I was unable to enjoy every bit of the ceremonies (opening and closing) as I would have loved to. But from what I saw, I was quite impressed. The stadium of about 80,000 seats couldn’t take the mammoth crowd of 5.3million visitors that showed up for the Olympic Games, so the overflow had large screens to encourage everyone outside the stadium in hyde park to follow the event in real time. Earlier on, an extra 9,500 security officials were deployed to London to ensure order and strengthen the already existing security forces. As the countdown to the opening ceremony began, rock music filled the air and people were seen ringing bells alongside Big Ben which rang for three minutes.

The opening was truly a wonder as the volunteer performers showcased the history of the United Kingdom, citing eras like that of the green and pleasant land, the industrial revolution, the migration of blacks into Europe, the Royal Guards and the impact of the entertainment industry on the European culture. We saw clips that reminded us of bedtime stories, nannies, fantasies, dancing, movies such as Olivia twist, Annie, Alice in wonderland, Mary Poppins, etc. Characters like Mr Bean turned an orchestra rendition into British comic relief while James bond (007 as played by Daniel Craig) escorting the Queen (Elizabeth II) in a helicopter ride to the venue and David Beckham made the wait for the Olympic torch all the more exciting. We were entertained with readings/recitations by celebrities such as JK Rowling & Kenneth Branagh, Acapella music that rang so pure, the Chariots of Fire & Abide with Me symphony etc. If you missed it, there are not enough words or pictures to tell how grand it was. Through it all, there was one part I’m sure everyone in the 204 participating countries watching wanted to see and that was the Parade of Nations.

As I waited for the Nigerian contingents to come out, I noticed great British hits were being played in the background including songs from Coldplay, Adele and the Bee Gees. I also learned the names of a few new countries I never knew existed like Andorra, Brunei, Laos, Nairu, Maldives, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Uzbekistan, etc. Before the 2012 olympics, I didn’t even know the difference between Yugoslavia and Macedonia, I didn’t even know there was a name dispute between Taiwan (which was introduced as the Chinese Taipei) and China (introduced as the People’s Republic of China).

While dignitaries from participating countries showed up to show political support for their athletes, I was disappointed that I saw no one, not even the Vice President or the Minster of Sports, from Nigeria to show support for our country. I was glad at the number of participating Nigerian athletes though. Of course the parade which started with Greece, home of the ancient and modern Olympic games, ended with the United Kingdom the current host.

Acidic Delight!

I love lime! Not lemon, not tangerine but lime and the ripe one at that. Weird huh? Not to me. When we were growing up, my mom used to flavour our papaya (what we Nigerians call pawpaw) with lime extract and a pinch of salt. According to her, it was necessary to tone the sweetness of the fruit. Up until my days at the university, I thought that was all Lime was good for. You can imagine my joy when I walked in on a friend and saw her drinking lime juice. Knowing that lime’s natural sour and tangy taste packs a punch when eaten solitary, curiosity got the best of me and I asked her for the recipe.

Why Lime?
Before I disclose a trade secret of an affordable homemade drink, I find it expedient to explain why lime is a fruit we should incorporate into our diet every now and then. For one, it has no saturated fats, cholesterol, Iron and negligible amounts of Sodium. It is a good source of dietary fibre and Vitamin C as with all citrus fruits. That’s not all; traces of essential minerals such as calcium, folate, potassium, magnesium, manganese, patothenic acid, niacin, riboflavin, thiamine, copper as well as Vitamin B6 can also be found in it.

This makes lime, like any citrus plant, an ideal candidate for the prevention of diseases (e.g. cardiovascular, stroke, neural tube defects, anaemia, cancer, etc.). It is also used for preventing micro and over nutritional deficiencies because it contains phytochemicals. Unlike most citrus plants, lime specifically kills the bacteria that cause dysentery, cholera, typhoid and helps people in weight-loss programs lose weight effectively. So it is clear just how much we need lime in our weekly diet.

How to use Lime
The question remains how do we incorporate lime into our meals? I’ll share a few:

Lime juice – use the extract of ripe lime mixed with sugar syrup (boiled water and sugar) or just water and granulated sugar to form a drink. Chill the limeade for maximum enjoyment.

Pawpaw flavouring – squeeze the juice of the unripe lime onto the pawpaw/papaya and then add salt. You can eat it like that or refrigerate it so the lime juice can soak into it.

Flavoured teas – after dipping your teabag into a teacup with hot water, squeeze an unripe lime in and add sugar for taste.

Five fruit salad – mix the following in a bowl: seedless grapes, sliced banana, orange and pineapple chunks, cubed rock/mush melon (if available), finely chopped mint leaves, peeled and grated lime. Then squeeze in lime juice and concentrated orange juice. Serve when done.

Lime and Chicken – lime can be squeezed on grilled chicken or can be used to make a Caribbean Lime Chicken meal. This is done by combining chicken in dish with 3 tablespoons lime juice, the garlic, salt, thyme, pepper flakes, and black pepper. Mix well, Heat oil until hot and place ‘combo’ on an 11 -12 inch skillet. Ensure both sides of the chicken are cooked until brown then add onions and stir till they are both well cooked. Add tomatoes and curry powder to pan, leave to cook for a few minutes then stir in 1 tablespoon of lime juice. Serve with Ginger Rice (this is simply boiling rice with water and minced fresh ginger root).

Once I found out how often lime can be applied in my diet, I spared no expense in securing this very affordable fruit. There is another way to use lime but since i haven't tried that, i won't include it here. It actually involves grating the skin (popularly known as zesting)and incorporating it into meals. Honestly, i believe ingenuity and creativity lies in the least of us and it is how we use it that makes the difference. I like to see the upside of things and it this case with the lime, the benefits are richly rewarding. Try it someday.

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