Cancer, the 21st century, and the Mercy of God

Sayo Aluko

Funmi Lawal before and Funmi the Fighter

Tyler Doherty, a budding 11-year old teenager, died 2005, after 40 rounds of chemotherapy; cause of death - brain cancer. Funmi Lawal, a young Nigerian lawyer in her late 20s, died April 2013, after a 7-year battle with cost and disease management; cause of death - bone cancer (shoulder). Funmilayo Olayinka, 52-year old consummate banker and cerebral deputy-governor in South-western Nigeria, also died April 2013, 5 years post-diagnosis; cause of death - breast cancer. Angelina Jolie Voight, 37-year old Academy Award winner, underwent preventive double mastectomy in February 2013, to reduce her 87% risk of getting breast cancer to 5%; the procedure entailed losing her two naturally endowed mammary glands (breasts).

Tyler Doherty, a budding 11-year old teenager, died 2005, after 40 rounds of chemotherapy; cause of death - brain cancer. Funmi Lawal, a young Nigerian lawyer in her late 20s, died April 2013, after a 7-year battle with cost and disease management; cause of death - bone cancer (shoulder). Funmilayo Olayinka, 52-year old consummate banker and cerebral deputy-governor in South-western Nigeria, also died April 2013, 5 years post-diagnosis; cause of death - breast cancer. Angelina Jolie Voight, 37-year old Academy Award winner, underwent preventive double mastectomy in February 2013, to reduce her 87% risk of getting breast cancer to 5%; the procedure entailed losing her two naturally endowed mammary glands (breasts).

...and Oba Akanni was beaten: A Peep into 2015

Sayo Aluko

Oba Akanni, pictured pre and post grief

Ado-odo is NOT a suburb. This is sentence that gave me a see-through illumination about the cycle of cogitation I've had on the recent shocking occurrence which involved the broad-day beating and stripping of a graded king, Oba Akanni, the king of Ado-odo, situated in a quite industrial area of Ogun state, Nigeria. Ado-odo is not a suburb.

The Plight of the Nigerian Graduate: remembering Benbe Aladisa's dirge

Sayo Aluko

These last three months have been a time of both healthy and unhealthy reflections for me; it was in this period that my year-long nysc-induced pilgrimage to a distant terrain in river-rine Bayelsa ended, a moment where being a young man, the curiosity of the unknown is sandwiched together with the higher urge/demand for responsibility.

NIGERIA - A Nation at 50; THE PAST, THE FUTURE

Sayo Aluko 

"ARISE, O COMPATRIOTS" (1978-PRESENT)
Arise, O compatriots, Nigeria's call obey
To serve our Fatherland, With love and strength and faith.
The labour of our heroes past, Shall never be in vain,
To serve with heart and might,
One nation bound in freedom, peace and unity.

O God of creation, direct our noble cause;
Guide our Leaders right, help our Youth the truth to know,
In love and honesty to grow, and living just and true,
Great lofty heights attain,
To build a nation where peace and justice shall reign.

"NIGERIA WE HAIL THEE" (1960-1978)
Nigeria we hail thee, Our own dear native land,
Though tribes and tongues may differ,
In brotherhood we stand,
Nigerians all are proud to serve Our sovereign Motherland.

Our flag shall be a symbol, That truth and justice reign,
In peace or battle honour'd,and this we count as gain,
To hand on to our children, a banner without stain.

O God of all creation, grant this our one request,
Help us to build a nation where no man is oppressed,
And so with peace and plenty
Nigeria may be blessed.

Written above are the stanzas of the Nigerian national anthem, both the old and present; and over the years, I have personally had varying definitive and somewhat emotional attachments as to what they really embody.

This is a heart balm...an effective one at that!

Sayo Aluko (Monday, December 27, 2010)

I've read this poem many times, and for the umpteenth time, it's heart-grasping effects bore afresh on me anytime I read it again. It's tiltled "INVICTUS" (latin 4 d  word 'undeafeated").have it too  below;


_Out of the night dt covers me,
Black as d pit frm pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

_In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

_Beyond this place of wrath & tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds & shall find me unafraid.

_It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged wit punishments d scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
                   _by William Ernest Henley (1849–1903).