Tag Archives: Challenges

Curb The Negative

Do not let the ripples of irritation in life
Be they constant, or intermittent, detract
From the promise and joy of living earnestly.
For they, possess the power and proclivity
Of attempting to consume or overshadow
Life to the disadvantage of sustained progress.

Therefore, make diligent entreaties towards
Focusing on the nature and promise of hope.
Accentuate that which inspires the spirit to soar.
Convert the destructive into positive momentum,
And propel yourself forward to the realization
Of the dreams you envisioned for the fullness
Of the bountiful gift of the life that is yours.

 
YemilBenjoy ©

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Reflect Nigeria – Vacant Noise

The hollow platitude by the government about how
Malevolent the abduction of the Chibox girls was …
Is yet but a meaningless mirage of feigned solace
To the girls in the clutches of utmost despair, their hopes
Their families, the nation and the world, and
Wretchedly cause more consternation and anguish.
Without a doubt, the issues of import are thus,
What has been done by those who proclaim they govern
And what will be done forthwith by the Nigerian government
To return to their communities, prior lives and innocence
The young girls kidnapped from within their school and country.

Alas, the national query about the safe passage of the girls
Back to their abodes in safety, must incessantly without pause,
In loud and unyielding refrain, drown out the puerile
Statements that advance, neither cause nor even weary hope,
That our girls will be returned home without further delay.

As the adage goes – talk is cheap!
Tell us something new, show us progress and bring back our girls.

YemilBenjoy ©
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Reflect Nigeria Tragic Fiction 5 – Prayer Of An Abducted Chibok And Now Dapchi Girl

I am weary of this horrendous and feigned existence that I am forced to live
And seek complete deliverance, like some of my comrades in chains before me,
Fortunate to be relieved eternally, from the atrocities of oppression that are
Conjoined with the degradation and unveiled brutality of sexual bondage,
Into the embrace of death, from this unbearable agony that ceases not.
For I understand, that it is a transition through redemption, to eternal peace.
Which is what I seek, like some of us, who have since had the tragic fortune
To escape, from this realm, like birds from the captor’s grip, but forever free.
That respite, is what I urgently need from the endless lashing of the torture,
From the shackles of despair, as all innocence is lost from these forsaken woods
Where neither normalcy nor joy nor hope abound, and evil reigns supreme.
I said my prayers silently, the prayers of my own faith, to remove me swiftly
And instantly, from this place, and for this, I now without patience await.

YemilBenjoy ©

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Reflect Nigeria – Tragic Fiction (4) Thunderous Silence

Although this is a fictional narrative, sadly it is to convey what an abducted girl in captivity may write:

Thunderous is the silence of inactivity in the country concerning the continued situation of the hundreds of girls abducted from their school in Nigeria.

Mr. President:

How was your breakfast today? How was the comfort of your tranquil bed last night? Well, I have not eaten anything in two days, neither have I slept in my dormitory bed or enjoyed the comfort of my family home in 10 weeks. What a tragedy! Let me remind you, in case you have forgotten, that I have been in the stranglehold of captivity since I was abducted between the hours of April 14 and April 15, 2014, from my school in Chibok, Nigeria as I slept in my dormitory dreaming about my future. A future that I hoped would somehow only be limited by the dimensions of my innate potential. However, I was not allowed to pursue that promise because of the ineptitude of my government; due to the failure to protect vulnerable school girls and the failure to rescue us. What a pity!

Again, lest you have forgotten, let me remind you of the horror that has befallen the daughters of the country you took an oath to protect. Or do you somehow pray that we will become shadows of the night blended with oblivion and erased from the remembrance of the nation and the world. Although, we may have been relegated to the recesses of existence, by the inexcusable failure of your government to adequately protect our school and the unconscionable failure thereafter to effect our immediate liberation, the undeniable fact is that we are Nigerian girls who were violently snatched from the pursuit of our lives, a right, inalienable, and bequeathed to every human being. Lest none forget us, one of our collective prayers in incarceration is that history etch our names indelibly in blood in the chronicles of the mind and time so that our names and faces will never be erased from the collective memory of the nation, and world.

How tragic the unbridled grief of our families from whom solace stands ever fickle and aloof in the debris of shattered hope. What exactly do you think has been our fate? Do you somehow believe that we have not been beaten, gang raped repeatedly, degraded incessantly and humiliated beyond description? Or do you choose to ignore the reality of our situation. The stark reality is that the depth of the depravity we have been subjected to by evil during the day and at night is unimaginable. As the horrific moments turned into horrendous days and now those days into the dreadful months, all figment of hope has dissipated into smithereens. We languish in the midst of despair and mourn the death of our dreams and the abrupt cessation of our youth. Should your government not be leading the campaign to rescue us from this vortex of fear? Rather, instead of determined valour, in its stead lies crippled the skeletal and desiccated remains of apathy. Alas, dead and still, lie any mirage of the vacuous platitudes to extricate us from this quagmire. Have you even declared a day of mourning for us? For we hear the stories of you dancing at parties and boarding jets beyond the boundaries of the nation as we suffocate in this cesspit. What a calamity! Woe betide and cursed be the night of April 14 through April 15, 2014, in the history books of Nigeria. Let it stand in infamy in the history of our country as mothers rend their garments and fathers gnash their teeth.

I hear the boots of oppression approaching … so I must stop again.

Fictional story to be continued.

YemilBenjoy ©

 

 

 

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Eternal Comfort

They may assail your being…
Take all your earthly possessions.
Unjustly curtail one’s liberty
Confiscate all they think you own
And trample on one’s humanity
Even unto the cessation of mortal life.
Yet, they cannot even if they try
Touch the Almighty God and Creator
Who provides the divine assurance
Of Eternal bliss, even if they try.
Thus in all matters, rely completely on
He who is greater than greatness, and
The generous benefactor of all grace.

YemilBenjoy ©

 

 

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Courage’s Pull

When courage’s conviction visits thy habitation
Will thou in earnest, welcome and adopt it fully,
Or will thou dismiss its valiant entreaties, to stand
Ramrod under its auspices, for its just and fearless cause.
Courage precipitates the flourish of advanced audacity.
Thus, imbibe its virtue, don it ardently as shield and sword.
As shield, to proceed valiantly when its essence is required,
Or to protect you, from the putrid tempest of ugly repression
When eventually you are counted amid the virtuous assembly.
As sword, will you deliver from the pulpit of righteous indignation,
Rendition, powerfully piercing through the cloak of brutality, to
Challenge the venomous sting of atrocity spearing tormented souls.
Tarry not, courage still beckons to all, zealously seek to embrace  it,
To its fullest dimension, and emboldened by it, confront that which
Is intent on destroying all that is of positive measure in humanity.

YemilBenjoy ©

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Wisdom’s Trails

Where lieth the true essence of wisdom.

Does it just accompany the chronology of age

Simply because the years turn into decades of life.

Is it found through one existence defining experience

Or amid the multitude of challenges encountered during

The phases shaping the course of our fragile mortality.

 

Is it manifest in considered circumspection, probably

Applied in varying degrees to ensuing circumstance and events.

Is it the unique province of a few who then impart it wisely

As revered sages to the expectant seeking its solemn direction.

Or is it a derivative of the collective thoughts, then spoken, or woven

Into bound volumes of scholarly accounts for the edification of many.

 

Could it be, that it is encountered in the calm solitude of the walk

Through the parks and gardens of contemplation, or arises from

Deep within the routine of the communing with the supreme being.

Possibly, it may reveal itself in one of or a combination of these.

Yet, the one who finds wisdom should guard it utmost jealously

For in its midst, is contained the invaluable compass to navigate life.

 

Thus, irrespective of where its imprints are encountered,

When indeed in its time, it attends to your discernment

And commands by its very stature one’s rapt attention

Court it fully, and abide wholeheartedly by its doctrines.

With astuteness, hold firm to its priceless undeniable virtues

To guide your judgement, utterances and all undertakings.

That its essence, may steadfastly illuminate your course

With its sagacious attributes to your enduring benefit.

 

YemilBenjoy ©

 

 

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Will Anybody Come To Your Aid

Will you hear me when I call for help for anyone in need
Or will you elect to ignore the cries and ardent pleas.
Will you heed the sobbing or wailing in the night
Or in content, drown them in feigned oblivion or indifference.
Will you walk away when affliction confronts others
Convincing yourself, that someone else somewhere else
Will in your stead, seek to rescue the sorely oppressed
And downtrodden masses, trapped under evil’s albatross.
Will you close your eyes to all the aggravated suffering
That beckons loudly for necessary and sustained intervention,
Till no solace is offered to neither nations or hapless souls
And all civility is obliterated from the course of humanity, then
The unconscionable, thriving reigns wantonly and supreme
While decency itself is subjugated amid complete despair
Till you, then look around for urgent help for yourself, and
Find, all figment of lost hope, lying conquered and entombed
Within the ruins of decency, and none can no longer rise
To your rescue or dare stand to extend any measure of relief.

YemilBenjoy ©

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Reflect Nigeria – Tragic Fiction (3)

Although this is a fictional narrative, sadly it is to convey what an abducted girl in captivity may write:

Mr. President,

I return to writing under the threat of bodily harm but I must continue because I do not want you or the world to forget us in the dreadful alleys of time. Have you forgotten us? Or do you hope that with time we will simply fade deep into the recesses of the mind, conveniently never to be remembered. I will continue to write so that you never forget that we were abducted from our school in Chibok and now Dapchi, Nigeria.

The news we heard today was of calamitous proportions. A  12 year-old girl is pregnant. My heart stopped when I heard the news. It was a confounding situation, not for lack of understanding the process that led to this perplexing state of affairs, but completely destabilizing because of the protracted cruelty of evil. How could this be? I prayed that it would not be true. I prayed for myself and prayed for my sister that this would not be our fate. The thought was unbearable. How could childhood be violently interrupted with forced motherhood? How could innocence be violated with no consequences? All because we pursued the dream of advancement through education and our government failed to protect us from foreseeable acts of the malevolent. Alas, it failed to protect the hallowed ground of every child, our school.

Now the shores of hope remain distant, even the mirage of a gallant rescue that we used to cling to has dissipated into nothingness like the barren forest we are held captive in, barren of love, barren of parents, barren of childhood, barren of dreams and barren of life. What a tragedy. Frightening minutes have turned into awful days and into forsaken weeks. Have you even thought about us recently? Do you weep for us? If I were your daughter, would I still be here? Again, I ask have you spoken to our parents. We heard that a security risk may have prevented you from going to Chibok and now Dapchi. What an irony. Yet, we have been condemned by the government’s failure to rescue us to lives in tatters where there is no promise or protection.

Will my life be a continuum of threats, assaults, degradation and fear? Or will it be plagued constantly with the screaming of another captive beaten to death because she had the audacity to fight for her life. There is no refuge in this place. The days are filled with despair and the nights with dread and the silent weeping under the yoke of tyranny. Do we cry in vain? Hear our cries and save us.

I hate to but I must stop again.

Fictional story to be continued.

YemilBenjoy ©

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The Power of Mind

Others, may blindly, not see the priceless essence of your being.
Some may demean and often degrade you because they can.
Others may laugh at the way you speak or read,
Some may chuckle at the way you look or your garments,
And oppress you probably because of your gender,
While others stand by callously, or join in, and
Refuse to come to your rescue or assistance.
As hard as it is, even amid the reign of injustice
Hold your head high and retain your dignity.
Walk away, and if you can’t physically walk away
Even if it is for a moment, transport your mind
Beyond the ugly and focus on the beauty in you,
Which innately, resides in you just because you are you.
Remember always, that the measure of your self-worth
Lives uniquely and marvelously in you and nobody else.
Thus, do not, by your own actions or inaction
Fall prey to their evil machinations intent on
Defining you to your own detriment, no
Do not let them steal your last refuge of hope,
Which is the power of your precious mind, rather
Elevate your being within you and for you
Empower your mind because you must believe in you
And then soar… with the unrestrained power of your mind
Beyond the impediment of the oppression.

YemilBenjoy ©

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