I had passed my Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors final examination in 1967 and was looking for employment and the reply I got to some of the applications for employment that I wrote was ‘go back to your country, Nigeria.’ Of course at that time in the middle of the …
This is a personal tribute to my departed cousin and friend, HRM Eze Professor Chukwuemeka Vincent Ike, OFR, NNOM, Ugwu Aro, Eze Ikelionwu 11, who departed this earth on 9th January, 2020, and was laid to rest on 11th April, 2020. I have always known him as Vin and first …
While doing my articleship with the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works in Waterloo, London, two particular incidents provided comic relief to my existence though the second incident was more of a disaster than comedy both to myself and a close friend, Tony, who was on the receiving end. As …
In 2016 I wrote two posts, ‘Who Will Save Nigeria From Ghost Workers?’ and ‘Ghosts Everywhere’. On 23rd April, 2016, in Vanguard newspaper, the Bureau of Public Enterprises said they saved Nigeria N185 billion naira by weeding out 65,000 ghost workers. That same month in another Vanguard newspaper on 20th …
My first Christmas in England had been spent in Coventry in the house of a pen friend- see my earlier post, Christmas in Coventry. Before I left Nigeria I had not known about the pen friend phenomenon. But in England I learnt that the European could be most curious about …
I decided to call and congratulate my eighty four year old senior colleague, a man we all call Alhaji, a gentleman if ever there was one, during the last sallah celebrations. I expressed regret that I was unable to be at the tennis club where we all play to eat …
That was a favourite joke of my Jewish boss, Mr Rosen, in Elizabeth House, Ministry of Public Buildings and Works where I served my articleship towards the Final Examination of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors on three days of the week. My bosses and coworkers were mostly very pleasant. …
Five hundred years ago Europeans were in competition all over the world discovering and conquering new territories for their monarchs. The Portuguese, the Spanish, the British, in particular, were most active sailing westwards and later round the Cape of Good Hope towards Asia for cloves and wealth. But it was …
As a follow up on previous post Flash Back – Fools Rush In, in Lagos I was employed by T. A. Hammond & Partners, Quantity Surveyors, with offices on the Marina with whom I had been in communication for weeks. I moved into a hostel in Obalende. My employers had …
The question is worth repeating. Is anybody looking for a cure for covid-19? At the moment there is a rush to discover a vaccine or vaccines. Several countries, including Nigeria, are said to be cooperating with the World Heath Organisation to find a vaccine. Russia claims to already have a …
