My vote

Today is election day. Several people have asked me who I will be voting for. My answer: Jimi Agbaje.- the candidate that asks : Do you want same of same or do you want Jimi Agbaje?

My decision has nothing to do with the countless text messages and e-mails I have received asking me to give this 50-year old gubernatorial candidate my vote. It stems from the fact that I have caught the JayKay fever. A fever that promises a Lagos that is befitting. It promises to “ halt the production of area-boys”, turn Lagos into a “cosmopolitan city” and generally provide adequate infrastructure for Lagosians.

For me, voting is a big deal because if my candidate wins, I feel responsible for his failures and only mildly responsible for his successes (because he is supposed to succeed anyways). For this reason, I am careful when it comes to voting.

So Mr Jimi Agbaje, I will give you something that is important to you (my vote) in the hopes that you will give me some things that are important to me

*Good Governance
*Street Lights
*Removal of Area Boys from our roads (Please
don’t be like the current regime and give them uniforms in the hope of deceiving
us into thinking that they are now “employed” citizens. They need a mind change, not uniforms)
*I heard you say that you want to retain LASTMA. Not a bad idea,
as long as they are put on a leash.
*Please take care of the police in the state so that they can stop hassling people like me.
*New roads/ alternative means of transportation

There’s still a lot I want, but I think you covered it all in your agenda.

Good Luck! May they not rig you out.

Yet another public holiday

Late yesterday evening, I learnt that the government had declared today- Thursday and Friday Public Holidays. I was not amused. Yes, I work and I like to get a break off work without tampering with my leave days. In fact, when I enjoy working on public holidays as the roads are free and I get paid overtime for doing my normal duties. That said, I think that it is really just ridiculous and I think a bit irresponsible to declare public holidays just for the sake of it. Already, Saturday will be an election day (Local Government and state) and we have been "advised" to stay at home from 7a.m-6p.m. I really don't mind for myself, but what about having a little respect for the economy? Other countries try as much as possible not to disrupt their economy. Besides, there are people that live on what they make every day so if for any reason they are unable to work, they may not be able to feed that day.

A friend of mine suggested that the public holiday was given to frustrate Atiku's political ambitions as the Supreme Court was supposed to pass their verdict on his case (his name was removed from the list of presidential aspirants). It is possible that the verdict passed would let him join the race again but if there are public holidays, they really can't pass a verdict and he may then not be a contender after all. I really don't know how true the story is. Whatev, it's just plain irresponsible.

Since I am on the subject of politics, let me tell you what happened yesterday. Some woman was passing out flyers and asked that during the local govt elections, I vote PDP. I pointed out to her that there hasn't been steady (actually ANY) supply of electricity since January and that for that reason, I had absolutely no incentive to vote PDP who had ruled the land for 8 years and not solved the problem. She went off again about how "my sister, you know that AC/AD has been ruling Lagos that is why..." "Why What?" I countered "There is no light in Nigeria as a whole, not just Lagos". Then she gave me the dumbest response of all "That is why you should vote us in again, so that we can continue to work on it".

I am not a big fan of politics and voting but I did tell her that based on her inane responses, I would go there that day and using tombo tombo, vote for ANY party apart from PDP. Really I won't, I just wanted her to know how unintelligent her answers were.

I can't wait for the elections to be over.

Technology-The Concluding Story

Very briefly, the washing Machine got returned the day I typed the post and I lost all the data on my laptop.

Technology showed me pepper

I typed this over 2 weeks ago. I will be back to give you the concluding story later.

So I just had the most challenging 2 weeks. Started with the washing machine. I put in my daughter's clothes in, pressed all the necessary buttons and on starting up, it made this awful creaky noise like something was stuck in the back of the machine and going round and round with the drum. I turn it off and check it out. Nothing.

Luckily, this washing machine (WM) is just 3 months old and so there is a warranty on it. Next natural course of action is to call customer care at the shop where the WM was bought. So I called Game on 2806000. They took down my details and the lady I spoke with told me that if they had technicians coming my way, they would come by my house. I was in no mood to go through the whole "that is crap and unproffesional" so I gave her my details just like she asked. That was 2 weeks a go. It took over 20 calls (one irate one) and giving those same details to 5 different people to get them to come and take a look at the machine. They could not fix it in my house so they took it back to their service center to work on it. This was on a Friday. They promised to return the following Monday. Tuesday at the latest. Today is Thursday and I am still WM-less. Naturally, I have taken to doing my daughter's laundry by hand. A waste of my time really as it takes too much time. A child's clothes are always more soiled than an adult's and they go through at least 3 outfits a day. I can't very well tell her to play less or be more careful because I am washing her clothes by hand. Hopefully, the people at Game will pity me and return the WM today. I have called about 30 times between Tuesday and today. That is from a mobile phone to Land line. Paying premium rates for a call within Lagos. E go better sha. If it was the last one we had, I would have been on my own as per sorting this out. At least for this WM, I have Game service Center to harass.

Then my laptop. It just keeps rebooting and rebooting. It's either the Operating System or the Hard Disk that has crashed. I can't ascertain which. I am big on warranties and after sales services so I picked up my phone and called the HP service Center smug with the knowledge that I had a warranty that I had not voided. "Sorry, we do not handle/work on/support HP Pavillions". I was floored. I mean they told me this same thing last year when I needed some sort of support for my last pavillion laptop. I thought they would have gotten their act together by now. Pavillions are the most sold HP notebooks currently. Instead, they asked me to send it to the point of purchase. Not difficult if we are talking about Cotonou. But America? The girl insisted that that was the only course of action I could take. Okay, Please help me back up my data before I send it off. " Sorry, we don't deal with software". Grrr!
I really need the data as all my baby's pictures from birth are there and I haven't backed up. I haven't decided what I am going to do as I do not want to take it to some technician that will do something to void my warranty.

I need a break.

Doctor's Orders

It's official folks! I have been told to get a boyfriend!

I went to see the doctor last week because I have been feeling poorly for some time now. Guess what the prognosis was? My doctor seems to think I may be suffering from depression and that also thinks I should get a boyfriend to fill "the void".

He says this because he knows a small bit of my history and knows that my last relationship did not end well *note the heavy use of euphemism here*. He thinks that I am still hung up over that and that a new bobo wil help me rise from the doldrums of depressions. I mumbled something about waiting for the time of da Lord and stumbled out of his office.

FYI: I do not feel depressed and I am definitely not so hung up on any past relationship that it is affecting my sleep or my life.

My Naija self does not really believe in "depression". Tell me to Grin and bear it and I will be on the same page as you.

Anyhoo, I am now on the prowl (for medical reasons of course, LOL!)... Watch this space!