There's a trick to living in Lagos that I haven't learned. Here you must toe the line of civility without stripping your life of its vitality.
It is a thing I have struggled with for no longer than half a decade. And it started when I first learned that my life was mine to do with as I pleased; to dance where I fancied and do what I wanted. It was a freedom so great that it drove me to insanity and back again.
The last time I lived here, I was completely taken with weak prettiness and petty rebellion. It was a charmed life with tragic undertones.
I've been blessed with a reset button so now I shall do things differently. I'm not so mad as to stick to the same practices and expect that life materialise a different result. If momentum is my secret to productivity then I shall take care to keep it. If criticism is the diamond that hones this diamond I shall hear it and find a way to bear it.
Some of you think I'm the tell it like it is chap, but I'm not. It's just that sometimes you feel so strongly about a thing that it is difficult to pull your punches. Your words seem to believe they are the scribbled iteration of a sledgehammer, strong, unyielding, unforgiving. Sometimes, even in person, they seek to do the same. I tell a tale as if it were a blog and I banter without the benefit of the delete button. I frequently say things I only live to regret, but when I regret them, you'll never find a more sorry figure than I. My eyes make their best puppy impersonation and howl my doom and gloom to the world.
I'm not your Linda, Wendy or Perez. I'm just a guy with many opinions and an even more interests. My wit is sharp enough to survive subtlety, my spirit is full enough to survive tempering. I write like someone who could one-day author a book so good it'll win something more prestigious than money.
TROAM by Afam is a blog about Lagos, Nigeria, and then the rest of the world written mostly by an Ibo, Yoruba, Lagosian who's unhinged enough to ask someone who's apparently Ojukwu's brother, if they have any relation to the infamous Ojukwu. It is unbecoming of a man of my stature to be rude without intent. I regret that question too.
My friends believe one day I'll do something no apology will fix or say something that sees me on the highway to ruin. I'm in two minds about this. In person there is great work to be done. Loose cannons are things best left in lonely fields. In journalism, my code of ethics will see me through.
Happy Days,
Afam
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