………….PokeNosing……………

……hey don’t get it twisted, I’m not the divorced/divocee here.

Flipping through the pages of newspapers especially on weekends/entertainment magazines, you’ll find "interesting" stories of ladies(celebs) who are single/divorced telling us that they are happy being single……or divorced as the case may be.

My question is - are ladies(ripe for marriage) actually happy being single or are they just deceiving us on the pages of newspapers?

Let this ladies - single/divorced stop deceiving young ladies by telling them they are accomplished as being single, when most of them enter into their innermost chamber and pray for Mr. Right to come by.

Are they truly happy?

Sometimes I usually wonder if all Nigerian banks are ripe enough for this ATM/Debit Card of a thing.

With the introduction of ATM cards and machines in most banks, it is the general assumption that the era of long queues has come to an end…. in other words, you could enter into a bank or any other place where there’s an ATM Machine and withdraw your money without hussle or stress……

But picture this - I had the intention of going to the bank very early (pay in a cheque and withdraw from the ATM), so that I could return home quickly to finish some uncompleted assignment.

On getting to this YES Bank, I went straight for the ATM Machine where I met a long queue - I had to key in a space there for myself before I went into the banking hall to pay in a cheque, at the counter/teller…. whatever, I was delayed there with the lady behind the counter - stressed up, telling me to hold on while he gets one Mr. XYZ in charge of collecting cheques. I waitied and waited and when I was finally answered, I went bank outside - where is the long queue, they’ve dispersed - wetin happen, "server don go", "no service", "your financial institution is not available"……and all that. I waited again and finally the server came back and I eventually withdrew my money after spending close to an hour and 30 minutes for what should have taken me less than 10minutes.

The ATM Machine called as Automated Thiefing Machine by a complainant in one of our National dailies is no doubt a good development in the Nigerian Financial System, but there has been a whole lot of complaints, like shortpayinga customer, "swallowing" your card, deducting your money when actually you didn’t withdraw and no server/service - though some of these are complaints arises from users’ ignorance.

But Nonetheless, let the ATM companies and Banks do something about their machines and increase their enlightment programme on the usage of the cards among users as most governments staffs (receiving their salary from these banks) are compelled to obtain the ATM cards.

Nigeria has adopted the Child’s Rights Act and I wonder when the Act will be implemented in States of Nigeria.

Child Labour is a serious menace going on in our society and it’s like the government care less about this indiscriminate action being perpetrated by most parents/children, but do I blame them……..when POVERTY is on the increase.

Some children that are engaged in child labour are either into it on the instruction of their parents/guardian (for those who have one) or on their own inclination (at least man must "wak")…. But on a serious note, is Child Labour right?

A talk ensued between my Dad and a child hawking smoked fish….. here is their conversation:

Daddy: How old are you and do you attend school?

Child: I am 14years old and I attend ………. secondary school

Daddy: You are in what class?

Child: I am going to JSS3 (promoting to JSS3)

Daddy: Are you aware of the dangers in your business of fish hawking and do you know hawking is not right?

Child: No dangers are there and in fact if I don’t hawk where do I get the money to feed and go to school.

Daddy: What I’m telling you is that it is not good for you and your parents can still feed you if don’t do this hawking… by the time Policemen start to arrest you on the streets, then you will know what I’m saying….

Child: Baba, awon Oloopa O le nu nbe (meaning Daddy, Policemen can’t do nothing), even Policemen wives do engage their child in hawking too……

The conversation went on and on, we bought fish from her and my Dad gave her a complimentary copy of his authored book titled "Rights and Responsibilities of the Nigerian Child: Under the Child’s Rights Act 2003" to read and share among her friends, give to her parents and her teachers in school…..and the girl eventually said thank you and left.

Can you see the mindset of these children….they actually see nothing wrong in this act and its like they are even enjoying it…..

I pray the Government come to the aid of our children sooner than later……… am sure the Implementation of this Act in most states will go a long way in curbing this act of child labour and other rights children are been deprived of.

PS: A copy of a book authored by my Dad and titled "Rights and Responsibilities of the Nigerian Child: Under the Child’s Rights Act 2003" is available for all those interested individuals/agencies involved/interested in  the course Nigerian Child.

It is evident that I am new kid on the bloc when it comes to blogging (so, e ro ra ba mi wi), from the look of things or rather from my observations, I found Nigerian Blog Aggregator…….this I belief will help to display feeds by authors, thereby displaying it to everybody (bloggers/general public)… let the pros - David, Akin & Co help me with the correct definition………

As a young Nigerian blogger, I found Nigerian Blog Aggregator and I became excited with the aggregator as a whole and the topics I found there and I immediately took steps to be part of the community by submitting my blogs - Pokenosing and Healthy Living (validating my feeds and submitting) to Nigerian Blog Aggregator in order to have my posts displayed (up till now, I can’t find them there)…

In a bid to get my blogs displayed on Nigerian Blog Aggregator and from various searches/discussions on the term “aggregator”, I found NaijaLive Blogosphere and within 2days of submitting my blog to the administrators (no need for validating feed), my topics were there displaying on their blogosphere/aggregator.

Now, there have been allegations and counter allegations casted on the Administrators  of Naijalive basically because of what they term Naija Super Blog ( a blog where contents of a person’s blog page are displayed and you can comment on  the person’s blog page)……….. the pros - likes of David and Akin complained acrimoniously about these “Super blog” and queried the administrators of Naijalive on why they have to publish the whole contents on their site.

As a new comer, I personally think Naija Super Blog is a good thing and the administrators of Naija Live deserves some credit for their initiative, the Naija Super Blog displaying the whole content of a person’s blog page does not reduce the amount of visitors/clicks you get on your site but on the contrary, it motivates a person to visit the full page of the  authors’ blog ………. but anyway I still stay don’t be offended to the likes of David and Akin (though they are not asking me for it), as this issue has made me an addict of their blog pages.

What actually initiated my write up is this – Nigerian Blog Aggregators has been finding it hard to add new blog pages like mine to their Aggregator and it made me feel isolated in the Nigerian blogosphere (not any longer with the advent of NaijaLIve)…….
My advice to the administrators of Nigerian Blog Aggregator -  keep your Aggregator alive so that newbie’s like us can have a sense of belonging and to Naijalive, I say keep up your good work (am sure you’ve taken to corrections), do not be discouraged and keep giving us the best.

Cheers!! To the growth of Blogging in Nigeria……….