Dr Eugene's blogs

Have you had this experience of seeing two persons who look alike facially and just when you thought they are blood relatives, you are told that they are not? Many of us have. Now picture these scenarios based on eye-witness accounts: 1.  You see a man and a woman who look so much alike that you might mistake them for a brother and sister. Then you are told they are husband and wife or they have been in courtship for some time in readiness for marriage. 2. Someone approached you and asked if you are so and so person. When you say, ‘no,’ he/she would then ask if you are related to someone else he/she  knew from somewhere else. After all the descriptions, you realize that you share mere facial resemblances with that individual but you are not related to him/her in any way. You may not even be from the same tribe or region. 3. Stories of someone who died in say Southern Nigeria but some years later, witnesses say that same individual was sighted in Eastern or Western...

1. While shopping in an open market in   Kano, I walked by an elderly lady. She was all smiles. I wondered what was making this old lady so happy. She was clutching a brand new transistor radio to her chest. Apparently, she just bought it and felt so delighted about her new acquisition. ‘Is it not just a small radio set?’ You may wonder. Well, if I buy that same radio and send it to my elderly aunt in the South, she may not share the excitement of this woman I saw. It got me thinking: Our happiness is not determined by the (material) worth of the things we own; rather our happiness is derived from the value we place on the things we own. 2. I traveled to the South a while ago. It was a long road trip. Scared of having a running stomach, I did not take breakfast before l left for the park. When we got to   Kaduna, I was so hungry but I was too scared to eat because I had an unpleasant experience the last time I traveled that long. Some hours later we got to   Abu...

  A man can sing a lie all day long to such extent that he believes the lie and the people around him could become believers of that lie having heard it too often. That said, no matter how long and how often the lie is told, the real truth remains the same. Truth can't be judged based on popularity or likability. Truth is based on facts. There was a time many thought the earth was flat. It must have been a popular notion at the time. Now, we know for a fact that the earth is anything but flat. Whether it was popular or not, the truth stayed the same. Truth does not transform with popularity or likability. But humans and human sentiments do. No matter how popular or likable an idea is, the real truth - the hard facts of the matter - remains the same. When I was a child, I had some wonderful ideals of what was real and true. As I grew older, I realized that I was wrong on some counts. Now, the real things of life didn't change because I was older; it was my knowl...

- I don't need to know so much about you. I know enough: you are human! - I don't need to know so much about you. I know enough: you are a human being! - Everyone makes mistakes. If you don't appreciate this fact, you're making a mistake. - I cannot presume to know exactly what difficulties you are going through but I know enough: life is tough. So, take heart people! ‎ - The noisy neighbour is not the one with the most problems; rather he is just the one who can't keep his problems in-house. ‎ - If it has happened once before, then by all means, it can happen again. There is nothing as potent as 'it has never ever happened before.' ‎ - Fear is like steam from a boiling kettle. If you keep the kettle boiling long enough, the s team will get exhausted; in its place an eerie fearless calm! ‎ - What makes a man wise is not so much as in knowing what to do but knowing when best to do it. In most cases, many know the right thin...

  One fateful day, a man was driving from one city to another. He then came across a group of armed robbers on the highway. He managed to meander his way through and escaped the robbers. Thinking that the robbers were in hot pursuit, he drove with high speed into the nearby town hitting a pedestrian in the process. He thought of stopping to help the man he hit but fear of the robbers he was running from and the wrath of the people around who witnessed the accident made him run away from the scene to a police station in the next town to report his ordeal. Sadly, the pedestrian he hit was recently diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease. He was going to die without a kidney transplant which he could not afford. A lot was going through his mind when he got hit as he attempted to cross the road. Meanwhile, a Good Samaritan at the scene of the accident decided to use his vehicle to rush the critically wounded pedestrian to a nearby government hospital. In his haste to get t...

  Life! This world is an intriguing place. Lots of things happen every day that give one cause to ponder on the intricacies of this life! An adult male raped an 8 year old girl. She was a school pupil returning from school when she was lured by the rapist into his home. Sadly, he violated that little girl. But that is not end of the story. Later, through the suspicion of the girl’s guardian, the man was apprehended and he confessed to the crime. At this point, the worry was on the health and well-being of this little girl. As a routine practice, she and the accused were screened for STIs (sexually transmitted diseases). What would you expect? You would not be surprised if the man turns out to have an STI. That would suit his profile. But alas, that was not the case. Allow me explain: When the tests results came out, it turned out that the man was HIV negative but the 8-year old girl was HIV positive. The results were correct. How come? It was found out that the...

  We learn from our mistakes/experiences! There are times we are ridiculed because of an apparent lack of experience in performing a certain task. But, we should not be discouraged or dejected. When we learn from our mistakes, we are wiser and better off. We all started from somewhere. Whatever skills you have now, you learnt it from somewhere. You were not born with it. At the beginning we all sulked at the things we did. For instance, remember when children learn how to walk and how to talk. As we grew older, remember how we learnt reading, drawing, riding a bike, etc. How many times we failed before we became better? But we persisted and later became masters of the craft. I remember there were things I did that once aroused laughter but when I do the same things now they arouse applause of approval. So, do you sulk at what you do now? Do people laugh at you as a result? Don't be deterred. Persist without letup. Someday, you'll be the 'Oga' (Master) of the ...