Lerabari's Blog

Mosquitoes are the known vectors or carriers of the parasite that causes malaria. To be precise, it is the female mosquito known as anopheles, that carries the parasite, which is known as plasmodium. All these are facts taught in primary and secondary schools. One would wonder, why teach these things if for years, we are unable to find a lasting solution to the fatal disease? I mean, what is knowledge without wisdom?  Prevention, they say, is better than cure, so the message being preached over the years is that people need to stop breeding mosquitoes around their homes and places of abode. By so doing, they wouldn't get bitten by mosquitoes. Insecticide treated nets have been invented, mosquito repelling creams produced, drugs that kill the parasite have been discovered, we've even come to the realization that combination therapy works better in the treatment of malaria, but how about the insects themselves?  I monitored a discussion about the causes, trea...

I was going through scriptures the other night, reading about Jesus' life as recorded in the book of Luke. The lady with the alabaster box was one of the stories in the chapter I was reading and something struck me that Ill like to share with you. In verse 37- 38 of Luke Chapter 7, the bible says the woman with the alabaster box she stood behind Jesus weeping:  A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisees house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. (Luke 7: 37-38) Then, I began to have a mental picture of the whole scenario. How was Jesus sitting that she went 'behind Him' to wash His feet? I don't know why, but I was reading between the lines and wanted to know what seemed really trivial, compared to the 'rhema' in this pa...

I had finished from the office for the day and boarded a vehicle to take me home. Approaching the Choba Area Command Headquarters on the East-West road, just after Alakahia, I notice some kind of traffic congestion ahead. Getting closer about 6 vans or more, filled with young boys with their eyes covered were being driven out of the station. The expressway by which the station is located has two lanes, one for vehicles going to Choba and the other for vehicles heading towards Rumuokoro. The side of the road heading to Rumuokoro is where the station is situated, and there's traffic builds up on that aide because the police vans have to drive out, causing some sort of delay for other vehicles which had to be at a standstill. This may not be unrelated to the sporadic shooting reported by residents of Choba on Wednesday morning and evening. Meanwhile, an acquaintance of mine who runs a business and resides in Choba community of Obio/Akpor in Rivers State sent me a d...

It's a lovely Tuesday morning and I'm racing against time as I always do. I wake up thankful as usual, then get a call to change over the power source and switch on the water pump as PHED had remembered us early. There's a catch to it though, I needed to hurry up because it wasn't going to stay on too long (that is how they do hia). As quick as I could, I rush out to do as asked. Coming back in, I take out some clothes, not sure of the particular ones now (after all Abba says I shouldn't worry about what to wear, so I don't bother to decide on what to wear the night before like I used to do). I plug the iron while I'm taking out some possible fits from the wardrobe and suitcase. A top, two dresses and a skirt. I jump on the bed, ready to get to it and voila!  The fan stops squeaking. There's a power cut.  I get on with other early morning chores. From the sweeping to the warming of food and clearing out the kitchen; filling containers that needed...

It was a calm Tuesday evening, the sun was setting and I had just closed work for the day. Alighting from the taxi I boarded, I notice something unusual just by the entrance to the street. It's a signboard, a type I had seen before in some  rural communities. It bears a familiar symbol and name that catches my attention first - Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Then my eyes stroll to other details on the board: The Presidency Project: Remedial works on failed and unmotorable sections of Gana-Ama (sic) Road, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State Contractor: … Client: Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)  Determined to make a difference … I stood there, starstruck, reading. Then I started laughing at it, not minding the cars that were driving by and watching me laughing at the signboard.  Eheeeen! Sometime last week, I had noticed some heavy duty vehicles were busy on the road and wondered what they were up to. I could hear their pr...

  I don't know why, but I get irritated sometimes (maybe my hormones at work). Someone recently asked a question: why do people you have no close relationship with choose to touch you while having a conversation with you?   Remember Jeff Dubham's Achmed the Dead Terrorist ? Yeah, the ventriloquist's skeletal puppet and that particular show where he shouts "STOP TOUCHING MEEEE! I KEEL YOOOOU!!" That's how I shout sometimes, (without the second part sha). Lol!       So it's a Saturday morning, and this question just came to me: why do people you have no close relationship with choose to touch you while having a conversation with you? Two occurrences got me thinking about this.   Someone I don't know from Adam came to talk to me but pushed his boundaries. I don't know why he felt I was some very playful person and came to me with a colleague of mine. He was telling me something about a job he wanted me to do and touched my s...

The last has not been heard of the flood disaster in Rivers State. Last we heard is that the Rivers State Police Command has launched an investigation into the looting of about 20 bags of rice meant to alleviate the condition of persons affected by flood in Ahoada and its environs.  As you may already know, about 20 bags out of 200 bags of rice donated to flood victims in Ahoada West LGA by the Police Officers Wives Association (POWA) were reportedly stolen by hoodlums. The association had visited Akinima on the 26 th of October to donate relief materials to flood victims. Chairman of the association and wife of the Inspector General of Police, Asta Idris, had arrived Akinima in Ahoada with her entourage to provide some succor to the victims of the disaster. The relief materials included bags of rice, cartons of noodles, mattresses, pillows, cartons of detergents, and buckets.  Reports have it that some bags of rice were looted in Akinima. The...