The day started like any typical day

Lord I give u praise, thanks and adoration. I thank you for who you are. I thank u that despite all the plans of the enemy, your mighty hand has prevailed. As the mountain surrounds Jerusalem so have you surrounded your people. You are my shelter, my rock and my shield. Words cannot express my gratitude.

My people, apologies for going MIA. Thanks so much to those who asked after me. I really appreciate it. I have no excuses. No excuses at all. I am back by God’s special grace. The devil is a liar. I am sure you are wondering what I am going on about. I will fill you in shortly.

I was going to blog about my encounter with a grumpy obnoxious man with his ugly dog but something of more importance happen this Saturday.

Saturday was like any other typical day. Baale and I were thinking of going to watch a movie in the afternoon but ended up not going. I was loafing on the couch around 12 noon when my phone rang. It was a family friend; his parents are neighbours with my parents back home. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me when last I heard from home. Immediately an alarm went off in my head. First thing that came to my mind was my grandmother- she is still in the hospital recovering and I thought oh no it has happened! Anyway I answered and said I spoke with my mum earlier in the week. He was like ok, he had some news but he wanted me to calm down. I was like ok, what happened, already panicking at this stage. He said he was just on the phone, with another neighbour when my cousin called that neighbour to say armed robbers came to our house that morning and attacked my dad and that he was in the hospital. To be honest I didn’t quite get what he was saying. All I heard afterwards was that it wasn’t serious and he is fine, my mum didn’t know (she had gone for a burial that morning in another town) and they didn’t want to tell her yet. At this point, I wanted to end the call so I could call my sister. I didn’t know what he meant by attack and I didn’t want to ask him.

I call my elder sister to find out what was happening. Baale kept saying take it easy, it is well and I was like ok but I don’t even know what is going on. My sis and her hubby were at the hospital and that’s when she told me what happened. My dad was shot on the knee! Shu! Shot ke, how? Why? When? She didn’t have the full gist as she wasn’t there when it happened. Funny enough, she had just dropped off her baby girl at my parents, when my cousin called like 10 mins later to say Popc had been shot.

My peeps, it was like a dream to me, I still couldn’t believe it. In broad day light!!! My sis was also like he is fine but don’t call momc yet as we don’t want to get her panicked. In my head am like these people don’t know momc sha, I have never seen that woman panic before in my life. She is like the calmest person I know alive. But then again, her husband has never been shot so…..

Anyway I felt like catching the next plane to Nigeria. I was worried but at the same time I just kept praying that all is well. I called my lil sis in the states, actually I woke her up. I couldn’t talk so Baale told her the news. It was funny because she was sounding sleepy one second and then next minute we got her full attention. We agreed to pray for Popc and I also passed the message not to call my mum.

My dad was to have surgery that afternoon and I got to speak with him before he went in. I can’t remember the last time I heard him sound so low. I could barely hear what he was saying. I can’t even begin to imagine what was going through his head at that point. My mum got back from the burial later on and my sis said when she told her she was really calm about it. No surprises there.


Thankfully the surgery went well, no major bones were damaged and I believe he will be able to walk again. He sounded much better after the surgery and I was relieved. You can imagine getting hourly updates far away. I really wished I could be there.

Later on my cousin who was there when it all happened gave me the gist. I’ll still like to hear my dad’s version when he gets better. Every Saturday, the gardener comes to the house to trim the flowers and whatever it is that gardeners do. They had left the main gate opened as I think they were throwing dirt out or something. We never leave the gate opened especially at night. The thieves, two of them saw the opened gate, easy target, and walked in. They asked the gardener to lead them in, I think they also saw my popc’s driver outside and ordered him in as well.

My dad was having his breakfast, with my niece on his lap. He was getting ready to go out. Next thing, the rogues entered and shouted “gather your children, gather your children”. Popc called my two cousins, who were the only other people at home. My cousins, the gardener, and driver were asked to lie down flat and thief 1 told my dad to lead him to the bedroom upstairs while thief 2 waited downstairs. Thief 1 collected some money, one of his cell phones and some new clothes (I still don’t get the clothes part). The guy then asked for the keys to my popc’s car and I guess popc must have said it was downstairs so they came downstairs. Ok this was where I lost my cousin a bit, so I’ll just say it as I think it happened. She said when my dad got downstairs, he walked hurriedly outside, saying “where is the driver, I want the keys to the car”. Apparently thief 2 who was downstairs with my cousins thought my dad wanted to run away or so, followed him outside. Thief 1 also followed and at this point my cousins with my niece fled to their room and locked themselves in. A couple of seconds later they heard a gun shot. Later on they came outside and saw popc on the floor, shot, with blood gushing out from his leg. Fortunately the thieves fled the scene and were not able to take his car because students from the neighbouring school came around when they heard gun shot. They do have the keys to the car as we speak.

My dad is still in the hospital and we are not sure when he will be discharged. I am thankful that no one else was hurt, and that he wasn’t shot in the chest or head. I am thankfully that I am able to share this testimony of God’s protection over my dad and that I have not come to share a different version of the story. I really cannot imagine it. God’s promise to us is that we shall live to declare his glory and he brought that promise to pass in my father’s life. It’s crazy how we think our day will go a certain normal way not knowing the devil is always planning how to kill us. If not for God on our side.

Yesterday night when I spoke to my dad, he said, “May the lord forgive them”. For a man who had nearly lost his leg, I am amazed he was talking about forgiveness. That was the last thing on my mind, but I guess as Christians we have no choice but to forgive. However I pray they get caught and are brought to justice.



*For those that do not know, Popc= Dad, Momc= Mum

It's snowing men..halleluyah!

Actually I am not excited about the snow, as my title might suggest. I am not a snow person neither do I like the cold, (go ahead and call me bush!) Anyway, I got ready for work this morning and had already decided I was not going to drive to work today. You know, as per new driver, I am not yet ready to test my driving skills in this knee deep snow! I am sure the picture gives you a pretty clear idea of what I am talking about.

Anyway, I got out only to find out how bad the snow was. I decided to brave it and slowly tried to find my way to the train station, and kept slipping. In my mind, I was like, please I can't come and break my leg because of work. So I made my way back home, slowly again, to go change my shoes. Thankfully, a colleague called and told me the trains, buses etc were closed. I checked online to confirm and decided to sit my behind at home.

Right now I am under my duvet, "working from home" (no further comments). I am definitely excited about the free day, just worried about my gas bill, lol. What I do not understand is how come the UK/London government was not prepared for the snow, despite the forecasts. Everywhere is closed down, people can't go to work. In this day and age, 2009. Hmm, I guess everyone was engrossed in the recession.

Anyway I am fine and warm. I thank God for that. I wonder what will happen for the rest of the day and the week as I hear it might get worse today and the forecast for the rest of the week is that the snow continues.

If you are in London/UK, how are you surviving the snow? Did you go into work today? Those in Naija, please send us some sunshine!!! :)

By the way, HAPPY NEW MONTH!!!!

N.B- Picture was taking by a friend of mine- Yinka.