Angela Ukomadu's Blog

Greeting cards seem to be a dying tradition. Sometime ago in July, on a Saturday night, my husband got a late call to attend a birthday lunch the next day. This call came from someone who we can never say no to even if she had told us 30 minutes before the lunch. So on Sunday afternoon, thank God we had something that could pass for a gift, we set out hoping to get a birthday card on our way. After checking two shops without success, we bought the only thing we found in the third shop for 800 naira. To cut a long story short, the card was too poor to give out, so we just dropped it in the car. This shows that as people began to gravitate towards sending messages through mediums like BBM, Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Emails, text messages and so many others, shops began to stock less of cards, especially quality cards. We interviewed a man who opened a shop over 19 years ago specifically for cards but today he says the cards only occupy about 20 percent of the entire shop.

Have you tried the bride price app? What did you think of it? If you haven't done that yet, check it out here http://www.brideprice.com.ng/  Well, it made raves when Editi Effiong of Anakle first launched it, some thought it was hilarious, others felt it was spiteful. I love the part where the elders get to give their verdict. Well I thought it was hilarious, yeah I understand the extreme categories and criteria they put in it, but it was just a fun side to the whole thing, a satire if I can say. It was done to ridicule the people who ask for an arm and a leg from prospective in-laws. I mean, are you selling your daughter? No! Instead you are getting a son! I know of friends who were made to pay thousands of naira as dowry, I have also heard stories of parents asking for very outrageous things. But I think this has to do with the type of in-law you meet, some say a particular tribe is very expensive, don't marry there, that's just hasty generalization. That one person fro

He had high hopes. He would have married late Justina Ejelonu come 2015. They didn't want to depend on friends and relatives to fund their wedding. They wanted jobs first. They got the jobs, almost at the same time, but it never lasted. Patrick Sawyer gave a first class ticket to Ebola to enter Nigeria, Justina Ejelonu was among the first to treat him, on her very first day of work. According to Dennis, she didn't want to go to work on that day, she had morning sickness, caused by the pregnancy, but it was the very first day of work, he persuaded her to at least go there, and ask for an extension of her resumption date. And so began Dennis Akagha's drastic change in life, he lost his fiancee, their unborn child, lost his job and now has to live as someone who once had Ebola. The only thing he has to hold onto is his life, the engagement ring he gave to Justina, and Justina's pet project. This is one guy with a basket full of faith and hope. He believes he was saved

Sheraton restaurant? Chinese? Combo meals? Fast food? Mama Put? Iya Bisi? Mama Onome? Court? Where do you love to eat especially on those days that you are not able to take your lunch with you to the office? The good thing is no matter where you find your self, no matter how high brow the neighbourhood of your office is, you must find that food vendor that suits your pocket. But for those who love the American style burger in Lagos, then look no further, Johnny Rockets may just be the right place for you, the right burger, with the right taste, and perfect preparation, but at a higher cost though...2300 naira. It is that expensive because most of the spices and other ingredients are shipped in to Nigeria. We also took a trip to Ogun state where Master Meats is situated. Huge expanse of land, so many cattle on ground, clean abattoir, nice freezing and packaging facility. I can still remember the sight of lined up cattle, waiting to go to the abattoir to be slaughtered. I think one

Okay, I know we have our power issues in Nigeria, but not having light for two years? Exactly what we saw at this small river side community around Lekki, but thanks to Midori Environmental Solutions, and with funds from the United Nations Development Project, there is a ray of hope for this community. All they have to do is feed the the bio-digester with waste, just waste. The community is supposed to collect about one thousand four hundred kilograms of waste weekly (from fish waste to water hyacinth etc) and with that they can generate ten thousand KVA worth of power to service their homes and small businesses. Midori Environmental Solutions is into the generation of power from waste, and this power can be in the form of electricity or cooking gas. I was simply awed by the cooking gas, imagine turning all my fruit and food waste to power for cooking? That will be awesome. I also would have loved to have electricity power from waste but since I may not be able to turn up enough

At first I thought it was a joke, and then it became reality. Over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped while writing their senior secondary examinations. Why? What did they do? Is it a crime to be learned? Is it a crime to aspire for more? Is it bad to want to contribute to the society apart from just having babies? Its over 130 days since those girls were abducted and though some tried to escape and came back home to tell their story, it is believed that over 200 of them are still there. What are they going through? Are they eating? Bathing? Sleeping on beds? Being raped? Gosh! I cringe even thinkimg of that. This is not what I will want any mother or father to go through, the fact that you don't know what your child is going through, not knowing whether that child is dead or alive. I still have the hope that these girls will return, yes they will, they may need to go through some form of therapy but they will return. Will they return the same? The tempo for the "Bring Back Our Gir

When I first saw the Blackberry Broadcast Messages, I thought it was one of those messages again, you know the type that you read and at the end you are told that if you don't forward to ten people in the next three seconds, then what happened in September 1824 will happen again. As usual I didn't bother. Then the next day in the office, my boss called for an emergency meeting and he said Ebola is in town, "DO NOT go to any hospital to film without first telling me. You will need protective wears, permission and supervision from WHO and Doctors Without Borders to do that, wash your hands regularly, use hand sanitizers, use protective gloves, do this, don't do that!" Wow! What? So its true? The dreaded Ebola Virus Disease is finally in Nigeria? God help us! Well After that meeting, the next couple of weeks saw us working and filming anything that had to do with Ebola. The market, interviews with doctors at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital, the airport, several p