myplace

2007-07-31T00:48:00.000-07:00

VENUE NUJ CLUB HOUSE
DATES 7TH AND 8TH JULY,2007

It was Alh. Ahmed Ahmed`s Wedding Retreat and Kano Scrabble Club was invited. Naturally then, it meant I should be there and I was there. It was an event that kindled old friendship, rekindled new rivalry and brought back our mutual chivalry. Kano and kaduna Scrabble players have this affinity between them running deep.

Particularly for me, it was a time to relive my old days of apical Scrabble plays. As they say, he that defecates forgets, but he that packs the faeces does not. My faeces packers had a field day reminding me of the various mould of shit I had splattered on their faces. I was reminded of my great moves. Moves like PRESIDENTIAL, SCHLIEREN, FUTTOCS, SETSCREW and a host of other moves I have forgotten. It was sweet time remembering those celebrated days.

Well games got underway and I was pitched against my Kano Club member, the ever improving Venayori Kinga.

Game 1
I drew the first blood and spluttering came CARPETED and ENCLOSED. I was stunned midway into the game by comeback plays of SCRAFING and MURAENAS. My pick of INERTIA was useless and pronto I lost my first game 402 to his 432.

Game 2
I played another Kano Club warrior. This time it was Auwalu that had a taste of me. I played the nine letters FINANCING and STROAMS to his AUSTERE and at the end we were separated by 106points. My first win it was.

Game 3
It was Shegetz and Ephraim. A beautiful free flowing game it was; by the 5th move I was 375 to his 87. GINHOUSE 104 GREENERY 96 ZARNEC 74 ANYTIME 76 FERRIES was a later addition to the family. Well, it was a runaway win of 314 cumulative spread.

Game 4
My SHINGLED,ENRANKED, OXTERS and DARIOLE to my opponent’s DEBITORS. Yet another win it was for me.

Game 5
I took on Ekong, my pal of old, in a funny game. On my first draw, I had AEDJMMN, I prayed for an U. Lo and behold, my Ekong laid NUT on the board with the U at the centre star, he was being defensive. Quickly, I laid UNJAMMED for 129points(including penalty for challenge). From then on came SALIVATE and EPIDOTE. Another comfy win it was regardless of his UNRATED and SLICKED.

GAME 6
The heat was on. I was on table 1, not a strange table by all accounts. I took on AMINU MOHAMMED in a bizarre game. He rattled me with ADMIXES 98,DESOLATE 59, BOTCHIER 96 and DETONATE 60. But for the DETONATE which actually detonated me, I was still up for victory through my OTARINE ,GATEWAY.

Game 7
Aminu came smoking hot. He pulled away on his first draw with COLLEGE I was to later reply him with PANTHEON. He laid down EATERIE to resume a comfy lead but I was able to cut that down with OVERATE hooking the COLLEGE move with R to form COLLEGER. Then something special happened. Aminu picked WINGLE$. There was an E floating on the triple word axis. He took a cursory look at the juicy offer of a x9 which would have sealed my fate and he took it. Pronto, he plopped down WEEDLING which I challenged because `all die na die`. Luckily the word came as BAD. Mercifully, I blocked of the x9 axis with a consolatory score of 38. Still not done, Aminu will go on to play SWINGLE and BOSSIEST. But I will eke out a slim win thanks to an ingenious endgame. NOOIT was a beautiful find for me in the endgame but I opted out for IONONE finish. I won 492 to his 471.

Game 8
Still Aminu again and I got a sound beating. His first move was EXACTED which was quickly followed with YEARNERS. I fought back with LOADENS and DENTINE. 474 to 425 win for Aminu.

Game 9
Yet Aminu again, it was if we were here for a match up contest between us both. My ERGATES and PRUINAS to his LIMEPITS gave me a marginal lead. I was up by 25 points going into the endgame. And like the thorough endgame master that I am, I decided to kill of the board with NO play. I would have handed over the lead but for some good fortune. I had forgotten about the new ONO. Oh no, I would have cried had I lost that game.

Game 10
Aminu`s humungous cumulative meant he had to keep playing me until something new happened. So, we were back at it again. He took off on the first available charter plane with HERNIAL and GUNITES. My play of UPROUSE for 115 points wrested the game for me. We stopped the games at this point for the day.

While other went home to sleep and get refreshed for the next day, Ekong and I went to town where we chugalugged and barhopped till 2am. But no handbags were exchanged in the process please.

Game 11
Day 2
I came to board druggy. But I managed a win over Aminu again playing REDATES and MICELLAR/ anagram MILLRACE.

Game 12.
With that win, I was separated from Aminu on table one and in came Ephraim who protested vehemently that he was not going to play me for fear of what happened to him earlier on. Well, he was persuaded to bury his fear and jam on. Dr Mitch was his coach. The game was dreary and to all intents, I played under par while he played with confidence since the tiles were flowing his way. My UNGIRDED to his OUSTERS were the only bingos in a game he won.

Game 13
By this defeat I was dethroned from table1 and had to play Wordpower, HAMZA. I played SABERED and MERCAPTO to win. He played SARNIES.

GAMES 14
Back on Table1 and I had VENAYORI to play. I played probably my best game here. The tiles were wishy-washy initially and I decided to take it all in the stride maximising all the potentials of each move. SALTERNS his only bingo drew immediate response on AVAILED 101 and the matter was settled.

Final game 15.
I needed to win this game so as not to be tied with Aminu on points because should that happen, Aminu will win the tourney given his huge cumulative pileup. I was blessed with GITTERN and through a DI on the board, I plopped down DITTERING which was promptly challenged off the board. In retrospect, I could have used an AT that was on the board to play TATTERING. Well, I got a chance to play the GITTERN elsewhere and SHELLER followed suit. His rally of REINDEER and UMBONES came a trifle late and I eked out a comfy win of 56points and the championship was mine.

For my efforts, I got N10,000 and a standing ovation. It was a weekend of fun and smooth Scrabble. I hope you enjoyed reading this.

SEGUN DUROJAYE
FORMER NIGERIA NO.1, AFRICA NO2, WORLD NO.4

2007-04-23T05:27:00.000-07:00

How much do you like ponmo?

“The food is delicious but there was no ponmo”. President Olusegun Obasanjo was credited to have said the statement at the end of a sumptuous evening of food and drinks. The question what is this ponmo thing that made our President to rue its lack at dinner?

Ponmo is supposed to be smoked cowhide preserved dry for future use when the dried parchment is cooked long enough to soften it and then soaked in cold water. At the end of all these processes, the dried cowhide is transformed into an edible piece of meat that is well loved by all Nigerians.

Traditionally, this piece of meat was the exclusive delight of the not so affluent. The rich never touched it because it is said to contain no nutritional value. But all that has changed in that its acceptability cuts across economic and ethnic strata. Ponmo is a national food item in Nigeria. It can be served on meals or diced into bits and added as additives to almost all known Nigerian soups.

Nowadays, ponmo is big business with tremendous export prospects. Moneybags are already into the business and this is what is getting some of us agitated given the new twist to the whole ponmo making industry.

There has been a rising trend of departure from the known cowhide to the use of goat and sheep skins as ponmo. And the worrying side of this new practice is that the goat/sheep skins used are waste residues of tanning industries.

Rejects

When tanners buy skins, they buy the best. To get good value, skin sellers will preserve his merchandise using industrial salt or sodium chloride. This process is called curing. Once the merchant tanner buys the skin, he cuts off the legs, neck and tail aspects to make the skin fit into his machine appropriately. These discarded parts or rejects are harvested from the waste bins by our new ponmo merchants. This is the first and more common kind of skin used as ponmo.

Lime loss skins.
Once the skin gets into the tanners” factory, it begins to go through a battery of highly chemicalised processes. The skin is soaked, for instance, in lime, water and sodium sulphide for upwards of 9days. Then again, it is dipped in another acidic chemical solution with the aim of deliming and bating the skin. Along this time also, the skin will be de-haired by a machine called fleshing machine.
Now, any waste resulting from mis-feeding, human error, technical machine problem and uneven edges are separated from the lot and taken to the waste bin again. This waste is the lime loss waste. And quite unfortunately, our ponmo merchants will equally harvest this unsightly, highly chemicalised waste and get them into the markets for human consumption. And this is where we worry for health concerns.

The lime loss is not immediately recoverable from the tanneries; they stay in the waste bins for days, becoming maggot infested and smelly. The sight is really appalling.

End product

Yet, our people will pack these skins, have them transported to Galadima side of Kano Market or take them to the Abattoir where there are boys whose jobs it is to burn the skin and make them into ponmo. Of course, there will be marked difference between this kind of ponmo and cowhide ponmo, but the buyers of this kind of skins who are restaurateurs know how to make the final product look every inch like cowhide. They also dice them easily into bits for their soups.

This is where we invite NAFDAC to please do further investigation into this matter and get Nigerians adequately informed of the hazards that stare at them in the face from eating such unwholesome preparation.

2007-03-06T08:38:00.000-08:00

The people of the earth call me Segun Durojaye, of course, with the permission of my parents. For they gave me those names first.

i am a survivor, an african survivor. To scientists around the developped world, it is a pure miracle that we born and raised in africa survive into adulthood. When you factor such childhood diseases like cholera, measles,chicken pox,malaria, kwashiokor, and add poverty to it, then reaching adulthood in africa is a celberation of life.

I love life and I am living it to the hilt. I so much love life that I had made conscious effort to duplicate whatever my own life is about, fulfilled and unfulfilled