This 2025, the grim reaper seems to have worked over time.
It’s like it was in a hurry to meet a target as it reaped souls with the efficiency of a crazed bandit
People died o this year. Almost every whats app group I belong to has lost at least one member.
My alumni groups were severely hit.
Angus lost two, BGL lost two – ohhhh Oga Teddy was very painful, and by the time you add relations and extended friends of people on these groups, you get a plethora of passings
Personally, I lost about four in one month – cousins
Grace was the joint eldest on my father’s side. Her passing was very painful as she had a series of strokes, the baby died inside of her, and she was plagued with bed sores till she breathed her last
My three first cousins from my maternal side all took their turns in a macabre dance to heaven
All three went the same month, all three hit by the same ailment, and all three, blood to me
The Grim Reaper was very prolific this year and should be given an award by whichever coven regulates that sector
Nationwide, Nigerians lost thousands, if not millions
Accidents, murder, kidnapping, and genocide accounting for plenty
Health was also not left out. Our male mortality rate is 52, and the female is 54, hitting us very accurately
Today in Nigeria, if you are above 50 and fall ill and it’s not malaria or an STD, the chances that you will die are over 70%
So our Babas who have crossed 80 must really be studied and kept in gilded cages for observation
The Ekiti people tend to live longer and have the longest life expectancy in Nigeria. The average Ekiti man used to cross 80, and some of them, even at 90, are still causing national trouble.
Another painful death is that of Lady Otitujo, the beautiful and passionately hard-working wife of Sir Otitujo, the former Commissioner of Information in Ekiti and sound media man
She was inadvertently displaced from her farmland by elements in Lagos, forcing her to relocate to Ibadan to continue her work.
However, the stress of commuting regularly and the distance from her family to visit her ultimately took a toll, and she passed away. An unfortunate story
Nigerians died this year, and there is no sign that this will not continue and even be more expansive in the new year
This brings me to the question – what is life
I was speaking to my young staff yesterday, and they mentioned how one of our senior colleagues just bought two expensive cars without any show of hard work for it
So I told them about the issue of date of birth and date of death, and the essence of the dash between those two dates
The dash is life, it’s the impact one makes in between those two dates, and remarkably, what one does during that dash is absolutely within their control and remains the legacy one would be judged with after the last date has been met
Please do not live a life of immunity. Do not think this death is happening to others, the happenings of these few years show that the rapture is in full swing, and nobody knows when and where the pendulum will swing
We do not have the luxury of the passover. You know where the children of Israel were asked to paint their doorsteps for death to pass over
No doorsteps again. Sanwo-Olu has demolished it all, and the cost of house rent in Nigeria, especially in Lagos, means that there are no real doorsteps anymore.
What this means is that we hold whatever we are worshipping from Jesus, to Allah, to Sango, to Sopona, to goddesses of the River Niger very tight, cos it’s a rough ride
However, remember that whatever you do, you must live a life of impact.
It could be a positive or a negative impact, don’t pass through life, cos it’s a stage
Who the hell are you? What is your purpose? These are the questions you should be asking urself daily as you reorder your life just before it’s your turn, cos the inevitability of your passing remains quite exciting
Come and beat me
Duke of Shomolu
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