I can sense your mad trust in me
I want to see the end of the world with you
You remain my shield though I'm sometimes a heat on you
I want to go wild with you
I have no one to lean on but more money to spend
I want to take you to a rich trip
You're my spring water, my life
I want to be with you forever
Please never say no
Never turn down my advance
Never forsake my sweet fruits
Never forsake my warm chest on your breasts
I'm the morning sun that opens morning glory
I want to tour the luxuries of this world with you.

© Maren John Mafuyai

I live in Jos and I've never teach in government school til that day.

I'm a teacher of English and French and I'm posted to teach French in government secondary school. I'm given JSS Two for
a start and the total number of students is 40. Most JSS Two students are supposed to be between 12 and 11 years old, but here the case is different: they're between 16 and 15.

As an experienced teacher with private secondary school, I assume government secondary school students are the same as private secondary school students in terms of learning speed. But I'm wrong.

Here the students aren't prepared to receive education.

When I ask them a simple question, to my surprise they can't answer it.

I think they were joking. I ask them another question, simpler than the previous one, but they aren't joking and none of them can answer it.

What's wrong?

I talk with their former French teacher and what she tells me is true.

According to her, most of the students are nannies or those living with their uncles or aunties and due to so much house chores given to them, they don't have much time to study. And worse than that, on several occasions, most of them aren't allowed in their class for not paying their tuition fee.

I haven't seated one on one with any of them, yet the picture is clear: they're abused and they're another category of less priveleged Nigerians looking for help.

These students are not only in the school I teach and not only in JSS Two but in all forms of most government secondary schools across Nigeria--they need someone to pay their tuition fee on time, buy them books and give them extra lessons.

As a writer, after asking some questions, I noticed apart from Rotary Club International, only Rochas Okorocha Foundation is putting smile in the faces of many less priveleged Nigerian teenagers.

Indeed great Nigerians should visit those secondary schools to see it for themselves.

David Robert Jones OAL, known professionally as David Bowie, an English singer-songwriter and actor, said:

"And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations.
They're quite aware of what they're going through."



About the Author

Maren John Mafuyai teaches Public Speaking and writing. He teaches English and French in High Schools. He's a passionate writer and a lover. He lives in Jos. You can reach him at 08182469977 (text only).

Maren John Mafuyai

(This happened in 2022).


Abandoned by her biological father, my 11 year old niece got admission into JSS One in government secondary school.

When NGO came to take responsibility of paying the enrollment and 1st term fees for JSS One and SSS One less priveleged female students in her school, I gave them her name.

I can remember they showed me a class where all the female students were the beneficiaries. I can still hear the man who registered her saying the NGO would pay.

I know they were also convinced that the NGOs are not liars. I'd never passed through an NGO that lies.

But now almost a year later, after most of the beneficiaries have dropped out of the school because no one pays their tuition fees, I'm doubting.

I hope the NGO are not liars or scammers who take advantage of the less privileged and low income earners to write grand proposals with names and addresses of female students to obtain and syphon funds.

I know this can happen.

As a writer, I am writing this to remind meaningful Nigerians that we need to help each other and our children are out of schools due to lack of funding: some in school lack reading and writing materials--text books and exercise books.


Take note: As I write this report on 27 July, 2023, my niece is in school going to JSS two because her maternal grandfather pays her tuition fees. While those who have no one to pay theirs are out of school.

Michael Eric Dyson, an American academic, author, ordained minister, and radio host, said:

"Charity is no substitute for justice. If we never challenge a social order that allows some to accumulate wealth.... while others are short-changed, then even acts of kindness end up supporting unjust arrangements. We must never ignore the injustices that make charity necessary, or the inequalities that make it possible."



About the Author

Maren John Mafuyai teaches Public Speaking and writing. He teaches English and French in High Schools. He's a passionate writer and a lover. He lives in Jos. You can reach him at 08182469977 (text only).

Seeing His Condition Makes Me Afraid to Stay in This Country.

Maren John Mafuyai


A good-looking Nigerian is breaking stones by the main road and he mishandles the explosive.

When the explosive explodes in his hand and cut his four fingers, the first thing that comes out of his mouth is:

"My life has finished."

Then he spends over two weeks in Bingham University Teaching Hospital.

I see him after he's discharged.

His affected hand makes him frustrated and hopeless he indulges in consuming excessive alcohol.

Even as he laughs, I can see hopelessness and frustration on his face.

He has become poor and his body is thinning.

There are many others in Nigeria passing through something similar.

They don't only need financial support to revive or start a new business or a new chapter of good life but they also need proper rehabilitation services.

I write this to remind us.

An American actor, director and television host, Levardis Robert Burton popularly known as LeVar Burton, said:

"In a society that functions optimally, those who can should naturally want to provide for those who can't. That's how it's designed to work. I truly believe we're here to take care of one another."

The ForefrontWriter, Maren John Mafuyai

Entrepreneur | Teacher | Believer




About the Author

"I don't only teach people how to speak for their right, but I also teach them to write for their right." Maren John Mafuyai teaches Public Speaking and writing to lesspriveleged Nigerians. He teaches English and French in High Schools. He's a passionate writer and a lover of beautiful and luxurious homes. He lives in Jos. You can reach him at 08182469977 (text only).

This is what happens when PWDs apply for a job in Nigeria


I was employed as a teacher of French and my table was near a young female hard- working teacher. She taught English but the management didn't know that her right hand decayed.

One month later, the management saw the wound was almost revealing her wrist bone. When the principal attempted to give her support, I thought she'd be allowed to continue her job. But two weeks later, she was laid off.

Worse things usually happen to such people after applying for an offline job in Nigeria.

The employers who are after profits would think how their customers would feel and react when they see them serving, and, if it's irritating, they'd dump their CVs and never call them.

The employers are protecting their businesses and the law doesn't prohibit that, but here's the problem: the victims are made frustrated and helpless.

In a country that cares for the masses, persons with disability (PWDs) shouldn't have even applied to work in companies that need persons without disability but here they're facing challenges.

As a writer, I believe by creating awareness, their hardship will come to an end.

A celebrated Neuroscientist, Bestselling Author of 100+ books and World's First Poet with 1000+ sonnets, Abhijit Naskar said:

"We need more attachment, attachment with the suffering of others - attachment with the miseries of others - attachment with the sweat and tears of others...-we need attachment with each and every depraved soul on this earth."


About the Author



Maren John Mafuyai teaches Public Speaking and writing. He teaches English and French in High Schools. He's a passionate writer and a lover. He lives in Jos. You can reach him at 08182469977
(text only).

Prosperity go to useful citizens.

Maren John Mafuyai


The time I know life, I ask my dad a lot of questions and he laughs.

Maybe he laughs because he remembers when he knows it and how he reacts too.

But he advises me to be patient with where and how I find myself and to receive education and he says educated people demonstrate ability to understand how to make more of the society.

He wants me to learn more and he shows me that good life means being useful to the society.

When I acquire more knowledge, I see the world isn't only what I can see, hear and feel but also what I can't see, hear and feel.

I value people more than ever and giving back to the society becomes my top priority.

I'm grateful that I become a writer and I live in my country to help the less priveleged.

I write real stories that people to be born will find useful and become inspired.

My education shows me that it's important to be aware of what other people are passing through and the major role of a good citizen is to identify a human problem and commit to solving it.

Martin Luther King Jr., an American Baptist minister and activist, said:

"I choose to identify with the underprivileged. I choose to identify with the poor. I choose to give my life for the hungry.... If it means suffering a little bit, I'm going that way. If it means sacrificing, I'm going that way. If it means dying for them, I'm going that way, because I heard a voice say, 'Do something for others.'"


About the Author

"I don't only teach people how to speak for their right, but I also teach them to write for their right." Maren John Mafuyai teaches Public Speaking and writing to lesspriveleged Nigerians. He teaches English and French in High Schools. He's a passionate writer and a lover of beautiful and luxurious homes. He lives in Jos. You can reach him at 08182469977 (text only).


Courtesy Channels TV

From Nigeria Health Watch



Courtesy: Guardian.ng

I appreciate that my parents worked all their youthful age to make me suffer less than they did.

They don't want me to learn through bitter experience and they taught me that the key to be successful is to be more useful.

My parents believe that those who have Ph.D. are more useful than those who have Masters and those who have masters are more useful than those who don't.

At first, I agreed with them, then after I read and observed the society, I disagreed with them.

If I must have a certain certificate to be more useful in the society where someone who hasn't finished secondary school can establish a university, then there's something fishy.

Between the owner of university who is not even a graduate and the Ph.D holder who teaches in university, who is more useful?

Think and answer it yourself.

I know that the man who pays you salary to teach is more useful than you whether you're a professor while he's an illiterate.

This is a simple logic that many so-called educated citizens including scientists are yet to understand.

If you don't remove your head for a while far from career or professions that are established by university courses and start reading other books, you'll become a victim of brainwash that has been taking place since early 20th century.

Most of these university courses existed before modern university was discovered by Muhammad, the founder of Islam.

To brainwash us the more, in school even in history classes, they don't tell us that the current university system is founded by Muhammad.

That means people who establish the foundation of those university courses did not even go to university.

Are they not useful?

I'm not saying going to university is bad.

Do not allow certificate to define your usefulness in the society.

Be wise.

Help and advise your children to read more to be more knowledgeable and reasonable enough to be more useful even without certificates.

University is good but taking certificate more important than knowledge, talent and wisdom is not.

Certificate doesn't make anyone reasonable. Rather it sometimes even make you afraid to talk in public in order not to commit grammatical error as a Ph.D. holder.

You're now behaving not as an Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba that you're but as a Ph.D holder.

Certificate is the problem.

D. I grew up in a working-class community and find that the key to be successful is to be useful.

The Less Privileged
Communities in Nigeria
Maren John Mafuyai


Unlike villages the less privilege communities are ugly parts of most big and small capital and commercial cities in the world.

Known as ghettos or shanty towns, they may not look the same but they are similar in one aspect or another. No matter the amount of social amenities and tall buildings there, they require government and charity organisation attention.

A good example of them is characterized by unplanned neighborhood where reeking gutters can be seen among houses.

There's one motorable road for more than ten or twenty houses and small corridors are left for people, domestic animals and wheelbarrow to pass.

If there's fire outbreak in one house it can spread to other houses and the federal fire service facilities can't reach there.

Dogs eat babies' excrets and dirt-smeared pigs can be seen roaming about the gutters.

The channel of communication between the people and the government leaders is far for the people are poor and uneducated.

The rate of divorce can be high or low and so does the rate of bastards. Police and military harassment can be also seen.

One with a wife has four or five children with whom he lives in one or two rooms.

One can't enjoy reading as neighbor is running a grinding machine or running a generator set or raising the volume of a radio set.

If someone dies there isn't much interest to ascertain or probe the cause of the death: the belief in God is high. The people live by doing more work for less wages and paying taxes that don't support their lives.

Unable to access three square meal a day, the people also have no prescribed diet; they depend on any grain they can afford.

Teenage single mothers, teenage malefactors, drug abuse, poor access to basic literacy, poor power and water supplies, unaffordable health care and more are other major characteristics.

The people hope that one day God shall extend a helping hand to rescue them to live better.

China Tom Miéville FRSL, a British speculative fiction writer and literary critic, said:

"It had acquired a name, Spatters, that reflected the desultory randomness of its outlines: the whole stinking shanty- town seemed to have dribbled like shit from the sky."

Thomas Clark Durant (1820-1885), an American executive of the Union Pacific Railroad and a major force behind the first transcontinental railroad, also said:

"I was raised in a shanty town in Hell's Kitchen. The only difference between us and the rats was that the rats were well fed, and cleaner."

If we pay attention to less privileged communities in Nigeria, I believe, our sense of generosity shall arouse.

Why Writers Use Big Words
Maren John Mafuyai


Big words frustrate and slow readers. If a title lures a reader, a reader wants to know why and how but when a big word stands in the way, he must stop reading and start using a dictionary.

Poets use big words to create images or to say more in a few words. Poems are written to entertain and to be appreciated and they're written for the mature minds or for those who understand literary devices. There's nothing wrong with big words in them.

Experts use big words to show they understand their area of specialization. They do that for business purpose to make their customers believe they're qualified to serve them. Agricultural experts use words related to agriculture while financial experts use words related to finance; medical experts use words related to medicine while astronauts use words related to astronomy, etcetra. If the big words serve their customers and no one is complaining there's nothing wrong with that.

Political writers use them to expose their level of intelligence to help politicians convince the masses to vote for them.

Mokokoma Mokhonoana who called himself a Philosopher, Social Critic, Aphorist, Copywriter, Mystic, Graphic Designer, Satirist, Poet, etc, said:

"Adults who use big words in order to seem intelligent are annoying, especially those who are not intelligent."

The Best Skill Every Graduate Should Master to Overcome Mediocrity





When a political leader visited our community to talk to youths, as a graduate I was called to give suggestions and I wasn't prepared.

I had to start reasoning to give a well structured suggestion but I found myself unable to think clearly.

A man who didn't finish secondary school--but who had the skill--intervened and gave his great suggestions. He said if the leader came we should tell him the major challenges we faced and the major challenges were: lack of bridge to link our community with the neighbouring community; lack of clean water supply; and lack of electricity transformer.

He structured his suggestion as it should be when addressing news reporters.

I knew he could reason faster than me so I paid attention to what he did and I started learning from there.

Assuming you're asked to enumerate functions of government, as a graduate can you enumerate 3 now? Or if a teacher in your class ask you to define government, can you define it well now?

It's difficult because you didn't prepare, right?

Since then, I begin to prepare myself to give important suggestions on how to communicate with political leaders to perform their duties in my community.

Ability to offer solutions and smart suggestions at the right time is a valuable skill.

And to begin to develop this skill, create a list of challenges your people or your community is facing (example: lack of basic literacy to communicate with the political leaders; irregular meetings to discuss the matters arising; poor communication between the community leaders and their members; etc).

Be used to writing a list and practising to explain or enumerate it to a group of people.

Here are other questions of focus:

1. For people with interest in sport

What are the major challenges facing Nigerian Super Eagles?

Why is swimming neglected in most states of the federation?

We have a lot of tall people but why are we not taking advantage of basketball for national development?

2. For people with interest in climate change (green house)

How can we stop people from cutting trees for fuel?

How can we make cooking gas very cheap for people in our community?

How can we recycle plastic wastes?

3. For people with interest in environmental health

How can we make our community and water ways very clean?

In addition, if you hear of any debate club in your city or town join and become a member as it will help you become a big voice not only locally or nationally but also internationally.

Focus on making life easy to your fellow citizens and luxury and glory shall follow you.

Before becoming a graduate, I thought if I become a graduate I'll become very relevant to the society but my university education isn't enough.

I know personal skills are important so I focus on learning and thinking.

As a writer, I'm calling on youths to pay attention to their communities to hold their political leaders accountable through using communication skills and constructive criticism.

Angela Yvonne Davis, an American Marxist, feminist political activist and author, said:

“I think the importance of doing activist work is precisely because it allows you to give back and to consider yourself not as a single individual who may have achieved whatever, but to be a part of an ongoing historical movement.”


About the Author

Maren John Mafuyai teaches Public Speaking and writing. He teaches English and French in High Schools. He's a passionate writer and a lover. He lives in Jos. You can only text him first: 08182469977 (text only).

A good-looking, healthy Nigerian was breaking stones by the main road and he wrongly handled the explosive.

When the explosive exploded in his right hand cutting his four fingers instantly, the first thing that came out of his mouth was:

"My life has finished."

He spent over two weeks in Bingham University Teaching Hospital.

And I saw him after he was discharged.

He was frustrated and hopeless and he indulged in
consuming excessive alcohol, maybe trying to forget his
condition.

Even as he laughed, I could see hopelessness and frustration flickering on his face.

I could feel his unsaid grievances.

I knew if there was free healthcare, palliative or stipend for persons with disability in Nigeria, he wouldn't be hopeless. I knew if the society looked at persons with disability and extend a helping hand, he wouldn't have wished he died.

I saw he needed care and psychological and mental support this time. If the society cared, that wouldn't have happened.

We would have had several psycho-therapy and rehabilitation centers across each state. We would have seen citizens willing to visit psychiatrists without any one taking or advising them. We would have had less deaths from cancer cases. We would have had subsidized kidney, lungs and liver transplanting facilities in each state.

Let's demonstrate that we are humans by seeing and listening to persons with disability.

Let's extend our helping hands to reach them and share what we can. Let's help as much as we can.

An American actor, director and television host, Levardis Robert Burton popularly known as LeVar Burton, said:

"In a society that functions optimally, those who can should naturally want to provide for those who can't. That's how it's designed to work. I truly believe we're here to take care of one another."


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