dapxin

Dear Governor/ Sir/ Dee

Congratulations on your recent re-election to office as the Executive Governor of our dear state Abia. As they say that action speaks louder than voice, your re-election was a manifestation that the people of Abia State loved you and the work you had been doing since assumption of office in 2007. They wanted you to continue your good work, and they spoke with their votes. Dear brother and uncle, please continue in your good steps, and God in his infinite mercy will be your guiding step and angel as he has done since 2007 when you initially became the Executive Governor of our beloved Abia State.

My name is Friday Chidubem Alukwu though I reside permanently in London United Kingdom but come home as time permits. I schooled at Government College Umuahia, after which I went to Ahmadu Bello Universirty in Zaria where I read International Studies. Upon graduation and NationaI Youth Service, I travelled to London where I have made home for the past twelve years, and it’s where I am writing you this letter from. 
I work for London Metropolitan Police Service MPS presently as a Designated Detention Officer, however I have been employed by the MPS through other roles for the past 9 yrs. I hope and pray that this letter meets you well.
Dee, it is true that I have acquired British citizenship over the years I have lived here, and is a British Passport holder, but I have no plans or intentions of living in United Kingdom throughout the rest of my life. I intend to return to Ibeku our father land at some stage in my life. I have not forgotten and will not forget where I come from. To prove my position, I came home to marry a wife in 2008 when I believed it was time for that. My wife is from Mbieri in Mbaitolu Local Govt Area in Imo State.
It is true that my two little children are also British passport holders courtesy of me as their father, but I have every plan to make them know that they are from Ibeku land, not London United Kingdom.
His Excellency, to make this dream come true, and my plan a reality, I am begging you to use your honourable office to approve an allocation for a parcel of land around the state house of assembly complex area on my behalf.
This parcel of land will be used to develop a private residential building for me to live in, and for my children to grow up in. With a home in Umuahia, I will be able to frequently bring my family home, and expose my children most importantly to the tradition and ways of living of Ibeku people our people.
Furthermore, I will have the confidence of coming back home knowing that I have a place to call my home.
Dear Governor, this letter represents an official application to Abia State Govt for an allocation of land.
God will protect you throughout the next four years you will see to the needs of Abia people, and touch your heart to help your brother.

Kind regards, F.Alukwu.

Could Serena Williams have played her last competitive tennis match?

Williams has long been resented not only by rival players, who have struggled to compete with her power and athleticism, but by tennis-watchers, many of whom seemed at times uncomfortable with the emergence of a proud, unashamedly black woman champion.

Serena, can be proud. But then, when arrogance meets competence, with a dose of drama, you are not entitled to complain.

In a sense, one is actually entitled to worship those things, and by projection, Serena - unless you are tennis competitor. 

"I'm a black player 100 per cent," she once said. "I'm playing for those little girls who never watched tennis, who never had a chance to play tennis."

Very instructive. While I am not easily the most informed Tennis analyst, Serena Williams brought me to the game and I vividly recollect watching her, over DSTV in the cubicle of my office uptown Akure, in the early 2000s and the most endearing thing, was that concentration. Serena's concentration.

Which, ultimately drives her legendary, and usually fun come-backs. She usually plays with the swagger, of one who is never down or out. You just love it Or as Jason puts it:

I've long thought she was terrific, the only player on the women's tour I'd pay to watch.

Worth repeating: The only female Tennis player worth paying to watch.

:

Where Jason doesn't make a lot of sense, to me, is the idea, that a Serena Williams retirement, from Tennis, now, or anytime soon, will be a sad thing.

At 29+, and having travelled down that road, conquering all, she was always in her twilight years anyway. And only the dog who stays alive, scrambles for bones.

Jason's references to Malcom Gladwell's thoughts, is also revealing.

"It's not enough to ask what successful people are like. It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't."

Gladwell has what he calls the 10,000 hours rule for exceptional achievement. He believes that all extraordinarily successful people have put in their 10,000 hours of hard work, invariably from an early age.

Interesting.

Ever since I have been reading script on Serena Williams, Jason's piece is quite easily the one, that reads most honest and admirable in its undisguised affection for Serena William's standing, in the sport.

And when he states "I wish we could produce someone like her in this country", you appreciate where Jason is coming from. A very good place and a very good read.

If Serena was English or British? oh wow! silence... but bring me the din.