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Tag: relaxation

Healthy responses and behaviours: different forms of relaxation

Life is full of challenges and there is no one who does not pass through strong mental states and who does not experience severe physical stress or spiritual turmoil at some points. Every now and then we may experience loss, failure, insults, fear, anxiety, disappointment, tiredness, desperation, etc. Relaxation can help to break the power of these experiences over us. Relaxation is important for wellness and sanity as well as for peace and harmony amongst humans, be it within the family or in the world.

Bodily relaxation can be obtained through various means. While sitting at a desk: a few seconds to minutes of relaxation can be snatched by changing sitting position and reclining, by getting up and stretching, by doing a simple on-the-spot body exercise to loose specific muscles or to work specific muscles, by repeatedly breathing in and out deeply, by having a “TV break”, by taking a snack, by having a conversation, by stepping out for some fresh air and sunshine, etc.

Relaxation at the end of consuming tasks, especially duties done for deadlines may require a more deliberate and prolonged experience such as yoga, a long walk or running in a park, exercise at a gym, sports, hanging out at a club or social gathering or faith gathering, visit to a place of interest such as a museum or cinema or shopping mall, dining out, an extra hot or cold water shower, bath or Jacuzzi, etc. Whatever we choose to do, it should be something we can afford, we enjoy, and that makes us feel good.

The mind is the source of many things that we do that influence the world. The possible products of the mind vary from creativity and innovations to strife and wars and the mind should be well taken care of. Parents have a responsibility to help children develop mentally. Young people may be educated without training in consciousness and adults themselves may reach advanced stages in career, social status, prosperity, etc. without improving in consciousness.

For the mind to gain fitness or to retain wellness, it is important to try to sleep well – routinely as well as regularly in terms of timing and duration. This helps to service the brain, the material support for our mental activities. During routine work and daily activities, momentary mental relaxations help the powers of insight, hindsight and foresight to feed one’s rationality. A brief break on a first reaction to threat, rivalry, opportunity, etc., can help substitute primordial instincts with intelligent manners, a rebirth from animalistic to civilized behaviour. The ability to practice mental relaxation grows with age. A proverb goes: “once bitten, twice shy”. Indeed past mistakes can improve our rationality.

For the mind not to work too hard, go too far, or get broken, we can make a break from what works us up and make soft landings with entertainment. Television can be very effective in tempering the mind that is out of control: a comedy, a talk show, a reality show, a n interesting movie, a music video can help the mind come down from anxiety or rise up from depression. Connecting with others on safe social media platforms may also be helpful in diverting our minds from stressors. These media can be used to share anything from music, videos, news, announcements, sports, and business opportunities, to family and faith matters. One can watch past episodes of favourite comedies or music videos on a tiny smartphone anywhere any time as long as there is Internet connectivity. (Hopefully there will be no stalker or molester in public places to disturb one’s peace or privacy). Activities such as reading and playing board games at home can also displace bad mental states by diverting our attention to something interesting or loved. Travelling is a good way to change activities, environment, and companions for a while. Travelling can be for a vacation or a retreat and it can be useful for bodily, mental, and spiritual breaks from usual stressors.

Mental relaxation with these aids can help to nullify the effects of the environment on raw nature. The effects of people and happenings on us that get us into states of hatred, anger, envy, vengeance, etc. that we commonly experience, can be nullified.

Spiritual turmoil occurs within humans perhaps more frequently than physical stress or mental disturbances. It is perhaps more difficult to recognize or deal with than the other types of stress. Popular medicine teaches us that prevention is better than cure. Indeed for spiritual turmoil, we can say, absolutely. To prevent us from reaching or sustaining spiritual turmoil, we do need frequent recourse to prayer, routine times for prayer, or a habit of prayer. Prayer can also be in song as Christians and some other religions do. Mental relaxation can be by using music videos by Gospel artists and Nigeria has some soulful, dramatic, talented stars: Steve Crown’s “You are Great”; Sinach’s “Way Maker” or “I know who I am”; Joe Praize’s “Miracle Papa” or “Mighty God”; Lara George’s “Dansaki” and many more from all over the world can help us relax our minds prayerfully.

The world has known spiritual giants. Their words and quotes are available to feed our own spiritual wellness and fitness. Having some books of inspiring quotes, Sacred Scripture including proverbs, other forms of reminders and motivation on our bookshelves or on our electronic gadgets can be a source of spiritual renewal and spiritual strengthening. Indeed those who work with computers can have a motivational page open in the background to peep into every now and then for sustained spiritual balance and potency. The practice of spiritual relaxation helps us grow is discernment: the ability to know right from wrong, good from evil, truth from falsehood, friend from foe, etc. and thus to stay on the course of our destiny in life.

Dr. Theresa Adebola John is a lecturer at Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM) and an affiliated researcher at the College of Medicine, University of Tennessee, Memphis. For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 08160944635

March 3, 2018
Brianfield redefines relaxation space

Special occasions, such as weddings, are usually held with much funfair. This is why couples to be take extra time in planning for their special day. It was, therefore, not surprising when Adeola Ogunlere, an intending bride, combed the nooks and crannies of Lagos to find a befitting venue for her wedding. For her, distance was nothing compared to the ambience a good venue would offer her on her memorable day.

After much searching, Ogunlere discovered a venue on Igando-LASU Road, Lagos. She had no difficulty convincing herself and her groom-to-be that the Brainfield Event Centre, was a perfect choice. This, she said, was both in terms of facilities at the venue and her budget.

“I am a woman with a large network of friends, so you can expect a huge turnout at my wedding. Apart from massive space at this venue, the features are also very attractive to make my ceremony very successful,” she explained.

Ogunlere may not be wrong. A look around the event centre was quite revealing. The Brainfield Event Centre, built in 2010, is a facility that has redefined standards in the event centre market, considering its offerings.

For instance, its multipurpose hall, depending on the occasion and arrangement, can sit 1,000 people in conference setting, and 500 sitting in banquet position. With a platform for the sitting of dignitaries, the well- ventilated hall is fitted with 10 units of industrial air conditioner, with good illumination. Depending on the taste and choice of an intending client, the hall can be decorated to suit taste and pocket. Apart from electricity supply from the national grid, power is guaranteed by two generators of 150 KVA and 60KVA capacities.

The Barinfield Event Centre also caters for children’s needs while their parents are having a swell time inside the hall. Its outdoor garden, equipped with toys, keeps the kids busy all day. While the children play there, guards and supervisors keep an eye on them, thereby eliminating parents’ worry over their ward’s safety.

Inside the centre is an exquisite bar and a relaxation corner. The corner is carved into small units where people desirous of privacy can sit and holdtalks. It is fitted with four units of air conditioner, exclusive leather settees and four large screen LED television sets. It is not an uncommon sight to see people in the environ and guests thronging the games room for as ludo, ayo, scrabble, chess and snooker, among others.

Indeed, several youths in the Igando-LASU axis love the centre. This is because of its fully-equipped gym, with two instructors and trainers, to guide patrons seeking fitness. Two swimming pools close to the gym make it possible to continue exercising without breaking.

A regular face in the gym, Mr. Tunde Owodunni, said the gym was comparable to any in the world. To him, the gym has eliminated the pains of residents travelling several kilometres in search of a standard gym.

A common denominator among centres such as this is parking space. But for this venue, it is not a worry. According to a representative of GabbyCarl Investment Limited, the agency handling the centre, with parking space for over 100 cars, the road is left free of any disturbance to traffic, even during peak periods. Security is guaranteed as the premises is covered by a CCTV surveillance, and personnel patrol. Besides, it is sandwiched between the Igando and Idimu police stations.

Brainfield Centre about 20 minutes drive from the Lagos airport, is up for sale. It is valued at N280 million.

October 19, 2017
Relaxation and the powerful effect of music

Continued from last week

Music as a therapy is an ancient concept. In Ancient Greece, Apollo was the god of music and of medicine.Many indigenous peoples all over the world still use singing and chanting in their healing rituals. In modern times, Michigan State University established the first music therapy degree program in 1944 and more than 70 colleges and universities now have degree programs that are approved by the American Music Therapy Association. To be certified as a music therapists, one must have the bachelor’s degree, some specified clinical training, and one or more internships.

Music is used as part of the treatments for many ailments including dementia, depression, cancer, various chronic illnesses, pain, autism,various psychiatric disorders, rehabilitations,   etc. Parts of its effects are to distract from pain and discomfort, to facilitate relaxation and healing, and to improve attitude, social interaction, and compliance.   “Music therapists primarily help clients improve their health in several domains, such as cognitive functioning, motor skills, emotional development, social skills, and quality of life” (Wikipedia).

What about ordinary life? We considered Saul earlier. Yes indeed, Saul was King, powerful and influential. David was a handsome, talented, and popular subject that obviously had Divine favor. David inadvertently kept stirring up discomfort in Saul: threat, rivalry, envy, anger, rancor, fear, bitterness, melancholy, enmity, etc. – a legion that drove Saul to try to kill David. The folly of Saul’s preoccupation with the Divine favor of David drove Saul into deeper and deeper trouble (as the prophet Isaiah would later say: “Woe to him who contends with his Maker”). Thus Saul pursued David. In today’s perspective, privileged Saul got his powerful allies in the secret services to put David under 24/7 surveillance, to chip David’s body with a GPS-linked monitoring device, to bug and put hidden cameras in every nook and corner of David’s home including his bathroom, to invade David’s phone calls, emails and computers with spyware, to send two dozen cars to follow and spy on David daily, plus accusers, stalkers, saboteurs, and vandals around everything David did, and all David’s relatives, friends, and associates would become ready or reluctant informants and agents. Saul’s lance would be a cell-phone electronic device that shot David with a dose of DNA damaging radiation for slow cancerous death. David’s life became a nightmarish game of hide-and-seek. Saul’s demon, at one time before Saul knew David well, had been pacified when David sang and played his harp but Saul sent David away when David’s life unfolded as a threat and Saul’s demon therefore became unleashed.

Many experiments have shown the positive effects of music. Perhapsthe best experiments or observations one can learn from are the ones made on one’s self. We begin with the concept of ego or love of self and sense of self-importance. Definitely, there are many positive and many negative qualities of ego. If you look back to the last few hours of your life and try to remember: what have you been thinking of, what preoccupied your mind, what made you feel good, what made you feel bad, etc., you may be pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised at yourself. Unfortunately, more often than not, our awareness and thoughts are absorbed by negativities. In fact, we may safely assume that Saul was a regular guy afterall. Then we continue the experiment by watching a Youtubevideo or listening to a music CD or download of our favorite song(s); perhaps “Happy” by Pharell, “Gangnam Style” by Psy, “Aye” by Davido, Mavins Record’s “Dorobucci” or your favorite hymn(s). (Yes, music by 2-Face, Whizkid,9ice, P-Square, Olamide, D’banj, et al., may all be used). After enjoying the music, examine your mind again and determine the effect of music on your mind.

Ego is always very powerful and very active, and sometimes dangerously so.   Music is one of those influences that are powerful enough to pacify and temper the ego. It is a pleasant distraction or a mental speed-breaker that we should keep along our path of everyday journey. Many ordinary people are not hospitalized by illnesses but we all do have other battles – in our minds and spirits. Anger, hatred, restlessness, conceit, fanaticism, rivalry, vengeance, envy, obsession, fear, rancor, bitterness, greed, covetousness, lust, enmity, etc., – we have so many little demons that can affect us. Music was good for Saul, music is good for all.

Dr. ‘Bola John is a biomedical scientist based in Nigeria and in the USA.   For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 08160944635

April 25, 2015
Relaxation and the powerful effect of music

From a reader: On Saturday, March 21, 2015 5:41 PM, BasseyAtang<jemuf2968@yahoo.com> wrote:

Dear Sir, Wow, what a beautiful write up! From your explanation of bird’s… music…My mind has gone a bit further to imagine the healing power of music; if music can relax an individual and get off the cares of life either temporally or permanently. Don’t you think that there could be a relationship between music and healing of hypertension? The reason being that almost all hypertensive cases are as a result of constant worries and life’s hit….For instance, David in the Bible played harp and Saul became sane for awhile. There could be other cases or research done by other scholars. I think if you take on this new ground for research, your fans will love to read and own it in their library and you maybe saving many. Thank you for the write up. I wish you all the best. Favour Atang.

Dear Favor, Thank you for reading this column and for your appreciation and interesting contribution. I am sure there have been many studies on the therapeutic effects of music. The story of King Saul that you brought up is an amazing demo of common human experience of extreme passions and we do know that music and singing have powerful effects in expressing and tempering passion.

Auditory stimulus generates bodily, mental, and spiritual responses in humans. Music can produce alteration in psychological and physiological characteristics and functions. Music can affect brain electrical waves, brain blood circulation, and brain neurotransmitters functions, and also stress hormone functions. Positive effects of music have been observed in humans from neonates to elderly people.

Humans are naturally responsive to music. Song and rhythms are used to calm crying babies. Our bodies move in response to music from shaking the head or tapping the feet to dancing. Children begin learning information, concepts, and ideas through music and song. Music turns our emotions and artists use this to sell themselves and their music by targeting our natural ability and need to mate and love, the natural sexual appetite, and our worldly quest for money, wealth, and power as can be seen in many of today’s music productions. Music also associates our memories with times and events of our past lives. Imagine social life without music. Music helps in bonding.

In ordinary life, people listen to music in different ways. Some lifestyles may provide more opportunities than other lifestyles. For example, with earphones, many listen to music on their way to and back from work, some listen to music while working, some listen to music during breaks or after hours. Some sleep off every night with music. The power of music is something we could use fruitfully. Every now and then, I open a YouTube music video online and, always, the art, the instruments, the talents, and the contents of a hymn would transpose my mind and spirit to some space beyond the realities of troubles of life. Billboard website (http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6472921/youtubes-10th-anniversary-watch-the-top-10-most-viewed-videos-to-date) says that the most-viewed music video by February 14, 2015 is the music video “Gangnam Style” by the Korean rapper Psy.

It has been viewed 2.2 billion times since its release on July 15th 2012. Pharell William’s “Happy” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM) is a mood elevator that has been viewed at least 629,354,617 times.

The Nigerian music artists are playing their own part. Recently, I visited my brother and asked his young children to dance for me. They did not go to the stereo set. I was surprised at the speed with which they produced music from a small low-cost cell phone. The insignificant looking cellphone seemed to have an endless list of downloads and they scrolled to their choices with ease. The room lit up with “Shoki” followed by “Dorobucci” and they would have continued if I did not have to leave. Music is all around and accessible but often neglected by those who end up like Saul. Many poor and marginalized people may enjoy more happy times in life than envied rich and powerful people because the former show more interest and have more time for music and, knowingly or unknowingly, enjoy the benefits of music. To be continued.

Dr. ‘Bola John is a biomedical scientist based in Nigeria and in the USA. For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 08160944635

April 18, 2015
Relaxation from politics induced health condition

Politics has its side effects on our bodily, mental, and spiritual health. Of course, for those who get the highest polls, it is exhilarating and there is celebration for days and days to come. For those who get lower polls it may be a different story.

Depending on how tense, free, fair, or mature the political processes are, there are always chances of many types of mental, bodily, and spiritual side effects.

Mental conditions that can be offshoots of political seasons are: sleep disorder, mental derangement, obsession, manicdepressive disorder, mania, depression, paranoia, homophobia,situational anxiety disorders such as panic attack, social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, etc..

Bodily disordersthat can be offshoots of political seasons include psychosomatic disorders such as hypertension, gastric and duodenal ulcers, hyperactivity, and irrational and bizarre behavior.

Emotional disordersinclude anger, hatred, vengeance, envy, rancor, confusion, aggression, and collective social upheaval. They are all weapons of mass destruction.

Spiritual outcomes of political seasons may include demoniacs, murderers, vandals, arsons, rapists, enemies, and all kinds of malicious beings. Did I hear you say: “God forbid bad ting”? Yeah! God forbid bad thing.

Many of these mental and emotional disorders are associated with crimes such as cheating, lynching, manslaughter, murder, and vandalism and burning of vehicles, homes, and businesses. Innocent people end up losing their blood, body parts, sanity, or possessions- some forever. Yeah! God forbid bad thing again.

Nigeria is a prayerful nation and can lead the world in wisdom. We have seen countries go down in recent years and some seemingly unrecoverable in our lifetime. These days of universal enlightenment, the powerful individual, ideological extremisms, high technology, multipurpose electronic gadgets, information mongering, magic social media, global corruption, and black market for everything dangerous are not the days to begin any type of strife. The capacity of any strife to spiral out of control is much greater than it was in World War I, World War II, and the Biafran War. Nobody can live his or her best life under strife. Strife is never worth it.We can collectively avoid the worse-case-scenario of violence. We should surprise the world that we are a healthy people – body, mind, and spirit.

Each person can be in control of his or her own participation in the after-events of polls by thinking beforehand how to withstand or counteract any perceived insults such as cheating, deprivation of rights, abuse of power, etc; how to deny wrong doing, reject lawlessness, and protest peacefully. We should not leave ourselves to the eruption of dangerous passions but rather should positively calculate effective response towards a peaceful resolution.

Everybody is capable of autogenic relaxation, drawing some calmness from within oneself, from one’s faith, from one’s intellect, from one’s maturity, from one’s common sense, from one’s experience, from one’s perspective of a good life in the future in a world of peace.

Whether we change altogether or we consolidate the good works already done, may this season of politics bring us all a little bit of Patience, a great deal of Goodluck, General peace ahead, so we all remain with some Aisha (liveliness). Politics can always be a win-win event where there is love. Low polls or high polls, the true winners emerge in their greatness when life can continue for all.

Dr. ‘Bola John is a biomedical scientist based in Nigeria and in the USA. For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 08160944635.

March 28, 2015
Relaxation

As we discussed earlier, relaxation can be described as a temporary state of bodily, mental, and spiritual freedom.   In that respect, we now discuss stressors of the body and some methods of bodily relaxation, stressors of the mind and some methods of mental relaxation, and stressors of the spirit and methods of spiritual relaxation.

Stressors of the body and bodily relaxation

We physically perceive our environment through are physical senses of sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste and sensors on our body surfaces that detect temperature, humidity, pressure some of the physical forces of the environment.   Many of us do not consider that some aspects of our environment are chronic stressors and therefore do not bother to do something about them. Limitations such as ignorance, poverty, lack, and incapacity, may not permit us to make necessary changes to our environment for better comfort. Except for people who get rich quickly, improvement of our home and work environments (indoors and outdoors) is generally not a quick fix and requires continual effort, investments, and care. The young should especially consider this and make constant effort for a better life. They will see the difference later in life.

A good environment helps us to feel well, live well, work well, and be more fruitful. An environment that is full of problems, confusions, disrepair, dysfunction, inefficiency, discouragement, and such negativities is as good as a curse. You may try a simple experiment on yourself. Check how you feel each time you enter a “nice” environment such as a five star hotel, a beautiful shopping mall, an air-conditioned and tasty office cleaned spick and span, an inspiring place of worship, or you visit a more developed city or country. When you return to your own local environment, you know you must keep making an effort to make it the best that you can because the wellness of your environment contributes to your physical and mental health.

If we find ourselves having to dwell (live or work) in an unconducive environment, then breaks are important distractions from the environmental stress. Cherish a clean get away every now and then when possible. A constant stress needs interventions to prevent us from reaching a breaking point, to wear off the bad effect, and to enable us to face our situation again and function well in spite of it. The reality of life is that many of us do have to remain in unideal situations for long periods of our lives and sometimes we escape from one unideal situation and end up in another. Coping with any environment that we must remain in is therefore essential. Taking a break from it every now and then, taking advantage of whatever good there is in it, and working towards a change for the better, are some of the ways to cope with an unideal environment. In developing countries, one may accept to live in unideal environments or one may rise to contribute towards obtaining or providing goods, services, and functionaries for the common good.

Work is another source of bodily stress. We work for our livelihood and we also work to make our homes and societies how we want them to be. Profitable work without timely or adequate rest becomes a physical stressor. Work without profit, satisfaction, promotion, or fruit is a mental stressor, a slavery.

There are various ways to prevent physical stress. For example, the workplace may supply safety gears such as gloves to protect laborers; keeping to a schedule may prevent us from overworking, and applying science and technology eases many types of work. Even with our best efforts to minimize stressors, we often do end up experiencing the curse of Adam.

Some of the ways we can distract ourselves from stress at work are: having an accompaniment of music, television (cable networks give us a variety of programs that are compatible with work and should not affect our efficiency), a drink and snack (but watch your overall diet and finance), on the spot exercises for desk workers (you can design you own exercises for various parts of your body), chat briefly with a friend or family member (thank God for cell phones!), laugh-out-loud (but don’t be crazy, keep a comic handy, bookmark some webpages with good jokes), a brief prayer or reflection (surely the missionaries have bombarded you with lots of aids and means), enjoy something briefly such as the sun, fresh air, or the view or panorama around you (so many balconies and terraces are underused), orbriefly do something nice for somebody (believe this: you are always the best rewarded for doing good).

Some of the ways we can relax our bodies after business or work (including house work) are: reclining, watching television, playing table games, conversation with friends, partying, visiting a park or place where we can appreciate and enjoy nature, meditation or prayer, having a shower or Jacuzzi, and being with loved ones.

Dr. ‘Bola John is a biomedical scientist based in Nigeria and in the USA.   For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call

February 21, 2015
Tears,anger as govt demolishes popular Yenagoa relaxation centre

A Bayelsa government agency renders over 100 jobless demolishing a popular Yenegoa joint in an exercise meant “to rid the state of illegal structures”, reports MIKE ODIEGWU

Sickedness and insensitivity. These were the words used by passers-by and fun-seekers to describe the action of the Bayelsa State Capital City Development Authority (CCDA) against Bolex, a popular relaxation joint in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.

Residents were angry that the CCDA chose no other day but Thursday, a day business experts, tourists and politicians from Nigeria and around the world gathered in Yenagoa for the first Investment and Economic Forum organised by Governor Seriake Dickson to demolish Bolex.

While the governor was dissipating his energy highlighting business potentials in Bayelsa to woo foreign and local investors, officials of CCDA led by the authority’s Executive Secretary, Mr. Idaba Eje, moved into the premises of Bolex, believed by many fun seekers to be a success story in local investment, with a bulldozer.

Officials of CCDA heavily protected by a truckload of armed policemen invaded Bolex, put their bulldozer to work and pulverized facilities in the bar. There was panic among customers who trooped to the bar for relaxation and to wash their vehicles.

Bolex is a known brand and a household name located on the Isaac Adaka Boro expressway Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. It has existed in the area for about six years even before a gigantic hotel believed to be owned by Dame Patience, the wife of President Goodluck Jonathan rose close to it. It has a business mix of a car wash, open bar and a night club.

In fact, many residents believe that Bolex is synonymous to nightlife in Yenagoa. But the bubbling Bolex, a business venture that has employed over 150 people, came under attack by officials of the CCDA.

In dexterity, the CCDA officials destroyed over six fanciful car ports, perimeter fences, chairs, erected concretised pavements, riser beams and other equipment used for car wash. Nothing was spared, not even the electrical wiring and plumbing line.

When Niger Delta Report visited the scene, Bolex was a shadow of itself. The Manager, Mr. Preye Boligha, was devastated. He was simply ruminating on the reason behind the action of CCDA.

“We really do not understand the reason behind this destruction. Bolex is genuine business. We wash cars, run a snacks bar, club and night bars. This is a business that has given employment to about 150 jobless people, especially youths.

“What could we have done wrong?” Boligha kept pondering. “We don’t have a problem with the government. No part of our premises was marked for demolition and no prior notice of the destruction was given to us. We are not owing the government because we pay all our dues and taxes to the government,” he said.

The Director and Founder of Bolex, Amos Boligha, was also dumbfounded. He said he lost over N6million to the destruction. The demoralised Boligha wondered why the CCDA came to destroy a business he suffered very hard to build.

“I was not around when it happened. I was at the airport when I got information that members of CCDA were here with their bulldozer to come and demolish the car wash. This is the business I have been operating for the past six years here.

“The business is out of the right of way. We have been operating here and we have not got notification from anybody. Nobody has written us to inform us about illegal structures. If the CCDA has any issue with any part of our premises, they should have at least given us a notice,” he said.

In fact, the founder of Bolex was not alone in his request for an explanation. Employees and beneficiaries of the Bolex business were confused and stranded. They wondered why the government was interested in their job, their only source of livelihood.

“When we go to the government for jobs, they close their door behind us and tell us there is no job. But Bolex has given us jobs and the same government has come to take them away. Bolex doesn’t owe us.

“There is no worker here that earns below N30,000 monthly. This is where I have been making a living and taking care of my wife and five children,” one of the workers lamented.

Also, Mr. Ziki Charles, who hails from Nembe Local Government Area and works as a security man at Bolex said the business made him what he was. “Bolex has made me who l am today. I am surprised at what the CCDA did today,” he said.

Ahmed Ismaila, who washes vehicles at Bolex to make a living said the business gave him the money and opportunities to begin and finish his Ordinary National Degree (OND) programme.

“I have worked here for five years. I finished my OND while working here and I want to go for my HND. This man has helped many people in Yenagoa. I feel pained. It was like a dream”, he said.

But, Eje, while defending the action of the CCDA on a local radio station, said it was carried out to rid the state of illegal structures.

July 25, 2014