Skin lightening injections; your opinions please!

Believe it or not, I got to hear about the existence of skin whitening injections and pills about two months ago.[I don carry last abi?]. I decided to write about it because I read in a magazine that it was becoming very popular in Nigeria. Some weeks ago, a pop singer and her ‘friend’ had issues and the issue of skin whitening injections came up. [ Some secrets of these....{fill in the gap} are out there yeah?]

It is said that this injection would give a uniform complexion without knuckles, cures acne, fades scar marks and makes the skin soft and supple. I did a bit of a research and saw that a lot of companies mostly in Asia are marketing these injections and pills.

Thank you kisses and farewell to Ojukwu

I want to thank all of you that thanked God with me in your comments on my last post. May God’s blessings continue to follow you and your loved ones everywhere you go..

My brother is doing very well. The dude is one of the nicest people I know though he knows how to get under my skin sometimes. I kept thinking to myself, Who was going to get under my skin if anything had happened to him? I appreciate life more than ever now and I thank God for life.

Meanwhile, I find myself calling ‘Jehova!’ more often than not these days. If I am in a bus and it makes an abrupt stop, this lady would call ‘Jehova!’ Watching Lagos ‘okada’ riders in action hasn’t made it easy not to. The peculiar thing is the way I say it though; in this ‘well rounded Igbotic’ accent! I just completely forget where I am and say it the way my grandmother would. I guess I am yet to get over the shock completely. But I will get there.  And I do need to stop stunning people when I do that. It is unbecoming.

I did weep a little when I heard of Odumegwu Ojukwu’s death. My mum used to sing us war songs that they sang during the Biafran war. She was a child then but was old enough to know how this man was respected. Some were songs in praise of the war lord. May his soul rest in perfect peace. Click here to read a short article about him.

Wishing you all a great week ahead.

Lily Johnson

The saddest and scariest day of my life...

I had the most terrible experience on Monday 14th of this month. My younger brother Andre had gone to work as usual (he is an IT student at an organisation at Ikeja) and when he didn’t come back till 11pm, we knew something was wrong.


Someone sent my sister a message on Facebook that he had been involved in accident at Egbeda and was left for dead on the Express. That night, my folks went out in a car with our landlord to look for him. They searched all the hospitals in the area and didn’t find him. They even went to Ikeja General Hospital to search and was told that they hadn’t admitted any accident victim.

I don’t think I have ever been in that kind of situation ever in my life.

Meanwhile, we were trying to find out who made the call to the person that informed my sister on Facebook. It was already 1:45am Tuesday morning and we were yet to get any concrete information concerning my brother’s whereabouts. The guy that contacted my sister said the guy that called him said he had seen my brother lying on the Express, took his wallet, got a card and called the number on it and it happened to be his.

The biggest question was, Where at Egbeda? How was he? Was he still alive?. I kept shouting at the guy asking these questions. He had no idea.

The guy who was my brother’s friend gave us the number of the man that called him. It was around 2am and my folks were going up and down looking for my brother in streets and ditches. Best believe it. It took time him time to pick the call.

His story

He had seen my brother in a ditch near a filling station. He appeared drugged or something. He just took his wallet, took a card and called the number on it. So where was he, he wasn’t sure. He had called an ambulance immediately after that. He didn’t stay to know if they later arrived.

He described the filling station. My parents and landlord who had been roaming the streets of Egbeda began to look for this filling station hoping and praying that my brother was still alive. They stopped at all the filling stations they saw to search. The search wasn’t fruitful.

They had almost given up. My mum who is a very strong person had broken down in tears and my sister’s wailing resounded in the night. It was 3am.

Then they sighted the police and stopped to ask them if they had seen anything concerning Andre.

They said they had, described my brother to a ‘T’ and said he had been drugged , before being robbed of everything including his shoes, trousers and shirt and thrown out of a moving vehicle but he was lucky that he fell into mud and sustained minor injuries. They had taken him to a nearby hospital. My parents were taken there. My brother was unconscious, was nearly naked and hadn’t received any form of treatment.

The good news however, was that he was alive.

What really happened...

My brother entered a bus going to Egbeda at Ikeja. Shortly after, the guy beside him bought ‘pure’ water and gave him one explaining that the hawker didn’t have change. He was thirsty though so he thanked the stranger and drank some and told him the water had a taste. And that was it. Both the hawker and the guy were in on the ‘deal’. Nobody knows the full story and no one will ever know but I will be forever grateful to God for saving my brother’s life. And I pray that none of you would ever be this sort of situation ever in Jesus’ Name. Amen!

May God always protect you and your loved ones.

Lily Johnson

Things you should TRY HARD NOT to do even when it seems ...well hard.

Sometimes we are faced with crazy situations and we just do stuff that normally, we wouldn’t think of doing. The thing is, we do the unthinkable before even thinking about it. Then when we do think about it, we are sometimes appalled by our actions. And if the situation presents itself again, we might probably do the same thing because it is simply difficult not to.

Exchange words in a market place: Now, some of you would be quick to say ‘I’ll never do that.’ I believe you. Look at this scenario though. You know how crowded these markets can be right? Then a woman comes out from nowhere and steps on your pedicured feet with a pair of slippers that hasn’t seen water in years. Then she looks at you and hisses rather loudly. [Sheeooo!]

Or if a trader all of a sudden starts insulting you during price haggling. She said the plastic bucket was N250 and you asked if she would sell it for N200. And the next thing you hear, ‘You are mad! Get out of here! [You dey mad! Come buy am N2 na! Dey go!]

A number of cool and decent ladies would really lose it in these case scenarios. I have seen it happen a number of times. But then the woman keeps saying more annoying things and you find out that you just can’t stop talking back even as you walk away because you are beyond pissed.

It is indeed hard to walk away without saying a word. That is why you have to try hard to do so. Or say one or two words but don’t start exchanging words. Just take a walk.

Talk loudly in a bus: The only time some of us might be guilty of this is when we are on the phone. And that is because of the rather terrible network situation we sometimes experience here. You are in a bus then Grace calls and all you heard through a buzzing sound was Come, money, now, die. ‘What!?’ ‘Hello’... ‘Grace, I can’t quite hear you’ ‘Please can you call me back? I am in a bus’

Then she calls back. You assume she didn’t hear you the first time. So you tell her that again and again in a rather loud voice before it occurs to you that you could send her a message. Come, money now, die made you panic but what Grace was trying to say was that you should come take the money in the evening and that she was calling you now because her battery was low and would soon die. It is hard not to answer important calls in a bus. It is harder to hear what the person on the other side is saying so you talk almost on top of your voice. Remember to send a text message. That is if you have credit on your phone.

Exchange words in a social networking site: Now, why would you ‘tweetfight’? I understand that people would come into your mentions and say a load of nonsense but you mustn’t answer them back. Yes, I know people can be so annoying. Imagine a girl talking arrant nonsense about you on twitter because you retweeted something her boyfriend tweeted. Imagine a guy saying that you look like Daffy Duck on Facebook. Of course you would want to say something but do not follow when these people begin to go on and on, use your ‘unfollow’, ‘block’ and ‘remove from friend list’ buttons. It is hard that is why even some celebs talk back and forth endlessly with someone they may never know because he/she made an insulting remark or something like that. It really isn’t worth it. Say something witty and just ignore them. And if you can’t stand seeing them, use the buttons.

Swear terribly: Yes, some of us do that when we are very angry but can we try not to do that around children? And in an office? It just doesn’t look good.

Take calls in church: Some of you might say ‘What? Who does that? Well, people do. And they come up with excuses for that. They might be good ones but you can switch off your phone. Or at least make it known that you’re in church with a message. It beats the hell out of bending down to say that hastily. That can be embarrassing too with people looking at you and hissing and stuff.

May God give us the wisdom to handle all kinds of situations.

Lily Johnson

Pics from here and here

At random

So I watched ‘Ice loves Coco’ [a reality TV show] and saw Coco working out. That woman looks so in shape even though she is voluptuous. One particular routine caught my eye. Okay, while most of us work out in ‘canvass’ or sports shoes, she works out in high heels. And she was doing squats in them! Now, some Hollywood starlets with beautiful behinds like Kim Kardashian and Jessica Biel have sworn that they got that not by injecting fat from their thighs into their behinds or butt implants but by doing the squat routine regularly. That particular exercise looked.. weird and I thought okay, let me try this because it looked really challenging and I love that kinda stuff. Not because I wanted [or needed a bigger derrière. Why am I laughing?]

So I wore these babies and did the squat thingy. They aint exactly stripper shoes but as we would say in this part of the world, 'Who send me message?'

 After exactly 25 squats, this dear girl was exhausted and breathing like crazy. That exercise targets your thighs and hips. After squatting thrice without holding anything, I felt it was for the best to hold a chair. Believe me; Coco makes this thing look easy. It took everything I had in me to get to 25. So there, I tried it and I think I would exercise like that once in a while. If I remember. Or totally forgot how errr..’really exercised’ my waist was.

Speaking off Kim K, a week ago, a particular young woman on twitter and a group of people were sort of bashing Tyler Perry for casting the reality TV star in his new movie. I know lots of people just don’t like Kim K. Yeah, I know she has a sex tape, posed for PlayBoy and all that. But what is wrong with Tyler casting her in his movie? I really don’t understand what that was all about.

I really don’t like how some Lagosians stress these poor boys that sell stuff on the roads. Like it’s just too much to bear sometimes. So this overly made up, gum chewing, loud young woman calls on a guy selling drinks and took Lacasera from his plastic basket while the boy was running as usual to catch up the bus driver that kept switching lanes. Then she starts looking for money in her purse, pauses to answer a call and talked utter gibberish for a few minutes while this young man was still running! And after a while, she brought out a thousand naira note. The young man still doing the semi marathon struggled to give her the balance while holding the basket and enduring her chanting ‘Don’t give me tattered money o! Ehen!’

Can you imagine? The money she gave the guy wasn’t exactly fresh out of the printing machine. In fact, it was old. I know it seems like I’m being a bit sentimental here after all, it’s what they do some people might think. But hey, it is hard enough for them that they have to do this for a living so I think it is fair that you have your money in your hand before you call them so that you guys would finish your exchange business without the poor guy having to run from Ojota to Maryland.

What first came to mind when I saw Tonto Dike’s tattoo on Linda’s blog was Wow! Till now, I still cant get past the words ‘Wow!’, and ‘Way out of the ordinary’. Tonto Dike is a Nigerian actress

Or what do you think?

Have a wonderful weekend y’all!

Lily Johnson

Pictures from Lindaikeji.blogspot.com

                     Mycolumbusmagic.com

                     Hollyscoop.com
                     Cocosworld.com

                     News.softpedia.com

This is who I am...

I am Lily Johnson

I am a Nigerian woman

I am against all forms of sexual violence.

I am against child abuse and neglect.

I am against human trafficking and slavery.

I am against terrorism. I am against jungle justice because it should be a crime to take laws into your hands.

I am against tribalism.

I am against all kinds of fraudulent practices.

I am against racism.

I am against the violation of basic human rights.

I am against the oppression of the poor and helpless.

I am all for supporting noble causes.

I am all for National and World peace.

I am all for empowering, educating and motivating women and the youth.

I am all for the true practice of democracy.

I am all for fairness, equity and justice.

I just woke up this morning and found myself writing this. I don’t know if it is because of the gist a friend gave me last night about a Chinese site that blocked his IP after sending them emails about a product or the not so recent travel warnings issued by the US [Click here][And who would blame them for wanting to protect their citizens] or the fact that so many things have been happening in recent times that beg the question ‘What is going on?’

One thing is for sure though, a lot of Nigerians would stand up for what is right and I am one of them.

Hope your week is going well? God bless you.

Lily Johnson

The Versatile Blogger Awards!

I was given the Versatile Blogger Award by two wonderful bloggers ; Coy Introvert and Relentless builder. Thank you sweethearts! Now if you haven’t checked out their blogs, do so and you won't be disappointed.

I believe I have said a lot about myself in the past when I was given an award like this or something. Click here to read it. Though I haven’t changed much, I’m going to add to stuff to the ones you guys already know.

7 things about me...Here we go!

• I love perfume!  Why is this the first thing I am saying about myself? Well, I don’t know. Or maybe it's because Christmas is almost here and I want to open gift boxes and find nice perfumes in them. My favorite brand is Chanel but I can use any other good one. People around me think it is an obsession especially when I once decided to join the FM Group just to acquire perfumes and samples for personal use! (Hiding behind a tree and laughing like hell).

• I love cooking and eating pasta. I’m always looking for new pasta recipes to cook. I don’t get tired of doing that.

• I don’t like it when people brag about stuff they know they cant achieve and run away when it is time for ‘action’. Even if you thought you could achieve it but somehow you couldn’t, brace yourself and tell the person especially if you are sure the person isn’t going to kill you or something. Keeping quiet or staying away makes it worse.

• All of a sudden, I am this writer that can’t pen down a romantic story. In 2004, Hints Thrills and Boom published five of my romantic stories. These days, all I write is fantasy, thriller, crime and weird stuff. And it is not like I have any personal problems or anything. I just don’t know how that happened.  Myne Whitman however, can definitely write a romantic story!

• I write songs too and I hope to be able to sing them someday soon.

• I would love to visit Hong Kong! I just watched a documentary on the place and totally fell in love with it.  I would have to ask them to tell me every ingredient they used to prepare whatever I’m going to eat though as I also discovered that their palate isn’t errr.. exactly selective.

• I love reading full color, glossy lifestyle magazines that talk about fashion, relationships and stuff like that. So Genevieve, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and the like, I love! Lol.

Okay! I’m done and I’m supposed to pass it on to 15 recently discovered blogs. Errrm.. that’s hard because I haven’t discovered a lot of blogs since I haven’t been here in a while. Besides, this award must have been received by everyone in blogsville. So if you are yet to get it and you are reading this, *giving you the award with a Close up smile*

Much love!

Lily Johnson

From the East, with pictures and a weird gist..

On the 27th of September, I and my large family buried our 90 year old grannie who had passed away a few months earlier. We had gotten past the sadness and all so we just celebrated the life of the matriarch.


Here are some pictures from the event which took place in Akama Oghe in Ezeagu Local government of Enugu state, Nigeria.



Mum, Berl, Lily, Dami[my bestie] and Ursula[at the back] Berl and Ursula're my younger sisters.



In my room after dressing up for the ceremony



'Abacha'. African salad. Yummy!




A cousin, Ursula, Berl, Lily and Andre[younger bro]



Dancing!!





The 'udu'




'Ogene' [Metal gong] and a drum




The 'Ichaka'





This guy can dance!




A sort of local gun or something called 'Nkpo na ani'



A Fulani woman turned Igbo



She danced vigourously with that calabash on her head and it didnt even shake!





Masquerades. I and Dami werent allowed to take this picture because we were women so we got Andre to do it.



The guy in the Tee shirt and brown trousers is the 'rainmaker'

However, I witnessed something really weird and thought I should share it with you guys. One of my uncles called a ‘rain maker’ to make sure that it doesn’t rain on the day of the ceremony. On the day before the ceremony, the man staggered into the compound like he was very drunk. My dad had made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with anyone playing ‘god’ so the man came to see my uncle. When I saw him, I tweeted ‘The rain maker is here’. The tweet to my surprise, didn’t post. This continued for a while. Then I tweeted ‘Rainmaker’. It appeared on my TL. So anytime, I added ‘the’ before ‘rainmaker’ , the tweet would disappear somehow. Twitter might have had problems then but it was weird that it happened only when the man was around and I did tweet about other things and they didn’t ‘disappear like those tweets had.


The rainmaker’s name[let’s see you disappear here] was Romanus. On the day of the ceremony, it was drizzling a bit. He brought out some herbs, put them inside water and started ‘chasing away’ the rain. It did stop raining a few minutes later. Throughout our stay, it only rained at night. According to the villagers, it was the ‘rain’ in his stomach was what was making him stagger all over the place and not alcohol. And when he sleeps at night, the rain would be released.

Dear reader, isn’t that one of the weirdest things you have ever heard?

We didn’t even know what to think about the whole things but allowed ourselves to be puzzled for a while. Like really? This guy is not a herbalist but he could stop the rain from ruining this day? Okay!



The man in sunglasses is my dear father.





Set for church service on Sunday




Monday morning. Waiting for the bus. Wearing hairnets, no make up whatsoever and as tired as hell!



We did have a great time anyway. And drank a lot of fresh palm wine too.

Hope you guys are okay.

Lily Johnson