Eguria

An excursion to Obudu Mountain Resort By Eguriase S. M. Okaka As I waved goodbye to my schoolmates on the early morning of 15th July 2011, I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, I was happy that I was going to see the popular Obudu Mountain Resort and on the other hand, I was sad that my friend Lola was not with me. Our Social Studies teacher, Mrs. Ewang, had wanted all JSS 3 students to go on an excursion to one of Nigeria’s most important natural endowments before our external examination. We left the school as early as 5:00 a.m. as the journey, according to our teacher, would take about six hours from our school in Aba. The journey was smooth and we spent time chatting and enjoying the lovely natural scenery that is missing in Aba town. Many of us had lived all our lives in Aba, so we enjoyed every bit of our journey. We got to Calabar a few minutes before 9:00 a.m. and preceded to Obudu which we were told was about three hundred and thirty-three kilometers from Calabar town. Ou...

Grammar: simple, complex and compound By Eguriase S. M. Okaka A sentence is a group or string of words that expresses a complete thought. A sentence can be used to perform different functions such as asking questions, making request, giving a command and expressing feelings like joy, pain, surprise or fear. Let me introduce you to the major component of a sentence, the subject and the predicate. The subject is the person or thing being talked about while the predicate refers to what is said about the subject. Example However, we will take a closer look at the structure or form of sentences in English. The English sentence has three basic types – Simple, Compound and Complex. Simple sentence A simple sentence expresses a simple thought or statement. It has only one clause and one finite verb. Can you identify the finite verbs in the following simple sentences? • The dog bit the boy. • Olu rang the bell. • Taju ate the meat. • His father was ill. • My mother is a teacher. Exercis...

Animal Husbandry By Eguriase S. M. Okaka Animal husbandry was important in the savannah. It was difficult to rear herds in the south because of lack of pasture. Secondly, tsetse flies posed a great menace to the animals. Unlike in the south where there were no professional herdsmen, the cattle herders in the savannah were famous for the milk, butter and skins which they provided. Like farming, cattle rearing depended on family labor, each pastoral family minding it cattle. The herds were usually large and the herders drove the cattle to where they would get food and also trade in cattle products. In places where the occupation was well established, the supply of cattle was usually high. One feature which distinguished animal herdsmen from others was their nomadic nature. They moved from place in search of pasture and water, and to exchange their animal products for foodstuffs. It was mainly the scarcity of pasture for the animals that always kept them on the move in search of gre...