Let’s not fool ourselves, things are not likely to suddenly progress and transform you into success or greatness without doing something you didn’t want to, or think you can do before! Don’t read this mail, don’t take action based on what you read, and I can guarantee your life will continue the way it did before you started. Act however, and you may discover that you have untapped potentials for unique achievement and greatness.

The Foolish buy today, the Wise buy tomorrow based on trends!

I can still remember the hot afternoon of June 6, 1997, under the trees in the Alumni centre of the University of Ibadan, I asked my wife to be, the big question about marriage. It took her almost a year to get back to me. Why?? There was nothing much in that guy back then, if you looked at my shoes or rated my clothes, the answer would have been negative and quicker. Thank God however that our lives don’t stay on pause, we progress, and our progress creates a trend. My wife eventually said yes, but she didn’t buy the present, she bought the future. The foolish insist on current face value, the wise think about seasons down the line. The foolish waits to buy the estate when it’s an estate, the wise buy the estate when it’s a bush and then waits. All the wise wants to see, is the trend. What do you have in your hands that is trending towards a greater future? What you are about to hear, you have heard before… but not this way and not at this level.

Would you like an opportunity to get special treatment?

Imagine that there is an ultramodern international supermarket being erected at Tejuosho. An offer is made to the public for anyone who wants to lease a shop space. Not only do you get this shop space, you also get to become a member of the “Tejuosho international market association”. This leased space and membership means three things.

1. Anytime you have anything to sell, you have an opportunity of selling via your shop and advertise to all other members of the association – FREE.

2. Anytime anybody comes to you to ask for any product, you have an insider deal with all the members of the association to buy at distributor prices and if you want, to resell.

3. The Tejuosho space owners are willing to reward you for telling your friends about the ultramodern shopping mall and getting them to lease a space.

The good thing is, even though your foundational product is the leased space, you have a unique privilege of being able to sell anything else on offer in the shopping mall. Imagine that you sell beverages, and someone approaches you to buy phones, all you need do, is ask them to wait, while your girl… fetches the mobile phone and sells to you at the price you would have gotten it upstairs… but this time, you make a margin.

All your life, you can enjoy an opportunity to buy everything at distributor’s price, and you can determine to be anybody’s distributor.

This shop… is the new face of Holidays and Cash in Nigeria… the trend is real, and today we have over 100 shop spaces filled with goods, and over 18,000 members of the association enjoying all the 3 benefits.

For Real??

Oh yes, for real! You can ask any of the distributors you know to log into the company’s website with their unique passwords, and you’ll see that the estate is beginning to evolve from the bush.

It is fast becoming a solutions city, a growing domain where whatever it is your want or need can be found. We are fast becoming an enlightened company of special elects, our motto is empowering others, our values are L.I.F.E – Love, Integrity, Future Orientation and Excellence and our vision is to have distributors in every family in Nigeria by 2020 and be strategically positioned to replenish the earth and have dominion.

Even becoming more solid…

Is the fact that as distributors of the same international organization, we are getting to for a cooperative together to strengthen the asset base of each other, give our members access to loans for their dreams and creating investment options. We are also taking giant strides of building mini estates branded in our name, and our company is setting out to acquire property and build structures that will last forever… God willing. We are investing in people development, in values entrenchment and in carrying everybody in the team to a desired future.

We are not where we want to be… but we are far from where we were almost 2yrs ago. The network is getting bigger and richer, and only your friend can bring you in. You don’t want to be left out and be in the company of those in the world buying everything at retail prices

Our name could be misleading… and is going to be changed. Only those who can see the future may buy. Let me know if this is it for you!

Kind Regards

It was a glorious and beautiful day. I woke up at 5.00am and got ready to go out by 5.30am. Actually, I didn’t sleep deep that night because one sentence kept reverberating in my head through the night

Walk for Light!

I ran to my mentor’s room to find out if he was ready and soon after we set out for the airport (Omagwa International airport, Port Harcourt). We had had a great time that weekend starting from saturday. We landed in Port Harcourt around 6 pm and went straight to Presidential Hotel from the airport for “Purple Night”. A event with over 700 people in attendance. My mentor spoke powerfully at the event and I met a few friends and members of my team there. It was a fun-filled event.

On Sunday, we went to church and then had to do 2 seminars on Holidays and Cash in the evening. My team in Port Harcourt were already having seminars at Little Africa Restaurant, Woji Road, GRA, Port Harcourt by 4pm and we needed to be there to support them. After which we moved to Landmark Hotels to hold another seminar for an older, larger team. I also took a trip into town to see my babe’s sister’s family and didn’t get back till quite late. I eventually went to bed in the wee hours of the morning all the while thinking about what the next day(Monday) held in store.

Me at "Walk for Light"

I had been waiting in earnest anticipation for the “Walk for Light” day. We had been told earlier that we’d march on protest to the governor’s office in church and that August 12 or so would be the date. This was announced around May/June. August came and went and nothing happened. I was beginning to think that the leadership of my church (Daystar Christian Center) were growing cold feet with respect to taking responsibility for our underdevelopment and lack of good leadership in this Nation.

The church has proved to be very passive and irresponsible in my view in the last few decades with respect to the emergence of a New Nigeria. They have neglected their responsibility to take action and substituted it for making long and ineffective prayers for God to do what they should do.

Statistics have it that 45million Nigerians go to church every sunday. That is all the critical mass needed to change a Nation of 140million people if they would only take responsibility. The church had taken a back seat too long and were becoming irrelevant as opposed to light shining in darkness.

On the backdrop of this, I felt my own church even though it has shown what church is supposed to be by engaging in empowerment and community development on a large scale, was retreating in the face of imminent confrontation. That is why when it was announced that the walk would happen on Monday, October 19 by 10am, I was ecstatic. Finally, we are going to let the world know that we don’t agree with the black state of our Nation (epileptic power supply) and we were going to do something about it.

Rev Sam Adeyemi, Pst Nike Adeyemi, Pst Godman and other ministers at Daystar's "walk for light"

So, that was the reason why I was so restless knowing that I was far removed from the site of the walk. We got an early flight that day though we missed the first one out of PH and I almost ran through the arrival lounge pushing my luggage trolley. Since we landed at Murtala Domestic Airport in Lagos, I had been communicating with a couple of friends who were already gathered at the church venue for the commencement of the walk. My mentor and a friend who I travelled with kept making fun of me as they saw my eagerness to get united with other Walkers for Light.

We got into the car quickly that came to pick us at the airport and told the driver directly that he should do his diligence to get us as close as possible to the walkers since we had already found out that the walk had commenced. We caught up with the first set of walkers around Radio busstop, Obafemi Awolowo way in Ikeja, jumped out of the car and immediately joined the nearest platoon of walkers.

We stood out as the odd ones for a while because we had no “Walk for Light” t -shirts which had been handed out to everyone to wear before the commencement of the march. We chanted and sang songs demanding for Light and expressing our sorrow, discontent and disapproval of the current situation of lack of power in the country. Many people laughed at us, some encouraged us, others wandered at us and some where disgusted at us.

Light walkers at the Governor's office in Alausa

We couldn’t care less. We were on a march for light. After all, we were the light of the world and the least we could do was “Walk for light”. We caused quite a traffic jam because over 4,000 people turned up for the walk. What amazed me the most was that people took time off from their regular jobs to participate in the walk.

Finally, I started feeling in my heart that

Maybe we are on our way to change after all.

Maybe the church is recognising that if only they’d get involved and committed to the New Nigeria project, it would move from being a mere dream to a reality our eyes will see in our own lifetime.

Anyway, by and large we got to the governor’s office in Alausa and expressed our compelling reason for marching in protest.

Let there be Light

Afterall, that was God’s first creation on earth.

If we must therefore rebuild a Nigeria that has become void and lacks any sensible form whatsoever, our first assignment must be

LET THERE BE LIGHT.

I am the future of the world

I am the hope of my Nation

I am tomorrow’s people

I am the new inspiration

And we’ve got a song to sing to you

we’ve got a message to bring to you

we’ve got a dream

for you and for me and tomorrow (tomorrow)

If we all can agree, there’ll be sweet harmony

tomorrow, tomorrow

and we all will be there, coca cola to share

feeling so real and so (feeling so real and so true)

promise us tomorrow and we’ll make a better world for (make a better world for you)

Those are the lyrics of the 1986 advert song for coca cola. I remember singing it then with a lot of gusto even though I didn’t know all the lyrics properly. Apparently, I didn’t understand it fully as well. I didn’t know that in singing that song, I was making a commitment to the world and my country. I didn’t know I was articulating a message that was so deep.

As Nigeria celebrates children’s day today, I cast my mind back to how much of an adult I’ve become and much I miss from being a child. How much hope have I given my Nation? How much of an inspiration am I or have I been? 

This song seems so right for Nigeria. If only we can all agree, there’ll be sweet harmony. Why is there so much negative competition between the North, South, East and West. What does federal character mean? Why isn’t the job given to the best man suited and available for it? Why is a particular tribe seemingly more powerful and influential than others even when they can’t necessarily match or exceed the intellectual capacity of the other tribes? Why will certain children from certain regions enjoy privileges their counterparts in other regions don’t?

I am currently very passionate and very involved in Nation building in Nigeria. My sleeping and waking thoughts are filled with a Nigeria that is getting developed progressively even though my environment screams out otherwise everytime I check. We currently seem to be sinking into the directionlessness we suffered in during the pre-democracy years. Our leaders are bereft of ideas. They are plundering the treasury and living fat on the wealth of the Nation.

There’s no common wealth anywhere. The Federal Government is currently at war with Niger Delta militants for control of the oil-rich region. The militants have made common the practice of kidnapping people, sabotaging equipment and shooting the place up. They have become menaces in the arena but you can’t really blame them. They are simply products of the environment. Victims of the prevalent greed and lust for power around them. Having served previous governors and top politicians to intimidate and kill people, snatch ballot boxes and rig elections, they have beome monsters that are simply uncontrollabe even by previous godfathers and benefactors.

These young children are the future of the world. They are the hope of this Nation, though they don’t seem to be giving any hope currently. They are the new inspiration. Imagine if all our children grow up in this hate-filled, corruption over-run, greed saturated country. What will the future of this Nation be?

I read a story today of a father and step mother who tied a 10-yr old boy’s hands and legs and left him starving for 3 days because he was alleged to have stolen N10. What wickedness!! What kind of a future would one expect that child who has a been a victim of such cruelty and hate to create? Why would one expect him to grow up having love and compassion for his fellow citizens and the world at large after having been treated like a common animal?

We need to rise up and help create a world of love and a nation of values for our children so that they can in turn give us a great future and make the world a better place.

The children of Nigeria are thus crying to us grown ones today saying “Please promise us tomorrow and we’ll make a better world”. What are you and I promising them with our lackadaisical attitude to proper governance, values and development.

Will they witness a better future because of you and I? Or will these children and your children look you in the eye and ask “What did you do to make Nigeria the most desirable nation in the world”. “Did you do nothing and just talk or did you rise up and influence change in the Nation”?

Person 1

Person 2: gd

Person 1: na wa o

Person 1: you no see wetin dey happen for ekiti?

Person 2: nna ur pple be as they get o!

Person 2: though i had a feeling it was gonna happen

Person 1: no be dem o

Person 1: na the party dey set them up

Person 2: as the PDP can not afford for pride to allow them lose ekiti

Person 1: exactly

Person 1: you get the picture totally

Person 2: it would show that they had lost their foothold in the west

Person 1: you r too much

Person 1: you r saying the same thing i told people yday

sola adepoju: lagos gone, ondo gone, ogun going, and now ekiti?

Person 1: and they wont succeed

Person 1: edo gone as well

Person 2: i wont be surprisd if when they declare ido-osi, they declare like all the registered voters voted for pdp

Person 1: oh! they’ve declared it earlier

Person 2: its jst crazy and the antics of our distinguished and very honourable senators ao arise and femi kila

Person 1: 15,000 votes to pdp

Person 1: and 3,000 to ac

Person 2: they declared like 15k for pdp and 3k for ac

Person 1: and there are not up to 10,000 registered voters in ido osi

Person 2: do they think we are idiots?

Person 1: they are silly guys

Person 2: i think i am a prophet

Person 2: the same thing wld happen in oye 1 n 2

Person 1: you r my brother

Person 1: yes o

Person 2: still there?

Person 1: but God no go gree them

Person 1: i’m really sa

Person 1: d

Person 2: who r the pple in d streets supporting?

Person 1: this is the same PDP who kept saying AC was importing thugs through fayose and fayemi’s fathers’ burials

Person 1: fayemi is the popular candidate

Person 1: with the grassroots

Person 2: who have the power to import more thugs, or thugs in police uniform, fake soldiers and all

Person 1: very dirty of the PDP

Person 2: all in all, i think we are approaching our rebranding the wrong way

Person 1: i didn’t want to be partisan before but now i can see that staying on the fence is tantamount to supporting evil

Person 2: lets start first with the pdp, or change the pay-off to “Nigeria, good pple, bad leaders”

Person 2: LOL

Person 1: PDP stalwarts are dealing with journalists as if they were the opposition

Person 1: lol

Person 1: not bad at all

Person 1: i’ll write a post today with that topic

Person 2: Edmund burke once said “the only thing needed for evil to succedd is for men of goodwill, to be unconcerned. or something like that

Person 1: yeah….the only permission darkness needs to prevaill is for light to refuse to shine…..my paraphrase

Person 2: i am really pissed with the situation

Person 1: not as much as me man

Person 1: i’m repulsed

Person 1: but i’m sure that the will of the people will prevail

Person 2: but the more important thing for me is that good governance should be entrenched.

Person 2: as the onus is for the opposition to show that they are up to the task.

Person 2: the onus is for oshiomole, mimiko and fayemi, if and when he is eventually allowed to be governor to show that they are a credible alternative to the PDP.

Person 2: Fashola is already laying a good foundation in Lagos

Person 2: i was in ogun last weekend and someone jokinly said that come 2011, they wld kidnap fashola and keep him in hiding for four yrs so that he can be telling whoeva becomes their governor how to make impact in the lives of pple.

Person 2: his only remedy wld be if he agrees to govern both states together.

Person 2: pple are now appreciating good things.

Person 2: at least pple are voluntarily paying taxes now seeing that government is having direct impact on their lives.

BUZZ!!!

Person 1: sorry man

Person 2: ore u still there?

Person 2: got to go work beckons.

Person 2: catch u some other time!

Person 1: yeah

Person 1: i feel you

Person 1: the opposition must rise to the task ahead

Person 2: k

Person 1: for me, i didn’t feel segun oni was a bad governor at all

Person 1: his only problem was that he had a disconnect with the grass roots

Person 2: that is the only way, if not they would just be part of the problem

Person 1: i believe both candidates are good 

Person 2: fayose was not also a bad governor but he had a lot of excesses.

Person 1: i agree

Person 1: fayose touched the grassroots but failed to discipline himself

Person 2: and the excesses eventually did not allow for much progress in the state.

Person 1: the people still feel that he was the best governor ekiti ever had till date

Person 1: not at all

Person 1: u served there abi?

Person 2: lets hope and pray and act so that the opposition can show that there is a beta way.

Person 1: you must have seen that the basic benefits of democracy is lacking in about 80

Person 1: percent of the state

Person 1: abi o

Person 2: fayose really had a way of connecting with the masses though it was all PR gimmicks. 

Person 2: i was there

Person 2: really got to go now.

Person 2: i’ll keep this conversation and like use it when i eventually write an article on ekiti state.

Person 2: be good ore mi busy

Person 2: bye

Person 1: no wahala

Person 1: thanks for yarning

Person 1: i’ll drop in to see you soon

Person 1: cheers man

Person 2: k

Person 2: looking 4ward to it

I had been given a mandate by the future movement to go and set the ball rolling with respect to organising a political debate between the political aspirants of the annulled April 18, 2007 elections. Elections had been annulled in 10 out of 16 local government council areas by an Appeal court and a re-run had been ordered. The election rerun in the state is billed to take place on the 25th April, 2009.

As a result, the whole of the nation has it’s eyes fixed on Ekiti and the re-run elections. What will be the outcome? Will the sacked governor return or will a new governor be sworn in? The question on everyone’s lips “Oni or Fayemi, who will it be?” Well, back to the purpose of my trip. I was sent to a particular Pastor who had a passion for seeing a new Nigeria emerge and another interesting young man who lived for the ideals of a new Nigeria.

I set out with so much unknown yet so much anticipation. I had prayed and was sure that God will direct my steps and put a smile on my face when I returned to give the report to the uture movement. I arrived Ekiti about 2pm yesterday afternoon, after a four and a half hour journey and after waiting for two hours at the bus park. I met with my young friend after a couple of phone calls and we both went to meet with the Pastor at his church’s new building site.

About a dozen people were engaged in one activity or the order, dirtied from sand, mud and dust, they were either pushing wheelbarrows laden with construction materials or mixing with spades or carrying head pans “pon-pon” filled with mixed concrete to pour in the mould that was made for the foundation of the building. The Pastor himself was dressed in very old clothes I discovered as he approached to welcome me and his hands very dirty with mud. He smiled as he welcomed me warmly and hesitated at my stretched out hand, showing me his mud covered ones and asking if I didn’t mind. I said I didn’t and locked his right hand in a very strong handshake despite the the dried dirt on it. Afterall, I was at home and was meeting with my own kin.

Immediately, I launched into the agenda of my visit and he came up to speed quite quickly with it. Anyway, according to him, it had been a burning desire on his heart so it seemed to be happening at the right time. We discussed together the factors we needed to take up immediately with regards to the seminar/debate. In a few mins, we had set out deliverables and he had assured me that if I was going to wait till the next morning, he’d give me an update on the reaction and decision of other key stakeholders he would be speaking with yesterday evening. I instantly assured him that I’ll be waiting till the next morning ofcourse. I had vowed to take responsibility for the political state in Ekiti and needed to begin to relate even more closely with its people as well as stay in the state a little more than before.

I left his place after we spent several minutes discussing the polity of Ekiti state and was picked up by my Auntie who serves as the chairman of the National Association of Nurses and Midwives-Ekiti Branch and we drove to her house where I spent the night. I was treated to a very large and delectable meal of pounded yam and efo riro soup with eja kika and beef.

Shortly after I loaded up with the food, my friend Kunle Alashi came calling and we had a good discussion on many aspects of life. I spent some time feeling the vibes of politics in the state while discussing my mission to my Auntie. She gave me some insight into why she preferred “the devil we know to an angel we don’t know”. Those were her exact words in referring to the two major gubernatioral aspirants.

I slept soundly feeling very strongly the fresh and very cool breeze of the country. I almost didn’t get out of bed excepting the fact that I had an appointment by 7am. I met our Pastor friend again and he gave me updates on the situation. Needless to say that he gave some very encouraging news and promised to tie up the loose ends by the end of the week. He set up a small committee to work with me on the project and I the feeling of excitement at the success of this project was thick in the air as I discussed it with them.

I was told that I had to make another trip to Ekiti by next week to tie up the loose ends and that what was most important now was getting the consent of the aspirants to appear for the debate. By and large, I left Ekiti this morning in high spirits dreaming about the program and its resultant success and ofcourse the effect of that success on the people of Ekiti state.

Enlightened followership would have been created and the middle class who usually don’t take  responsibility by voting will have been encouraged to vote. The title of the seminar/debate is “Your vote,your voice” and the name of this gracious Pastor friend is Tunde Afe of the House of Faith Church, Ado Ekiti. I’ll write about updates of this meeting as they happen and I believe another Barack Obama scenario is in the making. Ekiti state will be the pilot and the rest of Nigeria will surely follow. God bless Nigeria. God bless Ekiti State.

“if God judge count the iniquity of the wicked, who shall stand?”

I seat here watching and listening to intermittently the CEOs of banks in the U.S giving comprehensive account of their transactions with regards to the bailout they got from the government a while ago. I see seated all the CEOs of the big and mightly banks. The JP Morgan Chases, Goldman Sachhs of this world are ably represented as they say what and what they have done with the moneys given to them an what amount of profit or loss they have made.

The idea behind the committee that is holding them accountable is to find out whether the CEOs can be trusted as proper custodians of public funds and whether or not they will sacrifice all that is needed to ensure that Americans have access to proper credit again credibly in the bid to grow the sunken economy.

The last time some of them were told to give account, questions fired at them bothered on their own personal sacrifices and those of the management with regards to crises situations. Questions like “Did you arrive by private jet or did you take the train or did you fly first class?” were thrown at them to see what lengths they were willing to go to indicate their empathy with Americans and the American economy crisis at present. Those whose personal spending habits didn’t reflect what they drafted on paper as reports were seriously reprimanded.

And then suddenly, with tears in my eyes, I ask myself “when will this happen in Nigeria?” When will the Jim Ovias and Tony Elumelus be brought before an equitable committee to give an account of how they have put public funds to use?

When will there be a harmonised financial year end for banks so that all the buffering up of accounts from one bank to another and mistatement of accounts by so-called auditors who have been bribed stop?

When will even the CBN governor be able brought to accountability on his projections, his statements and the state of the economy as a fall out of his policies or inactions?

This hand-in-glove arrangement that the banks have with the CBN governor such that the true state of health of the banks are not disclosed despite the fact that billions of naira of public funds are at risk may have been exposed by then.

When will those who are in charge of leading, driving and growing our economy be brought to accountability in the face of their woeful failures?

I can’t wait. I just can’t. Even the Bank of England governor can attest that the nation is in deep recession. Our own CBN governor can’t even state the banks that are “living dead” and find a solution to rescuing the public’s funds.

Who will bell the banks? and when? In the New Nigeria, I believe all that should be will be.

The inauguration of the 44th and 1st black president of the United States of America was realised on the 20th of January, this year. With regards to America’s standing as the leader of the free world, it was imperative that most countries that had foreign missions in America would have been represented at the inauguration one way or another. To buttress this, invitations were sent to such countries to have their delegates ably represented at the event. Nigeria, by default also got an invitation. We are the most populous black nation and the fifth largest seller of crude oil to the U.S. It would have been quite surprising if we weren’t invited.

As if that was not honour enough, I learn’t that some state governors decided to go and witness history being made live. One can only hope that they were not just fascinated about Obama’s glory but that they would have critically observed his story and will take actionable steps to implement positive change in their various states.

Anyway, the governors are not my concern. Everyone has a free will to take 1 or 2 days off to be part of history. What I read concerning our foreign delegation is what irks me. President Barack Obama who was sworn in on that day has since started work in earnest. Signing in documents into law, meeting with members of staff of the white house and his cabinet, dealing with the shutting of Guantanamo bay, addressing the way forward in Afghanistan and so on. Our own foreign mission representatives headed by Ojo Madueke are yet to return from the United States.

I really am not angry at them after thinking through deeply. Afterall, you can’t acheive history like that in Nigeria and just let it go so unceremoniously. Firstly, since the gods have finally accepted our prayers, they must be duely appeased with all sorts of sacrifices and festivities. Also, God almighty needs to be given the praise for allowing it to happen, so we need to give him loads of praise and worship with a few popular bands (about 2o) declaring these praises for a few days. Also, since of course, the president would have become president on the platform of a particular party, that party would have to host the president to a high profile success party with the party executives in attendance where the monies spent earlier on other celebrations are re-spent and a lot more noise made through the media, musicians and so on. And because the president is from some local area in the country, then his community must host him to another party where the traditional ruler and high chiefs of his local community can congratulate him in person and where ordinary citizens from the area can catch a live glimpse of their “brother” who has just become president.

Unfortunately, all these didn’t happen in the U.S. though our foreign mission must have booked for about 2 weeks in their hotels not expecting that all will be over so soon. It may be also that I’m wrong. Possibly, the foreign mission delegates might just have thought to themselves,

“since we are already in America, even though on official assignment that has elapsed, can we just convert

sometime into vacation. After all, estacode that we collected must not be returned. We must spend it

by every means possible even if we have to stay back in America for 1 month or is there any other country

that is swearing in their president or rebel leader that we can visit officially?”

I really don’t know which it is but I appeal to our representatives to please return home ASAP. Thank you for representing us. It’s time for you to come and earn your keep and add value to your country by serving to the best of your ability. America is that way because people made it so. Come back and make your country so………Deliver the future if you can, and please resign if you wouldn’t.

If wealth is lost, nothing is lost; if health is lost, something is lost; if character is lost, everything is lost……….

I heard that last week, Reuben Abati, a foremost journalist with the Guardian newspapers wrote an article of how his email account was hacked into and his friends had all received emails allegedly from him stating that he was currently in India attending a conference and his daughter who was very ill and needed to undergo a life saving operation urgently. The mail stated that he urgently needed N250,000 to balance the operation fees and that those who were willing to help should pay to a particular account with the details of the account included.

Mercifully, those who were willing to help immediately gave him a call on his number expecting that even if he was in China, he should be roaming. To his perplexity, his phone rang at 4am Nigerian time and one of his friends is on the other end of the line commiserating with him and expressing their suprise at haven not known about his daughter’s condition before they received the mail. He was said to have felt like fainting. His shock couldn’t be hidden as he told his friend and all the other friends that called him after that the information on his daughter was as knew to them as it was to him.

This is a scenario that is being replicated everyday in Nigeria. Scammers looking for people to steal from. I just imagine if only 10 of his friends had responded immediately to that distress email and each sent in their magnanimity N250,000 to the stated account. Soneone or some people would have made about N2.5 million immediately. Why is it that in Africa and ofcourse Nigeria corruption and fraud have become the character of the people.

When Nigerians go to certain places now, the warning lights that flash in people’s minds are “corruption, greed, fraud…“ Why? Why must we be set aside for humiliating searches at airports? Why are we considered security risk in many places? Isn’t because NIgerians have built a culture of wrong doing? Isnt it because people now lack character. If the quote at the beginning of this post is anything to go by, can we say that for the majority of Nigerians, “all has been lost?”

Or how do you explain parents who hire mercenaries to write exams for their children? Or governors who loot the treasuries of states they were elected to serve in and get chieftaincy titles from royal fathers within and outside those states?

The corrupted character Nigerians exhibit is no longer seedlike in form. It has grown to become a very great tree and regardless of how much the leaves and branches are cut. The tree will still continue to remain and to grow except it is cut down and uprooted. That is to say a total paradigm shift may be necessary. I also do believe that the several corrupted trees in Nigeria that constitute the dark forest can be set on fire and razed down till they are burnt to ashes. (those who need to be killed, jailed, disgraced or banished need to get those measures meted out to them urgently)

Good character is a product of a good heart. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he”. Until Nigerians change the content of their hearts, Nigeria will never be known for good character. Until character is more celebrated than money, Nigerians are not likely to take it as priority. Until our children, the next generation, understand that possessing good character is sufficient to get them wealth and even health, EVERYTHING will ultimately be lost.

I want to say congrats to the former president for eventually getting a university degree. It’s just a pity that he got it at a time after he had ruled the country twice. Perharps, had he gotten it earlier, the country may have benefited from his experience in a higher institution. Albeit, I don’t think the receipt of a degree by a former president should have caused such inconvenience and suffering to the people of the state. The roads were blocked completely at major points in Victoria Island, Lagos on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 simply because Obasanjo was getting a Bachelor’s degree. What would happen when he got a Doctorate or if he became a professor. Bill Clinton became a visiting professor after his tenure as president of the United States of America and the Secret Service didn’t harass anybody either on or off the campus.

I really don’t understand why our leaders can’t bring themselves to be humble and empathize with the people. Why is power so intoxicating in Africa? Several hundreds or even thousands of road users had to go through near stand still traffic for hours just because a former president was receiving a Bachelors’ degree. It’s more amazing that the degree is in Theology which has one of its cardinal doctrines as Humility and Tolerance. I hope the former president would be able to practice what he has studied and may soon begin to preach. The article below was culled from The Punch.

The National Open University of Nigeria on Wednesday celebrated its maiden convocation with former President Olusegun Obasanjo refusing to speak to the press after collecting a certificate from the institution.

The former president, popularly called ‘Student Obasanjo’ by staff and students of the open university received his certificate from the institution’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olagbemiro Jegede, amidst ovation from one of his predecessor Alhaji Shehu Shagari.

Present were the Vice-President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the Senate President, Mr. David Mark and the Director-General, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Mr. Koichiro Matsuura.

However, journalists, who had hoped that Obasanjo would grant them an interview on his stay in the university after the convocation, were disappointed as he refused all entreaties to answer even their congratulatory messages.

As soon as he walked out of the venue, journalists moved to his side, to comment, but rather than answer them, he walked up to Koichiro whom he had a little discussion with.

Though his security aides were civil, pleading with the press that they should give him some chance to discuss with the UNESCO boss, the former president who looked tired, jumped into his waiting sports utility vehicle.

Before he entered the black vehicle, he struggled to remove the academic gown, but when he could not, he called one of his aides to help him.

He hopped into the car after exchanging pleasantries with some of the dignitaries including the Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Aliyu Wammako and Chief Obafemi Olopade and left the venue.

Her daughter, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello and his former Special Assistant on Media, Dr. Doyin Okupe, were some of the people that accompanied the former president to the convocation.

Earlier, while presenting his convocation speech, the vice-chancellor, had described Obasanjo as a hardworking student.

“As a student, Obasanjo vigorously pursued his studies on full time basis…He is a shinning example of how seriously a student should take his learning. Like everybody, he sat for all the examinations using anonymous matriculation numbers, and by our internal quality control and security-proof control measures, his papers were marked by different tutors located in some of our study centres including Damaturu, Minna and Yenagoa,” he said.

Jegede explained that nobody had a foreknowledge of the former president’s marks until all students’ marks were assembled and presented to the university senate for approval.

In his remarks, President Umaru Yar’Adua, who was represented by his deputy, expressed the Federal Government’s continued support for the open distance learning university.

According to him, education is a top priority in the seven-point agenda of the administration and as such, government will continue to inject funding to the university.

Two days ago, I crossed another milestone on my career path. Those who have heard me or read me know that I keep on going about consulting this…consulting that…Anyway, I was able to move up my game from HR/Business consulting to Leadership/Organisational Development consulting. How did that happen?

Well…I don’t know if I’ve mentioned in any of my posts that sometime earlier this year, I met one of my mentors in the area of finance and organisational development. I went for a seminar, saw him standing afar off and approached him. I guessed this was my moment of connection and I seized it with fear and excitement. Interestingly, he had been school mates with my father in the University and they had even been members of the same fellowship while there in the university….bla bla bla

Anyway, he had done so well through the years in the area of production and manufacturing and had become an Icon of business in Nigeria. He sits on the boards of several multinational organisations. So, back to my story. I met him by force that day and of course collected his contact. I afterwards had one reason or another to correspond with him and as luck will have it, he also had reason to contact me especially in relation to my father.

Thus, a relationship was started and it has grown quite well. (if you see anyone you had dreamt of meeting, please walk up to them and establish contact…the world only moves for those who move…that might be the step to the . In fact, the relationship has moved to all to different levels – personal (I’ve been to his house thrice; one of which was to have lunch), business (we’ve invested together in the same business ideas), mentor/mentee (I have free access to call and ask him about what his advice is with regards to any area of my life). All these happened in the last 3 months. I feel very favoured because I’ve gotten referrals of CEOs from him and so my network has been expanding immensely.

Why have I been saying all these. Well……it is to inform you that I was privileged once again to sit in as a colleague with my mentor on a consulting session that had to do with Leadership/Organisational Development for a particular company. How did this happen? Well…I noted it on one of our earlier meetings when he mentioned that he’d be doing consulting in that line now and asked 1 or 2 subsequent meetings later, if I could volunteer to help with his work. I indicated my willingness to learn and my belief that learning from the best makes you the best faster than learning to be the best yourself.

He agreed after a thought and added that I might even be able to bring some of my profession to bear in the case at hand. Guys, please learn to volunteer. You never can tell what you’ll learn by making yourself available and useful in the area you have a passion in or in the career direction you want to follow.

First and foremost, I felt so good been introduced as his colleague to the clients at the start of the meeting and even though I was there to listen and observe, I ended up contributing positively as a consultant. Well, of course, it wasn’t that the subject matter was strange to me or completely diverse from my profession, but I had not done such consulting at that level. The meeting lasted about 6 hours ( there was a short tea break after 3 hours) and though I made the mistake of not having breakfast before the meeting, I couldn’t really tell how much time had flown by until I found out that it was 4pm. This was a meeting that started at 10am.

At the end of the consulting session, our clients were mind blown and couldn’t wait for another session. Suddenly in their words, it seemed as if what they thought was dead had come to life. They could see only possibilities. In fact one of them asked if that was really the company they worked for. It was very enlightening.

So, I’ve just crossed another milestone and gone and cut my teeth in organisational/leadership development consulting. HURRAY!!!