THE ‘ME’ I SEE

I’ve always wondered what life has in store for me

I’ve always wondered what lies beneath the surface

I’ve always wondered what will become of me

I am extremely anxious about my tomorrow

I am constantly hunted by the thought of not maximizing my potentials

I have fears, load of them

Chief of which is departing without impacting

Every passing day I strive to make my life count

Peradventure I can also be counted among the great

But a fundamental truth I seem to be ignoring

That the ‘me’ I see is the ‘me’ I’ll be

Then came the Eureka moment!

When finally I got the ancient secret

Consequent upon which I began speaking another language

I see me affecting my world positively

I see me putting smiles on the faces of millions

I see me being the answer to the question of many

I see me being the solution to the problem of many

I see me providing the leadership that my world needs

I see me being a voice in my generation

I see me being the change that my world has been waiting for

I see me lending a hand to millions of helpless folks around the world

I see me being the catalyst of global revolution

I see me being the hero of my time

I see me facing my creator with a sense of satisfaction

Cos the me I see is the me I’ll be

Take a look into the mirror my dear friend

What exactly do you see?

Begin to declare that which you have seen

Cos the ‘you’ you see is the ‘you’ you’ll be

SHALLOM!

EMOTIONAL BANK ACCOUNT

It’s incredibly amazing the principles by which life on earth is governed – simple yet profound principles. We seem to look at things from a complex stand point simply because we have succeeded in complicating our simple world (Hmmm, thought provoking if you ask me). One of the fundamental simple principles of life is that of saving – it’s a culture that is as old as man. You only need to remember the great famine that ravaged the then known world and the wisdom with which the world was preserved shared by Joseph a man that knows the benefit of saving in time of abundance to be enjoyed in time of adverse scarcity.

In our life’s foray, we’ll always have seasons of plenty as well as periods of scarcity, there’ll always be booms and dooms just as the world is experiencing right now. However, it seems we have ignored this timeless principle or we simply don’t have a saving culture in our time such that we enjoy (or over enjoy) the period of plenty only to be greeted by a global crunch and alas we have to endure the excruciating pain because we’ve got no reserve.

Quick one: Don’t serve all, reserve some.

Sincerely, I for one think that this attitude has permeated every department of our lives such that even in our human relationships we treat people like thrash. I doubt if there is any justifiable reason why we should relate with our fellow men as though the whole world revolves around only us. You know for some folks, the only definitive article in their dictionary is I, Me and Myself, but either we like it or not we all have an imaginary (but real) account with everyone in our world – it is called the emotional bank account and truth be told, we need to continually make deposits in this account because either we like it or not, a time will come when we need to make withdrawals; woe betide the individual whose account is in the red at such hour of need. Your cash bank account might be in negative balance and there won’t be much qualms but for your emotional account ensure that you are always in credit.

A tree can never make a forest just as no one is an island on his own hence in whatever you do friend remember that the principle of seed time and harvest governs our world so make sure you are planting the right seed for posterity sake. The American writer Wilson Mizner says “be nice to people on your way up because you might meet them on your way down” how do you intend to face those you practically trampled underfoot to attain that height when the chips start making their downward descent. Let me borrow you a gem of wisdom friend: despise no man, be good to all because after all said and done just as I use to say “as powerful as a microscope is, you can’t use it to see a man’s future” the nonentity of today might have a great identity tomorrow and become a some-entity that holds the key to your breakthrough.

I charge you mate, put a smile on someone’s face today and always remember that your candle loses nothing by lighting up another.

I ask you have you made deposit into your emotional bank account today?

Peaks, Valleys, and Rails

Many of us long for mountaintop moments. Those times of shared success, satisfaction, and celebration. Times when the nail-biting drive of daily life is behind us for a while and forgotten, and all we can think about is the happiness of the moment.

A honeymoon can be that kind of experience: the rush of shared sex, the joy of loving someone and being loved in return, the bright hopes for years of happiness together.

The birth of a child can be a mountaintop: the wonder of little eyes opening for the first time, the sacred squall of a newborn's first cry, the way an infant can bring parents and in-laws together.

A dream vacation with your spouse can be a mountaintop: time to relax and enjoy each other and a beautiful place, without worries, without work.

It's tempting to think of life as a continual climb, looking for the next mountaintop. We may tell ourselves that most of life is lived in the valleys, but we hope we're on the road to another mountaintop experience, and that we'll get there before too long or after too many years on the switchbacks, we can lose hope that we'll ever see another mountaintop. Some people sink into dreary stagnation: "My life is what it is. Not bad enough to end, but I’m not finding any mountaintops."

But is life best seen as a series of mountaintop and valley experiences? Mountaintops that never last long enough, and valleys that seem endless?

"Why does life have to be a series of ups and downs?" "Why can't we just go from one mountaintop to another, from one up to an upper up?"

But what if peaks and valleys aren't the best way to describe life? What if God didn't intend us just to endure down times so we could enjoy an occasional up?

Rick Warren, pastor and author of The Purpose-Driven Life, made an observation a couple of years ago that seems to describe the terrain of life. In a single year, his book reached the top of the best-seller lists and his wife was diagnosed with cancer. A mountaintop? A deep valley? Or something else?

"This past year has been the greatest year of my life," wrote Rick, "but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys—you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth.

"I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life."

For a train to make progress, it's always in contact with both rails. Life rides parallel rails of blessing and adversity.

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," writes David in Psalm 23, "I will fear no evil, for you are with me." This songwriter of the Bible is describing a comfort and relationship that emerges only in the difficult times. In fact, the closeness of that relationship develops in the difficult times.

Likewise, as we mature, we begin to notice that joy and difficulty aren't either/or. They coexist constantly.

"No matter how good things are in your life," writes Warren, "there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for."

So maybe the purpose of life isn't about always looking for the next mountaintop.

Joy and difficulty are an odd combination, but much of life is lived seeking one and avoiding the other. I used to think they came one at a time, like alternating currents. Now I realize they're both present, all the time and developing eyes to see both simultaneously is a proof of our maturity.

I'm glad that life isn't just mountaintops and valleys, but that both joy and adversity are with us always for by this we learn one of the most important lessons about life – DEPENDENCE.

FREED BUT NOT FREE

When on the 4th of  july 1776 congress adopted the declaration of independence of the United States it was a landmark, epoch-making and indeed history making event and even though the document as far as I am concerned is to serve as the compass for the journey of the great nation that was birthed that day, to sit down and debate if America has lost that compass will be to leave the log in one’s eyes only to be pointing at the speck in the eyes of one’s neighbor, hence even though I’ll look at the text of the declaration of American independence, I’ll be looking at it in the context of my dear country Nigeria who graciously gained her independence on the 1st of October, 1960.

“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government”.

Hmmm...pregnant declaration if you ask me. Nigeria, oh my darling country as we celebrate our 49th year of freedom I am tempted to ask are we free indeed? Freedom as far as I am concerned goes beyond celebrations which is what we seem to have reduced it to and take it from me that is the greatest aberration to the principle of independence, to me it looks like what we have are the paraphernalia of freedom devoid of freedom itself and sadly we appear to have confused freedom as a concept ( idea) with freedom as a concrete (reality). Wherein lies the difference? I’ll use a simple analogy – Wedding and Marriage. Just like loads of folks are confusing the two as they get carried away with the motions and theatrics of wedding preparation that they suffer from acute amnesia to keep at the fore front of the mind that wedding is one day marriage is a lifetime, of course reality begins to dawn on folks when after all the merriment and noise making of wedding which by the way is short lived they are awaken to the real world of marriage and alas they are ill prepared. The crack in several homes can be traced to this silent issue and it is a classical case of misplacement of priority which is exactly Nigeria's present dilemma .

 In the wake of events leading up to 1st October, 1960, our leaders were carried away with the ceremonies and preparations for the ‘great event’ of independence that they somehow forgot that with independence comes responsibility and it looks as if we took freedom and mortgaged the responsibility that comes with it for something that has a form of freedom but in actual sense is bondage in disguise. If not how can we explain the fact that our history is replete with leaders who at best are rulers? We were freed but are we free? Are we free from corruption and all its attendant consequences? Are we sincerely free as a nation to move into our ‘promised land’? Are we free to properly and judiciously utilize the natural resources with which we have been abundantly blessed by the almighty? Are we free to exercise our right as a sovereign nation in dealing with the challenges that we face as a people? Are we truly free? I think the real question is have we paid the price for freedom? because the reality of it is that freedom has a price tag attached to it. Food for thought if you ask me.

EUREKA

Just going down memory lane and decided to stay at my secondary school ‘avenue’, precisely at physics class ‘bus stop’ and the word Eureka from Archimedes principle just jumped at me. As I ruminated on this some burning issues unveiled themselves beckoning on my consideration. For those who do not have a background in the sciences let me give you a brief history of this word so we can flow together.

It is most famously attributed to the ancient Greek scholar Archimedes; he reportedly proclaimed "Eureka!" when he stepped into a bath and noticed that the water level rose — he suddenly understood that the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged. This meant that the volume of irregular objects could be calculated with precision, a previously intractable problem. He is said to have been so eager to share his realization that he leapt out of his bathtub and ran through the streets of Syracuse naked.

Just a simple experiment will validate this principle: fill a glass to its brim with water and push a table tennis ball into the glass, the water runs over the side. The volume or amount of water that overflows the glass is the volume that has been displaced.

If you weigh the water that overflows and the table tennis ball, you find that the water weighs more than the ball. If an object displaces an amount of water weighting more than it does, it floats. If an object displaces an amount of water weighing less than it does, it sinks. If an object displaces an amount of water weighing the same as it does, it hovers.

Archimedes' insight led to the solution of a problem posed by Hiero of Syracuse, on how to assess the purity of an irregular golden crown. Equipment for weighing objects already existed, and now that Archimedes could also measure volume, their ratio would give the object's density, an important indicator of purity; it also explains why a steel ship will float on water.

Now enough of physics, let’s focus on central message of this discourse.

Borrowing a dose of wisdom from the words of Helen Keller who once opined that the “greatest tragedy in life is people who have sight but no vision”, I hope that you’ll accede to my tweaking this a little to make my submission that it is a tragedy to have sight without insight. How that several times we approach issues from a dysfunctional stance simply because someone said it cannot be done, we throw in the towel and give up. We look but we refuse to see. History is replete with men who defied stereotypes, who dared to ask ‘why not’ and achieved feats that were once considered impossible . The story of Archimedes once again reminded me of the fact that tenacity is the rule of the game for anyone who wants to inscribe his name on the sands of history as having made a tremendous contribution to the course of making the world a better place. Permit me to at this juncture underscore some life’s principles I was able to glean from Archimedes principle:

 Sight – the issue of having a vision has been flogged (if not over flogged) at several fora and in different circumstances to the point that loads of people has come to accept it as the panacea to the myriads of challenges they face. As much as there is no one-size-fits-all principle to getting ahead in life I will like to submit that as good as vision is it is not enough. The holy writ says “where there is no vision the people perish”, where there are no people, what happens to the vision? Hence as good as vision is, it needs human instruments to bring it to the realm of reality and by ‘instruments’ I’m talking of that specie of humans with a ‘can do’ attitude towards life.

 Foresight – this has to do with planning for the morrow, it is analyzing where one is, setting achievable goals and charting the course of action(s) that will transport one to where one desires to be. How we need men with fore sight in our days, those with an uncommon drive who can draw a clear map of the journey  that will ultimately land us in our land of abundance.

 Hindsight – experience they say is the best teacher, there is no gainsaying the fact that we learn invaluable lessons from the things that have happened to us in the past. The danger however lies in not knowing where to draw the line between learning and letting go. Several folks are so tied to their past that they cannot be released into their future. As good as hindsight is extract the requisite lessons from it and throw them to where they belong – behind (that’s why it is called hindsight). It’s no use flogging a dead horse, look back, learn and look forward.

 Insight – this is a sight whose source is not external but internal. It is the ‘thermometer’ of the soul – the instrument for measuring our true sense of sight. The euphemism for insight is revelation and trust me it births revolution.

Turn the searchlight inwards activate your inner eyes and engage the forces of nature on a higher realm by unlocking the solution to your situation through the instrumentality of insight and as you unlock the streams of possibilities from within like Archimedes you will shout EUREKA.

ReBuilding Nigeria!

Hello friend,

Today being the 8th anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the US, i decided to have a moment of sober reflection peradventure i can receive a unique revelation to lend my voice to the war against terrrorism precipitated by this historic event. To my greatest chagrin, my antenae was tuned to the happenings in my fatherland and in trying to find a correlation between 9/11 and the present state of our nation i came to discover that we have a 'terrorist' invasion that we seem to be oblivious of and in trying to give words to my thoughts i came across Adeolu Akinyemi's blog and i couldn't just get away from the thought provoking posts. I am reproducing (verbatim) a particualr article from this blog here for your reading pleasure... opps is pleasure the right word? cos i doubt if the situation is pleasurable.

What I want to write today is an article I will love you to pirate. I’ll like you to dub it, and put it on your blog post. Modify it if you like, give me credit if you want, or give me none at all. They say we’ll achieve a lot more if we don’t care who gets the credit.

I have refrained deliberately for a long time to make any comments about our National Rebranding exercise. I hope I will be able to say what boils in my throat and wrists tonight, without making too much reference to it. For all it’s worth though, I think the fundamental error I can see, is that Nigerians have not been made to own it, and hence rather than having people championing it, and helping others buy in, what we have is criticism and condemnation by the same people who would have been it’s champions.

Having said that however, I have a proposition of an exercise that we can own as Nigerians. It’s a simple idea and it came as a fallout of a discussion that ensued in my office yesterday. It’s an answer of what we can do to focus our leaders on the problems that we have as citizens and to assist them in giving it the attention it deserves. We no longer need any assitance from any source to know that our most crucial problem in Nigeria is Leadership! If we are all on the same page in this realization, then our efforts towards a better Nigeria must be channeled to support, focus and direct our leaders.

I remember shortly before the elections last year I wrote an article I titled, “Power is all we need!” I pleaded with our would be leaders not to promise us roads or education, but to promise us just one thing – Power! That if in any leaders 4yrs we can celebrate 1yr of uniterupted power supply, then we should imortalize that president. Haven been to Egypt now to watch tombs, I say we must do the same, but before they die however.

First for the nation, then the states, then our local governments. Once we have a new president for example, we should as a nation analyze our most significant problem that we want solved in his or her tenure. After we have agreed on this problem, we should then go ahead and give that problem the same name with our president. We should substitute the name of our leader with this problem in our conversations, in our articles in newspapers, in our slang’s, in our music and drama. We should do this per state and per local government as well.

Let’s say for example that we have discovered that our biggest problem in Nigeria is Electricity, and for example that our president’s name for the tenure was Yaradua. Then everytime light goes, every time we are in darkeness, everytime we have any issues, our conversations should be like this.

When it is bad as it is – “Chai, Yaradua has gone again”, “Ah, we have not had Yaradua for the last 2 days”, “This Yaradua is so unstable”, “Ah what did we do today oh, we have half Yaradua today”,” What’s wrong with you, you are complaining that you haven’t seen Yaradua for 3 days, what about people that haven’t seen Yaradua for one year! or ever!”, “I wasn’t able to do it overnight, because Yaradua kept fainting”, “We have been using Yaradua as backup to our Generator”, “Iron your shirts, Yaradua may soon go oh”, ”

When this start becoming good – ” Up Yaradua!”, “Yaradua is really trying oh, we are not where we want to be, but we are far from where we were”, “Yaradua has been consistent for the past 24hrs”, “Ah, we need to celebrate 1yr of uninterrupted Yaradua”, “Yaradua is so much better these days”, “With Yaradua so constant, Nigeria is really becoming the most desirable nation to live in on earth”. “Yaradua is constant in all the states of Nigeria and the structures are in place to get Yaradua into all the local governments.”

Can you for your own new ones?

If we keep speaking this way, our leaders will know that we mean business with our desire for solutions. The next president will also know that one critical unsolved problem will bear his name until it’s solved. I recommend, that whichever president fixes electric power be given the opportunity to forever bear the same name with electricity in Nigeria and be forever immortalized in the lips and minds of Nigerians. The same for every future identified problem. A similar approach should be taken to the state levels. Whatever problem we align and identify must be instantly changed to the name of the Governor. If the issue in Lagos for example was Transportation and assuming the Governor was Fashola, then by now, people should be saying “Fashola is getting better in Lagos now”, or ” I entered one wrong fashola and they collected my phone and laptop.” or “Big Fashola (BRT) is actually making life easy for Lagosians”. We can identify the states one by one and identify the problems that need to be solved and replaced with their name.

My people say that whatever hurts one, must be primary in one’s conversation – “Oun to ba duni lo n po loro eni”

If you use this on your blog, just put a litte comment here saying you are using it so I can follow on to your site and register my solidarity. I think this is something that we the people can own and gradually take things to the way things should be. We deserve more than what we are getting, and UNTIL we the people are clear about what we want and about our commitment to make sure it happen, then nothing happens. Let’s make this happen!

Now I really need to sleep before Yarauda’ goes!

STANDING TALL IN A BENT WORLD

I have always nursed the ambition of making a difference in my time; I have always resisted the idea of being just a statistic or a figure, I have a desire to be the answer to people’s questions, the solution to people’s problems, I constantly feel pained when someone approaches me for a favour and I lacked the wherewithal to provide or grant their request, how I crave to always put a smile (or at least a dimple) on peoples face – bottom line, I have a strong desire to be an agent of change. I know that in the crevices of our heart a part of us yearns to be the change our world has been waiting for. But how do we make a difference? Take it from me; to be outstanding you need to stand out, Q.E.D.
No doubt you’ve severally found yourself in compromising positions (I do too) and one way or the other you are bombarded with loads of choices most of which are unpalatable and there were times when figuratively you find yourself standing between the devil and the deep blue sea with all routes of escape completely blocked. What do you do in such situations? Do you make a deal with the devil (which obviously will require you to make sacrifices some of which might be grave) or do you just plunge yourself into the sea hoping and praying that by a whim of divine intervention an escape route will appear. No doubt your choice naturally will tilt towards a less risky and viable of the two which most often than not will be to rationalise your position and make a deal with the devil after all, he who fights to run lives to fight another day. Contrariwise, I am of the opinion that ‘he does not make a difference who dares not to be different’. You know the popular saying if you cannot beat them you join them is so untrue for one who wants to make a difference because making a difference has to do with ‘beating them’ – yeah you need to beat them pal. I have been a student in the school of leadership for some time now (and when I say leadership, I hope your mind is not drifting towards position because that ain’t leadership – leadership for me is setting the pace) and have come to cherish a law I came across some years ago which says “if you think you are leading and no one is following you then you are only taking a walk”. One can safely conclude from the aforementioned therefore that making a difference is influencing them (or beating them) hence you have no business being with them if you cannot beat them. For a leader, joining them is not an option beating them is. Let the leader in you emerge, stand tall and set the standard.
We live in a time when people will always have justifications for their actions (and inactions), when there is no longer an exception to the rule, the exception has become the rule (if you know what I mean), things are no longer seen as black or white, several shades of grey have appeared and are the norm, even our vocabulary have undergone what I call ‘creative metamorphosis’, stealing has got a new nomenclature – misappropriation (what a tongue twisting word), and to worsen the situation some people who over the years were of impeccable character are beginning to dance to a different melody the lyrics of which we don’t understand. Pressures are mounting from every side but my friend stand your ground and refuse to bend – it is a proof of your character strength. I strongly believe that in the face of intimidations and decadence we still can stand tall even if everyone around us is bending and changing exclamation mark (!) to question mark (?). After all even in Israel of old when everybody deviated from the path of life to embrace foreign gods (values, ideals, ways E.t.c) there were still some seven thousand young men who refused to bow. I charge you friend: Dare to be different, stand tall in this bent world.