I would be the last person to glamorise losing or to extol the virtues of a serial loser but over time I observed we’ve become a people who have an unhealthy fear of losing. In our quest to win at all cost, morality becomes an inconvenience which we hurriedly discard so not to ‘besest’ us. This attitude is abundantly evident everywhere we look. Is it in politics, religion, sports, education. That’s perhaps why you will hear of Pastors faking miracles in order to boost church membership; or students involving themselves in sundry exam malpractices. Some trek down the bribery route…
Author: Oladapo Akande
“Mba!”We will not remain in Egypt. We need a Moses who will teach Nigerians to take responsibility for their actions and behaviour – ingraining in us the principles of self-leadership, critical for nation building. He must lead us to lead ourselves. A man who sneakily shunts the fuel queue, displacing and effectively cheating others who have queued for hours of their rightful position in the line, will still that very same evening at the beer parlour, join others to lament how bad our leaders are! He fails to see the very clear link between his own behaviour and the decrepit…
“The plans of the diligent lead to profit”. We’ve heard it over and over before, especially while growing up, that to succeed in just about any endeavour one decides to embark on in life, one must develop the habit of working hard. It’s therefore no surprise that we, in turn have adopted this mantra in guiding our own children too. Further sound counsel often given is to plan adequately. However, faithful adherence to these two, without supporting it with good discipline will likely lead to frustration and failure in the long run. Since our children are not with us right…
Permit me to be frank; what we need is not just more churches or more denominations but more godliness. And godliness is not bestowed upon you by your Pastor saying “God bless you” or by the name you bear. It is by being godly in heart and subsequently in behaviour. God willing, I will continue to do what little me can possibly do to rejuvenate our society and to turn our hearts back to more civil behaviour. I look forward to that time when we can confess once again that good is indeed good and bad is bad; contrary to…
We have all been called upon to impact this world in different ways and we all have a unique message. Not all enjoy the privilege of having a platform like this to convey their message and to be honest, not all actually need it. Some can vocalize their message where others convey their message even more audibly by the way they live their lives. Our message is that thing which faithfully represents us. That is where our true worth lies. It’s not how much we have in the bank or how many cars we have. Money can be a true…
Those who say Nigerians don’t have what it takes to compete with Western standards are the sort of people I like to keep away from. As much as I’m in the habit of pointing out where developed countries get some things right, where we don’t, and how it may well be expedient for us to take a cue from them, it’s not because I think we’re not capable. We are, and that’s what makes it the more tragic and frustrating that we find ourselves where we are. Lagos, the Centre of Excellence truly lived up to it’s sobriquet by masterfully…
Who would I prefer to lead Nigeria as President from May 29, 2023. Well, I am a Yoruba man but I honestly am not interested in having a President who will favour the Yorubas to the detriment of everyone else. I want a national leader. A detribalized leader. I want a president during whose tenure every Nigerian is made to feel like a first class citizen and because of this, tribal politics is henceforth banished from our polity forever. I want a leader who evokes in everybody a sense of ownership in the Nigerian project, so the tribe of future…
Collaboration and cooperation amongst people has always been the way to go. After all, what transforms a collection of individuals with disparate views and often competing personal interests into a cohesive group commonly known as a society, is the implied agreement and cooperation among members of same group to live together as one. But of course, not all motives to collaborate or cooperate are entirely noble though. Two of my elder brothers in their younger days were experts at sneaking out of the house at night, after successfully deceiving our parents that they were going straight to bed with their…
That my grandma was concerned when told by a prophet that her son (my father) would fly around the world, shouldn’t be much of a surprise to anyone. This must have been some time in the 1930s or early 1940s. Add stark illiteracy to that and one may begin to understand her concerns when it appeared she was being told her son would be a witch or a wizard! From that point onwards, mama agba (grandma) kept a watchful eye on her son, discreetly observing his every move. The benefits of education cannot be overemphasized not just because you become…
A “Wake up call” is a commonly used term and one definition I found for it is that it’s, “an event that alerts people to a danger or difficulty”. Perhaps better still is this definition which says it’s, “a thing that alerts people to an unsatisfactory situation and prompts them to remedy it”. If I may add to this, I would also call it an awakening. It has been widely documented since that eventful day, September 11, 2001, how the catastrophe had the effect of impelling a significant number of Americans to take stock of their lives. The daily rat…
There are some things in life that one never forgets. I may not remember the joke I told for the upteenth time last week or even the name of the film I watched just an hour ago but I remember like it was yesterday, the day my mother had her first stroke. It happened right in front of me. A few of my siblings were also present. I was to turn 16 later that month. My sister was just 11. Mum turned 49 two months earlier. We were in London when a phone call came through from Nigeria. The person…
Permit me to be frank; what we need is not just more churches or more denominations but more godliness. And godliness is not bestowed upon you by your Pastor saying “God bless you” or by the name you bear. It is by being godly in heart and subsequently in behaviour. God willing, I will continue to do what little me can possibly do to rejuvenate our society and to turn our hearts back to more civil behaviour. I look forward to that time when we can confess once again that good is indeed good and bad is bad; contrary to…
I believe rape and other forms of sexual abuse have been with us from time immemorial. Has it increased exponentially in the last decade or two? Or has the advancement of technology in the form of social media etc merely led to greater awareness, bringing the issue further to the fore? I believe it could be both. Unfortunately, in a society bedevilled with a myriad of problems like our own, one of the earlier casualties will invariably be it’s value system. Sadly too, a society which has a high propensity to devalue what God values while valuing what God devalues…
Thank God for cable or satellite television; depending on what you like to call it. Whenever you receive visitors at home, you’re assured the variety of global news and other assorted programs will keep them entertained for a while. At least until you’re ready to attend to them. And even as you do attend to them, it’s always there, ever ready to provide current issues for you and your guest to discuss, debate or just laugh at; especially during those awkward quiet moments. Children of nowadays have it so easy. In our days, we the children were the entertainment; albeit…
Many of us have had reason to ask ourselves at one time or the other why people never resign from office in Nigeria. Before I attempt to answer this, let me digress a little. Ms Fiona Onasanya was a Nigerian born British Parliamentarian until December 2018, when she was recalled by members of her constituency (Peterborough) who got the requisite number of signatories to petition for her removal. What was her offence? Well, the initial offence for which she was charged was for driving 41 mph in a 30mph zone. She was also found to be texting on the phone…
There are many things that can influence or alter a person’s perspective. Alcohol is one and power is another. Both can be remarkably intoxicating. I remember a time in what I would call my young and carefree days. We’re talking of about thirty years ago now. Myself, my younger brother Segs and our good friend Max were making our way back to our flat in London in the wee hours of the morning. Need I add this was after a very heavy night out on the town? Need I also add that we had to walk home, having spent all…
Actions are the physical manifestation of our thoughts. The thought process involved denotes our mindset. This mindset can be a reliable gauge of our core values and how we see life. Perhaps the most noticeable difference between a Third World country and a First World country is their level of commitment to discipline; governments keeping faith with their professed policies and doing all to adhere to agreements; making punctuality a watchword and sundry other visible evidence of discipline as an established culture. A discerning first time visitor to Nigeria may, between the airport and his lodgings, be able to tell…
It was the great philosopher, Aristotle of ancient Greece who once said that human beings are by nature political animals. His argument was that since nature does nothing without a purpose, it is not a random occurrence that man has been equipped to speak. To quote the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy in its article, Political Naturalism, Aristotle submitted that the reason for this ability of speech is to enable man “communicate moral concepts such as justice, which are formative of the household and city-state”. In Aristotle’s treatise Politics Book 1, where he expounds his political theory, he posits that the…
The Nigerian Police Force was established in 1930 and currently consists of 371,800 men and women, with 36 Commands across the country. That is one in each state. The 36 Commands are grouped into 12 zones but have only 7 different administrative organs. The Force has over 2000 stations spread across the country and its head is the Inspector General of Police. For a population of 206 million, the size of the Nigerian Police Force is hugely inadequate. That they are ill equipped and their welfare under successive governments has been appalling only adds to the country’s precarious security situation.…
I was watching a cookery program with my younger daughter and her elder brother, whose feigned interest was so easy to see through. He was far more concerned with getting the latest premiership team news on his phone but I chose to ignore this and dragged him into our conversation anyway. The host of the cookery program, a celebrated chef, was praising one of the junior “chefs” (a child who couldn’t have been more than 11 years old) that his pasta dish was one of the best he had ever tasted. Not one of the best made by a child…
One must first start by quoting the Nigerian Constitution which declares it a secular state. This principle, according to the Oxford Lexicon, dictates the separation of state from religious institutions. The National Secular Society (United Kingdom) gives a fuller definition and describes it to have three components: Separation of religious institutions from state institutions and a public sphere where religion may participate, but not dominate. Freedom to practice one’s faith or belief without harming others, or to change it or not have one, according to one’s own conscience. Equality, so that our religious beliefs or lack of them doesn’t put…
Not all things that we regard as disadvantages are actually so and vice versa. Let me give an example of a girl who for reasons beyond her control, resumed school two weeks after her classmates. She ends up beating them all to take first place. Of course, this can be for a number of reasons but one which I know from experience is this. So, she resumes after everyone else and finds that she not only has to work hard but has to be very intentional and disciplined in her effort to catch up. She goes about it systematically and…
Every law, injunction and admonishment of God is for our own good; not just to enter heaven but to get us through life on earth successfully and profitably. Be diligent and work hard but have enough time to rest otherwise the principle of diminishing returns will kick in and you’ll become less and less productive. Worse still, you might burn out. Stay away from certain foods and generally watch what you feed on in order to avoid undesirable consequences such as disease. Do all things in moderation as excess of anything, no matter how good that thing may be, will…
We shouldn’t limit our concerns about life merely to whether our compatriot still has breath in him or her or not. Life goes way beyond that. The psychological wellbeing of a man will to a large extent determine the quality of life he’ll enjoy. Let me give you an illustration. A man given to kleptomania because very obvious signs of sticky fingers as a child were not sufficiently checked, may never truly enjoy a good quality of life, no matter how many trappings of wealth he surrounds himself with. Does this sound vaguely familiar? Have you never wondered why some…
Life is essentially about continuity. We continue to live through our children and they will continue to live through theirs. There are times when this is as a result of very intentional strategies or actions and at other times, it’s just a natural consequence of subconscious behaviour. This continuity can take the form of reproducing ourselves through our offspring, our employees, or others over whom we have influence. Most Nigerians have become experts at complaining and grumbling about all that’s wrong with our nation and I doubt I have an equal when it comes to this. I’m a “complainer extraordinaire”…
I won’t deceive myself into believing you’ll agree with all the following submissions but I do hope some will cause you to re-examine some stubbornly held positions. I heard someone say on the radio that Nigerians are the most intelligent people in the world but they have refused to educate their intelligence. This comment hit me like a bolt because in just a few words, this man was able to encapsulate a mutually held sentiment, which takes me a whole page to say. It’s incontrovertibly true that we are very smart people, but it’s also painfully true that we’re yet…
Five years ago last Thursday, I lost someone very dear to me, our eldest brother, John Olukayode Akande. This came just four years after we lost our dear father. Our state Governor, John Olukayode Fayemi was thrilled when he met someone who shared the same names as him during our father’s funeral service. Bros Kay led us in a way that anyone would like to be led. Not because it was always the most pleasant experience or because he was soft but because even when he had to take painful decisions, you were always convinced that it was for the…
Your most potent strengths are not always the ones you recognize to be so – or the ones you naturally gravitate towards. The one that will eventually announce you to the world could be the very one you repeatedly run away from. There are times when we believe we’re just the “Don” at something because we’ve been doing it for so long and besides, it’s an area our supposed strength has always led us to. We just can’t imagine ourselves doing anything else. Someone then comes along who has never done it before and expresses a total lack of confidence…
I can put my hand on my chest and confidently say that Nigerians are some of the most hard working people in the world and that’s a wonderful virtue. Unfortunately, with equal confidence and without any fear of being contradicted, I will also say we’re among the most stressed people in the world. Still grappling with the cost of electricity which skyrocketed recently, we woke up to hear a few days ago that petrol may soon sell as high as N212 a litre. If it ends of being true, that would make it more than two and a half times…
One day I started wondering how I became the person I am. Why do certain things matter so much to me? Why do I take fairness and justice as sacrosanct? Why do I seem to lack that “winning at all cost” instinct that puts everything and everybody else aside to aggressively pursue self interest, even when it means my unscrupulous actions will adversely affect others? Is there something wrong with me? Wait. Don’t answer that, just yet. When I cast my mind back to how my late parents brought me up, coupled with my experiences at boarding school in the…
