Author: Oladapo Akande

I am not less intelligent because I learn differently Nor do I matter less when you do not recognize me And though there are many like me, we seem to remain hidden in plain sight I invented the light bulb that keeps the dark away I am the ‘H’ of the world leading computer brand that sits atop your table I remain the greatest Oscar winning film Director – and you may even remember my lovable alien character who finally ‘went home’ Feeling like the peacock as it proudly displays its resplendent plumage I watch in utter fulfillment as my…

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The relationship between government and the governed can be likened to a marriage because they both depend on trust, or lack of it, to thrive or fail. Once trust is lost in a marriage, that will automatically spell the beginning of the end of that union. If love wanes in a marriage, there is still hope that it may be rekindled but once trust is lost between a couple, it is almost impossible to fully regain. Trust is the bedrock of all relationships therefore a relationship without it is like a house attempting to stand when it does not have…

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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…

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The other anomaly that Government needs to look at is the one which inadvertently pushes candidates who fail to meet the cut-off mark for their chosen degree programs at university, to the teaching profession instead. This means they do not become teachers because that is their burning ambition but only as a fall-back after failing to gain admission for the regular degree course. This is because the cut-off mark to gain admission for Education courses is significantly lower. It is therefore difficult to see how we can successfully build centres of educational excellence when the government’s own policy primarily…

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According to George Kneller, education has two senses. One is broad and the other is both narrow and technical. He says that in it’s broad sense, “education refers to acts or experiences that have a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual”, which implies education is a continuous process that never stops and which actually shapes our entire being. The narrow and technical sense he calls, “the process by which any society, through schools, colleges, universities and other institutions deliberately transmits its cultural heritage i.e it’s accumulated knowledge, values and skills from one generation…

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The Nigerian educational sector, with particular reference to government funded schools, has suffered immensely in the last few decades as decreasing financial resources has been invested in it. Reduction in investment has led to a multitude of problems i.e decaying and grossly inadequate infrastructure, irregular retraining of teachers leading to failing academic output, obsolete facilities, late payment of already poor salaries and a general feeling of frustration and low morale throughout the sector. In spite of the obvious constraints of a rapidly expanding population which dwarfs that of most of our neighbouring West African nations, Lagos State has, amongst a…

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Taking a jog the other day I saw this middle aged man also in exercise gear walking briskly towards me, talking loudly and gesticulating apparently to no one. Suddenly I thought, “wait up Daps. Is this guy okay in the head? Are all his screws firmly tightened? It certainly appears like there might be a couple loose”. As if he knew what I was thinking he would dart me intermittent looks. “Ah! E gba mi….who told me to jog the streets this early o?!” Just as I was about to instinctively give him a very obvious wide berth I…

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Somebody I hold dear and admire greatly for his keen insight on life issues says something which never fails to strike me each time, because it’s an obvious truth that very few people actually see. He says, an individual who doesn’t have plans for his life runs a very high risk of being conscripted into the plans of others. And more often than not, this “other” will see him only as a means to fulfilling his own selfish agenda rather than seeing the individual as an end in himself. Let me give you an example. The thugs our dear politicians…

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A shadow is a poor substitute for substance. The appearance of love cannot be equated to genuine love. If we agree love wants the best for others then there are some vital issues we should begin to look at instead of pretending they don’t exist. Let’s not bury our heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich who foolishly believes that by doing so, no-one can see him since he can’t see anyone. Whether we’re ready to admit it or not, many of our children have Special Educational Needs. In particular, we need to recognize the life destroying role Dyslexia…

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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…

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I was watching a cookery program with my younger daughter and her elder brtoher, 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…

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Doing evil is ultimately self destructive as your happiness and progress are inextricably linked to others. And by evil, I don’t necessarily mean someone who goes about chopping people’s heads off or casting spells on sundry enemies but I simply mean someone whose life is bereft of good. Just as scientists take the position that black is a lack of colour rather than a colour in itself and darkness results when there is lack of light, so can evil be said to be a lack of good. Nigerians generally yearn to be treated well and those who don’t are obvious…

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Is it not true that when you demonstrate love to others by going out of your way to help them, you feel quite pleased with yourself? You give yourself a proverbial pat on the back for reaching out and putting someone before yourself. There’s a saying which we can all utter even in our sleep, “better it is to give than to receive”. There’s an overwhelming joy which wells up from deep within you and soon envelopes your entire being when you give. It evokes a sense of satisfaction and fulfilment, not unlike the euphoric feeling of fulfilling one’s purpose.…

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There are many lessons to take away from this discussion. Losing a match or even losing anything else for that matter is not the end of the world. With discipline, perseverance, belief in yourself and the help of God you can succeed. The Good Book says: “Do you see someone diligent(or skilled) in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before lowly officials.” The simple truth is that there are many who appear to be doing well who have actually attained that level of “Success” in a less than honest manner. That’s why the good book…

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The world over, it’s common knowledge that the primary duty of government is to secure the lives and property of the people it governs. Thomas Hobbes’s hypothesis of how governing authorities must have first come into being and the prevailing circumstances that necessitated them is worth a mention at this point. The revered British moral and political philosopher regales us with his “state of nature” theory of how in those days, man’s actions were driven solely by his unrestrained individual desires and there existed no body of authority to regulate man’s behaviour. If you want it, you take it. If…

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Our propensity to keep silent in the presence of abnormalities has brought us to where we are. Such can range from the innocuous act of someone shunting the absurdly long queue at the Bank thinking he’s smart; being aware of a colleague cutting corners at the office because he believes that’s the way it’s done, after all this is Nigeria; or even people thoughtlessly disposing of litter on the floor, betraying a mindset that simply doesn’t recognize right from wrong. It’s not just one of these acts but all of them put together and more, that corrupts a system; especially…

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Integrity, Integrity, Integrity; now a rather scarce commodity in these climes. I recall as if it was yesterday something that happened decades ago when I and my siblings were still studying and living in the United Kingdom. A girlfriend of one of my older brothers (who we his siblings fondly call Femo or bros Femo) phoned the house asking to speak to him. My younger brother Segun, who couldn’t have been more than eight years old at the time answered the phone. After politely asking her to hold on, with the exuberance of a child he quickly ran up the…

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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…

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If all you do is to provide facilities and amenities and you don’t establish the culture to use them, you will only be wasting your time. If you like, place public dustbins at every 100 yards but if you don’t train people’s minds to see them as something to be used for their benefit, they will ignore them and continue to drop trash wherever and whenever. Lee Kuan Yew discovered this soon enough when he built beautiful modern high rise apartments and placed rural Singaporeans in them so to improve their standard and condition of living. He was shocked to…

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I remember when my mum would take us shopping before resuming a new term at our boarding school in Oxfordshire and she would speak so loudly in the shop, though without necessarily shouting. Now, I guess I would say she was merely exuding the inbred confidence of a Naija woman. But we teenagers, notoriously self conscious, were barely audible in our response. We couldn’t quite understand why she would speak so loudly. It was beyond us. She, on the other hand would become increasingly irritated by our muffled responses. We were just too cool for all that but she didn’t…

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The Aussies, known for their love of beer or the Amber Nectar, as they like to call it, are an interesting people. If you think you’re a big beer drinker, then try challenging an Australian to a drinking contest. I can assure you, he’lI drink you under the table, any day. Aussies literally drink like fish. There was a great advert in the United Kingdom for Castlemaine 4X which parodied this, several decades ago. In preparation for a barbecue (another thing Aussies are known for) party, two men were seen leaning on a truck in the outback (desert like area…

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I remember the mid 1990s Pirelli advert where the world famous Italian tyre brand introduced it’s iconic slogan for the first time The advert featured my school boy hero and one of the greatest Olympians of all time, the incomparable Carl Lewis. Not only did he sport the perfect “flat top” hairstyle, which I dutifully copied but he specialized in the same athletic events as I did, namely the 100m and 200m sprints and the Long Jump. With his perfect and effortless looking running style, “King Carl” as many of us liked to call him because of his total dominance…

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Those who have ambition of becoming effective leaders can learn several lessons from José Mourinho’s repeated sackings. Mourinho, at one time dubbed himself “the Special One” and who could argue with him? He later stepped this up to “the Only One” and still, not many openly disputed this as his achievements were enough to intimidate anyone who wanted to raise his head. Here is a Manager who holds the record of taking four clubs to the top of European football’s biggest leagues – The English Premiership, the Spanish La Liga, the Italian Serie A and his home country’s (Portugal) Primeira…

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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…

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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…

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I remember feeling so cool with myself when my headmaster told me during my primary school days that I had a photographic memory. For several weeks after that, I felt like I was on cloud nine. I’d never heard of that term before but boy, did it make me feel clever. The euphoric feeling didn’t last too long though. In fact it came to an abrupt end a few weeks later, when I flunked my maths and science exams, plus a couple of other subjects too, for good measure. So I wasn’t a yet-to-be-discovered genius after all. As we grow…

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For how long will our country continue to put forward it’s worst XI instead of it’s 1st XI team? For how long will our leaders portray a country blessed with some of the most brilliant minds anywhere in the world as “no good doers” who know how to say all the right things but whose sincerity somehow always comes into question when it comes to execution? For how long will mediocrity be celebrated in our nation, confounding the rest of the world who see the genius of our people in their countries everyday? For how long will Nigeria be presented…

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I remember an instance in my early 20s. The days when I and my friends would strut the famously trendy Kings Road in the London borough of Chelsea, like the cool dudes we thought we were. On this day, I saw a lady friend across the road…or at least I thought it was her. Excited, I ran across the road with my arms aloft in anticipation of a big hug from someone I hadn’t seen in ages. But the closer I got to her, the less it looked like her. “Ah! What should I do now?” I had to think…

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I’m as guilty as the next person of spurting out, “only in Nigeria” when the absurd happens but maybe it’s time we all think again. No one should ever underestimate how much damage one unscrupulous and unhinged man can do to a country. Over 74 million Americans voted for Donald Trump in his bid for a second term; the highest ever by any contestant for the US Presidency, bar the winner of the recent election, Joe Biden. To put this into better perspective, that’s 10m votes more than Obama ever got  Now, that’s saying something and it’s saying it very…

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One of the most fascinating things about us human beings, which doesn’t just set us apart from all other living creatures but also makes us more interesting, is that we’re all so different. Wouldn’t it be odd and boring if the only type of car human beings liked was the Kia Picanto and because of that, that’s all that’s ever available? Let me elaborate on this a little. We have different tastes, different ways of doing things and different perspectives. If we were all the same, everything would be so black and white. No grey areas. The grey areas usually…

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