Monthly Archives: May 2022

I was thrilled to be admitted to the Book Club @ Peace House under the leadership of Mrs ‘Peju Babafemi. She is a reader, a leader and a technocrat who presently occupies the prestigious seat of the Head of Service of the Ekiti State Civil Service. In a world that has dynamically gravitated towards instant messaging and short codes as means of communication, I am particularly excited that we still have a few leaders championing the reading of books as a veritable means of transmitting knowledge. My inspirational page this week is dedicated to the Book Club @ Peace House. My book, Winning Strategies, has been nominated for reading and discussion at the third edition of the book club programme of the Book Club @ Peace House. What about the book? Winning Strategies is a handbook for leaders and aspiring leaders, written by Akin Oluwadare Jnr, my humble self. The book was unveiled in November 2020 and officially launched in June 2021

Anytime I remember my childhood, I cannot but wish that I have the privilege of choosing how to live but life is more than mere wishes. Naturally, children don’t like to work. They work better in an atmosphere of play, understandably so. I remember how we looked forward to recess when I was in the primary school. Recess then was a short break between morning and early afternoon classroom work, the type we can call biological break. Recess to us as school children was more than a biological break. It was a moment of liberty to play. The freedom to play within the 10 to 15 mins recess had a way of refreshing and reinvigorating us to do classroom work before the big one, the lunch break. We looked forward to recess the same way we looked forward to lunch break. To us, both symbolised the freedom to play. Lunch break to us as school children was much more than a period to eat lunch. It was synonymous with freedom from classroom work regimentation, when you could choose for yourself the kind of play you preferred without being restricted to the four walls of the classroom. Sometimes I wonder if the teachers would have been able to keep us in the classroom from morning till closing time without the periodic breaks at intervals to enable us draw strength from play. This is for children. Now as adult, what impact does short breaks have over your work? Have you ever thought about that?

Communication has never been this aggressive. Inventors of mass communication as a course of study must have seen into the future of the media to know that a time would come when everyone and anyone can communicate to everyone and anyone even without their consent. Could it be the reason they named it mass communication? With the advent of the internet, technology has not only ceded the management of communication to ‘everyone’, the invention of instant messaging vide the social media liberalised information dissemination in a manner that confirms the mass appeal of communication through unsolicited advertisements and chain broadcasts. Even then, the freedom of expression enabled by the seamless communication of the modern age requires wisdom and tact. Many times, communicators offend receivers of their messages knowingly or unknowingly, even when they mean no harm. In other words, communication can be more violent than physical combat.