inspiration post

Those who plan get better results. When you are shattering your goals and things are working according to plan, you can boast about character and good judgement. That is a good time to reflect. It is easier to flow with the wind when it flows in your direction but the best time to test your strength is when the wind is contrary. Can the wind be contrary? Yes it can, not because you don’t plan or pray but because you are human.

It is not too difficult to get a patriotic citizenry but it is difficult to ask a people to be patriotic in a country that further impoverishes the poor. Nigeria legitimately impoverishes the poor, unfortunately so. All of us are bearing the brunt of poor judgement by policy makers when they chase shadows and address the symptoms of a big problem, the cause of which they usually ignore. I attended a webinar organised by my state government last week and I challenged a decision of my state government to have concentrated the establishment of model schools in a particular location. These model schools were funded with resources that belong to all citizens of the state. The Commissioner for Education justified the decision when she said that the establishment of these model schools in particular locations, at the expense of other parts of the state, is demand driven. She was right, her reason was justifiable but I did not have the opportunity to tell the Honourable Commissioner that in advanced climes, planning is futuristic and not reactive.

There are things we take for granted, self indulgence is one of them. Sometimes you just feel like crossing your legs and indulge yourself to unwind. If you ignore such moments, it is at a great cost to your productivity and inner fulfillment. Productivity has a direct correlation with your state of mind. Your mind has a powerful influence on you that others don’t see. Jim Kerry opined that your soul is not contained in the limit of your body. Rather, your body is contained in the limitlessness of your soul. Let that sink in. If you collaborate with your mind, your time will be better spent and not wasted. Indulge yourself if you have to, just like me at this moment. Have a productive week.

It may appear like a sermon but I am not about to preach. I have an unrepentant bias for leadership development and I know that you cannot lead if you are not at peace with yourself. You cannot be at peace with yourself if you are at war with others. Peace is not very difficult to make but it is also not as easy, particularly if you allow ego in your space. Nine out of ten times, the people you think wronged you do not think so. In fact, a good fraction of the nine believe that you wronged them. Either party could be wrong and the wrong party could be you. If you approach it from this angle you will see the need to listen to the reason behind the standpoint of the other party. Sometimes you would think that you are so right that you will not know when you slip to vendetta mode. Vengeance may taste sweet but vengeance is not the same as victory even though they share the same letter v. Some form of vengeance do not only destroy your target person, you can also be a victim of your vendetta mission.

igeria started great, everything pointed in the right direction. The potentials were great and every Nigerian felt proud to be called a Nigerian. The whole world looked in the direction of the most promising black race with admiration. Today, we grapple with agitation for secession or outright emigration, amidst high level of insecurity. What went wrong? The commonest answer you get is that of leadership but I beseech you to tarry a while before you conclude. No one will argue that leadership is a big problem in Nigeria but leaders don’t drop from heaven. They are a product of the society we created for ourselves. As they say, a people deserve the leaders they get. • The elites in my country have the solution to the problem. They propound theories and draw references from across the world. They turn round to say that credible candidates cannot win election because they don’t have the money required to bankroll election. The elites abandon the electoral process and expect signs and wonders

Empower your spouse. I did not say empower your wife, lest the female gender think that this message is for men only. Read me well and please read again, empower your spouse. “E get why” (there is a reason for it). Generally speaking, money and position are the two commonest manifestations of power but there are many more essentials, rarely talked about, that are capable of rendering your money and position powerless. Whether position or money, either of the couple can have more in the contemporary world where the female gender is making waves in all spheres of human endeavour. Please, empower your spouse. Empowerment comes in various forms but one is more likely to think of financial empowerment anytime it is mentioned. We cannot deny it that money can do many things but it is a fact that money cannot do all things. It is the desire of every couple to have it all good in their chosen careers but it is normal when one does better than the other. If you are the more privileged, wisdom requires you to encourage and support your spouse to be up to speed in his/her career too, even if your earnings is more than sufficient to sustain the family. Sometimes, it is not about money but the sense of self worth from your spouse that s/he is also of great value.

I thought to remind you, in case you have forgotten, that the best way to move away from what you don’t want is to move closer to what you want, gradually. You only take credit for what you have done. You cannot build reputation on expectation. Are you interested in your goal or you are committed to your goal? The two are widely apart. To be interested in your goal is to have the intention to work towards achieving it but to be committed to your goal is to start doing something about it. So, I ask, are you interested or committed? Goals are dreams with timelines. I hope you agree. It starts when you conceive it (dream), it graduates to ‘I can’ (belief), then it transforms to ‘I will’ (will power). Commitment sets in when you start doing something about your goal. You only get rewarded when you can say ‘I have done it’ (goal). Now you know why awards are given to inventions but not intentions. Think about that.

I come from a country of the learned. We value education and will go to any length to acquire academic qualification. Even in the face of the odds, my fellow countrymen and women are resilient. We defy the odds to excel in all academic pursuit even under the most difficult circumstances. I celebrate the Nigerian spirit. I celebrate excellence because excellence begets success. My message here is to Nigeria, my country. Nigerians beat academic records and set new ones across the shores. We are record breakers with insatiable quest for knowledge. Why is our depth of knowledge not translating to development? This is a question that you and I would have to answer. If we find the answer, perhaps we could remind our policy makers, that education is not an end in itself, it is supposed to be a means to an end. If education is about research and development, then we must have focused on the research part while we ignored the development part of education that focuses on the practicality and application of the knowledge that is acquired. We lost it and we don’t even seem to realise it. Consciously or unconsciously, we killed technical education and edified university education in a manner that made others feel inadequate. We discriminated against polytechnic education that is reputed to be more inclined to practicality. Jointly, we created a society that celebrates academic qualifications more than the greatest invention of all ages.

When faced with challenges, we are told to be concerned but not worried. Why? Pastor Taiwo Odukoya explained – concern, while not denying the existence of the problem, focuses on the solution and not the problem but worry focuses more on the problem than the solution. Nothing can be more profound. Like we experienced in the ‘80s and up till the early ‘90s, when the effect of austerity measure began to bite, the productive youths are leaving Nigeria in droves again. Someone asked me why are the productive youths in Nigeria leaving Nigeria? In my silent response, I tried to apply the “concerned but not worried” maxim but it occurred to me that I will be denying the truth if I say I’m not worried. Why? The solution to the problem on our hands is not visible to the naked eye.