Your Days Are Numbered

/ Adewumi Oni / Leave a comment

In my younger years, I remember always wishing I grow older quickly. Wishing I was 20, then 25 and then 30. I used to think growing older brings certain privileges and respect. Maybe some of us experienced this also. I remember there was a time I wanted to grow mustache and beards even when it was obvious, it is not part of my hereditary make up. I will apply methylated spirit to those areas to make hair grow on them. Now the beards are a burden, you must shave every other day! Funny things teenagers do.

All of a sudden, I realized I am as old as my father used to be some years back, and I am not just as eager to become older again. No more carefree decision making, everything has to be thought through now. Suddenly I came to the knowledge that my days have number and they are not endless. Even though, I don’t know when my time will be over here, but I know I need to attach seriousness to the way I live my life now.

This is not peculiar to me alone. We all have numbered days. Whether you like it or not, whether rich or poor, good or bad, famous or unknown, you have numbered days. So when your number is complete, as it surely must, what will be said of you? What will people write in your condolence register? What will the world remember you for? That wicked despot? That tyrannical leader? That bossy employer who delighted in holding staff salaries? That wicked father? That corrupt president?

Examples abound all around us of so called great and influential people who have passed on and their good or bad deeds are still speaking long after they have moved on. So, having realized that your days are numbered, why don’t you spend it circumspectly? Mr Public Office holder, your days are numbered, live it well. Mr Employer, your days are numbered, use it to better the lot of humanity. Think and change while you can, because a time will come when the son of man will have neither the capacity to think nor change!

God bless us all.

Good morning Africa!

Good morning Nigeria!

Produce Your Product

/ Adewumi Oni / 1 Comment

Whenever you want to purchase a spare part for your vehicle or generator set or any other major equipment, there is always a major problem you will encounter, the problem of finding the right quality. Why is this so? Because there are multifarious types of that same spare part and from different sources. There is the China type, there is Belgium type, we have follow come type, we have the one they also call original. When you ask your mechanic to advise on which is the best, you sometimes end up being more confused, as he relates how each can still meet your needs though at different costs.

This problem is not limited to spare parts , even fashion, wigs, jewelries, and the worst of it all, drugs and food items. We have Brazilian wigs, Peruvian wigs, Indian wigs, etc. The question is why not Nigerian wig? Why not Ghanaian wigs? Why not Guinean leather? Why not Nigerian shoe? Why must it be Italian shoe? Why can’t we produce our own products? Or better put, where is your own product? I often tell people, if you check yourself from head to toe , nothing on you is made in Nigeria. Why must it be so? As a nation, as a continent, we have become extremely lazy people who always look for the easy way out. Always importing and buying other people’s products. Damaging our economy, damaging our currency through our affinity for foreign things. To the extent that we have even lost our local identity. Our languages are gone, our values have been replaced with sick and depraved foreign values! Our culture has been lost! Kai!

While I appreciate the fact that the government has a lot to do to create an enabling environment, you also have a role to play. There are things you can produce without too much need from government. Start something! Produce your product! Stop running to China! Think. Act. Be creative. Produce something! Be it a book, a matchstick, toothpick, whatever just produce your product!

God bless us all.

Good morning Africa!

Good morning Nigeria!

Your Life, Your Responsibility

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The sign, ‘The Buck Stops Here’, which sat on President Harry Truman’s desk was made in 1945, and helped the US President to take final responsibility. The sign still remains in the Presidential Library till date. Faced with the challenge of passing the buck, President Truman had to come up with the sign, first to remind himself that he takes final responsibility and two, to set an example for those were fond of passing the buck.

This sign serves as a reminder to all of us that we are responsible for our lives. Never hold anyone responsible for your life. Your life is your responsibility. You will start making serious progress the moment you start taking responsibility for your life. When you stop blaming others for your current position, then you are ready to leave that position. No witch or wizard or condition or circumstance or boss can keep you down, if you take responsibility for your life. Where you are now is where you have chosen to be, if you want a change, make a move.

Taking responsibility means taking charge of your life. Accepting fault when you make mistakes, learning from your mistakes and moving on. It means evaluating yourself and telling yourself truths about where you are failing. It means looking at yourself in the mirror and say ‘My life is my responsibility.’

So it is time to take charge, the buck of your life stops at your table, not on any other table, so take charge.

God bless us all!

Good morning Africa!

Good morning Nigeria!

Enemies of the Nation

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In the last few months, Nigerians have gone through the most difficult times in our recent history. Not even in the days of National Strike during IBB or Abacha regime did we suffer as much as we have in the last three months or so!

Power generation dropped to an all time low of 0 MW (Zero MW). An aerial view of Nigeria shows a country in total darkness. What a mess! As if that wasn’t enough, fuel scarcity added to our woes. Our daily lives is now characterized with queues for fuel at twice or sometimes triple the pump price. Things are not any better for businesses as the unprecedented slide in the value of the Naira has spiked the cost of production, Nigeria being an import dependent nation. Downsizing, Right sizing, Wrong sizing and Salary cut and delay have become the order of the day. It is what Hon. Obahiagbon will call a ‘Lugubrious Quagmire’.

Now behind all these problems are the enemies of the nation. Who are these enemies? They are the oil marketers seeking for subsidy for doing practically nothing. All effort to end the subsidy is being frustrated. Even after subsidizing them, they import the fuel and divert it to neighboring countries. The enemies are the filling stations that will hoard the fuel and sell way about their ‘cost plus reasonable margin’. The enemies are the politicians who decided to cash out their forex in preparation to take their loots out of the country to avoid the probing eyes of the new Sheriff (PMB), hence putting huge pressure on the Naira. The enemies are those playing politics with our very existence by toying with the pipelines, thereby frustrating effort of the power generating units. The enemies are those that have over inflated prices of good and services using dollar and fuel as excuse. The enemies are within us, they are not far away.

There is surely a reward for every thing we do, whether good or bad. So the enemies should know that Karma will soon catch up with them and their children.

Are you one of the enemies of the nation?

God bless us all.

Good morning Africa!

Good morning Nigeria!

The Greatest Battle in Life

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Battles are part of our daily lives. We win some and we lose some. Nobody is immuned to the battles of life. You can’t dodge your battles. Delay them you can, but avoid them totally, you can’t. Some battles leave huge scars on our character and destiny. They shape us either for the best or for the worst.

Among all battles of life, the greatest is the battle of Purpose versus Survival. It is a battle every one must fight. It is the battle that separates the men from the boys, the heroes from the villains, and the legends from the rookies. Unfortunately, as important as this battle is, some don’t even know they are fighting this battle. Even those that are aware readily give up before they even fight this battle.

The battle of Purpose vs. Survival pits your very essence (sole reason for existence) against your desire to survive. This is the battle that made Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a morsel of pottage. It makes men ignore their dreams and passions because they need to make a living. It is the reason many labour everyday, waking up early and returning late, without any sense of fulfillment. It is the battle of fulfilling your destiny against satisfying your immediate needs. It is the battle of ‘You’ against the world. Only few men win this battle and at great cost. Such men live on, long after their death. It is a battle you must win if you are to make a difference in this life.

Nigeria is still struggling largely because many of us are still pursuing survival at the expense of purpose. Our Survival instinct is truly high but our Purpose instinct is dismally low! Any nation that is bent on survival can only at best Survive! Our leaders are victims of survival hence their propensity to loot the treasury. The more people we have winning the battle of Purpose against Survival, the better for all of us.

You are a creature of Purpose, not a subject of Survival! The three temptations threw by the devil at Jesus after fasting were aimed at making Jesus chose Survival against Purpose.

So, are you pursuing Purpose or Survival?

God bless us all.

Good morning Africa!

Good morning Nigeria!

# ‘Success Redefined’ Seminar went well. Thanks to all our participants.

Dressed To Cover or Expose?

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As primitive as we would consider Adam and Eve, the moment they ate the forbidden fruit, they suddenly realized they were naked. They both felt ashamed of each other, even when they were just two and felt awkward seeing their nakedness. God, also realising their nakedness had to make the first garment to cover them, made from animal skin.

This clearly shows that nakedness is abnormal. Our body is designed to be covered. Recent trends in our world today, however shows that a lot of people are tending toward nakedness. It has become a serious source of concern within both sexes, as it appears that the ladies are striving to outdo the guys in exposing their bodies. Albeit, it is worse among the women folk. It appears the intention now is to dress to expose the body as against the norm of dressing to cover the body.

One of the early signs of knowing when someone is beginning to develop mental disorder is his tendency to go out either half dressed or naked. Immediately, you see such you will know something is wrong. If this is still symptomatic of madness, then many of our ladies have gone mad and many are joining them on daily basis! How do you explain someone wearing a Jean pant that is torn such that the whole laps are exposed and she attends a function or photoshoot dressed as such? Is this true fashion or madness in disguise? Why then do you dress if the intention is to expose your body, especially the parts considered private?

Alarmingly, some ‘mothers’ dress their little girls up in this same manner. Adorning them with skimpy skirts and tattered jeans. God, have mercy on our generation! I will not bother to talk about the many implications of such dresses, as we already know some of them. Maybe, it is time to come up with strong legislations to discourage this worrisome trend.

So I am asking you this morning, are you dressed to cover your body or to expose it? If the intention is to expose, why not come out naked so we can quickly attend to your growing madness.

God bless us all.

Good morning Africa!

Good morning Nigeria!

You Only Live Once

/ Adewumi Oni / Leave a comment

The man in you dies the moment you suppress yourself in order to conform to other people’s expectations. The very essence of your manhood loses its potency the day you decide to subjugate your dream in order to please others. You never get another opportunity to live twice, you have only got once! So live!

It is amazing how we allow people’s opinion to shape our lives. We literally live for others. For the fear of what people will say, we conform. God created us with diverse skills and gifts, and this diversity brings authenticity. Be yourself. Be authentic. If what you feel you are made for is to be an artist, then for God sake, be an artist, and be the best Artist!

True success starts from being yourself, finding your place, your essence and living it out. You have only got once, so live it!

God bless us all.

Good morning Africa!

Good morning Nigeria!

##Let us meet at the ‘Success Redefined’ seminar this Saturday 9th April by 9am.

You can’t succeed if you don’t know what True Success is. See you there!

Our Elders Have Gone Mad Again!

/ Adewumi Oni / Leave a comment

In those days in school, one of the forbidden things is to fight in public. Whether during school hours or after school hours, God helps you if you are caught. The cause or reason for the fracas is of no interest, the fact that you broke the sanctity of the society and fought, is sufficient reason to be decorated with several lashes, which can sometimes run into twenties or thirties, plus possible suspension. The shame you will bring upon your parents alone will make you reconsider before fighting. But that was those days! Sadly so!

We are in the days where not only students fight in schools and in the presence of their teachers, teachers even fight! What am I even saying? Our lawmakers fight! The very people we call honorables throw honour away and exchange blows! In fact the way some of these dishonorable ‘honorables’ fight, you will think they are trained to fight. They don’t stop at fighting, they destroy public properties, including the Mace, the very symbol of authority of the Assembly! What a pity! Where went our manners? It reminds me of the title of a book ‘Our Elders Have Gone Mad Again’, who will tame them?

I thought they say, you cannot have elders in the market and have a newborn baby wrongly backed by the mother. These days even the neck of the elder is not straight let alone see the wrongly backed baby! The other day I wrote about the lost generation, I was reminded that the elders bequeathed these low morals to them. Truthfully so! So, which madness should we attend to first, the elders or the youths?

God bless us all.

God bless Africa!

God bless Nigeria!

Your True Value

/ Adewumi Oni / Leave a comment

Diamond is one of the most precious and expensive mineral resources in the entire universe. It is widely accepted as the most precious stone. Its value is not derived from its beauty but from its applicability, its rarity and its quality! It is used for cutting, grinding, polishing, jewelry, etc. Its usefulness cuts across all fields.

Likewise your true value is derived from how useful you are. Your business value is a function of the ability of your product or service to solve people’s problems or provide solutions. If you want to increase your personal value or product’s value, increase your applicability. Make the quality of your work a rarity. Build your own brand. Be known for quality! Improve your quality.

One of the reasons we have failing homes and businesses in our world today, is the increasing number of people of low value and empty content. Martin Luther King said a man should not be judged by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character. What do you carry? What is your true worth?

There is greater emphasis on physical outlook these days than on intrinsic values. Women like more of Macho men even if they are intellectual dwarfs. We want beautiful women with empty brains. We pursue form at the expense of substance. It is becoming a world full of empty people. We are carried away by the swags forgetting that swags alone don’t solve problems.

It is time to start focusing on building yourself, building people and building societies. It is time for true value appreciation!

God bless us all.

Good morning Africa!

Good morning Nigeria!

# Register for ‘Success Redefined’ Seminar today.

Registration closes on Thursday 7th April by 4pm.

Inbox or ping for more details.

Thank you.

A Lost Generation?

/ Adewumi Oni / Leave a comment

Give them books to read, they won’t read. They would rather read pool results or football match results in the dailies. Invite them to seminars they won’t attend, they would rather stay at home to watch Telemundo or attend pool party. Post educative statuses longer than 100 words, they won’t read it. They will rather stare at Linda Ikeji blog from morning till night reading gossips. Give them free ticket to listen to Literary Giants, they will rather go and buy tickets to watch Whizkid.

These same people are the one chanting for change. Asking for change when they are unwilling to change. They are full of noise yet empty of constructive ideas. They know nothing about world history,  they are unaware of breakthroughs in  science, yet they know the latest mobile phone in town. A lost generation, always seeking quick fixes,  quick to find faults, yet void of solutions, morally bankrupt, intellectually deficient, short of sight and lacking vision! Such are our youths who are supposed to succeed us. Is this a lost generation?

Can they be saved? Can they be redeemed? Who will save them?

God help us all.

Good morning Africa!

Good morning Nigeria!