THE PERFECT MASTER

WISDOM: THE PERFECT MASTER

Make yourself a servant of WISDOM
He will delete you from the company of the fools
Be prepared to go anywhere He sends you
Through His instruction may sound foolish
It may even appear impossible or unpromising
Take pains to adhere to Him
Then your real you will emerge to your world.

Make yourself a servant of WISDOM
He will make you a partake of what He benefits
For no one covenanted with Him and reduced
No one vows to submit to Him and is not sought by men
His products are Honour, Lifting, Shinning and the like
Go by Him in all your dealings
You will eventually shoot up to His pedestal.

Make yourself a servant of WISDOM
He will soon upgrade you to His friend
For whosoever walks with Him the same He makes like Him
Though He may tarry, He will not delay
Though He may demand all you have
Surely He will soon visit to dwell with you
He will make an enviable man out of you.

Make yourself a servant of WISDOM
He will make for you multitude of servants
Accept always to be taught by Him
For He can never err
Let Him carry you upon His shoulder
And you are lifted far above principalities and powers
Allow Him to lead you and you already arrive
With all thy listening, listen to Him.

LINK BETWEEN PRESENT AND THE FUTURE

YOUTH: THE LINK BETWEEN THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE.

Our youths are an important link between the present and the future. A conscious effort to engage them will prepare them for a successful transition into adulthood. We should allow them a voice and space in the activities of the government.

We as a people in civil rights, civil society organizations and those in government must seek to create platforms where the government and citizens will focus on involving our youths in decision making processes. Where we can help them redirect their passion, energy and potential in the right direction.
There must be re engineering, refocusing and reconstruction of what used to the values in the past and what we embraced now.

It is important to create jobs for our youths because unemployment has become a big problem in Nigeria and it has become a recipe for breeding and cooking violence, crime, terrorism, corruption, arm robbery and what have you.

STOP COMPARING YOURSELF WITH OTHERS

People compare themselves to others who appear to be more confident and successful, then condemn themselves for not ever being able to emulate what they see. The truth of the matter is we really do not know how the other person is really feeling and living.

There are some people who get depressed because of difficulties in their careers or personal relationships. Many of us base our self-esteem on being successful at work, school and in our relationships with others.

While all these ideas have some degree of truth, certainly one’s mood is influenced by one’s body chemistry and by the good and bad things that happen to one. They all have one big disadvantage. They all have a tendency to make one a victim of circumstances beyond one’s control. This is because one cannot ordinarily change one’s body chemistry unless one takes a pill and one certainly cannot change the world or prevent bad things from happening to one from time to time.

There are very few of us, including famous and successful people, who can escape from tragedy and disappointment during our lives. A
Greek philosopher, Epictetus, said ‘Men are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.’

In other words, one’s thoughts and not actual events, create one’s mood. The bad things that happen to us do not really cause us to become upset, rather it is the way we think about these events. Change the negative and retrogressive thoughts that constantly bombard your mind, and appraise your subsequent outcomes of your life.
Only one person in this world can ever make one feel depressed, worried or angry and that person is oneself.
It is the same person who is in control of one’s happiness. This idea can change our lives forever. Change the picture of yourself from the current picture that is not desirable to you now and you will see how some of the events of your life will change.

Life is about perspective and perception. The way you see life that is how you will respond to it.

IT DOES MATTER

We must never say 'What does it matter to me if some part of the world is ailing?' If there is such an illness, we must concern ourselves with it as though we were having that illness.
The reason our nation and our world is dying, collapsing and going gradually into precipice is because majority of the people who should be concerned look away and never bother.

The world and our nation will never get better when we all neglect our little role we are assigned to play. Threat to anybody in any part of the world is the threat to all of us. Injustice to one of us, is injustice to all of us. Our lives, the lives of our loved ones, our business, family, career, communities and society begin to end, the day we feel unconcerned, not bother, silence, complacent about the things that matters to us, to our loved ones, family, communities, society and the world at large.

CLASS STRUGGLE, THE ROOT CAUSE OF INEQUALITY...... By Dotun George

The problem of class has been a long time problem that humanity has been battling with for ages. Inequality has robbed humanity the best we can do and achieve together. We have been told by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr that, injustice to any man in any part of the world is an injustice to all of us.

We need to redefine our humanity, our role, social interaction and the way we can take to save humanity from the verge of precipices. We need to revisit the real concept of community building, one for all and all for one. If that is taken care of, then this world will be a better place for all of us to live in.

It still beat my imagination that, one man will have so much and his immediate communities will not be able to feed. A man will live in a street or community and his building will look like heaven on earth without lending an helping hands to others within the community.

The world at different times have battle segregation, class struggles, apartheid and what have you, yet we are unable to salvage the world. Can we all sit down and rethink because it add no value to all of us when one of us suffers, when part of our community is ravage by poverty, sickness and diseases.
The root of evils and predicament the world is facing now is rooted in inequality. Most assassination, robbery, terrorism and insurgency has it's root in the inequality, class struggle and segregation the we have created in the world. Can we do something urgently to save the humanity from total calamity and further sliding into precipice.

Do do something urgently to help someone live, survive and come to the level of the full potentiality today.

FRIENDSHIP

Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thought nor measure words.

To gain friends, become interested in other people instead of trying to get them interested in you. Friendship is not only doing something for someone, it is caring for someone, which is what every person needs.

We all need someone we can be open with. They will know our secrets- our hiding places - our soft spots - our hopes and dreams. This is what real friendship is all about.

People who need people and find them in times of needs are the luckiest people in the world.

I went out to find a friend, but could not find one there. I went out to be a friend, and friends were everywhere.

ETIQUETTE INTELLIGENCE

Etiquette intelligence is the pillar of civilised culture, and respect for the other person is the foundation for the establishment of civil society. In today’s global society, it is appalling that people no longer respect the rules of civil society and the pre-requisite social interaction that made civil society possible.

You won’t need to look for long before you see an aggressive and discourteous vehicle driver, or a commercial motorcyclist trying to swerve and manipulate his way out of traffic gridlock, thereby creating problems for the pedestrians. Indeed, social grace has never been in short supply.

There may be many reasons why we are less civil, but the results are clearly affecting the quality of our daily lives in a subtle but disturbing way. Even if you don’t invade the privacy of others, there are some people that will want to put your etiquette quotient to a test. What we all need now is a little more charm and sophistication.

Etiquette is not just about having good manners, but it should be such that you are not found wanting in any situation. It involves going the extra mile to prepare yourself to face any social interaction. For instance, if you don’t know how the difference between a black tie and a white tie event, please learn.

Etiquette which literally is a little sign or ticket, is like a tool to help you get along. And just as with all tools, you need to learn how to use them. It takes practice, practice and practice. Many things will impact your attitude every day, the key is to become aware of these obstacles and know how you can start improving your attitude.

If you are not sure of how to behave in a particular situation, just remember the golden rule of etiquette, “DO UNTO OTHERS WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO DO UNTO YOU.”

Please remember that being polite and having good manners has never and will never hurt anyone. Together, we can bring social graces back into existence which will change the social dynamics of our country. Nigeria can truly become the model of civility and modesty.

NO IMPOSSIBILITY

I remember the story of Dr Robert Schuller, who many years ago, contracted an architect to build a glass cathedral for his church. The architect expressly told Dr Schuller that it was impossible to build a cathedral with glass. Dr Schuller replied that the word impossible did not exist.

The architect asked Dr Schuller for a dictionary so as to prove that the word impossible did exist. He searched for a while and on getting to the place where the word should have been, the architect exclaimed ‘‘someone cut out the word impossible from this dictionary’’. Dr Schuller then replied ‘‘yes the word impossible does not exist in my dictionary’’.

Guess what? Dr Schuller got his glass cathedral; it is located in America today.

Wow! That glass cathedral was Dr Schullers dream and it came to reality. There is no reason why you cannot achieve yours. I urge you today to go get your dream. If you only believe, all things are possible.

Sometimes most people could not get anything done simply by allowing the societal opinions, ways of doing things, their perceptions and perspectives to dictate their opinions and direction of things and actions.
The day you follow societal definition of life and how to go about life, you have sentenced yourself to a life time of average and impossibility because they will give you one thousand reasons why you can't achieve what you set out to do.

TERRORISM: CAN WE OVERCOME IT?

The skies have been darkened by the horrific at­tacks by the terrorist since Osama Bin Laden appeared on the scene September 11th 2001 and so many that took place in the past  and to the latest in Paris. The whole world condemned the September 11 attack and all the world super powers united to fight and reduced the influence of that terrorist group.

Today another monster that is prevalent is the ISIS (Islamic State of Iran and Syrian). UN nations had draft a new goal for all her members called Sustainable Goals. There can never be any sustainability with terrorism taken its hold on the entire globe. The World super powers must rise in unison and with all seriousness and bring terrorism to its kneels.

History have shown to us that at every dispensation, there are different challenges of security and when it was at the peak, hitting hard on humanity. Certain men and women rose to break the stronghold and set the world free, we saw it against Adolf Hitler, and other tyrant groups that unsettled the world. William Wilberforce use his faith and wisdom in God to bring slavery to its kneels. We are at a precarious time in history and nations of the earth must realize that, taken God out of our agenda, curriculum, strategy and plan will not avail us. It will only spell more doom for the entire universe.

The advancement of the world is also the decay of the world. We are looking too far to get solution to the myriad of problems facing the world.
God cannot be crowed out human history.
HE has not created a monster that He cannot deal with and tame but our approaches are always wrong. He is the only cure to the dying world. Nobody can handle a good more than the manufacturer, God created the world and he can fix it.

When the whole world united against terrorism with right and godly strategic move in place, definitely we shall all see the end.

GOING FORWARD

Grecian Sage Socrates once said " The surest way to get mount Olympus is to make sure that every step you take is in the direction of the mountain".

An Orientalist postulates that "A wise man can fall seven times but will always get up, while the foolish man falls only once and relaxes in the dust".

"What make a man great is not the height he has attained but the obstacles overcame in attaining the height".

The three statements illustrate graphically the fact that nothing in this life always goes smoothly the way you want it especially good things but that with sustained efforts you can still achieve results.

It is not falling that matters but getting up from the falling, it is not having obstacle that matters but overcoming the obstacles. It is equally not having lofty dreams about getting to Mount Olympus and Kilimanjaro that matters but reaching the top by threading the path towards it.

THE EMPIRE OF THE FUTURE

The empire of the future is the empire of the mind. The future belongs to those who can use their mind productively, constructively and actively.
Dynamics of education is that, it is not limited to classroom alone. The best education are acquire not in the classroom but in the circumstances of life.
 
Life itself teaches than any teacher. The major shift in every nation are driven by discovery of how things should work.

Science is the discovery of what was always was, building a society around science, technology, mathematics and then research, is the way to build to last.

Nations that invest more on research do better, formulate viable policy that will drive the progress and advancement of the society.

Literacy rate in this clime is still very low. Over 62million Nigerians cannot read and write. If we don't increase the capacity of  Nigerians, we can't drive the economy and advance the course of this country.

To have a viable, economically advanced country and technological progressive country, you need educated citizens to drive it. I am not talking about the kind unproductive education they offer us in schools today in Nigeria, that only make us to go to school, cram theory and definition, and pour it out during examination.

If you are running away from from the truth, you will still keep repeating the errors of the past.

RE-ENGINEERING LEADERSHIP

LEADERSHIP

Leaders have purpose for their actions and what they influence. Leaders seek what is best for the group, community or the society they are called to lead and not what is best for them as an individual. Unfortunately, in our clime and jurisdictions, people manage to find themselves in leadership by chance or by fraud, seek what is best for them and the leave the entire society to hopelessly and helplessly to survive by chance. 

We must redefine and reengineer the concept and the practicality of leadership in our continent, especially Nigeria state that suffer strokes, insanity and retrogressive diseases and ailment because of terrible leadership.

Leaders are inherently selfless and hardworking. They are driven by their conviction and purpose and resonates the passion in their vision statements.

LOOKING TOO FAR TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM

LOOKING TOO FAR TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM... By Dotun George

At every challenging situation and circumstances of life, usually and most time we look for solutions in a wrong way or place and sometimes our diagnosis is usually wrong and when diagnosis is wrong, certainly the prescription will be wrong. And I have no doubt that is the situation of Nigeria over the years.

If there is any news that fascinated me and gladdens my heart, It is the story of innovation, creativity and developmental milestones record by some of our young, enterprising and liberated minds in some of our tertiary institutions that have become moribund and lost its glamour over the years.

Follow this show caption I got from Sun Newspapers put together by a journalist called Franklin......
The Mechanical Engineering Department, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, (Unizik) Awka, recorded another milestone when seven graduating students from the department constructed a “made-in-Nigeria” mini bus. Similar feat was recorded last year when a group of five students from the same department produced a formula one car under the code name – AutoZIK.

The seven students include: Ezeigwe Chitoo Callistus, Obinani Victor Chimdike, Ezeanolue Ifeanyi Emmanuel, Okoro Chinaza, Ominigbo Fidelis Igho, Nwobodo Nnamdi Miracle and Ogbu Thaddeus Ikenna. The Head of the Department, Dr. C.H Achebe, supervised the project.
The group, which bears the name “AUTOZIK II,” spent over five months in constructing the mini-bus, referred to as “shuttle” within and around the university with locally sourced materials.

Is the story not captivating and scintillating? Yes it is.
If there is any achievement to be celebrated in our country, this should be one of them and not all these celebrities shows and beauty award ceremonies that have permeated our national life.

I have said it in the past and putting it forward again, we are not cursed, poor, backwards and underdeveloped, all these only exist in the imagination of the despondent individuals who believe so and spread the news.
This country is only seen as a cursed nation, poor, backward and underdeveloped because we refused to look inward to salvage and to turn the situation around. We should not look too far our salvation, development and progress lies within.

It is higher time we as a nation work on how to restore the glory of this once upon a time giant of Africa, its time to revamp and revitalize our institutions, re engineer and re construct our academic curriculum to meet and able to compet with the demand and challenge of the 21st century.

There is no impossibility anywhere except the one people constructed in their minds. For every problems bedeviled this country there are corresponding solutions to then and the potential to do that lies in Nigerians especially the young once. The leadership of our country must learn how to redirect the interest, passion, energy and agitation of Nigerian youths towards a purposeful life and adventure. And except we do that very fast, we might remain in this inglorious circle for years to come and lost the next generation.

It is time to look inward.

INVESTMENT IN CHARACTER

INVESTING IN YOUR CHARACTER
In dealing with a subject of this nature, the starting point is to unravel and define in proper perspective what investment in character means. Character is a characteristic property that defines the apparent individual nature of someone or something. In a well definite way, character is refers to as the inherent complex of attributes that determines a person’s moral and ethical actions and reactions.

From generation to generation, from one dispensation to another, character has always been a distinguishing and distinctive features of an individual. If a society, organization, or a community want to define an individual, it is basically on character, which most time is refers to as a person’s reputation and sometimes seen as a complex of mental and ethical traits making a person or a group.

Good or godly character is the ultimate goal of all traditional and cultural education. To settle for anything less is to miss the point of growth, acceptance, reputation and legacy within clime and jurisdiction one belong. Every family, community and society spend and invest so much in character development of their children and wards, which later turn out to be the hallmark of the family. Developing the character that is good and of emulation is  life’s  most important task because it is the only thing that will launch us into enduring legacy.

Investment in character is to be committed, courageously and painstakingly inculcating the right moral and ethical values into one’s life. Education, whether formal or informal has been the object of formation of character. Not that alone, education and empowering the mind with positive and goldly values, moral and ethics is a way of investing in human character.

Every man’s eternal rewards in heaven will be based on the character we develop and  demonstrate here on earth. This means the objective of all teachings and education, must be to change  lives, invest and develop character in them, not to merely provide information.

There are two types of characters – (i) Godly or good character, (ii) evil character.

POINTS TO CONSIDER
•Character is never built in classroom; it is built in the circumstances of life. The “classroom study” is simply the place to identify character qualities and learn how character is developed.
• some of the events and  circumstances we face are to develop character in us, and that will make us  respond correctly when individuals are placed us in character-building situations.
• Character development and investment always involves a choice. When we make the right choice, our character grows and enhance our reputation.
•Whenever we choose to respond to a situation in good and ethical way instead of following our natural inclination we develop character

PROCESS OF CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
How does God produce the fruit of the Spirit in our lives? By putting us in the exact opposite circumstances so we have a choice to make.
•God teaches us how to really love by putting us around unlovable people (it does not require any character to love people who have it all together).
•He teaches us joy in times and in the midst of sorrow. Joy is -internal. Happiness depends on what’s happening, but joy is independent of circumstances.
•He develops peace within us b9 placing us in the midst of chaos so we can learn to trust him.

Character development is not always easily, so also investing in character is one of the herculean task that sometime very difficult at the beginning but pay off later in the future. When you se a parent, mentor, teacher or community that is interested in character development or investment, their concern is to perfect their wards or children, and to make a better person out of them, and not to pamper them.

For this reason, anyone who choose the path of character development or investment, life will  allows such individuals to go through all kinds of character building circumstances: conflicts disappointment, difficulty, temptation, and times of dryness and delays.

When you put knowledge of what you are instructed and taught, had a good perspective, with conviction and corresponding skills together, the resulting product is CHARACTER.

NIGERIA DILEMMA

NIGERIA DILEMMA
Nigeria, a land of prosperity  Plundered and impoverished  Nigeria, a land of values Desecrated and bastardized  Nigeria, a land of resilient people  Plunged into despair and hopelessness

Nigeria, constantly in dilemma  Constantly in search of an elusive hope  Nigeria, living in perpetual contradictions  Ugliness in the midst of beauty  Poverty in the midst of wealth  Death in the midst of life  Wars, Famine, Poverty adorn its landscape  Nigeria cries for help

Who will answer the call for help?
Who will help this wobbling giant?
Who will salvage her land from total destruction?
Who will stand to say enough is enough?
Who can understand by the hand of the clock?
That the time to rescue and save Nigeria is now.

A new dawn is upon us
Nigeria is about to take U-turn completely from her retrogress
We are in a rare season and time
Provided for us at this time to rewrite the wrongs
We must all ensure it all ends well
If we miss this time, posterity will not forgive us.

EXISTING VERSUS LIVING.

This piece is design purposefully to stop you of meandering in the maze of mediocrity and just existing start  living a meaningful life.
Are you working hard or playing hard, are you living or mere existing? Are you in charge of your life or you leaving it in the hands of someone else to control?

Let me show you the art of living. The person that makes little distinction between;
His work and his play
His labour and his leisure
His mind and is body
His information and his recreation
His love and his religion
He hardly knows which is which
He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does,
Leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing
To him, he’s always doing both

Don’t follow society’s standards or you will be sentenced to a life of average. Life is neither a practice nor a dress rehearsal; it is the real deal.
Life presents us with two choices. (i) We can either exist efficiently or (ii) live abundantly. Both choices have a price tag on them.
The price for existing efficiently is that you tend to lead a very shallow, empty, unproductive life frustrated life, far below your potential and your privilege.

The cost of living abundantly is that you must get out all that lies within you become that person that you have always wanted to be, not only for yourself but also for the benefit of others. The moment you realize and internalize that, you becoming better make the world better and your life change.

We have been lied to! We think that in order to create world change we have to hold some large political office, be some wealthy business tycoon, or be some famous celebrated world figure. But nothing could be further from the truth. Want some truth? The truth is that you, yes you can change this world, your environment, your institution for better by just the way you approach your academic (study and learning) life, work and life in general.

Just by deciding that you will live abundantly change the world and the cause of your life. Imagine our world if people stopped existing and really started living. Crime would almost disappear because when people live, they don’t need to take from or harm other to get what they want, because they realize that what they really want, they already have within then. It’s just a matter of recognition and development.

Invest you time in developing yourself instead of tearing down others.

NIGERIA AT 55: The past, Present and the Future.

MY INDEPENDENCE BROADCAST… By Dotun George

At this defining moment in the history of Nigeria, when we are celebrating 55th year of our independence from our slave and colonial master. One part of me rejoices and another part of me cries, why? Because of where we are coming from, where we are now and the hope for the future that is just coming a bit brighter. Unfortunately, Nigeria at 55, she was taken captive by conspiracy of deception, oppression, corruption, bad leadership and injustice. She needs liberation, freedom and independence of thought, action and reasons. 2015 became a watershed in the history of Nigeria, the year Nigerians from the South, North, East and West decided to break the yoke of oppression and reposition Nigeria and her leadership, it looks very impossible but right before our eyes, we all saw it happened. Today as a nation we are grateful to God, who change the course of event and redirect Nigeria from perdition and precipice.

A lot of questions are fighting for expression inside of me, are we really or truly free, has anything change over the past 55 years of independence? Nigeria is yet to create her own variant of democracy informed by our own norms, culture, systems of belief, values etc. It is not my joy to start exposing the problems of Nigeria and expose the inadequacy and failures of the past leadership in Nigeria, frankly all the leaders Nigeria produced in the last 55 years had done a great havoc to this nation with the exception of few. But I believe in solving a problem, we must agree on the causes of our problems. More often than not, the problem of Nigeria development process is usually reduced to that of leadership.

The frequent political changes have brought inconsistency to our education polities. The military regime and Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan administration had done evil to education by allowing perpetual closure of our higher Institution and voting a very small percentage of the national annual budget to education. Our academic certificate does not attract any value in the international community. There is an urgent need for a stable education policy, a responsible generation like ours must make sacrifice for their future.

There is high level of poverty in this land, lack of the basic facilities of life, poverty of independent thought and actions, poverty of vision and direction among our leaders, we appear not to know who we are, what we are worth and where we wish to go from here. The literacy statistics shows than we have high level of illiterates now than we have in 1960 because the Nigerian government since 1979 had done a great disservice to this country by progressively uneducated Nigerian children.

Today the minimum wage in Nigeria is N18,000 the questions I kept on asking people is still the same, show me any one who can successfully live with this minimum wage without stealing, begging for more or borrowing at the expense of his own future economy?

In 55 year of existence what can we do to improve our lot as individual and as a nation? We need a very strong national philosophy (Philosophy that will guide every citizen like America, all of them are guided, propelled by their national philosophy), national orientation (This very important because Nigerians have been conditioned to certain lifestyle like corruption, nepotism, cheating, etc that needs change) and direction.

We all need discipline, probity, integrity, hardwork, accountability and righteousness to build a new nation. Hardwork does not kill; it is laziness that kills the mind and the body. Hardwork is the essential to the building of a solid foundation for self, family and country. Hardwork is a cure for fraud, cheating, examination leakages, certificate rackets, secret cults and failure in life.

Discipline encompasses modesty, thoughtfulness, community living, punctuality, duty, leadership and followership, obedience, cooperation and discussion. We all need a self control.

Let us all be honest in accounting for actions and activities. Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach. Where are you? and what are you doing? If you say because others do it you will follow others to do evil? You are a jellyfish then. Avoid immoral shortcuts to achieve goals. Avoid cheating in class, in home, in class election and examinations. Then you will grow up to be a trusted, trust-worthy and reliable individual at home, at work, school and within the community. You will grow up to be respected person.

Money cannot buy everything. Resist the urge to join people in praising corrupt people and more importantly resist the temptation of following them. If all of us can start doing all this little thing there will be change in our society and it is this change people from the society that will later emerge has our leaders in all sphere of government. It is not too late for Nigeria to reverse the ill of the past

All Nigerians are expected to be a activist in our own way, pursuing actions to a logical conclusion towards; good governance, exposing what is wrong, Industrial commitments, crying against instances of injustice, teaching/educating the people to be self-sufficient, re-orientate the mind positively, working behind the scenes to promote enhanced political leadership, promoting Political/Human Rights activism and using the media to propagate meaning leadership

CORRECTING THE MESS IN EDUCATION SECTOR..

On a very sad note, in our clime we confuse schooling with education and today we are paying dearly negatively for it. Schooling is different from education, unfortunately for us, we left the most vital and begin to chase shadows. Schooling is the process of being formally educated at a school, while education is the activities of educating or instructing or activities that impart knowledge or skill in an individual. Or better still, education is the Knowledge acquired by learning and instruction.

There is a line of distinction between the two and obvious our policy maker, the player maker and agencies in our educational sector do not know the difference and that is why there is confusion everywhere. The greatest things colonial master gave us is education but today Nigeria has messed up what was given to us. We are not emulating the colonial master in embracing the best practices of education, after we have messed up what they gave to us, instead of us repairing the damage and finding solution, the rich, well to-do, the poor and those in government took their children and wards abroad to obtain quality education, which they know quite well that is what we lack.

Over the years, government is not considering and paying serious attention to the foundation, which is the primary education and imagine when the foundation of a house is faulty, what happened? That is an invitation to disaster. Firstly, we are not having adequately trained and qualified teachers at the primary level, what they teach our children are irrelevant to their demand, time and age. Investment in the teachers that will teach our children in school should be the utmost priority of government. A teach cannot give what he does not have, therefore, to secure the future, its high time we look in the direction of training and re-training the teachers. The curriculum are wrong and we are not delivering values anymore. We must revive the national policy on education the formative years of every child is vital and must not be taken for granted and most importantly, public schools must be well funded.

Solution to our moribund education is not lowering the cut-off marks that JAMB (Joint Admission Matriculation Board)  is embarking on but re-evaluating and improving the standard. Teachers are suppose to be highly intelligent people, reducing the cut-off marks to 150 is an insult on teaching profession.

What is the relevance of JAMB in the life of our nation and our children? JAMB has outlived its functions and relevancy in Nigeria, they only cause confusion for the student and they have succeeded in causing retrogressing harm to our children. The day JAMB died and lost its relevancy was the day schools were allowed to conduct post UTME after students have written JAMB examination. JAMB should be scrapped and the bogus funds spend on JAMB every year should be spent on training, re-training and adequately equipping and improving the teachers. Spent it on redeveloping and remodeling our moribund and declining education standard.

Organisations, institutions and employers of labour are part of the problems and the mess in education sector. In their advertisement, looking for students with two-one, looking for student with 5 year to 7 years of working experience from a newly graduated student, is that not futile?
Where they missed it is that, they should not expect students to study law, marketing, business management, banking, etc and come out from school and automatically become a lawyer, marketer, business manager, banker, etc, without practice, without someone taking him through the practicality of the profession. What we need now is a leader who will prioritize education.

In other developed and advanced countries of the world, CEO and employers sit at the project defense panel of the students and many students got employment without writing any interview and test to get the job.

In the past we used to have international students on our universities but today, all our students are abroad because there is no standard and no value for money paid.

ARISE AFRICA

Arise Africa

Arise Africa  To your destiny and purpose  Hear God’s clarion call  To harbour the King and His Kingdom  Like you once did against Herod’s sword  But now against the darkness  That has engulfed your land and beyond

Arise to a new day  From the clutches of the past  From the shackles of the present  And the trepidation of the future  Sing a new song of freedom  He is faithful that promised  To restore your lost glory

Arise Africa  Let your sprawling cathedrals  Overflow to the highways and hedges  And your godly influence  To homes, governments, workplaces and communities  Let His kingdom reign  Among those that bear His name

Arise, dear Africa  Let your priests stand in the gap  And your kings exercise dominion  Let your sons and daughters at home and in Diaspora  Think of you above their very lives  Let each become an agent of change  And usher in a renewal

Arise now, Africa  Let your light bearers stand against the prevailing darkness  With the endurin godly culture  Prescribing and implementing divine solutions  That will astound the heathen  Daring to disciple the nations  As manifested sons of God

Arise, O Africa  Let your great men rebuild the ancient ruins  Let them repair the broken walls  And restore the age-old foundations  Where the poor, orphan and widow rejoice  Then will you be like a watered garden  And your night like noonday

TIMELY WORDS FOR THE EMERGING WORLD LEADERS

We always look at state house and Aso Rock for leadership, we are the leader. In democracy people are the leader (Democracy is the government of the people for the people and by the people). In the definition, Government appears once and people appear three times. It’s in your hands and it has to be value driven culture and value system, because you have a position does not make you a leader. People who had make impact in the world people like Martin Luther King Jr. did not have position, people like Mahatma Gandhi did not have a position, even Nelson Mandela was influencing from the prison without a position, Mother Theresa rule the world from Calcutta. Don’t let them tell you that you are leaders of tomorrow, that is balderdash, rubbish, you are leaders of today (Now) because there is nothing like tomorrow. I realize that when you step into tomorrow you called today yesterday and tomorrow you are talking about, it becomes today.

When you step into leadership watch out for this, there are some people who have skills but lack attitude, Mobutu messed up, Kabilah chased him out and Kabilah sat down and messed up. IBB messed up the people chased him out and many other who rule with draconian law. They went in with good intention, with degrees (Dr, Phd, MBA), they get the skills. In leadership skills is not enough, that is why David said I led the people with the Integrity of my heart and the skillfulness of my hands, the two goes hands in hands. That is why Chinua Achebe said “things fall apart the center cannot hold mere anarchy is loose upon the world” when you see anarchy it means center cannot long hold and the center I am talking about is not the skills is the attitude, it’s the selflessness that runs down our world..

Those who are selfish, you may gain everything now but in the next 15 years, you will know why there is a difference between success and significance, you can become successful by making money but you only become significant by making people. When you make people, the people will turn around and make the money for you. So have a selfless attitude, selfishness have taken over the atmosphere. Money cannot be compare with good name; good name is rather to be chosen rather than silver or gold. Money gives you prosperity but a good name gives you posterity, it goes beyond you, it goes into your lineage, family. I want a situation that people will look into my children and tell them God bless you and say what do we do and they say not because of you but because of your dad, not because of you but because of your grandfather. Consider Awolowo, my father and almost elderly people that I met werecrazy about this man, Awolowo brought civilization to western Nigeria, everybody in western Nigeria then had free education, he left a name. When I see the children, grandchildren I treat them with respect not because of them but because of the name they carry. The best inheritance you can give your child is a good name, there is no how Osuji, Abacha, Wabara, IBB,etc, can be a good name.

Mother Theresa died a pauper but she was so much influential than Warren Buffet, Dangote. In Calcutta in Indian she decided to sacrifice her life in poverty. It’s not by your wealth and it’s not by your birth, Prince Charles was born in a royal of family but compared to Princess Diana, even in death she was more influential.

Leadership begins now and the better we are able to raise a new generation of leaders now and also individually we can begin preparing now for the kind of leadership that is missing in Nigeria.

CORRECTING THE MESS IN EDUCATION SECTOR.

On a very sad note, in our clime we confuse schooling with education and today we are paying dearly negatively for it. Schooling is different from education, unfortunately for us, we left the most vital and begin to chase shadows. Schooling is the process of being formally educated at a school, while education is the activities of educating or instructing or activities that impart knowledge or skill in an individual. Or better still, education is the Knowledge acquired by learning and instruction.

There is a line of distinction between the two and obvious our policy maker, the player maker and agencies in our educational sector do not know the difference and that is why there is confusion everywhere. The greatest things colonial master gave us is education but today Nigeria has messed up what was given to us. We are not emulating the colonial master in embracing the best practices of education, after we have messed up what they gave to us, instead of us repairing the damage and finding solution, the rich, well to-do, the poor and those in government took their children and wards abroad to obtain quality education, which they know quite well that is what we lack.

Over the years, government is not considering and paying serious attention to the foundation, which is the primary education and imagine when the foundation of a house is faulty, what happened? That is an invitation to disaster. Firstly, we are not having adequately trained and qualified teachers at the primary level, what they teach our children are irrelevant to their demand, time and age. Investment in the teachers that will teach our children in school should be the utmost priority of government. A teach cannot give what he does not have, therefore, to secure the future, its high time we look in the direction of training and re-training the teachers. The curriculum are wrong and we are not delivering values anymore. We must revive the national policy on education the formative years of every child is vital and must not be taken for granted and most importantly, public schools must be well funded.

Solution to our moribund education is not lowering the cut-off marks that JAMB (Joint Admission Matriculation Board)  is embarking on but re-evaluating and improving the standard. Teachers are suppose to be highly intelligent people, reducing the cut-off marks to 150 is an insult on teaching profession.

What is the relevance of JAMB in the life of our nation and our children? JAMB has outlived its functions and relevancy in Nigeria, they only cause confusion for the student and they have succeeded in causing retrogressing harm to our children. The day JAMB died and lost its relevancy was the day schools were allowed to conduct post UTME after students have written JAMB examination. JAMB should be scrapped and the bogus funds spend on JAMB every year should be spent on training, re-training and adequately equipping and improving the teachers. Spent it on redeveloping and remodeling our moribund and declining education standard.

Organisations, institutions and employers of labour are part of the problems and the mess in education sector. In their advertisement, looking for students with two-one, looking for student with 5 year to 7 years of working experience from a newly graduated student, is that not futile?

Where they missed it is that, they should not expect students to study law, marketing, business management, banking, etc and come out from school and automatically become a lawyer, marketer, business manager, banker, etc, without practice, without someone taking him through the practicality of the profession. What we need now is a leader who will prioritize education.

In other developed and advanced countries of the world, CEO and employers sit at the project defense panel of the students and many students got employment without writing any interview and test to get the job.

In the past we used to have international students on our universities but today, all our students are abroad because there is no standard and no value for money paid.

LESSON FROM MY PAPA

When I was a little boy,

Every night Papa would tell us bedtime stories,

Grandpa and Grandma also tell us old folks tales,

Stories of pride

Stories of courage

Stories of winning

When it seems that

Every one was against me

Stories of animals in the jungle,

Who display unusual character

Animals we can relate to and learn from,

Stories of men and women in the ancient

Yoruba kingdom, pre-colonial and post colonial era

Who are warriors, heroes, entrepreneurs

Social activities, playwright, athletes, mothers of courage, etc.

Thanks to my Papa, I was never without a hero.

My Papa and my Mama are the first model, hero and leader

That I have ever come across in this my life time.

All these stories have shape my behavioural pattern forever.