A DELIBERATE ATTEMPT TO BREAK THE MOULD.. By Dotun George

In 54 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.






Dotun George
A motivational & public speaker. A social crusader, a life coach and a trainer
E-mail: dotungeorge009@gmail.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/dotun.george
Blog: www.dotungeorge009.blogspot.com
Twitter : @dotungeorge

DON'T BE A VICTIM, MAKE THINGS HAPPEN

According to Dr.  Mysle Munroe People can be divided into three groups: Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.

I have also found out that some people can be thermostat or thermometer. Thermostat determine what happened in its environment, while the environment and the conditions of things around determine what happened to the thermometer.

Socioculturally, the way we are raised and brought up has conditioned so many people to be thermometer, whose environment determine his survival and the outcome of if his life. By design, i am advocating we need to break that mould and act like a thermostat, who is the determinant of its environment and circumstances.
By creation we are not creation of circumstances but a creator of circumstances.

Majority of the problems in our climes today are created by man who has been conditioned by the environment and it will take men who can rise above the environment, their ugly experience and circumstances to create a desirable and creative future for themselves. There are problems you are equipped to solve, try to play your part and see how this world will turn around in a short while.


The only people who can truly know your story are the ones who helped you write it.
People may not always tell you how they feel about you, but their actions will speak for themselves pay attention.
#DotunGeorge.. #Wisdom4Life.. #MakeImpact.. #Legacy



Dotun George
A motivational & public speaker. A social crusader, a life coach and a trainer
E-mail: dotungeorge009@gmail.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/dotun.george
Blog: www.dotungeorge009.blogspot.com
Twitter : @dotungeorge

WHO HAS DONE THIS TO YOU?

We don't have FOREX for business merchants, importers and SME but if you are going to Mecca or Jerusalem, CBN will give you dollars at less than N200/$1 from Nigeria's scarce FOREX.

But if you are a manufacturer or just any other Nigerians, you buy dollars at rate of N380/$1.

Is that not misplacement of priority and slave mentality? 

Nigeria and Nigerians ' mind need unblocking. 

The social implications of all these is that, Nigeria is helping Saudi Arabia and Israel to run their economy, while we run down our own 

Government should not get involved in pilgrimage. If you can't afford it then stay in your village and worship God. 

A country that allow her industry and factories to close down and converted to churches, where miracle preachers are doing business, cannot pretend to be moving forward.  In fact it is a sign of economic retrograde. When there are no jobs for the worshippers when would get their tithe and offering? 

This slave mentality that is being displayed both at the leadership level and followership cannot bring Nigeria to the place of prosperity, growth and development. It is an indication that we are still far from where we need to be as a country. 

Nigeria where is your pride and your dignity? 

THE CHALLENGES OF RESTORATION

The  founding  fathers  of  Nigeria  had  the  vision  of  leading  their  people  from  the shackles  of  disease,  want,  ignorance  and  development  to  modernity.  This  vision they  shared  with  great  men  like  Lee  Kuan  Yew  of  Singapore  and  Dr.  Mahathir Mohammed  of  Malaysia  in  the  60s  and  80s.

This  vision  is  aptly  captured  in  the message of the old national anthem if the politically incorrect language is ignored.

"Nigeria, We Hail Thee" (1960-1978)
Nigeria, we hail thee,
Our own dear native land,
Though tribe and tongue may differ,
In brotherhood we stand,
Nigerians all are proud to serve
Our sovereign Motherland.

Our flag shall be a symbol
That truth and justice reign,
In peace or battle honour'd,
And this we count as gain,
To hand on to our children
A banner without stain.


O God of all creation,
Grant this our one request,
Help us to build a nation
Where no man is oppressed,
And so with peace and plenty
Nigeria may be blessed

QUESTION 
To  what  extent  have  these  aspirations  been  met  by  successive government  of  our nation? The brotherhood was shattered by a needless  fratricide civil war where millions of Nigeria lost their lives. The  war  stained  the “banner”  handed  over  to  us  by  our  father,  contrary  to  the vision  of  the  founding  fathers.  A  whole  generation  was  wasted  in  33  years  of military rule- a period where truth and justices were literally on vacation.


We  become  a  nation  where  the  prayers  of  the  founding  father  to  build  a  nation where  no  man  is  oppressed,  rang  hallow.  Oppressed  typed  our  nation  until  people losing  their  freedom  and  even  their  lives  by  peaceful  voicing  opposition  to government. Our government was born into this atmosphere of shattered hopes, surreal dreams, blurred  vision  and  a  bloody  civil  war.

We  are  weaned  under  the  jackboots  of military oppression, ethnic and religious strife, urban violence and finally “plenty”of want. It is this generation that has now been called upon to restore Nigeria to the original vision of our founding fathers. The challenges are daunting in the sense that we lack one of the most basic tools of any political endeavour – experience of good governance. The founding fathers had a very short period to actualize their dream/vision before the noble enterprise was shaken to its foundations. The generation of our fathers was wasted by military rule that of our elder brothers was lost to economic depression. But we are determine to succeed.

Today,  we  are  literally  back  to  where  they  are  at  independence,  with  the  task  of building a united, prosperous and peaceful nation still a dream. Unfortunately, time is  not on  our  side,  we  are  not  at the  dawn  of  our  generation  but at  late  afternoon, with the twilight about to set in as to be expected of a people with literally  forlorn hope, Nigerian’s are importantly expectant. We  do  not  blame  them,  it  is  the  duty  of  government  as  the  generation  of  leaders called upon to restore the vision to meet their aspirations.

It  is  possible  to  achieve  modernity  within  a  generation  as  the  experience  of Singapore  that developed  from  a  3rd  world  country  to  First  (1st)  world country.  In 30 years between 1960 and 1990 and subsequently that of Malaysia has shown. All that is required is a Leadership with Vision and political will. This is probably our nation’s  last  chance,  as  from  the  current  global  trend,  it  is  doubtful if  any  nation will have another 40 years to experiment with government but as stated earlier, 40 years is more than a enough time for a nation to achieve modernity.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, UNNECESSARY BURDEN.....By Dotun George

Nigerians do not seem to appreciate the importance of the parliament in a democracy and are therefore not concerned enough to act on their failings. But this is the time for them to rise up and demand performance from their legislators. It is also time to decide whether the resources deployed to maintain the 108 senators and 360 House of Representatives members are commensurate with their output. Can the economy continue to sustain their ostentation?

In Senegal, when it became obvious that a bicameral legislature could no longer be sustained, there was a decision to operate a unicameral legislature. President Macky Sall, on abolition of the Senate in 2012, decided to use the $15 million saved to contain the threats of floods.
There is nothing wrong in facing the reality by pruning the number of the two arms of the National Assembly in Nigeria as a cost-saving measure. Not only that, it also makes sense to reduce the job of the lawmakers into a part-time assignment, where members could only take sitting allowances. There is nothing in what is currently happening at the National Assembly that cannot be handled on a part-time basis.

LIFE IN AFRICA AND THE WAY OUT. – By Dotun George

One of my life's visions is deeply rooted in the African vision. Leaders after leaders from across Africa have longed passionately for a new continent. We saw that in Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela, Obafemi Awolowo, Herbert Marcurly, Albert Luthuli and others. They have imagined and envisioned a continent imbued with visionary leadership, capable of mobilizing and harnessing Africa's enormous human and material resources towards social, economic and political peace and stability. In the actualizing that, they came together to form Organization of Africa Unity. Since then, was Africa united? It was at the face of this Organization Africa continent was tore apart through racism, segregation, war, genocide and what have you.

Presently, this vision looks far-fetched. It perhaps looks more far-fetched today than it was yesterday. Almost all the negative indices are up. Political instability. Poverty. Corruption. Ethnic wars and the worst of it is the xenophobic attack on foreign national especially Nigerians in South Africa. Africa's rapid population growth rate falls far below its economic growth rate. Saddled with heavy debt burdens, visionless leadership and the all-pervading corruption, the continent - with its 600 million plus people - has become a laughing stock and the object of international concern.

Africa has always been in the news. At one time the continent was the theatre of the heinous crime of slavery between the 16th and the 19th centuries. At another time, it was at the receiving end of a big scramble that led to the partitioning of the continent into colonies. The road to freedom from colonialism was paved with blood. The misuse of that freedom paved way for neo-colonialism. The cold war led to a second partitioning of Africa into the communist and capitalist camps. Africa became the bride wooed by two powerful forces in a battle for supremacy. That battle bequeathed to our continent corrupt and inept governments that were propped up by their masters and were more concerned about their personal survival than the survival of their people. The cold war had hardly ended before globalisation of trade became the vogue. Trade globalisation has exposed the African economy as weak and non-competitive.

One of the latest sobering news coming out of Africa shows that AIDS, the world’s most dreaded disease, has gotten its foot-hold in the continent. Of the global total of 34.3 million people infected with the deadly virus, 24.5 million (or 70%) of them are Africans. In the year 2000 alone, the Sub-Saharan Africa recorded 3.8 million new cases of HIV/AIDS!
Ebola virus has done devastating havoc most especially to the people of West Africa. Thousands of lives were claimed by Ebola in Liberia, Serea Lone, Gambia, Garbon and few in Nigeria.

Good news, but…
But it is not all bad news from Africa. Obviously the most cheering news is that Africa today is the most Christianised continent in the world!
My thinking is that Africa can use what she has got to get what she does not have. Our cathedrals are bursting at their seams. Sunday after Sunday, African Christians throng the churches for worship and spiritual guidance. Our leaders openly request for prayers and attest to their faith in Christ. But this massive outpouring of the Spirit is yet to translate into new habits and lifestyles that are capable of bringing our continent out of the pit of despair. Corruption has not abated.

Observers have noted that this seeming piety is directed to 'An Unknown God' who has remained a mystery to a lot of Africans. Like the Athenians, Africans are known to be deeply religious people. But God has become a mere tool of worship to achieve a selfish end rather than One to relate to and obey in all things. It could be said of a lot of African Christians as "having a form of godliness but denying its power….” Profession of faith is hardly matched with the practice of faith. The yawning gap between profession and practice has brought the African Church into a state of disrepute and has given the impression that she is an accomplice to the corruption and ineptitude that characterize Africa rather than the Light that she claims to be.

Church as Agents of Change
Even then, the African Christians remain the most potent forces to counter the darkness that has overwhelmed the continent. If adequately mobilized, reset her priority and stop fooling herself because of fanciful edifice of their place of worship,  that is. This is because the Church remains the only Body of Christ and the Pillar of Truth on earth. Not only that, the Christian faith is a revolutionary faith. It calls believers to a new life (new creation) and the submission to a Biblical worldview through discipleship. Believers are advised to develop a radical mind that is in conformity with the new creation realities and to firmly resist the temptation to be conformed to the world standards.
Church supposed to be non-conformist, anti-corruption crusader, a new breed without greed, a radical opposition to corruption and usher in a new order of life, norms, system, structures and attitudes that will dignify man.

"Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude]…"

ECONOMIC WOES: CAUSES AND LIKELY SOLUTIONS....... By Dotun George

Nigeria economy is gradually sliding into recession because of the mismanagement of the nation's wealth and resources by the past regime. Over the years, we refused to invest, diversify our economy, we run only mono economy that is solely dependent on oil. We refused  to think ahead, we are not proactive in our approach to all our national issues, unfortunately, the repercussion is now catch up with us a d hitting the entire country badly.

A recession is a decline of economic activity, more specifically, a decline in gross domestic product (GDP) for two or more consecutive quarters. GDP is the market value of all goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time.

There is outcry everywhere and agitations are rising day by day for a better and prosperous nation. It seems government is helpless and the whole country is confused. I have stopped to disturb myself because my mentor, who is also a watchman over this country said before now when the whole nation was preparing for the last general election and early this year, he made reference to it again in one of his nation wide live broadcast made in the month of January 2016. He said, Nigeria will go through a transition period before revolution, transformation and desire change comes. Obviously, it seems every approach of government is not yielding the required result and everything seems to be stagnated, yes it will be because change by nature are not microwave and it does not happen over night. To change a rotten and bastardized system and country comes with a lot of difficulty, at the beginning, the whole exercise and attempt might looks impossible and futile but if the government and the citizens do not relent in the attempt to birth change, in no time, the desire change and transformation will come.

Many who are ignorant of the economic cycle will blame it on the current government, no. Nigeria has been showing symptoms of recession for a long time, but but now the reality was dawn on us. In the past we are given bogus economic figures and whitewash GDP figure that does not reflect in the economic lives of Nigeria.

Recession is an opportunity for a nation and the people to rise higher provided we can see what lies ahead. What need to be done as government is to change the strategy, reposition the institutions and structure of governance. Let us a create accurate database of our population, employed and unemployed populace, students in school and those out of school and those did not have the opportunity of stepping into the four walls of formal schools. Proper and accurate population database will aid our economic planing. The citizens must position themselves accurately and take hold of the opportunities and begin to create economic pathways, that is what change the fortune the Indians and Chinese.

A productive country and serious minded government leverage on everything and every situation and turn it around for their advantages. In 2008-2009 when there was global recession, Germany was not in recession because they have a system and structure that can mitigate such natural occurrence. In Germany 30% of their students goes to University and 75% of the students goes to polytechnic and technical colleges. During recession they are able to rise above it because average workers are technically and technologically skillful, what that means is that, they prioritize human capital development. A productive citizens will produce a productive country but a lazy country like Nigeria where everybody is busy looking amnesty, handouts and crumbs of bread from government is country already programmed for poverty, economic woes and recession.

To get out of recession, we must focus on power generation and equilibrium distribution of power. Power is imperative to meet local demand, to drive economy both at micro and macro level. We need to decentralize the source of power generation. Why giving me power from Kanji Dam when the cost of getting power from Kanji have already killed the economy. It does not make any economic sense.

One of the major disservice the pass regime did to us was that, the privatization of power they did and transferred to this regime was faulty and it can't deliver desired results. Nigeria government in the past privatized distribution of power instead of power generation, we can't make progress that way until we rewrite the wrong of the past this country will continue to grope in the day as if we are in the dark.