CHANGES
FOR REQUESTS TO READ PERSONAL THOUGHTS. PLEASE EMAIL ME @ jidesalu@jidesalu.com to receive PASSWORD. PERSONAL THOUGHTS ARE COPYRIGHT OF JIDESALU.COMIt is you that failed. Not God.
So do not blame it on God.
Some things have been set in motion by God for us to take a step or act on,
But we say we wait on God.
Praying .
Fasting.
Some things do not need waiting on God for.
Just do your bit, then the manifestation of what God, the Almighty, has already put in place in us will take place.
It has never failed.
It will never fail.
And it will not fail for you. Say the Amen and Act.
Most Christians, I will say, are not who they confess to be.
Most Christians are not believers.
Believers who profess to be Christians must act Christ like.
Jesus never held on to the doctrine that “seeing is believing.”
To many Christians, that is their faith.
What is faith again, I dare ask?
According to Christ, with reference to the book of Hebrews in Chapter 11;
It is “…the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
There was never a point Christ insinuated that we must see first before we act.
How come many Christians queue to see a Pastor whom they believe has direct connections with Christ?
How come many non- believers believe in one sacrifice or the other concocted by a fellow who could do with more than the rich have, but yet, has the power to convince them the rich that his way is the right way?
How come?
The story was told of a man who specialises in making things out of leather. He was struggling, he was poor, really poor, but he had a passion and was good with leather. He was gifted.
Leather hide
So there he was, sweating, cutting leather into different sizes and shapes and sewing them together to make a thick and larger patch of leather, smooth enough to be rolled on the floor or better still, on grass.
The leather man had this dream that he could sew this patch of leather into a round shape with the possibility of it been inflated with air. The leather man had a dream.
He saw it.
He could feel it.
But how many more people could see what the leather man saw? A wave of adrenalin accompanied every needle stuck into the leather patch to make this round thing.
The leather man, after much sweat and determination completed his dream project.
He took his dream, which is now in form of a round leather patch to a wealthy man in the village for investment. You see, he needed more money to buy leather, needles and thread. But the wealthy man could not see what the leather man sees. After a lot of spit and spat which made up a conversation, the wealthy man gave the leather man an assignment.
He told him; “you see, Mr dream big, you need to organise for me an example of the event you have always had in mind where you expect this round leather thing to be kicked about by 22 sensible grown up boys. If I can see that, I will believe you, then we can talk more.”
A classic tale of seeing is believing in action.
The rest, as they say is history.
This round leather thing has produced a multi-billion pound event that employs millions of people all over the world. It has made the young and the old fabulously rich. It has given hope to many. It has become a universal sport language. It has united people and countries.
This is what many of us have inside of us, that dream, but we still wait upon God.
For God to do what?
It has been said that one of life’s greatest challenges is thinking and doing the things that ultimately matter and bring success.
A life, in which anything goes, is a life in which nothing goes.
God bless you for stopping by.
Chimamanda Adichie made a graceful appearance at this year’s TED Conference held in Oxford, England.
Four days of inspired thinking looked beyond the obvious, at the hidden forces shaping our future, at the mysterious functioning of things, at the invisible and at the not-yet-discovered. At TEDGlobal 2009, a roster of powerful speakers and performers explored The Substance of Things Not Seen, according to TED.com.
Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
I can tell you that, although, featured late here on JSD, its worth listening to. Enjoy.
I’ve recently collected another daunting pile of questions regarding the health benefits of sex.
Through the years of my career, and I imagine through the ages of all humanity, this has been a resurfacing question. Typically I answer questions pertaining to the health benefits of sex on a one-on-one basis, but since I know that there are many more men out there who are asking themselves the same question I thought it admissible to address the topic here.
Many people simply enjoy a healthy sex life because sex is pleasurable. Now there’s another reason to stay under the sheets; there are substantial health benefits of sex.
Enjoying a rigorous romp can do wonders for everyone both physically and psychologically. Now, men everywhere can tell their ladies that sex is not only for fun, but, since there are health benefits of sex, their lives may depend on it.
The following are six different reasons why sex and sexual activity may help you live a longer, happier life due to the health benefits of sex:
- Sex can cure headaches.
All those times that you were told, “Not tonight honey, I have a headache,” all you had to do was inform your woman that one of the health benefits of sex is its ability to act as a pain reliever. The hormone oxytocin (a nine amino acid peptide that is synthesized in hypothalamic neurons and transported down axons of the posterior pituitary for secretion into blood) secretes within your body whenever you engage in sexual activity.
Because of this secretion, endorphins (hormone-like chemicals that bear a close functional resemblance to morphine) are released.
When a person is aroused or excited, oxytocin levels not only begin to increase, they are the reason that orgasms come about. Studies have shown that a rise in oxytocin levels can relieve pain; everything from headaches, cramps and overall body aches can be diminished with a simple roll in the hay. A recent survey revealed that people who have more sex reported that they felt more at ease, happier and learned how to handle stress better. So perhaps the term “sexual frustration” is not too far from the truth.
After an orgasm, an intense wave of calm and relaxation overcomes humans (that’s why men usually fall asleep) and it’s a time when people can truly liberate themselves and let go. Plenty of people who enjoy a regular dose of sex convey that they sleep much better during the night and feel alive and refreshed throughout the day.
2. So, one of the health benefits of sex is a better night’s sleep, which allows you to handle day-to-day stress much more efficiently increase blood flow. It goes without saying that when we get aroused our blood starts to pump at a quicker rate and, thus, blood flow to our brain increases. Both an increased heart rate and more blood pumping through the brain result in better performance (in and out of the bedroom).
What this ultimately means is that the fresh supply of blood pumping through your body provides the organs with a healthy dose of oxygen and rids the body of old and wasteful products. So, another health benefit of sex is a cleansed system. Treat your temple right with the help of a little excitement.
3. The health benefits of sex will give you more hormones and keep you younger body maintenance. One of the health benefits of sex is that it helps to keep you fit and it can keep you in constant awareness of your body image. Everyone likes to know that they have a nice physique and continually being naked in front of another person can be somewhat of a good incentive to stay in shape.
Believe it or not, sexual intercourse burns off 150 calories every half hour. Although the average couple engages in sex for approximately 25 minutes a session , only three times a week, it still accounts for 450 calories that are better taken off than put on.
If you’re more active than average, then that will only make things more beneficial for you and that lucky gal. A health benefit of sex, particularly a rigorous hour of sex, is that it may burn even more than 300 calories depending on how rigorous you get fountain of youth. Although the orgasm is sometimes referred to as the “little death,” having at least two orgasms a week can increase your life span. Every time you reach orgasm, the hormone DHEA (Dehydroepiandrosterone) increases in response to sexual excitement and ejaculation.
DHEA can boost your immune system, repair tissue, improve cognition, keep skin healthy, and even work as an antidepressant. Therefore, a health benefit of sex if you keep the orgasms coming, is potentially a longer life more hormones are good. Both testosterone and estrogen levels experience a boost through regular sexual activity. Testosterone does more than just boost your sex drive, it helps fortify bones and muscles, and it keeps your heart in good working condition as well.
4. In women, sex increases the levels of estrogen, which protects against heart disease. Ever wonder why women love the touchy, feely stuff so much? It’s because of their rise in estrogen levels. This hormone also plays a huge role in a woman’s body scent. While estrogen makes women sentimental, a rise in their testosterone levels is what makes them desire penetration.
Men also produce estrogen and as they age, their estrogen levels increase while their testosterone levels drop. This reversal often results in men becoming somewhat calmer as they get on in years.
5. It increases brain power, heart rate, it can help fend off diseases and ailments, and it makes individuals feel good about themselves.
In today’s stressful society, it has become a little more difficult to engage in intimate sexuality as often, but as long as you incessantly make the effort, you’ll realize that it’s always worth it.
6. The health benefits of sex will make you feel wonderful within and without and you will gradually notice that the more sex you have, the more bounce you will have in each step. Happiness isn’t sex itself, but sex does ultimately play a role in human happiness.
Thanks Chinedu Egedo for sending me this email.
And there were 3 married couples…
Three couples were married and stayed at the same hotel for their honeymoons, where they were all taken care of by Joe the Bellboy. The first man married a nurse. Joe showed them to their room and thought to himself, “What a lucky guy. Nurses are known to be hot to trot”.
The second man married a telephone operator. Joe showed them to their room and thought to himself, “Wow, he`s a lucky one. Telephone operators have sexy voices and once you pop that top button…”.
The third man married a school teacher. Joe showed them to their room and thought to himself “poor guy, she`s pretty but teachers are just too frigid”.
The next morning Joe reported to work at 5:30 in the morning. He expected only the teacher`s husband to call for breakfast any minute and the other two would call much later in the day.
6:00 a.m.
The phone rings it`s the nurse`s husband wanting breakfast. The nurse`s husband opened the door and Joe stepped back in shock. The man`s pyjamas were still pressed and his hair nicely combed.
Joe asked, “What happened sir? You married a nurse.”
The man sourly replies, “Son, don`t ever marry a nurse. All I heard last night was her nagging voice saying ” you`re not sanitary, you`re not sanitary”.
Joe went back down to the main desk to wait for the next call.
6:30 a.m.
The telephone operator`s husband calls for breakfast. Joe brings it as fast as possible hoping for the best. The man opens the door and Joe stepped back in shock. The man`s hair and pyjamas were properly combed and pressed.
Joe asks,” What happened? Telephone operators are supposed to be as sexy as their voices.”
The man sourly replies “Son, don`t ever marry a telephone operator. All I heard last night was her nasal voice saying, “your three minutes are up, your three minutes are up.”
Joe went back down to the desk, just knowing the teacher’s husband will be calling any minute.
4:30 p.m.
The teacher`s husband called for breakfast. Joe can`t believe it but quickly took the breakfast to the couples room. The man opened the door and Joe took a step back in shock. He wore only his boxers and his hair was a mess. He had scratch marks on his chest, arms and legs.
Joe fearing the worst asked “What happened to you? Did you have a fight?”
The man smiles and happily replies, “No Son, when you marry be sure to marry a school teacher. All I heard last night was her sexy smooth voice saying “We are going to do this over and over, until we get it right.”
Just a thought…
Economics Teacher: Give example of “Complete business failure due to negligence”
Student: A pregnant prostitute
…………………………………………
There are only two four letter words that are offensive to men.
“Don’t” & “Stop”……..unless they’re used together
…………………………………………
Orgonomic study shows that doggy style is the best sexual position for married couples.
While you are at it………she can read her book and you can watch TV.
Chat up lines
- Did you fart?
cuz you just blew me away2) Are your parents retarded?
cuz ya sure are special.3) My Love for you is like diarrhea.
I can’t hold it in.4) Is there a mirror in yer pants?
cuz I can see myself in em.5) If you were a tree & I was a Squirrel,
I’d store my nuts in yer hole6) You might not be the best lookin girl here,
but beauty’s only a light switch away..7) Your eyes are as blue as window cleaner.
AND.. the best for last!
8 ) Your face reminds me of a wrench,
every time I think of it, my nuts tighten up.
“Some things you just can’t explain”
A farmer is sitting in the neighbourhood bar slowly getting drunk.
A man comes in and asks the farmer,
“Hey, why are you sitting here on this beautiful day getting drunk?
” The farmer says,
“Some things you just can’t explain.”
“So what happened that is so horrible?” the man asked.
The farmer then decides to try and answer,
“Well if you must know, today I was sitting by my cow milking her.
Just as I got the bucket about full, she took her left leg and kicked it over.”
That’s not so bad, what’s the big deal?”
The farmer says, “Some things you just can’t explain.”
“Try me” the man says.
The farmer relenting, continued
“I took her left leg and tied it to the post on the left with some rope.
Then I sat down and continued to milk her.
Just as I got the bucket about full she took her right leg and kicked it over.”
“Ok so 2 buckets of milk spilled. That still isn’t that bad.”
The farmer says, “Some things you just can’t explain.”
” So, what did you do then?” the man asked, intrigued.
“I took her right leg and tied it to the post on the right.
I sat back down and continued to milk her,
and just as I got the bucket just about full,
the stupid cow knocked over the bucket with her tail.”
“Wow, you must have been pretty upset!” but that’s no reason to just sit here getting all depressed.”
The farmer says, “Some things you just can’t explain.”
“So then what else did you do?” the man asked again. “
Well I didn’t have any more rope, so I took off my belt and tied her tail to the rafter.
That’s when my pants fell down and my wife walked in.
“Like I said! Some things you just can’t explain.”
The Smart Sales Ass(istant)
A little old lady answered a knock on the door one day, only to be confronted by a well-dressed young man carrying a vacuum cleaner. ‘Good morning,’ said the young man.
‘If I could take a couple of minutes of your time, I would like to demonstrate the very latest in high-powered vacuum cleaners.’
‘Go away!’ said the old lady. ‘I’m broke and haven’t got any money!’ and she proceeded to close the door.
Quick as a flash, the young man wedged his foot in the door and pushed it wide open.
‘Don’t be too hasty!’ he said. ‘Not until you have at least seen my demonstration. ‘
And with that, he emptied a bucket of horse manure onto her hallway carpet.
‘If this vacuum cleaner does not remove all traces of this horse manure from your carpet, Madam, I will personally eat the remainder!’
The old lady stepped back and said, ‘Well let me get you a fork, ’cause they cut off my electricity this morning!’
Have a fabulously weekend and God bless you for stopping by. I mean it.
Kola Munis, a dear creative friend of mine tagged me on Facebook in a note titled “My Northern Nigerian Friend”.
Hmmmnnn, I read and I thought. And here is what I will say or write or whatever…..
However, before I do just that, Kola’s tag had his words of wisdom presented (as seen below)
Then, I will tell you what I think, what I really think….
Over to you Kola…
I’d like all my ’southern’ friends to read this, and then do some introspective thinking. When I first read it, I was quiet. Quiet because I was self-examining.
Then I was angry. Angry because Abubakar was reminding me that we all are capable – and probably guilty – of prejudice and bigotry and self-perpetuating, indulgent ignorance.
Then I was glad. Glad that someone somewhere – in this case my Cyberfriend Abubakar – had given me an authentic tool with which to shake awake my real-life southern friends and colleagues, get them out of their ‘comfort’ zones and into a place where we can examine our failings.
Failings which we may not be even aware of, because we have swallowed unchallenged the teachings of our forefathers, the reckless utterances of our friends and colleagues that surround us, reinforced by real and imagined negative stereotypes in the media and public life.
Failings that persist because we haven’t taken it upon ourselves to go and find out what is real, what is myth.
Failings that titillate, because in a country with so little to make us feel good about ourselves, we get ‘upliftment’ by putting others down. ’We are better than them, so I am somebody’. Just like the White Man once thought, and in some cases, still does, about us.
Like dodgy wine, such prejudice gives us a temporary, ultimately destructive and invariably false sense of self-fulfillment.
I have for many months been thinking to write an article titled ‘If I Were An Igbo Man’ – a desire I have long had to see Nigeria and Nigerians through the eyes of someone from a different part of the country than where I’m from. But I haven’t found the words, enough of the insight, or indeed the ‘liver’, to do so just yet.
But Abubakar has helped me. He has, in this his article, said it all.
Take a read, and then take a moment to refllect. Then Get-TFU and go find out for yourself. We are not as ‘wise’ or as ‘enlightened’ as we so often like to believe down south. I only got to challenge my handed-down, force-fed,’7th-generation-and still-going-strong’ prejudices when I went up north for my NYSC.
God knows, I’m soooooo glad I did!
Now the article that has generated the emotional Kola….
What Maketh A Northerner?
By Abubakar Suleiman
This is the story of my life. I am a black man and those that share my skin color know what a burden than can be.
It is the shame of centuries of slavery for which even a decent apology is too much to expect and the pain of knowing that of all the races, you are arguably the most undeveloped (or the closest to the natural state of man). When you read statistics like ‘one in ten black men in America are in prison’, or that while ‘blacks constitutes 13% of America, half of Americans prison inmates are black’ you shudder.
I recently started reading African American history (Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston are my top picks) and subsequently engaged my American friends on this topic. I am just beginning to understand the damage to the psyche of the African American male. My ignorance of the peculiar state of the ‘non immigrant black’ in America became glaring after my first hand encounter with some of these people.
Then again, I am African. Black, proud and straight back (MLK Jnr., my back is straight- nobody is riding this back). The poorest continent on earth with 3.5% of global trade in 2008, a place where a quarter of the countries are involved in war or experiencing post war conflict, where millions are murdered each decade for daring to speak a different language or practice a different religion and millions more die yearly from preventable diseases. In my continent, the leaders live a life of luxury in palatial homes, travel in private jets, receive medical care in the best hospitals in the world while the rest (80 %?) live on less than a dollar a day. I come from Africa, humbled and shamed.
In Africa , we have bright spots, economies that have shown signs of sustainable growth, societies that seem capable of governing themselves.. We have South Africa, Seychelles , Mauritius , Botswana and Namibia but I am none of these. I am sub Saharan African where share of global trade declined from 6% in 1980 to 2.6% in 2007, where some of the most gruesome mass murders, rapes and heartless mutilation occur daily, from Liberia to Sierra Leone, Uganda to Zimbabwe. Yes, I am a black sub Saharan African and I get very sympathetic looks when I travel, from the Arab cab driver in Sharjah to the discerning Australian doorman in Melbourne- it is the same look of pity.
And then I am Nigerian. I am the kingpin of fraud, a carrier of hard drugs, a murderer of gifted writers and environmental activist, a thief! I am single handedly the world’s most corrupt nation; I am Africa’s largest producer of a most valuable resource and her greatest waste of human talent. I am a quarter of the black race and half her problems. I am a Nobel and a Pulitzer Prize winner and yet half of me cannot read. I am a thousand doctors in exile and a million perishing patients at home. I am Nigeria, the giant of Africa and a shame to behold.
Former Nigerian Rulers
And yet again, I am a northerner! A ‘hausa-fulani’, a ‘northern apologist’ and a ‘mallam’. I am a dozen failed presidents and a thousand crooked ministers. I am a murderer of Igbo traders, a street urchin and a beggar. I carry the burden of the ruling elite, the military junta, the feudal lords and the religious cults. Yes, they call me a northerner and they say I am the problem of the nation. I am the one who built Abuja with stolen wealth, I refuse my people immunization and silently decreed illiteracy so that people will not read and understand.
I am the man that counts my cattle and adds it to the population of my people, the same man that collects the ’soft earned’ oil money from the Delta to buy luxury homes in Dubai . It is I that is renovating petroleum institute with more than $100 million dollars so that the ninety percent of my people who till the land can get better produce. I am the northerner, the unschooled, the corrupted, the lazy and the most ’stupid’ and yet I am the ruler of a quarter of black humanity.
A Negro and an African, a Nigerian and a Northerner and, yes most definitely a Muslim. I carry the burden of the world on my shoulder yet I stand straight. I stand with my head held high because I am truly all that I have been called but I am far more than that. I am a man. I have my principles and a clear objective. I seek to live an ethical life, a life of impact. I am hard-working, I read, I listen and I talk. I think. I think Ngozi is good (brilliant) and Ndidi is bad (disastrous), I hold Bode Agusto as exemplary and Bode George a shame, I know Sanusi to be straight and Shamsudeen a sham. You see, I am beyond the north, I am more than the nation, I am better than the continent and black is merely the color of my skin.
Next time you talk about the northerner, I want you to know that you are talking about me and that I am more than the sum of failed leaders with ethnic agendas (How an agenda can be considered ethnic when it subjugates 99% of the same tribe beats me). Next time you call on the north to step aside, remember you are asking 99% of my people who are nowhere near Aso Rock to step aside- from their desert encroached farmland and their dry muddy wells, from the tree shades where their children are taught the alphabets and the irrigation canal that has found a home in a luxury estate in south Africa. You are asking for my silence in the face of tyranny, a tyranny that killed my children before it gave your offspring dysentery but I shall not be silenced. What you are asking is that Nigerians should be made to shut up because Nigerians are fraudulent- we will not be silenced even if a million Nigerians are fraudsters and drug barons. Even as my sister from Edo is walking the ’street’ of Rome , so shall my brother from Benin be crowned an Archbishop at the Vatican . As you seek to crucify UMYA (Umaru Musa Yar’dua), so you shall seek to enthrone Ribadu (these are difficult times so we must lower our standards).
The north produced Buhari & Babangida; we are also responsible for Major Abubakar Umar and Major Al-Mustapha. This system produced Ken Nnamani and Andy Uba. Africa is responsible for Mandela and Mugabe; and both Mobutu and MLK Jnr. are black.
You see, I am a northerner but not that ‘northerner’, no! I am not the northerner who engages in ‘nocturnal meetings’ to take complete control of my country. I am not the northerner on whose behalf these meetings are held and in whose interest these crimes are committed. I am that other northerner, the one whose uncle cannot afford fertilizer; whose niece has no school to go to. I am the northerner that Nigeria needs because I am half the nation and none of its problem. I am more than seventy million men and women waiting to be unleashed, raising my voice and voting for change. THE END
It’s time for my emotions which I promise to keep very short…..
You know what I really think?
Abubakar Suleiman’s thoughts were well articulated I must say. What I am not sure of is if his thoughts as a Northern are peculiar?
I must confess, I am not sure they are.
Who says the Northerner from Nigeria does not have his prejudice against the southerner? While I will not accept it, it must be expressed. Your article, Abubakar is a voice for mankind, not for the North or South. Not for the Black or White.
The prejudice perpetrated against the black man is not self inflicted hence any rhetoric denouncing ill justice will be well earned or served. Need I also add, any generalisation on any ethnicity anywhere in the world, in my opinion, should be condemned and rightly so.
Abubaker, I hear your voice. I hear you loud and my wish is for Nigerians, Africans, and Mankind to embrace each other.
I will leave it at that ….for now
Thanks for getting to this point, that is, if you did not skip the many paragraphs.
God bless you all for stopping by.
Toyin Onabowu sent me an email with a portion of the text below. Thanks Toyin.
Many years ago, I read “The Purpose – Driven Life” by Rick Warren, and I must say that it left a mighty impression on my spirituality. Toyin, your email was very timely and trust me, I had to dig further to get the full interview from Billy Graham’s website.
Again, the words spoken by Pastor Rick ought not to, cannot, will not expire.
Take your time to read to the end I must encourage, ponder on the message and start to live it today.
Before the end of the month, you shall discover why this month’s posting will be full of inspirational write – ups.
Shssss, its still under wraps.
In the mean time, enjoy the interview.
PREPARING FOR ETERNITY—ON PURPOSE
A Conversation with Rick Warren
If you’ve looked at the best-seller display at any bookstore—secular as well as Christian—you’ve probably seen Rick Warren’s book “The Purpose-Driven Life.” It reached the New York Times best-seller list in January 2003, and to date some 19 million copies have been sold. Decision recently spoke with Warren (who also serves as a vice chair of this month’s Greater Los Angeles Billy Graham Crusade) about the book and also how its success has affected his life. 
by Jim Dailey
Q: Your book “The Purpose-Driven Life” is the best-selling hardcover non-fiction book in history. What do you think has made the book connect so passionately with people?
A: First, it deals with the most fundamental issue of life, and that is “What on earth am I here for?” Everybody is interested in the question of existence, which is “Why am I alive?”; the question of intention, which is “What is my purpose?”; and the question of significance, which is “Does my life matter?”
Second, it is extremely simple. I worked very hard to make the message simple and understandable. I don’t think there is a single thing new in the book that hasn’t already been said in classic Christian books. It’s just that each generation has to hear it again—that we are here for worship, evangelism, fellowship, discipleship and ministry.
Third, the book is kind of “the anti-self-help book.” The first line in the book reads, “It’s not about you.” It’s funny that it is considered a self-help book. Try to name another self-help book that starts with “It’s not about you.” I think people are tired of self-centered, narcissistic culture. They are saying, “There’s got to be something bigger than my own self-fulfilment in life.” And, of course, there is. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn’t going to make sense.
Q: So you want to help Christians gain a fresh perspective on the big picture?
A: Yes. People ask me, “What is the purpose of life?” And I respond, “In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity.” We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body—but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act, the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
Q: How do you apply these big-picture kinds of principles to your life?
A: It takes both discipline and habit. Life is a series of problems: either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one or you’re getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that’s not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life—but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys—you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don’t believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it’s kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you’re going into self-centeredness, which is my problems, my issues, my pain. But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
Q: Did it take you a while to hone “The Purpose-Driven Life” down to the five principles of worship, growth, evangelism, fellowship and ministry?
A: As I studied the Scriptures, I wrote “The Purpose-Driven Church” first. In it I considered, “What is the purpose of the Church?” And I began to see these patterns over and over in Scripture, that God wants the church to worship, to help people grow, to reach people through evangelism, to fellowship and to minister to the needs of people. And I believe that these are not only the purposes for every church as a body; they are the purposes for every individual.
The clearest expressions of the five purposes are the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. We have a phrase at our church that goes, “A great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will produce a great Christian.” We get two purposes from the Great Commandment and three from the Great Commission. The Great Commandment (Matthew 22:35-40) says, “Love God with all your heart.” That is worship. Then it says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That is ministry.
The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) says, “Go and make disciples.” That is evangelism. Then Jesus says, “Teach them to do everything I’ve commanded you.” That’s discipleship. And Jesus also tells us to baptize. We are baptized into the Body of Christ, and the fifth purpose is fellowship.
Q: Jesus was purpose-driven but always took time to deal with interruptions.
A: That’s because one of the purposes is ministering to people. And they are not interruptions; they actually are divine encounters that God planned. If we are to become like Christ and be conformed to His image, then we have to learn to love. You have to be in relationships to grow up spiritually. In other religions, the holy men are the guys who isolate themselves—they sit up on a hill completely untainted by culture. Jesus was the exact opposite. He said the way you become holy is by loving other people. He was called the friend of sinners. These are not distractions—they are divine encounters.
Q: Where do I start?
A: Ask: “Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God’s purposes?”
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, “God, if I don’t get anything done today, I want to know You more and love You better.” At the end of the day, if I’ve done that, the day was a success. On the other hand, if I get to the end of the day and I haven’t gotten to know God better and love Him more, I just missed the first purpose of life, and I’ve wasted the day. God didn’t put me on earth just to fulfil a to-do list. He’s more interested in what I am than what I do. That’s why we’re called human beings, not human doings.
Q: What has this past year been like—not only with your book sales but also with your wife’s cancer?
A: We discovered quickly that, in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people—all the five purposes we’ve been talking about.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before.
I don’t think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped us to decide what to do. First, He gave me 1 Corinthians 9. In that passage, Paul says those who preach the Gospel should make a living by the Gospel. But that he would not use this right, because he wanted to serve God for free so he would be a slave to no man. So we made four decisions. First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan—to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
Then, regarding the influence, God led me to Psalm 72. It’s Solomon’s prayer asking God to make him more influential. When you read this Psalm, at the start, it sounds like a selfish prayer. Solomon was already the wisest, wealthiest, most influential man in the world. Yet he wanted God to make him more powerful and influential. Then you read down and it says he wants this so he may rescue those who are oppressed, defend the afflicted and needy and to judge the afflicted with justice—to care, basically, for the marginalized of society.
To me, God said that the purpose of influence is to speak up for those who have no influence. That was a turning point for me. I had to repent and admit that widows and orphans have not even been on my radar. Now God is saying, “I’m giving you a platform to speak up for those who have no influence.” And I said, “OK.”
We intend to use the affluence and influence to do The Peace Plan and to mobilize hundreds of thousands of churches to speak up for those who have no influence. It’s a whole new direction, and I know it is what God wants me to do. The phrase that I have adopted for the rest of my life is “living for the global glory of God.” Purpose is all about that.
Jim Dailey
Jim Dailey is the executive editor of Decision magazine.
©Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; Photos/Illustrations: ©Greg Schneider
I remember it vividly. It was about two and half years ago.
My own son was had just gone past the 3 year mark and it hit us. The usual British bad news.
I was never one to look forward to the news especially when I know that anything uplifting rarely made a guest appearance. It was always tales of woes and dooms and tear jerking stories. And this particular day was no different.
I still remember wifey and I looking at each other after about 15 minutes with a stare suggesting that “what was the point” in listening to the nightly news broadcast. Yet if it was missed, you would think you had missed a jackpot.
And there it was a report of a missing 4 year old girl on holiday, somewhere in Portugal. The sighs were made and the “not again” were uttered. And as per usual, wifey and I both said our prayers for the missing little girl and parents.
Madeleine McCann
It was always a summer occurrence report, mishaps on holidays.
We thought it was the usual story, but it wasn’t. There was something unique and endearing about the missing little Madeleine.
As parents ourselves, we felt the excruciating pain both parents must be going through. We just felt for them. It could happen to just about anyone. Who says any of us could have been more careful than the McCanns on holidays in Portugal. So it would be foolish of anyone to blame the parents.
Days became weeks.
Weeks became months.
Months accumulated and became Years.
2 and a half years to be precise and the parents, still together, have not given up the search for their dear daughter.
Madeleine would be almost 7 years old now.
Computer generated Madeleine
My son recently celebrated his 6th birthday. We rejoiced and thanked God for having the opportunity to see our son grow. What about the McCanns? What would be going through their minds I wonder? Who would have wanted to harm their daughter? Why? Why? Why?
Mother and father would have searched their combined souls a million times what they could have done differently.
I heard yesterday on the news how a camera that was misplaced as far as Australia was discovered when photographs were pasted on Facebook and Sky news website. Thanks to the power of the Internet. It is for this same reason that I am using this medium to appeal to all to be more vigilant.
If a camera can be found, surely Madeleine McCann can.
For all those whom I am privileged to have touched from around the world, 200 countries as at last month, this is an appeal to you all. Let us be vigilant and do our little bit for humanity.
The world is too small to hide Madeleine.
Just imagine, if it was you?
God bless you all for stopping by.
Steve job said
“………..If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on
this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.”
If I had never left the comfort of UK, I would never have had the opportunity to connect with you and encourage Nigerians scattered all over the world to look inwards towards Nigeria in spite of all its challenges.
What is it that you are dearly holding onto?
What is it that you are so scared of if you let go?
Are you aware that you are destined to play a role in this world and that it is no longer up to God because it’s up to you?
To make that decision.
Consider this thought;
Work like there is never God and that all depends on you.
Pray, believing there is God, and that all depends on him.
Now, get ready to be inspired.
Introducing Steve JOBS.
Stanford Report, June 14, 2005
Steve "Apple" Jobs
‘You’ve got to find what you love,’ Jobs says
This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.
This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
As a person who passionately believes in the bible without any iota of doubt, I am compelled to constantly refer to this book. It is no ordinary book. It is a Holy Book for many reasons. You see, there is nothing, man can go through that has not been recorded in the bible. Absolutely nothing. And this is why I have learnt to remain calm in the event of an adversity.
Adversities would always beckon.
Actually, I now look forward to challenges.
Why?
Because I know that I am about to be promoted in that area of my life.
Don’t you know that Tests are disguised as adversities?
Really?
You didn’t know that?
How then would you have the opportunity to move forward if there are no obstructions ahead to overcome?.
Didn’t you have to pass series of tests at school to move on to the next class? Wasn’t the next class more difficult than the previous?
Come on answer me?
So why do you think it is any different in the real world?
In the bible, there is a Fantastic example of how a man had to go through a series of tests. This wealthy man was so tested that his friends and family urged him to denounce what he believed in. He refused and trudged on.
What his friends failed to realise is this; everybody will travel his journey differently. The paths may cross, but they do not have to be the same route. Also, experiences will differ. Therefore advice from friends need to be seriously weighed before executed.
One other point to note is that, there is nothing that you pass through that has not been permitted. Period.
Everything you pass through has been granted by your Creator.
NO PURPOSE OF GOD CAN BE WITHHELD (Job 42:2)
This is precisely my point.
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10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. 11 All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the LORD had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of silver [a] and a gold ring. (New International Version)
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10The LORD (A) restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold. 11Then all his (B)brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they (C)consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the LORD had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold. (New American Standard Bible)
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10-11 After Job had interceded for his friends, God restored his fortune—and then doubled it! All his brothers and sisters and friends came to his house and celebrated. They told him how sorry they were, and consoled him for all the trouble God had brought him. Each of them brought generous housewarming gifts. (The Message)
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10And the Lord turned the captivity of Job and restored his fortunes, when he prayed for his friends; also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.(A) 11Then there came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they sympathized with him and comforted him over all the [distressing] calamities that the Lord had brought upon him. Every man also gave him a piece of money, and every man an earring of gold. (Amplified Bible)
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10And Jehovah hath turned [to] the captivity of Job in his praying for his friends, and Jehovah doth add [to] all that Job hath — to double. 11And come unto him do all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all his former acquaintances, and they eat bread with him in his house, and bemoan him, and comfort him concerning all the evil that Jehovah had brought upon him, and they gave to him each one kesitah, and each one ring of gold. (Young’s Literal Translation)
Job, was made to go through a series of tests which have been described by friends as “Troubles, Adversities, Calamities and Evil” according to the various bible versions of Job 42:10-17 (as seen above).
Man saw Job’s promotion as Troubles and Evil, God that permitted the tests to take place in the first instance, remember, Satan, knew that he could not harm Job, so he needed to solicit God for permission first before the tests could take place, saw it as an opportunity to honour Job. Which he did. (Job 42:10-17)
A point of caution here.
God was so proud of Job. God considered Job to be blameless and an upright man who fears him and shuns evil. That meant Job was under God’s hedge because of his personal choice to believe in God and abide by his principles. So, while God’s protection is available to all, if you do not believe and walk by his doctrines, then do not expect to be protected. His hedge will not extend to those that are outside his arena. I just thought I should make that point clear.
So, Mr Satan was given the all clear to mislead and tempt Job.
“And boy! Job saw ‘pepper!’” (Interpretation, Job experienced so much tumoil)
He went through his ups and downs. One thing to note though, is that Job did not have the benefit of hindsight we all now have. Thank God.
Don’t you think that, had Job known God, his creator, had given Mr Satan permission and more so an order not to touch his life, he would have gone through his experiences with a lot more confidence and a cheek on his face? He would have faced up to Satan and avoided all the negative utterances of his family and friends which made his mood swing like a yo yo.
We can now enjoy the benefit of knowing our challenges cannot kill us.
Take those challenges as a ladder that you HAVE to climb to get to the next stage of your destiny. Okay.
Right. That is my discourse for today.
I hope you will gain something from this post.
Let me know what you think, alright?
God bless and I appreciate you for stopping by.
CLICK: COMPLETE NIGERIA NEWS – Point Blank News
Thanks Leke, for sending me this email.
EATING FRUIT…
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It’s long but very informativeWe all think eating fruits means just buying fruits, cutting it and just popping it into our mouths. It’s not as easy as you think. It’s important to know how and when to eat.
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What is the correct way of eating fruits?
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IT MEANS NOT EATING FRUITS AFTER YOUR MEALS! * FRUITS SHOULD BE EATEN ON AN EMPTY STOMACH.
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If you eat fruit like that, it will play a major role to detoxify your system, supplying you with a great deal of energy for weight loss and other life activities.
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FRUIT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FOOD. Let’s say you eat two slices of bread and then a slice of fruit. The slice of fruit is ready to go straight through the stomach into the intestines, but it is prevented from doing so.
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In the meantime the whole meal rots and ferments and turns to acid. The minute the fruit comes into contact with the food in the stomach and digestive juices, the entire mass of food begins to spoil….
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So please eat your fruits on an empty stomach or before your meals! You have heard people complaining – every time I eat watermelon I burp, when I eat durian my stomach bloats up, when I eat a banana I feel like running to the toilet etc – actually all this will not arise if you eat the fruit on an empty stomach. The fruit mixes with the putrefying other food and produces gas and hence you will bloat!
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Graying hair, balding, nervous outburst, and dark circles under the eyes all these will NOT happen if you take fruits on an empty stomach.
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There is no such thing as some fruits, like orange and lemon are acidic, because all fruits become alkaline in our body, according to Dr. Herbert Shelton who did research on this matter. If you have mastered the correct way of eating fruits, you have the Secret of beauty, longevity, health, energy, happiness and normal weight.
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When you need to drink fruit juice – drink only fresh fruit juice, NOT from the cans. Don’t even drink juice that has been heated up. Don’t eat cooked fruits because you don’t get the nutrients at all. You only get to taste. Cooking destroys all the vitamins.
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But eating a whole fruit is better than drinking the juice. If you should drink the juice, drink it mouthful by mouthful slowly, because you must let it mix with your saliva before swallowing it. You can go on a 3-day fruit fast to cleanse your body.. Just eat fruits and drink fruit juice throughout the 3 days and you will be surprised when your friends tell you how radiant you look!
KIWI: Tiny but mighty. This is a good source of potassium, magnesium, vitamin E & fiber. Its vitamin C content is twice that of an orange.
APPLE: An apple a day keeps the doctor away? Although an apple has a low vitamin C content, it has antioxidants & Flavonoids which enhances the activity of vitamin C thereby helping to lower the risks of colon cancer, heart attack & stroke.
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STRAWBERRY: Protective Fruit.. Strawberries have the highest total antioxidant power among major fruits & protect the body from cancer-causing, blood vessel-clogging free radicals.
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ORANGE: Sweetest medicine. Taking 2- 4 oranges a day may help keep colds away, lower cholesterol, prevent & dissolve kidney stones as well as lessens the risk of colon cancer.
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WATERMELON: Coolest thirst quencher.. Composed of 92% water, it is also packed with a giant dose of glutathione, which helps boost our immune system. They are also a key source of Lycopene – the cancer fighting oxidant. Other nutrients found in watermelon are vitamin C & Potassium.
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GUAVA & PAPAYA: Top awards for vitamin C. They are the clear winners for their high vitamin C content. Guava is also rich in fiber, which helps prevent constipation. Papaya is rich in carotene; this is good for your eyes.
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Drinking Cold water after a meal = Cancer! Can u believe this?? For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you. It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion. Once this ’sludge’ reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.
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A serious note about heart attacks HEART ATTACK PROCEDURE’: (THIS IS NOT A JOKE!) Women should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting. Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line.. You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack. Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms. Sixty percent of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let’s be careful and be aware. The more we know the better chance we could survive…
A cardiologist says if everyone who gets to see this message passes it on to 10 people, you can be sure that we’ll save at least one life……
Yea, yea, yea….You are not compelled to pass on to 10 people, why not 1 or 20 or 1000.
Just read this….It could save your life!!
Hello Reader.
Welcome to my blog.
This blog will serve as my personal diary which I have chosen to share with you. It will detail my personal experiences here in Nigeria, Africa.
I moved back a few months ago (from the United Kingdom, after 19 years of unforced leave) to work with a visionary property development company called Gravitas Investments Limited, as the head of corporate affairs. Life has suddenly become more interesting. United Kingdom (UK) is history to me.
My family with the exception of one are also here with me (thank God). There is no way I would have been able to survive without them – those dinner times, those standing on my back to massage me, those screams, those pep talks, and what have you. It’s all been worth the move. My children love it here.
I will keep you abreast with my new life in Nigeria. I will also welcome questions from you. I will be happy to answer any question from you regarding relocating to Nigeria, life in general, Nigerians, inconveniences, inadequate infrastructure, doing business, buying properties, etc. Take me as your relocation consultant for now. I am already playing that role, free of charge, to friends who have inundated me with questions.
I like to encourage and motivate people. So it’s definitely not going to be gloomy stuff from me.
You will have my entries in several categories which will include; Personal Thoughts (my daily experiences), Inspirational (uplifting articles) and Hitmail (sensible emails making the rounds) amongst others.
Let me tell you now, I thank God for my life. My relocation has been one of the best moves my family and I have ever made and I am determined to let you all know about this.
So, “Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future”.
This is a quotation by his royal highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai. With this attitude to life, right now, Dubai has become one of “THE” destinations to visit in the world.
Once again, welcome to the Jide Salu Diary.
Rosa sat
So that
Martin can stand.
Martin stood,
So that
Obama can run.
Obama ran,
So that
You and our Children can fly.
- Barack Obama has just been crushed in his bid for congress.
- His credit card was rejected at the car rental.
- In 2000, he could not get a pass to attend the Democratic convention, so he ended up watching most of the speeches on TV monitors in the arena. And he decided to go home early. His political future was not clear.
- He also lost a Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives that same year.
- In 2004, he ran for U.S. Senate and with a landslide victory of 70 percent of the votes, Obama became the third African American to be elected in the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction and the fifth African American to be elected in U.S. history. Obama also became the only African American senator in the 109th Congress.
- In July 2004, Obama was finally invited to deliver the keynote address at the 2004 DNC in Boston.
- On February 10, 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States.
- On November 4, 2008, eight years from losing his primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives, he was elected to become the 44th President of the United States.
This dream is not just an American dream, this is a dream for the world.
My man snatch,
Look we need to put our thinking filas on and put something together. Yes, I saw your comments and thanks for that “Jay-Z” info. I know that talents and minds such as yours are desperately required on this side of the equation. I am not saying, all is rosy, but you will get a sense of belonging, a sense of ownership, a sense of contributing to the development of a country and most importantly, a sense of importance. Obama is only 47, by the way, I am an Obamaist (a believer in the hope of change), Fashola (Governor of Lagos state, Nigeria) is 45, so that makes us in charge of our destiny. We are in charge. In my little way, rather than wait for that big financial supporter whom I would have to fast and pray for first, before my proposal and dreams are even checked out, I have decided to just start. Just do it.
If Obama had listened to his friends who had well coined advice for him, history would have been delayed. Yes delayed, because It had been written that a black person would one day rule the most influential and powerful nation on mother earth. It was Obama that applied for that coveted and ridiculously ambitious position. It was Obama that dared all. It was Obama that said “YES WE CAN” and it was Obama that just did it.
Obama has single handedly, by his blindness in his beliefs and actions, eradicated the word “I can’t” from MY DICTIONARY. I don’t know about you. I am talking for myself.
So my brother, enough talk, let’s just do it. The clock is counting down…
Today: 20th November 2008.
My sincere apologies for having not told you that I would be away for a couple of days. I had to travel 416 kilometres to a town called Ilesa in Osun State of Nigeria, for a funeral of PA Dr. LEWRENCE OMOLE. He died 8.30am on Friday (14th November) morning in his house the Castle of Mercy. More of Pa Omole later.
So you see, I travelled with my mum in my car, well, it was a risk I had to take, because of all it’s been through (read previous blog entries). You know what, Muyi drove it like it’s never been driven before and my car duly obliged. My mum, who has never been use to long trips did not realise that it would take over 4 hours to get to our destination.
I left Wifey (my darling) to the mercy of my children. I must say, it was a bit tough on her because, at the moment, she does not have a car of her own yet, so she had to seek alternative ways to ferry and collect the children from school. On top of that, was the issue of the Generator playing up. We have been without National grid supplied electricity for close to 5 days now.
For those who are unfamiliar with the use of generators in Nigeria, it has become a way of life for us as our national grid, PHCH- Power Holding Company in Nigeria (popularly known as NEPA – Never Expect Power Always or Power Has Changed Hands) is efficiently unreliable. Unfortunately, if you do not want to develop high blood pressure or suffer from previously undetected ailments, my advice would be not to think about it. Just get on with life. My fellow Nigerians in the better developed part of mother earth, has fantastically sited this inefficiency of power supply as reasons for not settling in Nigeria. As for me, I have chosen to eradicate this thought from my psyche and get on with it. You need to see very successful Nigerians conducting business. It’s like any other place in the world.
My N84, 000 (84, 000 Naira), China shipped generator, has had many hands attended to it. Yesuf, a young talented, unoccupied, self trained electrician cum handy man was previously given the responsibility to manage the generator. (You see, you need someone like Yesuf, whom you can call at any minute to handle these chores) Yesuf who has misbehaved so many times and forgiven times in advance is a talented liar. I developed interest in Yesuf purely based on the fact that I know this guy is talented and if directed, can do much more for himself and his young wife ( oh yes, wife, unemployed, that is no big deal). He succeeded in sacking himself because for reasons best known to him, he just could not cope any more. Telling the truth was not only alien to Yesufu, but to 99.9% of artisans (and for your information, this is a global trend). So, off went YESUF. It was the turn of CHRIS. Chris challenge was the distance he had to navigate to get to my house. He did what he had to. CHRIS left my unhappy generator as he met it, unhappy. WALE was next in turn. When Wale came, at first, we thought he was the “Messiah “, until he decided to help himself with a vital part of the generator which has now rendered it to pull and start only, rather that customary modern way of turning on a generator (key start).Wale’s mobile number has since been deleted from my list of contacts and now guess what, I am now back with CHRIS. This time, monitored and directed by Bayo (my dear brother –in-law), a more experienced Nigerian artisan Supervisor. I am forever grateful to him.
Yesterday, Wifey sent me a text, informing me of Chris’s new diagnosis. I was flabbergasted, Bayo was mad. The latest is that Chris will come today to try fix it and our household would (hopefully) begin to enjoy the noise generated electricity. Daughter would then be able burn the “light” and not the candles in order to complete her project on the lap top. It’s all fun. It is all new to the children, but they love it all. What we, as adults, call tribulations, they, as children see it as a new experience.
When Gov., first arrived in Nigeria, he was on cloud 9 to see a small, red headed, constantly nodding alligator. It turned out to be a lizard. He still screams with excitement when he sees a cockroach going about its business somewhere in the house. Prof (hisolder brother) finds it interesting to count the number of mosquito bites on his legs and hands when he wakes up in the morning. Daughter, just cannot stand the delightful, but irritating mosquito sound. She screams at anyone who dare leaves the door to her room not shut, especially at night.
Back to Ilesa, located in Osun state, a town of proud ijeshas and noted for their delicacy of Pounded yam (Iyan) was host to the funeral of a giant amongst giants – PA Dr. LAWERENCE OMOLE (11th October 1915 – 14th November 2008. For those who attended University of Ife, Pa Lawrence’s unyielding benevolence is there for all to see. His numerous academic scholarships through his Foundation, his Cocoa businesses, his trucks, his houses, his establishment of the Trophy brewery, etc were all testament to this great man’s achievement. This was a man who never accepted a chieftaincy title in spite of the numerous offers. Instead, he served the people of Ilesha and Nigeria with a name without any title.
His abode, the Castle of Mercy, is a well known landmark in Ilesa. My grand uncle (My grandmother was nee Omole) died 8.30am Friday morning leaving instructions for his burial to take place within a few days. He did not want to be taken to the mortuary; hence he was lightly embalmed and laid on his bed. He also left strict instructions for his inexpensive casket to be lowered into a freshly dug hole without marbles and all other expensively decorated paraphernalia, in his compound. This was a man that knew death was inevitable. He prepared for it. The ceremony ought to be a small family affair, but for an event that took 6 days to hastily arrange, it turned out to be a controlled state affair. At the Anglican Cathedral ilesa, where the church service took, top dignitaries represented the Osun state. Ijesha traders took advantage of the event. Brisk business was made inside and outside the church (I doubt if grand uncle would have minded, as he was a genius of a business man).
He lived life to the very fullness. I would say he died, almost, if not completely, completing his assignment here on mother earth, judging by the legacy he left behind. Grand Uncle, Pa Dr. Lawrence Omole, sir, may your soul rest in perfect peace.
Wifey, thank God, survived the two days, thanks to our kind neighbour and I arrived home just gone past 7pm after a 7 hour drive.
…..“Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future”
Nigeria is R O C K I N G, as J T Taylor danced, Sunborn Yacht docked, Chris Gardner spoke and Dai Lama will philosophise.
Today: 26th November 2008.
(1055 words)
Many have wondered about the extent of my love for my country Nigeria. I really can’t explain it, the very same reasons how I can’t explain my love for my wife (even though she often says I don’t profess it enough).
I just love Nigeria; I love it with a passion. The many years I spent in diaspora (I dislike this word with a passion) searching, looking to establish and make something of my life, I did, keeping an eye on Nigeria from such a distance. This is not to say that my experiences in the United Kingdom were in vain.Not all.
At parties, I am often singled out, defending the causes of Nigeria. I have always been and still am, an ardent believer in Nigeria. No one can convert me to abandon this love affair.
A very good friend of mine, Dr Tola Sobande, currently residing in America is another homosapien who is a believer in Nigeria. This true Nigerian often comes to Nigeria, converting his hard earned American Dollars to Nigerian Naira, travelling to Akure, Abeokuta and other places, seeking out sickle cell anaemia sufferers, providing them with medications to treat this devastating disease. Tola has done all this on his own. This surely makes him a dedicated Nigerian who believes that one day, our Obama shall come forth.
This is why I economise on the advice I sometimes give to people who either call or visit for a couple of days or a few days in fact, trying to find out what one can do in Nigeria. In my humble opinion, that is not the right approach to take. If you are waiting to be convinced about the prospects of Nigeria, what that tells me is that you have not burnt the bridges behind you. For you to succeed anywhere in the world, you must be a believer. Ask all the successful men and women all over the world. It is not different in Nigeria. I was a convert ever before I ventured back to Nigeria. I did not need convincing. The unconvinced will fly back at any small inconvenience as it would have been overtly exaggerated. It would seem you are looking for every excuse to depart.
You will not see me paint a picture of heaven; neither will I paint a picture of hell about Nigeria. My goal, however, is to assist you to make an informed decision about my country, Nigeria. The word ‘had I known’ is one of the most depressing words ever stringed together. My goal for you is to help you avoid ever applying that word to any situation that may come your way. I want to help you to avoid using it as an alibi.
Don’t get me wrong, not every Nigerian who has settled abroad would come back to their mother land. This is not possible. What I am advocating, however, is for those who still feel a part of Nigerian in them to take the bold and necessary steps to look inwards. Obama has made it easy for many Nigerians to seek solace in the fact that they don’t have to come back to mother Africa. However, Barack Hussein Obama is like a meteorite. Not until the early 19th cent. did scientists fully accept the fact that meteorites came to the earth from outer space. The same could be said about Obama. It is much easier and faster to fulfil your dreams in your mother land in spite of all the man – made self inflicted avoidable errors that frequently occur in Nigeria.
FB (namepurposely withheld, a brilliant, benevolent, gifted and one of the most connected young Nigerians around), is one of my mentors here in Nigeria.YES YOU NEED A MENTOR, if you have stayed away that long He often tells me that “in England or America, you can sit down and listen to the news about Brown, Bush, Cameron and now Obama, and may not have any direct link to these people, however, in Nigeria, it is different. You will know and have strong links to someone who has links to decision makers in.) He is very correct and it makes more sense to me now that I am on ground. I will be forever grateful to FB for all he has done, is doing and will do in the future. This man’s worth ethics is second to none.
Take it from me it is happening here in Nigeria. I have chosen to see what is happening and not what is not working or functioning as the case may be, because, like anywhere in the world, you can choose to focus on the wrong, ills, unworkable and bad news. CNN and SKY news agencies are FANTASTIC vehicles for spreading the ills of Africa which permeate the minds of the world including Nigerians in diasporas.
This month we have had J T Taylor of the Kool and the Gang fame performed in Lagos and Abuja, courtesy of MTN telecommunications.
The floating hotel, the 105 fitted executive bedrooms, state- of- the- art Yacht, Sunborn, has arrived and is docked at Marina, Lagos. This edifice, a masterpiece of the tourism world which has a total of six decks and an interior space of approximately 5,000 square metres is expected to provide a breathtaking ambience for corporate guests, conference delegates, wedding parties and leisure guests. It also has restaurants, meeting rooms, spas, saunas and lounges. It will add to the colourful environment of Lagos, Nigeria.
The Tibet Spiritual Leader, Dalai Lama is scheduled to attend this year’s Anyaim-Osigwe memorial lecture on 27th, to be held 10am, at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA).
Chris Gardner, the self -made millionaire, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and philanthropist who, during the early 1980s, struggled with homelessness while raising his toddler son, Christopher, Jr also visited Nigeria. He was the Civic Center, along Ozumba Mbadiwe, Lagos and Abuja to inspire and talk about his book (in Pursuit of Happyness) portrayed in the 2006 motion picture by Wil Smith.
Another guru, the international branding expert, Martin Lindstrom will deliver a multimedia presentation of his latest work buy.ology at the Buyology Symposium billed for Lagoon Restaurant, Victoria Island, Lagos.
These Internationally recognised talents obviously do not suffer fools gladly. They know their onions and would not be tempted into mediocrity. Nigeria is rocking, take it from me.
Remember,
“Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future”
Protected: “What were we up to this time last year?”
Today: 2nd December 2008.
(1018 words)
I dare you to trivialise the power of the internet. The power is awesome. What “we take for granted to help us share information around the world has become a staple in our cultural diet” says the Denver business journal. This publication went on to acknowledge Vint Cerf, one of the acclaimed fathers of the Internet who never anticipated the waves his invention would make when he started developing the network in 1969.
You are reading this diary via a blog that can only be accessed via the technology of the internet. The post man or woman delivers your mail and not your emails. With the power of this technology, I am now able to reconnect with school mates. This feat would almost have been impossible. But thanks to the power of one person’s idea, it is no longer an herculean task.
Facebook is one of the most popular social network web sites that facilitate this drama of reuniting friends. Believe it or not, almost on a daily basis, I have reconnected with very old ( I don’t mean it that way) dear friends. Oshioma Brai, Victor Okolo, Jide Wilkey, Bode Ladega (Big boy Lagos…of course I have seen you in the national newspapers), Abiye Koko, Leo Okocha, the Eghobamiens (Amena and Donald- where is Uyi? Please find me Uyi), my man Folayinka Esan (how is my brother Folarin?), Andrew Aroy-Ororho (I can still remember how cheeky you were), my man Michael Jetawo (Jet), Victor Ubaru (Wow) and My main man Bobbyyyyy Kushanu (always appreciate you bro, we have come a long way, “for your ears only”, I am working on something similar- you understand). I must thank Omoruyi Umweni, for his long list of Facebook contacts.Thanks Omo.
An electrical wiring gone wrong …
It was around past 3am this morning when I suddenly woke up to a burning smell. I quickly put to use the power of my sensory organs to detect and locate the source of this mishap. Wifey was up as well, all over the place. After over 5 minutes, we were still unable to locate where the smell was from. I went downstairs, now wide awake, whilst Wifey was over at the boys’ room and daughter’s. Still no success. Reluctantly, we gave up. Went back to bed, I had a less than 2 hours more anyway, so I wasn’t sure if I could go back to bed. Wifey on her part, knowing her was full of thoughts of what could be happening.
I eventually got up just before 5am, we both did, and started the search again. The worry was that while the generator was on burning fuel, the light in the house was already disconnected. This must surely have something to do with the smell. By now, Muyi had arrived. Wifey invited him to assist with the search. And after a few minutes, he found that the electrical wiring Yesuf did on Saturday was dangerously laid. It was a major disaster that was averted. How? I really do not know. The cable that was connected to a socket to provide power to the under stair storage was what was to be achieved. It could have caused a major fire since the net curtains were covering part of the cable. The burning just stopped short of the White net curtain. I really thank God. The moral of the story, avoid a “Yesuf”. But how? I don’t know. In hindsight, all this could have been avoided if I had chosen to disconnect the newly installed socket in the store after Wifey had persisted that she could hear a noise. Talk of women instinct. Yusuf was woken up from his slumber to remove the cable and all was fixed back to working order.
Naira falling…
I read with disbelieve a THISDAY report on how the Naira, the currency of Nigeria, took a nose dive in the south direction. By the look of it, it appeared the global credit crunch had taken a bite. However, it was for a different reason. Naira crashed last week as it shed N1.11 in value, THISDAY reported. “The naira, which opened for trading at N117.79: $1 yesterday at the official market, closed at N119.50: $1, because the apex bank could not meet the demand of foreign exchange end users who demanded $1.3 billion out of which the apex bank supplied just $100 million”. Traditionally at this time of the year, thousands of Nigerians travel back home to celebrate Christmas with family and friends, this brings about a surplus in foreign currencies. You can see that Nigeria is awash with money.
The ridiculous Property prices still on the rise…
Properties in Nigeria are still on the rise. Below are prices of properties (to buy) in high brow areas such as Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Lekki
- 4 bedroom Town House at Osborne Water Front – N150m
- A detached 5 bedroom house with BQ – N130m
- 4 bedroom semi detached house in VGC – N85m
- A plot measuring 5,100 m2 – N1.5 Billion
- A wing of 5 bedroom duplex with Boys quarters (BQ) in Opebi-Ikeja – N65m
To lease per year
- 4 bedroom terrace house in Parkview – $65,000
- A furnished 3 bedroom apartment (serviced) in Victoria Island – $85,000
- A furnished 4 bedroom semi detached house in Banana Island – N9m
- 4 bedroom luxury flat in Ikoyi – N8.5m
- 3 bedroom furnished flat in Ikoyi (short let) – N41,000/day
What can I say? The prices are ridiculous and the shocking news is that they are in so much demand that it is still a seller’s market out here.
An iconic building?
Nigeria cannot really boast of many iconic buildings. However, with the help of Charles Jencks argument, iconic buildings reflect the dominance of powerful forces and the decline of others. A similar building has emerged in Lagos, site along Ozumba Mbadiwe, in Victoria Island, Lagos. The Civic Centre overlooking the lagoon, was constructed courtesy of Jim Ovia of Zenith Bank. It stands today as a building recognised for all good the features.
Remember,
“Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future”
Who says God does not answer prayers?
My friend Dele Adenaike sent me the above photograph of the President-Elect praying to God Almighty. I found it fascinating, hence the posting.
Today: 5th December 2008.
(490 words)
One of Nigerians best known footballers in the 70s, Haruna Ilerika has died. He was 69 years of age. It was a coincidence that I hadn’t heard of Haruna’s name for almost 25 years until 3 days ago when his name was mentioned on the Rhythm FM radio station. My face, upon hearing his name immediately registered a smile with memories of a special song dedicated to his exceptional dribbling skills coming to mind. Haruna, may your soul rest in perfect peace.
A long weekend.
There is a buzz in the atmosphere. Could it be the Christmas feeling? The Muslims in the main time have their Sallah holidays to observe. Monday and Tuesday next week have been declared public holidays here in Nigeria. It is the day of sacrifice also known as Eid el-Kabir or more commonly known as Sallah Day. It is a day Muslims worldwide celebrate the end of the year’s annual hajj – one of the five pillars of Islam – which falls on the 10th day of the lunar Dhul Hijjah month. It will be a long weekend and the banks are geared up to hand out millions of wads of Naira. It is a cash society where millions of Naira physically exchange hands. In fact many have taken the opportunity to travel out of the country. Such a person is my hard working Governor, Tunde Fashola who is currently in London meeting with Nigerians in Diaspora.
Muyi’s Effrontery.
My driver Muyi took it upon himself to apply his initiative, twice in a day, yesterday. That was not the problem at all. The problem was that he kept me waiting in the office till past 6pm in the process. When I called him to enquire about his movements, read what he had to tell me in his Benin (mid western part of Nigeria) accent, “Oga, I am with Kojo the mechanic”. What are you doing there, I asked with a harsh tone? To which he replied, “Oga, don’tttttttt worryyyyyyy, I will tell you laterrrrr”. I was furious. I hung up on him. Earlier in the day, this same guy was sent to give Tope, my NEPA contact, photocopy of my electricity bills. The instruction was for him to get to Tope by 10am. In applying his initiative, he decided to stop over at Tope’s office by 5.30pm.Of course Tope had since left, having done the night shift. It was his frantic phone call to me that alerted me of Muyi’s effrontery.Can you imagine? From 10am to 5.30pm.
I have been told several times by my mentors that I could be too lenient; soft is the word, with my staffs. In Nigeria dealing with staffs and artisans is an act that must be mastered. It is crucial this skill is acquired, and very fast.
Remember,
“Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future”
Protected: Tips (11-20) You cannot run or hide away from challenges in Nigeria.
Today: 15th December 2008.
(1157 words)
Olu: Chief Jyde!
Olu ….. is online.
Babajide: Snatch r u still there?
Olu: Yes sir!
Babajide: Snatch my man
how r u doing?
busy busy I guess?
r u still with me? You guys can no longer blame Nigeria for providing a slow internet band width
Olu: hey boss, sorry o- at work so lots competing for my attention
Babajide: na wa o…how you dey anyway?
we must make time to chat so that we know what is on the cards..
what do you think?
Olu: i dey like dele
Babajide: I can see that
..have you had chance to follow my blog?
Olu: Yes, been intermittently delving into the blog.
Its almost compulsive reading – your wife still doesn’t know about it/
Babajide: oh she does now o…thru a friend of hers…but she is very glad and happy that I have finally decided to do something about my passion
so what’s up with your talents…what have you been up to?
Olu: thats cool – you know she is 
now going to think you are hiding a lot more?
Babajide: I don’t think so, even though, there are more juicier stuff that are too intimate that I cannot share at this moment in time probably as a published diary in future…
Olu: Roger was over this past weekend from NY. He said to say hi to you and was generally quite tripped that we were back in touch
Babajide:……………………….
Olu: Roger is cool. He is on facebook – you can see him in my friends. Although he doesnt use it as much as some of us.
Babajide: I will check Roger out on FB…
Olu: for my Dad the move was prompted when my older sister decided to call the police when he smacked her. Within a year we were all in Lagos!
Babajide: Oh yes, and this is what I am trying to capture on my blog via my experiences
Interesting stuff..
Where is your sis now?
jandon or 9ja or Dubai?
Olu: Other friend dcided he had had enough when he realised that he had reached as far as he could go here in a ivils servicedepartment and the oyinbo person he trained was now his boss. At the same time, his younger brother he had been sending money to all along getting him through school in naija, had graduated and now got promotion to bank manager position and was yapping his brother for underachieving in Ilu oyinbo.
My sis is in Jand. Both of them -younger and older. But my brothers are in Naija
Babajide: Wow
These are good stories my bro…
I was simply scared stiff of not hitting age 50 in Charlie’s land and also my children, not knowing anything about 9ja.
It was scary
Now my kids are having a ball, don’t get me wrong, it has its serious moments, when youthink twice, but all in all, we love it here and we are determined to get to that place that we are aiming for
Olu: I know the feeling. I look at my bank account (and credit card bills!) and ask myself what the hell I have been doing with my life for the past 18 years, when in 18 months after my brother graduated, he could afford to come to London on holiday!
I took my daughter to Naija for the first time last year (she is 8 now). She loved it, especially being in Ilesa. Lagos she hated. Understandably, as I don’t really love that city either for zillions of reasons. I am more of an Ibadan boy: less manic. Abuja seems a bit too boring.
Babajide: On holidays, when my friend come for a day or two they begin to fidget for staying away for too long in the cold
Olu: Why would you come to London in winter? Do you have a court order? 
Babajide: Why wouldn’t she? 9ja is made for kids..the space, the culture, the extended family…
…..laughing
I wonder o my brother
Olu: We that are here are looking to escape from the cold o, don’t come if you don’t have to.
Babajide: It could be very dangerous not to visit 9ja for a few years. The confusion that will set in at first can be alarming
Olu: It was quite nice seeing Naija through the eyes of a child actually. I learnt to fall in love with some things again. And recognise the significance of simple things – like goats and chickens running around on streets. She couldnt get over that! She has to to the farm or the zoo to see that here!
Babajide: My blog is to narrate my experiences, whila at the same time share some hard facts of life regarding the terrain here, which is quite different.
Olu: I didn’t visit Naija at all from when I left in 1990 till 2001.(Long story…………need I say more!)
Babajide: Can you imagine all that…when my 4 year old son saw a life LIZARD, nodding at him, he screamed with delight and chased after it.
Olu: I didnt actually realsie how much Niaj ahad changed though till I went in 2006. That was the first time I realised I could live there again. Manny felt the same way too.
Babajide:My being in Nigeria has given my mum a new zeal of life I tell you.. Its real
Olu: And I realised it was actually not much different to living in London (NEPA, traffic, water, security apart!) – it is the same crap in different manifestations!
Babajide: I agree
How is Manny? Hope he is well?
Olu: Manny is good; very tired though. His wife had twin girls recently!
Babajide: And do you know that the divorce rates abroad is much higher as the oyibos do not consider it to be a gig deal
wow, twins…the boy still dey very busy o…;I don’t blame him. I blame the snow.
Olu: I am seeking the formula for that from him – I need to get all my child breeding done and over with asap. I read that there has been rpetty extensive research that the yourbas espcially Ondo and Osun state people have the highest incidence of twins in the world because of the amount of yams they eat.
Babajide: Yams, well which ones?
Listen, b4 u go…
Olu: Diasocrea alata – the only botanical name for a vegetable I remember from o/level agric. tHAT SAYS SOMETHING, DOESN’T IT?
Babajide: Copy right issues, can I have your permission to use a segment of our chat for my blog?
So what’s it…I don’t care anyway, its you ke
Olu: I said Yes, sure o! 
Babajide: … Snatch, catch you later and look out for an abridged version of our chat
Takia
Olu: I will do
Babajide: I will.
Cheers
Olu: takia yoursel too likewise. Odabo
Babajide: Odabo (bye bye in yoruba language)
Remember
“Do not wait for the future to come
Benjamin Franklin had said it all, “a penny saved is a penny earned”.
My tips today should provide you with ways on how to avoid wasting your hard earned money. Here we go;
1. Take time to buy originals. Avoid imitators right from the word go. If you do not have enough to cover the authentic product, my advice would be to take your time. It will frustrate you to spend so many pennies buying spare parts on a daily basis to fix a newly acquired broken down product.
2. The most expensive household items you will be expected to buy inorder to give you a peace of mind are the Generator (a must product), an Air conditioner, a cooker, a fridge and freezer. I am assuming you already have a car. Now these electrical items if you do not already have them are essential products. If you can send them over by cargo, it will save you a lot of expenses. The good quality ones are quite expensive.
3. For you to take a chance on support staff, my tip would be to go through a friend or a family member who has had good experiences with an agency or a contact. Do not take a chance on carefully selecting your house maid or driver. These are key household support staffs.
4. Once you have decided on your support staffs, ensure you have proper documentations as in good references. Ensure you have phone numbers of relatives, visit homes of the newly employed support staffs to confirm addresses.
5. Never discuss anything personal in the vicinity of your support staffs. The temptation is to reveal personal details whilst in the car. Avoid it entirely.
6. Whilst I do not advocate support staff should be treated like animals, however, let them know who the boss is RIGHT FROM THE ONSET. Forget sentiments or you will live to regret it as roles may be reversed if care is not duly taken.
7. For you in Diaspora, especially those of you who might be living in the land of Queen Elizabeth, immediately you arrive Nigeria, all expressions of the English politeness should be postponed with immediate effect. Desist from using words such as ‘please’ to your support staff or junior staff at work. It is alien to them. Completely alien, so why invoke it? It is irrelevant. It will be misunderstood.
8. You must either know what you are doing or downright confident for you not to take your rightful seat in what is referred to as the owner’s corner (right end of the passenger’s seat) in your car. Sitting in front right next to the driver is almost sacrilegious. The connotations are enormous.
9. Avoid returning calls to ‘flashers’. Flashers are intent on speaking to you on the phone on the condition that you return their call. A successful flasher is when a call is terminated after a single ring.
10. Be very observant. There is no hurry. You are certainly not in competition with anyone (I am not!). So my advice will be to LISTEN MORE and SPEAK LESS.
Remember
“Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future”
Today: 22nd December 2008.
(789 words)
Wow! It is 3 days to Christmas, so my children countdown. It is buzzing here in Nigeria. My children cannot make of what Christmas is going to be like in Nigeria. One thing is sure as gold. No unwrapping of hundreds of Christmas gifts as was the expensive norm over in England. It has been painfully (whilst the joy was mine, the anguish was for the children to temporarily experience) explained to them that, they are of age when Christmas ought not to be about unwrapping of presents alone,, it is much more than that. Whether it fell on opened or deft ears, they certainly have no choice in this specific matter; after all, I would be doing the buying. What we have ensured, that is I and the mum, is that they would get gifts they will truly appreciate.
Petrol Scarcity
The petrol tanker drivers opted to go on strike from last Friday through the weekend. It was a carefully chosen period of the strike. The point of contention this time around was over a little matter of ‘alleged harassment’ by the road safety enforcers, popularly referred to as ‘lasma’. The drivers made the accusation of heavy handedness towards ‘lasma’ officials over illegal parking of the tankers on the Lagos-Ibadan express way. The result of the drivers’ decision caused so much havoc to Lagos motorists.
Long queues formed and extended onto the Lekki-Epe expressway. This beautifully disorganised queue of desperate motorists lasted all weekend. As I had an appointment in Ikoyi on Saturday, Muyi had suggested we buy some fuel along Awolowo road, in Ikoyi mainly because of the high number of fuel pumps on this axis. We did and after almost 45mins of drama, we succeeded in filling the half empty petrol tank. Considering the distance we had to travel back home, upon arrival after a stopover at the Alpha Beach, the fuel gauge was reading almost half empty.
Christmas Party
I had the opportunity to attend a Christmas party hosted by the Honourable Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Opeyemi Bamidele. The event which he hosted un behalf of his neighbours (an association of house owners in a segment of Lekki) was attended by many influential corporate and political personalities. Engineer Kole Adegunle of Total was in attendance amongst others. It was fun.
Bank wait.
Banking in Nigeria can be said to have taken a quantum leap in terms of development. The staff are courteous, ever so ready to be of help. The queues are orderly. The ATM (cash dispenser) is in good working order. The customer service desks are respectful and spring to your attention when you approach. There are quite a few Nigerian banks that are building wonderful brands; take for instance Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), Zenith bank, Access Bank, Oceanic bank, First City Monument Bank (FCMB) and United Bank for Africa (UBA). These banks are recognisable all over Nigeria and in some African countries. GTB, Zenith, UBA, ACCESS banks all have representations of some kind either in UK or USA. So the strides that have been made are enormous.
The process of withdrawing or depositing however stringent needs modification if my experience this morning is anything to go by. I paid in a cheque (of the same bank) on Friday and you would have expected credit to be instantaneous. Wrong. My account was not credited because the account officer of the issuer of the cheque was nowhere to be found. The transaction that would have taken me five minutes took me close to two hours. The only consolation was that I had the small luxury to wait as I am only working half day and Seye, my accounting officer went all out to resolve the issue however annoying the experience was for me.
The process of withdrawing a certain amount of money would require a call made to the accounting officer of the issuer of the cheque. This bank officer then makes a phone call to the cheque owner to confirm issuance. The accounting officer then calls back the bank to authorise payment. A bit long winded, but safe. I am sure it will be streamlined speeding up transaction without compromising safety.
Chief Dele Momodu’s “The Red Ovation Carol” is finally upon us. Bob dee as he is fondly called, publisher of the supremely successful Ovation Magazine has shared with us through his Facebook entries his sleepless night experiences in getting this star billed show together. I got an invite to this ‘strictly by invitation’ star studded event and you know what, I am really looking forward to it.
I will surely keep you all posted.
Remember
“Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future”
Today: 23rd December 2008.
(570 words)
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. I pray you walk in the path God Almighty has designed for you from your birth in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
It has been an eventful and ground breaking year for me. How about you? Globally speaking, occurrences that one would have referred to as fiction became reality. Barack Obama’s victory virtually erased the word ‘impossible’ from my vocabulary. Who would have thought it was ever possible in this generation that a black man with a Muslim name would ever be voted for, let alone defeat a ‘Clinton’ and a ‘War hero’ on the path to becoming the most powerful ruler on earth? Well it happened.
When motivational speakers eulogise, it is with hope that what they ‘preach’ can become a reality. Obama got up and walked the walk. He believed in ‘hope’ so much that he infected the world with this belief.
En route his journey to the ‘promised’ white house, Obama sounded out his wife on his plans, he got her support and that was all that mattered. His friends doubted and manufactured more reasons why he ought not to even consider contesting this un-win-able contest. The mountain of impossibility was so sky high, it could have been as tall as Goliath. Barack ‘David’ Obama, however, was so confident that Goliath was his to be defeated.
My word of encouragement for you today is that “you’ll never enjoy what God has for you in the future while you’re still living in the past”. The year 2008 is fast reaching its conclusion. There will never be another 2008, but there will be a 2009. So what is the point in holding onto the past, that discouragement by a dear friend, that disappointment, that missed opportunity for a promotion, that court case, that divorce, that death in the family or that terrible mishap. This is the time to lift yourself up and say it is not over not until you say so. Just start now and do not wait for anyone. Just start from whereever you may be. There is no perfection in beginning.
2009 is just around the corner and we all have, yet another opportunity to hit at that ‘ice berg’. Who says it wouldn’t be the next strike that will finally shatter this tough cookie and bring about that breakthrough you have been searching for. It is possible even if you had never thought so.
I leave you with this picture (to your left) of how some Nigerians are living the life here in the land of mosquitoes, the land where there is never consistent electricity, where there is so much traffic and heat. Those in diaspora quickly narrate stories of armed robbers and the stench on the roads. I can go on and on. Buy hey, do you know what, there is still life to be lived here.
I shall be at the Ovation Red Carol and I hope to give you an insight into this mega event .
Have a wonderful and lovely time off work and try and chill, recharge, meditate and get ready for the wonderful journey of 2009. Drinking and Driving at the same time is not advisable, so avoid the temptation.
God bless you.
Remember
“Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future”
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Written by Yusuf Danesi – courtesy of http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com |
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Tuesday, 23 December 2008 |
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Dear Patriot, It is disheartening that Nigeria continues to be an enigma, in spite of the unrivalled exposure of its leaders. Why is the EFCC suddenly on the trail of Nasir El-Rufai? You bet nothing significant will result from the much orchestrated sleaze factor probe of the N2.3 billion vehicle contract, awarded by the management of the National Assembly. So that is how much it costs to provide Peugeot products to 84 standing committees of the National Assembly! Why that huge amount of committees? I do understand why you want to migrate- especially your love for your family. I am happy that you have all obtained your visas as you look forward to transfering your media skills here (UK). Work was not going the way it should in spite of your towering industry stature; so you have thrown in your retirement letter to everyone’s shock; you have sold all you ever owned to be able to relocate with your family; in a nutshell, bridges have been burnt as you look forward to making UK your “New Home.” However, you need to prepare for a completely strange transition, which may either make or break you. You will practically go to ’school’ on CV writing and before you eventually get it right it might take roughly three months- this is no exaggeration, as there are many critics out there. You will start pushing out your new CV, while it takes about 3,000 to get you one interview! You may have to push out about 30,000 copies to get 10 interviews and you probably need to attend 30 interviews to finally land a job! The truth is you may have to send out 900,000 applications before you get a job here! If you are wondering why this is so then consider the following statistics and facts: Royal Mail risks 50,000 jobs; Woolworths, which has 813 stores, collapsed in November and as a result, 25,000 jobs are likely to go; pound hits near low against Euro; manufacturing falls at record pace; service sector in record contraction; Britain slips down price rankings; Bank of England blamed for recession; unemployment has hit 1.8 million- the highest since 1998; UK debt rises to 1.5 trillion pounds, etc. Do not be shocked that your M.Sc degree means nothing to the employers here; worse still, your almost 20 years experience does not count! Most employers do not even know what HSMP (Highly Skilled Migrant Programme) means! It is great that you are coming with your family of five, but you need not less than £13,000 (i.e. N3.25m) to survive the first six months of possible unemployment- and this is outside of London! You probably need close to double that amount if you all need to be in London. You may not be able to earn the mandatory £35,000 per annum required by the Home Office(if your visa is to be renewed in two years’ time) if you do not work in London. And if your post code reads anywhere but London, your appications will all fire blank; meanwhile no employer will tell you the reason. If you have a relation or friend who lives in London and is willing to accommodate you temporarily, why not come alone for now? However, the danger in that is multi-faceted, e.g. who says you will find work in six months- even menial work? There is a recession here, which affects virtually every sector. You will be shocked to learn that the employment agency would rather call, and even in some cases, register somebody from the EU who cannot express him/herself clearly in English than give you, a master’s degree holder a break. And the job in question? Factory operative! The wage is about £5.75 an hour before tax/NI deduction, etc. Do not forget that you need to be in the £24/25 per hour bracket to hit the HSMP £35k target. Relationships with your hosts will be strained in most cases; you will be running bills back home too since your wife is not an employee, etc. If you have the money, come with your family, stay with your host for not more than 72 hours, maximum, a week, but be prepared to contribute your quota to the upkeep of the home. You will be lucky if your hosts are not greedy because they have not set eyes ever on the kind of money you are coming with at a go, in their 20- something years in the UK! That you have the money is no guarantee that you will immediately get a house of your own because you do not have a credit history. If you do not have a guarantor (and many potential ones are unwilling) then just pay six months rent upfront, though the checks that will still be undertaken may take between two and three weeks. Make sure your landlord in Nigeria can easily be reached by the referencing company, e.g. email, fax, land phone, mobile, etc. If you do not get a permanent job before the six months and your landlord wants to sell the property then you start the process all over, though your Nigerian landlord may not be contacted again. If your employment is temporary/contract, which is less than 6-12 months, you will need a guarantor. Do not be in a hurry to own a car because keeping it on the road is not a joke; more so your driving licence/experience, like your academic certificates/experience, is not recognised! You will have to start from scratch-learner, in spite of your 18 years accident-free driving experience on roads that are death traps in Nigeria! Do not even think of using your international driving licence because of the prohibitive insurance premium you will be paying on it. What baffles me, however, is the accident statistics here despite the very strict driving/traffic regulations: every morning my radio reports accidents on the A2, M25, etc and a lot of them fatal! The bills never cease to come from utility companies whether you have a job or not! Your local council tax is even reviewed upwards and if you call to let them know you are not working, they ask if your wife is and if she is, your subsequent bills will come in her name! If you are impatient, the thousands of rejection letters you are going to receive on your applications will almost make you stop believing in yourself- you will think you are absolutely useless! An attempted foray into other unrelated survivalist professions like care work, etc may even return further rejection letters- but you are highly skilled! You will crave anything eventually because the bills are ticking away- lunch time play leader, mail sorter, support worker, etc. These are not highly skilled jobs yet they are not telling you why “your appliaction has been unsuccessful.” Sometimes you are tempted to reply and abuse the conveyor of the bad news, whose grammar is even suspect. Also you will marvel at the arrogance of prospective employers who you played a gamble on, in view of a perceived better opportunity. It was you who declined their offer on the phone/face-to-face, yet you get their letter/email 24 hours after to say your application was “unsuccessful”! You pick up most newspapers here and it is obvious you could do a better editing job if given the chance, but you have sent more than 5,000 unsuccessful applications to be considered even for the post of assistant reporter! You will almost feel like quitting: your foreign degree is competing with theirs in this period of recession; thousands of their citizens are out of work on a daily basis and they would rather give them priority. Do not be frightened, do not despair. I understand that your christian faith is intact: that is a vital credential you will be needing here at this time. Be prepared because at a stage it will look like God does not even operate here! The system here is like an automobile whose engine suddenly packed up- you cannot move the machine; the accelerator is useless; you cannot even talk about the brake system, the battery’s run flat and out, every thing is immobilised, etc. The employment market here is just like that- highly impregnable! The standards appear to be out of this world- very high- but if you are lucky to get in at a level that is a bit compromising, you will discover that you are a genius! Those who are intelligent from Nigeria are simply intelligent and there is nothing any one can do about it. Everywhere you go- from viewing houses to discussing in a group, they will praise you for your flawless English. You will even deliberately use English words that they very much struggle with…yet they are just reluctant to give you that office job. Why must you do a low skilled job when your visa reads “Highly?” To worsen it, majority of your associates here will say, “just take anything.” Some will even suggest you go sweep the streets of London, while others will say it pays £50 an hour to clean the dead in the morgues! Do you know what is annoying about the whole issue? Africa is synonymous with Poverty…your degree, experience, etc are therefore viewed with disdain! People are shocked when you analyse issues, yet you have not been around for more than seven months! How can anything good come out of Africa? I do not know about engineering, IT, etc. If you are not already practising any of these (with a British professional membership) then it will be a matter of luck to break the jinx here- it is very tough for the arts here. You were given 24 months and by 10 months into your visa some prospective employers are already weary of even interviewing you, citing “company policy” as the reason (your visa is running out of steam). I can confirm to you that many Nigerians here are returning home in great numbers- are you surprised? Hey, before you change your mind, refuse to see the negative as people are still getting great jobs here- yes, HSMP, arts. One recently almost posed with Gordon Brown at a 10 Downing Street, event! Her degree? American, and worked for an international NGO in Lagos. She is also writing a professional examination here. Even at that, it took her close to six months before that break! I hear you are thinking of writing exams in project management, ICT, etc- laudable! But you have to possess the right mindstate if you do not want to fail such exams. Do you still want to come to UK? Whatever decision you take will be most respected by me and my family. Unfortunately, I am still trying to find my feet too and may not be able to be of assistance other than the frank, naked and anlytical advice I have provided here. Above all, be propelled always by the thought of seeing your sacrifice for your family to the end; believe in God, who knows all things; surround yourself with positive and encouraging people; do not regret your decision- keep fighting. Weigh the options, take the ultimate decision and never look back afterwards. Danesi lives in the UK |
Today: 31st December 2008.
(1205 words)
I was at the MUSON centre, Onikan, Lagos, Nigeria on Tuesday 23rd December to attend the Ovation Red Carol and believe me, it seems like ages ago. How time really does fly.
The publisher of the incredibly successful publication of Ovation Magazine, Chief Dele Momodu, and a hard working proud Nigerian, had a vision to inject, announce and preach hope to Africans through entertainment, and trust me he just as well succeeded in doing precisely that.
For those who are close to me, I tend to view life by asking questions. Questions such as – how many bedrooms can one actually sleep in at a go? How many shoes can you show off at a time? If you have a house and for the heck of it, one room, just one room as much as gathers dust for lack of use, then what is the point. To leave a lasting legacy, you have to go out of your way to invest in fellow human beings by employing the God given talents God Almighty has invested in you. It may be by your talents of writing (check out Dele Momodu’s Pendulum, appropriately sited on the back page of the Saturday edition of ‘This Day’ newspaper, or the immense talent of Jay Jay Okocha – the extra ordinary footballer who gave abundant joy to football lovers, or the exuberant organising skills of Nduka Obeigbena, or the Couture skills of Adebayo Jones.
What of 9ice (my favourite Nigerian musical talent of the moment), closely followed by Dbanj or the directing skills of Kingleys Ogoro (of ‘Osuofia is coming to London’ fame). Now these Nigerians do not have to be stupendously rich, but hey, they bring joy to many across the globe. They have chosen to be extra ordinary in approach. It is the extra that bit that has made them all stand out. Oh, and I must not forget the genius of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the author of Purple Hibiscus.
Chief Dele Momodu has chosen to go a step further from publishing the Ovation magazine. This energetic fellow, who has achieved and met with the rich and famous all over the world has chosen to use his fame to spread the goodwill message of HOPE to the continent of Africa.
The event was a ‘who is who’ in the political, commercial and entertainment world in Nigeria. It was a strictly by invitation event, which made it exclusive and drastically reduced the likelihood of gate crashing. I was there with my gorgeous wife who was in all white top and trousers laced with big red beads with red ear rings to match. I was in dark red Senegalese long attire with brown shoes to match. If nobody told me I looked good, I can tell you, I felt not only good but important on the night.
Bearing in mind the theme of the night was red; my only disappointment was the sheer audacity of Nigerians wearing nothing even closest to the family of red. I was expecting all sorts of attires in red, but I was wrong.
As soon as guests arrived, they were made to feel important as they were ushered onto the red carpet where numerous flash bulbs competed in taking the best photo angles which was beamed live into the auditorium.
On producing our exclusive passes as we approached the entrance to the auditorium, we were then ushered to our seats by ladies clad in Benin native attire with beads perfectly supported on their heads acting as the head gear. They looked very traditional and smart. I must point out that they were all without shoes, to make the traditional impression complete.
We were seated on the same table as Ayo and Mogaji Gbenga Olunloyo, Elsie and Deji Falae, Engineer Kole Adegunle and Influential Lagos technocrat Sogo Osikoya. It was a table that was going to be fun on the night. The table right in front of us had the Secertary to the Lagos state government, Princess Adenrele Adeniran Ogunsanya seated together with Chief Fatoye, the Telecoms magnate. The highlife maestro, Victor Olaiya came to join them. Behind me had Funmi Iyanda, a famous television presenter and not too far away was Lanre Tejuosho.
I am not ashamed to drop names at this point as Bob dee managed to attract, as you would expect someone of his calibre to, the high and mighty in the commercial industry. The founder and pioneering Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of IBTC Chartered Bank Plc, Mr. Atedo Peterside, in his traditional, cowboy looking hat was in attendance, ably supported by Hakeem Bello-Osagie. Femi Otedola and his wife were around to honour Bob Dee’s invite, so was the extra ordinary influential Nigerian, TY Danjuma who was seated on Otedola’s table.
The King’s table, and what I mean by that is the table the Oba of Lagos was seated. There was the big player of UBA, Tony Elemelu and his wife, Tokubo Afikuyomi, Aliko Dangote, Fortune publication’s appointed richest African on earth ( I must say he was not as large as he appears in photographs, well what was I expecting). There was Bob Dee as well and of course the 19th Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Babatunde Osuolale Aremu AKIOLU I in a white hat.
I will roll out other names that were present, they included; Albert Okunmagba of BGL, ex Governor Segun Osoba, Sam Amuka (publisher of Vanquard newspapers – apparently, one of Dele Momodu’s mentors), Senator Udo Udoma and the ever aging musician Fatai Rolling dollar- the highlife musician in his 80s who still looks very active for his age.
Sir Shina Peters, Adewale Ayuba and Kwam (King Wasiu Ayinde-Marshal) were all present and performed an impromptu medley of the greatest hits of each of the artistes. Just as they were about to perform, Victor Olaiya – the highlife king, with the three younger singers all on their knees before him said a prayer before he departed the stage.
Adebayo Jones and Dakova (remember him?) were also present. Adebayo jones’s collections exudes style and class. He had close to 30 dresses on display. All top drawer.
Alibaba, Tee A and Julius Agwu were at their best with jokes which almost cracked my ribs.
RMD and Olisa Adibua were comperes. There was a live telecast on AIT and BEN ( can confirm this) as well as an internet live cast. Segun Arinze and Stella Damasus – Aboderin also sang on stage.
Sponsor: UBA
Quote of the night: “Nigeria is hope”
Victim of the night: Tu Face ( there were far too many jokes about his excess libido)
Voice of the night: Amanze Igbenedion (the Gospel singer. Simply awesome)
Arrival of the night: Aliko Dangote ( a near commotion by photographers upon his arrival)
Hilarious moment: Dekunle Fuji (his rendition of xmas carols in fuji)
SCORES (out of 10)
Organisation – 8
DJ – 5
Table setting _ 7
Crowd – 9
Invited guests – 9.5
Artistes – 9
Drinks/Food – 8
Dress code – 4
Fun - 9.9
Man of the moment – Dele Momodu for his sheer determination of making a success of the Night of Hope.
I WISH YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR.
Remember
“Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future”
In 2009,
Because of you, your family will not know poverty.
You will go in and out of your house in peace…
Violence and crying of sorrow shall not be heard in your camp…
Because you are God’s idea and God cannot fail, you shall not fail in the year 2009
Favour shall overwhelm your endeavors.
You shall not struggle to be recognized…
Your gift shall announce you…
You are entitled to daily fruitfulness…
Every darkness in your life shall give way to the light of God…
All your lack will give way to abundance…
The rejected shall become the selected…
People shall hear your testimonies and follow you to God…
In everything you do, you will succeed…
By the time 2009 ends, you will look back with joy; and ahead with great expectations
You will take charge of your life as you master your time…
You will discover how to maximize your time and add value to it…
You will become the star of your family and the hope of your generation…
Because you know where you are going, the whole world will step aside and follow you…
May you find favour with God and men.
May you grow in wisdom and stature
May you walk in dominion over every circumstance and situation.
Throughout the year 2009, never forget to:
Act as if it were impossible to fail..
Because for people like you and me, the word failure does not exist.
Your success is non-negotiable…
2009 will be one of the greatest years of your life and the beginning of unprecedented success in your life!
Those who laughed at you before shall come to laugh with you…
God shall take you to the place of your greatness and destiny.
You shall have visions that are clear, virtues that are right and victory that is certain…
You are blessed beyond curse, raised above terror and established beyond oppression…
You shall not lack counsel and ideas…
You shall have eyes that see, ears that hear and a heart that understands
In place of breakdown you shall have breakthrough;
In confusion, you shall be enlightened; and in weakness, you shall be strengthened…
There shall be for you beauty in place of ashes, the oil of gladness in place of spirit of heaviness…
Every closed door against your goodness, greatness and destiny shall open of their own accord…
You shall be instructed and illuminated within by the Spirit of God.
BELOVED, YOU NEED TO SAY AMEN BECAUSE
You shall do the right thing at the right time…
You shall rise above every obstacle and be carried on the wings of eagle…
God will remember you for good…
You shall fulfill and not frustrate destiny…
Why I Blog about Africa?
What a wonderful question.
I will have to rephrase this question. This is to enable me go a little bit further than the demands of the question.
I would simply ask; “Why do I Brag about Africa?”.
Having spent quite a bit of my teenage as well as some adult years growing up in the United Kingdom (19 years) – honing my skills and dreaming of how to leave my foot-prints on the sands of mother Africa, I voluntarily chose to come back to the soil of Africa.
I chose to take the risks by relocating back home with my children. As confusing and confused mother Africa may appear, the blame cannot be entirely ours. Baby Africa had been passed on from one ‘mother care’ to another. Everyone, except the founding fathers had the guts to stand up enough to scream no more. This is why I am blogging about Africa.
My children, up until now, had believed all the negatives CNN, FOX, SKY and BBC had insinuated through cartoons. In jest, Africans live amongst animals, they broadcast. Many children have therefore formulated their strong opinions on why the African accent is anything but shameful. Many of our children still believe Africans live with Animals. My children were not only shocked to see for themselves, the beauty of Nigeria and Africa, the scales from their eyes which could have led to a distorted view of the continent due to glaucoma have now been cured forever. This is why I blog about Africa. This is why I brag about Africa.
I blog and brag about a continent I am so proud of, in colour, in accent, in humour, in passion, in intellect, in skills, in audacity, in ingenuity and in our meaningful names. This is why I brag and blog about Africa.
If by one word written and read from my blog – JideSalu Diary, a misconceived view about Africa is aborted, then I would have, in my tales about my family, achieved something and then I know it would have been worth it all.
So,Solomonsydelle, Theophile Kouamouo does this in a minutiae way give you a glimpse as to why I am passionate about bragging about Mother Africa?
This is why I blog about Africa!!!
Today: 19th January 2009
1646 words
There is so much happening in my head right now.New maid. Obama’s letter to her daughters. So much popping in my head. Now where do I start…..
We now have a new maid called ‘Blessing’ – I am putting together a piece called “Maids Tale” – I tell you, some stories that are just out of this world – and I pray her name really brings us all the blessings, God’s blessings we all crave for in Jesus name. AMEN.
Muyi, my driver, finally put the nail on his – well you know what I mean on Saturday. This guy has really chewed what he cannot swallow. I am sorry, if he thinks the work of a driver is beneath him, and with the attitude that he now projects – more like his New Year’s wish, then there must be something wrong here. And I am sure it is definitely not with me.
My mentor, FB, saw this coming. Another good friend, whom I will simply refer to as ‘Mogaji’ profoundly jokes around that I treat my driver like a friend. Well I was just a few months old in the country, so it was all very hazy to me. I could not completely relate to the sound advice (take note of this tip) I was being given early on then.
This is a guy that practically is fed every day, minus his salary of course. Wifey travelled to the UK and came back with stuff any driver would have only dreamt of. Well, I am not announcing to the world that wifey or me are perfect, but the fact of the matter is we just did not treat our maid or driver like they ought to be treated. PERIOD.
A driver is a driver. A house maid is a house maid. Once I started to delve into the reins of political correctness in treating my employees, then insubordination will beckon.
And that was exactly what has happened. Anyway, Muyi had to be phoned and sent a text before he reported to work on Saturday. That wasn’t enough; the petrol tank was virtually empty. He did not bother to acknowledge my missed call or text message – can you now imagine the over familiarity my saneness has achieved? – When I eventually got through to him I told him in no unmistaken tone the time he needed to be at my house for.
When he did arrive it was 18 minutes late, with no apologies offered, proceeded to clean the car. I approached and queried him. I offered to find a Saturday driver and deduct his salary accordingly. The echo to my suggestion hadn’t expired before he accepted. Unperturbed, I left and decided there and then that his days were over. All I needed to do was to look for a new driver before the end of the month.
Only for me to get a – dictionary assisted written letter of resignation scribbled onto one side of a lined A5 sheet of paper handed over to me this morning. All this happened as early as 6.35am when I arrived for work. I read the note before leaving the car and simply said “Okay”.
Hard lesson learnt; a driver is a driver. A house maid is just a house maid. I will never be sentimental in relating to the human beings wearing the coat of arm of these positions. Never again I have promised. So the search has since commenced and I shall report on our new driver as soon as he is employed.
I must however point out that Muyi was gracious to give me a month’s notice. He must have had pity on me when I told him a few things about etiquette and life when, Rebecca, our ex-house maid gave wifey a cock and bull story about wanting to go back to school. Incidentally, this is the same reason Muyi has given. Can’t these guys think of any other excuse? Fair enough, he has been good. In fact quite good and the problem may have emanated from the fact that he heard a lot of those commendations from me. Something they are never use to. Yet another of my mistakes?
On the new house maid – ‘Blessing’ – well, let me just say that she is working very hard at the moment to satisfy ‘Madam’. Well so hard that she broke ‘Madam’s’ favourite glass pot lid.
‘Prof’ – my son came rushing upstairs to inform us on Friday night that ‘Blessing’ is weeping. “Why”? wifey and I asked. “She is crying and holding onto her head because she has broken your (pointing at wifey) pot lid. I looked at wifey, she returned the look, both of us amazed but undisturbed. “Tell her it is okay”, said wifey. That message would not work as ‘Prof’ is back with the information that the wailings had increased accompanied with a scary look on her face. That was when I told wifey to go an physically assure her that “all was well”. That was exactly what wifey did. Okay, no problem. It’s only a pot lid, albeit wifey’s favourite pot and the biggest in the house that travelled with her so many thousands of miles from the UK.
Saturday!
Our Saturdays will no longer be the same anymore. The singer, my daughter has to go to Saturday school and the boys have a Ghanaian home tutor come around by 8am. I told the children we are now in Nigeria, and they have to compete with other bright students who have similar private arrangements. I remember in the UK, majority of the very bright Asian students had private tuition at home.
Wifey came downstairs to the kitchen to meet a damaged cupboard. Again it was ‘Blessing’ who had forced the door to the cupboard opened. I saw it and I just could not make out what this 18 year old of a blessing is up to. In as many months, Rebecca did not bend a spoon even if she tried to. By the way, my theory, and only my hypothesis, is that Rebecca may have been ‘pregnant’. Well. Anyway, ‘Blessing’ who looks for new creases to demarcate while ironing my shirts or trousers has a long way to go yet. However the jury is out. We shall see.
“Anything is possible”
Obama said it last night at the ‘We are One’ Inaugural concert held at Lincoln Memorial. Together with the children, it was past their bed time. I however allowed them participate and inhale the euphoria of history in the making especially with the knowledge of the ‘stars’ set to grace the occasion. From Denzel Washington to the ‘Boss’ Bruce Springteen to Mary J Blige. Jamie Fox, Bette Levette – the Blues singer, Jon Bon Jovi, Tom Hanks, Janes Taylor, John Mellencamp, Jennifer Nettles all were honoured to be on stage.
It wasn’t finished. Josh Groban, Heather Headley, Queen Latifa, Mr Herbie Hancock, Will.I.Am, Sherly Crow, Tiger Woods Renee Fleming and Jack Black also turned up.
For those who missed it, an estimated 500, 000 people braved the bitterly cold weather. But it must have been worth it. I would have loved to be there. Oh, Usher, Shakira and Mr Stevie Wonder sang. Garth Brooks was fantastic, so was Mr Kool himself – Samuel L Jackson in his trade mark wearing black Kangol beret. The energetic, Africa sympathiser Bono and U2 were present, so was a live EAGLE which symbolises America.
It was truly a celebration of the American renewal. President and Vice President elects with their family sat, mimed, danced and applauded. They acted like the common man on the street in spite of the transparent bullet proof that acted as a shield.
Change was the theme and still is the theme and we certainly cannot escape history. How poignant listening to a quote by Abraham Lincoln – the 16th President of the United States, whose footsteps, Obama is carefully treading – “So as I will not be a slave (to the drumbeats of the orchestral made up of the Armed Forces), so will I not be a master”. I must confess a tinged of sadness descended upon me when my mind drifted to the wealth of natural and human resources God Almighty in his infinite mercies has endowed the continent of Africa with. And I hasten to add that God Almighty is quite aware of the arresting situation that has imprisoned my beloved continent.
It was time for Obama to rally not just Americans but all the other World Leaders who must surely by now be inspired by the hope and change Obama intends to bring to the world of politics. The case of Obama must never be like that of Tiger Woods where others marvel from afar without bothering to compete. Other leaders must galvanise the support of the people just as Obama has managed to achieve, and together the world can be a better place to live in. Obama said “the people who love this country can change it”. Ronald Reagan once said “How can we love our country and not love our country men”.
Obama, the first African-American to be elected president, stared at the sea of people and told them, “What gives me hope is what I see when I look out across this mall. For in these monuments are chiselled those unlikely stories that affirm our unyielding faith – a faith that anything is possible in America.” - and in AFRICA, dare I add. And I mean it.
Beyonce, radiating with elegance brought the beautifully organised show to an end with her rendition of “America The Beautiful”.
I still have goose pimples.
Photo of the day: Oshodi – Before and After!
Remember, “Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future” – and anything can happen
Today: 20th January 2009
1039 words
012009/200109, the algebraic numbers, signify a date that will forever be engraved on the stones of history.
My personal thoughts today are to recognise and dedicate today -012009 to the ‘Coronation’ of President Obama.
It has been long coming. My excitement holds no bound. I am completely elated for the simple reason that I recognise for a fact that I will be a witness to history in the making. And as such, I have chosen not to take it for granted.
For those who are close to me, right from the UK, I have always expressed my feelings of- a sort of gut feeling- that a new dawn was about to break. My friends had every logic and history on their side to belittle my feelings, but I stood my ground and believed that history was on Obama’s side.
Obama, from his humble beginning of stitching together a family, through stories or memories or friends or ideas, will be the most written about human being living. And he shall occupy that position for a very long time to come.
Obama, who openly expressed his loyalty to his family and his wife, and still does, no unnecessary power for show kind of attitude knew what he wanted to achieve in Politics. He spoke to his wife, and as soon as Michelle gave him the go ahead, history had already begun. Just as history is waiting for you and I to take that bold step into the journey of the unknown. History has spoken to you through that silent voice not to fear. And as Franklin Roosevelt once said, “the only thing that we have to fear is fear itself”. We have to tell ourselves that it is no longer about me, me and me. It is old news talking about I, I and I. It was when Job in the bible took the attention off himself and started to pray for his friends that he got his breakthrough.
Obama’s heartache and breakdown has now become his breakthrough. He knew that he was blessed beyond every disappointment he might have faced; him not knowing his dad, his mum dying at an early age, his grandmother dying just before she had the opportunity to physically cast her ballot and of being shipped from one school to another.
Obama walked the walk and talked the talk.
All along, unbeknown to him, his story was becoming that of Joseph’s whose brothers were very envious of him and did what they did. Joseph later became the most power man in the country, second only to Pharaoh the ruler. Now Obama, with an unusual name and diluted complexion is set to be the MOST powerful man on earth. So why worry? Why not just do what you need to do and let God Almighty take care of the rest.
The illumination and the instruction within Obama must have come from God Almighty. No doubt about it. Those who laughed at him are now laughing with him – because he knew right from the beginning that the word success was not negotiable.
Obama knew where he was going and now the whole world is stepping aside to follow him.
His gift has just announced his arrival. His oratorical gift. I ask you, what is yours that you have chosen to let rotten? I hope your case will not be like that of the man in that book of wisdom, the Holy Bible, where he was given talents and rather than invest, chose to keep. Are you keeping your talents? What for?
I hope you have not forgotten that you are God’s idea. Of course you are. Just like Martin Luther King and now Barack Obama , you just cannot fail.
Obama has wiped from – certainly – my dictionary the word FAILURE, because he acted as if it was impossible to fail.
Here am I, clicking away at my keyboard, competing with the speed of my thoughts as it races to inform you that the SKY is no longer the limit, you are.
Today is 012009 or 200109 or 20th January 2009. Go out there, step out of your comfort zone, put to use your God given talents, and rediscover yourself not for selfish reasons but for the benefit of mankind.
Africa was not created handicap. It is the people that have amputated the continent. No longer can Africans blame juju for its misery, for the United States of America will now benefit from the inspiration of an African man.
Africans are orators. I am not surprised listening to Obama. However, the days of oratory are long gone. The continent now longs for ‘Obamas’ dotted all over the continent to show the world that the best of Africa can indeed be appreciated and given the opportunity to showcase their God given talents within the continent. The brain drain gave birth to Obama and America is benefitting from it. Now the reverse must commence -the brain gain. The exodus abroad has already begun and the grannies in power must now give way.
Obama did not shy away from his roots. Yes, he played the politics, he had to, but hey, he still recognises his Kenyan extended family. This is why his step mum is making the trip to America.
Today the WHITE house will be occupied by a BLACK President – in my life time. That is enough to say THANK GOD. I am a witness to this monumental event.
Soak in the atmosphere wherever you may be. Rejoice with America for they dared to be different. Reflect on where you are and where you have chosen to arrive at, for 012009 does not come often.
The American dream is so often quoted and Obama has exemplified it. However, in Africa, it is corruption that is so often quoted and the continent proudly shows off with it. Henceforth, watch what you say, especially if you happen to be of African descent.
God bless America.
God bless Africa.
God bless the World.
God bless Obama.
God bless you in Jesus name. Amen.
Photo of the day: Filling up in Oshodi!
Remember, “Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future” – and anything can happen
Today: 21st January 2009
1289 words
THE DAY HISTORY WAS MADE.
I am exhausted. Very, exhausted.
The ‘elect’ tag has finally been detached from the President’s insignia. So correct me if I am wrong, we now have President H (conveniently unpronounced ‘Hussein’) Barack Obama.
Thank God.
By 12 noon, Yesterday, Eastern time, according to the Constitution of America, even before he was sworn in as proceedings were running slightly behind schedule, President Obama had already taken over the reins of powers from George (Judge) Bush, who was harshly and unkindly written about in a news paper commentary with the title “The end of an error”.
THE BUZZ
Nigeria was buzzing yesterday. The traffic was lighter. Many were left work on time. The beer parlours were full. There was uninterrupted power supply. The Obama factor was apparent. I guess the world all shared in the Obama euphoria.
AFRICA’s REPRESENTATIVES
Apparently, the exclusive official White House invitation was extended to two Africans from the continent. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela – arguably the most respected Statesman in the world still living and ex-Nigerian President Mohammadu Buhari. This says a lot, bearing in mind that the 53 countries that make up the African continent only deserve 2 invites, and both to former presidents. No one would argue over Nelson Mandela’s invitation, but Buhari, there must be something the White House archives have in their secret dossier that has not been disclosed. What message is the White House disseminating to Africa? Why the Buhari invitation? To take a seat next to Mandela? Tunde Idiagbon to my recollection was the main man that made Nigeria tick in those missed opportunity days. Certainly not Mohammadu. Anyway.
THE NERVES ?
Obama must have been slightly nervous. Who wouldn’t be? 
I don’t think it was due to the same Bible used to swear in Abraham Lincoln in 1861. Obama had to repeat the second portion of the oath administered by the US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts during the swearing in ceremony. Nay, it could not have been. After all, Michelle was beside him holding firmly onto it.
THE SPEECH.
The much awaited historical speech lived up to expectations by my reckoning. His powerful, but yet endearing style drummed home the message of change that it was intended to. The youngest chief Speechwriter, 27 year old Jon Favreau whose transcript of the speech changed hand between himself and Obama up to five times must have been very proud of the delivery. The tone was decisive and would have met with the approval of Americans in general.
THE INVOCATION
Rick Warren, better known for his New York No. 1 best seller, ‘Purpose Driven’ book had a purpose driven agenda to invoke the name of Jesus Christ. During the invocation, he did just that. I think he applied God’s wisdom here and it was brilliant.
MY MOMENT
The moment for me was not only seeing the orderliness of a grand ceremony, the roll call of the past Presidents all hugging and exhibiting a show of unity -which somehow, and for some reason is missing from the African psyche. This to me remains a mystery.
The African Psyche.
Let me just say a few things on this mysterious African Psyche. How can one define this consciousness? I was having a good conversation with my neighbour Dan on Saturday just before settling down to watch the Manchester United game against Bolton Wanderers. He was of the opinion that there is a Nigerian factor. A factor that depicts everything negative about a race of homasapiens. Dan was of the opinion that it will take a whole lot more than talking to change this ingrained negative perception of each other. I shy away from heated, mostly political debates that Africans and Nigerians in particular engage in. And it has been for this same reason I have chosen not to make this blog a political affair. However, you will just have to excuse me on this just one occasion.
While the Americans, in spite of all their differences and the different cultures of 50 states worked in harmony, Nigeria with its 36 culturally disparate states have found an excuse to bicker and shed blood.
So why do the Americans have a different Psyche? If I may ask, could a situation ever occur where someone, unthinkable like Obama assume a Presidential position in any country in Africa? Would a day arise in Africa where we would witness ex- Presidents of different political affiliations in a country hug and pat each other on the back? Would I ever see (with the exception of Pa Mandela) again an African leader rally his country people by the tone and goals of a speech delivered?
What could be wrong with mother Africa? The second largest continent after Asia, occupying 6% of the total land surface on the planet.
While the Americans pronounce “God bless America”, Africans, particularly, the most endowed and the largest country of the lot – Nigeria, engage in verbal discourse that only produces a persistent ‘watery diarrhoea’ of foolish supposedly grandeur ideas.
The power of the tongue is there for all to see. What you say is what you get.
Obama’s ‘coronation’ as the Africans would want to belief has not occurred by mistake, there is a reason to his existence. Africans better quickly wake up to learn from Obama, whose book of history was officially opened yesterday.
Who do you think Obama was referring to in his inaugural speech when he had this to say; “…To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”
Its time for Africa leaders to usher in change. The wind of change must not just past by Africa, it must leave a mark.
Rosa Parks said and sat
So that
Martin Luther King could speak and stand.
MLK indeed stood,
So that
Obama could speak and run.
And Obama spoke, ran and won.
Africans must make a decision to call a halt to all the negative rhetoric that comes forth from the mouths of its citizens and begin to view the glass from a different angle. Remember, the glass can either be half full or half empty. The truth of the matter is both are right.
Americans, whom we ought to learn a lot from, always choose to view the glass as half full.
From today onwards, make it a duty, your duty, to pray for your continent, especially if you are from Africa. Then endeavour to pray for your country and then your leader. “If the sky falls”, I often tell people, “it will not fall on any one person, it will fall on every one”. Okay, I think that will do for the year. Now, where was I?
Oh yes, my moment. It was when US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Williams told Obama “Congratulations Mr President”. That was it for me. I still have goose pimples at the thought of that word – “Mr President”.
So, history has been made. It has been written. Many would have been inspired like I have. Many would take action like I will. Many will simply talk about it, some would make jest of it and not do anything and for some it would just pass them by. Which group would you fall into? This is a question only you can answer.
So on the day after yesterday, I hereby say AMEN to every prayer that comes forth from Obama and that is said for him in the mighty name of Jesus.
God Bless Africa.
God Bless America.
God Bless Obama.
and
God Bless you.
Photo of the day:
How I witnessed history unfold!
Coming up tomorrow…..
“…..Suddenly, my driver, deciding and thinking aloud on the direction to take on the heavy sandy terrain looked dazed. Almost a kilometre from civilisation – well, where I was only commenting and making jest at the jobless, well built, stern and scruffy looking boys sitting and waiting for a mishap to befall one of the 4 wheel drive vehicles that could only ply this restricted path – the car chose not to go further. It had stopped. I was now at the mercy of those guys, the …”
Remember
“Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future”
Protected: “…..I had no choice but to jump onto the back of the Okada…..”
Protected: “…It is Lagos, Nigeria and it is Colddddddddd”
Protected: School now closes at 5pm + Saturday classes
Today: 28th January 2009
1414 words
A dear friend of mine, more of a mentor I would say, as I always pick his brains more so than he does mine, was in town. There was no point in Muyi- my driver, picking me up after he had completed the school runs. So I promptly informed wifey of my movements and headed straight to meet Pastor Akin Laosun who had made plans to stop by at my place to say hello to the wifey and the kids. That was around 5.30pm. We waited for an hour before the driver who was scheduled to convey him arrived.
Pastor A – as he is fondly called – and I had just the right time on our hands to catch up and discuss ideas and stories. This man is so passionate about his city – Ibadan, a cosmopolitan city in Nigeria, known for many things including its famous – don’t know whether it still is – University and also for been the first city to establish a Television station in West Africa. As always, whenever he travels to Ibadan, he is never happy to see the state of his dear city. Abandoned and ruled by relics, devoid of ‘Alpha Inventions’ sort of ideas. As I am not one to talk Politics on this site, I will resist the temptation….but get ready for my breaking news…
ALPHA INVENTIONS – Eureka !
Oh, just before I get on to breaking the news, could I just introduce you all to something unique. I am one to shout out when I see something or notice something extra-ordinary. I popped into my site and noticed that 23 of you had read my blog as directed from one source. That source was Alpha Inventions. I thought it strange as I had never until now heard of this site.
Off I clicked. I must confess, it was all confusing at first. Sites changing per every couple of seconds with a play and pause buttons at your disposal to investigate the site that catches your interest. It took me at least a minute to just gaze and observe what was unfolding before my very own eyes. Until, Eureka, I got the gist.
I am not going to spoil the party for you, but I will highly recommend you check it out. Especially Bloggers. Well done to Alpha Inventions.
Just like it is with Alpha Inventions, you just cannot afford to give up on your ideas. All of us have been created with talents all hidden. You were God’s idea, and that means you were created to succeed. That also means you just cannot fail. I am sure you have read this ‘shout out’ before’. So hang in there. You just cannot imagine how close, just how close, you are to that breakthrough after so many breakdowns.
Now, onto the breaking news….. ‘Blessings’ has left us after 19 days.
Breakthroughs and breakdowns
I got home with Pastor A. The kids were all very excited to see more of the Pastor than me, for a change. The house at that hour was buzzing, in spite of the interruption in electricity moments before we drove into the compound. I did not see ‘Blessings’ our new house help. Well, maybe she was busy spraying the rooms upstairs with insecticide – a must ritual, to combat those wicked mosquitoes.
Then came the news, well the bombshell.
“Blessings has left”, said wifey.
“Left? Where to? How? When?”, that all came from me by the way.
Pastor A was upstairs mingling with the kids, laughing and sharing jokes while all was been revealed by wifey downstairs in the kitchen, where she was very busy putting things in place.
“What happened”, I asked. Just wanting to be sure I got the news right.
“Well, she told me this morning that she was going home”, said wifey. “And I just said fine”.
“Was that’s all”, I asked.
“Yes. Then I thought to ask her why she was leaving, wondering If the job was too much for her” said wifey.
Wifey then went on to tell me that ‘Blessings’ said the job was much for her.
Wow, wow, wow. I was stunned. Wifey knew I was very busy at work and chose to tell me when I got home. I was again disappointed. Wifey, once again was not. In fact she had her suspicions. She has always had something she could not lay her fingers on with regards ‘Blessings’. Apart from her body odour of course which she was working on. She was improving a great deal in this department. Something I hope she continues with. By the time she packed her belongings, which included all the toiletries wifey had bought her, she had no bus fare. Of course wifey gave it to her.
The irony of all this is much deeper than even ‘Blessings’ herself would ever found out. Just be patient with me…..
On Sunday night, wifey and I had a lengthy conversation regarding the future of ‘Blessings’. In the course of wifey’s interaction with her and obviously finding out more about her and her background, she discovered that this 18 year old girl can read and is street wise. Even I know that. As much as I stay clear from dealings in that area as it is strictly wifey’s role to administer, I had noticed that, as much as ‘Blessings’ does not talk, what does come back through my sons indicate that there was more to her than she lets out.
She was hard working. Okay, let me put it this way, she worked very hard to showcase her capabilities for the past 19 days -Yes, just 19 days – to the point that wifey believed that she was working too hard to impress. She was prone to breaking things. A feat never accomplished in the 6 months or so Rebecca spent with us. She, that is ‘Blessings’, is an ardent lover of Wrestling Mania. She had vaguely threatened to slap ‘Prof’ – the elder of the son who had constant conflicts with her- several times. So ‘Blessings’ was for the past 19days not really a blessing at all.
Upon hearing the news, both sons simply said “good”. In fact, ‘Prof’ said ‘Blessings’ had told him 2 days ago SHE would surprise him – which of course was her eventual departure.
The conversation wifey and I had with regards ‘Blessings’ future was very positive. We agreed that, pending her behaviour and attitude, we would sponsor her to further her education as wifey found out that she was educated to a level where she could at least read but dropped out of school due to family circumstances. We were thinking long term for her. It was almost a done deal that we would pay for her education fees. All this depended on so many things.
And true to life, she was not fortunate to realise these ambitious plans we had for her. She was so near, yet so far.
This is what life sometimes dishes out to us in form of challenges. We set our goals. Work very hard in accomplishing these goals. Just as the breakthrough is near, impatience, wrapped up in form of a brain wave sets in. It then takes one off the path of our goals that we have worked so hard on.
‘IF ONLY’
One word that I dislike the most – apart from the word IMPOSSIBLE – is ‘IF ONLY’.
- If only ‘Blessings’ knew our plans for her.
- If only she knew what we discussed the previous days.
- If only she could hang in there for a few more months.
- If only she was not impatient.
- If only she could delay gratification.
- If only she could stay the course and believed that it could just happen this time.
This is what life is all about. Far from it, I am not suggesting Blessing’s breakthrough was certain to be from us, but who knows what could have been.
Who knows how close you are to your breakthrough. Avoid that word – ‘if only’ – as much as possible.
What a lesson for us all. Why not share with me your ‘if only’. I am sure we will all benefit from it.
There are places we could walk through, if not careful could turn out to be a point of no return.
Photo of the day: ‘Point Of No Return’
Remember, “Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future”
Today: 2nd February 2009
I was sent an email (as posted below) by a friend and I thought it was just an appropriate way to start a Monday, have a good laugh.
TO: ALL BLACK PEOPLE
FROM: YOU KNOW!!
RE: NAMING YOUR KIDS
DATE: EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
Please don ‘t start naming your daughters after the President. names such as: Obamanesha , Obamalisha, Obamarette, Obamalaya, Obamaria, Obamanette, Obamalama, Barakala, Barakella, Barakesha, Barakyah, etc. or adding, La, Sha, Da or Ja, Rhi, as a prefix is not allowed. Don’t start that mess! PLEASE!!
It is acceptable to name your sons Barack or even Obama but that is as far as you may go.
YOU HAVE OFFICIALLY RECEIVED THE MEMO AND HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Peace,
********************
Coming up later today – more of my reasons why Nigeria is the happiest place on earth and much more.
Today: 2nd February 2009
1031 words
I was at Ayo Olunloyo’s thanks giving service held at the Church of Resurrection 1004 on Saturday. I went with wifey and the children. After the service to mark a significant year in her life, we all proceeded to Gourmet Plaza on Samuel Manuwa, a stone throw from 1004 in V.I for lunch. It was a delightful handful of friends and I kind of liked the thought behind the idea – giving thanks to God with a few close friends to share in the occasion. It wasn’t a carnival that has come to be associated with Nigerians celebrating their 21st, 40th or 60th birthday. It was a good change.
The children had a good time. It was the monthly ritual – last Saturday in the month environmental cleaning – so there was no Saturday school for daughter and no early morning lessons for the boys. They all escaped and had an extended It was during lunch at the Gourmet Plaza that I made a phone call to Muhtar Bakare, an old loyal friend, I would say. It was whilst I was having a chat with Kanmi Iyanda (Castro) that his name popped up. Bakte, as he is fondly called is the Publisher of a general interest magazine called Farafina. This monthly publication has featured in the past the works of Wole Soyinka, Segun Afolabi, Uche James Iroha, Funmi Iyanda, Dinaw Mengestu, Barbara Murray, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jackee Budesta Batanda, Helon Habila, Tosin Oshinowo, Patrice Nganang, Jide Alakija, and a plethora of other writers and graphical artists. Bakte is also the West African Publisher of Chimamanda, the acclaimed Nigerian author who has also added the Nonino literary Award to her numerous accolades.
‘NEXT’ – a good export
During the course of my conversation with Bakte, he suggested I bought NEXT newspaper on Sunday. I did and I must say, I was very impressed. NEXT which comes in the UK’s broad sheet format has a 24 page main section accompanied by the Arts and Sports supplements, with a stylish magazine as a throw in. I was not disappointed at all. It was not only the format that brought a good smile to my face on a restful Sunday, it was the fact that the print quality was superb, the writers are independent judging by the articles and of course the layout was also well thought of.
Considering the brain behind NEXT, I am not at all surprised by the quality. After all the publisher is Dele Olojede a Pulitzer winner, he has united a bunch of talented writers – Amma Ogan, Bode Agusto, Jibrin Ibrahim and Okey Ndibe amongst others. The online version, 234next.com is equally of high standard and I hereby recommend it to those who may not have the opportunity to enjoy the hard print. I expect to see this high quality newspaper at airports all over the world. It sure is a good export for Nigeria.
Lagosstateonline.com
Still on good quality, I stumbled across, yet another good quality website. at first, it was a surprise, because it was a state government website, but then I thought, no, it can’t be. It is Lagos state. It is BRF, which stands for Babatunde Raji Fashola. The site – Lagos state online – is another testament to the quality of the man. He means business. He aims to leave a mark. He is onto an unforgettable term in office. BRF is an unusual Nigerian politician who is pragmatic and result focused. I don’t know this man from ‘adams’ neither am I after any contract. I am simply saying it as I see it. Why not check out the site and see for yourself.
Genevieve
Still on quality, I am not done yet. Believe it or not, I sat down and read the December edition of the Genevieve magazine, the much acclaimed female target magazine. I must say that Wifey and my daughter are avid readers of this quality publication. It was a prompt by wifey for me to read an excerpt of an interview with Jesuit Priest Fr. Uwem Akpan that broke all the barriers of inhibitions towards publications in this family of read. I read the excerpt and refused to give back. I read through other attention grabbing write ups. It was very good stuff. In this department, Nigerians are kicking and have got a lot to be proud of. The online version will give you a taste of the hard copy. I shall be looking out for wifey’s copy of the February edition.
More of my reasons why Nigeria is the happiest place on earth?
- It does not snow.
- Yes, contrary to what people may think, we do have help. Yes, my wife needs to be assisted. And these workers are fairly or unfairly called maids. By the way, the Queen of England has her maids and butlers as well.
- It is a country of tips. The blue collar workers get tipped by the white collar workers and the white collar workers get tipped by hmmmmm
- As early as 5.30am, early morning preachers remind pedestrians of their problems.
- The Palms – the shopping mall – in Lekki is a no go area at weekends. Oh, if YOU must visit, make it during the week for there are more tourists than shoppers.
- The ‘okada’ motorcyclists have all, well majority of them, changed their horn. They prefer a trailer’s.
- A familiar scene on a Sunday is to see an ‘Okada’ rider, his wife and two children, all on the motorcycle.
- Lagos never goes to bed.
- The radio stations are fab here in Lagos. I will recommend Rhythm FM’s 94.7, Cool FM 96.9 and Brilla FM’s 88.9FM. These stations guarantee me the latest news in sports and my favourite oldies in music – Kool and the Gang, whispers, etc.
- There is no where you look, people may be active doing their thing, but are always in a mood to enjoy a laugh in spite of it all.
This is to put it on record that JideSalu Diary is still receiving a global exposure courtesy of alpha inventions. Thanks to Alphainventions.com
Remember, “Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future”
Photo of the day: ‘A Majority way’
Protected: A mêlée of views amongst two heavy weight friends! – Round 1.
Today: 4th February 2009
1923 words
5 years ago today, a Harvard student thinker by the name Mark Zuckerberg, born May 14, 1984, launched an idea that was set to revolutionize the whole concept of reunion. This 24 year old American, who held on to the belief that nothing is impossible, just as Obama did after him, went about in pursuit of his dream.
“The Facebook”, originally located at thefacebook.com was dropped when the domain name faceBook.com was purchased in 2005 for $200,000.
On September 5, 2006, Facebook launched News Feed, a product to show what friends were up to on the site and the first piece of news ever on a Facebook News Feed appeared in Zuckerberg’s own facebook profile. It read, “Kerry sucks at tennis.”
This $300 million revolution which employs 700 people is available in over 40 languages. Time magazine in 2008 ranked Mark as one of The World’s Most Influential People of 2008
Facebook received its first investment of US$500,000 in June 2004 from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. This was followed a year later by $12.7 million in venture capital from Accel Partners, and then $27.5 million more from Greylock Partners. A leaked cash flow statement showed that during the 2005 fiscal year, Facebook had a net loss of $3.63 million.
In September 2007, Microsoft approached Facebook, proposing an investment in return for a 5% stake in the company, offering an estimated $300–500 million. That month, other companies, including Google, expressed interest in buying a portion of Facebook.
On October 24, 2007 Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion. In November 2007, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing invested $60 million in Facebook. In August 2008, BusinessWeek reported that private sales by employees, as well as purchases by venture capital firms, had and were being done at share prices that put the company’s total valuation at between $3.75 billion and $5 billion. Thanks to WIKIPEDIA.
So to Mark and his team, I wish you and FB a happy birthday and long may this success of your idea continue. I only wish African leaders could one day believe that age has nothing to do with implementation of ideas.
Correction: Yesterday, I erroneously stated that wifey once described me as a realist. Well, I was wrong and she is right – as always. “You are an idealist” she says, “and that makes you a dreamer”.
Appreciation goes to AlphaInventions.com for the glbal publicity this site is receiving. I commend you Chrub.
Wifey spoke and I had to listen
Wifey had a read of the interesting comments that were posted yesterday. She got hooked and could not help express her comments. So over to you my darling, make it snappy though;
“It is not only the physical entity of the country Nigeria that makes Nigeria the happiest place to live, it is the people. If you take out Nigerians from the country Nigeria, and judge the happiness of Nigeria purely based on what would be left – the infrastructure, the terribly finished houses, the lack of electricity, the undrinkable water, the pot holes filled roads, etc – no way will Nigeria ever be considered as the happiest place on earth to live.”
Wifey continued. “The people that make up Nigeria – Nigerians, are the people that make Nigeria happy. It is the fact that in spite of every conceivable thing that can ever go wrong in a country has actually been road tested on our shores; the people have refused to cave in. You still see smiles on their faces. They have managed to deal with the situation in the best way possible – face life head on”
By now wifey was on a roll, and there was no stopping her. She continued – “take for instance, in the UK, where the development is 1st class, almost everything works – the well planned infrastructure, the well built homes, the undisrupted electricity, the drinkable water and the immaculate roads, they all still look very miserable. Laughter is a scarce commodity in Queensland (UK).
Everyone minds their business; you could never get a laugh from anyone. If you happen to be in the tube (underground train) reading a very funny article and so happen to burst out laughing, the incredulous looks that will come your way will instantly coerce you back to your inner world. Over here in Nigeria, yes there are millions of generators competing to pollute the ozone layers, yes there are bad roads, however, there are heaps of laughter. Every other Nigerian is a comedian. This incredible gift for a nation cannot bought. Ask the English, if they could they would have. Now this is what makes Nigeria a very happy place to live in. What could make – as early as 6am in the morning, at the back of an open van, drizzling with rain- two young men throw jokes at each other in turns. Each joke is caught, digested and the after effect is the smile and laughter that it produces. This is what makes Nigeria a very happy place to live in.” Wifey concluded with a smile of her own.
Well done wifey. I could not agree more, but then you would say I was bias. Wouldn’t you? Happiness is all in the mind. Don’t get me wrong – a Hummer, Merc, Land Cruiser jeep or BMW parked in front of a swimming pool clad mansion, with butlers and maids at your disposal with an open ticket to travel to any destination in the world to go with it is almost anybody’s dream. But hey, who says that will make you happy? Just a thought.
We now have ‘Grace’
I got home yesterday to meet our new house help. Her name is Grace. A 22 year old of Akwa Ibom origin, South South of Nigeria promised wifey that she will spend at least 2 years in employment. Even the idealist in me found that hard to swallow. And contrary to what some believe, she is in employment and not slavery.
Now, to round 2 of the heavy weight encounter between my friends Kola and Victor.
I invited other FB pals to the discourse and they did not disappoint. This is what Wale Ajadi eloquently had to say;
Quite simply Nigeria is not a place for just anyone. It does not simplify neither does tone anything down on the contrary it is a place like true love where you will feel the depth of your despair and soar to the majesty of your delight. It is a place of infinite possibilities where dawn opens up the contradiction and nuances of humanity with very limited interference. It is a place where I feel completely alive. Today was no exception for the first after trying Qi gong in the UK for a couple of years I felt my Qi so effortlessly.
Bayo Olomodosi also added his wisdom;
“Interestingly, I would say both Victor & Kola are right because agreeing to the fact that our gud oll 9ja is d happiest place on earth is really a subjective matter. Though nobody is saying 9ja is such a ‘Fantastic’ place to live in jst as Victor alluded, I agree dt we should not paper over our very numerous & obvious problems. In the same vein, Kola would rather Victor gives us empirical analysis to back up his claim….well said…..
At this juncture, I will not dare say 9ja is either the best, happiest, most comfortable or worst, depressive & most uncomfortable contry to live in….BUT personally, av lived hia 4 over 4decades & av visited d so called 1st worlds in betwen these times & ill be honest with u dt inspite of all our imperfections (everything inclusive) our dear 9ja is still a very beautiful place to live…..neva mind all d stuff u read on d net abt us….
By d Special Grace of God, av been able 2interface wt very many expatriates who have come 2work in 9jas Oil Industry over time &” d common traits amongst all of them is their unwillingness to leave our gud oll country when their times are up……4gt d cash dt accrue to them…..mebelive its all about what they’ve experiened hia dt they cannot replicate or find in their (so called 1st world) countries……the opinions, arguments & comments are endless……bt as 4me & my house…..we shall luv 9ja, stay in 9ja & salvage 9ja in order to make this country what God has purposed for it to be…..hhhmmm…..GTB……no comments until u visit yet anoda branch wia u most probably will hav a different story 2tell……wakpa my bro……..”
Bumight had this rather interesting view and I kind of like it (check out the comments page for my reply)
I’m happy that u guys are having this conversation.
You can’t eat ur cake and have it. Every time I go home, Imarvel at the ease with which our people live. U don’t have to worry about bills, mortgage, working ridiculous hours etc. On the other hand, people who have to worry about such stuff enjoy the comforts that come with paying such bills.
It is all about being Home. Yorubas say “ajo o le dabi ile” Home will always have that special appeal no matter the comforts of other places. Only when u stop seeing Nigeria as home will u stop seeing it as the best place on earth! Peter has done such a good job of chronicling the corruption that exists in naija.
And Kola Munis had the final word, I think….
Ah, Victor, the fact that I have taken up a point of yours is no indication that I agree with Jide either. I know that Jide is simply speaking both subjectively and metaphorically. I could equally take him up on his claims, but I know it was almost tongue-in cheek.
Your statement on the other hand *appeared* (I may be wrong) to have taken him seriously. I have therefore tried to make the wider point that, seriously speaking, we can neither claim nor disclaim to be the ‘happiest’, or ‘unhappiest’ (or whatever) of people, because it is all so subjective.Having said that, there have been attempts at some objective analysis, and what came out? We are one of the ‘happiest’ people in the world. No-one really believes it, but for now, everyone is aware of the survey and it is something of a national joke.
Regarding the core of your argument, I completely agree with you! But I didn’t think this was the place to go into a long discussion on what is a major issue you’ve raised.
Free food donation Clicks
Still on the happiness theme. I came across a link on my FB page and I got interested in the simplicity of donating free food to the needy. I hope you do as well. It is a very simple way of feeding the hungry from the comfort of your seat. All you need to do is locate the link – How to donate free food with a click – located directly above this page. Remember, any click will do. Thanks Eva Papoutsaki for these links.
Remember, “Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future”
Photo of the day: ‘luxurious cover’
Coming up tomorrow: President John F. Kennedy once said ‘Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.’ What kinds of things do you think Kennedy had in mind when he was referring to what citizens could do for their country?
Today: 4th February 2009
706 words
President John F. Kennedy once said “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” What kinds of things do you think Kennedy had in mind when he was referring to what citizens could do for their country?
I did promise that I will not discuss politics on this page, for my purpose for this diary will be crushed should I go that route. So the question posed above is not in any way to open a debate, but for you and me to ponder on the words of this assassinated leader who knew exactly the impart those words would have on his citizens and citizens of the world.
So what exactly do I think President Kenndy had in mind when he made that statement?. Well, that statement as old as it may be is still relevant, more so to the citizens of the African continent and lesser to our counterparts in the west who were privileged to have received and acted on the core significance of the wisdom impregnated in the womb of those words.
To reiterate; ‘Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.’
You do not have to be a resident of your country of origin for you to do, but,
· by your defiance in your positive and not record-playing negative statement
· by your beliefs that, one day it WILL get better
· by choosing to stand alone in doing the right thing in spite of
· by looking beyond the atrocities perpetrated by the selected leaders of the African countries
· by encouraging fellow citizens to look beyond ‘today’ at the polling booth
· by vowing not to succumb to family pressure when in power
· by blogging and hugging more of the good in the society that is neglected
· by talking less and doing more,
· by making a statement to the self appointed critics that it took centuries for our western counterparts and that we are on our way to achieving
· by being aware that the easiest occupation in the world is that of the critic – for they are like pigeons who go around and defecate on the statues of achievers
· by believing that YOU as a citizen of the dark skinned race is so much endowed with incredible ideas and talents
· and finally, by just doing your bit.
My brother and sister, you will sleep well in the full assurance of the knowledge that you have done your part and are willing to continue to do your part in spite of.
And if all should play their God appointed role on the stage called earth, then the production will be so well polished with the film becoming a box office hit. Then this race of the dark skin will glow as God Almighty intended, for we are his idea(you should never forget this) and he has never and will not now fail.
That’s not politics is it?
Honest, Solomonsydelle, I had ended my entry for the day. Until I read your comments. Thank you once again, I promise to make them short – not over 1000 words. Is that okay?
Also, I had an interesting, and rather controversial comment posted yesterday -“I have no faceBook account”- by my faceless internet pal – R4biz. Sorry Solomonsydelle, it is rather tooooo longggg, but if you could bear to read to the end, it is actually food for thought.
I welcome all your comments. By the way R4biz, thanks for sharing this with me. I will have to ponder on this. Information and knowledge shared is a wonderful thing.
Remember, “Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future”
Cheru of AlphaInventions.com did his bit and is getting all the recognition. Should you require advertising your blog globally this is the place to go. Yes, why not the free plug? After all he did his bit and deserves it.
Solomonsydelle, I made it. 706 words in total. That’s not bad is it?
What happened next?
Find out by clicking photo of the day: ‘Only In Nigeria’ – simply incredible photographs
Coming up tomorrow: “I really don’t know, honest”.
Today: 6th February 2009
934 words
The Boys’ Dialogue
What you are about to read below is a dialogue which took place yesterday at home:
Boys: Hello Daddy!
Dad: Hello Prof. Hello Oba. How are you guys today?
Boys: Fine (a chorus)
Dad: How was school today and your tests?
Prof: It was fine (Oba kept quite)
Dad: What subjects were you tested on today?
Prof: We did ICT, Home Economics, Maths and English. And we would be doing Yoruba and Ibo tomorrow.
Oba: Dad I did some tests too. (He has waited for his turn to speak, that is, my 5 year old boy)
Dad: Oh yea? What subjects?
Oba: History , Maths and Comprehension
Dad: Really? What class are you in again?
Oba: Reception class 2
Dad: Really? And you did all those subjects
Oba: Yes (vigorously nodding his head in confirmation)
Dad: Well done my son (by then Prof was poking faces in astonishment with Oba warning him with his accusing index finger).
Family Quotes
Daughter: Mummy, when is the clock going forward?
Mummy: (Caught off guard. Still astonished to answer. Regained her composure after a heavy bout of laughter to explain the difference in time zones.)
Naughty wifey.
For the record: It is an occurrence in the UK when the British Summer time kicks in. And what is that? Well it was first established by the Summer Time Act of 1916. And it is the period beginning at one o’clock, Greenwich Mean Time, in the morning of the last Sunday in March (when the hour moves forward – you gain an hour in bed) and ending at one o’clock, Greenwich Mean Time, in the morning of the last Sunday in October (and you lose an hour in bed – clock goes backwards).
Prof: Mum, what should I wear today? It’s Christmas eve!!!
That is typical of my cheeky 9 year old son. Christmas eve? Why should this day warrant a special dress code, I wondered? Soon he would start asking for Christmas eve presents.
It is Oba’s time to pray….
It is customary for us to pray and be thankful to God Almighty at the dining table, just before we fork and knife our meals. Also, sometimes, depending on how hungry we all are, we take turns to pray. When it is time for Oba to pray, there is usually a spell of restlessness. You want to know why? Well this is why – Oba praying
Oba: Some have food (with a tune) and cannot eat
Some can eat and have no food
We have food and we can eat
Glory be to God, Amen.
Bless this food for Christ sake
All: (And if we dare not respond, he would start all over again. With prof’s eyes already opened and with a mouthful to swallow, daughter smiling with one eye opened and dad looking at wifey with a look that says “and these are your children!”) We all quickly responded – AaaaaaaaMEN
Now it is bed time. The boys are tucked in bed. Prayers must be said, and again, as democracy demands, we take it in turns. We all gathered in the prayer room – the boys’ room. It is Oba’s turn again to pray and we all looked at each other, waiting for Oba to start…here we go;
Oba: Some have food and cannot eat, some can eat……..
A power outage, one paramedic and a 3-year old girl
I just do not know how and where my dear brother – Bayo Olomodosi - digs these emails from, it just keeps coming. I just could not but share this one with you. I can only describe it with these words; lollllllllllllllllll (lots of laughter). Here it goes;
“Due to a power outage, only one paramedic responded to the call. The house was very dark so the paramedic asked Kathleen, a 3-yr old girl to hold a flashlight high over her mommy so he could see while he helped deliver then baby.
Very diligently, Kathleen did as she was asked. Heidi pushed and pushed and after a little while, Connor was born. The paramedic lifted him by his little feet and spanked him on his bottom. Connor began to cry. The paramedic then thanked Kathleen for her help and asked the wide-eyed 3-yr old what she thought about what she had just witnessed.
Kathleen quickly responded, “He shouldn’t have crawled in there in the first place……smack him
again!”
If God were….
Let me share with you a chat I had with a good friend Eyisegun Emmanuel yesterday.He was so funny and I made a point of telling him so. If the likes of Basket Mouth – a comedian is making millions of dosh in the comedy circuits, there is no reason why he couldn’t. Check out the liners below;
- “I am sure God looks down, shakes his head, looks back at the plan and wonders if he is responsible for nija (Nigeria)
- You know God has to be diplomatic…if he claims responsibility for nija it will be hard for his kingdom to prosper…if he does, people will say he isn’t able…
- My dada use to say…..if Jesus was a Nigerian he would be corrupted
- My definition of nija = the true test of one’s integrity
Photo of the day: ‘Only In Nigeria’ – O.I.N
(If you have not yet seen those photographs, I suggest you do.)
Coming up soon: Some thought provoking thoughts – nothing heavy.
Remember, “Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future”
Publicity: Courtesy of www.alphainventions.com
Today: 13th February 2009
1220 words
Sex gauge
Tomorrow is the remembrance of the death of Saint Val. A lot of proposals would take place. There will be disappointments as well. From ladies who had expected certain men to propose or to send a Val. Card. And from men who had higher hopes of being red-mated. All sorts would take place over the weekend. And it would continue on Sunday, in church where God would be very busy with confessions.
Courtesy of Jeremy a fellow blogger, I visited a very interesting website. Very appropriate for the current celebration, one could say. The website – Bedpost- has been described as a personal web application that will give you an insight into your sex life. Very ‘valentineish’, isn’t i?.
It gets very interesting. Once you register, of course, immediately after having sex, you will be required to fill out a few simple fields.
I see!
You have sex, …..then you….., after which you dash to the……, no, not the laptop, the toil@t, then rush to the laptop or computer and dial in. For those without broadband or wireless, it takes a bit longer, by the way, depending on your experience, you might still be panting.
…Oh I get it, those without a laptop can hop into wherever and visit a cyber cafe, still gasping for air as a result of …..running or coming….wherever….
BedPost, I have news for you. This Sex gauge or sexometer will not work in Africa o. You expect an African man to fill out a sheet of what? To guage what? So will the wife be aware of this sex guage? In Africa ke? Well, miracles do happen. On second thoughts – nayyyyyyyyyyyyyy. I mean NOoooooooooooooo WAYyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
The objective of the website is to have a rolling history of your sex life on which to reflect.
Reflect ke?
Who wants to reflect?
Mami I don sleep fia fia. (Sorry folks – interpretation – boy, who really wants to reflect on each sexual activity. Not necessary the writers take, I must stress. Wifey, sorry o, all in the spirit of valentine abi – but sleep is what beckons immediately.)
Oh, before I forget on the website, it has the heading – “Ever wonder how often you get busy?”
How often who?
I beg jare….
- Okada the 3rd…….
Oh yes, I had to save myself a 20 minute walk yesterday morning to hitch a ride to work. So what did I do, I hissed for an Okada despatch rider. “How much 2 take me down d road”, I asked. “U mean new street road”, he asked, wanting to clarify if I wanted my ride extended? “eh now”, I responded. “N50”, the okada rider said. “Ok, na my 1st time o, so make u dey very careful o”, I lied. It was in fact my 3rd ride. As I carefully hopped on to the motorcycle, I hung on to dear life in the dark. No helmet. Not that I would have minded, but he just did not have one.
The journey was brisk, about 3 or 4 minutes. I could see that he was riding with care. These okada riders could tell the veteran passenger from the inexperienced one. It was a safe bumpy-less ride. I brought out N200, asked for N100 change. He was not limited in his appreciation. With his worn out helmet, he bowed several times. It must have been a good omen on how his day would be. For me, it was a Fantastic omen, having not fallen off the bike that my day would be Fantastic.
The following 2 titles were sent to me by my very dear brother Bayo Olomodosi ….keep them coming bro.
How do you spell Plantain?
During school hours one day, a teacher was teaching the students spellings. This conversation ensued between him and one of his students.
Teacher: Kola, spell plantain
Kola: Kwhish one? the lipe one or the unlipe one?
Teacher: what difference does it make? Just spell
plantain!
Kola: Teasha, If you fly the lipe one na ‘DODO’,
if you fly the unlipe one na ‘SHIPS’
if you loast am, na ‘BORLI’
All of them na plantain,
so whish one you wan make I spell?
Food 4 thought – please endeavour to read till the end.
A couple was invited to a masked costume Halloween party. The wife got a terrible headache and told her husband to go to the party alone.
He, being a devoted husband, protested, but she argued and said she was going to take some aspirin and go to bed, and there was no need for his good time to be spoiled by not going. So he took his Batman costume and away he went.
The wife, after sleeping soundly for about an hour, awakened without pain, and, as it was still early, decided to go to the party.
In as much as her husband did not know what her costume was, she thought She would have some fun by watching her husband to see how he acted when She was not with him. She put on a Goldilocks costume.
So she joined the party and soon spotted her husband cavorting around on The dance floor, dancing with every nice chick he cuddle and copping a Little feel here and a little kiss there.
His wife went up to him and being a rather seductive babe herself, he left his new partner high and dry and devoted his time to her.
She let him go as far as he wished, naturally, since he was her husband.
After some more to drink he finally whispered a little proposition in her ear and she agreed, so off they went to one of the cars and had a quickie in the back seat.
Just before unmasking at midnight, she slipped away and went home and put her costume away and got into bed, wondering what kind of explanation he would make up for his outrageous behaviour.
She was sitting up reading when he came in, so she asked what kind of time he had.
“Oh, the same old thing. You know I never have a good time when you’re not there.”
Then she asked, “Did you dance much?”
He replied, “I’ll tell you, I never even danced one dance. When I got there, I met Pete, Bill Brown and some other guys, so we went into the spare room and played poker all evening.”
“You must have looked really silly wearing that Batman costume playing poker all night!” she said with unashamed sarcasm.
To which the husband replied, “Actually, I gave my Batman costume to your Dad. Apparently he had a whale of a time. He told me he got lucky with a hottie in a Goldilocks outfit”
Do you think she will be honest enough to tell her Husband the truth?
What is your take?
All in the spirit of Saint Valentine!!
Photo of the day: HAPPY VALENTINE! - (Love Uninhibited)
Coming up soon: as it unwraps.
Remember, “Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future.
…..and Michael Jackson’s brother planning a ‘slavery theme park’. And why the fffing not?
Publicity: Courtesy of www.alphainventions.com
Today: 17th February 2009
907 words
So what exactly is the matter?
The Resort
This is exactly the sort of subtle demeaning caressing that the British press engage in. You see, the amount of brainwashing that has gone on for centuries is incredible. I might have been delivered in an hospital in posh West London, but that does not in any way make me a coconut in the inside. I am seething having read the news slated with innuendoes of all sorts.
Read some of the headlines by the foreign press that accompanied this story;
· Jacksons star in Nigeria resort row…..BBC
· Michael Jackson’s brother planning ’slavery theme park’…..Daily Telegraph
· Michael Jackson’s brother involved in $3.4 billion slavery memorial in Nigeria…Talk Entertainment
What is the ffffing wrong with having a theme park that will remind the whole world of the carnage committed by the white slave masters? Yes, it is at par with Holocaust.
While the Jews will not tolerate any silly remarks, Africans such as a Prof Toyin Falola will continue to act as the mouth piece of organisations established to propagate everything negative about a gifted continent maligned by the greed of a soon-to-be-uprooted-little.
Respected writer and historian you may be, prof, but it is much more than sitting down in a cosy University of Texas office. You can write all the academic jargons you desire, but will it really ignite a change? Your research which is not visual is indexed in a book and left to the mercy of the cobwebs on a shelf in a social laboratory in America or Europe.
We need a more dynamic approach such as the one Marlon is involved in. Is it a money making scheme? I don’t know and I careless! I just want to see a place that will exhibit the worst massacre that had ever been inflicted on the black race . That is all. And if this makes uncomfortable reading for some, then tough, you can go and jump into the river in Badagry.
“It is not appropriate from a cultural or historical point of view. Those who are looking for money care about money and no other thing,” the Prof said.
Slaves in transit.
Didn’t Steven Spielberg make money from his 1993 epic film Schindler’s list? Didn’t he? And as a result of the success of the film, many people who otherwise would not have bothered with the history of the Holocaust have probed further. Why can’t the same apply to the transatlantic slave trade albeit through entertainment? Who cares if this information acts as a supplementary to history?
Spielberg has helped establish the Righteous Persons Foundation in 1994 after directing his Oscar-winning Holocaust film, Schindler’s List, which tells the true story of a non-Jewish factory owner who saved Jews during the Holocaust. According to the foundation’s website, Spielberg remarked upon donating $53 million to launch the new foundation that he “could not keep the money profited from the movie because it was blood money.”
To get such information to our children and the next generation, the world of today has required us to utilise all available means and that includes computer games, the internet, sports and theme parks. I am mad. I am boiling. Yes I know, I have resisted talking politics, but this is much more than politics.
It is for reasons such as this that I have set up JideSalu Diary – a forum to express my inner thoughts, no matter how painful it may come across. Bloggers and readers have the duty to assist in shaping the world by monitoring what the established media outfits disseminate and also act as filters.
Believe it or not, I have come across, and heard of cases of discrimination towards Nigerian workers by foreign workers. I would never have thought it was possible here in Nigeria. But it does happen.
For those of us who are fortunate to have experienced life abroad, we have a responsibility to demystify the white race. You get what I mean. It has to be done. Obama has gone a long way in proofing this point.
The BBC and its cohorts have helped shaped the thinking of Africans and care should be taken to avoid being constipated in our actions. We need to be very careful with what we consume and who we consume from.
From ‘Slave to Music’; again another headline from the BBC. If you are African and you can’t read between the lines, then God help you.
The foreigners have no sincere interest to develop Africa. It is up to Africans to. Therefore it is wholly our responsibility as Africans to educate the majority who are politically naive to vote with their heads and not their pockets.
In one of my replies to a comment posted by Bumight – a fellow blogger, the English are morally a 4th- world nation. Africa might be third world economically.
Mr Marlon Jackson - an investor
By the way, his name is Marlon Jackson and not Michael Jackson’s brother. That was the Daily Telegraph’s reference. What chic!
Okay, I can now breathe a sigh of release…..just for now. I have cooled down a bit.
******************************************************
Photo of the day: Hmmmmmnnnnn! Drumming home my point.
Coming up soon: I just don’t know yet…anything can happen, as it did today.
Remember, “Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future.
Protected: ‘…..talking boyfriends with daughter’
Publicity: Courtesy of www.alphainventions.com
On a lighter note – Vol 3
Today: 20th February 2009
964 words
It’s Friday. It’s another opportunity to share with you some stuff I consider funny. Don’t you go laughing at me if you do not find any of the jokes below funny. Okay.
Have a restful weekend.
Enjoy.
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The Bank Interview
One young man went for a BANK Interview.
“When did Nigeria gain her independence?” He was asked.
“The efforts began a few years earlier and final result was in 1960″ He replied.
“Who was responsible for our independence?”
“There were so many. Whom to mention? If I name one, it will be a injustice to another.” He replied.
“Is corruption the number one enemy in our country?”
“Some research is going on the subject and I can answer with certainly only after seeing the report” He replied.
The interview board was very pleased with his original and thoughtful answers and asked him not to reveal the questions to others, since they were planning to ask the same questions.
When he went out naturally others were curious to know what was asked. He politely declined, but one persistent bearded man would not leave him. “At least tell me the answers” he pleaded, and our friend obliged.
Then it was the turn of this bearded man. When he went inside, since his resume was slightly illegible, the board member asked him.” By the way, what is your date of birth?”
He replied, “The effort began a few years earlier and final result was in 1960.”
Somewhat puzzled, they asked another clarification. “What is your fathers name?”
He replied, “There were so many. Whom to mention”. If I name one, it will be injustice to another”.
The interviewer was incensed.
“Hey! Are you mad or what?”
He replied. “Some research is going on the subject. I can answer with certainty only after seeing the report.”
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What an answer!
A mechanic was removing the cylinder heads from the motor of a car when he spotted the famous heart surgeon in his shop, who was standing off to the side, waiting for the service manager to come to take a look at his car.
The mechanic shouted across the garage, “Hello Doctor!! Please come over here for a minute.”
The famous surgeon, a bit surprised, walked over to the mechanic.
The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag and asked argumentatively, “So doctor, look at this. I also open hearts, take valves out, grind ‘em, put in new parts, and when I finish this will work as a new one. So how come you get the big money, when you and me is doing basically the same work? “
The doctor leaned over and whispered to the mechanic…..
He said: “Try to do it when the engine is running”.
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The officer and the Gentleman – Boss
- When I Take a long time to finish, I am slow,
- When my boss takes a long time, he is thorough
- When I don’t do it, I am lazy,
- When my boss does not do it, he is busy,
- When I do something without being told, I am trying to be smart,
- When my boss does the same, he takes the initiative,
- When I please my boss, I am apple polishing,
- When my boss pleases his boss, he is cooperating,
- When I make a mistake, I’ am an idiot.
- When my boss makes a mistake, he’s only human.
- When I am out of the office, I am wondering around.
- When my boss is out of the office, he’s on business.
- When I am on a day off sick, I am always sick.
- When my boss is a day off sick, he must be very ill.
- When I apply for leave, I must be going for an interview
- When my boss applies for leave, it’s because he’s overworked
- When I do good, my boss never remembers,
- When I do wrong, he never forgets
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The Christian Bear
An atheist was taking a walk through the woods “What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!” he said to himself. As he continued walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes. Turning to look, he saw a 7 foot grizzly charging towards him.
He ran as fast as he could up the path. Looking over his shoulder he saw that the bear was closing in on him. His heart was pumping frantically and he tried to run even faster.
He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw the bear raising his paw to take a swipe at him. At that instant the atheist cried out: “Oh my God…”
Time stopped.
The bear froze.
The forest was silent.
It was then that a bright light shone down upon the man and a voice came out of the sky saying: “You deny my existence for all of these years, teach others I don’t exist, and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?”
The atheist looked directly into the light, “It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps, could you make the bear a Christian?”
“Very well,” said the voice.
The light went out.
And the sounds of the forest resumed.
Then the bear lowered his paw, bowed his head and spoke: “Lord, bless this food which I am about to receive and for which I am truly thankful. Amen.”
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The Growth
Photo of the day: ‘What is this? Click to find out the answer.’ - inspirational
Coming up soon: Grace is ill O.
Remember, “Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future.
Publicity: Courtesy of www.alphainventions.com
“I misplaced my wallet on my way to the hotel where my money and other valuable things were kept. I would like you to assist me with a soft loan urgently to settle my hotel bills and get myself back home.”
The statement above was sent to an international figure on behalf of all Nigerians.
What a mess!
So the Justice Secretary for United Kingdom, Jack Straw got a taste of the Nigerian touch of scam. What can I say? Blame it on apartheid? Or the flimsy excuse that they inflicted so much pain on us – Africans, and it was right we carry out a cyber act of vendetta, through email scams, popularly known as 419 – otherwise described by Wikipedia as the advance-fee fraud .
419ers
The purpose of the rule governing 419 as enacted in the Constitution of Nigeria is like any other rule in Nigeria – not to be taken serious. What is not known is the damage it does for the reputation of a nation called Nigeria.
If I try to think of a solution, an anti 419 scammer device, I will be wasting my time. The politicians that are celebrated by the countless magazines in the country and looters that are honoured on an annual basis all engage in one form of scam or the other. The only difference is that they are not idiotic enough to target a Justice Secretary.
Think of this scenario; the numerous internet cafes out there are in business. All they are interested in is to make money. They care less what customers come to surf, or should they? I don’t know? I can’t imagine a situation in England or even in Nigeria for that matter, where the cyber cafe manager is seen strolling around surfers, like an invigilator in a classroom, waiting to pounce on whoever is caught sending a letter. Do you? This is not possible!
It is a tight rope to walk. How do you monitor surfers without prying or infringing on privacy? It is a tough call. It really is.
The buck could easily be passed onto the likes of Hotmail, Yahoo or Google to invest in anti spam technology. But should we pass the buck and blame someone else when it is happening at your door steps? Comeeee onnnnnnn!
The onus, is on us and rightly so too. As long as there is minimal enforcement for these silly 419ers, by way of a stiff punishment, then our reputation will remain in the gutters – as it already is.
Battered reputation
Just check out the headlines circulating round the world about me a NIGERIAN;
- Lost in Lagos? The mystery of Jack Straw and the Nigerian scammers – The Independent
- British minister targeted by Internet fraudsters: report – AP
- Jack Straw falls victim to Nigerian internet hackers – Guardian.co.uk
- Con artists hacked into Straw email – Daily Mirror
- Straw hit by internet fraudsters -BBC
I feel so ashamed and concerned.
I was once a candidate for these relentless scammers, but I made a point not to scream about it. I chose to wash the dirty linen in-house. But hey, when an international figure such as Mr Jack is chosen to be scammed, there is no denying the fact that a statement ought to be released from the office of the President. New bills ought to be debated and passed in both houses of parliaments. Our own Nigeria house in Northumberland in SW England ought to have had sleepless nights working out a damage limitation on the most populous black nation on the planet. What is going on here? Is it such a hard thing to do for chrissake? Heh? Who selects these people to direct our nation’s affairs?
Now, I am getting very crossed.
Taking responsibility
The scammers, we don’t know. They are faceless.
Who will know are our Foreign Minister. We also know who our High Commissioner in England is. We know who our Senate Leader is and we know who our leader at the house of representatives is. These people are not faceless. They ought to act NOW!
You see, don’t let us be fooled. Okay, Nigeria is big. Very big in terms of population and sheer land size. But does that qualify it to be an impossible task to handle? Nigeria is not a difficult nation to rule. If our leaders choose to live by examples and not lavish ill gotten wealth, the citizens will watch and try to abide. It is such a mess. Really. It is such a messy situation. And the painful thing is that these people do not give a hoot!
My civic responsibility
I, Babajide Salu, will continue to play my role in my family. Influence those within my compound. Move out a bit and try to influence my neighbourhood. Then, renew my vigour and move further out to the streets adjacent my street. And I will do this by all means. I have already started. That is the way I have chosen to carry out my civic duties. I ann’it waiting for no government. I am the government. Nigerians, I declare to you now, YOU are at fault, individually and collectively. If we allow illiterates to rule over us, then how do we expect to progress as a nation? I am vexed, so vexed.
Bye.
Photo of the day: ‘I DO’
Coming up soon: My tips for living in Nigeria.
Remember, “Do not wait for the future to come to you, face the future.
1026 words
Are you aware its Lent? …and so?
“In the English language, the special season before Easter is called ‘Lent’. The word comes from the ‘lengthening’ of daylight hours as we progress from the darkness of winter to the new light of spring.“
The statement above was made by
Dr D’Ambrosio went on to analyse the forty days season.
It is the season of the forty days.
OK, we do penance for forty days because Jesus fasted forty days in the wilderness. But did you ever wonder why he was out there for forty days rather than seven or ten or fifty? Think back to the Old Testament. Noah and company in the Ark watched rain fall for 40 days and forty nights. Moses was up on Sinai receiving the 10 commandments for 40 days. The Israelites wandered around the desert for 40 years. So why all these forties? Probably because it is forty weeks that a woman carries her developing baby before a new life can come forth from the womb.
As we enter this season of fasting, it is an opportunity to for us all to look inwards whilst I agree that we ought not to wait for pre-Easter to meditate and realign our focus. I stay away from talking religion as it is a very private arrangement between you and whoever you have chosen to believe in, but take a moment to reflect. Take time out and ponder.
In a country such as Nigeria, a country I consider (just my opinion remember), to be one of the most naturally gifted, endowed, blessed nation, if not the most blessed nation on earth languishing in all sorts of paralysis is astounding. For Nigeria, the most populous black nation on mother earth not to have direction, not to have leaders that are ready to die for the people, not to have basic infrastructures and what have you is more than one the ordinary eye sees. Consider this analogy, if you happen to come across an individual who you know, as a matter of fact to be gifted, almost to the point of genius, and this person is in a state of decay, what would come to mind? This is how I look at Nigeria.
Oh, to Bayo Dossy, Snatch, Gerrad and Bumight, thank you for your wonderful and insightful comments on yesterday’s diary entry. I shall duly oblige you with my replies. Just check back later today.
So a time to reflect is upon us – lent. Do not be religious about it, be practical. I say Amen to all your prayers.
Publicity: Courtesy of www.alphainventions.com
What are your worst fears?
Hey guys, yesterday, I was thinking about throwing a question to you all. I chose to come back to Nigeria – and I shall be telling you more of my reasons in the coming weeks – and I know there are millions of you out there who have never given it a thought – WHY? If I may ask – or who have thought about it and are scared for some reasons or are simply too scared even though they are desperate to come back home.
To many, they have seen this diary as a platform to campaign to Nigerians in diaspora to come back home, well, you are probably right. But it has much more wider and far reaching goals than that.
My goal for this diary is to reach out to all, Nigerians and non – Nigerians ( potential visitors). Yes, I was born in the UK, and I am of Nigerian heritage and this puts me in a unique position to compare and contrast both countries and continents and this has prompted me to share and not impose my views.
I have also received, by virtue of writing this diary, a number of personal emails. I have not responded in public as they are personal and I have counted myself fortunate to be in a position to offer advice. Thank you for trusting.
Now an open invitation to every Nigerian living abroad. Why not ask me your most pertinent question. What are your worst fears for living in Nigeria? Why not send them in and in my usual blunt manner I wi