Jun
29
2009
Hate him, like him, adore him or rubbish him, we all grew up to know, like and celebrate Michael Jackson. Every school had someone who could mimic him the most, almost all of us tried. In some countries where they couldn’t speak English, they claimed they knew two words of English – Michael Jackson! Michael Jackson was a phenomenum, a rare example of a mortal who hugged limelight for 45 almost uninterrupted years. Rarely do stars shine for as long as 15yrs, he trippled the rare, he was sui generis – in a class of his own. In kiddies parties in the backside of many of the countries of the world,till tomorrow, Michael Jackson uniforms are still regular features.
I couldn’t follow the CNN regular updates on his death, I was in the hospital waiting on my mum, when it happened, thankfully she is making it! It’s been difficult for me to really get my thoughts together on all the topics that are burning so hot on my mind, but for your sake I have decided to still write. I’m currently in the sun, on a bench outside the intensive care unit of the University of Ilorin teaching hospital. Being in a hospital is an experience that balances you, close proximity with the after life brings clarity. Today, I’ll like to share a few lessons I believe we can all glean from the life of a once living legend – MJ! Continue Reading »
Mar
25
2009
What I want to write today is an article I will love you to pirate. I’ll like you to dub it, and put it on your blog post. Modify it if you like, give me credit if you want, or give me none at all. They say we’ll achieve a lot more if we don’t care who gets the credit.
I have refrained deliberately for a long time to make any comments about our National Rebranding exercise. I hope I will be able to say what boils in my throat and wrists tonight, without making too much reference to it. For all it’s worth though, I think the fundamental error I can see, is that Nigerians have not been made to own it, and hence rather than having people championing it, and helping others buy in, what we have is criticism and condemnation by the same people who would have been it’s champions.
Having said that however, I have a proposition of an exercise that we can own as Nigerians. It’s a simple idea and it came as a fallout of a discussion that ensued in my office yesterday. It’s an answer of what we can do to focus our leaders on the problems that we have as citizens and to assist them in giving it the attention it deserves. We no longer need any assitance from any source to know that our most crucial problem in Nigeria is Leadership! If we are all on the same page in this realization, then our efforts towards a better Nigeria must be channeled to support, focus and direct our leaders. Continue Reading »
Jan
25
2009
Goat Robbery Suspect
Thinking about the title of this post brings back fond memories to me of childhood. If you were born in the seventies in Nigeria, I’m sure you’ll have a few thoughts peeping out from the dusty recess of your mind. It was on Sunday evenings back in those days, and somehow we tried not to miss it. They were stories with values, and they connected with us so strongly then.
A few years down the line, tales by moonlight had gone, and what we had featuring so strongly on our local sets, were, “Iriri Aye”. These were true life stories that were difficult to believe. They were strange but true events, that could send jitters down any spine. When I read the article yesterday that said that a goat had been caught as a robbery suspect in Kwara State, my mind did quick flashbacks. Now, is this tales by moonlight, or Iriri Aye?
Continue Reading »
Jan
08
2009
Yeah, you read the title well. It will seem so shameful to some, but I watched it. 
Let me say clearly for starters though, that watching that movie was not a natural impulse for me, but haven watched it, and the way my mind works, I have no regrets. Jennifa, Starring Funke Akindele (tell her to contact me for an interview – should be interesting) is interesting to watch. Buy and watch, don’t watch it on facebook, let the artists prosper!
Jennifa was a slightly exaggerated and humorist view of what is happening in our society. It is also moral in the traditional yoruba kind of way – as the traditional yoruba stories always have a lesson for you to learn. Jennifa has tipped as a film, I started getting interested one day when I saw about 30 people of different ages, mostly ladies gathering at a bus-stop steering at a TV set on the street. I thought they were watching football, but as I drove past, I saw they were watching Jennifa. Haven watched it, I’m somehow happy they did watch it, and I’m happy for the team that put it together that their movie sold. There were some observations I made however in my special watch, and some lessons I want to crystallize. Continue Reading »
Dec
28
2008
There are a lot of serious things on my mind as the year is getting wrapped up and closing up to give way to the next. I’m thinking finalizing my reviews of this previous year, I’m thinking of firming my goals for the next. All these are serious things. In reviewing I need to analyze where I succeeded and where I didn’t, where I need to focus better on in the coming year, and what I really need help with. In finishing up my goals I need to seriously get alignment from control towers, from God, the source of my life and the author of my purpose. All these are serious things. As I write I’m on the Island in a hotel close to VGC where I’m meeting with some future thinking Nigerians who are bent on making Nigeria the most desireable country to live in.
Those are all serious things, but before we get to serious, I think it’s good we unwind a bit, and laugh heartily. Are there reasons to be happy and laugh? Yes there are plenty of reasons. One is that you are alive and well, and made it through to witness the last Saturday, Sunday and even monday of the current year. Most of us know people who didn’t make it past this year, we are not better than them, we are only still alive because there are still expectations that God has not given up on us that we can still achieve. I stumbled on some interesting true life resume occurences that I felt might be a good way to get you laughing into the end of this year. Sit tight and have a happy reading. Continue Reading »
Oct
31
2008
Thank God it’s Friday, as we enter into the weekend, I thought, perhaps the best way to end the working week is with some interesting strange but true facts. It’s always a challenge for me to write immediately after a post where I get lots of praises, I always wonder, can I outdo the last? These thoughts delay the next, can you imagine? Today however, I think it’s all in a different direction, and you should simply laugh and enjoy yourself. Continue Reading »
Oct
28
2008
Many people who have heard me speak, know that I am a story teller. I love stories, I enjoy hearing them as much as I enjoy sharing them. I have often discovered also that people love stories as well, so somehow we connect, and 5yrs after I speak somewhere, I still meet people that remind me of the stories that I told them. This shows me that story telling does work. While writing a story and telling them are two different things, I very well prefer to tell than to write, because in telling I get to feel the crowds pulse, read their excitement, follow the twists and turns, and tell the story in a unique way for every crowd. On Sunday I was opportuned to present this story before a crowd of about 1000 people, and truthfully, even I enjoyed the story in a different way.
Once upon a time, there was a young man. This young man had a dream, a goal an aspiration that one day he would become the number 1 clown in his country. He had gone for a seminar where he had been thought to analyze his skills and write down his goal and vision, and for him, it all pointed to being a clown of repute. As soon as he discovered this, he started searching for materials on clowning, and started reading and developing himself in earnest. He went to watch other clowns perform, interacted with a few people about his dreams and invested heavily in developing himself. Continue Reading »
Dec
13
2006
Hmmm… I heard some things oh, and I felt maybe I should just confirm oh. Some of them haven’t happened yet oh, but I heard that they are postulations sha. Please help me look at them oh, and let me know if it is true oh. (the ohs are deliberate oh)
I am not so much for political calculations, but from what i’m hearing it seems we’ll be in for real surprises in the elections next year. I’m a very optimistic fellow, and believe too much in the future of our great country. In case you don’t, you can check out the list of websites underneath this article and get excited at the generation that is lurking in virtual obscurity, waiting for the batton to be passed. If you read deep into their words and thoughts, you’ll see hope written in capital letters for Nigeria.
Yes, more to what I have been hearing. Gbeborun… you should continue from here oh.. Continue Reading »
Dec
08
2006
Feeling a bit humourous this morning, and decided to share some lines. Maybe it’s the TGIF (Thank God it’s Friday) thing, but I’m in favour of a few good laughs. I’m sure some of these lines are not totally strange but my comments in italic are fresh
Dr. Lee Berk and fellow researcher Dr. Stanley Tan of Loma Linda University in California have been studying the effects of laughter on the immune system. To date their published studies have shown that laughing lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormones, increases muscle flexion, and boosts immune function by raising levels of infection-fighting T-cells, disease-fighting proteins called Gamma-interferon and B-cells, which produce disease-destroying antibodies. Laughter also triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers, and produces a general sense of well-being. Net Laughter is great therapy! You can extend this and make us laugh more, or if you have any jokes of your own…feel free to pour them in.
A Laugh a day, keeps the heart attack away – Anonymous
Ensure you have a good laugh today…and indeed everyday. Continue Reading »
