October 29, 2010

Don’t Miss This!


“Question 2 for winning a Samsung GT-S3100 – How much MB allowance is required to access my account on gmail (i.e log in, read, compose and send a mail)” Please do not send the answers until you see question 3. Answers to be sent to seun.adelana at gmail.com”

I thought long and hard about the topic of this post. What can I title it that will make it capture the urgency of the now, and at the same time retain the timeless signature I want every article I write to bear? It suddenly struck me, that the best way to put it, is as I have, “Don’t miss this!”

What is this that you shouldn’t miss? Two things, one, don’t miss an awesome event taking place this weekend – The Avenues to Wealth Award Ceremony and family night of fun and excitement. This event is marking the second year anniversary of an exciting company called Holidays and Cash, now rebranding as Avenues to Wealth. In this event, we’ll be entertained and informed, it’s infotainment at it’s peak. There will be music, comedy, dance and enlightenment. The event is featuring one of the foremost icons and entrepreneurial brands in Nigeria – Prof Pat Utomi, Global wealth creation expert, Prof Dolf De Roos, Africa’s Ace comedian – Basket Mouth, many musical acts, dance competitions, raffle draws and so much fun. Interestingly I’m the host of this auspicious event. In order to ensure you don’t miss it, I’m willing to offer complimentary tickets to any 20 people who help me answer this short survey. Continue reading

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January 16, 2010

Religious Brain Drain


There is a trend I’m picking up and it’s grieving my soul. The most religious (Christian or otherwise) societies in the world, are it’s poorest and most underdeveloped. The cities that pack millions into auditoriums are the ones that don’t have any representation in other aspects of human influence. It’s seems like an inversion of everything that I have learnt, that light should give illumination, that spiritual enlightenment should lead to economic, social, governmental and whole revival. Thorough analysis however reveals, that the opposite is true. Continue reading

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November 24, 2009

Church Relevance 2


Amos 5:21-14 (The Message Translation)
“I can’t stand your religious meetings.
I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice–oceans of it.
I want fairness–rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.”
How else can we ensure oceans of justice and rivers of fainess without accurate representation in the executive, judiciary and legislative arms of government? How can we take responsibility for doing what God wants when we have strategically placed it out of our reach?
What was God really upset with here, and what was he saying the priorities should be? I think it’s clear, don’t you think so? I think it’s so clear we might need to have to hire someone to decieve us. God is not interested in religious meetings, conferences or conventions. He doesn’t want anything to do with religious projects or pretentious slogans. He’s had enough of fund-raising schemes, public relations and image making stunts. He’s not interested in celebrity ego-music, he wants people to sing to him not about themselves or to themselves. More importantly he wants an abundance of justice and fairness – virtues we may never be able to model without playing an active role in the polity of the nation.
Don’t get me wrong, the Church in Nigeria has tried. We have supported and built a few orphanages, we have created Jobs for many people in the Church industry, we have converted unproductive warehouses into development and production centres, we have kept a lot of young minds busy, rather than idle-ing away their sunday mornings and midweek evennings. Some of the more noble ones among us have even gone further to venture in education, health, communities and all. We have tried, or haven’t we? What worries me however is not what we have done, but what we have done compared to what we could have done! What we have done compared to what we can do! And what we have left undone! All that we do and have done pales into near insignificance when compared to what a serving governor can achieve in a few months of his/her administration. We need credible people to lead us, and what it means is that you and I must be interested, and the church cannot be silent participants anymore. We can give billions to support certain courses, but if the head is sick our investments on any part of the body will soon rot.
Oh, I understand and do know history, I know how in the past the church of God became nothing else but a political gathering, and I know that the fear of that error is enough to completely take one’s hands off it. However, the same way the church has learnt that money itself is not a bad thing, but the lust after it without recourse to ethics is what is wrong, in the same way, we must assure ourselves that if all we do is fold our fingers in the time of voting, we’ll continue to be ruled by wickedness. If we cease to be light, then our lack of expression gives permission to darkness. This is not a clarion call for community development, this is a call for taking political leadership. “Nigerian politics is dirty”, is so common a phrase, my question is how will it ever get clean if those who ought to be making change happen run away from it? The church in Nigeria has gotten more enlightened in the last 20yrs about it’s members taking their rightful place in the economy, today however we must with the same zeal and fire enlighten and empower ourselves to advance into leadership. It is shameful to have 5 star churches and worldclass catedrals in an underdeveloped country. We need to move to action, or we’ll lose our place. Or isn’t the government meant to rest on the shoulders of the body of christ?

Amos 5:21-14 (The Message Translation)

“I can’t stand your religious meetings.

I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.

I want nothing to do with your religion projects,

your pretentious slogans and goals.

I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,

your public relations and image making.

I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.

When was the last time you sang to me?

Do you know what I want?

I want justice–oceans of it.

I want fairness–rivers of it.

That’s what I want. That’s all I want.”

How else can we ensure oceans of justice and rivers of fairness without accurate representation in the executive, judiciary and legislative arms of government? How can we take responsibility for doing what God wants when we have strategically placed it out of our reach?

What was God really upset with here, and what was he saying the priorities should be? I think it’s clear, don’t you think so? I think it’s so clear we might need to have to hire someone to deceive us. God is not interested in religious meetings, conferences or conventions. He doesn’t want anything to do with religious projects or pretentious slogans. He’s had enough of fund-raising schemes, public relations and image making stunts. He’s not interested in celebrity ego-music, he wants people to sing to him not about themselves or to themselves. More importantly he wants an abundance of justice and fairness – virtues we may never be able to model without playing an active role in the polity of the nation. Continue reading

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May 20, 2009

Millionaire Teachers


“Sorry for the password on yesterday’s article, I will remove the password as soon as I get clearance”

Last week monday a collaboration effort started between Visible Impacts – Project RAISE , the New Nigeria Club, The Future Movmement and Generis Solutions. The objective of this project is to inspire 1,000,000 secondary school leavers to excel in the forthcoming S.S.C.E exams and J.A.M.B and to sustain this number and more for the coming years. The current facts on ground are alarming – Out of the 1,188,142 that took S.S.C.E only 188,136 passed S.S.C.E with Credit in English and Maths and 3 other subjects. Out of the 1,145,961 present for J.A.M.B exam 548,543 candidates scored above 200. This means that over 1 million people certainly have sat at home and would do both exams again in the next 1yr, and guess what they’ll have a good number of fresh takers joining them.

Like all great initiatives, it rises and falls, not on the excellence of the idea but on the commitment of the people and the ability of the system to reward it’s key drivers. I have led a number of informal organizations in my life, and what I have learnt and vowed to do my best not to repeat is that great ideas collapse if the real needs of those that are driving it are not met. I remember feeling remorse after my tenure as the president of my university department, I chronicled my thoughts into my hand over notes – “directing people that you have no power to reward or punish requires truly inspirational leadership, or it will be frustrating”. It is however more frustrating if you as a leader are powerless to meet their urgent needs. This thinking has formed in my mind into a philosophy, a philosophy that if you observe me closely you will realize, I will never engage in any activity that will not create a way for the people that I consider principal to the achievement of the goals, to be duly rewarded!

It is with this philosophy in mind that I am glad to announce to you that we have just set up a system where we can create inspirational role models, teachers and trainers for over 1,000,000 nigerian students in the next 1yr, helping them to succeed. Continue reading

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May 8, 2009

Freedom!


Now I know why I have not been writing so frequently! There is regularly a clash of thoughts in my mind for having to write about something and speak about something else, and when the writing and the speaking need to happen on the same day, it’s tough. Today for example, I had made up my mind that I will write about “Freedom”, but in a few hours from now as well, I will be with the GTBank training school to talk about “Personal Effectiveness and Life Mastery”, then tomorrow morning I’m sharing a platform with Great Leaders (Rev Sam Adeyemi, Mrs. Ibukun Awosika, Pastor Ben Akabueze and Mazi Sam Ohunabunwa) to talk about “Character in Career and Business” (9th May, 10am – Daystar, 71 Oregun Road, Kudirat Abiola Way). As soon as I’m done from there, I head for another seminar where I speak about Financial Freedom and share a business opportunity (9th May, 2pm&4pm -Generis Solutions, 3rd Floor Oluwatobi House, 71 Allen Avenue, Ikeja), as soon as that is done, I begin to put finishing touches to my presentation for Good Tidings Bible Church, Abuja on Wednesday on “Entrepreneurship” (13th May, 5:30pm - Good Tidings Bible Church International, Kingdom Centre Plot 125 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Way, After Julius Berger Headquarters, Utako, Abuja). Then I have a number of other seminars in Abuja, come back to lagos for another one on the weekend and start finalizing my preparations to head for Malaysia.

Thinking about all that needs to go on today, and then tomorrow is sufficient to create a writers block. Mixed with that also is my desire to really make a comment about the Ekiti Re-Run fiasco! If I however write too many thoughts in one post, I can get accused of being desultory. This worries me, but I guess like today’s topic, I simply need to set myself free of the encumberances created by expectations and standards, and speak from my heart, exactly the way the words flow :) . I’ll try to stick to the topic of freedom, while I use the key things I must express myself on as examples. Let’s together see what is capable of building up. Continue reading

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March 14, 2009

Lessons from Egypt


There is so much to see about Egypt, interestingly there is so much to say as well. The Egyptian civilization is the oldest dated civilization. They have islands and temples that date back to 5000BC. Some of the sites are breath taking and some of the history, mind boggling. Egypt has managed to preserve a lot of it’s history, maximize the use of the Nile and  sufficiently diversify it’s sources of income. 

One thing you cannot but notice about Egypt however is how grossly similar with Nigeria Egypt is. I have traveled to a few countries, but I’m yet to see so much similarity. Egypt also is a land so blessed, but it’s people so poor. When I listened to our tour guide describe Egypt, and the resources he knows that Egypt has, my mind wanders freely back to my country. I’m not every normal vacationer in Egypt, my eyes are covered with the lens of my nations transformation. Wherever I go, one this is on my mind – what as a Nation can we learn from these other countries to better the lot of our nation Nigeria? So, today, from the Land of the Pharaohs, from the land where life after death means more than life on earth, from the land of many temples and rich history, I bring you Lessons from Egypt! Continue reading

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November 6, 2008

10 Lessons from Obama’s Victory


1. Hope triumps over Fear. Obama came with a message of hope Mccain with a message of fear. Hope won, and still wins. Whatever you are facing, your hope will win your fear, when fear is high, tune hope up.

2. Our defining moments are preceeded by two waves of preparation. Obama became a celibrity in 21 months, but if he had any scandal in his life in his 46yrs, those 21 months would have revealed it. He prepared lifelong, and prepared just in time. Many atimes we focus on the just in time preparation, assuming that life will set us up for what we have never prepared for. From the time you became responsible for yourself till now, what have you been preparing for? The world doesn’t meet anyone half way, you want it, you’ve gotta go for it.

3. There is spot for all of us to stand and move the world. Obama’s clear spot was public speaking skills. He knew how to connect with his audience and move them with him. Where is that spot for you, where you can stand and move the world. In the exhiliration resulting from the discovery of the lever system, Archimedes is quoted to have said, give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I will move the world. We call can, if we find our spots and perfect it. Continue reading

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