It was John F. Kennedy that said, “The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion” and Adlai E. Stevenson reaffirmed this same position in stating that, “freedom rings where opinions clash.” Unity is not always a function of singularity of opinions or ideology.
In this famous ancient story of the old man and his sons, after so much had been put into settling differences among his sons, this old man decided to teach his sons a lasting lesson, he got a stack of broom-sticks, handing each son one broom-stick, he instructed them to break it. Easily each one could snap it and break it up. He collected about a hundred sticks from the stack, tied it up, he handed it to each man, one after the other, instructing each one to break the stack, they all tried to break the stack of broom-sticks, but none succeeded in the attempt. As he tried to make them understand the purpose for the exercise, he was able to drive this point into the minds of this boys, ‘singly you can achieve so much as your effort can drive you, but to achieve more you’ve got to work as a team – in unity.’

Another way to say this is that weak minds don’t retain big thoughts. A mind is weak when that mind is left undeveloped. My focus in this chapter is on the potency of reading as it pertains to developing the mind and ultimately, the worth of an individual.
Heavy Weights Imagine for a moment that you are watching a game of ‘throw and catch’ between a grown man and a four year old and the object they are throwing happens to be a bag of cement. For the grown man, catching the bag of cement will be possible because he can handle the weight of the bag. However, for the four year old, it will be a different story because he cannot handle the weight of the bag of cement. If the four year old in his naivety tries to catch the bag of cement, he is most likely to get injured in the process.
Relating this to thoughts, ideas and the mind, the adult player is the person with a strong developed mind while the four year old is the person with a weak undeveloped mind and the bag of cement represents ideas. Grand ideas are everywhere. The only reason why they appear to be in short supply is because weak minds cannot retain grand ideas/thoughts. When great ideas breeze into the thoughts of people with weak undeveloped minds, it flows right through because they don’t have the capacity to retain such thoughts for their lives. This is a reason why people settle for less than they should.

My country weeps through the night My country weeps in deep fright My country weeps and prays to see the rising of the sun
For my country has its land – its own Zarephath We have our place of Refinement But we live in our land like a widow For our widowhood signifies desolation How Ironic and painful That desolation thrives in a place of Refinement
My country’s case is like a child who resides on a pasture-covered ground A ground flowing with water, milk and honey “Go on child, eat of your refinement!” But he can’t for the pasture-covered ground is covered by a steel sheet of corruption, filth and worst of all, ignorance…
This child starves and goes more hungry as the days go by The elements don’t favor him but add to his peril And standing afar off is a vulture waiting for the child to breathe his last so it can feast on its frail frame
So my country weeps My country weeps for agony of this child of promise My country weeps for the one whose life is about to fizzle away My country weeps for...

One of the most intriguing matter in my country is that of justice, there is a lot of claim at the moment about promoting the rule of law; and for a moment the citizens were thankful that at last hope for change is alive again, little did they know that it’s just one of the propaganda that starts big and dies before it can get its footings. I’ve always respected the legal profession and its practitioners, and still do respect them, but in many ways question the system in which ...

Inaugural Speech of President Adebayo Clement Akomolafe
Federal Republic of Nigeria
May 2023
Zuma Rock, Abuja
“Today We Find Promise – Today We Find Ourselves”
Tonight is a night of voices – the voices of aspirations once defeated, the sounds of dreams once conquered, the echoes of hope once lost, and now the melody of a promise newly born. Nigeria, this is your night! Tonight is the answer to the questions our founding fathers posed to a starry sky: the possibility of unity in diversity, the opportunity for prosperity and a better life, the guarantee of a future for all our unborn children. With courageous lines of people stretching past broken-down blocks and potholed highways, with purple-stained thumbs and locally organized movements by our youth, and the daring words of a generation that wouldn’t give up, you, Nigeria, have given the world one more grand reason to believe that even in the midst of crippling poverty, darkness and despair, there is hope!
I congratulate the congresses of cultures here present. Mr. President, I salute your courage and the moral splendor you have displayed before and during my transition to the Presidency of this nation. Your faithful adherence to the wishes of a seeking generation will forever be a monument to the greatness of your administration. To my wife and strength, the beauty and harmony of our household, and to my three daughters, this night is your night as well. Though you have had to miss daddy for many nights, your silent tears and sacrifices of patience will not go unrewarded – I promise you that, my loves! To those who said it couldn’t be done in our time and in our country, to those who insisted that Nigeria is no place for fairytales and ambitious dreams, to those who warned us against spinning wasteful fantasies, this is your night as well!

It is amazing how this global economic recession has become a propagator of tales; tales ranging from misfortunes, financial wreckages, broken hearts, soberness, and more frequently an increased art of prudence. Everywhere you turn you hear stories of how people have been battered and tattered by the melt down around the world. You read new blogs, which the writers were forced to start since they lost their job, chronicling their lives with no pay and how they are attempting to make the best of it. Others share logs of woes that have befallen them, while seeking advice from a host of readers from the corners of the earth. Lives have been touched by the economic travails and many seem beyond redemption. But the stories that amaze me most are how much of a lie many people had been living when the system seemed to have been working fine. As much as the capitalist driven world laid its foundations on mere paper and had a sudden collapse at a little shove from a sector of one country, many people have had their illusionary cloaks stripped from them. Now nakedly they stare at an unforgiving world and wonder what happened.
New York, USA. Damien graduated from a respected Ivy League business school. He landed a job immediately as a financial analyst with a gold chip firm and started enjoying the benefits of doing this. Apart from a juicy salary for a young man of 29, he received wowing bonuses at the end of the financial year. After just six years of working, he drove a Mercedes Benz convertible, lived in a 3 bedroom apartment in Manhattan, bought another house in Stamford, Connecticut, and had a time share in Mexico.

The complexity of the issues that face the growth and the development of Nigeria and other African States alike, have made many to shy away from speaking about the major issues that make for collective growth to speaking of the minors that help solve individual problems and make for individual comfort – invariably saying, “it doesn’t; matter if the country is developing, you can grow even in adverse situations.” The motivational speakers, inspirational speaker, faith-based organizations, have done so well to propagate this minor; since it’s been evident that the rise and fall of Nigerian Governments have refused to stand up to their responsibility of creating the platform for sustainable growth and development.
The fact that an individual is able to successfully handle financial management and make profit in adverse situations under an adverse economy is not a challenge at all, the challenge is in many occasion this person is not able to use the profit to expand instead he’s faced with the challenges posed by his extended family, as they all look up to him, and if he’s like someone I know, he’ll step on many toes talking to them about personal responsibility, instead of giving them what they ask for. This is one of the many challenges this individual will face, because no collective effort is made by the government to alleviate poverty and create more opportunities for growth and development.
The principles that make for personal success through personal responsibility are important principles that should be taught to as many as possible, but this should not be at the expense of contributing to growth and development of the nation. About 60% of the programs you hear/watch on the radio/TV are geared towards teaching principles that will promote personal success, 20% entertainment, then announcements share the space with programs that discuss the challenges we face as a nation and ways to get out of them.

Following hard on the heels of my recent conversations about moving from mere thought and speech to action, I am confronted with a more interesting but disturbing phenomenon in society. It is often mistakenly stated that evil has overrun our lives because we live in evil times, where men are lovers of themselves, and selfishness is the driving factor in every decision men take.

So much has been said about the “Re-branding Nigeria” programme of the Nigerian Ministry of Information and Orientation, but little has been seen. It’s possible that the fundamentals on which this programme was designed for implementation, provided strong reasons to the Executive Council, hence it was approved for implementation; but as the days go by it looks more like one of the other Government Initiated programmes, that have the right fundamentals for face value but are designed to get more avenues to get more money out of the Government. Track record will tell of the good works of the Minister of Information and Orientation as the Director-General in are previous place of assignment, so it’s not impossible that she’s got the best in mind as she proposed and called for the design of this Re-branding Programme, but the results so far cannot match the so much awareness created for this programme. Facts are available to back the efficiency of this programme, these facts can’t be denied and this is no attempt to disregard this good work that has been done so far in this light. The truth is the work done on this programme is still being done on a fault premise, I believe that re-branding is only possible for a stuff that is successfully selling – take the instance of “Indomie” this a brand of Noodles that has made a name in the Nigerian market, in my opinion the company is successful, but today, they got more competitor than they had 10 years ago, we’ve got the Mimee, O!, and the likes fight for the market that has been previously dominated by Indomie, so if Indomie most remain in market, they’ve got to think of better methods by which they can invade the market and remain successful in the a very competitive market. If considers re-branding – giving a new face to their product – I’ll understand and I can keep a track on the progress of their re-branding project, to see the difference between the old and the new, and to see the market reaction to the new brand; this is the simplest idea of re-branding that I think of right now. This idea is what I considered, as I thinking of the Re-branding Nigeria project, and things don’t just add up, the market could be one of two things – the international community or the Nigerian populace who have almost completely lost faith possibilities for change in the country. Now if Nigeria, must be re-branded, I believe it should have been initially successful in one of the two markets I suggested above, but sadly that’s not the case, neither the international community now the Nigerian people will consider Nigeria as a successful market product; hence re-branding should not be the option for the product – Nigeria, I guess re-evaluating the process (production process) by which the end product – Nigeria, is derived.

When the rich oppress or kill the poor it is understandable because there are probably huge differences in interest. When the rich kill the rich we may say that there was a clash of interest so one had to bow to the other. But when the poor kill the poor, how do we understand that? Are there hidden violent tendecies provoked by hunger or does poverty reduce men to brutal forces of darkness. If they killed and ate the bodies, I may say that they needed food. But when it comes to the point that poor people, with no education and forseeable progress drop their food bowls and pick up arms to destroy one another all in the name of religion, then I have to consider insanity. What’s going on in Northern Nigeria right now is absolutely disheartening. When I saw images of the slaughter I almost jumped out of my chair. How can people live like this, waking up one morning and determining that you will kill someone in the name of God. What devilish motivation inspires you to think that the same God who you believe will create a person will mandate you to destroy that person. This is the grand deception going on in that part of the country, fuel by Muslim extremist and religious freaks.