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.

The Creator of the universe is liberal with great ideas and He longs to drop them in our minds. However, as long as we remain weak in our minds big ideas will always appear weak and great thoughts will be alien to us. So how can you make a weak mind become a strong one – able to retain great thoughts and ideas? The answer is in lifting heavy weights.

Weight Lifting is designed to increases the body mass, the muscle size, and ultimately, the physical strength of a person. Likewise, weight lifting done to the mind will increase the strength of the mind. When I say weight lifting, I am referring to the quality of materials you lift into your mind.

If It Must Be, It Must Be Read!

It has been said that two things determine the difference between a person today and five years from now – the people he meets and the books he reads. Don’t let anyone deceive you: edifying books have power! One person I have come to respect and admire in my life is John C. Maxwell. I have read a number of his books and one thing I have come to observe is how often he quotes other authors. He can hardly write two pages in his books without quoting something from a book he read sometime or something he heard someone say. If you are looking for someone with a blessed mind, John C. Maxwell certainly fits the bill on every count!

In his book, The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires, Brian Tracy made a comment about the power of learning continually as it relates to having an edge over your peers. This made me realize a fundamental truth about being preferred in any field of endeavor: having a mind that has been developed makes you retain big thoughts; big thoughts birth big ideas; big ideas make you a big shot, and being a big shot makes you a person to be sought after. This is evident when organizations want to hire new hands. I have observed that the hiring process is categorized into two. One category is when there is a notice put out by the hiring company for interested and qualified applicant to submit CV’s and application letter. The other category is when the organization does what is called ‘strategic employment.’ This kind of employment is done when the company has targeted a particular individual from another company to fill the position they have an opening in. Most of the time this kind of hiring is done when the organization intends to move to another level hence they seek and individual who has what it takes to take them to that level. This individual is the preferred person and he will never have to pick up his pen to write an application letter. Why? You are right! He is a big shot! I am sure you can relate with this analogy and even mention some of these big shots yourself. One common trait they all have is that they are all passionate about books.

It is my prayer that you get sick and tired of being counted as one of the many that make up the numbers, wallowing in the class of the majority. If your mind is weak and undeveloped, this is where you stand but changing that is just a decision away – change your attitude to books and you will see how easily your worth can increase simply by reading a few books.

Now on to Brian Tracy’s comment:

“There are three keys to lifelong learning. The first key is to read in your field for at least 30 to 60 minutes each day. Reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body. Reading for an hour each day will translate into about a book per week. One book per week will translate into 50 books per year. 50 books per year will translate into 500 books over the next ten years…” this part alone made me see just how powerful our minds can get having been exposed to over 500 books in a short time of 10 years! A man having this kind of exposed mind will definitely become preferred above his peers because, continuing with Brain Tracy’s comment, “…the average adult reads less than one book per year. When you begin reading one hour per day, one book per week, this alone will give you an INCREDIBLE edge in your field. You WILL become one of the smartest, most competent, and HIGHEST PAID people in your profession by simply reading one hour a days.”

The Pain of a Nation

I was at the National Youth Service Corps camp in Umudi, Imo state last year to fellowship with Corpers under the Winners’ Corpers Fellowship where I had served as President of the fellowship during my service year. When giving my address, I asked that those who had finished reading a motivational or self-development book since they graduated to put up their hands. Less than 2% of a class of about 60 graduates put up their hands. These were the people who would take our nation to the next level. It pained my heart and I say this not to spite them but to share with you how mediocrity is thriving among the youths of the nation.

It is common place in Nigeria to believe that who you know will get you to the top. Connections and networking with people does have its advantages, if it is for the right reasons and not corrupt reasons, but even if who you know gets you to the top, at the end of the day, it is what you know that will keep you at the top!

The attitude of the average Nigerian to reading is nothing short of upsetting. The number of books authored by Nigerian that have made the Best-seller list is very few. It is not that these books are not good or well written rather it’s that the numbers of people needed to make it a best seller are not interested in the book! Hence the majority non-reading population misses out on the goldmines hidden in such books.

Highest paid people are not paid as such because they execute small, mediocre ideas. On the contrary, they are paid as such because they execute excellent ideas; excellent ideas stemming from great thoughts; great thoughts stemming from developed minds; developed minds stemming from exposure to mind-building books.

In concluding this chapter, I bring to your notice these truths that will remain as long as the earth remains:

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I’ve always respected the legal profession and its practitioners, and still do respect them, but in many ways question the system in which they operate. In a very recent incident, I witnessed – a mobile court session, in which we had the judge, two court clerks, an interpreter, a prosecuting attorney and a witness from the law enforcement agency on patrol that day. Over 150 individuals (2% minors, 75% earning less than $1 a week, 23% with earnings less than $5 a week) were to be prosecuted for loitering during environmental sanitation periods.

In this court session there was no defense attorney, to defend any of the accused, they faced the judge in 20s or 30s, with the clerk reading the charges against them, if there are not learned the interpreter interprets the charges and the judge asks “do you understand what you’re been charged for?” then allows any of the accused who has a prove to show that he/she is exempted from the sanitation exercise – on the grounds of government utility service – to show the proof, if it is valid he/she is freed, if not if the answer to the above question is yes, all the accused before the judge are sentenced to months imprisonment, with a bail option of about $20.

Only 30% of the lot could get sponsors to pay off their bails, and paying the bail off their income was not an option. So about 70% had of the accused would have to face the prison sentence, without anyone to defend their cause. This is how many land in prison for such trivial matters as loitering during a sanitation curfew.

As much as I respect the rule of law and will stand against any act that shows flagrant disobedience to the laws of the land, the major question that comes to mind in a situation like this is, what happened to community service, what happened to house arrest and the like, seemingly moderate penalties for offences of this nature. It’s really intriguing to know that someone could possibly face a 3 months prison sentence for crossing the road wrongly, I really can’t imagine this.

As I advice that as reasonable citizens, it is our duty to obey the law at all times, I will also want to draw the attention of as many as read this to the situation in the judiciary and the effect it has in the prisons in the country.

In this matter, my major concern is the manner by which the court of law deals with the case of a suspect or an accused, in the incidence I witnessed, there was no defense attorney, but because of the laws of the land, the accused had to be sentenced without a defense, ‘as long as they understood the charges leveled against them, they were sentenced to prison’, what happened to guilty or not guilty.

In other situations, the suspects don’t even have the witness to confirm that they committed the crime, and no defence attorney; at the end of the day the judge remands the suspect in prison and states another date for hearings, in this new date, ‘no defense attorney, no witness’, the suspect is still remanded, with no hope for freedom, and the suspect can remain in prison without being convicted for over 15 years or more, a number of times the families of suspects are not even aware that their folks are in prison.

In a recent TV show – Inside Out, the host lamented on the conditions in the prison and I got a perspective of the reality of what I consider to be injustice, in a nation I hear promotes the rule of law. Asides the deplorable conditions in the prisons, many of the prisons are over-crowded, when everyone facing a court session is consider to be going straight to the prison whether guilty or not-guilty. In one of our states, the total prison capacity is 2,700, presently there are 3,000 inmates, 300 above the limit, not too alarming; but of the 3,000 only 350 are convicted, 150 condemned and the remaining 2,500 are “Awaiting Trial.” 2,500! That means the prisons are just housing 2,500 people who should not be there if we had a functioning judiciary.

The prison to the judiciary is the home for any accused; the absence of a witness and a defence attorney automatically sends the accused back to the prison, there is nothing like discharging the accused on a no-case grounds, since there is no witness to back the claims stated in the charges against the accused, instead the prison is used as a trash-can for anyone to that appears before the judge.

Where the prisons should be a place for reformation; it is now a dean of lions, where once a person enters, he never comes out in a right frame of mind. Who will defend these people that can’t defend themselves, because they have very little or no knowledge of their rights as citizens; to deliver them from the claws of the unjust sentences passed by judges working in a malfunctioning judicial system.

I used to think the prison was for only the convicted and condemned, and cells for the guys awaiting trials, but today the prison is the judiciary’s trash can. With no one to defend these helpless citizens, the aim for prisons – being a corrective facility can never be realized and the general public is at risk, because when the guys in the prison receive pardon somehow and get to the streets, making nothing out of the prisons, the possibilities of being a terror to the society is high.

What can be done to correct this anomaly?

“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!


Our story is a tale of hope and grit in the face of a nonchalant sun. Ours is a story with watery beginnings – when the fiancée of a colonial lord stood above the raging rivers and christened this nation. She would name us after a river – flowing without prejudice – to nourish the parched and dry earth. Unfortunately, our name has historically given us nothing more than a metaphor. For purposes true to the interests of an empire, the colonists brought strangers and asked them to live with each other – leaving us with the silent promise of a life we can share, a hope we can mutually embrace, and a nation we can together build. Years after the last ship pulled away from our docks and the Union Jack was lowered for the green and white stripes, our fathers found the courage to envision a land of difference, a land of confluence and meaningful coexistence and a land of promise.

Years after, the cannons would be blackened with gun powder, bullets would fly through the chests of our slain brothers in the East, many mosques and churches would burn down in the flames of indignation, a hundred and one machetes would cut angry wounds on the backs of frightened Osu people, a tightened noose would suffocate a minority leader, and a new father would walk away from the tears of his new child and his resting wife – his pained eyes filled with despair as he contemplates a hospital bill he cannot pay.

Where is the promise?

Years after, a family would die on a Federal highway riddled with potholes, an entire police department would celebrate a good day’s job as they pour out stuffed money from their pockets, a minister of education would throw a lavish birthday party as poor teachers take to the streets in protest, a nation will recoil in horror as estimates of looted funds are made public, and many communities would suffer without water, food and shelter for their children.

He lost his job eight months into the crisis and has since been looking for a new job. Although he has found a couple of opportunities, the best offer he has had so far is for 55% of his former salary with no bonuses. Initially he turned down some of the offers, being sure that he was a high demand on the market. But as the situation worsened, he decided to settle for less only to hardly find anything. He was repeatedly told he was too qualified for employment. His apartment in Manhattan faces foreclosure, while he is frantically trying to refinance his Connecticut home. His time share in Mexico is up for sale on Craigslist, while he has taken back his convertible to the dealers. In 6 short months, everything came apart. Now Damien still hasn’t paid off his student loads for both undergraduate and graduate studies, and his is indebted by almost $18000 on his credit card. What a lie he had been living.

Lagos, Nigeria. Sir Joe (why he is called that I have no idea) recently lost his job as a banker in Lagos. He read accounting in a Nigerian university and had been working for just 2 years for a bank. He has already bought himself a car, rented a nice apartment in Ajah area, and wears the sweetest gears in town. At the point of losing his job he had 6000 naira in his savings while the other investments had lost value due to the crash in the stock market. Realizing now that he has to his rents to pay in 2 months time (and of course the landlord is demanding 3 years upfront), he is in a state of panic and had to get an overdraft to fix his car of recent. Now he sells cell phone recharge cards as a way of keeping things going and all he does with the proceeds is drink and smoke his time away, while hoping for a miracle to put his life back together. Sir Joe was pretty popular in his circle. He had parties at clubs, hung out every weekend, and always had one reason or the other for endless spending. He and his former girlfriend Sola are in the same predicament. She lost her job from a stockbrokerage firm and is now trying to learn fashion design at Obalende. They both had it going for a while, but it was all a lie.

Like the short stories above so many people have been stripped bare and we now see that it was all a false appearance. The cost of a wannabe life is extremely beyond what most incomes can contain. Yet the life was sustained by the propensities to earn and not what was actually available. It is like running a car on an empty tank and expecting that before it stops there will be a gas station to refuel. If you didn’t map the road and apportion gas stations at intervals, you may never know how near or how far off one maybe. Therefore assuming that one has a continuous capacity to earn is foolhardy and only increases the depth of pain when the unexpected knocks (as it always does). The credit crunch has really exposed a lot of those who were living false lives such as Bernie Madoff, Damien, Sir Joe, and Sola. From the big to the small, we see the unfolding theatrics of global and personal melt downs without obvious warning signs.

Unlike the ones whose lies have been uncovered, a few were prudent and knowingly saving and containing their carnal appetites. I know of one who lost her job but because she saved and invested rightly, she had enough stored up to start a business that is viable. Another one simply moved to a lower paying job and could still live comfortably because he was not extravagant but was shrewd with the much he earned at the time. Many are picking wisdom from the events of this past year and are buckling up for even tighter times. No one knows how long the recession is going to end, the economist only forecast based on prevailing data. But time and time again such prediction has always fallen heavily short of their mark. So it is more sensible to lead a simple and truthful life. Even when you earn enough to buy the whole city a cup of Starbucks coffee, you must understand that times and seasons change. So when you are in one season, you plan for the other because circumstances change as the seasons do. So if you are living a life, don’t worry, these times will help you ‘unlive’ it.

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.

You know some will say, why speak about them when the changes we can make will make little or no difference; I disagree with that, because some leaders read, some listen and some watch these programs, some are interested in what the people say, and some want to really take steps that will create opportunities for growth for the people who elected them into office. The more we refuse to talk about these issues and switch to promoting individual success, the more these guys run out of ideas, and remain subjects to the ideas of their political advisers – who for now are mainly there for the money, political parties and interest groups that only look out for means by which they can make their own profits. This is why I believe, many more people should be involved in sponsoring programs that will promote the context of national growth and development. The talk-shows, reality-shows and the like have invaded the media like never before, this programs can be used create awareness about what should be done for growth and development in the country; enlisting the support of major organization and interested state governments, this programs can serve as a platform for change, it won’t just be about the price that comes out of this kind of event it would be about the awareness on the possibilities for change the programs create and the impact, ideas they generate in the minds of its fans. This way we will not just be contributing to promoting individual success, we’ll be promoting collective growth and development with national prosperity.

People have got the right ideas for change, a lot of people are willing to do what it takes to make the moves for change, but no platform is created for them, and in some ways they just think nothing can be done. I believe something can be done, I know something will be done and soon, the change we hoped for years ago will be a reality, and the generations to come will be born into a new Nigeria.

Sometime ago, I remember pointing this out that the change that many nations experienced did not just come from the actions (positive or negative) their people took, it first started with the discussions they had around round tables, the speeches their revolutionary leader gave to ginger the people for the new dawn, then the action for change, this in history we understand from the changes experienced in India, USA, France, Germany, Singapore, South Africa, and the like; the growth and the development these people experience today was not a function of individual efforts, it was a function of collective efforts geared towards sustainable growth and development in their nations.

That no one is listening is not sufficient reason to stop speaking, especially when the words you speak will save lives from an impending danger. It is important we do whatever we can do to make Nigeria a better place.

However, in my monologues about Nigeria, I have asked myself if there are more good people in society, how come then that we have more evil people who seem to bear rule over the good. I guess we can explain that it was power that made them evil who essentially had a good nature. Some may argue that there was an evil nature that was simply nurtured at the ascension of power, so such men had no goodness in them. I have played with many scenarios in my head on the matter of why men suddenly become selfish and drunk when they are given power. But none of this has helped me solve the question on why a few evil men will successfully hold down the lives of many good people, who just want to make life better for themselves and for their children, as well as secure a future that is positively predictable. Why couldn’t the plenty overrule the tyranny of the few?

History is full of how the ‘bad few’ frustrate the ‘good plenty’ to astonishing levels. I just heard of late that there is a shortage of toilet paper in Cuba, and the government is claiming that this will continue till the end of the year. Cuba has stunning dimensions of poverty and backwardness brought upon its own people by a few ideologues who have pocket the possibilities of prosperity by advancing the ideology of a dead man. North Korea with a population of nearly 24 million people has only about a hundred men gripping their progress by the balls and suffocating their prosperity. Myanmar has over 45 million people and yet a few men are putting them on the edge of progress and development. If we care to rewind history, we will be presented with too many cases like the Idi Amins, the Hitlers, the Mussolinis, the tyrants and despots who have quenched the lights of their nations and reduced their citizens to crawling on an ever widening road of improvement.

In my country Nigeria, we have had our own dose of evil leadership which has crushed our spirits and maimed the faith of the young people in their great country. Yet when I take a closer look, these national impieties we wreaked by a few men who held the nation ransom and good men kept quiet. This is my concern; when good men do nothing. These evils continued unabated over several locations in our world simply because good men did nothing, or what they did was just not good enough. When good men do nothing, evil will take over. It is as simple as that. Edmund Burke truthfully states that “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” When we keep quiet at the wrong we see, when we refuse to take drastic actions against even the petty malfeasance and nonfeasance which we notice in our little corners, we have then silently given consent for evil to rule. It is absolutely unacceptable for a handful of selfish and fiercely greedy people to control our destinies while all the good men keep quiet, or move with trepidation founded on a desire to preserve their lives.

Someone put it this way: “The death of a thousand good men is not as tragic as the leadership of one evil man. “ The scriptures also say “when the wicked rule, the people groan. “ No matter how good the passengers of a car are, if the driver is a bad one, nothing can save them from a tragic crash. This is the predicament in many countries today; great people, bad drivers. Have you considered all the wars in history? Check it out! Most were caused by the belligerence of a few proud men, but the casualties were mostly good people. Remember Rwanda? Good men did nothing!

A friend of mine once told me a story of how he was travelling in a car along with three other people only to observe that the driver was fast asleep yet driving at 80km/h. He slapped him on the arm, told him to stop the car, came down and took over the driver’s seat. In November 2006, I was on my way back from a trip and hired a taxi to take me home. I wondered why the car was unstable on its path till I found out the taxi man was dozing. Because my life and destiny was at stake, I shouted at him, stopped the car, and drove myself home while he continued his sleep. Like me and my friend, this is what good men must do in their domains by taking charge; else we are simply an accident going somewhere to happen.

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.

This I believe should be the focus of the Ministry of Information and Orientation, because re-branding will only be an option for a successful product, for which Nigeria doesn’t might the criteria. Issues to be considered in this light will involve the redefinition of certain sections of the Constitution, the redefinition of the fundamentals of the nation, the rebuilding of the broken foundations laid by the founding fathers, re-evaluating the electoral system, laying a good foundation for good governance, accountability, and sustainable growth and development, providing the general public with vital information concerning their rights and what they must do as good citizens, and ensuring that the bill for freedom of information is duly pass by the legislature.

In my opinion, I think this are vital issues to be considered in creating a new face for the country, what we will call this programme, I don’t know, what I know is that it is not a programme for people who just consider monetary gains; the implementation of a programme of this sort is only possible when Nigerians who really care about the predicaments of the nation come together, forming different platforms on which particular issues can be trashed out.

With the general understanding of how things work in the country, one might consider the possibility of this initiative as very low, but it is possible if the public is duly sensitized and their input held in high esteem. I believe there are people willing to do what has to be done to set Nigeria on a right course towards progress, it begins with a willingness, and happens with right actions in the right direction. I am quite positive about the possibility for change in this nation; the change our nation requires lies in our hands, words re-echoed by the US Secretary of State in her recent visit to Nigeria. We’ve got the responsibility, if we take action, in no time, we will see the change, it might be slow but it will certainly be progressive. We can change this nation, let’s do the little we can in our small corner and we’ll see that little drops of water make a mighty ocean.

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.

I do not expect the government to continue overlooking the threat of such extremism brooding all over that part of the country. There should be a deliberate action by the authorities to ban every form of extreme religious groups and monitor, by intelligence, all such underground operations because they are so many up in the North. But while I am concerned about the North, what about the Barbarians in the South who claim they are fighting a just cause by terrorizing innocent lives? No matter how just the cause, taking lives is not justifiable. When it is reduced to that, then I support a massive attack on such groups to end their reign on terror. Infact, I think the terrorists of the South should go up and confront the terrorist of the North. That way it will be freaks killing freaks.