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Picture of Chukwuemeka Okoli
by Chukwuemeka Okoli - Monday, 25 March 2019, 4:27 AM
Anyone in the world

While keeping an eye on the Danfo drivers, I also try to spot potholes and obstructions on the road. There are always pothole hidden at strategic locations that make you wonder if they were intentionally located in these spots to wreak havoc on cars. No matter how careful you are you can’t spot all the potholes. The only saving grace is to watch the car in front of you and try to avoid making the same mistakes. Some of these potholes are as big as miniature ditches and often covered with rainwater. On my regular routes, I have as a matter of fact named some of the potholes with names like – Africa, Nigeria. The names depend on the shape of the pothole. There has been some effort to fill some of the potholes, but it still one of the major cause of traffic jams in Lagos.

While dodging the potholes, I still have to look out for various security outfits on the road. Never have I seen this number of traffic law enforcers on the road yet they are doing little or nothing to reduce the traffic jam on the road. On the road, you have organizations like LASTMA, VIO, Police, various local government thugs and host of other operatives without any jurisdiction to be on the roads. The primary aim of these organizations is to extort motorist and in doing so impede the flow of traffic on the roads. In the end, they cause more nuisance on the roads. It’s only in few exceptional cases that you will see them make an effort to direct the traffic. 

When I manage to make it to my destination I will be tired and really agitated to embark on any tasking work immediately. Typically, I spend about 5 minutes to relax before embarking on any meaningful work. I wake up every day hoping that this hassle will stop and I hope for a productive day.

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    Picture of Ijeoma Adino
    by Ijeoma Adino - Monday, 25 March 2019, 12:23 AM
    Anyone in the world

    The best analogy of managing your personal finance I have come across hit me one day when i was wondering around the internet someday; And because this metaphor is explained with an essential commodity we come across everyday, it has grown to be a constant reminder of what the long-term goal should be.

     

    The story goes thusly;

    Dessert man

    Imagine, one day you get dropped in the middle of the desert with no income or means of sustenance along with a bunch of other people.

    What would be your most dire need?... Exactly! Water.

    Then, on arriving, you get to find out that the only means of water in sight is a tap controlled by one person who insists that “Unless you work for Him/Her, you will get no water”. Everyone agrees and does their assigned duties and carry out their roles to get some ounce of water to drink.

    This goes on for sometime till you come across a realization - when water is distributed, it is poured onto your hand to drink to create perpetual dependency. What if I do not want to drink all the water given to me, how do I store my water for later?

    You think of a solution and decide upon getting a glass cup to store the water instead of using your hands.

    glass

    Then again, sometime in the future, as you continue to work for your water in the hot desert, youR water ration increases as you get better at your work. As your ration increases, so does the quantity you store in the cup till you come across a second problem, the water you store in your cup reduces everyday due to evaporation under the desert sun.

    To fix this issue, to strive to get a bottle with a lid to cover it and prevent evaporation of your hard earned water.

    glass

    Now that the evaporation is not a problem, you would also like to get better and better at your work so as to get more quantities of water for the long term and to live a better life in the metaphorical dessert. So your next challenge is how to develop long term reserves water.

    Simple solution- Get more canteens or get a tank and build up your storage facility.

    Mwater

    You continue on for years to become successful in the desert, a place of limited opportunity, till you get old and unable to work. You look unto your canteens to sustain you for the rest of the time you have till you pass away. Now is the time of reckoning because the amount of water you accumulated and stored will determine your life expectancy and standard of living from here on out.

    Will the water stored be enough? Maybe it will, maybe not. However, the only way to make sure is to set out to get your own water source in the desert.

    Dwell

    Interpretation of the analogy:

    ●      Water in the desert is Money (cash) in the economy

    ●      Water in a glass cup which evaporates is Cash kept in a bank account.

    ●      Water in a canteen represents Assets that appreciate over time benchmarked against inflation.

    ●      Accumulated water in years stored in canteens represent Savings in assets.

    ●      Losing strength to work means Retirement.

    ●      Water well is the Cash-flowing assets that payout/deliver consistent income

    Lesson of the analogy:

    1.      Money is only a medium of exchange and therefore holds no long-term value.

    2.     If you only obsessively save money, in due time it will lose its current value.

    3.     Savings and Investments in assets protect us from loss of monetary value

    4.     Accumulating assets may not guarantee a good retirement income because you will need to liquidate them to pay for your daily needs.

    5.     The water well represents cash-flowing assets - assets which produce passive and recurrent income.






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      Anyone in the world

      I am as patriotic as they come, so you could say that I am Nigerian to my very core. I love my country, like a man loves a badly behaved and ill-mannered woman with flaws and all. I believe in the Nigerian dream, that says “one-day e go better”, but the rate at which this dream is fast becoming very unrealistic, gives me a great deal of concern. It is even most worrisome when you see the depth of rot to which the country is in. I speak of this rot in all ramifications and across every sector of the economy, but that’s story for another day. My choice to blog on the Nigerian Movie industry, is one in which I will not just state and emphasize on issues to which I am disdained and appalled by, but will be an expression my thoughts and dismays.

      The Nigerian movie industry popularly referred to as Nollywood, is the 2nd largest film industry in the world in terms of the number of annual film productions, which places it ahead of the United States and only behind India. In 2014, the industry was worth about N853.9bn thus making it the 3rd largest grossing movie industry in the world behind the united states and India. The Nigerian movie industry also contributed about 2.3% to the country’s GDP as data statistics presented in 2016. You would have observed that most of my empirical data of the country is from the year 2016, well that is because the year 2016, seems to have been the last time any empirical data had been documented officially (talk about the rot embedded right?? *winks*). 


      Data and information were culled from google and Wikipedia, which are both known to be up to date with accurate information dissemination tools as I could not even get any form of information from the National Bureau of Statistics and this experience would also make a good blog post for another day.

      [ Modified: Wednesday, 27 March 2019, 2:10 PM ]

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        Picture of Kabir Otsoi
        by Kabir Otsoi - Sunday, 24 March 2019, 11:59 PM
        Anyone in the world

        Continued from part three.

        We rested for a while in my mother’s place and then decided to call it a day.

        We had earlier planned to visit my mother-in-law same day, but as it was getting dark we agreed to postpone it to the next day. We called her to let her know. She sounded as if tomorrow was a months’ time. “You mean I have to wait until tomorrow to see my grandchildren’, she asked. I did not know how to answer her, my wife quickly rescued me. “Ah mama, tomorrow is just few hours away”, my wife replied. “Ok, if you say so, but what about the food I have prepared for you, who will eat it now” she asked. “Don’t worry about that, you know you always have visitors coming around, just entertain them with it”. My wife replied again.

        As we drove into our house, the security man quickly went to put on the power generating set. The children reached out immediately for the TV remote to watch their favourite programme. I quickly had shower and had to go round the house to see clearly the state of things. I noticed some area was a bit bushy and untidy. I called the security man to ask why and the excuse was rather funny. He said that somehow he could not find the cutlass he normally use. I wondered if he expects me to believe his story. A cutlass that sells for about two thousand naira made him not to weed some area. I went inside gave him three thousand naira with instruction that it must be done before midday.

        I retired for the day leaving my wife and the children watching TV. When I woke the next morning, the security man was already cutting the grasses. I stood wondering how he got a cutlass that early. All the same, since it was done, I did not bother.

        - Kabir

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          Anyone in the world
          SUCCCESS SAPELE


          She is a typical Waffi. Outspoken, stubborn and self-assertive maybe you could even add No-nonsense. 

          Success Adegor’s story became dominated the local News last week. A video recorded by her neighbor who accosted her as she was leaving her school angrily had surfaced online. 

          The footage showed an innocent seven year old  Success, a primary three pupil in Sapele  being interviewed, showing her outburst at the school authorities who had sent her home from school-Okotie Eboh primary School- for failing to pay a N900(about $3) examination levy. Little Success wondered angrily  why the school authorities would not just flog her as usual  and allow her be in school but chose to send her back home without the benefit of receiving lessons in School. 

          I could connect to the video as i watched it. I had lived in Warri for six years and as a youth corps member  was posted to  a primary school in Sapele, the town of the incident. Some of my very early post-graduation friendships were made in Warri as a young Engineer working in the Oilfields of the Niger Delta. Even at the time, i saw the decrepit state of school in most villages and worst still the near inhuman nature of people trusted with leadership and both local community level. Nothing seem to have really changed.

          Within the amusement that the viral video generated in a lot of quarters especially because of her fluent waffi pidgin, her vibrant show of discontent at a system that is obviously failing her  and the self-sacrifice she was willing to bear  for education was both adorable and admirable. Here is a little child ready to accept the pain of a whip in exchange for a chance to get some form of education. 

          Unsurprisingly and i dare say typically, the government has moved swiftly to cover up an obvious sore of a  deficient system. Within few days, the Commissioner for Education had visited the schools, her Headteacher has been suspended for extorting illegal Examination levy, emergency contract was awarded for facelift of the school with fire-brigade painting going on at neck breaking speed. 

           A lot of celebrities and philanthropist have also  swarmed to the young girl with donations. As a matter of fact the whole Sapele now know little Success's  success story.

          [ Modified: Tuesday, 26 March 2019, 7:12 AM ]

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            Picture of chizoba nwuche
            by chizoba nwuche - Sunday, 24 March 2019, 11:56 PM
            Anyone in the world

            Do you still remember the poison Chiko? Come on, let's do it again! You are not fun Chiko!

            Shut your mouth Ogum! He hated this voice and sometimes cursed at it and then turned a deaf ear. 

            Chiko put his slaughtered prey around his neck and walked away from the river, towards the graying forest. The sun started to withdraw its light whilst tiny rain drops began to fall. He ran as fast as he could, bumping the rotting gray vines dangling from the dried up trees on his way.He did this almost every afternoon so he was already used to it. Some small rocks and surface roots pained his naked feet but he didn't mind at all. Soaking wet and cold, there was nothing to trouble him either.

            Finally he stopped as his body dropped to the ground, still trying to catch his breath. He had already been running for half an hour now and he wanted to rest for a bit. He laid down on his back on the wet soil whilst gazing at the leafless branches of trees in the reddish skies above him.

            Chiko wandered about his existence and purpose ....like how these hopeless trees were still standing everyday. He felt like his life was one big constant loop and he was trapped for eternity. 

            I have never seen someone who looks like me, he said. Well, i have to keep living like i do he said.

            The end.....

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              Anyone in the world

              To solve the problem of creating hygienic soap was the greatest challenged in the soap recycling and this was simply solved by air-tightening the crushed soaps in ziplock bags for two weeks to suffocate all the germs in the soap.

              The creativity that forms Derreck’s work is what we all need in our work and daily life to solve problems. The power of simplicity is amazing. The power of SELF.

              SELF

              Everything in life begins with you. To be successful, you have to invest in SELF. SELF is an acronym from Derreck that has to do with Service, Education, Leadership and Faith.

              If you serve, chances are you will grow the discipline and humbleness of understanding your market space. When you serve, you develop the virtues of Education which is the next step. You get educated about the needs of the people. It is important that we learn how to serve and educate ourselves about the need of the market before we offer our services.

              Leaders are not born. Leaders are tried. They are educated in the needs of their society therefore it makes it easy for them to come to their society to lead.

              Faith, not in the religious way but in the things you have built. Allowing people to express themselves and be innovative. If you don’t have faith in people or yourself, you belittle new ideas.

              Derreck’s gave us this quote at the end of his presentation which is mind blowing. “Don’t seek perfection. Perfection means that nothing ever goes wrong. This is not how life is. Nothing is never going to be perfect.

              Seek balance - physically and emotionally, seek consistence- makes you to be somebody people can count on, seek justice, seek passion – been passionate about our work, seek a cause for humanity, and your life shall have a meaning”.

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                Anyone in the world

                As a child with a father that made soap, he grew up thinking soap should be one of the least things to worry about in life, this mentality changed when he became a refugee in Kenya after the Uganda war. Having to live where not washing hands before some major events of life led to the either loss of life or serious epidemic outbreak in the refugee camp.

                All of a sudden, he realized in America that he’s in a country where they throw away soap for good reasons meanwhile back in Africa, this is a major issue. This triggers a paradigm shift that births the Derreck we know now.

                Hotels in America throw away eight hundred million bars of soap every year with majority from Las Vegas and Florida meanwhile two million kids die every year due to poor hygiene.

                He could have reacted to the large number of soaps as “what a waste” but instead he said “what an opportunity” and this gave birth to Global Soap Factory.

                He started his soap factory by first buying the soap off the hotels and recycle it to create new bars and send to developing countries in the world. He came up with the idea of how to kill the germs in the used soap, crush the soap and remodeled it. After a while when the hotels in the United States saw what his charity work, they started paying him for disposing the soap for them thereby contributing to his charity work.

                The end product is a fresh bar of soap to fight hygiene related diseases around the world. Global sopa factory has given millions of bars of soap to refugees and people affected by natural disasters like the earthquakes in Haiti, Nepal and Liberia.

                Global Soap recently partnered with Clean the World. These organizations have contributed to an amazing 30% reduction in child deaths, globally, since 2009 and are expanding Kayongo's original vision to include micro-loans and training for soap makers in communities around the world.


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                  Picture of chizoba nwuche
                  by chizoba nwuche - Sunday, 24 March 2019, 11:36 PM
                  Anyone in the world

                  Chiko aimed at the target for a second.... then he stabbed his spear into the slimy green serpent's other head in the water.This two-headed snake twitched as the other head reached to bite Chiko's right leg. The young man managed to pull his foot up and thrust the other head against the rock. 

                  Hey look, we got ourselves dinner! He proudly exclaimed.

                  He took the spear out of the calm water. It pierced the snake 's skull whilst its body hung lifelessly. The other head was crushed like a rotten pear, it was about an arm's length and two inches thick enough for one meal.

                  Chiko has been an orphan ever since he could remember. He had been living alone in the middle of a dying forest in the northern mountains. Getting out of the place he had always called home was something he had rarely thought  of. Chiko had been hunting for food alone all his life.He didn't even know how old he was or how he managed to survive as a child. All he could remember were the voices inside in his head directing him to do things. Most of them were helpful but one kept telling him he'd be better of dead.

                  You are useless! You should throw yourself off a cliff and die! This one voice sounded like an old frog whom he called Ogum. He also ignored this voice when it instructed him to make soup made of wild herbs and drink.He was fortunate that the other three voices squalled at him to throw it away, enough for him to wake up and spill the soup. He clearly remembered how the grass withered to ashes as soon as the liquid poured on the ground.

                  To be continued.............

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                    Anyone in the world

                    A Ugandan refugee to success entrepreneur and now human right activist Derreck Kayongo was born January 25, 1970, in Kampala, Uganda, just before General Idi Amin Dada seized power in a military coup. The new regime became known for its brutality, and today Idi Amin is one of history's most notorious dictators. As violence spread through the country and civil war erupted, Kayongo and his family became refugees in Kenya. He later immigrated to America to attend university. Today, he is a successful entrepreneur and human rights innovator.” Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derreck_Kayongo

                    Derreck inspires others to dream big by sharing his experiences in harnessing the power of observations to identifying issues and solve challenges in any community or organizations.

                     Derreck’s life changing encounter began when he arrived in the USA to further his education after been a refugee in Kenya. He was at a hotel on his first day and saw 3 bars of soap in his bathroom. Like everybody will do, he took two and kept it in his bag. He did this for three days and surprisingly for him the soap was replaced the next morning. It dawns on him after three days that he might be charged for this and ran down to the front desk to tell them he has been keeping the other soaps and that they should take the new ones back thinking as he doesn’t have money. He was shocked when the receptionist told him its free and will be changed daily once its exhausted. Curious, he asked what happens to the used soap. He was more surprised when he was told they are thrown away. This gave birth to Derek’s life changing idea.

                    Recently at PMI (Project Management Institute) PMXPO 2019 event, Derek shared his life experience of how he got to this stage of nobility and good work in the business of recycling soap. I hope you will all have something to learn from this as I have.


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