welikrus

All through yesterday and most of this morning, I have been seeing lots of tributes to Ijebuland in honour of its indigenes, our sprint super girl Tobi Amusan, Anthony Joshua, and Isreal Adesanya who are champion Boxers. Most of the messages have the same format: ‘From Anthony Joshua to Isreal and now Tobi – It must be something in the Ijebu water or the Ijebu Gari, Ikokore or Ebiripo’. Perhaps it is something in the water or food but who will lead the research? Come with me to the 19th Century, perhaps we can learn something from the Guano. The 18th and 19th Century was a critical time for humans as food security was heavily threatened by the poor yield of crops, in fact, there were cases of famine across the World. Nations found it difficult to feed their burgeoning populations. Several substances including grounded bones were used to boost production with limited success. In 1804 a European Explorer, Alexander Von Humboldt found out that there was bountiful harvest in some parts of ...

Entrepreneurs are a great asset to Mankind. Entrepreneurs commercialize their inventions and innovations to give us a better, richer life. Entrepreneurship can be expressed either in a private or corporate setting. Many start businesses; others innovate within other people’s businesses. Everyone who works is an entrepreneur – they trade their skills, talent, and competencies for some compensation. Some choose to sell to one person or organization in an employment relationship; others chose to sell to many people or businesses as business owners. No stress which you choose, to be entrepreneurial is the goal. Entrepreneurs who serve many businesses are better innovators than those who serve just one business. The entrepreneur who serves many business customers knows that he has top competition and so works hard to keep himself in top intellectual shape. He knows that the moment he is unable to solve his customers’ problems, he will be replaced and so what he does is study, study, study; ...

After working hard for many months, the deal fell through. We had done our best, worked as hard as we knew how and we really bemoaned the outcome. As we reviewed all that had transpired we comforted ourselves with the phrase ‘it is not God’s will’. For a long time after that, I kept wondering if it really was not God’s will for the deal to work. That year the diseases affecting birds were so persistent, that the poultry was decimated. The owner of the farm was a believer who always prayed for ‘God’s will to be done’ and as he related his experience in his trembling voice he ended his speech with the phrase ‘I guess that was God’s will for me that year’. People who believe that God is Almighty often attribute everything that happens to them or in the world to the will of God. This statement is held as an axiom and many people just give up at the point when they say ‘it is God’s will’. When unfavourable things happen we often admit helplessness by alluding it to God’s will. Sometimes, we...

  Be as you wish to seem - Socrates Who likes to be shamed & embarrassed publicly, perhaps in the presence of loved and admired ones, family, friends, associates, and acquaintances? None I suppose. I asked a question a while ago, ‘When you were caught & were profusely sorry, was it because you felt remorse about the bad thing you did or because you were caught and shame loomed? If nobody knew; if you were never found will you be remorseful and make amends, restitution, pledge never to repeat & work at it? Integrity is hard to find in the world today. Most times when people think that they can get away with crime, they do it. The sorrow you see afterwards, when caught has nothing to do with remorse but the regret of being caught. Even if we have not been divinely tutored we can get by, avoiding much folly if we are alert & avoid things that lead to trouble. Unfortunately, we see a few people prosper in unlawful ways and that seems quite attractive but what is succe...

No time is a good or bad time. It is often what you make of it! During the Pandemic & because of it, some people have become richer. Some have become healthier, wiser, more prudent, studious, etc. Some have also lost some things, unfortunately. It is not necessarily the time, it is what you can make of the challenging times & how you cope with them. If you face an economic crisis you may bemoan and that is ok. But that also presents you an opportunity to learn how to manage your resources better; cut off unnecessary wants and concentrate on what you truly need. If you face other problems, that may be an opportunity for you to take a step back from the world’s hectic pace and get answers to some of life’s pressing questions. If what you gain is greater than what you lost, you have turned the situation into a great one. Don’t look at what you lost; think also of what you have gained.

‘May God bless you.’ Where does your mind go? Where e go? For most people, it is lots & lots of money. When people think/talk/pray for God’s blessings, they often zero in on financial benefits. It is the greatest folly to be materially rich but poor spiritually or mentally & emotionally retarded. In order of priority, seek 1st to meet your spiritual needs, becoming friends with your Maker. Then armed with the relationship with your Creator seek all other healthy states: mental, emotional, financial & physical. What should it be? When you think of God’s blessings do you ever say ‘God please bless me with wisdom; good health; the ability to deal with my emotions; the ability to manage relationships; have peace; have spiritually enlightened family members? Material things are important but like it is said ‘there are things that are importanter’. If you think it is a lie, draw close to a rich person & you will know for sure!    

  People generally agree that the statement ‘our transformer don blow’ is one of the most traumatic statements to a typical Nigerian, almost in the range of ‘person don die’ .  The electrical transformer steps down high voltage electricity and makes it safe to use in the home and factories. Unfortunately, due to several endemic issues, the power supply is epileptic and the response time to issues in the electrical grid is abysmal in many places. It is so bad that when there is a problem, users will contribute to solving the problem. In some places, it sometimes takes electricity officials weeks or months to respond to issues or even more time to fix problems in the grid leaving households and businesses without light – as we generally refer to electricity, for ‘eons’. I live in an area where the infrastructure is good and the response time is within hours; sometimes minutes! So it was with trepidation that the recent outage had become protracted. It lasted for close to 72 hour...

I sat by the window & thought deeply about the people and how they had adapted to the weather.  For a few days, we hadn’t left the room, leaving was on a needs basis and we had nowhere that important to go to; how could it be so cold I wondered. I thought the freezer was cold but you know that a fleeting moment to get something from it is not quite the same when the whole place is as chilly as the freezer. Although the Apartment had heaters & heated floors, I somehow felt the depth of the cold. No wonder people without adequate clothing and heating froze to death. Then I wondered about the first settlers and how Winter must have shaped their lives. A large contingent of people travelled North, I imagine they saw a land filled with wonder and beauty & then winter came. I hope they got to this beautiful land in Summer and then gradually descended into Winter. If like us on this trip, they went from the Summer of Africa to the Winter of Europe then it would have been a dis...

Man to man we proved who was superior An aggrieved man may corner his fellow and prove who was stronger Then as people increased, it was the number of people In hand-to-hand combat, you needed strong men to fight Then simple weapons – knives and spears eliminated that advantage No one was a strong match for a knife-wielding maniac The use of animals - horses and Elephants in battle, in addition to using swords, bows & arrows vitiated previous advantages People could move faster & cover more grounds Then came the mighty gunpowder It was used to subjugate nations People more intelligent and resourceful fell to bands of bandits from across the ocean It has long been the basis of superiority A choice weapon of pillagers Airpower belittled ordinary Guns We could go farther and faster than we have ever done With warplanes fitted with fearsome weapons, men then trodded down all remaining defenses, built or imagined Now the basis of power is the bomb, albeit nuclear. Coupled with bal...

  Corn & Pear go make Sense o We bought corn yesterday, haba, make person chop some familiar things from home. I just told Wifey as she talked about going out: ‘Abeg if you see Pear or Coconut make you buy make we use chop the corn’. ‘You be thief’ – na her response. Wetin I talk bad now? As we see corn, she fit see pear o, temperate region, and Winter or not. Las, las the corn wey I buy come be sweet corn wey them dey use cook fried rice, we no even fit chop am; abeg, make I begin return to Africa make hunger for our delicacies no wound person!!! Suicide no Dey my Bucket List o ‘I wan see Winter, I really want to see winter’ – I told our host as soon as we arrived. ‘You will see plenty of it, in a few days’ he assured me. You see each time I see Winter on TV, I wonder when I’d see it. I have lived in the Tropics all my life & have travelled only during Summer. I often wondered when I’d see winter & snow & mark them off on my bucket list. Within a few days,...

  How would you feel if you realized at the twilight of your life on earth that every good thing that you ever could think about, you could have achieved if you attempted to do them? Yes, you then realize, only belatedly that ‘whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill. How would you feel about all the great innovative ideas you were afraid to pursue? What if at that future time, aptly described in Ecclesiastics*, you realize that the obstacles of this life, the ones you faced in all endeavours didn’t come to kill or crush you but to test your determination, to test whether you were worthy? How would you feel if you caved into all obstacles that tested your values; muddled your plans, challenges & roadblocks that obscured your vision? How would you feel when you find out they were all training exercises meant to make you strong for the great things you petitioned God for? Having done a time travel into the future & found that everything ...

As I picked up my hat to finish my dressing for work this morning it just struck me that all of a sudden Hats have gone out of fashion in Abuja. Fridays are for local attires and we all look forward to it – who never tire for Tie, Shirt, and Suit, Monday to Friday? It is a National policy to wear local fabrics on Fridays as an economic policy to support the local textile industry; even Thursdays have been added to the ‘Dress Down’ days by many Ladies in the Enterprise who wear ‘Ankara’ Suits. So in addition to the ‘Suit fatigue’, many people look forward to Fridays as a day to showcase their traditional attires. You can easily know who the Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo people, who are the majority in the Enterprise are. But once in a while, you will also see the Efik, the Bini, the Tiv, and the other Minorities who also wish to represent their culture. And so on this day, when I picked up the Hat, my heart was back home in the Niger Delta. Then, the thought flashed in my mind that the ...

Spending a good time with friends is one of the most glorious of all human experiences. It is even enjoyable when you pursue a project with loving friends and everyone is totally committed and self-sacrificing. Sometimes, though friends do not give their best, or anything at all because of several reasons, one of which is that they do not think their contribution is valuable, especially if there are others making very huge contributions that dwarf anything they can put on the table. I think that is the situation in the Study Group that I set up for my friends and me to prepare for the forthcoming exams. I consider group study as a form of knowledge crowdfunding where everyone covers some part of the study material, and shares their perspectives and understanding to drive greater assimilation of the material by all. So today, I encouraged members of my study group to share points from their personal study and reading in order to make the group worthwhile. As I ruminated on the matter, t...