Interest can be transient as they come, you know! I was discussing the wane in my feeding habit with a senior friend lately; I that hitherto could singlehandedly gulp pounded yam meant for seven people now finds it less appetizing to even eat. His response that I now have another interest/responsibility that flattens the urge for food is irrefutable; conversely to the time my parents shouldered all responsibilities. The same can be said of our present pursuit for money and relevance. It is not incongruous to note at this point that time comes when looking for money and recognition becomes a shadow of something else: Legacy and Succession. These two things people usually tie to old age; and they give more meaning to one's life and living. However, with life expectancy set to reduce as time goes by, provided those life-delimiting factors are not reversed, many people pass on unexpectedly without having to set a legacy neither a succession. So I think it's wisdom to plan fo...

SELFISHNESS v SELF-PRESERVATION Selfishness is thinking of yourself ONLY! Self-Preservation is when you think of yourself, BUT with others in mind! If you we’ve ever travelled by air, you will recognize this image. I used to wonder why the cabin crew always told us to wear our Oxygen mask first, before attending to the passenger sitting next to us, even our children. It felt completely irresponsible and if I may say so, selfish, that adults would take care of themselves first, before taking care of even their children; during a drop in oxygen level‬ Thanks to a NASA research, we now know that “by helping others first or ignoring the mask altogether, a person will begin to lose his or her ability to recognize faces and shapes, and eventually pass out” - HuffPost. It was when I read this that I stopped judging the process. 2020 (+ possibly 2021) is a year of low oxygen level. It’s a year when we are all on a depressurized global airplane cabin. You’re not being selfish for looking...

'Work' and 'job' are two different concepts. Your job is what you have agreed to do for a fixed price. But no one can really pay you enough for your work. Your work is what fulfills you, your life's calling, your bliss. It defines your existence. You may be fortunate, however, to have your job as your work or your work as your job. Jesus knew His work on Earth and this was to provide the answer to the sin question with His death and resurrection. People wanted to give Him a job to become an earthly king. He declined. Many today have lost their work because of the trappings of their jobs. Your job may give you a healthy bank balance but it is your work that credits your life's account. Your job can be taken away but your work is permanent. While doing your job, don't ever lose sight of your work. Whatever you do as a sacrifice on your path that brings joy and hope to others maybe your work. And your job may be a means to accomplishing that. Taking kids off th...

A dreadful disservice you can offer yourself is relinquishing your thinking responsibility to social media (SM). Your mind is too precious to be a dumpsite for every post you stumble upon. Just so you know, the litmus test for you being educated is not in your class of degree but in how well you've trained your mind to think, and the curiosity to learn. Fallen short of this put your degree in question. Absorbing or acting upon without filtering every post on SM will unknowingly but subtly make you find life plunging you into waterloo if you're careless. It is pertinent at this point to know that SM is riddled with more ignorance than wisdom. So consider it expedient you don't patronize or allow every thought to get a foothold in your mind, it doesn't matter the number of likes or who's selling it. Imagine someone coming to terms that being born in Nigeria is a disadvantage already; and that automatically life is leading you 1 - 0. Alas, you see thousands of pe...

One of the funniest narratives of life I have observed is you presuming your friends are living large, and because you aren't in constant contact with one another as hitherto, they probably have abandoned you. You know, possibly, the tendency is high that they also at their own end are thinking you've ostracized them because you appear to be living large and have chosen to remain incommunicado. More often than not, this is far-fetched. Forget about the paparazzi your friends parade on social media; appearance is not always reality. The reality is everyone is still a work in progress. So the onus is on you to work on yourself so you don't get left behind eventually when the harvest is ripe. Moreover, what you need to know is that people are busy and responsibility is piling up. Interestingly, the fact is that a busy person likes those who are busy. Instead of crying foul people are not getting in touch with you, get yourself busy. There may not be a reason for others ...

One of the female presenters on NBC Africa shared how she met her husband. She said when she was an undergraduate, she listed some of the qualities she would want in a husband. Absurdly enough, she also listed a name she would want her husband to bear! Then she met a man whose name was alien to the one on her list. Thank God she didn't rebuff him. It was in getting to know him that she discovered that his middle name, which he didn't often use, was the name on her list! Joseph had dreamt of greatness. But God disguised his greatness in slavery, false rape accusation, and finally, imprisonment. What God wanted to achieve was for Joseph to acquire the skills he would need to function when he finally stepped into greatness! Skill acquisition is heaven's aim during 'disguise' moments! Has it ever occurred to you that the key to your dream position may be disguised in the one you now hold? While at this seemingly lowly position, please apply yourself fully t...

This is one of the best educational programs that graced our TVs between the years 2005 - 2010, with tens of millions of Africans, glued to their screen to see the dexterity of African University's best brains. More often than not, it was always aired every Saturday evening on AIT. However, it wasn't until 2009 when I was in my penultimate year in Secondary School that I got engrossed in the program. It was a sheer display of brilliance and versatility. A great stimulant that will quest up for knowledge. I remember, how I wished to grow and become as brilliant as those contestants. 😁😁 I'm glad those wishes were horses and I rode on them! Sadly, what do we have on TVs these days? Programs that espouse nudity, misdemeanor, and immorality. You may say they are for entertainment. Of what benefit is entertainment without moral justification? Consequently, we now have to grapple with incessant rape cases everywhere, wherefore young female adults are paranoid that every ...

"Commit first to excellence, and everything else will follow" I took interest in a post I stumbled upon on Telegram, captioned "How I got 4 Ph.D. offers in the US with a CGPA of 2.79." Hmm, this will be an intriguing read, I said! I was curious so I decided to read through. According to the narrator, his grade was one of the lowest grades in his graduating class. So I wanted to know how he did it. Incidentally, I don't think there is a more contentious argument than the one on First Class graduates being smarter than graduates of other classes of degree. This has always been a hot zone. "Who First Class help?", you hear them say. To this I've always reacted: everyone is smart, you can't take that away. However, I won't succumb to defend the fact that those who graduated with good grades put in a lot of effort in their study, minus other external uncontrollable factors. Affirmatively, they did, and they deserve the credit! Skimming...

A Newsletter reveals that the founders of the world's five largest companies--Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page--all share two uncommon traits: each of them is a voracious learner; each of them is a polymath. The two traits are also said to be responsible for most of the billionaire's wealth. Meaning from the foregoing, we can deduce that people who detest knowledge, who detest learning are a candidate for poverty. This espouses the assertion that a lot of people in Africa are poor because of a lack of wisdom. Call it wisdom to make wealth, to see opportunities, to create a solution, you're definitely right. Wisdom, as we know, is the right application of knowledge, and the knowledge we acquire as we learn daily. It will interest you to know it is not only poverty, moral decadence, and a dearth of values are likewise gross evidence of society with no commitment to life-long learning. We can easily affiliate this to a number of ignoramuses...

"Be somebody who makes everybody feels like somebody" We live in a world enshrouded by an embedded system of social stratification. Whereas those we presume are at the nadir of social strata often times have become objects of disdain and contempt. They feel no one knows they exist because we ostracize, undermine, and commonize their contributions. Such scenes make me uncomfortable. We made them percept that respect is no longer their lot because we now accord respect according to the whiteness of one's collar job. But in the beginning, it wasn't so.  Respect should not be subjective, as it is a drive towards the egalitarian society we crave. We cannot all become doctors, scientists, lawyers, even accountants. Some people decided to feel the informal sector jobs and they also deserve our respect equally. "Jesus came into this world not a philosopher or a general but as a carpenter. All work matter to God". The Covid-19 scourge has even brought th...

What If? "Access Bank to cut salaries may sack workers" "One in five SA businesses laying off staff due to the impact of Covid-19" What happens if you get fired from a job you prayed and fasted to get? What if you get sacked from a job that you are already building your retirement plans around? There was a drought in Israel that had culminated in a famine and God instructed Elijah where to go to be fed. "Get away...and hide by the Brook of Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there" 1Kg.17:3-4. But something puzzling happened! "And it happened after a while that the brook dried up..." Vs 7. How could the brook dry up when it was God that led the prophet there?! Does that mean that God can open a door that ends up being shut? Absolutely yes! But when that happens, it means He has provided an alternative! "Then ...

“ History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.” - Ecc 1:9 (NLT) History is a very powerful teacher, for those who are humble enough to subject themselves to its lessons.  One thing I have found is that the efficacy of the word of God remains the same; as Ecc 1:9 says, history repeats itself and NOTHING is new under the sun. I also discovered that every time there has been a major global disaster, there has also been a major global conspiracy.  Yes, we are closer to the coming of Christ, as we are closer to our graves each day, but not every disaster is a vehicle in which our Christ will come. If you must spiritualize COVID-19 and this global lockdown, here’s how: 1. Be humble; to accept the lessons that this is teaching us all  2. Inquire; why secularism has mixed with spiritualism. Why the church has become so integrated with the world. Thus, whatever affects the world, impacts the church.   3. Look ...

"There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people" G.K. Chesterton The world present predicament predisposes everyone to a state of boredom. Conversely, human beings are relational beings. That's why one of the greatest punishments you can mete on anyone is solitary confinement. The individual can be bored to stupor. Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves? Howbeit, as we try to stay afloat of the #covid19 pandemic and its downturn, we need mental energizing activities to cheer us and lighten up our day. One of these is the #GoogleWordCoach game. Do you seek to catch fun? How about developing your vocabulary? Then this is for you. Vocabulary wise, an umpteen number of youths are very shallow. This is distasteful. Their repertoire of words is not any better than that of an elementary school pupil. While your vocabulary repository will afford you an array of words to pick from, it also helps you ace grammar tests or exams. It is ...

In times like these, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Aristotle opined, "fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil". People are ignorantly becoming fear mongers in the guise of getting others informed. If you find yourself relishing in pervading death toll and sad news, please quarantine your mind, because you are subtly making living impossible. Be wise! We should know only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live. Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. What the mind doesn't understand, it fears. So now is the time to understand more so that we may fear less. And know that fear sells until you stop buying it. Meaning that what you fear will come upon you, if you see Job ask him. Don't be engrossed in giving ears to what will dampen your spirit, get obsessed with invigorating exercises that will enliven your day. Albeit, I'm not insinuating disseminating information is bad, lest Satan should get the adva...

It is said that our deepest emotional need is the need to feel loved. When we feel unloved we struggle just to survive. Love has power. It heals. Quintessential of love's healing power is seen in Rob's story, who had a terrible accident that he wasn't sure he would be able to walk again. When asked what enabled him to come through that horrible experience, his answer was simple: “Love,” he said. “That’s the only way I could have made it". You'll be inundated to know that we may inadvertently lessen the chance of survival of some Covid-19 patients (I pray not), not because of the virulent of the virus but just because of feeling unloved. I am aware that stigmatization, contempt, and ill-treatment have been raising their ugly heads, even by some health officials on the front line.  I've also read a plethora of malediction hurled at the country's arch-enemy politicians who tested positive for Covid-19. The truth is wishing them dead may not even brin...

I remember being in a relationship with this amazing young woman. My love for her was such that when she told me she wasn't willing to marry a pastor, I was ready to jettison my calling for her! One beautiful morning a call to my mobile phone awakened me. It was from this amazing lady. The call was to the effect that she would like to quit the relationship. The only thing I requested was the return of my engagement ring. I'll like you to know that people walking away from your life can also constitute a favour too just as people can also walk into your life with opportunities and open doors. It was when Lot walked away from Abraham that God started speaking to him again(Gen. 13:14). Left to Abraham, he would have wanted lot with him forever! It is instructive what Apostle John has to say on this: "They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of th...

"Change" is not only a constant thing, but it is also the secret to survive in today's world. "Sometimes ago like in the 1960s, If you speak English you are regarded as likely to succeed. People queued up to access you. Then It moved. If you have a university degree. Wow, then that was hotcakes! Suddenly University degree became sachet water. Then it moved to finish with Upper and above. In fact, my uncle called me to explain to me why 2.1 was the requirement for success. After this, it moved again It became what school did you finish? That uncle told me again how I must attend UNILAG. He said they had an interview in his office, where they said candidates that didn't attend Federal University to stand up and go home. Hmmm! What a wicked selection process, but that is life. Then after I graduated it moved again. It's now the skills you have. What can you do? This is where most people are at now. But let me tell you the truth...It has mov...