NEWS ALERT: HIV CURE DISCOVERED!

Good day readers. Welcome to news on top of the hour. I am ‘Kayode Oyero. Straight to the news is the headline:

SCIENTIFIC THINKER DISCOVERS CURE FOR HIV: HAVING INSUFFICIENT VISION

Detail comes after this break.

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“Daddy, can you imagine that? Cure for HIV - Having Insufficient Vision! How unusually amazing it is!”

“Yeah, you can say that again daughter! My heart had actually jumped up in my chest with delight at the discovery. You know, I can’t wait to have that insidious virus called Human Immunodeficiency Virus get conquered like we did to that monster called malaria a century ago. Well, nothing lasts forever. I know for sure that time will unveil the antidote. You know, anti-retroviral drugs only helps handcuff the ugly hands of the blood-drying monster, it does absolutely less or nothing to change public orientation, discrimination, stigmatization and social ostracism of people living with the virus.”

“Daddy, the news caster is back on screen.”

“Oh! Let’s listen to his other version of HIV. Having Insufficient Vision indeed!”

Welcome back.

A Lagos-based Nigerian and success-minded capacity builder who simply identified himself as OJO claims he has the antidote to the deadly and ambition-eating mindset, HIV - Having Insufficient Vision.

OJO made the revelation today in a blog post. It may interest you to know that HIV is a dangerous cankerworm of mediocrity that has eaten deep into the mindset of youths of the twenty-first century. Displayed on your screen is a copy of the post:

Hi my friend, how are you? Don’t mind the ceremonial prologue. Let’s talk about having sufficient vision and tenacious dreams.

Examining scholarly and philosophical definitions proffered to the word ‘Vision’, one may plunge easily into the trap of confusion as to select the most apt definition. They are just too numerous. However, the reason is not far-fetched in as much as perception is constantly relative and impression religiously subjective: how Mr. A sees an issue, a phenomenon, a concept or a person most likely differs from Mr. B’s interpretation and perception of the same issue at a particular moment in time.

But, importantly, the place of words coloration can’t be over-emphasized. The substance is the same in most cases, but the cloth with which the substance is garbed is what makes the difference: grammatical embellishments.

Say No to HIV!

Simply put, Vision is the capacity to see beyond one’s immediate condition or circumstance; it is the picture of tomorrow’s achievement or expectation. It is one major attribute that distinguishes Victors from Victims; Foresight from myopic folks, purpose-driven persons from goal-less chaps and project-focused governments from irresponsible governments. No wonder the Biblical book of Proverbs 29:18 recorded that where there is no vision, the people perish!

Agreeably, where there is no vision, the people languish in backwardness, retrogression and mediocrity. There could have been nothing like social media today had Mark Zuckerberg not conceived a social community, a global interactional platform beyond cultural boundary called Facebook. His was a vision adequate enough to positively affect people of his generation!

Another amazing guy, Christopher Columbus also cherished a vision of another world, and he discovered America. Had the Italian maritime explorer, navigator, and colonizer not crossed the Atlantic Ocean, may be no one will have awareness of the American Continent today. Sufficient Vision!

Same was Thomas Edison. Had this scientist not developed a commercially feasible bulb, perhaps, there will be no paraphernalia of light to bright up the night. Another Sufficient Vision? Yeah!

Dr. Jonas Salk also did persisted undauntedly in the laboratory to develop the polio vaccine, proffering cure to an illness that globally made life miserable for kids, at one time in history. If he had not envisioned and worked out a cure for the malady, who knows the many millions of juvenile that will still fall prey of the bone-twisting devil called polio. Another Sufficient Vision on point, amazing!

Sirleaf, blaze the trail in African Politics

An amazon, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the 24^th and current President of Liberia didn’t give up her dream of becoming her country’s president when she placed second in the 1997 presidential election won by Charles Taylor. Her vision, to her was realizable, only with dint of determination and can-do spirit. Her dream was full-fledged and formidable ultimately making her rise beyond gender intimidation and male dominance that was the order of the day in Liberia's Politics. Her unwavering belief in affirmative action that what a man can do a woman also can paid off at last when she won Liberia’s 2005 presidential election and later a re-election in 2011 making her the first elected female head of state in Africa. Another Sufficient Vision on point? Yes! 

Wright Brothers: their work fly high even after they had said 'bye'!

Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur were two American brothers and aviation pioneers credited with the invention and construction of the world's first successful airplane making the first heavier-than-air human flight on December 17, 1903. Had they not conceived a wholesome vision beneficial to humanity, may be movement by road will still be the fastest mode of transportation. An adequate Vision!

South Africans may still suffer white subjugation, segregation and discrimination of the black had Nationalists like Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Bishop Tutu and Nelson Mandela, all of the African National Congress (ANC) not saw a possible revolution amid stiff-racism, rising to the challenge of salvaging the country and paying the costly price of imprisonment, severe humiliation and going on exile. Sufficient Vision!

Obama Hussein Barrack II envisioned himself as president of the United State of America and pursued his cause till he hold grip of power on Jan. 20^th 2009, making him the first black number one citizen in the history of U.S. Also was Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on moon. All Sufficient Visions!

Dear friend, when we change how we see, what we see changes. Perception is possession. What a person sees, he receives. Limitations, Barriers and Impossibilities are fallacies that exist only in the mind, only in abstract not reality. Nothing is impossible with optimism, resolution, hard work and determination. Dream sufficiently.

Realistically speaking, present predicament, situation or circumstance may be tough and rough. But still, do not allow your present plight to cloud your sight to envision an enviable height. Everything hot must certainly cool-off. Whatever that is thrown into the sky has not and cannot defy the law of gravity by not making a descent. Mountains will one day be a plane land. "What lies behind us and what lies before us (or around us) are tiny things compared to what lie within us." says Ralph Waldo Emerson. Dream sufficiently.

The pessimist complains about the winds; the optimist not only expects it to change but consequently adjust the sail – responding to it: taking the bull by the horn, against all odds to make monumental feats in order to immortalize his or her name in humanity’s sands of time and waters of eternity. Dream sufficiently.

Yes, we may be unable to control the beauty of our faces, but we can control the expressions on them! It may be impossible for us to have control over certain situations but I believe we have control over how we respond to them. Dream sufficiently.

Dear friend, to have a vision is good but to envision a high pedestal of greatness is better. To aspire is to go high. Those who desire and aspire are no doubt admired. To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve. Those who cherish a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in their hearts will one day realize it. Cherish your vision, the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them, with hard work, resilience and persistence will grow the delightful situation and wonderful position you desire. Dream sufficiently.

Crucially, it is not enough to dream dreams or conceive worthy visions without investing commensurate striving. Efforts and results are directly proportional. The strength of effort is the measure of result. "They who would accomplish little sacrifice little; they who would achieve much must sacrifice much; they who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly." says James Allen. Dream sufficiently.

Dear friend, visions are seedlings of realities. As a man thinks in his heart so he is. Perception is possession. It is no over-ambition to dream and work towards being an owner of a private jet. After all, someone or group of persons own the manufacturing plant.

Dear friend, dream big! Say NO to HIV! Stand against insufficient vision! Enjoy your day!

                

My twitter handle is @Imodoye_1

…Kip da Optimism Alive!

IMITATION: SHORTCUT TO OPPOSE TRUE PURPOSE!

‘Kayode Oyero

   Hello dear friends! How are you? How life be? Let’s talk about a counter-productive attitude and orientation called Imitation. Permit me to start with an anecdote. I believe the most valid evaluation of issues is one’s personal experience!

   Are you ready? O ya, on your mark, get set, Go!

“…There is nothing as shortsighted as to compete with others. Instead, complete them by being exclusive: follow your dreams, aspirations and desires, make that passion your profession. Solve problems hitherto unsolved. Tread paths yet to be trod. Don’t be a conformer. Don’t be a prisoner of tradition. Who knows, you can be the next celebrated Zukerberg, Dangote… By being exclusive, I mean: don’t go in tow with the majority. Imagine if all players in a football team are strikers. Who will defend? Who will secure the goalpost from the net-racking shots of kicks, swift as cheetah? Definitely, the outcome of this kind of formation is catastrophic and disastrous to the team…”

   Growing up, like any futuristic young mind of my generation, I look unto some people whose lives I much envied and admired not as role models or mentors but with a keenness to become exactly what they were, then; to drive the type of car(s) they drove, to put on suits exactly the way they wore it, to marry even the version of Eve they clung unto and to do their kind of work, some day in the future.

   My childish infatuations reached a crescendo when I approached my mum a number of times, inquiring the type of occupation Brother ‘This and That’ worked; the name of the company and of course, the area of discipline my ‘object of lust’ studied at tertiary institution.

   Of course, she divulged answers to my cravings. The truth be told: the fancy way of dressing of those individuals, mostly bachelors I couldn’t help resist. Their shirts over squared shoulders always dapper and form-fitting as though they filled their being in those apparels - starched to the point of immobility and pressed dutifully to the extent that the face of the Iron plate used to achieve such smoothness often formed an imprint on their frocks. See fine boy, no pimples I had tacitly commented in wonderment and excitement, demurely.

   During those formative years, my mother was attentive, the way any caring mother with a listening ear would. She meticulously satiated my precocious hunger to know more about life every now and then, literally peeling off the gritty scales and speckles of ignorance from my spectacle of world view with her explanations and answers so down to earth and simple for the understanding of a child. She played the role of ‘Google’ very well until a certain day.

   That day, one of the neighboring bachelors had cruised past the house’s frontage with a gleaming car. It was certainly brand new. Tear rubber as folks will call it in local parlance. A Toyota Camry, 1998 model.

   Again, possessed by desire, I excitedly yelled, “That is the type of car I’m going to own when I grow up!”

   Mother never spared a second before she did launch her combat, a hand missile. Let the sleeping dog lie was weak a self-counsel to restraint her from doing her spanking. “Shut up!” she shouted, a thunderous and dizzy-induced slap accompanied her verbal rebuke, simultaneously. “You will own brand new cars of latest model in your generation. This one will soon fade off.” She had said, clairvoyantly.

   Dear friends, imitation, no doubt is self-destructive, self-reducing, self-restricting and creatively destroys creativity. And asides that it is an evidence that an individual has not discern his or her assignment, it also wields grave attendant effects on a person's life. By imitation, wanting to be another instead of being original, an individual stands the chance of digressing from his or her true purpose. When a person rejects his or her authentic self in exchange for another’s, amazing gifts and marvelous talents divinely and exclusively deposited in such individual’s life remain dormant and ineffectual foreclosing chances for self-exploration whatsoever. By trying to be someone else, an individual’s salt and sauce lose taste and become rancid. Gikuyu was rightly correct that a borrowed necklace cause one to lose his own!

   Actors and Actresses and other great professional imitators beg to agree that the act of mimicking is not one easy to sustain for a long period of time before the Imitator relapses back to his or her original self. This is instructive. If actors and actresses who either by crook or by hook received professional trainings in the business of feigning one character or the other - as story lines necessitate - can’t do so for a stretched period of time, then, invariably an individual who apes to be another in the sprint race of life stands the doom of exhaustion. No one copies others for long without making costly mistakes. A borrowed necklace truly causes one to lose one’s authentic necklace!

   Although, the maxim: Imitation is limitation is as old as the sphinx of Egypt and widespread the way and manner a struck matchstick spreads fire on an arable of tinder dry plantation during summer, turning grasses and trees to ashes just in a twinkle of an eye. But, it is quite worrisome that a lot of us are deviants when it comes to practicing what we preach.

   Truthfully, some of us are encyclopaedias when it comes to knowledge and witty wise sayings. When we talk, people are amazed and sometimes overwhelmed by the enormity of our amassed knowledge. “The Prof.” “Solomon the second” they christen us in sheer adoration and in a salvo of cheering. Yet, we are the parents who impose choices of career on our children. “My first born must study aeronautical engineering. The second medicine and the third Law.” we outline their destinies even before they are born.

   We are the brother, the chief adviser, the most enlightened and sage of aged and uneducated parents who determine what younger siblings settle for in life. We are the know-it-all family breadwinner sister who condemns any attempt by younger dependents to venture into unchartered waters like a career in theater arts or music, artistry, photography, cinematography, comedy, public speaking, writing, event planning and management, catering, paintings, linguistics, education and so on.

   In our myopic spree, we term these disciplines as seriously unserious and not lucrative and worst put, socially un-prestigious. We glorify and term as socially celebrated such disciplines and fields of human endeavour as Law, Medicine, Engineering, Science, Accounting, Insurance, Banking, Architecture and what have you. We see them as glamorous and shortcuts to fame and wealth.

   May I drop this on you: Assumptions and prediction have no place in the matter of true and fulfillment of individual purpose in life! Little-wondered why no two persons have the same fingerprint, not even Siamese twins. Scientists in the field of forensic have proven that there is morphological variation even amid individuals with same fingerprint type. No two persons on earth have the same type of Whorl, Arch, Loop or Compound. The creative wisdom of The Divine is indeed mysterious and unfathomable, defying scientific inquisitions!

   There is an interesting testimony of the career life of a Nollywood actress popularly known as ‘Jenifa’. ‘Jenifa’ was of course compelled by her parents to study law after bagging a national diploma certificate in Mass Communication.

   Obviously, she must had budged to studied her parents’ preference of a University discipline - law - which wasn’t in tandem with her passion and ambition to be an actress because of parental blessing. And it happened that after five summers and winters of study at the University, a year at law school and a year in the service of fatherland, ‘Jenifa’ graduated and guess what she did? She gathered the law certificates and dumped them at her parents’ feet.

   “I have studied law and this is the certificate. You can have it sir and ma. Acting is my line.” She had told them, matter-of-factly. A wise decision! A good resistance against career imposition and an eternal life of regret! It might tickle you to know that ‘Jenifa’ won The 2009 African Movie Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role!

   Dear friends, who says a person gifted in comedy or acting or catering can’t rate in the ranks of the crème-la-crème of the society? Who says you can’t chart uncommon paths and emerge success in life? I’m happy to announce to you that what we get in life operates on the principle of fractional distillation. By this I mean: the level of pressure that is applied on the crude oil of life determines what the bye-product is. Difference in pressures applied to crude oil in a refinery determines whether the end product of the fractional distillation process is kerosene, diesel, bitumen or premium motor spirit alias petrol. We don’t get what we deserve in life, but what we demand!

   Dear friends, the best and easiest way to miss career fulfillment in life is to go aping others or settle for a career because everyone does it. Imitation is not only limitation but destruction. Like Isaac Newton, the father of modern physics, you are Classic! That is if only you stop imitating and start initiating. There is nothing as shortsighted as to compete with others. Instead, complete them by being exclusive: follow your dreams, aspirations and desires, make that passion your profession. Solve problems hitherto unsolved. Tread paths yet to be trod. Don’t be a conformer. Don’t be a prisoner of tradition. Who knows, you can be the next celebrated Zukerberg, Dangote, Otedola, Adenuga, Obama, Ali Baba, Mandela, Ben Carson, Bill Gates to mention just a few, if only you see yourself as having something distinguish, unprecedented and peculiar to offer this present generation and even, posterity.

   By being exclusive, I mean: don’t go in tow with the majority. Imagine if all players in a football team are strikers. Who will defend? Who will secure the goalpost from net-racking shots of kicks, swift as cheetah? Definitely, the outcome of this kind of formation is catastrophic and disastrous to the team.

   Football enthusiasts, imagine a 0-0-0-11 formation. Supply is no doubt overflowing in the front attack and striking position. Under normal circumstance and conventional method, strikers representing a team in a game of soccer mustn’t be more than two, three or four in desperate scenarios. In the absence of such fictitious absurdity, team players on soccer pitch all have well-spelt role.

   For few some, the role is: use all of the might you’ve got, your hands and legs and in fact all your body parts, even if you can dive acrobatically like a bat. Just make sure the round leather does not ghost-past you into the net. For some, the role is: you are the sentinels of the post-18 area. Make it watertight for opponents to be unable to penetrate or infiltrate while for some, it is: use all your antics to get the ball into the opponent’s goal post. There’s specificity and precision of parts to play based on each player’ strength and weakness, efficiency and deficiency.

   Dear friends, to compare your essence of existence with others’ - to compete with others’ natural anointing is the best and subtle way to oppose the Divine’s purpose for your being. Just strive for excellence and distinction and complete them: supply what they lack. You have an area of comparative advantage, a niche, a reservoir of strength, a place of efficiency, a talent others aren’t divinely anointed with!

   Life, I bet, will be so dull, boring and uninteresting had the creator been monolithic and parochial to had designed us the same way, deposited undifferentiated talents in us and ultimately make our behavior the same. Variety is indeed the spice of life!

   Dear friends, you are peculiar just the way you are.

   Thanks for the read. Enjoy your day!

I'm @Imodoye_1 on Twitter

…Kip da Optimism Alive!

THROUGH THE LENS OF SILENCE - 'Kayode Oyero

‘Kayode Oyero

“Difficulty, no matter how wiggly and complicated, has solution in tranquility. To see through, think through, and pave through life’s web of challenges, take a break: cool-off; relax. Panic is Satanic and Demonic. Solitude fosters altitude. Cultivate the attitude.” – O.J.O

Thirty-three thousand kilometers above land and sea level, the flight of life could seldom be turbulent and tumultuous. As pilots, the experience could be so frightening and terrifying, most especially with the litters of unfavourable weather of disappointments and cloudy snags of agonizing shortcomings that dots the journey. Hence, the need for a spontaneous momentary release of hot concentrated outbursts of emotion – aggression and depression.

Unarguably, you and I occasionally lash out violent, aggressive, snarky and acerbic remarks on those around us whenever we are possessed in the hood of frustration. ‘Don’t you get it? I need some Oxygen!’, ‘Get out of my sight, you nincompoop!’, ‘I need to be left alone.’ ‘Sharrrrap! You idiot!’, ‘Gerra-out! You bastard!’, ‘Damn you son of a bitch!’, ‘You must be demented for such behavior’ we often bark from the steaming cockpit of life’s aircraft. Hmmn! Life and its bitter pills! Shall we receive a sizeable portion of its resplendent succors and not a snippet of its agonizing ‘racour’? - Its wives of rife and strife?

At such moments, our necks’ tendons unsurprisingly tighten like guitar strings and our craniums, disrespectfully crane out of our bony temples, right on our neck, disfiguringly. Needlessly, however, gulping the bitter sauce of life can be of a harrowing experience!

Though, because of the dissimilar nature of man especially in the display of emotions, some of us, unlike our aggression patron counterparts take preference in gliding our steam of frustration through the outlet of depression. Thus, dripping our tears in the deep depth of the soul’s rear, after all, when happiness and gladness overflows the brink of the mind, the eye flows out joyful ripples of tears. Also otherwise with an overwhelming mound of sorrow: when adversity outweighs tears, self-piteous laughter is usually a resort. What a paradox!

Believingly, frustration has a way of igniting aggression and depression in humans. It has a way of thwarting the self-consciousness, personal co-ordination and comportment of many. Also, it has a way, its own way of making the unwary drown in the Atlantic ocean of misery, pessimism, heaviness and distress. Life and its rife! How lamentable!

Dear friends, in moments of tension; when imprisoned in the detention of hardship; when no one gives attention and the turf unbearably rough and tough, worry less, dark times are never forever. Every rain of pain comes with trains of gains. ‘Every Good Thing Will Come’. But as optimistic the preceding line appears, ‘Every Good Thing Will not Come’ if you continue in panic. Instead, become a mechanic: fix your situation. You can if you are calm, like the early morning sea water. You don’t need to be perturbed, disturbed or flustered. At such times, a prudent management of the pressures of the moment is important for you to be on the subway of proffering solutions to life’s complexities.

“Where are these air hostesses? Co-pilot, just a minute! There’s an instructive story, titled ‘Be calm like Fan’ that I’ll like to share with my co-air travellers. You know, sharing is caring!  I can hear your loud ‘Yes!’ and sight your affirmative up-down nod.”

“Permission granted. Don’t exceed your time, please.”

“Okay sir. Thanks a lot!”

“Keep your gratitude. Your time starts now, sixty seconds. No extra time, die second or life seconds!”

“Okay, I ignore your lack of conversation courtesy. My people, it is the story of a man who possessed by his inquisition to uncover the secret of all-round success sought a Sage. On the declaration of his aim of being at his residence, the wise man thoughtfully roving his eyes around his living room said to him “Look at the door, it is saying ‘push hard: knock consistently at your desire’. Look at the wall clock, every tick says ‘every minute count’. Look at the calendar, be up-to-date, assert and sustain relevance. Look at the window, don’t be myopic: open your mind, embrace new ways of doing things, positively, differently. Focus on the ceiling, can you hear it plead? It is begging you to aim for the top, to strive beyond mediocrity. Now, let your vision select and highlight the ceiling fan while you retain your sight on the ceiling. It is singing ‘cool-off, just cool-off! When tension tends to strain, cool-off, just cool-off!””.

“Time up Mr. Story teller!”

“Just a second more sir!”

“One more word from you and you’ll find your way down without a parachute. Double-dare me and you’re off this mechanical hawk.”

Though silence in this context engenders solitude, seclusion, introspection, meditation, reflection, calmness, tranquility and placidity, it is important to note that asides being of a great deal in the cultivation and development of self, discovery of an individual’s personal identity and spiritual growth for hermits, monks, celibates, saints and what have you, serenity, - meditation, a mundane intra-personal communication allows for mental development and capacity building.

Observed and tested, solitude or seclusion sparks creativity. It is a state of seeking pleasures from within with no total disconnection from without. Psychologists have in recent times discovered that most adolescents who can’t bear to be alone often fall short of enhancing creative talents. Perhaps, this is their rationale for taking the stand that introverts are fountains of ideas whose contributions have tremendously transformed the world into a better habitation. Seemingly, they are. Checkmate the life style of naturally gifted scientists, admirable writers, adorable and award-winning songs composers, solution-oriented researchers, deeply ingrained thinkers and avant-garde innovators and inventors alike and you’ll see things in their light. Little wondered the source of their genius? They take delight in constant productive silence: meditation. They are Lovers of seclusion!

Peculiarly, the border between being alone for the purpose of idea generation and exclusive concepts and being lonely is as wide as the gulf of Guinea. To choose to be deliberately alone is not to be detached from humanity or bereft of human companionship, but to determine to reflect, conceptualize and meditate. Consequently, the soul is recharged and refueled with strategies and laudable ways to slither out of life’s occasional fogs, be it in paid employment, personal enterprise or social realities.

Being lonely on its part can be dehumanizing being the absence of human association and friendship. To be strategically left alone is to deliberately abstain from ‘human mingle’, for an evanescent while, there by singling oneself out of the drone of the teeming and noisy world to escape through the escarpment of deep reflection, into the sacred groove where workable ideas domicile. Albert Camus’ line is no fallacy after all that “In other to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasions!” 

Solitude (may be) painful in youth but (certainly) delicious in maturity says Albert Einstein. The best of ideas come during a relaxed mood. Multi-national executives and corporate business bigwigs venture a lot into this adventure. They go on vacations, holidays abroad, Yacht-cruising, marooning themselves in cabins and resorts that allow them peer into the window of ‘way-outs’. They aren’t ignorant that a short retreat, just to get into a different atmosphere spurs creativity and durable ideas. They are wont to hewing out precious gem of opportunities from life’s rocks of calamity and adversity. They ‘retreat to advance’!

Dear friends, it’s time you held the paddle of your life’s canoe. It’s correctly sincere that “like the ever-flowing waters of a river, life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. And like the ever-changing cycles of seasons, life has the soothing warmth of the summer and the piercing chill of its winters” says Martins Luther King Jr.. But in life’s challenging moments, panic and psychological distress serves no solution but rather a complication. It escalates palpable tension of the spur: health hazards are catalyzed. How agonizing the many casualties of depression cum frustration-facilitated heart attacks! Heart diseases here and there like a cheap commodity so affordable for the ‘wretched of the earth’ in life’s marketplace!

The truth is: Two wrongs cannot make a right. No one can see clearly with an eye bleary with tears. You can’t be destabilized and re-order things into stability. You can’t be bitter and intend to proffer a solution to better a challenging situation. It’s an impossican’t of the impossible!

Dear friends, to cease to fume and fuss, worry and be troubled, the more exquisitely poised, creative, innovative and solution-providing we become. Listen to silence, it speaks, squint your eyeball through its telescope, there-in, you glimpse ideas, solutions, unprecedented breakthroughs and amazing strategies.

“Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful Jewels of wisdom. The more tranquil we become, the greater is our success, our influence and our power for creative vision. Calmness is power. Be still” says a classic inspirational writer, James Allen.

Dear friend, anytime life seems unfair to you, anytime it jabs you with its elbow of anguish, anytime you’re desperately in need of a premium idea and your mind is blank like that of a day old baby, relax! Just relax! Don’t work yourself up. You can’t get through standing in the way through. Take some time off; personal concealment aids creative solution for challenging situations. The adrenalin of ideas surges rapidly when the mind is in a state of relaxation. Nurture your mind in the cozy resort of Nature. Its breeze promises illumination, initiation of lucrative ideas, manifold restoration of ‘losts’ and ‘bankrupts’. See through the lens of silence. It offers soothing comfort and relieve. Enjoy your day!

…Kip da Optimism Alive!

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Twitter handle: @Imodoye_1

Pictures credit: Google

All rights reserved!

'Kayode Oyero, 2014

DESIRE THE OFFER? ENDURE THE SUFFER!

‘Kayode Oyero

 

“I’m not afraid of the word: ‘tension’ and ‘crisis’. Innate in all life situations are tension. Only in death is there no tension.” - Martins Luther King Jr.

“Fellow space-wayfarers, I greet you.

It is indeed a singular honour and pleasant delight to be before your indefatigable presence this moment. In the spirit of accountability, which most Niagaria’s politicians lack, I’m obliged to explain my where-about since January One. Honestly, all I can tell you is that I experimented the ‘retreat-to-advance’ tactics. To know is to flow. To know is to have an edge: know-l-edge. Also, special mention must be made of the brilliant ingenuity and rare technological acumen of the organizers of this medium. The truth must be told that this platform is blithering impossible without your invaluable scientific muse and thoughtful initiative to huddle literate humanity into this giant, magnanimous but yet invisible and intangible hawk. I presume your inspiration to be Noah’s ark. But, be it as it may, I doff my hat for your unprecedented sagacity and peculiarity of thought, most especially for decamping the tent of status quo conformers and refusing to be prisoners of tradition. That I must say unarguably makes you a reformer. Nevertheless, it is my daily prayer that the cosmic and seismic forces of your ideas ferry us to the radar of greater cross-cultural interception and intimacy. Amen.

Having fulfilled protocol, let me, in my best interest quit filibuster or dilly-dallying as some fellow internet itinerants may perceive my salutation libation by quickly delving into the crux of the day. But, before I proceed, permit me to note that “ewure to wole  ti o kagbo, o deran amuso, aguntan to wole ti o kagbo, oun naa di eran a kanpa”. A potential prey that fails to pay obeisance before a prospective predator is liable to be preyed upon. Likewise, an Amaechi that travels to Abuja must, as a matter of compulsion and formality and in other to forestall any anti-presidency wrath and scourge, prostrate before Her royal Eminence, Amazon 1, Fellow-widowers 1, Grammarian 1, Skin-bedecked-in-cosmetic-jewelry 1, the person of Aunty Patience.”

“Decorum!

Decorum!! All sentiments and resentments pocketed.”

“Thanks for the intervention honorable clerk. Decorum, please respectable gentlemen and chemically treated-haired cyber ladies. I don’t want us to be sidetracked or hijacked by such a flippant issue. I’m sure you’re aware of its inexhaustive-ness. I must confess that my diaphragm had a slight crack at the recent explosion of her self-styled rhetoric. That was on the just commemorated international women’s day in Niagaria. ‘musical actress’ indeed! Anyways, that’s a subject for yet another day. Hon. Pat. will sure do justice to that much later. But for now, let’s face the pith of today.

Seriously, life is wonderful, amazing, beautiful, resplendent and enjoyable. But, like all other things in life that operates on the law of cause and effect, what is sowed is reaped. Meanwhile, you’ll agree with me that the season of sowing can be onerous, tedious and excruciating. Those of us who are made-in-farm folks can bear me witness. Just like yesterday, the memory of those years is as bright as a light beam. The back-breaking and frenetic teenage years of cutting thick teaks and ant-infested trees, clearing of land, tilling of the soil and making of ridges I recall with visible clarity. What about the almost incessant tenure of pulling those stubborn undergrowths called weed? How about the compulsive process of irrigation during post-planting months when Uncle Sun microwaves the earth with scorching elemental harshness? Manuring? Just to mention a few.

But, interestingly, as the operations of the law of cause and effect, unto the farmer a baby is subsequently born. His name shall be: Produce. Yield. Food. Raw material. Wealth.

How amazing! How indispensable a flock of children to the healthiness of humanity! How germane the baby to the continuation of Adam progenitors! How pleasing the reward to the farmer! A succor? Indeed, that’s the reward of labour.

Fellow space-scrapers, I beseech you to disallow eye fatigue at this moment. This is a crucial moment. And for those of us who believe in the anti-narcotic efficacy of kola nut, you can see the sensuous-dimpled, ebony tall hostess at the right far-end of this fuselage for a basketful of it.

Away from the spheres of agronomy, the natural law of cause and effect or what some of our book people call, the domino effect or law of carma holds sway in virtually every facet of human endeavour. Let’s borrow a leaf from the life style of our genuine respectable Aladuras, their generic name I mention with shiver and cower. Participant observation reveals that they are wont to consecration and Puritanism so as to communicate with The Divine and vindicate people from the shackles and hold of career stagnancy, infertility, wretchedness and what have you. How they do that, my mouth can’t mutter. But, what is evident and at the same time instructive about them is that they suffer (through long-stretch fasts and aggressive prayers, like I heard with one ear from an acolyte to one of them, a trusted friend) so as to offer themselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. Thus, enjoy offer from worshippers. Abi, is it untrue that to intercede is to be reward with a seed? Is it not where we work that we shop? Is that not why the two words were amalgamated into ‘workshop’?

Can a woman be a mother without the wails and agonies of childbirth?

Can a student excel in an examination without vigorous study? (When I say excel, I mean excel, not the settlement mentality that pockmarks Niagaria’s educational sector)

Fellow internet travelers, the truth must be told no matter how bitter it tastes. I suppose this was what Usman Dan Fodio (of blessed memory) meant when he submitted that the conscience is an open wound, only the truth can heal. In my opinion, a foe that hurts with the truth is far better than a groveling friend who, guided by hypocrisy and tacit mischief, pacifies one with furnished lie. I stand to be corrected. But, however, It is in view of this notion that I thought it deemed fit to open the can worm of truth, no matter whose ox is gored!

To underscore the correctness of the maxim “no pain, no gain” is a blithering waste of cyber time. It particularly nauseates me when I hear some youth vociferate: “I wan hammer”, “I need a hummer” amongst other balderdash utterances, with no willingness to be “a farmer”.  Tell me where a politician wins an election without first being an aspirant and then a candidate? Where is such done? Our people will say that the pot that must enjoy a delectable cuisine must first endure the fierce fury of the furnace, their ‘pot’ connotative of me and you. For every prize, a price is to be paid. Once more, the truth must be told that life is a test of endurance. It’s a process: a series of steps and a number of systemized instructions. Those bereft of this understanding are, as you will all agree with me, in the cavern of ignorance, in Disney fairytale. Hard work, diligence, perseverance, forbearance, patience and endurance have, -over the years-, proven key to reach self-desired Olympian height.”

“Uhn uhn! Order!! Silence in the plane, please. Decorum! No murmur, rumour or humour!!”

“Thank you honorable clerk of the house.

Dear fellow cyber-users, I’m not in any way oblivious of your groans. Your litany of ‘we-have-had-enough’ has also reached my ears! Though to some, this is a screed sermon on the mount: an unsolicited epistolary! Anyways, time will tell. But, quite unfortunate is that they don’t know that to prepare is to forestall repair. I have to draw the curtain now before you’re overtaken by the blindness of bitterness. Thus, missile gaffes, stones, folded paper chip, plastic water can, boo, invectives and of course, chairs and voodoo, at my humble self.

But, lastly before I leave this rostrum, I pray us all to have it at the back of our individual minds that the alphabetical distinction between the word: ‘Here’ and ‘There’ is ‘T’. The ‘T’ typifies time. In order words, the difference between where you are and where you desire to be is Time. I won’t want to forget to add this: Solomon, the unbeaten man in the matter of polygamy, in his colossal wisdom said there’s time for everything. A time to suffer and a time to enjoy a swarm of offers. You can browse the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes, chapter three to be precise, if you share the same DNA with Thomas. The time to endure, invest, struggle or implant is snippet compared to the till-death-do-I-and-my-gains-apart years of succor, indelible influence, irresistible charisma, oceanic prosperity, trans-generational opulence, power, prestige and property that awaits anyone who endures the inevitable throes and thorns on the path to greatness. Growth, as said by the philosopher, Fredrick Hegel comes through groan. For every sincere hustle, there’s a dazzle, regardless of the polity’s resolve to keep the populace in bondage by its failure to provide enabling ground for the majority to leverage. Dem talk say na the minority dey emerge seniority in the game of life. God will do justice to that. As a matter of fact, let us not think about what Niagaria can do for us, but what we can do for her ailing self. Finally, no short cut, please! It has inherent gun shots that cut life short! Desire the offer? Please, endure the ‘suffer’!

Thanks for the patience. God bless!”

***

Picture quote: Google 

I’m @Imodoye_1 on twitter

…Kip da Optimism Alive!

“SAAAKA! BUDGET A TARGET FOR 2014!”

     

  ‘Kayode Oyero

“Here’s a new year. Be clear. Don’t just stare at it; steer your gear with meticulous care to avoid rickety wear and tear. Put the chart before the cart. Aimlessness is silliness. People who fail to prepare do have course to repair. A life devoid of strategy plunges easily into the pit of tragedy. This year must be better, not bitter! ” –O.J.O

Grin… grin….

“Hello Uncle Imodoye! Merry belated Christmas and a prosperous new Year Sir!”

“Ah! Saka! I caught you this time! You think I wouldn’t decipher it is you. Abi? Even if my blurry defective sight makes it impossible to see the identity of the caller on my phone’ screen, my gift of recognizing the voices of familiar people no matter how much they feign disguise would forever remain intact.

*Laughs* “Uncle Imodoye! You and your comics! The Discerner of faceless voices indeed!”

“Saka, Iwo lomo – only you understand what you’re driving at, anyways, A ku odun. Emi a se pupo E laye ninu oro, owo, alaafia ati aiku bale oro- happy New Year to you too. May we live to celebrate and commemorate more of this day in functional and stable health, jaw-dropping wealth and tranquil peace.

“Ase – Amen. Oju wa to ri eyi yoo ri omiran – We’ll surely set our eyes on yet another by God’s grace.”

“Amin –Amen. Saka how’s the festive climate in the city?”

“Uncle Imodoye, nothing away from the traditional pomp and pageantry, the cultural bustling and buzzing: the deafening din from the speakers of commercial disc sellers; tuneless and endless shrill fuss of generating sets and the nuisance of alarming fireworks!”

“Such phenomenon can’t be dissociated from city life festivity, not in a busty cosmopolitan city in the salt of Lagos.”

*Intercepts* “Ehen, Uncle lest I forget, have you heard the latest news about the proposed 2014 federal budget?”

“No, Saka. Anything unusual from the usual explosively outrageous loot and gluttonous cut of the national cake, under the guise of government funding?”

“Yes Uncle. There is more unusual to the usual.”

“Gbe simi leti Saka- Let the cat out of the bag, Saka. I have not been abreast of topical national occurrences for a while.”

“Okay Uncle, I will. But what’s responsible for your outdatedness? It’s pretty unlikely of you to…”

“The cell of my transistor radio got dampened some few days before Christmas and Kamilu is yet to get me another. And you know my Nokia 3310 doesn’t have an inbuilt radio. I’m in darkness Saka. Kamilu is such a compassionless and irresponsible caretaker. He disregards the aged, forgetting that the withering of the dry leaf is a warning to fresh ones.”

“Ahn-ahn! Darkness in broad daylight?!”

“Yes. Anybody out of socio-political cum economical consciousness is in darkness. A person out of the reach of information and news aptly domicile in the cave of life, the dungeon of unawareness where subterranean darkness rules both the night and the day. That aside, what did you mean by the unusual to the usual in the proposed Nigerian budget for this year?”

“Uncle, it is the allocation of N125, 629, 606 for the purchase, feeding, clothing and accommodation of Alsatian dogs for the police force. Uncle, you can imagine setting aside one hundred and twenty-five million, six-hundred and twenty-nine thousand and six hundred and six Naira for the recruitment of bonny-snouted bingos into the force? All for the civil maintenance of internal laws and orders? Are they heavy-duty machine guns?”

“That’s outrageously calamitous! It’s indeed surreal. Why spend so much on the Falcon when little is spent on the Falconer. Or is it not a well-fed stomach that can carry-out effective clandestine surveillance and intelligent gathering and consequently deploy their over-cost purported knight in shining armour to tackle miscreants and mischief-makers?”

“Abi o!- I second you.”

“Saka, was it not last week that I saw a flat-bellied emaciating policeman walked slowly, cautiously and consciously. At first, I was confounded as to why he was lethargic not until a clinical perusal of his feet did I discovered his racked weather-beaten sole-apart boot was the cause of his draggy stride? Seriously, the development is indeed a grand unusual style to the usual manner of theft and malfeasance. Feeding dog with incredible millions while humans are left unfed? It’s pathetic!”

“Ah! Uncle Imodoye! That’s not all o! Do you also know that the presidency also presented N34.5 million, an equivalent of S230,000. Just for the procurement and welfare of two imperceptible animals for the villa zoo?”

“Mysteries and miseries are happening! Saka! You truly and really mean what you’re saying about this 2014 budget?”

“Yes Uncle. All the facts are contained in the dailies and other news media.”

“Saka, not that I distrust you, but I’m wondering why a substantial percentile of the budget will be allocated to the acquisition of two terrestrial or aquatic animal when human-relevant and beneficial sectors lay fallow. It’s pitiable, the dearth of altruistic leaders.”

“Very lamentable Sir!”

“I see! Politics and politricks! But that as it may, Saka, have you also budget your targets for this freshly delivered year?”

“I don’t understand you Uncle. Budget a target? Budgeting is the business of the government and not mine, a common citizen.”

“Saka, you’re rightly incorrect! Budgeting is not an exclusive of the government, be it at federal or state or grass root level but also goal-oriented people. It’s pertinent for any focus-driven individual to outline his or her agenda, goals to aim at, objective to pursue and ambition to chase come the start of every year. Isn’t what the Christian scripture in Habakkuk chapter two verses two meant when it enjoined: ‘Write down the vision, and make it plain upon tablet, that he may run that readeth it’?”

“Oh! So true Uncle. I haven’t seen it in such light.”

“You see, Saka, a budget is incontrovertible a sturdy gadget to hit a target. Hard work hardly works when a goal is lacking. In other words, hard work devoid of well-articulated strategy results to wasted energy.”

“Waoh! But Uncle, what is budget sef in practical term?”

“Good. Budget in practice is an agenda enlisting a set of objectives to be actualized within a time frame; an identified process to ensure its accomplishment; strategies to get it achieved and possible ways to surmount probable inevitable hurdles that may pose as challenging threat to the realization of the spelt objective. To summarily put, the concept of budgeting is tantamount to ‘counting the cost’. All in all, it is to ensure fulfillment of future goals within a specified period of time. You know dreams are seedlings of reality and goals, dreams with a deadline.”

“Fantastic detail! But Sir, what are goals and why is it even necessary to set goals?”

“Saka, a goal is a compass to surpass a future shrouded with uncertainties. It is a portfolio of desire and expectation. It can also be said to be a target which can be hit by a gadget called budget. Outlining goals is all about calculative and strategic planning as to how to birth your objectives into reality.

“Hmmn!”

“You see, essential is the necessity that goals must be clearly stated and pursued with the simplest approach, because simple advance can sometimes prove to be most effective. You see, Aburo, don’t aim too low and too grandiose while setting a list of goals, but rather find something that is possible, so achievable, so pure, so satiating, so simple, so idealistic, so realistic and so basic to life and then slingshot at it. Having a goal makes for coordinated effort because you have sagaciously calculated the end from the beginning. You see, definite goals foster definitive accomplishment(s)!

“Uncle, I think your inference is that every gender must have an agenda this year.”

“Ori E pe - correct! That’s exactly what I’m saying. A gender with an agenda sets personal objectives and ensures that his or her extant and potential actions are in consistent with such planned goals. They are thoughtfully reflective and are Gurus at self-analysis. They ruminate on:

‘How can I steer clear from the recurrence of commotions, emotional turbulence and career demotions that bedeviled me last year?’

‘What can I do positively differently?’

‘How can I forge resistance, in the year here, to the limitations that inhibited me from the accomplishment of certain set goals the erstwhile year?’”

“Uncle Imodoye, I think they are Soul-searchers.”

“Yes. They are. Saka! Saka! Saka! How many times did I call you?”

“E meta sa- thrice Sir!”

“It’s time you switch from merriment to attainment. Better late than never; it’s not yet late to write out your shopping list for this year in all areas of your life: a new year resolution. A budget is a sure-fire gadget to knock down a self-projected target! Bye bye! Greet Risikatu and the children for me.”

#####

I’m @Imodoye_1 on Twitter

…Kip da Optimism Alive!