PROJECT L.E.A.D

Today's a day I won't ever forget easily.

It was the day we had a seminar with the students of Lagos State University, Ojo campus. I was among the organizers as well as one of the speakers.

The seminar was titled Project L.E.A.D and we had eminet professionals coming to speak; there was Mrs. Uche Majekodunmi, the owner of Newton & David, a renown interior and exterior decoration and florist outfit which had gathered a number of awards for impact in the industry, we had Gbenga Sesan; an IT professional, powerful speaker and Nigeria's first Information Technology Youth Ambassador who has spoken in over 20 countries, we had Niyi Adesanya, a high profiled speaker whose company Fifth Gear Consulting has addressed and done consulting for mega corporations and high profile individuals, and we also had Emmanuel Effiong-Bright, a Brand Sepcialist whose oratory power of speech is always guranteed to ignite a vicious desire to change in you.





We (Oragnizers) got to the venue, the dramatic theatre hall, at about 7.00am to make sure everything was in place before 10.00am when the program would start.

By 10.30am, the sound engineers were nowhere to be seen, the projector guy was telling us stories over the phone, and some student excos said they needed to build a set in the hall so we were time bound.


Then Tolu, our leader got a call that he had to fill in for another Doctor at work urgently. Now we had to go on without him.


Then our speakers except Mrs Majekodumi, arrived.


Then the Honourable Health Commmitee Chairman from Lagos State House of Assembly, arrived.

And the sound engineers were nowhere to be seen. The projector guy goofed and couldn't get it down to the venue.

And the students were leaving for a test or lecture.

Things were not looking good and it had reached a point where one could give up.

But we needed to act fast and do something. We couldn't afford to give up.

Finally, Kenny, one of our facilitators had to get another sound engineer who got his equipment down to the venue and began to set up. After setting up, the equipment failed to work!


Boy! Did I feel like the devil was seriously after our progress! I said prayers to god under my breath and held on to faith that things will work out.

After waiting for about an hour, The Honourable Chairman took his leave because he had other businesses to attend to.

We had to fashy the projector since all efforts to get one failed.


Finally the sound guy got his equipment working...but his equipment didn't include music! Drat!

We had to think of something. Quickly I got my laptop and plugged it with a connecting cable which we had to wire up using earphone cables and attaching it to the big cables of the sound dashboard. At last Asa's music belted through the huge speakers and the attention and interest of students was ignited.


Niyi Adesanya opened the event by saying a few things to alert interest of the students.


Lin Chung the stand up comic took the stage and got the students laughing. gradually more people began to troop into the auditorium out of curiousity.

Kenny gave a talk on the stock market, I did my stuff on creativity delivering it like I never did before and charged the students up.

By the time speakers took up the mic and began to deliver, more people streamed into the hall. Mrs. majekodunmi joined us by 2.00pm and took the stage. She delivered stuff borne out of her own experience and touched the heart of the students.

Emmanuel Effiong-bright shacked up the audience with powerful issues on branding that set students scribbling madly on their papers.


Gbenga Sesan stirred the audience in an angry delivery of how to get employed without experience using his own personal experiences.


Niyi Adesayna set the students retrospecting and gaping for more with his brief talk on capacity building.


He stated there may be need to come back to LASU to talk more to the students because there was so much to tell them about the outside world, especially the final year students.

The seminar ended very well, students besiged us to get contacts and take pictures. We were so thankful we said a prayer together thanking God for turning things around when everything looked like it would flop. We had spend so much on the event solely with our own money since sponsors failed to respond. (I'll be doing an entry on this issue later). The seminar had been free with no fee attached to it and the students came heard and when they left were not the same again.


I'll put up pictures from the event later as soon as I get them from Ola, one of our facilitators.

The Watchers - Part Two

"Bros, shey you wear your wedding ring?" Tunde the PA asked.

"No, why?" Kenny replied.

"I for say make you take style flash your hand make those babes know say you don marry"

I burst into laughter. It didn't occur to me that Tunde had also seen the mystery women who by now had left the line beside us and were now right behind us. From our sitting position and the way in which Kenny rested on the armrest between us, he was at a better vantage point to be oogled at by the mystery women. I was hidden from their view. I wasn't even going to take any second glance. A warning inside me told me it was dangerous.




"Tunde! Haba, can't you just ignore them and face your driving?" Kenny said still keeping a straight face. He didn't even bother to check what Tunde was yapping about. He was more pre-occupied with the worship music playing on the stereo and sang along with it. That's Kenny for you, once the music gets into him, he gets into it.

"You can't blame them anyway. Afterall, you be fine guy now, which is as a result of your wife's hard work" I added.

"Na you know oh" Kenny replied.

"Its true. All these ladies that find married men attractive don't realize that it's because their wives have worked well on them that they look that good; many of them want to eat where they have not sown." I emphazied.


Kenny and Tunde burst into laughter. I had said the latter part of my statement in yoruba and it sounded so hilarious the way I rendered it.


Finally, the road was clear and Tunde hit the gas pedal. The car picked speed and we left our watchers far behind in the crowd of fellow motorists.

The Watchers - Part one

I relaxed in the back seat of the Toyota corolla contemplating what the outcome of the rest of the day would turn out into. Kenny, my creative director sat next to me in the ‘owner’s corner’. Tunde, his PA was at the wheel.
The weather was humid again as it had been turning out to be in the past few days. But we could hardly feel it since the Corolla’s air-conditioning took care of everything. We were on our way home after spending four days at the Lekki Peninsular Resort where we had just concluded an official working retreat for one of our clients. We were very relieved to leave the place. Kenny had been missing his wife like crazy and I had been clamoring for a restful weekend.

We were held briefly in a small traffic around the Lekki Phase 2 axis. We waited patiently to move while Juanita Bynum belted powerful worship tunes over the car’s digital sound system.



A light brown Jeep (A Honda I think) drove up beside us in the hold up. Two dangerously cute ladies were in it. Not an unusual sight on the streets of Lagos where everybody tries to show off their rides with reckless abandon. I had taken a brief glance at the Honda and noticed the ladies - especially the one in the passenger seat next to the one driving – were looking at us. The one in the passenger seat refused to shift her gaze and I quickly shifted mine. Hiding my eye with all diligence

A thought hammered in my head. She put ‘something’ for eye?


To be continued....

THE SCANDALOUS WORKPLACE

I long to break out of employment and run my own outfit. I've just discovered that the place can be so trying on you in so many ways. Okay, I get to learn a number of things such as 'How not to run my own business' when the management screws up.

I also get to establish connections and build a network with people that are highly placed both in the business and entertainment world. There are some concessions that you get to enjoy such as official retreats and trainings that take place from time to time amongst other things.



But my pet peeve is with the emotional attachment that gets to grow in funny places; attachment to the job, attachment to the environment, attachment to the concessions. The one that scares the bejeebies out of me is the emotional attachment that tends to grow amongst colleagues; the one that factors the phenomenon called 'Office Romance'.



My workplace is fond of hiring dashing and attractive females.
And a number of males keep falling into their seductive traps. I don't blame the ladies,they can't help being pretty. It's the dudes that I will blame for not resisting the temptation of falling. But there are also females who enjoy the promiscuity so it’s a two sided situation.

I've seen married men go the adulterous lanes without any conscience, I've seen single guys pick ladies they just want to wham bang and thank. I've seen newly wedded ladies do 'Aristo' runs (Going on trips with yuppies or suga daddies) It all disgusts me but I've had to cope with it.






I've had a tough time keeping myself away from being pulled into this web of office scandals which runs from top to bottom management. I've had ladies who were attracted to me flirt around me in such a way that my hormones were almost raging out of control. Its always a mental war cuz I've had to refresh Biblical scriptures in my head as well as my fiancée’s image so that I stay loyal to her as well as to my God.


I became a close confidant to one of these ladies because I had mentored her when she first joined the company. Along the line, we got so close that I sensed we were about getting way too personal. I could see she had a crush on me and I had to fight off the urge to succumb into a sinful tango with her.

Believe when I say it was an emotional war, it really was. I'll probably tell the story some other time. It was really serious but I'd determined in my mind and thank God I didn’t succumb to it. We spend about 85% of our days at work every weekday and get to see these same colleagues at work. It’s no surprise that emotions get to grow. It’s been discovered that when you spend a lot of time with someone of the opposite sex, an attraction may build, even if the person isn’t cute!


You see why I feel like running my own thing? Maybe it’s not a very good excuse but man, I gotta get away from all those females before they do things to me. Boy I feel like Joseph who had to run from his seductive mistress...Men were designed to be attracted by what they see but there's a need to control it.

Proverbs 6:257

OUR KIDS IN DANGER 2

The world is a busy place.
Things are changing.
Mum and Dad gotta go to work.
They leave the kids with the housegirl
Or they send them to boarding school or just keep them away whichever way while they make money.
Mum and Dad hardly see their kids except on Holidays

As the kids grow, they become partial strangers from their parents
As the kids grow, they hide stuff from parents cuz they see them as people
they can't share everything with...



They learn from their peers more than from their parents cuz their parents are too
busy to have time for them.

Nyemoni asked a question, 'Where do we really draw the line'?
It looks like a tough question to answer but for every problem, I believe there's always a solution.
What a man sees or listens to or does frequently becomes part of him
what becomes part of him, he will always think of
what he thinks of, he becomes.




I believe that as a parent, one should be VERY close to their kids.
Spend quality time with them.
Become your child's best buddy and not just his Dad or Mum.
Don't be an authority figure that he or she'll just grow to fear
Be the one they'll want to share everything with.

I say this out of experience.
You know that kind of childhood where when you hear Dad's horn, you feel like going to hide?
Or everytime your parents go out you feel happier?



And the thing that actually brought you closer to them was when its time to get spanked...
And I'm not talking about being spanked with a ruler or a slap on the hand, I'm talking about being whipped with thick belts and rubber wires or shoes with nasty soles...
Some of us can relate with those moments and how it was back in the days but believe me, those are not the best ways to relate with your kids.

I said this earlier;
What a man sees or listens to or does frequently becomes part of him
what becomes part of him, he will always think of
what he thinks of, he becomes.

When your child is close to you, he or she sees, listens and does the right stuff with you.
It becomes part of them and they will always think of them.
And what you have put in them will address what they will become.
The best way is to bring them up in the fear of the Lord.

Proverbs 22:6
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

I believe I can do it better where my Parents did it wrong.

What about you?

OUR KIDS IN DANGER 1

I took a trip to 'Iya Oni bread's' shop to buy me some freshly supplied 'Agege bread'; that locally baked bread that many Naija kids grew on; a popular staple food next to garri.
There's was a supermarket nearby that sold the sliced bread variety but I just didn't feel like being an 'ajebutter' today. I was in the mood to go back to ma roots; I was itching for a razz meal of bread and tea.

I got to the shop and met three kids there having fun singing their favourite songs in turn. Its cute at times to watch them youngsters do all dat stuff but I just couldnt help but listen in shock as they belted out dirty lines from a dirty song by a controversial artist. A big question rang like a large sounding gong inside my head...

Should little Kids be really singing and dancing to stuff like this?

Another day, I had just gotten back from work and I heard nusic blasting next door. I took a walk to check out what the hulabaloo was all about. It was a kiddies party...and the music that was playing was 'Pretty Pussy' by lady saw, and the kids frolicked excitedly to the song! Another question rang thru my head...

Where is the age of innocence?

Its an age which every child ought to go thru. My own generation went thru it as little kids. In those days there were less dirty songs all over the place. There were actually songs that kids could sing,

musicians who skewed positively towards younger audiences were in good supply. Things have changed now...even youngster musicians are singing nasty stuff.

People say it don't matter, that its just the rythmn they'll dance to, that they'll never guess the lyrics. Wrong! That's no excuse. Infact its the more reason to be wary the more. Kids from toddlerhood till their teens are like tape recorders. They record stuff they come in contact with, and in this information age, because of the complex nature of our society today, Kids are learning much faster than before, smarter than their age. Know what that mean? They learn stuff quicker and get curious much more...

Its no wonder teenage pregnancy has blown into a higher proportion.

I fear for my own kids when they come into this world, with all the dirty music parading filthy lines, with all the music videos parading half naked women and debasing them before cameras and special effects.

Another bugger...why is it rampant among black stars? Theres hardly no hip hop or R&B music that doesn't sell hard knocking sexuality. Is it because black women are more bodily blessed that they must be put in the musical showglass and told to shake all manner of obscenity into the minds of every viewers?

Believe it or not, our kids are in DANGER!

WEED FOR THOUGHT

Crack is wack! Once you go crack, its hard to turn back. I've seen enuff folks go nuts over crack and become a recluse.

For anybody that's thinking of trying out crack..here're some tender crackhead moments...courtesy Damon Wayans LOL!

LOOSING MY MIND

Its a bad situation to be in and I don't wish it for anybody. It's that moment that many decided to pick suicide as an option. It takes a great deal strenght to hold on. It's one of the things that has attacked men and made them extinct. Today, the ratio of women to men is 5 to 1. Men are going out of circulation. Where is a friend when you need one? Should worries accelerate our mortality rate?

I worry...therefore I write...

Stuck
I’m trying to get out
I need the breath of freedom
Where are my friends?
Nowhere at all near
Its times like this
You know who’s true
Its times like this
You see through the blue
But I gotta move on
It’s not yet time to die
‘Cause I’m living for a reason
It’s my reason to keep living


My head grows heavy
My breath is palpitated
My eyes heated in misery
The solution, nothing but a mystery
Where’s your hand O Lord?
Where did I miss it dear God?
I’m hanging on the precipice
My mind is turning blind
And I’m fighting for foresight
Holding tight to my hindsight
I’m living for a reason
It’s my reason to keep living


Been here, staying strong
Been hounded too long
I long to see the light
Reach the tunnels end where it’s bright
I need a free conscience
To let go and save my senses
Where there’s His will
There’ll be a way
That’s really why
Another thing I’ll try
‘Cause I’m living for a reason
It’s my reason to keep living