The World As it Spins

A Few Lessons From 2013. As this year draws to a conclusion, I thought of a few lessons I have learnt from the year 2013 which I have decided to share for the enlightenment of mankind. These are lessons I wish to carry with me into 2014, I’ll also carry the accompanying stories with me. What goes around comes around What goes around doesn’t always come around, but most times it does come around. So whatever you do to others, do it as you’d want it done to you. The story below really happened to me, this year. One of my buddies was having a birthday shindig and I happened upon the party. I pleasantly gatecrashed and surprised him with my presence. Everyone who knew me couldn’t believe I was at the gig. There was this dude who couldn’t handle his surprise well. We had this convo: Him : Dude! I can’t believe this is really you. Me : ( In my usual drawl ) It’s me oh bros. Him : I can’t believe am seeing you here, how did you come? Me : I came the normal way. Him ...

Its Christmas again! Year after year, we remember the birth of our lord. Am mighty glad, to experience this Christmas again. May the joy and hope that Christmas brings continue to shine in our lives. In the spirit of Christmas, I forgive all those who have trespassed against me; like the dude who come with the proposal of eating my dog for Christmas, though it is disgusting I still forgive. On to heartier matters now, Kunu tastes better during Christmas, or so I think. That's what am sipping on right now. Merry Christmas!

Gracious God, you’ve been all so good even at times I have been such a riff raff. It feels so good to know you’ve got my back. Now everything fits into place like a huge jigsaw puzzle, sometimes it leaves me puzzled how you condone my mischief and misdemeanor. I feel overwhelmed by your love, all I can offer is my heart, and all I can utter is my thanks. I now believe I was made for worship, living for you Lord and loving you Lord, these go hand in like love and like; like love and life. Like the Ark and the Priests Like the mark and the Beast Like a shark and the Seas Like a track and its beats This not just a collection of some rhymes, it is collection of what I feel sometimes. Like trying to never be ashamed of my Lord, always repping my God. My God who has been running the biggest transformation agenda of all time, the keeper of all time, he who keeps pouring his grace on me all the time. I have a reason I will say this all the time, God’s love has no seasons-it is for all ...

we continue from where we stopped in yesterday's discussion on starting small businesses. Trustworthiness Seriously nobody wants to do business with a perceived crook not to talk of a real crook, maintain a healthy image. An image of a cheating, win-at-all-cost, dishonest businessman will keep genuine customers and investors away. Never get greedy, cheat or do some behind-the-back dealings on your partner. Do not deal in fake products or substandard goods, let your yes be yes do not shift collection/delivery dates unnecessarily. Long and short of the matter is this : maintain a clean image. PS. Stay away from people with bad rep who will paint you guilty by association in the eyes of customers and investors. Look the Part As a young Exec, you should look the part. I’d advice you get a suit (I hear that’s the key to closing deals in Abuja). While a suit may not be really really important, it is important you dress smart whenever you go for an engagement, especially a...

Starting A Business With the unemployment rate in Nigeria hovering at about 22%, a lot of young persons are taking things into their hands and starting businesses to sustain themselves on. Even employed persons still delve into small businesses for some extra cash. I have come in contact with a few budding Execs these last six months and I gained a lot from them especially when it comes to the issues of  starting and breaking out with a new or novel business. This is in addition to the countless hours I have spent interacting with other businessmen on Nairaland, my personal experience as well as studying accomplished businessmen. When it comes to starting a business, here are a few fundamentals as well as helpful tips off the Playbook that will come in handy. Seriously, the playbook exists, I saw it once. Most successful businessmen have copies and from their actions we can extrapolate what the playbook says. Uniqueness Do not start a business just because ...

Building Business Partnerships that Work Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. Silas and Joseph. What do lasting partnerships have in common? They lasted a long time -- and in some cases are still going strong. Why is it that some partnerships succeed while others crash and burn? Here are some tips for building successful business partnerships that stand the test of time, sourced from observation, study, personal experience and a chanced glance at The Businessman’s Playbook. Trust There should be trust between intending partners. Trust is a fundamental factor in every type of partnership, be it marriage, courtship or even friendship. It is pertinent to be able to trust your partner to make the right choices and possess the capacity to put you at ease with his/her character. So there wouldn’t be any need to go snooping about. Bottomline: Go for a trustworthy partner. Any doubt is unh...

Here are seven random issues that are burning on my mind at present that I need to unburden my self of. 1. Mandela's Passing Mandela no doubt was a great man, much bandwidth has been expended in extolling his numerous virtues; forgiveness, humility, sacrifice and so on. Arguably he was the greatest man of his century who has shown us a great example in the aforementioned virtues. May his soul rest in peace, and may the world learn and be inspired by his life. 2. Mandela's Passing II : South Africa's Perceived Ingratitude To Nigeria I am reading and I have observed many Nigerians (myself included) suspect that South Africans have forgotten or chosen to ignore the role Nigeria played in bringing down apartheid. I don't know but I also suspect that RSA has also been feeling it is out of the league common Africa. Well, they are free to feel what they want to feel, what Nigeria has done for them cannot be wished away, they ignoring it doesn't change that fact. It i...

Success IS the Journey: God first! : In the beginning God … ­ – Genesis It is in our revised culture to celebrate the beginnings of things. A child is born and we celebrat... Have this! It's good to be back.

Love in my heart Warmth in my heart, This a feeling a thousand words can't say A feeling Eight thousand words can't say I have reason to live I have risen to live.

The NeonCore TM Philosophy Neon [nee on] : A trace element that glows when electricity is passed through it. Neon is commonly used in lamps. Core [kawr] : The central or most important part of something. Neon Core : To have a neon core means your soul/being radiates a glow, and illuminates the immediate environment; this glow is usually associated with or could be a result of happiness, wisdom, salvation, joy, or enlightenment. Synonym : Spark Examples of usage: “David is such a cool guy; he sure has a Neon Core ”. “I don’t know what is happening to Zainab, I don’t see/feel her Neon Core ”. Note : The Neon Core could be seen or felt. So what is the Neon Core Philosophy? The neon core philosophy is all about the glow, the light and the human core. Having a Neon Core means you stand out for the wisdom, grace, and joy you radiate everywhere you go no matter the present challenges. Even Jesus Christ had a lowdown of this back then when he said something li...

The tale recounted is based on true events Some weeks back, on Nigeria’s Independence Day to be precise, I planned to spend the whole day indoors. That I did, I spent the day watching movies and lazying in bed. It turned out to be a quiet day all through, nothing spectacular until I received a call. An Uncle* of mine who lived in the same compound with us called me on phone and said I should meet him on his side of the house. It was about 4 pm so I trudged to his apartment, expecting to be sent on an errand. When I got there, he simply gave me a cob of roasted Maize and some Olives and that was that. It was very funny, almost awkward. I carried this funny look on my face that made his wife laugh at the situation. He just encouraged me to give it a try. I took huge bite off the cob, shaving off a large swathe of roasted Maize seeds from the cob, and then went for the Olives which turned out to be sour. Dang! The sensation is beyond description, especially when the Olive...

The strike has entered its fifth month. Lord have mercy on us, I don’t even know what to think anymore. There seems to be nothing new, save for the old stalemate. The Federal Government has been begging and the lecturers have been adamant. The students (most of them) have been idle, serving as laboratories for the devil. Just in case you have no idea about what you are reading, you are not Nigerian hence I’ll briefly summarize what has been happening. On the 1 st of July, the university lecturers (college professors as they are called elsewhere) went on an indefinite strike saying that this agreement they entered with the Federal Government in 2009 after a strike was not honored (I got into University in the year 2010 instead of 2009 due to that particular strike). I had been wondering what students could do to end this strike or accelerate its end. Maybe students affected could go on a protest, shut down the nation and grind everything to a halt and force everyone involved ...

Today is my Dad's birthday. Happy Birthday Dad. I wish I were home, it would have been a good day for my tummy. I just disposed my phone off, I feel like am in some cave, deep in the Atlas mountains. So, what has been happening? Did I miss something? To my ex phone, we have gone through a lot together, serve your new master well as you have served me well. You know all my secrets, spill them not. For lack of anything serious to say, I'll end this right after this > full stop.

I really love music, in fact I am currently writing some rock song. I call it “Day walker”, it is actually a cover song, and you guessed right, it’s an Owl City cover song. Am 50% done with the writing, if it turns out real cool I may think of recording it eventually. By the way, I’m in need of some help in writing a verse of the song, if you have experience in song writing and you are interested you can kindly hit me and save a bro. The song is not about Money, Sex, A woman’s behind, Booze. The above is the summary of hit tracks these days. I for one am sick of hearing sex maniacs on the radio all the time. Most of the time the tracks they play on the radio are highly perverse and I wonder what children are expected to do. Oh, it’s such music that is regularly played at children’s parties and similar events. I complained to a friend on how empty and perverse lyrics are these days and he told me all that matters is the beat. True, but why must it be always on the same old se...

I spent my Public Holidays in Jos. I was there last in 2009 when I went for my University of Jos Post UTME screening, I had wanted to study Computer Engineering there. They were stingy with their admission and God rewarded me with admission at a better school (no hard feelings). A few things have changed since I was there last, everything still looks vaguely familiar. The girls there are still very fine ;-D .It was really a cool trip, it was also very cold. At some point it was 18 Degrees Celsius, I was just there shivering. If being born in a place confers citizenship, I went to my hometown. Now am back in warm Abuja, the warm sun light is a welcome change from the shiver inducing Jtown cold. Am at work and most of my peeps are not here, just four out of about twenty interns showed up. It is boring and dry. Lest I forget I had this weird dream (a recurrence of the dream actually). In the dream I did a job and got paid a 9 digit sum. The first thing I did? I ran to propose [marriag...

Good God! I just saw my blog has received about 1030 page views. This is goodnews, the fact some blogs recieve about 4k pageviews in a day notwithstanding. This got me reminiscing on the history I share with computers and the Internet. I remember the first time I saw a computer. It was sometime in 2002, my Primary School had acquired a computer at that time and the computer tutor took pride in teaching us about it. I remember part of our lessons included practicals in which Mr Moses the tutor would summon you to 'the computer' and ask you to type your name. I recall approaching the computer with great awe, and humility and using my right index finger to 'input' my name, I-M-M-A-N-U-E-L. I recall the great pride that followed afterwards. I was in awe of 'the computer'. We were taught we not to just put it off like a TV, we had to carry out some special procedures called 'shutting down'. Only one dude in my class, Elijah Monday knew how to shut down ...

This occured Friday night last week. I was sitting at a table listening to the Night Visions album by Imagine Dragons. My FUT Minna pictures were doing a slideshow. Then it came over me like a wave. If I were in school what would I be doing right then? Its 9:40pm most likely I would have be chilling in my house, or pursuing the things that give me peace. Things like walking home from school at night, alone with my thoughts and escorted by a little fear. Sometimes staring at the lights from town make me happy. Other times taking in the beauty of the campus at night from the Penthouse of my complex does it for me. When can I do these again? The fact that I Can not pursue any of my weird habits here really bores a hole thru my heart. I miss my buddies, who don't mind me visiting at really odd hours of the night. Or my room mate who has to bear with me disturbing him with Owl City music. Those are real good times. I really miss school. Not school school. School outside the classroom, t...

There are sometimes lots of questions begging for answers arise. Will I get job when I graduate? Will I graduate with something better than a 2:2? My CGPA is dancing [Skelewu] on the brink and I constantly pray it doesn’t sink further. Will ten years meet me with a PhD or shooting videos in HD? Will I grow up to be a technocrat formulating policies or will I turn out to be a business man. Will all my grand lofty dreams work out or will they be crushed on the cold slab of reality? Will my life be a true success? How much impact am I making? Do not get me wrong I do not doubt myself, I do not doubt my abilities nor do I doubt God. In fact the one thing I am sure of is this: Jesus has got my back, so everything connects and holds together like my vertebrae. Plus no backaches! I remember five years ago when I was still in Secondary School, I had so many questions too. I wasn’t sure if I would be a doctor or a pilot, I didn’t know if I would be a student at Bingham University or a ...

It’s going to be an avalanche of laughter When we meet and thereafter The cold dewy night shall give us audience And our happiness will fill this place with ambience It’s going to be to be an Avalanche of tears When the time to leave draws near It will pain my heart seeing your face leak Staining your pretty face with salty streaks It’s going to be an Avalanche of memories When you remember those melodies Which we sang when we were young But of late have remained unsung

Hey guys, my friend Chimieze graciously agreed to contribute this short piece. Read and Enjoy! People get sad, then keep that sorrow bottled up in them hoping for the strength to carry on. Sometimes, in weak moments they wish their tears would come out like the rain and give them comfort. Now it is my turn. I am sad. I held my tears and comforted myself with false imagery to ease my pain. But now, it all comes out and I let the tears fall down my cheek...then the clouds change and the rain pours. I begin to wonder why the rain is compared to tears. Tears slowly slope down in drops and show the world we are hurt and we are able to bare our souls. While the rain falls completely confident that you can not stop it. You can not even rub it off like you do with a handkerchief and a tear. When it falls, you know it because it stands out to be seen.  So, it easy to get hurt and show our tears because we are all humans. But it take guts and courage to show that we can overcome s...

Some hours past midnight as I slept, rolled off my bed and landed with a thud on the cold tile floor. I hit my coconut head on the floor, I could tell that from coconut sound the impact my cranium made as it hit the floor, and of course there’s the pain that was so real. I just scrambled back to bed in the dark, thankful that today was a public holiday. I nursed headaches and wild dreams all through as I slept.  I woke up late in the morning, the headache was gone but then my room in some vague way looked different. Looking out the window, I discovered I was on the 4 th or 5 th floor of a condo somewhere in Abuja. From my window I could see little children all dressed in green shirts waving little Nigerian flags as they marched through the streets. Didn’t President Goodluck say today’s Independence celebration will be low key?  Whatever was going on outside down below was big, there was fanfare and confetti all about the street. I get dressed and go down to the...

Before I walk away, I wrote this on New Year’s Day. Can’t really recall what triggered it though. It’s just somber and sad. It’s from way back, when I wrote a lot. Before I walk away, I shall speak my mind How does something so sure never come to be? How come you and I never became? How? I don’t beat up myself because of us anymore Like the pulp that was beat up to birth the gray paper on which I imprint my thoughts I don’t Before I walk away, I should say I don’t feel hurt that you walked away into the sunset All things work together for good It is for good I believe we don’t walk together anymore I loved you, I guess you loved me too Before I walk away, let this note stand forever A testament to a love that may have grown old Let this note spring forth other notes uniting and giving me sad music That will accompany me as I walk away Before I walk away, let it be known that I am not sad I never regret the moments we had However, you my ...

Here is a Crazy To-Do list my friends and I compiled. Most of them are low risk, try them out and give me feedback. 1. Talk About The super Eagles To the next driver at a red light Recently, I was in a taxi in Garki Abuja (that was the day Nigeria was drawn against Ethiopia in the world cup knock out qualifiers). Our taxi driver, a boisterous happy man wasn’t satisfied with the dry company we the sullen passengers provided (I was the most sullen). So he did it. At the next red light he looked to the next driver and began. “Oga them don fix us with Ethiopia oh, sha I believe with God’s help we go win them” The stupefied look on the other driver’s face was priceless. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. When next I drive, I will try this out, only that I’ll break the latest news in Sub atomic Physics to the driver beside me. I’ll be like “Bros did you hear that a new subatomic particle has been discovered? Do you know what this means for science?!!!” Then I will go ahead to throw...

Phewww. It is Tuesday afternoon and here am I writing Monday's post. What can I say? I sincerely apologize for the delay. First things first. My heart goes out to kenya as they go through these trying moments as a nation. Evil people are everywhere but good will eventually overcome. The Westgate incidence has left me with some sort of phobia for Shopping centres. I see my monthly window shopping pilgrimage to Shoprite coming to a slow end. I think I will make do with shopping online for now. In other news, today being 24th September I'd be attending the Social Good Summit. Every muscle in my body is reluctant, but since I know a whole lot of good is going to happen there, I'd be there. On second thought, we shouldn't give terrorists a chance to infuse fear in us. I think my window shopping pilgrimages will recieve a boost. Infact I'll extend it to Silverbird Galleria.

Hey Guys. Here is a poem I wrote some months back about the universities being "theatres of spilt dreams". How prophetic! With the ASUU strike on inching towards the 90 day mark with no hope in sight, a lot of dreams are getting spilt. Read and mourn with me. :-( Theatres of Spilt Dreams Beyond the sphere of thoughts Men dream Yet the dreams of men have sunk beneath the black earth Spilt by the crushing weight of brick walls Wail ye, wail ye The dreamer is emasculated Where shall I sow my seed dreams? The tower of ivory is a theatre of spilt dreams 

I don’t know if this is even newsworthy; this blog crossed the 600 page view mark this weekend. Hurray!!! I feel very pleased, pleased that people are reading my stuff. This weekend I carried a nasty head ache from Friday to Sunday, thank God for church. I was healed! Can I get an Amen? Aside the headaches and the 600 times my blog was viewed, other things sat in my head in random order. Like the future, my visions and dreams. I want to be a lot of things some of which are written here . However here are some of my other dreams which I will like to share with you. Being a writer is something I have always dreamed of, writing interesting books that are subsequently made into movies. Before these books turn into movies they develop into comics so that I start seeing characters I create on t shirts, mugs, in shoprite, and on the schoolbags of Abuja school kids. One more thing, I dream of owning the t shirt company. It wouldn’t hurt to own a mall, to this end I found time to l...

I watched the film The Lorax last weekend and I must admit: I was touched. In the film there is a town where the air is polluted so people have to buy clean air and there were no trees. It takes the determination of a little boy to convince the town’s folk to let him plant a tree and let it grow. The environment is continuously damaged by human activities. It is so bad that some Chinese fear the air they breathe. Cancer is one of the leading killer diseases there. Their problem we may say, but environmental issues are not always like that. The mess is made in one country; the effect is felt in more than one country. For instance some of the air pollutants in Los Angeles USA originate from China. The floods we had in Nigeria last year were due to release of excess water in Cameroun! Environmental issues have been largely ignored in our society, until the floods of October last year came. Climate change is for real and the time to act is now, we do not need to consult any Ma...