KOBO vs NAIRA

Ufan mi,

That’s simply “My friends” in Efik language of Cross River State, Nigeria. Hope you had a nice weekend? It is my pleasure to welcome you to another episode of our weekly motivational Versus Series. We are getting close to celebrating a year of writing this series as this is the 47^th edition. We might need to tweak after the first year evaluation. So get ready, your feedback is highly important.

Today, we would be talking in financial terms. Fortunately and unfortunately for me, I do not like Mathematics as a young lad but when you add the naira sign, I comprehend it fast.

Some weeks, the water pumping machine within my premises broke down. Some of my neighbours felt that the machine had served for five years as such; it is due for replacement while some neighbours differed saying that we can fix the machine. The machine was fixed and it went back finally two weeks afterwards. We were back to square one, alas, “kobo wise, naira foolish,” the Nigerian equivalent of English saying, “penny wise, pound foolish”.

Kobo is that little fund that seems minute but matters when accumulated. In the Yoruba parlance, it is said to be, “eesun teretere ni dibu” which means, ‘small drops makes the mighty ocean’. Kobo mindset makes one feel he has conserved funds. Some ways in which we exhibit the kobo-mentality is when we fix a worn-out item, buying a fairly-used or second-hand item. This eventually runs in thousands of naira at the end of the day and it cost more than the purchasing a brand new item.

Naira is the huge amount expended to procure a particular item. Many of the needed new things that are purchased are usually tagged expensive but the value will be gotten over time. Naira is that hugged amount that is spent an item while one is sure of maintaining distance from a plumber or any other emergency repair service as the case maybe.

Remember, whatever you gain at the corner will be lost at the bend. Make optimal use of your limited funds by not spending wasteful when you actually want to be thrift. Go for the best at once and not keep buying inferior products over and over.

Have a thriving week.

Best regards,

Olu

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BAKING vs ICING

Hello Associates,

It is a good day to come your way again. I hope you had a great weekend? Work is going on smoothly and it’s all good news around you. That is what we pray for, that we might continually be bombarded by good news.

Today, we are learning from the world of the bakers. It is a simple lesson that we would arrive at, however, we must know that it is one of the fundamental things that we must have at heart when we are doing things.

There are different methods of baking a cake; an electric oven, a charcoal oven while some even use the stove to bake after ingredients might have been mixed. These ingredients determine the taste of the cake, however, after baking, what distinguishes the cake, aside the taste, is the look of the cake. The finishing process is crucial to the sustenance of the business. Let’s read together, baking vs icing.

Baking is a situation when you put the ingredients together. As for people, the time of baking can either mean the time of preparation or the time of re-building. There are people who were prepared in adversity while there are people who get rebuilt during trying times. Baking is just the raw, rough and wrought product.

Icing is the time of restructuring the raw product. This can be described in writing as, “dotting the I and crossing the t”. It is very essential to editing the raw product to make it acceptable to everybody. I was once guilt of not editing my work after writing, as such, my writing was tainted with little errors that could have been avoided if edited. I learnt to edit my works after writing in the hard way. I had better write-ups afterwards.

Irrespective of the great ingredients that make you up after baking, you have to learn to add the icing to beautify it. The icing would ensure it is attractive and acceptable to all. The icing will enrich the value at which it would be purchased. The icing would recommend your work to others. The gains of having the icing on the cake outweigh just baking the cake. Icing is the highpoint of baking. Icing could be academic, certification, finesse etc.

Get the necessary icing on your cake this new week.

Cheers!

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PRELIMINARY vs PENALTY

Ikot nyin,

I hope you are not perplexed! It simply means “My people” in Efik language from Cross River State, Nigeria. I hope the month of September has been going on smoothly? As for me, it has been a pleasant month. This month has a peculiar history in the world; World Trade Centre in the United States was attached some years ago and we, as a family, suffered the dead of one of our mothers. Remember, in Africa, we uphold family ties.

Let’s do something modest today again. Cars owners in Nigeria, especially, do forget when their various licenses would expire. The time when all documents are complete is when a car is newly purchased, subsequently, the renewal becomes a burden. Many of these documents do not expire on the same day as such one might run into any of the road and traffic regulatory agencies and therefore get penalized. Let’s consider Preliminary versus penalty.

Preliminary is a situation when you have gone ahead of time to prepare all that is needed to make your vehicle roadworthy, insuring your house against hazards, living life responsibility to reduce the damage done to ozone layer and importantly, body organs. Other ways of getting prepared is constant academic improvement and certifications among others. Preliminary work is usually easy, cost-effective and strategic. It safeguards regret and depression.

Penalty is when the strong arm of the law catches up with one or the repercussion of reality comes. Many organizations have suffered immensely from fire accident and they could not recover from it because all their machines are not insured. Many cars have been impounded by road and traffic regulatory agencies for not having the right licenses. Many people had died as a result of illicit use of drugs or are spending huge funds on medical treatment to stay alive. It is noteworthy that penalty fee outweigh the preliminary cost.

Why spend good money on penalty when you can rightly prepare? Why pay charges when you can pay the actual fee? Why drive around panicking when you can actually be poised? Why treat sickness when you can really be healthy? The questions are endless but it is the same coin with different sides. Get prepared or get penalized.

I wish you a lovely week ahead.

Stay prepared,

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ADOPTION BY PROXY vs BIOLOGICAL BY DISTANCE

Hello People,

A great greeting to you as a new month is starting. I would also encourage you to be determined for the best. This year is gradually running to a close, if your appraisal is done now, would you be above average? If not, kindly step up your game. Like the saying in Yoruba language, “Orun to wa loke to aso gbe” meaning, the sun above, can still dry the clothes.

We are looking at something interesting today. A young man left the hinterland for Lagos, Nigeria, in search of greener pastures, to live with his siblings. He met an old man, whose children had left the country for greener pastures, as well, in European countries. He became the backbone of the old man who introduced him to all his children and in turn, made them know that he had adopted for himself a son. The young man was delighted in helping the old man, while the old man expended the last of his energy in advising the young man. Fortunately, the young man’s parents had also younger people, within the community, helping them in their house chores. This made us arrive at the discussion, Adoption by Proxy vs Biological by Distance.

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