CARELESSLY HANDLED vs JEALOUSLY GUARDED

Hello friends,

It is a wonderful week for me and I am sure it will be for you as well. I am currently under drilling but that has not stopped my ink from writing this every week. Hope you had a great weekend of full. Last weekend was the celebration of the death of a greet Yoruba novelist, Pa TAA Ladele but for those of us who are still alive; the challenge is what would we leave for posterity?

I am writing this week based on two Yoruba proverbs which would help us a lot to know how to handle our loved ones especially. We usually take our loved ones for granted; we get so familiar with them till we lose them. However, what you do not value can be someone else’s treasure. Let’s ruminate together on this, Carelessly Handled versus Jealously Guarded.

Carelessly Handled is a situation when your loved one becomes your next door neighbor that you do not accord any special treatment or respect. People usually do not see this as a disadvantage in a relationship. This is one of the things that burns out the energy that should be invested in a relationship; communication dwindles, love wanes and a lot of issues. The Yoruba proverb that supports this discussion is: “Oun a ba fisile lenu ewure n to” literary meaning whatever is left carelessly is available for the goat to chew.

Jealously guarded is a phenomenon in which the spouses protect one another. This cuts across all areas of their relationship; protection from the in-laws, protecting from the children knowing the flaws of either of them, protection of the interest of each other, protecting from all depressing state, protecting in times of errors as well.  The Yoruba proverb that gives a support to this is; “oun a ba fi pamo ni niyi” meaning worthy items is safely kept.

Jealously guard all items that is worthy to you. It would cost a little to do that than to carelessly handle and attempting to recover. Information should be carefully handled also; know those who you divulge personal details with, if you tell a gossip, you will find yourself to blame.

I implore you to jealously guard everything than handling it carelessly thereafter seeking for recovery.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Olu

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REPRODUCTION vs REALISM

Hello Comrades,

I hope your month has been running  smoothly? I am hopeful that this month will continue to yeild good fruits for us all. Let’s be optimistic, we have great heights to mount and great feats to add to our caps.

Let’s think from the viewpoint of a driver today,  I remember then, when I was growing up, one of the popular vehicle brands in Nigeria, Peugeot, has just an external mirror. At some point, other brands added the second mirror which further beautified cars making it look like two ears. When one is driving, he learns about how to use the mirror because it aids your decision making. In fact, caveat exists on a mirror saying, objects are closer than they appear in the mirror. As a driver myself, I learnt a simple lesson which I intend to share with you.

Reproduction is when the mirror shows you what is behind as you drive. With what is viewed, you resolve either to change your lane, overtake a vehicle etc.  However, one would see that certain objects, when very close to a car, are not seen through the mirror. This is limiting! Accidents have happened when such decisions are made haphazardly, especially when the driver of the other vehicle is on top speed.

Realism is the actual result of your decision. Every decision comes with a consequence. Realism is clearer and not blur like what has been reproduced. A realist does not hypnotise; he is factual to a fault. A realist does avoid sharp mistakes by double checking; doing such, takes away some embarrassments.

Realism is what you see with your sight and not what you imagine; it is not assumed; it is not hearsay. Realism is the outcome that you grapple with after you make a decision. You cannot afford to depend on reflections, you don’t complain if all reproduced images fades off. Be true to yourself!

Let’s keep realism at heart and not overbear reproduced images.

Have a great week.

Best regards,

Olutayo

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CUSTOMER SATISFACTION vs CUSTOMER STARVATION

Imoni me,

I am excited to speak to you in Urhobo language of Delta State, South-Southern Nigeria, all I have said is my people. I have always reiterated it that Nigeria is richly blessed in her diversity. It is quite unfortunate that our people have through greed devoured this nation. May the Lord rescue our nation. I remember studying about corruption over the weekend and it seems this nation’s wheel of progress is entangled in it.

I would want to say that the discussion of today can be broken into many parts but let’s study it in bit. Then, this situation might be peculiar to Nigeria, if you are not within this locale, you might not understand what I am saying but I know you would be able to apply it to other areas of life.

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Paid Job vs Personal Job

Hello Comrades,

It is a blessing coming your way again today. I hope you are fine and the family is alright. I an anticipating a nice weekend when I would be with the writing community again. I must confess, I usually look forward to it often.

Today, we would be looking at the word that everyone who leaves school looks forward to, “job”. Some have rightly defined it again using collar, either white or blue, to depict the type of job that one does; some use the word “career”. However, whichever one you call it; it is a means of livelihood. Let’s just see the differences.

Paid job is a scenario when you are waiting to receive a pay cheque at the end of every month. As the Yoruba saying goes, “oga ta, oga o ta, owo alaaru a pe” meaning either the boss makes profit or not; the wages of the worker would be complete.
There are different ways in which people do their paid job; challantly, non challantly etc. People get easily frustrated with paid jobs and they cannot just pull out bacause they have a family to cater for.Paid job is done within some stipulate hours and the staff delivers his service as required within that time. In fact, paid job is done more often that not grudgingly.

Personal job is the tasking job ever on earth. Many people doing personal job explains that they were the CEO, Secretary, Accountant, Gate-man, Cleaner etc before getting to a point where they can actually employ others. Personal job could stress seriously when thinking of funds to keep the business afloat, pay staff, pay rent, pay for utility, pay for fuel, maintain fleets of cars etc. Personal job call for constant training to avoid being cheated by others. The owners also roll up their sleeves; they resume early, close late. It could also be a challenge making others to visualize just like the owner. Personal jobs grow overtime. Personal jobs of many centuries have been listed on stock exchange and now tagged, “multinationals.”

You might not be able to transfer a paid job to your child but children manage personal job; you might be limited in training with paid job but personal job requires series of training. Paid job might guarantee some level of comfort, personal job could create a wealthy ancestry. Paid job might limit the height of attainment but personal job do open up opportunities of partnership for success.

We all have a choice to keep to our comfort zone by being on a paid job while personal job take us to heights that we have not envisaged. Personal job is a translation of your dream while paid job is enhancing others dream. Keep a tab on your personal aspirations as you are in paid employment.

Let’s not give up in reaching for the stars.

Have a nice week ahead.

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NUCLEAR FAMILY vs BUILDING FAMILIES

Hello Friends,

It is a great morning and also an opportunity saying something to you again on this platform. I am delighted to inform you that we might be tweaking this writings a little because the idea is that it should have a complete circle, which is 52 weeks. Subsequently, as the Spirit leads, we would give you something inspirational afterwards.

There are people raised in either a nuclear or polygamous families. After they attain certain level of independence from the direct control of their families; they now run into series of attributes that is not in tandem with the family that they evolved from. Some of these include; competitive nurturing of children with their other siblings; hiding all information about themselves and wards. They won’t offer support to the children of others because they want superior set of children. Fortunately, everyone will become successful in different fields of life and they cannot relate as relatives because of the wrong mindset implanted into them by their parents. Let’s think together about Nuclear Families versus building Families.

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IMMEDIATELY FORGOTTEN vs FOREVER REMEMBERED

Hello friends,

It is an opportunity to reach out to you today. Hope you had a restful holiday (for those in Nigeria). If you are on Hajj, like Adewaleola Salami, I wish you a safe return home from the holy land. I had a swell time, reaching out to families that I have not seen in a long while. It is refreshing to keep the bond and stressful moving round.

Let’s discuss today in few words, Immediately Forgotten versus Forever Remembered. There are people that one meets and they create lasting impression on one. Irrespective of being alive or dead, they remain on the lips of those who had contact with them, their sayings are engraved in the heart and their deeds can be enumerated. This is all derived from the impact they have made in people’s lives. Are you positively impacting on those that you come across daily?

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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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BIG FISH IN A SMALL POND vs SMALL FISH IN A BIG POND

Owhiome,

I am delighted to reflect the multilingual status of Nigeria on this platform. Today, I said My People in Esan language of Edo State, Nigeria. I had a very engaging weekend with various activities; I joined a family in the christening of a new baby girl and also an exercise session in which we walked for two hours.

The vast body of water has a tale for all of us. Waters are in various categories namely; streams, rivers, lake, dam, lagoon and ocean. Some people had also classified various organizations into such. There are organizations that are very small, they are typically group under the Micro-Small and Medium Scale Industry (MSMEs); some are national companies, example Transcorp, Nigeria while some are multinationals, example are Oil and Gas companies.

The mode of operation of companies makes it categorized. There are companies that are sole big fish. These companies have the competitive advantage in just a particular field or location. The owners of these companies might be everything: secretary, accountant, marketing officer, business analyst and the human resources personnel or have few employees with fantastic titles. Truthfully, the owners are the CEO but it has a minimal sphere of influence and projection beyond the immediate environment of operation. As such, senior officers in these companies are the big fishes in small ponds. Small pond is restricting in terms of growth.

In the big pond, many of the fishes are relatively small. In such companies, some staffs are “forgotten” in specific roles amongst others. The small fishes scenario, allows for career progression, greater recognition is accorded to the company, policies are made & implemented, in-depth trainings are done from time to time. 

In the big pond scenario, fantastic titles are for top professional; such titles are acquired over the years.

As it is known that small bodies of water flow into larger bodies; a small company can decide to partner with bigger companies. For example, a small firm in West Africa can increase its global relevance by being part of an international company.

Whatever little that you do, you can make it flow into global relevance. The doors in this era of globalization are readily available. The question is, “Will you avail yourself the opportunity of becoming a part of a big pond which allows you to grow proportionately with size of the pond?”

Have a grand week.

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MASS IMPUNITY vs POLITICAL IMPUNITY

E n le o,

This means, hello there. Yes, I am delighted to welcome you to another week. May it be a new week that would propel us to greater heights. Our discussion today is peculiar to Nigeria and some African countries. If you are a Nigerian, please do not get offended but see it as a call to re-orienting ourselves. It is quite easy to say that we are not whites but we need to know that behaving in a globally accepted way should be a target for us.

If you are walk down the streets of Lagos, Nigeria, you can find people urinating anywhere despite the attempt made by government to stop this act. Pedestrians would prefer to cross the road than using the pedestrian bridge. Drivers driving against traffic, drivers also ignoring the traffic light among others. One needs to stop and ponder if people want to do things in the ethical way. In the same light, one keeps hearing of political office holders who are guilty of financial impropriety and they are community leaders. The simple thing that comes to mind is, are they not ashamed of these doings?

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PATIENCE vs TIMELINESS

Hello Friends,

Welcome to another great week. None of us knows what the week has for us but we sure believe that it will be goodies that will last a lifetime. My desire is that no evil sickness will come near our household. However, we also need to do things rightly. Let us not be like the proverbial, Folorunsho who climb a palm tree with the banana’s strap.

I have a story to tell you. Supo left his house for the airport unfortunately, the vehicle broke down. He made spirited effort to get to the airport and Debisi, the airline counter supervisor told him that he had missed the flight. He made a call to Sope who works in the technical unit of the airline, who in turn called, Soji. Due to the nature of Sope’s work, he could not leave his beat. Supo was told to wait for Soji at the boarding gate but Soji could not come out for close to two hours, Supo was agitated, he was on an official assignment and he had no gut to call the office to tell them the state of things.

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SUPERIORITY STRUGGLE vs ACKNOWLEDGED SUPERIORITY

Eyin temi,

As traditional of me, I am saying in Yoruba language, My People. I hope you enjoyed your weekend? Mine was full of activities with my family and friends. It’s always great having time out with them regardless of the adjoining challenges which still makes us know that we are men. I see the fun associated with it then the pain.

When I was younger, I had some big brothers that  usually call by name. At some point, even when I was corrected and told to call them “brother” as we do in Yoruba culture to show respect. It is rebuffed. As time evolve, nobody called my attention to it again; I succumbed and since then, I added the appellation, “brother” with all pleasure.  Let’s do today’s discussion, superiority struggle versus superiority discovered.

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SHORT TERM REQUIREMENTS vs LONG TERM REGULATIONS

Hello friends,

Here we are again for another edition of our regular weekly versus series. Holidays have started, I hope parents are finding it pleasurable and students relaxed. Hope you had a restful weekend? May all your endeavour this week lead to great success.

In Lagos, Nigeria,there are vehicles that ply short distances, the drivers and owners hardly worry about renewing the documents of the vehicles. All they essentially need is fuel to power their engines and earn a living. Also, there are vehicles that ply other routes within the state and they can be sanctioned for what those vehicles within the areas are exempted from by some agency of the state government. Ultimately, there are vehicles that travel out of the state that need to confront to the regulations of federal agencies. There are short term requirements and long term regulations.

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