If a dollar was given for each time someone was anxious, the Forbes Billionaire list would be an all-Nigerian affair. Every activity, every encounter, every condition a Nigerian faces is greeted with the same nervous apprehension.

If a Nigerian wakes up in the morning and discovers there’s no electricity, he quickly unplugs his phones and laptop, and switches off the TV and fridge; he is afraid that overcurrent would blow up his appliances when NEPA* is restored.

If he wakes up and there’s power, he scrambles to plug his phones and laptop, and rushes to iron his clothes; he is afraid that they will take the light* at any moment.

If he lives in Lagos, he dives in and out of the bathroom and before you could say Bode Thomas, he is dressed up and on his way out; he is afraid of the city’s mad morning traffic.

If he has to take a bus on his way, he frantically scans all the passengers before embarking; he is afraid of entering one-chance*.

If he’s lucky to own a car, his heart races each time he sees a road-block ahead; he is afraid the policemen might be high on paraga* – the catalyst for accidental discharge.

If he drives past a filling station and sees two cars at the pump, he considers joining them; he is afraid NUPENG with their fuel scarcity are back.

If he is a university or poly student, the moment he alights he feverishly begins to read the lips of every passer-by; he is afraid they might just be mouthing the words ASUU strike or tuition hike.

If he has graduated and is unlucky to still be in the job market, he shakes his head as he peruses the Tuesday Guardian; he is afraid the vacancy ads were taken out by one of the employment rackets.

If he works in the bank, he’s always imagining the emails in his Inbox; he is afraid that HR has sent him the unsolicited ‘Advised to Resign’ mail.

If he sees someone with unkempt hair and dirty clothes on his way to lunch, he crosses to the other side of the street; he is afraid he’s just seen one of the many itinerant mentally-ill persons.

If he has to use the ATM, he becomes one with it. He covers it with his whole torso and takes frequent glances over his shoulder; he is afraid someone behind him is spying his PIN.

If the ATM works and coughs out the money, he quickly counts it before leaving the spot; he is afraid of being short-paid.

If the ATM doesn’t work and returns his card to him, he swiftly digs out his phone; he is afraid of getting a debit SMS alert, even though he wasn’t paid.

If he enters a mobile-phone shop, he asks for dual SIM phones and wonders when the triple SIM versions will be available; he is afraid of relying on only one subscriber and getting disappointed by dropped-calls.

If he has to see the doctor (when they are not on strike), he doesn’t want to be told he needs blood transfusion; he is afraid the lab may be out of reagents for screening HIV, hepatitis etc.

If he’s given a prescription, he gets it at the pharmacy and immediately checks the box for the NAFDAC number; he is afraid of being sold fake drugs.

If it’s Election Day, he is torn between going out to vote and staying indoors; he is afraid the election may be militarized or that thugs with huge biceps will show up and ‘kidnap’ the ballot box.

He doesn’t trust the boys in khaki or the boys in babariga* with the government of his nation; he is afraid the military would kill with impunity and the civilians will steal with impunity.

As if that is not enough, lately he’s had to be all eyes for every bulging plastic bag he comes across and every stationery vehicle he passes on the way; he is afraid Boko Haram has left one of their booming packages behind.

But, I know a better Way: I will allow peace, yes I’ll embrace Peace.

Written by Segun O. Adio (culled from http://truthlabel..com)

NEPA and light: words interchangeably used for electricity
One-chance: kidnappers disguised as a bus service
Paraga: moonshine
Babariga:

I heard both terms, permissive and perfect will of God on a Christian TV channel yesterday. I know the term perfect will is found in Scriptures, but as fine-sounding as the preacher was on the issue of permissive will, I cannot find the term in the Bible. Although, there appears to be some merit to his argument, can anyone please shed some light on the matter. I just want to know that I am not being sold disobedience in the name of permissive will. Thanks

Take a look at your baby; boy or a girl, toddler or preteen. Take a look again, because you are looking at a very unique gift! No other individual is like him or her. No other eyes or nose, no matter how similar, is exactly the same as your baby’s. His laughter and frown; his gait and posture are all so uniquely his that none other can parallel it. But it doesn't end there; it’s the same with his traits and habits, likes and dislikes.

But have you ever wondered why this is so? Is it just so that we can easily tell him apart from another baby? I think not!

Rather, I favour the answer that it is because his path in life is very unique, very his. He doesn't need someone else’s eyes because he was not designed to see things the way others do. He has no need for another’s laughter, because he wasn't meant to use his to bring joy to everyone, but only to his own. But I find something amiss in all this beautiful design, not from nature but from our society. It stems from the fact that even before we begin to appreciate the uniqueness of our babies, we ship them off to the assembly lines called schools. And in the schools, where generic employable graduates are being mass-produced, the uniqueness of our babies is lost somewhere underneath the uniform they wear. Maybe wearing a school uniform, in fact inadvertently symbolizes the way schools replace our baby’s uniqueness for societal uniformity.

Don’t get me wrong. By all means, send your baby to school, give him an education. Classroom education increases your child’s chances of future productivity, civic participation, healthy lifestyle, life-expectancy and earning power while diminishing his proclivity to crime. But, when he comes back from school, please do your part to help him retain his uniqueness. Don’t let him forget how special he is and how another him will never be. Even though the school is helping to make him employable, endeavour to provide him with the tools that will enhance his uniqueness or it may be blurred from his memory and consciousness forever.

What I am advocating for in this piece should begin at infanthood. Parents should look for the unique marketable package (UMP) that God has put into their baby; help him develop it, so that he can deploy it (as a career/business venture) along with his school education when he is old enough to become productive. Discovering and developing their UMP has often been a product of painful years of soul-searching for most people. But it needn't be so, if parents had been actively involved in doing so with them from childhood.

How to discover your baby’s UMP

Let’s examine this with a few examples:

When your baby is playing in the nursery, when he is talking to fellow toddlers or when he is rummaging through your bedroom and you are screaming that he should drop that vase, endeavour to look out for clues as to what his unique package is. Items or activities that your baby is often drawn to are pointers you shouldn't miss. And I don’t mean the ice-cream in the fridge or the water tub in your backyard. A child who is enamoured by beads or works made from them, not only once but every time, not only at home but even on social outings, not just when he is three years old but when he is four and five and on and on is communicating something to the parents. When you find that you always have to ask your daughter to stop playing with the knitting needles but three months on, one year on, you are still shouting the same instruction and she is now hiding it in her room to play with when you are out of sight; take note. When your son drums on every surface he finds, including the head of his younger sister and you beat him, but he still continues drumming anyway that you sneakingly catch him drumming in class when last you went to his school; take note.

Another pointer is the sights, smells and sounds that always catch your baby’s attention. What does he watch on the TV, in magazines or as you are driving round town. If your baby always remarks about a bill board on his way to school, listen to what he is saying or what is on the sign. If your daughter does not watch any other channel on cable but the Food Channel and each time she sees you cooking, she comes around to watch and ask those one-million-answerless questions about cooking; take note. If car mags, car racing games and the Grand Prix are recurring themes of your child’s habits; take note.

Finally, watch what your baby always reads without being prodded to. The particular class subjects he loves to read or the kind of books he picks from the shelves in your study, irrespective of whether he is bored or happy, he’s on vacation or school is in session, he is hungry or full are other pointers you don’t want to miss.

Honestly, it sounds like hard work but what about parenting is easy?! However, if you train yourself to recognize patterns it will become easier and it will help if you can journalize your observations. In fact as soon as you have a baby, open a Unique Qualities diary for it. Regularly enter habits and traits that you find bearing resemblance to the points listed above and hand it over to your baby in addition to the other gifts at his/her 18th birthday. I wish my parents kept one for me, but my mum’s memory bank has worked wonders for me still. Thank God she’s still alive for me to help myself to the things she so vividly remembers.

We continue next week, same time, same url. Have a splendid July

SOURCE: http://bizlabel..com/2013/06/before-your-baby-clocks-5.html

Can't we for once see things through a detribalised, non-partisan and non-religious prism? Don't we have posters with such magnanimity of heart that can hold discourse on a plane that transcends all the pettiness that tear us apart? I fear for my nation and countrymen on both sides of the divide!

Mo Ibrahim

Afam has said it all: the challenge is originality. There is nothing wrong with trying to make money while blogging, but how original is the content on your blog? I started blogging over two months ago on entrepreneurship but before that I had spent years studying the topic and even at that I still have to work hard to come up with something original. I'm an 8 to 5 worker as well but by making my blog a weekly affair, I am able to pace myself, read, write and research and come up with something original. If you blog for the sake of money alone, and not because you want to share a part of yourself, the interest will wane with time and you'll be an also-ran.

Whining, tears and self-pity will never get you a job. They have never worked for anybody and that's not about to change! After attending countless interviews, following innumerable CVs (enough to make an encyclopedia-thick book if piled together) that you have distributed as widely as the Punch newspaper, don't you think it is time for a change? Don't you think it is time to re-strategize? They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result; but I know you are not insane and will spare me a few minutes to consider an extraordinary measure required during this extraordinary circumstance of joblessness you are facing. Let me introduce it with a friend's experience, even though it applies primarily to would-be entrepreneurs.....

Femi had been working in a furniture production company for over a year and he was good at his job. Then, a moneyed lady who wanted to go into the furniture industry came along with a lovely business proposition. She wanted to recruit him as one of the foremen to run her factory and Femi who wasn’t expecting such pie to fall from the sky quickly jumped at the opportunity to add some managerial experience to his resume. He however had to give a month notice at his workplace so they both reached an agreement that he would take up the appointment the following month. He went back to work, handed in his resignation letter, helped his employers in recruiting two new replacements and got down to business training them.

The prospects of obtaining higher pay and holding a supervisory position at the new job made the thirty days quickly race by. But nothing could have prepared Femi for the bolt from the blue that struck him when he arrived at his new job. The lady had gone to hire expatriates to run the company because, “They are better managers,” she said and so she had no place for him at her factory. No tone of voice could better express shock and disbelief than the one he used in explaining to her that he had resigned at his former workplace and he had been replaced; but she did not budge. No inflection could convey more passion than the one that poured from his lips when he explained that he had a wife and baby at home to support, but again his plea fell on deaf ears as she asked him if she had signed any job agreements with him.

I leave you to imagine how he must have felt after sending several people who knew the woman to reason with her on his behalf and they all came back with negative reports. He then started combing the business districts of Lagos in search of a job. After three months of fruitless search and being supported financially by the replacements at his last job, after months of waking up and seeing a wife and baby that depended on him, he decided to do the unthinkable. He walked up to an oil-services company and offered to work for free! Yes, you read me right, WORK FOR FREE!

Femi figured that that option beats sitting at home and waiting endlessly for calls from HR agencies. Scrimping on his scanty resources, which he split between housekeeping and transport fare to his involuntary volunteer work, he spent two years at the company garnering all the experience he could. He made himself so versatile and indispensable to the company that in no time they started paying him a stipend which they gradually increased to a full salary. Soon enough, a vacancy in the petroleum sector opened up and as you might expect, he had all the skills and experience needed to fill the position. In a nutshell, he landed the job, worked on the company’s offshore rig, saved hard like ants storing food in late summer, chucked out after a year and today is at an advanced stage of launching his own business.

Read conclusion on http://bizlabel..com/2013/06/blessed-are-those-who-work-for-no-salary.html

No matter the amount you want to start a business with, your business idea should be something you are passionate about or quite skilled at. The challenges entrepreneurs face are quite daunting and nothing short of a strong passion backed by serious guts will keep you going. Identifying your passion and the entrepreneurial expression for it is easy. Read up the easy steps I found on the site: http://bizlabel..com/2013/05/what-business-can-i-do.html

I think settling on a business idea should be a personal thing. This way your decision will be a personalized one. The following is a tool you can use to come up with YOUR OWN business idea:


Don’t choose a business because it is a cash cow, a money-spinner or whatever you choose to call it. Neither should you choose a business because it’s in line with what you studied at school (sounds like blasphemy, right?)


One way I personally suggest is choosing based on your strong passion or a strong aversion. This is because any other motivation that does not come from deep inside you, like the fantasy of potential profits, is likely to wane in the heat of adversity and men there is plenty of adversity in entrepreneurship!

It could either be a strong passion or aversion for a person or persons, a thing or even a place. The table below explains how you can use your passion to come up with your business idea

Read more on http://bizlabel..com