THE GATHERER

“That isn't a bad idea” sounds like something you’ll hear in a room where people are brain storming. It has been found that most inventions the human race enjoys today, first came about from ideas that some people thought were silly. This is why inventors are usually referred to as ‘mad scientists’ because an average mind cannot phantom the amount of ideas that go through their minds in one minute. From the Stone Age to our Modern World, inventors have been the propelling agents of change in our societies. They identify problems within our living systems and they develop mechanisms to solve them, hence, making our world a safer and better place to live in. If you’re thinking that “Well, I’m not a scientist, and therefore, this isn’t for me” then, you might want to think again. Today, we use Hi-tech gadgets that are manufactured by Asian, American or European companies. But most times, the ideas to create those gadgets are actually conceived during the companies’ customer fee...

I remember vividly my Primary School days and how each time we closed the morning assembly, we were made to recite The Nigerian National Pledge as we marched to our classrooms to begin the days’ learning. Most of us were able to cram the pledge and recited it accurately, while a majority of us were more interested in mumbling the words to what we heard from the mouth of the elderly, hence, turning ‘TO SERVE NIGERIA WITH ALL MY STRENGTH’ to ‘TO SERVE NIGERIA IS NOT BY FORCE!’   Little did we know that we were predicting the future of Nigeria , a time like this when there is a massive void between the Government and its' People. A grave disconnect, so much that a suggestion to study our National Constitutional Rights is met with vehement resistance from the people. The fear of a disintegrating country grips the heart of Nigerians and our neighboring countries, including the American Intelligence Unit (C.I.A). This is due to t...

“Man In Total Control of Himself”. Etched into the wall of my lawyer’s office. My wandering eyes searched it out in a top corner. Perhaps he scarred this into his own office wall - a moment of rage. I quizzed him about it. I had felt this inner rage too from time to time, maybe because of the soul searching into my life purpose at the time. I had become more alert to my surroundings and attached a deep meaning to anything I saw and observed, could be writings as this one on my lawyer's wall, or a bees mating. By my lawyer’s passive acknowledgement of the writing on the wall, I knew he didn’t really know much about it, and perhaps it was a previous occupier of the office space responsible for it. For me the phrase Man In Total Control of Himself was an instant inspiration, and after juggling it in my mind for a bit I came up with “Man In Total Control of Self” – making it relatable to women by taking away the masculinity of the phrase. For purpose of simple understan...

Nothing holds bound than ones mentality, thus, you are only as free as your way of thinking. I am always amused each time I meet a modern Nigerian youth who upholds beliefs and way of life that generation before had used to keep people in bondage. Beliefs like, a woman's place is in the kitchen, your child must fear you to respect you, there’s a white man in the sky called god and a black man under the ground called devil. By perverting religion and exploiting ethnic divides; devious individuals have been able to make Nigerians see themselves in fragments and not as one, which makes it easy to barbarically kill each other in name of religion. We also find University students being maimed by host communities in the name of culture. This fragmented way of life does allow injustice and corruption to thrive in a society without any seeming opposition. In fact, those who rise to challenge obvious socio-injustices are tagged trouble-makers by same people they speak up for. Notab...

The type of leaders we've had in Nigeria since 1979 is a mirror image of who we are as a people. I'm guessing only a handful of Nigerians can sincerely say they've never cut corners in their life. [Note, I used "they" not "we" because I have.] Well, what we have in Nigeria now is what you get when you take short-cuts to matters of life. Because we fail to follow due process, character is not built in us; we've then become babies in adult appearance, who seek to get by life solely depending on our connections when we're fully aware our abilities don't match-up with our aspirations. Such an atmosphere will continue to breed crime, under-performance and corruption by reason of having square pegs in round holes. I was once travelling out from Muritala Mohammed Airport, Lagos, and while the queue to board the aircraft was slowly progressing, a set of Mobile Policemen (MOPOL) came brushing us aside leading a man full of so much pomposity to the ...

This month of August 2011 I added another year to the few I have lived so far, but this year seems very significant to me as I take the first step into what I consider to be the second phase of my life and at the age I have hit now, it becomes imperative for me to find out what my purpose of existence here on this physical realm is, and not only that but to also ensure that I am walking in that purpose, so that glory and honour may be given unto my father in heaven who has placed me here to co-exist with fellow humans. I look back at my childhood days when naturally my dreams and fantasies were not inhibited by any mental road block; I could imagine anything in my little world and somehow believe it will come to fruition. But as I grew older and started to experience heartbreaks, failing exams, coupled with some other unexpected happenings like seeing my dad pass away when I was just 13, I started to sort of lose grip on that ability to dream and expect it to come to pass. Even now, ...

Do you know a common way poverty creeps into a family is by selling-off inherited properties? Examine the Forbes rich list and you’ll see that almost 35% of the entire listed, especially the top 100, are people who inherited their wealth. Landed properties, hedge fund investments, trust funds, stamps, paintings, precious stones, company shares are some of the forms by which wealth is transferred from a settler to a beneficiary. Now, if as much as one-third of the rich folks in our world today are heirs to riches, why are we then so quick to sell what's ours? I recently observed three  average families close to mine, which is an average one too. And I notice members of these families have continued to own houses, cars and other valuable items as far back as three generations from today. But the habit or may I say culture of selling properties, either for selfish interest or simply for lack of regard for it, has kept them on that “a litt...