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7 LESSONS OF LIFE FROM MY SON’S VISIT TO THE DENTIST, by Isaac Oluyi

Isaac Oluyi

In my almost 4 decades on the surface of the earth, I have never visited a dentist! I am sure most of you may be surprised. My path and that of a dentist have never crossed. As a child I had a lot of issues with my teeth stemming from eating of sweet things. It was an excruciatingly painful experience, yet I did not have the luxury of being attended to by a dentist. It was not because I did not want to see a dentist, but for paucity of financial resources. My barely educated, but resourceful late mother (the one I fondly call my ‘rich teacher’) came up with options so that I would not lose any of my teeth. She gave me ‘orin ata’ (literally translated as pepper chewing stick) each time I complained of toothache. And it worked like talisman of India, as I never lost any of my teeth. As effective as ‘orin ata’ was for my case, can I offer the same to my children in this 21st Century, when we are more westernised than the westerners themselves? The answer is obviously ‘no’!

That what worked for me is no longer fashionable now played out when my first son complained of toothache. I could not give him orin ata as he would have bombarded me with litany of questions. So, I opted for the option of a dentist since I can afford it. Hence, my first visit to the dentist. At least, when you are in Rome you behave like the Romans. The kernel of this piece is not the visit, but the lessons of life I learnt from the experience. Continue reading “7 LESSONS OF LIFE FROM MY SON’S VISIT TO THE DENTIST, by Isaac Oluyi”

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A Tale of Three Teachers, by Isaac Oluyi

by Isaac Oluyi

In my over 3 decades of existence on the surface of the earth I have had the opportunity to interact with three different teachers. I have been impacted one way or the other by all of them. My experience in life has made me to tag two of them as ‘rich teachers’, while the other one a ‘poor teacher’.

In 1984 I lost my father to the icy hands of death. He died at a tender age! Despite the fact that he died young, he achieved so much. He actually became a director in one of the Agencies of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at 38. This is not a mean feat! I work 9-5 with an Agency of government today and I know it is not easy. My father was the breadwinner of the family. He was our all-in-all. When death called, events in our family took a downward trend. My mother was a petty trader with just a First Leaving School Certificate! Things got so bad that we could hardly have a meal per day. Despite the downturn, she did not give in. The situation brought out the best in her.

One event that qualifies her as one of my rich teachers happened in December, 1984. During the festive period, everybody was preparing for how to make the period a memorable one. People were buying new clothes, chickens, goats, rice and all sorts of things. We became crestfallen and dejected because we knew nothing of such would happen in our homestead. But my mother shocked my siblings and me. She invited a tailor to our house to come and take our measurements. At first, we thought she wanted to do ‘April Fool’ for us, but this was December. We reluctantly allowed the tailor to take our measurements. After the tailor left, we enquired for where and how our mother got the money to buy a new cloth. She further amazed us with her response “I took out some of my old wrappers and loosened them.” From this singular event, she taught me to always turn problems into opportunities. Instead of brooding over any situation, she taught to think out of the box and make the best of the situation. With the simple solution she proffered to a hitherto big challenge in our eyes, we had a swell time at Christmas as we wore something ‘new’. My mother was a rich teacher; she taught me by example. She introduced me to “Problem-Solving 101”. Continue reading “A Tale of Three Teachers, by Isaac Oluyi”

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Cliff Young

Darasimi Oshodi

I came across the story of Cliff Young and I was wowed. I just couldn’t resist the urge to share it with others. So please enjoy his story.

In 1983 when Cliff stepped to the line ready to run the Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultra Marathon no one took him seriously. He didn’t look like he was ready to complete a 5K let alone the 544 mile race from Sidney to Melbourne. He was a side show clown for the media to dramatize; a satirical distraction from the real competitors who took training and racing seriously. In 1983, a man named Cliff Young showed up at the start of this race. Cliff was 61 years old and wore overalls and work boots. To everyone’s shock, Cliff wasn’t a spectator. He picked up his race number and joined the other runners. He was told that he was crazy and could not finish the race. He explained to them that he grew up on a 2,000-acre farm, with thousands of sheep. His family could afford neither horses nor tractors so, when the storms came, his job was to round up the sheep. Sometimes, he said, it would take two or three days of running. “It took a long time, but I’d always catch them. I believe I can run this race,” he said.

When the gun went off, Cliff immediately fell to the very back of the pack. Soon even the back of the pack disappeared ahead of him. But a 61 year old toothless farmer, racing in overalls and galoshes, was still compelling television so the cameras continued to cover his journey. Calls reportedly came into the station begging for race officials to make him stop. Many spectators believed he would certainly die before he made it even half way to Melbourne. After 18 hours of running, the leaders stopped for some rest. The conventional wisdom was that running 18 hours straight and then sleeping for 6 was the best recipe for success over this distance. The first night of the race Cliff did not sleep. Continue reading “Cliff Young”

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Two Things You Can Still Do This Year, by Darasimi Oshodi

by Darasimi Oshodi

Darasimi Oshodi, the author
Darasimi Oshodi, the author

Sometime ago, I took my wife to the hospital for treatment of cough and catarrh. It was our first time of visiting that hospital to see a doctor so we had to obtain a new patient’s card. We paid for the card without stress but it was not the same with obtaining the card. Since my wife was not feeling too well, I had to help her obtain the card while she sat down. The queue that confronted me where I was to obtain the card was scary but I did not have any option but to fall in line if I wanted to get the card. There were about five disorderly lines (the disorderliness actually accounts for why I cannot be exact about the number of lines) being attended to by two persons – the number later increased to three.

While waiting to be attended to, I observed something: some people who just joined the queue were attended to before those they met on the line. A man who was behind me found his way to the front and he was attended to before me. My first reaction to the man’s attitude was to wonder at his impatience and disregard for order. But it didn’t take me long to come to terms with what I concluded was the reality of life. I thought to myself that there was no need to blame him because his action only exemplified that life will hand to you what you demand of it and not necessarily what you deserve. In life, some people wait for a good fortune to drop on their laps like ripe mangoes while others go about life with such a determination to make life give them what they want. This does not mean I support disorderliness. In fact, I am a firm believer in the first come, first served principle.

Another observation I made while waiting to get the card was that patients who knew hospital officials enlisted the support of such officials to help them get whatever they wanted quickly. This also did not anger me because I have come to realise that relationships can help you get ahead in life or take you where your knowledge or status may not take you. These patients who knew hospital officials were only enjoying the benefits of the relationships they had developed. And I am not one to blame the hospital officials for calling in favours in their workplace. Where else would they call in such favours if not in their workplace? Continue reading “Two Things You Can Still Do This Year, by Darasimi Oshodi”

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Drugged, Raped, Mocked but Undaunted: I #StandwithJada, by Darasimi Oshodi

 

Jada, a 16-year-old girl, was invited to a party. When she got there, the host gave her a drink of punch and after taking the drink, she passed out and was not aware of every other thing that happened at the party. A few weeks later, she realised that she had been raped and that her photo was taken while she was lying on the ground unconscious. She only became aware of what happened that night when photos of her naked body started circulating on the Internet. As if that was not worrisome enough, some Internet users started taking pictures of themselves mimicking Jada’s pose while she was lying unconscious on the ground and posted those pictures on the Internet with the hash tag #jadapose, which some have termed as a social media low. Some even posted videos, including dance videos to mock her.

But in a rare show of courage, she has decided to come out and speak about the whole incident. Jada, who revealed that she was angry about the whole thing, said, “I had no control. I didn’t tell anyone to take my clothes off and do what they did to me.” And about her reason for coming out, she said, “There’s no point in hiding. Everybody has already seen my face and my body, but that’s not what I am and who I am.”

What is heartwarming is the support Jada has received since she came out to tell her side of the story. These people have also come up with counter hash tags like: #jadacounterpose and #standwithjada with the aim of drumming up support for Jada and also to discourage attacks on the female gender by males. Even the #jadapose meme has been hijacked and is now being used to attack its initial aim. Continue reading “Drugged, Raped, Mocked but Undaunted: I #StandwithJada, by Darasimi Oshodi”

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Superstars and Superflaws

By Darasimi Oshodi

Lance Armstrong, Oscar Pistorius, Aaron Hernandez. Why are superstars falling from grace to grass? Pistorius’ and Hernandez’s cases are still in court so it is subjudice, using the legal parlance, meaning one cannot make any conclusive statement on them, at least not in public. The sports world was shaken earlier this year when Armstrong admitted that he had been using drugs for a very long time despite repeated denials. He admitted he used performance-enhancing drugs during all seven of his Tour de France wins. During his confession, which he made to Oprah Winfrey, one of America’s top show hosts, he said, “I view this situation as one big lie I repeated a lot of times. I made those decisions, they were my mistake and I’m here to say sorry.”

One question that probably has been running through the minds of sports followers/lovers is why our revered sports heroes fall from their place of exaltation to great depths of ignominy. Why do people we have come to admire and hero worship turn out to be pretenders, hypocrites and at times criminals or lawbreakers? These individuals were once stars who were famous because of their dazzling sports career but due to crucial errors in judgment and sometimes, persistent ill habits, their names and careers have been tarnished. Check this short list:

Tiger Woods: Top golfer and former champion Tiger Woods was charged with infidelity and extra-marital affair. The scandal cost him his marriage and sponsors. It is believed he had extra-marital affairs with as many as 17 women. Woods accepted that he was a sex-addict and was admitted to re-hab. Only recently has he managed to get a few sponsors back though his form remains shaky on the golf course.

Mike Tyson: A former undisputed heavyweight boxing champion who had the record of knocking down his opponent in the first 91 seconds of the fight. He was arrested for rape and was later sentenced to six years in prison followed by four years of probation. Apart from rape, he has been embroiled in different controversies but his most remembered controversy was when he bit both ears off Evander Holyfield during a match.

Ben Johnson:  Johnson tested positive for performance enhancing drugs after winning the 100 metres sprint at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and was forced to give up his medal. He later admitted to having used the banned substance the previous year at the World Championship and was stripped of that title as well. He attempted to stage a return but failed another test and was banned for life.

Marion Jones finished with three gold medals and two bronze at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, a feat that had never been done. But Jones was stripped of her medals after she admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs. After the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Jones was accused of taking steroids by her ex-husband, among others. Tests proved nothing but Jones confessed to lying to federal agents about her drug use. She returned the five medals she had won and was also handed a six month prison sentence. She had been accused of using illicit substances from her school days. As if that was not enough, she was also accused of being part of a check-counterfeiting scheme linked to her former coach, Steve Riddick, her sports agent Charles Wells, and her ex-boyfriend, Tim Montgomery.

The stories related above are sad because the characters involved were, at one time, on top of the world but came crashing down and even out of our consciousness. What must have caused this? Simply put, lack of character. All of these sport stars either lacked character or lost their character at a point. They got to the top but could not stay at the top. At different times and fora, I have heard that ability/talent can take you to the top but character will keep you there. This is indeed true of the characters in the aforementioned stories and many other celebrated personalities who have been disgraced. The absence of character has caused many to fall from grace to grass in all spheres of life. The list is endless.

So what is character? Character is much more than just what we try to display for others to see, it is who we are even when no one is watching. Good character is doing the right thing because it is right to do what is right. People without character live hypocritical lives. The personality they present to people is different from what they are in their closet. And eventually their secrets are exposed bringing them great opprobrium. There is a saying in Yoruba land, where I come from, that character is like smoke and that no matter how hard one tries to hide it, it will eventually be detected

From these stories, I have again learned that character is essential and must be maintained at all times. While we all have our weaknesses, we must ensure to deal with them. Why? The weakness we don’t deal with will deal with us. The vice that we don’t overcome will overcome us and may disgrace us. If we must stay at the top, we must maintain good character. As we enter the year 2014, let’s check ourselves and identify weaknesses that we need to deal with and then go ahead and deal with them.

P.S: I pray that justice will be rightly dispensed in the Oscar Pistorius’ case.

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Trailblazing Nigerians, Bishop David Oyedepo and Alhaji Aliko Dangote: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

Darasimi Oshodi, the author
Darasimi Oshodi, the author

One is primarily a preacher; the other is a business mogul. One is an incorrigible unrepentant Christian; the other a faithful Muslim. One is a blunt, no-nonsense personality; the other is a discreet and reserved individual. But they are both entrepreneurs. They are visionaries. They have made their impact on the Nigerian society. They cannot be ignored in the scheme of things. They both wield enormous influence on practically every sphere of our national life in Nigeria.

 

Bishop David Olaniyi Oyedepo is the founder and presiding bishop of Living Faith Church World Wide, also known as Winners Chapel, which has its headquarters, a 5,000-acre (20 km2) land called Canaanland, in Ota Ogun State, Nigeria. The church dedicated a 50, 000 capacity auditorium, Faith Tabernacle, in 1999 and has established about 100 educational institutions based on Christian principles across Nigeria and the African Continent from primary to tertiary levels. Bishop Oyedepo, born in 1954, was in 2011 named by Forbes magazine as the richest pastor in Nigeria.

 

Alhaji Aliko Dangote is the Founder/Chief Executive of the Dangote Group, a conglomerate which started in 1977 as a small trading firm with a loan from his uncle. Today, his business interests cut across food processing, cement manufacturing, freight, telecommunications, etc. Dangote, who was born in 1957 and whose conglomerate is the largest industrial group in Nigeria, is ranked by Forbes Magazine as the richest man in Africa and the 43rd richest person in the world.

What do these two individuals have in common? Maybe the questions to ask is can these two very dissimilar individuals possess anything in common? My answer is in the affirmative. Yes they can and indeed they do have some things in common. Let’s check out some of the similarities between a bishop and an alhaji. Continue reading “Trailblazing Nigerians, Bishop David Oyedepo and Alhaji Aliko Dangote: Two Sides of the Same Coin?”

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