Author Archive

Wake up, Nkrumah, by Dr. Tunde Oseni

Dr Kwame Nkrumah. the father of African independence

The Gladiator of no distant past

Who fought for liberation with a distinction pass

Wake up now, and resurrect in our land

Before things degenerate beyond our hand

Nkrumah, the father of independence

Now is the time for your kind of intelligence

Wake up now and resurrect in our land

Before we bite more than we can chew

The shining star and the golden voice

Your type is what we crave as an urgent choice

Wake up now and resurrect in our land

Our continent needs an urgent fix

Mandela, the Madiba, by Dr. Tunde Oseni

Mandela, the Madiba

If you want success out of struggle

Mandela, the Madiba represents a model

If you think it’s over when the chips are down

Study Mandela, the Madiba for a change of mind

If you think a people can forever be in chains

Mandela, the Madiba will let you think and change

If the world has no Mandelas in our midst

What for all will that be a great miss

Revenge is not for the strong in mind

Reconciliation is an article of faith for the large in heart

Mandela, the Madiba

Man with a thousand lives

It is to your memory and love

That South Africa and the world know more about peace

My Father and the Whiteman, by Dr.Tunde Oseni

It was a sunny day

My father, then a boy, joined his mates

On a stony pitch

Chasing around a ball

Just beside the hall

Then a call from the Reverend Father

A missionary man from afar

‘You follow me’

My father cleaned up the sweat on his face

And behind the white man he gently walked

The boys behind the White Man were now two

For an errand boy normally escorted the holy one

They got to the storey building

Opposite the Catholic Church

The first in our town,

That owned the school my father went

And the mission to the place was yet unclear

As my father held his breath till the end

The Holy One entered a room that was dark

Asked the Little One to climb upon a desk

And waved a cloth to him to hold

To be pinned to a little window made of wood

The Little One obeyed the Boss

Until the show came to a close

Just by chance

As the white man made to move

A little ray of light snaked into room

And my father got the tip;

It was the call of nature

That the White Man had come to heed

That was 1956 as I was told

In 1959 the boy finished at the school

Then in 1989, the son of the boy

Entered the college arm of the school

Where his father once held the cloth

*This is based on a true life story told me by my father.
Dedicated to Pope Francis I for his love for the oppressed and
tolerance for all faiths.

The Story of My Pet

Dr. Tunde-Oseni

Youth Focus Initiative is my pet project which I started when I was 24, an age by which most students have already completed their first degree and for some their PhDs. After completing secondary school, financial meltdown at the family level put a temporary cap on my thirst for a higher education. As fate would have it, it was in between the struggling eight years of self-help, selling petrol as a pump attendant, teaching pupils in private schools, and working

as a community newspaper reporter that I started Youth Focus Media (later renamed Youth Focus Initiative) in Lagos.

The idea was (and still is) to motivate and engage the youths, wherever they are. I believe that some of the ideas that were packaged into those modest editions of the Youth Focus magazine had the same impact as the regular talks I gave along with the marketing of the publication. I made the magazine so simple that even the busiest person in the world would still find it ‘unputdownable!’ My sister and I were the company and we ‘hired’ some ad hoc distributors. It was not easy in the beginning, but we later found it very exciting.

In August 2001, we went to a massive programme called the Youth Empowerment Scheme at the National Stadium, Surulere in Lagos. The whole stadium was full and we had armed ourselves with 100 copies of Youth Focus magazine to test run the sales. In ten minutes all of our copies had been mopped up and we had to restock with an extra 200 copies, which also sold out within a few hours. It was then that it dawned on us that our Ghanaian cotenant

(Mr. Adoo) was right when he had told us to take ‘everything’ to the programme. We were surprised by the number of sales that we made in four consecutive days. Continue reading “The Story of My Pet” »

Dreams Come True

By Tunde Oseni, PhD

‘The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams’. So goes an anonymous saying. We all need dreams. Not just because dreams come true but also because a life without dreams is an empty life. Dreams in this context are not what we see when we are fast asleep but rather what we passionately think about and enthusiastically imagine becoming realities in the nearest possible future. Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former President of India, said: ‘The dream is not what you see in sleep; dream is which does not let you sleep’. That’s a food for thought indeed. Dreams are therefore the stuff of which success is made of. The good news is that dreams that we hold dear can come true if we tap into the power of big dreams. Dreams come true.

I know that dreams come true because I once dreamt that I would get education at the premier university in Nigeria: the University of Ibadan, and I did; dreams come true. I once dreamt that I would like to make a first class honours degree, and I did; dreams come true. I once dreamt that I would do my postgraduate studies at the first university in the United Kingdom and one of the oldest and the best in the world: the University of Oxford, and I did; dreams come true. While at Oxford, I did dream that I would do my doctorate in a top-rated university in the UK: the University of Exeter, and I did; dreams come true. I not only researched at Exeter, but also taught students from all parts of the world. Wow! Dreams indeed come true. It may interest you to know that I was not born with the proverbial silver spoon, but I was, metaphorically speaking, born with a spoon, the spoon of pursuit of excellence, the spoon of courage, the spoon of hope. Continue reading “Dreams Come True” »

Defining Success

By Tunde Oseni

Success is a relative term. It means different things to different people. Nevertheless, we all know successful people when we see them. According to The Pocket Oxford Dictionary (e-version), success means ‘accomplishment of an aim; favourable outcome; attainment of wealth, fame, or position’. People admire success and society rewards it. Simply, to me, success is what you achieve as a result of a calculated effort. This is what I mean: you succeed when you set a goal and meet it.

Let us begin with the story of a ‘skinny kid with a funny name’ who attempted to give life a shot with the hope that his country had a place for him too. Barack Obama overcame the stereotype of being born by a white mother, who later died of cancer, and a black father, who he truly never knew. He was raised by his maternal grandparents in Honolulu in the State of Hawaii and went to college with the full hope of making it despite odds. Barack studied Political Science at the Columbia University, worked as a ‘community organizer’ in the Southside of Chicago and went to read Law at Harvard University where he rose to become the first black President of the venerated Harvard Law Review. Barack then became an attorney, elected a state senator, appointed an adjunct professor, and then elected as a national senator, and eventually the first man of his skin colour to become the President of the United States of America. That is success.

Now, success is not just about becoming a president or a governor or being awarded a Nobel Laureate. Success comes in different garbs, colours and sizes. At times success may connote such a simple achievement as getting one’s dream job. For instance, one of my friends, Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr., now CEO of CFA Leverage, shared with us how elated he became after securing a job with Globacom Limited. He said he was hopeful that he would secure the employment despite the discouragement by many of his contemporaries who insisted that getting such a job with a big Telecoms required ‘connections’ and since my friend didn’t have one he would fail. He succeeded.

I believe that anybody can set a goal, make calculated effort, through organised planning and self-motivation, and reach that goal. It is however important to differentiate between good success and bad success. This may be a paradoxical way of looking at the concept of success. But we probably do need to classify some success as good and some as bad in order to separate what is truly glorifying from what is merely vain-glorious.  Continue reading “Defining Success” »

Rethinking Segregationist Policies

My lawyer-friend, Timi Olagunju, recently sued President Jonathan and six others over what he called gender discrimination in the YouWin Women programme of the Federal Government. The policy, in its current format, my friend argues, violates section 42 of the 1999 Constitution. Aside the YouWin Women, the recently launched Almajiri Education System by the Federal Government, and the proposed 5000 naira note by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), are, to say the least, segregationist.

The YouWin programme should be for all young Nigerians, irrespective of their gender. The federal government can attempt to bridge the ‘gender gap’, if that truly exists among millions of unemployed Nigerian youths, through a more humane and gender sensitive quota (say 60/40 percent in favour of women). I think that was the method they used for YouWin last year.

Similarly, in the wake of incessant Boko Haram menace in parts of the North, the federal government introduced the Almajiri Education System, whereby potential (future) recruits by religious extremists would receive free primary education and feeding along the line. It is meant to integrate Islamic and Western education. Whereas, like YouWin Women, Almajiri education is meant to bridge some gap, it might end up widening the gap. Just like the YouWin Women would endanger gender equality and promote segregation among our youths, Almajiri education would foster social, economic and religious segregation. Continue reading “Rethinking Segregationist Policies” »

Organize, Don’t Agonize (Poem)

Tunde Oseni, Author and motivational speaker

Organize, don’t agonize

Long time complaint

Will not bring the train

If you want a change

Be the change yourself

Organize, don’t agonize

Many people are there

But only because they are aware

Think not it is by chance

That those on top reach the place

Organize, don’t agonize

Continue reading “Organize, Don’t Agonize (Poem)” »