FROM ME TO YOU

Nigeria is on the march again, looking for Mr President. The past week witnessed many memorable events. The most topical issue of the moment revolves around the choice of running mates for the elected candidates of the two major political parties. Some have said religion doesn’t matter. Those who take that position have their reasons. As things stand in Nigeria today, of course religion does matter. In a country where a particular faith is feeling persecuted, it sounds too simple to think that religion doesn’t matter in the choice of the combination of who lead Nigeria. However, the relevant question we should be asking is if religion should matter in the choice of running mate for any candidate who has his roadmap for changing the narrative for a country deeply in the woods. This is what I call the conundrum for my beloved country, Nigeria where merit panders to primordial sentiments. It is the failure of leadership that makes us to define competence by clan and/or religious affiliation.

Jeffrey Awoniyi is the youngest member of the Book Club @ Peace House. He is 7 years old. He was the symbol of the event. Jeffrey stole the show when he stepped out to give an account of his major take home from the book, Winning Strategies. He chose the topic “Face your Fear”. Indeed Jeffrey faced his fear when he defeated timidity and spoke to the audience. I was particularly thrilled with the way he held tightly to the book in a ‘don’t let go’ manner. He is a leader in waiting. The event was the book reading of Winning Strategies on Saturday the 4th of June, 2022. The Convener of the Book Club and Head of Service of Ekiti State, Mrs Peju Babafemi, displayed exemplary leadership. She is a leader indeed, a mother hen with a sea of committed followers who are leaders in their right. The lead discussant and my namesake, Professor Christopher Oluwadare, provided fresh insights to the book, even to me, the author. If only one can climb the professorial chair on account of name sharing, perhaps I would have borrowed his prestigious professorial title but wishes are not horses. I found a new friend in him.

There were many events of significance to me this past weekend. Some are spirit lifting, some are lesson laden but one particular event was heartrending. To me, this is one of those moments when the ink in my pen refuses to flow. My heart is heavy, the words are few. Nigerians groan under harsh conditions but resilience describes her people even in the face of uncertainties of what tomorrow holds. When everything else fails, the succour we seek is in the place of worship, where we dump all challenges and hold on to the hope in the God of creation. If this only hope is taken away, what then is left to live for? It was a black Sunday in Owo, Ondo State yesterday when unidentified gun men mingled with worshippers to maul down unidentified number of people and spilled innocent bloods in a carnage that can be well described as the Owo massacre.

I was thrilled to be admitted to the Book Club @ Peace House under the leadership of Mrs ‘Peju Babafemi. She is a reader, a leader and a technocrat who presently occupies the prestigious seat of the Head of Service of the Ekiti State Civil Service. In a world that has dynamically gravitated towards instant messaging and short codes as means of communication, I am particularly excited that we still have a few leaders championing the reading of books as a veritable means of transmitting knowledge. My inspirational page this week is dedicated to the Book Club @ Peace House. My book, Winning Strategies, has been nominated for reading and discussion at the third edition of the book club programme of the Book Club @ Peace House. What about the book? Winning Strategies is a handbook for leaders and aspiring leaders, written by Akin Oluwadare Jnr, my humble self. The book was unveiled in November 2020 and officially launched in June 2021

Anytime I remember my childhood, I cannot but wish that I have the privilege of choosing how to live but life is more than mere wishes. Naturally, children don’t like to work. They work better in an atmosphere of play, understandably so. I remember how we looked forward to recess when I was in the primary school. Recess then was a short break between morning and early afternoon classroom work, the type we can call biological break. Recess to us as school children was more than a biological break. It was a moment of liberty to play. The freedom to play within the 10 to 15 mins recess had a way of refreshing and reinvigorating us to do classroom work before the big one, the lunch break. We looked forward to recess the same way we looked forward to lunch break. To us, both symbolised the freedom to play. Lunch break to us as school children was much more than a period to eat lunch. It was synonymous with freedom from classroom work regimentation, when you could choose for yourself the kind of play you preferred without being restricted to the four walls of the classroom. Sometimes I wonder if the teachers would have been able to keep us in the classroom from morning till closing time without the periodic breaks at intervals to enable us draw strength from play. This is for children. Now as adult, what impact does short breaks have over your work? Have you ever thought about that?

Communication has never been this aggressive. Inventors of mass communication as a course of study must have seen into the future of the media to know that a time would come when everyone and anyone can communicate to everyone and anyone even without their consent. Could it be the reason they named it mass communication? With the advent of the internet, technology has not only ceded the management of communication to ‘everyone’, the invention of instant messaging vide the social media liberalised information dissemination in a manner that confirms the mass appeal of communication through unsolicited advertisements and chain broadcasts. Even then, the freedom of expression enabled by the seamless communication of the modern age requires wisdom and tact. Many times, communicators offend receivers of their messages knowingly or unknowingly, even when they mean no harm. In other words, communication can be more violent than physical combat.