Welcome 2011

Slept and woke up 365 mornings; thank You
Hung(er) and had enough to eat at least 1095 times; thank You
Had my heart beat about 38 million times without getting weary; thank You
Had a pillow below my head and a roof over it; thank You

Headache's time eventually elapsed; thank You
Sored throat lingered and then smothered, thank You
Abdominal upsets raged but never forever; thank You
Every bodily pain was a sign of living; thank You

For payers answered; thank You
For whisperes that seemed to have gone unattended; thank You
For 2010 gone; thank You
For 2011 here; thank You LORD.

Nigeria @ 50: What Are We Celebrating?

I have attended several birthdays that the celebrant could not -if asked to- point fingers at a single achievement his entire life. But we all go ahead and bring cards and other gifts, cut and eat the cake with him and felicitate for a couple of hours. No one cares to ask, "So celebrant, what have you achieved in the last 30 years of your life that today is worth celebrating?" Haha, test yourself too, what was worth celebrating about your last birthday? It's not the case for everybody though...

But for those who really cannot point at a thing, all we are doing is celebrating their lives because we know in certainty that if there is still life there is still hope. Though the person might be a zero today he might be a hero tomorrow. I think it's worth it to celebrate the existence of Nigeria till today. Yes there is still poverty. Yes we still don't have basic amenities. Yes there has been a backward trend. Yes there is hostility and civil unrest. Yes a bomb blasted, killed and maimed people. Yes, it is one of the most corrupt countries in the  world... Nigeria is still alive and if people like you and I will contribute our quota, we will have the Nigeria of our dream. Someday.

Nigeria has not been ruling herself. It has been ruled by humans, our brothers. Your fathers and mine are the ones who made a mess of it. We celebrate those who misruled the country yet we don't see any sense in celebrating the resilience of the victim of tyranny. We should celebrate Nigeria and call the bluff of the corrupt leaders.

Nigeria has given us a place to call home. Nigeria has given us an identity. Nigeria has given us shelters oblivious of major natural disasters. Nigeria is rich in resources. Nigerians are poor but we are still one of the happiest people on earth. Nigeria has a future. Absolutely fantastic.

Happy anniversary Nigeria. Rejoice Nigerians...

Adeyemi Adeleye

Two Coaches

"Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility . . . . In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility."

— Michael Korda
Editor-in-Chief, Simon & Schuster

I love football (and of course, basketball). I love it when a team plays entertaining football and of course, winning always leaves you with a cool feeling when it’s your team.

Coaches are certainly an important part of the game that we do not see so much of during the game like the players; except of course those that gymnastically gesticulate with as much vigor as the boys kicking the ball around. But because pressmen know how much a coach matters to the team they always try to get their opinion after each game. And many times, before the game.

I have listened to a number of post-game comments and I can classify what most coaches have to say after a defeat into two groups: One of them generally goes “…the boys refused to play according to instructions… and what you saw today is what happens when that occurs”. And the other, “we had a very bad day here today, we just couldn’t get ourselves right... we will go back to the drawing board and…”

The former coach is clearly letting us know that he knows his job and did it but the players were just stupid! The latter coach is saying we know our job but we didn’t seem to have done it well! The former coach is simply showing he is so good that all fingers should be pointed to the players while the latter is saying if anyone must die, kill me first.

No single raindrop believes it is responsible for the flood.

Many a time, we all behave like the blame-shifting coach who wants to appear to have perfectly played his role. “I am the coach and not the player.” We don’t want a share of the blame, “it was him- he completely jeopardized the team’s effort.” Worse still, we point fingers at our subordinates- those we are supposed to be leading. How silly!

When a leader shifts the blame to the follower he is simply saying “I’m not truly the leader, someone else is!” The coach that claims publicly his players didn’t play according to instruction is simply saying “I have no control over those boys; I ask them to do A, but they do B- I’m not in charge. I’m just a figure head!”

Leaders do not come out shifting the blame to their subordinates; they take responsibility for whatever happened. They accept the blame on behalf of the team even if they had played their role pretty well. Great leaders know this: the team wins together and losses together. When the coach says “we had a bad day”, he means “I led them and I led them wrong, I am the leader and I am at fault.” Great teams go directly at one another inside; but outside, they are a team.

I remember making a big blunder during my last full time job; I mean a big blunder. I played into the hands of a General Manager who was three positions (about 5-10 years work experience) above my direct boss. While the last I heard about that was when the General Manager made me realize I messed up, I know my boss had taken most and all of the heat. He may have even been tongue-lashed in the next management meeting for negligence but he kept all that away from me- maybe because he knew I realized the gravity of what I did. I respect you, Habila Amos!

The cool thing about the coaches that accept/share the blame for/with their team is that when it’s praise time they shower it –almost completely– on the team. When they are interviewed after a victory you hear things like “we all did our homework pretty well, the boys gave their all…” But our dear blame-shifter has just one same phrase too, however, in the opposite direction this time- “the boys strictly followed instruction and you can see the result for yourself.” Huh, infallible ultimate warrior!

Whenever we did great jobs for Habila that precipitated commendations from his bosses, we would always get the commendation forwarded to us and he tells you, “you did it, it’s your job.” Even in meetings he would not cease to sing your praise; men, that was an incentive to work harder! But he is never going to vilify you openly when you do wrong- that’s a private business.

So evaluate the kind of leader you have been? Are you taking responsibility or are you always denouncing your leadership when things go wrong? What kind of leader do you want to be? Is it the coach that points his finger outward when it’s bad and inward when it’s great? Or is it the coach that shares both the good and bad?

Yahoo! I just saw some grate examples of how we all play these coaches in Blame Shifter: Spineless Cousins of Shapelifters (http://www.selfhelpdaily.com/blame-shifting-blame-shifters/):

·         They spill a drink down the front of their top…. the server filled it too dang high!

·         They can’t afford something they’d like to have…. Obama! Bush! War! Wife!

·         A bad day at the office means that their co-workers are “losers” and the boss is a “jerk.”

·         A college exam didn’t go as well as hoped for…. stupid test!

·         Someone’s weight is out of control… it’s everyone’s fault except the one with the fork in their hand.

·         Their kids misbehave and/or talk back….  it’s all thanks to the school system, television, and the music they listen to.

Attraction is a response!

Living at the McLaughlin Reserve for over two months so far has brought me across some botanists and ecologists. Interesting enough, a lot of them are interested in plant-pollinator relationships. This is such an interesting topic because the relationship is so mutual one might not survive without the other.

One of the things I've learnt from them is while some plants are capable of self-propagation; the bulk of plants will only reproduce through cross-pollination. Besides, cross pollination increases genetic variation, and thus, survival.

In order to ensure cross-pollination, birds and insects (pollinators) are of utmost importance to plants, which would otherwise pay any amount to develop muscular limbs to be able to throw and catch pollen grains themselves. And to ensure the pollinators come around, the plants cook very tasty meals which the pollinators cannot resist- nectar. While having delicious nectary meals, the pollinators carry pollen grains from one plant to another- exactly what the plants need.

Different plants use different recipes for their nectar preparation hence it differs from one plant to another. The nature of the nectar determines what pollinator comes around. That is the power of choice the plants have- they choose who they want around by what they produce. That is the same power of choice you have- you choose whom you want around you by what you produce. People rarely just want to be your friend for no reason; they want to be your friend because they see in you what/who they want.

Like we all know, every lady had an idea the kind of guy she wants; just any guy wouldn't do. A guy also has an idea of the specifications he wants in his girl and he will do everything to get the one that meets them most. Equilibrium is when demand meets supply. Lol!

The kind of nectar you exhume determines the type of pollinators you attract! So just in case you are wondering why on earth you are surrounded by the kind of people that surround you, stop wondering; check inwards. And if you don't want the kind of people surrounding you, don't run away or chase them away, just change you. Attraction is not a choice, it is a response.

Ponder on This...

Dear All,

Trust today is going well!

The accompanying piece was sent in by a close friend (Adeyemi Adeleye)
and these ideas are really thought-provoking and inspiring.

Reminds me of a popular commercial that rode the airwaves last  year
and the year before it in Nigeria…

Ponder on them!

A baby is not thrown away for falling several times while starting to
walk. But learning is in fact, not limited to childhood: While many of
us learned to drive as early-privileged teenagers or late-privileged
adults, we definitely sucked so badly at first. We may have even
recorded near-fatal accidents all the name of learning to drive… So
why did you not just stop learning since it might kill?

Who ever thought humans can move at 65mph without going unconscious or
our blood freezing up with fright. In fact, speed breakers and speed
limits are today used to slow man down even though he was once
imagined not to be able to move fast at all. Who ever thought humans
could compete with the eagles in the air and beat the ‘natural kings
of the air’ to traveling speed and distance, despising gravity? Today
humans can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner in three different
continents if they so wish. Does the impossible really exist?

Like Walt Disney says: "It's kind of fun to do the impossible."

Let’s wrap it up:
That you sucked at starting it does not mean it is not meant for you.
It does not mean you cannot.
That men said it is impossible does not make it a no-go area.
Be like the bumble-bee, which totally ignorant of the laws of
thermodynamics, does not know its wings are too small to lift its body
size. In its ignorance it flaps its little wings like other well-built
insects and it does fly.
Be ignorant to the laws and principles that say ‘it is impossible’.
Set your targets, go for them… impossible does not exist.

For me, Impossible really is like the dinosaurs of the ages
past...perhaps only comfortable in our history and archives.

Step out of the hold of “Impossibility” and take charge of your
life...Steer your life to fulfillment!

(Culled from Ponder on This)

ExamTension!

“5 + 5 = 20” is not the type of mistake you expect from a graduate student who spent about a year learning pre-primary school Arithmetic, six years learning primary school-level Arithmetic, another six years learning secondary school Mathematics and having an A in WASSCE O-level, and an excellent year of university Mathematics, including Calculus. But such happens under examination conditions even though that is the time it just should not happen; not at all! I laughed at myself for days when I got a mid-term script and I had written that two fives will add up to twenty. I guess the other option would be to be mad at myself and for missing the answer but it is not the kind of question I cannot miss even if I just woke up from a nightmare. But I did.

We were (I think) to determine the total amount of nitrogen ions (or something) present in a water body pollutes by several species of nitrogen. My interpretation was spot on. The stoichiometry was without blemish. I had determined all the N-equivalent of all the species and just when I was to do the easiest part of the answering, my hand decided to be independent of my brain.

I’d let it go until today again something similar repeated itself: I have just missed a question in a driving test because in my mind the question had “…younger…”, but it was actually “…older…” I was expecting to miss one or two questions in all, but not the first question that I knew well like the back of my hand- asking about the BAC limit for drivers older than 21. I quickly checked the “accurate answer” but what I checked was an answer to what I thought the question was: BAC limit for drivers younger than 21. I missed no other question but that and it struck me how easy it is for us to fail exams and perform below our potential.

In both cases I will identify ‘exam tension’ as the chief suspect. That is what makes your hand shake uncontrollably when you hear “start”. That is what turns your pant to your handkerchief because you just cannot stop sweating even on this cold day. That is what pushes many people to start tilting their necks to a minimum of ninety degrees either way because it makes them even forget what they know. That is what makes you hold your pen like you are just learning how to write and all the sweat pores in your fingers just woke up from their long-time sleep. Exam tension does not only shake the hand, it also shakes the mind and you start to write, at times, the opposite of what you meant. Or the question suddenly looks twisted and there is no answer in the objectives. Perhaps, like me, you start to see something else other than what was asked and you are brilliantly answering the questions in the wrong way. Worse still, it could temporarily disconnect from your brain sockets the nerves that join your hand to your brain and connect it to your heart instead (which is beating like 500 times in a minute!)

It probably does not affect some people so badly; they just make one or two mistakes here and there and that’s it. But if you think of the fact that the difference between one grade and the next is usually a mark you would understand how important just one mistake could be. I guess I've not been badly hit thus far but it has nonetheless created a gap between my potential and my performance. And before the gap gets wider than it is already I’m going to have to plug it up! I know it affects you too every once in a while but here comes help. Yahoo!

But, I'm I in the right position to advise a victim of what I'm suffering from myself? Can I tell you how to overcome exam tension when I just fell a victim a couple of hours ago? I will assume I'm talking to myself henceforth… Adeyemi, you have to stop fidgeting in the exam hall so you stop missing questions cheaply. I will prescribe the following medicines and watch how you do in the next couple of days:

·         Study well. Study well and cover all you need to cover to increase your confidence in the exam hall. One of the major promoters of tension is lack of confidence- full confidence that you are ready for this;

·         Take it easy! You remember what you did that exam that your hand just couldn’t stop shaking? Stop writing! Drop your pen! Sit back, relax and chant some TONGUES! Ha!

·         Don’t be in a rush to finish so you can read questions and write answers carefully. But if it’s a time-constrained exam and you have to rush; rush. But ensure you spend some time going through your answers again before submitting it. When going through assume you were wrong all this while, so be on the lookout for things to correct;

·         Alright people, that’s all I know and I still need more advice from you guys. Please help so I don’t repeat this mistake again. Thanks.

·         (your comment) __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Try Ignorance

Imagine how many people were killed!

There was this case in Kenyatta National Hospital Intensive Care ward
where patients always died in the same bed on Sunday morning at 11am,
regardless of their medical condition.

This puzzled the doctors and some even thought that it had something
to do with the supernatural no one could solve the mystery.... as to
Why the death at 11.00AM.

So a world-wide expert team was constituted and they decided to go
down to the ward to investigate the cause of the incidents. So on the
next Sunday morning few minutes before 11am, all doctors and nurses
nervously wait outside the ward to see for themselves what the
terrible phenomenon was all about.

Some were holding wooden crosses, prayer, books and their
Objects to ward off the evil.....Just when the clock struck
11......Guess what happened...... Mukhobero Wepukhulu, the part-time
Sunday sweeper entered the ward and unplugged the life support system
so that he could use the socket for the vacuum cleaner.

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.

JUN2710 Lawmakers pay

JUN2710 Lawmakers pay

PRODIGY OR CLONE?

You walk like me. You talk like me. You dress like me. You even laugh like me. You still are not me. The best all those can make you is ‘like me’, not me. The best they will make you is a near copy or perhaps, a carbon copy. I am still me, you are still you.

Those are some ranting from my annoyed mind. I’m pissed at those who have turned their mentors to their molding block, their creator. They have moved from prodigy to clones; ah! We knew them as A but after a while of mentorship under B, they are now more of B than A. But mentor B should help you to become a better A, not a worse B!

Receiving mentorship is a powerful tool to being guided to the kind and aspect of greatness one desires. We all need mentors, we all should be mentored. But mentors are like teachers, they only should pass some things across, not all things, including how they use the bathroom. Copying how your mentor talks, is groomed, walks, or dresses does not increase the mentorship; neither does it increase the essentials you derive from him. It only tells us you are not very sure of exactly what you want of or from him.

All these physical efforts take your mind off exactly what you should be focusing on into the art of looking like him. Mentors add to making us, they don’t make us. Mentors help us become better us, not a worse them.

Catch his character, not his characteristics. Know why he talks, not how he talks. Understand why he laughs, not how he laughs. What he wears is less important than why he wears it. Learn his skills, not his swags. Learn his discipline, not his gesticulation. Learn his attitude, not his magnitude. Learn his perspiration, not his articulation. Know the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ will be an easy task.

A Hypothetical Paper to the Special Adviser...

From: Adeyemi Adeleye

To: Special Adviser on Power and Energy

Subject: Natural gas: From GHG to Power Generation

Date: May 20, 2010

Dear Special Adviser,

Natural gas occurs together with crude oil in most Nigerian oil reserves. Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ) estimates that Nigeria had 184 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven natural gas reserves as of January 2009 which could total 300 trillion cubic feet, making Nigeria the seventh largest natural gas reserve holder in the world and the largest in Africa. Nigeria faces a number of difficulties in harnessing its abundant gas reserves mainly because it lacks the necessary infrastructure. When most of its oil facilities were built in the 1960s and 1970s, at a time when gas was not a popular energy source in the world, little thought was given to gas collection facilities. Because many of Nigeria’s oil fields lack the infrastructure to produce and market associated natural gas, it is often flared. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Nigeria flared 593 Bcf of natural gas in 2007, which, according to Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, cost the country US$ 1.46 billion in lost revenue. Every day in southern Nigeria, almost 2 million cubic feet of natural gas is burnt during crude oil production, more than is flared anywhere else in the world and according to the World Bank, gas flared in Nigeria is equivalent to total annual power generation in sub-Saharan Africa. Gas flaring not only wastes a valuable resource for the past 40 years, but is also a major cause of environmental pollution in the Niger River Delta, where most of Nigeria's oil output is produced. There is growing anger among local inhabitants at the damage caused to their health and ecosystem by oil production activities, especially gas flaring and crude oil spillage. Moreover, flaring is a global source of greenhouse gas emissions, contributing immensely to global warming. The World Bank estimates that gas flaring in the Niger Delta releases some 35 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. If pursued vigorously via international bilateral agreements, this massive gas flaring in Nigeria can qualify the country to participate in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) with one of the European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading System (EU ETS) countries, while financial and technical assistance can be received in exchange for utilizing this large-scale resource, especially in the generation of cleaner power which the country is in dire need of.

At present only 10% of rural households and 40% of the country’s total population have access to electricity from the national grid. And in the urban and semi-urban areas, three out of every five household relies on electric generators for powering their homes and businesses. This has continually led to an upsurge in the use of gasoline and diesel engines which are also major sources of VOCs, carbon monoxide and of global concern, carbon dioxide. Nigeria has 5900 MW of installed generating capacity; however, the country is only able to generate 1600 MW because most facilities have been poorly maintained and more importantly, old. Since the current government has a plan to increase access to electricity throughout the country to 85% by 2020, it will be necessary to consider the most cost-effective and least impactful way to go about it.

The contribution of Nigeria to global warming through petroleum exploration and use by industry, automobiles, electricity generation (both local and industrial) and gas flare definitely makes the country one of the highest carbon contributor in Africa. If the country thus decides to participate in a global carbon cap-and-trade scheme it will be given a considerably high cap based on historical emission. But since the country may not be technically ready for that right now, the CDM option could be pursued as it is a gain to the country on all sides- mitigation, power and revenue. The worst case scenario might be for the government to seek foreign investment for the natural gas capture and power generation. This will be a good policy approach to mitigate the nation’s emission which is increasing on an annual basis, reduce wastage from flaring, and increase power generation, albeit, cleaner power compared to coal and fuel-powered plants present today. In a national energy demand projection simulated that for 13% GDP growth rate by 2030, the demand projections rose from 5,746MW in the base year of 2005 to 297,900MW in the year 2030 which translates to construction of 11,686MW every year to meet the demand. The corresponding cumulative invest­ment (investment & operations) cost for the 25-year period is US$ 484.62 billion, which means investing US$ 80.77 billion every five years within the period. Financial returns from the CDM and export of power and natural gas can definitely surpass this estimated cost. The expected life-span for the nation’s natural gas is about 88 years, which gives the country ample time to develop much cleaner alternative energy on a national scale while completely phasing out fossil fuel power production.

Thank you.

Adeyemi Adeleye