Editor’s Desk

Editor's Desk

KENYA: A THEATER OF NATURE’S SPLENDOR

I have always wanted to see Kenya’s very famous scenic landscapes and vast wildlife. Although, I had never been to Kenya, I have written a couple of pieces on this very beautiful country as I have on most countries in Africa. Whether I was going to see the scenic landscapes and wildlife on this trip or not, didn’t really matter to me, I was just ecstatic, when my brother and friend Didier Bayeye, the marketing manager for Africa and Indian Ocean at Sun International, invited me to compere his traditional wedding ceremony in Kenya.

I consider it proper to mention the fact that the love story that culminated into this wedding ceremony actually started at Akwaaba 2018.  As most travel, tourism and hospitality practitioners in Africa usually do annually, Didier from his base in South Africa and Shirley Favour from her base in Kenya came for the 2018 edition of Akwaaba Africa Travel Market (AFTM) – which is essentially an international travel, tourism and hospitality event that holds in Eko Hotels and suites, Victoria Island Lagos, Nigeria, annually. They both came as singles who were searching for their soul mates, not knowing that exactly a year later, all roads would lead to Kenya for their traditional wedding ceremony.

Even though the wedding ceremony was scheduled to hold on 6th and 7th of September 2019 respectively, I choose to leave Nigeria a few days before the ceremony to explore Nairobi a little and to attend to a meeting that I had pre-scheduled with some friends in the corporate communications office of Kenya Airways in Nairobi.  Although, I was unable to carry out my exploration as much as I would have loved to, I must say that I still had a delightful experience during my very short, first visit to Kenya.

The Kenya Airways flight number KQO535 that took me to Kenya left Nigeria at about 11:00 pm Nigerian time on the 3rd of September 2019, and arrived at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi Kenya at about 7:30 am Kenyan time.  Being an unapologetic Pan-Africanist, I firmly believe that entering into any African country should be very easy for any African, at least for those Africans who are legitimately visiting those countries. It is for this reason that in my opinion, one of the most important highlights of my trip to Kenya was the very easy way I entered into the country.
Like it is in most East African countries, it is visa on arrival for Africans at the port of entry, which in this case was the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi Kenya. One is just expected to clearly state the reasons for one’s visit to Kenya on the immigration forms provided at the immigration area of the arrival terminal of the airport. After filling and handing over the completed form along with your International passport, the immigration officer on duty just goes through the information provided on the form and if he or she is satisfied, one is then asked to pay a visa fee of $50 which is all you are expected to do before being allowed to enter into Kenya.

I got into Kenya very early on the 4th of September, and as I had travelled all night, I was tired and rested for most part of the day. By the evening, Didier and his wife Shiley Favour, insisted that we went to town together. Knowing that I love fish, the couple took me out for dinner and treated me to some lovely Malian fish dish – which was fish garnished with some salad and ‘Ugali’ also known as ‘Nsima’ and pap – a type of cornmeal porridge popular across Africa. I was also treated to a bit of ‘mutura’- which is well seasoned goat meat or beef, ‘mokimo’ – which is a mixture of boiled potatoes, boiled maize, pumpkin leaves and salt, garnished with ‘spinach’, which I soon discovered is served as part of almost all Kenyan cuisines’.
I spent a better part of the 5th of September, my second day in Kenya at the Kenyan Airways office.
Mr. Hafeeez Balogun – the country manager of Kenya Airways in Nigeria who was in Kenya at that material time facilitated easy entrance into the Corporate Headquarters of Kenya Airways for me.

Then came the 6th of September 2019 – the traditional wedding ceremony day of Mr. & Mrs. Didier Bayeye, family and friends came together from all over to celebrate the big day with them.
The ‘Masai’ are arguably among the best known peoples of Africa internationally due to their dwellings being near the many game parks of the African Great Lakes region, and their distinctive customs and dressing. For this reason, I particularly looked forward to seeing the proceedings of the ‘Masai’ traditional wedding ceremony, and I must confess I was not disappointed at all. I was blown away by the mélange of the colors and sheer beauty of the dresses of the ‘Masai’ women who welcomed us with very melodious traditional songs at the entrance of the bride’s house.  Apart from the actual negations for the bride that was done quietly behind closed doors, every other part of the traditional wedding was performed with pomp and pageantry, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Immediately after breakfast on Saturday 7th September, my dear sister and friend Waturi WA Matu, Senior Director, Business Competitiveness at Trademark East Africa, took out time from her very busy schedule, came to La Maison Royale Hotel, the hotel, we lodged in and took us out on a city tour. Our first port of call was the Giraffe Centre, which was founded in 1979 by the African fund for endangered wildlife Kenya (A.F.E.W Kenya), a Kenyan non-profit organization established with the aim of educating Kenyan school children and youth on their country’s wildlife and environment, as well as give local and international visitors an opportunity to come into close contact with the world’s tallest animal species – the giraffe, just like I did.  Also located in the premises of the giraffe centre, is the world’s one and only Giraffe Hotel – the ‘Marula Manor’, owned by The Safari Collection. The ‘Marula Manor’ is an exclusive boutique hotel set on a 12-acre private land within 140 acres of indigenous forest in the Langata suburb of Nairobi.

From the giraffe centre, we went on to visit the ‘Karen Bixen Museum’, which was original the farmhouse of Baroness Karen Christenze Von Blixen Finecke, who died on the 7th of September 1962, at the age of 77 in her home country, Germany. The museum was so named due to the positively impactful life she had lived in her early days in Kenya and the success of the Film ‘Out of Africa’, which was made in her memory in 1985. In 1986 Karen Blixen Museum was opened by the government of Kenya to tell the story of this great woman and how she had meaningfully influenced the lives of some Kenyans, particularly the lives of those who had direct contact with her.
After this very refreshing and educative experience at both the Giraffe Centre and Karen Blixen museum, we went for lunch and then to a local market in the city centre to do some shopping.  

From around 7:00 pm on Saturday 7th September to the wee hours of Sunday 8th September 2019, the couple hosted family and friends to a very well planned party where there were lots of drinks and food for the guests. The music was supplied by a live band whose members clearly knew their trade and yours truly compered the event. It was truly a night to remember, the décor was exquisite and almost every guest, all of whom were gorgeously dressed in white attire, danced to the very rich mix of melodious music that the band churned out.

All through the trip, I was very careful with my diet until Sunday 8th September 2019, which was my last day on this trip, I guess it is safe to describe the day as a calorific day. I had an early flight to catch the following morning, so my plan was to rest for most part of the day, pack my luggage and prepare for my trip back to Nigeria on Monday 9th September, but according to Mr. Tonny Muiruri Mutungu, whom I fondly call ‘Oga Tonny’, “our trip to Kenya, particularly Nairobi, wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t visit the Carnivore”. Oga Tonny, is a very senior colleague in the Tourism industry in Africa, so when such a person spares time from his very busy schedule to take you out, it is completely out of line to refuse such a kind gesture.
So my leaving for the Carnivore was just a matter of being polite, but my trip there and journey back to the hotel was another matter entirely, as I was most thrilled. The Carnivore is undoubtedly a popular tourist destination; it is an open-air restaurant in the Langata suburb of Nairobi, Kenya. Carnivore’s specialty is meat, and features an all-you-can-eat meat buffet. I was told that the restaurant when it was established in 1980 by the Tamarind group, seated 350 people in 1999 with the restaurant’s 330 employees serving over 1000 people per day. The wild game, including giraffe, wildebeest, ostrich and crocodile whose meat was served then, was raised on Hopcraft Ranch, 25 miles outside Nairobi, but ever since the sale of wild game meat was banned in Kenya in 2004, the restaurant now serves meat from domestic animals such as beef, pork, lamb, and chicken, as well as farmed ostrich and crocodile meat. The meat is skewered on Masai swords, cooked on coals, and served on cast-iron plates. The restaurant does have a vegetarian option for those who don’t eat meat. It ranked 47th on Restaurant magazine‘s “World’s Best 50 Restaurants” list in 2003.

Another major highlight of my trip to Kenya was the fact that I was able to see my age long sister and friend, Fifi Josephine Rurangwa, Head of Africa Expansion and Airline Partnerships for Wakanow.com limited.  It was Fifi who listed some must visit Kenya itinerary for me and said that I cannot really appreciate the nature’s splendor that Kenya’s has got to offer until I have visited the following places:

  • The Masai Mara Natural Park, which is home to the Great Migration and Africa’s exceptional wildlife, the reserve according to her boasts some of the region’s most varied topography, including hilly terrain, an escarpment leading to a plateau, and wide-open central plains that form much of the reserve. Wildlife-watching is the main event there, providing for outstanding sightseeing.
  • Another must visit place is the Famous Tsavo National Park East, which is one of the oldest and largest parks in Kenya at 13,747 square kilometres, and the place where the Legendary pair of the Tsavo Man-eating Lions lived. Situated in a semi-arid area previously known as the Taru Desert, it was opened in April 1948, and is located near the town of Voi in the Taita-Taveta County of the former Coast Province. The park is divided into east and west sections by the A109 road and a railway. It is named after the Tsavo River, which flows west to east through the national park, it borders the Chyulu Hills National Park, and the Mkomazi Game Reserve in Tanzania.
  • Mombasa, which is a coastal city of Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It is the country’s oldest (circa 900 AD) and second-largest city (after the capital Nairobi), with an estimated population of about 1.5 million people in 2017. Its metropolitan region is the second largest in the country and has a population of approximately 3 million people. Mombasa is a regional cultural and economic hub; it has an extra-large port and an international airport, and is an important regional tourism center. Located on the east coast of Kenya, it is also the home to one of Kenya’s State Houses, and is considered by some as a second capital in all but name. Mombasa’s location on the Indian Ocean has made it a historical trading center and in the past had been controlled by different countries because of its strategic location.
  • Naivasha, which is also a popular tourist destination. Hell’s Gate National Park (the main locations for Lion King, including Pride Rock and the Gorge, are modelled after the park), Mount Longonot National Park and Mount Longonot are nearby attractions. Tours also have included Lake Naivasha, to observe birdlife and hippopotamus behaviour, as well as other wild animals.
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 Editor's Desk

HOTEL MANAGEMENT: FOCUS IS ALWAYS ON PEOPLE – STRONG PASSIONATE TEAM = GREAT GUEST EXPERIENCE = REPEAT BUSINESS

Nikola Jelenovic, General Manager of the Radisson Blu Gautrain Hotel, Sandton, Johannesburg. By Adegoke Oluwaseyi Adeyemo

On my last trip to South Africa, I stayed in Raddison blu Gautrain Hotel, Sandton Johannesburg and I must confess that I had a great time in the exquisite hotel. Raddison blu Gautrain Hotels, which is a three-minute walk from Gautrain rail station, seven minute walk from the upscale Sandton city shopping centre, with sleek and very spacious rooms plus hip dinning, with a city view bar and an outdoor pool as well as a fitness centre. is truly a classy business traveller hotel.  In course of my stay I had a chat with Mr Nikola Jelenovic, the General Manager of the hotel and below is an excerpt of our chat:

IWA: How long have you been in the management of hotels and what has been your unique experience all through these years? 

NIK: As a Hotel Manager, it’s been over five years, and let me say that the very pleasant experiences I have had over the years in my career, has been due to the very dynamic environments I have had the privilege of working in, I also derive a lot of pleasure in seeing that guests and customers are satisfied with the services we render to them. The development of the team I work with is also paramount on my mind.

IWA: Now from the perspective of a practitioner, what does hotels and hotel management mean to you?

NIK:  Managing a Hotel is a serious business, thus one must always have profitability in focus. From the services you deliver to the quality of your personnel, the bottom line for management and the investors is profit and that must be properly taken care of, to keep the business running. Generally speaking the business of running a hotel is very competitive thus management of hotels, must always be very strategic in thinking and possess very good people management skills in order to succeed.

IWA: It is often said that running an airline is not necessarily a profitable venture. Is running a hotel a profitable venture, if yes, what does one need to ensure that a hotel keeps making profits? 

NIK:  Yes, running a hotel can be a profitable venture, but it is important for management and investors to clearly understand that their primary purpose and goal is to deliver great guests experience. They must do everything within their power to put a passionate and well-motivated team together to always deliver this goal. It is by so doing that there will be constant business and eventually profitability will be guaranteed.

IWA: What are the basic qualifications that one needs to succeed as a hotel manager? 

NIK: To have a formal training in hotel management is good and would definitely be advantageous for anyone a good starting point for anyone that is pursuing a career in hotel management but in my opinion the best tool one needs to succeed in hotel management is experience that one gathers on the job and the quality of mentoring one is able to get in course of one’s career.

IWA: If you were not working in the hospitality industry, in what other industry would you have preferred to work and why? 

NIK: I have a strong affinity for project management, so I would have ended up doing something that is related to project management.

IWA: Clearly, there are several lovely hotels in South Africa and particularly in Sandton. So what in your opinion are the core competitive strengths of Radisson Blu Gautrain, Hotel, Sandton?  

NIK: First; our unique location, excellent facilities as well as our service philosophy and delivery.

IWA: What are the things you love most about working with Radisson Blu? 

NIK: The Dynamic way with which things are done in the group, Radisson is a driven, fast growing international organization, Out of all the Radisson collection, the Blu is a great upscale brand where every moment matters, however, the most important part of our drive in my opinion is how we always ensure that our guests feel the difference between us and the rest.

IWA: We live in an ever-evolving world, so where do you see Radisson Blu , Hotel, Sandton in the next five years?

NIK: I see Radisson Blu Gautrain as a market leader in the Sandton area based on its prime location, excellent service and facilities and competitive pricing.

IWA: What part of Radission Blu’s corporate culture do you like most and why?

NIK: The Radisson group is clearly driven by seven pillars that sums up the group corporate culture, thus it is difficult to single out one specific one, therefore, let me mention the ones I consider the top three: We deliver memorable moments every day, everywhere , every time We serve with our “Yes I can “spirit We are many minds with one mindset. 

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HOW FREE IS FREE TRADE

The period between the ages of 13 and 16 years in the life of a male child and between the ages of 11 and 14 years in the life of a female child is a period when parents should brace up to their parental duties to ensure that their wards grow up to become responsible citizens and adults. This period known as puberty is when sexual maturity occurs. This maturation is evidenced in females by the onset of menstruation, in males by the production of semen, and in both by the enlargement of their respective reproductive organs. Rapid growth occurs and is marked by a range of physiological changes. Various secondary sexual characteristics also appear for the first time during puberty; in males, production of body hair increases markedly, particularly in the pubic, axillary and facial regions, and the voice usually changes and becomes deeper in tone. In females, hair also appears in the pubic and axillary regions, and the breasts become enlarged.
Just as the parents are expected to brace up to their responsibilities, children also have major roles to play to ensure that they become the responsible adults the society expects them to be. In the first instance, children must accept that they need proper guidance and must deliberately follow wise counsel. Discreetness is a vital virtue for any child to covet. There is a popular Yoruba adage that says “ti iṣu ẹni ba ta, a fi ọwọ bo jẹ ni”, it simply means that if one’s yam sprouts healthy tubers, one is expected to discretely consume it. To contextualize this, using a girl going through puberty as a case study when she suddenly realizes that she is growing bigger and experiencing some unusual sensations in certain sensitive parts of her body, the wise and sensible thing to do is to become more discreet in the manner she carries or throws herself around particularly in the presence of the opposite sex so as not to attract the kind of attention that she may not be able to manage. For the sake of emphasis, any relationship that is consummated between a man or a matured boy and a girl going through puberty based on the girl’s new-found looks is unwholesome and can only lead to trouble. Like my people the Yorubas will say “ere kini aja nba ẹkun se”, meaning what kind of a relationship can exist between a dog and a tiger, except for one being the eaten and the other the eater.
Still dwelling on the above analogy, value appreciation is pivotal to resource optimization, so it is almost certain that one will most likely waste a resource that one does not know the actual worth of. According to British economist David Ricardo, analyzing the essence of comparative advantage in free trade, said that some nations lacked an absolute advantage in the production of any commodity. However, even these nations could gain from free trade if they concentrated on producing commodities in which they had the smallest disadvantage. One thing is clear, Africa cannot all of a sudden become industrialized; the reality as it is today is that Africa’s comparative advantage is in the area of supply of raw materials. The continent by the benevolence of God is the biggest producer of some of the raw materials for the production of most products in the world today. Consequently, Africa should take cognizance of its strengths and weaknesses so as to ensure that it always gets a good deal in return for the raw materials it’s able to bring to the market.
I am a member of what is known as the Borderless Alliance in West Africa and just finished our third annual conference with the theme, ‘’Enabling Growth”, so I thought it will be both interesting and instructive for us to examine in this edition of IWA some of the issues that were deliberated on which brought to the fore the need for and the efforts being made to remove all barriers to trade within West Africa. In addition, among other very interesting stories that we have complied for you, we also had the privilege of interviewing the Tanzanian High Commissioner to Nigeria, His Excellency Daniel O Njoolay, and he shared his thoughts on the need for Africans to do more business amongst themselves, according to him we have the population which is a large enough market to exploit just as countries such as China and India did for formidable trade growth. It is the only way African trade alliance can blossom. All these are packaged for your pleasurable reading as I welcome you to another year of great exploits as we transverse the great African landscape. I want to thank you so much for your commitment to IWA.

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TRADING SENSE

My mother is from Ijebu, a town in Ogun state, south west Nigeria, where the people are generally noted for being astute business men and women with the propensity to save and conserve funds. I guess that is the reason my mum has always exhibited what I consider a never-give-an-inch posture, while haggling to buy anything. Unfortunately, I have turned out to be a weak negotiator because I seem to have failed to imbibe this very potent trading trait which is arguably a standard practice through which most people arrive at mutually agreed price for goods and services in Africa.
Since goods and services will always have to be exchanged, it is expedient for every human being to at least develop a level of trading skill. However, going by the trend in the international trading landscape, Africa and Africans has continued to fall short in this regard. Undeniably, several individuals’ particularly African leaders acquired stupendous wealth from being slave traders. Tinubu square, a commercial centre in today’s Lagos, Nigeria, is named after a major nineteenth century slave trader, Madam Tinubu who rose from a humble background to become a very wealthy woman and later one of Nigeria’s pioneering nationalists.
In evaluating this illicit trade and the state of trade in Africa today one cannot but ask oneself if Africa derived any socio-economic gain from slave trade and how far did the illicit trade impact on the social economic lives of Europeans, either positively or negatively? It is also imperative to carefully examine and ascertain if the quality of the goods and services that Africa is currently parading in the world market the very best she can offer? We also need to ask ourselves if the people we have put forward as leaders and negotiators are the best we can offer.
Africa is evidently holding on to the ‘short end of the stick’, as regards international trade, she deserves and can get much more than she is getting in exchange for her goods and services if only she can brace up and get sensible in the way she trades with the rest of the world.
Just like yesterday, IWA is five and as team leader I can confidently say that we are better prepared to face the next five years, having seen the good, the bad and the ugly sides of the publishing world in Africa, particularly in Nigeria where we are situated. As part of our plans to commemorate the fifth anniversary and in fulfillment of our commitment to you to always deliver good value for the money you invest in purchasing IWA, we had planned a flag off of another value adding product from our stable which we have tagged African Home Front Forum (AHFF), at the close of 2013 but have had to rescheduled the flag off to the beginning of the second quarter of 2014. We are also rebranding the tourism segment of IWA to be manned by a very experienced editor, Mr. Tayo Adelaja as well as also bringing on board an interesting contributor in the person of Laila St. Matthew – Daniel.
2013 was certainly an eventful year, but to my mind the most remarkable of the things that happen was the death and burial of “Madiba”, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, who because of the sacrificial life that he lived was probably one of the most celebrated Africans that ever lived, thus we are featuring some of his most popular quotes while on earth as well as some snap shots of some of the celebrities that attended his burial in this edition. On the cover page we decided to beam our search light on how Africa has continued to allow very careless poaching of elephants in her savannahs and forests such that they have become graveyards rather than the sanctuaries that they use to be for elephants. The release of this edition into the market is also likely to be to be slightly late because I attended the Calabar Festival and I am so glad to report that the government and people of Cross River state Nigeria have kept fate with what is today regarded as the biggest street party in Africa.
I will like to use this auspicious time to thank our ardent readers and customers for their unflinching support for IWA in the past five years for without you there won’t be us, so we thank you. I pray that GOD will continue to bless your various businesses. I will also wish you compliment of the season and may the New Year bring lots of goodness into our different homes. Salute!

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SWEET MOTHER

HUMAN BEINGS are distinguished by one appellation or the other. It becomes more interesting such that with maturity comes more appellations. For instance one can be a child and at the same time a father and as well as a husband. The most important thing to note is that all these appellations come with their attendant responsibilities.
Perhaps the importance of ‘responsibility’ informed the perspective of my people – the Yorubas, from the western part of Nigeria, in customarily referring to an offspring who has continued to behave in a manner that is not in consonance with the norm as being an ‘omolasan’- literarily, a worthless child! Someone unworthy of the appellation, ‘offspring’. You are also likely to hear my kinsmen say about a person that is generally cantankerous, ‘Ko n se eniyan’, which literarily means he or she does not deserve to be referred to as a human being. And in the case of a person married to a woman that is ill-mannered, they will simply tell him ‘oo ti ni Iyawo’ literarily meaning ‘you do not have a wife yet’, because as far as they are concerned, a wife who acts in a manner unbecoming should not be considered as a wife. This will also apply to a husband whose ways are inconsistent with the responsibilities required of that role.
I attended a wedding ceremony recently and I was having so much fun until the young comedian who compered the ceremony, jokingly said that the part of the evergreen Nico Mbaga’s song, ‘sweet mother’, that says, the mother will not sleep or eat if the child does not eat, was no longer applicable to today’s mothers. Whilst his pun was accompanied by laughter from people around me, it caused me to reflect, albeit with trepidation and sadness on whether the mothers of today cared less than those of yore. Surely this was no joking matter!
As such, after the ceremony, I decided to take a closer look at today’s mothers and the fact that it appeared, to my dismay, that I could identify some who appeared more preoccupied with themselves and generally with other things than they are with their children. I even became more worried when my enquiries elicited a peculiar response from a lady who asked me why I thought the woman is/was better positioned to take care of the child than the man. Is this a general supposition or simply an isolated stand point?
In any event, I am humbled by the extraordinary bond that exists between the mother and child, right from when Gestation occurs in the woman’s uterus from conception until the fetus (assuming it is carried to term) is sufficiently developed to be born. Usually, once the baby is born, the mother produces milk via the lactation process. The mother’s breast milk is the source of anti-bodies for the infant’s immune system and commonly the sole source of nutrition for the child for a while. With this nature of bonding, should there be any dispute about the important role that the womenfolk play in the development of the child and by implication, the human race?

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THANKSGIVING DAY!

NELSON ROLIHLAHLA MANDELA was born on the 18th of July,1918, so in a couple of weeks, ‘Madiba’, fondly referred to as the father of the South African nation will be ninety five years old. Like most people in his age bracket, his health has not been in the best of state. His condition however deteriorated recently which has seen him, in and out of the hospital to the extent that he has now been confined to intensive care at the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa, for the past few weeks. As to be expected, news peddlers all over the world are trying to take advantage of the situation, churning out all sorts of news, most of which are not very pleasant and as such may have become disturbing to his family, who are obviously dealing with so much pain over the state of the legend himself who also happens to be a husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, etc.
My people always say that the bigger one’s head is, the more the head aches, so I am not really surprised, the world is literarily standing still for one of the greatest Africans living today and probably Africa’s most illustrious son. I agree that there is no way I can feel the exact pains of the family because I am not family, but I am an African who loves and admires this man who did not just say- “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others”, but has also lived these words. In my opinion it’s time to take a cue from one of ‘Madiba’s books; ‘My long Walk to Freedom’ which says: “I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.”
I see today as ‘Thanksgiving Day’, with the world collectively acknowledging that my hero has fulfilled his destiny. ‘Thanksgiving Day’, by definition is a day set apart for giving thanks; however those who are able to rejoice the most on ‘Thanksgiving Day’ are those who, in spite of all the odds are able to reap bountifully. Success usually does not come on a platter of gold; it’s only the fittest that survives in today’s world. Nonetheless, ‘Madiba’, in another quote of his, emphasizing the fact that success is possible for all, said that “It always seems impossible until it’s done”,
A lot of African Leaders have lived and died but none, and I stand to be corrected, has ever received this kind of global attention, accolades and empathy that this great African commands.
I am not sure that ‘Madiba’ himself bargained for this kind of over whelming recognition for the contributions he has made to the freedom of his people, he said, and I believe; “I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.”
I, like most people in the world, send my prayers and heartfelt best wishes to ‘Madiba’, his immediate family, friends, government and the entire people of South Africa at this sober time and want them to really see that it’s time for Thanksgiving!

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MY CONDITIONAL LOVE

The love story of Romeo and Juliet, particularly the tragic death, is undoubtedly very popular but I dare say that most people do not know or ever address their minds to the fact that the death of the two lovers actually brought about the abrupt end to the long drown enmity between their two families- the Verona’s and the Montague’s.
Since love is said to come without limits and is expected to exist in highly committed relationships; between mother and child, family members, fraternities, comrades in arms, etc, then what existed between Romeo and Juliet can easily be termed ‘unconditional love’, at least for the little time it lasted.
The love that exists between parents and their children appears to rank most significant and arguably the strongest of relationships. As such, the term, ‘unconditional’ will be most apt in describing the love shared; at least when the children are in their infancy. The truth is, as the child grows up, the love of the parents and its manifestation will depend largely on the active participation of both the parents and the child. My people will say that it is the child that shows the willingness to be carried by stretching out his or her hands that will be carried.
I have continued to critically consider what we all refer to as ‘love’ and I have come to the conclusion that people always love for one reason or the other, whether the reason is obvious or not. In comparison to other couples who can boast of decades of their formal union, I probably do not have enough experience in marriage but with humility and a heart full of thanks, I can say that my marriage has worked so far. The truth is, long before I got married to my wife, Oluwaremilekun Adegoke Adeyemo, it was clear to my mind that I needed to be true to myself; ‘love is not cheap’. If I want her to love me, I must be ready to love her. It is for this reason that I have also continued to plead with her to help me to love her. As it will be foolhardy for me to think that she will continue to love me even if I refuse to fulfill my own part of the deal. In the same manner it will be difficult for me to really love her if she refuses to fulfill her part of the deal.
The African Union (AU) as in the case of the earlier institution known as the Organization of African Union (OAU) was formed to promote continental peace, unity, and cooperation. Although the Organization has over the years helped to strengthen ties among African nations and settle disputes, it is still faced with many problems that have undermined its ability to achieve its goals. In the same manner, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), as founded in 1975 to encourage economic, social, and cultural development in West Africa has also continued to battle with its countless challenges. Apart from these two organizations there other organizations, treaties and agreement that Africans have gone into to foster a united Africa but Africa it is not yet to unite. Maybe one of the things we need to come to terms with is the fact that GOD, for reasons best known to Him decided to spread the “milk and honey” in Africa across the continent. Simply put we need each other to survive and we cannot just walk across or over our neigbours to get what we want. Love cannot be taken for granted! Neighbours or relatives will not just love themselves just because they are neighbours or relatives. For us to have peace and development in Africa, I recommend my kind of love – ‘conditional love’. All hands must be on the deck for we all must continue to work very hard at integrating the continent from all fronts in order for all of us to bountifully reap from the harvest of the land.

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THE VILLAGE BANK; SMALL BUT BIG

I have observed that people generally do not have any qualms with oppressing others with their achievements. Perhaps man derives pleasure in flaunting his strength, influence or advantages, no matter how small. No wonder man has justified his conquest nature in this regard with the saying “if you have got it, flaunt it’’

Most people started from humble beginnings even though a few people, due to a number of factors or privileges, did not have to start from humble beginnings like others. Yet, judging by the way we all react to small things, it seems that there is something wrong with being small or why is a small beginning often treated with contempt? After all, some of the most widely celebrated global brands today were not polished diamonds when they started; examples of such are Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc. The list is endless.

No matter how urbanized we may have become, there is need to reminisce on our roots as we all owe our origins to one rural community or the other. The rural setting which ordinarily prides on shared values, less pollution, opportunity for communal farming, sense of peace and security (vigilance group) is now being turned into congested cities with their attendant problems.

There are villages everywhere, even in the mega cities. The truth is, the hamlet can easily become a village, in the same vain a village can become a town, likewise a town becoming a city, they are all directly connected to one another. I have lived in Africa all my life and travelled round the continent considerably, and what stands out more in all the areas we live in whether in the villages or cities, are the cons of urbanization– insecurity, pollutions, criminality, corruption and mindless killings.

Something very fundamental happened in my life in 2006 just about the time we were starting out with IWA. A Bangladeshi banker and professor of Economics, Mohammad Yunus, was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his effort to create economic and social development at the grassroots – the poor. And for this feat, I was motivated to read his profile. It was reported that in 1976, having visited the poorest households in the village of Jobra near Chittagong University, where he was head of the Economics department, Yunus discovered that very small loans could make a disproportionate difference to poor persons. Jobra women, who were making bamboo furniture, could not breakeven because they usually expended all their profits on loan repayment to the moneylenders (usurers). The don actually advanced out his first loan of about 27 dollars to 42 women from his personal savings. The women were then able to make their first net profit of about a quarter of a dollar each. Yunus was able to later secure a loan from a government-owned bank — Janata Bank — to increase the loan facilities to the poor in December 1976. The institution continued to operate by securing loans from other banks for its projects. By 1982, the bank had a workforce of 28,000 and on October 1, 1983, the project blossom into what became– the Grameen Bank (meaning a Village Bank) with the sole mandate of giving loans to the poor.

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STAND UP, DON’T STAY DOWN

Arnold Toynbee, English historian and historical philosopher, (1889-1975), once said that “Civilization is a movement, not a condition; it is a voyage, not a harbor”, this wise saying further confirms the fact that, there will always be changes in our world but the crux of the matter is, we all owe the responsibilities to determine the kind of change we want. In the 1400s while Europe was still in the diseased Dark Ages China flourished as one of the world’s leading civilizations with advanced technology and expansive naval exploration. The Ming Dynasty’s capital city of Nanjing was the largest in the world, with the world’s longest city wall, able to house 3,000 soldiers. Yet the centralized, monolithic Chinese civilization lacked the competitive decentralization of Europe. From 1500 Europe’s autonomous cities, nations, and corporations increased exploration and colonization for money and power, while at the same time China closed itself off in a fragile bubble.

The Chinese soon realized their folly and since 1978, they began to make major reforms to their economy and today in 2012, the American economy that is generally regarded as the worlds’ biggest was recently bailed out of financial woods by China, without a doubt, China is back as super powers. Survive is simply for the fittest, a very good boxer could be knocked down in the first round and come back into the match to win the bout.. A proverb in my place when translated literarily says that when someone is been pursued by a masquerade, the person should endure and keep running because as he or she is getting tired so is the masquerade pursing is also getting tired, in a little the chase and race will be over.

So if the Chinese could bounce back why can’t Africa? We also at some point were world leaders. Constantin Francois de Chassebceuf, comte de Volney, who is simply known as C.F. Volney, was a French philosopher, historian, orientalist and politician. In late 1782 he embarked on a voyage to the East and reached Ottoman Egypt where he spent nearly seven months. Thereafter, he lived for nearly two years in Greater Syria in what is today Lebanon and Israel/Palestine in order to learn Arabic. He returned to France in 1785 where he spent the next two years compiling his notes and writing on his Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie, which was published in 1787, and Considérations sur la guerre des Turcs et de la Russie in 1788. I had the privilege of browsing through these works recently and stumbled at a statement that I consider very intriguing and a food for thought; “And this race of Blacks who nowadays are slaves and the objects of our scorn is the very one to which we owe our arts, our sciences and even the use of spoken word, and finally recollect that it is in the midst of the people claiming to be the greatest influence of liberty and humanity that the most barbarous of enslavement has been sanctioned, and the question raised whether Black men have brains of the same quality as those of white men”. However, to my mind, from our general disposition we seem to be content with all the patronizing encouragements that our economies are growing when in the reality if we take ‘the bulls by the horns’, Africa could return as world leaders once again. Until recently I thought I was the person most informed musically in our home but going by my recent discussions with my children it seem to me that I need to review and upgrade my knowledge of music or I may soon lose my coveted job as the family’s music consultant to one of the kids.

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LOOKS ARE DECEPTIVE

In the line of my duties, I constantly interact with elderly people, particularly Africans, thus I need to clearly state that I have continued to sense a certain frustration in their utterances. They all seem to be very desirous of “off-loading’’ all they have gathered and are carrying over the years into the lives of the younger generation. Unfortunately, they seem to have continuously met with a “brick wall” because it has been rather difficult getting our attention; we are very conceited and so full of ourselves. This situation, they say, is more frustrating for them because they see us as people in dire need of what they possess and are eager to release same to us. Rather than look in their direction for help, we keep looking in all other directions. They all seem to be saying the same thing: “If only these children will allow us now before the doors are shut against the opportunities of handing over their heritage to them, they would live better lives than they are living now’’.

For instance, our parents used to be more involved and were able to greatly influence our choices in marriage. They usually will go out of their ways, taking all sorts of measures, sometimes spiritual, to ensure that we made the best choices. Unfortunately, we have over the years jettisoned the immense benefits that come with their involvement in this critical part of our lives and so, we have continued to suffer avoidable pains and misfortunes that are clearly associated with wandering around blindly in the “wilderness of life’’ without proper guidance. There is nothing wrong with us wanting to associate with and explore the culture and traditions of the developed world, but definitely not to the detriment of ours. In my opinion, the right and proper thing to do is to take full advantage of everything; theirs and ours, not dropping ours for theirs.

Drawing conclusions and taking stands on any issue must be done carefully. British physician, novelist, and detective story writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, said in one of his works that “there is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact”. There is a popular adage that says “people are usually addressed according to the way they are dressed’’, but the questions is, when one considers the fact that this adage is an open secret and that people will generally always dress up for the occasion. Is it then wise for us to always address people in relation to the way they dress? Paying a little attention to details will distinguish us, so why should we flow with the crowd?

I remember one erroneous consolation line that I was inundated with by some friends when I failed my first school leaving certificate examinations, they said: “you need not worry, since so many other students also failed the exam this year’’. I soon realized that depending on the side of the divide that I choose to be, so many people truly failed, but the truth is that the same year, so many others passed. The final analysis is that as some will always fail, some others will always pass. From whatever angle one chooses to view the security situation in Nigeria, the truth is that it is in a very bad shape and the situation seems to be deteriorating by the seconds. As a Nigerian, I am aware that a lot is being done now to address this anomaly. But quite frankly, we need to do much more to ensure that we nip this scourge and deadly situation in the bud. I have a couple of questions agitating my mind; may be answers to them might help? How did our founding fathers cope and live among themselves if we all insist that the amalgamation of Nigeria was a compromise arrangement? Do we really know ourselves and can we really deal fairly with ourselves?

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