What Lord Lugard Thought About Nigerians

Last week my friend, Babs Sobanjo, forwarded me the following piece said to be an extract from a Confidential Document by the British colonialist, Lord Frederick Lugard, who established the geographical contraption he, with the help of his lover, gave the name Nigeria.  The piece, snotty in the extreme, typifies the British in their calculating, self-serving, devilry. It represents Lugard’s appraisal of the African as represented by Nigeria and Nigerians.  But, for me, it provides food for thought, even if his generalization is silly. The characterizations are grave, grievous and damning. But I cannot blame Frederick. It cannot be his fault. As the Yoruba would say, akuko wa lo fi ogbe ori e fun kolokolo je – our cockerel volunteered its flaming crown for the scared fox to feel and see that its nothing but flesh!   And as Babs says, it is “nasty but true.” Babs goes further to say, and I agree: “For our fathers and grandfathers, this was pardonable but for us not to have moved dramatically from this perception, it is worrying to say the least..”  Here goes Lord Frederick Lugard: (Caps mine)

 

 "In character and temperament, the typical African of this race-type is a happy, thriftless, excitable person. LACKING IN SELF-CONTROL, DISCIPLINE, AND FORESIGHT. Naturally courageous, and naturally courteous and polite, full of personal vanity, with little sense of veracity, fond of music and loving weapons as an oriental loves jewelry. HIS THOUGHTS ARE CONCENTRATED ON THE EVENTS AND FEELINGS OF THE MOMENT, and he suffers little from the apprehension for the future, or grief for the past. His mind is far nearer to the animal world than that of the European or Asiatic, and exhibits something of the animals’ placidity and want of desire to rise beyond the State he has reached. Through the ages THE AFRICAN APPEARS TO HAVE EVOLVED NO ORGANIZED RELIGIOUS CREED, and though some tribes appear to believe in a deity, the religious sense seldom rises above pantheistic animalism and seems more often to take the form of a vague dread of the supernatural"

 

 “HE LACKS THE POWER OF ORGANIZATION, and is conspicuously deficient in the management and control alike of men or business. HE LOVES THE DISPLAY OF POWER, but fails to realize its responsibility... he will work hard with a less incentive than most races. He has the courage of the fighting animal, an instinct rather than a moral virtue... In brief, the virtues and defects of this race-type are those of attractive children, whose confidence when it is won is given ungrudgingly as to an older and wiser superior and without envy...Perhaps the two traits which have impressed me as those most characteristic of the African native are HIS LACK OF APPREHENSION AND HIS LACK OF ABILITY TO VISUALIZE THE FUTURE." ---Lord Frederick John Dealty Lugard, The Dual Mandate, pg.70 (1926)

 

Sheathe your dagger, fellow Nigerians, the imbecile Lugard is long dead. There’s no point in getting mad at him. On the other hand, our madness should be directed at ourselves: leaders and followers alike.  Let us look all around us and see how much of “self-control, discipline, and foresight” we possess or exhibit, be it in our personal or public lifestyles. What “self-control, discipline and foresight” did our Heads of State, Presidents and Governors have in looting the public treasury with abandon and carrying their loot abroad to benefit foreign countries? What “self-control, discipline and foresight” have we, as citizens got in the manner we drive on our roads, or show complete disregard for the next person? What thoughts of communal or common interest do we have in our actions and behaviour? How much do we care about not littering the street, not blocking drainages, not building houses haphazardly, not blocking streets with our parties such that other people’s right of way are trampled upon?

 

 Aren’t our thoughts “concentrated on the events and feelings of the moment”? Don’t we demonstrate a “lack of ability to visualize the future”? Otherwise, would we remain the way we are, doing things the same way and expecting different results? Would the need for a holistic electoral reform in conformity with Justice Uwais’ recommendation be such a difficult thing to grasp? Would we still be running a system of governance whereby three-quarters of national revenue are being consumed in wages, salaries, allowances, etc of legislative and executive gravy train? Would Local Government Councilors, House of Assembly members, be on full time and be earning more than a professor? Many things just don’t make sense, but we go ahead nevertheless as no one can be bothered, and feathers must not be ruffled. Would we, at this point in our lives and at this juncture of the 21st century still be grappling with electricity, with pot-holed roads, without a modern rail system, without good education for our youth? What kind of beings are we?

 

 Lugard says: “the African appears to have evolved no organized religious creed”. Shame. Serves us right. Would he say such nonsense if we as Africans had worked at our own religion, allowed it to evolve, refined it, upheld it, intellectualized it, rather than swallowing the foreign ones handed down to us that makes us invoke experiences of foreign lands and spirits of their ancestors rather than ours? Granted that Lugard himself, foolish as he was, forgot that the religion he practiced and saw as of his people belonged to some other races.  The Nigerian “loves the display of power”. Doesn’t he? Isn’t our bigmanism – “you-no-know-me? – a character trait? Isn’t the world sniggering at our leaders as the strut about the place like demi-gods helping no one and serving no one but themselves?  Lugard says, the Nigerian “lacks the power of organization”. Doesn’t he? I would imagine that goes without saying. I have just come back from Abuja and the bedlam I saw on the roads made me weep. I am left in no doubt that in another five years’, Abuja would be unrecognizable by its filth and chaos. What are we doing? Why is it so difficult to organize the traffic, effect road markings, and set some order to life? Why, in so short a time from the departure of el Rufai, is Abuja going to the dogs? Why couldn’t we organize our sports such that credible age-group categories competitions field only those truly within the categories? Why are our values so warped?

 

 Why has it been such a problem establishing and maintaining durable and credible structures for the sustenance and growth of the country? Why would basics like credible census, compulsory birth and death certificates, be such rocket science for us? Why would it be so difficult to see that the Federal Government has no business in funding Local Governments that are arbitrary creation of the military in the first place?  Why are so many things wrong with us, so many obviously wrong things carried on same way while expecting different results and mouthing a 20-2020 nonsense?

 

 What a country – Lugard, methinks you’re right after all.

 

NB:  “The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa” was published in 1922. It discusses indirect rule in colonial Africa. In this work, Lugard outlines the reasons and methods that he recommended for the colonization of Africa by Britain. Some of his justifications included spreading Christianity and ending barbarism.  Lord Frederick John Dealtry Lugard (22 January 1858 – 11 April 1945) was High Commissioner of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria till 1906, having earlier, in August 1897, organized the West African Frontier Force which he commanded until December 1899. He was Governor-General of Nigeria from 1914-1919.

Credit: Tunde Fagbenle

Great Service is an uncompromising Choice

This is a story written by Harvey Mackay about a cab driver.

Harvey was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing he noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey . He handed him a laminated card and said:
"I'm Wally, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement."

Wally's Mission Statement:

“To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment”.

 

This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, "Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf."
Harvey said jokingly, "No, I'd prefer a soft drink."
Wally smiled and said, "No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice."
Almost stuttering, Harvey said, "I'll take a Diet Coke."
Handing him his drink, Wally said, "If you'd like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today."

As if that weren't enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him. Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day.

 

"Tell me, Wally," Harvey asked the driver, "have you always served customers like this?"

Wally smiled into the rearview mirror. "No, not always. In fact, it's only been in the last two years. My first five years of driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day. He said, 'Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competitors. “Don't be a duck; Ducks quack and complain. Be an Eagle; Eagles soar above the crowd.”

 

"That hit me right between the eyes," said Wally. "Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an Eagle. The other cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more."

I take it that has paid off for you," Harvey said.

 

"It sure has," Wally replied. "My first year as an Eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I'll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action."

 

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab.

 

Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like Eagles.

No one ever attains very eminent success by simply doing what is required of him; it is the amount and excellence of what is over and above the required that determines the greatness of ultimate distinction.

"The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does".

Men are donkeys!

Equation 1

Human = eat + sleep + work + enjoy
Donkey = eat + sleep

Therefore:
Human = Donkey + Work + enjoy

Therefore:
  Human-enjoy = Donkey + Work

In other words,
A Human that doesn't know how to enjoy = Donkey that
works.

***************************************************

Equation 2

Man = eat + sleep + earn money
Donkey = eat + sleep

Therefore:
Man = Donkey + earn money

Therefore:
Man-earn money = Donkey

In other words
Man who doesn't earn money = Donkey

****************************************************

Equation 3

Woman= eat + sleep + spend

Donkey = eat + sleep

Therefore:
Woman = Donkey + spend

Woman - spend = Donkey

In other words,
Woman who doesn't spend = Donkey

*******************************************************

To Conclude:

From Equation 2 and Equation 3

Man who doesn't earn money = Woman who doesn't
spend

So Man earns money not to let woman become a donkey!

And a woman spends not to let the man become a donkey!

So, We have:
Man + Woman = Donkey + earn money + Donkey + Spend money

Therefore from postulates 1 and 2, we can
conclude

Man + Woman = 2 Donkeys that live
happily together!

  Enjoy every moment of Life.

10 Inspiring Thoughts for Tough Times

Difficult financial times often inspire people to become more extraordinary. Challenge and adversity can push people towards their own greatness. It can launch you on a deeper personal journey toward happiness, fulfillment, and a life of meaning. As you explore ways to gather strength and improve self-esteem, remember, it is not so much about what you have but who you are. May these tips inspire you. May you go from strength to strength and be a source of strength to others.

Broke Is Not Broken: Being broke is not the same as being broken, losing money is not the same as being lost, and finding your balance is not something you can do on a balance sheet.

Having Less Doesn't Mean You Are Less: Don't confuse having less with being less, having more with being more, or what you have with who you are.

Savor Life and Slow Down: When you're in a hurry, go slowly. The faster you go in life the sooner it is a blur.

Prayer Creates a New Path: Prayer creates a path where there is none and turns your stumbling blocks into building blocks.

Courage Is Not Absence of Fear: Put your faith, and not your fears, in charge. Courage isn't the absence of fears but how you wrestle with them.

Embrace the Future: If you're busy hugging the past, you can't embrace the future. Don't let the past kidnap your future.

Change Is the Only Constant: This too shall pass. Change is the only constant. In order to take a breath, you must release your breath.

Make a Difference: Do what you can, but never forget that letting go is very different from giving up. Of all the things you can make in life, remember you make all the difference in your life.

Embrace Happiness: Tough times don't require you to be tough on yourself. Find the courage to embrace happiness.

You Are Great: Things don't have to be good for you to be great.

Credit: Noah benShea

Beauty in Imperfections

Last week Friday, a seemingly harmless ‘boys’ gossip’ prompted me to reflect on the diversity in our choices as humans and the drivers of those choices. It drives home the fact that one man’s meat may well be another man’s poison. However, it is important to bear in mind how important it is to respect people’s opinions and choices. I can only offer advice irrespective of what I think about my brother’s choice(s) in life but he is absolutely responsible for his actions, consequent upon his choices.

It’s been a while since I spoke with Ted although we both live in the same country. I needed his expert advice on a technology I’d been fiddling with. So, I gave him a ring.

After giving his advice on what he thinks I needed to do to resolve the problem I had with my gadget, I asked if he’d be attending the wedding of a mutual friend, coming up in a few weeks’ time as the venue is not too far from where I live. I asked if he’d be coming on the day of the event or a day before and he replied that he’d prefer to come a day before, depending on whether he’s able to get approval from his place of work.

Typically, he asked if Margaret would be coming (from abroad) for the wedding and I said I don’t know, as I’ve not heard from her in a while. Then he asked if I was also buying a grey suit for the occasion. I said I wasn’t told there was a dress code and nothing in the IV I received suggested I needed a special colour of attire for the day. Surprisingly, I found myself telling Ted how Dennis is keen about me coming to spend some times with him and his fiancée before the wedding date and even more surprisingly, I found myself telling how nice the bride to be appeared to be from my impression of her the few times I’d met her. Before I could finish, Ted cut in; “oh, you’ve met the babe? “ I said ‘yes’ and his next question put question marks on a whole lot of things: “Is the babe fine?” Trying to read through his mind, I found myself stammering, ‘errrr…. Yeah, she’s not bad at all! She matches Dennis’ height pretty well and their children will definitely make it in the Celtics. My attempt to parry the question was a disaster. “Your ‘she’s not bad at all’, doesn’t sound convincing” Anyway, the popular saying, “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder” helped me kill the conversation and we went on to talk about something else eventually.

As I spoke with Ted, my mind ran through what may have prompted his question about our friend’s choice of a partner. I later ruminated on my age-long held belief that our values influence our thinking which in turn influences our words and actions. Interestingly, Ted’s comment was on the delicate issue of relationships; Relationship between two different individuals, which is about to transpire into a lifetime contract in the next few weeks. I have seen scores of relationships in life, many of which are enviable successes and a lot of which are disasters, and the rhetorical question “what is the key to a successful relationship” or to be more direct, “what do people look out for in a relationship?” welled up.

You’d agree this is a rather difficult question but the answer can save a whole world of pains and heartbreak if the individuals are being honest and pragmatic (By the way, I had to answer this question just this Saturday! :-D). Your perception of relationships and marriage as an institution and hence your vision will be your driving force. I’ve been caught in situations where people have questioned my motivation in a relationship. Often times, their opinions are influenced by their own outlook to life, which does not necessarily translate into the way I personally see and take life. Because I do not conform to their stereotype, my decisions on certain issues of life might look like a pending disaster in their eyes.

I said to Ted on Friday and later on Saturday when he rang after seeing the lady’s photo on Facebook, “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder”. I love physical beauty and if you know me well enough you’d find that it reflects in my choice of everything including gadgets. However, I’ve come to realise that in the delicate topic of relationships, especially when it graduates into our choice of a life partner, I find myself in the general school of thought that a person’s innate beauty surpasses their extrinsic charm when ticking the boxes. While I will not substitute one for the other, I am of the opinion that the bedrock of a marital relationship should be the quest for both parties to sow and reap lasting joy and happiness in a lifetime shared until death do them part. Once this is in place, every other thing (which automatically becomes secondary) falls into place and if my friend Dennis has found a fertile ground to sow the joy of a lifetime, I daresay no man has the right to scorn him for being bold about it. Afterall, if you love me, that overrides what everyone else (including me) says about me. Beyond the façade of ‘what makes me tic about my partner’ is an inexplicable love in my heart that stems from what others would ordinarily think should make me “untic” – the beauty in our imperfections.

Commitment precedes vision

In life, many thoughts are born in the course of a moment, an hour, a day. Some are dreams, some visions. Often, we are unable to distinguish between them.

To some, they are the same; however, not all dreams are visions. Much energy is lost in fanciful dreams that never bear fruit. But visions are messages from the Great Spirit, each for a different purpose in life. Consequently, one person's vision may not be that of another.

To have a vision, one must be prepared to receive it, and when it comes, to accept it. Thus when these inner urges become reality, only then can visions be fulfilled.

The spiritual side of life knows everyone's heart and who to trust. How could a vision ever be given to someone to harbor if that person could not be trusted to carry it out.

The message is simple: commitment precedes vision.

- High Eagle

Get off Facebook and get a life!

Recently, during my 35 minutes or so drive to work, I followed an opinion on radio about the impact of social networking websites such as Facebook (FB) on people, especially young ones in today's world. The speaker was of the opinion that because young people (and older ones) spend so much time on the internet nowadays, they do not have real contacts and relationships with friends and as such do not socialise in the real sense of it. Later in the eveningon that same day, I went for a meeting and quite a number of us were early for the meeting. While we were waiting for the meeting to start, a debate about this same topic ensued among some of my friends. I joined in the conversation and it was amazing to see how people view things from different perspectives. Today, as I signed out of my e-mail box, I noticed a news headline on my homepage that reads; “Get off Facebook and get a life”

The opinion of “experts” is that, contrary to the objectives of their founders, social networking via internet technology has greatly reduced physical networking among youngsters . At the moment, there's so much debate going on, on this subject to the extent that some experts are beginning to link some diseases with the amount of time that individuals spend on social networking websites (Please follow this link to read and listen to ITN story/interview on psychologist, Dr Aric Sigman)

I am of the opinion that social networking websites are good and have met the objectives of their founders although we cannot rule out instances of abuse by a handful of individuals. When I say abuse, I’m taking about people who use these sites to pry into the affairs of unsuspecting users and possibly use these sites for vices such as identify fraud. I’m also talking about individuals who have allowed these sites to take control of their life. It’s amazing sometimes when I browse through people’s pages and see that they’ve practically been on FB all day! I think people like that need to get a life as suggested by Dr Aric. While these networking platforms are good media to make contacts and catch up with “lost” contacts, I think it is foolhardy when individuals waste productive time very busy doing things that do not add any value to them directly or indirectly. Sometimes I wonder how people cope with what their conscience tells them when they burn their employers’ time facebooking at work. As a consequence, these individuals sacrifice their time with their family when they have to leave the office late because they have work catching ups to do when everyone else has gone home, just because they’ve been irresponsible enough to be facebooking all day.

I have two very good friends whom I don’t think I would have ever met in life if there weren’t social networking sites. About six years ago, I received “add friends” invitations from people that I hadn’t met before, to add them in my Hi-5 friends list. Each time that I receive such requests, I “screen” (If they’re people that I don’t know directly) the requests before adding the individual. Often, I add some and ignore some of them. It turned out that communication progressed between me and two of these my new friends. With time, we exchanged phone numbers; phone calls led to visits and we’ve since been very good friends! I remember the first time I visited one of them who happens to be a lady; I was a bit amused at the way I was treated when I got to their house at Ikotun, Lagos, Nigeria. Someone somewhere may have thought I was a “new boyfriend” or something. Everyone around “cleared” off and gave us “the privacy we deserved” throughout my four hours visit. Guess what, the same thing happened when she returned the visit! I've seen a few couples who met on social networking websites and have since been very happily married. I have seen good business relationships established through online networking contacts

If you’ve been following my line of thought, you may agree with me in this regard or say ‘well, that was just a one-off’ (or is it two-offs now?) I’d agree with you that the ‘good’ online experience may be a one-off because I have also met some funny individuals whom I didn’t need an Einstein to explain to me that they were scavengers looking for innocent people to prey on. I told some of them off straight away while in some cases (when I’m in a good mood) I played along with the individuals until they got tired of me and got off my page. Good online experience is not about making friends online alone. You can make legitimate and very good income online especially during this period of global economic hardship, using the same tools that others are wasting away – your computer, your eyes, your fingers and your head!

My take from the foregoing is that everyman has a motive and motivation for doing everything they do. So, when you find yourself addicted to facebook and think you need a break, take a break and probe yourself about your motive for staying glued to that/those pages. You may want to take a pause as well and ask if you’re adding any value to yourself or people around you by staying on your computer all day checking "your friends’" photos and reading their walls. You may actually even get more involved by exchanging mundane messages for eight hours or more on the internet in the name of social networking! While you were at it, others would have made many multiples of eight of whatever currency that they’re familiar with in those eight hours (minimum) that YOU have spent incurring electricity bills and causing potential harm to your eyes by inflicting them with radiations from your computer screen.

RELATIONSHIPS

If you allow circumstances to shape your vision, then there’s no need to being born – Victor Ogedegbe

Perhaps the above quote bears no relevance to this post; I think it’s too relevant to be ignored. By the way, I heard those words direct from the horses’ mouth last night in a telephone conversation and I immediately felt it might encourage/challenge someone out there.

Today marks another cycle in my existence in this realm and I will like to wish myself a Happy New Year, like I say to people on their birthday. The thought of birthdays I reckon symbolises our recognition, as humans, of our “date of manufacture”. Although, one may argue that a man’s date of manufacture is the day s/he was conceived, I doubt if the brightest of scientists can determine this date accurately – the reason why an expectant parent would only be given “expected date of delivery” which is only a guess.

Until a few years ago when a group of guys from my fellowship on campus paid me a surprise birthday visit, I hardly remembered my birthday! Until my birthday in 1999, I only remembered my birthday when I had to fill forms. Hopefully, this would offer an explanation to some friends who have held it against me that I didn’t remember their birthday pre-1999.

It’s overwhelming sometimes when on your birthday you receive a barrage of e-mails, phone calls, text messages and cards from well wishers wishing you a Happy Birthday. Sometimes, your phone can’t even handle the traffic of text messages which are competing to be the first to register on your phone on your birthday. People stay awake and hold their fingers on their phones with their eyes on the clock waiting to press the “send” button at the click of 12 midnight just to wish you a Happy Birthday. I’m no exempt from this practise.

I marvel at the commitment of keeping someone in your thoughts so much that you stay awake to let them know how much they are in your thoughts on a day which you singled out. With modern technology, I realise that you don’t need to have someone in your thoughts to remember their birthday. You could program your phone, computer or PDA to remind you EVERY YEAR when it’s Ted’s birthday. That sort of diluted the “wow” feel when birthday messages are received these days. I will however be careful not to discount the commitments of people who genuinely keep you in their thoughts, not just on your birthday or a few weeks/days before your birthday but all year long.

Today, actually, starting from yesterday, I’ve received texts and e-mails from friends from across various geographical locations. I’ve also received quite a number of routine birthday messages and “look forward” to hearing form the individuals who sent them again, next year – yes next year; at least they obey their computers/Facebook prompts to communicate every 8th of March.

That raises the question about our motivation as individuals in our relationship with other people especially those that we call friends. Several years ago, circumstances of life compelled me to be at the mercy of a relative. Seven out of ten times when I showed up at his door, he put something in my pocket. Five years later on, I needed something more. As a growing boy, when I longed for someone to talk to; someone to share my worries, anxieties and concerns about life with, there was no one. The money in my pocket couldn’t meet this need. I felt a void which material things could not fill.

In spite of his “generosity”, I got to a point when I realised how vain money and material things can be in the whole scheme of things in life.

Someone gave me a card today which she suspected I may not like. But she was quick to add that “it’s the thought that counts” And I agree totally. I do not see the colour of the card or the funny cartoon at the back. I see the thoughts behind the card and that is what I appreciate. A group of work colleagues gave me a card with wordings which a number of them suspected may not go down well with my religious persuasion. But the card didn’t matter. I saw the handwritten words and the warm thoughts behind the words. That was all that mattered.

I have today been overwhelmed with Birthday wishes from friends and people that I call “pseudo friends”. However, I do not feel the birthday excitement that most people feel. The excitement that I felt 2, 3, 4, 5 years ago is not there. Rather, I am sober and I’ve spent the last few days reflecting on what relationship means to me. Is it all about remembering people’s birthdays and sending them a text message or e-mail once in a year? Is it about that once-in-a-year phone call? How do I initiate, establish, nourish and keep relationships with people? How do I make my presence in the life others count? How do I make myself more than a ninja figure in people’s life?

A genuine relationship should not be a “take and give” affair. I think if we can stay committed to our friends everyday with the same commitment that we remember their birthdays, it would go a long way. We might actually be the ones to benefit more from it! With relationships comes commitment, compromise and sacrifice

A few years ago, a random “I’ve called just to say hi” phone call saved a friend from what would have turned out to be loads of trouble. If we're surrounded by the right people, life can be so beautiful.

In 2006, a preacher called Dr. Albert Odulele visited my church during our annual convention. It is usually a three-day event. During one of the sessions, the man made a call to people who were thinking of caving in to the pressures of life or people who had at any point contemplated suicide to come out so that he would pray for them. I could not believe my eyes! The army of men that came out was unbelievable. One of the guys on the keyboard played with so much vigour and skill you would think he was on loan from heaven. I could not believe that a man with so much “anointing” could contemplate suicide! One of the tenor guys was so good ladies were asking for autographs. He was out as well. He needed help too! And I thought wait a minute, he’s got friends! He sings so well. So what is his problem? I was out too, wondering how I got to that stage. But then I realise that perhaps it is not enough to minister to only the physical needs of our friends. Material things will fade away and cease but relationships are enduring. Dr Albert could identify with these folks because he had been there himself. As a pastor, he had at a point in his life contemplated taking his own life!

I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for making my day such a special one today. But then, beyond the euphoria of the season, I’d like to leave you with the message that it is friends that could cover your “nakedness” the way no fabric will ever do.

Someone asked me how I spent my day today. Well, it’s been an unusually quiet one and I’ve been reflecting on the journey up till this spot and the journey ahead. I have taken stock and have been reassessing my life’s “business case” for the New Year. I’ve been reflecting on my many “narrow escapes” I’ve been reflecting on the journeys through the valleys of the shadow of ‘death’ I’ve been reflecting on those boys and girls in Darfur, in Iraq, Afghanistan. I think about those boys who wake up and sleep to the deafening and shattering sounds of rockets and machine guns. I think about those guys who go for their birthday shopping and never came back home. And down on my knees, I realised it could have been me…

Happy Buffday Oluwafemi