Oluyomi Ola-David Insights

Poor Yes they are But I wish to make them rich All in one day Malnourished Yes they are But I wish to make them healthy All in one day Stunted Yes they are But I wish to make them grow All in one day Ignorant Yes they are But I wish make them learned All in one day Lost  Yes they are But I wish to make them sheep All in one day Slow Yes they are But I wish to make them quick All in one day Hurt Yes they are But I wish to make them whole All in one day Myopic Yes they are But I wish to make them see All in one day Young Yes they are But I wish to make them old All in one day Caterpillars Yes they are But I wish to make them fly All in one day Volatile Yes they are But I wish to make them stable All in one day Distracted Yes they are But I wish to make them focused All in one day ... Photo credit: Oluyomi Ola-David 

Economy may be sluggish And the youth violently idle The forecasts may seem bleak But you made it so School teachers may be overworked And the pupils bullied to submission The social learning may be adverse But you made it so Farm goods may be wasting away And processing plants underpowered The nourishment may be toxic But you made it so Moral values may be waning And healthy culture stale The streets may be dangerous But you made it so Inflation may be unbearable And prices never free The cost of living may be rising But you made it so Foreign debt may be increasing And misappropriation very likely The interest rates may be high But you made it so Corruption may be second nature And manipulation the stock-in-trade The rule of law may hold no water But you made it so Government may be irresponsible And the leaders insensitive The followers may be wandering But you made it so Firms may be brutally competitive And the people policies gruesome The legislations may be perverse But you made

Never again Should I be Too guilty to say I am now sorry  Never again Should I be too Too afraid to say It was my idea Never again Should I be Too proud to say I need help Never again Should I be Too hesitant to say I ask to be excused Never again Should I be Too quick to say It is your fault Never again Should I be Too wise to say I do not know it all Never again Should I be Too arrogant to say I beg your pardon Never again Should I be Too ignorant to say History does not matter Never again Should I be Too strong to say I am sometimes weak Never again Should I be Too hasty to say I can wait Never again Should I be Too poor to say I can change Never again Should I be Too ashamed to say I am Nigerian ... Photo credit: United Church of God

When you wake To detect You had been shortchanged Change is imperative  When you wake To find You had been displaced Change is imperative  When you wake To know You had been deceived Change is imperative  When you wake To acknowledge  You had been faulty Change is imperative  When you wake To see  You had been blindfolded Change is imperative When you wake To spot You had been sloppy Change is imperative When you wake To discover You had been hidden Change is imperative  When you wake To estimate You had been complacent Change is imperative When you wake To learn You had been arrogant Change is imperative When you wake To locate You had been misguided Change is imperative When you wake To discern You had been unsuspecting Change is imperative When you wake To ascertain You had been sleeping Change is imperative ... Photo credit: Thesaurus.Plus

Desperate people do desperate things. Early on in my academic journey,  I was pretty desperate to produce an output. During such an instance, there was conference on innovation coming up at UNU-MERIT. I needed to be obedient and not to rest on my hoars as a young academic. I had an idea of a paper that could fly. If my memory serves me right,  titled the paper, 'the employment effects of process and product innovation in Nigeria.' I strove and I strove and I wrote and wrote. There were some papers based on other climes that I could glean thoughts from too. I got as much useful material that I could get, did preliminary analysis and sent it off. Ultimately, the paper came back rejected for the conference.  As I went further down the academic road, I realised that paper was not original in the least. If I know what I know now I should have done a plagiarism test before sending it out. But I was very grateful I was not accepted for that conference. In the spirit of transformation,

As I reminisce on the history of Independence in various African states, the glamour and the euphoria of liberty, with particular interest in the experience of Nigeria – the land of my birth. I am reminded of the celebration that ensued upon the expulsion of Mr. Jones and his men from the Manor Farm in George Orwell’s Classic, 'Animal Farm ’. In a speech motivating the animals to fight for their freedom, Old Major painted on the minds of his fellow ‘comrades’ a picture of a new world, which they could only access and possess after their gaining Independence from the oppressive rule of Mr. Jones and his likes. Oh how they relished the allure of freedom! Freedom from misery and slavery, which comes with an opportunity to own all they would ever produce without fear of external subjugation. Almost overnight every animal would become rich and free! Little did they know, except for the ‘cleverer’ of the animals, that following the eviction of an imposed master and a d

Today, I launch a change initiative, C ampaign A gainst L ittering i n Nigeria (CALi Nigeria). I have a dream to see a litter-free Nigeria where everyone young and old, male and female sees littering as an unacceptable and evil behaviour.  The objective of the Campaign is to create awareness on the environmental hazards associated with littering behaviour in Nigerians and the Nigerian environment. Very important is changing the perspective that littering is an acceptable behaviour.  Simply defined, littering is making places messy by strewing garbage around; it is making places or areas untidy with rubbish or objects left lying about.  I am just tired of getting angry every time I see littered environments and people walking past litters without a thought to pick them up to dispose them off properly. So I thought to do something about it.  I had even begun to conduct a research investigation into the phenomenon. However, since littering is first a thought