OPEN SESAME

There is an Arabian night’s tale of a poor merchant who discovered a grotto full of treasures belonging to some thieves by uttering a magic password “open sesame”. The tale is that of Ali Baba and the forty thieves.

There is a seemingly ordinary guy you see on your street and maybe at work scraping through a mundane existence but you would never have guessed the kind of adventures he has had.

You would be amazed that the brother had, battled dragons and goblins, shared the round table with King Arthur, wondered at the grace of Guinevere, been amazed at the beauty of Helen of Troy, cast spells with Gandalf, fought in the trenches of world war 1, seen the onslaught of the Nazi machine being halted in Stalingrad, frolicked with elves and fairy’s, been part of the Californian gold rush, rubbed shoulders with Donald Trump, hobnobbed with Einstein, deliberated with John Maxwell, had lunch with Joel Osteen, has been part of a Pharaoh’s daily itinerary, witnessed the six day war, shed tears as Romeo died for Juliet, donned a Spartan war suit and fought against the Athenians, handled submachine guns alongside rebels, ridden on horses, galloped on camels, traversed deserts, trekked the arctic, hiked in the Amazon, seen a Samurai commit seppuku, fenced with Templers, been involved in the battles of angels and demons and parried the thrust of musketeers.

His transport medium is made of papyrus; he enters new worlds through portals of ink. He has a fever from the bug of bibliophilism. He is a bookworm, a reader. For him turning the pages of a good tome is like Ali Baba saying open sesame and unlocking a cache of treasures beyond his imagination (King David attested to this in one of his timeless poems by saying reading the words of the bestselling Author of life makes him as deliriously euphoric as one who happened upon invaluable jewels).

Our world would never have been complete without books. They are one of the few things that will transcend earth. Books are eternal, even the heavens have a library. They are one of the best gifts God gave to man.

God presents himself to us in the Book. St Luke the physician tells us that before Jesus began his ministry, he read a biography about himself by the prophet Isaiah. Joshua was advised to meditate and obey a legal volume because it was the manual for prosperity and success. Timothy was told that to obtain God’s approval he had to study. I dare say that part of Paul’s missionary accomplishments can be attributed to books because even when he was staring death in the eye in a Roman prison, one of the last things he asked for was his parchments.

Books are powerful; Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” was a huge factor in the turning of a nation into genocidal Nazi’s. Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” made him a target for assassination. Harriet Beecham Stowe’s “Uncle Tom Cabins” is purported to have been part of the initiator of the American Civil war. Adam Smith’s “Wealth of nations” changed world economics forever. Darwin’s “Origin of species” still makes some people believe that human beings are the progeny of apes. Karl Max’s “Das Kapital” spearheaded world communism. Josiah’s men found a book during the renovation of Solomon’s temple and it sparked off a spiritual revolution in morally bankrupt and decadent Israel. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF A BOOK!!!

The value of a good book is priceless; it enlarges your mental capacity and makes your mind as agile as Spiderman. It is actually inexplicable but a change akin to Bruce Banner becoming an intelligent Hulk from gamma irradiation or Reed Richards becoming Mr. Fantastic after being subjected to cosmic rays happens to one after the perusal of a really nice book. For example after reading “From third world to first world, the Singapore story” by Lee Kuan Yew, something stretched within me. That is the wonder of a good book, whether it be fiction or true life like Chimamanda’s “Half of a yellow sun” or a business book like Jim Collins “Good to Great”. A great read can change your life in more ways than one. Martin Luther started the protestant movement when he came across the verse “the just shall live by faith” in the Book.

Are you seeking for some heady experience, a tour of exhilaration or you are on a quest for knowledge? Go out of your way and pick up a good book today, opening its pages might just be like saying open sesame. You might discover things you never bargained for.

I posed a question to Seun Akinsanmi, the photographer I talked about in my post “The Kiss” about how he was able to discover treasures in the depths of photography that his predecessors never found. I will never forget his answer, he paused for a minute and said in a contemplative voice “BOOKS, BOOKS ARE THE SHORTEST ROUTE!!!” I wasn’t surprised though; you should try and check out his library someday, the riches in the cave of the forty thieves has nothing on it!

LESSONS FROM MOLLUSCS COUNTRY

Tyre was an ancient prosperous island with wide spread and far reaching influence in its day. It was a world power in international trade and a force to be reckoned with in the world of enterprise that is until it got too big for its breeches and incurred the wrath of God, Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander the Great. Sadly enough it subsequently fell (but its fall is not what this post is about).

The Murex is a water snail found in the depths of the Mediterranean Sea, whose glands produced purple dye. This slug was a prominent factor in the prosperity of Tyre.

The people of this island country learnt how to extract the mollusc’s dye to make robes for royalty and nobility all over the world. Through this business the nation enlarged its reserves and grew like a fat squid whose tentacles reached into the heart of the world. Tyre used a snail’s gut to multiply and diversify itself into greatness. It ultimately became the hub of commerce and the merchant centre of the globe.

The people of Tyre were illustrious and industrious. They were financially savvy and canny. So much gumption was also in their creativity mix, that even God had to refer to their wisdom in the prophetic book of Ezekiel.

Besides the purple dye, they had a great forest (I bet you must have heard of the Cedars of Lebanon). It was from this lumber industry that the monumental temple of Solomon was built, earning them great foreign exchange from about the most stable economy in the world then. The citizens of Tyre used what they had to get what they wanted. They became an economic power to be reckoned with through their innate smartness.

Nigeria is blessed with more man power and resources than this small but big nation, but we are still trying to get our act together. We don’t even know how to make the most of what we have yet. Some years ago, Malaysia got some palm seedlings from us and now they are one of the world’s greatest producers of palm products. This is heartbreaking sad.

But enough said about Nigeria, what about you and I ? Its takes insight and innovation to make the most of the seemingly ordinary things around us ( there is no big deal about creating a radio station in a local language, but the crew of WAZOBIA FM have been so great that they absolutely thrill me no end. Believe me, the kind of gold being deposited into their coffers in ship loads is amazing). James.W.Henry the owner of Liverpool football club and the Boston Red Sox spent about a 100 million pounds to purchase footballers this season. The man made his billions trading futures in Soya beans. Yeah, as ridiculous as it might sound, Soya beans.


Inherent in the red ocean of our lives are gifts that might be as ordinary and as unglamorous as the mucus of a slug. If we could process and refine them to the point where they appeal to the noble and royal streak in every man, then we can trade them for the best things in life, the ivory of wealth, the gold of substance, the wine of merriment, the silk of comfort, the timber of stature, the pearl of value, the jewels of distinction and so on. Until our gifts are processed, they remain of little worth like the glands in the murex, (the peanut butter is more expensive than ordinary peanuts).
　
There is a dye that sticks fast to the destiny of everyman, a colour that separates you from the other man but for this hue to be as valuable as a Tyrian purple robe, we need to put in a lot of hard work. The extraction of the murex’s mucus was cost and labour intensive. Extract your potential, whatever the cost! The journey might be slower than a groggy invertebrate slowpoke's but you just keep at it. It is a matter of time!

The citizens of Tyre, knew that irrespective of how much stuff they were blessed with, they could not become much unless they went international. This galvanized them into becoming one of the greatest seafarers of all time. They ensured their goods got to the length and breadth of the world. The lesson is that in order for us to become great, the gifts God has blessed us with need to become world class! Good enough to be consumed by all and sundry. The reason why we would rather patronize goods from Europe, Asia and the US, than our own locally made products is because they are found wanting a lot of the time.

Another essential feature of this remarkable Island is that they had natural ports which was open to the world. They employed the use of specialists from different parts of the world in their economy. Being open to knowledge is one sure way of becoming successful. The need to subject ourselves to the expertise of experts and specialists can never be overemphasized.

If the slimy saliva of a snail could turn a small island into a great seafaring nation, then the beautiful things God has deposited in you can bless nations.

The question is, WHAT IS THE MUREX IN YOUR BLOOD STREAM? Take note of it amigo, the answer to this eternal query is what will take you far and beyond your ports into the international waters of life’s trade.
　
　
　

ALTARS OF MEDIOCRITY

Moloch, Baal and Tlaloc were some of the evil gods that ancient civilizations sacrificed their children to. The promise of a bright future for those progeny was destroyed due to ignorance and the consequence was that most of these races were wiped out by more enlightened people.

Watching a good movie takes you through a spectrum of feelings; it is usually an evocative experience that may never leave you except if it is a Nigerian home video that is. At the risk of sounding unpatriotic, I would have to say that some of the worst acting you would ever see is usually displayed in Nigerian flicks (I had said in one of my earlier posts that there should be a caution sign on the screen aside from the usual ratings). Some of their thespians should be jailed and not celebrated (compared to them Muppets should receive Oscars), most plots are shallower than a thimble and a huge number of the directors cannot direct themselves to the rest room in their homes. I dare say subjecting oneself to these videos would ultimately turn your brain to mush. They leave the mind addled. Of course, there are a few good ones like Jenifa, which substantiates my claim that most of the ones that catch your attention are those made in our traditional languages. The best cosmopolitan production I have seen in this country recently is Tinsel and you can see it is painstakingly made with attention to detail.

I grew up knowing some Nigeria programmes, like “Cock crow at dawn”, “The Village Headmaster”, “Checkmate”, “Mind-bending”, “Second Chance”, ‘Things fall apart”, and some others. They were world class in their sublimity.  Even the groundbreaking home video “Living in bondage” was very good. With the improvement of technology, one would think that we should have gotten better; unfortunately this has not been the case.  The whole thing got me thinking and I realized that the difference between then and now is profit and commercialization. Back in the day, there was a touch of excellence because directors like, “Tade Ogidan”, “Amaka Igwe”, “Lola, Fani-Kayode (these folks were masters of their craft) were more interested in the beauty of their work than in making money from their creations. A true creator is always concerned about the product his name is attached to. One of King Solomon’s timeless proverbs says that a good name is better than silver or gold. The man would know, his works of excellence gave his name fame and made the Queen of Sheba come looking for him with all the gold in the world. After creating the Titanic, James Cameron wanted to make Avatar but he felt the technology he needed to produce the movie was not yet available so he held on for more than a decade. If he had produced it immediately, he most likely would have still made a lot of money from it, at least riding on the waves of his previous success.  But this producer cum director was more about exceptionality than profitability. Avatar turned out excellent. In contrast to this, Nollywood churns out movies in days. That is why you would find someone currently wearing the same hairdo and clothes, he or she wore five years ago in some of their productions.

The argument might be that the blame should be laid at the feet of the Nigerian Public and not Nollywood since they consume the shabby works voraciously. But works of excellence is first about the manufacturer, then the consumer. Another argument might be that Hollywood is far older than Nollywood but like we have already established the movies made in the past are better than the current ones and anyone making that argument should check out some of the movies made fifty years ago in Hollywood. “Dr Who” is more than thirty years old but it still has a cult following today.

The challenge with the Nigerian movie industry is greed but this is not limited to Nollywood alone, the problem is like cancer cells spreading into the vital organs of this nation. Most Nigerians worship money and would sacrifice their tomorrow on its altar of mediocrity like an Aztec offering a child to Tlaloc to summon rain (in this case, naira rain). For a fledgling business, this is a recipe of disaster. An average Nigerian would have seen many enterprises start up and shrivel off over time. Mediocrity is high up on the list of discouraging factors in our part of the world that cause the demise of businesses. In the bid of hitting the big times faster than speed racer hits the finishing line, we take up jobs we cannot do and even if we can do the job, we take on more than we can handle and spend little time on them. At the end of it all, the production turns out to be a disaster and the disgruntled customer walks out the door taking future business elsewhere.

Our artisans are some of the worst in the world because immediately they get the cash advance from you, they do not care about the job anymore and even when they come through, it is usually with the stuff nightmares are made of. This bars the customer from coming back to them. Their mediocrity swallows up their future.

The greedy jaws of the altars of mediocrity keep wolfing down the promise of what would have been and for the culprit, life becomes like dew drops on a rose petal that gets sucked up by rays of harsh sunshine, ephemeral at best.

Steady plodding on the path of excellence eventually leads to wealth while hasty slip-shod work ends in penury.

Don’t rush, give that manuscript another look over, try another scene with the movie, another brush stroke with additional colour might be all your painting needs, give the dress another trim, do something new with that cake, polish that punch line, it might take time but it will be worth it. Believe me!

Excellence is what will make our name and our creations outlive us. C.S Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, Michael Jackson, Winston Churchill, Michelangelo, Versace, Heath Ledger (he was exceptional in the dark knight, absolutely top notch) are some of the people that give much credence to this.

God did such quality job with the earth that despite man’s habit of wrecking things with war, nuclear inventions, and flagrant bush burning, e.t.c the earth is still so beautiful after aeons (check out the setting sun drowning in a deep blue sea sometime). It is not a surprise though since it was recorded that after God had made the world, he looked at it and saw that it was EXCELLENT in every way (LB)! YOU CAN NEVER BEAT CLASS!!!

ANIMATED TRUTH

 As fantastic as it might sound, we live in a world where the intangible governs the tangible and where the immaterial holds sway over the material. A fact emphasized by the good book which tells us that the things which are seen were made out of things which are not seen and that God calls those things which be not as though they are. We do not see atoms or cells with the naked eye. The forces of gravity, love and radioactivity are not visible but we see their effects. We cannot visualize the human spirit or the soul but they constitute the real man while the body is just a container albeit a very good looking one sometimes.

Due to my love for animation, I have had different labels stuck on my character over the years; some people call me a big kid while I have seen others wonder at my supposedly puerile fascination and juvenile tendencies. Others feel I have been stuck in the sticky web of an infantile fancy. But I usually laugh inwardly because they are the ones missing the big picture. Lot of times as strange as fiction might be, it is as concrete as truth. Fantasies are one of the greatest life coaching instruments we have around us. They contain truth that needs to be distilled from an imaginary world into reality in our minds.

One of the highest grossing cartoons from DreamWorks is Kung fu Panda and it’s a flick that inundates one with so much insight. It triggers a fusillade of questions aimed at the target board of life. The answers to these queries are intricately connected to our destinies like wool to worsted suits.

The first time we see Po, the Kung fu Panda in the movie, he was dreaming that he was engaged in a fight with the quintet of Kung fu masters aiding him. This dream was a pointer to his destiny.

·        WHAT DO YOU CONSTANTLY DREAM ABOUT?

His father was a goose who could never fathom what his son’s life was about, not surprising though since a goose can never father a bear.  The Panda’s dad almost killed his dream. A father would impact your dreams and ultimately your future.

·        WHO IS YOUR FATHER (PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL)?

Po was working in a noodle shop while his passion and destiny was in the kung fu palace. Even though his father’s noodle shop was bustling with customers and doing good business, the guy was perpetually miserable. Any job that is not in alignment with your passion irrespective of how great the benefits might be is a noodle shop.

·        DO YOU WORK IN A NOODLE SHOP OR IN THE KUNGFU PALACE OF YOUR DREAMS?

The bear might have been bumbling and clumsy but he knew kung fu, he was at home with kung fu, he was an encyclopedia of kung fu. When he got to the secret hall of warriors, he practically knew the history of everything in it. He ate, drank, and slept kung fu.

·        WHAT DO YOU KNOW? WHAT IS YOUR PASSION? WHAT FILLS YOUR THOUGHTS?

He was a good cook but he did not allow that to cloud his passion. He wanted more, something within him was crying out for something better. His whole life was yearning for a different path.

·        DO YOU KNOW THAT THE FACT THAT YOU CAN DO ONE THING WELL DOESN’T MEAN IT IS YOUR PATH TO DESTINY?

The panda was totally in love with the kung fu masters. The people we rate very highly sometimes shed some light on the path of our destinies.

·        WHO DO YOU STRONGLY ADMIRE?  WHO ARE YOUR MENTORS?

He used his culinary prowess to make friends with the furious five. It’s the gift of a man that makes room for him.

·        WHAT ARE YOU USING YOUR GIFTS FOR? ARE YOU STRONGLY OPTIMIZING THEM?

He made fun of himself and his inadequacies; he was humorous about life, even when he was constantly dissed.

·        ARE YOU TOO SERIOUS ABOUT THE JOURNEY OF LIFE? WHEN DID YOU LAUGH LAST?

Despite the gruel training he went through, he never gave up. He kept coming back for more.

·        ARE YOU PUGNACIOUSLY TENACIOUS?

Po did not have the claws, speed, venom or traits of the kung fu masters but he was still special, he had his own peculiar endowments.

·        DO YOU KNOW DESPITE THE FACT THAT YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE THE GIFTS OF OTHER PEOPLE, YOU ARE STILL VERY UNIQUE?

When the panda landed in the arena and was about to be made the Dragon warrior, Shifu said it was an accident but the tortoise master Oogway said there are no accidents.

·        DO YOU KNOW THAT ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR THE GOOD OF THEM THAT LOVE GOD? DO YOU KNOW THAT THE EVENTS OF YOUR LIFE ARE DIVINELY ORCHESTRATED?

His love for food helped him to overcome the odds while training. This went a long way in helping him become the Dragon master.

·        DO YOU KNOW THAT THE THINGS WE LOVE USUALLY GO HAND IN HAND WITH OUR PASSION TO HELP US FORGE OUR PATH INTO DESTINY?

He developed a peculiar pattern of fighting due to his love for food. This was why he was able to beat Tai Lung.

·        DO YOU HAVE YOUR OWN DIFFERENT STYLE OF DOING THINGS? THIS IS WHAT WILL DIFFERENTIATE YOU FROM THE MASTERS!

There was no secret formula in the dragon scroll which is said to have the secret to limitless power neither was there a secret ingredient in the noodle soup. His father told him that to make something special, you just have to believe it is special. All you need to succeed is already in you, within you is limitless power. Like Oogway told Shifu, all you need to do is believe.

·        WHAT, WHO DO YOU BELIEVE? DO YOU BELIEVE IN YOURSELF?

Oogway also told Master Shifu, that for the peach seed to defeat the evil snow leopard, the seed would have to be nurtured and given direction.

·        ARE YOU NUTURING YOUR GIFTS? DO YOU SEEK DIRECTION FROM THE ALL-KNOWER?

The story of Kung fu panda was set in the Valley of Peace, a fictional place in China. You see life is supposed to be a valley of peace with mankind living in unity and in love but there will always be Tai Lungs, evil snow leopards of bad leadership, poverty, diseases, wars and so on that will be hell bent on shattering the fragile peace of our world like it were a Ming vase knocked over by captain caveman’s club. If you answer these questions correctly, then you would become a savior of our world even where others have failed.

It doesn’t matter whether you look like it or not, you might seem to be a bumbling, clumsy, clueless panda but there is a Dragon warrior in you crying for expression.  And that is the bottom line my friends.

ONE A PENNY, TWO A PENNY, HOT CROSS BUNS!

My wife has more nursery rhymes in her repertoire than a Red Indian brave has arrows in his quiver. I on the other hand get constantly ribbed by her; she consistently implores that I should not taint and muddy the crystal clear spring of erudition from which our son takes his daily sips. Since I did not attend the kind of posh and exclusive schools she went through, most of the rhymes I know are those in my local lingo like the one about cigarette metal containers, excessive carbohydrate consumption and farting culprits (in Yoruba, it is titled “Pangolo Cigar”). But for some reason, after seeing a hawker advertising his pastries in a kiddies verse book as a child, the hot cross buns rhyme was seared on my mind like a Ranchers coat of arms on a bullock’s hind quarters.

Recently I saw the aforementioned baked rolls in a supermarket’s catalogue and asked the wife to get me some but to my surprise; I could not abide the taste of it. It ended up being a waste. But what was the big deal, anyone can afford to do away with a couple of buns that cost a penny or two. For crying out loud, they are dirt cheap.

The history of Africa is riddled with sacrificial killings like holes in Swiss cheese and it’s so sad that the advent of education and enlightenment have not extirpated these abominable acts. Some times I think the most western education has done for a lot of Africans is window dressing. Clothed in suits and frocks, most peoples mind are still barbaric and cannibalistic, even the most educated and elite amongst us. That is why ritual killings and murderous rites still abound and not necessarily the slitting of throats on pagan altars.

Back in the day, it was normal for young virgins or lads to be killed or buried alive to help a dead king achieve seamless crossing through the underworld. In our day, young children are killed everyday by malaria and other diseases because the funds that would have purchased their drugs have been used for the councilor, local government chairman, Governor or President’s latest travelling machine. They are sacrificed to ensure these people have groovy rides. Thing is in this part of the world, there is little or no value for human life. Human beings are ridiculously cheap.

This truth like yeast permeates the dough of this nation and that has contributed so much in keeping us behind in the race of life with other countries. Irrespective of how much our natural resources might be, without human resources this nation will not go anywhere. No good General ever toys with his men. The reason behind the exodus from our land even at the risk of death sometimes is because other nations place value on our people more than we do. An average American would gladly die for his country because most of them ran away from death, pogroms, famine, racism, and segregation to a land of liberty that gave them the opportunity to become presidents, billionaires, industrialists, moguls and titans of businesses. A value saturated environment helps the realization of potential. This is why somebody who is nothing to write home about in Nigeria travels abroad and becomes very successful and valuable to his community.

Pre-revolutionary French aristocracy placed little worth on its common citizens and what did they get in return, anarchy and their heads chopped off during the French Revolution.

The basis for which a father provides for his family is because he loves them and they are of great worth to him. A dad with a different view goes on the lam. In the same vein, a nation that places great premium on its people will provide a conducive environment for them to grow and flourish.

The lack of value for human life shows up on our roads with their pot holes and craters, veritable traps for motorists. It is revealed in our transport system where people rush for buses like rhinos on a stampede. My pastor travelled to a first world country and saw that the vehicles used to transport animals have more dignity than the rusty cans of destruction used to move people here.

How would you explain the short and long sleeved haute couture that was formed from people’s limbs using machetes during the Liberian civil war? It is absolutely insane.

I walked into a general hospital recently and was heart broken to see the laissez faire attitude of the medical crew while patients needed urgent attention. A friend of mine told me that while he was doing his house job in a government hospital, the husbands of bleeding pregnant women were the ones holding the infusions while the patient lay on the floor due to shortage of beds and drip stands. He confirmed that blood pressure measurements could not be taken because there was no blood pressure measuring equipment.

Lately, there has been a spate of loss of lives in which armed robbers attacked inter-city buses and passengers who had been robbed were asked to lie on the road and were crushed by the buses. What about the fact that there is no water for our firemen to quench raging flames despite the fact that we are in a tropical area with heavy downpours and famous rivers?

In spite of all these, our leaders have become inured to it all. They steal from the national treasuries and talk about elongating their terms.

Jesus said that the worth of a man is more than all the cars, money, houses and everything in the world. He understood the value of a human life and that is why as befuddling as it might be he put his life and the lives of his men into jeopardy to save a crazy man living in a grave yard (the continuance of his work was riding on those disciples) yet he braved the storm with them to save a loony that had been given up on by his community. The man was of no use to anybody but the son of David knew no man was ever a waste. He saw worth in a supposedly worthless man. After his healing the lunatic became sane and profitable to the ministry of Jesus. The former fruitcake became a marketer for his Saviour’s product in 10 cities and we all know that the best advertisement is by word of mouth.  VALUE TURNED A NUT INTO AN ASSET! How many certified mad men do we have walking on the streets of London? How many do we have in on the streets of Nigeria?

Beyond our leaders, the buck also falls into our laps, the way we treat the people around us is an indication of how much value we place on them.

During Israel’s slavery in Egypt, mothers willingly gave up their new born children to be murdered after Pharaoh’s edict but Moses mum refused because she tagged her son special. Her son went ahead to become a great leader. It’s the value you place on your offspring that will prevent you from surrendering them to the pharaoh’s of abortion, ignorance, lack of care and attention and all the other ills to which children are exposed to.

Truth is until we stop putting a price tag as cheap as that of hot cross buns on human beings, throwing them to the dogs will remain instinctive. We have to start seeing our people as invaluable, if not our country will remain bogged in the quicksand of despondency.  A person that is just worth a penny cannot be of much value to himself or his country

The organization Jesus started two thousand years ago is still waxing strong because he gave worth to his men. He provided food, security, medical insurance, training, dreams of a better tomorrow and ultimately died for them. The most worthless person’s value increases when he sees another give up a life for him. His value and esteem shoots up astronomically. The guys returned the value their master placed on them and gave their all into propagating and developing his business. Most even gave up their lives.

For nations, businesses, marriages and families to survive and flourish, we need to place more value on our people and loved ones. What you give is what you get. It is all about value my friends!

THE KISS

The image above is about the most famous kiss in human history. It is a camera immortalized legendary kiss between a sailor and a nurse on August 14, 1945 after the announcement of the capitulation of the Japanese, signaling an end to the Second World War. What strikes me most about this osculation is the ardor, borne on the wings of euphoric jubilation, more so when seen from the angle of the man who made it acclaimed, a world renowned photographer called Alfred Eisenstaedt (I couldn’t use his own print due to copyright reasons, so I had to make do with this one in the public domain shot by a naval photo journalist called Victor Jorgenson). Alfred Eisenstaedt was celebrated for his great candid pictures until he died in 1995 but none still compares to his magnum opus, a passionate kiss captured by a man with the fever of photography running through his veins like boiling magma under the earth crust.

Recently, I was stuck when I had to take a portrait for my first book (watch out peeps), wondering where I would go since there are more photo shooters in Lagos than there were snipers in the battle of Stalingrad. I quickly remembered someone whose exhibits I had been following for a while. I gave him a call and an appointment was fixed. But the session turned out to be a lesson in life instead of just a photo shoot.

A cool Friday morning found me on 12b Fagba Street, a cool, quiet area of Ogba in Lagos. The warmth with which his workers greeted me in the reception made me feel like a film star on Hollywood boulevard. The first thing I noticed in eloPhotos was a shelf of books and more books and of course they pulled me like a variety of Zinnias singing a fragrant romantic song to a butterfly’s soul. To my amazement they were all on photography, books that could fill up the whole library of Pergamum, all on a single topic. The room also had beautiful framed pictures hanging on the walls like priceless stamps in a philatelist’s collection. The wedding ones were mesmerizing because they were sprinkled with the stardust of creativity but the one I particularly liked was the one in which the photographer froze time for any avian lover to appreciate a green bird on a banana leaf. It was masterful artistry inducing sheer delight.

Noticeable on the bookshelf was a plaque from an American university showing a degree in Business Administration. By now the questions were twirling in my brain like clothes in a washing machine. Then behold the man, he walked in, short sleeved with baggy pants and after the initial niceties, I went into my Gatling gun mode and started firing him with questions. Having a foreign degree in Nigeria is about the fastest way to climb to the top of any career ladder. I would have expected this guy to be in an office, decked to the nines in designer garments, with his whole person buried up to the neck in papers and not this so relaxed dude toting a camera before me.

He told me he got a camera from his mom when he was in the US and the rest is history even though his father initially put up enough barriers before him to have deterred the incredible Hulk (his dad wanted him to be an accountant like him). The bro stuck to his guns, sorry, his camera and thus created his path into destiny.

After observing Seun Akinsanmi’s style and imagination, the way he ensures that every snap is a shot of passion, it dawned on me that his studio has painstakingly been built with the bricks of devotion and dedication.

As I left the hallowed grounds of this temple of photography, the one word that kept popping up in my mind was PASSION!

Passion, the exceptional quality that never says no, it is what kept God on until He finished the world before He could rest, it made Churchill stand strong before the steamrolling might of the Nazis, it caused James Cameron to stay on the Avatar project for twelve years, it was what initiated Marco Polo and Columbus to discover new worlds, it brought David Livingstone to Africa, it is the ingredient that spurred on Vince McMahon into building a billion dollar industry from wrestling, it crowned Mohammed Ali the greatest, turned John Grisham into a bestselling novelist, eggs on a city bred zoologist into the Amazon jungle to save a species on the brink of extinction and  made Mother Theresa sacrifice all for service. Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, George Washington all had this ingredient (PASSION) in prodigious amounts.

A life without passion is akin to being served a Mexican dish cold and without the chili sauce. Passion is what gives life a rush, without it our relationship with God dies, marriages become nonexistent, businesses go bankrupt, and life becomes boring and mundane like an interminable carousel ride instead of the exciting exhilaration of a bungee jump.

The other day I saw the new Thai prime minister speaking on telly in a banking hall, since the sound was hushed I could not hear what she was saying but I could feel her passion. Passion is what makes you go the extra mile when others have thrown in the towel; it is what keeps you awake at night burning the lamp like Florence Nightingale, when others are frolicking with Peter Pan in Morpheus induced dreams, it is what makes one a burning flame when others have become the charred remains of yesterday, it turns an ordinary night into a fireworks extravaganza when mixed with a canoodle with your spouse. IT’S THE FUEL THAT KEEPS THE WICK OF VISION BURNING!

It would be well to note that passion like fire is useful to potential only when it blazes in controlled and defined conditions. Outside these restrictions, it can become negative and dangerous. Examples are Hitler’s mad quest for world domination or sexual passion outside the confines of marriage. Such passionate flames usually leave in its wake, disaster, torched destinies, burnt feelings, toasted futures and scorched lives. It culminates into a conflagration of destruction but positive passion is healthy, life without it is cold.

What is your passion? Are you true to it? The answers to these questions are what will make your life either a butterfly kiss or a nuclear powered smackeroo! Discover your passion, give it wings and you will soon start living beyond the limits of gravity.

"The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire." Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch

ELUSIVE BRANDS

Walking down memory lane sometimes is like taking a walk down the corridors of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Like the artworks of Cezanne, Monet and Van Gogh on the walls of this esteemed art house, so are the pictures of some great commercials that have been shown over the years on the walls of my mind.

Taking the lead amongst these timeless advertisements are Coca cola’s like, “come to the festival with me”, “when the music starts to play”, “I am the future of the world” and the one for world cup 2006, where the chicken hugged the cook who wanted to kill it after a goal was scored.


MTN, is also absolutely magnificent when it comes to commercials, I particularly like their yellow Christmas, “I will be your hero baby” and the latest one making the rounds about their new number. It is amazingly melodious.


Beyond advertisements, what these two companies have in common is that they are both strong multinational brands worth billions. Their products saturate our world like mist on a foggy morning.

Strong brands bring in foreign exchange and make a country richer. I dare to say that one of the reasons Nigeria is stuck in the rot and rut of poverty and delayed growth is because we lack very strong indigenous brands.

A country like Japan is much smaller than Nigeria and does not have as much natural resources but comparing it’s GDP to ours is like comparing Aphrodite to an old, scabies infested, arthritic hag. But this reality would not wow even an infant considering that Japan has some of the greatest brands in the world, for example, Sony, Toyota, Honda and so on.

But what befuddles the mind is why a country like ours with the plethora of human and natural resources we are inundated with lack indigenous brands that can compete with some of the world’s best.

The reasons for this economic malady are like the ugly head of Medusa with its hair of multiple hideous snakes.

If you take a walk into most Nigerian companies, it will be noted that there are more vision plaques than there are lianas in the rain forest, yet most of these institutions grope in darkness. Reason being that in this part of the world, we cling to the routine and perfunctory like a drowning man to a life boat without ever understanding the essence of why we do the things we do. People are infected by the Lemming effect and join the band wagon, without having any notion of where they are headed. Eventually these outfits fizzle out the way Sir John Franklin and his men died after getting lost in the arctic. I am sure you know a few cases in point over the years. Vision is beyond the mere scribblings that are inscribed in golden settings as big as castle doors. Vision lives, it’s like a heart beat that pumps life into the existence of any corporation. It is not a mere recitation, it is a force. it is infectous. It is like a map through which an explorer travels to new worlds and explores new territories and opportunities. But the sad thing is that around here it is usually sacrificed to greed and ostentation like a baby to the abominable fiery maw of Moloch.  Can you imagine a business owner with a vision of global dominance spending his initial profits and part of his loan on a jet liner with marrying a second wife to boot? That company will soon pass on without a whimper. This is the kind of scenario that exists in this society. 

When the stock market was still roaring like a Guy Fawkes’s bonfire, one of the big eateries around town had an IPO that brought in millions but instead of the company expanding, it has become a husk of its old self and its food has become deplorable. Whatever happened to all that money? I bet some people moved all the dough into their own private coffers. Irrespective of how big their plaque is or how beautiful the calligraphy of their vision, they are more blind than bats and will die in stygian darkness.

Following the burst bubble of the stock market, it is becoming clearer and clearer that duplicity is a main feature of our companies. Most companies cook the books better than a French chef cooks exotic cuisine. Most financial reports can only be ingested with a pinch of salt. A country where the bourse is regarded with suspicion cannot raise world class brands because that’s like the engine room where funds are generated for growth. A closer look behind the doors of some of the supposedly strong brands will have them toppling like Humpty dumpty.


Greed also prevents most of our companies from carrying out social responsibility, aside from the little they do to minimize tax payments. In a place like India, which has become a breeding ground for world class CEOs, corporate social responsibility has been attributed as part of the reason for the development of these world leaders. It has been confirmed that they are guided more by a bigger goal than by the bottom line. Now we have Indians in the top echelon of brands like Motorola, PepsiCo, MasterCard, Harvard Business School, which is more than I can say for our own compatriots. How many companies are still standing strong after they were indigenized to Nigerian outfits? A number of great brands have been destroyed in this nation over the years while in some of our neighboring countries; they still thrive like wheat in the Nile delta.

Selfishness is another snake wrapping itself around our establishments. Most owners will gorge and feast on the profits while leaving the crumbs to their workers. This creates an atmosphere without motivation, leading to fraud, high turn over of staff and poor financial results. The workers have no sense of ownership. In Japan and first world countries, employees are given a sense of entitlement by motivation through stock rights and other incentives. Such benefits make the workers give their best because they see the firms as theirs and will be ready to sink or swim with the enterprise. They take ownership and responsibility because they are partners who are affected by either the profit or loss of the business..

Strong brands are associated with great customer service, but to many corporate structures, service is as arcane as hieroglyphics to an unschooled villager. Business owners usually feel they are doing the customer a favor instead of the other way round.

Unless like Perseus, the holders of these syndicates get a mirror to check out the reflection of their dark state, use a sword of decisiveness and change to cut off the head of the Medusa freezing their businesses into cracked stony edifices of the Jurassic Era while global brands speed past at dizzying speed into the future, developing universal brands will remain as elusive to them as an exotic butterfly being chased by a tottering toddler.