Travelogue: Ibadan – Hills, Bottoms, Masquerades and Research
More than 15 years ago, I met an Italian who had lodged at KS Motel at Total Gardens, Ibadan. He was in Ibadan for the first time and was very fascinated with the city when I informed him that Rome and Ibadan shared a unique similarity: both were built on seven hills. He asked me to take him...
Life Doesn’t Stop For Anyone
I was so shocked that I still recollect the event as vividly as it happened then around 2004/5. The guy was very popular then in Warri. A high-flyer who always dazzled everyone at our meetings. His presentations were always top-notch. He always looked dapper in his pin-stripe suits. His bulging...
Re-Ordering Priorities: The Greatest Lesson I Learnt in 2021
I struggled quite a bit in 2021. I was faced with a lot of pressures – work, family and my health. At a point, many of my close friends commended my weight loss but didn’t know I was in a battle to control my sugar. The lockdown in 2020 had aggravated my sugar levels and I didn’t know on time...
Everything Rises and Falls on Relationships
I got a call that early Monday morning. It was circa 2002/2003. A woman was on the other end. She mentioned my name and said someone recommended me. She was looking for a good salesperson—she called it Account Officer. I didn’t know her, and I'd never met her before. She wanted to meet with me for...
The Law of Appreciation
Today, I got a letter via WhatsApp. The way I grinned, one would have taught it was more than a letter. To me, it’s actually more than a letter. Here’s why. I met this estate agent a while ago. Young, dynamic, and versatile, he made a good impression on me from the moment I saw him. I referred his...
The Power of Empathy in Leadership
Sometimes, just being human is the highest form of leadership. We were all gathered for a business review session that morning. We had the Executive Director who supervised us visiting from Lagos. Suddenly, as he looked around, he asked for one of my colleagues. The guy was absent. It turned out...
Leadership: The Greatest Investment is in People
Some years ago when I was a Branch Manager, I sat at one of our monthly performance review meetings and it suddenly dawned on me that seated right there in that room were four other Branch Managers who had passed through me. In other words, they were Relationship Officers whom I supervised but had...
The Four Competencies of Nigeria’s President
Yesterday, I co-anchored Impact 2021 with TVC’s Esther Omopariola. This is the third year in a row that both of us have anchored this event starting with Impact 2019 which featured Desmond Elliot, Dayo Israel, and Prof Kingsley Moghalu. In 2020, it was the turn of Prof Chukwuma Soludo. And...
#21Lessonsin21years: ‘People Might Not Like You But Never Allow Them To Say You Don’t Know Your Job’ (2)
This morning, I had a conversation with a colleague at work. He shared 3 things his former boss told him. He said they have been the foundation of his career. First: People might not like you but never give them the opportunity to say you don’t know your job. Second: You are too young for office...
#21Lessonsin21years: Find A Way To Connect To A Source Greater Than You (1)
We had a deadline. An impossible one. Turn around the branch in 30 days or get fired. The countdown had started. I was a Team Lead and I saw the pains in the eyes of my Branch Manager. We had to do all we could to meet the deadline. We ran all over town, trying to pull the chest out of the fire....