Pocket of Thoughts™ by Saint Akanji

"It takes Idiots to be ruled by Fools " - Tunde Bakare How can we be blessed with so much but yet the majority of us wallow in lack? There is nothing wrong with being black! That seems to be the conclusion of the best seller by a successful black man. One must salute the thorough work and the depth of insights with which the author; Mattew Ashimolowo dissected this thorny issue of backwardness that has become a fixture among the people of color. Africa remains the most backward continent in the world. Here, people have found a way to live with poverty. What is perhaps more appalling is the hitherto paradox that exist. Majority of African states in spite of political independence still depend on handouts from supranational agencies. Keeping a distance from the knotty issues surrounding Africa and the sorry state of her peoples (a sure path of least resistance) I reckon is not a sensible thing to do. The remnant of us shall not tire out nor shall we resig...

   So what is the next big thing in professional luggage handling?   The legend of the the belly dancer. I bet you'd be wondering what this has got to do with anything. Well, I asked myself the same question. I have a knack for spotting trends. Through the lens of observation, I have noticed that I seem to get a sense of things before they become big. Some kind of premonition you can say. In 2003, I gathered a group of friends at my parents home in Osogbo to listen to a new music material. It was Akon's sophomore album which I picked from Emeka; my music vendor. This listening session was thoroughly amusing for me and my gang. Two months later, the airwaves was filled with the sound of the belly dancer (a track from that album) and other hit tracks from that album. I have had the blessing of meeting people who went on to become celebrities before they actually became "big". I have more encounters to share but I'd rather just be mute on them. One t...

With no exception, there is a piece of God in every human being. When human life doesn't count for something, the result is predictable. Desperation is the result of a social system where selfishness is pervasive. In spite of what my friends in the school of developmental economics may assert as the reason for the gap between the developed countries and those who are underdeveloped or developing, I reckon that any society that doesn't place premium on the sacredness of human life is doomed. Until such a time when human life means something to us in Africa, our dream of a greater tomorrow will remain an illusion.  Currency of Frustration  Who gives a gun to a desperate man and expects the same man to protect others? I believe your guess is as good as mine. It is certainly a foolish thing to do but sadly, it is what my society has done. I posit here that the Nigerian Police is one of the most bastardized institution of government in the world. ...

He who finds a wife, findeth a good thing and obtains favour from the Lord Let us for a minute pretend I am Edvard Munch . You know who he his right? Well if you don't I will spare you some gist about this legend. He's dead now but Edward created the iconic work (image above) popularly called 'The Scream' comprising four versions of a composition, created as both paintings and pastels, between 1893 and 1910. Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream of Nature) is the title Munch gave to these works, all of which show a figure with an agonized expression against a landscape with a tumultuous orange sky. Arthur Lubow has described The Scream as "an icon of modern art, a Mona Lisa for our time. The Scream has been the target of several high-profile art thefts . In 1994, the version in the National Gallery was stolen. It was recovered several months later. In 2004, both The Scream and Madonna were stolen from the Munch Museum, and recovered two years later. Th...

If you must change a culture, you must be ready to alter habits. Strategy according to Hannibal Hannibal ; the Barbarian warlord never lost a single battle against the Romans. His Carthaginian forces defeated the Roman army every single time they clashed. He is regarded as the father of strategic thinking. Before Hannibal's method, the Romans military strategy was based on playing offensive. Hannibal consistently deployed containment and envelopment strategies.Those who are familiar with this piece of human history readily would agree that what passes for strategy today is indeed mere fluff. Real strategy is not pie in the sky. Strategy according to Richard Rumelt is a coherent set of actions. Such sets of actions are coordinated in time and space and driven by fundamental assumptions. The general consensus is that while idea generation is relatively easy, the key success factor is execution. The road to hell is paved with good strategies. On a single day,...

Can we meet you? The lead panelist echoed to me. I was shaken but managed to recite my name. My name is Femi Oni I responded with my voice still shaking. You've got a very cute name he retorted (a co-panelist gently rebuffed him not to make my head swell). Struggling to connect my thoughts together, it occurred to me that this interview was standing between me and the admission to study at Orange Academy. Prior to this encounter, I had been furnished with a brief which read something like "Orange Academy is tired of the current wave of media. In light of this, you are to come up with a new medium". At this moment, I realised that I needed to allow my imagination run free. Today, I am effectively an inmate at Orange Academy learning to be a storyteller. This post is an updated response I presented to the panel. Marshall McLuhan is credited with the profound wisdom that the medium is the message. He was ahead of his time in establishing context between th...

Still on the the crazy ones... This is my second post on my journey at Orange Academy . At the risk of sounding patronizing, I can assert very unequivocally and for the umpteenth time that apart from giving my life to Jesus Christ (Yes! I have enough sense in me to accept him as my personal Lord and Savior), the decision to be a part of the IBX programme is by far one of the most satisfying in my quest to be more.  You can access the part 1 here . Since this blog post is about my favorite moments at the Academy, I will go right on into it. I have yet another favorite to share here and now. Just this last week, I and my classmates had the awesome privilege of being the audience during the defense of our seniors (the IBX nine set). It was a remarkable experience. Indeed, heart wrenching would be a more apt word to describe what I felt. As one who has had a fair share of pitching (I wrote about my less than brilliant pitch at the Co-creation Hub earlier this ye...