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Saturday, July 30, 2016

Can Time Really Be Managed?


Manage time in work station with chairs, tables and computersTime management
With 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in day and 365 days in a year all fixed, what is there to manage? No one can add even one second to the 60 seconds in a minute. You cannot add one hour to the 24 hours in a day. The best you can do therefore is to manage yourself and your activities within the available time. This is where work efficiency is very important. How much work can you cram into the available hours and still remain effective and efficient? The answer to this question determines how smart you can work. To do it successfully, you need to know something about the “Pareto Principle” now loosely referred to as “Pareto Law.” I was introduced to Pareto principle myself while in graduate school in 1993. It fascinated me then and it still fascinates me till today. You will soon get to know why. I have since discovered that apart from its use for time management, it also has general applications to almost all forms of human enterprise. It is also called “Rule 20/80.” Basically, the rule indicates that “20% of the goals you achieve account for 80% of your effectiveness.” It is a general rule and a reliable guide. It may not be accurate to the dot as you have in mathematics but it is a good guide. The following examples will make this rule clearer to you.

Time: 20% of your time produces 80% of the results.
Workers: 20% of your workers do 80% of the work.
Football: 20% of the players produce 80% of the result.
Products: 20% of company products bring in 80% of its profits.
Customers: 20% of your customers buy 80% of your products.
Family: 20% of your family members consume 80% of your resources.
Telephone: 20% of your callers make 80% of your calls.
Banking: 20% of bank customers own 80% of the deposits.
Shareholding: 20% of shareholders own 80% of the shares.
Donations: 20% of donors donate 80% of the fund.



From the foregoing it is easy to discern that the Pareto rule has general application. It is a very useful tool for managing time. It is the rule that can be of help to you when prioritizing your daily activities. It helps you to draw up your “to-do” list on daily basis. It guides you to locate your benefit centers to enable you deploy your available time as appropriate. You must therefore spend more of your time pursuing your most important goals. This is because as proven by the Pareto rule, 20% of your goals will account for 80% of your effectiveness. This enables you to reduce time wastage to the barest minimum.

To draw up your “to-do” list everyday you need to ask yourself and find answers to the following questions.
What volume of work is available?
What is urgent?
What is priority?
Which job is to be done at what time and in which location?
Who will do what?
Which activities should I be spending more time on?
Which should take less of my time?
Which activities can be deferred to another day?
What techniques can I adopt to save time?

The answers to these questions will help you to plan your day and to function well. With adequate daily planning, you can always get more done within your working hours. With proper planning, even though you cannot buy yourself additional second in any single day, you will “gain” more hours of useful work.


Friday, July 29, 2016

Wasted Time Equals Wasted Money

Using a Calculator for counting currency to save time

Apart from efficiency and effectiveness, prioritizing job performance is one other way of time usage that is important for business. It is always a battle to distinguish between what is important and what is urgent. Some chores are at times urgent but not important while some others are important but not urgent. It is your duty to classify these jobs appropriately before executing them. You must do what is urgent and important first before you do any other thing. There appears to be some consensus among business gurus to the effect that “urgent things are seldom important, and important things are seldom urgent.” It is your duty to decide which is which from your work schedule and your time budget.

Let me illustrate this relationship with academic work as we all experienced when we were in school. Then, we were all expected to write our semester examinations at the end of every semester. If we were to write five courses in one semester, four weeks to the examinations, all the courses were important but not urgent. When the time-table came out two weeks to the examinations, all the courses were still important but some were then more urgent than others depending on the schedule. When the examinations began, any course we had written was no longer important. The nearer courses on the schedule were both urgent and important while the farther ones were important but less urgent. This was how we were able to manage our study schedule till the end of the examinations. All the papers we had written became less important and less urgent at the end of the examinations. If you made the mistake as it happened to some of my course mates, to study for a course not scheduled for a particular day, you just had to settle for a re-sit. There were no two ways about it. If you found yourself in such a situation, you must have made the mistake of making what is important but not urgent suddenly important and urgent. For this mistake, you found yourself writing an examination you did not prepare for. Chances of passing such examinations were always very remote. This is how it works even in business. You just have to know what is important and what is urgent, and then schedule your jobs to fit the situation.

Balancing is the key. Plan your work and prioritize your activities. This is the only way you can avoid spending your time doing unimportant but urgent things to the detriment of the important and urgent things you have to do. Wasted time automatically means wasted money. You therefore must be able to manage your time well if you hope to succeed in business. But can time really be managed?






Thursday, July 28, 2016

Time is Where the Money Is

Motivational poster avoid quitting

Many of us live by selling our time. Time therefore is a precious commodity to human existence, welfare and well-being. Any commodity that is so precious must be jealously guarded and protected at all times. Unfortunately many people still drift around and waste their time doing things that have no direct bearing on how they can better their lives. Anchor yourself somewhere if you are a drifter. If you are not but you know someone who is, help them to find an anchor by giving them a copy of this article to read. Time is too precious a commodity to waste, believe me.

The use of time and how you grow the proceeds from your work are major determinants of how smart you work. The smart use of the time available to you determines how efficient and effective you can be in your business. To drive this point home, here is a paraphrase of some lyrics from a song that once dominated the Nigerian airwaves. It was made popular by a Nigerian musician. It goes like this:

“Time na money oh
Time na money.
No waka waka.
No gossip gossip.
No spoil another man.
Make you use your time well.
Use your time money go come.
Money no dey fall from heaven.
Use your time money go come.
Na true word I dey tell you so………”

This song may have been written in Pidgin English but the meaning is clear. “Time is money.” Effective and efficient usage of your time will earn you money. No more, no less.

“Efficiency is doing a job right” while “Effectiveness is doing the right job.” You could be effective without being efficient and you could be efficient without necessarily being effective. What matters in business is effective efficiency or efficient effectiveness. That is, doing the right job right always. It is not enough to be busy, the question is, what are you busy doing? If you do the right job well, the results are highly rewarding. No matter how well you do the wrong job, you can never get satisfactory results.





Wednesday, July 27, 2016

You Must Work Smarter not Harder

Stop watch and wad of currency for time management
Many times I have heard people advocate hard work alone as the antidote to poverty. I must admit that I am a victim of this notion myself. I have found out that working hard is good but working hard and smart is better. Truck-pushers and “okada” riders are hard working people but most are always struggling to make ends meet. The reason for this may not be too far from the fact that many of them are not smart workers. They are simply hard workers, not talented workers. Talent is in the brain and the price for talent is limitless. Hard-work is more with your muscles while smart-work is with your brain. There is no power on earth that can match the power of the human brain. If you use your brain more than your muscles, you stand a very good chance of succeeding faster in any venture. Muscles may provide daily wages but talent will provide permanent and secure employment. This is the advantage of working smart.



I have always made it a point to state clearly in some of my seminars that “the Muscles will always work hardest while the Brains will always take the credit.” In the history of human existence, brawn has never been superior to brain in their struggle for supremacy. Brain has always managed to come out tops. Remember George Orwell’s extremely famous satire “Animal Farm”? Boxer the horse had all the muscles but no brains. Napoleon the pig had brains but no muscles. Boxer did the work and Napoleon and his fellow pigs took the credit. Towards the end, the pigs even conspired to sell Boxer away to be slaughtered when he became too old and feeble to work. What a cruel fate to befall a dedicated, hardworking and loyal worker.

Today’s business world still operates like “Animal Farm.” You’ve got to be smart to survive. Compare Boxer’s fate to the fate of today’s retrenched and retired workers who are not paid their entitlements. Have you found any difference in their fate? Have you recently read about or heard of “Down-sizing”, “Right-sizing” or just plain “Retrenchment?” No doubt you know what “forced” retirement or “premature” retirement is all about. If you do, take your mind back to “Animal Farm.” What is happening to those prematurely sent out of work is similar to what the pigs did to Boxer the horse. If Boxer had deployed half the energy he deployed working in “Animal Farm” to his own work, his fate would have been different from what he suffered in the hands of the pigs. It is a pity Boxer was not smart enough just as many of today’s “workers” and unemployed people are not smart enough.


 

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Do You Know How to Make a Million Naira?

Currencies, notepad and wallet to tally money
Do you know that you can make as much money as you choose to make by merely reading this article? Warning! This article is not a magic wand for making millions. If you want instant millions, you should be reading something else not this article. What I think you should be reading are the lottery numbers and the game of chance. But let me caution you that the law of chance is a tricky law. “It permits you to win just often enough to lure you on to sure destruction.” Run as far away from gambling as you can for your own sake. All that gamblers do daily is to attempt to circumvent the natural law of reciprocity. They believe they can reap where they did not sow. Their nemesis is guaranteed by the law of chance even before the law of reciprocity takes its course in their affairs.



Know it today my friend if you do not already know that you must sow before you can ever reap. What you sow is in direct proportion to what you reap. This is in tune with the natural law of “Cause and Effect.” Be assured however, that this article can help you to make millions if you understand what it teaches. It may not show you what you can do to make a million instantly because it is not a gambling book. Do not be discouraged though. You can still make millions if you choose to. All you have to do is use the secrets herewith revealed. Many of the secrets are hinted in this discussion. Pay attention to them. What immediately follows is one of such secrets.

Do you know how to make a million Naira? Simple! All you have to do is to make a product or render a service that will earn you N1 in a million units or N10 in 100,000 units or N100 in 10,000 units or N1000 in 1000 units or N10,000 in 100 units or N100,000 in 10 units or N1 million in only one unit. Making a million Naira does not appear as difficult as it sounds. Does it?

This article reveals a few more money-making secrets many people choose to ignore. You can make a million in several ways and through various endeavors if you just follow the rules of wealth creation. “It is much easier to make a million doing something you enjoy and are excited about for its own sake than to make a million purely to make a million” says Dan Kennedy a foremost American business consultant. Getting yourself to be self-employed is the surest way to making real and legitimate money. It is clearer now that you too can make as much money as you are capable of making if you just follow the rules. What you choose by your actions and or inactions is what you get. This is one more secret you now know. Congratulations!






Monday, July 25, 2016

Private Entrepreneurship as Foremost Key to Wealth

Zig Ziglar motivational quote text
In his book “How to Be Rich” J. Paul Getty states that “the first rule is to be in business for yourself.” This is the only way you can make money and make your money work for you. Of course wealth grows the fastest when your money works for you. The fastest and most dependable way to wealth is through self-employment. Salaries were designed by avowed capitalists to keep workers permanently dependent on their employers. In extreme cases, just to keep the workers alive and whole enough to work and earn their wages. There are no salaries designed to make anybody rich. The key to wealth therefore is found in self-employment. In self-employment, your earnings are in direct proportion to your efforts. You can therefore plan, project, execute, evaluate, direct and attain desired results all within a specific time frame. In summary, you are always in control of your progress. Achievements therefore are easily attained as projected. This is what makes the difference between wage-employment and self-employment. This is the point many youths and unemployed people find difficult to appreciate.

        
Are you currently employed and unhappy with your employment? Are you underemployed? Are you looking for a job? Do you want to make more money in your current business? This article will be of immense help to you if you take pains to appreciate what it is saying. Do not be deceived, businesses are not scarce and will never be scarce. It is only ideas and jobs that are scarce. They have been scarce and will continue to be scarce until people resolve to do something about the way they think. If you can do something about how you think and what you think about, you can do something about your ideas. Your poor status and unemployment disposition can therefore be changed. This article is very apt in that quest.

To succeed in self-employment and private entrepreneurship, you need leverage, a solid and dependable leverage. “Give me a point of support and I will move the world” declared the great physicist Archimedes when he tried to demonstrate the usefulness of a lever. An ordinary bar with a fixed support can move the world if the support is strong enough. This support is what Archimedes needed as leverage for the Herculean task of moving the world. The good news is that you are not Archimedes and your problems are not as big or as heavy as the world. You therefore need a smaller leverage. This article hopes to ginger you up to acquire your own leverage. You too can make it just like those you currently admire or even envy. You have a right to respectable work and decent living. I believe it is a right and not a privilege for you to live a good life. But first, you must decide to do something about what you do and how you are doing it to earn a living right now!!!


Sunday, July 24, 2016

How to Get Started in a Business

Motivational quote poster, Live Your Dreams

Every business on this planet started as an idea, someone’s idea. Fact is, any business became a business because someone saw a problem or a need; found a Service or Product that solved the problem or satisfied the need and a business was born. This is the only time-tested pattern of establishing a business and be self-employed. That you can not find a business for yourself does not mean there is business scarcity. The only scarcity is that of ideas, your ideas. This is why I am always bold to say that nobody has a money problem. It is only ideas problem that most people have hence they remain poor. If you can identify what someone needs desperately and you are able to deliver it to them at the time and place convenient for them, you will be paid for your service. That is what business is all about.

The late world-renowned psychologist Dr. Abraham Maslow was able to clearly identify five needs of man which he arranged at levels of their order of importance beginning from basic biological needs and ending at psychological needs. These needs became popularly known as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He posited that if a lower need is fully satisfied there is need to move up the ladder to satisfy another need. Thus from the basic Physiological needs of food , air, water, shelter etc, you move on to Safety and Security needs of protection, order and stability then Social needs of affection and friendship then Ego needs of prestige, success and self-respect and finally Self-actualization needs of self-fulfillment. There is no business known to man that is not tailored to satisfy one or more of these needs.

People any day and any time will pay for any Product or Service that tends to satisfy any of these needs. The desire to satisfy the very nature of these needs will make people pay you if you can do anything for them that will:

o    Help them to make or save money.
o    Help them to save time.
o    Provide them with basic physiological needs like food, shelter and clothing.
o    Help to enhance their security, safety and comfort.
o    Amuse, entertain and generally help them to relax.
o    Make them feel good about themselves and their environment.




Any Product or Service you can develop along these lines and people pay to have it is what puts you in business. When people say businesses are scarce, it means ideas are scarce. To go into business, it is imperative for you to find a way of offering a cheaper, better, safer, tastier, cleaner, faster, healthier, fresher, higher quality Product or Service relating to any of these needs. If you can, you are in business. The price you charge depends on the quality of your Product or Service and the competence of your competitors. The more of your Product or Service you are able to sell, the more money you make. This is the beginning of wealth accumulation and better life. Once the right ideas are in place, there are unlimited opportunities to make money. That some people end up not making it in spite of these unlimited opportunities is one of the puzzles of wealth accumulation. “The way you take yourself, the way you value yourself and the way you apply yourself are the primary determinants of your ultimate station in life.” You are therefore what you believe you are and what you apply yourself to be.

The ingenuity of humankind is a wonderful gift from God. It is in us all. How we deploy it is what separates the poor from the rich. God is a just God no doubt, but our inabilities to use His gifts for our own benefit is our own fault not His. All His gifts to us have equal potentials. How we deploy these gifts to beneficial use is what separates us as humans. This is what makes the difference between the rich and the poor. “The world only pays for results not efforts.” The result of what you do is what you get paid for. This is what enables you to get ahead in life. Napoleon Hill capped this argument finally with his brilliant conclusion that: “There are no lazy men. What may appear to be a lazy man is only an unfortunate person who has not found the work for which he is best suited.” If you have not found yours, this article will assist you to take the all-important decision to do something to help yourself.
 

How to Work Your Way Out of Poverty

Making money as in a stack of dollar bills
To get ahead in life and step out of poverty, there is no other way than to work. There is no substitute to work. The harder and smarter you work, the wealthier you become. You need to work if you want to earn money and live a good life. The commonest measure of wealth is money but wealth is not all about money. While wealth is abundance of valuable possessions including money, “money is a unit of value, a medium of exchange, a standard of deferred payment.” Payment for goods and services which result from efforts of people either individually or collectively in form of work is usually done with money. A large accumulation of money usually translates to wealth.

Obtaining money is done in one of or a combination of four ways namely:

1.    You can earn it.
2.    You can borrow it.
3.    You can beg for it or
4.    You can steal it.


The first three are legal while the fourth is illegal but they all involve some measure of work but in varying degrees of intensity. However, striving for and earning money legitimately in form of work is the most dignified way of obtaining money. The more productive work one does therefore, the more money he or she earns. “The amount of money you earn is in direct proportion to the demand for what you do your ability to do it and the difficulty of ignoring or replacing you.”



“Work is the foundation of business and the source of all prosperity.” Work is an “activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something.” The direct result of work is a Product or Service which can be sold or exchanged to obtain money. That some strength or exertion (that is work), is required before money is made stands as the main reason why some people have money while others don’t. The ranks of the poor are populated by those who can not work for one reason or the other. Many will work and work hard if they find suitable engagements. Those who make and accumulate wealth do not necessarily do different things; they do things differently. This separates them from the poor. You must have the strength, ability and willingness to perform or do a duty or render a service before you can aspire to make money. Those who attempt to get something for nothing usually end up disappointed because the law of “Cause and Effect” is a natural law. You must put in something to get out something in compliance with this natural “Law of Reciprocity.” No human activity has ever succeeded to break this law without unpleasant consequences.

You can decide to work and earn a salary or you can decide to work for yourself. However, I must point out that the surest and fastest way to wealth and comfort is through self-employment. At some point in everyone’s life, it becomes inevitable that you will be self-employed. If you work for someone and you earn a salary, one of three things must happen to end that relationship. The first is you could resign, second is you could be retrenched and thirdly, you could retire. When any of these happens, self-employment and private entrepreneurship becomes imperative.

Research findings indicate that nearly 80% of workers are reluctant to work because many find themselves in jobs they do not like. Do we need to search too far why poverty is endemic in our world? Something needs to be done to check this reluctance. People must on their own find and do only those things they like to do. This is private entrepreneurship. To get ahead in life, you must know the work you are doing, believe in it and like it too so as to obtain maximum output and rewarding results. The only viable way out of our vicious cycle of poverty is through self-employment and not 9-5 jobs. Self-employment is all about going into business for yourself. Even if you now work for someone, you still need one or more additional-income enterprises on the side if you ever hope to escape poverty.






The Politics of Grazing Reserves in Nigeria

There are credible records that grazing reserves in Nigeria started during the pre-colonial era (Bako and Ingawa 1988). Although formally introduced by the British, grazing reserves were demarcated by the Fulani who conquered and ruled Northern Nigeria. Some research has shown that for all classes of land use, except uncultivated land, grazing has intensified all over Nigeria. The evolution of grazing reserves in Nigeria shows a history of problems in the grazing land development and these problems have attained murderous proportions in recent times.

What is a Grazing Reserve?

A grazing reserve is “a piece of land that the government acquires, develops, and releases to the pastoral Fulani for cattle grazing. The 3rd National Development Plan of 1975-1980 proposed acquisition of a total of 22 million hectares of land for constituting into Grazing Reserves. In Nigeria to date, a little over 4.30 million hectares have been acquired through the establishment of 415 Grazing Reserves (Gazetted and Ungazetted) in 21 states including the FCT.” The dilemma is that the cattle herders who are mostly Fulani have refused or neglected to confine themselves and their animals strictly to these reserves. That is the root cause of all the problems they incessantly have with local farmers all over Nigeria. There must be a way out.

A Credible Way Out of the Problem

Because of continuous skirmishes and even murders and arson between cattle grazers and local farmers, it has become imperative to find a lasting solution. Inevitably, we will end up with grazing reserves/ranches as dictated by modern animal husbandry practices all around the world. Here now is how that can be practicable with fewer problems:



01. Nomadic animal husbandry is now archaic and unhelpful so the nomads should be educated and encouraged to settle in reserves/ranches.
02.  Nigerian government should facilitate the settlement of the nomads by education and encourage them to modernize livestock farming.
03. If that is done, they can then be integrated with the rest of the agricultural industry with a view to allowing the livestock industry contribute its rightful quota unfettered to the Nigerian economy.
04. It will be most helpful to confine cattle ranches only to extreme northern states like Sokoto, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Zamfara, Yobe, Borno, Adamawa and Gombe for practical and economic reasons.
05. Protecting human lives, property and the environment should be a major concern of the Nigerian government and the establishment of cattle ranches will help greatly in that quest.
06. With cattle ranches in place, the livestock farmers can easily be helped with extension services, veterinary services and modern animal husbandry services.
07. The Nigerian government should as a matter of policy borrow a leaf from the USA, Kenya and other countries with zero nomadic grazing policy to stop incessant farmers/herders clashes in the country.
08. The government should at all costs avoid the use of legislation when trying to solve a social problem because experience has shown that such legislations always manage to aggravate the problem.

Final word! Other farmers in Nigeria depend on their crops for survival the way the cattle herders depend on their animals. Government can do well to encourage both sides to co-exist side by side. That is the only credible way to lasting peace in Nigeria.



Saturday, July 23, 2016

To Prevent Diabetes, Eat Healthy Food


People with diabetes should have their own eating plan. A good doctor or dietitian can work with you to develop an eating plan for you and your family. As reported by Wikipedia, “Diabetes mellitus (DM), commonly referred to as diabetes, is a group of metabolic diseases in which there are high blood sugar levels over a prolonged period. Symptoms of high blood sugar include frequent urination, increased thirst, and increased hunger. If left untreated, diabetes can cause many complications. Acute complications can include diabetic ketoacidosis, nonketotic hyperosmolar coma, or death. Serious long-term complications include heart disease, stroke, chronic kidney failure, foot ulcers, and damage to the eyes.
Poster of upper human torso showing various organs

Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough insulin or the cells of the body not responding properly to the insulin produced. There are three main types of diabetes mellitus:
Type 1 DM, results from the pancreas's failure to produce enough insulin. This form was previously referred to as "insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus" (IDDM) or "juvenile diabetes". The cause is unknown.

Type 2 DM, begins with insulin resistance, a condition in which cells fail to respond to insulin properly. As the disease progresses a lack of insulin may also develop. This form was previously referred to as "non insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus" (NIDDM) or "adult-onset diabetes". The primary cause is excessive body weight and not enough exercise.

Gestational diabetes is the third main form and occurs when pregnant women without a previous history of diabetes develop high blood-sugar levels.”

What are the symptoms of Diabetes?

The classic symptoms of untreated diabetes are:

1. Weight loss.
2. Polyuria (increased urination).
3. Polydipsia(increased thirst).
4. Polyphagia (increased hunger). 

These symptoms may develop rapidly that is within weeks or months as in type 1 DM, while they usually develop much more slowly and may be subtle or absent in type 2 DM.

“Several other signs and symptoms can mark the onset of diabetes although they are not specific to the disease. In addition to the known ones above, they include blurry vision, headache, fatigue, slow healing of cuts, and itchy skin. Prolonged high blood glucose can cause glucose absorption in the lens of the eye, which leads to changes in its shape, resulting in vision changes. A number of skin rashes that can occur in diabetes are collectively known as diabetic dermadromes.”

The role of food is Diabetes prevention and management

There is a lot of hoopla about the food you eat if you are diabetic. Here is the good news! People with diabetes do not need special foods. The foods on your diabetes eating plan are the same foods that are good for everyone in your family! However, you must try to eat foods that are low in fat, salt, and sugar and high in fiber such as beans, fruits and vegetables, and grains. Eating right will help you:

1. Reach and stay at a weight that is good for your body.
2. Keep your blood sugar in a good range.
3. Prevent heart and blood vessel disease.

People with diabetes should have their own eating plan. A good doctor or dietitian can work with you to develop an eating plan for you and your family. Your dietitian can help you plan meals to include foods that you and your family like to eat and that are good for you. Eating right is all you need even if you are diabetic and you can live with it.





Friday, July 22, 2016

Otaru of Auchi Empowers Asalatu Muslim Women


Otaru of Auchi in his splendid turban addressing Asalatu women

                                             Alhaji Aliru H. Momoh, Otaru of Auchi

Reports monitored from The Guardian online indicate that “His Royal Highness, the Otaru of Auchi, Alhaji Aliru H. Momoh, Ikelebe III in line with his promise during the last Auchi Day celebrations, has released the sum of N5 million to the Asalatu Women Islamic Prayer Group in Auchi to assist in uplifting their economic activities.

He made this promise during the Auchi Day celebrations held on January 8, 2016, when he publicly praised the women for their steadfastness in praying for the peace and progress of Auchi kingdom, adding that from his observation, he had no doubt that Almighty Allah was listening to their prayers, a reason he acknowledged was largely responsible for the relative peace and progress in the domain, urging them to intensify their prayers and that the community will assist them by organizing them into Economic Empowerment Groups, EEGs for Community and Government assistance.

The Chairman of Auchi Empowerment Committee, Alh. Chief Sule Duru Yesufu, the Daudu of Aibotse Village revealed that his committee worked very hard in organizing them into viable EEGs, adding that cheques have being released to the first set of beneficiaries of the first batch of 100 groups comprising 1000 women and the subsequent batches, there are still about 3500 women not yet fully organized who stand to benefit as well.”

Story Source: The Guardian.Ng

 


Thursday, July 21, 2016

Shocking!!!! Senate President Saraki Returning to PDP?

Senator Saraki fielding questions from the Nigerian press.
                                                 Senate President, Bukola Saraki

Nigerian Times authoritatively reports that Senate President, Bukola Saraki has returned to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). According these reports monitored out of Abuja, Saraki is said to have met with the PDP caucus at the Abuja home of his deputy in the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu at the Apo Legislative Quarters. After the meeting, Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy Senate President, led a group of senators to immediate Past President Goodluck Jonathan’s Maitama home to brief him. It is not yet clear what the final decisions are on the matter.

Nigerian Times reports a source that was at the meeting as saying that Saraki, who has faced persecution from the leadership of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) decided to leave the party and return to the PDP, which he left in 2014 with five PDP Governors. It is now of public knowledge in Nigeria that Saraki who has been facing prosecution at the Code of Conduct Tribunal for falsely declared assets now believes he is being persecuted by his party APC.

There are very clear indications that Saraki wants to use the PDP as a platform to actualize his yet undeclared ambition. It is also speculated that Saraki is likely to take with him to the PDP, some APC Senators loyal to him. If that happens, it would affect the balance of power in the Senate as the PDP would most likely upturn the APC’s majority in the Red Chambers. These are really interesting times indeed for the Senate President and Nigerian politics.
“Saraki has finally had it with the APC and the Buhari government. He believes he has faced enough embarrassment and persecution from them after his investments to help the party wrest power from the PDP, ” the paper reports. 

Recently, the Senate President was in Sokoto, on the pretext of commiserating with the family of late Umaru Shinkaffi. But sources familiar with the Saraki’s travails told Nigerian Times that he met with the Sultan of Sokoto to prevail on President Mohammadu Buhari to pull back his loyalists who are bent on sending Saraki to jail. Details of that meeting are not yet in public domain. Presently, no one doubts in Nigeria that Saraki is in the battle of his life for political survival if not even his life. Returning to PDP appears to be a last ditch effort particularly now that the party stalwarts in APC appear hell bent on ruining him politically. The coming days and weeks appear to be very promising for this epic political battle playing out before our eyes.





5 Business Survival Skills

Graphical analogy of business growth skills

Going into business is not only fun these days, it is highly rewarding in very many respects. To survive out there, everyone needs skills, real practical skills. One of the most important skills you need to survive in today's business world is the ability to learn and to learn very quickly. Once you are able to do that, it becomes easier for you to learn and to quickly grasp all other survival skills. The act of learning is every bit as important as what you learn. Believing that you can improve yourself and do things in the future that are beyond your current possibilities is exciting and fulfilling. Among the many skills you need, these here 5 skills are some of the most essential skills which can deliver the biggest payoff for your efforts at surviving in today's business world.
 
01. Ability to take initiative. Initiative is the ability to take action without prompting. If you acquire the skill, it will take you far in business and in life. Anyone can always take initiative if they find ways to get over other things which usually get in the way. Knowing what to do and getting it done in spite of obstacles, requires initiative. In the business world, it is inevitable that you have to take risks and push yourself out of your comfort zone, until taking initiative becomes second nature to you. That is one great way to survive out there.

02. Time management skills. Management experts have determined that one of the biggest things that get in the way of effective time management is the "tyranny of the urgent." This is simply the tendency of little things that need doing now to get in the way of what really matters. If because of the supposed urgency of these little things you neglect other important matters, you end up spending more time doing things which will not help you to get the real work done. Learning to manage your time effectively is one essential skill you need to free up more time for you to perform optimally.



03. Emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships. It is a skill you can learn. Doing business is all about managing behaviors and relationships. Even though it may seem intangible, emotional intelligence is that something we all need to manage behavior, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions that make positive results. In every field of human endeavor particularly in business, emotional intelligence is the critical reason that sets star performers apart from the rest of the pack. It distinguishes between genius and mediocrity, between high achievers and non performers.

04. Ability to stay positive. I am the first to admit that it is hard to find the zeal to focus on the positive when positivism seems like nothing more than wishful thinking. Emotionally, the real obstacle to positivism is that our brains are hard-wired to look for and focus on threats for the sake of our survival as human beings. This survival mechanism serves us well when it is a matter of life and death. But, in today's world, this mechanism breeds pessimism and negativity through the mind's tendency to wander until it finds a real threat. It is really a mind thing and the mind is subject to everyone's control. What you think about and focus on is thus subject to your own control. When you think positive, you stay positive. Thus, maintaining positivism is a daily challenge that requires real focus and attention. It pays to find ways to stay positive by deliberate efforts thereby preventing your brain from wandering off to fears and threats which it is naturally wired to look out for.

05. Listening skills. I once heard that the reason we have two ears and one mouth is because we are naturally expected to listen twice as much as we talk. Sure, it can feel so good to unload on somebody and let them know what you really think, but that good feeling is temporary because when you are at it, you can hardly know what the other person is saying. True listening is one effective way to focus solely on what the other person is saying and to think about a clear response strategy. It is about understanding, not rebuttal or comments. Learning how to delay judgment and focus on understanding the other person's response is one of the most important skills you can develop. In plain words, if you are not skillful enough to decipher valuable information from the other person's tone of voice, body language, and what isn't said, you could get left out of the game easily.