MAY YOUR ROAD BE ROUGH by Tai Solarin(1922 - 1994)

Tai Solarin was an educationist and philosopher, whose interesting and sometimes controversial views often found heir way, like the passage below, onto pages of newspapers...

May your road be rough!

I am not cursing you; I am wishing you what I wish myself every year. I therefore repeat, may you have a hard time this year, may there be plenty of troubles for you this year! If you are not so sure what you should say back, why not just say, ‘Same to you’? I ask for no more.

Our successes are conditioned by the amount of risk we are ready to take. Earlier on today I visited a local farmer about three miles from where I live. He could not have been more than fifty-five, but he said he was already too old to farm vigorously. He still suffered, he said, from the physical energy he displayed as a farmer in his younger days. Around his hut were two pepper bushes. There were kokoyams growing round him. There were snail shells which had given him meat. There must have been more around the banana trees I saw. He hardly ever went to town to buy things. He was self-sufficient. The car or the bus, the television or the telephone, the newspaper, Vietnam or Red China were nothing to him. He had no ambitions whatsoever, he told me. I am not sure if you are already envious of him, but were we all to revert to such a life, we would be practically driven back to cave dwelling. On the other hand, try to put yourself into the position of the Russian or the America astronaut. Any moment now the count, 3, 2, 1, is going to go, and you are going to be shot into the atmosphere and soon you will be whirling round our earth at the speed of six miles per second. If you get so fired into the atmosphere and you forget what to do to ensure return to earth, one of the things that might happen to you is that you could become forever satellite, going round the earth until you die of starvation and even then your body would continue the gyration!

When, therefore, you are being dressed up and padded to be shot into the sky, you know only too well that you are going on the roughest road man had ever trodden. The Americans and Russians who have gone were armed with the great belief that they would come back. But I cannot believe that they did not have some slight foreboding on the contingency of their non-return. It is their courage for going in spite of these apprehensions that makes the world hail them so loudly today.

The big fish is never caught in shallow waters. You have to go into the open sea for it. The biggest businessmen make decisions with lighting speed and carry them out with equal celerity. They do not dare delay or dally. Time would pass them by if they did. The biggest successes are preceded by the greatest of heart-burnings. You should read the stories of the bomber pilots of World War II. The Russian pilot, the German pilot, the American or the British pilot suffered exactly the same physical and mental tension the night before a raid on enemy territory. There were no alternative routes for those who most genuinely believed in victory for their side.

You cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs, throughout the world, there is no paean without pain. Jawaharlal Nehru has put it so well. I am paraphrasing him. He wants to meet his troubles in a frontal attack. He wants to see himself tossed into the aperture between the two horns of the bull. Being there, he determines he is going to win and, therefore, such a fight requires all his faculties.

When my sisters and I were young and we slept on our small mats round our mother, she always woke up at 6a.m. for morning prayers. She always said prayers on our behalf but always ended with something like this: ‘May we not enter into any dangers or get into any difficulties this day.’ It took me almost thirty years to dislodge the canker-worm in our mother’s sentiments. I found, by hard experience, that all that is noble and laudable was to be achieved only through difficulties and trials and tears and dangers. There are no other roads.
If I was born into a royal family and should one day become a constitutional king, I am inclined to think I should go crazy. How could I, from day to day, go on smiling and nodding approval at somebody else’s successes for an entire lifetime? When Edward the Eighth (now Duke of Windsor) was a young, sprightly Prince of Wales, he went to Canada and shook so many hands that his right arm nearly got pulled out of its socket. It went into a sling and he shook hands thenceforth with his left hand. It would appear he was trying his utmost to make a serious job out of downright sinecurism.

Life, if it is going to be abundant, must have plenty of hills and vales. It must have plenty of sunshine and rough weather. It must be rich in obfuscation and perspicacity. It must be packed with days of danger and of apprehension.

When I walk into the dry but certainly cool morning air of every January 1st, I wish myself plenty of tears and of laughter, plenty of happiness and unhappiness, plenty of failures and successes. Plenty of abuse and praise. It is impossible to win ultimately without a rich measure of intermixture in such a menu. Life would be worthless without the lot. We do not achieve much in this country because we are all so scared of taking risks. We all want the smooth and well-paved roads. While the reason the Americans and others succeeded so well is that they took such great risks.

If, therefore, you are out in this New Year 1964, to win any target you have set for yourself, please accept my prayers and your elixir. May your road be rough!

Tai Solarin (1922-1994) was one of Nigeria’s foremost social activists his legacy includes the famous Mayflower School, Ikenne and Mollusi College Ijebu-Ode. This article was published in Daily Times Newspaper of January 1^st, 1964.

Young Entrepreneurs are Invited to LEAP Africa’s 9th CEOs Forum in Lagos

LEAP Africa is inviting young entrepreneurs to the 9th CEOs Forum which will hold on May 15, 2014 at the City Hall, Lagos Island.
The Forum initiated in 2005 brings together local and international speakers to share knowledge and insights to equip entrepreneurs to build sustainable local businesses that continue to yield value for generations. The Forum has come to be recongised as an annual event in the SME circle. This year’s Forum is themed “Leveraging Technology for SME Growth”.
The speakers & sub-themes

1. The Online Marketplace - Mr Abasiama Idaresit, MD, Wild Fusion
2. Managing Publicity through Social Media – Mr. Olusegun Martins Head, Technology, Insight Communication
3. Disruptive Innovation, A catalyst for Business Growth - Prof. Balvinder Powar, MD, Booster Industries
4. How Intelligent is Your Business? Mining Customer Information for Business Growth – Dr. Osa Emokpae, Chairman, Mindshare Advertising

If your interested please send a brief of what your business is about (1 paragraph) and your contact details to: email- aalaga@leapafrica.org

Call for Application: Advanced Diploma in English & Film Studies (ADEFS)

This is to invite suitably qualified candidates to obtain the admission form into the Advanced Diploma in English & Film Studies (ADEFS).
Objectives: The general aim of the Advanced Diploma in English and Film Studies (ADEFS) is to offer an intervention platform through which the standard of Nigerian films can be enhanced.
The specific objectives of the programme are as follows:

• To develop the competence of film practitioners in spoken English and oral delivery.
• To develop the skills of film practitioners in the art of storytelling.
• To train movie practitioners and sharpen their skills in the art of translation and film subtitling.
• To equip film practitioners with English language norms and an internationally acceptable standard of English usage.
• To acquaint film practitioners with the synergy between the English language and the socio-cultural norms of Nigerian languages, which are raw materials for film production.

Admission Requirements: Applicants for admission to the Advanced Diploma in English and Film Studies must possess a minimum of four credits including English Language in not more than two sittings. Candidates may be subjected to a selection interview.
Duration of Programme and Lecture Period: The programme duration is two semesters, i.e. one academic session. Lecture period is Saturday only from 9am to 5pm.
Application Fee and Method of Application:

• Applicants are expected to visit the HRDC portal http//:hrdc.unilag.edu.ng to fill the pre-application form. (Contents of the pre-application form include Surname, First name, Middle name, E-mail address and Mobile number.) Upon successful completion of the pre-application form, the applicant will be issued a “Payment Reference Number” which should be printed out.
• Applicants should take their printout containing the payment reference number to any of the HRDC application fee collecting banks (Ecobank, Access Bank, First Bank and Wema Bank) on the university campus to make payment.
• After payment, applicants should return to the payment portal, click the application form link, log in with the Payment Reference Number and the Surname (in lower case and strictly as provided in the pre-application form) as password to access the application form.

Kindly note the following:

• Only application payments that the bank has confirmed receipt of will have access to the application form. Applicants who experience challenges may return to the bank where payment was made to request that their payment be posted. (Notification of payment receipt shall be sent to applicants who have paid.)
• The password will be as provided in the Surmame field in lower case; errors in filling of surname must therefore be reflected in the password used.

After completion of application form, printed copies (original printout and photocopy) should be submitted at the HRDC Secretariat with two (2) photocopies of the following documents:

1. Birth Certificate;
2. Reference Number printout;
3. N7, 500.00 teller; and
4. Credentials

Tuition and Course Materials Fees: Tuition for the programme is N75, 000.00 (Seventy-five Thousand Naira). Admitted students are required to pay N 5, 000.00 (Five Thousand Naira) for Course Materials.
Closing Date: Application closes eight weeks from the date of this publication.
Dr (Mrs.) Taiwo.F. Ipaye, MNIN
Registrar & Secretary to Council

Source: www.hrdc.unilag.edu.ng

The Green Challenge 2014 Annual Essay Competition for UNILAG Students: Call For Participation

Students in all faculties in the University of Lagos are encouraged to participate in the 2014 Annual Essay Competition of the Foundation For A Better Environment [FABE] Nigeria.

Prizes to be won

1st Prize: Galaxy Tab and employment opportunity with the Ministry of Environment, Lagos 2nd Prize: Mini lap top
3rd Prize: BlackBerry

Topic

Entries for the competition should cover the topic:

Man has contributed to global warming. Yes or No? Please substantiate on this topic.
Guidelines for Submission

• Entries must be original and must meet the standard for publication in both local and international journals.
• Typed in 1.5 line spacing (Times Roman with 12 points font size); 2000 words on A4 paper.
• Include citation of sources; in-text and work cited must appear at the end of the essay.
• The following documents must be attached to all entries:
  1. Reference letter from the HOD of the participant’s department; and
  2. One recent passport sized photograph, current mobile telephone number and e-mail address of the participant.

Deadline

Submission should be done on or before Friday, May 30, 2014.

Other Information

• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
• Past winners are not eligible to participate.
• Plagiarism is prohibited and will attract disqualification of indicted entries.

For further information, please log on to the FABE Nigeria Website or call: 08076949597

Source: http://ibnamoo.wordpress.com/

LATEST NEWS ON UNILAG HOSTEL ALLOCATION 2013-2014 SESSION

A VERY CREDIBLE SOURCE from the UNILAG DSA's said balloting will begin in Two weeks time after those who were given yesterday 6th of March 2014, might have cleared their bed spaces before the deadline.

For those who didn't clear their space, it is automatic forfeiture. For the available space, you all will be expected to ballot again.


So, try get a new hostel card if you have exhausted the one you have before it becomes scarce again.

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