Ola Barnabas

DIARY OF A NIGERIAN AUTHOR I did read the Harry Porter story, and how that it took rejection from twelve publishers for Joanne Rowling (popularly called JK Rowling) to get the story out there. Terrible experience, we must admit, and more so for a woman. But, welcome to Nigeria. Rejection by publishers is the least of the worries that any author might have. There are no publishers who are ready to stake their money on you, so you don’t even have the pleasure of worrying about them accepting your work. With your money, you will sure find more than enough book printers in the publishing guise who are more than ready to stake their time for your might-succeed work. Every, nay, almost every author in Nigeria is self-published. And then comes the author that wants to outstand the rest. He chooses to get his book internationally published. Soon he finds that that is another fruitless venture he has embarked on. The international publisher also gets him to pay through his nose

TEN QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD ASK YOURSELF BEFORE CHOOSING WHO RUNS YOUR BUSINESS Have you ever wondered who is qualified among all the staff you have to run your business in your absence? If you have a fledgling business, and you are concerned about its growth, you would have had a thought about this. The following questions are valuable guides in helping you decide who qualifies to drive your business to the next level: 1.       Do they have personal visions for their lives? If anyone cannot make out time to think on their own lives, they will not think on your business. If they do not have visions for their lives, it may never be important to them to craft one for your business. 2.       Do their visions align with yours? Are the visions adaptable and adoptable to what you represent? 3.       Do they ever take time to think about your business? Do they bring up suggestions, ideas? When you interact with them, did they sound like they are in sync with your thought mode

After reading the Olajumoke Orisaguna’s story, I concluded that God takes care of us and settles us all, and sometimes He does that in style. The way He takes care of all of us is entirely up to Him, but He never forgets to take care of His own. In case you missed the story, here is the summary: A professional photographer (TY Bello) was taking shots of a musician ( Tinie Tempah), and suddenly there appeared a bread hawker in the background of the photo. People saw the image in the background as that of a supermodel, and that forced the photographer to commence a search for the lady who photo-bombed. From that singular encounter, that lady has moved from obscurity to fame – making international headlines, from rags to riches, from bread hawker to super model with all the attendant benefits and a sponsorship to continue her hair dressing classes in a professional academy (by the way, it was to complete her training that she started hawking bread), from living in a village

THE NIGERIAN GRADUATE AND LIFE AFTER SCHOOL IN HER COUNTRY Introduction When I got the call to write this piece, I really got thinking about what to write that will make an impact on young graduates who are venturing into the future, a future which some of them are least prepared for, in a country that has not succeeded in handling its own problems talk less of helping to plan for graduates’ future. Weeks later, I remembered an encounter a participant at one of my training sessions had, and shared with me. She had gone to an open market in Abuja to get some groceries and some other domestic needs, and she asked the wheelbarrow pusher to help load them on the car. The man did that, and as soon as he was paid, he gave the woman an envelope which contained some papers. They were his curriculum vitae (CV). I knew things are bad with unemployment in Nigeria, but I had no idea they are that bad. Then I made up my mind that I will help to make sure that is not the case of an

THE NIGERIA I HOPE FOR IN 2016 I have found among other things that one thing is common among most Nigerians. Even though there are few exceptions here and there, you will find generally that not many Nigerians will let you go scot-free if you decide to take on their country. No matter who we have become in the eyes of the world and how we have been painted, Nigerians are proud of their country. We all only want to wake up someday to find that the country we are so proud to defend, is also ready host us. We want to ascertain that this country will meet our needs with the very abundance that it has been blessed with. It is in accordance with this hope that we decided to vote out a government that we believe was not going to preserve the heritage that we so cherish only to empower another that lacks clue as to the realities of the economy nor indeed seem to know in which direction to steer the course of the ship of the country. I know I sound like broken record, but I know Ni