Ola Barnabas

  “Dogs”, “Animals”, “Shithole”, “Cockroaches”, “Wacky”, “Not smart”, “Niggas”, and so on. These are ugly words to use on anyone . You know what makes them uglier? That it comes from the mouths of leaders or people of influence whose utterances or opinions can cause others to act in certain ways that will leave the society making up for the damages many years after. These are the same leaders who should act to keep flaring tempers under control , calm frayed nerves and be highly diplomatic. To know that they are the ones stoking the fear and hate is extremely concerning. Dangerous speech, is defined by The Dangerous Speech Project as “ any form of expression (speech, text, or images) that can increase the risk that its audience will condone or participate in violence against members of another group. ” Dehumanization, on the other hand, implies perceiving other people to be less than humans, and in many cases, referring to or treating them as such. In research works ca...

Well, I also didn't until very recently. He became popular for something very unusual. A cool guy who doesn't want to harm others, Mahes had only one problem: his appetite. He loved to eat good food. Who doesn't? Only challenge is, Mahes could never pay for his food. He would go to a classy restaurant, order the best and possibly most expensive meal on menu, finest liquor, desserts and all. He would finish eating, and when the waiter comes around with the bill, Mahes would say he is unable and unwilling to pay. They'll call the police, he'll be sent to prison on a short sentence, fed 3 square meals and given a nice bed to sleep on. As soon as he gets out of prison, he locates the next restaurant and repeats the very same thing. A serial eater, Mahes was arrested more than 3 dozen times on the same offence, nothing different. This year, please eat what and where you can pay. You don't want to find out the chances of 3 square meals and a nice bed in a Nigerian...

You've heard the saying before: "If you do what successful people do, you'll get the results successful people get". That's not absolutely true. There are two sides to almost everything. In this case, one is the expected (the Calling) and the other the actual (the Practical). The first supernatural and the second natural. That popular saying does not acknowledge the place of divinity. Do you care to know if that thing you are trying to copy is a calling for those people whose result you want to get? If it's not your calling, you will get results o, but rest assured you'll wish you didn't do it at all. Don't do it because they said it, do it because it's your calling.

Dear Entrepreneur who still have staff in the face of the current pandemic cum business crisis, the options before you are very few with regards to what to do with your staff and no one should really have to blame you, whatever you choose, especially those who are not in your shoes; who don't know how you think of no other thing except salaries once it's 15th of another month. Your easiest option is: lay off your workers, a huge percentage of them, as some have already done. If you have not chosen this option yet and are still considering others, I salute you; you are one of the heroes of this pandemic. Here is something I suggest you try: Engage your staff; communicate openly and as honestly as you can with them and hear them out. Let them suggest what to do. You'll be pleasantly shocked at the level of wisdom that reside in some of them. If they choose to opt out, you will at least have shown them how much they are important to your organizational process; should things...

If there's one characteristic, among others, that I've found to be very common among entrepreneurs, it is the ability to internalize pain. Forgive me if that's not exactly how to say it, but you will hardly find a true entrepreneur who does not keep his deepest business pains to himself, and tries to deal with them alone. Indeed the momentary silence of entrepreneurs is not unconnected with a pain they are dealing with. And there are many moments of silence in the life of a business person. The pains could be self-imposed as a result of silly business risks or calculations that didn't quite work out, outright business failure or externally imposed like a sudden change in government policy (like those banning Okada and Keke overnight), environmental challenge or staff "wahala"(or should I say "nothing-concern-me" posture to work), etc. The shoulder of the business person (especially in our clime), is almost always heavy. People hear the succ...

"Once you become fearless, life becomes limitless" in the words of Dan Pena. By the way, Dan Pena is someone i'll ask you to listen to regularly. Can you for a moment, as you plan towards the new year, take a brief look again at the outgoing year, at the mountains that stood in your face, the challenges you couldn't surmount that made life a little less interesting for you? Could you have taken little steps inspite of them? Could you have been more daring in the face of those challenges? Could you possibly have pretended that they did not exist and moved a little forward by taking little steps? There are no easy ways to make hard decisions. You cannot drive forward with your brakes on; you must be ready to go through life and break through it like you really want to test yourself. The challenges hope you don't move, are you going to confirm their hopes? If you do not dare, you do not breakthrough. Be ready to fail; it's ok to fail! If there's anythin...

Do you run a restaurant, bakery or any related venture? You need to run that venture with a signature. Many local restaurateur, chef or baker want to always try out different recipe on their meals. And in cases where the owner is not the chef and he/she hires a chef, that chef comes with his/her own recipe. Wrong. Do not continue to serve different taste of the same meal to your customers every other day. Of course this can be permitted in the very early few days of your starting (it is indeed terrible enough that you do not have a planned out recipe before you commence operation), or if you are trying to change your recipe because of customers' feedback. But on the whole, you MUST have a signature recipe/meal production plan that every chef you hire must respect. Even if they are going to tinker with it, the variation should be so mild it can be ignored. Most people who have chosen your bread, cakes, and other confectionery and indeed your restaurant have done so because of ...

CREATING DUAL CAREER PROGRESS PATHS The most common reward method for high-performing staff in organizations include, among other things, increase in pay, and northward promotion along the managerial path. Both timeless and very prominent reward systems in most organizations - large, medium, small, government, not-for-profit, etc. Are these effective in stimulating higher performance from benefiting staff? You bet. But are they effective in transforming the staff into the exact image that the organization hoped when it rewarded them? Debatable. More monetary incentive, of course, will win any day. Everyone wants more, especially if they've worked for it. My emphasis however, is on the second reward mechanism - of promoting staff into managerial positions because they've been very productive down the ladder. To start with, not everyone will make a good manager. Some people are better, and will be better left as professionals in their fields. Managerial tasks are quite un...

Almost all business persons, I can guarantee, have heard that, the only way to succeed in business is to give consumers what they want. I have often trained entrepreneurs that way too. But there is a flip side. In the course of your business practice, if you are one who pays very close attention to consumers' purchasing pattern, you will observe that many consumers don't know what they want. Indeed many consumers don't know they need somethings until they hear of it; someone recommends it; they see someone use it; etc. So, instead of looking out for what consumers want only, you can lead the market by introducing to consumers what they will want. With the right public communication and education and other relevant sales strategies, you will find yourself enjoying the benefits of novelty/pioneering (before drifters jump on your initiative), and other privileges that come with it. Most products we have today had no proven demands for them when they were produced...

What is life? Dr Hugh Moorhead sent out questionnaire to 250 of the brightest minds that lived in his time, asking the question: What is life? More than half of the 250 respondents replied asking him to please let them know when he finds the meaning of life. Why do you think the greatest psychologists and thinkers in Dr Moorhead's era couldn't answer the question; or maybe we should ask you too: What is life? The Professors were looking for the general meaning to life, and yet if you asked everyone what life means, you'll have as many varied answers as the souls you have asked the question. So it still comes down to this: life has no generalistic meaning; only individual meaning. The question ought to be: What is your life? Your life is only defined by what you use it for. At genuine funerals, other people say what the dead used their lives for. What that means is that, you alone don't have the truth stock value of what your life means; those whom you are suppos...

I've dreamt for a long time of an occasion where I can contribute more than I currently do to the general improvement in the lives of people, advancement in their businesses and development of the society. I find no better time than now, and no better place at this time than the city of Kano, Nigeria. So anywhere you are, please join in. Details on attached fliers.

Nigeria has had her fair share of unfair leadership. 2019 should bring some respite to unnecessarily troubled Nigerians. This is the kind of President the country needs in the year: One that will value the lives of the citizens and do everything in his/Her power to protect it from bandits, whoever they are, wherever they are; One that will be ready to stay at home, use the resources at home for medical treatment or leisure and will not run abroad for the treatment of a headache; One that will speak well of Nigeria especially on international stages in line with the vision that he/she has for the country, and not demarket it; One who will be detribalised - manage the diversity of the populace and will be adjudged by the majority of the people as doing just that; One that will not subtly promote the supremacy of one region of the country over another; who will not skew governance benefits and privileges to the region and the people from whom he came; One who though a politici...

The Grameen model is worth studying and adopting especially by many African countries. Nigeria, by the Tradermoni and Marketmoni programmes may be on track except for the significance/possible impact of the disbursements and the sustainability of the programme. Read the 16 Decisions below. They have very healthy social components ingrained in them which are obviously needed by many African countries. Number 9 and 11 though will make you reel. Enjoy. 16 Decisions 1.We shall follow and advance the four principles of Grameen Bank: Discipline, Unity, Courage and Hard work – in all walks of our lives. 2.Prosperity we shall bring to our families. 3.We shall not live in dilapidated houses. We shall repair our houses and work towards constructing new houses at the earliest. 4.We shall grow vegetables all the year round. We shall eat plenty of them and sell the surplus. 5.During the planting seasons, we shall plant as many seedlings as possible. 6.We shall plan to keep our fam...

It’s no longer news that Alhaji Abubakar Atiku will be going toe-to-toe with President Muhammadu Buhari at the polls in 2019. If recent happenings are anything to go by, with the support of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo – a colossus in the Nigerian political space whose influence any sane Nigerian politician will not trivialize, the open support (or so it appears) of Bishop David Oyedepo – a leader of more than seven million faithfuls with influence over many millions more in the Nigerian religious space, Bishop Hassan Matthew Kukah – a well-respected voice in the Nigerian political atmosphere, Sheik Gumi – a very influential Islamic cleric, it appears 2019 will indeed be beyond dramatic, it will be difficult to predict. However, more recent is the new that Atiku will be going to the polls with Peter Obi as the Vice Presidential candidate. There have been much talks, permutations and politicking as to who the cap of the vice presidency fits. First, though, we must decide whi...

The choice of Nigeria’s next president is a huge decision that faces all Nigerians 18 years and above in the face. 2019, unlike previous election years, is drama-filled. The consciousness of the average Nigerian – whether of voting age or not is fever-pitch high, due to the consistent heating and over-heating of the polity, the various actions of the political gladiators, the current economic reality vis-à-vis the expectations of Nigerians at the inception of the current administration, amidst other factors that may not be unrelated to sentiments – religion and region. 2019 will indeed be an interesting year for voting Nigerians. And Aah! The carpeting and cross-carpeting from the sweeping broom to under the umbrella, and so on. Suffice to say that most Nigerians know those whom they won’t vote for. They may not know yet and may not be convinced about whom they will vote for, but they know what they are tired of and don’t want a repeat of. That makes the choice in 2...

The catalogue of misbehavior is never in short supply among African leaders, and if you are the leader of the most populous black nation on earth which expectedly is also the leading economy on the continent which a leader at one time said has no problem with money, only what to do with it, you are very likely to need help to not misbehave. The leaders of the nation since independence have never failed to live up to this bidding. At several times, in office as the president of Nigeria, President Buhari has never hidden his bias for his northern folk. The appointments of the heads of various government establishments and agencies are particularly skewed towards the north, the service chiefs – whose tenures were recently extended, of a country that is challenged with insecurity arising mainly, painfully so, from one region of the country, are also drawn from that same region of the country, the President’s region – the Chief of Army Staff, Inspector-General of Police, Chief of A...