Tag: Learning

Change

Afriland Towers Disaster: How Quickly We Have Moved On

Jilomes

It is quite common in Nigeria to hear people talk about politicians waiting out the storm whenever a bad event occurs, as they are sure that Nigerians cannot seem to stand on business for a long time. And so, over and over again, we have disgraceful and even deadly events occur, and just a few days later, everyone moves on, like it never mattered. But to progress as a nation, we need to be able to learn and enforce lessons to forestall a reoccurrence.

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Inspiration

On Your Marks, Set, 2025!

Jilomes

Here we are again at the start of a new year. Every year is more or less the same length, but some might swear that 2024 was a “fast” year. With a number of upsets at the global and local scale, last year was quite a year. But as we have crossed into another year, it is time to look forward and run a fresh race. So, here are three quick pointers to consider this year.

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Randoms

Jilomes.com: Ten Years Later

Jilomes

On October the First, 2014, while Nigeria marked 54 Years of Independence, I was somewhere in Osogbo in Nigeria’s South-West when I posted the first article on this blog. “Ibosa – Welcome” was the first of more than 340 articles that I have posted here. In the intervening decade, I have managed this site from different cities in about ten countries, taking my writing with me as I explore life. I have gone from writing on paper to typing everything directly as the thoughts are parsed through my neurons.

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Change, Randoms

P&ID Fiasco: Eleven Billion Lessons for Nigeria

Jilomes

It is all in the news. The Federal Republic of Nigeria is not liable to pay an obscure firm a total of ~US$11 billion arising from a bizarre contract concerning non-existent gas facilities. Considering allegations that the Central Bank of Nigeria either lied or executed “strategic miscommunication”, Nigeria surely had no way of forking out that many benjamins right now. Our closest options would have been either to give international law the middle finger (and outrightly destroy our economy) or negotiate some longer-term payment plan that would effectively turbocharge our debt burden (and further degrade our economy). Fortunately, neither option is currently required. But before we get drowned in the euphoria of a little respite for the naira, here are a few lessons to avoid the next gang of swindlers.

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Inspiration

The Parents We Do Not Want

Jilomes

“As we grow, we’ll realise that pushing our kids to start learning how to code from a young age or pick interests in sports is not different from our parents wanting us to become doctors, lawyers, or engineers back then.”

~ T. O.

Seeing this view on a friend’s WhatsApp status, it resonated well with my thinking that I decided to share a screenshot with a simple caption: “Care (Concern) or Selfishness?” It would appear that limiting the conversation to WhatsApp just would not cut it, so here is a full article inspired by T. O.

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Change, Inspiration

The Big Man in Us

Jilomes

Do you know any person who used to complain about an alcoholic father, but is now an alcoholic? Or, maybe it’s someone who complained about a terrible boss, but is now competing for that title? Maybe you know a woman who always complained about her mother-in-law, but is now doing to her daughter-in-law the very things she used to whine about. I have seen a quote that says “we become what we hate”. However, I disagree. Maybe it’s not that we become what we hate, but that what we hate might be the default “normal” for humans, and we ought to actively seek to be different rather than merely complain.

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Change, Randoms

One Emergency Away from Doom

Jilomes

On Friday, 23 November 2018, a seven-storey building under construction in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, collapsed. With conflicting figures being bandied about, one sure point is that there were a lot of persons in that building when it collapsed because that day was a payday for workers and suppliers. As at the time of writing this article, ten days later, many persons, dead or alive are still trapped underneath the rubble.  Continue reading “One Emergency Away from Doom” →

Randoms

A Journey of Life

Jilomes

The Italian poet, Cesare Pavese, is attributed to have coined this: “We do not remember days, we remember moments.” This quote is very true as most humans cannot remember a full day, only key moments on certain days. The only exceptions are the few persons like Jill Price who can remember entire days of their lives. Sadly, we do not all have this gift (or curse?) of never forgetting, so it’s best we make good memories that would stay by our side all our days.  Continue reading “A Journey of Life” →

Change, Randoms

A Somewhat Subdued Rant

Jilomes

Benjamin Franklin once said, “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.” Uncle Ben’s quote may have been triggered by someone or some persons whose excuses really pissed him off. Now, I’m surely not pissed off enough to say that an expert excuse creator cannot gain expertise in any other useful areas, but I’m just sufficiently pissed to want to write a blog post about excuses.  Continue reading “A Somewhat Subdued Rant” →

Politics, Travelling

Jerusalem: Land of Uneasy Peace, Religion and Business

Jilomes

This is the fourth part in a series tagged “A Stroll Through Israel”. If you won’t jump into the fourth episode of a Game of Thrones season, you may want to begin with the first article.

Our trip to Israel began with Tel Aviv, then Nazareth, Bethlehem, Rawabi and Ramallah. Having gone through these cities to view Israel and Palestine from a different lens, it was time to tour what is unarguably the most contested piece of hills in this galaxy. From being a space merely contested for mainly political reasons, Jerusalem morphed into the site of a religiously-charged contest, and has now retained the political dimension, making it a hotspot for flares. It is in this context that the #LetsTalkBusiness entourage went on a tour of Old Jerusalem.  Continue reading “Jerusalem: Land of Uneasy Peace, Religion and Business” →