Let Creativity Empower You

On The Path Of Winners

Let Creativity Empower You

BY BAYO OGUNMUPE

 

EVERY advance in human life begins with an idea in the mind of a single person. Thus, more than anything else, it is ideas you generate that will enable you solve your problems. Ideas are the keys to the future. You cannot achieve anything of value except to the degree to which you think creatively, doing something new and different from what has been done before. All it takes is a small innovation to lay the foundation for a fortune and launch you into great success.

  The first corollary to this principle of creativity is that your ability to generate ideas is unlimited. Ideas are the vehicle you can use to take yourself from where you are, to where you want to go. Your duty is to generate as many ideas as possible, evaluate them against your current goals and then take action on them. The greater the number of ideas you can develop, the greater the quality of the ideas you have available to you.

  There is no obstacle that you cannot overcome in life with the power of thought, with the power of concentration and with the power of ideas. The second corollary to this law comes from Napoleon Hill who said, “Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, you can achieve.” Your mind is designed in such a way that it cannot create an idea that it cannot bring into reality. The very existence of an idea in your consciousness means that you have within you the capacity to turn it into reality. The only hindrance is how badly you want it.

  The third corollary to this matter comes from Napoleon Bonaparte who said, “Imagination rules the world.” Every gadget around you was originally an idea in the mind of one person. This entire-man-made world is the result of thought brought into reality. Another accessory to this rule comes from Albert Einstein, who said: “Imagination is more important than facts.” This assertion confirms occasion in your past where the facts say one thing but your creativity enabled you to overcome the odds and you achieve the impossible.

  An insight at a critical moment can be a turning point in your life. All great changes in life begin with an idea that enables you to see things differently and take action that you would not have taken otherwise. There is virtually no limit to what you can accomplish except for the limits you place on your own imagination.

  To apply this law, you must practice mindstorming. This is a method of generating ideas in order to achieve a goal. Here is how it works: select any goal or problem. Write it as a question on a sheet of paper. Then write 20 answers beside it. Choose one of your answers and take action immediately. Your taking action keeps ideas flowing to you all day long. The more you practice this method, the more and better ideas you generate daily. This will activate your brain cells and increase both your creativity and intelligence.

  Do this exercise everyday and you will be amazed at the quality and quantity of ideas that spring from your imagination. Moreover, by being flexible in your life goals, you attain success. Indeed, success is best achieved when you are clear about your goal and are flexible on the process of your getting there. The  most creative and optimistic people are open, flexible and fluid in the face of the inevitable changes they are required to make as they move toward their goals.

  Contingent upon being flexible is the continued experience of resistance and frustration, often an indication that you are doing the wrong thing. Whenever you feel you are trying hard and getting too few results, you must stand back and re-examine your plan. Be sure the goal you are working for is still the goal you presently desire. You should consider changing either your goal or your strategy. Be more concerned with what is right than who is right.

  Develop the mindset of a computer programmer who knows that his first design of a programme would be full of bugs. Which is why he has to rework it, seeking perfection. But no computer programme ever works perfectly the first time it is run. So you have to rework it line by line to remove the defects. By the same token, whenever your plans do not bear fruit, stop and re-evaluate the situation. You could be wrong in your present course of action.

  Revise your plans until they are faultless and are able to move forward smoothly without frustration.

  Attendant to flexibility is that you are as happy and free as the number of options you have available to you. Your freedom and happiness are determined by the number of alternatives that you have developed in case your first exercise of developing alternatives enables you to think more clearly. However, sequel to this is that crisis is change trying to take place. Whenever you experience crisis or roadblock, stand back for a moment and ask yourself, what change is trying to take place here? What is the message this crisis is bringing forth? In any situation a crisis is an indication that something is definitely wrong; and needs rectifying.

  Thus, a justification for being flexible is that an errant assumption lie at the root of every failure. So be flexible to avoid impending failure. Every failure comes from an incorrect assumption that you made and accepted without question. Therefore at every point of decision-making in the fulfillment of your goals – you must clarify the question your assumptions, particularly when things are not going as expected. Your willingness to question your assumptions and accept error is the most important quality that will ultimately lead you to great achievement. Flexibility is the most important quality you can develop to succeed in business.

  Our champion this week is Thomas John Sargent, the American economist specializing in macro-economics, monetary economies and econometrics. He is currently a professor of economics in New York University, USA.

  As at 2011, he ranked 4^th among the greatest economists in the world. He was awarded the Nobel prize in Economics in 2011, together with Christopher Sims for their empirical research on cause and effect in macroeconomy.

  Born in July 1943, Sargent earned his B.A from the University of California, Berkeley in 1964, being the most distinguished scholar in his class. He received his PhD from Harvard in 1968. He held teaching positions at the University of Pennsylvania (1970-71), University of Minnesota (1971-87), University of Chicago (1991-98); Stanford University (1998-2002) and now Professor of Economics at New York University. He has been a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford since 1987 and a member of the board of the Penn Institute for Economic Research at Pennsylvania. At the moment, Sargent is teaching as a fellow at Seoul National University in South Korea.

  Sergeant is one of the leaders of the rational expectations revolution, which argues that economists can and do predict the future with their scientific model. Rational Expectations was introduced into economics by John Muth, then Robert Lucas and Edward Prescott took it much further. Moreover, Peter Hansen and Sargent adapted and extended robust control theory to achieve overwhelming results. I have concentrated on highlighting economists because they have solved Nigeria’s economic problems, we are poor, only because we are too docile and lazy to apply economic solutions.

BOOK REVIEW: FUFILLMENT

Book Review

Title: Giving, A Pathway To Fulfillment

Publisher: Massey Vickers Nigeria Limited, Lagos, 2013

Author: Amaka Okafor

Reviewer: Bayo Ogunmupe

 

The Book: Giving, A Pathway to fulfillment is the personal testimony of the author on Giving as a path to self-fulfillment. The act of Giving goes beyond the demands of philanthropy. It is more than the need simply to alleviate the pains and suffering of those in distress. Giving is a way to the higher life of divine existence. In this book, the author takes a look on giving in all its ramifications from the divine perspective.

  She explores the attitudes of giving in the lives of Christians in this second decade of the 21^st century. By using the timeless instructions of the Word of God, Amaka succeeds in impacting on her desired audience. With practical examples and soul striving encouragement, Mrs. Okafor challenges every believer to live a selfless and generous life. She avers that the Christian should look beyond his own needs by being a blessing to others.

  The book: Giving, shows you more reasons to be selfless in your relationships, thereby opening yourself up to the abundant harvest Jehovah wants to pour into your life. Giving: contains twelve chapters, dedication, preface and foreword. It also includes pages on Retrospect, two pages of notes, a page on References and another page on Image links. With 172 pages the book makes interesting reading.

  In a chapter-by-chapter analysis, the first quartet deals with concept, form, soil and the way of giving. With how to live successful lives, and the concern of every person, the pathway to obtaining and retaining wealth becomes the paramount pursuit of every citizen. When you become wealthy, you can then become a blessing to others as share your good fortune with others. There are varying concepts of giving. Some engage in giving for the purpose of showing off their wealth. Others give in order to buy friendships or to obtain support and loyalty of those they desire to associate with.

  As understood by majority of Christians, offering represents the routine giving of money or articles during a religious service or worship. This includes collections, and love offerings at church, prayer meetings or fellowships. In the Bible (Leviticus), offering and sacrifice are used as synonyms. This notion started when each person was required to offer a gift to God by sacrificing it at the altar, as God had instructed Moses.

  Offering is, therefore the best way of giving to God. In the Old Testament Bible, offerings or sacrifices were the only way you could restore a broken relationship with God. Sacrifices were offered to God in order to praise God, worship Him, for thanksgiving, for forgiveness or fellowship. The first seven chapters of the Bible Book of Leviticus explain the varieties of offerings and how they were to be administered. By Jehovah’s instructions on offerings, God was tutoring humanity on how man can truly worship Him.

  One: thanksgiving is the offering brought to God in appreciation for answered prayer or for special favours received. “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God concerning you, 1 Thessalonians 5:18.” Two, alms giving: this is a type of giving, which is directed to the poor, the needy, widows and orphans. God’s approval of this offering is explained in Mathew 25: 31-40. Alms giving isn’t an option. It is an obligation for anyone who believes in God. Henry Ward Beecher said, “Every charitable act is a stepping stone towards heaven.” “Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard by God, Proverbs 21:13.”

  Three, giving for missions or giving in order to propagate the gospel. The Moslems call it “jihad of the purse. You may also give through service. It was the Shun Amite woman’s service to Elisha that changed her story of barrenness, 2 Kings 4: 8-10. Four, saving or seed planting is a form of giving which aids success. In his book, The Law of Success, Napoleon Hill said, “Trying to get without first giving is as fruitless as trying to reap without having sown.” Sowing and reaping is a natural cycle of life. One is ever dependent on the other, both are inseparable. Reaping can only be after sowing had taken place. Giving is a type of sowing, a kind of planting, a time of challenging God with a specific prayer. Sowing refers to a process of planting a seed with the aim of growing a crop that will yield desired fruits. Many people still live in poverty and lack because they constantly refuse to sow the seeds they possess in order to create the harvest they need. Those who plant often harvest bountifully. Whenever you plant a seed, you provoke a perpetual harvest in your life: family, lineage, business and other relationships.

  And for any seed to multiply, or increase, it must first be given away to die, gets out of your pocket, you let it die by spending, don't mourn it. The seed must die by leaving you, thereafter it produces fruits and then harvesting. A seed is anything you have that blesses another person. Money is a seed, also love you can plant a seed of love in the life of your neighbour, which will bear fruit in the years to come. Knowledge is a seed, and prayer too. There is no limit to the volume at which your seed can multiply. But there cannot be any multiplication without planting. Therefore, plant good seeds that will bear fruits tomorrow.

  Unfortunately, many believers can only plant vices. Which is why many perpetuate evil. For instance many people hoard money, knowledge or information. Like in the provision of electricity for Nigerians, they prefer to constitute themselves as hindrances. To plant a seed is to let go of something you possess to create a promise. If you are addicted to seed sowing, Jehovah will always provide you with seeds to sow. Giving is the obverse of receiving. If you wish to receive anything, you must first give it. Thus, the fastest way to be rich is to give whatever you have. As you sow, so shall you reap. Tithing is my final offering for review. A tithe is a tenth of one’s income, profit or salary. To tithe is an obligation by which a believer recognizes God’s ownership of whatever we own. We are mere custodians of God’s wealth. Tithing is therefore an acknowledgement of Jehovah’s ownership of all our possessions. God commands that we give Him a tenth of the wealth He has bestowed to us as His stewards.

  While the second quartet of chapters of who is qualified to give, what to give, the principles of tithing and the rewards of tithing has been treated adequately, we shall deal for reasons of space with the last quartet for being the mainstay of the book. This third quartet comprises reluctance in giving, the principles of giving, the grace of giving and how to give oneself.

  Vital issues in giving are the rewards of tithing and giving oneself. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely help another without helping himself.”

  In Malachi 3: 10-12 a package of eight promises and blessings are spelt out. Some of these are “open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.” Thus, God emphasized His promises as being inviolable and sealed in the authority of His name.

  The author, Mrs. Amaka Okafor is a pharmacist, public health consultant and Philanthropist. She is an active member of the Catholic Charismatic Revival Ministries. She is married to Engineer Obi Okafor and they are blessed with four children.

Book Review: DESIGNED FOR MARRIAGE

Book Review

Title: Designed for marriage

Publishers: Awesome Treasures Foundation, Lagos, 2013

Author: Olajumoke Adenowo

Reviewer: Bayo Ogunmupe

 

THIS book is a down to earth volume and practical guide to marriage. The message of this book is clear for married couples. It says that God created man with what it takes to make successful marriage vows. Moreover, Jehovah endows us with the wisdom, financial and physical resources we need. Enclosed in this book are facts and secrets that dispel the myths and equip you with the necessary sagacity for the needed changes that will cause you to optimize your conjugal paradise.

  To aspiring husbands and wives, designed for marriage answered the perplexing question – How can I know my natural mate? This book goes farther than that, it practically shows the way through scriptural, ageless and universal principles to ensure you become the one for the right partner. Thus you are able to distinguish yourself from the sea of singles awash the streets. This easy to grasp testimonial of a successful marriage partner helps you to better your own marriage and create a new enduring partnership.

  The book has 70 pages, clearly printed in ten chapters ensconced with a foreword and an introduction. “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver, Proverbs 25:11.” That quotation is an apt reminder of the contents of Designed for Marriage. It was the Caribbean pastor, Myles Munroe who said, “When purpose isn’t understood, abuse is inevitable,” this book is such a compass to the fulfillment of purpose in marriage. It shows in glowing terms, Jehovah’s express intention of marriage and how it should be managed. Believe it or not, marriage is to be managed like you marriage terminal conditions of health as diabetes, AIDS or hypertension. This is because, later in the middle of the marriage, you are tired of each other; bored to death by predictability and nagging.

  Thus, marriage is a journey rather the destination, since the relationship isn’t between saints, forcing them to keep learning and adapting. Mrs. Olajumoke nshows that man has been designed by Jehovah with every power to dominate the earth, making man and woman to craft a unique partnership to fulfill God’s dominion over the earth.

  Even in this divine partnership, form follows function, the physical design of men and women being reflections of their spiritual attributes. These peculiar spiritual attributes each partner brings into the partnership ensures the success of the marriage. Hopefully, reading this book will ensure that singles desiring marriage will realize that God would not have equipped them thus without marriage in mind.

  Therefore, just by stirring up the potential for marriage in you, it becomes a matter of time before you take your place in your Jehovah ordained marriage. Thus, Designed for marriage enjoins you to make the decision that you focus on being the right partner. Then the right man or woman will find you. This book will show you the salient features in your partner and also hint you on ways to use these features to work for you. Perhaps you are guilty of neglecting your divine gifts, how do you expect to attract the proper partner and sustain the relationship? Designed for marriage will help you identify and operate your God-given equipment. From reading this volume, you will find or be found by God’s choice for you. Marriage is more than a contract, it is a covenant of destiny.

  The first quartet of chapters focus on the original design of the relationship between man (Adam) and woman (Eve), woman being created form the rib of man makes Adam to co-creator of women with God; grace as gift of God to responsible men and the eventual destiny of man.

  In the original design, men are not meant to dominate their wives, neither are women meant to dominate their husbands. The original design was that the married couple should dominate the earth by their creativity and procreation. When the bible states in Genesis 2:28” – And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth,” however, nowhere does God mention that man dominates another human being. The desire of the man to subdue his wife and the woman to manipulate her husband is as a result of the fall of man. What both sexes seek is control.

  Moreover, in chauvinistic societies of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, men exercise physical strength to subdue women. On the other hand, the women who cannot be seen to be directly in control, learn to manipulate emotionally, verbally and indirectly their husbands. But the right way is the female and the male to jointly, in agreement to dominate the earth, rather than each other. The notion that man should dominate his wife is wrong. A woman submits to her husband on the basis of love, her free will, won over by his love. She isn’t meant to be dominated, or subjugated either emotionally or physically.

  As God’s co-creator, man needed to control himself in self-discipline and control. As the source from where she was created, man should act as a father. He should be the protector of his wife and offspring. He should be a provider and the sower of the seed of munificence.

  The greatest seed a man might sow is vision. He should provide the goal, the direction and the shelter for the family.

  The second quartet of chapters concerns the role of attraction in marriage. This ensures the preservation of the human species. Then following the anointing of the husband. The woman is to nurture the family. The woman is to receive grow and preserve the seed. Thus, the final path to intimacy is obedience. You are waiting in order to prepare for the ultimate union. Worship of God and the family is the other road to salvation. I therefore commend this book onto your care as a change agent. I recommend to all in fulfillment of the destiny of procreation in lawful marriage.

  The author, Olajumoke is married to Korede Adenowo and are blessed with two sons. Olajumoke is a practicing architect and is the principal partner at AD Consulting since 1994. She is the founder and chief executive of Advantage Energy Incorporated. An alumna of Obafemi Awolowo University, the Lagos Business School and the University of Navarra, Barcelona, Spain. She founded Awesome Treasures Foundation in 1999, and with it she has been able to raise transformational leaders. Also, Olajumoke hosts a radio programme on leadership called: “Voice of Change.”

BOOK RTEVIEW: POLICING IN A CORROSIVE ENVIRONMENT

Book Review

Policing an environment of Terror

Book: Policing in a Corrosive Environment

Publisher: Koolak Enterprises, Ode-Oolo, Ibadan, 2011

Author: Francis Yemi Ojomo

Reviewer: Bayo Ogunmupe

 

THIS book, Policing in a Corrosive Environment, written by Chief Superintendent of Police, Francis Yemi Ojomo contains the history of the Nigerian Police and its operational strategy.

  The Nigeria Police Force grew out of the desire of the British to maintain peace and order in their plan to milk the African continent and give it civilization. Hence, Pax Britannica was imposed through the police, which started in Lagos in 1861. It was called the Consular Guard and consisted of 30 men under Consul John Beecroft. In 1863, the Consular Guard was renamed Hausa Constabulary, now numbering 600 men, because some run-away slaves captured at Jebba by Lt. Glover were forced to enlist into the police. Another recruitment in 1879 swelled the Hausa Constabulary, bringing its number to 1,200 officers and men. An Inspector General was named to command it. The duties of the constabulary were both military and civilian, such as maintaining law and order.

  The Lagos Police Force came into being on 1^st January 1896. Like the Hausa Constabulary, this Force was armed. It consisted of a commissioner, two assistant commissioners, a superintendent, an assistant superintendent, a Pay Master, a Quarter Master, a Master Tailor and 250 other ranks. The Lagos Police Force operated mainly in Lagos area while the Hausa Constabulary operated mainly in the hinterland.

  However, the Royal Niger Constabulary, also known as the Northern Nigeria Police came into being in 1886. This armed constabulary had been set up to support the authorities with their headquarters at Lokoja. From there, the force provided security for the company stallions along the River Niger.

  The Niger Coast Constabulary was formed in 1894, following the declaration of the Niger Coast Protectorate. It was moulded after the Hausa Constabulary and performed military duties as well. It formed the bulk of the expedition against Benin in 1896.

  With the creation of the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria in 1900, the majority of the Niger Coast Constabulary joined the Southern Nigeria Regiment in 1900. The remainder of the Niger Coast Constabulary and the Lagos Police Force were absorbed into the Regiment in 1906. The Southern Nigeria Regiment was commanded by an Inspector General of Police (IGP). He was also responsible for prisons, prevention and detection of crime, repression of internal disturbances and defence of the colony and the protectorate against external aggression.

  The amalgamation of the southern and Northern Police Forces took effect in April 1930 with its headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria’s capital then. The unified police was commanded by Captain Duncan as the IGP. But in 1937, the title was changed to Commissioner following the restructuring of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) along federal lines as Nigeria was divided into East, West and Northern Regions. In 1947, an Assistant Commissioner of Police was appointed in each region. With the new constitution in 1952, the police returned to the command of an IGP, Mr. Maclughan, assisted by a commissioner in each of the three regions, and the Southern Cameroun.

  Southern Cameroun voted to join the Republic of Cameroun in 1961. The police serving there were given the option of going into the Police Force of the Cameroun or a return to NPF. Most of them returned to Nigeria.

  The first 20 female police officers were recruited in 1955. Sections of the Police came at various times. The Marine Police was formed in 1891, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), was created in 1893, the Police Fire Brigade section was created in 1901, the Railway Police Command was created in 1947; the Transport Section was created in 1950; the Police Mounted Troop Section was created in 1961; the Police Dog Section in 1963, the Air-Wing in 1973 and the police Medical Service in 1975.

  At its inception, Police recruitment targeted people of questionable morals and integrity and others with low self-esteem. Among police recruits were slaves already traumatized and having ability for aggression. This policy was designed by the colonialists to ensure that Police officers carried out their orders to the letter. Indeed such policemen saw their recruitment as a boon from a society that had disappointed them. Their mindset fitted perfectly into the agenda of the mercantilist interests of the colonialist.

  The interest in the police worsened in the Native Authority Police of Northern Nigeria and the Local Government Police in the West. Thus, they became potent instruments in the hands of their paymasters. In the North, the native authorities used the police to collect taxes and maltreat perceived enemies of the emir. In the West, they were used in the maiming and killing of political rivals. All these went on unabated up till Nigeria’s independence in 1960.

  Like other state institutions in Nigeria, the 1999 Constitution made provisions for the establishment of the NPF in Part III and section 214 thereof. The administrative structure of the NPF is flexible. There is devolution of power from the centre. Six departments from A to F are to handle specific core police duties. Each of the departments is headed by a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), answerable only to the IGP. Also there are 12 zonal commands with each being headed by an Assistant Inspector General of Police. Following closely are the State Commissioners of Police who administer various state commands. They are supervised by zonal commands ensuring correct strategies to combat crime and maintain peace.

  The blue colour of the police flag stands for love and unity. The following yellow stands for discipline and resourcefulness while the third colour – green stands for energy. The police flag is hoisted at each police formation, division or department headed by the IGP or a senior police officer. Most cheering of police policies is the synergy amongst the police and the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Metropolitan Police, the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the military and a host of other bodies for the purpose of enforcing greater productivity. Indeed, the author canvassed for sufficient funding and mobilization for the police to enable them perform their duties effectively and thereby boost their morale in readiness for the task ahead.

  Within this five chapter book with 96 pages including two pages of references, Francis Ojomo the author did justice to the various duties of the police, ethics and police conduct, factors affecting police performance and his suggestions towards improving police performance. For this, Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), he hails from Okunmo, Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State. He holds a B.Ed degree in History and Education from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife; M.Sc in Security Studies from the University of Ibadan, with another master’s in conflict Resolution, also from U.I.

  After serving in the Imo State Government House, he was posted on a peace-keeping mission to Darfur, Sudan on the platform of the UN in 2008. From there he attended courses in the Peace-keeping Training Centre, Teshi, Ghana. He got eight awards in 2010, one of which was as best police officer in Oyo State. Presently, he is the chief security officer of the Oyo State Governor. CSP Francis Ojomo is happily married and he is blessed with many children.