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Tag: luck

  • What Are the Best Ways to Test Your Luck?

    What Are the Best Ways to Test Your Luck?

    Luck is one of those things we all believe in, at least a little. You might not talk about it every day, but when something big happens out of nowhere, it’s usually the first word that comes to mind.

    The real question: Is there a way to test your luck? There’s no official “luck meter” out there, but there are ways you can play around with chance and see where you stand. And yes, there’s some fun to it. After all, luck shows up in games, bets, choices, and timing. And sometimes, it pays off big.

    As Thomas Jefferson once said, “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” That makes sense for long-term success. But for now, we’re talking about pure chance. In this article, we’ll show you how to check your luck today. Let’s get into it!

    Gambling

    Gambling is a classic way to test your luck. The best part now is that you don’t always need to spend your own money to try it out. Many online casinos allow people to use bonuses to begin. You can check review sites like SlotsJudge to find the best operators where you can try something like a Tada Gaming demo. This means you can play games like slots or roulette without making an initial deposit. It’s a risk-free way to see if fortune favors you today.

    With gambling, the platform you use is very important too. We recommend that you do enough findings before testing your luck at gambling sites since not all of them represent good value. For context, suppose you were planning on playing at a platform like StoneVegas casino, reading reviews from trusted sources like Slotsjudge to be sure what the platform brings to the table can be a smart thing to do. This way, you won’t be blindsided and you can have a safe and enjoyable experience.

    Coin Flip

    Sometimes, the simplest methods are the most telling. Flipping a coin is a time-honored way to make decisions and test randomness. But beyond decision-making, it can also serve as a fun way to gauge your luck.

    Try this: Predict the outcome of a coin flip: heads or tails, and see how many times you can guess correctly in a row. A streak of correct guesses might just indicate a lucky day! For a more interactive experience, online tools like the Flip Coin Simulator allow you to test your intuition and track your results over multiple trials.

    Games of Chance

    If you’ve ever played a game where you don’t really control the outcome, like rolling dice or drawing a random card, then you’ve played a game of chance. These games are pure luck, and that’s what makes them fun. You don’t need to be super smart or have a secret strategy.

    Think of games like Monopoly, dice, or any other test your luck game. You roll, move, pick a card, and your fate is decided.

    Fortune Cookies

    You usually get fortune cookies after a meal at a Chinese restaurant, and inside there’s always that one-liner that either makes you laugh, think, or question your entire week. It might say something like, “Big surprises are headed your way,” and suddenly you’re walking out of the restaurant like you’ve just had a spiritual awakening.

    But here’s the fun part: some people actually keep their fortunes. They tape them to their mirrors, put them in wallets, or save them in drawers. It’s just about having a moment where life feels a little magical, even if it’s just from a cookie. You feel lucky, and sometimes that’s enough.

    Read Also: Canon Sowunmi: A great Nigerian passes on

    Scratch-Off Tickets

    Scratch-off tickets are a simple way to check your luck today. That sensation is unlike anything else when you’re gently removing those silver panels in search of anything significant underneath. People adore it since it provides quick results; it’s essentially the grown-up form of a surprise toy.

    These small tickets abound in petrol stations, grocery stores, and there are even internet versions nowadays. You never know; the next card can simply be a lucky winner. And you do not even have to be an expert to play. But you should know that learning a few tips about it can help. The great thing is scratch is still somewhat enjoyable even when you lose.

    Final Thoughts

    So, we’ve looked at a bunch of cool and playful ways to test your luck. But here’s the thing: since these are all just ways to test your luck, it means sometimes they work out but other times you’ll try, and nothing special will happen. That’s the whole point. It’s all chance. No guarantees.

    Especially if you’re planning to try your luck at any casino recommended by SlotsJudge, just remember that it’s still luck. You might win; you might not. So have fun, but don’t let it take over your head.

    As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Diligence is the mother of good luck.” So yes, luck is fun to test, but don’t forget that balance and mindset matter too.

  • Our year of luck, efforts, and misunderstandings

    Our president whose health brought concerns to citizens got well faster and better than expected, even by people who did not know what his health challenges were

    “The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”—Gloria Steinem
    “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”—Nelson Mandela

    So many good things happened in our country during 2017. Our president whose health brought concerns to citizens got well faster and better than expected, even by people who did not know what his health challenges were. His recovery encouraged his party members to gift him what seems like an automatic ticket for second term.  In addition, the president, despite his absence from the country for about 145 days, has managed to break the back of Boko Haram and is still determined to improve on this, as most of the governors have voluntarily in the spirit of rare bi-partisanship resolved to transfer $1 billion from the federation’s Excess Crude Account to the presidency to annihilate Boko Haram and the spirit that caused it- over radicalisation or mindless indoctrination. Since everything revolves round the president in a presidential system, he has also tamed corruption and remains resolute to fight corruption, recently calling on the country’s clerisy to assist in his efforts to end political and bureaucratic corruption.

    Even on the economic side, international institutions have publicly acknowledged that Nigeria has overcome (or is overcoming) recession, thus giving the country’s National Bureau of Statistics a round of applause that can silence those already used to ignoring claims by the country’s central data gathering and storing institution. So much for luck and efforts and the hope they have built in citizens toward 2018.

    Yet, the country was also marked by misunderstanding of issues relating to how the country should manage matters of concern to its future. For a country that has become a global poster child for having nine lives, one simple word has caused more division in the country than any in its post-independence era, apart from the first call for Biafra in the late 1960s. And that word is not the Biafra of IPOB or Kanu, as unsettling as that has been. The word that has polarised the country during the outgoing year is Restructuring. Today’s piece focuses on demystifying a word that is dividing the country unnecessarily.

    Frequency of use of the word restructuring increased phenomenally in 2017, one year after advocates for restructuring realised that the ruling party’s election promise to amend the constitution to entrench the country’s federal system had been put in abeyance. As one citizen who had used, along with many others, restructuring almost ad nauseam during the year, I had followed in print, online, and in the air, definitions of restructuring by those who claim to understand what the word means. In its generic use, restructuring has been used to mean re-design, re-form, re-arrange structural relationships between parts and whole of a thing. In contextual terms, users of the word have explained restructuring to mean, operationally, returning federal model of governance to the country’s constitution and by implication political and fiscal life. Many even say that restructuring means bringing an end to a constitution that is unitary in intention and spirit and replacing that constitution with new rules that bring balanced sharing of powers and functions between national and subnational governments in the country.

    But all these definitions do not appear enough to let a critical region of the country grasp what the intentions of those calling for restructuring are. Spokesmen of regional socio-cultural groups including Northern Elders Forum under the leadership of Prof. Ango Abdullahi asked repeatedly for the meaning of restructuring.  Later, expression of lack of understanding of restructuring was replaced by the Forum’s new leader Paul Unongo’s statement that the North is not afraid of restructuring but that it would not be stampeded into any action.  Sequel to this statement, many groups including the ruling party at the centre, All Progressives Congress, and the Northern States Governors’ Forum and the Northern Traditional Leaders Council’s Committee on Restructuring has established think tanks to study calls for restructuring and make recommendations on how to respond to such calls.

    But individual members of Northern State Governors and Traditional Leaders Council have been offering new views on restructuring, without giving any impression of speaking think tanks set up to make recommendations. One such statement is Kashim Shettima’s: “People are talking about artificial intelligence, other nations are talking about nano technology or robotics engineering but unfortunately, the topical issue in Nigeria is restructuring. Restructuring my foot! The Nigeria that can meet the needs of its citizens and humanity in general, like other countries that produce robotics and nano technology, seems to be what is after the hearts of those demanding restructuring. They, like Shettima, do not want a Nigeria that is frozen in time and hobbled by obsession with traditions. Proponents of restructuring want Nigeria to join the group of successful nations that are innovative enough to solve various human problems. In addition, they also want an end to Nigeria’s failure to transform nomadic herdsmen into ranchers and farmers into technology-assisted growers of crops and vegetables.  They believe that the current structure is the obstacle to creating a more enabling structure that gives various constituencies of Nigeria more freedom to grow and innovate, rather than losing many of its citizens to enslavers in Libya and to ocean waves on the Mediterranean.

    Even in the last month of the year, the chairman of Northern Governors Forum and Traditional Leaders Council on Restructuring, Aminu Tambuwal, shows in his own words a fuzzy idea of what restructuring means: “I think we should first, as a country, agree on a mutual definition of the term restructuring. In my view, if restructuring means taking stock of our arrangement to ensure that no state takes a disproportionate amount of the resources, or most of the available space in the education or job sector, or subjugate the others’ culture or religion. Or lord it over the other so that the number of the poor and uneducated, whose future is circumscribed by their circumstance is shared proportionately, then we are game….” Tambuwal has a good idea of some of the goals of restructuring, and without doubt advocates for this political action should have some of the goals in their plan. But Tambuwal is still a little bit evasive on the nature of restructuring as a noun that describes an act. The goals that Tambuwal identifies must have a cause or causes. Calls for restructuring are meant to remove such causes. They believe that a flawed structure is objective and can be discontinued much more easily that bad character or personality disorder in leaders. It is not weaknesses of those in power that concern those asking for restructuring; it is the weakness in governance architecture that decades of military dictatorship had saddled the country with that is at issue.

    Similarly, Senator Bukola Saraki has provided a personalised or customised definition of restructuring: “My own restructuring is when we educate our children so that they can realise their full potential and partake in the promise of the future. My own restructuring is when we place a premium on delivering good governance, fight against corruption, valorise honesty and live to serve the people – without betraying the trust reposed in us.”  Believers in restructuring do not seem to have any issue with the noble goals that Saraki expects restructuring to produce.  The fears of advocates for restructuring is that the current structure has failed over half a century to assure our children that Saraki’s high hopes can be achieved, without a new design that is more life and freedom-affirming than the status quo.

    2018 is the only year between now and presidential and general elections. Patriotic leaders who are interested in the future of the country more than in its past need to realise that the average Nigerian sees through time wasting and obstacles courses that the fight over definition of restructuring has become. It is high time that honesty of purpose is given a chance across the country on this sensitive matter. The questions to be answered by all in the new year are the following: Is a unitary system masquerading as a federal one good for a multiethnic nation? Is it right for any group of citizens to insist that a structure created by military dictators should be accepted as immutable? Is a constitution that was created without input from all sections of the polity the best instrument for democratic federal governance? Advocates of restructuring need to create a manifesto for their demand in all Nigerian languages, to save citizens in the new year from struggling with the meaning of restructuring.

  • ‘Sorry for your luck!’  Are Nigerian airports really a sorry case?

    ‘Sorry for your luck!’  Are Nigerian airports really a sorry case?

    Owning to widespread criticsm and condemnation of Nigerian airports as the worst in the world, Gboyega Alaka with reports from correspondents across the country attempts an appraisal. 

    When in October last year, CNN’s report on worst airports in the world went viral, one part of it that stood out like a sore thumb was that part about Nigeria’s Port Harcourt International Airport. The introductory line, which read: ‘Traveling through Nigeria’s Port Harcourt International Airport anytime soon? Sorry for your luck’, hit close to home, worse than a Boko Haram bomb – especially if you are a patriotic Nigerian, who still retains the legendary pride for country in spite of everything.

    But surprisingly, it generated little uproar or controversy. There were no denials, heated debates or rebuttals, as Nigerian’s are generally want to do each time negative the international community pronounces such negative appraisal or verdict on the country’s state of affairs. It just seemed like Nigerians, this time, agreed with the result of the survey conducted by the travel website, ‘The Guide to Sleeping in Airports.’ Quite unlike the hue and cry that followed the labelling of Nigeria as a terrorist nation or the prediction that the country would break up in 2015 by the United States of America, a near ‘mum’ seemed to be the word. Naturally, many took that for an assent, as the flying community in the country is quite sizable and could have generated enough heated noise if they thought otherwise.

    The only major dissenting voice, and which is natural, since they had to do their job, was the Federal Government of Nigeria, through a statement by its Aviation Ministry’s permanent Secretary, Hajia Binta Bello. The ministry rejected the survey, saying it was not reflective of the reality of Nigerian airports. Speaking with journalists shortly after the report was released; the Permanent Secretary said Nigerian airports are not as bad as portrayed in the survey. She admitted that there may be challenges, owing to construction works that were ongoing, but that these would soon be over, and did not warrant such negative rating.

    Bello said it was up to the readers (by implication Nigerian aviation patrons) “to agree or disagree on the rating”. If one is to go by that index and by their silence therefore, one might as well say that the ‘readers’ have indeed spoken.

    Breaking down the parameters for the survey, Sleeping in Airports said facilities were assessed based on comfort, conveniences, cleanliness and customer service. It said about the Port Harcourt Airport that “Respondents reportedly complained about unpleasant and unhelpful staff, alleged corruption, a severe lack of seating (sic), broken air-conditioning and the fact that the arrivals hall was inside a tent.”

    As if echoing the Permanent Secretary’s claim of ‘ongoing’ construction works, the website said “The good news is that some areas of the terminal have been recently renovated, meaning you can expect actual walls, floors and windows.”

    That survey also listed three Nigerian airports: Port Harcourt International Airport, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos amongst the 10 Worst Airports on the African continent. The report becomes more embarrassing when juxtaposed with the fact that these same airports are amongst the best the nation can boast of.

    But are Nigerian airports so so bad? Or is this a hatchet job by the nation’s so called enemies and detractors. The Nation, through its correspondents scattered all over the country went out to see for itself.

    Port Harcourt International Airport

    Naturally, the Port Harcourt International Airport was the first place to start with. Reputed to be the third busiest airport in the country, the airport underwent extensive renovation and upgrading under the former President Goodluck Jonathan. As we speak, the departure terminal, which received a lot of flacks in that survey, has been completed, but the arrival terminal said to be ‘in tent,’ which repair commenced about the same time, has been abandoned. Visitors from late last year would recall that the terminal looked more like a sinking section, as it sometimes appeared muddy and nauseating.

    In the words of our correspondent in that zone, “The abandoned arrival terminal has been replaced with makeshifts or what passengers described as canopy, which has defaced the international airport.”

    This reporter recalls the situation of the toilets last August, when he passed through the airports. The eyesore was such that two of the toilets were broken and three of the pots in the urinary section were completely out of use. This is not to talk of the stench and the bottle flies. The situation got everyone wondering if an international airport needed special intervention or funding to fix toilets.

    A passenger, Felix Mbah said the condition of the airport worsened because of the political face-off between the former President Jonathan and the former governor of its host Rivers State, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, who is now Minister for Transportation.

    Mbah is surprised that Jonathan allowed politics to swallow the plan he had for the state. He reached this conclusion on the premise that other airports, which renovation works commenced at about the same time as the airport, have been completed.

    Another respondent, Martins Chukwudah agreed that the attention from the airport indeed shifted towards the end of the former president’s tenure, but blamed the governor nevertheless for ‘castigating’ the president.

    Amaka Diala however pleads with the new government in power to inherit the project. Her major worry, she said is the fact that the abandoned project may not be part of the 2016 budget.

    Diala said the fact that the terminal remains a canopy is also responsible for its present situation, where there is neither a television set for entertainment and information to travellers, nor air-conditioners for comfort.

    A Public Relations Officer at the airport, who identified herself as Mrs Woke declined to comment on the matter, saying she has no capacity to speak on the abandoned project.

    But a senior airport official of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), who pleaded for anonymity, said apart from its porous security network, the airport has also been a victim of the political battle between the former president and former governor of the state.

    He said the former minister in charge of Aviation, Stella Oduah “really tried but could not do better because of politics. She constructed other airports including that of Owerri and left Port Harcourt Airport looking like poultry.”

     

    Lagos: Murtala Muhammed International Airport

    At the Lagos Airport, there is a growing concern amongst users over the state of operational facilities at both the land and air sides at the domestic and international terminals. Though some of the facilities are currently being upgraded, including the much criticised toilets, they insist that there is a huge room for improvement. The toilets at the arrival and departure sections are now in commendable conditions, leaving more of the work in the hands of the maintenance staff. Both the Eastern and Western wings of the domestic terminal airport otherwise known as General Aviation Terminal (GAT) are also enjoying a new lease of life; but the story at the international terminal is not so sweet. Our correspondent at the airport says there are mounting complaints over maintenance culture at the toilets.

    Comrade Abah Ocheme, a passenger said there is need for the airport authority to improve on existing facilities, including the toilets.

    There are also complaints over the epileptic air-conditioning system, which many say is an embarrassment to the nation. Investigation revealed that FAAN would require about N900 million to completely overhaul the air-conditioners – a huge sum by the present economic standard, you ask.

    Another traveller complained about the over-crowdedness at the local wing of the airport, especially on days when the airlines decide to keep passengers waiting endlessly. He said on a very bad day, the poor condition of the air-conditioners is underlined by the sight of passengers sweating profusely.

    However, there seems to be a ray of hope in the horizon, as the Minister for Transport, Chibuike Amaechi, recently gave the airport authority a six-month timeline to completely correct the situation.

    There have also been calls from security experts on the government to address the shortage of aviation security personnel, provide operational equipment, complete the construction of the perimeter fencing and install close circuit cameras at the airport. Notable amongst these experts are the Director of Security Services (DSS) FAAN, Mr Jemide Omaghomi, head of Aviation Security at the airport, Mr Festus Adeboye and the Regional Manager, South West FAAN, Mr Solomon Odugbemi.

    They also called for a reworking of the existing airports security architecture, to bring about regular surveillance and identify areas of vulnerability.

    Omoghomi harped on the need to improve on efforts to boost airport security from the challenges of last year, if the current economic downturn would enable the government to purchase the requisite operational equipment and tools.

    Odugbemi on his part said plans are in place to deploy X-ray machines to complement other screening machines meant to secure passenger luggage at airports. The regional manager, while imploring the government to provide the required equipment to ensure that the airports are secured, said he looks forward to ensuring that the entire airport is covered with CCTV cameras. He called on the contractors to fully deploy the equipment on ground to improving the security of the facility.

    Adeboye of aviation security canvassed for the recruitment of additional 7,000 aviation security personnel to complement the existing workforce.

     

    Abuja: Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport

    At the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, the domestic terminal remains shut off from travellers and airlines due to ongoing reconstruction work. This has prompted a skillfull demarcation of the international wing to seamlessly handle both domestic and international travellers.

    Aside that, the airport looks to be in a fair condition. Amenities for security screening, air-conditioners, toilets and other facilities work properly and the environment appears neat always. The buildings also appear very clean, well organised and air-conditioned. This may not be unconnected to the fact that it is in the nation’s capital and regularly witness the passage of VIPs, including the president, ministers and members of the diplomatic corps.

    The personnel, including uniformed and undercover security teams appear courteous and effective in most parts of the airport.

    However, although the airport boasts of a wide expanse of parking space, the closest parking lot tends to be regularly congested. This gets even worse when convoys of important personalities arrive to either pick or drop their family members or associates.

    Another downside of the airport would be in the area of taxi charges to town. The prices which range between N5,000 and N6,000, may be way too high even for some international travellers. Some local travellers have even argued that the price of taxi to town just a few kilometres away is almost equivalent to what they pay by road from Lagos to the same Abuja, a journey of hundreds of kilometres.

     

    Jos: Yakubu Gowon International Airport

    This airport was one of the 22 listed for renovation and expansion across the nation by the immediate past administration. It was to be redesigned as a cargo terminal for the export of perishable goods.

    General Manager, Corporate Communications of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Mr. Yakubu Dati said “with the removal of duty on spare parts, FAAN is expecting additional 30 planes to boost the sector.

    According to him, countries like Israel rake in millions of dollars from exporting roses every year, adding that with the abundant agricultural produce in the country, such an action would encourage farmers, not only to produce food for subsistence, but also for the international market.

    He said, “The Jos Airport will be equipped with storage facilities like refrigeration to ensure that such produce were kept intact before export and called on farmers to take advantage of the revolution in the aviation sector.

    Datti said “The new aviation plan is to develop cities and infrastructure around the airport in a concept called aerotropolis, so that people don’t necessarily go to the town for conferences and such like.

    However, the much talked about renovation has been abandoned due to lack of fund. The contractor has abandoned the work on the claim that the government has not released fund for the project.

    The good news according to Dati however is that the president has promised to complete the renovation, adding that adequate provisions have been made for it in the 2016 budget.

     

    Bauchi: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa International Airport

    Commissioned recently by the former president, Goodluck Jonathan, the Bauchi International Airport may well be the newest airport in the country. The then Governor Isa Yuguda constructed the airport named after Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa according to the Canada-based International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) requirements. The airport is thus rated among the best in the country, with a 4 kilometre-Runway.

    The Bauchi air pad is also the first in the northeast geopolitical zone. Progressives in the state believe the new airport will attract visitors and generate revenue to the state through tourism, agriculture, mineral resources, sports and political meetings.

    Being relatively new also means that the facilities are still pretty much in good conditions. The airport which cost over N13 billion, has an 80-metres wide runway, 8 meters shoulders on each side, 50 meters carriage-way, with the latest communication gadgets, navigational equipment and airfield lightings, including landing lights approach.

    The fire station is equipped with latest functional international fire fighting trucks and equipment installed with well-trained fire-fighting personnel. The terminal building is made up of Domestic and International Wings, functional adequately equipped nine-storey control tower and a runway constructed to ICAO specifications.

     

    Enugu: Akanu Ibiam International Airport

    Upgraded to an international airport in 2010, the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu is yet to attain full international standard. Initial work commenced on February 10, 2010 with the closure of the airport by the FAAN for the first phase of major renovation and expansion. It was re-opened on December 16, 2010.

    However, its status as an international airport did not materialise until 2013, when the runway was completed with the Ethiopian Airline being the first to operate an international flight there. Till today, it’s only the Ethiopian Airline that plies the Enugu route. Other airlines are yet to connect.

    The zero interest being exhibited by other airlines may be attributed to the non-completion of the new terminal building which is under construction. The old one was completed alongside the runway. The new Terminal Building which is put at the cost of N11.6billion is being handled by China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCEC) and it is expected to be completed by March this year.

    Already, the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) has built the Customs Bonded Warehouse for the storage of large consignment of goods. Also other basic facilities needed for the smooth operation of the airport are already in place, while further maintenance work on the runway was being carried out to tackle some identified challenges, including the poor drainage system.

    An official of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria who will not like his name mentioned said that the airport has continued to receive due attention since it was upgraded.

    He said some of the equipment needed for installation at the international wing are already on ground. Both the domestic and international flight operations are currently being handled from the remodelled domestic terminal, where the FAAN, Immigration, Customs and Airlines personnel are accommodated.

    Furthermore, a private investor, NECI Land Development Corporation Limited has proposed the East Gate Enugu Airport City Development project on a virgin land adjacent to the airport. The project has potentials of creating a wide range of business opportunities in the state and the entire East.

    • Correspondent reports by: Kelvin Osa Okunbor, (Lagos), Precious Dikewoha (Port Harcourt), Yusufu Aminu Idegu (Jos) Chris Oji (Enugu) Jide Babalola (Abuja) Austine Tsenzughul (Bauchi)
  • FAMILUSI AKIN BABAJIDE – ‘I don’t believe in luck but in being blessed’

    FAMILUSI AKIN BABAJIDE – ‘I don’t believe in luck but in being blessed’

    Familusi Akin Babajide, aka FAB, is a household name in the fashion industry. In this interview with Adetutu Audu, the head of FAB group says he does not believe in luck. 

    Being an only son, does it have any impact on you in any way?

    My father was tough on me. I used to hear that men who are the only sons of their parents used to be pampered but my case was different. My father was so hard on me that I thought I was not his son. But at the point when he passed away, I had to take on certain responsibilities. I am really grateful to him for raising me the way he did. At age nine, he would tell me to wash my own clothes and do his own laundry. At the time I was going to secondary school, he told me that even if I chose not to go to school, I would make a fantastic dry cleaner. That was the kind of person my father was.

    You read Chemical Engineering and are now into fashion. Were you trying to please some people?

    My mum had pushed me into studying the sciences but I have found my way out and now in a happy place.

    Where do you get inspiration for all that you do?

    I moved away from being a fashion designer to being a publisher. One phrase that ideally captures it is that I am a lifestyle entrepreneur. Lifestyle is about what you wear, what you eat, what you drink, where you hang out and all of that. It is all encompassing and that is what I am out for.

    Who is FAB? Tell us about your early life

    I am a Lagos boy. I was raised in a very strict home. People call me FAB and I head the FAB group. Contrary to what a lot of people believe, I have never been out of Nigeria for more than a few months at a time. Forgive my accent, my father taught me that because he was an English language teacher. If you don’t pronounce properly, you are in trouble.

    Would you describe your background as that of silver spoon?

    What kind of silver spoon? Between silver spoon and wooden spoon, what is there? May be plastic. I wasn’t really from a rich family. As I told you, my father was a teacher and my mother, a nurse. I would say I came from an average family but there was no silver spoon anywhere.

    You are into a business that attracts females. As a young handsome and successful man, it is obvious that some of them would be out to catch your attention. How do you handle this?

    First of all, I think you are lying to me but I would say, thank you for that. My father used to tell me that. When I was nine years old, he would always tell me that I would grow up to be a handsome gentleman. I thank him for that and hope to pass it to my children. The truth is that, I think I am blessed. I have to engage you before you even get to talk to me. For me to be convinced that I would spend some time talking with you, you have to prove to me that you are intelligent. I also have some private things that I have put in place to make sure that I keep focused. Like my pastor would say, watch what you look at because if you continue dwelling on it, your mind would process everything and that which you process in your mind would now activate itself. When you shut what I like to call your eye gate, that will not be a problem to you.

    How do you feel with the level of success you have achieved today?

    Everybody keeps saying FAB, FAB, FAB. The truth is that it is good to have a vision that has come alive. The fact is that there are so many people, partners, investors, staff and all of that, that are making this dream come through. It is not a single man’s effort. It is a single man’s dream but now it is a shared effort.

    What does fashion mean to you?

    Fashion is a way of life. Some people don’t even know what influences the kind of cloth they wear. They just put on those clothes, but I would say, it’s a way of distinguishing oneself; who you are.

    Fashion-wise, who influenced you?

    From the early stage, I would say it was my dad. My dad was a fashionable guy, and he made a mistake by sending me to Kings College, Lagos and the University of Lagos, where everything about us is fashion. Trust Unilag students back then; even if they didn’t have money to dress the way they would have loved to while in school, once they get a job, the rest would be a story. That is when you see how fashionable they were. I guess it was all these experiences that pushed me into fashion.

    Personally, how I started my fashion was something I wouldn’t forget so quickly. I couldn’t afford TM Lewis at that time; what I did was to go to Tejuosho Market in Yaba, buy N250 fabric per yard, gave it to tailor N500. I got a TM Lewis shirt from someone, tore it into pieces and showed my tailor how it was sowed together. Guess what? my tailor got it perfectly, as if I was wearing original TM Lewis.

    Your fashion brand, Exclamation, has grown into a world class brand. Would you say you are lucky?

    Exclamations Couture has since served clients ranging from extremely conservative corporate executives to outright flashy music artists and has produced over 30,000 outfits for over 1000 clients! The outfit has since held successful fashion shows in Nigeria and the United Kingdom and also signed styling deals with major music, lifestyle and fashion magazines including MODEMEN, BLAST and ELAN magazines.

    I do not believe in luck but I believe in being blessed. If one continually strives for excellence, it will soon be recognised and rewarded. Don’t condone mediocrity. Pay whatever it costs to master your enterprise. Never stop learning. I would love to quote a verse in the bible that says “See a man diligent in his ways, he shall stand before kings and not mean men.” This verse pretty much sums up my philosophy.

  • Element of luck in politics

    Element of luck in politics

    Luck, or providence, is a major factor in politics. In a CNN interview during his recent official visit to China, President Goodluck Jonathan accepted this. He acknowledged that it is his good luck that has guided his political career in Nigeria, including his meteoric rise from obscurity to the presidency of Nigeria. A former university lecturer in Zoology at the University of Port Harcourt, he entered politics in 1999 and, in just over ten years, rose to the pinnacle of power in Nigeria.

    He started his political career as the deputy governor of Bayelsa. When the governor, Alamasiegha, tripped and was impeached for fraud and money laundering, Jonathan took over from him as governor of the state. Barely two years later as governor, he was handpicked by Obasanjo and made the vice president in Yar’Adua’s PDP government. Halfway into his administration, Yar’Adua died and was replaced, in spite of strong opposition from the Northern establishment and his limited experience in politics, as the President of Nigeria, a position that, in his wildest dreams, Jonathan could not have believed was possible. He defied the logic that politics is the art of the possible. He hardly lifted a finger before becoming president. He served out the rest of Yar’Adua’s term in office. He is in the middle of his own first term, and now wants a second term as president. He may yet get it.

    But Jonathan is not the only Nigerian leader who got into high office by sheer luck. Our first Prime Minister, Tafawa Balewa, got into that office simply because his Party leader, the Sarduana of Sokoto, declined the invitation to go to Lagos. He was very disdainful of Southern politicians and did not want to be contaminated by the Southern ‘infidels’. Instead, he sent Balewa, one of his party deputies. In 1954, Tafawa Balewa, a former school teacher, was appointed the federal prime minister and remained in that position, for nearly 12 years, until his assassination in the bloody 1966 military coup.

    His successor, General Aguiyi Ironsi, the GOC of the Nigerian Army, was a hard drinking and blundering military officer, without the slightest ambition of being Nigeria’s head of state. He had previously served as the head of the Nigerian military contingent in the Congo in 1960, and later as the military attaché in the Nigerian High Commission in London. He was just happy to be the GOC of the Nigerian Army, a post given him as a compromise by the NPC/NCNC federal coalition government. He had not even been recommended for that position by the departing British head of the Nigerian Army, Major General Welby Everard, who, for professional reasons preferred either Brigadier Maimalari, or Brigadier Ademulegun. After the 1966 coup, power was handed over to him by the rump of the federal parliament. Within six months, he fell from power and was assassinated in a counter coup by Northern military officers, who were fiercely opposed to his plan to introduce a unitary system of government in the country.

    Following that coup, power was handed over to then Col. Yakubu Gowon, the chief of staff, who had played no part in the July 1966, coup that ousted Aguiyi Ironsi. In fact, he had returned to Nigeria from a training course abroad a few days before the coup, and was to have been eliminated in the coup. He escaped by sheer luck and was imposed on the country by his Northern military colleagues as the new military head of state. His military superior officers, Brigadier Ogundipe, and Brigadier Adebayo, were not acceptable to the Northern officers responsible for the coup. He was only 32, unmarried, and he did not want the job. He had absolutely no experience of government and, for quite a while after taking over the government, had to be guided by the coterie of federal permanent secretaries. He fought the civil war successfully but was overthrown in 1975 by his military colleagues while attending an OAU summit in Uganda. In some ways, he regarded his ouster as a relief from a job he did not want or relish in the first place.

    He was replaced by then Brigadier Murtala Mohamed who, unlike his military predecessors, had always wanted the job badly, since 1966 when he plotted the ouster of General Ironsi. He did not get there by providence, but by calculation. He had such influence among Northern military officers that it would have been difficult to stop him. But he lasted barely a year on the job before he was assassinated and his military regime overthrown in 1976.

    He was succeeded as military head of state by then Brig. Obasanjo, his deputy. Obasanjo had played no part in the coup and actually went into hiding at the Victoria Island residence of late Chief S.B. Bakare, his old friend, from where Gen. Alani Akinrinade, fetched him. As a compromise between Gen. Danjuma and Gen. Yar’Adua, the ranking Northern military chiefs, Obasanjo was made the new head of state, a job that he did not want at the time. But through providence, or sheer luck, Obasanjo has been twice Nigeria’s head of state. In 1999, he was released from prison where the brutal dictator, Abacha, had sent him to a life sentence allegedly for being involved in a phantom coup plot. Had Abacha not died suddenly in 1999, Obasanjo would have been left to die in prison. But the Northern elite were looking for a Yoruba head of state after it had denied Abiola who won the 1993 presidential election. They wanted a safe Yoruba head of state and Obasanjo fitted that description. Elected in 1999, he served out his two terms as Nigeria’s head of state, another remarkable story of sheer good luck, or providence. This is a position that Chief Obafemi Awolowo struggled for during his long political career, but which he did not achieve, though he was eminently qualified for it. On several occasions, Gen. Obasanjo has publicly admitted that providence played a large role in his professional career, both as a military man and as a politician.

    There are many examples in some foreign countries as well of the factor of luck in shaping the career of other politicians. Had President John Kennedy not been assassinated in 1963, Lyndon Johnson would not have become the president of the US. And had his brother, Robert Kennedy, not been assassinated in 1968, Richard Nixon would not have been elected the US president. At another level, had King Edward V111 not abdicated the throne in 1936, to marry a twice divorced American, Mrs. Simpson, and been replaced by his younger brother, King George V1, Queen Elizabeth 11 would not now be the British monarch, a position she has now held for over sixty years. Had she not been Queen, we would not now be celebrating the latest royal arrival with so much pomp and pageantry.

    It was sheer luck that brought the former Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, to power in 1963, when the tottering Harold Macmillan’s Conservative government was narrowly defeated by Labour in the elections. Hugh Gaitskell, the outstanding leader of the Labour Party, was widely expected to lead the Labour Party to victory in the elections, but died shortly before the elections. He was suspected of being poisoned by the Soviets who preferred Harold Wilson as Prime Minister. Harold Wilson was once quoted as saying that a day in politics is a long time, and that as long as there is death, there is hope for every aspiring politician. On both counts, he was right.

     

  • Now that we are comfortable, people are saying my father used other people’s luck

    Good evening Aunty Adeola my name is Stephanie. I am 18yrs old.

    Please I don’t want this published in your column. I and my family stayed in a compound for more than 15 years. I and my elder sister were out of school for more than 2 years due to financial problem. My dad is a nice man who helps people in simple way he can. Now God has made a breakthrough for us and we are being accused of using people’s glories. Nobody answers our greetings and nobody wants to associate with us, and the people behind all these stories are those my father has helped.

    Law 10 in the book, 48 Laws of Power is – Infection: Avoid the unhappy and unlucky.

    It goes on to say, ‘You can die from someone else’s misery—emotional states are as infectious as diseases. You may feel you are helping the drowning man but you are only precipitating your own disaster. The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they will also draw it on you. Associate with the happy and fortunate instead.

    That is that. We’ve all met them and we all have them. We all have people who drain you of energy instead of enriching us, the people who pull us down instead of pushing us up, the people who require more than they can provide; the negative, wining, needy, manipulative people who can turn a happy day into a living hell.

    They are toxic people. One thing is that no matter how good our intentions are in general, most of us have problems with dealing effectively with this kind of people.

    The good news is that there are effective ways to deal with toxic people.

    1. Avoid them: The best way to deal with toxic people is to not deal with them at all; to avoid them. In some cases it may not be an option, but more often than not, it is.

    It is also common to believe you can get a toxic person to change while interacting with them. But, unless you are a professional, you will not get them to change and trying it simply is not worth it.

    2. Set firm boundaries: Toxic people will often use you, one way or another. They may complain to you all the time while you listen hopelessly (?), or they may constantly get you to get them out of trouble. This is where boundaries come in. Boundaries are reflections of what you are and are not willing to do. Setting firm boundaries means not allowing toxic people to use you in any of these ways. It means refusing to listen to them complain, refusing to get them out of trouble. When you have firm boundaries, there is basically nothing bad any person can do to you.

    3. Get over your guilt: Most toxic people are very skilled at making others feel guilty when they don’t do what they want. This makes it particularly hard to set and maintain firm boundaries with them. But, there is a way out of this dilemma: getting rid of your guilt. It is your own guilt which toxic people use to break down your boundaries. When you can set and maintain boundaries with them without feeling guilty, the weapon they have against you is gone. Realize that your guilt is irrational, pointless, and it is used against you by toxic people. This is the best way to get over it.

    4. Do not defend yourself: When you avoid toxic people and you set boundaries with them, they frequently resort to accusing you, complaining and playing the victim in an attempt to get you to change your behavior.

    One of the worst things you can do when this happens is to defend yourself. It is usually a futile action and it only keeps an immature dialogue going which eventually helps the toxic person get what they want. You won’t get anywhere with them by defending yourself and your actions.

    Unfortunately, toxic people are everywhere. And they tend to attach themselves to those persons who are kind and have the most to offer. When you have the people skills to deal effectively with toxic people, you have the option to respond to their attaching in the best ways for you.