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When Failure is not an Option | By: Tony Ogunlowo

 

‘When the going gets tough…’, sang Billy Ocean in 1985,’…the tough get going’.
‘Tough times do not last, tough people do’, said the late Rev Robert H Schuller, author of the bestselling book of the same title in the 80s.
At the time of the Apollo 13 1970 crisis in 1970, NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz was reputed to have said, ‘failure is not an option…we’re bringing our boys home’.
Man is the most resilient creature ever created; we can survive anything and bounce back, no manner what the problem; bankrupts are able to pick up and make better businesses, refugees who have lost everything in conflicts are able, after a few years, to rebuilt their lives, after terrible illness we are able to get back on our feet again. We are also the most adaptable creature and can  live anywhere –  out in space, in the wastes of the artic, the jungles of South America, the deserts of the Sahara – anywhere!
We are created to be able to withstand anything or endure anything without losing a speck of our personality.
Life is an adventure. You don’t know what is around the corner; one minute you can be rich and powerful and the next you can be languishing in Kirikiri prison, stripped of all dignity. 
Such is life.
The trick is to make oneself resilient enough to be able to withstand the slings and arrows that life throws at us whilst at the same time keeping the show on the road.
If an area boy can wake up every morning, under a bridge, to embark upon his day, not knowing which way it’s going to turn, hustling, stealing to stay alive, without giving up on life, why can’t we?
It doesn’t matter what you’re going through there will always be somebody else going through worse – and they manage to keep on going, so why not you?
No matter what ever life throws at us we must be able to ride the storm and carry on.
I personally have been to Hell and back, probably, more times than most people have had hot dinners but my resolute has always been the same – failure is not an option!
In a masochist kind of way I love it when things go wrong in my life. Why? Because it forces me to bring the best out of myself and prompt me to ask myself a very simple question – am I a loser or a winner?
Life is not for the faint hearted, the more problems I have, the more determined I am to surmount them and succeed. If there is not a way, you find a way! There is always a way out of any problem you might have. Don’t give up!
Losers cry and fall at every obstacle. A winner carries on, obstacles or not. Losers make excuses; a winner finds answers to problems, however difficult and moves on.
When we came into this world nobody handed us a handbook on how to live. Parents can try and teach us how to live and so also can society but it doesn’t mean we will live a perfect life; life is an unwritten tale with no rules and you have to make your own story up as you go along and of cause there will be pot holes in your path. And when things go wrong, which by the Law of Averages they will, you have to be ready with Plan B to pick yourself up.
I’m not a prayerful person but I live by a simple mantra/prayer – “nothing but the will of God will stop me, I’ve come this far and I’m going all the way!”
Alternatively, meditate on the poem ‘If ‘by Rudyard Kipling:
If you can keep your head when all about you   
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;   
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;   
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Bring it on!
In a race there is only one winner and lots of losers. Only one person comes first! I’m not a loser. I can run a race and win no matter what life throws at me. I don’t believe in crying over spilt milk; if the proverbial has hit the fan  no amount of crying can change anything! Reassess your situation and get to work on picking yourself up! There is no such thing as a ‘no-win’ situation; there’s always a way and you need to find it.
In our modern society we face challenges and problems on a daily basis – even acts of God of which we have no control over.
We can either quit or win.
Ride the storm!
Things may be tough in your life right now, but it’s still not a reason to quit. Come up with an action plan, adopt a ‘swim or drown’ attitude, work hard and you’ll win.
Try and visualize yourself as a soldier. A soldier is given orders to carry out specific tasks that can be detrimental to his life and those around him. But he’s trained to disregard all this and carry out his orders irregardless; orders must be carried out no matter what – failure is not an option!
Learn to adopt a more militant approach to problem solving. Cast aside your ‘human side’ and become more ‘robotic’, programmed like a soldier to carry out orders. I call this the ‘swim or drown’ technique – if you don’t swim you are going to drown, simple as that!
They say it’s never over till the fat lady sings. As far as I’m concerned she can sing all she likes because it’s never over.
Believe it or not there is always light at the end of the tunnel.
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Entertainment

CHAN 2016: Super Eagles fly past Niger

The Super Eagles of Nigeria  started their African Nations Championship campaign on a very impressive note today with a 4-1 victory over neighbours, Niger at the Kigali Regional Stadium.

30 seconds into the second half, Osas Okoro netted in a goal and gave the team the much needed morale. The last three goals; a hattrick was provided by Chisom Chikatara who came in as a substitute for Adeniji.
Niger fought back through Zakary Adebayor at the 80th minute.

Nigeria now tops Group C with three points.

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Entertainment

9ice and Ruggedman end feud?

It seems the feud between rapper Michael Stephens popularly called Ruggedman and Abolore ‘9ice’ Akande has now become a thing of the past. The picture above was shared on social networking site, Twitter by the latter’s ex wife, Toni Payne.

“To see @i_am9ice wearing @RuggedyBaba 20th sept wear makes me very happy. I am proud of you two. Peace is everything” She wrote.

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Entertainment

Wayne Rooney breaks Henry Thierry's Premier League goals record

Wayne Rooney’s 78th minute strike at Anfield didn’t only salvage three points for the Red Devil today, it also set a new record for the Manchester United captain.

He has now scored 176 Premier League goals for Manchester United, the most by any one player with a single club in Premier League history.
The previous record was held by Arsenal legend Thierry Henry.

Seems the 30 year-old has finally found his form. Netting a total of 5 goals in 4 appearances in 2016.

Most Premier League goals for one club:

Wayne Rooney – 176
Thierry Henry – 175
Alan Shearer – 148

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Entertainment

Opinion: Goodluck Jonathan Speak Now! | By: Joseph Edgar

Ex President Goodluck Jonathan Look what is leadership when your boys are being picked up daily on such a huge matter and you remain silent. This to me is not leadership at all o, this is close to small cowardice. Let me tell a small story. In my secondary school, Command Secondary School Ipaja, we used to go and ‘steal’ the chickens reserved for teachers. Now this was a military school but we were daily fed with measly and tasteless food, so we decided to be raiding the chicken meant for the teaching staff and commandant. 
This particular day, I had given my troops a verbal instruction to launch the usual raid and move all the frozen chicken to the rendezvous – a village just outside the school compound surrounded by thick forest. As the leader, I had gone ahead to negotiate with the hungry villagers. The agreement was that their women will help us in the cooking and we shared the chickens into two equal parts.
 One part for the people who helped in cooking and the other parts for we the ‘thieves’. But nemesis was waiting for us because the commandant had gotten intelligence report that cartons of his beloved frozen chicken were headed towards the Sambisa Forest by a team of thugs led by the ever invincible Joseph Edgar. So he immediately mobilized his troops to set a booby trap and catch us all in action. What he did not bargain for was my survival instincts. As I was eating, I started smelling their approach.
 My instincts warned me of danger and I made my move and escaped with my band. We dispersed into different locations and when the hapless troops personally led by the Commandant who was on a rescue mission of his beloved chickens appeared he met only the bones and half eaten Chicken heads we left for them. In anger and frustration, they arrested the villagers and made them confess. From the confessions of the villagers, they started picking dark, light, skinny and fat young boys. Anybody who fit these descriptions where arrested and taken to the ‘whitehouse’ for severe punishment. 
Me, the leader had surfaced at the school clinic with complaints of fever and got myself admitted thereby providing for myself a strong Alibi should the investigation ever got to me. My boys like Dasuki refused to talk but embarked on hunger strike in a bid to escape. But as the days progressed more and more of my boys were picked up and I had to stand up and confess asking the school to release the small boys that I was the one they were after. They gladly arrested me and left my boys.
 I confessed to taking only two chickens in my whole four years in the school and that I never ate the head of the chickens and that I went into this career because of my hatred of the cold Amala and tasteless beans they served us daily. I pleaded for my release offering my services to them which was to work with them to curb the activities of chicken stealers in the school. So my dear daddy, this story is for you. Even though the EFCC has come out to say they cannot tie anything to you just yet, I feel that as a serious leader, you should come out and say something for there is no way in this world that Dasuki could have done all these without some kind of authority or instructions. You cannot sit and watch people who worked for your reelection suffer like these while you keep mute. Please come out and take responsibility, take a stand like a man. Thank you Sir. 
**************************************** ******************************************************
Joseph Edgar is and Investment banker, Award winning writer/author. He blogs fro a satirical point of view at josephedgarng.blogspot.com
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Entertainment

God bless whoever stole the budget | By: Etcetera

It is very hard to explain to a non-Nigerian abroad that Nigeria is a country of over 200 million people. He/she would wonder how a country of over 200 million citizens became so tamed to the point of stupidity — that a few individuals could keep millions of people locked in hell for over 20 years would have been termed impossible, but as the world has come to know, there’s nothing impossible in Nigeria. We hold the record of the most persevering people on earth. We have an unbelievable threshold for endurance.
One of the reasons why I think Nigeria may never recover from her present predicament is because as a people, Nigerians love poverty. This is the only country in the world where a politician steals money and the people provide tangible reasons why the politician is actually supposed to steal.

This is the only country in the world where it has become acceptable that whoever gets into government is advised to loot with impunity. Looting of government funds is now fashionably done on a turn-by-turn basis. Listening to Nigerians defend their kinsmen who have looted the country is very sad: Abi if you get there, you sef no go chop? Abeg leave my brother make him chop him own, after all when your brother dey there, himsef too chop. Life na turn by turn. This is the mentality of the average Nigerian on the street.

If not for our level of docility, our government wouldn’t have the effrontery to tell us that they spent millions of naira to open a Facebook account. The National Assembly wouldn’t embarrass us by asking the founders of Facebook down here to set up their Facebook accounts. A governor wouldn’t tell us he spent N72m of taxpayers’ money to build a personal website and still be made a minister of the federal republic in this current dispensation.
The hard and soft copies of the 2016 budget documents President Muhammadu Buhari handed over to the National Assembly on December 22, 2015 was declared missing a couple of days back and Nigerians have been screaming like banshees how the country had been placed at the forefront of ridicule, forgetting that we have been living in ridicule for ages. Is the shame of a missing budget more embarrassing than the content of the budget itself?
With all the fight against corruption, what has changed? Have the police stopped collecting money illegally on our streets? Has impunity stopped in our petrol stations where fuel is blatantly and flagrantly sold above the recommended price? Has the leadership of Nigeria stopped living in comfort while the people live in poverty? Must we continue funding 10 airplanes in the midst of gargantuan poverty? The exchange rate is at an unprecedented high of N305 to a dollar and the minimum wage of N18,000 is about $64 and this same government has been advising us on the need to be prudent in our spending while public officials have failed to reduce their level of comfort. Even the proposed 2016 budget submitted to the joint session of the National Assembly showed that Buhari himself failed to heed to his own advice of being prudent.

How do you consider the stealing of the proposed budget as an embarrassment when President Buhari and Vice-President Osinbajo will be spending N2.2bn on travels and transport, foodstuffs and catering materials, refreshment and meals as well as honorarium in the 2016 fiscal year? This is a figure that is N710m higher than what was budgeted for the same under the immediate past government in 2015. A further breakdown of the budget for the presidency also includes general renovation of the Guest House at N387m, complete furnishing of the Guest House at N45m, purchase of computers for N27.5m and the construction and provision of recreational facilities for N764m.

A sum of N3.6bn was budgeted for BMW saloon cars for principal officers and another N189m was allocated for tyres for operational vehicles in the presidency. What is more embarrassing to you? That over 300 girls were kidnapped and nothing has been done to bring them back? Is it not more embarrassing that our soldiers are being slaughtered by a bunch of untrained terrorists because of the corruption within the military hierarchy? Is it not more embarrassing that the PDP is already calling for the impeachment of the president just after nine months of assuming office?

Abeg abeg, May God bless whoever stole the budget. He/she is a patriot. I believe he/she, like everyone else in the country, must have lost hope in our useless National Assembly and can’t trust them to cut down the discrepancies in the budget.

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Entertainment

Nigeria's Odion Ighalo named Barclays Premier League Player of the Month

Nigeria/Watford striker, Odion Ighalo, has been named the Barclays Premier League Player of the Month for December.  He fought off competition from the likes of Mesut Ozil to scoop the prize.

The 26-year-old attacking midfielder has been in top form this season, netting  29 goals in 2015. Also Watford coach Quique Sanchez Flores also won the Premier League manager of the month award.

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Entertainment

Stephen Keshi’s wife buried

The remains of Kate Keshi, the wife of former Super Eagles manager, Stephen Keshi were interred today January 15, 2016 at the residence of the Keshis in Edo State. The ex Nigeria international reportedly fought back tears as his wife of 33 years was buried. 

54 year-old Kate Keshi (nee Abureme), lost her three-year battle with cancer on 9 December at the family’s home in the United States of America. She is survived by her husband, 4 children, her mother, brother, sisters and numerous relatives. Photo Credit:. Pm news

Present at the funeral ceremony were her children,  friends, relatives, representatives of Delta State Government, ex-Internationals; Austine Eguaveon, Ike Shorunmu, Amodu Shuaib , Daniel Amokachi, to mention a few. 
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Entertainment

Opinion: Kill Donjazzy | By: Bayo Omisore

So to start with, I am not a hater. I do not wish any evil on Don Jazzy or Michael Collins. If anything, I can be categorized as an interested onlooker when I want to be passive or an invested businessman active in the Nigerian music industry for the past 18 years. In addition, I am a writer. I have been told I am a very decent writer. Or maybe I’m living on past glory. Either way, I had another title I was working with. But I decided this one would attract the eyeballs I desperately need to get the attention I so desperately crave. 
Finally, I understand the workings of PR. Hell, I handled the PR of Mo’ Hits in 2006 when the only talent was D’banj. Back then, Wande was a dancer, Dr. Sid (I plead the Fifth) and D’Prince was a model. I do not wish death on Michael Collins. I however think the Don Jazzy brand is dead. Or should be rested. I’ll tell you why. Do you remember Don Jazzy? Remember that Soundcity advert. I remember the first day I met D’banj and Don Jazzy. This must have been either late 2004 or sometime in 2005. I had been in the business as a journo for a few years by then so I knew them. We had done a story on Mr. Solek at Hip Hop World in 2003. 
Jazzy had worked as the keyboardist of the band but he had moved on to music production working under JJC. He was very quiet; never uttered a word. You could have been forgiven for thinking he was mute. Back to the Soundcity advert. Don Jazzy didn’t say a word. Just whispered in D’banj’s ear while D’banj handled his business. It was brand new. It was refreshing. The ratings of the newly-established Soundcity music channel went through the roof. D’banj and Don Jazzy became the perfect example of a match made in heaven. Cobhams, if he could see them back then, would have known they were going places. So much so that Dr. Sid, a University of Ibadan-trained dentist and self-appointed administrator of eLDee’s Trybe Records, was happy to abandon that project and his album project to work under the tutelage of these relatively unknowns. 
After that, the communication from the Mo’ Hits camp was that Don Jazzy was the boss. He was being driven around town by a university graduate who earns an enviable salary working in an oil company (Fifth). Jazzy didn’t speak in public. He never granted interviews. He asked simply that whatever you wanted to offer to him should be offered to his ‘children’. (Note that he had been calling his artistes his children since the Mo’ Hits days. Nobody questioned it then because this is the Don we’re talking about here.) In fact, once, I was at the crib of one of the Mo’ Hits people, and he told me I had to leave because Jazzy was coming. I was genuinely curious and somewhat impressed. Impressed because they kept the charade going even off-camera.
Curious because, well, so could it be it wasn’t a charade after all? Remember all those award ceremonies where someone from Mo’ Hits would win an award and spend half the speech time praise-and-worshipping Don Jazzy? Or when Don Jazzy himself would win an award for best production and his wards would mount the stage to receive on his behalf even while he was seated in the front row in the same building. Guys, let’s be honest, these are the images of Don Jazzy that made him the brand he is today.
Those days when he only worked with his Mo’ Hits people and a literal handful of associates. In the real world, a don is a crime boss, crime lord, mob boss, kingpin, criminal mastermind; a person in charge of a criminal organization. He typically has absolute or nearly absolute control over his subordinates, is greatly feared by his subordinates for his ruthlessness and willingness to take lives in order to exert his influence, and profits from the criminal endeavours in which his organization engages. Replace the word ‘crime’ with music and you have Don Jazzy.
Mo’ Hits was an organized entity. At the head of it all was Don Jazzy; the Capo di tutt’i capi, the Godfather, the boss of all bosses. Complete with his staff. D’banj was his Underboss. Dr. Sid, being the most educated and exposed of the lot, was the Consigliere. The other artistes were the Caporegimes. The management and the other stragglers and hangers-on were the foot soldiers. In the golden words of Christopher Wallace, “things done changed!”   Fast forward to January 1 2016. Now I am not interested in who was right or who was wrong. For me, the happenings of the early morning January 2 2016 made the Headies. They set the tone for the year. This is entertainment dammit. Are you not entertained?!!! If you ask me, Don Jazzy had no business speaking to Olamide. 
I have seen enough Mafia movies to know that no Don that understands his worth would get so emotional as to entertain the thought of passing such a message on a public stage. That job is left to his Consigliere, in this case Dr. Sid, who is already disliked intensely for his supposed role in the Mo’ Hits breakup via the leaked tape. People would have talked. But Jazzy would have maintained his self-respect. He opened himself to ridicule the minute he opened his mouth on that stage. 
Don Jazzy had no business speaking to Olamide. I have seen enough Mafia movies to know that no Don that understands his worth would get so emotional as to entertain the thought of passing such a message on a public stage. I can trace this handfalling back to when Jazzy decided to start appearing in songs after the bitter divorce from D’banj.
The Don Jazzy we knew and respected from a distance fell from heaven and became human. In fact, the Kokomaster showed his disgust over Jazzy’s features after their falling out. I very much doubt this would have happened if they were still together. Not that I think they knew any better then, but they had one script and they kept it simple by sticking to that story. Of course, with the breakup and the subsequent interviews granted by D’banj, too much information was shared in the public space that caused irreparable damage to the carefully-crafted Don Jazzy image. 
I think Don Jazzy should have moved on to the next stage. Or developed a next stage to move to. He certainly should not have done Loya or Konga or Jantamanta (wtf?) as Don Jazzy. That’s not the Don Jazzy we were introduced to. In truth, while we loved and respected Don Jazzy for his mystique, his music-making prowess and his relationship with D’banj, there was only so much he could achieve as a brand. However, this new guy is fun, is funny, seems to be humble, is extremely generous and, as such, is an endorsement magnet getting business from an endless list of companies. As it should be. As a businessman, it makes every sense for Michael Collins to be this new guy with access to millions of advertising dollars. But he cannot expect to eat his cake and have it. Something has to give! Need I say more? 
In conclusion, I think that as the head writer in this story, Mr. Collins needs to kill the Don Jazzy character. It has made him money and fame. But perhaps its time to quit the ‘mafia’ and live a normal life. So, on a lighter note. What name should Don Jazzy go with now? My Guy Jazzy? That’s your round-the-way friendly neighborhood guy. Easygoing. No airs whatsoever. Daddy Jazzy. Re his kids. Judge Jazzy. Respected by all and lays down the law. Yet approachable in his manner. A friend to everybody and a friend to nobody. Bro Jazzy. The senior brother who opens his door to any and every. *Just in case you need to praise me or you take exception to anything in this article, you can find me on Facebook as Bayo Omisore and on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat as@ibayoomisore. Me I like Judge Jazzy o, lol. You nko? 
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