THE EIGHT EXPERIENCE: AN EXPERIENCE​D EYE WITNESS ACCOUNT OF THE BEST MUSICAL CONCERT IN 2013

This year's edition of The EXPERIENCE has come and gone and will arguably go down as the best musical concert held in Nigeria this year. Like the editions before, it was not short of robust excitement from gospel music's finest. However The EXPERIENCE 8 stood out on its own in many respects.

It was heralded rather unfortunately by the death of arguably Africa's greatest icon, Nelson Mandela. So it was not surprising that Madiba's demise dampened the anticipation of The EXPERIENCE, at least on social media.

I arrived at the venue at a time I thought was early enough but ladies and gentlemen I underestimated The EXPERIENCE. So there was this long queue that almost stretched from TBS to Obalende. But as someone who was determined to run into the presence of my helper (TBS), I humbly joined the queue. However, I was not too excited about this "queue" thing for personal reasons. There is something about me, women and queues (mouth sealed).

BEHOLD TOMIWA OLAGUNJU, NIGERIA'S AEROSPACE ENGINEERING PRODIGY

Oluwatomiwa Adetoyese Olagunju has achieved an uncommon feat by building an aircraft. This had been his childhood dream and he worked at it tenaciously. The graduate of aerospace engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) was a member of an eight-man team that built and piloted a prototype aircraft as part of his final year project. The team’s project was tagged “The Vermilion Project”. The team was tasked to design and build an aircraft to carry the greatest amount of payload given certain restrictions, including use of a specific engine, a total size limit (225) in span + length) and some material restrictions.

The mission was to take off in less than 200 ft, complete a simple flight circuit of a field and land in less than 400 ft. The entire plane was built with a combination of bass, balsa and spruce woods. The aircraft the team built has a 10ft wing span and 6.7ft long from propeller to tail. It weighed 19 pounds without the payload and 45 pounds with the payload. Oluwatomiwa personally worked on the fuselage, tail aerodynamics and control system.

He and his team soon began to make the headline as the FIT felt that what the team did was good enough to complete with some of the best from around the world; so, it was entered for the society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Aero Design East competition, where they competed against engineering students from all over the world.

Studying and graduating as an aerospace engineer, though challenging, was very exciting for Tomiwa. Here are some interesting things that he had to say about his experience so far.


The motivation that led him to embark on building the aircraft

In my third year at the University, we were tasked with coming up with ideas for our final projects and I quickly keyed into designing and building an autonomous aircraft that would be able to drop a payload at a given specifications. Although I was not able to do that project, I was assigned to a similar team to build a remote-controlled aircraft and the experience was definitely more fulfilling than I imagined.”

How he feels being a Blackman in a white- dominated environment
FIT has a diverse campus and a wide variety of people from all over the world. To be honest, race was not really a factor in my experience here.


What really motivated him to study the course?
I have always been fascinated with airplanes, rockets and flight in general and when I started thinking about my career, I initially wanted to be a pilot. But as I got older, I developed a greater interest in what goes on behind the scenes. I did a little more research and decided to study Aeronautical/Aerospace Engineering in the university. I could recollect watching the TV with my parents when I was about seven years old. We saw a plane crash with some casualties.

 “The question that came to my mind as a child then was: ‘Is it not possible to design aircraft that will not break into pieces or explode? That was when my dream grew bigger about aircraft and flight.”


The role played by his parents
My parents are also a strong factor. My father has always taught me not only to work hard, but to work smart and always think about the big picture. He also taught me never to limit myself, but to push harder to become great. My mother encourages me and strengthens my belief in myself and God.


His plans for the future
It is not enough to qualify as an engineer; I still have my eyes fixed on the bigger picture. I need to build an edge in a highly competitive world. This ambition has compelled me to apply for a Masters Degree programme in engineering management at the FIT, which I hope will help to integrate my engineering knowledge with business practices.


Credit: Daily Newswatch

I AM DEAD!!! STOP LYING ABOUT ME

 

I lost my grandmother sometime ago and it was really a shock because I didn’t see it coming at all. So my mother calls me up early in the week to inform me that I would be giving a speech at her funeral on behalf of the entire family. I was half expecting it but I just thought my mother would prove me wrong this time around.

What made this news more amazing was that the family had come to a consensus that I was their right man for the job. I wish they knew better. Here is one thing about me for starters; I am still studying for my first degree in flattering don’t know how to flatter people, whether they are dead or alive.

Thinking about how I was going to stand in front of the family and fellow mourners and give a piece of my mind to my Grandmother one last time was exhausting to say the least. Most of my thoughts had to do with how those on the outside of her life perceive things versus how things are viewed from the inside out. I was going to talk about the woman I knew and would care less if it is not the popular opinion.

I remember asking my mother what she wanted me to say, just to gauge her judgment. Apparently she was more concerned about the delivery than the content of my speech, possibly because like everyone else she expects me to say the nicest things about her mother…whether they were true or false. Well, it got me thinking. Why is it that people don’t say anything bad about the dead?

Words are very powerful, and I take that responsibility with a generous amount of discipline even at the risk of offending others. But most times figuring out the truth can be pretty tough and sometimes the truth can be conflicting. There are times I had said something that I later regret, but I refuse to berate myself about it because it captured that particular moment. Sometimes the things we regret saying can help draw attention to something which could have easily been forgotten or at best shoved aside. And it might be something that could trigger a path to redemption.

I do regret quite a lot of things I have said, but I would regret it even more if I didn’t say the truth. Those moments when I think ‘Well, I shouldn’t have said that at all…either because I think in retrospect, that it was not appropriate, or might be misunderstood, or reveals too much info, there is a part of me that questions my own self questioning. Why not just say what needs to be said, whether it’s harsh, or a secret is revealed and it’s you against the world. Why must the truth be subdued when it ultimately brings freedom?

Why are we so obsessed about editing the lives of our friends and loved ones to make it more palatable for public consumption? The more we censor our expression about the dead, the more we are sending a message which negates who they really were. By telling ourselves ‘You can’t say that about the dead’ we are making ourselves feel ashamed about their lives. And this censorship can lead to lying about the dead, which for me is impious. So let us ensure that we live good lives so that we would not be tempting our friends and loved ones to lie about us when we are gone.

So here is what I have decided to do. I will stand before my family, fellow mourners and the entire village and tell them the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In the end she has lived her life and it is left for us to build on her legacy and learn from her mistakes. We all need to free ourselves from this self imposed restriction of saying good things about people even when their life was the opposite. Please do endeavor to speak honestly and most importantly do live an honest life. Honesty is the key.

I BELIEVE I CAN FLY: THE POWER OF SELF LOVE

I have been pondering on this issue of love for a while now and believe me it's not the easiest thing to deal with. Sometimes it's hard to tell who you really love and who really loves you back. I cannot boast to have really fallen in love but am not ruling it out completely. 

One thing I have been able to establish so far is that this thing called "Love" can be very powerful, possibly the most powerful phenomenon known to mankind. The intrigues, suspense, twists and turns can be too much for a faint heart, which explains why heartbreak has become a lover's best friend. I know a lover friend who has been so heartbroken over the years, so in order to protect her heart, whenever someone tells her "I love you", she just simply says "Thank you very much". 

So in my quest to curb heartbreak further unravel the mystery of true love, I came across an inspiring article by another lover friend and I thought I should share. Hope it inspires you too and hopefully just like me you will learn how to fly find the best kind of love.

Much of what you do is done either to get love or to compensate for lack of love, beginning in early childhood. The emotion of love exerts an enormous influence on your every choice and decision. Your self-ideal, the guiding mechanism of your self-concept and the regulator of your behaviour, can be understood as your ideal of the kind of person you need to be to earn the love and respect of the people you care about.

Almost everything you and I do today, the goals we set, the dreams we have, the commitments we make, is influenced by the power of love in our lives. You can be the most beautiful person in the world and everybody sees lights and rainbow when they look at you, but if you don’t see yourself in such light all of that doesn’t even matter. Every second that you spend on doubting your worth, every moment that you use to criticize yourself; is a second of your life wasted, Is a moment of your life thrown away, it’s not like anyone here on planet earth has forever to live, so we should not waste any of our seconds, don’t throw even one of your moment away.     

The person in life that you will always be with the most is yourself. Even when you are with others, you are still with yourself. You are with yourself, lying in bed at night, you are with yourself walking down the street in the sunlight, you are with yourself going about your daily activities, and you are always with yourself. What kind of person do you want to wake up with? Because that person is yourself, and it’s your responsibility to be that person you want to be with.

The most powerful relationship you will ever have after your relationship with God is the relationship with yourself. To live a happy life, you must recognize the truth of your story, finish the story, it happened but you are still here, you are still powerful and capable, you are not your circumstances. You are still fully equipped with every single tool you need to fulfill your purpose.

I love me, you should Love you too.

NIGERIA'S OLUMIDE ALIU ELECTED FIRST AFRICAN PRESIDENT OF ICAO

 

A Nigerian, Dr Olumide Bernard Aliu, has been elected as president of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council; making him the first African to head the world aviation safety body.

Mr. Aliu was elected ICAO Council president on Monday at the 38th Assembly of the organization in Montreal, Canada. He scored a total of 149 votes from the council which consists of 172 member countries.

Nigeria became a member of ICAO in 1960 and was elected into the Council of ICAO in 1962 as a Part II member State. The country has since remained on the Council and has continued to promote the interest of Nigeria and Africa on the Council as well as contribute to the development and growth of civil aviation in the region.

ASUU STRIKE: NIGERIAN STUDENTS VERSUS ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF UNIVERSITIES POLITICAL PARTY (ASUUPP)

I have been refraining myself from writing about the ongoing ASUU strike for some time now. This is simply because I didn't understand if the struggle was for an increase in the lecturers' paltry income or the overall improvement of University education in Nigeria.

However, I now strongly believe that the lecturers and the politicians are merely playing hide and seek with the students. For someone who understands Nigerian politics to some degree, it is not hard to tell that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Academic Staff Union of Universities Political Party (ASUUPP) are on the same canoe boat. My sincere apologies to the few 2.5% lecturers who genuinely mean well for the Nigerian students.

Our your lecturers have been appearing and disappearing in and out of ASO Rock in the past few weeks lobbying for their selfish interest negotiating for the interest of the Nigerian students. And if the reputation of ASO Rock as the National Bakery Seat of Power is anything to go by, some of our esteemed lecturers may have gotten slices of the National bread Cake. I doubt if their conscience will allow them considering they are fighting for their pockets students. But like the old saying goes “the monkey can only vouch for the child in her womb because she may not know when the one on her back plucked a fruit”

I hear the strike will end sooner than some prophets had prophesied we expect. Evidently, the Nigerian students are the biggest losers at the end of the day. More than four months of their precious lives disrupted (for some negatively and for others positively). But for the lecturers their lives will never remain the same, at least if for only the fact that they have captured the attention of the country again with their pastime strike action. And not forgetting their pockets running over.

So if the lecturers demands are met today and they go home smiling to their girlfriends wives, what will become the fate of the Nigerian students who have endured in this struggle with them. I will tell you that free of charge, you can thank me later. Here are the ten point’s agenda I came up with;

1. The students will not smell benefit from the 1.7 trillion naira whether directly or indirectly. Except maybe for those who are in the lecturer’s good beds books.

2. The students will still be forced to buy handouts and half baked textbooks at exorbitant prices from the government lecturers. And for the students who do not comply, their days may be longer.

3. The innocent students will still be extorted before they pass certain examinations. And the lecturers will always be patronized by the students of the department of Aristology, who will always pay their way through school.

4. The students will still be made to pay the same astronomical tuition or it may even go higher.

5. The students will still be sexually harassed by government officials Mr. Lecturer.

6. Some students will unfortunately witness another strike before they eventually gain freedom graduate. I will be overwhelmed if the lecturers prove me wrong.

7. The students will still be subjected to the mercies of our poor educational system and there will be continuous tales of why they can't improve the educational standard.

8. There will still be the knowledge gap amongst Nigerian students. They will continue to graduate and overpopulate the labour market with little or absolutely no clue of where to go from there.

9. The students will not get back the last four months especially for those who have been dancing skelewu and nacking akpako doing nothing.

10. The students will not get sitting allowance for attending lectures like their counterparts in the national assembly.

The good news for the students is that strike or no strike, your destiny is in your hands and not that of ASUUPP. The strike does not hold any key to your becoming what you want to be in life. So you can drop out of school become the next tuface success story by keeping your dream alive. Don’t think of what ASUU can do for you but what you can do for your lecturers life to be fulfilling. I wish you guys all the very best.


The writer is an ASUU Strike Alumni and has been studying Strikology at the University of Naija since June 2013. He is the author of the International bestseller MY BOOK OF SUCCESS STORIES (Call 08187808666 for more enquiries)