2023 - The Year of Big Bold Moves, 2024 the Quadratic Year?

Numbers do have meaning I think. For me, the years of 3's (1993, 2003, 2013) always seem to go by without any resounding big life milestone. No graduation, no birth, no deaths, no drama.

Such was 2023 except there were big moves. Nigeria has an election. I took on a new work leaving a company I built for nearly 15 years, and entered public service full time.

The year was also built around opportunities for me. A year that my emotional intelligence was tested and here we are in 2024, the year of the 4 decades for me.

One week to my birthday, I checked this blog that I have wanted to updated for months and figured it is good to drop a line or two on here -the only word is GRATITUDE.

The journey has been intense but eventful. In this four decades, I'm most grateful to four categories of people on this journey: My Parents - for without them, the core values and opportunities I have today I many never even smell, I stand on the shoulder of giants; My Family - this include my wife, my siblings and my cousins; they've brought only laughter and joy to my life. They've aided, challenged and driven my progress in life in ways they cannot even imagine. Because of them I'm complete and for this I'm grateful; My Friends - I think I've been blessed with the best group of friends any man can ask for. From primary to secondary to university to even my post-school work life, I've been blessed with good humans who always root for me, stand in the gap for me and give me the best advice. Inclusive of this are my very older aged mentors, my older friends; My Children - Isaac and Isabella have only brought profound sense of responsibility to my life's journey. These two angels have been instrumental to my humanity, they are the reason I do what I do when all lights are off and because of them I'm blessed. 

As I look forward to celebrate next week, I'm conscious of the saying that a Fool at Forty is a Fool Forever, how about a wise men? Does the converse apply? I hope it does. 

2022 - Reset, Redisccovering Me in 2023

​This blog holds sort of a timeline of grown adult life for me. It is a collection of thoughts that date back different epoch of my life, first as a young entrepreneur and budding policy wonk, when I discovered blogging. Those early years were fun, I read and wrote copiously. 

Blogging was an offshoot of a favourite last time, contributing editorially to the slew of online message boards and platforms focused on issues impacting my country of origin: Nigeria, from the Diaspora. I had written severally for the likes of Amebo.com, Dawodu.com, NigeriaVillageSqare.com and iNigeria (then NIA).  It was all about learning, growing and sharing.

In the last few years as business and family building took over. & wrote less and I read less. I sort of missed it, even though long haul travels associated with my work has enabled to creatively cheat on the reading one. But writing became harder amongst all the distractions.

Then 2022 happened…life changed

This pages will be filled up for the better. My intellectual juices flowing. Life has happened and there are bountiful lessons to learn and share. Watch these pages 

2022 Travels to Remember: South Korea and Mombassa top the chart…

2022 Book to Remember: 

This book written by an early European business man seeking fortunes in Nigeria pioneer lumbering sector from the 40s is a must read for anyone who loves Nigeria. It shows dramatically how quickly the country has modernized and businesses improved.  

And oh my photo of the year, gotta be this young man …God bless them all.

2021 - The Year without a Mind of its own

​2021 seem to be a quiet continuation of 2020 it seems. We all agreed that 2020 was postponed because of how the world was shutdown by the pandemic. The crazy 2020 continued waltzing through the next year it seems, as I can’t seem to take hold of something that happened in 2021 that didn’t seem to have started in 2020. The two years seem like conjoined twins for good or for bad.

One distinct difference though: Donald Trump. I mean, who could have imagined the White House can be a whole lot quiet and disciplined. One day, One Trouble guy has ported. Lol. 

2021 has been a good year on the whole. Started with great personal challenges for me, but ending on a good, happy note. What is life without challenges? I faced my greatest personal challenges this year but they only matured me and prepared me for my greatest professional and business triumphs! I’m particularly grateful for good friends and partners, close family members and my children for making tough times seem so less tough- what can I do without you guys?

Health wise..

For me, I will remember 2021 for being the year of COVID tests (I think I’ve logged close to 50 due to my numerous travels, the three trips to Ghana alone logged 12..lol). And also the year I finally caught Malaria after 25 years of dodging the bullet. Ol boy, was it tough. 

Travel wise…

I did more of Africa as I always wanted to do this year. Visited Rwanda and Sudan for the first time and throughly enjoyed it. I ate all kinds of food on this journeys. Will be back in Rwanda in January 2022 and hope to add Mauritius, Madagascar and Cape Verde to my travel path in 2022. 

Best trip gotta be the tour of Egypt especially the Sinai Peninsula during my birthday. I was with long time friends and hosted by the Sheikh of Cairo, Idris Bello. I thoroughly enjoyed the sumptuous food and company of my Egbon, Babafemi Ojudu and Ahmed Alimi as well. Fond memories. 

The most fun local trip was the visit to Yankari Game Reserve and the swim at Wiki Warm springs but the best local trip gotta go to the Calabar-Uyo swing with my young buddies. We even used the canoe to connect Calabar and Oron. OMG! 

Books and Reads..

I enjoyed reading the Early Jewish Wars, quite a bit. Clarified some issues around Christianity for me. The book, Sapiens was also an enlightening read. I only read on planes this year. This was just a matter of convenience for me. But we can do better next year.

2021 was about finishing or completing goals we missed out on in 2020. But I’m equally convinced that many things that we never got around to start in 2020 were also started in 2021 including things that needed to be cleaned out, restarted or re-engineered. For starters, our relationships got that re-engineering bit for good or for bad. Things fell into places. Grateful.