THE STRENGTH IN ADJUSTMENT

Preacher of probity caught in the act of indecency!

How comes I end up in a situation like this?

Always seeing myself as a model of propriety;

Now, what I feel is nowhere close to bliss.

Am not the type that whine about embarrassment,

For in correction lies a chance of rectification.

With the adjustment comes an indomitable strength

And with the strength comes my restoration.

However, the old me is nothing but a past.

Gazing at the mirror, I spot my bona-fide self.

As if “the man” can forecast,

The future I now envisage with the difference.

THE TREND SHE PORTEND

(For Her)

 

In this school and certainly beyond,

Her enchantment is that of Zebra

Among other animals in the kingdom.

Her beauty, beyond doubt, transcends.

Even to them that tends to pretend,

Her elegance to this end they must commend.

For the trend she portend, no one can contend.

I looked beyond the yonder,

Far above, beneath, and beyond the border.

Searching and seeking for the light

That radiate with so much brightness in this darkened earth.

Am I this sightless? Looking beyond the horizon

When the light I seek is nowhere far-off.

Right in front of me, she sits with the gentleness of a dove.

With the gracefulness of an elephant,

She apprises me of my frivolity.

With the pride of a lion,

I divulge my desire to remain frivolous;

If with seriousness, my serious feelings

I never can seriously express.
Can anyone deride me for being this ‘unseriously’ serious?

NB ‘UNSERIOUSLY’, though not a Standard English was used for rhyming purpose only.

HER OPEN SECRETS

She moves with decency,

But some thought its all ‘effizy’.

Everything about her is chastity,

Thus, the wise appreciates her modesty.

In her conversation dwells honesty,

Her friends testify to her fidelity.

Strangers revel in her propriety.

Nevertheless, fools despise her virtuosity.

To her, learning ends in the grave.

In her head, you find knowledge engraved.

The school library is her dwelling house

With the books therein, her spouse.

Even when her dreamed 5.00 seems improbable,

She keeps saying it is achievable.

Someone scoffed, “This lady is imaginary”. 

I replied, “In B.U.K. it’s nothing but reality.”

Sowing and Reaping: The Maxims

One thing had been established in this world since time immemorial; you cannot reap without sowing; but sowing alone is not a guarantee of reaping. Some planted weed and at the harvest period finds nothing to reap because the weed had been removed so that the good and harvest-able crops can find ground to germinate. A very popular saying in most languages is that “what you sow is what you reap”.

It is now a common occurrence that those that expect greatest reward are certainly those that planted little or nothing at the earliest stage in life. When issues are raised about this set of people, people generally conclude that the only group of people that expect to reap bountifully even without sowing are the politicians. Contrary to this notion, these sets of people exist in every facet of human life.

Of a great concern today are students in Nigerian tertiary institutions that implanted laziness when they are expected to input all their efforts into sowing hard-work and perseverance. This group of students now expect to reap success and victory in plenteous. Am not concluding that all Nigerian students in tertiary institutions exhibit laziness, because with this, I will not be doing justice to some students that give all their best to achieve what they are today.

For those that realize that they have not been giving all their best into sowing bounteously, the chance is here to change their perception and give their 110% into implanting seeds that when it germinates they will be proud to show the harvest to the whole world.

According to Henry Ford, ‘’whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right”. Below are set of maxims that is expected to be employ in our day to day activities:

If you sow honesty, you will reap trust.

If you sow goodness, you will reap friends.

If you sow humility, you will reap greatness.

If you sow perseverance, you will reap victory.

If you sow consideration, you will reap harmony.

If you sow hard-work, you will reap success.

If you sow forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.

If you sow openness, you will reap intimacy.

If you sow patience, you will reap improvements.

If you sow faith, you will reap miracles.

  AND

If you sow dishonesty, you will reap distrust.

If you sow selfishness, you will reap loneliness.

If you sow pride, you will reap destruction.

If you sow envy, you will reap trouble.

If you sow laziness, you will reap stagnation.

If you sow bitterness, you will reap isolation.

If you sow greed, you will reap loss.

If you sow gossip, you will reap enemies.

If you sow worries, you will reap wrinkles.

If you sow sin, you will reap guilt.

These axioms may appear pithy and aphoristic, but they are tested and trusted; in fact they are indubitable. They will help anyone that chooses to follow them.

Bahaushe Mai Ban Haushi!: Migration To The Digital Media

Migration To The Digital Media; The Problems, The Prospects

It is salient and expedient to critically examine the major talking points in Ibrahim Sheme’s Migration to the Digital Media. Ibrahim Sheme, a writer of unquestionable objectivity, outlined some of the problems plaguing migration to the digital media in the developing countries. These problems, according to him, are poverty, poor reading culture and lack of vision. However, the challenges are not limited to these three hurdles. Traditional media practitioners in developing countries are bedeviled with other problems, among which are – but not restricted to – high level of illiteracy among the heterogeneous and diversified audiences, low level of technological development and the nonchalant (I don’t care) attitude of the masses.

At the same time, traditional media practitioners in developing countries are also plagued with what Wilbur Schramm termed ‘Fraction of Selection’. Schramm, in explaining or answering the fundamental question of what determines the media or media content an individual pays attention to, postulated the assertion that people tends to divide their ‘expectation of reward’ from the media or media content by the ‘effort required’ to acquire such media or media content. This fraction works against the traditional media practitioners in their quest to migrate to the digital media as most people still consider the traditional media easier to access than the new digital and ‘sophisticated’ media.

However, these problems notwithstanding, traditional media practitioners in developing countries (Nigeria in mind) are advice to move along with the trend. According to Sheme, one of the secrets to succeeding in this different and lustrous terrain is to be ‘proactive’ – creating or controlling the trend rather than just responding to it. Nigeria traditional media practitioners need to create a new and different strategy in introducing their audiences to this digital media, bearing in mind the heterogeneity of the audiences.

In addition, Nigeria media practitioners must be able to diversify their digital products in order to make themselves attractive to the ‘web-generation’. Another successful formula traditional media practitioners in Nigeria can employ according to Sheme is to start early. As he put it, “many of the media companies enjoying the goodies of the new genre in Europe are those that took the all-important step a long time ago...” For Nigeria media practitioners, the time is ‘now’ and not a long time ago; if they can plunge into this awesome world of disseminating news, information and entertaining ‘now’, it is evidential that they will reap the dividends of their ‘risky’ commitment in no time.

For the media practitioners that may perceive this apt migration as a potential and looming disaster (an eventual loss of employment) should change their perspective. Instead of prophesying doom, they should grasp this opportunity for a more rewarding career. As Sheme put it, “... you do not have to be a newspaper owner or big operator of an existing media house to be able to go into the digital media business...” Henry Ford said “whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right”.

Finally, the existing media companies; that have already migrated or that are migrating to the digital media, can attract more patronage to their online content by not only updating the information constantly but by probing for more ways they can gratify their audiences. They can also garner more audiences for their digital media through self-ads on their own traditional media. Ultimately, with time, traditional media practitioners in Nigeria will not only successfully migrate to the digital media but at the same time preserve the traditional media, considering the fact that people are dynamic and their preferences greatly differs.