"It is terrible in school and more terrible at home", "Bring back our school days". This are two of the numerous updates on boredom I have been getting from my fellow University of Lagos students via instant messaging applications in less than one week of vacation.


I am sure you have also gotten something similar too or you have perhaps updated something of such nature yourself. Well, I had a chat with one of the concerned akokite with regards the rant on boredom and I was perplexed to know that all he has in plans going home was "to add weight". My jaw literally dropped in shock, such amazement that made me consider "add weight" a figurative expression rather than physical and to add salt to my injury, he then made me see through his plans by relating "adding weight" solely to his outlook!!!



I am neither writing to judge a friend nor make public a private conversation but I am writing because a host of us are still not sure on what this 6 weeks of our lives respectively should or can be used for. As a concerned akokite and an advocate of common sense, I will be sharing some anecdotes, illustrations and suggestions all on the subject matter and I am sure if well digested like a well prepared fufu and vegetable soup it will inspire us to take actions and also help us get maximum benefit from the not too long and not too short holiday.



Now take a walk with me through this, do we all have three hundred and sixty five days in a year? Of course YES will be the common response but to
me, NO we do not! We have we do not! We have as many days in a year as we make use of. Let me further massacre the analysis of time like an hungry man will do to a bowl of eba and a well garnished melon soup. There is a cliche as to the number of hours we tend to use to rest (sleep), 'they say' we should sleep for eight hours a day i.e from 10:00pm-6:00am. As a mathematics student, my calculation says that is one-third of a day. This invariably implies that we are expected to sleep for one-third of our lives respectively because our time is our life or maybe I will be as right as rain to say we have been sleeping for one-third of our lives respectively.
The above analysis shows that every 18years old have slept for 6years!!! Wait, some of us still find time for that 'so much needed nap' during the day so for some, it is actually more. Now subtract the time you spend watching movies,playing games,'gisting',chatting etc you will discover that an average of us have less than 10hours of our day to ourselves respectively. We hardly find that moment in each day designed personally for us by us to think, dream and grow and yet we have gigantic aspirations in life. Such aspirations that can not be brought down by one billion haleluyahs unlike the wall of jerico.



Now, let us walk a little bit faster like an army of soldiers that just received an instruction from the general. Imagine there is a bank which credits your account each morning with #86,400. Carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day, what would you do? Withdraw every kobo, of course! Well, everyone has such bank and I like to call it is World Time Bank (WTB). Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as a loss, whatever of this amount you have failed to invest in 'good purpose'. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day, it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the records of the day to ashes like a ready made fire does to a dry wood in the meal preparation of a wedding ceremony.



Now, let us slow down our pace a bit from the walk so as to catch our breathe. The popular richest black man on the planet earth, Mr Aliko Dangote is the richest african today because of one thing! Yes, just a thing! That thing is TIME. Let us do this simple mathematics together. It takes a man two weeks to carry a bag of cement, a bag of sugar and ten cartons of spaghetti to ojota market. How long will it take two men? The answer is one week which is half the time it took a man because the effort have been doubled. Imagine that man to be Mr Aliko Dangote and the latter discussed two men are his employees. So therefore, there is an inverse relationship between time of work done and man power (effort). Mr Dangote can do his work by himself but it will take unimaginable time to complete what two or three men will call a simple task. He realizes this and then decided to buy peoples time. He does this under the umbrella of 'employment'. Every Dangote's worker have a resumption and a closing time and every time they invest in his business directly adds to Dangote's wealth though they get paid at the end of the month but trust me fellow akokites, there is no amount that is worth our time, it is priceless. Sure you will agree with me now that the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people lies in how well they use their time and how much people's time they can buy.



Fellow akokites, we have 3,628,800 seconds at our disposal, now we have 60,480 minutes waiting to be used, we have 1,008 hours of freedom, now we have 42 lecture free days to prepare for the 'examination of life' and now we have 6weeks of our lives to ourselves. It is true, of course that necessity is the mother of all invention and I know as akokites we have the drive to survive,progress and prosper that is why we are students of the university of first choice and the nation's pride and that is why we need to maximize our time out of necessity to bring to reality our huge dreams.



Sure we have conserved enough energy now, so let keep walking. My friend and also an alumni of our great institution who doubles as the convener of the popular "The Ambassador Summit 1.0 and 2.0 respectively which both held ath the unliag main auditorium in 2014 and 2015 respectively in person on Prince Joshua Oyeniyi once told me to learn how to drive a car . At first I was like 'what is the need' since I do not plan on buying one then and after letting me see the edge it gives in this changing world of ours I decided to give it a shot. That was in october 2013 and toward the end of november of the same year, which is approximately two years ago, I became a competent driver and not until early this year did I benefited from been a good driver.
It was a friend's wedding ceremony somewhere around ikoyi estate and as we were about leaving, it was discovered that the person who is to drive the newly wedded to their destination after the whole ceremony was in a not too good condition to drive, sure you know what that means and then the big quest surfaced with the groom looking towards where we were seated and he asked the open question "who can please hold the record forever as the first person under whose driving skills we will be sitting together as husband and wife for the first time" now looking towards the direction of the bride with a big grin. With so much enthusiasm and confidence like that of David when he took on Goliath I volunteered to be the record holder as though it is in simpatico with Usian Bolt's olympics 100 and 200 meters record.



Something I never bargained for then happened while driving the couples home that day. During the interaction and the process of getting better acquitted with the bride we got talking about interior design and lo and behold, I got the contract for the interior design of their near completion home somewhere in ikorodu as at then which made me not only smile to the bank, but also taught me two things. Which are;

(1) Nothing supersedes the power of volunteering and
(2) When preparation meets opportunity, success is inevitable.



You see, I was not the only one who could drive in that gathering but I was the one who volunteered and by so doing I got a job and as a result of doing it up to required standard I have gotten nothing less than five referrals from this beautiful couple. Skills and the spirit of volunteering open doors for limitless opportunities.


You see, it is wonderful how sought after you become when you have slight skill/knowledge over others. Do you know that the one who has more information/knowledge among a group of people or an association is the one who is most qualified to lead them? Do you also know that the employers of labor mostly set general qualification for any vacancy at second class upper and when too many people apply for the job which is usual, the most skillful gets the job because he has something more than others. I mean the one who has the most skills you learn outside the four walls of a school. Let us use a product or two as a case study, 'the new pepsi with extra 20 percent and the new product in the market 'big cola' will be perfect. They both have something in common, BIGGER! I doff my hat for the two companies concerned with regards the two products aforementioned. The mobile pepsi before now have a relatively low demand to coca-cola and fata while big cola is a new product. The coca-cola bottling company then decided to "add more" to pepsi and it is as though it now has more nutritional value or perhaps is the new cure for malaria because when I turn from east to west inside and outside campus all I see is the new new pepsi plastic. We all know the reason, 'they added more" to it. The way big cola breaking into the market where we have coca-cola and pepsi too is quite alarming but they also worked on a simple but profound logic of what I like to describe as 'give them more for same price policy".



Fellow akokites, I am calling you today to not return to school the way you left. Use this 6weeks of your life to 'add more' to yourselves and it will be eveident how sought after you will become when we resume and how more opportunities will come your way.

We are now on the final lap of this our long walk, don't get tired. If by now you still do not know what you can do for this 6weeks then provide answers to the following questions ;

Can you drive?
Can you swim?
Can you play tennis?
Can you speak in front of an audience?
How good is your communication skill?
How many thought provoking books have you read?
How many good movies have you seen? E.g The pursuit of happiness.
How many times have you volunteered for a non-governmental organisation?



Give answers to this questions but before that let these questions be a guiding beacon for more questions of this nature and then answer all.

You see in this ocean of high IQ infested youths, it takes a whole lot of skills outside the four walls of the classroom for you to stay afloat. We are in a very competitive environment and we must be willing to respond to the rapidly changing conditions that ricochets around the world at breakneck speed and the CATALYSTS are time, dedication and hard work. That is why you have been given 6weeks break by the school authority. So therefore, you have all the time you need.



Dear akokite, with each new day in Africa, a gazelle wakes up knowing he must outrun the fastest lion or perish. At the same time, a lion stirs and stretches, knowing he must outrun the fastest gazelle or starve. It is no different for human race. Whether you consider your self a gazelle or a lion you simply have to run faster than others to strive. Striving can not be achieved by wishful thinking. It takes doing what an ordinary person will not do for you to be extraordinary.
Please use your 6weeks holiday as if it is the 6weeks that will determine what you will turn out to be in life. Read a book or two, acquire a skill or two. Nothing is too big nor too small, do not just return to school the same way you left.



Finally, I planned my holiday a month before vacation and so far it has been great for me, though I am not content to rest my laurels, basking in the glory of what I have achieved in this short period of time, I am constantly striving to move forward, to grasp the moment with both hands and capitalize on the opportunities presented to me in this rapidly changing world of ours. It is not too late for you too to maximize this 6weeks of your life. Time is inelastic, use it well.


I am Hammed Mustapha Olawale (Catalyst) a concerned akokite and an advocate of common sense.
I really appreciate the time dedicated for the long walk we just had and I hope my anecdotes, illustrations and suggestions will be of help to you. Let's continue on whatsapp (08162726997) or on BBM (27863EAD) as it will be my pleasure to chat with you.


Watch out for #CSI. It is made in akoka for akokites but will start from the faculty of science come 2015/16 academic session.

Do have a great day.