₦airaland Forum

1. Leadership skills: Can we stress this enough? The leadership we are talking about begins with how well you are able to lead yourself and others. Developing the right leadership skills will leave you making huge impacts and influencing as many people as possible. It will make your absence at any point in time to be very well pronounced that people will be wondering to themselves, if only he can be here!

2. Listening skills: You will be living in a world of your own if you do not believe that listening is a skill and one that must be cultivated. One of the things that throws spanner to the wheel of achieving results is when all you do is hear. Listening will enhance your ability to absorb and process information quickly and accurately too. The result you produce will depend on how well you listen to either superiors or even subordinates. Whether in appreciative listening, empathic listening, comprehensive listening or critical listening, you must sharpen your listening skills.

3. Creative thinking: Your ability to process thoughts in an original, imaginative, purposeful, valuable and goal oriented way will greatly set you apart. Creative thinking will give you an edge at producing great ideas and solutions to problems when you reflect on thoughts, evaluate ideas, iterate them and plan ahead in very quick successions.

4. Questioning: Topnotch questioning skill will not just prevent you from asking dumb and foolish questions, it will enable you to assess deep knowledge and information about matters. Use of effective questioning skill will enhance connection between you and anyone you engage in a conversation. It is a way of breaking down complex issues into small understandable parts.

5. Emotional intelligence: Surely you’ve heard of emoticons. You Infact use them on your social media platforms such as whatsapp, bbm etc perhaps without knowing it stands for “emotional icon”. Just as you understand what each means when you receive them is how you must be able to recognise your emotion and that of others. You must go on to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately using such emotional information to guide and manage thinking as well as behavior.

6. Persuasion: Except you intend to rest in the cocoons of your room all life long, you will need this skill to influence people’s beliefs, attitudes, intentions and behaviors. In all your encounters, you will have to deal with people of different origin, different backgrounds, ideals, tenets and values. To maximize result and output, you will need this skill to get the best out of people and situations.

7. Interpersonal relationship: Life cannot be lived in isolation. You definitely need people as you go up and down the ladder of life. No matter how brief your social connection is with others, that brief contact may leave an impression that will last a life time with those you had contact with. It then lies in your interest to interact and treat others well.

8. Digital literacy: The transformative power of today’s technology to solve problems can not by any means be underestimated. Here, we talk of skills that enables you to locate, organise, analyse, communicate, collaborate, and effectively apply knowledge and information using technologies.

9. Communication: What is the essence of beautiful thoughts and sound ideas without an effective know-how on how to pass it across? Your capacity to use words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to pass information or to express your ideas, thoughts and feelings will definitely put you in a top enviable class.

10. Crisis management: Who will desire your presence when all your conducts at the face of emergencies is unmanly? Perhaps you even daunt others and sap them of their confidence. You must develop the confidence and capacity to handle unforeseen circumstances and turn them around for your good and that of people around you. This skill will enhance the way you handle, contain, and resolve sudden events.

http://www.loftycentre.com/blog/2016/10/16/10-major-skills-that-will-always-make-you-stand-out/

Eskew in his book titled Sing with Understanding, An Introduction to Christian Hymnology defines hymns as a lyric poem, reverently and devotionally conceived, which is designed to be sung and which expresses the worshipper's attitude toward God or God's purposes in human life. It should be simple and metrical in form, genuinely emotional, poetic and literary in style, spiritual in quality, and in its ideas so direct and so immediately apparent as to unify a congregation while singing it.

Hymns as I understand it are beautiful in tune, lyrical in writing with each word absolutely pivotal and directional

Pick up a big hymn book and you will always see one hymn that connects with your soul for whatever your state of life is. The mystery is that those great hymns are centuries old. consider "it is well" published as far back as 1876 and you will understand what I am saying.

without boring anyone with stories, Do people still write great Hymns? and I don't mean remixing old hymns by outright or partial change of lyrics.
If yes, are they as great as the great ones we know? if no, what made the difference between those men and women of old who wrote the great Hymns and those of us in the now! (we sure still have Great people)

Regardless of the statistics one choose to adopt, the figure of Nigeria’s population does not project anything short of being fat. Figures differ but it is safe to adopt the United Nation’s estimates that the current population of Nigeria as at 4 September 2016 is about 187,780,165 which is equivalent to 2.4% of the total world population. The caveat of what statistics one can choose to adopt is excusable, the country had her last census in 2006.

Nigeria has worn a beautiful toga of being the giant of her mother continent for years, perhaps if one look beyond the population figure, that brand of being the giant can be challenged by all standard and as the year went by, Nigeria continued to slip from every front at which she has lead the mother Africa. Can this be explained? Most likely! Any country that won’t take leadership serious is bound to slip and eventually fall.

Nigeria has an unpalatable history when it comes to leadership. The dark days of military dictatorship are better left unmentioned and even though the country has returned to democracy for more than 17 years, the story of satisfactory leadership has remained a mirage, a great illusion. If one sees people in group or in groups, one can predict that the discussions are about Nigeria, her leaders and the many problems facing the country. One of the things you can’t take away from the beautiful people of Nigeria is the ability to analyse problems and apportion blames with little or no emphasis on the way out. An analytics of many discussion has continued to lean on whether the many problems of Nigeria is that of leaders or followers; bad followers or bad leaders.

Everything rises and falls on leadership said John Maxwell, but does this absolve the lead of leadership responsibility? This question brings one to the concept of self-leadership. Though not too popular in this part of the world, the subject of self-leadership is the missing link between the lead and the leader. The many followers with great grudges about their leaders have never taken self-leadership serious. We take it for granted that the lead will one day become the leader and as a bad self-leader, such person cannot lead others better “the one who is poor at being lead cannot by any means be good at being the leader”. John Ng said in his book “Dim Sum leadership: your second serving” that great leadership is a cultivated art and great leadership begins with self-leadership. Leadership success or failure begins with how the leader approaches self-leadership.

The model of self-leadership hinges on the fact that the effectiveness of other-management (leading others) stands on the firmness of self-awareness, self-management and then other-awareness. Self-awareness focuses on the ability to acknowledge and understand one’s own values, perspectives, strengths, weaknesses and emotional needs while self-management deals with the ability to nurture and harness one’s own passion, abilities & emotions into sound decision making. Other-awareness refers to the ability to acknowledge and recognize the passion, gifting, strengths, weaknesses, potentials and needs of others.

This underscores our focus at Lofty Transformation Centre on an inside-out approach to leadership. As a centre, we believe that the concept of self-leadership implies that a man has the responsibility of first leading himself and how much good work he does leading himself is good predictor of what he will do if ten subjects, ten thousand subjects or even ten million subjects are added to him to lead. And because such a leader has done a good job with himself, becoming a transformation leader is with ease.

Through the strength of his awareness and acknowledgement of his vision and personality, he is able to inspire and motivate his followers to work towards common goals. Governance therefore to the followers does not appear as government of a few by a few and for a few.

A sincere shift from transactional leadership to transformational leadership is the transformation we need as a people whether as a leader or as a follower. It throws a huge weight behind a shift from give and take relationship to leadership by example and articulation of vision. Every single Nigerian must assume the office of transformational leadership either as the lead or as the leader in order to become moral exemplar of working towards the benefit of the nation.
This is the way to go as a people and this is a call unto transformation.

http://www.loftycentre.com/blog/2016/09/06/nigeria-the-lead-the-leader-and-the-link-a-call-to-action/

Council of State rejects election postponement

The Council of State on Thursday rose from a seven-hour meeting, advising the Independent National Electoral
Commission to go ahead and perform its constitutional
responsibility of conducting the 2015 elections.
Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State told State
House correspondents that INEC told the council that it
was ready for the conduct of the election.
He said security chiefs also expressed their readiness but raised issues about some local governments currently under the control of the Boko Haram sect.
The implication, he said, is that elections will not hold in
the affected areas.

But Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State claimed
that the council advised INEC to consider all the inputs
made during the meeting with a view to taking a decision
it will announce to Nigerians later.

Source:
http://www.punchng.com/news/council-of-state-
rejects-election-postponement/

Many intrigues have continued to gather around the Nigerian polity. Sadly, many of these intrigue are sentiment based, many do not even know why they are supporting who they are supporting or what they really want!
This should be an high intelligence based discussion with no sentiments and bigotry of either religion or ethnicity.

Each contributor should please state 5reasons why GMB should be voted and 5reasons why GEJ Should NOT be voted OR
5reasons why GEJ should be voted and 5reasons why GMB should NOT be voted

"@atiku: Congratulations General Buhari. The delegates have spoken, you fully deserve the victory -AA http://pic.twitter.com/Ryn07MaPWi"

"@atiku: Congratulations General Buhari. The delegates have spoken, you fully deserve the victory -AA http://pic.twitter.com/Ryn07MaPWi"

Anybody with the link to the e-copy should please post it as soon as possible

BREAKING: Abuja court orders Police, Customs to seize Obasanjo's book, 'My Watch' -source-Dailypost http://dailypost.ng/?p=202527

Yes its time

Nice one. Thumps up

With a call for action to put a stop to unsolicited sms & calls, this page is raving on facebook and twitter through the hashtag #ENOUGHisENOUGH

How does it feel when you are expecting a bank Alert and all you get is unsolicited and annoying SMS & CALLS?

How does it feel when you hurriedly delete an important sms as soon as it entered your phone thinking its one of those annoying sms from your network provider?

how does it feel when after calling your network provider, they still wont stop sending you this unnecessary messages?

Do we deserve this frustration for been a GSM network subscriber?

NIGERIANS are saying #ENOUGHofUNSOLICITEDsms from MTN/AIRTEL/GLO/ETISALAT

#ENOUGHisENOUGH
#NCCsaveOURsoul

#NCC.SOS

Be a part of this petition...like this page www.facebook.com/sosncc

Lagos postpones schools resumption
The Lagos State Government has rescinded its
decision that public and private primary and
secondary schools should resume tomorrow,
September 22.
The schools are now to reopen on October 8.
The state Governor, Babatunde Fashola (SAN),
announced this today during a meeting with
some stakeholders in the education sector.
Fashola met with principals, vice principals and
headmasters of secondary and primary schools
in the state today.

Okay. We have heard

With the rave of technology spreading like wild fire, it won't be an unsound suggestion that everyone should get caught up in the web of development that technology has to offer.
It could be as simple as dialling numbers to reach friends and family who are miles away without any risk that one could have imagined if one is to hit the road on a journey to see one's beloved.

No doubt, the advent and constant growth of technology has made life a lot easier, that it simplifies our day to day activities cannot be over emphasised.
The need to further explore technology as a tool for governance should at this time be considered.
This article is using the recently convened meeting of all states commissioner of education in nigeria by the minister of Education, Mr Shekarau as its dignified case study.
One can imagine the amount of time, energy, money and other resources that could be saved if those commissioners and their aides were to attend the meeting right in the comfort of their office with the help of video-conferencing(just one of the many tools of technology)
Hold no doubt! Several of those class of meetings can be held without any long trip and still guarantee the same order of participation and results generated in physical attendance
One can only wonder how things will continually be theoretically taught in the walls of our schools without much real application yet this governments (state and federal) have ministries of technology and communication.
Technology has since gone far beyond just using phone to make calls and text messages. Let's deploy more technology to governance.
'Dayo Ademola-kay is a keen observer of the Nigerian polity
Follow @Ademola_kay

I think it has to do more with his sexual orientation. Your man might have some bias religious disposition that has built in him over time. He consider what you want as outrageous, wild and crazy(in his thinking, those stuffs are not for marriage (thats where you two are heading i believe) they are for some girls you pick from the club). Your man needs total re-orientation on everything about sex. I strongly recommend that you both should start reading funmi akingbade's column in saturday punch you can also get a compilation of her past column from bookshop or simple get as many saturday punch as possible. Read them together and watch if his orientation changes. If it does not, you two should seek counselling. If you can't resolve it after this two steps, then am afraid that 'when' you go ahead with the marriage, this will be the basis for your frustration and un-happiness. I particularly recommend funmi akingbade, she has done a lot to demystify sex especially all the religious bias on it.

Very well noted

Just took part on the burial of an old grand mother and am particularly concerned about all the prayers people including priest offers for the dead. As a christian, am aware of the fact that judgement comes immediately after death as "it is appointed unto man to die once, after this, judgement". I hold the personal belief that a man's fate is sealed immediately he dies and so all prayers offered does not have any effect on the dead. I stand to be corrected please!

Pls i also need this book. ¶ will appreciate if u send it to lekeademola001@gmail.com. Thanks

Sahara reporters!!! My president is an SU o. E no Dey drink