George Weah of Liberia first sought for Liberian presidency (2005, aged 39) He failed, obtained his SSCE (2006, aged 40), his degree (2011, aged 45) and masters (2013, aged 47).
He won election to the Liberian Senate (2014, aged 48). He has just been declared the country's president (2017, aged 51) All under 12 years interval.
When you make up your mind to succeed, you must also be willing to act on your convictions! 2018 is another year, don't miss out.
Dr Abiodun Laja is the Executive Director of the Lekki British School, Lekki, Lagos. She started a private school at 27 and recently celebrated her 40th anniversary in the education sector.
In this interview, she told Samson Folarin how becoming pregnant at 19 changed her career path and the challenges she had faced over the years.
You started a private school at 27 at a time when such venture was a preserve of retired teachers.How did it happen?
Back in my secondary school days at St. Loius, Ibadan, I was good at mathematics and my father, who was an accountant, felt I would make a good accountant.
Unfortunately, I had a baby immediately I left secondary school. My father was very angry with me and I was angry with myself as well.He took the baby from me at 11 months and I went to London to study.
The early motherhood, however,changed my perception. While I was nursing the baby, my mind switched from being an accountant to education of children.When I got to England, I started doing child education as a course.
It wasn’t challenging enough and I wanted to pull out. However, I had a college mother who advised me to finish my first diploma in education before changing to accountancy. I listened. In the course of my first year, my interest got developed and I stayed in the field. After three years, I finished.
When I returned and my parents introduced me to my child, he started calling me aunty. He was calling my sister mummy. And it has been like that till date.However, I observed that I loved children. I taught atAdrao International School for two years. There I saw that not only did I love children, they loved me as well. At times they would go home and start writing notes about what I wore to school.
When I got to the school in my car, they would fight over who will carry my bags.I later moved to St Saviour’s School, Ebute Metta, which was headed by a British woman. I got fulfilment in that school and became attracted to the British curriculum.That summer, I went to Disneyland in Florida with my kids. I saw there was much to attract children.
I saw a lot of things and characters – like Mickey Mouse, and the rest of them. So, I decided to start aschool when I was only 27 years.
But why didn’t the early pregnancy break you down?This is what has damaged the future of many teenagers. Why was your case different?
It is because of my person. I don’t know how to giveup.
I have lived my life accepting challenges. I have never given up. I can cry all night, but once it is morning, I am done. But to say that something is impossible, it is never in my dictionary.
The man I had my first child with was the one I had all my children with. It was not planned, but I made up my mind not to abort, even though I was 19 years old then. I was telling my classmates that time that I was expecting a baby and they thought I was joking.
I was still the leader of the basketball, volleyball and netball teams.I believe it was to give me a turnaround in life. That time, it was like a crime as well. One cannot move forward; but I didn’t allow it to move me. The boy is now a brilliant lawyer; a New York attorney.
I once wanted to go into oil business and I met my uncle, the late Bank Anthony. I told him and he laughed and said it was a mafia thing. I laughed and told him to give me the form for mafians. He liked my aggressiveness in business and he supported me.
I run with three mottos in life which have kept me going: “Don’t let anybody disappoint you”, “Nobody is indispensable” and “Be politically and financially strong”.
Dr Abiodun Laja is the Executive Director of the Lekki British School, Lekki, Lagos. She started a private school at 27 and recently celebrated her 40th anniversary in the education sector.
In this interview, she told Samson Folarin how becoming pregnant at 19 changed her career path and the challenges she had faced over the years.
You started a private school at 27 at a time when such venture was a preserve of retired teachers.How did it happen?
Back in my secondary school days at St. Loius, Ibadan, I was good at mathematics and my father, who was an accountant, felt I would make a good accountant.
Unfortunately, I had a baby immediately I left secondary school. My father was very angry with me and I was angry with myself as well.He took the baby from me at 11 months and I went to London to study.
The early motherhood, however,changed my perception. While I was nursing the baby, my mind switched from being an accountant to education of children.When I got to England, I started doing child education as a course.
It wasn’t challenging enough and I wanted to pull out. However, I had a college mother who advised me to finish my first diploma in education before changing to accountancy. I listened. In the course of my first year, my interest got developed and I stayed in the field. After three years, I finished.
When I returned and my parents introduced me to my child, he started calling me aunty. He was calling my sister mummy. And it has been like that till date.However, I observed that I loved children. I taught atAdrao International School for two years. There I saw that not only did I love children, they loved me as well. At times they would go home and start writing notes about what I wore to school.
When I got to the school in my car, they would fight over who will carry my bags.I later moved to St Saviour’s School, Ebute Metta, which was headed by a British woman. I got fulfilment in that school and became attracted to the British curriculum.That summer, I went to Disneyland in Florida with my kids. I saw there was much to attract children.
I saw a lot of things and characters – like Mickey Mouse, and the rest of them. So, I decided to start aschool when I was only 27 years.
But why didn’t the early pregnancy break you down?This is what has damaged the future of many teenagers. Why was your case different?
It is because of my person. I don’t know how to giveup.
I have lived my life accepting challenges. I have never given up. I can cry all night, but once it is morning, I am done. But to say that something is impossible, it is never in my dictionary.
The man I had my first child with was the one I had all my children with. It was not planned, but I made up my mind not to abort, even though I was 19 years old then. I was telling my classmates that time that I was expecting a baby and they thought I was joking.
I was still the leader of the basketball, volleyball and netball teams.I believe it was to give me a turnaround in life. That time, it was like a crime as well. One cannot move forward; but I didn’t allow it to move me. The boy is now a brilliant lawyer; a New York attorney.
I once wanted to go into oil business and I met my uncle, the late Bank Anthony. I told him and he laughed and said it was a mafia thing. I laughed and told him to give me the form for mafians. He liked my aggressiveness in business and he supported me.
I run with three mottos in life which have kept me going: “Don’t let anybody disappoint you”, “Nobody is indispensable” and “Be politically and financially strong”.
A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Uche Secondus, has emerged as the new chairman of the party.
Secondus defeated all the aspirants who contested the coveted position with him in the election which was held at Eagle Square, Abuja on Saturday.
The result of the election was declared in the early hours of Sunday.Details of the poll had not been officially announced as of the time of going to press.
Secondus received strong backing of the 11 governors elected on the platform of the party, as they stood in solidarity with him throughout the exercise.
PENGASSAN has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the federal government to address injustice and lawlessness in the oil and gas sector companies or face a nationwide strike from December 18.
This is separate from the ongoing fuel scarcity across the country which the petroleum minister, Ibe Kachikwu, said on Thursday was based on inadequate supply.
Lumumba Okugbawa, General Secretary, Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, gave theultimatum in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.
Mr. Okugbawa said this was imperative in order to address anti-labour issues and lawlessness by some indigenous oil and gas companies and marginal field operators by relevant agencies of government.
He said if this was not addressed properly, it would culminate into the shutting down of all oil and gas installations, including disruptionsto fuel supply and distribution across the country.
The unionist said the anti-labour practice includes the termination of employment of any worker who indicated willingness to belong to the union.“Those that are threatened and compelled to disown the union are then treated as slave workers within their own country.
“The case of Neconde Energy Ltd (of Nestoil Group of companies) is particularly worrisome as the issue of dignity in labour and infringement on workers’ rights to Freedom of Association is foreign to them.
President Muhammadu Buhari says his government has found corruption more difficult to fight than insecurity.
Mr. Buhari spoke at a town hall meeting in Kano on the final day of his two-day visit to the state.
The power of the corrupt Nigerians is so enormous but we are determined to deal with the situation headlong.
This is as been adjudged by what is happening today on ground,” he said.Responding to comments made at the town hall meeting, he said the democratic environment has made the fight against corruption even more difficult because of the power of corrupt Nigerians.
As Head of State I arrested some corrupt politicians. But shortly after I was arrested after my government been truncated, all the houses that I confiscated were returned back to the owners,”He said that was why in the current fight against corruption, “after confiscating properties from the corrupt Nigerians, we ordered that they should be sold and the money be deposited at the treasury.
To show our seriousness in this fight today, among those being investigated was a high court judge whose house was searched and several foreign currencies were found and some international passports.
President Buhari said the fight against corruption requires zeal, courage and full determination to succeed, saying his government has all these attributes to achieve the success.
On the war against insurgency, he said the success so far recorded is a victory for the entire nation, adding that already, the fight was tilting towards final victory.
Let me say, while linking the war against insurgency vis a vis the issue of smuggling asbeing raised, we have a duty to keep sound relationship with our neighbours, a reason why I went to Chad and Cameroon immediately after assuming office.
But in spite of continued smuggling, he said the ban on the importation of rice had been achieved by 90 per cent and that Nigerian farmers are the greatest beneficiaries of the ban.
- Premium Times
Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has said achievements of the new Ministry of Happiness and Purpose Fulfilment will shock critics of his administration.
Okorocha said the achievements of the ministry will be so amazing, that critics of the initiative will regret to have drawn the curtain for the new ministry even before it takes off.
This was even as the governor said former governor of the state, Ikedi Ohakim and the 2015 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Emeka Ihedioha are least qualified to criticise any of his policies orprogrammes.
His Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo,in a statement, yesterday, said: “Okorocha is a man of ideas who thinks about the present and the generations yet unborn.
He does not misfire on any issue, the attendant criticisms notwithstanding. When the new ministry begins to bear the expected fruits, the accolades will envelop the early criticisms.
We accept all the criticisms in good faith and commend the critics. That is what makesthe society dynamic and our democracy juicy.
The truth is that, the new ministry is not an accidental discharge but, a well-thought out idea that will benefit Imo people, in particular, and all men and women of goodwill in general. We only ask the critics to give us time.
