How PASCAL DOZIE Made His Billions

*How He Sits Atop A $50Million Family Business
*How He Runs His Huge Business Empire
*Plays Big In Banking, Telecoms, Real Estate, Oil & Gas, Power
*The Story Of The Grand Old Man Of Business

          It proved  a hellish journey to see Pascal Dozie at his Lagos office this Tuesday afternoon.  The nightmare ride across the city, through dense traffic, bumped along to the lurch of battered vehicles.
          Everyone seemed to veer towards each other in the fight for inches.  It is hot and everyone is bothered.   
          To make matters worse, the pink-shirted traffic police stepped into slowing  the lumbering vehicles even more by pulling over cars – including ours – with what looks like trumped –up charges.
          At one point, the traffic cop and our driver are hurling rapid fire insults at each other inches from my nose.  Bizarrely, the traffic cop – who was far from pretty in pink -  kept walking away as if the fight was over before turning on his heel to launch another finger – jabbing tirade.  I felt like a monk in Gomorrah.
          “They just want money,” our driver scowled as we drove off.  Then we arrived at the gate of Dozie’s business to find the rain had left a puddle wide enough to breed fish in.  The wet welcome ended a torrid hour on the road with a metaphor of which writers dream.  The failings of Nigeria, that Dozie wants to put right, lead right up to his door.
          “Lagos is the only place in the world where you can utilize all the faculties God gave to man,” chuckles Dozie, as we stand in his push, air-conditioned office.  This is the office from which Dozie commands his investment and finance empire, which has made him one of the richest men  in Nigeria.  He is a gentleman, in the literal sense of the word, who loves Mozart and Bach, a man who is close to his roots and his family of 5 sons and 10 grandchildren.
          The polished office contrasts starkly with the dog-cat-dog poverty and chaos, a stone’s throw away in the streets of Lagos.  After half a century of business, as his own boss, Dozie could be forgiven for shutting out the problems of Nigeria behind his tall gates and high walls – but he says he can’t.  He believes crumbling infrastructure and corruption are Nigeria’s heaviest shackles and hopes entrepreneurs will help shrug them off.
          “Many people see Nigeria as an entrepreneur’s gold mine – the opportunities abound.  Every single disadvantage you see – the traffic and the infrastructure – is an opportunity, but you can only change once the government goes hands-off’, he says.
          I counter this with the words I heard Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni utter a few years back in Kigali that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is to keep government out of business.  Of course, Dozie disagrees.
          “In Nigeria, we have been moving towards this for a long time.  If the government had not been hands-off they would not have a number of major cellphone companies in the country.  Some of them got their operating licences on the same day.  This hands-off approach has helped us leapfrog communications technology, says Dozie.
          “We won’t get anywhere until we, in Nigeria, can say anything can be done in 24 hours”.  The other big concern for Dozie is corruption.  The multibillionaire says he has been campaigning against it since the dark days of military dictatorship under Sani Abacha.  “This is the only country in the world where people ask what business are you into and you say politics”.  “The clock is ticking as massive strikes in January showed Nigerians”, says Dozie.  “Nigerians are waking up and the civil society in the country is coming  alive.  Nigeria is a country that is skewed towards the youth”.  “The Blackberry generation is using their Twitter and Facebook and  you should see the things they are writing.  In January, this country was besieged by angry youth when the government removed the fuel subsidy.  Nobody could go to work.  It is no longer business as usual and things are changing.  Look at the number of probes into corruption, before it would have been covered up, but now it is no longer easy to cover corruption”.
          Outspoken and salty, Dozie has reaped a fortune through his work and wits on a long and difficult journey from Owerri in Imo State.  This is where he was born, the son of a country court interpreter, on April 9, 1939.
          “We did not have many modern facilities, but we had the village set up.  If you were hungry, someone would feed you.  If your neighbor caught you doing something wrong, they would punish you.  When your parents found out, they would talk to the neighbor to make sure they had given you a proper spanking.  Modernity has changed all of this”.
          Along with a  generation of idealistic Africans, from newly independent nations, Dozie headed for Europe to drink form the fountain of knowledge.  Dozie went to the London School  of Economics where he rubbed shoulders with Mick Jagger, the singer who was soon to drop out of college to form the Rolling Stones.
          Dozie earned his degree in Economics and followed it up with a Masters in Administration from City University in London in 1963.  He went to work in London and consulted in Croydon where he worked at the National Economic Development Office.
          Dozie wanted to go home but his people, including his 2 brothers in the Army, were fighting the Biafran War against Nigerian forces in the cause of secession for the Igbo people.  It was a bloody war waged between 1967 and 1970 that cost 30,000 Igbo lives and those of an estimated 1 million civilians.
          It meant Dozie  had to take a job in Uganda until the war was over.  When peace came, he moved home in September 1971 at the request of his mother, who was by then in poor health.
          In Lagos, Dozie set up his own consultancy, the African Development Consulting Group.  He never worked for anyone else again.  In the early year, he was fortunate enough to gather consultancies for the big guns like Nestle and Pfizer.  In his spare time, he wrote about Economics for the respected publication Business International.
          In the 1980s, the road to real riches opened up, thanks to a simple idea.  Dozie had noticed traders from the remote villages in the east of the country, where he grew up, faced the problem of carrying huge bundles of cash when they trekked to Lagos for business.  “Sometimes they would be waylaid by rogues on the road,” he says.  Dozie  pioneered electronic transfers in Nigeria so traders could transfer their cash to Lagos instead of having to carry it.  It saw the creation of Diamond Bank, which opened its doors in 1991.  “The first customer was my wife,” laughs Dozie.  The bank started from a 3rd  floor office in Victoria Island with 20 people and $5million.  “The assumption was we were going to come by money easily –it wasn’t easy”.  The problem was most companies at that time would not deal with a bank less than 3 years old.  So the small staff at Diamond Bank went out to persuade everyone, from traders to car dealers, to part with their money to generate cash through deposits.
          The bank blossomed into a $240 million concern, but this was merely one step on a difficult path.  In 2005, disaster struck when a new law said that all banks had to hold a minimum of 25 billion naira ($158.3million) in share capital Diamond Bank had a mere 6.4 billion naira ($40.5 million) in share capital – so it had to list to raise more, which led to a severe dilution of the family stake.
          In the years leading up to this, Dozie had been busy with a deal that was to make his name and a large chunk of fortune.  A South African cellphone company, MTN, approached Dozie with the idea of setting up a cellphone network in the vast Nigerian market.  The South Africans wanted to pump millions into a 60% stake in MTN Nigeria with Nigerian owning 40% Dozie  set off with high hopes to London and the United States to raise capital among the big money men and Nigerian expatriates.  When he got there, it was as if he was trying to sell sand in the desert.
          Many people saw the struggles of the government telecoms company, NITEL, with its wobbly and sparse landlines.  Investors said that if the state couldn’t set up a cellphone network in Nigeria, no one could.
          “It was very disappointing.  You have a good project and you are turned down.  You start to question your head,” he says.
          Dozie could raise merely enough for a 20% stake in the new company.  Through debt funding, MTN  poured in millions to make up the difference.  It was a huge risk, at the time, but MTN prospered and the rest is history.  To this day, Dozie is Chairman of a solid MTN Nigeria.
          “Most of the people I asked to invest now regret not investing – I even regret it myself.  They would have enjoyed returns of 20 times their money”.  More than a decade on, Dozie sits atop a family-owned investment company, Kunoch, worth $50 million, which pours money into everything from Power Generation to Gas prcessing, Oil Exploration, real estate and banking.  One of its investments is in a pilot project that could revolutionize the way power is provided in Nigeria – a country that needs electricity like a thirsty man needs water.  The country’s economic progress is slowed by the fact that it produces a few thousand Megawatts (MW) for tens of millions of Nigerians – around a tenth of what South Africa produces for a third of Nigeria’s population.  Not for nothing do Nigeirans call the state power company, PHCN, Please Hold Candles Near.
          Dozie is investing in a pioneering independent power project, the Aba Power Project in the South East of the country near Port Harcourt and not too far from the border with Cameroon.  It will generate a minimum  of 188 MW, from gas turbines, with plans to expand.  In a region which has 20% of the power it needs, it will be like manna from heaven.  The company running the project was founded by the former Nigerian Minister of Power, Bart Nnaji, who resigned in August over a conflict of interest.  He was meant to sell his 6 power-generating companies and 11 distribution companies.  It is part of the infrastructure that Dozie believes could be the salvation of his country.  Travelers to Nigeria will be cheered to hear that this grand old man of Nigerian business has the crumbling Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos on his agenda.  He says, “It erodes the image of the country.  When you come through our airport you say, “is this the Nigeria I have flown to see?”
          Dozie reckons the government will concede the airport to private business in a bid to spruce it up.  Others close to the aviation industry in Lagos believe the government will be loath to relinquish any control over the airport as it is the only one in the country that brings  revenue into state coffers.  “I will give it a long shot… it will happen in the next 5 years,” says Dozie.

CULLED FROM  http://famouspeoplenews.wordpress.com

President Jonathan Sacks Gulak

President Goodluck Jonathan has terminated the appointment of his Special Adviser(Political), Alhaji Ahmed A. Gulak with immediate effect.
President Jonathan thanks Alhaji Gulak for his services to the present administration and wishes him success in his future endeavors.
This information was contained in a series of tweets by the President’s spokesman, Reuben Abati (@abati1990)

Tweets by the President’s spokesman, Reuben Abati via his tweeter page (@abati1990)

Nollywood. Prolific director Amaka Igwe passes on @51

 

Foremost producer, writer, director and a leading player in the Nigerian motion picture industry, Amaka Igwe has passed on. She died last night April 28th in Enugu after an asthma attack. Mrs Igwe had gone to Enugu in company of her husband for pre-production preparations for a new Igbo soap when the sad incident occurred.
She suffered an asthma attack and was immediately rushed to the hospital after initial intervention had failed but sadly died before getting there.  
Born Amaka Isaac-Ene, the deceased was an accomplished writer, producer, director, entrepreneur and teacher.

She is the founder of BoBTV Expo, founder and CEO of Top Radio 90.9FM, Amaka Igwe Studios, and the newly-launched Q Entertainment Networks.

A visionary and pioneer of modern Nigerian TV drama and film, she hit national limelight as the writer and producer of award-winning TV soap 'Checkmate' and its off shoot 'Fuji House of Commotion'.

Her Nollywood projects include RattleSnake and Violated - two critically-acclaimed movies that set apart Amaka Igwe Studios in the much-criticised Nollywood industry. 

Amaka Igwe studied Education/Religion at the University of Ife (Now Obafemi Awolowo University). She had a Master's Degree from the University of Ibadan. She had her early education at All Saints School (Now Trans Ekulu Primary School), Girls High School Awkunanaw, Enugu and Idia College, Benin.

She worked as a lecturer at the Anambra State University of Technology and briefly in oil and Gas, before settling for the motion picture industry.

HND/degree dichotomy: Parents, students commend FG

 

Some Nigerians on Monday commended the Federal Government for setting up a committee to resolve the Higher National Diploma and degree holders’ dichotomy.

The Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, last Thursday at a retreat for chairmen of Governing Councils of Federal Polytechnics and Federal Colleges of Education in Kaduna, announced the establishment of the committee.

Wike added that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Pius Anyim, was heading the it.

Reacting to the development, some parents and polytechnic students told the News Agency of Nigeria that the steps taken by the government to resolve the disparity were commendable.

A parent, Mr. Akin Shongule, said the harmonisation was long overdue.

Shongule said from the beginning, the training of HND graduates was to complement the degree holders in technical studies.

He said, “That is the more reason why the Federal Government should remove the dichotomy and recognise both the B.Sc and the HND holders as the same.

“They should be accorded the same recognition and it will go a long way in bringing peace and confidence to the system.

“More so, you will find out that people no longer want to go to polytechnics because of these differences.”

He lauded the government’s commitment to permanently resolving the differences between the two certificates.

Another parent, Mr. John Bassey, said the establishment of the committee was a right step in the right direction.

Bassey recalled that the former Head of Service of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, was among other officers who had set up similar committees to address the disparity.

He said, “But the reports on the outcome of the committees were never made known to Nigerians.

“We hope that since this committee will be headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and with the Supervising Minister of Education involved, there will be hope for students and other Nigerians with polytechnic certificates.”

He urged the committee members to be knowledgeable on the issues involved, saying Nigerians hoped that they would do a thorough work on the assignment.

culled form Punch

Photo of the day

 

by Mike Asukwo

#SURULERE Photos of international sport stars

Cristiano Ronaldo 

Venus and Serena Williams

Lebron James 

Mo Farrah 

Tiger Woods 

Roger Federer 

Lionel Messi 

Andy Murray 

Rafael Nadal 

Diego Maradona 

Lewis Hamilton 

Michael Owen 

Lance Armstrong 

David Beckham

Neymar

Ribadu probed me, my late wife ­– Obasanjo

 

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has  said that the pioneer Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, investigated him and his late wife, Stella, even when he was  in charge as the nation’s leader.

Obasanjo, whose administration created the anti-graft agency, also alleged that the manner Ribadu carried out the  war against corruption created enemies for him (Obasanjo).

He  made the claims after  the former EFCC boss  presented a paper titled,   “Illicit Financial Flow and Governance of Natural Resources,” at the 3rd Tana High Level Forum on Security in Africa in Badir Dar, Ethiopia at the weekend.

The former President   said that rather than being afraid of the  enemies Ribadu created for him, “it is rather them that fear me.”Obasanjo, who acknowledged that the fight against corruption “comes with enemies,”    did not tell the audience about  the outcome of the investigations against him,  Stella, and his close associates. He also did not name the enemies that Ribadu created for him.

But the  former President   disclosed that Ribadu  almost lost his life when he was poisoned in the course of his duty. He described the incident as  a serious case that was “a matter of life and death.” He  told the gathering   how a serving minister in his administration, who was his senior in   secondary school, was  found wanting by the EFCC  and  “there was no issue of senior again.”

Obasanjo, who   is also the chairman  of the Tana Forum, agreed with  Ribadu’s submission that  a  willing political leadership  was the epicentre   of  any anti-corruption campaign.

Stating that  leadership   needed  relevant laws  to work with, he recalled how the bill establishing the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other-Related Offences  Commission   was whittled down by  the National Assembly  members who felt they could be victims  if it became a law.

 Ribadu had in his presentation offered  strategies  that  African countries  could follow to  check  illicit financial flow and repatriate  looted  funds  stashed away in other countries.

He said  that  African countries  needed  honest and committed leadership. examples.

Mr. President, please take a selfie by ’Sola Fagorusi

’Sola Fagorusi
| credits: File copy

The easiest current affairs question any primary or secondary school student would trounce is one that requests the name of the President of Nigeria. The answer would be chorused –Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. Social media users and buffs would remember how the doctrine of necessity emerged and changed the story of the incumbent’s emergence in the post-Yar’adua era.

By 2011, in what was termed a controversial election, the Ph.D. holder and former Governor of oil-rich Balyesa state emerged as President.

Jonathan’s tenure expires by May 28, 2015, but the body language is clear. He still wants to be President after that date. Nothing is wrong with that. Forget the rude posturing by some cliques in northern Nigeria and criticism from progressives in the south-west and eastern part of the country.

The constitution allows the President two terms And he is entitled to being elected given chapter VI, section 137, sub-section B of the 1999 constitution.

However, it is high time the President took a good selfie; possibly one with a smart phone with high resolution. I will suggest he takes it the Ellen De Generes way.

For the uninitiated, a selfie is that photograph taken with a hand-held device – most times a smart phone – and shared on social networks.

Selfies are usually taken at a stretched arm length or with the use of a mirror to bounce off the image(s).

However, selfies are solo photos of oneself. Social networks like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are the dump yards of selfies. Ellen De Generes, Oscar host, broke records earlier this year when she had Bradley Cooper, an actor to take a selfie featuring several A-list stars. The picture was retweeted more than two million times on Twitter. Besides being the most retweeted selfie, it is also the most retweeted tweet on Twitter.

 So why should the President take a selfie? There is a social psychology to selfies. It is a self-image and it allows for closer introspection. It allows us decide how we want to be seen since the photographer is the same person as the one being photographed! Therefore, Jonathan needs one.

Nigerians and members of the international community are united in thoughts that this is not the best of moments for Nigeria. Until now, we had our issues. We had our failed and failing institutions but not massive insecurity.

Before now, our lives were not threatened but today that has changed with the several instances of kidnapping, ritual killings, strikes in education and health institutions, bombings, unemployment, stampedes and a host of others. Let the President gather his cabinet to his side before he sets his smart phone to work. Let him have Labaran Maku, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Abba Moro, Akinwunmi Adeshina, Bala Muhammed, Nyesom Wike, Boni Haruna and his sea of ministers be his A-list of political actors as he takes this all-important selfie.

The President may need to look closely at the picture and also read opinions about his team afterwards. He will be told of the ministers simply occupying spaces, he would be intimated of those who are managing to colour his administration. He would see some of his ministers who are only flicking their tongues over their lips given the next commonwealth they plan on stealing.

He will see some who possibly do not understand what public service is about. Those are the categories that have refused to know that their inactions are actions that cause untold hardship. He will find the same man who planted non-explosive bombs at stadia around the country and eventually led to the death of about 20 young Nigerians and has yet refused to honourably resign.

Aso Rock is not the right place for the kind of Selfie I am suggesting. Mr. President should get on the street of any of Nigeria’s state capital for this all important selfie. As to retweet, Mr. President need not worry. It would be the most retweeted selfie in the world. We have the population. We will beat De Generes to the record.

What are we the Giant of Africa for if we can’t make a success of such simple assignment? If the President takes the selfie on the streets he would see at the background the hordes of unemployed and disenchanted young people. He may possibly also find on the street millions of polytechnic undergraduates who have had their schools shut for more than six months now and thus roam the street. He will also find the police officer pounding away on the citizen he is meant to protect; or the naval rating who takes delight in shooting unarmed citizens. Mr. President should please take a selfie at the mouth of Sambisa forest in Borno state. He would feel and possibly not see the fear that resides in the forest and this is the same place where about 200 girls who have been forcefully torn from their parents and relatives are now resident.

We all remember when, in December, 2013, President Barack Obama of the United States, Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom and Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt took a selfie on the request of Obama at the memorial service for late Nelson Mandela. It is the turn of President Jonathan to take one and let him seat back and listen to the hyper assessment of his administration by tweeps and dedicated Facebook users.

The President may find instances of good efforts by his administration in his selfie, but the failures overwhelm his effort. Depending on what the President believes, he may also find ghosts in his selfies; ghosts of thousands of Nigerians who died simply because the government refused to protect them against the vendors of death.

The technology that allows for selfies leaves room for us to decide what we want to see in our pictures. If these images are to change then the President needs to do more than being a good man. He needs to provide good leadership. The President needs to be told that the world has moved on beyond issues of power, good road and provision of basic needs. Nigerians would love to debate more exciting subjects on social media. We certainly would love to get into arguments as to why we think our prisons are a paradise and so ain’t a good form of punishment!

Maybe this assignment is above the ken of the President; maybe not.  Although a few would criticise the President for being vain if eventually he takes a selfie but then the President would have more people back his view at honest self-assessment through the simple use of a selfie. Whether or not the President listens to me, the truth is that almost nothing can be hidden again in this new media age!

Culled from PUNCH 

old School Love! by Aderonke Adebanjo

 

Oh, bring back the days of old school love. You know, when dudes went above and beyond to express their interest in a woman and make their intentions known. The days when women didn’t have to try and decode if a guy liked them because it was CRYSTAL clear. The days when a man wooed a woman in the true sense of the word. The days when men thrived on shakara* and saw it as a welcomed challenge (LOL).  

I don’t know about y’all ladies, but I do miss that old school kind of love and guys of today don’t do nearly as much as men used to back in the day. Just ask any older man how they wooed women back in the day and you might be shocked. So my question is what has changed and why??? You would actually think that with the advancements made with technology, perhaps men would get more creative in their pursuit but it seems quite the contrary- men seem not to be making too much of an effort. Ok, lemme pause for a second and explain that this is not a bashing session. Men, y’all know I don’t bash but the truth must be told and I simply want to get to the bottom of this. After all, I've asked some guys and many said they're not strong believers in 'The Chase". So, I wanna give y’all an opportunity to explain. Guys, have you changed and given up on the old-school kind of pursuit for one or all of the following reasons?:

a)     You are much more sensitive and not as rugged as men back in the day and don’t want your feelings hurt so you play REALLY safe?

b)    There are so many women to pick from who are easily available without much of a chase so when one starts to do too much shakara, you feel like “ain’t nobody got time for that”? Lol.

c)     You feel like since women are so independent these days, they don’t deserve to be wooed and impressed because after all, they don’t act like they need you?

d)    You tried to impress way too many girls and go treated badly so you really can’t be bothered anymore.

e)     All of the above (Lol)

Yes, we have established that women of nowadays work, make good money, and can generally buy what they want, which quite frankly is a good thing for the guys cos it means she wouldn’t be a liability but an ally. But that shouldn’t stop you from wanting to make her feel extra special. It shouldn’t stop you from wanting to make her feel like you did the work to get her. You would agree with me on that, right?  

Women nowadays are pretty simple. When I asked the ladies how you (men) should show your interest in them, they had two main responses: call on the phone and want to spend time together. That’s certainly NOT a lot to ask but one would expect guys to take it up a notch, make it special, and be creative about it. Some guys know how to do this well but it seems many don’t so I’m looking for an explanation to help the sistas understand better. Remember what I said earlier: Many guys have told me that they are not all for the chase anymore. So I wanna know exactly why.

So men, what’s the deal. What would your answer be between “a and e” above? Why is new-school love so different from old-school love? Please share how you feel about this.

*Playing hard to get.

Photo of the day

David Moyes And Robert Green’s Rule No 41 By M. DeYa

The story of Manchester United will be incomplete without mentioning, Sir Alex Ferguson. He’s a big part of the story of Manchester United Football Club. In becoming one of the greatest managers in the beautiful game, Ferguson wrote the history of United in gold. And so It was no secret that whoever was going to succeed him at Old Trafford was always going have a tough job on his hands.

I am sure David Moyes has since found out that Robert Green’s rule no. 41 holds true in the situation he has found himself. Although, a rare privilege; Moyes was given the misfortune of succeeding a great man in Alex Ferguson. In doing this, he was always going to be in the shadow of his predecessor. According to Robert Green’s rule No 41; the problem with stepping into the shoes of the great Alex Ferguson is itemize as follows:

1. The overbearing Ferguson fills the vistas before you with successes of the past.
2. Moyes has no room to create his own name.
3. The superstitious belief that if Sir Alex Ferguson succeeded by doing A, B, and C, Moyes can re-create that success by doing the same thing.

The three scenarios itemized above have left David Moyes facing huge criticism for the crisis that the English champions have found themselves in right now. Moyes has been blamed for virtually everything that had gone wrong with United and has not being equally praised when the team played well, a situation which has become a rarity this season.

However, I feel Moyes has been unduly criticized by a section of the fans who had failed to really identify what was wrong with United. The current United squad has not just been good enough when compared to what is available across the City, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea and may be Liverpool. According to Joey Barton, this United midfield is possibly the weakest in the premier league era.

But how did United arrive at this sorry situation. Many have forgotten that United and the Glazers have not invested in a world class midfielder since Owen Hargreaves in 2007 who was expected to bring the kind of energy that was once provided by Roy Keane. Injuries eventually got the better of Hargreaves and Fletcher, Paul Pogba was allowed to leave for Juventus on a free transfer. And it is now six years since a world class midfielder was signed at United. I feel David Moyes should not be crucified just yet. He inherited a problem that was there for the past 6 years, but only the personality of Ferguson diverted our attention from it. The Glazers have simply not invested in areas of need in the team.

Now, the fans must not judge Moyes based on the methods of Sir Alex; he must be provided with the necessary funds required to build his own team. Until then, it does not make sense to not support him to make success of his time as manager; Ferguson enjoyed lots of that. But if the funds are not made available, then may be, it could just be time for the Green and Gold Campaign to return to the Theatre of Dreams.

Written by

M. DeYa

[www.thesocceropinion.com]

Dangote, Okonjo-Iweala on Time’s 100 most influential list

 

Africa’s wealthiest man, Aliko Dangote, and the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, have been named among the 100 most influential persons on earth by the Time Magazine.

Microsoft Founder and Co-Chair, Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation, Mr. Bill Gate, wrote a tribute in honour of Dangote in commemoration of his listing by the magazine.

While Gate was lavish in his praises of timely response of Dangote to the need for a health alliance by the private sector, Buno, a lead singer of U2 and co-founder of One and (RED) wrote Okonjo-Iweala’s tribute.

Gate dwelled extensively on the philanthropic gestures of the President of the Dangote Group in the areas of health, especially polio eradication and job creation.

Gates wrote about Dangote, “His business activities drive economic growth across the continent. That’s impressive, but I know him best as a leader constantly in search of ways to bridge the gap between private business and public health. It’s for that reason he helped create the Nigeria Private Sector Health Alliance. And it’s for that reason he is an advocate for agricultural research and malaria control.”

Dangote was classified in the Titans category, which boasts of eminent world personalities such as the former United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton; Jeff Bezoz, Tony Fadell and Janet Yellen.

Those in the Pioneers category are Jason Collins, Natalie Massenet, Mary Jo White and Edward Snowden, among others.

Barbara Brown Taylor, Robin Wright, John Green and Kerry Washington were in the Artists category; while Jerry Brown, Okonjo-Iweala, John Kerry and Angela Merkel were listed in the Leaders category.

In the Icons category were Pope Francis, Alice Waters, Marina Abramovic, Cristiano Ronaldo and Carl Icahn, among others.

The Time 100 is an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world assembled by the American news magazine.

First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, politicians and journalists, the list is now an annual event.

How Bill Gates and Michael Jordan Met the 10,000-Hour Principle – Darasimi Oshodi

 

“Champions do not become champions when they win an event, but in the hours, weeks, and months, and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely a demonstration of their championship character.”

The statement above is credited to Michael Jordan who is arguably the best basket ball player ever.

Jordan’s long time coach, Phil Jackson reveals that it was hard work that made him a legend. When Jordan first entered the league, his jump shot wasn’t good enough. He spent his off season taking hundreds of jumpers a day until it was perfect. He says Jordan’s defining characteristic wasn’t his talent but the humility to know he had to work constantly to be the best.

From childhood, Serena and Venus Williams would go to the tennis court at 6 o’clock in the morning before going to school and when they returned from school, go back for tennis practice. Any wonder then the two of them have dominated women’s tennis.

It is reported that Demosthenes, a great orator of Ancient Greece, stammered and was inarticulate as a youth yet became a great orator through dedicated practice which included placing pebbles in his mouth.

I read that Tiger Woods’ father started teaching him golf at eighteen months. So it should not be too surprising that he took the world of golf by storm at age eighteen.

The Beatles performed live in Germany over 1,200 times between 1960 and 1964 and by the time they went back to England they had become inimitable. Those hours spent performing paid off.

Bill Gates gained access to a computer in 1968 at the age of 13 and spent thousands of hours programming on it. His efforts have been hugely rewarded.

In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell posited that to become a world-class expert in any field, an individual needs to practice for ten thousand (10,000) hours. It is known as the 10,000-hour rule or principle. His argument is that it takes about 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to truly master a skill. 10,000 hours of dedicated practice in a particular area of interest will make a person an expert. The 10000-hour principle was not propounded by Gladwell though; he only popularised it.

I read in another place that scientific research has concluded that it takes eight to twelve years of training for a talented player/athlete to reach elite levels and that this is called the ten-year or 10,000-hour rule, which translates to slightly more than three hours of practice daily for ten years. I also read that research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. Through practice, you can become what you desire to become.

Hope you are getting the drift of this write-up. This is it: the key to attaining phenomenal success in any endeavour is, to a great extent, a matter of practicing or doing a specific task over and over. I am not asking you to start striving towards meeting the 10000-hour mark. All I am saying is that for us to be hugely successful in whatever we have chosen to do, we must do it over and over again. We should not be waiting for lady luck to smile on us.

Before you jump out to begin your practice, listen to what Michael Jordan has to say: “You can practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.”

Did you get that? Though practice or repeated performance is very essential, it should be done the right way. It is important to practice the right way. And I want to add that if you must commit hours to a particular task or activity, such activity must be what you really enjoy or else you will be sentencing yourself to a life of dissatisfaction, disappointment and frustration.

I couldn’t resist the urge to end this piece with another inspiring quote from Michael Jordan: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. . . . I can accept failure, but I can’t accept not trying.”

Darasimi Oshodi is a blogger. Read his blogs at darasimioshodi.blogspot.com