For The Press:

Hello reader, i am sure you have enjoyed the posts on this blog and you may have noticed that activity on this page has reduced. This is part of an overhaul which has _alre_ady started. To ensure that your regular dose of thought provoking posts is not interrupted, I have created another blog:_ http:// ifeodedere.blogspot.com (which goes under the name, Style). The blog theme is – “Self Discovery, Self Empowerment” and articles have been structured to conform with this theme.

The blog also features a photo gallery and selected quotes from Daily Nuggets to enrich your viewing experience.

I will encourage you to visit the new blog and empower your mind while enjoying the quotes and photos. Subsequently, you will be alerted when the overhaul of this blog is complete.

Thanks for reading to change the world.

Ife Odedere.

The Real Brain Drain

(This piece is written based largely on the Nigerian society and educational system. It may or may not apply to other geographical locations.)

Suffice to say that the phrase ‘brain drain’ is so popular that it becomes unnecessary to define it. However, for the purpose of this piece, we will make use of the Webster’s Dictionary definition, which defines brain drain as “the emigration of highly skilled workers to other countries offering better employment opportunities.” The concept of brain drain is an economic one since the Nation’s resources are used to train these professionals, who then emigrate to produce for another country. This represents a loss of vital human resources and income required to enable and sustain national development.

Due to the poor economic and social conditions endured by the average citizen, many highly qualified doctors, engineers, computer scientists, lecturers and nurses have emigrated from Nigeria to other developed countries in search of better opportunities, in the process contributing significantly to the advancement and wealth of these already well-to-do nations while their mother-country continues to tumble into the economic abyss.

 

Having refreshed our knowledge on the popular brain drain, let us consider the ‘Real Brain Drain’, which I also call the local brain drain. To understand this unfamiliar concept, look at the secondary school system of education with a special emphasis on the transition from Junior Secondary to Senior Secondary Education. The educational tutors believe that irrespective of your scores in the Aptitude Test (taken alongside the final examinations in Junior Secondary School), you should be placed in the Science Class if you had a good grades and the Arts Class if you had poorer results.

The summary of this norm is that the intellectually capable students are herded into Science Classes in preparation for courses as Medicine, Engineering, Pharmacy, and Dentistry while average

and below average students are promptly drafted into Arts Classes to do whatever seemed pleasant to them (many of them end up in government & politics with attendant consequences).

The educational system is not the only culprit in this case. Cheering and supporting on the sidelines is the society- made up of parents, media, religious bodies etc. As far as the immediate society of the Nigerian Student is concerned, vocations such as Law, Medicine, Accounting and Engineering are more prestigious and relevant to the society while other professions such as Entertainment, Art and Agriculture are of little or no relevance to the society. Therefore, the child is strongly advised and encouraged to pursue these careers even if (s)he doesn’t have a flair for the suggested vocation. It is therefore not surprising to see thousands of Nigerian students struggling to subsist in an intellectual environment for which they have neither the aptitude nor intellectual capability. The end-result is improper and unequal distribution of human resources with many people in vocations for which they have no natural ability or passion eventually leading to reduced productivity. This itself is the real brain drain. Think of it as a sort of rural-urban migration.

The concept of local Brain Drain may partly explain the poor quality of work output that obtains in most of Nigeria today as many workers have no passion for what they do. Instead, they go about their occupations just marking time, their only motivation being the payment of a monthly salary. It may also explain the high rate of unemployment given the fact that the ‘prestigious’ occupational fields are oversaturated with human resources competing for limited space while others fields experience a draught of qualified workers because only a few people attempt to study the ‘less prestigious’ courses. Local brain drain guarantees that the bulk of the country’s workforce are under-utilised, never attaining their full potential.

The overall effect is retarded economic growth, because of unemployment/underemployment, further worsening economic conditions. Eventually, skilled workers have to relocate to other countries in search of better opportunities and the cycle continues.

• Having taken a critical look at the double-edged problem of brain drain, here are some suggestions to help reverse the negative trend:

1. The counselling system of secondary schools should be reviewed.
2. Adequate staffing with competent career counsellors who can advice students on vocations best suited for them is also suggested.
3. Aptitude Tests should be standardized and their results taken into consideration when placing students in Senior Secondary School.

 Do you have more suggestions? Drop a comment below.

Ifeoluwapo Odedere

©2012.

Who are you?

Reference: John 1: 23 (read it)

It would have been easy for John to have claimed ‘the christ’. Imagine the privileges, the honour and praises he would have received. However, John was humble and focused enough to admit his role in God’s kingdom – the forerunner of the Messiah.

To the question of who you are, the answer is: You are your purpose. Jesus and John discovered (or clarified) their callings by reading, in this case, the scriptures and prophecies. There is no doubt that God actually laid it in their hearts what they were to do in life but they still had to discover what

prophecies they were to fulfill by reading.

In present times, it would seem that we should discover our calling from the bible, support our convictions with bible passages. To that I’d say: The primary source of purpose is God. He is the one who makes us aware of our purpose in his kingdom (in life) and he does that in different ways, the bible inclusive.

The ‘reading part’ involves reading the books relevant to your area of calling/interest, discovering what prophecies (inventions or innovations) are yet to be fulfilled. God lays it in your heart, you discover your role. Don’t wait for the whole package to drop in your laps. God is partnership minded, not a control freak.

Ifeoluwapo Odedere

©2011

Healing: The Dilemma of the Christian Patient (Part 2)

(continued from Part 1)…

The second issue borders on knowledge. Christians will agree that all knowledge comes from God and it is God who put in Man the ability to ‘conquer’ his environment. The bible attests to this with verses such as “…have dominion over all things…” {Paraphrased}. Therefore, it follows that medicine just like technology is a product of the knowledge and ability that God deposited in man. (At this point, it is safe to say that knowledge can be applied for things that go against God’s principles). We cannot deny that advances in medical knowledge have contributed greatly to the comfort we experience everyday as opposed to our ancestors many generations back (if you are in doubt, a quick read of the smallpox era in history books will help). Christians therefore do not need another set of ‘stone tablets’ to convince them that medical knowledge has been made available for their own benefit. Resisting medical knowledge would be analogous to asking God to send angels to transport passengers to Los Angeles simply because they do not like technology. The reality is that not everyone will be able to exercise faith, therefore some means of accessing good health must be in place or the whole world will be decimated by diseases.

Faith aside, one scripture readily comes to mind “you shall not tempt the Lord your God…” It would seem that despite this warning, some Christians have taken it upon themselves to test God. How? You might ask. Well, let us start by reminding ourselves that the ‘Law of cause and effect’  governs the earth and indeed the universe. It therefore follows that consequences are bound to follow whatever actions we take including actions relating to our health. For example, eating spoilt food is bound to cause some degree of gastrointestinal upset, likewise drinking water contaminated with faecal matter. Unfortunately, the actions of many Christians (and many non-Christians) in matters of health resemble the above example. They take careless risks and saddle God with the responsibility of cleaning up the mess after them. This is nothing short of irresponsibility. They might as well ask God to cook their meals. While it is true that God enables the manifestation of acts that are beyond the scope of natural and technological forces, it is also true that God is a God of process, enabling supernatural acts only for specific purposes. Therefore, Christians should not expect God to do for them what they can do for themselves.

Worthy of mention is the fact that humans often miss the answer to their prayers because it was not packaged in the way they were expecting it. The answer to the chronic debilitating illness could be in the form of a pharmacological breakthrough just recently discovered or the surgeon who just completed his residency training in a rare specialty. Of course, it could take the form of supernatural healing. However the prayer is answered, what really matters is that God can choose to answer in any way he pleases for his own purpose. Therefore, Christians should be open-minded about the answers to their health concerns.

Summing it up:

• Approaching healing based on faith is not wrong as long as it is done right and is not used in such a way that it puts God to test.
• Not everyone will be able (or willing) to exercise faith.
• Making use of medical knowledge to treat illnesses is also not wrong. God definitely permitted such knowledge for a purpose.
• Here on earth, every action has consequences. Medical knowledge should be employed in the prevention of diseases as much as possible.
• In praying to God concerning healing, it is important to know that God can choose to answer in whatever way he finds suitable. This is why knowing God’s will on such issues and keeping an open mind is important.

Ifeoluwapo Odedere

©2011

Healing: The Dilemma of the Christian Patient (Part 1)

[N.B. This article was written based largely on the Nigerian perspective]

‘I don’t need any drugs’, ‘That is the doctor’s report’, ‘I am not sick’…. These are some of the statements encountered by doctors as they provide healthcare to some of their Christian patients.

For a long time, Health and healing, which appear to be to be the only shared boundary between Christianity and its older counterpart, Medicine has been the cause of controversy and disagreement. Many Christian circles think that health and healing is the sole prerogative of supernatural forces and as such, any attempt to get some form of medical cure for ailments are classified directly or indirectly as ‘unspiritual’.  Testimony sharing in churches have not helped in solving the issue either, as many Christian faithful do not consider healing by medical intervention something worth sharing in the church. So many people are content with keeping their medical escapades to themselves while leaving the stage for those who really had a divine encounter. In recent years however, there has been a gradual shift in the stand of the church towards medicine with respect to the latter’s role in healing the sick. This is quite true among the ‘enlightened’ and educated folks (one cannot help but notice the association with affluence) *as exemplified by churches now hosting health talks by professional medical personnel, health screening among other health initiatives.* Not surprisingly, majority of church folks condemn this stand as unspiritual and faithless.

The doctors on the other hand do not have ‘the supernatural’ incorporated into their training and therefore are ill equipped to deal with faith-based issues that arise repeatedly. The real issue for the doctor is how to convince her breast cancer patient that she stands a better chance of survival if she has a mastectomy done early enough as opposed to refusing treatment and depending solely on the church. Many doctors will tell you that more often than not, these patients return in a worse state, by which time, a cure is not feasible. In the same vein, some doctors will attest to witnessing cases of medically incurable diseases suddenly healed by supernatural intervention. Therefore, as it is, each side has a case to prove with supporting evidence. However, the unsolved riddle for the Christian patient is whether he should give medical intervention a chance in the search for healing or completely rely on supernatural intervention.

As a Christian and a doctor, I write this article in an attempt to straddle an issue that has caused a lot of controversy especially among the Christian faithful.

In order to solve this riddle, we need to take a critical and unbiased look at some issues as I will be attempting from my privileged standpoint.

The first issue we have to look at is that of ‘Faith’ as it pertains to health. In simple Christian terminology, faith is believing what God has said concerning a situation. The keywords here are ‘believing and what God said’. Without going too deep, this means that you exercise faith when you hold fast to what God’s word (or God) says about a situation irrespective of what reality dictates. It is this belief coupled with the power in God’s (revealed) word that ensures that substance being hoped for actually comes into reality. This explains why Jesus often said: ‘your faith has made you whole’ or ‘…according to your faith’.

Technically, everyone should be healed if they exercise faith but not everyone is healed! Either this is because there was unbelief or the ‘faith’ was not based on what God was saying. Sometimes, neither of these is present but God in his sovereignty permits certain situations to happen. This is a very important issue for the Christian patient. Faith is solely based on what God has said, not what the person thinks or wants. The pertinent questions are how many Christians are willing to spend the time and exercise the discipline required to hear from God concerning their situation (sickness) and how many more are willing to continue to believe despite worsening circumstances? These are the questions the Christian patient must answer before dashing off from the clinician’s office.

(to be continued)                                          Read Part II here >>

Ifeoluwapo Odedere

©2011

Like journeying through the fog

It’s like journeying through the fog,

Until you take steps forward, the destination remains obscure,

With each forward step, the end comes into focus.

It’s like journeying through the fog,

Until you step into it, you will always overestimate it,

Until you go in, you will not see what is in it.

It’s like journeying through the fog,

The end is not in sight until you begin,

Until you reach the end, you cannot fully appreciate the objective.

It’s like journeying through the fog,

Sometimes, the rays of sunlight break through,

Other times, you would need a headlamp.

It’s like journeying through the fog,

You can stay where you are and wait for the haze to clear,

Or you can take the risk and continue the journey.

It’s like journeying through the fog,

The outcome depends on you.

Ifeoluwapo Odedere

©2011

What exactly is Talent?

The question from which this title is derived might seem ludicrous at first. That is until you ask people around you what their talents are and you begin to realize the seriousness of the question.      

To many people, talent is that ‘invisible stuff ‘in sportsmen, singers, actors, writers, artists, dancers etc. that makes them do what they do very well. Truth is they are not wrong, only that they are not entirely correct. The problem with their view is that it confines talent to the box of ‘creative arts’ and sports, leaving individuals outside this box with no choice but to see themselves as ‘having no talent’. This probably explains why you hear people say things like ‘I don’t have any talent’ or ‘I am yet to discover my talent’.

Nevertheless, some people without obvious ‘creative arts’ or sporting talents still end up being called ‘talented’. Their redeeming feature is none other than their intellectual prowess. It is therefore not surprising that ‘academic intelligence’ is also regarded as a talent. This belief is hinged on the premise that their great intellectual capabilities would enable them survive in the highly brain-tasking disciplines like Medicine, Engineering, Mathematics etc

To help us see what talent truly is, we must first define it. Talent is defined as ‘the (unusual) natural ability to do something well that can be developed by training’.  From the definition, we can deduce that:

1. Talent is a natural ability that enables its possessor to carry out an activity in such a way that surpasses the average performance of other individuals lacking the ability in question. Its natural features mean that the carrier of the talent does the activity almost effortlessly.

Therefore, we can see that talent is not limited to the creative realm and can be just about anything ranging from the ability to observe detail to the knack for remembering numbers. It just might be the ability to organize things or the unusual ease of relating with people. Your natural ability could be analytical thinking or the ability to sell anything, likewise it could be the ability to make people laugh or see how people could be better dressed to enhance their beauty. It could be something as unnoticeable as having a large heart and the unusual desire to care for people. I am sure you are beginning to catch on.

2. Talent can be harnessed for a particular purpose through training. This is where ‘talented people’ miss it. Assuming that these people have somehow managed to peep outside the society’s myopic view of talents and discover what their talents truly are, they then fall headlong into the next pitfall – the thought that their talent is all that is needed to take them to the future they so desire. This thought itself is just another version of myopia.

For talent to become useful for a/its purpose, it must be refined by the process of training and consistent practice. This requires a high level of discipline on the part of the talented individual. The problem is that many talented individuals lack the required discipline or are too arrogant to undergo the required training. The reality however, is that there is no place at the top for unrefined talents.

Irrespective of the type of talent possessed, everyone requires the assistance of a teacher or mentor in the process of training his or her talents. This is to ensure that you do not spend years trying to learn what could have been imparted to you in hours and avoid making the same mistakes they already made.

Summing it all up:

• Everyone has at least one talent. The only problem is that we are either looking for the wrong thing or are looking in the wrong direction.
• Every talent needs training if it is to achieve maximum potential in the individual bearing it.
• To ensure timely and adequate training, the individual needs a teacher or mentor.
• Find mentors and training opportunities that enhances the development of your talent(s).

Ifeoluwapo Odedere

©2011