Cute And Funny Video

The  baby in this video is so cute and adorable. He keeps bursting into laughter as he watches his dad count money. Amazing how the pure minds of babies work. 

I remember how hilarious my kids were as babies too, especially my son. He had the most infectious laughter and there was a time he set about four aisles off in Tesco, cracking customers up with his laughter. Bless. :)

Get In Here, Ladies!!

Here's a cute advert and just the motivation we need to get ourselves exercising, yes? ;)

#DidYouKnow - 9 Weird Body Hacks That Works.

Here are some tips to help broaden your minds as to how innovative things can get and also to help you as you go about in your day-to-day lives. :)

#Repost - Change: Start Simple, End Victorious

As many people clamor for change daily, only a few actually work towards achieving these changes. Change can only occur when we start looking inward and acting right towards those around us. Thereafter we must educate and re-orientate others around us.

I believe one of the major problems we human beings have is our lust and thirst for material things. Items which we cannot take out of this world when we depart from it. I have never seen anyone buried with their house, car or wardrobe full of clothes. I have never seen the point of acquiring vast wealth fraudulently and at the detriment of others.

Greed and corruption stems from being materialistic to the point of being lackadaisical to how it affects the next person. We can scream blue murder till we lose our voices, ranting and railing against our leaders but the truth is these leaders are from amongst us. They are a product of the society, as we are.

In order for us to get things right, we must all come together to change our mindsets. It would help if those leading in the religious and entertainment sectors can help spread the message of goodness and pure love rather than preach and spread anything contrary.

Then we have the task of teaching our children, the younger generation,  the right things and ensuring they adhere to these learnings. Some parents do not even know to teach their children the simplest things like saying "please and thank you'. If you get too busy to train your child right, then we would only keep spinning in this vicious cycle of moral bankruptcy in which we have found ourselves. Teaching them is not enough really, they must see us live exemplary lives without compromise in any way as well.

I believe we can bring about positive changes in the world we are in today. I am not entirely deluded to imagine a world without evil, but bringing it to the barest minimum is what I aim to do in my own little way.

Are you ready for positive changes in our world today? 

Be #AllHeartsAlways

#Repost - The Final Straw....

What represents the sole snowflake that tips your avalanche over? The proverbial "final straw" comes in various forms. No matter the things we are faced with daily or people even, it often takes the one thing to make us realize we are done with staying in the shadows of mediocrity when we can do far better than we currently are.

Now I'm talking about really being pushed to the wall unfairly and not merely out of intolerance or impatience. These things could be in forms of emotions being toyed with, standards not being met at work or in the society, overbearing relatives, etc (you get my drift). I am a firm believer in standing up for what is right and enforcing it. I can't condone injustice in any form and if we had more people averse to injustice and more receptive to giving and receiving love, trust me, we would be better off as earthlings for it.

For me, the final straw that birthed my online awareness campaign tagged #AllHeartsAlways was the sight of a young boy hawking wares under the scorching sun that fateful day, shortly after i relocated to Nigeria. My heart broke that day. I was in an air-conditioned car and still felt the blazing sun, how much more this young lad hustling hard to get 'small money'. I beckoned to him and handed him a some cash and when he tried to give me something off his wares, I stopped him and asked him to go and get a very cold drink. The expression on his face was indescribable. You'd have thought i had either sprouted horns or huge wings and a halo. If the situation was not so pathetic, it could have been funny. Then he burst into tears, tears of relief and appreciation at being appreciated I would presume.

Sigh. Sadly I couldn't engage him further because it was right in the middle of a busy road fraught with traffic and hoodlums. Alas, he is just one of hundreds of thousands of needy people struggling to survive. He was my final straw and the wake up call I needed to go all out for others as always and encourage/re-orientate others to being caring and concerned for other people as well.

The need to show love and care for the needy around us cannot be overemphasized. I hereby encourage you, yes you reading and sharing this post, to be #AllHeartsAlways.

What will represent the sole snowflake that tips your avalanche over? 

Powerful Song, Awesome Video

Here's another smashing hit from Nigerian artist Mr. Olu Maintain featuring 2Face Idibia called Cinderella. The video is absolutely bang on and the messages behind the song are also worthy to note. 

Love conquers all. :)

Happy Easter To You All.

Here's wishing you all a very happy Easter celebration. 

Don't forget the reason for the season as you celebrate. Easter has been replaced with eggs and bunnies and food and drinks, but we seem to have forgotten the actual reason for the celebrations. 

The bible says God loved His only son enough to sacrifice him for the sins of the world. Christ was crucified on Good Friday and He resurrected three days later. 

Easter is a celebration of His ressurection.

:)

Your Kids And Sexual Abuse

Hi everybody, how was your day? Mine was hectic, as usual, and I'm only just on my way home as I type. 

I will be hosting a Tweet Session on No Holds Barred Interactive (#NHBi) by 9pm tonight and I will be sharing my thoughts on parents and child abuse. As of this minute, I've got nothing prepared but I have realised over time that the less prepared I am for stuff like this, the deeper I communicate from my heart and make impact on others who might be going through similar things. 

Join me and let's learn together. Follow the hashtag #NHBi pon Twitter by 9pm. :)

#Poetry - Something In My Way

Something in my way

Even though I know I should be asleep after a long day, I lay awake, deep in thoughts.

Something in my way

Even though I know I shouldn’t give up, I still slip now and then.

Something in my way

Whilst the tears come pouring down my face, I know things will get better.

Something in my way

For I am loved and I love with reckless abandon, O love, sweet love.

Something in my way

The sort of love that eclipses every pain. Love that erases past hurts.

Something in my way

Although how this will end I know not.

Something in my way

Something so good

Something that soothes

Something that gives me hope

Something called love

I wrote the poem above about nine years ago, when I was going through so much in my life at that time. Thankfully, in the midst of the storms, love found me and kept me going. 

Whatever you're going through, trust me, it would pass. There will always be challenges in life and there will always be good times, joy and laughter too. Stay strong, don't give up. Be positive and things would work out for you.

Enjoy your day.

#TuesdayHumour - Paper Is Not Dead

Start your day with some humour. LOL. Methinks, while technology is absolutely fantastic, there are some things it would never be able to substitute.

Have a lovely Tuesday ahead and please let's not forget to donate or indicated our interest in being a sponsor to the students I mentioned here yesterday.

Thanks a million.

My Faith In Humanity Restored

Good morning great people, I hope you all had a restful weekend. Once again, I apologise for my long absence on my blog. I've been up to my neck with work and little time for much else. Do bear with me for a while longer. 

Last week, my faith in humanity was restored by the amazing response of kindhearted Nigerians to an #AllHeartsAlways situation which arose. 

Last year, a young lady contacted me and requested for assistance. She was 18 years old at the time and had been through so much. Her mum and herself fled their abusive husband and father, who in turn, cut them off for daring to stand up to him after years of abuse. They fled to Ibadan and literarily went from grace to grass in their quest to stay alive. She was in a private university before they left her father and had to drop out as a result because her father refused to pay her fees unless he had full control of her. Herself and her mother have had to wait and clean tables in a small restaurant to survive. Things were rough especially as her mother also nursed a broken leg she received from the last beating her father gave to her.

At the time she contacted me, all she wanted was N12,000 to pay for their rent as the landlord was threatening to evict them. I sent some money to her for their rent and for her to get drugs and thankfully that was sorted at the time. I spoke with her several times and it was clear to me she has a good head on her shoulders.

Last week, she got in touch with me again in desperation. They had been struggling to eat for weeks because they lost their jobs at the restaurant. The restaurant had shut down due to slow business so they were asked to take a break till further notice. Her mother had had to sell off her personal items to keep them bothy surviving. All they've had to eat in the past week was gar, morning, afternoon and night.

I was gutted. I meant to send her money but then I gave it another thought and decided to put her story on my Twitter TL in order to help her get a more permanent solution to her situation. The responses to those tweets (follow the hashtag #AllHeartsAlways) were simply astounding. That same day, we raised N50,000 cash for her and got amazing offers to help her set up a business and also get back to university. Before I went to bed, that day, we had more or less secured a job for her with almost triple the wages she was earning previously and even more incredible was the willingness of her new employer to pay her in advance. 

She was in shock when I told her, as was I. She opened up to me about how depressed she had gotten and how she almost gave up totally just last week. I'm glad she held on and I want to use this chance to encourage all Nigerians to reach out to the needy and for the needy to reach out to others for help rather than get desperate and give up on life. I am truly grateful beyond words for all who chipped in to make her story a success yesterday. Thank you.

We are here again on the Ijagbo #AllHeartsAlways Scholarship for Senior Secondary students. It all started in 2012 when a corp member then, Mayowa @czarohm, tweeted the inability of some students to pay their school fee which costs one thousand Naira per term. We mobilized support online and a good number of people turned up to sponsor some of the wards through school, precisely 30 students. 

So far, this program/project has graduated 3 sets of these students from the school (Oyun Baptist High School OBHS Ijagbo) but recently we hit a ditch, sponsors are late in response as the economy hardship has taken its toll on people's finances. We currently have 6 students in SS3 and 5 in SS2 and they are starting their exam soon external exam, WAEC/NECO. 

The six students who must write their external exams are in need of N35,000 each to pay for these exams. I am hereby appealing to well-meaning people to come to their assistance and help raise the needed funds (N210,000) for these students. Getting children adequately educated is the best thing we can do for our collective future. Help us give these children hope and a new lease on life by supporting them with anything you've got.

Kindly send your donations to:

Bank: Ecobank
Account Name: Oyinkanola Mayowa
Account Number: 2771072535

Together, we can help raise the money for these brilliant students' examination fees. Remember that every little helps. 

Thank you.

#DearBuki - Should I Get An MSc Or Buy A Car?

Hello dear blog readers, how has your day been? I have started a column tagged #DearBuki where you can send whatever issues weighing on your minds and I would do my best to proffer solutions to them by giving my opinion and showing other perspectives to them. I do a lot of these guidance and counselling offline so I felt the need to bring it on my blog. Do send me an email on bukiotuyemi@gmail.com and we will put heads together. Check out the other posts here.

As they say, a problem shared, is a problem half solved................ :)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Buki,

How are you and your beautiful family? I have a dilemma and I hope you can help me make a decision. I have the option of going away for my Master degree or buying a car and going for a holiday, and I am lost as to which to go for. Ordinarily, I would have opted for my Masters without a second thought but my friends are telling me that there are so many Masters holders here in Nigeria who have not gotten good jobs, if they have at all. They say after spending all that money on getting my MSc, I would be back here earning peanuts. I am very skeptical and confused at this moment, please help.

Thank you. 

Nnenna.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Nnenna, 

Thank you for writing in, I appreciate it. Back to the issue at hand, I understand your dilemma and it is one several people are faced with most times. You just have to weigh the pros and cons and take the leap yourself. In my own opinion, while you might not get a fantastic job offer immediately after your MSc degree, you cannot quantify the amount of knowledge and exposure you would be gaining from leaving the shores of Nigeria to go abroad to study. No knowledge is ever lost and who knows, perhaps like me, you might find your better half over there. :) Yup, I met my husband while I was studying for my Masters in England and we got married there and had both our kids there. 

As your friends rightly pointed out, getting a well-paid job when you get back is not guaranteed but at least you would have had enough exposure to enable you be an entrepreneur yourself. I was into buying and selling while I was abroad and I set up a flourishing online store too. You must not be an employee when you can excel at being an employer yourself. Such is the way your mindset would be wired by the time you have spent at least six months abroad. 

By the way, if going away for your Masters still does not interest you, staying back and starting a business with the funds is a much better option than splurging on a car and a holiday. Holidays end and cars have to be maintained from a steady source of income. If you have a business you are running, you will have the chance to buy your choice of cars and visit exotic locations. Think it through and do not just squander your funds, ok?

I wish you all the very best in your endeavours.

Thanks.

Buki O.

Creativity From Another Angle.

This is from the Aptitude Test sheet of a very creative student.

Q. In which battle did Napoleone die?

Ans. His last one.

Q.Where was the American Declaration of Independence signed?

Ans. At the bottom of the page.

Q. River Niger flows in which State?

Ans. In liquid state.

Q. What is the main reason for Divorce,

Ans. Marriage.

Q. What can you never eat at Breakfast?

Ans. Lunch and Dinner.

Q. What looks like half an apple?

Ans. The other half.

Q. What is the main reason for Exams?

Ans. Failure.

Q. If you threw a Red stone into a Blue river what will it become?

Ans. A very wet stone.

Q. How can a man go 8 days without sleeping?

Ans. Easy, sleep at night.

Q. How can you lift an Elephant with one hand?

Ans. You can never lift an Elephant that has one hand.

Q. If you had 3 oranges and 4 apples in one hand and 4 oranges and 3 apples in the other; what will you have?

Ans. Very large hands.

Q. If it took 8 men 10 hours to build a brick wall, how long will it take 4 men to build it?

Ans. No time at all, the wall has already been built.

Q. How can you drop a raw egg on a concrete floor without cracking it?

Ans. Any way you want because a concrete floor is very hard to crack.

He got an "F" but was awarded an "A+" for creativity.

Here's wishing you all a prosperous day ahead. Apologies for my long stay away from my blog. The past week has been extremely busy and I have been extremely tired. Thanks for checking in daily, despite my absence.  :)

Keep being #AllHeartsAlways

#Repost What Value Do We Place On Lives?

I saw an accident this morning on my way to work and it made me recall this post from a while back on my blog. I didn't realise there had been an accident because I was working on my laptop on the staff bus and I assumed the traffic was the usual early morning one. By the time I looked up, I could see a mangled bus across the third mainland bridge, with glass everywhere. I noticed a LASTMA official beside the bus and another man, possibly the driver? 

While my brain slowly tried to understand the unexpected scene before my eyes, we drove past the bus and as I looked back through the back window, I realised there was a body lying on the culvert beside the bus, and suddenly I saw the body twitching. We had driven way past at this point and could not stop due to the influx of traffic behind us.

I went to check €Gidi_traffic's Twitter timeline and found out that the accident had occurred earlier and had been fatal and worse than what I came across. I can't help pondering on the state of the twitching body I saw. Why hasn't the person been taken to the hospital? Had they written her off as dead without realising she still had life in her? Will she be alright? What is the worth of a Nigerian life?

Sigh.

Shame and pity how nothing much has changed since the times I wrote the article below.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I came across a story today about how a 10-year-old goldfish with a tumour in its head was operated on by Dr. Tristan Rich, the Head of exotics and wildlife medicine in Lort Smith Animal Hospital, Melbourne. Ten-year-old George (the goldfish) is a pet whose owners really love him and so seeing him in such distress equally caused them distress as well. George's owners had the choices of either spending $200 on a surgery or putting him to sleep, they chose the former. 

Thankfully, the surgery went well and George is currently in recovery. According to Dr. Rich, 'For the owners, it's not about having a fish, it's about having this fish'. 

As lovely and sweet as I found this story, it made me extremely sad because I realize that George's owners place far more worth and value on his well-being and life than our leaders place on the lives of Nigerians.Yesterday I got a call that my mum was ill and I had to rush to go see her. (she's much better, thanks for thinking of asking :). On my way back to a family function, I saw an accident that shook me to my core. A car appeared to have knocked down a man dead and while the badly damaged car was moved off the road, the dead body was left lying by the side of the road uncovered. There were several policemen and even a new station camera crew at the scene. It bothered me greatly that he was just left lying there, exposed, contorted and stone-cold dead. There were no concerns of the effects seeing the dead body would have on passersby nor the effect of seeing him like that could have on any member of his family who happened on the scene. It was a grim and pathetic sight to behold.

I am a member of the NGO Stand To End Rape (S.T.E.R) and today I got a horrifying call from my boss, Ayodeji. She was pretty distraught and I had to calm her down a bit. Apparently, there was a brutal rape case last night in Delta state and our NGO was contacted to help out. She advised them to get the poor victim, who happens to be a minor, to a hospital as quickly as possible. When the victim's family got to the hospital, they were turned back to go get a police report BEFORE she could be attended to!!! They headed out to the police station only to get there, make a report and be told they had to pay N3,000 before the police report could be issued to them!! Flamin' balls of fire, I saw red. 

Suddenly, nothing made sense to me any longer. Sending the money across to them wasn't the issue here because we were willing to do that, but that would have been a temporary solution to a lasting problem. I needed a solution that would be more permanent. I was furious at the injustice of it all, our silly laws and our seemingly lackadaisical attitudes to such horrors as are seen in the country in recent times. I vented out my fury on my twitter timeline and I ensured I copied the two police handles I could find. Thankfully one of them, @sho_NPF, responded and provided the phone number of the Delta Command PRO of the Nigerian Police Force. Ayodeji made the call and true to her words, the PRO came through for us. It was a small victory, but it felt great. The S.T.E.R team will ensure that little girl gets justice.

These incidences and the several others like them often deflates my hopes in humanity most times and it is getting more and more difficult to overcome the forbrooding feeling that washes over me at their occurrences. It is becoming more glaring to me that empathy seems to be only felt by a handful of Nigerians and this is not good enough.  I don't know at what point we got to this junction of nonchalance and absolute disregard for human lives, but I do know that we cannot/must not continue this way. We would do well to place better value on each and every Nigerian life. We would do better to know that every life is valuable.

Sadly, some Nigerians will read this post and still think George and his likes should be used in a pot of pepper-soup where they would imagine they are worth more. Sigh. *drops microphone*

#DidYouKnow - Live And Learn

Good morning everyone, in another segment of #DidYouKnow, here are some mind-blowing tips that can be of great help to you and your loved ones. So read, enjoy and share.

Enjoy your day. :)

#DearBuki: Help! I Married Deception!!!

Hello dear blog readers, how has your day been? I have started a column tagged #DearBuki where you can send whatever issues weighing on your minds and I would do my best to proffer solutions to them by giving my opinion and showing other perspectives to them. I do a lot of these guidance and counselling offline so I felt the need to bring it on my blog. Do send me an email on bukiotuyemi@gmail.com and we will put heads together. Check out the other posts here.

As they say, a problem shared, is a problem half solved................ :)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Buki,

I am a huge fan of yours and I really wish we can have more easy going and factual people like you in Nigeria. I need your advise on an issue bothering me. My wife is a chronic liar, she lies about the most mundane things and I have tried my best to make her see the errors in her ways, but she can't seem to change.

We have been married for three years and it has been torturous to say the least. I still love her very much but I do not know how much more I can take if she does not change her ways. Her lying habit constantly causes us embarrassment. She lies about what we own and don't own, where she's been, what she ate, what she wore, everything. She creates a false character to others overtime. Why can't she just be her nice self? She shows remorse when she's caught in a lie but she just can't seem to stop even though she wants to. I don't know what else to do Buki. 

Please help me.

Thank you.

Patrick.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Patrick, thank you for writing in and sharing your concerns with us. I am sorry about the pains and embarrassment your wife is causing you but I admire you reaching out to get her the help she needs. I think your wife might be suffering from a medical disorder call Pseudologia Fantastica which is the another name for being a pathological liar. Excessive lying is a common symptom of several mental illnesses which many people suffer from but few get help for it, and just wallow in self-pity and ridicule over what they cannot control themselves..

Several things could be responsible for this and as such, I would recommend you getting her to see a trained psychologist as quickly as possible, for a proper diagnosis and treatment. From what I have read about pathological liars, it is not easy diagnosing them precisely and treating them but it can be done, If she's indeed suffering from pathological lying, then psychotherapy is what she needs as this is the only known cure. 

This also means you have to be supportive and be there for her through this. The good thing is that she realises she has a problem, and is willing to get help for it and also has you loving and helping her. That's half of the problem solved already. 

I wish you all the best as you both seek help. Let me know if you need the contact of a trained psychologist.

Thanks.

Bui O.