Between 2014 and 2017, I wrote a weekly column on my blog(www.taiwoakinlamiblog.com) and shared same with friends on Facebook and WhatsApp on Sundays…

In 2018 and 2019, I rested the column.

Two days ago, I was visited by an inspiration to pick up the gauntlet of the weekly column again and dedicate same to SOCIAL PROTECTION ADVOCACY.

I am not disobedient to this, which I believe to be divinely inspired this last Sunday of the year of our LORD 2019, I begin again.

The normal instinct would have been to begin on the first Sunday of 2020 but my training is that of instant obedience.

Have you noticed that every institution that is worth its name always create a timeline within which to achieve identified outcomes and failure to meet timeline come with dire consequences, depending on the gravity of the breach.

Instance obidence or quick attempt at obidence (even when I fail) may be easy for me because I am not also a fan of New Year Resolutions and the inordinate frenzy that goes with it. I do not think I need to wait for the beginning of a New Year to make resolutions.The Book that I read says,
‘therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin…Since I know that time begins to count against me the moment I know the right thing, I make per second resolutions, based on instructions, insight and hindsight.

I do not wait till the last day of the year to crossover with a loud shout of ‘Happy New Year!!!’ Though that may have it’s place for those who really know what they are doing, but as for me, I crossover in my mind per second. I do not only rejoice at a New Year, I rejoice at a New Second, a New Minute, a New Hour, a New Day, a New Week, a New Month, a New Year and so on. It is the faithfulness in the purposeful use of a second that guarantees the meaningful use of a minute, the impactful use of an hour, the influential use of a day, the transformational use of a month and significant use of a year…For me, greatness is a journey, accomplishments are milestones…

I know that my life is not measured in years but in seconds. Maybe if our lives are measured in years, it would have been a universal law of nature that the day of death must be the day of annual birthday. It would mean that no matter the risk or threat to a man or woman’s life(self-imposed or otherwise), death would have to wait till the day, marking his/her annual birthday. But we all know that life does not work that way.

Life is INSTANT! The impact of our actions or omission may not be seen in the immediate but the impact is immediate or the impact begins to accumulate…What we fail to recognise is that there is a difference between CONCEPTION and MANIFESTATION.

The unfortunate thing is that in the Third World, we are a people, who neither celebrate nor deal with seeds. We specialise in celebrating and uprooting forest. In most cases, we neither see greatness nor menace in its embryonic stage. Greatness has the greatest chance of being nurtured into the fullness of potentials when it is discovered at the seed status. So also menace is better curbed at the seed level before it becomes mammoth of a concern.

In view of the foregoing Third World reality, our capacity at resourcefulness is diminished so greatly and painfully. You see, the engine room of resourcefulness is to be proactive…To see, plan and act far ahead…I listened to Jeff Bezos at the 2019 World Economic Forum, saying that he and the top leadership of his entities live ahead, they live in the future and leave the rest to manage the present. He echoed same in the recent CNN documentary, the Amazon Age.

Nurture and foresight go hand in hand. What is today OBVIOUS was first yesterday INTRINSIC. Those who rule in the REAL 21ST CENTURY, are those who see today’s OBVIOUS in its INTRINSIC form and prepare for it…

Please note that I use the phrase ‘Real 21st Century’ in the immediate paragraph consciously. It must be deliberately diffentiated from ‘Calendar 21st Century.’ By calendar, the First, Second and Third Worlds are all in the 21st by calendar. But in the reckoning of the 21st Century developmenal indices in terms of social, political and economic positioning, many Third World nations, particularly Africa are far behind schedule. For example research has shown that our educational system in Sub-Saharan Africa is 2 generations(minimum of 60 years) behind schedule in terms of learning the basics that make our precious children fit for the future world of work.

Please note that the fact is not lost on me that social, political and economic inequalities are a global phenomenon (First, Second and Third World). It is just that these inequalities are at the most primitively crude levels in Third World nations. That means our quest for change must move from a drive for personal success to communal emancipation. SOCIAL PROTECTION for all holds, within a people-centred socioeconomic system, powered by a political machinery driven by organised PUBLIC WILL is the inevitable key to the foregoing.

Change is an EVER-PRESENT POSSIBILITY for any person, who is READY to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for personal and social advancement.

This is the piece with which I resurrect my SOBER ON MY KNEELS ON THE LORD’S DAY column and I have titled it, ‘RONDOM MUSINGS.’ If I have waited for a more coordinated topic I will not have written. This is done in the spirit of instant obidence for Life is INSTANT!

Do have an INSPIRED rest of the year.

I am Taiwo AKINLAMI and I remain Sober on My Kneels this LORD’s day as I signal my interest to do SOCIAL PROTECTION ADVOCACY weekly on this and other platforms.

(C) 2019 by Taiwo ‘ODINAKACHUKWU’ AKINLAMI…All Rights Reserved
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