The Fashion Trend for Equality

Hi there,

My name is Omonye Akhigbe and I’m a woman like you, A Nigerian woman to be exact.

Happy International Women’s Day!

I am very excited about this day and my excitement increased when I checked the International Women’s Day website and saw a pledge from my CEO and many others I admire. I am excited there’s a buzz about this day today, as is every year.

As I meditated on what this day means to me I realised something; it’s important what we say as women, but it is almost equally as important what we wear.

I’m a woman and whether I chose to admit it or not, from generations before I was born, I have always been judged by what I wear. Fashion fads go and come, but over the years, women have worn predominantly two outfits, hope and then faith.

The Laws of Inefficiency – The Anatomy of a Decaying Nation

I’ve have been away for a bit and while I was away, I was busy making keen observations in order to bring something very important to your notice.

Is it just me? Or have you yet taken time to note the ‘Laws of Inefficiency’?

I have observed people in situations of gross inefficiency and lack of responsibility (case study: Nigerian civil society) and noted the unwritten rules behind, beside and beneath the attitude of every unpatriotic and apathetic Nigerian. These are not theories or hypotheses, they are laws. Tested and proven, they are the Laws of Convenience.

You Must Not Get Too Excited About Success-To-Failure Stories

What do we get out of every good story? A moral lesson.

What do we get out of every good success? What to do

What do we get out of every bad failure? What not to do

I know it is tempting to want to celebrate failure as a necessary pathway to success when we see the bios of so many successful people today who were once considered massive failure. Stories like those of Thomas Edison (and his one thousand experiments to invent the light bulb) and The Beatles are definitely needed to revive a tired spirit. But we must be careful.

The Questions You Must Ask To Live A Full Life

In life, we must ask ourselves certain mandatory questions if we want to stand any chance of living alive. The essence of life itself and how much we do with it are both hinged on the quality of questions we ask ourselves.

Your Past Is More Important Than You Would Care To Admit

We always talk about leaving our past behind. Jettisoning the old and embracing the new, starting afresh.

While I am a big believer in fresh starts and looking forward, I have learnt enough to know that you should never forget your past.

The 99% Completion Effect: A Job Almost Well Done

If the internet age has taught us anything, it is the lesson that 99% download is not good enough. The other day I was reading a book by Wale Adenuga titled ‘Here’s My Two Cents’ and it struck a chord with me. There in front of me was another reminder that 99% is never enough. He likened aborted success to having your internet download fail at 99%. This is a feeling we all know too well.

Trust me, it happens to the best of us. This  hit me hard again the other day when I was in the slum of Mokola neighbourhood in Ibadan, at the ‘office’ of a printer at the dead of the night (11:00PM to be precise) as I said all the prayers I know for his printer not to pack up in the middle of our print job.

I had come in from Lagos with about ninety-something percent of the prints I needed. But hey, that is not 100%. So of course, I had to get 100% for the training the next morning. As I sat in the makeshift office/storeroom/shop/messy-place, all I could think about was the power of the last 1% that brought me out there that night. Trust me, if the final 1% means anything to you, it has the power to make you survive the worst possible situations.

The Unknown Quality Of a Virtuous Woman: Shame

Earlier today, I was having a conversation with my colleague. We were joking about guys giving girls money to get their hair done. And then I heard the most epic statement ever “Naaaaa, you can’t ask me for money to make your hair, YOU HAVE SHAME”.

Shame! The previously undiscovered feminine virtue.

It sounded awkward and actually chauvinist to me at first, but at a closer glance, what he said actually makes sense.

Before I go further and have the ‘girl power’ and ‘women liberation’ over-enthusiasts ask for my head, let me clearly define what I mean. Having Shame is very different from a having a voice.