It’s been exciting to discover this interesting Vocational Skills Training and Consultancy solution on use of High Quality Cassava Flour to Make Snacks (Doughnuts, Pies and Chin-Chin) being delivered by Prof. Adesope.
[WATCH HIS NEWLY LAUNCHED HIGHLIGHT VIDEO NOW]
In this video, Prof. Olufemi Martins Adesope shares insights into how he began his work on Cassava Entreprise Development.
Click here to watch it on his blog…
TayoSolagbade.com is back online! [In case you didn’t know it went offline, read the story at the bottom of this piece]
As the late Nigerian Yoruba musician Orlando Owo once sang “What has happened has happened”, I accept this latest experience of my website suffering avoidable downtime of about 40 hours, as yet another lesson to guide me in deciding who to trust, when and for what.
The WHO could be a person, or group of people or organisation. In this case, it was an organisation. But I’m done talking about it (see text of Facebook update I did yesterday about it).
What I will say here though is that it was VERY inconsiderate of the bank to NOT go out of their way to alert – repeatedly too! – ALL their card users who they could see (from their records) routinely use the Naira cards that got roundly declined by Paypal.
Instead they quielty left us to discover it individually – even when it meant potentiallt serious damage to perception of our brands.
I think a Farm CEO client of mine who called me today, and got to know about it, got it right when he said:
“They probably chose not to broadcast the news about Paypal discontinuing use of their cards, because they felt it would be a dent on their image!”
My response was:
“So they were more concerned about protecting their image than they were about protectingn their customers’ brands, that PAY for them to maintain that so called image?!”
That’s a typically Nigerian warped attitude to customer service.
Now don’t get me wrong.
Nobody is asking them to commit brand suicide by announcing a setback that makes them look bad, compared to rivals.
My argument is that:
1. they could, at the least, have discretely sent us email or SMS messages WARNING us that the NAIRA cards no longer worked, and advising us on new platforms to switch to.
2. Even if they did not want to use email or SMS, they could have gotten our individual account managers to check our profiles and call us up to brief us on this development which had such serious implications for our business lives.
I say this as one who lives a 100% digital lifestyle.
Virtually everything I do is based on the web, so I depend HEAVILY on the use of my card.
What I did not know was that the fact that the card still worked locally, did not mean it still worked everywhere else, especially internationally.
After 5 years of depending on my NAIRA card, and having it work perfectly for me both on and off the web, just as the bank had assured in various promotional messages, how could I imagine such an extreme reversal of functionalities could occur?!
Least of all to me – someone with so many people I serve using my ability to make payments for solutions they benefit through me!!
I am deeply disappointed that GT bank could let this kind of experience happen to ANY of her customers.
They need to do better in future.
They MUST learn to think and act with MAJOR Emotional Intelligence in handing the affairs of their clients – especially those vulnerable to mishaps of this nature, due to Nigeria’s shaky Naira exchange regimen.
In other words, they need to put themselves in the shoes of their customers – and TRY hard to feel what their customers feel, so they know what matters to EACH one and then act to help them on the basis of insights gained.
When you do that, your customers are more likely to do better, and YOU will ultimately benefit!
For now, I’ve taken a cue from what has happened, and I will henceforth control my bragging about what can or cannot go wrong with their web based solutions. Sorry.
Choi!
See as GT just fall my hand online today. Na wa O. No wonder they say never put your trust in any man – or in my case: in any BANK lol!
Come see as yours truly begin dey do investigative phone calling to find another way to make payment for web hosting renewal.
After many failed phone conversations – I’ve finally found someone (referred by a client) who has a Dollar card and is willing to help me fund my reseller account online.
But the price is steep. To transfer the $34 I need to my reseller account, I have to pay a total of $45 USD.
I don’t mind that however.
Instead what really irks me is that I NEVER got email or SMS from GT alerting me to the fact that Paypal no longer recognised their Naira Mastercard. They left me to discover it at the point of renewal!
As a result, TayoSolagbade.com is now currently offline – due to my inability to fund my hosting account to renew it for another year.
Even worse is the fact that a client’s website may also go down by Midnight today – as the alternative payment option I’ve found is not likely to be active before tomorrow.
This is so not cool, as the Americans would say. Over here we say: Dis wan na yawa O!
But here’s the irony:
As I type these words a GT bank SMS has already popped into my message inbox alerting me to the multiple benefits of getting myself a GT bank Dollar Mastercard that has no li
mits!
Isn’t it funny how they so readily thought to send that, but never thought it necessary to warn me that the Naira card I was depending on would no longer work for most purposes I’d gotten used to using it for?
This is a reflection of the quality of minds manning the areas where the above are handled in GT.
I know some great GT bank personnel. Very diligent about doing their work.
But I believe there are many more who do not put their hearts into the work they do.
They do not care how their lack of proactiveness hurts the client or his/her business. They only care about themselves and looking good on the job!
A sad shame.
Anway, work continues for me. I’ve been down this website downtime road more times than I care to remember. No be today. Each time I simply focus on finding a viable solution and putting it to use.
That’s what matters most: Kicking adversity out of the way so as to move forward to newer and better things!
“Some people make the mistake of equating consensus with truth. That you, and others who think like you, agree among yourselves that a centipede is a millipede wearing a metal coat, will not make the centipede become a millipede.” – Tayo Solagbade
“If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.” – Anatole France
The 4 plus minute video clip linked below features a presenter engaged in a debate of sorts with an audience member, who expressed disagreement with some things she (the presenter) had said about Global Warming.
…
I share the transcript excerpts below, because I believe MANY of us make the mistake she (I’ll call her “Logic-Lady”) points out here, when we want to drive home our points. And we need to know we are NOT proved right by it!
SCROLL DOWN TO READ FULL ISSUE
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Tayo K. Solagbade* Self-Development/Performance Improvement Specialist *Best Practice Farm Business Support Specialist & Founder of the MS Excel Heaven Visual Basic Automation Club and Competition Mobile: +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria) or +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic) Tayo K. Solagbade is a Location Independent Performance Improvement Specialist and Multipreneur (i.e. a highly versatile/multi-skilled entrepreneur), with a bias for delivering Best Practice solutions to Farm Businesses and others. Since 2002, he has earned multiple streams of income providing individuals and organizations with personal development training and coaching, custom MS Excel-VB solutions, web marketing systems/web hosting, freelance writing services, and best practice extension support services (for farm business owners). Tayo is the author of the Self-Development (SD) Bible™ and the popular Livestock Feed Formulation Handbook. He is also the developer of its accompanying Excel-VB driven Ration Formulator™ and the Poultry Farm Manager™ software. He has delivered talks/papers to audiences in various groups and organizations, including the Centre for Management Development, University of Lagos, Christ Baptist Church, Volunteer Corps, Tantalisers Fast Foods and others. In May 2012 he was the Guest Speaker at the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development’s Annual Semester Entrepreneurial Lecture at Yaba College of Technology in Lagos. On 1st April 2013, Tayo (who reads, write and speaks the French language) relocated to Cotonou, Benin Republic to begin slowly traveling across the West African region. His key purpose is to deliver talks, seminars and workshops on his key areas of focus and interest to interested audiences (Email tayo at tksola dot com for details). In a previous life, before leaving to become self-employed, Tayo served for seven years (October 1994 to December 2001) as a high performing manager in Guinness Nigeria. He rose from Shift Brewer to Training & Technical Development Manager, and later acted in senior roles as Production Manager and Technical Manager. In addition to constantly challenging the status quo and influencing positive work changes, he built a reputation for using self-taught spreadsheet programming skills (starting with Lotus 1-2-3, and later moving to Excel Visual Basic) – in his spare time – to develop Automated Spreadsheet Applications to computerize manual report generation processes in the departments he worked. Over four(4) of his applications were adopted for brewery level reporting. Tayo holds a B.Sc degree in Agricultural Extension Services from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, having graduated top of his class – with Second Class Upper Division honors – in 1992. He is an Associate Member of the UK Institute & Guild of Brewing, a 1997 National Finalist of the Nigerian Institute of Management’s(NIM) Young Managers’ competition, a Certified Psychometric Test Administrator for Psytech UK, innovator of Spontaneous Coaching for Self-Development™ (SCfS-D™), and Founder of the Self-Development Academy (SDAc). When he’s not amazing clients with his superhuman skills (wink), Tayo works as the creative force behind his Daily Self-Development Nuggets blog – on which he also publishes The Farm CEO Weekly Newspaper (sent via email to paid subscribers) and his Weekly Performance Improvement IDEAS newsletter. You can connect with him on Twitter @tksola.com and Facebook. Visit Tayo Solagbade Dot Com, to download over over 10 performance improvement resources to boost your personal and work related productivity. ====
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Nigeria today struggles to get itself out of poor leadership and corruption driven rot, because too much poor quality thinking, and reasoning is allowed to prevail in most (NOT ALL) of the decision making levels of her leadership, as well as amongst the larger majority of the followership.
I’ve said the foregoing countless times in speaking and in my writing.
Ours is a nation that has produced MANY great minds who today have made their marks as achievers in their professional fields internationally, but who chose to use their success to play (often informal) leadership roles aimed at moving the nation in the direction of sustainable progress and advancement.
I know most of us can readily recall more than a few, but I have certain role models in mind like Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Gani Fawehinmi (and others like them).
These achievers established themselves as shrewdly analytical thinkers with a knack for refusing to be hoodwinked by anyone – least of all poor thinking political leaders!
The last thing you could dream of catching them doing would be playing the psycophancy, tribalism or nepotism game. You also could certainly not depend on them to adopt illogical reasoning or depend on sentiments in coming up with their views of a way forward on any matter.
Indeed they were unrepentantly diligent at dishing out unapologetically blunt and truthful opinions on any subject. And this endeared them to the larger majority.
But most endearing was their willingness to walk their talk!
Sadly, today in everyday Nigeria, intelligent people who try to think critically and act based on intelligent logical tend to be an endangered species, and often get attacked or verbally pounded into silence by “group-thinking” mobs of often insecure others.
This is perhaps why we have much fewer people willing to step out into the limelight to play similar roles to the above mentioned heroes. Most Nigerians who fit that mould – rightly – fear that they stand to lose more than there is to gain, in today’s Nigeria, than was the case in Achebe and Soyinka’s Nigeria!
This is a major reason why we have such a paradoxical society, filled with mind boggling contradictions of human behavior.
It is is why “illogic” seems to sit so well here!
Those willing to adopt the position of logical thinkers are few. Too few. And many would rather not be known publicly.
As a result, poor thinkers have taken centre stage in Nigeria – and they use their growing influence to allow ONLY others like themselves to get through.
They know that is the only way to keep those who can expose their ineptitude OUT.
But societies that experience sustained and progressive advancement, NEVER allow people with poor reasoning capacities to LEAD her!
And they certainly do NOT permit the voting population to grow into a mass of illogical thinkers who let bias and sentiments get the better of their judgment.
If our fortunes as a nation are to change for the better, we will need to start building “a Society of Discerning Adults, Whose Leaders Cannot Fool. We MUST Teach Our Kids Critical Thinking and Logic”.
I offer below a list of websites I recently compiled, that offer guidance for parents and other adults willing to do what it needed for their kids – and even themselves as well!
© 2009-2012 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved
– See more at: http://www.parentingscience.com/teaching-critical-thinking.html#sthash.rkhGbxxl.dpuf
Teaching critical thinking? You might wonder if kids will work it out for themselves.
After all, lots of smart people have managed to think logically without formal instruction in logic. Moreover, studies show that kids become better learners when they are forced to explain how they solve problems. So maybe kids will discover principles of logic spontaneously, as they discuss their ideas with others.
But research hints at something else, too.
– See more at: http://www.parentingscience.com/teaching-critical-thinking.html#sthash.rkhGbxxl.dpuf
What kind of thinker is your child? Does he believe everything on TV? Does she always figure out how to get what she wants?
Does he ask questions? Does she go along with what her friends suggest? You can help develop your child’s critical thinking skills by learning a few key guidelines!
Whether your child is just starting summer vacation or in the midst of the school year, parents can help keep minds active in fun ways. Critical thinking skills don’t fully develop until adolescence, but the foundations for good thinking develop in younger children.
http://www.rootsofaction.com/critical-thinking-ways-to-improve-your-childs-mind-this-summer/
In our homeschooling, I teach Logic as a separate, stand-alone subject, in addition to working it into other topics whenever possible. But even if your kids go to conventional schools, it’s important (and great fun!) to teach Logic at home. Teaching our kids to think critically about what they see, hear, and read is key to guiding them into becoming adults who think for themselves.
https://geekdad.com/2013/09/teach-kids-logic-illustrated-book-bad-arguments/
Critical thinking skills are skills that children (and adults) need to learn to be able to solve problems. This includes analyzing and evaluating information that is provided, whether that information is through observation, experience or communication. The core of critical thinking is being responsive to information and not just accepting it. Questioning is the most important part of critical thinking. It is a part of scientific, mathematical, historical, economic and philosophical thinking, all of which are necessary for the future development of our society. Here are a few ways to teach critical thinking that can be used whether you are a teacher or a parent.
All first year students at the University of Technology Sydney could soon be required to take a compulsory maths course in an attempt to give them some numerical thinking skills.
The new course would be an elective next year and mandatory in 2016 with the university’s deputy vice-chancellor for education and students Shirley Alexander saying the aim is to give students some maths “critical thinking” skills.
This is a worthwhile goal, but what about critical thinking in general?
Since late last year, I’ve been developing and implementing a custom Web Marketing System for a Farm Business Support Professional (a Professor in one of the nation’s leading universities) who travels locally and internationally to support Farm Businesses and Stakeholder groups by facilitating learning events.
Apart from capacity building, one of the key areas of focus this real world focused academic offers valuable support to players in the farm business sector across Africa, is Agribusiness Vocational Skills development training.
In that regard, this gentleman continues to impress me with his demonstrated hands-on proficiency in very practical vocations. A good example is the use of agricultural food products in making snacks.
But one particular area I’ve been most excited to see his work has been that relating to the use of High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) as a replacement for more expensive conventional wheat flour in baking of bread, and snacks like doughnuts, pies and chin-chin.
For those who do not know it, HQCF is costs about 50% less than wheat flour. Yet, continuing research and trials are showing that it has the potential to deliver similar benefits in the baking and snacks foods production chain that wheat flour currently deliver.
More people need to be made aware of what HQCF can do. We grow Cassava all over this continent. If more of us embrace the production of HQCF from Cassava that we grow, and we make use of it in larger amounts in place of Wheat, the implication for savings of scarce Forex resources are huge.
Reports have it that Ghana has long established itself as a leader in pursuit of this goal and is doing quite well.
I share the report from the FAO below, in the first of many efforts I will be making to create more awareness about this opportunity, out here, for more of us to follow up.
This is why I’m supporting my client with various promotional resources, so he can get increased marketing exposure for the training workshop on use of HQCF for snacks production that he offers.
FAO: ‘Promising’ cassava flour can drastically cut costs for bakers
Flour made from cassava can be up to half the price of regular wheat flour, holding great promise for bakers amid commodity volatility, says the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Hi,Our phone conversation earlier today refers.
Like I said, I’m NOT selling anything.
Instead, I feel led to offer some suggestions to you (and some others) whose marketing materials I picked up, from their stands at the recently concluded event.
There’s a lot of other stuff I’ve written about how a Web Marketing System can be used to achieve timeless marketing based name/brand recognition and zero cost sales leads generation. {Hint: Google “tayosolagbade.com: web marketing system” – or just click preceding link)
My approach is to use MY NAME as a basis for promoting my brand, That’s why I noted that you could make people who Google your name discover your brand that way.However, using an “alias” also works as well, – especially if your day jobs makes it imperative that you avoid openly linking your name, or yourself with income earning activity outside that with your employer.Ok…on to my “suggestion”:You may find it useful to view this mindmap and watch the video explanation (click here to request download access) for what I NOW believe will best suit your needs.I call it a Zero Cost Web Marketing System (WMS) or an Effective Online Presence (EOP)Below is a generic message I use to explain what it is all about:A. Find attached a mindmap image (see it here) that shows key components of what I call a customizable Web Marketing System (WMS).
A WMS, setup right, can be used to boost your business marketing reach/impact, measurable over time in terms of:1. time, effort and money you WILL save
2. Quality sales leads/enquiries you will generateB. Find attached a zipped folder containing a video (click here to request download access) for you to watch offline, in which I explain what the WMS components are about and how they benefit businesses that use them.
To watch the video, REMOVE or EXTRACT the 2 files in the zipped folder, and place them in the same location on your PC.
Then use either Option A or Option B to playback the video:Option A: Double click on the web page file (the one with the browser icon) among the two, to watch the video in your browser. If you get a prompt to activate “Adobe Flash Player” click on the prompt to activate it by following the instructions that appear. This method typically applies to PCs with older versions of Windows Operating System.
Option B: In newer versions of Windows, and/or on PCs with VLC players, ignore the web page file and simply double click the much larger SWF file – the video should start playing immediately.
Let me know if you need help/have questions or require clarification.
I hope you find it useful – and wish you more success with the creative work you’re doing!With kindest regards,Tayo K. Solagbade*Location Independent Performance Improvement Specialist & Multipreneur*Best Practice Farm Business Support Specialist & Founder of the Cost-Saving Farm Business Ideas Club*Custom Excel-VB Solutions Developer & Founder of the MS Excel Heaven Visual Basic Automation Club & Competition*Creator of the Zero Cost Web Marketing System and Founder of the Web Marketing for CEOs ClubMobile: +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria) or +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic)Email: tayo at tksola dot com or tayo at tayosolagbade dot comhttp://www.tayosolagbade.com [Flagship Performance Improvement Website] http://www.thefarmceo.net [The Farm CEO Newspaper]http://www.excelheaven.biz [Custom Excel Visual Basic driven Software Development] http://www.tksola.com [Response Generating Writing and Web Marketing Solutions]
Hi again…
As a follow up to my preceding email suggestion that you adopt a custom Web Marketing System to promote your brand at zero cost…
I recommend you read this article linked below. I wrote it late last year.Watch the video explanation I did on my Youtube channel:Download and study the mind map I created as a basis for the article:Understanding the ideas I share in the above resources will help you make more intelligent use of the WMS you develop and implement for your busines – especially in terms of how you make use of your time to find potential clients.I wish you well.
Excerpts from this Wikipedia article offer insights into just how imbalanced the reporting and understanding of Domestic Violence Against Men (DVAM) really is….!
Violence by women against men is widespread and underreported. The official figure in the United Kingdom, for example, is about 50% of the number of acts of violence by men against women, but there are indications that only about 10% of male victims of female violence report the incidents to the authorities, mainly due to taboos and fears of misunderstanding created by a culture of masculine expectations.[9]
A report from Canada even found men to be more than 22% more likely to be victims of spousal violence than women.[9][10] Sexual violence by women against men is even more taboo and even less studied or recognized.[11]
Men who are victims of domestic violence are at times reluctant to report it or to seek help. There is also an established paradigm that only males perpetrate domestic violence and are never victims.[26] As with other forms of violence against men, intimate partner violence is generally less recognized in society when the victims are men.[27][28]
Violence of women against men in relationships is often ‘trivialized'[3][29][30] due to the supposed weaker physique of women; in such cases the use of dangerous objects and weapons is omitted.[3] Research since the 1990s has identified issues of perceived and actual bias when police are involved, with the male victim being negated even whilst injured.[31]
Writing for TIME, Cathy Young (http://time.com/3432838/emma-
watson-feminism-men-women/) criticised the feminist movement for not doing enough to challenge double standards in the treatment of male victims of physical abuse and sexual assault.[22]
Prevailing stereotypes about Domestic Violence are making it so easy for cunning female offenders to get their male victims vilified as the abusers!
These manipulative women know how the system works, and they are “gaming” it to have their way at the expense of their intimate male partners.
Thankfully, we have females with integrity speaking out about this harmful trend (e.g Toyin Omoniyi, a female Nigerian Lawyer in her excellent piece titled Domestic Violence Against Men by Toyin Omoniyi (TyLegal))
And these fair minded females are demanding more recognition for DV Against Men.
Most are mothers to sons and siblings to brothers who they’ve seen suffer serious abuse at the hands of female partners.
Many are joining the movement to inform and educate, as are the men in their lives.
The information in the truly excellent (!) article published by the famous Mayo clinic (MayoClinic.org) – which is previewed/linked below – can help you get started learning what you need to know, to identify and stop DVAM
So I say this to you now…
If you’re male, lookout for the signs for YOUR own sake…
If you’re parent to someone who is male, and you really care for him lookout for the signs for HIS sake…,
If you’re uncle/aunt/brother/sister or relative to someone who is male, lookout for these signs for HIS sake…,…
Domestic violence against men: Know the signs – Mayo Clinic
Domestic violence against men isn’t always easy to identify, but it can be a serious threat. Know how to recognize if you’re being abused — and how to get help.
By Mayo Clinic Staff
Women aren’t the only victims of domestic violence. Understand the signs of domestic violence against men, and know how to get help.
Recognize domestic violence against men
Domestic violence — also known as intimate partner violence — occurs between people in an intimate relationship. Domestic violence against men can take many forms, including emotional, sexual and physical abuse and threats of abuse. It can happen in heterosexual or same-sex relationships.
Continue reading…
A new generation of shrewdly manipulative and cunningly abusive women are using protective systems put in place by society to exploit males that are their intimate partners.
In other words, they are gaming the system and by so doing are making a mockery of the eFforts to stop domestic violence by exploiting stereotypes about males being the only perpetrators, to abuse their partners at will while readily adopting the accepted posture of “victim in self-defence” when their actions come under scrutiny.
What they do, they teach other women and their own daughters, who rarely know better.
We need to fight and stop this trend. Our sons, brothers, fathers, uncles and other loved ones who beloing to the male gender, remain at grave risk if we don’t.
That’s why I’ve launched the page described below…
Page Name:
Domestic Violence Against Men – Ideas for Identifying & Stopping It
Page Description:
This page is dedicated to empowering men who find themselves, by some accident of fate on the receiving end of abuse from an intimate female partner.
Page URL:
This is the 2nd or 3rd time I’m getting this kind of bothersome feedback.
It would appear some person(s) have been impersonating me in relating with Farm CEOs and other stakeholders.
A member of my Farm Business Ideas club – Tunde Okunuga – called me up at 08.56 this morning to say he’d referred his brother based in Ede to me a while back, and that the latter said he had been corresponding with me – claiming that I had even sold FISH to him!!!
Fish ke! Where would I keep them? Ede is a location I have never gotten a single call from. This made no sense at all!!
My mouth was hanging on the floor by this time, and I recalled a Real Estate CEO who’d told me a “Tayo Solagbade” – with a different photo from mine – had been sending him messages!
Beliow is the SMS I sent him after the call, which I post here as a precursor to a formal disclaimer I will publish later.
=Starts=
Hey Tunde.
I just spoke with MTN call center about your assertion that Alfa, in Ede, spoke with me on phone, noting that I never got such a call and have never heard that name or had an enquiry from Ede in my life.
Neither do I sell fish to anyone! The operative at my instance checked and found no active call direct on my line. A
s things stand it would be useful for me to speak with your brother to get a better idea of what’s going on.
Do respond.
Tayo
NB: I have since not been able to reach Tunde Okunuga on his line for some strange reason. And he has yet, as at this moment (4p.m) to reply my above SMS.
UPDATE (17th April 2017 @ 20:21): Tunde, who is on my newsletter mailing list, replied to the email broadcast version of THIS post, which I sent out, saying he would call his brother today, to find out what was really going on, noting that it did appear that someone was using my name. I’ll be posting any feedback he sends me, here, as soon as I get it,
