She Keeps Spying On Me --- Husband cries out

A counselee sent this SMS to me, “Yomi, please call your sister. She has started again; she keeps checking my phones, vetting my messages and questioning every of my move – and she said she has forgiven me. I just don’t understand her anymore.”

The one he called my sister is his wife; their marriage went sour two years ago. The guy left his marriage, abandoned his wife and their three kids – moved in with another woman but with the help of God, prayers and counseling. They were back together in October 2017 – but my guy is tired of the wife snooping on him.

I am sure both of you are reading this piece:

To you my man: Take it cool with your wife; if she said she has forgiven you, I am sure she has. Forgiveness comes easy (though, it may be difficult initially) but once it is offered, it stays but you have to realize that it will take her time to really and fully trust you again.

Why? Once beaten twice shy and beside, if you had once been injured, it will take time for your wound to be healed and after the healing, the scar stays forever. It is easier for a wound to get healed than for the wounded to forget the scar. Therefore, keep being a good husband and a godly man. You are forever in my prayers.

And you my sister: Let your husband enjoy being at home. I can only make him go home; you alone have the responsibility of keeping him at home.

I am grateful that both of you shared your hearts and lives with me. I have so much flaws as well. Before I got married to my wife, I told her, “I am not the knight with the shining armour who will save you from all your problems and I will never look at you as the fiery princess who will save me from all mine."

There may be other people who have one thing or the other to encourage you guys – I am not judging you! Cheers!

DAVID OPEYEMI TODOWEDE – walked through the rough road, established a firm when employment wasn’t forthcoming and today ...

About two years ago, David got married to his friend of many years, Elizabeth, in a society wedding that hosted the crème-de-la-crème of the Lagos high society and sometimes after the wedding, the new couple welcomed their first child, Fortune.

David Todowede is an astute businessman, prolific administrator, detailed graphic artist and great coach. His clients – including major media houses such Access Weekly, Fabulous International, City Pride magazine, Prestige, Photo Story and a host of others – who are glued to him majorly because of his gentility, generosity, openness and hospitality. He hardly gets angry – even when under pressure, his infectious smiles can lively up an entire environment.

His company, Mausight Nigeria Enterprises is a multi-media company that engages in content development, printing and training.

David’s dad is also a professional printer while his mom is a petty-trader. His parents invested so much morals and resources in their five boys (now men) – though they couldn’t afford accommodations in highbrow but they carved a legacy in their homestead. David and brothers, from the onset, knew that their parents couldn’t take them beyond secondary school and so prepared their back-up strategies.

David’s Strategy: “After writing my first WAEC, I didn’t have all the papers but instead of just sitting down, I decided to learn computer. My father took me to a place where I learnt desktop publishing. After my certification, I worked as graphic artist for several individuals and organisations.” He narrated on his journey into business-world.

“With the monies raised from work, I took exams and gained admission to study Business Administration at Lagos State Polytechnic; schooling full-time, working part-time with a media house, a publisher and an author, which I did to survive both OND and HND. 

“Whilst in school, I was involved in several activities – such as departmental and Christian Fellowship Union but despite all those activities, I was combining all and still working hard, only to sleep for 5 hours at most – even on holidays.”

With the same zeal, David worked on four teaching jobs while on NYSC and was also a business consultant for Christian Corpers Fellowship and others in Taraba State where he served – and by the time he had done serving, he had saved enough money to buy a laptop, the most important equipment he needed for his content development business.

“On returning to Lagos, I was searching for jobs when I met one of my old customers, a publisher who promised me regular jobs and referrals.” David accepted the offer, started-off in his house. Within a year, he moved out of his house to a more prominent centre in Ogba, Lagos where he started as a squatter in a printing-press until he could save enough money to rent a place of his own.

Mausight is a household name when it comes to graphics designs, publishing layouts and printing. His protégées are the guys calling shots in various agencies and design studios today. David found his abilities when most of his mates were searching for white-collar jobs and he became an established entrepreneur when most of his mates were still doubtful of their future.

Amazing Story of TAIWO MURISIK BALOGUN – from truck boy, bus conductor to Education Secretary

Every generation produces an eccentric and unusual figure, who ironically represents the measure, the values, and indeed, the essence of that age and becomes the icon of that generation. They are not conventional persons, they are peculiar. Somehow, in spite of their unusual way of life, they remain unusually lovable. They cannot be ignored. They are usually un-obstructive yet their presence is forceful. They remind us of who we secretly would wish to be but for our lack of courage and convictions.

And according to Denis Waitley who stated that, “There are two primary choices in life, to accept conditions as they exist or accept the responsibility for changing them.” – Such is the life of Taiwo Murisik Balogun, a proper model and adequate educationist that works round the clock to ensure a better tomorrow for Nigerian youths and populace.

When Balogun roars like a lion, other beasts keep silent; he may be viewed as a man of few words but he is a man of effective and enormous works. Why? His elegance, influence and authority are only visible to men of vision and faith like himself.

This man popularly called Warrior was born in 1967 into the family of Alhaji Ganiyy and Silifat Balogun of Abeokuta in Ogun State, Nigeria – but his mom’s death in 1976 almost shattered his dreams and grounded his abilities.

After his nursery and primary education in Oworonshoki area of Lagos, his dad relocated the whole family to a village called Ishaga on the outskirt of Lagos where his family discovered an area now called Balogun. In those days, Ishaga was in a thick forest called Iju and the houses in that region, which were mostly mud-houses and huts, could be counted on the fingertips.

His dad and step-mom enrolled him in Iju Grammar School for his secondary school education that he completed in 1985.

To survive through high school, Taiwo and his twin brother, Kehinde (a lecturer at Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education) would go into the forest to fetch wood they could sell to the neighbours in order to earn extra income to augment their allowances. Warrior also served as motor-boy to most water-tank trucks and a loader on pick-up trucks called aje’gboro in those days.

After his secondary school, he got a marketing job with Cadbury Nigeria Limited in 1986 and served there for six years (mostly on part-time basis – and during this period, the company was doing a lot of promo for éclairs chocolate candies and knorr seasoning cubes). That gave him a great opportunity to raise enough money to finance his GCE O’ level external examinations to complement his further studies requirements and that actually paid off in 1987 as he gained admission into Anwar-ul Islam College, Agege for his A’ levels which he completed in 1989. (His set was the last in NIGERIA educational system).

In 1991, he secured an admission to study Economics Education at the Ogun State University (now referred to as Olabisi Onabanjo University) and he graduated with second class lower in 1995. Although his dad was responsible for his tuition fees, but he had to work as a bus conductor (in Ikeja Mass Transit buses known as Okiki o p’osu) during the holidays in order to raise money for textbooks, handouts and stationeries plus other students’ necessaries throughout his four years stay in the university. He also on several occasions, travelled to Cotonou in Benin Republic and Lome in Togo to buy second hand trousers, shirts and shoes that he would sell to his classmates to raise more money for a better living.

Taiwo Balogun after his NYSC compulsory service year at Anambra Federal Government Girls College returned to Lagos and his bus-conducting business from where he was able to raise enough cash to fund a tutorial centre, BRILLIANT BRAIN, with his cousins and friends – and in 1997, he proceeded to the University of Lagos for his Masters degree in Education Administration.

Although, he had always been involved in local politics since his university days but he became a full-fledge politician in 1999 as soon as he completed his second degree.  In the year 2000, Warrior got a job with the Lagos State Ministry of Education as Education Officer 2 (Level 8) and paid his dues, contributed a lofty service for ten solid years.

In 2007, he contested for a place in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Ifako-Ijaiye constituency 1, and was denied the ticket by Hon. Dayo Saka Fafunmi who actually won the election but his effort was rewarded by an appointment as Education Secretary, Ifako-Ijaiye LGEA in 2010 and he stayed on the job for five years.

In 2015, he voluntarily retired and returned to the Ministry of Education as Education Sector Inspector Level 12 – and as at Press Time, he was planning to return to the university for his PhD.