Scheming?

Pension schemes are failing and gradually turning to Tension schemes.

It’s not only in Nigeria or Africa. This subject actually flashed through my mind yesterday after helping and elderly citizen with printing of documents and stuffs pertaining to his pension and arrears that as accrued over the years for serving not the Nigerian government this time, but the American government. Although he looks okay on the outside, smiling and glowing, but the contents of his mails and conversations over the months with the people that are responsible for paying his pension and entitlements sounds more like a tug of war rather than just a ask and yea shall be given situation, he made no secrets of it although he was beaming all over. The father of my brother’s wife seems to be caught up in the same situation after serving the British government most of his life, getting his pension seems to be more rigorous than the real work he did to earn the status of a pensioner under the crown. It’s happening the world over and not only in Nigeria, the pension schemes of this world are failing either private or public and obviously no Babylonian principle can savage the situation because it is not a dilly doll factor that can be re-enacted like a stage play.

Lecturers are going on strike in Nigeria on issues of arrears and pensions, The Daily Champion Newspaper reported the death of one University lecturer in Calabar during a peaceful protest preceding their proposed 3days warning strike …Read story>>.

Another story on the pages of This Day… newspaper informs about the inability of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), to pay over N664 million arrears for the past 23 months. Other stories include how the US government needed to cough out $85bn to rescue almighty American International Group Inc (AIG) from bankruptcy …Read more>>.

Today

Hawaii pension system investments fall

Pension schemes face ₤70bn shortfall

(UK’s defined benefit pension schemes face a ₤70bn funding shortfall after plunging ₤7bn further into deficit)

British Airways pension deficit

(The British Airways (LSE: BAY.L - news) pension schemes have a £1.74bn hole in them, the trustees announced this morning in the their annual update)

The funding position of the New Airways Pensions Scheme at 31 March, 2008 was 83%, equating to a deficit of £1.5bn.

The Airways Pension Scheme finding position at the same date was 96.5%, corresponding to a deficit of £240m.

Now we all know that it is not only the Nigerian airways or Nigerian Army that is having problems with paying the pension of its retirees, it is a global thing and the situation is not getting better because there is no way any pension scheme in this world will be able to pay the number of retirees that will be available in the world by the year 2025. What are your plans? Are you planning to get employed by the various ministries where you do nothing throughout your career and wait till your old age to get pensions that will never come? Are you planning to join the long queue of retired men and women that keep dropping off like a pack of card when lining up to collect their pension checks that comes once in two years? Are you planning to become one of those old men that will be caught in the shades of tree, queuing inn queering situations to revalidate their names in the master list of pensioners? It is true that they served their motherland to the best of their abilities, but there is a BUT…

Working is good, in fact it is the leeway into developing yourself and creating that which you want from the resources you have accrued over time which are now embedded inside of you, your learn the vital lessons of business provided you are not working at Alausa Secretariat et al.. and this gives you an edge and prepares you for the moment you will break away from the chain of employment, but are you planning to put your hard earned money and resources into schemes that as failed over time, they give it different names and sweeten it with different layers of coating and sweet words, they even tell you that you can retire before you are 30yrs old if you give them your money, but come to think of it, AIG is going bankrupt and you are still taking your funds to IB…. There is a Yoruba adage that says
                                     “Atéwo éni kin tan ni jé”
meaning “you can never be swindled by what you do with the palms of your hands because you will always see it and know whether it’s working or wobbling”, why not invest in yourself, nurture and watch it grow with the palms of your hand, start something your future could depend on, determine the your future by starting something you can always call your own rather than wait for that fund manager to determine what you get.

I know the question in the mind of many is “where do I get enough money to start my own business?” I think the right person to answer your question will be Leke Alder, although not everyone is going to start his/her business with N17:50k like he did, and even the DRAGON’S DEN millionaires are not yielding to the unrealizable but great business plans been submitted by teeming number of fortune hunters coming on the programme, but you can start something for yourself, money doesn’t determine how far your can reach or how rich you get, your Self-worth and Network determines your Net-Worth. You can take a cue from THE PHILOSOPHY OF UNDER ACHIEVEMENT in realizing your goal by making God’s word a standard for your life.

I was just like you before now and I can show you how to get better, it’s in your bible, those books and in the life of exemplary people living around you, great men of valor who lived in the face of impossibilities and made it possible. Their lives are epistles, some read it and left it on papers, while others did and re-printed it in the heart of men with the things they say and their actions. You can share in it or even become a part of it, in actual fact, something is about to happen and I will be glad if you can come join me. It is called THE PLATFORM and it’s happening here in Lagos, organized by Covenant Christian Center which is pastured by Poju Oyemade (not talk say Na me tell you but Bishop Oyedepo will be there). If you live in Lagos, here is a golden opportunity to unlock the secrets of entrepreneurship and if you live elsewhere, I bet you the journey is worth it. It’s taking place on the Island and it’s happening on 1^st of October, 2008. If you need more information on the Platform, drop a comment and I will get back to you with all necessary information.

As for me, I will be at the venue a day before the event (from advice lol...J). It’s a scheme so don’t get it twisted.

A Blink Away...

A New Beginning is just a thought away. Did you know that life is 10% what happens to *you* and 90% what you do with what happens to You Think about it for a moment; you can't control life but you do have a say about how You respond to what happens in your Life. Over time, your level of abundance and prosperity will unfold in direct proportion to your level of personal growth. So, you have to ask yourself this question, "how much is it worth for me to grow?"

The King of kings may allow disappointments, pains, agonies, shame, defeats and other difficulties in your life to serve His purpose. No matter how bad that situation may be, God is at work in it. Look out for Him and He will see you through! – EA Adeboye

Judas was a necessary pain in the ass of Jesus Christ, so He bore it and gave the world salvation, bear that situation because it is there so that the glory of God might be revealed and fufilled in your life and situation. Remember the story of the man that was blind from birth....It's for a special Miracle God is about to do with your life..

I Dey Go Village Go Farm!

Although this sounds more like a joke but it is one of the options I have been giving a critical consideration since return of the strike factor into Yaba College of Technology, different level or should I say different caliber of strikes and seizure in the academic process that as almost left the academic community in a complete outer darkness and irreconcilable shamble.

The countless number of strikes that YabaTech as embarked over the years as turn a good number of students to liars and incredible people amongst friends and folks. How do you explain it to your friends or even foes that you got admission into a school in 2003 for a two years program that was suppose to end in 2005 but yours actually ended in march 2006, your Industrial attachment was meant to be for a year but you had to stay another year to conclude yours because the school Management felt that WAPOGA was more important than your academic career and finally you resumed on 2nd of January 2008 for your HND only to spend a whooping seven month in school for the 1st semester amidst strikes from the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) and on resumption of the second semester, you started with a warning strike and from ASUP and after two weeks of lectures, ASUP is back on a full scale indefinite strike and today is 12th of September and you are yet to know when the next semester begins or when the strike will end. The beauty of the whole situation is that, you don’t get to know why everybody is on strike…loll :) I can remember chating with a one of the students from Ondo state who works with the security outfit of the college telling me that his dad called him a liar because he kept telling the old man back in Ondo state that school is on strike, He said the old man told him to come home if he has been expelled from school rather than sit down in lagos and do nothing. i don't blame the old man, i am finding it hard to believe him myself, although we are in the same shoes.

I am not complaining about the situation because I know that all things work together for good for they that love God, and I pray for the better love of Christ everyday of my life; so I know I am secured. But what about the lives of the general student populace, who will be ready to employ an undergraduate whose school is in strike, what will the young minds that are admitted into higher institutions of today be doing at home or thinking about their lives, I know say no be all of us go go school but what about the selected few whose future is constantly being toyed with in the balance by the uncaring situation surrounding them?

As for me, I done talk am before, I Dey Go Village Go Farm and if you are tired of this situation, stop complaining, come join me and let’s plant together, don’t let any Owoso of this world or Yar Adua’s health determine what happens to you, make the U-turn, don’t join the queue, form a new line… Thank God I dey always follow my father to the farm those days when we had him farming on a larger scale…

The Way Things Are!

It's about Yaba College of Technology, a school that has been under the uncaring leadership of Olubunmi Owoso for the past seven years. Just four session as been completed during His tenure, only a few of the students that left the college can be referred to as graduates because too many are yet to go for there NYSC. The Institution as been academically inactive for too long because academic activity as been on for less than 6months in three years. Unnecessary update of academic calendar in 2006, WAPOGA in 2007 which lasted longer than necessary, indefinable indefinite strike in early 2008 by lecturers, another strike ensued immediately after the school 1st semester exams ended on July 4th and NOW we are on strike again and they are threatening to send students out of the college with Policemen.

Who is really in-charge is the question I can't find answers to? Who funds the School? Who determines what happens? Who cares about the lives of the students on campus? Who cares about their future that is being marred rather than molded? What is the function of the college itself? I think from the definition of yabatech, it is to create nauseating nuisance and complicate the lives of the students they admitted initially for academic excellence. I don't know the definition to give this situation, but I think it is better to see the administration of this College as the definite Judas' God as place on our path to destined success. What else can we think, what else can I think when the people that are meant to be the custodian of our desires to succeed are people of questionable character... Our own very Leader as been invited twice in less than eleven months by the EFCC for interrogation on embezzlement/fund miss-management related issue...
Owoso.
Owoso..
Owoso...

I have more to say about this situation but I think I must drop it like it's hot for now!
For all I know is that all things work together for me because I love GOD!