“Last month’s winner was, Ikotun Adebisi, he wins a hosting account with nairahost and a pack of 200 minibooks to do with as he pleases – pls Join me in Congratulating him”
I’m currently writing from somewhere under OAU Ife health sciences building, and it’s 1.01am. It’s been unduely long since I had internet access, and it’s alse been a long tiring day. I moved straight from the Aiport from Abuja to Ife, yesterday, and it was a very long journey. I went in the company of a team of great people, My Wife (Temitope Akinyemi), Christian Love and Joshua Adeyemi. We set out from Lagos at 4pm only to arrive at OAU ife at after 2.00am in the morning. I’m greatly troubled for this nation, that what we have refused to solve collectively is beginning to hunt us individually. May we rise up and connect!
The journey was filled with loads of intruiges that culminated in a totally trapping situation when in the pitch dark night in the middle of nowhere, we suddently entered a ditch and lost two tires! We had only one spare tire and were trapped for sure, it was dark all around, and there was this sensing in the air, that if we waited too long where our tires went flat, we might discover the people that are responsible for setting the trap if any. With two tires down and only one spare, we decided to keep moving on against all odds, and in that journey of 10hrs (sufficient time to fly to the US direct). In that journey however, there are key lessons to learn and apply to life. We headed for Lagos Ibadan express way at around 4pm. When we got about 40km from Lagos, we discovered a deadlock in the road. Both lanes of the express had cars facing our direction. Apprently there was an accident ahead and everybody had turned back. After studying the situation and seeing that it was hopeless, we decided to turn back as well, with the thought of considering other options.
Lesson 1 – If you really desire to achieve anything in particular in this life there are quite a number of alternative routes. If your heart is willing, you head will find a way.
When we turned back, we were not sure of which route to take, we decided to make a few calls to people who had taken any of the other options before. Our best bet we heard was heading towards Epe. Getting to Epe took us 3 amazing hours.
Lesson 2 – Not knowing which way to go is not a crime, not asking is. The secret of success is to ask. If you have nobody you can ask, you need help.
After we got to Epe and started heading towards Ibadan, visibility had gradually started reducing, and the road was a rugged road. After a while we saw a car that drove past us, and we felt it was sensible to follow him closely. We followed and kept moving till we got to Ijebu, headed for Shagamu and Lagos Ibadan express way. By the time we hit Ibadan it was 10pm. We contemplated sleeping over in Ibadan, but there seemed to be a consensus to follow through to our destination. I never travel this late, but this night I decided to venture.
Lesson 3 – Venture into the unfamilar atimes but carefully. Doing what you have always done will give you same results, trying something different helps you appreciate new possibilities.
After we got to Ibadan and we were heading to Ife, the real management and life lessons began to pop out. After we landed into a few unseen gallups, I instructed the driver to be careful but most importantly to follow the commercial bus just ahead of him. At different times, even my wife told him to follow from behind not by the side. 2 mins after the last command, we suddenly landed in a ditch that took out two tires in one swing.
Lesson 4 – Follow the experts. When taking instruction from someone who is successful in the field you desire, simply follow. Don’t try to create your own modified version just yet, learn to follow first, it would have saved us 2 tires.
Lesson 5 – In the absense of experts, go slow
We decided to keep driving until we saw light. We drove for a few kilometers, until we saw some light and some people. We decided to stop by a vulcanizer stand. He claimed to have seen 15cars that night alone – talk about foul play.
Lesson 6 – Don’t get stuck in the dark, keep moving until you see the light. Whatever you are doing that seems in darkness, quit it and bring it to the light. Problems get created in darkness, not solutions.
Ofcourse they could not find us an extra tire, the cars tire was 19inches and they couldn’t muster it. Just shortly after we got there, we saw another car behind us who had apparently had the same problem with an elderly lady there. They had just lost 1 tire though, so their’s was going to be easy to fix. We chatted with her and her son for a while, while the son started changing their tires. We changed the one we could change as well, but we were definitely stranded. The elderly lady however volounteered to detour off her own course and take us to Ife.
Lesson 7 – Relationships are everything, it’s not how long, it’s how well.
To BE Continued…
41 thoughts on “Lessons from the Road”
Very important and great lessons…you may not know but you taught one of the very important lessons that led me through the days at OAU and made me come out tops as I remember that SCM Matrix Night when you talked about how you walked around White House declaring what you wanted: I saw the power of positive thinking, praying and walking/working in the light of what you believe in. I still see you at Daystar when I am around…
How is Christian Love? This is another person I met through the Eden team…we knew very briefly but that’s not so important; it’s what happened during that time that matters: time, long or short spent with people can leave marks in the sands of, not only time, but their hearts.
Thank you for giving!
I am short of words this early morning. Thank God for the lessons but do we still have to continue with this deplorable state of our highways. They are full of death traps with no street light. Are we really living in a country or a village. O su mi o. A journey 3 hrs at most turned into 10 hrs. Indeed, that which we left undone is hunting us o. This is just few. Kidnapping is the other of the day now – the business of our time. Youths are been driven into vices. Marriages are been broken. A ri ru eleyi ri. A fin deruba ara wa ni…Nigeria, my country, na wa o
Beautiful…God will coninue to grant you journey mercies. I hope you are saying Amen
Haaa…. Deolu, what a serious and hectic journey. Each time i read or hear about your journey from one end of the country to another, i can’t always resist to pray that ” God will continue to grant you safety all the way”. That prayer always come as a results of sudden fear but God has done it again for you and your colleagues, against all odds you landed safely and with great lessons as highlighted here. I have surely picked up some words of wisdom too, thanks.
Wao i cant help but feel bad now that i didn’t call you back that night when my heart was telling me to. Thank God the purpose was eventually achieved. Thank God for journey mercies.
Chairman, great lessons to be learnt from life’s situations. I could feel what you guys went through cos i was there once. It wasnt pleasant at all but i was able to take note of few of these lessons. Well, i wish u successes in all your journeys. God bless you.
I thank God for your life and the lives of those that travelled with you. I have had similar experience on that same road too, am a part 5 student of OAU but i didnt analytical learnt lession from it, you are really a mentor……………… all points are well noted, waiting for the concluding part of the lessions……………… stay blessed!
If we open our eyes and minds, we’ll realize that Life itself is a teacher, and lessons can be learned from anywhere and any situation… still learning on this great voyage called Life!
I wished the road is like the one in the post. i really understand the way you felt, loosing two tires. sometimes last year, we had the same problem along Lagos-Abeokuta express way too. it was freighting, no help, no light, no spare tire, no security and in fact nothing at all to encourage you. people passed by without a thought to help because of distrust and previous experiences and encounters, etc later on the same thought came…the people that set the trap were soon coming.
when will Nigeria be free from the hands of unfaithful leaders like the ones we have been having? a lot of money have been expended on this same route and yet little or nothing to show for it? this same route is still included in the plans of every next government. where are we headed.
thank God HE cares for HIS own…you will not run dry of God’s annointing.
First of all to the road part.
For a long time, I have wondered how come the government does not seem to pay any attention to that particular stretch of road. The first time I saw a headless body was on that Ife-Ibadan road after a particularly terrible accident.
As a country, we have got a lot of work to do. Anyway, one of these days – I plan to be the Minister of transportation who solves our transportation problem.
To the BEYOND IFE part, Deolu, thanks so much for the teaching – both at the breakfast and at Oduduwa, and thanks for the picture. Take care…
Baba D, the Lord keep you in your goings. When the sango ota road which is a few minutes from Obasanjo is now a death trap that had to move the speaker of the house of reps to see it, is not attended to, what do we think then of one road in a “lungu”, This is a pointer to the fact that we have a great nation…weak leadership.
This indeed was a great experience, and a great lesson to learn too. I believe God always arrange our life around problems we created to solve. someone said “You can’t solve a problem you were never part of” – Dr. Tunde Bakare
I have really learnt a bunch of things from what you’ve experienced and really I believe change is on the way for Nigeria, Road, Security, Economy e.t.c.
Oga Sir! Thanks so much.
The favour and grace of the Lord will continually see you through in all your endeavours.The lessons were well taken but this brings home to us our COUNTRY, NIGERIA. If the Ife road, I passed in 2006 has gotten that bad then there is a problem.The contractors and the people that contracted them have failed us, our govt is not what you discuss, Nigeria will not FAIL but they will FAIL cos we are COMING to change the trend. NNC o wa.Change, transformation, paradigm shift all starts from Rom 12:2.You are a light to our world, Sir.
Wow! That’s an awesome experience filled with great lessons.
Men! that was sure an experience but we thank God for that covering,He is Jehova NISSI and to mention with Ur wife,that was one big venture,sure so many lessons can be learnt from this in fact am beginning to see other things fron the scene,but to ask you Deolu,why is it that it was Ife you had to go to after your trip from Malaysia?though you mentioned it from one of your post just the curiosity but also looking at things with from another perspective,you just take the ventures carefully…to be continued
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We give thanks in every situation and we thank God that everyone was safe….who knows what would have happened.
I thank God that you only lost two tyres without losing any life.
Just this morning, my brother was telling me about his trip to Ibadan on Saturday. He said that about 15 accidents occured on Lagos – Ibadan Expressway on saturday morning alone.
May God continue to watch over us, and I pray our government do something about our roads in good time.
Congratulations to Ikotun Adebisi. You won the best gift so far.
Enjoy!
Bringing out timeless lessons from every experience is key to consistent improvement in life. Much as I appreciate the lessons on this painful journey, I am mostly challenged that you thought of bringing out lessons instead of complaining endlessly like most will do. I covet this great attitude. Great post a s usual my brother.
Oga mi,some things happen just so that we could learn some lessons from them.Life is full of lessons.What is most important is that we should not close our eyes,ears and hearts to this lessons.You have brought golden lessons out of this incidents and we have been blessed.I pray for your kind of insightful heart.God will just continue to protect you cos the same thing that happen to you has one way or the other led to the loss of life of some innocent citizens in times past.We should just continue to pray and strive for good governance in this country.
Back to the breakfast and beyond IFE,I was greatly blessed and I am sure I will always look back and thank God for that day.For me, it was life-transforming.
God bless you and your team!
Great lesson learnt in a hard way. Thanks for sharing
well i went through same thing when i travelled on friday june 12 i left oshodi 2 pm and got to osogbo 8.30 cos of the accident on the road (that a trailer and cars got burnt).
most important thing of it is to thank Almighty Allah for His safety on u and ur family.Nigeria Road is nothing to compare with, it is a real death trap,but God will be seeing us through no matter how worst it is. cos if u are troubles please do not worry cos if u worry u will make it double.
stay blessed
whoa you know i was scared a sort of cos i thought omozele had ran past me cos she was always doing so over night. i’m glad i made it through. thanks so much. the sky is our beginning.
I dedicate this achievement to my late sister MISS ADEKITAN, who left this planet on the 20th of April 2009. she brought out the best in me. she taught me to dare for more and reach for the skies. she helped my writing skills… o i wish she was here to hear this.. but i know that she has gone to be with the Lord and very soon we will see again…KITAN, I love you but God needs you to be with Him so he took you….till that glorious morning..
its great to be able to read a new post from this site again. sorry about your tires but the good news is that there were thigs you learnt from the experince that made it interesting. safe journey back sir.
how do i access these o please my mouth is watering….lol
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I am enjonging this posting a lot. My work doesn’t give me time to actually read all.
travelling by road used to be fun as it gives you the opportunity to see different parts of the country and buy some local stuffs on the road. But with your experience any one wouldn’t mind flying. Its really unfortunate that a country that spends Billions of Naira yearing on roads can not have 80% of their roads fixed. May God Help us All
your thoughts are always refreshing, its soul lifting. i celebrate everyday. the impact of your blog in my can’t be quantified
It was a very pitiable situation. My sincere prayer is that God will have mercy upon our beloved country, bring us out of poverty and give us selfless leaders who will be ready to invest much in infrastructural development of the country.
Deolu,
Thank God for His divine protection. I’m also glad that you were able to draw positve lessons from the journey. Keep up the good work. He that watches over u does not sleep nor slumber. Have a great week. Dele
well,i just thank GOD for single-handedly delivering you safely in ife,i was a little scared when i was told in new buka around 9pm that ‘deolu is still on the road’, but i trusted GOD to keep His own safe no matter what.Thanks so much for your enlightenment on saturday,both at the breakfast and in oduduwa hall.I pray GOD will uphold everyone trying to make Nigeria a better place.Every experience is a lesson indeed.
Wow! those who call our roads a trap, may be underestimating the problem.
But thanks to God, he takes care of his own.
But then, that would not stop you… be careful, but then don’t stop!
great lessons learnt…never imagined so much to learn from a trip. you are gift to our nation and we hope things get better. and thanks for your talk on sat. it was a real blessing.
more often, we learn life’s most important lessons through hard ways. there are meant to make us stronger and think more. you cannot solve a problem you are not a part of. we must help Nigeria discover the why we are indispensable.
I really have learnt a lot from you, you inspired me when you came to OAU, and you delivered a talk with your experience that we should follow the bus. You are indeed a role model
Deolu, nice story i think there is something i like about you.i love the way you think!!!!!.i believe one day i will be like you an entrepreneur and consultant.keep it up……see you on top
chairman,
your lessons are so simple but so profound. the manner in which you are able to draw lessons from things that happen around is just wonderful.
all the best
I guess this same road is included in the budgetary allocation for road rehabilitation in the seven pointless agenda.
God’s hand of protection will always carry you and your family through! AMEN. You know why cos u make sacrifices for HIm