A month ago, I was invited to an award ceremony at MVB lounge, one of the household name in the lounge and bar business in the city of Ibadan. The event went well, there I was flattered with an award which I don’t really think was meant for me. lol
But in the lieu of the event, I was introduced to a young lady who I was told had some craziness in her vein – you know what I refer to as crazy, huh? Creativity!
She was to launch a youth focused magazine. The idea was to showcase young people doing great things in their own little ways against all odds and permutations. I like the idea within the first few minutes of the pitch, but I’d rather have a review of the prototype to say, I am sold to the idea.
We exchanged contact and agreed to have a look as soon as the first draft is out.
To cut the short story long, mind my words. They are intentional!
The copy was delivered to me last two weeks, but I wasn’t that free to jump on it.
I was just getting chance to read the materials.
And I must confess, it was spot on; there are words of elders spewing out of nowhere from all the pages of that little piece called spur nation magazine. To say I am proud of Adeniji Lois Oluwaseun’s effort so far would definitely be an understatement.
The story connects, the motivation on the second page about alter ego makes much more sense to the reader; it humbles the soul, and inspires a comeback of out someone who has once lost all hopes just like Tyson Fury did last month in his fight against Deontae Wilder. Though, he had been knocked out, if the rules of the games were to be followed, had it been he had failed to rise up.
Anybody can come back and reclaim what was once thought had been lost for life. You can truly come back and dominate…that page makes that statement realizable.
What else? Is it the story of Amole Adunola (Dundelle) whose tenacity had opened doors of opportunities for her up to states levels, or the desire to even go a little bit further to establishing what would later be recalled as the largest gathering by a female artist in the city of Ibadan? That was inspiring especially for young ladies out there who had found it difficult to accept who they are and profit from it.
Or should I talk about those unfriendly-friendly aspects of many looming businesses you see out there on day to day basis. Amoizin’s story reminds me of Seun Bamiro of YNorth Wears’s story at last month’s Ibadan Design Conference in which myself, Tolani Alli (the official photographer to the current Oyo State Governor) and host of others were present at. Our desire to solve problems will leads to actualization of all our greatest desires and dreams.
Just like John F Kennedy puts it, we shouldn’t ask what the community can do for us, but we should ask what we can do to help our community. It didn’t end there, he stresses further saying “for service to many leads to prosperity”. If we want to make money, want fulfillment, we should think of ways to solve more problems around us. In doing that, we attract people who would be willing to help solve our individual and greatest of all problems – be it money, fame or whatever. Ajeigbe Richard of Amoizin decided to solve the problem of not having different varieties of local food to select in the neighborhood – that’s a big problem indeed. In fact, I’d love to patronize his ewa agoyin business anytime soon. Lol
Oh, I must not forget to say something on the special effect on page 9 and page 10 of the magazine featuring Nigeria’s own local and international Afropello brand! She had said it all. There are many hidden words of wisdom embedded in every line of those texts. It would take an extra careful and endowed mind to read between the lines to really get to the root of some of the things she couldn’t share on those pages. The body language from the photo-shoot to the challenging aspect of the business – you will surely find something to unravel except you are not so keen to decrypt them.
Anyway, I picked something from there – and that is, water must be my friend to live well. There are many ways drinking clean water often helps in cell regeneration which could later on influence hair growth. And in the context of her writing, she was inspiring us to share some H20 with our hair if we desire to have one worth boasting of. The rest of the advices are for the ladies anyway – lol!
Going forward, when you talk about the South Africa’s madiba we all know as Nelson Mandela, we see a man who went against all odds to fight for freedom that many South Africans are enjoying today.
He once said “when a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace” and I truly agree with that. Maybe that was why he left so soon after he had done his best for his country and the black race! But there comes a time we need to look back at the great works these people had done and compare them to what we are having in this new era. Do we have any resemblance?
To some people, they may say we can’t find someone who could rise up tall against slavery, injustice and all manner of things that are bad in our society as Mandela again. Some believed it is possible.
But I am proud to tell you I belong to the possibility family where I think Daramola Iyanuloluwa also hails from. Reading her piece in the SPUR Words section of the magazine reminds me of nobody else but Madiba. I believe we all don’t really need shooting skills; neither do we need to be a great swordsman before we could win the war against slavery because slavery has actually advanced from what the madiba of then fought against.
Now we have mental slavery which a 400L student of Psychology at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife is trying to fight with her proficiency in the act of wordsmithing.
From the first page to the last page, I read content, saw potentials and spot the need for much more improvements in the next edition. I am very sure next edition would be so filled with more than this. In fact, more is an understatement because this is the first prototype of what would end up becoming an household name in the city of Ibadan and the rest of the country as an a magazine that encourages younger one to follow and pursue their dreams with all seriousness.
I was blessed with it and pray and hope she could garner more enthusiasm to move the Spur Nation magazine project up the ladder. I know she can and she will.
If you want a copy of Spur Nation Magazine, drop me a message below. I will try to get one across to you.
