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Food for Living: Choose Your Name Wisely
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By Henry Ukazu
Greetings Dear Friends,
We all have names which our parents, godfather/mother, or even good relatives and friends gave to us at birth, and we always like to be addressed rightly and with respect before we respond. Just to let you know how powerful your name can be, if you are called a name that is not yours, there’s every tendency you won’t respond, nor matter how nice it may sound. Even if you are called the right name but with the wrong pronunciation, you might also feel slighted to respond, and even if you respond, you’ll react in a way as to offer correction. This is because names are very symbolic, and according to the platinum rule, people are treated the way they wish to be addressed.
Names are very powerful and they have deep meanings, and as a result, must be chosen wisely. Names are regarded as trademarks/logos and come in different shapes and sizes. Some people even have nicknames which have defined them in different ways. Even in business; the name you choose has an impact on people’s perception, especially your potential clients. Therefore, it is imperatively and critically important for you to consider whatever name you will like to be associated with.
A name is an identity. It is a descriptor that allows people to make quick judgments and assumptions about us. When a particular name is mentioned, a lot of questions normally come to mind. We can even assume what it is likely to be. Our names and identities are regarded as the first impressions people have about us. For example, how we dress, the way we wear our hair, how we behave, and even where we go; all begin with our identity and what we call ourselves. Whether it is religion, sexuality or gender, it is part of an identity that can influence how you present yourself to the world, and how you interact with the world. Depending on the situation and circumstance, what we call ourselves may change. That is why it is important for you to consider the name, group or network you are associated with.
The big question we have to answer is what name do I respond to? As human beings, some of us are very sensitive, some are conservative while others tend to have a liberal attitude towards life. Depending on which category you belong to, you can decide to be the game-changer in whatever situation you are into. You may have been called a dull person, lazy being, slow, ugly, fat, etc., but how you respond is actually what makes the ultimate difference. As you may know, life is not what happens to you, but how you react to it. It should be noted that you can’t stop people calling you negative names, but you can decide to choose what you answer to. As a an advice, don’t answer names you are called, when they call you hello depressed, short, unattractive, unqualified, sick, orphan, just calmly respond, ‘sorry there’s no one by that name around here, I guess you may have gotten the wrong address’. In a rhetoric way, you can also respond, do you mean positive, tall, smart, healthy, blessed, beautiful, handsome, extraordinary, talented, skillful, etc.
Studies suggest that liking your own name is predictive of well-being and happiness, and it also positively affects your self-esteem. But does your name affect how other people treat you? According to Dale Carnegie.
“A person’s name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” Why then is it so important to call people their true names? A person’s name is the greatest connection to their own identity and individuality. Some might say it is the most important word in the world to that person. This is because it is one of the fastest and easiest ways to get someone’s attention especially when they are teased or praised.
Here are some tips on how you can use your name to influence your brand.
Make it a commitment:
Make a commitment to answer whatever uplifts and support your vision. Once you are subconsciously aware of what happens around you, do yourself a favor to international change the narrative by changing the negative news or information that surrounds you or your business. For example, you can work on your self, business, brand, organization, etc; to the extent, people will recognize you as an excellent or reliable person/brand as opposed to the different labels that bring negative vibes to you. As you may know, the world is governed by perception.
Practice:
Practicing whatever name brand you want to be associated with is a great way to bring change to not only your personal life but your business or brand. You can do this by calling yourself names of interest that appeal to you. You may be surprised to know it will come back to you. Don’t be concerned about the negative voices you may be hearing from friends or even family members, just continue to work on your craft. There have been testimonies of people who dreamt of being a governor, president, leader of an industry, etc. despite not having what it takes to be the person in the picture. They were able to act it in addition to calling themselves the names and guess what, it’s it came to pass. In one of my articles I published five years ago titled: Dreams Come True, I opined that your dreams are valid and it will come true if you work hard, believe in yourself and have the God factor around you.
Ignore the name tag:
As mentioned earlier, it is up to you to respond to whatever name you decide to answer. Names don’t matter anything unless you give it the needed power/energy it needs to feed on. Names are like dead woods, but you can activate life into it when you speak life into it. Names work with our minds, when you decide to call yourself love, love will automatically follow you.
Furthermore, Ignore the nay-sayers and give your attention to what brings you life, and when you do, the desired transformation will begin to rear up. Personally, I was called names because of my horrible writing skills, but I have been able to author a book by the special grace of God which my detractors have not been able to accomplish. The secret is simple, I never answered the negative names I was called.
Creating Opportunity:
Knowing how to relate with people is a powerful skill that is in high demand. A good personal relation skill will create opportunities for you. It’s like a charm that can disarm even the most hardened person to respond to stimuli. As popularly opined in some social parlance, if a man can make a lady to smile, he’s halfway into her heart. It is important to note that people want to be treated as human beings, not objects. Using their name is the fastest and most reliable way of building rapport and creating a good first impression. Everyone has a name — use it to better connect to them, especially if you work in the customer service position. You will notice a difference in your relationships.
In conclusion, what is your name?
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success. He can be reached via henrous@gmail.com
The Edo State Special Criminal Court has sentenced four men to death for their involvement in the kidnapping of a woman at the Vegetable Market along Airport Road in Benin City.
Justice Aigbona Momodu handed down the sentences after finding the defendants guilty on multiple counts connected to the kidnapping case.
The convicts are Marvellous Isaac, Wisdom Michael, Rufus Emete Michael and Gift Raphael.
Isaac and Michael were sentenced to death on counts two through nine. They also received separate prison terms on other counts, including seven years on count one, while Isaac was sentenced to 10 years on count 10 and life imprisonment on count 11.
Rufus Emete Michael was sentenced to death on counts two, three, four, six and seven, in addition to a seven-year prison term on count one.
The fourth defendant, Gift Raphael, was sentenced to death on counts two, four, six and eight and received seven years imprisonment on count one.
Delivering the sentences, Justice Momodu ordered that the death sentences be carried out by hanging or lethal injection, in accordance with the court’s judgment.
The court also ordered the forfeiture of a JoJef pump-action firearm and ammunition tendered as exhibits during the trial.
The firearm, identified as Exhibit M, along with two unused cartridges and two spent cartridges listed as Exhibits E and E1, was ordered to be handed over to the Edo State Police Armourer at the State Criminal Investigation Department for destruction.
Justice Momodu directed that the exhibits be transferred to the police through the Deputy Director of the Criminal Division and destroyed within 30 days.
The convictions bring to an end the trial arising from the abduction of the woman at the Vegetable Market along Airport Road, an incident that added to concerns over kidnapping and armed crime in Benin City.
Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, has hailed the state’s strong performance in the 2026 National Examinations Council (NECO) Senior School Certificate Examination, describing the result as a positive reflection of ongoing efforts to reposition education in the state.
Osun placed fifth nationally in the 2026 NECO ranking, with 74.31 per cent of candidates recording at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics.
While congratulating the students, teachers, parents, school administrators and other stakeholders, the governor noted that the state performance has been improving within a single digit rating for three consecutive years namely 2024, 2025 and 2026.
“Osun has moved from 33rd position in the 2022 NECO ranking to 5th in 2026, while improving its pass rate to 74.31 per cent. This is encouraging, and it shows that our sustained interventions in the education sector are yielding positive results,” the Governor said.
Governor Adeleke said the improved performance reflects his administration’s deliberate investment in the education sector, including the recruitment of additional teachers to strengthen the teaching workforce, while prioritising workers’ welfare and creating a more conducive environment for effective teaching and learning across public schools.
The Governor said the performance reinforces his administration’s determination to continue investing in education, noting that the objective is to build a system that gives every Osun child the knowledge, skills and opportunities needed to succeed.
“This result is encouraging, but we see it as a reason to do more. We will continue to invest in our schools, improve the learning environment, support our teachers and provide our students with the necessary tools to excel.
“We are building an education system that prepares our young people not only for examinations but for life,” the Governor said.
He assured that ongoing interventions in the education sector would be sustained and expanded, while urging students to remain committed to their studies.
His Excellency also commended teachers across the state for their dedication and sacrifices, assuring them that the administration would continue to prioritise measures that strengthen the education system and improve workers’ welfare.
The Nigeria Association of Tour Operators (NATOP) marked the 2026 World Tourism Day with activities which capture capacity building, technology, destination promotion and domestic tourism, and celebration.
In the South West Zone, close to 200 tour operators gathered at Ziba Beach Resort, Lagos, for a special training focused on Artificial Intelligence and its application in tourism, equipping operators with digital tools to improve their businesses and destination marketing.
In Abuja, the FCT and Northern Zone, in collaboration with Naija Adventurers, staged a colourful Tourism Awareness Walk and Hike to the Centre of Nigeria.
The celebration also spread to the South-South Zone, where members marked the day with a destination tour, alongside activities to commemorate with the world tourism day celebrations.
In line with the theme for this year’s WTD celebration: ‘Digital agenda and artificial intelligence to redesign tourism’ the NATOP training on AI and application in tour operation at Ziba Beach Resort Lagos saw a large turnout of the members of the association.
The President of the association, Hajia Bolaji Mustapha explained that the idea for the location and training was to train members on how to do tour business, to know how to promote tourism digitally, using different AI tool and everything so that they will grow their businesses.
She said: “we follow the theme and, you know, blend with the old situation. Let’s do the training so that we attach it to the World Tourism Day with the theme that we have achieved something and also celebrate.”
She said the training will go a long way in helping the tour operators do greater content to digitally tell destination stories using AI, and also using the tool for expression.
Mustapha also explained why the association chose Ziba Beach Resort: “We always attach World Tourism Day to a tourism site. And definitely, if you look at this whole area and this community, that’s why we see that Ziba is a tourism site. We want to explore and of course. The resort newly launched its third phase. So, we will use this opportunity to look at their rooms, look at how we can sell this destination, to showcase it that the resort is actually in Nigeria, not Zanzibar. By using the place, we would kill two birds with one stones.
Facility tour of Ziba Beach Resort
“As tour operators who are willing to tell the good story of our Nigeria, we need to bring ourselves up to the speed, align with the digital revolution. Let everybody go digital. Because we also see the content creators are taking our business, we want to align it with what they do. We are the ones that understand the business and we’ll be able to tell the story better, so that anybody coming to Nigeria will be able to discover Nigeria with the experts.”
Also commenting on the celebration, the NATOP Vice President South West and chairman of the WTD Organizing Committee for the zone, Mrs. Wonuola Olatunde-Lamidi explained why NATOP South West’s usage of the 2026 WTD for training. She said many of the members still have a lot to learn about the tour business, and that some do not understand the foundation of the business, including how to create packages hence the need for the training.
Mrs. Olatunde-Lamidi spoke further: “Many don’t understand the foundation of what it is to create a tour package. And when you have people that are not well-trained in an industry, the industry will not grow. The kind of people that you also have will not have enough earning power to do many things. And because this is an industry that I have been in for 16 years, I run Diamonds and Pearls Travels with my husband. And I’ve seen Diamonds and Pearls Travels metamorphose into a company where people don’t just look at us as travel agents. We have become a Destination Management Company (DMC). We have become a trusted brand. We have become a company that when we talk about a destination, people want to go to that destination because of how we have portrayed the destination. And you may not realize that, as tour operators, you can actually decide where people go. You can make people go to a particular destination by marketing it, by letting them know the benefits of that destination.”
The tour operators had opportunity to tour the resort and unwind during the programme.
