Metro
Food for Living: Dare To Succeed
- Share
- Tweet /home/rhoncare/pointblank.ng/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 69
https://pointblank.ng/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/download.jpeg&description=Food for Living: Dare To Succeed', 'pinterestShare', 'width=750,height=350'); return false;" title="Pin This Post">
By Henry Ukazu
Greetings Friends,
The dream of every progressive mentor or parent is for the mentee or child to be greater than him or her. Anybody who wants to be greater than whoever succeeds him/her doesn’t have the interest of the successor at heart. One of the best ways to access the performance of an out-going leader is to look at who succeeds him or her. If you’ll agree with me success brings joy and fulfillment in life. However, succeeding in life requires a lot of work namely: sacrifice, handwork, patience, connections, God factor, persistence/consistency, determination, and knowledge amongst other attributes which you can add.
We all want to succeed, but the question you need to ask yourself is, are you willing to do the work? If you really want to succeed in life you have to dare to succeed. By daring to succeed, you must be courageous. It takes courage to succeed in life. Nor matter what you are doing in life, it takes courage to succeed. This is because you must get many no’s and a few yes, but all you need is one yes to succeed. For you to truly succeed, it takes courage. It takes courage to be exceptional, rich, knowledgeable, and truthful in the society in which we live.
While in High schools and College we always have the desire to study a particular major in addition to working in a particular industry. While working in a particular industry most times we have a plan of where we want to be in five and ten year’s time. After college, we step into the labor market to get our dream job, sometimes we don’t even get the desired job we need, even at that, we have plans of getting the desired job of interest that will be fulfilling. When these plans don’t go as planned, some of us do give up, while some still forge ahead with determination to get to the peak of our career and passion in life.
In order to succeed, we need to be persistent and consistent because persistency comes from consistency, you need to continuous practice, you need to be focused and you need to learn something new every day. Your determination to succeed must always supersede your fear of failure. Daring to succeed requires risk, you don’t have to wait to see the clear picture before you hit the ground moving. If you are truly hungry for success, you must seek to stand out, you don’t have to conform to the ordinary standard of docile people who sometimes have an entitlement mentality, you must seek to leave your conform zone.
One of the strongest advice I have always given to friends and clients is considering those who have believed in you by sacrificing and supporting them and also looking at those who want to see them fail. You can’t afford to fail your mentors, parents, friends and even your children and mentees who are strongly looking up to you. When you give up, you give cause to people to question your ability to succeed.
Be informed, you didn’t come into this world to conform, neither did you come in to fit in. You must have the courage to go after your dream. The courage to succeed in life can be challenging when you have many obstacles and competition, however, there’s always a room if you strongly believe you are called to be in that industry. Speaking about courage, this is an uncommon inner strength to thread in strange lands. Just like Thomas Dexter Jakes Sr. aka TD Jakes said in one of this messages I recently listened to, “It doesn’t matter how saturated the room is, if God has God called you, there’s room for you.
In my first published book, Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success, the cardinal message inherent in the book is you hold the keys to your success. Let me share some insights on how you can dare to succeed in life from Lahcen Haddad, a former Minister of Tourism from the Government of Morocco
1. Don’t be afraid to fail The fear of failure is a hidden fear of success. Take big strides, jump higher, and dare to challenge conventional wisdom and common sense. If you don’t risk anything, you won’t gain anything. As Jack Canfield said, “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” Mandela spent 27 years in jail but refused to give up the struggle against apartheid, when presented with a fudged compromise. He was not afraid to say no and remain in jail, knowing that behind the indomitable image of fear and failure lies the bright picture of success.
2. Great success is built on great failures Robert Kennedy once said that “only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” If you want humans to get to Mars or Venus, you need to be prepared to get space missions to fail, shuttles to never reach destinations, technological devices to explode in the wide space, and obstacles to emerge by the hour, if not by the minute. Because your dream is big, so are your failures to achieve it. See your big failures as great lessons to learn. The Jamaican Usain Bolt, the greatest sprinter of all time, once said, “I don’t think limits,” meaning that his dream to be a hero doesn’t know limits, but only open vistas, limitless horizons. If you think limits, you create psychological hurdles to success. Dream big, fail big and enjoy huge successes all through.
3. Failure is the mother of inventiveness Thomas Edison said that he had not failed, but had found thousands of ways what he had invented did not work. Experimenting and failing, again and again, is common to the great inventors who have changed our lives forever. Electricity in every home, thousands of planes buzzing in our skies on a daily basis, comfortable cars making far places within our reach in a few hours, smartphones making the world available to us through small screens that we gently tap with one finger, sophisticated machines that scan our bodies for malfunctions or illnesses, and a million other inventions- all of these would not have been possible if the inventors did not accept the rule that “if you don’t fail and learn, you cannot succeed.”
4. Failure is success suspended, until the moment is ripe Sometimes we fail because we are ahead of our time, or because we are getting there but we need to think harder, work harder, and be more persistent. As Denis Waitley said, “Failure is a delay, not defeat.” It is a matter of finding the right solution for the right problem and selling it to the right people, in the right conditions. The recipe to success takes special ingredients, and every minute and detailed dosage when it comes to seasoning. Failure can be intrinsic to the solution itself, but it may be also a problem of packaging, marketing, and communication. Therefore, failure is a matter of time- finding the right recipe to make the solution attractive and sellable in a timely fashion. Timing is key. Try again later but never give up.
5. You can know success only if you have experienced failure The best perspective on success is through failure. “Its failure that gives you the proper perspective on success,” as Ellen DeGeneres said. Success is built on held assumptions and found solutions. Some assumptions work and others don’t. Therefore, every failed attempt gives you a sense of what doesn’t work and what should work. Failure gives you perspective, it helps you focus and hone in on the right obstacles and the right solutions- things you could not have seen, had you not failed, had you not made assumptions that did not work.
6. it’s okay to make mistakes, it’s NOT okay not to learn from them Mistakes are the imperfections that push us to aspire to perfection. In fact, they are not mistakes. They are our life lessons about what works and what does not work. That is why it is imperative to study our falls and our mistakes carefully to learn from them, to understand what could be key to success. As Henry Ford said, “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” Study carefully what does not work: therein lie the seeds that make you successful. The secret to achievement is made up of failures understood as warm-up exercises designed to help you learn to jump higher, aim better and get it right.
Success is a dream. But the road to success is paved with bold moves and brave acts. You have to risk something if you want to get something. In so doing, you are more vulnerable because you are exposed to danger, factoring in failure in a key characteristics of the bold entrepreneurs. Yes, they are afraid; but they know that overcoming fear can only happen when they espouse it and own it; if they fall, their fear does not grow; on the contrary, they become bolder, braver; they are vulnerable to bigger falls but also to greater achievements. Success is a thousand failures turned into a thousand lessons that allow you to overcome fear and catch the dream as it flies by you in a dark night. Don’t be afraid to fail; be ready to succeed.
How do you dare to succeed: Let’s see what Madanmohan Rad have to say:
Dare
Dreaming is essential to make meaning of life, find your inner voice, truly grow up, and show the next generation how to dream. “Dreaming is an inalienable right,” says Johnson. Though difficulties and challenges may take us off course in life, it is important to make meaning of these challenges by daring to dream again.
Dream
You must boldly follow your dreams as well: become the hero of your story; make space and time for your dreams; map and track your competencies; know your beliefs; build on your strengths; and fine-tune your dreams as you align them with current circumstances.
Reflecting on childhood experiences and happiness is a good way to begin understanding your dreams. Through the twists and turns of life, it is necessary to embrace one’s constraints and even tap ‘fortunate frustrations’ by downsizing, re-directing or deferring dreams.
Introspection helps reveal your own innate talents, accumulated competencies, beliefs and identities. Some deeply-held beliefs put boundaries on dreams, others are scaffolding. For people of many faiths, their religion is a source of drive and values.
Do
Having fleshed out your dreams, you need to embrace discovery, explore your domain, create your dream team, bootstrap your dream, and ‘date’ or dabble with your dreams. Making dreams come true calls for support from mentors, experts, fellow dreamers, and cheerleaders. Dreams can also change via serendipitous un-anticipated events
In conclusion, if I ask you, what is the one thing you cannot fail in life, what will be your response? Again, what is the one thing you have always wished to do in life? I encourage you to, therefore, take the bold step and dare to succeed in any dream, vision and mission you strongly believed you cannot fail it.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with 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.
By Tolulope A. Adegoke
Freedom is humanity’s greatest triumph. But every liberation comes with a hidden bill, and true leadership is defined by how we choose to pay it.
INTRODUCTION: THE UNSEEN PRICE OF OUR GREATEST VICTORY
Freedom is the anthem of our age. From the ballot box to the boardroom to the bedroom, we celebrate the expansion of choice and autonomy. We march for it, vote for it, and sacrifice for it. We have enshrined it in constitutions, encoded it in market regulations, and elevated it as the ultimate human aspiration. Yet, as we applaud each new victory of liberation, we have failed to open the liberty ledger—the silent accounting of what we owe in return. There is a debt we pay, not in currency, but in psychological exhaustion, corporate integrity, and national cohesion. And that debt is now coming due with alarming urgency.
This is not a call to abandon freedom. It is a call to mature beyond the adolescent fantasy that liberation is a one-time event. The truth, as history and contemporary experience demonstrate, is far more sobering. Freedom is not a finish line; it is a perpetual negotiation. Every act of emancipation—whether a nation throwing off colonial rule, a corporation breaking free from regulatory oversight, or an individual shedding the constraints of tradition—sets in motion a cascade of hidden liabilities. These liabilities, if left unacknowledged, metastasize into crises that undermine the very freedom they were meant to secure. True leadership, therefore, must be redefined. It is not measured by the freedom we acquire, but by the weight we bear to preserve it for those who follow.
PART I: THE PARADOX OF PERSONAL FREEDOM – LIBERATION WITHOUT ANCHORS
For the individual, never have we possessed more freedom. We can choose our careers, our relationships, our spiritual paths, and our identities with a latitude that would have been unimaginable to previous generations. Digital platforms connect us to global communities, and economic mobility offers opportunities once reserved for the privileged few. Yet, the data tells a profoundly unsettling story. The World Health Organization reports a 25% surge in anxiety and depressive disorders over the past decade, with young adults bearing the heaviest burden. Suicide rates have climbed in nearly every region of the developed world.
What is driving this contradiction? The answer lies in the erosion of external scaffolding. For millennia, human beings derived their sense of stability, identity, and purpose from traditional structures: family, faith, community, and inherited social roles. These structures provided pre-packaged life scripts. They answered fundamental questions—”Who am I?” “What is my purpose?” “Where do I belong?”—without requiring each individual to reinvent the wheel from scratch.
Liberation dismantled these scripts. In doing so, it granted unprecedented autonomy, but it also transferred the entire burden of existential meaning-making onto the individual. This is what existential philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Viktor Frankl called the “burden of choice.” When we are free to become anything, we are also forced to become something—and that act of creation is terrifying.
The result is decision fatigue, chronic anxiety, and a gnawing sense of inadequacy. Social media amplifies this crisis by presenting a relentless parade of curated perfection, encouraging perpetual comparison and self-doubt. Ironically, freedom from prejudice and tradition has birthed new forms of self-imposed tyranny: the pressure to be perfectly curated, professionally agile, and perpetually happy. We have produced a generation that is free from external chains but enslaved to internal dissonance. This is the hidden cost of personal liberation—and it is a crisis that demands a leadership response.
True leadership in the personal sphere begins with the recognition that autonomy without emotional intelligence is a ship without a rudder. We must institutionalize emotional literacy, teach decision-theory in schools, and destigmatize therapy as a routine practice of self-maintenance. We must also revive what sociologists call “third spaces”—public libraries, community gardens, intergenerational mentorship hubs, and cultural centers—that offer belonging without coercion. These spaces serve as psychological moorings, anchoring us against the storm of radical autonomy. Mental health first aid must become as routine as physical health screenings. This is not a soft indulgence; it is a strategic investment in human capital and social stability.
PART II: THE CORPORATE LEDGER – WHEN MARKET FREEDOM BECOMES MARKET LICENSE
For corporations, freedom has historically been synonymous with market liberalization, deregulation, and shareholder primacy. The victory of corporate liberation—from the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 to the global proliferation of private equity—has catalyzed extraordinary innovation. We have witnessed technological revolutions, global supply chains, and wealth creation on an unprecedented scale. Yet, the hidden cost manifests as strategic myopia and systemic ethical erosion.
When oversight is removed, corporate entities frequently conflate freedom with license. The results are not abstract theoretical concerns; they are catastrophic realities. Consider the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, which was not merely an engineering failure but a failure of leadership culture—a culture that prioritized speed and cost-cutting over safety and environmental stewardship. Consider the gig-economy revolution, which has created remarkable flexibility but also a precarious underclass of workers without benefits, job security, or collective bargaining power. Consider the 2008 subprime crisis, which was not a natural disaster but a direct consequence of financial deregulation and the reckless pursuit of short-term profits.
Beyond these operational failures lies a deeper, more insidious cost: reputational fragility. A corporation freed from government anchors must now answer to a hyper-critical public, volatile social media campaigns, and activist shareholders—all within a relentless 24-hour news cycle. The very freedom to pivot strategies, downsize workforces, or relocate headquarters has cultivated a transactional culture devoid of loyalty. Short-term quarterly earnings systematically undermine long-term sustainable value. Leadership has become synonymous with quarterly performance, and stewardship has been replaced by speculative arbitrage.
The Edelman Trust Barometer consistently confirms this crisis. Over 60% of global citizens now distrust business leaders, viewing corporate freedom not as a gift but as a euphemism for unbridled greed. This erosion of trust is not a public relations problem; it is a leadership pathology. When trust collapses, everything collapses: employee engagement, consumer loyalty, investor confidence, and regulatory goodwill. The freedom to operate, it turns out, is contingent upon the social license to operate.
True leadership in the corporate sphere requires a fundamental shift from shareholder primacy to stakeholder stewardship. Corporations must legally restructure their charters to include explicit fiduciary duties not only to shareholders, but also to employees, communities, and the biosphere. This is not philanthropy; it is risk management. Companies that embed Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics into executive compensation structures reduce long-term volatility and enhance brand resilience.
Furthermore, every major strategic decision—mergers, downsizing, new market expansions—must undergo a mandatory “hidden cost impact assessment” that quantifies psychological, social, and ecological externalities. This converts abstract moral costs into concrete, mitigable financial line items. Finally, corporations must co-create governance councils with civil society representatives and local government entities. By treating operational freedom as a perishable privilege that must be continuously earned, corporate leaders can transform hidden costs into competitive advantages, securing premium talent, investor confidence, and long-term market stability. This is the new fiduciary duty of modern leadership.
PART III: THE GEOPOLITICAL LEDGER – SOVEREIGNTY AS A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD
For sovereign states, the ultimate victory is complete sovereignty—the freedom to chart foreign policy, manage national resources, and enforce legal frameworks without external interference. The dissolution of empires, the collapse of communist blocs, and the democratization of authoritarian regimes represent some of the most profound achievements of modern history. Yet, this victory incurs a crushing hidden cost: the absolute and unilateral responsibility for national security, economic stability, and social cohesion.
Historical evidence is instructive and sobering. Post-colonial transitions across Africa and Asia frequently produced not prosperity but civil war, ethnic conflict, and economic disintegration. Post-communist transformations in Eastern Europe witnessed the dissolution of social safety nets, the rise of oligarchic capitalism, and a generation of disillusionment. Even mature democracies, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, have experienced the “weight of victory” in the form of polarized legislatures, deteriorating public infrastructure, and fiscal insolvency. When a nation is liberated from imperial or authoritarian control, it inherits a broken bureaucracy, a fragmented civil society, and a hollowed industrial base. The liberation may be political, but the reconstruction is existential.
The most profound cost is the maintenance of legitimacy. Unlike dictatorial regimes that rule by coercion, free nations must govern through consent—a process that is inherently messy, resource-intensive, and slow. Electoral processes, judicial appeals, public consultations, and independent media consume enormous fiscal and emotional capital. Furthermore, the freedom to select alliances, trade partners, and defense strategies creates perpetual geopolitical anxiety. The nation that was once a pawn is now a player—yet every strategic move carries the risk of diplomatic isolation, economic sanctions, or military confrontation.
The ultimate tragedy is the dissolution of collective purpose. Freedom from a common enemy often fractures national unity. The United States, following the Cold War, experienced a crisis of national purpose that persists to this day. The Soviet Union’s dissolution left many post-Soviet republics in economic chaos and identity vacuums. The Arab Spring, which was celebrated globally as a democratic awakening, descended into devastating civil wars in Libya, Syria, and Yemen. Freedom, without a unifying narrative, becomes a centrifugal force that tears nations apart. Leadership, in this context, must provide not only liberty but meaning.
True leadership in the national sphere requires strategic statecraft and adaptive governance. Nations must institutionalize four interconnected pillars. First, constitutional resilience mechanisms: constitutions should incorporate “circuit breakers” for political polarization—including mandatory national dialogues, citizen assemblies, and independent fiscal councils—that intervene during periods of acute crisis. Second, national unity covenants: rather than relying on external threats for consolidation, nations must forge cross-partisan “prosperity pacts” centered on measurable, bipartisan objectives such as energy independence, universal digital access, and healthcare equity. Third, regional integration with safeguards: the singular burden of sovereignty can be shared through supranational frameworks like the European Union, ASEAN, or the African Union, but integration must be predicated upon subsidiarity—ensuring that local identities and national legislative autonomy are preserved. Fourth, national resilience funds: every liberated nation should establish a sovereign wealth fund that sequesters a fixed percentage of resource revenues specifically for systemic shocks—pandemics, climate catastrophes, cyber-attacks, and demographic collapse. These pillars transform the weight of sovereignty from a crushing burden into a sustainable framework for enduring prosperity.
PART IV: ONE LEDGER, THREE COLUMNS – THE INTERCONNECTED CRISIS
It is critical to recognize that the hidden costs for peoples, corporates, and nations are not discrete or isolated. They are dynamically interlocking. When a corporation exploits its market freedom to maximize quarterly profits, it destabilizes national labor markets, exacerbates income inequality, and intensifies individual psychological distress. When a nation asserts its sovereignty through aggressive foreign policies, it disrupts global supply chains, destabilizes corporate logistics, and propagates civilian anxiety. Conversely, when an individual exercises freedom irresponsibly—through excessive consumption or financial imprudence—it fuels corporate extraction and depletes national fiscal reserves.
This systemic entanglement means that fragmented, sector-specific solutions are inherently insufficient. A holistic resolution requires a tripartite compact—a legally and ethically binding agreement among the state, the market, and the citizenry. This compact must enshrine the foundational principle that freedom is a form of stewardship, not a conditional entitlement. Leadership, at every level, must recognize that liberty is a trust—a trust that requires careful management, transparent accounting, and unwavering commitment to the common good.
PART V: THE LIBERTY LOAD INDEX – A GLOBAL MEASURE FOR LEADERSHIP ACCOUNTABILITY
Imagine a global benchmark—a Liberty Load Index—that assesses how well a nation or corporation balances freedom with resilience. This index would measure three critical variables: psychological burden (mental health prevalence, suicide rates, and life satisfaction scores); corporate accountability (ESG compliance, ethical breach records, and workforce satisfaction); and national stability (fiscal health, political polarization, and infrastructure quality).
Nations and corporations that achieve a healthy “sweet spot”—where freedom is responsibly balanced with resilience—would receive preferential access to international development financing, improved sovereign credit ratings, and expedited trade agreements. Conversely, entities exhibiting “freedom fatigue”—high liberty indices but low resilience scores—would be mandated to participate in internationally supported stewardship reconstruction programs. This is not socialism; it is prudent global risk management. It is also the hallmark of mature leadership on the world stage.
CONCLUSION: THE VICTORY OF MATURITY
The hidden cost of freedom is, at its core, the price of collective maturity. Children demand liberty without understanding its consequences; adults accept it as a package deal with obligations. For centuries, humanity has fought to liberate itself from external tyrants, monopolies, and empires. Yet, the next frontier of struggle is not against external oppressors. It is against the internal atrophy, fragmentation, and fatigue that inevitably follow liberation.
By objectively recognizing, quantitatively measuring, and systematically addressing the psychological, strategic, and geopolitical weights that accompany victory, global leaders can transform these hidden costs from silent ravagers into visible architects of sustainable progress. The solution is not to abandon freedom—such a regression would be existential folly. The solution is to carry the weight with dignity and institutional intelligence, to construct systemic support structures that distribute the burden equitably, and to instill in every citizen, executive, and statesman a profound truth: that true leadership is not merely the right to choose—it is the wisdom to choose well, with foresight, responsibility, and collective solidarity.
In doing so, humanity converts a hidden cost into a hidden strength. We transform a heavy burden into a proud badge of enduring stewardship. And we ensure that the victory of delivering freedom to peoples, corporates, and nations is not a fleeting historical euphoria, but a permanent, prosperous, and peaceful inheritance for all generations yet to come.
Dr. Tolulope A. Adegoke, AMBP-UN is a globally recognized scholar-practitioner and thought leader at the nexus of security, governance, and strategic leadership. His mission is dedicated to advancing ethical governance, strategic human capital development, resilient nation building, and global peace. He can be reached via: tolulopeadegoke01@gmail.com, globalstageimpacts@gmail.com
The Police Command in Plateau State has warned its personnel against unlawfully demanding and searching citizens’ mobile phones.
The Commissioner of Police (CP) in the State, Bassey Ewah, issued the warning while addressing its personnel in Jos.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the command, Alfred Alabo, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.
“No personnel of this command has the legal authority to search mobile phone of any citizen on the road without a court warrant,” Alabo quoted Ewah as saying.
The PPRO said that the commissioner, who reiterated the command’s commitment to professionalism, warned personnel against unprofessional conduct.
He added that the commissioner advised residents to politely decline any unlawful attempt by personnel to search their phones and report the incident to the nearest police station.
Alabo also advised residents of the State to report any incident of harassment through the following phone numbers: 08034448617, 08060545670, 08037681026, 09016146804, and 09051145757.
The PPRO further reaffirmed the command’s commitment to protecting the lives, property and rights of law abiding residents in line with global best practices.
NAN
The Enugu State Forest Guard and the Enugu State Council of Traditional Rulers have resolved to deepen collaboration in intelligence gathering, crime prevention and community-based security as part of sustained efforts to enhance peace, protect lives and property, and deny criminal elements safe havens across Enugu State.
The resolution, according to a statement signed by the Commander, Dr. Akinbayo O. Olasoji, on behalf of the outfit, was reached during a high-level interactive session held at the Traditional Council Chambers, Enugu, between the Commander of the Enugu State Forest Guard, Dr. Akinbayo O. Olasoji, PhD, MNIM, MNIPS, CPI, CINTA, CTA, FGCP, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rtd.), and the Chairman and members of the Enugu State Council of Traditional Rulers.
A major out come of the meeting was the unanimous recognition that the three hundred and sixty-six (366) recognised Traditional Rulers in Enugu State constitute the State’s largest community-based security network and remain indispensable partners in intelligence gathering, early warning, conflict prevention, community mobilisation and the protection of forests and ruralvcommunities.
The Royal Fathers reaffirmed their commitment to working closely with the Enugu State Forest Guard, in accordance with the provisions of the Enugu State Forest Guard Law, by strengthening community intelligence, identifying suspicious movements, promoting vigilance with in their domains, encouraging the prompt reporting of
criminal activities and supporting lawful security operations across the State.
Presenting his One-Year Stewardship Review, titled “One Year of Transformation,
Leadership and Operational Impact: Building an Institution. Securing Our Future,” Dr. Olasoji expressed profound appreciation to His Excellency, Dr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, Executive Governor of Enugu State, for his visionary leadership and unwavering commitment to strengthening the State’s security architecture through the establishment and continued support of the Enugu State Forest Guard.
The Commander reviewed the remarkable progress recorded during the Forest Guard’s first year of operation, highlighting the establishment of a functional command structure across the three Senatorial Commands, seventeen Local Government Area Commands, forty-two Operational Sector Commands and more than two hundred and sixty Ward Security Units.
He further highlighted the institutionalisation of Standard Operating Procedures, strengthened command and control systems, enhanced operational accountability, expansion of intelligence-led patrols and deployments, intensified forest surveillance and bush-combing operations, improved operational reporting systems and sustained investment in specialised training covering intelligence gathering, cybersecurity, leadership, operational reporting, ethics, human rights and community engagement.
Dr. Olasoji reaffirmed that the operational philosophy of the Enugu State Forest Guard remains firmly anchored on intelligence-led, preventive and community-based security, emphasising that timely intelligence, early warning and proactive intervention remain the most effective tools for preventing crime before it occurs.
The interactive session also provided an opportunity for the Royal Fathers to present security concerns affecting their various communities.
Particular attention was drawn to the recurring incidents of kidnapping within the boundary communities of Isi-Uzo Local Government Area. The Council called for sustained intelligence-led operations, increased surveillance and stronger collaboration among the Forest Guard, sister security agencies and host communities to
dismantle criminal hideouts operating within forest corridors and border communities.
The Royal Fathers also expressed concerns over emerging security challenges in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area and urged that intelligence gathering, surveillance and operational presence be further strengthened to
address criminal activities and reassure affected communities.
The meeting also deliberated extensively on the ongoing Forest Guard recruitment exercise.
Clarifying the position of the Command, Dr.Olasoji informed the Council that the recruitment exercise has been temporarily suspended pending the conclusion of the Recruitment Committees’ final deliberations. He explained that the suspension is intended to enable the Committees to conclude their assignment and ensure that the recruitment process remains transparent, credible, merit-based and fully compliant with established procedures.
He assured the Royal Fathers that no further action would be taken until the Committees complete their assignment and that the approved modalities for the continuation of the recruitment exercise would there after be officially communicated to the public in the interest of transparency, fairness and due process.
The Commander further explained that administrative decisions arising from the recruitment process, including the
suspension of certain personnel, are being handled strictly in accordance with established procedures, institutional regulations and the principles of fairness, accountability and justice.
The Chairman and members of the Enugu State Council of Traditional Rulers commended the remarkable transformation recorded by the Enugu State Forest Guard within its first year of operation and expressed confidence in the leadership, professionalism and operational direction of the Command.
The Council unanimously resolved to strengthen collaboration between every recognised traditional institution and the Enugu State Forest Guard by promoting community intelligence, strengthening early warning systems, supporting lawful security operations and encouraging citizens to provide timely information capable of preventing crime.
The Royal Fathers further pledged to work closely with Forest Guard Commanders, Sector Officers, Presidents-General, community leaders, hunters, neighbourhood security groups and other lawful stakeholders to enhance intelligence gathering, improve community resilience and reinforce peace and security through out Enugu State.
In his closing remarks, Dr.Olasoji reaffirmed the unwavering commitment of the Enugu State Forest Guard to professionalism, discipline, accountability, respect for human rights and intelligence-led operations. He called on all stakeholders to remain united in support of the Governor’s vision of a safe, secure and prosperous Enugu State, stressing that security remains a shared responsibility requiring the active participation of government, traditional
institutions, security agencies and everylaw-abiding citizen.
The meeting concluded with aunanimous commitment by the Enugu State Forest Guard and the Enugu State Council of Traditional Rulers to deepen intelligence-led community security, strengthen forest protection and enhance collaboration across all communities in the State. Both parties reaffirmed their resolve to work together to ensure that every forest, rural community and border corridor in Enugu State remains safe, peaceful and conducive to agriculture, investment and sustainable development.
The royal fathers prayed for Dr. Olasoji for God’s protection in what he is doing for ndi Enugu through Enugu state forest guard.
