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Food for Living: Destiny As a Catalyst
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By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
The concept of destiny is very broad because it means several things to several people in diverse fields including religious, politics, education, entrepreneurship or family. It’s meaning is however, dependent on the interpretation one gives to it. But one thing is certain, destiny connotes the end point or destination of somebody or something.
As the author of Design Your Destiny, I believe I am in a better position to speak about destiny and how it is applicable to life. Not only have my life been transformed by destiny, but I have also seen in real times how destiny played a significant role in the lives of ordinary people.
To understand the concept of destiny, I will be writing from an inspirational and rational point of view. It is important to state that for the emancipation of anyone, one needs to understand how life and the principles of life work work, otherwise, one will be confused.
It is normal for someone to be concerned about what the future holds for him. Sometimes, one will be concerned about where the next food or job opportunity will come from. I have good news for you though, relax, destiny is working purposely for your benefit. You don’t have to know, but just believe and trust the process.
No human being can know what will happen the next second, minute, day, week, month, year, and decade. We only live by the grace of God. So, don’t be anxious of what life has in stock for you, just do your best and continue to add value to your life, and the universe has a way of aligning circumstances and life for you. In my native country, we have a saying: nobody knows the stomach that will give birth to a king.
I have personally seen and experienced transformation in my life. I have seen the grace of God. I have seen people who the world has given up as people who don’t have any chance of making a headway in life, succeeding in an exponential manner. A classical case of study is former President Goodluck Jonathan, who rose from a humble position of being a lecturer to Deputy Governor, Governor, Vice President and President, in a way no rational mind can decipher.
What most uninformed people fail to understand is that nobody knows tomorrow, and God is the greatest orchestrator of human destiny. It’s so sad to see some people play God. It’s also instructive to know that the son of a certified pauper can become a man of means tomorrow if properly educated.
To put it in better perspective, no matter how one may try, nobody knows who will be elected as a Representative, Senator, Governor of a State, or President of a country. Nobody even knows who the wealthiest man in the society will be when tomorrow comes.
One may have a mentor or a biological parent who may be wealthy, or in a position of authority, or influential in the society, and note that no matter how much your parent or your mentor will love you, he can’t dictate what will happen when they are no longer in authority. The best the person can do is to strategically position you or give you publicity within his network of influence, but that will not determine if you’ll get what you desire in the grand scheme of things.
To really understand how this works, let’s take a case of Nigeria, where a mentor might influence the position of someone who is likely to be the President or Governor of a State. Upon expiration of the mentee’s tenure, they might decide who their successor will be, and the successor will also determine who their successor will be, and the list continues.
Do you now see the concept of destiny is relative. The creator might position somebody to take a position 10, 20 or even 50 years ahead just to fulfil a purpose.
Let’s take another perspective of destiny; the creator of heaven and earth might strategically position somebody to travel out of the country just to fulfil a destined purpose. The person might not know he is being used to fulfil a purpose just like the devil can be used to ‘bless’ someone in disguise without knowing.
Destiny can be quite complicated, some people might be destined to be in a particular region, while others might be destined to succeed in another region. To know where you are destined to be, I will strongly advise everyone to reach out to their creator by seeking the face and mindset of God through prayer and meditation. God has a way of revealing his plans to everyone.
The sad part of life is sometimes, human beings try to play God by working out their destiny and purpose in life. They fail to realize that they didn’t create themselves and didn’t get whatever they have by their ability, rather by the grace of God. Whenever, men think they are god, God will let them know in subtle ways, he is the Lord and God of gods. So, be humble about life because you don’t know what life will unfold for you. It is pertinent to mention that, when royalties are failing, God will raise people, stones to praise him, so be humble before life will humble you.
On a personal experience, during my chamber attachment while in Nigerian Law School, I was experiencing a little bit of financial challenge, especially living in the expensive City of Abuja, and as such, I was trying to mitigate cost. I reached out to the posting coordinator in law school to give me a nearby firm which won’t allow me to spend more money, he stated, such practice is not allowed. He was kind enough to listen to me to explain my reasons, he really felt for me and asked for the name of the firm I wanted to intern with, I gave him the name of the firm, he searched the directory, but couldn’t find the name of the firm. I didn’t know the law firm uses a partnership name as opposed to an individual name. He asked me a question, “are you a Christian”, I said yes, he said believe in your God. He used himself as an example, he said, as Muslim, he doesn’t believe in working things out, because one might work out one’s destiny. I took his word to heart.
Guess what, when the list was posted, I was posted in my estate where I didn’t have to spend a dime on transportation. The funny part was that, assuming my plan worked out, I would have to pay a decent amount of my money to get to my desired law firm. Do you see God came through for me? It’s destiny at work. The most joyful part of it was that, not only did I work with a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, I had the humble opportunity of being on television on a number of cases because my boss was handling the case of the daughter of the former President of Nigeria at the said time. More importantly, during my sojourn to the United States this great man played a significant role with his thoughtful advice and assistance. He was later appointed a Minister by President Buhari in 2015., but the cold hands of death snatched him away.
Another interesting story was during my National Youth Service Corp. While most people were working out their posting, I refused to work out mine despite pressure from friends and family members. I borrowed some sense using my experience during my law school. Ordinarily, I was posted to a remote place, but God came through for me when the Governor of the State came with a friend of mine who works with African Independent Television to cover the event.
During one of our engagements, he mentioned to me, the Governor gave him 500milion naira to set up African Independent television in the state. This great man asked me to recruit youth corpers who will work for him, and he will pay them 100 thousand naira every month, and mine will be special. I thanked him for the opportunity and informed him, I won’t be able to deliver because I will travel to the US after my service year. After a decade, this man facilitated an opportunity to interview in Abuja. The moral of the story is that, imagine if I worked out my posting, who knows where I would have been.
Furthermore, when destiny is at work, God can command a sick person who is supposed to die to live simply because it’s not yet time for the person to depart this sinful world.
In conclusion, regardless of what you are going through, please don’t be hard on yourself, whether you are looking for an opportunity, life partner, mentor, etc., just seek for the creator to design your destiny by connecting you to the right people who will enable you to fulfil his purpose concerning your life.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design Your and Unleash Your Destiny . He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has condemned the Federal Government’s continued escalation of the cost of public education, describing the recent increase in fees for Federal Unity Colleges and the reported approval of a uniform ₦50,000 examination fee for West African Examinations Council WAEC and National Examinations Council NECO candidates from 2027 as cruel.
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, on Sunday, Atiku noted that education remains the greatest instrument of social mobility and the surest pathway out of poverty for millions of children from humble backgrounds, adding that every additional financial burden imposed on parents translates into another child being denied the opportunity to learn, dream and contribute meaningfully to society.
“Nigeria already bears the painful distinction of having one of the largest populations of out-of-school children in the world. Depending on the methodology and age group measured, between 10.5 million and about 15 million Nigerian children and young people are already outside the classroom. Any government confronted with such a national emergency should be investing aggressively to bring these children back into school. Instead, this administration is choosing policies that will inevitably swell those numbers,” he said.
He warned that increasing fees in Federal Unity Colleges while imposing significantly higher costs on WAEC and NECO examinations would disproportionately affect children from poor and middle-income families, whose parents are already making impossible choices between food, healthcare, transportation, and education.
“The same administration whose policies are progressively narrowing access to public tertiary education continues to project the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) as one of its flagship achievements. Yet a university loan offers little comfort to a child who has already been priced out of secondary education or cannot afford the qualifying examination required for admission. A government cannot credibly claim to be expanding access to higher education while simultaneously erecting financial barriers that prevent millions of young Nigerians from ever reaching the university gates.
“Genuine educational reform begins by making education affordable from the primary and secondary levels, expanding the carrying capacity of our tertiary institutions, and ensuring that poverty never becomes the reason a child is denied the opportunity to learn. A government that truly believes in education invests in classrooms before it invests in loans.
“No nation has ever taxed its way into educational excellence. Countries that aspire to economic greatness invest more—not less—in education during difficult times because they understand that human capital is the engine of sustainable development. Nigeria cannot build a globally competitive economy while systematically pricing millions of its children out of classrooms”, he added.
Atiku therefore called on President Tinubu to immediately reverse the increase in Unity School fees and the proposed ₦50,000 WAEC and NECO examination fee, and convene an urgent stakeholders’ dialogue on sustainable financing for public education.
“By the grace of Almighty God, I remain confident that Nigerians will reject policies that punish their children and make education the exclusive preserve of those who can afford it. The African Democratic Congress is committed to restoring education as a public good, not a privilege.
“An ADC-led government will not permit this unjust and punitive increase in examination fees. Instead, we shall reverse policies that place education beyond the reach of ordinary families, expand access to quality education at every level, increase the carrying capacity of our tertiary institutions, and ensure that every Nigerian child, regardless of background, has a fair opportunity to learn, excel and fulfil his or her God-given potential,” he added.
The Vanguard
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
To be successful, everyone needs to be effective and efficient in all they do. Success does not come from nicety, speech articulation or fine diction, spotless dressing, connections, good proposal or even from having a good product. Though all these factors might play a role, a business man must not only be efficient in their business, they must also be effective.
These words, effective and efficient no doubt, are so closely related, however there’s a thin line of difference between the two. If you stay with me for awhile, you’ll understand.
One might be wondering what the difference between being effective and being efficient is. According to Dr. Yomi Garnett, a prolific and exceptional ghost writer, efficiency is the ability to do something well without wasting energy or effort, whilst to be effective is simply to do something well. Let’s talk a minute to explain how this works. One can be efficient and not effective, and one can be effective and not efficient. But a truly great mind is both effective and efficient. When one is efficient, it means that he can do the work within the shortest possible time. This may be because he has done it over and over again, and have mastered its nitty-gritty.
There’s a saying, if someone can’t explain something to a six-year-old child, that person doesn’t understand the subject very well. I agree with this saying because when someone understands something, he/she won’t go through stress explaining it, and will spend minimum time doing it. Whilst for someone who is effective, he knows the issue or has a subject matter expert on the business very well. He can literally do it when he wakes up from sleep without rehearsing. So, in summary, an effective person saves time, while an efficient person explains better.
As progressive beings, we must be proactive with not only our life, but also our business, career, and whatever we find our hand worthy of doing. By doing so, people will appreciate us and support us. In business, one of the best forms of advertising is referral. When one’s work is exceptionally good, he doesn’t need too much advertising; his work will speak for itself. For instance, anyone who may have used the product might say ‘I have used this product or service, and I can guarantee its effectiveness’. Another person might say ‘the staff are very efficient, professional, and great at customer service’.
All these are great reviews. Trust me, one doesn’t need too many reviews to believe in the authenticity of what people are saying. They can sense a genuine review devoid of sentiments and vested interest. So, imagine a case where there’s no review, one might have a challenge in believing the durability and effectiveness of the product/service.
As a business owner, one must be intentional with respect to how he treats his employers and customers. What most uninformed business owners don’t know is that when you take care of your staff, they will in turn take care of your business. When the staff are happy, they’ll treat the customers well, and when the customers are happy, they’ll in turn tell the world. Do you see how effectiveness and efficiency work in a company?
In a similar way, if one is consistent in publishing articles every week like I do, opportunities are bound to arise soon when there’s alignment. As a business owner, I can authoritatively tell you being good at what you say you do is a currency. Nobody likes shady or dirty work. I can also tell you people are ready to pay for premium services provided you can deliver.
Let me share a personal experience with you; two months ago, I visited my home country – Nigeria, for a business opportunity. During my meeting with some established institutions, I had to submit proposals to them. But because I wasn’t proficient in writing proposals, I had to hire a consultant to do the job for me. Not only did I hire a consultant, I also flew him for business meetings because I trusted his judgment, and guess work, it paid off.
Imagine, if I had to do it myself, I doubt if the work would have been given the kind of positive attention it attracted. Why am I sharing this information? When one is good at what they do, it won’t take long for them to be seen when the right opportunity comes.
Being efficient and effective does not only apply to our professional lives, it’s also applicable in our personal lives. In the world we currently live in, things are governed by perception. When people see how effective and efficient you are, they will be inclined to associate with you, but when you appear like an unserious person, they will find it hard to recommend or refer you for business opportunities.
So, today, take stock and ask yourself if are you an effective and efficient person; if your company is effective and efficient. If your answer is no; ask yourself what you can do to make you and your company effective. The answer will set you on the right path to success.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design and Unleash Your Destiny . He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
The Delta State security outfit – SafeCity Security Service – in collaboration with operatives of the State police command, have arrested a wanted notorious bandit, Abubakar Usman.
His arrest followed the kidnapping of one Mrs. Blessing Chiedu, a native of Umunede Kingdom, who was abducted on July 2, 2026, along the Ani-Ifekide Farm Road, Ubulu-Uku. The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of N100 million from her family.
Spokesperson for the SafeCity Security Service, Harrison Gwamnishu, disclosed this in a post on X on Wednesday
According to Gwamnishu, upon receiving the information, he escalated the matter, and the Delta State Police Command’s Anti-Kidnapping Squad, Asaba, led by CSP Osakpolor, swung into action.
He said using their Hydra Tech Surveillance System, a coordinated rescue operation was launched, Mrs. Blessing Chiedu, a native of Umunede, was successfully rescued alive and unharmed along the Ubulu-Unor/Ashama Road.
After her rescue, he said the team immediately launched a manhunt for the fleeing kidnappers until the early hours of Wednesday when their surveillance system located the gang to their hideout in the Ogwashi-Uku/Adonta Forest of the state.
“A gun battle ensued, during which our combined team overpowered the criminals. One of the most wanted suspects, Abubakar Usman, was successfully captured, while other members of the gang escaped into the forest with their firearms.
“Investigations reveal that Abubakar Usman and his gang have been responsible for several kidnapping operations across Igbodo, Umunede, and surrounding communities, where they have extorted millions of naira in ransom from innocent families,” he said.
