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Food for Living: The Challenges of Life
By Henry Ukazu
Greetings Dear Friends,
Let me confess to you all. It’s always a pleasure writing every week despite the challenges I go through trying to meet the deadline. I will also like to appreciate the kind support of my editors and various media firms who have been very resourceful and supportive. As you may know, nothing in life is easy, despite publishing insightful and thought-provoking articles every week consistently, I can authoritatively tell you if not for passion and addiction, I wouldn’t have been able to overcome the pressures. This is because I need to deal with the pressure of daily work, personal commitments and life challenges in addition to having a sound mind in order to produce a good work. In all, I will say, God is the ultimate “source” because beside from him, I can do nothing!
I had to X-ray these challenges because you may be experiencing a peculiar or different challenge that might have defined or shaped you in one way or another. We all face different challenges relating to finance, family/relationship, business, academics, health, etc. The big questions now remain, how do you face and conquer your challenges. The aim of this article is to see how we can address the numerous challenges facing life, and how it can be overcome.
Emotions:
The first step in handling any challenge is managing emotions. Your emotions play a critical role in stabilizing you in critical moments. This is because it’s extremely easy to act in anger, sadness or even frustration. As a way of advice, do or say nothing when you are angry because what you may say or do may be worst than the harm in question. Remember, words are like scars when you are hurt, the wound might heal, but the scar will still remain. It’s just like our words, it can be used to make or mar our life and relationship. As human beings, most times we allow our emotions to take a big chunk of our life. However, being able to sit down and analyze the situation will be a great way to diffuse or addresses any situation you might be facing. It’s worthy to note that only weak people act out impulsively. Strong people, however, see them as challenges and practice massive self-control.
It should be noted that your negative emotions are simply challenges. So take up the challenge and start to master your emotions. You’ll be stronger with this mindset if you master your emotions because it will enable you to study and learn human behavior.
Furthermore, It’s important to note that human beings are the most difficult people on earth to deal with. Some can be happy to relate with while some can be toxic to deal with. Most times we have people who get to our nerves, for example, our friends, partners, arrogant boss or even family member, but because we need peace, love, and friendship, you try to remain calm and allow your peace of mind to control you. In that way, you’ll be able to diffuse the problem as opposed to reacting back which might escalate the problem.
Your Job
Your job is not exempted from the challenge of life. Dealing with the politics of the job can be a great way of facing the challenges of life. You can deal with it by being positive with each ugly incident you are not comfortable with. Dealing with your colleagues, bosses, supervisors, inferiors and administrative bottleneck can be a pain in your body, however, your attitude to each situation can be a remedy in fixing the issue at play.Whether you lose your job, an opportunity, or a relationship, you’ll be forced to face the associated challenges that come with it. Regardless of how it happens, the loss is one of life’s biggest challenges in life. However, loss gives you the opportunity to reflect on what is truly important so that you to keep moving forward. We have all experienced a slow in progress, hindrance or delay on our journey. The challenge is understanding why the delay happened. What caused our progress to slow down. Setbacks are learning opportunities. Having a firm understanding of the types of things that slow your progress will allow you to both avoid and preempt them
Life issues
Every living being must surely face challenges. The only time challenges will stop will be when you give up the ghost. On a daily note, you face challenges in taking care of your responsibility both personally and professionally. Whether at home, at work, in public areas or even in the hospital, you are bound to deal with life issues. You kids can get on your nerve, it can even a traffic situation or something you can’t really explain how it came up, but you’re just expected to deal with it. My take on this is, smile and say this too shall pass especially when you have your best and the situation still persists. Things simply don’t go as planned. That’s life! And life will never stop giving you challenges. So stop complaining. Take up the challenges and assume full responsibility for the situation.
Tend to Your Loving Relationships
These relationships don’t just happen magically; they grow and are sustained through attentive care and hard work. Mature love in marriage, family, or friendships is a dynamic living experience. It requires a commitment to keep it working. It involves a daily process of overcoming the challenges. It accepts the reality that we will hurt one another and be hurt by one another. It is the nature of being human. These pains cannot be avoided. We can only devote ourselves to do what we can do to weather them and to mend them. Love, then, is essentially repair work which we must use to heal the wounds. However, we must endeavor to take responsibility for our mistakes by learning to say I’m sorry and then making an effort to make amends. We should also learn to forgive. As the monks do every day, we fall down and get up, fall down and get up again.
The question now becomes, how do we face these challenges?
Positive thinking
This is harder than most would think. Shaping your thoughts can be an uphill task. It’s easy to go awry in your head. It’s easy to start linking them with your emotions and then acting out impulsively. So take your thoughts as challenges because they want you to follow them. Overcome them slowly and have patience with yourself. Your thoughts are your reality, so create the reality you want.
Calm yourself.
During stressful times, we sometimes push the panic button and “catastrophize”, or imagine the worst. Instead, calm yourself with “traffic light coping”. This exercise, developed by Dr. Williams, works like this: When you start to feel worried, panicked, or angry—when you start to “see red”— stop and relax. Pause. Take time to breathe deeply to help calm your body and mind, then move forward.
Start with a single step. The sooner you take action, the better you’ll feel. If a challenge feels overwhelming, think about the simplest thing you could do to take you in the direction you want to go. Then do it.
Mastering Your Mind
Your mind can be a formidable opponent on your path to becoming a better person. It can pipe up with all kinds of negative commentary when things are not going well and can have the power to derail you with doubt and fear – if you let it. Mastering your mind is one of the greatest life challenges of all. Your mind controls your perspective, it informs how you receive and process your interactions with the world around you. Unlike other things you can claim mastery over after a finite amount of time, the mind can take some a lifetime to master. Some common methods to calm the mind include having personal time for yourself, therapy, meditating, self- reflection, prayer, and intentional silence. You don’t have to be hard on yourself, give your self some break.
In conclusion, whatever problems you think you have, whatever it is you’ve gone through, whatever you’re going through right now. You’re a challenge by itself. Don’t let mistakes, challenges, circumstances, pressure define you, you’re bigger than them all. Life challenges are not to paralyze but to make you discover who you are. I will leave you with some great nuggets:
Life is a challenge – Meet it
Life is a gift – Accept it
Life is an adventure – Dare it
Life is a sorrow – Overcome it
Life is a game – Play it
Life is a mystery – Unfold it
Life is a song – Sing it
Life is an opportunity – Take it
Life is a journey – Complete it
Life is a promise – Fulfill it
Life is a love – Enjoy it
Life is a beauty Praise it
Life is a struggle – Fight it
Life is a puzzle – Solve it
Life is a goal – Achieve it.
Yes, we may have been hurt in one way or the other, but as Mother Teresa will say, in other to live a positive life we need to have to have a positive mental attitude. According to her:
People are often unreasonable and self-centered, Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people will accuse you of ulterior motives – Be kind anyway
If you are honest people may cheat you, Be honest anyway
The good you do today maybe forgotten, Be good anyway
If you find happiness, people may be jealous Be happy anyway
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 Attorney-General of the Federation has urged the Federal High Court in Abuja to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister five political parties, arguing that their continued existence violates constitutional provisions and undermines Nigeria’s electoral integrity.
In court filings, the Attorney General contended that unless the court intervenes, INEC would “continue to act in breach of its constitutional duty” by retaining parties that have failed to meet the minimum requirements prescribed by law.
The filing stressed that the right to associate as a political party is not absolute and must be exercised within constitutional limits. It further argued that it is in the interest of justice for the court to grant the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2637/2026 and filed at the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court, lists the Incorporated Trustees of the National Forum of Former Legislators as the plaintiff.
The defendants include INEC as the first defendant and the Attorney General of the Federation as the second defendant, alongside five political parties: African Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Alliance (AA), Action Peoples Party (APP), Accord (A), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
At the center of the issue in the case is whether INEC has a constitutional obligation to remove parties that fail to meet electoral performance thresholds set out in Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and reinforced by the Electoral Act 2022 and INEC’s own regulations.
The plaintiffs argue that the affected parties have persistently failed to satisfy the constitutional benchmarks required to retain their registration. These include winning at least 25 per cent of votes in a state during a presidential election or securing at least one elective seat at the national, state or local government level.
They contend that the parties performed poorly in the 2023 general elections and subsequent by-elections, failing to win seats across key tiers of government, yet continue to be recognised by INEC as eligible political platforms.
The plaintiffs maintain that this continued recognition is unlawful and undermines the integrity of Nigeria’s electoral system.
In the affidavit supporting the suit, the forum’s national coordinator, Igbokwe Raphael Nnanna, states that allowing parties that have not met constitutional requirements to remain on the register “is unconstitutional, illegal and a violation” of the governing legal framework.
The suit asks the court to declare that INEC is duty-bound to deregister such parties and to compel the commission to do so before preparations for the 2027 elections advance further.
Beyond declaratory reliefs, the plaintiffs are also seeking far-reaching orders that would bar the affected parties from participating in the next general elections or engaging in political activities such as campaigns, rallies and primaries. They further request injunctions restraining INEC from recognising or dealing with the parties in any official capacity unless and until they comply strictly with constitutional provisions.
Central to the plaintiffs’ argument is their interpretation of the law as imposing a mandatory duty on INEC. They argue that the use of the word “shall” in the Constitution leaves no room for discretion once a party fails to meet the stipulated thresholds.
In their written address, they rely on statutory provisions and judicial precedents to contend that electoral performance is an objective condition that must be enforced to maintain discipline, transparency, and accountability in the political system.
Tribune
The Lagos State Police Command has restored normalcy in Onosa Community in the Elemoro area of Lagos State, according to a statement made available to the National Association of Online Security News Publishers (NAOSNP).
The statement, signed by the Lagos Command Public Relations Officer, CSP Benjamin Hundeyin, recalled that “In the early hours of today, August 29, 2025, six officers from Elemoro Division while on routine patrol encountered an irate mob. In the course of ensuring their own safety, the officers used their firearms, resulting in three individuals sustaining injuries. The injured persons were taken to hospital for medical attention.”
The statement further observed that “The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, CP Olohundare Jimoh, promptly responded to the incident by personally leading a detachment of officers to the scene. The swift intervention led to the removal of all barricades, restoring the free flow of traffic in the affected area. CP Jimoh also moved deep into the community and engaged with youth and community leaders in the neighborhood to de-escalate tensions and foster understanding. He has further extended an invitation to these leaders for continued dialogue to address concerns and prevent future occurrences.
“The officers involved in the shooting have been taken into custody as investigations into the incident commence. The Lagos State Police Command is committed to a thorough and transparent inquiry to establish the facts surrounding the event.
“Normalcy has been restored to the area, and significant police presence remains in place to ensure the sustenance of the restored peace and order. The Command urges residents to remain calm, cooperate with law enforcement, and refrain from actions that could disrupt public safety.”
Hundeyin assured members of the public that further updates will be provided as the investigations progress.
Former Nigerian leaders, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), have expressed deep sorrow over the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari, who passed away on Sunday in London.
In separate condolence statements, the elder statesmen paid glowing tributes to the late Nigerian leader, describing him as a patriot who served the country with distinction as a soldier, administrator, and statesman.
Obasanjo, through a statement issued in Abeokuta, Ogun State, noted that Buhari played his role dutifully throughout his life and gave his best to the country.
“It is with a heavy heart that I received this afternoon the passing to glory of a colleague, a comrade, a co-patriot, General Muhammadu Buhari,” Obasanjo said.
“As a soldier, he played his role; as an administrator, he played his role; as a statesman, he played his role.”
He added that Buhari’s death comes at a critical time when Nigeria needed the wisdom and experience of leaders who have previously steered the country through difficult times.
“He will be sorely missed. May his soul rest in perfect peace,” Obasanjo added.
Babangida described Buhari as a brother, course mate, and fellow patriot whose life was defined by discipline, humility, and unwavering loyalty to Nigeria.
In a personal tribute, Babangida recalled their shared history that began in 1962 at the Nigerian Military Training College in Kaduna, noting that Buhari stood out early as a principled and deeply patriotic officer.
“Through the years, we shared trenches and trials, dreams and disappointments, victories and moments of reflection,” IBB said.
“Our bond was forged not only by military training but by a shared commitment to service and love for country.”
He acknowledged that while they may have held differing views at times, Buhari’s sincerity and patriotism were never in doubt.
“His passing today is not just the loss of a former Head of State or two-term civilian President—it is the loss of a symbol. He embodied the transition from the old guard to the new republic,” Babangida stated.
He prayed for Allah’s forgiveness for the late leader and extended condolences to his wife, Aisha Buhari, their children and grandchildren, as well as the entire nation.
“May his legacy endure, and may Allah (SWT) grant him Aljannatul Firdaus,” he concluded.
