“Making The Choice To Be Creative” - ’Rotimi Odejayi

The OXFORD ENGLISH Mini-Dictionary, the Fifth Edition defined the word “creative” to mean “involving creation or invention; for an individual to show imagination and originality.” A creative youth for instance is one who come up with a newest invention breaking out of the existing status quo. What our nation and the world at large is looking out for are creative youths…so they can be celebrated. The challenge before us today as youths living in a digital world is to dare to create as well as be creative. The world is looking out for an innovator, please will you be one? Please “Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth through your creativity’’ – RUMI

This issue of creativity reminds us of the incidence that happened in a certain city between a sage and an equally wise boy. The later actually brought a tactical question for this old wise man to answer so that He could confirm how wise or otherwise this man really was. This mischievous boy went to the man holding a live bird within the hollow of his palms. The bird was held tight inside his palms. This boy with the intention of testing how intelligent this wise man is jokingly asked him, “Sir, can you tell me whether the bird kept in the hollow of my palm is alive or dead’’. Through wisdom, this old man knew fully well that the boy reserve the right to the status of the bird’s life. Should he say, “the bird is dead’’; the boy will simply open his held palms and free the bird. And if he answered, “the bird is alive’’ the boy can snorf life out of the bird kept in the hollow of his palms. The wise man then pondered for a while and answered the imp, “the status of the bird either dead or alive is in your hand’’. It is in your hand. So also is creativity, it is in your hand. The reason is simply because “creativity is not attained by chance, you can only be creative by choice, and as a matter of fact will demand a diligent choice for that matter. Your action to this all – important subject of creativity or inaction is simply a choice that will eventually depicts the kind of difference you will make in life or in you becoming a mediocre. None of us will be a mediocre in Jesus name, Amen…Recall it is your creativity that makes the difference. Dare to be creative.

Here is a practical scenario of a creative individual as opined by Pablo Picasso, “There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun’’. The pivotal point here is that, there is literally no new thing in the world. That newest invention is actually an upgrade of an existing project. This affirms the Yoruba proverbs that says ‘’There is no new thing under heaven’’. Let us look at this practical instance every quickly. When I started surfing the internet a little over a decade ago, was the prevalence of the social network hi5.com. After a while was an innovation from Mark Zuckerberg in facebook. It is on record that within one month facebook had over forty million Subscribers. Another set of creative individual went ahead to create something a-bit distinct to facebook in twitter.com As if twitter is not enough in November 2010, a newest creative breakthrough came up in instagram.com And now we have the latest discovery in the social media network in keek.com, with each of them (though social media network) having their unique features. I am convinced we too can create something unprecedented here in the next twenty-four hours. And that is why we are here today. To not only inspire you, but train you on how to design website and develop applications. We are not here to play and this workshop is an intensive hand-on practical session with a view to making creative youths out of this digital world. Please note that we are not here to joke but we are to create. By tomorrow each of us must show – case our project for the world to see. Let us get some messages on creativity from the words of Steve Jobs “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”.

“Keeping Youths Out of Trouble Via Creativity” – Rotimi Odejayi

“Keeping Youths Out of Trouble Via Creativity” – Rotimi Odejayi

Rotimi Odejayi is a student of Computer Science, UI Ibadan, ICT Officer at Lead City University, Ibadan and the Author of “DARE TO PONDER”

                                                                               Who is a “Youth”?

The Youth is the period between childhood and adult age…Young people considered as a group.

What do we mean by “youth”? Culled from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – (UNESCO) Website.

“Youth” is best understood as a period of transition from the dependence of childhood to adulthood’s independence and awareness of our interdependence as members of a community. Youth is a more fluid category than a fixed age-group.

However, age is the easiest way to define this group, particularly in relation to education and employment. Therefore “youth” is often indicated as a person between the age where he/she may leave compulsory education, and the age at which he/she finds his/her first employment. This latter age limit has been increasing, as higher levels of unemployment and the cost of setting up an independent household puts many young people into a prolonged period of dependency.

When carrying out its Youth Strategy, UNESCO uses different definitions of youth depending on the context. For activities at international or at regional level, such as the African Youth Forum, UNESCO uses the United Nations’ universal definition.

The UN, for statistical consistency across regions, defines ‘youth’, as those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years, without prejudice to other definitions by Member States. All UN statistics on youth are based on this definition, as illustrated by the annual yearbooks of statistics published by the United Nations system on demography, education, employment and health.

For activities at the national level, for example when implementing a local community youth programme, “youth” may be understood in a more flexible manner. UNESCO will then adopt the definition of “youth” as used by a particular Member State. It can be based for instance on the definition given in the African Youth Charter where “youth” means “every person between the ages of 15 and 35 years”.

In Nigeria, it is generally believed that youngsters that fall between 18 years and 35 years are youths.

For Nigeria, the life expectancy of the World Health Organisation Stats (in 2011) as culled from Wikipedia.org for male is 52 years and 54 for females. Nigeria is ranked 180^th in the world out of 193 along with Cameroun and Burundi. Affirming that there are many youths in Nigeria.

The Influences on Youths come from different quarters. These include: The (Hostile) HOME, Peer Pressure, The Media (What They Watch on Electronic Media e.g. Television Stations), The SOCIETY and Advancement in Information and Communication Technology ICT. Though these Influences Have Some Positive Effects on The Youths, Their Negative Impacts Outweighs Their Positive Effects Thereby MakinG The Paths (or Ways) of Youths through destiny fulfillment Generally Slippery.

One good way to save the Nigerian youths from entering into trouble is to gainfully engage them. This could be done by organizing Youths-Workshop for them (for example, we are holding a Youths-Centered Workshop “CREATE” here in Lead City University, Ibadan this Friday). Besides, the matured ones amongst we Youths can get involved in Community-Development Service. This is possible through volunteering.

The last way to help save the Nigerian youths from getting into trouble is for them to be involved in profitable ventures. And this is possible when you acquire skills. Recall that “Skill” is equal to Knowledge Plus Ability. You must gather knowledge by going to acquire knowledge in schools, artisan-workshops, online and in Specialised Programmes. It must be noted however that having skills is not enough, that skills must be married with Creativity. The OXFORD ENGLISH Mini-Dictionary, the Fifth Edition defined the word “creative” to mean “involving creation or invention; for an individual to show imagination and originality.” A creative youth for instance is one who comes up with a newest invention breaking out of the existing status quo. What our nation and the world at large is looking out for are creative youths…so they can be celebrated. The challenge before us today as youths living in a digital world is to be courageous enough to create as well as be creative. The world is looking out for an innovator, please will you be one? Please “Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth through your creativity’’ – RUMI

THE MANDATE OF THE PROGRAMME ENTITLED "CREATE"

CREATE! CREATE!! CREATE!!!

THEME: “MAKING CREATIVE YOUTHS OUT OF A DIGITAL WORLD”

The word “create” is used to mean to produce (something new, such as a work of art) by using your talents and imagination; to bring into existence, to come up with a new invention from a new idea. For instance, there was nothing like “Instagram” not until October, 2010. It is out of sheer creativity that we can have a new book, a website design, an application developed, an album released and all that. The programme entitled “Create” is an innovation delving from the usual classroom lectures with the caption, “Making creative youths out of a digital world.” The programme “CREATE” is aimed at teaching the Nigerian youths opportunities in the ICT world cum show them the nitty-gritty of Creativity. Also the objective of this Workshop is to produce youths that will be creative to innovate in every sense of originality.

Featuring ·         Motivational Talks. ·         Website Design Modules. ·         Application Development Using Python Prog Lang. ·         Creative Projects Presentation. ·         Q & A on the Arts of Creativity.

It is obvious we live in a developing economy, wherein there are no ready-made jobs or white-collar jobs. That is why it is imperative for the youths to be creative. You must create a job for yourself or be made to work for other people. The mandate of the programme entitled “Create” is to produce creative young minds via motivational talks cum practical computer trainings. At the end of the Workshop, will be Project Presentation, among many other things. There are eight prepared Seminarians for this two days programme. Four of them are Motivational Speakers of Repute from different works of life, while the other four Seminarians are IT Gurus brought-in from Lagos state. The convener is Mr. Rotimi Odejayi. If the government of the day in Oyo state is working-hard in developing major infrastructures in a bid to further make the state inviting to economic investors then the onus is on us all to develop the human capital base of the citizens through programmes like “Create”.

GUEST SPEAKERS

Mr. Rotimi Odejayi

Author, Youths-Ambassador & Convener.

TOPIC: “THE POWER OF THE CREATIVE MIND”

Mr. Tokunbo Dada

Author, Presenter & ICT Officer @ Radio Nigeria Ibadan

            TOPIC: “THE ART OF CREATIVITY”

Mr. Olufemi Babalogbon

Business Strategist, BDM & Brand Consultant

TOPIC: “Applied Creativity: The Business of Innovation”

Mr. Michael Oki

Oracle Certified Prof JAVA Programmer & IEEE Member

TOPIC: “APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT VIA PYTHON LANGUAGE”

            “WEB APP USING PHP, JAVASCRIPT”

Mr. Gabriel Omoyeni, MCSE

Web Developer, Lagos

TOPIC: “WEBSITE DESIGN VIA HTML5 & WORDPRESS TEMPLATES”

Mr. Peter Ilesanmi

Ibadan Mgr, New-Horizons Solutions Nigeria

TOPIC: “THE CREATIVE YOUTH IN A DIGITAL WORLD”                 

Yemi Oginni Ph.D

Lecturer, Mass Com Dept Lead City University, Ibadan

TOPIC:  “HELPING TO UNLUCK YOUR CREATIVE POTENTIALS”

Mr. Olamide Omolola

Computer Science Department, UI, Ibadan.

App Development Using Python Programming Language.

VENUE: Computer Workstation BLOCK C, Computer Science Department, Lead City University, Ibadan.

Date: 6^th December, 2013 by 2pm

Date: 7^th December, 2013 by 9am

THE CHOICE OF THE EXCELLENT LIFE

“THE CHOICE OF THE EXCELLENT LIFE”- Deuteronomy 30:19

“Human excellence means nothing unless it works with the consent of God”- Euripides

The OXFORD ENGLISH Mini-dictionary, Fifth Edition defined the word “excellent” to mean “to be extremely good and be outstanding in a particular feat.” An excellent student for instance succeeded tremendously to amass scores of 90 marks and above upon 100 marks cum A⁺ grade in an examination. The challenge before us today is to dare to excel in life.

If you look at the Holy Scriptures in Deuteronomy 30:19 we see Moses, the servant of God presenting the two available options unto the children of Israel to choose from. The Prophet presented them with life and death cum blessing and curses for them to choose from. He further reiterated a good counsel for Israel to choose life, so that consequently they all can live. As human beings not all of them chose life and so they were destroyed. Here is the poser. Why has God given man the brain with all its inherent potentials I ask you? One major reason why God gave man the brain is for him to think and in turn make choices in life; so that every time man need not consult with any other person before making right choices. It is the same with this subject of excellence. God has given you the brain so that you can think for yourself and choose to excel in life and not fail. Wisdom is however very expedient here so that you can be able choose a right and in turn pay the price excelling will cost.

This issue of choice reminds me of an incidence that occurred sometimes ago in a certain city between a very wise man and an imp. The later actually arranged a tactical examination for this wise man with a view to confirm how wise this man really is. This mischievous boy went to the wise man holding a live bird within the hollow of his palms. This boy with the intention of testing intelligent this wise man jokingly asked him, “Sir, can you tell me whether the bird kept in the hollow of my palm is alive or dead?” The wise man knew fully well that the boy reserve the right to the status of the bird. Should he say, “the bird is dead” the boy will open his palm and free the bird. And if he answered “the bird is alive” the boy can snoof life out of the bird kept in the hollow of his hand. The wise man then pondered and answered the imp, “the status of the bird either dead or alive is in your hand”. So also is excellence, it is all in your hand. It is in your hand. The reason is because “excellence is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice” according to Vern McClellan. That is a diligent choice for that matter. Your action to this subject of excellence or inaction to it is a choice that will eventually end you in excelling or in been a mediocre. We shall all excel in Jesus name, Amen.