ABOUT THE BRAND

Guaranty Trust Bank Limited (GTBank) is a multinational financial institution that provides individuals, businesses, private and public institutions across Africa and the United Kingdom with a broad range of market-leading financial products and services. Headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria and with subsidiaries in Cote D’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom, the Bank currently employs over 12,000 professionals and has Total assets and Shareholders’ Funds of ₦4.057trillion and ₦661.1Billion respectively.

At Guaranty Trust Bank Limited, we constantly strive to create the best outcomes for our customers and communities. Our strong service culture, efficient management, world class corporate governance standards and bias for innovation has enabled us maintain consistent year on year growth in customer base and profitability since inception. We are also passionate champions and enduring patrons of a wide range of Social Responsibility causes channelled towards improving access to Education, driving Community Development, promoting the Arts and and protecting the Environment.

As a Proudly African and Truly International Institution, we are fully invested in powering our continent’s progress. We are at the forefront of promoting enterprise and empowering small businesses, and our free business platforms, the GTBank Fashion Weekend and the GTBank Food and Drink Festival, are driving the growth of Africa’s fashion and food industries and helping to create new and global opportunities for the continent’s incredibly young population.

The GTBank vision is to become a Platform for Enriching Lives by building strong, value adding relationships with customers, stakeholders and the communities in which it operates. In line with this vision, we are constantly pioneering ground-breaking ideas that offer customers more value beyond banking, such as Habari, an integrated digital platform that connects customers to anything they need, from e-commerce to music, in one place. We are also revolutionizing access to consumer loans with our first-of-its-kind digital lending product, Quick Credit, which gives individuals and small businesses instant, real-time access to loans anytime, anywhere.

CHALLENGES

The updated version of the bank mobile app has got a lot of bad reviews on both Playstore and App Store. I am an active user of the mobile. The former mobile app has a better user experience than this new one.

This current mobile app has a bad user experience and a lot of glitches that frustrate users while doing transactions; for instance, the major challenge I encounter with the updated app is the beneficiary page. I could not add or delete beneficiaries and it is always annoying.

The Target

1. What are the common usability issues?
2. Implementing imagination
3. Improve the design and user experience
4. Increase accessibility
5. Discover an easier way to reach your goal

USER REVIEWS

SOLUTION

After understanding the users’ frustration, I now understood the problems that needed to be solved.

However, the conversation with the users made me realize that the current user experience of the updated mobile banking app does not meet the company standard as a financial institution coming out from Africa. With this insight from the users, I came up with a compilation of the problem by providing a solution.

1. The onboarding process should be designed seamlessly
2. Create a simple transaction page
3. Design another easy-to-use beneficiary page for the mobile app

High Fidelity

Hi-fi helps create an outline for design solutions. Focus on key elements and actions for new users to engage with the app. This particular solution is to align with the brand’s worth and value.

EXISTING SCREENS

Splash Screen

I designed the splash screen that is aesthetically appealing compared to the existing one on the app

LOGIN SCREEN

Part of what I intend to achieve is to redesign the login screen because the existing login screen is boring and not friendly, stating only the password alone. But it is better to have both the email and password on the screen, instead of only the password. In that case, it gives a better experience. However, Design is not self-centered. It is a language for the user. That is why I decided to improve on the onboarding screen.

Beneficiary

The existing mobile app has no better provision for adding and deleting a beneficiary to make transactions. The beneficiary section will confuse the user with the existing design.

So, this particular challenge made it difficult to add a beneficiary or delete an existing beneficiary without any hiccup. In this new design, I ensure with this new design, by making it easy for users to navigate.

OLD AND NEW SCREEN

Conclusion

The pivot of this redesign is centered around delivering an all-new experience on the GTCO mobile application. Based on the research and feedback I had gathered, it was certain that the app’s experience is the major challenge causing many setbacks for the bad performance and a fix would help users interact better. This is why I decided to work on it.

Thank you

Connect with me: 🤝

Email: batunde.alaran@gmail.com

Phone: 08076926109

X: @Tude_Design0

LinkedIn: Babatunde Alaran

Let’s tell you about us

FitnessPal is a mobile application designed to help users track their fitness activities and monitor their nutrition

Our goals are meaningless without you- These are our goals

1. To ensure that fitness enthusiasts get the best service when they are using the app for their daily exercise.
2. Give them a flexible exercise routine because many of them are working class.
3. Deliver an experience that is seamless and intuitive when it comes to the usage of the mobile app.
4. To create a user-friendly and intuitive app that encourages users and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Problem can’t finish and this is why i try to navigate through the user’s mind — STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

People love to workout but they find it difficult to create time for it because of their busy schedule and those who have the time are lost on the type of exercise to do since they don’t really attend the fitness center or do personal workout.

It is necessary to have a clear image of what I want to design — DESIGN THINKING PROCESS

Thinking about the user is one key aspect for a better experience — Empathize

In this step, I delved deeper into the fitness enthusiast routine, and I realized that the majority of them, preffered to exercise without the help of a gym instructor. They are self taught.

However, the user research focused on the pain-point that they even exercise themselves. They also prefer to exercise in the morning, and according to them, the major reason is because it helps them ease stress.

Survey- Quantitative Research

The survey received 50 responses, however by the time the data was evaluated, only 40 people had completed it.

Main findings:

100% of the participants have previously done exercise without going to the gym.

91.7% of the participants are aged between 18–26 years old.

54.2% of participants perform morning exercise and they are self-taught.

83.3% of the participants chose a tracking app over other means of tracker during their exercise routine.

77.5% of the participants prefer an app that recommends daily nutrition for them depending on their fitness routine.

Define and Prioritize

From the data I gathered from the empathize stage, I defined the main problems users of Fitness Pal commonly experience.

As a result, Iaslo noticed some of the issues had a significant impact on their overall experience. However, it is based on the evaluation from the survey; which says that a large number of the participants do their exercise from home, and use a tracker on their phone or their smart watch.

Solution from the findings

From the research, I realized that the participants exercise at home regularly. But they also find it difficult to track their exercise hours on. Well, with the help of fitness Pal, it will be easy for them to exercise on their own without no supervision; and also, know the kind of nutrition that goes with the preferred exercise.

User Persona

I created a user persona based on common patterns of the users’ behaviors. This helped me to solve what the users genuinely need as I was about to design the solution from their insights.

After the user persona, I drafted out the solution with the approach of knowing their psychology and understanding what the users felt about solving the problem.

User Flow

After I had developed the user persona by understanding their behavior and demographic, I then created the flow that connected the user with the app seamlessly. While doing this, I understood what was important for the user through the flow before I embarked on the sketching.

Ideate and Prototype

Based on the outlined user flow, I created an initial wireframe that served as foundational framework for the main problem I had defined earlier. The process of doing this taught me about crafting out a compelling solution for the user.

LOW FIDELITY

The low-fi was an interpretation to the solution I created for this project; by understanding the users and developing an intuitive approach that touched based on their insight.

HIGH FIDELITY

After the low fi, I now began to build the solution in a realistic manner that helped me achieve the users’ goals and make the mobile worthy for them to use.

TESTING

Engaged with 5 users in the prototyping testing. I collected their valuable feedback to refine and enhance the experience of the product, ensuring it better meets their needs and preference of the target audience.

TESTING FEEDBACK

1. The app is complex to navigate and I struggle to understand how to see the monitoring page.
2. I prefer to have an option on the kind of payment plan in the app, this gives the user the decision to pick from.
3. The app statistics page is not straightforward, I will prefer to have it simple instead of too much content on the page. This gives me the user the access to know what I want to that particular page.

TESTING IMPROVEMENT

After the feedback from the user, I then began to rework those screens they made corrections on. The corrections made me understand that users have other eyes when looking at the product. With this development, I make sure that those corrections are improved on.

Thank you

Connect with me: 🤝

Email: batunde.alaran@gmail.com

Phone: 08076926109

X: @Tude_Design0

LinkedIn: Babatunde Alaran

Background

Zend is a digital mobile app that has faced a lot of challenges since it went live with user onboarding. The existing onboarding process was causing a high drop-off rate, and users were abandoning the app before completing the setup. The feedback suggested that the process was perceived as too lengthy and complicated, resulting in a poor initial user experience.

Problem:

After understanding the pain point of the user during our first research phase, we understand that users were struggling to complete the onboarding process due to its complexity and length, leading to a significant drop in user adoption. This problem hindered the product’s goal of attracting and retaining users for its digital banking services

DEFINING THE GOAL

1. To increase user patronage and flexibility.
2. To build banking services that increase revenue.
3. Increasing user adoption.

UNDERSTANDING THE USER

After the first time of our Zend launch, we continue to carry out both qualitative and quantitative research just to understand what makes our customers get discouraged about the onboarding screens of the app. However, during that period, some of the users who took part in our survey and interview told us the reason why the app is not serving its real purpose.

USERS’ RESPONSES

1. The app is solving a problem but the problem I have with it is the long process of the onboarding screen. It makes me get tired of signing up for the App.
2. When I first read the digital banking review on a news blog, I was fascinated with the solution, but when I wanted to sign up, I was frustrated with the onboarding screen. There were a lot of unnecessary screens.
3. The app is fine. However, I think the onboarding screens need to be short and straight to the point because not everybody has the time to spend during the lengthy signing up.
4. The onboarding screens need to have a flexible user experience that makes it easy for users to navigate.

SOLUTION

After we understood the users’ frustrations and challenges on our current onboarding screen, I took it upon myself to dissect their frustrations and had conversations with the stakeholders on how to make the onboarding process more intuitive and easy to navigate from the splash screen to the dashboard

STAKEHOLDERS’ THOUGHT

1. Make the onboarding screens have fewer screens so the users can have access to the dashboard easily.
2. The flow needs to communicate a purpose to every screen and should have a relationship with other screens.
3. Design elements need to be simple, communicative, and easy to navigate because users do not have the luxury of spending time signing up.
4. Signing up should be stress-free.

USER FLOW

After I did the research and found out what users’ frustrations were about the first onboarding screens of our app, I came up with a new user flow that solved the problems.

From the existing flow of Zend Mobile App, I developed another one that serves the purpose of customers’ expectations and how to increase revenue.

NEW FLOW

However, after understanding the customers’ perspective, I began to make a new approach to how the app can serve better. One of the things I do is to ensure that the new flow is seamless and easy for the user to use the app; whose purpose is to help them with with international payment transfer.

LOW FIDELITY

Meanwhile, after the new flow, I came up with the low-fi of our existing and new onboarding screens. The reason for this comparison is to understand why the users find the previous so challenging.

High Fidelity

The moment I finished the low fidelity, I created the high fidelity using the same design pattern as our previous onboarding screens. The new design indicates that users can now easily access the app.

TESTING

When the high fidelity was completed, I began to test the new onboarding screen with participants. The result of the quantitative testing shows that 87% of users are comfortable with the new development of the Zend Mobile App.

I also tried moderated testing which indicates that 55% of the participants now understand the app, but the only constraint with other users who fill out the survey and one-on-one interview is that they do not get interested in saying their own view about the app.

CONCLUSION

The idea of this new onboarding screen is to increase product usage and patronage among its users. As soon as we curated the new onboarding screen, the stakeholders were impressed with the level of revenue from download and the product experience after the lengthy onboarding screens from previous designs.

Thank you

Contact with me🤝

Email: batunde.alaran@gmail.com

Phone: 08076926109

X: @Tude_Design0

Linkedln: Babatunde Alaran

Brief:

Your school has built a new student hostel and is looking to you for some design expertise to manage reservations. Design the experience to help students find a room and connect with their ideal roommate, considering factors including age, gender, temperament, and department. Provide your overall process, a flow, and 2–3 higher-fidelity screens.

Problem:

Many students of Nigerian tertiary institutions find it difficult to get roommates when they get admission during their 100-level first semester, especially in public institutions. However, this project is to help them bridge the gap and provide them with a well-established school hostel that will indeed cater to their needs.

CHALLENGE FACED BY USER

During the qualitative phase of this project, we observed that the majority of the users in public tertiary institutions do not prefer to stay on school campuses because of the poor environment, no privacy with their belongings, hike in price, and cultism within the school premises.

OBJECTIVE

1. Provide a platform where students can meet roommates for their personality.
2. Providing a solution that would make school hostels more appealing to the students.
3. Ensuring that students get roommates in the same department.

SOLUTION

1. To ensure that it is very seamless for students to add up a roommate after paying for a hostel.
2. Providing a conducive environment for students to have their departmental colleagues as roommates.
3. Creating a platform where students can connect with their ideal roommate, considering factors like age, temperament, and department.
4. Building a solution that helps payment of hostels be easy and transparent between peers when splitting payment.

DESIGN PROCESS

RESEARCH PHASE

After understanding the design process, I conducted research to understand the user’s point of view on the state of hostels in tertiary institutions across the nation. During the findings, I got a lot of reactions and concerns while some students prefer schools’ hostels; and other detest them, especially in public universities and polytechnics.

EMPATHY MAPPING

USER PERSONA

Immediately, after the research, I created a user persona to understand the users’ view from the perspective of their gender.

USER FLOW

For the user flow, I focus on what the problem of the brief instructed me to solve as a solution. However, I discovered that students find it hard to connect with other students when searching for hostels. So, this flow bridges the gap, just to make a seamless connection with other roommates.

HIGH FIDELITY

The high fidelity is to proffer solutions to the brief. By helping the students to get a hostel easily without any hindrance, and connect with their fellow roommates at the click of a button. I make the Hi-Fi to be friendly to navigate because users intend to be frustrated with complex navigation or design.

TESTING

During the testing phase of this design, I sent out the prototype link to stakeholders; students, and university management. Only five stakeholders responded back to the testing.

The testing was conducted using Google Meet and the stakeholders were asked to discuss their experience with the app, however, only two out of the stakeholders made a correction, concerning the list of hostels, room details, and occupant details.

Well, in the previous design, those sections did not really the brief, but after the stakeholder’s concerns, I iterated on the sections and made it more meaningful to address the solution of the product, which means designing the experience to help students find a room and connect with their ideal roommate, considering age, gender and department.

All the corrections from the three stakeholders were put into the final outcome of the product, while the remaining two stakeholders didn’t have anything to say. This means the design and iteration fulfill the purpose of the design.

Thank you

Connect with me🤝

Email: batunde.alaran@gmail

Phone: 08076926109

X: @Tude_Design0

LinkedIn: Babatunde Alaran

Reason me — This particular phrase is not a colloquial word in our contemporary society, especially among people who are vagrants and street urchins. Although, these people use this phrase as a subject to relate to life’s expedient. Just as life is not fun without betrayal; and it is when we mislead ourselves, that we learn a lesson about life and other anecdotes.

In this new Awe’s musical single, he sang about the lesson he learnt when he was with friends who are hypocrites and pretenders. Even before now, Awe’s music has always been stories that arrest one’s thinking. Like all his music on Spotify, Apple Music and Audiomack are resplendent because of the gyration that infuses in them for listeners to pirouette the rhythm.

This reason me track is uniquely about life’s compulsion. For a multifaceted songwriter, he uses storytelling to sing about his defy, and sometimes he acts like one whose quickness is a recondite narration to life and a human being’s deed. That is the reason why I say his thinking is different. You will know this when you fathom yourself to his felicitous voice.

Kendrick Awe is electrifyingly talking about the truth, malice, and prejudice attached to friendship. As many friends are venomous. Reason me — is dedicated to ferocious friends who are fiendish, filthy, and wicked. We all have these kinds of friends around us. Although for him, he spoke about his disappointment due to the love he had for them genuinely.

A piece of good music is not just about the tune or sound, it just unifies the lyrics while passing a thought-provoking message. This particular music is a message that Awe has told all listeners that they should be wary of fake friends. However, in life, one has no experience if one has not fallen a victim to friends’ distrust. Well, such an act is gauche. Because we don’t expect people we lean on to fall our hands. And I feel Awe wrote this song as a response to beam the gnarled noise relating to friendship. I suggest: Maybe ‘’Friends with benefit’’ will work for both male and female gender. Let the male helps themselves because of growth, career, and business benefit, likewise the female too. Think this will make us all forget about the zeitgeist of this age.

Hence, the story of this music is an experience of bad friends who enthusiastically envy one’s artistry or craft. But this kind of narration is common among friends. Envy, jealousy, and hatred influx friendship. While Awe gave us the belief that bad or fake friends are dangerous to ruin one’s career and growth. We know this. But the way Awe reiterates it in this new music single is indeed marvellous. His style of writing music is something that will stand for ages. Just because his voice is melodious enough to sneak into one’s memory.

When one gives friendship an ephemeral priority, it is sure that one should be impressed with what matters and ignore unnecessary things. While listening to this track, I imagined what Awe was trying to say concerning fake friends who are grisly to other friends’ personalities. Telling us that this song is not fiction.

With his sonorous voice, one can feel his passion for the message while focusing on what betrayal means. Friendship to some people comes with malignancy and ruthless behaviour. And it is haphazard to a genuine friend. Therefore, when listening to this track, I learnt about his eccentric spirit as he profoundly narrated the song about the hostility concerning life. (one does not comfortably lean on all friends. Some friends are not happy about your success, and they are constantly looking for ways to mock you)

Perhaps, these fake and bad friends make life to be boring. But as you listen to this song, reason me, you will understand why these friends are after you. By putting hatred, creed, dubiousness, covetousness, and hypocrisy at the centre stage of existence. Unfortunately, it is worrisome and perturbing. Even as you listen to this song, you will get the gravity of what this artist experience with friends.

For his prowess in music, he cooks words both in Yoruba and English to meet his lexicon as a talented composer to overwhelm us with a new afro-pop genre in Nigerian music. Nigeria music has been saturated with different vocals, but Kendrick Awe’s vocal is like a chant to disagree with mischief and sometimes to celebrate grandeur.

As a creative songwriter, Kendrick Awe has compassionately told us his view about friends and disappointment. Due to the influence, music has given his listener a promising career. Thus, it is only in good music, that is copiously sung, that you get a meaning full lesson. And Awe gives us that lesson in Reason me, to always learn from him as a word-bender; as a poet or an artist who is presumptuously great to say the truth the way it is. For someone like me, I grabbed his life experience because this so-called single is relatable.

For Awe to have sung like this, paradoxically means that he used all this gusty, to address the wrongs that happen between friends. Friendship is not a crime but the problem we have is that we focus on the sweet part, forgetting that we have to understand the devil in human skin since most times it is damnation of the mind.

Well, for people who are coterie to Awe’s music, you will know that his kind of African Jamz is not too serious. It is what I describe as ‘’ a cultural fusion of both Yoruba and English’’. Meaning that he makes use of his indigenous proverb to speak about relics and modern issues. Me, whenever I listen to his music, I refer to him as a griot whose elegance is nothing but a definition of originality. Pure voice and undiluted tune. Apart from that, I believe he preaches gospel coming out from his microphone.

When one listens to this particular music track, ‘’Reason Me’’ you will understand him and his feeling concerning friends who pretend to be supporting you. Meanwhile, his lyric tells you how sincere he is to his craft. He says: ‘’ You dey reason me bad/ God forbids/ I am singing music/ I don’t pray for your down/ and it is not your fault’’ these statements are perhaps what a friend who has given trust and loyalty would say after betrayal. Guy, Reason Me?

In conclusion, I won’t say Awe is a god but I will describe him as a talented musician who knows what to sing and when to write his song. From this particular musical single, you can easily define his invigorating spirit that you do not have to cringe at the happenstance of life A good music is what Awe’s dexterity offers, and I will encourage you to download his music on Spotify, Audiomack, and Apple music. To give your ears desirable music.

Download Kendrick Awe to enjoy exciting music.

Anikulapo Macmillan.

I will like to start this essay with a flashback from history. I know many of us are not born when this incident happened, but guess what? It is now a phrase of coincidence- Darkness Visible

During the administration of Yakubu Gowon, the defunct Daily Times Newspaper of Nigeria, under the leadership of the courteous, snazzy, and not too acerbic newspaperman, late Alhaji Babatunde Jose, published a somewhat provocative editorial, titled: Darkness Visible. And the newspaper was the provocateur calling out the act of debauchery in the administration of Gowon who was barely forty years old as a leader.

Well, the anecdote I am pointing here is that, during that era, Nigeria was a promising country with its oil in the global market. There was money in the country then. The economy was booming. People could afford to go to school conveniently and travel abroad without immigration issues. Unfortunately, with all this good life, one of the delinquent politicians of the post-colonial era said; ‘’ there is money in Nigeria but our government doesn’t know what to do with it.‘’ Can you imagine the rate of idiocy in that era? And to some people, they say military administration is better than democracy. Is there any difference? Both are occupied with people who just get the happenstance of the position.

Although, darkness is still visible in Nigeria. Our economy is on the precipice of collapse. Schools are on strike. Banditry everywhere. Abduction is making people get fury, and atrocity is taking the big picture of our news. This is the current state of our dear nation - Nigeria. A country that has oil with other resources now becomes a crypt for miscreants. If you ask me who the miscreants are, I would say, those people who have turned the interest of Nigeria’s growth to their inheritance. They are these old men and women who refuse to retire from partisan politics. Can you imagine a septuagenarian still contesting to become the president of Nigeria? What a shame!

We are now in the plague-like still and the deathlike calm society; just because the country appears as the black cat. It means everybody is the problem of this country.

For instance, we blame the leaders, forgetting that we the citizens are not even helping the matter. Is it the leaders that asked you to commit a crime? Even though we live in decadence, we still fail to accept that for Nigeria to grow, we all need to play our part. It is not about being a patriotic Nigerian, it is to contribute to the development of this darkness.

If darkness continues, what this means, is that angst and turmoil will ensue and for this not to be averted, it is for us to accept that the Buhari administration has failed us woefully. And we should not make another mistake to elect another leader who is puny or pretends to be healthy. To govern this country, one has to know what makes Nigeria united. Some would say football, but I would say our culture and tradition unites us more than football; because an average Nigerian belongs to a clan, and if we can understand the direct rule of the colonial era, I think we can unite and govern Nigeria conveniently.

Democracy is expensive in Nigeria because we spend billions during elections. And this has made it difficult for youth to contest for a public office. But if we develop a flexible system, apart from democracy, I believe this would make Nigerians have a say in the government and not the bourgeoisie alone. Proletarians are also part of the country. Everyone deserves a say.

Still, in the continuous darkness, this is a result of the collapse of the national grid. Yet, the minister of power has not addressed Nigerians about this condition. It shows this doesn’t concern the minister and his ministry. Meanwhile, in civilized and rational countries, a national power outage of more than three minutes often provokes a state of emergency with widespread rioting but here in Nigeria, we ignore it because we are on the street looking for survival.

Surviving in Nigeria is hard. It is darkness because an average Nigerian could not live above 2 dollars and we hear billions from the budget. This shows that we are in a place of the peasant as how a Nigerian poet describes this in his poem ‘’ A state of echoing children/crying for the future/ in a home of paranoid ‘’ thus, these lines have the same relevance to what the Chairman of UBA Bank, Mr. Tony Elumelu wrote on Twitter last week, lamenting about the despair in the country. This is the worst darkness ever.

Darkness is everywhere in Nigeria. However, the editorial of the defunct newspaper is now having a meaningful impact in Nigeria since it was written over 40 years ago. It is now telling us about the mistake we made in governance. How we forget to put the country out of skirmishes and brewing war from some ethnic groups. I believe that if we fail to bring Nigeria out from this darkness; it means that we have inherently forgotten what darkness does to human psychology.

Meanwhile, before we choose our next leaders, let us ask ourselves if these particular leaders are competent to bring us out of this cracking shell. Are they visionaries? Can we believe in their manifestos? Are they people’s friends? Because all this matters if we are to stay away from the relic of this Daily Times Newspaper’s editorial.

But presently, Darkness is a bad economy. Darkness is insecurity. Darkness is a lack of safety. Darkness is the epileptic power supply or shortage. Darkness is corruption. And darkness should be expunged if we want to see beyond 2023 in our beloved country.

And this essayist has once said ‘’ for Nigeria to be great, we all need to make the move first. And the move is to start a movement that will buy the ideology of both the homeless and the homeowner, the rich and the poor, the literate and the illiterate. That is when we can have a great Nigeria”

SMS ONLY

07041775803

Anikulapo Macmillan.

I know you would think this title is the same conation as Ola Rotimi’s play ‘’ our husband has gone mad again ‘’ but our title here is to address the deteriorating condition of Nigeria’s education system just because it is now an interplay of shame.

Whether you like it or not, the irregularity in the education system in Nigeria has been like the famous poem of the Senegalese Poet, Birago Diop ‘’ vanity ‘’ because our education is an outcry of balderdash. What this means is that education in Nigeria is total mischief.

I feel bad to start this essay with these two paragraphs. It is not my fault. I think it is because of the deplorable condition of our citadel of learnings, which are previously known as the notable universities in Africa in the early 1960s to late 1980s. And the current condition of these universities is now shockingly bad as the Federal Government is recalcitrant to pay ASUU’s debt. The people of ASUU are just like a character who has a spirit of garrulity whenever he is hungry. Is it that ASUU calls for a strike when they are broke?

But then, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Mr. Chris Ngige, who was asked about the Federal Government’s response about the ongoing strike, said: “A lot of ASUU issues have been dealt with after our meeting in October last year.” This he said during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today. He also said “He was shocked they went on strike’’

Meanwhile, in Punch Newspaper of 04/03/22, the minister stated that the Federal Government does not have the funds to meet its obligation in the agreement signed with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU). When I saw this newspaper report, I laughed hysterically. I felt bad and was disappointed that the minister could say this. Is Nigeria that broke? But what of the billions worth of luxurious properties EFCC confiscated from impish Nigerians?

On Monday, the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, while reacting to the declaration of the rollover of the strike by the lecturers’ union during an interview with Journalists at the end of the commemoration of the 2022 Commonwealth Celebration in Abuja insisted that the federal government had met all of the demands of the union, adding that all earned allowances, as well as recapitalization funds, had been released.

If the government has met the demands of the union, then I don’t know why they are on strike. The question is; who now is lying?; the minister or our erudite professors? We pay zero tolerance to education. Forgetting that for a nation to grow, education needs to be pivotal. Well, our dilatory people have made education in Nigeria to become depressing, because a course that’s supposed to run for four years will assuredly become six years because of the strike. Is this not the biggest havoc on education? I think the Federal Government needs to find a solution to this incessant strike because if serious attention is not taken, the students who we refuse to give education, would eventually turn to miscreants, and they will fight back. Like they say; an idle man is the devil’s workshop.

This issue of the strike has become a norm. It is a display of incongruity that our youths who are supposed to be in their classrooms are now shepherds of the streets. Many of them gesticulate the streets like urchins, while only a few occupy themselves with menial works. But it bothers me that Nigeria fails to take education seriously as a part of the very significant things that can shape people’s literacy. A proper education given to the citizen is the pillar of development. That is why late Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Oyeniyi Awolowo who was the premier of the Western Region for seven years made indelible marks, and yet, the profound influence on Nigerian education. His establishment of free education made him a visionary leader. Unfortunately, education in Nigeria since the late 1980s to date has been in a conundrum because our leaders have failed to prioritize sustainable education.

I will blame ASUU as well. Is it impossible for the union to improvise and fund the universities themselves? If truly they want to teach our students; why can’t they stop asking for debt and do the work? According to a verifiable report, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has spent a cumulative period of 49 months and two weeks boycotting the classrooms between 1999 till date. That is to say, a total of four years and two weeks was lost to an industrial dispute between the lecturers and their employers, the Federal Government in a short span of 22 years.

The government is surrounded by incredulous and inept people. These people have made education a paradox of what the Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen, wrote as a title to his famous play ‘’ the master-builder ‘’. For Nigeria, our government and ASUU are both master builders because they are not helping the child of an ordinary Nigeria.

Nigeria currently has 43 Federal Universities and 48 state-owned Universities. And I think the government should sign a concession contract with some private companies, such as Dangote Group, BUA cement, Shell, NLNG, and MTN to manage some of these universities. Instead of being under the bloated system of this yearly strike. While the government can take one best university each from the six geopolitical zones, and upgrade these six to Ivory Tower of status.

A higher standard can be set to admit students into the special six and ensure only the bright and clever are absorbed and still get fully funded scholarships to these universities by their state government. Education in Nigeria should be taken seriously if we want to seek development.

Thus, I believe the government can sit down with ASUU to develop concrete strategies that will bring our great UI, ABU, UNILAG, and the Great Ife back from their heydays; by signing a concession contract to ensure that our students get all the academic resources they need during their undergraduate year.

Nonetheless, for Nigerian public universities to be great again, I suggest the government set up a panel and carry out reasonable modalities to make it work. Part of the modalities should be to ensure our universities fund themselves. But Nigeria is rich enough to finance free university education if the politicians would stop stealing the totality of the budget.

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Ankulapo Macmillan

The Grief in this direful bus was somewhat like the grief in T.S Eliot’s prosaic drama: murder in the Cathedral. That particular drama is known as his best play, and his only completed work of historical drama. Although, our drama here, is sanguinary because it appears as a drama of threnody.

The drama of Oluwabamise Ayanwole was grievous. It was melancholy and why such a killing would continue in our society. Now, is it that a citizen can’t board a bus around 7 pm anymore? Her death was an accumulation of wearisome news. When I heard the news of her death, I began to ask myself, why such a thing would happen in a city that claims to never sleep. Was it that she was murdered outside Lagos and they later dropped her corpse on Cater Bridge? Were people not in that vicinity when they cut her body?

Meanwhile, her drama of death was that she wanted to spend the weekend with her sister in Ota, Ogun State. But in TS Eliot’s play, the drama is a story of a man coming home, foreseeing that he will be killed, before being killed. It was the story of Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, who was in exile in France, before returning to England to witness his death. And our dear Oluwabamise, met her death when she boarded Lagos Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) vehicle, around 7 pm on February 26, 2022.

The murder of this fashion designer lady was heinous. Unfortunately, Lagos state vehicle became the circumstance of her death. Is this not a bad identity for the state? If the state fails to bring the culprit to law, it means that Babajide Sanwo-Olu has disgraced his administration.

Why would a citizen get killed in a state vehicle? This shows the embarrassment in the state transport. For a state to be developed, one of the first things to be done is to provide a system with readiness. A state like Lagos, shouldn’t be in this kind of repugnance. I think the government should have created a workable alert-bell or mobile app for passengers to use whenever they suspect anything strange within their vicinity. If this is in place, maybe Bamise wouldn’t have passed to this gruesome marauder.

Her death is that of Lagos state. BOS of Lagos needs to pay a condolence visit to her parent and give her a befitting burial; because she didn’t die by her fate. She was murdered at the hands of unknown people. If only her corpse could speak, it would have been easy to identify the perpetrators. Meanwhile, the rate of innocent souls that are being killed in this country is outrageous. A day won't pass without hearing the news of a victim in horrible circumstances. Some of these people die without proper justice. It is like what the South African poet, Dennis Brutus wrote in one of his perspicacious poems‘’ Bury the great duke with a noise of lamentation’’; these souls were lamenting because the sentinel of their own country failed them.

It is only in Nigeria that we don’t pay attention to things. However, I would say, she didn’t pay attention to things because if she had done; she wouldn’t board the BRT bus, because BRT doesn’t have a terminal in Chevron. The only terminal around that axis is in Ajah. Or maybe she felt the bus would be safe for her to reach Oshodi because it was owned by the state. But she didn’t know it was harmful. Sometimes, death comes differently. For her, death made a disparaging remark on her.

Unknowingly, she met her death inside the bus. The bus became treachery to her. And death twitched her in the eyes gently and took her promising career as a seamstress away from her. That is disheartening. Though we live in an unsafe society. A society where people’s lives do not matter anymore. People kill themselves for ritual all in the name of affluence and opulence. Forgetting that wealth acquired with gloom would perish while nurturing futility.

And It is here in Nigeria that we forget that hard work pays. If one should continue to question the cause of her death; one would resolve to the conclusion that she was killed because the culprits wanted to use her for ritual. That means rituality is now confiding in Nigeria and the government doesn’t find a way to tackle this menace. For instance, if a country wants to grow, societal values and morals need to be the verve for growth. But here in Nigeria, we fail woefully because we find solace in killing innocent souls to earn flamboyant things.

Lagos state government shouldn’t leave the police to handle this crime alone. I will suggest that the government should also set up a panel to look into crime like this if Lagos wants to be a smart city. A city that doesn’t have good security is debris of misfortune. But her story shouldn’t end on paper or media only. It is the duty of the state commissioner of police, Mr. Abiodun Alabi, to prove his worth, by finding those who killed Oluwabamise Ayanwole. And if the bus driver is guilty, I will say, let his story end like a traitor, who betrayed his people.

OUR KINGDOM OF HUBRIS

Nigeria is not owned by anybody. It is a sovereign state that both the rich, destitute, technocrat, and proletarian can all claim to own together, without saying it is owned by one ethnicity. It is not a country of sordid comedians who believe their region is the architect of Nigeria.

I disgorge when some people want to turn the country into their property. Well, the case of Emir of Kano and Air Peace, is something that annoys me seriously. If you ask me why I would say what happened was just an act of hubris. Nobody is the commentator of modern Nigeria.

Even though we obey tradition in Nigeria, that doesn’t mean the spokesperson of the monarch would act that way. That is wrong. For a country that wants to develop, nobody is above the law. Nobody has the power to oppress anybody because of a title. Did anyone come to this world with a title?

Meanwhile, amid this superficial opulence, the Emir’s spokesperson, Mr. Isa Bayero believed that the chairman of Air Peace, Mr. Onyema should have ordered the airplane to stop when he called him. Is this not pride? An airplane that is readying to take off, should wait for the monarch, what does that mean? Are people inside the airplane, not human beings?

For us to leave in a peaceful nation, we should believe that people are equal irrespective of their social class. If the Emir wants to fly with hubris, nothing stops him to acquire his private jet and fly. Air Peace is a commercial airline and the passengers on board are also important.

Thus, when I saw this drama, I began to question myself. What is the matter here? What is the spokesperson trying to achieve? Does it mean that the management of Air Peace disrespects the monarch? No! What happened is hubris in the guise of mankind.

Hear what the CCO of Air Peace, Mrs. Toyin Olajide said in Vanguard newspaper of 28/02/2020

“If we had agreed to stop and delay an aircraft, already set to take-off, for another one hour only for the doors to be opened and the Emir to walk in, there would have been a very serious uproar in the media nationwide against both the airline and the Emir. This we pleaded with Isa Bayero to understand but he refused to accept.

How could Isa Bayero want the Management of Air Peace to stop and delay a fully boarded plane with doors already shut and aircraft already moving while our respected Emir and eight others in his entourage, including Isa Bayero, were still at the international wing of the Muritala Muhammed Airport, Lagos after arriving from Banjul?”

Is this act not an act of hubris? Because I believe this matter can be settled amicably. And why would Mr. Isa Bayero also say that the management of Air Peace should tender an apology in two national daily newspapers and also come to the palace to apologize in person? Is this not what a poet called the pride of highest regard?

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A popular German philosopher, of the nineteenth century, Friedrich Nietzsche, in one of his famous works, says; without music, life is a mistake. So, if someone should look at his view critically, one would get his point and juxtapose it to what good music does to human’s life. In the same vein, music is life. When listening to good music with powerful lyrics, and melodious tune, one could easily feel the vibration. However, when a musician plays his/her song, there is this interesting message that comes with it; literarily, it maybe the leitmotif. But nowadays, in our contemporary society, we only have few musicians whose music invoke culture and tradition, even with the relevance of mother-tongues to passing a meaningful and well composed vibe; that is based on storytelling. Although, if we look at the music scene, we can see that music is a saturated venture, but startling musicians still give rooms for us to admire music. Assuredly, this is what you will find when you listen to Kendrick AWE’s songs. As an up-and-coming musician, he is eloquent with his style. Also, when one listens to his songs, there is this kind of exhilaration that comes with them because he is indeed a multitalented and multifaceted when scribing his lyrics together for his listeners to understand his poetic-flow. During this interview, he told Babatunde Alaran about his fanaticism to music. And I think you will enjoy it. Kindly take a read!

His music are available on Audiomack.

In your single, Big Move, you sang about wishing yourself good things, so can you tell us, the inspiration behind the single?

Hmm. Well, the music is a big song for me; and actually I wrote that song when I was in my low. And it is reflection of how I see myself years to come, if I keep putting the hard-work. So, the music is special to me and the thought is derived from everything I hope to achieve in life — you know, they say hard-work pays, so if I keep hustling, I am certainly sure, that I will attain everything I sang about in the music.

Why the name Kendrick Awe?

First, Awe is my surname and the name Kendrick is actually borrowed from the foremost American rapper, Kendrick Lamar, because I see him as a genius in his craft. So, that is the way I see myself; because I am genius too. Kendrick is his name, but to me, that name is a symbol of brilliance. I purposely took that name because I love it and I love the real bearer of the name as well.

In your tracks, you often use idioms, which are relevant to Yoruba language. Is it because you grow up speaking the language or is there any reason why you put them in your music?

Well, I use idioms; perhaps, because I love listen to elderly people especially from my tribe. I understand the language and I like the language — well, I think my music is not limited to only Yoruba language, because I use English and Pidgin as well. If I understand Igbo, I could. So, whichever language I understand, I want to put it in my music. But specifically, I always want to use Yoruba because I understand the language so well and it is convenient for me to express myself in lyrics. And I believe Yoruba language is accepted all over the world.

What inspires your music, and why do you think carving out a niche for yourself would make people want to listen to your music style?

Well, my music is inspired by my life. My life experience and the events that I see because I have learnt from a lot of people. I tried to use those stories and sometimes I put them in my lyrics; by trying to explain them to my listeners. It has helped me actually because I am a conscious person and I can express myself in music flexibly. Thinking deep also has made me to speak about those events I experience while growing up. Actually, when I started music, I was just doing it for the love and the passion; but then, people around me were like ‘’ oh boy you just have to put the song out ‘’ and I began to share some of my songs with people to listen to them. It was from there that I began to put more energy and vibe into my music; even as limited it could be, but I love the comments from people. I love the acceptance. So, it was from that moment I began to prove myself but this is just the tips of an iceberg.

Why do you choose music?

I do not choose music but I think it chose me. Yeah, I think music chose me and I accepted it.

In your single, Temi Tomi Leru, you mentioned your late mum; can you tell us about her?

My late mum was a wonderful woman. She was a great woman and she was a lover of music. She supported music when she was alive. Even before her death, she knew and understood the love I had for music at my tender age. And during my first studio session, she supported in the finance. So, she was a wonderful woman and a quintessential woman because she gave me the full support to my music career. May her soul rest in peace.

For your single, Excellency, what inspires it? And what does, the music-single means to you?

The song Excellency is for everybody. It is not for me alone. If you listen to the music you would understand that it is for triumph. It is a song of victory. It is a song that explains one’s strength. Growing up you meet people and one way or the other, they shape you to something else, and as a result of that, you become a young guy or lady, who is trying to strive and all that. So, there will be lot of disappointments, heartbreaks, ups-and-downs and you have enemies around you. But at the end of it all, you still come out as a victor. And that is when they see you as the real king that you are. The song explains a lot. I think everybody needs to listen to the song anyways. It is a story of being a victor after facing life’s tribulations. So, it is a special song to me also. Yeah.

You have been doing music for some years now; and what are those things that have been driving you to do good music?

I think I have no choice than to do good music, because I love listen to good music. So, why won’t I do good music? That is how it works for me. I just love listen to good music and I can make good music too for people to listen to. And at least when I listen to my music, I would be able to compare it with the good music I have always been listening to.

Tell us about your favourite track?

(LOL) I haven’t made my favourite track yet. Although, I hear people say this is their favourite track — saying this one is mine, or that one is mine. I love all my tracks anyways, but I can’t say this one is the most cherished or the favourite.

You dropped out from school to pursue career in music. So, if you don’t mind, tell us how the journey has been like?

Well, it has been music all true. I love music a lot. It is everything I want. But for school, fine, I have been studying since I dropped out from school. I studied some courses online because education is the key. But all my time have been devoted to music.

If not music what else?

If not music, business. I love business because it helps grow the economy

Who is that artist you feel like having a collaboration with?

Everybody around me knows how much I love BurnaBoy. Right from the days of his mix-tapes to his debut album to his present album; the African Giant. I am immersed with his music a lot and I really love his music and I will love to work with him soon.

While growing up, we know that Arodan literarily means receiving a fictionalized items from someone else. So, why did you title one of your singles Arodan?

Why? I title the song Arodan because when you listen to the song, you might not easily catch the message; perhaps, because of the idioms. However, a deep Yoruba person would understand that it is being upright as the king you truly are. A king can never be placed as a slave. The song explains that you are not a fool. That you can’t be directed wrongly, and you know what you are doing by ruling your own world.

Who is that music producer you wish to work with?

I love to work with Pheelz. I love him.

Why?

It is because he has been holding it down with an invigorating spirit in his career. And secondly, Pheelz is very intelligent and smart with his sound. He knows how to work with artist and he knows what artist wants and he is versatile. So, I love his versatility.

What can you say about the Nigerian music industry for up-and-coming artist like you?

The Nigerian music industry is a beautiful industry actually. And what I can say is that we all need to be patient as an up-and-coming, by understating ourselves and know what we really stand for. We should hold our ground and be kings in our lane. We also need to watch out for snakes in the industry and be prayerful because God is the answer. Lastly, we all young and promising artists need to keep working and grinding consistently. And I believe one day, we will all get there and for me, I am not stopping anytime soon. (Na to die dere.. oo) LOL!

Thank you for having this chit-chat with me

You are welcome, OG! I appreciate.

By: Babatunde Alaran

‘’ You always was committed, a poor

single mother on welfare, tell me

How you did it. There’s no way I can pay you back ‘’

This aforementioned lyric is from Tupac’s famous track, Dear Mama and it is a eulogy to his darling mother, Afeni Shakur. However, the voice within this collection ‘’ the rose that grew from the concrete ‘’ is gentle but not husky because Tupac understood how to write a captivating encomium.

It was his poetic expression that made his career to be distinct because he wrote those early poems with vivacious simplicity and metaphor ‘’ the rose that grew from concrete ‘’ described his struggle as a negro. Reading this collection made me fell in love with his charisma as a poet. Even his manager, Leila Steinberg described his artistry from the forward of this collection. But Tupac was a street urchin even before they met.

Tupac Amaru Shakur was indeed an activist that also had an admirable style amid his camaraderie. Thus, ‘’ the rose that grew from the concrete ‘’ was written during his early adulthood. It was under Leila’s tutelage Tupac started to talk about the social usurper. She was his chaperon. She made him to get the nuances of poetry from other poets like Langston Hughes’ poem ‘’ I, Too ‘’ because his first poems were apostasy.

Although, he was also an incredible rapper that used his genre to sing against injustice. In this section, ‘’ nothing can come between us’’ was the first love poem he wrote to his friend whom he lost while growing up. Meanwhile, that particular poem was somewhat like a dirge because he made his impression as a benign poet to reflect with his fledgling language.

Meanwhile, I discovered Tupac didn’t fear the American supremacy due to the fact that this section was birthed out of his idiosyncrasy to the grivieing poem he dedicated to Yusef Hawkins, a black boy who was murdered by the police. But the poems from this section ‘’Just a breath of Freedom’’ are his rite, and they are perhaps, provocateur for him to fight for his blueprint against social dissipation.

He also wrote a sentient poem for late South Africa anti-apartheid activist, Nelson Mandela while in his twenty-seven years incarceration. With his iconoclastic impetus, Tupac confidently described himself to be wide-ranging against racist denigration as he desperately confessed his dream in this poem.

If I fail

If in my quest 2 achieve my goals

I stumble or crumble and lose my soul

Those who knew me would easily co-sign

There was never life as hard as mine

No father- no money- no chance and no guide

I only follow my voice inside

If it guides me wrong and I do not win

I’ll learn from a mistake and try 2 achieve again

Certainly, this poem is his revelation to achieve greatness. It shows the reality of his doggedness. However, in the other section,‘’ Liberty needs glasses ‘’ At some point, I was presumptive about his gusty as a nineteen-year poet because those poems were poignantly written with complacency against irregularities. While his philosophy made me to understand his quest as a young man who also proclaimed his death in a poem ‘’ Say Goodbye’’.

He was a precocious guy and an avid reader. He was also a dauntless poet. His poems need to be read by every poetry enthusiast. When you read this poetry collection, you will discover Tupac’s language to be effervescent. For instance, I never knew he could write not until I was immersed with this poetry. Indeed, this is a lovely collection for anybody who loves to hear Tupac’s voice as a young poet.