Mr Yemi Awolola was born in The UK to parents from Nigeria and Jamaica.

He attended both primary and secondary  school in Nigeria and later went on to do  Diploma in Health and Physical Education at the famous University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Eastern Nigeria.

He later returned to the Uk and did a certificate in Sports and Leisure Management at the Brunel University.

Mr Awolola is also a qualified plumber and set up an initiative called “Fair price plumbing and heating LTD” and a committee member for The Enfield Gospel Festival

He taught in Sunday School for over 10 years and also once ran a youth club.

He is also a qualified Football Coach and set up the Football Club of Riverside.

Mr Awolola joined the Christians People Alliance and stood for the last European elections.

He is now standing for Member of Parliament for Enfield North in the next forthcoming elections in May 2015

APPLYING THE ANALOGY OF A SALES JOB TO EVERY DAY LIFE (A SHORT MOTIVATIONAL STORY )

One of the most amazing abstracts about the challenges and puzzles of Life is the fact that sometimes when we read in between the lines and understand that things in Life happen for a reason, Life slowly begins to make more sense and our journey through the bleakest roads become lighter.
One of my first jobs in The UK was for a Sales Company in Elephant and Castles, South London
I had just finished University from Nigeria and my appetite for Life was filled with a Blatant overwhelming sense of adventure.
It was also my first encounter into The Cold World of Sales, back in Nigeria, I helped manage My Mothers business and supplied poultry to many of the restaurants in the Main land (but that was a different kind of Sales).
I remember my first day at work for the Sales Company, The Room was filled with faces from all nations and in a matter of weeks, I had made friends with people from The Caribbean, Italy, Uganda, Brazil and many other places.
Part of the job entailed selling a Paint products and randomly ringing up residential homes to promote a Paint brand that one had ever heard of.
On my first week at work, I became bored of the repetitive bland music of angry voices slamming the phone down my ears over and over again, but the trick was to take a deep breathe, relax for two minutes and pick up the phone again.
This happened very many years ago, but even then something strange happened, the more people slammed down the phone, the more I became driven with a new sense of energy to try even harder- AND SOMETIMES, THAT IS WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT.

The Rules were quite simple, (AT LEAST ON PAPER)
Each day, the target was for each Sales Rep to ring up 130 New Customers and to sell them the Paint Product that no one had ever heard of, but also to find out how often they painted their houses and at the end of each day, everyone Sales rep was meant to have sold Paint products to at least 4 Customers which meant that every week, each Sales rep had to make a minimum of 20 sales.
At the end of each week, if targets were not met, anyone who made 19 Sales or less was asked to back their bags and leave the building and after a few months, we referred to every Friday as “Bloody Friday”
This was the day when groups of people were politely asked to leave the building.
Sometimes I felt heart broken when I saw elders in their 60s and even 70s who had families to feed and rents to pay leave that building.

But London had many faces and this shade was one of the hard faces of London.
It did not just end there, each morning, before all the Sales reps hit the phones, we gathered round in a pretty open field in front of the office building and we did some physical exercise for about 25 minutes.
We were all meant to run round the building three times all together and shout out loud , “I am Born to Win, Failure is not an option”
I could often see the startled faces of commuters stuck in traffic and pedestrians on their way to work, who knows what they were thinking .
I made new friends in the first few months and every Friday night we went out into town to enjoy the lighter shades of London and often ended up in A Salsa Night Club in the outskirts of Brixton which was popular in the 90s.
I also became friends with an elderly woman we all referred to as “Aunty Bukky” and every single Saturday, Aunty Bukky would invite several of the staff members and Supervisors to her house and she would cook loads of West African food ranging from Jollof Rice, Moin Moin,Fried Fish, Cow foot pepper soup and bitter leaf soup.
Her husband was also a lovely man and he would often tell us stories of his childhood for hours and always told us how important it was for us to always work hard in Life and to make use of every minute.
When I look back to my first Sales jobs in the UK, it truly seems like ages ago and its funny how growth is sometimes driven by the power of the sub-conscious feeding the signals of the conscious and to put it simply, I learnt THREE things whilst working in Sales – TRAITS which are still inherent in me today

1.I LEARNT ABOUT THE ART OF PERSEVERANCE AND NEVER EVER TO GIVE UP IN ANYTHING

2.I LEARNT TO QUIETLY MIRROR PEOPLE AND MIRROR SITUATIONS BASED ON WHAT I SENSE AND SEE

3.I LEARNT THAT THE THING PEOPLE CALL HOPE, IS ACTUALLY SOMETHING WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL

But I supposed the greatest thing I learnt is what I truly want to share with you and it is to do with THE ANALOGY OF SALES APPLIED TO EVERYDAY LIFE

Each and everyone of us is on a journey and Each and everyone of us has An Ideal, a Vision, A Role, An Ambition, A Purpose, A Responsibility and An Agenda.
Our Roles, Our Ambitions and Our Visions vary and success means different things to different people.

But the fact is that WE all have one thing in common and that is the Hope, the Need, the urgency and the necessity to make the best of our Lives and so with each day that passes by, we try even harder.
The Analogy of the Sales Environment is the typical and practical story of LIFE in a NUTSHELL.
Each day there is the need to make those 130 phone calls for 4 opportunities to unfold.
The more we try, the Closer we get, Some Roles might take longer than others, some peoples paths are filled with the bleakness of damp dust and tribulations, but each time we FALL DOWN, all we need to do is wipe the damp dust of our breaks, take a deep breathe and make the next phone call.
Good things do not come easy.

BUT HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS

SOMETIMES it just takes ONE PHONE CALL out of 130 for new breakthroughs and blessings to unfold
SOMETIMES it just takes one Smile to start a conversation that leads to the blessings of A NEW FRIENDSHIP
SOMETIMES it just takes ONE APPLICATION out of 130 for The Right Job to come along
SOMETIMES it just takes ONE HANDSHAKE to agree to a Contract that will open new doors
SOMETIMES it just takes ONE KISS for a NEW RELATIONSHIP to unfold

So if it only takes, ONE PHONE CALL, ONE MOMENT, ONE DEEP BREATHE, ONE SMILE, ONE SIGNATURE, ONE HANDSHAKE, ONE KISS, ONE APPLICATION, ONE HOPE …..

Then it does not really matter how many times you FALL ON YOUR BACK,
WHAT MATTER, IS HOW MANY TIMES YOU PICK UP THAT PHONE AND KEEP ON TRYING

YOU WERE BORN TO WIN SO KEEP ON TRYING, YOU ARE NEARLY THERE

I ALSO OFFER ONE ONE TO ONE MENTORING ON SELF ESTEEM AND PERSONAL GOALS VIA SKYPE AT AFFORDABLE RATES
FOR MORE INFO CONTACT ME ON +447882809005 OR EMAIL afripoet@gmail.com

ALSO TAKE 2 SECS TO LIKE MY PAGE Tony Tokunbo Fernandez

TONY TOKUNBO FERNANDEZ ©2015
MULTI- INTERNATIONAL AWARD WINNER, PUBLISHED AUTHOR AND POET, COMPERE, INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTER AND MENTOR

OUR SERVICES NOW AVAILABLE FOR COLLEGES, UNIVERSITIES AND PRIVATE TUITION INCLUDE:

MOTIVATIONAL TALKS ON SELF ESTEEM AND PERSONAL GOALS

TUTORIALS AND BEGINNER CLASSES ON WEST AFRICAN HISTORY STUDIES

Hamida Ramadhani – All Things African- “Dare to be Different”

Hamida was born in Tanzania, Since 1996 Hamida has been keen to help people back home in Tanzania and to bring together the African communities in the UK. As a result she has become involved with many diverse African communities throughout the UK, identifying and supplying their fashion needs, helping people to maintain a link to their roots.

This grew into All Things African.

All Things African design and supply fashions to suit all tastes, some designs are a more typical African style, others have a more Western feel but still show strong African influences. All Things African also support designers of all kinds of accessories such as jewellery, belts, bags and footwear (Utamaduni and Baraka Handcraft).

All Things African support designers and suppliers in Tanzania by sourcing materials from across the African continent, after all the name is ‘All’ Things African and producing in East, West, and South Africa but all clothing design and manufacture takes place in Tanzania.

This local manufacture and design helps to support several ‘tailors’ across Tanzania but also provides for a more authentic African product, we believe passionately in supporting and promoting our own Tanzanian community through action not charity. We would value the opportunity to present some of our work and those that we work with(PAT Designs, Mavis Makhaza , Suzan Tailoring, Mama Halima, Kimoi and others).

All Things African have supplied fashions to many community voluntary organisations, local choirs and have even outfitted entire wedding entourage’s. We do not simply cater for the single one off item but can design for groups based on themes and an exchange of ideas.

Beyond our work with organisations we produce bespoke fashion items, we are not engage in mass production of any item, if a client likes a design then we have that design made up in Tanzania specifically tailored to fit the client.

All Things African designs clothing and fashion for all ages in a variety of traditional materials such as Kikoi, Khanga, Batik, Shuka, all the items that we design and supply are handmade by specialist tailors.

All Things African take part in exhibitions at many UK venues and events supporting the African and other Ethnic communities. All things African also attend large public festivals such as Africa Oye and WOMAD, carnivals, museums, art & craft fairs and local communities’ events.

We would welcome the opportunity to showcase some of our work and those that we work with, we could provide a wide ranging exhibit from the traditional African to something more likely to be worn by non Africans, yet still with an African influence and origin.

Ebelechukwuka ifeanyi Sharon, from onicha olona, in aniocha north local government in Delta state, first from the family of six, Studied Accounting, at Institute of Management of Technology  (IMT) Base in Dakar Senegal.

Miss Ifeanyi is a young talented writer, full of energy, she is hardworking, Creative and Gifted.

She is also a public speaker, author, humanitarian, relationship coach, a lifestyle motivator and founder of Shaz foundation, a training and empowerment foundation specializes in consulting and counselling young people on marriage and relationship tips.

Shaz is also a foundation where Singles and young minds are guided on how to live right and think right before any relationship and the steps on choosing a right partner. Shaz Foundation is also a place where you can share or ask questions about futuristic factors of life. Shaz Foundation also runs an online talk show, a platform for bringing in some outstanding and prominent people of great minds to share their experiences and educate the young people, towards having the right relationship tips and how to create a lasting positive lifestyle..

Miss Ifeanyi is a goal getter, selfless and a very ambitious young lady, full of zeal and passion to change and inspire others especially singles and married ones. Within short period of time in pursuing her career she has affect so many lives positively and has organized some community educative programs within her community. Miss Ifeanyi is a young upcoming role model and a leader, eager to change and impact the new generation. 

She is working with some training company that contributes their little quota to humanity. One of her book is titled How to make a relationship work, to be published soon.

Recently Miss Ifeanyi visited Goree island in Dakar Senegal, it happens to be the first slave market in Africa Her aim is to inspire the youths, singles and also the parents on child abuse, child training and safe sex education. Basically at the moment, I and my team are already organizing some community programs, empowering the youths to use their God given gifts positively and use it to affect lives. .

HER WORDS: I believe strongly that no time is too late to begin. I wouldn’t have come this far if not God, All I ever wanted and continue to want in life, is to give 100 percent to whatever am doing and to be committed to whatever am passionate for, Doing it and then let the results speak for itself. The last thing i will do is to take myself or people for granted and I will always be thankful and grateful to the people who have helped me one way or the other.A big thanks to my parents pastor ebele boaz/Mrs Queen.to my patheer Olubogu Ifeanyichukwu petwise founder of LMA awards for his support and believe in me and also Hon. Iteoluwakiishi Bolaji, founder of Bluedisk Enterprises Inc

DEAR FAMILY, FRIENDS AND FANS,

IN EXACTLY TWO WEEKS FROM NOW, ENTRIES FOR THE Tony Tokunbo Fernandez INTERNATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION 2015 FOR POETS FROM AROUND THE WORLD WILL COME TO AN END AND EVERYONE HAS BEEN ASKING WHO ARE THE TEN POETS WHO WILL MAKE IT TO THE FINALS ON SUNDAY THE 15TH OF FEBRUARY AT 12 NOON?

THE QUALITY OF POEMS I HAVE RECEIVED THIS YEAR HAVE LEFT ME SPEECHLESS- I AM SIMPLY OVERWHELMED.
THE COMPETITION IS SPONSORED BY MYSELF, TO ENCOURAGE THE ART OF WRITING AMONG VARIOUS NEW & UPCOMING POETS AND WRITERS ACROSS TO GLOBE AND TO PROMOTE THEIR WORK ON LITERARY INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS, ONLINE MAGAZINES, , BLOGS AND COMMUNITY PROJECTS

Sam is an experienced Business Leader and Management consultant with over 18 years commercial experience in marketing and business development. In addition Sam assists his clients in defining their financial and corporate strategy and in obtaining appropriate forms of commercial and/or grant initiatives.

Sam is an expert in end to end product and service creation especially in the cultural ,creative ,and tourism sectors. He is excellent and holistic strategy and is an experienced programme director, possessing key communication and human management skills.

Core skills applied by Sam in his role as director / consultant include:

.

• Presentations and Proposal development at board level/senior management.

• Excellent and dynamic team leadership.

• Project Management

• Vision casting

• Research and development.

• Business Planning , marketing and campaign development

• Emotional Intelligence skills including: on-going mentoring, management coaching and

support & Team building

• Management tools including Balanced scorecards, Sigma tools, EQFM, Communication Maps

• Trainer/facilitator: World class speaking and engaging skills, high ability to impart knowledge and carry along audience

• Strong report writing skills

• People management

• Personal aptitude as regards: flexibility in terms of work location and work hours;

confidence; drive and enthusiasm;

Sam is also the Founder of  Women4Africa, http://www.women4africa.com one of the largest Awards ceremonies for African women , held in London Annually.

Also, Great Business platforms http://www.greatbusinessplatforms.com, a Global business club with Africa at its centre.

Nigerian Entertainment and Lifestyle Awards   http://www.nelawards.com

.

Academic , Professional Qualifications and Honours include:

  B.Sc (Hons) Political Science

     Chartered Institute of Marketing , Level 7 strategic marketing

  Proficiency in MS applications, advanced with computer and all E-business activities

  Student  member  Securities and investment institute

  Fellow Charted institute of marketing

  Coaching and Mentoring Level 3

  Leadership & Management  practitioner (EFQM)

  Mindworks Approach

  Finance for Non financial advisors

  Systems thinking

  Lean tool practitioner

  Logical framework matrix

  Performance management mix

Sam is a multi Award winning personality, amongst his awards in 2014, He was listed as one of the 100 most Influential Nigerians in the UK, Signed by the Nigerian High commissioner to the UK Ambassador Talfida and  Minister of State for Africa Mark Simmons MP

LEADERSHIP IS A SEED CULTIVATED.

Mr Ferdinard is a BEFFTA award-winning author of many inspirational and motivational books. He is a life coach, mentor, publication consultant, Columnist, radio show host and a faculty member of African Professional Speakers Academy (APSA). Ferdinard’s mandate is to empower, motivate, and encourage individuals, to remain focused, determined and committed in serving the Lord, and to discover themselves in order to pursue their purpose in life.
Ferdinard S. Lawson is also an international advisor to the Achievers Foundation, Ghana. He was honored as an Extraordinary Individual in United Kingdom and holds a Bachelor Degree in Public Health and Social Care. He is a member of Royal Society for Public Health (MRSPH) in United-Kingdom.
Sir Ferdinard lives in London (UK) with his wife and his two precious lovely children.

LEADERSHIP

‘A great leader is a ladder, which enables his followers to climb comfortably to get the next phase in their lives.
Leadership trees can be seen everywhere we go but the question is; are they bearing fruits less alone, talking about much fruits? We have seen, heard and experienced some form of leaderships in many churches, companies, organization, institutions businesses both in privates and governmental environments, who gave their best to their organization just to ensure that, things work well in the organization to produce more outstanding  positive results.
Some of these leaders tend to be a great one or a very bad one. It is possible to say that, every one of us is born with a seed of leadership, therefore, the fruits we bear as leaders are determined by the qualities of our leadership and how it can affect our followers and lives around us.
However, we have also seen or heard of some terrible leaders, who only think of themselves (family and children), without considering how those around them (followers or team members) survive. They have failed in all capacity to ask themselves, how much they have actually provided or supported the people they are leading. Selfishness has choked their seeds and prevented them from bearing positive fruits in the lives of those around them.
Leadership is very crucial in determining the outcomes of every organization, companies, families, ministries, churches and so on. Most communities have succeeded in improving the qualities of social amenities or infrastructures which are purely based on the quality of their leadership skills. More so, the bad ones also reflects on the type of leadership structures in place.
It is very vital to raise the awareness in every leader to know that, leadership is not just leading people but to be able to bear quality fruits to benefit the people one is leading. Bearing the fruits of leadership enables you to develop some vital elements of leadership in order to provide quality care and relate well with people from different backgrounds, races, cultures, religions, status, gender and etc… Diplomatically to get a vision, purpose, goal, agenda or project done effectively without feeling intimidated or over shadow by the success of their emerging leaders.
Leadership as some of people know is an act of directing, planning and also organizing things around people so as to carry out an excellent work for the benefits of the organization or company. Therefore, a leader is the one who desire to work with other people to achieve a common goal and get everything going on a good track. Leadership gives structure or directions to every forward moving organization. I have observed that, most people see leadership as management. What they are ignorance of is that, Leadership is the one that takes management to another level. The fact that people are in management, does not mean they are in leadership. Anyone in leadership must have the ability to ensure that things are done accordingly without doing the job themselves. Leaders show the way, chart a new course, have the desire to blaze a trail, finding a right path for others to follow and become all that they have been created for.
A great leader always lead by example, guide the destiny of others and having the spirit of raising other effective leaders to be a source of impact in their world. ‘By their fruits ye shall know them.
What actually differentiates Leadership from management is the mental attitude they have or develop. This can be in the way of thinking, perception and the angle at which they view things.
If we see leadership as a tree, then there is the need for us to identify it with the fruits it bears. There is no other way of identifying a leadership tree without its fruits. It is therefore important that, we cultivate the leadership seed within us in order to bear good fruits as leaders in every area of our lives.
L.E.A.D.E.R.S.H.I.P
L- Learn. A leader must be ready to learn on how to relate well with his followers or people around him.
E- Empower. A leader must be able to provide and invest in the future and extend training to the people around him, creating a platform where their potentials can be maximize.
A – Assertive: leaders must be assertive and must have the desire to connect, care, and communicate with the people at all levels. They must not discriminate or show favoritism and accessible to everyone in the team
D- Delegate; It is the leader’s role to learn to delegate duties to every members to create an environment for personal development. This eased pressures and increase productivities and self development.
E- Effective. A leader must be very effective when it comes to duties, producing a result that will benefit the whole team members not on their family and children only.
R- Responsible. A leader must be responsible and productive. He must be trusted to do what is right, expected or required of him, not the lazy and autocratic one.
S- Sensitive; Leaders must be a caring type and must be sensitive to the needs of the members as well by understanding the feelings of other people around them.
H- Harness; A leader must be like a strap connecting people around him to the right thing, creating a creative ideas and networks that will also enhance their development in life.
I-Intelligent. A leader must demonstrate some level of understanding of the need for a change in order to produce maximum results especially in the lives of the protégées.
P- Passionate. A leader must be passionate about his or her protégée. He must genuinely show support, care and belief to the members when the need arises.
May you receive the grace to bear much good fruits in your leadership journey, go and bear good fruits and let your fruit remain also in leadership. Be Empowered.

Ferdinard Senyo Lawson@2015 (leadership
Acronyms).

“Rijole Bitata is a language specialist teacher with over ten years experience working in inner city London schools.Originally from Equatorial Guinea, she was born and raised in Spain where she trained as a specialist language teacher before coming to the UK. She has worked with many grassroots organizations and she is passionate about education and parenting.

Invasion 1897 chronicles the vivid accounts of the infamous British Punitive Expedition to Benin, Nigeria that led to killings, destruction, looting thousands of artifacts (Peoples’ Records) and deposition of the last King of Africa: Oba Ovonramwen of the Great Benin Empire. Told for the first time from the victim’s perspective. They called it massacre, but it was indeed an invasion. After showing inside the British Museum, London now adopted by the British Film Institute (BFI) to be showcased on 7th February, 2015 1pm. Come meet the stars on the red carpet.

Invasion 1897 on the trail and a step further. Due to popular demand following many awards won and back to back screening inside the British Museum, Odeon cinema London, Smithsonia Institute USA, Toronto Film & Music Festival, Dallas Premiere, Abuja International Film Festival, African International Film Festival (AFFRIF) Calabar, Theatrical releases across cinemas in Nigeria; it is scheduled to be screened by the British Film Institute (BFI) Waterloo, London on Saturday 7th February, 2015 @ 1pm. Q&A with the Director and Cast including a special review by a celebrated film critique and film educationist David Somerset takes place from midday (12 O’clock). See flyer for details. Box Office Ticket £6.50 call  02079283232