Excerpts – Seun Onanuga

The Beauty Myth?

Beauty is a quality that inspires admiration and provides a pictographic experience of pleasure and satisfaction. For a person to be considered as beautiful or physically attractive, he or she must possess certain features, whether internal or external, that are generally considered to be ideal, desirable, virtuous, and admirable. Such things include nicely-etched facial features, smooth skin texture and radiant complexion, upright and curvy skeletal structure, skill and intelligence, moral fibre, polished accent, grace, or finesse. For women, the things that are usually considered include the shape of the head, the coiffure, the shape, size and symmetry of the breasts and hips. For men, height, broad chests, firm muscles, and most importantly, strong confidence are the things that seem to do the trick. We can therefore presume that beauty is usually measured based on four parameters: colour, shape, size and, most importantly, the state of the mind.

Power and Wealth

“But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is Hethat giveth thee power to get wealth…” ~ Deuteronomy 8:18

In the above verse of the Bible, there are two words that we must pay attention to in order to fully grasp the idea of wealth creation. The first word is power, and the second is wealth. These two things are evidently not the same; but one of them is meant to be used for acquiring the other. In this case, the possession of the former is what guarantees the acquisition of the latter; that is, power is a means for getting wealth. This also implies that the more power a person has, the wealthier they are likely to become. Note also that what God gives is power and not wealth per se. Hence, when a man prays to God for an elevation of financial status, it is wise that he asks and seeks for that which God gives. The reason for this is that wealth has already been given by God in the form of resources; these resources are common, and they are constant.

Nollywood: Writing the Vision

The world is advancing at a meteoric pace. Technology is evolving by leaps and bounds across the globe. Most of the world is at the cutting edge, but as a nation, we appear to have been left behind. In the way government is run, in the way society is organized, in the way institutions are structured, in the way crime is fought, in the way routine tasks are carried out, even in the way movies are made, Nigeria and mosts part of Africaappear to have been left behind. Over the last few decades, there have been groundbreaking discoveries in fields like agriculture, medicine, manufacturing, electronics, aviation, military, robotics and so on. We may not even dare to mentionthe likes ofspace exploration because that, to us, is still literally out of this world. Sometimes we wonder if we will ever catch up with the most advanced countries of the world. Yet somewhere in our national psyche, a notion holds sway that such a feat is impossible.

The Shulamite: I am Black but Comely

The plights of the Shulamite in the Songs of Solomon acquaints us with the troubles that confront the average visionary woman at the early stages of her life. Although the king highly esteemed this talented and graceful young shepherdess and boasted so much about her beauty, she does not dare to speak pompously of herself. There are a total of one-hundred and seventeen verses in the Songs of Solomon, and yet in the fifth verse of the very first chapter, just at the beginning of the romantic discourse, the Shulamite makes a very brief but profound admission. She said, ‘I am black.’ She did not try to hide anything about her history or character. She did not pretend to be perfect. She did not claim to have come from a wealthy background, or to have had all sorts of academic qualifications and honours degrees. She did not lie about her parentage or pretend to be what she was not. She opened up in honesty and sincerity. She said, ‘I am black.’

An Intro to Financial Freedom

The richest people of today’s world are usually believed to be in custody of some profound secrets. Many others go through poverty because they lack knowledge. We always do well to ask these rich men, ‘what is the secret of your wealth?’ However, we must understand that secrets will continue to be concealed; people will hardly tell them. Maybe if we had asked those who are living in poverty, ‘what is the secret of your misery?’ they would have been more eager to give us an open answer. Complaining, murmuring and bitterness are now becoming more frequent than ever within our societies. ‘The economy is hard; everything is heavy-going; there is no money in circulation.’ Are these not the things that we hear frequently among our people? But let us also bear in mind that in the midst of all this murmuring and complaining, there are still quite a number of people who live in privileged circumstances….