Tag: freedom

African Billionaire and Business Man, Dr Strive Masiyiwa Endorses Amazon Published Book by Bashiru Adamu.

“Bashiru Adamu writes striking words that will probably resonate with people everywhere, facing challenges at different times in their lives:”

Dr. Strive Masiyiwa

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Book Title: Escape From Prison

On September 8, 2017, my youth Afripreneurship Town Hall in Lagos was filled with young Nigerian entrepreneurs and aspiring ones: students, traders, bankers, side-hustlers, business managers, engineers, and at least one very memorable social entrepreneur. About 425,000 viewers were also watching online!

When Bashiru Adamu stood up to share his entrepreneurial vision during the Q&A, my first impression was exactly as he tells it here in his book, “Wow, wow, wow, wow!”

He opened his brief pitch by telling me and about 300 others crowded in the room: “I help prisoners escape from prison”.

Although this slight young man from Kaduna State in North West of Nigeria, did not look like a jailbreaker, he got all our attention immediately. A few people laughed and then all grew silent. I asked: “You did?” and he answered without a hint of a smile, “I do!”

He tells the rest of the story in this book. Not only did Bashiru’s pitch show passionate commitment to serving humanity, but he had already developed and executed a plan, drawn together key decision-makers, and found partners who supported his idea of setting up libraries and business skills programs for incarcerated prisoners in Nigeria. His vision [first sparked in 2012 during his National Youth Service year in Benue State] came to be known as the Dream Again Prison and Youth Foundation.

Having heard Bashiru boldly speak in Lagos that day, I was surprised to learn in the book that when growing up, he himself felt imprisoned and paralyzed by a mindset of self-doubt and trepidation. He writes striking words that will probably resonate with people everywhere, facing challenges at different times in their lives:

“I was dead while alive. I was hopeless even when surrounded by opportunities. I just didn’t see life beyond the pain, hunger, helplessness, and the chain that held me down in my head. My life was not just a joke, it was a junk. It was a miracle of self-belief and hard work that I broke out of the chains”.

On the contrary, the social entrepreneur I met that Friday at my town hall, who’d also been following my Facebook entrepreneurship blog for years, stood out as someone special who did not just talk the talk [which he did memorably that day] but was also walking the talk of what he said was his favourite quote: “It’s better to prepare and not meet opportunity than to meet opportunity when you are not prepared”… He was prepared!

The fifth of seven children, Bashiru shares in one chapter about the life of his entrepreneurial mother. Amazing. These are the inspiring stories of resilient, visionary, and solution-seeking African business founders that need to be published as books, made into podcasts and films, and widely shared. Make no mistake: Amidst the challenges on our continent, greatness is being born and nurtured every day.

Dr. Strive Masiyiwa
Founder and Chairman of Econet Group

“Escape from Prison,” is a true-life story of a young social changemaker from Nigeria presented in a simple but extraordinary way that will leave the reader with strategy and plan on how to create sustainable social change.

Buy this Book On Amazon

About the Author

Bashiru Adamu is a social change maker who has brought light and hope to so many inmates across the correctional space in Nigeria and is now extending his frontiers through Africa.

Bashiru boasts about a decade’s experience in building a non-profit from scratch, beginning with a sub-rural community in
Otukpo, Benue State, Nigeria.

Today ,the organization Dream Again Prison & Youth Foundation is in full operation in several parts of Western and Northern Nigeria.

An alumnus of the Kanthari International Institute of Social Change Makers, India; the Leap Africa Social Innovators Program; and the Non-profit Leadership and Program at Lagos Business School.

He was the 2017 pitch winner of Dr. Strive Masiyiwa Youth Entrepreneur Town Hall meeting in Lagos, Nigeria..

“Bash” as he us fondly call is also a certified coach with Open Door Coaching Group (ODCG) and Catalyst Coach Certification (CCC) Australia.

He received the Most Outstanding Community Influencer award in Nigeria from National Youth Assembly of Nigeria in 2018. Most recently, he is also a 2022 Acumen Academy West Africa Fellow.

“His favourite slogan “In conformity many dreams die” is a propelling factor behind his passion and his unconventional approach to excellence to life and work.”

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Learnings From Nature – Incredible Life Lessons For Global Peace

Over the years, I have learnt some worthy lessons from nature that I’d like to share with you, hoping you’ll find them as revealing as I did.

First, we must agree that there’s indeed a lot we all can learn. The world needs to sit back and observe again nature’s course, discover truths and apply the lessons to our daily lives. These lessons provides us with a blueprint by which we can promote global peace.

Many hindrances to the global peace I speak of have their base in the discriminating and segregating act of individuals who despise the selfless and worthy efforts of our heroes’ past.

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Martin Luther King (1929 – 1968) Non-violent civil right leader; Nelson Mandela (1918 – 2013) Anti-apartheid leader; Frederick Douglass (1818 – 1895) Anti-slavery and equity leader; Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 – 1797) Women’s right mover and many others fought against this course, but the question is, have the benefits of their struggles been erased from our hearts on account of their demise?

Or how else can one explain why people are still being deprived of certain privileges on the same grounds (sex, race, religion, colour etc.) these leaders tried to abolish?

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I discovered that among all God’s creation, humans, despite the privilege of been richly blessed with sound intelligence to think and act, seem to be the weakest of all because it has cherished hate, division, war, discrimination and segregation above love, unity, hope and peace which are meant to bind and make us stronger.

My lessons were drawn from observing the behavior of celestial creatures.

I discovered the secret behind the beauty of the Rainbow and why people so much admire it.

Take a look at the rainbow…

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I saw that it’s the systemic harmony of its different colours that actually makes it that beautiful and it taught me the quality of appreciating “beauty in diversity”. Who would have loved the Rainbow if it was just yellow, red or blue?

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The rain also taught me that the lifestyle, gender, size, religion, race, colour of people shouldn’t circumscribe me from rendering my help.

The rain falls on the farms, homes, offices and other properties of both the good and bad, regardless of their different attitudes.

The sun and moon further proved that point by helping me understand that one may never know how one’s ability or of others can contribute in transforming the world and make it more different and unique.

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They both radiate at different timings to illuminate the earth freely and genuinely.

They are always in harmony regardless of their different temperatures and functions and when there’s an eclipse, it always appears more like a dialogue than a war which fascinates people that they gaze so intently as though to peep on the conversation of the sun and moon. How wonderful!

The world needs to regain its peace, love, hope and be united once again.

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We need to learn from all that nature teaches by consciously observing for ourselves and applying the lessons to our own lives. We need to teach our children and the younger generation to see as nature sees and appreciate the beauty in the differences in people’s attitudes.

We are all gifted and unique in our own different ways and as such should not be expected to behave in the same way. We need to embrace our differences, harness our individual potentials and ideology, contribute positively to the earth’s progress and above all, cherish the beauty in our diverse nature so we can uphold the movement of living peacefully in a peaceful world.

No more to WAR, no to KILLINGS, no to APARTHEID… just LOVE