Obstacles: Many Obstacles in Personal Life Are No Roadblocks, but Distractions

By Oladele Oke

The Novel Obstacles is the story about a young man, who at the onset , was sure of himself and strongly believed that he has all it takes to succeed in life having broken through the concrete walls of poverty and deprivation at the early stages of his life.
Strong character, drive and luck; all helped him to reach the pinnacle of success and fulfilment at an early stage in his life.
But ironically and precipitously too, obstacles in form of distractions - lacking focus - crept in and turned his life upside down; sending him on a downward spin, nearly to the abyss.
It is the story of small obstacles leading to big falls.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491811344

Oladele Oke

Oladele Oke, born about 63 years old, hails from Imesi-Ekiti State, Southwest Nigeria, where he had his primary education. He entered Ajuwa Grammar School, Oke-Agbe, Akoko for the O-Level) Education in1964, spending only four years on gaining double promotion in 1965 and passed out in Grade One in 1967. He attended Christ’s School Ado- Ekiti for A-Level course and graduated in 1969 with distinction. He proceeded to the University of Lagos and obtained an Honors Degree in B.Sc. (Accounting) in 1973. Professionally, he is an Associate Member the Chartered Institute of Costs & Management Accountants, UK and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. He worked for over 24 years in both public and private sectors in Nigeria - ten of which was spent executive management positions in Ovaltine (W.A) Plc, a subsidiary company of Novartis - and voluntarily retired in1993. In retirement he practiced as a Financial & Management Consultant SMEs. However, his passion for writing has become irrepressible and infectious. . His marriage to Mojisola in 1977 has been blessed with three Children – Omolola, Oluwole and Afolabi and grandchildren. Oladele Oke is an avid reader with voracious appetite for knowledge, an aerobic exercise addict, and a public speaker/commentator. Two Book Titles authored by him – “REFLECTIONS” (on character/personal development) and “FURURE FOR REMEDIES” (fictional Novel targeted at youth who are in dire need of a wholesome guide) – are already in the public domain in Nigeria and neighboring countries with strong appeal.

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© 2013 by Oladele Oke. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 09/10/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4918-1135-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-1133-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-1134-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013915737

All persons depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Foreword - The Message

Chapter One   Fouled Sensibility: Watchdog found as Lapdog

Chapter Two   Conspiracy: Threat to Life

Chapter Three   Bird of Passage: A run from ethnic arrow

Chapter Four   Plunderers: Light rays penetrating the dark corridors

Chapter Five   Temptation: A moral assault

Chapter Six   Winning Streak

Chapter Seven   Obstacles: Distractions & Stumbling

Chapter Eight   The Blind Spot: Unforeseen Events

Chapter Nine   The Blues: Hard Time and Struggles

Chapter Ten   The Narrow Path Not Walked

Chapter Eleven   Epilogue: Looking Back

Acknowledgement

Appendices

What’s in a Name?

About Author – Oladele Oke

Foreword

The Message

The Novel Obstacles is the story about a young man, who at the onset, was sure of himself and strongly believed that he has all it takes to succeed in life having broken through the concrete walls of poverty and deprivation at the early stages of his life.

Strong character, drive and luck; all helped him to reach the pinnacle of success and fulfilment at an early stage in his life.

But ironically and precipitously too, obstacles in form of distractions—lacking focus—crept in and turned his life upside down; sending him on a downward spin, nearly to the abyss.

It is the story of small obstacles leading to big falls.

The book’s storyline is woven around three important messages.

First message centres on the tragic consequences of being over confident, which is the import of the aphorism if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall. It’s the wisdom in the fear of the banana peel.

Second message underscores the reality of life, which makes many obstacles appear more as distractions than physical obstructions or roadblocks in life’s journey; luring people to make poor choices and arrive at decisions not responsibly made. The good will always remain the strongest enemy of the best.

Third message is the fundamental truth that the greatest fight in life is the fight to BE YOU (yourself) and nobody else. It will remain a fierce fight without an end till death.

Each message is a strand and the three strands have been woven into a story thread, which runs through the entire length of the book, thus making it the thrust of the novel.

Obstacles is fictional; all the characters are not real but imagined and/or do not exist by their names in the story.

This book is a product of personal experiences, the experiences of others as made known by sharing them; from deductive reasoning from events happening all around us with their imports (messages) shouting at the rooftop.

All these experiences put together have also been garnished with imagination; imagination spurred and animated by inspiration. This artistry has been fully exploited in delivering Obstacles.

Most fundamentally, writing this book is the product of a burning and earnest desire to share my experiences; experiences that are germane to societal growth, civilization and ultimately, human development.

This sharing is predicated on my peculiar gift of ability to dialogue in writing effortlessly and powerfully with emotions spilling over; strong and thick enough to be cut with a knife. Sharing is the basic natural law of increase; whatever is shared is bound to multiply and increase.

Writing this book, therefore, offers me another unique opportunity to share lessons learnt from experiences raked up in my walk through life and being educated by the school (university) of life.

Those with whom I share these experiences will receive them at a cost that would be far less than what otherwise would have been the cost to them if they had been taught by their individual experiences.

An experience will always be at a cost that is expensive, never a cheap or convenient buy. Sharing it makes these experiences very cheap to import into a personal life.

This Novel is a Melodrama.

To be nobody but myself, in a world which is doing its best day and night to make me somebody else, means to fight the hardest battle any human can fight and never stop fighting.

E.E. Cummings.

The above quotation delivers the message of this novel in a very lucid manner.

Obstacles is a mind opener and bender as well.

Oladele Oke

Author

Chapter One

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Fouled Sensibility: Watchdog found as Lapdog

For Oluwarotimi ( Rotimi) , it was a long walk from poverty; an energy sapping challenge to climb to the ground surface the slippery walls of the deep chasm of poverty and deprivation, where fate dumped him as a result of his humble beginning and background.

As a university graduate, he has now attained adulthood, mature and very responsible after going through the crucible of these early life changing experiences. Rotimi was very knowledgeable to understand that our individual life situations and circumstances today, are as a result of the choices we made yesterday, either consciously or otherwise.

He made a conscious and responsible choice to grow rich in human virtues in preference to being after material things; resolved to commit himself, irrevocably, to living a responsible life, a life that is an epitome of integrity, industry and humaneness.

So, it did not take that long for Rotimi to build a solid character with the right mix of all essential character components and building blocks—mainly, honesty, credibility, trustworthiness, humility and simplicity (transparency). Soon he stood out and became well known amongst his peers, associates and in the public domain at large, as a man of integrity, discipline and focus.

Rotimi was known to be principled, very firm, self-disciplined, tough—a no nonsense man and incorruptible. All these are very admirable qualities of a personality with a very strong character.

His values chain predicated the choice of employment career, even though making a choice was very difficult as a result of the plethora of vacancies available at both public and private sectors of the economy making overtures at him.

Eventually, where to start his working career was decided by two major considerations. First consideration was that of a strong desire to impact his society positively by being the best he could be in his own corner of the world. Therefore, an organization, be it private or public, where he could contribute or add value to society and make his impact felt sooner than later, would be the most attractive, the ideal place for him.

Second consideration was his desire for a work environment that will not offend his sensibilities (values), but germane and conducive; a fertile ground for nurturing character growth and personality development—maturity. A swim against the ethical culture of any organization was his greatest fear; most dreadful and worrisome to him. Rotimi would very much like to run away from such an organization like plague.

Predicated on these two very important criteria coupled with the collateral goal of becoming a fully qualified professional in his chosen field at the shortest possible time, Rotimi started his working career with an agency of the central government that was saddled with the oversight function of being the watchdog of public funds’ spending by all the Ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the government.

This government’s agency was chosen notwithstanding the fact that Rotimi got a mouth-watering offer of employment from a major upstream foreign oil company operating in the country. But he held on stubbornly to his criteria of choice of employment and gladly accepted to work for this government agency.

Working with this government agency, an experience that lasted for about three years, was quite eventful and revealing.

Work experience at this government department was indeed a litmus test of character for Rotimi. It was a test of how firmly, stubbornly or tenaciously he could hold on to principle, convictions and be in defence of the ideals that he stood for in the face of very irresistible temptations and establishment bottlenecks that encouraged falling in line rather than doing and/or standing up to what is right.

It was a great siege of dilemma.

Investigative work, the primary oversight function of this department, became a mere ritual of an exercise, mere window dressing and a charade. The pervasive mindset was to exploit to the maximum the corruptive tendencies of public servants who will always be found wanting in the discharge of their responsibilities for spending public funds judiciously, transparently as well as being accountable.

As a result, the assigned watchdog rather than catch, expose and shame, settled for bargaining for gratifications in proportion to the size of the loot uncovered and subsequently overlooked the infractions after the deal was settled.

Rent seeking fouled the work environment in this government department to the level of suffocation. Corruptive tendency or waywardness was so pervasive to the extent that looking for people of impeccable character, people who have not joined the bandwagon and boarded the rent seeking train, would be tantamount to searching for a virgin as an admitted patient in a hospital’s maternity ward.

It was that pathetic.

But Rotimi stood firm, held on tenaciously to principle and like a clever mouse, he has learnt to avoid the poisonous bait on the mousetrap. He stayed clear of the booby traps and asserted himself creditably. He chose to remain the person he wanted to