Special Episode with Michael🥂

 Author: Oluwadamilola Ojo

It's been a longggggggggg time😅 How are we feeling? So many things went down and just in case we might have missed this spotlight session with Michael, I'm bringing it back to our faces.

Yayyyyyyyyyyyy💃

So yeah, grab your popcorn and flow with me🥰👇

Question 1: Have you been the Clique of Elites class rep since Part 1? How has it been for you?

Answer: No, I had the privilege to be mentored by a great leader before he handed the position to me.

James Okpara had been the Class rep for the whole of our part one. I took over the post in part two first semester and it has been an adventure ever since. Loads of experiences in all shades you can think of.

Question 2: Was there any time you felt like you failed your class or put them in trouble with lecturers?

Answer: “Feeling” a lot of times, ma’am. Most times, I just think of how to serve better. Did we do all we could do in any given situation? How can we be proactive enough to avert foreseen or unforeseen circumstances? The list goes on and on.

Question 3: How did you come across your quote? What’s the inspiration behind it?

Answer: I came across it in a Leadership training I attended not too long ago and it seemed like my whole life summed up in a quote. I couldn’t take a step without it ringing. It’s the total of my life.

Question 4: Was James Okpara still a member of Elites till Part 4

Answer: Once an Elite, always an Elite. Yes, he was but not as a student of OAU anymore. He moved on to better things after part one.

Question 5: Was there any point when you felt like there was a divide or fraction in your class? If there was, were you able to pull everyone together and how?

Answer: As long as two people co-exist, there will always be a potential divide. My class is a clique of cliques and to shy away from that would be to live in deception. So my first order of business, when I became class rep was to deal with that. And in my experience as a leader, I have come to realise that everything rises and falls on leadership. The success of any organization isn’t having the most skilful individuals but organizing the individuals in the most skilful way possible. So I was led to pick someone who would turn out to be my best decision yet, Olamide Oladosu. Secondly, I looked into the entire class, scanned all the cliques in class and picked an in uential person among them to form the class committee. No sentiments…

Question 6: You picked your ACR?

Answer: Yes I did. I figured the team I work with is more important to the success of our class and the ACR would be the closest to me; I had to pick her. Of course not by force, she also had to agree.

Question 7: What was working with your assistant like for you?

Answer: Olamide Oladosu is a resting place for me and since Heaven is where most of us want to spend our eternal rest, I can say that she became my heaven in Class. As my assistant:

1. She was“my” assistant; it didn’t matter what the class wanted, she always waited for my take on it and went by that.

2. She never disagreed with me openly, no matter what her reservations were. We settled that privately and always spoke one language.

3. Even when she had personal reservations about my actions (which happened very rarely at least that I know of), Olamide was never rude to me. In fact, in those times, I was the one who observed and mentioned it before she spoke out.

4. She complimented all my e orts and matched all my energy. The minute I say that we were doing something, Olamide was always the first to jump in no matter the obstacles.

Question 8: Are you going to stay in Ife for a while? Or are you leaving immediately?

Answer: Yes, I'm kind of based in Ife.

Question 9: Any fun facts about yourself that you would love to share?

Answer: I love to play a lot. Just having a good and happy time, it doesn’t matter what kind. Volleyball was the last sport I excelled at after my disappointing marathon race in SS3.

Question 10: “Single and very searching”. Is this still the case, sir?

Answer: Yes. Any prospects for me, ma'am?

Question 11: What's your view on how psychology is being taught in OAU?

Answer: To think anything different from“it’s normal and exactly how it should be taught”, would be me poking into the fabrics of our culture as a people and that’s too long a thread to pull. I think this is the best our society can afford at the moment and we can only thrive to be better as a society, not as a department, school, or state but as a people. The same lecturers that teach us here travel abroad and act completely differently, not because they are pretending but because they have to conform to any culture they and themselves in. It’s a cultural thing here to be taught this way and until the culture changes, we will keep enjoying it this way.

Question 12: Any childhood memory you still hold onto?

Answer: A good number comes to mind but the prominent ones occurred when I came in first position in Primary 5 for the first time when I inspired my class in Primary 6 and went ahead to organize the first class party fully organized and achieved by pupils when I sang in front of an audience in church and I received an ovation (that’s the only one I have had in my music career). These are the memories I cherish.

There's also a bad one that can't be forgotten. In Primary 2, a couple of friends and I decided to play a prank on a girl because she refused to share her watercolour with us. We waited until she stepped away from our desk and took the pack. We hid it on my desk. She came back, check her desk and couldn’t and it but instead of asking, she went straight to the teacher. The teacher asked everyone to stand up and move away from their desks. It was found in my locker but that wasn’t the juicy part. My friends said nothing and I was led out like a thief straight to the headmistress’s office. Her office was at the centre of the whole school and I was asked to kneel there, where everyone would see me with the watercolour in my hands. My brother had been livid. I saw someone walking towards me and to my horror, it was my mother. I almost entered the ground, she chose that day to visit the school. It had been her first and last visit. The rest is left to your imagination. Name whatever punishment it was done to me when I got home. Also, note that my mum did the reporting and my dad did the beating.

Question 13: What would you say has contributed to the man you are now? Nature or Nurture? And in what ways?

Answer: A balanced mixture of both. I have great inherent qualities from both my parents. And nurture-wise, I grew up as a church boy in an agbero community. All thanks to God for my mom who donated us to the church. Both environments had their parts to play alongside the genes.

Question 14: Finally, is there anything you would want to change in the association or department?

Or things you feel can still run as it has? Or any idea you would like to share that can bene t the department?

Answer: Permit me to explain this with a quote.

"No matter how big the problem, if people work together, they can it”~The Adventures Of Paddington.

Nothing is happening in the department that is new or exclusive to us. This may sound cliche or like words swept under the carpet but our challenge isn’t in the challenges we face but in the disunity we embrace, so much that it clouds our judgments, and limit our capacity to achieve more. I have realized that our trophy here is in how much we can“show” and“slow” when it should be in how much we can “purify” and "glorify". If we can commit to the process of being truly one without compromising our standards and ethics, we will have surmounted 90% of our challenges. So my advice is that the leaders shouldn’t be lazy in being credible and accountable, those checking them shouldn’t be less intelligent to allow for mediocrity but also do it with a sense of and commitment to progress

Question 15: Why didn't you contest for PsychIfe presidential election? Too many commitments at the time? To maintain stability in your class? You didn't think PsychIfe needed you? Or you don't believe in politicking as a means to get a chance to serve?

Answer: It wasn’t about the department needing me, because it would have been a huge privilege to serve in the position of the president. The association had more to offer me in exposure and experience than I would have ever had to offer. My class would have been stable with or without me. We had established a system at the time. There are never too many commitments to the things you have chosen to commit to. Yes, I have a good number of commitments but if I had chosen to run, it would have been all in for me.

Question 16: One observation, sir, is that you couldn't keep your leaders' united and accountable. I can't say you didn't try though, because from the little of you I've experienced, I would suppose that you did. What went wrong? And what's your advice for peculiar situations like that?

Answer: Let me use this opportunity to say this.

1. Our leaders were greatly misunderstood in carrying out their responsibilities.

2. Being accountable at all levels of leadership is both a choice and a necessary but not mandatory requirement. It’s much harder than you think to be accountable in the face of the feeling of being treated unfairly. That's a human aw, not an individual aw. There is nothing that happened in this administration that we haven’t seen happen at least twice in the last 4 years.

So to avoid it again would be to chart a new course for this association, where we all have one goal and that’s the“Purpose” and the“People” with nothing else.

3. To put anything in check without their full consent would mean to take the place of godfatherism and that’s not who I am to them. I am not their mentor, just a colleague who has a lot to learn himself and in the best way possible, we had talks and discussions to forge a way forward a lot of times. Once again, they were greatly misunderstood, however, the work of a leader is far from being understood but in getting the job done and for that I do apologize for the disappointment by proxy that the association felt as a result of the leadership of the just concluded tenure.

I would advise that the next administration should not seek to prove a point based on their supposed failures but build on whatever little success they perceive the administration has given, and protect the little light so that it can become brighter next year.

Question 17: What does service mean to you as a person?

Answer: Objectively, service is the pathway to greatness; the kind of greatness I look forward to. That’s why I believe it is always a privilege to be offered an opportunity to serve because it opens a tollgate closer to greatness for me.

Question 18: What does the phrase "to serve" mean to you then?

Answer: Subjectively, service for me is an opportunity to make someone smile over time. I just want to help you be the best version of you and that drives me to always want to give the best version of me all the time.

There is no greater fulfilment in service for me than to know you are living the best version of yourself at the time. The challenge with humans is living a substandard life and that frustrates millions. I want to help you clear the path, clear your mind, and give myself if possible to help you achieve a maximum and optimal life. With me, I don’t think anything is impossible. So when giving me any opportunity to serve, be careful what you suggest to me. And that’s why I am in love with my ACR. She is a notch higher than me in serving.

Whoosh🚀🚀🚀

This brings us to the end of Michael's edition. His answers to certain questions are what the entirety of PsychIfe will find necessary and that's why we are bringing this to your screen.

Read through and enjoy🥂