Guardian

Olakunle Soriyan runs a Total Life Management (TLM) and Nation Building, Training and Consulting Firm. From being a failure at some points in his life, he now runs a firm that adds value to organisations, government agencies, religious houses and youth development organisations. A Philosopher, Soriyan also serves on the Board of various organizations. He spoke with OLUSHOLA VICTOR and BUKOLA  APATA

FOR Olakunle Soriyan, his goal is to ensure that organisations and Africans rise to be one of the most purposeful and inventive entities by the year 2035. And he is seriously working on that. Through his company, Olakunle Soriyan Company, he does business for profit growth, works with the government to look at policy formulation and other issues, and works with Non Governmental Organisations to support their causes.

His firm is strictly research driven and works with home grown methodology. “We develop products like software, audio CD and we have an online publication. We have a philosophy that we believe in and which can help our people. We are called to Africa and we are working tenaciously from here,” he says of his activities.

Olakunle Soriyan Company has been teaching and organising seminars to impact on the society. The Principal Transformation Strategist, Soriyan handles over 100 talks yearly, travels locally and internationally to speak about options critical for businesses and how they can find those options and embrace them. Also, the company has run a “zero to hero” seminar on almost all campuses in Nigeria, and won accolades, which he is so proud of.

Moving ahead, he explains that this is the time for them to amplify their message to get a multiplier effect. To achieve this, he is set to use radio platform as launchpad. “We have plans for television, YouTube where we could have videos for people to view and DSTV. But the radio programme is important to drive change; this is happening on Smooth FM 98.1 everyday. Smooth-Life with Olakunle Soriyan starts 7am to 7:15 am Monday till Friday; there is also a one hour phone-in live programme every Monday evening between 6:30pm and 7:30pm.”

In the search for solution to societal problems, Soriyan does not belong to the school of thought that people should look up to the government. For him, government did not create the society but the society created the government because it has been in existence before government.

The problem, he notes, is that in this part of the world, “people neglect their ‘Personal Social Responsibility.’ We have delegated that responsibility to government to manage for us and it can never work. Progress is a personal thing. This is why I have serious problem with people going to protest and carrying planks. Ask their leaders how many of them have succeeded by such acts.”

He admits that he respects the civil society a lot but “it is a great deception to deceive the masses.”  In as much as the government needs to change, Nigerians should understand the need to change themselves too because it is only the person that is medically well that can donate blood.

“The cry of a poor man is so weak because power does not recognise any other thing except power. Cries everywhere do not change the economy but what is going to change the economy is for people to make the right investment of time, energy and mind,” Soriyan emphasises.

In Nigeria also, he observes that friends, loved ones and associates are being killed because of misdirected anger. According to him, it is legitimate to get angry but anger from that direction is nuisance and it cannot lead to solution. He says the way forward is for all individuals to accept responsibilities for the peace and balance they so desire. And he thinks a serious campaign is needed to push that.

Over the last 50years, he points out that Nigerians as a people have invested a lot in luring government to see why she should take its responsibility but “have we ever invested in trying to make the people to understand they have certain responsibilities?”

He laments that the environment cannot continue to determine our status and there must be something special about an individual regardless of the environment. “I am not saying that the government is right, I am saying that the pathway is not giving us the dividends of change. You will find somebody with three wives who has refused to take responsibilities and has terrible habits of drinking and visiting the clubs. Yet, such person would be pointing accusing fingers at the government that they are not responsible and his own children are crying at home.