14 Pillars | Featured Artiste: Jahdiel

A few months ago, I watched a video of Fela Durotoye, a respected motivational speaker and mentor based in Nigeria, where he discussed one of the subjects that is dear to my heart: Education (Duh!) He outlined 14 Pillars of Education on which the educational system in Nigeria rests.

[Picture from HERE]
He actually described them as 'COBWEBS' (Interesting choice of words) because he said that no single strand of a cobweb can stand alone, but they are all inter-connected, i.e. one strand of a cobweb ALONE and by itself cannot catch all the problems that exist in Nigeria's educational system.  Please see the video below:





I decided to share the brief gist of what he discussed here.  So, the 14 Pillars of Education he identified are:

  1. Students: We need students who are highly inspired to excel.
  2. Teachers: We need GREAT teachers, the ones whose words you cannot forget (Can you think of one right now?)
  3. Guardians, Parents and Caregivers
  4. Principals and Administrators
  5. Authors and Publishers
  6. Private Sector
  7. Public Sector:  We need a harmonization of policies at the Federal, State and Local government levels.
  8. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs): They are the key agents of delivering change.
  9. Civil Society:  This includes the society at large and neighbors.
  10. Researchers of Teaching and Learning techniques
  11. Curriculum Developers
  12. Media and Entertainment
  13. Judiciary
  14. #Idontknow: LOL! I know he said 14 pillars, but I went over the video again and again looking for the 14th one and I just did not get it.  If you find it, please share :-) So maybe, I should correctly call them 13 pillars, ba?

Anyhow, I was quite pleased with his list because it covered both the pillars I would typically have identified (e.g. teachers) as well as the ones I was surprised to see on this list (e.g. The Judiciary and Authors & Publishers).  But I think they all fit into the overall "BIG" picture and you can expect each of these to be recurring themes over the lifetime of this blog.  #DeliverTheFuture


Featured Artiste: Jahdiel 


[Jahdiel / TruSpot Radio]
If you listen to Nigerian gospel music, you would probably be familiar with both Jahdiel, who is featured here today, as well as Eben (who is also featured on the song alongside Jahdiel).  
Her single, Heritage brought her into the limelight and gave us a feel for her abilities and potential as an artiste.  Well, after listening to Heritage and watching the video some years ago, I bought the album and discovered other songs that I liked.  Today's featured song, FIRE, is one of them.  Please click on the link below to listen to it on TruSpot Radio:


Jahdiel - Fire - Listen free at Truspot!


And now for my observations:


Likes:  I have listened to this song on and off for a couple of years and I have grown to LIKE it for the following reasons: (1) The beats and instrumention are quite good (especially the drums and bass guitar) and build anticipation for the rest of the song from the beginning to the end.  (2) Eben's gritty voice provides a nice balance to Jahdiel's soprano voice and the combination of their voices actually makes for an unusual duet.  I know some people might listen to this and demand that Eben should never sing another note, but I think his voice has a different texture and actually works well with this song. (3) The background vocals were just okay.


Dislikes:  I will be the first to admit that this is NOT one of Jahdiel's best works and does not do justice to her strength and versatility as an artiste.  But I still chose to feature her with this particular song for the reasons already outlined above.  Now, what really makes this song fall short of the mark are these reasons: (1) Vocal Control:  Jahdiel has a wide vocal range and she can hit some really high notes, but she goes off key too many times in this song and it is just plain distracting and hard to miss.  Unfortunately, this tendency to go off key starts right from the intro and shows up in different parts of the song. (2)  The voices of both Eben and Jahdiel do not blend well in some parts, notably in the bridge, where Jahdiel's voice overshadows Eben's own.  (3) Eben himself sounds off key in some parts, which shows evidence of poor production / mixing, I think. (4) Some of the lyrics are unclear to me, due to poor enunciation of the words.  Overall, I like the song, but I just get the sense that it is an unfinished work and would love to "re-work" it.  (*Note to self*: Relentless, you can want to "re-work" the song as much as you want, but the fact remains that dem don release de album since 2008 and you can just fogerrit!).

Finally, some more information on Jahdiel:

Artiste's Stage Name: Jahdiel

Artiste's Real Name: Grace Okoduwa

Featured Album / Song: HERITAGE / Fire featuring Eben

Before I forget, I want to wish Nikki Laoye a Happy Married Life! In case you were wondering, Nikki is a well-known gospel artiste (who will definitely be featured on this blog one of these days). She got married this past weekend to Alexander Oturu, so I suppose we should call her Mrs. Nikki Oturu now? Either way, Congratulations to both of them. All the best from my heart to yours! Have a blessed week y'all!



Fela Durotoye is one person I very much respect his thoughts. I went to see him once while I was still in Nigeria. He was a very motivational speaker, and not just about giving and sowing and tithing like a lot of Nigerian pastors.

Most of what Fela Durotoye said made a lot of sense and as an educationalist and someone with a great passion for education, I couldn't agree more. However, the greatest pillar of education, is to have a vision for education. A sound vision is what is needed to drive all the other pillars into action. Sadly we have incompetent and visionless politicians and leaders to do what is needed to provide its citizens with an education that truly works. Good to see he's actually doing something to help. I like his idea of doing a books appeal to distribute to those who need, something I'll be quite interested to get involved with.

I also respect his thoughts, but unfortunately, I have not yet had the pleasure of listening to him speak :-(  However, one thing that I particularly admire about him is the fact that he emphasizes doing more for Nigeria (and not just "talking" about doing more ... he practices what he preaches).  

Yes, Fela's passion for education is palpable ... very hard to miss.  However, I am not sure I agree with you on adding vision for education as an additional pillar.  While vision is necessary to even see each of these items as a pillar in and of itself, vision is what brings them together and helps to make them all work effectively.  Putting vision as a pillar would mean putting it on the same level as each of the items he listed, and I feel that it would be better to put vision on a higher level.  

The books appeal is also something I would want to participate in.  I just have no idea how to get people in the diaspora (myself included) actively involved in this and similar opportunities.  

AdeOla, you won't believe that I not only stumble across them while jeje-ly minding my business on the internet.  And then, sometime, they find me ... And then there are those times when I actively seek them out on sites like ReverbNation, YouTube, iTunes, Last.FM ... it just depends.

Fair enough but at least we both agree that vision for education is very important, whether or not we consider it a pillar really doesn't matter IMHO.

Anyway, we can both put our heads together and start something, instead of looking for how to get actively involved. I've been collecting used books at the school I work but looking for credible people to work with so that it gets to those who really needs them. Let me know if this appelas to you.

Nnaija4life

Hugs and Kisses to you Relentless! Merry Christmas and happy new year!!!

Very true, as per we both agree that vision is very important.  I like your idea though (active involvement) and I thank you for even letting me know about your own efforts, but right now, I won't be able to commit to it.

Thanks Renny! Hugs and Kisses received with much gratitude and duly returned ... I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you a very prosperous 2012!

@The Relentless Builder, Thanks for the Christmas wishes you left on my blog. Hope you had a nice one and wishing you a prosperous new year ahead.

You're very welcome! Thanks for your support and I wish you a more fulfilling 2012. 

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