WHO ARE YOU?

In Africa and specifically Nigeria where I was born, people are given the names they bear based on some factors. My name is Olabiyi for instance, which translates to "Wealth gave birth to this/brought this" in english.

The situations/ circumstances that surrounds the birth of a child usually to a large
extent determines the name of the child. For instance, when a grand father or mother dies and a child is given birth to, the child in the Yoruba culture automatically bears the name "BABATUNDE or IYABO"if the child is a male or female respectively.

When they are a set of twins, in the Yoruba culture, one will be Taiwo while the other one will be kehinde depending on whosoever came out first.

But as we grow in life, our identity is summed up in two things; what the society calls us and what we call ourselves.

The society, in this I mean friends, families and acquittances have a societal model of defining people. And this definition most times is based on the individual's experiences overtime.

 For instance Paul a very smart kid who claims all the prizes on valedictory day from primary school to secondary school, and then graduated as a first class student in the University. When people on the average describe him in my culture, they will say "OLORIRE ni paulu" i.e Paul is a successful child.

Then, what we call ourselves. The truth is that since the societies definition of us is dependent on our experiences, on the overall, we can say affirmatively that the society is always eager to call us whatsoever we call ourselves.

This in itself is powerful, and that is why as individuals we must be delibrate about what we call ourselves. As Christians, our identify and faith is in God, and we pattern our lives after the dictates of God. So whatsoever he calls us is who we are.

It therefore behoves on us to find in detail what God calls us and answer it with all confidence.

All the time whenever I am in a meeting and I am asked to Introduce myself, I say " I am Agboola Biyi Micheal a BLESSING to my GENERATION and an ASSET to NATIONS " .

I am unrepentant about who I am, I am confident about who I am, because over the years, I have learned to conform to this definition of me. This in itself is a proof of how powerful what we call ourselves are.


So, I am Agboola Biyi Micheal a BLESSING to my GENERATION, and an ASSET to NATIONS.