"All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience"

Life to me is often like a huge tapestry. Different unseen strands been woven together by an unseen hand making us become the people we become. The circumstances we encounter the people we meet, the books we read, the thoughts we think and the actions we take lead us down often uncharted parts which when they pull together can create beauty contributing to the World we live in.

I often see my life as coming together in this manner. Things planned and unplanned making me into the traveler along life’s way I have become. Many people, circumstances, books and experiences combining to rattle my cage and not only make me fly but also develop a desire to rattle people’s cages in the way mine has been. So many of these things have rattled my cage but some of the most significant cage rattlers for me have been:-

MY PARENTS – I was born about the time of Nigerian independence to a family which would probably qualify as among the top 1% educationally in the country. My father was an Education Officer –One of very few indigenous ones in the country and my mother was Head of the nursing Department at the General Hospital.

As a result they found themselves holding leadership positions in Government and society. Early in life they both developed a vision for encouraging young people to fulfill their potential and become effective leaders in a country which at the time and even more so has needed men and women who would fulfill their potential. In doing this they served as mentors as encouragers, as role models and as facilitators. It was to be for them a lifelong desire.

As they moved up in career they maintained this role and as the first born I was privileged to see at Close range so many men become high flying eagles as a result of the ministration of this couple. My siblings and I were also inadvertent beneficiaries of a family that discussed leadership and management issues at table and a home littered with reading materials and journals.

Eventually my father retired as Head of the Ministry of Education (Permanent Secretary) and my mother as Director of Administration of the University Teaching Hospital. And all through they kept on exposing us to decision making at high levels – My Father while I was in the university even allowed me to be involved in National Assignments.

They were and remain my first cage rattlers - Exposing a little boy to the many possibilities of life and the challenge of thoughtful leadership they also imparted into me a life long curiosity as well as a desire to see human beings led along paths of impact and fulfillment.

3rd Grade – 1971 found me in third grade in the United States of America where as reading material in School I read the biographies of two great Americans – George Washington and George Washington Carver and I began to see that individuals can change the destiny and the life of a people regardless of circumstance even when like George Washington Carver the men were born in slavery.

1977 -1982 – The University – The University of Ife which I attended was a major cage rattler. Though reading Engineering ( I graduated with a degree In Chemical Engineering) I was exposed to a wide range of programmes and I must confess I spent most of my time exploring as many fields of study as possible earning myself the nick name of “the quack” because of my comfort and proficiency in many fields other than mine.

I served as a member of the Student Parliament, In the Judicial Council of the Union, as Editors in Chief of a Campus Newspaper, a member of the Drama Unit of the Christian Group and a leader of a group of young men with a vision to discuss Socio political issues affecting the growth of our nation. The breadth and the depth of the exposure was stimulating and exhilarating and helped me cultivate a lifelong interest and knowledge base in a wide range of disparate subjects such as Law, Economics, Philosophy etc to name a few.

In addition as I was thrown more and more into leadership at a relatively young age I began to see the effect and challenges facing real leadership.

1989 – My MARRIAGE. In 1989 I was privileged to marry a brilliant and beautiful lady who fulfilled my desire in every way and in one particular way helped rattle the cage even further. My wife who is now Professor of Counselling at the Covenant University in Nigeria provided me with an exposure at close range in the area of human behaviour that helped fire up and fine tune a lot of my previous thoughts. Her grasp of her subject provided for me both a discourse mate and a reinforcement of the home atmosphere I had grown up with. Her Library of journal, books and materials and the papers she wrote and her research became a doorway to an expanded world.

They rattled my cage even further.

1990 – The Leadership development challenge comes home – 1990 I  found myself elected as President of The Ilorin City Chapter of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International - one of the largest Chapters in Nigeria. I was 28 and the youngest member of the executive which was made up of eminent professionals in their own right. One year later despite the rapid growth in my chapter and the growing regard with which I was held I realized that these men needed mentoring into leadership and in that one area I had not been much of a success. Thus began my journey into leadership development as a field.

Designing programmes for growth, facilitating the growth processes, serving as counselor and inspiration. The effect spilled over into my professional life where I began to passionately work at developing men into leadership and the more this grew the more it became my guiding passion culminating in the establishment two years ago of Adetokunbo Obayan and Associates the first leadership development consultancy in Nigeria with a vision to develop leadership capacity across Nigeria in particular and the world at large, hopefully creating a bridge to encourage Africans into developing Leadership capacity.

The firm helps develop leadership capacity by working with organizations to run Leadership Skills enhancement Workshops for companies and serve both as facilitators and counselors. What’s more I have found in helping men develop their capacity has become and is becoming more a fitting home for my varying dispositions, my temperament, my natural communication skills and desires, my innate curiosity, my desire to see people develop and my personality. As Demos Shakarian said in his book the Happiest People on Earth those who find their calling  become one of the Happiest people on Earth

About Toks Obayan
Adetokunbo (Toks) Obayan was born on Nov 6 1962 in the City of Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. As a result of his parents position in the Northern Civil Service . He had the dubious distinction of attending five different primary Schools including a year in New Haven Connecticut when his mother was a student at Yale University where she obtained a Double Masters in 1971.

Immediately after his Secondary Education in June 1977 he worked briefly with The Statistical Division of The Kwara State Ministry of Economic Planning.. L;ater that year he resumed at the University of Ife in October 1977 for a degree in Chemical Engineering which he completed in 1982. Upon graduation he did his National Service at the Project Development Institute Nigeria’s foremost Engineering development Institute where he was in charge of design \and construction of an Ethanol Distillation Unit utilizing Local raw materials.

From 1985/1986 he attended the University of Ibadan for a Post Graduate Diploma in Food Technology.

Between 1986 and 1988 he worked at the Nigerian Paper Mills Ltd, Jebba' Nigeria’s premier Paper Makes as Shift Manager in the Operations division. He left Paper Mill in 1988 to become Managing Partner and Chief Executive in the Industrial and Management Consultancy firm of Ibitayo Obayan Saliu and Company.  They were involved in providing both technical and management Consultancy to organizations in Nigeria. These included the Nigerian Paper Mills Ltd, The Kwara State Government, The Raw Materials Research and Development Council, The National Electric Power Authority and The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to name a few.

In 1996 the family moved over for a brief period to the United Kingdom where he worked as a foundation Team Leader and Head of Department at the South East Regional Office of Cearns and Brown in Park Royal London.

He returned to Nigeria in 2000 where he founded the firm of Adetokunbo Obayan and Associates a Leadership development Consultancy which specializes in working with organizations to facilitate Leadership Capacity Development in the organization. T hey are already working with several organizations both Government and Private.

His management experience has been further enhance by his involvement in the Full Gospel Businessmen’s fellowship International, the largest Christian laymen’s organisation in the world which has a strong tradition of manpower development, training and developing laymen into effective leaders of religious organisation. This gave him great insight as he was involved in many of the great manpower initiatives in the Nigerian body which has been one of the greatest success stories of the fellowship world-wide. He currently serves on The National Board of Directors and as a member of the National Leadership Training Team of the Fellowship In Nigeria.

He also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Kogi State Government Family Support Programme. In addition he serves on the Board of Directors and Advisers of various organization and companies.

He has been married since 1989 to Aize Obayan who is a Professor of Counselling and Dean of the College of Human Development of Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria and they have two wonderful children - a Girl Toluwani born in August 1990 and a boy Joshua who just turned 12 in January 2004.

Contact him at toks@rattle-the-cage.com