Up Naira : Obituary: 'Kunle Olaifa 1980-2014

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Obituary: 'Kunle Olaifa 1980-2014

Posted by t . . at 4:55 PM

Until his passing one week ago in a car accident, Mr. 'Kunle Olaifa was the Head of Human Resources, West Africa, for a large multinational company.

A dedicated HR professional, Kunle built many careers. He of course built a stellar career for himself, with stints at Adecco HR Consulting, GE Energy, and Triangle Nigeria, as well as Career Solutions Africa and Samsung.

http://olorisupergal.com/samsung-galaxy-s4-is-finally-here-basketmouth-bovi-kate-henshaw-banky-w-others-at-the-unveil-of-samsung-galaxy-s4-in-lagos/

He was an alumnus of the University of Ilorin and Nigerian Navy Secondary School, Abeokuta. He was also an AIESECer, an associate fellow of NLI - the Nigeria Leadership Initiative, and a thought-leader and frequent speaker on human resources at various fora including the Leadership Academies at DayStar Christian Center.

But we remember him most for being a pillar of several communities, a leader, one who was very intelligent, visionary, concerned, engaged, funny, and kind. In plain language, he was a good friend, inspiring mentor, and a father figure to many. He was married with children.

I will post below a few of the writings of Kunle that I can find on the internet, and hope you join his family, friends, and associates, as we all pay our respects to a fellow who lived an exemplary life.

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14 comments:

t said...: A country is only as big as what her citizens know"
in Business Day, August 5, 2014.

Kunle Olaifa, a human resources expert, is lead human resources manager for Samsung across West Africa. In this insightful interview, he x-rays issues surrounding human capital development in Nigeria, HR challenges, among others. He spoke with KELECHI EWUZIE.

Challenges facing HR community

The biggest challenge facing the human resource community in Nigeria, Africa and other parts of the world is the issue of HR becoming a strategic partner. Every HR manager out there is looking at how HR can sit at the table with management where key decisions are made and be able to strategically connect.

HR is a business driver actually. So one challenge every HR manager has is to be able to prove to business owners that they are strategic partners. This is a challenge that HR managers have inadvertently brought upon themselves by being very administrative in the past.

Another key challenge is the issue of talent management. HR managers are challenged on how they can maximise the potentials in managers and business owners.

Skill gap challenge

Well, I think the problem is systemic. It is a function of our country. It is not the graduates that don’t want to be good. The other question we need to ask ourselves as a people is: what other things that we produce as a nation actually come out good?

As government and employers, we sometimes ask our graduates to be excellent. We need to ask: how many of our companies are excellent? How many Nigerian-born companies have become multinational or have become regional players?

So the environment in itself also dictates what you get from the companies. If you look at the few companies we have that are local or the ones that are multinational that have thrived, it is because they realise the need to grow so they are beginning to invest in growing people. I will say that the better the business environment, the better the kind of businesspeople we produce, the better the industries, the better the feedbacks to the school which will in turn affect the graduates that such schools produce.

Looking back, the best time in education in Nigeria was in the early 1950s, ’60s, and maybe ’70s. This was so because it was the period the country was an emerging power in the world, so it was important for Nigeria to produce its own goods. It was the time when the nation was part of the British Empire. So there was a deliberate effort to get good graduates because employees then were like tools in the hand of the company.

Nigeria as a whole is probably not working very well and this is something we need to look deeper into to know what the issues are. I usually talk about the issue of generational skill gap. What our schools are still teaching today was what my parents needed when we were in the industrial age; we have gone way past industrial age, now we are in the knowledge age. So you can rightly say that a country is only as big as what her citizens know, not the resources that lie underground.

Continued...; August 26, 2014 5:08 PM
t said...: A country is only as big as what her citizens know"
in Business Day, August 5, 2014.

Part 2 of 2

Getting good graduate talents involves getting an environment that is conducive. Nigeria as a whole is not encouraging enough for us to grow skills in certain fields of endeavour because the tools required to grow these people from the education system – from facilities in schools to the business that should even challenge people – are not available. It is only until these things are made available that we will begin to see the difference.

That is why if you look at the private schools, many of them are still good in the social sciences and not in the technical areas but with time, all those things will keep coming up. We are already seeing individuals setting up technical schools, and companies setting up technical practice to grow these skills. It is a function of necessity: if there is a need for these things, they start to come up, and production for it will increase. It is about supply and demand. The demands for these talents are much but the industries that really need them are not available. The truth of the matter is that the environment cannot produce what it does not need.

Motivation

My motivation for being in HR is centred on how to manage human capital to get better. The truth is that what makes any country, company or family better is the quality of the people. So I have come to love the idea of looking at how HR can help improve the resources that are human, which is one of the most interesting things that a company can have.

My biggest drive has always been the challenges I have faced. Another motivation for me is that I see nothing as impossible. I feel lucky that I am in HR because I am dealing with the only product that companies have that responds but does not have a perfect way of response. At no point in time in any company will you have 100 percent of the employees agreeing on one thing. HR is so dynamic and these are the things that have really motivated me to be in it. I love it when I realise that my role as HR manager contributes almost immediately to the bottom line.; August 26, 2014 5:09 PM
t said...: Fashola, Choices, Talent and the dearth of ideas.
Published on facebook March 3, 2011 at 1:31pm
by 'Kunle Olaifa

For some time I have wondered silently why Babatunde Fashola - the Governor Lagos - is campaigning for the next election. I have thought it’s only natural that he will get a landslide victory. My assumption is not based solely on his performance but I have not seen any credible campaign opposing him. I have also not met, seen or heard anybody who has shown a deliberate effort to win Lagos election and better our lot.

I know of the excuse that his stellar performance scared his opponents. I have heard friends say “there is really nobody that wants to lose…he will win any day” and then I sigh. However, the debate organized by Channels TV and ThisDay Newspaper confirmed his victory for me and equally raised some concerns for Nigeria and the coming generation.

As I watched the debate turn into campaign exercise for Fashola, I remembered a conversation sometime in 2009 at a conference in East Africa. Among the over 54 Africans participants at this conference were 11 carefully selected Nigerians including a serving state governor. Jimi Agbje, the Gubernatorial candidate of Democratic People's Alliance (DPA) at 2007 Lagos Gubernatorial election was one of us. Astonishing to all participants, we all wanted to meet Jimi and not our dear governor. We wanted to know what gave him the audacity to dare Tinubu, AC and power of incumbency. We wanted to know why he decided to give us a credible choice at the polls. We wanted and needed to know where he got the “liver” from.

As Jimi went about his reasons, we nodded along obediently since we knew the answers already. We only wanted to savour the moment of “from the horse’s mouth”. Politicians read from the same book and eat from the same plate and so they think the same way. Obviously, they think we believe them when they tell us they like us more than we even like ourselves. Anyways, as Jimi’s sermon ended, as Nigerians, we quickly restated to him that we, our families and even unborn children voted for him. Then in that same spirit of solidarity we gracefully offered apologies for his loss at the polls.

At this point we missed it. Our apologies drew blood. His eyes grew and turned red. He called us back, reprimanded us and stated that he is the true winner. His crisp clear words resonates till date. “Fashola was not Tinubu’s candidate. He only became their candidate because I threw my hat in. At that point they realized they needed to match me and my idea of running Lagos. I am happy with what has come out of Lagos today. It may not be the Lagos of my dream but we clearly got a better deal and that is the reason I went into that race. I want a better Lagos”.

Continued below...; August 26, 2014 5:13 PM
t said...: Fashola, Choices, Talent and the dearth of ideas.
Published on facebook March 3, 2011 at 1:31pm
by 'Kunle Olaifa

Part 2 of 2

Jimi’s victory was the level of sophistication that came into the electoral process, campaign, ideas, discussions and governance immediately he stepped

into the race. I have difficulty finding words to describe that less than 3 years after Jimi, Uche, Pedro and others slugged it out we can’t find similar or better ideas, progressive rigour in our quest to improve Lagos – the 5th largest economy is Sub Saharan Africa. Are we saying we are satisfied already? Are we saying this is the best? Does it mean Fashola cannot be spurred to do more?

Is it not shameful and insulting to our collective intelligence that Bashorun JK Randle deemed it fit to discuss personal issues and ask Fashola for a meeting on that stage; that Tokoya, Dominic & Randle spent more time telling us about their age than their plans for Lagos; that JK Randle took us back to 1952 to answer a question on security; that all Dosunmu can sell to us is getting taxes paid into the public domain; that Randle answered none of his questions; that Tokoya’s answer to all this is divine; that none of the other candidates presented a single meaningful fact/stat relating to the job they are asking us to give them; that they had only questions for Fashola and they were lame questions; that it took someone from the audience to ask about burning developmental issues such as the 4th mainland bridge; light rail project e.t.c;.

It is insulting and shameful….that none of them including Fashola said a word about Lagos beyond 2012. As a fellow spectator said, I have seen better performance at SUG elections.

Dozing as I type, I blame me. Yes, I blame me. Since I have only learnt to watch, marvel, type, doze….read and gently submit my vote like You….“THEY” will keep insulting me and our collective intelligence.

As Fashola summed his assisted campaign yesterday, “the problem is not their age rather it is the age of their ideas”.; August 26, 2014 5:13 PM
t said...: I walked…..
Published on facebook on October 28, 2009 at 12:34pm

Yesterday I walked. I took a long walk. A walk not planned but achieved.

“So, when did walking become such a big thing”? I hear you asking. Anyways you might not know but in my ever so funny country “taking a walk” is a preserve of the elite. It is a thing of pride simply because you will only walk when you don’t have to bother about power, traffic, robbery and other silly things that make us live in the fear of living itself. How do you walk when there are no parks, walkways and time is ever so effervescent because we spend too much of it on mundane things.

Anyways, at the close of business yesterday - after the usual long day of a young upwardly mobile working class dude in Lagos of Nigeria - for the same old irrepressible reasons there was heavy traffic. At the gate of my office complex it was a logjam. It was simply nauseating. How else will you feel? Facing this nightmare again at 7:45pm after putting in 12 hours of your life for your daily bread.

Then it occurred to me that I could escape…at least for a day. I stepped out of the car. “The car” is the name you give your car when it is becoming old or out of date. It is no longer “my car” for obvious reasons. I left everything, everything except my comb and phones. Note the phones. Today, our phones are the reasons why we live and not the other way round. The more you have, the longer you live or is it vice versa, and my comb has suddenly become very important since I decided to have a feel of a bigger cover on my head.

With nothing to bother about I walked home. I walked over three kilometres from office to my home. No music. No company. No hassles. I just walked.

I love to walk. I have walked before. I have walked several times….sometimes out of lack or need. I have not walked in over 36 months; I have not walked since I started this race up the corporate ladder. Walking helps me to think. It helps me to reflect. It opens me up for new ideas. However, I must confess that I didn’t set out with the mind to walk all the way home. I only wanted to get to the nearest bus stop or get a bike. No bike or bus and then the next bus stop and then the next. At the 3rd bus stop, I found one but I had changed my mind. I wanted to walk. In fact there was no traffic from the 3rd bus stop till I got home. That is Lagos for you.

Yesterday’s walk was unique because it helped me to see things in a different way. I appreciated life and living a little more. I saw my city as a part of my life a little more. I felt the pain of others a little more. I saw the need to make things work a little more. I also knew that things are not so bad a little more. I saw Fashola’s work a little more and why we need a little more. Above all it is helping me tell a story a little more.

Whilst walking I saw blocked drains and also saw debris flying out of cars without caution. I saw callous drivers and at least 6 incidents of “bumper to bumper” car crashes. I saw many bikes meandering and manoeuvring between vehicles at their own peril. I saw potholes, craters and boulders on our roads and I realised what led to my walk. Yet I saw lovebirds – arms hanging around necks and chatting away without bothering about the world around them. I saw kids playing away happily, I saw many people eating by the roadside.

Happy people! For them….Life may not be fair but they are faring through.

What do you love doing? Eating? Eating the way you like it…maybe with your hands. Sleeping? Sleep the way you like…maybe on the floor/mat sometimes. Walking, eating, writing, drinking? Do it the way you love to do it. You will be surprised at the joy that comes with the anonymity.

I am back in the office, ready to face today. There will be traffic again. Will I be walking? Yes…in my mind.; August 26, 2014 5:15 PM
t said...: What the Obama victory means to me!

Published on facebook November 7, 2008 at 6:16pm

In the early hours of yesterday, while watching McCain concede in Phoenix and Obama accept in Chicago, tears dropped from my eyes and here I am writing a piece about the man of the moment. The man every black man has become related to. I watched Oprah Winfrey sobbing and saw Reverend Jesse Jackson crying like a kid? Bernice King (Martin Luther King's daughter) cried for joy that the death of her father is not in vain.

Barack Hussien Obama (47 years old) has just been elected as the 44th president of the United States of America. Barack is of mixed origin which includes Kenya - a country in the eastern part of Africa. I must immediately confess that I have not been a passionate supporter of Obama. I am just a passive fan. I had always remained with the pessimistic class hoping that he will try, put together a very good campaign and come second and then we will all celebrate his courage, bravery and not his victory.

Even when everyone around me idolised him, I never read any of his books or speeches. I simply looked on and hoped the craze will stop soon. In the past few weeks/months I have had to endure discussions about the US election. My friends have made virtually every discussion resonate around the Obama phenomenon. First, it was about the Obama/Hilary battle. 1st black vs. 1st woman. It came so often that I became tired and I would silently leave the discussion as soon as I realise I could change the topic to other issues especially football, business or careers. However, despite my little interest, I have always kept abreast of news, followed the whole process out of interest, information and search for knowledge.

Unfortunately, the craze has only just begun, going on and on and on. Spam mails and pictures about the new 1st family of the world are already clogging my mailbox. My brother (Lekan Olaifa) will gladly change our surname to Obama. My friend, Osibo who is Kenyan by engagement has changed his choice location for relocation from Nairobi to Washington DC...seemingly because all Kenyan now have access to the White House. Another friend who we all know visited Kenya with a transit visa is claiming to have seen Barack's house and says he even knows some of his relatives.

Obama could have been....Black or white. Young or old. Male or female. Sick or strong. Rich or poor. Able or disable. Hoping or Changing... Why is the Obama victory important for all of us?

Continued...; August 26, 2014 5:18 PM
t said...: What the Obama victory means to me!

Published on facebook November 7, 2008 at 6:16pm

Part 2 of 2

I have heard quite a number of Africans say "It will give the next generation hope". "It will launder the image of the black man". "It will show that the black man is also or even more intelligent". "US policy for Africa will change". "Change will come to world politics". "US diversity Visa Lottery will become easier". These are valid points but I sincerely do not see any reason for celebration in all this....as it does not directly or indirectly affect my daily life.

As a young person, one of my dreams was to rule the world. I always hoped that I will be the first black president of the US. I know quite a number of us had such terrific plans. Now, that is impossible....but there are many more possibilities...if only we choose to follow our dreams. For me, the Obama victory is much more than having a black man run the white house - It about the possibility in places where people preach impossibility -. It is about the so called scared places and impossible achievements. If McCain or Hilary carried the day, history would still have been made. Obama's victory at the polls is worth celebrating so also is that of the weeping Oprah and Jesse Jackson. They have made history too in their own rights.

Impossibilities are everyday occurrences. I have come to realise that it is not when I become the first black to run the Kremlin or the Vatican that we should pop the champagne. Today has lots of impossibilities. I am out to conquer them...starting with this note, herculean task for a man who gets the writer’s block every 5 minutes, it has taken me 3 hours.

For you my friend.....You might just need to ask again "Who says I can't do it?"

Thank you Barack... I have started dreaming again. I know the bar has been raised again and.....Yes we can!!!; August 26, 2014 5:19 PM
mlg said...: So sad. Rest in peace.; August 26, 2014 11:46 PM
t said...: ‘Organisations need HR managers as strategic partners to thrive’

Published in BusinessDay
March 4, 2014

Kunle Olaifa, a human resources expert, is lead human resources manager for Samsung across West Africa. In this insightful interview, he x-rays issues surrounding human capital development in Nigeria, HR challenges, among others. He spoke with KELECHI EWUZIE.

Career path

Before now I had always been a consultant. I have worked at various levels of human resources; I have led recruitment in various companies in the world and across Africa before recently joining Samsung as lead human resources for the company across West Africa covering about 19 countries in the West African region.

Motivation

My motivation for being in HR is centred on how to manage human capital to get better. The truth is that what makes any country, company or family better is the quality of the people. So I have come to love the idea of looking at how HR can help improve the resources that are human, which is one of the most interesting things that a company can have.

My biggest drive has always been the challenges I have faced. Another motivation for me is that I see nothing as impossible. I feel lucky that I am in HR because I am dealing with the only product that companies have that responds but does not have a perfect way of response. At no point in time in any company will you have 100 percent of the employees agreeing on one thing. HR is so dynamic and these are the things that have really motivated me to be in it. I love it when I realise that my role as HR manager contributes almost immediately to the bottom line.

Skill gap challenge

Well, I think the problem is systemic. It is a function of our country. It is not the graduates that don’t want to be good. The other question we need to ask ourselves as a people is: what other things that we produce as a nation actually come out good?

As government and employers, we sometimes ask our graduates to be excellent. We need to ask: how many of our companies are excellent? How many Nigerian-born companies have become multinational or have become regional players?

So the environment in itself also dictates what you get from the companies. If you look at the few companies we have that are local or the ones that are multinational that have thrived, it is because they realise the need to grow so they are beginning to invest in growing people. I will say that the better the business environment, the better the kind of businesspeople we produce, the better the industries, the better the feedbacks to the school which will in turn affect the graduates that such schools produce.

Looking back, the best time in education in Nigeria was in the early 1950s, ’60s, and maybe ’70s. This was so because it was the period the country was an emerging power in the world, so it was important for Nigeria to produce its own goods. It was the time when the nation was part of the British Empire. So there was a deliberate effort to get good graduates because employees then were like tools in the hand of the company.

Nigeria as a whole is probably not working very well and this is something we need to look deeper into to know what the issues are. I usually talk about the issue of generational skill gap. What our schools are still teaching today was what my parents needed when we were in the industrial age; we have gone way past industrial age, now we are in the knowledge age. So you can rightly say that a country is only as big as what her citizens know, not the resources that lie underground.

Continued...; August 28, 2014 3:14 PM
t said...: ‘Organisations need HR managers as strategic partners to thrive’

Published in BusinessDay
March 4, 2014

Part 2 of 3

Getting good graduate talents involves getting an environment that is conducive. Nigeria as a whole is not encouraging enough for us to grow skills in certain fields of endeavour because the tools required to grow these people from the education system – from facilities in schools to the business that should even challenge people – are not available. It is only until these things are made available that we will begin to see the difference.

That is why if you look at the private schools, many of them are still good in the social sciences and not in the technical areas but with time, all those things will keep coming up. We are already seeing individuals setting up technical schools, and companies setting up technical practice to grow these skills. It is a function of necessity: if there is a need for these things, they start to come up, and production for it will increase. It is about supply and demand. The demands for these talents are much but the industries that really need them are not available. The truth of the matter is that the environment cannot produce what it does not need.

Staff motivation

Motivation of staff is a very strong force. In motivating staff, there are a couple of things one has to consider as a human resource manager, you need to understand the state and status of your staff. It is a very big factor in ensuring that the staff engaged is productive.

HR managers in motivating staff need to look at the cost of such motivation; there is also the need to ensure that such motivation is sustainable. So, HR managers need to look at the cost of motivation, the durability, sustainability and the effect of such motivation on the overall interest of the organisation. In motivation, key areas HR managers need to look at include what the population needs, the benefits, the sustainability and credibility of such motivation. It is only when these areas are taken care of that they begin to look at all the things that will help them achieve results.

Leadership style

In my experience, what I have done in all the period I have occupied leadership positions is to have a very collaborative style. I believe in the beauty of democracy, I believe in the beauty of innovation which does just reside in only one person.

I operate an open system where everybody is allowed to contribute, but what I like to do is to set the boundaries so that everyone working with me will know the dos and don’ts, but in-between those boundaries, my teams of workers can do as they wish. So I appreciate the idea that says let’s set the rules, let everybody understand and let’s engage.

Again, one of the things I like to do and which I am actively involved in is that I don’t want to be engaged with someone, lead, coach or mentor anyone and not leave an imprint of improvement on such a person. It is a personal thing that I go actively after. If you have worked with me for, say, three months to one year, if people see you, they need to see the imprint that I have made in your life.

Another key thing for me in leadership is the issue of integrity. I think this is something that you can actually pass down. This is one key thing I put down in my leadership. In addition, loyalty is one characteristic I like to follow through on because once I am committed to a cause, I like to follow it through.

Continued...; August 28, 2014 3:15 PM
t said...: ‘Organisations need HR managers as strategic partners to thrive’

Published in BusinessDay
March 4, 2014

Part 3 of 3

In leadership, you also need to understand the different classes of the population working with you so you can know what their different needs are. It should be like an open system; you create the boundaries, communicate, give information, but ensure that people stay within the rules. You don’t want to have a situation where people break the rules because it is an open system.

Ideal work environment

An ideal work environment is a place that feels like home. As you are aware, we spend more time in the workplace than at home. So if that is true, we need to enjoy working with people in the workplace.

A workplace should be a conducive environment where you feel comfortable, feel productive, feel the need to come every day; it should be a place where you feel the need to grow, and also feel that you are contributing to the growth of the system.

An ideal work environment is not just about the aesthetics or building, but it is about the feeling that exists in you. One can have the best office space but there is no love, there is tension and stress. So an ideal environment should be able to make you feel at home, feel comfortable – you need to be able to enjoy what you do.

Challenges facing HR community

The biggest challenge facing the human resource community in Nigeria, Africa and other parts of the world is the issue of HR becoming a strategic partner. Every HR manager out there is looking at how HR can sit at the table with management where key decisions are made and be able to strategically connect.

HR is a business driver actually. So one challenge every HR manager has is to be able to prove to business owners that they are strategic partners. This is a challenge that HR managers have inadvertently brought upon themselves by being very administrative in the past. Another key challenge is the issue of talent management. HR managers are challenged on how they can maximise the potentials in managers, business owners and employees and work out how to let go of an employee that is not just ready to work.

The third challenge facing HR managers today is the issue of ‘double’. I call it double because HR needs to create a balance between the two customers (management and employees). HR needs to constantly look at ways to create that balance such as how to get salary increase, bonuses for employees doing the business, and how to get better benefits for the company and ensure that the benefits equate productivity.

Work/family balance

The easiest way for me to balance the family and work is that I am working always. What that means is that while I am working, my personal life is also in the work. If there is an issue at home, I deal with it.

This gives me a breath of life and that is because in my kind of work, I am probably flying between time zones, talking with people with different time zones, so if I do not master or learn that, I will be behind on several things.

In my head, there is work always to be done, there is play to be done, and there is family to be looked after. If there is work to be done at home, the work in the office will wait so that I can deal with the issue at home. The same goes for other things.

So everything that comes to me, work or family, I try to deal with it at that time, and dealing with it immediately does not mean that there is utmost resolution immediately, but that there is an action that has been taken about it.

Another way I balance the two is that I try as much as possible to put myself in whatever I do. When I am at home, I am actively at home, and when I am at work, I am actively at work. I try to pour myself in whatever I am doing. That way, it helps me to quickly finish things that I am required to do.; August 28, 2014 3:17 PM
t said...: Tribute to 'Kunle Olaifa, by Osisiye Tafa for BellaNaija.com; August 30, 2014 1:58 PM
t said...: Positioning for Career Excellence, a workshop lecture by Mr. 'Kunle Olaifa on 12th April 2014 in Lagos
Watch Full Video; September 02, 2014 1:36 PM
Anonymous said...: GOODNIGHT GENTLE KUNLE OLAIFA -A LOST TO THE HUMAN RESOURCE PROFESSION

“do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can”. -John Wesley”

Death isn't the greatest loss in life, the greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we leave- Norman Williams.

My first encounter with Kunle was sometimes in 2006 and 2007, when i needed to have a change of job. He was with Adecco then. We both share the same age and painfully, he left for eternal glory in my month of birth-August!

I never spent more than five (5) minutes with him during my physical visit to Adecco then. We interacted as family, friends and colleagues. He was very much friendly, calm and highly intelligent. He got me several offers, inspite of my complex demands and constant refusal to pick some of the available jobs.

I called him frequently and he was ever and willingly ready to beckon to my calls. Kunle wouldn't react to my importunities and my constant interruption of his schedules.

We reviewed the current practices in the field and talked often about the profession. We debated, argued constructively on contemporaries issues in the world of HR and constantly related. As time flies, i have lost physical contact with Kunle.

Kunle was calm, but focused, gentle but mindful, simple but not foolish, you could argue that he had a feminine nature but has the spirit of a lion; you could say he never wanted tension for his life but his spirit had an enduring legacy for posterity. He was a handsome friend, who could never be forgotten in a jiffy.

Though cut down by the chilling hands of death but had been able to contribute significantly to the milieu of the Human Resource Profession. He invested resourcefully both in the profession and spiritual lives. He never ceased to channel and champion religious-impactful activities thus making him to have invested in eternally-rewarding activities.

He may not be given the position for the chief HRO in paradise, but, i am confident and sure, by the lifestyle he lived ,that, he will be amongst the screen committee, welcoming and ushering people to heaven.

He may never had had so much an executive career portfolio and be visibly present, but his silent-strategic approach will compel you to give a bow to him-he was contented with what life had offered him and wouldn't join syndicates to run people down-he was a handsome friend and a patriotic one. Of course, we all have our limitations and weaknesses in life.

KUNLE repositioned and offered insightful contemporary practices to the field and immensely influence his cosmic with definite change. Kunle was synonymous to HR. He lived it out, practised it out.

Kunle evangelised the world with his work and position as HR. He changed, transformed several and so many lives. He advantageously recruited scores to the Kingdom with HR-Jesus philosophy.

He was an articulate, passionate writer and one with a smiley, gentle and admirable face, personality. His expression was always welcoming and homely.

Kunle is gone but people left behind will not fail to remember his good side of life.
Life is short, leave a legacy.

Kunle had been stolen by the chilling hands of death and had eternally secured freedom from any more pains.

Gentle Kunle, rest well, i will meet you at the other side, someday, sometimes. I am sure that, Kunle will once again screen and interview me into the Kingdom when we meet at the beautiful gate of Paradise. By then, there will be a perfect human resource system and the universe will maintain a perfect balance.

Death isn't the greatest loss in life, the greatest loss is hat dies inside of us while we live- Norman Williams.

Rest well.

DOTUN JEGEDE
Dotun is Corporate Resources Advisor, NUGI ENGINEERING LIMITED, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.; September 11, 2014 7:12 PM

Up Naira

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Obituary: 'Kunle Olaifa 1980-2014

14 comments:

Previously on UpNaira

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