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The Mentality of Winning

By Austin Okere
I first wrote this article on April 03, 2017, exactly three years ago. I feel compelled to share it again, as I believe that it is even more relevant today in this challenging circumstance; where nothing short of Visionary Leadership and a deep sense of Community and Resilient Followership is needed to steer our nation along this rocky path and to the other side of the wave.

Austin Okere
“The thing about winning and losing is that they are both self-reinforcing.” …Austin Okere
The Gunners as a metaphor
As an Arsenal football club fan, how do I convince anybody that the team is good or that coach Arsene Wenger is doing a good job, given the long spate of trophy draught and inexplicable losses in the current season both in the English Premier league and the Champions league?
The mentality of winning and losing – the Tyson effect
Winning reinforces your self-confidence and instils an inherent mythical fear in your opponents. The whole team is energized and ready for the next win. Losing on the other hand, engenders a loss of confidence and a significant level of demystification, inviting all manner of opponents to fancy their chances at you, as happened when the erstwhile unbeatable heavyweight boxing champion, Mike Tyson lost to a lowly challenger, Buster Douglas in 1990 in Tokyo, Japan.
This was followed by a string of losses leading to a less glorious retirement, highlighted by his biting off the ear of an opponent, Evander Holyfield, during a boxing match. Thus, was dimmed a golden opportunity of going down in history as one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.
Reversing the pattern – Leicester City FC finds her magic
Taking the steps required to reverse your losing spree and shifting into a winning mentality restores your lost glory, seemingly obliterating the past string of losses e.g. Leicester City Football Club; after parting ways with coach Claudio Ranieri (ironically the same coach that propelled them to the dizzying heights of winning the English Premier League title last year) have suddenly become unstoppable again; beating the better rated Spanish side, Sevilla FC for a place in the Quarter Finals of the UEFA Champions League. Even as first timers, they are the only English team still flying the British flag where great teams such as Manchester City and Arsenal have crashed out.
Winning is ‘In spite of’; Losing is ‘because of’ – the Usain Bolt determination
A loser’s mentality is strongly underpinned by a culture of excuses; finding ‘very good’ reasons why you didn’t make it, or why you lost; as if this will magically convert the loss into a win. An earful of balderdash at best.
A winner’s mentality on the other hand, is centred on ‘making it’ in spite of all odds. A very good example being Usain Bolt, who not only holds the world record for the fastest human dead or alive, but also winning three gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4X100m races in three consecutive Olympics; Beijing (2008), London (2012) and Rio (2016) – Now, that is a winner with a strong winning mentality.
Believe me, it is never a walk in the park. He knew what he had to do when overconfidence brought an embarrassing loss to his training partner and competitor Johan Blake. Blake beat Bolt to second place in both the 100m and 200m at the 2012 Olympic trials in Jamaica, and this was just about a month to the London Olympics.
Just imagine the pressure that Bolt would have felt. In the beginning he resorted to excuses; he blamed the 100m loss on a poor start, and the 200m on a poor bend. Realizing that a golden dream was evaporating before his eyes, he quickly faced reality in his following statement capturing his renewed attitude “it’s all about work and just needing to get my things together and get it right. I’ve got to get in the work and figure out what I did wrong”.
And with that he got himself in shape in time to win both events at the London Olympics. He did work very hard and deserved the results and his place in history (watch the documentary on him titled ‘I am Bolt’).
The Nigerian Super Eagles – Our ‘Invincible’ of old
I remember with nostalgia when all the immigration officers in the countries that I visited in the 1990’s became very friendly upon sighting my Nigerian Passport, reeling the names of our Super Eagle players and asking me if I knew them; Jay-Jay, Kanu, Amuneke, Keshi, Okewchukwu, Taribo, Oliseh, Rufia, Amokachie, Yekini, Siasia, Ikpeba and the host of others .
These were the glory days of Nigerian soccer, where other teams’ reverence of our players conferred on us very deep respect as a country. Not so these days; we have managed to get ourselves stuck in a losers’ mentality to the extent that ‘the giant of Africa’ did not even qualify for the last edition of the African Nations Cup in Gabon this year.
We managed to win the bronze medal at the Rio Olympics, but who remembers, after the unbelievable story of our players being stranded in America and arriving only hours before their opening match; what manner of organization?
The headlines in the global media were enough to make every Nigerian bow their heads in shame. The Mirror succinctly captured it thus “Nigerian Olympic football team stranded in Atlanta hours before first game after unpaid flight bill”.
You did not need to read the body of the copy to see how shoddy our organization could be. How can we aspire to Gold with this attitude?
We need the right attitude to aspire to greatness – the China and Dubai examples
Countries like the UAE did not attain their heights by sudden flight, but rather toiled over the midnight candle while other less ambitious ones floundered, more so the ones with more human and natural resources and much more potential. They have keyed into a certain winners’ mentality that sees them breaking record after record.
For instance, The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the tallest building in the whole world. A trip to Dubai will convince you beyond doubt about how seriously they take themselves, and how seriously everybody takes them. China is another story. For over three decades, China has had the world’s fastest growing major economy.
The country is in the midst of urbanization on an unparalleled scale. With more than 1.3billion citizens, China is the world’s most populous country. Until the late 20th century, most of her citizens lived in rural areas. Within a 50-year span, the percentage of city-dwellers rose from 13 to 50%.
On a recent visit with my wife, we could only marvel at the scenic beauty of the West Lake area of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province. Our Chinese tour guide, Mr. Forrest informed us that the plan of the Government was to lift a third of the population into the millionaires club within the next 10 years.
Without power, we have not even started – the Murtala Mohammed Airport blues
Africa is called the Dark Continent for a reason; it is ‘literally’ pitch dark when you fly overhead at night, due to the dearth of electric power. The sound track of Lagos, and indeed many Nigerian cities is the din of generators coughing up smoke into the already polluted environment, making the ban on public smoking of tobacco quite superfluous.
From reliable reports, our International Gateway, Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA) has had to rely on candle lights more than once, due to power outage (and unbelievably, failure of the Generator secondary source).
To tell it the way it is, MMA being the first and last impression of a visitor to Nigeria is either a misrepresentation, or a sad commentary on us as Nigerians. The non-functioning escalators over many years, projects us as a set of very unserious people.
How complex is the technology and what will it take to fix it? The drive from the airport to the foot of the Third Mainland Bridge that takes you into the commercial business districts of Victoria and Lagos Islands could qualify as one of the most uninspiring airport rides in the world – again, can this not be fixed; Really? A famous Irish proverb that says ‘nodding the head does not row the boat’ seems to sum this up.
Are we passionate about our country – should we be?
Is it true that passion is something you value more than your life? Something you are willing to die for? If so, are we passionate about Nigeria? Should we be? Are other nationals passionate about their countries? Growing up in Ghana, my motherland, I really felt very passionate about her, as I believe were the sentiments shared by my other classmates.
The Chinese, Japanese, Europeans, Americans and all the places we love to flock to are very passionate about their countries and will gladly use their talents to help her to win; be it at the Olympics or the World Cup.
Many a times our Athletes and Players have made money a precondition; and who can blame them? The experience seems to suggest that the officials bail with the money immediately after the games. The objective all round seems to be the money rather than the glory for country.
Epilogue – where we should be headed
As a country, we have the complete ingredients for success; human, mineral and material resources in abundance. What we need are people that can dream and turn the dream into an executable plan. Execute and live the dream. Dubai has proved this theory, we just need to follow the path to success.
We have to strongly shun the temptation to try to ‘win by shortcuts’. Imagine that Nigerians lost a whooping N18b ($45m) to the MMM Ponzi scheme, despite many warnings by the Central bank.
This is not the first time and unlikely to be the last time we embark on such get-rich-quick misadventure. We flock to all manner of religious centres and shrines looking for money doubling miracles instead of putting in brainpower and manpower towards our endeavours.
As Mary Robinson said, nobody can go back to create a new beginning but anybody can start today to create a new ending. This is what we must do as a country. Everybody needs to put in the disciplined hard work and dig into our inner recesses to find our own winning ways! We need to start in earnest to develop and sustain the serious mentality of a winner.
We need to genuinely create an enabling environment underpinned by peace and security that nurtures prosperity for all, rather than all for a cabal.
This is our chance – the tide in the affairs of Nations
“There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures”. This is the admonition of Brutus to Cassius in William Shakespeare’s epic, Julius Caesar.
Nigeria today is presented with such an opportunity. The current economic challenges after decades of squander and squalor have presented us with the golden opportunity of a reality check devoid of the distractions of easy oil money. This difficult period is too painful to waste. We must seize the opportunity for a reawakening, and realign towards doing the right thing and cultivating a winning mentality. If not now, then when? If CWGnot you, who?
Austin Okere is the Founder of CWG Plc, the largest ICT Company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange & Entrepreneur in Residence at CBS, New York. Austin also serves on the Advisory Board of the Global Business School Network, and on the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Innovation and Intrapreneurship. Austin now runs the Ausso Leadership Academy focused on Business and Entrepreneurial Mentorship
News
Nigeria Loses over N200Bn from SSB Tax Annually – CAPPA

Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has condemned the loss of over N200 billion annually due to gaps in the implementation of the sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) tax.
Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, executive director, CAPPA, who spoke on Tuesday during a media roundtable on the SSB tax, remarked that the funds could directly support Nigeria’s goal of increased healthcare financing, including the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, the National Health Insurance Authority, and school feeding programmes — helping to build a healthier and more equitable society.
Stressing the need to discourage excessive consumption of SSBs, reduce public addiction to sugary drinks, and stem the rising tide of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among Nigerians, he called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to fulfil his campaign promises of implementing consumption taxes to deter behaviour that undermines individual and community health.
Oluwafemi urged the authorities to increase the SSB tax from ₦10 per litre to at least ₦130 per litre to reduce consumption and encourage manufacturers to reformulate their products.
He noted that the President has a clear opportunity to strengthen the SSB tax and ensure its transparent implementation as part of his duty to protect the health and future of all Nigerians.
Oluwafemi insisted that Nigeria is in the midst of a public health crisis, a ticking time bomb driven by the excessive consumption of unhealthy diets, particularly SSBs.
He said, “These sugar-sweetened beverages, popularly known as soft drinks and their likes, are killing us slowly, turning our streets into graveyards and our hospitals into crowded waiting rooms. According to scientific and medical evidence, they are directly fueling the explosive rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including the slump and die trend we are currently witnessing across various parts of the country.
“Not too long ago, conditions like diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart diseases, and obesity were all rare and described as afflictions of big men and women. Today, they are snatching our fathers, crippling our mothers, sending young people to early graves, and draining the life savings of entire families. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), NCDs now account for 1 in 3 deaths in Nigeria.
“They are no longer the diseases of the rich or the elderly; they are aggressively decimating our workforce, destabilising our families, and undermining national productivity.
“Families are forced to sell land, liquidate lifelong savings, and descend into absolute poverty in desperate bids to save loved ones. Mothers who should be growing small businesses or mentoring children are instead chained to hospital wards as unpaid, invisible caregivers.”
He contended that a more robust SSB tax would reduce the consumption of sugar-laden drinks, lower the incidence of preventable illnesses, and improve national health outcomes, while also offering a practical way to expand Nigeria’s fiscal space without increasing broad-based taxes.
He emphasised the need to mandate transparent front-of-pack labelling on all food and beverage products, enabling Nigerians to know what they consume. This, he added, would require annual public reporting by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Nigeria Customs Service, and the Ministries of Finance and Health to ensure accountability.
News
How Cybercriminals Exploit Gen Z’s Trends from FOMO to Fast Fashion

Born and raised in a world of fast-evolving technology, Gen Z is the most Internet-savvy generation yet, known for their digital fluency and trendsetting influence. From their earliest years, they have been shaping and redefining the digital landscape, leaving footprints online long before they fully grasp its risks.
But as they navigate a world of hyperconnectivity, social media and online shopping, cyberthreats are evolving just as rapidly.
With its new game “Case 404”, Kaspersky sheds light on how cybercriminals are turning Gen Z’s online habits into attack vectors — and offers practical tips to turn awareness into digital resilience.
- Oversharing and digital footprint increase
For Gen Z, sharing life moments online is second nature. Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat are filled with geotagged selfies, daily updates and personal stories. However, this constant sharing creates an extensive digital footprint that cybercriminals can exploit for identity theft or social engineering attacks.
Oversharing can inadvertently reveal sensitive details, from home addresses in the background of photos to routines that make users predictable. Even seemingly harmless content, like a photo of their partner or pet, can provide clues for password recovery questions.
- Fear of Missing Out
The Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) refers to the anxiety or unease that arises from a fear of being left out or not being part of the latest updates or connections if they don’t follow what other people are doing on social media. FOMO is a powerful driver for Gen Z, fueled by social media updates about product launches, concerts and events.
Seeing peers attend events, acquire new products or achieve milestones can lead to feelings of inadequacy or exclusion. Whether it’s a new iPhone drop, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour or a major sporting event, FOMO can push users to click on unverified links promising early access or exclusive deals.
Cybercriminals exploit this urgency by creating clickbait phishing schemes, leading users to malicious sites that steal login credentials or distribute malware. Fake event tickets, pre-order scams and “leaked” insider information are just some of the tactics used to manipulate this fear.
- Nostalgia of Y2K fashion and early 2000s culture
For Gen Z, who were born around or after this era, Y2K fashion represents a blend of nostalgia for a simpler, pre-digital time and a desire to reinvent those styles with a modern twist. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram have amplified Y2K’s resurgence, with influencers recreating vintage looks and sharing thrifted finds. Hashtags like #Y2Kfashion and #Y2Kaesthetic have garnered billions of views.
Gen Z’s fascination with early 2000s culture, from Y2K aesthetics to childhood games, has revived interest in retro titles like The Sims 2, Barbie Fashion Designer and Bratz Rock Angelz.
While these games evoke nostalgia, searching for unofficial downloads often leads users to malware-infested sites. Cybercriminals target this niche interest by embedding malicious software into counterfeit game files. What seems like a trip down memory lane could result in compromised devices or stolen data.
- Fast Fashion
Gen Z loves expressive clothes, wants to stand out rather than fit in and has an ever-changing style — what was in a month ago might already be out. Their trend-chasing habits are supported by fast-fashion retailers supplying accessible ways to switch it up. For instance, Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein, loved by Gen Z, adds 6,000 new products to its website per day.
For Gen Z, fast fashion is more than just a shopping preference — it’s a lifestyle. Fast-fashion brands like Shein, ASOS and Fashion Nova deliver affordability and instant gratification, making them staples for this generation. However, the allure of these brands comes with a dark side.
Fake shopping websites, hoax promocodes and phishing ads capitalise on their popularity, using convincing imitations to lure users into entering their sensitive details. The higher the engagement in online shopping, the higher the risk of encountering fake websites and phishing scams designed to steal personal and financial information.
- iDisorder
Gen Z face a phenomenon called iDisorder, a condition where the brain’s ability to process information changes because of overexposure to technology. This obsession with technology can result in psychological, physical and social disorders, including depression and anxiety.
This is proven by public research: one in three 18- to 24-year-olds now report symptoms indicating they have experienced such mental health problems.
That is why they are extensively turning to digital tools like teletherapy platforms and mental health trackers to alleviate stress.
However, these platforms store highly sensitive personal information, including emotional states, therapy notes and user routines. If breached, this data could be exploited for blackmailing or phishing.
“Trends may evolve rapidly, but the underlying cyberthreats remain constant. Whether it’s leveraging Gen Z’s love for online shopping, capitalising on the urgency created by FOMO or targeting the growing use of mental health apps, attackers are quick to turn popular behaviours into opportunities for phishing, scams and data breaches,” comments Anna Larkina, privacy expert at Kaspersky.
“Start by taking control: verify links and websites before engaging, use strong, unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication for an extra layer of security. Be mindful of what you share online — and most importantly, remember that staying informed is your best defense. Cybersecurity isn’t just about responding to threats; it’s about empowering yourself to navigate the digital world confidently and safely.”
News
NIPOST to Crack Down on Criminal Courier Operators

Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) has vowed to clamp down on courier companies found to be aiding the trafficking of drugs and other illicit items through the country’s logistics network.
In a statement issued on by Franklin Alao, director of Corporate Communications, NIPOST expressed outrage over a recent report in some newspapers with the headline: “Nigerian courier services easily transporting hard drugs since Tinubu became president – NIPOST.”
The agency described the headline as false, misleading, and damaging to national security efforts. According to NIPOST, the article falsely attributes the claim to the postal regulator, thereby creating the impression that the agency had endorsed or confirmed such allegations.
“This is categorically FALSE,” the statement said. “At no point has NIPOST made such a statement or associated these activities with the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
NIPOST maintained that while it respects the role of the media in promoting accountability and transparency, the publication in question was reckless and sensational.
It warned that inaccurate reporting on sensitive national issues like drug trafficking not only misinforms the public but also undermines the collaborative work being done to sanitise the courier and logistics sector.
Restating its position, the agency said it strongly condemns the use of courier services for criminal purposes, including drug trafficking.
It reaffirmed its zero-tolerance policy toward the misuse of Nigeria’s postal infrastructure and said it remained committed to regulating the sector with integrity, transparency, and accountability.
NIPOST noted that it had embarked on a range of interventions aimed at improving surveillance and enforcement across the logistics industry.
It stated that all courier operators are currently undergoing a revalidation process and that Know-Your-Customer protocols and compliance audits are being enforced to tighten controls and prevent abuse of the system.
The postal regulator said it is also working closely with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Customs Service, and other relevant security institutions to investigate and deter the use of logistics channels for the transportation of narcotics and other contraband items.
In addition, NIPOST said it had intensified engagement with courier operators, transport unions, and logistics associations to promote sector-wide vigilance and encourage the reporting of suspicious packages.
It also revealed that a new Digital Postcode and Parcel Identification System is being deployed nationwide to enhance traceability, eliminate anonymity, and improve parcel screening from the point of dispatch to final delivery.
“The Nigerian Postal Service is fully committed to restoring the integrity of Nigeria’s courier and logistics industry,” the statement said. “Any operator found to be involved in criminal activity will face immediate regulatory sanctions, including license suspension or revocation, and be reported to appropriate authorities for prosecution.”
The agency urged members of the public to use only licensed courier companies and to report any suspicious activity either to NIPOST or relevant security agencies.
It also called on journalists and civil society groups to approach issues in the sector with accuracy, caution, and a shared sense of responsibility.
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