The Power to Choose by Ndadikpa E Ajakpo

As the title suggests, The Power to Choose series are principally based on the fundamental principle of the individual making the right choices in order to get the right results. This is amply demonstrated in the first book in the series, The Power to Choose: Success is only a choice away. In this booklet, the […]

As the title suggests, The Power to Choose series are principally based on the fundamental principle of the individual making the right choices in order to get the right results.

This is amply demonstrated in the first book in the series, The Power to Choose: Success is only a choice away. In this booklet, the author makes a strong case for making the right choices, even at the risk of sounding preachy. He encourages the reader to choose such virtues as responsibility, focus and action among others in order to achieve set goals. Apparently, the objective in this booklet is to encourage readers to be more productive by casting away vices such as procrastination, doubts and indecision among others.

The lessons of this little book is summed up in the author’s statement on page 79 where he says, “A man is what he chooses all day.” All through, however, the author drives the reader on to understand this with eclectic quotes from philosophers and thinkers dating back to King Solomon and the likes of Winston Churchill and Harry Truman among others. He also highlights lessons from the lives of celebrities like football stars David Beckham and Zinadine Zidane.

In the subsequent  books in  the series, the author uses a different approach so as to be more engaging. In The Power to Choose for Students, The Power to Choose Your Health and the Power to Choose Life, the author employs the story telling method to make the readers more involved while they are being motivated and challenged by lessons to be learnt from the book.

In The Power to Choose for Students for instance, the author introduces 11-year-old Ben, who is struggling with his grades despite determined efforts by his father to make him a successful student.

However, when Ben meets his father’s friend Mr Alex at a reunion, he is told a story of three students who made three different choices that ultimately determined how successful or otherwise they became. Ben picks up lessons from the story and puts them to practice in his own life with astonishing results.

While this booklet is ambitiously targeted at general readership including students in high institutions, the tone and diction makes it more suitable to pupils and students in secondary schools.

In the Power to Choose Your Health, the author, who happens to be a medical doctor, turns his attention to the area where he is an expert. In this booklet, a chance encounter between a certain business executive, Mr Walker and a certain Mr Ben results in Mr Ben being invited to deliver a very elaborate lecture on various aspects of health to a group of business executives. The lecture topics range from holistic health, dental health, weight management, addiction and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) among others.

As in the other booklets in the series, the author emphasises the importance of individual choices and how they relate to the health of the persons involved, and how making healthy choices will ultimately result in healthier lifestyles.

However, the author forgets to inform the readers what qualification Mr. Ben has to lecture a group of highflying executives on an issue as sensitive as their health. And the section on stress management is essentially a replication of chapter nine of the first book in the series. Nonetheless, readers will find invaluable information on basic health issues and what choices they should make if they want to live healthy lives.

In The Power to Choose Life, the author goes all spiritual in order to tackle emotional discontent using the same story telling method he used in the previous two. In this booklet, an unhappy Miss Demba encounters a mysterious old man, who turns out to be an angel, in a coffee shop and the ensuing conversation over the course of three days completely turns her life around.

The mysterious old man quotes lavishly from the bible and preaches moral lessons to Miss Demba on how to find fulfilment in her life and what the purpose of life is all about. Those who have a strong leaning to faith, especially Christians, will find this booklet most rewarding.

These four booklets by this young medical doctor dabbling into the field of self-help literature have been well packaged and presented. They are portable and quite reader friendly. However, like most self published literature, there is a notable absence of editing input. There are issues with diction, punctuation and syntax. While these detract from the overall quality of the work, the series could be improved upon with significant editing ahead of subsequent reprints.

It is however commendable that a young man has been motivated enough to put out these four booklets aimed at improving the lives of others who will find time to read it.