Development in any organization or country takes deliberate conscious efforts, it doesn’t happen by chance. It involves critical planning ,dogged execution and continuous efforts. I just want us to realize that the growth and development of our country is so much our responsibility as it is our leaders.
A community comprises of people bounded by a geographical area. Community is not a particular area but the people in the area. The people make up a community or country. So we can still say in terms of development that a developed country is one that is made up of developed people and so also for every other factor.
Then I can boldly say that, the way to develop a country is to develop the people, the way to build a nation is by building the people. So if you want a better Nigeria, then we need to be better Nigerians and it can start with you. To make your country great you need to make yourself great first.
Sometimes we concentrate so much on the big things and big positions that we forget the small ones.
In this piece, I don’t want to concentrate on what the so called leaders are doing or not doing. I want to point out to what we ourselves are doing and not doing. I believe so much that there is something we can do and we should do it instead of just complaining.
Some of us might ask, “How is it my business?” Actually it is, I even think it affects you more. If there is insecurity, the common man suffers the most, so also poverty, disesase outbreak, war, etc.
Sometimes we concentrate so much on the big things and big positions that we forget the small ones.
I am trying to let us understand that it is high time we stopped looking up, the neck pain might only get stiffer. Instead we should start looking inward and sideward.
Lets start sowing that little seed of change and transformation that will eventually grow up like an orange seed and become the food and shelter we need. I`m not saying it will be easy, “no great achievement comes easily”, I know, but don’t you want greatness? It starts from our emotion, then the mindset and a little change in attitude.
Before we talk about mindset, I want us to understand that mindset is affected by passion. If you are passionate about something, it affects the way you think about it, just like love. Great achievers have always been driven by emotions. From the beginning of time till date, I have realize that people that change their world either positively or negatively had love, hatred, anger, one form of emotion or the other as their drive, even great inventors.
Some of this people I would have love to talk about but not intending to turn this into an epistle include martin Luther king jr, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Mandela (you can can read about them). This passion is what will keep you standing when the wind of discouragement start blowing.
Now ask yourself if you like the way things are in your environment. Think of everything that is wrong, all the negativity, the disasters, the war, the looting, kidnapping, terrorism, bad government and policies, how do you feel about it? If you don’t feel sadden by it then you can’t really do anything about it. You first have to hate it and love the people affected by it before you can really do something about it.
Imagine your parents were victims of any of this menace, God forbid? Yes God forbid, but still remember that the people that died from bomb blast also have family and they serve God too. You have to hate it to this extent. Hate the robbery, the corruption, everything. Now then look inward and sincerely ask what I can do. Some people do the hating and turn their frustration on the government or authorities. Is true “them no dey try at all” but let’s look away from them for now and look at what we ourselves can do. This is the mindset I propose we change, that we should not wait for them anymore to come and do it for us but we do it ourselves as best as we can.
In the next article I will talk on the power of education and how you can help educate your community. You might be surprise how some little things can later have big effects. Meanwhile,I want to here from us;
Do you think people would have acted better if they had known better?
For example, if our government knew the adverse effect of stealing the countries money will they have gone ahead to steal it? If the terrorist knew the drastic effect of blowing us up, will they still do it?
Let’s contribute; will people have acted better if they knew better?
Lawal Richard Oluwaseun, I am the National president NIMechE NSF.
Attitude is everything.
That was a beautiful piece there.
I’m waiting for your “power of education”
Thank you.
These social menace are partly intentional and partly product of bad governance supported by myopic electorate due to sentiment.
Intentional because there is no reason for the country to be poor. Less endowed countries like Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, France, etc, are living comfortably. Recall that Abacha made a statement that ‘Nigeria is not yet ripe for independent candidacy’. Though elections is not the topic, that statement is pregnant. One manifestation of that is deliberately keeping the citizens poor and incapable of amounting to anything.
‘A hungry man is an angry man’, is a popular saying. Since the citizens are deliberately kept poor, restiveness is the natural reaction. Instead of undoing these root causes of restiveness, military might is unleashed on the violated while the violator goes about free. These operatives were elected only because they practised a particular faith or came from a particular tribe and other sentiments.
Boko (Book) Haram (Sin) is only a device, never a mistake, and its dividends are dlaringly obvious. People are meant to believe that Book Education is sin and people can get rich without going to school. According to them; sin is why Nigeria, a very morally and regiously conservative society, is poor. The question is, ‘Which between Nigeria and America commits more sin?’
Your answer is as good as mine!