BUILDING ONESELF FOR THE FUTURE (A Paper Presented by Valentine Obienyem)

[ A Paper Presented by Valentine Obienyem at the First Etiti-Nimo Youth Leadership Programme with the Theme: “Knowledge For The World Of Tomorrow” on Wednesday, November 11, 2020,
at The Ajanzo Hall, Nimo, Anambra State, Nigeria]

First and foremost, I acknowledge the pre-eminence of Nimo Town in the areas of modern education, development and a host of other indices of human progress. I am proud of this great town and feel honoured being invited to address its youths.

I also thank the organizers of this summit for a timely event and the apt theme “Knowledge for the World of Tomorrow”. Exercising the liberty granted me to choose a relevant topic, I came up with Building Oneself for Future Leadership. What really informed my choice was the current situation in the country, especially the on-going “EndSARS” protests. I say on-going because I read just this week that protesters are threatening to resume their action, suggesting that what we are witnessing presently is some kind of cease fire.

In his appearance at The Platform in 2017, Mr. Peter Obi’s presentation revolved along the call for the youth to “take back their country”. Implicit in this is that the country had been taken from them such that they are hardly part of what goes on. In his article, “Nigeria: Ejindu Cometh!”, published on the back page of Thisday newspaper of October 23, 2020, Dr. Okey Ikechukwu used Ejindu as a metaphor representing the youth, who should rise up and stop the degeneracy in the society! Implied in any call for the youth to take charge is the belief that they are ideally suited for Nation-Building. But can we build a nation if we do not build ourselves?

Lend your ears to a Nigerian youth, and he or she would contend that Sanna Marin was 34 years when she became the Prime Minister of Finland; Oleksiy Goncharuk 35 when he became the Prime Minister of Ukraine, and so on.

But one of the questions to ask here is: who is a youth and why does the society take them seriously? When we talk about the youth, it is not about adults who always want to pose as perpetual youths. The African Youth Charter defines youth as an individual between ages 15 and 35, while the Nigerian Youth Policy categorizes them in the 18-35 years bracket.

In virtually all major organizations in the world – religious, spiritual and secular – we have youth wings. This reflects how critical that stage of life is. When the Igbos say that nku onye kpala na okochi ka o na anya na udumiri, they are emphasizing the youthful age as an ideal period when one’s skills, industry, knowledge are developed/built and strengthened in readiness to be put to use for the edification of oneself and the society.

Daily we are inundated with such declarations as “The Future Belongs to the Youth” and “The Youth are the Leaders of Tomorrow”. As far back as we can pry into history, we read of great philosophers making profound statements about the youth. For instance, Euripides said: “Who so neglects learning in his youth loses the past and is dead to the future”; while Benjamin Disraeli asserted that “The youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity”. For Benjamin Franklin, “reckless youth makes rueful age”. Embedded in each of these sayings is the fact that youth is associated with the future. I recall an article by Fr. Hyginus Aghaulor where he likened the youth to a destructive flood that could be utilised for irrigation and generation of electricity if properly channelled and guided through the construction of dams, dykes and culverts!

“A nation that neglects its youths is bound to fail”. The wise one says that souls are not emancipated en masse. In the long run, it is about individual efforts. Yes, a nation that neglects its youths is bound to fail, but a youth that neglects himself or herself is already a failure.

HOW YOUTHS CAN BUILD THEMSELVES

Permit me a little immodesty as I tell my own story for any lesson you may learn from it. As a young seminarian, we usually held yearly celebrations in honour of the Saints after whom our great institutions, St Dominic Savio and St. John Bosco Seminaries were named. Different activities of the celebration included dancing and pageantries, among others. As I was not, and still not, a great dancer, I often felt bad that I did not fit into any activity. This was the initial regret that made me join the Press club and eventually rose to become its President. I later became the President of the School’s Theatre Group.

Another passion I had in secondary school was the love for philosophies and philosophers. I read a lot of them, memorised their sayings that tempt the tongue and used them in diverse occasions. The love I cultivated at that stage in my development aided me in so many wonderful ways, especially in the sharpening of my writing skills.

As I was already in love with articles, I grew to love good ones with abandon. I read the likes of Dr. Reuben Abati for his hilarious inclinations. I read Mr. Uthman Shodipe for his masterly use of language and depth. I read Dr. Okey Ikechukwu because even at that young age, he wrote with the mellow metaphysics of old age. It was the love of his articles that made me look for him. Those days in his office at The Guardian, we enjoyed discussing the intricate problems of knowledge and of unreal seen and unseen real. He duly became my mentor.

Okey Ikechukwu made me his Research Assistant and through many engagements kept me on my toes. As the Chairman of the The Comet Editorial Board (which later metamorphosed into The Nation) he would ask me to write an article on Saturdays and request I bring it to his office on Mondays. You can imagine what it means for a starter to write a publishable article in two days; I kept sleepless weekends. By Wednesday or Thursday I would see the article published, sometimes completely re-furbished, on the Opinion Page. Getting published at that relatively young age spurred me on and opened several doors for me. One clear example is my relationship with the former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi. I wrote copiously in his support when he was in court challenging the declaration of Dr. Chris Ngige as the Governor of Anambra State without knowing or seeing him. When he became the Governor, he was the one who looked for me. I did not request money for supporting him. I did it out of conviction. I say this as an advice to young men and women that one of the lessons of leadership is conquering oneself and desires by acting out of conviction. The reward might take long but it will certainly come.

Building oneself is about one aiming to be the best in whatever one does. William Shakespeare declared that “Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatest thrust upon them”. One can transpose it thus: “Some are born leaders, some achieve leadership and some have leadership thrust upon them”. The truth of this statement is a profound management question which we do not have the intention of answering. All I want you to note is that leadership is achievable from our little corners. It is all about doing little things in an extra-ordinary way as said of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus. In that little corner of mine, what I have been able to make out of it is striving towards excellence in whatever one does.

In the world-view of the Igbos, excellence occupies a prime place. When our people talk about di ochi, the master wine-tapper; di ji, the master yam-cultivator; di mgba, the master wrestler and other dis, they are looking at people that achieved excellence in what they do. If they were to re-phrase it to be in sync with the realities of today, I believe they will talk in terms of master car-builder to accommodate the likes of Chief Innocent Chukwuma. of Innoson Motors. They will not talk about master 419, master wayo, master prostitute, which are alien to the Igbos in general and Ndi Nimo in particular. The fact is that Igbos cherish and celebrate excellence; and excellence is mainly achieved in the years of the youth. Knowledge as the wider theme of the summit suggests is the key.

Reading about the lives of many successful persons across the world, you will discover they made it when they were still young. Chinua Achebe wrote the celebrated Things Fall Apart at the age of 28, and that fruit of his literary leadership thus began to flourish. Chimamanda Adichie started publishing novels at the age of 26. In 1986, I was still in the Minor Seminary when Mike Tyson became the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion at the age of 20. At that time one of our teachers known as Mekano, a master of mimicry would always commend what he called “Tysonic Uppercut”. In 2014, the Pakistani Malala Yousafzai won the Noble Prize at 17. There were many others that won the Noble prize in their youthful ages: William Lawrence Bragg won it in Physics at the age of 25; Werner Heisenberg won it in Physics at the age of 31, among others.

At the average age of 34, the Wright brothers invented the air-plane; Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone at the age of 29; and René Laennec invented the Stethoscope at the age of 35. Most people and organisations that are controlling the wealth of the world were founded by youths. Steve Jobs founded Apple at the age of 21; Bill Gates founded Microsoft at the age of 20; Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook at the age of 20; Travis Kalanick founded Uber in 2009 at the age of 33; Markus Villig founded Taxify in 2013 at the age of 20. There are several others. For example, the Nigerian Chinedu Echeruo founded Hotstop at the age of 30, which was recently bought by Apple in 2005 for US$ 1 billion.

The lesson here is for you to discover that now is your time. Those ideas that will make you great in life should by now exist in the womb of time, waiting the painful mid-wifery that will usher them into reality. I deliberately used the term “painful mid-wifery” to remind you that for a successful birth, you must endure suffering and pain like a woman in labour. Most importantly, you must endeavour to conquer yourself.

SELF-CONQUEST

You all are familiar with the ways of lawyers. I am one of them and I am sure some of you are lawyers as well. They always address one another as “My Learned Friend”, but the philosopher subtly replies them that one who knows others is learned, while one who knows himself is wise. Our concern is about self-conquest, the knowledge about oneself. If we do not conquer ourselves, we cannot conquer others.

Self-conquest can be viewed from different angles. When we talk about authenticity, it is about resisting the temptation to be subsumed in the anonymity of collectivities by doing things because others do them – without a moment of reflection. It is only one who has conquered himself that can live an authentic life.

Self-conquest is about overcoming our limitations. Do not think you are congenitally handicapped from realizing your dreams? Stories abound of men and women that through persistent efforts overcame even their natural limitations. Today, Demosthenes is regarded as one of the greatest orators, but history tells us that he was initially very weak in body and defective in articulation. However, he overcame those defects because he consciously wanted to be a public speaker by constantly addressing the sea with a mouthful of pebbles. History tells us that the only problem he had was women – he was easily detracted by their charms. I do not mean any offence to the fairer sex, please! A lesson of leadership here is to strive to strike a balance between work and pleasure.

Have you heard about the story of St. Isidore of Seville? An edifying legend tells how a Spanish lad, reproved for mental sluggishness, ran away from home, and tired with wandering sat down by a well. His attention was caught by the deep furrow in a stone at the edge of the well, which a passing maiden explained was caused by the attrition of the rope that lowered and raised the bucket. “If”, said Isidore to himself, “by daily use the soft rope could penetrate the stone, surely perseverance could overcome the dullness of my brain”. He returned to his father’s house and later became the learned Bishop of Seville. This is an illustration of self-conquest. It is a lesson on remaining focused, perseverance, and the inspired belief in our infinite possibilities. Let the story of other men inspire you. Here we talk about role models. Who is your role model?

The quest for self-conquest ideally starts from the cradle prompting the wise one to say that a mighty Iroko tree grows from a young acorn. Some of you will be parents tomorrow, help the future children of Etiti-Nimo by laying a solid foundation so that they will start early to conquer themselves. They should understand the place of education in the unfolding of civilization.

No knowledge is complete; this is why at any point we strive to improve ourselves. The more you gain knowledge, the more you discover that knowledge itself is an expanding mirage in the desert of ignorance. Gaining knowledge is not all about acquiring degrees; it is about life experiences. We already know that education, a restricted form of knowledge, is gained ¼th through Education; ¼th through travel; ¼th through experience and ¼th through interaction with others. See whatever you encounter as a learning curve, even disappointments because they have their own lessons. Once you have this type of attitude to life, you will never be despondent.

Part of self-conquest is being amenable to corrections and advice. I believe the best advice one can possibly gain from is the advice we give to ourselves. When life seems tough and not worth living, sit all alone and evaluate your life; and tell yourself that it is not the end of the world. When you do this honestly, you will, by inexplicable forces, gain inspiration that will be surprising to you.

Some of the things I mentioned are determined by the upbringing and training that we have or pass through.

CATCHING THEM YOUNG

Training for leadership is a life-long exercise, which starts from the cradle. I am prompted to say this because some of you will become parents in future. By concourse of circumstances, I found myself in Sierra-Leone in the early 1990s. I was among our soldiers trying to restore peace to Liberia. The Air Force was at that time using the Lugi International Airport in Sierra-Leone as their operating base. One Sergeant who became my friend told me how a small boy who just entered the Army and became a Major because he attended school was always disgracing him, who had been in the Army for over 15 years simply because he did not go to school. He vowed that he would rather starve than not train his children to university levels. You could see the power of education and the thoughts of a concerned father.

We owe good education to our children. When my son was about entering secondary school, all manner of schools were brandished to me, including those at which his cutlery and clothes will be washed for him. All I said was that I needed a school where there will be corporal punishment, where the students would be asked to return to school with hoes and cutlasses. I said so because those experience help to make the students strong in body and mind to overcome any manner of psychological shocks that come their way.

THE YOUTH OF TODAY

First I salute some Nigerian youths that are striving hard to be part of the evolving world order in spite of biting economic conditions. I believe the youth of Etiti-Nimo belong to this category. I agree that things are not stable in the country, but it must be noted that challenging times are the most fertile for entrepreneurial and leadership flowering. In his thirties, Sir Louis Ojukwu, the father of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, working in John Holt recognized the problem of transportation Igbo businessmen faced. In an effort to fill the gap, he started Ojukwu Transport Ltd., which had over 200 Vehicles in the 1950s; and became the leader in that sector. In the case of Chief Augustine Ilodibe, he started as a steward of Fr. Kettle, who gave him 35 Pounds Sterling in 1950. Through judicious utilization of the funds, by the time he died he had over 1,000 buses, amongst other businesses. He also became a leader in his field. One can go on and on, but the point to note is that budding entrepreneurs and leaders must remain focused at all times.

If you are observant, you would have noticed a dangerous trend in our State. Our youths are undergoing a new form of orientation, which places politics as the only endeavour worth pursuing. With hundreds of aides in government in different States in Nigeria, those thinking about the future already foresee the problem it will create. Because of the trend, of even appointing those still in school as Special or Personal Assistants, we are gradually building a culture that encourages the fouth to think about joining politics even before they are weaned.

One of the consequences of the foregoing is that the birth rate of young men beholden to politics is in excess of the death rate among politicians. We shall see the first consequence of this in the 2021 elections. Already we have seen hundreds of youths, with practical no experiences, jostling to contest one election or the other. By upholding them early in life conditions them to think about politics as the beginning and end. Even some of them that would do well in other areas are not even given the opportunity to discover that.

Many of the youth of today see life as a quick-fix. Those not trying to make it in politics even from their mothers’ wombs are busy looking for easy ways of making money. Look around your communities and you will see many youths that are in prison in foreign lands for trafficking in drugs — some of them in countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Saudi Arabia, where their visas clearly warn that death awaits drug traffickers.

When last did you attend a burial in Igboland? Some young men have seen burials and other social functions as an entrepreneurial platform, where they do all sort of things, including forming ‘bands’ to beg money from guests and mourners. When you challenge them, they lament the dearth of jobs in the country and yet today alaigbo is populated by foreigners that have displaced us in such jobs as tailoring, masonry, tiling, vehicle repairs, panel beating and many other trades.

Igbos talk of excellence and the truth in it that history has proven is that whatever one does and does well, patronage will come. In my village of Obe, one of the richest men in those days was a truck mechanic. Today, we have some young men doing wonders and raking in millions of Naira from tailoring, yet an average youth despises such jobs, when they should be thinking of adding innovation to them. He prefers to be sleeping in his house and the millions will rain down from heaven. This explains the rampant cases of ritual killings in our clime. Is this part of the package for future leadership qualifications?

There are jobs everywhere but many youths of today are indolent. How many generator, motor and motor-cycles mechanics in Anambra State are indigenes of the State? For quality and honest jobs, our people now look for Togolese or Ghanaians. Sometimes when you ask them, our youths will tell you that such jobs are beneath their dignity, but meanwhile they are begging for money and support. Perhaps, begging is not infra dig. The fact is that no job is beneath anybody’s dignity. In his Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII talked about the dignity of labour and submitted that “…according to natural reason and Christian philosophy, working for gain is creditable, not shameful, to a man, since it enables him to earn an honourable livelihood”.

The founders of Uber and Taxify which have taken over Lagos and Abuja cab services are not Nigerians, but they are leaders in that sphere. Leadership is not just becoming Presidents or Governors; it is about the mastery of our crafts. We need Etiti-Nimo youths that will think along the line of founding such platforms. You may think you do not have money for such, but I tell you that good ideas are better than silver and gold.

Recently, I received a letter from one Egbosi from Agulu seeking assistance on how to purify the oil bean (Ogiri), preserve it properly and sell it in super-markets. He enclosed a crude sample, but that is how it starts. I shall look for him because such ideas are worth exploring. Come to think of it, our mothers have always used Ogiri to cook and they make delicious meals, but here he is thinking of how to make it better. Tomorrow when he succeeds and become a leader in that field, some people, not knowing the steps he took, will count him “lucky”. But what is luck? As Seneca observed, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”. If you are not prepared, you may not even know when luck comes calling!

The present age is defined by technological wonders as seen in the computers. We have many computer-based applications people designed out of which they make millions of Dollars. Today, the most successful entrepreneurs are those that sell their products internationally. The world’s richest man today, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, started small at the age of 30. When the company went public, it was poorly received because the projection that it would start making profit in five years was not acceptable to some prospective investors. Currently, his net worth is over 150 billion Dollars. Mark Zuckerberg who started Facebook in 2004 at the age of 20 has a net worth of about 64 billion Dollars. There are several other success stories of youths.

Our own Alhaji Aliko Dangote is among the richest men in the world, but do you know why the Gates and Zuckerbergs of this world are richer than him? While they sell globally, Dangote sells within defined geographical confines. What he needs to do is to sponsor many researchers into software development and applications to solve daily problems. Today, Bill Gates is spending millions of Dollars on research into alternatives to oil. One is left to imagine what will happen once success is achieved. When it happens, some of us will exclaim “What a lucky man!”

Today, Next and Roban, Jumai, Konga, among others, are revolutionizing shopping in Nigeria, Meanwhile, some people are yet not aware that it is just a matter of time for Main Market and related markets to slip into oblivion.

All those I mentioned are leaders in their own right. Once we believe in ourselves and our infinite possibilities, we shall be enrolled into the pantheon of great leaders, be it in the economics, admistrative, academic or political fields because we have conquered ourselves, freed our inhibitions and seen the world as a small place to conquer.

WORKING TOGETHER

One of the most debilitating factors affecting our youths is selfishness. Everybody believes he can do it alone. It is not for nothing that it is said that two heads are better than one. Our landscapes are littered with stories of two people who collaborated in businesses which ended on a bad note.

For the entrepreneurial possibilities of the youth to shine forth, they must learn to be great leaders of men, by imbibing inner humility. Know when to say “I am sorry.”, learn to subdue your ego and you will avoid little distractions that may hinder your match to greatness.

Have you noticed that many successful companies in the world today have co-founders, because they were principally motivated to found solutions to the problems of the world? Once they did this, money came. In our clime, where we are prompted by money, once it does not come easily, it dampens our morale. I read the history of Thomas Edison, how he made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked how he felt about his failures, he said: “I didn’t fail 1,000 times, the light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps”. Let this be a lesson to all of us on perseverance. Never give up, be guided by the right principles, have the good of humanity at heart and in no distant time you will become a great leader.

Thank you, and may God bless you all.