POWER WITHOUT HONORS

September 21st was internationally recognized as Peace One Day. As a matter of fact, my friend and colleague Sara Palacio-Vanegas so moved at the spate of killings globally opted to share the link of Peace One Day on her page using Social Media. Her post reads “September 21st is the Internationally Recognized Peace One Day. Peace One Day is calling for and working towards a day of ceasefire and non-violence observed by all sectors of society globally, from governments to the individual. Support the Global Truce 2012 now and help us see the largest reduction in global violence in recorded history”. Ofcourse I still remember it was for this same cause that AIESEC (www.aiesec.org) - the largest youth run organization in the world was founded and so, I have been committed to this cause working with AIESEC in the last 4years.

After reading through her wall, I had to connect with Peace One Day and take a good look at their cause since I already knew that of AIESEC while also imagining a world void of violence; it would be terrific. Having said that, let me point out here that this piece is neither about Peace One Day & AIESEC nor my colleague’s emotions rather, it is directed towards the way people flex their muscles in their baseless quest for superiority. Using Lagos – Nigeria’s commercial capital as a reference, it’s is absolutely impossible for you to go around with your daily activities without coming across people either fighting or raining abuses on each other with the option of fighting for no just cause.

NIGERIA – MY NIGERIA

Nigeria, a blessed country located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. A country whose name originates from the River Niger which runs through it, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the most populous country in the world in which the majority of the population is black.

Over the years a lot of things have been said about this Pride of Africa some of which are constructive while a lot of others, just baseless. For instance in time past, Nigeria use to have so many teething problems in her election processes and militancy pressure in her Niger Delta region however all these has been duly tackled and grinded to a halt. Thus, the recently concluded national election emerged as the freest and fairest in the history of the country and the militancy pressure had since been successfully put to rest. Presently, the on-going over flocked terrorism attack by the Boko Haram group in the north is gradually phasing out and peace is being restored to distressed zones thereby reaffirming the mandate of the federal government to curb all vices. Fascinatingly, despite the challenges that were on then, Nigeria never seized to host visitors who constantly came in from far and near to explore great opportunities all over the country because they understood the Nigerian spirit which guarantees continual development.

A PROFESSION CALLED BEGGING

A constant struggle for survival, severe hardship everywhere, poor infrastructures, limited good health care facilities, crashed educational sector, stark unemployment, chronic poverty enabled, evenly distributed accursed political leaders nationwide, epileptic power supply, gross insecurity activated, zero self-esteem highlighted and the list of farce goes on and on. What the heck is wrong with our government? Who the heck is responsible for fixing this shit? What the heck do they do with the money looted from our national treasury? These and many more have been the questions born out of our national quandary with no one available to provide the answer or better-still lead the way.

Unfortunately, that isn't what I intend to address in this piece though I know its day is going to come soon where I will have to dissect and lambast the government while questioning their sickle-cell style of leadership. But while we wait for that day, let me introduce you to the latest business which is making headway in Nigeria especially in her commercial capital Lagos; it's called Begging.

MINDSET OF A LEADER

While listening to a medical doctor friend talk at the Chinua Achebe Arts Theatre in Calabar recently, this subject popped up in my mind and so I decided to give it a follow up. I took my time to go through the lives of different leaders and tried to check for similarities in their ways of reasoning and decision making. After a thorough research, I came out with these findings:

LEADERS ARE POSITIVE THINKERS

Often I wonder how leaders always succeed in convincing their team members to dare even when obstacles are crystal clear. They would go ahead encouraging, motivating and challenging them (team members) to make the obvious (failure) become a mirage. So many times, I am tempted to believe that their motivations are just empty statements used to give failure nice clothing but it doesn't ever seem so because, the supposed failure always ends up as a success. Think of Thomas Edison who was interviewed by a young reporter who boldly asked him if he felt like a failure and if he thought he should just give up now on his quest to invent the electric light bulb. Perplexed, Edison replied, “Young man, why should I feel like a failure? And why should I ever give up? I now know definitely over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp.” And shortly after that and over 10,000 attempts, Thomas Edison finally invented the electric light bulb. Amazing!