*~Comr. Engr. Ondeku
Gentlemen & ladies,
Permit me to be emotional and sentimental in this write-up.
Plus or minus, I began this life in 1985 and by the grace of God, here is 2023 knocking.
At my age, cynicism is healthy against any bad governance because I planned to look back on my life and say ‘wow, that was an adventure, strive and success when I’m old and dying but, am I getting things right even at this age? This is the integral question that have contracted me the insomnia feelings daily in my eyes.
It’s no secret that failure begots success. I had failed 99 times and my hustle is yet to conceive success. I know, that success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm, but I am an unrepentant enthusiast for years now, yet without positivity.
Ofentimes, I asked myself, is the world even interested in the number of storms I encountered? No! All they want to know is if I brought back the ship. Nobody wants to know the amount of candles I burnt while in school, all they want to see is my years of working experience before I could be hired. In Oxford dictionary, experience is gotten from the work you do overtime, but the Nigerian employers wanted a new born baby to have 10 years of working experience perhaps, may be from birth and if this is not frustration and confusion what else could it be!
My father used to say, that anyone embarking on a long journey must carefully plan and arrange himself and his luggages with the consciousness that if anything is forgotten, coming back will be almost impossible. But, I discovered that in Nigeria, no matter how careful you are, you will still have to come back again and again because you will never have success in your luggages at once because of the frustration.
In my secondary school days, I learnt that he who has a destination does not shake hands with everyone he sees on the road and, in my quest to succeed, I always held my fingers-firm-in-fist for success and determination, yet all I have gotten is muscle pulls and blood congeal. Everything you have ever wanted to succeed in life is at the other side of fear; these and many more are the kind of words we heard back then, now I spent all I have to build a bridge over the fear, walked across the bridge to the other side of the fear and discovered that the fear of the demagogues and corrupt leaders of this country have consumed the peoples’ wants and left only motivation for the poor people.
Somebody will just seat the people’s money and doesn’t cares whether they eat or die. They shared all the available jobs and public funds, they keep sharing and, yet their demands never ceased-when will the son of nobody going to be hired?
The only place where experience comes before work is in the dictionary. In practical terms, it’s criminal to have the experience before the work or practice, but Nigerians are so addicted to the use of dictionary such that they follows it to the latter.
We need to pick the motivation because that is what we need to overcome the frustration from our leaders in this country. We need to pick the motivation because that’s what is left undone in Nigeria. We need the motivation to keep our hopes alive and keep going. People need the motivation to keep the spirit of committing sucide out of frustration at bay in this country.
2023 is around the corner but look at all we are marketing, you either can proud of the head nor the tail but the coins will ever remains the two-faced and if you talk, they either classified it as defamation or hate speech. They will always have their ways if they want to witch-hunts the poors whereas, we need to live a redefine life.
Gentlemen & ladies, step up your hustling and live above their frustration, if not, you will wake up one day and discover that you are 70yrs already. The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be righteously.
In Prof. Ahmed Abere’s words of advice-my mentor, “you are permitted to fall 7-times but stand up the 8-times and never to fall again” don’t give up! Fortune will smile on you soon.
2023 if the opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door, go back to your drawing table, pick your pencil and reposition your compass for you may navigate the way that leads to success.
God bless every genuine hustlers out there and see you, 2023!