Perishing Proposals - Brian Oji (09)

The 1000th well thought out, well articulated and packaged burst of inspiration that holds the keys to mighty aspirations, renown and great accomplishment for one and many has just been thrown to the stockpile of ‘received letters’. The presenter rests uneasy, hoping for correspondence which, if he only knew, the paper shredder cannot give. Unconsidered, the proposal sees its end but the presenter would not give up. One more try, another corporate sponsor, another long shot, just another…the rat race continues. For the most part, the idea is good, the procedure for implementation has been thought out and the executors are ready for work, yet, as excellently as their skills complement, as honest as their intentions are, they must wait till the day that some grace lifts their proposals from the perishing lot. And, when this day comes, would they have the force of zeal to accept and accomplish or would their imagination and inventiveness have been dulled by the phenomenon of perishing proposals? Would they have anymore zest to keep trying in hope or have lost their sight by the day opportunity comes striding idly by?

For many, all they needed was a platform, ten years ago. Some …longer ago. The game seems to have ended for some and for many more the rat race is becoming unbearably disappointing.

BUT…

There is heat only in the rat race and there are no hold ups on the extra mile. Your aspirations in far away corporate organizations can be achieved more definitely if you would start with what you have right there where you are. You may not take the one super step to success and it achieve all in double quick time. Still in meeting more people and feeling underutilized and overstressed at different times lies a good sign. Yes, that is how you pay your dues and train yourself to know more, be more and do more. If you want to change the nation, start today by doing something positive for your street, if you want to fight for international women’s rights then make the girl next door feel special today.

Many people are planners very few are doers: there is little or no competition among the doers. Be a doer today. Stop waiting in hope for a chance, advance with patience and create chances from everything. Many people are holding up perishing proposals today, how obvious you would be when you project a doing arm. Take charge of your life today by that I mean: Get Busy.

The Specialists - Brian Oji (09)

They control this frequency, they are the hands that produce every imagination; they are the executors of every vision, the creators of the future that others have intended. They control the Nation; they do not need position but they have the power. They do not speak into the press cameras, they carry them. They do not wear long flowing kaftans; their jeans and shirts, well fitted suits and general casuals enhance their inconspicuous role. They are not always the brains behind the crises but they are the hands that implement. Without them, crises can only be imagined, not executed. Elections are rigged, only by these; they are the real ‘powers that be’ and that is not a metaphor. Who are they?

Well they can easily be identified because they are not standing in front of podiums, or sitting between tall flags or even locked away inside tall buildings with taller walls and fully armed guards at the dozen gates; they live where you live or somewhere close by. The walk on the walkways, they go to public places without guards, they look like everyone else, because they indeed are the regular people, yet without their support the constituency of an ailing or thriving political administration would bite the dust consistently. They are the pillars that hold the government and what a great handicap it is not to have these ones on your side. They may not call the shots but they take the shots, they may not give the order, they carry out the order. They did not create the system, they uphold and maintain it.

Yet many of them are distressed at the bleakness of their day of total control; the future they would inherit from the system of today which rests on their hands although not on their minds. Many of them are zealous for change, many are pointing fingers at the government asking for good use of power but they fail to recognize the truth: They’ve got the power! The power they need to be used to their advantage is theirs but they do not really know it. They must, at this time, stand up for something and not be mindless puppets with stuffed mouths and victims of a crooked system. They must call all their compatriots within this Nation and inform them about their exceptional powers and abilities of influence. They must set their minds to think today, with tomorrow in perspective because that is their world: these administrators would be gone and they would have to live with their choices of today.

They fall within the age bracket of 12 – 45; they are our most active workforce and the strength of our human resource capital- The Nigerian Youths, our National pillars of strength, look up and aspire for a Nigeria we all will be proud of.

Anonymous Treasures - Brian Oji (09)

Living among us, on the posh streets, within our slumps, estates and developments are minds that have creatively quizzed their environment for solutions to our shared problems but have remained silent as they have not found our Nation to be any good a threshing floor for Dreams. With every wonderful painter whose works are displayed on the streets, every professor that is now frustrated by a life of unfulfilled self – made promises, every smart father that only smiles to objectivity and youth fire power, having a bag of tales to tell about the impossibility of possibility within our shores … there is more reason to follow convention. Where I can blame society for it’s ineffectiveness and folks would not blame me for my doggedness for the cause of my ‘golden idea’; having to watch so much pass me by. They say the rich stole and the poor were uneducated but what is the future for the young child whose mind is bursting at its seams with anonymous treasures?

Reaching for a Greater Nigeria - Brian Oji (09)

Along the coast of the Niger, sits a Nation that hoists the Green White Green- a Nation that was dissipated by the lack of a defined ideology, an assembly of tribes without a common purpose. Leadership styles and models have experimented on her shores and the people have had to gain and lose confidence in the very idea of governance several times over. This Nation has had one civil war that produced little more than facts for the history books and a couple of violent out-breaks where people have fought and died as a result of a dearth of knowledge and the wickedness of the better informed.

Social structures have been put in place: schemes and innovations that should bring about positive development but they have suffered from the plague of ineffectiveness that stems from a bleak understanding of the purpose of these structures.

Until recently few could proudly say they are Nigerians, but the media among others started making Nigerians feel Nigeria in Nigeria. It started working – Nigerian movies, music, designers et al. Proudly Nigeria is a fact of many people’s lives today. A Nation that is now aware of the concept of Nationhood.

Blasting beyond our past riddled with ignorance and false information, our past would not hold us back because our future beckons with a louder voice. We may not have been given a purpose to justify our origination but each one of us has looked over our shoulders to see that our challenges are not unique to us: for instance, I need electricity in my house and so does my neighbour as well as his neighbour and on like that; as one person I may find a solution but together we can do it faster. So this has given us a common purpose. We have looked at our common needs to find the agenda we must now pursue as a unit.

Now many years later we are a Nation unified by the victory we all contributed greatly to and now share. The victory our children would thank us for and the World would respect us for. We have now a story and a rebirth – welcome to our world of new beginnings. Welcome to Nigeria: Good People, Great Nation.

Brian Oji,
A Nigerian.

Rage against the Dying of Light- Brian Oji (09)

Don’t be empty! What is talent without information? What is vision without knowledge? Why journey without light? The one who has a map, has a destination, has the strength to go but has no light to move is just as foolish as the one without enough sense to read a map or the one without enough strength to walk and the sluggard who never got up, if not more miserable! I am talking about the one that would not read, the one that would not be part of creative conversations, the one that drives away any appeal to the intellect; that one that would never task the mind or try to remember anything; comfortable with being simple and happy to be ignorant. Following people who may be much smarter than they are; not knowing that smart people are sometimes smart enough to act foolish around the foolish simply for the pleasure of company.

These are the ones who have blockheads for friends and take advice from their company of fools. And when there is a problem, they are alone and helpless because there is no resourcefulness in their inept clique. Some have pretty faces and a suave looks, so they put their trusts in these; saying in their hearts “I cannot be successfully ignored”. They fail to understand that beauty and intelligence are not mutually exclusive. If your looks can give you something for which you do not merit intellectually, you have to be seriously dumb to think that the next smart, good looking, intellectual that comes along would not spell your dismissal, maybe not from position but sure enough, from relevance. These strange fools keep at foolishness and hold it tenaciously even as they stay away from knowledge and any form of development. They run to intelligence when they are in trouble and when they find help they are happy and mostly ungrateful; thinking that the world is as simple as their peanut minds! What a mistake, they fail to realize that tomorrow that help cannot be repeated because foolish-ingratitude is a stinking mixture to have!

These ones say: “education is not a true test of intelligence” so they fail in school. Now how foolish can you get? The strength of that statement is given, but intelligent people pass anyway. Don’t think people who pass in school fail in life because of a couple of disappointed folks you know or that people who fail in school pass in life because of some extra determined exceptions you hear about. Well hear this; in life, unless there is a drastic change, failure always leads to more failure and success to more success! You see why you must pass in school? These raving idiots pick up placards, never to protest the absence of books in the library or lecturers’ absenteeism not to talk of a change in the curriculum. No, theirs is a culture of folly and they would not be interrupted by soundness. These ones blame the system and act as victims of its deficiencies but are too blind, by reason of their vacuous minds, to see that few are still thriving all around them. They cannot give anyone sound advice yet they are the first to offer words; empty words of catastrophic consequences. They are in trouble, some feel they cannot help it, some others say: “everyone cannot be Einstein, ah ah, I have to be myself”. Well, help me ask them if being you means being a Humpty Dumty?

These ones were not born this way but they have let their light die. I see a lot of them around here and yet, in drunken fits, they are quick to pick up a protest against the ones who have christened them: “Dark Continent”. Well the light went off upstairs first before it became too obvious, it can now be seen from across the seas! Don’t let your light die. Know things, read books, be very informed, keep abreast of facts, have a mind that works so you don’t have to stare in the air for 3 whole minutes trying to figure out what would be the outcome if 27 is counted 3 times! I call you to order, today, yes, in my own unique way, but let it be clear. The truth is, we need you, we need the intelligent you, even with all your beauty and stuff you have going: these things even makes us need you the more but what can we do, if you remain simple and set the level for our interaction very low. Don’t kill your light. Why should it be you that would be regarded as “not so smart” when you can easily change that uncomplimentary remark. Have fun, play, look good, enjoy life but most importantly, don’t be empty!

A Place Called Hope– Brian Oji (09)

Beyond our aspirations and criticisms of our nation, we must understand that if we do away with this location our future is just another story; told but not seen. There is a place where we can draw strength; of purpose, for our visions; a place where the sun shines and casts its light even on the shadows. For every dream that has been lived, every accomplishment, for every strong economy and thriving innovative government you see today, I tell you, there was a time when people had to reside in this place that we are today as a Nation. It is not a place of mockery or defiance, or a place of resignation and disillusion but a place of possibility, a place of laughter from within, a place of creation, development, longing and action: a place called Hope. Every Nigerian may not live here but you can and so many others would come with you. We can be hopeful and expectant even as we channel our efforts to constant development and exemplary emulation. We must be hopeful, for the future we expect and the success of generations to come. We will be hopeful because in hopelessness is death and in death is failure; the failure of our visions, a fractured society and a blemish for our children.

We see hope, through the eyes of possibility and effort, beyond the barriers of greed and division, in the hearts of the trying youth, in the capacity of our inner man. We bring hope, when we encourage another, speaking well of our nation and making up our minds to do well. We draw hope, when we surround ourselves with the right people and the right information, when we set our goals and achieve them in milestones, when we put a smile on a face and cause the tears of another to dry away. In such moments, we inspire ourselves even more than the one for whom we have done good. There is a place called hope; I live there and there is no greatness except for the person or the people who have lived here at one point in time. So what would be your story? The future as well as the present belongs to the hopeful. Where do you live? I invite you to this beautiful place: a place called Hope. I believe in the Nigerian Project. You should too.

YOUTH 1960 - Passion meets Oppurtunity

When it dawned on us that ‘Arise o’ compatriots’ was referring to you and me, we picked up our

tools of a clear conscience, strong convictions and a lively hope and started to plough the hearts

of young Nigerians in view of making our beautiful Nation first class by all standards. That is

what Youth 1960 Foundation is all about: to create a better informed citizenry, positively motivated to key into the collective responsibility of national development; effecting positive changes within their local, national and international communities.

Be a Part of this movement