returns. It's sad. We make deals with devils & make others pay our
dues. Fortunately, God has blessed us with a natural elasticity for
hard living. Unfortunately, we're yet to direct such toughness to
paths where we won't be blinded by greed, avarice & mortal fear.
I was told of a mine of human resource that exists right under our
noses. The Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO).
They've been at their workshops, offering alternate industrial income
solutions via research, feasibility studies & courses to the
public...since the Shehu Shagari administration & no one has taken up
the gauntlet to bridge the divide between the knowledge & the
industrialists who need it. I use the word 'need' carefully.
The solutions of a western state are exactly that. From a distinct
ambient temperature difference to cultural sensitivities to divergent
needs, what they offer cannot fill our needs as sick giant, prone &
restless on our back. Our collective responsibility as a creative,
driven & talented gathering of diverse tribes & cultures has not
changed. We need to push ourselves up to get up.
Waste to wealth is how Uncle John put it. There's nothing that has to
go to waste just because we have no popular 'western' idea of dealing
with leftover Pure Water bags, corn cobs &stalks, powdered kunu drinks
& tomato pureé...but we need them. The ideas have been explored by
intellectuals who've been conditioned to think outside the box & for
the real world in terms of application. Their work is regarded as
thorough, their skill-set is not child's play, & their committment is
inspiring. Maybe, just maybe, we don't deserve them. Or maybe we're
still so asleep, drunk off the life of a consumer nation, that we
forgot we 'produced' in the not too recent past. What good comes of a
man who happened upon another man's need & met it without meeting his
very own? We provide the world crude oil, manpower, entertainment (our
political history is a treasure trove of plots & twists, for we do
live in interesting times as a country), & yet we assume mediocrity is
chased away by consistency alone? Grow up! I don't speak in specifics
because there will be over 150 million other voices that would not be
heard out. Why should I speak in specifics? We're decidedly shallow
(why else would a set of people poison what would change lives
positively, keeping every good made available ready to be uprooted at
the slightest shake?), unrepentantly dense (I've heard of parents who
would delay payment of school fees because of car payments, all for
the sake of the appearance of wealth. Pride is a poor substitute for
actual advancement or education, but it the basic entry requirement
for the school of 'very' hard knocks).
I feel anyone can do the greatest good or evil. All it takes is a
step. The intentions will offer themselves to us, we will have to
prepare our minds on what we want (specifics not needed at this point)
& follow through on the intentions. If one will help, help. Don't
block other people because the idea didn't come through you or you
feel you won't be adequately recognised. Most of us alive now won't be
remembered 100 years from now. Neither, I strongly suspect, will any
of us care. But we owe it to our children. Our parents haven't cleared
their debt to us, let's not pass it on.
Soft returns are not for the soft minded (ask any erect penis). They
don't make for a killing, they make for a living, a building up
towards greater things than what's available now.
Should you have a chance to build towards something, take it. You'll
mature better. Though not faster, but hey, those who laugh last...
--
Sent from my mobile device
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