Possibilities for Nigeria at 100: Youths as underdogs & misfits
In 1981, after Rawlings’ coup, I had a chance to visit Ghana. The spirit of the revolution was in the air. I saw a bold inscription on a Student Bus in Accra. It read: “Don’t Just Stand and Look”. Many years later, those words have not left my mind. Some of the young men and […]
In 1981, after Rawlings’ coup, I had a chance to visit Ghana. The spirit of the revolution was in the air. I saw a bold inscription on a Student Bus in Accra. It read: “Don’t Just Stand and Look”. Many years later, those words have not left my mind. Some of the young men and women of history decided they would not just stand and look. In South Africa, in Cuba, Egypt, Libya, Nicaragua and so on, the youth decided to change the direction of the wind vane of history.
Getting involved does not mean going to war although metaphorically it comes down to that. It means, getting to do something, participating as opposed to being a guilty by stander. In a Kenyan Airways plane last week, I stumbled on a beautiful story in the inflight magazine, (October 2014, pg.17) titled, “Empowering Women”.
It is the story of a young man called Barclay Paul Okari. Mr. Okari was an undergraduate studying Finance at the University of Nairobi. On his own, he decided to volunteer as a teacher in a Girls’ School. He got to know that a good number of the girls were skipping school at a particular time during the month. He realized that these were children from poor backgrounds who could not afford sanitary pads during their monthly periods. He swung into action and began to research on how to resolve this problem. He ended up coming up with a sanitary pad that was cheap, affordable and washable which he called, Safi Pads. Now, the young man is running a growing business which now has market outlets in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. He employs a staff of 34, with 22 being women. Every invention meets a need. If you simply stand and watch and do nothing, life simply gets worse.
Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft saw a need and set out to meet it. The late Steve Jobs revolutionalised computer technology through Apple brands, giving us the ipad, iphones and so on. Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz saw a need and set out to address it. Now we have Facebook. Ms. Elizabeth Holmes saw a need in lab blood testing and set out to meet it. Her groundbreaking research has promised to turn around blood tests as we know it through her company, Theranos. Strangely, all of these are billionaires with the track records of having dropped out of such prestigious schools as Harvard and Stanford Universities. Of course, they did not drop out because they were unable to pass their examinations. They did because the formal settings of a university, its classrooms and methods had become a source of constraint to their imagination. You do not have to drop out of University or dream of becoming a millionaire. It is more important to be content with just making a difference by doing something, no matter how small to make a difference.
10: Summary: Youths, Underdogs or Misfits: Preparing for Goliath?
One of my favourite authors, the exceptionally gifted Malcolm Gladwell, author of such books as, Blink, Tipping Point, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, published a new book last year with the title: David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants. He has collected some of the most fascinating true stories about how men, adopting the style of David have slain giants of oppression, tyranny, and challenged existing notions of success and power. He summarizes his argument by simply saying; Giants are not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the sources of their weakness. Elsewhere, that spot of weakness is called, an Achilles heel. Finding it is the real challenge and it is also often called, politics.
Happily we are in a Democracy now in Nigeria. But democracy is merely a purgatory between the hell of dictatorship and the promise of freedom. The virtues of Democracy do not lie in the vacuous claims of politicians. In our situation here there are too many good people who are doing terribly bad things in the name of Democracy. However, whatever maybe it’s weaknesses, we must support Democracy as an ideal and an idea. Those who govern us now may be far from what we expect and of course it is useful that the uncertainty of the future often deludes us that somehow, tomorrow will be better. But, tomorrow can only be better if you come to terms with the fact that today is actually the tomorrow you dreamt about yesterday.
Confronting the Goliath of corruption and inefficiency and gross mismanagement of resources that has rendered our country what it is today should be our battle. The problems may look like a mountain and of course, it is tempting to say that we cannot do anything. We might even think that we could only do more if we entered politics or are given a chance as we tend to say. The decay in our society has offered us all we need. It is the Goliath of our times. Are you looking for weapons called money or power? Look no further. David had only a stone. Yes, only a stone and his sling. He did not wait for the politicians and the men and women of power of his time to save his people. The time to act for a better tomorrow is now and the generation to ensure a greater tomorrow is here. But today’s Youth, especially those who are making money must rise beyond the Champagne bubbles, avoid the high way of the Ferraris, reduce the Dubai orgies and defer some pleasure till the vision is clear and they appreciate the fact that knowing life is more than just making money.
Finally, when Gladwell refers to us as Misfits, he does not mean to insult. Rather, what he is amplifying the David and Goliath metaphor which says that stature and the paraphernalia of power as we see and know them may not be the measure of real strength. The appropriate choice of weapons which might seem totally illogical to the onlooker (David’s stones and sling, facing Goliath’s heavy armour of strength and intimidation), but, as a careful choice, these misfiting weapons could be lethal.
The Youth must therefore not see their force in the thinking, when we get there we shall clean up politics. No, they must see their strength in the choices they make now. The stones of David are a mere metaphor. The stones and the slings are around you. They may be a computer button or a mouse, they may be a keyboard, or a pen. Just open your eyes, see it, and pick it up and find your sling. The Goliath of today is too big to be missed and if we are to change tomorrow, we must slay the Goliath of injustice and corruption that has held us down. May God give you the courage to take up the challenge and today’s misfit could be tomorrow’s champion. Good luck as you set out on your adventure. Don’t just stand and look. Do something today. Thank you and God bless you.
(Keynote address delivered by Bishop Matthew Hassan KUKAH, at the Port Harcourt Book Festival on Tuesday, October 21st, 2014 at Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt, Rivers State)
(Keynote address delivered by Bishop Matthew Hassan KUKAH, at the Port Harcourt Book Festival on Tuesday, October 21st, 2014 at Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt, Rivers State)
Concluded