So President Buhari received the National Open Water Swimming Competition Trophy at the State House (which one is that again? we hear you ask – See here).
Anyway during the reception which had in attendance members of the National Planning and Implementation Committee of the first National Youth Open Water Swimming Competition, the President chose the right words to charge these young sportsmen to justify the size of Nigeria and all of her natural resources. Don’t forget, open water swimming is still a sporting activity.
In the President’s his words (because context can be elusive):
“Our size as Nigeria, our natural resources and our population have put us in a very difficult position, not only in Africa but throughout the world. Everybody expects Nigeria to perform because of our quality human and material resources. So this is putting a lot of responsibilities on us, especially the youth. We just have to be up and doing in order to show Africa and the rest of the world that our size and number are not for nothing. We should prove that we can produce competitive individuals and we are able to manage ourselves.
“I am pleased to be associated with this event. I have been told how you have been training very hard. Please, try to convince your colleagues to be more competitive so that you can justify our size and our resources.“
So there you have it: we don’t need working refineries; we don’t need small businesses. We don’t even need power. All we need is competitive swimmers to justify all the potential Nigeria has been blessed with but cannot fully maximise.
Poor swimmers!
Creative mind. Enthusiast. Learner. Multipotentialite. And here, an assistant editor.
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