Japheth Omojuwa: #TFASymposium thoughts – Our common debt and Nigeria (Y! FrontPage)

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I believe without an iota of doubt that the young people present at The Future Awards Symposium are enough to change the destiny of this country in its entirety; politics, economy, socio-cultural and all.

There are people who will be justified if they don’t care what happens to Nigeria, they will not be breaking any moral code if they don’t care about this country. There are people who’d owe life a huge debt if they fail to do enough for this country; they are in debt to Nigeria. I am of the second type just like you. Anyone, who has ever had a chance to see beyond the lies and the politics of rule and divide deployed by our rulers has a responsibility to our people; to preach the truth and unity. This is our common debt.

At our meeting spot en route Ekiti, I was stunned by the potential power available to our generation. I saw in each person a latent ability to change this country and in our collective I saw real potential power. My thoughts were dampened by the fact that we never really agree. This point was one area those looking to hang me for anything said I had abused the Igbos. I am glad Prof. Pat Utomi put that in perspective; that the Igbos had always agreed until the post civil war era. I think all the ethnic groups have their challenges, just like individuals. One must not be put in a place where there are no-go-areas in discussing ones country. Funny how these same folks refused to identify the fact that one agreed that the Igbos were individually an invincible force of nature like the Nigerian youths. This is an issue for another day though. I believe without an iota of doubt that the young people present at The Future Awards Symposium are enough to change the destiny of this country in its entirety; politics, economy, socio-cultural and all.

This is not to say that those that were not there are not as useful, this is just saying we had enough potential in the room to change the world. My brothers with a common debt Chinedu Ekeke, Moses Nasamu, Seun Fakuade and a couple of other young Nigerians I believe matter to the future of this country were unavoidably absent. They did not feel as though the world had to fall because they couldn’t make it to Ekiti. The irony of their humanity is that it was comedic to see other young people go to the Twitter market telling the world how it was a sin of demonic proportions not to have been invited. To these ones, their absence was a big blow to the symposium because even though it was not stated, they hold holds the key to heaven and hell? Nonsense.

As a people, we must learn to understand that not all of us will be invited to the table – table of whatever, politics, conferences, awards, meetings etc. – but once the absence of such invitations make you give up on doing good and being about yourself, you have failed. As long as you stay on the path of self-development, belief in Nigeria and strength of character, this country will always come calling. Challenges will always gravitate toward their solutions and Nigeria like every country in the world will never lack challenges.

What we must not do is to seek to rock the boat because we feel left out. What we must not do is to think we are better than those invited.  Those invited to any of these platforms have a responsibility to know it is a privilege not a right; there are many Nigerians doing bigger things, doing better things and we must not get carried away by our pride. You are a leader if you are about making change happen wherever you are. It does not matter if the Future Awards sees you, it matters not if the rulers of your country see you; a leader is not a leader because s/he has been invited to come and lead, a leader is a leader because of the life s/he lives every day. We must know these things and understand that, the future of Nigeria is in our hands. We owe it to ourselves, to today and to the future to dream better dreams and never stop working to make this change happen. This is our common debt.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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