Courageous Thinking in Perilous Times (Part 1)

By Ogbo Awoke Ogbo Ogbo.ogbo@giantthoughts.com [HWW Transcript]

If we ever needed courage, it is at times like these. Only courageous thinking will guarantee that you will fulll your dreams and achieve your hearts desire. Only courageous thinking will save you and your family, and only courageous thinking will save Nigeria from the valley of the shadow of death. Many people have said that Nigeria is a difcult place to run a business or to survive. I tend to agree, being an entrepreneur myself. I totally identify with the herculean problems of starting and running your own business in Nigeria. I know a man who ran a business, just a few years ago, valued at NGN 3 billion. Today, he has been so reduced that even transport money to leave his house is a problem. I wept for him yesterday because only a country like this one can do that to a man. For the same reason, many Nigerian businesses have ed to Ghana. I was in Ghana recently. I was surprised that at 12 midnight, 1 am, 2 am, people were moving around so peacefully along the streets, enjoying family times outside their homes. I didn't see any soldiers or barricades on the road. Try staying out of your house at 1 a.m in our own country. You will remind me of the proverb of my people: the udara fruit that falls beside the road is throwing an open invitation for someone to pick it. If terrorists don't throw a bomb at you, armed robbers or ritual murderers will cut off one part of your body. Also, just a few weeks ago, in one of our communities, some farmers ended their own lives after a ood destroyed their farms. They saw no hope anymore. In other countries, a well organized insurance industry would have compensated these farmers and they would never have needed to take the path of suicide. These are perilous times indeed. Many foreign investors are discouraged from coming into Nigeria. Only an insane foreign investor will read about all the bombings and barbaric killings going on here and come in to set up his business. Some people cannot even go to their villages anymore for fear of being kidnapped. I read recently that the kidnap industry in the South East netted several billions in ransom money paid in the past ve years. It's a very lucrative sector. Other countries are busy conquering space, and inventing amazing machines. A few weeks ago, NASA sent a robot to Mars, a distance of more than 500 million kilometers from Earth! The space vehicle, aptly called Curiosity, successfully traveled about 8 months to arrive its destination in Mars. That is a demonstration of the awesome possibilities of the human mind. But our own situation is pathetic. Others are applying their minds to make life better, we are applying our own minds to destroy each other. Others are assembling space vehicles but we are assembling bombs.
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For almost 100 years since after our forced marriage by the British, we have never even left the rst ladder of Abraham Maslows pyramid. Other countries are sending their citizens to the moon, but Nigeria is sending her own citizens to the grave. There is no doubt we are living in perilous times. The strategy for surviving hardship is not the same for thriving in times of peace and prosperity. Einstein said you can never solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it. Nigeria's tragedy is that the people who created our problems are the ones trying to solve it for us. The cats are settling the quarrel between cats and mice. Everyone thinks they know the problem with Nigeria but I believe that Nigeria has only three problems. If we can solve these three problems today, everything will change overnight. Peace will return; the economy will boom again, security of lives and property will become automatic. Our educational system will resurrect, infrastructure will magically appear and unemployment will become a thing of the past. What are these three problems? Number 1 is self deception; number 2 is self deception and number 3 is self deception. We all know what is wrong with us. Our founding fathers, if we ever had any, knew what is wrong. They talked about it. They wrote about it. And we all know what we must do to move forward with our lives but we lack the courage to do it. We will continue to avoid it until it can no longer avoid us. But remember that if one fails to lick his lips, the harmattan will lick it for him. Time is running out and history is standing by the corner, laughing at us. Only courageous thinking will save us at a time like this. The solution to our problem is really as easy as ABC. After all, you dont sharpen a machete just to cut down a banana tree. Even a 3-year old child can handle our problem. No one says we must separate; what everyone is saying is that we must sit down and discuss our collective or individual destinies. Just how difcult is that? Havent we wasted enough innocent blood right from 1967? The disobedient fowl will nally obey in a pot of soup. Often, I hear people say, America is made up of hundreds of tribes and they still stay together. I marvel at such ignorance. How can you be like America when you cannot do what America did to stay together? They negotiated their existence. They have a shared vision; we dont. In our case, one group says they want sharia and nothing but sharia. They are ready to go any length to get it because the only time you will see a quiet snake is when it has swallowed another snake. However, another group says that they are not interested in sharia because that is not their destiny. Another group says, We want our oil, another group says they want to control their sea ports and so on. Why are we stopping one other from going forward with our destinies? After all, the vulture and the kite should not really scramble for food: the vulture is a scavenger; the kite, a predator. They do not eat the same food. But 1914 has nally made a big fool of all of us. Recently, we went to marry for my Yoruba brother and bosom friend. All of us were calling the pretty bride iyawo wa, iyawo wa, which means, our wife, our wife. All of us can call a woman iyawo wa but it is only at midnight that we shall discover whose wife she is. Same for Nigeria. The Midnight is coming. Even a 3-year old baby knows that two people cannot exist together unless they agree. But we keep trying to mix iron and clay; and oil and water. I wish us
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good luck but remember that the Zulus of South Africa said that you cannot ght an evil disease with sweet medicine. History is watching. And Ogbo is praying. In spite of all these, everyone wants to be successful, wealthy and happy. No normal person wants to die before achieving his or her dreams. Everyone wants to live happily and peacefully with their loved ones. We all want to be free from pain and threats. I cry for our youth. Each time I speak to the Nigerian youth, they look me in the face and say, Mr. Ogbo, tell us the truth. Is there hope for us in this country? Can we ever fulll our dreams in this country? Each time, my answer is the same, Yes, you can still fulll your dreams. It is very difcult, but it is quite possible. However, the ground squirrel says that he who walks should occasionally break into a trot, just in case the need to run arises. The need to run may soon arise. Therefore, the tough question is, How can you nd courage in perilous times such as these? How can you raise your family and give your children good education? How can you experience your full potential as a human being in the midst of all these troubles? Is all hope lost? that is where we will pick up from next week, in the second part of the series. You denitely wont want to miss it for any reason. Ill do everything I can to encourage you to become everything you can be, achieve everything you are capable of, and make God proud of you.

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