I visited a family member who lived in his property in Owerri. The man who would later become the king of Owerri asked me: “Ndubuisi, how are you doing with studies in FUTO?” I responded: “Sir, Abacha is causing problems in Nigeria. He is making things very hard”.
Immediately, he corrected me: “Ndubuisi, your Abacha now is FUTO and you need to do well, graduate with good grades, etc. Leave Abacha for us”.
That conversation remains evergreen. Yes, one needs to know what his “real problems are”, and then work to deal with them. This is not to say that young people should not pursue causes and activism. But the key thing is this: understand when you can make impacts.
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Simply, your sentences cannot start and end with Buhari 24/7 because on most of the issues, you have no control over them. Spend some of that energy on things you can control.
I like young men and women who live in Naija – they are better than those living in Nigeria. Some do not pay so much attention to the mess, focusing on building their startups and being in control of what they can control. They do pay attention occasionally, but the Abuja mess is always under control, in their minds. They put the mess where it belongs!
Win your mind on Nigeria; move to Naija.
There are many comments here on this posy, read them.
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This advice is faulty on many levels, and does not represent what humans are. You do not partition humanity, a suffering human anywhere concerns all humans, it is not a matter of if you can control things or not, that would be selfish.
You do not need to blame Buhari or any politician, but always ensure that you feel other people’s sufferings, you cannot do that when you only focus on what you are building, while others suffer injustice. Why is it important to care? Because they help you to treat those closer to you better, but if you remain aloof to sufferings of those in distant places, you will still mistreat the people within reach, because the insensitivity is rooted.
They were killing and terrorizing people in the northeast, for most Nigerians elsewhere, it didn’t concern them, if they like – let them kill themselves! Today, in the southeast, once famed as the most peaceful zone and economically most stable, what do we have now? A killing field, with different layers of slavery and brutality, but it’s cool to escape Nigeria and enter Naija. We cannot reduce humanity to merchandising, else we are all doomed.
The Church is against cremation, why? Because cemetery reminds us that we will die.
Good over evil, no compromise.
Thanks, Ndubisi as always, reading your article has become almost a ritual to me for a very long time.
On this, I would like to know your view regarding your question to the family member you wrote about.
Knowing all that you know today about the forces, both internal and external, that control Nigeria.
Do you still think that Abacha was really messing everything up in Nigeria those days?
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