Skip to main content

Libraries and Alcohol

Being liked is not the same thing as being useful.
Take this for-instance.
Two men go to the village for Christmas with N200k. One spends the money buying bottles and calabashes of alcohol for random strangers, and 'dropping' for any and every A'nimo that 'taxes' him... Maybe throws a party here and there.
The next man walks into the community secondary school and donates 200k worth of books to the school Library.
Note:BOTH MEN THINK THEY HAVE DONE SOMETHING FOR THEIR PEOPLE.
Word of the first man's 'philanthropy' reverberates through the village like thunder claps on a wildly stormy August  morning... but each bottle of alcohol he buys is only as useful as a few hours of pseudo-merry, and urine the morning after.
Noone hears of the second man, and those that do probably think "Na book we go chop?" ...but somewhere in that library is a boy who will grow up to be an artist, or doctor, or engineer, or astronaut; a girl who will grow up to be a lawyer, teacher, poet, ANYTHING  - all because hidden in one of those books is a spark that will ignite their curiosity forever.
The library is clearly more important than the alcohol. But why aren't more people building libraries? I guess it's because humans have a - permit me to use the phrase - 'congenital desire' to be liked. That is why we 'tip' the drunkard; why we allow students to cheat during an examination we're supervising; why we turn our faces away whilst injustice is being done. But when we do this, we aren't being useful, just being liked, and probably hurting the people whose affection we need so dearly. Are we more interested in being liked than we are in making real changes? Could this be the reason why our societies have 'potential' and nothing else?
This New Nigeria needs people who will rebel against the norm and refuse to conform, people who will dare to make 'useful' a priority. You don't have to build a library or drill a borehole to make a difference. You could donate a pack of chalk (it's only hundred bucks) to a nearby LEA primary school, or plant a tree, or teach a couple of kids how to play chess (one of them may be Nigeria's Kasparov).
The bottomline this: Nigeria can only become great if we make contributions that will outlive us. It may not give you immediate popularity that comes with being a beer-parlour-philanthropist but it we change the world around us in ways we can't imagine. #MakeADifference #StartNow

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

...just 'Du' it: Jang and the Era of Nepotism

I have absolutely no intent to spend the words of this post talking about the 'Du Covenant' as it, to me, bears no credence. I will also not talk about the videos on the internet, showing an alleged initiation of Gov. Jang and his wife, nor will I talk about his apparent imposition of GNS as the PDP flag-bearer  in the state - these are tales for another day. What I want to talk about is the era of nepotism that is ever-proudly represented by Gov. Jang. When Jang contested in 2007, he appealed to our sense of morals. I remember vividly, though i was just about 15 then, how he so proudly flaunted his principle of integrity and contentment. He told the voters tales of how he had only one old house despite being governor in the military era that preceded our democracy. There was no doubt that this was an entirely selfless servant who represented service, morality and discipline. Or so we thought. The recent acts of nepotism carried out by the government is a testament of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Europe’s Migrant Crises and the Wolves in Sheep Clothing

The current leaders of Europe are the orchestrators of all its aching. For instance, Angela welcomed with wide arms, over 1million refuges from the Middle East. My very limited knowledge of world politics and countless evenings of perusing conspiracy theories have led me to conclude that this very controversial decision was led by one of two reasons – a vampiric lust for cheap labour which is innate in all capitalists or a grandiose sense of humanity powered by the desire to portray Germany as a leader in all and every respect. Well, I don’t need a soothsayer to tell me that she, alongside other European leaders who followed her lead are in shad’in (euphemism for “ deep shit ”). We're so unfortunate to have lived through the terror of the Paris attacks, the Brusells attacks (twice) and the uncertainty and tension that have now covered Europe like a cloud. I understand that one may wonder if there is in fact any evidence which proves these attacks were made possible by the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tribute to YS Dimka (Missing You by N.I. & Eyesreal)

Principals come and go, but only a handful of principals get studio-recorded tributes as powerful as this one. This is a song dedicated to Late YS Dimka, a man who most of his ex-students will agree is beyond reasonable doubt, one of the greatest principals in the country. This is a song that echoes the greatness of a man who dedicated most of his life to turning boys into great men.  RIP Mr. YS Dimka Download Missing You (tribute to YS Dimka) by N.I. & Eyesreal (dropbox) Download Missing You (tribute to YS DIMKA) by NI & Eyesreal [uptobox]
Post a Comment
Read more