By Faruq Ndamadu Musa
Greeting’s in the spirit of National Peace and Unity.
I commence my writing in a dictum with total submission to the will of Almighty, the giver and the taker, the living and the ever living.
Any Community such as Lokoja who fails to build the Youths is burning the bridge it’ll intend to cross within the shortest time and with the convictions that a stitch in time saves nine as a Greek philosopher said long time ago.
Permit me to Quote from the word’s of Abraham Lincoln he said and I Quote “Every man owe every society he lives to leave it better than he met it”. This has engineered my conscience to always use my pen and paper to pass bitter truth so that posterity will judge and bear true allegiance. You may wish to agree with me that our children and Youths need intellectual role models to stand out as change advocates in the society but it’s appalling that Disunity between Elders and Cadres has hindered such coming to play and had discouraged the spirit of fighting a mediocre system that has refused to dethrone our Poverty of the mind and enrich us with loving ourselves.
I know the road won’t be easy and we didn’t come this far to give up on the Lokoja of our dreams. There is no switch anywhere. We have to go through the process. A chunk of coal that wishes to become a Diamond will have to endure the crushing and the firing.
I had repeated severally that Unity among Youths and Elders of the community had long gone on “Exile” which we are left with no option than to declare Unity wanted with an immediate alacrity. Over time I had realise that we are all advocates of honesty but nobody wants to hear the truth about themselves, I’ll throughout my lifetime stand by the truth even if I’ll be alone and hated for it. I’ll Do it for my Fatherland. I had never used my pen and paper with the prayers of not hurting the feelings of anybody, I always want to struck hard somewhere we’ll all see the need to have a rethink about our yearnings for Lokoja. We will not open our eyes and allow anyone, group or sect delegitimize our birth rights to assemble idea’s and notions cum peaceful wake up calls by law abiding citizens. We, however, must be strategic. Going further, placing pecuniary gains on Employment opportunities or contracts should be abolished as a thing of the past as we only build our community by building youth’s.
Furthermore, with utmost sense of humility and respect I am using this fora to call on all our Traditional Rulers, Political Class and Technocrat’s that we shouldn’t let “Good Enough” be good enough. We needed to Lokoja and what it entails first before anything.
I have seen Indigenes of Lokoja whom there placenta’s is buried in notable area but are seeing neighboring community more precious than theirs, and I wouldn’t hesitate telling them that you are looking at your neighbour’s greener grass, unbeknownst to you that your grass is already greener than that of most people on Earth. As long as you are comparing, there will always be someone who has it better than you. Be content, or be bitter.
As I plan to rest my ink, I’ll not pend my writing without saying that our Security approach in our community is still poor which needed a routine review and a plan do-check-act. Let’s
Stop looking for the secret of success. There are no secrets anywhere. Instead of looking for success secrets, focus on finding out the price of success. Lets find it out and pay the price. It is just like students looking for ‘expo’ when they can read and pass.
The Price remain “Building the Youths”
I remain an Unrepentant believer in the future of Lokoja.
Yours in Nation Building
Faruq Ndamadu Musa is a lecturer in Kaduna Polytechnic,he writes from Kaduna.
