From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
Nigerian youths have been charged to rise up and take the opportunities before them to create the country of their dreams.Giving the charge in Awka, the capital city of Anambra State, during a youth empowerment seminar organised by the Human Rights and Empowerment Project Ltd/GTE (HREP), the Founder of LEAP Africa, Mrs. Ndidi Nwuneli, noted that the present generation of youths have all it takes to move the country forward.
The internationally acclaimed public speaker and phenomenal social entrepreneur, who was the keynote speaker at the seminar with the theme: “The power of self discovery – developing the mind for creativity and success,” said there was need to create the next tribe of Nigerian youths that would be neither ethnic nor religion focused.
“This is a tribe that is not ethnic focused, not religion focused, it is excellent and merit focused. We should rise above the differences that we have in the society and embrace one thing which is excellence,” she said.
Mrs. Nwuneli in an interactive session with the youths who were mainly senior secondary students drawn from the various schools in Anambra State took time to educate them on how to identify their potentials.
“It is about young people achieving their high potentials, I believe Nigerian youths are leaders of today and tomorrow and they have everything they require to become leaders, so to do that they have to be purpose driven, they really need to figure out what they want to achieve, they have to be committed to excellence, they have to be humble, they have to be innovative and creative. Seeing problems and seeing the solutions, they have to be ethical and finally they have to be givers and not takers.
“Through my work, with LEAP Africa and its groups I try to give them practical examples of how they can be this new tribe of Nigerian youths we need to transform our nation to ensure that Nigeria becomes a country that we can all be proud of.
“I believe this generation has all it takes and today we are inspiring them to seize the day and be ready with their God-given potentials not only to improve Anambra, but also to improve Nigeria.
“When you are young you have energy, you have skills, you are creative and you have time and truly our land is blessed with so many opportunities, but so many of us see lack, we don’t see the opportunities. So, first we have to change our mindset, if we change our mindset we could see opportunities where others don’t see them. We see those opportunities through the ways we commit to hard work and discipline to innovation and creativity, we can create Nigeria of our dreams, other countries have done it and I believe this generation has to set up and rise up to do it,” she told Oriental News after the interaction.
Also delivering a lecture entitled: “Discovering, developing and deploying innate potentials for success,” Prof. Chika Moore told the youths that each of them has a choice and that though they might not be primarily or directly responsible for what happens to them, they are totally (completely, wholly) responsible for how they react to things.
He also spoke to them on being positive, urging them to give their time to engage in constructive discussion on how to find workable solutions than complaining.
He noted that the real challenge was to be positive; to realize that every dark cloud has a silver lining; adding that in any obstacle you meet was hiding some good fortune as “nature does not engage in wastefulness, so if there were no goodies to hide, the obstacle would not be there.”
He said that positivity was the ability to see beyond the obstacle to the good fortune being blocked by the obstacle, saying that is the positive challenge.
Prof. Moore, therefore, charged them to cultivate a-can-do spirit, stressing that “whenever you say ‘impossible’ or ‘can’t be done’ about an issue, then a mental block is immediately erected against any possible solution. Once you say ‘impossible,’ your faculty is immediately blocked from seeking further for a solution. But a ‘can be done’ or ‘doable’ disposition immediately fires your faculty on a solution seeking path.”
Executive Director, Human Rights and Empowerment Project Ltd/GTE (HREP), Mr. Gozie Francis Moneke, said the mission of his organization was to use the law as a tool for social change, and to empower people through trainings and capacity building activities.
“One, it focuses on a theme largely ignored or practically abandoned. The art of self discovery, which is arguably the spirit of education, has lost a place in the table of contents of our schools’ curricular, where learning is now solely to the end of passing examinations, but failing to develop the powerful imaginative capacity of the mind,” Moneke lamented.
He, therefore, said that the seminar was an emergency intervention aimed at restoring hope to many a chapfallen youth to imbue a sense of direction driven by ability and capacity to discover, develop and deploy great potentials innate in every human person.