I would like to continue with the thoughts I garnered from the animated movie I spoke about the last time. Nigeria is in need of midwives or should I put it better, the destiny of this nation is in need of midwives. What’s the role of a midwife? Well its simple, to ensure a safe delivery of the baby a mother is carrying.
Permit me to refer to the animated movie Kung-fu Panda again. I would like to describe on of the characteristics of the midwives that will help push the destiny of this great nation, locked in the youth, into fruition. I need to give you some background so please indulge me ok? Thanks a lot.
Master Shifu, the kung-fu master assigned to train the chosen dragon warrior Po, had trained a number of successful warriors. This group of individuals (please permit me to use that expression), called the Furious 5, were a legendary group of excellent kung-fu masters who had gained renown with their skills. Everyone in China knew them. These guys had dealt with all kinds of foes and taken on all kinds of opposition. In spite of all their training however, they were no match for the threat that was looming over the town where they stayed. This threat was a snow leopard, called Tai Lung who had been trained by Master Shifu himself since childhood but had gone wrong at one time and was imprisoned in some far away dungeon.
Now Tai Lung was coming back to the temple where he was raised, believing he was the one fit to be the dragon warrior, to come pick up the dragon scroll (which was more or less an endorsement). Now imagine the enormity of the situation: the legendary Furious 5 could not match this enemy. Master Shifu could not match him either since Tai Lung had developed over the past years. The only hope was the dragon warrior, who happened to be this oversized panda. The situation was hopeless or so it seemed. The answer lay in this oversized panda that wasn’t in any way prepared to or even able to take on any member of the Furious 5.
Shifu was confused but his own master, Oogway told him something very significant. “I only need you to believe. Promise me you will believe.” These were the words Oogway spoke to him. Shifu could only answer in desperation, “I will…try.” I can understand him. It didn’t make sense that this panda could ever learn anything about kung-fu much less now defeat such a formidable enemy as Tai Lung. The same way it doesn’t make any sense to many of us that this yahoo-yahoo, mentally lazy, Channel-O generation can achieve anything of relevance.
Most of the guys who grew up when Nigeria entered the oil boom wish they could go back to those days. Even I look back and can thank God for the primary school I went to. We had meaningful excursions, fresh fruits to go with our daily meals, French classes and it was not an expensive school. I can look back to those years and thank God because my English was perfected in those years. Mental sums were an order of the day so I didn’t need calculators even for complex mathematical calculations. You don’t think it mattered? Ask the average J.S. 2 student to do math of something like (2x+5) where x is 5 and you’ll see him (or her) ask you for a calculator. Ok maybe that is confusing with the integer x and all but what about a simple calculation of taking 200 out of 1000?
Maybe not all of us have a thing going with Math ok? Take a look at our music and its lyrics and you can tell that there’s nothing in the heads of most of us (now I don’t mean that as derogatory in anyway ok?). Can you now imagine this crop of individuals doing anything of great significance? But wait, before you give up on us. We only need the right leadership. We only need for you to believe in us. We only need for you to see the good in us.
These midwives, who will ensure the destiny of this nation is not aborted, must be believing people-individuals who are willing to see the good in a not-so-good generation. People who are willing to invest in this generation being who they really are- an army of saviours. As difficult as this must seem, it takes faith for this destiny to be actualized. Faith in God and faith in the people who will bring the change we all desire-the youth.
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