WHILE WE ARE ALL GREAT

You know how we are often told we are all born for greatness, and we will be famous and do awesome things and travel around the world touching lives and we will be awesomely great.

Some even take it a step further; if your name is not yet popular, then your life isn't really worth much. You aren't touching a lot of lives. I hear this more in church and I'll like to, with your permission, address a few things about such teachings.

Now then, if greatness depends on how famous your name is, how many parts of the world you have toured, the audiences you have spoken to, how influential you are, how wealthy you are: how about the man in the village teaching teenage girls and mothers about maternal health, canvassing for pads, birth control, etc., ones whose work is saving lives; is he a failure?

How about doctors and health workers who are risking their lives in battle lines treating war victims: are they failures? How about a young girl who educates other youths on the importance of youth participation and awareness in politics and rallying young people together to change their societies: is she a failure?

How about the lady who nurses old people in homes with a smile on her face every other day: she too is a failure? How about a mother who's  been left with five children and makes sacrifices everyday to see them eat and through school, who probably doesn't even have a name or an online presence: is she also a failure? Or the young graduate who had to improvise on Keke transportation to earn an income because he couldn't land job: on whom a family of 10 depends on; is he a failure?

We need to redefine greatness. We need to get back to basics. If greatness were about fame, how about actors, singers, celebrities whose names resound in all parts of the earth, who have large followerships but whose lives exude such negativity. Many of them strung up on drugs, court cases and riotous life styles. They are great?

If greatness were about money and influence, how about our politicians who are senselessly rich but whose wicked policies have cost millions of lives across the world. Are they great?

What then is greatness? I will simply define it from my heart, and not from any dictionary or source. Greatness is doing something that makes you happy and that makes another person smile. It could be a one off thing or something you commit your life to. It could be doing small things in a great way or doing great things in great ways. Bottom line is that you are happy doing them and you are adding value right where you are.

When greatness is defined this way we see that everyone is great. We also see that greatness is not a herculean task; it is an everyday thing. A smile can be great when given to a broken heart. Food can be great when offered to a hungry person. Medication can be great when administered to an old woman who is almost losing her sight. You see, greatness is just around you.

We now see that we don't have to travel around the world or answer big names to be great. We just do great and that everyday. It also removes the pressure of doing extraordinary things to become popular or influential or any other parameter used to measure greatness. I too have been told I'll be great and popular and all that. You know what it does to you? It puts you under pressure to perform or become what people expect or what the society recognizes as greatness. At times you crush people who care, lose important life's moment, do unbelievable things to become "great." You get there and it becomes empty because you lost sight of the real essence of living: Happiness and value.

So, I'm canvassing for a shift in paradigm. Let's quit putting ourselves under pressure to fit into a picture of greatness. Greatness is a daily thing and should be done naturally. I'm not asking us to be lazy, not study, enhance on our skills and talents. Those are what makes life worth living, enhancing yourself and getting better at what you do and at living. (Wouldn't it be a shame for someone to still be bathing you, putting food into your mouth, wiping your back after shiting while you are reading this and you aren't sick? My six year old niece would rather die than allow me feed her. The young lady is growing and that's what life should be.) While you do all of that, enjoy life's beautiful moments, and make someone else smile. That's greatness enough. When you eventually become the president of the world, for the few of us who will attain those lofty positions, you will still have people to enjoy your fame/wealth with.

And if you fail to make that list, what the heck! You are great right where you are as long as you are really living from your Heart and making one more person's life better.

To the great us, you and I.

Igbokwe Vivian Ijeoma

scriptwriter87@gmail.com

twitter/Instagram: @club7teen

The 9 O' clock School

It is 9 O'clock; I am passing by this school and I hear the children singing worship songs. I ask myself, is this a children's Bible school or a learning center? Why should kids be singing by 9:00 am? Any establishment that would still be praying by 9:00 am isn't ready for business. And so when parents send their children to schools, they should demand the best for their kids.

The school should be a place where a child's potentials would be nurtured for the benefit of the society. Sometimes, this is far from our reality; a lot of times actually. You know, there was this guy in my street. He went to the best primary and secondary school in the city at the time. He attended one of the private universities in the country and finished with a first class. The last time we spoke he was involved in marketing a product for this MLM Company and was trying to get me into his team. I was overwhelmed with emotions and thoughts. What was the point of all that expensive education? So he would end up where most of us who attended the low class universities did?

One would think that those who attended these expensive universities will be the hope of this country. With their superior knowledge, they should make inventions and build companies to employ the rest of us. But they end up at same spot: either working in the companies of their rich parents or come into the labor market like the rest of us. There's usually nothing to show for all the money spent on their education. And you know why? There's a huge disconnect between our educational system and the current societal trends/needs.

How does one finish from agricultural economics and go into catering? How does one read dentistry and become a musician? How do you read civil engineering and work in the bank? And then some finish from law school and go into fashion designing. Most times, these businesses or trades are areas they are naturally skilled at. I am also a victim; I read Biology and here I am writing my life away. Why then do we not go for the courses that train us for our natural skills? Why does the university curriculum not cover courses like fashion designing, singing or dancing? Why do we even bother going to the university, spending all those huge sums to come out practicing in fields totally different from what we studied? Isn't it a waste of life, time and resources?

These days, people go to universities just to obtain the certificate without the intention to practice what they studied. They just attend to get the title, "University Graduate." For us girls, it even gets worse. "At least she attended the university, she will get a husband." This is for the case of a girl who is advanced in age and doesn't have a job or anything doing for income. Her life gets summarized with the rich icing of a prospective husband, just because she's a graduate. With mindsets like this, the proper purpose for education is very defeated.

Education is the hope of any society. It is the only way she advances in trades, economics, technology, medicine, psychology, human relations, politics, etc. When it is now a thing of title or alibi for marriage, it shows how threatened our educational system is.

We are doing this project in this community where we are encouraging reading and writing amongst indigent children of a rural community. Things are so bad here that a child of 9 years cannot spell his name. Our vision is to help such kids to read, write and develop a passion for learning; and we are focused on children in the primary school level. When I think about these kids, my heart breaks. What does the future really hold for them, I ask myself? Many of us finished from good universities and yet are still struggling with life. Many graduates cannot feed themselves or sustain their families. Most that have jobs are very unhappy, insecure of their jobs and are working on jobs they are over qualified and underpaid for. What then is the hope for a child who we are helping to read, write and spell his name in a society that doesn't have any room for him? I've been thinking hard on the kind of education we should be giving them. Hand crafts, maybe. Teach them, they produce and sell them to raise money to buy them shoes, books and food. This makes more sense to me, don't you think so?

The state of education in Nigeria and Africa as a whole is critical. It is about time our curriculum and courses are overhauled to meet up with current societal trends and needs. The world is leaving us behind and we have remained recipients of everything countries who invest in education produce. We have remained consumers and are paying dearly for it as we spend billions of dollars on foreign exchange and importations.

If we don't revamp our educational system, we will keep having lawyers who make clothes; engineers who make furniture and women who graduate from university knowing that they can comfortably land a husband. If we don't, we will keep having a society void of vision and order.  

scriptwriter87@gmail.com

Twitter/Instagram: @club7teen