Do not become an expert in
making excuses, it devalues and reduces your worth, and it’s a public
demonstration of your inability. It is easy to make excuses because people do
not like to take responsibility for their words and action, people always
prefer the easy way out of everything. It’s a pity a lot of people are where
they are today because they always make excuses for their failure; they always
try to make themselves happy by justifying their present circumstances.
It baffles me when I hear people say
things like; “If not for the family I come from I would have been this or that”
“If not that I’m a Nigerian, I would not be denied the visa” “If not for the
economic situation, my business would be better than this” “If not that I lost
my father or mother at a tender age, my life would have been better today” “If
not that I married the wrong husband or wife, I would have been happier” “If
not that I dropped out of school, I would have had a better job” “If not for
the economic recession, I wouldn’t have lost my job”. Drop all the “If not” in
your life, stop playing the self pity game, all those excuses will only keep
you behind in life. If you want the world to take you serious, you must drop
the excuse habit.
This is a challenge to developing
countries; we are not behind among community of nations because we are still
developing but because we refuse to take responsibility for who we are.
Corruption has been identified as one of the major reasons for underdevelopment
in most developing countries , yet people still pride themselves in corrupt
practices and the few that try to expose and tackle the problem are been hunted
by the bad heads. Africa is said to be ravaged with malaria, HIV/AIDS,
tuberculosis and other related diseases, yet people will still not maintain
clean environment and hygienic practices to prevent breeding of mosquitoes that
causes malaria and the spread and transmission of HIV/AIDS can be prevented,
yet Africans will do nothing except for foreign aid and support. Polio is
another problem that has affected many children in Africa, yet we hear of
parents who refuse to take polio vaccines for their children because of
religious and cultural beliefs. Africa is known for political instability, yet
our political leaders and elder state men have travelled the world over, seen
what is obtainable in other nations of the world but lack the will to replicate
it in their country. I understand that in Africa, we have our peculiar
challenges, but we must rise up to the occasion to develop our nation and make
her the envy of the world.
Africa, I challenge you today, to be
responsible, refuse to be relegated to the background, you have what it takes
to lead the community of nations, you can be the center of attraction of the
world and lend to nations. We must cultivate the right attitude and stop making
excuses for our many problems, which I prefer to see them as challenges that we
can over come. We must begin to find lasting solutions and begin to invest in
project that will out-live us and serve generations ahead of us. As a matter of
urgency, our children need to leave the street and back to the classroom, we
must discourage child labour and every parent need to take responsibility and
fend for their wards. Education must be adequately funded, free and compulsory
primary education must be adopted across board. Agriculture must be given the
required attention and investment. Entrepreneurship must be encouraged and
supported, harness our natural resources and improve our health care system.
Our leaders must be challenged to leave their foot-print in the sand of time,
they must be concerned about what the future generation will remember them for,
and invest in the future of the country. Our leaders must be concerned about
mentorship and role model, let the youth have people to look up to, so as not
to be miss-guided. We must refuse
violence at all cost and encourage peaceful co-existence; we must not take to
criminality as an excuse for unemployment and take responsibility for who we
are.
Image credit (Pixabay)
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