HAPPY ANNIVERSARY NIGERIA

Today marks my country’s 54th year of getting it’s independence from our colonial masters. Nigeria, a newly created country comprised a multiplicity of diverse ethnic groups which have generated complex systems of government.

The aim of the British masters was targeted at welding together these groups and territories, with diversity of culture at different stages of growth and development into a nation. In the process, the British Administration became aware of the historical diversity and uniqueness of the country. This attracted their respect for the country’s culture and tradition even as they disregarded others.

The 1914 amalgamation was not just a history, but a milestone and watershed in Nigerian record. Sequel to that, the present shape and size of Nigeria was carved out. It was a great beginning of a united and peculiar Nigeria. This was the very reason Binyavanga Wainaina opined that, “There is no country in the world with the diversity, confidence and talent and black pride like Nigeria.”

Despite the upheavals putting off the country’s light today, we must not let go the fact that Nigeria is answering the call of change and developmental stride in a rapid manner. The momentum of a brighter future of Nigeria of our dream has been gathered and we are already moving in that direction. Most often, we tend to tell the bad side of the story ignoring the good side of it. Hence, all we see is the evil, menace and the inhumane in the society.

The civil war must not be left out in this celebration, the experiences and lessons created made us who we really are today. The war had come and gone. The story of the war and what led to it has been told, is being told and will continue to be told. Though we have learnt our lesions in hard way, we hope and strongly believe that the past will not be ignored, but rather, it will be utilized effectively to avoid the mistakes of a grievous present.



I see a bright future in Nigeria; a powerful nation with well nourished citizens, beautiful smiling faces, peace in all nook and cranny and above all, a Nigeria bonded by love.

I am proud to be a black

I am proud to be a Nigerian

I am Nigeria.

Happy independence day Nigeria.



Acha Harrison

SLAVE TRADE IS NOT SELF TRADE

Don't give up, it’s not over, even when you fail, is not over, until you give up then it’s over.
Right from the days of the holy book, the only types of youth who fail and keep on failing are those who fail to realize their God given potential. I have come to realize that the greatest thing a man should dread is a youth with self confidence. The self confident youth remains the youth of the hour.

Four things comprises a resourceful youth which makes the world too small for his exploit; Perfected Thought, Positive Words, Productive Actions, and Prominent Deeds. The greatest imprisonment one can find himself is not poverty but rather self trade of potentials.
Looking at some great men who never gave up even when conditions were not favorable, they only had hope, vision, focus which made their plans and dreams a reality.

Many people who knew their potential never failed. Daniel in the holy book as a Babylonian slave, that fact never marred his dreams for becoming great; he made a name and did exploits even in another realm. Many of them did exploit even Joseph amongst others.

Unfortunately, most youths complain that their failure is traceable to their background which is the hindering factor to their aspiration towards greatness. I want to challenge you that even children of the African slaves made history not because they were from a slave background but because they made up their mind to become great.

We will be considering some African originated blacks who made their name international figures. Black skin to them was never a limitation; they saw slavery as a stepping stone to greatness. It may interest you to know that most of the Caribbean nations were first developed by Africans including about 300 Islands.

Martin Luther king (jr.) whose great grandfather is from Edo state, today is celebrated as a hero; a former great grandchild of a slave who never sold his inbuilt potentials. Today, his dream has come to pass and the world has come to understand what he meant when he said, “I HAVE A DREAM"

Also, Chiwetel Ejiofor whose grandfather was from Delta State, an Igbo man born fatherless. He grew up a captive. To many, this alone is enough to justify failure but Ejiofor never gave up. Today, his is forever a celebrated world class figure. He never saw failure as an option even when he was black mailed as a black, but he white mailed himself because he had a vision of greatness.

Who said you can’t make it? Have you forgotten George Washington Carver? He was the son of a slave, born in the farm, but made up his mind by making the farmland his stepping stone to greatness. Just put in a stroke more you will sail through.
Don’t religiously relegate yourself, don't slothfully slew your potential, don't mournfully meander at the pool of opportunity.

Lastly, if you can’t creep, sail, if you can’t sail, walk, if you can’t walk, run, if you can't run, fly, in all, just keep moving because you are almost there.
Don’t forget that, “No one is too young to impact their society & to be the cause of CHANGE" — Acha Harrison

Kessington Okwegwali.
[Author]

THE WORLD I LIVE IN

Out of heaven's decision
The conclusion of my journey to this world was made
Through love and care between my parents
Heaven's decision was established.

Still on the journey of life
The world keeps unveiling to me
Making known the unknown
My cup overflowing with knowledge.

Living in a society of chaos
Where thousands are homeless
Human rights excessively abused
Unconscious self slavery
Racism mounted in our brother Nation
Evils roaming politics.

Hatred tearing love apart
Struggle for power exiling peace
Insecurity torturing us mercilessly
Egocentrism blindfolding human caring nature
What a total act of man inhumanity to man.

The world I wish to Live in
Where hate is conquered by love
Sorrow defeated by happiness
War enslaved by peace
Equal opportunity for both the rich and the poor
A world where man will have respect for the sanctity of human life.

ACHA HARRISON

THE VIBRANT YOUTH

We are full of life
Energetically packaged
Naturally equipped with creativity
Exceptionally unique
We are vibrant youths.

Amazingly created to impact lives
Divinely furnished with outstanding ideas
Inclined in great possibility mindset
Dynamism is our watchword
We are vibrant youths.

Engrossed in appetite for adventure
A perfect quality of imagination
Igniting the flames of a better society
Consciously and unconsciously empowering others
We are vibrant youths.

Residing in us is the courage to change the world
A burning desire to shine bright into the dark society
A strong passion towards our visions
Our dreams are big and sure
We are vibrant youths.

We are youthful and powerful
The welfare of the world is our mandate
Challenged, but not quitting
We are vibrant youths.

A time shall come
When all will dwell in the dream world
A world fashioned on the foundation of love
Devoid of racism and criticism
Polished with peace and care
We remain vibrant and Youthful.

ACHA HARRISON

NOW IS THE TIME

I am ready to get the best out of today
I am determined to change lives today
I am set to change minds for greatness
There is no better time than now.

Inspire one inspire all
Change one change all
Better one better all
There is no better time than now

Now is the time to dream big
Now is the time to let the world know of your ideas
Now is the time to creatively better the world
There is no better time than now.

You're a blessing to the world
A mountain set on a hill cannot be hidden
You are in the best moment to break records
There is no better time than now.

Be the best you
Don't let circumstances shape your Big dreams
Little by little greatness will knock at your door
The best time is NOW.

ACHA HARRISON

THE COMPLETE YOUTH

Diffferent people have different philosophy of who a youth is. And this view is dependent on specific criteria which they strongly believe on. Our perception of who a youth is, has a great influence on our abilities as a youth; because you cannot function beyond your perception.

“The world demands the qualities of youth; not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the life of ease.” said Robert Kennedy. The great future of every nation depends on its COMPLETE YOUTH
Who is a complete youth?
Does it differ from the youth known to all?
What are the criteria to being a complete youth?
What are the qualities of a complete youth?
To some, he is an individual within the youthful age bracket, others one who is neither too old nor too young to reason accurately; working with the mind.

In my secondary school days, I was opportune to have listened to a conversation between my parents. Mum used to be a member of a meeting tagged Youth. The meeting ought to be for the youths as I was made to understand by them, but the reverse was the case. The following conversation ensued between them:
MUM: I can’t continue with this so called youth meeting any longer.
DAD: I believe you are joking, sweetheart.
MUM: No, I am not.
DAD: Why do you choose to quit at this moment after many years of being a member.
MUM: My eyes has been opened to reality and truth; the youth members (as they were referred to) that were supposed to be vibrant youths of the community are not, but instead, majority (70-80%) of the members have exceeded their youthful age, and still claim to be youths.
She continued;
The unpleasant aspect of it is that, they always appear to know it all and too rigid to welcome suggestions. I believe the purpose of the meeting has been compromised and I see no reason to continue with them.
DAD: Now I understand the reasons behind your quitting.
MUM: Of course, quitting really worth it.
Mum was not just concerned about the age but the youthfulness, ideas and suggestions of these few vibrant members of the community. And the prime of her plight for quitting remains in her strong belief in the youth.

Recently, I carried out a survey on, “who a youth is”, and “the criteria on which their opinion was based on”. This survey was carried out on 50 students from different Department and Faculty of Ambrose Alli University Ekpoma, Edo State. I was privileged to have listened to people’s opinion on this subject. It was indeed a great and interesting voyage.
Sequel to that, I had to write this article; to let the youth know that the society is not just in need of youths, but desperately in need of complete youths. Just as we have a youth, so we have a complete youth.
What signal does your mind interprete at the mention of the word YOUTH?
Which picture do you see at the mention of such word?
To what extent does that word strike your consciousness and imagination?
From the interview, it was discovered that in all they said, two parameters was never missing. And these parameters constitute the complete youth vis-a-vis its functionality and impact. They are:
—AGE
—MIND

A complete youth, is an individual who is young in age (18-40years) and mind, and is able to effectively and productively harness both qualities towards the betterment of the society. It is a stage of life and a state of mind. The mindset of such individual has been trained to such an extent that, age is no longer a limiting factor. Just as many would say, am too young allow societal problems irk my life and others enjoy your life when you are young to tell the “big story" when you are old. What does life really mean to you as a youth? Are you among those satisfied following the crowed? Do you see life as though nothing exist? Or do you still believe in following the crowd with no vision? Think about it.

There is no better time to begin to change your orientation about life than now. It is time to begin to see the stars in you when others are busy with affairs of the world that amounts to nothing. No special qualification is needed to put your mind to work. You don’t need someone to press the start button before you begin to move in the direction of change. You are the change, and the change we have been waiting for, and the change we need. I have heard some adults say am still a youth because am still youthful. Yes you are, by virtue of your mind being youthfully active, but not a complete youth. Why because, the age cannot be done without in this context. This was the very reason I opined earlier that, there are youths and there are complete youths
Let me remind you again that,you're Youthful and Powerful.


QUALITIES OF A COMPLETE YOUTH
Being a complete youth, goes with certain qualities. It is not something you struggle to achieve or attain; it comes as default to every complete youth.
Below are the qualities of a complete youth:

UNIQUENESS
A complete youth is a unique youth. It does not matter the environment he finds himself, his uniqueness always single him out of manny. The uniqueness of such a youth is an evidence of a trained mindset and orientation. This can be seen in character, attitude, manner of approach to life's challenges.

CHANGE ORIENTED
We have failed to know that the world will change when we do. A complete youth is never contented with the status quo. He is either making a change, or adding a value to the already existing and this remains the raison d' ètre of every complete youth. He is never satisfied with the way things are in his community, country and the world at large. And he is ready to build a team that share the same vision with him undermining the cost. Above all, he is ready to change himself, to change the society.

CREATIVE
Creativity flows in the blood of such a youth, and it is his nature to venture into the inner most part of his mind in search of ideas that will benefit the world. He finds the greatest joy in this aspect of his life. At this stage of his life, he disports his youthful exuberance.
Segun Oyeyiola, a final year student in Electrical Electronics Department of Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, was able to make a difference by building a wind and solar powered car, partly from free scrap parts donated by friends and family. The difference between you and Segun is that, he used his own creative ability. You too can do better than that.

DREAM AND VISION
A complete youth is full of dreams and vision not just centered on him alone, but the society as well. Sequel to this, his actions and thoughts are based on this and he is ever ready to make it a reality by paying the sacrifice involved. They dream big with no atom of impossibility.

PASSION
Passion without action remains a mere notion. He is not a notion driven youth, but a youth full of passion. He has passion for Change; change for his country, and the society. This burning passion built on desires for a better society is a unique quality of a complete youth.

FULL OF ENERGY AND LIFE
A complete youth is full of energy and life, always excited about life and nature. A complete youth lacks patience with anything that tends to limit his vigor and excitability. Take for instance, in a gathering made up of youths and adults, you will observe that the youth tends to always be on the move as seen in charged molecules in a confined medium. What can keep an adult sited and calm for an hour in most cases cannot do same to the youth.


POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE
A complete youth has this attitude of optimism also know as positive mental attitude. Even in certain circumstances where all hope is geared towards the zero loci, the complete youth still believe that the only thing it deserves is such an attitude, the POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE

DILIGENT
A complete youth is a diligent youth, always ready to work and giving in his best in whatever he finds himself doing. He is never ready to settle for the less either consciously or unconsciously; an indefatigable zealot. To every complete youth, the shortest route to success is diligence. You too can work out your success if you become an ardent disciple of diligence.

FOCUSED
A complete youth is a youth with focus. He has reasons for all he does, he has been able to curb his distractions to one thing; his desires for a better society.

GOD HEART
A complete youth is a youth with God heart, spiritually active and loving. He acknowledges God and put Him first in all he does. He is an inspiration to many; his steps, care and humility never ceases to put smile on people’s face.

Do you belong to this caliber of youths?
What is that one thing you have done to make the other person feel alive?
Do you have a dream for those around you and society?
Do you even have a dream for yourself?
It’s not too late to ignite that potential in you.
“You are only young once, and if you work it right, once is enough. – Joe E. Lewis

ACHA HARRISON

DON'T QUIT

Have you ever asked yourself how Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Kings, Winston Churchill, Harrison Ford, Martin Luther King Jr, Oprah Winfrey, Henry Ford, to mention but a few made it to the top? Have you imagined a world without the contributions of these indefatigable zealots? Has it ever come to your subconscious why their name ceases to depart the faces of the earth?
If there is one thing I learnt from them, they DON'T QUIT. Quitting was never an option or alternative. 95% of our success or failure in life can be traced to the decisions we made at the yield point of our challenges. There is never a time in a man’s life when everything happens as planned without challenges or obstacles. That is the beauty of life.

Shortly, we will be examining the lives of Leaders, genius, businessmen, and academicians who in spite of the devastating chaos that came their way, were still able to drive their dreams to reality. We are who we are today because of the challenges of yesterday and how we were able to resolve them. If we must continue to excel, we must develop that excellent spirit of not quitting. Challenges are not curses as we see it to be most often, but an important bridge between success and failure. Problems are compulsory equations of life one must solve for success to recognize you.
Study the expression below critically:

F←A+B→S

A: Dreams, Goals, Visions, Aspirations.
B: Challenges, Obstacles, Rejections, Problems.
S: Success, Breakthrough, Reality.
F: Failure, setbacks, unfulfilled dreams
The arrows indicate the direction of our dreams

At point “A”,is the dream and vision waiting to be transformed into reality, “B” is the challenges one must overcome, and “S" is the success and reality. Firstly, a Dream(A) can become a Reality(S), if we able to put the Challenges(B) in its rightful place. How? By not quitting,(A+B→S). Beware also that; if you quit, the equation of life has no option than favour the backward expression,(F←A+B). The above equation indicates that, there is never a success, dream come through without challenges. If you are able to overcome the challenges, your success is guaranteed and if otherwise, failure becomes inevitable.

“You are too stupid to learn” said Thomas Edison’s teacher to him. With that alone, quitting would have been the best and easiest option at that moment. But that was not all. He got fired in his first two jobs for not being productive enough. Perhaps that’s why he failed 1000times before inventing the light bulb. Amazing! The interesting thing about him is this; he took failure as the best route to success. He never rejected it as his right partner to his destination neither did he complain of it disturbing his pace. He was ruggedly and doggedly determined. Believe me, that route is not a funny one neither is such a partner friendly. But that doesn’t eliminate success either. I have come to understand that many don’t go far in life because they lack understanding of this route and such a friend.

He started speaking when he was 4years of age, and learnt to read at 7. He was intellectually challenged, slow witted and anti-social as was described by his teachers and parents. Was that all? No. At 16 he failed an exam that would have offered him the opportunity to be trained as an electrical engineer. Despite these Achilles heel, he never gave up. Today, Albert Einstein is forever remembered for the Theory of Relativism. The life of Albert Einstein has made it clearer that; it doesn’t matter the conclusion of others about your future but how you accept it to be that counts when he said, “If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts”.

Stephen King a renowned American Author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy got his first book rejected 30times. Guess what? He discarded the manuscript and he almost gave up. Thank God for his wife who retrieve not just the manuscript, but also, a generation of writers. Stephen King remains an inspiration to many writers including me. She encouraged him to give it a trial again. Today, his books have sold more than 350million copies. Now I understand why Thomas Edison said, “Many of life’s failure are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up”.

If you still believe your situation doesn’t worth more trial, let us consider the life of this high spirited man, Abraham Lincoln.

Follow the résumé critically as my friends refers to it. Picture your life and that obstacle as you study through.
1831 Lost his Job
1832-Defeated in run for Illinois State
1833-Failed in Business
1834-Elected to Illinois State Legislature (Success)
1835-Sweetheart Died
1836-Had Nervous Breakdown
1838-Defeated in run for Illinois House Speaker
1843-Defeated in run for nomination for U.S Congress
1846-Elected to Congress (Success)
1848-Lost re-nomination.
1849-Rejected for Land Officer Position
1854-Defeated in run for U.S Senate
1856-Defeated in run for nomination for President
1858- Again defeated in run for U.S Senate
1860-Elected President (Success).

It looks an awesome glum résumé sticking your imagination how he got to the top. Doesn’t it? He never settled for excuses even after been defeated in 8 elections. What about the nervous breakdown and the death of his fiancé? They were not enough reasons to quit. We all have all it takes to get all we desire.
Instead of thinking of quitting, why not ask yourself these few questions first:
1.How can I resolve this problem?
2.Have I failed more than Lincoln?
3.What will Lincoln, Edison, or Einstein, do if he was to be in my situation?
4.Does quitting really worth it?
5.Of what benefit is quitting?
6.What if, this is the last step to my destiny?

STOP AND GO THROUGH THE QUESTIONS AGAIN
If you can sincerely asked yourself these questions in the midst of your challenges, and answer them appropriately, I believe your next action isn’t a problem.
Stop seeing every obstacle, problem, failure, rejection as a curse. One very important fact I must establish here is this; in every failure there is success, in every rejection there is projection and in every obstacle lies a miracle of greatness. Extraordinary men don’t quit, and that’s what makes them extraordinary. Why not give it one more trial. Quitting will take you nowhere.

A father once said to his boy, “Son, you have got to set a goal and never quit". Remember George Washington?
The son said, “Yes”
“Abraham Lincoln?”
“Yes”
You know what they all had in common?
“What?”
The father said, “They never quit. Remember Azador Mclgle?”
The kid said, “No. Who was he?”
“See, you don’t remember him! He quit!
To be remembered for something, you must strive on no matter what.

If you really believe in what you are doing, and you know what you want from what you are doing, quitting will only be a word found in the dictionary. Never, never, never quit, said Winston Churchill.
Lastly, challenges do not just come empty handed, but with packages of success and failure. The choice is yours. As for me, I will choose success by not quitting and I enjoin you to do same. And this can be summed up in the words of Nelson Mandela; “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising each time we fall."
If Edison, Lincoln, Ford, and Einstein could do it, you too can do it far better. Pick up the plough and never look back, buddy!

ACHA HARRISON