After hearing different testimonies about the sweetness of antelope meat, a young man desired to hunt down and taste it. He found some bullets in the family house, which his grandpa had been using for hunting. After inspecting the bullets, he searched for the type of gun that can hold and fire those bullets before hunting his target. He hunted for hours before he succeeded in catch some. Like hunting specific animals or shooting specific targets, fulfilling your mission in Nigeria requires its bullet, gun and time.
Many Nigerians are religious people, who believe they are sent into the world to fulfil certain missions or destiny. Early in life, we commit to reducing poverty, sickness, ignorance, injustice, wastage, crises and bitterness in Nigeria. However, the difficult social and economic circumstance can discourage you from fulfilling your mission in Nigeria. You are discouraged by the size of the problem, government agencies, policies, economy, deceivers and even ungrateful victims. After several frustrations, you lose zeal, and settle for survival cycle of eat, sleep, mate and brag.
Despite the obstacles and excuses, we are still touched by the pitiable situations. We feel challenged when other people achieve some level of impact, which we had hoped to achieve. We begin to imagine how they are able to make impact even in the discouraging circumstances. There may be three stages for fulfilling your mission in Nigeria. It begins from an early stage, but can also be applied whenever the person feels.
- Find your target: no matter how hard we think we are, there are aspects of the society that touch us. Some of the problems may have affected or still be affecting us in our personal lives. These problems, limitations or obstacles that deeply catch our attention in the society point to our missions in Nigeria.
At this point, we are concerned about what we wish to accomplish in the society, than what we want for ourselves:
I want to ELIMINATE IGNORANCE IN NIGERIA, not I want to be a lecturer;
I want to SUPPORT JUSTICE IN NIGERIA, not I want to be a lawyer;
I want to ENSURE GOOD HEALTH IN NIGERIA, not I want to be a doctor;
I want to CURB WASTE AND MISMANAGEMENT OF RESOURCES, not I want to be an economist.
I want to CONSTRUCT BEAUTIFUL/HELPFUL STRUCTURES AND MACHINES IN NIGERIA, not I want to be an engineer.
I want to CLOTH AND BEAUTIFY NIGERIANS, not I want to be a fashion designer or tailor.
I want to ELIMINATE EXTREME HUNGER, not I want to be a farmer or food businessman.
I want to EMPOWER NIGERIANS, instead of I want to be a social entrepreneur.
I want to CONTRIBUTE TO THE SOCIAL REORGANIZATION OF NIGERIA, instead of I want to be a politician.
The purpose-first mentality determines the tool (bullet) for impact, but the tool-first (bullet) limits the work output.
- Discovering, evaluating and sharpening your bullets: the bullets you require for fulfilling your mission in Nigeria are both the internal and external resources at your disposal. These resources include your talents, professions, skills, strengths, connections and possessions, which you must develop for optimal impact. In order to fit in the purpose, you continue developing and obtaining more bullets (resources) for steady impact. This development requires a lot of training, learning, discipline, resilience, self-motivation and focus to attain.
- Get an appropriate gun for your bullets: the gun you require for fulfilling your mission in Nigeria is a group of people with similar targets as you. There are different societies, groups and institutions that may be dedicated to your target. Even if you do not find such groups, you find and link with people who have similar thoughts with you. It is necessary to link with other people such as colleagues, mentors or juniors with whom you share idea and motivation. By linking with other people, you form a synergy that ensures fulfilling your mission in Nigeria.
The more you upgrade your bullets, the more you upgrade your guns and the better you hit your target.
Excuses about the discouraging and hopeless situation in Nigeria are true, but not enough justification for not fulfilling your mission in Nigeria. Nigerians have within themselves all they require to turn Nigeria into one of the greatest places on earth. By individually discovering their targets, developing their internal and external resources and collaborating with one another, Nigerians will rebuild Nigeria.