Of Visionaries
Every brand new day in Africa, a gazelle wakes up knowing he must outrun the fastest lion or perish. At the same time, a lion stirs and stretches, knowing he must outrun the fastest gazelle or starve. It is no different for the human race. Whether you consider yourself a gazelle or a lion, you simply have to run faster than others to survive...Life consists of a number of opportunities and great opportunities do not come knocking on people's doors. Whoever wants such opportunities must grab them when they arise, for his people and for himself. We have to be powerful, strong-willed, determined and willing to grasp such opportunities, so that we do not have to scavenge the leftovers of lions.
This brings me to the matter of visionaries. For society to move forward through this survival process, the need for visionaries/leaders cannot be over-emphasised. The need for visionaries that can foresee the future and take concrete steps so we don't all perish becomes evident and compelling. Permit me to use an illustration. Al Gore who was the 45th Vice President of the United States and was former President Bill Clinton's No.2 was a US Congressman in the 1970's. As far back as the 1970's, Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high-speed telecommunications as an engine for economic growth. He was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact on the economy. The internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1983. When the internet was still in the early stages of it's deployment, Congressman Gore provided intellectual leadership by helping create the vision of the potential benefits of high speed computing and communications.
My point now is this: without making the internet a reality, would there ever have been Google? Would there have been Amazon? Would Jeff Bezos have become a billionaire? Would there have been Facebook? In Nigeria today, a 25-year old young man is the brain behind Yudala (one of fastest growing e-commerce businesses in Nigeria) and also the VP, would that have ever happened? Maybe, Maybe not. We can all be visionaries. Every young man & woman in this country can be a visionary. The future of this great country belongs to us all, no blaming, no complaining, no victimhood. We just have to solve social and economic difficulties and make society better.#justthinking
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