YOUR CHILDHOOD DREAMS CAN COME TRUE

By Oghenefego Isikwenu

Childhood if you can remember was fun in its own way. I have a feeling that there is a factor that unifies and makes every child equal to the other regardless of location, sex, religion, education or economic status. That unifying ingredient is the freedom and ability to dream fantastic, mind-blowing dreams of their future. They have a way of gathering pictures of how they visualize their future and without fear or doubt they dream and create big mental pictures for themselves. I am not sure if it has to do with their current socioeconomic status or their desire for something better than what they presently enjoy or lack. The child in the poorest of communities or born into financial lack; if you go closer to ask him/her to describe his/her desires and dreams for the future; will paint the most wonderful picture where there is no limitation or lack of any kind; a picture that depicts happiness, fulfilment and peace. Same goes for a child who is born into wealth; they all have beautiful no-limits kind of dreams. In the world of the child all things are possible, there is no impossibility. The change begins to set in from age 8-10 years; they begin to argue amongst themselves how impossible some of their fantasies are. This goes on and on till he/she forgets or gives up on these dreams and picks up new and more limiting pictures based on various conditions. What happened, why have most people tagged their childhood dreams as being IMPOSSIBLE? What factor made us dream limitlessly and fearlessly; not considering any obstacles? Most times we hide under the cover of being too young to understand reality; so we could dream the unattainable. “I was just a child; I did not understand the intricacies of life”. I will like you to know that your childhood dreams can come true if only you still believe in yourself and are ready to commit your energies to achieve them. Who says you cannot be the President of your country even if you are from a minority tribe or group? Who says you cannot be the owner of various international businesses? Who has told you that your childhood dreams of being the UN Secretary General is impossible? And who in the world says you cannot be the most successful Hip Hop or Rock artiste ever? You dreamt of inventing a car that can fly or a computer that you give instructions in your native language and it obeys; your dreams were cross-cutting. Dreams that fit into politics, others were scientific or technology driven. You had no limits, so you kept dreaming. Your dreams can come true if you rekindle that innocent person who was in you as a child; the one who saw no obstacles, just opportunities. The one who was ready to grab anything and take risk; the only difference now is that it has to be calculated risk. And there, lies the problem- calculated risk taking. One of the issues I have noticed is that we now have the sense and mental capacity to analyse things before we go for them; therefore most times in our analysis we lose sight of the beautiful mental pictures we had created and become overwhelmed by the obstacles surrounding our achieving that target. If only we could balance our childhood innocence and our adult/youthful analysis to a point where we do not give up on the possibility of attaining the great feats we imagined as children. I used to tell my mum that I will be a very wealthy woman, that I will have a big farm, a leather-works factory, a fast food place and a hospital. My mum would laugh and say in our native language “dream on my child, the one who boasts, his/her God or Angel is also boasting”. That is just to describe how divergent and cross-cutting our childhood dreams could be. For some of us we might have shared with people who were close to us, but they discouraged us and told us to face reality because your circumstances as a then. I will like to encourage you to rekindle your dream life; your mental faculty that cooks up fantastic fantasies and turn them into realities. IMPOSSIBLE is not a good word for your mind and general wellbeing; POSSIBLE is a better word to fill your mind and thinking faculties. Let’s take out time to rejuvenate the power of our minds. Do not let the present circumstance cause you to be defeated even before the battle. Do not let your current financial or educational status cause you to give up on your dreams; they are still potent and can come true if only you keep hope alive and work towards their fulfilment. Yes, you can have all you desired as a child. Your mental picture can become a reality.

ZOOM: WHAT DO YOU SEE?

By Oghenefego Isikwenu

Our article last week prompted us to expand our visions and go farther in our imaginative projections of where we want to get to in life. It also made clear the fact that you cannot remain at a spot and be dormant and expect the visions of your heart to come through and manifest. You have the biggest role to play, because your vision can go only as far as your eyes can see.

Some of us may ponder quietly in our hearts, “how come you are talking about having visions that will make impact on the lives of others and globally and you expect us to start locally”? Better still “how do I have big visions and maintain or pay attention to the tiny little details that will bring my dreams to pass”? That is a very important question and we need to understand these principles; so we do not lose touch of our present environments, situations, localities or spheres; and begin to wait and look towards our big pictures.

Let’s go back to our illustration from last week’s article. Viewing the building from a distance painted a picture, a big picture of what the house looked like; but when we got closer we were able to give clearer descriptions of its features. That is the exact same thing we need to do with our visions, goals and dreams. Our visions should be flexible and pictorial enough for us to Zoom-in and Zoom-out; depending on our circumstances. When you need to encourage yourself and see beyond the current setbacks, you Zoom-out and have a good look at the BIG PICTURE! The place you are going to, your desires and the person you see yourself growing and developing to become.

When you have gained so much momentum and it is like you can already take hold or grasp your dream, it is the right time to Zoom-in; so you can pay attention to details and lay the right foundations; solid enough to carry the weight of your vision. This is the point where you get an MBA or pursue a Master or PhD, because the big picture says you are a consultant and a master in your field. It is at this point of zooming-in that you begin to understand the requirements for your Zoom-out pictures. You find out that you need to learn some other languages like French and Spanish if your big picture or vision is that of a diplomat in the UN or other bilateral organizations.

So, the question is what do you see when you ZOOM; in or out? Some of us see impossibilities when we zoom-out. “What! I can never be the wealthiest man or woman in the continent”, “Hmm, me? President of my country? It is not possible!” “My country, the least corrupt nation in the world? Not in this life”. We make series of negative comments when we see the zoom-out images. They look too good for where we are now, so we just resolve they are impossible. This results in our not getting prepared by the time we zoom-in; because we do not believe the big picture is possible, we do not take steps to prepare for it.

This means our zoom-out images have a huge influence on out zoom-in attitude. That is why when your Local Government Chairman or the Senator representing your constituency offers you a consultancy job or opportunity; you begin to run all over the place trying to get your certificates and documents ready. That is when you want to incorporate your company, get your business cards and get a tax certificate. The truth is before you get all these documents ready, the opportunity would have been taken by another who is prepared. Someone who saw the big picture, understood it, believed it and zoomed in to pay attention to detail; got all he needed to grab opportunities when they presented themselves.

What do you see when you ZOOM? Your attitude towards your vision will make or mar you. The right attitude and disposition is the one that is ready to prepare now, pay the price now and reap the fruits later. Have a fruitful and splendid week!

HOW FAR CAN YOUR VISION GO?

By Oghenefego Isikwenu

Your vision will go as far as your eyes can see; what do you see? How good is your sight, how far are you seeing? Is your sight myopic or hypermetropic? How far you can see depends strongly on the magnitude of imaginative pictures your mind can create and store. Exactly! I am not talking about your eyeballs of course; I am describing a mental picture, a kind of sight possible only with the mind’s eye. Vision in this context goes beyond your physical organ for sight, it’s a combination of all senses that determines and carves or paints a picture that makes the individual senses to get up every morning; a reason for living and being; a drive, sense of purpose and reason for existence. That is what I am talking about.

Most of us are very good at planning and envisioning, yet we remain stagnant and happen not to make progress. Although our mind’s eye has taken us places and we have imagined greatness in life, we have not put the machineries into place that will galvanize us toward fulfilment. So you realize that in the last 5 or 10 years there have been no updates to your visions and dreams, because you are yet to attain them. This is happening because you have not put-in the measure of work, focus, commitment or all round investment into achieving them. My friends, it is just natural for your vision to become clearer and refined or redefined or updated as you get closer; even with our physical eyes.

For instance, you are on a high cliff and can see all the buildings in a city; you begin to describe a particular structure that stands out. You can see the colour of the wall, the number of storey, the colour of the roof and so on. As you go closer to the structure and get into the compound, you have a more distinct picture and you can update your previous analysis. Instead of a greenish house, you can boldly say it is painted lemon green, you can describe the exact type of roofing sheets used and the number of rooms, doors or windows.

The same thing applies to the visions of our heart; they become updated and clearer as we work and walk towards them. What is the reach of your vision? What is your envisioned sphere of impact? Are you limiting your visions to personal and family spheres or are you expanding them for significant global impact? You do not have to be known all over the world or the continent before you achieve global impact. All you need is a vision that is larger than you, something that impacts positively on others. And I will like you to remember that global impact does not just happen; it is a combination of series of local impacts that result in global impact. So the question is what local impact are you making? Our contributions in the little corners of the earth will sum up to give us positive global changes; but it begins with your vision. How far can your vision go?

NO EXCUSE, LIFE IS FAIR

I have not lived so long but in the less than 30years of my existence I have noticed that life has a way of balancing things out. I noticed that people have equal opportunities; the only difference is to know when it is your time and what you do with the opportunities that come your way. Seeing life from a personalized viewpoint may cause some persons to disagree with my opinion that life is fair on all of us, and gives us equal number of chances to live significant and successful lives. The fact that you have a classmate or business associate who was born into wealth and had to just take over control of resources, or a friend who graduated from the university same year with you and 3 years later he/she has a job and is planning his/her wedding while you are struggling to get an interview for a job; most times paints a picture of an unfair world, and it’s like good things happen to only a selected few.

Have you stopped to learn from the lives of others? Have you taken out time to read about successful people and how they climbed the ladder? Very few had fantastic foundations or backgrounds or inherited wealth; most of them latched upon opportunities, took risks their friends were too scared to take. Some even got nicknamed negatively because they seemed foolish in their commitment and consistency to a cause they believed in. Most of us lack focus and we lack this because we are void of a vision. So we are just living daily without any sense of purpose or goal, we end up measuring our level of success by the standard of another who has a vision and is focused. This is not the right thing and that is the reason you end up blaming it on an unfair world.

When I was in primary four, I had classmates who wrote their Common Entrance Exams and moved on to secondary school while I stayed back to finish primary five. As at then it was very disturbing; seeing my mates already in secondary school, guess what! After a few years when it was time to get into the university, while I got in almost immediately, some of them struggled for years to gain an admission. In some scenarios they even got into the university and were always ahead academically, got jobs and are well placed; but it will be a wrong move for me to measure my success by that standard. This is because I have a vision and as far as my targets are concerned I am on the right track and I feel fulfilled. The kind of opportunities that have come my way and I have taken advantage of are those that fit into my vision and goal. So, I remain focused and measure my success by the standards of my purpose and destiny and not by the life of my friends, classmates, colleagues or any other.

When you have no vision or goal to focus on there is the tendency for you not to know when your time and opportunity for success comes; and so, you will not be prepared to grab them. Before you realize series of chances provided by life for you to make it big and significantly have passed you by unnoticed. So what happens most times is that we begin to focus and discover later how we missed certain opportunities; it is either we wait for another to come or we give up and blame it on life being unfair. Which of the two options will you take?

For some of us we feel our achievements are not as big as that of some other person. Have you asked yourself how big your vision is? Some of us have goals and visions that will serve us and our immediate families, so the resources that life will provide and bring your way will just be enough to meet them. While those whose visions and dreams supersede their personal spheres will certainly receive provisions for the magnitude of work they have set their heart to do. Maybe you need to expand your vision and be more selfless.

Thomas Edison, Michael Faraday, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey, Miriam Makeba and all the others who have been documented to have achieved great success had something in common. They had visions and dreams that were larger than them and their families; they were looking out to better what was in existence or cause positive change to happen, they were focused and committed to their dreams. They all have or had one head and 24 hours as we do today.

Friends we have no excuse for not living successful lives. The sky is wide enough, we can all shine. All we need to do is discover that area of life we have a vision for and focus there; remain committed and dream bigger than you. Dream of living a significant life; then you will agree with me that life is fair enough.

BUILDING MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS

“Show me your friend and I will tell you who you are”, “Birds of the same feathers flock together”. I am almost sure you have heard these statements before and they have proved to be right in many circumstances. There are numerous examples of friends who exhibit character traits and behaviours common to each other. In some cases, attitudes are developed to imitate and blend with a group of friends, just to earn their respect and a sense of belonging to the group.

Relationships are in different forms depending on the platform and avenues on which they were established. Family members, classmates, neighbours, business associates, emotional ties, etc; there are all sorts of relationships we could get involved in, which are healthy and necessary for normal growth and development in our society. I am sure you have also heard people say “No man is an Island”. This places emphasis on the truth that we cannot exist in isolation; we need each other to survive and live successfully. We are interdependent beings, this is the reason we have different areas of strength and talents that complement each other; no one has it all.

The question is how have we managed our relationships purposefully to yield the fruits and benefits they are meant to bring? Take a careful glance at your relationships; social, business, academic, emotional, religious and so on, do you think they are achieving any purpose or you are just in it for the fun of it? What value are you adding to your relationships and vice versa? Meaningful relationships are focused from the onset, with clear-cut goals and equally shared responsibilities.

This article is not meant to cause you to cut off friends or other contacts, the focus is on helping you retrace steps and consciously build purpose driven relationships. The place you want to get to this year and beyond depends strongly on the type of relationships you have now and will build on your way. Building meaningful relationships does not happen by chance, it takes a conscious effort on your part and a positive response from the parties involved.

Visionary relationships will help you achieve your personal and organizational goals. Remember that everything you need has been given; but they will not be dropped from the atmosphere; they will come by the hands of someone, an organization, or a business opportunity. But if you are not conscious of the purpose and motivations from the foundations of forming relationships, you may not be able to enjoy the full benefits of that relationship.

I believe you have articulated your goals and desires for 2012 to an extent. The next step will be to identify meaningful relationship opportunities that will keep you on track and focused on achieving them. Even your New Year resolutions will be easier to keep if you develop meaningful relationships in the area of interest. I should mention here that there is no hard and fast rule or criteria to determine a meaningful relationship, because what we term meaningful is based on individual differences, perceptions and backgrounds.

So, the meaning in the relationship can only be determined by the parties involved. One thing is sure; the parties involved must have mutual understanding, no manipulations and a balanced spread of responsibilities. This entails a large amount of hardwork and all parties must be committed to contribute their quota all the way. Do not waste scarce resources on purposeless relationships. Invest your time, money, intellect and other resources on building relationships linked to your visions, goals, dreams, targets and plans.

STOP THE RESOLUTION GIST!

“In 2012 I will not attend any night party or expose myself to security risks like keeping late nights”. “This new year, I will pay more attention to my family and care for them more”. “This year I will not take alcoholic drinks or smoke any cigarette”. After you made your New Year resolutions what else did you do? When it’s no more 2012 does it mean you will go back to keeping late nights? When the year is older; say by the second quarter, will you pay less attention to your family? Or will you resume smoking by next year? Many questions come to mind when I listen to New Year resolutions.

I am no saint either; I made resolutions too. One of my resolutions is not to travel late in 2012; guess what- I broke it last night when I arrived from a journey at almost 9pm. Year in, year out we do the same things expecting different results, but we get to the end of the year discovering we have made no progress or we would have achieved more if we did things differently. It’s good you are reading about this in the fourth week of the year, so you have enough time to make adjustments to strategies and plans for better results.

I will like you to know that I am not against making New Year resolutions. What I am campaigning against is making these resolutions by words of mouth and having no definite plan of action. You might have made same resolutions for three to five years now; trying to quit a habit, or achieve better career results or even attain higher spiritual connections and status. The truth is if care is not taken to change strategies or rise above the status quo, you are likely going to repeat same resolutions for 2013.

A resolution is a resolve, being resolute about something or a decision. These are strong words; they depict strength and determination. So a resolution is not something you make to fulfil all righteousness or fit in the bandwagon. It is a decision that should be made with strong convictions and commitment to back its implementation. After you decided on stopping bad habits or forming good attitudes or characters, what other steps or procedures did you take to help monitor progress on your resolve? For instance, if your New Year resolution is to take your academics more seriously; you should go on to take practical steps that will serve as checks and reminders. You could develop a personal reading timetable, form a reading and discussion group and register with the library in your school or down the road in your neighbourhood.

You decided to quit smoking cigarettes, what actions have you taken to help you live your plan or goal? Have you decided on what you will spend the money on anytime you feel the urge to get a cigarette? You could decide to always by a pencil or candy with the cash anytime you feel like smoking. Have you communicated your goal effectively to your peers who you used to hang out with? Now that you have resolved to stop keeping late nights, what plans do you have for those days when your girl friends call you up for the ‘biggest party of all times’? Did you make plans to watch a movie indoors, read a novel with the time or just study instead of joining them for the party? What strategies have you put in place to achieve your goals and desires? Words are empty when there is no commitment and action to back them up.

In your family life and business, how have you structured these positive changes to work? Your kids or wife and even your parents or siblings will be glad to have you around more often; they will love to know that you care about them through your phone calls, text messages or emails. They will appreciate all these more when they know that it will last a lifetime. When they see a change in your work schedule; when they see that you deliberately keep the laptop computer off the table while you are at home with them. What practical steps have you taken to make your resolutions stand?

You made up your mind to be more punctual at work or your personal business, yet you wake up at the same time as last year; you determine and iron the outfit you want to wear that morning. Wouldn’t it be more feasible if you woke up 30minutes or an hour earlier and had your clothes ironed and prepared during the weekend? Making New Year resolutions are good- coming up with strategies and plans that are practicable to help keep your resolve will make a huge difference this year.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED HAS BEEN GIVEN

By Oghenefego Isikwenu

Growing up in a wonderful country like mine (Nigeria) is one of the best things that happened to me. I guess you are wondering why I have made such a strong statement; well it is simple- I have naturally learnt, not by being taught in an economics class, how to manage scarce resources and produce significant results. Yes, the results or achievements might not be great or world class, yet they are significant. I did not grow in luxury, yet I lacked nothing a child needed; I said NEEDED, not WANTED! Both parents were teachers- in the years when their monthly salary was about 2,500 naira (about $17 US dollars); and life went on normally.

We lived in a good apartment, ate at least 3 meals, went to privately owned schools and had a family car to take us wherever we wanted to go. Although we did not rely totally on the monthly salary; we had both crop and livestock farms and had vegetable gardens. My Mum was involved in small businesses; guess what- I was her Chief Accountant from age 10. So I was privileged to know how much was available for family spending. A few years ago I went to renew my internet subscription with 5,000 naira (about $34 US dollars); then the question popped up- How did my parents manage to pay the flat rent, school fees and still feed the family with such meagre salary? I asked my Mum; trust what every Nigerian will say, “My dear it was God’s grace that kept us”. This is true and I totally agree with her. She went on to say “one day at a time; that does not mean you should not plan”.

I have noticed that many of us have great ideas and plans but when we think of the resources needed to accomplish them, it is quite scary because it seems you may not be able to meet up. This fear of the unknown, fear of lack and failure restrains us from trying out the great ideas we have. Many ideas, dreams, inventions, talents and visions have died a natural death because the one who bore them was afraid he or she did not have the resources or ability to implement them, so they never tried. In most cases they did not even share these ideas with anyone.

Due to my early exposure to the business world, it became a hobby to start new things, try out ideas and share with friends and colleagues. In my experience, I have come to know that everything you need for whatever endeavour you are incubating is ready and waiting for collection. The problem is you may never get to know that the resources are already available until you take a step toward implementing and starting something. Sometime ago while I was an undergraduate, I wanted to do business. I decided to supply milk in the town where I was schooling, but did not have start up capital. I mentioned it to a friend; luckily she just got some cash and willingly lent me five thousand naira (N5, 000) to be refunded a month later.

If I nursed my fears of not having start up capital for the business, maybe I would have forgotten about it. But just mentioning it to a friend got me the cash I needed to start. A month later, I paid back the loan, had 10, 000 naira and a few sachets of milk for personal consumption. It is pertinent to mention here that this money was used to sow the seeds that have grown this company (Teo-Inspiro International) to what it is today. There are many instances around us and even documentations of people who had ideas and dreams and did not allow their lack of resources stop them from trying.

Everything you need to make that dream come through has been given; all you need to do is work towards it. Do not just sit there and have a pity party. “If I had a million naira I would have done so and so business”; that is not an excuse- What amount do you have now, start there. Let us rise above every fear that stops us from trying out our innovative ideas and plans. If we really want to achieve great feats this year, we must push ourselves to believe first in our ideas and dreams or goals and then take bold steps no matter how small to achieve them. Do not allow the fear of tomorrow’s lack rob you of the joy and satisfaction that comes from seeing your ideas, goals, targets and dreams come through.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE

By Oghenefego Isikwenu

Take some time out to ponder on this; we have a lot of resources, human, economic, material, etc that are tangible. Which we can hold, feel and measure; so most times we evaluate our progress based on how effectively we have utilized these resources and the results or achievements gotten. How you started a business with 500 dollars and now it is worth 1000 dollars or how you had two (2) employees and now there are ten (10) of them on your monthly payroll. How you planted a bag of soya beans and harvested 10 bags, we can go on and on. We hardly ever put into serious consideration the TIME it took to achieve these as a resource.

You might have had 5 activities on your To-Do list and at 4pm you are still struggling with the third item on your list, whereas coincidentally, someone else has same list as yours and at 2pm he or she has accomplished all of it and is looking out to bring in some of the next day’s work. The result is that we have equal amount of time yet some achieve more than others even when all other resources are equal or constant for all. The difference is not really the amount of time or resources available, it is majorly how each individual effectively uses the time.

This article is not focused on time management or sharing tips on how to use your time effectively; rather it is targeted at getting us to understand and value this resource called TIME. Until you value and understand something, you might never care about how you use it; same goes for time. If you do not value time as a resource learning or going through trainings on time management might not be useful. There is a wide variety of articles and books that provide counsel on the use of time, so you can search them out, but right now I need you to begin a process of self evaluation.

How have you used your time in the past? Have you just lived your life and watched the clock tick seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years? Evaluate your achievements or present status; are you satisfied and feel you are at your best point? Sometimes I tend to believe that some of our parents lived more fulfilled lives than we might because they understood the value of time and used it effectively. For instance, how old are you now? I am guessing if you look at your life now at this age and that of your Dad or Mum, they might have achieved some more when they were your age. Yes, they had to trek long distances for an education or work long hours under the sun, but when your Dad was 30 or 35 he already was effectively managing his personal resources and in most cases had his family.

Someone is giving excuses; that the economy was better in their days. My friend the truth remains that they used their 24hours judiciously and consciously laying hay while the sun shines. Something I want to achieve in life is to have a Doctorate degree. I want to be better than my parents; but guess what; my Dad has a PhD already. So what will make my achievement better than his is if I attain that degree at an earlier age than he did. Timing makes the difference.

Today most young people have a certain belief that somehow by chance things will just work out. They make statements like “I will gain admission into the university, let me keep writing the entrance exams, I will make my papers”, “I will have my own house at 40”, “I will buy my car by the end of the year”, etc. They forget that the way in which you spend your seconds will amount to the way you have spent your hours and days. Time is of the essence. It is a great resource we must consciously learn to value and manage. Learn to respect time; attend events at the time stated, start your program when you said you will start. No room for ‘African Time’.

The value of time cannot be over emphasized and we must learn to cherish it. Sometimes you might not have the money to start a business, but you have the time to create and sell marketable ideas. How have you used your TIME?

RISING ABOVE THE STATUS QUO

By Oghenefego Isikwenu

I will like to congratulate you for being among the billions of human beings around the globe to transcend into the New Year. I am sure you will agree with me that not everyone had this opportunity; so we must make it count. If you are one of those very serious individuals, my guess is you already did a goal setting session or planning session for 2012 when we were still few hours out of 2011. For some, they just imagined how they would like 2012 to be different from 2011 and previous years. While for some of us, we just did not bother ourselves about such things especially since we discovered from previous attempts that we do not really control what happens in a year.

I guess what is common to us all is the excitement that comes with a new year. It just has a way of raising hopes and making things look more colourful and achievable. While this feeling might last for days, weeks or months depending on the individual, I wish we could keep it the whole year. As we close the chapter of the first week of the year and enter into another week we must make up our minds to rise above every status quo.

If we want to experience things in a better way and achieve greater results, we must be ready to challenge the status quo. You must look within yourself, your family, organization, local government, state, Country; continent as far as your eyes can see and begin to set new standards. Use your creative powers, be innovative, think out of the box, try new methods, etc just decide to do things better. This attitude characterized the great inventor Thomas Edison; in his early days of experimenting and inventing. He dedicated time to look for ways to improve on already existing inventions especially the telegraph machine. The success of this year lies in the hands of those who make up their minds to be more effective and efficient.

Those who will make up their minds to live above corruption, cheating, bribery, stealing and all activities that seem to be the status quo in our society and shine as light in their world. Those are the men, women, youths, boys and girls that will stand out in 2012.

The earth has seen virtually everything; what is different and new about you, your way of doing things, your products or services? The answers are within you, if you will just take out time to deliberately rise above the status quo in every facet of your life this year.

Hello world!

Over 50% of Africans are between that ages of 15-30years; we have a large youth population which also translates to a productive population. Nigeria’s growing unemployment is one of a major concern to many analysts and economists as the figures increasingly suggest dwindling potentials. Official figures from the Bureau of statistics puts this figure at about 20% (about 30million), but this figure still did not include about 40million other Nigerian youths captured in World Bank statistics in 2009. By implication, it means that if Nigeria’s population is 140 million, then 50% of Nigerians are unemployed, or worse still, at least 71% of Nigerian youths are unemployed. This is particularly disturbing and counterproductive because at least 70% of the population of this country is youths. Unemployment in Nigeria is one of the most critical problems the country is facing. The years of corruption, civil war, military rule, and mismanagement have hindered economic growth of the country. Nigeria is endowed with diverse and infinite resources, both human and material. However, years of negligence and adverse policies have led to the under-utilization of these resources. These resources have not been effectively utilized in order to yield maximum economic benefits. This is one of the primary causes of unemployment and poverty in Nigeria. This has resulted in increased crime levels and social vices involvement by youths (like kidnapping, militancy, arm robbery, etc). Our educational system does not prepare youths to be self-reliant through the acquisition of entrepreneurial and employability skills. The high corruption levels among political office holders and others at the herm of affairs in Africa considering Nigeria, has provided the youth with a negative perception of what leadership means and are looking and waiting for their opportunity loot public funds and amass wealth at the expense of development for themselves. This combination of lack of effective leadership and unemployment resulting in widespread poverty has put the continent and its future at the verge of collapse and anarchy. Something has to be done to address the root causes. Young people need a re-orientation of mindset and self-discovery training program opportunities that will equip them with skills to visualize themselves as agents of positive change and participate actively in driving economic revitalization in the continent.

Teo-Inspiro works to build leadership and entrepreneurial capacities and skills of young people  14-30years for sustainable development in Africa.