Today I was going through the Nigerian Future Awards 2009 web page and I felt a bit old :-(
I also felt challenged.
First of all, I would like to commend the wonderful YOUNG trio - the brains behind this amazing project. Kudos to Emilia Asim-Ita, Adebola Williams and Chude Jideonwo. You guys are pace-setters, trail-blazers, fore-runners.....Inspirations!
As I browsed through the profiles of this year's nominees and took note of their ages I was like "wow, I need to up my game". Nigeria has produced some fine young men and women! It gives me hope that our future is indeed bright with such excellent gents and ladies.
It illustrates that age is not a barrier to achieving greatness. You are not too young to be great. A lot of people aspire to be outstanding in their field "when they grow up". When do you actually "grow up"? The thing is before you know it, time is far gone and you only have your past to reminisce about and you wonder where the future of your past has gone.
I remember when I was younger, one of my Sunday school teachers used to drum it into our ears then this verse in the bible where Apostle Paul was admonishing Timothy and he said "Do not let anyone despise your youth, but be an example....." (1Timothy 4 v 12). Now I understand and appreciate those words that used to be like a nagging in my ears (Thanks Dr B!).
Simply put, the apostle was advising Timothy and indeed all young people not to allow anyone look down on us nor under-estimate us because of our age but we should aspire to be leaders and achievers in spite of our youth. Your youth should never be a liability, rather it should be an asset to working towards your goals. Does not strength and enthusiasm lie in the bosom of the young?
Time is not on your side, you need to utilise and maximise every single second. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hand.......
http://www.thefuturenigeria.com/organizers.php (Profile of the Organizers)
http://www.thefuturenigeria.com/nominees_profiles.php (Profile of the Finalists)
Grow in God, Grow in Love, Be the Best! "In Pursuit of God, In Pursuit of Excellence, Love through Service" God first - Numero Uno! 1plustheone@gmail.com
Friday 23 January 2009
Friday 16 January 2009
Violated....
Hiya,
Its your erratic blogger signing in today after like 2 weeks!! (Oh and I made up my mind to be consistent in my blogging this year!!)
It can only get better!! :-)
I hope you are all anticpating the 20th of January. I can only imagine how many parties would be going on around the world. I have been invited to soo many already. "Obama Inauguration extravaganza", "Celebrate history in Style", "Obama's official inauguration party", "Change is here", "Yes we Can party" lol (Ok, I came up with all those ridiculous names :-)
But yeah it's going down and it's going down in style! The whole world would be agog (at least more than half of the world population hopefully. I'm not quite sure Obama is a household name in Kotangora)
Anyways today's post is actually not about Mr Obama - just thought to keep up with what's News item at the moment. In the same vain, I just want to say a special THANK YOU to God for all the 155 passengers aboard the plane that crashed in New York yesterday. No life was lost and even observers have termed it "AMAZING". That's one of the names of our wonderful God!! Thank God that 155 families are not mourning at the moment!! THANK GOD!!
Now to the real "koko" of my post today. I recently watched on of my favourite Nigerian...actually scratch that, make that one of my favourite movies of all times - "VIOLATED". I was sooo excited when I stumbled upon it on youtube. You see, I had been looking for it for soo long and infact given up on ever watching it again until that fateful day lol...
So, after watching it, I started going over every bit of the movie in my head as I usually do. And I was thinking to myself how Mr Amadi (the uncle of the lead actress who raped her when she was younger)......Hmm actually it would make more sense if I actually wrote the synopsis of the movie but mehn it would be quite long cause I would probably give you every single detail, in the process killing the suspense for those who haven't had the good fortune of watching it (Have I mentioned how much I love that movie?? lol). So I will leave you to the joy of watching the movie first-hand! (Bear in mind it's a classic romance)
Yeah anyways, Mr Amadi didn't really get "very very" punished for his sins as much as I would have thought was due him. Yes his wife left with the son and he lost his job but I felt it wasn't enough cause he was not brought to justice. Then I thought again that this bit was probably one of the areas that made the movie realistic. Sad but realistic.
In Africa, it's sad that a lot of "uncles", "big bros" and the likes get away with rape (statutory and otherwise) almost on a daily basis wthout being brought to face the law.
Most times, the shame and stigma attached to being a victim of rape is enough to make one keep quiet about the incident. Other times, the victims are so young and naive that they do not understand the full meaning of what is going on and the extent of the crime. Sometimes, fear is a factor that makes the crime go unpunished. The perpetrator would instill such deep fear in his victim through threats and in some cases just his position of financial or familial security to the girl.
Another big obstacle to justice being served is that though I'm sure there's a provision for such a crime in the laws of the land, not many people are aware of it. Victims don't know what help is available to them, where to go for help and who to talk to...leaving no option for the victims who are even bold enough to speak up. Besides no one talks about it so victims are misled to believe that it must be the norm...
The victims bear the scars for a long time and in some cases for life. This unfortunate incidence stops them from achieving their potential , it lowers self-esteem and kills dreams before they are born. It's a very sad sad issue......but it still persists. I have met a numebr of girls who have been sexually abused in one form or the other usually by "close" family members or friends and their stories are disheartening. What's worse, the perpertrators are most often not ever found out by others never mind being brought to justice!
Something has to happen! We definately need a change! We need a massive campaign to bring this ugly crime to the knowledge of people. The governemnt owes it people that they serve this duty; to educate and empower. We need a stronger, tougher and uncompromising justice system for the perpetrators and an accesible, open, confidential help and counselling center for the victims.
This decay can and must end!
The truth is that although the justice system may fail sometimes, God never fails. Whatever a man sows that shall he reap. Anyone who thinks he has escaped the law can NEVER ever hide from God.
My heart goes out to everyone who has or is a victim of rape/sexual abuse. May God heal you completely of every hurt and pain that has been caused. May He embrace you with His everlasting love and make you feel free again. May He breathe on you a new lease of life and wipe out the ugly memories of the past. May He make you see the gift of today and the beautiful promise of tomorrow that you have in Him and that no one can take away from you. May He spoil you with His love and make you undertstand and experience true love.
God bless you, Lots of love xxxxxx
Its your erratic blogger signing in today after like 2 weeks!! (Oh and I made up my mind to be consistent in my blogging this year!!)
It can only get better!! :-)
I hope you are all anticpating the 20th of January. I can only imagine how many parties would be going on around the world. I have been invited to soo many already. "Obama Inauguration extravaganza", "Celebrate history in Style", "Obama's official inauguration party", "Change is here", "Yes we Can party" lol (Ok, I came up with all those ridiculous names :-)
But yeah it's going down and it's going down in style! The whole world would be agog (at least more than half of the world population hopefully. I'm not quite sure Obama is a household name in Kotangora)
Anyways today's post is actually not about Mr Obama - just thought to keep up with what's News item at the moment. In the same vain, I just want to say a special THANK YOU to God for all the 155 passengers aboard the plane that crashed in New York yesterday. No life was lost and even observers have termed it "AMAZING". That's one of the names of our wonderful God!! Thank God that 155 families are not mourning at the moment!! THANK GOD!!
Now to the real "koko" of my post today. I recently watched on of my favourite Nigerian...actually scratch that, make that one of my favourite movies of all times - "VIOLATED". I was sooo excited when I stumbled upon it on youtube. You see, I had been looking for it for soo long and infact given up on ever watching it again until that fateful day lol...
So, after watching it, I started going over every bit of the movie in my head as I usually do. And I was thinking to myself how Mr Amadi (the uncle of the lead actress who raped her when she was younger)......Hmm actually it would make more sense if I actually wrote the synopsis of the movie but mehn it would be quite long cause I would probably give you every single detail, in the process killing the suspense for those who haven't had the good fortune of watching it (Have I mentioned how much I love that movie?? lol). So I will leave you to the joy of watching the movie first-hand! (Bear in mind it's a classic romance)
Yeah anyways, Mr Amadi didn't really get "very very" punished for his sins as much as I would have thought was due him. Yes his wife left with the son and he lost his job but I felt it wasn't enough cause he was not brought to justice. Then I thought again that this bit was probably one of the areas that made the movie realistic. Sad but realistic.
In Africa, it's sad that a lot of "uncles", "big bros" and the likes get away with rape (statutory and otherwise) almost on a daily basis wthout being brought to face the law.
Most times, the shame and stigma attached to being a victim of rape is enough to make one keep quiet about the incident. Other times, the victims are so young and naive that they do not understand the full meaning of what is going on and the extent of the crime. Sometimes, fear is a factor that makes the crime go unpunished. The perpetrator would instill such deep fear in his victim through threats and in some cases just his position of financial or familial security to the girl.
Another big obstacle to justice being served is that though I'm sure there's a provision for such a crime in the laws of the land, not many people are aware of it. Victims don't know what help is available to them, where to go for help and who to talk to...leaving no option for the victims who are even bold enough to speak up. Besides no one talks about it so victims are misled to believe that it must be the norm...
The victims bear the scars for a long time and in some cases for life. This unfortunate incidence stops them from achieving their potential , it lowers self-esteem and kills dreams before they are born. It's a very sad sad issue......but it still persists. I have met a numebr of girls who have been sexually abused in one form or the other usually by "close" family members or friends and their stories are disheartening. What's worse, the perpertrators are most often not ever found out by others never mind being brought to justice!
Something has to happen! We definately need a change! We need a massive campaign to bring this ugly crime to the knowledge of people. The governemnt owes it people that they serve this duty; to educate and empower. We need a stronger, tougher and uncompromising justice system for the perpetrators and an accesible, open, confidential help and counselling center for the victims.
This decay can and must end!
The truth is that although the justice system may fail sometimes, God never fails. Whatever a man sows that shall he reap. Anyone who thinks he has escaped the law can NEVER ever hide from God.
My heart goes out to everyone who has or is a victim of rape/sexual abuse. May God heal you completely of every hurt and pain that has been caused. May He embrace you with His everlasting love and make you feel free again. May He breathe on you a new lease of life and wipe out the ugly memories of the past. May He make you see the gift of today and the beautiful promise of tomorrow that you have in Him and that no one can take away from you. May He spoil you with His love and make you undertstand and experience true love.
God bless you, Lots of love xxxxxx
Thursday 1 January 2009
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
WELCOME TO THE YEAR 2009!!
Wow! Aren't you glad you made it!! It's always a beautiful feeling at 00:00 of the first day in a new year. There's always this joyous even euphoric, expectant feeling.
It's great to see another year gone past!!
I pray that this year would be better than anyone before. May we all be great achievers in this new year, may our expectations not be cut short. May we have the grace to dream BIG!! And may our dreams become reality....
I wish you all the best from the very bottom of my heart. There's nothing that you cannot achieve nor become with God, for with Him all things are possible. If you can think it, you can see it, if you can see it, you can say it. If you can say it and believe it you can most definately achieve it by the grace of God almighty!
Don't let anything limit you. Don't put barriers to your dreams.....dare to dream impossible, that's why God gave you a mind and a heart! For with Him, nothing shall be impossible!!.
It's a new start, a new beggining... the latter shall always surpass the former!!
God bless xxxxxxx
Wow! Aren't you glad you made it!! It's always a beautiful feeling at 00:00 of the first day in a new year. There's always this joyous even euphoric, expectant feeling.
It's great to see another year gone past!!
I pray that this year would be better than anyone before. May we all be great achievers in this new year, may our expectations not be cut short. May we have the grace to dream BIG!! And may our dreams become reality....
I wish you all the best from the very bottom of my heart. There's nothing that you cannot achieve nor become with God, for with Him all things are possible. If you can think it, you can see it, if you can see it, you can say it. If you can say it and believe it you can most definately achieve it by the grace of God almighty!
Don't let anything limit you. Don't put barriers to your dreams.....dare to dream impossible, that's why God gave you a mind and a heart! For with Him, nothing shall be impossible!!.
It's a new start, a new beggining... the latter shall always surpass the former!!
God bless xxxxxxx
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