Nigerians have come to love ceremonies, always failing to differentiate purpose from intrest when it comes to what is to be done to build our country.
Often times, the set purpose is to build the Nigerian youth, make him ready to compete with his fathers, people he is supposd to obey, to achieve long life on earth. (Eph 6:2).
The father who is so wise often distracts the children by buying them mobile phones, video games, Televisions and other gadgets to keep him busy and distracted when the business of state is going on in the sitting room.
The youths are often distracted with the happenings in the country, while the parents are busy making those things happen. By so doing, they are denying the destinies of the said leaders of tomorrow. A ‘tomorrow’ that is far from us because people who were leaders 20 years ago are still leaders today.
Their interest is to make money, build a beautiful CV, and we never wondered why Nigeria has never gone far when most of our lowly rated leaders have a CV more intimidating than that of the highly rated leaders from other countries.
The question is ‘what did they do to achieve those honours?’ Busy body!
For the recently concluded National Youth Summit in Owerri organized by Golden Heart Foundation, I just have to commend the organizers for bringing the event down to Owerri, which shows that the state is surely marching forward.
Friday. November 2, 2012 saw the National Youth Summit Rally Night, which was billed to hold from 6:00 pm until dawn.
I have not actually followed other sessions of the programme, but was equally privileged to witness the all night event and I want to break it down the way I watched it from the pavilion.
Although the event started about three hours later, it was an anticipated outcome owing to the theory of ‘African time’.
The commencement was on a high key with some of the auditioned comedians, musicians and dancers holding the stage for probably the peak of the event.
But I believe that to build a new Nigeria through the reconstruction of our youths, the ‘African time’ syndrome should be killed and this has to begin with the organizers of such event by starting at the appropriate time. when they become consistent on this, others will copy and that would be a way forward for the new Nigeria.
Pastor David Ogbueli coming on stage: For me, this can be considered as the peak of the event. Having the privilege of listening to this great man speak to more than 5000 youths present at the Heroes Square.
He spoke about his book ‘Voices from the Edge of Eternity’, written from the testimonies of people who have had near death experience, going into the afterlife to receive revelations of heaven and hell.
Pastor Ogbueli said that the book featured accounts from people all over the world and that was great evidence for to everyone to know that heaven and hell are real.
To buttress the points on the book, two people came on stage to give live testimonies after which few words from the Pastor drew about 60% of people at the venue to alter call.
The call for repentance that night was difficult to be resisted because of the scary live testimony everyone had listened to and though this session was never anticipated by the crowd who came to watch the artistes on the event’s flyer, I saw only few people sleeping, a number not up to 10% of the entire crowd.
I was touched by the event I was watching from a pavilion far enough from the stage to let me see everything as that happened, a place far enough that I could scream without being considered as being noisy.
Few distractions were from some people behind me who still yearned for the faces on the flyer and I often heard them say “Do quick give us Klint de drunk and J Martins”
Another highlight was when a lady dropped her clutches and started walking. The shout of joy from that miracle woke more people from sleep and the arena came alive as more people ran towards the stage to get full view of the miracle.
I turn to the girl beside me and asked ‘what’s next after this?”
She said “We are awaiting for Klint de drunk and J Martins, I can’t wait to see them”
The purpose of the night gathering threw me into confusion and I wondered how the same crowd that had gone for alter call would be cheering Klint de drunk and J Martins.
To what purpose would their cheering be? Consolidating on the new life they have received or taking them back to the former expectations that brought them to Heroes Square.
I hate to say this, but my thought ran wild about whole thing being a symposium on the book ‘Voices from the Edge of Eternity’, which they announced that 10,000 copies of it were on at the venue. But it would be so unfair to bring more than 500 youths out through the night, just for a book, which was actually why I wiped that thought away.
When it was announced that Patience Ozokwo (aka Mama G) appeared in the arena, there was a loud cheer, louder than any of the Amens I heard when Pastor Ogueli was on stage. I could have thought that it was day 2 of the event, but I was still seated at the same spot with the same people.
Mama G was to motivate the youths with the story of her life and I can remember her saying “Why we have to love God is because He first loved us and why I love all of you is because you first loved me”
She did not tell the story, but rather told the youths to be original and never trying to copy anyone even her, which was good enough because I am sure that the majority of her roles in movies are not worth copying by the youths.
Klint de drunk came in usual his way, and could be rated as the best entertainer on stage through out that night and should I say before J Martin came on stage.
J Martins was the last to come on stage, a name the girl beside me has been shouting for “give us J Martins”. It took time for him to come on stage because his band played for more than five minutes before he could come on.
By the time he had played for 30 minutes, 30% of the entire crowd had started going home, a shame to the tag placed on him as the star artiste for the night.
When I asked someone what he thought about J Martins he said “He should know that there is a big difference between singing in the studio and performing on stage”
Several comments were made against J Martins while he was still on stage and to compensate the crowd, he gave out his wrist watch to a kid that came on stage, while to another, he gave an undisclosed sum of money.
He was still on stage when I was leaving and I could see the girl beside me, sleeping on one of the seats in the pavilion. How could this big fan be sleeping?
The programme has come and gone, another event that never had any Owerri based entertainer on the event flyer. And another event where artistes used in decorating the posters were never seen at the event.
Jim Iyke and Oge Okoye were billed to make special appearances, while comedians Godons and AY alongside gospel artistes Frank Edward were missing. I equally know these are not just the things that happened during this programme but just my account of that Friday night.
I hope the aim of the event will be achieved generally and I hope the organizers of similar event in future would learn to separate interest from purpose.
This has been a major reason why Nigeria has been revolving round the same level and standard.
The deeds of one night can destroy the work that had been done in four days.
