HARNESSING MGBOWO YOUTHS POTENTIALS FOR DEVELOPMENT – By Humphrey Onyima

Protocols…

I bring to you fraternal greetings in the name of the Almighty God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob and the awesome God of David. I am wholeheartedly acknowledging the effort of His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, the Executive Governor of Enugu State for the peace we are enjoying in Enugu today. I am also commending the struggle for the survival of our people, especially, Ekpulato Mgbowo Autonomous Community. But before I go further, I wish above all to say congratulations to the organizers of this epoch making event. This event will go down in history as a demonstration of love and commitment towards reawakening the sleeping giants.

Ekpulato youths, comprising of Imama, Ezioha and Inyi communities, the truth of the matter is that we are all confronted by common challenges, no one is exempted. You see, the human society is like a jungle where survival of the fittest is the order of the day. Many are of the opinion that until a snake swallow snake it will never grow fatter, therefore, man takes delight in preying upon his fellow beings in his selfish belief that he must feed on other people if he would grow fat. Perhaps, that was the ungodly philosophy that informed the deliberate deprivation of the less privileged youths in the society which in turn breeds criminality as a result of social inequality.

Ladies and gentlemen, I will agree with you that youths are marginalized, I will agree with you that the youths are shortchanged, name it. But that is not a good reason to indulge in criminality and all sorts of social vices. We need to review our position, we need to ask ourselves questions, ponder over those questions, critically analyze them, dissert them and get them properly digested into our social fabrics. These questions revolve around the current unhealthy behavior of the youths towards the elders and the elders towards the youths. It is a chain reaction, because we the youths are not patient enough to gradually take over from the elders and the elders having noticed the youths’ desperation refused to hand over because they are afraid of the youths’ perceived despotism.

We all know that Mgbowo is the oasis of knowledge in Awgu. Mgbowo constitutes the highest number of professors, PhD holders and with highest concentration of educated and disciplined population in Awgu. Mgbowo has reputable men in the military, police force and other para-military affiliations. Mgbowo has greater number of Lawyers, Engineers, Medical Doctors, Human Right Activists, etc, in Awgu. But the big question is why we are where we are despite our enormous human resources and potentials? The problem is with the youth community. We the youths have all the answers to the questions. If you check, virtually all the people that scored the records we are priding on today in Mgbowo made most of their exploits at their youthful age, name them. We need to ask ourselves in fifty years to come, what will I be remembered for in Mgbowo? We are either willing to make the requisite sacrifice today or fold our arms and become permanent spectators in the business of development of Enugu State.

I know many will blame it that the youths are not empowered; it has nothing to do with lack of youth empowerment. After all, how many successful men and women in Mgbowo are made by virtue of empowerment interventions? Great things never come from our comfort zones. According to former President Benjamin Roosevelt of the United States, who once said, that “the future belongs to the people that see possibility even before it become obvious. Go home today with this mentality, think of what you can do for Mgbowo, not on what Mgbowo can do for you.

Mgbowo youths, the truth of the matter is that we need to build a formidable cum vibrant fronts anchored on self-discovery towards enhancing our self-esteem for self-actualization for the common good. Through this behavioral paradigm shift, we can cure the ills of the past conflict, re-write our wrongs, turn our weaknesses into strength, and build egalitarian community with positive prospects for sustainable development.

We need to:
i. Renew our dreams, values, hopes and aspirations
ii. Create a new creed of brotherhood as it used to be in the past as “injury to one is injury to all.
iii. Restructure and reposition our political behavior while our political actors remain vigilant and constantly consistent.

Mgbowo youths, the proposed initiative as captured in item three above (which is a matter for another day) if well structured, crafted and patterned after the affections of our people, enshrined with the new insight, drive and vision for our community to be light in sham and shambles, then we are on the track for greatness. This propositions with reference to politics cannot be achieve without negotiations and alliance among ourselves, we must first fix our house, and then be ready to enter into negotiations with our neighbors. We must stumble upon the obvious fact that a tree cannot make a forest, therefore, we have to negotiate, but let us not negotiate out of fear, and we should state in concrete terms our demands for the common socio-political interactions and co-existence.

We must seek for liberty (equal right and justice) not favour, we must not allow youthful exuberance to serve as the currency of our social interaction. We must rise above the relies of the past failure and match forward to form new socio-political alliance based on the principles of equal partners in an enterprise of social contract for development of Mgbowo communities and upliftment of our people.

Therefore, all we need now is purposeful leadership at all strata in Mgbowo, ranging from family clans, hamlets, village levels, women groups and various youth wings; because when dogged leaders emerged at all levels the forces that beset mankind will stand still and the people shall certainly respond with an inexplicable jubilation for the arrival of a unique and uncommon era.

It is possible, let the good people of Ekpulato Mgbowo Autonomous community with enthusiasm visualize a proactive Mgbowo-lese where everyone irrespective of social status is equal before the ordinances of our land.

A progressive Mgbowo community is possible; a community where there would be mutual respect for one another in spite of our inherent divergent views.

A benevolent Mgbowo community is possible; a community where provisions of basic social amenities shall no longer be seen as mainly government affairs but as our rights and in the other hand part of our civic responsibility to our community, thereby building a place of honour in the sand of time.

A sustainable Mgbowo community is feasible; a community where majority of our youth population shall be actively involved in politics of Enugu State and the government on her own part shall be committed to creating enabling environment for our people to succeed in all aspects of life.

A philanthropic Mgbowo community is possible; a community where the privileged ones can freely dish out scholarship to the less privileged by assisting them to acquire basic education. A community where those that are blessed with enormous resources can roll out foundation programmes empowering the youths with all the necessary tools for them to succeed in life; Mgbowo community where our diasporan potentials shall be harnessed and repatriated for development of Mgbowo at large.

Mgbowo youths, this is the truth of the matter, the truth and nothing but the truth.

Thank you

Humphrey Onyima
Publisher/CEO
Leadership SCORECARD Magazine
+234(0)7063421506
leadershipscorecard2@gmail.com