This is my first contact with you on this page this year. So, let me begin by wishing you a happy New Year. I have no doubt in my mind that this is going to be a happier year for you, never mind what is currently going on in our country.
There is a path to the happiness, joy and peace of mind that I?m talking about. And I intend to guide you to it in the course of this year.
Are you anxious and disturbed because of government?s removal of fuel subsidy? You?re not alone. Almost every Nigerian that I know is worried about it.
In fact, some of them are so terrified by it that they cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel. For some of these people it?s as if the end of the world has come. Many years ago I once found myself exactly where these people are today.
It was early 1979. I had just left the Nigerian Army in September of the previous year. And I was yet to get a regular job. I was freelancing for the Daily Times and what I earned each month depended on the number of lines in my articles that were published by the paper.
I was practically living from hand to mouth, so to say; and fearful always about not being able to have enough published articles to earn me a decent income at the end of the month.
While living this life of quiet desperation, one newspaper decided to turn my life upside down with a screaming headline one Saturday morning. The headline says something like, ?Transport Fare To Go Up From Monday?.
No prizes for guessing the reason: fuel price increase!
Boy, I practically ?died? from shock after reading that headline. What was I going to do now, I asked myself. It was tough enough getting by from day to day on my meager earning. With prices of things going up because of the increase in fuel price, a bleak future awaited me, I thought.
Throughout that weekend, I wasn?t myself. I resolved to cut off every expense that my life didn?t depend on and drastically reduce those that my life depended on like food.
I told myself that I would only ride a bus if it would take me to where I would get a story to write for the paper I was freelancing for or to the newspaper office to submit my story.
I also took another decision as a result of this incident. And that is the reason I?m telling you this story. When the dust had settled on the disturbing news of fuel price increase, I took stock of my response to the news and all the things I allowed it to do to me.
Firstly, I realized that I could have had a heart attack as a result of the fear that paralyzed me when I read that newspaper headline or committed suicide because of the depression that settled on me when all I could think of was how my situation would worsen by the anticipated price increases.
If either of those two possible outcomes had played out, I would not be alive today. I was just 28 years old then. Today I?m 61. And one thing I?m not even thinking about now is to die, fuel subsidy removal or not.
Secondly, I also realized that there were some people that were championing the cause of the people at the time. These people were referring to the people they were defending as ?masses?. ?We are fighting for the masses,? they would say.
So I asked myself: How do you get to quit the rank of the ?masses? and be among the ones fighting for them? The question dropped on my mind when I noticed that those who were fighting for the masses were almost always more well off than the majority of the people they were fighting for.
And I resolved that I?d rather be fighting for the masses than remain in the masses clan and be fought for.
As I hope you perfectly understand, these were mere decisions. I have to back them up with concrete plans and persistent action in order to achieve them. And that was exactly what I did.
The decisions that I?ll never allow any situation to scare the daylight out of me to the point that I would commit suicide or get heart attack and to transit from masses colony to fighting for them didn?t immediately transform my financial status overnight.
But I?ve created a road map to my financial security and I was determined to invest every effort it would take for me to turn that dream into reality. I have been working at these dreams ever since. I?m pleased with how far GOD has taken me. And I know that I still have a long way to go.
This is why, when I sat at my computer last Friday morning to write this column, I was filled with compassion for you. I know exactly what it means to be struggling and barely getting by and then have a very harsh policy like fuel subsidy removal hit you on the forehead like a sledge hammer. Under these circumstances, you always think it?s better to die and go and rest than to live through it.
But you will NOT die!
There is still hope for you. Just stop and think for one moment. If I had taken my life back in 1979, would I be able to touch the lives of all the people around this nation today whose lives are being financially turned around as a result of the NGO, Success Attitude Development Centre, that GOD committed into the hands of my wife and mine?
The same GOD that made a way for me back in 1979 is a living GOD. He will step into your situation today. And tomorrow, just as I?m doing now, you will share your own testimony of His goodness and mercy to the world.
I?m a great believer in providing the answer to the probing question: How did you get from where you were in 1979 to where you are today?
What I did which is not as complicated as rocket science is, I had a simple plan. And I?ll strongly advise that you have one too. My plan consisted of figuring out what could turn me from not having enough to having more than enough. And I?ll flat out do everything that is required of me to make it happen.
When I was leaving the Nigerian Army, my goal was to become a sports reporter. I knew, even before I left the army, that just being a sports reporter would not be enough. I had to be one of the very best. I had to stand out.
So I worked hard at it. You remember that I said that before I could get a regular job with the Daily Times I had to depend on the number of lines in my published articles in the paper to determine my monthly income?
Well, I figured out how to write for many of the publications in the Daily Times Group and ramped up those published lines every month. I got so good at it that by April 1, 1979, I literally forced the Daily Times management to give me employment.
How? Because, my claim at the end of the month went above N500 [yes, you read that correctly!] whereas as an employee of the paper I would be paid only N150 monthly. It was a simple arithmetic on the part of DTN management: If this guy will earn N150 as a staff reporter, why pay him N500 monthly as a freelancer? So I got the job!
But I didn?t rest on my oars when I landed the job. I kept improving and looking for better opportunities. That was how I was hired by Sunday Concord in June 1980. And I kept on pushing myself.
My devotion and stubborn determination to excel started to pay off at Sunday Concord. I began to have cult followership of sports fans in the country. Soon, I was promoted Group Sports Editor of the Concord Group of newspapers.
Shortly afterwards, in February 1983, I became the pioneer Sports Editor of The Guardian newspaper. And in October 1984, my wife and I established our sports publishing business. Ten years later, we founded Success Attitude Development Centre, which is giving hope and guidance to Nigerians who want to create a better future for themselves.
While I?m not in any way saying that it was smooth sailing all the way, what I?d like to emphasize, and I think this is common sense, is this: If I could do it by GOD?s grace and get to where I?m now a subsidizer and not being subsidized, don?t you think you should also target doing the same?
All it takes is a simple plan and a stubborn determination to work the plan in active partnership with GOD. And you will never be scared again when anyone decides to remove their subsidy.
