’Tunji Ajibade
tunjioa@yahoo.com 08057109819
President Muhammadu Buhari’s wife, Aisha Buhari, was in Kano recently. Her itinerary included a graduation ceremony for 200 women who were empowered by her. At first, I had thought the President’s wife would not be present at the event, that she would send a delegation for obvious reasons. But she was there in person. This had made me pay closer attention. Any form of empowerment for our people never misses my attention, especially when women and youths are involved. It’s my disposition to applaud efforts made to lift our people from where they are to where they should be. No such effort is too little, and who’s behind it shouldn’t be an issue. For when our people are lifted, Nigeria is lifted. That’s a point I’ve always made on this page.
This is not the first time I call attention to this kind of endeavour. I had, in the past, noted it in the context of the controversy raised regarding the activities of wives of presidents. But before I return to this, I take a look at a related event outside the shores of our country. A few days back, there was a news item about a non-governmental organisation that has been active in other parts of the world. Greenpeace International. This time round, Greenpeace was in the waters of West Africa. I had been following the activities of Greenpeace for years. But this was the first time I heard of its presence on our coastal waters. What was it doing? The body came in with its ships, put government officials responsible for maritime issues in West African countries on them, and then went to sea to arrest foreign ships that harvested our fish. Chinese citizens and shippers from other Asian countries were among those arrested. Subsequently, the government of China issued a statement saying it had always warned its citizens not to steal fish from other nations. Note that the Chinese government warned, but it didn’t do more than that. Yet, it benefitted in taxes and the stolen sea foods brought in to feed its population. In the event, people of West Africa are the losers. This is an issue Greenpeace is passionate about, and has come in to change the narrative.
Greenpeace says it’s an independent global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace. One way by which it does this is by defending the oceans, by challenging wasteful and destructive fishing, and creating a global network of marine reserves. The body has been campaigning against environmental degradation since 1971 when a small boat of volunteers and journalists sailed into Amchitka, an area north of Alaska where the US Government was conducting underground nuclear tests. This tradition of “bearing witness” in a non-violent manner continues today, and Greenpeace ships are an important part of all its campaign work. The body exposes those it calls environmental criminals, and it challenges government and corporations when they fail to live up to their mandate to safeguard the environment and the future. It uses research, lobbying, and quiet diplomacy to pursue its goals thereby raising the level and quality of public debate.
That Greenpeace has to take its campaign against stealing of other nations’ fish to West Africa doesn’t surprise. This is one region that hasn’t proved itself capable of policing its waters, thereby losing its marine resources to others. I took note that when Greenpeace embarked on its latest operation it gave facts and figures on sea resources stolen from us but which should have benefited our people. The calculation was in billions of dollars. Greenpeace says even if governments don’t make the fish available for our people to eat, harvesting and exporting them can bring in more revenue to take care of many of the deficits that that West Africa has to confront.
I’m ever a fan of individuals or groups that identify a challenge and choose to do something about it. On several occasions, people have expressed to me how passionate they are about something that is not right and which they wish to do something about. I do the same in my own area of passion so I understand what they mean. Often, I give my view on how they can go about executing theirs when they ask for it. No matter the field, I place emphasis on one thing to my counselees – make sure it’s an issue you have passion for because there will be dry days, there will be challenges along the way, moments when you will feel like giving it all up. At such moments, it’s your passion that will keep you going.
I’ve also been at public events where people express this natural instinct to ask others what they are doing to change a situation. They ask others what they are doing to help, rather than state what they are doing in their corner to help. This is common among the younger generation. It’s a demonstration of lack of understanding. No one is too powerless or too poor to offer something to others. If you don’t have in resources you have in labour that others can benefit from. People who give don’t give because they have limitless resources, or that they don’t have other things to do with their time and energy. But they have come to recognize that sitting down to complain about what is not acceptable to them is not the way to go; rather rolling up their sleeves to do something about it is what can move the narrative forward.
It’s easy to see when people pursue their passion. They want to give it their all. They do not mind what others say. Pick them up and harass them, what they say is what they will continue to say. This thing is like fire that burns in the heart; when it does the person concerned is restless. For it is in doing what he has passion for that he can have rest. I often watched with interest the diverse area in which people exhibit their passion. This speaks to how we are wired differently. When people tell me they are keen about a particular issue that I’m not interested in, it makes me appreciate diversity. It makes me have respect for them. In fact, I applaud. For it’s in diversity that we have strength. It’s in the aggregation of the energy each person puts into what he likes to do that our character is projected as a people, and we move forward as a nation.
This comes back to how the lives of others are positively impacted by whatever passion each person pursues. Pursuers of passion are worthy of honour. On this page in the past, I had commented on individuals who assisted Nigerians in the area of their health. There were others who spent their birthdays visiting and making donations to the less-privileged. Greenpeace as an organisation and its private donors intervene in the issues of our planet the way they know how. Our president’s wife takes up matters that concern women because it’s what she’s passionate about. Some two hundred women were part of the skill acquisition programme and the empowerment facilities that she sponsored in Kano. There she had promised to continue with the effort.
This is significant to me. For I worry when a female is not empowered in any form. It’s a sign that the next generation from her will face hardship. The female that is not empowered is more than likely to produce her type, use her children as means of generating revenue. He children are her labourers with the attendant consequences. It’s there on our streets. Who loses at the end of the day? The nation. I know the President’s wife has this kind of programme across the states of the federation. The total number of women involved therefore gives a picture of what her effort translates into for our nation. It’s one reason I would want each state government not to leave the women she has empowered to their fate. Efforts should be made by state apparatus concerned with such issues to follow up and create openings for whatever these women do or make. For the base line is that the President’s wife has assisted to take one of the problems that state governors have off their hands.
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