Johnson Abbaly, the CEO and President of Achievers Consortium International holds a B.A. Honours from the University of Benin. For over fifteen years he has worked as a dynamic speaker, administrator and manager in youth related initiatives. Before founding Achievers Consortium in 2002, he had helped build and manage an IT start-up firm and designed nominal roll programs for local education districts.
He is currently a facilitator for FATE Foundation and he is also a member of the Policy Commission on Human Capital and Health of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group. He has recently been invited as a fellow of the prestigious Mt Pelerin Society. Under his dynamic and innovative leadership as president, AC has launched several breathtaking initiatives for youths which includes, the Strategic Intelligence Conference, held at the Pan African University in Lagos recently.
Surely, to arrive too soon is to arrive too small but not to arrive at all is treason against the soul. For many long years we have waited for men of goodwill to visit with us and change our fortune. We waited and were enslaved at the price of shadows. We waited again and were colonized. We wait still and we are being re-colonized through sound bits and visual wizardry.
Always others seem to find use for us so long as we don't find use for ourselves. Like the matrix, our people rise in toil and continue all day long like the Masai people of the great Safaris only to provide a back upon which the civilization of the world is hewed – but why continue like this when we can change all these?
No one race of men is superior to the other. The future of any race is shaped by the choices its people make. The future is not some magic moment in the distance when all things become equal.The future is the sum of all the choices we make.
Propelled by the gnawing need of this grim hour, how could we possibly, as Nigerians, wait when the errors of the past are being perpetuated to make our sons slaves in the future and our daughters stoop to pay for a meal.How could we tuck our hands in our pockets and bask in the illusion that some foreign donor will build our institutions, empower our youths, clean our environment, raise our economic profile and grant us a voice in the global political dialogue.
Gentlemen, the folly of our wait is now embarrassingly public!
On March 23, 1775 Patrick Henry confronted the cowardice of an American colony and challenged the continued chains of a people born free. Feel his pulse: "What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"
The liquid passion of Patrick Henry rallied a cowering nation to win one of earth's most astonishing victories.
2030 is not so far away. The burning question is where do we, as people, hope to be by this date? We cannot wish it, hope it or fake it. We'll have to invent it! I extend my clarion to all who share the burden for an African renaissance. Now is the set time to take responsibility for our collective future as real men should. If we wait… we will waste.
Forbid it Almighty God!