The conscious departure from the path of God (which offers genuine prerequisite conditions to fame and eternal glory) and preference by the youths in contemporary times, especially in our clime, to explore short cuts to fame, affluence and relevance in the society is an issue that needs urgent visit by solution seekers to the plight of the youths. To find a lasting solution to the issues negating efforts to remove obstacles in the way of preparing the youths of this generation for future leadership roles, the ghost of “get rich quick syndrome through machinations”, crude blackmails, junk criticisms, jealousy, pride, passion for falsehood, and utter disregard and resentment for the power of hard work and perseverance must be exorcised from the youths. The actual reasons giving authentic explanations to why the youths would recline on powers gotten by resorting to involvements in activities in some clandestine groups is embedded in the crave for shortcuts to fame, affluence and undeserved recognition in the society.
Fame does not fall from the blues. Fame is a consequence of positive inputs through sustained efforts targeted towards achieving a goal. Invariably, a goal set, backed up by an odyssey of sustained positive efforts, attract ‘positive results’ which is the record maker and the crown of fame.
The success stories of the likes of Mark Zukerberg (the creator of the Facebook) Orville and Wilbur Wright (the inventors of the vintage plane) Carl Benz (the brain behind the vintage motor car) and in our immediate environment, Ayade – a renowned inventor in the records of legends in Cross River state can best suggest HARD WORK AND PERSEVERANCE as recipe to make fame and not any sort of hasty approach that infringes on the peace, prospect and prosperity of others.
To single out our own legend, Ayade, credible historical materials has a narrative that he rose from grass to grace through an odyssey of hard work and perseverance. According to his humble, but heartwarming recurrent submission on his long walk to freedom from poverty, he recalls how he sold banana as part of the elements of his struggles to break the strings of poverty that every individual who is not born with a silver spoon has to grapple with. A brief story by the legend himself on how he rose to fame as contained in the Diary of Legend, by Freeman Ogar, lends an eye opener to trace the right path to fame – a path that is divorced from fraud and all forms of illegal crave for wealth.
“I want to pass a message to all youths of Cross River State in particular, and indeed, Nigeria. You will draw meaningful inspiration from my experiences as you pay keen attention. As a young man, I went to my father to mortgage his only bicycle to enable him pay my School Fees. When we got to the “big man’s” house, we were told that he was sleeping. We waited for over five hours and finally, we were instructed to leave and come back by 2pm the same day. We only understood later that while we waited, he had already gone out through the back door. We returned at exactly 2pm to the man’s house and waited again up to 5pm and eventually showed up. He owed nobody an apology.
“I can’t see anybody today”, the ‘big man’ said. And after this, he disappeared quickly before anybody could say a word. I took that as the biggest challenge of my life. I ministered to myself and immediately, I returned to my father and told him that ‘if we walked away with this bicycle instead of the money we asked for, we will never be here again’. I promised my father that that day will be the last day we will seek for help in our family. I vowed that by the time I get to that stage I will be bigger than the man. We returned to the village disappointed.
I stayed with my aunty and we decided to go into petty trading while I went to school at the same time. I hawked banana and groundnuts. The moment I returned from school everyday I would be on my way to selling my goods”.
His striking specific word for the youths with “big eyes” is encapsulated in his expression: “If you declare money wanted, like every other thing, money will run away”! But when you put service first, money will come as a by-product”.
What was not included in the narrative above or has not stood the test of time in any manual as tool for success is the “technical know how on how to bring someone down as a ladder to take you up”. The closest, easiest, but most authentic and remarkable manual on how to conquer ignorance and poverty to achieve self discovery and discovery of positive path to fame is inscribed in the biography of Ayade under the two key words, “hard work and perseverance” and not through irrational pursuits for wealth.
Yes, like Ayade opined, if you declare money or fame wanted, like every other thing, the money or fame will run away. The Diary of Legend, a compendium of the secret of the rise of heroes in the society is a must read. The writer, Freeman Ogar exhausted sound intellectual energy to present in simple diction and concepts the factors that serve as ladder for the elevation of ordinary men in the society to admirable social status-fame-in their youth.
