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As we struggle through life, never looking back, and uprooting any barrier to our success, we sometimes ‘make it’ because we are daring, or because we know the price of failure having experienced poverty, such that our children live forever in our shadows – as mediocre, having never grown some spine or enough mental muscle. The quest is to measure up at least in terms of fame and to also make it big, quick and easy.
One of my favorite sayings is one that goes, ‘’Every Prince Descends From a Pauper, and every pauper, from a prince’’. Let us consider the importance of this saying in some greater depth. First is to say there is a likelihood if you trace everyone’s history today, that those who are rich had some very poor ancestors, while those who are poor may likely have prosperous ancestors back in history. It just means that one need to be careful.
The danger is that those who are raised in luxury really have no incentive to strive and may therefore not continue the trajectory of their fathers who often struggled to become what they are. That is why they say it is difficult to keep wealth in a family beyond three generations. Some days back someone asked where are the families of those long gone big men whom musicians praised to high heavens. I once heard of Herbert Macaulay’s grandson who was a cabbie in London. Herbert was a big man in his time.
Although there is a deeper psychology . privileged children may have seen it all and may not be able to understand why they need to hustle like their fathers as if lives depends on it because, well, their lives don’t. that is why parents who allow their children every possible luxury are actually damaging the ability of the children to grow. There has to be a line drawn somewhere. Richard Branson spoke about how his children always travel economy in the plane that he owns even if he and his wife are in first class.
The story is told about the butterfly, how it struggles through the egg, lava, pupa stages of its development, and how the wriggling out of its hard shell forms its wings. Anyway, we have a situation today where many children of valiant men have veered into music, dance, deejay-ing, ownership of sex toy shops, acting, and ownership of night clubs, organizing of beauty pageants and music shows, and so on. A lot of these professions are in and around entertainment, meaning that the public wants to feed on salacious tales from those industries. This means that today’s hero is tomorrow’s villain. Those who make you and prop up your image are also the ones who make a pig’s meal out of your reputation and sanity when the time comes.
Whereas some of these new professions make money and fame, they tap into the ephemeralness of today’s world; a world seeking entertainment by all means. Is it that the options have been totally narrowed for the young people of today to make real differences in places that could really advance societies? ARE WE NOT STILL A CONSUMER NATION THAT PRODUCES NOTHING OF THE THINGS IT USES? Are the youth of today not wired towards solving our fundamental problems, but to kick the bottle down the road and generally consolidating those problems? How many are taking on our hard issues?
We need to build this nation and elevate the black man beyond being seen as a global entertainer. All these professions they are choosing today will not build Nigeria because they cannot. Those professions merely play at the edges. We have others like Necto C, Kema chikwe’s son. Chukwuma Soludo’s first son, Ozonma is also a musician. Soni Saraki, Uncle Bukola’s first son, is a rapper. Femi Otedola first daughter is a DJ. Two things are common to all these, bling and blitz. Thankfully, Halima Alinko Dangote second daughter is presently studying while working with the group as a strategist. Mike Adenuga also tries off and on, to keep his children in the business.
