Thank you and Goodbye!

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It’s never easy to say goodbye but like the saying goes, all good things come to an end. My adventure with blogging has certainly reached the point where I can no longer carry on for many reasons. I am never one to engage in an activity that I’m no longer fully committed to as my many months of absence would suggest.

My family commitments are getting bigger all the time, work challenges and other interests that I am currently pursuing have made it increasingly difficult for me to continue hence the decision to discontinue blogging.

I may be back one day who knows but for now I am bowing out. My sincere thanks to all those who have followed, visited and commented on my blog posts. Thanks for the memories while it lasted. My email on this blog is still active if anyone ever wanted to contact me in future.

Thanks once again, happy blogging and stay blessed.

Naija4life

Nigerians on top of the league table!

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Good news coming out of Nigeria seems a scarce commodity these days especially with the daily onslaught of the Boko Haram insurgency and the usual corruption scandals that make daily headlines. However, reading an online article about a recent survey that confirms that Nigerians in the US rank topsin terms of higher educational attainment gave me something to cheer about. My analysis of the data shows that 54% of Nigerians in the US holds a Bachelors degree or higher. What the data didn’t mention was the areas of study where these degrees were obtained and more importantly the working experience the holders of these degrees have.

I'll be interested to see what the results would look like, if a similar research is conducted in the UK, where I also suspect Nigerians will not be far off when it comes to higher educational achievements. In many respects, the results don’t surprise me especially with our love affair with educational achievements. I remember growing as a child and education was the only thing we were encouraged or should I say pushed to aspire to achieve.

Whilst this achievement needs to be applauded and credit given where it’s due, we also need to put this in context. In the pursuit for educational excellence, are we actually seeking knowledge that we can apply in the real world or a mere collection of accolades to massage our egos? I guess we might need another research to convincingly answer this question.

The other thing I find quite interesting about the research results is that less Americans are seeking higher educational pursuit. That can only suggest to me that quite a large proportion of the rest of the indigenous population are perhaps taking up other vocations that don’t necessarily involve getting a degree. Sadly from my experience growing up in Nigeria, there seems to be an apathy towards those whose educational achievements fall short of a university degree.

Regardless of what lies beneath the surface of these supposed achievements, the reality is that Nigeria is blessed with highly qualified professionals both home and abroad. Any nation that is serious in developing, needs to tap into the resourcefulness of its citizens. This is the catalyst that will bring about growth and development and not necessarily oil or any other natural resources for that matter.

Give a book, save our future

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Let me first say a happy new year to you all and may your dreams come to fruition this year.  As promised, I’m embarking on a campaign,
‘Give a book, save our future’.

Quite simply, as some of you may well be aware that I’m a teacher and someone with a deep passion for education.  I believe God used education to make a huge difference in my life and continues to do so. I’ll regard my life’s journey as unfulfilled if I fail to give back to society in any way I can. As a Nigerian, we can be quite critical about the many wrongs in our society and most times rightly so. But I also believe we can take action by making small contributions that can only help improve our society. I’m a firm believer that whatever change we seek will only happen if we take action to accomplish them. I’m not in any way claiming this campaign will change the world but it certainly won’t make it any worse.

What is the purpose of this campaign?

I believe education remains the key that will unlock Nigeria’s future. Good education can only be possible with access to books, something that many Nigerian children are denied. So I’ve decided that if we keep waiting for the Nigerian governments at all levels, we might be waiting for a long time.

How will this campaign work?

This campaign which starts from today will involve awareness and invite people to donate old or used books they no longer need or are quite happy to give which are in fairly good condition. They can range from academic books, for primary and secondary school age, fiction, non-fiction etc.

Who can get involved?

This campaign is open to all. You can kindly donate a book or books.

How can you get involved?

You can get involved by help spreading the word via your blogs, websites, through friends, family etc. This campaign is not about me, I just see myself as a facilitator. It’s more about the ordinary Nigerian children who have limited access to books and whom this campaign will benefit eventually. You can also get involved by choosing to become a co-facilitator of this campaign and be actively involved in its operations.

How long will this campaign last?

This campaign will last for at least 6 months, up to the summer to enable us raise our initial target of 1000 books (an ambitious target) you might think but quite achievable I would like to believe.

Who will benefit from this campaign?

The plan is to partner with at least 3 schools especially in deprived areas in Nigeria in the first instance. The intention is to ensure that the books are donated for use in each school’s library for use by all students. Where a school library doesn’t exist then we can encourage them to set up one to enable students borrow or use these books for study.

Do you know of any school that could benefit from this campaign? If so please get in touch and let me know how you can be of help in making the necessary contacts needed to get things started.

How will this campaign be funded?

This will be a 100% charitable campaign. I am not asking for money, all I’m asking for is publicity, donations of old or used books for primary and secondary age or any book that will benefit young people. We'll also be soliciting for logistic support to send these books to Nigeria at the appropriate time.

All books collected will be accounted for. At the end of the campaign, details of the schools where these books have been donated to will be made available. Regular updates will be made available on this blog and on my other blog, A Pen and a Heart.

How can I send my book donations?

If you live in the UK or Ireland, please email me at: nnaija4life@yahoo.com  or giveabooksaveourfuture@yahoo.com and I’ll provide you with the address where donations can be sent to.

If you live in the US, Canada, or other parts of Europe, perhaps you may want to lead this campaign where you are which will be quite awesome if you can. Those in Nigeria, we would even rely on your massive support in recommending schools and mobilising where you are.

At the time of writing this post, I've already collected about 100 ICT books (which is my subject specialism by the way) which we were going to throw away but I said no way. I knew it will be of immense benefit to our young people whose access to books is somewhat limited. That was really the time the idea for this campaign first crossed my mind. After months of dithering, I feel it's something I have to do. 

How can I get updates about the work of this campaign?

I will provide regular updates to show how much books have been donated and by who. I can use pseudo names for those who don’t want their real identities revealed. I have contacted a media outlet in the UK (BenTv) and I’m currently in discussion to see how they may help us get the word out to the Nigerian community and even others. I’m also in the process of contacting VoxAfrica, another UK based media outlet for Diaspora people.

In whatever way you want to support, please feel free to let me know on here or send me an email if you prefer. Also please feel free to ask any questions you may have. Advice and constructive criticisms are most certainly welcome.

This will be a challenge no doubt but one that I believe can succeed with your help and support. And if we succeed, we would together have made a small difference to the lives of some young people in Nigeria, and in doing so, maybe save their futures. And who knows, perhaps save our country’s future.