Identity of A Nation called NIGERIA.

One of the Sunday services this year, in Church, a man of God gave a sermon that I completely related with, not our regular religious sermon.

He started out by asking the question, 'What is Nigeria's identity?' If you understand branding, you'll know every entity, business or individual has a unique identity that makes them different from others. And so, Nigeria ought to have one. He said, 'Japan and Germany are known for technology, China is known for industrial development, France and Italy focus on fashion, India and engineering, Brazil is home to agriculture, America doesn't joke about being the World superpower, Finland is about education, so where does Nigeria stands?'

This question got me thinking and the only thing that came to mind was 'Corruption'. And he made mention of everyone of us thinking it is corruption, he was not wrong. Almost everybody in the room thought of corruption before anything. So, he said again, 'the real identity of Nigeria is ENTREPRENEURSHIP'. Come to think of it, he's not entirely wrong, check your social media pages, your WhatsApp status, we have people selling one thing or the other. A country having over 40% as youths and has an unemployment rate of 21.7% at the second quarter. If you add the underemployment rate and unemployment rate, you'll have 55.7% of about 200 million people. This is a shocking stats, but entrepreneurship has come to the rescue. Even the employed must at least sell something to survive.

Entrepreneurship is not all about selling something, but finding a loophole, getting solution to the loophole and monetizing the process. An Entrepreneur is a person who sees an opportunity and takes risk. So, I am safe to say many Nigerian youths are risk takers. Putting the blame on the government has not taken us anywhere and it will take us nowhere in the nearest future, because we keep recycling the same set of people.

It may not be for everybody, but 'Survival' is another word that can be used to describe Nigerians. Nigerians constantly look for means of survival, some even care less of luxuries, they just want to survive. Sincerely, I want to survive, be able to provide for my family, friends and immediate environment, and it is not a bad thing to have luxuries of life. Luxury is something that will come after deliberate attempt to survive. I am encouraging you to be deliberate, don't think like others, take a different route from the bandwagon, there's a problem out there in need of a solution and God has made you a solution to problems, now is the time to showcase what God has given you.

As an unemployed or underemployed youth, what are you doing, are you scared to join the train of risk takers?