The Best Gift For Our Country
Love/violence, vote/veto ...these pairs of words are so far apart from each other in definition, connotation or implication that it will take a lot to spine any nexus around them. That was the Hercules of a task before the founder of Ngozi Olejeme Foundation Dr Mrs N Olejeme as she addressed young people during a love feast recently organised in Abuja by the foundation to mark the 2015 edition of St Valentine's Day.
According to Dr Mrs. Olejeme, it's no longer in vogue to mouth the words, I LOVE YOU. 'Love transcends sensual boundaries and should be given its place at the spiritual echelon of our lives', she continued.
While decrying the sharp erosion of our values as embedded in our rich cultures, the soft spoken philanthropist challenged the young people to break the trend and reverse same noting that it is not yet late to get it right as a people.
She enjoined them to shun violence and vehemently refuse to be used as instruments of negative change as the nation faces one of the most important times in her political history. In her response to questions from the young people all clad in shades of red and white (Valentines colours) she established a correlation between and amongst these words: Love/violence, vote/veto... as follows:
All words have the letter V,O and E in common
The first pair have L in common
While the second pair have the same letters arranged in different patterns
Love and violence come from the extremes of humanity and are mutually exclusive variables. That is to say that both can not coexist in the same system. In fact the absence of one engenders the other while the presence of one endangers the other.
Her speech which was delivered in less than 15 minutes preached among other things love for God, self and country. Emphasising that the greatest valentine gift the youth can give their country is by voting wisely on Valentine's Day.
Dr Olejeme reiterated that ''any sloganeering of change or transformation that does not carry the young people along is mere political gymnastics propelled by selfishness''.
The President of the youth group known as triple-T (Triggers of Triple Transformation), Mr Chizie Ango promised that his group will spread the message of non violence to the rest of the vulnerable population around the nation.
Mr Ango praised President Goodluck Jonathan and his team for recognising the importance of the young people in the scheme of things by introducing SURE-P,YOUWIN and other youth friendly programmes that kept millions of young people out of the streets and focused. He further asked for more support in the area of employment and benefits for the unemployed.
Responding, Dr Mrs Olejeme called for a wise VOTE from the youth and let God have the VETO.