I want to urge as all as youths to happily carry the burden on our shoulder and head, to be good ambassadors of our families and towns. We must never bring the name of our towns or family into disrepute. I, Amidat Oluwaferanmi Mustapha, as AREWA of Offa will not do anything that will put Offa in a bad light anywhere, so help me God. You can write this at the back of your heart and recite it everyday as an action plan and point of determination. It is achievable. Life as a criminal is not a life to pass on to future generations. There is dignity in labour, let’s work hard to earn a future rather than cutting corners to make a living, corners are full of evil things, that cut short life.
It’s another week and as a promise, I will do all i can to communicate with friends and like minds, so that all can be well that ends well for us all.
During our trainings at the pageantry camp, one of our instructors said something that stuck to my brain and I held on to it with much trembling. She said “if you emerge a winner, you will be seen as an ambassador of Offa”. It means, whatever I do, people will sya that is how they are in Offa. If I talk harshly at someone, the critic will say Offa people are harsh and if I am good, fans will say, Offa people are kind hearted and generous. I hated anyone criticizing Offa because of me, but the reality is, I must also be conscious of things that I do, what I say and which company I keep and how I conduct myself in public.
I never knew I could win the contest but I also never wished to fail out and be a loser. It was a kind of mix feeling between wishes and reality; Can I win among all these beautiful, intelligent and more eloquent ladies? Also I flash back into past contests, where little was ever known about me and winning that contest gave me confidence that, the AREWA contest is yet another try, I can win and eventually, by Gods grace and providence, I won.
I must tell you that winning the contest was less stressful compared to the thought of how I will not go the way of others, without making any impact as AREWA. I wake up every day, thinking, how can I do what other past AREWA, my predecessors could not achieve? We all know that human wants are numerous and insatiable, as we say in Economics as profoundly discussed by Adams Smith, the Scottish philosopher and economist, in his seminal work, “The Wealth of Nations” (1776). I want to do many things, but how wealthy am I and what links do I have with the rest of the world to finance my pet project? I see those who had gone before me as having tried their best and studying their limitations, I have no singular excuse not to perform. I am a graduate of Economics, I know about business and how capital can become multiplied to become wealth and added, is that I can also pray for Gods guidance and wisdom. I am now an Ambassador of Offa, in whatever I do, wherever I go. My temperament is now under control, my ego, my feelings and everything about me is not under absolute control, not as if some persons are watching or teleguiding me but my ‘Abilofa’ instinct, my ‘Omoluabi’ instinct is my controlling force.
Added to that is my pedigree. I am not the only one born by Mr Mustapha, my lovely father, I have other siblings. When I won the contest, my family was made proud, I am my father’s daughter, my younger siblings were joyous because I brought home a title of pride to the family, but then comes another challenge that ring in my consciousness; what happens to all these achievements of pride and respect if I am later found wanting to have done something wrong? That means, I now have a name added to my name, AREWA Amidat, a beauty pageant of Offa.
It is at this point that I want to address my fellow damsels and beauties out there and as well the handsome guys and men out there. We are the Genz generation, we are the wisdom generation, we are a lot more smarter or say we are more crafty than our parents were in their days. We know many things, knowledge gap between us and our parents is vast and unimaginably wide, but how do we apply knowledge to impact our life better? Are we not becoming nightmares to our parents and the generations around? Its in our age bracket we find excellent scientists, under 19 billionaires and sadly, we also find among us ritualists, murderers and so called Yahoo boys and girls. While some are being good ambassadors of their family and towns, some are being chased about daily by EFCC for crimes bothering in being in possession of money that they cannot account for how they got it. Some are into armed robbery and kidnapping and they do this under fear of being haunted by security agents all around. Whose ambassador are we? My father usual said to me while I was growing up: “Do not dent the name of my family or bring our name into disrepute.” and he still says it till now to me and my other siblings.
There was this recent happening in town, a bad story that went so viral across the length and breath of the globe. A 29 years old young male Genz member, killing and butchering another female Genz member, a finalist of the Kwara State College of Education Ilorin. Sadly, both are from same religious belief as mine and from same town. Why must a youth allow his or her conscience die so badly that his conduct affect the image of his town, the respect given to his parents are now eroded and they walk around in shame and perhaps under fear of reprisal attack by the victim of their son’s evil act. It could be me, God forbid and it could be anyone, we can only pray that God forbid it happen to us. Being a youth is a pride and value and the strength demography of any nation. Why should this age group now turn themselves into terror to the society?
They call us future leaders, which future? The future is now, many of us are already taking over from our parents in their businesses and other endeavours, so the future starts now, how are we stepping into the shoes of our parents? Are we ready to be good ambassadors of our parents, families, our towns and our generations? I pray every day that God help me not to dent the image of Offa, my family house and that of my parents and I think we all must learn to prayerful seek Gods intervention and guidance in our daily life. Our parents might err in some areas of life; we must not make same mistakes they made, that is why God, in his infinite mercies created us different and higher in intelligence than our parents. If our intelligence drives us into doing evil, will God be happy to have made us so intelligent? I don’t want to sound too religious but I cannot say or write anything without having God reflecting in me because he is my backbone and pillar of support and you will agree with me that whatever we do, having Gods hands in all will make us experience God’s hands in all we do, but if we remove God from all we do, then we are bound to see evil in all we do, but God forbid.
I want to urge as all as youths to happily carry the burden on our shoulder and head, to be good ambassadors of our families and towns. We must never bring the name of our towns or family into disrepute. I, Amidat Oluwaferanmi Mustapha, as AREWA of Offa will not do anything that will put Offa in a bad light anywhere, so help me God. You can write this at the back of your heart and recite it everyday as an action plan and point of determination. It is achievable. Life as a criminal is not a life to pass on to future generations. There is dignity in labour, let’s work hard to earn a future rather than cutting corners to make a living, corners are full of evil things, that cut short life. The question is, “Of what value is a life that gains everything BUT lose his soul.
Let us not forget, whatever we do today goes down to become history tomorrow. How will you feel when you read back your actions of today at a latter date? Happy of Sad and ashamed? The choice is yours and mine, I chose a life of happiness, from now and forever by consciously guiding my actions of today, so that when I read back all I have written in future, I will say, Alhamdulliah, I did my best. Together, You and I can make a better tomorrow, a generation that makes our parents happy and glad that they have us as children.