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.jpg) Nigeria
Ezeji Obinna
Email: obinnaezeji@yahoo.com
Education: B.ENG. (MECHANICAL)
Occupation: GRADUATE TRAINEE
Please describe your vision of a world that works for everyone.
When greed is removed from the heart of men, only then will my picture of a
world that works everyone be lucid enough. Greed gives birth to jealousy and
these two evils in my opinion greatly tilt the scale away from global peace
to violence and war. Take away greed and America will not have gone to Iraq;
Israel and her neighbors will not need to throw spears at themselves
endlessly; the so-called super powers will not need to spend fortunes on
weapons of mass destruction; African leaders will not seek to hold on to
power endlessly aimlessly while emptying their nations wealth into their own
pockets. I believe a world devoid of unbridled greed will be a peaceful
world where men will respect and uphold the golden rule: Do unto others as
you will like them do unto you.
What do you see as the most pressing problems facing the world today?
Religious Intolerance: The world today is terribly afflicted by spates of
religious bigotry and violence. That of the Middle East is most prominent
and has lost so many lives and property. The Islamist fundamentalists have
in the disguise of religion carried out very horrible terrorist activities
backed by a ludicrous divine reward for such inhumane acts. In the northern
part of my country, there have been spates of religious violence which are
always between the Moslems and Christians, with Moslems burning churches and
maiming Christians in very flimsy disputes.
Poverty: This problem is fast ravaging the most of Africa and some parts of
Asia. The U.N. Development Program estimates nine out of 10 Nigerians live
on less than $2 per day. And according to UNICEF, one in five Nigerian
children does not survive until their fifth birthday. This however is not
peculiar to Nigeria alone and its implication is: Africa's growth rate will
be negligible and in corollary the collective development of earth's
inhabitants will be inhibited.
Pollution: This problem cuts across every continent especially the developed
ones and its destructive effect on the entire continent is colossal. Global
warming, erratic climate changes, extreme weather, disease outbreaks, oil
spillage, drinking water shortages, to mention a few of its evils.
Technology has greatly advanced humans but its advantages have come at a
very high price and to continue the present trend will be inevitably
self-destructive on the longer run.
How do you feel these problems could best be solved?
Solution to Religious Intolerance: I cannot truly say I can offer a solution
to religious intolerance because of how delicate and almost timeless this
has been on. However, in my opinion I think the Government of a land has
major roles to play in dousing the hate that exist between major religions
in a land. Most fracases fueled by religion almost always begins with a
careless a utterance by a top-placed individual or a sensitive report in a
newspaper. The Government must establish punitive laws on remarks or social
discrimination against any religion as-well-as extensively promote similar
and converging teachings that exist between different doctrines.
Solution to Poverty: Poverty is a function of many and diverse conditions.
Some of these conditions are geographical, others are social and cultural.
Therefore employing any curative measures that does not first examine the
roots from which this disease sprouts will only achieve very temporal
success. I'll only discuss poverty in relation to Africa because I believe
the two are synonymous. The developed countries have given loans, relief
materials and even dept relief worth billions of dollars to Africa without
achieving any significant decrease in the current level of poverty. Why? The
root disease has not been cured and I strongly believe that its roots are
etched into the hearts and mind of the Black man. Our culture, beliefs, work
ethics, government and a host of many other fragments of self-influenced
factors tie us the disease called poverty. Poverty in Africa will be best
solved by a shift in the paradigm that looks mainly for help from outside
(developed countries) to that that seeks to develop the inside of every
black man by every black man. Our leaders must cease to subscribe to
dictatorial means of government and the-winner-takes-all mentality. We must
learn from the developed countries how to establish economic policies that
are strictly guided by principles of accountability and productivity. Our
leaders must rid themselves of excessive greed and inordinate ambition that
seeks to edify members of their family and friends leaving the rest of the
masses impoverished. It might interest you to note that not a single
university in Africa is ranked amongst the top 100 universities in the World
and all Nigerian universities fall short of the top 500. Good education and
knowledge is a requisite tool for developing/reinventing technologies and
processes that can attract wealth. My people perish for lack of knowledge
is a popular quote from the Christian bible. For a country like Nigeria to
have made over $40billion from oil exports in 2006 and still be ranked
second poorest in the World (World Bank Sept. 2005) shows that human
resources development must precede natural resources development, the
opposite being the scenario in Africa. Also the fact that the foreign direct
investment (FDI) inflows into Africa in 2005 was $31 billion, with Nigeria
getting around $3bn without any consequent reduction in the level of poverty
leaves a lot to be desired other than receiving handouts from the developed
world.
Solution to Pollution: This problem can be solved by no easy means because
the wealth amassed from overlooking its dangers is obviously too attractive
to many to consider its consequences. Its no secret however what the long
term implication of ignoring the dangers of pollution portends to the
existence of our universe. The society of science in collaboration with the
governments of the developed economies must make sacrifices that will yield
safer technologies and cleaner fuels for the sake of us all. If we must
survive another millennium, then, we must heed the warnings of nature that
have come by way of: Tsunamis, hurricanes, floods, extinction of life forms
and death, to mention a few. A shift from the energy sources that deplete
our ozone and warm our atmosphere to cleaner sources e.g. fuel cells, solar
panels, hydro and wind energies etc I believe is one major key to Ensuring
Environmental Sustainability as vaguely stated amongst the MDGs.
Profile
Have you read about Joseph in the Bible? You know a little about me already
if you have. I'm a dreamer. Since I was a little boy I've had big dreams, I
feel I'm one of those assigned with the task of affecting my generation in a
major positive way. Wrestling the Angel though has not been as easy as it
looked in the case of Joseph.
Life for me started just about the time I lost my milk teeth. Any memories
before then have corroded with time in my hard disk upstairs. I never really
liked life as a kid. Not that I was deprived in anyway of the things
children loved to play with but because I envied the independence and
authority I saw in the grown-ups. I would sit on my back in public so my
shoes would touch the floor like the grown-ups, I'll insist on trousers
instead of shorts, and when I saw a couple, I'd wish I was old enough to woo
the lady if I thought she was pretty.
I took countless cane strokes mostly from my mum and some from my school
teachers back when I was in primary school. My mother will flog with her
cane or her mouth. Either way was painful enough and once when I was eight I
wrote a letter threatening to run. Sweet kisses from the cane stopped me
thinking in that direction.
Nevertheless my mother was a very strong, caring and loving person and ten
years after she passed-on I still hear her laughter ringing out with the
excitement of a school closing bell and I miss her painfully. As a young boy
of 16 her death was a major blow. I kept asking many questions about life to
no one in particular and I felt betrayed wrongfully by God. Now I've come to
terms with her demise and believe someday it'll be my turn to sleep. All I
earnestly pray is that I'll leave behind timeless footprints that will
beautify the World.
I love football and especially that played in the English premiership where
I'm a Manchester United fan. I still relish the taste of the treble success
of Manchester United when we won three major titles 1999. Some day when I
have my family, I'll travel there to watch some live matches.
I love to read books that inspire oneself from authors like Napoleon Hill,
Brian Tracy, Stephen Covey, John Maxwell, etc and I love biographies,
especially those of Thomas Edison and Abraham Lincoln.
In the fiction category I enjoy works from authors like Sidney Sheldon, John
Grisham, Mario Puzo, Jeffery Archer etc and I'm currently reading a great
piece of work - Pleading Guilty by Scott Turrow. And my best actors are Al
Pacino and Anthony Hopkins.
Honestly, I love to dream. One of my dreams in life is to found a Children
Development Centre; this will cater for the needs of the orphans:
physiological, emotional, and educational especially, to help offset the
deck stacked against him/her to succeed.
While I was in the university, I started some businesses that failed flat
but it still hasn't stopped me from believing that the Great Porter put in
me skills that will enable me positively affect key sectors of my country's
economy in my time.
I have 1 brother and 5 sisters. I'm number _ which means my twin sister and
I make up no. 1. My siblings are simply the best in the world. The love we
share is invaluable and sweet and I'll trade nothing for it.
Am currently working in an Engineering firm in Lagos, Nigeria as a Youth
Corper. I'm a graduate engineer. In my country, a graduate must complete a
compulsory 1 year National Youth Service Programme before he starts a full
job. I'll be done in Aug. 2007. That's a little about me.
Books Completed:
- As A Man Thinketh
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull
- Psycho-Cybernetics 2000
- Success through a Positive Mental Attitude
- The New Dynamics of Winning
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