Let me now share with you what I delivered, I started with our opportunities must be explored. I started with a quote, Winston Churchill “A pessimist will always see difficulty in every opportunity, while an optimist will always see an opportunity in every difficulty.” I asked who are you? A pessimist or optimist. I proceeded by telling them Opportunities abound in Nigeria, that there are no green pastures any where, that it you that will determine to make a place a green pasture. I said unfortunately, why many of us are traveling out in frustration to seek for greener pastures, that foreign business men are coming in to tap into our opportunities to do business. A Yoruba sayings goes thus, nkon taw a lo si sokoto wa ni sokoto wa, meaning what we are looking afar of is within where we are. I said opportunity is all about discovering a need and providing services to meet that need, very simple as ABC, It is solving problems. But I told them, where many young people have challenges is that opportunities are not seen with naked eyes, they are only seen with the mind.
I made them realized that going to school is not to graduate and start looking for job, but the essence of going to school is to build one’s capacity to think to solve problems. I emphasized that there are no jobs for job seekers but only for problem solvers. I sound it clear that organization main goal is not to employ people but to meet some certain objectives; they only employ problem solvers to meet that set aims and objectives.
I challenge my audience that if we have enough problems and challenge them we have enough opportunities too. That our challenges are proportionally to the opportunities available. In US for instance, they have less societal problems, they have a good conducive environment, because most of their problems have been solved.
I highlighted 7 areas where they can tap into:
A, ICT
B, FOOD
C, ENTERTAINMENT
D, EDUCATION
E, LEADERSHIP AND VALUES
F, FASHION
G, AUTO MECHANICS
