Discovering Our Potentialities – By Arnold A. Alalibo

Posted by admin Arnold Alalibo, Articles, Columnists, NNP Columnists Saturday, September 7th, 2013

By Arnold A. Alalibo | NNP | Sept. 7, 2013 – Every man, except the pampered child of fortune, ought to have a vocation in order to earn his livelihood. In ancient Jewish society, acquisition of vocational skills were required. Apostle Paul of the Bible even added tent-making to his vocation while Jesus earned carpentry skill from his foster father. Vocational education demands the training of specialists in various fields. There are institutions for imparting various types of specialized training to help people qualify for this. Our society demands specialists in every facet be it office, factory and even educational institutions. Acquisition of special skill can lead to self-reliance.

Self-reliance is the great asset everyone ought to possess. By being self-reliant, a man gains glorious independence. He depends on his own powers and abilities and may not need to be helped by others. He has a heraic attitude to life and he is host to himself. Life to him is a great adventure, full of interest and great excitement. He never feels dull and dispirited. Cicero, an ancient Greek once said: “Most happy is he who is entirely self-reliant and who centres all his requirements on himself.”

Thrown upon his resources, the self-dependent accepts the challenges of life and develops new ventures, new qualities.
He is full of devices and is ready to take the initiative. He is always confident of finding a way out of difficulties economic, political or social.

At this period of radical economic reforms, the lesson of self-reliance is needed because the average Nigerian is by nature fatalistic in his altitude. He tends to depend too much on fate or chance. Fate is the scapegoat on which he places the heavy responsibility of his failures, which he always calls misfortunes.

This mindset destroys the springs of action. But if one has courage, initiative or is daring, one may become the master of his destiny. There are many who make their fortune by their own effort and then call it fate. They think it is an act of piety and humility towards God. But even this attitude is not proper. If it is God who has given us strength of body and power of mind, he surely expects us to help ourselves with these and not to be whining for divine help always. It is our duty to develop the gifts that he has given us.
Self-reliance is the parent of many virtues. The self-reliant man is patient and persevering. He does not change and complain. He does not shrik his responsibilities. He is satisfied with what he can achieve by himself and is always striving after success. He does not envy others; or does he think of begging favours from others. He faces his misfortune with a quiet courage.
Emerson calls it “the essence of heroism, the first secret of success.”
The self-reliant man feels neither fear nor shame to labour with his own hands, because he knows there is digruity in labour.
He is always learning new lessons, gathering valuable experience. His example is an inspiration to others, and his achievement is an example. Failure cannot shake his well-grounded self-confidence. Rather it spurs him to renewed enterprise. Confidence in himself wins him the confidence of others. In the face of failure, a self-reliant man does not self-esteem and this wins for him the regard of the world.
The great Italian artist, Michelangelo says: “The promises of the world are for the most part vain phantoms”. If we trust in them we delude ourselves. At the proper time, they invariably betray us, help to underline our weaknesses and breed in us a feeling of inferiority, a ruinous distrust in ourselves , a pathetic dependence on others. As Bernard Shaw pointed out: it is easy –terribly easy- to shake a man’s faith in himself”. And nothing does this more effectively than the habit of relying on others, of expecting the world or government to help us in the face of every difficulty.
Therefore as we howl or bay through the biting economic hardship which manifests in loss of jobs, rising inflationary trend, capital flight etc, emanating from the longing economic reforms and state of insecurity in the country, every Nigerian must imbibe the spirit of self-reliance. There is no way out of it. This country is undergoing a strange phase of her economic life, and it is only the self-reliant that can brace the trend.
Our dependence on government largesse has to wane and those in paid employment must begin to develop their possibilities for self-reliance, as uncertainty trails every employment. However, government has to create the enabling environment for the realization of individual and corporate economic potentialities.
This history of human achievement is indeed a record of man’s reliance upon himself. Great heroes, great scientists, great merchants were all self-made men. For instance, Benjamin Franklin was born of poor parents who could give him little education, yet, by relying on his own God-given powers, he made his name memorable in science and statesmanship. Michael Faraday was a builder, but rose to be one of the greatest scientists of the world among others.
If we think properly of our own abilities, if we look to others for guidance at every step, we shall continue to faint at the mention of retrenchment or joblessness. We shall lose our confidence. Paupers shall we be perpetually, and be buried in unmarked grave of poverty.wp_posts