In a team, there are roles and responsibilities. For any team to function effectively, the individual is key and must embrace its tasks as a critical component.
I am a football fan. I love football a lot and I understand from the game that for your team to do well, the first eleven and even the reserve players, must all be ready to do their best for the team to succeed.
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, Nigeria’s football ‘Dream Team’ made history. The team beat Argentina, 3 – 2 in the Gold medal final match. A true underdog story. Individually, that generation of Nigerian footballers still ranks as the best crop the country has produced. In the blockbuster semifinal game against Brazil, the team had also turned around a two-goal deficit into a 4 – 3 victory four minutes in Golden Goal Extra time. That sequence of triumphs was characteristic of the composition of the team. Every player had a role to play and they all did their jobs!
Nigeria is my home and country of my birth. I believe strongly in her potential and if you are reading this, as a patriotic Nigerian, you are a major stakeholder in her future. That means you must identify and understand your place in ‘Team Nigeria.’’ Great countries – just like great teams – don’t become champions overnight. The amount of hard work, perseverance and sacrifice – which have been put in behind the scenes – births the reality/realities we see. I see greatness in Nigeria but I also realise that you and I have a big job on our hands
I draw inspiration from how great leaders like Abraham ‘Honest Abe’ Lincoln led America during his country’s Civil War, or how Winston Churchill stood firm in the face of the Nazi onslaught during World War II in his time as the British Prime Minister. Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew’s leadership of Singapore moved the country from underdevelopment to global reckoning in thirty years. Nigeria has been blessed with many great leaders too like Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe and its first Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. For a younger generation of readers, these men played pivotal roles in Nigeria’s fight for independence from British colonial rule but before then, each of them impacted their immediate regions and provinces. In our different spheres of endeavours, we must continue to build on their legacies.
It begs the question: What are you currently doing that is holding Nigeria back or moving her forward? These are the hard questions we must ask ourselves from time to time.
If you are working as an employee in an organisation, be the best employee you can be. Get to work early, clock in and keep your head down. If required of you, go above and beyond. Don’t be satisfied with just cashing a paycheck at the end of every month. Any Average Joe can do that. Show the world you were made for great things. If you are running a small business (and we all know that small businesses are the engine of any economy), please make that small business the best it can be. If you are working in a multinational, fantastic! Wherever you are, ensure you are a value-adding employee. It is the aggregate of our successes as individuals in our little corners that helps us create the Nigeria of our dreams.
Wherever you find yourself, be the best YOU.
No team or country becomes great without its individual parts. It is only when talented and motivated individuals pull together towards a collective goal that success is ultimately guaranteed.
Always remember, you have only one life to live; make it count!