TWO events happened penultimate week in our dear nation that are worth commenting on before I zero in on today’s subject. First was the press conference addressed by the Attorney-General to inform the nation about our President’s fitness and capacity to rule us from any part of the world for any length of time. As I watched him, I was reminded of a circus show. If it had been one, the show of 27th January would have had an ‘A’ rating and a standing ovation.

Only this time around, the circus clown was in suit and the joke was on the entire nation. Sometimes, I wonder how some people manage to sleep at the end of each day knowing that they had mortgaged their conscience. The last time I checked, we were supposed to be running a democratic system of government where those who supposedly cast the votes are supposed to know what happens to those they elected. I was almost raising my hands in despair over the nation when another news broke.

Simultaneously as the circus show was going on, the cheering news came that Justice Opeyemi Oke of the Lagos High Court in a landmark judgment, had asked the Navy and Air Vice-Marshall Arogundade to pay N100m to the young lady they assaulted sometime last year. When I read the details of the judgment, my rage significantly melted.

The wisdom of God in the Holy Scriptures encourages us to write the vision and make it so clear and legible that a man who reads it can run with it. I have always held the view that our leaders need to show us what the Nigerian vision is. What makes a Nigerian apart from birthplace? Like the American dream is to the American, what exactly is our defined national ethos? No matter what happens anyway, we must keep hoping and praying that Nigeria will one day become victorious over her oppressors! And the people say...Amen!

With people like Justice Oke in the judiciary, we need to keep the dream of a better Nigeria alive. This brings me to the essence of the discourse today.

Tony was the son of a poor horse trainer. During his senior year in secondary school, he was assigned a writing project to describe what he wanted to be when he grew up.  Exerting all his imaginative capacity, he wrote a seven-page essay in which he gave minute details of the 200-acre ranch he wanted to own.  It included a diagram of the ranch, an expansive campground and a detailed floor plan of his 4,000 square foot home on the ranch. Even the furnishings were not left out of the picture.

Despite the passion and effort Tony put into his paper, he received it back with a large "F" written on it and a note to see the teacher after class.  The teacher told Tony that the reason he had given him that grade was because his paper was unrealistic.  He went on to cite all of the reasons why, and told Tony that if he would rewrite the paper with a more realistic goal, he would reconsider the grade.

After considering it for a week, the young man turned in the same paper with no changes, along with the remark, "Sir, you can keep the F and I’ll keep my dream."

A couple of years later, the teacher had to take many students of the same school on an excursion and one of the places they had to visit and even camp at for the summer was a 200-acre ranch with a 4,000 square foot dream home. They were practically exhausted from touring the grounds before they met the owner who, not even the teacher couldn’t at first recognise. No marks for guessing who the owner was. Of course it was Tony, his student who had kept his dream and had gone on to become extremely successful.

If it worked for the son of a poor horse trainer it, will work for you.

The principle is simple:
1. create a dream that is so big that it will keep you excited,
2. define the dream in minute detail,
3. live in the dream so that it becomes real to you on the inside,
4. hold on to it so tightly that no one can take it away from you.

Can we all do this about ourselves and our great country Nigeria? In his book As A Man Thinketh, James Allen has this to say,
"Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil. Cherish your visions; cherish your ideals...for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment. Of these, if you remain true to them, your world will at last be built."

But never forget Tony’s wisdom, "You can keep the F and I’ll keep my dream."

Think about that.

Remember the sky is not your limit, God is!