The greatest challenge among men, the Church especially in Africa, and Nigeria in particular is the non-realisation that God at inception had already empowered the man through the mandate issued in Genesis 1 verses 26 to 28.
The mandate was actually a command and commands are not meant to be queried or repudiated. That is, “Dominate, subdue, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. Interestingly, while Europe, America, and other continents of the World had keyed into this mandate and acted on it, enjoyed its benefits, and continue to enjoy its dividends, the African continent has not. Rather, there are still gasping, groping, earnest yearnings for a release of what others had long assessed, even to the detriment of the continent and her people.
The mandate given to man covers all facets of life in the form of potential deposits inherent in human beings or natural deposits all over the earth. It is also atmospheric, aquatic, and terrestrial. In all areas of existence, you can find scattered everywhere various elements for empowerment. Just awaiting utilisation by African men.
Regrettably, through ignorance, misinformation, and also through inability to utilise it, men have continually searched in fruitless perpetuity for what has been freely given: a case of, searching or looking for what you have inside your sokoto-pocket in Sokoto as we say in Nigerian parlance.
The worst in life is not to have possession, but to have valuable possession without knowing it. Consequently, over the years and through all ages, there have been several aborted dreams and unrealised ambitions.
A cursory analysis by the United Nations Refugee Agency reported that about 3,000 refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers died or went missing in 2022 while trying to reach Europe through the Mediterranean and Atlantic Sea routes. The report further stated that this record is exclusive of those that went missing through the deserts. Quite pathetic deaths of innocent, naive young men earnestly searching for what they possessed, something within them, and all their own environment in other climes; a scenario one Indian excitedly described some years ago as, “money everywhere in Nigeria.”
This is akin to the story of the young man in the book, “Acres of Diamonds” by Russell Cornwell, who sold the land and all that he inherited from his parents, and departed in search of mineral deposits in another state.
Sadly, for him, he never discovered any, while luckily for the new owner, after some time discovered that the entire acres had diamonds underneath, exactly the same natural resources the young man sold everything in search of. Invariably, underneath the house, where the young man played as a child and grew up as a youth, and later as an adult was filled with diamonds. Yet, he did not know it! He sold all his possessions and travelled to a faraway land in search of what he initially possessed. What an irony! What an incomprehensible contradiction.
From the foregoing, efforts shall be made to reveal to men that they have already been empowered, areas of empowerment, how to tap into same, and also how to make a global impact. Empowerment is authority or power given to someone to act or do something. It is also the process of becoming ‘stronger’ or more ‘confident’ especially in controlling one’s life, re-engineering society, and controlling the environment, credit to Google.
However, I define empowerment as the ability to know or discover what you possess, and its appropriation and deployment for your own benefit and that of others around you. It equally means the ability and power to claim what you have right over.
In the same vein, for the purpose of this discourse, impact means to come into forcible contact with another object. To crash into or smash into or collide with. And l see it as the ability to strike with a bang into something. Or to have a strong effect on someone or something.
From the foregoing, impact simply means influence or effect on whatever you do – your life, business, work, actions or inactions that affect others around you heavily. And quite noticeable too! In Genesis Chapter One Verse 28, “God blessed them, and God, said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over everything upon earth.”
Empowerment starts with the realisation that man is blessed. And that whatever happens to him, his environment or future lies in his hands. Realisation then implies knowing that you truly know, and for others around to know and attest to the truism that you know. This includes the knowledge, or information man possesses about his environment and what he does with it.
For instance, according to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme, Africa has very rich natural resources inclusive of arable lands, water, oil, natural gas, minerals, forests, and wildlife. The continent is a depository of a very large proportion of the World’s natural resources, both renewables and non-renewables.
These deposits account for 30 percent of the World’s mineral reserves, eight percent of the world’s natural gas and 12 percent of the World’s oil reserves; and 40 percent of the World’s gold, chromium, and platinum up to 90 percent. The same for diamonds, cobalt, and uranium in very large reserves. Also, 65 percent of the World’s arable land and 10 percent of the planet’s internal renewable freshwater sources are found in the African Continent.
On the other hand, Nigeria according to the School Drillers’ Report, has 40 different types of minerals. Now the question: Is it not an incomprehensible contradiction that before the arrival of Western adventurer corporations turned colonialists and neo-colonialists, Africans, Nigerians then, inclusive of those currently ceased by the ‘Jappa’ syndrome were unaware of the excess sources of empowerment deposits?
This can only be explained with a story of a man who bought a ticket and travelled with a steamboat to the United Kingdom in the Eighteenth century and was unaware that his ticket contained his breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea, as well as, an opportunity to drink any brand of drinks at the bar. Ignorantly, he stayed in his cabin for the duration of the voyage. Unfortunately, when his meagre food got exhausted, he remained inside his cabin alone, hungry, and fast as it were!