Title: IF YOU REALLY LOVE BOOKS, YOU WILL HAVE COMPLETE SUCCESS.
By  OGOCHUKWU PROMISE
May 27, 2008 (At the NLNG event, Dowen College, Lagos, Nigeria.)

Good morning, distinguished ladies, gentlemen and our dearest children.

I feel very honoured to be here among you today. Being in the midst of children, having the opportunity to watch you listen keenly, to agregate with the inner eyes and appreciate your tapped and untapped talents, the awesomeness of the potential you bear is indeed a privilege.

When the Nigeria LNG asked if I could be here on Children’s day, I knew it would be a pleasure because, having worked with children in a number of projects over the years, I knew that being in the presence of children has always been a major blessing to me.  It will be my delight if at the end of this little interraction between us today, you will sincerely consider our encounter fruitful.

I am very happy that we are talking about the good old books today. I want us to talk about it in a manner that will benefit all of us. I love books and I believe you all do, otherwise, you won’t be here today. Books are precious. From all I have seen in the world, books come close to being the most priceless possession anyone could have. For me, the reasons are innumerable, but I am just going to give you a few of them that are very private:

I am an only child. I grew up in a quiet home of three where my mother did all the talking because my father has always been taciturn. But when he speaks, wisdom rolls out of his tongue. My mother’s voice is melliflous, like that of a guinea fowl. It always produces a beautiful sound. But she was not always at home to enliven the house with the music of her voice. She had to be at work and so did my father. Often, I was home alone. What kept me company were books. The more books I read, the more my parents bought for me.  We did not have a library then. The television sets then were not as posh as what you now have with the flat screen and all that glamour. I presured my parents into setting up a library at home. Once that was done, my father filled every shelf with books. I read about The Human Being, about the many shades of life that abound. I read about control, about positive energies, about love and its transmogrifications and the theatrics of daily living.

Chinue Achebe, Flora Nwapa, Ama Ata Aido, Shakespeare, those awesome Sages, shared their wisdom with me through their books. I learnt about good and bad friendship, about the pains of betrayal, about trust and the consequences of its misplacement. I learnt about the banalities of life, of greed and the foolishness of illicit sex. From Toni Morison, James Baldwin, Ola Rotimi, Zulu Sofola, Femi Osofisan, Wole Soyinka, Sutherland and a host of other beautiful writers, I saw the need to fight for justice, to live not only for myself but for others. I knew that I was becoming wise by the day. Oh, those books and their authors transfered so much wisdom to me.   

I read about places I had never been to, people I did not know, things that happened to people all over the world and what they did about them. Books offered me the opportunity to experience a lot through the experiences of other people, to compare opinions and make the best decisions in varied circumstances. Books illustrated the difference between reacting to things and responding to them. When I react I am not quite in control. But when I respond, I’ve got the world at my feet. Books taught me how to be the master of my sensory organs, how to be in charge of my life. Books enboldened me, reassured me, drove away my fears and filled me with unrelenting courage and the awareness of the immense possibilities stored up in me. Books gave me innumerable examples of life: the good, the bad, the ugly. I learnt a lot through those who have done great things before, and done them again and again. Books taught me to be myself. I learnt many years ago that I can discover who I am, by taking time to look inwardly, that I can determin where I want to be, that I can become who I want to be.

It was Jacklin Powel, the author of “Who do you want to be?” that spoke to me one rainy night there in my little bedroom at home  in 1979. I had said my night prayer and was reading as I usually did before falling asleep. And there popped out, the most beautiful words I have ever heard. They simply lept out of the book I was reading and flew to my heart. They were just two words, but quite pronounced, very loud. I am sure if I had not done anything about them, they would still be yelling in my ears till now. Here are the words: DREAM! ACHIEVE!  These words crept into my pillow that Sunday night and didn’t let me sleep until I had asked HOW! There also, the answer was in the book. As I read on, I realised that I had to CREATE my own path, MAP OUT MY OWN ROUTES and learn from the mistakes of others. That I have to know what I want,  create my own identity, doggedly follow my dreams through, refusing to quit and going on  and on, rising with positive attitude when I slip. I realised that I need to have calm disposition as well as exciting, but resilient spirit.

I tell you, in that little room of mine that night, with books as my companion, and the wise authors as my friends, I began to ask myself questions and answer them. I began to tell myself what I wanted and how to go about getting them. I made a promise to myself, to use all the talents I find in me to better myself and others.

I no longer saw things as being difficult, I saw them as challenges I had to stand up to. I knew I had to have courage even to call myself by my name, Promise. And I realised that no matter what I achieve, if no one benefits from it, then I really haven’t done anything.