Thank you Blessing Okagbare

In writing this small piece, I ruminate over 2 very touching quotes of great people in the past:

I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one's business on earth, like the male spider, who is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in his courtship. I like a state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom. ~ George S. Patton

The reason why I love quoting Bernard Shaw is for the simple fact that a Literatue Giant has no business establishing a Globally recongnised School of Economics for the fact that they live in a world that is probably too fictional and withdrawn from reality to fully grasp the data based theories of the world of economics BUT not for the humble English playwright Mr Shaw.

 

From the quote above , Its clear that no human being alive has a right to give up on their ambitions, hope and aspirations irrespective of how much glory they have attained or for how long they have sustained it. Blessing Okagbare made every Nigerian and every African proud yesterday. She was dominant from beginning to end and what makes it more interesting was the way she humbled the Jamaican giants Stewart and Campbell to clinch the 100m and 200m Athletics gold medal in the on-going Commonwealth games Glasgow 2014.

Here is a lady who many Nigerians justifiably hissed in agony when she came 7th in the London 2012 olympics after showing so much promise in the heats and semi finals of same competition. The same jamaicans all performed better than her in that competition. Now she is head and shoulder ahead of them and very rightly so.

 

In life, I have learnt never to stop dreaming and never to stop winning for therein is the essence of life itself...Even the bible says ''I wish above all things that you will prosper, evern as your soul prospereth".

 

Blessing has done very well but she is a half baked Legend still in the hands of the goldsmith, I hope she keeps training harder and getting better till when the refined gold is set before the world to see come Olympics in Rio 2016 and beyond.

 

Having said this I come to the crux of the matter,

• Special thanks to you Blessing for making all of us Nigerians very proud. Ten Gbosa for you.
• Special thanks to Gov. Uduaghan for investing in Blessing Okagbare & sponsoring her training programmes. For all the support you have given to Blessing, the world has a reason to celebrate her today.
• Special thanks to all her primary school teachers who saw her physique as an asset rather than a liability and by so doing gave birth to the champion she is today. I wish I could name all of you one by one on this column.

God Bless Nigeria!

Joseph Onuorah (Deme Deme na Orumba)

Twitter: @JosephOnuorah