So I had to stop my friend’s whining some time back when he was complaining how much is spent in prize money on beauty pageants and such shows as BBN as against the rewards and prizes given for the best mathematics students and on shows like the annual science quiz competitions, across the country.
I made him understand that though I don’t watch BBN or any such programs, the Kardashians will get more attention, around the world, than the men who built and deployed Mars rovers Sojourner, Curiosity, or Perseverance; It is simply what it is.
Other than just whining and disturbing our beer session, and since he feels so strongly about this matter, I advised him to start a reward system for those things he feels strongly about. I remember I told him it doesn’t matter how small.
Well, as with all whiners, and I used to be one, he hasn’t done anything about it since then.
This is why today I want to celebrate a man who has not chosen the well-worn path of complaining about the dearth of intellectual contents in Nigeria and on cyberspace but has decided to discover and perhaps help develop young writers in Nigeria in his own little way.
For about a year now, Chinemelu Nwokike Odogwu Cmoni, Ireland-based businessman, politician, and social media influencer has sponsored an essay competition, weekly, on his online platform cmonionline.com for young Nigerians who want to showcase or hone their writing skills. He was able to gather a wide network of friends to serve as judges and this has exposed these young lads to many different established writers and publishing outfits across the world.
Every passing week, we are regaled with contemporary prose from young enthusiastic upcoming writers. Besides the flowery words and metaphors, we are also given a window to look in and see how the minds of the next generation leaders would probably function.
I don’t think the young writers are in it for the prize monies, but it goes a long way to show how committed this man is to this project.
What I think is that in the stead of all these complaints that I see on Facebook and Twitter, ad nauseam, about the morality, or the reverse of it, of BBN, etc, people should begin to do the ones they can if the societal decay matters that much to them. If you cannot start one of your own and you’re not out to seek vainglory, log on to cmonioline.com and see if you can boost what this young man is already committing to writing development among the young ones.
Thanks in advance and may God bless us as we do our part to improve our society.
Tony Alika-Igwebuike whose good work has been published here can be reached via his Facebook page.
