The affirmation by Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State that Mercy
Chinwo, the conqueror of the Nigerian Idol season 2, should anticipate the
state government’s support towards her education and music career, is a
hope given in good faith that must be lauded.
In his eulogies, Amaechi said that Chinwo is a good ambassador of the
state, when she paid him a polite visit at the government house in Port
Harcourt recently. His advise that she should not find any middle-ground on
her education or have a swollen-head because of her win, is rationally. And
Chinwo’s expression of gratitude to the government and people of Rivers
State for being their sister’s keeper during the competition, is
praiseworthy.
Now that we have seen that Chinwo emerged the winner of the Nigerian Idol
2012, it should remind us of the many people in the state who also have
talents that have not been harnessed, not because they don’t want, but
because they are financially incapacitated to do so, and there are dearth
of platforms where their talents could be explored. Feedback mechanism from
any government when a citizen wins in a renowned competition is good, but
would have been better if the citizens can earnestly boast of government’s
owned competitions where they have to go and showcase their talents and
hence have support from the government to further their career whether they
won or not, after all, not every winner in a competition would be a success
by tomorrow, and winners are always not the best.
Such initiative, if instituted by the government, would re-structure the
mindset of the people, and they wouldn’t develop High Blood Pressure (HBP),
while thinking the way forward to their talents and how to bring them to
limelight, and make them go beyond the despair of not knowing what to do,
they will have a clear report of where they are and a business plan
concerning where they are going. Mercy Chinwo’s explanation that her
success demonstrates that Rivers youths are blessed with enormous talents
and prospective, should spur the government to begin now to harvest these
talents; even though that the government has been doing its best to train
people in education abroad, we still need moral talents to be developed,
just as are done to technical education.
The government should always do its part to better the lots of the citizens
and shun any iota of promise and fail, just as Chinwo has called on youths
to shun violence and pursue their goals. It is erroneous for anyone to
support people with talents selflessly. This will provide a training ground
and a ground for residence. Money should be released for the rehabilitation
and renovation of the talented people and the cultures. People should be
trained for leadership skills and talents acquisition. Let funds be
deployed and assistance rendered to establish them to own their individual
businesses.
Despite the dazzling performance by Governor Amaechi in many sectors of the
economy, the deplorable condition of most talented people have caused
untold hardship to even the non-indigenes in the state with talents that
would also have been good ambassadors of Rivers State if supported. The
Nigerian Government supported Amnesty, why can’t talents be supported?
We wish Amaechi the best.
