Kelvin Doe - Tyranny of Conformity

 Hello my people,

long time no see!! i have to apologize for not being constant.

Work has been a b**ch, and i have had no time to focus on writing any content for now.

During this period of my supposed hibernation, i have been researching and reading alot on  a variety of topics, stories and factors affecting the world, our economy, the national budget etc... (you get ma drift) and have expanded my knowledge bank alot.

I covered Digital Leader: 5 Simple Keys to Success and Influence by Erik Qualman.(a really good read).

So I came across this interesting story on the net about a young man from Sierra Leonne called Kelvin Doe. 

PS: Please read Kelvin's story and read Hanciles article to get a grip on what am writing about.

Kelvin Doe

Most of you have heard of Kelvin Doe, the brilliant Sierra Leonean youth that is causing waves in his country through creative thinking and innovative applications. He was named among the 100 Most Influential Africans (2013): Science & Academia by New African Magazine.

I have been hearing about him for a while now, but it was only today that I took time to research about this young man and hear his Story.

To tell you the truth, I was wowed and inspired. His story is basically a rag to glory story (not rag to riches). This young man has done what most of us born with such background could not do. He thought about something, them implemented it against all odds.

His story has made me so emotional today that I am writing this post; but this is not the main cradle of my post today.

I read an article today written by Oswald Hanciles of the Sierra Leone Concord Times titled The Mystery (and Challenge) of Kelvin Doe ( i highly recommend reading this). 

Oswald Hanciles is an avid follower of Kelvin Doe’s progress and achievements through life. He wrote many things about Kelvin but I want to focus on a particular aspect that his article lit on.

He mentioned a phrase in his article called the “Tyranny of Conformity” and how Kelvin Doe has to eat; to ride on okada…. When he comes back from his numerous international trips where he tells his story.

He also stressed about how he felt Kelvin’s desire and hunger for change and progress, he termed it “burning need for the ‘emancipation’ of Kelvin Doe”.

I have this feeling too. Infact, I feel it everytime, it’s at the front of my mind when I am idle and always at the back of my mind even when I am performing any task or working…I even dream about it most times!!!; I want to feel emancipated from the shackles of my society. 

Many Africans would never understand this as they have not left the shores of their country before for more civilised and controlled environments.

Imagine the feeling; you travel to another country, have a great experience, maybe go to school there, or you’re doing business there, or in the case of Kelvin, you are invited for international conferences to give talks and speeches……..say you spend some time ranging from 3 months to 9 years there……and after all these time you come back home and your country is still the same, you don’t see any visible signs of development or growth, you don’t see any change happening in any sector……..you don’t see lights at your local airport when you’re landing, you don’t see light at home also when you arrive, next morning you have to go to a well to fetch your bathing water………..tell me…won’t you be vexed also…

Won’t you have the overwhelming desire to implement change, won’t you feel an awkward intensity building up in your chest whenever you see a situation and compare the stark difference on how it is handled here at home and abroad……..Of course you will!!!!!!

If you belong to the low class like me and you got an opportunity to go abroad that opened your eyes, you will be vexed when you come home……

Many of the rich that have lived in a comfortable environment both home and abroad would not understand this……… A lot of people will classify it as the fame getting to your head….alot will say you are acting up…but these are the people that have lived by the status quo their whole LIVES and haven’t seen outside the box atall…

I cried when I watched Kelvin’s THNKR video on youtube; at the point where he was sobbing and saying he just wants to be able to take care of his mother and his family…anytime I think about that video, I still have that painful gripping in my heart…..

Most of you reading would be asking…why am I ranting???? Why am I not doing anything to implement change and be innovative like Kelvin?

In all fairness, I am loathe to state this but I have been shackled by the “Tyranny of Conformity” that Hanciles talked about; not only me though….most people are……………..even most of you my avid readers.

The tyranny of conformity is a disease that is affecting Africa as a whole and more importantly my country Nigeria. It is affecting us on every level of life, right from childhood to adulthood…….

I do no presume to know the environment in which Kelvin grew up in or the how his family values and training went but I can concur that it is familiar across many African homes and environments……yet despite all the hardships faced with growing up in the village with little to no electricity, Kelvin began thinking creatively at a young age and started innovative application at the early age of nine!!!!! I am very sad to say this and a lot of people will refute my claims calling for my head if they read this part am about to write, but in Nigeria, Only the Igbos are creative and Only the Yorubas are innovative.

Our country is shackled in the Tyranny of Conformity at EVERY LEVEL, that we kill the potentials and innovative capabilities of soooooo many of our young people ranging from kids to young adolescents to even our youths……

Although I am not statistically right, but with all certainty I can say that less than 20% of Nigerian parent encourage their children to make mistakes and follow their own paths, 60% are steeped in the tyranny of conformity and hold back their kids from realizing their full potentials and 20% just don’t care what their children do…..this category is always filled with the lucky hits.

I am Ijaw by ethnic class and it appalls me daily that my people are not innovative enough….ooh we have creative thinkers…lots of them..….but their flames are always snuffed out by the relic generations of old people called our parents, leaders, lecturers and even mentors.

I grew up in a typical Nigerian home. In my home, the focus of my parents for i and my siblings was always school; read read read they always say; we were never encouraged to learn a life helping skill; never encouraged when we showed potential for something that was not education, never encouraged whenever we showed interest for learning a hobby or nice skill…..i am ashamed to say this but I don’t know how to play one musical instrument and I am almost 25……my zeal and drive was snuffed out when I was young and I lost interest to learn later in life because my early flames were not fanned…

I do not know how to play even one sport without losing a body part (I tried football once and lost a tooth) as I am not efficient at them…….all because whenever I go out to play ball when I was younger, I was always called back home and scolded or punished……..my parents were so afraid to give me the freedom to explore my childhood days so they tried to shackle me to a conformed lifestyle that they thought best……….i was only allowed too go to school and focus on my books, graduate and get a good job……..now am through with all that and now am out in a declining economy with no jobs or low quality jobs, a society entrenched in political melodramas and a government that does not involve youths in any capacity………this is just the tyranny of conformity experienced in my childhood and early teens……..

Now I am a youth, I can only wave my university degree and certifications around looking for a job………I have no supporting skill to fall back on…..no creative hobby to fill my idle times……for god sake, I don’t even know carpentry!!!!

I believe I have been crippled, my huge potential slashed in half by the ideas I was brought up upon’ but I do not blame my parents for it’ I blame society, because their society had conformed them to that method of thinking and thought process, they only followed through and applied such false logics to us………most of us were not allowed to experience the hardships our parents faced while growing up, we were not allowed to feel the pain of failures……failures and experiences that would have moulded us to be creative, innovative and out spoken individuals today………..and now we feel angst and malice towards our society when we are exposed to outside and come back to see that WE HAVE BEEN CHEATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alot of you have even wallowed in self-pity just like me…….always day dreaming about past possibilities and the “what ifs”…….

But what do I do? Do I pass the blame around? Do I keep wallowing in my self-pity? NOOOOOO, I DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT……..the first step is to break out from this steep tyranny of conformity and not make the same mistakes my parents made with me……

Change they always say is the one constant in life…. It may be hard but I implore you to take this step with me to be creative and innovative just like Kelvin by freeing yourself of the shackles of conformity and changing your thought process to involve thoughts of greatness and progressive creativity.

Unburden your heart of all your worries and take this first step with a leap of faith into the unknown…..think creatively and start applying your thoughts physically’ do not be afraid to fail, instead embrace your failures and learn from them just as Kelvin Doe learnt from his…..and lastly build yourself into a well outspoken innovative individual that will help improve and make a visible change in our country in the near future…

Learning about Kelvin and his powerful story has taught me something today and motivated me to write this article to you……..

I want to tell you that this process of self building will not be easy, it may take months for some of you, it may take years for others but the most important virtue to hold on this journey is NOT GIVING UP….DO NOT GIVE UP ATALL!!!!!! Persevere no matter how the situation looks like, because if you give up, if I give up, then our dreams of a better tomorrow, a better Nigeria, a better Africa for our generation and our children’s generation will be for naught. So I humbly implore you to take up the mantle and become the person that you are meant to be.

Thank you a lot Kelvin Doe for this inspiration.

 I end with this lovely quote

May God bless your paths my readers……good night.

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Wishing you a wonderful Thursday ahead and a cheerful weekend.