I’m glad to be MAD. MAD = Making A Difference.

I’m proud to be associated with the company of MAD men in the likes of William Wilberforce, the 18th Century British Abolitionist and Politician who fought tooth and nail to see the end of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade. His great words at the British Parliament still lives on several centuries after his life. Hear him, “They charge me with fanaticism. If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large”.
Young Wilberforce, an Evangelical Christian, saw slavery as a Sin against God and Man. Many of his contemporaries did not see eye to eye with him as regards the same issue. His passion and the relentless fight with his fellow abolitionists was a great catalyst to the final Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in 1888.
Friends, sometimes people may not understand you or identify with your passion but Keep Hope Alive!
Marshall, Barry J. is another great mind that the society labeled a Lunatic because he dared to think differently and Made A Difference. He truly lived ahead of his generation and still lives. The Australian Medical researcher and physician & his pathologist counterpart, J. Robin Warren, suffered much ridicule and were greatly despised by the Medical Community and their Pharmaceutical counterparts for daring to go against the convention beliefs and literature as regards the aetiology of Peptic Ulcer.
In 1984 Barry Marshall and J. Robin Warren published a paper in the British medical journal the Lancet reporting that peptic ulcers are caused by a bacterium known as Helicobacter pylori, rather than stress, as had been previously believed.
Their report, however, was met with disbelief and ridicule. At the time medical scientists believed bacteria could not survive the gastric acid secretions found in the stomach. The prevailing explanation for ulcers was that psychological stress or anxiety caused the excessive production of gastric acids that inflamed the stomach lining, causing nausea, pain, and sometimes life-threatening internal bleeding. Treatment consisted of a drug to block the secretions, although it provided only temporary relief for patients. The Pharmaceuticals were having a field day with their Antacids.
To prove their findings and melt every doubt, Marshall took the unusual step of experimenting on himself. Establishing through an endoscopy and a biopsy that his stomach did not contain the bacterium, he swallowed a culture containing H. pylori and recorded his symptoms. A follow-up endoscopy and biopsy verified that the bacterium had survived in his stomach. Clinical trials followed, and in 1988, Marshall and Warren published the results of those trials, showing that 90 percent of ulcer patients were cured after a year of treatment.
The two MAD Men shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2005 for their helpful discoveries. They Made A Difference! They were not afraid of going against conventional thought.
The great company of MAD Men includes the likes of Galileo Galilei, the great 16th century Scientist, who invented the very first Astronomical Telescope but was sentenced to House Arrest and subsequently died after much persecution for daring to uphold Copernican Heliocentric theories, Anti-Church as at then, that held that the Earth was not the Centre of the World and that the sun is at rest near the center of the universe, and that the earth, spinning on its axis once daily, revolves annually around the sun like every other planet. Today every Physics & Astronomy textbook, justifies the madness of Galileo and Copernicus
An investigation into the astronomer’s condemnation was opened in 1979 by Pope John Paul II. A papal commission, set up in 1982, produced several scholarly publications related to the trial. In October 1992 the commission acknowledged the error of the church’s officials. In a speech accepting the report John Paul, alluding to Galileo’s views on scripture and science, said that Galileo, “a sincere believer, showed himself to be more perceptive in this regard than the theologians who opposed him.”
MAD men are not afraid to uphold the truth. They are agents of change and are harbingers of a New Dimension and the message of Transformation. They are neither always politically Correct (PC) nor popular with their opinions. They might suffer persecution and even be crucified but over time the Truth shines out and remains irrefutable, even when they are long gone.
Following trend of events and the prevailing circumstances in Nigeria in the past half-century, following our Independence as a nation, an average hard-nosed, cold-eye but smart analyst will tell you that it’s unrealistic to have any hope that Nigeria will once more be a great place to be in.
He will quickly conclude that it will be impossible to ever have a Corruption free society where things are done by MERIT & INTEGRITY, where Leaders led with HONOR having the interest of their followers at heart and Followers followed actively, neither sabotaging the efforts of the leaders nor remaining DORMANT and DOCILE in the face of Irresponsible and Visionless Leadership.
It might appear unrealistic and even MAD, to think there’s any hope for this nation, but young people let’s continue to Make A Difference. Let’s contribute in our own small ways knowing full well that Nigeria is our only country and we are not in a hurry to get another. Hope can work wonders when mixed with MAD action.
Don’t be afraid to be MAD. Make A Difference and Keep Hope Alive!
Egwim Ndubuisi is the President of New Dimension Int’l, a platform via which he reaches out to Youth. He speaks to young Africans on Visionary Leadership and Creative Enterprise in Seminars, Workshops and Conferences. To read his other works, visit http://www.NewDimensionLife.com
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