A Message To All Girls: How To Remove Constraints To Personal Growth

Whatever you want to be, you can be. It might sound like a cliché but it is real… I am motivated to believe that I can change the world… Each time I try to remember when I was like you, I say to myself, it is amazing- if I knew that all of those dreams could just come to pass, maybe I should have dreamt more. This is your moment. Everything that says to you, ‘I cannot push myself, I cannot accomplish it, I cannot become,’ say to it ‘shut up! I can!’ Meaning that for you to make that decision, you are making a choice. Every choice involves an opportunity cost… If you are making a choice for greatness you have to work for greatness. You dare not be a part of a society that function on ignoble ease. So the girl-child wakes up and says, ‘you know what, if they think that hard-work is going to be the basis of accomplishing this thing, I even more so! I am just going to work so hard that nobody will look me in the eyes and say she did not give her best.’” Dr Oby Ezekwesili, Senior Economic Adviser for Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative at Open Society Foundation, while speaking during a one day programme organized by United States Consulate General Public Affairs Section to mark this year’s day of the girl-child.