A LETTER OF ENCOURAGEMENT TO CHIEF FEMI FANI-KAYODE. by Ayanlola Ayanyimika (2009) 

Dear Sir,
I write to you as a brother, a son, a friend, and most especially a Nigerian youth.
I know about you that you’ve got greatness within you, you have the ability to do things that you can’t even begin to Imagine, you have got talents and skills that you haven’t even begin to reach out for. From Jack Nicholson’s letter, to NDUKU an African boy that he adopted: Nduku, when you die and everyone you know dies, unless you do something significant with your life, it will be as if you were never born.

These are times that we must do more than just talk, than just react in rage and the thirst for revenge, the wiliness to throw the next stone, this are time when we must do more than ask just question as if someone an give us an answer that would make us say; Oh, now I understand. These are times we must be more, do more to break this cycles of so many young people that are filled with anger, bitterness, despair and hopelessness. Our people no longer value their life’s and as a result, they don’t value anybody’s life, what is it that we can do as we begin to look at the news and our extreme situations.

We cant just afford to fold our arms and react by living in fear and cage ourselves and just talk about how bad things are thus, begin to constrict where we go and what we do and how we live, this is the time we have to be encouraged, times we have to become empowered to a sense to say, I can make a difference, I can make a positive impact, making a conscious deliberately determined effort to be positive, these are just some of the loops you’ve got to flip through. Our problem is created by people and it could be solved by people.

As you get on the track to run for the governorship position of Osun state, find those reasons that would empower you.

Why is it that you desire your goal, what are the reasons that you wont give up when life catches you on the blind side, when the messenger of misery visits you, what are you going to do, what will keep you in the game when life knocks you to the canvas?

The booster doulas that fought in the last fight is not the same one that fought Tyson. The Booster Douglas that fought Tyson had just gotten out of alcohol recovery centre, his mother had just died, his wife was ill with a terminable illness, he was considered within a bum, so when I got knocked down he had all reason to get back up because he said, he was dedicating the fight to the memory of his mother.
You’ve got to find some reasons to make you strong, reason that would make you hang in the game when time gets rough, because they re going to get rough, its going to be very challenging. Whenever we decide to grow, to go to another lever, or Vibration, all hell will break loose, everything and anything that can happen at the most possible moment will. It’s called Morphemes’ law

I’m sure you re already experience some of these turbulence, don’t be frightened by that, you just have to fasten your spiritual, psychological and mental belt because it’s an expected experience before you reach a comfortable altitude. During down moments you put it in your heart, and, that’s when you discover who you really are.

Hellooooooooo, Life is going to knock you down, people disappoint you, and that’s going to happen, when people betray you, when they lie to you and that’s going to happen, when they say, oh you can count on me and they wont show up, when you want to throw in the towel and give up, and that’s going to happen, when life collapses on you and catches you on the blind side, and you drop on you knees and it starts chocking you and you are just about denying all your dreams.

What are the reasons that you can remember that you can call on, reach on, that can make you get back up… find that reason.

When life knocks me down, I remind myself, I’m doing this because I want to make my father proud of me, I’m doing this because I want my children to have a better life than what I had, I’m doing this because all my life I’ve been told I’m a loser and that I wont make it, I’m doing this because I want to make then a liar. I believe like Frank Tuner that; the best revenge in life is massive success; I’m doing this because I want to be massively successful. And with that kind of courage, affirmation a reason to empower me, it gets me right back in my feet.

So, when you run out of money, when things don’t work out for you’ve proposed, when things happen that you don’t anticipate, what is that reason that you can think of, that can keep you strong, keep you in the game, that would be your rod and staff to comfort you, that would be your bridge over troubled waters?

Niche says; if you know the why for living, you can endure almost anyhow.
find that reason, that would make you walk by faith and not by sight, that would make you pursue your dreams, when everybody is against you , don’t believe in you anymore, particularly, people that you re doing it for, people that would benefit from it the most, people that should be number one in the encouragement club but they end up saying you can do it, they become members of the discouragement club, I know what its like, it hurts badly, how people who that you love, look you in the Face and say, FFK, why don’t you try something else, why don’t you give up.

Sir, Find those reasons to become massively successful, We believe in a more successful society, a more reliable leadership, a more sustainable government, a future we can all look forward to, a life we can afford to stake our lives and that of our children, just to see it come true, those cause, which you believe in, PLEASE, don’t give up on us… Lots of people have failed us, but with you we have high hopes because no one rises to low expectations, lay us and future generation a legacy. We so believe in you and the future of our state and our Nation. In this, we will support you. Do make us proud.