Disneyland aptly described as a place where a million dreams come true, reflects the capacity of the  human brain to bring dreams to life. It is a testament of the limitless capacity of the human brain. Like the Islamic injunction that every Muslim with means and good health should visit the holy places of Saudi Arabia, parents who have the means should take their toddlers to visit Disneyland at least once in a lifetime. Any investment in that journey would be repaid by the children in future.

As an adult, I did the tour of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai a few years ago. Seeing Dubai from the top of the 163 floors building is awesome but it was not that experience that hit me. It was seeing picture of Mohammed Alabbar the founder and Chairman of Emaar properties, and the ordinariness of his look. An ordinary man with big dreams. I looked with awe at the picture of a man who dared to dream of building the tallest building in the world at a time when the economy of Dubai was in turmoil. What he did was like cultivating and planting seeds on acres of unirrigated land in the midst of a drought. It took more than faith to believe that the heavens would open up to shower the land. Today the world behinds a tower 163 floors into the skies and standing taller above any other building in the world. The Burj Khalifa, like it’s host city, is another manifestation of the human capacity to think and bring dreams to life.

I am so very sure that when Walt Disney, Sheikh Zayed (the architect of modern Dubai) and Mohammed Alabbar shared their lofty dreams with people at the onset, a few may have sneered at their dreams as outlandish. Today such dream killers would be looking back with shame at the foolishness of their own self limiting thoughts. While it is a credit to these great men that they were never discouraged by the criticisms of naysayers.

Dreamers should be careful of who they associate with or who share their dreams with. If a young Walt Disney was from Akwa Ibom State and had shared his dreams of Disney world, he would have been named a witch and stoned to death. Thank God he is from where he was born, we may never have seen the reality of the what is today the dream haven of every child.

Coming back home I marvel at the habit of Lilliputians whose stock in trade is to sneer at the lofty dreams of others. If you don’t sleep well enough to dream dreams, why not keep your malady to yourself and allow those who nurture lofty dreams to bring their dreams to life. What beats my imagination is why it should be anyone’s problem that another man dared to dream. After all every man is at liberty to do whatever he likes with his sleep. If I choose to dream dreams and you choose to have nightmares, it is our individual choices. If I espouse my vision and you don’t share that vision, feel free to nurture yours. Like a popular Yoruba saying, there are many ways to access a market. If the highway is too broad for your trade feel free to access the market from the side street.

Let me end this note with a shout out to all young boys and girls from the  backwoods of Akoko who nurture very big dreams. I will name a few of you as points of contact, Francis Adeosun, Oluwapelumi Aduragbemi, Femi Oyewole and Gani Ajagunna, the future belongs to you guys. Never ever stop dreaming and don’t jet the jest of dream killers mute your dreams. The world in which Sheikh Zayed grew up is similar to yours, yet he dreamt and brought to life a city that is reminiscent of what sci-fi script writers imagine. Closer to home, you can all  imagine that Ikeja, Bariga, Oshodi, Ilupeju, Iju, Ishaga, Ipaja were not too long ago mere villages that are close to Lagos. Today these former backwoods are all parts of one sprawling city. I know that AKoko shall one day become just one sprawling city and it would take the dreams and toils of young people like you to make it happen.