Courageous People in the Society

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In today’s Civic Education class, We will be discussing Courage. We hope you enjoy the class!

COURAGE

Meaning of Courage

Courage means the state or quality of being brave.  It also means the ability to exercise boldness in carrying out positive activities in the community. Courage is the ability to face danger, difficulty, uncertainty or pain without being overcome by fear or being deflected from a chosen cause of action.

Courage makes a person be fearless and brave to fight for what is right and true.

 

Types of Courage

1. Physical Courage: It is the willingness to exercise or use physical energy to get things done. This is the ability to use physical energy to accomplished a task. For instance, a person who enters into a burning house to rescue a little child is exhibiting physical courage.

2. Moral Courage: It is the ability to choose to do what is right irrespective of pressure to do otherwise. This has to do with doing or saying what is right at all times. It is the type of courage exhibited to defend the truth. It is telling the truth at any cost

Examples

1. 1. 1. 1. If a child owns up for committing a crime. For instance, stealing his teacher’s biro.
         2. A child would be displaying moral courage if he publicly exposes a crime committed and covered up by another person.
2. Spiritual Courage: It is the courage to exhibit one’s spiritual faith and live according to the tenets. It is also a state of obeying the injunction of the holy books. In other words, it has to do with living by one’s religious beliefs. For instance, a preacher going to deliver a message of judgment from God to a ruler in a country.

Attributes of Courageous Persons

Some of the attributes of men and women of courage include:

1. Boldness: This is the state of being fearless. It takes boldness to stand for the truth and fight every form of corruption or injustice in society. For example, Late Dr Tai Solarin in his lifetime was very bold in fighting many government anti-masses policies through his speeches and articles in newspapers, particularly in Sunday Tribune.

2. Bravery: Bravery is the state of being bold and fearless to challenge and oppose negative behaviours in society. Bravery makes a person dare the negative consequences of his/her actions. He rather dies for justice than keeping quiet. A very good example of a man always exhibiting bravery is Gani Fawehinmi. He was known for fighting against injustice, corruption, nepotism in Nigeria. He was a friend of the masses. Many governments in Nigeria particularly the military did their worst to silence him but he would not relent because he was very brave and courageous to call a spade at any time.

3. Commitment: Courageous people are committed, people. They are always ready to give their time, money and talent to fight a just cause. For instance, Prof. Dora Akunyili of NAFDAC committed herself to eradicating fake drugs in Nigeria.  Though nefarious businessmen, including those from her tribe, made efforts to frustrate her yet she was undaunted. She was committed to this great task until she left the office.

4. Endurance: It takes endurance to be courageous. Courageous people are always criticized, fought and misunderstood. Sometimes, they are denied their rights because they are fighting for the truth. They may also be blackmailed yet they keep standing on the truth until they win.
5. Determination: Courageous people never give up fighting for a cause. Men like Adams Oshimohole, Gani Fawehinmi, Late Dr Beko Ransome Kuti and many other social critics in Nigeria have gone to detention on several occasions.  But because of determination to fight corruption and injustice, they refused to be silenced by pains they went through in detention.

6. Diligence: Men of courage are always diligent and hardworking. They always pursue their goals until they are achieved.

Examples of Courageous People in History

1. Moremi of Ife
2. Madam Efunroye Tinubu
3. Bayajida
4. Sarauniya Amina (Queen Amina)
5. Jaja of Opobo

 

• Moremi of Ife

The Ayaba Moremi lived in the 12th century, hailed from Offa, and was married to Oranmiyan, the heir to the king of Ife and founding father of the Yoruba people, Oduduwa. She is said to have been taken as a slave by the Igbo and, due to her beauty and Esimirin’s help, married their ruler as his anointed queen.

Queen Moremi was a courageous queen who is fabled to have contributed to the deliverance of the Yoruba tribe from oppression. At a time in ancient Yoruba land, the people of Ile-Ife people were enslaved by a neighbouring tribe called the Ìgbò (forest) people.

 

• Madam Efunroye Tinubu

Madam Efunroye Tinubu, born Efunporoye Osuntinubu, was a politically significant figure in Nigerian history because of her role as a powerful female aristocrat and slave trader in pre-colonial and colonial Nigeria. She was a major figure in Lagos during the reigns of Obas Adele, Oluwole, Akitoye, and Dosunmu.

Born: 1805, Abeokuta

Died: 1887

 

• Sarauniya Amina (Queen Amina)

known as the warrior queen, Queen Amina of Zaria was the first woman to become the Sarauniya (queen) in a male-dominated society. She expanded the territory of the Hausa people of north Africa to its largest borders in history.

Amina was born in the middle of the sixteenth century CE to King Nikatau, the 22nd ruler of Zazzau, and Queen Bakwa Turunku (r. 1536–c. 1566).

In 1576 when Karama died, Amina, now about 43, became Queen of Zazzau. She used her military prowess to expand the territory of Zazzau to the mouth of the Niger in the south and including Kano and Katsina in the north.

 

• Jaja of Opobo

Born in Umuduruoha Amaigbo in Igboland, he was taken at about the age of twelve as a slave in Bonny by Obua Ajukwu of Oguta, who had come to Bonny to buy slaves, as he was known to make his slaves kings. Jumo Jumofe later took the name “Jaja” for his dealings with the British.

His rise from a slave boy to a decorated King showed Jaja of Opobo was an exceptional leader and businessman. His tenacity and doggedness even in the face of persecution and imprisonment earned him respect, dignity and favour even with his captors.

 

 

We have come to the end of this class. We do hope you enjoyed the class?

Should you have any further question, feel free to ask in the comment section below and trust us to respond as soon as possible.

In our next class, we will be talking about Governance – Nigeria as a Federation. We are very much eager to meet you there.

 

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