AND THE WINNER IS...

“I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.”…Vince Lombardi

Winning: Hobby or Character

Naturally, it is everyone’s ultimate desire to win, especially in any competitive contest whatsoever, whether good or bad. Basically that is what the world is all about, we are all virtually running a race and a lot of significance is attributed to whoever comes out victorious.

From time immemorial, the normal instinct of every living thing is not only to survive, but to also dominate, thus win. Winning therefore is a point of focus which inspires, motivates and keeps one’s eyes on a golden centre of attraction and a critical goal whose achievement births processes of ripple effects capable of reverberating change perhaps to all of humanity, eternally.

There however is always a much bigger picture which surrounds the very relative term called winning. I grew up under strict circumstances when only the first person to succeed in any contest mattered, the second person in any competition didn't quite ring a bell, except you want to consider him who to watch out for next, due to his exhibited threat, allies and potential.  

“Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself.”…Paul Bryant

Stereotypes

Just as dogs and swine snoop around, the world is full of inquisitive people that earnestly and constantly look for direction as only a few percentage of the world population actually possess leadership potential. The world has taken a natural form of ordinariness so much that any attempt for man to achieve by changing his orientation and unlearning his mediocrity takes a lot of discipline and pain.

Nigeria has been plagued by indiscipline and so much carefree attitude, arming us with reputation of greed and corruption, looting our treasuries without care for the next generation. Not minding if there was a future or not, this has gone on for as long as we can remember, so much that we are bewildered as to what the right thing truly is, without an imperative ounce of sobriety.

“First, accept sadness. Realize that without losing, winning isn't so great.”…Alyssa Milano

The Awakening

It is indeed a whole new world, a world that has moved through series of transitions of world power, a world that has made awesome discoveries and inventions that has revolutionized the lives of susceptible humans in this vulnerable earth, a world yet to be fully explored and conquered to unleash unto man her precious treasures, a world with unmatched potentials and infinite possibilities, it is a whole new world that we have yet to comprehend at all.

Despite the fact that we do realize that we have a long way to go and also have multiple hurdles to cross, in this present age, information travels at the speed of light, we have never felt more insecure about the future, we have never been more experimental with precious lives, and we have never felt more guilty for our advent to war and pre-knowledge of terrorism which has ended innocent souls but for our own greed and feigned pity, they are very obviously self inflicted for the sake of the bottom line.

This creates holes in our world class speeches that claim to clamour for world peace, sought to be achieved through war.

“Every soldier must know, before he goes into battle he is to fight fits into the larger picture, and how the success of his fighting will influence the battle as a whole.”…Bernard Montgomery

 

Victors and Vanquished

Have you ever driven a car in Lagos? To do that you really have to be a good driver, then you have to assume that you are the only sane driver, thus being patient, else you’ll lose your cool, become psychologically wary, emotionally bankrupt and become the beast you never knew ever existed, because some random person might eventually crash your car, only for you to realize that he has no insurance, no drivers’ license, no courtesy, no regret, no remorse, no skill and no patience that could have saved the situation in the first place. And by the way where was he even rushing to? You’d realize how unimportant it is after you are both delayed in the middle of the road, haggling.

“There’s always the motivation of wanting to win. Everybody has that. But a champion needs, in his attitude, a motivation above and beyond winning.”…Pat Riley

At the end of the Nigerian civil war in 1970, General Gowon who was the Head of State at the time opened our eyes to the bigger picture of winning by making the most memorable, inclusive, forgiving and uniting speech that helped Nigeria stay as one till this day, the highlight of the said speech was that “No victor, no vanquished”, implying that nobody won, and neither did anyone lose in the war.

On March 28 2015, Nigerians went to the polls to make their choice of president that they want to rule them for the next four years. The main contenders that were predicted to be tightly contested are the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, and main opposition and former Head of state General Buhari.

During the period of campaigns, the polity heated up between the camps of both parties so much that it generated into condescending and hate speeches, slogans and snap chats. Several allegations arose ranging from character assassination to libel, rumours and unfounded statements claimed to be untrue.

These acts attracted so much international attention that the international community had to commit Nigeria to several peace pacts.

“A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it.”…Frederick Douglas

Eventually at the polls, a record was however broken, it is the first time ever that an opposition would defeat an incumbent government in Nigeria. A school of thought also explains that this is the first time that a true reflection of the minds of Nigerians would be registered at the polls, perhaps due to the introduction of the new card-reader technology.

In addition to this, another possible reason for the loss of the incumbent government is due to the perceived lack of firmness of the president to take charge of the terrorism escalation which has caused loss of thousands of lives and constant allegation of unchecked corruption.

“It takes a lot of people to make a winning team. Everybody’s contribution is important.”…Gary Golberg

And the winner is…

The credibility of the election could not be questioned due to the transparency displayed by none other person than the chairman of the Nigerian electoral body, Professor Jega. He, together with his team of intellectuals comprising Vice Chancellors of various Universities painstakingly did a great job of monitoring and collating the results of the election.

Surprisingly, before the final results were announced, in a rare and unexpected show of maturity and sportsmanship, the incumbent President, Goodluck Jonathan perhaps after seeing and weighing the possible outcome, contacted and congratulated General Buhari on his victory at the polls.

This singular act went a long way in replicating General Gowon’s act of 1970, further uniting the country and deviating our intentions from impending war and violence, and finally the results were announced in such a glorious way, a sentence everybody hung unto as if their lives depended upon it, and the winner is…Nigeria.

Thank you.

Akin Abimbola (akinzogee@gmail.com)

Sources:

Google

Brainy Quote

Goodreads

Wikipedia

BBC

The Punch

Yahoo

The Black Past