“Ayo lo ‘n pani” (It is excessive joy that kills)…Yoruba
proverb
Are you okay?
Have you ever been caught
up in an incredible gush of excitement so unbelievably amazing and perhaps out
of control that your adrenaline feels to be in excess, causing you to switch to
an emotional overload mode, and then nothing on the face of the earth seemed to
matter all?
If you have indeed experienced such, then I wonder how you survived
it, because such a condition has caused several lives to be cut short as a
result of too much freedom and care-free attitude that is extremely devoid of
the much needed sobriety which usually strikes a healthy hormonal balance for
harmony of human existence.
I heard a story sometime
ago about a naughty little lad who wanted to test the wisdom of an old sage.
His plan was to catch a bird and hold it in his hands to his back, he would
then ask the old sage what was in his hands, if the old sage got it right he
would then ask if it was alive or dead. If he said it was alive, he would
immediately squeeze life out of the bird, and if he said it was dead, he would triumphantly
unleash the bird to fly, shaming the old sage.
When he actually appeared
before the sage, his plan was going well until he asked if the bird was alive
or dead, the old sage thought for a while looking up into the sky, then he
smiled as he gave an unexpected answer, “my young lad, the answer is in your
hands”.
Apparently, in the wake of
human civilization it has been discovered that majority of human pain and
misfortune arises due to unchecked self-infliction.
Yes we humans are extremely
unique set of mysterious creation, historically saddled with the responsibility
of taking care of this same earth which we constantly expose to environmental
degradation. It is also however affirmative that we are also a peculiar conception
evidently a vital piece of an elaborate web of complex jigsaw of multiple
system of systems that form multiple eco-systems and atoms which all make up
the seemingly sane world that we exist in, with a life full of much potential
which is at our mercy as to how the quality may eventually become
“For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increases
knowledge increases sorrow”…Ecc 1:18
An Awakening
Adaptation is one of the
most powerful keys of the survival of mankind, in the quest or rather with the
rise of the importance for man to stay alive; we humans took the initiative to
swim with the tide by embracing the most constant thing in the world, change.
As the saying goes,
stagnant water stinks, and an unchanged mind breeds reptiles of the mind, by
implication, man has therefore resolved to tap into his fallow reservoir of
genius to out of necessity invent and discover great devices that have helped
support life and amazing theories that have also aided to elevate the existence
of mankind respectively.
As reality and principles
will however have it, where in some possible way that there is a tendency that
we have crossed certain lines and created a turbulence in nature, our
inventions coupled with the need to sustain them to concentrate on the bottom
line regardless of human health and environmental preservation, and our
discoveries with disregard to our spiritual orientation which has the tendency
to disturb many a people’s psychological and cemented beliefs perhaps causes
certain classes of people to become nothing but time bombs ticking away in our midst.
For instance; we know
cars, trains and airplanes were invented for good reasons, yet when they have
accidents they cause lots of casualties and sorrows which destroy families, but
why were guns, bombs, electric chairs, guillotines and swords invented? It is obviously
to take the lives that we cannot create, through wars and all sorts of
conflicts, leaving us soulless.
And about the complicated
and unverified theories by the so-called thinkers that claim that God whispers
directly into their ears, exploiting the vacuum of leadership and the presence
of discernment of direction, causing conflicting beliefs to cause terrorism in
our minds, distorting our concentration from the main issues that require our
attention to make the world a better place.
Sometimes you hit a point where you either change or
self destruct”…Sam Stevens
Our Paradigm
How we view the world is
probably the most important window ever. When we respect the diversity of the
various kinds of people on the face of the earth, we’ll understand that we all
have extremely different ways of perception and comprehension which makes us
less judgmental. We become more tolerant, appreciative of people’s strength and
completing their weaknesses which we all have no matter how strong we seem or
actually are.
It is a new world so to
speak, we can especially call it a jet age, and we evidently are faced with new
challenges such as cyber world / crimes, corruption, terrorism, money
laundering, obesity, hunger, pollution, poor / bad parenting (poor / absent
mentoring), lack of values and content.
In the light of this, many
advocates constantly cry out and protest the need for a better world devoid of
all the diseases that mother earth is riddled with to no avail, yet there is a steady
enthusiasm in view which gives rise for optimism like a light at the tunnel’s
end.
“Sometimes we want what we want even if we know it’s
going to kill us”…Donna Tartt
Intervention
I know you’ve been
expecting this, well…here it comes. Using Nigeria as a case study it is a spot
on fact that if she continues to tread the slippery ground as is trending, it’s
a recipe for total annihilation. Nigeria has a reputation for being so corrupt
that it feels like second nature. There may not be well documented evidences,
but it is not strange for government officials to partner with contractors to over
bloat project costs and by implication cannot adequately monitor the projects
whether it’s is properly executed or even carried out at all, and despite
having made so much money at the expense of the citizenry still go ahead to
loot the treasury without remorse of fear for possible national bankruptcy.
Ironically, the ill-gotten
loots are usually wasted on unnecessary luxury items such as jets, yachts,
over-priced automobiles and jewelry and money laundering for investments
abroad, leaving Nigerian citizens that need the monies for improvement of their
lives to suffer.
Another instance and proof
is the impunity which is so obvious for the world to see is the massive
corruption, poor planning and implementation of vital projects, lack of content
and presence of character assassination programs against the opposition party
especially during the last election that became a free for all in the Goodluck
administration which made the citizens to give up hope as to if Nigeria can
ever get her groove back.
This development however
became instrumental in the turn of events at the March 28, 2015 polls in
Nigeria, making history for being the first time ever in Nigeria for an
opposition to take over power from an incumbent government. Now that General
Mohammed Buhari (Rtd) who was military head of state in 1983, and having a
reputation for fighting corruption, has emerged President-elect, the
expectation for an immediate change has so filled the air that you can feel it.
“Nigerians are making a big mistake if they are
expecting GMB to turn stone to bread, of course he can try, but we have to
change our attitudes in order to complement his efforts”…Ayo Ayembola
(Political Analyst)
See why it is not good to
use negative words to attack ourselves? Constant misconceptions,
misrepresentations, deceits and character assassination has really born a dent
of hate in the minds of many, so much that in our minds we have seized to truly
love ourselves so much to be united at all cost.
It gets better though, the
mismanagement of Nigerian resources such as NEPA, NITEL, NPA, NEPA, NSL,
Nigerian Airways etc extended to making the three Nigerian refineries moribund.
This has caused Nigeria to descend so low to importation of the fuel that we
might a s well export fuel instead if we did the right thing without ulterior
motives.
The continuous rot in the
system which lingered long enough to naturally breed a cartel powerful enough
to enrich themselves and hold the country to ransom by creating artificial
scarcity intermittently lives up to its bidding, almost grinding Nigeria to a
halt weeks to the handover of power on May 29, 2015 Nigeria’s official
democracy day, even CNN announced that Nigeria was shutting down.
So is Nigeria on the brink
of collapse or total destruction? Well, I used to be an incurable optimist, but
now I resolve to simply be realistic, using principle centeredness as a yardstick
to project and predict how our trajectory would go as it is absolutely
important to have a plan.
So like the old sage said
to the naughty little lad, “…the answer is in your hands”
Thank you.
Akin Abimbola (akinzogee@gmail.com)
Sources:
Google
Wikipedia
Goodreads
Brainyquote
CNN
