“We are what and how we reason; and if we cannot form the whole world, we can at least form our own world…” – Alapa Peters Odugbo
Today, everyone complains that nothing is working well in our country. We blame our governments for every evil including the acts of God. We even accuse them and curse them for all our personal mistakes, ill fates and misfortunes. We have lost hope. Nothing good may come! Some of us had fled the country the moment the slightest opportunity presented itself. So many more are waiting and praying earnestly to find the chance to leave. Some still blame the Whites and attribute our current and unborn problems to them. We push and shift blames from one ethnic group to the other and still think ours isn’t in anyway blameworthy. We say things that are horrible about our leaders and ethnic groups without giving thoughts to how we ourselves fuel and prosper the evil things we daily complain about and accuse them of.
As we turn sixty in two days or so, I call and urge us to reflect on every of our actions, attitudes and mindsets that dampen, sabotage, frustrate and damage every hope for meaningful development and growth. If we cannot set things right even while we are unknown, ordinary but honest and well-meaning citizens, no miracle will happen when we find ourselves entrusted with the authority to turn things for the better. There is then a crucial need to look inwardly and ponder deeply on our roles – be it our actions or inaction that directly or indirectly contribute to the current state of deterioration in our system.
How do you regard true service: do you see it as an opportunity to serve selflessly, committedly and happily or as the right to be worshipped, the chance to exploit people and the resources meant for human and societal development? Do you see those under you whether at home, on the streets, in the market places or at your workplaces as slaves and treat them with such cruelty that transforms them to beasts who in the near future will slaughter human beings to death with glee as if doing a huge service to humanity?
What life do you live that accuses and betrays what you say or preach? Do you force down morsels of hopes through the throats of children – our clichéd future leaders that hardwork and diligence will restore normalcy in our society, while you maltreat your industrious staff or househelps and care much less about their welfare, dreams and ambitions or even about the impact such experience would have on your children in later years? Do you teach unity, tolerance, forgiveness and peace at home or in your religious centres when your relationships and engagements are marked by ethnic, tribal, religious and class barriers? Are you so tight bound and addled by stereotypes even as an educated person? Do you consider any other person other than those of your family, tribe or religion as evil, cynical, opportunistic and as wicked people who will go to any lengths to mislead and exploit others so long as there is something to gain no matter how little?
What influences your votes at the times of elections? Being bribed with a cheap bag of salt, rice or ‘garri’ or a few wretched wads of stolen public funds or being of the same religion, ethic group or region with a candidate regardless of his/her repulsive and hideous past histories in public office? Do you complain bitterly about Mephistophelean regimes and governments but think you are putting your wisdom to best use by sitting at home and refusing to vote each time you have a chance to decide who rules? Do you allow yourself or encourage others to be used at deadly risk to rig elections or snatch and destroy ballot boxes only to be forgotten and remembered once any election approaches? Do you participate in such evils but still rain curses on bandits and hoodlums who seem infinitely committed to killing, maiming and displacing people in targeted regions in the North?
Do you preach, propagate and sponsor violence for religious, political, tribal or geographical advantages? Do you exploit crises and mayhems for personal gains? Do you infringe upon human rights at will – even upon their inalienable freedom of speech and right to a comfortable existence? Do you in the name of serving the people stand for and represent your personal interests and propagate your selfish and evil beliefs and philosophies even at the face of horrendous odds and repercussions? Do you still see silence and doing nothing as the choicest option even when evil strives determinedly to checkmate and obliterate good?
Do you break traffic laws without compunction and without minding if another person’s life is lost as a result of your impatience and callousness? Do you dispose rubbish on the road and in our gutters simply because you think all others do the same? Are you one of those who live in big estates with un-motorable roads because they are waiting for government to fix the roads even in their streets? Do you attend meetings late deliberately and tell lies all through only to end as you began with another prayer? Do you support falsehood in order to have some favour returned in exchange afterwards? Do you employ deception to defraud ignorant worshippers or followers of their time, resources, freedom and confidence?
Do you regard people who agitate for meaningful courses as criminals and those who kill and destroy as saints? Are employments and appointments supposed to be predicated on nepotism or meritocracy? Why are those accused of sponsoring or fostering violence ignored and their accusers, intimidated, silenced, punished, threatened with death and even eliminated? Why is public opinion considered evil and all attempts dedicated at gagging the press and human activists? Why does the government shamelessly continue to blame its predecessors for its ineptitude when in actuality it was voted in for the very simple reason that all was wrong? Why are almost all promises of meaningful change made at electoral campaigns soon forgotten or turned to “a change of promise” the moment one gets their way into our offices? Why do we stand against ourselves when our unity and agreement could prevent abuse of public wealth and offices? Why are the youths still young to rule as old men manifesting symptoms of senility and tremendous inefficiency prefer never to pass on the baton until death? What in your own little way are doing to make things work?
The kind of change our country desperately needs can only begin with an about-turn in our perceptions and attitudes towards things and our fellow humans. It’s a personal change and choice and until we rise to justify the clamour for equal rights and opportunities, freedom of speech and security of lives and properties, accountability and fairness, tolerance and cooperation with others, we cannot hope for or expect or even experience transformation, growth, development and peace in our societies. We, as our popular traditional proverb observes, may only then end up as victims of the same evils fueled and fanned by our indifference and acts of negligence that prevent us from questioning, challenging and fighting these evils. At every moment, this blame shifting games may lead nowhere but create more animosity and hatred amongst us. We brought ourselves where we are and can take ourselves to where we want to be. But this will require real personal sacrifices that may place our lives in danger.
” We can’t go on pretending day by day, that someone, somewhere will soon make a change…” – Michael Jackson
Alapa Peters Odugbo
Guest writer
BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE. HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, NIGERIA!