Nigeria: In the boat of life

“Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard hearing and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I the Lord Almighty should heal them”

Our leaders, heroes and heroines can rarely do wrong in our eyes. Once we have elevated them in our estimation, we become deeply reluctant to demote a demi-god. Sometimes, we can be similarly romantic about other things in our lives; friends, companions, family members, even our leaders. If we respect them ever, we respect them forever. Yet we are all human. None of us is impeccable or infallible. Nigerians! Let’s not be horrified by current challenges, in our nation. Let’s just be understanding. The Lord is providing us with a powerful, valuable new insight. Now we understand what we understand, we can't understand why we never understood it before. The fact is, though, that we didn't... and it's only when we stop to remember this that our past actions become understandable. In the light of our new understanding, we will never lead our lives in quite the same way again. Let’s celebrate this wonderful, if belated, revelation and spare no further thought for the now rather baffling past. If Achilles had only managed to find himself a chiropractor, he might never have had all that trouble with his heel. Then again, he would have lost his opportunity to acquire eternal fame. Sometimes, our disadvantages have hidden blessings. Sometimes, we gain so much from these that we are glad we never found a cure.

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Life: The sailing pilgrimage In this life of ours, our friends can do us much more harm than our enemies. That's why we have to be so very careful about whom we give our hearts to. Many of our leaders are starting to feel vulnerable. It is as if they have been invaded. Something has got right under their skin. They can't shake off this influence, nor can they quite reconcile the way they feel, with the way they feel they ought to feel. Actually, it is all just a necessary, psychological and natural side-effect of being sensitive. Soon there might be much comfort and reassurance. Some of our leaders sorely wish they could alter some key factors in their lives right now. Perhaps one day they might be able to. Perhaps too, by the time that day comes, they might not want to any more. There is an old saying, 'If things are going well, steel yourself. Sooner or later, they're going to get worse.

If things are going badly, cheer up. They will surely improve even if all you do is wait and yet be kind. A very natural law dictates that much sooner rather than later, everything must change. If we want the fun to last longer and the stress to pass faster we must identify less closely with narrow definitions of success and failure. To Nigerians, we must stand back now to see the situation in our country for what it is, not what we think it is. Then only then can we expect a very good tomorrow. We all make mistakes. If we are wise, we learn from them. If we are not so wise, we make matters worse by sinking into self-criticism and regret. By persuading ourselves that we have made a mistake from which we can never recover, we scupper our ability to turn things around. Right now, some past leaders might be looking at the situation that they feel they'd handled badly. With the benefit of hindsight, they wish they'd had more foresight. Letting go of the past is excellent, but sorry in my dictionary, still remain a wonderful word. By doing this, they might yet discover how things could turn out truly brilliantly. The stones which our leaders have rejected for so many years are many things to sooooooo many people, but failure and unforgiving, trust me we are not. POINTBLANK!

Another Political Claptrap Some words and phrases unnerve us. They trigger memories and associations from the distant past. They may remind us of a time when we were small, powerless and or felt helpless, or they may awaken the sleeping volcano of a dangerous desire. That's why we are usually so careful about our utterances, the caliber of people we mingle with, the class we belong to and what we allow ourselves to listen to. Whether by accident or design, some people are sparking off a powerful reaction within the powerless.  My advice! We Nigerians must rise above this, and yet stay in control. There is a limit to how far a car can be driven in reverse. If we don't mind getting a stiff neck and the road is clear, we can of course travel further than we might think possible. But we can't keep it up indefinitely. We may be able to retrace a few steps and partially alter the outcome of many recent events. In the end, we will have to turn and point forward again, why? It’s the only way up. Then we'll see how appropriate this feels. We can afford to let the past pain be in the past because the future of our country is not just any old future. It is the right one!

It is no longer quite so necessary to be on our guard. We can go, if not from 'condition red' to 'condition green', at least to the point inside us where only amber light is flashing. Raise a skeptical eyebrow when we hear certain statements being made, but be willing to give a little benefit of the doubt. Though some people are still willing to say anything as long as it doesn't involve conceding the truth, others are most definitely prepared to be genuine, honest and sincere even though they have forever been misunderstood. Some people say the most outrageous things. Others are the very soul of discretion. Their language is impeccable, but their actions aren't necessarily so squeaky clean. They are keenly conscious of a particular set of dual standards. They are tempted to let these influence their own. 'What's sauce for the goose though,' I don’t think 'is really good for the gander.' But we don't want to wake up one day and find that our own goose has been cooked. It is more important to be able to glide by with our head held high. Like a swan.

The script is being rewritten. The story is being retold. How things were, is no longer how things are. How things will be, it's clear, is different again. My people, let’s make sure we are not reading the old notes. That could put us at a big disadvantage. It could even turn back the clock and cause us to return to a situation we have only recently escaped. Even if we think we recognise some of the clues and cues that we are now being given, we may yet find they mean something delightfully different.  In this life of ours, there is no law that says we have to do things the hard way. We may feel that if we have really earned a reward, it means more than if we have merely struck lucky. The universe, though, is not so hung up on the work ethic. It gives freely. It plants abundance. Sometimes, it yields its fruits only after consistent, persistent, effort. Sometimes, like a tree in an orchard in autumn, it just bestows its bounty on whoever happens to walk beneath its boughs. Nigerians! Let’s trust that today.

When we enjoy doing something, we usually want to do it more than once. We don't just eat a delicious meal and say, 'That was wonderful. I never need to eat that dish again.' It's the same as solving problems. Once we really know how to fix something, we can't wait for it to go wrong again. Indeed, sometimes, sub-consciously, some of us stick a spanner in the works just so that we can enjoy charging heroically to the rescue and making everything okay once more. Is anyone doing that near any of us now?  Every single day, the earth turns right round on its axis. Once a year, this spinning ball travels around the Sun. No wonder we feel or see our lives going round in circles. What's happening now in our country has happened before. In some respect, the current saga is very similar to a previous one. In other ways, it is very different. Certainly, our ability (You and I) to change the final outcome is much greater than it has ever been before. Let’s do exactly that because we can.

The Excellent Ship Asylum Our planet is sometimes known as Spaceship Earth because we all travel together on it as it hurtles through the universe. Perhaps we ought to have a new name for our boat of life, our vessel like, for example, The Excellent Ship Asylum. After all, we the residents are all bonkers in one way or another. Just like that old saying, 'You don't have to be a lunatic to practice here, but it sometimes helps.' You don't have to be psychologically ill to have an abode or be a resident here or…well, maybe we all do. We have no choice but to forgive what's seemingly so crazy in this country now, and find God sooner rather than later. None of us knows as much as we think we know. Even those of us who think we know very little are wrong. Actually, we know more than that. It's just that, with knowledge comes power. We all want a bit of power, but none of us want to be all-powerful. Imagine how dull life would be if we were ever to gain this ability.

And, of course, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing especially if it is accompanied by a little power. We must learn to double-check our information and our motivation, too! If the past is coming back to haunt us, why can we not go back and haunt the past? Why can we not give it a good scare? Why can’t we show the past who the boss really is? We surely have outlived it, so who’s the boss? Voice of wisdom! Let’s only take away its power to loom large in our world and our nation, like some dark, menacing, cloud. Certain memories are so strong and intense that they fill us with dread when they come into our mind. Let’s not banish them, let’s make them welcome. Nigerians! Let’s never fight forces, let’s learn to use them. Let’s think longer and harder about what really happens. Let’s find it easy to forgive anyone, any group and anything that needs forgiveness, most especially we Nigerians. Then move on…

Explosives experts stress the importance of working with a long fuse. It is important, at the moment of detonation, to be at a safe distance from the point of impact. If we can get really far away, we might even be able to make it look as if we are not responsible for the event. And now, we turn to a drama that is starting to unfold. Who has caused it? What has stirred it up? The true culprit is not immediately at hand. Someone has been very clever and or spooky. However, we must take care not to attribute blame to the wrong person. Let’s vent our rage (and our passion) only where it is appropriate. It should be a deep-heated period in our nation. However, let’s bask in that heat, but, let’s not fry in it. It takes a lot to flip one’s trigger. That's why once the button has been pushed it tends to remain in this position for quite some while. Unlike some, many of us rarely change from one mood to another in the blink of an eye. Just as we are loyal to our friends, we are loyal too, to our grievances. We don't desert them or forget them for no good reason. I say, there is a very good reason for something that used to be bad to start getting good. It is the right time to forget what we used to feel. Let’s learn to adapt to this!

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Let’s speak about how there is a shade too much repetition in our country at the moment. You and I both know what's really going on, and on, and on. We also know that, somehow, a habit must be broken. In theory, that's easy. In practice! Well, here's our chance to prove what we can do. We may not succeed on our first attempt, but if we keep trying, we will get a result. Sometimes, we have to look all over the world just to find something that has been on our own doorstep all along. That doesn't make the journey futile. It may well have been an essential process, in as much as it helps us to open our eyes. Efficiency is not the object of existence. Some of the best things in the world take a ridiculously long time to make or create. The sense of satisfaction though, that accompanies a completed project makes it all worthwhile. This Planet of ours called Earth is famous throughout the universe as the world without rhyme or reason.

Its inhabitants search ceaselessly for logical explanations. They never find any. Oh well, at least, it is better than the billion square miles of nothingness astronomers have just located a few galaxies from here. Actually, one good thing about life in a place that makes no sense is that solutions to problems like human rights, taking action against HIV, the rights of persons with disabilities, combating child trafficking and prostitution,  elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, elimination of the worst forms of child labour, the rights of the child etc don't have to make sense. They can be conjured from out of the blue. We can go to American Congress or Houses of Parliaments to learn how to be kind to our people, how to introduce compulsory free basic education and better still how to exact our influence by molesting vulnerable girls because we make laws. Hey! Many of us may not be as young as we used to be, but we are not as old as we fear too. We have valuable experience now. We know how to deal with situations that might once have left us feeling powerless. Even better, we are not so long in the tooth that we no longer care how things turn out. Right now, we can turn an apparent source of embarrassment, tension and trouble in our country into a genuine opportunity to make our nation a better and unique place. Nigerians! Let’s find our enthusiasm and when we see a chance, let’s seize it.

'Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift, that's why they call it the present.' A friend of mine has this written on a sign which hangs in his living room. As the season's change, the truth of those words becomes ever more dramatically demonstrated. The funny thing is, we all think we know where we're going. Well, at least, in the short-term. Very few of us have absolutely no idea about what's going to happen tomorrow. The world, we are authoritatively informed, was created in six days. How strange that it should all come together so quickly, yet that the ability to live in this holy green world without conflict or suffering should then apparently take all of eternity to achieve. Still, that's rush jobs for you and I. If only the Creator had put a little more thought into the whole enterprise, He could have saved us all a whole lot of trouble.

Here's our question for the future. Are we now creating a solution or a whole new set of troubles? That is a very good question for you and me to answer. Back in the days of silent movies, it was always nice and straightforward. Villains wore black. Heroes wore white. There were no other colours they could wear and, in the early days of photographic development, even shades of grey were difficult to depict. These days, we have complex psychological thrillers. We often can't tell till the end of the film who the good guys and the bad guys really are. Obviously, that's frustrating, but it's a lot more realistic. The story, though, deserves deeper consideration. I believe, we can gain incredible insight by tapping into the lives of our leaders. And listening to other people's stories, reading biographies or simply learning more history can bring us a greater sense of wisdom.

The tree of life has many branches to choose from and our job (You and I) is to determine which limb offers us the best growth experience. We don't have to be experts to begin teaching our people how to love each other, respect each other or even learn from each other, we just need to find a few good, humble and responsible students, who are willing and able to learn! May the Most High bless us all with more knowledge, wisdom, understanding and above all, peace of mind that we surely deserve.

By D. Akinsanya Juliuson C. Dipl