By Ayo Baje
“Always
remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.” – Margaret Mead
What is this life all about, anyway? Why are we here in this world, for God’s sake? What lasting lessons does our all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful, all –gracious and all-merciful creator want us to glean from the hustle and bustle, the grate and grind of our everyday encounters? What lasting lessons are we here to learn from the hands of history-for individuals, communities and countries? Let us begin with the common ones.
Why, for instance, is there so much hatred, so much anger, crises, agitations, anxieties, selfishness, greed, graft, power-poaching and thorny matters all leading into wasteful wars, which are supposed to be clearly avoidable? But that is not all.
How come we no longer speak with one voice against evident evil?
That is my source of worry. For instance, looking critically back at one’s life
trajectory over the decades, one of the worthy attributes of the
well-structured, socio-cultural milieu as I grew up with in Oboroke-Ihima, in
the present Kogi State back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, which I will forever cherish
was the prevailing high moral standard then.
This I imbibed right from my humble family background as raised
by my farmer-father, Sadiku Umeche and cloth-weaver /trader of a mother, Awawu
Sadiku (both of blessed memory). Like my siblings and indeed the younger ones
back then one significant issue that stood out was the fact that life is but a
purifying process.
Working hard, having faith in God, giving respect to elders, upholding our cultural values, being resilient in the storms of life, avoiding lies, stealing and hatred for fellow human beings were all to make us better and wiser at any point in time than we were yesterday. My age mates and I were weaned on the fresh milk of the benchmarks of Wrong. But why?
*Ayo Baje [3rd left] presiding over a GPAN event
It was all because we knew full well that there were grave
consequences and strict punitive measures waiting for those who flagrantly
violated the cultural ethos. Traditional norms were there in our lifestyle as
guiding credos, irrespective of one’s religious beliefs. Elders were there as
brothers or sisters, uncles, aunts or cousins to punish with the right hand and
correct with the left. It is unlike these days when our many of our politicians
epitomize deceit, corruption and using might is right with the culture of
impunity holding sway!
But in those days we obeyed
the rules for our own sake, so as to evolve as well-groomed citizens.
Eventually, we became useful to ourselves, our communities and the country as
large. And thank God, that such norms were sustained and even strengthened in
the educational and religious institutions we attended.
That also rings true, spanning one’s working experiences of some
20 years as a science teacher/administrator and 21 years as a journalist/media
consultant. So, what lessons should the younger ones learn from the
elders?
The first noble step to take is that of self-discovery, which begins with the identification and awareness of your God-given attributes, talents and skills, to be honed and applied. As Aristotle, the Greek philosopher rightly noted: “Knowing yourself is the beginning of wisdom”.
This
is also reflected in Act 1, Scene 3 of Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet when King
Claudius’ chief minister, Polonius as part of his speech to his son, Laertes,
said: ‘To thine own self be true’. It was his blessing and advice on how he
should behave whilst at university. Such self-discovery would shapes how you
interact with others and can lead to deeper, more fruitful relationships.
To succeed at self-discovery one has to have a personal
relationship with God, our maker. He is your all-knowing creator; the only One
who knows your in-built attributes and His divine design for your journey
through the hills and valleys or the chequered paths called life.
Such relevant knowledge assists individuals to navigate the
twists and turns of daily encounters to get to the harbour of our dreams. One
should not rely only on what we were taught at school. For instance, I spent
ten good years reading several motivational books, studying the life histories
of the world’s famous, rich and successful people and discovered the importance
of having an open mind to learn new things every day. And I got to understand
that just like the precious pearls of diamond and gold are not found on the
surface of the earth, one has to dig deep to locate the treasures within.
Its goes beyond the mass hysteria and mesmerism of modern
religious dogma, by the churches or mosques one attends to understanding the
true meaning of love. Yes, love! And that is because whoever does not love does
not know God, because God is love.
That brings to mind, the great admonition from Mother Teresa who
stated that: “Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you
without leaving happier”. But I have discovered over the decades that billions
of people across the globe do not understand what love means. It means
self-sacrifice, to suffer for other people, without counting the cost, as
Jesus, the Christ did for mankind. His pure, perfect, purifying and blameless
blood was shed on the cross of Calvary to redeem us from our sins and bring us
back to God. And that is all because our creator does not stand sin.
If only we have been exhibiting love the world would long have
been saved from the self-inflicted trials and tribulations visited on us by
wasteful wars. And that brings me to the question-is man really wise?
If so, why do world leaders spend (or better still, waste)
humongous sums of hard-earned money-one decade after another- to prosecute such
blood-letting, yet preventable, self-inflicted human tragedies? That is,
instead of channeling such resources to frontally tackle the ever-escalating
incubus of pervasive and persisting global poverty, mass ignorance and
debilitating diseases?
Such thought-provoking questions inspired my opinion essay
titled: ‘Call me the Exorcist’ as well as my writings via the poems, short
stories, plays/drama, opinion essays and my motivational pieces that span over
the past 50 years. Unfortunately, here we are today in a world bedeviled by
selfishness, greed, avarice, self-righteousness, mania for money and material
gains at the expense of self-sacrifice and doing the right thing for the
benefit of all.
These are the fundamental issues that re-echo the questions:
Where has our humanity gone and what should we do (I mean those of us who still
have the human heart beating in our thoracic cavity) to retrieve it for this
generation and those yet-to- be-born into this increasingly troubled nation and
wicked world?
The best way forward is to retrace our steps back to our
beautiful past; right from imbibing high moral values in our youth and
enthroning leadership that would be driven by the national interest. That is,
rather than by greed and the sentiments of ethnicity and religion that have
placed Nigeria on a keg of gun powder, waiting to explode!
*Baje is the President of Guild of Public Affairs Analysts of Nigeria (GPAAN)
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