Of Thinkers, Workers and Gluttons in Nigeria
By Taiye Olaniyi
Chief Obafemi Awolowo once described the situation in Nigeria as one so deplorable thus raising a clarion call for" Thinkers" to further burn their candles stating thus:
"When those in the position of rulership and leadership are in clubs mingling with men of shady characters and women of easy virtues, I and people of like minds are in our rooms thinking about the problems of Nigeria and how to find solutions to them. Only the deep can call to the deep."
Thinkers are in our rooms thinking about the problems of Nigeria and how to find solutions to them. Only the deep can call to the deep," he concluded.
The problems of Nigeria are so vast for thinkers to work on till they burn their candle lights and work tirelessly, get exhausted in that process, dehydrate, lose weight if they ever do and many fall dead in that process.
Such thinkers and workers are those the Yorubas refer to as,
"Awon ti won nsise bi Erin ti won njeun Eliri," which simply means those who dissipate their energy thus working with the power of an elephant but get little as tiny as that of a squirrel."
Workers are prepared to be because of hope for a glorious future not minding not benefitting individually and or collectively from the Nigerian society commensurate with their noble thoughts, words, and actions for a virile nation
In hearts and minds are attuned with great minds of old, forebears like the doyen of theatre arts the late Hubert Ogunde who once sang about the transient time "Aa oni lari ola a dara, eni ba se ise o ogun osi lo ma se, ti o ba wu ola Oluwa ola a dara, a ola a dara o."
"It's today we know, they who work real hard, prepare a panacea for poverty and if God wills it, tomorrow surely will be better."
That was the hope for a better Nigeria at the inception of the first Republic but today at the fourth Republic what can we honestly say Nigeria is?
As far as realities on the ground impose on my thinking faculties, only the gluttons who feed fat on Nigerian commonwealth to strictly their advantages would lay claim to good days in Nigeria of today.
They, and their generation of Vipers milk us real dry and in their unholy communions in shifting cultivation. They plan a coup together, de-camp, and regroup with all sinister motives to the peril of the average Nigerian masses.
They and their wards like locusts are pests that invade and infest. But as nature usually dictates its tunes and wrests its unalloyed justice, as no respecter of any individual or class like the growing poor that they daily manufacture. They, in their ostentatious lifestyles, pride themselves in depriving fellow Nigerians of their basic livelihood but then, equally, partake in what Bob Marley referred to as
" Bread of Sorrow."
We all daily bemoan and say "This is not Nigeria that our heroes of the past once envisioned at Independence. Maybe not Nigeria which Lord Lugard amalgamated over a century ago.
Let us think and reason together for only those who think great, and work great truly build a great Nation. We need not a Goliath as a ruler that simply falls just at a throw of stone from an economic catapult.
According to the era of "War Against Indiscipline" in Nigeria, the philosophy once had it, yet relevant that :
"The Present generation of Nigerians and even the upcoming ones have no other place to call their home. NIGERIA belongs to all and we must all unite and remain here together. We need to salvage Nigeria together."
Peace Profound so prays the Son of Man.
Taiye Olaniyi
Retired Postman