The Post, Our World And Heritage On Valentine's Day

By Taiye Olaniyi

Son of Man finds it difficult to state categorically whether or not the word or name Valentine whose Day the world is marking today ever had any significance or of any popularity during our youthful days when men were men and ladies were being hunted.

Many of such ladies were then conquered and pampered through love letters we ensured pass through the Post Offices with attendant love galore, the sermon of Valentine's Day.

I remembered as if it were yesterday, the use of handwritten letters tugged inside the envelopes, the aerogrammes both for inland and overseas postings, the postcards, registered mail, parcels and other mail packets helping to extend love and affection to the loved ones throughout the entire world.

The Post, according to Voltaire one of the early philosophers who brought about the French Revolution, Postal Service is: " The link, connecting all affairs, all negotiations, by its means absent becomes present." By this, the Post has been that veritable tool for the propagation of whatever Valentine's Day means to you and me both casually and deeply in the bowel of our hearts.

Once upon a time, many of us tagged "Old Schools" today could still relish so profusely in love letters to "Dear Lollipops," "Sweet Williams", using the words, "If so, splendid," "Doxology," "Yours till the ocean is dry," "My life partner," "Apple of my eyes,' "Sweetie," "Sweetheart," "Honey" and what have you.

Many of such to whom we so felicitated within the spirit of Romeo and Juliet, Valentine and what have you, are either still quarantined as husbands and wives, many were good friends we had met and friends lost along the way whereas the oceans are still bubbling without yours in the recesses of our homes because of climate change of our pockets, the sliding tackles by those more powerful than us in love arenas. Now, the day has come for confessions both to our consciences and to no one else lest hot water be our portion. I know that many once privileged to use the elections campaigns lost and or won, the paucity of Naira in circulation and Emefelienised policy distractions, still provide an escape route for the mild celebration of Valentine's Day in Nigeria. An excuse for not being able to hang out with families and friends

Thank God another excuse abounds as the nation's economy said to be buoyant by the generation of vipers is, of course, to all realists dead on arrival as our pockets are not shouting hallelujah neither are they responding to ‘Oh sing oh sing oh’ praise the Lord taking cognisance that the once upon a time product of booming supermarkets and warehouses are now church factories for assorted anointing oils. Even I here as a bloody pensioner can't observe any inkling of chop and drinks to mark Valentine's Day, except to admit that as the world today is moving we trend along with its pebbles of life.

I groan as other retirees of the Nigerian Post daily groan as to what Pantami, the erstwhile Minister of Communication and Digital Economy including the current one in his isolationist tendencies toward what a virile postal service should be, have both successfully whittled and withered the glorious past of postal service in marking the Valentine’s Day and other functional roles of the Post as a National Infrastructure.

Postmaster General or no Postmaster General, Emefiele or no Emefiele, the world can still cement Love in the spirit of Valentine’s Day to make Nigeria and the world a better place for humankind.

Happy Valentine’s Day and Peace Profound.

Taiye Olaniyi is a retired Postman