ALAPA MA SISE GENERATIONS… ..APA KEJI Proverbs 24:30-34 - “I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.” “o sa igi logbe, o ta oguro lofa, o gbenu si id ope, ofe ni nro ni” Yoruba tribes are very deep in some life practical philosophies and oral traditions, which is rich in good moral values and culture that over the years had evolved into unique identity that distinguished them from other tribes in Africa. Some of the folklore tales with unique animal characters like Ijapa,Yanrinbo, Asin, Erin, and other human characters like Aworawo, others, some we read in our Yoruba literature classes, Alawiye D.F.Odunjo, D. O. Fagunwa, etc. others told by elders during the moonlight tales, the memory of Pa Jimi Solanke’s story land engaging story telling skills or the NTA Network’s Tales by Moonlighting, are still fresh in my memory. I can’t tell now, if we still have such moral/socio-cultural platforms again where the next generations can learn things that matters like honesty, diligence, tolerance, healthy competitions, forgiveness, perseverance etc. now parents and may be the education system and religious bodies now remain some of the few frontiers left to fight the corrosive effects of globalizations and its vices of strange cultures threatening the moral fabric of our society. We now have documentaries, reality TV series, movies (both censored and uncensored), musical videos etc that keep on bombarding our minds telling us and showing us the best way to live; fast, rich and reckless. The videos only portraits how money should be “spent” in the company of half clothed babes, gyrating in a seductive manner, guys with red eyes, not because they were having vigils, but because they are feeling tipsy from the empty bottles of expensive liquor bottles on the table, wao! Sounds like “money miss road” to me. Today the entertainment industry is a fast rising money spinning industry in the country, why, because most of its works portraits a life that is not practicable but only exist in dreams, anchored on the producer’s imagination but lack the reality of life. But the scariest thing about this is when the young people take them serious, preferring such life to the real one. When the society fails to impact moral values, and engage the young minds within her, the right way to live and earn an honest living, such society is breeding a workforce for the devil’s agents who will prey on their idleness for something more terrible. When we deliberately ignored the rising statistics of young men and women dropping out of schools, with no alternative vocational training to engage their youthful energy, then we should be looking forward to a future where we sleep with one eye open, because we have failed to engage the young mind around us, and since natures abhors vacuum, something more terrible has taken over, pay day of our negligence has come. When we praise “baba olowo” who we knew got his money through dubious means, and despised a headmaster who out of the meager salary he earns tried to keep our children within the school walls, then we are not doing right. When we wants our daughters to marry someone who is rich, rather than a young man who is hardworking and had a promising future, then we are telling the young people around us that perseverance and visions does not count get the money and forget the rest. Laziness becomes an indulging habit when the society pays lip service to hard work, but never seen doing it. When the leaders and elders are known only for selling lands to more than three buyers and still will not feel bad if there is a forth interested party. We hardly produced in this country, why? Our major source of income is oil, why? Over the last 12 years investment in education has not improved, why? Leadership, visionary leadership is the why. Before we point upward to Aso Rock and her occupiers, let look among us, and within us, how did we get here? How did we become so indolence that our economy output has not appreciated that much in terms of content and depth? The environment is so hostile to small businesses that only few survived their first 5 years. Even when young people took the initiative to make things happened the harsh reality of disengage leadership policies will not let the dream materialized. Then what can we do? We can just forget about it and look away, waiting for China, India and Lebanon to come and fix us up. I watched an adverts the other day, when the present government was boasting that they have succeeded in pulling more foreign investors into the country than all the past government put together, I laughed, am not an economist, though I just need to check how many young people still buys the Tuesday and Thursday Guardian newspapers or how many youth still parade the streets looking for any job at despite their qualifications, gone are the days, when education guaranteed food on your table We can do these instead, retract our steps and begin to redefine our value system all over again, reappraise what we celebrate as important. “igi gogoro ma gunmi loju, ato okere lati now”, a stitch in time saves nine they says, we can learn from other nations who becomes great, none of them rise above the quality of their people, only great, industrious people make a great nation great. Then we can begin to promote and encourage those who imbibed those values among us, we must begin to celebrate what is honest, excellent and indigenous. By this we encourage others to learn from such genuine heroes or heroines. We should be interested in the individuals who seat on the affairs of our nation and common wealth, we should perished the sentiments of tribes and religion and seek those who fear God, and respect the dignity of human life, those who will have the courage to do the right thing and take the interest and aspirations of the many above the selfish interest of the few. Demand responsible leaders that we can hold accountable for common wealth not “chop I chop” unwritten code that drives the political administration of this country. We should challenge ourselves too individually to be better, offer ourselves for services when required, lead and be the change rather than just paying lip service to it. “Mo wi re abi mo wire?” - ST. Francis of Agege
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 12:36:44 +0000