AMBASSADOR EZEWELE ABIONANOJIE CYRIL
Self pursuit may not necessarily mean self benefit. Personal enrichment of wealth may not be to one’s advantage in the long run; for a better future is always better than a glorious presence that will later lead to an ugly tomorrow. It is like wine that is sweet in the mouth but later turns to stone.
When you discover yourself you do not need to be told that it is better to endure today for tomorrow’s benefits. Every good thinker plans towards a better tomorrow for the benefit of himself, his family, his society and his posterity. When these four cardinal points are resident in the heart of a leader, he will work passionately, dedicatedly and creatively to ensure an enabling environment that will make fishing available to all. This will give the public a sense of belonging, pride and self assurance to think proudly and patriotically above the average height as they enjoy a free and fair society garnished with visible opportunities.
Unlike the corrupt ignoble leaders who give little fishes to the public to have their acquiescence and deprive them access to an environment where they can fish for themselves and be freed to make and take decisions on their own. The corrupt would rather starve their society in other to control their actions by giving them little portions of food to eat, for an empty stomach always negotiate unwittingly to temporarily put an end to the torture of hunger even at the detriment of losing the future. They do this on the ground of greed at the altar of personal gains which does not really amount to their benefits in the long run. They lack the empathy that makes man functions in the ring of being human. They allow the glory of cash to becloud the inherent demands of their conscience, turning blind eyes to the true meaning of leadership, which is to serve, uplift, unite and protect properties, lives and the well being of the populace. Their flames of bad actions will linger on to hurt their generations unborn as they would also drink from the poisonous well dug by their ancestors.
The colour of one’s certificate is not directly pro rata to the amount of wisdom in him. A true scholar is to put on his torchlight to help others discover the little oil needed to light up their lamps. There is no way truth can be truer than the truth, for the embezzlement of one’s public’s wealth is an act of illiteracy that kills tomorrow’s greatness in favour of today’s greed.
Education in the real sense of education is to do right and be a role model for good behavior. It is lamentable today to see educated African leaders becoming role models for thievery and unpatriotic acts. Imagine a Professor in Education or in other areas of disciplines being the one bribing, oppressing and corrupting people for selfish gains. The so called African academicians are the one squandering, stealing and stashing the wealth of their nations in foreign lands. The Education they acquired was intended to make them function well, but they ended up becoming functional illiterates who cannot see the benefits of creating a better future that will set us free from neo – colonial control and interference, for the attainment of national independence alone cannot take imperialist’s dominants, extortions and oppressions off our back.
It is only when you are fit to feed yourself, treat yourself and defend yourself without the help of others that you shall enjoy the true nature of independence. And there is no way we can attain this height if our motives and actions are peddled towards the regions of selfish interest, greed, religious supremacy, tribalism, or any other form that engenders disunity. Our principal vision should be to save the ship of our nation, and in extension, of our continent. It is our national interest that will linger on to shelter and protect us as well as our posterity from every arrow of neo – colonialism, for neo – colonialism is still very much alive and well. The death that killed the mother hen will never allow her kids to grow, unless her kids will do everything possible to materialize in every wish.
It is high time we stopped condoling corruption and engage ourselves in acrobatic display of wisdom by putting on the garments of good governance and that of good citizens afresh as we collectively put our hands together to bend the arc of our history towards the direction of a better people. Unity is all it takes to midwife an independent nation. There is no other way about it!
Where is the wisdom when a leader who ought to lead his people with honesty, commitment and creativity towards a better future, by living as a good example for the people to follow is the one justifying corruption as part of a democratic setting? Where is the wisdom when a leader steals and takes away public funds to foreign lands and makes his people to suffer and die in the valley of insufficiency while foreigners trade with the public money for the benefits of their people? Where is the wisdom, when a leader will deprive and deny his people access to good hospitals, good water supply, good environment and infrastructures, good schools in the real sense of eye opening that is freed from highly abysmally politically and religiously indoctrinated ideologies, good adequate road networks and chooses to enjoy same in foreign lands with the same public money he stole which he ought to have used to build same amenities in his homeland for the benefits of himself, his society and posterity? Where is the wisdom? I say again, where is the wisdom? Where is the wisdom when a leader will work with his left over stolen public funds and expect the public who are the true owners of the funds to thank and appreciate him for doing so? Where is the wisdom for a man to be a source of retrogression and of chronic pains to his people on the platform of greed and wickedness, knowing full well that once he dies irrespective of the size of his wealth, he will face the same fate with the poorest man that ever walk the planet Earth? Lifeless terracotta with no iota of memory shall they both become. Where is the wisdom to steal when we are only faced with a life of no gain? Where is the wisdom when political thieves are being celebrated with chieftaincy titles as illustrious sons and daughters in the boxing ring of ‘if you can’t beat them join them’
The leadership of most Nigerian political leaders is like the horror film of rocky that always ends up in a horrific way, where the assumed messiah becomes provoked Dracula, were their love for money and the corridors of authority supersedes the lives of their fellow Nigerians, and where the love for power crushes and buries the power of love.
It is imperative, irrespective of our differences in faiths, cultures and geographical locations we look into the future through the microscope of oneness for we are one People from the same source but arrived at different periods, for it is only the truth that will guide us through the root to our collective fruits.