Global reactions to the fire that engulfed the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, on April 15, brought back nostalgic memories of my Higher School Certificate (HSC) days at the Federal School of Arts and Science, Ondo; the one we proudly refer to as FSASON. It was there I began to get attracted to France as a country, when studying European History. My most fascinating aspect of the history of France was the French Revolution of 1789, the one that Peacock describes as “one of the greatest events in human history.” For sure, Nigeria, nay Africa, was not in Peacock’s reckoning when he made that assertion. I remember how I was always attempting to put myself in the picture as if I was there during the revolution when reading Peacock. I must confess though, that Peacock was my favourite author when the issue was the French revolution. The other textbook, Europe since Napoleon by Thompson which also treated the topic extensively, was my distant second textbook.
But that is not where I am going today.
I have always known France for its fashion splendour. Indeed, in those days we were told that ‘an old style in Paris is a new style in London’; to drive home the point that France is noted for fashion, whether in dress terms, or architectural designs. France is also home to choice exotic wines; I picture it in my mind as a place of plenty enjoyment. Wikipedia seems to corroborate all of these thus: “France, in Western Europe, encompasses medieval cities, alpine villages and Mediterranean beaches. Paris, its capital, is famed for its fashion houses, classical art museums including the Louvre and monuments like the Eiffel Tower. The country is also renowned for its wines and sophisticated cuisine. Lascaux’s ancient cave drawings, Lyon’s Roman theater and the vast Palace of Versailles attest to its rich history.”
But, in spite of all these, the country still found time to build an architectural masterpiece that Notre Dame is, a structure that has become an institution in its own right, such that the world cannot but notice and indeed be involved in restoring the burnt Cathedral beyond its pre-April 15 state. Indeed, from news flying around, the fire, in confirmation of a proverb in the western part of this country, ‘ile oba to jo, ewa lo bu si’ (a king’s palace that got burnt can only give room to a better edifice) is going to get even better by the time reconstruction is completed. This, if French President Emmanuel Macron’s wish is anything to go by, will be in about five year’s time.
The fact that France, which is not poor by any standard, makes a lot of money from tourists to the cathedral is something that Nigeria can learn from. Imagine what about 12-14 million tourists would translate to in monetary terms for France? Ours is a country that relies on a monocultural commodity, the price of which depends on the vagaries of the volatile international oil market. Yet, we have many tourist attractions that can spin a lot of foreign exchange for the country, but we either fail to maximise the potential or simply look the other way while such tourist sites get overgrown with weeds and are occupied by reptiles or other animals. At best, government officials make pious statements of commitment to diversifying the economy, using tourism as example.
Moreover, so far, no one has made any attempt to politicise the issue. In our clime, all manner of insinuations and even unsubstantiated claims would have been made about the involvement of some political enemies being responsible for the inferno.
Above all, however, the global reaction to Notre Dame fire incident has demonstrated that indeed, there could be one world where creed or colour would count for nothing. Indeed, Nigeria has a lot to learn from this common humanity. The fire incident, which occurred on the second day of the Passion Week (Holy Week as it is now commonly called), that is the week preceding Easter, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, has united the world in such a confounding manner. Will there ever come such a time when Nigeria can be so united, without attempts to differentiate on religious, political or ethnic grounds? I would be glad to witness that in my lifetime.
Maybe the world has reacted to the Notre Dame incident because they felt the same way I always felt in my HSC days whenever it was time for French history; particularly the aspect dealing with the French Revolution. May be not. But for us to have a sense of all that the Notre Dame is associated with – religion, religious, political, historical and socio-cultural values, we must not allow an individual to get away with the kind of blue murder that President Olusegun Obasanjo committed by banning history. We need an astute sense of history to appreciate such inestimable values.
Even if we regard the inferno as Afghastanism ( something happening far away), we cannot lose sight of its proximity to us and the unity it has fostered around the globe, especially in a world that has become a global village.
A tale of two ghosts
It is not all the time that I have the opportunity of sharing messages on the social platform. But, I found this not only hilarious but one from which we can pick one or two lessons.
Ghost 1: Hey
Ghost 2: Hey
Ghost 1:
How did you die? ?
Ghost 2:
I was mistakenly locked up in a refrigerator. At first, I was chilling, then, I started freezing, and then, I couldn’t breathe again… I died of suffocation.
Ghost 1:
Wow…. what a sad way to die.
Ghost 2:
Yeah. And you, how did you die?
Ghost 1:
I died of heart attack.
Ghost 2:
What happened? How?
Ghost 1:
My wife cheated on me. I came back home and saw a man’s pair of shoes. Then, I rushed to the bedroom and met only my wife there. She was naked. I knew there was a man in the house because my neighbour told me. And the man was still in the house as my wife was undressed and scared. So, I started running and searching the whole house. I searched in the kid’s room, kitchen, toilet, bathroom, wardrobe and dinning. I couldn’t find him and I was very tired of running, so I got a heart attack.
Ghost 2:
IDIOT!!!! If only you had checked the refrigerator we would both be alive by now!
Have a wonderful Easter Sunday
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