Have you sat down to reflect on the problems of the world, especially of people, and how many of these problems are self-inflicted?
How many “Good Samaritans” or do-gooders had gone down in issues that are not directly their own? “Oh, my sister… my neighbour or … my mere acquaintance is being maltreated by her husband and I must stand up to it and take up the fight on her behalf”. Or, “oh, I must join this fray on the side of a friend”, on a matter, details of which you are not fully seized.
Or, in politics, where some assume other peoples fights without being abreast of the details and pontificate on dealing with the other person as if he were God who take up our causes in ways that terrify even ourselves He is siding; the reason Yorubas say “o gbe ni, keru o ba onija”.
Examples down the ages should make one reflect well and soberly on these matters that do not directly concern us before one sucks himself or herself in. Any student of security studies is taught to be aware of this, because of the potential dangers of rushing into issues of which one is not fully seized of the details or situation.
The tendency is for some unrealistic people to say what is bad in being one’s brother’s keeper. Deeper reflection should tell such people that it is a different ball game from rushing to the aid of someone in danger of mugging, robbery or an accident victim than plunging oneself into matrimonial, land or religious issues of which one is oblivious of the FULL facts. The consequences could be fatal, as experiences of victims have shown.
Some 70 years ago or more, in a sleepy town in the South West, a pretty young lady was said to have dared to help remove her sister’s belongings from her matrimonial home, to protest her sister’s maltreatment when her brother-in-law was on the verge of seeking family members intervention to help smoothen out the rough edges in their relationship. It was said that the daring of that pretty young lady to help her sister, as it were, caused her to be afflicted with the pang of insanity. Those who are still alive to recall the incident will confirm that the then young lady named Omomeji totally went insane and pounded the dusty roads of markets and other places in the town for many years and became sex mate to fellow mad people or even normal people demonically instructed to sleep with mad women, before she died.
Her sister, on whose behalf she meddled in her matrimonial affair, eventually reconciled with her husband while the “Good Samaritan”, or more appropriately, the meddler, had her life ruined beyond redemption!
This incident of meddlers and “do-gooders” came to mind on a visit to a church to join in their normal Sunday service with a friend who was doing a thanksgiving to God for overcoming a rough patch. The song that our friend rendered in the course of that thanksgiving is instructive and should serve as salutary lesson to all who join in issues or participate in frays of which they don’t have the details, to warrant their involvement.
The song goes thus:
”Emi ko lo pa o,
Ota mi lo pa’ra e;
Ibi to ti n ro’jo kiri,
L’emi mimo ti paa”
Message in song; this is it!
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