As humans, we owe our existence to the almighty. We do everything by His grace-eating, sleeping and waking. Without His munificence, we cannot do these things. This is why we praise God for life, for provision and protection. We are what we are by the grace of God. It is not by our power, education or wisdom. The scripture puts it succinctly : ‘’Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain; unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain’’. So, every man must bear this fact in mind irrespective of his position.
As humans, positions mean a lot to us. We like to associate with those in high offices because it pays to do so. Nobody wants to relate with the poor because they will gain nothing by doing so. I am not saying that it is not good to aspire to high office; no I am not saying that. After all, what is the essence of our being if we cannot aspire to be great. But in doing that we tend to forget that greatness comes from God. A man will become great not because he has the greatness gene in his blood nor because he works harder than his peers but because fate smiles on him.
According to the scripture, ‘’the race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned, but time and chance happen to them all’’. If this is so, why then do men play God? Why do they act as if they became what they are by virtue of their brilliance or hard work? Let them know that we have seen more hardworking and brilliant persons before without anything to show for their brilliance and efforts. What do you say to that? That they offended God? God, according to His word, will favour those that He will favour, meaning that some will be more favoured than others.
In our society today, those at the helm of affairs can be grouped among the highly-favoured. As our leaders, we respect them and wish them all the best. Our prayer is that they succeed because their success will be for the good of us all. Since governance is a continuum, leaders come and go. We had leaders yesterday; we have leaders today and after today’s leaders, another set of leaders will come tomorrow.This is the law of nature which cannot be changed. No matter what, the leaders of yesterday and today must learn to work together in the interest of the nation. But in most cases, they don’t. Why this is so we don’t seem to know.
But it all borders on fear of the likelihood of leaders of today exposing the misdeeds of their predecessors. When our people are in power, they tend to forget that a day will come when issues will be raised about their tenure. If there is something our leaders don’t like to do, it is being called upon to give an account of their stewardship. They can do anything to stop that process because of the fear of being exposed. What is there to be exposed if they have nothing to hide? As past leaders are afraid of probe, so are their successors afraid of criticisms. Those in power don’t like to be criticised. They want to be hailed for every decision taken, whether good or bad. Is that possible? They know that it is not, but they will never see anything good in criticisms meant for their own good.
They demand constructive criticisms, but when such criticisms come, they pick up a fight with the critics. What is the problem with them? Are they saying that because they are in power they should not be criticised? Funny enough, some of those in power today who loathe criticism were foremost critics of government not too long ago. There is no difference between yesterday’s and today’s leaders; they are all the same. We only hear them quarrel on issues relating to their personal interests. It is then that you will see their aides firing from all cylinders. When they fight like that, it is for our own good because a lot of things are revealed.
In some cases, the former and present leaders may be friends torn apart by their loyalty to different masters. By the time they finish abusing themselves, their masters will be meeting behind closed doors to sort out their differences. It is good for the people of yesterday and those of today to engage themselves once-in-a-while in public so that we may know some of the goings-on in government hitherto hidden to us. Since they will be talking from an advantaged position because of the facts and figures at their disposal, many things will be brought to light which we may never have heard of if not for their disagreement.
So, these yesterday’s and today’s people should continue to wash their dirty linen in public, if that will make those in office to sit up. Being in power does not confer on one with superior knowledge. Those in power should not, therefore, see themselves as having all the answers to the problems of the country. Of course, those before them, who are today criticising them cannot claim to have found the answers for all the nation’s problems during their time. They have done their bit and left just as those in charge now will do theirs and leave. As the saying goes, ‘’no condition is permanent’’.
In time, the people of today will become people of yesterday just as their predecessors with who they are now fighting. As I said, they should fight on as long as they tell us what they do in those secret places that have held us backward for long as a nation. Today’s office holders may find what their predecessors is doing to them repugnant, but if they are in those people’s shoes, won’t they do the same thing? Soon, very, very soon, they will leave office for the people of tomorrow. What will be their relationship with those people? Will it be different from that with their predecessors?
Today’s people should not feel bad about what is happening now because, as my people will say ‘’na turn-by-turn’’. We are waiting to see if they will not talk if tomorrow’s office holders do certain things which they consider inimical to what today’s government stood for in its own time.
Eagles of hope
Like play, like play, the Super Eagles are in the final of the ongoing African Cup of Nations in South Africa. Nobody gave the team any chance of reaching this stage of the competition. Many of us believed that they would be defeated at the preliminary rounds. They survived that stage to confront the almighty Ivorian team in the quarterfinal. The Eagles defeated the Elephants of Cote D’ivoire 2-1 to meet the Eagles of Mali in yesterday’s semifinal. As I write this on Tuesday night, I am cocksure that the Super Eagles will beat Mali hands down. We are playing in the final of this tournament come what may. We may not have a superb team, but those guys are determined. They want to make a point that you don’t judge a book by its cover. Even if we don’t beat Mali, the Eagles have done something for their coach-they have saved Stephen Keshi’s job. The big boss should know the strategy to adopt against Mali having been that country’s national coach at a time. Goals, Eagles, goals, we need a basketful of them against Mali and your opponents in the final.
