Back in the day, it was one of those idioms I found hilarious and almost preposterous. Each time it came up, I found myself conjuring in my subconscious, an image of a maiden bent over the ancient grinding stone, hot chilli splashing over her eyes and then a rapid distraught and ironically comical reaction to her doom. Alas, it was a teenager’s prank mind envisioning nasty things. Last week, that phrase perched like a gentle dove on an olive branch on my mind and all week, I worked at fathoming it out. My findings didn’t exactly lift the invisible weight off my shoulders but it gave me the strength to overcome that indescribable lethargy. I felt able to combat a troll all by myself!
It wouldn’t be out of place to say that many Nigerians feel the same way I felt in the past few weeks. It would suffice to say, however, that several Nigerians feel encumbered, weighed down and pressed flat by a myriad of issues, each with his distinct woe. For some, the troubles may be emotional but for many others, their challenges are financial. The citizens are in panic mode: women wail, men groan and children sob uncontrollably from hunger. ‘They’ have taken away everything from a nation once so robust. We know them; they live among us and feed fat on our misery but who dare bells the cat?
Like royalty born into a dynastic pedigree, wealth and affluence were the first words our ancestors spoke as toddlers. Everything came to them easy but one marred leadership after another, royals were reduced to worst than mere domestic staffs. The colossal tragedy of rotten leadership and lack of management reshaped the lives of millions of citizens and its inevitable doom, is closer than ever. We are like lost sheep, groping in the dark for some semblance of light.
There is palpable hardship, aye, but the ‘ayes’ definitely do not have it. It is everyman to his own rescue, everyman to his aide or you drown in this quicksand of economic doom. How do we cope? I have heard countrymen ask incessantly? How do we survive? Survival is only for the fittest, I must say. A child who sits under the mango tree, waiting patiently for an avaricious monkey to let down some ripe fruits, is like the proverbial man that digs his own grave. No leadership, no government has anything to offer any Nigerian. Though it may taste like bile, that is the gospel truth…
Government has failed us, leadership has betrayed us and our democracy is simply a slap across our faces. It is an enormous insult on our collective IQ for national issues, which in saner climes are made crystal, to have been shrouded in secrecy over and over again, making us look like average oafs. But, to whom do we lament? I see no respite in the horizons for the commoner even in eons to come. So, every Nigerian must master the act of survival. If not for anything, it would be satisfying to witness the end of this disgusting national charade. If one must jump ship, then so be it. If one must turn to the ways of the early man, collecting seeds and hunting, Amen to that. For, in today’s Nigeria, if you snooze, then you will lose.
My message for every NIGERIAN in times such as this is not a prolix and I have forged it with the simplest of words: Sometimes in life; we are confronted by fiendish woes. Troubles seem unending and we eventually lapse into a state of mental exhaustion. We become lethargic, feeling like the entire world is sitting on our shoulders and beneath that weight, we crumble like cookies in a toddler’s hand. We halt because moving forward seems at the moment like a death sentence but here is the irony, staying down is suicidal!
I would not become a blind optimist and tell you it will be easy, but what will be most difficult is not trying. I am also not ignorant of the fact that the troubles in this country come in different packages, sizes, colours and kilograms if you allow me the use of measures. Yours could be a 1000kg and mine a 1500kg but neither of us can afford to crumble under it and halt.
No matter the size, we need to keep moving and that is the crux of today’s sermon. A stationary phase is not allowed in the Nigerian journey. No matter how insignificant the movement may seem, make sure you are in motion!
If you cannot FLY, you must RUN and if it becomes too difficult, WALK and when walking becomes a herculean task, CRAWL and if ever crawling becomes a mammoth task, dear countrymen, SLITHER. If you don’t save yourself, who will?
and then