LOOKING AT THE BRIGHTER SIDE
Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu

There is no gainsay that there are pains everywhere in the country, especially now when the economy of the country is in bad shape, but should we throw in the towel and allow our hopes be dashed and stop believing that surely at the end of the tunnel it would spark off with light and brightness?

In my ever tight schedule of travelling and trying to find the path out of the economy logjam that has befallen us and trying to stay afloat in the business world, one thing I have never failed to do is not to sit down and go through the social media to know what is happening around the world, especially Nigeria. The internet has gone haywire now that everybody can afford it and it can afford everybody the freedom of expression with all hold barred.

It is shocking to read the amount of anger and hate that the various social media are awashed with. Yes, the anger is understandable and perhaps tolerated, certainly not the height of hate we have allowed to take over us that is beginning to become a religion that dictates the direction of our life and existence.

Justifying the anger amongst us is understandable and to a great extent reasonable; we are humans and it is only human to react when things are not working well as things are not indeed working well in the country right now.

To tell a youth who has graduated for years, working the streets nights and days in search of job without success not to be angry is lying to our conscience. Or, how do you tell a man who has lost his job for years not to be angry when there is the family to cater for and children to educate through school and he has no means to fulfill these obligations? Or, the person who is in the labour market and never gets paid for the labour rendered at the end of the month? Or, the man or woman still, who has served the government all his/her life, the time came for his/her retirement, pension becomes a story for another day? There are so many negatives in the country at the moment that we can pretend not to be there unless we are hypocrites who do not want to tell ourselves the truth.

We should be angry, it is perhaps our right to do so, but hate, no. It is not an emotion as anger which can be turned into the positive to achieve the greatest deed; it destroys everything that it comes across. That is the only thing hate does; it does not build, it destroys and whatever it destroys stayed destroyed permanently.

And if this is the path we want to travel, the path of hate, then the country is in dire path of no recovery.

Only recently the social media were agog with all forms of hate messages that went as low as wishing death for our fellow human or why a certain individual should remain ill forever, this went on and on in their shocking revelations. If I know this country very were and the people that constitute the land space, there is something none can take away from us- life and the enjoyment of it, so, to think any Nigerian would wish the other person dead or any form of pains is certainly unthinkable and not in our character.

We are simply angry. But it should just be anger and nothing beyond that.

I do not think any Nigerian wants anybody dead or to see that person in pains; thus far we have been pushed to the wall by the necessity of anger, anger of leadership over the years that has not taken us anywhere, instead has continued to destroy the environment for growth and an atmosphere of expression in all sphere that negates all abilities of proper function. Bad politics and politicking that make some gods and others slaves spearheading continual revolt and unrest.

We should be angry and desist from hate and all its components, but the question is, what do we do with our anger and who should we be angry at? We should be angry at ourselves that over the years we have not been able to make that necessary leap that would take us from both our political as well as economic dungeon that has made us over the long period a sleeping giant, and, as we are angry at ourselves, we should allow that anger be directed at the various institutions that have contributed to the sleeping of that giant.

Many countries of the world have turned their anger at selves and institutions into the positives and the results have been breakthroughs in all fronts and in all these Nigeria cannot be left out. Instead of getting angry and allow our anger to degenerate into hate that we start destroying everything until we destroy ourselves, we should see it as the needed spur to take us to the luminous height we have never reached.

When I posted on one of the social media that; nation building demands a lot of sacrifice, that we must not relent in our united efforts to get it right for generations unborn, it was received with ridicule and laughter with resonate of questions.

Who would make the sacrifice? How much sacrifice must we make? Were some of the questions that were asked while others who have lost hope in the rebirth of the country only smirked and went their way. To these people, Nigeria is lost and to redeem it is hopeless.

But redemption is never hopeless unless we are not ready to turn the page and rewrite the story. And if the story of the country must be rewritten it has to be done by all of us- not a few, but all of us, from the bottom to the top and from the top to the bottom. And the truth remains that there is no amount of sacrifice that is too small or too big to liberate the country from its present seemingly helplessness.

There is always something called choice that makes us to see the brighter side of a situation... Unless, of course, we are not ready and prepared for that choice... And Nigeria would continue to be in a dire strait as long as we see that choice as farfetched... We do not want this, do we?

Nothing to see. He is a political gonner.

wow..in another news check my signature,its legit

I pray this year, 85% of politicians(entirely corrupt) should ........

A) Die

B) have Incurable illness.


Click 'Like' for A and 'Share' for B