One of the greatest services that any parent can provide for their children is to teach them from the moment that they have the slightest ability to reason and understand, that everything has consequences – good or bad – and whichever one it is, you’ll have to live with it. A question was put to a Nigerian public health physician recently as to whether low income countries will receive the Covid 19 vaccines or not. And will the distribution across the globe be equitable? She was quick to respond that the World Health Organization (WHO) has given full assurance that no country will find itself at a disadvantage. She did however express concern about something else – Nigeria’s logistical capacity to distribute the vaccine once it lands on our shores.
The vaccines so far approved have one thing in common – the need to store them at sub-zero temperatures in order for them to be effective. Now, our society is one that is still battling with the most rudimentary of needs, uninterrupted power supply. Yet again, the failure of successive governments to provide this basic requirement for a meaningful life has exposed us to avoidable risks and ridicule. The consequences of inaction coupled with corruption on the grandest of scales may have come home to roost. Consequences, whether good or bad cannot be avoided, they must surely come. As sure as it is that harvest time will succeed seed time, consequences must surely emanate from the choices we make.
One of the main factors working against our apparent desire to make progress in this society is our penchant to venerate power rather than respect it. Respect means you accord power it’s due in terms of honour, without necessarily allowing that to inhibit your right to speak the hard truth. To venerate power on the other hand, means to equate it to God who can do no wrong even when the opposite is so plain for everyone to see. Both have consequences and there are no rewards for guessing that their results are poles apart.
One of the main factors working against our apparent desire to make progress in this society is our penchant to venerate power rather than respect it
Where there is good governance, patriotism is a natural consequence but in societies like ours, where it’s principally lacking, one will continue to see what one is seeing today; each man looking out for himself and his immediate family only and leaving the society to look out for itself. The word “society” being used loosely here because a community where there appears to be no agreement and there’s little cooperation between it’s people; and where a common vision for it’s future is absent can hardly be called a society in the real sense of the word. Nigeria is one of those funny societies where the most obvious solution to a problem stares us in the face but is largely ignored by those in authority in favour of a more opaque arrangement – one that you really don’t need to be a prophet or a soothsayer to predict will fail. But in their wisdom, that’s the one they will always choose. This is usually the case when you find yourself in a place where other considerations take precedence over getting useful results; where self-serving interests displace the very notion of service. But like I always say, this pernicious attitude is by no means limited to our political space. It’s everywhere. Sadly, so are the consequences.
Covid-19 cases have of recent increased dramatically in Nigeria, while rumour has it that fake Covid-19 negative results are being offered for a fee to inbound travellers at our international airports. Have the morally bankrupt officials involved in this racket taken a minute to consider the implications of their actions? Do such people believe consequences follow actions? Do they realize their actions can actually come back to haunt them by getting infected themselves? Or their loved ones? But as mortifying as this story is, do you know what the saddest part is? Most Nigerians, myself included, are no longer shocked to hear such revelations. In a “one day, one drama” country like ours has become, such things are now common place. The consequences of consistently failing to nip bad behaviour in the bud is more frequent and more outrageously bad behaviour. It’s like the whole climate change thing. Failure by mankind to appropriately alter its behaviour towards nature has depleted the gases given the job to protect us and maintain the ecosystem’s delicate balance. The result has been ever increasing natural disasters the world over. Except for uncle Trump, how many will still dispute that in this case, the chicken has certainly come home to roost? The fast fading black and white areas which used to anchor us morally as a people and the ever expanding grey area that has flung anything resembling some sort of moral code out of the window has brought us to where we are today.
Christian D. Larson once said, “To keep any great nation up to a high standard of civilization there must be enough superior characters to hold the balance of power, but the very moment the balance of power gets into the hands of second-rate men and women, a decline of that nation is inevitable.”
Our dear country is long overdue for a rebirth, and we have all been called to midwife it. No exceptions. A good place to start would be to acknowledge that all actions will produce their logical consequence. As we wind down the year 2020 and prepare to enter 2021, it would serve us well to always keep collectively desirable results in view when making choices. It may sound banal and not “sharp” considering the society we live in but then, that’s where Einstein’s wise words should come to the fore. “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Here’s wishing our esteemed readership a joyous, prosperous and fulfilling year ahead.
Changing the nation…one mind at a time
