20 April 2020
More often than not, I have preferred to have reservations when it comes to contributing to trending issues, especially relating to Politics and National discourse, given the influx of diverse views that makes one's view almost unnoticeable.
I forbid myself from rejoicing over a man's death — not even an enemy, talk more of a man who had not only grown old in age, but also to the zenith of his career, even as there would have been more to achieve if death had not called upon him.
As I hope Allah rewards him for all his good deeds and grant him the highest of ranks in Jannah, I equally pray that those of us alive also live long enough to fulfill our purposes here on earth.
In my slightly more than two decades of existence, I have witnessed Nigeria as a country make laws that seem to be binding on individuals based on their social class, with such having little or no effect on the elites, especially if they stand by the stronger side of the divide.
A few weeks ago, Funke Akindele was arrested, stripped of her ambassadorship, and prosecuted for not observing social distancing during her husband's birthday celebration, just like many other Nigerians living in cities that are observing total lockdown have been maltreated by officers of various Security Agencies, given their failure to stay at home, even though in many cases, one can certainly tell that "Hunger Virus" is the force that drives them away from home.
It will make you laugh and scream for all the wrong and right reasons as to why so many persons attended the late CoS's burial earlier today without observing social distancing. I mean a law made by the same Government. Quite an hypocritical way of implementing laws.
We all want to leave legacies. We all crave for meaning in our lives. Yet, we fail to understand that meaning in life comes from the contributions we make beyond the self — that, it is those contributions that become legacies.
Such will definitely not be gotten when it'll be remembered that your unnecessary compromises endangered the lives of many of your country men. That even though we understand the 'ubiquity of politics,' such would have better been kept away from issues relating to the lives of your citizens.
But what else can we do other than to wail? After all, it is advised that the weak surrender, and the unfortunate succumb, for what is offered is what is best.
Emmanuel Awor writes from Calabar, Nigeria.
