The answer to this critical question may just be the panacea for most human challenges that bedevil our world. Being hard of hearing and known to have a very short attention span, our generation can accentuate life expectancy and quality by fielding this poser honestly. The man or woman or child you listen to can make or mar your life, future, education, finances, business, career, relationship, name it. Like a coin and its two sides, listening is an art akin to a nostrum: medically useless but socially and politically talismanic!
However, before you name whose voice is music to your ears, there’s a fundamental question that you must attempt. Do you listen to yourself? Be careful, a ‘yes’ here is as dangerous as a ‘no.’ If you listen, for instance, only to yourself, you are in the same boat with the person who doesn’t at all.
One who doesn’t listen to oneself is neither human nor alive. Such a one is a walking corpse, a disconnected fuse, a dismembered engine. Such a one does not hear God or if an atheist, does not hear nature; as if God and nature mean differently. God or nature is constantly talking or guiding!
The ability of listening to yourself is a blessing that makes you rich (it is a bulwark that weighs or compares and contrasts extraneous advice) and adds no sorrow (preempts regrets concomitant with failure to listen to self or another). Hearing is an invitation and listening is a choice. People can hear what they don’t want but listen to only what they want; except in extreme cases of force. Listening is a gift, a love act that’s both psychological and spiritual.
Listening far transcends the ear. We also listen and indeed hear with our mind, our eyes, our brain, our being, our touch, our nose, our humanity. The receiver of goodness hears and feels loe. The sufferer of injustice hears and understands hate.
So, who and -if you like- what have you been listening to the most? In Nigeria, it is not too hard to see that nobody listens to anybody or anything good that much. Not only do an alarming majority of our leaders not listen to themselves, they also don’t listen to we, the people. Or, why do they blow chronic puerile lies all over the place?
But, our leaders are not alone. We the people are worse. We don’t listen to self, we don’t listen to us, we don’t listen to the leaders. That’s why you find so much laissez faire in our homes, schools, places of worship, offices, streets, markets, etc.
Just asking for a friend: who does our President (Muhammadu Buhari) or my Governor (Udom Emmanuel) or your Local Government Chairman listen to? Well (since I don’t want trouble) let me accept and concede that these three cannot be found wanting when it comes to the self-listening threshold. Since the quality of leadership is down to the quality of listening, we can tell if they listen and to how much good by looking at the volume of their respective in-office success so far. Generally speaking, leaders conceived and delivered in iniquity (ethnicity, injustice, corruption, religion or politics) rule in iniquity; except deliverance occurs, after persistently listening to top quality.
That is it. Every human being is a reflection of listening preference. A good husband who listens to himself, and checks and balances it per time by listening to the good wife or good mother or good other party shall most likely hit gold. Ditto a good wife who knows enough to consider what her husband thinks about her impending decision.
Good husbands and good wives must be careful, though. By the way, stop grumbling about what I mean by good husbands and good wives; good means good. A couple who are both good don’t need to consult each other if they won’t listen, because almost always consultation without implementation backfires. Anytime I ignore Mrs. BUSH’s advice, I fail.
Alas, listening is not all-positive. No matter how good you are, if you over-listen to nonsense, you would be nonsensified -the way people who play with current get electrocuted. Our world experiences too much of the negative not only because negative people outnumber the positive population ten million to one, but also because the few good people listen more to the many bad people. That’s how listening is wired: you listen to God, you become godly; you listen to Satan, you end up satanic!
With Nigerians either too weak or too passive to stand up to our leaders, perhaps we should work on those we think they listen to; those we blame all the time as the bad people around the good leader. I use ‘think,’ because the way most of our men of power carry themselves, they may not even listen to themselves nor their wives let alone kitchen cabinet members. So, may be our best first foot forward in the circumstance should be to demand to know who and what our President, Governors and Local Government Chairmen listen to. Of course, we also should remind these elected chief executives that they stop being leaders and start being terrorists when their wives or aides are too scared to talk to or with them especially when it’s really necessary!
God bless Nigeria!
What happens to a Nigerian’s brain once in government?
Did you instantly remember some people the moment you read the sub caption? Feel free to confess, because this page has a judicial licence. Rather than wonder what that means, simply hypothesize with poetic licence!
Our history is replete with citizens who changed insanely the day they crosstituted to government from the side of the people. You hear and read people who used to be so reasonable and you wonder if governmental maggots and viruses don’t exist. Are you bothered about this?
What could be responsible for this anomaly? Email me an entry devoid of insults, not exceeding fifty words. Apart from the cause and solution, your piece should reflect something said or done by someone who became a different person once in government (don’t mention names).
You may read the various opinions in our 3rd June, 2019 edition!