Follow Us on Google
I like disappointment. No, I love it. A thousand and one disappointments are actually blessings disguised like anathema. The bigger the disappointment, the sweeter the ensuing testimony.
Life is a potpourri of ups and downs. No power, no prayer, no religion, no lifestyle, no knowledge, no wealth, nothing, can stop that natural seesaw because life is wired so. None of life’s three seasons (birth, life, death) is devoid of joy and pain. We rejoice and we cry: that’s life!
Those who don’t want to die before their time approach life with an open mind. Those of us quarantined in this school of thought know life is no bed of roses. Sometimes, it shines; at others, it pours. Knowing life can jolt anyone, anytime, we expect the best, but plan for the worst.
We’re never carried away while all goes well. We’ve inoculated ourselves against life’s mischiefs: disappointment, demotion, betrayal, loss, name it. Life’s setback is not only a constant, it is also for most people the best reminder they are neither mates with the Creator nor do they possess all the aces. Meaning: setback is medicinal; setback is good for every living thing!
Furthermore, if you are desperate to prove natural love, setback is a better thermometer than good times. Your friends shall always be friends with you when your going is good, but when the going gets tough only the tough in even your family stay true. That’s another reason nature factors in setback into our very existence. Be happy that people walk away when life happens to you: it’s nature at work, depopulating your fake crowd before relaunching you!
Setbacks are also an opportune moment for you to read and hear what people really think of or wish for you. Most politicians and women and youngsters would readily connect with this, as they may have had an ad hoc experience. Pay attention to every literature or communication about you, the moment you are down. Only don’t fret; rather, glean the lessons.
For me though, the best function of a setback is its intrinsic golden opportunity for peremptory self-appraisal. When we fail or fall, or are felled by someone or people we trusted, we should examine and reexamine ourselves and our roles. That way, we preemptively take care of a recurrence or something worse. Blocking a disappointment is a huge blessing.
Alas, the problem with setbacks is not the setbacks themselves. The problem is the response. Do you see setbacks for what they are: a temporary (not terminal) challenge? Or, are you easily consumed?
I have been feasting on the foregoing since news broke that Gov. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State, in northwestern Nigeria, had finally been man enough to act out his plan of four, five years. Thin-skinned men like him should hold no power, no office. But, there again, bold men like Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II should not serve under some politicians. I am irritated by Gov. Ganduje’s pettiness but excited by Emir Sanusi’s dethronement.
As those who love the former Central Bank governor (and those who don’t) have realised, this is one local dethronement that instantly attracted global enthronement. What the heck was the world-famous and world sought-after first-class economist and banker even doing in a little part of this country? Well, I take that back: the quickest way to change the world is not on the world stage but by everyone changing own corner. Muhammadu Sanusi II in the six small years he served as Emir of Kano added the kind of local, national and international value a millionth of which Alhaji Ganduje in eight years of his Kano governorship would not.
Mr. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (he should revert to this name) is a global Nigerian. I may not share his religion or always agree with what he does or says but there’s no gainsaying the fact that this man has through his extensive bank work, dexterous CBN leadership, unbridled anti-establishment frankness, uncanny depth and memorable, even if spasmodic emirship, added monumental value worldwide. That’s why the world has sustained the standing ovation he got on March 9, 2020, anyone else should have received boos and jeers. Public servants must remember judgment day!
As for the tiny minority of Sanusi haters and conspiracy theorists who laud Gov. Ganduje’s inferiority complex-induced action, I am happy for you as your criticisms prove that Mr. Sanusi is human, after all. His truckloads of mistakes, past, present and future, cannot make him less respected and wanted by the world. For one, I have not forgiven him for removing Mr. Barth Ebong from office just like that, but that’s that. If as you speculate, the dethronement is his presidential ambition taxiing, so what?
On the heels of his unceremonious removal as CBN governor by then President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr. Sanusi, in a BBC interview, swore never to become a politician: ‘I am not ready, I don’t want it and I’m not interested (in politics). I feel that if I go into politics, it would destroy everything I have done. I cannot survive one year in that space. I think it takes a particular type of skill to be a politician and I don’t have those skills.’
Although 2023 presidency is for South-East to start or South-South to complete their eight years, I have nothing against ‘the emir of Africa’ contesting: it won’t be the first time a Nigerian changed his mind or ran against zoning. In any case, a President Sanusi would have no qualms with own team members critiquing his administration openly and frankly. Which reminds me of Gov. Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State: in three years of my team and I broadcasting 13 hours weekly for him and despite presenting the programmes in a nongovernmental way (including playing host to very critical elements of the opposition All Progressives Congress), not once has he complained. It is men like him who practise political inclusion and tolerance that this country needs, going forward.
God bless Nigeria!
