What is the point of sense?

The flight from Uyo to Lagos and the subsequent road trip to Ibadan, last Friday, left this writer of life on a philosophical leash. I still have not been able to shake free. Really, what is the point of killing yourself for people who shall, upon taking over the yam and the knife, show you shege? What is the point of favouring the worst of the pack when they would at maturation turn against you in the worst way possible?

What exactly is the point of dying for honesty and truth when life only rewards dishonesty and falsehood? What is the point of building or gathering for those who would, upon succession, destroy or scatter everything? What is the point of sponsoring someone who is planning evil against you? What is the point of going all the way for idiots, ingrates, misfits, nincompoops and fellow scoundrels who would not cross the street for your sake?

The foregoing is a rhetorical battery but I need you to say something. I need you to attempt answers to yourself. Yes, answer all of the above to yourself. All of the above and more:

What is the point of help when the same helpee who, upon arriving a better place would, never give the same helper the same help? What is the point of it all if the helpee would use the accruals from the same help to seek to nail the same helper? That is, what is the point of digging your own grave with your own hands all in the name of helping those I call magma fools, magma idiots, magma ingrates? Someone should please tell me: exactly what is the point of trusting Satan when you know his eternal assignment is to steal; after that, to kill; and finally, to destroy even his helper by?

What is the point of believing unbelief? What is the point of condemning those not given to suffering fools gladly? What is the point of pursuing sainthood in this sinful world, which abhors anything good? What is the point of being different when 99.99 percent are hypocrites?

What is the point of bestieship or friendship? What is the point of desperately working to have and to guard a good name when your so-called friend would, over something she is only half informed, move like an enemy to destroy that reputation? What is the point, someone please talk to me, of having friends when they -not enemies- are really our only problem? What is the point if you only enjoy the benefit of the doubt from enemies alone; something those you call bosom friends never contemplate let alone act out?

What is the point of seeking excellence when all they do is reward mediocrity? What is the point of enduring the rigours when you and I know that the process of selection had been concluded even before it started? What really is the point of trusting a process which does not exist, a process that has no life? What is the point of exerting all that energy when everyone knows it is an exercise in futility?

What is the point of education when illiteracy reigns supreme? In my country, university geniuses get far below N50,000 as prize money for graduating tops while the not so-learned get hundreds of millions and sundry mouthwatering gifts from big brother (who may not be that big, though). You all know what those small brothers and sisters do to earn such monstrous cash, don’t you? Well, they only have to spend 90(?) days or so locked up and on live global television to curse, to eat, to fight, to get drunk, to gossip, to sleep, and to have sex and voilà!

But, seriously, what is the point of help that buries or diminishes or kills the helper or the helpless? What is the point of feeding a dog that will soon abandon or turn on you? What is the point of fighting a cul-de-sac cause? Just exactly what is the point of sense in this senseless world?

What really is the point of humility when arrogance is accorded uncanny honour and respect? What is the point of life when all we do is wait to give befitting burial rather than support the years via befitting living? What is the point of patience when both the bone and the flesh had long been handed to the impatient dog? What really is the point of all this ego when it eventually vamooses like gas?

We can only hazard a few guesses. One is that, being human we only know or see or understand in parts. Almost always, we never have the vantage concomitant with the big or whole picture. Man only knows or sees or understands in parts: man cannot tell what happens the very next second, not to mention the very next day, the very next week, the very next month, the very next year, the very next decade.

Two, every man gives only such as he has. Helpers shall always help while selfish helpees or traitors shall always be themselves. I am always going to help plus including those I know would never help me at my darkest moment. You see, every man is wired by nature: differently, variously.

Three, too many people are incurable optimists. Some marry, say, alcoholics, because they pray and believe that such spouse will drop the habit once husband or wife. Many dive into deals with people known for their shiftiness because they believe they have changed or that they cannot do it to them. Others put themselves in harm’s way because they believe a lie and pooh-pooh the truth.

Four, too many people do not bloody care about consequences or outcomes. They just do what they have to do. They help or promote whoever and whenever their mind tells them, per time. Even with their inner man forewarning them!

Five, help me welcome those brought down by fifth columnists who may be family members or prophets or such other false purveyors. Yes, many people helped many of their eventual nemeses just because a family member or two or prophets or allied seers who see absolutely nothing (beyond their nose) connived to deceive them. The one who has been deceived with God’s Name to empower Satan is blameless -in the sight of God. The brunt is borne by workers of iniquity.

Six, there is a class set aside for those I call intentional fools. They know nothing, they see nothing, they understand nothing, but they believe they know it all, they believe they see it all, they believe they understand it all. So, they go all out -arrogantly, noisily and stupidly- and get either completely finished or finished completely in the process. Sssh, they deserve no pity: for they know what they do.

Seven, some people believe God has called them to help even the fake poor. They forget that Jesus Himself told His disciples the poor shall always exist. That profound statement means no matter what poverty alleviation showiness we display, there shall always be need to do more. Most poor people are like cats at the point of help but, thereafter, they become like lions and eat up their benefactor in order to obliterate the memory of their humble beginnings.

Most of them tend to get away with it. The most daring of them raise the bar by seeking to reinvent their genesis. “My father was this, my mother was that. I used to drive myself to primary school in a Benz.”

Alas, we all come to the same end. The ultimate leveller serves everyone the reality that can neither be altered nor disputed. Rather than gnash your teeth in regret at that time, when it shall be too late, now is the time to retrace and relaunch like someone created by God. There is a huge point in living cautiously, and moderately, and temperately.

God bless Nigeria!