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Although the caption tends to say otherwise, this piece is not about me – like that. It is intended for people who are going through stuff. It has only been personalised: one, to make it easy for the reader to own and speak it and, two, because having gone and still going through all manner of stuff myself, I believe that chipping in my experience and story here and there could save or encourage someone.
In football and allied sports, commentators have a peculiar way of capturing a near miss. It’s a gooooooal, but (oh) nooooo. Even non-sport writers and speakers always resort to that cliche to describe similar life situations. Strangely, no one has ever quoted another line, from the same sport register, that is not as popular: it’s not a goal, but (oh) yessssss; it isssss!
Life is unpredictable all right, but no one should forget that although the end of life is death, it is not impossible for death to spring back or give birth to life. A seed dies and then sprouts into all sorts of greenery and fruitage. Humiliate no one no matter how high your office, because nothing is more transient than a tenure. As long as life remaineth, possibility shall never cease to emerge from even nothing!
Granted: the way it is wired, life offers no guarantees. Life preaches you keep right but the guy, you who kept right twenty four seven failed to convert, could live and die better than you. Life insists on education, hard work, honesty, humility and patience but the same life ensures that favour only smiles on the illiterate, lazy, dishonest, arrogant and impatient bunch. 70, 80%, life is a dangerous, double-faced art.
However, you do so at your own peril if you give up on life. 20, 30%, life can be a Daniel-come-to-judgment: an equitable and timeous rewarder. On a good day, life garbages out the exact copy of what you garbaged in. You don’t sow war and not reap Warsaw!
Today, this writer is concerned about life when it turns up this way. Imagine, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole who had fought and figuratively killed and buried Shylock political godfathers in Edo and gone on to enjoy a second helping peacefully in Government House, Benin, suddenly transmogrifying into one himself upon becoming national chair of the governing party. With their uncanny cruelty, just how do Nigerian politicians manage to sleep soundly at night? Fortunately, against the run of play, life forced Godfather Oshio-baba to taste the yoyo bitters he wanted for his godson, Gov. Godwin Obaseki.
As we speak, not only has Mr. Oshiomhole lost his pride of place on the All Progressives Congress hierarchy, his national working committee has been dissolved by President Muhammadu Buhari. That is how life should always play these cards. If you occupy a mansion but are desperate to also take over your sidekick’s maisonette, you should not only fail but in addition lose what you possess. Nigerian politicians, especially those currently holding one high office or the other, had better learn from the catastrophe that the Nigeria Labour Congress former leader has visited upon himself and his political family!
In particular, it is hoped that when God delivers Gov. Obaseki, now of People’s Democratic Party, he shall not post-2023 rehash this dirty dance step. When we help people to office, we should allow them space knowing that at the end they -not we- shall be held accountable. As for the September ballot, life should see Mr. Obaseki through not so much because of his new political party but to teach people like his estranged godfather a lesson to never despise anybody.
Which now brings me to my own story. Since the first week of this month when I marked 27 years on air, one recurring question I’ve been made to field on and off air is when would a Bush House Nigeria radio or television station come on stream? The untold pain that this pressure evinces per time is better imagined than experienced. Most Nigerians work so hard and qualify so well but find ourselves limited or denied by the Nigerian factor.
If those who always pose this question would leave me alone once they know, I applied and fulfilled all the protocol for licence in 2012. On the eve of leaving power, President Gooduck Jonathan -as he then was- came quite close to signing it but. Sadly, with 2020 half gone, things remain as they were. Notwithstanding, I’m convinced that if God keeps Jesus from returning soon, our radio and television stations shall hit the airwaves sooner than the mockers believe.
That’s one. Two, the deriding of women and men suffering delay in marriage, childbearing or success is satanic and condemnable. Human beings should stop playing God. It is never too late for nobody to transform into somebody.
We must remember at all times, as Christians know, that in the Bible God never used any good or big person or thing to do wonders. Every time, He used either someone or something quite bad or small. Saul of Tarsus who persecuted God’s people became Paul the Apostle and did mighty exploits for the same people so much that today christendom recognises him as Saint Paul. Likewise, David was so young that Goliath considered him a joke but who doesn’t know how this precocious adversary messed him up terminally?
Are you being treated unjustly, are you being rejected contemptuously? As you turn to and wait on God, which is my usual reaction, you may further wish to perform my other characteristic rituals. Convince yourself first, before retorting to the despisers, that it is both too early and too late to write you off. Thereafter, brag in God publicly and surefootedly that you are about to break forth.
As for Nneka, Winnie, Ebubeabasi and the rest of The BUSH Clan (you are free to replace that) and me, we shall never ever give up. We know that because our Father is the referee of life, there’s no way the whistle would go without we winning. Let those who have ears hear the word of the Lord: my set time has come. God bless Nigeria!
