Of course, that’s not from me. By the grace of the Almighty, that shall never be from me. I am quoting someone with whom I was discussing money last Wednesday. How money or the lack of it immersed this otherwise lighthearted person into such despondency in a matter of nanoseconds left me so distraught. Consequently, this entry comes to help those in the same pit.

About the caption: because I know you -Dear Reader- I mischievously, vehemently refused to render it in quotation marks. I knew you would hurry to read the bad news thinking I’m the ‘so so sad’ culprit. I caught you red-handed. You see your life?

But, seriously, until my mischievous part raised its ugly head and mouth, and won the cold debate, the title I thought most appropriate for this piece was: How human beings waste emotions. What do you think? By the way, anyone seeking the meaning of emotions should, please, get a dictionary. The brief of this piece doesn’t include that.

Human beings are a wasteful lot. We waste everyone and everything. My research left me with a long, long, long list. Check it out.

In no order: we waste air, we waste water, we waste blood, we waste time, we waste food. We waste space, we waste opportunity, we waste thoughts, we waste plans, we waste wealth. We waste help, we waste advantage, we waste  excellence, we waste brotherhood, we waste womanhood. Just so that sparks up no gender war, I hasten to add: we waste manhood, we waste religion, we waste authority, we waste reason, we waste energy -human, electrical, etc.

There’s part two: we waste money, we waste wisdom, we waste knowledge, we waste ability. We waste relationship, we waste friendship, we waste partnership, we waste unity. We waste capacity, we waste commitment, we waste connection, we waste custom. We waste content, we waste gift, we waste material, we waste loyalty -up and down.

We waste submission, we waste leadership, we waste justice. We waste freedom, we waste strength, we waste health. We waste monstrosity, we waste wizardry, we waste blessing. We waste popularity, we waste notoriety,  we waste value -of nuisance, of intimidation, etc.

And, there’s part three: we waste life, we waste death. We waste love, we waste hate. We waste virtue, we waste vice. We waste joy, we waste tears -like the person who gave us the caption.

You would think someone dear had died. Or that news of some terminal disease had been received. Alas, it was just about money; not billions nor millions let alone trillions. ‘Gosh,’ the person was ‘so so sad’ because mere half a century of naira was delayed in transit.

While I ponder what waste of emotions could be more disappointing, permit me confirm that we waste doubt, we waste trust. We waste criticism, we waste praise. We waste truth, we waste falsehood. We waste looks, we waste emotions -of sadness, of anger, of fear, of courage, of humility, etc.

In the near future, we shall return to dwell on these and others such as waste of the earth, of season, of office, of plenty, of lack, etc. But for today, let’s treat how we waste emotions and pay dearly for it. It’s human nature to own sadness, anger, humiliation, disappointment and frustration, when we know they destroy life. Thankfully, we can help ourselves.

Stop internalising every little contrary experience, expectation or remark. Stop allowing every little circumstantial, situational, spasmodic negative breeze to foul our mood and, therefore, life. Stop making our mind to dance cowardly every time we run into inclement weather. Stop living as if our very life hangs on 100% success, when in fact 10% might be all we need!

Elon Musk’s mind-blowing wealth is a function of hard work, right? Wrong, life is not wired like that. Many people in far-flung places on this planet work harder and smarter and longer than Mr. Musk but they may never record even a quarter of his success. Engrave that in your brain and stop allowing unnecessary competition, comparison and contrastation with others use your mind to play seesaw!

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Start choosing what you see, hear, feel, scent, and, above all, what you say or accept. Start learning and remembering always that you alone hold the key to your permanent joy. Start promising yourself every day never to be own killjoy and to ever ignore extraneous pretenders to such throne. Start telling yourself that although all the vices of life are real, they are not and cannot be your permanent reality.

Speaking for myself, I hate prisons but I love the prison of hope. I am in here for life, feeling permanently high, expectant, healed, healthy and assured. I cannot survive a day in the dingy and suffocating prison of fear, wherein too many are holed up. I don’t waste time on fear.

This mindset is the key. Let thunder roar and strike; let waves roll and fall. Even if I get 99 nays, I wait; I don’t fret, I don’t shake, I don’t run away. Well, if I occasionally, mistakenly, do all three don’ts, still, I don’t -I never ever- give up because just as the worst happened I am confident that the best can rehappen -even faster!

So, never ever say that you’re ‘so so sad,’ except you’re so so sure you’re truly, truly and really, really so. Put differently, never conclude until you have become God to know that a miracle won’t happen. Mind my emphases, and note: when you don’t claim hopelessness, your life is better, shinier, cleaner, easier and sweeter. Welcome to freedom, but remember me in your paradise.

God bless Nigeria!

Nigerians vs Nigerians

I know that there’s some unanimity among sections of the masses that the problem with Nigeria is leadership. But, we’ve not had the same set of leaders. Plus, successive leaders always emerge from among followers.

You can infer my point from the foregoing. More than our leaders, the Nigerian citizenry are a greater national problem. Non-governmental Nigerians treat their compatriots worse than governments do.

One evidential storyline should suffice. Last Friday, a sadistic Nigerian sat somewhere and feeling that the blood pressure of 200 million Africans was too normal, attempted to cause panic by fake-raising the pump price of fuel. Immediately, some marketers enforced the fake price regime -in fact, many are yet to revert.

Nigerians don’t love Nigerians. We are too selfish. Everything is about self-enrichment, no matter whether others die in the process.

If that price false alarm had been pro-people, I bet you all fuel stations would have played deaf in the name of not having exhausted the old stock. Now, food prices have shot through the roof. Ditto, transportation and all the other mass deliverables.

National Orientation Agency must rescue us from us. Let’s have a media campaign on patriotism, love and honesty. Nigerians (so-called good people) are too unpatriotic, too greedy and too dishonest.

This is the reason our leaders use us to play chess. This is why our country has remained a global laughing stock for too long. We can change that -and no matter what they cursed us with, we must!