The person who decides to be a believer or loyalist or follower or servant or spouse must possess humongous deposits of foolishness or childlikeness. If you don’t gerrrit, then forgerrrit. The believer who doesn’t believe like a fool or like a child soon drops out of the fold. The loyalist who is not foolishly or childlikely loyal is performing press-up to defect.
The follower who follows with sense or logic soon unfollows. The servant who questions their servanthood very soon moves on; much like a rolling stone, gathering no moss in the process. The spouse who doesn’t carry on like a fool or like a child starts to nag, soon becomes a frequent complainant to in-laws, the church, etc. and eventually breaks the home. Go and check, nobody who ever played the fool or believed or followed like a child ever got blamed for chasm.
To be sure, being a believer or loyalist or follower or servant or spouse is not child’s play. To be sure, none of these fundamental roles can be played by fools. Alas, to succeed in them you must either play the fool or act like a child from start to finish. Don’t be a fool, only play it; don’t be childish, only be childlike.
Show me one ex-believer and we come face to face with a pretender-in-chief, an arch-enemy, an unrepentant unbeliever ab initio. The believer never disbelieves let alone unbelieves. The believer is never double-minded. The believer is silent when and where the belief is silent.
The believer is a lover who is not interested in seeming loopholes -if any- of the belief. The believer understands and accepts and enjoys making sacrifices in prosecuting the belief. The believer never raises cheeky questions with the intendment of ridiculing the integrity of the belief. The believer is neither cold nor warm; is never lukewarm: the believer is permanently hot; unswayable.
This very next point has already been made but is so critical it deserves a remake. The believer never changes camps, that is to unbelief. The believer who suddenly disbelieves or unbelieves never believed. Anyone who calls themselves a believer who later disbelieves or unbelieves shall rebelieve and thereafter redisbelieve and reunbelieve: and the beat goes on.
Such believers are not believers. They should not be believed. They should not be trusted. They should not be accorded a place on the table of believers so they don’t scatter the flock with their evil unbelievability.
The truth is that the world is in short supply of and therefore in dire need of believers. That is why humanity is totally messed up. Nowadays, people believe from their stomach; not from the heart. Funny how what they call stomach infrastructure is the foundation that holds their belief system.
They are not believers who only believe people who have money or power or both -especially when they pay no attention to how such was obtained in the first place. Even worse, so-called believers who positioned to kill for you when the going was good now playing the exact same role for the new kid on the block, even against you, have always been and shall forever remain unbelievers. They are pseudo-believers, at best. Their belief system is guided only by money and position and self.
Enter the loyalist who easily grumbles about the nitty gritty and the weight and the ingratitude and the blindness and sometimes the unrewardability of loyalty. That one cannot be a loyalist. That one is a human time bomb waiting to detonate. They soon scatter everything and everywhere with tales of how they were used and dumped.
You have heard or read some of those stories that touch, right?
Wrong, they came from idiots who pretended all the way to the throne of loyalty. Loyalty never stores up malice, never regrets, and, above all, never rants. Loyalty internalises hurts, treating them as one of those things of life that one must take in one’s strides.
The loyalist is not an automatic person. They travel a long, long distance to arrive. Don’t be in haste to call yourself someone’s loyalist until you have travelled half the distance with them and still are willing to go all the way. Loyalty is not a 100-metre dash; it is a lifetime marathon; a commitment that cannot be broken even after death!
No, loyalty is not slavery. The loyalist is not a slave. Loyalty is a choice made freely and happily. The loyalist must not be in a hurry to assume the title except when totally and completely and conclusively sure and double sure and -if you like- triple sure.
At this juncture, let’s break some tables with some points that are better left unmade. Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd.) is a Sani Abacha loyalist. Unfortunately, I cannot name one for the Nigerian Martyr of Democracy, Basorun MKO Abiola. His loyalty to humanity and country died with him and his dear wife, Kudirat, the same way the labours of the political and philanthropist hero and heroine remain in vain, clearly.
As for the trio of the follower, the servant and the spouse, as with the believer and the loyalist, every ounce of wisdom they have should be directed at how they can play the fool and act like a child -better and better. This is the basic ingredient they need to succeed. Respect, service and love fail except served playing the fool or acting like a child. It is the failure to play the fool or act like a child that accounts for as much as 95% of the wars, the quarrels, the breakups, the resignations and the divorces you hear or read every other day.
So, dare to be different. In spite of and despite your knowledge and position and connection, play the fool or act like a child as a believer, as a loyalist, as a follower, as a servant and as a spouse. This is the only way that leads to success in these areas of life and it is the only way all other things of life such as trust and love and joy can be added on to you. This is the Word of the Lord.
God bless Nigeria!
2023: What exactly do Nigerians really want?
Don’t Nigerians know that approaching elections as we have been doing forever is the reason our country is where it is? We must stop all forms of selfishness and corruption if we want the next general ballot to add an iota of value to our nationhood. Political parties have never been our problem.
Our problem has always been us. We should stop looking for the highest bidder. We should start looking for who can most fix this stench.
Fortunately, across all the election strata, there exists at least one standard-bearer per office who -by their verifiable antecedents and manifesto- can do the job. Waste no time to hire them with your votes. Leave all other criteria and petty talks that have no impact on the price of fish.
Be warned: 2023 is the golden chance to get back our country. We may not have another opportunity: 2027 may be too late. Show some love for this country: vote conscience or quality in all five elections!
An interesting conversation between time and money
(… cont’d from 24th October)
Dear Time, you can only be your own nemesis. I don’t play in the same league with you, how then can you be my nemesis?
We are making progress, my friend, Money: I’m glad you have conceded that while I ply my trade in the premiership, you wallow in the championship. We are not mates and can never be: with me, people acquire you; with you, they never can me.
You are right, Time: you are just inexhaustible. You are the life of both life and death: you never stop counting.
Come here, my child, and sit by my side. Many thanks for coming to your senses, realising your place in the global calculus and publicly admitting it.
I had no choice having come to the understanding that you were present even before the beginning; long before God created Adam. Whereas I only came along -long, long after, and as man’s creation.
In closing, Money bowed to Time and both shared a handshake and hug of honour. As everyone cheered and clapped in the ensuing standing ovation, with Money joining in, Time walked-ran to the stage to take the throne and that final salute!
(… concluded)