Nigerians worked hard to ensure that their votes counted in the recently concluded elections. This goes to show that as a people, we can achieve greatness if we set our minds to it and if we have the right push factors working for us. Building a nation has never been an easy task. You only need to read from history to understand that Rome was not built in a day. Our Nation, Nigeria, needs more than building. You can compare it to a ‘Molue’ that has its lights blown and the belly close to the ground groaning as it tries to climb hills. It needs new body parts, repairs and maintenance. Or better still liken it to a lover who has been badly beaten and wounded. She needs to get out of a bad relationship, get healed of her wounds and start making choices that would only bring her good.
To achieve the great Nation that Nigeria deserves to be, all hands have to be on deck. We cannot elect a president and governors and expect them to do everything. The power belongs to the people (not in the PDP kind of way). It is essential to note that with Power also comes responsibility. As a people, everything we do or not do has implications on our society.
Recently, we celebrated the workers day and an important point to reflect on is ‘What are you contributing to make Nigeria a better place?’ We should learn to see Nigeria as our own and not the governments or the minorities who dictate what happens. When you own something, you care for it.
WORK
Our work should be a vocation and not just a job. A vocation is a calling. You should derive pleasure doing what you do. By finding happiness in what you do, you give it everything you have. It was Martin Luther King, Jnr that said “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” Unfortunately, a lot of people have a misplaced sense of what work should be. Our work should be more than just the income it brings and the bills it pays. We spend ¾ of our lives doing our work. If we spend that amount of time doing jobs we hate, we would have a lot to regret at the end. It would be a sad thing to have a lot to regret when we should be celebrating fulfilled lives. Your work should be something you do quite well and with gusto, it does not have to be high paying – a lot of things in life are more important than money. If you ask a younger person, they would disagree but when you speak to elderly people who have gone through life they will assure you that money is not the source of happiness or fulfillment. Everyone who does his work to the best of his ability contributes his quota to building Nigeria.
DIGNITY IN LABOUR
Farmers are people who feed the world, yet Farming is a profession that a lot of people avoid. Nannies are people who bring up children in our society yet they are treated shabbily and with disdain sometimes. These are people who contribute their quota to developing our nation. There are a lot of other occupations that are deemed as non-dignifying, but go a long way to make life better for Nigerians. We need to change our attitudes and start appreciating these people who do ‘odd jobs’. For instance, the street sweeper who does a shabby job, sweeps refuse into the drainage instead of packing it into the garbage truck for disposal at the dunghills. This action would lead to blocking of the drainage, breeding of mosquitoes that cause malaria, contribute to degradation of the roads, cause traffic and hence reduce the productivity of the workforce. Such a sweeper has contributed to damaging the Nation instead of building. We need to take the time to understand the consequences of not doing our work well so that we can renew our minds.
REWARDS
The words from proverbs read “See a man diligent in his duties? He shall stand before kings and not before mean men.” Working hard and working smart is essential for being successful at what you do. Sometimes, even when we have work that we feel great doing, the social vices such as corruption, indiscipline make it hard to achieve much. This leaves a bitter taste in our mouths and brings us to the crossroads: fight and face the consequences or join in if you cannot beat the system. I encourage you to dare to be courageous. If we want to achieve greatness, like the wounded lover, we have to step out of a bad relationship, get healed and start making good choices – no matter how painful they are or the magnitude of sacrifices we have to make.
The last admonition I have is that as a country we need to have faith, not the kind that keeps us on our knees and lays our responsibility on God but faith that would spur us on to action, lead us to the taps of courage and like the bearded Moses of old, bring us to points where we can divide the daunting Seas because anything is possible if we just believe.
