LIAR! LIAR! PANTS ON FIRE!

Some Men would argue that the average modern Woman is a liar. Why? Do I need to start? False hair, false lashes, face-changing make up, false finger nails, excellent wonder bras, 3-6 inches addition to height, packed love handles in some tight spandex that produces an hour glass shape to mention a few. And if you call all this lies, then well, Women are so used to living this way, it has become the truth for them. They call the hair extensions “my Peruvian hair” and use words like “my nails, my lashes” etc. Hardly would any Woman agree that they are indulging in a life of falsehood. I guess I can say the same for Lance Armstrong.

It was amazing how people particularly the global society turned down their noses at Armstrong last month. It is my perception that a large number of people expected him to breakdown and cry during his interview with Oprah Winfrey, beg for forgiveness and give them an opportunity to say “you deceived us for seven years straight and you are asking for forgiveness?” engaging the world in a drama of some sort. He probably knew from the start that forgiveness would not be in the offing once he is caught and so he did everything to protect his lie until it became the truth for him. You say his apology appeared calculated. Well, yeah, because if you have told everyone your name is Simon for about 7 years, you get to believe it yourself while the truth is really lodged in a compartment in your brain; a compartment you really don’t want to have access to. You would do anything to protect that lie including bully people who know about it. Unfortunately for Armstrong, his sport had to do with having team mates. If it was a solo show, he probably would have gotten away with it. Like he said, if he did not come back, he would not have been caught.

To ‘do a big lie’ – a giant one that is worth documenting, you must forget your conscience. Not just forget, kill it. This is not an advocacy for people to see Armstrong in a better light, his actions were ‘disgusting’ as one critic I watched on CNN said neither is it an analysis of the act of lying.

If you have ever lied and started off a chain of lies, I admonish you not to turn your nose down at Armstrong. Instead take a sniff at your own scent. I have encountered many who would claim they are one thing and at that moment contradict themselves with their actions. You would hear someone claim to be honest and yet dream about an opportunity to take part in the loot for Nigeria’s treasures. The same man can swear confidently to be a person of integrity. Lying is an act so crafty, sneaky, and sly [sic]. If you put lying into a culture, it would probably get another name like protecting family interest, or protecting ‘our own’.

My advice is not this “Lie and lie until the lie becomes your truth” but that eventually the truth prevails. It always does even if it happens AD as in the case of Jimmy Savile. It may not happen in the world’s view and under the same scrutiny as the cases of Jimmy Savile and Lance Armstrong, sometimes the truth comes as a reality check, karma, and even a spiritual encounter. It doesn’t matter what form the truth comes but it is certainly easier living in truth with yourself and the world (though it might be painful and involve sacrifice).

I see Lance Armstrong as someone who has a very strong personality and has learned to mask his emotions so perhaps he is just quivering on the inside or maybe not. While the dust has settled somewhat on his case, all Armstrong has to do is look at his children every day and he will wish he had done things differently.

GENESIS: LESSONS FROM THE CREATION STORY

God plans

Looking at the order in which the world was created, it is evident that a lot of thought was put into his work. The creator God didn’t command the light just to see if it was the right kind, nor did he try to create the sky before separating the waters above from the ones below. The story of creation tells us that God loves order and he created everything in its own place and in its own time. He had a purpose for everything he created. Everyone on this earth was (is) part of the plan.
Psalm 22:10, Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13, proverbs 3: 5-6


God works per excellence

One of the surest ways to ensure your work is going as scheduled is to monitor and then evaluate. This is certainly something God did according to the creation story. Every now and then, He paused to look at what he had done and it was always good. For one to achieve excellence, one must work according to a well mapped out plan, work at it to the best of his ability and then check to ensure the work is coming out as planned. It cannot be disputed that God did an excellent job in the creation of things, nothing was a mistake, and nothing was patched up because God was tired or out of materials.


God thinks long term (The beginning of Sustainable development?)

When God was creating the earth and all it holds, he didn’t just create the first plants, animals and Man. He also made provision for the next set of young plants, animals and Man. He did his work such that the things he created could continue to bear ‘fruits and multiply’ by themselves. His love for continuity can be seen in the plan that man was supposed to exist with him for eternity. This plan was however disrupted by man’s disobedience to God. God being God, he still found a way: he gave up his Son, Jesus Christ, to die so that man will not be lost but would have a chance to live with him forever.


He had a succession plan

After He created, God gave responsibility of the earth to man. He told man to be fruitful and multiply and gave him control over all. Of course there was a purpose: for man to care for the earth and not destroy it.

I am sure that there are many more lessons to learn from the creation story but the most important one for me is that 'man was created for a purpose'. The skills and abilities we possess were given to us to give glory to God and also demonstrate the love of God to others. If you are using the talents you've been given, God is being glorified in your life. If you are using it to touch the lives of others, then you are actually doing what God has called you to do.

PERFECT JANUARY… OR NOT

I wonder if people do things perfectly in January. I am guessing that it is the month where you have the most motivated people in the world and certainly the most hopeful. Who doesn't want everything right in the first month of the year? Especially after all the prosperity talk of the watch night services, the all-night prayers and candid resolutions made. All the positive vibes can be very catchy; you just want to break into dance from all the positive energy.  A new year certainly brings hope. We certainly do not want to ‘occupy’ anything in January 2013 or any other month of this year and I am praying that here in Nigeria and around the world, there are no natural disasters or man-made ones for that matter. Let’s lock it up in 2012 (I am starting to feel like a preacher. Preach it Sister). The end of something gives a kind of closure to it and the beginning gives a fresh start. It is always refreshing to start all over. If people were given the opportunity to start their entire life again, I am sure many would take it. I might.

Some people say ‘if you start well, you will end well’. If you have lived life as you should you would know that starting something is not an indication that you would finish it. The elements between the start and the finish connect the dots. The human elements include having a good justification for doing something, adequate planning, hard work  and smart work etc, and the spiritual element I know about (that works) is constant prayer (to God almighty). If you find any ‘baba’ or friend that tells you he can do something better, just go watch the really old Nollywood movies. They will inform you of all the possible ways a ‘baba’ can screw you up.

 If your year has not started well (even though day one is not over), do not fret. Just take it one day at a time. My slogan for this year is ‘No pain, No gain’.

I join everyone, with a hopeful heart, to wish you well beyond your imagination.

Happy New Year. 

GENESIS: THE STORY

I recently became fascinated by the book of Genesis; one of the five books of the Pentateuch. The book, which is sourced from the Yahwist and the Priestly source, gives an account of how the earth and all it contains was commanded into existence. Except for those who believe the evolution story and those who choose to believe in nothing, most are comfortable with this version of the creation story. The story is not 'scientific' yet every science finds its origin in God's spoken word. The artistry that God showed in the story is incomparable and almost unbelievable yet you see it everyday you look into a mirror or feel or smell. 

 I started a series on the genesis, the first of which is a summary of the story. The second focuses on the lessons from story with particular focus on God’s process of implementation. The third will focus on what God has been doing since creation and whether or not he moved on to another planet to do same kind of ‘installation’ and if he is indeed still working every day with us here on earth.

The Story 

Once upon a time, the earth as we know it was totally without form; there was no demarcation between the oceans and the heavens. Total darkness engulfed everything. The spirit of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, hovered over the waters. Then God, in his might and power spoke. No, he commanded, “let there be light!” And light appeared illuminating everything in its path. God knew what light was and how he wanted it to be. Before he created this light, surely a lot of thought would have gone into it. He must have had a plan; a master blue print of how everything should be.

When he was done, he saw that the light was good. He was pleased. First, we, humans, a creation he made after he had put certain things in place, have discovered that visible light has a wavelength of about 380 nanometres to about 740 nm with a speed of about 300,000km per second. Scientists like Galileo attempted to measure the speed of light for decades while others studied the behaviour of light and how to use light to make other things. All these things it took man years to achieve, the same things that God, in his infinite wisdom and intelligence commanded into existence in a sentence. Then God separated the light he created from the darkness that existed. He called the light “day” and the darkness “night”. 

Still everything was without form but illuminated. The second day, he created the sky; a dome which separates the water above from the water below. The same way he commanded the light to be so he did with the sky.

Then God commanded the waters to come together so that land, will appear. The waters he named sea. As it is his custom, he stepped back to appreciate his work and his critique was ‘perfect’. He commanded plants to grow. Botanists, have spent their lives discovering and studying plants and their uses. Plants have been known to heal, kill, nourish, provide shelter, protect, and so on. The creator God looked at the living plants and was pleased with what he saw. 

Knowing he had created the sky and light, he went further to create the light in the sky to separate the days from the nights and to show time and season and years. By calculations and years of hard work, man was able to mark the seasons and name them. Man was also able to prepare for planting and harvesting based on the seasons. Man also grew to control the environments in which plants are cultivated making them grow at all seasons. Then he created the two larger lights; the sun and moon.

When evening came, he probably thought about the things he would do next; the action plans on his master blue print. He thought about the animals he wanted to create for the waters; great monsters as well as the gentle creatures of the sea. He thought about their ecosystem and all the details that make a creature to be completely called animal in its existence.  Finally Morning came and God was up and about working again. Speaking his words and showed pleasure in all that he created.

After much labour, on the sixth day, God created man. He wanted man to be like ‘US’ he said.  He had plans for man: to have power over and care for all that he had created. He created man to be like himself, his image, which is different from all other creatures he created. He gave man substance, essence and purpose. He created Man and gave him charge. For the more dangerous animals, still under the care of man, God himself made provision for feeding them. For the birds, he also decided to take care of that himself; perhaps because of the nature of birds to move around without restraint and far out of man’s reach most of the time.

Finally, he looked back at all he had created from the beginning and saw that he had completed all the tasks he set out to do. His blue print became a reality and he rejoiced. He blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a special day.

From this article, you can deduce that there are a lot of lessons to learn about God and the way he did things during creation. Watch out for GENESIS: LESSONS FROM THE CREATION STORY

Building the good society in Nigeria: A vision at best

When we talk about buildings in Nigeria, it is hard not to remember structures that keep collapsing time and time again. I must say from research and listening to people who have been in the government for years that ‘building’ or implementing anything is not our forte. Its been said that we usually have very great policies but the well mapped out cookie crumbles as soon as it gets to the implementation phase.

We have all heard about stories of children who at the age of 3 play the piano so well or athletes who have been trained since childhood and excel with perfection at competitions. Now I wonder, perhaps parents have not done enough to teach their children how to build for others hence we do not have the culture or values associated with building ingrained in our makeup.  On the private level, some people excel in Nigeria. Of course not to the best of their abilities and within the limitations they have yet they still rise like Maya Angelou would say. People want to identify with them because they are successful and before you know it, they are thinking ‘Hey, I can run for Governor, President, you know? I have succeeded in running an empire.’

When you look at the people at the helms of affairs, it would do you good to also look at their credentials. Many of these people have excelled in their private lives but it’s a wonder they cannot translate that private success in public success. What then is missing? Is the society so cursed that it cannot get a road built to a worthy standard? We have people who have the technical and operational knowhow and we also have people who can direct processes to achieve great results.

My perception of missing element is that we do not have people – leaders as well as citizens - who have the fundamental values necessary to build up a good society.

                                        

No one can claim he hasn’t had a dream about something. He must have at least imagined life in better circumstances. I cannot make a statement as profound as every Nigerian having a vision for Nigeria because people hardly even have visions for their lives not to mention for their society at large; living from one day to the next, just existing and surviving. I judge not. But to move this nation forward, to move this nation from being a dilapidated building and renovating it by rebuilding, we need to have:           

•              Leaders who are groomed for the role of being a leader in Nigeria and not ‘accidental leaders’. Usain Bolt did not win his races by stumbling on the Olympics and deciding to give it a try. Sometimes, accidental leaders actually get it right, you only need to look at the Fasholas and Gowons of this world and you will see that although they never started out to fill these roles, when they did assume the roles, they took responsibility and made things happen. Let us reflect deeply on why they succeeded or still succeed. My take is they've got values.

•       Citizens with values. That is the missing element in our country. The actions of a person will definitely showcase his values. A leader who has strong values and lives by them is likely to achieve more success than a leader who makes up his values as the situations arise.  If a President has good intentions and is working hard to make sure things work, his success is largely dependent on his executives, ministers etc. If these people do not have values, forget it! A wise President is one who would select his team carefully, not based on political affiliations but on the ability to execute, strong work ethics, shared vision for the Nation and so on.

•       Capable leaders who do not spend their time insulting the every effort of the President and his team whether they are doing a bad job or not. People on the side lines are usually the people who criticize. Criticism is good if it is constructive but when it’s about insults and encouraging young people to ridicule the authorities that be…let’s just say, in the future, you do not want such people at the helms of affairs again whether they have succeeded in the past or not.

At this point, I am thinking that we need to train young minds, like al-Qaeda does train its young soldiers or suicide bombers, wiring and rewiring their minds to know what values are, coaching them to be leaders of thought and preparing them for life as we know it in Nigeria. Maybe then, we can learn to build a good society. As it is, all we can have of a good society is a vision at best. 

WHOM SHALL WE FEAR?

In the wake of the bomb blasts in the North and road accidents in the South, the crashing of the Dana Air craft still came as a shocking reality. Most Nigerians, of course with the exception of boko haram and their sponsors, have had their hearts constrict at the news of the bomb blasts. Then along came the dark clouds that gave us a black Sunday on the 3rd of June 2012. Hearts were broken I tell you. Broken hearts then turned to fiery stones ready to burn anyone affiliated to air travel.

The country has become a fierce inferno and with Asa, the funky musician, I can sing “there is fire on the mountain” but with a slight modification since the only few people running around are the families of the victims of the bomb blasts and crashes. The rest of the people are sighing, lamenting, cursing, avoiding, scampering – which reminds me of what the Holy bible says about those in hell. Nigeria – A hell on earth? The President and his people are apologising, visiting crash and bomb sites, firing top officials and hiring new ones, working on population control, listening to tapes in the House and getting vexed at Otedola and trying to see if Farouk is worth saving and praying as well.

For security sake, I wonder where we can hide in Nigeria. Almost all major roads are dangerous – filled with pot holes, cracks and devilish humans with the aim of robbing and killing. If you decide to go by train, where they exist, there is the possibility of the tracks being washed away by the rain as it currently happened along Ogun state. If you think about ferry rides, don’t forget to think about your will for you do not know when the tides will be high and toss everyone into the waters and thus you would become one of the statistics of the harsh realities of life in Nigeria. Wait a minute! The best route is to go through the air for those who can afford it. Don’t hold your breath too long; I can hear you thinking “what if something goes wrong with the plane? You never know.”

You run to the South because the North is hot with the passionate boko haram who managed to learn the western art of bomb making but hate western education. You run from the country’s capital because the bomb happenings are now at the very central Wuse II where you pass through sometimes. You run to Lagos? Because there are no bombs? Well, the rain is carrying people away, the traffic is reducing your quality of life, the water-logged streets are spoiling your vehicle and the stress is just too much.

Where will you find succour? You want a visa? To where? Little do you know that it is not exactly green on the other side. So you have decided that there is nowhere to go and you want to make a change in your Society? You start with cursing the president and mocking his cabinet? Let me remind you that all these things started way before Jonathan came into power. Go and ask Obasanjo or IBB, they will tell you. So you agree it’s a foundation problem. I agree also but what do you do? You call on a National Sovereign conference because you want out and you do not mind cutting off the boko haram-laden states. Have you thought about the consequences of such a conference? There is so much to fear. I can calm you down but please switch on the lights for I will read to you a passage from the book of Psalms…Shoot! There is no electricity.

WISDOM AND THE THEORY OF THE SIDELINES

Have you ever tried looking at a lady from a distance? If you are a man, the chances that you have is a hundred percent – the same goes for women also. The lady in question might be beautiful or maybe not, but you will surely have something to say about what you have observed. At the same time, you cannot be absolutely certain of what you have seen from a distance. Her blouse might be cream but the reflections of the street lights around her make it look like gold. Her hair might be purple but what you see is black. And if you make the mistake of drooling over what you think you are seeing, you are in for a shocker when you finally step up to her, if at all you do. And if you don’t, you walk away dreaming of the black hair goddess dressed in gold. That is a picture of being on the sideline. You do not get to have the facts. You only think you have it and your actions are then based on your false thinking.

Now, if indeed you walk up to the lady, you could easily see that she is beautiful, of course, this is subjective but to a large extent you can tell that she is easy on the eyes. You can also see her cream blouse. You might not see her purple hair if you are color blind, but you can mention that her black hair is lovely and she might giggle at you and say ‘silly, its purple.’ However the story goes, you have come closer, you have made a better assessment, asked questions but most importantly you have your facts right. Now, that is a wisdom that cannot be compared to the wisdom of the sideline.

It is very easy to stand on the sideline to comment. Ask the guy sitting glued to the television cursing a football player for making the wrong move. You can never enjoy such wisdom on the pitch if you are asked to play the game. Ask the President of Nigeria what it feels like to be in the pitch. Ask the person who gets the statement ‘if I were you, I would…’ every time he makes a decision that has an effect on others. Ask yourself also for you have been on the sideline and on the pitch at some time in your life.

My dictionary defines the sideline as a place for uninvolved people and the example it gave was that you can always get opinions on any subject from the sidelines. If you are not involved in anything then you can never be an authority on anything. Quit being a sideliner! Get on the pitch! We can definitely use more guys (referring to both sexes) on the pitch, playing the game, helping to make our dear country better.

Next time you decide to open your mouth to make a comment, critical or not, it is imperative that you have your facts right. This is even more important these days where most people are connected globally by the web and a mass reaction, calm or volatile, can be initiated within seconds of pinging or touching your mouse pad. You could destroy or you could create just by a click. When next you hear that a girl turned into a snake at the hotel in Warri, do not do as sideliners do – believe hearsay so much that they wanted to burn down the hotel. Instead, use wisdom in deciphering if it is possible to have a snake girl and if your senses tell you to probe further, by all means probe and probe till to you know for a fact that the information you have is right. At that point, you can say whatever you want and anyhow you want to.

Photo credit: http://www.film.com/tv/the-ten-best-tv-characters-according-to-hair#fbid=tgdKVJGgLTR