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Do we really need much to be alive and happy?
The Insight by Lateef Adewole
Whenever I look at the desperation with which people now pursue money, the extent to which they can go, the amount of sacrifices they can make, the quantum of risks they can take, and the level of obstacles they are ready to surmount, I get flabbergasted. I wondered what exactly could be driving them to such extents.
All in the name of getting rich, the society has become polluted with all kinds of heinous activities. On a daily basis, stories break out of how a fake “madman or madwoman” was caught with human parts of people he or she had killed for rituals. We are inundated with how a commercial bus filled with passengers disappeared.
We hear news of how people were kidnapped for ransom, how friends and family members used one another for sacrifices to earn riches, how young boys, many of school age, were eating feaces as rituals in order to become quickly rich rather than taking the longer route of hard work. They graduated to this when defrauding innocent people as yahoo-yahoo was no longer fetching enough cash.
People who work hard are now the laughing stock of our society, they are the “dullards”, because, they live the more miserable lives in the ranks of the society. Consequently, many who had the guts also ventured into another easier avenue with lesser risk, politics. Those who were unfortunate; got their hands burnt and lost out. Those who were fortunate joined others to begin siphoning public funds for personal aggrandisement.
They steal so blindly like it was going out of fashion. They steal everything “stealable”; workers’ salaries, pension funds, infrastructure funds, allocations for education, for healthcare, resources earmarked for the benefits of all, including children, even they steal from Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) and for what? Wealth accumulation for self satisfaction? Then I wondered how much is really required for humans to be alive and even be happy?
So, I went into a trance, into a journey into a world of all possibilities, where the only barrier between me and my desires is to “think” it. There in it, whatever I want, I thought of it and I had it immediately.
I lived my life all over again and extrapolated into my future…. my dreamed future.
There I had all my desires being granted. Growing up in the best of situations, wonderful homes, family, great education. I grew up into a beautiful life. Married to a sweet woman, bore great kids.
With enormous wealth at my disposal, I built mansions all over the place, in different parts of the country and the world. After which there was still endless expanse of land on earth.
I acquired all kinds of luxurious cars, travelled in convoy, but unfortunately, I could only sit on a single seat, in one of the many cars at a time. The remaining seats were still empty or occupied by other people.
Looking at the sky, seeing how birds were flying and navigating it, I envied them. I decided to be like them. I purchased the latest ultramodern “bird in the air”; a supersonic jet, with the best of comfort. I flew around the world. After I became jet-lagged, I returned back to the ground, from where I left in the first place. I could bear it no more.
Water occupies more space than land. I must see the end of the oceans. Hoping on the latest luxurious ship, I felt I had to compete with the fishes. I travelled from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean. I kept going on and on, for days, weeks and months, until I was eventually sea-sick. I retreated back to the land. I could not see the rivers’ end. I was Disappointed!
I returned back to my home though to enjoy my luxuries. There were all kinds of assorted meals and drinks. I ate and ate till I had my fill. I drank till I could drink no more. Looking over the table, I realized there was still food and drinks everywhere. There is actually a limit to what my stomach can take at a time. I painfully realised.
How else do I need to enjoy my wealth, so I thought endlessly following each one until I exhausted all avenues. Then it hit me that money is not everything, power is. Like it said in the book: The Godfather, that “power is sweeter than sex”. I needed to acquire power, either peacefully or forcefully, by hook or by crook.
Knowing that we are in a democratic dispensation and that every politics is local, I stepped out to join my favourite political party at my ward. Since I already have so much money, I can get whatever position I desire. To be closer to my people, I started as a councillor.
Realising how uninfluential I was, I needed to become the local government chairman, which I easily got. Now I was controlling the entire LG but I couldn’t tell my neighbouring LG people what to do and what not to. I needed to become the state governor. With the extent of my wealth, no one dared to stop me. I paid off all the state party executives, I bought-over all the delegates and got the ticket to contest as the party candidate.
With my financial war-chest, no one could beat me at the poll. Citizens were already impoverished and hungry, all I needed to do was exchanged their votes for a paltry token, that was enough for them to sell their destinies for four years. What a world to be Governor. I was then a lord in my state. No one dared to challenge my authority. My words were laws. I continued like this for eight years. I was a constituted authority by all accounts.
However, my power was still constrained only to my state. I could not give orders to people from other states. Why control only one when I can control 36 states and the federal capital? So, I thought. Then began my scheming to become the number one citizen in the country- The President!
As my second term as a governor began, I started reaching out to my governor-colleagues, party executives at national level as well as party leaders and chieftains. I was always present in all their functions, to which I usually donate generously, even though I was owing workers my state many months of salary arrears. They should understand and be patient with me. It is due to our bad economy.
In the pre-election year, I made my intention public, and it was well received among my political elites, after all, I had been wetting the floor ahead since, it was time for me to walk on watered ground (“eni ba d’omi s’iwaju, a t’ele tutu”). The party ticket was for me to take. My campaign was massive. Money was not a problem. I won the election. I am now the president. All the powers in the country lies in my hand.
It was good to be a governor but it was the best to be the president! Wait a minute, isn’t my power limited to my country’s territory? Oh no ooo, not again! I was downcast. Well, half a loaf is better than puff-puff, as they say. Let me enjoy this while it lasts. Like a blink of an eye, first term of four years has ended. Now, we are in the second term. Ah! Everything is gradually moving to an end.
Then finally came, my dreaded moment of handing over power to another president-elect. Looking back as I was being eased out from the seat of power, tears rolled down my cheeks, which I quickly hid from my driver and orderly. Does it mean I am no longer powerful? Now I am back to where I began; my state of powerlessness. What a life. Vanity upon vanity, all is vanity.
During this my odyssey, was I really happy? I asked myself rhetorically. I reflected on how excited I always was at the thought of doing a new thing for self-satisfaction. I also remembered how quickly the excitement fizzled out once I had started doing them. So, what really gives true happiness, I wondered?
Does it mean that in all that I desired, there was a limit to all I needed to be alive? The reality dawned on me that not much was really needed to survive. I then woke back to life, to the real world, to the reality of my world.
The above narration was to call the attention of everyone to the true reality of our world.
Those who sincerely work so hard to make so much money, even at the expense of their health, relationships, families and friends, should know that, there is only so much that money can buy.
For those who take the shortcuts, the paths of evil to enrich themselves will find out that, you actually do not need as much as you thought, to be alive and happy.
To the people saddled with the responsibilities of others, who are entrusted with political leadership of our nation at all levels, who desperately wanted to take everything, steal for themselves, for their children and their unborn generations, while the citizens languish in hunger and wallow in poverty.
Let me burst your bubbles; all that you acquired and still acquiring, (to the extent that you are richer than the whole country, and not just a state), which you think you owned, sorry, they “truly” do not belong to you, for there is actually a limit to what can benefit you. The power, fame, wealth, mansions, cars, private jets, yachts, and so on, that are desperately sought after, are all fleeting. They will either leave you or you will leave them. They will belong to others eventually, whether you like it or not. It is not your choice to make.
It is time for all to take a sober reflection, to do a self re-examination, self-evaluation, self assessment, and sincere introspection, to decide the course of our lives. What do we truly want in life? What do we want to be remembered for? What really make us happy? How much do we really need for us to be alive and happy?
A word is enough for the wise!
May God continue to guide us a right.
God Bless Nigeria.
Lateef Adewole is a political analyst and social commentator can be reached by email lateefadewole23@gmail.com or via WhatsApp +2348020989095 and @lateef_adewole on Twitter
