Dear Segun,
You probably expect another sermon from me but that is not my intention this time. The prevailing gloom over the nation makes such diatribe inappropriate. It would be callous to make you feel there is something wrong in you that occasion the hardship and stagnation faced by your generation. How could one justify an employer who owes his employee half a year’s salary; or how could one conceivably blame the employee for lack of motivation? How could competent and dedicated workers be blamed for the termination of their employment when it was just one of those unforeseeable management decisions? Who is to be blamed for what is a total failure of leadership in both the public and private sector?
The truth is that our nation is going through a mid life crisis; we are at crossroads not knowing whether to go backwards, or forward, whether to uphold the ideal of a dysfunctional union or regress to the incendiary urge for schism and secession. I have given thought to this and can only find apt words from the written thoughts of my friend and mentor, the MAP. On navigating such crisis, he writes:
‘’ it is written that weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning, but the question is what is morning? Is morning simply when the day breaks and darkness gives way for light? If that’s the case why then do we refer to 1am as morning when it is still very dark? The night time is associated with weeping because it symbolizes that time in your life where you are robbed of freedom to exercise your liberty; to live the kind of life you want to live, eat what you want to eat; go where you want to go and do what you want to do. The night time is associated with oppression and the dictionary defines oppression as the denial of a person’s right. At such times, you may choose to confess positively but what you are saying has no relevance with what you are seeing. You have done all you are supposed to but it’s still dark in your life. You are in the morning of your life but it’s still dark. In fact, nothing seems to get better because the darkest part of the night is the hour just before dawn.
So we hope even in the face of these dark and challenging times. Yes, did not our model Christ Jesus himself endure his own dark hour of crises by focusing on the joy set before him? We must take hold of the picture of our desired future as the most enduring amour against the harrowing circumstances of the present. It is not escapism. It is living hope. It is how we express our trust in God by refusing to let go of the colorful future he has promised us.
Perhaps then it is a good idea to dress up before the mirror, even if one is in between jobs, or have had to skip one or two meals, and say the most unreasonably nice things to oneself and about ones future. That my dear Segun, is the competent response for these trying times. Hope after all is the mother of faith and we know mothers never say die.
Credits to Dr. Chiefo Ejiofobiri for extracts fron his book, Living by Design.