Elders of our time,
I am starting today’s article
acknowledging the Elders; this usually done in cultural settings when you are
showing respect to traditional chiefs etc, but may I quickly add, by the virtue
of official and ecclesiastical positions, many young people have become elders.
Every parent wants the best for his
offspring; this is usually seen from the quality of education, feeding and the
opportunities created for them; whereas such parents in a competitive bid do
not do the same to relations, acquaintances et
al. The handling of it is quite personalized at the expense of others.
However, some children of the academia and clergy are on the flip side of the
coin; their parents stake their neck for others while they want outstanding
children who get it all based on merit. It is still the same world of Mine vs Ours!
Mine, at this point, is the
personal handling of one’s immediate family for continuation of the family
tradition and legacy. There is a Yorùbá saying, “Ajá mọ ọmọ ti ẹ̀ ẹ́ fún lọ́mú, t’òdù ọ̀yà ló ń kì mọ́lẹ̀”
which means the dog knows how to breastfeed her pup but harms that of the
grasscutter. We can fill in the gap from there.
Ours is a state of communality
where everybody is dependent on one another. That is when we all see the advantage
of networking and collaborative effort. There are great stories of people who
got into a position of influence and it was used for the community and till
today, all those that got employed through this noble effort recognizes and
acknowledges this contribution to their lives and overall improvement of the community
by creating “wealth” for the individual and his family.
Am pitching my tent today with
those who see the need to create wealth for all; the abandoned people of today
might lead a criminal upheaval against the “settled” ones but when everyone is
rich like my brother does say it, “let’s make wealth together”. Then, we can
all be at peace and there would be no syndrome of one big man made poor by his
six pauper siblings.
Let’s still be for one another!
Regards,
Olu