New Telegraph

40 days to Armageddon

Not many days from now our nation will be forced to face certain realities that should have been addressed decades ago. We will finally get to understand that there are universal laws in creation that govern the affairs of this world. A nation, for good example, that stops thinking is like a river that stops flowing.

That river becomes sluggish, dirty, polluted and stinky just as that nation will stagnate, become toxic, corrupt and eventually self-destruct. Hailed as the champion nation of Africa and the Titan of West Africa, it is almost unbelievable that our nation which in the past was known for its robust expressions, indomitable spirit and innovative mind has now resigned itself to a community that champions ‘Duncery.’

‘Duncery’ is a special word that I had to invent because nothing in the lexicon quite captures our present architecture of thought. For starters, we can deduce that the nation of Nigeria has quit thinking because of the position it has now adapted to the universal principles of change.

Everyone knows that “change” for example is a constant even though the consistency with which the sun rises and sets encourages the delusion that things can remain the same in the tide of life. When a nation talks about change but does not understand how change works its ruling classes will resist change by reflex action in the hope that the status quo can be maintained.

This futile position is often translated into inane laws and policies by the institutions of governance whose sentinels capitalise on the fact that the average citizen by nature is resistant to change. It is a proven truth that man by nature resists change and clings to traditions by instinct. The worst position of all is reserved for officials whose job descriptions include the instruction to deny that change exists. The comical verbiage that is spewed into the public domain becomes the talk of town and their catchphrases tend to be remembered long after the administration has been buried in the dung heaps of history. No matter the successes scored by propaganda and even when the people are so distracted that they cease thinking, the wheels of change never stop spinning because “change” always wins.

Change has never lost a game before in the fields of life and Nigeria will be no exception. We are still the hope of Africa and we need to revive our “thinking” culture fast because the window of time is closing. Should we awake from our slumber we would see with clarity that our nation is standing on a threshold that is 40 days from Armageddon. If we can reactivate the “thinking” process in the most populous African nation of the world we would marvel that less than 3% of our population, representing the weakest and most physically feeble, were able to hijack the destinies of more than 74% of our numbers.

It is a fact that those above 65 years of age constitute less than 3% of our national spread, yet this class of dinosaurs houses the meanest, most self – centred and wealthiest predators whose Machiavellian grip is suffocating. These are the personalities who stole our nation’s tomorrow to enrich their yesterday. They have manipulated us to the point where they are prepared to drag the nation into the grave with them shortly knowing that the spirit of death cannot be compromised with dollars and gold.

The best thing we could do to salvage our nation from this class of anachronisms is to focus our energies on ideating the younger citizens who are on the right side of the digital divide. How does it make sense for the enfeebled 3% of a population in a democratic setting to enslave the rippling muscles of youth energy that number no less than 140 million? Awakening a youth population who has been locked in the darkness of ‘Duncery’ is not a mean feat knowing that the average youth would rather carry a bag of cement than attempt to solve a quadratic equation.

Thinking demands sustained focus, cogitation, deep reasoning and meditation but this is not the strength of the “Big Brother” generations. My final plea is for leniency because brute reactions would be counterproductive and that is often the fall back position when desperation sets in.

In many ways we all as Nigerians are all victims without exception and our greatest crime for all time could be that we ignored the universal law that says foreigners will end up thinking for a nation that refuses to think for itself. Right from early days of independence we outsourced our thinking and embraced a position that promoted the predator-prey model received from our masters.

Now that the old programme is falling apart some new foreign predators have hatched another plan for us. Distracted by political actions our old timers are distracted and cannot see that we all are standing 40 days away from Armageddon and only those who are thinking will realise that we will be standing 39 days from Armageddon by this time tomorrow.

Rev. Thompson, Strategic Thought Consultant, writes from Lagos

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