THAT THE CHILDREN WILL NOT DIE IN VAIN

I wish to start by putting on record my heartfelt sympathy for those who lost their loved ones, especially children in the Sosoliso and other crashes.

My condolences also go to parents who lost children in other similar circumstances.

I also pray that God will comfort the grieving parents, husbands and wives and that He will give them strength to bear the loss.

Death? It is intriguing. It is inevitable. It is certain but it is also the best thing that gives a perfect meaning of or definition to life. Just as the day follows the night death and living are inseparable.

In my secondary schools days, one of the poems I enjoyed reading was about death.

The last verses go thus:

Your head must come to the cold tomb;

And only the action of the just;

Smell sweet and blossom in their dust.

In other words, death is certain and unavoidable but the way we live is more important as whatever relics we leave remain long after physical death.

According to Alexander Pope “But thousands die, without this or that. Die, and endow a college or a cat”.

In this connection, life and living is more important than death. That perhaps explains the reason why the best sermons are those that one hears at funeral ceremonies.

What is life about?

Life is about the worship of one true God and service to humanity.

Therefore, death is a lesson to the living. It gives an excellent opportunity to the living to appraise themselves, ask questions about their purpose in life, and the extent to which they have been able to achieve the purpose for which God created them, which as I said earlier is to worship Him.

Looking at our society today with all the cheating, corruption, murder, oppression etc.can we be referred to as a set of people pursuing the purpose for which God created us? How has the blind pursuit personal wealth and social status robbed us of the opportunity of loving our neighbors as ourselves?

This article is not about what went wrong or who is responsible for the crashes. These have been adequately catered for by other writers, newspapers and the stakeholders in the aviation industry.

RECOLLECTIONS

The crash incident also brought memories of the past to me, which I will like to share with you.

Firstly, I remembered a song in the 80’s titled

WE ARE THE WORLD

There comes a time

When we hear a certain call

And the world must come together as one

There are people dying

OH! It’s time to lend a helping hand to life

The greatest scripture of all

We could go on pretending day by day…..

We are all a part of, that great big family

and its true love is all we need.

We are the world (chorus)

We are indeed the world and the grief of any member of our society, (the rich, the poor, the beggar, the lame etc.) diminishes all of us “Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls, if tolls for thee” (John Donne)

Secondly, about three years ago at Dowen College Lagos (my children attended the college), there was a gathering of parents for the purpose of raising funds for the completion of classrooms and the school hall.

Several millions of Naira was raised. Then something unusual happened. Mr. Bode Augusto, then in private practice stood up and requested that just as we, the parents had raised monies for our children, we should also contribute money for the less privileged schools around. He personally donated a hefty sum and since that day I began to respect him.

Although some parents contributed but one thing was clear- most parents could not be bothered about other children as long as theirs were doing well, attending high profile schools and feeding well.

We the Africans of this generation in Nigeria have lost the communal love, which our parents taught us and from which we benefited immensely.

We have gradually turned our society into “me and my nuclear family plc”. However we need to read the thought provoking piece titled Casualty of a Fraudulent Economy written by Sola Enitan and published in THISDAY of 7^th September 2004. It will show to us that no matter how much we run, the rot in our society will catch up with each of us at one bend or the other. So to help ourselves, we need to pay more attention to the society in which we live. This is not justifying anything. It is a statement on the society as a whole!

Thirdly, Yusuf Olaniyonu of THISDAY once wrote a beautiful piece in which he called on the elites to assist in the development of their Alma mater. Only God knows how many of us responded to his call.

Lastly, several years ago, Prof. Babs Fafunwa delivered a lecture at a forum organized by Muslims in which he called the attention of the elites to the pathetic situation of the less privileged in our society. He said that the elites are usually preoccupied with their own children and sometimes appropriate the wealth of the masses to the up keep and training of their own. And that if we do not care for and protect those children on the street ,those that we denied education, public health, and good food etc., they will turn to armed robbers and wait to recoup from our children what we denied them either through lack of concern, embezzlement or hoarding etc.

We are all witnesses to situations where some doctors will pack drugs and equipment meant for public health centers to their private clinics only to refer patients to such clinics.

Most private schools started as “lessons”. The teachers and administrators made sure that our public schools broke down completely so that their private schools can thrive. Public Institutions today are filled with ghost workers and services are rendered as priviledges to the few that benefit. The government contractors amongst us are masters in using substandard materials and converting public properties to personal use.

Today handouts are sold and compulsory in tertiary institutions and failure to buy is an instant invitation to failure.

There is a general decay in our people, though we have very few that care, God fearing and honest.

In this connection, I will be glad if the CONCERNED MOTHERS group can be made into a national body to champion the cause of the less privileged in our society. The police have already apologized to them and I don’t see any reason why police should have used tear gas on them in the first instance. But they can do more for society. I mean the entire children of Nigeria.

THE OTHER SIDE

Whichever way one turns, the society is unkind to the less privileged. Even those who belong to this class also oppress themselves. If you doubt me, buy a generator, motor van or science equipment for a school or hospital in your village. The next time you get there the generator would either have disappeared or converted to private use. It is also possible that someone will thank you for providing him with a source of livelihood through frequent repairs that will arise from willful damage.

But this should not deter us.

As I stated in another article titled “The generation with sticky fingers” the rot in our society is alarming and it is one of the reasons why our people remain poor. I wonder how economic development can take place in a society where everybody, both poor and rich are busy looking for what to “grab”. A society where stealing and other forms of bad behaviour are largely regarded as the norm.

CONCLUSIONS

I could go on and on. The most important lesson is that for those of us living, there is an opportunity to improve our society through selfless service to our community before death comes knocking.

Let us revive our public institutions, especially the schools. Let us also show interest in our local politics by ensuring that local government chairmen and governors pay attention to this area.

And for the rich ones, let us build good private schools all over Nigeria. Let us invest in education. I agree that the returns may not be as high, the payback period may be longer when compared with alternative investment outlets, but we could regard such investments as contributions to the betterment of society. Alternatively the rich ones in our various communities can come together to establish good schools instead of wasting money on chieftancy titles.

Just as the federal government has launched the micro credit scheme, can we have a financial institution or scheme to cater for the educational sector. Can we also remove the human factors, as much as is possible, that impede the growth and health of public schools, health centers etc.

It is also hoped that the current efforts at reviewing the educational sector will result in not only the review of curriculum but one that will ensure the complete overhaul of the system.

As for NGOs the hue and cry about AIDS is enough. Can we attend to more urgent and more deadly issues such as bad roads, water-borne diseases which kill one million times faster than aids, decay in public schools, clinics and hospitals. Other social problems including child abuse, street begging, child labour, mortality rate, etc are more important than pursuing AIDS eradication which appears to be a cover for stealing and conversion of monies from donor agencies.

Our religious organizations need to wake up from their miracles and breakthroughs. Let us see the practical aspects of miracles in better public facilities and institutions. Indeed it is time for religious organizations to be properly designated as charity organizations with accompanying rules and regulations.

On my part, I have decided to contribute 10% of my annual income directly to charity and to offer free lectures in financial management (on a part-time basis) in any tertiary institution that indicates interest.

It is only when we honestly and diligently improve the lot of the underpriviledged in our society especially in the area of education and health that those children would not have died in vain.

Finally, let us seek for the forgiveness of God for our sins. And I will leave you with the words of Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu published in THISDAY of 15^th December, 2005 (backpage) “Our nation seems to be in a devilish embrace with death. At yuletide, when nations of the world are in the mood to celebrate, death has sneaked into our homes and is threatening to make sorrow of our tomorrow …..let us seek to atone for the sins we commit as leaders and followers”

Thank you

Taslim Anibaba(FCA) 19th December, 2005

Robot  Villager

# 1 As I stated in another article titled “The generation with sticky fingers” the rot in our society is alarming and it is one of the reasons why our people remain poor. I wonder how economic development can take place in a society where everybody, both poor and rich are busy looki...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 19.12.2005 09:52

Unregistered

# 2 Well done.I absolutely agree with your postulations here. Do Nigerians recognise the difference between "enlightened self-interest" and a moral decision, the extent to which it is directly contrary to one's self interest, but necessary for the group as a whole. What Nigeria offers is materalism and hedonism, a life devoid of meaning and purpose, save pleasure and self indulgence. The quality and sense of responsibility of our leaders. The lack of quality, the love of corruption, the lack of a sense of collective social or cultural responsibility is what is preventing a decent economic future for millions of people. Our politicians do little more than parade on the Nigerian stage. They have betrayed their vocation towards Nigerans. They are cowardly, incompetent and incapable of facing up to the challenge Nigeria faces. Have a jolly christmas and new year. D.Adedeji Olugbake Posted by Unregistered| 19.12.2005 13:51

Ayofolu

# 3 Mr. Anibaba, Kindly forgive me for contacting you directly as suppose to using the thread for your article "That the children will not die in vain". From one Nigerian and father to another, please accept my condolence for our loss. I am not sure if it ever happens to you, but I read some articles written by people of conscience and feel that the Good Lord, understanding my inability to express myself in letters, raise such people to do so. Your article clearly touched me and I thank you. I currently live in Fort Myers, Florida with my wife and 2 children. I have been away from Nigeria for 10 years and only visited for the first time January 2005. I wept on my flight back to the US, every ounce of national consciousness dripping out of me with every feet the plane climbed out of the Nigeria airspace. Haven grown up watching the proverbial "Andrew, I am checking out" commercial in Nigeria, living outside the country was more like a life sentence for an unpatriotic under achiever. Such is not the case to my regret. Armed with a Computer Science degree from the University or Lagos and an MBA from Ilorin, I could not get a decent Job for a year in 1994 so I left Nigeria, Like "Andrew" (I need not go through my initial experiences here in the early years). I now work for a healthcare management system as a Senior Informatics Systems manager, and I have been to Ghana to execute some WHO projects and I cannot but feel sad at my inability to work in Nigeria. I remember clearly, haven schooled in Federal Government College Jos, when vacation comes, all the Lagos resident kids will be on the same flight to Lagos. At that time, Nigeria boasted of the best flying private air boys in the world. Our equipments where well maintained and kept. But what I saw when I went home is that ALL the rich men( Permit me to allow the definition of rich to include you, Since you can afford to send your children to Dowen, albeit I will do the same if I can afford it )now live in a goldfish bowl, looking to the outside, totally oblivious to the location it resides in. Provided their bowls are clean and well maintained it is irrelevant the location. I agree with you, in a decadent society, the goldfish bowl resides in a burning inferno. No society can exist without the active and unselfish contribution of it population to the singular ideals of societal sustenance- Justice and equality. I was raised Catholic and we have a family motto ( Forgive my poor latin) - Ubi Caritas et amore, deus ebi est- Where there is Charity and Love , God Is. We need to fear the Lord more, detest unrighteousness and love the truth of Life. Again I thank you Babafemi Richard Ehindero. Posted by Ayofolu| 27.12.2005 18:36