[When Wind Blows] Medal-less Olympics: are the gods angry?

I’ve heard many people saying, “The gods are angry” reason our Athletes couldn’t win even a half medal, not even an Aluminum in this Olympics, which got me thinking.

The very By first thought that came to my mind was, were we supposed to even go to this Olympics in the very first place?

As the conditions that made the PEOPLE’S GENERAL, Sani Abacha to withdraw our National Football team from an African Nations Cup back in the days, are WORST now.

When some armless youths are occupying the streets, demanding an end to bad governance in Nigeria, and many are being shot dead, what are those other youths doing at the Olympics?

Or can anyone say, no matter how much the athletes at the Olympics are paid, won’t they come back to face same bad governance back home?

Take as an example, the composition of our current Federal Executive Council and our Senate, check how many ex-governors are there; what’s their severance package including life pension as ex-governors, and now occupying those positions at the federal level and collecting more.

Mr President Tinubu had houses built for him as ex-Lagos state governor, check how much he has taken, in the name of renovating the Villa before he came in.

And we continue to churn out these ex-governors every four and eight years, how can we survive such criminality in the name of democratic rule, as I can never imagine such, in a military era.

According to what I’ve also heard, over N12 billion has gone, with nothing to show for it.

Democracy by Harry Truman

Democracy by Harry Truman is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity to govern himself with reason and justice. But surely, this is a far far cry from the pathetic system employed in my dear country, Nigeria.

Robert McCracken was probably referring to my country when he uttered: “The greatest danger that faces this country is the danger of moral lassitude – liberty turned to license, rights demanded and duties shirked, the moral sense deteriorating, the traditions and standards of the nation weakened, the spiritual forces within it losing ground”.

Our present and future danger may lie in our failure to recognize that, if we were to achieve freedom without responsibility, all our freedom would be lost.

For all the freedom mankind has ever achieved to date, has been achieved only because, individuals accepted responsibility.

Our collective mandate as a people

THOUGHTS! Thoughts are the most powerful things. Buildings, cities, nations etc. follow the thoughts of men. Men think and out of the unknown come things. Every Reformation is only a change in thinking.

CHANGE! This word change has often thrown many people off balance. They’re taken aback and fear terribly the consequence, so they prefer stagnancy. Only if time can just remain that way, they wish.

One advantage in being stupid is that they don’t get lonesome. They form gangs and would prefer to do right if they thought it was wrong. They obviously can’t stand posterity, and the way they spend money they won’t have to.

Reasonable people are those who wouldn’t demand the benefit of doubt where there isn’t any.

Nothing is as easy as it looks except spending money and getting into arguments. Those who claim to have experience to steer the affairs of our great nation must not only recognize everyone’s mistakes and shy away from theirs.

We all have a mandate as a people, to see through a prosperous and great nation like our peers in the committee of nations. We must not allow the stupid few among us, to deter us from achieving our COLLECTIVE GOOD.

The demand of the PEOPLE across Africa in recent times, has not been about telling the people what you are doing, they should see and feel it. And the only way to achieve that is by letting the people take ownership of their RESOURCES.

The ruling class can’t corner every resource to themselves, before deciding what to send back to the people, it’s a very clear message and legitimate demand.

The fittest place to die

As a man, the place to die, whether on the scaffold, or in the battle, the fittest place where a man can die, is when he dies for man.

The delusions, adversity, hate, corruption, prejudice and underdevelopment now trailing our beloved nation in particular and Africa in general, has made fragile the pillar that supports our hope and courage.

But the promise of greatness, commitment and civilizations lingers on due to the relentless drive by a few patriots.

Power is actually the issue. Absolute power corrupts absolutely they say, and one cannot agree less with Mr. R H Robins when he said and I quote: “Power means a minority, reaching majority, seizing authority, hates minority”.

My dear country Nigeria, and indeed Africa, has seen quite enough backwardness that the call for emergency now stands tall.

Micah Ugala is a public affairs analyst.

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