This time of waiting for results and managing expectations is the right time to do some contextual reporting on the principle we can’t change: sowing and reaping. This is the right moment to reflect on the fact that we will shortly reap according to the proportion of our sowing. In the last 24 years we have been reaping whatever we have all sown into our country’s democracy. Whatever we sowed eight years ago too, we have been reaping. And what we sowed yesterday at the polls, we will begin to reap any moment from now. Before the results begin to manifest, let’s just read the following ancient words Michael W. Smith would tell us are ever true enough to help ‘our walks in this world….’

Most of the Bible was originally written to those living in an agrarian society, people familiar with working the land, managing livestock, and raising crops. Many of the parables of Jesus involve the farming life. Not surprisingly, then, the ancient words contain many references to sowing and reaping, and here is one of the principles we learn: sowing and reaping is a law of the natural and spiritual world. His word to us: 
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap” — Galatians 6:7. The verse above describes a law that doesn’t discriminate: it’s fair, believe it or not, and applies to all areas of our lives, whether it pertains to our families, our jobs, or during times of respite. It serves as a warning for those of us who are out-of-sync, and it encourages those who continue to help others without recognition or fanfare.

Certainly, we will reap what we sow. Every farmer who tills the soil can appreciate the meaning of this principle. Let’s examine it to ensure that we understand the inference. This truth applies to everyone, including Christians and non-Christians. The tenet in the scripture can’t be taken back. There’s no escape, either for the believer or for the non-believer. It’s a law that we all must face.

Let’s, therefore, face the brass tacks and indeed some pertinent points about sowing and reaping. Do you realise that your previous thoughts and actions got you to where you are right now? Thoughts are such powerful things, that the type of person we have become can spill over into all facets of our lives.

In the same vein, there are three axioms or laws of life that everybody needs to be aware of. A poet once wrote: “Every moment we are sowing seeds that yield much good or bad. And each one is surely growing, cheering souls or making sad. These words reflect a universal truism: Every action or inaction has a natural, unavoidable consequence, good or bad.

The ancient word also contains another similar axiom in plain English: ‘You cannot fool God, so don’t make a fool of yourself! You will harvest what you plant. If you follow your selfish desires, you will harvest destruction, but if you follow the Spirit, you will harvest eternal life in the same letter that man of Tarsus wrote to the Galatians. That is an unbreakable, inescapable law of the universe: You reap what you sow. Period.
A third axiom of life is this: It is impossible not to sow something every moment. That is, you can never do nothing! When you are doing “nothing, you are actually doing something. Inaction is a type of action. But most people don’t believe this or forget this and thus live however they want to live. And they think they won’t have to pay for it. They have to pay some day. There is no culture or life of impunity, after all.  

According to Philip A. Matthews, life is filled with millions of these actions and inactions, all of which have consequences.  For instance, you like eating too much. Or you always eat the wrong things: too much fast foods because you have no time to cook? You like drinking too much. You enjoy working too much. You cherish sleeping too much. Or you don’t like sleeping enough. You decide to do drugs. You procrastinate too long. You seldom tell your wife you love her. You always like to take your husband for granted. You don’t teach your daughter homemaking skills because it takes too much time and patience and you can just do it better and quicker yourself. You use your son for a shoulder to cry on, turning him into young man unable to become individuated from his mother. You spend too much money shopping for clothes to stuff into your five walk-in closets! You fail to be a good example, so you automatically become a bad example. You set off a chain of negative events by being a gossip and telling secrets. You won’t forgive your wife so she wilts under your disapproval. You nag your husband till he tunes you out or leaves. And on and on, ad infinitum. People do this stuff every day throughout the world, and each action or inaction has unavoidable consequences!

And so we need to reflect on consequences of the ballots we cast yesterday. Complaints have arisen from consequences of what the election management agency officials and we (the electorate) who constitute the so-called sovereignty may have failed to carry out for four years. Our actions and inactions have produced the consequences we will continue to complain about even in courts sooner than later. Those who decided to register only at the eleventh hour and could not collect their voter cards; those who could not transfer their registered cards to their new locations and so couldn’t vote yesterday will soon begin to reap from the consequences of their complacency when tomorrow comes. Those who decided to sell their PVCs to serve the gods of their bellies will reap what they sowed soon and very soon. The results that will be announced shortly for the presidential and national assembly elections have consequences for the future of Nigeria. The candidates we already voted for will soon begin to exercise authority on behalf of more than two hundred million people in Africa’s most populous nation and indeed the hope of the black race. We have voted to shape the future of Nigeria, our Nigeria. We have cast our ballots for the candidates we would like, sorry not like our children to grow to be like. We are waiting for results. We are waiting for our harvest. We have voted, for winds (of change), why won’t we reap whirlwinds in the next four years? Even groups of political leaders including the G-1 in Abuja and the famous G-5 with arrowhead in Port Harcourt who openly worked against their presidential candidates will soon reap from what they have been sowing into their ‘revolutionary rebellion’ the morning after results are released early this week. The G-5 rebels have sown bountifully even in so many European capitals including London and Madrid: they will harvest returns on their investments (in their party’s presidential elections) this week. They are what Mark Antony in Shakespeare Julius Caesar calls  ‘indeed all honourable men’ who suddenly realised the power of shift to the South after one of them lost his bid for the party’s ticket. Will they celebrate soon when their presidential candidate reaps the fruit of the G-5’s hostile and adversarial sowing?

What is more, those electoral officers, those ad-hoc workers who failed to turn up yesterday at the polling stations they were assigned to; those logistics officers who failed to deliver essential materials to some election locations to frustrate this national assignment of political recruitment for our future should note that they murdered sleep yesterday with the seed of abandonment they sowed and they will sleep no more. They will reap what they too sowed yesterday into the growth and development of their country. 

Here is the conclusion of the whole matter: The fact that we reap what we sow is good news for those who sow good seeds, but a frightening thought for those currently involved in unwholesome activities or mistreatment of others to climb the ladder of success. We cannot sow disobedience to God and expect to reap His blessing. What we sow, we reap. Let us not deceive ourselves: We will reap the harvest of our lives. If we want to see changes in our lives, we cannot start by trying to reap a different harvest – we need to start by sowing a different seed. Sometimes we get focused on trying to get a different harvest without recognising we need to sow differently. We sow what we’ve been sowing but somehow we hope we will reap a different harvest. We cannot continue to rig processes of development and expect miracles. Miracles don’t just happen! We cannot continue to sow electoral impurities into our leadership recruitment processes and expect grace to abound for our development. We should begin to plant good trees that should produce good fruits for our country. Bad trees can produce only bad fruits, that is part of revelations from the ancient words. And here is the reason: the ancient words, words of hope, words of life clearly establish that there will be no end to sowing and reaping as long as the planet earth exists. That is part of what we need to reflect on as a people as the results that will shape our next four years begin to take shape. 

Now is the time to start taking deliberate actions that will get you to where you want to go and produce the results you want to see. You need to set some goals and become accountable to someone to reach those goals. If you haven’t already done so, it is time to ask forgiveness for your past mistakes. God can salvage just about anything from your horrible past services and lives. But there is usually a lot of pain and inconvenience involved. It is time to quit being a victim of your past circumstances and your own parents’ bad decisions.. It is time to start sowing seeds that produce good life in this country. What did you contribute to the results we are expecting? What did you sow in your wards, your constituency? How are you managing your expectations from your seeds? You as a candidate expecting to return to even the National Assembly or you are bidding to be President or Governor or member of a State Assembly, what will you sow when you get to that high office?