When ignorance is not bliss

The environment is getting increasingly toxic. The toxicity is so palpable you would think it can be held in one’s hand. It is flowing out of outcry of anger which in turn is primarily from experiencing hardship and a feeling of uncertainties of daily living in these times. In Nigeria, the outcry is over escalating prices of foodstuff, in several cases shooting beyond reach, beyond the roof. Transportation costs have similarly gone up astronomically. What makes it all the more troubling is the security problem in many places which keeps farmers away from their farms.

The situation is such that the Emir of Kano, a normally reserved institution, has had to parcel complaints of hunger in his domain wrapped in a message to President Tinubu through his wife, Remi. The Sultan of Sokoto has spoken about how much efforts traditional rulers in the North have been making to calm the nerves of their youths who have been restive. He was kind enough to state that the difficulties in the land did not start with the Bola Tinubu Administration and that the Administration is a continuation of the previous one.

In some parts of the world there are already signs of economic heat flashing in the horizon, too. Take as an example the number of years that may be required of a first timer to be able to buy property today in London. According to The Telegraph digital edition, first time buyers of property in London is now to save for 31 years for a deposit, as homes today cost 12 times the average yearly salary. The newspaper reports as follows:

“A typical first-time buyer in London will have to save for 31 years to raise a deposit on a home, twice as long as their parents, analysis shows.

“A Londoner on an average salary would need to save 10 per cent of his take-home pay for three decades to afford a 20 per cent deposit on a 438, 000 Pounds property—the average price for a first-time buyer in the capital. However, in 2003 the equivalent figure was just 15 years.”

Although, evidently we are living in unusual times, with several parts of the world engulfed in one affliction or the other, Nigerians believe the hardship in the country is peculiar. Last week Thursday, South-West Iceland experienced a volcano for the third time since December. Amidst assurances by the Federal Government spokesmen that the hardship in our land would soon be over, Nigerians believe that the Nigerian troubling situation was complicated and some think, triggered by peremptory withdrawal of petroleum subsidy without cushioning effect mechanisms already in place before the announcement was made.

What is not often stated is, yes, Bola Tinubu formally removed the subsidy, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for Economy in Buhari Administration, Mrs. Ahmed, said the Buhari’s government did not make provision for subsidy in the budget Tinubu inherited. The error of Tinubu was that he did not handle the issue with enough care. Brave though he was, he walked through landmines and he did not tiptoe; he did not exercise enough care; he did not handle the issue diplomatically enough. The consequence is that he has had to carry the can for accumulated failings of recent years.

A litre of petrol, PMS (Premium Motor Spirit) rose from between N178 to N650. Because motion is a law, movement of persons and goods constitutes foundational factor in the affairs of man. We move from home to work and from work back home. The farmer transports his produce to the silos from where in a chain they finally reach the market and the end user through one form of movement or the other. The transporter buys fuel. Therefore, whatever touches movement must trigger ripples in the affairs of daily living. And so, everyone talks about costs and margins. A bag of rice has shot up from between N30, 000 and N35, 000 early last year to N65, 000 currently. Transport is thus admitted as a major expenditure head and catalyst of cost push inflation. Indeed, it was the currency change fiasco of late 2022 to early last year that moved the price of rice from N18, 500 to N30, 000. The price of garri has gone up in a similar sharp manner.

Swarovski in his book, The Time is Ripe, says: “The only one way out of the dilemma, chaos and confusion besetting nearly all humanity and our world is to understand the wider correlations.” What are these wider correlations? He continues: “We must realise that all there is, all that lives, owes its existence to an extra-material Force which in the last analysis dominates everything. Beauty and harmony are obviously the main concern of this marvelous Force and we human beings must strive to make this concern our own and translate it into reality.”

In other words, we are not heeding the fundamentals. And it is hard to admit that as Cassius says, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings.” The Law of Movement is exhaustive. It makes for freshness, for constant renewal and preservation. Non-observance of the Law of Movement makes human beings prone to illness. There are birds that have lost their wings with which to fly and there are fishes at the bottom of the sea that can no longer swim.

To prevent illness we are admonished to exercise our bodies. The law is such that when we sleep, we roll from one side of the bed to the other. The law makes the earth to move round its axis every 24 hours to give us day and night and round the sun in 365 days to give us seasons which in the temperate region are distinctly four: spring, summer, autumn and winter. These are hardly distinguishable in the tropical region. The seasons in the tropics are simply rainy season and dry season. One month of what is known as the Platonic Year or the Great Year is 2, 160 years and it gives us an Age. The Platonic year itself spans 25, 920 earth years. We can from this see this period in which we are—between when the Lord Christ left the earth and now which is the proverbial End-Time—is the Age of the Holy Spirit.

It should stand to reason that the closer to the Source of Life, the faster movement is. This is why as we are told in 2 Peter 3:8, “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years.” This is saying, therefore, that three days in the Light Realm translate to three thousand years on earth. The power that is active in the Law of Motion cannot permit standstill not, above all, in the quest for higher knowledge, spiritual knowledge. Physicians admonish us to take a walk, to exercise ourselves for good health. Scientists, geologists in particular, would tell you that there is movement even in the rock as it is consisted of chemical compounds which are inherently animated and which in turn are composed of protons, neutrons and electrons.

There is also the Law of Cycle and there is the Law of Reciprocal Action. This latter Law ensures that the harvest is tied to the sower. It is thus said that what a man soweth that shall he reap—in multiples. The Law of the Cycle ensures that the end goes back to the beginning. This demonstrates to us that what is sown as seed goes back to the sower as fruit for harvesting. The maturation period of each plant depends on its nature. Bitter Kola takes between 29 and 32 years to produce harvestable fruits while maize takes only three months, vegetables, 12 days and yam nine months. We sow in thought, in speech, in our volition and in our action. When we harvest, the consequences depends on its nature.

What else do we want as proof that the Laws work collaboratively, manifesting the Will of the Almighty Creator? Because the Creator is perfect and eternal, it should follow that the Laws issuing from Him must be perfect and eternal. Being perfect, they are not in need of improvement. They are immutable, they are self-acting and self-enforcing; they are incorruptible. They are the mechanisms with which the Most High governs His Creation, seeing to germination, maturing, and ripening of fruits. Mango trees are bringing forth fruits now. From one seed of mango we have a giant tree brandishing its fruits that will be ripe very soon for harvesting. Yam and cassava are both tubers, but they are different species. To harvest yam, we have to plant yam and to harvest cassava, we must plant cassava. The laws are the manual of Creation, which demonstrates to us what Creation is consisted of and how the Almighty God works in His Creation.

The other Laws are the Law of Attraction of Homogeneous Species; the Law of Balance and the Law of Spiritual Gravitation. The Law of Attraction of Homogeneous Species stipulates that like attracts like. The Law is reflected in the popular saying that birds of the same feather flock together. In the animal kingdom, in the gathering of giraffes, no one can find sheep or goats. Thus, people of the same tendencies are pulled together. They gravitate readily towards one another to form their communities where they are nourished by the radiations peculiar to their native soil, the stars, the wind, and the plants. They would have practically similar if not the same world view, values, relative strengths and weaknesses.

When Africans meet in foreign lands, there is a stirring within their souls, there is uplift in their souls and it is easier for them to strike a relationship, seeing themselves as brothers, than others who are fundamentally alien to them. In their home countries political competition could be fierce. There will be those who will rise above the din; such a situation is an indication of inner radiance and polish. In another incarnation such will move to a higher level their new spiritual maturity places them.

We experience the Law of Balance every second—in breathing and in give and take. There must be balance in inhalation and exhalation. In business we balance the books. We strike for balance in measures of articles to ensure fairness. Equity is equally found, applying the Law of Balance. Where there is imbalance, there is instability and there are complaints of lack of consideration for others. We observe the Law of Gravitation in the weights of objects. What is light floats to the surface. A ball no matter the efforts which may be made to have it kept at the bottom of a river will float whereas a sinker or a stone thrown into the same river goes to the bottom of it until it can find its level and balance.

The Law of Spiritual Gravitation determines who takes flight at the end of our sojourn on earth to the Light Region, the Spiritual Realm that is Paradise and who goes down to the Dark Region. Purity and nobility make the spirit light, but wrongdoing constituting guilt and dross gives the spirit weight which makes it to sink into Darkness and damnation.

It is these Laws that give expression to the Will of God. Since Creation came out of His Will it is governed by It. This Will is unyielding. It is this Will His Messengers, Prophets and Teachers of Mankind came to explain to mankind at different epochs as the Commandments of God. The Teachings were in the measure of the development of the people among whom they incarnated. Moses, one of the leading Teachers of Mankind, for example, received the Ten Commandments of God on Mount Sinai. No sooner than these Servants of God left than mankind formed religions around their Teachings and formulated doctrines and creeds that were and still are at variance with their true Teachings and instructions.

The teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Truth Bringer was Himself not spared. He was received with intense hate and envy especially by the spiritual and political establishments of the time who saw Him as a threat to their power and influence on the people they led. His Teachings were distorted and are so till this day. That Will, rightly understood, meant to lead us mankind away from wrong causes that in turn lead away from tribulations have been replaced by the will of men in parliaments and other levels of political leaderships. Laws are enacted by consensus and by show of hands.

There is hardly any point I have not hinted at before in this column. In view of pervading hardships, disasters—natural and manmade—wars, economic collapse and political instability, it bears repeating that they are largely consequences of obstinate deviation from the Will of God, and replacing it with man’s will expressed in human laws. The higher knowledge of Truth existing on the face of the earth today permits us a good grasp and understanding of all events in our world. The laws of parliament are subject to debate and regularly amended, lawyers are required to interpret them and it is not all the time they agree on the interpretation of these laws. Higher, appellate Courts are required for the interpretations which are regarded as final. And the esteemed jurist, Oputa, Mr. Socrates of our time, thoughtful, quotable and quoted said referring to the Supreme Court: We are final not because we are not fallible, but fallible because we are final.”

Swarovski, an author and industrialist, said: “All through the history of mankind up to the present time the necessity of what will give us high value has been given far too little attention, if any, and that is the cause of a great deal of hardship and trouble—the cause of restlessness afflicting the world today many things which are obviously wrong are said to be in the spirit of our times, of the changing times.”

Time for every thing
THERE is time for everything. There is time for joy and rejoicing; there is time to mourn and go sorrowing. Publications have been made and going viral in social media about Herbert Wigwe, the managing director/CEO of Access Bank and to a lesser extent about Abimbola Ogunbanjo, corporate lawyer and one time chairman of the Stock Exchange.

The publications purportedly detailed what can be regarded as dirty deals in the acquisition and development of Access Bank. The publications at the time of sorrow and grieving are in very bad taste. True or false is not the point. The publications should have waited. An unspeakable tragedy has just hit the nation. Even if to demonstrate our deep feelings and humanness, and sense of propriety, the publications should have waited for perhaps six months for the families and friends to be relieved of their pains.

Here was a man who met what we would call, in general parlance, his untimely death in a gruesome manner. Wigwe lost his wife and son and his lawyer and there is an atmosphere of gleefulness and gloating suggesting that the death served Igwe right and I ask myself: Have we been so drained of our humanity and deep sense of empathy for our fellow men? Their remains had hardly even been gathered how much less flown back home in Nigeria before the publications began.

Abimbola Ogunbanjo died in the tragic crash barely three months after the exit of his illustrious father, Chief Chris Ogunbanjo. The wreckage itself was mindboggling. The publications are undoubtedly indecent and cruel.

This is mourning period for the nation no matter how we look at it. So devastating is what has happened that the President, Bola Tinubu wasted no time in sending out a proper condolence message to the families and the nation at large. Most of the people said to be involved in the deal; Aig Imokhuede, Emir Lamido Sanusi and Mrs Oputu are still much in the flesh. Why the haste? It rings in the ears of a determination to completely rubbish the memories of the departed in the eyes of those who love them. The publications are indecent, insensitive and cruel.