Nigerian young people are not just our future; they are our present. Count them as the crème de la crème and corps d’elite of the engine that drives the nation. They are contracted to build our roads, hired to labour in our businesses, and laurels in sports are won because our young people are dynamic. Into the police, they are recruited to protect our streets. In the military, they fight our wars. Battles at home and abroad will always stay in the victory column because Nigerian young people always come readily handy. No glorious thing has historically happened for Nigeria that her young people did not help bring about.
Countless interactions I have had with our young people on countless fronts over many decades. This, however, is the conclusion of this week’s matter. Many of our young people are restless and have no friendship with PATIENCE. It is why in this week’s treatise I express to those who stumble on this treatise: Life is better and richly lived in fulfillment one step at a time.
Youthful push for wealth is a global menace. Very many young people all over the world want quick money they don’t necessarily have to work hard for. They forget that these are not Bible days when Manna fell from heaven for people who didn’t have to lift a finger to work. In America, for example, young men and women spin into gangsterism and drug-pushing business. The quick hands of the law aren’t merciful enough to let them go and sin no more. Hundreds of thousands of them end up shackled behind iron-bars and high walls of jailhouses for a greater part of their young and innocent lives. And lives are destroyed as a result of despisement and disrespect for patience. It’s the same story in Nigeria.
Obsession about money and more of it is an evil driving force. Love of money is the poisonous fragrance. The killer venoms. The destroyer of lives of young men and women destined for greatness. Jailor of the recalcitrant. Prosecutor of the offender. The hammer. The slammer. The exterminator.
The terminator. The annihilator. Love of money is an enemy that appears like a friend. It deceptively whispers falsity in your ears.
It sings falsehood into your spirit and lies to you that you must want more of it. It shoves until you are off the cliff into blazing and infernal Gehenna. Love of money hates men. It’s the worst enemy to a person who doesn’t understand what life is.
Yes; money is sweet. But the love of it is bitter. In Nigeria it is a williwaw. Young boys and girls surge around in a mad rush to make it. To them; to make it in life is to make money even if it’s funny and blood-drenched. All they want is money. Ask the young man next door; success to him is not just the fulfillment of personal desires; and not only becoming who God has created him to be. Success to him is defined by the fatness of his bank accounts, the luxuriousness of cars he drives, and the ultra-expensiveness of garments he straps around his mortal body through the pipeline of impatience. The false spirit of craving for money screams in our young people’s ears that they must do anything to get more of moola. It tells them they must kill. They must lie. They must sell drugs.
They must sniff it. But Love of money is a monster. A mauling monster that breezes through telling you that human ritual is okay. That kidnapping is okay. That robbery is okay. That what is not okay is hunky-dory. Love of money makes the malodorous smell good to human nostrils. It trolls. It pushes.
BUT, guess what? I don’t know about you; my feet were in the same shoes of impatience when I was young. I thought achievements could be sped up without fulfilling the requisite process. But I learnt the truth over time with God as the teacher. And with PATIENCE, things worked. With patience; things always work. What today’s children feel we once felt. But the harsh extreme to which many of these kids skid make our hearts skip in bewilderment. Many friends in my orbit share the same testimony of the working of patience. We haven’t gotten everything we desire. We haven’t become everything we want to become. But thank God we have become good and great enough to be looked up to for impact by many around the world. The contentment that it offers is good enough. If this is your story, don’t hesitate to teach PATIENCE to our young people. You will be doing a lot of good to society if you did.
My son, if you are reading this; understand that process precedes success. No man attains the highest peak in his career or endeavour by precluding the process. You cannot possess anything of value if you don’t surrender to process. Surrendering to process is surrendering to patience. Any attempt to beat requisite processes is launching out into a shortcut that cuts short LIFE. Don’t put yourself under the pressure to have your name sung in songs, and published on the pages of newspapers as the newest Nigerian millionaire in town. Stay the course and stay focused on the process that brings a man to possessing what God has for him.
No man runs ahead of God and runs well. Quickness of feet does not necessarily win a race; and the muscular man may be emasculated easily in a brawl with a bony being. Whoever is in a hurry to get the honey will get bitten by wild hornets and stung by beastly bees.
Mad dash for fast cash takes people to places undesired and undesirable because there are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
Yesterday April 27 was my birthday. I thus offer this treatise as a gift to millions of young people around the world, and specifically in Nigeria. You want to hit a goldmine? Shortcuts will not take you there, my son. You want to keep your dream alive? Shortcuts do not bring a dream to fruition; they accelerate it to ruination. Give respect to process; it is the essential prerequisite to possessing possessions that God has inscribed and tattooed your name on. When you pay your dues in process, you will not be unable to pay your bills when they come due.
Those who take shortcuts to success miss out on the experience that the struggle of the long road offers. The long road provides a foundation that will serve you well when you reach the top. Taking shortcuts will get you to the place you don’t want to be much quicker than they get you to the place you want to be. My children, PATIENCE is a VIRTUE, not a VILLAINY. It is a strength not a weakness. BE PATIENT! What will be, will become if only you stand calm in patience. Life is serenely lived one step at a time.
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