OPEN LETTER TO NIGERIANS IN DIASPORA VI
Dear Fellow Nigerian in Diaspora,
When we wrote the first letter titled, A Wake Up Call, we had no idea that it would stretch this far. We would like to apologise sincerely for boring some of you with our pedestrian ideas. We would also like to say we are sorry, to all those who felt offended by our audacity to forward unsolicited letters to their mailboxes. The passion to share the Good News that came our way temporarily caused a lapse in judgement. We respect the rights of everyone to freedom and privacy. Under no circumstances shall we support any action that would wilfully break or bend these rights for any reason.
The dilemma we faced with respect to mail distribution is similar to that faced by fire brigades. Does a fire brigade officer seeing a house on fire follow the customary civilised habit of knocking on the door and waiting for answer before rescuing those in danger? On the contrary, it is the only time any Good Samaritan can badge into any house without given notice. The issues facing us as peoples and nations are as critical and dangerous as a house on fire. Indeed the House of British Nigeria is on fire. Our main concern is not to extinguish the fire but to save the people trapped inside it.
As we mentioned, we were carried away with the zeal to share what we believe is highly relevant to the problems bedevilling us as peoples. However, as soon as we were reminded, some nicely and some not so nicely, we quickly desisted. So far, we have been very fortunate that most Nigeria-interest Web sites accepted, without question, to publish the letters. We thank them for saving the day since it made the strategy of targeting personal mailboxes no longer necessary.
We hope to make this the last letter to Nigerians in Diaspora (NIDs). We would like to thank all those who have taken the time to read all the letters. We sincerely hope you found something of benefit to your personal circumstances. The letters are not the answers to the problems of Nigeria. They are keys principally designed to enable you open the door to the pool of knowledge floating around you like a cloud in the sky. It will even be preposterous to claim that these letters are solutions to our individual problems. They are not. As was mentioned in one of the letters, they are mere flickers of light to help you see where you hid the lighter and the candle of your life.
In the previous five letters we have not wavered from our main concerns: to promote the rights of every Nigerian to equality, justice and freedom. These are the crux of the issues facing humanity and Nigeria in particular at this moment in history. We are aware that philosophers are still debating and looking for the easiest way to dumb down these concepts to suit our modern day relativity circumstances. There are theses and anti-theses, for instance on the concept and principle of equality that try to ascertain whether it is the equality of person or the equality of opportunities that is important for government policy and programme.
Modern philosophers and analysts are fond of debating whether there can be anything like absolute equality among human beings. They wonder if it is ever possible in practice to ask the royalties of our world to accept the ideals and the practices of natural equality with the commoners in their realm. They ask if it is feasible for the fat cats and business barons to accept that they are equal in every respect to the floor shop assistants in their business empires.
Can the elected politicians – Presidents, Prime Ministers, Senators, Members of Parliament, Councillors, and other Representatives – accept both in theory and in practice the democratic and natural fact of their equal status with the electorate? Notwithstanding this type of academic but anti-nature polemics, these letters have tried to situate our conviction about the commonality of humanity. The letters have tried to point NIDs in the direction of seeking the truth of the concepts of equality, justice and freedom from available universal principles of the nature of human being and existence.
What we plan to do in this final letter is to discuss the reality of hopelessness and powerlessness of the Nigeria’s situations to NIDs and of course to most other Nigerians. It is very easy for most Nigerians to hide under powerlessness as the main inhibiting factor against the fight for equality, justice and freedom. As it is true for the common people so it is for the eminent personalities of Nigeria. The popular excuse of the common people is that since they are financially poor they have no power to change their circumstances. The eminent people also believe that unless they can capture the political power of their societies, they are powerless to influence social change. The two premises of assessment, to our thinking, are faulty because they assume that power lies in financial, material and political muscles. On the contrary, we believe true power is spiritual and it is within each of us. It is a divine right possessed by every living creature.
This discourse is relevant because we understand the sighs of hopelessness and powerlessness that most NIDs have expressed when we brought up the issue of a social revolution in Nigeria. Most NIDs are of reasonable opinion that Nigeria’s problem is beyond solution. They look at some of us fretting about Nigeria with pity in their eyes. They advise us to get a life. Meaning, join the rat race, make money, be happy and enjoy yourself. Do not kill your self because of Nigeria. If you die Nigeria’s problem will still be there and you would have died for nothing.
From the human and physical perspectives, they are quite right. However, the reality of existence is deeper than that. We are what we are by creation. The environments where we find ourselves have a way of delaying or hastening our emancipation from the physical to the spiritual. The issue facing humanity today is spiritual. It is beyond the physical observable realities. These are the salient trends in these letters and our overriding aim is to help NIDs into the spiritual state of evaluation of values.
Circumstances of Nigerians in the Diaspora
The NIDs are in various categories of circumstances and at different planes of social existence. Each of the categories can again be sub-divided into two. There are academically and professionally qualified NIDs and there are unqualified NIDs. There are those qualified with jobs commensurate to their qualifications and training and those qualified but saddled with irrelevant menial and miserable jobs. There are the financially secure or the relatively ‘wealthy’ and there are the financially insecure or the in and out poor. There are those without dependent family in Nigeria and who are free from financial commitment and those with large dependent family and relations who look up to them for monthly offerings. There are those with balanced and supportive family and those with dysfunctional and non-supportive family. And there are those that have burnt the strings of all entanglements with Nigeria and those that sleep and wake with the thoughts of finding solution to the problems facing the peoples of Nigeria.
Despite these different and varied circumstances, every thinking NID must have noticed that in the context of freedom there is nothing significantly different between a rich black slave and a poor black slave. Regardless of the pretensions of the rich black slave the colour of your skin is still a veritable hindrance to complete social acceptability into the ‘civilised societies’ of the West. At few times when the host population tolerate and allow the rich black slave to mix socially with them it is often a patronising gesture. It is simply to fulfil the legal requirements of ethnic minority tokenism or what the Americans called Affirmative Actions on race relations. It is our hope that the truth of life shall soon dawn on the swaggering black slave in the inner chamber of Uncle Sam’s White House or in the Crown’s palaces to appreciate that his/her circumstances are not particularly different from that of the poor black slave in the ghetto. From the viewpoint of the western value both the rich and the poor black person are seen as slaves or sub-human persons and both are in need of freedom – mental and spiritual emancipation.
This writer writes in pain and in sorrow because of pertinent observation made about the life styles of NIDs. The circumstances under which NIDs live give me immeasurable agony and grief. The circumstance of living under colour prejudice, racial discrimination, social indignity, psychological and cultural slavery is serious psychological torture. The circumstance of accepting inferiority complex, mediocrity and thoughtlessness, spiritual blindness and deafness as normal is dehumanising. The unforgivable carelessness on the part of NIDs to appreciate, protect and safeguard their human dignity and the unacceptable high level of ignorance of the facts of history and of contemporary events around them have never ceased to give me sleepless nights. Personally each day spent in sojourn is as a day spent in a prison cell. There is no doubt that the physical environment is pleasing to the eyes but the reigning spirit in the Western world is anti-human, anti-social and anti-nature. It is a spirit that covertly dehumanises the people and demands absolute servitude and blind obedience to unethical and immoral values.
Miraculously, it is under this spiritual darkness that heaven was kind enough to cure me of my blindness and deafness. Whereas this writer was once blind to the forces in charge of this environment now he can see. He was once completely ignorant of the atrocities of the reigning powers but now he understands. It is this awareness that brings forth personal anguish when one beholds the contemporaries of the Class of 1980s and 1990s that fled from tyranny in Nigeria who have quickly imbibed and adjusted to the lifestyles of those responsible for the decadence in Nigeria.
Fellow sojourners who have not taken time out to seek and to search for the truth of the root cause of the problems of Nigeria have woefully failed to see the link between the western values – of conspicuous and excessive consumption, of might is right, of winner-takes-all, of extreme individualism, of superiority complex, of beggar your neighbour for profit, of centre-periphery economic ideology and relations, of pyramidal and hierarchical social arrangement that fosters inequality, etc. – and the failed government and failed economic systems of Nigeria.
This writer is of the opinion that NIDs in foreign lands should use their sojourn as opportunities to unravel the human and social misery that is killing Nigeria and her people. There is no reason why NIDs should not turn the daily inhuman experiences in to a driving force to pursue the search for the truth of life. It is under this pursuit that NIDs can have an inkling and some understanding of the nature of spiritual demons responsible for our woes. There is no reason why NIDs should not turn the ongoing unpalatable experiences facing black persons in the Western world into a motivating factor for seeking ways and means to wrestle and overcome the reigning demons mentally and spiritually. Methinks it is the height of irresponsibility and ignominious naiveté for any Nigerian of the class of 80s and 90s currently in sojourn abroad to become complacent, contented and conceited just because he has secured a fantastic job, a palatial mansion, a prestigious limousine and plenty of cash in the land of sojourn.
There was a time in the early stage of my sojourn when everything about Nigeria was repulsive, when this writer planned to run away as far as possible, and when the idea of carrying a Nigerian passport was becoming irritating and shameful. By the grace of heaven this phase passed away as the search for the truth of my existence first as a human being, second as a native of the geographical space called Nigeria and third as an African progressed. The more this writer searched the more he found ample reasons to be happy and contented with himself, first as an African, second as a native of the geographical space called Nigeria, and third as a human being. It is the need to share the result of these findings that motivated my current engagement as an amateur freelance writer.
Since this writer came into mental and spiritual consciousness there has been a burning desire to motivate and to inspire every African to appreciate the circumstances of our existence in the Global Economic Order, Global Religious Order and Global Social Order. There is a burning missionary desire to ignite every African with the fire of a seeker of the truth of life. It is my belief that heaven has set my soul on fire in order to share the Good News that our world can be cleaned up of the moral filth, can be redeemed anew and can be reconstructed on a new plane of moral values and edifying spirit.
It should be mentioned that because the current hideous spirit has ruled the world for some thousands of years should not dampen the resolve of all spiritually enlightened people to overcome this spirit and to drive it out of our planet. The reigning spirit is a ruinous spirit. This spirit is discriminatory, jealous, partisan, unforgiving, ruthless, blood thirsty, sectarian, divisive, and hateful. These are the true nature of the reigning spirit. This spirit cannot change hence it must be ordered out of our planet. We must urge it to seek residence in the many vacant and desolate planets in the universe. We must appeal to the creator of life to persuade this spirit to leave us alone in peace so as to be able to pursue the noble goals of seeking perfection and of bringing the kingdom of heaven to our planet.
It is in this context that NIDs are urged to understand their circumstances. The reigning spirit in the Western world understands your divine mission. And as long as you remain blindfolded with the glitters of the Western world, then you will not be able to seek true knowledge and to search for understanding about your circumstances. Without knowledge NIDs cannot know or understand the truth of existence. Without knowing and understanding the truth of existence NIDs cannot gain freedom from the western prison yard to which we are presently, though it seems voluntarily, consigned.
It is true in this prison yard we are looking good, we have plenty to eat, to wear and to waste but for goodness sake we are still slaves. We are slaves of a Global System that is forever unforgiving to the members of our race; that depends on the enslavement of our race for its continuous existence; that rides on the waves of injustice, inequality and slavery; that does not accept the black race as an equal; and that merely tolerates our presence in the western world as long as we know our rightful lowly and subservient positions in the society.
The above are the reasons for my unhappiness. It is indeed true that ignorance is bliss. This writer understands that my contemporaries who are happy, confident, loud, boastful, carefree, arrogant and who feel self-important under these contemptuous circumstances are merely ignorant of their degrading conditions. This category of NIDs therefore needs a helping hand, a helping voice and a helping guide to wake them up from their slumbers and to face their unpalatable sub-human situations.
These NIDs need to free themselves from ignorance. Creating and encouraging a state of ignorance for the oppressed or serfs is the most effective weapon used by all slave masters. This is why African slaves in America were prohibited from being taught to read and write. As long as a slave is ignorant of his/her status the slave owner has no problem. But the day a slave understands his/her circumstances and understands the concepts of freedom, of justice and of equality, from that day henceforth there will be no peace in the slave yard. Fellow Nigerians, the peace around you is the peace of a graveyard. As long as your soul is dead, then it can live easy in the graveyard. However, as soon as it can be woken up, your soul will depart from the graveyard because instinctively it understands that a graveyard is not a place for the living but for the dead.
It is time for you to use the opportunities available around you to turn yourself around in the realm of knowledge. The scripture says, “Seek and ye shall find”. We all need to find our true self before we can escape the graveyard of our make belief world. Let us turn our attention to hope and power.
Hopelessness and Powerlessness
This writer is of the opinion that the capacity to give and take love and to enjoy happiness disappears when a person is convinced and therefore believes that his/her position in life is hopeless. It is hope that begets love and it is love that can beget power. The desire to struggle and to cut free from the chains of fear or bonds of slavery and to overcome political, social and economic handicaps on our way stems from faith in hope. And it is love that gives the courage and every other power to make things happen.
It is under the inspiring power of love that a person will endure every pain as he/she struggles to climb to the mountaintop of life for the sake of the beloved. For the sake of the beloved a person willingly gives his/her blood and life to protect, to care and to relieve the pains of the loved one. Without love there can never be enough power to lift a finger for others. It is therefore practically impossible for a loveless person to give anything of self to others.
These letters are intended to give hope and to point each of us in the direction of love, the bedrock of power. The power to change our persons and our nations is within each of us. This power is not with the politician or with the religious or the traditional leaders; it is within each and every one of us. We must learn to cultivate the right environment that can stimulate the birth and the growth of this power. The most appropriate environment is that which encourages a person to be a seeker of the truth of life.
Although we said the West is a graveyard to the black persons but it is a graveyard that is decorated with libraries, bookshops, museums, schools, colleges and universities in abundance. These are the escape routes out of the graveyard. Every seeker naturally understands the value of these institutions to freedom and power. The popular adage is still very much true – knowledge is power.
In other word, our conceived powerlessness to tackle the issues facing us as a people arises because of the lack of knowledge about who we are and the natural resources we are endowed with. Most problems like the one facing Nigeria can be exceptionally daunting and they are indeed gigantic. They are again sometimes awesomely complex – a hydra-headed type of problem. As you clip one head, like one of those monsters in Greek fables, many new heads are created. This is where appropriate application of knowledge becomes useful.
The knowledge of elementary chemistry and mathematics can be of great help in solving most complex and large problems. The principle of chemistry teaches that a compound is made up of elements while elements are made up of atoms. Again atoms can be broken down into electrons and nucleus. To understand the nature of any compound scientists will break it down into its constituent smallest parts and through learning to understand each small part they learn to understand the whole compound. Similarly, mathematicians have a popular theorem about the whole being the sum of its parts. These scientific principles are equally applicable to social, economic and political issues as well.
You will notice that in all the discourses we have avoided any involvement with government or its institutions and actors. We realised quite early in our consciousness that the problems of the institutions of and the actors in government are mere symptoms and they are not the fundamental problem. In our search for the real culprit behind our problems as peoples and nations we have managed to go deeper without getting our selves enmeshed with the observable cosmetic dressings of the problem.
We have applied the common sense approach of elementary chemistry to break down the problem into its constituent parts. We discovered that there are 36 states in Nigeria and that translates to 36 different problems. Further observation revealed that there are 768 local governments meaning there are another 768 different problems. Moreover, the tens of hundreds of communities that make up the local governments also give us tens of hundreds of different problems. From this simple evaluation, we realised that the effort of concerned Nigerians to treat all these problems under the fiat of a national government is to say the least grandiose in conception and unrealistic in programming.
Following the mathematical principle that says a whole is the sum of its parts and since the communities are made up of individual persons, the best rational bet shall be to focus attention on the individuals. Focusing on individual persons will reveal the attributes that make each Nigerian so predictably and exceptionally abnormal to the extent that collectively we could exhibit and perpetrate all the heinous problems that have befallen Nigeria since 1914. This is the area where we feel the collective effort of the redeemed and awakened NIDs can be of great help.
As each Nigerian becomes emancipated mentally and spiritually then the love to stretch out a hand to wake up your neighbour becomes highly imperative and desirable. The knowledge, understanding and wisdom that come your way during the search for the truth of life would have cleaned your soul of the foibles of ego and pride. The accompanied gift of humility would have trimmed the prickly thin-skin and other personal abnormalities to the extent that the ability to give freely of yourself to your community, even when insulted and misunderstood, becomes effortless.
In breaking down the national problems into its constituent parts, it will become obvious that each community has enough problems on its plates. The next rational step will be for the members of the community to get together and articulate how to solve the identified local problems. In essence each NID should learn to focus attention on his/her local area. The ongoing craze of wasting emotional and physical energy on a distant remote national problem is an exercise in futility.
Our human nature is not blessed with such capacity for dealing with such large complex problems. This is one of the political deceptions of the modern world. For example, how can gunslinger President Bush of United States keeps on deceiving himself that he is capable of solving global problems, albeit with dangerous munitions and unspeakable weapons of mass destruction? How can globetrotting President Olusegun Obasanjo keeps on deluding himself that he is capable of solving Nigeria’s problem?
We believe that the solution to any political, social and economic problem lies with the members of the local constituency directly concerned. It is the duty of each member to identify his/her resources and to focus them appropriately where they are most needed. As soon as NIDs can comprehend this basic idea we have a duty to help other Nigerians at home to appreciate this simple principle. It is under this basic premise of simplification of problems and analysis that our effort can become constructive, decisive and effective to the local problems.
We should desist from the popular craze of forming national umbrella organisations. It is an exercise of pretence and of an orientation of mind that believes doing something is better than not doing anything. If what we are doing has no bearing to the problem then it can never make a dent on our multi-local problems. We must learn to organise ourselves into local and small organisations with clear-cut simple, manageable and attainable objectives.
As a people desiring for change in our seemly hopeless situations, let us learn to think top-down but when it comes to plans, programmes and projects let us act bottom-up. In the search for truth and development, we discovered a seven-step thinking and action plan that says simply:
Think universal act global
Think global act continental
Think continental act national
Think national act local
Think local act communal
Think communal act familial
Think familial act personal.
In essence it suggests that while we endeavour to do our thinking top-down any action for social and human development should be carried out bottom-up. Our thinking should proceed from the universal to the familial while action should proceed from personal to the global.
What we are canvassing is the idea that social change or social revolution is possible. But a social revolution must start its journey with individuals. That it is possible for individuals to change or to emancipate but it has to start with mental and spiritual emancipation before social, economic and political emancipation can follow. And that before mental and spiritual emancipation can occur it has to be accepted as a full time business affair not an affair pursued when one has the time. In fact the pursuit of personal liberation should be the most important activity in the life of any slave desiring to emancipate from economic, cultural, religious, political and social slavery into true freedom.
In other words, if we acknowledge the reality of our powerlessness to change our world, then it is to knowledge we must devote unparalleled attention. Not just any knowledge but those that teach about who we are in the gigantic scheme of life. Not knowledge that is seeking to gain power over others or seeking to secure material advantage over others but knowledge that is seeking to understand the nature of man, the nature of the creator, and the purpose of creation.
In an essay on leadership problems in Africa titled, The Dishonourable Africans we raised some fundamental questions on the purpose of life. We asked,
- “How can any sane person put so much faith in material acquisition as the sole purpose of life?
- How can the end purpose of this beautiful edifice called the universe and this magnificent piece of physiological machine called man be solely to be rich and famous?
- How can any man with sense and a living soul look back at the end of seventy odd years on earth and declare in all truthfulness that his achievement in life can be found in the empire forcefully acquired or established in blood; in the number of palaces, castles and houses built or stolen; in the number of women sexually conquered and abused; in the number of illegitimate children fathered and forgotten; in the multi-million dollars stowed away in the bank while millions of his/her generation have no food or shelter; and in the number of lives cruelly wrecked or ruthlessly snuffed out in the cause of personal ambition for earthly power and vain glory?
- How can these sickening perversions be, truly and sincerely, the purpose of life?”
These questions are still begging for answers.
The Truth of Existence
Initially, we thought we shall go on and on to expatiate on policies, programmes and projects that NIDs might consider as they put relocation plans in motion. But we have a feeling that it is too early for such proposal. It is now our considered opinion that NIDs should be given time to discover themselves as they spend time to search for the meaning of life, to seek the truth of their personal circumstances, the truth of our world, the truth of our nations and the truth of the future of our world.
It is under this educational exercise that the rebirth of the souls of NIDs can be achieved. We need to reiterate that the intention behind these letters is to point the attention of NIDs to the importance of spiritual emancipation. We believe the pursuit of spiritual emancipation will hasten the knowledge and the understanding of the ideals of equality, justice and freedom. Indeed, we are convinced that an academic understanding of these concepts can never translate into true power, true hope and true love. These three – hope, love and power – are the necessary ingredients needed to brew the social revolution of Nigeria.
Our desire in dabbling into the spiritual art of writing is not to entertain by sensationalising issues but to cause a radical change in the life of NIDs. A change in the way you view, perceive and understand the world, in the way you appreciate and comprehend the ideals and values of power, equality, freedom and justice, and in the way you see and rate yourself in the universal arrangement of life. Above all, our ultimate goal is to wake you up to the reality of the untapped potential resources you possess and to help you understand the truth of the immense power within you.
The materials contained in these letters are as a matter of fact the gifts of heaven for the personal use of this writer. They are my references and benchmark for the future. They are the diaries of my spiritual adventures and explorations in the Diaspora. When this writer trespassed into the business of writing, he never knew there are so many wonderful things lurking somewhere within him. This, to me, is one of the manifestations of the truth of existence. It demonstrates that within each of us there are wonderful treasures carefully placed therein for our use as at when necessary. It seems without searching for them we would not know the extent of the wealth we have within.
There is a need for each of us to be aware of the bundle of potential treasure and immense spiritual power we possessed. We need to understand that it can be cultivated and it can grow to any size and level depending on the effort and attention of the cultivator. In sharing these treasures with NIDs we hope to stimulate your awareness of these great potentials within you. And that this spiritual powers within you are strong and adequate enough to turn our lives around and in turn to revolutionise our nations onto the path of true perfection, true love, true peace, true equality, true freedom, true justice, true progress and true prosperity.
As we seek and search for the power within us each seeker shall hit the treasure chest of life that is full of nothing else but love. The discovery of the power of divine love is the ultimate sublime achievement that comes to all sincere seeker of the truth of life. It is love that created our world and it is only through the power of love that we can live in peace in this world. Happiness and true human development will remain a mirage when love is missing on our planet. The governing spirit of the world as at this moment is one powered by hate.
No man is created for himself or herself. Each of us is created for a particular role in the theatre of nature. Every playwright understands the simple logic that he must create, designate and apportion roles for each character in a drama production. He understands that each role, whether big or small, is essential to the story line. The theatre of life is also built on the same principle. In this sense, it is very essential to our thesis that each NID should not assume that he/she has an insignificant role in the Social Revolutionary project of Nigeria. We believe nature has made each of us for a purpose. You have a duty as a living person to seek and understand what that divine purpose is.
Our story has been loaded with several references to the truth of life or of existence. We have tried in the third letter to brainstorm on what we think is the truth of life. The phrase, truth of life, may sound mystical or mythical but the truth of life is the common every day life experiences we all share. Any truth of life that goes beyond this level is no longer a natural phenomenon. It is very important to stress this particular fact because some spiritual gurus have tendencies to lead mankind on a wild goose chase.
We are aware of claims that the truth of life can only be found under a strict punishing exercises and physical denials or on the mountaintops or in the graveyards or in some sacred places in the desert or by the seashores, etc. To our understanding that is not the truth of life we are referring. The truth of life is the sensory experiences of everyday phenomenon common to every human being. It is the ability to observe attentively the minute details of the events happening in the environment, the faculty to review these observations mentally and the capacity to accord meaning and interpretation to them that sets mankind apart from one another.
In this sense, each NID is urged, as you search for the truth and the meaning of your own personal life, to look closely at the past and the present stages of your biographical life. At every point in our lives there are signposts placed here and there for our attention and guidance. In most cases we were never observant and so we missed the telltale signs. And without discovering who we are and what the purpose of our life is, it will be practically impossible for any of us to succeed in our assigned divine roles.
The need to seek and search for the meaning of life is highly recommended for any NID desirous to be redeemed or awakened into the spiritual state of existence. We have mentioned in some of the early essays about the duality of all natural phenomena and that the human nature is made up of the physical and the spiritual components. It is a natural law of creation that the reproduction of our kinds in our own image must continually occur.
The physical reproduction of childbirth is familiar to everyone but the real meaning of spiritual reproduction, even though most religions talk about it, has eluded most of us. The teaching of ‘You must be born again’ should not be seen as a casual slogan or mere religious slang. And we are of the opinion that no religion has a patent right to the concept. ‘You must be born again’ is a universal injunction. The basic problem is the inability to find the safest and a result-oriented way for its realisation. This writer will cautiously advise that if the ancient prescriptions popularised by religion are no longer yielding the dividend of rebirth it becomes the duty of humanity to throw them out and look for a more promising route.
In the case of physical reproduction, a woman has the prerogative to embrace or to turn her back on childbearing endeavour. There is no law against such an action of rejecting or accepting motherhood. All that such a woman who refuses to have a child would miss is the experience either of joy or pain of motherhood. There is no sin whatsoever in such a life choice. Similarly, a person can decide to live a ‘normal’ life of the physical and to refuse outright to be born again. There is no law against that as well except for the loss of wonderful spiritual experiences. Such a person would lose the experiences of divine love, spiritual power, and serene hope that make charitable co-operation effortless; that make being ones brother’s keeper a joyful activity; and that make the practices of equality, justice and freedom in a polity desirable as an exciting political exercise.
These are the kinds of truth of life this writer will like to impress on the mind of NIDs. It should be mentioned that no matter how much we fret and worry about the problems of British Nigeria, without the spiritual power none of us could make anything to happen. The battle over British Nigeria is a spiritual battle. It is not a battle that can be won by a display of academic laurels and erudite pronouncements or of acquisition of political power or of hoarding of money and material possession. Even though these things have their uses, they are appropriate only when the spiritual battle has been fought and won. We are not talking of cults or religions or secret societies or anything of such macabre nature. We are stating the fundamental truth that every sage and every teacher that has made valuable impression on our world discovered.
The ancient sages discovered that there is power in the knowledge of our visible world when sought with the right desire and attitude – an attitude that seeks knowledge from the perspective of love and of a single-minded desire to know the meaning of life. It is under this attitude and desire that a soul can enjoy the experience of rebirth or awakening. This is the only way this writer has discovered to be foolproof. This way of seeking truth does not make or turn a seeker into a slave of any master, prophet, teacher and guru of any doctrine or religion or society. We sincerely believe that it is under this liberal educational endeavour of seeking knowledge faithfully and sincerely that true freedom can be attained.
Our individual circumstances are relevant to our person. Regardless of where each NID is toiling or slaving away in the alien shores there are some lessons to be learnt in the experience for your rebirth. Therefore, instead of moaning about the hardship you are going through, please spend valuable time to observe carefully, diligently and intelligently your present circumstances and pronto you will be able to solve the jigsaw puzzle of your life.
At this point in time and with the raging fire of disasters in the fatherland you need to discover your spiritual nature. Your spiritual self is the original counterpart of your being. Your body is a shell designed to house the real you. The real you, is eager to come alive. It is the only part of your composition that is real and worthy of attention and care. The real you, is anxious to get involved with the social revolution of Nigeria because that is the only reason why it is on planet earth today. Your present devotion to a physical-oriented consciousness is the only constraint holding your soul back. This and the other letters are urging and pleading with you to seek understanding about this natural phenomenon so that you can hasten the rebirth of your soul into active service for the people of New Nigeria under preparation.
It is necessary to draw the attentions of NIDs to the obvious fact that the people causing havoc in Nigeria are less than 0.00001% of the population of Nigeria. We believe if only 0.00001% of Nigerians can seek understanding of the meaning of life and will allow the spirit of truth to teach and to guide them, this number is sufficient to confront and to overcome the spoilers, the polluters and the destroyers of our lives.
Dear Fellow Nigerian in the Diaspora, if you are seriously concerned about the suffering of other not so fortunate Nigerians, please spend some valuable time on the analysis of the problems and of the values governing our world. Thereafter seek understanding about the purpose of your life. This intellectual and spiritual engagement will definitely put you on a different plane of comprehending higher moral and ethical values.
It is our considered opinion that without each of us consciously identifying and constructing new noble values based on a well-defined meaning of life every energy we spent on reforming the present amoral values plus the accompanying social, economic and political institutions shall remain a wasted effort.
Sadly, this is what the intellectually awakened Nigerians are doing and the result is predictable. Nothing is changing and nothing can change as long as the present amoral operating values in Nigeria and the world are still in place.
In closing the discourse with NIDs, we thank the creator of life for giving us the opportunity to plant some seeds of the truth of life through this medium, as we understand them and to the best of our ability. We believe the seeds of these letters are bound by natural law, as every true seed in creation is bound, to germinate, to grow and to bring forth fruits of rebirth in the lives of NIDs.
It is our hope that the resultant fruits of love shall empower the spiritually awakened Nigerians to become true warriors in the battle between darkness and light. We believe the fruits of love shall inspire them to rise in grace, in truth and in courage to vanquish forever the darkness in our continent. As the spiritual battles rage we invite all Nigerians to sing along this song of hope and redemption:
All over Nigeria the spirit of truth is moving
Just as the prophets said it would do
Dispossessing the powers of evil doer.All over Nigeria mighty revelations are coming
Just as the dawn of glorious lights appear
Healing and blessing every repentant heart.All over Nigeria the spirit of truth is moving
Just as the peace and glory of heaven arrive
Settling down into the new hearts of people.All over Nigeria the spirit of truth is moving
Just as clouds of rain move around the globe
Bringing rebirth of souls and new life.
May the spirit of truth be our helper and our guide in our search for the truth of existence. May every seeker be blessed with spiritual power and courage to overcome the raging forces of pride, sloth, envy, greed, gluttony, anger, lust, vanity, hate, unkindness, unfairness, inequality and enslavement.
And may the spirit of truth deliver every seeker from the worldly wisdom that seeks only the advantage of self over others, that seeks to have the largest share of every cake, that seeks to see while others are blind, that seeks to hear while others are deaf, that seeks to know while others are ignorant, that seeks to own everything while others have nothing and that seeks to be king while others are subjects.
May we all be free from the spirit of lies that seeks to set up all those engaged in these depraved practices as successful role models worthy of emulation and adoration rather than our disgust and disdain.
Yours Truly,
In The Spirit of Truth
SAM ABBD ISRAEL
A Concerned Common Nigerian
19th August 2002
SAM ABBD ISRAEL 