TARRYING & TARDINESS: Lesson From The Babes & Suckling
By ‘Tunji Ajayi
I love Bob Nesta Marley for the depth of his lyrics. I remember his “Forever Loving Jah” track from his epic album Uprising (1980). He sang with aplomb: . . . “Only a fool leans upon his own misunderstanding”. The maestro went on: . . . “What is hidden from the wise and the prudent has been revealed to babes and suckling.” Because a wise man can make sense even from foolish talk; then we can always be perceptive enough to sieve out comedy from tragedy; and perhaps tragedy from comedy.
Having been held up and stranded recently on the so-called Lagos – Ibadan “expressway” due to usual suffocating traffic grid-lock, I felt disconcerted, hungry and famished. I gave up the hope of ever reaching my office in Lagos that day, having spent almost 7 hours travelling from Ibadan on a barely 130 km distance. I pulled away from the ever-busy road and from other hundreds of vehicles with disenchanted commuters suffering similar fate like me, and I decided to recline in a nearby village at the precinct of the “expressway.” Perhaps, I could regain my fading energy occasioned by prolonged hours of driving in the scorching heat.
Sitting underneath the protective shade of a tree overlooking the crater-ridden expressway, I bought some boiled maize on which I fed voraciously to dissipate my hunger. Oh, I hated myself for imprudently dropping few grains on the dusty ground despite the intensity of suffocating hunger.
Stretching my hand to pick them from the floor, it was discomforting that my memory was triggered, reminding me of a rule of hygiene which my finicky, hard-nosed teacher taught me in the primary school. Oh God! Why remembering now his homily, which almost became a sing-song in our school days: “Health is wealth. Wash your hands and teeth before eating; avoid feeding on dropped food from the ground . . .” Why recalling a hackneyed hygiene rule now, especially while under intense threat of excruciating hunger? I threw away, albeit reluctantly, those I had earlier picked on the ground. And here came this mother-hen cuddling her newly-hatched chicks, with unpretentious impudence making way to reach my grains of maize which I grudgingly left on the ground, just in reverence for an “unexciting” rule of hygiene. Though tired, the fowl and her ten chicks scenario provided a reprieve from lassitude and boredom of avoidable but elongated trip from Ibadan to Lagos - a barely 130 kilometer expressway whose reconstruction was flagged off since July 2013, but yet remains uncompleted till today, perhaps due to tardiness, ingrained bureaucracy and “government magic” or “forgeryalization” as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti would call it in his albums, “Unknown Soldier” and “Authority Stealing” respectively.
But here is a comedy in tragedy! Here is a good “film show” for me to watch in my disconsolate state! In law, the legalese is “Du minimis non curat lex.” – Law does not take account of trifles, as our learned lawyers would argue. Unimportant issues are not of their concern. But that may not be wholly true of a journalist eagerly nosing for news; and indeed a creative writer; who takes account of every minute detail of information, either to draw his “premise” with a view to arriving at plausible ”deductions”, or to embellish and season his features to arrive at sizzling stories.
With her sharp beak, to my amazement, the fowl kept breaking each of the dropped grains into pieces, while carefully putting them within the reach of her innocent and fragile baby-chickens to feed on. Rather than gobble up the grains to feed herself, the mother-hen kept on feeding her chicks in succession and tenderly affection. What a wonderful scene to behold! A bird proves wiser than most men!
I reasoned in my amazement. So an animal could be so perspicacious, while man, in his empty pride of being a “homo sapien” and in his egocentric world of rat race, thinks only of himself and his comfort alone! How many fathers or mothers painstakingly create time to care for their children especially these days, instead of gallivanting the streets for social rendezvous? How many leaders deeply and genuinely have the concern of the people they profess to be leading at heart? Perhaps, that may have prodded the perceptive Fela to holler in deep pain and utter grief in his epic album: “Beast of No Nation” that most leaders are “animals in human skin.” Permit me to think that Fela was even liberal in his acerbic remark. Here was a caring fowl stinting herself of food and conveniences in order to feed her ten beloved chicks. But most nations in Africa have insensitive leaders who even extort their followers, viz; their children, to live in ill-gotten affluence and flamboyant lifestyles to the detriment of their millions of famished and dejected people.
Oh! I became so excited. The scenario provided a didactic and enjoyable entertainment for me. Journalists are trained to be accurate and factual. I reasoned again; “Perhaps this fowl’s benevolence was pseudo-selflessness. Perhaps her action was a mere show-off rather than an attribute, like our politicians do; by cunningly “rubbing the electorates’ back” only to rip them off and stiff-neckedly look the other way after they have won elections.” Thus, I kept on throwing my grains of maize to this mother-chicken, and momentarily forgetting my hunger and anger, coupled with the excruciating pain of being stranded on an expressway to stagnation, where a trip supposedly to take about 90 minutes could not even be completed in 6 hours.
The fowl’s resolve to feed her children first, while she goes hungry did not wane. It never for a moment picked a grain to feed herself! Her major concern was to feed her chicks one after the other. I pondered on this strange scenario, recalling a message of the Holy Bible wherein the wise King Solomon admonished us all to go and learn a lesson from one of the smallest creatures. Hear him in Proverbs Chapter 6:6-7 “Go to the ants you lazy one; see its ways and become wise. Although it has no commander, officer or ruler, it prepares its food even in the summer. It has gathered its food supplies even in the harvest.” What a useful lesson to learn from even the smallest of God’s awesome creatures!
What actions can be more bestial of a person bestowed with leadership and being looked up to as a “father” than to greedily amass all national resources continually for ages without having even basic provisions for the physiological needs of his “children”? Our avaricious leaders only live for themselves. The expressway, on which I had driven in traffic jam for that long, and yet unable to reach Lagos, often claims many innocent lives almost on daily basis. Families have perished while travelling on the road over the years. Aside from unquantifiable man-hour-loss daily by commuters, many have gotten stranded in the night due to dismal state of the road and fallen victims of dreaded armed robbers and kidnappers. Until recently, the road had been in worrisome state for decades, but its contract had always been awarded and re-awarded without any visible changes. The earlier promise was that it would be completed in 2017. The year came and has gone. The road reconstruction still remains unfinished. Just like the Power Holding Corporation of Nigeria, billions of naira had been sunk to revive the road in the past years. But no one, except perhaps our leaders, knows where the funds have gone magically. Until recently, previous governments kept on budgeting and re-budgeting endlessly for new funds for same project, while Nigerians merely groan in pain. Our governments have always exploited the peaceful and resilient nature of Nigerians and their unbridled ability to withstand stressful conditions. The most complacent and irrepressible people on earth perhaps are Nigerians, who often lament about their excruciating pain, but always looking up to God for succor. While we all eagerly wait for the full completion of the Lagos - Ibadan Expressway reconstruction, which was flagged off since 2013 we hope the billions of naira earmarked for the reconstruction will truly achieve the goals for which it was originally meant.
Let our leaders take a useful lesson from our wise and benevolent fowl, and perhaps one other witty words of Bob Nesta Marley. Hear him: “Live for yourself, and you will live in vain. Live for others, and you will live again.” Those who live selfless and benevolent lives in pursuit of the common good of humanity can never die in vain. Their names are forever written in gold. But those who forget that inanity breeds vanity and has extorted humanity and the famished, should not forget to seek remission of their iniquitous and ignoble acts before it is too late. As advised by Horace Mann, an 18th century American lawyer and educator: “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” That is the whole essence of man. Perhaps any day our leaders realize this truism, they would think deeply and act wisely. Verbum Satis Sapienti.
*Tunji Ajayi, a communication scholar, author and creative writer writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
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