Life taught me that no one thinks of the poor as wise or pays any attention to what he says. The poor live among a people, but he is without identity: he is treated with no honour even  among his own. He is highly valued only during election process when he assumes a prominence he hardly derseves. He is called to become part of the the activities that intended to achieve the victory of the politician at the polls. Gifts are showered on the poor just to lure him into working assiduously towards the success of the plitician. On that scorching hot day, the poor joins a queue before the ballot box to exercise his franchise. At the end, the politician wins while the poor loses. The politian is sworn-in into an office with all the paraphernalia of power while the poor go with an avalanche of empty promises: still wallowing in utter misery. Nothing has been done to alleviate his poverty. Politicians as usual,promise the earth before an election, but things are different afterwards.

Life is never fair. I was feeling utterly desolate: lonely and unhappy, until a friend of mine, a Sierra-Leonean, narrated to me how the rebels raped his only sister to death; hacked his parents to death and finally set their house ablaze, before his own very eyes. He was virtually left with nothing: no people to call his, no place to lay his head, no destiny, no hope. Dejected indeed, he fled to Liberia only to be caught up in another rebel war few months later. Subsequently he moved down to Guinea before settling in Ghana. Poor boy, he lives alone in a foreign land while the warlords who inflicted the pains on him are today in the corridors of power in Sierra leone, making decisions and munching the wealth of the land they once ravaged. What a world! some people have power, others have to suffer under them.

I was taught that to every success, there is a sacrifice. And that there is no success without suffering. But why is it that some people are suffering without becoming successful while others are successful without suffering? With little or no effort, this man gets amazing result, but the other man will toil for years, exert a big effort,yet failure; frustration; poverty stares him in the face. Sometimes the righteous get the punishment of the wicked and the wicked get the reward of the righteous. Some people sow while others reap. It is not possible to get something for nothing. There is no such thing as a free lunch. There must be a sowing before a reaping. So everything that is been enjoyed today, must have been sown in the time past.

Today, millions of South Africans are free, but the seed of freedom was sown by Nelson Mandela and few other anti-apartheid activists who spent years languishing behind bars. Nigerian politicians have busied themselvces with the task of siphoning off the billions committed in their care into their own foreign bank accounts, but can any of them ask the pro-democracy activists  on their experiences in prison on convictions for "crimes" that included sabotage committed while superheading the struggle against military dictatorship.

Yes, many talents without development and empowerment amounts to nothingness. it is like a new born baby that has nobody to look after him, will eventually die. A vision without provision is frustration. But come to think about it, I believe that a vision with a genuine cause can only be delayed. Certainly, it will come to pass. Consider the words of Dr Martin Luther King Jr., four decades ago: "I have a dream this afternoon that the brotherhood of man will become a reality. With this faith,we will be able to achieve that new day when all of God's children, blackmen and whitemen, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, 'free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty we are free at last". Today, this dream has come to fulfilment in its entirety. Hilary Clinton,a woman and Barrack Obama, a blackman of African lineage, have risen to become the political giants in today's America. Americans have looked beyond race and sex, to choose the most qualified.

What is the essence of life? Why are we on this planet called earth? Does God exist, if yes, why the wide spread human sufferings?. Well,i hope the earth didn't just happen. It was created by an infinitely intelligent Being beyond our human understanding, and this creator established certain natural laws that put order into all things. If I plan my life to function within the boundaries of these natural laws, I can achieve happinesss and success in life. And if I live outside these natural laws, I will never enjoy the inner peace, riches, enlightenment, and physical well-being for which i am searching. It is as amazing and simple as that.you may avoid the laws of man but there are greater laws that cannot be broken.

Mankind faces great problems today because people have become so self-sufficient that they some times forget there is a God. They forget that there is an omni-present power that is bigger and more powerful than you and I.Troubles of life may abound, but they come to make us better and not to destroy us. Knowing that God is my source and,that my destiny rests in His hands, I am not perplexed. I am confident that in due course, the world shall celebrate me.

Nnakaihe Friday
The Factfinders
44 Nnebisi Road,Asaba 320001,Delta state,Nigeria
+234-703-913-1489



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