APOLOGY
By: Olanrewaju Ojuoluwa

"Once upon a time, rulers willfully ended their own lives when they performed woefully."

We are in a mess, such that requires a state of emergency. Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" though written decades ago, describes now more than then and perhaps it is high time we viewed it as being prophetic; the center no longer holding indeed.

There has never been a time in history that people starve as they do now except during war. Hunger, poverty and starvation boldly written on people's faces that, one must wonder how their conditions retrogressed to this point. It is a state of total confusion. Yes, imbroglio!

Businesses collapse by the day. Workers' salaries unpaid even when Naira is at its most devalued state ever. Hopelessness has become the order of the day. Parents are broke, their children stranded. Husbands can hardly meet the basic needs of their wives not to talk of the family as a whole. To make things worse, parents sell children for money, not because they do not love them, but that the rest may survive.

Security wise, there has never been a time in our civil lives that life is as valueless as it is now. Before now, we were loving people, brothers and sisters. We looked out for each other and shared in others' pains and joys. Now, love is being replaced with hate, hate even among brothers. Care replaced with nonchalance.

Terrorism, kidnappings, ritual killings, insurgencies, murdering, massacring and brutalizing now characterize our daily living. All across social media are displayed hourly of horrible pictures of fatal deaths. Mass burials. Disembowelled pregnant women, with their innocent babies made to feel the sharpness of blades even at their first exposure to our planet. Senseless enmities, avoidable deaths.

Yes, it has been prophesied that these happenings are the signs of the end time, yet, there are places with relative peace, harmony and joy. This connotes that, our predicaments are self inflicted. Hence, we might have fast tracked our own end time as against the prophecy. We all are guilty. There are no innocents.

Yesteryears seem better than now with no hope of things getting better soon (should the status quo remain). The story of the fellow caught having stolen a pot of amala on fire while the owner went to get other ingredients is touching, yet there are worse! There are cases families drink water to sleep because it is the only available edible substance they could lay hands on.

Those whom the people elect to represent them at various capacities on the other hand keep doing business as usual. They live lives of decadence, have luxuries at their disposal, acquire more wealth at the expense of the people and, manipulate them with crumbs from their loots.

Yet, it is still unimaginable that some people pride in being rulers of such a place as ours! It is noble for rulers to preside over the people and their reigns notable for good. Otherwise is however ignoble. And when it is otherwise, it is still noble when leaders involved take responsibility, leave the throne honourably and/or perhaps willfully take their own lives, as were the times of heroes in time past.

Not these present breed of leaders though, they are not honourable. They are ignoble. They do not have the guts to let go of power even when they obviously fail even their own household. The more our situations get worsened by their actions and inactions, the more they look for reasons why they are not at fault. They have mastered the art of trading blames. Blame game is their hubby. And because they will not leave willingly, they will be willfully dethroned, but dishonourably.

What lies ahead? Where do we go from here? Events will unravel no doubt. And sure, the table will turn. When? How? Where? History has it that people do have patterns of behavior which envelopes their judgements. On judgement day, events shall unravel.

I am Olanrewaju Ojuoluwa, a Battle Axe and Weapon of War. I am a part of a generation of unrepentant haters of evil who do not just fold arms and complain about things, but take actions to effect positive changes.