It is very easy for you to come to me (or
call/BB/text/mail me) about the aso-ebi for a party (yours or someone else’)
but it isn’t as easy for you to discuss how we can form a group that will
sponsor a talented but indigent child through school or help another child
(ren) gain vocational skills.
It is very easy for us as girls to sit down
together (in our hostels, tea parties, weekend get-togethers) and discuss about
various hair (infact the latest trends) – Brazillian, Indian, Chinese – shoes,
bags etc. But it isn’t as easy for us to discuss about our natural hair, local
products (good quality) and how our foreign tastes is helping to improve the
economies of foreign countries whilst impoverishing our own local economies.
It is very easy for you to invite me to a
MLM (Multi Level Marketing) meeting where we strategize how to promote the
distribution & sale of foreign products but it isn’t as easy for you to
invite me to a townhall meeting of people who are desirous of change and who
want to be involved in practical terms in their local communities and in the
nation as a whole.
It is very easy for us boys (& men) to
sit down and watch/discuss football, the players, the jerseys of popular
football clubs such as Arsenal, Man U, Real Madrid etc. but it isn’t as easy
for us to discuss why Eyimba, Kwara United, Kano Pillars, Heartland are not
developing to the level of those foreign clubs. Yet among those who sit down to
discuss football at this level are high profile government officials,
pastors/imams of large congregations, successful professionals at various
levels. It isn’t easy to propose to set up clubs (which by the way are all
privately owned) to engender such professionalism and class of football watched
on DSTV right here at home. It is way too difficult for us to think that way
but very easy to sit on our couches and watch endlessly match after match of
foreign tournaments and profiling.
It is very easy for us to discuss car
brands and their performances but some of us discussing this topic are
mechanical/electrical engineers, bank executives, ministers (for education,
science & technology), and research fellows. Yet we can’t see the
connection between us and what it will mean for us to produce and use such a
commodity within our own shores.
It is very easy for us to sit down and
condemn (abuse is the word used often by GEJ) govt officials when in actual
fact we contributed to them getting to those positions (overtly or covertly).
Yet some of us are team leads in our offices/religious organizations/alumni
comprising of 3 – 40 members (or more) and there is so much
opacity/corruption/animosity going on in those small corners than is
imaginable.
It is very easy for us as family members to
meet, plan and contribute (financially) to the “turning over”/memorial party
(which is usually a big bash) of our late parents who have been gone for more
than 5 years (sometimes 30years!!). But it is not as easy to meet, plan and
contribute towards empowering young individuals/families (even within our clan)
that are still struggling to provide for themselves. After all, for those of us
who are now successful, we worked very hard to break through, those other people
should find their own way (I am not encouraging laziness/dependence neither am
I unaware of the ingratitude that may be doled out by the people we show
concern for).
