IDOLS AND FATAL ALLEGIANCE

HEAL A FRACTURED WORLD COLUMN

                    CHIBU NDUBUISI  16/01/2017

      

                 IDOLS AND FATAL ALLEGIANCE

Peace be to you.

Oxford dictionary defines idol as (a) a person or thing that is loved and admired very much.(b) a statue that is worshiped as a god.

In the 21st century, technology, politics,economy, politics are but a few of the many idols we pay allegiance to and inadvertently fallen prey to their menancing tentacles.

Former president Olusegun Obasanjo as a president of Nigeria posited that'politics is a do or die affairs' meaning that he is ready to kill to secure electoral victory. Former governor of Rivers State Rotimi Amaechi in the run up to the 2015 general elections said that' if the PDP rigs the elections, we will make the country ungovernable, we will form a parallel government and there will be anarchy'. His threats did not materialize because PDP lost the elections and handed over power to APC government and anarchy was not loosened on the country. In the run up to the Rivers rerun elections 2016 Governor of Kano state Ganduje at a rally told party stalwarts that ' if they shoot you, take cover and shoot them back'.

Politics as a means towards creating a better society cannot come to be with such positions and grandstanding.

Mahatma Gandhi advised that what will destroy us is 'politics without principles', James Curran and Jean Seaton added that 'power without responsibility' is more trouble. From the examples we can understand what idols these men pay allegiance to and why they are ready to pay such fatal allegiance to it. Former President Goodluck Jonathan made a statement prior to 2015 elections, 'that his ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian'. He demonstrated it practically when he lost power and handed over peacefully unlike what we see in some African countries. That is how to heal a fractured world.

However, this is the era of  'Post Truth' politics',  a new word added to the dictionary, an adjective defined or relating to or denoting  circumstance in which objective fact are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotions. The politician might come up tomorrow to say that they never meant what they  said, that, it is just electioneering rhetorics.

On the economic front,  we have seen how people fabricate chalk to sell to people in the name of selling genuine drugs. We have seen how kidnapping keeps rising as a profitable venture. I know that selling of fake drugs to heal a sick body or kidnapping for ransom is not how to heal a fractured world.

On the technological front, we have seen how ISIS terrorist organization uses it as a platform to recruit followers that are  indoctrinated to wreck havoc on our already fractured world.

St Augustine explained that ' we are sometimes tied down not by iron outside ourselves but by our own iron will. The enemy had control of the power of MY WILL and from it, he had fashioned a chain for me and had bound me in it'.

We can now understand that for the idols that controls us, we can sacrifice anything to keep it running including bloodletting. What are those idols holding you back towards healing a fractured world? What restraints can we put up against the idols of the time?

Jonathan sacks writes that ' every age has it's idols, what are ours? And advised that the freedom to decide how to respond is the main freedom'.

Peace be with you.

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