Why are we here?

Hello everyone,

It’s that time again – that time when I give you all the benefit of my old age. How are things with you? I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Things are really great with me right now – a new relationship with an amazing woman, trying out new things and pursuing a personal dream have left me in a pretty good place.

Today’s post is a bit controversial, I think. It’s about why we are here on earth – the purpose of our existence. It’s something I’ve always thought about and I’m going to talk about it from a biblical point of view. I’m talking about it now because of some things I’ve heard in church over the past two weeks. The general theme here is temptation. Let’s dive in.

I’ll start with Adam and Eve. In the garden, they were covered in God’s glory and therefore did not realize that they were naked. It wasn’t until they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that they realized that they were naked. One thing I’ve always thought about is: Why did God put that tree there? Why did he not hide it? If God wanted man to be like Him, why did He let the tempter into the garden? By extension, if God knows everything, and He knows what we are going to do, then He knows who is going to heaven and who’s going to hell. As a result, life itself becomes an exercise in futility. I don’t believe that. I believe that at every point in life, God knows all the possible consequences of our actions – it’s like a humongous decision tree with infinite possibilities. However, at every decision node, God doesn’t know what we are going to do – that’s why He gave us free will. That’s why He gave us the Holy Spirit to help guide us. Ultimately, we are the authors of our own destinies. In my opinion, the temptations He lets us go through are designed to see if we are worthy of His glory. Adam and Eve were tested too; they were found unworthy and God’s glory left them. God knows that I’ve been found unworthy on very many occasions but I’ve come to realize that temptation is not a bad thing – Job was tested and found to be worthy. So was Jesus. Let’s stop seeing temptation as a bad thing. When the devil tempts us, He is indirectly doing God’s work and that’s always a good thing.

I realize that this is a bit out of left field but this is the only rational explanation that I can come up with. Some people will see this and say “how dare you say that God doesn’t know something? You can’t understand God…” and so on. I realize this too. In fact, someone once asked me what this knowledge would do for me. The answer is that I just want to understand. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I want a deeper and more meaningful relationship with God. This is because I am at a period in my life where I’ll be making decisions that have far reaching implications. I need God now more than ever. But I also want to understand what the whole point of life is just for my own satisfaction. I will never have a definitive answer and I know it but I have a theory that makes sense to me and I’m ok with that. I believe that God gave us brains for a reason but this type of thinking shouldn’t distract us from what’s truly important – to love God and love your neighbor. It’s as simple as that.

On an unrelated note, Arsenal’s season has crumbled (predictably) the way my favorite biscuits crumble in my mouth (they are digestives by the way). This past weekend, we were on the brink of being knocked out of the FA Cup. If that had happened, I believe Wenger would have resigned. I find myself increasingly thinking that he has to go. I’m a huge fan of his but the time has come for him to leave. Things have to change. This can’t keep happening to us. I hope we win the FA Cup but as long as he’s there, I don’t think we’ll win the league or the champions’ league.

I watched “Captain America – The Winter Soldier” about a week and a half ago. It’s a good film but that’s all it is for me. I liked the twist though. I finally watched “Her” a week ago. For those that don’t know, “Her” is a movie about a guy that falls in love with his operating system. I thought it was beautiful. Joaquin Phoenix was amazing as was Scarlett Johansson (I thought she was more impressive given the role that she played). It is a truly great film that has so many messages - so many bits that you can take away. I think that’s what truly great movies do.

That’s all for now. Till next time, I remain your fantastic Mr. Fox.

Re-basing Re-basing...

Hello people,

How are you? I expect a response… It’s getting really annoying talking to myself. Anyways, I hope you’re all well. I've really taken to this blogging thing, haven’t I? Yes… it soothes me a little. I woke up this morning to the news that Nigeria’s GDP is now about $510 billion which makes it the largest economy in Africa. I was like “what..?” GDP was like “Them don re-base me na… Abeg park well.” And then I started to do some research on the subject.

I've always known that Nigerians love shiny things. We put value on things that have no substance and our priorities are skewed. I like to extrapolate – to draw conclusions about unfamiliar things based on stuff I already know. I wrote on my blog the other day about our need to propagate the illusion of success which is why we buy expensive cars and rent massive houses that we cannot afford. It happens all the time here. I’m not saying that it doesn't happen in other parts of the world; it’s just that here, people will always have something to say about your situation which puts pressure on people to live extravagant lives. Another example is age group competitions and I think this example summarizes my point very well. When Nigeria goes for age-group competitions especially football, we take over-aged players because we want to win. The purpose of those competitions is not winning per se – it is for the discovery of exciting talents that could potentially be future world beaters. But we are not concerned about that. We carry these over-aged men and women, we win and everybody is happy. Take a look at this stat: Nigeria has won the under -17 world cup 4 times but have never gone past the second round of the world cup proper. Countries like Brazil, Argentina, and USA all do the right thing. And sometimes they don’t win but they keep their eyes on the big picture. Are our priorities skewed? I think so. We like the illusion of success. A deeper look at things will show this.

Now imagine my lack of surprise when I woke up to the news of the GDP re-basing. I was not moved in the least. I was thinking yesterday about what to write on the blog and this came like manna from heaven. It’s something I’ve thought about a lot. In the newspapers, the big news is that Nigeria’s economy is the 26^th largest in the world and Africa’s largest. What they didn't mention is that in GDP per capita terms, we rank 121^st and that South Africa’s GDP per capita s over three times our own. What they didn't mention is that almost two thirds of the world’s poorest people are situated in 5 countries, one of which is Nigeria. What they didn’t mention is that 100 million Nigerians live below the poverty line and that a good proportion of them are classified as extremely poor – extremely poor means living on less than $1.25 dollars a day. Quite frankly, I’m tired of complaining about the situation in this country but stuff like this just irks me.

When I came back into the country last year, I came with certain expectations. I know that I’m extremely fortunate to be able to come back and I’m grateful for that. But a lot of these expectations came from my experiences abroad. One thing struck me when I was there – they are not different from us. We are exactly the same. If you put an American in Nigeria, he will act like a Nigerian – he will cut corners, grease palms and all sorts. However, the system over there controls behavior. It makes people want to do the right thing simply because it’s in their best interest. This is something their founding fathers knew in the 1700s which just makes it unbelievable that in this day and age, we are still where we are. I guess the reason we are where we are and they are doing so well is because those founding fathers had a vision. They had a very clear idea of what they wanted their society to be. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the America we know today is an iteration of the America that was founded in 1776 – It has evolved because the world has changed but in very many ways, it is probably the same. The founding fathers were able to put the needs of the many before their own and act in the interest of the general public.

I was reading today that we have a democracy and that people should leave Jonathan alone to rule. I maintain that we don’t have a democracy – we have a civilian dictatorship. The only difference between this and a military dictatorship is that this one is tenured. Democracy is highly nuanced – it involves all bodies working together. It needs an impartial judiciary, an alert legislative body and an active electorate. These all control the executive. I’ve said it before: Democracy is not an event. It is a process. The situation we have now is that the executive is allowed to run unchecked and as is only logical, they are acting in their own best interests. This is human nature and should not be surprising.

In my opinion, what we need is proper law enforcement. If that is implemented, all other things will follow including power. Let us amend the constitution to ensure the independence of the police force, revamp it and make sure it is funded, not according to the whims of whoever is in charge, but by a mandate in the constitution. Let the Inspector-General have a single term of 5 years to so he doesn't have to worry about his job or who he pisses off. Apply these same principles to the judiciary and we’ll see this country turn around – I’m sure of it. An active law enforcement apparatus is important to reduce corruption. It is no surprise that in the most corrupt countries in the world, there is a corresponding lack of law enforcement. It doesn't make any sense for man to go against his nature in that situation – it is just stupid.