WHO WIll brING THE lIGHT?
The hall was packed to capacity with an overflow set to cater for those who couldn’t find seats in the auditorium. The graduating students all beamed with the satisfaction of one who had completed a major life milestone and so should they, for this was no ordinary graduation but rather one from the premier business school in the country. In the hall sat a cross section of intellectual and entrepreneurial minds upon which a nations future for economic excellence rested and they each knew, on this day, that the responsibility they bore for their generation moving forward had dramatically increased. These ones had selected to search for greater knowledge and in so doing have given themselves a chance to excel in life.
Seated next to me was an old friend, a spiritual sparing mate whose wife happened to be in the same class as mine. As we observed with evident pride, the milestone achievement of our next of kin, we struck up a conversation about finding peace in the Delta. An electrification project had been carried out by his firm, using gas from a nearby field to bring power to a community that had never been lit. No sooner had the plant been powered up than the gas pipeline was blown to shreds. When confronted, the community demanded that diesel not gas should power the plants and moreso they should be given the contract to supply the fuel. Every attempt at reason fell on deaf ears so with their oil wells on lock down and running irredeemable losses on their books, they gave in.
The All Knowing God, looking longingly at the demise of His creation cried out saying “My people perish for lack of knowledge”. Nothing destroys a mans purpose in life more rapidly than ignorance. Poverty of the mind is a far greater threat to society than poverty of means. Many months have gone by, diesel trucks worth millions have been shipped to the community yet not one watt of electricity has been generated. The youths and community leaders are ignorantly jubilant, strutting about with cash in their pockets, wasting it all away just a fast as they can on frivolities and vanities of life while their future generations are deprived of the one thing that could have made a remarkable difference to their sustainability. There is an uneasy calm at present, a false sense of peace that is sure to shatter when their greed guarantees that the available cash is no longer sufficient to sustain a false life. Only then will understanding come and wisdom sought but even that maybe too late for an entire generation who only needed wise counsel to see the light. May our youths be enlightened today and ignorance completely erased. God bless you.