IT BEGINS WITH YOU!

       Walking into a plush restaurant in Magodo after my car broke down, I noticed two women at the extreme talking and giggling. Itching to hear what all  the ruckus was about, I sat at a table  close to them. Sipping my wine, I repositioned my head to get a better view of their faces while I listened, I listened not eavesdropped.

“You won’t believe this, he wears only one shirt to class” said the girl closer to me.

“Oh! My! Gosh!! Girl… you are so dope, how did you manage to sit near him” the other replied while dutifully twiddling her hands.

“I nearly gagged…”

     I could not believe my ears on what these caricatures of the very existence of humans were blabbing about.  The first question that popped into my head while been oblivious of the voices behind me was “WHO ARE WE TO CONDEMN OTHERS?” It reminded me of conversation with a cousin of mine about stance on Nigeria politics.  “Jide, you have the auspicious aura of being a great politician emitting from your very being: I said teasingly.  “God  forbid, that is the last thing I would want to be” he said looking at me squarely in the face. “Why? I asked in a bemused tone.  “Everything about Nigerian politics is a farce, corruption  and theft rule the realm… on and on he went while I listened with rapt attention.

    The salient question before us still remains” WHO ARE WE TO CONDEMN OTHERS”. Judge yourself before you judge others. Are you better than the boy who wears one shirt to class everyday down or the girl who works at the strip club.  Life has a way of making the hunter the hunted within a twinkle of an eye.  It is still a befuddling concept that people can cast aspersions on the honesty of the government when they themselves are no better than thieves.  It is also a striking surprise that we can accuse the government of killing persons for rituals when we all can kill a person with out mouth and commit abortion.  Hmmm!!! I'm not trying to exonerate anybody from their faults or abate them of them either, all I am saying is that a change begins with you, why don’t you give the boy with only one shirt some and go down to the girl at the strip club and show her some love. Why don’t we help the girl who got pregnant while in school with her academics instead of casting aspersions on her virtues, it could be you or me, nobody knows tomorrow.  It begins with you trying to stop stealing your parents’ money in ways a person can’t imagine, giving a little help to those around us in need of it, the change actually begins with you.  A popular adage says, “he who points a finger at others should also remember that three more fingers point back at him”.

    If we care so much to notice the negative sides of others, we could be ardent enough to cause a change instead of pouring our vile, demeaning and absurd sentences on others.

    A change in the world begins with our attitudes in our homes, amongst our friends and in the community at large.

Written by: Khosy E.