The Bola Ahmed Tinubu Administration has unpretentiously put on its gloves to do battle with the forces that have constituted clogs in the wheel of development and progress of our nation. He said the fuel subsidy was gone and it has been out of the way, seven days short of a month now. His war front is the economy and socio-economic entanglements. He has set the tone and his style of decisiveness has left no one in doubt that a new Sherriff is in town and he means business. Babatunde Fashola, his erstwhile Chief of Staff when Bola Tinubu was governor of Lagos State gave a hint of what to expect from the then President in the making. He parted the window blind a little for us to peep and said with a ringing tone that people were making a mistake of underrating Bola Tinubu. The salvos the latter has fired would seem Tunde Fashola may be proven right. He should know: he was his Chief of Staff for many years. He has been governor himself, an action governor for that matter with an eye and a longing for the beauty of the environment as well as the right attitude and application for environmental transformation. He is just back home from a ministerial tour of duty for eight years. When he spoke, we were fixated on some other areas of Tinubu’s life such as his health.
What will anchor President Bola Tinubu’s signature policy scores, it would seem, are security, economy, and inter-ethnic balance to engender trust and cultivate harmonious relationships. As I was saying last week…at the root of an economic downturn is the breach of the Law of Balance and connected therewith, of other firm and inviolable Laws governing human existence and the entire Creation. It is not only the economy that the Law of Balance in particular governs. Whenever and wherever imbalance manifests, be it in man, be it in a system, there must be disharmony or even collapse and ruination.
When a man acts in a strange way, there is a question as to his balance in the head. When a man has a bad leg, there will be an imbalance in his walking, his gait, and carriage as a whole. There must be a balance between work and rest. Where there is exaggeration in work, there is stress and tension in the body system which could lead to high blood pressure and trigger hypertension. A system that is overworked will break down. It is, therefore, not for nothing that we hanker to go on vacation, to wind down, give the body system some rest, and rejuvenate our entire being. Too much sleep leads to weakness of the body. The body, as a result, becomes susceptible to diseases, indeed, to all manner of ailments. The corpuscles in the blood are no longer in the mood to fight any menacing radicals. Too much sleep leads to indolence and want. He who sleeps too much loses enthusiasm for work and his own agility that makes for movement which is in turn tonic for maintenance that keeps the body in good form and awakens even mental faculties. Thus exaggeration in work and life of ease is not just harmful but often brings premature death. Retired men or women who no longer have a goal to drive them, we may have observed, soon lose the will to live. And so within a year or two of their retirement, to their chagrin and surprise of their families, they suddenly depart earthly life.
The Law of Balance stipulates that it is in giving that lies receiving. There must be balance in inhaling and exhaling to prevent cardiac arrest. There is joy and confidence in giving and receiving with the giver knowing joy and the recipient in shining eyes and relaxed countenance as an expression of gratitude. And so, the Lord Jesus said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20, 35). In the enlightenment of these times, we learn that “he who gives selflessly, whether of earthly or spiritual values, ultimately gives most to himself.” This is because the Law of Sowing and Reaping which in spiritual language is called the Law of Reciprocal Action, comes into activity ensuring that what is sown is reaped in multiples at harvest. We can just think of maize that is in season now, one grain of it that was sown three months ago emerges brandishing about 40 grains clinging to a cub and there could be five to six ears hanging on a stem. Mango season was in February/March. From one seed planted, about 500 can be harvested. Several bags of bitter kola can be derived from just one tree at harvest from just one seed even though its maturation period is between 29 to 32 years depending on the species. A yam seedling can bring forth four to five tubers from a heap. There are even species that are harvested twice in a year without having to replant the seedling—first in June and the second harvest in December. The maturation process for yam is nine months, while maize is three months and vegetables 10 days. How long the maturation takes will depend on the nature of the seed. It can be likened to when a man commits an offence and it is detected for trial. A heinous crime of murder for instance attracts instant attention as it hits the community with a bang. Law enforcement agencies move in and in no time the criminal is apprehended and made to face the wrath of the law. A company or bank heist may go on for years undetected if auditors, especially external auditors do not check the books. In other words, fraud maturation period is longer by its very nature to produce fruits for harvest whereas that of a violent crime is shorter.
What I am getting at is that sowing is giving and the product is the seed. The harvest is as the seed sown and is in multiples. Sowing, however, is not only in relation to plants. Every activity of man, whether in thought, speech, or deed is a seed planted in the soil of life which will produce multiple fruits when they shall have gone through unfailing maturation processes. Nature beings are diligently at work, tending, nurturing and where the activities of nixies are required, they are standing by to tap and weave radiations of the Light pouring into our universe into H2O by which is meant water or to provide rain. Butterflies are in waiting for pollination. Necessary nutrients of the soil are provided by gnomes. It is heaving and surging in collaborative working in matchless loving and loyal service to the Lord of all the worlds.
A land that gives little vapour to the elements will have little or no rain in the automatic natural mechanism of the necessary balance between giving and taking. We are told in the higher knowledge spreading on earth today to rescue man in this End-Time: “Naturally, this principle holds equally for what takes place spiritually. The spirit of man also lives from the spiritual power which the Creator gives perpetually into His Creation for its maintenance and expansion. With this power he forms his intuitive perceptions, his thoughts and his deeds. But the counter-value which he owes to his Creator as a return for its use is gratitude, joyful gratitude through the deed, that is through the right application of this power. Thus gratitude in the relationship between men is also an important balancing factor, if it is really heartfelt and not superficial.
“Through the one-sided application of the spiritual power of Creation for what is base over thousands of years, the human spirit has lost the balance in every sphere of life. He has taken and taken from the gifts of Creation, and from what he has taken he has formed almost exclusively what is wrong and evil, and in so doing has forgotten the balancing factor of giving. Is it then surprising to us when now the compensating Justice of God redresses the imbalance? The happenings on the whole earth, which become more and more violent, certainly speak to us in plain language.”
In any land where people take more than they have contributed, there can be no harmony in the system. As it is in socio-political affairs or in biological workings, so must it be in the economy. All are subject to Law, the higher correlation of life, be it stone, be it plant, be it man. The Nigerian economy is in shambles because most Nigerians would rather take from a system than contribute to it; they would rather make money than render service. For a nation that does not produce, that loves luxury, idling about carrying the beggar’s bowl and consumption above hard work and production rather than exerting itself and mobilizing its citizens for meaningful productive activities; a nation that loves the easy way out; that rewards indolence rather than hard work and merit; and even prays daily to the Most High to reward the lazy in violation of His own Laws; a nation that tramples on the Natural Laws while reveling in excesses, invites economic collapse unless it retraces its steps in time.
Our system is deliberately geared towards dependence on the central authority whereas ideally, it is the component states which ought to contribute to the centre to maintain common services only. Each part should be made to fend for itself. It is in this that the development of strengths lies. It is through struggle that the unfolding of talents and abilities lies. For, through having reservations about life, seeking ensues. And he who seeks finds. It is a Law enunciated by the Lord Jesus: “Seek and ye shall find.” In seeking we gain connection with help from On High. The strengths of the parts will constitute the strength of the whole.
It is to be hoped that Bola Tinubu would take urgent steps to get the states to fend for themselves through the balancing of stick and carrot. There will still be sharing in giving and taking, people standing side by side, helping and furthering in the recognition that each people, every viable nation possesses something essential for the completion of the whole, not however taking as entitlement and not taking advantage of the other parties. Giving and taking must always counterbalance each other. Bola Tinubu’s posture and breathless drive so far rekindle hope. The world is waiting. The responsibilities are self-evidently onerous.