*Reflections Without Mirror- Niyi Aborisade*
We Shall Meet Again If We are Related Part 2. This part is to be read in conjunction with Part 1 for better understanding.
*We shall not recognise as our brothers those who ingratiate themselves with the people by giving ten percent of the money they have stolen , our people cannot owe their freedoms to the thieves , we shall surely knock at their doors when the revolutionaries attain power- Fidel Castro.*
The Nigerian politicians who are plundering and pillaging this country are connected through the realm of the souls. From the North to the South , from the West to the East, it is a common ground that our oppressors and plunderers are related through their souls. There is a unity of purpose which is, to plunder and to loot the treasure of the country.
They said as a rule of thumb in any society , 20 percent are good , that is those that have good souls, the milk of kindness flow from their souls and 20 percent are bad , those that have wickedness in their souls , they are ready to sacrifice anything for money . Their souls are fertile ground for evil. They have given their souls to the devil. The two sides are voluntary and a matter of choice. The remaining 60 percent follow whosoever are in power or for the sake of clarity, they choose to follow those who are in power. This means ‘man’ has control over his soul and they call it ‘freewill’.
Unfortunately for Nigerians the 20 percent that are bad have been ruling us or have upper hand since independence and so the remaining 60 percent are following or choose to follow the 20 percent that are bad. They join their soul with them.
Soul can be divided into 3 categories
1. *Nutritive soul* : this is the part responsible for Nutrition and growth
2. *Rational soul* – This is the part responsible for reason
3. *Appetitive soul* – This is the part that governs desire .
The majority of our politicians are not able to manage the 2nd and the 3rd , their level of reasoning is how to accumulate wealth at the expense of the country, by fire by force. They have inordinate ambition and desire to steal even what they don’t need. (My role model has taught me the difference between *aspiration and ambition.* He told me he was taught the difference by Chief Awolowo himself and he has passed it to me. I will write about it another time) The 20 percent that have been ruling the country from the time we gained independence have ruined this country. Even they can not manage the number 1 because they have eaten themselves out since those who don’t know how to eat to nurture their body would eat themselves out . They did not nurture their souls with love and kindness, they have rather nurtured their souls with wickedness and hatred for their fellow human beings.
The old Western Region was fortunate at independence , they had 20 percent that were good, to rule over them, those were the people that met the 3 categories of soul mentioned above. They had a leader who knew very much about development of soul and body and had trained his soul and body very well. He found the same people with the same mind, those who shared the same value and as the saying goes ‘ the deep calleth unto the deep’, these deep grouped themselves together and called themselves ‘ *Action Group’* they had a burning desire for education of their people, a burning desire for development of their region, a burning desire for their people to have a good standard of living, a burning desire to transform their region as the best of all. They were able to achieve many things before the sun set and the forces of darkness prevailed. When the 20 percent that were good were in power in the Western Region, the remaining 60 percent were following them and the positive result was felt throughout the region and outside the region then.
In a simple mathematics as at today it is not too much to say that 80 percent of Nigeria are bad particularly under the previous dispensation . It is very clear that the 20 percent that are bad are in power and the remaining 60 percent are following them. We heard many things that we have never heard in this country before. ‘ Bandits, Terrorists, Yahoo plus etc. The atrocities were at the highest level such that had never been witnessed before. This is because there was a meeting point of the wicked souls and there were therefore a breeding grounds for evil.
Now, here is the interesting thing, the souls have capability to change and a bad person who train his soul can regenerate himself and become good and a good soul who did not guard his precious soul can become evil. From there, we can observe that our soul is not static. That means we can do something about our mindset. The above quote from Fidel Castro was a call for genuine revolutionaries to act as one and retrieve what has been stolen from them by the thieves who claimed to be our rulers and are pillaging our country. His reference to brothers means it is only who their souls are connected for good, those who have desire to do good for their people, those who are willing to go extra mile to build their country that can be referred to as ‘brothers’ or comrades. People who have the same mindset of liberation.
When we talk of mindset, then we need to look at two things . 1. Regenerative souls and 2. Degenerative souls. Regenerative souls are .. to be concluded next week.
Niyi Aborisade is a lawyer, a Human Right Activists and a Historian.
