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NIGERIA AND HER ARÍ ODÉ YÓ PEOPLE -By Kehinde Oluwatosin

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Kehinde Oluwatosin

 

On the 2nd of December ,2017, the experience concert ended amidst fanfare and glamour. The experience concert is an annual non-denominational gospel concert that gathers musically talented artiste all over the world into a wonderful tapestry of pure musical genius and class .I salute the organizers for the hard work and the excellence with which they have consistently put the program together over twelve beautiful editions.

Indeed the program merits its sobriquet- ‘Revealing Jesus’. However, the experience concert for me provides another beautiful moment in public instruction, the experience concert offers a teachable moment for me,the experience concert open a window into the social construct of the typical Nigerian, a construct that has accurately placed the Nigerian into what is accurately defined in the Yoruba philosophy as “ARÍ ODÉ YÓ”.

The ARÍ ODÉ YÓ is one of the several ways in which the Yoruba instructive culture defines a person that rejoices at parties and glamorous cocktails, the Yoruba places such people into two categories; those who rejoice on their own success after hard labour and those whose life aren’t exemplary but rather takes solace in leveraging on other people’s success. The Yorubas are mild in their perspectivization of the former but adequately rebuke the latter, the hard rebuke of the latter is even reflected in Yoruba street lingual which describes such people despicably as  àténù- the one that loves parties to take advantage of free food.

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This Yoruba philosophical nugget explains why many left their domain and base and went all the way to Lagos to attend the experience concert,it explains why friends who wouldn’t countenance their local church’s E-bills as worthy of a space on their social media status invaded it with the experience concert flier. I saw members who were too busy to attend their local church’s programs let alone vigil went all the way to Lagos to attend the experience concert. I saw people who became apologist in kind just to identify with the experience concert. The whole experience scenario provides a window into the Nigerian mentality, a mentality that is founded on pure hypocrisy,a mentality that pays lips service to personal development but celebrates  development of others. It’s this kind of mentality that has destroyed our schools,destroyed our families and destroyed our nation and after the destruction seeks refuge abroad.

A construct that ensures that we consistently destroy Nigeria but go to countries who transcended into modernity through consistent thinking and invade the whole media space with marvels of their modernity.

This Nigerian mentality is escape driven rather than solution driven, when this mentality destroys the public schools she doesn’t reinvent it through reconstruction and funding, but escape into private schools, when this mentality destroys NEPA she finds a solace in generator sets, when this mentality destroys her health sector she travel abroad to cure a rudimentary sickness as head ache, this mentality seeks escape rather than solution, it’s with this kind of mentality we have collectively turned Nigeria into the black sore of the African race. I have always emphasized the importance of personal development which often remains a secret routine as an antidote to becoming a spectator in life race, artiste  who were invited for the experience concert gained relevance by years of personal development, yet this mentality ensures we confused the ‘results of a man’ with the ‘making of a man’ just as we confused the development of western nations with their colour advantage or geographical delineations.

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Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind represents an applicable instruction into our hope of transcending into modernity only if we apply it.

Kehinde Oluwatosin B. is a prolific writer,public speaker and finance expert from Abeokuta Ogun State.

E-mail:kehindeobabatunde @gmail.com
Twitter: _tqatqa

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