SELFISHNESS: A Peak of DOOM in Economy and Political Structure -By Ojo Michael Oluwaseun

Nigeria is a country full of diverse languages, culture, traditions, religions, ethnics and ways of understanding, so also in the entire world. But each powerful countries of today went  through stages and processes of a lifetime where greediness, selfishness, unlawful acts, killings, tyranny, wars, disobedient to the rule of law and many other socio-political vices was the major styles of designs worn by both the rich and the poor, citizens and their leaders, pastors and their congregations, boss and his workers etc.

The state of our current economy was a design laid by other past controversial socio political and economic vices. Then in the past using a production stages as an illustration, we see that consumers do go to the retailers to buy their household goods and the retailers to the wholesalers while the wholesalers to the producers or manufacturers which complete the normal procedures or stages of production which we all know and kept the political and economy standard of the country in balance. But as time goes by, these stages of production was been breached locally, regionally and internationally. The act of greediness, unfaithfulness, distrust, unfriendliness, lack of insights/ wisdom and the act of personal interest has swayed the minds of the entire citizens.

Using the above stages of production as an illustration, the cycle of life has been breached by an act of negligence, personal and selfish interest which has brought a lot of disasters both Natural and Artificial to the entire essence of life. The selfish habit of most citizens of the country has demoralized the core value of human race and has crippled the growth of most developing nations mostly known as “the 3^rd world nations” e.g Nigeria.

It is known that a single strand of a broom can never sweep dirt clean but several strands bonded together as one. In this stance, a unified nation with different ideas, knowledge, thinking, race, religion, level, abilities come together based on common goals or visions to make a strong and great nation with no act of evil vices against each other.

The people we trust and entrust the mantle of leadership to are the ones ruling with acts of disunity, tyranny, selfishness, bondless thirst of power and autocratic rules. In a speech addressed by the Pontiff of the Catholic Church at the UN summit on 15th September 2015 on Selfishness, he said, “A selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity leads both to the misuse of available natural resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged.”  Mostly this act is practiced on African continents by the leaders and its citizens.

Taking Nigeria as an example, no one really cares about each other (how far or how well), it is in this nation where citizens sacrifice each other majorly for material things, money and fame. The leaders make use of deceits by taking advantage of the troubles, agony, sufferings and pains of their followers and use it to gain control of power and also to wield people’s mind and thoughts. The opposition parties make use of the flaws of the sitting government to blind the wisdom of the citizens and in voting them into power but in the end, “FAILURE” will be their surname once they attain the mantle of power. Also, most of our politicians make use of innocent bloods as sacrifice to attain the position of their desires, making use of dangerous, powerful and devious tactics at the expense of the people’s lives as leverage. Workers are only concerned about their salaries but not what will benefit the entire people which include them (fighting and agitating for general benefit like stable and normal economy which will help boost the currency of the country and will benefit not only them in terms of the amount they are given as salaries or how its spent but the entire citizens of the country in terms of trading, travelling etc)

In an article posted by Peggy Noonan titled “Our Selfish ‘Public Servants’” she connote that “Sometimes the most obvious thing is the most unnoticed. I find myself thinking this week about the destructive force of selfishness in our political life. This common failing is the source of such woe! Politicians call themselves public servants, so they should be expected to be less selfish than the average Joe; their views and actions should be assumed to be more keenly directed toward the broad public good. But no one expects that of politicians anymore, and they know it and use the knowledge to justify being even worse than they’d normally be. “If I have the name, I might as well have the game.”

They are the locus of selfishness in the modern world!!!

Most workers go directly to the manufacturers to purchase their household goods just because the want a cheaper price and bountiful commodities which directly is affecting the retailers and wholesalers in selling their goods and also make the price of the commodities suddenly gets hike in price because of how the retailers woo the manufacturers with money which might be difficult for average retailer or wholesaler to purchase those commodities from the producer or manufacturer.

Our spiritual leaders has turned the house of God into business centers where they exploit their congregations of their problems to make huge amount of money and worldly things thereby forgetting the mission given to them by God

Today, Nigeria in its current pit of doom has it calamities from every individual living within and outside its territory all because of greediness, selfishness and blood thirst of power. As Nigerians we are expected to work together to make our country unite and be great both politically and economically so as to make life worth living for those who are below our standards.

Basically, “TRUTH” has been an important element that is missing in our lives in the sense that people are not ready to hear or listen to the truth “truth is bitter” but prefer to be deceived with countless lies and to our leaders, they are scared to speak the truth because of either their political parties/godfathers or because of their aspiration to become what they are not meant to become forcefully.

Everybody has his or her roles to play in building and the growth of our Nation and each and everyone of us need to come together regardless of our tribe, age, gender, political stand, religion, culture, norms, tradition but as a one and indivisible mind with a simple and humble mission to prepare a better and great future and nation for the generations to come because whatever we end up passing down to the next generation will be what will keep recycling.

Finally, we need to abolish all evil vices towards each other, the act of negligence towards what should be done, greediness and selfishness because if we keep praying to God for His Divine Encounter or Attention to Restore, Heal and Resurrect of country and one way or the other, directly or in directly you are involved in any evil vices, be sure that such act(s) will be an iron cage, caging all your prayers from being heard and answered. The moment we start thinking so much about others the way we want oneself be treated or to be, that is when things will start changing for better. Using a popular quote “Happiness doesn’t come from selfishness, but through Selflessness. Everything you do surely comes back” and as Lao Tzu said:

“Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.”