Simple Things -By Kehinde Oluwatosin

Kehinde Oluwatosin

I have been privileged to listen over the years to two great songs by two award winning musicians titled ‘Simple things’. Coincidentally both songs have the same theme and message. The two songs agreed to the importance of looking beyond the big things in committing and loving a woman, the songs agreed that beyond the cars, expensive house, cloths for divers occasions and trips, a woman needs a man’s time and commitment- virtues that are supposedly simple from a woman’s world view but difficult to concede from a man’s world. I am not writing for or against the simple message of simplicity in the songs, even though I have my reservations for such simplistic solutions to all that has bedeviled today’s relationship in the wake of our virtue-cum-value deficient world,nevertheless,I like to agree with the importance of simple things, things overlooked and things taken for granted as a very important shaper of our world.

My friend and brother; Boluwatife Olorunsola was in a chat with me recently to discuss a pressing issue, and in the middle of the chat ,he responded with a Brb; an Internet acronym that signifies ‘Be right back’, my friend did not get back until the following day. He is my friend like I said earlier, so I did not hesitate to take him up on the matter . ‘Òré (friend) why did your Brb turned into a hiatus?, I thought Brb was supposed to be a short break,I inquired’ given that my friend is a brilliant chap, he responded thus ‘The sooner or otherwise of Brb isn’t definitive hence Brb does not impose the imperative of coming back immediately’ he sighted the phrase “Jesus is coming soon” as an instance to proof the lack of immediacy of Brb.

I responded that the soon in Jesus’s case is esoteric, the bible made us to understand that even Jesus the comer does not know when he is coming back, the soon in ‘Jesus is coming soon’ only imposes the imperative of preparedness on believers and cannot be applicable in human sphere to define the immediacy of response in communication, and I hit the point with a short anecdote: ‘When your who-be wife ask about the direction of a relationship after five years of courtship tell her you would marry her soon without specifics then you would hear ‘wennn’ my friend was able to reason sincerely in the line of that anecdote and apologized.

I know you are already saying in your mind ‘Tunde sef,his own is too much,must he answer you ni? Se na you buy data for am ni?’ I am a student of the social interactions of humans,hence I draw organic connections between cause and effect,the short interaction between my friend and I was an eye opener and also a window to our social construct as a people,It also represents a mild reminder of how years of ignoring simple things is responsible for our nation’s backwardness. ‘Sebi’ it’s good to drive against the run of traffic, at least the man is in a hurry to drop his sick wife in the hospital and coincidentally no traffic agent is on duty, it’s also good to drop refuse in drainage and when rain falls, unguarded water in rage floods our houses, it’s also good to get to a lengthy ATM queue and give your friend who was already part of the queue your ATM card to withdraw on your behalf to the embarrassment and amazement of others. One of our greatest challenges as a people is the disregard of simple things- the accumulation of simple things that has been left undone. We justify not taking responsibility on supposed complex things and also disregard the import of the simple things, every serious minded nation have learnt with time that both the simple and complicated things requires equal attention.

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

E-mail: kehindeobabatunde@gmail.com

Twitter:_tqatqa