The Consumer Pot And The Lazy Kettle -By Kehinde Oluwatosin B.

Kehinde Oluwatosin B.

My first day at Obafemi Awolowo University also coincides with my first time at the University of Ibadan. My reaction simply was an inquisitive awe , as I ponder on the two ancient but great institutions.

My eyes was greeted with awe at how a generation of thinkers bestowed unto a generation yet unborn and unseen enlightenment through investment in education.

The generation of thinkers were alluding to a spiritual dictum of faith being a substance of things not seen, even though this generation wasn’t clustered by a bevy of churches.

The structures I saw in both institutions and the size of their faculties marvelled me and also serves as a tangible reminder of our great past and how our hope of tomorrow remains a disjointed ode of the past.

I was wondering if truly these were citadels built with the proceeds of cocoa. It’s been ages as memories flood through the grey mist of time as the generation of thinkers left the stage for the generation of consumers.

Posterity in its autonomous self denied the generation of thinkers the privilege of discovering oil but gave it freely to the generation of consumers.

Since the generation of consumers discovered oil, she stopped thinking , she stopped building , but rather destroyed all the structures of the thinker generation, every socialist institutions the thinkers built to stabilize and redistribute wealth for the people, the generation of consumers trampled on it with gusto .

The generation of consumers,despite her perorating of democracy as a concept of the people and the vigour with which she often associate herself with the antecedence of the thinker generation , her mantra largely remains that of the pristine capitalist who believes that “the business of business is business”.

The consumer generation talked about mixed economy as a lame vocabulary, but ensured she instituted the most selfish form of capitalism the world was yet to witness. She turned our society into that which operates only by money.

Of all the consumer generation did, non tickled my anger than her elevation and ratification of laziness as the nation’s modus operandi.

The consumer generation discovered oil and suspended every shred of enterprise needed for nation building. Time and conscience as a terrible reminder has been giving the generation of consumers a very hard time lately.

Time has started hunting the generation of consumers over how she has socialized , mis-educate and under educate her people.

Because the generation of consumers is becoming tired and sick of all the consequences of the evil she inflicted on her people , the shadows of her past has continuously hunt her and to save herself from the pain of an hunting and hurting shadow of the past, she has to put the blame on somebody and absolve herself of the responsibility ,hence she accused the generation whom she taught how to be lazy as lazy.

Even though,it was the generation of the consumers that taught and overelaborated in the sight of the generation of the lazy the age long dictum of ‘isé kekéré, owó nlá’ through the evil wages she received for doing nothing in her demonic hallowed chambers (what is hallowed about the chamber often wonders my imagination) , she hardly sees the fact that she collects millions in allowances for doing nothing as anti-work.

I will end this piece with the immortal words of my mother: “When the rice taste sour, it’s not the imperative of the begger to complain about it.” Let the custodian and originators of laziness deal with their own laziness first.

Kehinde Oluwatosin Babatunde is a prolific writer and public speaker.
Email : Kehindeobabatunde@gmail.com

Twitter : @_tqatq