By ‘Kola King (JP)
Generic inheritance determines a child’s abilities and weaknesses….and those who raise a child call forth that matrix; which are the traits and talents they consider in the child long before the child becomes an adult.
- Emile Buchward
Some people are always aware what their callings are in life, but I am not one of them. – Mallam El-Rufai say this in his opening paragraph of his book titled The Accidental Public Servant and I concur completely with him because I happened to belong to that school of thought and reality too. But yet, the words of Emile Buchward quoted above are too important to be ignored and my discussion will dwell on the postulations of the two personalities quoted above in putting my thoughts across to everyone tonight.
First, I noticed that children that are not brought up directly by their biological parents, especially those who got their upbringing from their grand parents are always exceptional both in their thinking and actions.
Not only that, on most occasions, children brought up under the titular of their grand parents have three to four traits in common as against those raised directly by their biological parents.
Fortunately, Alfa Lukeman Salekoto broaden my understanding beyond imagination on this subject while delivering his sermon on Sunday 27th August 2023 at the Fildau prayers conducted for the late Alhaja Asiawu Owolabi, the paternal grandmother of Hon. Owolabi Rasaq.
Alfa Lukeman said and I quote;
One of the first traits that usually becomes noticeable in children brought up by others rather than their biological parents is that they have universal behaviour. In other words, they have certain characters in common.
According to the erudite cleric, such children, once they reach certain age, are not always afraid to say their mind irrespective of whose ox is gored. He said the reason behind that kind of mindset is because they are used to the way the grandparent usually allow them to express their thoughts freely from childhood hence it becomes an integral habit at adult. Thus, later in life, they are not always afraid to confront people with the truth, as they say things as they see it without minding who is involved or whatever that is at stake.
Second, he stated the unfortunate thing is that such children are always mistakenly considered as been rude by many who equally try to avoid them. However, whosoever is smart enough and does not like being deceived will always see beyond the immediate expression of the young and seemingly spoilt child. He emphasized that on the contrary, a wise person would embrace persons with such trait because they know that once you win the trust of such children, they becomes totally loyal and teachable. Then, you will now begin to see the real side of them that had been hitherto beclouded by personal disdain. Yet, such person usually considered disrespectful are not always as they are perceived, the truth is that they don’t hesitate to withdraw their respect from anyone once they noticed the other person is taking their simplicity for stupidity.
The learned Cleric also noted that children in that category are not only very respectful but are always full of compassion for others in view of what they have learnt through how their old Grandma or Grandpa that trained them have been dealing with and treating others.
In conclusion, he said such children do not compromise their loyalty but will never forget nor forgive to revenge if their loyalty is taken for granted.
At the end, the outspoken Alfa drew the attention of all his listeners that day to see and begin to mirror Hon. Owolabi Olatunde Rasaq in that light forthwith. Not only as an epitome of his background but also as someone who had imbibed all the aforementioned traits and exhibiting his potentials in politics in line with the explanations made above.
Immediately I got home that day, I took a long time to analyse all that I heard from the Islamic Scholar and the result of my analysis made me to recall one of the words of Dr. Tai Solarin of blessed memory that; Of a truth, no one is particularly wise, we are all robbers of each other’s ideas, and those words made me arrive at sharing my thoughts with someone tonight.
Let me first add that it is not only the likes of Hon. Owolabi that fell to that category of people in our midst, there are several others who are misjudged and mistakenly threw away by only mirroring on what we see as their weaknesses without considering their good sides and how the lessons of their upbringing had shaped their lives to become whom we know them to be today.
In the end, the truth remains that we are all humans and are always suscistible to errors and weaknesses. Most times, especially when it comes to politics and personal interests, we tends to focus and portray others not within our microscopic lense of interest in bad light even when the logs in the eyes of some of us are far bigger than the mere specks in the eyes of those we condemn.
All said, without exception, I have no doubt that anyone reading this would be recalling both the good and the other sides we have enjoyed from the traits and talents of someone in the category of people discussed above and would want to have a take home lesson from the discuss.
First, never take for granted the commitment and loyalty of any one that fell under the category of persons I discussed tonight because like everyone of us, while they won’t forget whatever good or bad you have done for them and would not normally strive to betray or pay you in bad coins, they can, however, be ruthless once you no longer command their respect as a result of your own misdemeanors to them.
Again, don’t undermine their intelligence. Remember that they are not blind loyalists. Like all of us, interest is the basic reason behind every loyal follower. Once a leader is seen to be selfish and careless about the interest of his followers, he automatically lost the right to be respected. As such, the people under our discussion tonight can equally repay you coin for coin when the time comes and even far behind your imagination once they know they’re dealing with a use and dump mentality! If they are loyal to you, they will defend you to any length but never forget that they will not also stop at anything to fight you to finish once they have concluded that you have taken their loyalty and sensibilities for granted!!!
It is in view of the above understanding that my headline tonight is tagged; To Whom it May Concerned because an eye for an eye is not always ruled out by every loyal servant who eventually becomes disappointed, felt dumped after been used and cheated by a master they wholeheartedly served and sacrificed for. To before warned, they say, is to before armed. I don talk my own!
…. just thinking aloud as usual ooo! 👌👌👌