THE STARE OF AN INFANT.

Chris Nwaokobia Jnr-ii


Countrymen, I cannot resist the urge of passing across a great lesson I learnt this yuletide, one that is challenging and inspiring on the one hand, and on the other hand remains a big whip and a massive reprimand on the carapace of my mind. On account of which my conscience resonated with a NEW resolve to STOP at nothing until CHANGE is berthed, I pray that the same awakening happens to you because that which we always overlook hunts us somehow in the end.

The infant stared at me deeply and managed a smile, but that was not it, I saw something different, I saw questions, I saw curiosity, I saw a HOPE that is predicated on how much we are ready, willing and able to GIVE for the future that unfolds in that stare. I saw so much that we almost always overlook each time an infant stares at US.

I discovered that the stare of an infant is indiscriminate of the class of a Parent in the society. I discovered that all infants have an innocent stare full of questions, curiosities and HOPE; the rich infant seeks a great future and so does the poor infant. I also discovered that social stratifications are complimentary such that the one defines the other, the simple reason the Holy Books commands the RICH to care for the POOR not as a past-time but as part of natures priorities.

Tragically we are oblivious of the stare of the infant next to us, we are unmindful of the stare of the infant next door, and we ignore the stare of the infant far-away. We are removed from the realities of the morrow they demand as we politic with their future, and as we do the banal and the murderous in a desperate quest for POWER we overlook the fact that tied to that innocent stare is a verdict of divine and esoterically flawless dimensions, WHATEVER A MAN SOWS THAT HE SHALL ALSO REAP.

Compatriots, as the infant stared at me, I saw a plethora of questions, like you are perhaps my Uncle, Niece, Aunty, Father, Mother, Neighbour, you are certainly a relation in the human pilgrimage, I am smiling at you because it is a given that you admire and love my innocence, BUT if you do, how much are you ready to give FOR my FUTURE, how much do you really LOVE me, and how much FAITH should I have in you? These are the question we must all answer as we approach the 2011 elections, because for centuries now, democracy has located the power to make real and programmatic change in the lives of a people in their right to VOTE.

What we do with our VOTES will determine how much we truly mean the HAPPY NEW YEAR affectations and affirmations that tore the space this yuletide. What we do with it will show how truly we seek to stop the collateral governmental murders on our roads on account of avoidable accidents occasioned by bad roads, accidents that poses great damage to the chances of the infant growing up to full potentials.

What we do with our VOTES determines whether that infant will go down with Polio, a disease that has been wiped out of the whole of Africa but Nigeria. What we do with our VOTES tells how much we are ready to stop the collateral damage caused by an unconscionable gerontocracy on growing foetus in wombs who might perish on account of high infant mortality no thanks to a comatose health-care system, that sees our rulers travelling overseas to cure headaches and cramps. It is not FUNNY.

What we do with our VOTES shall tell how much for these infants we are ready to halt the barter and Bazaar of our collective patrimony amongst the locusts in POWER, a tradition that has left our nation in darkness without Energy and Electricity, a culture that has left our schools as monuments of indolence and cultism, a tendency that robs our future of greatness. How much do you really love that infant?

The stare of that infant is a question mark on our collective conscience, are we yet ready to lose more first class brains like UCHENNA RUTH NWAOKOBIA my younger sister who died after bagging a First class degree in Psychology in 2006 at the age of 22 via a car accident on her way to Abuja around the Lokoja axis (a road that has become a Golgotha of sorts for decades) without living up her full potentials, such and many more are the collateral damages caused by governmental actions and inactions. The infant’s stare wonders, is such going to be my fate?

Countrymen, Comrades and Compatriots, we are challenged more than ever before to halt this swing down the precipice. The infant when they stare worries about how willing we are to stop those who raped our yesterday. They are concerned about why we are seemingly faithless about our abilities to stop the plunder of today, and are curious about what we intend for the morrow.

We owe a duty to that infant, we owe posterity a great responsibility, we owe GOD a great one for the amazing munificence and riches ineffable that HE has blessed us with, and NOW is the time to effectively confront the OLD through the BALLOT BASED REVOLUTION that NIGERIA-NOW champions. The infant believes in that stare that we can, and so do I.

Now is the time to show that we care for the infant out there; now is the time to prove that the stare of the infant matters; now is the time to worry about the quality of education, of life and of health the nation offers that infant; now is the time to check a society that deafens its infants with sound decibels from generators after billions of dollars have been squandered in several Energy/Power sector scams.

Now is the time to set moral goalposts that will demand rectitude in governance such that posterity will learn the path of prudence and dignity. Now is the time to fix our Fatherland such that the stare of that infant will amount to one into a future bright and great; and now is the time to hew out of the pervading mountain of despair a rock of hope.

Wake up and heed the CALL to berth a NEW PARADIGM. Wake up for together through our VOTES we can rupture this era of banal, blood-thirsty, bellicose and bandit politics. Wake up for together we can make real the promises of democracy and make TRUE the realities of JUBILEE. Wake up for together we can guarantee a great future that assuages the fear in THE STARE OF THAT INFANT. Yes we can.