We are all called though differently , nobody is without a vocation to be fullfiled. Each calling/ vocation comes with responsibilities, challenges, difficulties, benefits and consequences ,largely with determination and drive to make a mark what seems like a mountain can be leveled to a flat smooth ground.
Nothing valuable comes easy. Anything given on a plater barely lasts, the euphoria and ecstasy of having such without a price can be very alluring, making one so complacent and less involving in sustaining the very gift on the platter. No free meal anywhere ,trying to get such meal has its consequences too.Many no doubt have their tales to tell in an awful manner.
Many have argued if politics is a vocation. Some equally question the very aspects of Civil and Public Services that are vocations/calling. Could it be true that bussines and entrepreneurial engagements are vocations and calling too?
To some, only things with the semblance of religion is tagged either a vocation or a calling. Things like Priesthood, religious life, marriage, lay ministers of the gospel etc are calling/vocation too.
The truth is, “anything that one does with passion, strong feeling of suitability for a particular career or occupation is a vocation.
Vocation is also a person’s employment or main occupation, especially regarded as worthy and requiring dedication”.
With the above, it becomes clearer that each one of us in their rights has either a vocation or a calling and the success or otherwise of such depends on ones attitude to it.
From families, churches, offices ,bussines places, politics etc abound vocations and callings that have been jinxed, of course the bane of our present situation and the peril which has given us more pains than joy.
Right inside the church, a lot of jinxed vocations / calling( Priesthood/religious life, layministers etc) giving the very image of such a noble profession a dent, creating foul odours that overwhelm the sweet fragrances that naturally come with such.
The vocation to the Priesthood and religious life is naturally immaculate, any dent, no matter how faint and fade, attracts eye brow raise, diminishing largely the greater undented spaces that ordinarily should attract commendation, the reason, those who by accident or by divine direction have found themselves in it should live above board not to constitute nuisance, side talks and disgusting remarks and allusions.
Painfully, some in these vocations advertently or inadvertently are fouls not fragrance; a jinxed vocation, for lack of a better option of words, nevertheless many are good emiting the desired good and sweet fragrances quite biffiting, unfortunately it attracts less of an attention from the public.
Nigeria is what she is today for no other better reason than jinxed vocations. Square pegs in round hole, spanners in wheels of progress and drunk bulls in China’s shops.
Jinxed vocations in politics have not given Nigeria and Nigerians a new lease of life. The fresh breath of good governance, enfrastructural development, free and fair election, proper legislation, good legislative representation, institutional Management and accountability have been polluted by the foul air of their opposites.
The jinxed vocation in marriages has equally caused a lot of disasters, raising children that have become not arrows in the quiver of their parents but heart ache, regret and misfortune to both their generation and the society at large.
The yahoo plus and the mischievous silence and approval of most parents are signs of jinxed vocations in families. We no more have in great numbers parents who stop at nothing to ask questions and quick to condemn any act of their children that fails to scale well on the scale of integrity, decency and morals . They dance around issues, pander on things, bask in the euphoria of their children sudden wealth and riches.
Nigerians have been traumatized by these jinxed vocations, mangled by personal inordinate craves, making things to work in an anti clock wise, the sun raising from the North and setting in the East.
We have been jinxed all round, sadly too!The economy is jinxed, religion jinxed, politics jinxed, health and education sectors monumentally jinxed.
This is the unfortunate dilema of a country richly blessed and endowed, the bane of its pariah status and the peril of its inglorious perception in the comity of nations.
Many Knights in shining armour, many ace In holes, many square pegs in square holes etc out there in the Nigeria space, frustrated, overwhelmed by the Impunity and barefaced improprieties doting on our country, while the opposites keep on being on the drivers’ seats, driving without certification, moving this vehicle and flying this aircraft called Nigeria into a sheol of deadness.
We as a nation is charred greatly by the dilema of many jinxed vocations, whose political, religious, ethical and economic toxicity have given our country bad breath that keeps polluting the very fresh air, we are naturally destined to breathe, endowed greatly with both the natural and human resources.
For months universities activities are grounded, nothing moves, students at home, idling away their prime time. Our health institutions are no better in tales of success and efficiency.
The power sector, no sweet and reassuring stories to tell too, worse of all is the oil and gas sectors, unending fuel lines ,skyrocketing prices of cooking gas, woes and tales of corruption, economic sabotage etc going on in these sectors are mind blowing. The only reason for all these is the destructiveness of a jinxed vocation, square pegs in round holes.
Until all these are changed for good, getting a Nigeria of our dream would be a dream of someone in a deep slumber, snoring!
Nigeria is deeply in a dilema caused by many jinxed vocation and calling in every strata of our life as a nation.
Until politicians, gospel preachers, married persons, Ministers and Chief Executives, bussines moguls,the academia, the man on the street doing menial jobs etc begin to live out their vocation and calling without scandals and brazen desires for inordinate things, our walk as a nation from the circle of stagnation, Impunity, insatiable crave for corruption will be far flung. Isn’t this bad enough to cause a revolution? The time is now!
Nigeria is too blessed and favored by nature to be at the lowest rung of socio- economic development of world rating. It is a sad tale of one at the middle of a deep ocean, dying of dehydration. It looks bizarre but the reality is crystal clear.
Can we begin to tell ourselves the honest truth of being part of the problem no matter how small? Can we for once hold our jinxed political elites, our religious leaders etc accountable? The power lies with the masses, but the power has remained largely unused. Nothing works, nothing moves until we the masses begin to check and balance the affairs of our nation not along tribal and religious biases but on the principles of values,morals, ethics and merits.
Jarlath Uche Opara
