It is no
longer news that the Nigerian Super Eagles won the AFCON cup.However the journey of the Super Eagles from the back of
the pack to be the winner was nothing short of the dramatic. Indeed the
longstanding axiom that football is a game of surprises is never been found truer.From a customarily
Nigerian late and ill preparedness to the fielding of inexperienced players,the
Super Eagles were expectedly expected by all but a few Nigerians to occupy the
back seat .Virtualy everybody I listened to expressed their readiness to
welcome the Eagles back to Nigeria after the first round.Few if any number of
Nigerians gave the Eagles a bit of chance to go beyond round one let alone
winning the star prize.
However a probe into the matter would indicate that this
pervasive negativism is not just limited to a general perceived inability
of our national team or any of its attributes for that matter. The locust of pessimism
has covered the entire landscape of Africa’s most populous nation. Nigerians
have simply grown from the life threatening condition of expecting anything to
happen to the suicidal state of expecting the worst to come into being. Taking
a sort of panoramic view of the various segments of our society will quickly
show this anomaly. Nigerians naturally expect banks to go under, planes to
crash and government agencies to fail. Some have christened this phenomenon as the ' Nigerian Factor’. By their unproven
theory they mean that nothing is expected not to fail in Nigeria.
After a checkered history that still baffles bookmakers
Nigerians have become the most negative of God’s creature on the planet. The reality is that there has never been a
semblance of positivism in Nigeria for a generation now. The long military
interregnum in governance gave chance to a little optimism. During the military
era, Dodan Barracks could release any decree any day. Nobody really knew what
to expect. Then the Obasanjo presidency took over the rein of government. At
that point the pent up hope was clearly pervasive. Many Nigerians expected a change overnight.
But it never came.Nigerins afterwards gave in to an inhibiting inferno of hopelessness
and negativism.
The question one might ask is,’ Is this attitude good for the
individual?’Is this state of mind beneficial for the family? Is it healthy for
our nation and our world?”Of course everyone knows that this weakness will
eventually crumble our nation and desecrate our ultimate essence of living if we let it be. Negativism is anti-nature.
Even God Himself continually expresses hope and positivity in the turnout of
the destinies of individuals and nations irrespective of their state at any
point in time. We are products of our thoughts
and a man’s expectation is the unwritten script he daily strives to play out.
The key to a positive mental disposition is to expect the best
from everyone we have to deal with. Yes ,we may have dishonest people and dysfunctional
government but our roadmap to the promise land is to continually place the
highest level of faith in their excellent
performance and goodness . Someone referred to this as placing a ten[highest value] on people .If you
have a secretary who is known to deliver a sloppy work for instance, placing a
ten on her will result in your
encouraging her and helping her to grow and improve professionally. You’d like
to send her for an intensive training course, find out whether she has an
underlying emotional problems that has prevented her from performing optimally.
You could do all these if you expect a change for the better. The truth is ,your
positive disposition will always result in a change of behavioral pattern by
you first If you take this pattern of behavior home to your spouse and then to
the Passport Office or any government department, then we’d sure have a nation
with a changed attitude. This is the key to our survival as a nation.Let me know what you think in the comment box.Let's talk about it!
No comments:
Post a Comment