Introduction: Many thanks for joining me on this edition of your one-stop Q & A virtual plaza for everything about life troubles. Please email ASK THE BOSS today with all tricky socioeconomic, sociopolitical or sundry challenges that you face. Never forget to seek to remain anonymous, if; otherwise send plus your name, photo, address, phone number, etc. By the way, I hope you gleaned some things from our debut, last Friday.
Quickly, quickly, let’s get down to the business of the day. Today, we beam the searchlight on an entry by Mr. Kenneth Anwana. He writes from Abuja, Nigeria. Shoot, dear Mr Anwana, shoot your shot.
1.0 ‘Hi, THE BOSS. I must say I’m always astounded by your answers to questions you’ve been asked. You’ve got wisdom. I’m in high hopes you would also choose to answer mine.
2.0 ‘I am concerned about the cowardly violent targeting of innocent, defenceless (school) children which has now become a way of life in this country. Ad hoc speeches by political office holders don’t seem to change anything. Which drives me to ask: CAN THERE EVER BE JUSTIFICATION FOR TAKING TO VIOLENCE IN PURSUING A CAUSE? Now, if your answer be yes, WHY?
3.0 ‘If your answer be no, WHY? And why was/is Nelson Mandela so celebrated in life and in death when he also took to armed struggle at some point against the apartheid government? Can wrong be right? Can right be wrong?’
4.0 MY TAKE: My dear Mr Kenneth Anwana, I am excited to read from you. I especially love your cul-de-sac footnote. It leaves me no escape route: if ‘yes, why;’ if ‘no, why?’ Awesome.
6.0 Your question is a tricky one, but front and back, I’d say NO, and I’d venture to add, THERE SHOULD NEVER BE ANY JUSTIFICATION FOR VIOLENCE. However, that might just be cheap talk. Up close and personal, I have had occasions when I came very close to changing my peaceable nature. Being made to suffer horrible injustice just because one doesn’t belong can compel ANYONE to take to violence; especially in a world which only understands the language of violence.
7.0 Yet, no matter the victories that accrue from those violent assaults and reactions; at the end, the winner is alone and lonely, despised, and generally considered as undeserving, mindless and a murderer. Tumbling out of the foregoing is the poser: is Pyrrhic victory worth it? The clear answer is NO. In fact, nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, in Life is worth dying or killing for.
8.0 I hope that deletes from this discourse the dastardly violent orgies engulfing some parts of our country. I repeat: THERE CAN BE NO SENSE IN THE KILLINGS. We should sit down and talk. As for the late Nelson Mandela who lives on in every human heart, he was/is of a different realm, entirely.
9.0 I guess, beings like he only walk the earth once in a million years. You and I (if not the whole universe) celebrate that PEACE PERSONIFICATION not so much about the way he fought all those battles but really about how, of his own volition, he chose to be so unlike you and me (indeed, all of us) in victory. I don’t remember Dr Mandela as a warrior or someone who carried arms. I remember him as the Life Hero who shared his Victory Cake equally with his worst enemies.
10.0 He loved people who had messed up nearly three decades of the most useful part of his life, keeping him chained in hunger and injustice and in prison. Forgive my quasi-blasphemy, Mr Anwana: it seems to me that the earth would forever treasure Nelson Mandela as the greatest human reminder of Jesus Christ. Now, here’s the other element we must factor in: JUSTICE. Let the world learn to treat equals equally; unequals, unequally.
11.0 If we are fair and open in our dealings, we shall reduce in drastic proportions the violent combustibility that singes our conscience. Otherwise, the way things are going, if we don’t do something sacrificially-massive quickly, violence will consume our earth. May God forbid. Still, let’s do what we must do!
Conclusion: I hope that ASK THE BOSS is reaching as many people as it can. I hope others who have superior answers than is on offer here can also step forward in this medium to contribute so that many more people and I can learn. Let’s keep sharing knowledge. Inbox me anything on Life Experience and let’s talk the talk in the open.
God bless Nigeria!
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