MOULDED IN THE CAULDRON OF TRIBULATION Remembering Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego today (the three Hebrews who refused to bow down for the graven image made by king Nebuchadnezzar) I began to imaging a lot of the different things their family and friends would have been telling them when the king gave them a second chance to bow and be saved from the wrath of the fiery furnace. Words like ‘‘ma sori kunkun ooo’’ (don’t be stubborn) ‘‘irun kini titeriba fun iseju kan fe tu ni ara re na?’’ (What would it cost you to bow down for a second?) ‘’se iwo nikan ni o ma koko gba olorun gbo ni, abi awa na kii se omo olorun?’’ (Are you the first/only one to have believe in God or aren’t we children of God too) ‘‘ranti omo eni ti iwo nse ooo nitori eni ti won ba fi ori e fo agbon kii je ninu re’’ (remember the child of whom you are, because the person on whose head a coconut is broken may not be able to eat out of it) etc. and I began to consider a number of possible things those family and friends would be saying about them had God not intervene and the fire consumed them, things like ‘’oniranu’’ (useless fellow) ‘‘ko ha tan ndi e bi?’’ (don’t know the right English interpretation for that) etc. also came to mind. But on a closer observation, I discovered that history is replete with stories of many so called ‘’Oniranu and Olori kunkun’s’’ (stubborn and useless fellows) without whose doggedness and perseverance, the world would have still remained in the Stone Age. People like David who was expected to go quietly to the war camp, give his brothers food and return home quietly without going out of the script (after all he was not an army officer then) but he didn’t mind his business and went head to head with Goliath (you know he could have died in the process). Or people like Mordechai who could have avoided a lot of heartache that he gave himself and the Israelites, if he had simply bowed for Haman. People like Thomas Tyndale, who would have saved himself from the horrible death of being burnt at the stakes if he had chosen not interpret and write the bible in vernacular (English language). People like Mahatma Gandhi who could have just kept quiet, mind his business and become a very rich man or people like Martin Luther King Jr. who could have thought of his wife and children and leave the black Americans to their fate, or people like professor Wole Soyinka who at a great risk to his life and blossoming career went and hijack the speech of S. L. Akintola ( the then premier of the western region) in 1962 at the WNTV and replaced it with something that shows the mind of the masses, (he could have died in the process and not become the Nobel Laureate or anything that he became thereafter). The list of such men are endless, and one thing that is common to them all is that they’d rather stand up and die for what they believe in than sit down, live like cowards and wallow in self-pity. For this reason I am imploring all OOUites that like the Yoruba adage says ‘‘bi ina o ba tan ni aso, eje o ni tan ni ekanna’’ (literarily meaning that if all the lice have not been expelled from our cloths, then their bloods will not cease from staining our fingernails) they should persevere in the face of this seemingly insurmountable challenges that we face at this juncture in our academic sojourn. ‘‘Eni to ba ma je Oyin inu apata ko gbodo wo enu ake’’ (meaning he who wants to eat honey from the rock will not consider the (possible damages that may be done to the) axe’s mouth). The lord who saw us through and delivered us from the tranny of General Sanni Abacha, will also deliver us from his brother who is currently wielding power in our dear state. But we must never be tired, weary or feel defeated as only through the cauldron of tribulations can the real men and women who will move our society forward be forged. The bible even confirms it in one of the letters of Apostle Peter that in much trouble shall we perfect our salvation and that the lord will provide a way out from within the trouble not from without it. The SUG has admonished us to lay low and re-strategies for a while and I believe that since we have given them the political mandate to lead us in this struggle, we should listen to and follow them. In the meantime, we should keep our ears to the ground for latest information and also avoid picking calls from or disclosing our location to unknown callers. A Yoruba incantation says ‘‘ikere ni nleke igi, oju oro ni nleke omi, esibata ni nleke odo’’, awa ni yio leke Ijoba Olori kunkun yi loruko Jesu Kristi (ikere is a small stick used in holding in place the rope (tied in Gordian knot style) used in tie firewood from the farm and it is always atop the firewood, oju oro is and esibata are sea weeds and they are always atop the river or sea, we shall come out tops in this struggle in Jesus Christ’s name) amen. Dare to struggle!!! Dare to win!!! Aluta continua!!! Victoria ascerta!!! Signed Concerned Ordinary Students
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 08:20:09 +0000
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