When we were in the village, we used to have a man who, anytime we greeted him, his response would be ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way’. This response met our greetings morning, noon and night.
As time went on, we decided to call him, ‘where there’s a will…, he would complete the greeting line by saying… ‘there’s a way’
As typical as it was then, we decided, for convenience to nickname him, ‘Dee will is way”. Interestingly, that name became the most known across the length and breadth of the community. Very popular to say the least.
The essence of government is to provide welfare, protection of lives and property and to ensure that the resources of state/country is evenly distributed. Unfortunately, that social contract upon which the essence of government is ‘vehicled’ has been eroded and diverted to personal, selfish aggrandizement so much so that the leaders/politicians have been made more impoverished by how much they think of what to do with the money amassed that they do not need.
The citizens have decided to allow the will to survive drive all they do. They no longer look on the leaders for anything because nothing seems forthcoming.
Show me the man with a will, I will show you a man that’s willing, willing to move on in life despite the ups and downs. This is where I cherish the Igbo man, very dogged, very determined, not taken to the path of destruction but always taken to the path of progressive venture aimed at supporting the next person to stand. That’s the spirit of Ndigbo and that indomitable spirit cannot be allowed to diminish because it is who we are and the man remains the man whose belief stands unshaken.
Igbo man has a will to survive, more of a will, when the going gets tough. The will of Igbo man is akin to the will of a child to be born.
This will became reignited whereupon the giant in us was reawaken during the COVID-19, when the citizens were buffeted by the scare of the pandemic where we saw lockdowns upon lockdowns, yet the citizens survived. The will got more saleable in the market place of despair when of all the palliative that both individuals, corporate organizations and countries gave to Nigeria/states to cushion the effects of the pandemic, ended up in the private homes/warehouses of some politicians/states.
Shortly after, on the 20th October, 2020, the EndSARS protest came and saw the uncivil aspect of treatment of citizens by the security agencies even when the protesters had, cladded themselves with the flag of the country. That will to survive has kept some of the youth today. The will to survive must be placed upon the wheels of determination to defy the ploys of the invidious schemers and resist the wiles of the devil.
The indomitable will/spirit has capacity to diminish and control virtually all the transcendental forces and hegemony of darkness especially those that bestride the terrestrial domain like a colossus.
Down here in the South East, especially in Imo state, we woke up to the scarcity of fuel, rise in the cost of cooking gas, which has refused to come down. If the political will of the government to checkmate the rising cost of cooking gas from #300 to #750 fails, the people’s indomitable will carry them. But when the time to take a decision at the poll, no amount of intimidation may deter the people from asserting their will. The Anambra election is fresh in mind. Until the leaders understand that the security agencies are also for the protection of lives and property of the common man, the early they understand that they cannot be allowed to be used to suppress the political and electoral will of the people. Kudos to the security operatives who took part in the Anambra election, they said they were not going to get involved in the election but ensure the protection of the citizens, that they did.
No sooner had the issue of fuel scarcity ended when the issue of unknown gunmen’, came up. Despite the fear that crept in, the indomitable will of the people kept them. What about, bad leadership, unemployment, lack of provision of infrastructural development that the governments have refused to provide. Did the people survive and are surviving, yes, because the will to live is more stronger than the despair to die. In all these, the will to live on has become stronger because, the man dies whose will to live dies.
You can kill the man but you can’t kill the will especially that there’s heightened consciousness of the reawakening of the will in the face of dearth basic amenities of life.
People’s wish has been smeared but what has kept the citizens going is their will because the elected representatives have disappointed those who elected them, especially that the only connect to the electorate which is the House of Assembly lawmakers has been smeared to the miry clay of inefficiency and zero legislative results.
This is because the promise of good governance and better life by the elected representatives has become mere platitudes, deceitful political rhetorics and nauseating chicanery. Indeed, the citizens have been shortchanged.
For instance, in Imo state about three House of Assembly Speakers have emerged in less than three years. How can the lawmakers concentrate to do their legislative assignment. What about the constituents who expect the legislature to pass bills that are developmental to the communities. I was shocked when the government of Imo state released names of commissioner nominees to be screened by the House only for legislative imbroglio to surface in the Imo State House of Assembly. That process of screening the nominees has been truncated, hence stalling a governance process.
However the elected representatives superintendent the affairs of the state, one thing is certain, they will one day join the citizens on the same roads so that the roads they refused to power may pound them, the hospitals they refused to fix, may fix them.
For the citizens, their will is enough for now to enable them journey through this path of bad leadership.
