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| Engr. Akak |
I sent in a short piece yesterday morning, the 25th December, 2020 to you all in the spirit of the season of Christmas, but while ruminating over the litanies of event yesterday, I had this great urge and push share this piece with you which I christened, “2020 Message Of Hope”. In life we are always presented with two sides of the coin. Experiences in life has taught me to look at situation beyond the negative carriage associated with it.
As the curtain closes for 2020 which also mark the dawn of yet another year. It a time to cast a reflective look at our state, Cross River as charity as we know begins at home. As we reflect on our condition, we also glean into our future from our convoluted past and our stigmatized present.
We have been so heavily inundated with critical circumstances and with a devastating situation that only those with hearts of stone fail to acknowledge the obvious.
Aside from our depleted revenue from the Federal allocation, the odd seem to work against us as even the blind can see the intolerable squalor of the masses a sheer contrast to the elites.
For the generality of the people, 2020 came with ominous quiet of an unbearable angst, from the novel Covid-19 pandemic, the EndSars protest and the consequent looting and vandalism that followed, with the later been dominated and sustained by callousness and opportunism.
The net effect of all of these has seen a monumental waste in resources, a slide in social development and an enrichment of economic hardship. All of these has given birth to a new wave in social unrest and spurned new sophistry in the repression and elimination of dissent.
We cannot deny the truism that the past gave birth to the present existence of obscurity, insecurity and instability. We now have in our hands the audacious forms of kidnapping, armed robbery, youth delinquency, cultism, economic sabotage, unbridled immorality, economic stagnation, social disorientation, structural decay, institutionalized corruption and other sundry social vices.
Amidst these troubling situations, there is renewed hope that in the darkest tunnel, there is light at the end of it just the same way that we have a bright dawn after a protracted midnight. This is where the true believers must rise above the frustrations of the moment and continue to dream the dream of justice, reconciliation and peace. We must together fight against the onset of despair and rekindle our conviction for positivism and hope in the emerging year 2021.
We have reached a situation where we could be a lot worse off without hope and without God as our redemption today can no longer be in the hands of men but on God. As Cross Riverians and those resident here, we should know that with the unflattering and uncheering antecedents of our past, keeping hope alive becomes the imperative for a better tomorrow.
As we basked in the popular refrain of, “only God can save Cross River nay Nigeria”, we should also note that God cannot save Cross River without Cross Riverians. We need to reconcile ourselves to God as our reconciliation is not in the hands of men.
Our peace is not also in the hands of men but on God, hence we should not be driven into apathy or despondency but to seek solace in our creator who is the ultimate miracle worker.
We must seek God’s face and renew our hope in the God of the impossible who is capable of transforming our apparent state of helplessness and hopelessness.
Let’s abandon our individuality, our illusions, our social sins, our sordid past, our prejudices, our biases etc and make a firm resolve to be more accommodating, tolerant and inculcate the habit and spirit of sharing.
God bless you all
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