Where are the arable lands?

This is one question I have been asking since I returned to Nigeria. Are we all building houses with big compounds forgetting we need to be alive to live in big houses? Have we wrongly placed our primary needs as ‘shelter, food and clothing’ instead of ‘food, shelter and clothing’? It seems so to me.

One particular thing that struck me during my residence in Europe is that their cultivation season is too short when compared to ours but they end up with more than enough food for the next year and beyond. They observed their environment and used a tailored approach to eradicate hunger. What are we doing in Nigeria? Just like our blessing (crude) has turned into a curse (driving our politicians and citizens to greed), our land mass has also turned to an object of covetousness! Every single person wants a big house where he can park 5 cars to impress/oppress his neighbors. I ask, at whose detriment?

When are we going to realize that the horizontal space we are wasting by building too many unnecessary houses should be used for agriculture? What are we using the vertical space for? Are we still naïve at 56 to realize that hunger is a major driver of poverty? How can each state not be able to produce enough food for its occupants? Where will the supply come from? Obviously, from imports! How does that help our economy? Why are we wasting fertile lands and favourable cultivation weather? Why are we trapped in this vicious cycle of waste of resources? Why are we still on the world’s list of hungry nations?

Many countries envy Nigeria’s blessings. Some visionary leaders given the pool of resources in Nigeria as capital will turn this nation into an enviable haven and give the United States a run for their power. But we look on while the future of our children is hopelessly destroyed. In fact we join the train and help our leaders execute their selfish agenda. When are we going to wake up and smell the coffee? How can we pretend to be in a perpetual state of ignorance? We need to awaken the lost sense of community building and discard our individual, selfish ambitions of getting richer and richer.  Living in smaller houses has never killed people but hunger has been killing and continues to kill many Nigerians. We need to keep arable lands for us and our children to survive.

It is no surprise that the average Nigerian graduate wants a job with Shell petroleum, Agip, Chevron or Mobil. ‘Oil industry; that is my portion!’ Whose portion is it to make sure you eat and stay healthy while you drive your car to the office? Your dead great-grandfathers or your sickly uncles in the village? Agriculture is an industry Nigeria can develop and exploit! We had exported cash crops in the past, we can do it again but that is after we have provided enough food crops for our survival.  Building houses for shelter is commendable but providing enough food as a priority is admirable!

If five rich people decide to open poultries in a community, meat and eggs will invariably become cheaper in that community. If community lands or even individual lands are preserved and cultivated in acres, the same community will have more food to eat and to sell to others. If this is duplicated in every community in every state, there will be a multiplier effect and abundance of food. It is not so complicated. But, will we quell our insatiable, selfish drives and look into the future even for a second?

Let’s reorient ourselves and redefine dignity. It is not in white collar jobs and big houses and cars. That is just a façade under which lies the majority of the masses; hungry, unhealthy and angry. Let’s teach our children that choosing a career in agriculture is as noble as choosing Medicine or Accountancy! What can be nobler than studying to provide man’s first and most basic need? Let’s scale down on our mindless property acquisition and begin to acquire a greater future for our children by joining hands to accomplish greater feats for our communities. Let’s save our horizontal (arable)space by maximizing the vertical space in building more high-rise buildings for residences while encouraging mass food production. Let us all ensure that there will be a Nigeria in the future. Let’s shame our corrupt leaders and take the initiative!

Making Impact

How often do we look around to see how many people around us could do with a little help? How often do we notice another’s pain? We are often masters of pretense, shielding ourselves from rejection, disappointment, ridicule or betrayal; so we isolate ourselves in our big homes, bury our faces in screens and put up invisible walls around us with unfriendly countenance. All the while missing the opportunity of starting a conversation with someone who can help either with advice or material resources; or being infected with a smile that can completely change how we feel. Some people are miserable today because they lack a downward relationship, someone they can help so they can receive the joy that comes with lifting another’s burden. It could hold the key to a long time depression or ulcer or just the flicker of hope that comes with the mere realization that helping someone in need means God/posterity (whichever you believe in) will smile back at you, to ease your own burden, someday when you’ll need it the most. Seeds beget harvests.

Ever seen those videos on the internet where homeless men who were beneficiaries of other peoples’ kindness are more eager to share whatever little they have with others? When you have gone through a rocky road in life, you learn all by yourself what matters the most. You understand and appreciate what life really means, and if given a second chance, you’ll give away more than you would ordinarily give because you know that your impact in other people’s lives actually make you richer. Yes, it makes you more prosperous; I’m not talking money-rich!

Most people (except terrorists) will agree that what the world needs is love. Yes, Christians say it as well as non-Christians.

Love is expressed by actions. Actions have impacts. Love-driven Impacts stay with people and change them; causing ripple effects on other people.  It’s an old story but we forget it too quickly/very often. Many times our excuses are laughable. We never have enough, it’s never the right time, and we are always busy. Excuses are made and they abound. But your impact might cost as little as your meal to the roadside beggar; or your transport fare to the pregnant woman who has to walk a long distance to get to the hospital. It could mean delaying your child’s school fees (enduring what you think is shame) until your next salary so your neighbor’s child can eat or go to hospital. The truth is that you make the greatest impact when it costs you something. But in the grand scheme of things, if you were to see the big picture, you would gladly give that little seed ten times over. For that child’s school fees you delayed might be rewarded with his University scholarship; that transport fare you gave to save the pregnant woman might bring your own car and put an end to your struggles with public transport; that compulsory fasting you did when the beggar got your breakfast might initiate the healing process to a long standing health issue. But even if these don’t happen, you would have triggered something in someone’s life that will make him want to show kindness to two more people who are more likely to spread the fire of love around the world. The peace you seek in your nation and for your children might be spearheaded by someone whose life was saved by a kind stranger who another kind stranger (you) helped twenty years ago and who remembered!

Let us consciously and more often remember to impact lives positively. Let us live as though every good deed will be repaid directly without really expecting it to be repaid. Because at the end they are repaid; but just not how we expect it. The payments come in grander forms!

Our world needs large doses of love. Overdose if I may say. Because we have allowed evil to prosper for so long and there is much we need to do for love to gain the upper hand again. Our little acts of kindness are all we need to impact lives and fill hearts with love and life!