06 June 2012 By Abdul-Warees
Solanke
Ambition was one theme that resonated in my
reflection, recently, on the tragic death of the two
deputy inspectors-general of police less than three
months apart in Lagos and Jos respectively, that of
the Apagunpote of Egbaland, Chief Oluwole Olumide, a
successful architect who was very visible in the
immediate past government of Ogun State under OGD and
the one of my nephew who I regard as my first son,
Sherif Ayobanji Ariyo Abdulazeez at the age of 33.
Titled Anatomy of Death, I argued that ambition
is a mirage when death is not minded, among many other
metaphors that I used in illustrating human ambition.
Although it was an expression of agony and
lamentations on the futility of life, in a sense
however, there is nothing wrong in being ambitious.
After all, ambition is the driver of existence, THE
PURPOSE, THE VISION, but that purpose or vision must
be meaningful and positively impactful. This I
consider a nice colour of ambition. So, ambition is
not bad in itself. Not at all. After all, a life
devoid of ambition is one without purpose.
A man or woman without ambition aims for nothing,
ventures for nothing and so gains nothing. He lives to
be exploited by other players in the field of life and
consumed by other forces that shape the world. He
lives to die without a reason to live. He lives by the
spurs of the day, by the whims and caprices of the
moment and by intuition, emotion or brainwaves, not by
a particular plan, order or focus, not rationally, not
objectively. He cannot tell what should be inscribed
on his tombstone should he breathe his last now,
because he has no purpose, mission or ambition in the
first instance, nor can he proclaim a song of victory,
should he achieve anything because he has no
expectation of it. It came by chance. He cannot number
the milestones of his journey of life should he live
long because he has no compass of life. A life without
ambition is one of waste and disorder. Ambition is
what paints our purposes and pursuits. The hue of our
hopes and aspiration is the ambition we silently
nurture and we practically pursue. It is the tonic of
existence, the adrenalin of life, firing our rocket of
attainment, fulfilment or actualization.
Our ambition may be hinged on sustaining a legacy,
especially if we are children of the Abiolas, the
Arisekolas, Dangotes, Adenugas, Otedolas, Tinubus,
Jimi Ibrahims, Arisekolas, Dantatas, the Submit
Blowguns and Da Rocha's of Nigeria. It may be just to
make a difference, carve a niche for ourselves in our
professions or trade, in the academia, in sports and
entertainment, or in the public service. It is the
height we want to attain, in being the best possible
in what we do or where we are, winning laurels and
honours, filling our chests with all sorts of medals
and trophies, stacking our lapels with symbols of
knighthoods and eminence, standing tall before a
mammoth crowd of admirers, before bright, hot cameras
of the TV and the paparazzi of the press, enjoying the
ovation and the encomiums splashed on us as we wait to
be decorated with the Nobel prizes, the Olympic gold
and the Grammy Awards.
Our ambition of course may also be in just envying
another's achievements or wanting to be like him for
what he is as a success. For a lot of us, our ambition
may just be to make a living or get by in life with
all the comforts and appurtenances that office or
power confers. Just live happily, for, Life is Good.
However, the tenor or colour of our ambition should be
defined by the peace and progress it brings to the
world, the happiness it gives others and the
fulfilment it gives us in the joy we extend to others.
This is because ambition is noble when it is for the
edification of humanity, when it is to the
glorification of the power above and when it is for
the refinement or perfection our character. Our
journey in life starts not from the cradle, not even
from the womb of our mothers. It is an inherited
journey from the mud from which our father Adam was
moulded by the ultimate potter. Some thinkers found a
convenient way to describe our maker as the grand
architect of the universe, with the acronym, GAOTU.
This architect has also been described as the author
and finisher of our life in the Book of Life. He is
Allah; for this is what the Criterion directs humanity
to call Him, or Ar-Rahman, the merciful, among so many
other beautiful names that qualifies the majesty of
the Almighty, his omnipotence, omnipresence and
omniscience. Since we owe our existence to this Living
Being in whose being is our being and what becomes of
us in the morrow, to whom we shall render account, and
who shall ultimately declare our success or failure
and award medals or invoke punishment on the merit of
our performance, then our pursuit or goal, our
ambition should find expression in what gladdens the
almighty. Is this usually the case? Do we recognize
this unseen director of affairs to shape our ambition
in the direction he intends?
At certain time in my A Level days at Adeke, for this
is what we call Baptist High School, Iwo, Osun State,
I came across some seven cardinal sins in one of our
literature set books which I specially note: These
vices are Pride, Anger, Envy, Avarice, Lust, Sloth and
Gluttony, all pointing to the drivers and the
restraints in the force field of our life. They mostly
define our ambition or reason for living, the purpose
or essence of our being. These vices were well
illustrated in Ayi Kweh Ama's award winning The
Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born written in the
immediate post independence Ghana. The theme of that
book is also reflected in many of the writings of the
first generation Nigerian writers like Chinua Achebe,
Ola Rotimi, Kole Omotosho, Femi Osofisan and Wole
Soyinka as expressed in a novel like A Man of the
People or No Longer at Ease and as
dramatized in the Soyinka's Jero Plays or Ola
Rotimi's Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again.
Many of us want to be what we want to be without
understanding or knowing that being we want to be
like. We envy others and want to surpass them in
achievements without appreciating their peculiar pains
and limitations, costs and compromises, sacrifices
they offered and sins they committed in their climb up
the ladder; we fight for fame and falter on faith and
fidelity; in our quest for office and power, we kill
our conscience in killing and kidnapping even our
consorts, co-travellers and confidants. We openly
declare before large congregations that God is our
refuge and his banner over us is love, yet we stoop
very low in certain covens in darkness of the night,
genuflecting before dead objects and mere mortals who
lack our own gifts and grace to seek succour and
protection because of our ambition.
We seek the face of our heavenly father for fortune
and forgiveness, yet we follow fools and
fortune-tellers with famished faces and frail fingers
as our pathfinders to direct us on our ambitions.
Because we want to make it so fast and so cheap in
our aims and ambitions, we cheapen our god given
authority and trade away our integrity for a morsel of
eba, a sheet of kilichi, a plate of edikang ikong,
isi-ewu or a slice of bread with a fifty naira note
insert. We seek perfection in our character and demand
decorum from others; yet we engage in the denigration
of our human essence. We seek salvation and serenity
of our soul from the machinations of the Great Enemy;
yet we mortgage our peace of mind by our pride and
conceit, and the pains we inflict on others to protect
our vested interests or prove our power, place and
position. These are the colours of ambition but these
are also the limits to attaining the ultimate of
ambition which is…..Happiness. Are we Happy?
Ends Abdul-Warees is the Head of
Training, Voice of Nigeria, Ikoyi, Lagos,
(korewarith@yahoo.com
korewarith@voiceofnigeria.org ,
abdulwarees01@gmail.com ) 08090585723 Comments 💬 التعليقات |