What is it about the average man that simply attracts him to ‘taking a chance’? Do we just have a craving for living on the edge or is just a natural aspect of our make-up that makes us embrace gambling’ willy-nilly?
I am not sure if I am able to proffer a water-tight explanation of this phenomenon but this much I do know about the average man: he will try ‘anything and everything’ in his search for a way out and the means to make his life more meaningful. His reasons may not be altogether plausible, but who cares anyway? In a land where everything has seemingly turned to a game of chance; who really cares?
The scramble for scarce resources and political clout in the third world especially has created citizens that have no clear hope of a better day in sight. That natural aphrodisiac that every human needs to keep him going from day to day, month to month, year to year has long been replaced by fear, insecurity, lack, class restructuring, loss of a feeling of belonging and inclusion. They are not even sure (temporarily sure) what their citizenship means to them and the nation.
It is a great chance if you make it to your workplace with many hold-ups in our major cities, it is a great chance that you will be able to observe lunch break or be able to afford one even when you are able to squeeze out time. It is a great chance that your salary will be paid or will help you through the month without any form of PP. It is a really great chance that you will be able to visit your child’s lesson teacher to discuss important issues about your child’s academic concerns and development. The greatest chance you will have to take is if you ever get home on time to nurture the relationship required to build the family of your dreams and to think that this is just one day of your life.
Our hope which has historically so closely tied to our faith started to fall apart as we learnt a lot more about the dichotomy between religion and spirituality on one hand; and government and nationhood on the other. Increasingly and due to our recent past, we lost belief in government and turned to the workplace. For a while we found succour in our regular pay and perks of office until the ability to provide for the gaps in what government has hitherto provided began to slip and soon, religion replaced the basis of our hope.
We move from self-determination to hanging on every word that proceeds from the Pastor or Imam. Now we are going on another march again, we are turning inwards – into ourselves. This is the stage most people are at, irrespective of the rung on the social ladder they find themselves. We are now willing partakers of the ‘gambling’ culture.
We simply have perfected the ‘chance taking’ and ‘miracle expecting’ mindset. The management of the country itself has taken a leaf from this psyche and turned it into a state paradigm.
It is a chance that the nation's currency will drop in value by the time you wake up the next day. There is the chance that fuel prices will go up notwithstanding that we produce the source product and benefit from oil price increases or atleast import enough from our taxes. It is more likely that the government will increase tax on consumables and turn a blind eye when your landlord respond by increasing rent. There is also the chance that policemen at the checkpoint can arrest you for looking like a known felon or an associate of a political opponent of the government – approved Godfather in that state. There is a very high chance that the last known liberty of man to express himself may be taken away from him or his life taken by another citizen who simply snap because he could not take it anymore.
This is life we know it on this side of the planet but it is still home. Because of this fast-established mindset, schemes like the American Green Card lottery continues to thrive even at the expense of the more need-specific British Highly Skilled Migrant Programme. The reason is simple, while the British programme is typically British, the American lottery scheme, like all things American, is more of a pageant show. It has turn itself into a small industry of sorts, ‘accredited’ lawyers and agents getting in on the action.
Your country is still your home, you can only run from home for a while, but you can’t remain in exile forever. As the saying goes, “there is no place like home”, my advice to those out there is make sufficient post migration plans to go back to your country, because no matter what the level of challenges you still face in your country and the high risks involved in the chances one take daily to make a living there, you will have to go home to play your own role to stop others from becoming a nation of immigrants.
Acquire the skills, knowhow and know why and let us get on with the business of fixing the country. We should not repeat the mistakes of the generation before us and simply gamble away our future like they did. History does not repeat itself…it is human who do not grow above their limitations.
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