It is well-known that the love of money is the root of all evils but many Nigerians do not pretend that they love money. Not only Nigerians, in the world today, money is an object of worship. In music and movies, money is idolised and deified.
There is something fundamentally wrong with our psychic wiring these days. There is this erroneous belief that anything that doesn’t yield money is valueless. The awkward philosophy is that there is no free service and you cannot do anything for nothing.
Unfortunately, this idea has seeped into the academia. Those who should be promoting ideas that ignite value are now blinded by the quest for lucre. The “New Telegraph” editorial of Monday, October 27, 2014 captioned “The NUC directive on PhD”, puts it poignantly: “Too bad that the old virtue of discipline is now lost in many of our tertiary institutions; lecturers have become excessively materialistic just as the larger society has lost its well-cherished values and moral ethos”. Too bad indeed!
Our society is doomed because of materialism and consumerism. The insecurity in the country today and the loss of thousands of human life are traceable to the love of money and power. The richer you are, the more powerful you become. Our leaders have become power-drunk after stealing our common patrimony and before our eyes, the future is being mortgaged.
Politics is thriving because it is a big business that transforms people’s lives from abject poverty to stupendous wealth. Everybody wants to “run” for one political office or another because of the money and power associated with it.
To achieve the end, human lives become collateral damage. Instead of loving people and using money, our rulers across board love money, use, misuse and abuse people. However, we should use money to save life because money is illusory but life is sacred.
We live to make money and buy things that do not ultimately belong to us. No one really owns anything as we are going to leave this world sooner or later, empty-handed. The following viral message is worth re-sharing, enjoy it and rewire your thinking about money and life:
“When we die, our money remains in the bank… Yet when we are alive, we don’t have enough money to spend. In reality, when we are gone, there is still a lot of money not spent.
“One business tycoon in China passed away. His widow, left with $1.9 billion in the bank married his chauffeur. His chauffeur said, ‘All the while, I thought I was working for my boss… it is only now that I realize that my boss was all the time working for me!!!’
“The cruel reality is: it is more important to live longer than to have more wealth. So we must strive to have a strong and healthy body. It doesn’t really matter who is working for who.
“In a high end hand phone, 70% of the functions are useless! For an expensive car, 70% of the speed and the gadgets are not needed. If you own a luxurious villa or mansion, 70% of the space is usually not used or occupied. How about your wardrobes of clothes? 70% of them are not worn! A whole life of work and earning…70% is for other people to spend. So we must protect and make full use of our 30%.
“Go for medical check-ups even if not sick. Drink more water, even if not thirsty. Learn to let go, even if faced with grave problems. Endeavour to give in, even if you are in the right. Remain humble, even if you are very rich and powerful. Learn to be contented, even if you are not rich. Exercise your mind and body, even if you are very busy.”