HOT WORDS
By: Adeyemi Ibrahim
The Word and shall end with it. In the begining the Bible says was the Word. So many people utter words, but only very few of them know the usage and the abusage of words. Word is metaphorically what our people call ‘opalamba’ the bottle of the white man’s schnapps, whenever it breaks, it breaks; no carver on this earth can re-carve it. That is the power of word.
Most Nigerians are mind-bothered, hot-headed and heart-worried about why Nigeria is retrogressive and not progressive. Why do the sons and daughters of the butcher eat mere bones meant for bulldogs? Nigerians have colossal ocean at the backyard, yet, we are thirsty and yelling for water. Definitely, something must be wrong somewhere and someone must be wrong somehow. No one is to be reproached but Nigerians and their hot word propensities. Hot words; hot world; hot Nigeria.
It is hard to imagine who one earth, where, when and how do some Nigerians cook some hot words that they say about Nigeria. The hot words that we say about our country blandly and blindly is dooming the so-called nation. How many Nigerians will wake up in the morning and say “God bless Nigeria”? Mr. Salihu, a nearby neighbour to me woke up one morning. He thought front and back, heaved a sigh of dismay and began to say: “It shall not be well with the politics and politicians of this country. May those who eat our money never repent so that they will enter the hell in the hereafter. May thunder strike those who allow our children to suffer, while theirs live abroad exuberantly! ” . An ear-splitting “Amen” followed the avalanche of curse of the man by his two wives and children, complementing and commending him. Then, thousands of thoughts visited my mind. Only God knows how many Nigerians would have put this country under the imprecations of their curses. Is decapitation the pancea for a chronic headache? Hot word; hot world; hot Nigeria.
Word, the master of the utterer. One’s spit they say cannot return to one’s mouth after touching the surface of the earth. That is the pedigree of word. I wonder why people find it difficult to say kind words with their mouths. Wounding words wage nothing but war. Isn’t it pleasing to speak positive, pleasant words? Blaise Pascal, in his epigrammatic phrasing said: ” Kind words do not cost much. They never blister the tongue or lips. Mental trouble was never known to arise from such quarters. Though they do not cost much, yet they accomplish much. They bring out a good nature in others. They also produce their own image on man’s soul and what a beautiful image it is”. Hot words-hate speech turned Orubebe to a laughing stock in Nigeria. The same “word”, but kind one, made Attahiru Jega a man of the people. If the former President, Goodluck Jonathan had not preferred kind words to hot words in his after- election- defeat speech, I wonder what the so-called Nigeria would look like today. Hot words, hot world, hot Nigeria.
The terrors that resided in some people, the horrors that tattooed their faces, made them to turn words to swords and swords to words. They spat from their mouths, hot words that provoked hot world and the hot world in turn, caused hot Nigeria today. Their hot words are their hate speeches, their hot world is nothing but their felonious thoughts or philosophy and their philosophy in turn brings about our horrific Nigeria. Nnamdi Kanu is a similitude of a palm tree that is growing tall, thinking, feeling that one day, it shall touch the surface of the sky, did its fore ones touch the sky? Even Ojukwu that was more Biafran than him failed and regrettably regretted ever declaring the jujenal Biafra. Ojukwu’s hot words then brought about hot world (philosophy) and birthed horrendous hot Nigeria between 1967 to 1970. Those who are beating the tambour of war should beware because, it is said that the drum of war is easy to beat but its rhythms are difficult to dance. “It is always better to jaw-jaw than to war-war”, Wiston Churchill warned.
Our amiable and able President, Muhammadu Buhari was not scrupulous enough to avoid some hot words in his after-sickness speech. Those words were perceived wantonly malodorous. Perhaps ‘Baba’ was not aware of the James Humes words that say: ” The art of communication is the language of leadership”. Unless we avoid hot words, we will continue to have hot world and hot Nigeria.