Bye bye Maathai, goodnight Jobs
Cancer is a short letter word with devastating impact, corruption is a long word with equally long impact. For decades since cancer was identified, the quest to limit its decimating impact on humanity remained a mirage. Cancer sniggers at the advance of technology, and defies the mileages in research and technology. Yes, a few of […]
Cancer is a short letter word with devastating impact, corruption is a long word with equally long impact. For decades since cancer was identified, the quest to limit its decimating impact on humanity remained a mirage. Cancer sniggers at the advance of technology, and defies the mileages in research and technology. Yes, a few of the cancers have been tamed, but a large percentage of it remains completely unassailable. Our country combines two cancers – cancer itself and corruption. More than half a decade ago, my brother-in-law, Cornelius Aanu Jolasinmi succumbed to cancer, leaving his young family to the vagaries of the Nigerian system. There are scores of other victims. Our country has neither will nor time to invest in cancer research or any kind of meaningful research. The kleptocrats dream misanthropic fantasies, such as launching of satellites into orbit and preparing to invest in nuclear energy.
I will be damned if there is a street named anywhere in Kenya or outside after Wangari Maathai. It is doubtful if any university thought of granting her a doctorate for her untiring efforts to renew the environment. Yet, we are the continent that is decimated by dessertification; we are the continent whose flora and fauna is fast losing its appeal. We are the continent whose animals have been eaten into extinction and whose children would learn of the rare species indigenous to it only in pictures. We are the fakes who created ministries of environment without impact. We are the shame of the world, endowed with human and material resources but ever ready to stretch forth our begging hands for crumbs. We are the land of wasted potentials, and we are the last, as usual to celebrate our own heroine.
Maathai did not need the recognition of university boards that have sold conscience to the highest bidder. She earned her own PhD as the first Kenyan and East and Central African woman to do so. She conquered the Kilimanjaro of her country, becoming the first female PhD holder to teach in her country’s best tertiary institution – the University of Nairobi. She won a seat in parliament and challenged the president in an election. She dared to think of the future where the men cared only to loot and stash away. Maathai was a heroine of a vanishing order whose legacy would perhaps soon become legend.
On the other hand, Jobs was a maverick whose enterprising spirit is perhaps unequalled in the world of commerce. An adopted child in a part of the world that moans and feeds on perceived victimizations, Jobs had no time to rue over his circumstance. He was a man imbued with a vision and the zeal to follow his dream to reality. He dropped out of school to turn his garage into a research laboratory and from there grew a company from obscurity to global relevance. When his long-time girlfriend rejected his offer of marriage, he let her be and found love in the arms of a willing other. Unbroken all his 56 years in life, anybody who saw Jobs at his last public appearance in August knew he had very little to live, but like Layton, he fought doggedly to the last breath.
The deaths of these icons proves Pastor Sam Adeyemi’s dicta – the excuses you made last year are still what they were – excuses! Broken in body, but alive in spirit, these exceptional humans pursued their goals with the same fervour to the very end, unbowed and unwavering. They are an island of inspiration in the ocean of despair and despondence. Jobs was once thrown out of company he co-founded, but returned to take it to global acclaim and eternal relevance. These are the people for whom the Anglican poet/preacher John Donne wrote – Death be not proud. As individuals, we are each given opportunities in life, we can positively use it, sleep over it or cast it. Whatever we do, may we impact lives the way these ones did and may our exit be glorious for the positive impact we make and not the opprobrium we earned with the chance we are given – like their excellencies, the executhieves.