On lost menses and teenage multi-millionaires in our cities (11)

Continued from last week I asked one of them- ‘what do you want to do with this stupendous wealth?” He responded: “I  plan to buy a piece of land at Lekki Peninsula?” There he sat in front of me – a young boy who has just marked his twenty-first birthday. I asked him again: “What shall […]

Continued from last week

I asked one of them- ‘what do you want to do with this stupendous wealth?” He responded: “I  plan to buy a piece of land at Lekki Peninsula?” There he sat in front of me – a young boy who has just marked his twenty-first birthday. I asked him again: “What shall be left for you to achieve once you have done it all before you attain the age of 30? Of what value would your education be thereafter? What value shall life hold for you going forward after you have bought the best car, built the best house and have all the material comforts that life usually offers to those who are patient before you reach the age of thirty?” The boy looked me straight in the face and offered no comment. A couple of days ago, I learnt that one of them has bought a big house that is worth close to sixteen million naira!

• Target vulnerable poor with COVID-19 vaccine – FG urged
  Bustle, hustle inside the famous Wukari Yam Market

Now while you and I keep making efforts to ensure that your children and mine do not buy into this craze for wealth, this maddening rush for the ephemeral, I knew that indeed I cannot be sure of anything more in this world. I knew that I am engaged in a war with a generation that is completely different from mine. The generation of our children, those borne of our loins and womb, is that which sees little or no value in waiting for the unknown. Thus, each time I appeal to mine and yours to be patient, to not pursue the mirage, the irony is that it is only the mirage that is of value in their perception.

In other words, whenever your son and mine see their age mates buy the good things of life while we keep telling them to not care a hoot about living on the fast lane, the question we must ponder is this- for how long shall these ministrations and admonitions be sustainable? Is there any guarantee that the innocent boy of yours would also not lose his innocence and begin to look for how to make it quickly before he becomes twenty-five?

It is evident that the ostentatious life being led by these boys can hardly be backed by law. Knowledge and experience have also taught me that when money is made from and through lawful means its owner would most likely not go to the market square and begin to throw it in the wind. But whenever it is made from dubious sources and means, Shaytan would appoint a genie to be his companion. It would then begin to goad and push its owner to fritter it away, to commit infractions against the will of the Almighty. Like Qarun, they would question authority, like Hamun, they would posture as if they have become God.

My concern in this column today is therefore axiomatic: what roles are we supposed to play whenever we see our ward and child begin to exhibit unusual traits and behaviours? Would it be appropriate for parents of such children to say that since the latter have found sudden wealth, it is an indirect favour from the Almighty to them?

It is with much gratitude to the Almighty, that I share the intervention below from the Prophet (s.a.w). He is reported to have said as follows: “The parable of the one who observes the limits prescribed by the Almighty and the one who transgresses them is the likeness of people who board a ship after casting lots. Some of them are in its lower deck and others are in its upper deck. Those in the lower deck, when they need water, go to the upper deck and say: If we make a hole in the bottom of the ship, we will not harm you. If those in the upper deck leave them to carry out their plan, they will all be drowned, but if they stop them, then all of them will be safe”.

The similitude of the ship in the above narration has direct application for our society, our nation, our community. If we all keep quiet and watch as our youths abandon our eternal values, our circumstances would then be like that of those on the ship who chose to keep quiet while those on the lower deck began to drill holes in the ship.