Reflection. Noun. 1. An image that is seen in a mirror or a shiny surface; something that bounces back at you. 2. Serious thought or contemplation; an idea, remark, etc. that comes from such thought.
All week I have been at a loss as to what to write about Nigeria. After all, we just marked the 54th anniversary of our independence, and it would be normal to reflect on our journey so far as a nation. A topic which had crossed my mind was that of what, in the thinking of the generality of Nigerians, would constitute “the Nigerian dream” – if ever such a thing existed. Indeed, I watched a TV programme in which a similar topic came up for discussion in relation to China, which celebrates its independence on the same date as ours. The discussants were of the opinion that the Chinese dream had personal, national and global dimensions, with more and more Chinese hoping that their nation would continue to play a more important role on the international scene even as their personal circumstances keep improving. I then decided to go online and found that for many Nigerians our “dreams” were still at the very basic level – having roads that are free of potholes, potable water, electricity, etc.
I immediately dropped the idea and went in search of something more uplifting, more ennobling. A consideration of Time then came my way; of course with the inevitable reference to what the Preacher says in the Bible: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” Time, it turns out, is really about Timing – in both senses of the word: how much time is required for a particular activity and when is the most opportune time to engage in it. Those who attain that level of understanding are able to make much of their time on earth. I wonder, should that number of people reach a critical mass in a nation, might they be able to tip things in the direction of positive development as well, such that their individual successes translate into corporate good?
Still in relation to Time, I stumbled in one of my notebooks upon a quote which I had written down several years ago: “… the present is the point at which time touches eternity” (C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters). And in our minds eternity focuses more upon the future, even though its span reaches back into the past as well. In practical terms indeed, Time is always in the present; and the present is that moment we have in which to engage in something that can have a positive impact on the future. I then thought to myself: Is there a people on the face of the earth that so despises Time, that so fritters away their Present by engaging in endeavours which have little or no significance for eternity (that is, the future) as we?
We are told that all vices are rooted in the future (again, from The Screwtape Letters), and among the consequences, one could imagine, would be to make the present a null moment, a time filled with nothing worthwhile. I am yet to fully comprehend the full extent of that perception, but it does sound like a deeply meaningful one to me, and my reflection upon it has brought me to consider the various ways in which we mirror who we really are through our external realities. We cannot expect to look in the mirror and see a reflection different from ourselves.
Our lack of regard for time, therefore, reflects back on us in multiple ways: absence of appropriate timing in our activities, such that our meetings never begin on time, for example, with all those who have a role to play ready to go. Our reality is that the technicians are still scurrying about laying cables and testing the microphones as at the time the Minister is supposed to be giving his speech, the NTA crew never arrives at the beginning to give full coverage to the programme, and we are all content to spend five hours or more of our working day wasting time listening to so-called leaders make uninspiring speeches on the occasion of the commissioning of a block of classrooms in some local government area. We spend our time this way, but we look in the mirror and expect to see reflected back to us a society that is clean, orderly and well run.
There is need for us to seriously reflect on the state of our society and see how we can engage with our present to impact or our future. Do radical ideas even have any chance in our environment? How about all the public holidays we get in this country – do we care how much they impact on our productivity? Do we even know the cost to our economy of the loss of one day’s work? For example, why have we kept the tradition of having the 26th of December, Boxing Day, as a public holiday – or even Easter Monday, for that matter? Do the times we are living in now not call for a fundamental and radical change in the way we conduct our affairs. If we really want a transformational agenda, let’s be radical about it! Otherwise, we continue to reflect poorly, both to ourselves and the rest of the world.
