Who are men at the gates?

Oluwatobi Adesanya
Aug 24, 2017 · 3 min read

Since I started running my business from home in 2016, I noticed a trend. I believe it must have been on for a long time, but I just never noticed.

As an employee, I had the luxury of just walking into a restaurant to eat and head back to work. But since I work from home, I always have to prepare what to eat. On a number of occasions, I walk out to purchase items to cook (In case you didn’t know, I’m a super cook o). As I did this from time to time, I noticed something rather sad…

I saw that…

Almost everyday (including Mondays), many young men, some married, others not, sit in different sections on the streets, on long benches grinning and whiling away their lives.

They are always there chatting away, laughing, others play bet amidst all kinds of noise.

On the other hand, the women are always busy. If I did a count of the shops and businesses in my area, over 90% of them are run by women and young ladies who wake up everyday to do business while their men sit around to catch up on the gist of the day or the number that won the bet that day.

Why is this?

One particular day while returning from making a purchase, the line of scripture dropped into my mind, “He is not ashamed to sit with the elders at the gates.”

In my mind I thought, “These cannot be the ‘men at the gates’ Solomon was talking about o. These ones are men sitting at the junction.” Though they are seated at the gates every morning, doing almost nothing, they seem not to be making any contributions to others and not even their own lives.

So,

Who really are the men at the gates?

I believe these are the men who are at the forefront of making a difference in their areas of calling and business. I imagine that every field (Education, Fashion, Music, Media, Government etc) have gates and the men who sit here are men of substance and relevance who have capacity to legislate on matters that affect other people.

One time, Obafela Bankolemoh (The Special Adviser to the Lagos State Government on Education) described his first experience sitting in an Executive meeting with the Governor and other personnel in the cabinet. He said, “I was amazed the day I went in for my first executive meeting. Just a few people were taking decisions about issues that concerned everyone else” (this he said pointing at everyone in the crowd).

Now, that’s an example of a man at the gate.

Men, you need to arise. Our women are bearing responsibilities and burdens that are clearly designed for men.

It should be an error for the man or young men to play around while the women are busy bearing all the burdens for themselves and the men in their lives.

Women will be able to become more and to ascend to greater heights if the men in the lives wake up to their responsibilities.

Men: You are to be burden bearers and not burdens yourself.

If you are not bringing solutions to the world, then you are compounding the problem.

Be a man.

Be responsible.

Sit at the gates.

Men Arise

This publication raises core issues regarding males and how men can arise to take responsibility and be all God has designed us to be.

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Oluwatobi Adesanya

Written by

Oluwatobi is a ghostwriter and Creative Director of Heart2World Publishing #Ghostwriter #Editor #Publisher #LoverofHisPresence Heart2worldpublishing.com

Men Arise

Men Arise

This publication raises core issues regarding males and how men can arise to take responsibility and be all God has designed us to be.

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