TOO MUCH BOOK
Once while on vacation, I took an unusual stroll one Thursday morning and right there under the bridge, there was a meeting going on and the seriousness of the meeting permeated the immediate atmosphere there. Guess those that were meeting on that day. They were no other than roadside fruit sellers’ association Masha chapter. The seriousness and orderliness caught my attention and I was glued to the spot close to the venue for over one hour. As I watched in awe of the orderliness that existed at the meeting, I could not help but wonder.
The leader took a roll call of everyone present and proceeded to check the list of absentees, while she reeled out their names, she indicated those who took permission to be absent and those who didn’t and sort the concurrence of everyone present as she reeled out the names of the absentees and what their fines would be. Everyone present was well behaved and maintained absolute decorum. The meeting went on and contributions flew around on how to get good fruits, how they could always buy in bulk and reduce cost, how they could acquire a truck that will be permanently theirs, their profit margin, their monthly contributions to the cooperative society and most of all how they could reduce or possibly eliminate the bickering amongst them being that they sell almost the same items. Wow, it was amazing how the discussions went and not one person stood up once to receive a phone call, take an excuse to leave or attend to their wares as the meeting went on. They stuck to time allotted to every contribution, settled one or two misgivings amongst themselves and their meeting lasted a little over an hour.
As I snapped out of my surprise, I quickly compared this kind of meeting to one held by highly educated people and imagined the kind of salvos that would have been flying right, left and center. Meetings where you would hear phrases like “ don’t ever talk to me in that manner”, “do you know who I am”, “ I have many like you at home that I feed”, “I don’t have time for this kind of time wasting”, etc. But what could be the basis for comparison, I would say it is too much book o. That is one of the major problems of the Nigerian society as the authorities try their best to sanitise the rot that we have been plunged into over the years.
A man does what is wrong, he is about to be punished for his wrong by the authorities and before he is even picked up, all kinds of distractions are put up by those close to him who are “highly educated” to the extent that the authorities themselves get confused. They are quick to run to courts to buy injunctions, ex-parte motions etc. and we all are made to maintain the status quo. These legal jargons has hindered a lot of progress that the authorities would have recorded in their bid to sanitise the society and as i said earlier, too much book is affecting us.
The time has surely come for us to remove too much book from the front burner and rather embrace common sense in dealing with our issues but as they say, common sense in not common and the solutions to our problems lies with us if and when we are ready.
