“The wrong decision you made at the right time is better than the right decision you made at the wrong time.” – Ben Fajemilua
The wording of the above headline is not original to me. Before tomorrow comes is a phrase in common use. However, it was popularised by an American rock band, Alter Bridge, in the album Blackbird.
The popular song tends to mirror a society where people desire a good and better tomorrow but do little to realise it. The lyrics below sum up all that needs to be done before tomorrow comes.
Before tomorrow comes
Before you turn away
Take the hand in need
Before tomorrow comes
You could change everything
I curse my worth and every comfort
That blinded me for way too long
Damn it all I’ll make a difference from now on
Cause I’m wide awake to it all
Cause I’m wide awake to it all
Does anyone care it ain’t right what we’re doing?
Does anyone care it ain’t right where we’re going?
Does anyone dare justify how we’re living?
Does anyone here care at all?
The song pertains to something meaningful in life and breaking out of your comfort zone. It’s all about why we should not stick with something just because it’s “comfortable.” The song also portrays how humans are self-centred, how some have good lives and have what they need, but are blinded by their possessions and cannot see the suffering in others nor how they can be agents or catalysts of change in the world of the less privileged.
‘Before Tomorrow Comes’ emphasises how we must better ourselves now because tomorrow may be too late. Open to various interpretations, the song is like a mantra drawing attention to people who stay on their butts for too long and do nothing and suddenly decide to act.
For this column, the last outing for 2022, as we enter the new year in three days, 2022 is our today and 2023 is tomorrow. Is there anything to do or undo before tomorrow to improve our lives?
Therefore, today’s conversation is centring on the expectations of the people ahead of 2023, the proverbial, pregnant tomorrow. Today has not met our expectations. What can we do before tomorrow comes? What can we do today to guarantee a better and more fruitful tomorrow? If we desire good things for tomorrow, we must do the needful today. Your morning determines how your evening will be.
The real problem in our society today is that we want good things but are not ready and willing to work for them. Relating this reality to our political life as a people of one nation and one destiny, we have been lamenting since our independence in 1960, but done nothing concrete to change our system. We know all the wrongs in the land and those who perpetrate them. We woefully and wilfully fail to do the needful to stop them.
Grumbling has become a culture, indeed our lives as a people…in schools, churches, mosques, motor parks, gardens, marketplaces, you name it.
Despite democracy being the means of putting square pegs in square holes, we have over time chosen instead to do the exact opposite… putting square pegs in the wrong holes Thus, we finding ourselves living with the repercussions.
Hopefully, the outgoing 2022 ends a political era that we all grieve and wish never came. We are wishing that such an error never happens again. To live these dreams, we must take our destiny in our hands. This we must do before tomorrow comes.
As we ruminate over our political misfortunes, prepared to embrace 2023 in a few hours, we need to make some critical decisions today. If we want to say never should our ugly past pop up like a bad dream tomorrow, we must affirm today certain things we do or fail to do.
If as we all have agreed unanimously, our land, by divine will, is endowed with milk and honey and abundant human and natural blessings, we must agree too that the problem is harnessing these endowments through accountable leadership, 2023 is an opportunity to put square pegs in the right places.
It’s only in Nigeria that God gives people a huge opportunity to help themselves; instead, they decide to enrich just a few at the expense of the majority. We look back at ourselves and say this is our problem but do everything to sustain the status quo rather than discard it.
Tomorrow is coming in 2023. Let us decide today to make it better.
In the past, our choice was tightened between the proverbial devil and the deep blue sea. Whichever way we went, the danger lingered. But 2023 seems different, it provides us with a third choice, something different. It is now left for us [before tomorrow arrives] to decide what we want.
Political decisions made by the people must be right for them to enjoy good governance. It would amount to a mere wishful thinking to make wrong political recruitments and expect to have good leadership, more like repeating the same actions and expecting different results. Democracy remains the people’s court for the purpose of recruiting political leaders. The kind of choice you make during recruitment shows the kind of leadership you deserve to see and to enjoy.
Movie star John Kramer says it all: “Every decision is easy once you make it. The important thing is to think carefully, make your decision, and then work to make your choice the right one. That is the secret to a happy life. There are very few wrong decisions in life, but very few people who are willing…to make their decisions the right ones.”
When people make wrong decisions or remain silent in a situation they should act, they are only birthing and or cushioning tyranny and bad leadership. Any nation that faces political hiccups–study them–their citizens are docile, gullible, and ultimately corrupt.
Nowhere does the saying “as you make your bed so shall you lie on it” be more apt than in political recruitment, which democracy places in the court of the electorate. When citizens strive towards goodness, they end up in greatness. This truism applies to both men and nations.
The problem with us is that when we face challenges, rather than let our hearts pray while our hands work for what we desire, we instead use our hearts and hands to pray, expecting only the miraculous. To follow blindly and expect to be free is like eating your cake and expecting to have it.
As we prepare to pass over 2022 and leave it the rubbish heap of history, and never see it again, and as we look forward to a better tomorrow in 2023, let us, therefore, resolve to work for it. Let us resolve before tomorrow comes to take our destiny in our hands. Let us acknowledge that God has been lavish with us as a nation with his grace but it’s we who have failed to do the needful from our ends.
As we cross 72 hours into the year of decision, let us resolve that what is before us should be better than what is getting behind us and that our good deeds, not miracles, will bring out expectations to fruition. Adieu, 2022.