SHORTCUTTING APOTHEOSIS - HUBRIS WRITING ITS OWN OBITUARY

The phrase "when your idols become your rivals" makes for a fantastic social media caption. It sounds like the ultimate manifestation of ambition, a hustle-culture battle cry signaling that you have finally arrived at the big table. But that is nothing but a fable, and when you take further inspiration from Greek mythologies, adding eternal wisdoms from Yoruba cosmology, you will fully agree that taking that expression literally isn't just arrogant - it is a fast track to cosmic eviction.

Whether you look at the rigid, multi-step ascension of Greek apotheosis or the deeply relational structure of Yoruba cosmology, the universe has a very specific way of handling mortals who mistake a growth spurt for godhood. In classical mythology, you don’t just stumble into becoming a god. You don't wake up one morning, look at Zeus, and say, "Your time is up, old man." There is a grueling, multi-step pipeline. You need exceptional heroic merit, an elemental purging of your mortality which can literally involve being forged through fire, a cosmic background check by a council of elders, and finally, a literal alteration of your DNA via ambrosia to turn your blood into golden ichor. Apotheosis is not a casual promotion, it involves extraordinary deeds, suffering, transformation, and finally acceptance into a divine order that is bigger than the individual. The mortal does not seize godhood like an NURTW Faction seizes a motor park; it is bestowed like Nigerian Political Parties give Nomination Certificates to morally bankrupt financiers.

In Yoruba cosmology, the barrier to entry is just as steep, if not steeper. The Òrìṣàs (the divine entities guiding our world) are not just powerful beings. they are cosmic forces, personified ancestors, and manifestations of Olódùmarè (the Supreme Creator). To even be mentioned in the same breath as them requires an astronomical level of Ìwà Pẹ̀lẹ́ (balanced, good character) and Orí/Àyànmọ (Destiny/Predestination) that has been nurtured through immense sacrifice.

Yet, in our modern world, we achieve a little success and immediately think we’ve skipped the line. One business win, one viral song, one social media moment, and suddenly people start speaking like they have conquered history. Consider the young fintech founder in Yaba, Lagos, who secures a modest seed round of funding. Suddenly, they are on social media subtly shading the veteran industrialists who built the nation's physical banking infrastructure. They believe the old guard is "out of touch" and that they are the new deity of finance out to disrupt the archaic model. If they do not use the word “disruption” every hour, their oversized ego will probably burst out of their branded hoodies. A rising artist blows up with one “Single” and begins calling himself “a Living Legend”. A newly successful child starts talking to elders like respect is a subscription they forgot to renew. That is not evolution, that is perdition disguised as growth.

This is phase one of the delusion: mistaking the prerequisite (doing something impressive) for the final transformation (knowing how to sustain a universe). Every ounce of talent, drive, or influence you possess is what has been placed in you, it is called “Àṣẹ”, the divine energy to make things happen, the mandate to bring forth inventions. But here is the catch: it is never fully yours, it is only leased to you. It requires the right behaviour to become one with you and allow you to deploy it to rearrange a part of the universe. If you treat the masters who paved the way as peers to be conquered, you aren't demonstrating ambition, you are committing the ultimate sin - hubris.

Yoruba cosmology is too wise to celebrate that kind of folly. The universe is not random; it is structured. There is Olódùmarè, the ultimate source. There are the Òrìṣà, sacred powers who reflect divine order. There are the Ancestors, who remain morally present. And there are Humans/Mortals, who are expected to walk carefully, respectfully, and with character.

The Lineage of Power = Olódùmarè (The Ultimate Source) ➔ The Òrìṣà (Masters/Deities/Idols) ➔ Ancestors (Predecessors) ➔ You (The Leaseholder)

When you declare a rivalry with your idols, you reject this flow. You are claiming that your mandate is entirely self-generated. When you look at your professional or spiritual idols and decide they are now your "rivals," you are effectively trying to uproot the tree while enjoying its shade. The moment a mortal thinks they are independent of the lineage that birthed their opportunity, the universe begins to dial back the power supply.

Why does the universe react so harshly to this kind of arrogance? Because it threatens Àyànmọ (predestination) and cosmic order. In classical mythology, when Asclepius became so good at medicine that he started raising the dead, he thought he was rivaling the gods. Zeus didn't throw him a celebratory gala; he hit him with a thunderbolt. Why? Because disrupting the boundary between mortal and immortal breaks the system. In Yoruba spiritual philosophy, the world operates on an intricate balance between the physical realm (Ayé) and the spiritual realm (Ọ̀run). Everyone has their place in the grand tapestry. The moment you decide to tamper with the balance, you dislodge the order; when you decide to turn a mentor into a rival, you introduce chaos into your own ecosystem.

Imagine a young Afrobeat artist today who hits one billion streams. Intoxicated by the numbers, they stop paying homage to the veterans - the ones who carried massive cassettes and vinyls across international borders when music had to physically travel to radio stations to be heard. They stop bowing for the OGs in the industry. They think they are now the sun around which the culture revolves. What they fail to realize is that the music industry, much like Yoruba cosmology, is governed by a council of elders – the Labels, the Execs, the Promoters, the Media, the Influencers, and even the Fans. You might have the hot track today, but when the dry season of your career inevitably arrives, it is the structural roots built by those "idols" that keep the ground from collapsing beneath you. Without their institutional backing, you are just an unprotected mortal standing in a cosmic thunderstorm.

The final step of the classical progression to godhood is the consumption of divine sustenance, granted only after the pantheon agrees you belong there. It is an act of reception, not arrogation. You cannot steal ambrosia; it must be handed to you. True ascension - becoming a master in your own right - is granted through humility and the blessing of those who came before you. This is the symbolic “getting the blessing of the elders”. It is the ultimate insurance policy for success. When a master looks at your progress, smiles, and places a hand on your head to say, "Oya, come forward, come and dine with the elders", your transition from a student to a peer is legalized. Without that blessing, you are merely a usurper. And history, both mythological and modern, is unkind to usurpers.

Ambition is a beautiful thing, it is a must-have. The Orisha Sango did not become the god of thunder by sitting on his hands, he was a fierce, ambitious king. But his power was deeply tied to his role, his people, and his divine mandate. He understood power, but he also understood the consequences of its abuse. In this worldview, power is never just power. Power is always tied to responsibility, balance, and destiny. That is why the idea of ìwà pẹ̀lẹ́ - gentle, good character - matters so much. Talent without character is noise. Influence without humility is instability. Success without respect is a setup for disgrace. A person may have àṣẹ, the force to make things happen, but that force is not a license for arrogance. It is a trust. It flows through relationship, not isolation. You do not become greater by cutting yourself off from the roots that fed you. You become greater by learning how to carry those roots with honor.

If you are fortunate enough to find yourself sitting across the table from the people you used to look up to, don't view it as an invitation to a duel. You haven’t outgrown them; you have simply grown up to the level where you can finally understand the true depth of their experience and appreciate the scale of what they have achieved. Keep your ambition sharp but keep your ìwà pẹ̀lẹ́ sharper. Take the elevator up, but when you get to the top floor, remember who laid the concrete for the foundation. Even though you might believe you have outgrown your idols and you have consequently become rivals with them, you have not really risen above them, you have simply announced that you no longer understand what made your rise possible.

In Nigerian life, this is easy to see. The apprentice who forgets the master. The younger sibling who suddenly acts like family advice is outdated because Instagram gave them a new “list of things to do away with in 2026”. The politician who once begged for backing and now speaks as though loyalty was a one-way transaction. The artiste who benefits from a genre, then disrespects the pioneers who kept the sound alive when nobody was streaming anything. The irony is that these people often think they are proving strength. In reality, they are advertising insecurity. Arrogance has a familiar script. First, it borrows from the past. Then it succeeds. Then it pretends the past was unnecessary. That is when it starts calling everyone else a rival and a hater. But rivalry born from arrogance is usually a performance, not a destiny. It is the sound of someone who has mistaken applause for authority. And in both myth and moral tradition, that is a dangerous confusion. Greek myth punishes this kind of overreach with dramatic consequences because cosmic boundaries matter. Yoruba wisdom handles it with another kind of seriousness: if you refuse to recognize order, order will eventually remind you. Maybe through shame. Maybe through loss. Maybe through the quiet humiliation of needing the very people you once dismissed.

The universe has a way of correcting people who become too full of themselves.

This is a cautionary tale about why you should keep your feet firmly on the ground, even when your head is in the clouds. In the grand design of the universe, the moment you decide your idol is your rival, you stop climbing, and the universe prepares your descent.

And that, people, is how hubris writes its own obituary.

ORDER IS A BEAUTIFUL DELUSION

We live by the stubborn faith that the world can be arranged, if not perfectly, then at least well enough to make sense. We draw lines, make rules, create regulations, build systems, set standards, mark thresholds, refine procedures, and call the result progress. It is one of the oldest human gestures: to stand before disorder and answer it with form. Yet beneath this discipline lies a quiet tragedy, because the universe does not consent to our designs. It does not become orderly simply because we have decided to improve it.

This is where Camus enters, not as a pessimist, but as a lucid witness to the human condition. In The Myth of Sisyphus, he names the absurd: the rupture between our desire for meaning and the world's indifference. We want coherence. We want a pattern that holds. We want our labor to culminate in something lasting. But the world keeps slipping free of our grip. Every system frays. Every certainty expires. Every solution becomes the beginning of another problem.

And still we build.

That, perhaps, is the most revealing thing about us. We do not stop because the hill is steep. We do not stop because the stone rolls back down. We begin again, because to begin again is what consciousness demands. Order is our answer to impermanence, our attempt to make time inhabitable. It is not merely practical. It is existential. To impose structure is to say: I am here, this matters, and I will not surrender to chaos without resistance.

But order is never final. This is the secret that every serious builder eventually learns. The framework that once brought clarity becomes, in time, too narrow for the complexity it was meant to contain. The rules that once kept a household bonded becomes the cloud that limits its effervescence. The metric that once guided judgement begins to distort it. The process that once saved time becomes the thing that consumes it. Systems do not fail only by breaking; they fail by hardening into idols. What begins as stewardship can curdle into worship.

Camus would have recognized this temptation. He knew how quickly human beings transform their own instruments into consolations. We want not just structure, but salvation. Not just efficiency, but permanence. Yet permanence is precisely what the world withholds. There is no final architecture, only provisional ones. No completed order, only arrangements held together by vigilance, revision, and care.

And that, strangely enough, is where meaning returns.

If the absurd teaches anything, it is that meaning does not arrive as a reward for mastery. It is not the prize at the end of control. It emerges in the act itself: in the effort to clarify, to repair, to maintain, to continue. The builder who knows the structure will one day need rebuilding is not defeated by that knowledge. He is freed by it. He no longer mistakes his labor for immortality. He no longer asks the world to promise more than it can give. He works without illusion, and because of that, he works with dignity.

There is something almost heroic in this refusal to be deceived. The manager who revises the process, the engineer who tightens the tolerances, the founder who rebuilds the company culture after each wave of growth, the parent who restores order to a home that will be undone again by morning - each is engaged in a small rebellion against entropy. None of these acts defeats chaos. They only hold it at bay. But perhaps that is enough. Perhaps nobility lies not in victory, but in the willingness to keep shaping a world that resists being shaped.

Camus calls this revolt. Not the noisy revolt of drama, but the quiet revolt of persistence. To revolt is to continue without illusion, to accept the repetition without surrendering to bitterness. Sisyphus, in this reading, is not a man crushed by his task. He is a man who has outlived false hope. He knows the hill. He knows the stone. He knows there will be no final resolution. And because he knows, he is no longer owned by the fantasy of escape.

This is the deepest transformation Camus offers: not happiness as comfort, but happiness as clarity. One must imagine Sisyphus happy not because the burden has vanished, but because consciousness has changed the terms of the burden. He is no longer a victim of repetition. He is its witness, its participant, and in some sense its author. The same motion that once condemned him becomes, in the light of awareness, a form of freedom.

This is a difficult lesson for any age obsessed with optimization. We are told to streamline, to scale, to eliminate inefficiency, to make systems smarter, faster, leaner, more elegant. And much of that is necessary. Disorder can be costly, and carelessness is not a virtue. But there is a point beyond which optimization becomes a metaphysical habit, a refusal to accept the roughness of life. We begin to believe that if the model is refined enough, the world itself will become manageable. It will not. It never has. The task is not to master the universe, but to dwell wisely within its uncertainty.

So perhaps the pursuit of order is neither noble nor futile, but tragic in the old sense: dignified precisely because it cannot achieve its deepest aim. We build because we must. We refine because we can. We impose structure not to conquer the world, but to make it momentarily bearable. And when the structure fails, as it inevitably will, we begin again - not because we are naive, but because we are human.

There is grace in that repetition. There is even beauty. For what is a life, after all, but a series of provisional orders, each made with care, each destined to be revised, each carrying us a little farther against the dark? We are not architects of permanence. We are custodians of the temporary. We arrange the world as best we can, knowing it will resist us, and in that resistance discover the shape of our dignity.

Perhaps this insight helps explain why Thomas Jefferson wrote in the preamble to the United States Declaration of Independence - “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” rather than “Life, Liberty and Happiness.” He may have understood that happiness is not a permanent condition but a fleeting moment, reached through repeated striving; and what endures is not happiness itself, but the pursuit - the ongoing human effort to seek, shape, and renew meaning, or maybe progress.

Thank You!
God Bless Us All!!
See You Next Time!!!

~ SirRash

X: Rasheed Adewusi

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THE PHYSICS OF PRESENCE, AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE LARGER-THAN-LIFE PHENOMENON

We have all felt it - that sudden, inexplicable shift in the atmospheric pressure of a room. A person walks in, and without saying a word, they seem to occupy more cubic centimeters of space than their physical frame should allow. We call them “larger than life.” But what does that actually mean? Unless we are discussing a literal giant or a particularly ambitious parade float, the phrase is a biological impossibility. Yet, we use it to describe the titans of industry, the icons of cinema, and that one uncle who tells stories with enough kinetic energy to power a small “Lagos Estate”. To understand the “larger than life” phenomenon, we have to stop looking at the person and start looking at the space they displace. It is not about size; it is about density, narrative, and the sheer audacity of being seen.

In the world of physics, density is mass divided by volume. In the philosophy of persona, being larger than life is often a result of emotional density. Most people live within their skin; they are contained, polite, and spatially efficient. A “larger than life” individual, however, exudes a beautiful kind of leakage. Their personality, their convictions, and their sheer will refuse to stay within the established confinement. Many mistake “loud” for “large,” especially in our current digital landscape where shouting is often confused for actual stature. This is the Pufferfish Paradox - inflation without substance. While the loud person operates on volume, the large person operates on gravity. They don’t need to shout because their presence has a gravitational pull that forces the room to orbit around them. They don’t demand attention; they command it through the sheer mass of their character.

Why are we so obsessed with these figures? The truth is, humanity has a “God-sized” hole in its narrative. We are terrified of our own insignificance in a universe that is cold, vast, and largely indifferent to our daily struggles. To combat this existential vertigo, we project our desires for meaning onto individuals who seem to defy the standard constraints of reality. As Joseph Campbell once noted, a hero is someone who has given their life to something bigger than themselves. When we call someone larger than life, we are essentially saying they have become a living myth. They stop being a normal person and start being a symbol. Fela wasn’t just an artiste, he was the symbol of rebellion. Dangote isn’t just an entrepreneur, he is the symbol of the intersection between business and politics. We need them to be large so that we can hide in their shadow when the sun of reality gets too bright.

In current times, this concept is facing a unique crisis. In the mid-20th century, a movie star was a god because you only saw them on a forty-foot screen. They were literally larger than you. Today, we see our icons on a six-inch screen while they are eating breakfast in their pajamas on a livestream. We have traded mythology for intimacy. This is the transparency trap; the larger-than-life aura requires a certain degree of opacity. To be a giant, you need a little bit of fog around your feet. When we use technology to strip away every layer of mystery, we shrink our giants down to a manageable, human size. We have gained relatability, but we have lost the sublime. True stature requires distance; you cannot be an icon if you are also a neighbor.

If we were to apply a mathematical lens to this, we might look at the relationship between energy and mass. Think of it as the E=mc² of charisma:

        Energy = Presence X (Authenticity)²

In this formula, presence is the physical act of being there, but authenticity is the multiplier. When someone is larger than life, it is usually because their internal reality is perfectly aligned with their external expression. Most of us spend nearly half our energy pretending to be someone we aren’t or modulating our voices to fit in. A larger-than-life person spends zero energy on modulation. All that reclaimed energy is poured into their output, making them appear more vibrant, more "charged," and ultimately, larger.

However, there is a heavy cost to this pedestal. It is a lonely thing to be larger than life. When you become a symbol, you cease to be a person in the eyes of the public. If you are a giant, you are not allowed to have a "small" day. You are not allowed to be tired, or petty, or quiet. The world demands that you maintain your bigness at all times. People don’t see you; they see what they need from you. Your actual needs are often ignored because the world assumes giants don’t need help. The bigger the statue, the more devastating the crack, making the larger-than-life figure a prisoner of their own proportions.

Can a regular person become larger than life? The secret lies in what I call Micro-Grandeur. You don’t need a stadium or a billion dollars to achieve this; you only need to be fully present. Most people are actually "smaller than life." They shrink themselves to avoid conflict, mumble to avoid being wrong, and hide their passions to avoid being judged. To be larger than life is simply to stop shrinking. It requires committing to the bit - whatever you are doing, do it with 100% intentionality. It requires mastering the silence, because giants don’t chatter. It requires possessing your space, walking like you own the ground, not out of arrogance, but out of gratitude.

Ultimately, "larger than life" is a collaborative hallucination. It is a dance between the subject who provides the energy and the observer who provides the imagination. We call people larger than life because they remind us of what is possible. They are the proof of concept for the human spirit, suggesting that we don’t have to be small or quiet. The great irony is that the most truly larger-than-life people usually don’t think they are large at all; they are simply too busy living to check their own measurements. In a world that is increasingly segmented, digitized, and automated, being larger than life is the ultimate act of rebellion. It is a refusal to be a data point. You just need to realize that the life you are supposedly larger than is actually just a set of self-imposed boundaries. Break those boundaries, and the grandeur will take care of itself.

So, go ahead. Stretch. The world has plenty of space, for as many "larger than lifes" as you can imagine.

Thank You!
God Bless Us All!!
See You Next Time!!!

~ SirRash

X: Rasheed Adewusi

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PER ARDUA AD ASTRA

Air travel is such a kaleidoscope of experiences, serving a flavourful dish with a potpourri of pyscho-social condiments - some spicily educative, some saltily annoying, and others so blandly humbling that it evokes nothing but acceptance. First, we all need to agree that air travel is one of the greatest proofs of the limitlessness of the human spirit. An airplane remains one of the inventions which pushed human advancement to the next frontier, cutting down travel time across the planet, leading to easier and better collaboration, and of course facilitating the growth of the global economy. Interestingly, the ease with which humans readily trust aircrafts to always take us home is a successful psycho-social experiment which should never be taken for granted. For context, we are expected to always look right, look left, and look right again before crossing a road, and for wider roads, we basically mount pedestrian bridges to help us cross, yet this requires less than a minute; but we have no qualms at all filing into a gigantic contraption which weighs thousands of kilogram, flies suspended at 15,000 metres above the ground, speeds at sometimes close to 1,000 km/hour, and sometimes stay in the air for hours on end, yet we always trust in the aircraft and the pilot to take us home. That is some mind-numbing reality when we really think deep about it.

The planet is very big, but in relation to the world, it is also a very small place, and everywhere at any time is simply a microcosm of the larger world. This is very true of an airport. The symbolism of age - children being carried in trolleys, teenagers acting with little or no care in the world, adults trying to keep everything and everyone together, elderlies needing help every step of the way, even needing wheelchairs - all of them with the sole purpose of getting into a plane to take them to the next place, which to some is home, and to others, another departure point. Every trip having a beginning and an end, just like every human has a beginning and an end. There is no place where the diversity of this planet is also as evident as the airport, well maybe in a Natural History Museum, but then those specimens don’t talk back to you, do they? Different Races, Tribes, Languages, Attires, Food, etc are always a staple at every airport. Sitting at the airport is always like watching an episode of a reality television series where the goal is to make the society’s diversity stand out, by following the rules and blending in.

Interestingly, this idea of "blending in" leads me to the next perspective of air travel - processes, procedures, and interconnectedness. Air travel has as much must-followed process as a high-stake surgical operation. From having an International Passport or a National ID, to obtaining a Visa (where necessary), to ensuring your luggage is the right count, weight and size, to knowing when to get to the airport, to knowing how to and where to check in your luggage, to knowing what is permissible on the plane, to how to navigate Customs and Immigration, to how to find your boarding gate, to how you find your seat once you have entered the plane; and how to walk back the entire process in a reverse order after landing at your destination is one long unbroken chain of processes, procedures, and interconnectedness. This same surgical precision applies to lifting off, flying, and landing a plane. A deeper perspective of this is understanding that air travel perfectly mirrors how Natural Laws and how Social Norms work, and any attempt to tweak or twist always leads to chaos and catastrophe.

Finally, it would be remiss of me to talk about air travel, and not highlight the glaring classism that air travel lay bare, especially the in-your-face way it reminds those of us still flying “Economy” or "Coach" that we still have some way to go. From the luggage check-in where the “Sky Priority” Class, the code name for “First Class”, “Business Class”, and “Frequent Flyers”, can carry excess luggage for free; to the waiting time where they can have access to Lounge Services, as complementary perks; to the actual boarding of the plane where they are allowed to go in first, and the masses like us in Economy have to see their faces and the comfortable seatings they have in the front of the plane, as we trudge to our chairs at the back of the plane; to the food and drink served on the plane, where they get served like they are at their homes, and we get served like we are in a boarding school; and how when the plane lands, they get to disembark first, before we peasants are allowed to stand up, because they have somewhere important to be, and we just have to wait in line. This is not me whining, this is me just pointing things out, believe me, I am far from whining.

I am realistic enough to acknowledge that the human society is divided into strata, and each stratum has its costs, perks, and accoutrements, and that the appeal of inter-stratum-mobility is one of the driving forces of human prosperity. Do we need to do better in reducing the gaps between the strata? Of course, and that should be our primary focus as humans, and that should be your takeout, or is it takeaway, from this post. How do we do better? I know the one of the ways is to always be a good neighbour, and to always live by the age-old maxim “do unto others as you would have them do to you”. If you can think of yourself less as the centre of the universe too, I bet that will also help. Long story short, I do not have the answers, but I am open to making the world better, and I am willing to make the sacrifices required, and I would be glad if you can do to. It will not be easy, but that’s the whole essence of “per ardua ad astra”.

Thank You!

God Bless Us All!!

See You Next Time!!!

~ SirRash

X: @SirRash

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COVID-19 - THE HARD TRUTHS FROM THESE TRYING TIMES

If someone were to tell me in December 2019 that there would be an occurrence in 2020 which would lead to a near collapse of the financial markets, nearly wipe out the global transportation and tourism industry, put almost all the nations of the world on self-imposed lockdown, I mean basically ground the entire world, I would have simply taken the person for a clown, and if they were to insist on keeping their position, I would have recommended a psychiatric evaluation. Such was the strength of my faith and belief in the social, mental, scientific, and technological evolution of humankind that I could not foresee all of us abandoning life as we know it and scampering for shelter far away from other humans as much as possible.

Let us face it, the world will never be the same again, even after we have been able to arrest the Covid-19 pandemic, but then, why should it remain the same? The current situation has brought to the fore the indispensability of many of the issues essential to the dignity and respect of humankind and how we have for a very long time paid lip-service to them, and that was when we were not outrightly denying their importance. Issues of affordable universal healthcare, social safety net, fit-for-purpose public infrastructure, public programmes planning and execution, and social integration as a whole have been totally neglected, and we can see in real time how nations and societies are paying the price for their laxity. The US is leading in Covid-19 death rates because their healthcare system is broken, and they have a leadership gulf at the very top; Nigeria is struggling to stem the tide because the health and social infrastructures are grossly inadequate and we cannot even effectively give financial palliatives to those who need them because we do not have genuine and verifiable data, and of course we have a leadership gulf at the very top too; and the Northern European Countries are handling the situation well because they have always been structured and they have social safety nets such that they didn’t need to change much to cope with the pandemic.

Brace yourself, even when the Pandemic is over, the fear will remain for a long time, the fear not just for ourselves, but for our kids, our siblings, our colleagues, for all our loved ones altogether. What will be gone though is the trust of social existence – partying, clubbing, even lounging in open spaces such as bars, beaches, and malls will no longer be trustworthy, and we might find ourselves going back to living like cavemen, coming out for sunlight once in a while. Of course, I kid, but when you consider the fact that we were already talking about going to live on Mars, and we already have shuttles which can make such trips multiple times like your normal airplane, you will understand that going back to not being able to gather in public or use public transportation to cover distances of a few kilometers is like a thousand-year regression. Brace yourself, wearing of face masks will be compulsory for months to come, at least wannabe ninjas will be happy at these.

Now back to the hard truths from this pandemic – we the masses have suffered the most and we will suffer more, unless we change our perception and approach to governance and leadership. When we abdicated our responsibilities and left leadership and governance to demagogues, charlatans, misfits and rogues, of course they cannot suddenly develop competence during a crisis, they can only respond to the limit of their abilities. We all have to be involved in choosing those who lead us, in determining those who chart the course for the present and the future, in keeping on their toes those we have surrendered our individuality and personal preferences to in exchange for the social contract of having the freedom to live and pursue happiness. We owe these duties to ourselves, and we will be doing ourselves a great disservice if we leave those processes to the misfits in the society. Most times, we delude ourselves with the fact that we can create enclaves with others who have broken free from the inhuman drudgery of daily struggle to make ends meet, and we have this false security once we go into our gated estates, but the reality as highlighted by the menace of “the One Million Gang” and “the Awawa Boys” during this lockdown is that no one is safe within the vicinity of heartless and hungry miscreants who have been armed by unscrupulous politicians. We are all in this together, and we have to fix it together.

As a parting shot, now that you know that everything is possible, it is now up to you to hold people around you accountable when they tell you it is not possible. Governments all over the world who said “Healthcare For All” is impossible are able to find funds to finance this Public Health Emergency; Governments who said “Guaranteed Monthly Incomes” are impossible are finding funds to provide Financial Palliatives to Businesses and Citizens; Preachers who said you must come to Churches and Mosques to prove your faith are now conducting ministrations online; Employers who would mandate you to suffer through hours of traffic on daily basis to  and fro the office are now encouraging you to work from home and use Zoom and Skype; lovers who told you they were always busy driving, in meetings, in open offices, and so on are now working from home, so what is their excuse for not keeping in touch now? Think about it. While thinking about it, continue to act safe and be safe. Together we will beat the pandemic.

Thank You!

God Bless Us All!!

See You Next Time!!!

Twitter: @SirRash

Facebook: Rasheed SirRash Adewusi

THE DANGEROUS NECESSITY OF SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER

Let's start this trying to tackle some misconception - did Ganduje have the power to dethrone Emir Sanusi? Yes, he does. Governors have the right to remove First Class Traditional Rulers, and for those Traditional Rulers who are “unlucky” to be below First Class, they are on the stool at the whim and caprices of the LGA Chairperson, and they could be removed by the Chairperson at any time. To quote Abubakar Rimi, a former Governor of Kano State, "A traditional ruler is a public officer holding a public office, who is being paid by public funds, and whose appointment is at the pleasure of the state governor and who can be dismissed, removed, interdicted, suspended, if he commits an offence” This can be summarized as Elected Officials give the "staff of office" to Traditional Rulers, they can as well collect them back when they wish. And of course, many kings have been deposed by the Government across our history, from the colonial days, all through our post-independence days – the British deposed and exiled Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi of Benin in 1899, the revered Obafemi Awolowo dethroned Alaafin Adeyemi in 1955 for differing on the grounds of political affiliation, Sir Ahmadu Bello dethroned Emir Sanusi in 1963 on the grounds of mismanagement, Abacha deposed Sultan Dasuki in 1996, because, well, it was Abacha.

Now to a rather pertinent question - should Ganduje had dethroned Emir Sanusi? Of course he shouldn't have, no Political Office Holder should trample on Traditional Institutions in such a manner, but of course, politicians see themselves as demigods, and backed by the Constitution, they go ahead and rubbish Traditional Rulers - cue in Ajimobi who elevated 20 Family Heads to the level of Olubadan in 2017, just to belittle the Olubadan Throne, a tactic Ganduje also deployed in Kano in 2019 by dividing the Kano Emirate into 5 equal parts, just to reduce the influence of Emir Sanusi. A little tidbit – Ajimobi and Ganduje are in-laws, Ajimobi’s Son got married to Ganduje’s Daughter in 2018. Just think about it. When we consider that as a people, we have lost sight of our culture and lost track of our history, what we should be doing is embarking on massive reorientation of our values and reclamation of our culture, and the best avenue to do that is through the traditional institutions. No system of significance in Nigeria reflects our culture or embodies our history, not education, not legal, not economic, and not political. For the Government to keep stripping bare traditional institutions proves that those we have handed the reins of leadership to basically have no idea about social reclamation, self-realization, and national reorientation. This is what happens when we conclude that politics is dirty and we leave it to the dregs of the society, we will be left with scoundrels running our present and reprobates deciding our children’s future.

For Sanusi, I first took note of him as the CBN Governor, and one quality you can always ascribe to him is "consistency". He has always been "a principled man who speaks truth to power", and his fracas with the Jonathan Administration was based on exactly the same issues as his problems with the Buhari Administration as spearheaded by Ganduje. His message has always centred on "decrying profligacy, preaching accountability, and advocating social changes", those messages have not changed, but obviously, the politicians are tired of hearing them. Whether Sanusi appeals to you or not, you cannot rationally say that he has not been consistent in his positions, flip-flopping is not a jibe you can throw at him. Let me categorically say I always agree with Sanusi's positions, and I love the fact that he shares them at every opportunity he has. That is what I believe people who have podiums and audiences should do, use your platforms to call out the ills in the society, it will come with some sacrifices, but there is no gain without pain. For those who faulted his decision to become the Emir in the first place, claiming he had was too educated, too intelligent, and with too much finesse to go and hide all that within the confines of a palace, we have to understand that it was a lifelong dream for him, and if we all try to understand the concept of "self-actualization", we will understand that it was what he had always considered as the peak of his achievements in life. After earning a Bachelor and a Masters Degrees, he actually went back to the University to get another Degree in Sharia and Islamic Studies, to prepare himself for when he ascends the throne of his fathers - his grandfather and great-grandfather were both Emirs in their lifetimes. Did he know the pitfalls that such a move will present to him? I believe a man of Sanusi’s intelligence would have known, but he might have underestimated the ruthlessness and haughtiness of Ganduje once the lifelong politician got into office.

Now that he is free of the heavy cloaks and the mountainous turbans, Sanusi can choose to join forces with International Organisations like most intellects edged out of public relevance by our sordid politics, or he can even choose to seek an elective office in Nigeria to try and change things from within, but he must continue to speak truth to power at home, because therein lies the freedom for Nigerians. The more people with means and intellect who challenge the devilish political hegemony, the more the politicians continue to reveal their sinister capabilities, the more the people realise that the politicians are worse than vultures and scavengers, and maybe, just maybe, that will push us into action and take the country back.

Thank You!
God Bless Us All!!
See You Next Time!!!


Twitter: @SirRash
Facebook: Rasheed SirRash Adewusi
Instagram: @theaspiringsage

THE TRAGEDY OF ILLUSORY REALITY

Compliments of the Season from your favorite absconder from the creative duty of writing. I wrote on this blog just once last year, I actually managed to match my personal record of laziness set the previous year. This is not a record I am proud of, and this year, I have determined to pummel procrastination into submission and write as much as I can. So help me God. And for those of you who dropped some friends last year, I hope you have not started picking up some new ones already this year, just to come and disturb us at the end of the year with news that you will be dropping them again.

With the usual apologies, resolutions, and subs out of the way, let me get to the reason why I am here very early this year (aside pummeling procrastination) – I think reality is being replaced with illusion, so I need to find out if I am the odd one out still living here while others have migrated to an alternate world where white is black, and red is green. The reality, where we take everything on Social Media as the perfect depiction of people’s lives and we therefore judge our own lives as not being up to par based on that, has become such an epidemic. I don’t want to sound like an alarmist, but this is actually a deeper epidemic at the same level as substance abuse as well as pseudo-literacy, especially when you combine all together as it is common nowadays.

Every day, people upload dance videos on Snapchat and Instagram, and we are assuming they are always happy. These are all lies, no one person is always happy, and no one person, who is truthful to themselves, is always sad. People will most likely share the pictures of their vacation, but not the picture of the hard work which went into making the money to go on the vacation, probably they even took a loan to go on the trip. Your friends are more likely to share their pictures in a plane, but not in a NAPEP. You see, people’s DPs are their representatives, and their statuses are their alter egos, those are not their “real faces”, most of the savage lions on social media are real life lambs - everything is make-believe. That this illusory reality drives some people to having mood swings, becoming depressed, and push some to even end it all with suicide is extremely alarming and dishearteningly worrying.

Self-styled Influencers and Life-Coaches are the Platos and Aristotles of today sharing nuggets about all topics, half of which they do not have basic knowledge of, and most people take those half-baked information as gospel truth and start using them as gauges for their personal lives –

YOLO – Anyone ever told you you will live twice before? Even Bhuddists don’t believe you will come back as you.

Sleep is for the weak – OK. Be forming hard, by the time you have a nervous breakdown, it is a pity you will be a mental wreck and you might not even be able to differentiate between weak and strong.

Live today, tomorrow is not assured – Hmmmmnnnnn. Tomorrow will become assured, and you will have to live with the consequences of the horrible decisions and the stupid actions of today, and what do you do?

True love exists, and you don’t have to chase after it, it will find you wherever you are – Oooshey Love Doctor of the House of Romance. The one who compiled the encyclopedia of love.

Hey people, the hard truth is that we all cannot achieve the exact same things in life. Everyone is not going to be super rich, and we are not all going to be super-successful. By sheer serendipity, some are born far ahead of others, and they will always remain ahead bar some catastrophes of epic proportion. Not all children will be brilliant, not all marriages will celebrate diamond jubilees, not everyone will be healthy, these are just the realities of life. However, it does not mean we cannot achieve happiness or personal progress, we as individuals, and the variables within our individual control should be the yardsticks we use to measure our personal progresses which should determine our state of happiness.

You know your story, you know your dreams; you know where you started from, you know where you are going. Let’s continue to set realistic personal goals and dedicate all our means to achieving them. Let’s periodically take stock, carry out objective appraisals, and tweak when necessary, that’s progress. The misguided belief that we are the dregs of the Earth and that everyone else is flexing and happy based on what they post on social media or is nothing but an illusion. 

In a simple way, between the colour White and colour Black, there are countless shades of Grey, you could just be the dark grey at the moment, and frankly, everyone is just another shade of grey, just keep adding more of white, and you are on course to becoming your favourite shade of grey.

Thank You!

God Bless Us All!!

See You Next Time!!!

Twitter: @SirRash

Facebook: Rasheed SirRash Adewusi
Instagram: @theaspiringsage

…OF VULNERABILITY AND THE ILLUSION OF ELEVATION

Since the last time I wrote here, some things have changed… Not such big changes, but big enough to make me become more introspective and less happy. I mean Life is TOUGH, at least I can speak for here in Nigeria where I live.

The first change is that I changed my job (Again???). Yeah, again. I finally left Telecommunications, I am now in Renewable Energy, Solar Energy to be precise, and while it is financially rewarding and interesting, it is also saddening because I get to come in contact with the real Vulnerables of the world, and that could be depressing, especially when you consider how minute your impact is compared to what they require to get uplifted out of their dire status.

The second change is that I have gone on and become a more open person who now interacts more with strangers and virtual friends, and what I see every day is that basically, no one has it together. We are all just trying to be happy, because happiness is such a fleeting state that you will definitely miss out on it while trying to own it, which is such a disturbing state of things because it means we are never happy, rather we are in an endless race in pursuit of happiness. This means that irrespective of education, income, social standing, and so on, we are all still in a state of flux and we are all still VULNERABLES despite all the illusions of elevation. I am now seeing Vulnerability not from the angle of lack of physical peace but from the perspective of lacking inner peace, calm and control.

The economic situation is terrible, this has been so for long, and it does not look like it is abating anytime soon, but even when by sheer dint of hardwork coupled with God’s blessings you are able to break the yoke and become self-sustaining and self-reliant, you are still vulnerable:

When you build a house and you need an electrified fence higher than your house to feel safe, you are vulnerable…

When you have a car, but you need to vary your routes everyday to avoid being trailed by people with sinister motives, you are vulnerable…

When you have kids but you cannot send them to public schools because it is pointless, and you are afraid of sending them to expensive public schools for fear of them picking up expensive terrible habits from the kids of the rich, you are vulnerable…

When you see every one of your mates emigrating from the country but you decide to stay put, you are vulnerable…

When you cannot access the best healthcare not because of your lack of trying, but because it is not just available, you are vulnerable…

When your kids understand technology better than you, you are vulnerable…

When everything is confusing most of the time, you are vulnerable...

You see, at the end of the day, we are mostly not in control, we are just playing and acting according to a script, and we cannot even control or determine when our character will be killed off. So, the best we can do is be the best of ourselves – treat others fairly and respectfully, live our life to the fullest, and above all, try to leave the world a better place than we met it such that we would have contributed our best to rid the world of the Vulnerables.

Thank You!

God Bless Us All!!

See You Next Time!!!

Twitter: @SirRash

Facebook: Rasheed SirRash Adewusi

…OF A NIGERIAN YOUTH AND THE QUANDARY OF ETERNAL OPTIMISM

This is the month of May, today is the 29th, and the appropriate greeting as a Nigerian is “Happy Democracy Day”, but I guess saying “Happy New Year” is not out of place, since I was here last in the year 2016. Yes, I know, I have promised I will not disappear several times and I actually did disappear, but if you know me very well, you know I usually keep my promises, and it is because I try so hard to keep most of my promises

that I have not been able to keep this one – you know, promises like never let the family lack, never let my day-job suffer, never let stress send me to the hospital, never pass up an opportunity to network in real life, etc.

So, here I am again confused as to what to write about, not as much what to write about, but what to write about it – I want to write about the future of those of us Nigerians forty years and below-  should I join the others and continue to wail and rail against the our present sad situation, or should I, like an eternal optimist that I am, choose to tell people that things are improving and they will continue to improve even when I know in reality we are moving at the pace of a faulty unicycle, when we really need to move with the speed of Virgin’s Booms. Let me make this very clear, I am not laying claim to superior knowledge, but I can boldly say it without any qualms that the youths are definitely not ready for the change we all crave.

The premise of my assertion is my interactions with the youths, they more often than not leave me feeling the situation is irredeemable because the discussions are never logical and the larger part of the time is spent arguing for superiority by tribe, age, religion, education, and political affiliation, they rarely display intellect or discuss ideas. They spend most of their time defending those who have put them in this quagmire of existence and I am always confused as to if they do not realise that those who constitute the political elite are the same people who have thrown us all into this abyss of wavering hope.

Societies grow when there are systems and structures which allow ideas to thrive, multiply, and morph into tangible development. Structures such as economic, education, healthcare, judicial, and so on. Those structures exist around here but only in a state of flummox. We have schools but not education; we have hospitals but no healthcare, we have a government structure but no economic development or judicial confidence. I fervently hope the youths realise that most of those who make up the political elite will not be here in fifty years, but most of us under the age of forty today will be here with our children, our grandchildren and possibly grandchildren. What kind of country will we have by then? One where the majority are uneducated, and sick, and uncouth, and unable to contribute meaningfully to the economy.

This is the time for the youths not just to stand up and be counted, or profess eternal optimism, but to get involved in grabbing the reins of leadership from the charlatans we have at the helms now and chart a new course for the country, for our children, and for generations unborn.

NB: Subsequent articles will detail my suggestions on how we take over our destinies.

Thank You!
God Bless Us All!!
See You Next Time!!!

Twitter: @SirRash
Facebook: Rasheed SirRash Adewusi

RIVERS OF BABYLON

It started out as a song playing in my subconscious, then I started humming it around the house and the office, then I started playing it out loud through my phone, and I had to go post the lyrics on Facebook, and now it is at the top of my “most played” playlist. I am referring to the popular Boney M song “Rivers of Babylon” which has taken over my life in the last two weeks.

As someone who likes looking for Order within Chaos, and someone who considers rationalizing phenomena as important and as necessary as breathing is to continuous existence, I have been trying to understand why this song has suddenly taken over my life at this point in time. Like all Researchers worth the title would do, I decided to start from the beginning.

Boney M, I am sure have rights to the song, but the original writer of the lyrics is King David aka The Psalmist, the man whose favoured instrument was the Harp, and who has one hundred and fifty curated singles to his credit among which are the popular “The Earth Is The Lord’s And The Fullness Thereof”, “He That Dwelleth In The Secret Place Of The Most High”, “I Will Lift Up My Head To The Mountains High” and the seminal “The Lord Is My Shepherd”. The lyrics to the song could be found in the first four verses of Psalms 137 and the last verse of Psalm 90. However, I am still not close to finding an answer to the question - Why does the song keep ringing in my head?

To answer this question, I had to summon my inner Bertrand, Descartes, Nietsche, Kierkegaard, Kant, Freud, Orwell, Marx, and Awolowo; and ask series of questions about Life, Living, Existence, Afterlife, Happiness, Purpose, Fate, Choice, Spirituality, Love, and a whole lot of other concepts. Suffice to say I did a lot of thinking, probably became enlightened a little more, definitely got a bit more confused, but with a better understanding of why the song has been ringing in my head.

I believe the song is a summation of the state of humans in the present world, a world where divisions are being accentuated, where bigotry and hate are being encouraged, where diseases keep finding ways to morph, where wars have become the norm, where poverty and hunger keep growing exponentially, and where humans seem incapable of providing far-reaching and long-lasting solutions.

This world is not our home as we love it, this must be a captive colony of the wicked, this is Babylon, our home is in Zion; but we are here and we are expected to be happy and show love to everyone, but how do we continue to be happy and loving when sadness permeates everywhere? How do we continue to be model human beings when that represents the exception at the moment? As it stands, when we cannot fathom a way out of the pervasive quagmire, we turn to the Most High and offer supplications and hope He will accept and prepare a place for us somewhere else, a place far better, peaceful, and inspiring than this Babylon.

The song represents my conscious cum subconscious view of the state of the world at the moment – disillusionment, shame, and hopelessness.

I am not giving up though. I believe we can still salvage the world. Believing is a start, isn’t it?

Thank You!
God Bless Us All!!
See You Next Time!!!

Twitter: @SirRash
Facebook: Rasheed SirRash Adewusi

PSEUDOS AND PHONEYS

They donned Shirts hand-woven by Racism,
Suits designed by Bigotry
Shoes crafted by Xenophobia
And Hats made by Homophobia.
Then they stepped out looking grimy, in their stinking Regalia of Hate,
And called themselves Nationalists.

They all want their Country back
And are willing to trade their Humanity
And Civility
And Consanguinity
To make great again
What had already been collectively made Great.

Self-inflicted Fractures…
Self-induced Dislocations…
Self-performed Dismemberment…
Now the world is sliding
Into an abyss of disenchantment
And those who seemed to represent sanity
Are the Clowns currently Dancing Naked on the Expressway.

Their Actions; and Our Collective Reactions, or Inactions
Will either make the World Great Again
Or make us all scurrying to vote for Earthexit.

Thank You!
God Bless Us All!!
See You Next Time!!!

Twitter: @SirRash

Facebook: Rasheed SirRash Adewusi

Google+: Rasheed Adewusi