“THIS INSPIRES ME TO REMAIN THE DEMIGOD I BECAME”
Each summer, before my college graduation, I had always joined the geology students in my school on their fieldtrips. On one occasion, I had the opportunity of enjoying the company of some legion men, a group of ex-service men from my country’s National Defense Academy (NDA) who offered to watch over us while they do their field research, those men were old NDA boys passing on the DNA of good doing to youths.
Because I had nothing to bother about, like finding rock specimens and identifying them as do the incubating geologists and geographers, I followed a schedule that suited me best. I stayed more with the legion men – running errands for them. In the mornings we went hunting, its usually an adventure – once a python frightened us, once we ran into a fox, once a team member got injured but we always come back with a big animal.
At nights, I stayed with the old soldiers watching over the students, we roasted and dressed the bush meat. As we sat at meat, they told me stories of some heroes of humanitarianism. A hero, Raoul Wallenberg stood out in my mind. He went to Hungary, hungry of justice and mercy for other men. He was caught and taught the music of tyranny. His mission halted and never resumed again. “This righteous gentile did not see Jews or Christians on the Nazi’s death trains but fellow human beings being led to slaughter by monster of pure evil”.
But why waste or die for people who didn’t even know you exist? This is the question, travelling in my service year answered. Then I understood what great men spend their lives on. Wallenberg spent his life willing to die, he wanted to die, but for something, not for nothing. His death made me think I should focus more on paying the price rather than getting the prize, but the opportunity didn’t come until I travelled for my national youth service course.
In my service year, I travelled to “Small London”, a grand name for a mountainous small town with beautiful sceneries in the Western Nigeria, Efon-Alaaye, but so called for its characteristic coldness. It was wonderful meeting other youths living together like siblings. We worshipped together. We did endurance trek up the mountain of Golgotha, a place of prayer in Efon-Alaaye. I saw lovers held each other hand walking, talking, laughing and stealing lovely look at each other. Then we were at the mountaintop, I saw the entire world from there, we took photo shots, it was hair-raising, I stood as though I would fly, I marveled at the wonders of God.
It was a family of youths, closely knitted into one, it was one big family– very big to accommodate you but small enough to know you – persons and personalities weren’t drowned out in the crowd. One of the new corps members confessed: “I almost cried, the warmness of the welcome; imagine your seniors running to carry your luggage, as though you are anything…” The love indeed added some sense of importance to my sense of responsibility throughout my service year. I will not forget the Nigerian Christian Corpers Fellowship. They triggered the Wallenberg in me – I began to see all men as one.
Being a Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Corper, I went to invite men to fall in love with their destinies. You see, travelling usually present an offer – the privilege of changing status, because nobody knows you in your new destination, you are made to re-create your picture, you choose who you wants to be and that’s why people often find greener pastures easily in alien lands. I seize the opportunity to manifest the life-changer in me, I showed men and women the path out of poverty, ignorance and disease, we trained them on skills, got them loans and they started. Then we were with school boys and girls, we created incentives for intellectual masturbation, initiated intellectual intercourse and allowed the Titans and Spartans to clash in intra-/inter-school debates, quiz and writing competitions. The result was surprising, it gave me a new cause and meaning for life, you become a demigod when you see your life change despondent and destitute lives to happy and healthy lives. This inspires me to remain the demigod I became. Today as I travel round the world preaching the gospel of God’s love, it been wonderful being on mission with men and women whose joy lays in the joys they created in other people. I get inspiration serving for nothing, creating something in lives of people, than been served. This makes me feel more responsible and important – what a sweet omnipotence of love created by the omnipresence allowed by my traversing climes.
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