By KOLA OLABISI
It is not unusual for a genuine exceptional performance to witness a litany of congratulatory messages from well-wishers, friends, relations and acquaintances. Such congratulatory messages should however, not be at the behest of the person being celebrated. For a congratulatory message to have its deserved intended meaning, it must genuinely come from the heart.
Why do some people congratulate those who have excelled in their ventures? The answers are as simple as A, B, C. Some people congratulate the victors in order to glorify God in the lives of such victors with reference to the real subject of the congratulatory messages. Others do it in order for the victors to engage in more work.
Experience has shown that the real intention of another set of people to embark on congratulatory messages is merely to join the bandwagons of those reeling out the messages.
The commonest group of congratulators consist of those who are doing it for patronage sake. For instance, in politics, even identified and sworn political enemies embark on congratulatory messages in order for the person being congratulated to factor them in as potential political office beneficiaries.
It is for these reasons that all manner of people make it an habit to overdo one another in identifying with both a perceived or genuine successful individual through placement of advertisements on the radio, television, traditional print and social media.
Another identified societal ill is that majority of the people care less about how a supposed flaunted victory is attained. Is it through a genuine or crooked means? All they are after is victory at all cost. This is the reason why the young ones who are fugitive to justice but making money through illicit means are being celebrated in the society.
I, however, have solace in the fact that, as bad as the situation is, the discerning members of the society would never succumb to calling a cow a brother in order to secure for themselves a filthy meal! What will be their business in praising a mere proverbial dead sparrow? There is time for everything.
Since the outcome of the July 16, 2022 governorship election in Osun State, a lot of new lessons have been learnt which further reinforce and reinvigorate in me the common saying that ‘learning is a continuous process, one ceases from learning the day he dies. If one must pray to grow old, he must be prepared to witness unsavoury incidents which are stranger than fiction.’ There’s no strange thing under the sun but the target, vision and mission of any right-thinking member of the society should be to make this world better than we met it through our actions and inactions in the society.
Another related issue worthy of dissection is the propriety of forcing an individual to congratulate another person. What is the inherent value of such a forced congratulatory message? Does such a congratulatory message confer legality on the subject of congratulations? Should a congratulatory message be forced at all? What will be running riot in the mind of a person who is canvassing a forced congratulatory message?
If not for ulterior motive, why would someone canvass a forced congratulatory message over a litigable and inconclusive phenomenon?
It is superhuman to be ambitious. What nature frowns against is over-ambition which may have perdition as its utmost destination. It’s good for human beings not to be clever by half in one’s dealings. There’s no one who may not attempt stealing in the dark. But it’s only a pathologically stupid and incurably gluttonous thief who fails to introduce decency into his business of anti-social activities.
That’s why it is usually said that: ‘A stupid thief, steals silly.’ If you are a thief and you meet a hundred thousand naira where it is kept, you have stolen dirty! But if decency is introduced and just an infinitesimal percentage of same is carted away, there is every propensity for the owner not to take note of the artful dodging act or painfully take it with a pinch of salt!
It is pertinent to explain here that the above analogies are only made to aid deep-rooted comprehension and not that I am canvassing or justifying stealing as a virtue.
The kernel of this piece is that it is absolutely immoral, improper, primitive, suspicious and not in line with the international best practices to compel an individual to congratulate another person moreso, when it affects co-contestants.
The members, leaders, and apologists of the Osun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who have been hankering after the congratulatory message from Governor Gboyega Oyetola to their embattled Governor-elect Ademola Adeleke, over the July 16, 2022 governorship election in the state, are missing it big time as such is an impossible utopia.
It’s not over until it’s over.
OLABISI is the Media Adviser to the Osun State APC Chairman