ALAUSA ALERT, January 2014
21
FEATURES
New Year's Euphoria And The Audacity Of Hope
I
t was the last day of the year and
expectedly the church was full to the brim.
People came from all walks of life to thank
the Lord for sparing their lives in the outgoing
year and to commit the new year into his hand
. It was now exactly midnight and the ecstasy
that pervaded the whole place was
unbelievable. There was palpable joy in the
house. People moved from one end of the
church to the other excitedly chorusing the
now familiar shout of 'Happy new Year' to
usher in the new year. Suddenly, a glimmer of
hope began to shine across every face in the
auditorium. Suddenly, people began to feel
that because it is now a new year all the
frustrations, miseries and troubles of the
previous year would suddenly disappear. Is
that truly the way things happen? Does the
coming of a new year automatically indicate
that all things would indeed become new?
Would the carnage going on in many nations
of the world suddenly stop because it is a new
year?
One was later to discover that the new wave of
excitement and rising hope associated with
the dawn of the new year was not peculiar to
the people in our church alone. People across
the world, as reflected in television images
and internet stories, were equally basking in
the euphoria of the new year and the hope that
things are going to be better. From the
aggregate of opinions sampled from people
across the world on major cable news stations,
the expectation was the same. The new year
would be better than the previous one.
Though, most of those with this views did not
anchor their conviction on any proven
scientific platform, they, nevertheless, believe
- tayo ogunbiyi
that the new year has something better in
stock for them.
From time immemorial, hope has been a vital
ingredient of human existence. It has been
said that a life without hope is as good as dead.
So, when people pass through turbulent
situations and circumstances too difficult for
them to bear, they are often encouraged not to
lose hope. Hence, a man that loses his entire
family to a ghastly road accident would be
encouraged not to lose hope. Such is the elastic
nature of hope. This, of course, explains the
general anticipation across the globe that the
new year holds better prospects than the new
one. It is a natural feeling that does not need
to be subjected to any empirical test. New year
would naturally bring good tidings. That is
the nature of hope. Hope is hope. No more, no
less.
However, one is of the view that for hope not
to remain nothing but hope, it must be
anchored on more solid platforms. For
instance, it is generally believed that the world
is subjected to the authority of a supreme
divine being known as the almighty God. So,
many anchor their hope on faith and trust in
this supreme divine being. This is good
enough, especially if the one anchoring his
hope on the supreme being has sufficient
capacity to understand the nature and ways of
the divine being. Nevertheless, as good as
placing one's hope in the supreme being is, for
hope to transcend the stage of expectation and
move into the realm of reality, necessity places
it on man to play key roles in speeding up the
process of divine intervention.
Using our dear nation, Nigeria, as a reference
point, the people have hoped against hope for
years, believing that things will get better. But
contrary to expectations, the reverse has
always been the case. Yet, using various
available mediums, Nigerians continue to
besiege the supreme being with the
anticipation that one day, He would
intervene in the affairs of the nation by
ushering in the much needed prosperity.
Unfortunately, this circle would continue
without the expected result leading to more
heart breaks and dashed hopes. One is not a
prophet of doom. The reality, however, is that
if man refuses to do that which is within his
capacity, the crave for divine intervention
would remain nothing but a mirage.
Still with reference to our country, it is no
longer news that ours is a nation that is
divinely blessed with enormous natural and
human resources. While other nations with
limited potentials are making concerted
efforts to harness their God given resources
for the good of all, we have continued to make
a mess of ours. We are blessed with so much
agricultural resources to resolve the twin
issues of hunger and unemployment but
what have we done with agriculture? Our
founding fa \