Life can be very interesting; one, because people are always watching, and two, because however it is, good or bad, people must talk or make comments.
The thing about comments is that some are solicited, others like Jacob Abiodun a commentator points out, are unsolicited; they are perfunctory and a call to duty.
Weekend editions of newspapers are one of the veritable places were duty can call on a writer to make interesting comments like that made by our friend, Olalekan Adetayo in Sunday Punch on a write-up titled, “Aso Rock Lens: Lest the Vice President breaks down.”
Back in the years, at Saturday Punch, I remember our editor, Azu at the weekly production meetings urging reporters to write on the human interest angle from their various beats.
Acting on such instruction, Adetayo must have done the “good job” on the person, not office of the vice president.
Positioning himself along the likes of the vice president, El Rufai, Oshiomhole abd Ayade makes readers to easily decipher that he also would love to belong to the class of fit individuals usually perceived as sedulous in whatever they set their minds to do, which explains why he is in an elevated news beat.
However, as interesting as Adetayo’s focal lens on the person and not office of the vice president, especially for a weekend edition could be, advising the assiduous vice president to “slow down,” to avoid “breaking down,” is a new normal in beat reporting.
President Barack Obama once stated that, “we need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in apartments, but don’t want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their potential.”
From all well-meaning perspectives, being diligent and putting in one’s total effort in completing tasks is an attitude that should be commended, especially for a country that has before now being on a slippery slope, and not be subject of a satirical innuendo for weekend readers.
Come to think of it, anybody, especially a public servant in the country who is not only willing to work, but also do the work and does it right, breeds efficiency and it is something positive for the nation.
Compared to public servant who shows up at work at will, does little or nothing and is always “in a meeting,” with himself– the work ethic that has kept this country as a limping giant over the years.
The other day, I engaged my Malaysian friend in a discussion to know more about the oil palm industry in that country—remember they took the oil palm seeds from Nigeria and it is now their economic mainstay.
My friend told me that the oil palm business now cuts across the government who only owns 40 per cent now to organized private sector and individuals, all harnessing the industry to its full capacity.
Today in our country, nobody even mentions the oil palm industry as a potential good source of revenue, an indication that we need many more industrious people on board.
Eric Thomas points out long ago that all roads that lead to success have to pass through the hard work boulevard at some point, and hard work dose not kill, truancy does instead.
Ekanem contributes this article from Long Island, New York
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