Half Mast

Halfcocked, half baked, half arsed. What is it in our psyche that makes the collective sum of our efforts around these parts lend themselves to adjectives so far from superlative in a positive sense? We manage, we make do, we endure. When will we start to excel, and lead, and innovate? When will that be said of me, of you, of us?

Just about a week ago, we came to the end of a sequence of events that is worse than anything that  InsideLagos has seen in the decades God has spare our lives. Horrific accidents, bomb blasts, plane crashes; one didn't know where to too look for there was tragedy everywhere. Saddest of all, there was no great surprise, no shock to accompany the grief. The events that we witnessed where not entirely unexpected, because we pay in full for roads that are half fixed, we protect the populace with a conviction that is half hearted, and we fly in planes that are probably cleared for service after being half checked. With this antecedence failure is inevitable in the end, but the incidence of failure is much greater when things are consistently mediocre in execution.

Over the same weekend the English honoured their Queen with a glorious spectacle that was the envy the world over, we licked our wounds and picked up the pieces of those lost too soon. God is in control I agree, but He does not make choices for His created likeness. We are the ones who mess up.

Even with the flag and the pledge and the cultures and language and religions we have in common, it is clear that more often than not, most Nigerians stand alone. Yes we have surface affiliations and are even sometimes actively nepotistic, but a true sense of community and servitude for the greater good is clearly missing in our national psyche.

So as the Queen is deservedly celebrated for six decades of dedication to public service, let us look for once away from the failings in Government, and look at our selves. Lets us try to be a little better tomorrow, not just for our own interests, but consider the needs of the neighbours around us. Let us be more meticulous, think a little more about how to do things better, be fair in our dealings, be considerate when driving, clean our surroundings. Lets start to build something that would make life better for everyone, just for tomorrow. And if we can do that, lets try and do that the next day, and then the next. Then maybe, just maybe someday, our children we have a legacy that would make our flag deserve to fly as high as the British did last Sunday. For now, only half mast is appropriate.