Reorientation of the mindset of our people.

Reorientation of the Mindset of our People in Preparation for a Paradigm Shift in the Development of Ogbahu, a lecture delivered by IDEGWU FRANCIS ABUGO. A trained philosopher and a teaching evangelist, on 1st of August 2020.

Ndi be anyị dalunu, nke onye chili ya zelu.

Permit me to appreciate the previous lecturers on this platform for their in-depth teachings and for bringing their expertise to help in  the development of ogbahu. God bless you all.

The reorientation of the mindset of our people is a task that  we must undertake in order to create room for development in Ogbahu. For us to achieve  our goals of developing Ogbahu/ Ogbaru (our traditional and government-recognized names), we must a take a critical look at some factors that will likely impede our development. These factors are prevalent in the communities and in the lives of our people. Anybody that has the  development of Ogbahu/Ogbaru in his/her heart will do a better job than me in identifying these maladies. 

They are as follows:

1. Honesty and integrity at all levels. Ita na Alusi.

2. Unnecessary destruction of precious lives of men and women in the name of seeking for justice. Alusi

3. The youths believing that their elder brothers must settle them.

4. The  elders retiring into the traditional setting without understanding the spiritual implications.

5. The issue of ohu na nwa.

It was Albert Einsterin who said that

''We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them", which implies that we must seek for a superior wisdom, knowledge and understanding to handle these physical and spiritual obstacles to our development. If you are here and come from the golden generation that enjoyed good education and peace that existed in our communities, the generation that contributed funds to send our brothers and sisters abroad, the generation that prefers a brother that has money to build a house in his land without envy, you will understand what i am about to explain.

 1.Honesty and integrity (ita na alusi)

Have you heard about the concept of Ita na Alusi, which enshrined a type of fear into the heart of an average Ogbahu/Ogbaru man or woman. We are compelled to say the truth because of Ita na Alusi. This philosophy took us to a level of righteousness which created a fake fear in our hearts and a lot of people have been manipulated through this fear. It is not fear that we need to develop our fatherland. We must renew and reprogram our minds in order to achieve our desired goals. The Holy Bible instructed us to renew our minds so that we can be transformed and the same time transform our communities.

Rom 12:2 

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

When our minds are transformed our yes will be yes and our no will be no. We will not need video cameras to be installed while dealing with our brothers and sisters, what our people call "nwanne na nwanne libe nni adighi ebute okwu". The truth that we are known for will not only flow from our mouths but from our hearts, which will extrapolate to our communal development. The Japanese people in a way succeeded in inculcating the this philosophy to their people just like what we had in the past, where you can harvest and leave your farm produce on the road side and in the farm without anybody stealing them.  Today we need to make sure that the developers and investors will see through our behaviours as they deal with us.

2.Unnecessary destruction of the previous lives of men and women in the name of seeking for justice.

The other part of our lifestyle we must do away with is the idea of seeking justice through Alusi. It is strongly believed amongst our people that Alusi is the last hope of the oppressed in our community but the danger is that its negative collosal effect cannot be controlled. This mindset must be changed. A lot of naive people in seeking for the so called justice, not knowing or understanding the configuration and the modus operandi of such deity (Alusi) have caused more damage than good to the community and to themselves. Imagine someone loosing his life because of 5000 naira. Any little confrontation or misunderstanding, someone involves Alusi without exploring other means of settlement. Some people have lost the glory and and light of their family because of Alusi, these people have nothing to do with the case on ground but the Alusi will locate the best minds in the family and eliminate them before the family will know it.

 I know of a woman who lent some money to a man from Abakaliki. She innocently went to a particular Alusi to be a witness so that if the man did not pay her, the Alusi would fight for her. Eventually the man paid back the money but the woman forgot to report back to the Alusi. Her husband suddenly became sick and died, and while the family was pointing accusing fingers at a man in the family, the woman became sick, swelling up everyday. They went to inquire about the sudden sicknesses, and the afa said that a particular deity said the woman came to solicit for its help only to forget to appreciate it when the money was paid back to her. The woman died because of her carelessness. 

Another sad case was that of a young man that collected some food stuffs from his friend, believing that the food stuffs was given to him for free. The friend asked for the money for a while and later went to Alusi to report his friend. The friend became sick and died, and they found out that it was his friend that involed Alusi in that minor issue.

There are a lot of stories like this that are too shameful to talk about, but people are losing their lives because carelessness and impatience. This mindset is begging for for a total overhaul and reprogramming. The challenge we have now is that nobody in this platform will toe that part of Alusi in seeking for justice, but the illiterate, semi illiterate and the home based men or women do not understand the value of human life. They are only interested in the peanuts they are fighting for, not considering that no amount of money can buy back human life. This task is a very serious one and calls for a superior wisdom to change the narrative. I have a plan to profer the solution to this issue but I want professionals on this forum to contribute their ideas because we know that two good heads is better than one.

3. The youths believing that their elder brothers must settle them.

Another important set of people to deal with is the youths of our communities. They have fallen so low in their mind that until someone helps them before they can make it in life. i quiet agree that we need some support  but that support will be meaningful and valuable when you are on track to where you are going. When a person has not discovered himself or herself, how can someone help the person?  Socrates, the Greek  philosopher said 'Man, know thy self''. This means that our youths must be tutored to understand self discovery. Their mindset  must be reconfigured to know that whatever they need to survive and become the man or the woman God created them to be is inside of them. All they need is a midwife that will take the delivery of these special gifts and talents. Many of our youths are sitting on multimillion-dollar  gifts, talents and skills while waiting for someone to help them.

I will never forget a young man I knew when I was in secondary school. He went on holiday in Jos, and decided to go for a swim. As soon as he jumped into the swimming pool, a man that was sitting down by the poolside called him and asked him his name and where he came from. He explained that he was a visitor from Anambra state that he came to visit his brother in Jos. The boy did not know that he was talking to the head coach of the Plateau State swimming team. Immediately he was offered a place in a team that was to represent the state in the National Sports Festival in Lagos. When the competition was to commence, they came with a new Peugeot 504 saloon car to take him to Lagos. As I am delivering this lecture, the same person that is supposed to be an Olympic medalist is in the village smoking and living in abject poverty. He could have consolidated on what God has deposited in his life rather than waiting for someone to give him money. 

This mindset of waiting for one uncle or auntie to help us must be dealt with. Potential millionaires are waiting for thousandnaires to help them, not knowing that all they need to succeed is already given to them, begging to be discovered. I want to submit here that this forum needs to play an important role in harnessing these gifts, talents and skills of our youths through seminars and conferences to reprogram and reconfigure their mindsets. 

4.The elders retiring into the traditional settings without understanding the spiritual implications.

The next issue i want to bring to the fore is the increasing untimely death of our elders who retire and join the traditional institutions without understanding the spiritual implications. I am not against the traditional institutions in our communities but the foreign based elders that jump into the setting without  full knowledge of the dos and don'ts, which leads to their sudden deaths. The communities need their wealth of experience for the development of Ogbahu/Ogbaru. Again I suggest that the admin work out the modalities to engage the experience of these elders. I know of a man that became the oldest man in a particular town but refused to administer and take over the responsibilities that accompanied his position and at the same time enjoy the benefits attached to the office. Needless to say, he died after a while. 

5.The issue of Ohu na Nwa.

The last but the most important assignment in this lecture is the reoccurring issue of Ohu na nwa. I must be frank with you. This issue is not an English speaking issue neither is it a physical battle but a spiritual matter that can only be handled by a higher thinking, The MIND Of CHRIST.

If you remember, at the beginning of the lecture I mentioned Albert Einstein who said that ''you cannot solve a problem with the same level of thinking  at which it was created. What we have at hand is what I call the devil's arithmetic. Let me take you back to the beginning. Our people did not wake up one day and start buying or selling themselves. It was introduced to them by the white man. The white man himself was manipulated by the devil to believe that using blacks as slaves would make his economy to grow.

Today we have a big problem of social stigma on our hands. Our daughters who get good suitors on discover this issue and opt out of the relationship, the boys that want to marry the ladies they love cannot do so because the prospective inlaws will ask questions and when they discover the same issue, they cancel the marriage. 

Now this is my solution to it. If a priest lays a curse on a man it will take a higher priest to remove the curse. Today Satan has succeeded in enslaving mankind through man because he lost his place with God. It is only in CHRIST JESUS that we can obtain genuine freedom. The Bible declares that wherever the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty or freedom.

 NLT 2 Corinthians 3:17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Permit me to show some other scriptures that butress the fact that we have gotten our freedom in Christ.

New Living Translation Ephesians 1:7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.

New Living Translation 1 Timothy 2:6 He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.

Now, why did I have to go to the Bible to show the above Scriptures? It is because anybody that is not free in his mind first cannot handle this issue in Ogbahu/Ogbaru, without possessing the mind of Christ it is practically impossible to deal with this Monster. Those of us that are ready to work towards the restoration of freedom in our communities must be free in their mind which can only happen in Christ. 

Let me give you a brief explanation of how this issue of Ohu na nwa is now in different communities. There are some towns in which it's not noticeable except when certain issues comes up; everyone lives in peace. There are some that are having issues here and there but the process of total reconciliation is on the table with a few adjustments to be made. There are also some communities that covenanted their own, which makes it impossible for them to handle because some of the elders that are living today may not know the terms of the covenant.

Do you see why I said it is only in Christ that we can kickstart the process of redemption of the minds of our people, then we can have a proper platform to talk. We have men and women of God on this platform to handle this issue based on the calling of God on their lives. As long as any town is ready for talks, we are ready to mobilize the team.

Let me say once again that I have many things to say  but like i said, it is not an English matter. When the process of engagement begins, we will put the words into action.

Ladies and gentlemen, the task of reorientation, reprogramming  and reconfiguration of the mindset of our people is a serious one that requires our full attention.

In conclusion i would like to say that today's lecture is just a tip of the iceberg compared to what some of us know and are ready to to put into action for the paradigm shift in the mindset of our people for a better Ogbahu/Ogbaru. i am peevillaged to be the one that  remaning work is still in our hands to mobilize sub-committees to handle each point I have raised here, then we are good to go.

God bless you all for this wonderful opportunity given to me to voice out what is in mind. Ndi banyi ekene kwam unu, nke onye chilu ya zelu, ogwu kwanu ka oham n'onu.