Re-Branding the Nation

By Francis Ola Falemara

I sat quietly with rapt attention as I listened to the eloquent oration of my
foster father, the first Minister of Social Welfare in the first republic and
one-time Apesin of Lagosthe chieftaincy title he upheld till his death.
He was late Chief J.M. Johnsona name that had known the ocean and
beheld the sea. If there are other ways to define a gentleman beyond the
sphere of letters of the alphabet, that man was a-man-among-thousands,
Chief JMJ, as he was fondly called, would have earned more appellations
in diverse regards but for death.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Oct 29, 2010
• ISBN: 9781456809287

Book preview

Copyright © 2010 by Francis Ola Falemara.

ISBN: Softcover    978-1-4568-0927-0

ISBN: Ebook           978-1-4568-0928-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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This book is dedicated to my precious daughter, Victoria Funmilayo Falemara for her love and understanding.

CONTENTS

ACKONWLEDGMENT

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

MODE OF IGNORANCE

CHAPTER THREE

MODE OF PASSION

CHAPTER FOUR.

THE MODE OF GOODNESS (SATTVA)

CHAPTER FIVE

IMPORTANCE OF GOOD LEADERSHIP

CHAPTER SIX

TRANSFORMTIONAL LEADERHIP

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE GUNAS IN RELATION TO LEADERSHIP

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE EVIL DISORDER

CHAPTER NINE

LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT

CHAPTER TEN

THE EPILOGUE

NOTES

REFERENCES

ACKONWLEDGMENT

I am indebted to members of my family for their consistent support and understanding.

I also appreciate the contributions of Mr Tunde Adeyemo, who assisted in proof reading the scripts, Mr Adeniyi Olusegun Isijola, who conducted a critical analysis of the political trends contained in the book. I wish also to express my heartfelt gratitude to Mr Emmanuel Ifeanyi Edom, who edited and corrected the book.

CHAPTER ONE

I sat quietly with rapt attention as I listened to the eloquent oration of my foster father, the first Minister of Social Welfare in the first republic and one-time Apesin of Lagos—the chieftaincy title he upheld till his death. He was late Chief J.M. Johnson—a name that had known the ocean and beheld the sea. If there are other ways to define a gentleman beyond the sphere of letters of the alphabet, that man was —a-man-among-thousands, Chief JMJ, as he was fondly called, would have earned more appellations in diverse regards but for death.

Francis! he called my name with a subtle, but fire-coated sonorous voice, which naturally compelled his listener to re-align to his gospel of self-consciousness. Do you think this up and coming generational leaders will be able to carry on the excellent quest for true leadership, as we have rigorously fought? he enquired, looking searchingly into my eyes as he stretched a glass of red wine to me. Bile begot my compulsion, and my tongue became entwined with so much incoherence.

Thank you, sir I replied, as I searched laboriously for a clear-cut answer to his question. I guess at such a delinquent age, my knowledge about politics was in no doubt, a variable underscore to nothingness. .

Things are fast changing as I see it, he said as he walked back to the opposite sofa.

But nothing has happened, Chief, I mouthed feebly for want of having something to say. We shall wait and see if I am wrong, he concluded as he sunk himself into the puffy sofa and then gulped his wine with a rare expertise.

The Lagos high Chief refused to participate with full swing in the government for the second time to the dismay of his admirers. Of course, if Chief JMJ had contested election hundreds of times, he would have emerged winner because of his compelling fatherly affluence on all and sundry. He was a level-headed politician, whose love for the down-trodden made him to build his castle—the JMJ quarters in the clusters of Ajegunle—jungle city. His last abode in Kirikiri, another native village and a little rest-house along the Marina waterfront at Badagry where he lived till he exhausted his last breath, were bee-hives of admirers whose love and faith in him knew no bounds.

It is now that I am better positioned to proffer answers to his myriad of questions of yester-years. Yes, none of our generational leaders is as assiduous as the founding fathers of his era. Our generation parades wolves with insatiable quest for wealth, and they’d rather build their castle in the galaxies, with a mighty fence to draw a line between them and the poor masses that put them there. I wish he were alive, I would have learnt how to live like a pauper among the rich. This is why I’ve instructed my children to criminate my body or possibly throw it into the holy water of India, after my demise, because I don’t want my remains to get contaminated with those who would refuse to be re-branded

I have been learning through the weariest thorns of life, borrowing leaf from the well tailored and purposive uphill-manners of my foster father, Chief JMJ, hoping to possibly be like him. Hence, I dabbled into politics, believing that a vantage opportunity, as a re-branded citizen, to harness the truth, if voted into the House of Representative, would go a long way in turning our great country around for the better. But the terrain was just too narrow to the extent that it swallowed all my life’s savings. Then, a thought came to me that I should offer myself to be tied to the stake and be burnt as a sacrificial lamb at the eagle square, Abuja, the country’s capital city, may be this could cure our maladies of corruption? I guess some people would call me a psychopath. My next plan was to make a research of how some other countries were able to develop, and became civilized. I came across spiritual formulae of how human-beings should behave in life to achieve both political and spiritual liberation. My mind reflected back to my great country, Nigeria, that has the greatest numbers of churches in Africa—if not the whole world. Does it mean that God, the Almighty, is not answering our everyday supplications?

Each time I look into the various modes of worship in our key religious homes, I discovered that our general behaviors and ways of life towards our neighbors and ourselves are direct opposite of what we are doing—meaning that our spiritual teachers are not knowledgeable enough to understand certain spiritual modes of material existence.

This is why this discourse—this research, based on Vedic philosophy is of paramount importance for daily digest. Vedas as we know is one of the important philosophies in the world. The word Vedas is pertaining to Aryans who settled in India 1500 BC. It is also called Vedic Sanskrit; the language of the Vedas closely related to classical Sanskrit 1855-60, and has been in use since 1200 BC (1)

Let us reflect our mind to what Prof Dora Akunyili, the incumbent Minister of information and communication, who once proposed to the