Eyesight, Insight, and Foresight: Nigeria’s Independence Day.
Mum went to the plate rack, took a plate, and then pointed to her eyes and then to mine, and said, “Se oju o so ona fun o ni.” I understood little Yoruba at this time and could not relate to what she said except “oju”. My childish or childlike mind told me it was a terrible thing she meant about my eye. I checked my eyes in the mirror a couple of times and asked my younger sister if there was something about my eyes I did not know. I immediately lost my appetite for days, with my mother constantly worried and asking why I was not eating. I was around 13-15 years old.
When my Dad returned from his travel days after this incident, I overheard Mum telling him, “Omo yin ko jeun o, call her to come and eat with you.” Mum came to where I sat and told me my father was calling me. I went to Dad, and he asked why I was not eating. I knew how concerned he was from how he looked at me. I broke down in tears and told him mummy said something terrible about my eyes. Daddy asked me to repeat what she said. I could not, but I said it involved eyes. Mummy came to the scene, shocked to see me crying around Dad. I was always the happiest around Dad. She asked what happened, but no one answered, not even my Dad. She was confused and left. Dad pestered me to eat, and I ate. My Dad told me something I believe to this day: I have the most beautiful eyes.
Mum was remorseful around the house for days; evidently, my father may have given his well-known speech that all his wives knew he does not joke with any of his children.
Days later, Mum called me aside and said, I want to let you know I love you and will never say negative things about your eyes. I am saying your eyesight should give you insight and foresight every time. Insight draws on eyesight to generate foresight. Insight allows you to gather information from what your eyesight has seen, both from the past and present, to make informed decisions that radically change the moment and positively impact the future. Insight helps you plan your future, drawing on history, wisdom, and received knowledge.
The event that led to this transformative moment was when someone came to the house and said Mum said to give them food. I served this person as I remember it. Another person came waiting for Mum/Dad, I can’t remember. The first person who came invited this new person to come and eat, but they said no. At this time, I did not know or accept that “come and eat” was one of those performative cultural acts. Mum thought that insight and discretion should have taught me to know or give the other person food. When eyesight and insight work together, you have a foresight of a pathway.
Maami mentioned many times when I did not allow my eyesight, insight, and foresight to work together. For instance, I asked or gave her a list of what we needed in the house Saturday evening when my foresight should have alerted me that many people follow her home from church on certain Sundays and will need to eat. I brought a list of books for a new term at the beginning of the school term when insight and foresight should have tutored me that they would have been expensive at this time.
Over the years, she has asked the same question many times when she thinks we are not acting proactively and planning futuristically. I have asked that question to myself with varying interpretive flexibility in many situations. I ask myself, “Oluwaseyi se oju so ona fun o ni?”
With how things are going in Nigeria, I often ask, “Se oju so ona fun wa ni? I ask how all the “shege Promax” that we have seen with our eyesight, both past and present, offer insights and foresight into what could be ahead if things continue this way? What forensics of past and present have we done to give us foresight for the future? Do we have the school, infrastructure, and mindset for the future, or do we live in the now and now and eat our future like Esau? Have we asked who will pay for all the debts we are incurring? When do we, as a nation, accept that our eyesight, Insight, and foresight must work together? That we have to be less reactionary and more proactive. That the things that take our attention on social media and are front burners in public intellection are too "flimsy" for people whose eyesight, Insight, and foresight work together.
For the last few months, I have disciplined myself to say nothing about Nigeria, but it gets more difficult as you see/hear that things are getting worse.
Which way, Nigeria? Se oju o so ona fun wa ni?
