WHY SILENCE IS NOT GOLDEN AT TIMES

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WHY SILENCE IS NOT GOLDEN AT TIMES

We have heard it said it severally that people said that "silence is golden". This statement is true most of the time as it is often used to broker peace and resolve conflict in advance of any crisis that may want to ensue in any given interpersonal relationship.

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In other words, the expression "silent is golden" always come up whenever the elders want to appeal to either of the parties whose relationship might want to explode into crisis to exercise some patience.

To say the same thing in another way, I have heard it said to either the husband or the wife whenever elders in conflict resolution want to counsel either of the parties in marriage that if one of them behave like a goat, the other should behave like a sheep. In any relationship, the goat is the noisy, insistent and vociferous type while the sheep is the quiet, calm and silent type.

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But, in practical life, there are times when "silence is not golden". In other words, as some people have said, there are times patience can spoil a case.

For instance, the silence of good people makes evil to prevail. Keeping silent when there is injustice is spoiling the case for oneself, the community, an organisation and a nation.

Considering situations of injustice, one will see clearly that injustice is rooted in unfairness, inequity, inequality and non-inclusivity. The picture being painted in this statement has been the experience of Òkèògùn and other marginalised regions for many years and one common indicator of marginalisation is exclusion which always tilts toward oppression and infliction of pains on fellow human beings with impunity.

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But, oppression thrives much in the silence of the oppressed, which is why silent may not be golden at times. No wonder Wole Soyinka said: "the man died in him who keeps silent in the face of tyranny".

The point I'm trying to push across is that, as long as the oppressed refuse to speak out, as long as the excluded live in compromise, as long as some of them keep selling out through bootlicking and sycophancy, as long we keep looking the other way when truth ought to be told by calling a spade a spade, but not an agricultural implement, the days in bondage of slavery  are being suspended or postponed.

The children of Israel readily fits in as a good example of a people who refused to speak out, but kept silent in the face of tyranny during their own time. Their duration of slavery was supposed to be four hundred years, but they spent extra thirty years in slavery until God raised Moses, their deliverer, who came to deliver them.

One thing we need to know about Moses has to do with his circumstance of birth. He was born paternally and maternally by parents who had Leviticus background.

In other words, Moses father, a Levite and his mother, also a Levite. If we trace the geneology of Moses to Levi, one of the sons of Jacob, we are going to know why Moses was given to pathological anger? He was given to anger because his forebears were under a curse of anger. Jacob had cursed Levi and Simeon because they misbehaved and the DNA of Moses was anger raised to power ten or more!

Now, Moses was not only angry biologically, his anger was also spiritually-inclined. God was angry with Pharaoh and He looked for someone with an equivalent anger on the earth. But, when He didn't find one and, as the Creator of all beings and things that He was and is, it didn't take God any stress to create Moses because Moses' anger was manufactured to be useful for God to unsettle Pharaoh and remove him from his throne.

We all recall that Pharaoh was an obstinate or stubborn king who didn't want Israel to go into freedom. To set Israel free, God put the "let my people go" mantra in Moses' mouth and every Israelite in Egypt bought into it, which eventually led to their deliverance.

My good people of Òkèògùn, the time has come to buy into the same mantra of "let my people go". We are in a season of Exodus! If we like, we can coin out our mantra to be "Ó tó gẹ́, àwa ló kàn". But, as you know, the popular one we have commonly adopted is: G.O.A.L, which means "Gómínà Ọ̀yọ̀ Àwa Lókán".

Finally, many years of Deputy Governor, "Gómínà Ọ̀yọ̀ Àwa Lókán"; many years of Party Chairman, "Gómínà Ọ̀yọ̀ Àwa Lókán". Enough is enough! Enough of silence! It is our turn and it is our time. Indeed, "Gómínà Ọ̀yọ̀ Àwa Lókán". And, there is no going back on this!

Therefore, we call on every other region to join us. We call on Ìbàràpá, Ọ̀yọ́, Ògbómọ̀ṣọ́ and Ìbádàn to join us because of what: "Gómínà Ọ̀yọ̀ Àwa Lókán".

"Gómínà Ọ̀yọ̀ Àwa Lókán" does not mean Òkèògùn is overbearing. No, we are not overbearing, but we are only asking for the right thing to be done and things to be done right. We are only asking for fairness, justice, equity, equality and inclusivity in the politics of Ọ̀yọ́ State. Ọ̀yọ́ is the Pace Setter State, it should set the pace in all things including justice.

Àṣíwájú ni wá!

Ajíṣebí Ọ̀yọ́ làá rí, Ọ̀yọ́ ò ṣe bí ẹnìkọ́ọ̀kan!

Thank you.

 *Pst. Favour Adéwoyin,*
General Secretary, Ẹgbẹ́ Àjọṣepọ̀ Fún Ìtẹsiwájú Gbogbo Wa.

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