We Forsake Our True Love and Peace!

How else do we define true love?

Author: David Oletu

True love will protect you more, not the kind of love that comes from selfish motives. Money and positions are good but don’t place them above those you should value more.

In many cases, people’s genuine love for us is not seen when we have everything; rather, it is seen when we have nothing.

Many people do not know those who truly love them;

they are blinded by the glamour, the empty sweet praises and words, and the rumours.

As a result of all these, they chase or neglect those whom they are supposed to highly esteem.

Let me take you on a journey through my story.

I was once that spirited politician who was ‘loved’ by the people.

But one fateful day, I found myself seated on the hospital bed with my damaged eyes, hoping the doctor would perform some magic to restore my sight.

Eventually, I was rendered hopeless after hearing the doctor’s final word on my case.

We Forsake Our True Love and Peace!

“I’m afraid Honourable Olamide won’t be able to see anymore. His eyes are damaged,”

the doctor said to my driver, Ishola, who rushed me to the hospital after some young boys in black and yellow berets surrounded my vehicle one day, violently brought me out of the vehicle, and beat me up.

Their heavy blows and axes hit my eyes several times, as though it were their target to blind me completely.

They also damaged my car.

I suspected them to be from my opposition party.

The governorship election was about to commence, and there were only two leading aspirants from the two winning parties—I and my running mate.

Perhaps my opposition wanted to take me out of the picture, using some cultists to deal with me severely since there were two days left until the elections.

“Ishola, please use my phone to call Ariyo for me,” I ordered my driver.

“Sir, I just called him three times, but he is not picking up,” Ishola said after making several attempts to reach Ariyo.

I wondered why Ariyo wasn’t picking up.

He was my campaign manager, and he doesn’t miss my calls any day. So, what could be happening?

“Okay, call my P.A., Shutti,” I instructed Ishola.

Ishola dialled Shutti’s number, hoping he would pick it up.

“Sir,” Ishola called me, while I sensed a little bit of disappointment in his voice.

“Yes? Speak! Did he pick?” I asked anxiously.

“It rang multiple times, but he didn’t pick sir,” Ishola said, with a sad tone.

“Hmmmmm…” I sighed deeply.

We Forsake Our True Love and Peace!

“Sir, your story is now everywhere on the internet,” Ishola revealed.

“Whaaaat!”

I shouted in shock, “How did the news spread so fast?” I asked curiously.

“I don’t know, sir, but bloggers and news outlets are reporting that you had an accident that affected your eyes.

Also, sir, it seems like the masses’ interest in you is beginning to drop because,

according to many people, they can’t possibly vote a blind man into power,” Ishola further revealed.

“This must be a set-up,” I said, feeling doomed!

It was two days to the election, and we had come a long way already.

The masses would have no choice but to vote for the opposition party because of my condition.

I thought the masses would fight for me, seeking justice for me, despite my philanthropic acts towards them.

Do I blame them (the masses)?

No, I don’t.

The opposition party had used the media to spread lies to the masses,

saying that I had an accident when the stark truth was that my opposition plotted evil against me.

I couldn’t control my displeasure at that moment.

My driver tried to calm my nerves, but I shunned him. I was very angry at myself. I suddenly regretted all my actions in life.

Where are my friends and political allies who promised to stand by me throughout my political journey? All varnished!

Where are the masses whom I did a lot of charity work for and, in turn, said would support me?

They were all varnished, blinded by lies.

“Ishola, take me to my home. Take me back to my wife, children, mother, and sister,”

I instructed, finally resorting back to the family I had abandoned for two years to pursue my political ambition.

We Forsake Our True Love and Peace!

As instructed, Ishola drove me back to the home I abandoned.

The moment I stepped my feet home, I felt like I had left a ‘peace’ that could have saved me.

But I felt a hug of true comfort and love around my body.

It was from my wife, two children, and sister.

The moment they saw me from afar, alighting from my vehicle, they ran towards me and embraced me.

My eyes became a floodgate of tears.

My nose began to emit mucus like a running tap. Tears filled my eyes because I knew I had offended my family.

I mean, how else do we define true love?

My family didn’t first welcome me with accusing fingers. They rather embraced me dearly.

“I’m so… sorry,” I said with a broken voice.

“It’s okay,” my wife, Adunni, responded. “We saw the news all over the internet,” she said.

(Silence)

“Where is my mother?”

I asked, wondering why she hadn’t come out to embrace me.

Has she gotten that old? I left home when she was 70, and she was still looking young and active when I left.

“Where is she?!” I raised my voice in remorse, hoping she was not angry at me.

“Mama! Mama!!”

I called and used my stick to walk to a path I couldn’t see clearly in search of my mother,

while my wife, sister, and children stared at me from behind, perhaps in pity.

I wondered why they were all silent. I couldn’t see their facial expressions.

“Why are you all silent? Can someone say something? Is anyone here?” I asked curiously.

“MAMA IS DEAD!” My sister broke the news bluntly and wept bitterly.

We Forsake Our True Love and Peace!

“No. No! No!!. This can’t happen. Mama can’t be dead.” My voice lowered in pain as I kneeled to the ground, weeping profusely.

My wife, Adunni, came to me and wrapped me in her arms to console me.

“Mother missed you so much,” Adunni said.

“She wanted to see you, but you didn’t show up after you had left.

We called your line almost every single day to hear from you, but it was either not reachable or your P.A. picked it up on your behalf.

Perhaps you were busy pursuing your political ambition, and nothing else mattered to you then,” Adunni continued.

“Mother couldn’t cope anymore with your absence.

She was worried and scared about you.

And She felt that something bad might happen to you. Her blood pressure became high.

So, She refused to eat, take her drugs, or say a word to us until she developed a stroke and left us without saying ‘goodbye’ or ‘giving us her blessings’,

as those old people do mysteriously whenever they sense that it’s time for them to join their creator in heaven…,” Adunni narrated.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!”

I screamed at the top of my voice without letting Adunni speak further.

And I knew I messed up, but I never knew my mess would go that far.

My ignorance had made me neglect the love and peace that would have protected me.

What more was I chasing after when I had the best support systems?

My eyes became a floodgate of tears. My nose began to emit mucus like a running tap. Tears filled my eyes because I knew I had offended my family.

THIS WAS HOW IT ALL STARTED!!:

We Forsake Our True Love and Peace!

My mother loved and doted on me so much when I was growing up as a child.

She would always say, “Ola’mi’, don’t worry about anything in life.

Your peace of mind and success are my priorities, and I will give you everything you desire.”

I was her first fruit.

She named me Olamide because she sensed that I would be the one to break the poverty chain in our family lineage.

My mother could sell all her clothes to ensure I get the best education.

And as for my little sister, she acted as my bodyguard, ensuring I was well-fed and protected.

I thought I should be the one protecting her, but my diamond, as I fondly call her, ended up becoming overprotective of me.

Each time I was about to leave for school, my sister would always say, “Don’t let those girls deceive you with their big buttocks oooo.”.

I’d laugh over her warnings and give her a warm hug that always got her glued to me for hours.

Only my mother could separate us each time we hugged each other.

I knew my younger sister wasn’t joking about the ‘big buttocks’ warning.

In her teenage phase, she already knew how emotions can be deceptive,

and how any young person, both male and female, can easily fall victim to them.

Many young people now interpret lust to mean love.

Once the average energetic man sees an extremely beautiful girl with a perfect figure 8 and fully tanked, milky portable breasts, his head will begin to spin like a rolling ball without focus.

At first sight, they begin to profess their love for the endowed girl they barely know.

You begin to hear loose phrases like:

“You are my world.

My heart beats for you.

I can’t live without you.

My world is empty without you.”

So many of those heavy words for one girl you barely know? Because of her shape?

The female folks are not also excluded from this table; some of them would rather remain single if their suitors do not have money.

Money is simply their love language. While some can melt at the sight of a tall, dark, muscular, bearded young man.

‘Who love epp for where dose qualities dey?’

I just pray we don’t end up marrying the wrong people because of our lustful thinking.

In many cases, true love doesn’t exist in society today.

I wish we could replicate the olden days, where my mother, for instance, married my father out of pure love and not based on appearance or status.

She didn’t care if he had anything. She loved him!

Speaking of my father, my father was a very hardworking man who cared so much for his family.

He grew up in a poor family and didn’t have any inheritance. Oh, He was alone!

My mother once told me that my father wanted to avoid marriage because he didn’t want to see more of his lineage suffer.

Father thought that the reason poverty spread like a pandemic in his lineage was because he was suffering from a generational curse.

He wanted to end it all by committing suicide, but when he met my mother, he experienced what true love and comfort mean, even in ‘nothing’.

Mother loved my father genuinely and was willing to fight the jinx of poverty with him, so she agreed to marry him.

My father’s once-dashed hope to own a family was raised by my mother, who conceived for him.

However, unfortunately, my father kicked the bucket early, at the age of 55.

He carried so many thoughts and responsibilities on his head and fell sick in a bid to see us survive.

I wish he lived more, but that was just the end of his journey.

After my father’s death, my mother was determined to go to any length to see me rewrite my father’s history.

And that was why she gave me everything I wanted, to become somebody of repute in life.

I thought only men were to till the ground to make provisions for the home, according to the biblical book of Genesis.

Genesis 3:23 KJV

[23] therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

https://bible.com/bible/1/gen.3.23.KJV  

But I saw my mother till the ground in the scorching sun, which made her soaked in sweat that could make a river.

She performed the role of my father, making the necessary provisions to see me further my education from the secondary school level to the university.

While I was at the university, I put in so much effort to perform excellently well for my mother, who made me her priority,

and for my sister, who protects me and relies heavily on me for her upliftment.

I was determined to make giving my mother the best result my priority.

And alas! I did it!

So, I graduated with a first-class degree in accounting from a prestigious federal university in my country.

When my mother heard of my academic records, her joy knew no bounds.

She had succeeded in breaking the evil jinx in my family, making me the first graduate in my family.

“I wish your father was alive to share this joy with me,”

my mother said to me with tears all over her face, having danced with reckless abandon to celebrate my achievement.

“And I wish he was here to see that no hope is lost.

Provided that there is life, our hands are clean, and we make extra efforts to achieve our goals, there is hope,” Mother said in fulfilment.

I was proud of my mother for never giving up.

Her resilience paid off. I was equally proud of myself that I didn’t fail to give her the best result I was determined to give her.

A few months later, I got a well-paying job that began to change my family’s life.

So, I became the talk of the town.

Suddenly, everyone in my community wanted to be attached to my family when they saw the glaring testimony themselves.

Our story suddenly changed from a once-wretched lineage to a prosperous lineage.

Those market people who once insulted us;

for buying food items from them on credit and not paying them back were now willing to give us their food items for free as a gift because we now had money.

Or could it be because they loved us?

We Forsake Our True Love and Peace!

“God punish poverty!” I said, having first experienced those paradoxical moments with people when I became somebody in life.

A few years later, I got married to the woman of my dreams, Adunni.

She was my junior colleague back then at the university.

Adunni was a dark-skinned, extremely beautiful lady with a big heart. She came from a very wealthy home.

At School then, She saw that I was very intelligent, so she approached me to help her with past materials and put her through her studies.

I assisted her with all pleasure, not because I had the time but because I found her so attractive.

From being her tutor, we became friends, and from friends, we became lovebirds.

I shared my plight with Adunni—how I came from a very poor home and managed the little my mother provided for me.

Adunni loved me genuinely and assisted me financially in school.

Who would think my mother’s provision could have sustained me in school?

No, it couldn’t.

Adunni also played a crucial role in seeing me through school successfully.

She also told her rich father about me. It was her father who got me a job at a big accounting firm.

Adunni’s father went further to gift me and Adunni a big mansion and a car on our wedding day.

With my wife’s permission, I brought in my mother and sister to live with us, since the rooms in our mansion were many.

That was how we all lived together in peace, until, after 10 years, more money, fame, and ambition set in and I couldn’t manage them well.

I started my political career, joined the leading political party in my federation, and contested for key positions.

Unfortunately, I didn’t win after three attempts.

Nonetheless, I never gave up. Since I had the money and big political fathers around me, I was unrelenting.

My failure attracted friends, who became my special advisers on political matters.

I met Ariyo and Shutti, who proved themselves loyal to me to the core.

To reward their loyalty, I made Ariyo my campaign manager, and I made Shutti my ‘Personal Assistant.’

We Forsake Our True Love and Peace!

One Sunday, when I was in the church worrying about my political failures and thinking of ways I could scale through, I keyed into a message from the pastor on the pulpit.

The pastor said:

“Many times, people fail in life because they are in their comfort zone. Some people just need to step out and change their location to succeed. If they don’t change their location, they will become stagnant.

Abraham left his father’s house for another location and became the father of many nations.

Joseph was sold by his brothers to another location, and he became a prime minister in that faraway location he was sold to.

Likewise, David didn’t stay back in his father’s house when the agile men in Israel were on the battlefield trying to bring down Goliath. As little as David was, he went to the battlefield to courageously defeat Goliath.

That was how David became famous, loved by the people, and was crowned king,”

the pastor preached!

“Hmmmm.” I pondered deeply on those words.

The moment I heard the instances my pastor gave to buttress his point on why we should change our location,

my ears suddenly went deaf to hear more because I had heard all I needed to hear.

Those were what tickled my fancy.

We Forsake Our True Love and Peace!

Without further thought or an attempt to seek counsel or clarity from the pastor, I decided to leave my family for a faraway place to focus all my attention on my political ambition.

The goal was to win. Once I win, I will go back to my family.

My family did not get that chance to see my shadow for a good two years, ever since that time.

Although I made sure I sent them money to meet their needs, I thought that was enough.

When the tenure of the then-governor was about to end, I picked up a governorship form in preparation for the next governorship election.

My party delegate did not hesitate to vote for me as their representative.

I had the money to share with all of them, so they played their roles well in presenting me to the masses.

“I think you should also do charity work to win the hearts of the masses,” Ariyo advised me one day.

“Hmmm, that’s true.” Shutti nodded in agreement.

“Okay, that’s a good idea. You both should prepare for that, so I can provide every material thing that is needed.” I instructed.

Shutti and Ariyo made the plans and arrangements for the charity work, setting up a foundation in my name.

Through that foundation, I helped so many people with food items and a small amount of money.

The people were so excited, to the point that they all rallied around to campaign for me.

My lavished generosity to the people attracted more enemies to me from my opposition.

My opposition was already feeling the heat of my campaign.

They made several attempts to bring me down,

but they failed until it was two days before the election, when they successfully damaged my eyes, teaching me the biggest lesson of my life.

Now,

rather than for me to confess that I was blind but now I see,

my sad reality now is that I was once blind, blinded by worldly desires, but now I see my errors in utter real blindness.

We Forsake Our True Love and Peace!

LESSONS:

Worldly desires are not enough to give you the peace of mind, protection, and love you truly need.

When fame, money, and ambition set in, do not lose your guard, and do not neglect those who were there for you from your little beginning.

True love will protect you more, not the kind of love that comes from selfish motives.

Money and positions are good but don’t place them above those you should value more.

Also Read: When I Fell in Love – Diademng (thediademng.org)

We Forsake Our True Love and Peace!