Alo n’tahun abo n t’ana e!
In the days of yore, animals were human-like.
The ubiquitous tortoise was a prominent animal. He featured in most of our folk tales.
It so happened that his wife’s father was a successful farmer. Tortoise was a greedy schemer.
One day, he went to steal his father-in-law’s yams. Unknown to him, the man was on the farm that day. Before the tortoise knew it, the man caught him stealing his yams.
The man then took the tortoise home and tied him to a stake outside his home. The day was a market day. When people going to the market saw the tortoise tied to a staker in front of his father-in-law’s house, most of them asked what his offence was.
When they were told, they mocked the tortoise.
While they were on their way back from the market, the tortoise had not been freed.
Then they started mocking the father-in-law.
They felt the tortoise had spent too much time serving the punishment.
That’s the genesis of the Yoruba saying: Alo n tahun, abo n t’ana e, which means while the Yoruba recognizes punishment for wrongdoing, they wanted it to be moderate or with love.
The media faced strong criticism for the death of former University of Cambridge professor Jason Arday, who died by suicide at age 41 after intense scrutiny over plagiarism allegations and background checks. The criticism was so strong that 249 articles across fifteen national outlets in 22 days, at a rate that only accelerated after he resigned, were done on him.
Now, in Nigeria, an actor was found guilty of pedophilia. He served his term in gaol. I would have thought the best thing was to let him settle down into society.
The fact that Nigeria doesn’t have community supervision programs is not his fault. No law in Nigeria says he can’t keep maintaining his innocence.
But some members of society would have none of that. They would rather have him frustrated. Frustrated is even an understatement.
The guy keeps frustrating his traducers by doing what they never expected.
Another is the “Good morning, Tony” affair.
It happened at the graduation of a popular bank’s Graduate Management Accelerated Program.
A young lady greeted the Chairman using his first name. The gentleman promptly “corrected” her, and she took to the correction.
Since then, the internet has been on fire.
Some have criticised the young lady’s upbringing which I wouldn’t thimk is fair.
I’m not necessarily supporting either of the Nigerian cases; I believe we are making a mountain out of a molehill. Our problem is systemic.
Instead of treating a matter from the top, we should treat it from the roots. We should go back to the basics.
And, let’s treat each other with love, even while castigating one another.
In conclusion, there’s Yoruba saying that, “If you tell a crooked-legged person carrying a load their load is crooked,” their resposnse will be: “You are at the top, but not the bottom”.
