I remember when I was much younger, I learned about the basic colour wheel, all I needed to do was mix my yellow with blue from my water colour pallet and I will get green. Yay! Life was so much simpler back then.
It was a whole new story as I grew older. I discovered all around me were different shades of green. The leaves on the mango tree that I had planted in my parent’s home when I was a toddler were a much darker green than those on the guava trees that were found around the compound. Even the grasses on the lawn round my parent’s home had different shades of green. And the green on one of my mum’s beautiful outfit was different from all the greens just mentioned.
I also realised the part of the lawn that had a richer green happened to just be in the front of the house where the gardener had chosen to spend more time nurturing and nourishing because it was the area that visitors saw first. And what about the Ivy leaves, each specie had its own shade of green.
Even the shades of green that make up events in our daily lives are interestingly diverse to say the least. I loved pickles and it had its shade, and the mint that is used to make my mojito cocktail owns its shade, and the lime, sage, lemon, pear, chartreuse, shamrock, army green and the list goes on…
Another classic example occurs during wedding planning, when the families of the bride and groom decide on ‘colours of the day’. On the wedding invitation cards you would see Grooms Colours – Olive Green and the Brides Colours – Emerald Green. What a truly green marriage it would be.
By this time, I found the research on the different shades of green was way too overwhelming, and so I stopped and chose to appreciate the powerful creativity of our God instead and the lessons to be learned from the diversity of the colour green. Green is such a rich colour no matter the shade. And that is how I see our individual lives, so rich regardless of the challenges. In fact, the challenges and victories make your green richer.
And our beloved Nigeria is such a beautiful green land. Reminds me of Ty Bello’s song the Land is green, it’s green for me. Yes! It is green for me, it is green for you, it is green for us all. I see shades of green surround us in our beloved country, do you see?
You cannot see what you don’t want to see. The wise tell us that transformation begins from the inside out. And just like our Gardner who spent more time nurturing the part of the lawn that visitors would see first, I dare say that we should spend time nurturing our land to keep the green alive.
We have left our land to ruins; there are splashes of red smeared all over the green that used to be lush, making it look unsightly, unattractive, unloved, unlovable, unredeemed from mistakes and missteps from the past.
Why would anyone want to dance with our beloved country now, even as the 1st of October fast approaches? For birthday after birthday hope is replaced with hopelessness. Rumour has it that she is drained, brain drained as her people in search of greener pasture, flee to distant lands. The same lands that hovered like suitors when her green was lush. What they forget is the are brains of over 200million people left behind.
Her women are sold into sexual slavery by the very people that should have protected them, just to make a living to maintain the family back home. But they forget that they also have bodies that could be used positively to create opportunities in our land and earn a good living. Her citizens chose to suffer daily at the hands of leaders, with expectations that the leader would do everything for them. Murmuring, anger, hate, dissatisfaction and negativity rule our minds and actions, blinding us to opportunities that we could implement to revive our green. They forget that we are all leaders regardless of a title and owe it to ourselves to nurture and nourish our green.
The land is not greener on the other side o! it is only a different shade of green.
So, I end by referring to Chinua Achebe’s ‘There was a Country’ which to some is his best book ever. He alluded to the fact that our dear Nigeria can be great again and I wholeheartedly agree. We can be great again through the power of one people, one positive thought and one collaborative effort. Our green lies in our creativity; our gifts is the source of our value to our country and lies within each Nigerian. We have the power to be self-sufficient as a people and as a country, and the power to impact the world. But we are inhibited by where we choose to expend our energy, on the things that add no value to us. Where our focus is, our energy flows.
Let’s begin to look within us and bring out those gifts (our green) that will help shape and change our present and future. Let’s make the right decision and accept who we are, different from anyone else, as there are so many shades of green, there are so many individuals with unique gifts. Let’s transmute our energy towards discovering and refining that which we already have. When each of us follow through with making our ourselves great through our unique gifts and stay consistent regardless of the storms that lay ahead, we will eventually make Nigeria Green again. All it takes is to form our triad of belief –
Belief in our Ourselves, Belief in Dreams, Belief in our Country.
Happy Independence Day Nigeria!!!
