Opportunism, self-help and opportunity

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OPPORTUNISM, SELF-HELP AND OPPORTUNITY.

By Dapo Thomas

What Is Opportunism? It Is The Habit Of Looking For Short-cut To The Realisation Of One’s Aspiration And The Tendency For Sharp Practices In A Smart Way. The Practice Of Always Wanting To Reap Where You Have Not Sown.

What Is Self-help? The Attitude Of Placing Oneself Above God In All Things And In All Efforts. An Inner Feeling That Gives One The Impression That One’s Efforts (Without God) Are What Will Lead To The Realisation Of One’s Destiny In Life. The Belief That Human Efforts And Dependence On Man Are The Primary Initiatives That Can Make Us Great In Life.

What Is Opportunity?

It Is The Privileges Of A Lifetime That God Has Put On Our Paths In Life Which We Are Expected To Explore, Appropriate, Harvest, Convert, Harness And Utilize For Our Good In Order To Live The Quality Life That God Wants For Us.

Ordinarily, When You Hear Opportunity And Opportunism, You Have A Feeling That Both Have The Same Value In Linguistic Correlation Not Knowing That One Is Almost The Opposite Of The Other. It Is This Prevalent Notion Of A Supposed Thin Line That Proponents Of Opportunism Always Take Advantage Of To Perpetrate Sharp Practices. Those Who Indulge In This Practice See Nothing Wrong In Sharing Or Working On Leaked Waec Papers With Their Friends To Make Distinctions In All Their Papers. Parents Who Also Use Their Network With Those Who Work In Waec To Procure Exam Questions For Their Children Will Also See This As An Opportunity And Not As Opportunism. It Is This Same Feeling That Overwhelms Those In Public Offices Who Regard Their Positions As An Opportunity To Use Public Funds For All Their Personal Commitments And Stash Some In Their Personal Accounts For The Future. It Is This Same Fraudulent Misinterpretation Of Opportunity That Makes Governors Who Have Served Their States For Eight “Meritorious” Years To Still Arm-twist Their State Houses Of Assembly To Pass Bills That Will Make Them To Live On State Resources Till The Second Coming Of Christ. It Is This Same Evil Reading Of Opportunity That Makes Pastors And Imams To “Share” Offerings And Tithes With God By Under-declaring The Actual Collection Or By Taking Their Own Before Giving God His Own. Dont Forget The Popular Yoruba Aphorism:”Ibi Ta Ti Nse, Lati Nje.” I Wonder If This Also Applies To Those Who Clean The Gutters. As Students Will Say In A Debate Contest, I Hope With These Very Few Examples Of Mine, I Have Been Able To Convince You That Opportunism Is Not Opportunity. Therefore, Enough On Opportunism.

Self-help Is Not Inherently Bad Especially If You Are A Man Imbued With Remarkable Self-confidence. So, I Do Not See Anything Wrong In Being Confident In Oneself Or In One’s Ability. The Only Fear I Have Is That It Gets To A Point In Your Life That When Self-confidence Works For You So Many Times, Then Pride Creeps In. If You Are Not A Discerning Person, Your Confidence Makes You To Slide Into Pride Without You Knowing That Something Is Wrong. If You Fail To Caution Yourself At The Early Stage Of This Evil Incubation, You Begin To Develop The “God Phenomenon”. That Is, You Begin To Believe That Because You Have Developed Your Confidence To The Level Of The Angels, You Can Solve All Problems Forgetting That Angels Themselves Have Limits In Endeavours. Having Confidence Is A Very Good Strategy For Self-actualization But Substituting Confidence For Wisdom Is A Very Dangerous Misreading. Confidence Boosts Your Psychological Ego And Physical Appearance But Does Not Add To Your Residual Endowments. The Day You Will Realise This Is When What You Have In Your Head Fails To Supply Your Mouth Or Your Hand What You Are Supposed To Say Or Write During A Very Important Interview Or Examination. Sometimes, The Power Failure Of The Head May Decline To Cooperate With Your Physical Components Because Of Pride. God Has His Own Way Of Messing Us Up Where And When It Matters Most. Those Who Give Glory And Gratitude To God For The Talents And Wisdom He Has Given Them Cannot At The Same Time Be Guilty Of Manifesting The “God Phenomenon.” That Is All God Wants From Us: To Always Subdue The Pride In Us At Any Moment That The World Is Celebrating Us. Our Triumphs In Life Over Assorted Challenges Are Not Easy Mountains That Self-help Can Overcome. It Takes The Grace Of God To Level Survival Mountains. So, For You To Celebrate Your Victory Gallivanting In The Midst Of Praise Singers Who Are Singing “Awa Ju Asegun Lo” Without Giving Glory To The Real “Asegun” Is Like Courting A Battle With A God Who Says He Is Jealous And Is Not Ready To Share His Glory With Any Man. What Do You Lose Acknowledging That Whatever You Are Today Is Attributable To God. I Don’t Need Any Answer, It Is A Rhetorical Question.

When You Look At The Definition Of Opportunity, You Will Discover That The Privileges Are Not Automatic. Yes, God Has Put Them On Our Paths But We Need To Discover Them As We Move Through The Journey Of Life. No Pains, No Gains. We Need To Explore. We Need To Appropriate. We Need To Harvest. We Need To Convert. We Need To Harness And We Need To Utilize. All These Assignments Are Not Like Your Children’s Homework That They Do At Home. We Have To Move Out. We Have To Search For Those Privileges. You Cannot Discover What You Have Not Explored. You Cannot Appropriate What You Have Not Gathered. It Is Not Possible To Harvest What You Have Not Sown. You Cannot Convert The Opportunities You Have Not Identified. How Does One Harness What Is Not Available? You Don’t Utilize What You Dont Have. Therefore, Every Man Needs To Make A. Move In Life. No Matter Your Age Or Level Of Education, God’s Privileges Are For Everybody. They Are Not Statute- Bound. They Are Not Culture-bound. They Are For People That Are Diligent And Vigilant, Young Or Old, Literate Or Illiterate, Rich Or Poor. When We Stay At Home Praying For Favour, Are We Praying For Finished Favour Like Expecting A Friend Or A Dangote Or A Bill Gates To Make A Phone Call Through To You? Or Expecting A Call Asking You To Report For Work In A Company You Didn’t Send Any Cv Or Application To? Or Expecting A Strange Voice From Anywhere To Tell You Where To Go For The Day? No Way. Prayers Dont Work Like Magic. When You Pray For Favour, You Are Asking God To Crown Your Endeavours With Success. You Are Asking God To Remove All Physical And Spiritual Impediments On Your Way So That Your Application Can Receive Positive Response. So That Your Proposal Can Receive Special Attention. So That Some Mischievous Elements In Governments Or Organizations Will Not Steal Your Ideas Or Proposals. You Are Asking God To Prosper Everything You Touch. But First, What Are You Touching? If You Dont Touch Anything, Where Is The Prosperity Going To Come From? God Is Not A Magician. He Is A Miracle Worker But He Does Not Give Miracles To The Indolent Because God Himself Is A Workaholic. If They Call Somebody “Oba Ti Kii Sun”, Do You Think He Is Attending Night Party Or He Is Spending All The Night Hours Looking For “Flying Humans?” No. He Is Working Round The Clock For The Development Of His Creations. What Are You Doing In The Morning? Where Are You In The Afternoon? What Happens To Your Evenings? Do You Sleep All Through The Night? Things Have Got To Change. Your Survival Mentality Must Change. For Instance, Why Are You Not Seeing Your Own Opportunities When Others Are Seeing Theirs? Which Paths Are You Walking Everytime That For Years You Keep Missing The Opportunities On Your Paths? Then Walk Some Other Paths. By The Way, Who Is Guiding You Through The Paths? Your Pastor? Your Alfa? Your Friends? Your Herbalists? Oh My Friend, Be Wise. They Are Not Even Seeing Anything As Well. You Think If They See, They Will Show You? Do You Think They Don’t Have Problems Of Their Own? Walk With The Path Navigator And Ask To Be Led In The Right Path Otherwise You May Spend The Rest Of Your Years On Earth Navigating In The Shadow Of Void. Stop Saying Life Has Been Unfair To You. Have You Been Fair To Life That You Are Wasting Its Precious Years Chasing Mere Shadows? Engage Your Essense In A Dialogue Of Reconstruction Perhaps There May Be A Re-direction In Your Vision In The Scheme Of Life.

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9 thoughts on “Opportunism, self-help and opportunity

  1. Nike Alugo

    Dapo you have really touched on the aspects of human nature that a lot of human has miss interpreted, and that has caused a lot of people to sin by stealing.(opportunism)
    An author referred to stealing as ” a tragedy”
    I believe that there are consequences for everything you do that is outside God’s lay down rules.
    He is God, he doesn’t have to explain himself to anyone, so we either follow his rules, or face the consequences, that’s why it appears like he messes them up, when he assert himself as the creator of all.

    Reply
  2. Amos Ladunni

    I am most fascinated on how you brilliantly injected evangelism into the doctrine of self help. I really wish the younger ones can read this, see the motivations in it, and apply it consistently.
    May God Continue to shower you with wisdom. Amen
    Thank You.

    Reply
  3. Onodjae Efe

    A short and powerful piece. Oga, you’ve really touch almost all the aspect of Life. We should pray to God to crown our effort with success. Not by staying indoor and praying for opportunity. Thank you sir. God bless you for this.

    Reply
  4. Adeyoola olagesin

    Opportunity is always effected when one is well placed in prayers and actions. Any opportunity that is not acted on is missed. And that is the error of many Christians today. God bless my brother

    Reply
  5. Fash

    Awesome, very brilliant and what a great and inspiring write up.

    I wish and hope that all our politicians will get this piece, read through and change their ways.

    Thanks Daddy for putting this together, am greatly inspired and really enlightened more importantly about opportunism, opportunity and self-help.

    Thank you, love you.

    Reply
  6. Olanrewaju muyiwa

    What a wonderful inspiration from God I. Must confess sir piece advice has touched every human life and destiny , this what wisdom , food for thought,to every kingdom minded someone , opportunism, self-help, opportunity to work hard thanks sir God bless,

    Reply
  7. Oluwatosin Bakare

    More greese to your elbow sir, you ve really defined spirituality (opportunity) with what hard work (self help) can do . Thanks for the differentiation and also the ones powerful people do use (opportunism).

    Reply

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