“It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt”.-– ABRAHAM LINCOLN

SOCCER, also known as football is certainly the most popular sport in the world as more than 60 percent of the world’s population tune in (both radio and television) during major World Cup competitions.

Some emerging stars of this highly lucrative game such as Nigeria’s and Everton’s Victor Anichebe sometimes boast of how many goals they will score before a match. Many a time, their target is off the mark. The games master (Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona, readily comes to mind) keep their game plan close to their chest and on the day exceed all expectations and receive the plaudits thereafter. That is the way it should be. That also is the beauty of silence.

Nigeria is the third fastest growing world economy after China and Mongolia – that is what the statistics show. Some Nigerian professionals – Prof. Pat Utomi in the lead are in total disagreement.

Everyday in Nigeria, especially in the cities of Lagos and Abuja, there is a flurry of activities with people criss-crossing from pillar to post, shoving and oftentimes bumping into one another in pursuit of the powerful Naira.

There is so much motion with little movement. Often, false shouts of Eureka! precede deep brain-stormed results. All this effort which sometimes looks like madness has generated very little improvement in the living standards of our people. The much- vaunted transformation in our lives is still many miles away.

Our people moan, whine and gripe and yet there is no solution in sight. The waiting game goes on but for how long. The quantum of noise in the system is so much. Apart from its nuisance value, it has triggered off allergic reactions in the faint-hearted. Many have been stressed to death.

A few days ago, I was at a forum where an honourable member of the House of Representatives encapsulated his vision of representation with these words: “To be relevant in the House of Representatives, one has to shout, struggle and maybe fight to be heard”. To him, there is no place for intellectual and indepth contribution based on research. His assertion makes parliament a joke. I was so revolted by this and wasted little time in letting him know his thoughts were products of deranged epilepsy. His view does not represent Aminu Tambuwal’s Seventh Assembly.

Empty vessels make the most noise and there is no way any sane person can be productive in that cacophony of sounds called din, which this person relishes. Even God himself said: “Be still and know that I am God”. All He was commanding is that we keep calm in order to plan and appreciate beauty in silence.

Each time we hear a government minister or top officials make a public statement it usually is predicated by cuing into the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. You hear this all the time. Whether this is mere sloganeering to ensure job  security or true conviction is another matter. Sycophancy is one hydra-headed monster we  must all identify and destroy. Transformation is a passion and anyone not soaked in it can  never factually project it. You breathe, live, sleep your passion.

A Hebrew proverb says that if a farmer becomes a king, he will still carry a basket on his  back. At this point, it is also necessary to draw a subtle distinction between the person, Dr.  Goodluck Jonathan and President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. The two ‘persons’ initiated Transformation.

Transformation can be either positive or negative. The person, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, I know, is passionate about transformation and has good intentions for Nigerja – whether President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan with the retinue of advisers and security operatives, some of whom shield him from reality and even from himself is a transformer, has to be determined. That metamorphosis of two persons to a transformed President has to happen for peoples’ lives to be impacted by this agenda.

When transformation arrives, nobody can hide it. Everyone will know. The daily mien of the people will change. There will be a surfeit of smiles on faces. People will identify with and protect government properties as their own. Security challenges will diminish considerably as people will take their destiny in their hands, smoke out miscreants and secure their communities. Even strikes and labour disputes will move to the back burner. There will be prosperity in the land.

Genuine volunteering along the lines of Rotary International will work not because of any stipends to be received but because of our collective commitment to a better society. It will naturally follow that corruption will take a dive. The real Nigerian nation where we will all be our brothers’ keepers. That is transformation.

One may ask how all this ties up with silence and beauty. Of course they do. To plan  effectively, one needs an enabling, serene and beautiful environment to meditate in-depth.

That is why all major religions of the world have a RETREAT in one form or the other. I recommend this life of retreat to a transformed President who will work in silence in the beauty of his transformed room. He will be able to screen all his appointees  and show the exit door to those not yet transformed. He may perhaps be able to understand that a country in which anything goes will ultimately become a country in which nothing goes.

As a parting shot, he will probably come to terms with the immortal words of  the Iron Lady – former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who said that: “To be a  good leader, you must be a good butcher”. You got to cut sharply when necessary.

Dr. EDDIE MBADIWE, is a member of the House of Reps, representing Ideato North and South federal Constituency, Imo State