By Muyiwa Adetiba

Depending on how you look at it, WhatsApp must either be one of the most effective information disseminators of the modern era or an App that is most open to abuse. It is not unusual if you belong to several platforms like many of us do, to wake up to over four hundreds messages each and every morning. Most of them will be recycled stuff; a chunk will be drivel; another chunk will be information that is irrelevant to your interests and goals at the time. I particularly find the different good morning videos time and data consuming and sometimes irritating.

But you get to have news around the world at your finger-tips and once in a long while, articles and titbits that reinforce or enhance your convictions about life. How to make this wonderful App more time conscious and therefore more effective without hindering its power to disseminate information must be a great challenge to whoever wants to harness this most valuable, yet finite resource of man—time—for national development. I believe charging a token five naira for every time a finger presses the ‘send’ icon would teach some restraint whilst earning money for those who want to increase the cost of data. The time saved for all of us, could then hopefully be used for more worthwhile endeavours.

But you do sometimes get some nuggets of gold in a pan of dust if you are patient and good at sieving. Regular readers of this column will notice that I have shared or written articles on things I have picked up in the social media especially on WhatsApp. Another piece came my way last month which I thought would be a good New Year message to the readers. I will just summarise to save space. An old man and his grown daughter were at the departure lounge. They emotionally clung to each other as the final call was made.

The old man expressed his love and prayed for his daughter, ending it with: ‘I wish you enough.’ The daughter in turn tearfully expressed her love and equally ended her prayer with: ‘I wish you enough.’ A passenger who had witnessed the emotional scene approached the old man after the daughter had left to inquire about the strange mode of exhortation. The old man first apologised for the emotional spectacle and explained that since he was well advanced in years and the daughter’s base was too far, her next visit was likely to be for his funeral. What seemed like a strange wish was something he said had been handed down the generations in his family. ‘When we said: ‘I wish you enough,’ we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them.’

Now, what is enough? A retired permanent secretary who bolted with 40 exotic cars does not know the meaning of ‘enough.’ A retired Inspector General of Police and his lieutenants who made away with two hundred cars do know when they have ‘enough.’ The Military top brass who bought multi million naira houses for himself and his children need to be taught what ‘enough’ is. Ditto the strong man in Lagos who is alleged to have choice properties in choice locations in the state.

We should extend the lesson to all the governors who leave office far richer than when they got there and still award mouth-watering pensions for themselves. Just when will it be ‘enough’? A half-illiterate who became a First Lady still didn’t think God has done enough for her. Time Magazine once did a study on the superrich and concluded that once a person reaches a certain level of income and a certain lifestyle, other monetary additions are irrelevant to that lifestyle. Bill Gate for example, could lose or gain ten billion dollars tomorrow and they wouldn’t affect his lifestyle.

So again, what is enough? Before we think this indulgence and avarice of going beyond ‘enough’ only concern the rich, let us consider the needs of the rank and file. I believe for example, that not more than two meals a day should be considered enough for sustenance. As for raiment, a dozen shirts, a quarter of a dozen trousers and a couple of shoes should be considered enough for any working class person. Shelter is a warm, cosy place where the family can feel safe. And the family itself should not be more than two or three kids per couple. A car in a family where affordable should be enough. Please know that there is a difference between need, desire and greed. It is when we blur the lines that primitive acquisitions set in.

I should be careful not to divulge privileged information by narrating a story a friend once told me. He is a retired CEO of a bank and a major player in the financial circles. He had a chance to make a killing in those days when the elite class traded inside information on shares and amassed fortunes through this largely unwholesome practice. He excitedly told his wife how much he could make from some transactions. His wife was not impressed. She asked instead what difference that would make to their lifestyle and suggested that they would only end up buying another expensive toy they had little use for. Her reply brought him to earth and taught him a lesson on what was indeed enough. Thanks to his wife, he lives simply and today, has a vibrant foundation that has helped many young entrepreneurs achieve their dreams.

As we begin a new year with its many resolutions, let us focus more on our needs and not what our neighbour or best friend has. Let us redefine the word ‘enough.’ To help us, I will go back to the WhatsApp article and the family’s wish that has been handed down generations. It says: “I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how grey the day may appear. I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more. I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting. I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life may appear bigger. I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting. I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess. I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final goodbye.”

So my prayer to all my friends and readers this year is this simple exhortation: ‘I wish you enough.’ (That you are reading this article is in itself a reason to be grateful.)May the year be a fruitful one for us all. HAPPY NEW YEAR.