POWER

Power! A mean sword

As motivational and approving as it is, swings at will. Everyone aspire power, it is destructive, compelling yet people clamor for it. The tussle for power annihilates many with the influence of wealth. The acquisition and attainment of wealth brought about power; M.K.O. Abiola acquired wealth,wielded it to achieve power; in fact by June 1993 he was elected as president of Nigeria which was overturn by the erst while president Gen. Badamosi Babangida.  Power to human is like wielding of a sword, which ensures prosperity and destruction thereby writes history. He acquired power, acquiring power, he chose; choosing, he fashioned the fabric of his future: and the perception of this range like wine through his veins.

Power is the ability to impose one will on others, to control their way of live even at their disapproval. It deprives the subjects the question of free will; free will is what makes us human according to John Conte. It comes in different forms  which in any time changes hands; Gen. Sanni Abacha imposes his will on millions of Nigeria subjecting them total cruelty. The trend in power does not make Nigeria quite different from the rest of the world; in the 14th and 15th century it was the Spanish and the Portuguese wielding there sword to conquer most part of the world, in the 16th century it was the French taking over from the Spanish, in the 18th and the 19th century it was the British displacing the French in some fierce war. The French had great stint of power under Napoleon Bonaparte, it said even said that when France sneezes the whole world catches cold. While the Germany and the Russian rule the world for some decade before the America.

It quite fascinating how power and time works with the latter influencing the earlier. In time power increase or decrease; time have a telling effect on power, the rise of the Russian empire crumbled with the onslaught the American, the Italian had a taste of it under the reign of Benito Mussolini while the Germany brought the world to its kneel between the year 1939 to 1945 under the reign of Adolf Hitler with his allied in war the Italian and the Japanese who made up the Power Axis. The emergence of United State on the screen and into the United Nation Organization brought reign of Germany to an end and eventually crushed Japan. As shining as the future of Germany looks under Hitter, it was short lived with influx of wealth combined with power of the alliance of world powers. The reign of Olusegun Obasanjo in Nigeria marked the rise of the second republic which lasted for eight years after that the Barton change. In Nigeria the reign of PDP since 1999 looks bright but cloudy at the end “Candle that burns twice as bright, burn half as long".

 However the conquest of Africa was marred with resistance by various African rulers but was subdued by power; by the power of the Gatling and Maxim gun. Power comes out of the barrel of a gun; or from a club, or a fist; America crushed the Japanese during the Second World War signaling the rise of new world power; The tough lives, the weak die, when you die you go into a hole. No harps, no heavenly choirs. No hell fire.

Power is what it is too human, as human is to power; human lives through ages which tends to end someday so is power when aided by truth and trust. Truth is a perception; conflicted heart feeds on confusion. People only see what they want to confront "Believe in yourself, but do not always refuse to believe in others". Power makes the holder sure of his action and also willing to refute other action even though they are far better than his; the President of Nigeria sets pardon in motion for the ex Bayelsa state government DSP Alamieyeseigha which arouse national interest.

  Power intoxicates human and blind the subject.The power holder intoxication blinds the subject; inflicting them with psychological term "selective amnesia" without doubt the subject submits willingly with trust. The only clog in the will of power is doubt, which in time begets resistance; Violent could be legitimate if it was used to defend law, equality, social justice or the much loved of mother country. Doubt is a disease; it infects the mind, creating mistrust of people's motives and of one's own perceptions.

Doubt has the ability to call into question, everything which includes power  "the natural course of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism" the denting aspect of doubt is trust;when the subjects trust is called into question doubt sets in; Louis XVI was a victim of doubt, with the termination of appointment of Necker the french citizen had doubt and some other reasons, in fact during the involvement of the french in the American war of independent which Marquis de Lafayette after the revolution ended said "May this great monument, raise to liberty, served as a lesson to the oppressor, and an example to the oppressed" at that time, this statement had an impact in his own country; he command the power of the military and set in motion revolution that rock all Europe through his words. In Nigeria the recent government removed the so called fuel subsidy in her budget for the year 2012 which set doubt in motion; people reacted in emphatic and emotional ways which lead to the nationwide strike which lasted for 14 days.

However time, trust, doubt have a telling effect on power; time brought about  power which can be firmly upheld by trust and destroy by doubt; the end of trust and the beginning of doubt sets revolution in motion. Time, trust and doubt are all object of revolution. A good power holder will understand the past and use it to correct the present in other to project a brighter and revolution free future using Russia and France as an example to write a perfect a history.