The Herods in our society

By Margaret Ogbebor SSMA 

The society is made up of different kinds of people, the good, the bad and the ugly. People are born in the society with a free mind set (tabula-rasa),that is innocent and pure. Our angelic nature starts to depreciate as soon as we begin to go deeper into the life of the society. There are different kinds of people that are found in the society, it depends on which kind of people you are interested in. There are people you meet in the society that would help you to develop your life and there are also other people you meet that would help you to destroy your life. You are not expected to be loved by all but what you are expected to do is to behave rightly and live according to the rules and regulations of the society you find yourself.

The set of people or friends you move with in the society often determines your way of life “show me your friend and I will tell you who you are”. Many a time, the people you move with give a complete picture of your personality. Some people are never happy of other peoples’ progress because they only want every good thing to come to them, others will use you to get to the top and at the end push you aside due to the fact that they do not need your service anymore. Some set of people would even plan to eliminate you because your presence is a threat to them. They feel insecure when you are around them, so the best thing is to make sure that you never exist or succeed at all. Such people like this are often found in every nook and cranny of our society. People with negative mind set do not want the progress of others, the society and the nation at large. They are only interested in their own agenda that is, “born to rule” and they must keep ruling whether the people like it or not. This particular set of people are everywhere in the society and they cut across every sphere of life; education, politics, social, economy among others.

However, people who are very selfish in our society are often referred to as “dream killers”. They are responsible for killing any dream (vision) that are not in conformity with theirs, either good or bad. These set of people are known as the “Herods in our society”. They pretend to be good but within them they are evil. A typical example of this is could be found in the Bible in the Gospel of Matthew (2:1- 12) when the three wise men came to Herod in their  search for the new born king, he pretended to be happy and told them that if they found him they should inform him so that he would also pay him homage. This was a big fat lie; deep within him, he was planning to kill him (Jesus) because he saw the little child as a rival to his kingdom and throne. Many a time “we look at the physical appearance but God looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16 :7).When the three wise men failed to return, he ordered the killing of little children (boys) from two years and below (Matthew 2:16). These innocent children were killed because of his (Herod) selfish reasons.  

These set of people are also present in the educational sector: those who find it difficult to render assistance, many a time we see lecturers not willing to help their students in their own field of discipline where they claim they own Master degree because they are afraid that their students would out shine them. Some of these lectures stylishly collect the materials from their students and publish it as their own work. Some would even threaten such students or worst still petition them and if care is not taken the unfortunate students may be expelled from such institution bringing an end to the dreams (vision) of these young minds. We should always remember that the youths are the leaders of tomorrow.

Politically, the society is polluted by another set of people who live in it. These set of people form our political parties. Our politicians do not have a particular party, any party is a party. When they discover that everybody is running to a particular party, they would all run there because of what they want to gain. In parties we have people who are endowed with unique gifts and talents, instead of other members of the party to appreciate such person for been among them, they would rather look for other means to “pull him down” (PhD). So that such vision (mission) would not manifest. Just like Joseph in the Bible (Genesis 37:1-36), whose brothers were jealous of him because of his gift of dream. Worst still he was the beloved of his father Jacob. They decided to terminate his life to see how his dream or vision will be made manifest and sold him to the Ishmaelite not knowing that they were even helping his vision to come true. The Herods in the political parties try to kill the dreams of others for their own selfish reasons which are not realistic and pull down the visions and missions of such parties pretending to be working for the progress of the parties. The most painful thing is that such people cannot be easily identified because it does not show in their faces or characters just like that of Herod in the Bible. A political party may have an opponent, if they realised that they are losing instead of them to genuinely accept defeat, they would like to cause trouble so that both parties may be cancelled or eliminated completely.

Socially, the Herods in our society are those people who are working against the progress of the society because of what they are gaining from the society. They are not interested in the welfare of the masses all they are interested in their fat pockets and they continue to give fake and empty promises to the poor masses (manifestos). They would promise heaven and earth (maintenance of good road, electricity and other amenities), but deep within them they know they would not do anything for the betterment of the society and its environs.

Similarly, the society is no longer safe, insecurity is the order of the day, kidnapping, killing and banditry is now rampant, we do not know who is who. From time to time they would arrest suspects and after sometime release them without knowing the real culprits. Situations like these are making the society unhealthy to live in. The promise of constant security made by the government due to the happenings around is no longer visible, but they find it difficult to say it openly.

The economy of a society is either weak or strong, whatever a society is able to provide for it citizen depict its care for it member. Any society that finds it difficult to meet the needs of it member may suffer economy deficiency. The people living in such society would not meet their standard of living; poverty would be the other of the day. Creation of industries, refineries, and institution help to boost the economy of the society or nation but in a situation whereby the industries, refineries and even institution are not well taken care of what will be the fate of the economy? The government keep telling people that they are going to do something about it, knowing fully well that they are not going to do anything about it. Our industries are secretly sold to private individuals (privatization) who are the so-called big men in the society who had made these industries their own and also have the power to determine what happens there. They are the only ones who have the authority to determine the number of workers (labour) that would be employed by so doing the government is shifting her responsibility to the private hands while they keep promising that they would provide job opportunities to her citizens which they know is not realistic, “you cannot eat your cake and have it”. Even when the government wishes to take it back, it becomes difficult because some people are benefiting from it and they would try every means to see that the plans of the government are not actualised. Some of the proceeds  of country’s economy ends in private pocket. All these result to lack of job opportunities for the lower class (the poor) dragging the economy of the society backward. This type of society would remain stagnant because the so-called rich men who had made themselves “dream killers” they are only interested in grabbing from left, right and centre, with nothing to show for it. They kill the dreams, visions, missions and images of the society. These Herods are very clever in their dealings, looking at them you think they are working, they often complain that things are not working well but they are the parasite eating up the wealth of the nation. As a nation we may be very poor but individually we are very rich and wealthy.

Finally, the interest of every individual in the society should be the growth of the society. Basically, people from different ethnic groups come together to form a society (the good, the bad and the ugly) or a nation which we find ourselves, when people’s intentions are not pure they become problems to the society and they serve as setbacks either to other individuals or the society at large. In a society where dreams, visions and missions have been terminated, the growth of such society would be stunned, stagnant and retarded.  

Sr Margret Ogbebor SSMA is a Catholic Nun, working in the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto. She is the Head Teacher of St Martin de Porres Nursery and Primary School Katsina. [email protected]