I AM ONE OF THE VICTIMS AND YOU’RE NOT FREE EITHER. BUT TOGETHER, WE CAN ALL WIN IF WE HAVE ONE HEART AND ONE LOVE.

I AM ONE OF THE VICTIMS, AND YOU’RE NOT FREE EITHER. BUT TOGETHER, WE CAN ALL WIN IF WE HAVE ONE HEART AND ONE LOVE.

By: Abraham Daljang Maker

It’s already one month since the new year began, but I haven’t decided which one among my New year resolutions I should start with. I don’t even know how many decisions I have set for this year. I have been in a serious dilemma on how to answer anyone wishing me a happy new year, not so sure how pleasant it can be when the days are running faster than Austin Bolt. I am just wondering if 365 days in a year are real, I think some officials in the office of CALENDAR are corrupt, perhaps they cut off some hours in a day and bank them in their private accounts in the Swiss banks. Before one realizes it, the year ends, and it feels like just 365 hours instead of days.

I am still having the arrears for 2019 resolutions, and now, I am caught up with the blank answer sheet. Those who have attended formal education will understand what it means when an invigilator instructs the candidates to read the questions carefully before attempting to answer. So far, I have been a disciplined candidate who reads the questions repeatedly before trying to answer one. As I was about to answer, I heard the invigilator telling the candidates that we’re barely left with a minute to complete the resolution for 2019, just as I thought about how to approach the questions, of course by starting with the simple ones, I heard the final bell, ting, ting, ting… “time up! It’s 2020, pens down, stand up and remain where you are,” the invigilator roared. I began to panic, for once, I felt like peeing in my pants, but that couldn’t help the situation either. I calmly put down the pen on a blank sheet of paper, I gazed fixedly at the blank paper which is lying helplessly on the table, maybe wondering why I decided to spare it from an ink. When invigilator opened the door for the candidates to exit the examination room, I gave a final glance at blank sheet wishing for a miracle to happen but the time when manna used to fall from heaven was not any nearer to my 2019 resolutions examination.  My fellow candidates who were busy asking for more answer sheets were passing by me boasting about how easy the test was, and they were smiling from ear to ear with satisfaction. Some of them were even bragging that they knew all the answers, and the less they will score will be 99.9% in 2019 examination resolutions. Some of them were also calling themselves tycoons, claiming that Jesus Christ blessed them with answers to tackle 2019 resolutions questions. 

I felt sick in the stomach when I heard them talking to each other about how they finished all the questions. My legs couldn’t carry me any longer, and I sat down to gather some strengths. Aha! There came a brilliant idea, and I remember that there is a campaign about the environmental conservation, I felt at ease because I haven’t written anything on the paper that would contribute to environmental degradation especially in the case of an examination paper with no proper answer which was going to be discarded.  They say, think about the environment before you print, and I would say, think about the situation before you write nonsense on a paper.

Back to the new year resolutions, where was I? oh yes, I was on the verge of emphasising on how I failed miserably without implementing the 2019 resolutions and decided to walk majestically to 2020 with the hope of strictly following this year’s resolutions. Wait a minute, did I say strictly? Hell No! I just realised that from 2015 until 2019, I hadn’t resolved any goal that I had laid down, which means that I have failed to tackle a series of resolutions for five consecutive years. How about discarding this year’s resolutions and focus on the last five years resolutions? Oops! Sorry, I have another better idea. I should contact China. Yes, the generous China that has been bailing out some African countries by offering them some loans. If I need food, I can ask them to give me rice, a type of miracle rice that lasts in the digestive system for about 72 hours, and that will provide me with some strengths to carry on with my resolutions that have been pending for years. I will contact some friends who visited China so that I learn essential Chinese, persuasive words in Chinese so that I will be able to bargain with them as I request for the loan politely. Thank goodness that I don’t have oil wells, no port, no gold, no airport or any asset they will take over in case I fail to pay back the loan.

unfortunately, China is now dealing with the outbreak of coronavirus. They will now focus on ending the deadly virus and this leaves me with no hope of visiting that country to see assistance.  

Painfully, one of the resolutions that have been pending for the last five years now was to get 500 cows for bride price, but so far, I have bought only one cow, and I have to buy the remaining 449 cows but all my efforts to get these 449 cows have been rendered futility due to the world’s economy which is on its knees coupled with refugees crisis, returnees, global warming, and thousands of African migrants who are risking their lives to go to Europe only to be ordered to either return to their respective countries or risk staying on the merciless waters on the oceans. ‘They are not fish or sharks to live in the water, they’re a human being like any of us,’ so why shouldn’t they be given a chance to take refuge? Perhaps they need to prove to some countries that all of them can be heroes like African Spiderman who saved a child from falling from a skyscraper in France.

There are some heartbreaking issues and a few lessons to learn before thinking of my failure in the last five years without even getting one resolution. From the Ebola outbreak in the neighbourhood to the unfolding event of ‘bread uprising’ in the next door.  From cattle raiding and communal fighting in my village, vis á vis newly signed peace in the entire village. From murdering of journalists to the bombing and the killings of the innocent women and children across the globe. What about this news, maybe fake news about Zimbabwe sending its unemployed graduates to be employed in South Sudan where its own graduates are languishing on the streets in the scorching sun looking for jobs, what a twist of fate?

With all these issues plus more that are trending, it is hard for me to focus on my resolutions, in fact clearly, how can one stays focus when you are surrounded with all these problems? Well, these can also be part of my 2020 resolutions, but how can I manage these when I am just a common man, a vulnerable one; just like any other person who can’t lift a finger to solve one problem? Just like a drop of water in the vast ocean? Yes, I am one of them.  I am one of those people crossing the sea to seek a better life on the other side of the waters.

I am that child who wonders where the food will come from. I am that mother who can’t afford clean water for her child. I am that aquatic life that is chocked to death by a plastic bag in the ocean. I am that journalist who looks over my shoulder wondering who might be following me for telling the truth. I am that woman who dies in child labour because of no better health facility, and I am that unemployed graduate whose sole of my shoes are worn out in search of a job. I am among those people who are forced into exile due to the crisis in their own country, don’t also forget that, I am one of those tsunami victims, Ebola victims, Cholera victims who are not sure if there is any sun that shines bright in the sky. I am that child who escaped hardship in my country only to detained and died in custody.

If you’re one of us, then let’s make 2020 the year of peace, year of hope and love, year of care and prosperity for all. We can all make the WORLD A BETTER PLACE FOR YOU AND ME and the entire LIVING BEING. YES, WE CAN!

Happy new year to every living being on earth, in the sea, in the oceans, sea and rivers and the air…. ONE LOVE!