VALUE HAS LOST ITS VALUE

PLS READ THIS ENCOUNTER WITH A LADY THAT CONVINCED ME THAT WE HAVE LOST OUR VALUES IN EDUCATION AND THE THINGS THAT DEFINE US... 

2 weeks ago I was at an event when a lady came in and soon as she was introduced as DR. Yemi, I initially thought she was a medical doctor. Turned out she was (is) not a medical doctor. She is an Academic Doctor. Not honorary. She earned this one. And At the age of 27, she was now back home to work as consultant in a South West state government economic project. We got talking and she later told me she was a friend of mine on Twitter, but DOESNT comment or retweet. She only reads my thoughts

About 20 minutes later, she and I were the only ones that had an engaging conversation going. Once in a while the celebrant jumped into our conversation and headed off again to mingle with other guests. We were actually talking of how people hardly consider education as a means of making it in life, When a lady with all the assets, that God had given her, in the right places, nearly too much sef, stepped in. All eyes moved to her. I noticed many guys were taking pictures with her. She must have more than the beauty to have all these men dancing around her. She was in demand.

Anyhow, our conversation continued and I drew DR. Yemi's attention to the fact that that she had a PHD did not even attract the men. But see how the guys are all over the "Yallo babe". That was when she hit me with it. She pulled up a photo from Linda Ikeji's Blog, from her phone and I recognized it as the picture of my ties and belts. Do you know how many comments this generated? She asked me. I didn't read the story. (I had heard the Instagram had been lifted). Well, she continued, many commentators thought it showed how uneducated, timid, crude, classless and unexpected of you, posting that picture. A few saw your point and thought posting it did not define you as a person. It just showed you had taste and had love for ties. Just like some people collect cars, wrist watches, shoes...

She then connected all of this by showing me a picture of me standing in my library. So I asked, EHEN? What's the library got to do with the ties and belt? 

That's where we lost it. She said, as a matter of fact. Before now, a picture of a library would have made some people very proud of how you love reading. They would have given you more props for having that kind of library and challenged themselves to own one just like that. But no... It's the ties and belts that they decided had defined you. It was posting the wardrobe that showed you had a small mind. The wardrobe eroded the respect some had for you. But on the contrary, if five hip hop artiste posed with a large ice bucket filled with 8 bottles of champagne and Rosè, that's the life.... But the picture of a library is nothing. In fact it is not a show off, (the library) the show off is the ties and belts. 

So to bring what just happened between the other lady and I, (I already got the gist but she continued) I am your library, she said touching her chest. She is your collection of ties and belts. Many people will get attracted to that. In fact that is why your ties and belts was a blog-gable item. As you have seen since you posted the library, not many people have commented on how it shows you are well read, educated, great man... No blogging of such ordinarily and trend-less picture of books. Boobs yes. Books, naaaaa! But posting a picture of the ties and belts was enough to draw their attention.....

That's all. Back to me.

That's the society that we live in. Today as I saw the people who turned out for the OUT ON A LIMB WALK... it hit me again. Not much noise has been made about it. Not many celebrities came out to support it. But if Kate Henshaw and I had promoted a party, many would have taken offense that we did not invite them. My point is we have misplaced our priorities and devalued the things that should have had value, and placed value on things that had no need being valued .

Until we begin to reposition our priorities and not even get bitter at other people's successes, we will continue to be the way we are.

And while I will say thank you to DR YEMI, I must apologies because I know I must have missed out on some of the things you talked about. Especially when you said, "its people with deep complex that feel threatened by what other people have, because they have allowed themselves to believe that a collection of what someone else has (ties and belts) can be of more value than a well stocked library. 

Hmmmm... Lesson learnt!