Akinwunmi Adesina and the parable of the bramble tree by Yinka Olaito

In the last forty eight hours, Akinwunmi Adesina’s name on Nigeria’s twitter space has become the buzzword . His name was on ‘fire’ or trending as the case may be for doing a great work as President of African Development Bank, especially with his presence and networking ability in the ongoing G-7 meeting. In fact yesterday, many facebook users joined the bandwagon  by referring to Akinwunmi Adesina as a best candidate for the Nigeria number one job. Many were actually encouraging him to run. I pray he was not following the trend nor allowing the so-called temporary fame to go into his head.This may be the greatest mistake of his life.  I do know he is well – informed and smarter than that.


Nigeria can be a theatre of absurd with many crazy lots who are high on something only God knows. Especially, most of the people online: twitter voltron or facebook  merchants. I have been a media and communications practitioner with interest in the use of digital tools for am while. I have followed many overnight buzzwords which  bubbles had burst within few days. Some of the people in the eye of such temporary buzzwords fame had been carried away with the momentary euphoria and jumped into the rope without a proper understanding of the terrain. Today such people are biting their fingers. Today they know better. Many twitter big weights have zero or negative value at the grassroot level.


Many of those who are hailing  and propping him to go for the number job in Nigeria in the online space do not go out to vote. Many of them do not even have voter’s card. They are too busy to go through the demands of getting  a voter’s card as it were. A great leader knows when the voice of the people is not the voice of God. They  do  understand they are better at doing something small well than being a colossal failure  at doing a big thing.


Great people understand their skills and callings. They  are happy doing  what  they are called to do excellently than following the call  for unnecessary popularity contest. Jesus was once ambushed by the crowd he fed. The crowd, for the momentary benefits, wanted to make him king. Jesus knew his purpose and stylishly moved away from the desire of the crowd for him.  He considered being made king was inferior and demeaning to what  he   was born  to do or be.


Is  the writer discouraging Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina from running for number one top job in Nigeria? That is not the purpose of this piece.  In fact .based on his experience and academic qualifications he is better than the majority of the lot we are parading now. Just that if he is nursing this ambition, It should be a personal conviction after he had done  his calculations and weighed all his options.


Dr.Akinwunmi Adesina should study Nigeria political history. He should observe how many great professionals who were doing well at their positions and whose songs these twitter voltrons were singing before actually hit the mark of becoming Nigeria’s President.  They were  all encouraged  to resign from what I think they  were born to do well to come and serve their Father’s land.


Today, many  of these shrewd professionals  know better. They  now understand huge number of these online noise makers can actually send one on a roller coaster journey and remove  all  the safety features in the car. Without being told, I know we have all seen and known the implications of such.


I really want to avoid writing a long piece today. A wise saying already captured my thought. A wise son does not need lengthy talk. So let me conclude with  parable of the    trees  with particular emphasis on the bramble tree shared by  Jotham  in the  holy writ. After Abimelchi, Jotham’s brother,  and his kinsmen had killed  his father and all his  seventy siblings; Jotham stood  on  the top of a mountain, lifted his voice, cried and shared the parable with the people of shechem. He encouraged them to listen to him so that God could hear them  too.


Jotham said, a time was when trees wanted to pick a king among them to rule. The trees first called  the olive tree to become the king. Olive tree replied ‘will I leave my fatness through which people honour God and man to become a king? Not at all.” The entourage moved to the fig tree with the same request. The fig tree replied ‘should I forsake my goodness and my good fruits to become a king? Not  at all.’


From here the team moved to the Vine and requested it to become king over all the trees. The vine also replied  ‘should I leave my wine which cheers the heart of men and gods to become king over trees? That is not for me.’ Finally the search team went to the bramble tree with the same request. Bramble tree was unique in his own reply. lt said ‘if truly you wanted to anoint me as king, first come and put your trust under my shadow, if not let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’


In order word, the bramble tree understood the intention of the supposed king makers’ well. Beyond just rejecting the call, he gave them a task which it knew they would never be willing to do. For now, my advice to Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina is that he continues to do the good and do value to the world where God had placed him and where his skills are giving him a global favour.He should just forget these empty naysayers and continue to add value to our world instead of pursuing a journey that can make his sun to set prematurely.