Just as our arrival at destination is tied to the supply of fuel, even if we are travelling by a perfectly functioning vehicle, so are our destinies tied to the Heroes in our midst, even though we seem to be doing well on the average.
Their absence from our midst is the reason for the reign of 'lack-lustre' mediocres on the throne of our private lives.
Heroes are the ones who stir up the innate virtues in us for success. They serve, not really as role models as many think, but as a beacon of greatness that rally us to aspire for self-fulfilment and actualisation. (Afterall, many of us don't really want to be the exact copy of our heroes, we are rather content to know and always see someone bearing the burden and lofty standard of societal aspirations).
The successes and triumphs of our Heroes are the loud voice that shut up the quiet wishpers of mockery, defeat and failures in our own lives.
The making of heroes begins, first, from the home: 'Matrimonial Heroes'. As a father or parent, have you ever felt the tremors of what possible future backlash it would be if you fail to provide or meet basic parental obligation to your innocent young ones? For how long do you think you can manipulate their innocence with fragile excuses for passing the buck?
The first, and not the least, hero of every child is the parent, but when a parent fails in the heroic responsibilities toward the child, it is only a matter of time before the growing child 'switch' loyalty and consequently reshuffle his or her hero list. May we not be victims of such revolutionary change of a teenager's moral constitution.
How do you explain why a teenager would strap himself with a bomb to blow to death and drag other innocent people with him to the grave, without the slightest iota of foreknowledge or suspicion by the parents, that their teenager has sold-out to a completely strange doctrine and a tragic figure as his hero?
Yesterday's careless symptom of 'matrimonial-hero-failure' has become a pandemic explosion today, threatening civility with babarism.
Take a careful and studious note of this; every nation that failed by every ramification and definition of that word, is a nation without a hero-model that can inspire to aspire. It is therefore logical for such a nation to begin to expire. In fact, a wise man once said that our success as a nation is largely dependent on our personal or individual successes.
That is why the untimely death or assasination of national heroes always inflict a mortal wound on the body of such nations for a long time before healing, if at all, it heals.
Do you know that our heroes are also a product of other heroes? Hear out J. K. Rowling talking about Harry Potter: "...I didn't have to stop and think very hard about my hero."
This article is dedicated to her, who, though being a literary heroine of our time, refuse to be distracted by fame and fortune from being a matrimonial heroine to her three children and family. Happy birthday to J.K.R. who marks 40 today -31st July.
Aderemi Ojikutu (Aderaskeey) is a Motivational Author and Youth Mentor. He is a minister of the Word of God. A political economist and political leader. He is President of the TREASURE WRITERS CLUB in Nigeria (http://treasurewriters.50megs.com). He is also the current President of the National Democratic Forum (N.D.F). He was National Mobilisation Officer of the National Association of Nigerian Students (N.A.N.S) for several years. A revolutionary of over two decades, he was also the political secretary of the defunct Nigerian Labour Party in 1991.