REMI

*MONDAY MUSINGS: IF YOU SELL YOUR KINDRED CHEAP* I want to share a story I got some 10-12yrs ago with you: I had just finished cleaning up my small apartment, one evening, when my brother phoned me and said: *I am coming to visit, and my wife is with me*. I entered my kitchen to prepare for them whatever I could, But I could not find anything available to serve them. I went looking for something to serve, but I did not find anything except a few oranges. Therefore, I made two cups of cold juice immediately. When my brother and his wife entered I was shocked to see his mother-in-law who came to visit for the first time. So I served the two cups of juice to his wife and his mother-in-law, and a cup of plain water I placed in front of my brother, and said to him: I know that you like 7up, he drank a sip and realised that it was water. And suddenly his mother-in-law said : I'm feeling for 7up , please give it to me! Here I was baffled and caught with embarrassment. My brother saved me by saying to her: I will bring you a clean glass from the kitchen. And after a while we heard the sound of a glass breaking, so he came back and told his mother-in-law: sorry, it fell from my hands and the glass broke, ... but no problem I will go to the shop to get another one. His mother-in-law refused and said: there is no need for that, it was not meant for me. When they were going out, my brother bade me farewell and placed into my hand some money and said: don't forget to clean the kitchen of the 7up, so that ants do not come. And he bid me farewell with a smile and love. This is a very touching story, isn't it?. So, let me throw it to you: how do you treat your siblings? Even your friends? Even your country, Nigeria? Do you cover them or mess them? Do you take pleasure in exposing their shortcomings to others, or making excuses for even their obvious shortcomings? In Yoruba, they say: *Ti a ba ta ara ile eni ni opo, a o le ri ra ni owon*. If you sell your kindred cheap, you may not be able to buy them at an exorbitant price, when the time comes. So, how do you talk about family and friends and your country, Nigeria? Do you sell them cheap? How do you treat them, or talk about them before others? Do you disparage friends, family and acquaintances, before others? Do you call your country a zoo, an irredeemable place? Apart from there being power in the tongue, do you remember that as the Yoruba saying goes: *bi onigba ba se pe igba e la se mba pe*. You call a hawker the way he or she hawks his/her products. There is no way you will call a garri seller pepper seller. The way you portray your country, and your people; family and friends, to others, is the way they will eventually be seen and addressed. More importantly, however, yet another Yoruba idiom says: “Ko si bi a se fe pe ori aja, ti a o ni pe ori ikoko ti won fi se”. How do you want to talk about the head of a dog, without a mention of the pot that was used to cook it? The same brush with which your kindred are tarred, will be applied unto you. Or, do you think you will come out looking like a saint, when your family is branded criminal? Or, perhaps you think you will be seen as the only good person out of your country, because you are so vociferous in condemning her? You will be a suspect, probably worse than the country itself. Consider this: If you cannot be loyal to your family, or your country, how can you be loyal to others? So, as this is the Month of Nigeria’s 66th Independence Anniversary, its time for sober ruminations: Do you sell your people cheap? Do you denigrate your country in local and foreign media? Do you make them look inconsequential? Will they be redeemable when you need them? Is whatever satisfaction or gratification you will get worth the price of selling them so cheap? Remember, if you sell your kindred cheap, you may not get them to buy at an exorbitant price. Peace and love! *@ Ade Bronco (05.10.2026)*