The need for people of character

Mr. Elvis
I must applaud your contribution, you hit the nail squarely on the head. My hope is that more and more Cameroonians will start looking at our society as you have just done.
We are caught in a vicious circle as you eloquently put it. But are we doomed? Is there hope? Can this vicious circle be broken? Permit me to say, yes we can break it. Yes there is hope and we all can make a difference.
There are three things that last; hope, faith and love. The greatest of then is love. Therefore we have to start with deep love for country and fellow country men. For this an essential quality that is missing amongst us.
Action speaks louder than words. Must of all profess love for our country, but our actions reveal our true state. We must also maintain hope at all times, for hopelessness drives mankind to extreme behaviour.
I understand the desire and cry for divine intervention. God has already done the divine intervention. The root cause of selfishness and chop a chop mentality is sin. God loved us be sending His only son Jesus Christ to pay the ultimate price for sin. He did this by dying on the cross for us, thereby paying the penalty of our sin.
Therefore those that truly repent of their sin and follow the teachings of the Lord will be good citizens. They will be salt and light in the society as the Holy book teaches. Their light will shine in the darkness that is surrounding us and this will force the darkness to retreat.
Our problem is a human problem. I say this because we as humans have the free will to choose what to do and not to do. We have the freedom to choose who to yield our bodies to. God is willing to use anybody to deliver our country from the hands of the tyrants that have taken our country hostage. For that to happen these individuals have to make themselves available. For God does not force his will on anybody. These individuals will need God’s help to develop character.
Character is not acquired in a day. It takes time, effort, self denial, sacrifice, love for others and the willingness to suffer for what you believe to develop the character. When our country is saturated with individuals of character, they will then usher into Cameroon the much needed change.
Mandela is highly celebrated, quoted and looked up to by many people. Why is this so? This question forced me to read the long walk to freedom. Which is a biography about his life. I wanted to see how he developed the character that enabled him to stay in prison for so many years. I realized that he had Judo Christian influences in his early life. For he professed to be a Christian when he was growing up. He had strong love for country and fellow South Africans. He was willing to suffer and die for something he believed in. That is the freedom of his people from the hands of their oppressors.
This qualities were not acquired in a day, it took him time and effort. A particular incident stroke me profoundly. When Mandela was a student an election was held and it seemed the out come was not going to favour the student body they were representing. As such Mandela and six other student leaders resigned. The principal of the college threatened to expel them from school. Five of the other students yielded to the pressure and Mandela did not. Because of his action, he did not get his BA from that institution. Remember getting a BA in those days was the life dream of many people. That not withstanding Mandela was being sponsored by a guardian. He had every reason to yield to pressure and not jeopardize his future and squander the meager resources of those who were sponsoring him. Mandela won a small battle and when the big one came he won with flying colours. The apartheid regime gave him many good offers, while he was in prison, but he turned them down. He said the people have to be free, for him to have any freedom.
He did not choose personal survival despite the fact that his personal interest was at stack. Most of us justify our actions by saying we want to survive. When you focus too much on your personal needs you will be drained of the potential to be of help to others.
Life is about giving and taking care of others. We all have great potential to impact our community and country positively. Remember you competed with millions of other potential you and emerged first. Why then do we settle for less later in life? I think we start operation from faulty information feed into us by our society, personal experience. For example chop a chop, God helps those who help themselves, give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, a got eats where it is tied, if others are doing it then it is ok for me to do same etc.
Instead of waiting for a messiah we have to acknowledge our contribution to the problem and start making the necessary changes in our lives. Our slogan should be love for country and others first. Please join me on and let your voice be heard.