The Value Of Life By Oluyimide Onaolapo
“There is time for everything” is a popular saying that religions, spiritual gurus and civilizations have preached and lived for decades innumerable. There are two whens that is beyond our grip as human, these two whens are ‘when we were made’ and ‘when we will die’. The occurrences before our birth is totally out of our control but the occurrences before our death is in our hands. It is called Life.
I have seen and watched young people lose their lives while they are still very alive. Some at the age of 15 are sentenced to life imprisonment, some in their early 20s live life as terrorists, suicide bombers, hired assassins and political tugs. The bothering question is what went wrong?
On Christmas Day 2009, a young man made the headline of both national and international dailies and the social media. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab born on December 22 1986. Farouk’s father in 2009 was described by The Times as “one of the richest men in Africa.” He is a wealthy Nigerian banker and businessman. He is a former Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria and former Nigerian Federal Commissioner for Economic Development. Farouk was a first class kid. Raised with luxury and given the best education. He graduated from university college London as a mechanical engineer in 2008.
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The dream of a foreign trained Nigerian mechanical engineer with wealthy parents and awesome connection will be to start a private practice, work with a top-notch company to gather experience or study more. Farouk was a sure bet, but with all the potential on Christmas day 2009, he decided to end his life by orchestrating a suicide attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 en route Detroit that boarded 289 people. The suicide attack, however, was not successful.
That incident was a curtain fall to a sure bet. He became a loss. He was charged in connection with Al-Qaeda (the then largest terrorist network in the world), Farouk pleaded guilty to the charges against him and was On February 16, 2012 by Judge Nancy Edmunds of Federal District Court in Detroit sentenced to four consecutive life sentences plus 50 years. After the plea in court, Farouk’s last words were “The Koran obliges every able Muslim to participate in jihad and fight in the way of Allah…I carried the device to avenge the killing of my Muslim brothers and sisters… Unfortunately, my actions make me guilty of a crime.” That was how Farouk lived within 23 years. The question still remains what went wrong?
Another young man that made a mark on June 17 2015 was Dylann Storm Roof, born on April 3 1994. A native of Columbia, South Carolina. He was a high school dropout. On the evening of June 17, 2015, Roof opened fire with a handgun, killing nine black people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, United States. During a routine Bible study at the church. He said while shooting “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.” Roof is facing 33 count charges and his fate will either be death sentence or life imprisonment on mercy grounds. Roofs life ended within 21 years. What went wrong?
Time would fail me to detail the short lives of Seung-Hui Cho a senior level undergraduate student who murdered 32 people and injured 7 at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia then killed himself at age 23. James Holmes, a university Graduate from University of California, Riverside (UCR) who received his undergraduate degree in neuroscience with the highest honors , killed 12 people and injured 70 others at a Century movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, on July 20, 2012 at age 24, sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and Omar Mir Seddique Mateen who recently on June 12, 2016 at age 29 killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a mass shooting at the Pulse gay bar in Orlando, Florida. He was killed in a shootout with the local police.
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Something is wrong. They all gave up on life, gave up every great prospect, gave up on career, purpose and destiny. More people are giving up each day, Maximum prison getting filled up with teenagers who gave up, grave yards filled with teenagers who gave up. What went wrong?
They either lost the value of life or never knew it. The value of money is what money can buy…the value of life is the price that can be paid in exchange for life. At this point some will say One billion dollars! Is that really what life is worth? Mark Zuckerberg is only 31 and his net worth is $44.6 billion and still counting with lots of charity works and investments in humanity. Lukas
Walton, is just 29 with the net worth of around $10.4 billion and still counting. I can keep mentioning names but the point is the value of life is priceless, it can’t be exchanged for money or any belief whatsoever.
Here are some thoughts by great minds on the value of life.
The value of life is not in its duration, but in its donation. You are not important because of how long you live, you are important because of how effective you live.
-Myles Munroe
One thing I didn’t understand in life was that I had $100,000,000 in the bank and I couldn’t buy happiness. I had everything: mansions, yachts, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, but I was depressed. I didn’t know where I fitted in. But then I found family and friends and I learned the value of life.
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-Vanilla Ice
If you truly believe in the value of life, you care about all of the weakest and most vulnerable members of society.
-Joni Eareckson Tada
For me, no ideological or political conviction would justify the sacrifice of a human life. For me, the value of life is absolute, with no concessions. It’s not negotiable.
-Edgar Ramirez
The value of life must be preached in schools, to teenagers, in religious centers. The value of life must be instilled by parents. This must be pressed into the subconscious. Teach the world to value life. Teach them to love themselves, teach them that the life of others no matters how poor or miserable they are is priceless. Everyone is more than their present status, they are equally the future. You may only see yourself as a student today, Barack Obama was once a student, you may see an ordinary school teacher, Patience Jonathan former first lady of Nigeria was once a school teacher, maybe you are just a bread seller, Olajumoke Orisaguna the model was once a bread seller.
In conclusion, the Late President of the Bi-Lo Stores, Frank Outlaw said, “Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
