MAHATMA Gandhi, referred to by historians and authors as the Father of Modern India, listed the seven blunders of this world as Wealth without Work, Pleasure without Conscience, Knowledge without Character, Commerce without Morality, Science without Humanity, Worship without Sacrifice and Politics without Principles. Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 because this world wanted to live with blunders at whatever the cost.
The Collins English Dictionary 21st Century Edition 2000 defined blunder as: “ To make a stupid or clumsy mistake…or to mismanage or botch a thing”. For man to blunder in a situation, his action must appear stupid or an action resulting from lack of intelligence or common sense perception.
We have spiritual, economic/financial, and political blunders. It is a spiritual blunder for man to attempt to coast through life unaware of the constant conflict between the forces of good and those of evil over man’s affairs on this earth, and that you can’t get any special favours from the heavens without sacrifice.
God lives in the third heavens. The devil knows this, and from the second heaven attempts to illegally commit man to the blunder of the occult, satanic, marine, and fetish power, all to the ultimate destruction of his victims, because through these avenues accidents, untimely deaths, calamities, afflictions, poverty, marital failures, killings and murders are unleashed on earth using the activities of demon spirits.
It is a blunder for parents not to teach their children that demonic activities like stealing, adultery, corruption, same sex relationships, ritual killings, are very bad. People seek human blood and parts for rutual powers to get wealth and fame, but it is the biggest blunder as such evil money is often left, after the death of the victim, for his wives and relations to squander!
Only Jesus gives wealth without sorrow, and He demands some hard work. The Bible declares that those unwilling to work will not eat.Ritual for money and fame is a blunder.
It is economic blunder to think that wealth from deceit and lies will last. Many Nigerian business moguls got their money from government one way or the other through deceits, lies, and stealing. It is a blunder when a man goes to China, imports substandard products, and sells to unsuspecting consumers.
The Bible in Proverb 20:17 declares that money obtained from deceit is sweet, but in the end it will be like stones in the mouth. It is an economic blunder for all the oil wealth of this nation be owned mainly by one section.
It is such blunder that led to the Niger Delta militancy, the Boko Haram uprising, and who knows what next. It is a blunder for government to think that unemployment will be reduced without industries, factories, agriculture, and the real sector.
It is a blunder for a man to jump into a business enterprise without studying and understanding the tricks of the trade and the booby traps to avoid in the business. A friend of mine, who retired from an oil company jumped into the business of asset management with a rookie from a bank as his operations manager.
They took in so much money from depositors without any exit covers and arrangements. When the capital market crashed in 2009, he landed in so much debt, his depositors called in the EFCC. He insisted that he would not run from the country, and he was jailed for three years.
Had his representatives argued blunder, it would have perhaps made the difference in his defense and in the records of the High Courts, such that with time, the defense of blunder may avail honest business mistakes against certain charges in court.
This is because to blunder is not criminal! To prove that this world does not accept blunders as criminal, two examples in business will suffice. On March 15, 2013, the Financial Times of London reported that a key and senior staffer of J.P. Morgan Chase, committed a big blunder that led to a loss of over $2.0 billion and increasing as months pass by. JPMorgan – which is the biggest US bank in terms of assets –did not charge the officer involved for a criminal offence. In Nigeria the EFCC would have beaten their chest that they have caught a thief. Also on November 8, 2011, the London Guardianreported that: “JUST one government official lost a bonus over a mistake which is believed to have cost taxpayers £10million, it was revealed yesterday”. This wiped off bankers Goldman Sachs’ £40million tax bill after an avoidance scheme failed. The officer involved was not charged to court. It is hoped that blunders will avail genuine cases of mistake, in Nigerian law courts with time.
Blunders occur even in high level global politics.Professor Jagdish Bhagwati, a Professor of Law and Economics at Columbia University and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Exchange in an article, on their website, portrayed President Obama’s failure to appoint Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo –Iweala as a blunder at the World Bank.“President Obama was not prosecuted, and no criminal conduct was imputed to him on this account, because it is human to commit blunder.
The continued neglect of the South East Zone of Nigeria, including the absence of a deep sea port, international airports, rail links, and good road network, is a blunder by the leaders of the ruling political party in this country.
The late Prof Chinua Achebe rejected the Nigerian national honours on two occasions because of the deliberate destruction of the political structures that will weaken South East to negotiate power at the center by the FG. More political blunders are waiting to happen, including not allowing GEJ to run in 2015; the North thinking that they can forcibly take power in 2015 by violence and Islamic fundamentalism; that our police force as it is now, can give us efficient security. Blunder is part of life, but the worst blunder is for one tribe to kill another for political power in this country.
Mr. CLEMENT UDEGBE, a lawyer, wrote from Lagos.
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